is concerning Regeneration The Doubt made by Nicodemus is How can a Man be born which is old Answer is returned by our Saviour Verily Verily I say unto thee Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God You may here understand the Sacrament of Baptism with his parts Water and Spirit Secondly His Benefits To regenerate and give us a new life Thirdly The Danger in omission and neglect Without it no entrance into the Kingdom of God Fourthly The Result He that believeth and is baptized is made a Member of the Church and shall be if he continue faithful partaker of Eternal Bliss The Exposition which many of Ours do make upon this place runs another way That our Saviour speaks not here of the Sacrament of Baptism And therefore by Water they understand not material water as Willet * Synop. or the Element of water as Zanchy †De tribus Eloi l. 4. c. 5. But the purifying Grace of Christ which is called The water of life or living water John 4.11 and is here an Epithite of the Spirit So that To be born of Water and the Spirit is with them no more then to be Regenerate and born again of the Holy Ghost I dare not condemn this common received Opinion among the Protestants And yet I know a Exam. Concil Trid. par 2. p. 20. Chemnitius and b Loc. Com. loc 47. §. 4. Bucanus with many c B. Andr in Or. Dom. Ser. 19. p. 132. D. Feat in Dippers dipt pag. 10. Confer at Hampton Court p. 17. others are of another mind And what do I speak of these The Ancient d Cyril l. 1. in Isai c. 3. Aug. Ep. 23 c. Fathers I think all understand the Text of Baptism And the Councel of Trent pronounceth Anathema to all those who shall make any Metaphorical Construction of these words but we fear not that Thunderbolt Yet whiles the many of Antiquity have run this way I hope it will not seem a Deviation to any indifferent Hearer I am sure there is no Danger and I may safely tread in those steps where the best of men in the best of times have gone before And the Analogy which in a Sacrament is required is here every way answerable to the full Here are two parts Terrena Coelestis Visible and Invisible Water and Spirit an outward Washing and an inward Ablution one of the Body from Filth and the other of the Soul from Sin And both these are necessary both necessary here Water and Spirit Abesse non possunt alterari non debent Or these must be or we must perish For verily verily c. I am not so quick-sighted or so Eagle-eyed as some men are I cannot find an Oath here as they have done A Protestation an Asseveration I see and such as doth command attention and belief I shall only pass by it with the words of Bernard Amen Amen Verbum Confirmationis praemittitur magnum esse noveris quod sequitur Where such an emphatical and significant word as Verily verily doth go before there is without doubt some great matter following after There is indeed For Water and Spirit must oo before or Heaven and Happiness will not follow after This is The Way this the Door through which we enter into Life For Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God And here 's the Answer to Nicodemus and a full one too First 'T is possible to be born again and How Secondly 'T is Necessary and Why. Again you have here The Duty and Direction The Peril and Prevention What to do and what to hope for First Man Except a Man Incola Mundi All Men next Water be born of water a King on Jonah 26. lâ—ct p. 345. Anton. A. Bish of Florence part 3. tit 22. c. 5. §. 1 4. Bell 's Dâ—fiance to Popery c. 3. p. 7. Cingulum Mundi All Waters Then the Spirit And that 's Anima Mundi A Platonick phrase but such as may well beseem a Christians mouth That Spirit that enlivens the whole world That Spirit that moved upon the face of the waters Gen. 1 2. Nay incubabat cherished and gave life must do the like to the water â—n the Text the water in Baptism Thus Heaven comes down to Earth That Earth may ascend to Heaven Me thinks I am got to the top of a Mount from whence I have a goodly prospect a world of variety offers it self But 't is Mount Nebo from whence I may behold more then I may enter I must content me with a little out of much And I shall only Answer five Quaere's 1. What Baptism is and of its parts 2. To whom it appertaineth to Baptize 3. Who they are which are to be Baptized 4. What peril they are in who dye without it 5. What benefit they receive who are made partakers of this holy Sacrament 1. There is in Baptism as in every other Compound or Material a co-union of Matter and Form which Two concur as parts essential of the thing The matter here you have expressed Water and Spirit not Fire not Blood b Ga. pratecâ— Hermian c. There were certain Hereticks of old who instead of water did use fire branding the Baptized with an hot Iron in the Fore-head because forsooth it was said Matth. 3.11 That Christ should baptize with the holy Ghost and with Fire c Ib. tit Flagell There were the Flagellantes those a later Crew who instead of water did baptize in blood And those had Scripture for it also For Christ had said Luke 12.50 That He must be baptized with a baptism and he was much troubled till it was ended And in Mark 10.39 he tells the Sons of Zebedee They should drink of the Cup that he should drink of and be baptized with the baptism with which he should be baptized By which the Fathers all do understand A bloody Baptism But my Text tells you that it must be water And not my Text alone which hath received you heard a metaphorical Construction but all along from John in Jordan down to the Eunuch and Cornelius Yea long before praefigured in Noah's floud in the Red Sea and the River Jordan and ever since in all Orthodox Congregations or Churches The outward sign the Visible or Element was Water Yet Sursum Corda Here 's a slippery Element to stay in And therefore not Water alone but Aquae usus or Aqua taliter applicata saith one What can water do to the washing away of sin No no Christ hath given himself for his Church that he might sanctifie it and cleanse it by the washing of water but through the Word Eph. 5.26 And now are you clean saith our blessed Saviour now are you clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you John 15.3 Upon which words thus d Tract in Joh. 8. Augustine some-where Why
jolly Man O what shall be thought of him when he shall cease to be a Man when dust shall return to the Earth as it was for this dust shall return to the earth as it was and Body and Soul must part their fellowship The third Part. The Laws established by Parliament say where the order of State requires a difference and mortal Powers claim a priviledge Let no man presume to kill Patridges Pheasants c. at length except they be Earls Barons Knights or any other that can thus and thus dispend But the Great Lawgiver gives no sucâ— liberty his words are general All Men must die Though with Asa we run to the Physician 2 Chron 16. or with Saul we seek to Witches 1 Sam 28 or with Maximus his Father we beg for mercy at their hands who never knew what Mercy meant The story is recorded by St. Gregory Yet nor the Physician by his application and lawful means nor the Witches by stipulation and ungodly compact nor the Devil by his long experience and accommodation can lengthen mans life Let the Physician pardon me for his being knit up in this triplicity I honour his Skill and if he be a good Man I honour his Vertue ease me he can but lengthen my daies he cannot I have read Bevenovitius who hath left no stone unturned to maintain their Power and when all is done that in Job stands as a firm Maxime or Conclusion His daies are determined the number of his months is with thee thou hast appointed his bounds which he cannot pass Job 14. verse 5. In Noah's daies some went into the Ark and some were kept out In Joshua's daies some went into Canaan and other some remained beyond Jordan In the Circumcision Women were priviledged In the Wars Levites were excepted In Egypt only the First-born perished But here is a general Decree of Death an universal sentence is past upon all flesh All Men are Dust and all dust must return to the earth from whence it came The Sun did once stand still at the prayer of Joshuah and once went back in the Dial of Ahaz and Death did once depart again for fifteen years at the earnest Prayer of Hezechia's But the Sun returned to his course again and Hezechia's Plaister could not prevent a second sickness Once these things were to shew GOD is above Nature and these things were but once to shew Nature is the hand-maid of God Once these things were that we might acknowledge a God above and these things were but once that we might not forget our selves beneath The first Garments our first-Parents wore Fig-leaves excepted might read us a lesson of our frailty and mortality those exuviae mortuorum those Skins of Beasts taken from the Dead to cover those that could not live for ever But he is now worse then a Beast that needs a Beast to be his Teacher Adam and all Adams Posterity unto this day do speak as much Our Life is like Jonah's Gourd which a little Worm could smite and make it wither Our Life is a shadow which every cloud of Sickness can take away Our Life at best is but a Sun which if it can hold out till the Afternoon of Old-Age yet at length it doth decline and set and shrink away Said I a Sun or like the Sun No no Soles occidere redire possunt the Sun doth set and rise again and as he goes he comes again But Man if once he sets he sets for ever Dust doth return to the Earth as it was and all corrupts and all resolves into that Element from whence it came All that was Earth returns to the Earth What saith the Jewish Sadducee or the Seleucian Heretick is there therefore no resurrection of the Flesh Can these Bones live Ezekiel 37. and can dead Earth revive again Surely those Bones did come together and live and stand up And Aarons dry Rod did bud And a Virgin did bear a Child Why not as well a Resurrection of the Flesh Yea why not rather a Resurrection than a Creation facilius est restaurare quà m à novo nihilo facere Tertul. Apolog. cap. 48. Though to God it be all one it should seem in all Humane understanding a great deal easier to recollect what is then to Create what is not I might argue from the Justice of God and from the Resurrection of Christ and from the Renovation of the Phoenix and from the Resuscitation of Lazarus and the rest Or which our eyes daily behold from the Corn in the ground which is not quickened except it dies Or from those industrious subtilties of the Alchimist who by his Calcination dotb pulverize his Mettals and by his Congelation doth restore them much more perfect then before But we believe and therefore I return to Solomon The Spirit returns to God that gave it Returns to God and to God that gave it Why then the Soul of Man was not Created by Angels as the Enthusiasts and Seleucians have foolishly imagined Nor doth the Soul die together with the Body as the Albians and Trinitarians would fain perswade themselves Neither have we a Catabaptistical sleeping Soul neither have we a Papistical walking Soul Neither said the Pythagoreans true there was a transmigration into Beasts nor the Tertullianists how the Souls of wicked men are converted into Devils No The Spirit returns to God that gave it Those Spectrum's those Apparitions of Men departed how are they of the Body which returns to the Earth how of the Soul which returns to God But 't is not mine intent at this time to handle Questionâ— or compound Differences Only my desire is hereby to excite us to Repentance That seeiâ—g our Body must to the Earth we be not proud and seeing our Spirit must to GOD we be not careless that we acknowledge our weakness in that we must die here and by a good life labour to prevent all danger that we may live hereafter That since our Body and Soul are come as Friends together Friends meet and part and so must they Since life cannot be kept death cannot be avoided and since our Soul must needs appear before his Maker before his Judge to have its private Trial and particular Judgment according to the things it hath committed in this life good or evil O listen we not to those Syrens Songs that cry Peace Peace all is well Be we not like frozen and benummed ones that have no feeling Suffer we not our selves to be lulled asleep in that pernicious Cradle of Security as if one Sigh one Groan one Domine or Mercy LORD should by and by transport us into Paradice The Devils did believe and Judas followed Christ the Pharisee did good works and Ananias gave half of that he had unto the poor Balaam did pray and Cain repents and Judas restores O GOD help us we are not gone as far as these in the way to Heaven and how shall we escape their punishment who have matched them and I
Lion Alas my Brother The Devil is called a Lion in the Scripture ever seeking for his prey He mist it here Death is another Lion and stronger then the Devil for resist the Devil and he will flie from you a good man will send him packing But Death will have no denial good and bad little and great all are fish for his Net and he pleads Law for it too Statute-Law Heb 9. The Time the Man the manner of his Death these all concur to make it the Innocents Christmass Let not the word offend I come not to chant a Mass or sing a Dirige at these Funerals A SERMON Preached at Brushford in Somerset-shire At the FUNERAL OF Colonel Edward Deyer 12th of MAY 1654. By Henry Byam D. D. and one of His MAJESTIES Chaplains in Ordinary ECCLES XII 7. And dust shall return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God who gave it IN the 9th Chapter of St. Matthew our Saviour telleth us that he came not to call the Righteous but Sinners to repentance Not that there are any Righteous amongst men for we have all sinned and all gone astray but thus we are given to understand that all those who do think themselves Righteous can have no benefit by Christ's Righteousness He came not to call the righteous those that are just in their own eye-sight but the sinner that hath a feeling of his sins and is sorry for them and doth repent him The whole need not the Physician but they that are sick All those therefore that do hope for benefit by Christ must confess their own unrighteousness and that they cannot be saved without Christs All those that hope to go to Heaven must acknowledge him righteous and him only that came down from Heaven The Angels fell in Heaven and Adam fell in Paradice and all Men cannot but fall that live upon the Earth but happy is he that offendeth least Now as touching Angels but some fell and some were punished but as for Men as graftâ— from the same stock we have all of us an inbred-Corruption derived from the loins of our Father Adam and should die for that And we have aâ—â—dded sin to sin actual to original and should die for that But Goâ— being Mercy as well as Justice hath granted unto miserable Man that which he â—enyed the Angels The opportunity of returning to his first estate a way to Salvation a means to come to Heaven And what is this but only our Repentance This did Christ preach Mark 1. This Christs fore-runner John the Bâ—ptâ—st did pâ—each Mat. 3. Repent And this Repentance is twofold by Aversion and Conversion by shunning evil and doing good This is that which Solomon presseth us to with a MEMENTO Remember thy Creatour remember thy Creatour Now now betime now in season But though there be never so many motives both Legal and Evangelical both Threats and Promises to rouze us up yet wretched Men that we are neither the hope of Heaven nor the horrour of Hell nor the love of God nor the fear of Devils can ought prevail with worldly-Men Like him who sets the greatest burthen on the weakest Horse we reserve all Reformation and Repentance till our old decrepit Age Till those daies those evil daies come in which we can take no pleasure And as those in Malachy The worst of the flock must serve for sacrifice That only do we allow for our deepest sighâ— and best Services of the Almighty that part only of our life which is distracted with Cares plunged with Distrusts rent with Maladies opprest with Miseries the vilest weakest worst of all And will the Almighty accept of this We that Grashopper-like have spent the Summer of our life in pleasure and wantonness shall we find relief in the Winter of our Old-age And will our late compelled Sacrifice be accepted of that impartial Judge that weighs the words and works of Malefactours in Baltasher's Ballance and is as Bernard saith Too Great to be terrified too Wise to be deceived too Just to be corrupted May we serve the Flesh the World and the Devil and having all our life time been most unworthy of the Earth shall we expect an Hodie mecum and with the repenting Thief to be by and by transported into Paradice O therefore Remember thy Creatour in the daies of thy Youth ere sickness approach and thy sences fail and thy sins oppress There is a time coming yet scarce two of a thousand live till that time when the keepers of the house shall tremble and the strong men shall bow themselves When the legs shall grow weak and the eyes hollow and the Almond-tree shall flourish our white-heads will tell the winter of our life is come The dust must return to the earth as it was and the spirit return to God who gave it Here 's a praeterit and a sic praeterit à moritur and sic moritur Here 's that we wish for and would fly it pray for it and loath it and after many windings and turnings in the wilderness of this wretched life we are like the Reubenites and Gadites that will not venture over Jordan But dust must return to the earth as it was and the spirit must return to God who gave it Wilt thou know what thou art Dust saith the Text. Wilt thou know what thou shalt be why Dust too Thy Body must to the Earth O be not proud Thy Spirit must to GOD O be not careless That must be dissolved This must be judged Both must return Here 's the Vnde or what thou wert Earth Here 's thy present condition what thou now art Earth Here 's thy future state what thou shalt be Earth Why then as the Prophet said O Earth Earth Earth hear the word of the Lord for when that which was made of Earth and is now no better then Earth shall return to the Earth The Spirit returns to GOD that gave it Here 's Man in his Mould and Man in his Majesty and Man in his Mortality Man what he was Man what he is and Man what he shall be And how the Body must be dissolved and how the Soul must be convented And within these bounds I shall confine my Meditations And for the first 1. Man in his Mould or what he was Let us make Man Gen. 1. God that framed and fashioned all other Creatures with a bare Fiat let this or that be so and it was so yet when he comes to make Man the whole Trinity seems to make a consultation and that indivisible God-head seems to divide his work in parts Let us make him thus and thus His Body is framed of the dust of the Ground and God breathed in his face the breath of Life and out of both results a living Creature made ad Imaginem similitudinem Dei in our Image according to our likeness saith the Almighty Which whether it was meant by way of excellency or for his Soveraignty or because the Soul