the great Syrian that stirred up the sluggish and awakened the sleepers and comforted the afflicted and brought the young men to discipline the Looking-glass of the Religious the Captain of the Penitents the destruction of Heresies the receptacle of Graces the habitation of the Holy Ghost These were the men that prevailed against Errour because they lived according to Truth and whoever shall oppose you and the Truth you walk by may better be confuted by your Lives than by your Disputations Let your adversaries have no evil thing to say of you and then you will best silence them For all Heresies and false Doctrines are but like Myron's counterfeit Cow it deceived none but Beasts and these can cozen none but the wicked and the negligent them that love a Lie and live according to it But if ye become burning and shining lights if ye do not detain the truth in unrighteousness if ye walk in light and live in the Spirit your Doctrines will be true and that Truth will prevail But if ye live wickedly and scandalously every little Schismatick shall put you to shame and draw Disciples after him and abuse your Flocks and feed them with Colocynths and Hemlock and place Heresie in the Chairs appointed for your Religion I pray God give you all Grace to follow this Wisdom to study this Learning to labour for the understanding of Godliness so your Time and your Studies your Persons and your Labours will be holy and useful sanctified and blessed beneficial to men and pleasing to God through him who is the Wisdom of the Father who is made to all that love him Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption To whom with the Father c. FINIS A SERMON Preached in Christs-Church Dublin July 16. 1663. AT THE FUNERAL Of the Most Reverend Father in God JOHN Late Lord Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland WITH A Succinct Narrative of His whole Life The fourth Edition enlarged By the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down and Connor LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty 1666. A Funeral Sermon SERM. VII 1 Cor. XV. 23. But every Man in his own Order Christ the first fruits afterward they that are Christ's at his coming THE Condition of Man in this world is so limited and depressed so relative and imperfect that the best things he does he does weakly and the best things he hath are imperfections in their very constitution I need not tell how little it is that we know the greatest indication of this is That we can never tell how many things we know not and we may soon span our own Knowledge but our Ignorance we can never fathom Our very Will in which Mankind pretends to be most noble and imperial is a direct state of imperfection and our very liberty of Chusing good and evil is permitted to us not to make us proud but to make us humble for it supposes weakness of Reason and weakness of Love For if we understood all the degrees of Amability in the Service of God or if we had such love to God as he deserves and so perfect a conviction as were fit for his Services we could no more Deliberate For Liberty of Will is like the motion of a Magnetick Needle toward the North full of trembling and uncertainty till it were fixed in the beloved Point it wavers as long as it is free and is at rest when it can chuse no more And truly what is the hope of man It is indeed the Resurrection of of the Soul in this world from sorrow and her saddest pressures and like the Twilight to the Day and the Harbinger of joy but still it is but a conjugation of Infirmities and proclaims our present calamity only because it is uneasie here it thrusts us forwards toward the light and glories of the Resurrection For as a Worm creeping with her belly on the ground with her portion and share of Adam's Curse lifts up its head to partake a little of the blessings of the air and opens the junctures of her imperfect body and curles her little rings into knots and combinations drawing up her tail to a neighbourhood of the heads pleasure and motion but still it must return to abide the fate of its own nature and dwell and sleep upon the dust So are the hopes of a mortal man he opens his eyes and looks upon fine things at distance and shuts them again with weakness because they are too glorious to behold and the Man rejoices because he hopes fine things are staying for him but his heart akes because he knows there are a thousand ways to fail and miss of those glories and though he hopes yet he enjoys not he longs but he possesses not and must be content with his portion of dust and being a worm and no man must lie down in this portion before he can receive the end of his hopes the salvation of his Soul in the Resurrection of the dead For as Death is the end of our lives so is the Resurrection the end of our hopes and as we dye daily so we daily hope but Death which is the end of our life is the enlargement of our Spirits from hope to certainty from uncertain fears to certain expectations from the death of the Body to the life of the Soul that is to partake of the light and life of Christ to rise to life as he did for his Resurrection is the beginning of ours He dyed for us alone not for himself but he rose again for himself and us too So that if he did rise so shall we the Resurrection shall be universal good and bad all shall rise but not altogether First Christ then we that are Christs and yet there is a third Resurrection though not spoken of here but thus it shall be The dead of Christ shall rise first that is next to Christ and after them the wicked shall rise to condemnation So that you see here is the sum of affairs treated of in my Text Not whether it be lawful to eat a Tortoise or a Mushroom or to tread with the foot bare upon the ground within the Octaves of Easter It is not here inquired whether Angels be material or immaterial or whether the dwellings of dead Infants be within the Air or in the Regions of the Earth the inquiry here is whether we are to be Christians or no whether we are to live good lives or no or whether it be permitted to us to live with Lust or Covetousness acted with all the Daughters of Rapine and Ambition whether there be any such thing as sin any judicatory for Consciences any rewards of Piety any difference of Good and Bad any rewards after this life This is the design of these words by proper interpretation for if men shall dye like Dogs and Sheep they will certainly live like Wolves and Foxes but he that believes the Article of the
of whom S. Paul speaks here tell you plainly who it is that is in this state of sad things and then do ye make your resolutions according as you shall find it necessary for the saving of your souls which I am sure ought to be the end of all preaching 1. The man S. Paul speaks of is one that is dead v. 9. one that was deceived and slain v. 11. one in whom sin was exceeding sinful v. 13. that is highly imputed greatly malicious infinitely destructive he is one who is carnal and sold under sin v. 14. he is one that sins against his conscience and his reason v. 16. he is one in whom sin dwells but the Spirit of God does not dwell for no good thing dwells in him v. 18. he is one who is brought into captivity to the law of sin he is a servant of uncleanness with his flesh and members serving the law of sin v. 25. Now if this be a state of Regeneration I wonder what is or can be a state of Reprobation for though this be the state of Nature yet it cannot be the state of one redeemed by the Spirit of Christ and therefore flatter not your selves any more that it is enough for you to have good desires and bad performances never think that any sin can reign in you and yet you be servants of God that sin can dwell in you and at the same time the Spirit of God can dwell in you too or that life and death can abide together The sum of affairs is this If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live but not else upon any terms whatsoever My Text is one of the hard places of S. Paul which as S. Peter says the ignorant and the unstable wrest to their own damnation But because in this case the danger is so imminent and the deception would be so intolerable S. Paul immediately after this Chapter in which under his own person as was usual with him to do he describes the state of a natural man advanced no further than Moses Law and not redeemed by the blood of Christ or inlightned by the Spirit of God and taught by the wiser Lessons and Sermons of the Gospel immediately spends the next Chapter in opposing the Evangelical state to the Legal the Spiritual to the Carnal the Christian to the Natural and tells us plainly he that is redeemed by the blood of Christ is redeemed from the power of sin he that is Christs freed man is not a slave of sin not captive to the Devil at his will he that is in the flesh cannot please God but every servant of Christ is freed from sin and is a servant of righteousness and redeemed from all his vain conversation for this is the end of Christs coming and cannot be in vain unless we make it so He came to bless us by turning every one of us from our iniquities Now concerning this besides the evidence of the thing it self that S. Paul does not speak these words of himself but by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under his own borrowed person he describes the state of a carnal unredeemed unregenerate person is expresly affirmed by S. Irenaeus and Origen by Tertullian and S. Basil by Theodoret and S. Chrysostom by S. Jerom and sometimes by S. Austin by S. Ambrose and S. Cyril by Macarius and Theophylact and is indeed that true sense and meaning of these words of S. Paul which words none can abuse or misunderstand but to the great prejudice of a holy life and the Patronage of all iniquity But for the stating of this great case of Conscience I shall first in short describe to you what are the proper causes which place men and keep them in this state of a necessity of sinning and 2. I shall prove the absolute necessity of coming out of this condition and quitting all our sin 3. In what degree this is to be affected 4. By what Instruments this is to be done and all these being practical will of themselves be sufficient use to the Doctrines and need no other applicatory but a plain exhortation 1. What are the causes of this evil by which we are first placed and so long kept in a necessity of sinning so that we cannot do what good we would nor avoid the evil that we hate The first is the evil state of our Nature And indeed he that considers the daily experiment of his own weak Nature the ignorance and inconstancy of his soul being like a sick mans legs or the knees of Infants reeling and unstable by disease or by infirmity and the perpetual leaven and germinations the thrustings forth and swelling of his senses running out like new wine into vapours and intoxicating activities will readily confess that though even in Nature there may be many good inclinations to many instances of the Divine Commandments yet it can go no further than this velleity this desiring to do good but is not able And it is upon this account that Lactantius brings in the Pagan or natural man complaining Volo equidem non peccare sed vincor indutus enim sum carne fragili imbecillâ This is very true and I add only this caution There is not in the corruption of our nature so much as will save us harmless or make us excusable if we sin against God Natural corruption can make us criminal but not innocent for though by him that willingly abides in the state of meer Nature sin cannot be avoided yet no man is in that state longer than he loves to be so for the Grace of God came to rescue us from this evil portion and is alwayes present to give us a new Nature and create us over again and therefore though sin is made necessary to the Natural man by his impotency and fond loves that is by his unregenerate Nature yet in the whole constitution of affairs God hath more than made it up by his Grace if we will make use of it In pueris elucet spes plurimorum quae ubi emoritur aetate manifestum est non deficisse naturam sed curam said Quintilian We cannot tell what we are or what we think in our infancy and when we can know our thoughts we can easily observe that we have learned evil things by evil examples and the corrupt manners of an evil conversation ubi per socordiam vires tempus ingenium defluxêer naturae infirmitas accusatur that indeed is too true we grow lazy and wanton and we lose our time and abuse our parts and do ugly things and lay the fault wholly upon our Natural infirmities but we must remember that by this time it is a state of Nature a state of flesh and blood which cannot enter into Heaven The natural man and the natural child are not the same thing in true Divinity The Natural child indeed can do no good but the
the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand Where besides that the wise man and the wicked are opposed plainly signifying that the wicked man is a Fool and an Ignorant it is plainly said that None of the wicked shall understand the wisdom and mysteriousness of the Kingdom of the Messias 4. A good life is the best way to understand Wisdom and Religion because by the experiences and relishes of Religion there is conveyed to them such a sweetness to which all wicked men are strangers there is in the things of God to them which practise them a deliciousness that makes us love them and that love admits us into Gods Cabinet and strangely clarifies the Understanding by the purification of the Heart For when our Reason is raised up by the Spirit of Christ it is turned quickly into experience when our Faith relies upon the Principles of Christ it is changed into Vision and so long as we know God only in the ways of man by contentious Learning by Arguing and Dispute we see nothing but the shadow of him and in that shadow we meet with many dark appearances little certainty and much conjecture But when we know him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the eyes of holiness and the intuition of gracious experiences with a quiet spirit and the peace of Enjoyment then we shall hear what we never heard and see what our eyes never saw then the mysteries of Godliness shall be opened unto us and clear as the windows of the morning And this is rarely well expressed by the Apostle If we stand up from the dead and awake from sleep then Christ shall give us light For although the Scriptures themselves are written by the Spirit of God yet they are written within and without and besides the light that shines upon the face of them unless there be a light shining within our hearts unfolding the leaves and interpreting the mysterious sense of the Spirit convincing our Consciences and preaching to our hearts to look for Christ in the leaves of the Gospel is to look for the living amongst the dead There is a life in them but that life is according to S. Paul's expression hid with Christ in God and unless the Spirit of God be the Promo-condus we shall never draw it forth Humane Learning brings excellent ministeries towards this it is admirably useful for the reproof of Heresies for the detection of Fallacies for the Letter of the Scripture for Collateral testimonies for exterior advantages but there is something beyond this that humane Learning without the addition of Divine can never reach Moses was learned in all the Learning of the Egyptians and the holy men of God contemplated the glories of God in the admirable order motion and influences of the Heaven but besides all this they were taught of God something far beyond these prettinesses Pythagoras read Moses's Books and so did Plato and yet they became not Proselytes of the Religion though they were learned Scholars of such a Master The reason is because that which they drew forth from thence was not the life and secret of it Tradidit arcano quodcunque Volumine Moses There is a secret in these Books which few men none but the Godly did understand and though much of this secret is made manifest in the Gospel yet even here also there is a Letter and there is a Spirit still there is a reserve for Gods secret ones even all those deep mysteries which the old Testament covered in Figures and Stories and Names and Prophesies and which Christ hath and by his Spirit will yet reveal more plainly to all that will understand them by their proper measures For although the Gospel is infinitely more legible and plain than the obscurer Leaves of the Law yet there is a Seal upon them also which Seal no man shall open but he that is worthy We may understand something of it by the three Children of the Captivity they were all skill'd in all the wisdom of the Chaldees and so was Daniel but there was something beyond that in him the wisdom of the most high God was in him and that taught him a learning beyond his learning In all Scripture there is a spiritual sense a spiritual Cabala which as it tends directly to holiness so it is best and truest understood by the Sons of the Spirit who love God and therefore know him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every thing is best known by its own similitudes and analogies But I must take some other time to speak fully of these things I have but one thing more to say and then I shall make my Applications of this Doctrine and so conclude 5. Lastly there is a sort of Gods dear Servants who walk in perfectness who perfect holiness in the fear of God and they have a degree of Clarity and divine knowledge more than we can discourse of and more certain than the Demonstrations of Geometry brighter than the Sun and indeficient as the light of Heaven This is called by the Apostle the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is this brightness of God manifested in the hearts of his dearest Servants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I shall say no more of this at this time for this is to be felt and not to be talked of and they that never touched it with their finger may secretly perhaps laugh at it in their heart and be never the wiser All that I shall now say of it is that a good man is united unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a flame touches a flame and combines into splendor and to glory so is the Spirit of a man united unto Christ by the Spirit of God These are the friends of God and they best know Gods mind and they only that are so know how much such men do know They have a special Vnction from above So that now you are come to the top of all this is the highest round of the Ladder and the Angels stand upon it they dwell in Love and Contemplation they worship and obey but dispute not and our quarrels and impertinent wranglings about Religion are nothing else but the want of the measures of this State Our light is like a Candle every wind of vain Doctrine blows it out or spends the wax and makes the light tremulous but the lights of Heaven are fixed and bright and shine for ever But that we may speak not only things mysterious but things intelligible how does it come to pass by what means and what Oeconomy is it effected that a holy life is the best determination of all Questions and the surest way of knowledge Is it to be supposed that a Godly man is better enabled to determine the Questions of Purgatory of Transubstantiation is the gift of Chastity the best way to reconcile Thomas and Scotus and is a temperate man alwaies a better Scholar than a Drunkard To this I answer that in all things in
of his perfect obedience and purest holiness and he calling us to an imitation of the same obedience and the same perfect holiness prepares a way for us to the same Resurrection If we by holiness become the Sons of God as Christ was we shall also as he was become the Sons of God in the Resurrection But upon no other terms So said our blessed Lord himself Ye which have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon Thrones judging the Tribes of Israel For as it was with Christ the first Fruits so it shall be with all Christians in their own order as with the Head so it shall be with the Members He was the Son of God by love and obedience and then became the Son of God by Resurrection from the dead to life Eternal and so shall we but we cannot be so in any other way To them that are Christ's and to none else shall this be given For we must know that God hath sent Christ into the World to be a great example and demonstration of the Oeconomy and Dispensation of Eternal life As God brought Christ to glory so he will bring us but by no other method He first obeyed the will of God and patiently suffered the will of God he dyed and rose again and entred into glory and so must we Thus Christ is made Via Veritas Vita the Way the Truth and the Life that is the true way to Eternal life He first trode this Wine-press and we must insist in the same steps or we shall never partake of this blessed Resurrection He was made the Son of God in a most glorious manner and we by him by his merit and by his grace and by his example but other than this there is no way of Salvation for us That 's the first and great effect of this glorious order 4. But there is one thing more in it yet Every man in his own order First Christ and then they that are Christ's But what shall become of them that are not Christs why there is an order for them too First they that are Christs and then they that are not his * Blessed and holy is he that hath his part in the first Resurrection There is a first and a second Resurrection even after this life The dead in Christ shall rise first Now blessed are they that have their portion here for upon these the second death shall have no power As for the recalling the wicked from their Graves it is no otherwise in the sense of the Spirit to be called a Resurrection than taking a Criminal from the Prison to the Bar is a giving of Liberty When poor Attilius Aviola had been seized on by an Apoplexy his friends supposing him dead carried him to his Funeral pile but when the fire began to approach and the heat to warm the body he revived and seeing himself incircled with Funeral flames called out aloud to his friends to rescue not the dead but the living Aviola from that horrid burning But it could not be he only was restored from his sickness to fall into death and from his dull disease to a sharp and intolerable torment Just so shall the wicked live again they shall receive their Souls that they may be a portion for Devils they shall receive their bodies that they may feel the everlasting burning they shall see Christ that they may look on him whom they have pierced and they shall hear the voice of God passing upon them the intolerable sentence they shall come from their Graves that they may go into Hell and live again that they may die for ever So have we seen a poor condemned Criminal the weight of whose sorrows sitting heavily upon his soul hath benummed him into a deep sleep till he hath forgotten his groans and laid aside his deep sighings but on a sudden comes the Messenger of death and unbinds the Poppy Garland scatters the heavy Cloud that incircled his miserable head and makes him return to acts of life that he may quickly descend into death and be no more So is every Sinner that lies down in shame and makes his grave with the wicked he shall indeed rise again and be call'd upon by the voice of the Archangel but then he shall descend into sorrows greater than the reason and the patience of a man weeping and shrieking louder than the groans of the miserable children in the Valley of Hinnom These indeed are sad stories but true as the voice of God and the Sermons of the Holy Jesus They are Gods Words and Gods Decrees and I wish that all who profess the belief of these would consider sadly what they mean If ye believe the Article of the Resurrection then you know that in your body you shall receive what you did in the body whether it be good or bad It matters not now very much whether our bodies be beauteous or deformed for if we glorifie God in our bodies God shall make our bodies glorious It matters not much whether we live in ease and pleasure or eat nothing but bitter herbs the body that lies in dust and ashes that goes stooping and feeble that lodges at the foot of the Cross and dwells in discipline shall be feasted at the eternal Supper of the Lamb. And ever remember this That beastly pleasures and lying lips and a deceitful tongue and a heart that sendeth forth proud things are no good dispositions to a blessed Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not good that in the body we live a life of dissolution for that 's no good harmony with that purpose of Glory which God designs the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Phocyllides for we hope that from our beds of darkness we shall rise into Regions of light and shall become like unto God They shall partake of a Resurrection to life and what this can infer is very obvious For if it be so hard to believe a Resurrection from one death let us not be dead in trespasses and sins for a Resurrection from two deaths will be harder to be believed and harder to be effected But if any of you have lost the life of Grace and so forfeited all your title to a life of Glory betake your selves to an early and an entire Piety that when by this first Resurrection you have made this way plain before your face you may with confidence expect a happy Resurrection from your graves For if it be possible that the Spirit when it is dead in sin can arise to a life of Righteousness much more it is easie to suppose that the body after death is capable of being restor'd again And this is a consequent of St. Paul's Argument Rom. 5. 10. If when ye were enemies ye were reconciled by his death much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life plainly declaring that it
testâque lutoque 〈…〉 quo pes ferat atque ex tempore vivit being â—â—â—ording to the Jewish proverbial reproof as so many Mephibosheths discipuli sapientum qui incessu pudefaciunt praeceptorem suum their Master teaches them to go uprightly but they still show their lame leg and shame their Master as if a man might be a Christian and yet be the vilest person in the world doing such things for which the Laws of men have provided smart and shame and the Laws of God have threatned the intolerable pains of an insufferable and never ending damnation Example here cannot be our rule unless men were much better and as long as men live at the rate they do it will be to little purpose to talk of exceeding the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees but because it must be much better with us all or it will be very much worse with us at the latter end I shall leave complaining and go to the Rule and describe the necessary and unavoidable measures of the Righteousness Evangelical without which we can never be saved 1. Therefore when it is said our Righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees let us first take notice by way of praecognition that it must at least be so much we must keep the Letter of the whole Moral Law we must do all that lies before us all that is in our hand and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to be Religious the Grammarians derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from reaching forth the hand the outward work must be done and it is not enough to say My heart is right but my hand went aside Prudentius saith that St. Peter wept so bitterly because he did not confess Christ openly whom he lov'd secretly Flevit negator denique Ex ore prolapsum nefas Cum mens maneret innocens Animusque servârit fidem A right heart alone will not do it or rather the heart is not right when the hand is wrong If a man strikes his Neighbor and sayes Am not I in jest It is folly and shame to him said Solomon For once for all Let us remember this that Christianity is the most profitable the most useful and the most bountiful institution in the whole world and the best definition I can give of it is this It is the Wisdom of God brought down among us to do good to men and therefore we must not do less than the Pharisees who did the outward work at least let us be sure to do all the work that is laid before us in the Commandments And it is strange that this should be needful to be press'd amongst Christians whose Religion requires so very much more But so it is upon a pretence that we must serve God with the mind some are such fools as to think that it is enough to have a good meaning Iniquum perpol verbum est bene vult nisâ— qui bene facit And because we must serve God in the Spirit therefore they will not serve God with their Bodies and because they are called upon to have the power and the life of Godliness they abominate all external works as mere forms and 〈◊〉 the true fast is to abstain from Sin therefore they will not abstain 〈◊〉 meat and drink even when they are commanded which is 〈◊〉 if a Pharisee being taught the Circumcision of the heart shouâ—◠〈◊〉 to Circumcise his Flesh and as if a Christian being instructed in the Excellencies of Spiritual Communion should wholly neglect 〈◊〉 Sacramental that is because the Soul is the life of man therefore 〈◊〉 fitting to die in a humour and lay aside the Body * This is a taking away the Subject of the Question for our inquiry is How we should keep the Commandments how we are to do the work that lyes before us by what Principles with what Intention in what Degrees after what manner ut bonum bene fiat that the good thing be done well This therefore must be presupposed we must take care that even our Bodies bear a part in our Spiritual Services Our voice and tongue our hands and our Feet and our very bowels must be servants of God and do the work of the Commandments This being ever supposed our Question is how much more we must do and the first measure is this Whatsoever can be signified and ministred to by the Body the Heart and the Spirit of a man must be the principal Actor We must not give Alms without a charitable Soul nor suffer Martyrdom but in Love and in Obedience and when we say our Prayers we do but mispend our time unless our mind ascend up to God upon the wings of desire Desire is the life of prayer and if you indeed desire what you pray for you will also labour for what you desire and if you find it otherwise with your selves your coming to Church is but like the Pharisees going up to the Temple to pray If your heart be not present neither will God and then there is a sound of men and women between a pair of dead walls from whence because neither God nor your Souls are present you must needs go home without a Blessing But this measure of Evangelical Righteousness is of principal remark in all the rites and solemnities of Religion and intends to say this that Christian Religion is something that is not seen it is the hidden man of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God that dwels within and true Christians are men who as the Chaldee Oracle said are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clothed with a great deal of mind And therefore those words of the Prophet Hosea Et loquar ad cor ejus I will speak unto their heart is a proverbial expression signifying to speak spiritual comforts and in the mystical sence signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to preach the Gospel where the Spirit is the Preacher and the Heart is the Disciple and the Sermon is of Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Our Service to God must not be in outward works and Scenes of Religion it must be something by which we become like to God the Divine Prerogative must extend beyond the outward man nay even beyond the mortification of Corporal vices the Spirit of God must go in trabis crassitudinem and mollify all our secret pride and ingenerate in us a true humility and a Christian meekness of Spirit and a Divine Charity For in the Gospel when God enjoyns any external Rite or Ceremony the outward work is always the less principal For there is a bodily and a carnal part an outside and a Cabinet of Religion in Christianity it self When we are baptized the purpose of God is that we cleanse our selves from all pollution of the Flesh and Spirit and then we are indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clean all over And when we communicate the Commandment means that we should be made one Spirit with Christ and should live on him
believing his Word praying for his Spirit supported with his Hope refreshed by his Promises recreated by his Comforts and wholly and in all things conformable to his Life that is the true Communion The Sacraments are not made for Sinners until they do repent they are the food of our Souls but our Souls must be alive unto God or else they cannot eat It is good to confess our sins as St. James sayes and to open our wounds to the Ministers of Religion but they absolve none but such as are are truly penitent Solemn Prayers and the Sacraments and the Assemblies of the Faithful and fasting days and acts of external worship are the solemnities and rites of Religion but the Religion of a Christian is in the Heart and Spirit And this is that by which Clemens Alexandrinus defined the Righteousness of a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the parts and faculties that make up a man must make up our Religion but the heart is Domus principalis it is the Court of the great King and he is properly served with interior graces and moral Vertues with a humble and a good mind with a bountiful heart and a willing Soul and these will command the eye and give laws to the hand and make the shoulders stoop but anima cujusque est quisque a mans soul is the man and so is his Religion and so you are bound to understand it True it is God works in us his Graces by the Sacrament but we must dispose our selves to a reception of the Divine blessing by Moral instruments The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must work together with God and the body works together with the soul But no external action can purifie the soul because its Nature and Operations being Spiritual it can no more be changed by a Ceremony or an external Solemnity than an Angel can be caressed with sweet Meats or a a Mans belly can be filled with Musick or long Orations The sum is this No Christian does his Duty to God but he that serves him with all his heart And although it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness even the external also yet that which makes us gracious in his Eyes is not the external it is the love of the heart and the real change of the mind and obedience of the spirit that 's the first great measure of the Righteousness Evangelical 2. The Righteousness Evangelical must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees by extension of our Obedience to things of the same signification Leges non ex verbis sed ex mente intelligendas sayes the Law There must be a Commentary of kindness in the understanding the Laws of Christ. We must understand all Gods meaning we must secure his service we must be far removed from the dangers of his displeasure And therefore our Righteousness must be the purification and the perfection of the Spirit So that it will be nothing for us not to commit Adultery unless our Eyes and Hands be chast and the desires be clean A Christian must not look upon a woman to lust after her He must hate Sin in all dimensions and in all distances and in every angle of its reception A Christian must not sin and he must not be willing to sin if he durst He must not be lustful and therefore he must not feed high nor drink deep for these make provisions for lust and amongst Christians great eatings and drinkings are acts of uncleanness as well as of intemperance and whatever ministers to sin and is the way of it partakes of its nature and its curse For it is remarkable that in good and evil the case is greatly different Mortification e. g is a duty of Christianity but there is no Law concerning the Instruments of it We are not commanded to roll our selves on thorns as St. Benedict did or to burn our flesh like St. Martinian or to tumble in Snows with St. Francis or in pools of water with St. Bernard A man may chew Aloes or ly upon the ground or wear sackcloth if he have a mind to it and if he finds it good in his circumstances and to his purposes of mortification but it may be he may do it alone by the Instrumentalities of Fear and Love and so the thing be done no special Instrument is under a command * But although the Instruments of vertue are free yet the Instruments and ministeries of vice are not Not only the sin is forbidden but all the wayes that lead to it The Instruments of vertue are of themselves indifferent that is not naturally but good only for their relation sake and in order to their end But the Instruments of vice are of themselves vitious they are part of the sin they have a share in the phantastick pleasure and they begin to estrange a mans heart from God and are directly in the prohibition For we are commanded to fly from temptation to pray against it to abstain from all appearances of evil to make a covenant with our eyes to pluck them out if there be need And if Christians do not understand the Commandments to this extension of signification they will be innocent only by the measures of humane Laws but not by the righteousness of God 3. Of the same consideration it is also that we understand Christs Commandments to extend our Duty not only to what is named and what is not named of the same nature and design but that we abstain from all such things as are like to sins * Of this nature there are many All violences of Passion Irregularities in Gaming Prodigality of our time Undecency of action doing things unworthy of our Birth or our Profession aptness to go to Law Ambitus or a fierce prosecution even of honourable employments misconstruction of the words and actions of our brother easiness to believe evil of others willingness to report the evil which we hear curiosity of Dyet peevishness toward servants indiscreet and importune standing for place and all excess in ornaments for even this little instance is directly prohibited by the Christian and Royal Law of Charity For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul the word is a word hard to be understood we render it well enough Charity vaunteth not it self and upon this S. Basil says that an Ecclesiastick person and so every Christian in his proportion ought not to go in splendid and vain Ornaments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every thing that is not wisely useful or proportioned to the state of the Christian but ministers only to vanity is a part of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a vaunting which the Charity and the Grace of a Christian does not well endure * These things are like to sins they are of a suspicious nature and not easily to be reconcil'd to the Righteousness Evangelical It is no wonder if Christianity be nice and curious it is the cleanness and the purification of the Soul and Christ intends
and it is a prodigious folly to think that he is a good man because though he does sin yet it was against his mind to do so A mans conscience can never condemn him if that be his excuse to say that his conscience check'd him ad that will be but a sad Apology at the day of Judgement Some men talk like Angels and pray with great fervor and meditate with deep recesses and speak to God with loving affections and words of union and adhere to him in silent devotion and when they go abroad are as passionate as ever peevish as a frighted Fly vexing themselves with their own reflections They are cruel in their Bargains unmerciful to their Tenants and proud as a Barbarian Prince They are for all their fine words impatient of reproof scornful to their Neighbours lovers of money supream in their own thoughts and submit to none all their spiritual life they talk of is nothing but spiritual fancy and illusion they are still under the power of their passions and their sin rules them imperiously and carries them away infallibly Let these men consider There are some men think it impossible to do as much as they do The common Swearer cannot leave that Vice and talk well and these men that talk thus well think they cannot do as well as they talk but both of them are equally under the power of their respective sins and are equally deceived and equally not the Servants of God * This is true but it is equally as true That there is no necessity for all this for it ought and it may be otherwise if we please For I pray be pleased to hear S. Paul Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh There 's your remedy For the Spirit lusteth against the flesh and the flesh against the Spirit there 's the cause of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that ye may not or cannot do the things ye would that 's the blessed consequent and product of that cause That is plainly As there is a state of carnality of which S. Paul speaks in my Text so that in that state a man cannot but obey the flesh so there is also a state of spirituality when sin is dead and righteousness is alive and in this state the flesh can no more prevail than the Spirit could do in the other * Some men cannot chuse but sin for the carnal mind is not subject to God neither indeed can be saith S. Paul but there are also some men that cannot endure any thing that is not good It is a great pain for a temperate man to suffer the disorders of Drunkenness and the shames of Lust are intolerable to a chaste and modest person This also is affirmed by S. John Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him So that you see it is possible for a good man not to commit the sin to which he is tempted but the Apostle says more He doth not commit sin neither indeed can he because he is born of God And this is agreeable to the words of our Blessed Saviour A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit and a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit that is As the child of Hell is carried to Sin pleno impetu he does not check at it he does it and is not troubled so on the other side a child of God is as fully convinc'd of righteousness and that which is unrighteous is as hateful to him as Colocynths to the taste or the sharpest punctures to the pupil of the eye We may see something of this in common experiences What man of ordinary prudence and reputation can be tempted to steal or for what price would he be tempted to murder his friend If we did hate all sins as we hate these would it not be as easie to be as innocent in other instances as most men are in these and we should have as few Drunkards as we have Thieves In such as these we do not complain in the words of my Text What I would not that I do and what I would I do not Does not every good man overcome all the power of great sins And can he by the Spirit of God and right Reason by fear and hope conquer Goliath and beat the Sons of the Giant and can he not overcome the little children of Gath Or is it harder to overcome a little sin than a great one Are not the temptations to little sins very little and yet are they greater and stronger than a mighty Grace Could the poor Demoniack that liv'd in the Graves by the power of the Devil break his iron chains in pieces and cannot he who hath the Spirit of God dissolve the chains of sin Through Christ that strengthens me I can do all things saith S. Paul Satis sibi copiarum cum Publio Decio nunquam nimium hostium fore said one in Livie which is best rendred by S. Paul If God be with us who can be against us Nay there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Paul We are more than Conquerors For even amongst an Army Conquerors there are degrees of exaltation and some serve God like the Centurion and some like S. Peter some like Martha and some like Mary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all good men conquer their temptation but some with more ease and some with a clearer Victory and more than thus Non solum viperam terimus sed ex ea antidotum conficimus We kill the Viper and make Treacle of him that is not only escape from but get advantages by temptations But we commonly are more afraid than hurt Let us therefore lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us so we read the words of the Apostle but S. Chrysostom's rendition of them is better for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a perfect passive and cannot signifie the strength and irresistibility of sin upon us but the quite contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the sin that is so easily avoided as they that understand that language know very well And if we were so wise and valiant as not to affright our selves with our own terrours we should quickly find that by the help of the Spirit of God we can do more than we thought we could It was said of Alexander Bene ausus est vana contemnere he did no great matter in conquering the Persians because they were a pitiful and a soft people only he understood them to be so and was wise and bold enough not to fear such Images and men of clouts But men in the matter of great sins and little do as the Magicians of Aegypt when Moses turned his Rod into a Serpent it moved them not but when they saw the Lice and the Flies then they were afraid We see that by the Grace of God we can escape great sins but we start at Flies and a
it at all Remember that the Snail out-went the Eagle and won the goal because she set out betimes To sum up all every good man is a new Creature and Christianity is not so much a Divine institution as a Divine frame and temper of Spirit which if we heartily pray for and endeavour to obtain we shall find it as hard and as uneasie to sin against God as now we think it impossible to abstain from our most pleasing sins For as it is in the Spermatick vertue of the Heavens which diffuses it self Universally upon all sublunary bodies and subtilly insinuating it self into the most dull and unactive Element produces Gold and Pearls Life and motion and brisk activities in all things that can receive the influence and heavenly blessing so it is in the Holy Spirit of God and the word of God and the grace of God which S. John calls the seed of God it is a Law of Righteousness and it is a Law of the Spirit of Life and changes Nature into Grace and dulness into zeal and fear into love and sinful habits into innocence and passes on from grace to grace till we arrive at the full measures of the stature of Christ and into the perfect liberty of the sons of God so that we shall no more say The evil that I would not that I do but we shall hate what God hates and the evil that is forbidden we shall not do not because we are strong of our selves but because Christ is our strength and he is in us and Christs strength shall be perfected in our weakness and his grace will be sufficient for us and he will of his own good pleasure work in us not only to will but also to do velle perficere saith the Apostle to will and to do it throughly and fully being sanctified throughout to the glory of his Holy name and the eternal salvation of our souls through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father c. FIDES FORMATA OR Faith working by Love SERM. III. JAMES II. 24. You see then how that by Works a Man is justified and not by Faith only THat we are justified by Faith S. Paul tells us That we are also justified by Works we are told in my Text and both may be true But that this Justification is wrought by Faith without Works to him that worketh not but believeth saith S. Paul That this is not wrought without Works S. James is as express for his Negative as S. Paul was for his Affirmative and how both these should be true is something harder to unriddle But affirmanti incumbit probatio he that affirms must prove and therefore S. Paul proves his Doctrine by the example of Abraham to whom Faith was imputed for Righteousness and therefore not by Works And what can be answered to this Nothing but this That S. James uses the very same Argument to prove that our Justification is by Works also For our Father Abraham was justified by works when he offered up his Son Isaac Now which of these says true Certainly both of them but neither of them have been well understood insomuch that they have not only made divisions of heart among the faithful but one party relies on Faith to the disparagement of Good Life and the other makes Works to be the main ground of our hope and confidence and consequently to exclude the efficacy of Faith The one makes Christian Religion a lazy and unactive Institution and the other a bold presumption on our selves while the first tempts us to live like Heathens and the other recalls us to live the life of Jews while one says I am of Paul and another I am of S. James and both of them put it in danger of evacuating the institution and the death of Christ one looking on Christ only as a Law-giver and the other only as a Saviour The effects of these are very sad and by all means to be diverted by all the wise considerations of the Spirit My purpose is not with subtle Arts to reconcile them that never disagreed the two Apostles spake by the same Spirit and to the same last design though to differing intermedial purposes But because the great end of Faith the design the definition the state the oeconomy of it is that all Believers should not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit Before I fall to the close handling of the Text I shall premise some preliminary Considerations to prepare the way of holiness to explicate the differing sences of the Apostles to understand the Question and the Duty by removing the causes of the vulgar mistakes of most men in this Article and then proceed to the main Inquiry 1. That no man may abuse himself or others by mistaking of hard words spoken in mystery with alegorical expressions to secret senses wrapt up in a cloud such as are Faith and Justification and Imputation and Righteousness and Works be pleased to consider That the very word Faith is in Scripture infinitely ambiguous insomuch that in the Latine Concordances of S. Hierom's Bible published by Robert Stephens you may see no less then twenty two several senses and accceptations of of the word Faith set down with the several places of Scripture referring to them to which if out of my own own observation I could add no more yet these are an abundant demonstration That whatsoever is said of the efficacy of Faith for Justification is not to be taken in such a sence as will weaken the necessity and our carefulness of good life when the word may in so many other sences be taken to verifie the affirmation of S. Paul of Justification by Faith so as to reconcile it to the necessity of Obedience 2. As it is in the word Faith so it is in Works for by Works is meant sometimes the thing done sometimes the labour of doing sometimes the good will it is sometimes taken for a state of good life sometimes for the Covenant of Works it sometimes means the Works of the Law sometimes the Works of the Gospel sometimes it is taken for a perfect actual unsinning Obedience sometimes for a sincere endeavour to please God sometimes they are meant to be such which can challenge the Reward as of Debt sometimes they mean only a disposition of the person to receive the favour and the grace of God Now since our good Works can be but of one kind for ours cannot be meritorious ours cannot be without sin all our life they cannot be such as need no repentance it is no wonder if we must be justified without Works in this sence for by such Works no man living can be justified And these S. Paul calls the Works of the Law and sometimes he calls them our righteousness and these are the Covenant of Works But because we came into the World to serve God and God will be obeyed and Jesus Christ came into the World to save us from sin and
dyed yea rather that is risen again And Christ was both delivered for our sins and is risen again for our justification implying to us that as it is in the principal so it is in the correspondent our sins indeed are potentially pardoned when they are marked out for death and crucifixion when by resolving and fighting against sin we dye to sin daily and are so made conformable to his Death but we must partake of Christs Resurrection before this Justification can be actual when we are dead to sin and are risen again unto righteousness then as we are partakers of his Death so we shall be partakers of his Resurrection saith S. Paul that is then we are truly effectually and indeed justified till then we are not He that loveth Gold shall not be justified saith the wise Bensirach he that is covetous let his Faith be what it will shall not be accounted righteous before God because he is not so in himself and he is not so in Christ for he is not in Christ at all he hath no righteousness in himself and he hath none in Christ for if we be in Christ or if Christ be in us the Body is dead by reason of sin and the Spirit is life because of righteousness For this the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that faithful thing that is the faithfulness is manifested the Emun from whence comes Emunah which is the Hebrew word for Faith from whence Amen is derived Fiat quod dictum est hinc inde hoc fidum est when God and we both say Amen to our promises and undertakings Fac fidelis sis fideli cave fidem fluxam geras said he in the Comedy God is faithful be thou so too for if thou failest him thy faith hath failed thee Fides sumitur pro eo quod est inter utrumque placitum says one and then it is true which the Prophet and the Apostle said the Just shall live by Faith in both senses ex fide mea vivet ex fide sua we live by Gods Faith and by our own by his Fidelity and by ours When the righteousness of God becomes your righteousness and exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees when the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us by walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit then we are justified by Gods truth and by ours by his Grace and our Obedience So that now we see that Justification and Sanctification cannot be distinguished but as words of Art signifying the various steps of progression in the same course they may be distinguished in notion and speculation but never when they are to pass on to material events for no man is justified but he that is also sanctified They are the express words of S. Paul Whom he did foreknow them he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son to be like to Christ and then it follows Whom he hath predestinated so predestinated them he hath also called and whom he hath called them he hath also justified and then it follows Whom he hath justified them he hath also glorified So that no man is justified that is so as to signifie Salvation but Sanctification must be precedent to it and that was my second consideration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which I was to prove 3. I pray consider that he that does not believe the promises of the Gospel cannot pretend to Faith in Christ but the promises are all made to us upon the conditions of Obedience and he that does not believe them as Christ made them believes them not at all In well doing commit your selves to God as unto a faithful Creator there is no committing our selves to God without well doing For God will render to every man according to his deeds to them that obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath but to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality to them eternal life So that if Faith apprehends any other promises it is illusion and not Faith God gave us none such Christ purchased none such for us search the Bible over and you shall find none such But if Faith layes hold on these promises that are and as they are then it becomes an Article of our Faith that without obedience and a sincere endeavour to keep Gods Commandments no man living can be justified And therefore let us take heed when we magnifie the free Grace of God we do not exclude the conditions which this free Grace hath set upon us Christ freely dyed for us God pardons us freely in our first access to him we could never deserve pardon because when we need pardon we are enemies and have no good thing in us and he freely gives us of his Spirit and freely he enables us to obey him and for our little imperfect services he freely and bountifully will give us eternal life here is free Grace all the way and he overvalues his pitiful services who thinks that he deserves Heaven by them and that if he does his duty tolerably eternal life is not a free gift to him but a deserved reward Conscius est animus meus experientia testis Mystica quae retuli dogmata vera scio Non tamen idcirco scio me fore glorificandum Spes mea crux Christi gratia non opera It was the meditation of the wise Chancellor of Paris I know that without a good life and the fruits of repentance a sinner cannot be justified and therefore I must live well or I must dye for ever But if I do live holily I do not think that I deserve Heaven it is the Cross of Christ that procures me grace it is the Spirit of Christ that gives me grace it is the mercy and the free gift of Christ that brings me unto glory But yet he that shall exclude the works of Faith from the Justification of a sinner by the blood of Christ may as well exclude Faith it self for Faith it self is one of the works of God it is a good work so said Christ to them that asked him What shall we do to work the works of God Jesus said This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent Faith is not only the foundation of good works but it self is a good work it is not only the cause of obedience but a part of it it is not as the Son of Sirach calls it initium adhaerendi Deo a beginning of cleaving unto God but it carries us on to the perfection of it Christ is the Author and finisher of our Faith and when Faith is finished a good life is made perfect in our kind Let no man therefore expect events for which he hath no promise nor call for Gods fidelity without his own faithfulness nor snatch at a promise without performing the condition nor think faith to be a hand to apprehend Christ and to do nothing else for that will but
brisker Immortality that Saints and Angels eat not and that the Spirit of a man lives for ever upon wisdom and holiness and contemplation The fat Glutton would have stared a while upon the Preacher and then have fallen asleep But if you had discoursed well and knowingly of a Lamprey a large Mullet or a Boar animal propter Convivia natum and have sent him a Cook from Asia to make new Sawces he would have attended carefully and taken in your discourses greedily And so it is in the Questions and secrets of Christianity which made S. Paul when he intended to convert Foelix discourse first with him about Temperance Righteousness and Judgment to come He began in the right point he knew it was to no purpose to preach Jesus Christ crucified to an intemperate person to an Usurper of other mens rights to one whose soul dwelt in the World and cared not for the sentence of the last day The Philosophers began their Wisdom with the meditation of death and S. Paul his with the discourse of the day of Judgment to take the heart off from this world and the amabilities of it which dishonour and baffle the understanding and made Solomon himself become a child and fool'd into Idolatry by the prettiness of a talking woman Men now-a-dayes love not a Religion that will cost them dear If your Doctrine calls upon Men to part with any considerable part of their estates you must pardon them if they cannot believe you they understand it not I shall give you one great instance of it When we consider the infinite unreasonableness that is in the Popish Religion how against common sense their Doctrine of Transubstantiation is how against the common Experience of humane nature is the Doctrine of the Popes Infallibility how against Scripture is the Doctrine of Indulgences and Purgatory we may well think it a wonder that no more men are perswaded to leave such unlearned follies But then on the other side the wonder will cease if we mark how many temporal ends are served by these Doctrines If you destroy the Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences you take away the Priests Income and make the the See Apostolick to be poor if you deny the Popes Infallibility you will despise his Authority and examine his Propositions and discover his Failings and put him to answer hard Arguments and lessen his Power and indeed when we run through all the Propositions of difference between them and us and see that in every one of them they serve an end of money or of power it will be very visible that the way to confute them is not by learned disputations for we see they have been too long without effect and without prosperity the men must be cured of their affections to the World ut nudi nudum sequantur crucifixum that with naked and devested affections they might follow the naked Crucified Jesus and then they would soon learn the truths of God which till then will be impossible to be apprehended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men as St. Basil says when they expound Scripture always bring in something of themselves but till there be as one said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rising out from their own seats until they go out from their dark dungeons they can never see the light of Heaven And how many men are there amongst us who are therefore enemies to the Religion because it seems to be against their profit The argument of Demetrius is unanswerable by this Craft they get their livings leave them in their Livings and they will let your Religion alone if not they think they have reason to speak against it When mens souls are possessed with the World their souls cannot be invested with holy Truths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Isidor said the Soul must be informed insoul'd or animated with the propositions that you put in or you shall never do any good or get Disciples to Christ. Now because a man cannot serve two Masters because he cannot vigorously attend two objects because there can be but one soul in any living Creature if the World have got possession talk no more of your Questions shut your Bibles and read no more of the Words of God to them for they cannot tell of the Doctrine whether it be of God or of the World That is the second particular Worldly affections hinder true understandings in Religion 3. No man how learned soever can understand the Word of God or be at peace in the Questions of Religion unless he be a Master over his Passions Tu quoque si vis Lumine claro Cernere verum Gaudia pelle Pelle Timorem Nubila mens est Vinctáque fraenis Haec ubi regnant said the wise Boethius A man must first learn himself before he can learn God Tua te fallit Imago nothing deceives a man so soon as a mans self when a man is that I may use Plato's expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mingled with his nature and his Congenial infirmities of anger and desire he can never have any thing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a knowledge partly moral and partly natural his whole life is but Imagination his knowledge is Inclination and Opinion he judges of Heavenly things by the measures of his fears and his desires and his Reason is half of it sense and determinable by the principles of sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then a man learns well when he is a Philosopher in his Passions Passionate men are to be taught the first elements of Religion and let men pretend to as much learning as they please they must begin again at Christs Cross they must learn true mortification and crucifixion of their anger and desires before they can be good Scholars in Christs School or be admitted into the more secret enquiries of Religion or profit in spiritual understanding It was an excellent Proverb of the Jews In passionibus Spiritus Sanctus non habitat the Holy Ghost never dwells in the house of Passion Truth enters into the heart of man when it is empty and clean and still but when the mind is shaken with Passion as with a storm you can never hear the voyce of the Charmer though he charm very wisely and you will very hardly sheath a sword when it is held by a loose and a paralytick Arm. He that means to learn the secrets of Gods wisdom must be as Plato says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his soul must be Consubstantiated with Reason not invested with Passion to him that is otherwise things are but in the dark his notion is obscure and his sight troubled and therefore though we often meet with passionate Fools yet we seldom or never hear of a very passionate wise man I have now done with the first part of my undertaking and proved to you that our evil life is the cause of our Controversies and Ignorances in Religion and of the things of God You see what hinders us from becoming
he runs to commit his sin with as certain an event and resolution as if he knew no Argument against it These notices of things terrible and true pass through his Understanding as an Eagle through the Air as long as her flight lasted the air was shaken but there remains no path behind her Now since at the same time we see other persons not so learned it may be not so much versed in Scriptures yet they say a thing is good and lay hold of it they believe glorious things of Heaven and they live accordingly as men that believe themselves half a word is enough to make them understand a nod is a sufficient reproof the crowing of a Cock the singing of a Lark the dawning of the day and the washing their hands are to them competent memorials of Religion and warnings of their duty What is the reason of this difference They both read the Scriptures they read and hear the same Sermons they have capable Understandings they both believe what they hear and what they read and yet the event is vastly different The reason is that which I am now speaking of the one understands by one Principle the other by another the one understands by Nature and the other by Grace the one by Humane Learning and the other by Divine the one reads the Scriptures without and the other within the one understands as a Son of Man the other as a Son of God the one perceives by the proportions of the world and the other by the measures of the Spirit the one understands by Reason and the other by Love and therefore he does not only understand the Sermons of the Spirit and perceives their meaning but he pierces deeper and knows the meaning of that meaning that is the secret of the Spirit that which is spiritually discerned that which gives life to the Proposition and activity to the Soul And the reason is because he hath a Divine Principle within him and a new Understanding that is plainly he hath Love and that 's more than Knowledge as was rarely well observed by S. Paul Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifieth that is Charity makes the best Scholars No Sermons can edifie you no Scriptures can build you up a holy Building to God unless the Love of God be in your hearts and purifie your Souls from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit But so it is in the regions of Stars where a vast body of Fire is so divided by excentrick motions that it looks as if Nature had parted them into Orbs and round shells of plain and purest materials But where the cause is simple and the matter without variety the motions must be uniform and in Heaven we should either espy no motion or no variety But God who designed the Heavens to be the causes of all changes and motions here below hath placed his Angels in their houses of light and given to every one of his appointed Officers a portion of the fiery matter to circumagitate and roll and now the wonder ceases for if it be enquired why this part of the fire runs Eastward and the other to the South they being both indifferent to either it is because an Angel of God sits in the Centre and makes the same matter turn not by the bent of its own mobility and inclination but in order to the needs of Man and the great purposes of God And so it is in the Understandings of Men when they all receive the same Notions and are taught by the same Master and give full consent to all the Propositions and can of themselves have nothing to distinguish them in the events it is because God has sent his Divine Spirit and kindles a new fire and creates a braver capacity and applies the Actives to the Passives and blesses their operation For there is in the heart of man such a dead sea and an indisposition to holy flames like as in the cold Rivers in the North so as the fires will not burn them and the Sun it self will never warm them till Gods holy Spirit does from the Temple of the New Jerusalem bring a holy flame and make it shine and burn The Natural man saith the holy Apostle cannot preceive the things of the Spirit they are foolishness unto him for they are spiritually discerned For he that discourses of things by the measures of sense thinks nothing good but that which is delicious to the palate or pleases the brutish part of Man and therefore while he estimates the secrets of Religion by such measures they must needs seem as insipid as Cork or the uncondited Mushrom for they have nothing at all of that in their constitution A voluptuous person is like the Dogs of Sicily so fill'd with the deliciousness of Plants that grow in every furrow and hedge that they can never keep the scent of their Game 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said St. Chrysostom The fire and water can never mingle so neither can sensuality and the watchfulness and wise discerning of the Spirit Pilato interroganti de veritate Christus non respondit When the wicked Governour asked of Christ concerning Truth Christ gave him no answer He was not fit to hear it He therefore who so understands the Words of God that he not only believes but loves the Proposition he who consents with all his heart and being convinc'd of the truth does also apprehend the necessity and obeys the precept and delights in the discovery and lays his hand upon his heart and reduces the notices of things to the practice of duty he who dares trust his proposition and drives it on to the utmost issue resolving to go after it whithersoever it can invite him this Man walks in the Spirit at least thus far he is gone towards it his Understanding is brought in obsequium Christi into the obedience of Christ. This is a loving God with all our mind and whatever goes less than this is but Memory and not Understanding or else such notice of things by which a man is neither the wiser nor the better 3. Sometimes God gives to his choicest his most elect and precious Servants a knowledge even of secret things which he communicates not to others We finde it greatly remark'd in the case of Abraham Gen. 18. 17. And the Lord said Shall I hide from Abraham that thing that I do Why not from Abraham God tells us ver 19. For I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment And though this be irregular and infrequent yet it is a reward of their piety and the proper increase also of the spiritual man We find this spoken by God to Daniel and promised to be the lot of the righteous man in the days of the Messias Dan. 12. 10. Many shall be purified and made white and tryed but the wicked shall do wickedly and what then None of
ages past and troubled themselves with tying untying knots like Hypocondriacks in a fit of Melancholy thinking of nothing troubling themselves with nothing and falling out about nothings and being very wise very learned in things that are not and work not and were never planted in Paradise by the finger of God Mens notions are too often like the Mules begotten by aequivocal and unnatural Generations but they make no species they are begotten but they can beget nothing they are the effects of long study but they can do no good when they are produced they are not that which Solomon calls viam intelligentiae the way of understanding If the Spirit of God be our Teacher we shall learn to avoid evil and to do good to be wise and to be holy to be profitable and careful and they that walk in this way shall find more peace in their Consciences more skill in the Scriptures more satisfaction in their doubts than can be obtained by all the polemical and impertinent disputations of the world And if the holy Spirit can teach us how vain a thing it is to do foolish things he also will teach us how vain a thing it is to trouble the world with foolish Questions to disturb the Church for interest or pride to resist Government in things indifferent to spend the peoples zeal in things unprofitable to make Religion to consist in outsides and opposition to circumstances and trifling regards No no the Man that is wise he that is conducted by the Spirit of God knows better in what Christs Kingdom does consist than to throw away his time and interest and peace and safety for what for Religion no for the Body of Religion not so much for the Garment of the Body of Religion no not for so much but for the Fringes of the Garment of the Body of Religion for such and no better are the disputes that trouble our discontented Brethren they are things or rather Circumstances and manners of things in which the Soul and Spirit is not at all concerned 3. Holiness of life is the best way of finding out truth and understanding not only as a Natural medium nor only as a prudent medium but as a means by way of Divine blessing He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Here we have a promise for it and upon that we may relye The old man that confuted the Arian Priest by a plain recital of his Creed found a mighty power of God effecting his own Work by a strange manner and by a very plain instrument it wrought a divine blessing just as Sacraments use to do and this Lightning sometimes comes in a strange manner as a peculiar blessing to good men For God kept the secrets of his Kingdom from the wise Heathens and the learned Jews revealing them to Babes not because they had less learning but because they had more love they were children and Babes in Malice they loved Christ and so he became to them a light and a glory St. Paul had more Learning then they all and Moses was instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians yet because he was the meekest man upon Earth he was also the wisest and to his humane Learning in which he was excellent he had a divine light and excellent wisdom superadded to him by way of spiritual blessings And St. Paul though he went very far to the Knowledge of many great and excellent truths by the force of humane learning yet he was far short of perfective truth and true wisdom till he learned a new Lesson in a new School at the feet of one greater then his Gamaliel his learning grew much greater his notions brighter his skill deeper by the love of Christ and his desires his passionate desires after Jesus The force and use of humane learning and of this Divine learning I am now speaking of are both well expressed by the Prophet Isaiah 29. 11 12. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed which men deliver to one that is learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I cannot for it is seal'd And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I am not learned He that is no learned man who is not bred up in the Schools of the Prophets cannot read Gods Book for want of learning For humane Learning is the gate and first entrance of Divine vision not the only one indeed but the common gate But beyond this there must be another learning for he that is learned bring the Book to him and you are not much the better as to the secret part of it if the Book be sealed if his eyes be closed if his heart be not opened if God does not speak to him in the secret way of discipline Humane learning is an excellent Foundation but the top-stone is laid by Love and Conformity to the will of God For we may further observe that blindnesse errour and Ignorance are the punishments which God sends upon wicked and ungodly men Etiamsi propter nostrae intelligentiae tarditatem vitae demeritum veritas nondum se apertissime ostenderit was St. Austin's expression The truth hath not yet been manifested fully to us by reason of our demerits our sins have hindred the brightness of the truth from shining upon us And St. Paul observes that when the Heathens gave themselves over to lusts God gave them over to strong delusions to believe a Lie But God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom and knowledge and joy said the wise Preacher But this is most expresly promised in the New Testament and particularly in that admirable Sermon which our blessed Saviour preach'd a little before his death The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things Well there 's our Teacher told of plainly But how shall we obtain this teacher and how shall we be taught v. 15 16 17. Christ will pray for us that we may have this Spirit That 's well but shall all Christians have the Spirit Yes all that will live like Christians for so said Christ If ye love me keep my Commandments and I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him Mark these things The Spirit of God is our teacher he will abide with us for ever to be our teacher he will teach us all things but how if ye love Christ if ye keep his Commandments but not else if ye be of the World that is of worldly affections ye cannot see him ye
discourse that the pleasures of reading the Book would be the greatest if the profit to the Church of God were not greater Flumina tum lactis tum flumina nectaris ibant Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella For so Sampson's Riddle was again expounded Out of the strong came meat and out of the eater came sweetness his Arguments were strong and the Eloquence was sweet and delectable and though there start up another combatant against him yet he had only the honour to fall by the hands of Hector still haeret lateri lethalis arundo the headed arrow went in so far that it could not be drawn out but the barbed steel stuck behind And whenever men will desire to be satisfied in those great questions the Bishop of Derry's Book shall be his Oracle I will not insist upon his other excellent writings but it is known every where with what Piety and acumen he wrote against the Manichean Doctrine of Fatal necessity which a late witty man had pretended to adorn with a new Vizor but this excellent Person washed off the Ceruse and the meritricious paintings rarely well asserted the oeconomy of the Divine Providence and having once more triumphed over his Adversary plenus victoriarum trophaeorum betook himself to the more agreeable attendance upon sacred Offices and having usefully and wisely discoursed of the sacred Rite of Confirmation imposed his hands upon the most Illustrious Princes the Dukes of York and Gloucester and the Princess Royal and ministred to them the Promise of the Holy Spirit and ministerially established them in the Religion and Service of the holy Jesus And one thing more I shall remark that at his leaving those Parts upon the Kings Return some of the Remonstrant Ministers of the Low Countries coming to take their leaves of this great man and desiring that by his means the Church of England would be kind to them he had reason to grant it because they were learned men and in many things of a most excellent belief yet he reproved them and gave them caution against it that they approached too near and gave too much countenance to the great and dangerous errors of the Socinians He thus having served God and the King abroad God was pleased to return to the King and to us all as in the days of old and we sung the song of David In convertendo captivitatem Sion When King David and all his Servants returned to Jerusalem this great person having trod in the Wine-press was called to drink of the Wine and as an honorary Reward of his great services and abilities was chosen Primate of this National Church In which time we are to look upon him as the King and the Kings great Vicegerent did as a person concerning whose abilities the World had too great testimony ever to make a doubt It is true he was in the declension of his age and health but his very Ruines were goodly and they who saw the broken heaps of Pompey's Theatre and the crushed Obelisks and the old face of beauteous Philaenium could not but admire the disordered glories of such magnificent structures which were venerable in their very dust He ever was used to overcome all difficulties only Mortality was too hard for him but still his Vertues and his Spirit was immortal he still took great care and still had new and noble designs and proposed to himself admirable things He governed his Province with great justice and sincerity Vnus amplo consulens pastor gregi Somnos tuetur omnium solus vigil And had this remark in all his Government that as he was a great hater of Sacriledge so he professed himself a publick Enemy to Non-residence and often would declare wisely and religiously against it allowing it in no case but of necessity or the greater good of the Church There are great things spoken of his Predecessor S. Patrick that he founded 700 Churches and Religious Convents that he ordained 5000 Priests and with his own hands consecrated 350 Bishops How true the story is I know not but we were all witnesses that the late Primate whose memory we now celebrate did by an extraordinary contingency of Providence in one day consecrate two Arch-Bishops and ten Bishops and did benefit to almost all the Churches in Ireland and was greatly instrumental to the Re-endowments of the whole Clergy and in the greatest abilities and incomparable industry was inferior to none of his most glorious Antecessours Since the Canonization of Saints came into the Church we find no Irish Bishop canonized except S. Laurence of Dublin and S. Malachias of Down indeed Richard of Armagh's Canonization was propounded but not effected but the Character which was given of that learned Primate by Trithemius does exactly fit this our late Father Vir in Divinis Scripturis eruditus secularis Philosophiae jurisque Canonici non ignarus clarus ingenio sermone scholasticus in declamandis sermonibus ad populum excellentis industriae He was learned in the Scriptures skill'd in secular Philosophy and not unknowing in the Civil and Canon Laws in which studies I wish the Clergy were with some carefulness and diligence still more conversant he was of an excellent spirit a Scholar in his discourses an early and industrious Preacher to the people And as if there were a more particular sympathy between their souls our Primate had so great a Veneration to his memory that he purposed if he had lived to have restored his Monument in Dundalke which Time or Impiety or Unthankfulness had either omitted or destroyed So great a lover he was of all true and inherent worth that he loved it in the very memory of the dead and to have such great Examples transmitted to the intuition and imitation of posterity At his coming to the Primacy he knew he should at first espie little besides the Ruines of Discipline a Harvest of thorns and Heresies prevailing in the hearts of the People the Churches possessed by Wolves and Intruders Mens hearts greatly estranged from true Religion and therefore he set himself to weed the fields of the Church he treated the Adversaries sometimes sweetly sometimes he confuted them learnedly sometimes he rebuked them sharply He visited his Charges diligently and in his own person not by Proxies and instrumental Deputations Quaerens non nostra sed nos quae sunt Jesu Christi he designed nothing that we knew of but the Redintegration of Religion the Honour of God and the King the Restoring of collapsed Discipline and the Renovation of Faith and the Service of God in the Churches And still he was indefatigable and even at the last scene of his life intended to undertake a Regal Visitation Quid enim vultis me otiosum à Domino comprehendi said one he was not willing that God should take him unimployed But good man he felt his Tabernacle ready to fall in pieces and could go no further for God would have no more work done by that
hand he therefore espying this put his house in order and had lately visited his Diocese and done what he then could to put his Charge in order for he had a good while since received the sentence of death within himself and knew he was shortly to render an account of his stewardship he therefore upon a brisk alarm of death which God sent him the last January made his Will in which besides the prudence and presence of spirit manifested in making just and wise settlement of his Estate and provisions for his Descendants at midnight and in the trouble of his sickness and circumstances of addressing death still kept a special sentiment and made confession of Gods admirable mercies and gave thanks that God had permitted him to live to see the blessed Restauration of His Majesty and the Church of England confessed his Faith to be the same as ever gave praises to God that he was born and bred up in this Religion and prayed to God and hoped he should die in the Communion of this Church which he declar'd to be the most pure and Apostolical Church in the whole World He prayed to God to pardon his frailties and infirmities relied upon the mercies of God and the merits of Jesus Christ and with a singular sweetness resigned up his soul into the hands of his Redeemer But God who is the great Choragus and Master of the Scenes of Life and Death was not pleased then to draw the Curtains there was an Epilogue to his Life yet to be acted and spoken He returned to actions and life and went on in the methods of the same procedure as before was desirous still to establish the affairs of the Church complained of some disorders which he purposed to redress girt himself to the work but though his spirit was willing yet his flesh was weak and as the Apostles in the Vespers of Christs Passion so he in the eye of his own Dissolution was heavy not to sleep but heavy unto death and looked for the last warning which seized on him in the midst of business and though it was sudden yet it could not be unexpected or unprovided by surprize and therefore could be no other than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Augustus used to wish unto himself a civil and well-natured death without the amazement of troublesome circumstances or the great cracks of a falling house or the convulsions of impatience Seneca tells that Bassus Aufidius was wont to say Sperare se nullum dolorem esse in illo extremo anhelitu si tamen esset habere aliquantum in ipsa brevitate solatii He hoped that the pains of the last Dissolution were little or none or if they were it was full of comfort that they could be but short It happened so to this excellent man his Passive Fortitude had been abundantly tried before and therefore there was the less need of it now his active Graces had been abundantly demonstrated by the great and good things he did and therefore his last scene was not so laborious but God called him away something after the manner of Moses which the Jews express by Osculum oris Dei the Kiss of Gods mouth that is a death indeed fore-signified but gentle and serene and without temptation To sum up all He was a wise Prelate a learned Doctor a just Man a true Friend a great Benefactor to others a thankful Beneficiary where he was obliged himself He was a faithful Servant to his Masters a Loyal Subject to the King a zealous Assertor of his Religion against Popery on one side and Fanaticism on the other The practice of his Religion was not so much in Forms and exteriour Ministries though he was a great observer of all the publick Rites and Ministries of the Church as it was in doing good for others He was like Myson whom the Scythian Anarchasis so greatly praised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he governed his Family well he gave to all their due of maintenance and duty he did great benefit to mankind he had the fate of the Apostle S. Paul he passed through evil report and good report as a deceiver and yet true He was a man of great business and great resort Semper aliquis in Cydonis domo as the Corinthians said There was always somebody in Cydons house He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he divided his life into labour and his book he took care of his Churches when he was alive and even after his death having left 500 l. for the Repair of his Cathedral of Armagh and S. Peters Church in Drogheda He was an excellent Scholar and rarely well accomplished first instructed to great excellency by natural parts and then consummated by study and experience Melanchthon was used to say that himself was a Logician Pomeranus a Grammarian Justus Jonas an Orator but that Luther was all these It was greatly true of him that the single perfections which make many men eminent were united in this Primate and made him illustrious At at Quintilium perpetuus sopor Vrget cui pudor justitiae soror Incorrupta fides nudaque veritas Quando ullum invenient parem It will be hard to find his Equal in all things Fortasse tanquam Phoenix anno quingentesimo nascitur that I may use the words of Seneca nec est mirum ex intervallo magna generari mediocria in turbam nascentia saepe fortuna producit eximia vero ipsa raritate commendat For in him was visible the great lines of Hooker's Judiciousness of Jewel's Learning of the acuteness of Bishop Andrews He was skilled in more great things than one and as one said of Phidias he could not only make excellent Statues of Ivory but he could work in Stone and Brass He shewed his Equanimity in Poverty and his Justice in Riches he was useful in his Country and profitable in his Banishment for as Paraeus was at Anvilla Luther at Wittenburg S. Athanasius and S. Chrysostom in their Banishment S. Hierom in his retirement at Bethlehem they were Oracles to them that needed it so was he in Holland and France where he was abroad and beside the particular endearments which his friends received from him for he did do relief to his brethren that wanted and supplied the Souldiers out of his store in Yorkshire when himself could but ill spare it but he received publick thanks from the Convocation of which he was President and publick Justification from the Parliament where he was Speaker so that although as one said Miraculi instar vitae iter si longum sine offensione percurrere yet no man had greater Enemies and no man had greater justifications But God hath taken our Elijah from our heads this day I pray God that at least his Mantle may be left behind and that his Spirit may be doubled upon his Successor and that we may all meet together with him at the right hand of the Lamb where every man shall receive according
and it is a long time before Nature makes them capable of help for there are many deaths and very many diseases to which poor babes are exposed but they have but very few capacities of Physick to shew that infancy is as liable to death as old age and equally exposed to danger and equally uncapable of a remedy with this only difference that old age hath diseases incurable by nature and the diseases of childhood are incurable by art and both the states are the next heirs of death 3. But all the middle way the case is altered Nature is strong and Art is apt to give ease and remedy but still there is no security and there the case is not altered 1. For there are so many diseases in men that are not understood 2. So many new ones every year 3. The old ones are so changed in circumstances and intermingled with so many collateral complications 4. The Symptoms are oftentimes so alike 5. Sometimes so hidden and fallacious 6. Sometimes none at all as in the most sudden and most dangerous Imposthumations 7. And then the diseases in the inward parts of the body are oftentimes such to which no application can be made 8. They are so far off that the effects of all medicines can no otherwise come to them than the effect and juices of all meats that is not till after two or three alterations and decoctions which change the very species of the medicament 9. And after all this very many principles in the art of Physick are so uncertain that after they have been believed seven or eight Ages and that upon them much of the practice hath been established they come to be considered by a witty man and others established in their stead by which men must practise and by which three or four generations of men more as happens must live or die 10. And all this while the men are sick and they take things that certainly make them sicker for the present and very uncertainly restore health for the future that it may appear of what a large extent is humane calamity when Gods providence hath not only made it weak and miserable upon the certain stock of a various nature and upon the accidents of an infinite contingency but even from the remedies which are appointed our dangers and our troubles are certainly encreased so that we may well be likened to water our nature is no stronger our abode no more certain if the sluces be opened it falls away and runneth apace if its current be stopped it swells and grows troublesome and spills over with a greater diffusion if it be made to stand still it putrifies and all this we do For 4. In all the process of our health we are running to our grave we open our own sluces by viciousness and unworthy actions we pour in drink and let out life we increase diseases and know not how to bear them we strangle our selves with our own intemperance we suffer the fevers and the inflammations of lust and we quench our souls with drunkenness we bury our understandings in loads of meat and surfets and then we lie down upon our beds and roar with pain and disquietness of our souls Nay we kill one anothers souls and bodies with violence and folly with the effects of pride and uncharitableness we live and die like fools and bring a new mortality upon our selves wars and vexatious cares and private duells and publick disorders and every thing that is unreasonable and every thing that is violent so that now we may add this fourth gate to the Grave Besides Nature and Chance and the mistakes of Art men die with their own Sins and then enter into the Grave in haste and passion and pull the heavy stone of the Monument upon their own heads And thus we make our selves like water spilt on the ground we throw away our lives as if they were unprofitable and indeed most men make them so we let our years slip through our fingers like water and nothing is to be seen but like a showr of tears upon a spot of ground there is a Grave digged and a solemn mourning and a great talk in the Neighbourhood and when the daies are finished they shall be and they shall be remembred no more And that 's like water too when it is spilt it cannot be gathered up again There is no redemption from the Grave inter se mortales mutua vivunt Et quasi cursores vitäi lampada tradunt Men live in their course and by turns their light burns a while and then it burns blew and faint and men go to converse with Spirits and then they reach the taper to another and as the hours of yesterday can never return again so neither can the man whose hours they were and who lived them over once he shall never come to live them again and live them better When Lazarus and the widows Son of Naim and Tebitha and the Saints that appeared in Jerusalem at the Resurrection of our blessed Lord arose they came into this world some as strangers only to make a visit and all of them to manifest a glory but none came upon the stock of a new life or entred upon the stage as at first or to perform the course of a new nature and therefore it is observable that we never read of any wicked person that was raised from the dead Dives would fain have returned to his brothers house but neither he nor any from him could be sent but all the rest in the new Testament one only excepted were expressed to have been holy persons or else by their age were declared innocent Lazarus was beloved of Christ those souls that appeared at the Resurrection were the souls of Saints Tabitha raised by S. Peter was a charitable and a holy Christian and the maiden of twelve years old raised by our blessed Saviour had not entred into the regions of choice and sinfulness and the only exception of the widows son is indeed none at all for in it the Scripture is wholly silent and therefore it is very probable that the same process was used God in all other instances having chosen to exemplifie his miracles of nature to purposes of the Spirit and in spiritual capacities So that although the Lord of Nature did not break the bands of Nature in some instances to manifest his glory to succeeding great and never failing purposes yet besides that this shall be no more it was also instanced in such persons who were holy and innocent and within the verge and comprehensions of the Eternal mercy We never read that a wicked person felt such a miracle or was raised from the Grave to try the second time for a Crown but where he fell there he lay down dead and saw the light no more This consideration I intend to you as a severe Monitor and an advice of carefulness that you order your affairs so that you may be partakers of the first
loves noblier and desires purer and hopes stronger than it can do here But if these arguments should fail yet the felicity of Gods Saints cannot fail For suppose the Body to be a necessary Instrument but out of tune and discomposed by sin and anger by accident and chance by defect and imperfections yet that it is better than none at all and that if the Soul works imperfectly with an imperfect Body that then she works not at all when she hath none And suppose also that the Soul should be as much without sense or perception in death as it is in a deep sleep which is the image and shadow of death yet then God devises other means that his banished be not expelled from him For 2. God will restore the Soul to the Body and raise the Body to such a perfection that it shall be an Organ fit to praise him upon it shall be made spiritual to minister to the Soul when the Soul is turned into a Spirit then the Soul shall be brought forth by Angels from her incomparable and easie bed from her rest in Christs holy Bosom and be made perfect in her being and in all her operations And this shall first appear by that perfection which the Soul shall receive as instrumental to the last Judgment for then she shall see clearly all the Records of this World all the Register of her own Memory For all that we did in this life is laid up in our Memories and though dust and forgetfulness be drawn upon them yet when God shall lift us from our dust then shall appear clearly all that we have done written in the Tables of our Conscience which is the Souls Memory We see many times and in many instances that a great Memory is hindred and put out and we thirty years after come to think of something that lay so long under a Curtain we think of it suddenly and without a line of deduction or proper consequence And all those famous Memories of Simonides and Theodactes of Hortensius and Seneca of Sceptius Metrodorus and Carneades of Cyneas the Embassadour of Pyrrhus are only the Records better kept and less disturbed by accident and disease For even the Memory of Herods son of Athens of Bathyllus and the dullest person now alive is so great and by God made so sure a Record of all that ever he did that as soon as ever God shall but tune our Instrument and draw the Curtains and but light up the Candle of Immortality there we shall find it all there we shall see all and the whole world shall see all then we shall be made fit to converse with God after the manner of Spirits we shall be like to Angels In the mean time although upon the perswasion of the former Discourse it be highly probable that the Souls of Gods Servants do live in a state of present blessedness and in the exceeding joys of a certain expectation of the revelation of the day of the Lord and the coming of Jesus yet it will concern us only to secure our state by holy living and leave the event to God that as St. Paul said whether present or absent whether sleeping or waking whether perceiving or perceiving not we may be accepted of him that when we are banished this World and from the light of the Sun we may not be expelled from God and from the light of his countenance but that from our beds of sorrows our Souls may pass into the Bosom of Christ and from thence to his right hand in the day of Sentence For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and then if we have done well in the Body we shall never be expelled from the beatifical presence of God but be Domesticks of his Family and Heirs of his Kingdom and Partakers of his Glory Amen I Have now done with my Text but yet am to make you another Sermon I have told you the necessity and the state of death it may be too largely for such a sad story I shall therefore now with a better compendium teach you how to live by telling you a plain Narative of a Life which if you imitate and write after the Copy it will make that death shall not be an evil but a thing to be desired and to be reckoned among the purchases and advantages of your Fortune When Martha and Mary went to weep over the Grave of their Brother Christ met them there and preached a Funeral Sermon discoursing of the Resurrection and applying to the purposes of Faith and confession of Christ and glorification of God We have no other we can have no better precedent to follow and now that we are come to weep over the grave of our Dear Sister this rare Personage we cannot chuse but have many virtues to learn many to imitate and some to exercise I chuse not to declare her Extraction and Genealogy it was indeed fair and honourable but having the blessing to be descended from Worthy and Honour'd Ancestors and her self to be adopted and ingraffed into a more Noble Family yet she felt such outward Appendages to be none of hers because not of her choice but the purchase of the Virtues of others which although they did engage her to do noble things yet they would upbraid all degenerate and less honourable Lives than were those which began and encreased the honour of the Families She did not love her Fortune for making her noble but thought it would be a dishonour to her if she did not continue a Nobleness and Excellency of Virtue fit to be owned by Persons relating to such Ancestors It is fit for us all to honour the Nobleness of a Family but it is also fit for them that are Noble to despise it and to establish their Honour upon the foundation of doing excellent things and suffering in good causes and despising dishonourable actions and in communicating good things to others For this is the rule in Nature Those Creatures are most honourable which have the greatest power and do the greatest good And accordingly my self have been witness of it how this excellent Lady would by an act of humility and Christian abstraction strip her self of all that fair Appendage and exteriour Honour which decked her Person and her Fortune and desired to be owned by nothing but what was her own that she might only be esteemed honourable according to that which is the Honour of a Christian and a wise Person 2. She had a strict and severe education and it was one of Gods Graces and Favours to her For being the Heiress of a great Fortune and living amongst the throng of persons in the sight of vanities and empty temptations that is in that part of the Kingdom where Greatness is too often express'd in great follies and great vices God had provided a severe and angry Education to chastise the forwardnesses of a young Spirit and a fair Fortune that she might for ever be so far distant from