the Sabbath calling it a loss of the seventh part of their time But it was their best spent time sanctified all their other daies Then their new man dealeth freely with God and all the gifts of the spirit poure themselves out on him Then they feele the beginnings of life eternall which maketh the time seeme shorter than it is indeed For the more wee enjoy a desired good the more time we crave for that enjoying so that a long time seemeth short And againe when an hatefull ill sticketh to us a short time seemeth long hours are as dayes dayes as moneths and moneths as years Hereof commeth the wearinesse of the profane for the shortest houre of worship tormenteth them Their fleshly passions are bound in stocks they know not God and the signes of his presence are terrible to them And yet these same men count whole daies but short for their drunkennesse in tavernes and in brothels they joyne nights to daies and daies to nights as though all time were too short to measure out their vanitie But this will bee the end of all when at death wee looke backe to our time wee shall have most comfort of these dayes wee have spent in the Sanctuarie in seeking happinesse and shall put these chiefly in our Almanack for one day in thy house is better than a thousand elsewhere SECT VII The marrow of true happinesse That I may see the beautie of the Lord. THis is the end why hee desireth to dwell in the Sanctuarie and that is two-fold in the fruition of Gods goodnesse and continuance in that fruition wherein consisteth the happinesse he desireth This fruition is to behold the beauty of the Lord wherein are two things the beautie it selfe and beholding For the knowledge of this beautie we shall first remove two false Glosses and then follow the truth The first is of some Papists who place this beautie in the stately and costly building of their Temple Herein they follow the Jewes devoted to the externall showes their religion is all for them and seeing they cannot fill the hearts of people with the power of doctrine they will fill their eyes with stately buildings and pompous ceremonies So their Cardinals advised Paul 3. that in the decay of their authoritie they would make the world admire them by building and busking stately temples The statelinesse of the temple of Jerusalem was extraordinary both because it was in the time of a carnall service and a type of the Church under Christ the beautie whereof was not in gold and silver as Malachie expresseth but in that the desire of all nations came therein But some faile on the other extreme and have no more care to the houses of God than to common houses yea it may be seene that many barns and stables are more stately in the Parish than Gods house This argueth a brutish mis-regard of God and of his worship which is justly fruitlesse in them Churches ought indeed to bee comely as houses set apart to God But that necessarie comelinesse is not this beautie of the Lord that wee require the beautie of houses is not in marble The second is worse and placeth this beautie in Images So the Fathers of the second Nicene Councell such a Councel such Fathers thought them the beautie of the Sanctuarie But the Scripture calleth images abominations and the shame of the Sanctuarie And when the Jewes brought the Idols of Israel and Thammuz or Osiris the God of Egypt in their temple God departed from them When the Pagans charged the Christians of the first ages that their Oratories had no images Origen and other Apologists tooke with the challenge and gave the reason that God whom they worshipped was invisible and infinite and therefore neither could nor would be represented by images From the Apostles time till images were brought in the Church there was a sufficient body of doctrine though with some declination but after that the Cleargy turned more blockish and ignorant than images Let them be called the bookes of the Laicks but such as turne the Laicks in stockes and stones because they are the teachers of lies and vanities for they leave their mindes in as base estimation of the thing they represent as of themselves The beautie of the Lord in the Sanctuarie is to be taken first of God himselfe and then of his worke with his people God is the beautie of beauties and all these things which we call beautifull excellent glorious perfect c. in the creatures are but names and shadowes of the truth of these things that are in him He alone is being without beginning and giveth being to all and sustaineth them in that being He is life it selfe without inliving and yet quickening and inliving all What ever wee consider to be excellent as wisedome puritie goodnesse power c. are all in him primely perfectly and unitely howsoever to our mindes and experience they be diverse He is great without quantitie good without qualitie Every where but included in no place without localitie and yet excluded no place A fountaine without a veine but running out in a continuall source communicating substance life induements of both to all creatures in such plenty as proveth his riches and in such diversitie to make up the beautie of the creature that hee the Authour thereof may be seene most bountifull How beautifull is that Unitie in Trinity and Trinity in Unity The Father begetting the Sonne begotten and the holy Spirit proceeding from both the Father the beginning working all in the Sonne and that by the holy Spirit a mysterie to be adored but not searched beleeved by faith but not discussed by reason Herein Christ Jesus the fairest among men is to be considered in whom the Church taketh boldnesse to seeke her happinesse with God he is that eternall Sonne of the eternall Father and came downe full of grace and truth to save us As God he is equall with the Father and the Spirit As man he is most beautifull of all creatures In him dwelleth all fulnesse even the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily and because of the personall union his humane nature exalted above all principalities and powers is adored by them He is most beautifull because of wisedome in preaching righteousnesse in remission of sinnes Sanctification in conversing with sinners Redemption in suffering for sinners And because through him only we take boldnesse to approch to God for who durst commit himselfe to so great a Majestie without his mediation But while we speake of him we faile and suffice not But most of all he is the beautie of beauties if wee consider him in his passion For though the world contemne him in that state yet he is our delight because he suffered these things for us This then is the first thing that we should doe when wee enter into the Sanctuarie to take up with the light
earthen vessels that the excellencie of the power may be seene to be of God and not of man Yet it is their glorie and happinesse to be Gods instruments in bringing others to happinesse They have his assistance first because of their calling for God is never lacking to his owne ordinance Next because of their gifts which are a greater token of his presence than their simple calling Thirdly and most by sanctification when they sanctifie their persons and gifts for the worke and remove all things from them that may either offend God or his people and this is it that disposeth them for the manifestation of spirit and power The ministration of Sacraments is a part of this beautie The first giveth us the life of God the second nourisheth that life in us The first meeteth us with provision at our entrie in the valley of teares The second strengtheneth us for temptations in it Baptisme is our first Sacrament and scarcely are we borne naturally when we are borne againe spiritually Gods grace prevening our wit our will and our worth and sealing us before wee be sensible It is a prevening of sathans malice to marke us with the seale of the covenant ere he can abuse us to any actuall sinne Therein great workes are acted with little shew the death buriall aud resurrection of Christ is there represented Our Iustification death buriall and resurrection with him are there acted Therein the sonnes of Adam are made the sonnes of God The children of wrath are made heires of the kingdome of heaven What grace from eternall ordained us prevening grace as a midwife bringeth out By our first birth we increase the number of mankinde By our second birth wee increase the Church The grace of election griped us in eternitie the grace of Baptisme gripeth us in time by the beginnings and the grace of effectuall calling pulleth us fully to God As elect children receive the seeds of grace in Baptisme so in time they break out fully in them In our election though wee were in God yet we were neither in our selves nor sensible of that his choising grip In our Baptisme we are in our selves but not sensible of his working In our calling both wee are and are sensible of the worke of his grace in us The Sacrament of the Lords supper is another part of this beautie He gave us life in Baptisme and feedeth it conveniently in the Supper as a life for eternitie He is both our life and the food of it Neither can that life live without him neither can any thing beside him nourish it It is a precious food and dearely prepared He prepared it on the crosse when he suffered the punishment for our sinnes and giveth it to us in that Sacrament as that Manna that tasteth to every man according to his desire He is with these mysteries both sacramentally and spiritually and with us spiritually to make us one with him not by mixture of substances but by union of spirits for our eating of him is our biding in him To eat his flesh and drinke his bloud is not horrour but honour Because wee eat him spiritually we need not prepare our teeth but our minde for it is not the food of the belly but of the minde and our beleeving is our eating He both feedeth us with himselfe and is fed by our profit and increase in his grace refreshing us with his spirituall joy and rejoycing for our spirituall profit Our repentance our love and amendment are his meat We are eaten when we are reproved set over when we are instructed Wee are concocted when wee are changed We are digested when we are transformed and united when we are conformed to him Then wee eat him when we dissolve in the sense of his love When his heart sendeth out that love that pierced it before the souldiers speare Then our heart is drawen to his and sucketh his heart in us we thrust the tongue of our desire into his wounds drinke largely out of them The mother suffereth not her deare babe more lovingly to lay the mouth to her pap than he suffereth us to lay our heart to his We see his heart more gladned for the glorie of God in our salvation than grieved for the wounds and therein the love of God who from eternall loved us in Christ to such a happinesse This is a drunkennesse without sinne an excesse without fault He thinketh strange things and seeth wonderfull things and speaketh unheard things who is full of this Paschall Lamb and of this beautie of the house of God Thus much for Pastours worke as they are Gods mouth to his people They are the peoples mouth to God in prayer and praise the two tables of Gods immediat worship and a great part of this beautie In prayer all adore God as the fountaine of happinesse Therein we acknowledge our miserie in sinne and punishment and send up our faithfull desire for pardon Againe the good that wee want as holinesse righteousnesse and happinesse it selfe we crave in confidence There is no part of Gods worship wherein wee be more sensible of the Trinitie The Father as the fountaine the Sonne as Mediatour in whose hand wee put up our prayers and the holy Spirit helping our infirmities and making us pray with groanes that cannot be expressed It is the sweetest exoneration of our heart for when it is oppressed with griefe or bound up in the owne hardnesse of senselesnesse if we get libertie to powre it out before the Lord wee finde a wonderfull release and God powring in joy for the griefe we powred out In the multitude of the thoughts of my heart thy comforts sustained me It is a worke of Gods grace in us for those whom he hath chosen to them he hath appointed all the blessings that follow election and so among the rest he giveth them the spirit of prayer to crave the performance of his promise By his grace they draw neere to that throne of grace by the way that Christ hath made new by his bloud and Christ who purchaseth accesse provideth also a successe to receave grace for help in time of need The more wee grow in grace the more wee are inlarged with confidence Thereof it is that wee both love more ardently and pray more confidently for that we want Privat prayers have greater libertie to feele and expresse these divine operations and is the diet that most nourisheth us but the prayers in the sanctuarie have their great fruit Therein all the prayers of the Saints are joyned with us to make an onset on God This is an holy violence wherin he delighteth It was not a reproofe of Moses Suffer mee to destroy this people but a commendation of his zeale for Gods glorie in the salvation of Israel and a professing that he cannot resist the earnest prayers of his owne He is liberty it selfe and
increase of possessours because it is not divided and everyone hath that entirely which many possesse in concord There is no matter of envie because it is sufficient for all and no mans measure doth prejudice another Neither is their disposition to envie in them who are advanced to happines Christs disciples envied other in the beginning but when they were filled with the holy Ghost they did not so Envie reigneth in carnall men about temporall things they are so small in themselves that they cannot suffice all and so proper in their possession that what one hath another wants But if God dwell in us his fulnesse excludeth occasion of envie and his goodnesse excludeth the possibilitie of it For God is love and filleth the heart with love to make us count the lot of our neighbour as our own The more grace the lesse envie and the lesse grace the more envie It is not a sociall happinesse that envieth another but remove envie and that that is mine is thine also In heaven there shall be no envie and the more heavenly on earth the lesse envie for they have that that they love in their neighbour Fourthly for the efficacie It is an uniting good and bindeth all in one who partake it That participation is an union and adherence and by vertue of that union with it they are unite to other the goodnesse they receive is a band among themselves as well as to it God is that fountain-goodnesse and hath summed up all in himself they are all of one originally in one by sustaining and to one finally The foure elements concurre to make one body the body and soul make up one man many men make up one citie or kingdome or armie But spiritually it is more wonderfull how many gifts graces and powers make a renewed man and many renewed men make up one mysticall body of Christ all of them are one in that head and with that head they are all one with God I in them and thou in me that they may be one as we are one Not that our union with him is equall to his union with the Father the one is consubstantiall but ours is consentible That is in substance but this is in spirit for we are one spirit with God that is native but this is factitious or wrought by grace That is properly an union in unitie but this is only in unition In like manner he uniteth us among our selves the multitude of the faithfull were of one heart and of one minde because who ever see and love the divine face are one He is as a center and sendeth out his divine power and sheddeth abroad his love in the hearts of his own and all these hearts meet in him again So the faith love of Abraham meeteth with our faith and love in him Thus then he tieth us to himself when he is our chief good and worketh the good in us to adhere to him As for me it is good to adhere to the Lord. He adhereth to the Lord who being beloved of God sucketh God in himself again by love So when God and man inhere mutually in other and are enbowelled by mutuall love then God is in man and man in God This is our happie adherence to our chief good It is our first and greatest and chiefest good to abide in him Finally this unitie is seen in the order degrees and cession Order because all order is from one to one Degrees because there is an ascension of goodnesse to one God in whom all good things are most only one for truth wisedome power which we consider diversly and work divers affections and actions in us are all one in him and our straitnesse maketh him communicate them to us but partially as his knowledge to help our ignorance his wisedome to cure our folly his power our weaknesse Cession because everie good thing naturally yeeldeth to a better good as the body yeelds to the soul the senses to reason c. Hereof we may learn first that happinesse is not in many things The multitude think otherwise for they are led by sense and must have their eye filled with a multitude of things riches honour wealth and these increased and multiplied are their choice Many things import not perfection but weaknesse and the necessitie of their number proveth the infirmitie of their worth If one sufficed there were no need of moe but when a number serveth not necessitie all are proven to be weak They feel a bodily and present necessitie but not a spirituall and therefore seek a sufficient supply of some bodily thing but cannot finde it As a man falling in water grippeth sticks or straw that swim beside him for help but he and all go to the ground together and as a man in fever changeth many places to finde rest but in stead of rest increaseth restlesnesse So every one that seeketh happines in other things beside God findeth nought but an increase of miserie Besides these things bring not contentment but rather with their increase augment their desire The skin of a boy is sound but when he commeth to age it is full of wrinkles crying for more flesh and bones So in the infancie of our lot we are most content but in its greatnesse and old age our inflamed desires cry with the horse-leach Give give This is their painfull abundance and abundant povertie while they seek one thing after another and nothing remaineth but in end they conquish vanitie of vanities Many have been better content when they had but one attendant than when they are thronged with a great train and some have thought themselves richer with a small estate than when it is multiplied an hundred fold The love of money groweth ever with money Gods blessings are good indeed yet none of them the chief good they are but as pettie goods and a small shadow of the true good and as a drop of water out of that great fountain and ocean God himself They go on their kindes degrees and numbers but God hath none of these he is his own number and his own measure he only is and calleth himself by the name I am and to be to live and to live happily are not divers things because he is his own blessednesse To close this first point our dutie is to take God for this one thing that he be most in our minde to know him most in our heart to love him most in our mouth to honour and most in our life to obey and imitate him that as bees hyve upon a branch so all the powers of our soul adhere unto him So the prophet glorieth in it The Lord is my portion for God is the summe of all our good he is our chief good We ought not run down-ward neither forward to seek another for the one is dangerous the other wicked If we seek any thing beside God we will lose him for
smiteth my heart without hurt so that I both tremble and burne I tremble in so farre I am unlike him I burne in so farre I am like unto him This sight terrifieth not but comforteth It is the sight of a reconciled God by a reconciled man the matter of his presence here and of our heaven on earth There is no light clearer than this when truth shineth in the minde and the minde in truth seeth God and it selâ—e Herein appeareth the Prophets happinesse that seeking out happinesse and knowing what it is and where it is to be found he resteth not there till hee apply it to himselfe Happinesse may ever bee happinesse and wee remaine miserable if wee have no part in it God is happinesse in himselfe without us and wee are miserie in our selves without him therefore we must be in him that we may be happie And this is by application when as wee know hee is chiefe good so wee are perswaded that hee is our chiefe good and happinesse This is the proper worke of faith in her double perswasion The one direct and outgoing to the truth and things themselves The other reflecting and turning home to us by the work of our conscience in the assurance that wee beleeve and that these things are ours by faith Papists are here blame-worthie who cut the throate of the sweetest Christian consolation for what availeth it to hear that God is good that happinesse is in him if wee dare not and may not apply it to our selves And this is the end of Gods dispensation of the Gospel for he revealeth to us that we may know and the first end of knowledge is application It is also the end of the efficacie of the Spirit joyned with the word not to open our minds onely to know but also to apply to us And shall we think that the blessings of the Gospel are set before us only to looke to without application It is the food of our soule and must be eaten The cloathes of our soule and must be put on The physick of our soul and must be applied So is Christ to us The Apostle is not content to say that Christ came in the world to save sinners but subjoyneth of whom I am the chief And more clearly Henceforth I live not but Christ liveth in me and the life that I live I live by the faith of the Sonne of God who loved mee and gave himselfe for me Ancient Creeds content themselves more to expresse things to be beleeved because of the debates of hereticks in the matter of doctrine than to declare the way how to beleeve and yet this particular application may be found in them for as we beleeve the spirituall patrimonie of the Church in the remission of sinnes the glorious resurrection of the body and life eternall is it onely to know that there is such a treasure in the Church without application to our selves Or is an heire so simple as to content himself to know that his father hath an heritage and is not at all perswaded that it pertaineth to him Faith acteth a personall act and as the root of it is personall in the habit so the fruit of it must be personall in the application of consolation Gods work is particular to his own he chooseth them by name he calleth them by name as he called Come down Zacheus Hee casteth them down by the law personally why should not the application of the grace of the Gospel bee personall also The nature and work of conscience proveth the same for it is a withknowledge in our breast and all the actions of it are particular ending in our person And it contenteth not it self generally to say We are sinners but choppeth us in a particular branch of a particular Law and that in a particular kinde of sinne in a particular degree So it maketh us as particularly to apply the promise of the Gospel under conscience of repentance as it applieth wrath under conscience of sinne And Christ commendeth the wiseman not for finding of the pearle but for buying of it nor for knowing of the field where the treasure was but for the possession of the treasure Where this application is not there is nothing but doubting concerning the promise Probably they hold them as generall in the conscience of sinne as they are in the promises of grace and content themselves slenderly to thinke they are sinners without any feeling of particular sinnes Thus they delight to shuffâ—e themselves up in generall both in miserie and happinesse and not to come to particular application of either Gods children call him Abba Father for the divine nature in them the sense of their filiation and the testimonie of the Spirit of adoption maketh them to doe so but the want of these things make bastards and slaves to stand aloofe from him and not to thinke or speake warmely of him whom they know not to be their Father None hath this sight in the sanctuarie but the spirituall man For he only hath the heavenly light infused in him which is as necessary as the externall light in the eye for bodily things For the minde and not the eye is created to behold that greatest beautie of God And they live the better and more highly the more perfectly they behold him The naturall man percieveth it not but thinketh it a phantasie that is spoken of it They see not God but men and the actions they see are both base and a burthen to them The Philosophers called Paul a Babler because his doctrine was not in a Philosophick forme and Festus said that much learning made him mad so the naturall man conceiveth not the things of God because they are spiritually discerned None conceiveth these things but he that is wise spiritually for the world cannot receive the Spirit because it seeth him not But the spirituall man discerneth all he seeth the glorie of God in his sanctuarie discerneth the spiritualitie of doctrine feeleth the power of the spirit and so wisedome contemned of fooles is justified of her owne children Hee who feeleth not the sweet smell of the spouse and runneth not is either dead or rotten Let us then strive to see God This sight shall be our happinesse in heaven and the godly are desirous of it in this life for they will see nothing more desireable and can see nothing more dilectable Moses desired to see his glory but was refused and saw only his way Esay saw him symbolically or significatively And though he datted the Patriarchs by the familiaritie of his divine presence yet they saw not himselfe but some thing of him For these Fathers saw him not as he was And that because to see him as he is is to be as he is but wee have that much sight of him in Christ as to save us for he that seeth me seeth the
Father also To have this sight we must be pure in heart blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God For God sheweth not himselfe to the uncleane We get this puritie by renovation and being defiled by sinne we purge our hearts from every evill conscience by repentance thereby wee both may and dare draw neere to the throne of grace in Christ and looke on God without whom he is a consuming fire The wicked never have this sight they shall see him in the signe of his power but never in his glorious forme Neither have all the godly it alike Neither any one godly man hath it alike at all times Of fruition of God THe second thing is Fruition the fruit of the former sight and the reall possession of the chiefe good and so our happinesse in it This no tongue can teach but grace and they who have it cannot satisfie themselves in explication of it for it is better felt than described Yet we may call it with some a possessing of God or to have him readie at hand But we shall consider in it two affections especially Love and joy The first is our inloving the other our injoying of him and they go together and carrie our soules with them on a good present and possessed Love uniteth us to God and turneth all our affections to it and with it to him It is both the contract and embracements of Christ it is our worthinesse and our reward Our merit because he loveth that his owne gift in us and our reward because so he followeth his former mercies in us It is most pleasant to our selves because it maketh the soule to rest sweetly on a present and eternall good Even the desire of a good to come hath the anxietie of delay but love hath it present It layeth not a part of the heart on God but all for that is his due Love the Lord with all thy heart neither will the heart rightly affected with him divide it selfe but seeing and feeling his goodnesse as he draweth so it yeeldeth wholly to him and desireth to be out of it selfe that it may be in him Love is that only motion or affection whereby we dare give God a meeting If hee be angrie wee dare not be angrie at him but tremble and repent If he rebuke we dare not rebuke him but deprecat his wrath If he judge us wee dare not judge him but justifie him in his judgements If he command we dare not command him but in all humilitie obey him But it is contrary in love for when God loveth us he seeketh that meeting to be loved againe for he loveth us that we may love him The second part of this fruition is joy when the soule overjoyed with God rejoyceth in him It floweth from love for when God hath filled our heart with the infusion of his love and made it to powre it selfe on him by loving him with all our heart Of the sense of these two loves followeth a new infusion of joy whereby it rejoyceth that it is beloved of God and bestoweth it selfe in loving him Love is the worke of our soule in our dearest chiefe good about happinesse and joy is the fruit of that worke and the rest of our soule resting sweetly in the possession of him whom it loveth and they are both mutuall causes and equall Mutuall because the more we love God the more we rejoyce in him and the more wee rejoyce in him the more wee love him as the matter of our joy And they are equall because in that same measure we rejoyce in him in that same we love him This is a joy unspeakeable and glorious Unspeakable even of those that have it for if they presse to expresse it their words are lesse than their thoughts and their thoughts lesse than the sense of it and their sense lesse than it selfe And therefore their usuall expression is in secret with God to powre out their heart in that joy which they cannot expresse to man When God infuseth it the heart cannot comprehend it fully but is like a small vessell filled and overturned with a greater measure of liquor than it can containe but it turneth that overrunning on God and findeth that the best containing both of it and that joy is to be contained of God It is also a glorious joy or glorified because it is the first fruits and earnest of the joyes of heaven and all worldly joyes are as short of it as the smoak of flax to a great fire Hereby are cleared both the spirituall â—atietie and excesse Spirituall satietie is that heavenly drunkennesse or inebriation of grace wherewith God filleth his owne They shall be satiat or made drunke with the fatnesse of thy house This is not of wine as the Iewes blamed the Apostles neither of malice that Sathan powreth into the heart neither of worldly cares which come of the wilde grapes of humane condition but it is of drunkennesse of the wine of grace which floweth from the fulnesse of Christ and is put in new vessels This S. Peter granted for himself and the rest we are not drunk with wine as ye thinke but with a better liquor the graces of the Spirit that came downe abundantly on them And be not drunken with wine wherein is excesse but be fulfilled with the Spirit This is that satietie that commeth of the fat things of the hoâ—se of God and of the rivers of his pleasures or Paradise what are these fat things but the fatted calfe Jesus Christ who is daily crucified in the sanctuarie in the Gospell and that for Raritie Excellence and Sweetnesse Raritie because none but he Excellencie because none like him And Sweetnesse because he fully delighteth the soule which by the faith of his incarnation and passion c. applieth him to it selfe Here is Samsons riddle Out of the labourer came meat and out of the strong came sweetnesse Who laboured more than he who trode the winepresse of the Lord alone And who stronger than the Lion of the tribe of Judah And what sweeter than that hony-combe sticking in his bowels that is the fruit of his obedience for us springing of his incomparable love This made the Greek Church to call it a monster of love The wicked go by and search not his bowels for this honie but the godly take it out and eat it yea the wicked can lick the dew off the rock but cannot sucke the honie out of it but the godly by the mounds of the rock thrust their beleeving and loving hearts into his heart and are satiat with that love of the Father the Sonne and the Spirit which they finde there This is to be filled with marrow and fatnesse who receive largely of that unction to make us fat and flourishing in the body of Christ. Spirituall Excesse
Not fully because in their greatest fall they have both the Spirit and the seed of God in the habits of faith love c. albeit the worke of the Spirit and of these habits doe cease during the time of their impenitencie So David desireth the restoring of the joyes of salvation while in the meane time he craveth a retaining of the spirit That retaining imported that the spirit was still with him and that restoring imported his wonted joyes werâ— stayed Neither can they fall finally because thâ— Lord in his owne time raiseth them by repentance as Peter and David c. But Scripture and reason prove the same clearely I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will never turne away from them to doe them good but I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from mee So Christ telleth It is impossible that the elect can be seduced and the Apostle Peter telleth That we are preserved by the power of God to that heavenly inheritance so that God his preserving power maketh our perseverance And no man saith Christ shall pull my sheepe out of my hand And because they except slyly It is true that none can pull his sheep out of his hand yet what if the sheep depart from him of their owne will The Apostle meeteth That neither life nor death nor any creature shall separate us from his love If no creature then not we our selves since we are a creature And the new heart and the new spirit doe promise the contrarie If God be for us who is against us For none can hurt us but he that over commeth God and who can overcome the Almightie Reasons also taken from the persons of the Godhead prove the same For the Father delivereth us to the Sonne to be kept and presented blamelesse at the last day The Sonne committeth us to the Father and prayed for us that we perish not The Father and Sonne commit us to the Spirit to be led in our wayes who dwelleth in us and in our seale which cannot be broken But in our time God gave a fearefull document in this question For when one pressed to destroy the grace of perseverance God let him fall from such grace as he had to turne Papist and of a professour of divinitie to become a lecturer of humanitie Our late Libertines mock this doctrine They professe a perfection in this life and so deny the necessitie of a graduall increase They affirme that the justified man cannot sinne and that God neither seeth nor hateth sinne in them That they need not repent nor mourne for sinne nor incite themselves to the obedience of God That they need not pray but praise continually This is a refined extract of Sathan who as by the Pelagians he oppugneth grace by nature so in them he destroyeth it in the name of grace And under a conceit of singular grace maketh them singularly gracelesse They have carved to themselves an easie way to heaven by laughing and mirth whereas Gods best children find it a valley of teares But their pretended perfection is found to be a presumptuous colour of libertie to their flesh for they are knowne to be more licentious in their wayes than they who groan under the sense of their imperfections The last degree commeth at death Not that our happinesse is suspended till then for we are here preparing happines though we cannot possesse it till death Solons speach cannot abide an exact triall for wee are called to happinesse even in this life It is called a valley of miserie and craveth some solace by a begun happinesse And the scripture pronounceth in the present some men happie Blessed is he whose sinnes are forgiven And happinesse is here begun in us faith gripeth it in the promise hope waiteth on it in the fulnesse our desire longeth for it and the beginnings of it selfe begin our profession But after death all shall be perfected This was the weaknesse of the wisest Pagans when they had pleased themselves with their discourses of happinesse they could not indure the thoughts of death but called it of fearfull things the most fearefull They trembled at that where they should finde most comfort and their thoughts of eternitie were as confused as their doctrine of happinesse was false And therefore could finde no comfort in their evanishing But the truth telleth us that at death we end the valley of miserie and enter in everlasting happinesse At death then our perfect happinesse beginneth and that in two First in removing all miserie or what ever imperfection The other in compleating happinesse in it selfe Our first miserie is sinne originall which God cutteth off by perfect sanctification In our effectuall calling that cutting off beginneth and goeth on by degrees till death when our last breath hath the last act of mortifying grace in the full abolishing of sinne Secondly the abolishing of all guiltinesse whatsoever that wee may be presented pure and blamelesse to him Thirdly wee shall be freed from all tempters and tentations Sathan shall molest us no more There shall be no need of an hedge to Job neither shall wicked men by their example pervert us or by their violence injure us neither shall a deceitfull heart deceive us any more Fourthly we shall be freed of all affliction we shall not desert God in sinne and he shall not desert us in his anger to punish us for sinne There shall be no more sorrow nor feare nor crying out because these first things shall be ended and God shall wipe away all teares from our eyes Lastly the mortalitie of this bodie shall end It is so fraile now that hardly can we fit it to serve us in actions naturall or spirituall and is a daily burthen to us to keepe it from sickenesse and inconvenients And when it is under them a greater burthen to make it free But when it shall be made a spirituall bodie these things shall cease Christs death hath killed death and his life is our life This is the consumption of the ills of our miserie Followeth the consummation of good things that perfecteth our happinesse and these are first the ceasing of the meanes of grace which are now necessary for the way then they shall end as having neither further worke nor use in us So prophesying shall cease and praying shall turne in praise On our part faith shall end in sight hope in fruition desire in delight and the beginnings themselves in their due perfection 2. All goodnes shall be perfected in us according to our measure our light perfect without ignorance or error our love perfect without slacking our will obsequious without rebellion our affections straight without perversenes and righteousnes holines in our last breath shal be accomplished and that last act of our regeneration shall bring forth the new man and send him in a