former and latter rain and now judge thou who art a party whether there hath any thing been wanting on Gods part to make thee happy but thou wilt needs dye not because thou lovest death but sin which is the cause of it And let us all remember that our worst enemy is within us Bern. Ipsi gestamus laqueum nobiscum circumferimus inimicum We carry a snare about with us our own enemy is within us We are beaten like Judah with our own staffe and manacled with our own bracelets yea with Saul we slay our selves with our own sword It 's a Serpent in our own bosome that stings us Inimici hominis sunt ejus domestici A mans foes are those of his own house He that dips with us in the dish is it that betrayes us Blame not Satan or his instruments these could not kill us but that this Traytour opens the doors their temptations else would fall like a spark of fire in the Sea much lesse let us murmur against God though he be the inflicting cause yet sin is the meritorious Take heed of this enemy so much the rather for it 's a potent and politick enemy being an old man that receives influence from the Devil it 's worse then the Devil who hath some natural goodnesse wisdome and power which in themselves are good though by him abused But in the flesh dwells no good thing it fills the whole man full of impiety as the mind with wicked thoughts making it like a dark filthy Dungeon full of Snakes and Adders destitute of heavenly light and heat the imaginations of it onely evil continually and if the best part be so what is the worst It 's a store-house or a common sewer of abominations fills the eye full of Adultery the countenance of wrath makes the throat an open sepulchre the tongue a world of wickednesse if a world in that little member how many worlds in this little world of ours fills the hand with extortion makes the feet swift to shed blood in a word all the Devils brats are warmed conceived and bred in that wombe it 's an enemy to all Spiritual undertakings what is wisdome to the Spirit is foolishnesse to the flesh what the one willeth the other nilleth what the one endeavours the other crosseth it breakes all Lawes both of God and man and makes unreasonable Lawes of its own of sin and death Rom. 7.23.8.2 Of sinne therefore dishonourable to live after them for it gives unreasonable command He that obeyeth hath Chams curse to be a servant of servants But the service is dangerous in that rewarded with such wages for the wages of sin is death worse then for a man to serve at the Gallies all day and be hanged at night Therefore of all enemies let us take most heed of our selves these lusts within us fight agaist us 1 Pet. 2.11 they hunt for the precious life and if we yeeld to them we dye He that soweth the wind shall reape the whirlwind If we sowe to the flesh we shall of the flesh reape corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reape life everlasting For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye by the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live But if ye by the Spirit The Conolation c. Now I am fallen on the second Proposition the Consolation Hitherto I have tyred your patience with a discourse of the works of darknesse and a sad narration of death the reward of such works give me leave now to entertain your ears with a more pleasing discourse of life and of the narrow way that leads thither If ye by the Spirit c. The flesh like a potent King domineers in a natural man and makes him yeeld obedience to it in the lusts thereof yea in a regenerate man it remains though weakned and wounded like the Canaanites if it cannot dwell in the City it will lodge in the subburbs though it raign not like a King it will rebel like a Traytor sometimes assaulting by open violence sometimes by secret ambushments and hidden stratagems undermining so that while he dwells in this tabernacle of flesh the flesh will continue in him his labour shall not end so long as his life doth continue while we live then we shall find work enough to keep under this rebel and to encourage us herein God hath given us such an help as will effect it his Spirit and propounded such a motive as may spur on the dullest Laodicean Ye shall live Here the Apostle doth these two things Divided 1. Proponit officium If ye c. 2. Promittit mercedem First the work then the wages first we must do the will of God then receive the promise first God must be glorified by us and then he will glorifie us the hardest that is first and that we must look to to mortifie the sweetest comes last and that God will care for Ye shall live In the first we note these particulars Subdivided 1. Octjectum deeds of the body 2. Actionem circa objectum Ye must mortifie the deeds of the body 3. Causas hujus acticnis principalem the Spirit minus principalem we First The deeds of the body what for the object about which mortification is conversant the deeds of the body Here we must explicate both the fountain and streams Some understand a metonymie in this word body so by it understand the natural body because sin is acted by the body Others understand it metaphorically of that old man and masse of corruption that is in every man called the body of sin Rom. 6.6 7.24 Col. 2.11 for as the body is a totum integrum consisting of many members so is sin Col. 3.4 the head of sin vain imaginations the heart of sin corrupt affections the tongue of sin rotten communication the forehead of sin impudent avouching the hands and feet of sinne wicked executions Again as the body hath its dimensions so hath sin it reacheth to heaven and burneth to the lowest hell is's of as great a latitude as Gods Commandments which are exceeding broad 3. As the body is knit together by joynts and ligaments so is sin If the foot of sin do but stirre the whole body moves as we see in the sin of Adam He that offends in one is guilty of all he sins against the general equity of the Law and righteousnesse of the Law-giver As the body compasseth us about so doth sin it 's peccatum circumstans that for the first by the body we mean the body of sin Secondly For the deeds of the body This old man though old yet is very stirring and operative When men grow old their apprehension is weak their memory dull the strong men bow the whole man is feeble but it is not so in the body of sin the older it is the more vigorous and lusty Nothing in the world so fruitful though these are but 〈◊〉
THE WAY To Life and Death LAID Down in a SERMON 1629. before the Lord Major of London then being By N. Waker M. A. late Minister of Jesus Christ at Lawndon in Buckinghamshire Now published for the reasonablenesse of the advice therein given touching the five Controverted points viz. Predestination general Redemption Freewill Conversion and Perseverance of the Saints Directing a safe way for the Practice of private Christians as confessed by the disputants on both sides The text Rom. 8.13 For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye c. LONDON Printed by J. L. for Phil. Stephens at the gilded Lyon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1655. TO The Reader WHat entertainment this sermon will find in the World I can easily foresee Some I hope it will both profit and delight If it displeaseth some others I have what I looked for To the pious charitable and ingenious it cannot I think be unacceptable sure I am unseasonable 't will never be so long as the world is so full of walkers after the flesh the sharpest reproof comes not amisse Of the Authour my near relation forbids me to expresse what I might justly make known to the world In the eyes of some he will be in dislike as being in their opinion too mild and moderate in the Controversies about Predestination General Redemption Perseverance c. Touching which Points he layeth down the Rules for Christian practice according to Godlinesse which are confessed to be so by the Disputants on both sides Live here we must as if infallibly chosen to life eternall and yet never cease to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure implore the speciall ayd and assistance of his holy Spirit who worketh in us both to will and do even all our works in us and for us not forgetting in the meantime to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling Further we have here a portraiture of LIFE and DEATH the life of the spiritual with the death of the carnal both of them pictured and set forth in most lively colours upon which is grounded a pious and patheticall Exhortation to fasting and mourning a duty as well now as then yea now if ever needful A Plat-form we have drawn to our hands by the Learned and most eminently holy Bishop HALL In a Book entituled The Holy Order and Fraternity of Mourners in Sion Let none be ashamed to follow so worthy a guide and have we not just cause our sins and Gods Judgments the confusion of our Land the ruines of a fair and flourishing Church will not all this open the flood gates of our teares yea let it at last till then there is no hope of mercy wring from us bitter cryes and lamentations Let us all with holy David set our faces unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes nor let us ever cease till our God at length overcome with our importunity shew mercy unto us bind up the wounds of this bleeding Island hear the prayers of those that stand in the Gap and be favourable unto us All which that he would for his Sons sake hear and grant is the uncessant prayer of him who professeth himself one of that Holy Fraternity of Spirituall Mourners Even yours in the Common Saviour John Waker THE Way to Life and Death Rom. 8.13 For 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 THis whole Universe may not unfitly be divided into three principall Kingdomes The Preface or introduction the first in Heaven where God reigneth the second in hell where Beelzebub domineereth and the third on Earth which God hath given to the children of men In the first is nothing but holinesse and happinesse in the second nothing but sin and misery in the third a mixture of all in the first is light without darknesse in the second darknesse without light in the third both light and darknesse In the first are Angels and the spirits of just men made perfect in glory and blisse in the second the Devil and his angels tormented in flames and here are men of a middle condition placed on earth for the tryal of their obedience and accordingly as they shall demean themselves in this world so shall their doom be hereafter either to live with God who is the fountain of life or dye that second death with the damned spirits Here then we are in a center from hence are drawen two long lines the one reaching to heaven the other to hell in this world God hath shewed us the way of both the one that we might avoid it the other that we might walk in it nay he hath given us a taste of both of hell in the miseries of the world of heaven in the comforts of it of this that we might long for the fruition of the harvest of that that so we might ever take heed how we come into that place of torment So then there are but two conditions after this life the one of joy the other of torment the one of life the other of death and there are but two estates of life in this world as meanes tending thereunto one evil another good some live after the flesh and some after the Spirit and they that live after the flesh shall dye but they that by the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body shall live So that here the Apostle describes two contrary waies and two contrary ends unto which they lead the first is the broad way that leadeth to destruction a way of pleasure but it endeth in woe The voluptuous man now fares deliciously anon cannot get a drop of water now cloathed in fcarlet anon tormented in flames now accompanied with Nobles anon haled by devils the other sowes in teares but reaps in joy now full of sores with Lazarus anon with him full of pleasures now among the dogs anon among Angels now on the dung-hill anon in Abrahams bosome verè stupendae vices the former of these wayes is through the fairest street in the City but it leads to the place of execution the other through a narrow dirty Lane but it brings to the Kings Palace where is prepared a costly banquet the first is a way pleasing to flesh and blood strewed with Roses over flowery meadows having all the delights that nature or art can afford but it leads at last to the dead Sea it tends to the chambers of death the other is beset with briars and thornes haunted with wild beasts theeves and robbers over craggy Rocks and steep Mountaines where if a man cannot find a way for few tread that path he must make it as he did over the Alpes but this way leads to the new Jerusalem to the Celestial Paradise Non quà sed quò must be the wise mans quaery not which way we go but whither so that here you have our Saviours
him obtained it may be but never to its worth valued and esteemed And elsewhere Facilius possumus dicere quid ibi non sit quam quid sit non est ibi mors non est luctus c. We can more easily say what there is not there then what there is there is no death no mourning c. Let us labour to walke in the way then we shall experimentally feel it and then even laugh at our scanty expressions when the soule being filled with admiration shall cry out How full of glory art thou O Lord and this heavenly Paradise of thine I have heard of thee by thy Prophets and Apostles but the one halfe hath not been resolved Oh blessed is the man that heareth thy wisdome seeth and enjoyeth thy glory But by the way note here that life is referred to mortification not as the proper cause He that lives after the flesh shall dye by his own merit but he that lives after the Spirit shall live by Gods mercy and the merit of Christ for he that lives after the flesh acts by a principle of his own but he that by the Spirit from an hgher principle and that imperfectly So Rom. 6. ult the Apostle sheweth death is an effect of sin life a consequent of righteousnesse in a different manner death followeth sin as a just reward of it as a debt The wages of sin is death but righteousnesse produceth life as a consequent not of debt but of grace The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord that as he attributes nothing to man in the latter so he wholly cleareth God in the former But ever remember what the good Father saith Acquiri potest aestimari non potest It may be gotten but cannot be valued It 's possible for to attaine it but it will cost thee deare thou must enter in through many tribulations Vnicus qui introivit sine peccato non exivit sine flagello thou must deny the world and be crucified to that hate father mother life thine own life but that is not all thou must mortifie the deeds of the body Now if any desire to enter into life I must first aske him whether he can drinke of this cup and be baptized with this Baptisme he must mortifie this body this old man corruption is strong for it 's a man politique for an old man a man that is naturalized in us and pleads prescription The old man with all his members pull out the right eye cut off the right hand teare and reâ—t the heart asunder crowne the head with thornes pierce the hands feet with nailes and the side with a speare the face must be spit upon buffetted The body and all the deeds of it Put off the old man with his deeds Col. 3. and here mortifie the deeds of the body and the deeds of the body are manifest Never tell me of a good heart if the actions are naught as the understanding blind the will obstinate the affections disordered the life dissolute this man is out of the way to life What! a good Christian and a drunkard a swearer a scoffer at the good wayes of God It 's impossible Is the tree good that is fruitlesse Do you call that a good ground that bears nothing but briars and brambles The body with the deeds all the deeds must be mortified Away then with that sweet morsel under the tongue if thou willingly entertaine but one sin constantly suppose contemplative adultery thou art an unmortified man Againe these must be mortified not trifle or deale more gently with them pull up these weeds by the very roots therefore it must be with paine and shame and constant for it is an act of the whole life prescribed here to the Romans so to the Colossians It may be their acquaintance will reproach thee and thy best friends forsake thee And all this we must do in our persons not buy it out or do it by our deputies we by the Spirit and there is no other way but this to life Nor do I make the way straiter or the gate narrower then Christ and his Apostles have done Nor do I here dishearten any but require them sedulously to set about the worke better know it now then hereafter when it is too late Eternall life is the gift of God that the Scripture shews and reason manifests that it is in the power of the donor to prescribe what conditions he will to the receiver but the wretchednesse of the world is such they desire the blessing without the condition like Ruths kinsman that would have the land without the woman like that man in the Gospel would have eternal life but the condition is too strict therefore go a way sorrowful Thus how contrary are we to our selves how unreasonable to God In the former we would do the work but not have wages live after the flesh but not die and in the latter we will not do the labour yet hope for the reward as Balaam will follow the wages of iniquity yet die the death of the righteous But if we do the one the other will follow And surely had we made our own termes how could we in modesty have made them more easie God could do no lesse then demonstrate his purity love of vertue hatred of sin God delights not to make us sad without cause Certainly he cannot require any thing lesse then mortification without the impeachment of his honour therefore we cannot perform lesse without the endangering of our happinesse So then I must tell our debauched sinners Vse For Repr that suffer all manner of abominations to raign not to be named among Christians and are so far from crucifying them that they harbour and keep them close extenuate defend them are careful to satisfy their lusts and blow them up to a greater flame that will be ready to give the stab to those that crosse and contradict them in their waies there is a thing in Religion called Mortifying the deeds of the body which they were never acquainted withal without which there is no life I must tell our plausible Atheists that are enemies to the power of godlinesse that have no grace and vertue but what was born and bred with them it is not their plausible carriage will do it there is a mortifying crucifying watching fasting striving denying thy self or no entrance into life I must tell our carelesse procrastinators of repentance It 's not enough to dislike sin and so let it alone in time to dye it self and therefore they will not task themselves with such an unpleasing torment but you must mortifie it The filthy adulterer resolves when he hath no more marrow in his bones nor vigour in his body to leave his adultery the drunkard his company when his patrimony is spent the oppressour his extortion when his covetousnesse is satiated Sinne though it be left in regard of the outward act yet in this case it is not mortified
some say that either know not what they speak or will not know But howsoever it is in the Theory unlesse I much mistake both sides meet in the Practice If any man should aske me concerning the decree of election and reprobation Predestination here is a counterpane of it in my text I will not say this is Gods whole decree I dare say no secret decree contradicts it We need not climbe up into heaven then to see whether God smile or frowne nor wrest open his Cabinet to see what secrets are there Things revealed belong to us if our names be written here then infallibly are they there If we finde them not here certainely they are not there I say then leave disputing about election and labour to make your calling and election sure Begin at the bottome of the ladder and adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance c. Thus our Saviour stifles such a controversie Master shall many be saved Strive to enter in at the strait gate But what shall this man do Follow thou me Let no man comfort himselfe with any illusion or affright himselfe with any fatall destiny If ye live after c. This is Gods Word and by this we must be judged at the last day For the second Controversie Whether Redemption be universal I say to that man Though Christ died for all men as one side affirm yet if thou live after the flesh thou shalt dye notwithstanding the purchase of so precious a redemption sufficient in it self though not effectual unto thee through thine own perversenesse or if but for some few as the other side affirm if thou mortify the deeds of the body thou art one that shall surely live For the third and fourth The manner of receiving grace the manner of receiving grace One side say it doth infallibly and necessarily work at such a time and not before the other that through our perversenesse we may turn the grace of God into wantonnesse Both agree in this that a man may be saved grace must be received and improved The Spirit is the principal cause but we must co-operate We are not able of our selves to think a good thought our sufficiency is from him Hence St. Paul I live yet that he might not seem to usurp any of the honour checks himself yet not I. So we say We must mortify yet not we but the Spirit not we as the principal cause but the Spirit not the Spirit as the solitary cause but we by the Spirit let us look to it that the work be done and then we shall not miscarry For the last which is perseverance one side saith we shall infalliblly stand Perseverance and as possible for Christ to fall out of heaven as a Saint from Christ the other side that God will not forsake us unlesse we forsake him and gives us grace sufficient that we may not fall but doth not so infallibly hold us up but we may fall Both sides affirm perseverance to be necessary unto life and the conscionable use of means to perseverance Take heed then that there be not in any of you at any time an evil heart of unbelief to depart from the living God and that this may never befal thee put on the whole armour of God that thou mayest stand in the evil day Thus the Prophet Ezek. 18. justifies God in his proceedings and makes the people wary So the Apostle writing here to Saints and if any of you whom in charity I judge to be converted would hear any thing from me concerning perseverance I will answer you in the words of my text If ye live after c. Thus if a man in a modest humility receive the known truth in the love of it and so love it as to practise it his end shall certainly be blessed And now behold Deut. 30.15 The Conclusion this day I have set before you life and death good and evil blessing and cursing There are but two estates in this life and two after proportionably Some here walk after the flesh but they shall dye the delight is present but momentany the pain is future but eternal some here by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body and they shall live hereaftes The task here is sharp and present but momentany the reward future but glorious and eternal Were it not for that which followes Ye shall dye it were a brave thing to live after the flesh were it not for that which followes Ye shall live nothing more tedious then to mortify the deeds of the body Wisdome now will soon deride the controversie and pitch upon her choice and inheritance so glorious so durable though it be future and the entrance so difficult is to be preferred to a life of sinne though it had in it never so much pleasure or profit being momentany and seconded with eternal wo. It 's the fools voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Give me to day take to morrow to thy self But if notwithstanding what hath been said he shall still walk in the waies of his own heart all the curses in Gods book shall fall on him God will blot out his name from under heaven and in heaven out of the book of life so that in no place he shall be found but in hell But every man here seems to choose life in that he comes to hear that Gospel which is the Word of life Oh they make it not the savor of death to death Labour then by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body so shall you live many Halcion daies here upon earth and when you dye the Angels shall carry your soules into Paradise while your bodies repose themselves in their graves as a bed of down till the Lord of Glory shall return to judg both quick and dead where the body being raised and reunited to the soul both soul and body shall live in the perpetual vision and fruition of God To which glory he for his mercy bring us who hath so dearly bought us even Jesus Christ the Author and finisher of our faith To whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit be ascribed all honour glory praise thanksgiving and obedience from this time forth and for evermore FINIS
two men in the field two women grinding the one taken the other left you have his broad way that leadeth to destruction the way of the flesh and many there be that walk that way the other the narrow way that leads to life to mortifie the deeds of the body and few there be that find it For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye c. Which words to avoid needlesse curiosity admit of a threefold consideration The words variously considered 1. We may consider them absolutely and so they contain two conditional Propositions 1 Absolutely the one a Commination If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye the second a Consolation If ye by the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 2. We may note them in their antithesis or opposition 2 In their antithesis Though the wicked be destroyed yet it shall go well with the righteous intimated in the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but and though the wicked perish as dung yee it shall go well with the righteous and contrà there is and ever will be an opposition 3. In their coherence intimated in the illation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which briefly lyeth thus 3 In their coherence There are two things which molest a Christian that is justified the reliques of sin which he thinks cannot stand with Justification and Sanctification and the afflictions of this life which seem repugnant both to the mercy and Justice of God The Apostle in this Chapter prescribeth an antidote for both giveth both comfort and counsel for afflictions the comfort is that they shall work our good here augment our glory hereafter and the counsel inferred therefore to be patient under them and make good use of them for sin though it do remain yet it shall not condemn unlesse it raign that is the comfort and his counsel and therefore let it not raign but mortifie it and in this verse he layes down a twofold Argument to incite Christians to embrace that counsel For if ye live after the flesh c. The first is taken from the pernicious consequent of a carnal life the second from a sweet effect of a spiritual For if ye live after the flesh c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. First then to handle the words absolutely as two distinct conditional Propositions 1 Absolutely considered and 〈…〉 two parts a Comminâ—tâ—on and Câ—nâ—olâ—tion If ye live c. and here perversum aliquid videtur docere divinus sermo Strange paradoxes to some Nicodemus divine riddles like that of Sampson If we laugh now we must weep hereafter but if we sowe in teares we shall reap in joy the way to death is to live in pleasure the way to life is here to dye He that will save the life of his sin shall lose the life of his soul but he that mortifies himself his most beloved self he shall live for ever In the Commination 1. Proponit modum culpae he layes down the kind of sin to live after the flesh 2. Ostendit stipendium miseriae he declares the horrour of their punishment Moriemini Ye shall dye In the Consolation 1. Proponit officium he prescribes a duty that is by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body 2. Promittit mercedem he promiseth a reward Ye shall live And first to begin with the Commination where are laid down two estates of the wicked the one present 1 Th 〈…〉 mmination the other future the one of pleasure the other of pain neither of which the Apostle directly chargeth on the Romans but shews that by admitting the former voluntarily they involuntarily plunge themselves into the latter If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye where is the description of the disposition and condition hereafter of every Epicure yea every unregenerate man like that prodigal he receives his portion from his father he feeds his eye his ear his palate but with him never returnes to his father any more but rather like the rich glutton he goes clad in purple and Scarlet and fares deliciously every day but at last he dies and that death is but the beginning of death when his friends leave him the fiends take him and carry him to the place of torment But before we can improve this for your spiritual advantage we must explicate the two things propounded what the sinne is and what the punishment The sinne is to live after the flesh where two things offer themselves to our view 1. The rule though a crooked one that is the flesh 2. The conformity to this rule which is nothing but irregularity to live after the flesh of which briefly First for the rule The flesh and the Spirit are two captaines under whose banners all men in this world are combatants these have divers lawes and weapons constant and continual opposition and a several reward As for unregenerate men they have the flesh for their guide now what this flesh is you shall see Sometimes it is taken for a substance so it 1. Signifieth the nature of man or all mankind Flesh what it signifieth Gen. 6.12 All flesh had corrupted his way in this sense it is no enemy nor must we Timon-like be haters of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or for humane nature Is 40.6 sometimes more strictly it signifieth the body as opposed to the soul 2 Cor. 7.1 in this sense we must not proclaim enmity against our selves nor like those foolish Baalites hate or hurt our own flesh or most strictly for that solid and similary part of the body contradistinguished to the blood bones nerves and sine wes Psal 79.2 the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the earth It is inhumane and barbarons for another to abuse this but unnatural for a man to do it himself therefore this is not the meaning 2. It 's sometimes taken accidentally sometimes in the better part Ezek. 11.19 2 Cor. 3. more usually in the worse so it Signifieth the frailty of humane nature an effect of sin 1 Cor. 15.50 in this sense Christians are in the flesh 2 Cor. 10.2 3 4. in this sense it is no potent enemy but a weak friend not to be opposed with weapons but comforted with cordials or most usually for sinne which is the cause of this frailty that Leprosie which overspreads the whole nature mind will memory senses affections body and all disabling a man from that which is truly and savingly good and inclining him to every thing that is evil the unhappy off-spring of our first Parents the mother and nurse of all those vipers that daily breed in our own bosomes and that hereditary disease which we derive unto all our posterity By the way we must note that not the body alone as the Manichees dreamed or the inferiour faculties onely as our adversaries of Rome some of them suppose are termed flesh for we read of a mind that is carnal Rom. 8. the purest part
of the soul yea the quintessence of that part the intellectus agens as some will have it the Spirit of the mind as the Apostle calls it Rom. 12.1 that must be renewed therefore it signifieth that sinful disposition that is in the whole man Therefore you must not here with the Manichees accuse the nature of the flesh for he which praiseth the nature of the soul as the chiefest good and accuseth the nature of the flesh as an evil thing loves the soul carnally and carnally flies the flesh St. August Lib. 14. de civit Dei cap. 5. Nam qui velut summum bonum laudat animae naturam et tanqùam malum naturam carnis accusat profecto animam carnaliter appetit et carnem carnaliter fugit and as he saith elsewhere The flesh is not naturally repugnant to reason but as vicious Caro non repugnat naturaliter rationi sed ex vitio and again The corruptible flesh makes not the soul sinful but the sinful soul makes the flesh corruptible Caro corruptibilis non facit animam peceatricem sed anima peccatrix fecit esse corruptibilem carnem Now sin is called by the name of flesh Sin why called flesh rather then any other part of man it may be to cast ignominy upon sin because this is one of the grossest parts where is most earth that is predominant the basest element to shew the dissimilitude and distance betwixt corruption and the Spirit he denominates it from that substance which is most unlike the Spirit or because many motions of it arise from the flesh are fomented by the flesh and tend to the pleasing of the flesh and acted and perfected by the flesh the flesh is that oft-times which offers the bait to the soul as the stomach or spleen being troubled with oppilation send fumes to the brain or to shew how near corruption is unto us as it were incorporated nay transformed into us and we into it and so much the more dangerous because it is a viper bred in our own flesh and harboured in our own bosome or because the soul in committing of sin doth give over it self to fleshly delights The soul while and when it still hankereth after fleshly things is called flesh Anima verò dum carnalia bona adhuc appetit caro nominatur and so in the perpetrating of sinne the soul is made subject to the flesh and as it were transformed into flesh St. Aug. renders another Ser. 48. de verbis Domini because flesh was a sacrifice for sinne as Christ that knew no sin is said to be made sin that is a sacrifice for sin whether in some or in all these regards sin is called by the nameof flesh I will not further dispute You see what is meant by this name and thereason of the denomination And so much for the rule the flesh I come now to the conformity of this rule What it is to live after the flesh which is indeed meer deformity which is to live after the flesh it is called a life though indeed he that thus lives is dead while he lives and because flesh as we heard is diffused thorow the whole man we wil consider it both in soul and body what it is to live after the flesh In the mind and understanding to walk according to the flesh is to give consent to fleshly desires In the mind and understanding Secundum carnem ambulare est carnalibus concupiscentiis consentire Aug. When the fancy runs in a muze of sinfull objects with delight and takes thought for the flesh to fulfil it in the lusts of it to search out mysteries of iniquity and prove wise to do evil that in their judgement esteem a sinful life to be happy and account it wisdome with profane Esau to sell their eternal birth-right to purchase this messe of pottage There are in the mind of man a world of false principles to harbour these and to live after them is to live after the flesh The flesh is sometimes a Devil to it self sometimes provoked by the Devil his instruments and outward objects as these and the like are the fleshes Creed That Religion is but a matter of policy or a bare profession of it serves the turn or some Ceremonies and formalities or to rest in some duties or avoid some sins that it is lawful to commit smaller sins to avoid great or imminent danger that it is too much precisenesse to make conscience of smaller sins it is no sin to abuse liberty in things indifferent to extenuate or hide sin that we may deferre our repentance because God is merciful it perswades that Christian duties are tedious and not necessary therefore not to do them at all or else not presently or else not constantly or else unseasonably igrantly or heartlessely or else to rest in the work done and grow proud of it In holy Scripture there is a kind of wisdome attributed to the flesh called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some translate it prudence prudentiam others understanding intelligentiam others affection or desire affectum others sense sensum Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a habit of acting according to right reason in all things that are good or evil to man est habitus agendi secundum rectam rationem circa universa bona vel mala homini but this is carnal wisdome and our Saviour speaks of some that in their generation are wiser 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they do meditate on earthly things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chuse according to the flesh the world rather then grace or heaven fly the smoke and fall into the fire chuse sin rather then labour or sorrow get earthly things rathen heavenly carnal rather then Spiritual temporal rather then eternal This is foolishnesse with God and they live after the flesh that hearken to this counsel In the will they live according to the slesh In the will and affections that are ruled by that perverse enmity which it bears to God and his Law in the memory that make it a treasurie of wickednesse in their affections that set them upon wrong objects or inordinately and immoderately on the right that love sinful delights constantly if they are absent desire them and greeve for them if present rejoyce and delight in them In their lives and actions In natural actions men live after the flesh that eat drink sleep c. not for necessity but to satisfie lust unseasonably immoderately thus in natural actions So St. Aug. De docu Salut He lives according to the flesh who so lives according to himself c. Secundum carnem vivit qui secundum seipsum vivit pergit quò vult dormit quando vult quamdiu vult loquitur quae vult cui vult manducat bibit quando vult quantum vult ridet jocundatur turpiter inter quos vult quando vult postremò quicquid naribus suave est quaerit quicquid tactui
and glory in your shame you that are perfidious to God and man forgetting your Marriage-vow as if your lust were asleep rouze it up and foment it with lascivious pictures scurrilous talk filthy Poems pictures Stage-playes the seminaries of filthinesse you that are wise to do evil and invent prodigious wayes to satisfie your lusts Strange punishments shall be for such workers of iniquity Remember Absalom that defiled his fathers Concubines Heaven would not receive such a miscreant nor the earth bear him he was hang'd betwixt both Remember Sodom and Gomorrah that burned in unnatural lusts God sent fire from heaven to consume them But if they escape that a worse is preparing it will be at the last bitter as wormwood sharper then a two-edged sword Remember this ye haughty persons that speak swelling words of vanity that wear Lord-ships on your backs that spend so much time in trimming up that house of clay you men that are so effeminate and women that are grown Monsters wearing apparel against shamefastnesse utility and decency you in whom nor Magistrate nor Minister can work any reformation but make idols of your selves take heed God send not a rent instead of a girdle and baldnesse instead of your borrowed powdered brayded hair Take heed God do not send an enemy to pull off your ridiculous apparel and discover your shame to your reproach but if you escape here you shall be sure to smart for it hereafter Remember this ye rich men you that go clothed in purple and scarlet and fare deliciously every day It 's impossible for those that live after the flesh to enter into heaven it s very difficult for a rich man not to live after the flesh You may not do with your own what you will not be proud of your own cloathes nor play the gluttons with your own food nor be drunk with your own wine nor lascivious with your own wives Ere long God will pose yon with these two Quaeries How you came by your wealth and I will not bid you rememmember how much you have hoarded up by sacriledge by oppression and cousenage the second How you have imployed it in good chear in brave apparel so much for the satisfying of my voluptuous pleasure scarce any for the glory of God in heaven and poor Lazarus on earth Your account will be woful you stand in slippery places therefore by how much wealth encreaseth by so much had you need to be more watchful Oh remember this all ye that forget God lest he teare you in pieces when there is none to deliver Let no man deceive you with vain words for these things sake the wrath of God comes upon the childaen of disobedience but if nothing will reclaim you if you will not fear it you must feel it Go on then thou debauched sinner let loose the reines to all licentiousnesse please the flesh in all sensuality eat drink and be merry account our words as wind and death and torment as some Poetical fiction cloath thy self in purple and scarlet and fare deliciously every day let the poor dye for want of thy superfluities prefer thy dogs before poor Lazarus live like an Epicure like a beast like a devil but remember that destruction will overtake thee as a whirlwind unsatisfied hell will ere long send pale death as an inexorable Sergeant to arrest thee and thou shalt be cast into prison and not come thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing Time will come when having irrecoverably lost the blessing with Esau thou wilt howl and say Blesse me even me also but there shall be no place for repentance As a man that seeth a costly feast when he himself is pined thou shalt see Abraham Isaac and Jacob set down at Gods Table then shalt thou think There is such a one whom I once scorned now he is comforted I am tormented Ah wretch that I am I was invited as well as he Alas how much precious time have I now mis-spent wherein I might have gained much to mine own soul how many admonitions have I contemned and now it 's irrecoverably come upon me How ost hath Christ opened his wounds to heal me stretched out his arms to receive me intreated me not to grieve his Spirit nor to crucifie him afresh With what earnest sollicitations hath he wooed me to be reconciled but I would not Oh what doth it profit me now that I have been cloathed in purple and scarlet c. How much better had it been for me to have been the very off-scouring of the world a worm and no man yea better for me that I had never been or might yet at the last cease to be but all this is now justly come upon me because I would not hear my Saviour and his messengers nor pity mine own soul but while I was seeking my venison have lost my blessing But if all this will not avail to dehort men from living after the flesh give me leave to turn my speech to you Reverend Sages whom under his Majesty God hath placed at our stern Let it be your care to revive those gasping Lawes constituted against swearing and surfeiting and drunkennesse c. not onely for the punishing but for the preventing of this latter for this purpose remember your oaths do not play with the Evangelists as it is the fault of too many else you through your neglect may bring ruine to the Land and the blood of these men upon your heads Impunitas ausum parit ausus excessum so the sin will be ultimately terminated in you and principally let your lives be exemplary reform your families let not your Cellars be turned into Ale-houses nor your houses shops for the devil Tophet is enlarged for such that live after the flesh and by their example draw others And you that have the Ecclesiastical power Oh improve it to Gods glory and for his sake quicken discipline against these walkers after the flesh If they will needs die pull them by violence out of the fire Let not the sword rust in the sheath or if you do draw it think it not enough to flourish it and if you will strike lay on upon these walkers after the flesh Oh give not Church-Wardens cause to complain that they still present but can see no reformation nor the delinquent to boast that they can escape with a ten groats see nor the soules of these men to complain hereafter that if the flesh had been punished the spirit had been saved in the day of Christ Let Ministers preach and people pray and Magistrates punish and delinquents reform and all mourn lest our patient God for our transcendent abominations cause our Land to spue out her Inhabitants But if none of these will perswade then let those that live after the flesh know that their destruction is from themselves God hath gathered the stones out of the vineyard by his preventing grace fenced thee about given thee the sweet influence of his grace the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfruitful works Of Elements none so fruitful as water stinking puddles bring forth most troops of vermine Some grounds yield two crops every year some trees bear fruit twice this all the year some creatures breed every moneth this every moment and these brats are even conceived and born at once How many kinds are there of sins and how many millions of each kind Gal. 5.21 There is some of the progeny it is progenies viperarum all those irregular thoughts affections words and actions that passe from a man come from hence Now this body hath its activenesse from the parents the father is the devil a compasser the soul the mother in perpetual motion and agitation Now his own will enticeth him to these deeds and he that is wilfully bent upon a thing who can stay him The Devil continually spurs him on and he must needs go whom the Devil drives he is further provoked by the world by the men of the world their perswasion as Solomon their threats as Nebuchadnezzar their promises as Balaam their example as Jeroboam by the things of the world there is at least a seeming lustre in the object that doth allure Bathsheba's beauty the rich wedge of gold and the Babylonish garment When the Vessel sailes with the tide and the sailes blown with such a gale it must needs go apace There are deeds of the body which are natural to eat drink sleep voluntary to walk c. but these are motus opera carnis peccatricis these are they that must be mortified that is the second thing in the duty Mortifie The body of death must be slain that we may live What it is to mortifie Thus if we will become wise we must first be fooles if rich and have a Kingdome poor in spirit if free put our necks under Christs yoke if save our life first lose it if have a true being old men must be born again if have the life of grace here and glory hereafter first kill our sinful selves To mortifie is a Metaphor taken from Chirurgeons that use to mortifie that part they mean to cut off so we must mortifie sin that it may not live or if it live such a life as is left in the limbs when the head is struck off or as in those that have an Epilepsie Rom. 4.19 or as in old Abrahams body which was as good as dead unfit for generation The efficacy and power of these lusts must be slain that they produce not new Monsters and so bring forth fruit unto death that is as Cajetan tells us insur gentes compescendo ne insurgant domando so mortifie them that they make no rebellion or if they do make insurrection beat them down that they domineer not So much for the second thing the act I come now to the causes The efficient cause principal the Spirit The principal is the Spirit By the Spirit here to omit other acceptations we understand either the grace of the Spirit or the Spirit of grace If the former then so far forth as it is enlivened and actuated by the latter The Spirit dwells in all creatures by a general influence in Christ by hypostatical union in some men by creating in them extraordinary gifts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the elect by effectual operation And if the essence of the Spirit be in us it is in us not as an essential part that were to deify man nor united personally unto us for then should the third person be incarnate as well as the second but dwelling in Christ as the head in an unspeakable manner diffused unto us Thus the devil dwells in the children of disobedience not by communicating his essence to them for then they should be incarnate devills but taking possession of them as his vassals blinding their minds hardening their hearts infusing malice into their wills leading them captive till at the last he bring them to the pit of destruction But hath man the command of the Spirit But the Spirit and Gods Ordinances are not separated unlesse for our fault But is the Spirit our instrument No but we the Spirits for God infuseth into us this supernatural principle whereby we are inabled to work and then quickeneth it up by moral perswasion But how doth the Spirit mortifie It 's that light that doth detect those deeds of the body it 's contrary to them and stirs up hatred against them it 's the Spirit of grace which makes us pray against them it 's our remembrance that brings to our mind the Scripture that declares the odiousnesse and danger of them it 's the mighty power of God that crusheth these brats in pieces it 's that which doth co-operate with the Word and prayer and tears and affliction and fasting whereby the flesh is beaten down That the Spirit worketh we evidently feel but how we cannot certainly define for if the operation of the wind the framing of the body in the womb be so strange much more that of the Spirit The lesse-principal cause We. The lesse-principal We. The Spirit quickens us being dead and being quickened we must act by the Spirit In the receiving the first grace man is a meer passive habet se ut materia in the second partly active partly passive active we must mortify passive for it must be by the Spirit and as St. Aug. Gratia non credit non resipiscit non sperat non obtemperat Deo sed homo per gratiam Grace believes not repents not hopes not obeys not God but man by grace So we say Spiritus non mortificat sed homo per Spiritum The Spirit mortifies not but man by the Spirit that we might not be proud or self confident not we but the Spirit that we might not be slothful or negligent we must do it by the Spirit that we might avoid all straines of Popery and Pelagianism it is the Spirit which quickens us at the first and doth continually send us fresh supplies against the flesh that we might not be taken with the idle fancies or doting dreames and crotchets of the Familists we must mortifie by the Spirit As we cannot mortifie without the Spirit so the Spirit will not without us Ye shall live Having now done with the duty What life here meant we come to the reward and what is better then life God is pleased to be stiled a living God This is that which every eye looks at every heart breaths after in which the vastest desire is satisfied beyond which the mind knowes nothing nor the will desires any thing that might make it happy By life here we do not understand the uncreated life of God but the created life of man which is twofold corporal the union of the soul with the body spiritual the union of God with the soul Indeed there is a natural life of the soul like that of Angels in which sense damned spirits may be said to live this was the eternity the
but retired to the inner closet of the soul wanting opportunity to axpresse it self outwardly and in this case it is damnable for lusting is adultery Matth. 5.28 hatred is murther 1 John 3.15 and he that will inhabit heaven must have both clean hands and a pure heart Ps 24.4 and the tree is not dead though it want leaves and fruit and this conquest if there be any is to be attributed to the weaknesse of nature rather then the strength of grace or else here is a Metempsychosis of sinne whereas a sinne of youth prevailed before now a sin of age domineereth Thus a man oft-times changeth his favourites No man in every estate and condition is prone to act the same sins I must tell our civil Justitiaries and painted hypocrites It 's not enough to take sin prisoner and a little to curbe and restrain it as Eli did his sons or to cry out as Pharaoh did when he was upon the rack and soon return like the dog to the vomit we must not onely fight but overcome if we mean to be crowned judge condemne and mortifie this old man with his deeds I must tell our luke-warme Laodiceans that are half perswaded to be Christians with Agrippa it will not serve their turn If they will almost be religious they shall be almost saved but altogether damned To spare some fat sins as Saul the cattel for sacrifice to make ex rapina holocaustum to rob the Church and build an Hospital or maintain a Free-Schoole to cast away some sin which to them hath neither profit nor pleasure in it and if it were commanded would sin in omitting it this is no mortification It will not avail you to abhorre Idols so long as you commit sacriledge that can endure John Baptist till he come to touch the apple of your eye this is but to pair the nayles or clip the hair of this old man not to mortifie the body with his deeds A Penknife may cut a mans throat one leake sink a ship one sparkle burn an house one sin slay the soul I must tell those that would be accounted professours that this word doth not sufficiently expresse the condition of a good Christian they must be practisers It is not enough to say The Temple of the Lord the rich man was a son of Abraham yet in hell to hear a multitude and variety of Sermons the devil heares more Though they could hear men of Seraphical spirits the Capernaites heard Christ and notwithstanding this they were thrown down to hell You must mortify I cannot but with indignation complain to see at least the outward form of Godlinesse changed from what it was in the primitive times and I am perswaded should one of our forefathers rise from the dead he would as much wonder at the alteration of the fashion in Religion as apparel The devotion of the Church of old was to joyn in publique prayer this is accounted but Idolatrous Superstition by many and cold devotion by the most Of old it was Religion to keep the body under by fasting and discipline this practice is not known now of many practised by few they will lose their birth-rights rather then pottage either they are troubled with wind or some infirmity or other they cannot fast The truth is they are like Dionysius an epicure who when he lay at a siege and was forced to keep a diet fell sick because he might not surfeit Of old charity and good workes were in fashion but now he is almost accounted a Popeling that will preach for charity and God help us an enemy to the State that exhorteth to peace I condemn not all but the religion of too many consists onely in hearing such men and the height of their practice to abstain from some sinnes which are cryed down I honour the publique preaching of Gods Word in season and out of season and he that opposeth it is an enemy to Christ and his king dome but if he that preacheth unto others may be a reprobate unlesse he do beat down his body and mortifie his sinne then he that heareth others much more I must tell our curious Correctors of things indifferent that it is not the eager censuring and condemning they know not what nor their envying against Bishops and Ceremonies and in the mean time to harbour pride and passion and uncharitablenesse the matter is not what thou canst say or censure in other men but what thou hast mortified of thine own Nor will the keeping of outward orders serve the turn at the best if they go no further they are no better then Scribes and Pharisees that tithe Mint and Cummin and Anise and leave the weighty matters of the Law undone I must tell our Solifidans that boast of strange speculations of faith without sanctity For ought I know there are a great many Orthodox men in Hell and while they live in lying pride and profanenesse their faith without works will not save them I must tell our refined wits and great Clerks It will not avail though they know the abstrusest mysteries that are yea all things knowable as some say of Berengarius Knowledge without charity profits nothing there is neither true piety nor charity so long as men live after the flesh while they continue desolate I never knew such a way to heaven as from bed to board from hoard to play c. I must tell our Popish and Pelagian Doctors advancers of free-will that they cannot mortifie themselves by any power of the flesh for corrupt nature agreeeth well enough with it self but walk in the Spirit Gal. 5.6 not by any Moral or gentle perswasion or by any violent restraint They that deny grace or call grace by the name of nature or say that it is profitable not necessary or necessary for our entrance not our continuance in the wayes of God Here we see that as by preventing grace we are made Saints so by subsequent and cooperating grace we are enabled to work like Saints and it 's the Spirit that doth inchoate continue consummate all good in us whence our Saviour saith Without me ye can do nothing upon which words St. Austin glosseth thus Non dicit Sine me parum potestis facere nec dicit Ardui aliquid Sine me non potestis facere vel Difficulter sine me potestis facere sed Nihil sine me potestis Nec dicit Sine me non potestis perficere sed Nihil potestis facere sine me He doth not say we can do but little or no great matter or very difficultly without Christ He doth not say we can perfect nothing without him but simply do nothing without him I must tell our Famelistical dreamers that we must mortifie by the Spirit they must not think to have these showres of grace and glory fall into their laps while they sit still with a soulded hand For the getting of the Spirit we must attend on God in his Ordinances Though the Miller cannot make a wind
for denying thy Lord. Make a bath of tears with Mary for entertaining so many Devils in thine heart for get a while to eate thy bread by fasting and abstinence be revenged on thy selfe for sin past and keep under thy body for time to come It 's one of the nailes that crucifies the flesh and a meanes to take down the ranknesse of this fertile field singulare putatis aratrum But if thou canst not weep and command tears at least get that dolorem appretiativum Value your sins at such a rate that they deserve tears of blood Wish that thy head were a fountaine and thine eyes as Conduit-pipes Intreat God to accept the desire for the deed and the blood and tears of Christ for all But men now adayes can mortifie without renting the heart fasting a day shedding a tear But withall remember to mortifie too else thy tears will be no better then Esaus thy fasting like Ahabs Purge not that thou mayest surfeit repent not that thou mayest sin returne not like the dog to the vomit if thou do thy latter end will be worse then thy beginning But blessed is the man that sorrows after a godly manner for this works repentance never to be repented of Blessed are they that mourne now that sowe in teares for they shall reape in joy they shall finde triumph in torment joy in tribulation refreshing in fasting life in death Bern. Filii hujus seculi vident cruces nostras non consolationes The sons of this world see our crosses but not our comforts If any thing were better then life God would not deny it you he accounts you Martyrs in manner Mortificare opera carnis genus Martyrii est horrore quidem mitius sed diuturnitate molestius To mortifie the deeds of the body is a kinde of martyrdome milder indeed in its horrour but more troublesome in its long continuance Certainly they that keep such a Lent shall have a glorious Easter at the day of their resurrection when all teares shall be wiped from their eyes and they shall remaine and raigne with God in blisse for ever And thus I have travelled through these Propositions in their absolute consideration We considered these words in their opposition Here are two contrary wayes that tend to two contrary ends They cousin themselves that think to fare as well as the best The word considered in their opposition and yet sin as bad as the worst and they fill themselves with unnecessary fears that live strictly and carefully and yet comfort not themselves in Gods promises 1. It doth no whit prejudice the godly in their comfort that God is so severe against the wicked Cains profanenesse doth not hurt Abel he is accepted Though Judas be a devil the rest fare not the worse So at the last day while the wicked wish the hils and mountains to cover them the godly lift up their heads Abraham and Moses make use of their interest with God even when he is provoked against Sodom and Jasrel 2. The wicked are not priviledged by Gods mercies on the godly as we see in the Wise and Foolish Virgins Gods mercies Christs merits the precious promises and priviledges of the Gospel availe them nothing Gods mercies are limited to certaine conditions therefore let not wicked men boulster up themselves in these heed not lying vanities We consider them in their coherence Therefore we should mortifie sin 3 And in their coherence because if we live after the flesh we shall die It 's not absurd to propound life and death as Motives to obedience God did so to Adam in Paradise Yea to men already converted our Saviour doth so Feare not him that can kill the body c. So the Father at banquets would talke of hell to keep men from security So the Apostle here to men already converted If ye live c. The meditation of death is not unprofitable for them They are not out of danger of Gun-shot though they are in a Cittadel or strong Tower yet they have some flesh and are subject to spiritual security presumption or prophanenesse The Tower cannot be demolished but they may looke out at the windowes and battlements and be wounded Hence we may conclude that a Christian may take comfort in an holy life Here is an Antidote against Presumption and Despaire None can presume but they that mortifie and that is not presumption but hope none can despaire but such as live after the flesh and that is a feare upon good grounds And now to draw to a conclusion The agreement 'twixt Armin. and their adversaries in the rules of practise How happily might these two Propositions put an end to our unhappy controversies were men of peaceable spirits The Areopagites in Athens in a doubtful case wherein they were loath to passe sentence differred it in diem longissimum it may be for an hundred years I would to God we could do so in these that I am sure are doubtful but this is to suspend men in a Neutrality to beleeve nothing S. Augustine answers some well that would not beleeve unlesse all objections were cleared Sunt innumerabiles objectiones quae non sunt finiendae ante fidem ne finiatur vita sine fide There are innumerable objections which must not be dispatched and answered before faith c. Moderation in these mysteries is to be shewen if any where Neutram partem affirmantes sive destrueren tes sed tantummodo ab audaci affirmandi praesumptione revocantes Affirming or denying neither of the two but onely restraining us from bold presumption in taking either part But now every novice can determine in these things when the wisest men demurre and can as exactly chalke out Gods secret wayes as if with S. Paul they had been rapt up into the third heaven and taken a transcript of the book of life Either side is confident and it may be in conclusion it will prove neither so nor so and so it comes to passe that religion is turned into nicities and disputation bearing things certaine and fastening upon uncertaine like Zeuxes that pictured an old woman so to the life that he laughed to death at the veiw of her So I thinke our gracious Soveraigne hath taken a Religious and Wise course to silence these controversies more fit for Schooles then Pulpits or rather fitter for heavens perfection then for earthly frailty to determine Et Elias quum venerit solvet haec dubia If I should enter upon the controversies I should contradict authority or if I might I would not so far presume upon mine own weaknesse or if I had ability and liberty I durst not so far abuse your patience Onely let me advise all especially the unlearned which with much study cannot so much as attaine the stating of the questions to turne their cavilling about the Theory into Practice Surely there is no such vast difference in the points as they are handled by moderate men on both sides whatsoever