manners of the Sufferings of Holy Martyrs which they underwent under the tyranny of bloody salvage Heathen Heading and Hanging and Crucifying were nothing for the satisfaction of their fury They were broyl'd on Grid-irons they were fryed in Frying-pans they were boyl'd in Cauldrons they were put in the Brazen Bull they were fired at the Stake cast into Ovens fired in Ships and so thrust from the shore into the deep fired in their own Houses cast upon burning Coals made to walk upon burning Coals burnt under the Arm-pits with hot Irons They had their Hearts riven out of their warm Body had their Skin flean off from their live Flesh had their Feet tyed to boughs of two near Trees which boughs being at first forcibly brought together suddenly let go rent their Body in twain They were trodden down by Horses cast bound and naked into Vaults to be eaten of Rats and Mice They had their Flesh pulled off with Pinsers torn off with Iron-rakes were squeezed to death in Wine-presses were tyed upon Wheels which turning rub'd their naked Body against sharp pegs of Iron They were hung by their Hands and Feet with their Face downward over choaking Smoak They were set out on high in the Sun having their naked Skin besmeared with Honey to be stung with Bees and Waspes The Devil spent all the skill and malice he had in finding wayes and engines of Torture for them God make us truly thankful unto him for his Mercy so long continued to us that we have without terrour or torment so many years enjoy'd the Christian Religion in such Purity And give us Grace to repent us of our unworthy walking and unbeseemingly of so great a Light But as concerning these Sufferings of the Body Beloved such is the love of God to Mankind and so reasonable is his Service that he hath made it no necessary condition of Eternal Life actually to suffer them But we ought to be so minded that rather than to relinquish the true Christian Faith or do any thing which we know offends God we would rather dye a thousand deaths And this was S. Pauls resolution Acts 21. I am ready not only to be bound but also to dye for the name of the Lord Iesus But yet there is a Suffering in the Body that we must needs suffer if we will approve our selves the Children of God and Heirs of that Glorious Kingdom And this Suffering we must inflict upon our own selves 1 Cor. 9. 27. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection These Sufferings are most acceptable to God and requisite fore-runners of Eternal Life If you live after the flesh you shall dye but if you through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live Verse 13. of this 8th Chapter to the Romans 1 Pet. 2. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul. And Galat. 4. 24. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts You see plainly then That we are not Christs nor Gods nor Heirs of God with Christ unless we suffer with Christ in mortifying all Bodily Lusts in curbing our inordinate Desire of eating or drinking unless we study to keep under the Body and live chastly and continently If we will be Heirs of that Heavenly Inheritance we must bring under all evil and carnal concupiscence If we will partake of that Eternal Glory in Heaven we must be content to suffer reproach and evil speeches amongst men If any man ask what Necessity what Reason is there I will briefly shew him how it comes about First For suffering in Name for I will step so much back There is no man loves to be disquieted in mind or vext But it would disquiet us and gall us exceedingly to be found fools so that we have not the heart to find our selves so it would so discontent our natural proud Spirit Hence we blame other men rather than our selves and say they be in the false way So did the Pharisees to our Saviour and to his Apostles And thus were the Prophets used before them because their wayes were of another sort their speeches and actions of another fashion from the World You will better understand it in some Examples A Carnal or Natural man that hath no Sense of the Spirit of God and is unacquainted with its Operations derides such performances as Prayers Exhortations or what so else may proceed from thence as truly and extraordinarily proceeding from the Spirit of God and counts those men that acknowledge Gods power in them in the performance of such things weak men crack'd-brain'd Enthusiasts Fanatical Fools silly Lunaticks But all this proceeds out of Pride Envy and Self-love he himself being not able to perform such Duties or at least not in that manner So some that have got the trick of Praying ex tempore by Custom the Mother of Confidence and Dexterity Ignorance and want of a true Sense of the Majesty of Heaven upholding them in their rash performance these men will vilifie Justice and Uprightness Humility and Patience and the mortification of our Sensual Lusts because they find in themselves no such Vertues nor intend to trouble themselves so much as to practise them Then for the upholding of their own credit they must give them poor contemptible terms that they are but Heathenish Vertues such as Socrates or Plato had and make but a Moral man and that there is no such need for a Christian to have them But Beloved be not so deceived but observe this Truth Though Moral Vertue carries us no higher than an Heathen yet without the exercise of Moral Vertue and inward life and liking of it we are no true Christians The Summe is this That the good ways of God are spoken against and miscall'd that wicked men may keep their credit and yet walk indeed in the wayes of the Devil To the Second I answer That it is necessary that we suffer in the Flesh because that if we do not keep down the Flesh and its suggestions the Spirit will be choaked and stifled by that filth and corruption The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be Ver. 7. The carnal mind that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bent will intent liking or desire of the Flesh is enmity with God desires against the Will of God and will not be obedient to the Law of God nor indeed can be Wherefore we are to kill it to mortifie it to crucifie it that we may be dead to sin or the desire of the Flesh and alive to God by his enquickening Spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here is the Patience of the Saints Here their great Suffering 4. But I go on to their last Affliction which is in Spirit And that is twofold 1. The wrestling or conflict with spiritual wickedness in Heavenly places 2. The suffering with
up from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also should walk in newness of life For if we be grafted with him into the similitude of his death even so shall we be into the similitude of his resurrection Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him c. The words do plainly describe the Spiritual Death of the Soul as also the inward Resurrection thereof from Sin to a newness of life as the Apostle speaks And so Rom. 8. 10. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is mortified for sin As we would say such an one is kill'd for Robbing or is let blood for an Ague So dead for sin is either the mortifying our Bodily and Carnal Affection in a just vengeance on our selves for the sin they suggest and made us commit Or dead or mortified for sin is that Sin may be quite dislodged of our Bodies as a man is said to be let blood for an Ague to rid himself quite of that disease or to prevent its unwelcome returns But the Spirit is life or righteousness that is the Spirit is our life vivification or the cause of our inward or Spiritual Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for righteousness that is that we may be righteous or live righteously For Beloved if we take the sense of this place of Scripture in a natural meaning It will not prove true For those Romans bodies to whom the Apostle writes were not dead for if so they had not been able to read the Epistle or to have heard others read it And beside this the words would imply that Christs being in us destroyed this Body or the health of it when as Piety unfeigned preserves both Body and Soul in good temper much less doth Christs being in us make the Body dead unto Righteousness Therefore it is plain that this is the sense of this place viz. That if Christ be in us the Body or Flesh of a man is dead or mortified to sin and that our Life then is the Spirit of God to live in Righteousness Now mark the following Verse But if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you O behold the mighty power and dominion of the Spirit of God in a man Not only our Will and Understanding is swayed ruled and enlivened by it but it descends even to the enquickening of our Bodies too when they be once mortified that is the Passions and Lusts thereof destroyed so that we exercise not our Affections in the things of this World Then will God enliven it with better and more Divine Passions and Affections For Anger against our Brother unadvisedly it shall be moved with holy and discreet Zeal against all wickedness in every body For Sorrow and inordinate Grief for its own private crosses with a sweet and tender Compassion and Pitty toward all that be in any Affliction For Lust and Sensual or Carnal Love with Divine Charity and a large embracement of all the Creatures of God they having some resemblance of his lovely Wisdom and Beauty Thus shall a man exult and rejoyce in the ways of God both Body and Soul serving willingly and chearfully with the whole man For our mortal Bodies even those earthly tabernacles lyable to death and dissolution shall the Spirit of Christ enliven by his powerful working if so be that our Bodies be first made dead unto Sin and the Spirit of God be in us indeed As the Apostle doth plainly witness A further proof for this purpose may we gather out of Phil. 3. 10 11. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect That this is meant of a Spiritual Resurrection seems reasonable from these grounds First because it is ranked with Spiritual sufferings and Spiritual conformableness unto the Death of Christ And then because the Apostle useth this way of apologizing Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect which caution he need not have put in about the Bodily Resurrection For could the Apostle think the Philippians to be so mad as to conceive that the Apostle had now risen out of the grave already clothed with his glorious Body which should be incorruptible Wherefore the Apostle speaks there of a Spiritual Resurrection And that this Doctrine want no Authority to confirm it I will add those words of our blessed Saviour Iohn 5. 25. Verily verily I say unto you The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live That Life and Resurrection from the dead can it be understood of the Resurrection of the Body out of the grave That was not then when our Saviour Christ spoke nor hath been yet fulfilled saving in one single example of Lazarus whom Christ called out of the grave But that was not the Life that is meant here for it is called everlasting life in the foregoing Verse which Lazarus was not raised up to else Lazarus would be alive at this very day which no man will acknowledge to be true But remember what our Saviour Christ saith Iohn 11. 25 26. I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me or trusts in me or my power though he dye or be mortified or though he be dead yet he shall live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me that is is alive in me or to me The everlasting Righteousness of God and trusteth this living power shall never dye but be ever alive to Righteousness and to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This must be understood of a Spiritual Life or Resurrection or else it will follow that all true Believers in Christ shall not dye at all that their Bodies shall never descend into the grave And now Beloved if this Discourse of the Spiritual Resurrection of the Soul seem to us subtle nice or obscure it is our fault not the fault of Truth The Sun is clear enough and easie to be seen but he that is blind dead or asleep beholds it not Nor can the unbelieving and unregenerate while he lies dead or asleep in Sin discern the truth of the Spirit of God in the Holy Scripture But all things are discovered and made manifest by the light For whatsoever doth make manifest is light Wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Eph. 5. 13 14. Wherefore this point is plain to him whose eyes are open to behold it viz. That there is a Spiritual Resurrection or Vivification of the Soul But now if you be desirous to know what
the Children of God elect to this Inheritance none are the Children of God but those that have the Spirit of God none have the Spirit of God but those that suffer with Christ that mortifie their own sins and are grieved for the sins of others Be not deceived Beloved with flattering dreams and phansies This is the very Truth of God and according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And this Truth being so apparently true I need not exhort in many words to those Christian Sufferings Stand fast in the true Faith of the Power of God and quit your selves like men Cast away all softness and effeminateness and be so stout-hearted as to endure the pangs of Death of the mortification of your sinful flesh and carnal mind for his sake that dyed for you Resist unto Blood even unto the effusion of the wicked Life and unrighteous devilish Spirit that resideth in you For this is the good will of your God that you be mortified that you be thoroughly sanctified that you destroy all things contrary to God in you 1 Thess. 4. And let this be the First Motive to run with patience the race that is set before us Secondly These our Sufferings though great are not comparable to the rich Reward that Glorious Inheritance in Heaven 2 Cor. 4. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Thirdly If we compare the future state of the Wicked and the Godly how all their Glory and Pleasure vanisheth and how the Children of God are received into Everlasting Happiness crown'd with Eternal Light it will more firmly establish us in our Christian resolutions It cannot be better described then it is in the Book of Wisdom The iniquities of the wicked shall convince them to their own face and they shall approach the tribunal of God with fear and quaking But then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness before the face of such as have afflicted him and made no account of his labours When they see it they shall be troubled with terrible fear and shall be amazed at the strangeness of his salvation And they repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit shall say within themselves This is he whom we had some time in derision and a proverb of reproach We fools counted his life madness and his end to be without honour How is he numbred among the children of God and his lot is among the saints Wisd. 5. You may read the whole Chapter at your leasure Fourthly and Lastly The Inheritance of Heaven is conditional If we suffer with him we shall be glorified with him which implies if we do not suffer with him we shall not be glorified with him 2 Tim. 2. 11. This is a faithful saying that if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him Wherefore Beloved sooth not up your selves in vain hopes and flatteries For without killing of your sinful Lusts without Mortification there is no Salvation He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Now no body hath the Spirit of Christ unless he be dead unto sin For if he be dead unto Sin then shall he be raised from Death to Life by the Spirit of Christ that quickeneth us to Righteousness But if he be dead unto Righteousness and alive unto Sin he is a son of Belial a child of the Devil a vessel of perdition a faggot for Hell and the devouring Wrath of God remains upon him No Heir of God no Coheir with Christ but he shall have his portion with those infernal Fiends to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever Wherefore Beloved awake from your beds of ease shake off your idle dreams and bewitching phansies that either the Devil or his false Prophets have buz'd at any time into your heads If you will be the Sons of God and Disciples of Christ take up the Cross of Christ afflict your own carnal minds give not way to wrath to envy to anger to revenge to lust to wantonness to back-biting to swearing to revelling to drinking to pride to contemning to reproaching to fighting to contesting to censuring to defaming or whatsoever else Flesh and Blood is easily carried out to but deny your selves in abstaining from all those evil acts and so give no encouragement to the Devil to assault you Which if you shall do in the precious Christian Patience even to the mortification of all manner of Sin in you God shall stir up in you the Spirit of his Son and enrich you with the Power and Wisdom of the Holy Ghost And the Peace of God which passeth all understanding shall fill your hearts with all joy and you shall find in your selves an unexpressible taste of the delights of Heaven and receive an infallible earnest of your Eternal Inheritance Which God grant that we may all do through Iesus Christ our Lord to whom c. DISCOURSE X. JAM i. 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world THE Text is a description of pure and undefiled Religion And certainly if any thing Religion it is that wants the pointing out by the most evident plain and conspicuous descriptions that may be to be writ in Capital Letters in so large and visible Characters that he that runs may read it For indeed most men are but at leasure to read it running 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the by tanquam aliud agentes still keeping on their course in that broad way that beaten path that leads to the reward of impiety and irreligiousness But yet I know not how it comes to pass that though men make not Religion their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their main business and work yet they prove most-what far more fortunate in this than in their worldly occasions and employments where though they take a great deal more pains yet we shall more ordinarily hear them complain of ill success But as for Religion how few are there that find themselves at a loss therein nay that are not suited to their own hearts liking and from these slight and transient glances cast upon it are kindled into so hot a passion and inflammation of love and zeal for it that finding their own breasts too strait and narrow for such a violent heat would even force open the hearts of other men that there may be more room and freedom for so ample a flame Not content to keep alive this Vestal fire within the walls of its own Temple but to disthrone the Sun and ordain it the sole Lamp of the Universe where all other Religions and Worships must like the lesser Stars disappear and vanish Every rash Religion is Popery
Soul may be purified No doubt of this Refiners Art or Skill Is his Will doubted of It is one with the Will of God and Gods Will is that we be purified 1 Thess. 4. 3. And Christ is no teacher of loosness but of the height of Righteousness 'T is not the privilege of the Gospel that we may sin securely because Christus solvit but that we may live more exactly because Christ requires it and doth inwardly enable us to perform it See also Rom. 8. 1 2 3 4. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Here we will acknowledge that God is able his Spirit is willing but we are uncapable of so great a good by reason of the infirmity of the Flesh But answer me O vain man what is this infirmity of the Flesh is it not the strength of Sin And is there any strength that can withstand the powerful operation of the Spirit of God The weakness or strength if you will of the Body bears it towards the Earth but the fire and activity of the Natural Spirits bears it above and enables it to walk upright on the Earth contrary to be bend of its own Essence and Nature Shall not the Spirit of God then be as able to actuate and lead the Soul contrary to its accidental and ascititious Principles as the Natural Spirits to actuate the Body contrary to its innate and essential Principles Certainly if it be not effectual in us we our selves are in fault who abuse our shuffling Phansie and Reason to fend off the stroke and power of Truth that at once would cleave our hearts that 's a tender place the seat of Life it self and any Religion but that which kills us and mortifies us The Devil knew well enough what he said and his Children make it good Skin for skin and all that a man has will he give for his life This is the shuffling hypocrisie of the Natural Spirit of man and the root of infidelity But let us make better use of this precious Scripture Seeing ye obeyed the Truth through the Spirit 1 st For the encrease of Faith and Confidence and Courage in the wayes of Obedience sith we have so strong assistance as the Spirit of our God with true Christian Fortitude to conflict with all our Spiritual Enemies wearing that Motto in our Minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 dly For hearty Thankfulness to God when ever we find our selves successful in our Spiritual Warfare as to the only giver of Victory 3 dly and lastly For Humility AEquanimity and Christian Patience and expectancy towards our Neighbours that are not yet reclaim'd from their evil ways being compassionate over them not to insult in other mens weaknesses and miscarriages sith we our selves stand not by our own power but by the gracious assistance of our Saviour Jesus Christ And certainly Purification arrived at its full end will easily afford us this for the end of Purification is Brotherly Love which is the Fourth Doctrine Doct. IV. That this Purification of the Soul and Obedience to the Truth through the Spirit is for this end viz. the eliciting of Brotherly Love and Sincerity in the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are distinguished as 2 Pet. 1. 7. But that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here may be as large as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know nothing considerable to the contrary The word is capable of that Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being used in as great a latitude as Proximus and Alter including all that descended from our Father Adam So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the love of our Neighbour and this Love is the end and height of our Purification and Obedience the aim and scope of it as much as concerns the Second Table Rom. 13. 9 10. and 1 Tim. 1. 5. Who is able to express so Divine an excellency For certainly the unfeigned Love of men is the very Divine Love it self whereby God loves himself and all things and we also love God and all things in reference to him This is that Love of whom the whole Universe was begotten and that rock'd the cradle of the Infant World the very Spirit of God whose Splendour none can behold and live for he must first be dead to himself and extinguish the love of himself before he can be touch'd and quickened by this Spirit of Life and Love THUS much for the Doctrines included in the First main Argument In the Second are these viz. Doctrine I. That there is a Regeneration of the Soul By understanding what Generation is we may better know what is Regeneration 1. The notion in general of Generation according to Aristotle implies no more than a right and fit union of a form substantial with some capable subject whether that form be elicited of the subject or matter or be brought in from elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks of the Rational Soul 2. There may be more Forms substantial than one in one subject so they be but subordinate one to the other and that a new Species doth not arise so much from the destruction of the pre-existent Form as by addition of a new one which might actuate the whole that doth pre-exist As the numerus ternarius is not made by taking from the numerus binarius but by adding an Unite thereto Thus Aristotle seems to speak Metaph. 7. Cap. 3. 3. Observe That one Soul actuating a Body if any part of that Body be cut off and lose the benefit of information suppose an Hand or Foot that is then said to be but equivocally what it was before which implies it is then of another Nature or Species as much of it as there is though it be not an entire substance if compared with the whole and consequently that the Soul actuating it did then specificate it another way We have now a tolerable insight into Generation and Regeneration is but this twice told That which is this specifical substance now by adding a new substantial Form thereto becomes something else This is Regeneration And to apply it to our selves We are already once born according to Nature our Bodies and Souls being fitly united together by him that is the Father of all Life and the Lord of Nature But though we be thus specificated yet we are not thence perfected but this Binary of Body and Soul the Pythagoreans would
DISCOURSES ON Several Texts OF SCRIPTURE BY The late Pious and Learned HENRY MORE D. D. LONDON Printed by I. R. and are to be Sold by Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1692. THE PREFACE I Shall not bespeak the acceptance of these Papers by any large Encomium either of them or of the Author This would detain the Reader too long from the Benefit of them and indeed to little or no purpose For the Discourses will sufficiently speak for themselves without the artifice of any Commendatory Preface And as for the Author His Name is so well known and deservedly admired in the World upon the account of the many Elaborate Treatises which he Published in his Life-time that these his Posthumous Pieces may find a welcome Entertainment without any other Invitation The business therefore of this Preface is only to acquaint the Reader with some things which concern this Edition and this I shall do very briefly in the following Particulars 1. The First and chief thing which the Reader is to be acquainted with is the Authenticness of these Writings they being all of them Printed by the Authors own Copies except Discourse XII th and XIII th which were with some of the other transcribed from the Originals in the Authors Life-time by one whose Faithfulness and Exactness is evident in the rest and is not in the least to be doubted of in these 2. The next thing which I should tell the Reader is by whom these Papers were committed to my care and management in order to make them Publick But I am forbidden to name him and therefore I shall be silent as to this particular 3. But here it may not be unfit to tell the Reader in general That I have bestowed upon them all the care and pains which the shortness of time determined for the preparing of them for the Press would admit of And this is sufficient to satisfie any ingenuous Person Whereas to speak of all the toil and difficulties which I met with therein would be too tedious an exercise of the Readers Patience and piece of Vanity as burdensome to my self as to others 4. And Lastly As for any Defects therein or for the Errors which have escaped the Press they are such as neither the Authors Name will suffer by reason of them nor the Papers be less acceptable to a Candid and well-disposed Reader Thus much I thought fit to advertise the Reader of here concerning this Edition As for the Discourses themselves I shall leave it wholly to Him to observe the Stile and Matter of them Only this I would suggest That they are such as were prepared for no mean Auditory some of them being University-Sermons and the rest College-Exercises I will conclude this Preface with a short Prayer Which I wish the Reader may as seriously and devoutly put up as the Pious Author did before one of the following Discourses O Lord our God the Fountain of Light and the Well-spring of all holy Wisdom and Knowledge without whose aid our search after thee and thy ways is but tedious error and dangerous wandering from thee Assist us mercifully in our endeavours after thee Open our eyes that we may see the wonders of thy Law Sanctifie our hearts unto obedience that we may unfeignedly love thee and worthily magnifie the holy Name through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen London Nov. 1. 1692. John Worthington THE TEXTS OF THE Following Discourses DISCOURSE I. 1 PET. II. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. p. 1. DISCOURSE II. PSAL. LXXXIV 7. They go from strength to strength every one of them appeareth before God in Sion p. 31 DISCOURSE III. MAT. VI. 22 23. The light of the Body is the Eye if therefore thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of light But if thine Eye be evil thy whole Body shall be full of darkness If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness p. 60. DISCOURSE IV. PROV I. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom p. 85. DISCOURSE V. JOHN IV. 31 32 33 34. In the mean time his disciples prayed him saying Master eat But he said unto them I have meat to eat that you know not of Therefore said the disciples one to another Hath any man brought him ought to eat Iesus saith unto them My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work p. 119. DISCOURSE VI. JAM I. 22. Be ye Doers of the Word and not Hearers only deceiving your own selves p. 151. DISCOURSE VII PROV XV. 15. All the dayes of the afflicted are evil but a good conscience is a continual feast p. 191. DISCOURSE VIII PSAL. XVII 15. As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness p. 221. DISCOURSE IX ROM VIII 17. And if children then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified with him p. 251. DISCOURSE X. JAM I. 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world p. 282. DISCOURSE XI HEB. XIII 16. To do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased p. 314. DISCOURSE XII GAL. VI. 14 15 16. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Iesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world For in Christ Iesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God p. 369. DISCOURSE XIII 1 PET. I. 22 23. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever p. 394. DISCOURSE XIV PSAL. CVI. 28. They joined themselves also unto Baal-Peor and ate the sacrifices of the dead p. 419. DISCOURSE XV. COL III. 1. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God p. 435. Appendix to Discourse XIII p. 458. IMPRIMATUR Lambhith Nov. 2. 1692. Ra. Barker R mo in Christo Patri ac D no D no Johanni Archiepiscopo Cant. a Sacris Dom. DISCOURSES ON Several Texts OF SCRIPTURE DISCOURSE I. 1 PET. II. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. THE Text is an Exhortation to abstinence from the Lusts of the Flesh Which Duty the Apostle endeavours to fix upon the Spirits of
his Auditors by a twofold means or artifice First by insinuating into their Affections by a kind and friendly compellation and humbleness of Address Dearly beloved I beseech you And then by convincing their Reason by solid Argumentation Which is fetch'd from a twofold Topick from the enmity and active hostility of these fleshly lusts against our Souls and from the Dignity and Sanctity of our Souls themselves intimating that the state of this present World with the enjoyments of it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing too much estranged from unsuitable to or unworthy of a Being of so high a nature and Divine extraction as the Soul of Man to be engaged in or any thing taken with This is the summe of the Text. WE will begin with the Duty we are exhorted to the abstinence from Fleshly Lusts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is too trivial to take notice that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does as well signifie Desire at large or natural appetite in which there is no hurt as Inordinate desire which we ordinarily understand by Lust though that English word also was of an indifferent meaning in the ancient use thereof But this honest and allowable sense of the word we may be sure is not meant in the Text both because the Precept were impossible to be performed without manifest violence and injury done to Nature for we cannot live without Eating and Drinking and Sleeping and also because of that Epithet added to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which yet denotes the pravity of these Desires rather than their Original For Flesh in a natural sense is of as harmless a signification as Desire as where the Apostle sayes No man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Fleshly Lust is taken in such a sense as it is where it is opposed to the Spirit Gal. 5. 17. For the flesh lasteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other as appears more manifestly from their fruits or works The works of the flesh are manifest saith the Apostle in the same place which are these Adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murders drunkenness revellings and such like But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance Flesh therefore and Fleshly Lusts in the Text is to be understood in such a sense as they are opposed to the nature and fruits of the Spirit And in Rom. 13. Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Here the Life or Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ is opposed to those works of the Flesh and to the caressing and providing for the satisfactions thereof And indeed if we examine either our own lives or others it is manifest that our care and forecast is pitch'd upon some one thing that is the leading Object to all our Affections In this sense therefore so to indulge to the desires of the Flesh as to make the Satisfactions of the Carnal Life the Joy and Contentment of our Souls to make it the thing we long after and would be at either alwayes or as repeatedly as we can find our selves reap the pleasures of such repetitions this is truly and properly to follow not to abstain from Fleshly Lusts. But to keep at a due distance from all Animal pleasures not to resent them nor rellish them with too high a gusto or penetrating delight not to let these poysonous waters enter even into our Souls as the Psalmist complains of the Waters of Affliction nor yet our Souls to cleave to the dust but for our Perceptive part to tamper with these things with a more suspensive or collective guard upon it self not loosening it self nor letting it self flow or melt into that which allures so strongly and would captivate her will and affections into a base servitude to things beneath her but to admit only so much of them as either tend to or are consistent with the health and sanity of both Soul and Body Thus to order our Appetite were properly to abstain from Fleshly Lusts and to content our selves only with the fulfilling our harmless and natural desires with which the Apostle has no quarrel In brief therefore our Natural Desires then become Fleshly Lusts when their rellish is so high that they either extinguish or obscure our Capacities of those Holy and Divine Joys or exceed the end and scope of God and Nature in planting them in us which was not for any mischief to either Soul or Body but for the good of both if Men were but either skilful or docible to learn the right uses and ends of them Edo ut vivam non ut edam vivo was the Saying of an old Philosopher somewhere Socrates I think Whereby he intimated the true end of Eating and Drinking and perstringed the ignorance and enormity of Gluttons and Drunkards The Animal functions and delights of them are of so low an allay that when Men live to enjoy the exercise of these it is an extreme inordinacy of Life and all the Natural Desires and Pleasures become ipso facto Fleshly Lusts. For surely they must be very highly taken with those things that they take to be the very Ends of our living and without which Life would not be vital Which is such an unhinging of true Reason and Nature that that saying of Antisthenes will appear from hence to bear with it a more sober and remarkable sense then we may be at first aware of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I had rather be mad than struck with pleasure that is in such a sense as has been declared For to be transported with the pleasure of Natural Fruitions to that inordinacy is both a madness and a piece of Immorality besides and haply such as does more deeply wound the Soul than Natural Madness it self and lay more certain trains of her future Misery To abstain therefore from Fleshly Lusts is to resist or deny the inordinate cravings of our Natural Propensions or Desires and to held our Soul in suspence from being carried into too great a transport in but the measurable use of them that they should not pierce into the inward life of the Soul but let that Plant our Body rejoyce by it self if it can in its grateful refreshments Trees and Flowers flourish well enough supply'd with Rain and Sunshine without any such high transports And the chearfulness of a pure Mind and upright Conscience will be Sunshine enough to be added to the moderate irrigations of convenient nourishment due to this Plant-Animal we carry about with us That no Man may think it his duty to exult in the enjoyment of corporeal pleasures for the
scarce dare to name had not the Apostle himself taken notice of it That this Beastly Lustfulness has made Women change the natural use into that which is against Nature and likewise also the Men leaving the natural use of the Woman burned in their Lusts one towards another men with men working that which is unseemly Rom. 1. With such base and inglorious with such wretched and hideous Servilities do the Fleshly Lusts tyrannize over the Soul when they have once captivated her carrying her thus in triumph and exposing her to all baseness and lewdness and dragging her by her chains of captivity through all filthiness and unseemliness and having thus besmear'd and defac'd her with the filth of all manner of Sins in this Life fit her for a delivery to her fellow-Devils in the other to be reserv'd with them in everlasting chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day This is the lamentable success of that Warfare betwixt the Lusts of the Flesh and the Soul if she suffer her self to be overcome And therefore it is no wonder the Holy Apostle uses all the Reason and Rhetorick he has to make us stand upon our guard and defend our selves from so subtle and malicious Enemies Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. DISCOURSE II. PSAL. lxxxiv 7. They go from strength to strength every one of them appeareth before God in Sion THE Text is a Presage of admirable Prosperity and Success to some sort of People so that it may well excite in us a desire of searching out who they may be And if we begin further off at first or go about yet it may according to the Proverb prove the nighest way home If any one therefore demand who these are I shall answer him out of the 24th Psalm the subject whereof seems to be the very same with this and in the words of the same Prophet This is the generation of them that seek him that seek thy face O Iacob the God of the People that prevail by their importunities and wrestlings with God as Iacob is said to do Gen. 32. whereby he purchased to himself the name of Israel because as a Prince he had power with God And David as being one of this extraction himself he seems to challenge a Blessing from God on that very account O Lord God of Hosts hear my prayer give ear O God of Iacob in the Verse immediately following my Text. In this present Psalm as also in the 24th and 15th Psalms the Holy Prophet so speaks of the Court Tabernacle Temple or House of God as of a place of the highest enravishments that the Soul of man can enjoy which Expositors generally and I doubt not but truly interpret of the Mosaical Tabernacle and Literal Temple But that the mind of the Prophet was carry'd up also to some higher matter I do not at all question And the first Verse of the 15th Psalm Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy Hill which is almost verbatim repeated again in the 24th Psalm the Chaldee Paraphrast does expresly interpret of Heaven So warrantable is it not to be ty'd down to the Letter but to seek a further edifying Mystery in the Holy Oracles of God And such a Temple as the abode wherein will be more suitable to such earnest breathings and vehement expressions of the Prophet Ver. 1. 2. How amiable are thy tabernacles O Lord of Hosts My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God And again Ver. 4. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be still praising thee These things do not suit so well methinks to a house that is made of any earthly materials into which the wicked can throng as well as the just Nor does God dwell in any House made with hands according to the Apostolick Philosophy Acts 7. Any yet according to their Doctrine We are the Temple of God at least design'd so to be And the Apostle Paul sayes expresly 1. Cor. 6. 19. What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost And yet the same Apostle Rom. 7. 18. I know saith he that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing This Earthly Tabernacle is no House of God as being from the Earth From whence it is that we groan earnestly as the same Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5. desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon or further clothed that mortality might be swallow'd up of life Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit That is to say He that works us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into this condition is God himself by the operation of his Spirit which is the Architect of its own House as it is said of the Soul the Builder of that Holy Temple in us in which all is fulfilled which the Prophet David sets out in such devotional and vehement Language For when we are come to this state we are then truly the Temple of the Living God and it is Strength to a mans Navel and Marrow to his Bones So that well may the Holy Prophet raise himself into so high expressions touching this condition Ver. 2. My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God For this Earthly Tabernacle destitute of this is but a burden or body of Vanity wherein are all the Seeds and Fruits of Sin and Misery But of this Heavenly House is that plentifully verify'd which the Prophet David presageth Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be still praising thee And they that are arrived to this condition will easily fulfil that Precept of the Apostle Eph. 5. 18 19. Be not drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit speaking to your selves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. This is the real participation of the Body or Flesh of Christ the true Bread from Heaven which is the immediate receptacle of the Divine Spirit so that he that comes hither cannot fail to be replenish'd with Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And this may serve for a brief intimation Who these Persons are to whom such good Success is promised in the Text and what the place is towards which they are journeying viz. the Tabernacle Temple or House of God mystically understood LET us now consider 1. The Country through which they pass 2. How well accoutred they are in their persons for the Journey 3. What Convoy to guard them safe 4. Under what Influences of Heaven they travel 5. What the
Phancies suggest or our vacillant Reason blind or drunk with the foul steams of an impure and unsanctify'd Heart would pretend to coin for us Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose heart are thy wayes The next is Faith By which I do not so much understand Faith in general as that which has for its proper Object the Power of God for the destroying of Sin and the erecting his Kingdom in us For out of this ariseth our Strength in God and our Victory over the World This is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith as S. Iohn speaks Which Requisite is also hinted in this Psalm the last verse O Lord of Hosts blessed is the man that trusteth in thee And indeed sith our Faith and Trust and Confidence is in the Lord of Hosts how can we despair of the victory over any Sin whatsoever Cannot he that created Heaven and Earth by his Word create in us a pure Heart and renew a right Spirit within us I can do all things saith S. Paul through Christ that strengthens me Certainly it is a Contradiction that Omnipotency should not be able so effectually to assist a willing Soul as to bring all her enemies under her feet Can he that is the Lord of Hosts and has the power over all Nature be baffled in his assaults upon the corrupt Nature of any poor Creature so that he cannot reduce it if he will And can we possibly imagine God not to be willing to subdue Sin in the World who has given us such express Laws against it both within and without who expresses his Wrath and Vengeance against it so frequently in Scripture who is so irreconcileable an enemy unto it that nothing less than the Death of his only begotten Son could make an Atonement for it And lastly the Holiness of whose Nature is so contrary and diametrically opposite to the pollutedness of it Wherefore the fault most assuredly lyes at our own doors viz. because we are not sincerely willing to have our Sins vanquished and overcome by the Power of God Which therefore is the third and last Requisite which the Travellers in the Valley of Baca are said to be provided with namely Sincerity which comprehends not only a belief that all our Sins ought to be subdued and that they are all vanquishable through the assistance of Gods Spirit but also an unfeigned willingness to have them subdued and an hearty endeavour to the utmost of that power we have received to conquer them and subdue them He that is provided of all these three is fitly furnished for a prosperous Journey toward the House of God and the Almighty will be his safeguard in his travel 3. Which is the Third Particular we named What Convoy to guard them safe in their Iourney which is intimated in the Psalm also For the Lord is a sun and a shield the Lord will give grace and glory and no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly that is to say that walk sincerely In which Sincerity if they keep themselves he will also be faithful unto them and not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able and will deliver them from all straits and assaults of their enemies both inward and outward The Lord will be their fortress and tower their defence and shield a present help in the day of trouble The Angels of the Lord will encamp round about them and deliver them For such as these as it is said of those few names in Sardis Christ will confess their names before his Father and his holy Angels namely profess how dear they are to him and so commit them to their safe protection 4. And surely the Influences of Heaven which is the Fourth Particular cannot but be very benign to those that are thus dear to the God of Heaven And therefore for light and warmth and kindly dews and showres they shall not be destitute of these in this Journey of theirs to the Temple of God And therefore God is said as well to be a Sun to them as a Shield in the forecited Verse of this Psalm And in Ver. 6. They that pass through the valley of Baca are said to make it a well and that the rain filleth the pools Like that in Psalm 68. O God when thou wentest forth before thy people when thou didst march through the wilderness the clouds dropped at thy presence thou sentest a gracious rain upon thy inheritance and refreshedst it when it was weary But in this present Psalm the Rain is said to be received into some hollows of the Earth dug out the Latin renders it cisternas I suppose any fossae or hollows of what form soever will serve the turn made by the diging away the Earth that this Heavenly Liquor may supply the vacuity For that is a great mistake in the Carnal-minded that they think that when we empty our selves of the Old Adam and the comforts of that Life that we thus stand empty for ever and that Religion is a forlorn disconsolate condition No dig away thy Earth and God will fill the vacuity with a substance from Heaven Or starve away the fulsomness of thy Flesh by assiduous mortification and purification and thou shalt make this arid Soil this Valley of Baca a springing Well as it is suggested in the beginning of the Verse When our Terrestrial substance becomes a dry barren Soil as to the fruits of the Flesh then will those Well-springs of living Water bubble up in us as our Saviour has promised unto Eternal Life by which is understood the irrigation of the Spirit Non datur vacuum is a Maxime as true in Divinity as in Philosophy Empty thy self therefore of thy Earth and thou shalt most certainly be replenished with Heaven 5. Now for the Fifth Particular which occurs in my Text properly so called for I have made the whole Psalm in a manner my Text hitherto it is of the greatest importance of all throughly to consider it namely our gradual advance in this journey through the Valley of Baca. They go from strength to strength è virtute in virtutem the Latin has it from vertue to vertue And indeed this progress from strength to strength is nothing else but a proficiency in Vertue either from one vertue to another Add to your Faith Fortitude to your Fortitude Patience c. or from one Degree of vertue to another And this vertue is very significantly termed strength there being no true Vertue which is not such It is but the imagination of vertue if it be not accompanied with Life and Power And forasmuch as Vertue and Grace are all one let every one take notice that he that has no Vertue has no Grace as well as he that has no Power has no Vertue Which is a plain Note to examine a mans self by that he may not lye lusking in his softnesses and infirmities and in the mean time flatter himself that
signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What a dismal darkness will there be then For the blind then leading the blind both will fall into the Infernal Pit THE meaning of the Text I conceive is now abundantly plain and that the scope and end of our Saviours uttering this Parable to his Disciples was to stir them up to a constant and earnest endeavour of utterly disentangling themselves from all the attractions of the relish of the Flesh or Spirit of the World and of joyning themselves entirely and cordially with and of dwelling wholly in the relish sense and life of the Spirit of God or of that Divine Spirit whose suggestions are no dictates of self-love or partial interest but the substantial concerns of the Kingdom of God and the good of the whole World For which he who has this Divine relish will not stick to lay down his Life if need require according to that endearing Example of our ever-blessed and adored Saviour Let it be therefore my task at this time to exhort you earnestly to endeavour after this great and indispensable attainment of this Single Eye this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wisdom of the Spirit which this Parable of our Saviour points to and is indeed the proper Spirit of Christ concerning which S. Paul expresly declares He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Which ought to be a rousing Argument to awaken us into a due sense of so great a want For unless we regain this Single Eye we shall never see the right way to Heaven There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus namely to such as walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the law of sin and of death For the relish of the flesh or carnal-mindedness is death But the relish of the spirit or spiritual-mindedness is life and peace But the carnal mind is enmity against God because it cannot submit it self to the law of God but is in perpetual opposition against it ever suggesting what is contrary to it Wherefore we must wholly withdraw our selves out of that Principle as we hope to attain to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God And assuredly whosoever has that Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus it will free him and rid him from the power of all the urgings suggestions or subtil insinuations of that Law of the sinful flesh of self-love and self-interest Though he may feel these self-savouring suggestions and the more clearly discern them to be such by the perspicuity of the Single Eye the Spirit of Christ yet he is so freed from their power that he will never act according to them but constantly act according to the relish and suggestion of that pure Principle of the Spirit which has not the least tincture of self-love or carnal interest And there is a neceffity of perfectly clearing up at last into this Single-mindedness by reason of the war and enmity betwixt the Carnal Principle and this of the Spirit for without this there is no peace nor joy nor enjoyment in this Life nor in that which is to come The Law of the sinful life of the Flesh therefore is utterly to be abrogated nulled and annihilated and we are to judge and act in all things according to the discernments of that Single Eye or pure Principle of the Spirit of Christ. But I will rather confine the Arguments of my Exhortation to the Text and content my self with what it will afford namely the four Analogies I have produced and explained and so conclude 1. The light of the Body is the Eye What therefore the Eye is to the Body that is some vital and sensible leading Principle in the Soul to the Soul Is it not therefore of infinite consequence what this leading Principle is when it is of as much consequence to the Soul as the Eye is to the Body and the Soul of incomparably more worth than the Body What man would have the Eye of a Batt of an Owl or of a Mole for the guidance of his Body unless he were to have his abode under the Earth with the Mole or to venture abroad only in the Night with the Batt and Owl Every Animal is to have an Eye congenerous to its own Nature And therefore that Divine Animal which we call Man I mean the inward man the Soul is to have an Eye congenerous to hers she is to have this Single Spiritual Eye unless she will converse only with Brutes or Devils in their Kingdom of Darkness 2. Again The Single Eye makes the whole Body full of light that is it is a fit and faithful guide to it which way soever it goes And that is the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Iesus to the Soul Which assuredly is the Law of Divine love which is not the love of a mans self or any particular or partial Interest but the hearty love of God and a mans Neighbour that is of all mankind when with a single heart he wishes them and is ready to do them all the good they are capable of and himself in a capacity to administer to them This is that pure and lovely Eye of the Soul indeed which fills her full of Celestial light and enrolls her in the Book of Life and of the Children of Light This is that Vnction from the Holy one even from the Father of Lights whereby we know all things appertaining to Life and Godliness and that Iesus that stupendious Pattern of this Divine Love is the Lord and Christ And that that man of sin that exalts himself above all that is called God and supports his Power Pride and Pomp with gross Imposture and barbarous Bloodshed is that notorious Antichrist he that has this Single Eye easily discerns this and can hardly forbear to suspect that they that do not see it are blind through the Spirit of the World or else drunk with the steames of that Cup of abominations and see double This Simple and Unself-interested Spirit of Love is that Anointing of which S. Iohn saith that if it abide in us we need not that any man teach us but the same Anointing will teach us of all things and is truth and is no lie It is very Truth substantial and essential without any shadow of vanity or imposture in it and such as will seal our hearts with an eternal adhesion to our ever-blessed Saviour as being the communication of his own Spirit to us and be evermore a safe guide to us in our passage thorough this present life He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him Wherefore as we tender our safe conduct through the wilderness of this World through all the dangers and perils of so difficult a journey we must earnestly endeavour the recovering of this Single-mindedness this amiable Eye of the pure love
we may come to be temperate to be sober to be chast to be modest to be humble to study mortification of all wickedness in Flesh and Spirit being so persuaded that Wisdom will not inhabit where these be absent and in conclusion a dreadful thing to think of we may fall into the same Heresie with S. Iames and Solomon That Wisdom is the gift of God and that it is a point of Wisdom to think so But that no men rashly and arrogantly take upon them this gift before it be given I could wish that all that are forward to profess themselves the Scholars of God nay his Secretaries his Closet-counsel his only Children born and brought up of him the only wise and holy Off-spring of God full of Wisdom and Celestial Understanding that they would examine themselves by that Rule in S. Iames chap. 3. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge amongst you Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not an lye not against the Truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish For where envying and strife is there is contention and every evil work But the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie Whosoever therefore is fervent and vehement in maintaining the Truth let him first be assured that he has the right Knowledge and the true mind of the Spirit of God And before he ascribes this Spirit of Wisdom or Heavenly Understanding to himself let him try if he have the qualifications of that Celestial Wisdom which are Meekness Purity Peaceableness Gentleness Affability Mercy Bounty Impartialness and Simplicity He that hath not these hath not the Truth but is liable to be made the habitation of seducing Devils and to create mischief to men and shame and eternal confusion to his own self As sure as God doth impart his Spirit of Truth and Divine Knowledge to his Children so surely true it is that that Spirit suggesteth no Cruelty nor Unrighteousness but Patience Benignity Compassion and boundless and unlimited Charity And if men otherwise qualified pretending to the Spirit as Histories testifie have plainly shewn that they were led by some Fanatick erroneous Fury lodging in spiritual pride and infernal bitterness and distemper yet this is no sufficient excuse of that common Civil Atheism in the World that excludeth the operation of Gods Spirit in the hearts of men and attributes all to Nature and Humane Industry For as nihil generat seipsum is true in Philosophy so that no man can regenerate himself is as true in Divinity But now that this New Creature born at this Second Birth should have its old Eyes and the same sight with the Earthly Adam seems to me a thing monstrous and prodigious Surely there is a renovation of the Understanding as well as the Will and both by the Divine Spirit the Wisdom of God that worketh all in all I but here some mischievous piece of modesty will object Can that Spirit be communicable to us also that hath such magnificent Titles in the 7th of Wisdom She is the breath of the power of God and a pure influence that floweth from the glory of the Almighty She is the brightness of the everlasting light the undefiled mirrour of the majesty of God and the image of his Goodness I Answer Here is the treasure of those precious promises S. Peter speaks of And hitherto may be referr'd that in the Psalms Glorious things are spoken of thee O thou city of God But I need not have gone out of the same Chapter an answer being so nigh at hand As there be many Epithets of Height and Majesty so there is one of Humanity and Courtesie But these words are too weak to express that affection which is attributed there to this good Spirit of Wisdom It is said in the Greek Text to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of men Therefore you shall find this Spirit descending in the 27th of that Chapter even sliding down into the Souls of Holy and Humble men And that not once or twice as if it were afraid of such debasement but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from age to age But there is yet a more plentiful Testimony of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 6th Chapter ver 16. She goeth about seeking such as are meet for her and sheweth her self chearfully unto them in the wayes and meeteth them in every thought And at the 12th Verse Wisdom shineth and never fadeth away and is easily seen of them that love her and found of such as seek her She preventeth them that desire her that she may first shew her self unto them Whoso awaketh to her betimes shall have no great travail For he shall find her sitting at his doors Blessed is the man that exerciseth himself in her and he that layeth up her commandments in his heart shall be wise If he do them he shall be strong in all things For he setteth his steps in the light of the Lord which giveth wisdom to the godly The Lord be praised for evermore So be it So be it AND here I should willingly end did I not suspect that that which hath been spoken might move some Scruples in the minds of the Younger Auditors As whether wicked men have any Knowledge at all or no whether this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exclude the use of Books with such others as misapprehension is the most ready and plentiful suggestor of doubts and difficulties But I will meddle only with these two I have named 1. And first with the former It would be a very distastful position to Flesh and Blood to say that wicked men are mere Ignaroes For there being not many that are not conscious to themselves of some dearly fosterd wickedness in their breast they would be put to a shreud strait for they must either undergo the doleful death of dying to their beloved Corruption or else be content to count themselves Fools so long as they live Both which are Gall and Wormwood to Natural Pride and Concupiscency But let us brook it as we can that Spirit in Esaiah dares give Sentence in this cause Behold all you that kindle a fire and are compassed about with sparks walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that you have kindled This shall you have at my hand you shall lye down in sorrow 'T is true the Prophet here allowes them some light but a light of their own kindling And if Foolishness be the School-Mistress the Scholars are not likely to be very wise Weak quickly-dying sparks they have blindly and boldly mounting up though their Vehicle be but a filthy fuliginous vapour of darkness But the Sun of Righteousness hath not yet shone upon them Gross fire
abstain from fleshly and bodily Desires from their accomplishment I mean has some hidden Contentment within undiscover'd to the World The Heart knoweth his own bitterness and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy Our Saviour Christ himself could not with such ease have slighted the cravings of Nature for He was a man like to us in all things Sin only excepted and disregarded his seasonable Sustenance had it not been so as he professes it was in his Answer to his Disciples I have meat to eat you know not of AND thus much of the Occasion and Proposal of the Parable I come now to the double Consequent thereof viz. First The Disciples misapprehension or false collection Hath any man brought him to eat Secondly Our Saviours true interpretation of the Parable My meat is to do the will of him that sent me c. Hath any man brought him to eat It was obvious to think so I confess but not at all necessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Has any man The Ravens fed Elijah the Tisbite by the Brook Cherith which is before Iordan They brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening 1 Kings 17. 6. And not the Fowls of the Air only but the winged Host of Heaven might have been employed for this purpose They owe more than this to the Son of God But the mistake was not so much in the manner of the conveyance of this Meat as in the nature of the Meat it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meats for the belly and the belly for meats but God will destroy both it and them He breaks and weakens that strong influence they have upon the minds of men that Circean Magick that metamorphozes the Souls of men into meer Beasts and changes their Understandings By the power of These the Disciples themselves seem stupid and are at a loss when their great Teacher utters himself in Heavenly Parables I have meat to eat you know not of For the unfolding of this dark Riddle They look no higher than a Sun-dyal or at farthest on the Sun and read there past Twelve and without any great subtilty can easily collect that it is Dinner-time which now compar'd with their lately bought Provision in the Cities of Samaria and the savoury suggestions of their own Stomachs their thoughts are circumscribed within the margins of a Platter they have animam in patinis as the Proverb goes and are not at leasure to think of any thing higher than Bodily Food Has any man brought him to eat I will observe two things from this passage and so leave it First The slowness of the Earthly Mind to apprehend Spiritual Mysteries There be two notable Instances of it One in those two Disciples that went to Emaus to whom Christ appeared and part of whose discourse was Luke 24. Concerning Iesus of Nazareth a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people And how the Chief Priests and their Rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him But they trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel viz. from the Roman yoke according to that meer Terrene apprehension the Iewes it should seem then had and at this time have concerning the Messias making him a Temporal Prince and expecting a Temporal Happiness from him The other Instance is Iohn 6. 51 52. I am the living bread that came down from Heaven If any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world The Iews therefore strove amongst themselves saying How can this man give us his flesh to eat But the words our Saviour Christ here speaks are as he himself professes they are spirit and they are life and therefore Spiritually to be discerned and not by Carnal Eyes The other point that I would observe is the Vneffectualness of our Saviours presence according to the Flesh. If his Spirit had been in them as his Body was with them I make no question but their Minds had been so Heavenly disposed that our Saviours Speeches would not have proved such AEnigma's unto them It is true the very touch of Christs Garments healed the Bodies of the Sick sometime but nothing under his Spirit is effectual for recuring the Soul It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing Ioh. 6. 63. I have many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now Howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all truth Iohn 16. 12 13. Our Saviours Bodily presence could not convey those Divine Truths unto his Disciples that an inward principle of life when they were partakers thereof would convey to them And therefore he prefers the mission of the Holy Ghost before his own Bodily conversing with them at the 7th Verse of that Chapter I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you But if I depart I will send him unto you And this was S. Pauls pious boast 2. Cor. 5. 16 17. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature viz. if he be in Christ not after the Flesh but be regenerate of the Spirit I HAST on now to the last part of the Text our Saviours own Solution of this Parable proposed by him to his Disciples and by them misunderstood Therefore said the disciples one to another Hath any man brought him to eat There 's the Misinterpretation Iesus saith unto them My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work There 's our Saviours explication of his own mind The great Truth and Mystery not inferiour to any Mystery contained in this interpretation is this That the will of God is the food of the Soul This I conceive to be plainly exhibited to us in this Text. For the Divinity of Christ it cannot be said to feed of any thing it is self-sufficient and immutable according to those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Mankind has of God Such Spiritual food as the will of God cannot belong to the Body for those Bodies grow fat that have no relish thereof It remains therefore the Soul of Christ was that which was fed with the will of God And his Soul and ours are ejusdem speciei Christ being utterly like us in all things Sin only excepted Wherefore I conclude this Doctrine The will of God is the food of mans Soul I mean of Regenerate man I know the Carnal appetite will pronounce it a very slight and slender Sallet But I will answer that Objection in short The natural man is uncapable of the things of the Spirit of God 1. Cor. 2. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Saint that he will be mis-shapen'd and transform'd into the figure of an abhorred Fiend 2. Growth As Plants and Living Creatures spread and grow in bigness in vertue of their nourishment So the Soul is enlarged by forsaking her own Will and by continual meditating upon and endeavouring to do the Will of God For our own Will and Desire is a poor narrow contracted thing pinching us down next to nothing by confining us to our selves and our own scant bottoms But the Essential Will of God is free and large even boundless as himself and the work of it upon us when we receive it is like unto it Our drawing and concentring all in our own Will is like the gathering together of the free light and warmth of the Sun into a burning glass those rayes that before lay free mild and friendly in a larger room thus forc'd together become surly ireful and scorching Or like fire half-stifled in a bundle of green wood it fumes and glowes and is sad in it self and utterly uncomfortable to others but when it breaks out into a free flame how chearfully doth it shine and laugh and look pleasant filling the whole house with lightsomeness and joy That is mans Straiten'd Will This the Free Spirit and Will of God Pride and ambition and thirst after knowledge and the glory and applause of men do puff up the Soul when these are satisfied make her look big and bloat But that this Food is not wholesome nor the growth sound every small prick of adverse fortune or frowns of men do demonstrate the tumour of the mind then shriveling up like an emptyed bladder But that bulk and breadth that the Soul gets by feeding on Gods Will is sound and permanent as the Will of God is which nothing can wash away 3. And as Strong as large doth the Soul of man become by feeding on this Celestial Food In so much that it can bear all things and endure all things What makes the miseries and misfortunes of the World so tedious and irksome to men what makes their Souls sink and faint under this burden but eating of that poysonous fruit our own Will Which would not be if we had no Will of our own but fed meerly on the good pleasure of God giving thanks for whatever he brings upon us For in all outward things and to speak more fully in all things that befall us our Soul our Body our Friends or Estate in all these the Will of God is done so far as Sin intermeddles not So that if we relish no Will but the Will of God how strong shall we be to bear all these We shall be able 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 easily to digest either Fortune Good or Ill Life or Death Honour or Dishonour Riches or Poverty all will down save our own Will This will choak the Soul or poyson its complexion make it lye in weakness and languishment that it will be weak sickly peevish and infirm the whole Creature of God will be a burden to it nay the least of them may prove an importable AEtna 4. But I go on The Fourth thing considerable in Food is the Tast. And hitherto may be refer'd those affectionate expressions in the Psalmist who speaking of the Laws of God which is the interpretation of his Will giveth abundance of sweetness and pleasantness to them Psalm 19. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether more to be desired then gold yea then much fine gold sweeter also then honey and the honey-comb And hence it is that the Holy and Happy man so meditates and ruminates on the Laws of God Psalm 1. His delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night Psal. 63. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night-watches And certainly if the Will of the Flesh be sweet and to be longed after so by the Carnal-minded man the Will of the Spirit when it is once come is much more sweet For there is nothing in the Sensual Life of Good not so much as of seeming good but it is really and fully in the Life Spiritual Which we must believe for we cannot know till such time as we have experience of it and that will be when we leave off our commerce and conversation with the Will of the Flesh. The lips of a strange woman drop as an honey-comb and her mouth is sweeter than oyl This is thy Carnal-mind the Will of thy Flesh as Maimonides expounds it a subtil inticing Serpent lying ever in thy bosom and yet a strange Woman thy Harlot with whom thou feastest and sportest and forgettest thy Husband Christ Iesus the Will of God the Holy Spirit the Divine Life But her end is bitter as wormwood sharp as a two-edged sword Her feet go down to death her steps take hold on Hell And here is the great difference betwixt the sweetness of our own Will and the Will of God That ends in bitter choller in wrath and vengeance and death but this is wholesome as well as toothsome and is the very nexus and vinculum whereby vve are held in Eternal Life Lust is svveet Pride is svveet Revenge is exceeding svveet and above all svveetness is the svveetness of Craft and Carnal Policy But remember that as svveetly as thou lickest thy Lips in secret thou hast svvallovved dovvn poyson and it vvill burn in conclusion as the Fire of Hell God has brought thee into the wilderness that thou mayest enjoy the Promised Land offers thee Angels food would feed thee with Manna Let not thy mouth water after the Flesh-pots of AEgypt Say not with the grumbling Israelites Who shall give us flesh to eat Lest the Lord in his anger give you Flesh to eat not two days nor five days neither ten days nor twenty days but even a whole moneth until it come out at your nostrils and it become loathsome unto you and while the Flesh is betwixt your teeth the wrath of the Lord be kindled against you That you be so far engaged in your own Will and head-strong wayes that nothing but destruction can deal with you And thus much of the Taste of this Food 5. The Fifth and last thing is the Satisfying of the Stomach Bodinus tells us of a Story of a Noble of Aspremont who used to entertain those that came to his House with all Plenty and Magnificency that may be the Tables furnished with all variety of the most rare Delicates rich Furniture excellent Attendance every thing point device from the Stable to the Dining-room above desire or expectation But that which is strange so soon as they were gone out of his House both Horse and Man was ready to dye with hunger The like Magick and Imposture is there in all those things that our deceiv'd Souls feed upon in this life It is
and in the mean time abstain from no manner of pleasure in anger impotent in good fortune insolent in adversity impatient remember the Name of God and in the mean while be held with all manner of Passions overcome no kind of perturbation Vertue arrived at its due pitch with true Wisdom and Prudence shews God unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But without true Vertue the naming of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but a name a word a sound an eccho nothing See how the Heathen Philosopher triumphs over those unworthy Christians whose Religion was but Opinion and their Life the depth of filth and corruption Or see rather how moderately and civilly he carries himself toward them that in their Controversies are ready to eat up and devour one another 2. But I will endeavour to convince them with the Apostles own Argument viz. That they that hear and do not deceive their own selves There be many testimonies of Scripture that will witness this deceit Gal. 6. 7 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting So S. Iohn Little children be not deceived he that doth righteousness he is righteous even as he is righteous He that commits sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning 1 Cor. 6. Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor wantons nor defilers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor railers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God How frequent are the Apostles in inculcating this so plain a Truth That righteousness of life is that which leads to God and his Eternal Kingdom Surely those Holy Watchmen of Israel did see the time would come that the delusions of the Devil would so strongly possess the heads and hearts of men that they would be fast glewed in hypocritical holiness to some outward form of Religion as the formal Hearing of the Word and such like that they might with a more quiet false Conscience omit the greater things of the Law as Justice Temperance Charity Humility and the whole quire of Holy Vertues The other they ought to do but by no means to leave these undone But now I will endeavour to shevv how this simple sort of Souls are befooled Galat. 6. If any man seem to himself that he is somewhat when he is nothing he deceiveth himself in his imagination Now these empty Hearers of the Word that they think themselves to be somewhat is plain from hence else would they seek something better but being that they set up their rest in this outward performance it 's a sign that they seem to themselves not to have got nothing But that they are as surely nothing as it is sure they take themselves to be something is easily proved out of 1 Cor. 13. Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels and have not charity I am as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal And although I had the gift of prophesie and knew all secrets and all knowledge yea if I had all faith so that I could remove mountains and had not love I were nothing Now that they that are but idle Hearers of the Word have not Charity and so consequently are nothing will be proved out of the effects of Charity Love suffereth long They are impatient Love is bountiful They are griping and covetous Love envieth not They are choaked with malice Love is not puffed up They are swoln with deceitful imagination Love disdaineth not They regard not the humble It seeketh not its own They are not contented with their own It is not provoked to anger They are implacable It thinks no evil They meditate no good It rejoyceth in the truth They are contemners of the Truth It believeth all things They believe no more than serves their own turn It fulfils the Law They only hear the Law The estate of this kind of people is well described by the Prophet Esay The multitude of all nations that fight against the altar shall be as a dream or vision of the night Even all they that make the war against it and strong-holds against it and lay siege unto it And it shall be like as an hungry man dreams and behold he eateth and when he awaketh his Soul is empty Or like as a thirsty man dreameth and lo he is drinking and when he awaketh behold he is faint and his Soul longeth So shall the multitude of nations be that fight against mount Sion That we are to sacrifice our selves that is our wickedness and fleshly life no man I think will deny But so exceeding misery it is and smart to Flesh and Blood to undergo this mortification and to lye broiling in this consuming fire that there needs a steddy strong upholding instrument for this so weighty performance which is all-bearing Patience This holds up the mortified Soul in its extreme burning anguish and therefore is not unlike an Altar that bears the Sacrifice Now they that fight against this real Service of God which is the mortification of our sinful Lusts the sacrificing of our evil Life and against Sion which God calls the Hill of his Holiness Let them dream never so strongly nor phansie never so deeply that such a measure of Righteousness will serve their turn a formal Hearing of the Word and a favourable false Application out of the same all this sweet repast and imaginary trust and perswasion will prove but a vision of the night and a feasting upon phansie in deceivable sleep For these Dreamers instead of purging the Flesh by the sacrifice of fire defile the Flesh with the fire of Lust Great pretenders to Knowledge and therefore sedulous Hearers but no Doers Clouds without water and they you know make a goodly show of whitish shining light though not so thoroughly enlightned as the blew Sky Stars they are but wandering Stars the end of whose staggering period is to set in everlasting blackness of darkness But I go on now to two other Arguments 3. A third Argument is taken from the Dignity of the Word it self Thou hast magnified thy name and thy Word above all things saith the Psalmist Hitherto belongs the Purity of the Word Thy Word is most pure therefore they servant loveth it Psal. 119. And it is Philo's observation upon the manner of the giving of the Law out of Fire and Smoke and Lightening 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Well and befittingly may the Word of God be said to come out of the fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the holy oracles of God are accurately purged and tryed even as gold in the fire So the Psalmist Psalm 12. The words of the Lord are pure words even as silver which from the earth is tryed and purifyed seven times in the fire So great Purity was conceived to be
the Spirit of Christ. For the First Eph. 6. 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places Beloved The great work of Salvation is not then accomplished when we have through the power of God and the strength of Jesus Christ overcome the Lusts of the Body as Drunkenness Gluttony Whoredom and the like But we shall find a new task the taming of our proud Spirit For after our first conquest I mean the overcoming the Lusts of the Body then pride and haughtiness and contempt of our Neighbour the thinking of our selves some-body rigour and unmercifulness to our sinful Brother the magnifying of our selves in some conceited Opinions searching out and confidently concluding concerning the secrets of God censuring and contemning all men that are not of the same conceit in Divine Speculations with our selves These and many such like evil delusions the Devil will sow in our Hearts The Devil himself is neither Whoremaster nor Drunkard nor Glutton But he is Proud but he is Contemptuous but he is Hypocritical but he is a Blood-sucker a Murderer from the beginning full of self-love full of self-admiration full of cruelty under pretence of Religion full of deceit and injustice under pretence of Truth and maintenance of Godliness full of ambition and desire of rule even over the Souls and Consciences of men full of self-applause and arrogancy and strutting in his own supposed knowledge and power But true denyal of our selves and unfeigned deep humility a sensible apprehension of our nothingness as I may so say or real detestable vileness will cause such dreadful agonies in our Souls that no tongue can express nor heart conceive that hath not had experience of those bitter Sufferings With so great pain and torment are we torn and riven from our spiritual wickedness disjointed and dislimb'd as it were from our head that Prince of Pride and Father of Disobedience the Devil But I will now shew you the other kind of suffering which is the suffering in Spirit by reason of other mens wickedness When we are united to God and Christ in the union of Spirit then do those things that are contrary to the Spirit of God as all manner of sin trouble our Spirit Envious or cruel acts drunkenness deceit pride rigour fierceness folly and whatsoever else is sinful or vain our Spirit being enlivened by the Spirit of God is grieved and vext at these wickednesses or vanities Then we plainly see how Christ is cut and lash'd and hew'd and stab'd with our wicked deeds how he is crucified afresh as the Apostle speaketh Here may the true Church of God the Holy Ierusalem take up fitly that Lamentation in Ieremy Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow See how the Prophet David was affected with the wickedness of men Psal. 119. Mine eyes gush out with water because men keep not thy law I beheld the transgressours and was grieved because men keep not thy word So Lot was tormented at the wickedness of Sodom 2 Pet. 2. 7. And delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked For that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds So God complains in the Spirit of his Prophet Amos. Behold I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves Amos 2. 13. And surely there is good Reason it should be so a sure Necessity For Fire is not more contrary to Water nor Light to Darkness nor any enmity in Nature or among men so strong as that betwixt the Spirit of God and the Spirit of the Devil that is in evil wicked men according to which they live and act So then when that detestable ugliness flowes out in their words or actions it must needs offend the Children of God God being of pure eyes and not abiding to behold wickedness Hence are they driven into consuming zeal or deep inexpressible grief And this is the second kind of suffering in Spirit But Beloved take this in by the way That he that can be angry at other mens faults and not much more angry at his own is a dissembler an Hypocrite Herein let every man examine himself But he that is so stupid that he is not moved at all with the wickedness of others or of himself is perfectly dead in Sin and is in the full power of Satan and is covered with Eternal Death and Darkness THIS Second Doctrine is now sufficiently plain That they that would be Heirs of the Kingdom of Christ must suffer with Christ. I will again here stir you up to an examination and tryal of your Spiritual state whether you have any interest in the Heavenly Inheritance The Sign and infallible Seal is our suffering with Christ. But not any suffering For the fuffering in Estate if we escape it yet may we be inheritors of Heaven But to be evil spoken of for Christ is harder to efcape yet admit we escape that too we may for all that be secure of our Eternal Inheritance Nor have all that are now with God been whip'd and tortur'd and put to death or martyrdom But yet we ought to be so minded that we had rather endure all these things than depart from Christ. But all the other sufferings as abstinence from voluptuousness from the delights of the flesh from priding our selves in any thing that God hath bestowed upon us a suppressing our anger abstaining from the sweetness of revenge denying of the ever-craving appetite of covetousness keeping our tongues from the delight of defamation and evil reports our ears from hearing evil of our Neighbour These be necessary All which endeavours will surely afflict and vex the corrupt Natural Spirit of a man But he that will not undergo this suffering believe it Beloved he is none of Christs he hath neither part nor portion in the Kingdom of Christ and of God But he that doth though with great agony of Soul and affliction of Mind fight against all this corruption of Flesh and Spirit He may bless God for his good condition and with good reason lay hold of the hope of Heaven They that are troubled in Spirit for the wickedness of men the prophanation of Gods name and any manner of sin and iniquity these men may conclude that they have the Spirit of God and consequently that they are the Sons of God And if sons then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ If so be that we suffer with him Which our own Spirit together with Gods Spirit doth testifie to us that we do and that we shall be certainly glorified with him Let every man herein examine himself that he may find a true ground of his hope of Eternal Salvation For none shall be saved but they that are
and claims title to all must be Catholick None must stand before it A true Vr of the Chaldees eating up and devouring all other Deities Whatsoever is not This is Idolatry Blasphemy and Impiety And therefore we can admit of none but our own Or if we should by chance or unawares we recoyl back with more than Caunian zeal and indignation We are no where so lavish of our affection as in point of Religion and the more because no where more safe For who can love God too much and Religion immediately referrs to God This I would say that in the many and manifold distractions and divisions which the sons of men exercise one another with on this blind and dark spot the Earth where there is a great deal more talk of God than true knowledge of him all Religions every where agree in this one that nothing ought to be more precious and dear unto us than our Religion And in this also which I must again note with greater admiration that ordinary Religionists are in nothing so superficially and perfunctorily satisfied in as in what they do so devoutly love whence it comes to pass that many thousands of men Ixion-like embrace not Iuno but a Cloud Wherefore we cannot sufficiently commend the sober care and prudence of the blessed Apostle who hath so amply and fully set out to us that which few men have the patience to peruse in a closer Character And therefore out of neglect and carelesness very subject to mistake and if mistaken mistake more dangerously than in any thing else possibly they can do spending their most serious and dearest affections upon falshood their very hearts and souls upon unprofitable lyes and not only forfeiting their own happiness but as much as in them lyes pulling in others also into the same whirl-pool or dangerous pit of destruction But Beloved that we be not led away with the same errour of the wicked nor serve the phansies of men let us again cast our eyes on the Text and learn the truth of Religion Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep a mans self unspotted of the world The Text as I intimated before is a definition of Pure and Vndefiled Religion I might resolve it into these two Logical terms of Definitum and Definitio Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father that 's the Definitum or thing defin'd The Definition this To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep a mans self unspotted from the world But I shall handle the Text more roughly and fetch out though not force out these four Particulars 1. That there is a pure and undefiled Religion 2. That God the Father is judge of this pure and undefiled Religion 3. That to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction and to keep ones self unspotted of the World this is pure and undefiled Religion 4. That it is pure and undefiled Religion even in the judgment and sight of God I. That there is a pure and undefiled Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It will not be amiss to make some short stay upon the unfolding of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies properly Cultus divinus Orpheus the Thracian and great Mystagogue of the Graecians gave occasion to this term For they being taught the manners and rites of serving the Gods by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nonnus tells us They called the worshiping of the Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being a Thracian invention Beza translates it very well and significantly Cultus Religiosus and our English not amiss Religion in the proper sense as it is taken for the Worship of God and not extended to both Tables as S. Austin and Lactantius would have it For beside the propriety of the Greek word the quality of those to whom the Apostle wrote is no small Argument that that Religion which consists in Gods immediate Worship is here meant or alluded to they being the dispersed Iews to whom he wrote as is manifest in the beginning of the Epistle whose Native Religion consisted in multitude of Rites and Ceremonies and was eminent for the outward Form of Worship and Service of God These were all but a cloud a veil and mist and was to be drawn aside and vanish at the approach of the Sun of Righteousness that was to rise with healing in his wings that is our Saviour God blessed for ever And according to this notion the two following terms viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not only admit of but call for this Exposition viz. pure and unpainted as the words are sufficiently capable thereof The true pure refin'd unsophisticated Religion is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in his Sophista And Plotinus Lib. 2. Ennead 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that according to the idiom of the tongue Pure Religion is that which is unbared of all heterogeneal admixture purg'd and separated from all ascititious additaments cleansed and refined from that palpable gross luggage of unweildy Ceremonies being pure Extraction mere Essence or Quintessence perfect Life and Spirit Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undyed unpainted with the pencil of Humane Art or Device a naked and bare Truth Which though it hath been diversly figur'd and shap'd by the outward dress of Ceremonies yet it has been from everlasting to everlasting Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gospel of Eternal Truth the Law of Life the perfect Law of Liberty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is most true of this everlasting Law of Life whose Original is as deep as the Divine Abyss But I am afraid that I have by this Exposition though very true and genuine so spiritualiz'd Religion and unbared the Truth that Carnal eyes accustomed to Shadows and gross Ceremonies will doubt whether there be any thing of Religion left after so much sifting and cleansing But I hold it no hard task to answer these men If they mean by no Religion left no Ceremony left I grant it But if by no Religion no truth of Religion I say there is nothing but the truth of Religion left And that the truth of Religion should not deserve the name of Religion as well as the Shadow or Type I know no reason no more than Caesar himself should not be called Caesar as well as his Picture be it drawn with never so much art and cunning Mistake me not I speak not as if the kernel must of necessity be without a shell but led on by my Text I speak of the kernel without the shell and exalt it far above the dry shell Psal. 50. 13. Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats Psal. 51. 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite
point of Religion exerciz'd all the time God himself bears witness against them Ezekiel 33. They speak every one to his brother saying Come I pray you and hear what is the word that cometh from the Lord. They come unto thee and sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after covetousness And lo thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument for they hear thy words but they do them not And Reading of the Scripture privately is so like the publick Preaching of it that I need not take any new pains to refute the vanity of it if it be not accompanied with due obedience We may fetch that up to Divinity which Epictetus hath both wittily and gravely of Moral Theorems The Sheep tell not their keeper how much Fodder or Grass they eat but shew that they feed sufficiently by their Milk and Wooll Let us not therefore Beloved do as vain Limners they say have done drawn Venus and the Virgin Mary according to the feature of some Face they themselves love best Let us not I say picture out Religion to our own liking and then be in love with an Idol of our own making but love and like that which the Apostle has so plainly pourtray'd to us That whose description consists in visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keeping our selves unspotted of the world Which in two words is this Charity and Purity Of these two consists that true Religion acceptable to God For I conceive visiting the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction excludes not other good deeds from this definition but by a Synecdoche is put for the whole office of Charity 1. The First branch is Charity I will not curiously and artificially set out the bounds of this Vertue It will be enough to intimate that it is not confin'd to the relief of the Body only as he is not only Fatherless that wants his Natural Parent but he much more that has not God for his Father through the seed of the new birth Nor she alone a Widow that has lost her Natural Husband but every Soul is a Widow that is estranged and divorced from her God whose sins have made a separation betwixt her and her Maker Thy Maker is thy Husband Esa. 11. 54. He is so indeed to those that are not faithless and play the Harlot for of such saith the Lord She is not my Wife neither am I her Husband Hosea 2. 2. He therefore that can reconcile a Soul unto God doth not only relieve the Fatherless and Widow but procures an Husband and Father for them and wholly rids them out of their distressful estate These outward transient actions tending to the spiritual or temporal good of our Neighbour are fit testimonies of our sincere Religion before men but for every mans private satisfaction concerning himself there be divers inward and immanent motions of the Soul which will abundantly help on this confirmation I will reckon them up out of the mouth of the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. Where I will not balk those that be at ad extra too they being all very well worth our taking notice of Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envieth not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up Doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth Beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things 2. I pass on now to the Second branch Purity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep himself unspotted from the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies properly such kind of spots as are in Clothes by spilling some liquid or oyly thing on them An hard task certainly to be Religious at this height Is it to be thought possible that we should wear this Garment of Mortality every day nay every hour and moment for thirty forty fifty sixty years together and soil it by no mischange or miscarriage either of careless Youth violent Manhood or palsied Old Age To pass through the hurry and tumult of this World and never be crouded into the dirt nor be spattered by them that post by us But verily this is not the meaning of the Apostle or of his description of Religion that no man is Religious but he that is absolutely spotless But he sets before us an Idea or Paradigme of true Religion that men having their eyes upon it may know how much or rather how little of Religion they have attained to By how much nearer conformable to this pattern by so much more Religious by how much further off by so much the less Religious He that is not so much as within the sight of it has not so much as seen the least glimpse or glance of Godliness but may be without any wrong to him writ down Atheist Let every man herein examine himself and ask his own Conscience how unspotted he has kept himself from the World And here as hard a difficulty represents it self if not harder than before To keep himself unspotted from the World Is it not pure Irreligiousness to think so Impossible to be so Who can keep himself pure I answer it may be a mistake in the Idiom of the Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be kept unspotted from the World Hithpael for Niphai as there is elsewhere Niphal for Hithpael Acts 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Beza Or to keep himself unspotted from the World is to be understood so far forth as is in our power which in truth is very little Here therefore steps in the power of Christ that strong Arm of God for our Salvation the stay and trust of all Nations and the hope of the ends of the Earth For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. We walk though it be in the power of that Spirit of Life in Christ as our Body moves by vertue of our Natural Spirit But whether this act of purification or keeping our selves pure be so from God that it is not in any wise from us I leave to them to dispute that are more at leasure That it must be in us if there be any Religion in us is all that the Text affords me and 't is enough for the tryal of our Religion Pure Religion is to keep our selves unspotted from the World What to keep our selves
to the Second requisite in our Beneficency which is the Vniversality thereof Gal. 6. 10. While we have time let us do good to all men especially to them of the houshold of faith Here 's no evasion out of this injunction If so be the Apostle had said Do good to all some cavilling Sophister would have said I to all Christians or to all true Professours As every Sect will be found to stile themselves so Thus this All is to be restricted But the Apostles command or rather the manner of it prevents all such self-seeking Sophistry Do good to all men whatsoever so far as they are capable though in the first place I could wish you to have a special tender care of them of the Holy Faith and upright Godly Life I but will Flesh and Blood reply to our Enemy Yes to our Enemy If a man find his enemy will he let him go This was that that amased Saul so mightily That David a Type of the Divine Love a Symbol of the very Life and Spirit of Christ that David whom he had sought to kill should let him escape when he was in his power It wrought so upon Sauls Spirit that it forced tears from his eyes and made his heart in his body like melting wax When David had made an end of expostulating with Saul about his unjust pursuit of him and had shewed how dear his Masters Life was in his sight Saul said Is this the voice of my son David And Saul lift up his voice and wept And said to David thou art more righteous than I For thou hast rendered me good and I have rendered thee evil 1 Sam. 24. I will only add the Apostles Exhortation Rom. 12. 26. If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink 3. And so I go on to the Third requisite which is the Qualification of the mind of the giver which consists chiefly in these two things 1. In chearfulness and willingness of mind 2. In an honest and humble simplicity of heart without any reference to the applause and approbation of men but in an unfeigned obedience unto God and tender heartedness toward his Neighbour 1. That Chearfulness S. Paul speaks of 2 Cor. 9. As every man wisheth in his heart so let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a chearful giver And Rom. 12. 8. He that sheweth mercy let him do it with chearfulness It should seem that in time past the Holy Saints of God distributed their Alms to men with such a loving and kind Spirit that they out of the abundance of their good affection added sweet and comfortable words to their Christian Bounty whence in the New Testament in the original Beneficency is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good-speaking blessing or well-wishing to the party to whom they do communicate And the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath the same notion which signifies both benediction and a gift 2. The Second qualification of mind is the Sincereness of communicating without respect to popular applause but merely out of love to God and our Neighbour Take heed that you give not your almes before men to be seen of men or else you shall have no reward of your father which is in heaven Not that it is unlavvful to give Alms in the sight of men but unlawful it is to give Alms in the sight of men of a purpose to be seen of them A man among other Gifts and Graces of God may let this light of Mercy shine also before men that they seeing his good works may glorifie his Father which is in Heaven I say with this proviso we may do our works in publick that it be not for our own proper ostentation but for the Glory of God HITHERTO I have declared To what persons we are to give what we are to give to these persons and after what manner we are to give I will now set down some Motives to stir us up to give our Beneficence to due Objects of our Beneficence 1. The First Motive may be drawn from the things themselves that we communicate For such is the nature of them that no man can assure himself the possession of them no not an hour Wilt thou cast thine eyes upon that which is nothing For riches taketh her to her wings as an eagle and flyeth into heaven Prov. 23. Here 's a double Argument to unty our hearts from that which Flesh and Blood so easily cleaveth to The most envious and nigardly man that is will be very well content to give nothing or to part with that which he conceives to be worth little or nothing And such is Riches in themselves unless made good use of for further happiness instead of being of our substance they are nothing if Solomons judgment be better than ours But grant they be something I and some great thing too and very desirable Yet it being so uncertain how long we shall enjoy them being they are so suddenly stone as an Eagle that in a moment gets upon her wing surely we would do wisely to follow our Saviours counsel Make you friends with the mammon of unrighteousness that when you fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations Luke 16. The Covetous man holds his Wealth so fast as if he was perswaded whensoever his Riches take their flight as an Eagle and mount to Heaven they will draw him up with them I but if he hold so fast how shall they fly Or if they get from him he holds not fast then and so is disappointed of his post But to let this pass and fall more seriously upon Instruction There 's no way of making Riches serviceable for our journey to Heaven but willingly to let them fly thither before us And that is by giving them to poor honest necessitous people to them that are as poor in Spirit as in Purse Thus may your Liberality happily arrive at Heaven For Heaven is where God is and God is there if any where In so much as you did it to any of these little ones you did it unto me as you heard before out of the 25th of S. Matthews Gospel He that gives unto these doth rather purchase than part with his Means He doth but remove his goods to another house whither he himself shall follow after a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2. And this is the Second Motive viz. The profit which doth accrue to us from our liberal distributions But if we be so sharp set that we cannot wait till that great payment That we have no excuse to hold our hands from doing good God hath promised even a Temporal Reward too Prov. 28. 27. He that giveth to the poor shall not lack And elsewhere in the Proverbs He that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord. And the borrower you know returns the same kind to the lender So we lending Temporal things to God God will return to us Temporal things here and
works may glorifie your father which is in heaven Hence doth shine out the Praise and Glory of God even from our outward real good Life But to turn the Sacrifice of the Old Law into a Ceremony of Words would not be the turning of the type or shadow into the truth or reality but the substitution of a lighter shadow for one of more solid subsistence For words are but imagines rerum the showes or shadows of things and the faintest flittingst shadows of all shadows next to vanity it self But seni verba dare difficile est If we offer empty words to the ancient of dayes he will not be so deceived Wherefore it behoveth us to serve him in the truth of his Worship which is in the acts of Charity lest we be found as mockers of God and fire come from his presence not to consume our Sacrifice which so easily vanisheth of it self but to blast our selves and so we perish irrecoverably The Summ is this If sacrificing praise that is giving of Alms or doing any manner of good to our Neighbour out of the holy spring of lively Charity in our compassionate hearts succeed the Sacrifices of the Old Law then must these Sacrifices of doing good be more really and truly a Sacrifice than those of the Old Law by how much more the Anti-type is more really such than the Type and every body more really that body or being suppose man beast or tree than the shadow or image thereof is such 2. This scruple removed I will pass on to the second thing propounded which is the comparing this true and Christian Sacrifice with that description of a Sacrifice that commonly men give Learned Mr. Calvin in the Fourth Book of his Institutions speaketh thus Nos perpetuo Scripturae usu Sacrificium appellari scimus quod Graeci nunc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nunc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nunc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicunt quod generaliter acceptum complectitur quicquid omnino Deo offertur We know saith he that Sacrifice in continual use of Scripture is called that which the Greeks name sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in a general conception comprehends whatsoever is offered to God So he And according to this sense it is very plain and evident that Alms or any manner of doing good especially to the members of Christ is a Sacrifice In as much as you did it to one of these little ones you did it unto me Matth. 25. They that are united to God and Christ the Spirit of God being shed abroad in their hearts and so they becoming one with God and God one with them surely our Sacrifice of Alms offered to these doth as immediately approach to God nay nearer and more immediately than when a Sacrifice lyeth upon a sensless stone and the smoak vanisheth into the empty air Or suppose a Turk or Infidel to receive these Alms if they be given in reference to the honour of God and in obedience to the Almighty they are Oblations or Sacrifices to God as before And what great matter whether an outward fire upon an Altar or the inward heat of an hungry stomach consume them But that I may satisfie all apprehensions concerning the nature of a Sacrifice let us now take it in a more proper and restricted sense according to which some define it thus A Sacrifice is an external Oblation made to God alone whereby some sensible thing being Consecrated by a Lawful Minister with some Mystical Rite is consumed or changed to the acknowledgment of our humane infirmity and the praise and profession of the Divine Majesty That all these requisites are found in the true Christian Sacrifice of doing good I will both briefly and clearly shew That it is an Oblation external 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Gift or Offering sensible or external is evident to every mans apprehension it needs no proof or manifestation But that it is an Offering made to God alone seems more difficult Yet that is true too As true as in those Sacrifices of the Old Law For neither in those of the Old Law was God alone served others partaked of the Sacrifice or the fire or mens mouths fed upon them or both Indeed to say the truth in the matter of the Sacrifice God was not so much as a partaker Will I eat the Flesh of Bulls or drink the Blood of Goats Can the fume of frying Flesh be so acceptable to him when the vapour thereof is so displeasant to men Or can he take any delight in the smoak of Frankincense the breath of whose spirit gives life and motion to those sweet odours of Paradise Surely no. Why then when others partake of the Sacrifice and he not should a Sacrifice be an Offering to him alone and not to others Surely not because he enjoyed any emolument from them but because the minds of the offerers passing through all sensible objects and actions fixed themselves in God and witnessed before him their obedience and thankfulness in an humble devotion of Soul and this was the only thing that passed to God alone And thus may the Christian Offering be offered to God alone When this action of communicating is resolved ultimately into obedience and inward sensible Worship of the Almighty not by watery and cold Reason but by a fervent vigour of Life When out of a quick and lively apprehension of the Will and Nature of God which is Goodness it self and all-embracing Love we to our power work according to that principle and so exhibit to God an action most consonant to his own Nature an action of Bounty and Goodness neither the applause of men nor hope of requital nor any other sinister respect sharing therein but God alone being the end and beginning whereby we move and in whom alone we rest in this holy action And this unfolds the following words of this description of a Sacrifice Some sensible thing consecrated Consecration you know appropriates a thing to God And our action of communication is appropriated to God if we seek not any thing for our selves in this action but do it simply in obedience to the Will of God But now that this action of doing good whither by hand or tongue is not without an outward mystical Ceremony is hence plain For whether it be the munificence of our hands they are but a resemblance of his munificence that openeth his hands and filleth with good every living thing Or if of tongue whereby we do beget the holy life in others or direct in doubt or danger this is an emblem of the eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the everlasting word whereby all things were made and are now governed and directed The next term that I shall explain in this definition is a legitimate Priest or Minister And surely every true Christian is truly such Christ hath made us kings and priests unto God his father Rev. 1. 6. And 1
Paul in this present Epistle if so we may happily wind our selves out of this dangerous maze or labyrinth Whereas then he seems to nullifie or vilifie at least the Law in the advancing of that Righteousness that is by Faith Let us see what this Righteousness that is of Faith and what that of the Law is Chap. 2. 19. For I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God Ver. 20. I am crucified with Christ Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me I through the law am dead to the law What a riddle is this that the Law should deprive it self of its Disciples And yet it doth so For it is a Schoolmaster to Christ or rather an Usher Which when it hath well tutour'd us and castigated us removes us up higher to be made in Christ perfect who is the perfection of the Law But the Law it self makes nothing perfect And this is the reason that Righteousness is not of the Law And to this purpose speaks the Apostle in this very Epistle Chap. 3. Ver. 21. Is the law then against the promises of God God forbid For if there had been a law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Law that could enliven and enquicken us But that is beyond the power of the Law That 's the Title and Prerogative of Christ who is the way the truth and the life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the resurrection and the life He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live Iohn 11. 25. This therefore is the Righteousness of Faith or Belief far above the Righteousness of the Law or killing Letter Now when this Faith is come we are no longer under that Poedagog of Punie-boys the Low-master But are all the Children of God by Faith in Jesus Christ. And none are the Children of God but those that are led by the Spirit of God as the Apostle witnesseth in his Epistle to the Romans And those that have the Spirit of God what fruits they bring forth is amply set out by the Apostle in this to the Galatians Chap. 5. ver 22 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Against such there is no Law For indeed there is no need of it they being a Law unto themselves So we see how those that are in Christ are not under the Law because their Obedience or that living Law in their Hearts are above it They do really and truly fulfil it through the Spirit that is by Faith For that Spirit is the begetter of Love and Love is the fulfilling of the Law For all the law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self But if ye bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another This I say then Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would But if ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law Ver. 14 15 16 17 18. Observe that If you be led by the Spirit For against such there is no Law as was said before Which implies if thou art not led by the Spirit thou art liable to the Curse of the Law to Death Hell and Damnation For so also speaks the Apostle when he hath reckoned up the works of the flesh ver 21. But here methinks I see some filching away an excuse for their own hypocrisie out of some of the foregoing words at the 6th Verse of that 5th Chapter The flesh and the spirit are contrary so that you cannot do that you would I but withal this is true too That if we will that which we do amiss we are then under the Curse of the Law For we are not then led by the Spirit of God but are servants of Sin and Satan We are not then in Christ no more than our bodies at Athens or Carthage but our phansies roving thither For they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Ver. 24. So we see plainly Beloved that the Righteousness that is of Faith is not a mere Chimaera or phansie but a more excellent Righteousness than that of the Law For the Law is no quickening Spirit but a dead Letter But Christ is the resurrection and the life And he is God our Righteousness mighty to save and can with ease destroy the powers of Death Darkness and the Devil out of the Soul of man But we must have the patience to endure the work wrought in us by him I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me And if we will still cloak and cover our foul corrupt Hearts with forged conceits of Hypocrisies own making and excuse our selves from being good to one another or to our selves because God in Christ is so good to us Hear what the Apostle speaks in the last Chapter of this Epistle for it is now time to draw nearer to my Text Ver. 7 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption But he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting The aim therefore of the Apostle is not to extenuate or discountenance real Vertue and Righteousness but to point us to it and tell us where it may be had Not in Days and Years not in New Moons or Festivals not in Circumcision nor in the dead Letter of the Law But in Christ and the Spirit of God in the renewed Image of God in the New Birth in the New life in the second Adam from Heaven in the New Creature in that stumbling block to all Flesh and Blood in the Cross of Christ. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross c. THE Text contains briefly the Summ of the whole Discourse we may cast it into these Three parts 1. The Apostles Resolution He will not glory in any thing save in the cross of Christ whereby the man of Sin in his very Soul is crucified and made dead that the Life of Christ may abide in him 2. The Reason of his Resolution Because when a man hath given his name to Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision nor any of the Ceremonial Laws is any thing but a new creature 3. His Benediction or well-wishing to all that walk after the rule i. e. according to the new man that is fram'd in Righteousness and true Holiness the true Israel of God Peace be on them But I will rather fall upon the words themselves And in my passage point out such Observations as shall arise most
in thy Heart and sweetly shine in thee with her mild light Give not thine Anger vent it will be extinct like smothered fire Answer not thy Lust or Lasciviousness and it will cease to call unto thee but dye as a Weed kept under in the ground Dare to do good though thy base heart gainsay it God will look upon thee in pity and repay thee with a more noble Spirit and Covetousness being oft crost will even out of discontent quite leave thee But if thou be false to God and thine own Soul in these things which he hath put in thy power and he hath put the outward man plainly in thy power and neglectest the performance of them and yet doest complain of want of strength thou art in plain English an Hypocrite and the Devil and thy own false heart have deceived thee A man I confess cannot generate himself but he may kill himself So though we cannot regenerate our selves yet we may mortifie our own corruption if we be not wanting to our selves And this is the Cross that we with S. Paul are to bear and to dye upon that when we have suffered and been buried with Christ in this Baptism God may raise us up with him to Life and endue us with his Holy Spirit And this is the New Creature which is spoken of in the next Verse For in Christ Iesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature In Christ Iesus i. e. When we have taken upon us the Profession of Christ have been made Members of the Christian Church by Baptism Circumcision availeth nothing And verily there is no reason why it should for it is a badge of Judaism not of Christianism and cannot no not in Judaism do much without the inward Circumcision of the heart and observation of the Commandments of God Rom. 2. 25. to the end For circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law But if thou be a breaker of the law thy circumcision is made uncircumcision Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature if it fulfil the law judge thee who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law For he is not a Iew which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh But he is a Iew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God And this also was known and propounded to the Iews under the Law Deut. 10. 16. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be not refractory And in Chap. 3. ver 6. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul that thou mayst live And what else indeed doth God require of thee O man but that thou wouldst love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy strength and thy neighbour as thy self This if thou perform in thy Circumcision thy Circumcision is effectual to thee If thou do not it is but Concision and cutting off a piece of Flesh which God and Nature was not so overseen in making but it might well be left uncut off And if Circumcision without Obedience and an Holy Life availeth them nothing that are under the Law how could it possibly be any thing to us that live under the Gospel But to what purpose is this to us that do not bear the outward Circumcision nor are likely to prove so giddy as to revolt to Judaism Wherefore let us here turn aside awhile from the Circumcision of the Iews to that which is its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that answers to it among us Christians And that is Baptism Will that avail any thing without the New Creature What it may do to Children before they be actually sinful by their own misdeeds I leave to the censure of the Schools to dispute That concerns not us who are past Children were we got as far out of Foolishness as Childishness The Question is how much Baptism availeth us of grown Age without the New Creature Just as much as Circumcision without the keeping of the Law availeth a Iew. Can Water wash without the Spirits operation Doth the Spirit operate and effect nothing Are we suppressors and choakers of the Christian Life that should revive in us and yet stand justified before God Can we kill Christ within us and persist in that obstinate cruelty and yet be clean from the guilt or punishment of so hainous transgression by the sprinkling of that outward Water upon us in Baptism Ah nimiùm faciles qui tristia crimina caedis Flumineâ tolli posse putatis aquâ Foolish and too too credulous men they are indeed that think their being dipt in the Font shall vvash out the deep stain of this so horrible murder Yet there is a Baptism that vvill do it and vvithout it nothing is done It is Mortification If the Murderer dye that is that man of Sin the Old Adam or the blood-red Edom and Christ revive all is vvell Rom. 6 3 4. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Iesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Ver. 6 7. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin For he that is dead is freed from sin Believe it though vve are called to Liberty vve are not invited to Libertinism But our true Liberty or Freedom is to become free from sin So you see that Outvvard Baptism vvithout the Invvard is as little available as Circumcision in the Flesh vvithout that in the Spirit If any here as it is not plainly immaterial ask of the efficacy of the Lords Supper So far it is from doing good vvithout an invvard qualification that it is Poyson to the unvvorthy Receiver or vvorse even Damnation it self as the Apostle vvitnesseth It is the New Creature then only or at least chiefly that a Christian must rest upon sith nothing is available without it The New Creature It is worth the enquiring into what this New Creature is that is of such efficacy and power and worth and price It is no more certainly than the New man Ephes. 4. 22 23 24. That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts And be renewed in the spirit of your mind And that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness that is not in external Ceremonial holiness or outward Sanctimonious show but in the
be bold to call but a miserable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till that Third completing Vnite be added the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Divine Nature or Spirit of God This Doctrine of Regeneration is inculcated often enough in Scripture though not under this express name but it is strongly enough implyed in as many places as there is mention of being born of God For what is that but Regeneration or a Second Birth and how oft is that repeated in S. Iohns Writings Iohn 1. 12 13. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Chap. 3. 5. Iesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God Regeneration is not a sleight tipping or colouring over with superficial qualities and habits but is from a substantial principle of Life that actuates the Soul as powerfully as the Soul doth the Body is the Souls true form or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Soul is the Bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and form For what doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imply but penetration and most intimate possession of the subject actuated or informed and power rule and command over the same to move it at pleasure And doth not the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eternal Word thus penetrate and possess the Souls of Godly men even as the subtle Light doth the Air of it self but a dark and forlorn body There is so perfect a correspondency between Generation and Regeneration that unless prejudice and Sophistical curiosity keep it off mans Reason would forwardly assent that the Christian Regeneration is no dry Metaphor but full Truth And that the Regenerate man is even as specifically distinct from the mere Natural man as the Natural man from brute Beasts We made it good even out of Aristotle that the Species or Essences of things are as Numbers c. The Ternarius is not made by taking from the Binarius but by adding another Unite thereunto Therefore a man though he have one Form already viz. the Natural Soul it hinders not but he may have also another the quickening Spirit of God I will add a little more force to the Conclusion by taking notice of the grounds of our specificating things and essentially distinguishing the one from the other that we may discover the like grounds for our conclusion What small and slight intimations from accidentary differences in Natural Bodies have cast the Earth Water and Air into so many distinct Species and that they cannot put on one anothers outward qualities without the generation of some inward substantial form A little difference in weight and colour must imply a several Specification in Silver and Gold and upon a little more occasion than colour and taste must a Pigeon and a Partridge be distinct Species Not that these things are false but that there is as true grounds to find a real Specifical difference betwixt a Natural man and a man Regenerate For if several colour figure and weight though they be something near akin to one another be a sufficient cause of surmisal that some inward essential form is within surely then when we see the Soul of man figured and covered over with new Thoughts of Mind new Knowledge new Desires it is as good an Argument that it is actuated by a new Principle of Life But here it will be replyed Then any Chast man will Specifically differ from an Unchast man Just men from Unjust Philosophers from Idiots But it is not such an opposition as it seems at first sight The improvement of Nature is no sign of a new Specification A Horse that can go may also trot gallop pace swim and dance too and yet not cease to be an Horse But if I should see him flying in the Air I should take him to be no Horse but a Devil A Nightingal may vary with her voice into a multitude of interchangeable Notes and various Musical falls and risings and yet be but a Nightingal no Chorister But should she but sing one Hymn or Hallelujah I should deem her no Bird but an Angel So the highest improvement of Natural Knowledge or mere Morality will argue us no more than the Sons of Men But to be of one will completely with God will make us or doth argue us to be the Sons of God Stones Dirt Metals Minerals distinct enough one from another agree in tending downwards to the Earth and Fire is as much determinate to moving upward to the Natural Seat of that Element But if that either of them or Fiery or Earthy nature move of its pleasure upward downward to the right to the left this way and the other way even as it will no man any longer will suppose it either Fire or Earth but something else Specificated by a new internal principle To be always bent down to the desire of the body and worldly delights that motion is Bestial To be always reaching at high things that 's Diabolical To be disengag'd from a mans self and stand indifferent to what ere the Will of God is that 's Angelical or Divine But it is again objected If Regeneration imply a real new Generation that then it must also imply a real Corruption so that the Natural Soul shall be destroyed or at least Natural Knowledge Natural Principles of Reason Not a jot of this follows Neither the Soul it self nor its Natural Principles of Knowledge or Reason are destroyed or abated but made up and perfected Doth one Unite added to two pre-existent Unites destroy those Unites Or rather do they not all put together beget a new Number of another Species and Name Or to bring it more home doth the Soul of man coming into the organiz'd Body destroy the Body Or doth it not rather perfect and compleat it So doth also the Spirit of God coming into the Soul But as for the pre-existent qualities no more of those are destroy'd than are incompatible with the residence of that new Form the Divine Spirit Disobedience and wickedness be the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with this new Birth Reason is no more incompatible with this state than phansie memory hearing seeing smelling c. Nor the improvement of Reason or Arts and Sciences then looking upon the Stars through a Galilaeos Glass or reading the Bible with an ordinary pair of Spectacles Doct. II. That the Soul is Regenerated of no corruptible Seed but incorruptible There needs no Descant upon this no Interpretation the Words are so clear no Proof the Truth is so unquestionable Doct. III. That this incorruptible Seed is the Word of God The Word of God has two or three Senses It signifies The written Word The Word spoken and Verbum mentis That which God conceives within himself