and your Meditations to work on Now the God c. The V. Sermon LUKE IX 55. You know not what spirit you are of OF all Errours or Ignorances there are none so worthy our pains to cure or caution to prevent as those that have influence on practice The prime ingredient in the making up a a wise man saith Aristotle in his Metaphysicks is to be well advised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what doubts must first be made what ignorances earliest provided for and there is not a more remarkable spring and principle of all the Scripture folly that is wickedness among men than the beginning our Christian course unluckily with some one or more false infusions which not only are very hardly ever corrected afterward like the errors of the first concoction that are never rectified in the second but moreover have an inauspicious poysonous propriety in them turn all into nourishment of the prevailing humour and then as the injury of filching some of that corn that was delivered out for seed hath a peculiar mark of aggravation upon it is not to be measured in the garner but in the field not by the quantity of what was stoln but of what it would probably have proved in the Harvest so the damage that is consequent to this infelicity is never fully aggravated but by putting into the Bill against it all the Sins of the whole life yea and all the damnation that attends it Of this kind I must profess to believe the ignorance of gospel-Gospel-Spirit to be chief an ignorance that cannot chuse but have an influence on every publick action of the life So that as Padre Paolo was designed an handsome office in the Senate of Venice to sit by and observe and take care nequid contra pietatem so it were to be wished that every man on whom the Name of Christ is called had some assistent Angel some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be it conscience be it the remembrance of what I now say unto him to interpose in all especially the visible undertakings of the life nequid contra spiritum Evangelii that nothing be ventured on but what is agreeable to the spirit of the Gospel Even Disciples themselves may it seems run into great inconveniences for want of it James and John did so in the Text ignem de coelo fire from Heaven on all that did not treat them so well as they expected but Christ turned and reproved them saying You know not what spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what kind of spirit you are of and that with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you Disciples you Christians You know not what spirit you are of In the words it will be very natural to observe these 3. Particulars 1. That there is a peculiar Spirit that Christians are of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. That some prime Christians do not know the kind of spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even so James and John You know not c. 3. That this ignorance is apt to betray Christians to unsafe unjustifiable designs and actions You that would have fire from Heaven do it upon this one ignorance You know not c. I begin first with the first of these That there is a Peculiar Spirit that Christians are of A spirit of the Gospel and that must be considered here not in an unlimited latitude but one as it is opposite to the Spirit of Elias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wilt thou do as he did It will then be necessary to shew you the peculiarity of the Gospel Spirit by its opposition to that of Elias which is manifold for instance First Elias was the great assertor of Law upon which ground Moses and he appear with our Saviour at his transfiguration So that two things will be observable which make a difference betwixt the Legal and the Gospel spirit 1. That some Precepts of Christ now clearly and with weight upon them delivered by Christ were if in substance delivered at all yet sure not so clearly and at length and intelligibly proposed under the Law You have examples in the fifth of Matthew in the opposition betwixt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what was said by Moses to the Ancients and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christs saying to his Disciples which if they be interpreted of Moses Law as many of the particulars are evidently taken out of the Decalogue Thou shalt not kill commit adultery perjury Christs are then clearly superadditions unto Moses or if they refer to the Pharisees glosses as some others of them possibly may do then do those glosses of those Pharisees who were none of the loosest nor ignorantest persons among them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their lives the strictest they sit in Moses Chair whatever they teach that do for their learning most considerable argue the Mosaick Precepts not to be so clear and incapable of being misinterpreted and so still Christ's were additions if not of the substance yet of light and lustre and consequently improvements of the obligation to obedience in us Christians who enjoy that light and are precluded those excuses of ignorance that a Jew might be capable of From whence I may sure conclude that the Ego autem of not retaliating or revenging of injuries for that is sure the meaning of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render resist not evil the strict precept of loving and blessing and praying for Enemies and the like is more clearly preceptive and so more indispensably obligatory to us Christians than ever it was to the Jews before And there you have one part of the Spirit of the Gospel in opposition to a first notion of the legal Spirit And by it you may conclude that what Christian soever can indulge himself the enjoyment of that hellish sensuality that of revenge or retributing of injuries nay that doth not practise that high piece of but necessary be it never so rare perfection of overcoming evil with good and so heap those pretious melting coals of love of blessings of prayers those three species of sacred vestal fire upon all Enemies heads Nescit qualis spiritûs He knows not what kind of spirit he is of But there is another thing observable of the Law and so of the Judaical Legal Spirit to wit as it concerned the planting the Israelites in Canaan and that is the command of rooting out the nations which was a particular case upon God's sight of the filling up of the measure of the Amorites sins and a judicial sentence of his proceeding upon them not only reveal'd to those Israelites but that with a peremptory command annext to it to hate and kill and eradicate some of those Nations Which case because it seldom or never falls out to agree in all circumstances with the case of any other sinful people cannot lawfully prescribe to the eradicating of any other though in our opinion
immortalitatis and in time encrease and grow up to immortality There is no such encumbrance to trash us in our Christian Progress as a fancy that some men get possessed with that if they are elected they shall be called and saved in spight of their teeth every man expecting an extraordinary call because Saul met with one and perhaps running the more fiercely because Saul was then called when he was most violent in his full speed of malice against Christians In this behalf all that I desire of you is First to consider that though our regeneration be a miracle yet there are degrees of miracles and thou hast no reason to expect that the greatest and strongest miracle in the world shall in the highest degree be shewed in thy Salvation Who art thou that God should take such extraordinary pains with thee Secondly To resolve that many precious rays and beams of the Spirit though when they enter they come with power yet through our neglect may prove transitory pass by that heart which is not open for them And then thirdly You will easily be convinced that no duty concerns us all so strictly as to observe as near as we can when thus the Spirit appears to us to collect and muster up the most lively quick-sighted sprightfullest of our faculties and with all the perspectives that spiritual Opticks can furnish us with to lay wait for every glance and glimpse of its fire or light We have ways in nature to apprehend the beams of the Sun be they never so weak and languishing and by uniting them into a burning Glass to turn them into afire Oh that we were as witty and sagacious in our spiritual estate then it were easie for those sparks which we so often either contemn or stifle to thrive within us and at least break forth into a flame In brief Incogitancy and inobservance of Gods seasons supine numbness and negligence in spiritual affairs may on good grounds be resolved on as the main or sole cause of our final impenitence and condemnation it being just with God to take those away in a sleep who thus walked in a dream and at last to refuse them whom he hath so long sollicited He that hath scorned or wasted his inheritance cannot complain if he dies a bankrupt nor he that hath spent his candle at play count it hard usage that he is fain to go to bed darkling It were easie to multiply arguments on this theme from every minute of our lives to discern some pawn and evidence of Gods fatherly will and desire that we should live Let it suffice that we have been large if not abundant in these three chief ones First The giving of his Son to the World Secondly Dispatching the Gospel to the Gentiles And lastly The sending of his Spirit We come now to a view of the opposite trenches which lie pitched at the Gates of Hell obstinate and peremptory to besiege and take it Mans resolvedness and wilfulness to die my second part Why will you die There is no one conceit that engages us so deep to continue in sin that keeps us from repentance and hinders any seasonable Reformation of our wicked lives as a perswasion that God's will is a cause of all events Though we are not so blasphemous as to venture to define God the Author of sin yet we are generally inclined for a fancy that because all things depend on God's decree whatsoever we have done could not be otherwise all our care could not have cut off one sin from the Catalogue And so being resolved that when we thus sinned we could not chuse we can scarce tell how to repent for such necessary fatal misdemeanors the same excuses which we have for having sinned formerly we have for continuing still and so are generally better prepared for Apologies than Reformation Beloved it will certainly much conduce to our edification instead of this speculation whose grounds or truth I will not now examine to fix this practical theorem in our hearts that the will of man is the principal cause of all our evil that death either as it is the punishment of sin eternal death or as it is the sin it self a privation of the life of grace spiritual death is wholly to be imputed to our wilful will It is a Probleme in Aristotle why some Creatures are longer in conceiving and bringing forth than others and the sensiblest reason he gives for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hardness of the Womb which is like dry earth that will not presently give any nourishment to either seed or plant and so is it in the spiritual conception and production of Christ that is of life in us The hardness and toughness of the heart the womb where he is to be born that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that dry Earth in the Philosophers or that way-side or at best stony ground in Christs phrase is the only stop and delay in begetting of life within us the only cause of either barrenness or hard travail in the Spirit Be the brain never so soft and pliable never so waxy and capable of impressions yet if the heart be but carnal if it have any thing much of that lust of the flesh 1 John ii 15. in its composition it will be hard for the spiritual life to be conceived in that man For Faith the only means by which Christ lives and dwells in us Ephes iii. 17. is to be seated in the heart i. e. the will and affections according to the express words That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith So that be your brains never so swelled and puft up with perswasions of Christ our Saviour be they so big that they are ready to ly-in and travail of Christ as Jove's did of Minerva in the Poem yet if the heart have not joyned in the conception if the seed sown have not taken root and drawn nourishment from the will it is but an aerial or phantastical birth or indeed rather a disease or tympany nay though it come to some proof and afterward extend and increase in limbs and proportions never so speciously yet if it be only in the brain neither is this to be accounted solid nourishment augmentation but such as a Camaelion may be thought to have that feeds on air and it self is little better and in sum not growth but swellings So then if the will either by nature or custom of sinning by familiarity and acquaintance making them dote on sensual objects otherwise unamiable by business and worldly ambitious thoughts great enemies to faith or by pride and contentment both very incident to noble Personages and great Wits to Courtiers and Scholars In brief if this Will the stronger and more active part of the Soul remain carnal either in indulgence to many or which is the snare of judicious men in chief of some one prime sin then cannot all the faith in the world bring that man to Heaven it may
was not quite able throughly to perform without help which deceitful consideration drew on Pelagius himself that was first only for nature at last to take in one after another five Subsidiaries more but only as so many horses to draw together in the Chariot with nature being so pursued by the Councils and Fathers from one hold to another till he was at last almost deprived of all acknowledging saith S. Austin Divinae gratiae adjutorium ad posse and then had not the Devil stuck close to him at the exigence and held out at the velle operari he might have been in great danger to have lost an Heretick But I absolutely impotent in my self to any supernatural duty being then rapt above my self strengthned by Christs perpetual influence having all my strength ability from him am then by that strength able to do all things my self As in the old Oracle the God inspired and spake in the ear of the Prophet and then the Vates spoke under from thence called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ecchoed out that voice aloud which he had received by whisper a kind of Scribe or Cryer or Herauld to deliver out as he was inspired The principal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a God or Oracle the Prophet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inspired Enthusiast dispensing out to his credulous clients all that the Oracle did dictate or as the Earth which is cold and dry in its elementary constitution and therefore bound up to a necessity of perpetual barrenness having neither of those two procreative faculties heat or moisture in its composition but then by the beams of the Sun and neighbourhood of Water or to supply the want of that rain from Heaven to satisfie its thirst this cold dry Element begins to teem carries many Mines of treasure in the Womb many granaries of fruit in its surface and in event 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contributes all that we can crave either to our need or luxury Now though all this be done by those foraign aids as principal nay sole efficients of this fertility in the earth to conceive of its strength to bring forth yet the work of bringing forth is attributed to the Earth Heb. vi 7. as to the immediate parent of all Thus is it God's work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Cyril to plant and water and that he doth mediately by Apollos and Paul yea and to give the encrease that belongs to him immediately neither to Man nor Angel but only ad Agricolam Trinitatem saith S. Austin but after all this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though God give the encrease thou must bring forth the fruit The Holy Ghost overshadowed Mary and she was found with child Mat. i. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she was found no more attributed to her the Holy Ghost the principal nay sole agent in the work and she a pure Virgin still and yet Luk. i. 31. 't is the Angels Divinity That Mary shall conceive and bring forth a Son All the efficiency from the Holy Ghost and partus ventrem the work attributed and that truly to Mary the subject in whom it was wrought and therefore is she call'd by the Ancients not only officina miraculorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The shop of Miracles and The Work-house of the Holy Ghost as the Rhetorick of some have set it but by the Councils that were more careful in their phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only the Conduit through which he past but the Parent of whose substance he was made And thus in the production of all spiritual Actions the principal sole efficient of all is Christ and His Spirit all that is conceived in us is of the Holy Ghost The holy Principle holy Desire holy Action the posse velle operari all of him Phil. ii 12. But then being so overshadowed the Soul it self conceives being still assisted carries in the Womb and by the same strength at fulness of time as opportunities do Midwife them out brings forth Christian Spiritual Actions and then as Mary was the Mother of God so the Christian Soul is the Parent of all its Divine Christian Performances Christ the Father that enables with his Spirit and the Soul the Mother that actually brings forth And now that we may begin to draw up towards a conclusion Two things we may raise from hence by way of inference to our Practice 1. Where all the Christians non-proficiency is to be charged either 1. Upon the Habitual Hardness or 2. The Sluggishness or 3. The Rankness of his own wretchless heart 1. Hardness That for all the seed that is sown the softning dew that distills rain that is poured down the enlivening influences that are dispensed among us yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hardness and toughness of the Womb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that dry unnutrifying Earth in the Philosopher's or in Christs dialect Stony-ground resists all manner of Conception will not be hospitable yield any entertainment even to these Angelical guests though they come as to Lot's house in Sodom only to secure the owner from most certain destruction This is the reason that so much of Gods Husbandry among us returns him so thin so unprofitable an Harvest ceciderunt in petrosa and 't is hard finding any better tillage now a-days the very Holy Land the milk and honey of Canaan is degenerate they say into this Composition and herein is a marvellous thing that where God hath done all that any man if it were put to his own partial judgment would think reasonable for him to do for his Vineyard gathered out stones those seeds of natural hardness and which deserves to be marked built a Wine-press Isa v. 2. a sure token that he expected a vintage in earnest not only manur'd for fashion or to leave them without excuse yet for all these Labruscas wild juiceless Grapes heartless Faith unseasoned Devotion intemperate Zeal blind and perverse Obedience that under that name shall disguise and excuse Disobedience tot genera labruscarum so many wild unsavoury fruits is the best return he can hear of One thing more let me tell you 'T is not the original hardness of Nature to which all this can be imputed for for the mollifying of that all this gardening was bestowed digging gathering out and indeed nothing more ordinary than out of such stones to raise up children unto Abraham But 't is the long habit and custom of sin which hath harrast out the Soul congealed that natural gravel and improved it into a perfect quarry or mine and 't is not the Preachers Charm the Annunciation of the Gospel that Power of God unto Salvation unto a Jew or Heathen 't is not David's Harp that could exorcise the evil Spirit upon Saul not the every day eloquence even of the Spirit of God that can in holy Esdras his phrase perswade them to Salvation 2. Sluggishness and inobservances of God's seasons
Aristotles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man ought to have indignation at some persons may seem to justifie it Our Saviour calls not for any such stern passion or indeed any but love and bowels of pity and charity toward the person of any the most enormous sinner and S. Paul only for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the restoring setting him in joynt again that is thus overtaken in any fault but Indignation I say at the sin at the simplicity and the folly that refuse reproachful Creature that hath the fate to be beloved so passionately and so long And to this will Aristotles season of indignation belong the seeing favors and kindness so unworthily dispenced the upstarts saith he and new men advanced and gotten into the greatest dignities knowledge to be profestly hated and under that title all the prime i. e. Practical Wisdom and Piety and simplicity i. e. folly and madness and sin to have our whole souls laid out upon it O let this shrill Sarcasm of Wisdoms the How long ye simple ones be for ever a sounding in our ears Let this indignation at our stupid ways of sin transplant it self to that soyl where it is likely to thrive and fructifie best I mean to that of our own instead of other mens breasts where it will appear gloriously in S. Pauls inventory a prime part of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the durable unretracted repentance an effect of that godly sorrow that worketh to Salvation And if it be sincere O what indignation it produceth in us What displeasure and rage at our folly to think how senselesly we have moulted and crumbled away our souls what unthristy bargains we have made what sots and fools we shall appear to Hell when it shall be known to the wretched tormented Creatures what ambitions we had to be but as miserable as they upon what Gotham arrants what Wild-goose chases we are come posting and wearied thither O that a little of this consideration and this passion betimes might ease us of that endless wo and indignation those tears and gnashing of teeth quit us of that sad arrear of horrors that otherwise waits behind for us Lord do thou give us that view of our ways the errors the follies the furies of our extravagant Atheistical lives that may by the very reproach and shame recover and return us to thee Make our faces ashamed O Lord that we may seek thy Law Give us that pity and that indignation to our poor perishing souls that may at length awake and fright us out of our Lethargies and bring us as so many confounded humbled contrite penitentiaries to that beautiful gate of thy temple of mercies where we may retract our follies implore thy pardon deprecate thy wrath and for thy deliverance from so deep an Hell from so infamous a vile condition from so numerous a tale of deaths never leave praising thee and saying Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of thy glory Glory be to thee O God most high To whom with the Son and the Holy Ghost be ascribed c. The IV. Sermon MAT. I. 23. Emmanuel which is by interpretation God with us THe different measure and means of dispensing Divine Knowledge to several ages of the World may sufficiently appear by the Gospels of the New and Prophecies of the Old Testament the sunshine and the clearness of the one and the twilight and dimness of the other but in no point this more importantly concerns us than the Incarnation of Christ This hath been the Study and Theme the Speculation and Sermon of all holy Men and Writers since Adam's Fall yet never plainly disclosed till John Baptist in the third of Matth. and the third Verse and the Angel in the next verses before my Text undertook the Task and then indeed was it fully performed then were the Writings or rather the Riddles of the obscure stammering whispering Prophets turned into the voice of One crying in the Wilderness Prepare ye the wayes of the Lord c. Isa xl 3. Then did the cry yea shouting of the Baptist at once both interpret and perform what it prophecyed At the sound of it Every valley was exalted and every hill was brought low the crooked was made straight and the rough places plain v. 4. That is the Hill and Groves of the Prophets were levell'd into the open champain of the Gospel those impediments which hindred Gods approach unto mens rebel hearts were carefully removed the abject mind was lifted up the exalted was deprest the intractable and rough was render'd plain and even in the same manner as a way was made unto the Roman Army marching against Jerusalem This I thought profitable to be premised to you both that you might understand the affinity of Prophecies and Gospel as differing not in substance but only in clearness of revelation as the glorious face of the Sun from it self being overcast and mask'd with a cloud and also for the clearing of my Text For this entire passage of Scripture of which these words are a close is the Angels message or Gospel unto Joseph and set down by S. Matthew as both the interpretation and accomplishment of a Prophecy delivered long ago by Isaiah but perhaps not at all understood by the Jews to wit That a Virgin should conceive and bear a Son and they should call his name Emmanuel Where first we must examine the seeming difference in the point of Christs Name betwixt the place here cited from Isaiah and the words here vouched of the Angel V. 21. and proved by the effect V. 25. For the Prophet says he shall be called Emmanuel but the Angel commands he should be and the Gospel records he was named Jesus And here we must resume and enlarge the ground premised in our Preface that Prophecies being not Histories but rude imperfect draughts of things to come do not exactly express and delineate but only shadow and covertly vail those things which only the Spirit of God and the event must interpret So that in the Gospel we construe the words but in Prophecies the sence i. e. we expect not the performance of every Circumstance exprest in the words of a Prophecy but we acknowledge another sence beyond the literal and in the comparing of Isaiah with St. Matthew we exact not the same expressions provided we find the same substance and the same significancy So then the Prophets and call his name Emmanuel is not as humane Covenants are to be fulfill'd in the rigour of the Letter that he should be so named at his Circumcision but in the agreement of sence that this name should express his nature that he was indeed God with us and that at the Circumcision he should receive a name of the same power and significancy Whence the observation by the way is that Emmanuel in effect signifies Jesus God with us a Saviour and from thence the point of Doctrine that Gods coming
for the Kingdom of God is at hand As if this Harbinger had no other furniture and provision to bespeak in the heart that was to receive Christ but only repentance for sins I will not examine here the precedence of Repentance before Faith in Christ though I might seasonably here state the question and direct you to begin with John proceed to Christ first repent then fasten on Christ Only this for all The promises of Salvation in Christ are promised on condition of repentance and amendment they must be weary and heavy laden who ever come to Christ and expect rest Matth. xi 28. And therefore whosoever applies these benefits to himself and thereby conceives Christ in his heart must first resolve to undertake the condition required to wit Newness of life which yet he will not be able to perform till Christ be fully born and dwell in him by his enabling graces For you may mark that Christ and John being both about the same age as appears by the story Christ must needs be born before Johns Preaching So in the Soul there is supposed some kind of incarnation of Christ before repentance or newness of life yet before Christ he is born or at least come to his full stature and perfect growth in us this Baptist's Sermon that is this repentance and resolution to amendment must be presumed in our Souls And so repentance is both a preparation to Christs birth and an effect of it For so John preached Repent for c. Matth. iii. 2. And so also in the same words Christ preaches Repent c. Matth. iv 17. And so these two together John and Christ Repentance and Faith though one began before the other was perfected yet I say these two together in the fully regenerate man Fulfil all righteousness Matth. iii. 15. In the seventh place you may observe That when Christ was born in Bethlehem the whole Land was in an uproar Herod the King was troubled and all Jerusalem with him Matth. ii 3. Which whether we apply to the lesser city the Soul of Man in which or the adjoyning people amongst whom Christ is spiritually born in any man you shall for the most acknowledge the agreement For the man himself if he have been any inordinate sinner then at the birth of Christ in him all his natural sinful faculties are much displeased his reigning Herod sins and all the Jerusalem of habituate Lusts and Passions are in great disorder as knowing that this new birth abodes their instant destruction and then they cry oft in the voice of the Devil Mark i. 24. What have we to do with thee Jesus thou Son of God Art thou come to torment and dispossess us before our time If it be applied to the Neighbor Worldlings which hear of this new convert then are they also in an uproar and consult how they shall deal with this turbulent spirit Which is made to upbraid our ways and reprove our thoughts Wisd ii Which is like to bring down all their trading and cousenage to a low ebb like Diana's Silver-smith in the Acts Chap. xix 24. which made a solemn speech and the Text says there was a great stir against Paul because the attempt of his upstart doctrine was like to undo the Shrine-makers Sirs ye know that by this craft we have our wealth And no marvel that in both these respects there is a great uproar seeing the spiritual birth of Christ is most infinitely opposite to both the common people of the World and common affections of the Soul two the most turbulent tumultuous wayward violent Nations upon Earth In the eighth and last place because I will not tyre you above the time which is allotted for the tryal of your parience you may observe the encrease and growth of Christ and that either in himself in Wisdom and Stature c. Luke ii 52. or else in his troop and attendants and that either of Angels to minister unto him Matth. iv 11. or of Disciples to follow obey him and then the harmony will still go currant Christ in the regenerate man is first conceived then born then by degrees of childhood and youth grows at last to the measure of the stature of this fulness and the Soul consequently from strength to strength from vertue to vertue is encreased to a perfect manhood in Christ Jesus Then also where Christ is thus born he chuses and calls a Jury at least of Disciple-graces to judge and sit upon thee to give in evidence unto thy Spirit That thou art the Son of God Then is he also ministred unto and furnished by the Angels with a perpetual supply either to encrease the lively or to recover decayed graces So that now Christ doth bestow a new life upon the man and the regenerate soul becomes the daughter as well as the Mother of Christ she conceives Christ and Christ her she lives and grows and moves in Christ and Christ in her So that at last she comes to that pitch and height and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that S. Paul speaks of Gal. ii 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me And do thou O Holy Jesus which hast loved us and given thy self for us love us still and give thy self to us Thou which hast been born in the World to save sinners vouchsafe again to be again incarnate in our Souls to regenerate and sanctifie sinners Thou which art the Theme of our present rejoycing become our Author of perpetual spiritual rejoycing that our Souls may conceive and bring forth and thou mayst conceive and regenerate our Souls that we may dwell in Christ and Christ in us And from the Meditation of thy Mortal flesh here we may be partakers with thee of thine Immortal glory hereafter Thus have we briefly passed through these words and in them first shewed you the real agreement betwixt Matthew and Isaiah in the point of Christ's Name and from thence noted that Jesus and Emmanuel is in effect all one and that Christs Incarnation brought Salvation into the World Which being proved through Christs several Incarnations were applied to our direction 1. To humble our selves 2. To express our thankfulness 3. To observe our priviledges 4. To make our selves capable and worthy receivers of this mercy Then we came to the Incarnation it self where we shewed you the excellency of this Mystery by the effects which the expectation and foresight of it wrought in the Fathers the Prophets the Heathens the Devils and then by way of Use what an horrible sin it was not to apply and imploy this mercy to our Souls Lastly We came to another birth of Christ besides that in the flesh his Spiritual Incarnation in Man's Soul which we compared with the former exactly in eight chief Circumstances and so left all to God's Spirit
never so great enemies of God until it appear as demonstrably to us as it did to those Israelites that it was the will of God they should be so dealt with and he that thinks it necessary to shed the blood of every enemy of God whom his censorious faculty hath found guilty of that charge that is all for the fire from Heaven though it be upon the Samaritans the not receivers of Christ is but as the Rabbies call him sometimes one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sons of blouds in the plural number and sons of fire yea and like the Disciples in my Text Boanerges sons of thunder far enough from the soft temper that Christ left them Ye know not what kind of spirit ye are of In the next place Elias Spirit was a Prophetick Spirit whose dictates were not the issue of discourse and reason but impulsions from Heaven The Prophetick writings were not saith S. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I conceive in an agonistick sense of their own starting or incitation as they were moved or prompted by themselves but as it follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they were carried by the Holy Ghost not as they were led but carried when the Lord speaks who can but Prophecy And so likewise are the actions Prophetick many things that are recorded to be done by Prophets in Scripture they proceed from some peculiar incitations of God I mean not from the ordinary or extraordinary general or special direction or influence of his grace cooperating with the Word as in the breast of every regenerate man for the Spirit of Sanctification and the Spirit of Prophecy are very distant things but from the extraordinary revelation of God's Will many times against the setled rule of duty acted and animated not as a living creature by a Soul but mov'd as an outward impellent a sphear by an intelligence and that frequently into eccentrical and planetary motions so that they were no further justifiable than that prophetick calling to that particular enterprize will avow Consequent to which is that because the prophetick office was not beyond the Apostles time to continue constantly in the Church any further than to interpret and superstruct upon what the Canon of the Scripture hath setled among Christians Christ and his Word in the New Testament being that Bath-Col which the Jews tell us was alone to survive all the other ways of Prophecy he that shall now pretend to that Prophetick Spirit to some Vision to teach what the Word of God will not own to some incitation to do what the New Testament Law will not allow of he that with the late Fryar in France pretends to ecstatical revelations with the Enthusiasts of the last age and Phanaticks now with us to ecstatical motions that with Mahomet pretends a dialogue with God when he is in an Epileptick fit sets off the most ghastly diseases I shall add most horrid sins by undertaking more particular acquaintance and commerce with the Spirit of God a call from God's Providence and extraordinary Commission from Heaven for those things which if the New Testament be Canonical are evaporate from Hell and so first leads captive silly women as Mahomet did his Wife and then a whole Army of Janizaries into a War to justifie and propagate such delusions and put all to death that will not be their Proselytes is far enough from the Gospel Spirit that lies visible in the New Testament verbum vehiculum spiritûs and the preaching of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is not infused by dream or whisper nor authorized by a melancholy or phanatick phansie and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knows not what kind c. In the third place Elias was the great precedent and example of sharp unjudiciary procedure with Malefactors which from the common ordinary awards on Criminals in that execution proceeded Trial and the Malefactor suffered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without attending the formalities of Law Of this kind two Examples are by Mattathias cited 1 Macab ii one of Phinees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that zeal'd a zeal and in that run through Zimri and Cozbi and so as the Captain once answered for the killing the drowsie Sentinel reliquit quos invenit found them in unclean embraces and so left them And the variety of our interpretations in rendring of that passage in the Psalm Then stood up Phinehas and prayed in the Old and then stood up Phinehas and executed judgment in the New Translations may perhaps give some account of that action of his that upon Phinehas Prayer for Gods direction what should be done in that matter God raised him up in an extraordinary manner to execute judgment on those offenders And the other of Elias in the Text and he with some addition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In zealing the zeal of the Law called fire from Heaven upon those that were sent out from Ahazai to bring him to him And this fact of his by God's answering his call and the coming down of the fire upon them was demonstrated to come from God also as much as the prediction of the Kings death which was confirm'd by this means It may very probably be guest by Matathias his words in that place that there were no precedents of the zelotick spirit in the Old Testament but those two for among all the Catalogue of examples mentioned to his sons to enflame their zeal to the Law he produceth no other and 't is observable that though there be practises of this nature mentioned in the story of the New Testament the stoning of S. Stephen of St. Paul at Iconium c. yet all of them practised by the Jews and not one that can seem to be blameless but that of Christ who sure had extraordinary power upon the buyers and sellers in the Temple upon which the Apostles remembred the Psalmists Prophecy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the zeal of Gods house carried him to that act of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of indignation and punishment upon the transgressors And what mischief was done among the Jews by those of that sect in Josephus that call'd themselves by that name of Zealots and withal took upon them to be the saviours and preservers of the City but as it prov'd the hastners precipitators of the destruction of that Kingdom by casting out killing the High-Priests first and then the Nobles and chief men of the Nation and so embasing and intimidating and dejecting the hearts of the people that all was at length given up to their fury Josephus and any of the learned that have conversed with the Jewish Writers will instruct the enquirer And ever since no very honourable notion had of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New Testament one of the fruits of the flesh Gal. v. of the Wisdom that comes not from Heaven Jam. iii. and in the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bitter zeal a gall that
the Disciples will have fire from Heaven upon those Samaritans Jerusalem was at that time the only proper place of God's worship may note to us as an embleme the true established Protestant Religion of this Kingdom The Samaritans were great enemies to this enemies to Jerusalem being first Hereticks in Religion took in the Assyrian Idols into the worship of the true God they feared the Lord and served their own gods as it is in the story and continued their wont when they turned Christians make up the first sort of Hereticks in Epiphanius his Catalogue Secondly They were Schismaticks in an eminent manner fet up a new separation by themselves on Mount Gerizim And farther yet in the third place pretended to the only purity and antiquity they lived where Jacob once lived and therefore though Assyrians by extraction they boast they are Jacob's seed and pretend more antiquity for that Schism of theirs because Jacob once worshipped in that Mountain than they think can be shewed for the Temple at Jerusalem which was but in Solomon's time of a latter structure Just as they which pretended though never so falsly that they were of Christ have still despised and separated from all others as Novelists which walked in the Apostles steps and practises and so Samaritans under guilts enough First Haters of Jerusalem Secondly Hereticks Thirdly Separatists Fourthly Pretenders though without all reason to the first antiquity and so arrogant Hypocrites too And fifthly beyond all prodigious but still confident Disputers and yet sixthly one higher step than all these Contemners and haters of all even of Christ himself on this only quarrel because he was a friend to Jerusalem and looked as if he were a going thither as if he had some favour to the established Religion of the Land I wish this passage did not hitherto parallel it self but seeing it doth too illustriously to be denied or disguised I shall imagin that that which follows may do so too All this together was temptation to two honest Disciples to think fire from Heaven a but reasonable reward for such Samaritans and having flesh and blood about them compounded with Piety You will not much wonder at them that they were wrought on by the temptation and yet this very thought of theirs the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is presently checked by Christ as being against the Gospel-spirit you know not what spirit you are of Haters of the Church Hereticks Schismaticks Hypocrites Irrational Pretenders Enemies Contumelious even to Christ himself must not presently be assigned the Devils portion the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be yet capable of some mercy some humanity not instantly devoted to be sacrifices to our fury The Gospel-spirit will have thoughts of peace of reconciliableness toward them And let me beseech God first and then you Right Honorable God that he indue and inspire your hearts with this piece of the Gospel spirit so seasonable to your present consultations And you that you would not reject my Prayers to God but open your hearts to receive the return of them and not imitate even the Disciples of Christ in that they are Boanerges but stay till the cool of the day till you have them in a calmer temper when Christ's Word and Doctrine hath stilled those billows as once he did the other tempestuous Element It was Antonius his way to be revenged on his enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to imitate them whatever he did And this was but an Essay or obscure shadow of the Christian Magnanimity that goes for poverty of spirit in the World but proceeding from the right principle of unshaken patience of constant unmoveable meekness of design to be like our Royal Master-sufferer Father forgive them that crucifie me and go and preach the doctrine of the Kingdom to them after they have crucified me And you know all we Ministers ever since are but Ambassadours of Christ to ingrate crucifying enemies Praying them in Christs name and stead that they would be reconciled that they that have done the wrong will vouchsafe to be friends What is it but that eminent piece of Gospel-spirit which they that can be perswaded to part with for all the sweetness that thirst of Revenge can promise or pretend to bring in unto them are unhappily ignorant of the richest Jewel that ever came within their reach They know not c. I have as yet given you the Gospel-spirit in one colour or notion that of its opposition to Elias first and then to the Boanerges It will be necessary to add somewhat of the Positive consideration of it though that must be fetched from other Scriptures And this will be but necessary to this Text because that which is here mentioned is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirit in the extent not only that one part of it that respected the present action where though any one eminent defect that particularly wherein those Disciples offended were destructive to the Gospel-spirit Malum ex quolibet defectu yet all the several branches of it are required to integrate or make up the Gospel-spirit Bonum ex essentiâ integra And what these branches are I cannot better direct you than by putting you in mind of these few severals First Christ's badge or cognizance By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if you love one another Not of one opinion but of love Add Nunquam laeti sitis c. as Jews rend Garments at Blasphemy so we at Uncharitableness Secondly Christs legacy Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you Thirdly Christ's copy Learn of me what 's beyond all his other perfections I am meek Fourthly The Nature of that Wisdom which cometh from above Jam. iii. First pure then peaceable Fifthly The quality of the fruits of the Spirit in St. Paul Gal. v. Love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness c. Sixthly The gallantry of meekness in St. Peter Ornament of a meek and quiet spirit Seventhly Titus's charge that all Christians are to be put in mind of Tit. iii. 1. To be subject to Principalities to obey Magistrates to be ready to every good work to speak evil of no man to be no brawlers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no fighters but gentle shewing all meekness to all men Things that it seems nothing but Christianity could infuse For we our selves were sometimes fools disâ—bedient c. But after the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared then room for this Spirit I cannot give you a readier Landskip to present them all to your view together than that excellent Sermon of Christ upon the Mount that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom calls it That top pitch of Divine Philosophy worthy to be imprinted in every mans heart and of which he that hath not been a pondering student and resolved to regulate his practice by it as much as his Faith by the Apostles Creed yea and to lay down his life a Martyr of that Doctrine
though he hath all Faith I cannot promise my self much of his Christianity If you will have the Brachygraphy of that the Manual picture that maybe sure either in words or sense never to depart from your bosom but remain your constant Phylactery or Preservative from the danger of all ungospel spirits then take the Beatitudes in the front of it And among them that I may if it be possible bring the whole Iliads into a Nutshel those that import immediately our duty towards men for in that the Gospel-spirit especially consists encreasing our love to Brethren whose flesh Christ now assumed and in whose interests he hath a most immediate concern And if you mark in the Chapter following all the improvements mentioned except only that of swearing belong to the commands of the Second Table And then the integral parts of this Gospel-spirit will be these four constantly Humility meekness mercifulness peaceableness and if need be suffering too Every of these four brought in to us with a checker or lay of duty towards God of mourning betwixt humility and meekness hungring and thirsting after Righteousness betwixt meekness and mercifulness purity of heart betwixt mercifulness and peaceableness and persecution and reproaches and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every Rabshakeh Topick of railing Rhetorick vomited out upon us Blessed persecution blessed reproaches when our holding to Christ is that which brings them all upon us the consummation and crown of all Having but named you these severals Humility meekness mercifulness peaceableness and if need be patience of all stripes both of hand tongue the sparkling gems in this Jewel blessed ingredients in this Gospel-spirit you will certainly resolve it full time for me to descend to my second particular at first proposed That some Disciples there were some prime Professors do not know the kind of that spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You know not what kind of spirit you are of James and John it appears were such Disciples and that after they had been for some competent time followers and auditors of his Sermons so far an easier thing it is to leave their worldly condition and follow Christ than to leave their carnal prejudices and ignorances and obey him especially those that had such hold in their passions as revenge they say is the pleasingest piece of carnality in the heap cheaper to hear his Gospel-Sermons than to practise them And you will less wonder at these two when you see that St. Peter himself after a longer space of proficiency in that school even at the time of Christs attachment had not yet put off that ignorance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Fathers Peter was of an hot Constitution and Christs Doctrine had not yet got down deep enough into his heart to allay or cool him Nondum concipiens in se Evangelicam patientiam illam traditam sibi a Christo c. saith Origen that Gospel-patience and peaceableness that Christ had commended to him he had not it seems yet received into an honest heart and so he makes no scruple to cut off Malchus ear when he was provoked to it I have heard of a Fryar that could confess that Malchus signified a King and yet after made no scruple to acknowledg him in that notion to be the High-Priests Servant And secondly to justifie St. Peters act and avoid Christs reprehension by saying that he was chid not for doing so much but for doing no more not for cutting off his Ear but for not directing the blow better to the cutting off his Head And how far this Fryar's barbarous Divinity hath been justified of late by the Writings of some who will yet perswade us that Christ did not reprehend St. Peter for that act and by the actions of others I have little joy to represent to you God knows I love not to widen breaches only I am sure the Fathers are clear that though formerly St. Peter were ignorant and from that ignorance and zeal together ran into that fury yet Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desirous to tune him to that sweet harmonaical Gospel temper tells him he must not use the sword he having no Commission especially against those that have it though they use it never so ill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though it were to avenge even God himself And having given you these proofs of this ignorance in three Disciples I think 't is possible I might extend it to the rest of them that they were in this particular ignorant too as it seems they were in many other things till the Holy Ghost came according to promise to teach them all things and to bring to their remembrance to thaw their memories that the words of Christs like the voice in Plutarch that had been frozen might at length become audible or as Plato's Precepts were learned by his Scholars when they were young but never understood till they were Men of full age and tamer passions I say to bring to their remembrance whatsoever Christ had in Person said unto them And I wish to God it were uncharitable to charge this ignorance still upon Disciples after so many solemn Embassies of the Holy Ghost unto us to teach us and remember us of this Duty Nay I wish that now after he hath varied the way of appearing after he hath sat upon us in somewhat a more direful shape not of a Dove but Vultur tearing even the flesh from us on purpose that when we have less of that carnal Principle left there might be some heed taken to this Gospel-Spirit there were yet some proficiency observable among us some heavings of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hath so long been a working in the World I am confident there were no such way of designing a prosperous flourishing durable Kingdom as to found its policy upon Gospel-Principles and maintain it by the Gospel-Spirit I have authority to think that was the meaning of that Prophecy of Christs turning swords into plough-shares not that he should actually bring peace he tells you that it would prove quite contrary but because the fabrick of the Gospel is such that would all men live by it all wars disquiets would be banished out of the World It was a madness in Machiavel to think otherwise and yet the unhappiness of the World that Sir Thomas Moor's Book that designed it thus should be then called Utopia and that title to this hour remain perfect Prophecy no place to be found where this Dove may rest her foot where this gospel-Gospel-Spirit can find reception No not among Disciples themselves those that profess to adventure their lives to set up Christs Kingdom in its purity none so void of this knowledge as they Whether we mean a speculative or practical knowledge of it few arrived to that height or vacancy of considering whether there be such a Spirit or no. Some so in love with nature that old Pelagian Idol resolve that sufficient to bring them to Heaven if they but allow their
brethren what they can claim by that grand Character love of Friends those of the same perswasion those that have obliged them they have natures leave and so are resolved to have Christs to hate pursue to death whom they can phancy their Enemies And I wish some were but thus of Agrippa's Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so near being Christians as nature it self would advance them that gratitude honour to Parents natural affection were not become malignant qualities disclaim'd as conscientiously as obedience and justice and honouring of betters Others again so devoted to Moses's Law the Old Testament Spirit that whatever they find practised there they have sufficient authority to transcribe And 't is observable that they which think themselves little concerned in Old Testament Duties which have a long time past for unregenerate morality that faith hath perfectly out-dated are yet zealous Assertors of the Old Testament Spirit all their pleas for the present resistance fetch'd from them yea and confest by some that this liberty was hidden by God in the first ages of the Christian Church but now revealed we cannot hear where yet but in the Old Testament and from thence a whole CIX Psalm full of Curses against God's Enemies and theirs and generally those pass for synonymous terms the special devotion they are exercised in and if ever they come within their reach no more mercy for them than for so many of the seven nations in rooting out of which a great part of their Religion consists I wish there were not another Prodigy also abroad under the name of the Old Testament Spirit the opinion of the necessity of Sacrifice real bloody Sacrifice even such as was but seldom heard of among Indians and Scythians themselves such sacrifices of which the Cannibal Cyclops Feasts may seem to have been but attendants furnished with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that come from such savage Altars sacrificing of Men of Christians of Protestants as good as any in the World to expiate for the bloud shed by Papists in Queen Mary's days and some Prophets ready to avow that without such Sacrifice there is no remission no averting of judgments from the Land What is this but like the Pharisees To build and garnish the Sepulchres of the Prophets and say That if they had lived in their Fathers days they would never have partaken of the blood of the Prophets and yet go on to fill up the measure of their Fathers the very men to whom Christ directs thee O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest in the present tense a happy turn if but the Progeny of those Murtherers and what can then remain but the Behold your house is left unto you desolate irreversible destruction upon the Land A third sort there is again that have so confined the Gospel to Promises and a fourth so perswaded that the Unum necessarium is to be of right perswasions in Religion i. e. of those that every such Man is of for he that did not think his own the truest would sure be of them no longer that betwixt those two popular deceits that of the Fiduciary and this of the Solifidian the Gospel spirit is not conceived to consist in doing any thing and so still those practical Graces Humility Meekness Mercifulness Peaceableness and Christian Patience are very handsomly superseded that one Moses's Rod called Faith is turned Serpent and hath devoured all these for rods of the Magicians and so still you see Men sufficiently armed and fortified against the Gospel-Spirit All that is now left us is not to exhort but weep in secret not to dispute but pray for it that God will at last give us eyes to discern this treasure put into our hands by Christ which would yet like a whole Navy and Fleet of Plate be able to recover the fortune and reputation of this bankrupt Island fix this floting Delos to restore this broken shipwrackt Vessel to harbour and safety this whole Kingdom to peace again Peace seasonable instant peace the only remedy on earth to keep this whole Land from being perfect Vastation perfect Africk of nothing but wild and Monster and the Gospel-Spirit that Christ came to Preach and exemplifie and plant among men the only way imaginable to restore that peace Lord that it might at length break forth among as the want of it is certainly the Author of all the miseries we suffer under and that brings me to the third and last particular That this ignorance of the Gospel-Spirit is apt to betray Christians to unsafe unjustifiable enterprizes You that would have fire from Heaven do it upon this one ignorance You know not c. It were too sad and too long a task to trace every of our evils home to the original every of the fiends amongst us to the mansion in the place of darkness peculiar to it If I should it would be found too true what Du Plesse is affirmed to have said to Languet as the reason why he would not write the story of the Civil Wars of France That if he were careful to observe the causes and honest to report them 〈◊〉 must hound the Fox to a Kennel which it was not willing to acknowledge drive such an action to the Brothel-house that came speciously and pretendedly out of a Church Find that to be in truth the animosity of a rival that took upon it to be the quarrel for Religion or as in Polybius oft the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a thing very distant from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the colour from the cause In the mean it will not be a peculiar mark of odium on the embroylers of this present State and Church to lay it at their doors which I am confident never failed to own the like effects in all other Christian States the Ignorance i. e. in the Scripture phrase Not Practising of those Christian Rules which the Gospel-spirit presents us with I might tire you but with the names of those effects that flow constantly from this Ignorance such are usurping the Power that belongs not to us which Humility would certainly disclaim such resisting the Powers under which we are placed by God to which Meekness would never be provoked such the judging and censuring mens thoughts and intentions any further than their actions enforce most unreconcileable with the forgiving part of mercifulness such the doing any kind of evil that the greatest or publickest good may come designing of Rapine or Blood to the sanctifiedst end which S. Paul and Peaceableness would never endure such Impatience of the Cross shaking a Kingdom to get it off from our own shoulders and put it on other men diametrally opposite to the suffering and patience of a Christian To retire from this Common to the Inclosure and to go no farther than the Text suggests to me To call fire from Heaven upon Samaritans is here acknowledged the effect of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the want of knowledge or consideration of
hearts any influence on your lives whether your Conversations are not still as Heathenish as ever If you have no other grounds or motives to embrace the Gospel but only because you are born within the pale of the Church no other evidences of your Discipleship but your livery then God is little beholding to you for your service The same motives would have served to have made you Turks if it had been your chance to have been born amongst them and now all that fair Christian outside is not thank-worthy 'T is but your good fortune that you are not now at the same work with the old Gentiles or present Indians a worshipping either Jupiter or the Sun 'T was a shrewd speech of Clemens that the life of every unregenerate Man is an Heathen-life and the sins of unsanctified Men are Heathen-sins and the estate of a Libertine Christian an Heathen estate and unless our resolutions and practices are consonant to our profession of Christ we are all still Heathens and the Lord make us sensible of this our Condition The third and in sum the powerfullest Argument to prove God's willingness that we should live is that he hath bestowed his spirit upon us that as soon as he called up the Son he sent the Comforter This may seem to be the main business that Christ ascended to Heaven about so that a Man would guess from the xvi Chapter of St. John and Vers 7. that if it had not been for that Christ had tarried amongst us till this time but that it was more expedient to send the Spirit to speak those things powerfully to our hearts which often and in vain had been sounded in our ears 'T is a fancy of the Paracelsians that if we could suck out the lives and spirits of other Creatures as we feed on their flesh we should never die their lives would nourish and transubstantiate into our lives their spirit increase our spirits and so our lives grow with our years the older we were by consequence the fuller of life and so no difficulty to become Immortal Thus hath God dealt with us first sent his Son his Incarnate Son his own Flesh to feed and nourish us and for all this we die daily he hath now given us his own very Life and incorporeous Essence a piece of pure God his very Spirit to feed upon and digest that if it be possible we might live There is not a vein in our Souls unless it be quite pin'd and shrivel'd up but hath some blood produced in it by that holy nourishment every breath that ever we have breathed toward Heaven hath been thus inspired besides those louder Voices of God either sounding in his Word or thundring in his Judgments there is his calm soft voice of Inspiration like the Night Vision of old which stole in upon the mind mingled with sleep and gentle slumber He draws not out into the Field or meets us as an Enemy but entraps us by surprize and disarms us in our quarters by a Spiritual Stratagem conquers at unawares and even betrays and circumvents and cheats us into Heaven That precept of Pythagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To worship at the noise and whistling of the wind had sense and divinity in it that Iamblicus that cites it never dreamt of that every sound and whispering of this Spirit which rustles either about our ears or in our hearts as the Philosopher saith Tecum est intus est when it breaths and blows within us the stoutest faculty of our Souls the proudest piece of flesh about us should bow down and worship Concerning the manner of the Spirits working I am not I need not to dispute Thus far it will be seasonable and profitable for you to know that many other Illuminations and holy Graces are to be imputed to Gods Spirit besides that by which we are effectually converted God speaks to us many times when we answer him not and shines about our eyes when we either wink or sleep Our many sudden short-winded Ejaculations toward Heaven our frequent but weak inclinations to good our ephemerous wishes that no man can distinguish from true piety but by their sudden death our every-day resolutions of obedience whilestwe continue in sin are arguments that God's Spirit hath shined on us though the warmth that it produced be soon chill'd with the damp it meets with in us For example there is no doubt beloved but the Spirit of God accompanies his Word as at this time to your ears if you will but open at its knock and receive and entertain it in your hearts it shall prove unto you according to its most glorious attribute Rom. i. The power of God unto salvation But if you will refuse it your stubborness may repel and frustrate God's Work but not annihilate it though you will not be saved by it it is God's still and so shall continue to witness against you at the day of doom Every word that was every darted from that Spirit as a beam or javelin of that piercing Sun every atome of that flaming Sword as the word is phrased shall not though it be rebated vanish the day of vengeance shall instruct your Souls that it was sent from God and since it was once refused hath been kept in store not to upbraid but damn you Many other petty occasions the Spirit ordinarily takes to put off the Cloud and open his Face towards us nay it were not a groundless doubt whether he do not always shine and the cloud be only in our hearts which makes us think the Sun is gone down or quite extinct if at any time we feel not his rays within us Beloved there be many things amongst us that single fire can do nothing upon they are of such a stubborn frozen nature there must be some material thing for the fire to consist in a sharp iron red hot that may bore as well as burn or else there is small hopes of conquering them Many men are so hardned and congealed in sin that the ordinary beam of the Spirit cannot hope to melt them the fire must come consubstantiate with some solid instrument some sound corpulent piercing judgment or else it will be very unlikely to thrive True it is the Spirit is an omnipotent Agent which can so invisibly infuse and insinuate its vertue through the inward man that the whole most enraged adversary shall presently fall to the earth Act. ix the whole carnal man lie prostrate and the sinner be without delay converted and this is a Miracle which I desire from my heart might be presently shewed upon every Soul here present But that which is to my present purpose is only this That God hath also other manners and ways of working which are truly to be said to have descended from Heaven though they are not so successful as to bring us thither other more calm and less boysterous influences which if they were received into an honest heart might prove semen
work so much miracle as Simon Magus is said to have done who undertook to raise the dead give motion to the head make the eyes look up or the tongue speak but the lower part of the man and that the heaviest will by no charm or spell be brought to stir but weigh sink even into Hell will still be carcass and corruption Damnation is his birth-right Ecclus xx 25. And it is impossible though not absolutely yet ex hypothesi the second Covenant being now sealed even for God himself to save him or give him life It is not David's Musick that exorcised and quieted Saul's evil spirit nor Pythagoras's Spondees that tamed a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set him right in his wits for ever that can work any effect on a fleshy heart So that Chrysostom would not wonder at the voice that cried O Altar Altar hear the voice of the Lord because Jeroboam's heart was harder than that nor will I find fault with Bonaventure that made a solemn prayer for a stony heart as if it were more likely to receive impression than that which he had already of flesh It were long to insist on the wilfulness of our fleshy hearts how they make a faction within themselves and bandy faculties for the Devil how when grace and life appear and make proffer of themselves all the carnal affections like them in the Gospel Joyn all with one consent to make excuses nothing in our whole lives we are so sollicitous for as to get off fairly to have made a cleanly Apology to the invitations of God's Spirit and yet for a need rather than go we will venture to be unmannerly We have all married a Wife espoused our selves to some amiable delight or other we cannot we will not come The Devil is wiser in his generation than we he knows the price and value of a Soul will pay any rate for it rather than lose his market he will give all the riches in the world rather than miss And we at how low a rate do we prize it it is the cheapest commodity we carry about us The beggarliest content under Heaven is fair is rich enough to be given in exchange for the Soul Spiritus non ponderat saith the Philosopher the Soul being a spirit when we put it into the balance weighs nothing nay more than so it is lighter than vanity lighter than nothing i. e. it doth not only weigh nothing but even lifts up the scale it is put into when nothing is weighed against it How many sins how many vanities how many idols i. e. in the Scripture phrase how many nothings be there in the world each of which will outweigh and preponderate the Soul It were tedious to observe and describe the several ways that our devillish sagacity hath found out to speed our selves to damnation to make quicker dispatch in that unhappy rode than ever Elias his fiery Chariot could do toward Heaven Our daily practice is too full of arguments almost every minute of our lives as it is an example so is it a proof of it Our pains will be employed to better purpose if we leave that as a worn beaten common place and betake our selves to a more necessary Theme a close of Exhortation And that shall be by way of Treaty as an Ambassador sent from God that you will lay down your arms that you will be content to be friends with God and accept of fair terms of composition which are That as you have thus long been enemies to God proclaiming hostility perpetually opposing every merciful will of his by that wilfulness so now being likely to fall into his hands you will prevent that ruine you will come in and whilst it is not too late submit your selves that you may not be forced as Rebels and outlaws but submit as Servants This perhaps may be your last parley for peace and if you stand out the battery will begin suddenly and with it the horrendum est Heb. x. 31. It is a fearful hideous thing to fall into the hands of the living God All that remains upon our wilful holding out may be the doom of Apostates from Christianity a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation that shall devour the adversaries Vers 27. And methinks the very emphasis in my Text notes as much Why will you die As if we were just now falling into the pit and there were but one minute betwixt this time of our jollity and our everlasting hell Do but lay this one circumstance to your hearts do but suppose your selves on a Bed of sickness laid at with a violent burning Fever such a one as shall finally consume the whole world as it were battered with thundering and lightning and besieged with fire where the next throw or plunge of thy disease may possibly separate thy soul from thy body and the mouth of Hell just then open and yawning at thee and then suppose there were one only minute wherein a serious resigning up thy self to God might recover you to Heaven O then what power and energy what force and strong efficacy would there be in this voice from God Why will you die I am resolved that heart that were truly sensible of it that were prepared seasonably by all these circumstances to receive it would find such inward vigor and spirit from it that it would strike death dead in that one minute this ultimus conatus this last spring and plunge would do more than a thousand heartless heaves in a lingring sickness and perhaps overcome and quit the danger And therefore let me beseech you to represent this condition to your selves and not any longer be flattered or couzened in a slow security To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts If you let it alone till this day come in earnest you may then perhaps heave in vain labour and struggle and not have breath enough to send up one sigh toward Heaven The hour of our death we are wont to call Tempus improbabilitatis a very improbable inch of time to build our Heaven in as after death is impossibilitatis a time wherein it is impossible to recover us from Hell If nothing were required to make us Saints but outward performances if true repentance were but to groan and Faith but to cry Lord Lord we could not promise our selves that at our last hour we should be sufficient for that perhaps a Lethargy may be our fate and then what life or spirits even for that perhaps a Fever may send us away raving in no case to name God but only in oaths and curses and then it were hideous to tell you what a Bethlehem we should be carried to But when that which must save us must be a work of the Soul and a gift of God how can we promise our selves that God will be so merciful whom we have till then contemned or our souls then capable of any holy impression having
precious receipt administred to all find not in all the like effect of recovering yet from hence is neither the Physick to be under-prized nor the Prescriber the matter is to be imputed sometimes to the weakness and peevishness of the Patient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he cannot or will not perform the prescriptions sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fault is to be laid on the stubbornness and stoutness of the disease which turns every medicine into its nourishment and so is not abated but elevated by that which was intended to asswage it as Hippocrates defines it medicinally in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So then by way of Use Pag. 2. If we desire that these commands this covenant offered to all men every where may evidence it self to our particular souls in its spiritual efficacy we must with all the industry of our spirits endeavour to remove those hindrances which may any way perturb or disorder or weaken it in its working in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hippoc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Hippocrates you must furnish your self before-hand with a shop of several softning plaisters and take some one of them as a preparative before every Sermon you come to that coming to Church with a tender mollified waxy heart you may be sure to receive every holy character and impression which that days exercise hath provided for thee lest otherwise if thou should'st come to Church with an heart of ice that ice be congealed into Crystal and by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the warmth of Gods word not abate but encrease the coldness of a chill frozen spirit and finding it hard and stubborn return it obdurate O what a horrid thing is it that the greatest mercy under Heaven should by our unpreparedness be turned into the most exquisite curse that Hell or malice hath in store for us That the most precious Balm of Gilead should by the malignity of some tempers be turned into poyson that the leaves which are appointed for the healing of the Nations should meet with some such sores which prove worse by any remedy that the most soveraign 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or lenitive in the world should only work to our obduration and the preaching of the word of mercy add to the measure of our condemnation this is enough to perswade you by an horror into some kind of sollicitude to prepare your souls to a capability of this cure to keep your selves in a Christian temper that it may be possible for a Sermon to work upon you that that breath which never returns in vain may be truly Gospel happy in its message may convert not harden you to which purpose you must have such tools in store Hippocrat ibidem which the Physician speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instruments of spiritual surgery to cut and prune off all luxuriant cumbersom excrescences all rankness and dead flesh which so oppress the soul that the vertue of medicine cannot search to it And for this purpose there is no one more necessary of more continual use for every man every where then that which here closeth my Text Repentance And so I come to the second respect the universality of the persons as it refers to the matter of the command repentance every man every where to repent And here I should shew you that repentance both generally taken for a sorrow for sin containing in it virtually saith also so the Baptism of repentance is interpreted Acts XIX 4. Acts xix 4. John baptized with the Baptism of repentance saying unto the people that they should believe c. and more specially in this place taken for the directing of our knowledge to practice and both to Gods glory as hath been shewn is and always was necessary to every man that will be saved 1 â—â—st c. 4. For according to Aristotles rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noting both an universality of subject and circumstance is a degree of necessity and therefore repentance being here commanded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be judged a condition necessary to every man who answers at the command i. e. who expects his part in the covenant of salvation this I say I might prove at large and to that purpose vindicate the writings of some of the Fathers especially of Clemens who I am almost confident is groundlesly cited for bestowing salvation on the Heathen without exacting the condition of faith and repentance which now 't were superfluous to insist on 2. Urge it both to your brains and hearts and by the necessity of the duty rouse and enforce and pursue you to the practice of it But seeing this Catholick duty is more the inspiration of the Holy Ghost then the acquisition of our labours seeing this fundamental Cardinal gift comes from the supreme donor seeing nature is no more able spiritually to reinliven a soul then to animate a carcass our best endeavour will be our humiliation our most profitable directions will prove our prayers and what our frailty cannot reach to our devotions shall obtain And let us labour and pray and be confident that God which hath honoured us with his commands will enable us to a performance of them and having made his covenant with us will fulfil in us the condition of it that the thundering of his word being accompanied with the still voice of his spirit may suffer neither repulse nor resistance that our hearts being first softned then stamped with the spirit may be the images of that God that made them that all of us every where endeavouring to glorifie God in our knowledg in our lives in our faith in our repentance may for ever be glorified by him and through him and with him hereafter Now to him that hath elected us hath created redeemed c. The XIV Sermon Rom. I. 26. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections IN this most accurate Epistle that ever the Pen of man could lay title to in which all the counsels and proceedings and methods of God in the work of our salvation are described our Apostle in his discourse goes on the same way that God is said to do in his Decree lays the foundation of it as low and deep as possible begins with them as it were in Massa and though they were already Romans and Christians yet before he openeth Heaven gates to them and either teaches or suffers them to be Saints he stays them a while in the contemplation of their impurity and damn'd neglected estate of the stock they come from looks upon them as polluted or troden down in their own blood as the phrase is Ezek. xvi 6. He plows and harrows and digs as deep as possible that the seed which he meant to sow might be firm rooted that their Heaven might be founded in the Center of the earth and their faith being secur'd by the depth of its foundation might encrease miraculously both in height and fruitfulness
of it to be for ever a solliciting and worshipping of darkness as Socrates was said to adore the clouds this is such a sottishness that the stupidst element under Heaven would naturally scorn to be guilty of for never was the Earth so peevish as to forbid the Sun when it should shine on it or to slink away or subduce it self from its rayes And yet this is our case beloved who do more amorously and flatteringly court and woo and sollicite darkness then ever the Heathens adored the Sun Not to wander out of the sphere my Text hath placed me in to shew how the light of the Gospel and Christianity is neglected by us our guilt will lie heavy enough on us if we keep us to the light only of natural reason within us How many sins do we daily commit which both nature and reason abhor and loath How many times do we not only unman but even uncreature our selves Aristotle observes that that by which any thing is known first that which doth distinguish one thing from another à priore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be called the beginning or cause of that thing and that the light of reason distinguishing one action from another being the first thing that teaches me that this is good that otherwise may from thence be termed the beginning of every reasonable action in us and then where ever this cause or beginning is left out and wanting there the thing produced is not so called a positive act or proper effect but a defect an abortion or still-born frustrate issue and of this condition indeed is every sin in us Every action where this law within us is neglected is not truly an action but a passion a suffering or a torment of the creature Thus do we not so much live and walk which note some action as lie entranced asleep nay dead in sin by this perversness 't is perpetual night with us nay we even die daily our whole life is but a multiplyed swoon or lethargie in which we remain stupid breathless sensless till the day of death or judgment with a hideous voice affrights and rouses us and we find our selves awake in Hell and so our dark souls having a long while groped wilfully in the Sun are at last lead to an everlasting inevitable darkness whither the mercy or rayes of the Sun can never pierce where it will be no small accession to our torment to remember and tremble at that light which before we scorn'd Thus I say do we in a manner uncreate our selves and by the contempt of this law of our creation even frustrate and bring to nothing our creation it self and this is chiefly by sins of sloth and stupid sluggish unactive vices which as I said make our whole life a continued passion never daring or venturing or attempting to act or do any thing in Church or Commonwealth either toward God or our Neighbour and of such a condition'd man no body will be so charitable as to guess he hath any soul or light of reason in him because he is so far from making use of it unless it be such a soul as Tully saith a Swine hath which serves it only instead of salt to keep it from stinking For 't is Aristotles observation that every one of the elements besides the earth was by some Philosopher or other defin'd to be the soul Some said the soul was fire some that 't was air some water but never any man was so mad as to maintain the earth to be it because 't was so heavy and unweildy So then this heavy motionless unactive Christian this clod of earth hath as I said uncreatured himself and by contemning this active reason within him even deprived himself of his soul Again how ordinary a thing is it to unman our selves by this contempt of the directions of reason by doing things that no man in his right mind would ever have patience to think of Beloved to pass by those which we call unnatural sins 1. so in the highest degree as too horrid for our nature set down in the latter end of this Chapter for all Christian ears to glow and tingle at and I had hoped for all English spirits to abhor and loath To pass these I say our whole life almost affords minutely sins which would not argue us men but some other creatures There be few things we do in our Age which are proper peculiar acts of men one man gives himself to eating and drinking and bestows his whole care on that one faculty which they call the vegetative growing faculty and then what difference is there betwixt him and a tree whose whole nature it is to feed and grow Certainly unless he hath some better imployment he is at best but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a plant-animal whose shape would perhaps persuade you that it hath some sense or soul in it but its actions betray it to be a meer plant little better then an Artichoak or Cabbage another goes a little higher yet not far doth all that his sense presents to him suffers all that his sensitive faculties lust and rage to exercise at freedom is as fierce as the Tyger as lustful as the Goat as ravenous as the Wolf and the like and all the beasts of the field and fowls of the air be but several Emblemes and Hieroglyphicks concurring to make up his character carries a wilderness about him as many sins as the nature of a sensitive creature is capable of and then who will stick to compare this man to the beasts that perish For 't is Theophilus his note that the cattle and beasts of the field were created the same day with man Gen. i. 25. to note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brutish condition of some men and that therefore the blessing was not bestowed on them but reserved for the man which should have the dominion over them verse 26 28. In sum every action which Reason or Scripture or Gods spirit guides not in us is to be called the work of some other creature of one of these three sorts either earthly the work of a plant or sensual the work of a brute or thirdly above the condition of both these devillish Thus do you see the sin of the contempt of the light of nature which although it be dimm'd in us by our corruption yet shined so bright in the Heathen that they were left without excuse in the Jews that even their own hearts accused them for their rebellions and in us Christians that unless we move according to its directions we are fallen below the condition of men almost of creatures 'T were now superfluous farther to demonstrate it our time will be better spent if we close with some use of it and that will prove manifold 1. by way of caution not to deifie or exalt too high or trust in this light of nature It was once a perfect glorius rule but is now
up into an ear the Spring improved to Autumn when the tongue discourses the hands act the feet run the way of Gods Commandments So I say the soul is the mother and the operations of soul and body the nurse of this Spirit in us and then who can hold in his Spirit without stifling from breaking out into that joyful acclamation Blessed is the womb that bears this incarnate Spirit and the paps that give him suck Now this inward principle this grace of regeneration though it be seated in the whole soul as it is an habit yet as it is an operative habit producing or rather enabling the man to produce several gracious works so it is peculiarly in every part and accordingly receives divers names according to several exercises of its power in those several parts As the soul of man sees in the eye hears in the ear understands in the brain chooses and desires in the heart and being but one soul yet works in every room every shop of the body in a several trade as it were and is accordingly called a seeing a hearing a willing or understanding soul thus doth the habit of grace seated in the whole express and evidence it self peculiarly in every act of it and is called by as several names as the reasonable soul hath distinct acts or objects In the understanding 't is first spiritual wisdom and discretion in holy things opposite to which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. i. 28. an unapproving as well as unapproved or reprobate mind and frequently in Scripture spiritual blindness Then as a branch of this it is belief or assent to the truth of the promises and the like in the practical judgment 't is spiritual prudence in ordering all our holy knowledge to holy practice in the will 't is a regular choice of whatsoever may prove available to salvation a holy love of the end and embracing of the means with courage and zeal Lastly in the outward man 't is an ordering of all our actions to a blessed conformity with a sanctified soul In brief 't is one principle within us doth every thing that is holy believes repents hopes loves obeys and what not And consequently is effectually in every part of body and soul sanctifying it to work spiritually as an holy instrument of a divine invisible cause that is the Holy Ghost that is in us and throughout us For the third question when this new principle enters first you are to know that comes into the heart in a three-fold condition 1. as an harbinger 2. as a private secret guest 3. as an inhabitant or house-keeper As 't is an harbinger so it comes to fit and prepare us for it self trims up and sweeps and sweetens the soul that it may be readier to entertain him when he comes to reside and that he doth as the ancient gladiators had their arma praelusoria by skirmishing with our corruptions before he comes to give them a pitch-battel he brandishes a flaming sword about our ears and as by a flash of lightning gives us a sense of a dismal hideous state and so somewhat restrains us from excess and fury first by a momentary remorse then by a more lasting yet not purifying flame the Spirit of bondage In sum every check of conscience every sigh for sin every fear of judgment every desire of grace every motion or inclination toward spiritual good he it never so short-winded is praeludium spiritus a kind of John Baptist to Christ something that God sent before to prepare the wayes of the Lord. And thus the Spirit comes very often in every affliction every disease which is part of Gods discipline to keep us in some order in brief at every Sermon that works upon us at the hearing then I say the lightning flashes in our eyes we have a glimpse of his Spirit but cannot come to a full sight of it and thus he appears to many whom he will never dwell with Unhappy men that they cannot lay hold on him when he comes so near them and yet somewhat more happy then they that never came within ken of him stopt their ears when he spake to them even at this distance Every man in the Christian Church hath frequently in his life a power to partake of Gods ordinary preparing graces and 't is some degree of obedience though no work of regeneration to make good use of them and if he without the Inhabitance of the Spirit cannot make such use as he should yet to make the best he can and thus I say the Spirit appears to the unregenerate almost every day of our lives 2. When this Spirit comes a guest to lodge with us then is he said to enter but till by actions and frequent obliging works he makes himself known to his neighbours as long as he keeps his chamber till he declare himself to be there so long he remains a private secret guest and that 's called the introduction of the form that makes a man to be truly regenerate when the seed is sown in his heart when the habit is infused and that is done sometimes discernibly sometimes not discernibly but seldom as when Saul was called in the midst of his madness Acts ix he was certainly able to tell a man the very minute of his change of his being made a new creature Thus they which have long lived in an enormous Antichristian course do many times find themselves strucken on a sudden and are able to date their regeneration and tell you punctually how old they are in the Spirit Yet because there be many preparations to this Spirit which are not this Spirit many presumptions in our hearts false-grounded many tremblings and jealousies in those that have it great affinity between faith natural and spiritual seeing 't is a Spirit that thus enters and not as it did light on the Disciples in a bodily shape 't is not an easie matter for any one to define the time of his conversion Some may guess somewhat nearer then others as remembring a sensible change in themselves but in a word the surest discerning of it is in its working not at its entring I may know that now I have the Spirit better then at what time I came to it Undiscernibly Gods supernatural agency interposes sometimes in the mothers womb as in John Baptist springing in Elizabeth at Maryes salutation Luke i. 41. and perhaps in Jeremy Jer. i. 5. Before thou camest out of the womb I Sanctified thee and in Isaiah Isa xlix 5. The Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant But this divine address attends most ordinarily till the time of our Baptism when the Spirit accompanying the outward sign infuses it self into their hearts and there seats and plants it self and grows up with the reasonable soul keeping even their most luxuriant years within bounds and as they come to an use of their reason to a more and more multiplying this habit of
grace into holy spiritual acts of Faith and Obedience from which 't is ordinarily said that Infants baptized have habitual Faith as they may be also said to have habitual repentance and the habits of all other graces because they have the root and seed of those beauteous healthful flowers which will actually flourish then when they come to years And this I say is so frequent to be performed at Baptism that ordinarily 't is not wrought without that means and in those means we may expect it as our Church doth in our Liturgies where she presumes at every Baptism that it hath pleased God to regenerate the Infant by his holy Spirit And this may prove a solemn piece of comfort to some who suspect their state more then they need and think 't is impossible that they should be in a regenerate condition because they have not as yet found any such notable change in themselves as they see and observe in others These men may as well be jealous they are not men because they cannot remember when their soul came to them if they can find the effects of spiritual life in themselves let them call it what they will a religious education or a custom of well doing or an unacquaintedness with sin let them comfort themselves in their estate and be thankful to God who visited them thus betimes let it never trouble them that they were not once as bad as other men but rather acknowledge Gods mercy who hath prevented such a change and by uniting them to him in the cradle hath educated and nursed them up in familiarity with the Spirit Lastly the Spirit sometimes enters into our hearts upon occasional emergencies the sense of Gods judgments on our selves or others the reflexion on his mercies the reading good Books falling into vertuous acquaintance but most eminently at and with the preaching of the Word and this by degrees as it seems to us but indeed at some one especial season or other which yet perhaps we are not able to discern and here indeed are we ordinarily to expect this guest if we have not yet found him here doth it love to be cherished and refreshed and warm'd within us if we have it for even it is the power of God unto salvation Rom. i. 16. The 3. condition in which this Spirit comes into our hearts is as an inhabitant or house-keeper The Spirit saith Austin first is in us then dwels in us before it dwels it helps us to believe when it dwels it helps and perfects and improves our faith and accomplishes it with all other concomitant graces So I say here the Spirit is then said to inhabit and keep house in us not as soon as it is entertained and received but when it breaks forth into acts and declares it self before all men When men see our good works and glorifie our Father Matth. v. 16. Before we were said to live in the Spirit now to walk as you shall see the phrases used distinctly Gal v. 25 〈◊〉 walk that is to go about conspicuously in the sight of all men breaking forth into works as the Sun after the dispersions of a mist or cloud whereby all men see and acknowledge his faith and obedience and find their own evil wayes reprehended and made manifest by his good as is noted in the 13. verse All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light Semblable to which is that of the Atheists repining at the godly man 2 Wisd ii 14. He is made to reprove our thoughts Thus is the third Quere resolved also when this inward principle enters 1. It comes as an harbenger in every outward restraint by which God keeps us from sinning 2. It enters as a guest in some season or other once for all In the womb at Baptism at some Sermon sometimes at a notable tempest shaking and stirring us violently ordinarily and for the most part not to be discerned by us and lastly it comes and dwels with us and shews it self in its works yet that not at any set time after his entrance not constantly without ever covering his face but when and as often as it pleases and the flesh resisteth not To the last Quere What works it performs the answer shall be brief every thing that may be called spiritual Faith Repentance Charity Hope Self-denial and the rest but these not promiscuously or in an heap altogether but by a wise dispensation in time and by degrees The soul being enabled by this inward principle is equally disposed to the producing of all these and as occasions do occur doth actually perform and produce them so that in my conceit that question concerning the priority of Repentance or Faith is not either of such moment or difficulty as is by some disputers pretended The seeds of them both are at one time planted in the soul and then there is no Faith in any subject but there is Repentance also nor Repentance without Faith So that where it is said Without Faith 't is impossible to please God in any thing else 't is true but argues no necessary precedence of it before other graces for the habits of them all are of the same age in us and then also will it be as true that without Repentance or without Love Faith it self cannot please God for if it be truly acceptable Faith there is both Repentance and Love in the same womb to keep it company Thus are we wont to say that only Faith justifieth but not Faith alone and the reason these promises in Scripture are made sometimes to one grace precisely sometimes to another is because they are all at once rooted in the man and in their habits chain'd together inseparably Faith saves every man that hath it and yet the believing'st man under Heaven shall not be saved without Charity Charity hides a multitude of sins and yet the charitablest man in the world shall never have his score cross't without Repentance A catalogue of these fruits of the Spirit you may at your leisure make up to your selves for your tryal out of the fifth to the Gal. from the 22. verse and 1 Peter i 5. All these graces together though some belonging to one some to another faculty of the soul are yet all at once conceived in it at once begin their life in the heart though one be perhaps sooner ready to walk abroad and shew it self in the world then another As in the 2 of Kings iv 34. Elisha went up on the bed and lay on the child and put his mouth on his mouth and eyes upon his eyes and hands upon his hands and stretched himself upon the child and the flesh of the child waxed warm and verse 35. the child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes Thus I say doth the Spirit apply it self unto the soul and measure it self out to every part of it and then the spiritual life comes at once into the soul
yea sum of our belief we deny and bandy against all our lives long If the story of Christ coming to judgment set down in the xxv of Matthew after the 30. verse had ever entred through the doors of our ears to the inward closets of our hearts 't is impossible but we should observe and practise that one single duty there required of us Christ there as a Judge exacts and calls us to account for nothing in the world but only works of mercy and according to the satisfaction which we are able to give him in that one point he either entertains or repels us and therefore our care and negligence in this one business will prove us either Christians or Infidels But alas 't is too plain that in our actions we never dream either of the judgment or the arraignment our stupid neglect of this one duty argues us not only unchristian but unnatural Besides our Alms-deeds which concern only the outside of our neighbour and are but a kind of worldly mercy there are many more important but cheaper works of mercy as good counsel spiritual instructions holy education of them that are come out of our loyns or are committed to our care seasonable reproof according to that excellent place Lev xix 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart but in any wise reprove him a care of carrying our selves that we may not scandal or injure or offer violence to the soul and tender conscience of him that is flexible to follow us into any riot These and many other works of mercy in the highest degree as concerning the welfare of other mens souls and the chief thing required of us at the day of judgment are yet so out-dated in our thoughts so utterly defaced and blotted out in the whole course of our lives that it seems we never expect that Christ in his Majesty as a Judge whom we apprehend and embrace and hug in his humility as a Saviour Beloved till by some severe hand held over our lives and particularly by the daily study and exercise of some work of mercy or other we demonstrate the sincerity of our belief the Saints on Earth and Angels in Heaven will shrewdly suspect that we do only say over that part of our Creed that we believe only that which is for our turn the sufferings and satisfactions of Christ which cost us nothing but do not proceed to his office of a Judge do not either fear his judgments or desire to make our selves capable of his mercies Briefly whosoever neglects or takes no notice of this duty of exercising works of mercy whatsoever he brags of in his theory or speculation in his heart either denies or contemns Christ as Judge and so destroys the sum of his Faith and this is another kind of secret Atheism Fourthly Our Creed leads us on to a belief and acknowledgement of the Holy Ghost and 't is well we have all conn'd his name there for otherwise I should much fear that it would be said of many nominal Christians what is reported of the Ephesian Disciples Acts xix 2. They have not so much as heard whether there be an Holy Ghost or no. But not to suspect so much ignorance in any Christian we will suppose indeed men to know whatsoever they profess and enquire only whether our lives second our professions or whether indeed they are meer Infidels and Atheistical in this business concerning the Holy Ghost How many of the ignorant sort which have learnt this name in their Catechism or Creed have not yet any further use to put it to but only to make up the number of the Trinity have no special office to appoint for him no special mercy or gift or ability to beg of him in the business of their salvation but mention him only for fashion sake not that they ever think of preparing their bodies or souls to be Temples worthy to entertain him not that they ever look after the earnest of the Spirit in their hearts 2 Cor. i. 22. Further yet how many better learned amongst us do not yet in our lives acknowledge him in that Epithet annext to his title the Holy Ghost i. e. not only eminently in himself holy but causally producing the same quality in us from thence called the sanctifying and renewing Spirit How do we for the most part fly from and abandon and resist and so violently deny him when he once appears to us in this Attribute When he comes to sanctifie us we are not patient of so much sowreness so much humility so much non-conformity with the world as he begins to exact of us we shake off many blessed motions of the Spirit and keep our selves within garrison as far as we can out of his reach lest at any turn he should meet with and we should be converted Lastly the most ordinary morally qualified tame Christians amongst us who are not so violent as to profess open arms against this Spirit how do they yet reject him out of all their thoughts How seldom do many peaceable orderly men amongst us ever observe their wants or importune the assistance of this Spirit In sum 't was a shrewd speech of the Fathers which will cast many fair out-sides at the bar for Atheists That the life of an unregenerate man is but the life of an Heathen and that 't is our regeneration only that raises us up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from being still meer Gentiles He that believes in his Creed the person nay understands in the Schools the Attributes and gifts of the Holy Ghost and yet sees them only in the fountain neither finds nor seeks for any effects of them in his own soul he that is still unregenerate and continues still gaping and yawning stupid and senseless in this his condition is still for all his Creed and learning in effect an Atheist And the Lord of Heaven give him to see and endeavours to work and an heart to pray and his Spirit to draw and force him out of this condition Fifthly Not to cramp in every Article of our Creed into this Discourse we will only insist on two more We say therefore that we believe the forgiveness of sins and 't is a blessed confidence that all the treasures in the world cannot equal But do our selves keep equipage and hand in hand accompany this profession Let me catechize you a while You believe the forgiveness of sins but I hope not absolutely that the sufferings of Christ shall effectually clear every mans score at the day of judgment well then it must be meant only of those that by repentance and faith are grafted into Christ and shall appear at that great marriage in a wedding garment which shall be acknowledged the livery and colours of the Lamb. But do our lives ever stand to this explication and restriction of the Article Do they ever expect this beloved remission by performing the condition of repentance Do we ever
our selves below the dust and not dare to look the veriest Gentile in the face 'till we have removed this plague from us And do thou O Lord assist our endeavours and by the violence of thy Spirit force and ravish us in our lives as well as belief to a sincere acknowledgment and expression of every minute part of that Religion which is purely Christian that we may adore thee in our hearts as well as our brains and being sanctified throughout from any tincture or colour or suspition of irreligion in either power of our souls we may glorifie thee here and be glorified by thee hereafter Now to him which hath elected us hath c. The XVII Serm. 2 Pet. III. 3. Scoffers walking after their own lusts IT is an excellent observation of Aristotles that rich men are naturally most contumelious most given to abuse and deride others which he expresses thus in the seventh of his Pol. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The contentment which they enjoy in the continuance of their worldly happiness the perpetual rest and quiet and tranquility which their plenty bestows on them makes them contemn and despise the estate of any other man in the world Upon this conceit saith the same Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that their happiness is elevated infinitely above the ordinary pitch that whatever contentments any other sort of people can glory or delight in is but some imaginary slight poor happiness that men are fain to solace themselves withal to keep them from melancholy all far enough below the size of their felicity which all agreeable circumstances have conspired to make exactly complete Hence it is that you shall ordinarily observe the rich man in this confidence of his opinion that no man is happy but himself either contemn or pity the poverty and improvidence and perhaps the sottishness of such spirits that can rejoyce or boast in the possession of wisdom knowledge nay even of Gods graces no object is more ridiculous in his eye then either a Scholar or a Christian that knows not the value of riches for saith Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Money is reckoned the price of all things else that which can easily purchase whatever else we can stand in need of and therefore the rich man if he could think Learning and Religion worth any thing having his money by him which is in effect every thing thinks he can call for them when he pleases In the mean he hath more wit then to forsake his pleasures and go to school to the Stoick to divest himself of his robes and put on the sowerness the rigid sad behaviour which the profession of Wisdom or Christianity requires He is better pleased in his present pomp then to go and woo that misery and ruggedness which the severity of discipline looks for Let silly beggars boast of the contents of Wisdom or hopes of Heaven at mihi plaudo domi his coffers at home are better companions then all the melancholy of books or sullen solaces of the spirit He hath learnt by experience that he ought to pity and contemn these fictions of delight which the Poets fetch from the fortunate islands to delude and cozen and comfort beggars his glory and pride and riches are happiness indeed and whatever else the poverty of the world can boast of are objects not of his envy but his scorn What we have hitherto noted to you concerning the rich man is applyable on the same grounds to any fort of people which have fixt upon any worldly content and resolved upon some one object beside which they will never value or prize any thing Thus the Epicure or voluptuous man who hath set up his Idol lust to whom he owes all his sacrifice and from whom he expects all his good fortune that hath fixt his Pillars and cast his Anchor and is peremptorily constant in his course that he is resolved for ever to walk in This man I say being possest with an opinion of the happiness which he is placed in like the Sun in his pride rejoyces to run his course and scorns any contrary motion that he meets or hears of and only observes the wayes of vertue and religion to hate and laugh at them and the farther he walks the deeper he is engaged in this humor of self-content and contempt of others of security and scoffing For this is the force and implicite argument covertly contained in the close of these words There shall come in the last dayes scoffers c. i. e. this resolution to walk on in their own lusts hath brought them to this pitch of Atheism to scoff and deride both God and Goodness There shall c. We have heretofore divided these words and in them observed and handled already the sin of Atheism together with the subjects in which it works Christians of the last times noted from this prophetick speech There shall come in the last dayes scoffers We now come to the second particular the motive or impellent to this sin a liberty which men give themselves and a content which they take to walk after their own lusts The second chapter of the Wisdom of Solomon is an excellent description of the Atheist and though it be of Apocryphal authority yet 't is of most divine Canonical truth I could find in my heart nay I can scarce hold from reading and paraphrasing the whole chapter to you 't is so solid so strong so perfect a discourse upon this theme it contains so many strains of Atheistical reason in opposition to godliness and the root and growth and maturity of this tree of knowledge and death that the clear understanding of that one place might suffice without any enlargement of proofs or expressions But for brevity sake and on promise that you will at your leisure survey it I will omit to insist on it only in the end of the 21. verse after all the expressions of their Atheistical counsels you have the reason or motive or first worker of all For their own wickedness hath blinded them their stupid perseverance in those dark wayes in that black Tophet on earth habituate custom of sinning had so thickned their sight had drawn such a film over their eyes that in the judgment of divine affairs they were stark blind they could see nothing in all the mystery of godliness which was worth embracing and therefore had no employment but to walk on after their own lusts and to scoff at those that were so foolishly friendly to them as to call them out of their way they were well enough acquainted with their own paths they could walk them blindfold and therefore had more wit then forsake the road for a nearer by-way The issue of all is this that a voluptuous course of life is a great promoter and advancer of Atheism there had never been so many scoffers in the Christian world had there not been also those that were resolute to walk after their own lusts In
among all other moral vertues they have purchased humility the best if there be any preparative for the receiving of grace Mean while we are not to be mistaken as if we thought Gods purposes tyed to mans good behaviour or mans moral goodness to woo and allure Gods Spirit as that the Almighty is not equally able to sanctifie the foulest soul by his converting grace and the less polluted or that he requires mans preparation but our position is that in ordinary charitable reason we ought to judge more comfortably and hope more confidently of a meer moral man naturally more careful of his wayes that he shall be both called and saved that God will with his Spirit perfect and crown his morally good though imperfect endeavours then of another more debauch't sinner utterly negligent of the commands of either God or Nature Which position I have in brief proved though nothing so largely as I might in confutation of them who do utterly condemn unregenerate morality and deject it below the lowest degree of prophaneness as if they would teach a man his way to Heaven by boasting arrogantly what Paul converted confesses humbly I am the nearer to Christs Salvation because of all sinners I am the chief The Use in brief of this Thesis shall be for those who not as yet find the power of the regenerating spirit in them for I am to fear many of my auditors may be in this case and I pray God they feel and work and pray themselves out of it the Use I say is for those who are not yet full possessors of the spirit to labour to keep their unregeneracy spotless from the greater offence that if they are not yet called to the preferment of Converts and Saints the second part of Heaven that earthly City of God that yet they will live orderly in that lower regiment wherein they yet remain and be subject to the law of nature till it shall please God to take them into a new Common-wealth under the law of grace to improve their natural abilities to the height and bind their hands and hearts from the practice and study of outragious sins by those ordinary restraints which nature will afford us such as are a good disposition education and the like not to leave and refer all to the miraculous working of God and to encrease our sins for the magnifying of the vertue in recalling us God requires not this glory at our hands that we should peremptorily over-damn our selves that he may be the more honoured in saving us His mercy is more known to the world then to need this woful foil to illustrate it God is not wont to rake Hell for converts to gather Devils to make Saints of the Kingdom of Heaven would suffer great violence if only such should take it If Saul were infinitely sinful before he proved an Apostle though by the way we hear him profess he had lived in all good conscience yet expect not thou the same miracle nor think that the excess of sins is the cue that God ordinarily takes to convert us The Fathers in an obedience to the discipline and pedagogy of the old Law possest their soule in patience expecting the prophecied approach of the new did not by a contempt of Moses precipitate and hasten the coming of the Messias Cornelius liv'd a long while devoutly and gave much alms till at last God call'd him and put him in a course to become a Christian and do thou if thou art not yet called wait the Lords leisure in a sober moral conversation and fright not him from thee with unnatural abominations God is not likely to be wooed by those courses which nature loaths or to accept them whom the world is ashamed of In brief remember Saul and Cornelius Saul that he not many were called from a profest blasphemer Cornelius that before he was called he prayed to God alway and do thou endeavour to deserve the like mercy and then in thy prayer confess thine undeserving and petition grace as grace that is not as our merit but as his free-will favour not as the desert of our morality but a stream from the bounty of his mercy who we may hope will crown his common graces with the fulness of his Spirit And now O powerful God on those of us which are yet unregenerate bestow thy restraining grace which may curb and stop our natural inordinacy and by a sober careful continent life prepare us to a better capability of thy sanctifying Spirit wherewith in good time thou shalt establish and seal us up to the day of redemption And thus much concerning Saul unconverted how of all sinners he was the chief not absolutely that he surpassed the whole world in rankness of sin but respectively to his later state that few or none are read to have been translated from such a pitch of sin to Saint-ship Now follows the second consideration of him being proceeded Paul i. e. converted and then the question is Whether and how Paul converted may be said the chief of all sinners 'T were too speculative a depth for a popular Sermon to discuss the inherence and condition of sin in the regenerate the business will be brought home more profitably to our practice if we drive it to this issue That Paul in this place intending by his own example to direct others how to believe the truth and embrace and fasten on the efficacy of Christs Incarnation hath no better motive to incite himself and others toward it then a recognition of his sins that is a survey of the power of sin in him before and a sense of the relicks of sin in him since his conversion Whence the note is That the greatness of ones sins makes the regenerate man apply himself more fiercely to Christ This faithful saying was therefore to Paul worthy of all acceptation because of all sinners he was the chief St. Paul as every regenerate man is to be observed in a treble posture either casting his eyes backward or calling them in upon himself or else looking forward and aloof and accordingly is to be conceived in a treble meditation either of his life past or present state or future hopes In the first posture and meditation you may see first Paul alone who was before a blasphemer a persecuter and injurious secondly all the regenerate together For when we were in the flesh the motions of sin did work in our members c. and many the like In the second posture and meditation you may observe him retracting an error Acts xxiii deprecating a temptation with earnest and repeated intercessions 2 Cor. xii 7. fighting with and harrasing himself beating down his body and keeping it in subjection lest while he preacht to others he himself might be a cast-away 1 Cor. ix 27. c. In the third posture we find him Rom. vii 25. where after a long disguise he cries out I thank God through Jesus Christ our
is so rich in heads each to be cut off by the work of a several repentance Now in the last place as this sin of all mankind in Adam is considered in its effects so it becomes to us a body of sin and death a natural disorder of the whole man an hostility and enmity of the flesh against the spirit and the parent of all sin in us as may appear Rom. vii and Jam. i. 14. Which that you may have a more compleat understanding of consider it as it is ordinarily set down consisting of three parts 1. A natural defect 2. A moral affection 3. A legal guilt 1. A guiltiness of the breach of the law for these three whatsoever you may think of them are all parts of that sin of our nature which is in and is to be imputed to us called ordinarily original sin in us to distinguish it from that first act committed by Adam of which this is an effect And first that natural defect is a total loss and privation of that primitive justice holiness and obedience which God had furnisht the creature withal a disorder of all the powers of the soul a darkness of the understanding a perversness of the will a debility weakness and decay of all the senses and in sum a poverty and destruction and almost a nothingness of all the powers of soul and body And how ought we to lament this loss with all the veins of our heart to labour for some new strain of expressing our sorrow and in fine to petition that rich grace which may build up all these ruines to pray to God that his Christ may purchase and bestow on us new abilities that the second Adam may furnish us with more durable powers and lasting graces then we had but forfeited in the first The following part of this sin of our nature viz. A moral evil affection is word for word mentioned Rom. vii 5. For there the Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordinarily translated motions of sins and in the margin the passions of sins are more significantly to be rendred affections of sins i. e. by an usual figure sinful affections That you may the better observe the encumbrances of this branch of this sin which doth so overshadow the whole man and so sence him from the beams and light of the spiritual invisible Sun I am to tell you that the very Heathen that lived without the knowledge of God had no conversation with and so no instruction from the Bible in this matter that these very Heathens I say had a sense of this part of original sin to wit of these evil moral lusts and affections which they felt in themselves though they knew not whence they sprang Hence is it that a Greek Philosopher out of the ancients makes a large discourse of the unsatiable desire and lust which is in every man and renders his life grievous unto him where he useth the very same word though with a significant Epithet added to it that St. James doth c. i. ver 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infinite lust with which as St. James saith a man is drawn away and enticed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so saith he that part of the mind in which these lusts dwell is perswaded and drawn or rather falls backward and forward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which lust or evil concupiscence he at last defines to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unsattable intemperance of the appetite never filled with a desire never ceasing in the prosecution of evil and again he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our birth and nativity derived to us by our parents i. e. an evil affection hereditary to us and delivered to us as a legacy at our birth or nativity all which seems a clear expression of that original lust whose motions they felt and guest at its nature Hence is it that it was a custom among all of them I mean the common Heathen to use many ways of purgations especially on their children who at the imposition of their names were to be lustrated and purified with a great deal of superstition and ceremony such like as they used to drive away a plague or a cure for an house or City As if nature by instinct had taught them so much Religion as to acknowledge and desire to cure in every one this hereditary disease of the soul this plague of mans heart as 't is called 1 Kings viii 38. And in sum the whole learning of the Wisest of them such were the Moralists was directed to the governing and keeping in order of these evil affections which they called the unruly Citizens and common people of the soul whose intemperance and disorders they plainly observed within themselves and laboured hard to purge out or subdue to the government of reason and vertue which two we more fully enjoy and more Christianly call the power of grace redeeming our souls from this body of sin Thus have I briefly shewed you the sense that the very Heathen had of this second branch of original sin which needs therefore no farther aggravation to you but this that they who had neither Spirit nor Scripture to instruct them did naturally so feelingly observe and curse it that by reason of it they esteemed their whole life but a living death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their body but the Sepulchre of the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both which together are but a Periphrasis of that which St. Paul calls in brief the body of death And shall we who have obtained plenty of light and instruction besides that which nature bestowed on us with them shall we I say let our eyes be confounded with abundance of day shall we see it more clearly to take less notice of it Shall we feel the stings of sin within us which though they do but prick the regenerate prove mortal to the rest of us and shall we not observe them Shall we not rather weep those fountains dry and crop this luxury of our affections with a severe sharp sorrow and humiliation Shall we not starve this rank fruitful mother of Vipers by denying it all nourishment from without all advantages of temptations and the like which it is wont to make use of to beget in us all manner of sin let us aggravate every circumstance and inconvenience of it to ourselves and then endeavour to banish it out of us and when we find we are not able importune that strong assistant the Holy Spirit to curb and subdue it that in the necessity of residing it yet may not reign in our mortal bodies to tame and abate the power of this necessary Amorite and free us from the activity and mischief and temptations of it here and from the punishment and imputation of it hereafter And so I come to the third part or branch of this original sin to wit its legal guilt and this we do contract by such an early