place either expresly or implicitly to direct our prayers to God the Father that he would be pleased to forgive us our sins to be reconciled unto us and bestow such blessings upon us as he hath promised to such as shall be reconciled unto him In the Second place either expressly or implicitly we are to beseech him to forgive us our sins to be reconciled and blesse us for the merits of his only Son who hath made satisfaction for us This is a Point which every Christian is bound expressely to believe that God the Father doth neither forgive sins nor vouchsafe any Term or Plea of Reconciliation but only for the merits and satisfaction made by the sacrifice of the Son of God who by the eternal spirit offered himself in our humane nature upon the Crosse In the next place we are to believe and acknowledge that as God the Father doth neither forgive nor vouchsafe Reconciliation but for the merits and satisfaction of his only Son so neither will he vouchsafe to conveigh this or any other blessing unto us which his Son hath purchased for us but only through his Son not only through him as our Advocate or Intercessor but through him as our Mediator that is through His humanitie as the Organ or Conduit or as the only Bond by which we are united and reconciled unto the Divine Nature For although the Holy Spirit or Third Person in Trinitie doth immediately and by Personal Proprietie work faith and other spiritual Graces in our Souls yet doth he not by these Spiritual Graces unite our souls or Spirits immediately unto himself but unto Christs Humane Nature He doth as it were till the ground of our hearts and make it fit to receive the seed of life But this seed of righteousnesse immediately flows from the Sun of Righteousnesse whose sweet influence likewise it is which doth immediately season cherish and ripen it The Spirit of life whereby our Adoption and Election is sealed unto us is the real participation of Christs Bodie which was broken and of Christs Blood which was shed for us This is the true and punctual meaning of our Apostles speech 1 Cor. 15. 45. The first man Adam was made a living soul or as the Syriack hath it Animale Corpus an enlivened bodie but the second Adam was made a quickning spirit and immediately becometh such to all those which as truely bear his image by the Spirit of Regeneration which issues from him as they have born the Image of the first Adam by natural propagation And this again is the true and punctual meaning of our Saviours words John 6. 63. It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you are spirit and life For so he had said in the verses before to such as were offended at his words what if you should see the Son of man ascend up where he was before The Implication conteined in the Connexion between these two verses and the precedent is this That Christs Virtual presence or the influence of life which his Humane Nature was to distil from his heavenly Throne should be more profitable to such as were capable of it then his Bodily presence then the bodily Eating of his flesh and blood could be although it had been convertible into their bodily substance This distillation of life and immortalitie from his glorified Humane Nature is that which the Ancient and Orthodoxal Church did mean in their Figurative and lofty speeches of Christs Real presence or of eating His very Flesh and drinking His very Blood in the Sacrament And the Sacramental Bread is called His Bodie and the Sacramental Wine His Blood as for other reasons so especially for This that the vertue or influence of his Bloody Sacrifice is most plentifully and most effectually distilled from heaven unto the worthy Receivers of the Eucharist And unto this Point and no further will most of the Testimonies reach which Bellarmin in his books of the Sacraments or Maldonat in his Comments upon the sixth of Saint John do quote out of the Fathers for Christs Real Presence by Transubstantiation or which Chemnitius that Learned Lutheran in his Books De duabus in Christo naturis and de Fundamentis sanae doctrinae doth avouch for Consubstantiation And if thus much had been as distinctly granted to the Ancient Lutherans as Calvin in some places doth the controversie between the Lutheran and other Reformed Churches had been at an end when it first begun Both Parties acknowledging Saint Cyrill to be the fittest Umpire in this Controversie The end of the Third Chapter A Transition of the Publisher's IT must not be dissembled that I had no Intimation much lesse Commission of the Author's to Insert the Two following Chapters herein this place Yet besides that I knew not of any fitter place where to dispose of them I had these Reasons so to do 1. I held it fit that His Powerful Disputes against the Church of Rome about The Lords Supper in the fourth Chapter and about another Point in the fifth should immediately follow his Learned Argument with the Lutheran 2. The sequence seems very Methodical The Subject of the first Chapter being partly About Christs Exaltation by becoming The Chief Corner-Stone cut out of the Rock or quarrey by his Resurrection from The New Scpulchre lifted up by his Ascension and placed at the Chief Corner by his Sitting at Gods Right-hand and partly about The Union of Christ with true Christians which Union is both a Considerable part of the fourth Chapter and was happily touched upon in the Close of the Third 3. In case any Restive soul should perhaps some faint Dejected Spirit having read Christs Great Exaltation may say Who shall ascend into Heaven that is to bring Christ down from above Such an one besides the quickenings he may hear from other Remembrancers Saint Peter telling us that we are pilgrims here and Saint Paul that we seek a Countrie and look for a Citie Jerusalem that is Free and that being Fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of Gods hous-hold our Conversation or Traffick is to be in heaven for those things which are above where Christ sitteth at Gods Right-hand c. may receive mightie encouragement by Experimenting the Contents of these two next Chapters The avowed neer approach and Intimacie of our Lord Jesus Christ with the Believing and Receiving Christian The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart When the holy Sacramental pledges be in the mouth and Faith in the heart The Word the Eternal Word that was made flesh is nigh indeed For Verily Verily He that eateth my Fesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in Me and I in Him CHAP. 1111. A Paraphrase upon the sixth of St. John In what sense Christ's flesh is said to be truly Meat c. What it is To eat Christs Flesh and drink his Blood Of eating and drinking Spiritual and Sacramental And whether of them is meant
pamphlets Schismatical and Seditious books find no where better welcome or entertainment then in this Town And wise men I hope will account it a work of charitie rather then of crueltie to take Rats-bane from children albeit they should long after it more greedily then after any wholsom meat Or if any be so stubborn as not to part with this poison by gentle perswasions the only Remedie must be to exclude them from communicating with others in the food of life For us Dearly beloved let us in the bowels of Christ Jesus I beseech you content our selves with the Reformation already established by Authority It is no time to sally out against the Adversary in single bands or scattered companies but rather with the joynt forces of our united affections of prayers and endeavours either to batter the Foundation of their Churches wals or manfully to defend our own keeping our selves within the bounds whereunto authoritie hath confined us The common Adversaries of the Truth which we professe want no strength of wit or weapons of Art to work upon all advantages which our ignorance negligence indiscretion or dissension may present unto them And this one great advantage they have of us that we for the most part fight as it were every man upon his own head without the advice or appointment of our chief Leaders and Commanders So do not our Adversaries they have the perfect Discipline of War And I cannot but approve his wish That either they had our vine or we their fence And it is a Rule to be observed aswell in spiritual warfare as in any others yea most especially in it Arma tenenti Omnia dat qui justa negat By denying that to our Adversaries whereto they have fair Title out of Gods Word or out of Venerable Orthodoxal Antiquitie we shall but betray the true Cause which we maintain against them in main and Fundamental Points which if we would wisely maintein them are most defensible Observe I beseech you what hath been said unto you and the God of wisdom and of peace give you understanding in all things profitable to your Salvation CHAP. XXXIX The Third Sermon upon this Text. ROMANS 2. 1. Therefore Thou art inexcusable O man c. A Romish Error breeding Doubt of Salvation charged upon its proper evident Ground viz Their making The Intention of A Bishop Essentially necessarie to the Consecration of A priest And the Intention of a Priest so necessary that no Sacrament can be without it The Error of The Contrarij Teaching a Preposterous immature Certaintie of Salvation The Right Mean betwixt or cure of these extremities prescribed unto us by our Reformers of Blessed memorie contained in the Publick Acts of The Church 1. ANother Doctrinal Point there was mainteined by the Romish Church when our Fathers departed from it which required Reformation And this Point contains all the several Tenets of that Church which did occasion or nurse Doubt of Salvation or Perplexity of Conscience in every private man so often as he should examine his Estate in Grace his hopes or Interest in Gods mercy or promises to all First then by Gods assistance Of the General Error or that branch of it which especially required Reformation Secondly Of the Contrary Error or Inconveniencies into which many by Curiositie of Reformation have run Thirdly Of the True Mean or Orthod oxal Doctrine which the Reformers of our Church did hold and maintain and have delivered unto us in the Publick Acts of the Church approved and ratified by the General Consent of this Kingdom The Error of the Romish Church was Doubt of Salvation with This Error that Church hath been often charged by all the best writers of Reformed Churches But sometimes or by some men in those Churches not upon so Evident Ground as it might be charged For some there be which charge this Error directly upon their Tenet concerning The Nature of Faith or Hope But for their Defence if we joyn issue with them upon those Terms they have more to say then they can have if we charge this Error upon their Doctrine concerning The Intention of the Priest in the Administration of the Sacraments By whose hidden vertue Faith and Hope are begotten and increased For how much soever they may seem to magnifie The Sacraments of the New Testament in respect of the Sacraments of the Law as that they conferre Grace upon the receivers of them Ex Opere operato by the very Sacramental action which the Sacraments of the Law did not Yet all this being granted no man can be more certain of his Estate in Grace then he is of the good Intention of the Priest which administred the Sacraments Now this Assurance or perswasion of the Priests Intention can be no sure Ground of Faith truly Christian 2. The Sacrament of Baptism they hold to be absolutely necessary unto Salvation and that All such infants as die without Baptisme are excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven And yet they hold withall that Unlesse the Priest when he comes to Baptize any Infant do intend to do what the Church appoints him to do the Baptisme is invalid or of none effect albeit he use the Formal Words of Baptisme and apply the Sacramental element to the body of the Infant presented by the solemn prayers of the Church or Congregation present Besides the solemn Pronunciation of the Words I Baptize thee in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and the washing of the body in water there must be Interior mentis intentio the internal Intention of the Priests minde must joyntly concur with the Word and Sacrament or rather with the Holy Ghost for producing the Invisible Grace or Gift of the Spirit which is the proper Effect of the Sacrament So that how well soever the Parents the Friends and neighbours assembled demean themselves at or before the performance of this Sacred Act yet every Infant brought to the Sacred Laver may be Two Wayes remedilesly prejudiced by the Priest to the ruine of its soul or losse of salvation First It may be deprived of the fruit or benefit of this Sacrament which is by their Doctrine absolutely necessary to salvation by the meer negligence or carelesnesse of the Priest as in Case he forget in heart or mind to intend his dutie of doing that which the Church in like Case usually doth or appoints to be done whatsoever else he do or say all is nothing it is no Baptisme Secondly The Infant may be so far prejudiced as is said by the malice or impietie of the Priest As in Case he be so wickedly disposed as secretly to subtract or withdraw his Intention by any interposed condition or Limitation though not expressed the Baptisme is invalid or of no effect To give you One of their own Instances or Ruled Cases If one should come to one of their Priests and request him to baptize such a mans child naming his Parents and
to me saith the Psalmist Psal 71. 3. my strong habitation whereto I may continually resort thou hast given commandement to save me for thou art my Rock and my Fortresse But that Christ is the Rock of our Salvation of our habitation in distresse is a point which needs no further proof no amplification Yet seeing he is our dwelling place the Rock of our Habitation in whom we dwell How can he be said to dwell in us An house may be said to be in the Citie but may we say that the Citie is in the house Men dwel in Houses or Tents but was it ever heard that Houses or Tents did dwell in men that are the Lords and owners of them The branch may abide in the Tree So may the Graft in the Stock but who would say That the Tree abideth in the Branch or the Stock in the Graft How then is it said That the Rock both of our Salvation and Habitation the Sanctuarie of our Souls in all distresse doth dwell in us How can He who is the Root of Jesse the Root of David Revel 5. 5. The True Vine which Gods own Right-Hand hath planted abide in us who are but wild slips lately ingrafted into the Stem from which the natural Branches were broken off 20. The Difficultie arising from this Doubled Comparison though really but One must be handled in Two First How Christ may be said to dwell in us and we in Him Secondly How He may be said to abide in us and not we in Him onely This mutual Inhabitation and Reciprocal abode or In-Being is very mystical and admirable Yet may our apprehension of it be facilitated by observing some resemblances thereof in other things far different To name that First which is worst That possession of the Bodie of man which evil Spirits did usurp in our Saviours time is in H. Scripture oft set down in terms denoting the Evil Spirits being in the man Matth. 12. 45. They enter in and dwell there and Ch. 8. 31. if thou cast us out suffer us to go into the Herd of swine And Acts. 19. 16. The man in whom the evil spirit was Yet doth S. Mark Chapt. 1. 23. and Chapt. 5. 2. expresse this in the Original as if the man was in an Evil Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Logick and Philosophie tell us that The whole is in the parts and the parts in the whole whether it be a Totum potentiale or Universale as Genus which is in the Species the Species likewise in the Genus or whether it be Totum Collectivum so the Citie is in the Several Families or Houshoulds and these again are in the Citie Some Good Divines have taken notice of That Speech or expression Enter thou into thy Masters Joy as importing the wondrous amplitude thereof it is such as cannot be comprehended or contained within him but he must enter into it Yet sure that Joy doth both Satiate the Soul and Replenish the Bodie of him that enters into it He is as if we could suppose a large Vessel of Chrystal or transparent Gold let down into a Sea of Nectar or living waters But the expressions of Scripture about God the Father his being in Christ and Christ in Him and in us and of our Being in Him and of Christ his Holy Spirit being in us is various Especially In S. John Chap. 14. verses 10 11 16 17 20 23. and perhaps more easie to be experimented by the Christian Union with God then to be explayned in words more easie then the texts themselves 21. To let these pass then The proposed Difficulties must have their proper Solutions the former from the explication of that Great Attribute of Christ to wit that He is the Chief-corner stone c. The other Difficultie referres to that Metaphor of the vine and the Branches or of the Stock and the Grafts Christ is compared unto A stone or Rock and wee unto living Stones built upon it in respect of the strength and firmness of the foundation and structure of Gods House or Temple He is again rightly compared to the vine to an Olive or other more fruitfull tree and we unto Branches or grafts not springing from the Root but ingrafted into it in respect of our growth in Him and of the Diffusion of His virtue into us and through us That we are built upon Christ as the Apostle saith Eph. 2. 20. this doth argue that we dwell in him that Hee is the Rock of our habitation In that we are built on him as on the Chief Corner-stone not under Him onely as He is Summus angularis lapis the Chief Stone at the Topp but upon Him as Lapis imus the First-Foundation-stone too and that a Living stone which was cut out of the Mountain without Hands and which was to grow into a Mountain filling the whole earth This inferres That he must dwell in us For the stone which Daniel speakes of did not become a great mountain so great a mountain as should fill all the earth by addition or by heaping or building one stone upon another but by the growth of life that is by increase or augmentation of the same stone Did this stone then increase or grow from small beginings unto a mountain overspreading the whole earth If this wee say the rock of our salvation or habitation must receive increase of life and become a greater habitation or dwelling place in this last Age than he had been in any former But how should this be true seeing he is and was the rock of ages the Rock on which the world it self is Founded the rock by which the earth it self which supporteth all other rocks is supported Heb. 1. 3. 22. Such a Rock he was from eternitie as he is God not as he is man As man he was first as a little stone yet a growing stone for he grew in wisdom and stature and favour with God and man Luke 2. 52. As God he could not be the corner-stone which God had promised to lay in Sion Yet was Christ who was both God and man That stone which was layd in Sion And as he which was both God and man did suffer for us was raysed again the third day from the dead not according to his Godhead but according to his manhood So was he the same Christ which was both God and man the stone layd in Sion not according to his Godhead but according to his manhood This gives us the ordinary interpretation of the Prophet Esay Chapt. 28. 16. But A late Interpreter of prophecies or visions hath observed an Hypallage or inversion in these words not infrequent in the Prophets familiar as he alledgeth to the Hebrew writers such an inversion as Grammarians observe in that of the Poet In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas Corpora That is Formes changed into new bodies for bodies changed into new formes Thus saith this late Interpreter when the Prophet saith
our Apostle here saith that the whole building doth grow unto an holy temple it is included that every part of this temple should be a living stone For growth such growth as the Apostle speakes of is an effect of life Things inanimate or without life as materiall buildings stones of the quarrie or any heap or congest may become greater by addition of matter unto them they cannot Grow unto greatnesse as wanting the facultie of vegetation or Nutrition That onely is capable of growth which is capable of nutrition and nothing is capable of nutrition but that which is endowed with life Hence saith S. Peter 1. Ep. cap. 2. vers 2. c. As new born babes desire the Sincere milk of the word that yee may grow thereby if so be yee have tasted that the Lord is gracious The Growth then of every Christian is more than the Growth of vegetables for it includeth the sense of tast wee must tast the graciousnesse of the Lord by faith and wee must come unto him by faith as unto a Living stone disallowed of men but chosen of God and pretaious and coming thus unto him As the Apostle adds vers 5. wee also become lively stones and are built up a spirituall house an holy Priesthood to offer up spirituall sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ S. Peters inference in that place vers 6 7 c. is the very same with our Apostle S. Pauls in this place and so is the Use or Application of it the very same with that which our Apostle makes in the later end of this Epistle But of the Use hereafter It will in the meane time be very Usefull for us to observe That neither S. Paul nor S. Peter when they purposely handled the building of the Gentiles upon this chief Corner-stone do mention or intimate any other Foundation on which wee are to be builded before we be builded on Christ Neither of them taught us to rely on themselves or on their personal faith or their successors Authoritie as upon secondary foundations by Union with whom or relying upon whom we might be grounded upon the Prime Foundation which is Christ If this they had taught us they had taught us not to believe as they believed and not believing as they believed we could not possibly become such live stones of this spirituall edifice as they were 5. But if wee must beleeve as S. Peter believed must wee not beleive as the Church beleeves yes Al that hope to be saved must believe as the true Church believes and they onely are the true Church which believe as S. Peter believed The Question is Who they be that believe as S. Peter believed These wee say are the members of Reformed Churches or the Reformed Churches themselves No member of the Romish Church can possibly believe as S. Peter did unlesse they will abandon the absolute infallibilitie of the visible Romish Church For every one which beleeves as S. Peter did must have the same Object of Faith which S. Peter had He may not believe any Article of faith which S. Peter did not believe he may not seek he cannot hope to be built on the same Foundation on which Peter was built by relying upon any Authoritie upon which Peter himselfe did not rely The manner of his union unto this Foundation must be the same that Peters was as immediate as Peters Union was What then was the proper Object of Peters faith What was the Fundamental Rock on which Peter was by this faith immediately built That was only Christ the Son of man and the Son of the living God And the Branches which naturally issue out of this Root or living Rock are That Christ the Son of the living God the Son of God the Father was Conceived by the Holy Ghost was Born of the Virgin Mary did suffer under Pontius Pilate was Crucified dead and buried c. Did S. Peter believe all or any of these Articles by believing his own Authoritie Was he founded on Christ by the intermediation or interposition of any other secondarie foundation Was he the foundation or Rock on which himself was built If we cannot believe these Articles but by believing S. Peter or his personal faith to be the Rock on which the Church is built then Peter or his personal faith must be to us as a second foundation We cannot be united to Christ we cannot be builded on Christ unlesse we be first united unto and builded on Peter But Peter was not builded upon himself or upon his own faith wherefore if we be builded upon Peter or upon Peters faith we have not the same Object of faith nor the same faith which Peter had for neither Peters person nor his faith were any part of the Object of his Faith His Authoritie was no meanes of his Union with Christ 6. That the Object of Faith must be formally the very Same in all true Believers the present Romish Church if this were the Question between her and us could not deny Her greatest Clerks do expressely teach and maintaine it as a principle of true Divinitie And maintaining this truth they must confesse unlesse they will contradict themselves that we must be as immediately united to Christ by Faith as Peter was we must be as immediately builded on Christ by this faith as Peter was we must not be built on him by being built upon Petes Faith or upon his successors Infallible Authoritie For so we should have another Object or Article of faith than Peter had or his successors have We should have another foundation then Pete had as many more foundations as Peter hath successors Our Union with them should be a part of our Union with Christ Our Belief of their Infallible Authoritie should be the chief Bond of this Union such a bond or stay of our edification upon Christ as the stones or cement in a material building is between the lowest foundation and the intermediate Rows of stone which are layed one upon another until the highest Row be finished And to be thus united unto Christ were to make him no living stone which diffuseth life unto all that are built upon him but a dead stone or a stone only able to support the material or dead weight which is laid upon it there should be no growth in faith but an addition or cementing of one part unto another until the edifice were finished Whereas our Apostles words are expresse that all the building is fitly framed together in Christ and so framed groweth up unto an holy Temple in the Lord. He saith not we are builded one upon another but builded together in Him for an habitation of God through the Spirit This Spirit by which we are builded together in Christ or through which we become the habitation of God is not communicated and propagated unto us from S. Peter and his Successors as from intermediate Foundations or Roots We and all true believers receive the influence of the Spirit
grow unto an holy Temple in the Lord. 9. Christ as you heard before is not the Corner-stone or Foundation only but the Temple of God A Greater and more spacious Temple then all the building which is erected upon him which groweth up in him We must be living stones we must be Pillars in the house of God we must be Temples of God that is an habitation of God through the Spirit but no Foundations no chief corner-stones these are Christs prerogatives Behold I have graven thee to wit the Spiritual Sion saith the Prophet Isa 49. 16. upon the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me that is as a late Interpreter of the Romish Church saith I have pitched thy foundations in my hands by the wounds which I received in them By whose diduction or rent a place was opened for this future edifice to be erected in him And for this cause Christ who is the Rock was every way digged into in his side in his hands in his feet The mysterie whereof is that he might exhibit a firm foundation out of which the fabrick of the Church should grow That we then become living stones in this edifice it is from our immediate Union with this chief corner-stone being united to him he is fashioned in us and by him fashioned in us we become living stones growing stones we grow from living stones to living pillars from living pillars to living Temples or habitations for our God That the children of God are not onely living stones but from living stones grow into pillars our Saviour himselfe hath taught us by S. John Rev. 3. 12. Him that overcometh will I make A Pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out and if wee be pillars in the temple of God we must be as immediately placed on the foundation or chief corner-stone as S. Peter or Christs other Apostles were We must be as intire Temples as they were And for this reason our Saviour adds upon every one whom he makes a pillar the name of God and the name of the City of God the new Jerusalem which cometh out of Heaven Know ye not saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 19. That your bodie is the temple of the Holy Ghost As wee say the Kings presence makes the Court So it is Gods Holy Spirits extraordinary presence in man which makes him his Temple And the Reason why Christ is called The Temple of God is because the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily And for the like reason every one in whom Christ dwelleth by faith is in a participated sense called The Temple of God And as visible Cities consist of severall houses and as the beautie of every Citie consists in the Uniformitie of houses well built and joyned together so the heavenly Jerusalem consists of several Temples whose beautie or Uniformitie consists in this that Christ Jesus is the life and light of every severall Temple and that his spirit is uniformely diffused through all 10. Christ as you have read before Communicates his Titles unto his Saints but not the Reall Prerogative of his Titles He is The Rock so was Peter a rock so are wee rocks but not The rock on which the Church is built He is the Chiefe Corner-stone we are living stones he is the temple and the Priest of the most high God and he makes us both temples and Priests unto his God So saith S. Peter 1. Ep. cap. 2. vers 5. Yee all as lively stones are built up a spirituall house an holy Priest-hood to offer up Spirituall sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ The Modell of this spirituall Temple and Priest-hood that is of the new Jerusalem and the service of God performed in it was exhibited by Moses Exod. 24. 4 5. at the making of the first covenant Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and rose up earely in the morning and builded an altar under the Hill and twelve pillars according to the 12. tribes of Israel And he sent yong-men of the Children of Israel which offered burnt offrings and sacrificed peace offerings of Oxen unto the Lord. Immediately after this Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu saw the God of Israel and there was under his feete as it were a paved work of a saphire stone and as it were the bodie of Heaven in his clearnesse ver 9. The yong men which he sent to offer sacrifices as the best interpreters observe were the first-born of their families For till that time and at that time which was before the consecration of Aaron and his sonnes it was Lawfull for the First born male of every family to execute the office of the Priest This was his dutie So that every family was as a little parish-Church and had his Priest to performe this service of God Now though all that are built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles are not admitted to be Architects or master-builders though all be not publick teachers or pastors yet all that are or hope to be parts of this building have the same Prerogative which the First-born males of Israel had before Aaron was consecrated All must be Priests to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices unto God But seeing wee must grow unto an holy temple and growth as was said before supposeth nutrition let us now see what is the nourishment by which we must grow from living stones to be living pillars from pillars to be living Temples yea Kings and Priests unto our God 11. The nature and qualitie of the Nutriment by which wee must grow cannot in fewer words be more pithily exprest than it is by S. Peter 1 Pet. 2. cap. vers 2. It is the sincere milk of the word But how good soever the nutriment be it doth not kindly nourish unlesse wee have an appetite to it Therefore the same Apostle addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desire or long after the sincere milk of the word We must then desire to have the word dwell in us plentifully and wee must desire to have it sincere that is pure and unmingled Now this milk may become unsincere or mingled sometimes by the default of the Pastor or teacher sometimes by the default of the hearers The dutie which concernes us teachers is that wee do not mingle the word with the Traditions of men how ancient soever they be This is the fault of the Romish Church which the Church our mother hath sufficiently prevented by publick edicts or decrees But many otherwise averse enough from Traditions of the Romish or other ancient Church ofttimes corrupt it with their own Conceits or Phansies which will easily mingle themselves with the word unlesse we speak out of premeditation and have both art and leasure to revise and examine aswell our own meditations as the meditations or expositions of others whose help wee use Since the ordinary Gifts of the Spirit did cease there is no facultie under the sun which more requires the help of art and study than the
tast of it he shall be saved without addition of any other Grace besides that which it is supposed he hath Is it then apparent that a man may fall from that Grace or lose the Tast of that Grace in which if he did continue or not lose the Tast of it he should be saved Yes This is as clear as the day light For whosoever doth continue in the Participation of the Holy Ghost or doth not lose the Tast of the heavenly Gift or of the Powers of the World to come shall never perish shall be saved Impossible it is that any man should enter into the estate of death or of reprobation so long as he hath the Tast of the life to come implanted in his heart and spirit and this is for nature and quality saving Grace But some that have tasted of this Grace do utterly lose the tast of it and so fall from Grace in it self sufficient to save their souls For though all that lose this tast do not sin against the Holy Ghost yet no man can sin against the Holy Ghost until he lose this tast and yet no man can lose this tast but he that hath had it The Conclusion then is most pregnant that it is more possible or a shorter passage for a man to fall from seving Grace or to lose the tast of it then to sin against the Holy Ghost The most useful meditations then will be to discover the Means whereby such as once have had the tast of the heavenly Grace do come to lose it with their several degrees and these are divers 5. First It is to be supposed that God doth by his Spirit infuse this tast into mens souls not continually or uncessantly But as we say by Fits or Turns This tast of the powers of the Life to come is sometimes Transient we cannot have it when we list but must expect Gods providence and attend his pleasure for the renewing of it and crave the assistance of his Spirit for producing it by humble supplication and prayer Want of the due esteem of it whilst we have it negligence in the duty of prayer and other Godly exercises doth deprive us of it when we might have had it renewed in us God doth not promise that any shall injoy this pearl besides such as diligently seek after it And when they have found it or rather when it hath found them do duly prize it And as this Tast of eternal life is often for a time lost or much prejudiced by meer negligence in sacred duties so it may be choaked and stifled by errors or misperswasions which insinuate themselves into mens thoughts or phantasies after they have been partakers of it Many there be which will unfeignedly acknowledge that the pledge or Earnest of Eternal Life which they have received is of more worth and value then all the pleasures or contentments of this world which can oppose or countersway the desires of it And yet the same men through the sleights and subtilty of Satan play but the Sophisters with their own souls Thus Assuming or Resolving That albeit the tast of the heavenly Gift be more to be desired then all the temporal contentments which are incompatible with it yet the Tast of these heavenly joyes and the contentments of this life which may be enjoyed with it are better then it alone for One good how little soever being added to another how great soever makes some addition of goodness Thus many covetous men and oppressors will easily be perswaded that they may increase their temporal estate without any forfeiture of their estate in Gods spiritual blessings The ambitious or aspiring mind thinks he may glorifie God more by his high place or dignitie in Church or Common-wealth then by continuing a private and retired life As for the drunkard the glutton and the lascivious man they seldom are perswaded that they may continue their wonted courses and enjoy the Tast of the heavenly Gift And for this reason many that have been subject to these sins have been more easily won to the love of truth and of saving grace then the Proud the Covetous the Ambitious or Envious men are because the one in his sober thoughts fore-sees the danger and acknowledgeth his sins whereas the other rejoyceth continually in his courses without suspition of danger 6. Or if the covetous or ambitious mind sometimes suspects his wayes yet being ingaged to pursue them lest he might be thought to have varied in his course of life the best repentance which he usually attains unto is but like his in the Poet Id primum si facta mihi revocare liceret Non coepisse fuit caepta expugnare Secundum est If I were to begin the world again I should happily make choice of another kind of life but being ingaged the next point is to make the best of that course of life which I have chosen And yet the more he makes of it the worse he speeds in it in the main chance the more he prejudiceth the Habitual or Actual Tast of Eternal life for the more we are accustomed to any course of life the more we delight in it and are weaned from it with greater difficultie And yet we must be weaned even from the world it self before we can rightly Tast the sincere milk of the Gospel or be capable of that strong meat which is contained in this Article of Eternal Life and others concerning Christ by which The Tast of this Life must be fed and nourished So that of all sins pride covetousness and Ambition are the most dangerous both because they be of more credit or less infamie in the world and because they multiply their Acts the most and may work uncessantly But though it be for the most part as true of these times wherein we live as it was in the days of our Saviours conversation here on earth that Publicans and open sinners are oftentimes neerer to the Kingdom of heaven then many which live a more sober or civil life but yet are covetous vain-glorious or envious as the Scribes and Pharisees were yet there is no man that sets his heart to Tast of any unlawful pleasures though of those pleasures which in his sober thoughts he condemnes but doth hereby weaken or dead his Tast of the food of Life and make himself subject to former temptations whensoever they shall assault him However in the absence of temptations they may seem unto themselves and unto others to repent yet when fresh ones arise they usually come to the same vent at which the affections of that incestuous wanton in the Poet broke out when she said Denique non possum innoxia dici Quod superest multum est in vota in crimina parvum I am an offender already and if I shall go on but a little this may give greater satisfaction unto my desires then it can adde unto the measure of my sin But voluntarily to give satisfaction to
for God to Elect or not to Elect us and so eternal Life should not be the Award of Gods Free Merrie and Grace as now present but an Act of his Fidelity or promise past before we had any being before the world was made But if God had not the same Free Power at this day to Elect or not to Elect any man now living or not the same Free Power to shew mercie on whom he will and to harden whom he will which it is supposed once he had he should not have the same Power over us which the Potter hath over his Clay which is at his free disposal not only before he works it but while it is in working I may conclude this Point with Cardinal Bellarmines Tutissimum est It is the safest way the only way absolutely to rely all our life time upon Gods Free mercie and Grace and to make continual supplications unto God the Father through Christ that as he hath prepared a Kingdom for us from the foundation of the world so he would prepare and fit us for it For without preparation or fit Qualification we are not capable of it and thus we come unto the Second Point proposed 4. The Second Point to which the Third is annexed or sub-joyned was That the Absolute Freedom of this Gift doth not exclude all Qualifications in the parties on whom it is bestowed but rather requires better qualifications in them then can be found in others which exclude it or make themselves uncapable of it The Truth of this Assertion you may easily conceive by this one Instance or Example Suppose you that are Governors of this Corporation should Found as God put it in your hearts to do a Goodly Hospital or Almes-house at your own proper cost and charges the Gift would be most Free a Gracious Gift or Foundation and yet no man would conceive that the doors of that house though most Freely Founded should be as open or the good things belonging to it as Free for theeves and robbers for Bands or Panders for sturdy and lazie Beggars as for the halt and lame for the aged and impotent or as for men of decayed estate by Casualties as for Widdows or Orphans not so free or open for persons so qualified but otherwise haughty and proud as for Widdows or for decayed persons that were pious humble modest and ingenuous He should wrong you much that should conceive that you did intend only to have the number filled up though it were by such as the Poet describes but in a verse somewhat better Qui numeri essent fruges consumere nati That is by persons good for nothing but only to devour Gods Blessings To admit all sorts of people promiscuously into such a Foundation without respect of any Good Qualification would be an Act of Prodigality or impiety rather then of Free Bounty or Gracious Charity And can you imagine or suspect that the most just and righteous Judge the only wise immortal God who requires no more of us then that we should be perfect as he is perfect that we should be bountiful as he is bountiful and merciful as he is merciful doth not more constantly observe the Rules of his eternal Equity Bountie and Mercie then we can observe our Saviours Rules which are but the Copy of them albeit we made this our chief care and only study Thus to do is natural unto him not so unto us we cannot imitate the paterns which He sets us without much difficulty and many interruptions We may Freely bestow our Alms or Rewards but we cannot qualifie the parties that are to receive them we may prepare good things for them but we cannot prepare their hearts to receive them well or worthily But God doth not only prepare the Kingdom of Heaven for us but must also prepare us for it otherwise as our Apostle speaks Heb. 4. 1. We shall come short of the promise which is left us for entring into his rest And no man can come short of the promise or of the blessing promised but he that had a true Interest in the promise or he for whom the blessing promised was prepared 5. What shall we say then That any for whom the Kingdom of Heaven was prepared from the Foundation of the world shall finally miss of it or be excluded from it at the end of the world so our Apostle in the fore-cited place evidently supposeth Was it then prepared for all or for a Certain number A curious and ticklish Question Yet about which if any Contention have grown or may grow this cannot arise but only from the malice ignorance or incogitancie of the men which dispute and handle it For between these two Propositions themselves The Kindom of Heaven was prepared for all The Kingdom of Heaven was not prepared for all there is no Contradiction if men would not look upon them through some imperfect Logical Rules which hold true only in some Cases or Subjects If we should say That the Kingdom of heaven was prepared for the self same man Saint Peter for example from Eternity And The kingdom of heaven was not prepared for the same Saint Peter from Eternity we should say no otherwise then the Holy Ghost hath taught us There is no more Contradiction between the Affirmative and the Negative then if one should say The inhabitants of this town are rich The Inhabitants of this town are not rich but poor The Rule is generall that Betwixt an Indefinite Affirmative and an Indefinite Negative there is no Contradiction Now though Saint Peter were all his life time One and the same Individual man for Person if we consider him only as he stands in the Predicament of substance yet he was not all his life time One and the self same Object in respect of Gods decree of mercy or Judgement or for the preparation of Eternal life To affirm this were to contradict the Holy Spirit whose unquestionable Maxim it is that God renders to every man according to all his wayes Now if Saint Peters wayes and works were not at all times the same he was not at all times the same individual Object of Gods Decree God had One Award for him whilst he denied his Master or disswaded him from under-going the Crosse for us and Another Award for him whilst he resolutely confest Christ before Princes though certain to undergo the Crosse himself for so doing 6. But where doth The Spirit of God teach us this Logick or thus to distinguish Matth. 20. ver 23. Mark 10. 40. The story is plain save that the one Evangelist saith It was the mother of Zebedees children The other saith that the sons themselves to wit John and James came with this Petition unto our Saviour that The one might sit on the right hand the other on his left hand in his Kingdom And it is plain out of Saint Matthew that the Petition was as well exhibited by the sons as by the
must in this Case exceed little children must be out of the consciousness of this our Impotencie or infirmitie to frame our Petitions unto God with the Prophet Psal 51. 2. Wash me throughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin And again ver 10. Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me Again Little Children though they be set upon their feet after their Fall they are not able to stand upright although they adventure not to go unless they be supported by their nurses or other helper and it is our Apostles advice unto such as stand to take heedlest they fall But is this circumspection in their power after Grace received No no more then it is in the power of Little Children to keep themselves from falling To what end then doth this Admonition serve To make us more careful by the knowledge of this our infirmitie continually to use that or the like prayer Prevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy gracious favour and further us with thy continual help If we truly acknowledge our selves to be but Little Children we cannot but know that without his preventing Grace we must still wallow in our natural filthiness and uncleanness that without his Concomitant Grace we cannot stand and that without his Subsequent Grace we can make no progress towards eternal Life All our doings must be begun must be continued and ended in him by his Grace otherwise we shall fail of the end here proposed unto us by our Apostle Again Little Children are sensible of hunger or want of Food yet cannot provide it cannot be their own carvers of it cannot take it unless it be reached unto them We then become in some degree the children of God when we feel a want of spiritual Food or when we hunger and thirst after righteousness But power we have none after Grace received to give satisfaction to this hunger and thirst after good things The best knowledge that in this Case we have is To Beg Food Convenient at our heavenly Fathers hands in that or the like Form of Prayer Give us this day our daily bread And thus to beg it out of full assurance that he is more ready to hear our requests then any earthly Father is to give his children bread or any earthly Mother to give her sucking Infants milk when they cry for it For some Mothers are unnatural others may forget their children but so will not God forget his so they be children in malice not in the Knowledge of his Goodness Little Children again if they be exposed to cold or heat or any other danger that may accrew from hostile or ravenous creatures have no power or strength to defend themselves all that they can do is but to cry for help from others Now the spiritual and Ghostly enemies of every Child of God and the dangers whereto they daily expose themselves are more in number then the bodily dangers whereof little Children are capable Lesse able we are though endowed with some measure of Grace to resist the Devil who goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour then a sucking child to withstand a Bear or Wolf that should come upon him To what end then doth God bestow his Grace upon us if with this we cannot defend our selves as with a weapon Only to this end that we should daily pray for his special protection as his Son hath taught us Lord lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil specially from the Author of evil for thine is the Kingdom the power and the glory Thou only art able to subdue and conquer the Prince of this world and to destroy him who hath the power of death Lastly albeit we must exceed Little Children in the acknowledgment of our infirmities and though our capacities to conceive these and the like forms of prayer be greater then theirs yet in respect of most particulars we are in this too like Little Children that we know not how to pray or ask those things which for the present we stand most in need of And in this point our Knowledge must exceed theirs that we must have a knowledge of this infirmity and out of the consciousness of it pray more fervently unto our heavenly Father that he would teach us how to pray or hear the supplications of his Spirit for us whose language we perfectly understand not and not to indent with him for other particulars but only to grant us what he knows to be best for us and most available though not for our present occasions yet for the attainment of Everlasting life Until we learn this lesson of Humility and meekness which The Son of God himself so often commends unto us by his own example by Precept and Instances we shall find no true Rest unto our souls we shall not have that Full Assurance of hope unto the end whereof our Apostle speaks Heb. 6. 9. But is this Qualification of becoming like Little Children alone sufficient No he that saith Whosoever receiveth not the Kingdom of heaven as a little child shall not enter therein hath also said Matth. 5. 20. Except your righteousnesse shall exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Doth he Instance in them as in the most wicked men that were So his Instance should not have been so pertinent at least his Admonition not so peremptory The Scribes and Pharisees if they had not thought so of themselves were the most righteous men then living they were the only Precisians of those times and observed many Rules of righteousness more exactly then most men now living do any Wherein then did they come short of the promise By making Extraordinary Conscience of some necessary duties and little or none at all of others The old Serpent deceived them as he doth many Christians to this day by that Fallacie or Sophism which we call A Dicto secundum quid ad simpliciter that is in using their known zealous observance of some good duties as an Argument that they were simply and absolutely more righteous then other men specially then those whom they saw gross transgressors of some Commandements which they made conscience of They did acknowledge that they had received many Graces from God for which they thanked him but yet they gloried as if they had not received them and this polluted all their works A good man saith Solomon is merciful unto his beast This property of Good men is in the Turks for they are more compassionate towards their dogs more careful for begging them benevolence of strangers and passengers for feeding them in the open streets then most Christians are for the relief of their poor brethren yet is that property of wicked men which Salomon in the same place describes more remarkable in them Their mercies are
of better Note then is fitting for us to censure nominatim have been induced to mistake such necessary performances as are not usually undertaken without precedent consultation of mens own hearts for matter of Counsel not of Precept 7. Subordinate to those general Precepts Do as ye would be done unto Let every man walk as he is called are these disjunctive Precepts of the Apostle Rom. 12. 15. Rejoyce with them that rejoyce and weep with them that weep Both these precepts are necessarie both most necessary in their time and place neither necessary at all times and in all places for they are incompatible Hence saith Solomon Eccles 3. 4. There is a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance So then weeping and laughing mourning and dancing are both in their several turns or seasons expedient but weeping and mourning most suitable to the occasions of most times and more expedient for most persons For it is better to go into the house of mourning then into the house of Mirth Men seldom mourn without just occasions and few men but often have just occasions to mourn But many laugh when they have just cause to lament And to consort with such in this their follie were extream impietie especially in such as Ieremy and Baruch were in all that are Overseers or Watchmen over Gods flock This made the Prophet Jeremy Chap. 9. 1. to wish O that mine head were full of water and mine eyes fountains of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people Thus wished Ieremy even whilst Jerusalem went mad in mirth and Jollity whilst her children were bold and audacious to hold on more then an ordinary Pace in their wonted courses from evil to worse because they were blind and ignorant and would not see the day of their visitation drawing on To men therefore endued with reason more especially to Christian men amongst them most especially to the Preacher and Pastor who have Christ Jesus and the Prophets for their pattern the Precept is all one To mourn with them that mourn and to mourn for them whose Case is mournful Though haply not so apprehended by them such as Jerusalems Case was when our Saviour beheld it and wept saying O that thou hadst known at the least in this thy day those things which belong unto thy peace but now are they hid from thine eyes c. Luke the 19. 42. As also at this time when this message came to Baruch 8. So natural is this precept of the Apostle weep with them that weep that even bruit beasts to whom God hath given neither speech nor Language nor understanding to perceive the words of the wise or the exhortation of the eloquent are yet so intelligent so apprehensive of the vocal signes or significations of grief uttered from others of their own kind that they may well seem to bear the Emblem of St. Pauls Practise ingraven in their nature Who is weak saith the blessed Apostle 2 Corinth 2. 29. and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not For what beast of the field shall groan and others of the same kind are not upon the hearing like affected which of them panteth for pain or want of breath and others at this spectacle stand not amazed either bereft of all motion or else tortured with like He that Created all things in number weight and due proportion hath mutually framed their hearts to others groanes and sighes as a stringed instrument to a voice Unison So doubtless were our hearts set in our first Creation All in just proportion to their maker our voices were consonant to his word our affections conformable to his will all Unisons amongst themselves Untill the Rector of this Quire that should have taken up this everlasting song did strain too high polluting our nature and corrupting our instruments of breath ordained only to have sounded out praises to our God by eating of that poisonous apple Since which time the best of our voices have been harsh and unpleasant in their makers ears And besides the harshness of every one in particular we have alwayes sung out of tune perpetually Jarring among our selves whilst one hath sung another cryed whilst one mourns another pipes or dances for Joy Yet doth the mutual bond of our affections remain still greater then any bond amongst beasts we have this consort set out unto us in Gods written word Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you even so do ye unto them for this is the effect of Gods Law each part of which we are bound to obey This is the sum of the Prophets writings each period whereof we are bound to believe What musick can be more pleasant to a pensive heart then to have others bear a full consort with him in grief Herein then we do not only omit A Precept of Christ but directly violate Gods eternal Law yea the very Prime Fundamental Law of nature in that we do not Sympathize with others in such sort as we desire they should do with us in like distresse in that we minister not comfort to others with as great alacritie and delight as we desire to receive it from them Nature teacheth and Gods Law commands to mourn with them that mourn and the Necessitie of such as mourn and the true unpartial estimate of our own desires of comfort in like Case will give us the exact measure of our mourning Our mourning is then truly harmonical when it is for the Qualitie sincere and for the Quantitie rightly proportiond unto the present necessitie of times places or persons And on the contrary then we walk as the Scripture speaks with a heart and a heart and use a deceitful ballance when our hearts are open to receive comfort or benefit from others and shut or straitned to return the like or when we receive any of these from God or man with our whole heart and either repay to the same parties from whom we had them or distribute them to others with a faint or fained heart without such delight or joy in doing them good as we take in having good done unto us This Eternal Rule of Equitie was Transcendent unto that particular strict Command so often inculcated to the Israelites when they came into the good Land of Promise viz. Not to forget the stranger that lived amongst them The positive precept aimed at through this negative as the End or scope was the Cheerful relief of the poor stranger and the immediate Means unto this End was alway to remember that they themselves had been strangers in the Land of Egypt Now to remember that they themselves had been strangers is in the language of the holy Spirit still to retain the perfect estimate of their former grief whilst they were strangers to be able continually to sound the depth of their own misery that it might serve as a Key to tune their hearts
ferratusque sones Ego divitis Aurum Harmoniae dotale geram It was a dishonour in her esteem to be disclaimed by an Imprecation for a Princes Daughter to adorn her head and neck with costly Jewels like a Bride whilest her Husband was clad in steel and yet so clad every hour in peril of life During the time of this his danger abroad she desires no greater train at home then would suffice to expel Melancholick fear And that artire doth please her best which best suted with her pensive heart most likely to move her Gods to Commiseration of her widdowhood For such costly ornaments as were now profferd she thought a fitter time would be to wear them when her Husband returned in peace with such rich spoiles from the enemies Court And in this Resolution well fitting her present estate she leaves them to the proud upstart insolent baggage whose longing desires after those unseasonable fooleries had inchanted the poor Prophet her husband to Countenance an Ominous unfortunate war the issue whereof was this that after most of the Noble Argives sent thither by the enemies sword the Prophet himself went quick down to hell This Conclusion you will say is false in the litteral sense or rather fained but I would to God the Fiction were not too true an Emblem of the most State-Prophets in later Ages Such as are here represented and no better are the usual fruits of untimely desires or discording appetites of parties united in strict bond of common dutie especially in men consecrated to publick ministerie Alwayes they are displeasing to God in nature preposterous hateful as death to civil and ingenuous minds 10. But herein the Poet as the Philosopher well observes exceeds the Historian for moral instructions He may paint men and women as they should be not as they are whereas the Historian must express them as he finds them Most Women indeed are not for their affections like this Poetical Picture of Argia Yet the Carriage of Portia as the ingenious Historian hath exprest it did farre exceed it When her Husband Brutus had disclosed that inward grief and perplexitie by his ill rest by night which he had purposely concealed from her in his waking thoughts she takes his Concealment as a disparagement to her birth and education and as a tacit impeachment of her honestie Brutus saith she I had Cato to my Father and was matched into thy family not as a whore to be thy Companion only at bed and bord but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be as true a Consort of thy miseries as of thy welfare I had never cause to complain of thy usage no occasion to suspect thy loving affection towards me but what assurance canst thou have of my love to thee If I may not be permitted to sympathize with thee in thy secret greif nor bear a part in those anxieties whose communication might ease thy mind and much set forth my fidelitie I know well the imbecillity of our Sex we need no rack to wrest a secret from us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But know O Brutus that there is a secret vertue in good parentage ingenuous breeding and conversation for setling and strengthening the frame of our affections even where they are by nature brickle and unconstant And this is my portion in these Pre-eminences A woman I am by sex but Cato his Daughter and Brutus his Wife To give him a sure experiment answerable to these Protestations how ready she could be in all misfortunes to take grief and sorrow at as low a Note as for his life he could She had cast her self into a burning Feaver by a grievous wound of her own making before she vented the former complaint which she uttered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the extremity of her Fit or pangs I may truly here apply that verse of old Ennius as the late extinguished Lamp of this University once out of this Lantern in another Case did Vos Juvenes shall I say nay verily Nos viri Patres Fratres animos gerimus muliebres Illaque Virgo viri Was this praeeminency that she was Cato's daughter and Brutus's wife of power sufficient to arm her female heart with man-like resolution and true heroical constancy to bear the yoke of all misfortunes with her Conjugal Mate and is it no Praerogative in Christian men before a Heathen woman that they have God for their father and holy Church for their mother Christ Jesus supream Governour of the world the Lord of life and Conquerour of Death and Hell for their Brother Is Baptisme into his death but a naked name that our professed unitie therein cannot unite our hearts in like affections Is the effusion of Gods spirit but as the sprinkling of Court Holy-water are our dayly Sermons but as so many Bevers of wind whose efficacy vanisheth with the breath that uttereth them or hath the frequent participation of Christ precious body blood no better operation on our harts then the exhalation of sweet odours upon our brains Be they no longer comfortable then whilst they be in taking Are all those glorious similitudes of one head and many members of one Vine and many branches but Hyperbolical Metaphors Is our mystical union only a meer Mathematical imagination are those or the like Praerogatives of our calling but like the Soloecisms of the Romish Church matters of meer title or ceremony without realitie Beloved in Christ if either we actually were or heartily desired or truly meant to be true branches of that Coelestial Vine were it possible the strongest boughes thereof should be so often shaken with dangerous blasts of temptations and we no whit therewith moved could so many flourishing Boughes dayly fade and we hope that our Luxuriant branches should always flourish should their goodly leaves hourly fall and we live still as if we never looked for any winter or should God so often threaten to pluck up the vineyard which his own right hand hath planted and yet the dressers of it still seek after great things for themselves as if they never dreamt of dispossession would the most of us either seek to raise our selves as high as the highest room in the Lords house or make it a chief part of our care how to forecast mispense of time in merriment gameing or other worldly pleasures or contentments whilst sundry of our poor brethren and fellow Prophets perhaps in worth our betters die of discontent whilst others younger run mad after riot abroad least they should be attached by sorrow and grief at home whilst other begin to expect a change and entertain a liking of Romish Proffers Others which have ever hated Rome more then death begin to loath their lives and set their longing on the Grave desirous to give their bodies to be devoured by that earth which hath not ministered necessary sustenance to them as being overcharged with maintaining the unnecessary desires and superfluous pleasures of worse deservers Or would so many were they
extends thus farre Baruch Wouldst thou reap pleasures from a Land overspread with plagues and drowned with sorrow Or seekest thou applause or credit among a people now become an hissing and astonishment to all their neighbors Wouldst thou eat Lambs out of the flock or fat Calves out of the Stall whilest famine devours the men of warre whiles such as have fed delicately languish for hunger in the streets Wouldst thou be clothed with soft rayment or crown thy head with roses whilst such as have been brought up in scarlet embrace the dunghill Is it thy desire to glad thine heart with wine or with oyl to make thee a chearful countenance when as the visage of my Nazarites sometimes purer then snow whiter then milk is become more black then any coal Or dost thou affect to live at ease in Sion to be lull'd asleep with sound of viols whilst the the outcries of the maimed captives or mothers rob'd of their children are ready to wake the dead out of their sepulchres For a voice is taken up throughout all the Cities of Judah and Benjamin a voice of bitter weeping like that of Rachel mourning for her children and refusing comfort because they are not Sooner shal heaven fall to the earth and the whole earth shrink into its Centre then one word my Prophets have spoken shal fall to the ground And now if thou wouldst be instructed those dayes long since foretold by Micah are approaching The dayes Wherein Sion must be plowed as a field Ierusalem become an heap and the mountain of the house like the high places of the Forrest Thou seest whole cities whole Kingdoms subject to mortality and seekest thou to enclose that prosperity which they could not entertain within thy breast Albeit thou couldst hope to live happily in the midst of so great misery as is decreed against thy native Country yet what is or hath been therein what is it thine eyes have seen under the sun whereon thy love and liking could have been more affectionately set then mine have been upon this Land and people For hath it not been sung of old Ierusalem is the vinyard of The Lord of Hosts and the men of Iudah his pleasant plant yet I thou seest must forgo mine own inheritance and be deprived of Ierusalem my wonted joy and art thou so wedded to ought in it that thou canst not leave off to love it and be contented to take thy life with thee for a prey to possess in whatsoever place thou shalt make choice of 10. But is Baruch by this Donative discharged of his former Watchmanship in Jerusalem No! As the proposal of these Calamities ought in reason to wean his soul from wonted delights or seeking after great matters so one special End of his not seeking after these is that he may be more resolute and diligent in denouncing Gods judgements against this people The intimation of the former words may on Gods part be thus continued ¶ However I have determined to destroy this people which have forsaken me Yet do not thou forsake thy former Station repine not at thy wonted charge but execute faithfully with alacritie that service whereto my Prophet shall appoint thee What though thou hast seen no fruit of all thy former labours What though Iehoiakim begin to rage afresh and this people hold on still to rebell against thee Hath not my spirit continually Warred with the uncircumcised hearts of their forefathers Hath not the Great Angel of my Covenant wrastled from time to time with this stubborn and stiff-necked generation What could I have done more to my vine-yard that I have not done unto it Howbeit at every season whilst I looked for grapes it hath brought forth wilde grapes yet hitherto have I not ceased nor do I yet cease to prune and dresse it Have the inhabitants of Ierusalem at any time grieved thee or my Prophets Or do I now send thee with this message unto them and am not with thee Yes in all thy troubles I am troubled And what art thou or who is Ieremy Not against you but against me is the rebellion of my people for they have vexed my holy spirit And doth this complaint well become thee I fainted in my sighing and I find no rest ¶ All these and many like branches which without violence to the meaning of the Spirit might be spread out more at large are virtually enclosed in the Text. The force and efficacie of the perswasion ariseth more particularly from the Reference which these words Seek them not c. have to Baruchs repining at the message enjoyned by Jeremie and to that Reply of the Almighty upon his repining Behold that which I have planted will I pluck up c. Which last words unless I mis-observe the native propriety of the Original implie such an Emphatical Antithesis between the losses which God and Baruch might seem to suffer as that speech of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 36. implies betwixt Gods sowing and mans sowing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou Fool that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die The Implication is Much more shall that which is sowen in corruption by the Almighties immediate hand be raised in glory Our Prophets words are verbatim thus Ejus quod aedificavi destructor Egomet Of what I have built I my self must be the destroyer Ejus quod plantavi evulsor Egomet what was planted by me alone I my self must now pluck up Et tu quaereres grandia tibi As if he had said I may not reap where I have sown nor gather the fruits which I have planted and canst not thou be contented to forgo thy harvest which thou hopest for but diddest not sow To the least grain whereof thou canst have no Title none so just and soveraign as I have to this whole Land to every Soul that lives in Judah and yet the whole and every part of this fair crop must be pluckt up and transplanted 11. But though the Lord at this time had thus threatned and more than half shut the door of Repentance upon this stubborn people yet the Decree did not passe the irrevocable Seal of his absolute and unresistible Will until some fourteen years after as hath been shewed in former meditations out of this place As much as I now affirm is included in Ieremies words to Baruch at the very instant when he repined Jerem. 36. v. 6 7. Therefore go thou and read in the Roll which thou hast written from my mouth the words of the Lord in the ears of the people in the Lords House upon the fasting day and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their Cities It may be they will present their supplication before the Lord and will return every one from his evil way for great is the anger and the fury that the Lord hath pronounced against this people Whether they would pray in faith or no was Juris controversi a
Meridian and runs away out of their Hemisphere And in his stead a Comet ariseth out of Egyptian exhalations which portends nothing but war and blood This is Jehoiakim whom Pharaoh Nechoh which slew his father hath now appointed to be King over this people for his purpose the successe of whose Raign in general the people might well prognosticate by his life and manners the Epitome of which Iosephus lib. 10. cap. 5. hath given very pithily in two words He was neither religious towards God nor just towards men And yet besides this his natural disposition was particularly incensed against this people for preferring his younger brother to the Crown and so more ready to wreak his spite by reason of his dependance upon the Egyptian out of whose Country he had the Prophet Uriah brought to satiate his thirst of blood Jer. 26. 23. which bloodie Fact of his and the like with their like successe is the train I have pursued in these present Meditations I will conclude them with that of Solomon Prov. 28. 2. For the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes thereof And of Iudah never a good one after Iosiah such they were as might serve to scourge this people until they were cast like Vagabonds and unprofitable Members out of that City and Land which had bred them 10. Thus you see Gods largest Promises have their limits greatest prosperity hath a period and mightiest Kingdomes have their fall You have likewise seen how for the uncircumcised hearts of this people is he slain by uncircumcised hands who had so throughly cleansed Ierusalem and Iudah from all the abominations of the Heathen The Heroical attempts of whose Princely resolution and zeal in restoring the true worship of God unto this people needs not mine it hath the commendations of Gods Spirit who hath been curious in calculating his particular good deeds throughout this Chapter to have been matchless in Davids Race and how then possible to be parallell'd in any other Princes Line And what If through the religious care and industrie of some one or two Princes whom the Lord in mercie had raised up as Lights unto this Land the foggie mists of Superstition Heresie and Idolatry be driven hence This is an Infallible testimonie of Gods former love unto our forefathers no sure Document of our continuance in his favour if yet this Land and People may be taken in the very manner of those capital Crimes which did condemn Iudah his first-born amongst the Nations in the dayes of good Iosiah even whilest it was acquitted from profession of Idolatrie and Superstition What shall it avail us that those forrain hungrie Hell-hounds which brought Commissions of Charter Warrant for hunting out the good things of this Land and made this people a prey for maintenance of the many-headed beast have been long time prohibited to continue their wanted raunge if the Princes which are left within her be as roaring Lions and her Judges as wolves in the evening which leave not the bones until the morrow What availes it that the secular Priests and Jesuite are would God they were transported out of this Land if her owne Prophets be light and wicked persons and her Priests pollute the Sanctuary and wrest the Law Or what shall it avail us that the Light of the Gospel doth shine amongst us if the just Lord be in the midst of us and every morning bring forth judgment unto light and fail not and yet the wicked will not learn to be ashamed Or what avails it that we have cast off all blind obedience to the Sea of Antichrist if we will not suffer Gods providence to be a Rule and Christs word a Light unto our paths but walk on still in the wayes of the heathens making secular observations our chief confidence and worldly policie our greatest trust Or what avails it to have purged our hearts from all conceit of merit if we pollute our hands with bribes Or what availes it to give God the glory in all good actions and yet daily dishonor his name with bad dealings I will speak more plainly What advantageth it us to object unto the Papists that they seek to merit heaven by their works and share with God in the honour of good deeds if they can truly reply upon us That the free Almes of Papists Founders have been by Protestants set on sale unto their brethren Or that secular Appendices and Alliance of Spiritual men devour a great part of that liberal maintenance which was allotted only for Prophets and Prophets children 11. Beloved in our Lord were we our selves without sin without these enormous sins which I have mentioned all of us might freely attempt to stone that filthy Whore and all her foul Adulterers unto death But such of us as seek most to purge the Land of them and seek not withal to cleanse our own hearts of those sins which have procured Gods wrath against it may justly dread lest we find no better success then good Josiah did to provoke the enemie to do more mischief then haply they meant Mistake me not I beseech you as though I misliked such as sollicite severitie against that Nation yet cannot I hope but some will be as jealous of me as these Iews of Iosiah's and Jehoiakim's dayes were alwayes of the Prophet Jeremy whose footsteps I have resolved to follow through good and bad report Give me leave to explain my meaning thus As from my heart I reverence their religious labors who have of late so effectually stirred up our Sovereignes heart to this purpose and earnestly request your heartie prayers unto Almighty God that his Holy Spirit may continually enflame his royal heart with those good motions which have been kindled in it of late so do I desire from the very centre of my soul both that men of place Authoritie Gravitie Learning and Integritie of life may prosecute it and that young Divines whether young in years or manners it skills not would oftentimes even for Sions sake hold their peace or at least be wary where and when they open their mouths in this argument For he that looks into the temper of this present people with a discreet religious not with a turbulent factious eye may easily discerne that many ill tempered and extravagant invectives against Papists made by men whose Persons wanting Authoritie as much as their speeches do Reason do nothing else but set an edge upon our Adversaries sword whilst the light behaviour and bad example of the Inveighers life infuseth courage to their hearts and addeth strength unto their armes In one word Many of our words in this place increase the wrath and many of our lives out of this place increase the number of that Faction 12. Though all of us by Profession are Christs Soldiers yet every Soldier is not fit for any service Albeit I discourage no man I only advise that every man that means to be a valiant Soldier in Christ and would do his
Questions St. Pauls first Answer to both Questions An Objection against the Answer in point of Charitie The Answer to that Objection A second objection in point of sufficiencie The Answer to this objection Exceptions against the Proof The Exceptions answered Works truly miraculous may have a less share of Gods Power then usual works of nature See this Authors Sermons printed at Oxon. Anno 1637. pag. 39 40. The 2 d Difficultie urged Aquinas his Solution true but impertinent The Authors Solution of the former Difficultie The Corinthian Naturalists second Question The answer to this Question See Book 10. Fol. 3113. The general use of this Doctrine ☜ ☜ Christians should chuse such friends as have share in the First and hopes of the second Resurrection The Atheist's Exception The Naturalist his Demand See Book 10. Fol. 3113. The Naturalist's Objections framed into a Bodie See Chap. 13. §. 11. It is the very nature of the Matter not to be unum idem The Answer to the Naturalist his Objections * See the Epistle of the Churches of Vienna and Lyons to the Brethren of Asia and Phrygia in Euseb Hist 5. book 1. chap. ad finem There is much good moralitie to be learned from the contemplating the mixtures and separation of metals The Atheists wilie but not wise Objection against the possibilitie of a Resurrection by Recollection of Reliques The same Objection re-inforced The Atheists Objection answered It hath Two Loops First Loop The Second Loop of the Atheists Objection An Ocular Demonstration that the Atheists principles or supposals be False ☜ The scruple incident into an ingenuous minde Vide Glossam Hugonem in hunc Locum How S. Pauls inferences may be collected A Philosophical Maxim advanced and much improved ☞ ☜ See Chap. 4. §. 12. Christs death said to take away sin in a Twofold Sense The First The second Sense The Benefits punctually arising from Christs Death and from His Resurrection Had Christ only died and not risen again Though we had not come in Hell yet we had never come out of the Grave Two sorts of First fruits appointed by the Law ☞ See Paragraph the 7th How we may try our selves See Book 10. Chapt. 28. 30. The Model or Scope of the whole Chapter Of death to sin A natural and a civil death Death to sin is vowed by us in Baptism Meanes also of dying to sin received in baptisme Of baptismall Grace Difference betwixt the Elect and the Elect people of God ☞ In Baptism there is a mutual Astipulation or promise between God and man Ceremonies used at Baptism and the meaning thereof The Regiment of the Law of Grace Prospers Observation ☜ Of shame what it is and whence arising See Aristotle Rhet. l. 2. cap. 6 Ethic. Nic. lib. 4. cap. 15. Satan's Stales false honor and false shame Shame and Modesty ☞ ☜ Our service is due to God upon several Titles ☞ The service of sin and Righteousness compared in regard of this present Life See Chapter the tenth The emptiness and vanitie of sinful pleasures ☞ Gods Method and Satans practise ☞ Holiness bitter in the root or beginning but sweet in the Fruit. See A. Gellius lib. 16. cap. 1. ☞ Our fruitlesness in Holiness to be imputed only to our own ill use of the Talent of Grace given us Plin Epist lib. 10. Ep. 97. Three Heads of preparation to the holy Sacrament Of Bodily Death or the First Death ☜ Desire of death or self Homicide ☜ Of the second Death wherein it exceeds the First ☞ A double Reason of the vehemency of pain or torment in the second death ☞ The duration or Eternity of the second death and pains of it See M Mede on Pro. 21. 16 of the valley of Rephaim Poena damni Sensus Terms subordinate ☜ See Chap. 4 § 15 And Attrib 1 part p 219. 2 part p 27. See Chapt 4 § 12. Possibilitie repentance Worm of conscience Coel Rodigin lib. 8. cap. 2. lib. 25. cap. 1 The unsatisfaction of our desires in the Contentments of this present life See Book 10. Chap. 17. The hearts desire is True Happiness The Full satisfaction of all senses and Faculties in the Life to come Hippocrates See Book 10. Chap. 9 Accidental joyes The Beauteous Place The Holy Companie First in regard of the Place or Seat of the blessed ☜ In regard of the Company there The Eight Beatitudes Matth. 5. The first Beatitude Poor in Spirit ☜ Second Beatitude for Mourners The third Beatitude to the meek spirited ones See chapt 11. §. 7. The fourth Beatitude to Those that hunger and thirst after righteousness 5. Beatitude to the merciful See Master Medes notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon Psal 112. 6. 6. Beatitude to the Pure in heart 7. Beatitude to the Peace-makers Patience and resolution in suffering for righteousness Eternal life the strongest motive and obligation to all duty ☜ See Chapt. 10. Section 7. 1 Cor. 10. See Book 10. Chap. 21. The motives Satan uses to to withdraw us ☞ ☜ The Philosophical Precept Sustine et abstine imperfectly good Belief of this Article will work obedience Of reconciliation Active or Grammatically passive only reconciliation really passive See Book 10. Fol. 3267 and 3278. ☞ Infidels of two sorts Cardanus◠Two Roots of Errors ☞ Unbelief of this Article cause of unchristian careless life ☜ The Story of Biblis ☞ See the Chapt. 20. Motives from meditation of eternal death according to general or more particular tasts of it Parisiensis his storie ☜ ☞ A seasonable lesson collected out of Job 21. Isai 14. Ecclus. 19. Rev. 18. 5 6 7. Meditations of the second death to be fitted to several parts of the body of sin for the mortifying of it ☞ Aristotle ☞ See Chap. 10. § 9 10. ☜ Avoid here the presumptuous perswasion of certain salvation and the conceit of Absolute reprobation See Book 10. Chap. 37. 51. ☞ Purge our Braines of The Erroneous Opinion of the Irrespective Decree Meditations or a Tast of Eternal death here fits us better for a tast of eternal life hereafter The force which the Tast of experienced pleasures hath upon mens souls See Book 10. fol. 3181. The Tast or true rellish of eternal joys how gained The use of affliction to that purpose That Tast is the peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost to which the working of righteousness is necessary The work of righteousness universal obedience The use of affliction or chastisement to that purpose ☞ ☜ How the Peace of God passeth all understanding This was written thirtie years ago or more The Tumult and discord of Passions in a natural man See Book 10. Fol. 3056. See Hor. Serm. Lib. 2. Sat. 7. See Pers Sat. 5. Of joy in the Holy Ghost No man can truly enjoy himself until he be reconciled to God The Difference betwixt Joy and gladness True knowledge of God in Christ necessary to this joy A joy in the knowledge of any sort