I null good works as superfluous and unnecessary No God forbid Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall be saved but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Matth. 7.24 For as we are not saved propter opera for our works we are saved and shall be one day judged accordingly secundum opera according to our works See Matth. 25. v. 34. to the end But I would not have men big with their works high conceited of them stand in competition with God fondly to imagine their works meritorious in so doing they derogate from the free Grace of God and the death and passion of Christ who saith in my Text I am the way c. Alio nobis non opus est ostiario mediatore vel ministro saith Chrysost We need no other door-keeper or Mediator or Minister 16. Hom. in Matth. Our Justiciaries then and conceited Pharisees like Players over act themselves These indeed have good things in them but as we use to say fools have them in keeping Should we call them Papists they would spit at it and yet verily in a sence they are all one in this particular just like the two Elders in Susanna they seem to take leave one of another and presently meet at one door He that saith I am the way saith likewise I am the door of the Sheep John 10.7 And as no man cometh unto the Father but by him so by him also we have access by faith into the grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Rom 5.22 What impudence can out face that of the Apostle For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of Workes least any man should boast Eph. 2.8 9. And the same Apostle elsewhere saith speaking of free election And if by grace then is it no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work Rom. 11.6 Let the Church of Rome then tells what tale they please I hope beloved it is no article in our Creed To pray to Saints and ascribe merit to our works is the next way to make us devils I am sure they never had these puddles from the pure fountain of Gods holy word Pride is one of the seven deadly sins but of two spirituall pride is the more dangerous and must expect a fall That man who is big with the timpany of his own worth will hardly acknowledg Christ to be the way This is so stiff an Oak that it will break rather then bend and with Naball it is such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak to it 1 Sam. 25.17 But to conclude the first particular Let this serve for admonition to all that truely fear God without procrastination to address themselves to Christ who is and none but he the true and living way to bliss to know him and his Father is eternall life John 17.3 Wherefore as the Apostle sometime said in another sence so let us all say whether shall we go thou hast the words of Eternall life And so I come to the second branch in my Text. As Christ is the way in like manner he is the truth I am the truth First he is the truth Complendo by way of accomplishment for in him as by a lively voice and promise whatsoever was spoken and typified concerning the Messiah by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began are fulfilled Acts. 3.21 see v. 24. and. Acts. 10.43 In like manner the whole Hierarchie of the Leviticall priesthood is accomplished in him the Antetipe which the Epistle to the Hebrews throughout plainly sheweth Thus the Apostle speaking of the Law saith that it was but a shadow of things to come Hebr. 10.1 Secondly he is the truth Promittendo by way of promise So Joh. 17.17 Sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is truth And David thus speaks Ps 119.43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth And Ps 33.4 For the word of the Lord is right Heaven and Earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away Luke 21.33 St. Peter having spoken of the frailty and vanity of man and flesh positively concludes that the word of the Lord endureth for ever 1 Pet. 1.25 Thirdly he is the truth Operando by operation because by the holy Ghost through the word of truth he shall guide us into all truth Jo. 16.13 And Chapt. 8.31.32 If ye continue in my word then are ye my disciples indeed and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free And v. 36. I the Son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed This may first serve to inform us that Christ is the true Messiah that undoubted Seed of the woman who should break the Serpents head Gen. 3.8 That seed of Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed Gen. 12.3 He who was to save his people from their Sins Matth. 1.21 he in whom all the promises of God are yea and amen 2. Cor. 1.20 Let us then who are Christians acknowledge him alone to be our Saviour although the Jews wickedly blaspheme Parati sunt adlegendam caeci vero ad intelligendum duri ad credendum Aug. Serm. 35. de Temp. and fondly phancie themselves of a Messiah to come Of whom the Father truly speaks they are ready to read but blind to understand and hard to believe Secondly if Christ is the truth it followeth whatsoever is propounded to us against without or besides Christ to embrace and follow is a meer lye St. Paul calls it the Spirit of errour 1. Tim. 4.1 Our Saviour himself saith There shall arise false Christs and false prophets Math. 24.24 That is to say false Doctors and Teachers as Tertuil expounds the Text. Qui pseudoprotae sunt nisi falsi praedicatores Qui Pseudo-apastoli nisi adulteri Evangelizatores Qui Antechristi nisi Christi rebelles de prescript haeret cap 4. Who are false prophets but false preachers Who are false Apostles but adulterate Gospellers Who are Antechrists but rebels of Christ These come in sheeps cloathing Matth. 7.15 Having a shew of Godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 a shew of wisdome Coloss 2.23 Who by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the Simple Rom. 16.18 Yea they shall show great signs and wonders that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect Matth. 24.24 And indeed whom have they not deceived If ever that saying was true it is now Where God hath his church there the devill hath his chappel We have almost as many Conventicles as Churches and a multitude resort unto them Let but one sheep run astray and the whole flock will soon follow Et affabilissermo blandum haereticorum eloquium sunt sagena et laquens quibus pisces
The Marriners Card and Compass OR THE BEST WAY TO ATTAIN HEAVEN Amidst a Sinfull and Crooked GENERATION By WILLIAM HARVEY Minister of the Word AUGUST Vae etiam laudabili vita hominum si remotâ misericordiâ discutias eam Haec via ducit in urbem LONDON Printed in the Year 1659. To the right Honourable ANN Countess Dowager of SCARSDEL And To the rest of that Noble Family Grace Mercy and Peace c. Madam THe world for the most part is like the Cypress-Tree long and fruitless and like Tullies strange Soyl for all the sweet showres that fall upon it it 's still dry as dust The cause of it is either ignorance or negligence want of Knowledge in the will of God or Non-Improvement I have endeavoured to remove these Obstructions and to take the rubs out of the way There are but two extreams Presumption and Desperation which like Scylla and Charybdis make shipwrack of all the vesseds they met with Where these waters break out they beat down all before them They are alike dangerous faith Chrysost For Presumption falls him that standeth and Desperation after a fall admits no rising This small Tract Madam by Gods assistance will inform the one and reform the other It will be an eye to the ignorant and a spur to the negligent for it treats only of Christ and as the Star the Wise men will conduct them to him But I am loth to take too large a survey in so small a piece of ground They that write must not forget that Rule of the Orator ut titulum legant to read the Title of their Books least like the gates of Mindus it proves bigger then the City it self I was ambitions to dedicate it to your Honour that it might kiss your hand which hath been so often open to men of my calling and condition and in particular to my self the meanest of them who serve at the Altar Now the God of Heaven be your continual guard and guide his Blessings in a plurality light upon your Honour and your whole Family as the dew on Gideons Fleece This shall alwayes be the unfeigned Prayers of Your Honours most humble and grateful Servant William Harvey JOHN 14. 6. I am the Way the Truth and the Life THese words are an answer to the precedent verse and they are Allegoricall rately adorn'd partly metaphorically and partly Meronymically and they are brought in to inform Thomas and the rest of the Disciples more fully in the way of Salvation We know not saith Thomas whither thou goest and how can we know the way Our Saviour presently resolv's him in the words of my Text. I am the way the truth and the Life Aurea Sententia A golden Sentence The wife men of the East opened their treasures and presented unto him guifts even Gold Frankincence and Myrrh but he presents unto us guifts more precious in that they fit the Soul in her divine progress to Heaven and as the Angels Lazarus carry it into Abrahams bosome But I will come to the severall branches of the Text. And they are three Via veritis vita The way the truth and the Life First Christ is the way docendo by way of teaching because he alone instructs in the way to happiness The Law is our Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ Gal. 3.24 and Christ is our Schoolmaster who brings us to Heaven he is that pillar of a cloud and fire leading us the way to the Heavenly Canaan Exod. 13.21 St. John saith No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him John 1.18 He is the true Mercuries finger that directs the poor wandring traveller the right way to his heavenly Mansion None but he can fit us for that blessed Academy above were we shall all be Fellow-Communers with the Saints and blessed Angels Secondly he is the way promerendo by way of Meriting Conerning this notable is that of St. Paul Rom. 5.16 17 18 19. For if by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and the guift of righteousness shall reign in Life by one Jesus Christ c. read the Text. He alone is that Sampson who hath broken the Cords of our Sins from us by which we were so fast bound and with that woman in the Gospell even bowed together That strong man Satan by him is overcome and his armour wherein he trusted taken from him and his spoiles divided Luke 11.22 The Apostle to the Colossians saith In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of our Sins Col. 1.14 and v. 20. Having made peace through the blood of his Cross by him to reconcile all things to himself To omit a cloud of witnesses St. Peter positively thus Neither is their Salvation in any other for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved Acts. 4.12 And thus he is the way promerendo by way of merit Thirdly He is the way applicando by way of application And that in Severall respects First by his word so the Psalmist Thou wilt shew me the path of Life Ps 16.11 And in another Psalme I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which you shalt go I will guide thee with mine eye Ps 32 8. Secondly by his Sacraments by which God hath not only saved us according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour that being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternall Life Titus 3.5 6 7. But also he doth Confirm unto us as by undoubted Seals and assurances the way of Salvation righteousness and eternall Life So the Apostle speaking of Abraham And he recieved the sâ—gne of Circumcision a Seal of the righteousness of faith which he had being yet uncircumcised that he might be the Father of all them that believe though they be not circumcised that righteousness might be imputed to them also Ro. 4.11 Thirdly By holy and fervent prayers According to that of St. Paul Eph. 2.18 For through him we both have an access by one Spirit unto the Father c. chap. 3.12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him And to the Romans he saith For ye have nor received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of adâ—ption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 To this purpose we are commanded in our Pater Noster to supplicate Almighty God in that sweet Epithete and name of Father Our Father c. * ut vere credamus eum nostrum verum parrem nosque ejus veros filios esse ut eo confidentius plena fiducia adcum accedamus eumque invoeemus quemadmodum videmus liberos certa fiducia aliquid aparentibus suis potere Luth in
capiunt volucres In cap. 9. Eccl. St. Hierom thus discribs the heretiques Their affable speeches fair tongue are a gin and snare wherewith they catch the poor birds and fishes But of these the people of God are admonished to take heed Beware of false prophets saith our Saviour himself Matth. 7.15 And in another place Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadduces chapt 16.6 and that 24.25 and 26. vers read the words And the disciple follows his Master Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God and he giveth the reason because many false prophets are gone out into the world 1 Epistle of John 4. chapt v. 1. Thus should every Christian do if they would not be seduced Should a Goldsmith hand over head take all moneys without trying I believe he would receive much adulterated coine To prevent which he brings all to the touchstone If Solomon had not been wise he could never known the true Mother for the harlots were both aâ— their pro and con Heresis Aocta est mentiri non tantum lingua sed vita si fidem imerroges whil bristtanius si conversactonem nihil irreprehensibilius Bernd and in one tale 1. Kin. 3.23 c. Wherefore the best way to find out the false play of these juglers is to bring them to the touchstone of Gods word For all is not gold that glisters The property of Heresie is to lye not in tongue onely but in Life If thou questions his faith not better Christian if his Conversation none more irreprehensible saith Benard And Ireneus of false prophets goes on thus They speak to us the same things Similia nobiscum loquuntur dissimilta vero sentiunt lib. 1. epist 59. but think the contrary And truly had we not recourse to the sacred springs of holy Writ the whole world would go after them You know who said it My sheep hear my voice and again The sheep follow him for they know his voice And a stranger will they not follow but will flee from him For they know not the voice of strangers John 10.4.5 It was a voice from heaven which said hear him Matthew 5.16 And he that came from Heaven the Son of man who is in Heaven said of those hypocrites Mittite eos Let them alone they be blind leaders of the blind c. Matth. 15. â—4 In the next place If Christ be the truth then by consequent his word is truth and we ought to subscribe to it without dispute Ipse dixit was sufficient a Scholar of Pythagoras If their Master once said it it carried as much weight with it as delivered from an Oracle Me thinks the word of God should be of more credit with us If that once speakes we should presently lay our hands upon our mounths and by silence express our consent I am with you unto the end of the world that is by his Spirit Grace word c. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God John 3.5 There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one 1 John 5.7 and verse the 20. St. John speaking of our Saviour saith This is the true God and Eternal life And according to St. Paul God blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 These and whatsover we find recorded in the word we must believe without Cavelling seem they never so contrary to naturall reason This condemns the foul Heresie of the Photinians who deny the Divinity and Godhead of Christ upon this account onely because their blind reasons cannot comprehend it as if our faith were pinn'd upon reasons sleeve I have read of one who was in his dumps and deep contemplation to define fully what God was and this he would do forsooth by Phylosophy and reason In this his brown study by the sea-side he seeth a Child go often to the sea and bringing from thence water in a shell and then to put it in a little hole which was hard by The Philosopher asked the Child why he did so The Child replyed because I will bring all the Sea and put it into this hole That is impossible said the other again So it is as impossible saith the Child again for thee by reason to define what God is Worthy is that of Cassianus Doest thou ask me a reason of the Word I do not tell thee God hath said it his word is all the reason The person of him alone that speakes it is sufficient for my belief What need I enquire how that is true that God hath spoken when I must not doubt because it is true because God hath spoken it If this course were taken it would not only prevent blasphemy and mistakes of Scripture but be a great obstruction to sin and wickedness Did our Anapabtist but steer this way they would not cavill so much at the Baptisme of Infants What though their baptisme be not positive or demonstrative yet it is deductive deduced from Scripture as plain as a mans nose on his face Will they play the thieves and rob a poor Child of the Sacrament upon this fond cavill What good doth it doe them And they have no faith which is more then they can prove for they have Sacamentall faith and the Seed of faith And further they urge that Children are not capable of teaching and so ought not to be baptized As if that text had relation to the adulted Men and Women of ripe years and not to Children They make themselves simple Logitians for they understand not a distinction If they ask what good it doth them Aqua corpus absoluitur Spiritu animae delicta mundantur Saint Ambrose will tell them The body is cleansed by the Element Water the spots sins of the Soul by the Spirit I will end this with that of Crysost meaning Tertullians works Da mihi Magistrum da mihi Magistrum Give me my Master give me my Master So say I and so let us all say of the word of God da nobis Magistrum c. Give us our Master give us our Master Thus Christ is the truth Thirdly as he is the way and the truth so he is the life and that in three respects Creando Conservando Regenerando Sanctificando Resuscitando Glorificando By Creating and Conserving us By Regenerating and Sanctifying us By Raising again and Glorifying us First he is said to be the Life not so much in relation to his essence in which respect he is life eternall 1 John 5.20 but in relation to us in that he hath creared us and kept us ever since by the hand of providence So David Psalm 100.3 Know ye that the Lord he is God it is he that hath made us and not we our selves we are his people and the sheep of his pasture And the Apostle In him we live move and have
our being Acts 17.28 Secondly he is life and that especially by Regenerating and by Conserving us because by the Sacraments and words he workes and as I may so speak begets in us a Spirituall life According to that of S. John Jesus answered verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God and so forward John 35. And in the 6. chap. and 33. v. c. For the Bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven c. And John 10.10 I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly St. Paul hath this expression to the Galathians I am Crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 And in his Epistle to the Romans he saith How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Rom. 6.2 and v. 4. Therefore we are buried with him by baptisme into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Read Rom. 8.12 13. Thirdly and Lastly Christ is the life Resuscitando Glorificando by raising us again and by glorifying us This is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day John 6.40 And again I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye John 11.25.26 St. Paul saith whom he justifyed them he also glorifyed Rom. 8.30 And which is more Who shall change our vile bodie that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body c. Philipians 3.21 The fruit which we may gather from hence is this If Christ be the life we should seek it in and through him only without whom we shall never obtain it And we should not so much mind this present life which we have in common with beasts reprobates and as Eurip. saith Non vita sed calamitas est It is not a life in comparison but a calamity and differs nothing from death if we believe the Phylosopher a life that is as brittle as Glass frail and Momentany Vt hora sic vita It is a life which passeth away as an hour upon the Diall insensibly But mind we that spirituall life of regeneration and sanctification which is the life properly and by which we live to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. A life wherein sin doth not reign in our mortall body that we should obey it in the lusts thereof neither yield we our members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin Rom. 6.12 13. When the Emperour Nero had finished his house which he called Domum Aureum the golden house he said now I begin to live like a man But this is most true we never begin to live like Christian men till we live the life of Regeneration and Sanctification And now if Christ be our life death will be to us advantage As St. Paul hath it When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory Coloss 3.4 And that true and eternall life which we here possess by faith and hope We shall at length have the full fruition of it in Heaven That of the Apostle is worthy of all acceptation For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dy we dy unto the Lord whether we live therefore of dy we are the Lords Rom. 14.8 Who is he then that will not from his heart breath forth and say O my Lord Jesus Christ thou art truly the way because no man cometh unto the Father nisi per te but by thee thou art the truth because no man knoweth the Father nisi per te but by the Thou art the life because no man liveth nisi per te but by thee Be thou to me the way by which I may come to thee and the Father Be thou to me the truth by which I may know thee and the Father be thou to me the life by which I may here live in thee by faith in believing and there in heaven by fruition Let this ever sound fresh in our ears Ambularevis ego sum via fallinonvis ego sum veritas Morinoâ— vis Ego sum vita Hoc dicit salvator tuus non est quo eas nisi ad me non est quo cas nisi per me Aug. Tract 22 Johannum Wilt thou walk I am the way Wilt thou not be deceived I am the truth Wouldst thou not dye I am the life This thy Saviour saith thou hast not where to go unless unto me nor how to go but by me Secondly if Christ be the life then it follows there is a resurection of the body at the last day From this flower may the Bee suck honey the Spider poyson Now in the first place may the people of God with the Eunuch depart home rejoycing with much harmony in their Souls Cura thymo pleno their thighs are now laden with sweetness O the rare contentment of a child of God in the privation and want of all external comforts With Jacob he may well truly say few and evill have the dayes of my life been As for this world he doth but breath in it that is all Yet prithy erect thy self banish thy sad thoughts no violence is perpetuall a storm lasts not alwayes The poor Ship that 's long tossed too and fro with a tempest gaines the wished Port at last The Ark that was hurried on the flood hath a Dove with an Olive branch in her mouth to imitate the falling of the waters Haec non durabunt aetatem as that learned Bishop Jewell said of the Marian persecution These things will not last an age Chear up sweat heart Gods rod is but a love kiss and our afflictions are but tokens of his indulgency Look back to former Ages and the Church is often in a cloud her throws like a woman in Travell have been thick and painfull Sicut unda sequitur undam and have followed as one wave upon the neck of another Yet mark the result of all her end is peace at the last Wait then with patience and thou shalt see the salvation of God who ever trusted in him and was confounded Behold a most ample compensation For thy light afflictions thou shalt have an exceeding an eternall weight of glory in another World Forget not the Text I am the life c. A day therefore will come when thy sorrows will have an end and breath out their
last Hear and glut thine ear with this musick Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations and I appoint unto you a kingdome as my Father hath appointed unto me that ye my eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel Luke 22.28 c. When this Sun once Sets and the great World on fire they every man shall receive according to his works and a full satisfaction made of all injuries and wrongs which the poor Saints have groaned under in this Life by wicked and ungodly men In the next place this may serve for horrour and amazement to all such who with Davids fool have said in their hearts there is no God The Sadduces and Epicures of our days who by their lives deny the resurrection of the body Some have likened a Courtier without preferment to a Blackamoor qui in ortu solis positus habet colorem noctis who though living upon the Sun rising hath notwithstanding the Colour of the night So an Atheist amongst us may fitly be compared to this Ethiopian He liveth where the Sun riseth even where the Gospell casts forth its glorious beams and yet he acts the works of darkness and of the night It is observ'd by Josephus that the Sadduces were most approved and favoured by great men And it is very probable because they that wallow in wealth for the most part are so glued to this world that they could wished there were no other and truly in their account there is not Nemo tam carxaliter vivit quam qui negat resurrectionem That of Tertull. is undenyable No man liveth so loosely and Carnally as he that denyeth the resurrection of the body And one may give a shrewd guess that they who live in all kinds of pleasures and voluptuousness luxuriant in vermium operibus and Pride it in silks without all fear of God reverence to his house love to his ordinances and Charity to the poor are Epecuri de grege porci the hogs of Epicurus and acknowledge no life but the present You shall allways have them Sing this Song Ede bibe Lude c. Eat drink and be merry after death there 's no pleasure I believe it and will one day find by wofull experience if they repent not before they go hence and be no more seen It were happy for worldly men if there were no resurrection they should come then to no accompts And on the contrary the Saints were most unhappy For if in this Life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserble saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.19 But Christ is the Life Resuscitando c. by raising thee again as I said before God is just and he will one day reward every man according to his works and this must be in another world Thou must not think to live heer a Devill and a Saint hereafter have the full fruition of happiness in this world be clad in purple and fine linnen and fare deliciously quotidie every day at length be carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome Somnias vigilans Thou dreamest waking once to think it You know what was said to the rich glutton being in hell torments Mememto fili Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus his Evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Luke 16.25 Mark how Empatheticall the pronoune Thy is there This life is called his life not in regard he lived in it for so it is every mans but because he so lived in it as if there had been no other Life besides Seculum non agnoscit nisi presens A Carnall man acknowledgeth no World but the present or at least will acknowledge no other till he drops into it unawares Hence it is that he hath neither thought of death or of the resurrection Not unlike unto the Emperour Vespatian who seing at one time two ominous presages of his end to wit a blazing Comet and a gaping Sepulchre puts them both from himself and said the Sepulchre gaped for the Empress Julia and the Star did portend only the death of the Persian King who then wore long hair Cuspind Lust The Psalmist saith Thou wilt not leave my Soul in grave nor suffer thy holy one to see corruption speaking of of Christ Ps 16.10 My Soul in grave there 's the immortality of the Soul nor suffer thy holy one to see Corpuption there 's the Resurection of the body That of Jonas who lay three dayes buried in the belly of a Whale is Sacramentum magnum not only a true History but a pregnant mystery of the Resurrection Cor terrae fit venter ceti The heart of the earth to us will be as the belly of the Whale was to Jonas It shall not ever retain us Death is the convoy or passing boat either to a better or sadder port In the time of nature God took away away Enoch in the time of the law Elias in the time of Grace our Saviour himself by all these examples it is cleer that we shall rise again The Scripture makes mention of four keyes which God hath reserved to himself The first is Clavis pluviae the key of rain as Deut. 28.12 The Lord will open to thee his good treasure The second is Clavis Cibationis the key of Victualls Ps 145.16 Thou openest thy hand and fillest every thing with thy plenteousness The third is Clavis Sterilitatis the key of Sterility or barrenness Gen. 30.22 Where it is said God remembred Rachel and opened her womb The last is Clavis Sepulchrorum the key of the grave Ezek. 37.12 When I shall open your Sepulchres But to omit Gods omnipotency which is the basis and fundametall arch on which is founded our Christian Religion I will reduce all to two heads his mercy and his justice Which two are the Master attributes which set all the rest on work It is thus said by God I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob Now God is not God of the Dead but of the Living Matth. 22.32 He is not a God of those that are not who are without existance but of those that have a being so that he will raise their bodies at the last day Otherwise he shall dimidium tantunimodo hominum restituere he were God to one part of Abraham c. But his mercy is over all his works Ps 145.9 and extends both to Soul and Body and in the mercy of the most high they shall not miscarry Ps 21.7 Secondly as his Mercy so his Justice requires a generall Resurection when both the godly and the wicked shall come forth their graves the one rapi in occursum to meet the Lord in the Clouds and the other verti retrorsum to be turned down to Hell with all those that forget God There must be a Judgment of Retribution in another World which cannot be without the Resurrection of the body The ungodly are sometimes plagued in this life to assure us there if a God yet but sometimes to assure us there is a day of judgment wherein the accounts of all men and women must be audited and cast up In that day will God make up his jewells Mal. 3.17 And put a difference between an Israelite and an Egyptian Then will the Wheat be put into the granary of Heaven and the tares burnt in the fire Surgite mortui Arise ye dead was St. Hieroms Earwig and oftimes beat an alarum on his very heart strings Methinks that of the Apostle should make us tremble We shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ O sinner Let the day of death and the day of doom be the two Pole-stars to fix alwayes thine eyes upon I could wish saith one that men every where would discourse of hell nam ghehennam meminesse in ghehennam non permitter incidere For the Remembrance of hell would by Divine assistance keep us from falling into it I hope by this time if thou beest not an Atheist thou art convinced of this truth that as Christ is the way and the truth so also he is the life by whose omnipotent power we shall all one day rise from our graves to answer for what we have done in this life whether good or bad I will now conclude The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noyse and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the workes that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolv'd what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness 2 Pet. 3.10 11. Gloria Deo in excelsis Amen FINIS