Wo were us if we were not thus hated Let the world hate and hurt us thus still so we may be the favorites of heaven None fare so ill on earth as the godly both living and dead The dead bodies of Gods servants have they given to be meat to the fowls of the heaven the flesh of his Saints unto the beasts of the field their bloud have they shed like water and there was none to bury thē They are become a reproach to their neighbours a scorn and derision to them that are round about them Oh the poor impotent malice of wicked spirits and men What matters it if our carcasses rot upon earth whiles our souls shine in heavenly glory What matters it if for a while we be made a gazing-stock to the world to Angels and to men whiles the Son of God hath assured us of an eternall royalty To him that over-commeth will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and am set downe with my Father in his throne None are so ill intreated as the godly It is true for none are so happy as they Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the kingdome of heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evill of you falsly for my sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven Who would not endure wrongs a while to be everlastingly recompenced Here is not place onely for patience but for joy and that exceeding in respect of a reward so infinitely glorious It is no marvell then if we be bidden to pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us these are the men that are our great Benefactors though full sore against their wills contribute to our eternall blessednesse The wicked triumph whiles the righteous are trampled upon What marvell we are in a middle region betwixt heaven and hell but nearer to this latter which is the place of confusion It is but staying a while and each place will be distinctly peopled with his owne there is a large and glorious heaven appointed for the everlasting receptacle of the just an hell for the godlesse till then the eternall wisdome hath determined for his most holy ends to give way to this confused mixture and to this seeming-inequality of events How easie were it for him to make all heaven but he hath a justice to glorifie as well as a mercy and in the mean time it is the just praise of his infinite power wisdome goodnesse that he can fetch the greatest good out of the worst of evils All things go crosse here the righteous droop the wicked flourish The end shall make amends for all The world is a stage every man acts his part the wise compiler of this great interlude hath so contrived it That the middle Scenes show nothing but intricacy and perplexednesse the unskilfull spectator is ready to censure the plot and thinks he sees such unpleasing difficulties in the carriage of affaires as can never be reconciled but by that time he have sate it out he shall see all brought about to a meet accordance and all shut up in a happy applause Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the crowne of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him The world is an Apothecaries shop wherein there are all manner of drugs some poysonous others cordiall An ignorant that comes in and knows only the quality not the use of those receits will straight be ready to say What do these unwholsome simples these dangerous mineralls these deadly juices here But the learned and skilfull artist knows how so to temper all these noxious ingredients that they shall turn Antidotes and serve for the health of his patient Thus doth the most high and holy God order these earthly though noxious compositions to the glory of his great name and to the advantage of his chosen So as that suggestion wherewith thou meant'st to batter the divine providence of the Almighty doth invincibly fortifie it his most wise permission and powerfull over-ruling of evill actions and men through the whole world to his owne honour the benefit of his Church VII TEMPTATION If God be never so liberall in in his promises and sure in performances of mercy to his own yet what is that to thee thou art none of his neither canst lay any just claime to his election Repelled HOw boldly can I defie thee O thou lying spirit whiles I have the assurance of him who is the word of Truth How confidently dare I challenge thee upon that unfailing testimony which shall stand till heaven and earth shall passe Ye that have believed in Christ are sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance untill the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory Lo here a double assurance which all the powers of hell shall in vaine labour to defeat The Almighties Scale and his Earnest both made and given to the believer and therefore to me In spight of all temptations I believe and know whom I have believed I can accuse my faith of weaknesse thou canst not convince it of untruth and all the precious promises of the Gospel and all the gracious ingagements of God are made not to the measure but to the truth of our beliefe and why should not I as truly know that I relie upon the word of my Saviour as I know that I distrust and reject thine Since then I am a subject truly capable of this mercy what can hinder me from enjoying it Cheare thy selfe up therefore O my soule with this undefeisible confidence that thou hast Gods seale and his earnest for thy salvation Even an honest man will not be lesse then his word but if his hand have seconded his tongue he holds the obligation yet stronger but if his seale shall be further added to his hand there is nothing that can give more validity to the graunt or contract yet even of the value of Seales there is much difference The Seale of a private man carries so much authority as his person the seale of a Community hath so much more security in it as there are more persons interessed But the signet of a King hath wont to be held to all purposes authenticall as we find to omit Ahab in the signatures of Ahasuerus and Darius Who desires any better assurance for the estate of him and his posterity then the Great Seale And behold here is no lesse then the great seale of heaven for my election and salvation Ye are sealed with the spirit of promise But lest thou shouldest plead this to be but a graunt of the future and therefore perhaps upon some intervenient mis-deamures or unkindnesse taken reversible know that here is yet further
things from the wise and prudent who were most likely if reason might be the meet judge of spirituall matters to attaine the perfect knowledge of them hath revealed them to babes It is therefore Gods revelation not the ratiocination of man that must give us light into these divine mysteries Were it a matter of humane disquisition why did not those sages of nature the learned Philosophers of former times reach unto it But now a more learned man then they the great Doctor of the Gentiles tels us that the Gospel and preaching of Jesus Christ yeelds forth the revelation of the mysteries which was kept secret since the world began But now manifested by the Scriptures of the Prophets and according to the commandement of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith Lo he saith not to the obedience of reason but of faith and that faith doth more transcend reason then reason doth sense Thou urgest me therefore to be a man I professe my self to be a christian man it is reason that makes me a man it is faith that makes me a christian The wise bountifull God hath vouchsafed to hold forth four severall lights to men all which move in four severall orbes one above another The light of sense the light of reason the light of faith the light of ecstaticall or divine vision and all of these are taken up with their own proper objects Sense is busied about these outward and materiall things reason is confined to things intelligible faith is imployed in matters spirituall and supernaturall divine vision in objects celestiall and infinitely glorious None of these can exceed their bounds and extend to a sphere above their owne What can the brute creature which is led by meer sense do or apprehend in matters of understanding and discourse What can meer man who is led by reason discerne in spirituall and supernaturall things What can the Christian who is led by faith which is the evidence of things not seen attain unto in the clear vision of God and heavenly glory That God who is a God of order hath determined due limits to all our powers and faculties Thou that art a spirit of confusion goest about to disturb and disorder all those just ranks labouring to jumble together those distinct orbes of reason and faith and by the light of reason to extinguish the light of faith wouldst have us so to put on the man as that we should put off the Christian but I have learned in this case to defie thee grounding my self upon that word which is mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting downe imaginations and every high thing that exalts it selfe against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ I will therefore follow my sense so far as that will lead me and not suffer my self to be beaten off from so sure a guide Where my sense leaves me I will betake my self to the direction of reason and in all naturall morall things shall be willingly led by the guidance thereof but when it comes to supernaturall and divine truths when I have the word of a God for my assurance farewell reason and welcome faith as when I shall have dispatcht this weary pilgrimage and from a Traveller shall come to be a Comprehensor farewel faith welcome vision In the mean time I shall labour what I may to understand all revealed truths and where I cannot apprehend I shall adore humbly submitting to that word of the great and holy God My thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord For as the heavens are higher then the earth so are my wayes higher then your wayes and my thoughts then your thoughts IIII. TEMPTATION In how vaine and causelesse awe art thou held of dangers threatned to thy soule and horrors of punishment after this life whereas these are nothing but politique bugs to affright simple and credulous men Sin freely man and feare nothing Take full scope to thy pleasures After this life there is nothing The soule dyes together with the body as in brute creatures There is no further reckoning to be made Repelled DEceitfull spirit How thou goest about to perswade me to that which thy selfe would be most loathe should be true for if the soule of man expired with the body what subject shouldest thou have of that tyranny and torment which thou so much affectest How willingly dost thou seem to fight against thy selfe that thou mighrest overcome me But this dart of thine is too blunt to pierce even a rationall brest Why dost thou not go about to perswade me that I am not a man but a brute creature such I should be if my soul were no other then theirs For as for bodily shape there are of them not much unlike me Why dost thou not perswade me that those brute creatures are men if their soules were as ours What were the difference Canst thou hope I can so abdicate my self as to put my selfe into the ranke of beasts Canst thou think so to prevaile with thy suggestions as to make reason it selfe turne irrationall How palpably dost thou confound thy selfe in this very act of Temptation For if I had not a soul beyond the condition of brute creatures how am I capable of sinning Why dost thou perswade me to that whereof my nature if but brutish can have no capacity Dost thou labour to prevaile with thy temptations upon beasts Dost thou importune their yeildance to sinfull motions If they had such a soul as mine why should they not sin as well as I why should they not be equally guilty Contrarily are those brute things capable of doing those works which may be pleasing unto God the performāce whereof thou so much envyest unto me Can they desire and indeavour to be holy are they capable of making conscience of their waies Know then O thou wicked spirit that I know my selfe animated with another and more noble spirity then these other materiall creatures and that I am sufficiently conscious of my own powers that I have an inmate in my bosome of a divine originall W ch though it takes part with the body whiles it is included in this case of clay yet can and will when it is freed from this earth subsist alone and be eternally happy in the present and perpetuall vision of the God that made and redeem'd it and in the meane time exerciseth such faculties as well shew whence it is derived farre transcend the possibility of all bodily temperament Can it not compare one thing with another Can it not deduce one sequel from another Can it not attaine to the knowledg of the secrets of nature of the perfection of Arts Can it not reach to the scanning of humane plots and the apprehension of divine mysteries Yea can it not judge of spirits how should it doe althis if
it were not a spirit How evidently then doth the present estate of my soul convince thee of the future Al operations proceed from the formes of things and every thing works as it is Canst thou now denye that my soule whiles it is within me can and doth produce such actions as have no derivation from the body no dependence on the body for however in matter of sensation it sees by the eyes and heares by the eares and imagines by those fantasmes that are represented unto it yet when it comes to the higher works of intellectuall elevations how doth it leave the body below it raising to it selfe such notions as wherein the body can challenge no interest how can it now denude and abstract the thing conceived from all consideration of quantity quality place and so work upon its owne object as becomes an active spirit Thou canst not be so impudent as to say the body doth these things by the soule or that the soule doth them by the ayd concurrence of the body and if the soule doth them alone whiles it is thus clogged how much more operative shall it be when it is alone separated from this earthen lump And if the very voice of nature did not so sufficiently confute thee that even thine owne most eminent heathens have herein taken part against thee living and dying strong assertors of the soules Immortality how fully might thine accursed mouth be stopped by the most sure words of divine truth Yea wert thou disposed to play at some smaller game and by thy damnable clients to plead not so much for the utter extinction as for the dormition of the soule those oracles of God have enough to charme thee and them and can with one blow cut the throat of both those blasphemies That penitent theefe whose soule thou madest full account of when he was led to his execution which yet my dying Saviour snatcht out of thy hands could hear comfortably from those blessed lips This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise shal we think this malefactor in any other in any better conditiō then the rest of Gods Saints Doth not the chosen vessel tel us that upon the dissolution of our earthly house of this Tabernacle we have a building of God not made with hands eternal in the heavens Presently therfore after our flitting hence we have a being that glorious who can think of a being in heaven without a ful sense of joy Doth not our Saviour tell us that the soul of poor Lazarus was immediately carried by Angels into Abrahams boome The damned glutton knew so wel that he was not layd there to sleep that he sues to have him sēt on the message of his refrigeration Did not the beloved disciple when he was in Pathmos upon the opening of the fifth feale see under the altar the Soules of them that were slaine for the word of God and for the testimony which they held Did he not heare them cry How long Lord holy and true What Shall wee think they cryed in their sleep Did he not see and heare the hundred forty four thousand Saints before the throne harping and singing a new song to the praise of their God Canst thou perswade us they made this heavenly musick in their sleep Doth he not tell us most plainely from the mouth of one of the heavenly Elders that those which stood before the throne the Lamb cloathed with white robes and palmes in their hands were they that came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb therefore are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the throne shal dwell among them They shall hunger no more neither thirst any more neither shall the Sun light on them nor any heat For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountaines and God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes This service both day and night and 〈◊〉 leading forth can suppose nothing lesse then a perpetuall waking Neither is this the happy condition of holy Martyrs and Confessors only but is common to all the Saints of God in what ever profession Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord How should the dead be blessed if they did not live to know themselves blessed What blessednesse can be incident into those that either are not at all or are senselesse They rest but sleepe not they rest from their labours not from the improvement of their glorified faculties Their works followthē yea and overtake them in heaven to what purpose should their works follow the if they lived not to injoy the comfort of their works This is the estate of all good soules in despight of all thine infernall powers and what becomes of the wicked ones thou too well knowest Dissemble thou how thou wilt those torments and hide the sight of that pit of horrour from the eyes ofthy sinfull followers He that hath the keyes of hell and of death hath given us intimation enough Feare not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soule but rather feare him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell Neither is he more able out of his omnipotence then willing out of his justice to execute this righteous vengeance on the impenitent and unbeleevers Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evill In vaine therefore dost thou seek to delude me with these pretences of indemnity and annihilation since it cannot but stand with the mercy and justice of the Almighty to dispose of every soule according to what they have beene and what they have done To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternall life But unto them that are contentious and doe not obey the truth but obey unrighteousnesse indignation and wrath shortly after all thy devillish suggestions on the one part The soules of the righteous are in the hand of God and there shall no torment touch them On the other In flaming fire shal vengeance be taken on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospell of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power V. TEMPTATION Put case that the soule after the departure from the body may live but art thou so foolishly credulous as to beleeve that thy body after it is moldred into dust and resolved into all its elements having passed through al the degrees of putrefaction and annihilation shall at last returne to it selfe againe and recover the former shape and substance Dost thou not apprehend the impossibility of this so absurd assertion Repelled NO Tempter it is true and holy faith which thou reproachest
for fond credulity Had I to doe with no greater power then thine or then any Angels in heaven that is meerely finite I might well be censured for too light beleefe in giving my assent to so difficult a truth but now that I have to doe with omnipotence it is no lesse then blasphemie in thee to talk of impossibility Doe not thy very Mahumetan vassals tell thee that the same power which made man can as well restore him and canst thou be other then apposed with the question of that Jew who asked whether it were more possible to make a mans body of water or of earth All things are alike easie to an infinite power It is true The resuscitation of the body from its dust is a supernaturall work yet such as whereof God hath beene pleased to give us many images and prefigurations even in nature it selfe In the face of the earth doe we not see the image of death in winter season and in the spring of a cheerfull resurrection Is not the life of all herbs flowers trees buried in the earth during that whole dead season and doth it not rise up againe with the approching Sun into stemmes and branches and send forth blossomes leaves fruits in all beautifull variety What need we any other then the Apostles instance Thou foole that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die And that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be but bare graine it may chance of wheat or of some other graine but God giveth it a body as it pleaseth him and to every seed his own body Lo it must be rottenesse and corruption that must make way for a flourishing increase If I should come to a man that is ignorant of these fruitfull productions of the earth and shewing him a little naked grayne should tell him This which thou seest shall rot in the ground and after that shall rise up a yard high into divers stalkes and every stalk shall beare an eare and every eare shall yeild twenty or thirty such graines as it selfe is or shewing him an akorne should say this shal be buried in the earth and after that shall rise up twenty or thirty foot high and shall spread so far as to give comfortable shade to an hundred persons Surely I should not win beleefe from him yet our experience daily makes good these ordinary proofes of the wonderful providence of the Almighty Or should I shew a man that is unacquainted with these great marvells of nature the small seed of the Silk-worme lying scattered upon a paper and seemingly dead all winter long and should tell him these little atomes so soon as the mulberry tree puts forth will yeild a worme which shall work it selfe into so rich a house as the great Princes of the earth shall be glad to shelter themselvs with after that shall turn to a large flye and in that shape shall live to generate then speedily die I should seem to tell incredible things yet this is so familiar to the experieÌ„ced that they cease t owoÌ„der at it If from these vegetables we shall cast our eyes upon some sensitive creatures Do we not see snayles and flyes some birds lye as senslesse and livelesse all the winter time yet when the spring comes they recover their wonted vivacity Besides these resemblances have we not many clear instances and examples of our resurrection Did not the touch of Elishaes bones raise up the partner of his grave Was not Lazarus called up out of his sepulcher after four daies possessâ—ion and many noysome degrees of rottenesse Were not the graves opened of many bodies of the Saints W ch slept Did not they arise and come out of their graves after my Saviours resurrection and go into the holy city and appeare unto many Besides examples have we not an all sufficient pledg of our certaine rising againe in the victorious refurrection of the Lord of life Is not he our head Are not we his members Is not he the first fruits of them that slept Did not he conquer death for us Can the head be alive and glorious whiles the limmes doe utterly perish in a finall corruption Certainely then if we beleeve that Iesus dyed rose again even so them also which sleep in Iesus wil God bring with him And if there were no more that one argument wherewith my Saviour of old confounded thy Sadduces lives still to confound thee God is the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob But God is not the God of the dead but of the living The soule alone is not Abraham whole Abraham lives not if the body were not to be joyned to that soule Neither is it onely certain that the resurrection will be but also necessary that it must be neither can the contrary consist with the infinite wisdome goodnesse justice mercy of the Almighty For first how can it stand with the infinite goodnesse of the all-wise God that the creature which he esteemes dearest and loves best should be the most miserable of all other man is doubtlesse the best piece of his earthly workmanship holy men are the best of men Were there no resurrection surely no creature under heaven were so miserable as the holiest man The basest of brute creatures find a kind of contentment in their being and were it not for the tyranny of man would live and dye at ease And others of them in what jollity and pleasure do they wear out their time As for wicked men who let the reynes loose to their licentious appetite how doe they place their heaven here below and glory in this that they are yet somewhere happy But for the mortifyed christian were it not for the comfort and amends of a resurrection who can expresse the miserie of his condition He beates down his body in the willing exercises of sharp austerity and as he would use some sturdy slave keeps it under holding short the appetite oftentimes even from lawfull desires so as his whole life is little other then a perpetuall penance And as for his measure from others how open doth he ly to the indignities oppressions persecutions of men how is he trampled upon by scornful malignity how is he reputed the off-scouring of the world how is he made a gazing stock of reproch to the world to Angels and to men Did there not therefore abide for them the recompence of a better estate in another world the earth could afford no match to them in perfect wretchednesse which how far it abhorreth from that goodnesse which made all the world for his elect and so loves them that he gave his owne Son for their redemption let any enemy besides thine accursed selfe judge How can it stand with the infinite justice of God who dispenseth due rewards to good and evill to retribute them by halves The wages of sin is death the gift