in and drown the Soul and choak all Life of Vertue and Goodness This is that great Deity of the Heaten This is the Idol of the Daughters of Moab whose stay and confidence is in this visible World whose joy and pleasure is in the Life of the Flesh. I will conclude with the Conclusion of the Psalmist Save us O Lord our God and gather us from among the Heathen to give thanks unto thy holy name and to triumph in thy praise Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and let all the people say Amen Praise ye the Lord. DISCOURSE XV. COL iii. 1. If you then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God THIS Text contains in it that precious mystery of the internal or inward Resurrection of Christ in our Hearts or Souls which is the chief if not only saving Knowledge of that part of our Christian Religion For alas Beloved what will that outward Resurrection of our Saviour according to the flesh profit us though we have the History of it never so accurately nay though we had seen it with our own eyes We may lye in the grave of sin our selves for all that We may sink like a dead stone into the bottomless pit and have our portion with the damned Devils who have an Historical Faith of all the passages of Christs doings or sufferings here on Earth it may be better than our selves And those wicked Souldiers that watched his Sepulchre were perfectly convinced that he had escaped the jawes of Death But what was this to them who were yet dead in their trespasses and sins Surely nothing at all And as little is it to us Beloved if we be dead in sin and have not risen from the strong holding bands of iniquity and vanity Wherefore it is not enough to say Christ dyed for our sins and rose again for our justification and so to imagine his Resurrection to be our raising from wickedness and corruption But we our selves also really and in truth are to rise from the grave of sin by the power of the enlivening Spirit of Jesus Christ. And whether we be thus risen indeed or no this present Text of Scripture will teach us If you be risen with Christ seek those things or you do seek those things which are above For the Greek Text will bear both senses I will first briefly run through the Sense of the words and then raise such Doctrines and Uses as shall most naturally flow from the Text and shall be most profitable for the promotion of that main work of our Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If then you be risen with Christ That is If you be risen in your Souls as Christ in Body rose from the grave If your Souls have scaped the bands of the Spiritual Death which is the nature and life of Sin for that maketh us truly dead unto Righteousness and unto God as Christs Body broke from the Prison of the Sepulchre Then you seek those things that are above It must needs be understood of the Resurrection of the Soul from Sin because the Apostle did not Preach to dead men departed this Life once and again clothed with this Fleshly Tabernacle but to men who were alwayes alive from their first being born into this visible World In vain then had he taught them a sign of that which he knew would never come to pass till the Colossians were past his Preaching to to wit at the last day the time of the Resurrection of our Bodies And according to this manner doth the Apostle speak also of the Crucifixion of Christ making the outward Passion and Death of Christ a sign or resemblance of something in our Souls viz. our dying to Sin as here he hath made his Resurrection an emblem of our rising to Righteousness Rom. 6. 2 c.. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Know you not that all we that have been baptised into Iesus Christ have been baptised into his death We are buried then with him by baptism into his death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also should walk in newness of life For if we be grafted with him into the similitude of his death even so shall we be into the similitude of his resurrection Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin The Apostle there plainly compares our dying to Sin to the Crucifixion of our Saviour and that as he dyed on the Cross Corporally so we ought to crucifie the body of Sin in us by the power of God in our Spirits Thus have we good warrant from the example of the Apostle to look upon the Mystery of Christianity with Spiritual eyes The Birth the Death the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour Bodily have their similitude Spiritually in our Souls The Birth of Christ a resemblance of Christs being born in us Gal. 4. 19. My little children of whom I travail in the birth again till Christ be formed in you His Death of our dying to Sin as I have already declared Or of Christs being dead in us For we are also said to crucifie Christ by our ungodliness and by extinguishing his Spirit of power and illumination in us Heb. 6. 4. For it is impossible that they which were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come If they fall away that they should be renewed by repentance seeing they have crucified again to themselves the Son of God and put him to an open shame Crucified again For verily Beloved from our very youth up we have laid dead the Son of God the suggestions of the Holy Life in our Consciences But yet it pleaseth God to raise his Son in us and recover him to Life by the Preaching of the powerful Messengers of God and the secret working of his Holy Spirit upon the Heart And here is Christ risen as it were from the grave But if we by loose and negligent courses destroy this Life of Christ in us and extinguish the Spirit of God in our Souls then do we crucifie the Son of God afresh and shame the profession of Regeneration and the Spirit of God and the true and living Christianism by our open revolting from the living God and taking part with the wicked of this World and their ungodly and sensual courses But now as Christ is thus in a Spiritual manner killed and crucified so when he is in us restor'd to Life it must needs be fittingly termed his Resurrection from Death And according to this sense may those words of my Text be understood also If you be risen with Christ That is If your Souls have become living
up from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also should walk in newness of life For if we be grafted with him into the similitude of his death even so shall we be into the similitude of his resurrection Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him c. The words do plainly describe the Spiritual Death of the Soul as also the inward Resurrection thereof from Sin to a newness of life as the Apostle speaks And so Rom. 8. 10. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is mortified for sin As we would say such an one is kill'd for Robbing or is let blood for an Ague So dead for sin is either the mortifying our Bodily and Carnal Affection in a just vengeance on our selves for the sin they suggest and made us commit Or dead or mortified for sin is that Sin may be quite dislodged of our Bodies as a man is said to be let blood for an Ague to rid himself quite of that disease or to prevent its unwelcome returns But the Spirit is life or righteousness that is the Spirit is our life vivification or the cause of our inward or Spiritual Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for righteousness that is that we may be righteous or live righteously For Beloved if we take the sense of this place of Scripture in a natural meaning It will not prove true For those Romans bodies to whom the Apostle writes were not dead for if so they had not been able to read the Epistle or to have heard others read it And beside this the words would imply that Christs being in us destroyed this Body or the health of it when as Piety unfeigned preserves both Body and Soul in good temper much less doth Christs being in us make the Body dead unto Righteousness Therefore it is plain that this is the sense of this place viz. That if Christ be in us the Body or Flesh of a man is dead or mortified to sin and that our Life then is the Spirit of God to live in Righteousness Now mark the following Verse But if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you O behold the mighty power and dominion of the Spirit of God in a man Not only our Will and Understanding is swayed ruled and enlivened by it but it descends even to the enquickening of our Bodies too when they be once mortified that is the Passions and Lusts thereof destroyed so that we exercise not our Affections in the things of this World Then will God enliven it with better and more Divine Passions and Affections For Anger against our Brother unadvisedly it shall be moved with holy and discreet Zeal against all wickedness in every body For Sorrow and inordinate Grief for its own private crosses with a sweet and tender Compassion and Pitty toward all that be in any Affliction For Lust and Sensual or Carnal Love with Divine Charity and a large embracement of all the Creatures of God they having some resemblance of his lovely Wisdom and Beauty Thus shall a man exult and rejoyce in the ways of God both Body and Soul serving willingly and chearfully with the whole man For our mortal Bodies even those earthly tabernacles lyable to death and dissolution shall the Spirit of Christ enliven by his powerful working if so be that our Bodies be first made dead unto Sin and the Spirit of God be in us indeed As the Apostle doth plainly witness A further proof for this purpose may we gather out of Phil. 3. 10 11. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect That this is meant of a Spiritual Resurrection seems reasonable from these grounds First because it is ranked with Spiritual sufferings and Spiritual conformableness unto the Death of Christ And then because the Apostle useth this way of apologizing Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect which caution he need not have put in about the Bodily Resurrection For could the Apostle think the Philippians to be so mad as to conceive that the Apostle had now risen out of the grave already clothed with his glorious Body which should be incorruptible Wherefore the Apostle speaks there of a Spiritual Resurrection And that this Doctrine want no Authority to confirm it I will add those words of our blessed Saviour Iohn 5. 25. Verily verily I say unto you The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live That Life and Resurrection from the dead can it be understood of the Resurrection of the Body out of the grave That was not then when our Saviour Christ spoke nor hath been yet fulfilled saving in one single example of Lazarus whom Christ called out of the grave But that was not the Life that is meant here for it is called everlasting life in the foregoing Verse which Lazarus was not raised up to else Lazarus would be alive at this very day which no man will acknowledge to be true But remember what our Saviour Christ saith Iohn 11. 25 26. I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me or trusts in me or my power though he dye or be mortified or though he be dead yet he shall live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me that is is alive in me or to me The everlasting Righteousness of God and trusteth this living power shall never dye but be ever alive to Righteousness and to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This must be understood of a Spiritual Life or Resurrection or else it will follow that all true Believers in Christ shall not dye at all that their Bodies shall never descend into the grave And now Beloved if this Discourse of the Spiritual Resurrection of the Soul seem to us subtle nice or obscure it is our fault not the fault of Truth The Sun is clear enough and easie to be seen but he that is blind dead or asleep beholds it not Nor can the unbelieving and unregenerate while he lies dead or asleep in Sin discern the truth of the Spirit of God in the Holy Scripture But all things are discovered and made manifest by the light For whatsoever doth make manifest is light Wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Eph. 5. 13 14. Wherefore this point is plain to him whose eyes are open to behold it viz. That there is a Spiritual Resurrection or Vivification of the Soul But now if you be desirous to know what
of the Soul not only for its loveliness but for its light which it so plentifully imparts unto her That his Godly Simplicity and Sincerity that is devoid of all Self-interest of all Self-reflection or Self-gloriation but pursues what is simply good meerly for the good 's sake is that which answers to the Single Eye in the Parable is plain from the preceding and subsequent Context where our Saviour gives Monitions against Hypocrisie that when we fast we should not be as the Hypocrites of a sad countenance disfiguring their faces that they may appear unto men to fast and that we should lay up our treasure in Heaven not in Earth that our Heart or Affection may not be distracted nor divided for where your treasure is there will your heart be also and likewise immediately after my Text he sayes No man can serve two Masters It is therefore that Oneness of purpose and affection that seems here to be aimed at as in several other Parables of our Saviour He that layes his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God Which implies that there should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that our mind should be taken up with one thing only Martha is troubled with many things but Mary has chosen the better part which shall not be taken from her The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hid in the field for which a man selleth all that he hath that he may purchase it or like that Pearl of great price for which a Merchant parts with all that he hath that he may buy it To be at one therefore or to have the lively savour or relish of some one most excellent divine and indispensable Principle seems to be that which is figured out by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this Single Eye in my Text. Which I conceive is this Not to seek a mans self in any thing but simply and entirely to follow the will and pleasure of God or that which is simply good not pleasing and grateful to our Animal relishes or corresponding with our personal interest and concerns but that which comports with the Interest of the Kingdom of God and the real good of Mankind To be thus affected is to have this Single Eye that is this pure and clear Eye for so the word will also signifie devoid of all self-tincture or self-colouring and therefore capable of receiving the pure Light as it is and every Object in that Hue and Circumstances that they are The being quit from our selves and all Selfishness and having our Desires sincerely bent to what is simply the Best in every thing this is here that Single Eye of the Soul which our Saviour Enigmatically indigitates by that of the Body but is not the Light it self as the Eye of the Body is not the Natural light but they both be that which receives the Light the one the Divine the other the Natural Nor yet is either this Natural or Spiritual Eye to be said to be altogether devoid of light But as Plato conceiv'd there was an innate light in the Eye and that by the conjunction of this with the external light which Union in Plutarch is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vision was performed So we may not deny but that in some sense this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have described to be thus simply and sincerely affected as we have endeavoured to set forth as well as we can in words for what words can communicate the Sense of Life unless to them that have it that this sincere affection is the Inward Light of the Soul her diaphanous capacity of admitting Divine Truths whether suggested from without or from the Spirit of God within in vertue of the happy meeting together of which inwardly pure disposition of the Soul with those outward suggestions she is assured of the reality of the Divine and Spiritual Objects of the Understanding what is to be believed and what to be done as well as the Eye is assured of the truth of outward Natural Objects by the corradiation of its innate light with the external Rayes of the Sun What the Spirits are in the diaphanous Eye that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the relish of the Spirit in the pure Soul And this may suffice for the understanding the Second Analogy 3. From whence we shall easily understand the Third after we have taken notice what is meant in this place by an Evil Eye which is opposed to a Single one And the right meaning is easily fetch'd out from the Opposition For it is obvious to conceive that it is that kind of Evil of the Eye that is opposed to the clearness purity and diaphanousness thereof which is signify'd by the Single Eye For blindness obscureness or depravation of sight may come from sundry causes but the main is and the only here aimed at such as takes away the clearness and diaphanousness of the Eye whereby it ceases to be actuated by its own innate light and animal Spirits and becomes impervious and impenetrable by the Beams of the Sun or any other external lights or at least is so infected by some impure tincture that the rayes of light cannot enter without being soiled and contaminated by that internal infection Now as such an Evil Eye as this leaves the Body either wholly in the dark or obnoxious to perpetual errour touching the right hue of external Objects so the Carnal relish or Carnal-mindedness whereby we do so affectionately savour our personal concerns our Animal pleasure and interest this self-love self-respect self-desire self-will self-gloriation self-prelation or whatever touch of smack there is of selfishness be it brutish or diabolical pride or lust the inordinate desire of enjoying the pleasures of the Body or the desire of appearing some-body in the World and the impatience and abhorrence of being thrust below every body and to be in a worse condition than all other mortals though our ever-blessed Saviour submitted himself to that state this carnal relish I say which with the Apostle we will call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we did the single Eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Carnal-mindedness will in such sort leave the Soul to blindness and errour in things Spiritual to be believed and practised as the Evil Eye does the Body in things Natural Which is the Third Analogy 4. And the Fourth and last is this That as that Darkness which is the darkness of the Eye is in reference to the Body the most calamitous and deplorable darkness that is So the ignorance and insensibleness of the relish of the Spirit is the most hideous and miserable ignorance that can befal the Soul or which is all one to have no other light or sight but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the most hideous and miserable darkness that can possess the Mind If Carnal-mindedness become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eye of the Soul for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will
signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What a dismal darkness will there be then For the blind then leading the blind both will fall into the Infernal Pit THE meaning of the Text I conceive is now abundantly plain and that the scope and end of our Saviours uttering this Parable to his Disciples was to stir them up to a constant and earnest endeavour of utterly disentangling themselves from all the attractions of the relish of the Flesh or Spirit of the World and of joyning themselves entirely and cordially with and of dwelling wholly in the relish sense and life of the Spirit of God or of that Divine Spirit whose suggestions are no dictates of self-love or partial interest but the substantial concerns of the Kingdom of God and the good of the whole World For which he who has this Divine relish will not stick to lay down his Life if need require according to that endearing Example of our ever-blessed and adored Saviour Let it be therefore my task at this time to exhort you earnestly to endeavour after this great and indispensable attainment of this Single Eye this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wisdom of the Spirit which this Parable of our Saviour points to and is indeed the proper Spirit of Christ concerning which S. Paul expresly declares He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Which ought to be a rousing Argument to awaken us into a due sense of so great a want For unless we regain this Single Eye we shall never see the right way to Heaven There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus namely to such as walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the law of sin and of death For the relish of the flesh or carnal-mindedness is death But the relish of the spirit or spiritual-mindedness is life and peace But the carnal mind is enmity against God because it cannot submit it self to the law of God but is in perpetual opposition against it ever suggesting what is contrary to it Wherefore we must wholly withdraw our selves out of that Principle as we hope to attain to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God And assuredly whosoever has that Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus it will free him and rid him from the power of all the urgings suggestions or subtil insinuations of that Law of the sinful flesh of self-love and self-interest Though he may feel these self-savouring suggestions and the more clearly discern them to be such by the perspicuity of the Single Eye the Spirit of Christ yet he is so freed from their power that he will never act according to them but constantly act according to the relish and suggestion of that pure Principle of the Spirit which has not the least tincture of self-love or carnal interest And there is a neceffity of perfectly clearing up at last into this Single-mindedness by reason of the war and enmity betwixt the Carnal Principle and this of the Spirit for without this there is no peace nor joy nor enjoyment in this Life nor in that which is to come The Law of the sinful life of the Flesh therefore is utterly to be abrogated nulled and annihilated and we are to judge and act in all things according to the discernments of that Single Eye or pure Principle of the Spirit of Christ. But I will rather confine the Arguments of my Exhortation to the Text and content my self with what it will afford namely the four Analogies I have produced and explained and so conclude 1. The light of the Body is the Eye What therefore the Eye is to the Body that is some vital and sensible leading Principle in the Soul to the Soul Is it not therefore of infinite consequence what this leading Principle is when it is of as much consequence to the Soul as the Eye is to the Body and the Soul of incomparably more worth than the Body What man would have the Eye of a Batt of an Owl or of a Mole for the guidance of his Body unless he were to have his abode under the Earth with the Mole or to venture abroad only in the Night with the Batt and Owl Every Animal is to have an Eye congenerous to its own Nature And therefore that Divine Animal which we call Man I mean the inward man the Soul is to have an Eye congenerous to hers she is to have this Single Spiritual Eye unless she will converse only with Brutes or Devils in their Kingdom of Darkness 2. Again The Single Eye makes the whole Body full of light that is it is a fit and faithful guide to it which way soever it goes And that is the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Iesus to the Soul Which assuredly is the Law of Divine love which is not the love of a mans self or any particular or partial Interest but the hearty love of God and a mans Neighbour that is of all mankind when with a single heart he wishes them and is ready to do them all the good they are capable of and himself in a capacity to administer to them This is that pure and lovely Eye of the Soul indeed which fills her full of Celestial light and enrolls her in the Book of Life and of the Children of Light This is that Vnction from the Holy one even from the Father of Lights whereby we know all things appertaining to Life and Godliness and that Iesus that stupendious Pattern of this Divine Love is the Lord and Christ And that that man of sin that exalts himself above all that is called God and supports his Power Pride and Pomp with gross Imposture and barbarous Bloodshed is that notorious Antichrist he that has this Single Eye easily discerns this and can hardly forbear to suspect that they that do not see it are blind through the Spirit of the World or else drunk with the steames of that Cup of abominations and see double This Simple and Unself-interested Spirit of Love is that Anointing of which S. Iohn saith that if it abide in us we need not that any man teach us but the same Anointing will teach us of all things and is truth and is no lie It is very Truth substantial and essential without any shadow of vanity or imposture in it and such as will seal our hearts with an eternal adhesion to our ever-blessed Saviour as being the communication of his own Spirit to us and be evermore a safe guide to us in our passage thorough this present life He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him Wherefore as we tender our safe conduct through the wilderness of this World through all the dangers and perils of so difficult a journey we must earnestly endeavour the recovering of this Single-mindedness this amiable Eye of the pure love
abstain from fleshly and bodily Desires from their accomplishment I mean has some hidden Contentment within undiscover'd to the World The Heart knoweth his own bitterness and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy Our Saviour Christ himself could not with such ease have slighted the cravings of Nature for He was a man like to us in all things Sin only excepted and disregarded his seasonable Sustenance had it not been so as he professes it was in his Answer to his Disciples I have meat to eat you know not of AND thus much of the Occasion and Proposal of the Parable I come now to the double Consequent thereof viz. First The Disciples misapprehension or false collection Hath any man brought him to eat Secondly Our Saviours true interpretation of the Parable My meat is to do the will of him that sent me c. Hath any man brought him to eat It was obvious to think so I confess but not at all necessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Has any man The Ravens fed Elijah the Tisbite by the Brook Cherith which is before Iordan They brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening 1 Kings 17. 6. And not the Fowls of the Air only but the winged Host of Heaven might have been employed for this purpose They owe more than this to the Son of God But the mistake was not so much in the manner of the conveyance of this Meat as in the nature of the Meat it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meats for the belly and the belly for meats but God will destroy both it and them He breaks and weakens that strong influence they have upon the minds of men that Circean Magick that metamorphozes the Souls of men into meer Beasts and changes their Understandings By the power of These the Disciples themselves seem stupid and are at a loss when their great Teacher utters himself in Heavenly Parables I have meat to eat you know not of For the unfolding of this dark Riddle They look no higher than a Sun-dyal or at farthest on the Sun and read there past Twelve and without any great subtilty can easily collect that it is Dinner-time which now compar'd with their lately bought Provision in the Cities of Samaria and the savoury suggestions of their own Stomachs their thoughts are circumscribed within the margins of a Platter they have animam in patinis as the Proverb goes and are not at leasure to think of any thing higher than Bodily Food Has any man brought him to eat I will observe two things from this passage and so leave it First The slowness of the Earthly Mind to apprehend Spiritual Mysteries There be two notable Instances of it One in those two Disciples that went to Emaus to whom Christ appeared and part of whose discourse was Luke 24. Concerning Iesus of Nazareth a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people And how the Chief Priests and their Rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him But they trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel viz. from the Roman yoke according to that meer Terrene apprehension the Iewes it should seem then had and at this time have concerning the Messias making him a Temporal Prince and expecting a Temporal Happiness from him The other Instance is Iohn 6. 51 52. I am the living bread that came down from Heaven If any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world The Iews therefore strove amongst themselves saying How can this man give us his flesh to eat But the words our Saviour Christ here speaks are as he himself professes they are spirit and they are life and therefore Spiritually to be discerned and not by Carnal Eyes The other point that I would observe is the Vneffectualness of our Saviours presence according to the Flesh. If his Spirit had been in them as his Body was with them I make no question but their Minds had been so Heavenly disposed that our Saviours Speeches would not have proved such AEnigma's unto them It is true the very touch of Christs Garments healed the Bodies of the Sick sometime but nothing under his Spirit is effectual for recuring the Soul It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing Ioh. 6. 63. I have many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now Howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all truth Iohn 16. 12 13. Our Saviours Bodily presence could not convey those Divine Truths unto his Disciples that an inward principle of life when they were partakers thereof would convey to them And therefore he prefers the mission of the Holy Ghost before his own Bodily conversing with them at the 7th Verse of that Chapter I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you But if I depart I will send him unto you And this was S. Pauls pious boast 2. Cor. 5. 16 17. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature viz. if he be in Christ not after the Flesh but be regenerate of the Spirit I HAST on now to the last part of the Text our Saviours own Solution of this Parable proposed by him to his Disciples and by them misunderstood Therefore said the disciples one to another Hath any man brought him to eat There 's the Misinterpretation Iesus saith unto them My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work There 's our Saviours explication of his own mind The great Truth and Mystery not inferiour to any Mystery contained in this interpretation is this That the will of God is the food of the Soul This I conceive to be plainly exhibited to us in this Text. For the Divinity of Christ it cannot be said to feed of any thing it is self-sufficient and immutable according to those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Mankind has of God Such Spiritual food as the will of God cannot belong to the Body for those Bodies grow fat that have no relish thereof It remains therefore the Soul of Christ was that which was fed with the will of God And his Soul and ours are ejusdem speciei Christ being utterly like us in all things Sin only excepted Wherefore I conclude this Doctrine The will of God is the food of mans Soul I mean of Regenerate man I know the Carnal appetite will pronounce it a very slight and slender Sallet But I will answer that Objection in short The natural man is uncapable of the things of the Spirit of God 1. Cor. 2. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
that Tyrannick Prince that rules in the Sons of Disobedience he shall be excluded from the everlasting light of God and his Holy Truth And thus briefly under one we have seen how we are said to deceive our selves and the way to escape this self-deceit God that commanded the light to shine out of darkness shine in our hearts and give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ that we may walk before him in the truth of Life To Him with the Father and the Blessed Spirit c. DISCOURSE VII PROV xv 15. All the dayes of the afflicted are evil but a good conscience is a continual feast THE Text is a description of the estate of the wicked man and the righteous man Which will be more evident if we consult with the Septuagints Translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The eyes of the wicked continually expect evil but the Godly or good men are alwayes at rest Here do the LXX Interpreters express plainly that opposition of those persons and of their conditions Vngodly and good or godly unquietness of mind and perpetual rest As I pronounced concerning this Text at first that it is a description of the opposite conditions of those ever opposite off-springs of God and the Devil the Sons of Christ and the Sons of Belial the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness This Sense have the LXX put upon this portion of Scripture though the words themselves answer not so fitly to the Hebrew Text. To devise the occasion of their variation would be more easie though curious than profitable I intend not to mispend time or abuse your attention with the husks of words or fruitless discourse of Translations I will follow Symmachus in the first part of the Verse exactly answering to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the dayes of the poor are evil in the second part the Hebrew it self But a good heart is a continual feast or as the words will bear He that hath a good heart feasts continually Now therefore that this Poverty is not to be understood of outward poverty is plain out of the Text. Continual feasting and constant poverty or affliction are contrary So that we must either exclude the poor man from having a good Heart and Conscience whereby all sorrow is dispell'd and continual joy and chearfulness obtained or else if he hath these joyes make him rich in outward wealth But sith the poor upright honest man through the continual comfort of his own good Conscience Dives like fares deliciously every day though poor in estate then surely none of his dayes are evil though he poor outwardly in them all So that this present Text is to be understood of an inward kind of poverty that makes a mans life full of evil and misery This evil poverty and miserable want is described in the Revelation of S. Iohn Ch. 3. Thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not how thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked I counsel thee to buy of me gold tryed in the fire that thou mayst be made rich and white rayment that thou mayst be clothed and that thy filthy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayst see Here 's good store of penury a wardrobe of want want of Money want of Clothes to cover their shame want of Eye-sight to be able to do that which is but a misery to go from door to door to beg But hear what 's said Verse 21. To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my Throne even as I overcame and sit with my Father in his Throne See what a change From a Begger to a King from a Dunghil to a Throne from a blind Wretch to a Judge upon a Throne that shall discern the right that shall judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel He that is spiritual judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man We have by this time plainly seen what this poor man is whose dayes are said all to be full of evil That he is one that wants those white Robes which is the Righteousness of the Saints wants that old precious coin whose image and superscription is Righteousness and true Holiness the figure of Christ the Son of God the express Portraiture of his Father He wants his Eye-sight the true Spiritual Wisdom holy Discretion the sense of Spirits and discovery of the mysterious working of that Prince of Darkness and Deceit He 's plainly destitute though not of the necessaries of this Life yet of that main one and only necessary thing as our Saviour calls it that better part that Mary chose and could not be taken from her Virtus nec eripi nec surripi◠potest Nor force nor fraud can deprive a man of that inward good And now I have described this poor man I think it is not hard to prove that all his dayes are evil By how much better the Soul is than the Body by so much worse are the Defects of the Soul than those of the Body 1. Is an Vlcer or Wound grievous in the Body Much more grievous is it then in the Soul or Spirit The Spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18. 14. 2. Is Blindness or Darkness an horrid thing to the Body then is Ignorance much more to the Soul As may appear from that excellent description of this AEgyptian darkness in the Book of Wisdom Chap. 17. When the unrighteous people thought to have thy holy people in subjection they were bound with the bands of darkness and long night and being shut up under the roof did lye there to escape the eternal providence But now that we think not only of outward darkness in the Air see what followes And while they thought to be hid in their dark sins they were scattered abroad in the dark covering of forgetfulness fearing horribly and troubled with visions For the den that hid them kept them not from fear But the sounds that were about them troubled them and terrible visions and horrible sights did appear No power of the fire might give light neither might the clear flames of the stars lighten the dreadful night And a few Verses after For it is a fearful thing when malice is condemned by her own testimony and a conscience that is touched doth ever forecast cruel things Thus having their eyes closed in misty sleep it doth not secure them from the trouble of fear For they that endure this intolerable night breath'd out of the dungeon of Hell as they sleep the same sleep so are they in like manner tortured with the same monstrous visions sounding for fear and perplexity of Spirit as is largely described in that Chapter But that this evil condition may appear more evil I will set the contrary by it God is light and in him
there is no darkness I am the light of the world saith our Saviour And the Apostle rouzing us out of this sleep of Sin saith Awake thou that sleepest that Christ may give thee light To walk therefore in the Light is to walk in the Life of Christ as in the Presence of the Father and he that thus walketh knoweth both whither he and others go But he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth because that darkness blindeth his eyes 1 Ioh. 2. And no wonder then that fear attends his footing that ever and anon he is afraid that the next step he stumbles into the pit of destruction The wicked fear where no fear is but God is in the generation of the righteous saith the Psalmist It fares so with them as with those that travel in Arabia who if they chance to set their foot upon Iron Stone or any cold thing by night they are even ready to dye with fear suspecting they have trodden upon a Serpent So ungodly men whose stay and trust is not on God are subject out of the suggestions of an ill Conscience in every harsh thing they meet with to think that God hath forsaken them and that they now have stumbled upon that Old Serpent the Devil The rising of the morning may restore the other to peace and security but what will chace away the terrour of this inward darkness Nor the glorious light of the Sun nor the beautiful aspect of the Moon nor the chearful collustration of the sparkling Stars can yield them light or refresh their troubled Spirit Hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necesse est Non radii Solis nec lucida tela diei Discutiant sed naturae species ratioque As the Poet speaks and may be understood in a better sense than his earthly mind could ever reach to Till that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or idea or Truth of all things free us from this misery we shall not be truly freed from it But if not freed from it how evil do we think his dayes are whom the clearness of the day and common light cannot deliver from the tormenting fears of that continual night Vide qualis affectus sit timor saith Cardan qui crepitare cogit dentes c. See what a kind of passion Fear is that makes a mans teeth chatter in his head which symptom saith that Physitian is proper to those that labour with some deadly Disease But sure the Horrour of that Eternal Darkness is worse where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth which is the Fear of the ungodly here and their Portion hereafter 3. Deformity in Body doth a little diminish ones Happiness But the Vgliness of Sin in a mans Soul if it could be seen with outward eyes it would even fright a man out of his wits to behold it For it is the very Impression or Character of that evil Fiend the ill shap'd Devil himself as Righteousness is the Image of God 4. Feebleness also of Body is a miserable thing But Weakness of Soul is worse when that every blast of vain Doctrine is able to blow us down when every Temptation makes us yield to our Enemy and to become a wretched Vassal of the Devils cruelty 5. But that I run not too much upon one point That which is most terrible is Death But the Death of the Body is but to be hid in the Grave but the Death of the Soul is to be excluded the Presence of God and not that only but to be vexed and tormented with those Spirits of torture which in their fury lay on sure strokes Thus it is manifest that every Evil of the Soul is worse than that of the Body that answers to it And so that Poverty which consists in the want of good things and the presence of evils that ensue from this want is a great deal worse in the Soul than in outward things concerning the Body Now when I say Poverty I know not what to add either for misery of Body or Soul it including all in both Hunger Thirst Nakedness Filthiness Sickness Heaviness Disconsolateness these and all manner of mischiefs accompany Poverty But be it what it will in the Body it is unspeakably worse in the Soul and a certain cause of making that poor mans life miserable so long as he continueth in that sense poor I but will some say how can this thing be When as dayly experience shows that men that are as destitute of all Spiritual and Heavenly Riches as they abound in Earthly live in all Jollity and Pleasure in all Mirth and Merriment But this is no good Argument if we believe the Wise Man Prov. 14. 13. Even in laughing the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness So Eccles. 7. As the crackling of thorns under a pot so is the laughter of a fool The flame and the noise go away together and at last is nothing left but scorching coals or dead ashes Would a man count a man in good plight because the poyson he takes makes him dye laughing as it is said of that Herb in Sardo and of the biting of the Tarantula We commonly count the case of a sick man more miserable when upon his bed he sings merry songs and finds out fond toyes from the weakness and distemper of his troubled Brain These men are miserable enough though they think not nor perceive themselves to be so And so it fares with all them that be ungodly and yet seem to flow in all joyes pleasures and contentments It 's but the phansie of a sick Brain Wise men are sorry to see them in such Distemper to have such an ill Symptom upon them And surely that that is miserable in their judgments is miserable and not in theirs whom misery hath made mad false pleasure hath infatuated So we see now plain enough That the poor man that is he that is destitute of Grace and Vertue all his dayes are sufficiently evil sometime in the judgment both of himself and others other sometime or rather ever in the judgment of others that is of wise and holy men Or that this Truth may be the stronglyer established in the judgment of God himself who is the measure of all Truth Thou sayest that I am rich and increased with wealth but thou knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and blind and naked c. Rev. 3. But of poverty wretchedness and misery enough It would seem more desirable to point out some way to be enriched The same Spirit that tells the Church of Laodicea of her miserable poverty shews her a way how to become rich Vincenti dabitur To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I overcame and sit with my Father in his throne Here 's no ordinary Riches Here 's the fulness of a Kingdom But take the condition I pray you Vincenti dabitur He that overcomes he shall be endued with large
recreates the Eyes of ordinary Mortals seem'd to him not a bright azure but a funeral black nor Sun nor Moon real and true Lights but two painted Scutcheons Or and Argent hung upon the Melancholly Tapestry of this House of Mourning Wherefore to be buried in the Body with him is a real Death and this Terrestrial Region wherein we seem to live but one great Caemeterium or Dormitory No life no joy no pleasure is here no not amongst those that seem to enjoy most that have the greatest portion in this Life nay their only portion therein Wherefore what expectation of Happiness before that blessed Resurrection When we shall see the Face of God and be satisfied with his Likeness in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore But for the present Interval that is the time of our Immersion into the Sense of this Body the Prophet David as well as Heraclitus does plainly deem it a state of Sleep or Death which are the same in Scripture every where as to any Mystical meanings or purposes As for me I shall behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Munster piously and I believe truly paraphrases thus upon the Text. Egó verò omnes electi tui Domine non ita quaeremus has temporarias transitorias divitias ut in illis deliciemur sed justè piè vivemus in hoc seculo ut aliquando in futuro seculo videamus faciem tuam eâ satiemur cum scilicet è pulvere evigilaverimus reformati fuerimus ad similitudinem Christi tui And this may go for the Philosophical sense of the Text. But there is a Moral sense thereof which Castellio seems to reach at and is indeed the most easie to the words of the Text which run thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of which the easie and accurate Sense is I will behold thy face in Righteousness at the awaking of thy image I shall be satisfied according as Castellio has also rendered it Tum satiandus cum tua experrecta fuerit imago And his Gloss is accordingly Per Christi resurrectionem qui Dei imago est plenam consecuturus justitiam foelicitatem For the Image of God is Christ who is called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of the Glory of God answerably to the LXX Translation of my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall be satisfied when I shall see thy Glory Which Glory like the beams of the Sun reach and touch the very eye-lids of him that is asleep but are not seen nor enjoy'd till he awake for then the image of the Sun is also awoke in him that is to say excited into actual being According to which Analogy is that Saying of the Apostle Awake thou that sleepest and Christ shall give thee light The Evigilation therefore or Resurrection of the Image of God in us is our Evigilation or Resurrection in a Mystical or Moral Sense into it which as soon as it does appear we also do appear in Glory with it but while Christ is thus hid or dead or asleep in us we are in a state of Death or Sleep and the true Life of our Soul is hid in him And this I would have the First Truth comprised in my Text viz. That the immersion of the Soul into the life of the Body and love of this present World which is the Image of the Earthly Adam is as it were the Sleep or Death of the Soul The Second That there is no true Satisfaction in this Worldly or Terrestrial Life which is but a torpid Sleep and the very shadow of Death The Third That the true Evigilation and real Life of the Soul is the recuperation of the Image of God the Resurrection of Christ in us according to the Spirit The Fourth That this Mystical Resurrection of Christ is the only solid Enjoyment and Satisfaction to the Souls of the Faithful even in this Life The Fifth and Last That the way to attain to this Satisfaction which arises from the Evigilation of that Divine Image in us which is also stiled the Face of God or if you will the Image thereof whereby we see his Face so far forth as he is visible to Man is Righteousness and Sincerity of Heart I shall behold thy face in righteousness These are the precious Truths comprized in the Text which I shall handle with all possible brevity 1. That the Image of the Earthly Adam is as it were the Sleep or Death of the Soul the very Text does apparently intimate especially that Translation in our Liturgy When I shall awake into thy Image which is the Image of the Heavenly Adam I shall be satisfied therewith which implies that till this awaking we are in a state of Sleep or Death For in that we can eat and drink and go up and down these are no Arguments that we are truly alive no more than the growing of the Hair and the Nails of them that have lain long buried in the ground is any Argument of Life in them I mean of the Sensitive Life Nor though the Flesh be full of Worms will the man be thought ever the more alive for that For neither is Sense the Life of a man nor meer Carnal and Worldly Reason the Life of the Child of God The Divine Image is the Soul of his Soul and the Life of his Life of which seeing every Soul is capable it is rightly deemed dead till it partake thereof till it be awaken'd into this Image of God But so long as the mind is addicted to the things of this World to the Law of the Body which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so long is she dead or asleep call it which you will Hierocles calls it Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Death of every Rational Essence sayes he is the loss or suppression of her Divine and Intellectual excellencies Plotinus Sleep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So far forth as the Soul is immerged into the Body so far she is asleep And therefore those that are wholly taken up with the concerns thereof as relishing nothing but what is Worldly and Carnal may justly be look'd upon as fallen into a deep Sleep And what if they can walk and talk and go up and down and do such things as men that are awake also do do not the Noctambuli do the same Whose eyes being shut yet unwittingly do they several exploits some hazardous others ridiculous other some as it some seldomer times happens safe and congruous if the chain of Phantasms that leads them attract luckily and to convenient Objects But in the mean time they know not what they do but without any free consultation or deliberation are carried out hoodwink'd to action by the meer suggestion of Dreams and Phansies And is not this the very condition of those who have arriv'd no higher than to the Image of the Earthly
good But we may have a kind of communicated Omnipotency as to the affairs of our own Sphere in our own Microcosm or little World where we ought to rule with an absolute hand and never to be quiet till we can profess with S. Paul I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Wherefore as God is Omnipotent in the great Universe and does curb and keep up the whole Corporeal Creation within the limits of certain Natural Laws which they cannot pass So also we are to set bounds and limits to our Bodily Passions and keep them in constant subjection to the Laws of right Reason or to the Rule of the Spirit of God And again in the second place Though we cannot be Omniscient yet we may become in a manner entirely Intellectual and throughly understand and as affectionately relish the true interest of our own Souls and perfectly discern all the concerns thereof and be accompanied with all those Divine Truths and Blissfull Speculations which are requisite for the perfecting of Humane Happiness which in our Sphere is an imitation of the Divine Omnisciency And lastly Though it is impossible that any Creature should be infinitely good yet it is capable of being filled with a Spirit of unexpressible Benignity and to be a faithful well-willer to the happiness and prosperity of every Creature of God and therefore to be in a perpetual promptness and readiness to help them that are in any distress and to rejoyce in the good and wellfare of every parcel of the Creation And this is briefly the amiable Face or Image of God as it is visible or communicable to us which we see by the beams of its own brightness as we see the Sun by its own Light though not in that real lustre nor bigness that it is And I hope now it will plainly appear That the recuperation of this Divine Image is the true expergefaction or resuscitation of the Soul from a state of Sleep or Death into the most full and ample functions of Life Of which the first degree was self-motion or self-activity For meer passivity or to be moved or acted by another either without a mans will or against it this is the condition of such as are either dead or asleep as to go of a mans self is a Symptom of one alive or awake Wherefore whatever is done in us by meer Passion or Ignorance seems rather to be acted upon us than acted by us and to be a defect of that degree of Life which we call self-motion or self-activity in such cases we seeming rather to be carried by surprize than to go of our own accords as men that are dead drunk may be haled or disposed of where others please And every one that is acted by Passion is drunk or if acted upon through Ignorance asleep and so are deprived of that degree of Life which is self-activity a doing things from an inward or thorough assent to them Which no man does in a wicked action because every one that commits wickedness does it to his own infinite disinterest and wrong which no man did ever yet nor even can assent to Whence it is plain that he is not in this regard self-active and that therefore he is in the state of Death out of which the Image of God awakes him namely the power of Christ in him which shews him his way clearly that he may make a choice never to be repented of and enables him to walk in that way and to bear strongly and victoriously against all the assaults of the Body or suggestions of this Worldly Life And so by the self-activity of that spiritual or immaterial Principle in him he rules this little World of his by irresistible Laws as God himself does the great one And this I think is one considerable degree of the evigilation of the Soul through the Divine Image And the Second is no less considerable and which we have touched upon already in the former For if Ignorance be Sleep the Intellectual state of the Soul must needs be an eminent evigilation of her And if to grow Corporeal be to become more inert more unactive and drousie then surely to become more Spiritual must be joyned with a greater measure of Life and Activity And what actions are more Spiritual than those which the Soul exerts her self into in rational disquisitions and divine speculations and in the search of the most noble and momentous Truths concerning God and Nature When she unravels all into certain immutable and indelible Ideas of things which she was taught by no touch from external matter but are the most inward hidden Life of the Soul that Adytum or Oracle that speaks truth from the deepest recess of her Essence into which she cannot enter but by a lusty rowzing up and rubbing her Eyes clean of all those mists and fumes that arise from Corporeal Phantasms or accustomary prejudices These operations certainly must be very intellectual and incorporeal and therefore very much raised above the Body that Sepulchre or Dormitory of the Soul and not to be performed but by the excitation of such kind of Spirits as are in some measure congenerous to that Heavenly Body that Luminous or AEthereal Vehicle in which the Soul shall ride as in her Triumphal Chariot at the general Appearance in the last day I say the closer and more noble intellectual Operations of the Soul are not to be performed but by the assistance of more tenuious and fiery Spirits whence the Oracles call the mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentem igneam which are contrary to that phlegmatick sluggishness and drownedness that the Worldly and Carnally-minded are overflown with But besides that the Principle from whence these Intellectual actions flow argues a notorious excitation or expergefaction of the mind therein that which is Intellectual being plainly Divine or Godlike whom the Schools rightly define to be Actus purissimus pure Life and Essential Energy That the Soul in her Intellectual Operations is roused as it were out of a Sleep will farther appear if we compare the functions of the Terrestrial Life with those of the Intellectual The largest Operation of the former of which is that of our Eye which takes in but this Visible Hemisphere of the World and if it could take in the whole according to this contracted proportion it were a pitiful scant thing such as is infinitely lesser than what our Understanding conceives the Universe to be nay many thousand times less than the Earth which is but as a Mathematical point in comparison of the body of the World How contracted then is Touch and Taste and the other Senses For the love of which when the Soul is immersed into the Body and wholly given up to them it is plain that her functions of Life are infinitely contracted and that she lies asleep or dead to her largest Faculties and that therefore the excitation of them is her expergefaction into infinitely a more ample Sphere
not mocked as a man sowes so shall he reap saith the same Apostle that wrote my Text. But I will prove by a threefold Reason That the heirs of the Kingdom of God shall suffer really themselves First From the Antipathy betwixt the World and the Children of God Wisd. 2. Let us lye in wait for the righteous because he is not for our turn and he is clean contrary to our doings He upbraideth us with offending the law and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our education He professeth that he hath the knowledge of God and he calleth himself the child of the Lord. He was made to reprove our thoughts He is grievous unto us even to behold for his life is not like other mens his wayes are of another fashion Hence do the Children of God oftentimes incurr much mischief by the wicked plots of the ungodly And however if they escape this outward evil they are grieved and vexed continually by their dayly misdeeds But Secondly The Will of God is that all that he admits to that Glorious Inheritance be tryed first and he chastiseth every Son that he doth receive 1 Pet. 1. 3. c. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time Wherein you greatly rejoyce though now for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through many temptations That the tryal of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth though it be tryed with fire might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Iesus Christ. Thirdly and Lastly We cannot escape suffering and the exercise of our Christian Patience by reason of often assaults the Devil makes against us who like a roring lyon goes about seeking whom he may devour as also for the close siege that sin layes continually against us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sin that so easily besets us on every side Heb. 12. 1. But to display the Sufferings of the Heirs of the Kingdom more distinctly I will cast them into these four several kinds 1. In Estate or Fortune 2. In Name or Estimation 3. In Body 4. In Soul or Spirit 1. In Estate As if any man by his Pious Life his delight in the Word of God in Brotherly Conference or Community in Spiritual things by his rebuking his Neighbour for Swearing Profaning the Name of God or by his Frugality and Sobriety that he will not run to the same excess of riot with the rest of his Neighbours but lives temperately honestly and justly If this man as it is not improbable but he may bring on himself the envy of wicked men Sons of Belial or at least their dislike and so they having power or empair his Estate by unequal Mulcts or deny him his due Desires I say he suffers as an Heir of Heaven as a Member of Christ as a Child of God and Vengeance shall be poured out upon his enemies but his Happiness shall be increased 2. In Name As our Saviour who for his being in company with wicked men to convert them and heal them as he himself answered The whole have not need of the physitian but they that be sick he notwithstanding was termed a glutton a winebibber a friend of Publicans and Sinners Mat. 11. For his casting out Devils a Conjurer For doing good and healing on the Sabbath-day a Sabbath-breaker For telling the Iews that which was true that they were going about to kill him a Demoniack or one possessed of the Devil For teaching the people the mysteries of the Kingdom of God a Seducer And so S. Iohn the Baptist for his abstemiousness his temperance and severe manner of Life was counted also one possessed of the Devil S. Paul for preaching the Gospel a pestilent fellow one that turned the world upside down That young man one of the Sons of the Prophets whom Elisha sent to anoint Iehu King the Captains of Ioram counted him and call'd him a mad fellow Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee 2 Kings 9. The Frugal they 'll call Nigards The Conscientious Timorous or Superstitious The Humble base-Spirited or Silly The Harmless and Quiet Fools or Innocents The Charitable Papists The Zealous and fervent in Spirit Puritans Godly and Pious Professours Hypocrites The Devil hath found out a nick-name for whatsoever is good That Blasphemous Mouth can miscall every Attribute of God But let us not be discouraged for all the reproaches of the World For if we suffer in Name for well-doing our Shame here is nothing to that Honour and Glory that shall be revealed in us hereafter I will only raise one Vse from this point and so leave it Did our Saviour Christ his Apostles the Prophets of old and the Holy men of God undergoe such harsh Censures Were they branded with such notorious Names and undeserved Calumnies Then are not we to judge ill of any man merely from the report of men till we see his Life our selves They said of Iohn that he had a Devil They made the Son of man a man Gluttonous a Wine-bibber a Friend of Publicans and Sinners But Wisdom is justified of her children saith our Saviour Matth. 11. 19. That is by its fruits By their fruit you shall know them And if we find Purity of Life far be it from us Beloved that we should speak reproachfully against such as we are not able to judge Wherefore let us rather mortifie our sinful Lusts and purge our own Souls of Corruption that they may be a habitation for the Holy Ghost rather than to give ill Names or give credence to ill reports of others we do not know our selves being still in our Carnal condition Slaves of Sin and Satan Servants of Pride of Envy of Avarice of Drunkenness of Whoredom of Lasciviousness Which whosoever hath let him be assured that he hath not the Spirit of God for it will not abide in such a sink of Sin Wherefore he cannot judge But he that is spiritual judgeth all things and he himself is judged of no man 1 Cor. 2. And thus I have briefly run through the external Sufferings of the Heirs of the Kingdom of Christ in Fortune and Name The internal follow in Body and Spirit 3. In Body These kind of Sufferings you may read of Heb. 11. Others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection And others had tryal of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments They were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword They wandered in sheep-skins and goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented It would be a long task to reckon up all the
Eternal Spiritual Riches he will endue us with hereafter 3. The Third Motive is taken from the persons to whom we are to communicate The rich and the poor meet together and the Lord enlightens both their eyes Prov. 29. No difference between the greatest Prince and the poorest Beggar but the goods of Fortune or rather of Providence For they come not to us by chance but by the good will of God who hath made out of his Wisdom some Poor and some Rich that we may have occasion to exercise the acts of Mercy and tender Compassion to our Brethren who live by the same Air vvalk in the light of the same Sun vvere created by the same God are to be saved by the same Christ. There is one Body and one Spirit even as you are called in one hope of your calling One Lord one Faith one Baptism One God and Father of all which is above all and through all and in you all Eph. 4. What One Body and one Member despise and disregard another One Spirit and not sympathize one vvith another One Hope and not help one another One Lord and not one fellovv-servant acknovvledge another One Father and Brethren not relieve one another One God above all over-seeing us all in all our actions vvho though he be so high yet beholdeth things here belovv upon earth and vve poor earthly vvorms overlook one another One God in us all and no goodness in us all God vvho is Love it self pierce through us all and yet not those lovely shafts of holy Charity vvound any of our hearts God forbid If vve abide not in Love God abideth not in us If our hearts be contracted and darkened by frozen rigidness the light of God shineth not through us If our poor contemptible Neighbour be so far under us that vve disdain to stretch forth our armes to help him vve forget God above us If vve love not as Brethren God is not our Father If vve be asham'd of our Fellovv-servants the Lord is not our Master If vve be cold in mutual affection our Faith is dead and Hypocrisie is our Religion If vve have no sympathy or fellovv-feeling the Spirit vve boast of is but vanity or empty air If vve favour not one another as Members of the same Body vve are not Members of the same Body but disunited Dust vvhich the Wind blovves to and fro upon the face of the Earth and the Angel of God scatters it Community is but a name vvhere there is no communication of good Vnity but a deceivable phansie vvhere there is no real Mercy He that will endanger the Soul of his Brother by with-holding the sustenance of his Body which out of Brotherly affection he is to administer to him surely that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Brotherly Love which the Apostle calls for dwelleth not in him The very shame of Poverty will force a man to do or suffer any thing How much more will pinching hunger scorching thirst benumming cold Necessity hath no Law or at least necessitous persons are easily drawn to think so Give me not poverty saith the Wise Man Prov. 30. 8 9. lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain A good man is merciful to his beast and shall not we be so good as to have compassion upon men The miserable and penurious condition of the Poor man would afford me great store or plenty of Arguments to plead his cause but I will only name them Hunger thirst nakedness rags filth deformity pensiveness sickness torture contempt sighs tears groans fear despair disconsolateness assaults of the Devil hard-heartedness of the World dejectedness of his spirit weak and vain looks loss of limbs blindness and deafness I cannot name them all Poverty is attended with such a numerous regiment of defects and infirmities that they may win the most strong and stony heart to compassionate their miseries But because we are fallen into these ill latter times in which the Apostle hath foretold that the love of many or rather of most if not almost of all shall wax cold Mercy and Pity are not passions easily to be stirred up out of the representation of our Neighbours misery and ill plight These are poor contemptible vertues befitting the weak womanish sect A strong vigorous faith I would to God it were so or if you will a deep conceited phansie that we are Gods Children though we be not merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful is altogether in request and fashion amongst us Christians So this conceit makes us abound with Love toward God as vve think But when all comes to all it will prove but false and adulterate Love It will not abide that touchstone If you love me keep my commandements Or that of S. Iohns Epistle Chap. 3. Whosoever hath this worlds good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him 4. But if we do love God so much and our Neighbour so little yet we may not evade or escape this duty of doing good for all that For say that all our time is to be spent in the duties of the First Table all our Piety to be shewed in performances toward God If I shew that these acts of Mercy and Bounty be acts of the First Table too I hope we will not shew our selves so ungrateful and impious as to decline this manner of Worship which he requires at our hands Now that acts of Mercy are duties of the First Table I need go no farther for proof than my Text which tells us that doing good and communicating is a sacrifice And Sacrificing you know is a duty of the First Table even the immediate service of God How fitly the Apostle hath framed his Argument for convincing of mens corrupt Consciences and discovering that mysterious hidden wickedness that lurks in our hypocritical hearts a strong perswasion that we are Gods though there be little of the inward power of Godliness in us This holy kind of irreligiousness that is so immerse and lost as it were in a false counterfeit love of God that it quite forgets all respect and duty to our Neighbour That foolish impudent Spirit that would so confidently father it self upon God and perswade him that he is his Child when it s nothing but the deceitful breath of the Devil A handsome slight to travel to Heaven at least charges The service of God that is a strong perswasion that we are one of them that God hath sign'd to be his though there be no other sure argument or sign saving that we do strongly perswade our selves so The hearing of the Word the saying of Prayers and such outward performances or outward deceivable phansies is a Religion so cheap and easie that it asks a man neither cost nor labour But to be crucified with Christ to suffer with him to undergo the deadly dolorous pangs of mortification to sweat drops of Blood and endure
Soul may be purified No doubt of this Refiners Art or Skill Is his Will doubted of It is one with the Will of God and Gods Will is that we be purified 1 Thess. 4. 3. And Christ is no teacher of loosness but of the height of Righteousness 'T is not the privilege of the Gospel that we may sin securely because Christus solvit but that we may live more exactly because Christ requires it and doth inwardly enable us to perform it See also Rom. 8. 1 2 3 4. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Iesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Here we will acknowledge that God is able his Spirit is willing but we are uncapable of so great a good by reason of the infirmity of the Flesh But answer me O vain man what is this infirmity of the Flesh is it not the strength of Sin And is there any strength that can withstand the powerful operation of the Spirit of God The weakness or strength if you will of the Body bears it towards the Earth but the fire and activity of the Natural Spirits bears it above and enables it to walk upright on the Earth contrary to be bend of its own Essence and Nature Shall not the Spirit of God then be as able to actuate and lead the Soul contrary to its accidental and ascititious Principles as the Natural Spirits to actuate the Body contrary to its innate and essential Principles Certainly if it be not effectual in us we our selves are in fault who abuse our shuffling Phansie and Reason to fend off the stroke and power of Truth that at once would cleave our hearts that 's a tender place the seat of Life it self and any Religion but that which kills us and mortifies us The Devil knew well enough what he said and his Children make it good Skin for skin and all that a man has will he give for his life This is the shuffling hypocrisie of the Natural Spirit of man and the root of infidelity But let us make better use of this precious Scripture Seeing ye obeyed the Truth through the Spirit 1 st For the encrease of Faith and Confidence and Courage in the wayes of Obedience sith we have so strong assistance as the Spirit of our God with true Christian Fortitude to conflict with all our Spiritual Enemies wearing that Motto in our Minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 dly For hearty Thankfulness to God when ever we find our selves successful in our Spiritual Warfare as to the only giver of Victory 3 dly and lastly For Humility AEquanimity and Christian Patience and expectancy towards our Neighbours that are not yet reclaim'd from their evil ways being compassionate over them not to insult in other mens weaknesses and miscarriages sith we our selves stand not by our own power but by the gracious assistance of our Saviour Jesus Christ And certainly Purification arrived at its full end will easily afford us this for the end of Purification is Brotherly Love which is the Fourth Doctrine Doct. IV. That this Purification of the Soul and Obedience to the Truth through the Spirit is for this end viz. the eliciting of Brotherly Love and Sincerity in the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are distinguished as 2 Pet. 1. 7. But that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here may be as large as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know nothing considerable to the contrary The word is capable of that Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being used in as great a latitude as Proximus and Alter including all that descended from our Father Adam So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the love of our Neighbour and this Love is the end and height of our Purification and Obedience the aim and scope of it as much as concerns the Second Table Rom. 13. 9 10. and 1 Tim. 1. 5. Who is able to express so Divine an excellency For certainly the unfeigned Love of men is the very Divine Love it self whereby God loves himself and all things and we also love God and all things in reference to him This is that Love of whom the whole Universe was begotten and that rock'd the cradle of the Infant World the very Spirit of God whose Splendour none can behold and live for he must first be dead to himself and extinguish the love of himself before he can be touch'd and quickened by this Spirit of Life and Love THUS much for the Doctrines included in the First main Argument In the Second are these viz. Doctrine I. That there is a Regeneration of the Soul By understanding what Generation is we may better know what is Regeneration 1. The notion in general of Generation according to Aristotle implies no more than a right and fit union of a form substantial with some capable subject whether that form be elicited of the subject or matter or be brought in from elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks of the Rational Soul 2. There may be more Forms substantial than one in one subject so they be but subordinate one to the other and that a new Species doth not arise so much from the destruction of the pre-existent Form as by addition of a new one which might actuate the whole that doth pre-exist As the numerus ternarius is not made by taking from the numerus binarius but by adding an Unite thereto Thus Aristotle seems to speak Metaph. 7. Cap. 3. 3. Observe That one Soul actuating a Body if any part of that Body be cut off and lose the benefit of information suppose an Hand or Foot that is then said to be but equivocally what it was before which implies it is then of another Nature or Species as much of it as there is though it be not an entire substance if compared with the whole and consequently that the Soul actuating it did then specificate it another way We have now a tolerable insight into Generation and Regeneration is but this twice told That which is this specifical substance now by adding a new substantial Form thereto becomes something else This is Regeneration And to apply it to our selves We are already once born according to Nature our Bodies and Souls being fitly united together by him that is the Father of all Life and the Lord of Nature But though we be thus specificated yet we are not thence perfected but this Binary of Body and Soul the Pythagoreans would
be bold to call but a miserable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till that Third completing Vnite be added the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Divine Nature or Spirit of God This Doctrine of Regeneration is inculcated often enough in Scripture though not under this express name but it is strongly enough implyed in as many places as there is mention of being born of God For what is that but Regeneration or a Second Birth and how oft is that repeated in S. Iohns Writings Iohn 1. 12 13. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Chap. 3. 5. Iesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God Regeneration is not a sleight tipping or colouring over with superficial qualities and habits but is from a substantial principle of Life that actuates the Soul as powerfully as the Soul doth the Body is the Souls true form or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Soul is the Bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and form For what doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imply but penetration and most intimate possession of the subject actuated or informed and power rule and command over the same to move it at pleasure And doth not the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eternal Word thus penetrate and possess the Souls of Godly men even as the subtle Light doth the Air of it self but a dark and forlorn body There is so perfect a correspondency between Generation and Regeneration that unless prejudice and Sophistical curiosity keep it off mans Reason would forwardly assent that the Christian Regeneration is no dry Metaphor but full Truth And that the Regenerate man is even as specifically distinct from the mere Natural man as the Natural man from brute Beasts We made it good even out of Aristotle that the Species or Essences of things are as Numbers c. The Ternarius is not made by taking from the Binarius but by adding another Unite thereunto Therefore a man though he have one Form already viz. the Natural Soul it hinders not but he may have also another the quickening Spirit of God I will add a little more force to the Conclusion by taking notice of the grounds of our specificating things and essentially distinguishing the one from the other that we may discover the like grounds for our conclusion What small and slight intimations from accidentary differences in Natural Bodies have cast the Earth Water and Air into so many distinct Species and that they cannot put on one anothers outward qualities without the generation of some inward substantial form A little difference in weight and colour must imply a several Specification in Silver and Gold and upon a little more occasion than colour and taste must a Pigeon and a Partridge be distinct Species Not that these things are false but that there is as true grounds to find a real Specifical difference betwixt a Natural man and a man Regenerate For if several colour figure and weight though they be something near akin to one another be a sufficient cause of surmisal that some inward essential form is within surely then when we see the Soul of man figured and covered over with new Thoughts of Mind new Knowledge new Desires it is as good an Argument that it is actuated by a new Principle of Life But here it will be replyed Then any Chast man will Specifically differ from an Unchast man Just men from Unjust Philosophers from Idiots But it is not such an opposition as it seems at first sight The improvement of Nature is no sign of a new Specification A Horse that can go may also trot gallop pace swim and dance too and yet not cease to be an Horse But if I should see him flying in the Air I should take him to be no Horse but a Devil A Nightingal may vary with her voice into a multitude of interchangeable Notes and various Musical falls and risings and yet be but a Nightingal no Chorister But should she but sing one Hymn or Hallelujah I should deem her no Bird but an Angel So the highest improvement of Natural Knowledge or mere Morality will argue us no more than the Sons of Men But to be of one will completely with God will make us or doth argue us to be the Sons of God Stones Dirt Metals Minerals distinct enough one from another agree in tending downwards to the Earth and Fire is as much determinate to moving upward to the Natural Seat of that Element But if that either of them or Fiery or Earthy nature move of its pleasure upward downward to the right to the left this way and the other way even as it will no man any longer will suppose it either Fire or Earth but something else Specificated by a new internal principle To be always bent down to the desire of the body and worldly delights that motion is Bestial To be always reaching at high things that 's Diabolical To be disengag'd from a mans self and stand indifferent to what ere the Will of God is that 's Angelical or Divine But it is again objected If Regeneration imply a real new Generation that then it must also imply a real Corruption so that the Natural Soul shall be destroyed or at least Natural Knowledge Natural Principles of Reason Not a jot of this follows Neither the Soul it self nor its Natural Principles of Knowledge or Reason are destroyed or abated but made up and perfected Doth one Unite added to two pre-existent Unites destroy those Unites Or rather do they not all put together beget a new Number of another Species and Name Or to bring it more home doth the Soul of man coming into the organiz'd Body destroy the Body Or doth it not rather perfect and compleat it So doth also the Spirit of God coming into the Soul But as for the pre-existent qualities no more of those are destroy'd than are incompatible with the residence of that new Form the Divine Spirit Disobedience and wickedness be the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with this new Birth Reason is no more incompatible with this state than phansie memory hearing seeing smelling c. Nor the improvement of Reason or Arts and Sciences then looking upon the Stars through a Galilaeos Glass or reading the Bible with an ordinary pair of Spectacles Doct. II. That the Soul is Regenerated of no corruptible Seed but incorruptible There needs no Descant upon this no Interpretation the Words are so clear no Proof the Truth is so unquestionable Doct. III. That this incorruptible Seed is the Word of God The Word of God has two or three Senses It signifies The written Word The Word spoken and Verbum mentis That which God conceives within himself
out the meaning of the latter words of my Text They ate the Offerings of the dead that is Offerings offered to dead men departed this life Est honor tumulis animas placare paternas Ovid. Fast. This piece of Superstition exhibited by Ninus to his Father Belus descended to his Posterity and over-spread that Country he being not a private Person but Lord of a Kingdom This worshipping of the Dead by Prayers and Sacrifices is as commonly known as ordinary School-books There 's a large description of these Rites in Homers Odyssees Where after three Libations or Drink-offerings of Wine and Honey of Wine of Water and Meal which were poured into a ditch of a cubit wide with promise of a further Sacrifice a barren Cow and a black Wether with a present immolation of Beast then prepared for Sacrifice upon the running down of the black Blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 straight there were gathered together by whole flocks from out of Erebus the Souls of dead deceased Cardan also writes of Adrian that he erected a Temple and Oracle instituted Priests and Rites for his execrable Catamite Antinous when he was dead This is the Superstition of Necromancy Which tho' the Israelites aimed not at in their Sacrificing to the Ghost of Belus yet is their Idolatry as little if not less excusable For the end of the Necromancer is knowledge of future things or things past that lie hid The drift of the Israelites was the accomplishment of their wicked Lust their committing of Whoredom with the Daughters of Moab But more light than from any profane Writer may we gather out of the Book of Wisdom Chap. 14. A father afflicted with untimely mourning when he hath made an image of his child soon taken away now honoureth him as a God which was then a dead man and delivered to those that were under him ceremonies and sacrifices Thus in process of time an ungodly custom grown strong was kept as a law and graven images were worshipped by commandment of Kings Here we see a Father making an Image for his Child and Deifying him with Ceremonies and Sacrifices Which makes Venerable Bedes opinion of the Childs Deifying the Father Ninus his erecting an Image in honour of his Father Belus sufficiently probable So an ungodly Custom got the strength of a Religious Law among the Children of Moab As also that among the Latins from the first Example of AEneas Ille Patris genio solennia dona ferebat Hinc populi ritus edidicere pios Ovid. Fast. Lib. 2. Where patris Genius may be very well for Anima patris the Soul of his Father or his Fathers Ghost as Hesiod also terms the Souls of them that dyed in the Golden Age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Genii in Latin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These be Genii Plutarch restricts it not to the Golden Age but speaks at large 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Souls freed from their Bodies become Genii according to Hesiod So Plutarch and he venters to shew how they be affected with things here below They love to be abettors though not actors as old men who have left off the more youthful sports love to set the younger sort to their games and exercises and to look on and encourage them as he expresseth it in his de Genio Socratis Maximus Tyrius doth endeavour at large to prove that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Genii be nought but the Souls of men who are occupied much what in such employments as they were in the flesh And Xenocrates in Aristotles Topicks makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all one even when it is in the Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Xenocrates saith He 's happy that hath a good Soul for the Soul is the Genius of every one But I have not bestowed all this pains for a Distich in Ovid. If we be perswaded of the Identity of the Souls of the departed and Genii or Spirits way is made to that in S. Basil where he describes the nature of Sacrificing to these Genii Daemones or Souls of the deceased they being all one or little difference being betwixt them Which will be further confirmed if we consider that even all the Deities of the Heathen as Iupiter Mars Sol Luna and the rest have been Men upon earth as the Egyptians witness in Diodorus Sicalus from whence the Graecians had their Numina as the Egyptians contend and is not improbable Insomuch that we shall scarce find any Daemones or Daemonia among the Heathen but the Souls of them that have departed this life to whom Sacrifice hath been offered Statues Temples and Stars have been bestowed upon them as in that Story of Adrian and Antinous whom he placed also among the Stars the Constellation next the Eagle bears his name as all the Planets the names of men once here upon earth as I intimated out of Diodorus But to come at length to S. Basil out of whom we shall understand more fully this eating of the Sacrifices of the dead or of the Daemones or Daemonia The Statue consecrated to any Daemonium or Genius hath the assistence saith he of the Genii or Daemonia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For as hungry dogs haunt the shambles where blood and gore use to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the lickersome Daemonia seeking the enjoyment of the blood and nidour of the Sacrifices frequent the Altars and Statues consecrated to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence it is that the Apostle saith That they that eat things consecrated to Idols partake of the table of the Daemonia or Genii Or as was probably inferr'd before the Souls of the dead according to their apprehension For it is more incident to Natural Reason to think that the Souls of the departed men being rather forced out of their Bodies by fatal necessity than willingly following the call of Nature that they should delight rather in such provision as men can make them than those that we conceive never to have stooped so low as the descent into the flesh And so whatsoever S. Basil speaks of the Daemonia Natural Reason to be more prone to conceive of the Souls of the departed and accordingly to have provided for them in that worship they did to them So that they that have been joined to Baal-Peor that is that have been initiated into that Religion have worshipped the Soul of Belus and have been partakers of his Table eaten of the same Flesh with him accordingly as S. Basil explains the Daemonia And nor Reason nor Scripture nor the Mysteries of Nature do any thing clash against this II. BUT now that Israel was initiated into those Rites of Peor is manifest out of Numb 25. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Initiatusque est Israel Beelphegor Or as the Hebrew hath it Et adjunxit se Israel Baal-Peor But that we may see the abomination of this act more fully
scarce dare to name had not the Apostle himself taken notice of it That this Beastly Lustfulness has made Women change the natural use into that which is against Nature and likewise also the Men leaving the natural use of the Woman burned in their Lusts one towards another men with men working that which is unseemly Rom. 1. With such base and inglorious with such wretched and hideous Servilities do the Fleshly Lusts tyrannize over the Soul when they have once captivated her carrying her thus in triumph and exposing her to all baseness and lewdness and dragging her by her chains of captivity through all filthiness and unseemliness and having thus besmear'd and defac'd her with the filth of all manner of Sins in this Life fit her for a delivery to her fellow-Devils in the other to be reserv'd with them in everlasting chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day This is the lamentable success of that Warfare betwixt the Lusts of the Flesh and the Soul if she suffer her self to be overcome And therefore it is no wonder the Holy Apostle uses all the Reason and Rhetorick he has to make us stand upon our guard and defend our selves from so subtle and malicious Enemies Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. DISCOURSE II. PSAL. lxxxiv 7. They go from strength to strength every one of them appeareth before God in Sion THE Text is a Presage of admirable Prosperity and Success to some sort of People so that it may well excite in us a desire of searching out who they may be And if we begin further off at first or go about yet it may according to the Proverb prove the nighest way home If any one therefore demand who these are I shall answer him out of the 24th Psalm the subject whereof seems to be the very same with this and in the words of the same Prophet This is the generation of them that seek him that seek thy face O Iacob the God of the People that prevail by their importunities and wrestlings with God as Iacob is said to do Gen. 32. whereby he purchased to himself the name of Israel because as a Prince he had power with God And David as being one of this extraction himself he seems to challenge a Blessing from God on that very account O Lord God of Hosts hear my prayer give ear O God of Iacob in the Verse immediately following my Text. In this present Psalm as also in the 24th and 15th Psalms the Holy Prophet so speaks of the Court Tabernacle Temple or House of God as of a place of the highest enravishments that the Soul of man can enjoy which Expositors generally and I doubt not but truly interpret of the Mosaical Tabernacle and Literal Temple But that the mind of the Prophet was carry'd up also to some higher matter I do not at all question And the first Verse of the 15th Psalm Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy Hill which is almost verbatim repeated again in the 24th Psalm the Chaldee Paraphrast does expresly interpret of Heaven So warrantable is it not to be ty'd down to the Letter but to seek a further edifying Mystery in the Holy Oracles of God And such a Temple as the abode wherein will be more suitable to such earnest breathings and vehement expressions of the Prophet Ver. 1. 2. How amiable are thy tabernacles O Lord of Hosts My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God And again Ver. 4. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be still praising thee These things do not suit so well methinks to a house that is made of any earthly materials into which the wicked can throng as well as the just Nor does God dwell in any House made with hands according to the Apostolick Philosophy Acts 7. Any yet according to their Doctrine We are the Temple of God at least design'd so to be And the Apostle Paul sayes expresly 1. Cor. 6. 19. What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost And yet the same Apostle Rom. 7. 18. I know saith he that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing This Earthly Tabernacle is no House of God as being from the Earth From whence it is that we groan earnestly as the same Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5. desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon or further clothed that mortality might be swallow'd up of life Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit That is to say He that works us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into this condition is God himself by the operation of his Spirit which is the Architect of its own House as it is said of the Soul the Builder of that Holy Temple in us in which all is fulfilled which the Prophet David sets out in such devotional and vehement Language For when we are come to this state we are then truly the Temple of the Living God and it is Strength to a mans Navel and Marrow to his Bones So that well may the Holy Prophet raise himself into so high expressions touching this condition Ver. 2. My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God For this Earthly Tabernacle destitute of this is but a burden or body of Vanity wherein are all the Seeds and Fruits of Sin and Misery But of this Heavenly House is that plentifully verify'd which the Prophet David presageth Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be still praising thee And they that are arrived to this condition will easily fulfil that Precept of the Apostle Eph. 5. 18 19. Be not drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit speaking to your selves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. This is the real participation of the Body or Flesh of Christ the true Bread from Heaven which is the immediate receptacle of the Divine Spirit so that he that comes hither cannot fail to be replenish'd with Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And this may serve for a brief intimation Who these Persons are to whom such good Success is promised in the Text and what the place is towards which they are journeying viz. the Tabernacle Temple or House of God mystically understood LET us now consider 1. The Country through which they pass 2. How well accoutred they are in their persons for the Journey 3. What Convoy to guard them safe 4. Under what Influences of Heaven they travel 5. What the
affirming that some things are so vile and wicked that a man ought rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to undergoe death it self with the most grievons circumstances thereof than submit to the doing of them And is there any thing more base and vile than for a man knowingly and wittingly for the fear or favour of men to sin against his Maker and gracious Redeemer Which if he can do in any case how can he be secure but that he will do it in all cases where his Carnal Interest is highly concerned and that he may not at last be brought off even to worship the Devil himself For they whose guidance is by this Evil Eye this mixt Principle that worship God conditionally if it be safe if it be profitable if it be plausible when these conditions fail they are naturally left in the lurch and may easily apostatize to the grossest practises imaginable He that lives in this Principle it is impossible but that he must walk in dark and slippery places and can have no fast hold at all on Truth and Righteousness And therefore a man is never to rest till his Soul clear up into such a Simple principle of life that he is conscious to himself that neither security of his Person nor Fortunes nor the good opinion or applause of men nor any sinister respects or conditions whatsoever move him to do what he does but the plain and hearty love of the Truth and the sense of his indispensable duty to his gracious Maker and Redeemer according to which he will act and for which he will suffer though he have no witness of either but God and his own Conscience This is to be a true Single-eyed Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile But whatever is on this side of it is besmeared and smutted with rottenness and Hypocrisie 4. Fourthly and Lastly If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how great is that darkness Indeed it will puzzle a man to say how great it is It is even infinite for space and so it will be for time if we be not timely cured of this blindness A man whose Eye is pure and entire in a dark Dungeon indeed he sees nothing and in a Winter-night cannot so much as discern his own hand but bring a Candle into the Dungeon or let but Day-light return he discerns all Objects very well for the light in him is not darkness that is he is not blind But travel with a blind man from Sun to Sun nay from one Vortex to another so that every Star may be as a Sun to him yet in this infinite and endless Journey he is still in the dark and discerns nothing Even so it is with him that has the Evil Eye in the Mystical Sense he that is Spiritually blind that instead of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is under the guidance of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Carnal mind he is every where in the dark there is nothing sincere in all his actions he can do no Duty as he ought neither to God nor Man but not sensible of any more enlarged Principle or Prospect hugs himself every where and seeks nothing ultimately but the satisfaction of his own Carnal Will and Pleasure Carry him from one Object to another from one Duty to another he is so blind that he will not fail of doing all things sordidly and basely in every place He may indeed endeavour to flatter God Almighty and crouch to him but he cannot sincerely worship him He may fear his Prince but not affectionately honour him and heartily wish him well as the Vicegerent of God He may be tickled with popularity and yet set as little by the common good and welfare of the people as he does by his meanest Cattle that he will not stick to kill and flea or sell away for his own advantage And lastly he may caress his Friend and Neighbour but it will be ever with an eye to Himself that he may lay the seeds of some Worldly advantage But if the service of these stand in any considerable competition with his own Interest he cannot fail having no better Principle but to betray both his God his Religion his Prince his Country and his Friend to serve himself These are his acts of darkness his abode in which will make him so blind that in the conclusion he will betray himself also to that everlasting darkness wherein is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for evermore For to be carnally-minded is death but to be spiritually-minded is life and peace These short Intimations from our Saviours Parable methinks should be sufficient to well-disposed minds to quicken their speed towards this great and necessary attainment of that Single Eye of the Spirit that we may live according to that one simple Principle of the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus casting out the spirit of the World that there may be no cross vibrations or Paralytical motions in our Soul but that our whole man may be throughly actuated by the Spirit of God we being born to this Divine State even to be members of God and Christ to whom till we be united we are in an unnatural diluxation from our Body and being devoid of this Spirit though we cannot but depend of him yet we hang off from him as dead or Paralytical members of which the Spirit of Life has left its due hold which must be to every discerning Eye a sad and calamitous Spectacle God of his infinite Mercy amend it in us all DISCOURSE IV. PROV i. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher in his Metaphysicks And indeed most men are so eager and vehement in the pursuit of Knowledge that they either afford not themselves time enough to consider and deliberate concerning the most efficacious means for obtaining it or have not the patience to use the means though they be well perswaded of it But in the heat of their pursuit make a God of their own industry and take it for the shortest cut to be their own carvers Not Line upon Line but Tractate upon Tractate Volume upon Volume Ossa upon Olympus Plainly according to the attempts of that sottish and boisterous generation of Giants thinking to hale away captive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her that assists God on his Glorious Throne in Heaven by Spider-web fetters spun and twisted out of the corrupt apprehensions of Earthly-minded men Those did not the Lord choose neither gave he the way of Knowledge unto them But they were destroy'd because they had no Wisdom and perished through their own foolishness Who hath gone up to Heaven and taken her and brought her down from the clouds Who hath gone over the Sea and found her and will bring her for pure Gold No man knoweth her way nor thinketh on her path What then Is it impossible to attain unto her No. Her
delight is with the sons of men as Solomon witnesseth of her And S. Iames bids us pray for her If any man want Wisdom let him ask it of God So that when the Prophet Baruch saith No man knoweth her way nor thinketh on her path is as much as if he should say No man by the Natural Spirit of a man can reach so far But S. Peter faith that we have precious promises of being made partakers of the Divine Nature And our Blessed Saviour argueth thus in the 11th of S. Luke If so be that men being evil know how to give good gifts to their children How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him But what Shall therefore every one that saith Lord Lord or that can repeat their Pater noster receive the Holy Spirit of Wisdom No in no wise Only they that do the will of my Father which is in Heaven saith our Saviour If I encline to wickedness in my heart saith the Psalmist the Lord will not hear my prayer And indeed the old blind Poet could see so far into Divinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that obeys God God hears him So that we see that the foundation or beginning of this great work of Wisdom is that which the present Text points at viz. The fear of God The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom The words are plain and without ambiguity In the English especially The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not of so a determinate sense but that it may signifie the principal the first best or chiefest of Wisdom as well as the beginning of Wisdom But the latter I take to be the better if not the only sense For Fear hath torment saith the Apostle but perfect love casteth out fear Wherefore this Fear is not the choicest or chiefest of true Wisdom But if we compare this place with its parallel we shall yet more plainly see that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies merely a beginning or entrance Prov. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The entrance or first impenetration into Wisdom is the fear of God For the word comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to boar or pierce So that it is evident that the English Translation is the only sense of this place of Scripture In the handling whereof I will endeavour these two things 1. To shew somewhat more largely out of other places of Scripture the truth of this present Text That the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom 2. Why there is no other entrance than this into true Wisdom THE former is manifest out of many places of Scripture 1. Ecclesiastie 4. 17. For first she will walk with him by crooked wayes and bring him unto fear and dread and torment him with her discipline until she have tryed his soul and have proved him by her judgments Then will she return the streight way unto him and comfort him and shew him her secrets and heap upon him her treasures of Knowledge 2. Also Esai 66. at the beginning of the Chapter Thus saith the Lord The heaven is my throne and the earth is my foot-stool Where is that house that you will build unto me And where is that place of my rest Presently after he subjoineth To him will I look even to him that is of a poor and contrite spirit and trembleth at my words He therefore that fears the Lord shall become the Temple of God And it should seem no strange thing to us being the Apostle makes mention of the same more than once or twice Know you not that your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost in the first Epistle to the Corinthians And in the same Epistle Know you not that you are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you Now what Benefit accrues to us by being the Temple of God we may gather by the nature and use of these Material Temples these Temples made with hands In these we know amongst the Heathen were the Initiations into the Mysteries of whatsoever Deity the place was Consecrate to But we need not straggle We see the use of outward Temples dayly here among our selves They are for Prayers Hymns and for Instruction out of the Word of God the literal Word of God in a gross material Temple Therefore in analogy in the Temple of our Souls and Spirits shall the essential word the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eternal Word of God or God himself teach and instruct us And who teacheth like him as is said in Iob. There was so great Vertue in the very presence of the Person of Socrates as you may see in Plato that his Scholars profited very much merely by being in the same Room with him though he spake not unto them How much more shall they profit with whom the Spirit of Christ abideth as in his own proper House and Temple With what joy and admiration shall they be taken when in the Synagogue of their Hearts he shall stand up and read as in that Synagogue at Nazareth He hath sent me that I should heal the broken-hearted that I should preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind When he shall begin to say This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears Then shall all the powers and faculties of a mans Soul bear him witness and wonder at the gracious words that proceed out of his mouth Such a Teacher shall all such have that truly fear God 3. Again That Wisdom is usherd in by terrour fear and horrour seems to be the subject of the 29th Psalm The voice of the Lord is upon the waters the God of glory maketh it to thunder the Lord is upon the great waters Now that Waters are an Emblem of the moveable and tumultuous flowings of the Earthly Nature that Learned Iew doth teach us when as he calls the Waters of Edom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Waters towards which the King of Egypt made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Platonists make but a sliding passing dream of corporeal and sensible things saying of them that they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they slide continually from the true essence by perpetual flowing So the Soul being united cum rebus fluxis caducis dissolved as it were and incorporate after a manner into their Watery nature and lost amongst it The mighty energy of the All-powerful Voice of God or Word of God doth operate upon these Waters for the producing of Light in them as in the first Creation And according to this Analogy speaks the Apostle 2 Cor. 4. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ. But to proceed further in the Psalm The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars yea the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon The voice of the Lord maketh
such inestimable treasures of durable Wisdom before a fearful tryal hath been upon it Deut. 8. Thou shalt remember the way which the Lord thy God led thee in the wilderness that he might afflict thee and humble thee that he might try thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the most secret penetrates of thy Heart might be laid open to discern whether thou wouldst keep the Commandments or no. Now if the Heart of a man be not right toward God nor endued with requisite previous dispositions if this great gift of God were confer'd upon them they would either Swine-like prefer dirt and mire before this precious Pearl and so quench the good Grace of God by Beastly Sensuality which God will not suffer he having taught Nature not prodigally to cast away any thing of hers that is good whose best things are not comparable to the meanest of the gifts of the Holy Spirit of God Or else if they did affect and could retain this exceeding great Grace they would notwithstanding wax excessively proud Gellius in his Noctes Atticae tells us of a Grammarian disputing of Genders and Cases of Nouns tam arduis superciliis with his Eye-brows so highly display'd and with so grave a composure of Voice and Countenance as though he had been interpreting some dark weighty Prophesie out of the Sibylline Oracles Now if the taking in of such superficial Learning as this doth so swell and puff up vain man surely more solid Knowledge would burst him If we be naturally given to conceit highly of our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher speaks so greatly to overvalue our selves for some small petty Notions how could we bear such a qualification of mind as that no sooner any obscurity or difficulty could appear in our Souls but the brightness of our Understanding would consume it as those thinner kind of Clouds vanish before the face of the Sun A third Inconvenience may be added to these There being no means so pregnant for the obtaining any end as a clear subtil quick Understanding a wicked man which makes Himself his End in all his actions besides this abuse he would make of Wisdom viz. that he might strut and take upon him with more confidence and be pointed at with an Hic est ille Demosthenes he might further abuse it for the obtaining of more mischievous and Divelish ends But be we assured that that Spirit that doth assert men into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God will not brook so unreasonable a bondage it self as to become vassal to the will of corrupt man So we see it strong enough from these inconveniences that the all-disposing power will not bestow this precious endowment upon unprepared persons 2. But here is another Argument that seems to strike deeper which is Incompossibility 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God For they are foolishness unto him Neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Platonist in the VI Book of his I. Ennead The Eye sees not the Sun unless it bear the image of the Sun in it nor could it receive that impression were it covered with dirt and filth So that it is plain that the necessary foundation of true Wisdom is unfeigned Righteousness and Pureness The Lights of Heaven were made on the fourth day Now it is observable saith that Learned Iew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the quaternary number is the first quadrate pariter par or equally equal the measure of Iustice and Equity And the Heavenly Light surely is begot in its holy quaternary as those Lights of Heaven on the fourth day But a further Illustration for this purpose might be gathered if we would further follow the explanation of this Symbol Which I am the bolder with because I make account it is no strange one it being Aristotles own expression of a good man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homo quadratus sine culpa Now a Quadrate you know consisting of Right Angles is a very useful Instrument for taking the height depth length and breadth of bodies and all in vertue of a Right Angle which is nothing else but the demission of one streight Line upon another perpendicular so that it encline no way but stand exactly upright And there is an uprightness of heart and life resembled by this which is when a man enclines neither to the right hand nor to the left no less needful for the inabling us to comprehend with all Saints what is that spiritual breadth and length and depth and heigth as the Apostle speaks than that other is in Geometrical measurings So we see though in brief that both Ethicks Physicks and Mathematicks have conspired together for the establishing and confirming of this so wholesome and useful a Truth That clearness of Knowledge proceeds out of Purity of Life To descend to a more particular handling of this matter as to shew you how the purging of a mans Soul takes away those main impediments to truth of Knowledge as are Self-admiration doting upon that which we our selves conceive of before the apprehension of others Anger Envy Impatiency a pusillanimous over-estimation of others desire of Victory rather than of Truth blindness proceeding out of the love of Riches or Honour an heavy adhension of our minds to the sluggish inertness of Sense suffocation or smothering the active spark of Reason by Luxury and Intemperancy with many others which be general Impediments to whatsoever kind of Knowledge a man aimes at to descend I say to such particulars would ask more time than I am able to speak in or you have the patience to hear Wherefore I omit them and will only add this one Argument more to prove the Incompossibility of true Knowledge and Iniquity in one Subject And that is the Antipathy betwixt the Holy Spirit of Discipline and Unrighteousness What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness saith the Apostle and what communion hath light with darkness And what concord hath Christ with Belial There is such a mutual abhorrency in their Nature that they chace one another as the Night and Day about the Orb of the Earth the approach of one is the putting to flight of the other Wisdom cannot enter into a wicked heart nor dwell in a body that is subject unto sin For the Holy Spirit of Discipline fleeth from deceit and withdraweth himself from thoughts that are without understanding and is rebuked when wickedness cometh in By this time I hope it is sufficiently evicted That Piety is the only Key of true Knowledge And indeed I fear not but that all with one consent will confess it so they may have the interpretation of it and restrict it to that vvhich they call Saving Knovvledge vvhich they say simple ignorant Idiots are capable of Now what a conceit they frame out in their minds of Saving Knowledge I will not here discourse But if it be granted of all
in the Law of God even the written Word that no Heathen durst venture to intersert any pieces of it into their Writings So Holy it was accounted that they durst not contaminate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their profane mouths as Iosephus writes from the testimony of Hecataeus Demetrius in the same Historian reports that one Theopompus grew distracted by being too bold and busie with these Writings And that Theodectes the Tragaedian lost his sight And no wonder for by Iosephus's relation these men sought rather for Flowers to adorn their Works than for wholesome Instructions to reform their Lives Theodectes it's likely spyed somewhat there that would grande sonare that would sound gravely and make a majestick noise fitting his Tragick buskin but the man had little mind to set his feet in those Lawes of God to do them And hence so much distraction phrensie and blindness possesseth us this very day Yet like bold impudent Flies we sieze confidently upon those precious Oyntment-pots of the Apothecary and in this plenty of wholesome refreshment have Wings and Feet clung together and lose our Life even in the very Book of Life Prov. 25. If thou hast found honey eat so much as is sufficient for thee That is as much as thou canst well digest into practice For so it is with the Word as it is with Meat Not taken it doth no good Taken in and not digested it brings but Diseases But taken in and perfectly digested by honest labour and exercise preserveth Life and Health 4. But these Considerations are more proper to the Fourth and last Reason why we should be Doers of the Word Which hath reference to us and is the Reward of keeping his Commandments By them is thy servant taught and in keeping of them there is great reward Psal. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Threefold great Reward A reward in Estate a reward in Body and a reward in Soul 1. A reward in Estate Blessed shalt thou be in thy basket and in thy dough Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground and the fruit of thy cattle and the increase of thy kine and the flocks of thy sheep Deut. 28. But if we think Moses word not sufficient Christ himself will put in security for supply of all necessaries if we take but the condition of Obedience Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Matth. 6. So the Psalmist The lyons rore and suffer hunger but they that fear the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good There are manifold Testimonies in Scripture to this purpose and so obvious that quotation is needless 2. The second reward is in a mans Body for Strength Health and Beauty Fear the Lord and depart from evil so health shall be to thy navel and marrow unto thy bones Prov. 3. Envy Anger Hatred and discontented Melancholly which reign in either proud or pusillanimous Souls weaken Nature and destroy the Body but Life and Vigour is in the perfect Law of Charity A chearful Conscience purifies and refines the Blood but disobeying the inward Light is the choaking of the Vital Spirits A sound heart is the life of the flesh saith Solomon but envy is the rottenness of the bones This for Health and Strength Now for Beauty The wisdom of a man doth make his face to shine Ecclesiastes 8. and Ecclesiasticus 25. The wickedness of a woman changeth her face and maketh her countenance black as a sack The heart of a man changeth his countenance saith the Wise Man whether it be in good or evil So if there be a continual vigorous habit in the heart of shining Vertue and lovely Charity it will issue even into the face of a man in all friendly amiableness Moses was so fill'd with this Heavenly Beauty that the Children of Israel could not look upon him for his glorious splendour But the works of darkness make the spirit of a man to set in gloomy obscurity and deadness 3. But now we come to the third reward which is in the Soul Psal. 19. 7. The law of the Lord is an undefiled law converting the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Septuagint the word which the Platonists use For the clear understanding of the dignity of this Conversion we are to take notice of the nature thereof Conversion therefore includes two things a leaving and a making toward somewhat And here in this Christian Conversion that which is to be left is the Creature and that which is to be turned unto is God The leaving of the Creature is the forsaking of whatsoever is not God but especially the renouncing of our own selves For while we cleave unto the Creature we most of all cleave unto our own selves for we adhere unto it for our own sake Self-love is the hinge or centre upon which we turn from God to the Creature and upon which we begin to circle from the Creature to God again But the accomplishment of Conversion breaks this thing abolisheth this centre and then we have our fixation in God and all our motion and operation of will and affection is upon him and from him That AEgyptian King as Herodotus reports in his Second Book when he had prohibited his Subjects sacrificing to God and had shut up all the Temple doors in AEgypt he presently employes all his people in his own Service and sets them to leed Stones to build Pyramids for his own Honour and the lasting Memorial of himself No man would be so mad as to forsake the Service of God to be a drudge to an inferiour Master But without question the plot is to be his own God and his own Master and to employ all his strength for himself But how the Law of God doth convert the Soul from this Idolatry and that which we falsely seek after how it brings us truly more near unto will be seen from the manner of this Conversion of the Soul to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Proclus in Plato's Theology The conversion of things to their causes or principles is to receive assimilating influence from them or to rise up and ascend nearer and nearer unto them and to become more and more like them To return therefore unto God is to become like to him by the recovery of the lost Image of Adam who was made according to the similitude of God Now the Image of God what it is seems not to be unknown even to the very Heathens The ancient Greek Poet brings in Vlysses musing with himself amongst his travels what a kind of People he had fallen among after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What a kind of People be the Inhabitants of the Land into which I come Are they injurious barbarous and unjust Or are they of a loving disposition courteous unto strangers and of a Godlike mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
meat and do all drink of the same spiritual drink and are all incorporate into one Body all quickened by the same Spirit all conspire into one Will through unity of the same Life so that all 's in peace and good order And thus much for the Persons assembled Which if you doubt of or are perswaded that you shall not continually enjoy their company yet I will shew you an assembly that so long as you enjoy a pure Conscience you shall alway enjoy their company in a true Paradise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Holy Paradise where are assembled Vertue Wisdom and all Decency and Discretion And these are excellent companions tho' they were known to no body but him that lives with them And He lives with them that hath a pure Heart for the Father of them abides in the sincere Spirit 2. But it were time now to speak of the Provision had I not spoke already somewhat of it almost before due time But no tongue can declare it I will rather use the Psalmists words O taste ye and see how gracious the Lord is For they that fear him shall lack nothing The lyons do lack and suffer hunger but they that do seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good So then here is apparatus non neglectus at least no want if not redundancy Ay but it 's a poor Feast you 'll say where there is no overplus If any man suspect he shall come to such a slender Dinner I will use the words of our Saviour Mat. 16. O ye of little faith why think you thus within your selves Do you not perceive neither remember the five loaves when there were five thousand men and how many baskets were taken up neither the seven loaves when there were four thousand men and how many baskets were taken up If Christ could satisfie such multitudes of men with so few loaves so that so many fragments were left Surely we need not fear but when he feeds us with himself who is that Heavenly Bread and the foecundity or fulness of God but that we shall be unspeakably satisfied and superabundantly refreshed So we have plainly seen how excellent our company how good our chear shall be I will interfeit one accomplishment which Varro omits in his Feast And that is Musick The concent of Musicians at a Banquet is as a Signet of Carbunoles set in Gold As the Signet of an Emerald well trimmed with Gold so is the melody of Musick in a pleasant banquet Ecclesiasticus 32. 5 6. Now that this Feast is not devoid of Musick will thus appear For Righteousness is nothing else but an harmony of the lower parts of a mans Soul with the upper of the Affections with Reason as the Pythagorists define it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Polus the Pythagorean When as the inclinations of a mans Will or Desire answer the dictates of true Reason these are Heavenly responses indeed fit for a Celestial Quire When Reason begins the point and all the Affections chearfully follow it as Philo comments upon that Song of Moses and Miriam I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the horse and his rider he hath over-thrown in the Sea The Lord is my strength and praise and he is become my salvation Who is like unto thee O Lord among the gods Who is like unto thee so glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders Then Miriam the rest of the women following her with Timbrels and with Dances takes up her Timbrel in her hand and answers Sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the horse and the rider hath he over-thrown in the Sea Such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as these such Triumphal Songs against our Spiritual Enemies will become this Feast well The same exultation of Spirit you shall find in the blessed Psalmist The Lord is my strength and my shield my heart hath trusted in him and I am helped Therefore my heart danceth with joy and in my song will I praise him Psalm 28. This is that which the Apostle exhorts to Eph. 5. Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit speaking unto your selves with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts Hitherto then is this Feasting very compleat good Companions good Chear good Musick 3. But what is all this if not in a good convenient place Iobs Children you know as they were making merry at their elder Brothers a strong Whirlwind took a corner of the house and buried them with the ruins in the midst of their merriment But whosoever dwelleth under the defence of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty that is under the protection of him that is able to keep them safe Ps. 91. And at the 90th Psalm Lord thou hast been our habitation from generation to generation Before the mountains were made and before thou hadst formed the earth even from everlasting to everlasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou art the strong God a more sure sustentation than the steddy Earth a more strong safeguard than the massy Hills So then this Holy Assembly feast under a safe roof far from the reach of any tumult or tempest God is our hope and strength a very present help in trouble Therefore will we not fear though the earth be moved and though the hills be carryed into the midst of the sea Though the waters thereof rage and swell and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same Yet there is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God the holy place of the tabernacle of the most high In all this danger and stir you see here 's secure Feasting and Joy in the Tabernacle of the most High The voice of joy and gladness is in the dwelling of the righteous safe pleasure and never fading delight in the habitation of the upright in Heart and pure in Conscience But if any man be not contented with the Safeness of the place but would curiously inquire into the Beauty of it that Description is done to our hands in the 21th of S. Iohns Revelation Gold and pearl and precious stones is a slight glimpse of the Glory of that Habitation and the Beauty of God 4. I will pass now to the fourth thing considerable in a Feast The convenience of time And no time surely is inconvenient to these Feasters who have the preeminence exceedingly above them that enjoy any outward delight For these men be confined to Seasons and Opportunities which be but poor small parcels of time But all Time and Eternity too is but one entire Opportunity for those Spiritual Feasters to enjoy themselves in A good Heart or a pure Spirit is one continual everlasting Feast It was well said of Diogenes to one that was too much taken with the seldom solemnity of an outward Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What saith
he doth not a good man count every day a Festival Surely if it be so he must needs count it so And that it is so my Text can witness Solomon hath asserted it and the Devil himself cannot deny it nor good men conceal it nor wicked men confute it for they have not experience of it But do I not seem to Tantalize you all this while by describing so desirable a Banquet and not shew you the way to be partakers of it Verily neither God nor good men do envy us it But to say the truth the way to it is as undesirable as the Feast is to be wished for Abstinence and emptyness is the way to be filled with this precious Food The full soul saith Solomon loatheth the honey-comb And if we be taken up with and filled with the delights of this sensible World and the pleasures of the Flesh we shall never relish the sweetness of this Banquet never so much as taste of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If false transitory pleasures get possession of the Soul they will exclude that true light and safe delight in God What 's the way then to this continual Happiness A contemptible thing they call Self-denyal or abstinence from our own Wills and Desires Upon which if I should enter a Discourse you especially of the younger sort might account it or a dull Melancholick Dream or a pretty solemn Night-piece but when you have viewed it immerse your selves again into the false light of this bewitching World and closely embrace that life and pleasure that I should wish you to part with But be you assured that he that is so slightly affected with the most solemn and solid Duties of Christianity is so far off from the good Conscience or good Heart named in the Text that he is not so much as in a preparation to it which is Contrition and Brokenness of Spirit But he that even now begins and sets himself seriously upon the curbing of his Lusts and denyal of his own wayes and endeavours cordially from the very depth of his Heart to perform whatsoever he conceives is the Will of God and allowes himself in no fault this man shall in due time be wrought into the Life and Spirit of Christ And shall continually enjoy in a more eminent manner whatsoever or Sight or Hearing or Smelling or Tasting shall judge pleasant and delectable such Beauty such Harmony such Fragrancy such Deliciousness as no man can conceive but he that hath it nor he that hath it can know how to utter it To this Happiness God grant that we may all arrive through Iesus Christ our Lord to whom c. DISCOURSE VIII PSAL. xvii 15. As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness THE Excellency of this Holy resolution and High aspires of the Prophet David will be better set off and more-savourly relished if we bring into view that lively character of men of a quite contrary dispensation in the foregoing Verse which are stiled men of the world which have their portion in this life who are very Belly-gods and Cormorants greedy devourers of the Temporary good things which God has treasured up in these lower Regions of the Universe These they dig out and rake up together and lay on heaps that they may satisfie their own Worldly Appetite and gratifie themselves in the lusts of the Flesh in the lusts of the Eyes and in the pride of Life that they may eat and drink plentifully yea riotously fill their Bellies with the choicest delicates and feed their Eyes with the inexhaustible store and plenty of their riches and their treasure being inexhaustible when they have lived in all the jollity and gayity of this World in all the affluency and felicity this present Life will afford bequeath or entail upon their Posterity the like Happiness themselves enjoy'd by leaving the rest of their Substance to their Babes as is described in the foregoing Verse This is the state of that Blessedness which the meer Natural man breaths after neither his foresight nor desire piercing any further But this Holy man of God who was inspired from above has a thirsty presage of matters of far greater moment whose mind is not fixt upon these hid treasures of the Earth but upon that treasure which is reserved in Heaven whose neither hopes nor enjoyments are in the things of this Life but deems this Life as Death or Sleep in comparison of that which is to come who evangelizes before the Gospel and speaks the language of Christians before the coming of the Messias as if he would anticipate the words of S. Paul Col. 3. 3. Our life is hid with Christ in God But when Christ which is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Wherefore let others enjoy themselves as much as they will let these men of the World have all things succeed according to their desire and please themselves to the height in their Wealth Pleasure and Honours I do not at all envy their condition nor place my Happiness in these things While these mens Eyes and Minds while their Affection and Animadversion is wholly taken up with these Worldly Objects the pantings and breathings of my Soul are entirely directed towards God and to the blissful enjoyment of the Light of his Countenance As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Or as the Psalms in our Liturgy have it When I awake up after thy likeness I shall be satisfied with it That Saying of Heraclitus in Clemens Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All that we see waking is Death and what we see dreaming Sleep which is the Brother of Death as another termed him as if in this Body whether sleeping or waking it were in the valley of the shadow of Death I say this Speech of Heraclitus may seem to savour much of a very deeply Melancholized Spirit yet if to speak conformably to inspired men were an Argument of Inspiration Heraclitus his Melancholly would approve it self Divine by the apparent conformity it bears with the most notable passages of those who certainly were inspired God forbid saith S. Paul that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Iesus Christ whereby the world is crucified to me and I unto the world What was it not sufficient that S. Paul was crucified to the World but the World must be also crucified unto him That he was dead to the World but the World must be also dead to him Or who ever except S. Paul ventur'd on such a Phrase as the Worlds being crucified or dead to us though we be rightly said to be crucified or dead to it Why yes Heraclitus said so long before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All these things which we see with these Bodily Eyes it is but a Scene of Death That vivid and chearful colour of the Heavens which
of Life To all which you may add that those that are regenerate into the Image of God or Christ there does accrew to them by vertue of their Second Birth an Intellectual or Divine Sense which you may also if you please call Moral sith what is Moral is also Intellectual For it is an Intellectual Sense which discerns the pulchritude or deformity of things or actions And as all handsomeness and proportionableness of the forms and shapes of things in the Universe is from that Vniversal Intellect which is the maker of the World so all honest and decorous actions is from an Intellectual Principle in us which bounds and figures into due proportion all our Corporeal Passions or Actions which otherwise would flow rudely and undeterminately like the tumbling of the particles of matter it self committed to no other guide than Chance or Fortune Wherefore he that walks as in the day decently and honestly it is a sign his Eyes are opened and that he is not asleep He that disrelishes every evil motion whether in himself or others that feels or sees plainly what is just or unjust that abominates every appearance of haughtiness or envy or worldly baseness and brutish intemperance to whom these things and others of the like kind are distastful unsavoury and unsufferable it is a sign that he is awoke into this part of the Intellectual Life which we call Moral But such as have neither love of Vertue nor aversation of Vice whether in themselves or others they have these Senses bound by a Lethargick Sleep out of which the recuperation of the Divine Image where-ever it is loosens and awakens men into a perpetual quickness of perception of what is truly Good or Evil. Thus apparently is the Image of Christ the resuscitation of the Soul into these two first parts of Life which we call'd self-activity and sense or perception The last but not the least considerable is Pleasure Love or Ioy Which how little it is in the Worldly-minded I have above declared But how unspeakably great it must be in him upon whom this glorious Image of God is risen is discoverable at first sight For this Image does most eminently contain in it the sense of Love or Goodness God is Love and he that abideth in Love abideth in God and God in him Which intellectual Love or Goodness is certainly the highest joy or pleasure that Humane Nature is capable of the flower and quintessence of all sweetness Here 's no afflicting Care nor consuming Envy no disquieting Lust nor tyrannical Superstition no distrust or fear of our Future State nor any jealousies concerning the Favour of God this Spirit of Love being an inseparable Pledge thereof And even the more miserable Objects in this present scene of things cannot devest him of his Happiness but rather modifie it the sweetness of his Spirit being melted into a kindly compassion in the behalf of others Whom if he be able to help it is a greater accession to his joy and if he cannot the being conscious to himself of so sincere a compassion and so harmonious and suitable to the present state of things carries along with it some degree of Pleasure like mournful Notes of Musick exquisitely well fitted to the sadness of the Ditty But this not unpleasant surprize of Melancholly cannot last long And this cool allay this soft and moist Element of Sorrow will be soon dry'd up like the Morning Dew at the rising of the Summer Sun when but once the warm and chearful gleams of that Intellectual Light that represents the glorious and comfortable comprehension of the Divine Providence that runs through all things shall dart into our Souls the remembrance how infinitely scant the region of these more Tragical Spectacles is compared with the rest of the Universe and how short a time they last For so the consideration of the Happiness of the whole will swallow up this small pretence of discontent and the Soul will be wholly overflown with unexpressible joy and exultation it being warmed and cheared with that joy that is the joy of God that free and infinite Good who knows the periods and issues of all things and whose pleasure is in Good as such and not in contracted selfishness or in petty and sinister projects And certainly this is such an enlargement of Life that He must needs seem either dead or asleep and fixt and congealed in some contractive and obstupifying Dream whom the love and admiration of himself and covering over that sack of dirt his Body and wholly rejoycing in the ease and pleasure of it and the honour or respect conciliated to his own particular Person has made unsensible and uncapable of this transcendent Satisfaction and Happiness I have described Which leads me to the Fourth Particular viz. 4. That this Mystical Resurrection of Christ or the Revelation of the Face or Image of God in us is the only solid Enjoyment and Satisfaction to the Souls of the Faithful even in the Life Which I need not at all insist upon the truth thereof being so exceeding manifest from the foregoing Particular And David accordingly has declared it in the 4th Psalm Many say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us And so in my Text At the awaking of thy image I shall be satisfied therewith The LXX have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall be really fed when I shall see thy Glory Not according to the condition of those whom the Prophet describes As when an hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth but he waketh and his soul is empty or as when a thirsty man dreameth and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint But according as our Saviour Christ has promised I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that beleiveth on me shall never thirst For being fed and transformed into the Image of Christ by truly partaking of his Body and Blood they have that which fills their vastest Capacities and fits them for an Eternal Enjoyment thereof Which perpetuity of the conditon plainly shews that the condition is most natural and that perfection which is most natural must needs be most satisfactory For every thing seeks the perfection of its own Nature and when it is where it is most natural for it to be is naturally satisfied and rests therein And this briefly shall serve for the Fourth Particular 5. The Fifth and Last is That the way to arrive to this Satisfaction which is the enjoyment of the Face or Image of God is Righteousness or Sincerity of Heart I will behold thy Face in Righteousness I must confess that Righteousness is sometimes of so comprehensive a Sense that it takes in all that which we have described in the Image of God and so is in a manner the same with it And if it were understood so here the Sense would be good for by this Image we do see
manners of the Sufferings of Holy Martyrs which they underwent under the tyranny of bloody salvage Heathen Heading and Hanging and Crucifying were nothing for the satisfaction of their fury They were broyl'd on Grid-irons they were fryed in Frying-pans they were boyl'd in Cauldrons they were put in the Brazen Bull they were fired at the Stake cast into Ovens fired in Ships and so thrust from the shore into the deep fired in their own Houses cast upon burning Coals made to walk upon burning Coals burnt under the Arm-pits with hot Irons They had their Hearts riven out of their warm Body had their Skin flean off from their live Flesh had their Feet tyed to boughs of two near Trees which boughs being at first forcibly brought together suddenly let go rent their Body in twain They were trodden down by Horses cast bound and naked into Vaults to be eaten of Rats and Mice They had their Flesh pulled off with Pinsers torn off with Iron-rakes were squeezed to death in Wine-presses were tyed upon Wheels which turning rub'd their naked Body against sharp pegs of Iron They were hung by their Hands and Feet with their Face downward over choaking Smoak They were set out on high in the Sun having their naked Skin besmeared with Honey to be stung with Bees and Waspes The Devil spent all the skill and malice he had in finding wayes and engines of Torture for them God make us truly thankful unto him for his Mercy so long continued to us that we have without terrour or torment so many years enjoy'd the Christian Religion in such Purity And give us Grace to repent us of our unworthy walking and unbeseemingly of so great a Light But as concerning these Sufferings of the Body Beloved such is the love of God to Mankind and so reasonable is his Service that he hath made it no necessary condition of Eternal Life actually to suffer them But we ought to be so minded that rather than to relinquish the true Christian Faith or do any thing which we know offends God we would rather dye a thousand deaths And this was S. Pauls resolution Acts 21. I am ready not only to be bound but also to dye for the name of the Lord Iesus But yet there is a Suffering in the Body that we must needs suffer if we will approve our selves the Children of God and Heirs of that Glorious Kingdom And this Suffering we must inflict upon our own selves 1 Cor. 9. 27. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection These Sufferings are most acceptable to God and requisite fore-runners of Eternal Life If you live after the flesh you shall dye but if you through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live Verse 13. of this 8th Chapter to the Romans 1 Pet. 2. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul. And Galat. 4. 24. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts You see plainly then That we are not Christs nor Gods nor Heirs of God with Christ unless we suffer with Christ in mortifying all Bodily Lusts in curbing our inordinate Desire of eating or drinking unless we study to keep under the Body and live chastly and continently If we will be Heirs of that Heavenly Inheritance we must bring under all evil and carnal concupiscence If we will partake of that Eternal Glory in Heaven we must be content to suffer reproach and evil speeches amongst men If any man ask what Necessity what Reason is there I will briefly shew him how it comes about First For suffering in Name for I will step so much back There is no man loves to be disquieted in mind or vext But it would disquiet us and gall us exceedingly to be found fools so that we have not the heart to find our selves so it would so discontent our natural proud Spirit Hence we blame other men rather than our selves and say they be in the false way So did the Pharisees to our Saviour and to his Apostles And thus were the Prophets used before them because their wayes were of another sort their speeches and actions of another fashion from the World You will better understand it in some Examples A Carnal or Natural man that hath no Sense of the Spirit of God and is unacquainted with its Operations derides such performances as Prayers Exhortations or what so else may proceed from thence as truly and extraordinarily proceeding from the Spirit of God and counts those men that acknowledge Gods power in them in the performance of such things weak men crack'd-brain'd Enthusiasts Fanatical Fools silly Lunaticks But all this proceeds out of Pride Envy and Self-love he himself being not able to perform such Duties or at least not in that manner So some that have got the trick of Praying ex tempore by Custom the Mother of Confidence and Dexterity Ignorance and want of a true Sense of the Majesty of Heaven upholding them in their rash performance these men will vilifie Justice and Uprightness Humility and Patience and the mortification of our Sensual Lusts because they find in themselves no such Vertues nor intend to trouble themselves so much as to practise them Then for the upholding of their own credit they must give them poor contemptible terms that they are but Heathenish Vertues such as Socrates or Plato had and make but a Moral man and that there is no such need for a Christian to have them But Beloved be not so deceived but observe this Truth Though Moral Vertue carries us no higher than an Heathen yet without the exercise of Moral Vertue and inward life and liking of it we are no true Christians The Summe is this That the good ways of God are spoken against and miscall'd that wicked men may keep their credit and yet walk indeed in the wayes of the Devil To the Second I answer That it is necessary that we suffer in the Flesh because that if we do not keep down the Flesh and its suggestions the Spirit will be choaked and stifled by that filth and corruption The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be Ver. 7. The carnal mind that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bent will intent liking or desire of the Flesh is enmity with God desires against the Will of God and will not be obedient to the Law of God nor indeed can be Wherefore we are to kill it to mortifie it to crucifie it that we may be dead to sin or the desire of the Flesh and alive to God by his enquickening Spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here is the Patience of the Saints Here their great Suffering 4. But I go on to their last Affliction which is in Spirit And that is twofold 1. The wrestling or conflict with spiritual wickedness in Heavenly places 2. The suffering with
the Spirit of Christ. For the First Eph. 6. 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places Beloved The great work of Salvation is not then accomplished when we have through the power of God and the strength of Jesus Christ overcome the Lusts of the Body as Drunkenness Gluttony Whoredom and the like But we shall find a new task the taming of our proud Spirit For after our first conquest I mean the overcoming the Lusts of the Body then pride and haughtiness and contempt of our Neighbour the thinking of our selves some-body rigour and unmercifulness to our sinful Brother the magnifying of our selves in some conceited Opinions searching out and confidently concluding concerning the secrets of God censuring and contemning all men that are not of the same conceit in Divine Speculations with our selves These and many such like evil delusions the Devil will sow in our Hearts The Devil himself is neither Whoremaster nor Drunkard nor Glutton But he is Proud but he is Contemptuous but he is Hypocritical but he is a Blood-sucker a Murderer from the beginning full of self-love full of self-admiration full of cruelty under pretence of Religion full of deceit and injustice under pretence of Truth and maintenance of Godliness full of ambition and desire of rule even over the Souls and Consciences of men full of self-applause and arrogancy and strutting in his own supposed knowledge and power But true denyal of our selves and unfeigned deep humility a sensible apprehension of our nothingness as I may so say or real detestable vileness will cause such dreadful agonies in our Souls that no tongue can express nor heart conceive that hath not had experience of those bitter Sufferings With so great pain and torment are we torn and riven from our spiritual wickedness disjointed and dislimb'd as it were from our head that Prince of Pride and Father of Disobedience the Devil But I will now shew you the other kind of suffering which is the suffering in Spirit by reason of other mens wickedness When we are united to God and Christ in the union of Spirit then do those things that are contrary to the Spirit of God as all manner of sin trouble our Spirit Envious or cruel acts drunkenness deceit pride rigour fierceness folly and whatsoever else is sinful or vain our Spirit being enlivened by the Spirit of God is grieved and vext at these wickednesses or vanities Then we plainly see how Christ is cut and lash'd and hew'd and stab'd with our wicked deeds how he is crucified afresh as the Apostle speaketh Here may the true Church of God the Holy Ierusalem take up fitly that Lamentation in Ieremy Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow See how the Prophet David was affected with the wickedness of men Psal. 119. Mine eyes gush out with water because men keep not thy law I beheld the transgressours and was grieved because men keep not thy word So Lot was tormented at the wickedness of Sodom 2 Pet. 2. 7. And delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked For that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds So God complains in the Spirit of his Prophet Amos. Behold I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves Amos 2. 13. And surely there is good Reason it should be so a sure Necessity For Fire is not more contrary to Water nor Light to Darkness nor any enmity in Nature or among men so strong as that betwixt the Spirit of God and the Spirit of the Devil that is in evil wicked men according to which they live and act So then when that detestable ugliness flowes out in their words or actions it must needs offend the Children of God God being of pure eyes and not abiding to behold wickedness Hence are they driven into consuming zeal or deep inexpressible grief And this is the second kind of suffering in Spirit But Beloved take this in by the way That he that can be angry at other mens faults and not much more angry at his own is a dissembler an Hypocrite Herein let every man examine himself But he that is so stupid that he is not moved at all with the wickedness of others or of himself is perfectly dead in Sin and is in the full power of Satan and is covered with Eternal Death and Darkness THIS Second Doctrine is now sufficiently plain That they that would be Heirs of the Kingdom of Christ must suffer with Christ. I will again here stir you up to an examination and tryal of your Spiritual state whether you have any interest in the Heavenly Inheritance The Sign and infallible Seal is our suffering with Christ. But not any suffering For the fuffering in Estate if we escape it yet may we be inheritors of Heaven But to be evil spoken of for Christ is harder to efcape yet admit we escape that too we may for all that be secure of our Eternal Inheritance Nor have all that are now with God been whip'd and tortur'd and put to death or martyrdom But yet we ought to be so minded that we had rather endure all these things than depart from Christ. But all the other sufferings as abstinence from voluptuousness from the delights of the flesh from priding our selves in any thing that God hath bestowed upon us a suppressing our anger abstaining from the sweetness of revenge denying of the ever-craving appetite of covetousness keeping our tongues from the delight of defamation and evil reports our ears from hearing evil of our Neighbour These be necessary All which endeavours will surely afflict and vex the corrupt Natural Spirit of a man But he that will not undergo this suffering believe it Beloved he is none of Christs he hath neither part nor portion in the Kingdom of Christ and of God But he that doth though with great agony of Soul and affliction of Mind fight against all this corruption of Flesh and Spirit He may bless God for his good condition and with good reason lay hold of the hope of Heaven They that are troubled in Spirit for the wickedness of men the prophanation of Gods name and any manner of sin and iniquity these men may conclude that they have the Spirit of God and consequently that they are the Sons of God And if sons then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ If so be that we suffer with him Which our own Spirit together with Gods Spirit doth testifie to us that we do and that we shall be certainly glorified with him Let every man herein examine himself that he may find a true ground of his hope of Eternal Salvation For none shall be saved but they that are
the Children of God elect to this Inheritance none are the Children of God but those that have the Spirit of God none have the Spirit of God but those that suffer with Christ that mortifie their own sins and are grieved for the sins of others Be not deceived Beloved with flattering dreams and phansies This is the very Truth of God and according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And this Truth being so apparently true I need not exhort in many words to those Christian Sufferings Stand fast in the true Faith of the Power of God and quit your selves like men Cast away all softness and effeminateness and be so stout-hearted as to endure the pangs of Death of the mortification of your sinful flesh and carnal mind for his sake that dyed for you Resist unto Blood even unto the effusion of the wicked Life and unrighteous devilish Spirit that resideth in you For this is the good will of your God that you be mortified that you be thoroughly sanctified that you destroy all things contrary to God in you 1 Thess. 4. And let this be the First Motive to run with patience the race that is set before us Secondly These our Sufferings though great are not comparable to the rich Reward that Glorious Inheritance in Heaven 2 Cor. 4. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Thirdly If we compare the future state of the Wicked and the Godly how all their Glory and Pleasure vanisheth and how the Children of God are received into Everlasting Happiness crown'd with Eternal Light it will more firmly establish us in our Christian resolutions It cannot be better described then it is in the Book of Wisdom The iniquities of the wicked shall convince them to their own face and they shall approach the tribunal of God with fear and quaking But then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness before the face of such as have afflicted him and made no account of his labours When they see it they shall be troubled with terrible fear and shall be amazed at the strangeness of his salvation And they repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit shall say within themselves This is he whom we had some time in derision and a proverb of reproach We fools counted his life madness and his end to be without honour How is he numbred among the children of God and his lot is among the saints Wisd. 5. You may read the whole Chapter at your leasure Fourthly and Lastly The Inheritance of Heaven is conditional If we suffer with him we shall be glorified with him which implies if we do not suffer with him we shall not be glorified with him 2 Tim. 2. 11. This is a faithful saying that if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him Wherefore Beloved sooth not up your selves in vain hopes and flatteries For without killing of your sinful Lusts without Mortification there is no Salvation He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Now no body hath the Spirit of Christ unless he be dead unto sin For if he be dead unto Sin then shall he be raised from Death to Life by the Spirit of Christ that quickeneth us to Righteousness But if he be dead unto Righteousness and alive unto Sin he is a son of Belial a child of the Devil a vessel of perdition a faggot for Hell and the devouring Wrath of God remains upon him No Heir of God no Coheir with Christ but he shall have his portion with those infernal Fiends to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever Wherefore Beloved awake from your beds of ease shake off your idle dreams and bewitching phansies that either the Devil or his false Prophets have buz'd at any time into your heads If you will be the Sons of God and Disciples of Christ take up the Cross of Christ afflict your own carnal minds give not way to wrath to envy to anger to revenge to lust to wantonness to back-biting to swearing to revelling to drinking to pride to contemning to reproaching to fighting to contesting to censuring to defaming or whatsoever else Flesh and Blood is easily carried out to but deny your selves in abstaining from all those evil acts and so give no encouragement to the Devil to assault you Which if you shall do in the precious Christian Patience even to the mortification of all manner of Sin in you God shall stir up in you the Spirit of his Son and enrich you with the Power and Wisdom of the Holy Ghost And the Peace of God which passeth all understanding shall fill your hearts with all joy and you shall find in your selves an unexpressible taste of the delights of Heaven and receive an infallible earnest of your Eternal Inheritance Which God grant that we may all do through Iesus Christ our Lord to whom c. DISCOURSE X. JAM i. 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world THE Text is a description of pure and undefiled Religion And certainly if any thing Religion it is that wants the pointing out by the most evident plain and conspicuous descriptions that may be to be writ in Capital Letters in so large and visible Characters that he that runs may read it For indeed most men are but at leasure to read it running 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the by tanquam aliud agentes still keeping on their course in that broad way that beaten path that leads to the reward of impiety and irreligiousness But yet I know not how it comes to pass that though men make not Religion their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their main business and work yet they prove most-what far more fortunate in this than in their worldly occasions and employments where though they take a great deal more pains yet we shall more ordinarily hear them complain of ill success But as for Religion how few are there that find themselves at a loss therein nay that are not suited to their own hearts liking and from these slight and transient glances cast upon it are kindled into so hot a passion and inflammation of love and zeal for it that finding their own breasts too strait and narrow for such a violent heat would even force open the hearts of other men that there may be more room and freedom for so ample a flame Not content to keep alive this Vestal fire within the walls of its own Temple but to disthrone the Sun and ordain it the sole Lamp of the Universe where all other Religions and Worships must like the lesser Stars disappear and vanish Every rash Religion is Popery
point of Religion exerciz'd all the time God himself bears witness against them Ezekiel 33. They speak every one to his brother saying Come I pray you and hear what is the word that cometh from the Lord. They come unto thee and sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after covetousness And lo thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument for they hear thy words but they do them not And Reading of the Scripture privately is so like the publick Preaching of it that I need not take any new pains to refute the vanity of it if it be not accompanied with due obedience We may fetch that up to Divinity which Epictetus hath both wittily and gravely of Moral Theorems The Sheep tell not their keeper how much Fodder or Grass they eat but shew that they feed sufficiently by their Milk and Wooll Let us not therefore Beloved do as vain Limners they say have done drawn Venus and the Virgin Mary according to the feature of some Face they themselves love best Let us not I say picture out Religion to our own liking and then be in love with an Idol of our own making but love and like that which the Apostle has so plainly pourtray'd to us That whose description consists in visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keeping our selves unspotted of the world Which in two words is this Charity and Purity Of these two consists that true Religion acceptable to God For I conceive visiting the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction excludes not other good deeds from this definition but by a Synecdoche is put for the whole office of Charity 1. The First branch is Charity I will not curiously and artificially set out the bounds of this Vertue It will be enough to intimate that it is not confin'd to the relief of the Body only as he is not only Fatherless that wants his Natural Parent but he much more that has not God for his Father through the seed of the new birth Nor she alone a Widow that has lost her Natural Husband but every Soul is a Widow that is estranged and divorced from her God whose sins have made a separation betwixt her and her Maker Thy Maker is thy Husband Esa. 11. 54. He is so indeed to those that are not faithless and play the Harlot for of such saith the Lord She is not my Wife neither am I her Husband Hosea 2. 2. He therefore that can reconcile a Soul unto God doth not only relieve the Fatherless and Widow but procures an Husband and Father for them and wholly rids them out of their distressful estate These outward transient actions tending to the spiritual or temporal good of our Neighbour are fit testimonies of our sincere Religion before men but for every mans private satisfaction concerning himself there be divers inward and immanent motions of the Soul which will abundantly help on this confirmation I will reckon them up out of the mouth of the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. Where I will not balk those that be at ad extra too they being all very well worth our taking notice of Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envieth not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up Doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the truth Beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things 2. I pass on now to the Second branch Purity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to keep himself unspotted from the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies properly such kind of spots as are in Clothes by spilling some liquid or oyly thing on them An hard task certainly to be Religious at this height Is it to be thought possible that we should wear this Garment of Mortality every day nay every hour and moment for thirty forty fifty sixty years together and soil it by no mischange or miscarriage either of careless Youth violent Manhood or palsied Old Age To pass through the hurry and tumult of this World and never be crouded into the dirt nor be spattered by them that post by us But verily this is not the meaning of the Apostle or of his description of Religion that no man is Religious but he that is absolutely spotless But he sets before us an Idea or Paradigme of true Religion that men having their eyes upon it may know how much or rather how little of Religion they have attained to By how much nearer conformable to this pattern by so much more Religious by how much further off by so much the less Religious He that is not so much as within the sight of it has not so much as seen the least glimpse or glance of Godliness but may be without any wrong to him writ down Atheist Let every man herein examine himself and ask his own Conscience how unspotted he has kept himself from the World And here as hard a difficulty represents it self if not harder than before To keep himself unspotted from the World Is it not pure Irreligiousness to think so Impossible to be so Who can keep himself pure I answer it may be a mistake in the Idiom of the Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be kept unspotted from the World Hithpael for Niphai as there is elsewhere Niphal for Hithpael Acts 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Beza Or to keep himself unspotted from the World is to be understood so far forth as is in our power which in truth is very little Here therefore steps in the power of Christ that strong Arm of God for our Salvation the stay and trust of all Nations and the hope of the ends of the Earth For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. We walk though it be in the power of that Spirit of Life in Christ as our Body moves by vertue of our Natural Spirit But whether this act of purification or keeping our selves pure be so from God that it is not in any wise from us I leave to them to dispute that are more at leasure That it must be in us if there be any Religion in us is all that the Text affords me and 't is enough for the tryal of our Religion Pure Religion is to keep our selves unspotted from the World What to keep our selves
the unspeakable agonies of dying to sin this is a harder way To give Alms and relieve the needy to furnish those living Temples of God the poor Christians Souls with necessaries this way is more chargeable Now which of those wayes be more pleasing to Flesh and Blood let any man judge Beloved be not deceived God is not mocked He that sowes nothing but words shall reap nothing but wind If we will serve God as we will he will recompense us as we would not I will have mercy saith he and not sacrifice as the Prophet speaketh Or in the Apostles Language If you will be sacrificing This is the true Christian Sacrifice and Holy Worship of God even to do good as we have opportunity As if the Apostle should thus speak I know that such is the quality of the natural man and the highness of his mind that he will easily be perswaded to be exercised in the immediate service of the great King of Heaven and Earth But he is not so easily induced to regard the state of his poor necessitous Neighbour Such his crafty and covetous disposition is that he will easily bestow some sugared words upon his Maker in publick or private Devotion so that hereby he may be excused from real good deeds to his fellow-creature He will easily sacrifice the calves of his Lips so it may exempt him from a chearful relieving or feeding the hungry and needy He will be very earnest and anxious in the intricate subtilties of Opinions so he may be cold or frozen in common Charity the only acceptable Religion Wherefore I knowing these slights and subtilties of the Devil and false and dangerous imaginations of the Flesh and abominable hypocrisie of the Natural man who takes all the hints and occasions he can to decline the true service of God and seeks false pacifications of Conscience for to retain his so dearly loved disobedience and following his own desires That you rest not our selves in a false pretended service to God and so neglect those Charitable Duties to your Neighbour I tell you that these good offices to your Neighbour are services to God the highest kind of service of his Sacred Majesty such service as is most acceptable to the God of Charity 5. Which is the Fifth and last Motive and brings to the second and third Propositions in my Text 2. That the doing of good and communicating is a sacrifice 3. That this doing of good is a sacrifice well pleasing unto God THESE I will now handle in an absolute way considering them in themselves And first of the former viz. II. That doing good is a Sacrifice I will first prove the truth of it out of other places of Scripture Then compare the doing of good with the nature of a Sacrifice and its kinds Lastly I will draw some practical Inferences from it 1. That doing of good is a Sacrifice may easily be gathered out of that in S. Iames 1. 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep our selves unspotted of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is The Worship of God which in the Old Law consisted of Sacrifices and Purifications external is this even offering or giving our Benevolence to the Poor and comforting every one in his distress as his misery requires and our ability will afford this is our Sacrificing And our Washing and Purification is not that of the Body but the Spirit the keeping our selves from the pollution of the wicked World the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life as S. Iohn glosses upon that word Purity from these is undefiled Religion in the sight of the Father To do good is that acceptable Sacrifice or Oblation to God Ecclesiasticus 35. Whoso keepeth the law bringeth offerings enough He that keeps the commandments offers an offering of salvation and he that gives alms sacrificeth praise S. Paul Phil. 4. 18. But I have all things and abound I am full having received of Epaphroditus the things that were sent from you an odour of a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable well pleasing to God So this point is strong enough out of Divine Testimony that communicating good is a Sacrifice I but some will say it is not truly a Sacrifice but Metaphorically and improperly so called But the Answer is easie and yet beyond their expectation that it is more really and truly a Sacrifice than those in the Old Law As the living man is more truly and really a man than the picture of a man or his shadow in a glass It is well known and acknowledged of all true Christians that the service of the Old Law and its Ceremonies are but Types and Shadows of the Righteousness that is required of us Christians under the Gospel So then as the truth of the putting away the old leaven is the purging of our Souls of all malicious wickedness and hypocrisie 1 Cor. 5. 8. So our sacrificing or offering unto God is giving to our Brethren that be in need and not to God who hath no need of any thing I will not reprove thee saith God because of thy sacrifice and burnt-offerings I will take no bullock out of thy stall nor he-goat out of thy fold for all the beasts of the forest are mine and so are the cattle upon a thousand hills I know all the fowls upon the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are in my sight If I be hungry I will not tell thee for the whole world is mine and all that therein is Thinkest thou that I will eat bulls flesh or drink the blood of goats 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacrifice unto God praise Psal. 50. But what shall we think then that he that professeth his own self-sufficiency so largely in this Psalm that he needs not the Flesh of Bulls or the Blood of Goats that he stands in need of the empty breath of mans mouth a thing so fading and transient that weak puff or perishing blast of man whose very substance is but a vapour a wind that passeth away and cometh not again Is this the change of Worship that God requires Is our vain breath the very Life and Soul of that Body of Moses the Ceremonies of the Old Law Has Aarons melodious Bells given place to sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal If good deeds as giving our Goods to the Poor and Body to the Fire if need be without Charity be such a disconsonant and harsh thing before God how will the praise of a wicked Worldling that hath neither inward Charity nor outward Munificency grate the ears of the Almighty But that you may know that this Sacrifice of praise is not a mere Lip-labour let us compare it with that of Ecclesiasticus in the fore-cited place He that gives almes sacrificeth praise And with that of our Saviour Let your light so shine before men that they seeing your good
naturally from the Text and be most profitable for you to hear But God forbid That hath reference to the precedent Verse But they desire to have you circumcised that they might glory in your flesh Yet the Holy Apostle devoid of all ambition and emulation and of making an outward shovv among them contents himself vvith that vvhich is but the scorn of Worldly men nay glories in it and in it alone the Inward Cross the Mortification of the Old man the Circumcision of the Heart God forbid that I should glory in any thing c. See the exceeding deep humility of the Apostle a man endued vvith such excellent gifts from God so learned and vvell versed in the Lavv one acquainted vvith so Divine Revelations rapt up into the Third Heavens an Hebrew also an Israelite a Son of Abraham such an excellent Oratour as he approved himself before Felix before Festus before Agrippa and also at Lysta vvhere they took him to be the God of Eloquence Mercury himself and would have Sacrificed unto him so well versed in the Poets as his quotations out of Aratus and others testifie him to be But these are but trifles I mean Poetry and Oratory You may see him in the Acts casting out Devils healing the Sick making the Lame walk recovering the Dead to Life nay giving the Spirit of Life even the Holy Ghost and with it the power of Prophesie and speaking with Tongues Yet all these and many more the least whereof were able to puff up the vain mind of our ordinary Christians and swell them to an unusual extent stir not S. Paul above his wonted measure But he still continues himself a Paul i. e. little in his own eyes though the endowments God had bestowed on him were very great A true Disciple of Christ who taught his to be thus minded Learn of me for I am meek and lowly And methinks I hear the Apostle call to us out of this Text saying Be you followers of me as I am of Christ. But if a man propound the Example of the Apostles and Saints of God to some they look on them rather as Prodigies to gaze at than Examples to imitate and do usually with the rude Cyclops in Erasmus return this answer Paulus est Paulus Ego sum ego Paul had a privilege to be good my privilege is to be as bad as he was good But let Reason move thee if Example will not Why shouldst thou glory and in what Art thou Noble No more than the blood that runs out of thy Fathers Nose or that which is blown out of it unless thou be Vertuous Art thou well Apparel'd Yet a Lilly is better Art thou Fair It is but in thy superficies or surface of thy Body within is stinking dung and dirt Art thou Strong Yet weaker far than an ordinary Cart-horse Art thou Proper Yet not so tall as a Pine A goodly great-bodied man The whole Earth is but a Point why struttest thou then so proudly as if thou wouldst out-face Heaven Thou art a wise and subtil piece So is the Devil and a Serpent Thou art extolled and admired of men So is Vanity Beloved of women But their own Lust and Lasciviousness a great deal more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All whatsoever thou boastest thy self in is but ludicrous and ridiculous contemptible dust and less than dust even nothing Why then dost thou glory in any thing God forbid that I should glory in any thing save in the cross What a Paradox is this More strange than not to boast at all For not to boast there being nothing worthy boasting of is but reasonable But to boast of that which is a shame and reproach among all men is uncouth and strangely admirable Crux crux inquam infaelici miseris The Cross was but the fate and doom of Thieves and Malefactors and as little glorious as the deserts that bring to it But it may be it was some fine Silver or Golden Crucifix A pretty toy for Children to glory in What was it The Cross of our Lord Iesus Christ Yet it is but a stumbling-block to the Iews and to the Greeks foolishness I but it is the Cross of Christ Whereby the World is crucified to him and he unto the World This is worse and worse a scandal also to the Christians themselves Sufficient for them it is that Christ bore his own Cross and the Cross bore him It was fitter one man should dye for the people What that we may securely live in sin God forbid He that will be my disciple let him take up his cross and follow me saith our blessed Saviour The death therefore of the Cross belongs to us as well as to him though we would fain avoid it This is true then truer than we would have it that a right Christian whose Pattern S. Paul is must be crucified to the World and the World to him be dead unto the World and the World dead to him But what is the World and what to be dead to it S. Iohn in his 1 Ep. Chap. 2. describes it from its parts Ver. 15 16. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world These then ought we to be dead to viz. The lust of the flesh i. e. all carnal concupiscence and unlawful desires of the Body all gluttony drunkenness and leachery To the lust of the eyes i. e. all covetousness and filthy avariciousness desiring to encroach and compass all that we see and pleasing our selves with looking upon what we have got already but making no good use of it to the glory of God or good of our Neighbour To the pride of life i.e. ambition stately and lordly living the praise and applause of men superiority and authority over others All these things we are to be dead to by the inward Cross by an holy and serious mortification of our corrupt Life But how shall a man be able to mortifie this corruption to kill these inordinate desires I will tell you an infallible way upon condition you will remember it By a constant denial of their Cravings Give a Beggar nothing at thy door and he will never visit thee Desire is starved by being unfulfill'd A man you know often loseth his appetite by staying very long for his Dinner Inordinate desire will hurt a man like an Ague if we pamper or satisfie it The Devil and the Sop will both down into our guts at once But thou mayst pine out both Desire and the Devil that lurks in it by a pertinacious Temperance or stopping thy self in thy outward actions Affect not vain glory in thy actions or words but modestly decline it and Pride will fall in thy Soul in good time thou shalt find Humility rise
in thy Heart and sweetly shine in thee with her mild light Give not thine Anger vent it will be extinct like smothered fire Answer not thy Lust or Lasciviousness and it will cease to call unto thee but dye as a Weed kept under in the ground Dare to do good though thy base heart gainsay it God will look upon thee in pity and repay thee with a more noble Spirit and Covetousness being oft crost will even out of discontent quite leave thee But if thou be false to God and thine own Soul in these things which he hath put in thy power and he hath put the outward man plainly in thy power and neglectest the performance of them and yet doest complain of want of strength thou art in plain English an Hypocrite and the Devil and thy own false heart have deceived thee A man I confess cannot generate himself but he may kill himself So though we cannot regenerate our selves yet we may mortifie our own corruption if we be not wanting to our selves And this is the Cross that we with S. Paul are to bear and to dye upon that when we have suffered and been buried with Christ in this Baptism God may raise us up with him to Life and endue us with his Holy Spirit And this is the New Creature which is spoken of in the next Verse For in Christ Iesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature In Christ Iesus i. e. When we have taken upon us the Profession of Christ have been made Members of the Christian Church by Baptism Circumcision availeth nothing And verily there is no reason why it should for it is a badge of Judaism not of Christianism and cannot no not in Judaism do much without the inward Circumcision of the heart and observation of the Commandments of God Rom. 2. 25. to the end For circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law But if thou be a breaker of the law thy circumcision is made uncircumcision Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature if it fulfil the law judge thee who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law For he is not a Iew which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh But he is a Iew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God And this also was known and propounded to the Iews under the Law Deut. 10. 16. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be not refractory And in Chap. 3. ver 6. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul that thou mayst live And what else indeed doth God require of thee O man but that thou wouldst love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy strength and thy neighbour as thy self This if thou perform in thy Circumcision thy Circumcision is effectual to thee If thou do not it is but Concision and cutting off a piece of Flesh which God and Nature was not so overseen in making but it might well be left uncut off And if Circumcision without Obedience and an Holy Life availeth them nothing that are under the Law how could it possibly be any thing to us that live under the Gospel But to what purpose is this to us that do not bear the outward Circumcision nor are likely to prove so giddy as to revolt to Judaism Wherefore let us here turn aside awhile from the Circumcision of the Iews to that which is its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that answers to it among us Christians And that is Baptism Will that avail any thing without the New Creature What it may do to Children before they be actually sinful by their own misdeeds I leave to the censure of the Schools to dispute That concerns not us who are past Children were we got as far out of Foolishness as Childishness The Question is how much Baptism availeth us of grown Age without the New Creature Just as much as Circumcision without the keeping of the Law availeth a Iew. Can Water wash without the Spirits operation Doth the Spirit operate and effect nothing Are we suppressors and choakers of the Christian Life that should revive in us and yet stand justified before God Can we kill Christ within us and persist in that obstinate cruelty and yet be clean from the guilt or punishment of so hainous transgression by the sprinkling of that outward Water upon us in Baptism Ah nimiùm faciles qui tristia crimina caedis Flumineâ tolli posse putatis aquâ Foolish and too too credulous men they are indeed that think their being dipt in the Font shall vvash out the deep stain of this so horrible murder Yet there is a Baptism that vvill do it and vvithout it nothing is done It is Mortification If the Murderer dye that is that man of Sin the Old Adam or the blood-red Edom and Christ revive all is vvell Rom. 6 3 4. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Iesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Ver. 6 7. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin For he that is dead is freed from sin Believe it though vve are called to Liberty vve are not invited to Libertinism But our true Liberty or Freedom is to become free from sin So you see that Outvvard Baptism vvithout the Invvard is as little available as Circumcision in the Flesh vvithout that in the Spirit If any here as it is not plainly immaterial ask of the efficacy of the Lords Supper So far it is from doing good vvithout an invvard qualification that it is Poyson to the unvvorthy Receiver or vvorse even Damnation it self as the Apostle vvitnesseth It is the New Creature then only or at least chiefly that a Christian must rest upon sith nothing is available without it The New Creature It is worth the enquiring into what this New Creature is that is of such efficacy and power and worth and price It is no more certainly than the New man Ephes. 4. 22 23 24. That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts And be renewed in the spirit of your mind And that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness that is not in external Ceremonial holiness or outward Sanctimonious show but in the
by that Spirit of Christ being alive in you then you seek those things that be above For it is as impossible that the Spirit of Christ should be alive in us and not we alive by it to him as it is that light should be let into a room and the air in the room not enlightened Wherefore if Christ be risen in us we are also risen with him But the Sign that we are thus risen with Christ is that we seek those things that be above But how above What Is the contemplation of the Stars or the knowledge of Meteors viz. of Comets of Rainbows of falling Stars of Thunder of Lightning of Hail of Snow or such like commended to us Nor Astronomy nor Astrology nor Meteorology seem considerable things in the eyes of God Those things that be above That is in Heaven But how in Heaven Or what is Heaven We are therefore to understand that this word Heaven has a threefold signification in Holy Writ First It signifies the Air. Psal. 79. 2. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat to the fowls of Heaven That is of the Air. Secondly It signifies that space where the Stars the Sun and the Moon and the rest of the Host of Heaven do move Isa. 13. 10. For the stars of heaven and the planets thereof shall not give their light the sun shall be darkened in his going forth and the moon shall not cause her light to shine Thirdly It signifies that aboad of the holy spirits of men where the eternal light and lustre of God is present where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God At the right hand of God That is the Power Majesty or Glory of God For God hath neither a Right hand nor a Left because he hath not a Body or any palpable distinct Members Wherefore when any sensible parts of a Body are ascribed to him they are to be understood by way of Analogy or resemblance So when his eyes are said to be upon the hearts of men and his eye-lids to try their wayes when his ear is said to be open to the prayers of the faithful these signifie nothing else but that God doth perfectly both know and discern and approve or disallow as certainly and as clearly nay infinitely more clearly than we see or hear any thing with our eyes or ears Now as by the organs of sense attributed to God the Knowledge of God is set forth so by the organs or instruments of action or operation is his Power decyphered And most eminently by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the instrument of instruments or best of all instruments the Hand The hand of God is the Power of God ordinarily in Scripture So is he said to deliver the Israelites with a mighty hand and stretched-out arm that is by exceeding great Power Now the Right hand being more active than the Left the more usual instrument in outward works or manufactures it may intimate the exceeding abundance of the Power of God Or the Right-hand of his Power may intimate the Power of God to good the more large effusion or pouring out of Benignity the enlargement and exaltation of the Soul of Christ and his Fellow-members as many as have been conformable to him in the death or mortification of the Old Man For these also God will raise up with him to Eternal Riches and Glory and irresistible Power which the Devil Death and Sin shall never be able to overcome But the Power of his Left-hand is the Power of destruction the fury and wrath and strong tempest of God which doth sieze the Children of Disobedience which abideth in Hell for them for an endless woe and toil and torment for ever And this is the distinction of the Sheep and the Goats on the Right hand and the Left these shall be plagued with the vengeance and anger of God in the power and dominion of Hell but those shall be strengthened and comforted with those pleasures that flow at the Right-hand of God for evermore Thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption Thou wilt shew me the path of life In thy presence is the fulness of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore What therefore the Right-hand of God is we plainly see viz. the full and strong stream of his Goodness and Divine Benignity To sit here what can it be but to remain in this Happiness unshaken unmov'd steadily and securely But he that stands is next going or departing AND thus much by way of Explication of the words which will afford us these Doctrines 1. That there is a Spiritual Resurrection of the Soul belonging to every true Christian 2. That those that do partake of this Spiritual Resurrection seek those things that be above that is Divine and Heavenly things 3. That they seek them where Christ sitteth at the Right-hand of God First of the first viz. That there is a Spiritual Resurrection of the Soul in this Life I will not go far for my first Proof I will only step back into the Chapter foregoing my Text viz. the Second Chapter of this Epistle to the Colossians at the 11th and 12th Verses In whom i. e. in Christ also ye are circumcised with circumcision made without hands by putting off the sinful body of the flesh through the circumcision of Christ in that you are buried with him through baptism In whom ye are also raised up together through the faith of the operation of God which raised him from the dead And ye which were dead in sins and in the uncircumcision of the flesh hath he quickened together with him forgiving you all your trespasses And then follows my Text for all the residue of that Chapter may be very well Parenthetical If ye then be risen with Christ c. which he doth assert or affirm in the forenamed Verses when as he saith they are buried with him in Baptism There 's the Death we are to imitate in our Soul that is to have the body of Sin dead and buried In whom you are also raised up by the operation of God There 's the Spiritual Resurrection of the Soul And in the next Verse Ye which were dead in sins There 's the Death of the Soul hath he quickened together with him There 's the Resurrection of the Soul from its Death which is Sin For Sin is the Death of the Soul as Obedience Righteousness or the Holy Spirit of God is the Life thereof But for further and more manifest proof of this point it will not be amiss to rehearse again to you that place at the 6th of Romans for it suits exceeding well with the place I expounded to you just now Ver. 3 c. Know you not that all we that have been baptised into Iesus Christ have been baptized into his death We are buried then with him by baptism into his death that like as Christ was raised
this Resurrection of the Soul is I will also endeavour to satisfie you in that too but very briefly It is the inward Life of Righteousness it is the renewing of the Soul the shaping of it again into the image and similitude of God in a word it is the Life or Spirit of Christ whereby a mans Soul is alive to all Spiritual and Heavenly things I will explain it by a comparison When a mans Natural Life is gone all his imaginations and machinations perish He desires not any thing belonging to this Natural Life nor Food nor Clothing he feels not though his Body be rent or cut or rot away goes not about to preserve or recover the Health or Life of his dead Body thinks not of Wife nor Children nor any Natural thing else But when a man is alive according to Nature he desires Food Meat and Drink for the preservation of his Natural Life Cloths both for shelter and ornament is sensible of what hurts his living Body provides for his Health and Strength is active in the deeds of Nature and if he be a mere Natural man all his joy pleasure and content is in the same Just thus it is Beloved in the Death and Life of the Soul While the Soul is dead Spiritually it hath no true desire to the Word of God which is the Food of the Soul but doth come to the Church only for fashion sake gives no ear to the Voice of God rebuking her in her Conscience hath no unfeigned thirst after Righteousness nor is she sensible of the violent heat of Passion how wicked it is nor feels her self frozen and stark cold to all Charity and due Devotion she goes not about to obtain that saving Health even Jesus Christ that precious Balsam of the Soul nor is she a whit moved whatever mischief betides him But when the Soul hath risen from this Death and hath got the new Life of Christ being enquickened by his Spirit Then hath she a right healthful appeal to that Heavenly Bread and those Spiritual Waters those Refreshments from above the sweet Comforts of the Holy Ghost Then doth she heartily abhor all filth of Sin and keeps her Affections unspotted before her Lord and Husband Jesus Christ clothed in fine Linnen pure and white which is the Righteousness of the Saints Then is the living Law of God to her sweeter than the Honey and the Honey-comb so delightful and pleasant that she meditates thereon day and night She is very sensible of whatsoever is disgraceful to Christ or wounds or hurts his precious Body in any thing very tenderly loves the Communion of Saints and hath a very forward desire to propagate and enlarge the true and living Church of God She never falls by any infirmity or surprisal but is grieved and hurt as the Natural man is vexed when his Body chanceth to fall upon stones and is bruised Beloved where there is Life there is also Sense and where there in Sense there is also Grief and Joy Grief at such things as are contrary or destructive of the Life and Joy at such things as are agreeable and healthful for the same BY this time I hope you are sufficiently instructed concerning the Spiritual Resurrection both that it is and what it is Let us now make some Vses of this Doctrine That there is a Spiritual Resurrection belonging to every true Christian. 1. Then it is plain from hence That every Christian be he what he will that hath been made partaker of this Resurrection was once dead himself For as rising presupposeth a being down first so doth also a rising from death or being quickened presuppose a being dead Hence therefore it is plain That every Christian man or if you will even every man or was once or is at this present Spiritually dead Now the Nature of Death you know is such that nothing that is held therewith nothing that is Dead can recover it self to Life As it is also said in the Book of Psalms No man hath quickened his own Soul Wherefore Beloved this is the proper Vse we can make of this Consideration That if we find the fruits of the Resurrection of Christ Spiritually in our Souls we give God alone the Glory For it is he alone that killeth and maketh alive that leadeth down to Hell and bringeth up again He it is that is the death of deaths and a mighty destruction to the destroyer He it is that is the Resurrection and the Life as he himself witnesseth of himself He it is I mean the Spirit of Christ in us that fights against all the powers of Death and Darkness in our Souls and triumpheth gloriously over his and our enemies He is the strong arm of Salvation from God He hath wrought all our works in us Therefore not to us but unto God be the praise for his mercy and truths sake Nor only are we to praise God but also to live humbly and meekly before our Neighbour For thou whoever thou art that presumest thou hast attained to the Resurrection or enquickening or enlivening of the Spirit of Christ If hereby thou contemnest thy sinful Brother and settest him at nought and art not mercifully and kindly affected toward all men acknowledging very sensibly and inwardly that wherewith thou conceivest thy self to excel others or to be distinguished from them to be the Grace of God and his free work Thou art a lyar and a deceiver and jugglest with God and thine own Soul and art vainly puffed up in thy Carnal Mind For where Pride is there is not the saving Spirit of Christ where harshness of Mind is and contempt of our Neighbour there abides not the Love of God 2. If men be dead till they partake of the Resurrection of Christ then such neither can nor ought to take upon them any office of the living Who will make a Blind man judge of Colours or a Sick man of Tasts or a Deaf man of Musick But he that is Dead is worse than Sick or Blind or Deaf Wherefore no man that is devoid of the Resurrectiod of Christ in the Spirit is fit to judge in Spiritual things or in the secret Mysteries of God It is the Spiritual man that judgeth all the Heavenly man the Lord from Heaven and yet with man upon Earth the true Emanuel God with us and in us by his Spirit the true Judge of the Quick and the Dead As it is written The first man is of the earth earthly the second man is the Lord from heaven As is the earthly such are they that are earthly and as is the heavenly such are they that are heavenly Wherefore Beloved judge nothing before the time that is till the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus till his glorious appearing from Heaven when he shall make every work of man manifest and shall judge with right judgment 3. I will only add an Vse of Examination and so conclude Is there such a State of the Soul belonging to every