procreation c. The motion from place to place which is a strong motion upon the body Est Deus in nobis agitante calescimus illo driving it to the motion of the whole or some part of it And in vain were appetites or desires given to the creatures if this motion were not given because without it they could never compass things desired In God we live and move and have our being Act. 17.28 Reason Duplex est actus rationis say the Schoolmen Primus secundus Ita duplex actus scientiae primus secundus There is in an Infant the first act of reason when he beginneth to speak and the second act when he beginneth to learn So then say they the first act of knowledge is the second act of reason An Infant hath the first act of reason but not the second And a learned man when he is sleeping hath the first act of knowledge but not the second Reason is that faculty or power of the soul whereby we debate and discourse of things and objects that we may be able soundly to judge of that which we rightly understand Sometimes it is taken for the use of this faculty viz. Discretion Act. 25.27 Or Reason is a faculty of the soul wherein men excell all creatures in this visible world This is admirable for by the light of this man can conceive of things as well as by sense yea of things that never were in the senses It can conceive of the nature of God and discern him from his works It can conceive of things by a discerning reflection conceiving of it self and understanding that it doth understand It can distinguish between good and evil truth and falshood viz. the moral goodness of things It can in a small moment of time go almost over the whole world and view it all It can in a sort invent things that never were in being c. And yet bare reason is further from grace than sense is from reason The distance between mans nature and grace is greater than that between mans nature and a beast's It is as easie to change a beast into a man or to make a beast understand reason as to change a Sinner into a Saint or to make an Infidel a Believer Neither is meer humane reason any competent Surveyer of the wayes of God Not that any of the wayes of God are against reason but many of them are above our reason the wayes of God are ordered by the quintescence of reason but in which of the sons of Adam is that to be found When we measure the wayes of God by the standard and scantlings of our reason what a disguise do we put upon them Yea how do we disguise God himself We make him a Justice a Mercy like our own Isa 55.8 what a God do we make of him My thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your wayes my wayes saith the Lord. And shall any reduce and shrink up the thoughts and wayes of God to their narrow and straitned model The Lord said of Adam in scorne when he attempted a likenesse to God Behold the man is become as one of us Gen 3.22 to know good and evil How then doth God scorne them that would make his wayes and thoughts as their own When therefore we are apt to think there is no reason for that for which we our selves can see no reason Consider What if God should appear and tell thee It shall be thus and the reason of it is because I will have it so Is not that answer enough to any man The will of God is reason enough and ought to be the most satisfying reason Many there are in the world whose actings out-run their reason they speak they know not what and they do they know not why In a word they are more busie than wise The inadvertency of such our Saviour made the ground of his Prayer Luke 23.34 Father forgive them for they know not what they do But the soul hath her senses as well as the body Heb. 5. ult And Reason is the souls taster distinguishing truth from falshood as the palate distinguisheth bitter from sweet Princes have their tasters before they eat lest there should be poison in the dish God hath given unto man a taster for his spiritual meat There are three sorts of minds in the world 1. Corrupt 2. Natural 3. Spiritual And answerably three kinds of reasonings One is corrupt reasoning when men do reason meerly sinfully 1 Cor. 15.32 Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die Here was a reasoning in this but it was corrupt In this sense the most unreasonable man hath reasoning in him he never doth any thing but he hath some kind of reason for it There is a natural reasoning Mark 3.6 Christ had told a Leper his sins were forgiven the Scribes sitting there reason in their hearts Why doth this man speak blasphemy Who can forgive sins but God This was properly corrupt but true reasoning Here was only the defect natural light comes too short they did not see that he was God and therefore might forgive sins Else it was true enough according to their Principle had he been but a meer man but their reason was lame and low There are spiritual reasoning And upon this is all godlinesse and every piece of it carried Religion is the most rational thing in the world The whole bulk of godliness consists either in 1. Beleeving 2. Doing or 3. Suffering And consult but these Scriptures Hebr. 11.19 2 Cor. ◠14. Rom. 8.18 And though in the first of them at least there is nothing that seemes to be more without reason yet you will find that in them all there is the purest sublimest and most excellent reason What we say of Logick in a natural way Logick is the Art of reasoning that 's the definition of it may truly be said of godlinesse in a spiritual way godlinesse is the true Art of spiritual reasoning 2 Thes 3.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence there is not one dram of spiritual reasoning but in godly people and therefore wicked men that have not faith they are said to be absurd or unreasonable men Men compact of meer incongruities solecising in all opinion speeches and actions As the mind or understanding is the highest faculty of the soul so the reasonings are the most immediate and highest acts of the mind From them it comes to the will and affections and then it goes out into the actions Therefore the mind is Christs or the Devils chief throne The reasonings of the mind are the chief strength of the mind the immediate flowings of the mind Hence the most rational men if wicked are the worst men in the world because they have more strength of reason than other men and the reason being corrupt and naught the stronger it is the worse the man is Therefore said a godly Divine if I have a child or a friend that is wicked
fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattel Deut. 28. the increase of your kine and flocks of your sheep blessed shall be your basket and your store And in heavenly places ye shall be blessed with those joyes which are at Gods right hand world without end And thus much concerning the first peace wrought for Believers by Christs coming into the world The peace of Reconciliation unto God The second peace which the God of peace grants us by our Saviours coming in the flesh is peace with our selves called The peace of a good Conscience For sin that did at first put God and us at variance continues in the children of wrath not yet reconciled to God a perpetual disquiet Their conscience finding no rest brings in despair and ruine But the apprehension of Gods favour and sense of reconciliation by Christ calms the conscience of the child of God and stops the passage to despair and ruine The ground of this peace is Justification whereby we have peace with God Condemnation is a terror to the heart and the thought of it able to shake the very foundations of the soul But when a man by the demonstration of the Spirit finds himself to be in Christ Jesus and so free from condemnation having his conscience washt in his blood from the guilt of sin and the saving benefits of his unvalued Passion attributed unto him then he takes his rest no turbulent passion shall disturb his quiet condition but will lay him down in peace and dwell for ever in safety This leavenly tranquillity of the Christian heart is excited and effected in us by Gods Spirit rightly informing our understandings of the glad tidings of peace and assuring us of the adoption of sons by the remission of all our sins Phil. 4.7 Hence it is called The peace of God that passeth all understanding The peace of God 1. Because none can confer it upon us but God alone it is his proper gift and his alone work My peace I give unto you Joh. 14. saith our Saviour 2. Because it is not carnal nor humane but divine not consisting in external matters but in the heart the mind the conscience and Gods graces in them which are all internal Again it is said to pass all understanding that is all created understanding because that no created understanding can express it no not conceive it if it be destitute of the Spirit of Christ if it receive no Divine spiritual illumination from above No wonder then that being it is ens transcendens of a transcendent nature it is hid from the world I assure you it is out of the sphere of the worlds activity and too too remote from the compass of worldlings capacity 'T is a secret which the glimmering light of nature cannot discover but is made apparent in Converts and to Converts by the refulgent rays of the Spirit of grace I will briefly describe it for better satisfaction from the Agents and operations or effects of it in man From the Agents Then is the Conscience truly possest of peace saith one Quando caro animo judici regitur animus Deo praesidi gubernatur when the Mind as Judge ruleth the flesh and when God as President or chief Ruler ruleth the mind God ruling the mind and the mind the flesh cometh to work this peace in man For the Conscience by the perfect operation of God and the good mind is as the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 13.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 24.16 Pure good or without blemish void of offence which is the glory and the consolation of the Saints whereby an entry is made for peace there to take up an abode for ever for ever to stay because it cannot be taken from them For it is not possible that that conscience which is purified with the blood of Christ and wholly practised in the works of Gods commandments can be customarily subject to the infestuous distractions of a troubled spirit From the operations or effects of it in man The peace of conscience produceth in a Christian these four things Viz. 1. Confidence 2. Security 3. Liberty 4. Joy This peace maketh us confident in going to the Throne of grace of obtaining our requests and fearless of the assaults of our greatest adversaries 'T is the wise mans judgment of the righteous man that he is as bold as a lyon and righteousness is never without peace where righteousness and peace kissing each other at their joyful meeting augments and strengthens the confidence of the just man No power shall block up his passage but upon all urgent occasions he will unto his God Sin the greatest impediment bringing shame and confusion is quite removed from reigning in him and the guilt thereof taken away from condemning of him Satan the principal and malicious tempter is troden under foot the world is overcome the strong-holds of Satan demolished so that no perplexed evils shall alter his resolutions in the ways of holiness or make him falter in the solemn services of God This peace secures us He that keeps within distance of his enemies reach and lies open without good guard may find that his enemies malice and revenge straight take the advantage and ply their parts making the Act tragical and the Scene bloody But that man that is at peace with God and himself may stand upon terms of greatest defiance against his opposites For as he comes not within the list of their reach nor is destitute of safest protection so neither can their malice or revengeful minds gain the least advantage against him for their greatest power is ever curbed by the awful power of the Omnipotent What can Satan do what can sin what can the world They may thwart us and that 's all Phil. 4.7 Sat mediis tranquillus and all that in vain too for as the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall keep like a warlike garrison for that 's the emphasis of the word with watch and ward that the enemies shall not invade or surprise the soul and through Christ that neither impatience against God on one side not diffidence and despair of Gods favour on the other side shall make us fall from him but we shall persevere unto the end Quis usqnam excidit quem Deus pacis custodit Tell me what man hath ever perished to whom the God of peace vouchsafed protection The third work of this peace is Christian liberty Liberty from the yoke of the Moral law and that in a double regard In regard of the perfect fulfilling of the Law an exact obedience without any error or obliquity is not of absolute necessity but to be proportion'd according to the measure of grace which he that accepts the will for the deed gives unto us Joh.
pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgivenesse of sins according to the riches of his grace wherein he hath abounded toward us The benefit that redounds to us by this is this in general that hereby we are made the brethren of Jesus Christ which principally consists in our conformity with him in righteousnesse and true holinesse Hence it is that we are 〈◊〉 with the holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance called the Spirit of adoption and the Spirit of the Son because sons only are capable of it Talis Spiritus non datur servis sed solis filiis sons not servants are partakers of this Spirit sons not servants use to cry Abba Father There is a spirit of bondage which servants receive which Spirit ye have not received again to fear There is a Spirit of adoption assuring us of the liberty of sons by which we cry Abba Father Hence it is again that the righteousnesse of Christ is made ours Rom. 8.29 made ours by predestination by imputation on Gods part made ours by faith in apprehension in application on our parts for whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many beethren moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified And thus it comes about that we receive an inheritance in the heavens whereof albeit we are not as yet compleat possessors yet out title is good our interest firm in that the possession was purchased for us unto the praise of the glory of God and shall be given to us in the day of our full and our perfect redemption Stand fast therefore my beloved in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free children of the free-woman Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem heirs of an eternal Kingdom Great is our dignity over that it was by nature ye were limbs of Satan servants to sin enemies to God sons of wrath but by the grace of adoption we are the members of Christ servants to righteousnesse friends nay more than friends the sons of God Be thankful therefore unto him honour him as sons let your obedience be joyned with all faithfulnesse unto the fulfilling of his will who hath in his infinite goodnesse made you his sons and taking from you the spirit of bondage hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without and. Amen SAINT PAUL'S Apology GALAT. 1.18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him fifteen dayes THere is no child to Gods Child no man to the man of God look what he saith what he doth he will make good maugre the hearts of his enemies Thus Moses resisted Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16. Thus Elijah opposed Ahabs and Jezabels bawsing Prophets of Baal 1 King 1.18 Thus Micajah withstood four hundred false Prophets 1 King 22. Thus our Saviour confounded the Scribes and Pharisees the Apostles the Jews and Paul here false Apostles and all by the same Spirit As there is a Spirit of truth so there is a spirit of lying God is said to put a lying spirit in the mouth of the false Prophets But here spirits of lying lye in the very hearts of some imaginary Apostles that blatter out they know not what against Paul but he graced and strengthened with the Spirit and grace of God would not be nonplust or put to silence with such facility he had spirit enough to oppose the false allegations of these deceitful brethren who endeavoured to pervert the Churches of Galatia to bring them from Christianity to Judaisme maintaining that circumcision and other ceremonies of the law were to be retained as necessary to salvation Alledging also that Pauls doctrine was no true doctrine in all points and what he had he had received from the Apostles at the second hand as well as they and therefore they teaching one thing and he another quite contrary to what they taught what reason had they to believe him more than them more in number But the Apostle in this chapter clears himself from the scandalous imputations of these insinuating Cavillers as we may see by taking a brief survey of the chapter which may guide us unto Paul's journey First he was an Apostle himself The people said of King Saul is Saul also among the Prophets So said the people of this Saul now Paul is not this he that persecuted the Church of God extreamly what is Paul also among the Apostles But now no more persecuting Paul but Paul an Apostle not of the Apostles making not of men neither by man why by whom then but by Jesus Christ and God the Father vers 1. First then he was an Apostle of Gods making As for his doctrine it was the Gospel he spake nothing but Gospel that which in time past he persecuted no other than that the Apostles preached and Christ taught the Apostles Hence he comes with a curse anathematizing them that offer to preach any other Gospel be he man or Angel vers 8 9. As for his teachers who they were that he answers in a word not man but God I received it by the Revelation of Jesus Christ vers 12. Again he shews how he was converted it was by Gods good pleasure calling him by grace vers 15. And to what end was he called that is briefly to reveale his Son in him that he might do the like unto others To reveale his Son in me that I might preach him among the Gentiles vers 16. When he was thus called he confer'd not with flesh and blood as too too weak to teach him he would not build on the sandy foundations of mans braine that shakes like a quagmire he would surer or none at all I confer'd not with flesh and blood I but some might except against that that he went up to Jerusalem and was conversant with the Apostles and so learned the Gospel by hear-say Nay that 's a lye neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were Apostles before me but I went into Arabia and returned into Damascus He went not up to Jerusalem indeed so suddenly but three years after his conversion he went thither to see Peter and abode with him fifteen dayes In the first three years space of his conversion he saw not an Apostle but when three years were past which was the matter of five or sixe years after the Passion of our Saviour the last year of the reigne of Tiberius or the beginning of Caligula's he went
souls for himself For the first Sinners despair because they cannot be perswaded of mercy only viewing the severity of God and poring upon that Alas I have offended God and am afflicted in conscience I have deserv'd to be a fire-brand of Hell but yet consider the sweet goodness of God he is just to damn stubborn sinners but to such as humble themselves and with penitent hearts beg for mercy he is a gracious God witness Manasses Magdalen Paul c. For the latter Satan will tell thee thou may'st take thy liberty follow thy pleasures needest not be so precise for God is merciful The remedy is to consider not only the mercy but the severity of God also Remember how severely he hath dealt with the Jews for their Rebellion against Christ and his Gospel with David for the matter of Vriah with Moses for striking the Rock when he should only have spoken to it c. For as the act of seeing is hindered both by no light and by too much so the light and comfort of conscience is hindered either by not seeing of mercy or by seeing nothing else but mercy which causeth presumption Here is to be refuted the wicked opinion of the Manichees and Marcionites who held that there were two Beginnings or to speak plainly two Gods one good full of gentleness and mercy the other severe and cruel this they made the Author of the Old Testament and the other of the New But the answer is 1. That Scripture maketh one and the same God both bountiful and full of goodness and the same also severe 2. And though severity and mercy seem to be contrary yet that is not in respect of the Subject for the Divine Nature is not capable of contrary and repugnant qualities But in regard of the contrary effects which are produced in contrary Subjects Like as the Magistrate is not contrary to himself if he shew mercy unto those that are willing to be reformed and be severe in punishing obstinate offenders Or as the Sun by the same heat worketh contrary effects in subjects of a diverse and contrary disposition and quality To conclude then Who have goodness and who have severity If thou repentest and obeyest the Gospel thou art an happy man the sweetness of God and his goodness is to thee But if thou beest a profane unbelieving impenitent wretch and dyest in this estate the most just God will in his great severity cast thee into Hell 1 Sam. 25.29 as out of the middle of a sling The Lord God Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the childrens children unto the third Ezra 8.22 Psal 18.25 26. and to the fourth generation The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him With the merciful thou wilt shew thy self merciful Psal 34.15 16. And with the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry The face of the Lord is against them that do evil Psal 101.1 to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth I will sing of mercy and judgment unto thee O Lord Rom. 11.22 will I sing Behold the goodness and severity of God Of the Mercy of God Mercy as it is referred to God Movet enim pium judicem fragilitas considerata peccantium Cassied Exod. 34. is the Divine Essence inclining it self to pity and relieve the miseries of all his Creatures but more peculiarly of his Elect Children without respect of merit God is most glorious in mercy Shew me thy Glory saith Moses It follows what it was The Lord God merciful and gracious c. In this he is superlative and outstrips Mercy is 1. General 1. In helping his Elect and comforting 2. In scattering and confounding their Enemies 2. More particular 1. In promising 2. In performing And these are the Flagons of wine to comfort distressed souls Mercy is an Attribute in the manifestation of which as all our happiness consists so God takes greatest complacency and delights in it above all his other works He punishes to the third and fourth Generation but shewes mercy unto thousands Exod. 20.5 6. Therefore the Jewes have a saying That Michael flies with one wing and Gabriel with two meaning that the pacifying Angel the Minister of Mercy flies swift but the exterminating Angel the Messenger of wrath is slow The more mercy we receive the more humble we ought to be 1. Because we are thereby more indebted 2. In danger to be more sinful worms crawle after Rain 3. We have more to account for But alas even as the glorious Sun darting out his illustrious beams shines upon the stinking Carrion but still it remains a Carrion when the beams are gone so the mercy of God shines as I may say upon the wicked but still he remains wicked For the Lord is good his mercy is everlasting The Lord is good to all Psal 100.5 Psal 145.9 Micah 7.18 and his tender mercies are over all his works He delighteth in mercy I proceed no further in these only add That for a Creature to believe the infinite Attributes of God he is never able to do it thoroughly without supernatural grace Of the Sacred Trinity De Trinitate THat God should be Three in one and One in three this is a Divine Truth Impossibile est per rationem naturalem ad Trinitat is Divinarum pâ—rsonarum cognitionem pervenice Aquin. Du Bartas ex Lombard Sens. lib. 1. dist 2. more certainly to be received by Faith than to be conceived by Reason for it is the most mysterious of all the Mysteries contained in the Bible which our Divine Poet sings thus In Sacred Sheets of either Testament 'T is hard to find an higher Argument More deep to sound more busie to discuss More useful known unknown more dangerous Some damnable Hereticks especially the Jewes at this day hold an indistinct Essence in the Deity without distinction of persons We assert a real distinction there is but there can be no separation If any stumble at the word Trinity and say it cannot be found in the Scriptures I answer yet the Doctrine is if not according to the letter yet according to the sense Besides there is expresly the word Three 1 John 5.7 from whence Trinity comes The Hebrews of old Siâ—rectè dicuntur tres Elohâ—m etiam recté dici possit tres Dii nam Elobim Latinè sonat Dii vel Deus Drus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 1.1 were no strangers to this Mystery though their posterity understood it not Moses Gen. 1.1 Dii creavit Elihu Job 35.10 God my Makers Solomon Eccl.
and heat The Sun is called light by an excellency Gracè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. splendore â— Orus Pscud Epid. p. 248. The Egyptians call him Orus from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are not able to look into the body of the shining Sun Quia nimiùm sensibile ladit sensum Furthermore In this Distinguisher of Time as Doctor Brown terms it the Sun besides its glory and other benefits the artifice of its Maker is much illustrated from two considerations especially 1. In its motion that it moveth at all for had it stood still and were fixed like the Earth there had been then no distinction of times either of Day or Year of Spring of Autumn of Summer or of Winter for these seasons are defined by the motions of the Sun 2. No less wonderful also in contriving the line of its revolution which God hath so effected that by a vicissitude in one body and light it sufficeth the whole Earth and that is the line Ecliptick all which to effect by any other circle it had been impossible As for its swiftness Bellarm saith Such is his velocity that he runneth in the eight part of an houre 7000 miles Si tanta pulchritudo in creaturâ quanta in ereatoreâ— This dumb creature saith a Divine gives check to our dulness as Balaam's Ass did also to the Prophets madness And for beauty it is compared to a Bridegroom coming out of his chamber If a creature be so glorious how much more is the Creator And surely if Solomon in all his glory was not like a Lilly of the field much less can earthly glory be like that of the Sun in the Heavens The Sun-shine is a sweet mercy but not prized because ordinary as Manna was counted a light meat because lightly come by But should we be left in palpable darkness as were the Egyptians for three days together so that no man stirred off the stool he sate on this common benefit would be better set by And certainly Solem è mundo tollere is to make the World a Cyclops a huge body without eyes Sol in mundo sicut cor in corpore The Sun in the world Aben-Ezra is as the heart in the body All things feel the quickning heat of the Sun not only the roots of trees plants c. but metals and minerals in the bowels of the earth Of the two great Luminaries the Sun is the greater indeed being as Astronomers resolve though rather upon probable conjecture than certain demonstration One hundred and sixty six times greater than the earth God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day Gon. 1.16 Deut. 33.14 The precious fruits brought forth by the Sun In them hath he set a tabernacle for the Sun which is as a Bridegroom coming out of his chamber Psal 19 4 5 6. and rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race His going forth is from the end of the heaven and his circuit unto the ends of it and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof Psal 104.19 Psal 136.8 The Sun knoweth his going down The Sun to rule by day He maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good Truly the light is sweet Eccl. 11.7 1 Cor. 15.41 and a pleasant thing is it for the eyes to behold the Sun There is one glory of the Sun another of the Moon and another of the Stars Of the Moon The Moon is one of those two great lights which God created Luna à lucendo Tully quia solâ lucet nocte Varro But though she is so called and in appearance seems the greatest next the Sun yet she is the least but one and that is Mercury of all the Planets and of far narrower compass than the fixed stars Nevertheless the Moon being the lowest of these shining bodies it appeareth to be bigger in quantity and ministreth more light to mans use than any of the single stars of the greatest magnitude yea than all of them together when it is at the full yet this fulness of light is for a great part of it but a borrowed brightness from the body of the Sun which the Moon receiveth and reflecteth like a Looking-glass God seems saith a Doctor therefore to have set it lowest in the Heavens and nearest the Earth that it might daily put us in mind of the constancie of the one and inconstancie of the other herself in some sort partaking of both though in a different manner of the one in her substance of the other in her visage The meer Irish saith Grimston Hist p. 34. for they are divided like unto the Scottish kneel down when they see the New Moon and speaking unto her say Leave us in as good health as thou hast found us The superstitious Jews offered cakes unto the Moon and worshipped her by the name of Regina Caeli the Queen of Heaven as the Papists do the Virgin Mary Surely saith a Wit she deserves to be deposed from her regency if willingly accepting of this usurped title and their unlawful offerings But seeing mans importunity forced them upon her against consent she is free from idolatry The World is compared unto the Moon for its changes and chances Rev. 12.1 which the Woman in the Revelations is said to tread under her feet And certainly it is good and necessary that every Child of that beautiful Mother keep it there for if it once get into the heart or head it makes them lunatick The lesser Light to rule the night Gen. 1.16 Psal 135.9 Psal 104.19 He made the Moon to rule by night He appointed the Moon for seasons Of Eclipses Eclipses are disappearings of the Sun or Moon which though they come in a course of nature and are by natural light foreseen many years before they come yet there is somewhat in them which should fill us up with high thoughts of the power of God Of a dismal one Lucan saith Ipse caput medio Titan cum ferret Olympo Lucan lib. x. Condidit ardentes atrâ caligine currus InvolvÃtque orbem tenebris gentésque coegit Desperare diem And that they are terrifying and prodigious another sings sadly Signa dabant luctus Superi haud incerta futuri Ovid. Metavs lib. 15. Saepe faces visae solis qucque tristis imago Caerulus vultum ferrugine Lucifer atrâ Sparsus erat sparsi lunares sanguine currus Though an Eclipse be no miracle yet God once made one and can do so again when Christ the Sun of Righteousness was shamefully crucified the Sun in the Heavens as ashamed to look upon that act as from man of prodigious cruelty and injustice hid his face and provided as it were a veil for the nakedness of Jesus that the women might be present and himself die with modesty That Eclipse was miraculous 1. Both in the manner because the Moon was not then in conjunction
flax 3. Bountiful in Porrigendo giving all bread and breath and all things Elizabeth Yong Act. Mon. in the dayes of Queen Mary put in close prison for her Religion hearing that the Keeper was commanded to give her one day bread and another day water answered Sir if you take away my meat God I trust will take away my hunger It was B. Hooper's speech Nothing can hurt us that 's taken from us for Gods cause nor nothing can at length do us good that is preserved contrary to his will GOD is good 1. In himself none good but God 2. Towards others in his works of 1. Creation 2. Preservation 3. Redemption 4. Glorification Pareus coming out of his Study slipping many steps and receiving no harm thought on that promise He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes Psal 91 11 12. They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone God rules by second causes Yet the creatures are instâ—umentum arbitrarium not necessarium Hence an argument against Atheists Let them but look and observe the dependance of causes and works of Providence And then according to the Poetical Allegory they will easily conclude and believe That the highest link of Natures chain must needs be tyed to the foot of Jupiters chair Multa sine voluntate Dei geruntur Orig. Hom. 3. in Genes nihil sine providentia Providentia namque est quâ procurat dispensat providet quae geruntur Voluntas verò est quà vult aliquid aut non vult hinc quid velit vel quid hominibus expediat indicat Si non indicet nec erit provisor hominis nec creditur curare mortalia Well spake a learned Divine We indeed pray to God Our Father in heaven Heaven is the throne of God but Heaven is not the prison of God Gods glory shines most in Heaven but God is never shut up in Heaven Therefore he that is every where Deut non minor est in minimis quà m in maximis can as well do all as any one thing Hence God acts in every thing that acts and there is not any motion in the creature but God is in it They who act against the revealed will of God are yet ordered by his secret will There is nothing done against the counsel and purpose of God though many things are done against the command and appointment of God The greatest confusions in the world are disposed of by the Lord and are the issues of his counsels That wherein we see no order receives order from the Lord. Hence many are as much puzzl'd to interpret what God doth as what he hath spoken In a word Gods Providence is punctual and particular extending even to the least and lightest circumstances of all our occurrences Deus sio curas universoâ— quasi singulos sic singulos quasi solos Aug. The Wheels Were full of eyes The eyes of the Lord are in every place Ezek. 1.18 Pro. 15.3 Mat. 10 2â—.30 beholding the evil and the good Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground Without your Father But the very hairs of your head are all numbred Humane or rather Christian Providence We are to frustrate the Mines made to blow us up by our own Countermines of Prevention and Diversion Sooner may one prevent than cure a deadly sickness and easilier keep out than thrust out our unwelcom guest True of Sin Aegriùs ejicitur quà m non admittitur hospes As they say in Schools of Art It is easier to oppose than answer So we find it true in Christianity It is easier and safer to obviate and meet danger in the way than to tarry till it come home to our doors There is ever more courage in the assailer and commonly better success A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself Pro. 22.3 but the simple pass on and are punished Original Sin ATque homines prodigia rerum maxima So said our Saviour to the people of the Jews Spuria soboles Ye are a bastardly brood because utterly degenerate from your forefathers faith and holiness The like also may be said of Mankind once made upright but they have sought out many inventions Once planted a noble Vine wholly a right seed but now turned into the degenerate plant of a strange Vine O man thy silver is become dross thy wine mixt with water As all those little ones that ever might have descended from Abel Omnes peccavimus in isto 〈◊〉 homine quid omnes cramus isle unus bomo Aug. In Adamo tanquam in radice totum genus humanum computruit Greg. their blood cryed in his so all that descended from Adam have sinned in him As good parents may beget bad children The parents of the Blind man could see Grace is not hereditary So bad parents may beget good children Dumb Zachariah begat a Cryer But how are they good Not by generation but regeneration Adam ate one soure grape and all his childrens teeth are set on edge Vitrà radicem nihil querere â—portet Chinks are not to be sought where a gate is set wide open By Adam sin entred into the world O durus casus Alas what did man lose what did he find Anselm de laâ—u hominà Original Sin is that old tenant that Peccatum inhabitans which Paul speaks of which like a leprosie hath bespread all the sons of Adam à capite ad calcem beginning when we have our being like the man that Valerius Maximus speaks of who had a Quart fever from the day of his birth to the hour of his death We may now say of Man Quantum mutatus ab illo Homo lasciviâ supcrat equum impudentiâ canem astu vulpem furore leonem Yea we may say of all men Numb 32.14 as Moses of Gad and Reuben Ye are risen up in your fathers stead an increase of sinful men In a word This sin like Pandora's box opened through her curiosity filled the world full of all manner of diseases Man that Was in honour Psal 49.20 Jer. 31.29 Rom. 5.12 Heb. 12.1 and understood not is become like the beasts that perish The fathers have eaten a sour grape and the childrens teeth are set on edge By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us Actual Sin Austin defines sin to be factum aut dictum aut concupitum contra legem Dei. Contra Faustum l. 22. cap. 27. Holy Anselm said He had rather be thrust into Hell without than go into Heaven with sin The reason may be rendred Hell would be no Hell without sin and Heaven could be no Heaven with sin Sin is called in Scripture a Work of darkness for divers
sottish and blasphemous as to say If I be predestinated to be saved then I may live as I list for howsoever I live I must he saved And if I be predestinated to be damned all my care cannot alter the counsel of God And therefore our best way is to take our pleasure while we may From whence hast thou this collection not from God and his Word but from the Devil and thine own ignorance For put the case as a Divine saith well thou wert on the top of an high Tower God hath predestinated that thou shalt come safely down or break thy neck in coming down wilt thou now leap down upon this reason neglecting the ordinary way I trow thou wilt not trust thy body upon these termes then art thou mad so to trust thy soul God hath predestinated thou shalt live to the end of this present day or that thou shalt die before night wilt thou upon this drink poyson c. Saying why If God have predestinated that I shall live I shall live though I eat poyson If to die I shall die though I be never so careful If thou beest in thy right mind thou wilt not do thus Hezekiah had the assurance of prolonging his life fifteen years yet neglected not the means of preserving his life So the Predestination of God ought not to make us carelesse of the means of salvation Origen maketh mention of one who being sick and desiring to send to the Physician was perswaded by his friend not to send for saith he If it be appointed you shall die the Physician cannot help you if to live you shall not need him The sick man of a sounder brain than his friend excellently answered Nay if it be appointed I shall live I will send for the Physician that such appointment may take effect Thus God hath predestinated me to be saved So hath he predestinated me to be called and justified before I be saved Though glorification necessarily follow Predestination yet not immediately but there are means from one to another which God hath predestinated to be used As thou art predestinated to glory so also by the same act to holinesse without which he hath predestinated to save none It is therefore concluded that this opinion then is most absurd in reason and also most blasphemous And this for certain that whosoever thinketh reasoneth and liveth thus In that time he can have no assurance that he shall be saved And if he continue thus to the end there can be no greater sign of a mans reprobation and damnation For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate Rom. 8.29 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself Eph. 1.5.11 according to the good pleasure of his will Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will Election Christus est caput electorum non causa electionis Shall Pilate be resolute and say what I have written I have written Electio est voluntas divina conferendi gloriam singularibus quibusdam personis cum praeteritions aliorum Daven and not alter it and shall God revoke Some there be saith Master Philpot that for an extream refuge in their evil doings run to Gods Election saying If I be elected I shall be saved what ever I do but such be great tempters of God and abominable blasphemers of his holy Election These cast themselves down from the Pinacle of the Temple in presumption that God may preserve them by his Angels thorow Election We are elected to the means as well as to the end to sanctification as well as salvation As for the opinion of Vniversal Election that is plainly exploded Act. Mon. All are not called and therefore all are not elected True it is God hath his chosen among all Among Harlots as Rahab Elegit qui è multiâ— aliquâ—â— legit among Publicans as Zacheus among the Pharisees as Nicodemus among Persecutors as Paul Euseb among Thieves as the young man whom St. John recalled Among poor distressed servants as Onesimus c. Therefore we are to preach to all The Elect have admirable felicities above all the men in the world For 1. They have most dear acceptation with God Eph. 1.5 2. They are adopted to be the children and heirs of God in Christ Eph. 1.4 3. They have the pleasures of Gods house Psal 65.4 5. 4. In adversity they are sure of countenance Isa 41.8 9. protection vers 10. Avenging of their wrongs Isa 41.11 12. Luk 18.8 Deliverance and victory Zach. 1.17 20 21. 5. The non-suting of all actions and accusations in heaven against them Rom. 8.35 6. They are made the friends of God Joh. 15.5 16. 7. They are assured of Preservation to the end Mat. 24. 8. They shall obtain glory in Jesus Christ being chosen to salvation 2 Thes 2.13 14 15. There be divers Infallible signes of Election As 1. Seperation from the world 2. A sole relying upon Jesus Christ and the Covenant of grace in him so as we trust wholly upon him for righteousnesse and happinesse Tit. 1.1 3. The sanctification of the Spirit 2 Thes 2.13 4. The testimony of the Spirit of Adoption Rom. 8.15 5. The conformity of Christians unto Christ both in active and passive obedience The foundation of God standeth sure 2 Tim. 2.16 having this seal The Lord knoweth them that are his Give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Reprobation Certain it is how offensive soever this doctrine be to the common people Reprobatio est praedestinatio quorundam ad aternam mortem propter peccata infligendam ad declarandam justitiam divinam and distastful to flesh and blood that wicked men are appointed from everlasting to the enduring of the miseries which are inflicted upon them in this life or in Hell Yet because for present we cannot understand how this should be and perhaps may be much troubled about it therefore to ease our minds and to assure us there is no hard dealing in God let us seriously consider 1. Seeing God hath comforted us and trusted us with many clear points of Knowledge cannot we be contented that God should speak darkly to us in one point Especially when we are told that is a point unsearchable And the rather Rom. 11.32.33 seeing weak Christians are not tied to eat strong meat they may safely let this doctrine alone 2. Sin is no effect of Reprobation but onely a consequent Gods decree doth not force any man to sin 3. That God is no way an Author of sin for whereas the most that can be objected is Rom. 9. That God hardeneth whom he will All sound Divines are agreed that God doth not infuse any wickednesse from without in mens hearts Reprobationis possitivae et damnationis causa in ipsis vasis ad contumeliam preparatis haret Pareus in 4 Gen. vers 2. But whereas they
Adam as thou damnest all by the first I say Zach. 3.2 thou art not love and shalt light short of my love O hellish blasphemy The Lord rebuke thee Our recreation or redemption is a greater might and mercy than all the rest for in the creation God made man like himself but in the redemption he made himselfe like man Māgna est redemptio cum et precium datur et pecunia non videtur Tertul. Illic participes nos fecit honorum suorum hîc particeps est factus malorum nostrorum In making the world he spake the word onely but to redeeme the world Dixit multa et fecit mira Passus est dura verba duriora verbera The Creation of the world was a work as it were of his fingers Psal 8.3 But redemption is called the work of his Arme Psal 98.1 Also it is a greater work to bring men from sin to grace than being in the state of grace to bring them to glory because sin is far more distant from grace than grace is from glory By Christ we have a plenary redemption of soul and body out of the clawes of Satan As the bird is in the fowlers net so were we in the Devils snare but we may say with them in the Psalme the net is broken and we are delivered yea we are delivered eternally we shall never fall into that bondage again The afflictions whereunto we are incident in this life viz. Sickness poverty malevolent tongues imprisonment death it self c. are temporal but our redemption and joy are eternal Let that comfort us in all the calamities of this life We love them that obtain a temporal redemption for us If a young man be bound prentise to an hard Master for fourteen or twelve yeares and if one should buy out his Apprentiship and set him free would he not take himself much beholden to him If thou wert a Gall-yslave under the Turk and one should rid thee out of it wert thou not much beholden to him We were bound Prentises to Sathan he kept us in his snare at his will and pleasure being his bondmen we should have remained in hell-fire world without end Now Christ Jesus hath redeemed us and made us the free-men of God and Citizens of heaven how are we indebted to him Christ hath brought us out of the Gally of sin and damnation therefore let us sound forth his praises all the dayes of our life In the work of redemption God layes naked to us the tendrest bowels of his Fatherly compassion For by giving us his Son he shewed us all his love at once as it were imbodyed All other spiritual blessings meet in this as the lines in the center as the streames in the fountaine If the Centurion were held worthy of respect because he loved our Nation said they and built us a Synagogue What shall we say of Almighty God who so loved our soules that he gave his onely begotten Son c. The end of our redemption is to serve God we are redeemed from our old conversation not to our old conversation we are bought with the blood of Christ not to serve the Devil our selves the flesh the world we have served them too much already from henceforth we must serve God Heb. 9.14 Christ hath therefore broke the devils yoke saith one from off our necks Servati sumus ut serviamus that we may take upon us his sweet yoke and not carry our selves as sons of Belial Serve we must still but after another manner as the Israelites did when brought out of the Egyptian bondage yet thou shalt keep this service saith Moses Exod. 12.25 Ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods 1 Cor. 6.19 20 By his own blood Christ entred in once into the Holy place Hebr. 9.12 having obtained eternal redemption for us In whom we have redemption through his blood Eph. 1.7 Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred Rev. 5.9 and tongue and People and Nation Reconciliation It is the note of Chrysostome upon the phrases of reconciling and making peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys hom 3. in Colos that the one implieth an enmity the other a war and it is elsewhere asserted that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousnesse and ungodliness of men and consequently against men for all their unrighteousnesse and ungodliness in this respect it is that all men by nature are children of wrath So long as man stood in his integrity there was Pax amicitiae a peace of amity and friendship between God and man but when man sought out many inventions God was most justly provoked to anger Thus at first and ever since sin hath proved the make-bate the kindle-coal that incendiary between the Creatour and his creature The meditation of which may convince us of 1. The odious nature of sin Pro. 6.19 No persons more abominable than the contentious Solomon justly declameth against him that soweth discord among brethren That beatitude of our Saviour Mat. 5.9 carrieth in it according to the rule of contraries a curse Cursed are the peace-breakers for they shall be called the children of the Devil But oh how accursed and hateful a thing is sin which hath broke the peace not between man and man brother and brother only but God and man father and son Let our anger wax hot against that which causeth his wrath to wax hot against us 2. The miserable estate of a sinner Caelestis ira quos premit miseres facit Sen. Trag. because he is under the wrath of God Divine anger is an unsupportable burthen No wonder if the Psalmist put the question who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry Psal 76.7 Not Angels in heaven Jude 6. Nor great men on earth Rev. 6.15 16. David seeling some drops or sparks of this anger saith there was no rest in his bones by reason of it Those that do not feel have cause continually to be in fear Mind this against Socinians But now by Christ we are not onely reconciled to God but God is also reconciled to us there being a pacification of Divine wrath by Christs death Under the Law the High-Priest made an attonement for the people Levit. 16. So did Christ for his people God and man were fallen out Christ made us friends God was displeased with us he pacified his wrath towards us which the Father by an audible voice winesses from heaven Mat. 3.17 This is my beloved Son In quo hominibus bona volu◠Euthym. in whom I am well pleased That is as Cajetan and others Habeo in
seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christs Humility Humilitas est animi demissio orta ex verâ status conditionis suae agnitione Cameron Praelect in Mat 18.2 Humilitas virtus Christianorum prima secunda tertia Aug. Vasa sunt virtutis quibus utitur ille qui aquas vivas à fonte vivo Jesu Christo haurire cupit praecipuè tamen fides spes charitas benignitas humilitas Nosce teipsum is a rule very difficult For as the eye can see all things but it self so some can discern all faults but their own As men of this world are infaeliciter faelices so the children of God are faeliciter infaelices A presumptuous confidence goes commonly bleeding home when an humble fear returns with triumphing trophies Yet Vexatio dat intellectum in morbis recoligit se animus Deified Alexander seeing one of his wounds bleed remembred he was but a Man The humble man admires every thing in another whilst the same or better in himself he thinks not unworthily contemned His eyes are full of his own wants and others perfections When he hath but his due he magnifies courtesie and disclaims his deserts Bernard compares humility to the Violet which grows low to the ground and hangs the head downward and besides hides its head with its own leaves only the fragrant smell bewrayes it Aug. Confes He is more ashamed of honor than grieved with contempt His words are few and soft neither peremptory nor censorious because he thinks both each man more wise and none more faulty than himself And when he approacheth unto the Throne of grace he is either vile in his own eyes or else nothing He emulates no man in any thing but Goodness No man so contented with a little so patient under miseries because he knows the greatest evils are below his sins and the least favour above his deservings He is a lowly valley sweetly planted and well watred the proud mans earth whereon he trampleth but secretly full of wealthy Mines more worth than he that walks over them A rich stone set in Lead and lastly a true Temple of God built with a low roof God is more cleer than all light more inward than any secret and more excellent than all honour but not to those that are high in their own conceits When the Ruler intreated Christ for his son Come down ere he die our Saviour staid but when the Centurion did but complain of the sickness of his servant Christ unasked saith I will come and heal him He that came in the form of a servant would rather visit the sick servants Pallet than the rich Canopy of the Rulers son Gilbert Filiot Bishop of London disliking Becket Archbishop of Canterbury would oft say Ad Zachaeum non divertisset Dominus nisi de sycomoro jam descendisset Zacheus had not entertained Christ had he not come down from the Sycamore-tree Not the lofty but the humble receive him Scaliger saith of Erasmus Quò minor est quisquis maximus est hominum Maximus esse potuisset si minor esse voluisset But so humble was Beza that his own words were these I was chosen Pastor at Geneva when I deserved not to have been one of the sheep Humbleness of mind is Schola scala coeli the school teaching and ladder reaching to heaven The fruitfullest trees grow always in the vallies Quantò major es tantò te geras submissius none in the mountains and the highest trees hang down their heads the fairest trees are the deepest rooted The higher a star is the less it appears so the higher that we are promoted we should be less in our own conceit There are some which are 1. Humbled but not humble Jer. 5.3 2. Humble Multi humiliantur nec sunt humiles Bern. but not humbled 3. Humbled and humble Psal 78.34 There be many motives to Humility as the consideration of things which are 1. Intra 2. Juxta 3. Contra. 4. Infra 5. Supra If we look within our selves our conscience will tell us that our sins are for their number great for their nature grievous If we look round about us our Neighbour hath more wit more wealth more worth Against us our Adversary is a roaring Lion Cum sis humilimus cur non sis humilimus If we look downward we behold the earth our mother as the womb from whence we came and the tomb to which one day we must return If upward God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble Be clothed with humility 1 Pet. 5.5 Pride The Schoolmen say as humility is vacuum spirituale so Pride is plenitudo diabolica It is supergressio regulae rationis or lifting up of the mind against a precept or an inordinate desire of excellency in any thing Aug. saith it is perversae celsitudinis appetitus it is a tumor and swelling of the mind Superbia in communi est quâ quis inordinatè supergreditur illud quodest Ames and lieth principally in contemning and slighting of God himself his Word promises threats ordinances worship works in self-esteem and admiration in a swelling for gifts and graces successfulness of endeavours for birth breeding wealth honour place relation and in despising of others It is either 1. Inward in the heart Proud persons value themselves like Jayes by their feathers Hab. 2.4 Pro. 16.5 Or 2. Outward and that In the 1. Speech Dan. 4.30 cap. 3.15 Psal 12.3 1 Sam. 2.3 2. Looks Prov. 6.17 Psal 131.1 3. Habit of the body Act. 12.21 Luk. 16.19 4. Gesture Isa 3.16 5. Actions Isa 3.5 Nehem. 9.16 29. Every proud man forgets himself Remember what thou art by sin Prosper and shalt be in the grave and thy plumes will fall What profit in that Honor so short-liv'd as perchance it was not yesterday Irenaeus neither will it be to morrow Such men as labour for it are like froth which though it be uppermost yet is unprofitablest Pride is the first and last vice of a Christian Aug. in Psal 7. And therefore not unfitly may it be called the heart of the old man that is in every regenerate Christian which is the first part of man that lives and the last that dies Pride saith a Divine is the great Master-pock of the soul it will bud and cannot be hid It is the spiritual leprosie that breaks forth in the very forehead And as Wisdom maketh the face to shine and humility rendreth a man lovely so Pride on the contrary sitteth in the face and deformeth it Hence Hos 5.5 So that Pride is a foolish sin it cannot keep in it will be above-board and discover it self by lofty looks big-swolne words proud gate ridiculous gestures garish attire c. But especially by stubbornness against God and his wayes Pride proceeds from ignorance of God and his will of a mans self and his duty hence is that connection of those verses Hos 5.4
with a little estate joyned with faith and devotion may feel more comfort and see more of Gods bounty than one of vast possessions whose heart cannot lift it self above the earth But few are content with their estate If a man have an hundred pounds he would have two Vaus Pellaeo juveni non sufficit oâ—bis Aestuat insoelix angusto limine mund Juvenal if two then five if five then a thousand if a thousand then ten thousand c. and so in infinitum If a man have one house then he would have another if two or three then a whole Town if one Town then many nay a whole Country If he be a Gentleman he would be a Knight a Lord c. Nay if he have one Kingdom he must have many If he have the whole World he will dig for more as Alexander did The greatest thing in the least compass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isoc is a contented Mind in a mans body And this only hath the child of God who sees that true piety hath true plenty and therefore he is never without a well-contenting sufficiency As a Traveller when he cometh to his Inne if he can get a better room or lodging he will if not he is content for he considereth it 's but for a night So the Christian Pilgrim if God send him in a plentiful estate he gladly makes use of it if otherwise he can live with a little and if his meanes be not to his minde he can bring his mind to his means and live upon reversions A little of the creature will serve turn to carry him through his pilgrimage in his Fathers house he knows is bread enough and on the hope of that he goes on as merrily and feeds as sweetly as Sampsen did of his hony-comb 1 Tim. 6 6 8. Godliness with contentment is great gain Therefore having food and raiment let us be therewith content Yea Be content with such things as ye have Hebr. 13.5 Ambition The poysonful Aconite so much desired of the Panther is purposely hung up by hunters Pliny in vessels above their reach whereof they are so greedy as they never leave leaping and straining thereat till they burst and kill themselves Even so Pride and Ambition admit neither the beams of grace to mollifie the hardness nor the bounds of nature or reason to restrain the swelling exorbitancy thereof Ambition is an immoderate thirst after Honour Latini ambitiosum vobant utpote modum non tenentem in ambiendis bonoribus Steph. Thes Graec. Tertulliâ—n calls ambicious men Animalia gloriae samae negotiatores or an excessive desire of greatness Having Lucifer's Motto Ero similis Altissimo An ambitious man will be ever first he never looks backward but will be forward And not therewith satisfied but still cries Aut Caesar aut nullus There are some people that sleep with their eyes always open Such are ambitious men whose senses although bound up so as they will not hear truth told them nor the manifest danger yet is the eye of their imagination ever watchful to seize upon every advantage that may serve to further their end So as they never take houres rest in the sweet sleep of Content They sow the seeds of discontent and blow the coals of sedition in the hearts of rebellious subjects This was the sin that lost the first Sheep For he not being content in the green pasture wherein God had placed him must needs be brusing of the fruit of the Apple-tree which the same Lord had forbidden him to eat of And so striving to be as God made him fall from what he was It is a sin of such force that even Christs Disciples strive Luk. 22.24 in a most grievous manner in the chamber prepared for the Passover in Christs presence and presently after they had received the Sacrament about a small matter earthly Supremacy which of them should be greatest It is the last vice that leaveth us Hence it is called by some Aug. in Psal 7. the heart of the old man because it is Primum vivens ultimum moriens The first that lives and last that dies By others the shirt of the soul because it is the last vice it putteth off Art thou ambitious Do'st thou spread thy fails Dum petit infirmis nimium sublimia penniâ— Icarus Icariiâ— nomina fecit aquis Ovid. for the wind of Popular applause to breathe upon Hast thou both wing and will to soar aloft with Icharus Beware his fall thy waxen wings will be dissolved Thus whilst thou art floating and Camelion-like feedest upon the air of thine own fancy whilst thou art building a second Pyramides in the air death shall prevent thee Ambition hath a short reign seconded with perpetual infame Insomuch as the wide womb of the Earth can never afford a grave sufficient to bury its shame The best remedy when we find it tickle us is to quench it in the fountain of all gooness Thus Paul I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I â— Cor. 15.10 but the grace of God which was in me Curiosity Cambyses to decide a frivolous controversie let the lot be by hitting his sisters son directly thorow the heart with an arrow Antonius Piles was excellently learned and had so subtile a wit that in common speech he was called Cymini sector a divider of Cummin-seed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is one of the least seeds There are a great many that trouble their heads about matters rather to be admired than curiously pried into And generally they end in this that lusts are the measure of their living and vain speculations the issue of their learning It is good therefore for every one manere intra metas Bernard saith that it is better apta than alta sapere They be not the highest instances that give the surest informations Well expressed in Thales that whilst he gazed upwards to the stars fell into the water For if he had looked down he might have seen the stars in the water but looking aloft he could not see the water in the stars Quae te dementia coepit Quaerere sollicitè quod reperire times I fear me our eyes be greater than our bellies and that we have more curiosity than capacity We embrace all but we fasten on nothing but wind Lord my heart is not haughty nor mine eyes lofty Psal 131. neither do I exercise my self in great matters or in things too high for me Surely I have behaved and quieted my self as a child that is weaned of his mother my soul is even as a weaned child Blessing Benedictio 1. Divina cujus author Deus 2. Humana cujus author homo Deus benedicit 1. Animantibus ut crescant multiplicentur 2. Sabbatho ut sanctificetur Homo benedicit 1. Deo nomen ipsius celebrando 2. Rebus cultui illas divino celebrando 3. Fratribus Ex authoritate 1. SAcerdotali ut
hath seen 2. External an outward way of walking That speech of God to Abraham takes in both Gen. 17.1 Walk before me and be thou perfect Thus if we speak metaphorically that 's not onely a way which we tread with our feet but that 's also a way which we tread with our actions A right course of life is a right way Go here saith God it is a way of holinesse go there it is the way of justice Come hither this is the way of truth Thus God beckens and invites man into his way And surely there 's no safety out of Gods way many have died in Christs way but no man ever perished in it God knoweth the way that I take Job 23.10 Quality Worth is valued by the quality not by the greatnesse of a thing Pro. 30.25 26. Some feeble creatures have a notable forecast And others what they want in strength they have in wisedome The least measure of true faith if exerted and exercised will bring a man to heaven though he have not this or that faith to rely upon God without failing without feeling as resolving that neverthelesse God will hear him in that very thing that he prayes for Verily I say unto you if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed Mat. 17.20 ye shall Experience The requisites for a City or Incorporation are One to judge a law to rule power to defend wisedome to order and riches to communicate Man the City of God at his creation had these will for the King reason for the law free-will for power for wisedome knowledge for riches obedience and cogitations for Inhabitants But man triumphed gloriously in a chariot of glasse which was broken with an Apple And now man is deceived by Satan infected with sin banished from Paradise sweating in labour living in sorrow continuing in warre and fearful of death I have read of a monster having a head like a man teeth like a Lion wings like an Eagle tail and nails like a Dragon and breathed fire like a Devil The wicked man hath reason for his head presumption for his wings stiffnesse in wickednesse for his teeth temptation for his nails and envy for his breath Some sparks of the Deity were created in man in the beginning which he striving to blow into a flame blew them out And now what gets man in the Devils service but death what comfort in his conscience but horrours eyes flaming nostrils fuming eares glowing hands burning and heart trembling As the body of Cerberus supports three heads so the stem of sin sends forth three armes The concupiscence of flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life Delilah deceives Sumpson and the Philistines pull out his eyes Delilah is the flesh the Philistines bind him when reason yeilds to sensuality and pull out his eyes when sin perswades him to iniquity Fas est ab hoste doceri Lay thine hand upon him Job 41.8 remember the battel do no more Aeconomical Order Natura AS Galaton painted Homer vomiting Reliquos verò Poems â—a quae ipsâ—â—â—muisset haurientes To signifie saith Aelian that he was the first Poet and all the other as well Greek as Latine but his Apes In like manner Moses is called Oceanus Theologus from whom all other Writers as Armes are derived Aristotle was called Vltimus conatus naturk Nature the common mother breedeth divers effects according to the constitution of each body Many times by events and accidents divers deformities and blemishes appear which by nature were not decreed to be There is greatest cold in the bosome of the earth when the Sun with greatest vehemency shines on it to heat it even so our corrupt nature doth never shew it self more rebellious and stubborn than when the Law of God begins to rectifie it as an unruly and untamed horse the more he is spurred forward the faster he runs backward Rom. 7. so the perverse nature of man is so far from being reformed by the Law that by the contrary sin that was dead without the Law is revived by the Law and takes occasion to obey its concupiscence When we speak of sins against nature our meaning is against the light of nature not against the corruption of nature Naturally Homo est inversus Decalogus whole evil is in man and whole man in evil And there is never a better of us Therefore Christ came to dissolve the old frame and to drive out the Prince of darknesse who hath there entrencht himself We were by nature the children of wrath Eph. 2.3 even as others Marriage It is called In scripturis 〈◊〉 conjugalis 〈◊〉 tur Conjugium à conjungendo i.e. à jugo communi qâ—o vir 〈◊〉 simul in unam carnem veluti in unum hóminem junguntur Matrimoniam quasimatrem monens nam à matre dictum est Conubium numero plurali Nuptiae à nubendâ— i. e. tegends vel obtegendo quia sicut coelum interdum nubibus obtegitur sic untiquitus virgines dum ad vires dactbantur Gâ—dw Antiâ— belamine tegebantur idque ad testandum 1. Pudorâ—m verecundiâ—m 2. Subjectionem obedientiam sen alterius potestatem in se Some honour marriage too much as the Papists that make a Sacrament of it Sacramentum hoc magnum est Ephes 5.32 yet the Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if every mystery should be a Sacrament there should not be seven but seventy Sacraments and more Neither doth he speak of marriage but of the conjunction of Christ and his Church in that place A number there be also that have exceedingly disgraced it So Epiphanius recordeth oâ— him Marâ—â—on called Matrimony Inventionem diaboli Saturnius and Basilides blushed not to affirme that Nubere generare were à Satana And Hierom with Tertullian wrest some sentences of St. Paul to the disgrace of marriage But let them all say what they will The very first work God did after the very first creation was his marrying of man to woman and one of the first Miracles Christ wrought was in honour of marriage Here Bellurmine also toyes with a triple distinction such as that in his Treatise for Purgatory where Peter Martyr non-plust him A great scholar but were he as great as his great-Grandfather that came to our Saviour with scriptum est his greatnesse were nothing because it is against God who onely is great without quantity Great is Diana of the Ephesians yet nothing because an Idol Before marriage let us begin with God as Abrahams servant did Dos non Deus makes such marriages Forma bonum fragile est 〈◊〉 Res est forma fugaâ— Senec. send me good speed this day And make a Christian choice let not red angels and ruddy cheeks be the loadstones though the one is not wholly to be contemned and the other is an ornament much to be commended But rather grace and vertue remembring what the wise man saith Prov. 31.30 Favour is deceitful
must affect and love her And if at any time she prove hard and unkind to her husband or crooked and perverse he must remember whereof she was made of a bone therefore hard of a rib and therefore crooked Os quod in sorte tuâ cecidit rodas Drus But howsoever she prove whether kind or unkind there 's no putting of her away but as the Rabines Proverb is The bone that is fallen to our lot we must gnaw Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself Eph. 5.33 and the wife see that she reverence her husband Poligamy It is when a man or woman couples himself or her self in marriage to more than one Qui primus unam costam in duas divisit Hierom. The first author of Polygamy we read of was Lamech noted for a prophane and wicked person As was also Esau another Polygamist Some of the fathers were herein faulty as Abraham Jacob David c. And this was not their priviledge as some would have it But whether it were their ignorance or incogitancy or mistake of some text of Scripture or the commonnesse or long custome of the sin it having so long continued was perhaps grown so fashionable it seemed to be no sin or however sure they could not as to this though otherwise good men wash their hands in innocency It is a sin against the light of nature and against the first institution of marriage He that made them at the beginning Mat. 19.4 5. made them male and female Therefore they twain shall be one flesh Jealousie It concerneth our own proper good whereof we feare another doth partake It is the gall that corrupteth all the honey of our life It is a mixt affection of zeal or fervent love Non amat qui non zelat Aug. and carries wrath and rage with it also anger and grief More properly it is a fear or doubt Cum metuimus nè amatae rei exturbemur possessione lest any forraigner should participate or share with the lover in the thing possessed or beloved It hath these properties 1. It is exceeding watchful and quick sighted a wanton glance is soon noted 2. It is violent it puts a man into a feaver-fit of outrage he is ready to take any revenge 3. It is irreconcilable implacable It will not regard any ransome c. Jealousie saith Vives begets unquietnesse in the minde night and day Nature not more able of an acorn to make an oke than some men of a surmise to make a certainty he hunts after every word he hears every whisper and amplifies it to himself with a most unjust calumny of others he mis-interprets every thing is said or done most apt to mistake or misconstrue he pries into every corner follows close observes to an hair Turks Spaniards Italians Mulierum conditio misera nullam honestam credunt nisi domo conclusa vivat The truth is Mala mens malus animus ill dispositions cause ill suspitions It may be they have been formerly too blame themseves Burt. Melanch pag. 602. and they think they may be so served by others He that turned up the trump before the cards were shuffled expects therefore Legem talionis like for like Jealousie is the rage of a man Prov. 6.34 35. Cant. 8.6 c. Jealousie is cruel as the grave Divorce Amongst the Romans if after the marriage any discontent had fallen out between the man and his wife Godw. Antiq. then did they both repair unto a certain Chappel built in the honour of a certain Goddesse called Dea viri placa à viris placandis whence after they had been a while there they returned friends But upon just causes divorcements were permitted There were two manner of divorcements the one between parties onely contracted the second between parties married The first was properly called Repudium in which the party suing for divorcement used this form of words Conditione tua non utar The second was called Divortium wherein the party suing for it used these words Res tuas tibi habeto or Res tuas tibi agito Both these kindes were termed Matrimoniis renunciationes a renouncing or refusal of marriage This Moses permitted amongst the Jewes meerly for the hardnesse of the mens hearts and for the relief of the women who else might have been misused by their cruel husbands The Athenians were wont to put away their wives upon discontent or hope of greater portions Solon their Law-giver who permitted it being asked whether he had given the best Laws to the Athenians Answered the best that they could suffer Picus est imago ingrati mariti the Pyanit is an emblem of an unkind husband for in autumn he casts off his mate lest he should be forced to keep her in winter afterwards in the spring he allures her to him again and makes much of her The Lord the God of Israel saith that he hateth putting away Whosoever shall put away his wife Mal. 2.16 Mat. 5 32. saving for the cause of fornication causeth her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery Parents Beneficia naturâ aentur primò domesticis deinde extraneis Agentia naturalia agunt semper in propinquiora deinde in remotiora si calefacit ignis si frigefacit aqua si scindit gladius si dividit serra in partes propinquiores deinde in remotiores agunt 1 Tim. 5.4 Hence the Apostle let children learn first to shew piety at home and to requite their parents for that is good and acceptable before God The Storks feed their ancient parents Kites expel them Boughs bend toward their root Obed was to Naomi a restorer of her life and a nourisher of her old age Cornelius was the staffe of his fathers age and thereby merited the honourable name of Scipio among the Romans Epaminondus rejoyced in nothing more than that he had lived to chear up the hearts of his aged parents by the report of his victories The blessing of Parents is highly to be regarded Praerogativa parentum Ambr. disciplina filiorum Though there be a difference between our blessing of our children and of the Patriarchs Our benedictio is but bona dictio or bona praecatio their 's was an actual and real bestowing of things on them yet the curse or blessing of Parents is in all ages to be respected Whom they curse justly God curseth and whom they blesse God blesseth Therefore let children so behave themselves that they may have their parents blessing especially at their departure out of the world Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right Eph. 6.1 Father The fifth Commandment requires honour to Fathers 1. Oeconomical viz. 1. Parents 2. Husbands 3. Masters 2. Political viz. 1. Betters in office 2. Elders in yeares 3. Ecclesiastical viz. 1. Tutors 2. Pastours Ambrose reports a tragical accident how there was a poor man in extream necessity
pravitate versamur Damnatus home antequam natus As soon as ever we are born we are forthwith in all wickedness And Austin man is condemned as soon as conceived Our great Grandmother Eve did not bring forth before she had sinned therefore corruption is conveyed by the impurity of the seed being in it incoativè as fire is in the flint Therefore man is at his birth overspread with sin as with a filthy morphew In ancient times and the custome in some places remains to this day great men and Princes kept the memory of their birth-dayes with feasting and triumph Gen. 40.20 And Herods birth-day was kept Origen in his fragments upon Matthew affirms that the Scripture gives no testimony of any one good man celebrating his birth-day I say an ancient and commendable custome if in honour of God for his mercy in our creation education preservation c. But indeed Our sospitator while we reflect upon our birth-sin we have little cause to rejoyce in our birth-day The birth-day of Nature should be mourned over every day the birth-day of Grace is our joy and glory and is worthy to be rejoyced in Eternity which is the day of glory is one continued triumph for our birth-day in grace Behold I was shapen in iniquity Psal 51.5 and in sinne did my mother conceive me Bastard The Greeks call such children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they are subject to contumelies The Hebrews call them brambles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a one as Abimelech Judg. 9.14 as growing in the base hedge-row of a concubine Nothus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spurius quasi ignotus Judg. 11.1 It is an ignominious thing to be a bastard Bastards are despised by all many brands of infamy are set on them by the Law 1. A bastard properly is not a son Qui nati sant ex prostibulo planè incerto patre sed certissimâ infamiâ Abraham was Pater when he had Ishmael but not filii Pater till he had Isaac so that he cannot inherit his fathers lands unlesse he be made legitimate by Act of Parliament 2. A bastard may be advanced to no office in Church or Common-wealth without special licence favour and dispensation A bastard shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord Deut. 23.2 even to his tenth generation Children Children if good are a great blessing what can more rejoyce our hearts than to see our children It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a blessed misery saith he the work of Gods hands framed and fitted for Gods building But if otherwise to be childlesse is a mercy saith Euripedes and Aristotle concludeth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no blessing unlesse it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to have a numerous issue unlesse they be vertuous It is said that Pasiphaes issue were ever a shame to the Parent None are so ready to drink in false Principles and corrupt practices as young ones Plato reporteth of one Protagoras that he gloried of this that whereas he had lived sixty years in all he had spent forty of them in corrupting of young people What a wretched childe was that who when his father complained that never father had so undutifull a childe as he had Fâ—l Holy state answered yes my gâ—ardfather had That regenerate men may have unregenerate children Regeneratus non regenerat â—ilios â—arnis sed generat ut Oleae semina non Oleas generant sed Oleastros Idem Mat. 19.13 Austin illustrates thus 1. As corn that is never so well winnowed brings forth corn with chaffe about it 2. And the circumcised Jew begat uncircumcised children so holy parents do beget unholy children begetting their children not according to Grace but according to Nature for grace is personal but corruption is natural It is our duty to present our little ones to Christ as well as we can 1. By praying for them before at and after their birth 2. By timely bringing them to the Ordinance of Baptisme with faith and much joy in such a priviledge 3. By training them up in Gods holy fear A populous posterity is the blessing of God Let us not take too much thought for providing for them God hath filled two bottles of milk against they come into the world He that feedeth the young ravens will feed our children if we depend on him Lo Psal 127.3 children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward Boy Girle Si puellam viderimus moribus lepidam atque dicaculam laudabimus exosculabimus Haec in matronâ damnabimus persequemur Puerilitas est periculorum pelagus childhood and youth are vanity Eccles 11.10 Education Erasm de vitá c. Origenis pag. 1. Refert nonnihil ubi nascaris sed magis refert à quibus nascaris plurimùm verò à quibus a teneris instituaris Education consisteth in three things viz. 1. Religion 2. Learning 3. Manners Touching the former David and Bathsheba joyned together to season the tender years of Solomon with sweet liquor of celestial Piety Chrys Hom. 2. By the meanes of Hanna Samuel came presently from the corporal to the spiritual Dugge Evince taught Timothy the holy Scriptures from his childhood Hierom would have Lâ—ta to teach her daughter Paula the Canonical Scriptures Ad Letam beginning with the Psalmes and ending with the Canticles the Psalmes as the easiest and sweetest the Canticles as the hardest To this end catechizing is very requisite For education in learning Pharaoh's daughter trained up her adopted son in all the learning of the Egyptians Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel Aristippus that famous Philosopher was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught by his mother The eloquent tongue of Cornelia was a great means of the eloquence of the Gracchi her two sons Philip procured two Schoolmasters for his son Alexander Plu. Aristotle for his Teacher and Leonides for Directer and Informer And Constantine procured three several Tutors for his three several sons One for Divinity Euseb the other for the Civil Law the third for Military Discipline Concerning behaviour we must bring up our children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in instruction and information that may formare mores frame their manners and put a good mind into them as the word imports Let not these things be delayed Thou mayest be taken from thy children or they from thee who then shall teach them after thy departure Moreover Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit adorem Testa diu great trees will not easily bend and a bad habit is not easily left Besides dye cloth in the wooll not in the webb and the colour will be the better the more durable Train up a childe in the way he should go and when he is old Prov. 22.6 he will not depart from it Espousals Contracts or espousals before marriage were a very ancient and laudable custome both amongst
give them counsel or refuse wholesome counsel when t is given Good counsel directs how to judge of things how to speak and how to act Counsel is to a man without wisedome as bread is to a man that is hungry or as cloaths to a man that is naked A good Counsellor may be an Angel nay a god to another as Moses was to Aaron Hence one special thing the Primitive Christians prayed for the Emperour was that God would send him Senatum â—idelem To give counsel is a work of the wise and they who are most unwise have most need of counsel though they seldome think so And it may be a very disputable question who is the wiser man he that gives good counsel or he that readily receives it and makes good use of it However as we ought to do nothing unto others but what we would have done unto our selves so we should advise nothing unto others but what we our selves would do It puts strength into a rule when he that gives it is ready to enliven it by his own practice He that hearkeneth unto council is wise Pro. 12.15 Policy What ever is framed without Policy Grimst Preface to Hist of the world is like unto a building which is in the air without any support or foundation The actions of Princes saith the Historian are like unto strange lights appearing by night in the aire T. H. f. 1206. which hold mens eyes busied with the intentive beholding of them some thereof divining well and some others evil according to the diversity of the beholders conceits and humors Nothing is more Politique Bacon than to make the wheels of our mind consentrick with the wheel of fortune 'T is another point of policy Necessity gives a larger latitude and freer scope to the managing of great affairs never to engage a mans self peremptorily in any thing though it seem not liable to accident but ever to have a window to flie out at or a way to retire Like the fable of the frogs which consulted when their plash was drie whither they shauld go one moved to go down in a pit because it was not likely the water would drie there to whom another answered true but if it do how shall we get out again It is the Turks Policy to be in league with them that are farthest and remotest that so he may the more easily conquer those that are neerest him for then they that are remote may not joyn with his neighbours and by this means by little and little he may come to conquer the most remote and circumvent them who are forsaken of the other When the whole body Politique is sick it behoves them in place to mind particulars and foresee where the soare is like to break out Great bodies have strong reluctations Pellem vulpinam Lconâ— assuere and dye not with one fit or by one blow It was the counsel and practice of Lysander to eek out the lions hide with the foxes skin if need were And that Arch-arch presents strange patterns to Princes telling them Machiavel that justice it self should not be sought after but onely the appearance because the credit is an help the use a cumber But when all is done true Piety will prove the best Policy And the Lord commended the unjust steward Luk. 16.8 because he had done wisely for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light Stage-Play Ludi prabent seminanequitia Austin tells us how Alipius was corrupted by them Plato complaineth how the youth at Athens One of our Countrey-men professeth in Print that he found Theatres to be the very hatchers of all wickednesse the brothels of bawdry the black-blasphemy of the Gospel the Devils chair the plague of piety the canker of the Common-wealth c. He instanceth on his knowledge Citizens wives confessing on their death-beds that they were so impoysoned at stage-plays that they brought much dishonour to God wrong to their marriage-beds weaknesse to their wretched bodies and wo to their undone souls It was therefore great wisdom in the Lacedemonians to forbid the acting of Comedies or Tragedies in their Common-wealth and that for this reason Plutarch lest either in jest or earnest any thing should be said or done contrary to the laws in force among them Fornication and all uncleannesse let it not be once named amongst you Eph. 5.3 4. as becometh Saints Neither filthinesse nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient Much lesse acted as in Stage-playes Reformation There is a 1. Formation 2. Deformation 3. Reformation The formation was at the first creation of the world then God put all things into a â—ood form and order He beheld all that he had made and lost was good exceeding good After that came a deformation by the fall of man and that put all out of order again Upon that a Reformation was made Principally by Jesus Christ So that the time of the Gospel is the time of Reformation Heb. 9.10 And now ought Christians especially to endeavour it But know The way to make the whole street clean is every man to sweep before his own door that true Reformation must begin at our selves He that will repair an house must begin at the foundation So if we will have a Reformation we must reform our selves first and therein begin with the heart and cast out the unclean lusts afterwards reform our members else we shall be but whited Tombs and painted Sepulchres as the Pharisees were In the next place let us reform our Families after that let every one in his place labour to reform the Town in which he dwells and so proceed This is the best order in reforming To reform Alsted propounds three rules 1. Deplorandum 2. Implorandum 3. Explorandum Reformation is a work that hath ever gone heavily on and hath met with much opposition Luther compared the Cardinals and Prelates that met at Rome about reformation of the Church to Foxes that came to sweep an house full of dust with their tails and instead of sweeping it out swept it all about the house and made a great smoke for the while but when they were gone the dust fell all down again Publick respects should be the rapt motion to carry our hearts contrary to the wayes of our own private respects or concernments For consider as it is not the tossing in a ship but the stomack that causeth sicknesse the choler within and not the waves without So the frowardnesse of men that quarrel with Reformation and not the work it self which is Gods commandment Magistrates are to have the main stroke in Reformation of Religion but Ministers must also move in their own orbe and do their part too Ejusdem non est invenire perficere There have been many renowned Reformers as Luther Farellus c. abroad and many here at home who did for their time worthily in Ephrata and are
armour and weapons of a Christian souldier Eph. 6. Adde the Cannon-shot of deep sighs proceeding from a penitent heart the Arrows of bitter Tears and the two-edged sword of the Eternal Word Heb. 4.12 We are not to encounter with flesh and blood nor to fight with the Unicorns of Assyri◠nor the Bulls of Bashan nor the Beasts of Ephesus Neither absolute Atheists nor dissolute Christians nor resolute Ruffians But we are to war with Principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses that are in high places Let Christians gather courage and be of good comfort What if the Serpents brood do bite the Beasts of Ephesus yell the fat Bulls of Bashan push gore and the Red Dragon rage storm march in hellish fury Christ is thy Captain and stronger than they all He can charm the old Serpent take away his sting and grind all our enemies to powder Put on the whole armour of God Eph. 6.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ye may be able to stand against the wile◠of the Devil Temptation There are three things wherein the greatest exercise of a Christian life confists 1. Prayer wherein man is seeking unto and working his heart towards God 2. Meditation wherein he is preparing himself by holy thoughts and divine considerations for his nearer addresses unto God 3. Temptation wherein he wrestles and strives with those enemies of his soul And truly mans life is a continual temptation Yea sometimes the violence of Satan's and the Worlds temptations are such that a child of God is weary of life instance in Job 10.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fastidit tanquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His soul would gladly be rid of the body that it might be beyond the reach and assults of the Devil and his assistants While we breathe in this Pilgrimage our life cannot be without sin and temptation because our progress is made through temptation Temptation is nothing else but Exploratio per experientiam saith Parisiensis Aug. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pierce through Tentare est prop iè experimentum sumere de aliquo Diabolus semper tentat ut noceat in peccatum praecipitando secundum hoc dicitur proprium officium ejus tentare Aquin. Temptations are either 1. Good or 2. Ill. Of the good there are two 1. Men tempt and prove themselves 2. God tempts and proves men by sending afflictions Of ill temptations of suggestion there are three 1. Men tempt men 2. Men tempt God 3. Satan tempts men There are also temptations of 1. Affliction 1 Jam. 3.12 2. Persecution Mat. 13.21 Luk. 8.13 3. Concupiscence Jam. 1.14 The temptations of Concupiscence and the temptations of Sathan differ thus 1. The temptations of Satan are usually to things against Nature or against the God of Nature as Blasphemy Self-murther Sodomitry c. 2. They are usually sudden and fierce and violent like lightening leaving not a man time for deliberation 3. Those evils that are instantly disliked and in no measure assented to or approved So that a man doth not sin in the temptation till he be in some degree drawn away by it Again the Deviltempts 1. Either by way of seducement in which he excites our concupiscence rubs the fire-brand and makes it send forth many sparkles carrying us away by some pleasing object in this our concupiscence carrieth the greatest stroke Jam. 1.15.2 Or by way of grievance injecting into us horrid and hideous thoughts of Atheism Blasphemy Self-murther c. And herein himself for most part is the sole doer to trouble us in our Christian course and make us run heavily nowards heaven In every temptation there is an appearance of good whether of the body Omnis tentatio est assimilati◠boni Schoolm mind or state The first is the lust of the flesh in any carnal desire The second is the pride of the heart and life The third is the lust of the eyes To all these the first Adam is tempted and in all miscarried The second Adam is tempted and overcometh The first man was tempted to a carnal appetite by the forbidden fruit to pride by the suggestion of being as God and to covetousness in ambitious desire of knowing good and evil Satan having found all the motions so successful in the first Adam in his innocent estate will now tread the same steps in his temptations of the second 1. The stones must be made bread here is a motion to a carnal appetite 2. The guard and attendance of Angels must be presumed on here 's a motion to pride 3. The Kingdoms of the world must be offered here to covetousness and ambition Satan usually keeps his greatest and most violent temptations unto the last He tempts most at death One coming to visit a sick friend asked Hath Satan been with you yet The party answered No To whom the other replied Look to it he 'll have a bout with you ere you die When he thinks we are at the weakest then he cometh with his strongest assaults The Lord by Jeremy saith unto Jury c. 4.14 How long shall wicked thoughts harbour◠in thee He asketh not wherefore they come but wherefore they stay For many good men are oftentimes overtaken with evil thoughts but yet will not yield their consents thereunto Yet let a Giant knock while the door is shut Turpiùs ejicitur quà m non admittitur hospes he may with ease be still kept out but if once open that he gets in but a limb of himself then there is no course left to keep out the remaining bulk Intorto capite sequetur corpus We may admit if not pull in more with one finger than after thrust out with both shoulders Let us therefore be sober and vigilant 1 Pet. 5.8 Put on the whole armour of God Eph. 6. and resist him Jam. 4.8 Comforting our selves both in the example of Christ Heb. 2.16 4.15 and of Christians 1 Pet. 5.9 in Gods care for us 1 Cor. 10.13 and promises made to us in temptations 2 Cor. 12.9 10. Isa 27.1 Rom. 16.20 And let us be earnest in prayer Tactu qualitativo that either Satan may not tempt us or that he may not touch us at least as Cajetan expounds it 1 Joh. 5.18 with a deadly touch so as to alter us from our gracious disposition Simon Luk. 22.31 32. Simon behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may fift you as wheat But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not Demoniack If God chastise us with his own bare hand Lunaticus speculum miseriae humanae malitiae Satanae Pareus in Mat. 17.15 Act. 16 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vteres Pytlones or by men like our selves let 's thank him and think our selves far better dealt with than if he should deliver us up to the publike Officer to this Tormentor to be scourged with scorpions at his pleasure The Seventy Seniors usually call those who are possessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the Devil spake
Our creation our preservation do both plead for and challenge it at our hands a regular conformity to his will for we are his people and the sheep of his pasture but much more our redemption the end whereof is that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear Luke 1.74 75. in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life This obedience is 1. Internal wrought and seated in the heart 2. External profest and made conspicuous by outward expressions For the former it is internal wrought in the heart for the outward motions of our service and observance to God have their proper dependance upon the good operations of the heart as it is affected moved and ruled by the Spirit of grace In nature the heart is primum vivens the first part in man that lives and communicates natural life and motion to the rest So in grace the heart is the very first that receives new life from above according unto which all the other parts become instruments of righteousness and Gods glory from being instruments of sin and Gods dishonour The heart then once subdued to the obedience of God the rebellion of our nature being suppressed and the love of God shed abroad in them by the holy Ghost which is given unto us there is by the effectual working of the power of the most High begotten in us an ardent love of God which is that spiritual flame of pure heavenly fire that makes us zealous of good works that actuates the whole man in piety putting us awork in the serious disquisition of the affairs of heaven and making us fiery hot in the Christian pursuit of Gods glory and our eternal quiet The Apostle defines it to be the fulfilling of the Law so that upon it depends our obedience there being no obedience without it Wherefore to conclude this with S. Bernard on the Canticles Dilexit nos Deus dulciter sapienter fortiter dulciter quia carnem induit sapienter Bern. quia culpam cavit fortiter quia mortem sustinuit Sic nos diligamus Deum dulciter ne illecti sapienter ne decepti fortiter ne compressi deficiamus God loved us sweetly wisely sirmly Sweetly because he assumed our nature wisely because he eschewed and declined our sin firmly because he sustained death for us In like manner let us love God sweetly lest allured wisely left intrapped and firmly lest constrained and fore urged we revolt and apostatize from him Let our affections then be once heartily endeared unto him as they ought to be and the whole world shall not remove our standing nor make us forsake our obedience due to God For the latter This honour consisting in obedience as it is internal wrought in the heart and seated there by love so it is external profest by outward expressions It must not be lockt up in perpetual silence nor buried in endless obscurity but our lips must be open to shew forth his praises and our light must so shine before men that they seeing our good works may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven This honorable obedience is exprest two ways 1. By good language 2. By good actions First it is exprest by good language The heavenly host of Angels be assembled together to give the good time of the early day to the Son of God now made the Son of Man Sing and rejoice not only because the vacant places of Apostate Angels were to be filled up and supplied with the redeemed Israel of God but also because we are by his most happy Incarnation made most happily the sons of God of the sons of wrath and partakers of their happiness of being partakers of great misery Wherefore joy was proclaimed from Heaven in the sweetest dialects by the Divine Heralds of Honor because the Author and Giver of Joy was come then into the world which was the best day that eâ—er than beheld made more glorious by the glorious rising of the Sun of Righteousness Joy again is commanded because enmity betwixt God and man the just cause of sorrow is removed Questionless Glory in the highest degree and largest extent is to be rendred unto God which our first Parents by their unlawful transgression would have taken away And if the Angels thus sing and rejoice how much more are we engaged in the performance of the like since he took not upon him the nature of Angels but the nature of Man since unto us that Child was born and for us that Son was given Sing and fear not then as the Angels said because he was born who hath taken away all cause of fear The Israelites did lift up their voices with Jubile 2 Sam. 〈◊〉 when the Ark of the Covenant was brought unto them which was but a shadow or figure of the Lords Incarnation how much more ought we to rejoice unto whom the Lord himself is come and hath honored us with the assumption of our flesh unto him Abraham rejoiced when he saw by faith the day of the Lord afar off how much greater ought our rejoicing to be now that he was Immanuel God with us He rejoiced when he saw the Lord in an humane shape assumed for a time appearing unto him what should we do now that Christ hath coupied unto himself our nature by an everlasting covenant and inviolable union Our souls ought to magnifie the Lord our God and our spirits to rejoice in God our Saviour A new song is expected of us being the old things are passed and all things become new With the Heavens ought we in a more special manner to declare the glory of the God of Heaven and sound forth in the choifest language and with most chearful heart from generation to generation the everlasting praises of our God for the wondrous work of our Redemption God commands us Good Angels invite us all things prompt us to make our tongues as pens of ready writers to set forth that good matter is indited in and by our hearts concerning the King of Kings Psal 45. whereby we may make his name to be remembred in all ages and the people to praise him for ever and ever Secondly This honorable obedience is exprest by good actions To speak well and do ill is simulata sanctitas counterfeit sanctity deliverâ—d by some to be duplex iniquitas a double iniquity Being that the true Light is gone into the world from the Father of Lights who dwelleth in that Light which is unaccessible We who are the Children of Light by profession ought not to be imployed in the works of Darkness by dissimulation Our behaviour and conversation must be candid and unstain'd if our souls have received the true stamp and character of goodness For this purpose God gave Christ and Christ gave himself that he might redeem us from all iniquity Tit. 2.14 and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Enoch walked with God and Abraham pleased
heartily cry in a low straine of humility Pecoav◠against thee thee 〈◊〉 O Lord have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight If we can confidently set up our whole rest in our Redeemers alsufficiency we may presume that according to his promise he will extend his mercy and his favour unto all of us For this very purpose did he send his Son unto us that he might be well pleased with us in him in whom alone he is well pleased and was content from all eternity with the death of his Son to manifest in the fulness of time his good will towards men This is the reason why the Prophet Isaiah cals the year of Christs Nativity Isa 61.2 or the whole time of the Gospel The acceptable year of the Lord for the Lord accepts of us in him and no otherwise than as we are in him and being in him he gives us of his good will a secure conduct through all the various casualties of mortality wherefore saith the holy singer Thou Lord wilt blesse the righteous Psal 5.22 with favour wilt thou compasse him as with a shirld To make good this his good will further unto us he hath together with his Son made us a deed of gift of all things Rom. 8.32 For he that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all would not but with him also freely give us all things Should I go about to describe the immense amplitude of my Gods liberality my words would rather extenuate than enlarge it not being able to reach to so holy a slrain as the excellency and worth thereof requires His love beside his gifts is boundless without all limits of time from eternity to eternity I use the Apostles words as wanting of mine own for a fit expression he did praedestinate us before the foundation of the world unto the Adoption of Children Eph. 1.5 6 7. by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Whereupon it is to be infer'd that without Christ there is no hope of mercy God in him expresses his good will to us in him we are elected by him called through him saved In solo dilecto suo Jes◠Christo Robertus Stephous in glos Deus charos sibi reddit quotquot in hoc selegit faith Stephanus in his gloss as many as God hath selected out of the world to be a peculiar people to himself are indeared unto him in his dear Son So that every one that belongs to the election of grace according to the dispensation of his immortal riches may truly say as Abraham did to Sarah it may be well with me for thy sake and my soul shall live because of thee The Lord when he looks upon his Son and on us in him remembers mercy You may be pleased to call to mind what use the rain-bow serves for which is a pregnant figure of Christ our Saviour whereby we are inform'd to use the words of a reverend Prelate that when either the dark blackness of ugly sin Dr. Babington Bish of Worcester in Gen. 9. or the thick clouds of grief and adversity do threaten unto us any fearful overthrow we should clap our eyes upon our rain-bow Christ Jesus and be assured that although that blacknesse of sin be never so great yet in him and by him it shall be done away and never have power to undo us Although those mists and fogs of adversity be never so thick yet shall they by him as by a hot and strong sun be disperst and never able to drown us The greatest rain we know shall end ere it come to such a flood again and so shall these things before we fall Ecce signum behold Christ is put for a sure signe and token of Gods good will towards men But now I will close neerer and shew what in his good will he hath done for our souls I can pass by Gods sending of his Son as presupposed being the occasion of this blessed ditty but I can never pass by our restitution unto grace by him the greatest act of good will that ever was for when sin had overblackt us with such deformities as left no part cleare when we stood in direct point of diameter to his holyness and could not avoid the sentence of condemnation through his tender mercy the day-spring from on high did visit us and the light of his countenance did shine upon us to give light unto us that sate in darknesse and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the wayes of peace Whereby we now stand on firmer and fairer terms of happiness and prosperity than before our first declination There is a more established safety in the condition we have by Christ in Christ than in that first wherein we were lest unto our selves For we fell from that first from this last we cannot and being fallen from that a better a surer cannot be compassed but by him Soul and body were so debilitated through the corruption of our degenerated nature and we so desperately praecipitate in sinful deliberations as that we could not help our selves in this time of need Potui per me sancte Pater offendere sed non valui per me placare saith Aug. in his Manual O my God I could easily offend thee Aug. Manuale cap. 8. by my self but by my self never appease thee nor expiate my offence God therefore unwilling to strive with man for ever who for ever without his mercy he found inclin'd to mischief in a relenting affection remembring we are but dust Pathetically pities our case and in his good will sends us a Redeemer for which the Angels sing Beleeve me O ye servants of my God beleeve me my God can as soon cease to be God which is impossible as cast away his eyes of pity and mercy from us but like as a father pitieth his children Psal 103. so doth the Lord the Workmanship of his hands Blesse the Lord O my soul saith David and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies Boys Postil Ephes 3. The love of God saith one in his Postils is like a Sea into which when a man is cast he neither seeth bank nor seeleth bottom Accordingly saith the Apostle The length the breadth the depth and the height of this love passeth all humane knowledge And as his love is thus without all measure greater by infinite degrees than that of Jonathan to David so are his favours innumerable It was a Martyrs speech worthy registring to posterity To
God no man all spirit no body And besides it argues an impossibility for no creature can be changed into the Creatonr no finite body into an infinite and eternal substance It sufficeth us to know that Christ's soul and body were conditioned according to the description given when he entred into his glory And thus much of the person exalted Christ who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse despising the shame Hebr. 12.2 and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God We are next to consider Christ's exaltation the degrees of which are threefold the first degree is his Resurrection answering to the first degree of his humiliation which was his death The second degree is his ascension answering the second of his humiliation which was his burying The third degree which is the height of his exaltation is his sitting at the right hand of God opposed to the lowest of his humiliation which was his descâ—nt into hell his remaining in the state of the dead By these degrees Christ entred into his glory My text limits me to the first degree of his exaltation which is his Resurrection from the dead It was a cruel conflict that Christ had upon the crosse he had his own Father against him taking vengeance upon him for the sins of the world he had Satan against him who out of a malicious disposition plotted and attempted his ruine he had the world against him in bruing their hands and their hearts in his blood his blood be upon us and our children say the Jewes The chief Priests the Scribes the common people the souldiers bandied themselves together against the Lord and against his annointed So close was their pursuing of him that indeed he received the foile they pierced his hands and his feet with nailes and his sides with a speare in the end they ended his dayes the height of their malice But not long after he reviv'd for the third day he rose again which he did for his own greater glory for his and our enemies more shamefull overthrow and for his disciples firmer consolation This was foretold by himself this was testified by men and Angels and is beleeved that he rose the third day Our faith in this is underpropt not only by the testimony of Angels and men Luk. 24.46 but also by Scripture and Arguments Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day By Arguments containing manifest demonstrations of the truth of his resurrection drawn from 1. His body 2. His soulâ— In that which is drawn from his dody Christ doth declare three things 1. That his body was a true real substantial and sollid dody And not framed onely in the imagination or compos'd all of an airy substance Feele and see saith he a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have 2. That his body was a humane body by shewing how that he had the true and perfect effigies and expressions or a man to be seen by the eye 3. That it was the very same numerical body which he hâ—d before by laying open to the view the grievous wounds which he suffered in his body Behold my hands and my feet that it is my self The wounds in his body discover the naked truth of his resurrection In the Argument which is deducted from his soul reunited to his body his resurrection is proved and that by the operations and works of the threefold life proceeding from the soul whereof man is partaker 1. By the works of the nutritive life in that he did eat and drink with them 2. By the works of the sensitive life his answers to his disciples giving evidences of his hearing his discerning them from others of his seeing 3. By the works of the intellective life in his discourses and explications of the profound mystery of the crosse Moreover the time when he rose was the third day He lay not dead in the grave three compleat dayes under the dominion of death for then he should not have risen till the fourth day So that he was but one day and two pieces of two dayes in the grave for he was buried in the evening before the Sabbath and rose in the morning the next day after the Sabbath The Friday evening he was buried the sunday morning he rose again which was the first day of the week and is now our Sabbath observed in memory of his glorious rising who is the Sun of Righteousness from death unto life And as in the first Day of the first World Light was commanded to shine out of darkness upon the deeps So in the first Day of this new World made new by Christ this glorious Sun after its Eclipse come to its period appeared in the brightness of his glory and gives light for ever to those that sit in darkness and dispels those clouds of obscurity that were under the Old Testament from the Christian world So long he rested in the grave as three days yet not full for a demonstraiton of the truth of his death And no longer that his body might not see corruption For had he risen presently we might doubt of the truth of his death Had he remained longer in the grave or unto the end of the world his body would according to the course of nature be corrupted and we might doubt of the truth of his Divinity which required for the manifestation of his power a quick resurrection of his body and a reuniting of the soul thereunto To confirm therefore our faith in both He rose the third day from the dead to enter into his glory As for the power by which he was raised it was not by any other than his own Though this act be attributed to the Father Act. 2.24 yet it is his power too For whatsoever is the Father's is his because He and the Father are one It was the power of his Divinity Superas evadere ad auras Hic labor hoc opus est that effected this great work Destroy this temple and within three days I will raise it again Joh. 2.19 I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it again cap. 10.18 Secundum Divinitatis virtutem corpus resumpsit animam quam deposuerat anima corpus resumpsit quod dimiserat sic Christus propriâ virtute resurrexit saith Aquinas According to the mighty working of the Godhead his body reassumed the soul which it did resigne and the soul that body out of which it parted and thus Christ by his own proper power did rise from the dead For indeed it was not possible that he should be holden of it Act. 2.24 for then should he not enter into his glory Here come two points occasioned by these words to be treated of Viz. 1. The Necessity of Christ's Resurrection 2. The Ends thereof Of the Necessity of his Resurrection As it was necessary that Christ should
Faith and Repentance in his Church when by his powerful operation he converteth the souls of sinners from the errors of their way in an outward apparition then is he said to be sent visibly the Dove appearing at Christs Baptism did intimate the presence and the efficacy of the holy Ghost the cloven tongues like fire in the Primitive Church in the times of the Apostles were a demonstration of his presence and power The manifestation of his graces in Christ and his Apostles at those times discovered his presence But he is not sent thus alwayes but at appointed times and upon special occasions thus that Prophesie of Joel 2.28 was fulfilled He is sent invisibly when no signes are used to declare his presence in our hearts only he that hath him knows he is there Thus was he in the Prophets for he spake by them And every Christian that belongs to the election of grace hath the Spirit sent him thus invisibly he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Rom. 8.9 And cum gratia Spiritus sancti datur hominibus profecto mittitur Spiritus à Patre when the grace of the Spirit is confer'd on men of a truth the Spirit of grace is sent then of the Father Christ's Spirit comes not to us by a temporal motion but by the temporal motion of the creature is signified the spiritual and invisible sending of Christ's Spirit Again he is sent unto us by the Ministry of the Word the power of God to our salvation and by the administration of the Sacraments By the Word illuminating our understandings before darkned enabling us to judge of spiritual things our judgment before restrained to carnal working saith love hope peace patience temperance with a reformation of our lives and all other vertues in our hearts By administration of the Sacraments confirming our faith in the promises sealing unto us our adoption perfecting in us the assurance of our reconciliation with God and assuring us that we shall be made partakers with the Saints in glory of the full fruition of the presence of God and be put into the possession of that immortal and eternal inheritance in the highest heavens prepared for Gods children before the foundations of the world were laid This sending of the Spirit of the Son either visibly or invisibly by the Word or Sacraments is not a local motion a going from one place to another descending from heaven to earth but his operation and effectual working in the hearts of Gods Saints He is every where filling heaven and earth and therefore not movable from heaven to earth but ubi operatur ibi est where he works there he is and is said to be sent thither Let us now learn how to conceive of God and be assured of his love had he not loved us he had not sent his Spirit to us He sends his Spirit to us and gives us the best things we must not deny any thing unto him thanklesse creatures then we should be And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption And prepare we our hearts to entertain and receive him sweeping clean the secret chambers of our souls making our bodies also fit temples for the holy Ghost to dwell in The firm ground of all Christian comfort and stedfast foundation of all the heirs of eternal blisse is to be the sons of God Men of this world are ever ambitious of honorable titles and use all means to insinuate themselves into the favor of their Prince aiming hereby at a worldly happinesse Thus men of the world to come so I may term the faithful for they are not of this world are ever in action and the bent of their endeavours ever tending to obtain the honorable title of the sons of God What means God hath ordained for them to win his favour by as obedient children use aiming hereby at an eternal inheritance and at the crown of immortality that never fades away which that as sons they by the grace of God their heavenly Father may compasse they cry and pray without ceasing unto him who is willing to hear and able to fulfil their holy desires to the utmost even above what they ask And that they may be the better able to hold out unto the end and to profecute their earnest intentions in righteous things God because they are sons sends forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts whereby they cry Abba Father There remains now these three Parts to be treated of The place whither the Spirit is sent the effect of the Spirit there and the reason of all this Now that you may receive with pure hearts and blamelesse affection the sincere truth of Gods holy word whil'st ye are reading these lines sequester your sences and your souls from all wandring and evil thoughts and cast away from you all misdeeming conceits as Elias did his Mantle to the earth when he ascended into heaven or as Moses took off his shoes when he trod on holy ground The next Subject of our Meditation is the place whither God sends forth the Spirit of his Son which is our hearts God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts The estate of every true Christian and child of God in this life is partly carnal partly spiritual they have flesh they have spirit the first state comes by nature call'd the state of nature the second by the free and undeserved grace of God Non habeo domine quodignoscâ—s Donatus call'd the state of grace Hence we may consider them two wayes conditioned 1. They are carnally minded 2. Spiritually minded Their purity is not totally and fully unblemisht he that saith he hath no sinne is a lydr and there is no truth in him 1 John 1.8 For they are subject to a twofold Law 1. To a Law in the members which none can put off until they put off their flesh and thus far they are unregenerate 2. To the Law of the mind which is the Law of God call'd the Law of the mind regenerate and illuminated converted unto God by the Spirit wherein the godly do delight Hence ariseth a mortal warre and an unsppeased enmity within man I see faith Paul another law in my members warring against the law of my mind the good that I would do I do not but the evil which I would not do that do I Rom. 7. The flesh lusteth against the spirit Gal. 5.17 and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other and draw like Sampsons Foxes contrary-wayes The Maxime grounded then upon these words to which my former discourse hath relation is that by nature we are destitute of the Spirit of God and by consequence prone to all evil Had there not been a reflection of Gods goodnesse and mercy upon us did he not by supâ—rlour causes and transcendent means work our regeneration and caused us by a second birth which
him that the Supreme Majesty would hold him in such reputation as so friendly to reveal himself to him or to make such large promises of grace as he did which his best endeavours could never compass to merit I think Jacob thought not the news to be too good to be true God told him but too great for a sinful creature to receive from a spotless Creator However beside the glory and largeness of the Promise the rarity of the Apparition did put him into a religious extasie being unacquainted with the Lords designs or with his manner of working But soft a while Should not Jacob the Almighty thus freely opening his heart unto him rather rejoyce than be afraid Is it fit he should be muffled up in a pitchy cloud of dejecting fear who ought to be clothed with the bright garment of refreshing joy Surely did the dead ashes of this grave Father revive his reply I believe would be to no other purpose Paraeus in lot than that of that famous German Divine whom the best learned honour in the dust Sancti quidem laetantur patefactionibus Dei sed cum timore tremore The Saints indeed rejoyce at the gracious presence of the Lord of glory but 't is with fear with trembling When the Majesty of God who is a consuming fire approacheth neer although his mercy raise up their spirits to an height of joy yet the experience of their unworthiness and the exquisite sense of their manifold infirmities beget in them a shivering fear and that fear humility Cicero Cicero Pagan Rome's chiefest Orator averred as much of that fear Nature did possess him of And by the best Divine France ever bred the fear bred by Religion Calv. in loc is entituled Piae submissionis magister the master of a pious lowliness Neither is it without reason God makes his servants to rejoice as the Prophet speaks with trembling but that in an obedient subjection and denial of themselves Psal 63.3 they might embrace and depend upon his favour better as King David saith than life it self Thus having vindicated good Jacobs credit from the unjust taxe or hard censure of the severest Criticks I may make this Application To the Perverse Malefactor Penitent Delinquent Setled Christian Perverse Malefactors must efther fear or perish Necessity is laid upon them to perform the one or undergo the other If through a careless security they shake off all fear of God I see not how they can decline Divine vengeance Wherefore as the Spirit of God terms them children of disobedience because of their obstinate rebellion so because thereby they make themselves liable to his eternal indignation Ephes 2.3 are they called by the same Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 children of wrath whereupon the Lord challengeth vengeance unto himself Nemo crimen gerit in pectore qui non idem Nemesin in tergo Nemesis dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quòd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vengeance â—elongeth unto me and I will recompence As sure as he is in heaven if sinners will not filially fear him for his mercies he will for his justice make them slavishly fear him with a vengeance Look then to your tacklings ye that without fear or wit hurry into manifold impieties Ye heap up wrath against the day of wrath when not a glimpse of comfort shall be vouchsafed you Let the loose Epicure glory in his joyous voluptuousness let the licentious Libertine exult in his ungodly courses let the miserable Wordling rejoyce in his Idol-god of Gold let the luxurious Adulterer whose wandring eye sparkles at the sight of a fond Beauty prostrate himself at the shrine of his bewitching goddess let the revelling Drunkard beset his soul with continual exhausting of intemperate Cups let the light-finger'd Pilferer and deceitful Tradesman with sleight of hand in false weights of measures inrich himself to the impoverishing of others let the debaucht Blasphemer who with execrable oaths tears God and the Son of God in a thousand pieces triumph in his unrighteous dealing let the sacrilegious Sabbath-breaker who makes that day the onely day of his repast and unlawful dalliances cheer up his heart the best he may let the irreligious Prophaner of the sacred Temple of the Lord who buyes and fells within the holy limits cheer up himself with his ungodly gain let the griping Officers whose unjust exactions had wont to creep in under the modest cloke of voluntary courtesie or fair consideration of a befriended expedition now come like Eli's sons Nay but thou shalt give it me now and if not I will take it by force Hall in conscion in Act. 2.37 1 Sam. 2.16 In a word I should be infinite should I insist upon particulars Let the legal Thefts of professed Usurers the crafty Compacts of slie Oppressors the conniv'd at Idolatry of superstitious Papists dare throw down the gantlet to Justice and insolent disobediences do so to Authority without the fear of God yet for all this shall these come to judgment when base fear shall so seise upon their confounded souls that they shall in vain cry to the hills to hide them to the mountains to cover them from the presence of the Lord. Jeer not at this ye obdurate sinners Ask not in derision the Disciples question in a worse sense Domine quando fient haec Master when shall these things be Believe Christians the time 's at hand when all impenitent offenders and flie fellows void of Jacob's fear shall receive their doom to be sent as into utter darkness so into unquenchable fire Next Penitent sinners must fear the Almighty hence a token of their conversion but not despair Whose fear albeit it be somewhat servile at first the nature of it is changed into a better condition or abolished They are led saith one by the Spirit from the fear of Slaves through the fear of Penitents Chrysoft to the fear of Sons Hence faith Chrysostom doubtless upon this gradation Geheunae timor Regni nobis adfert coronam The fear of Hell which is servile brings us at length a Diadem of glory Be not ye therefore in a melancholy mood dismaid ye afflicted souls humbled in the sight of God for sin The true fear of God it advanceth you to perfection Doubt not to be encountred by a strong opposition yet fear none but that God that can cast both soul and body into hell A truly Noble spirit reported That who feareth the most High feareth neither flesh nor blood principalities nor powers the rulers of the darkness of this world nor spiritual wickedness in high places Origen gives the reason Origen Non corporis robore sed fidei virtute pugnatur non jaculis ferreis sed orationum telis victoria quaeritur We fight not by the strength of body but of faith we conquer not with darts of steel but of prayer Let not your heart be troubled neither let is be afraid said Christ to his Disciples say I to
threatening this sendeth forth a warm gale a South-wind of Promise The office of the Law is to accuse and terrifie of the Gospel to heal and comfort Finally the Law is a killing Letter but the Gospel a quickning Spirit Great and many are the blessings brought upon the world even upon the heads of those who unfainedly believe the Gospel Viz. 1. Reconciliation with God not only of God unto us but of us unto God which is the staying or taking away that enmity against God and those hard thoughts of him which lay burning and working in our inward parts together with kindling of a spirit of love towards him and the raising of an honourable opinion in us of him in the stead thereof 2 Cor. 5.18 19. Rom. 5.10 Col. 1.21 2. Justification or righteous-making in the sight of God setting us free from all guilt demerit and imputation of sin whatsoever Act. 13.38 39. Rom. 3.21 22. 5.9 3. Adoption or relation of Son-ship John 1.12 13. Rom. 8.14 15. Gal. 3.26 4.6 7 c. 4. Mortification of the body of sin and death which is in us The Gospel ministers wisdom and strength to do it Rom. 6.3 4 5. Col. 3.3 5. 1 Pet. 4.1 5. Our vivification to a more excellent life an inspiration of a new principle of vital motions and actions far more honourable and august than our former Rom. 6.4 Jam 1.18 Eph. 2. 6. Peace with God that of Conscience also Rom. 5.1 Act. 10.36 Rom. 10.15 Eph. 3.17 7. Redemption and deliverance from the wrath and vengeance to come 1 Cor. 1.30 Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 1 Thes 1.10 8. The Gospel lifts not up the world with the hope and expectation of a Redemption or deliverance from the wrath which is to come but of an investiture and possession also of the glory which is to come Yea it carries on them who believe so far in the ways of righteousness and peace until they be ready to enter into the city of the great King Col. 1.12 Act. 20.32 Hence the Gospel must needs be a doctrine of â—oy Many of the Jews whom the thunders of Sinai the terrours of the Law moved not John Baptist wins with the Songs of Sion To which put pose S. Cyril mystically interpreting those words of the Prophet Micah 4.4 That every man should sit under his vine and under his fig-tree observeth that Wine is an emblem of joy the Fig-tree of sweetness and by both is shadowed that joy which the Evangelical doctrine should produce in those who sit under the preaching of it Indeed those doctrines which reveal God and Christ can only give solid comfort unto the soul and these doctrines are no where made known but in holy Writ and they are most clearly delivered in the Gospel The Gospel holds forth the New Covenant that constellation of Promises so called not simply but in respect of the discovery of it as we call some places the New world Unto this Covenant the Sacraments are the Broad-seal and the Spirit is the Privy-seal This Covenant was a great chearer to Davids heart 2 Sam. 23.5 He hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure Which is all my salvation and all my desire Also Christs Testament and last Will And this is the comfort of Gods elect that Heaven is conveyed unto them by legacy All that God requires of us is to take hold of his Covenant and to receive his gift of righteousness And this also he hath promised to cause us to do writing his law in our hearts c. And truly the Gospel is chiefly promissory yea it is a Promise and that such as hath many Promises in the womb of it and those as the Apostle Peter calls them 2 Pet. 1.4 exceeding great and precious not of temporals but spirituals nay eternals Fellowship with God remission adoption eternal life what not are the choise and precious benefits which the Gospel revealeth and offereth to us So that it is a treasury of divine riches a storehouse of the souls provision a Cabinet of heavenly pearls all things truly good and justly desireable being contained in and conveyed to us by it Besides the preaching of the Gospel is the bell whereby we are called to eternal glory As by the sound of a trumpet the people were called together in the time of the Law so this is the Silver-trumpet sounding in our ears whereby we are called to the Kingdom of Heaven The common opinion is and the most antient Copies say as much that Matthew wrote his Gospel eight years after Christ Mark ten Luke fifteen and John forty two Plato when ready to die blessed God for three things 1. That he made him a Man 2. That he was born in Greece 3. That he lived in the time of Socrates David Chytraus also blessed God for three things 1. That he had made him a Man and not a Beast 2. That he had made him a Christian and not a Pagan 3. That he had his education under those excellent Lights Luther and Melancthon Austin wished but to have seen three fights 1. Romam in flore Rome in the flourish 2. Paulum in ore Paul in the Pulpit 3. Christum in corpore Christ in the flesh But greater is our happiness in enjoying the Gospel Vers 17. Mat. 13.16 Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear For verily I say unto you that many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things whiâ—h ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them We have the Turtles voice the joyful sound the lively Oracles The Sea ab out the Altar was brazen and what eyes could pierce thorow that Now our Sea about the Throne is glassie like to Chrystal cleerly conveying the light and sight of God to our eyes All Gods Ordinances are now so cleer that we may see Christs face in them and be transformed into the image and similitude of Christ Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace Luk. 2.10 Rom. 10.15 and bring glad tidings of good things Repeâ—t ye Mark 1.15 and believe the Gospel Christs Humiliation Incarnation The Scripture tells us how that man comes four ways into the world Aug. Serm. 20. de Temp. 1. By the help of man and woman so all are usually born 2. Without any man or woman and so the first man was created 3. Of a man without a woman and so was Eve made 4. Of a woman without a man and so was Christ born So that Christ birth differs from the birth of others He that was more excellent than Angels became less than Angels Vt nos aquaret Angelis minoratus est ab Angelis He that laid the foundation of the earth and made the world was himself now made Factor terra factus
in terrâ Creator coeli creatus sub coelo being the Child of Mary sine quo pater nunquam fuit sine quo mater nunquam fuisset So that as David sang This is the day which the Lord hath made we may say This is the day wherein the Lord was made we will rejoyce and be glad in it This was that Holy that Stone cut out of the mountain without hands that Flower of the field growing without mans labour When the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman Gal. 4 4. Joh. 1.14 1 Tim. 3.16 And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us God was manifesi in the flesh Passion It was a great kindness which Abraham shewed unto Lot when he hazarded his own life and the lives of his family to recover him out of the hands of Chedarlaomer But not comparable to that kindness which our Kinsman the Lord Jesus shewed us when he gave his life to deliver us from the hand of our enemies Mortuum Caesarem quis metuat Sed morte Christi quid efficacius If Caesar he once dead who will â—ear Christ even when dead is terrible to his enemies Nothing more effectual than his death By suffering death he destroyed him who had the power of death When he was condemned of man he condemned sin that it should not condemn man Passus est ut infirmus operatus ut fortis Aug. He suffered as a weak man but wrought as a strong one As the Serpent without life erected in the wilderness overcame the living serpents that stung Israel So the Lord Jesus by suffering death slew that Serpent that living in us had stung us to death Sanguis ejus effunditur Patre ordinante filio volente Spiritu sancto dante Gorran Judâ tradente Judaea procurante Pilato judicante Gentili exequente The High Priest under the Law as he was a type of Christ in sundry respects so likewise in his death He who killed a man negligently fled to the City of refuge and stayed there until the death of the High Priest and then he was free Jesus Christ by his death frees us and sets us at liberty One saith Christ continued in his torment twenty hours at the least Others say Sedul Homâ— â— that he was so long on the Cross as Adam was in Paradise in pleasure Origen de morte magni Regis The Theeves fared better on their Crosses than Christ on his for they had no â—rrision no superscription no taunts no insultations they had nothing but pain to encounter but death to grapple with but he death and scorn Pro servis dominus moritur pro sontibus insons Pro aegroto medicus pro grege pastor obit Pro populo rex mactatur pro milite ductor Pro opere ipse opifex pro homine ipse Deus As Eve came out of Adams side sleeping so the Church is taken out of Christs side bleeding Vt effundatur sanguis Christi ne confundatur anima Christiani A flux of blood in the head is stanched by opening a vein in the foot But here to save all his members from bleeding to death blood must be drawn from the head Which of Christs senses was not a window to let in sorrow He sees the tears of his Mother hears the blasphemy of the multitude is put to death in a noisom place to his scent his touch felt the nails and his taste the gall a reed for reproach is put into his hand a diadem in scorn is set upon his head his head harrowed with thorns his face of whom it was said Thou art fairer than the children of men is all besmeared with the filthy spettle of the Jews those eyes clearer than the sun are darkned with the shadow of death those lips which spake as never man spake are now drenched in gall and vinegar Nam cum mortis aculcum non possit accipere natura deitatis noscendo tamen sâ—scepit de nobis quod pati posset pro nobis Leo. Serm. 8. de Pas Hoc primum tormentum magnum mysterium quod passibilis factus est Hillar de Trin. l. 10. Christi humilitas est nostra sublimitas Christi crux nostra victoria Christi patibulum noster triumphus Orig. Hom 8. L. 9. and those feet that trampled on the Powers of darkness are now nailed to the footstool of the Cross Though Christ were both God and Man yet he suffered not in his Divine but in his Humane nature which may be thus illustrated 1. A Man we know consisteth both of soul and body and yet when he is dead we do not understand it of his soul for that cannot die but his body only 2. Thus The Sun shines on a Tree the Carpenter cuts down the Tree but wounds not the Sun 3. Or as the two Goats mentioned Levit. 16. the one is slain but the other escapes so of Christ in his two natures God the Creator suffers in the flesh that the flesh of the creature should not suffer for ever God himself reconciled the world unto himself God himself became Mediator God himself redeemed Mankind with his own blood He who was offered assumes the flesh of the creature and becomes Reconciliator We may say of Christs bloody sweat what the Poet Lucan having his veins cut dying said Sanguis erant lachrymae quaecunque foramina novit Humor ab his largus manat cruor ora redundunt Et patulae nares sudor rubet omnia plenis Membra fluunt venis totum est pro vulnere corpus Englished by D.T. His blood were tears and what pores sweat did know Blood in great plenty did spring forth and flow Through 's mouth and nose his sweat was red each lim Swet with full veins all 's but one wound in him Read Isa 53. all along His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 2.14 that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed Is it nothing to you 1. am 1.12 all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Descensio Christi ad Inferos Sepultura Christi est requies Christiani Ambros Buried our Saviour was 1. That none might doubt of his death 2. That our sins might be buried with him 3. That our graves might be prepared and perfumed for us as so many beds of roses or delicious dormitories Isa 57.2 If Christ did descend personally into Hell he must either descend in body or in soul Now his body could not go into hell for that was laid in the grave that very night by Joseph of Arimathea And for his soul that could not be in hell for Christ said to the Thief upon the Cross This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And how could that be if his soul did then go
thither Again there was no end why Christ should do thus Either as the Papists hold to bring souls out of hell Vestigia nuâ—â—a retroâ—sum Because this is a rule in Divinity That souls that are once in bell shall never come out thence Or to make further satisfaction for the sins of his people upon earth because Christ had fully satisfied Gods wrath upon the Cross and therefore cried out It is finished Or to vanquish and overcome the Devil because he spoiled Principalities and Powers and triumphed over them in the same Cross Christ by dying destroyed him who had the power of death that is the Devil Heb. 2.14 His Resurrection When the Philistines thought they had Sampson sure within the Ports of Azzah he arose at midnight and took the doors of the gates of the City and the two posts and carried them away with the bars thereof on his shoulders up to the top of the mountain which is before Hebron But our mighty Conqueror and Deliverer Qui agnus extiteâ—at in passione factus est Lâ—â— in resurrectione Bernard hath more excellently magnified his power For being closed in the grave the Sepulchre sealed and guarded with soldiers a stone rolled to the mouth of the grave and he thus clasped in the bands of death He rose again the third day before the rising of the Sun he carried like a Victor the bars and posts of death away â—s upon his shoulders and upon the Mount of Olives he ascended on high leading Captivity captive The manner or specialty of Christs rising 1. In the same Body that fell Feel it saith he to his Disciples Else no resurrection And in this proportion all rise 2. So as he saw no corruption because he knew no sin A specialty and priviledge above the sons of men who must say to corruption Thou art my father 3. By his own power I have power to lay down my life Virtute proprid ut victor prodiâ—t dâ— sepulturâ Idem and to take it up again 4. As a Common blessing as a Representative and not as a Private person All his did the same with him that were within the purchase of his blood Our Phaenix consumed to ashes is now revived The young Lyon of the tribe of Judah of late sleeping in the grave by the quickning yell of his Sire viz. the Power of the Godhead was raised and roused up The stately Stag resumed his shed horns The late withered Flower of the root of Jesse reflourished The Sun of Righteousness once shadowed with a cloud and eclipsed with disgrace shineth put again with brighter beams All was done for which he was put into the grave and why should he be kept any longer in prison the debt being paid Christ is risen from the dead 1 Cor. 15.20 and become the first fruits of them that slept Ascension As the Grissin is like a Lamb in his legs the Lyon in his back and the Eagle in his beak so Christ in his Passion was a Lamb in his Resurrection a Lyon and in his Ascension an Eagle for He went away to his Father Christus ascendit Quo In coelum Aërium Stellatum Empyreum Which is called Domicilium Dei Angelorum hominum beatorum novus Mundus Coelum novum Coelestis Hierosolyma Paradisus Sinus Abrahae c. Thus Christus excelsior coelis factus Secundum quam naturam Humanam hinc localiter visibiliter Quâ potentiâ Suâ non alienà Quando 40 dies post Resurrectionem ut 1. Certi simus de ejus resurrectione 2. Instruat suam Ecclesiam de regno suo ut discerent quae docerent discipuli Effecta sequentia 1. Intercessio Christi 2. Nostra glorificatio 3. Testimonium peccata esse remissa 4. Christum victorem esse 5 Missio Spiritus 6. Nunquam nos carere consolatione Christum nos semper defensurum Hinc in câ—elum circumfusa nube sublatus est ut hominem quem dâ—lexit quem induit quem à morte protexit ad patrem victor imponeret Cypr. de Idol van Thou hast ascended on high Psal 68.18 thou hast led captivity captive When he ascended up on high Eph. 4.8 he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men For such an high Priest became us Hebr. 7.26 who is holy harmless undesiled separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens His session at the Fathers right hand A King having an onely begotten may set him in the throne as heir and successor to reign with him and use right of dominion over all as partner in the Empire Thus David dealt by Solomon Vespasian by Titus and our Henry 2. by his eldest son Henry whom he crowned while he was yet alive though afterwards he suffered him not to be what himself had made him This Exaltation of Christ Christus sedet ut judex stat ut vindex is an argument sufficient to prove his Deity He that sitteth on the right hand of the Majesty on high is God Scripture doth not say he standeth though in another sense he is said so to do that belongs to servants and inferiors but he sitteth Kings Senators Judges sit when they hear causes He sits not at the commandment or appointment of another but of himself He knows his place and takes it not at the left hand but which is higher at the right hand his Fathers Equal Out of this we have two notable comforts If Christ sitteth above in the highest places then he beholdeth all things here below A man that is upon the top of some high Tower may see farre and Christ being in the high Steeple and Tower of Heaven can see all things on Earth If the wicked be laying of plots and snares against his children Christ being in Heaven sees them and in due time will overthrow them He that sitteth in Heaven laugheth them to scorn Moreover this is a singular comfort that our Head King and Defender is in Heaven and hath equal power glory and majesty with God We have a friend that sitteth on the right hand of God and hath all power in Heaven and Earth therefore let us fear nothing he will keep us none shall do us any harm but it shall all turn to our good in the end As Christ sitteth in the heavens so we shall one day sit there with him Many shall come from the East and from the West and from the North Luk. 13.29 and from the South and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God Mat. 19.28 Ye shall sit on the twelve seats and judge the twelve Tribes of Israel Which is not spoken of all the Apostles for Judas never sate there nor yet of the Apostles only but of all Christians Know ye not that we shall judge the world We shall one day sit in heavenly places with Christ we sit there already in our Head but we shall likewise sit there in our own persons with our Head Let this comfort us against
all the calamities of this life here the children of God are oftentimes made the wickeds footstools they sit on them and tread on them A rich man though wicked shall be more esteemed Here they sit as forlorn persons none regards them Many times they sit weeping and wailing for their sins for their sufferings But let this comfort us against them all how contemptible soever we sit here we shall sit with Christ Jesus though not in that degree of glory yet in the same Kingdom of glory with him for ever This man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever Heb. 10.12 sate down on the right hand of God Cap. 8.1 We have such an High Priest who is set on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens To which of the Angels said he at any time sit on my right hand Cap. 1.13 until I make thine enemies thy footstool Intercession The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is attributed in Scripture both to Christ and the Spirit but when it is attributed to the Spirit it is rendred by Comforte when to Christ by Advocate And not without reason since the Spirits work is to speak comfortably to us and Christs to plead powerfully for us It is said The Holy Ghost maketh intercession for us yet the Holy Ghost is not our Intercessor He doth not in our nature pray for us as Christ doth Rom. â— 26 but he teacheth us to pray Neither doth he in his own person make intercession with sighs and groans for the Holy Ghost cannot sigh and groan but he stirres up to it Christus Oratur à nobis As the Father Orat in nobis By his holy Spirit Orat pro nobis As our Advocate Oramus Ad illum Per illum In illo Aug. Ad Deum non opus est suffragatore sed mente devotâ for Christ is our eye whereby we see the Father and our mouth whereby we speak to the Father And none is in such favour with the Father as the only Son that lyeth in his bosome When Christ is said to intercede we must not imagine he doth it in heaven after the same manner he did when he was on the earth to fancy a supplicating voice bended knees with sighs and groans or with strong cries and tears This suiteth not with the Majesty of Christ in heaven neither doth he it after such a carnal manner But Christ is said to make intercession for us two kind of wayes 1. Non voce sed miseratione not by uttering any voice to his Father but by having pity and compassion on us 1. By a fourfold presentation Vnigenito filio Deum pro homine interpellare est apud coaeternum patrem sâ—ipsum hominë demonstrare Greg. l. 21. Moral c. 13. viz. 1. Of his Person in both natures Divine and Humane 2. Of his merit the force and efficacie of his Passion the recordation of his obedience 3. Of his will and desire in our behalf not in a begging or precarious way yet he signifieth it 4. Of our Prayers and Supplications which we make in behalf of our selves and others and the Prayers of the Church which she maketh in our behalf He perfumes our prayers with the odour of his sacrifice and so presents them to his Father The consideration of Christs perpetual intercession in Heaven for us may be singular comfort to all Christians Preces sacrisicii sai odore sanctificat Calv. We count him happy that hath a friend in the Court then how happy are we that have such a friend as Christ in the Court of Heaven Say on my Mother said Solomon to Bathsheba I will not say thee nay So saies God the Father to Christ Say on my Son make intercession for thy members I will not say thee nay Blessed are we that have such an Intercessor let us flie to him Only let us not grieve him with our sins but glorifie him by an holy life then we may boldly commence our suits to him and he will prefer them to his Father to our everlasting joy and comfort We have an Advocate with the Father 1 Joh. 2.1 Jesus Christ the righteous Christ is entred into heaven it self Hebr. 9.24 now to appear in the presence of God for us He ever liveth to make intercession for us Cap. 7.25 Predestination JNterpreters have observed Praedestinare nihil aut majus aut minus significat quà m destinare Chamierus that this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies to predestinate is but six times found in the New Testament and never in the Old And it is used either De rebus concerning things twice Acts 4.28 and 1 Cor. 2.7 Or else De personis concerning persons four times Rom. 8.29 30. and Eph. 1.5 11. And so Significat non simpliciter praedestinare ad aliquid saith Mr. Leigh out of Zanchy Sed ita praedestinare ad aliquam rem ut etiam sines terminos constituas Quâ—tenus pro objecto habet homines est aeternum et immutabile Dei decretum de suturo hominum statu aeterno Wendelinus quibus ad rem consequendam certò deducatur is quem praedestinasti puta media omnia tempus loca alia id genus They say it is never applied to Reprobates However Divines under Predestination do usually consider the Decree both of Election and Reprobation It will not be good for any to teach this Doctrine till they have well learned and digested it for about it have been many disputes with unhappy issue and it is a Doctrine which hath been if it be not by some at this day much misused and exagitated In Rom. 8. we see our calling was according to Gods purpose Crit. Sacr. so I say our calling justification glorification do depend upon Predestination not Predestination upon them Before Augustines time Prelates and Doctors of the Church some I meane having no occasion to enter into an exact handling of this point taught that men are Predestinated for the foresight of some things in themselves of which opinion was Augustine at first but after reclaimed But it seems the will of the Arminians hath made a foord in the depths of God it hath found out the wayes that are past finding out It made Paul stand at a stay and cry O the depth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but these lead along their Scholars that they passe over almost with dry feet The path of Election and grace is discovered and these men will tell you the reason of Gods counsel But we say and so doth the Scripture Elegit nos ab aterno ad gratiam ad gloriam ad salutem ad salutis viam quam praeparavit ut in ea ambulemus Act. 18.48 Crediderunt quotquot erant ordinati ad vitam etaernam Credere est effectum ordinationis The Turks use to say what is by God written in a mans forehead before his birth cannot in his life be a voided But let none be so
I wish he may never be very rational because the stronger his reason is being corrupt the worse will his will and affections be Insanire cum ratione Many of the vulgar are mad without reason they will hate a thing upon hear-say but when men are mad with reason that is with wicked reason they are mad to purpose Labour to get up our hearts to be swayed by spiritual reason and let Gods people be careful to perform such service unto God as wherof they can render a sound and intelligible reason out of his Word Rom. 12.1 Cannot my tast discern perverse things Job 6.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 32.8 1 Cor. 2.11 But there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding What man knoweth the things of man save the spirit of man which is in him Affections They do often saucily insult over sound reason as Hagar did over his Mistress They are exitus animae the out-going of the soul Like a watery humor comming between the eye and the object and hindring the sight Like the mud which arising in the water troubleth and confoundeth the seeing spirits They are oftimes ponderous bolts and clogs causing us to cleave to the center of misery And whereas they should be the whetstones of vertue Gratia non tollit sed attâ—â—lit naturam Lactant. Luk. 14.9 10. they frequently prove the fire-brands of vice The remedy is not to turn them out of doores for then a tribe would be wanting in the soules mystical Microcosm But to correct their exorbitancy and reduce them into right order using our Saviours language to them Friends come down lower and to sound judgment sit up higher Respect of Persons The word properly signifieth accepting of ones face or outside 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so noteth a respect to others out of a consideration of some external glory that we find in them So that respect of persons is had when in the same cause we give more or lesse to any one than is meet because of something in his person which hath no relation to that cause Respect of persons is 1. Warrantable or 2. Vicious It is lawful to prefer others out of a due cause as their age callings gifts graces yea we ought to put a respect upon them because of that excellency wherewith God hath furnished them But when the judgment is blinded by some external glory and appearance and a cause is over-ballanced with such circumstances as have no affinity with it it is unlawful and a sin In religious matters we may be guilty of it many wayes I mention one When the same works have a different acceptation because of the different esteem and value of the persons engaged in them Omnia dicta tanti existimantur quantus est ipse qui dixerit Avaritâ— 1. nec tam dictionis vim aâ—que virtutem quà m dictatoris cogitant dignitatem saith Salvian A constant hearer of Calvin at Geneva Ego relicto Paulo audirem Calvinum Zanch. Miscel praefat Nolo tameâ—â— amplecâ—i Evangelium quod Lutherus 〈◊〉 Epist. ad Card. Moguâ—t being sollicited by Zanchy to hear Viret an excellent Preacher who preached at the same time answered If Saint Paul himself should preach hear at the same hour I would not leave Calvin to hear Paul Although I am not Ignorant said Gregory Duke of Saxony that there are divers errors and abuses crept into the Church yet I will none of that Gospel-reformation that Luther preacheth And Erasmus observed That what was accounted Orthodox in the Fathers was condemned as Heretical in Luther Compertum est damnata ut Haeretica in libris Lutheri quae in Bernardi Augustinique libris ut Orthodoxa imò pia leguntur Thus too many look upon the cup rathar than the liquor regarding the man more than the matter not considering what but who bringeth it in which they do prefer the earthen vessel before the golden treasure And many times are apt to despise excellent things because of the despicablenesse of the instrument My brethren James 2.1 have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect of persons Opinion Opinio est ascensus pendulus scientia immobilis Alsâ—ed There are saith one as many internal forms of the mind as external figures of men That was a strange spirit of Bacon the Carmelite who would endure no guessing or doubting And was therefore called Doctor Resolutissimus as requiring that every one should think as he thought This as a worthy Divine saith was too Magisteriall Job 32.10 I also will shew mine opinion Controversie Optimus ille censendus saith an Ancient qui in Religionis controversâ—is retulerit magis quà m attulerit neque id cogat videri tenendum quod presumserit intelligendum But there are many now a dayes that fain what they please and conceit what they like and at last think themselves bound to justifie their wild conceivings Let us therefore as many as be perfect Phil. 3.15 be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Strife A quarrelsome person is like a cock of the kind ever bloody with the blood of others and himself He loves to live Salamander-like in the fire of contention We read of Francis the first King of France that consulting with his Captains how to lead his Army over the Alpes into Italy whither this way or that way Amaril his fool sprang out of a corner where he sate unsean and bade them rather take care which way they should bring their Army out of Italy again Even so it is easy for one to interest himself in quarells but hard to be disingaged from them when once in There are that make it their work to cast the Apple of contention amongst others such are the Pests of societies and must therefore be carefully cast out with scoffing Ishmael Such kindle-coals are Sathans seeds-men who is an unquiet spirit and strives to make others so Loves to fish in troubled waters doth all he can to set one man against another that he may prey upon them both Greg. As the Master of the Pit suppeth upon the bodyes of those cocks whom he hath set to kill one another The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water Prov. 17.14 therefore leave off contention before it be medled with Read Pro. 22.10 Rom. 13.13 1 Cor. 11.16 Phil. 2.3 Jam. 3.14 16 c. Schisme Schisme in the Church is the same that faction is in the Common-wealth viz. such dissentions in which men seperate one from another Or It is a dissertion or seperation when one or more seperate and rent themselves from the outward fellowship of the faithful cutting asunder the unity and peace of the Church upon some misgrounded mislike There can be no greater sin committed saith Chrysostom Hom. 11. ad Ephes Inexpiabâ—is discordiae mâ—â—ula