whose hearts not onely by nature but by the word revealed the new covenant the word of God is written and yet do despise and cast behind them this grace and favour Of which new Covenant Jeremy saith Chap. 3. This shall be my compact I will put my Lawes into their inwards and I will write it in their hearts and a man shall not any more teach his neighbour and a man his brother saying Know the Lord for all men shall know me saith the Lord even from the least to the greatest because I will forgive their iniquity and I will not remember their sins any more Heare what is said Heb. 10. To those that voluntarily offend or sinne against God after the knowledge he hath received for such there is no sacrifice left for him but a certain terrible expectation of judgement and offering by fire which consumeth the adversary He that breaketh the Law of Moses without any mercy by the mouth of two or three witnesses shall die the death how much more and worse doe you thinke doe they deserve death which have contemned against the Sonne of God and polluted the bloud of the Testament in whom he is sanctified and contumaciously despised the spirit of grace for we know who hath said Vengeance is mine and I will return it upon them And again because the Lord will judge his people It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God With which heavie sentence without doubt those are not strucken which fall through humane frailty but those that wittingly and willingly sin against the truâ— knowledge and persevere in impenitencie CHAP. VIII Without true repentance no man can challenge Christ and his merits to belong unto him Numb 9. The unclean may not celebrate the Passeover THe words of our Saviour Christ Mat. 9. are The healthy hath no need of the Physitian but the sick I did not come to call the just but the sinners to repentance whereby we are clearly taught that Christ indeed did call sinners but to repentance neither can any come unto him without repentance without conversion from sinne and What is true repentance faith for repentance is no other thing then by true contrition and sorrow to die unto sinne and by faith to obtain forgivenesse for sinne and to live unto righteousnesse in Christ so that in true repentance necessarily serious and divine contrition must go before a heart as I may say broken and câ—ucifying the flesh whereupon in Cap. 6. Epist ad Hebr. Repentance is said to be or is called the worke of dead men because by it we abstain from those works whose reward is death which if it be not done then the merit of Christ profiteth not us one haire For seeing Christ proffereth himselfe to be the Physitian of our souls his holy bloud to be the only and most true medicine of our sins and no medicine although it be most pretious can cure the sick man which will not refraine from hurtfull thinâ—s and things resisting the power of the medicine so it remaineth that the bloud of Christ and death can profit nothing those that purpose not to abstain from sinne Whereupon blessed Paul cap. 5. ad Galat. saith Whosoever doth such things the works of the flesh doe not obtaine the Kingdome of heaven nor shall have any part in Christ Moreover if Christ by his bloud is become our medicine who can doubt that first we must be sick for the whole have no need of a Physitian but the weake And none is spiritually sicke who is not penitent and who is not sorrowfull from his heart for his sinnes who hath not a contrite heart and humble who is secure as concerning the wrath of God who hath not resolved and firmly in his mind decreed to flye all worldly concupiscence who lastly seeking after honour wealth and pleasure takes no knowledge of his sinnes such as are so those are not sick and consequently need no Physitian and Christ profiteth them nothing it is manifest Therefore again and again let this be remembred that Christ called sinners but it was to repentance because a penitent heart contrite pensive and faithfull onely and alone is capable of the most pretious bloud death and merit of Christ I account him happy whosoever he be that heareth this holy calling inwardly and in his heart I call that a divine sorrow and anguish for sinnes which worketh repentance God worketh spirituall sorrow to stedfast salvation as the words be 2 Cor. 7. The holy Spirit doth produce this divine sorrow by the Law and serious meditation of the passion of the Lord because it not onely aboundeth with the documents of grace but also withall hath in it an earnest exhortation to repentance and a most terrible glasse of the divine wrath For if we seek into the cause of his The Passion of Christ efficieÌ„t to repentance most bitter death what else can we say was the cause but our sinnes If you joyn the divine love out of which he most willingly gave his Son for us as also you shall have his singular example both terrible and wonderfull of his divine justice and clemency which seeing they are so who then sincerely loving Christ can be affected and delighted with sinne which he knows Christ had with his bloud washed and purged Consider also with me O man which art subject to pride and art slave unto ambition with what contempt and how great humility Christ Jesus ought to repaire our pride and insolency think of his poverty that he might satisfie for thy covetousness The fruits of Christs passion surcease at last through God so studiously to seek after wealth and insatiably to thirst after riches most wretchedly He with incredible griefe of mind and anguish not to be uttered doth satisfie and abolish the pleasures and concupiscence of the flesh and thou contrariwise continually dost give thy selfe to pleasure and lust how evill is thy preposterousnesse pravity and wickednesse to take delight and pleasure in those things which to Christ were so wonderfully bitter he died to expiate thy wrath hatred enmity rancor bitternesse desire of revenge and implacability with extreame mildnesse and patience and wilt not thou even for the least cause be very angry and account revenge more pleasant then life even for which thy Redeemer did drink the most bitter cup of death wherefore so many as aspire to the name of Christians and doe not abstain froÌ„ sin those I say do even crucifie Christ and doe make a mock of him as it is said The impenitent do even crucifie Christ in the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. 6. Therefore it is unpossible that those should participate of the merits of Christ which indeed they doe tread under foot as it is in the same Epistle Chap. 10. And because they doe pollute the blood of the Testament neither beleeve truly that their sinnes are expiated by him or much esteem his death or think
the Devil of which wee speak God had planted in man in the state of innocency a pure chast and honest conjugall affection that he might beget children after the image of God according to the spirit neither could there bee imagined a more holy pleasure or love then to propagate the image of God and to multiply humane kind to the glory of God and good of men So I say if men in the state of innocency could beget infinite children and could propagate the honour of God and his image in infinite generations for the great love both of God and man as the image of God nothing more acceptable nothing more pleasant and nothing would be more to be desired For even as God in the creation of man did receive an ineffable pleasure and had in him or took in him delight as his image so the man was to receive and have most pure pleasure in the procreation of his life and sending forth of the divine Image which at this day is the reason of marriages and how Satan hath spotted and defiled that The abuse of matrimony most pure and chast matrimoniall love with his filthinesse it is as evident as the noon-day Therefore they mix together no otherwise then brute beasts and in a blind and furious heat doe beget like unto themselves Moreover as the Devill is a Thiefe and a Robber so hee infuseth the same guile and art in the soule of man As the Devil is a calumniator a Sophister a Sycophant and a Scoffer of God and man depraving both deeds and words and wresting the sense and repugning it with false interpretation of which craft hee shewed us a faire example when hee suduced our first parents so the minds of men corrupted with his pestilent contagion did contract a perverse nature lying and cunning intrapping and calumniating Which Diabolicall and Satanicall corruption of the soule inexpressible both in the craft and variety of it selfe the Psalmist describeth under the person of a double tongued lying man Psalm 14. Rom. 3. and blessed James chap. 7. For God as wee said even now doth not accuse the mouth onely the tongue hands and feet but the whole Man in his own law yea his heart and mind as the cause and fountain of all evill as appeareth by the two last precepts of the Decalogue concerning concupiscence to be avoyded Which is well to be observed The Image of the Devill with special regard And this is that image of the Devil set by his Father against the divine image as lust and pleasure in sinning slandering and reproaching so farre forth as many that desire to be accounted good Christians take occasion of traducing their neighbour which happily being done they say applauding themselves I did this lately now I have enough I am freed of a great burden I seeme to my selfe to returne as it were to life again when at length I have satisfied my mind What blindnesse is this of yours and unhappinesse O mortals even not to know by whose instinct you doe these things whose sonnes you are whose image you beare about or doe you doubt that these workes are of the Devill the work-master these fruits to be of the seed of the Devil these properties to bee from the nature of the Devil which hee hath planted in our nature that hee might riot by a plentiful increase in vices of all kinds as pride covetousnesse lust and slanders of which wee spake erewhile And this corruption of the Satanicall image or originall sin is so filthy horrible and profound as no man can in thought much less in speech expresse the abomination of your hearts Which notwithstanding no creature no Angell I say nor men can either amend or purge or root out For seeing our strength and powers are utterly worne No creature can extirpate sin out consumed and spiritually dead it is a vain thing to expect any thing from them Therefore this remaineth that we bee miserable and unhappy to all eternity or use the counsell or help of some most powerfull avenger and extirper of sinnes Lord of evill and death and which can by himselfe change renew and purge humane nature Whereby it appeareth in the first place that justification can be obtained by no humane good work as also the necessity of regeneration is to bee found out The natural power of man And to speak this again the soul can by its own power or strength do nothing but live in its in-born pravity malice and all kind of fins both against the precepts of God and most especially against the first Table in transgressing whereof consisteth the true enmity with God in our understanding will we are so blind corrupt and dead that it is against nature to feare God love call The true explication of free-wil on him honour praise worship trust in him and to convert our soules to him As concerning the second Table truly I confesse that there is in the soule a spark of free-will remaining yet very weak and without sinewes which therewithall it is hardly able to retain and bridle the evill concupiscences that they break not forth into outward works to which things the example of the virtuous Ethnicks are extant in their virtue but to change the heart to turn it to God to purge it from wicked concupiscences is a greater work onely a work of divine strength For the inward roots and fangs of evill are most deeply fastened so as all the endeavours of free-will cannot perform to forbeare to breake out openly into flames to destroy all but liveth in smoak and ashes Therefore without God this humane kind could not subsist the will of man is so depraved and howsoever the Devil can do nothing more to exercise the greatest cruelty in the mind of man yet he cannot extirpate all naturall strength and affections whereby wee know the law of nature and in-bred affection of married couples parents and children which are foundations and bands of humane society For hee that will doe all things to which hee is carried by the force of corrupt nature it must needs bee that Why naturall love is left in man he shall disturb humane society and find out a revenging sword of revenging power Moreover it must bee thought a deed done by the singular counsell of God that this naturall affection was not utterly extinct that we might understand the love of God was the soveraigne good and the Image of God which we lost by our fall and vice But that which pertaineth to spirituall good concerning blessednesse and the Kingdome of God is as true as truth it selfe blessed Paul saith 1 Cor. 2. The naturall man understandeth not the things that are of the spirit of God for it is foolishnesse to him and be cannot understand it that is he hath not the least spark of the spirituall light tasting nothing of those things which belong to an heavenly divine and spirituall life to which man onely was
we expect other then death and works of darknesse it selfe in Christ In Christ by faith we are restored to life again we must be raised again to the workes of light As by carnall generation we entred into the sinne of Adam so by faith through Christ we must attain unto righteousnesse As by the flesh of Adam pride covetousnesse lust and all kind of uncleannesse is begotten born and groweth old in us so by the holy Spirit our nature ought to be renewed sanctified and repurged from all pride covetousnesse lust and envie And it is needful that we from Christ should draw a new spirit a new heart sense and minde in the same manner as we drew from Adam our fleshly subject to sinne And as concerning regeneration Christ saith Isai 9. Our Al good works ought to proceed out of the new birth Father is eternall After this manner then are we renewed in Christ to life eternall regenerated by Christ and in Christ become a new creature by this regeneration by Christ and the holy Ghost and Faith it is necessary works must flow and proceed which we desire we should please God in so we live in the new birth and the new birth doth live in us so we in Christ and Christ in us so last of all we live in the The description of the new birth and the fruits thereof Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of Christ in us This regeneration and the fruits thereof Paul Ephes 4. calleth and termeth thus To be renewed in the spirit of our minde to put off the old man to be transformed into the Image of God 2 Cor. 3. To be renewed and known according to his Image that made you to the Coloss 3. Regeneration and renovation of the holy Ghost to Titus 3. Last of all to take away the stony heart and to give us a New birth is from Christ fleshy heart Ezek. 11. And by this appeareth how by the incarnation and humanity of Christ regeneration is raised or proceedeth that is to wit because man out of his ambition pride and disobedience offended and turned himself from God this Apostasie could not be amended or put away but by extream humility lowlinesse of will and obedience of the Sonne of God And as Christ in his conversation upon earth among men was most humble it is necessary that he should be the same in thee to live in thee and to renue the Image of God in thee See now and behold the most amiable the most lowly curteous the most The life of Christ in us The example of Christ is the rule of our life obedient and most patient Christ and learn of him or even as he is live in him For what was the cause sayest thou why he so lived Truly that he might be thy example looking-glasse and rule of life He I say and no St. Bennets rule nor of any other man commended unto thee but the example of Christ I say of Christ which his Apostles with one consent and direct finger did alone point at And this is the reason of his passion death and resurrection that is to say that thou with The new life is the fruit of the death passion of our Lord. him mayst die from thy sinnes and again in him with him and by him mayst rise spiritually walk in a new life of which argument thou mayst see more hereafter in the 11. and 31. Chapters therefore our regeneration ariseth out of and disperseth it selfe from the healthfull fountain of the passion death and resurrection of Christ whereupon S. Peter 1 Epist 1. saith God hath regenerated us to a lively hope through Jesus Christ and thereupon it commeth to passe that the Apostles every where do lay the foundation of penitence and the new life to be the passion of Christ as Rom. 6. 1 Pet. 1. Spend your time in reverent fear knowing that you are not redeemed with corruptible gold or silver but with the pretious bloud even the Lamb the Lord Jesus Where thou seest the most pretious ransom of our redemption to be the cause of our holy conversation The same Peter Epist 1. Cap. 3. writeth Christ bought our sinnes in his body upon the Crosse that being dead unto sinne we might live unto righteousnesse by whose stripes we are healed And Christ himselfe Luke 24. saith So it behooved Christ to suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and preach repentance and remission of sinnes in his name By which words it is manifest that from the fountain of the passion death and resurrection of Christ doth flow both preaching and repentance Therefore the passion of Christ is both satisfaction for our sinnes and the renewing of man by faith both which together and at once are required to the redemption and reparation of mankind because this is the fruit and this is the efficacie of the passion of Christ working in us renovation and sanctification 1 Cor. 1. This lastly is the means whereby we are born again and renewed in Christ neither is the laver of regneration any other thing wherein we are dipt to the death of Christ to wit to die with Christ from our sinnes by the help and efficacy of his death and arise from sin by the grace of his glorious resurrection CHAP. IV. What is true Repentance what also is the Crosse and Yoak of Christ Galat. 5. Those which are of Christ have crucified their own flesh with the vices and concupiscence thereof REpentance and true conversion is the work of the holy Ghost through which the man acknowledging his faults by the Law and together therewith the most just wrath of God against sin doth earnestly grieve for the same and would not have committed those things he hath done and through the Gospel understanding the grace of God by faith in Christ obtaineth the remission of his sins and by this penitency the mortification and crucifying The property of true repentance of the flesh and all carnall pleasures and concupiscences of the heart is accomplished and together with the same quickning of the spirit whereby it followeth that Adam with all his corruptions dieth in us and Christ contrarily liveth in us by faith because these two neceslarily do grow together so as the resurrection or renewing of the spirit doth follow the mortification The old mans death is the life of the new of the flesh at the heeles and the quickning of the new spirit followeth the abolishing of the old man although the outward man decay yet the inward man is renewed daily 2 Cor. 4. Mortifie your earthly members Coloss 3. and so think your selves dead in sinne but alive in God through Christ The flesh is mortified by true repentance Jesus our Lord Rom. 6. But let us consider why the flesh is to be mortified by true repentance We said even now by the fall of Adam that the man became even devillish earthy carnall without God and without love
is to be done to us and no other matter more heavie and more worthy of tears then the sinnes and impenitencie of men If it came to mind so often unto a man that he should die and that he was to plead his cause before God as often as he in a pensive manner Cause of mourning discusses the matter with himselfe of the helps of this life surely he would be more sad and more diligent in the amendment of his life and of repentance And if the same man should call to mind the eternall torments he could not but despise the world and in comparison of them think all the afflictions of this world pleasant From which opinion and fervency of devotion we are the more distant because we are so much inveagled with the inticements of the flesh In brief it behoveth The life of the flesh is the death of the spirit a Christian most firmly to perswade himselfe that if it goe well with his body and that he flow in pleasures of this world that his spirit is dead but that hee liveth if hee crucifie his flesh with his desires and concupiscences for the one is the death of the other if the spirit live it must needs be the body shall spiritually die and be offered a living sacrifice Rom. 12. Which way of life all the Saints from the beginning of the world did observe eating and drinking with thanksgiving the bread and cup of The bread of tears tears according to that of David Psalm 80. Thou shalt feed us with the bread of tears and thou shalt give us drink of teares by measure And Psalm 41. My teares were unto me my bread both day and night And this bread of teares faith by a wonderfull sweetnes doth mix and temper and the drink of teares is pressed from the tender grapes of devout hearts by true repentance and sorrow which worketh to stedfast salvation As The fruit of worldly sorrow contrariwise the sorrow of this world bringeth forth death witnesse St. Paul the losse of honour temporall and frail goods and it is often so sharp and bitter and impatient that men catch themselves in a net or bring themselves to their own death by divers wayes of which there be many examples in the histories of the Ethnicks for which it were better to be more moderate and shew themselves better Christians who know it to be far unworthy their profession for the loss of frail goods to lose their souls which the whole world will not recompence Far be it from us that for temporall goods we should not mourn or thirst after eternall seeing the use of them is most short ends with death When a man departeth saith the Psalm 49. he taketh not all neither doth his glory descend with him which law is equally spoken to all no lesse to the King then to the meanest Begger the dead body putrifieth and so a living Dogge is better then a dead Lion as saith Solomon Eccles 9. yet the Lord will set the death at all times and the face of them that are in bonds among all people and he wipeth the the teares from every face as it is written Isa 25. Therefore remember to carry moderatly the losse of earthly things and that the whole world is not worth one soul for The love of the world bringeth sorrow which Christ vouchsafed to die But if thou prosecutest not these frail things with so unruly a love thou shalt be lesse troubled with the losse of them seeing this that it is the condition of things beloved that things lost are more desired and so the labour of fools afflicteth them which are the From whence the pertur bations of the mind words of Eccles 10. The sons of this age doe gather goods with great labour with no lesse fear doe they possesse them and with greatest griefe forgoe them which is the sorrow of the world begetting death Apoc. 10. we read of those that followed adored the Beast had no rest to whom all these are like that adore the goodly Beast of earthly wealth and avaritious desires thereof a kind of men most wretched unquiet and full of sorrows whom perhaps we shall shall not evilly compare to Camels or Mules for as they by rockes and steep hils carrying Silken Garments Pearls Aromatick Spices and generous Wines on their backs doe draw many servants with them for security sake and so at evening coming to their stables their pretious ornaments and painted cloathes and garments are taken from them and now being weary and stripped nothing but the prints of stripes foul marks of blows are to be seen So those which in this world did shine in Gold and Silkes the day of their death being come have nothing but the prints and skars of sinnes through the abuse of riches committed unto them Learn then O learn to leave the world The world in the world iâ— to be left before it leave thee with most bitter pains which he who doth and first separateth his soul from the world to this man it is easie to be separate in body from it neither doth he grieve for the losse of it For as the Israelites even now being about to leave Egypt were daily pressed with greater burdens by Pharaoh going about utterly to overthrow their whole progeny or stock so We carry nothing out of the world the infernall Pharaoh envying our eternall salvation when we are neer to death so much greater care and rapacious desire of earthly things is hee wont to infest our soules withall which blindnesse is the more remarkable because we cannot carry the least dust with us of all those heaps of mony which we have gotten into the Kingdome of heaven because that way is so strait as all earthly things and of the body doe exceedingly hinder the passage of the soule The way is strait which leadeth to heaven and few there be that find it Matth. 7. As the Husband-man on the Barn-floore separateth the Wheat from the Chaffe so death setteth free the seed of the faithfull souls from the chaffe of the world neither are they any other thing else indeed but chaffe carried hither and thither with the wind Psalm 1. Therefore do that with all thy might and let not that depart out of thy mind which we brought before out of St. Paul The sorrow which is according to God worketh repentance to a firm salvation but the sorrow of the world bringeth death CHAP. XXI What is true divine Worship Levit. 10. The sonnes of Aaron did offer to the Lord strange fire and there went fire from the Lord and devoured them THis fire is said to be strange fire because it was other then that which burned perpetually on the Altar and which by the commaandement of God did burn the Offering and it is a type of the false divine The false worship of God worship The sonnes of Aaron did deserve to be burned with the
sinner is cast from God and judged to eternall death incurring the same without doubt unlesse he obtain remission of sinnes by faith in Christ Which naturall corruption of soule mind and body that thou O man mayst understand more exactly it shall not grieve me to expresse it more plainly or more at large exhorting and praying thee for Gods sake and thine own happinesse that thon wouldest diligently read and daily meditate this Article whereby thou mayst know thy naturall misery and thy in-born wickednes no otherwise then in a glasse and that which followeth it continually lament and deplore the same For the sum of Christianity is no other thing What Christianity is then a continuall spirituall wrastling with originall sinne and continuall purging of it by the holy Ghost and a serious no superficial repentance For how much every one mortifieth this naturall iniquity so much from day to day hee is renewed towards the Image of God On the contrary so many as inwardly and from the heart doe not mortifie it by the holy Ghost these are hypocrites whatsoever shew of holinesse Hypocrites they outwardly shew unto the world And whatsoever is not dead in it selfe and The necessity of regeneration is not renewed by the holy Ghost to the image of God all that is unfit for the kingdome of heaven Whereby there is to be noted the necessity of the new birth and renovation if we will put out the Image of the Devill opposite to the divine law For as the Devill doth hate God with all his heart so hath hee taught the humane soule against God in hostile manner to behave it selfe not to love him not to honour him not to call upon him to be against and to flye from him As the Devill liveth thus day by day in blindnesse little caring what is the Divine will so all things bewitched by him spend the time unmindfull of God and his commandements which mist and night of humane mind is a horrible and terrible destruction of the light and of the image of God and also abominable sin whereby the man is so farre slided back that hee doth say There is no God Psalm 14. And for this blindnesse all humane kind is abomination and accursed before Almighty God And although there bee and remain in man a certain spark of naturall light by the force thereof he understandeth some God to be and that he is just as the Ethnick Philosophers doe teach yet the spirituall life according to God and his righteousnesse is A spark of natural light remaining in mâ—n altogether extinguished in him For the conscience which is the Law of God written in the heart of man in the creation teacheth what is good whereby there is no man so brutish in his pleasures but by that conscience he thinketh there is a God and that he is moved with no motion but is chast and therefore it cannot but that hee abhorreth all filthinesse neither should hee doe otherwise But this good and right thought and spark our light is put out by the filthy pleasures of the body and the concupiscences thereof no other wayes then if water were cast upon it After the same manner a slanderer or an homicide sometime reasoneth with himselfe Certainly there is a God that wil not that men should be killed but would have them preserved but this spark lasteth not long but The spirituell life in man is altogether dead by and by Devillish wrath and the sweetnesse of revenge extinguisheth it From which it is understood that a spirituall life consisting in love and truth in a carnall man is altogether dead neither doth hee think otherwise howsoever sometimes by the light of nature they understand that there is a God and that he doth governe humane affaires yet by and by being blinded with the darknesse of heart they call in The mortall blindnesse of man question his providence as their books doe witnesse And from this naturall blindnesse and in-born mists ariseth incredulility unstedfastnesse and wavering-mindednesse which all men naturally are incident unto and for which before Almighty God they are abomination because they live not in faith and they doe not trust from their heart For seeing that a naturall man of the spirituall life and works of the same is altogether ignorant and profane hereon it is that hee calleth not on God but trusteth in his wisdome power and strength then which nothing can bee thought more foolish Of the same blindnesse the fruit is contempt of God and spirituall security For as the Devill secure of God careth not to humble himselfe before him but persevereth in his pride so hee The seed of the Devill in man doth infect the soule of man by the contempt of God with security and insolencie so that he doth not humble himself before God but secure of the divine fear doth all things after his own will and mind proudly insolently As the Devill carried along with his own strength and wisdome governeth himselfe so the soule of man infected with the contagion of the Devill is wise unto it selfe doth counsell and govern it selfe As the Devill seekes his own honour onely so the man hath no care of the divine honour but onely his own As the Devil hath contended with God so hath hee armed the soule of man against God by impenitence As the Devill doth blaspheme the name of God and is extreamly ungratefull towards his Creator as he is unmerciful wrathfull and bloudy so he hath infected man with these vices as with a pestilent poyson As the Devil rejoyceth to exercise tyranny against man and stirreth up one against another so man by his discipline depraved insolently carrieth himselfe over his neighbour and despiseth him as a man of no account derideth him as a foole and abhorreth him as a man covered with greatest sinnes and outrages As the Devill is an homicide so he stirreth up the soule to the same cruelty and thirst of humane bloud Lastly perswade thy selfe assuredly that God doth not accuse the outward members but the God accuseth the soul alwayes heart and soule alwayes for the heart and soule is an homicide and a lier noâ— his hand not his mouth Therefore when God commanded man to call upon him in necessity he gave that charge to the soul not to the mouth Hee that understandeth not this he truly remaineth as a Mole-warp in the Scripture neither understandeth the nature of originall sinne of repentance of the new birth lastly not any Article of Religion We see daily before our eyes the extream malice of men their horrible pride cruelty hatred and beastly envie so that they are accustomed to lie in wait for another mans life with the hazard of their own and desire to have their neighbour utterly overthrown Which inhumane and detestable envie wrath and rancor of minds what other thing is it then that seed The holy matrimony in the state of innocency and image of
in the heart with earnest sorrow and most assured feeling of heavinesse we be made contrite and afflicted and again be made holy and joyfull purged and changed and amended by remission of sinnes by faith in Jesus Christ whereby it cannot but come to passe that the outward life and manners be renewed and changed What if now one should onely doe outward penance or repentance abstain from great and erroneous offences for the feare of punishment and the inward man doe keep his old spots still and take no care to enter into the inward and new life in Christ shall not such a one neverthelesse be damned neither shall it profit him a straw to cry Lord Lord but he shall be constrained to hear that terrible voice I know you not For certain and sure it is not all that say Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of heaven but onely those that doe the will of the heavenly Father Under which terrible sentence of the Divine Majesty it is manifest men of all orders are comprised for as many as doe not inwardly and from the heart truly repent and become new creatures in Christ those surely Christ will not acknowledge for his CHAP. V. What is true Faith 1 John 1. 5. Every one that beleeveth that Jesus is Christ is born of God FAith is a solid trust and a firm and cernain perswasion of the grace of God promised in Christ for the remission of sinnes and life eternal kindled through the word of God and the holy Ghost in our hearts by this faith is conferred unto us the remission of our sinnes and that gratis or freely for no merits of ours but Christs alone and that of meere grace that our faith may remain fixed or unmoveable upon a firme and solid foundation And this absolution or forgivenesse of our sinnes is our justice or justification and that true solid and eternall before God For neither is it of Angels but by the obedience of the Sonne of God his merits and ransome which by faith we appropriate unto us fixing and applying the same to our selves therefore neither is the imperfections Properties of a true faith of our life or any sinnes left remaining to withstand us but they be covered with the vaile of grace for Christs sake Psal 32. Furthermore by this solid and firm trust this followeth that the man doth dedicate his whole heart solely to God in him he resteth alone to this one is he glewed or fastened with this alone he entreth society and is joyned to God and participateth all things that are of God and Christ and is made one spirit with God taketh and collecteth from him power and strength a new life new joyes many recreations peace lightnesse of heart the soules Sabbath and rest Lastly justification and holinesse or sanctification in the holy Ghost What other thing then is it at the length but to be regenerated through faith for where true faith is there is Christ with all his justice holinesse redemption merit grace remission of sins adoption and inherttance of life eternall And this is the new life and regeneration New birth through faith in Christ whereupon the Apostle to the Hebrews Cap. 11. calleth faith a Substance that is the undoubted solid firm trust of things which were hoped for and a certain manifest and notable conviction and experience of things invisible And finely so great and powerfull is the consolation of a true living faith in our hearts as it cannot but convince by arguing most firmly from experience and tast of the soveraigne good in his soule that is from the quietnesse and peace in God Iustified faith where peace whereby that preservation remaineth most certain which a Christian doubteth not to seale with his death and this is that strength of spirit and inward man this is vigor and alacrity of faith or Parrhesia Eph. 3. Phil. 1. 1 Joh. 2. 3. this joy in God 1 Thess 2. Lastly this Plerophoria and immoveable The certainty of faith firm certainty 1 Thess 3. even for which I shall dare to dye that truly cannot but first be perswaded in my mind most firmly through the H. Ghost infixed and impressed in my inward understanding also it behoveth to be lively inward in most powerful consolation wherby that commeth to the mind which is supernaturall divine and a celestiall strength to overcome the feare of death and the love of he world to be uttetly extinguished in me I say so great so solid Prolepsis or perswasion To be born of God is no dead work and union with Christ is needfull that neither death nor life can dissolve it Rom. 8. whereupon B. John pronounceth That he that is born of God hath overcome the world But to be born of God cannot be any vain or shadowed thing it ought to be a lively thing and very powerfull For it were wickednesse to beleeve that the living God did beget a dead off-spring frivolous anâ— dead members or instrumentss but It is living overcometh so it be true faith rather it is for a certain rule that God cannot being a living God but beget a living man no other then new Now seeing our faith is the victory by which we overcome the world who can doubt that it should overcome being indued with powerfull strength and greatest force and that our faith which is commanded by God to overcome the world ought to be lively overcomming and affections working divine faith a certain force and influence yea Christ himselfe apprehended by faith and fixed in our minds and graffed in our understanding and by this vertue of God What we are with Christ without him what we return into God and become intimate and one with God And from Adam as from a cursed Vine we are transplanted into Christ that living and blessed Vine John 15. So in Christ we possesse all his goods and in him are justified Even as a Scien or a plant graffed in a good tree groweth flourisheth and beareth fruit without it it withereth so man without Christ is a cursed vine and all his works are sinfull the grapes of it are bitternesse gall Deut. 32. but in Christ blessed and justified wherefore St. Paul saith 2 Cor. 5. that hee â—hat knew no sinne for us became sinne that we might be justified before God in him By this it appeareth manifestly that works do not justifie because we must be graffed in Iustification is not by works Christ by faith before we can do any good work and so thy justification is the gift of God freely given before and preventing all our merits we may as well say a dead man may see stand and doe good of himselfe I think so indeed but he must first bee raised from death so thou likewise that art dead in sinne to God canst not performe any work to God unlesse thou be first raised by Christ to life which being granted it followeth thy
most noble is that man in whom Christ is all and doth all whose noble thoughts mind words are the will of Christ the thoughts of Christ and the mind of Christ according to that of Paul * 1 Cor. 2. We have the mind of Christ Lastly whose words are Christs And so it needs to be indeed because the life of Christ is that new and another life in man neither is the new man any other thing then he who liveth in Christ according to the Spirit whose life I say courtesie patience and humility is no other then that of Christ And this the new creature and the life of Christ in us according to that of Paul to the Galatians Gâ—l 2. I live but not I but Christ in me liveth this also is to follow Christ truly and truly to repent for by this method the old man is destroyed and the carnall life declineth the new spirituall and heavenly life ariseth and breaketh out of the clouds This who ever doth he truly is a Christian not in title only but in work and truth a true son of God begotten of God and Christ renewed in Christ and quickened by faith and so long as the inward man dwelleth in flesh and blood we may wish so much perfection rather then attain unto it but it is as meet and necessary to indeavour and to aspire thereunto and study the same and to wish it from our inward minde and to strive that the life and kingdom The strife daily fighting with corrupt nature of Christ may be in us and not the life of Satan let all our counsels respect this all our cares and inward groans be sent this way and let this be our only strife and warfare that we may mortifie the old man by daily repentance For how much every one dieth to himself so much doth Christ live in him how much corruption How the man is daily renewed departeth from our nature by the Holy Ghost so much divine grace cometh in how much the flesh is crucified so much is the spirit quickened so much of the work of darknesse as is destroyed so much is the man illuminated by how much the exterior man is lessened and wasted so much the inward is renewed 2 Cor. 4. so much as you lose of your vaine affections and carnall life and are wasted as self-love ambition wrâ—th covetousnesse and voluptuousnesse so much Christ liveth in you the further a mans heart is set from the world from concupiscence of the eyes flesh and pride of life so much more of God Christ and the Holy Spirit doth flow into him Last of all the more nature flesh darknesse and the world do bear rule in man so much lesse grace spirit of light God and Christ is found in him Moreover this new kind of living is to the flesh The new life is the crosse of the flesh an enemy and bitter crosse because it is that by which it is subjugated and brought under and crucified with all the desires and concupiscences thereof but yet is that wherein the whole power and fruit of penitency consisteth This is the inward desire of the flesh and blood that it had rather lead a free life dissolute according to its own will and among pleasures and all kind of voluptuousnesse for it only knows this to be sweet and pleasant as contrariwise the life of Christ to the flesh and the old man is a heavie crosse but to the new man and him that is spirituall it is an easie yoak a light burden and a most quiet Sabbath truly the true rest is sought for in vain else were they in the faiâ—h of Christ and in his sweetness humility patience and love of Christ whereupon it is said Mat. 11. You shall find rest for your souls Truly he that loveth Christ will not think it bitter to suffer death it self for him This therefore is that sweet yoak of Christ which we are commanded to take upon us that our soules might be refreshed and come into his rest which command if we determine to obey and mean to put on Christ his life and yoak then we must shake off the yoak of the Devill our way of carnall life wicked and dissolute nor must we suffer the flesh as a Lady to insult and disquiet the spirit but all things are to be brought under the Law obedience and yoak of Christ will I say reason understanding and all carnall What the yoak of Christ is appetites which the concupiscence of Adam and this flesh of ours is well pleased to be honoured worshipped and to be praised of men to abound in riches and pleasures to bring all which on the other side under the yoak of Christ and his discipline nothing regarding his ignominy contempt and poverty to think himself unworthy all things that the world gapeth What the life of Christ is after and for which other men do contend that truth is the crosse of Christ wherewith the flesh is delighted I say that extreme humility of Christ and his most noble life which to the spirit is a most easie yoak and a most easie burden for what other was the whole life of Christ then holy poverty extreme contempt and vile persecution who came not into the world to be attended on but to serve us himself and spend his life and shed his dearest blood to redeem our offences It is the property of The naturall man the spirituall the naturall man to seek after honours and hunt after great things The spirituall on the other side loved the humility of Christ and desireth to become nothing And whereas most men do desire to go before or excell others scarce one coveteth to be reputed as nothing of whom the one belongeth to the square or rule of life of the old Adam the other to the rule of Christ The carnall man and he who hath not yet learned what Christ is that is to say meer humility courtesie and love accounteth it folly to live as Christ liveth and thinketh those onely wise that live after their owne The false true light will delicately and easily not knowing that then he chiefly liveth in the Devill when most foolishly he applaudeth himselfe and esteemeth his own life as the best and most pleasing which most miserable men being fast bound in the lust of their own carnall wisdome doe inforce others to follow the like errours contrariwise those whom the true and eternall light hath inlightned those are touched at the heart when they doe see the pomp and disdaine pride pleasure wrath revenge and such kind of fruit of the carnall life which causeth them to sigh from the bottome of their hearts saying How farre is this from Christ and his knowledge from true repentance from genuine Christianity and lastly from the fruits of the new birth of the sonnes of God for he liveth yet in Adam in the old creature and in the Devill himselfe for to offend
boldly and willingly to sinne is nothing else then to live in the Devill In whom therefore the life of Christ is not this man is without repentance neither is a true Christian nor the sonne of God nay Christ knoweth him not He who will rightly know him as a Saviour and example of life it is meet he know him to be meere love meere courtesie patience and humility which vertues of Christ it behoveth thee to have and love them from the bottome of thy heart and fasten them to thy self As a plant by its favour and smel that it sendeth forth bewrayes its own nature so thou oughtest to know Christ and by experience be certain that he is a certain most fragrant The true knowledge of Christ stock from whence thy soule doth draw and obtain admirable strength and new vitall spirits as also singular joy and solace And after this manner is tasted how sweet the Lord is so is the truth known so is the chiefe and eternall good perceived and then doth he know certainly that nothing is better then the life of Christ nothing more pleasant sweet pretious or more full of tranquillity And lastly nothing can be more likened or be compared to life eternall And do we doubt that because it is better then all it should be more desireable for in whom the life of Christ is not this man cannot know what the peace and tranquillity of eternall life is nor what the chiefe good is nor everlasting truth nor what is true peace and joy the true light and true charity seeing Christ is all these himselfe whereupon John Ep. 1. chap. 4. saith Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God he that loveth not knoweth not God because God is love Whereby the fruits of the new birth which is of God appeareth and also life and a new creature not to be words and an externall forme but a substance but the Queen of vertues and which is God himselfe that is to say Charity for of whomsoever any is born it is meet he should have the same properties and he that saith he is born of God let him shew that by charity because God is charity In like manner the knowledge of God resteth not in words and shadowed or vain knowledge but in lively amiable pleasant and most sincere pleasure which ought to flow into the bottome of our heart and mind and there to dwell when we taste by faith inwardly in our hearts the sweetnesse of God This I say this is the true lively and efficacious knowledge of God of which David in Psalm 84. speaketh saying My heart and my flesh rejoyceth in the living God and Psalm 63. How pleasant is thy mercies over our lives where it is presently manifested the joy and sweetnesse of the knowledge divine which is infused into the faithfull heart and so at length the man liveth in God and God in him so is truth known and so the same truth knoweth man CHAP. XII The being of a Christian man is to die to himselfe and the world and to live unto Christ 2 Corinth 5. Christ died for all men that those which live might not now live unto themselves but unto him who died for them and rose again OVer and above this that this sentence is full of consolation whilst it is manifested that Christ died for all men as also it containeth a most wholsome doctrine concerning the way of a Christian life how we ought to live that is to say not to our He that wil live in Christ must dy to the world selves onely but to him who died for our cause but this by no means can be done unlesse first we die to our selves and the world Therefore if thou hast purposed to live in Christ necessarily thou must die to worldly concupiscence but if thou mind to live to thy selfe and the world it will profit nothing to be with Christ But there be 3. kinds of death one spirituall when the Death is three fold man daily dieth to himselfe that is to the concupiscence of his flesh covetousnesse pride voluptuousnesse wrath such like the second naturall the third everlasting of the second speaketh Paul to the Philippians châ—p 1. To live to my selfe it is Christ and to die it is gain as if he should say To a Christian desiring to die Christ is his life and death gaine for when he changeth this short and miserable life for a better life and this earthly and fraile goods for stable and eternal goods this is a most gainful exchange and he who shall be well pleased with this saying and fit himselfe to the first sort of death in my judgement he shall not erre For that soule is thrice and foure The life of Christ times happy to whom to live is Christ that is wherein Christ liveth or that hath the life of Christ that is followeth his humility and lowlinesse But alas most men The life of the Devill at this day have taken upon them the life of the Devill and their life is the Divell As for example covetousnesse pride concupiscence wrath blasphemy for this is the life of the Devill But thou O man walk carefully and look about thee again and again and see who liveth in thee and thou What it is to die to themselves and the world shalt be most happy if thou canst truly say To me to live is Christ not in the other life only but also in this present life so truly it is needfull also in this present life now that for thee to live is Christ gain to die For is there any thing more profitable then to die in this condition to covetousnesse pride concupiscence wrath and hatred that Christ by that means may live in thee For how much every one dieth to the world so much Christ liveth in him Goe to them let Christ live in thee in time that thou in like manner maist live with him in From whence be the perturbations of the mind eternity But seeing that the mind distracted with divers worldly concupiscences is not capable of true tranquillity and peace it followeth that those that doe die before they begin to live in Christ that which our Sarah the type of the new birth great God hath taught us in divers figures in the old Testament for Sarah when by reason of her age she was unfit to bring children and dead to marriage bed did conceive in her womb and brought forth Isaac which word signifieth Laughter So then unlesse thou root out of thy mind worldly love thou shalt not be able to feel and receive the joy of the Spirit The promise was not made unto Abraham of Christ Abraham is a type of the abnegation of the world and the covenant of circumcision annexed before he left his proper habitation and his own inheritance it is no otherwise with man so long as he hath his mind fixed to the world it is
impossible for him to taste and receive Christ into his heart Herod being dead Christ returned into Judea Matth. 2. The document is plain so long as the mind doth play the Fox with the World Christ cannot enter into it and therefore thou must die to the Fox First die unto Adam that Christ may live in thee Herod that the child Christ may live in thee All which returnes to this that you must die unto Adam or the old man before Christ can live in thee Paul to the Galat 2. saith I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me And to the Coloss 2. You are dead yet he writes to the living and your life is hid in Christ for then every one is truly dead when he ceaseth to be that he was before Those which are of the spirit doe understand the things of the spirit saith St. Paul Rom. 8. and to the Galat. 5. If we live in the spirit we walk also in the spirit Neither is it sufficient to boast of the faith and the spirit in words but words are to be approved by the fruits and works for it is spoken to all men by the Apostle If you live after the flesh you shall die but if you mortifie the works of the flesh by the spirit you shall live wherein very many are like unto Saul who did not slay Agag the King of the Amalekites Concupiscences are to be morâ—ified not hidden as God commanded him but put him into prison so these men doe nourish and hide closely their concupiscence when they should be eradicated utterly and not any part of the root left behind let us doe this unlesse with Saul we lose our Kingdome The scope of the whole Scripture requireth the new man that is lest we be deprived of our eternall life In briefe the whole Scriptures with the consent of all Histories Types and Figures doe point out Christ whose life we ought to imitate and doe set out the scope thereof neither doe I speak here of the great world and of his exceeding testimonies of God and divine love There is a sort of men that not unfitly may be compared to Winter trees for as they receive easily their leaves which were cast off the yeare changing and becomming favourable so many in adversity doe retaine their pleasures within and hide them which yet doe forthwith in prosperity having as it were gathered a troop breake out on a sudden A true Christian is most unlike to those hypocrites who in prosperity and adversity liveth according to piety equally just and faithfull to his Christ and taketh all things indifferently his lot doth cast upon him When our great God did grant to Achab victory over the King of Syria upon that condition that being taken he should hold him in prison that he should remain an example to shew that God was stronger then all his enemies and did require just punishment against those that did blaspheme his Name he despising the Name of God and his Commandements having taken his enemy in battell saluted him as his brother and let him goe for which disobedience and giving life to a man deserving to die the Prophet pronounceth the pain of death to Achab by Gods appointment To whom these are most like who nourish and feed their own concupiscences when they should pull them up by the roots therefore willingly without mortification of the flesh there is no good in man do draw eternall death upon themselves And therefore it is most true that without mortification of the flesh no prayer nor piety Lastly without mortification no work of spirituall devotion can abound in the soule which was the cause God Almighty Exod. 19. appointed all those beasts to die that should approach unto the mount Sinai and by how much more ought we to kill our beastly concupiscences if we ascend to the holy mount of God and offer our prayers to God and if we meditate on the word of God lest if we do otherwise we die the death Gen. 32. we Iacob thou must be before thou be Israel read that a new name was given unto Jacob to wit Israel which signifieth a Champion or a Prince of God because in wrastling with the Angell of God he beheld his face But before this Jacob which signifieth a Supplanter or Vnderminer for so he was not onely in name but in deed after whose example unlesse thou first through the holy Ghost doe tread down thy concupiscences to become Israel or the Prince or Captain of God thou shalt never attain Man must displease himselfe to please God the place of a Captaine or see the face of God The same Jacob that he might enjoy the beautifull maid Rachâ—l he was constrained to take Lea with bleared eyes doe thou such a thing and if thou art in love with Rachel that is if thou darest marry with Christ the true Jacob first doe not despise Lea that is despise thy self as a beast-like and sinfull man displease thy selfe and force it to death But there be very many who like unto Jacob are deceived of their owne life thinking verily he had met with Rachel that is that he had led a Christian life pleasing to God inwardly declared in truth afterward then see that they live with Lea that is they have not yet learned Christ and therefore not in the favour but in the hatred of God and that most deservedly Therefore let us doe this Before all let us displease our selves and as Lea in the house of her father be counted unworthy so let us contemne our selves taking to us humility lowlinesse and patience that at the last we may obtain faire Rachel for whom as Jacob served constantly the whole seven yeares her love The service of mystical Iacob mitigating the hardnesse of his labour and wearing out the time without tediousnesse so the most faithfull spouse of our soules Christ Jesus served full thirty three yeares in this world a most hard service or servitude for our cause according to that of Matth. 20. The Sonne of man came not to be ministred unto but to serve others and give his life a redemption for many And according to that of Jacob which he indured after a sharper manner for our love This twenty yeares saith he I served thee in thy house abiding both heat and cold and frost and I watched both day and night And shall we doubt yet to love Christ again and make warre all our life against his capitall enemy the world CHAP. XIII For Christ and eternall salvation to which we were created and redeemed every Christian ought willingly to die to themselves and the world 2 Corinth 8. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ because for you he was made poore being rich that by his poverty yee might be made rich FOr thy Christ thou must die to thy selfe thy sinnes and the world thou must doe good and live a holy and innocent life not that thou canst
which is life it selfe this Way is Truth this Truth is the Way O the blindnesse a worm of the earth will make himself great when the Lord of glory in the world did willingly give up his own life Blush therefore faithfull soule and doe not thou when thy heavenly spouse celestiall Isaac cometh Humility is the way to Christ on foot to meet thee fit aloft on thy Cammel but like to Rebecca who beholding her Husband for bashfulnesse covered her face and comming down from her Camel went on foot with him so thou from the toylsome beast of thy proud heart descend lowly upon the ground and meet thy Spouse and he wil infold thee in his armes and bring thee into his heart Goe from thine own land and from thine acquaintance and from thy fathers house and come into the Land I will shew unto thee so said God unto Abraham Gen. 12. Goe thou likewise out of the house of thy selfe love and proper will for selfe-love corrupteth true judgement blindeth the understanding The evil fruits of selfe love disturbeth the reason seduceth the will corrupteth the conscience shutteth the gates of life and knoweth neither God nor his neighbour expelleth vertue hunteth after honours lyeth in wait for riches longeth after pleasures and lastly preferreth earth before heaven who so doth so love his life loseth it John 12. but whosoever hateth his own life that is doth deny his selfe-love this man shall keep it to eternall life selfe-love is the root of impenitence and eternal damnation with the which whosoever are bewitched they are without humility and acknowledgement of their sinnes the remission whereof can be obtained with no teares For they were not teares for God offended but for their own proper losse Mat. 13. the kingdome of heaven is compared to a pretious stone or pearle of great value which to obtain the Jeweller went and sold all that he had This Pearle is God himselfe or eternal life which to obtain all other things are to be left of which thing wee have a most absolute example Jesus Christ who descended from heaven not for his owne but for thy cause not to serve or profit himselfe but thee and shall we then doubt to seek him alone who did forget himselfe and for us gave himselfe unto death It is the part of a faithful Spouse to seek to please none but her husband and thou being spoused to Christ desirest still to please the world See then thou remember What soule is the virgin and spouse of Christ that thy soule is espoused to Christ yet not without a sacrifice with this condition annexed that thou mayst not love any but Christ rather perswade thy selfe thus that thou oughtest to contemne and put all things out of thy mind that thy Spouse might deem thee worthy of his loving imbracements for if thou darest divide thy love so that thou beholdest not Christ alone in all things now thou art no virgin but an adulterer for it behoveth the charity of Christians to be a chaste virgin and without spot Therefore as in the Law of Moses it was lawfull for the Priests onely to marry with virgins so Christ our true high Priest doth desire a virgin soule and which is taken with nothing besides his love and so knoweth not her own self in respect of Christ that which he professeth in expresse words saying If any come unto me and hateth not his own sâ—ule he cannot be my Disciple What it is so to doe to hate himselfe Why a man must hate himself let us shew in a word We all doe carry about with us the old man and are so the old man himselfe whose nature and property is to doe nothing but sinne to love himselfe to follow his profits and honors to pamper his own will and the flesh for the flesh and bloud is at all times like unto it self studieth it selfe giveth honour to it selfe doth applaud it selfe doth serve it selfe doth respect it selfe in all things it is easily grieved envious bitter covetous of revenge All which thou dost and art for seeing they arise and flow from thy heart this is thy life thine I say of the old man Wherefore thou must hate thy selfe if thou desirest to be Christs Disciple And he that loveth himselfe he that loveth his proper pride covetousnesse wrath hatred envie lying perfidiousnesse unrighteousnesse and wicked concupiscence which without doubt are not to beloved of any they are not to be excused and covered but followed with professed and open hatred mortified and utterly denied by him that will be Christs Disciple CHAP. XV. In a true Christian it behoveth the old man should daily die and the new man be renewed Also what it is to deny himself and what is the true Crosse of Christ Luke 9. If any will follow me let him deny himself and take up his crosse and follow me THese are the words of St. Paul Ephes 4. of the old man Lay aside according to your former conversation the old man which is corrupted according to the desires of error but be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put you on the new man wich is created according to God in justice and holinesse of truth And he expresseth the cause 1 Cor. 6. For yee are bought with a great price therefore glorifie and beare about with you God in your hearts What the old man is we said even now as What the old man is pride covetousnesse lust unrighteousnesse wrath enmity hatred and envie all which must die in a true Christian that the new man might spring up and be daily renewed The old man therefore dying the new man quickneth in opposit to it that is pride wasting humility succeedeth by the grace of the holy Ghost wrath dying lowlinesse shineth in the room covetousnesse being extinguished trust in God is increased the love of the world being taken away the love of God waxeth warm And What the new man is this then is the new man with his members these are the fruits of the Spirit this is the living and powerfull faith this is Christ in us and his most noble life this is new obedience this is the new commandement this is the fruits of regeneration in us in which whoso live these verily are the onely sonnes of God and therefore it is said that a man ought to deny himselfe as proper honour selfe-will and his own judgement privat profits and his own estimation yea to forgoe his own right and not onely all other things but to think himselfe unworthy to live his owne life What it is to deny himselfe Wherfore a true Christian and one that is indued with the humility of Christ doth willingly acknowledge that the man cannot All things are to â—e used with feare by his own right challenge or require any of those things which God bestoweth on him seeing that all things that are are the free gifts of Gods divine munificence wherupon he useth
is the way and lawfull appointment of the imputation of the merits of Jesus Christ when daily repentance goeth before and alwayes ariseth from his fall Which when the impenitent doe not cockering and pleasing the flesh in every thing and sitting at rest under sin reigning therefore such as these cannot challenge the merit of Christ to belong unto them for the bloud of Christ troden under foot can be no medicine CHAP. XVII The Inheritance and goods of Christians are not of this world therefore they must use them as strangers 1 Timoth. 6. We brought nothing into this world neither shall we carry any thing out of it having therefore meat and raiment let us be content therewith SEeing that God Almighty created temporall goods to that end did bestow All things are to be used for necessity onely with feare them on man as certain helps and necessary furtherances it is meet that they should not be otherwise converted but to be used and taken from our most loving God with thanksgiving and feare trembling and whatsoever is more then necessary Riches are trials and proofs of men abound and are superfluous as are gold and silver meat and drink and raiments these are left to man as a triall by God for to try man that by these things it may be seen how his mind standeth between these terrene things and God himselfe that is whether he cleave onely to him alone rest in him alone and seek onely after celestiall and invisible goods or contrariwise sucking in and feeding on the inticement of earthly things addict himselfe to this temporall life and preferre this earthly paradise before that of heaven Therefore God Almighty by reason Man is unexcusable of temporall things and in them only gave unto man his election and choice whom by riches honours graces and goodly gifts it might be manifested in some sort whether he did cleave unto God respect him live in him or being seduced with their splendor and false shewes turn his mind from God and live without him and contrary to him After which manner every one by his owne sentence and triall is declared and remaineth inexcuseable according to that of Moses Deut. 30. Consider what I have propounded this day before thee Life and Goodnesse and on the contrary Death and Evill Superfluous things are proofs of the feare of God that thou mightest chuse life and thou mightest blesse thy selfe All things therefore in this world are exposed to our eyes not for the cause of deliciousnesse and pleasure but as proofs and trials in which the fall is easie when we fall from God and this is that forbidden tree with the fruits thereof the eating whereof is so forbidden lest our mind resting in them doe take delight and play the adulterer after the manner of men now who know no other pleasure but what is taken and received from earthly things abusing thereby the creatures of God meat drink and apparell to the pleasures of the flesh and vain delights wherewith most men at this day are drawn from God But it is the part of a true Christian to think that they be strangers or Pilgrims A Christian is not delighted in worldly things whose necessity these earthly things should serve not for delicatenesse and that they should not set all their delight and pleasure in the world but should place it in God alone but if they doe otherwise they intangle themselves in sinne and being seduced with wicked concupiscence being womanly wanton and effeminate no true Israelites with Eva they eat of the forbidden fruit Therefore Christians do not desire curiously deliciously dainty meats so that they may gormondize them but they hunger after meat which corrupteth not they follow not the pomp of apparell that is earthly but otherwise they aspire to the cloathing of divine light glorified bodies In briefe to true Christians all Worldly things are a crosse to a Christian things whatsoever in this world doe please others are nothing but a crosse temptation allurements of sinne gall and venome and rightly indeed for whatsoever a man to obey his concupiscence and pamper the flesh usurpeth without the feare of God that cannot but be venome or poyson to the soule howsoever to the body it may seem healthfull But such is the indocibility of man no man layeth to heart to know the forbidden tree but every man most intemperatly A Chrstian doth use the creatures with feare is fed with the concupiscence of the flesh the fruit I say of the forhidden tree but a Christian which useth all things with the feare of God and as a stranger using diligence and having great care that he offend not his heavenly Father in meat drink cloathing houses or any fraile good thing by his intemperance or his table-friends taking heed of all abuses most diligently and with the eyes of faith he beholdeth future good things in like manner for what profiteth it the body by by to be eaten with worms if in this world it swell in all kind of pleasure Naked saith Job came I out of my mothers womb and naked shall I return againe that is to say naked infirme and brickle body we bring into the world as an unprofitable burden we bring it into the world which as the spoyle of death when we goe out of the world we carry it out again and in truth poorer then when we entred for being born we have body and life and things not yet ripe are at hand cloath cloathing The bread of Christistians is the bread of grief meat and drink all which being dead we leave behind and so now whatsoever we had even from our birth to the houre of death in this world the solace of miserable necessity yea the bread of mercy and griefe they were whose use and possession in a moment death hath interdicted and taken away therefore nothing is more wretched then a dead man and especially he who is not rich in God Goe to then O yee mortals because we are strangers and Pilgrims in this world and because we must leave all these things when we die will we nill we let us leave at least to be grievous to our souls in such things In death all are alike riches covetousnes is a kind of madnesse and let us acknowledge it to be a kind of madnesse to gather wealth with great labour for a brickle and fraile body which it cannot carry out of the world especially seeing there is another world and another body and another life Call these things I say O yee mortals to mind to you I speak who in truth are strangers and Pilgrims before the eyes of God as it is in the Psalmes although very few of you doe testifie that you think so by your deeds and if we be straugers in this world it followeth that our countrey is elswhere that which is manifest to man of it selfe if we conferre or compare time with
nor esteemeth any thing so sweet He that loveth God serveth him from his heart he that loveth not God he serveth not him although he heap mountains upon mountains So then nothing can befall a man better or more profitable then that the love of God should wax warm in his heart Whatsoever faith worketh in man and all things ought to be done in faith Faith in charity should doe all things in man ought to be done in charity no otherwise then the soule through the body seeeth heareth tasteth smelleth speaketh and doth all things I say after that manner should charity doe all things in thee that All things ought to be done in charity towards our neighbour whether thou eat or drink hear or speak praise or dispraise all things should be done in charity after the example of Christ in whom most pure love wrought all things Wherefore if thou dost look upon thy neighbour let sincere charity fix thine eyes upon him if thou hearest him let charity erect thine eares if thou speakest unto him let most loving commiseration governe thy tongue Lastly have a care and study this one thing that charity through faith may be the root and beginning and cleave unto thee alwayes which can beget in thee nothing but what is good and wherewith thou beginnest the law of God whose love also is the fulfilling of the law or the true abridgement thereof Which majesty of the divine love all the old Saints of God with admiration exclaime O Charity The praise of Charity of God in the holy Ghost the sweetnesse of the soul and the divine life of man he who hath not thee is dead though alive he that hath thee never dieth before God where thou art not there the life of men is continuall death where thou art there the life of man is a fore-tast of the eternall life And thus much of Charity so farre as it is the end of the Law Let us God is mans soveraigne good come now to the other attribute the purity of the heart which consisteth in this That the mind being void of worldly love doth rest upon God as his chiefest good according to Psalm 16. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup thou art he that dost restore my inheritance to me Psal 37. The Lord knoweth the dayes of the unspotted and their inheritance shall be for ever And therefore the mind of man ought to take his chiefest delight and pleasure in God alone because he is the chiefest good and consequently good it selfe and vertue it selfe verily meer favour grace love lowlinesse patience faith truth consolation peace joy life and happinesse all which he bestowed upon Christ also so that he Why vertue is to be loved which hath him hath all things Wherefore he that loveth God ought to love also his truth mercies goodnesse and all vertues For the true lover of God loveth all things that are acceptable to God and contrariwise abhorreth and hateth all things that be against God Therefore justice is to be beloved truth mercy because God is all these meeknesse humility by reason of the example of our most humble and meek Saviour Contrariwise a true lover of God hates every vice as the adversary and enemy of God and the work of Why vice is to be hated the Devill therefore he hateth a lie because the Devill is a lier and consequently other sinnes because they are part of the Devill And whosoever loveth sinne as a lie and injustice this is a sonne of the Devill as it is in John 8. Even as he that loveth Christ our Redeemer and Saviour he also loveth the example of his most innocent life I say his meeknesse humility and patience he is the sonne of God But thou must remember that thou pray to God for this purity of love who certainly willingly and freely through the love of Christ doth kindle it in thee if so thou incessantly with daily prayers cease not to importune him and offer up thy heart unto him every houre and moment But if thy charity be could and weak so that sometimes thou faile and fall goe to rise again and goe to work and renew thy Charity be sure the eternall light of the divine love is not extinguished God our most gentle Saviour will enlighten thee again which albeit it be so yet thou shouldest The charity of God and our neighbour cannot be severed pray unto God daily lest at any time hereafter he suffer the most bright fire of divine love to be extinguished And thus much of the Charity from the heart purged from the love of the world and the creatures Let us see now the charity of our neighbour out of a pure conscience The charity of God and our neigbour is one and they cannot be severed neither is the love of God more manifest in any thing then by and in the love of our neighbour If any man say that he loveth God and hateth his neighbour he is a lier For hee that loveth not his brother whom he seeth how can he love God whom he seeth not And this is the commandement we have received from God That he that loveth God should love his brother also 1 John 4. For the love of God cannot dwell in the heart of a man-hater or hostile revengefull man Whereupon if thou hast no pitie on thy brother and knowest that he hath need of thy help how canst thou love God that hath no need of thy help As by faith we are united to God so by charity wee are to our neighbour joyned 1 John 4. He that abideth in charity abideth in God and God in him As a man consisteth of body and soule so faith and charity of God and our neighbour doth make a true Christian And seeing that God is well affected towards all men who is so indeed it followeth that he is of one mind with God and so consents It is the property of Charity to bewaile a sinner to him he that doth contrary is adversary to God because he is an enemy to mankind Furthermore it is the property of this charity to bewaile humane errors because they represent as in a glasse our own proper defects and bring to our memory the most infirm condition of our humanity whereupon it followeth that we are to bear the infirmity of our neighbour with patience humility and meeknesse Truly such as sin through want of strength We are to bear with the weak more then of purpose and whereof they soon recollect themselves doe rebuke and punish themselves and doe of themselves acknowledge their sinne these truly are to be pitied and condoled and doe deserve pardon He that denieth this surely hath not the spirit of Christ For to punish the fallings and infirmities of our neighbour rashly and with severe judgement without mercy or commiseration onely is proper to him that is without the most mercifull law of God the Father Sonne
state of innocencie to love God with all his heart with all his soule and all his strength and his neighbour as himselfe Hereupon it is that when Almighty God requireth the heart of man the whole man as concerning body soule and all his strength is to be understood In which sense the name of heart in Scripture is understood every where so that with it doe come all the strength of the soul and â—â— it were the nerves the understanding memory affections and desires Neither is it for other reasons when God requireth the soule understanding by that denomination the whole man so much as in him is which indeed is to bee conformed to Iustice righteousnesse and ioy cleave together him to bee renewed in Christ and that he ought to walk in spirit or in a new and spirituall life But the perfection of most sincere joy doth accompany the perfection of holinesse righteousnesse and love in the man wherewith he was most sincerely affected God so disposing it that where divine holinesse is there also should be divine joy which two as they cannot be separated so they make the Image of God But we who in this life doe attain to onely an unperfect and begun righteousnesse of God and his holinesse for these beginnings of the righteousnesse of Christ living in all the faithfull if we be devout if we be exercised in the Kingdome of God we shal do participate thereof in this world and have the fruits thereof even the first fruits of that heavenly joy Therefore how much every Christian profiteth in love so much divine pleasure and joy hee doth find in himselfe Which holy and divine love because in that day it shal receive the last hand and its perfection therefore also our joy shall be then perfect Christ bearing witnesse John 16. For charity or love is life and joy as contrariwise where love is not there is neither life nor joy but death it The greatest ioy for the love of God selfe wherein the Devil and wicked impenitent men shall remain to all eternity This love maketh the father of the son the bridegroome of the bride draw an incredible delight yet it is a far greater love that is perceived from the love of the Creator which most lovingly kisseth us with the kisses of his mouth that is in Christ and in him by the charity or love of the holy Ghost cometh upon us and taketh up his dwelling with us And of this image of God the Image of God differ God which consisteth in similitude with God when wee make mention of it we doe not mean that a man should be every way like God in justice righteousnesse and holinesse and become like God himselfe for God is incomprehensible and he is immense as concerning his essence virtue and properties but onely to carry about the image of God as is declared in divers places of this book Where what wee have commented of the Image of God those are no conjectures but things indeed neither can it be denied of the most perverse that Almighty God created man that he might be his most cleare looking-glasse so that if one were desirous to know the nature of God he might look back to himselfe and counsell with himselfe contemplate God in himselfe as in a glasse might see his Image within and in his heart as his life and happinesse But the Devil beholding this Image The acts of the Devil to abolish the Image of God of God in man with wicked envious eyes laid in wait with many deceits and machinations until at last through disobedience and an hostile mind conceived against God hee overthrew that Image and destroyed it which he hath attained unto with such craft as never any thing was attained unto or shall be Neither was it an obscure thing unto him if the man had remained in that state he had been his Pride the original of all sin Lord but so soon as he fell from him hee became a tyrant to him Therefore when all his forces of malice and craft displayed hee found nothing more fit to perfect his cogitations then that sinne by which hee was bewitched and pulled from God hee began to insinuate into our mother the affectation of the divine Majesty by sweet and flattering speeches with the help of the Serpent that old and deceitful Parasite and the atchiever of so great The fall of Adam a wickednesse which proud thought once entied into the heart and admitted there followed Apostasie disobedience and transgression of the precept concerning the Tree of knowledge not to bee touched Hereby came the image of God to be overthrown the holy Ghost to fly away and the image of the Devil to bee set up in the place of the divine Majesty and both of them to become the bondslaves of the Devil and he their Lord to handle their souls most cruelly and as a Giant handleth a child to blind the understanding to turn the will from God to accompany all the powers of the whole heart against God and intoxicate them with Satanicall malice to overthrow all the image of God in man to plant his own in the roome to infect them with the contagion of his own nature to beget after his own image children not now of God but his own to fulfill all kind of sinne and enmity against God and lastly to slay them with eternal death For even as in the image of God life eternall and the happinesse of man was contained so death and condemnation did follow its losse This death those doe best understand which fall and are cast into most grievous spirituall temptations being exposed to the tyranny of the Devill by infesting the miserable soule of them most cruelly with the custome of sinning Spiritual death and eternall by the fall of Adam under which crosse being depressed and troden down only unlesse the holy Ghost doe under-prop him and comfort him then the Devil doth fasten his death upon them and tormenteth their soules with pains grief infernal whereupon it must needs be that all the powers of the body doe faile the heart waxeth dry and the marrow to be consumed Psal 6. and the Spirituall temptation 38. and the word of God if any go about to be without life with juice and with all devotion and spirituall life Into which Spiritual death state when the businesse is to bee brought then the man is converted in the agonie of a true spirituall death esteeming nothing of the holinesse of all men righteousnesse dignity strength power glory honour arts and wisdome of all men without doubt this man shall perish unlesse the grace of God doe prevent him Therefore learn of me O man that Originall sin is the most terrible of terrible sinnes that is the losse of the hereditary righteousnesse of God and contrariwise the hereditary unrighteousnesse What our originall sin is of the Devil and man planted in the place for which the
calleth Herod a Fox and the impure Dogges and Hogges Matth. 7. Furthermore whosoever amendeth not the corruptions of our generation and is not renewed in Christ but dieth such a beastly man as we have described this man shall everlastingly retain his Satanicall nature arrogant disdainfull proud and shall remain a cruell Lion an envious Dogge a ravenous Wolfe a venemous worm and a Basilisk never to be reformed he carrieth about with him alwayes the image of Satan in everlasting darknesse to beare witnesse he lived not in Christ nor was renewed according to the Image of God according to John Apoc. 21. Without be Dogges Idolaters and all Inchanters that love and tell lies CHAP. III. How the man is renewed in Christ to life eternall Galat 6. In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature REgeneration is the work of the holy Ghost by which the man the sonne of wrath and eternall condemnation is made the sonne of grace and salvation and of a sinner a just man through Faith the Word and the Sacraments by which our hearts both sense mind understanding will and affections are renewed illuluminated and sanctified in Christ and according to Christ unto a new creature Therefore regeneration is conceived chiefly in two benefits and graces I say in Justification and Sanctification or Renovation Cap. 3. ad Tit. Wherefore the originall of every Christian is two-fold his line or Twofold birth nativity and generation the one carnall defiled with sin damned and accursed descending from Adam by which the seed of the Serpent the image of the Devill and the earthly and beastly man is propagated The other spirituall holy heavenly happy and blessed new birth or regeneration through Christ doth plentifully grow forth by which the seed and image of God and the man of God so heavenly and like unto God is after a spirituall manner begotten produced for even as the stem of old Adam is in us so is it necessary also that the new stock progeny and kindred of Christ be truly in us And this is that old new man old and new birth old new Adam The word of God is the seed of the new birth the earthly and heavenly image the old and new Jerusalem the flesh and the spirit Adam and Christ in us lastly the outward and inward man Now goe to let us see how we are regenerated by Christ Even as the old birth is propagated carnally from Adam so regeneration is made spiritually from Christ through the word of God which is like unto a seed of a new creature born saith Peter Epist 1. cap. 1. not of a corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God living and remaining for evermore And blesed John Cap. 1. For he begot us voluntarily by the word of his faith tbat we might be a certain beginning of his creatures Therefore this Word produceth Faith which apprehendeth in like manner the Word and in that Jesus Christ together with the holy Ghost and by that vertue force and efficacie the man is regenerated Briefly regeneration is made first by the holy Ghost John 3. and this doth Christ call or term to be born of the Spirit Secondly by faith John 5. He that beleeveth Jesus to be Christ is born of God Thirdly by Baptisme John 3. Vnlesse one be born again of water and the Spirit he cannot Faith is the means of the new birth enter into the Kingdome of heaven Of which things let us see further By Adam the man came by the greatest and chiefest of evils sinne abomination wrath death devill hell and damnation for these are the fruits of the old descent and originall but in Christ the man recovereth and receiveth the chiefest good as justice grace blessing The fruits of both births life and eternall salvation From Adam the man hath a carnall spirit and the ruâ—e and dominion of wicked spirits contrariwise from Christ he hath the holy Ghost with his gifts and a most quiet reigne and Kingdom for such as the spirit of man is such is his originall nativity and propriety You know not of what spirit you are of saith Christ Luke 9. From Adam the man hath an arrogant spirit swelling and proud who if he have a desire to be regenerate and born again and to be renewed then it will be necessary for him to receive an humble spirit plain and simple from Christ by A new spirit from Christ faith From Adam we receive an unbeleeving spirit blasphemous and ungratefull therefore it behoveth us by faith in Christ to attain to a beleeving spirit faithfull acceptable and well pleasing unto God From Adam a disobedient fierce and rash spirit is given unto us from Christ we must take the spirit of obedience meeknesse and modesty through faith in Christ From Adam we possesse the spirit of wrath hostility revenge and homicide but from Christ by faith in the place thereof is to be gotten the spirit of long-suffering love of man and goodnesse it selfe which is charity From Adam by our nativity and carnal off-spring the man hath a covetous heart and spirit churlish seeking onely his owne commodities and profits snatching and catching that which is another mans but from Christ by faith is to be obtained the spirit of mercy piety and liberality From Adam by carnall propagation doth proceed the spirit of shamelesnesse uncleannesse and intemperance against which it is meet to seek to obtain a chaste spirit clean and temperate From Adam is communicated to him a lying spirit speaking nothing but falsenesse and calumniation from Christ we ought to participate the spirit of truth integrity and constancy Last of all from Adam doth From Adam all evill from Christ all goodnesse passe the spirit of beasts terrene or earthly and meere brutish and contrariwise there is to be conceived from Christ a spirit from heaven celestiall and divine and for that cause it was behoovefull for Christ to take humanity upon him to be conceived by the holy Ghost and to abound with the same spirit above measure yea for this cause it was convenient that the Spirit of the Lord the Spirit of wisdome and understanding the Spirit of counsell and fortitude the Spirit of knowledge and the feare of God should rest upon him as saith Isaias Chap. 11. that the humane nature in him The human nature is renewed by Christ and his Spirit and by him should be renewed and that we in him and by him and through him should become a new off-spring and a new creature receiving from him the spirit of wisdome and understanding for the spirit of foolishnesse the spirit of knowledge in room of our naturall and inbred blindnesse the spirit of the feare of the Lord in stead of the spirit of impiety in which permutation consisteth the new life the fruit of the new creature or regeneration For as in Adam we were all spiritually dead neither could