manners of the Sufferings of Holy Martyrs which they underwent under the tyranny of bloody salvage Heathen Heading and Hanging and Crucifying were nothing for the satisfaction of their fury They were broyl'd on Grid-irons they were fryed in Frying-pans they were boyl'd in Cauldrons they were put in the Brazen Bull they were fired at the Stake cast into Ovens fired in Ships and so thrust from the shore into the deep fired in their own Houses cast upon burning Coals made to walk upon burning Coals burnt under the Arm-pits with hot Irons They had their Hearts riven out of their warm Body had their Skin flean off from their live Flesh had their Feet tyed to boughs of two near Trees which boughs being at first forcibly brought together suddenly let go rent their Body in twain They were trodden down by Horses cast bound and naked into Vaults to be eaten of Rats and Mice They had their Flesh pulled off with Pinsers torn off with Iron-rakes were squeezed to death in Wine-presses were tyed upon Wheels which turning rub'd their naked Body against sharp pegs of Iron They were hung by their Hands and Feet with their Face downward over choaking Smoak They were set out on high in the Sun having their naked Skin besmeared with Honey to be stung with Bees and Waspes The Devil spent all the skill and malice he had in finding wayes and engines of Torture for them God make us truly thankful unto him for his Mercy so long continued to us that we have without terrour or torment so many years enjoy'd the Christian Religion in such Purity And give us Grace to repent us of our unworthy walking and unbeseemingly of so great a Light But as concerning these Sufferings of the Body Beloved such is the love of God to Mankind and so reasonable is his Service that he hath made it no necessary condition of Eternal Life actually to suffer them But we ought to be so minded that rather than to relinquish the true Christian Faith or do any thing which we know offends God we would rather dye a thousand deaths And this was S. Pauls resolution Acts 21. I am ready not only to be bound but also to dye for the name of the Lord Iesus But yet there is a Suffering in the Body that we must needs suffer if we will approve our selves the Children of God and Heirs of that Glorious Kingdom And this Suffering we must inflict upon our own selves 1 Cor. 9. 27. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection These Sufferings are most acceptable to God and requisite fore-runners of Eternal Life If you live after the flesh you shall dye but if you through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live Verse 13. of this 8th Chapter to the Romans 1 Pet. 2. 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul. And Galat. 4. 24. They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts You see plainly then That we are not Christs nor Gods nor Heirs of God with Christ unless we suffer with Christ in mortifying all Bodily Lusts in curbing our inordinate Desire of eating or drinking unless we study to keep under the Body and live chastly and continently If we will be Heirs of that Heavenly Inheritance we must bring under all evil and carnal concupiscence If we will partake of that Eternal Glory in Heaven we must be content to suffer reproach and evil speeches amongst men If any man ask what Necessity what Reason is there I will briefly shew him how it comes about First For suffering in Name for I will step so much back There is no man loves to be disquieted in mind or vext But it would disquiet us and gall us exceedingly to be found fools so that we have not the heart to find our selves so it would so discontent our natural proud Spirit Hence we blame other men rather than our selves and say they be in the false way So did the Pharisees to our Saviour and to his Apostles And thus were the Prophets used before them because their wayes were of another sort their speeches and actions of another fashion from the World You will better understand it in some Examples A Carnal or Natural man that hath no Sense of the Spirit of God and is unacquainted with its Operations derides such performances as Prayers Exhortations or what so else may proceed from thence as truly and extraordinarily proceeding from the Spirit of God and counts those men that acknowledge Gods power in them in the performance of such things weak men crack'd-brain'd Enthusiasts Fanatical Fools silly Lunaticks But all this proceeds out of Pride Envy and Self-love he himself being not able to perform such Duties or at least not in that manner So some that have got the trick of Praying ex tempore by Custom the Mother of Confidence and Dexterity Ignorance and want of a true Sense of the Majesty of Heaven upholding them in their rash performance these men will vilifie Justice and Uprightness Humility and Patience and the mortification of our Sensual Lusts because they find in themselves no such Vertues nor intend to trouble themselves so much as to practise them Then for the upholding of their own credit they must give them poor contemptible terms that they are but Heathenish Vertues such as Socrates or Plato had and make but a Moral man and that there is no such need for a Christian to have them But Beloved be not so deceived but observe this Truth Though Moral Vertue carries us no higher than an Heathen yet without the exercise of Moral Vertue and inward life and liking of it we are no true Christians The Summe is this That the good ways of God are spoken against and miscall'd that wicked men may keep their credit and yet walk indeed in the wayes of the Devil To the Second I answer That it is necessary that we suffer in the Flesh because that if we do not keep down the Flesh and its suggestions the Spirit will be choaked and stifled by that filth and corruption The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be Ver. 7. The carnal mind that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bent will intent liking or desire of the Flesh is enmity with God desires against the Will of God and will not be obedient to the Law of God nor indeed can be Wherefore we are to kill it to mortifie it to crucifie it that we may be dead to sin or the desire of the Flesh and alive to God by his enquickening Spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here is the Patience of the Saints Here their great Suffering 4. But I go on to their last Affliction which is in Spirit And that is twofold 1. The wrestling or conflict with spiritual wickedness in Heavenly places 2. The suffering with
See how they go about to vilifie the Meat rather than any way suspect the foulness and weakness of their own ill Stomachs But as all are not to stretch out their hand to every dish and intemperately and unseemlyly to seize upon that which is not meant for them Seek not out the things that are too hard for thee saith Siracides neither search the things rashly that are too mighty for thee But that which God hath commanded think upon that with reverence c. Ecclesiasticus 3. I say as we are modestly to decline that which we are not as yet fitted for receiving So no man hath excuse from receiving some or other of the variety of meats that He hath prepared who feedeth with his goodness every living thing Old men and babes young men and children they all are sustained by the Word according to every ones necessity and capability Or else how could the young ones increase Or they of full age subsist Both which is the Will of God That which Theophrastus hath in his First Book of his History of Plants belongs indifferently to all kind of Generation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature is not content with the bestowing of a being upon things but works them up to the perfection of that being As an little Plants that in time grow to their just bulk blooming and bearing Fruit plentifully And it is said of our Saviour that he shall grow up like a plant And our Saviour saith of the Kingdom of Heaven that it is like the growth of the mustard-seed tree Now as this new Life is called a Plant for its vegetation so is it also termed a Child for its tender sense and simplicity of meaning That therefore that hath knowledge and sense having also an appetite to nourishment and that a nourishment proper to sustain its own Nature and the Word being the proper nourishment of those spiritual new-born babes then if there be no such desire in us to this Word it 's a sign there is no such Principle of life in us or if there be that it is sick or the Stomach past by over-much fasting But if this Life by not giving it its due nutriment either for measure or quality come to be extinguished we prove our selves it's an horrible thing to think of it no better than Murderers of the Innocent and Just one For Murder is not the cutting and slashing of the Visible Body but the extinguishing of Life And thus we have seen in brief That for the raising of our Souls from Death for the begetting of the Holy Life and for the conservation and increase of the same we ought to be Hearers of the Word II. WE pass on now to that other Doctrine proposed That we ought not only to be Hearers but Doers also of the Word That awing sense of God which is impressed if not upon all yet at least upon most mens Souls together with a Natural desire of security and tranquillity of mind and every pleasing good That experience and acknowledgment of our own imbecillity and insufficiency walking in the fear of darkness and knowing not as the Apostle speaks whither we go doth easily induce even our Natural and Fleshly minds out of love to our selves to lay hold upon somewhat which we conceive stronger than our selves And this we call God and that outward erected form of Religion in all Churches as Hearing and saying of Prayers and giving Attention to the Word we call Gods Worship And a Worship it is surely too too easie and so fit for the vafrous and subdolous Spirit of the Natural man to play its wily pranks in that it being well instructed by the sly and subtle counsels of that Old Serpent the Devil and Satan it turns those good constitutions which should have been introductions to further Holiness into a strong fort or castle of false satisfaction of Conscience and most pernicious diabolical delusion whiles we take our selves to be distinguished from the wicked reprobate brood by outward performances of Ear-labour and Lip-labour without the practice of that which is taught us out of Moses or Christ plainly according to the Pharisees in our Saviours time whom the Holy Baptist sharply rebukes for such kind of imaginations Bring forth fruit worthy amendment of life saith he And think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our father For I say unto you that God is able even of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham Surely it is out of the want of that feeling Knowledge of that which is so acceptable to God and a fond over-estimation of our own poor naked and contemptible Souls or a conceit that God would want persons if we Christians be excluded to make up the number of the Inheritors of Heaven that makes us think that such superficial performances will make us allowable before God But nothing is acceptable to him but a simple humble and unfeigned obedient Spirit Nothing glorious in his eyes but his own Life the Soul inacted and quickened by Christ. All flesh is grass and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field The grass withereth the flower fadeth but the word of our God endureth for ever This is the Word and Eternal Life on whom whosoever doth believe and by true Faith in his strength is Regenerate into shall obtain Everlasting Life otherwise he abideth in the Sentence of Death and the Wrath of God is upon him 'T is true there be notable Preheminences and Priviledges given even to the Natural Fleshly Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Hermes The whole World subsists for Mans sake But this Prerogative howsoever hath its condition which follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The World for Man but Man for God And how for God To wit that his Life may be in us that his Christ may be in us Not so many verbal points of Christianity not so many notions of Divinity not so many moon-shine imaginations from the Word heard or read in Books in our Hearts in the Visible World in Heaven in Earth in Men. Christ is not dead and unprofitable phansie but the vigorous ebullition of Life Which Life if it be not in us then are we not partakers of that we were destinate to for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man was made for a Tabernacle for God he 's Materials for his Holy Temple But if we will not be living stones as the Apostle speaks we shall have the same doom that unprofitable trees or timber They are fit for nothing but to be hewn in pieces and cast into the fire This is the end of that frustraneous brood of the Sons of Belial the off-spring of unprofitableness that fall short of the end they were intended to by their own disobedient perversness The best of them fare no better Man being in honour hath no understanding but is like to the beasts that perish I but we learned Scholasticks have Vnderstanding enough or at least as much as any As much as we have
Christian such a State I say as the Resurrection from Death Then it is worth our pains to try our selves whether we be in that state or no. We have seen many Easter-Mornings God be praised but if the Sun of Righteousness hath not yet risen upon us with healing in his Wings all those solemnizations of the Resurrection of Christs Body from the grave is but Death and Darkness unto us is no Health no Light nor Life It was the manner of Primitive Christians to salute one another with this Salutation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord is risen If we could this Easter-Sunday and every Lords-day make such Salutations as this in the very Spiritual Truth The Lord is risen That is is risen from Death in our Souls and we by him become enlivened to all Righteousness O what Mutual Rejoycing and true Spiritual Triumph would there be in the Church of God! Verily Beloved if you partake not of the Mysteries of Christianity in the Spirit and Truth of them as well as in the History and Ceremony your Profession is but vain you are still in your Sins and dismal Sentence of Damnation remaineth still upon you DISCOURSE XVI Appendix to DISCOURSE XIII 1 PET. 1. 22 23. Seeing ye have purified your Souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever I Have already insisted upon the Doctrines or Truths which are as so many enforcements to the great Duty in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which may be observed out of this Precept is a fourfold Doctrine 1. That we are to love one another 2. That we are to love one another out of a pure Heart 3. That we are to love one another fervently 4. That we are to love one another universally and continually The First of these I have done with I come now to Doct. II. That we are to love one another out of a pure Heart This Purity may be set out in these three Constitutives or at least Consecutives of Love viz. Complacentia Benevolentia Beneficentia 1. The Purity of Complacency consists in this that we love and like that of a man that is the adequate object of honest Love and that is Divine Beauty which is not in the Body but in the Soul adorn'd with all Moral and Divine Vertues He that loves not according to this in a man he loves after the same manner he may love an horse a dog or any beast that is fitted for the satisfying of his natural or extravagant humours For if there be no ground of right Friendship but Vertue then is there no Love in vain and leud men but after the manner of Brutes that is eating together as Sheep and Kine in one pasture or sporting together like young Greyhounds at their going out into the fields or better natur'd Spaniels or such like fond Animals I but the gaudes of Phansie and queint toyes of Wit or at least the subtilty thereof Art and accomplishment of the Intellectual parts these all of them put together at least may make up an object of Complacency and friendly delight Verily as much as a well proportioned Body clear Complexion a vigorous Eye gentle Deportment c. which are so far from that living object of Pure Love that by the same Law we may join Friendship with a well wrought Statue or some more curious Picture Complacency in any person saving for Vertues sake is as far removed from pure and Divine Love as the affections of Xerxes Glauca the Youth of Athens and that others of Sparta who loved trees statues rams geese c. were distant from Natural Vid. AElian lib. 1. cap. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as ridiculous and absurd will their Love prove in respect of that more pure and holy affection that can take Complacency in the person of men that have but the outward accomplishment of parts and abilities or outward artifice or natural well-favouredness their Souls being dead to Vertue and Righteousness For beside that these are as helpless to the best things as a dumb statue or a dead picture they are also very dangerous for either hindering the first shooting out of divine worth in the Soul of man or for corrupting and destroying what already is grown up of Vertue and Goodness For so it is with man that so soon as he is capable of Vertue he must either have it or the contrary Mans Nature is no barren Soil it brings forth or good grain or stinking weeds And where once corruption has taken hold it is even worse than a Gangrene it catches hold on the companion and is the very pest of the Souls of men But if the Love and Complacency of those be not pure that can love notwithstanding the foulness of their friends what pollution is there in theirs that can love for foulness it self viz. whose society pleaseth one another for some bad quality as for being a vain Gamester Swearer for their Lasciviousness or that delicious condiment of Friendship good Fellowship which some loving Souls are so taken with When as it s nothing but the similitude of their evil manners or equality of their enlarged bellies do thus joyn their affections Fellow-wine-bottles of the same size or Ale-tap-urinals c. And as this Impurity in Love is Bestial so there is also that is Devilish as when men like one another the better for being alike imbittered against this or the other party Such complyance as this is but like the twining together of Snakes and venomous Serpents in one bed A Paradox That that which is the most ugly of all the affections viz. embittering Malice and Hatred should make men so amiable one to another Thus Hags and Imps love one another And there is a knot of Friendship that is as Fond at least as this is Devilish viz. endearment from Identity of opinion Fellow-Thomist Fellow-Scotist c. And when it riseth no higher than Scholastick siding or Philosophical altercations it is not much worse than fondness or childishness But when this unskillful affection interweaves it self with matters of Religion and toucheth upon the Attributes actions or designs of the highest God where men are very loth to be deceiv'd though no where more subject to err Fondness is then too mild a term for that which is boil'd up to Fury and Fanaticalness For here men of the same Sect are not content with the pleasure and good-will they exhibit one to another but they grow to that heat as to scorch all gainsayers as well as warm themselves at these misguided flames God forbid that I should go about to slack any mans affection in the pursuit and profession of Divine Truth such as is plainly contained in the Scripture or evidenced by palpable experience in his heart But that which is but
he is notwithstanding one of the Children of Grace And besides this though he may have some Grace and Vertue in him yet let him further consider unless he do with these Travellers in the Valley of Baca pass e virtute in virtutem from one vertue to another and from one degree of vertue to another so that he can say with S. Paul that though my outward man perish yet my inward man is renewed day by day he will never come to his Journeys end and never appear before God in Sion And that we may understand this point more distinctly let us consider the several parts of this gradual proficiency that we may the better know whether we be at all as yet in the way to Sion and the Temple of God or no. We know in Nature that the weaker any thing is the stronger ought to be the prop that is to support it and so the less our Power is to do those things that are holy and good for their own sakes the stronger that Passion ought to be that must carry us to or support us in such actions and performances And truly the strongest and most enforcing Passion seems to be that of Fear we being more concerned not to be tormentingly miserable in intolerable pain and anguish than to enjoy the greatest Pleasure and Happiness Wherefore the first Degree of vertue and power is that which is so small as if it were not enforced with the fear of the wrath and displeasure of the Almighty and those dreadful punishments that ensue thereupon could not exercise it self in the ways of Righteousness and Piety could not abstain from undue Pleasures of the Flesh or from seeking unjust gains and advantages in Worldly affairs nor expose it self to any hazards and hardships for the Truths sake and for the Interest of the Kingdom of Christ but yet in vertue of the Fear of God and of his dreadful displeasure is carried through all these Duties in some considerable measure Which therefore if men be not it is a demonstration that either the Fear of God is not before their eyes or that they have not so much as this first degree of Vertue which jointly with the Fear of God should enable them to become Travellers in the Valley of Baca that they may at last arrive to the Vision of God Every man therefore must examine himself as to this point and observe wherein his wayes are defectuous and what it is that makes him so slack or fail so much of his Duty whether that due Fear of God has not slipt from him which should be a stay and prop to the small measure of Vertue he has as yet attained to and enforce and support the weakness thereof Which help if men let go unseasonably and it is unseasonable for every one to let it go while he finds himself subject to fall into Sin he will be like a City without Walls and his security in the notional considerations of the Goodness of God and fond and perverse conclusions fetch'd from that sweet Topick will betray him to ruine For being thus fudled as it were and made drunk with this delicious liquor of his own brewing he will grow light-headed or light-minded and presume of safety even when he is entring into the Jaws of Death With Agag they will come out delicately saying Surely the bitterness of death is past when as the Sword of the Lord stands ready to hew them in pieces Wherefore this Fear of the Lord is a Tower of Safety and the strongest Garrison against Vice that is It is true even in the vulgar sense of that place Perfect Love casts out Fear but that Love is not perfect that will let in any Sin or admit of any defect of Duty Indeed if a man had but so ardent a desire after the reward of Righteousness as that it would keep him in the performance of all Duties required by the Law of God that might excuse him from this less chearful state of Fear And it would be the Second advance in this Journey through the Valley of Baca to be able upon the consideration of those Joyes and Glories that are to be enjoy'd amongst the blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven to abstain from all Earthly Lusts and from whatever in our Pilgrimage through this World sollicits us to Sin This I say would be a further step in our Journey toward the House of God But we must by no means be content to stick here For this is but the state of mercenaries and as it falls exceeding short of that Perfection we are called unto so he that takes up here will most assuredly fall short of his Journeys end How far off then are they that endeavour no amendment of their lives either out of the fear of Punishment or hope of Reward how sunk and besotted must the condition of such Souls be and how vastly removed from their Eternal Happiness The progress hitherto in Vertue which I have described borrowing a term from Plotinus we may call Political it reaching no further than a conformity to an outward Law upon the consideration of an external Reward or Punishment which yet I have made part of the Journey in the Valley of Baca because these wayes lead to a nearer approach to the House of God as facilitating the Soul to a speedier attainment to higher Perfections For Temperance and Justice and chastising the Flesh and keeping in a method of Sobriety and Abstinence do of their own nature better dispose the Soul to a more absolute Purification and quicker sensation of Holy and Divine things and put her in a capacity of a more clear and certain conviction of the Reasonableness of the Commandments of God So that though there were no External Law to direct yet we should be satisfy'd in our own Minds and Reasons that such and such Vertues are better than their contrary Vices and that we have as we are Rational Creatures an obligation to follow the one and decline the other This is still a further step in the Journey but the state is but yet Legal if not Political This is rather a Law of life and prescript though more intrinsecal than the former than a Living law For to be in that Dispensation which I call a Living law it not only to be convinced of the Reasonableness of the Precept in our Imagination or Reason but to have it the genuine and natural ebullition of the Spirit of Life in us that it be not a Notion in the Head but the very Sentiment of our Heart and as it were essential to our Life and Being that we should not deem our selves alive without it and as the carnal man will part with all he has to save his Natural life so we will be willing to part with our Natural life and all rather than quit this This being the only Principle in which we find and feel our selves to live indeed He that has arrived hither is not far from the House
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Are they animo Dei formi Where the Poet plainly makes the form or image of God consist in Love in Righteousness or Iustice and Courteousnes they being contrary to Injury brutish Fierceness Cruelty and Injustice The Divine Philosopher speaks out more expresly though in fewer words To be like unto God is to be holy just and wise I might multiply words here for the setting forth of the manifold Benefits and Graces that accrue to the Soul of Man from his Conversion to God and Obedience to his Holy Word But nothing more can be said than this Image of Christ doth either express or at least imply Justice Holiness and Prudence comprize all Excellence That generous Magnanimity of mind that bears it self above all the contempt that can follow the practice of that which is Good or abstinence from that which is Evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pure Temperance Manly and awful-eyed Fortitude Gravity and Modesty gently moving in all peaceful and steady tranquillity and a God-like Vnderstanding watering with showers of Light this flourishing Paradise of Piety and Vertue This and whatsoever else we can conceive that Good is is contained in this Divine Image nay more than we can conceive before we be transformed into that likeness The Wisdom of him that is regenerate into this image and conformity with God dives into the depth of Darkness unties the knots of that Old Serpents train breaks off the bonds of Death and Hell pierceth like Lightning into the inwardness of things stands before the Throne of Immortal Glory That Holiness winds it self from all corruption of the Flesh flyes above the bewitching attraction of the Body looks upon God in unspotted purity That Iustice gives every thing it s own That which is Caesars to Caesar and that which is Gods to God But nothing to it self seeketh nothing for it self exulteth not in it self But gives all to God seeks all for God rejoyceth alwayes in God Thou art worthy O Lord to receive honour and glory and power for thou hast created all things and for thy wills sake they are and have been created Rev. 4. Thus be they nothing in their own eyes as indeed they are nothing but in profound Humility and Gratitude which is the most exquisite act of Iustice give all to the Eternal and Everlasting Majesty This is that lovely beautiful and most desirable Image of Christ the Son of the Father Who hath part here is an Inheritor of Eternity But he that by false and lazy imagination and phansie remains in the Devils deformed Nature his doom is everlasting Death and unspeakable Misery AND thus much for the Reasons Why we should be Doers of the Word I will only speak a word or two of the Proposition that is left and so end this Text. The Proposition is this III. That we are not to deceive our selves Errare falli decipi c. To err or be deceived saith Tully turpe est And that methinks should be a sufficient Argument to avoid it But to deceive ones self is a double fault He that deceives himself is both Fool and Knave as we say both the gull and the cheater the deceived and the deceiver Though to say the truth he that is deceived by another was first deceived by himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same defective Principles that expose a man to be deceived of another exposeth him as well to be deceived of himself No man is discovered to be a fool by another but he was so in himself first And who made him so then But how can this be That man should be so wise as to circumvent himself and so foolish as to be circumvented by himself Certainly it implies more Natures than one in a Man The Platonists reckon up three in general there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. There is Vnderstanding that lamp of Heavenly Truths or Intellectual illumination 2. There is the Soul in the middle where Will and Reasoning is situated 3. In the last place there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Life which resides in the Body and is but a shadow of the Soul the darkened Cave of evil delusions falshood and deceit a den of all Serpentine Natures false Spectrums Magical Allurements thick Mists benumming Vapours execrable Whisperings vain Terrour false Delight bewitching Apparitions fair flitting Phantasms deceivable Suggestions besotting Attractions Here 's that damn'd cell where those three grand Impostors and Conspirators against the Soul plot their fraudulent mischiefs the Flesh the World the Devil Or rather here is a World of Devils in this Life of the Flesh where the Prince of Darkness rules Well hath Zoroastre described this place He calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a World whose light is the blackness of darkness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A World whose bottom is the depth of unfaithfulness It 's foundation is laid in Hell a Hell whose fense is pitchy clouds and thick darkness whose treasure is corruption inhabitants vanity and shadowes wisdom senslesness prudence precipitancy simplicity of heart inextricable labyrinths of deceit and hypocrisie constancy or steddiness a vertiginous circuit of glowing phrensie and gross madness He that here doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which those wise Oracles forbid He that looks down indangers his sight indangers being carryed away with this rapid course and hurrying flux of tumultuous motions It 's enough to turn his Brain to change his Understanding to bereave him of his right Senses Here 's the fountain of ignorance and well-spring of all evil deceits So long as the Soul leans toward this and its loving and liking is toward this shadow of falshood it carries its deceiver about with it self and no deceit there is without but it is from this first or in vertue of this That which the Platonists call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scripture calls Spirit Soul and Flesh. This Flesh is that whorish Woman that Solomon speaks of so oft and describes her subtil carriage But all her fair speaking is but false allurement and her flattering utter destruction For a whore is a deep ditch and a strange woman a narrow pit saith the Wise Man Nay the high way to the very pit of Hell Her house are the wayes of hell whose descent is into the chambers of death Prov. 7. Now the Soul of man betwixt these two the Spirit and the Flesh Heaven and Hell God and the Devil is so placed that accordingly as it inclines or cleaves to so is its Wisdom and Life If it continually struggle to work it self upward toward God God will put out his merciful arm to draw it out of those Infernal Waters If it cleave unto the Flesh and its deceivable Lusts the warmth of wickedness will attract it down lower and lower till Satan hath insnared it in all his nests and hath chained it in his own chains So that being made an absolute Vassal of
the Spirit of Christ. For the First Eph. 6. 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places Beloved The great work of Salvation is not then accomplished when we have through the power of God and the strength of Jesus Christ overcome the Lusts of the Body as Drunkenness Gluttony Whoredom and the like But we shall find a new task the taming of our proud Spirit For after our first conquest I mean the overcoming the Lusts of the Body then pride and haughtiness and contempt of our Neighbour the thinking of our selves some-body rigour and unmercifulness to our sinful Brother the magnifying of our selves in some conceited Opinions searching out and confidently concluding concerning the secrets of God censuring and contemning all men that are not of the same conceit in Divine Speculations with our selves These and many such like evil delusions the Devil will sow in our Hearts The Devil himself is neither Whoremaster nor Drunkard nor Glutton But he is Proud but he is Contemptuous but he is Hypocritical but he is a Blood-sucker a Murderer from the beginning full of self-love full of self-admiration full of cruelty under pretence of Religion full of deceit and injustice under pretence of Truth and maintenance of Godliness full of ambition and desire of rule even over the Souls and Consciences of men full of self-applause and arrogancy and strutting in his own supposed knowledge and power But true denyal of our selves and unfeigned deep humility a sensible apprehension of our nothingness as I may so say or real detestable vileness will cause such dreadful agonies in our Souls that no tongue can express nor heart conceive that hath not had experience of those bitter Sufferings With so great pain and torment are we torn and riven from our spiritual wickedness disjointed and dislimb'd as it were from our head that Prince of Pride and Father of Disobedience the Devil But I will now shew you the other kind of suffering which is the suffering in Spirit by reason of other mens wickedness When we are united to God and Christ in the union of Spirit then do those things that are contrary to the Spirit of God as all manner of sin trouble our Spirit Envious or cruel acts drunkenness deceit pride rigour fierceness folly and whatsoever else is sinful or vain our Spirit being enlivened by the Spirit of God is grieved and vext at these wickednesses or vanities Then we plainly see how Christ is cut and lash'd and hew'd and stab'd with our wicked deeds how he is crucified afresh as the Apostle speaketh Here may the true Church of God the Holy Ierusalem take up fitly that Lamentation in Ieremy Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow See how the Prophet David was affected with the wickedness of men Psal. 119. Mine eyes gush out with water because men keep not thy law I beheld the transgressours and was grieved because men keep not thy word So Lot was tormented at the wickedness of Sodom 2 Pet. 2. 7. And delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked For that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds So God complains in the Spirit of his Prophet Amos. Behold I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves Amos 2. 13. And surely there is good Reason it should be so a sure Necessity For Fire is not more contrary to Water nor Light to Darkness nor any enmity in Nature or among men so strong as that betwixt the Spirit of God and the Spirit of the Devil that is in evil wicked men according to which they live and act So then when that detestable ugliness flowes out in their words or actions it must needs offend the Children of God God being of pure eyes and not abiding to behold wickedness Hence are they driven into consuming zeal or deep inexpressible grief And this is the second kind of suffering in Spirit But Beloved take this in by the way That he that can be angry at other mens faults and not much more angry at his own is a dissembler an Hypocrite Herein let every man examine himself But he that is so stupid that he is not moved at all with the wickedness of others or of himself is perfectly dead in Sin and is in the full power of Satan and is covered with Eternal Death and Darkness THIS Second Doctrine is now sufficiently plain That they that would be Heirs of the Kingdom of Christ must suffer with Christ. I will again here stir you up to an examination and tryal of your Spiritual state whether you have any interest in the Heavenly Inheritance The Sign and infallible Seal is our suffering with Christ. But not any suffering For the fuffering in Estate if we escape it yet may we be inheritors of Heaven But to be evil spoken of for Christ is harder to efcape yet admit we escape that too we may for all that be secure of our Eternal Inheritance Nor have all that are now with God been whip'd and tortur'd and put to death or martyrdom But yet we ought to be so minded that we had rather endure all these things than depart from Christ. But all the other sufferings as abstinence from voluptuousness from the delights of the flesh from priding our selves in any thing that God hath bestowed upon us a suppressing our anger abstaining from the sweetness of revenge denying of the ever-craving appetite of covetousness keeping our tongues from the delight of defamation and evil reports our ears from hearing evil of our Neighbour These be necessary All which endeavours will surely afflict and vex the corrupt Natural Spirit of a man But he that will not undergo this suffering believe it Beloved he is none of Christs he hath neither part nor portion in the Kingdom of Christ and of God But he that doth though with great agony of Soul and affliction of Mind fight against all this corruption of Flesh and Spirit He may bless God for his good condition and with good reason lay hold of the hope of Heaven They that are troubled in Spirit for the wickedness of men the prophanation of Gods name and any manner of sin and iniquity these men may conclude that they have the Spirit of God and consequently that they are the Sons of God And if sons then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ If so be that we suffer with him Which our own Spirit together with Gods Spirit doth testifie to us that we do and that we shall be certainly glorified with him Let every man herein examine himself that he may find a true ground of his hope of Eternal Salvation For none shall be saved but they that are
by that Spirit of Christ being alive in you then you seek those things that be above For it is as impossible that the Spirit of Christ should be alive in us and not we alive by it to him as it is that light should be let into a room and the air in the room not enlightened Wherefore if Christ be risen in us we are also risen with him But the Sign that we are thus risen with Christ is that we seek those things that be above But how above What Is the contemplation of the Stars or the knowledge of Meteors viz. of Comets of Rainbows of falling Stars of Thunder of Lightning of Hail of Snow or such like commended to us Nor Astronomy nor Astrology nor Meteorology seem considerable things in the eyes of God Those things that be above That is in Heaven But how in Heaven Or what is Heaven We are therefore to understand that this word Heaven has a threefold signification in Holy Writ First It signifies the Air. Psal. 79. 2. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat to the fowls of Heaven That is of the Air. Secondly It signifies that space where the Stars the Sun and the Moon and the rest of the Host of Heaven do move Isa. 13. 10. For the stars of heaven and the planets thereof shall not give their light the sun shall be darkened in his going forth and the moon shall not cause her light to shine Thirdly It signifies that aboad of the holy spirits of men where the eternal light and lustre of God is present where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God At the right hand of God That is the Power Majesty or Glory of God For God hath neither a Right hand nor a Left because he hath not a Body or any palpable distinct Members Wherefore when any sensible parts of a Body are ascribed to him they are to be understood by way of Analogy or resemblance So when his eyes are said to be upon the hearts of men and his eye-lids to try their wayes when his ear is said to be open to the prayers of the faithful these signifie nothing else but that God doth perfectly both know and discern and approve or disallow as certainly and as clearly nay infinitely more clearly than we see or hear any thing with our eyes or ears Now as by the organs of sense attributed to God the Knowledge of God is set forth so by the organs or instruments of action or operation is his Power decyphered And most eminently by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the instrument of instruments or best of all instruments the Hand The hand of God is the Power of God ordinarily in Scripture So is he said to deliver the Israelites with a mighty hand and stretched-out arm that is by exceeding great Power Now the Right hand being more active than the Left the more usual instrument in outward works or manufactures it may intimate the exceeding abundance of the Power of God Or the Right-hand of his Power may intimate the Power of God to good the more large effusion or pouring out of Benignity the enlargement and exaltation of the Soul of Christ and his Fellow-members as many as have been conformable to him in the death or mortification of the Old Man For these also God will raise up with him to Eternal Riches and Glory and irresistible Power which the Devil Death and Sin shall never be able to overcome But the Power of his Left-hand is the Power of destruction the fury and wrath and strong tempest of God which doth sieze the Children of Disobedience which abideth in Hell for them for an endless woe and toil and torment for ever And this is the distinction of the Sheep and the Goats on the Right hand and the Left these shall be plagued with the vengeance and anger of God in the power and dominion of Hell but those shall be strengthened and comforted with those pleasures that flow at the Right-hand of God for evermore Thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption Thou wilt shew me the path of life In thy presence is the fulness of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore What therefore the Right-hand of God is we plainly see viz. the full and strong stream of his Goodness and Divine Benignity To sit here what can it be but to remain in this Happiness unshaken unmov'd steadily and securely But he that stands is next going or departing AND thus much by way of Explication of the words which will afford us these Doctrines 1. That there is a Spiritual Resurrection of the Soul belonging to every true Christian 2. That those that do partake of this Spiritual Resurrection seek those things that be above that is Divine and Heavenly things 3. That they seek them where Christ sitteth at the Right-hand of God First of the first viz. That there is a Spiritual Resurrection of the Soul in this Life I will not go far for my first Proof I will only step back into the Chapter foregoing my Text viz. the Second Chapter of this Epistle to the Colossians at the 11th and 12th Verses In whom i. e. in Christ also ye are circumcised with circumcision made without hands by putting off the sinful body of the flesh through the circumcision of Christ in that you are buried with him through baptism In whom ye are also raised up together through the faith of the operation of God which raised him from the dead And ye which were dead in sins and in the uncircumcision of the flesh hath he quickened together with him forgiving you all your trespasses And then follows my Text for all the residue of that Chapter may be very well Parenthetical If ye then be risen with Christ c. which he doth assert or affirm in the forenamed Verses when as he saith they are buried with him in Baptism There 's the Death we are to imitate in our Soul that is to have the body of Sin dead and buried In whom you are also raised up by the operation of God There 's the Spiritual Resurrection of the Soul And in the next Verse Ye which were dead in sins There 's the Death of the Soul hath he quickened together with him There 's the Resurrection of the Soul from its Death which is Sin For Sin is the Death of the Soul as Obedience Righteousness or the Holy Spirit of God is the Life thereof But for further and more manifest proof of this point it will not be amiss to rehearse again to you that place at the 6th of Romans for it suits exceeding well with the place I expounded to you just now Ver. 3 c. Know you not that all we that have been baptised into Iesus Christ have been baptized into his death We are buried then with him by baptism into his death that like as Christ was raised