besides it And indeed what other can we insist upon Outward profession will not do it many a one shall say Lord Lord with a zealous reduplication which yet shall be excluded And for pretended revelations they are no lesse deceitfull Satan oftentimes transforming himself into an Angel of light A Zidkijeh thinks he hath the Spirit as well as any Michaiah of them all our books are full of the reports of dangerous dulusions of this kind whereby it hath come to pass that many a one in stead of the true David hath found nothing but an image of clouts laid upon a bolster stuffed with Goats hair 1 Sam. 19.16 But this mark of reall sanctification cannot fail us It will ever hold good that which St. Paul hath Rom. 8. So many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Nothing in this World can so highly concern us as this to see and know whether we be sealed to the day of Redemption Would we know how it may be evidenced to us look upon the impression that Gods Spirit hath made upon our hearts and lives if he have renewed us in the inner man and wrought us unto true holiness to a lively faith to a sincere love of God to a conscionable care of all our actions and to all other his good graces doubtlesse we are so sealed that all the powers of Hell cannot deface and obliterate this blessed impression But the principal main use of this Seal is for certainty of performance If we have the word of an honest man we believe it but if we have his hand we make our selves more sure but if we have both his hand and seal we rest secure of the accomplishing of what is given or undertaken How much more assurance may we have when we have the word of a God whose very title is Amen Rev. 3.14 whose promises are like himself Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 Alas the best man is deceitful upon the balance and his true stile is Omnis homo mend ax every man is a lyer But for this God of truth Heaven and Earth shall passe away before one tittle of his word shall fail but when that promise is seconded by his Seal what a transcendent assurance is here It is the charge of the Apostle Peter Give diligence to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 Sure not in respect of God whom no changes can reach whose word is I am Jehovah my counsel shall stand but in respect of our apprehension not in regard of the object only which cannot fail but even of the subject also which if it were not fecible sure the Spirit of God would not have injoyned it or imposed it upon us The Vulgar reads Per bona opera by good works And indeed it is granted by Beza and Clamier that in some Greek copies it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereupon Bellarmine would fain take an advantage to prove his conjecturall assurance A strange match of words meerly contradictory for if but conjecturall how can it be assurance and if it be assurance how only conjecturall we may as well talk of a false truth as a conjecturall assurance But that implication of Bellarmine is easily blown over if we consider that these Good works do not only comprehend external works as almes-deeds prayer attendance on Gods ordinances and the like but also the internall acts of the soul the Acts of believing the Acts of the love of God the Acts of that hope which shall never make us ashamed These will evidence as our calling and election so the certainty of both and therefore are the seal of our Redemption Let foolish men have leave to improve their wits to their own wrong in pleading for the uncertainty of their right to Heaven But for us let us not suffer our souls to take any rest till we have this blessed seal put upon us to the assuring of our Redemption and Salvation that we may be able to say with the chosen vessel God hath sealed us and given us the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts 2 Cor. 1.22 If we have the grant of some good lease or some goodly Mannor made to us by word of mouth we stay not till we have gotten it under black and white and not then till we have it under seal nor then if it be a perpetuity till we have livery and seizin given us of it and when all this is done we make account securely to enjoy our hopes and shall we be lesse carefull of the main-chance even of the eternal inheritance of Heaven Lo here all these done for us Here is the word preaching peace and Salvation to all that believe here are his Scriptures the internal monuments of his written word confirming it here is the seal added to it here is the Livery and Seâ—zin given in the earnest of his Spirit and here is sufficient witnesse to all even Gods Spirit witnessing with our Spirits that we are the sons of God Let us finde this in our bosome and we are happy neither let our hearts be quiet till we can say with the chosen Vessel I am perswaded that neither life nor death nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any creature can be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 3. the last verse Lo this is not a guesse but an assurance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither doth the Apostle speak of his own speciall revelation as the Popish Doctors would pretend but he takes all beleevers into the partnership of this comfortable unfailablenesse nothing shall separate us thus happy are we if we be sealed unto the day of Redemption Having now handled the parts severally let us if you please put them together and see the power of this inference or argument ye are by the Spirit of God sealed to the day of redemption Oh therefore grieve not that Spirit of God by whom ye are thus sealed The Spirit of God hath infinitely merited of you hath done so much for you as ye are not capable to conceive much lesse to answer in so Heavenly an obsignation Oh then be you tender of giving any offence to that good Spirit Do not you dare to do ought that might displease that loving and beneficent Spirit Be not you so much your own enemies as to give just distast to your good God So as the force of the argument as we intimated at the first lies upon an action of unkindnesse affording us this instruction that the ground of Gods Childrens fear to offend must be out of love and thankfulness great is thy mercy that thou maist be feared saith the Psalmist he doth not say great is thy mercy that thou maist be loved nor great is thy Majesty that thou maist be feared but great is thy mercy that thou maist be feared base servile natures are kept in with feare
both 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath sealed us Lo the promise was past before vers 20. and then yet more confirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 21. and now past under seale 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 22. Yea but the present possession is yet more and that is given us in part by our received earnest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earnest is a binder wherefore is it given but by a little to assure all In our transactions with Men when we have an honest Mans word for a bargain we think it safe but when his hand and seale infallible but when we have part in hand already the contract is past and now we hold our selves stated in the commodity what ever it be And have we the promise hand seale earnest of Gods Spirit and not see it not feel it not know it Shortly whom will we believe if not God and our selves No Man knowes what is in Man but the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Man that is in him as St. Paul to his Corinthians Ye have heard Gods Spirit hear our own out of our own mouth Doth not every Christian say I believe in God c. I believe in Jesus Christ I believe in the holy Ghost I believe the Communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins and life Everlasting And doth he say he believes when he believes not or when he knows not whether he believe or no what a mockery were this of our Christian profession Or as the Jesuitical evasion commonly is is this only meant of an assent to these general truthes that there is a God a Saviour a sanctifyer Saints remission salvation not a special application of these several articles to the soul of him whose tongue professeth it Surely then the devil might say the creed no less confidently then the greatest Saint upon Earth There is no Devil in hel but believes not without regret that there is a God that made the World a Saviour that redeemed it a blessed Spirit that renewes it a remission of sins an eternal Salvation to those that are thus redeemed and regenerate and if in the profession of our faith we go no further then Devils how is this Symbolum Christianorum To what purpose do we say our creed But if we know that we believe for the present how know we what we shall do what may not alter in time we know our own frailty and ficklenesse what hold is there of us weak wretches what assurance for the future Surely on our part none at all If we be left never so little to our selves we are gone on Gods part enough there is a double hand mutually imployed in our hold-fast Gods and ours we lay hand on God God laies hand on us if our feeble hand fail him yet his gracious and omnipotent hand will not fail us even when we are lost in our selves yet in him we are safe he hath graciously said and will make it good I will not leave thee nor forsake thee The seed of God saith the beloved disciple Joh. 3. remaines in him that is born of God so as he cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trade in sin as an unregenerate not lose himself in sinning so as contrary to Card. Bellarmines desperate Logick even an act of infidelity cannot marr his habit of faith and though he be in himself and in his sin guilty of death yet through the mercy of his God he is preserved from being swallowed up of death whiles he hath the seed of God he is the Son of God and the seed of God remaines in him alwayes That of the great Doctor of the Gentiles is sweet and cordiall and in stead of all to this purpose Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I am fully perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ â—esus our Lord. Rom. 8.39 O divine oratory of the great Apostle Oh the heavenly and irrefragable Logick of Gods Pen-man it is the very question that we have now in hand which he there discusses and falls upon this happy conclusion That nothing can separate Gods elect from his everlasting love he proves it by induction of the most powerfull agents and triumphes in the impoâ—ence and imprevalency of them all and whiles he names the principalities and powers of darkness what doth he but imply those sins also by which they work And this he saies not for himself only least any with Pererius and some other Jesuites should harp upon a particular Revelation but who shall separate us he takes us in with him and if he seem to pitch upon his own person in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the subject of this perswasion reacheth to all true believers That nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Us not as it is over-stretched by Bellarmine and Vasquez indefinitely for those that predestinate in generall but with an implyed application of it to himself and the believing Christians to whom he wrote The place is so clear and full that all the miserable and strained Evasions of the Jesuiticall gainsayers cannot elude it but that it will carry any free and unprejudiced heart along with it and evince this comfortable truth That as for the present so for the future we may attain to be safe for our spirituall condition What speak I of a safety that may be when the true believer is saved already already past from death to Life already therefore over the threshold of Heaven Shortly then our faith may make our calling sure our calling may make sure our election and we may therefore confidently build upon this truth that our calling and election may be made sure Now many things may be done that yet need not yea that ought not to be done This both ought and must be indeavored for the necessity and benefit of it This charge here as it implies the possibility so it signifies the convenience use profit necessity of this assecuration for sure if it were not beneficiall to us it would never be thus forceably urged upon us And certainly there needs no great proof of this For nature and our self-love grounded thereupon easily invites us to the indeavour of feoffing our selves in any thing that is good this being then the highest good that the Soul of Man can be possibly capable of to be ascertained of Salvation it will soon follow that since it may be done we shall resolve it ought it must be indeavored to be done Indifferent things and such as without which we may well subsist are left arbitrary to us but those things wherein our spirituall well-being consisteth must be mainly laboured for neither can any contention be too much to attain them such is this we have
warfares to God should not intangle himself with this world it is a sufficient and just conviction of those who would divide themselves betwixt God and the World and bestow any main part of their time upon secular affairs but it hath no operation at all upon this tenet which we have in hand that a man dedicate to God may not so much as when he is required cast a glance of his eye or some minutes of time or some motions of his tongue upon the publick business of his King and Countrey Those that expect this from us may as well and upon the same reason hold that a minister must have no family at all or if he have one must not care for it yea that he must have no body to tend but be all Spirit My Lords we are men of the same composition with others and our breeding hath been accordingly we cannot have lived in the World but we have seen it and observed it too and our long experience and conversation both in Men and in books cannot but have put something into us for the good of others and now having a double capacity qua cives qua Ecclesiastici as members of the common wealth as Ministers and Governours of the Church we are ready to do our best service in both one of them is no way incompatible with the other yea the subjects of them both are so united with the Church and Commonwealth that they cannot be severed yea so as that not the one is in the other but one is the other is both so as the services which we do upon these occasions to the Comonwealth are inseparable from our good offices to the Church so as upon this ground there is no reason of our exclusion If ye say that our sitting in Parliament takes up much time which we might have imployed in our studies or pulpits consider I beseech you that whiles you have a Parliament we must have a convocation and that our attendance upon that will call for the same expense of time which we afford to this service so as herein we have neither got nor lost But I fear it is not on some hands the tender regard of the full scope to our calling that is so much here stood upon as the conceit of too much honour that is done us in taking up the room of Peers and voting in this high Court for surely those that are averse from our votes yet could be content we should have place upon the wool-sacks and could alow us ears but not tongues If this be the matter I beseech your Lordships to consider that this honour is not done to us but our profession which what ever we be in our several persons can not easily be capable of too much respect from your Lordships Non tibi sed Isidi as he said of old Neither is this any new grace that is put upon our calling which if it were now to begin might perhaps be justly grudged to our unworthyness but it is an antient right and inheritance inherent in our station No less ancient then these walls wherein we sit yea more before ever there were Parliaments in the Magna Consilia of the Kingdome we had our places and as for my predecessors ever since the Conquerours time I can show your Lordships a just catalogue of them that have sat before me here and truely though I have just cause to be mean in mine own eyes yet why or wherein there should be more unworthiness in me then the rest that I should be stript of that priviledg which they so long injoyed though there were no law to hold me here I cannot see or confesse What respects of honour have been put upon the prime Clergy of old both by Pagans and Jewes and Christians and what are still both within Christendom and vvithout I shall not need to urge it is enough to say this of ours is not meerly arbitrary but stands so firmely established by law and custome that I hope it neither will nor can be removed except you will shake those foundations which I believe you desire to hold firme and inviolable Shortly then my Lords the church craves no new honour from you and justly hopes you will not be guilty of pulling down the old as you are the eldest sons and next under his Majesty the honourable patrons of the Church so she expects and beseeches you to receive her into your tenderest care so to order her affairs that ye leave her to posterity in no worse case then you found her It is a true word of Damasus Uti vilescit nomen episcopi omnis statua perturbatur Ecclesiae If this be suffered the misery will be the Churches the dishonour blurre of the act in future ages will be yours To shut up therefore let us be taken off from all ordinary trade of secular imployments and if you please abridge us of intermeddling with matters of common justice but leave us possessed of those places and priviledges in Parliament which our predecessors have so long and peaceably injoyed ANTHEMES FOR THE CATHEDRAL OF EXCETER LOrd what am I A worm dust vapor nothing What is my life A dream a daily dying What is my flesh My souls uneasie clothing What is my time A minute ever flying My time my flesh my life and I What are we Lord but vanity Where am I Lord downe in a vale of death What is my trade sin my dear God offending My sport sin too my stay a puffe of breath What end of sin hells horrour never ending My way my trade sport stay and place help up to make up my dolefull case Lord what art thou pure life power beauty bliss Where dwell'st thou up above in perfect light What is thy time eternity it is What state attendance of each glorious sp'rit Thy self thy place thy dayes thy state Pass all the thoughts of powers create How shall I reach thee Lord Oh soar above Ambitious soul but which way should I flie Thou Lord art way and end what wings have I Aspiring thoughts of faith of hope of love Oh let these wings that way alone Present me to thy blissfull throne ANTHEME FOR Christmas Day IMmortall babe who this dear day Didst change thine Heaven for our clay And didst with flesh thy Godhead vail Eternal Son of God All-hail Shine happy star ye Angels sing Glory on high to Heavens King Run Shepherds leave your nightly watch See Heaven come down to Bethleems cratch Worship ye Sages of the East The King of Gods in meanness drest O blessed maid smile and adore The God thy womb and armes have bore Star Angels Shepherds and wise sages Thou Virgin glory of all ages Restored frame of Heaven and Earth Joy in your dear Redeemers Birth LEave O my soul this baser World below O leave this dolefull dungeon of wo And soare aloft to that supernal rest That maketh all the Saints and Angels blest Lo there the God-heads radiant throne Like to ten thousand Suns in one Lo there thy Saviour dear in glory dight Ador'd of all the powers of Heavens bright Lo where that head that bled with thorny wound Shines ever with celestial honor crownd That hand that held the scornfull reed Makes all the fiends infernall dread That back and side that ran with bloody streams Daunt Angels eyes with their majestick beames Those feet once fastened to the cursed tree Trample on death and hell in glorious glee Those lips once drench't with gall do make With their dread doom the world to quake Behold those joyes thou never canst behold Those precious gates of pearl those Streets of gold Those streams of Life those trees of Paradise That never can be seen by mortal eyes And when thou seest this state divine Think that it is or shall be thine See there the happy troups of purest sprights That live above in endless true delights And see where once thy self shalt ranged be And look and long for immortalitie And now before-hand help to sing Allelujahs to Heavens King FINIS BOOKS printed for and to be sold by John Crook at the Sign of the Ship in St Pauls Church-yard ANnales veteris novi Testamenti Aviro Reverend Jacob Usserio Archiepisco Armachano Folio The Annals of the Old and New Testament with the Synchronismus of Heathen story to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans by James Usher D.D. Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland Folio The Antiquities of Warwikcshire illustrated beautified with Maps prospects and pourtractures by William Dugdale Folio Hymens Preludia or Loves Master piece being the 9th and 10th parts of Cleopatra Folio The History of this Iâ—on Age wherein is set down the Original of all the wars and commotions that have happened from the year of God 1500. Illustrated with the figures of the most Renowned persons of this Time Folio The History of the great and renowned Monarchy of China Fol. The holy History containing excellent observations on the Remarkable passages of the old Testament written Originally in French by N. Caussin S.I. and now rendred into English by a Person of Honour 4. Ejusdem de textus hebraici Veteris Testamenti variantibus Lectionibus ad Lodovicum Capellum Epistola Quarto Usserii de 70. Interpretum versione syntagma Quarto Montagues Miscellanea Spiritualâ—ia 4. second part A Treatise of Gavelkind both name and thing shewing the true Etymology and derivation of the one the nature antiquity and Original of the other by William Sonner Quarto The Holy Life of Mounsier de Renty a late noble man of France 8. Certain discourses viz. of Babylon the present See of Rome of laying on of hands of the old forme of words in Ordination of a set forme of prayer being the judgment of the Late Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland by N. Bernard D. D. Octavo The Character of England with reflections upon Gallus Castratus 12. The French Gardiner instructing how to cultivate all sorts of Fruit-trees with directions to dry and conserve them in their natural An accomplished peice illustrated with sculpture By whom also all manner of Books are to be sold brought from beyond the Seas
we finde the face of God clouded from us let our souls refuse comfort till we have recovered his favour which is better then life do we find our selves upon our sound repentance received to grace and favour of the Almighty and that he is well pleased with our persons and with our poor obediences and that he smiles upon us in Heaven courage dear Brethren in spight of all the frowns and menaces of the World we are safe and shall be happy here is comfort for us in all tribulation 2 Cor. 1.4 with that chosen vessel we are troubled on every side yet not distressed â—e are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken 2. Cor. 4.8 cast down but not destroyed for which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish 16. yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us 18. a farr more exceeding and eternall weight of glory to the full possession whereof the God that hath ordained us graciously bring us for the sake of the Son of his love Jesus Christ the righteous To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost three persons and one glorious God be given all praise honour glory and dominion now and for evermore A Second SERMON In prosecution of the same Text PREACHT AT St. GREGORIES CHURCH IN NORWICH July 21. 1644. By JOS. B. of N. EPHES. 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the day of Redemption WE have done with the Dehortation it self and therein with the Act forbidden Grieve not and with the title of the Subject the Holy Spirit of God We descend to the inforcement of the Dehortation by the great merit of the Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the day of Redemption Those that are great and good we would not willingly offend though meer strangers to us but if they be besides our great friends and liberal Benefactors men that have deserved highly of us we justly hold it a foul shame and abominable ingratitude wilfully to do ought that might affront them It is therefore added for a strong disswasive from Grieving the Spirit of God that by him we are sealed to the day of redemption All the world shall in vain strive to do for us what our great Friend in Heaven hath done our loathness therefore to grieve him must be according to the depth of our obligation to him Cast your eyes then a little upon the wonderful Benefit here specified and see First what this day of Redemption is Secondly what is the sealing of us to this day and Thirdly why the sealing of us to this day should be a sufficient motive to withhold us from grieving the Holy Spirit of God These three must be the limits of my Speech and your Atrention Redemption signifies as much as a Ransome A Ransome implies a Captivity or Servitude There is a threefold Captivity from which we are freed Of Sin of Misery of Death For the first We are sold under sin saith our Apostle No Slave in Argier is more truly sold in the Market under a Turkish Pyrate then we are naturally sold under the Tyranny of sin by whom we are bound hand and foot and can stir neither of them towards God and dungeon'd up in the darkness of our ignorance without any Glimpse of the vision of God For the second the very name of Captivity implyes Misery enough what outward evil is incident into a man which bondage doth not bring with it Wo is me there was never so much captivity in this land since it was a Nation nor so woful a Captivity as this of brethren to brethren Complaints there are good store on both sides of restraint want ill-lodging hard and scant diet Irons insultations scornes and extremities of ill usage of all kindes and what other is to be found in the whole course of this wretched life of ours the best whereof is vanity and the worst infinite vexations But Thirdly if some men have been so externally happy as to avoid some of these miseries for all men smart not alike yet never man did or can avoid the third which is obnoxiousness to death By the offence of one saith the Apostle judgment came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5.18 Sin hath raigned unto death Ps 21. It is more then an Ordinance a statute law in Heaven Statutum est c. It is enacted to all men once to dye Heb. 9.27 This then is our bondage or captivity now comes our redemption from all these at once when upon our happy dissolution we are freed from sin from misery from death and enter into the possession of glory thus our Saviour Lift up your heads for the day of your redemption draweth nigh thus saith St. Paul The creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption unto the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 It is the same condition of the members of Christ which was of the head that they overcome death by dying when therefore the bands of death are loosed and we are fully freed from the dominion of the first death and danger of the second and therein from all the capacity not only of the rule and power of sin but of the life and in-dwelling of it and from all the miseries both bodily and spirituall that attend it and when in the same instant our soul takes possession of that glory which shall once in the consociation of it's glorious partner the body be perfectly consummated Then and not till then is the day of our redemption Is there any of us therefore that complaines of his sad and hard condition here in the world paines of body grief of mind agonies of soul crosses in estate discontentments in his families suffering in his good name let him bethink himself where he is this is the time of his captivity and what other can be expected in this case Can we think there is no difference betwixt liberty bondage Can the slave think to be as free as his Patron Ease rest liberty must be lookt for elsewhere but whiles we are here we must make no account of other then these varieties of misery our redemption shall free us from them all But now perhaps some of you are ready to say of the Redemption as they did of the Resurrection that it is past already and so indeed it is one way in respect of the price laid out by the Son of God the invaluable price of his blood for the redemption of man but so that it must be taken out by and applied to every soul inparticular if we will have the benefit redound to us It is his Redemption before it is now only our Redemption when it is brought home to us Oh then the dear and happy day of this our finall redemption wherein we shall be absolutely freed from all the miserable sorrowes paines cares fears
remainder of her life was ready to magnifie the mercy of her God in so sensible a deliverance what with the tryal of both these Hands of God so had she profited in the School of Christ that it was hard for any friend to come from her Discourse no whit holier how often have I blessed the memory of those divine passages of experimental Divinity which I have heard from her mouth what day did she pass without a large task of private devotion whence she would still come forth with a Countenance of undissembled mortification Never any lips have read to me such feeling Lectures of piety neither have I known any Soul that more accurately practised them then her own Temptations Desertions and Spiritual Comforts were her usual Theme Shortly for I can hardly take off my Pen from so exemplary a subject her Life and Death were Saint-like My Parents had from mine Infancy devoted me to this sacred Calling whereto by the blessing of God I have seasonably attained for this cause I was trained up in the publick School of the place After I had spent some years not altogether indiligently under the Ferule of such Masters as the place afforded and had neer attained to some competent ripeness for the University my School-master being a great Admirer of one Mr. Pelset who was then lately come from Cambridge to be the publick preacher of Leicester a man very eminent in those times for the same of his Learning but especially for his sacred Oratory perswaded my Father that if I might have my Education under so excellent and compleat a Divine it might be both a nearer and easier way to his purposed end then by an Academical Institution The motion sounded well in my fathers ears and carried fair probabilities neither was it other then fore-compacted betwixt my School-Master and Mr. Pelset so as on both sides it was entertained with great forwardness The Gentleman upon essay taken of my fitness for the use of his studies undertakes within one seven years to send me forth no lesse furnished with Arts Languages and grounds of Theoricall Divinity then the carefullest Tutor in the stricktest Colledge of either University VVhich that he might assuredly performe to prevent the danger of any mutable thoughts in my Parents or my self he desired mutuall bonds to be drawn betwixt us The great charge of my Father whom it pleased God to bless with twelve children made him the more apt to yield to so likely a project for a younger son There and now were all the hopes of my future life upon blasting the Indentures were preparing the time was set my suites were addressed for the journey VVhat was the issue O God thy Providence made and found it Thou knowest how sincerely Anno Aetatis 15 o. and heartily in those my young years I did cast my self upon thy hands with what faithfull resolution I did in this particular occasion resign my self over to thy Disposition earnestly begging of thee in my fervent Prayers to order all things to the best and confidently waiting upon thy VVill for the event Certainly never did I in all my life more clearly roll my self upon the Divine Providence then I did in this business and it succeeded accordingly It fell out at this time that my elder brother having some occasions to journey unto Cambridge was kindly entertained there by Mr. Nath. Gilby Fellow of Emanuel Colledge who for that he was born in the same Town with me and had conceived some good opinion of my aptness to Learning inquired diligently concerning me and hearing of the Diversion of my Fathers purposes from the University importunately diswaded from that new course professing to pitty the loss of so good hopes My Brother partly moved with his words and partly wonne by his own eyes to a great love and reverence of an Academicall life returning home fell upon his knees to my Father and after the report of Mr. Gilbies words and his own admiration of the place earnestly besought him that he would be pleased to alter that so prejudiciall a resolution that he would not suffer my hopes to be drowned in a shallow Country-channel but that he vvould revive his first purposes for Cambridge adding in the zeal of his love that if the chargeableness of that course vvere the hinderance he did there humbly beseech him rather to sell some part of that land vvhich himself should in course of Nature inherit then to abridge me of that happy means to perfect my education No sooner had he spoken those vvords then my Father no less passionately condescended not without a vehement Protestation that whatsoever it might cost him I should God willing be sent to the University neither were those words sooner out of his lips then there was a messenger from Mr. Pelset knocking at the door to call me to that fairer bondage signifying that the next day he expected me vvith a full dispatch of all that business To whom my Father replyed that he came some minutes too late that he had now otherwise determined of me and with a respective message of thanks to the Master sent the man home empty leaving me full of the tears of joy for so happy a change indeed I had been but lost if that project had succeeded as it well appeared in the experience of him who succeeded in that room which was by me thus unexpectedly forsaken O God how was I then taken up with a thankfull acknowledgment and joyfull admiration of thy Gracious Providence over me And now I lived in the expectation of Cambridge whither ere long I happily came under Mr. Gilbies tuition together with my worthy friend Mr. Hugh Cholmley who as we had been partners of one lesson from our Cradles so were we now for many years partners of one Bed My two first years were necessarily chargeable above the proportion of my Fathers power whose not very large Cistern was to feed many pipes besides mine His weariness of expense was wrought upon by the Counsel of some unwise friends who perswaded him to fasten me upon that School as Master whereof I was lately a Scholler Now was I fetcht home with an heavy heart and now this second time had mine hopes been nipt in the blossome had not God raised me up an unhoped Benefactor Mr. Edmund Sleigh of Darby whose pious memory I have cause ever to love and reverence out of no other relation to me save that he married my Aunt pittying my too apparent dejectedness he voluntarily urged and solicited my Father for my return to the University and offered freely to contribute the one half of my maintenance there till I should attain to the degree of Master of Arts which he no less really and lovingly performed The condition was gladly accepted thither was I sent back with joy enough and ere long chosen Scholler of that strickt and well ordered Colledge By that time I had spent six years there now the third year of my Bachelarship should
too ever killing with an ever-living death for a perpetual fruition of our torment Here is the bondage where is the liberty Christ hath spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly triumphing over them in the same cross Colos 2.15 By his death he destroyed him that hath the power of death tke Devil Heb. 2.14 So then Christ hath freed us fourthly from the bondage of Satans tyranny At the best the law is but a hard Master impossible to please 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Paul but at the worst a cruell one The very courtesie of the law was jugum an unsupportable yoke but the spight of the law is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a curse Cursed is every one that continues not in all that is written in the book of the law to do it Gal. 3.10 Do you not remember an unmercifull steward in the Gospell that catcheth his bankrupt fellow by the throat and saies Pay me that thou owest me so doth the law to us we should pay and cannot and because we cannot pay we forfeit our selves so as every mothers son is the child of death Here is our bondage where is our liberty Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us Oh blessed redemption that frees us from the curse Oh blessed redeemer that would become a curse for us that the curse of the law might not light upon us so Christ hath freed us fifthly from the bondage of the law Moses was a meek man but a severe Master His face did not more shine in Gods aspect upon him then it lowred in his aspect to men His ceremonies were hard impositions Many for number costly for charge painfull for execution He that led Israel out of one bondage carryed them into another From the bondage of Egypt to the bondage of Sinai this held till the vail of the Temple rent yea till the vail of that better Temple his sacred body his very heart-strings did crack a sunder with a consummatum est And now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is the end of the law Rom. 10.4 Now the law of the spirit of life hath freed us Rom. 8.2 You hear now no more newes of the ceremonies of prefiguration they are dead with Christ ceremonies of decency may and must live let no man now have his ear bored thorough to Moses his post Christ hath freed us sixtly from the law of ceremonies Our last Master is humane Ordinances the case of our exemption where from is not so clear concerning which I finde a double extream of opinion The one that ascribes too much to them as equalling them with the law of God the other that ascribes too little to them as if they were no tie to our obedience The one holding them to bind the conscience no less then the positive laws of God the other either sleighting their obligation or extending it only to the outward man not the inward we must learn to walk a mid-way betwixt both and know that the good lawes of our superiours whether civill or ecclesiastical do in a sort reach to the very conscience though not primarily and immediately as theirs yet mediately and secondarily as they stand in reference to the law of God with our obedience to his instituted authority and therefore they tie us in some sort besides the case whether of scandall or contempt Where no man can witness there is no scandall where is no intention of an affront to the commanding power there is no contempt and yet willingly to break good Iaws without all witness without all purpose of affront is therfore sin because disobedience For example I dine fully alone out of wantonnesse upon a day sequestred by authority to a publick fast I dine alone therefore without scandall out of wantonnesse therefore not out of contempt yet I offend against him that seeth in secret notwithstanding my solitarinesse and my wantonnesse is by him construed as a contempt to the ordainer of authority But when both scandall and contempt are met to aggravate the violation now the breach of humane lawes binds the conscience to a fearfull guilt Not to flatter the times as I hope I shall never be blurred with this crimination I must needs say this is too shamefully unregarded Never age was more lawlesse Our fore-fathers were taught to be superstitiously scrupulous in observing the lawes of the Church above Gods like those Christians of whom Socrates the historian speaks of which held fornication as a thing indifferent de diebus festis tanquam de vita decertant but strive for an holy day as for their life we are leapt into a licentious neglect of civill or sacred lawes as if it were piety to be disobedient Doth the law command a Friday fast no day is so selected for feasting let a schismaticall or popish book be prohibited this very prohibition endears it let wholsome lawes be enacted against drunkennesse idlenesse exactions unlawfull transportations excesse of diet of apparell or what ever noted abuse commands do not so much whet our desires as forbiddances what is this but to baffle and affront that sacred power which is entrusted to government and to professe our selves not Libertines but licentiate of disorder Farr farr is it from the intentions of the God of order under the stile of liberty to give scope to these unruly humors of men the issue whereof can be no other then utter confusion But if any power besides divine in Heaven or Earth shall challenge to it self this priviledg to put a primary or immediate tie upon the conscience so as it should be a sin to disobey that ordinance because 't is without relation to the command of the highest let it be anathema our hearts have reason to be free in spight of any such Antichristian usurpation whiles the owner of them hath charged us not to be thus the servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 so Christ hath lastly freed us from the bondage of humane ordinances Lo now ye have seen our liberation from a whole heptarchy of spirituall tyranny Stand still now awhile Honourable and beloved and look back with wondring and thankfull eyes upon the infinite mercy of our deliverer sin beguiles us conscience accuseth us Gods wrath is bent against us Satan tyrannizes over us the law condemnes us insolent superstition inthralls us and now from all these Christ hath made us free How should we now erect altars to our dear Redeemer and inscribe them Christo liberatori how should we from the altars of our devoted hearts send up the holy sacrifices of our best obediences the sweet incense of our perpetuall prayers Oh blessed Saviour how should we how can we enough magnifie thee no not though those celestiall Choristers of thine should return to bear a part with us in renewing their gloria in excelsis glory to God on high Our bodies our souls are too little for thee Oh take thine own from us and give it
claim to eternal glory For what is that but the inheritance of the Saints Colos 1. Who should have your Lands but your heirs and Lo these are the heirs of God and none but they Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you saith our Saviour Matth. 25.34 Many a one here is borne to a fair estate and is strip't of it whether by the just disherson of his offended Father or else by the power or circumvention of an adversary or by his own mis-government and unthriftiness here is no danger of any of these On our Fathers part none For whom he loves he loves to the end On our Adversaries part none None shall take them out of my hand saith our Saviour The gates of Hell shall not prevaile against his On our part none For whereby can we lavish out our estate but by our sins and he that is borne of God sinneth not sinneth not so as to incurr a forfeit he may so sin as to be frowned on for the time to be chid yea perhaps to be well whipped of his Father not so as to be unsonned or dis-herited For the seed of God remains in him Lo whiles he hath the Divine seed in him he is the Son of God and whiles he is a Son he cannot but be an heir Oh then the comfortable and blessed priviledges of the Sons of God! enough to attract and ravish any heart for who doth not effect the honour of the highest parentage not under Heaven but in it who can be but eagerly ambitious of the title of the Lord of the world so closely yea to be interessed in the great God of Heaven and Earth by an inseparable relation to be attended on by those mighty and majesticall Spirits and lastly to be feoffed in the all-glorious Kingdome of Heaven and immortal crown of glory None of you can be now so dull as not desire to be thus happy and to ask as the blessed Virgin when she was told of her miraculous conception Quomodo fiet istud How shall this be How may I attain to this blessed condition This is a question worth asking Oh the poor and base thoughts of men How may I raise my house how may I settle my estate How may I get a good bargain how may I save or gain how may I be revenged of mine enemy whiles in the mean time we care not to demand what most concerns us which way should I become the child of God But would we know this to which all the World is but trifles surely it is not so hard as useful whose Sons we are by nature we soon know too well It is not enough to say our Father was an Amorite and our Mother an Hittite or to say we are the children of this world Luke 16.8 or a seed of falsehood Esay 57.4 or yet worse the children of the night and darknesse 1 Thess 5.5 worse yet we are filii contumaciae the sons of wilfull disobedience as the original runs Ephes 2.3 and thereby yet worse the sons of wrath Ephes 2.2 and which is the height of all miseries the Sons of death and eternal damnation how then how come we to be the Sons of God It is the Almighty power of Grace that only can make this change A double Grace the Grace of Adoption the Grace of Regeneration Adoption God hath predestinated us to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ Ephes 1.5 Regeneration So many as received him he gave them this power or right to be made the Sons of God those which are borne not of blood or the lust of the flesh but borne of God John 1.12 13. and that which referrs to both Ye are all the Children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Galat. 3.26 Shortly then if we would be Sons and Daughters of God for the case is one in both the soul hath no sexes and in Christ there is neither male nor female we must see that we be borne again not of water only so we are all sacramentally Regenerated but of the Holy Ghost If any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 we must not be the men we were and how shall that be effected In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospell saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.15 He hath begotten us by the word of Truth Jam. 1.18 This word is that immortal seed whereby we are begotten to God let this word therefore have it's perfect work in us let it renew us in the inner man mortifying all our evill and corrupt affections and raising us up to a new life of Grace and obedience then God will not shame to own us for his and we shall not presume in claiming this glorious title of the Sons of God But if we be still our old selves no changlings at all the same men that we came into the World without defalcation of our corruptions without addition of Grace and Sanctification Surely we must seek us another Father we are not yet the Sons of God But me thinks ere I was aware I am falling to anticipate my discourse and whiles I am teaching how we come to be the Sons of God am showing how we may know that we are so which is the drift of this Scripture in the qualification here mentioned So many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God It is not enough for us my beloved to be the Sons and Daughters of God unlesse we know our selves to be so for certainly he cannot be truely happy that doth not know himself happy How shall we therefore know our selves to be the Sons of God surely there may be many signes and proofes of it besides this mentioned in my Text or rather many specialties under this general As first Every Child of God is like his Father It is not so in carnall Generation we have seen many Children that have not so much as one lineament of their Parents and as contrary to their dispositions as if they had been strangers to their loines and womb In the spiritual son-ship it is not so every Child of God carries the true resemblance of his Heavenly Father as he that hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation Because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy 1 Pet. 1.15 16. Well then my Brethren trie your selves by this rule our Heavenly Father is merciful are we cruel Our Father is righteous in all his wayes are we unjust Our Heavenly Father is slow to anger are we furious upon every sleight occasion Our Heavenly Father abhors all manner of evill do we take pleasure in any kind of wickednesse certainly we have nothing of God in us neither can we claim any kindred with Heaven Secondly every Child that is not utterly degenerate bears a filial love to his Parents answering in some measure that naturall affection which the parent bears towards him we cannot but know that the love of
perfect Mediator betwixt God and man To proclaime the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn in Zion to give unto them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heavinesse Esa 61.2.3 So as all Gods faithfull ones may cheerfully expect the performance of that cordiall promise which the God of truth hath made to his Israel Their soul shall be as a watred Garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all then shall the Virgin rejoyce in the dance both young men and old together for I will turne their mourning into joy and will comfort them and make them rejoyce from their sorrow Jerem. â—1 12 13. But if the justice of God have been so highly provoked by the sinnes of a particular Nation as that there is no remedy but the threatned judgments must proceed against them remember what charge Ezekiel tells you was given to the man clothed in linnen that had the writers inkhorne by his side The Lord said unto him go through the midst of the City through the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark upon the forheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof Ezek. 9.3 4. Lo these marked Jewes owe their life to their tears if they had not wept for their fellowes they had bled with their fellowes If their sighs could not save their people from slaughter yet they have saved themselves their charitable mourning is recompensed with their own preservation Oh then my brethren as we desire the joyes of another World and as we tender our own comfort and safty in this let us not be sparing of our tears let them flow freely out for our own sins first and then for the sins of our people let not our mourning be perfunctory and fashionable but serious hearty and zealous so as that we may furrow our cheekes with our teares Let our devotions that accompany our mourning be fervent and importunate as those that would offer a kind of holy force to Heaven wrestling with the Angel of the covenant for a blessing Let our amendment which should be the effect of our mourning be really conspicuous to the eyes both of God and men And finally that our mourning may be constant and effectuall let us resolve to make it our business and for that purpose let us solemnly vow to set apart some time of each day for this sad but needfull task and which is the main of all since the publique is most concerned in this duty Oh that the trumpet might be blown in Zion fasts sanctified solemn assemblies called that the Ministers of the Lord as the chief mourners might weep aloud in Gods sanctuary Joel 2. â—5 and say Spare thy people O Lord and give not thine heritage to reproach wherefore should the enemies of thy Church say among the people where is their God This were the way to reconcile our offended God to divert his dreadfull judgments to restore us to the blessings of peace and to cause the voice of joy and gladness to be once again heard in our land ON EASTER-DAY AT HIGHAM 1648. 1 COR. 5.7 For Christ our passover is sacrificed for us Therefore let us keep the feast THe feast that is the passover of the Jewes then expiring or the Christians Easter then succeeding indeed I know not whether both be not alluded to for this Epistle is conceived to have been written by the Apostle some 24. Years after our Saviours passion ere which time it is more then probable that the feast of Christs resurrection was solemnly celebrated by the Christian Church this I am sure of that no record in all history mentions the time when it began to be kept and therefore it is most likely according to Augustines received rule to be deduced from the observation of the Apostles There were ancient and eager quarrels betwixt the Eastern and Western Churches about the day whereon it should be kept but whether it should be kept or no there was never yet any question since Christianity look't forth into the World and as that Pasche so this Easter is justly the feast for the eminency of it above the rest for if we do with joy and thankfulnesse according to the Angels message solemnize the day wherein the Son of God our blessed Redeemer being born entred the life of humane nature how much more should we celebrate that day wherein having conquered all the powers of death and Hell he was as it were born again to the life of a glorious immortality But to leave the time and come to the Text. This for that leads it in is both a relative and an illative referring to what he had said in the foregoing words and inferring a necessary consequence of the one clause upon the other Purge out the old leaven for Christ our passover is sacrificed for us The whole Text is Allegoricall alluding to the charge and duty of Gods ancient people the Jewes in the observation of their passover who upon no lesse pain then cutting off from the Congregation of Israel must admit of no leavened bread to be eaten or found in their houses during the whole seven dayes of this celebrity as you may see Exod. 12.17.18 c. As therefore the ceremoniall passover would admit of no materiall leaven So the spirituall passover may not abide any leaven of wickednesse Purge therefore out the old leaven For Christ our passover is sacrificed for us The first work then that we have to do is to cast back our eyes to the ground of this institution and to enquire why no leaven might consist with the Jewish passover And we shall find that there was not the same reason of the first observation of this ceremony and of the following The first was Necessity Devotion was the ground of the rest Necessity first for in that suddain departure which they were put upon there could be no leasure to leaven their dough as you may see Exod. 12.39 Devotion afterward in a gratefull recognition both of their own servile condition and of the gracious providence of God In the former they were called to look back upon their old Egyptian servitude by their unleavned bread for this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bread of affliction as we turn it or the bread of the poor as the word signifies which they must now eat to put them in mind of their hard and poor condition in Egypt under their evill task masters all their lives after as Deut. 16.3 to the same purpose it was that they must eat the Lamb not with sowre herbes as it had wont to be turned for a sharp kind of sowrenesse in sawces is esteemed pleasing and tastfull but with bitter herbes yea as the word is in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum amaritudinibus with bitternesses In the latter they were minded of a
in this place when it is said Christ our passover is sacrificed for us So as here is a trope or figure twice told First the lamb is the passover Secondly Christ is that paschal Lamb. You would think this now far-fetched here was a double passing over The Angels passing over the Israelites the Israelites passing out of Egypt both were acts the one of God the other of men as for the lamb it is an animal substance Yet this Lamb represents this passover This is no newes in sacramental speeches The thing signed is usually put for the sign it self My covenant shall be in your flesh that is circumcision the sign of my covenant the rock that followed them was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 that is Christ was represented by that rock This cup is the new testament So here Christ our passover Gen. 17.13 that is Christ represented by the Paschal-lamb What an infatuation is upon the Romish party that rather then they will admit of any other then a grosse literall capernaiticall sence in the words of our Saviours sacramental supper This is my body will confound Heaven and Earth together and either by a too forceable consequence endeavour to overthrow the truth of Christs humanity or turne him into a monster a wafer a crum a nothing Whenas St. Austin hath told us plainly sacramentaliter intellectum vivificabit Take it in a sacramental sence there is infinite comfort and spiritual life in it As for his body St. Peter hath told us the heavens must contain him till the time of the restitution of all things Acts 3.21 Yea when our Saviour himself hath told us the words that I speak are spirit and life Jo. 6. Now what a marvellous mercy was this of God to Israel thus to passe over them when he slew the first-borne of Egypt There was not an house in all Egypt wherein there was not mourning and lamentation no roof but coverd a suddainly made carcasse what an unlook't for consternation was here in every Egyptian Family Only the Israelites that dwelt amongst them were free to applaud this judgment that was inflicted upon their tyrannous persecutors and for their very cause inflicted for this mercy are they beholden under God to the blood of their Paschal-lamb sprinkled upon their door-posts Surely had they eaten the lamb and not sprinkled the blood they had not escaped the stroak of the destroying Angel This was in figure In reality it is so It is by and from the blood of our redeemer sprinkled upon our souls that we are freed from the vengeance of the Almighty Had not he dyed for us were not the benefit of his precious blood applyed to us we should lye open to all the fearful judgments of God and as to the upshot of all eternall death of body and soul As then the Israelites were never to eat the Paschal-lamb but they were recalled to the memory of that saving preterition of the Angel and Gods merciful deliverance from the fiery furnaces of the Egyptians so neither may we ever behold this sacramental representation of the death of our blessed Saviour but we should bethink our selves of the infinite mercy of our good God in saving us from everlasting death and rescuing us from the power of hell This is the first figure That the Lamb is the Passover The se-second followes That Christ is that Paschal-Lamb Christ then being the end of the Law it is no marvell if all the ceremonies of the Law served to prefigure and set him forth to Gods people but none did so clearly and fully resemble him as this of the paschal Lambe whether we regard 1. the choyce 2. the preparation 3. the eating of it The choice whether in respect of the nature or the quality of it the nature ye know this creature is noted for innocent meek gentle profitable such was Christ our Saviour His fore-runner pointed at him under this stile Behold the Lamb of God what perfect innocence was here No guile found in his mouth Hell it self could finde nothing ro quarrel at in so absolute integrity What admirable meekness He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so opened be not his mouth Esay 53.7 Doth his own treacherous servant betray him to the death Friend wherefore art thou come Mat. 26.50 Do the cruel tormentors tenter out his pretious limmes and nail his hands and feet to the tree of shame and curse Father forgive them for they know not what they do Oh patience and meeknesse incident into none but an infinite sufferer 2ly The quality Every Lamb would not serve the turne it must be agnus immaculatus A lamb without blemish that must be paschal Exod. 12.5 Neither doth it hinder ought that leave is there given to a promiscuous use either of lamb or kid for the sacramental supper of the passover For that was only allowed in a case of necessity as Theodoret rightly and as learned Junius well in the confusion of that first institution wherein certainly a lamb could not be gotten on the suddain by every Israelitish house-keeper to serve six hundred thousand men and so many there were Exod. 12.37 This liberty then was only for the first turne as divers other of those ceremonious circumstances of the passover were namely the four daies preparation the sprinkling of the blood upon the door-cheeks eating with girded loines and staves in their hands which were not afterward required or practised The lamb then must represent a most holy and perfectly sin-less Saviour could he have been capable of the least sin even in thought he had been so far from ransoming the World that he could not have saved himself Now his exquisite holinesse is such as that by the perfection of his merits he can and doth present his whole Church to himself glorious not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing as holy and without blemish Ephes 5.27 Canst thou therefore accuse thy self for a sinful wretch a soul blemished with many foul imperfections Look up man lo thou hast a Saviour that hath holinesse enough for himself and thee and all the World of beleevers close with him and thou art holy and happy Behold the immaculate lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world thine Therefore if thou canst lay hold on him by a lively faith and make him thine This for the choice the preparation followes so Christ is the paschal lamb in a threefold respect in resemblance of his killing sprinkling his blood and roasting 1. This Lamb to make a true passover must be slain So was there a necessity that our Jesus should dye for us The two Disciples in their walk to Emaus hear this not without a round reproof from the mouth of their risen Saviour Oh fooles and slow of heart to beleeve all that the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory Luc. 24.26 Ought not there is
in hand without which there can be no firm peace no constant and solid comfort to the Soul of Man Three things then call us to the indeavor of this assurance our duty our advantage our danger We must do it out of duty because our God bids us Gods commands like the Prerogatives of Princes must not be too strictly scanned should he require ought that might be losse-full or prejudiciall to us our blindfold obedience must undertake it with cherefulnesse how much more then when he calls for that from us then which nothing can be imagined of more or equall behoof to the Soul It is enough therefore that God by his Apostle commands us to Give diligence to make our calling and election sure Our Heavenly Father bids us what sons are we if we obey him not Our blessed Master bids us what Servants are we if we set not our selves to observe his charge our glorious and immortall King bids us what subjects are we if we stick at his injunction out of mere duty therefore we must indeavour to make our calling and election sure Even where we owe no duty oftentimes advantage drawes us on yea many times across those duties which we owe to God and Man how much more where our duty is seconded with such an advantage as is not parallelable in all the World beside What lesse what other followes upon this assurance truly attained but peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost in one word the begining of Heaven in the soul What a contentment doth the heart of Man find in the securing of any whatsoever good what a coyle do mony-Masters keep for security of the summes they put forth and when that is taken to their mind are ready to say with the rich Man in the Gospel Soul take thy ease Great venturers at Sea how willingly do they part with no small part of their hoped gain to be assured of the rest How well was Ezekiah appaid when he was assured but of fifteene years added to his life How doth Babylon applaud her own happiness to her self when she can say I sit as a Queen I shall not be a widdow I shall know no sorrow It must needs follow therefore that in the best things assured there must be the greatest of all possible contentments And surely if the heart have once attained to this that upon good grounds it can resolve God is my Father Christ Jesus is my Elder Brother the Angels are my Guardians Heaven is my undoubted patrimony how must it needs be lift up and filled with a joy unspeakable and glorious What bold defiances can it bid to all the troupes of worldly evils to all the powers of Hell with what unconceiveable sweetness must it needs injoy God and it self how comfortably and resolutely must it needs welcome death with that triumphant champion of Christ I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith and now from henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness c. 2. Tim. 4.7 8. Out of the just advantage therefore of this assurance we must endeavour to make our calling and election sure Neither is the advantage more in the performance hereof then there is danger in the neglect In all uncertainties there is a kinde of afflictive fear and troublesome mis-doubt Let a man walk in the dark because he cannot be confident where safely to set his steps he is troubled with a continual suspicion of a suddain mis-cariage and therefore goes in pain what can there be but discomfort in that soul which knowes not in what termes it stands with God Yet whiles there is life there may be hope of better But if that soul be surprised with an unexpected death and hurried away with some suddain judgment in this state of irresolution in how deplored a condition is it beyond all expression I cannot but therefore lament the woful plight of those poor souls that live die under the Roman discipline who when they have most need of comfort in the very act of their dissolution are left pitifully disconsolate and given up by their teachers to either horror or suspence Even the most Saint-like of them except his soul fly up in Martyrdom like Gedeons Angel in the Smoke of his incense may not make account of a speedy ascent to heaven insomuch as Cardinal Bellarmine himself of whom our Coffin dares write that his life was not stayned with mortal sin pag. 27. He that could call heaven Casamia and whose canonization the Cardinals thought fit to be talked of in his sickness when Cardinal Aldobrandino desired him that when he came to heaven he would pray for him answered To go to heaven so soon is a matter too great for me men do not use to come thither in such hast and for me I shall think it no small favour to be sure of purgatory and there to remain a good while pag. 42. which yet himself can say differs not much for the time in respect of the extremity of it from hell it self and to be a good while there O terror past all reach of our thoughts And if the righteous be thus saved where shall the sinners appear For ought they can or may know hell may but purgatory must be their portion heaven may not be thought of without too high presumption Certainly if many despair under those uncomfortable hands I wonder that no more since they are bidden to doubt and beaten off from any possibility of the confidence of rest and happinesse But whiles I urge this danger of utter discomfort in our irresolution I hear our adversaries talke of a double danger of the contrary certitude A danger of pride and a danger of sloth The supposed certainty of our graces breeds pride saith their Cardinal The assurance of our election sloth saith their Alphonsus a Castro out of Gregory And indeed if this cordial doctrine be not well given well taken well digested it may through our pravity and heedlesness turne to both these noxious humors as the highest feeding soonest causeth a dangerous Plethory in the body How have we heard some bold ungrounded Christians brag of their assurance of glory as if they had carried the keyes of heaven at their Girdle How have we seen even sensual men flatter themselves with a confident opinion of their undoubted safety unfailable right to happiness How have we known presumptuous Spirits that have thought themselves carried with a plerophory of faith when their sailes have been swelled only with the winde of their own self-love how many ignorant soules from the mis-prision of Gods infallible election have argued the needlessnesse of their indeavours and the safety of their ease and neg-lect As ye love your selves sail warily betwixt these rocks and sands on either side But if these mischiefs follow upon the abuse of a sound and wholsome doctrine God forbid they should be imputed to the truth it self as if that God who
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By good works The vulgar reads it thus and the Council of Trent cites it thus and some of ours so the text runs thus Give diligence that by good works ye may make your calling and election sure I inquire not how duly but certainly there is no cause that we should fear or dislike this reading good works are a notable confirmation to the soul of the truth of our calling and election Though Cardinal Bellarmine makes ill use of the place striving hereupon to inferre that our certitude is therefore but conjectural because it is of works For the solution whereof justly may we wonder to hear of a conjectural certitude Certainly we may as well hear of a false-truth what a plain implication is here of a palpable contradiction Those things which we conjecture at are only probable and there can be no certainty in probability Away with these blinde peradventures had our Apostle said and he knew how to speak guesse at your calling and election by good works his game here had been fair but now when he saies By good works indeavour to make your calling and election sure how clearly doth he disclaim a dubious hit I-misse-I and implies a fecible certainty And indeed what hinders the connection of this assurance Our works make good the truth of our faith our faith makes good our effectual calling our calling makes good our election therefore even by good works we make our election sure Neither can it hurt us that the Cardinal saith we hold this certainty to be before our good works not after them and therefore that is not caused by our good works We stand not nicely to distinguish how things stand in the order of nature surely this certainty is both before and after our works before in the act of our faith after in our works confirming our faith neither do we say this certainty is caused by our good works but confirmed by them neither doth this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imply alwaies a thing before uncertain as learned Chamier well but the completing and making up of a thing sure before To which also must be added that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good works must be taken in the largest latitude so as to fetch in not only the outward good offices that fall from us in the way whether of our charity justice or devotion but the very inmost inclinations and actions of the soul tending towards God our believing in him our loving of him our dreading of his infinite Majesty our mortification of our corrupt affections our joy in the holy Ghost whatsoever else may argue or make us holy These are the means by which we may and must endeavor to make our calling election sure But to let this clause passe as litigious the undoubted words of the text goe no less If ye do these things ye shall never fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these things are the vertues precedently mentioned and not falling is equivalent to ascertaining our calling and election Not to instance then and urge those many graces which are here specified I shall content my self with those three Theological vertues singled out from the rest faith hope charity for the makeing sure our calling and election For faith how clear is that of our Saviour He that believes in him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but hath passed from death to life Joh. 5.24 This is the grace by which Christ dwels in our hearts Ephes 3.17 and whereby we have communion with Christ and an assured testimony of and from him For he that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself 1 John 5.10 And what witness is that This is the record that God hath given us eternall life and this life is in his Son verse 11. He that hath the Son hath life verse 12. See what a connection here is Eternal life first this life eternal is in and by Christ Jesus this Jesus is ours by faith This Faith witnesseth to our souls our assurance of Life Eternall Our hope is next which is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thrusting out of the head to look for the performing of that which our faith apprehends and this is so sure a grace as that it is called by the name of that glory which it expecteth Colos 1.5 For the hope sake which is laid up for you in heaven that is for the glory we hope for Now both faith and hope are of a cleansing nature both agree in this Purifying their hearts by faith Act. 15.9 Every one that hath this hope purifyeth himself even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 The Devil is an unclean Spirit he foules wheresoever he comes and all sin is nasty and beastly Faith and hope like as neat huswives when they come into a foul and sluttish house cleanse all the roomes of the soul and make it a fit habitation for the Spirit of God Are our hearts lifted up then in a comfortable expectation of the performance of Gods merciful promises and are they together with our lives swept and cleansed from the wonted corruptions of our nature and pollutitions of our sin this is an undoubted evidence of our calling and election Charity is the last which comprehends our love both to God and man for from the reflection of Gods love to us there ariseth a love from us to God again The beloved Disciple can say We love him because he loved us first 1 John 4.19 And from both these resulteth our love to our brethren which is so full an evidence that our Apostle tells us we know we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren 1 Joh. 3.14 For the love of the Father is inseparable from the love of the Son he that loves him that begets loves him that is begotten of him Shortly then think not of a ladder to clâ—mbe up into heaven to search the books of God First look into your own lives those are most open we need no locks or keyes to them the Psalmist in his fifthteenth will tell you who is for that blisseful Sion are your lives innocent are your works good and holy do ye abound in the fruites of piety justice Christian compassion Let these be your first tryall it is a flat and plain word of the divine Apostle whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God 1 John 3.10 Look secondly into your own bosomes open to none but your own eyes If ye find there a true and lively faith in the Son of God by whose blood ye are cleansed from all your sins by vertue whereof ye can cry Abba Father a sure hope in Christ purifying your souls from your corruptions a true and unfained love to your God and Saviour who hath done so much for your soules so as you dare say with that fervent Apostle Lord thou knowest that I love thee and in him and for his sake a sincere love to his
in us Implying that so doth our mouth and stomach receive the bread and wine as that in the mean time our souls receive the flesh and the blood of Christ now the soul is not capable of receiving flesh and blood but by the power of that grace of faith which appropriates it But that we may clearly apprehend how these Sacramental acts and objects are both distinguished and united so as there may be no danger of either separation or confusion that which followeth in the consecratory prayer is most evident Hear us O merciful father we beseech thee and grant that we receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christs holy institution in remembrance of his death and passion may be partakers of his most blessed body and blood who in the same night that he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and gave it to his disciples saying Take eat this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me What more can be said what come we to receive outwardly The Creatures of bread and wine To what use In remembrance of Christs death and passion what do we the whiles receive inwardly we are thereby made partakers of his most blessed body and blood by what means doth this come about By virtue of our Saviours holy institution still it is bread and wine in respect of the nature and essence of it but so that in the spiritual use of it it conveyes to the faithful receiver the body and blood of Christ bread and wine is offered to my eye and hand Christ is tendred to my soul Which yet is more fully if possibly it may be expressed in the form of words prescribed in the delivery of the bread and wine to the communicant The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body soul into everlasting life and take and eat this in remembrance that Christ dyed for thee and feed on him in thine heart by faith with thanksgiving c. No gloss in the world can make the words more full and perspicuous So do we in remembrance of Christs death take and eat the sacramental bread with our mouths as that our hearts do feed upon the body of Christ by our faith And what is this feeding upon Christ but a comfortable application of Christ and his benefits to our souls Which is as the prayer next following expresses it Then do we feed on Christ when by the blessed merits and death of our blessed Saviour and through faith in his blood we do obtain remission of our sins and all other benefits of his passion and are fulfilled with his grace and heavenly benediction Or if we desire a more ample commentary upon this sacramental repast and the nourishment thereby received the prayer ensuing offers it unto us in these words We most heartily thank thee for that thou hast vouchsafed to feed us which have duely received these holy mysteries with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and dost assure us thereby of thy favour and goodness towards uâ— and that we be very members incorporate in thy mystical body which is the blessed company of all faithful people and be also heirs through hope of thy everlasting kingdome by the merits of the most precious death and passion of thy dear Son This then is to feed upon Christ Lo the meat and manducation and nourishment are all spiritual whiles the elements be bodily and sensible which the allowed homilies of the Church also have laboured in most significant termes to set forth Thou must carefully search and know saith the first sermon concerning the sacrament Tome 2. what dignities are provided for thy soul whither thou art come not to feed thy senses and belly to corruption but thy inward man to immortality and life nor to consider the earthly creatures which thou seest but the heavenly graces which thy faith beholdeth For this table is not saith Chrysostome for chattering jayes but for Eagles who fly thither where the dead body lieth And afterwards to omit some other passages most pregnantly thus It is well known the meat we seek for in this supper is spiritual food the nourishment of our soul a Heavenly refection and not earthly an invisible meat and not bodily a ghostly substance and not carnal so that to think without faith we may enjoy the eating drinking thereof or that that is the fruition of it is but to dream a gross carnal feeding basely abjecting and binding our selves to the elements and creatures whereas by the advice of the council of Nice we ought to lift up our minds by faith and leaving these inferiour and earthly things there seek it where the son of righteousness ever shineth Take this lesson O thou that art desirous of this table of Emissenus a godly father That when thou goest to the reverend communion to be satisfyed with spiritual meats thou look up with faith upon the holy body and blood of thy God thou marvel with reverence thou touch it with the mind thou receive it with the hand of thy heart and thou take it fully with the inward Man Thus that homily in the voice of the Church of England Who now shall make doubt to say that in the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist Christ is only present and received in a spiritual manner so as nothing is objected to our senses but the Elements nothing but Christ to our faith and therefore that it is requisite we should here walk with a wary and even foot as those that must tread in the midst betwixt profaneness and superstition not affixing a deity upon the Elements on the one side nor on the other sleighting them with a common regard not adoring the Creatures not basely esteeming their relation to that Son of God whom they do really exhibit to us Let us not then think it any boldness either to inquire or to determine of the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament and confidently to say that his body is locally in Heaven spiritually offered to and received by the faith of every worthy communicant upon Earth True it is that in our Saviours speech Joh. 6. to believe in Christ is to eat his flesh and to drink his blood even besides out of the act of this Eucharistical supper so as whosoever brings Christ home to his soul by the act of his faith makes a private meal of his Saviour but the holy Sacrament superadds a further degree of our interest in the participation of Christ for now over and above our spiritual eating of him we do here eat him Sacramentally also every simple act of our faith feeds on Christ but here by virtue of that necessary union which our Saviours institution hath made betwixt the signe and the thing signified the faithfull communicant doth partake of Christ in a
ex consideratione peccati Theol. Britan. Dordr Artic. 1. de reprob Thes 5. Of Christs Death DEus lapsi generis humani miseratus misit filium suum qui seipsum dedit pretium redemptionis pro peccatis totius mundi Nemo mortalium est qui non possit vere serio per Ministros Evangelii vocari ad participationem remissionis peccatorum vitae aeternae per hanc mortem Christi Theol. Brit. Dordr de 2 Art Thes 3. GOd pitying the woful condition of man fallen by his free will into sin and perdition sent his own Son that he should give him himself as a ransom for the sins of the whole World so as there is no living soul that may not be truly and seriously invited by his faith to take hold of the forgiveness of his sins and everlasting life by the virtue of this death of Christ with certain assurance of obtaining both In hoc merito Christi sundatur universale promissum Evangelicum juxta quod omnes in Christum credentes remissionem peccatorum vitam aeternam re ipsa consequantur Theol. Britan. Dordrac ibid. Thes 4. 2. Upon this infinite merit of Christs death is grounded that universall promise and covenant of the Gospell offering remission and salvation to all Men through the whole World if they be not wanting to the receipt thereof Illud pretium quod solutum est pro omnibus quod omnibus credentibus certo proficiet ad vitam aeternam non proficit tamen omnibus c. Theol. Brit. Dordr de Art 2. Explic. Thes 3. 3. Notwithstanding this infinite merit of Christs death the fruit and benefit thereof doth not accrew to all Men but to those only who do apply the virtue of his death by faith Constat Christum proponendo Evangelium etiam illam gratiam internam administrasse quae hactenus sussiciebat ut ex eo quod non acceptarent vel rejicerent Evangelium juste coargui possint infidelitatis Theol. Britan. ibid. in explicat Thes 5. In Ecclesia ubi salus omnibus offertur ea est administratio gratiae quae sufficit ad convincendos omnes impoenitentes incredulos quod sua culpa voluntaria vel neglectu vel contemptu evangelii perierint ut supra 4. Those within the Church especially that do not reap this benefit by the death of Christ perish manifestly by their own default forasmuch as God hath ordained that wheresoever the gracious promise of the Gospel shall be preached there shall be and is withall ordinarily so much supernaturall grace offered together with the outward means as may justly convince the impenitent and unbelieving of a wilfull neglect if not a contemptuous rejection 5. Besides this generall promise of the Gospel God hath decreed to give a speciall more abundant and effectuall grace unto his elect whereby they may be enabled certainly and infallibly to apply unto themselves the benefit of Christs death and do accordingly believe and persevere and attain Salvation 3. Supposita morte Christi pro omnibus hominibus intentione Dei conditionata de gratia promissionis Evangelicae generali addit intentionem Dei specialem de applicando beneficio mortis Christi per gratiam magis abundantem efficacem absolute certo infallibiliter solis electis fine praejudicio reliquorum D. Overal ibid. Art 2. The Third and Fourth ARTICLE Of Mans Corruption His Free-will His Conversion to God and the Manner of it OMnes consentiunt liberum arbitrium nihil boni posse sine gratia praeveniente comitante subsequente ita ut gratia teneat principium medium finem in conversione fide omni opere bono D. Overal ibid Art 3. 1. MAns will since the fall hath of it self no ability to any Spiritual Act every good motion of it must come from the Grace of God preventing accompaning following it yea naturally it is inclinable to all evill In voluntate Scilicet lapsa est potentia passiva ad esse hoc supernaturale extrinsecus adveniens recipiendum non autem activa ad idem vel per se vel cum alio producendum Theol. Brit. de Artic. 3. 4. Thes de conversione 2. Ipsam voluntatem bonam faciendo vivisicat Epist Synod Episc Afric cit ibid. 2. There is not therefore in the will of the naturall man any active power to work his own conversion In the regeneration God infuseth a new life he quickeneth the will by making it good Sunt quaedam opera externa ab hominibus ordinarie requisita priusquam ad statum regenerationis aut conversionis perducantur 3. There are yet certain foregoing acts that are prerequired to the conversion of a man and they are both inward and outward Quae ab iisdem quandoque libere fieri quandoque libere omitti solent ut adire Ecclesiam audire verbi praeconium id genus alia ibid 4. Outward as to go to the Church to sit reverently to hearken to the word spoken In these we have freedom of will either way Sunt quaedam effecta interna ad conversionem sen regenerationem praevia quae virtute verbi spiritusque in nondum justificatorum cordibus excitantur qualia sunt notitia voluntatis divinae sensus peccati timor poenae cogitatio de liberatione spes aliqua veniae ibid. Thes 2. Non solet gratia divina homines perducere per subitum Enthusiasmum sed multis praeviis actionibus ministerio verbi subactos praeparatos ibid. in explic Thes 2. 5. Inward as the knowledg of Gods will the feeling of our sin the fear of hell the thought of deliverance some hope of pardon for the grace of God doth not use to work upon a Man immediately by sudden raptures but by meet preparations informing the Judgment of his danger wounding the conscience by the terrours of the law suppleing it by the promises of the Gospel These inward Acts tending towards conversion are by the power of the word and Spirit of God wrought in the heart of a Man not yet justified Quos Deus mediaente verbo per spiritum suum hunc in modum afficit eos ad fidem conversionemque vere serio vocat invitat Theol. Brit. ibid. Thes 3. 6. Those whom God thus affects by his word and Spirit he doth truly and seriously call and invite to faith and conversion 7. Those whom he hath thus affected and called he forsakes not neither ceaseth to further in the way to their conversion till through their willing neglect or repulse of this initiall grace he be forsaken of them Quos ita afficit Deus non deserit nec desistit in vera ad conversionem via promovere priusquam ab illis per neglectionem voluntariam aut hujus gratiae initialis repulsam deseratur Hi praecedanei effectus virtute verbi spiritusque rebellis voluntatis vitio suffocari ac penitus extingui possunt in multis solent adeo ut nonnulli in quorum mentilus virtute verbi spiritusque