in the Event not till the death of our Bodies is the body of Sin quite dead in us but then it will be for as Sin entred into us at the first union of Body and Soul so it goeth not out till their last dissolution But being then parted As to the Body for fins of omission this lump of Earth doth no longer aggravare animam clog the Soul from doing duty nor as to sins of commission doth this Earthly dusty tabernacle any longer defile the Soul as being a fomes and an Instrument by which it acts its self-pollution And as to the Soul though wicked Mens Souls are in statu separato as sinful as they were before yet the spirits of just Men are then made perfect Heb. 12. 23. and therefore not liable to sin which is the greatest imperfection And what a gain this is a holy Heart will tell you when now groaning under the Burden and Pollution of some defiling lust would give a whole World to be rid of it even exchange his life for Death because by it he shall gain a full deliverance from it And as Death ends the Believer's sin So also all that misery which by reason of his sin he more or less all his Life long was exercised with No more inward sorrows or fears or anguishes and perplexities in and from himself no more temptations from Satan no more molestations or persecutions from the World or if any he is no more sensible of them There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary are at rest there the Prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the oppressor Job 3. 17 18. And if you say that for these outward troubles it is then as well with the wickedest sinners as with the holiest Saints I say but it is not so as to those inward anguishes and perplexities which are the greatest miseries for they in the wicked are not then ended but as to their greatest extremities then begin But for the Godly no more then any of these They then cease from all their Labours Revel 14. 13. and rest quietly in their Beds Isa 57. 2. not one bodily pain or disquieting thought more as Mr. Knox on his death-bed being asked whether his See his Life pains were great answered that he did not esteem that a pain which would be to him the end of all trouble and the beginning of endless Joys Serve the Lord in Fear and Death shall not be troublesome to you Blessed is the Death of those that have part in the Blood of Jesus And is not he who hath attained to this proved a great Gainer having all his former sins and miseries so well and for ever ended 2. And whatsoever of both kinds if he had lived longer he might have fallen into most happily prevented The Apocryphal Solomon saith that Enoch was speedily taken away lest wickedness should have altered his understanding Wisdom 4. 11. But I am sure from authentical Scripture that Josiah was that he might not see that desolation which was coming upon his people 2 Chron. 34. 28. and that the Righteous are taken away from the evil to come Isa 57. 1. of which some expound that Dr. Hammond Revel 14. 13. Blessed are they that dye in the Lord namely at that time there meant because after that time there would be greater misery It may be we cannot but think how miserable some Men would have been if they had lived any longer yea and what sinful Snares some of God's Servants would have been in danger to have been taken in if they had not died the sooner But when they were now falling a Fathers watchful eye saw their danger and with a wary hand snatcht them out of it and took them into his own Bosom out of the reach of it Blessed Father Happy Child And gainful Death that put them into harbor when the storm was coming that would have sunk them prevented those sins and miseries that might have undone them And thus Death to the Godly is gain privatively in preventing loss 2. Secondly Positively in bringing in reallest Gains 1. Of Grace made perfect and that in the most perfect exercise and operation of it Faith then completed in Vision and Hope in Fruition and therefore called the end of our Faith 1 Pet. 1. 9. not so much of cessation as the consummation and perfection of both and for Love what was here imperfect shall then be done away 1 Cor. 13. 10. So that it shall be perfectly then exerted toward God and one another when we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 20. 36. like to the Angels of God every way pliable and expedite in doing his will And we who think how well it is with us when we can here in any measure of freedom and liveliness meditate and pray or in any other kind with enlarged hearts run the way of God's Commandments and feel how burdensom it is to lye under the burden of Sin and have our Chariot-Wheels taken off so that we drive heavily in what he sets us to what unvaluable a gain shall we esteem it when all these cloggs shall be taken off and we shall find our Souls as upon the Chariots of Amminadab freely to expatiate in those latifundia of Eternity and with those Angels in Ezekiel's Vision whither the Spirit is to go to go without hinderance and Ezek. 1. 12. weariness Now a true Christian estimates Gain not by that of Mony as it 's called Judg. 5. 19. or other commodities which the Men of the World traffique in but that which ariseth from being Rich in Faith James 2. 5. and God's fear Prov. 22. 4. Which is the * Luke 16. 11. true and the †Prov. 8. 18. everlasting Riches as our Saviour and Solomon calls them and therefore when such Riches and Gains are come in fullest he accounts himself the greatest gainer and that will be when in Death Grace is perfected 2. And happiness completed and that will be then also if you will only abate that which will arise from the Souls reunion with the Body which will not be till the last day But at Death Paul makes account that when he departs hence he shall be with Christ which he esteems to be best of all v. 23. of this Chapter in a more full Vision and Fruition of God and what attends that Estate and in what else can be our best happiness Mr. Mede indeed saith that he remembers not that Death is On Rev. 14. 13. Diem mortis diem mercedis indigitari ever in Scripture said to be the time of reward Nor it may be is it so said in those express words nor indeed is it the time of the reward of the most full and compleat payment of it which is reserved to the Resurrection-day But I am sure if Paul said true that upon his departure he should be with Christ that the greatest part of the reward is then given and that not only
more is his grief when with anguish and horror he thinks and saith surgunt indocti rapiunt coelum I repeat not what followeth in the sentence as desiring it may never overtake any of us in those straits But wo to us if it do But the more blessed therefore is this more excellent knowledge that we now speak of which is not so much a tree of knowledge as a tree of life and is therefore called eternal life John 17. 3. by which my Soul lives in death that I can tell what to do when other far more learned men are at their wits end that in mine evening I may have light Zech. 14. 7. whilst others far more sharp-sighted stumble in that dark entry into outer darkness for ever O give me that sweet Bird that will sing in such a Winter that lamp of a wise Virgin that will burn clear at midnight that Matth. 25. 6 7 8. torch which will not light my body to the Grave but my Soul to Heaven I this this is the light of life John 8. 12. by which when my bodily eye grows dim and upon my eyelids sits the gloomy Joh 16. 16. shadow of death I may then lift up an Eye of faith with Steven at the very point of Death Act 7. 56. and then see Christ more clearly and know much of him more fully than ever before as it is related of Oecolampadius upon his Death-Bed being asked Mylii Apophthegmata merientium whether the light of the Candle troubled him laying his hand on his breast said Hîc abunde lucis est or with Laurentius At Nox mea tenebras non habet The more darkness without the more light within when the Curtains are drawn Christ more unvailed and when the dying body smells now of the Earth to which it is sinking the Divine Soul ut in rogo Imperatorum savours of Heaven to which it is ascending with a farewel-faith and welcom-Vision no more to see Christ as here through a glass darkly but face to face to know him no more in part but 1 Cor. 13. 12. even as I am known I close mine eyes to see my Saviour and like old Simeon lay down my head in my Fathers bosom with his Nunc dimittis Now Lord let thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation THE Text had two parts 1. The Purchase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the excellent Sermon II knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. 2. The price that our Apostle Preacht at St. Maries Octob. 18. 1646. was chearfully willing to come up to that he might compass it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he accounted all things loss that he might gain it In the handling the former part the last time I endeavoured as I was able though infinitely under its worth to hold forth and commend to you the supereminent excellency of the saving knowledge of Christ above all other things and all other knowledge whatsoever But as they say the Jews are now wont when ever they build an House to leave some part of it imperfect in reference to Jerusalems ruins which they would remember so in all our largest discourses of Christ and his Excellencies of necessity something yea much must be left unsaid because there is infinitely more than we can comprehend the half of our Solomons glory will 1 King 10. 7. never be told Here the most copious and fluent Orator must close his imperfect speech with a Dicebam instead of a Dixi and draw the Curtain of silence over those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he cannot draw and set out to the life And yet it 's good digging deeper in such golden Mines and another hour would be well spent in viewing and admiring that infinite excellency which in Heaven we shall be adoring to Eternity Should we lanch out we may soon be swallowed up in that bottomless Ocean And therefore for this time let us rather draw the net to the shore and in the second applicatory part of the Text see what we have taken or whether our selves rather be so taken with an holy admiration and desire of it that with our Apostle we can be willing to suffer the loss of all for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea doubtless and I count all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. And if that be such a transcendent excellent knowledge First How low should the consideration of it lay even Scholars Use 1 of the highest form in their thoughts and estimate of all their other knowledge in comparison of it and of themselves as long as they fall short of it Behold the height of the Stars how high they are said Eliphaz to Job But it was that he might have Cap. 22. 12. more lowly thoughts of himself And when we look up and see how high Heaven is above we cannot but think what poor low things we are in the Ant-hill here beneath Yea by how much more exactly the Astronomer by his instrument can take the height of Sun or Star by so much the more fully he apprehends at what a wonderful distance he and the highest Mountain of the whole Earth is under it O that the consideration of this high transcending excellency of the knowledge of Christ might help us though not to low thoughts of learning yet to more lowly thoughts of our selves notwithstanding all our other knowledge that the dazeling brightness of the sun of Righteousness might at least so far blind us as to hide pride from us pride which is the great learned mans greatest and dangerousest snare in which by reason of his learning and knowledge he is easiliest taken and by which he is most of all hindred from this more excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ 1. Most easily taken with it it being a very hard thing to be a knowing man and not to know it to be learned and humble together for the King of Tyre to be as wise as Daniel and not to be as Ezek. 28. 2 3. proud as Lucifer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowledge puffs up saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 8. 1. and usually the more aiery and empty the knowledge is it makes the bladder swell the more The Devil is a very knowing and a very proud Creature The most learned Philosophers and wisest Statesmen amongst the Heathen have been noted for pride vain-glory and an impotent desire of applause being accounted by them a piece of gallantry rather than a vice And although by Christians it cannot but be accounted a sin yet even amongst them such as excel others in knowledge are oft known by it The more able in this kind of old were very ready to despise the weak and to over-look them which were under them Rom. 14. 3. The supercilium with which the great Rabbies despised the poor ignorant people that knew not the punctilioes of the law John 7. 49. and the Typhus of many of our great Criticks who
thousand Worlds It was then that as in the entrance into Canaan Joshua did hang up all those Kings before the Josh 10. 26 27. Sun so we all Competitors with Christ before him the sun of righteousness loftiest thoughts pleasingest lusts choicest contentments were mortified for part in a dying Saviour And as Elisha when 1 King 19. 20 21. upon a Call he followed Elijah and Matthew Christ they left all it s said in both places that they then made a feast but it was a Luke 5. 27 28 29. Funeral and a Marriage Feast in one so as Sanctius applieth it when we are married to Christ we are dead to the World 2. And so much the more it is or at least should be in after more full and glorious enlargements upon communion with Christ the new born babe that upon hungring and thirsting hath once tasted that God is gracious more gladly layeth aside all else and then Christ to the Believer is indeed precious 1 Pet. 2. 1. 2 3 7. What are all the treasures of the World to those unsearchable Riches which we there find in Christ what dull insipid sowr stuff are all the Earths sweets to the least tast of the sweetness of Christ in peace of Conscience and joy of the Holy Ghost most glorious and unspeakable All the glazing light of the Worlds splendor is meer darkness to the least warm bright beam darted into our Souls from the sun of righteousness 3. Or in case upon our playing the wantons in that Sun-shine we be before we are aware gotten into the gloomy shade of some uncomfortable desertion Christs worth is most sadly felt and seen in the dark and our want of sensible enjoyment of it With what a sad weeping eye doth the poor Israelite look on the brazen Serpent when the fiery Serpent hath stung him Truly light is sweet and its a pleasant thing to behold the Sun but especially to the Prisoner when now cast into the dark Dungeon and the sick man though he then hath but a weak head can best judge of the worth of ease sleep health when he lieth restless on the bed of languishing and the deserted Spouse when looking besides all else so sadly asketh But saw you him whom my soul loveth as plainly tells you at what rates she would again recover her now lost beloveds presence and Company Now if ever with Paul in the Text she accounts all loss and dung that she may gain Christ And there 's great Reason why a Believer should so account always if we consider what Christ and all that is in the World are in themselves and to us and what faith is and what estimate it makes of both I must but only name particulars 1. All the Worlds enjoyments are in themselves and so the more we experiment them the more we find them to be lying yea vexatious vanities as one said the matter of them Nothing and the form a lie But do you all think and let them that have had most and longest experience say Is there not fulness in Christ John 1. 16. Col. 1. 19. And is not a full Fountain better than a broken Cistern 2. They cannot supply all our wants and necessities and least of all our greatest and never less than when we are in most need In death they fail us and in a day of anguish and wrath instead of Pro. 11. 4. relieving they often most vex and wound us But Christ is All unto All. Col. 3. 11. The Root and Branch Isa 11. 1. 10. Revel 22. 16. The morning Star and Sun Murus antemurale Prora Puppis all in all and therefore in Scripture expressed by all things that in all kinds are most desireable and eminent As the looking towards the Temple which was as I said a type of Christ was a remedy against all maladies 1 King 8 against plague famine v. 37 38. war v. 33. 44. So Christs Robe is large enough to cover all our nakedness and the Plaister of his blood able to heal all our wounds heart wounds and those that are most deadly and can take the fire of Gods wrath out of them He is a precious Diamond that shines and sparkles in the darkest night a Cordial that can fetch us again out of deadliest swound and which in death it self can make our heart live 3. As they cannot supply all our necessities which are many and great so much less all our faculties and appetites which often are far greater A beast may have a belly full But it s he who is Psal 17. 14. greater than our hearts that can afford an heart full of satisfaction It s true that the more the Worldling takes in of the World and the more a Believer receives from Christ they both of them still thirst for more But yet so far as Christ floweth in to the one so far he filleth and satisfieth whereas the more the other drinketh in of the World the more he is filled with wind and emptiness and from thence it is that the hydropick thirsts yet the more when you have shewn a Worldling all that the World can afford he as unsatisfied still asks who will shew us any good and so like the Bee flutters from one flower to another But let a Christian be shewn the glory of Christ he sets up his rest saith with Peter Let us here pitch a Tabernacle nay make it our mansion for it 's good to be here Christ by being born at Bethlehem Ephrata in those two words tells you what fruitfulness is in him and how good an House he keeps to your full satisfaction 4. Add hereunto that whatever poor little faint content it be which they may sometimes afford or rather we take in them for the present yet it will not last long it would loath and weary us if it should and therefore one half of every four and twenty hours God allots to the night in which we rest our minds and senses wearied with the cloying surfeit of the most delightful object wherewith the foregoing day presented us to be sure it will not last always The Tow lighted and presently extinguished with this said sic transit gloria mundi at the Popes Inauguration is a good Memento 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 7. 31. are two very diminutive words but yet do very greatly express what poor sleight and fleeting things this World and all the Contentments thereof are but a fashion but a noise but a shadow whilst they Jer. 46. 17. last Stat magni nominis umbra Vanity even when consistent Psal 39. 5. But the worst is the shadow will not stand still but proveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 102. 11. a shadow that decliueth a fashion that passeth away the noise ceaseth the sandy foundation sinketh the grass of it self withereth if not before cut down But Blessed be God that his word endureth for ever that Jesus Christ is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 8. 21.
gather up the crumbs that fall from this full table O full-handed Father O bountiful House-keeper Here 's God's Plenty Enough and to spare Ruth found it in Boaz's field But the truly hungring Soul Ruth 2. 4 18. more abundantly in Christ's Tasts Pledges earnest-pennies here are very satisfying What then will the full meal and payment and portion in Heaven be If he so satisfie us here he will there for certain fill our treasures They so satisfie that they would not have any thing else but only are unsatisfied that they have no more of them 5. Add hereto if you please in the fifth place that this filling over-flowing fulness of Christ appears yet further in that he can thus compleatly fill us by himself alone when there is so little it may be nothing else to bestead us A little spring if it have many rivolets falling into it as it runs along may at last swell into a great stream and all Rivers meeting may make a full Sea and vast Ocean but it 's a full fountain indeed that of it self alone fills all the Cocks and sets all the Mills a going No great matter for a confluence of all outward comforts to fill a man and that rather with pride and self than any solid satisfaction But Either when we have but little else to have fully enough whilst When they shewed him two Swords he said it was enough Luke 22. 38. we have the more of Christ when so many thousand are fed to the full and so much to spare when the Provision was but five barly loaves that was but sparing and course and two small fishes but two and they little ones too made the miracle the greater and tells us that Christ was the entertainer Or when there is nothing else and yet nothing wanting when Christ is not To have nothing and yet to possess all things 2 Cor. 6. 10. as it hath been with Christ's Martyrs and other his destitute and persecuted Servants when destitute yet not desolate This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 11. 37. is only from that little stone cut out without hands that became a mountain and filled the whole earth Dan. 2. 34 35. As it 's the Air which is not seen that fills up that vast space betwixt Heaven and Earth so it 's nothing else but an hidden unseen unknown unconceiveable Fulness of Christ that fills such Souls with Grace Peace and Joy when all else is nothing or nothing but vacuity and vanity and that the Prophet saith is less and worse than nothing In a word Christ here in the Text when speaking of substance saith it emphatically and exclusively I will fill their Treasures I and none nothing but I. A solid and satisfying Repletion is from this Bread of life only All besides it satisfieth not Isa 55. 2. It swells rather than fills Or if it fills it 's with emptiness with Job 15. 2. wind and east-wind with Pride or Pain rather than with any solid and substantial satisfaction That 's Christ's Royalty which he here appropriates to himself when he saith that He will make those that love him to inherit substance and that He will fill their Treasures In the Application of which that which in the general I Vse would most seriously press and call for is that we would endeavour to be more fully and feelingly possessed with the belief of this truth For did we firmly believe in the general and constantly carry along with us actual thoughts and persuasions that God is Alsufficient and that Christ alone is able and willing and ready to fill our treasures it would be of admirable use to us in our whole course for our instruction and direction and establishment in matter both of doctrine and practice As in particular It would cut off all those Assumenta or Patches with which Vse 1 the Papists would eke out Christ to make him compleat or us in him as his Prophetical office in their Traditions or Kingly in the Popes Head-ship or Priestly in their own merits or Popes Pardons and Indulgences That Treasure of the Church as they call it is exhausted and their Purgatory or purses rather quite emptied by this of Christs filling of his peoples treasures It was in this sense that the Apostle said that we are compleat in him Col. 2. 10. And whereas cap. 1. 19. he had said that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell it cannot but much displease that quite cross to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good pleasure and design of the Father and the Glory of Christ any thing should be taken away from his sole jurisdiction or added to help to fill up his plenary satisfaction and full redemption Indeed the Apostle in the 24. verse of that chapter speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what was behind which the vulgar too boldly rendreth ea quae desunt what was wanting of the afflictions of Christ for his bodies sake the Church But that is meant of Christ Mystical not Personal and for the edifying of the Saints not for the satisfying for their sins which Christ had done fully and by one offering for ever perfected them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. So that in it alone is the Churches treasury to be freely taken out by the alone hand of faith and not sold by the Popes merchants to fill their purses not Gods peoples consciences with peace and joy It 's Christ alone that fills those treasures The Popes Bulls whether Plumbeae or Aureae are Bullatae Nugae Bubbles full of wind which will leave the soul full of anguish and despair but empty of all solid and true satisfaction But we leave them and come to our selves As to our practice it condemns our stuffing and filling our Vse 2 selves with other trash as the Apostle saith After the Tradition Col. 2. 8. of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ Vain man would be wise and empty man full so vain empty souls Full we would fain be But it 's with the world with self with sin but not with Christ full of poyson or trash Such kind of fillings the Scripture often speaks of Either with what is simply and sinfully evil and will certainly undo us and fill us at last with the wrath of God and sinking grief and horrour So the wanton fills himself with unchast love Prov. 7. 18. the drunkard with drink Isa 56. 12. the violent oppressour as the Lion doth his den with prey Nahum 2. 12. their houses with spoil Prov. 1. 13. their eyes with adultery 2 Pet. 2. 14. their mouths with cursing Psal 10. 7. and their hands with bribes Psal 26. 10. and bloud Isa 1. 15. their hearts full of wrath and fury Esther 3. 5. Dan. 3. 19. But where is Christ in all this He doth not so use to fill his servants treasures This is the filling up of the measure of our sins Matth. 23.
should here labour for an enlarged heart and when others enlarge theirs as Hell Hab. 2. 5. we should ours as the expansum of Heaven Christ and Heaven-ward The more we move towards the Earth the more we are straitned He that here promiseth to fill our Treasures would not have us spare his cost but bids us open our mouth wide Psal 81. 10. even widen and enlarge our hearts to their utmost extent and capacity that we may not only taste of his Goodness but take in as much of it as we can As the Prophet bad the Widow borrow Vessels and not a few 2 King 4. 4. and the water-pots were to be filled up to the brim when Christ was to work the miracle John 2. 7. Let the everlasting doors of our Souls be set wide open when it is this King of Glory who is to come in He that hath received most of Christ Psal 24. hath not enough and he who here thinks he hath received enough hath as yet received nothing Our largest draughts are but tasts and those tasts should but quicken the appetite Indeed our Saviour saith that he that drinks of the water that he will give him shall never thirst John 4. 14. But that is Not after other things but yet the more after more of himself not with a feverish hellish thirst as the rich man in those flames and as some Souls here in an hellish anguish but yet with an heavenly enlargement of desire after that which he finds so sweet and hath not yet enough of After fullest in-flows here our emptiness is not perfectly filled nor his fulness exhausted but after fullest communications the thirsty Soul saith Lord one drop one draught more and Christ as the Widow 2 King 4. 6. saith Bring me yet a Vessel and prove me if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out such a blessing that there shall not be room to receive it Mal. 3. 10. Let not the thirsty Earth cease gaping the thirsty Soul craving yet more and yet more till it be filled with all the fulness of God till that as it is in the Text he hath filled our Treasures Ephes 3. 19. 3. How fully should we rest satisfied with Christ alone Will he fill us And would we have any more Doth he fill our Treasures and that with himself and can we desire any thing better or more precious O Naphtali satisfied with favour and full with the Blessing of the Lord said Moses in his blessing of that Tribe Deut. 33. 23. and O blessed Soul say I though thou beest a Naphtali a Wrestler and in never so great conflict as that name signifieth how full may thy joy be How full of comfort if full John 16. 24. 1 John 1. 4. of Christ Though never so empty of other comforts nay though never so full of outward miseries though as it was with the Psalmist thy body be filled with loathsome Diseases Psal 38. 7. and thy soul exceedingly filled with the scorn and contempt of the proud Psal 123. 4. yet if thou beest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the old word was Plenus Deo Full of God and his Spirit if Christ do but fill thy treasures how shouldst thou rejoice in the Lord and joy in the Hab. 3. 17 18. God of thy salvation though there be no herd in the stall nor meal left in the empty barrel no nor oyl in the cruse yet what a feast of fat things full of marrow art thou entertain'd with Isa 25. 6. whilst thou feedest on Christ How doth thy Cup with David's run over when he fills it When God had said I have replenished every sorrowful soul Jer. 31. 25. the Prophet in v. 26. immediately adds Vpon this I awaked and behold my sleep was sweet to me If God please but to undertake from himself in Christ to fill up whatever our dish cup purse or heart wants of full should it be in the darkest night of all wants and miseries and we know not how dark ours may yet prove yet truly our sleep in them might be sweet and our Souls brim-full of comfort And therefore it is our duty as well for our own comfort as for the more full manifestation of his Glory to make up all our wants out of him our emptiness with his fulness Whilest led by sense and not supported by faith this is a very hard Lesson as it was for Moses to believe that Israel's whole Camp should be victualled and filled with flesh for a whole month in a Wilderness and for Philip Numb 11. 21 22. to conceive how so many thousands should be fed in a desert place with five barly loaves and two small fishes In such straits wants John 6. 5 7 8. desertions we cannot believe that Christ will that he can relieve and supply us But O fools and slow of heart to believe where is our faith Is it Christ the Wisdom and Power of God the Amen the faithful and true witness who here promises that he will fill our Treasures and can he not or will he not fulfil his word Though we wrong our selves let us not wrong Christ too If thou canst not believe that he can fill thee thou makest him an empty Saviour If not to fill thy treasure thou sayst he is but a poor Christ If not a friend in the want of a friend and habitation when thou art thrust out of Doors if not all in the want of all thou indeed makest him nothing and he will be nothing Gal. 5. 4. at least not what he truly is and what he here truly promiseth thee and that is to fill thy treasures 4. This might call upon us to follow God fully Numb 14. 24. and to stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God Col. 4. 12. Numb 32. 11. 1 King 11. 6. that our duty and his mercy may hold some proportion 5. But I end all with that which the Text affords And in it we find that all this of Christ's making us to inherit substance and to fill our treasures is promised only to them that love him The love of Christ As it is the condition of the thing promised or rather of the persons to whom it is promised so it is and should be the effect of it when enjoyed For if Christ do all this for us then to love him for it is a very easie demand I am sure but a very poor requital The things promised fall nothing short of perfect happiness Perfecta beatitudo Cartwr They were solid substantial reality an everlasting perpetuity and over-flowing fulness and plenty And what is Heaven more Did they all meet in any earthly commodity that it were a solid staple commodity and such as would last and were there enough of it we should not wish more it would not want high prizers and many buyers Christ we have heard is all this And therefore methinks it would be very hard if he may
17. 1 Pet. 2. 2. 2. Nor is it to strike down such poor Christians as are already sinking by reason of inward faintness I acknowledge that in the new-born babe through weakness of nature this pulse may be weak and in the grown Christian through accidental corruptions and temptations there may be obstructions and interruptions but then the man is the more sick for it and nature thus oppressed if it be Divine struggles and groans the more under it when the man of God cannot do the good that he would he cryeth out of himself as a wretched miserable man for it Rom. 7. 18 24. though the root of the matter be in him as it was in Job yet sometimes it may be under-ground and as seed sown under a great weight of earth that keeps it under but it works and works and at last peeps out and then sprouts and springs apace such an inward principle there is in nature and such also in the soul that is made partaker of the divine nature in its outgoings to that which grace hath made connatural to it 2. Hence in the second place from this inward principle natural motion of it self is ready and free not forced or violent With what inward freedom doth my heart go out to him whom I naturally love and with what a free source doth the fountain cast out or as the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the active form signifieth empty her waters that naturally flow from it And A free spirit Psa 51. 12. how willing a people are God's in the day of his power Psal 110. 3. and our Saviour sheweth that as free a current floweth from this fountain of life when in the place before quoted he John 4. 14. saith that his Spirit and Grace shall be as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a well of water so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aquae salientis of water springing freely fully spouting yea leaping up to everlasting life No need of pumping and pulling How naturally doth such a Soul fall into thoughts of God and desires after him O! never more free than when it can run in this Channel most freely Or if at any time as too often it is this current be hindred or dammed up what a complaining murmur may you hear though without murmuring against God and how may you see it though not rising and swelling in discontent and pride yet running over in tears of true repentance And therefore for trial know that a constant As Hos 11. 7. bent to backsliding from God and total averseness from God and the things of God speaks plainly either a Devilish temper or at best corrupt nature And although as in some cases in a mans body there may be listlesness where there is life so an auk backwardness may and often doth consist with the Divine Nature yet it 's but as life in such a weak sick body in which nature is oppressed Grace is but weak or weakned the man of God in such a case stands in great need of cure and relief that his Soul may freely breath and go out to God as Davids did naturally to his Son Absalom 2 Sam. 13. 39. 3. As natural actions and motions are free so thereupon they are not irksome and grievous but pleasing and delightful How merrily doth the wheel run down the Hill from its natural propension And with what delight doth the Scholar plod even on those harder studies to which he is naturally affected The generous Wine with a kind of jollity and tripudium mantles and sparkles upward when in Solomon's phrase it moves it self Pro. 23. 31. Psal 19. 5. Psal 119. 32. aright and the Sun in its natural course rejoiceth as a mighty man to run his race but not so much as the man of God when his heart is enlarged to run the ways of Gods Commandments The generous spiritual Christian never thinks he mounts so right or with more delight than when he sparkleth and moveth upward How merrily doth this sweet Bird sing when it moves upward and soars aloft in Divine Meditations Prayers praises and such like more pleasing uninterrupted outgoings of the Soul to God! yea what melody in the heart doth it make both to God and it self in its sweet sad notes whilest it is tugging in the snare below 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have a complacency and take pleasure in infirmities reproaches persecutions distresses for Christs sake saith Paul 2 Cor. 12. 10. it's the same word that God the Father said of his Son when he said he was well pleased in him Matth. 3. 17. as though with the like natural complacency that the Father embraced Christ the same doth his servant from the instinct of this Divine nature welcom even heaviest sufferings for Christ With what delight doth this Scholar in Christs School who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read these hard Chapters with which he is so naturally taken for all delight and pleasure ariseth from the sutableness of the faculty and the object and therefore where a law of commands without doth so naturally suit with a law of love within us how doth it hug and embrace Then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I consent and approve for my judgment Rom. 7. 16. and for my affections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 22. I delight in the law of the Lord after the inward man and when it is so within the heart then I delight to do thy will O my God Psal 40. 8. then it 's meat and drink to do the will of God Matth. 11. 30. 1 John 5. 3. John 4. 34. the yoke is easie and the burden light and no command grievous no task but a recreation no distastful Medicine but pleasing food which the palate relisheth and the stomach naturally closeth with I confess the Child is weak and may not be so well able for the time to digest so strong meat and the man of God may be sick and then it may not go down with so much delight Weakness or distemper may sometimes weaken and hinder this actual complacential rejoicing as sickness or a cut finger may take off the Musician from actual playing on his instrument wherein yet he habitually much delighteth but then that sickness maketh him more sick to think of it Where there is habitual delight such actual indisposition causeth actual and hearty grief for it and so this grief for the presence of the contrary impediment proclaims aloud what love he bears and what delight he hath in that from which he is hindred And this sufficiently enough distinguisheth in this Case the true Divine Nature from a counterfeit form of Godliness the one saith with them Mal. 1. 13. Behold what a weariness is it But the other cryeth out oh how weary am I A genuine Child of God crieth out of himself and his own uncomfortable weariness in that which he so naturally loveth and delighteth in bewails his being so weakned and hindred as the
spirit of God could effect it for so that particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As by the spirit of the Lord signifieth causam congruam dignam tantae transformationis as C. à Lapide rightly observeth All cometh to this and all fully to my present purpose That now when God is in Christ so fully as I may say exhibited and exposed to our view and in the Gospel so clearly manifested and held forth to us He expecteth and where grace prevaileth he thereby effecteth such a change and transformation that we are not like our former selves but are molded into his likeness and having laid aside our corrupt nature we are made partakers of his Divine Nature This is or should be according to Paul's doctrine there the effect of the Gospel and as Calvin observeth upon my Text according to Peter's doctrine here when he saith that the exceeding great and precious Gospel-promises are given to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by them we should be partakers of the Divine Nature He telleth us this is the end of the Gospel Notemus hunc esse Evangelii finem ut aliquando Deo conformes reddamur id verò est quasi Deificari that at last we may be conformable to God which is as it were to be Deified or as our Apostle phraseth it to be made partakers of the Divine Nature Which whilst we are so plentifully partakers of the Gospel we should be exceedingly ashamed of that we so far fall short of it which yet the very Heathens so much aspired to who fell so short of us as thus in pattern so 2. In principle for as our pattern is more clear so our principle is more high This conformity to God in true Christians you heard from 2 Cor. 3. 18 is from the spirit of the Lord whilst by the spirit of Christ inlightning and regenerating we are renewed after the Image of God Col. 3. 10. As also from faith in Christ laying hold of thâ—se exceeding great and precious promises of the Gospel and on Christ in them from whose fulness alone God would have us receive grace for grace grace in us answerable and conformable to grace in him and so to be partakers of the Divine Nature Now this faith these promises this Christ and this spirit of Christ those Heathens and their most â—â—â—limate Philosophers were utter strangers to him they knew not to him by faith they went not nay out of themselves they went not but to their Philosophical moral considerations and their purgative vertues to which they ever joyned their heathenish idolatries and superstitious lustrations and sacrifices With Porphyrie to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sometimes to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 charms and sorceries as utterly inconsistent with the Divine nature as the true God is contrary to a vain idol and therefore it is no wonder that it was so wofully deformed a deiformity which they arrived at how trimly soever their admirers do trim it up and turkess it And therefore when there is so much more light and power in the Gospel when our both pattern and principle so far every way exceed theirs Surely God cannot but expect that it should be another-kins likeness to him that we should attain to than what they arrived at And on the contrary let us sadly think what a shame it is to us and to the Gospel too that when there is so much of God in it there should be so little in us who profess it That when we read David's Psalms and the other Prophets writings in the old Testament we should find so much light and life that they both breath and express so much of God in them and we so little so that in truth although as Eusebius observeth they were not called yet indeed they were the true Christians and many of us are really as much without God as we are strangers from that Commonwealth of Israel Especially that even Heathens should herein exceed us that they should so honourably speak of that God whom we so blaspheme that they should express more of God by the twilight of nature than we in the sun-shine of the Gospel that Erasmus should so hardly forbear to pray to Socrates as a Saint whilst many who are named Christians may without breach of charity be called Atheists that any of us should have upon us such black marks of the Devil when on many of them we may discover though ruder yet very lovely characters and lineaments by the help only of their natural Divinity of the Divine nature which we who have better means in all reason should be more possessed of SERMON XX. ON 2 PET. 1. 4. AND should it be here asked what those means are which Quest we should make use of whereby to attain to this high honour and happiness I must answer that all that we of our selves can do as to any Ans inward worth or efficacy operative of so great an effect is just nothing We that can do nothing to make our selves men surely can do as little to make our selves men of God can less concur to the producing of this Divine nature than we did to our humane both are a Creation and therefore the work of God only but yet so as we are to make our addresses to him for the one now that we have a natural being which we could not for the other when he had none And here as the Divine nature essentially considered in God is common to all thâ—â—hree persons so this communicated symbolical Divine nature in us is the common work of them all and therefore to them all we are to make our applications for it 1. To God the Father who as he is Fons Deitatis and communicates Means that Divine nature to the Son and the spirit so he is Fons Gratiae and through the Son by the Spirit imparts this Divine nature to all his children It was his breath that breathed into Adam at first that soul in which especially was his image and it must be his breathing still that must breath into our hearts that divine grace in which consists that his image renewed and this Divine nature God our Creatour is the Author of this new Creature And here the means of it on our parts is by humble and earnest prayer to breath after him for it as the dying man gaspeth for breath that is going away or rather as the dry earth gapeth for heavens rain and influence which it wanteth and so in this systole and diastole upon the out-breathing of our souls and desires followeth in God's way the breathing in of this Divine breath of life the quickning spirit by which we are made spiritual living souls In this case it was said of Saul Behold he prayeth Acts 9. 11. For although it be true that the prayers of the wicked whilst they purpose to go on in sin are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 28. 9. And as true that the prayer
keep house in time of peace nor hold out siege in time of war of which the poorest that have least will have a little and all some useful to all and so prized by all that the spilling of it with some is superstitiously ominous and Homer can give it no less than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divine for its Epithet they using as Plutarch observes to honour such things as were of general and necessary Sympos l. 5. c. 10. use with the title of Divinity Divines we are by our calling and if we be but our selves the salt of the earth as necessary as they that are called the shields of it sine quo saith Austin of our Ministry non possunt homines vel fieri vel vivere Christiani without Psal 47. 9. Epist 180. which we can as little be or live Christians as Pliny said without salt we can live men so that take it away and you take salt off o' th' board and bread out of the house and horsinan and 2 Kings 2. 12. chariot out of the camp even the Sun and light out of heaven and what then but fames faetor unsavouriness and famine and darkness and confusion would be left behind Let not therefore our people grudge us our double Honour 1 Tim. 5. 17. by whom they have such a multiplied and universal Vse blessing Of Repute and Respect Let not us be to your as unsavoury unless you love your own unsavouriness Ministers that are salt of the earth should not be as sale empta mancipia like refuse stâ—ff as they are usually esteemed by the insipid earth-woâ—m qui centum mystas â—urto centusse licetur To spill this salt let it ever be ominous â—ecause it â—ill never be superstitious Of Maintenance if we season you it s but right that you â—eed Salaria dicta quae Ancus Martius 6000 modia sâ—lâ—â— in congiariâ— dâ—dit Pâ—â—n ubi prius us If Salary as Pliny sheweth hath its name from salt then here espâ—cially by all right its due to it From the poor who of this seasoning may have as great a share as the rich And from the rich whose greatest dainties without this salt will be but like Job's white of an egg cap. 6. 6. and greatest estates and honours but like Jericho's tall palm-trees which grow upon barren earth and by bad waters as long as Elisha's salt is not cast into them 2 King 2. 19 c. whatever your fare is it will never make good chear fat bodies but leaness will be sent into the Psal 106. 15. soul as long as there 's neither bread nor salt on the board nor word to bless it and no Minister to say grace to it But it may be we should in both these respects have more of our Vse own if we were more our selves and that is the salt of the earth Not Freshmen from the University which of late have grown barren as Naturalists tell us the earth where salt pits are usually is Omnis locuâ— in quo sal reperitur sterilis est nihilque gignit Plin. Such young Physicians instead of a Church have need of a new Church-yard Plin. lib. 31. cap. 7. Nor Mechanicks from the Loom or Last insipid insulse animals quibus anima est pro sale ut suibus whose souls are only as salt to keep their bodies from stinking whilst they can season neither themselves nor others with either wisdom or grace and yet of these we have too great a sprinkling like Varro's salt which he saith in some parts upon the Rhine in his time the country people made ex lignorum quorundam combustis carbonibus And so here carbo quoque in salem vertitur It were well if Colliers prove not Salters As clothes that are so spotted and spoiled as that they will not take any other colour are usually dyed black which hides the spots but burns the cloth so too often in the Church when men are so blemished in body mind carriage as that they are fit for no other employment they are by their parents or friends or themselves dyed black for such-coloured salt Theoprastus speaks of but it is unsavoury as such are whilst they stain the cloth and defile the Priesthood But I would be salt not to fret but to season rather 2. And therefore I pass on from our Dignity which such dishonour to our Duty which I desire we may all make conscience of which this comparison of the salt also puts us in mind of and that in two particulars 1. What we are to be in our selves 2. And what to others And in both as we go along we shall note the contrary unsavouriness when the salt hath lost its savour which is the second part of the Text that when we come to it we may the less insist on it 1. And first what we are to be in our selves if salt to others then it s presupposed we must be seasoned and savoury our selves Have salt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in your selves saith our Saviour Mark 9. 50. have it and keep it for the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifieth both and this in your selves as ever you would season others for nil dat quod non habet There must be Oyl in the Vessel or else it will not shine long in the Lamp Mat. 25. 4. There must be waters in our own Cisterns yea living running waters in our own Well if we would have them run over so as that our Fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of waters in the streets Prov. 5. 15 16. Ezra that ready Scribe herein writes us a perfect copy who prepared his heart first to seek the Law of the Lord and then secondly to do it and then thirdly to teach it Cap. 7. 10. This this is rectissima methodus concionandi the right method of Preaching with the Priests in the Law to have a Sea in which they first wash themselves as well as Lavers in which afterward they wash the sacrifices which we should labour to offer up as an holy and sweet smelling savour to God in Christ Rom. 15. 16. washed in the Laver but then we our selves first should be washed in the Sea of Christ's bloud salted with salt Mark 9. 49. And therefore we had need have the salt of wisdom and grace of integrity and incorruption in our selves be our selves savoury if ever we would season them And therefore on the contrary as our Saviour in that place elegantly expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Salt is unsalted The Minister is not himself if become either insipid or insulse Insipid having no savour of grace his spirit in regard of any spiritual life dry arid But is there any taste in such a white of an Egg Especially if withall insulse and of an unsavoury spirit qui crapulam olet that smells strong of vomit and drunkenness and uncleanness as some did of old Isai 28. 8. and such filth is not swept wholly out of the house of
bodily Life Your Souls your selves your outward Life Patience as a sure guard keeps you in possession of all A word for natural Life which I exclude not in reference to 1 Life vers 18. they should not perish and here patience is a preservative As God gives us possession of it so patience helps to Doct. 1 keep it So we find in Scripture meek Moses and patient Job long-liv'd whilst bloody and violent Men live not out half their days Psal 55. 23. As stormy Winter days use to be short whilst it 's long before the Sun set in a serene calm Summer's day The Prophet said In quietness and confidence shall be your strength Isa 30. 15 and thereby also their safety whilst frowardness and hastiness makes haste only to destruction Job's Wife when she said Job 2. 9. Curse God and die spake truth when she gave bad counsel for it's curse and die there 's but a step between discontented cursing and dying But if there be any such thing in this frail fading World as via recta ad vitam longam which the Title of his Book promiseth amongst other Vertues and Graces Patience must be one of our Guides and Companions and this whether we consider either God or others or our selves First For God we read that with the froward he will deal Reas 1 frowardly Psal 18. 26. but he delighteth to beautifie the meek with Salvation The Lion of the Tribe of Judah tears his Prey when it struggles and resists but spares it when it lies quiet and prostrate so that if you be weary of your life you may go to it at sharp but if you mean to save it your wisest way is to submit and quietly to lay down your Weapons Crudelem medicum c. The unruly impatient Patient makes his Physician cruel and the Child's strugling doth but increase his stripes whilst a quiet kissing the Rod oft saveth the whipping Our God is our Physician and Father We provoke him to Wrath when we are provoked to impatience by what-ever correction is inflicted by him But it 's meet to be said to him by every dutiful Child and in such a Child's Language I have born chastisement and I will not offend any more if I have done iniquity I will do no more Job 34. 31 32. and that 's the way to prevent a second bout With the Bird of Paradise by a meekned moan to mourn it self out of the Snare not with the wild Bull in the Net Isa 51. 20. to tumble and rave and so the more to entangle himself in the Snare When God hears Ephraim bemoaning himself Ephraim hears God comforting him and telling him that he is his dear Son and pleasant Child that ever since he spake against him he did earnestly remember him that his Bowels were troubled for him and that he would surely have mercy upon him Jer. 31. 18 19 20. Whilst we frowardly struggle 1. our Hearts fret against God and 2. we would be our own Saviours and both these betray us to danger But by a patient lying under God's hand as we acknowledg his Sovereignty and righteous Proceedings so we resign up our selves to him who hath a surer hand than ours to keep that wherewith it is betrusted And thus Patience helps to hold our Souls in Life first in reference to God And secondly in reference to other Men whom we are at a Reas 2 contest with and it may be in danger of for with them though froward Solomon's observation holds good A soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stir up anger Prov. 15. 1. As the soft Wall damps the fiercest Shot whilst the clashing of two earthen Pitchers breaks either one or both Fatigatur De Patient c. 8. improbitas patientiâ tuâ saith Tertullian Patience either wins or wearies the most enraged Enemy so that either he will not or he cannot hurt How easily doth the weak Man when provoked by patient forbearing prevent his own mischief Whilst the passionate Male-content either by busie busling begins the Quarrel or by giving the second stroke makes the Fray and both ways as the furious Horse rusheth into the Battel and so too often sins against his own Life But were there none other to hurt us yet impatience can Reas 3 make our selves to be our own Executioners Whether Achitophel was strangled with an Halter or suffocated with some Humors raised by his grief some of late dispute The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie both But which soever of them it was I Henisius Grotius am sure his impatience of a neglect was the cause of it in him as in both kinds it hath been with divers others Impatience of Pain Poverty Disgrace and the like hath proved in this unhappy World one of the great Apollyons and Abaddons chief Engines in murdering not onely others but our selves also What sudden Inflammations what pining Consumptions Frenzies Lethargies and other splenetick Distempers hath it cast many a Man into and so betrayed them sometimes to more gentle and lingring sometimes to more sudden and violent deaths and that sometimes by their own hands Passions with a witness which make both Body and Soul joint-sufferers like blustering storms that dash these frail Vessels against the Rocks or like roaring and riotous Guests and Inmates that set on fire and pull down those Houses of Clay which they are in present possession of But on the contrary A patient or cool Spirit as Solomon phraseth it Prov. 17. 27. how timely doth it prevent these sparks from kindling or happily quench them when they begin to flame by composing the mind that it dare not quarrel with God nor pitch the Field with a Man 's own self and so quiets the Body that it either prevents Bodily Distempers or helps to bear them quietly that they do not prove deadly whilst the unruly sick Man by raving and tumbling kills himself another more patient by being quiet doth sopire morbum and by lying still makes haste to his recovery Possess but thy Soul with Patience and it Patientiae infirmum non extendit Tertul. c. 15. Centrae infirmus qui impatiens est ipsâ impatientâ—â citius devolvitur in mortens Cerda in locum will keep thee in longer possession of the frail Tabernacle of thy Body Indeed short-winded Men are soon at their Journies end but they that are longer breathed are so more ways than one able through many difficulties to run a longer race and at last in a late evening of a long day come to the end of it in peace Discontents I confess may be long-liv'd but so usually are not froward impatient discontented Men. But when the Psalmist tells us that the Meek shall inherit the Earth * Psal 37. 11. that Phrase expresseth as a surer title so a longer continuance and thus as our Souls are sometimes put for our Lives even so by our Patience we are kept in possession of them So 〈◊〉
the Text In your Patience possess ye your Souls Superaddenda Should our Spirits sometimes grow hasty and not willing patiently to wait God's leasure Consider 1. That God's Retribution will be full 2. The day of it certain Hab. 2. 3. Heb. 10. 36 37. 3. Though it stay yet let this stay our Stomachs That necdùm vindicatus est ipse qui vindicat Christ himself who hath been more wronged than we and who will at last fully vindicate both himself and us is not yet righted but to this day he waits till his Enemies become his Footstool Heb. 10. 13. And therefore be not so bold to desire that the Servant should be served before his Lord Nec defendi ante Dominum servi irreligiosa inverecundâ festinatione properemus Cyprian S. 15. Dr. Hammond on Matth. 10. Annot. f. makes not this a Precept but an Assertion or Prediction that there was no such way to keep or preserve their lives from that common destruction coming on the People of the Jews as persevering faithful adhering to Christ Patient Men are the only Free-holders Their Comforts forfeited to God their Lord Who can best keep them for them Surrendred by them Purchased by Christ And as the Philosopher's Scholar who having given himself to his Master to teach him when taught was by his Master given back again to be his own Man SERMON XXXIV GEN. 49. 18. I. Sermon Preached at St. Maries in Stur-bridg fair time Sept. 8. 1650. I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord. THe dying Swan's Song though now found to be a Fable Brown's vulg Errours yet if moralized of a dying Christian may oftentimes prove a real Truth for whereas the dying Man's Breath useth to savour of the Earth whither he is going the believing Soul then especially breaths Heaven to which it is then ascending Some Books which contain Apophthegmata morientium tell us how when their Tongues Mylius faulter in their Mouthes they are wont to speak Apophthegmes but in God's Book we find them uttering Oracles What a sweet Breath and Divine Air was that in old Simeon's Nunc Dimittis Paul's farewell-Sermon Acts 20. had such a ravishing Luke 2. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in it that they could not then hear it without weeping nor can some yet read it heedfully with dry Eyes Above all in that ultimum vale of our Saviour's to his Disciples before his Passion John 14. 15 16 17. The Sun of Righteousness a little before its setting shone out most Gloriously This in the New Testament And for the Old what heavenly strain 's do you meet with in Hezekiah's ultimus singultus Isa 38. in David's verba novissima 2 Sam. 23. in Moses his Songs a little before his death Deut. 32 and 33. and in Jacob's before his as in this whole Chapter so especially in this Text in which the Divine Soul as the Bird before fainting in the snare breaks through it in an abrupt expression and having got it self a little upon the wing as it were on the sudden bolts up Heaven-ward in this Divine Ejaculation I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord. Here in Jacob's blessing of Dan we find it but how it should come there what coherence it hath with the foregoing words that 's the question and some think a difficult one So Pererius Quae occasio hujus abrupti sermonis c. Calvin Perobscura est haec sententia multiplex interpretandi ejus ratio Some satisfy themselves with this that the Spirit of God will not be tied to our Artificial Methods as too low and pedantick for him to be confined to who both acts and speaks like himself like a God i. e. with greatest freedome And therefore as his Illapses are sudden and his impulses strong Act. 2. 2. so the ventings of them answerable as the Spirit gives utterance v. 4. and it may be never more abruptly than when those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 11. are utterred and so the Soul now full of God and breaking for the longing it hath to him as Psal 119. 20. cannot always keep rank and file but breaks out to him and is glad to get to him though not in a methodical way And so it is in all strong workings of Passion Love Fear Joy and Desire c. Expressions sudden abrupt for so Passions are and their Expressions accordingly So Judg. 5. 10. on those words Then shall the People of the Lord go down to the Gates Mais thus Videtur hoc hiare c. ut pote ex affectu dictum affectus enim non servat ordinem sed plerumque evagatur In such a rapture Jacob's Soul might here be caught snatcht to God without being led to him by coherence or the thred of the foregoing discourse Zuinglius thinks that this Text might be versus intercalaris and only added to make up the verse in this Divine Poem Others rather think that after the manner of weak fainting vide Pareum Oleastrum old Men or sick Men who are wont whilest they are speaking sometimes out of faintness and sometimes out of devotion to pause and to interpose sighs and prayers so old Jacob here spent with speaking relieves his spent Spirits or rather pours out his fainting Soul into God's Bosom in this parenthetical ejaculation I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord. But the first verse of this Chapter tells us that the whole is Prophetical of what was to befal them in the latter days And accordingly some apply it to Judas whom they make Ambros de benedict Isidore Gregor Moral 34. that Serpent in the way in the foregoing verse Others to Antichrist whom so many of the Ancients thought should be of the Tribe of Dan and that Jacob foreseeing what havock he should make of the Israel of God as they expound the former verses cries out in this for Christ and his Salvation But this conceit of this Dan-Antichrist with due Reverence to those Ancient Authors by some of even the Papists themselves is held * Tostatus uncertain by others of them †Oleaster Bellarmine acknowledgeth this Text doth not evince it de Pontif. Rom. lib. 3. c. 12. fabulous and therefore seeing they are sick of it we have no cause to be fond of it To omit other particulars I insist on these two that Jacob 1. Foreseeing both the sins and miseries which his other posterity and especially this Tribe of Dan should fall into by Faith looks up to God for Salvation and Deliverance which was especially effected by Sampson a Judg of that Tribe and he very fitly compared to that Serpent in the way and Adder in the path c. 2. And yet foreseeing notwithstanding this that Sampson should dye and Israel should lye under captivity and affliction and so Sampson's but an half-Salvation he did but begin to save Israel Judg. 13. 5 After the manner of the Prophets who See Junii Annot. in loc Christ as Sampson conquered
to Christ and Heaven To this purpose God even in Paradise would have some Trees Sacramental and Mystical that Adam in that Garden might rise higher than Philosophical speculation and not perish by a Tree of Knowledg but be fed and live by a Tree of Life And for this end likewise Christ as he useth so many Parables and spiritualizeth outward things so he is set out by the Name of some of the Chief and Choice of all kinds of Beings The Angel of the Covenant amongst the Angels the Sun and Morning-Star in the Heavens The Rock and Precious Stone among the Inanimates The Vine and Apple-Tree amongst Vegetables and both Lion and Lamb amongst Sensitives And so of the rest that as Quaelibet herba Deum so in every Creature we see and feel after and find Christ and that as all of them were Acts 17. at first made by him so by all we might be led to him Which therefore in the last place is that which we should all be seriously exhorted to Vse 3 1. That we would not have our desires terminated and so take up with any or all such outward Mercies and Salvations which in the World we may be entertain'd with but still to seek on till we find a better Saviour and Salvation which we may safely and quietly rest in as Joseph and Mary stay not with their Kinsfolk and Acquaintance till they find the Child Jesus Luke 2. 44 45 46. and mean while they seek him sorrowing ver 48. The Beggar that is ready to die for Hunger though he have never so much else given him if not Food waits still as wanting that which he came for and had most need of When Christ said to the Blind-man What wilt thou that I shall Luke 18. 41. do unto thee His answer is Lord that I may receive my sight A Sinner that hath his Eyes so far open as to see Christ's Worth and his own want of him would have said Lord that I might receive Thee A poor Believer hath a further and greater Errand to Christ than for Corn and Wine or outward Safety and Prosperity which those in Hos 7. 14. howled upon their Beds for He hath a Soul to be both saved and satisfied and nothing can do either of them but Christ only O that we had such hungring thirsting desires after him that nothing might stay our Stomachs without him much-less take away our Stomachs as too too oft they do from him Nor is this all that Speech of Jacob calls upon us for not only not to be taken off or hindred in the out-goings of our Souls to Christ by being satisfied with those outward Mercies and Deliverances But 2. By them as Helps to be drawn out and raised up in our desires after him It 's great Mercy if by any means our Hearts may be led out to him though they be the Horrors of Conscience that prick us the Terrors of the Law that whip us outward Wants that drive us or Dangers that affright us It 's well if any thing will bring us even Chains of Affliction will draw us to him but yet not so well as if they were those Cords of Love If we might be preserved in Sugar rather than in Brine If comfortable Supplies and Deliverances be not as Seats to sit down but as Foot-stools to get up to Christ by In times of Want and Danger to seek Christ may be rather to seek our selves than him and to make our selves our End when we only make use of Christ as a means to it Such may be shaken off with Jephtah's check Ye did thus and thus unto me and why are you come to me now that ye are in distress Judg. 11. 7. more out of love of your selves than to me And the like also may be said if In times of enjoyment of Mercy and Deliverance we rejoyce in God and seem to love and praise him This also may be Self-love rather than the Love of God They might rejoyce in God's great Goodness Neh. 9. 25. who yet did not serve him in his great Goodness ver 35. And he might say Blessed be God for I am rich Zech. 11. 5. who yet never truly praised him This may be but their following of Christ for Loaves John 6. 26. as the Roman Emperours did Populum annonâ demereri Heinsius Exercit. But thus to love God and Christ in his Mercies that He is the Oyl of Gladness swimming on the top of all that we are no way satisfied with them without him and best satisfied when we enjoy Him in them and by them this shews the ingenuity of our Love and that it 's not the World or Self but Christ that is the Object of it That as Paul said to his Corinthians I seek not yours but you so it is not our selves but Christ that we 2 Cor. 12. 14. love and desire and not his Portion but his Person and not so much Man's as his Salvation And therefore to conclude as in all our gettings we are to get Wisdom Prov. 4. 7. So in all our seekings let us seek after Christ And in and above all our Enjoyments let us enjoy and eye Him As Jacob here in Sampson's salvation had a further longing look at His. And so Hannah 1 Sam. 2. in a Samuel looks at a Saviour And therefore as it hath been observed by some her Song at his Birth and Mary's at the news of Christ's in many Passages of both very much agree and are perfect Vnisons And this further that Song of Hannah will to our present purpose inform us that the Eying of Christ in all other Mercies will 1. Make little Mercies great As the Diamond adds Value to the Brass-Ring And the Figure added makes empty Cyphers vastest Numbers And so you shall observe that Hannah in that Song for her gaining a Son and prevailing against her Adversary Peninnah as concerning their Houshold-talk and Womens Brabbles speaks of greater Matters carries it in a very high Key in the strain of a Triumphant Song of some glorious Conquerour And such indeed Christ was whom she in that looked at and where ever Faith seeth him it seeth Magnum though in Parvo which will make little Mercies great 2. Will not be they never so great let the heart rest in The greater Light dims the lesser them which would be a dangerous Disease of a vain love-sick Soul like those Obstructions in the Body when those Vessels that should convey Spirit and Nourishment to the other parts stop and intercept them by the way but like the Tennis-Ball toucheth upon the Ground yet thereby rebounds upward so it from the Earth mounts up Heaven-ward as Jacob here from deliverance by Sampson riseth up to Christ's Though Sampson as the Serpent by the way so bites the Horse heels that his Rider falls backward and so he is saved from him yet that 's not enough not all that he looks for And therefore he adds I have waited for
Published in Print which I especially shewed that Death being disarmed could privately do us no hurt or procure our loss But here we are principally to make out that on the contrary it positively brings us in much Gain But because even of this many particulars were there spoken to there is less now to be Insisted on Now what our Apostle more plainly expresseth concerning himself saying that his death was his Gain in effect he enlargeth to all true Believers 1 Cor. 3. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether Life or Death or things present or things to come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all is yours and Death as well as Life or the whole World and all the Comforts of either The Apostle here writes the Godly's Inventory and inter peculia amongst all their other Goods he sets down Death for one part of them and therefore as other Goods are therefore so called because they are for the good of the Owner so Death is reckoned amongst them because by Christ it 's for the great good and gain of the Believer For if all things work together for the good of them that love God Rom. 8. 28. then Death also for it is also reckoned among those all things ver 38. Hither also referr that of Solomon Eccles 7. 1. The day of Death is better than the day of ones Birth And that in Rev. 14. 13. where a Voice from Heaven ploclaims Blessed 〈◊〉 they that die in the Lord. So that if Blessedness be Gain Death is so too which puts them into the possession of it And for further Proof it appears that they are fully perswaded and assured of it Else 1. They would never so desire it before it come For Evil and Loss as such can never be the object of Desire but it must appear to be good and profitable if desired but so Death hath been and that earnestly by the Faithful Old Simeon's Nunc dimittis Luke 2. 29. tells us what he did and our Apostle because he could here say that his Death would be his Gain doth in the next Verse save one say that he had a desire to depart and well he might for then he should be with Christ which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more better best of all and that is Gain with an advantage How ambitious were Primitive Christians to die for Christ And how earnestly desirous have others been to Die if it might be in Christ Making use of the Psalmist's expressions my Soul thirsteth for God for the Living Psal 42. ◠God When shall I come and appear before God The Moralist's Maxime is Summam nec metuas diem nec optes that we should neither fear Death nor desire it But a truly believing Christian goeth higher hath Vitam in patientiâ mortem in desiderio fears not Death because it can do him no Dammage but desires it because it brings with it greatest Gain And upon this ground as he desires it before it come 2. So with Joy he welcomes it when it doth come yea though in a violent way As Ignatius blessed God upon Trajan's condemning him Cum gaudio circumponens vincula The Martyr Vide martyrium Ignatii pag. 4. could kiss the Stake and say Welcome the Cross of Christ And well he might when he could add welcome everlasting Life in which expressions we have his joyful Welcome of it with the Ground of it because he gained no less than everlasting Life by it And if so with them that went up to Heaven with Elijah in a fiery Chariot and a Whirl-wind Then no wonder if so with them that are carried hence by the conduct of a more placid and easie departure and if some only from weariness of this troublesome Life account Death such a Gain as to dig for it as for bid Treasure and rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they find the Grave Job 3. 21 22. then we may well conceive how glad the assured Believer may be of it when he knows he shall be greater Gainer by it as not only resting from his Labours of this Life but also then entring into his everlasting both Rest and Joy in a better Life which those others may not then meet with but the contrary But if upon this ground the Righteous hath such hope in his Death Prov. 14. 32. then I hope you will not deny him Joy in it and if Joy then Gain also But this will more particularly be made out if we consider the several kinds of Deaths of Believers And as I even now touched they may be either for Christ or only in Christ 1. If for Christ then as their outward Loss is the greater so is their eternal Gain too no less than of a Crown It is the Crown of Martyrdom Sciant Christi milites se non perimi Cyprian Epist 82. Sect. 2. sed coronari and more massy than others And if there be any such things as Aureolae they will be found on their Heads God's First-born and therefore have a double Portion Tot mercedes Idem Epist 77. Sect. 1. in caelestibus quot nunc dies numer antur in paenis as Cyprian speaketh who compares them to that good Ground that brings forth an Hundred-fold and therefore their Harvest-joy will be greater And therefore Ignatius professeth that it 's better to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Romanos Die for Christ than to be King of the whole Earth He therefore thought it was the greatest Gain To be sure Christ will see they shall be no losers who hath given his Word that he that findeth his Life shall lose it and he that loseth his Life for his sake shall find it Mat. 10. 39. 16. 25. And because we know not what God may call us to it will be good to encourage and comfort our selves with these Words and with firm belief of this undoubted Truth that they who Die for Christ are greatest Gainers 2. And if it be but in Christ most happy Gains will come in to us by that also And that both Privative and Positive 1. First Privative for such a kind of Gain we find in Scripture as Acts 27. 21. that phrase of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where Paul tells them that were in the Ship with him that if they had followed his advice they might have gained that Loss that is they might have prevented it And such a first kind of Gain the Faithful have by Death in freeing them from that both Sin and Misery either by ending what before they were in or preventing what if they had lived longer they might have fallen into 1. It ends Sin which all our Lifes-time we were wofully encumbred with which made Paul so sadly groan out that complaint Rom. 7. 24. O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of Death That is either this outward mortal Body or this inward body of Sin which is more mortal Both may be taken into the Sense because both are together