precious souls they have ever more beat down their bodies and kept them low You know Paul that was one of the most precious spirited men that ever lived upon the face of the earth yet saith hee I beat down my body I beat it black and blew lest after I have preached to others I my self become a Reprobate hee did not think his happiness to consist in pampering his body no but hee beat it down and therein hee shewed his love to his soul in that hee made his soul to bee Emperess as it were It is the speech of a learned man upon those words Subdue the earth that is thy body and all earthly things to that spiritual part of thine thy soul If one should tell you what the ancient Martyrs and worthy Instruments of God that were precious men in their time how hardly they used their bodies it would hardly bee beleeved by you but this is certain there was never any that knew the true worth of their souls but they made them the Emperesses of their bodies Ambrose said of Valentinian No man was ever such a servant to his Master as Valentinians body was to his soul Bring your bodies down and therein you will shew the greatest love unto your souls 3. And further Adorn your souls labour to put comeliness and beauty upon them as much as you can and therein you will shew love and respect to them Adorn them with those graces that may make them amiable and lovely in the eyes of God himself in 1 Pet. 5.5 Bee cloathed with humility Those that understand the Greek language know it to bee a word that signifies a dress that Gentlewomen use to have upon their heads with ribands such as they did use to wear in those dayes and so they thought themselves very comely and the Apostle alludes to those kinde of dresses Oh humility is the finest dress for a woman in the world and so for men too The finest cloaths that you can put upon you is the cloaths of humility and so any grace of Gods Spirit it is the cloathing of the soul Oh therefore shew your love unto your souls by labouring to deck and adorn them with such cloathing as this is 4. And shew your love to your souls by providing for them while God affords means labour to understand the want of your souls and bee willing to bee at any charge and cost for the good of them If your head ake or you have any little pain in any of your members how do you seek out and are willing to bee at a great deal of charge that you may have ease for your bodies now seek out for your souls the one is a sign that you love your bodies well and the other will bee a sign that you love your souls as well 5. And then shew love to your souls in the excellency of them in things that are suitable to them in conversing with God and Jesus Christ with the mysteries of the Gospel and with heavenly things 6. Shew your love to them in labouring to bring them to the attaining of that end that they were made for the uttermost happiness that they are capable of then indeed you shew true love to your souls when as your care is to bring them to the attainment of that end that God made them for Certainly when God made a creature of so much excellency hee did intend a glorious end for it And let this now bee your great care and manifest your love to your souls I say in this by labouring to attain the end that God made them for But this shall suffice for the first point of the preciousness and excellency of our souls Wee come now to the second and that is the main Point indeed in the Text that is That the loss of this soul is a most dreadful loss Doct 2 Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will hee give for his life Even the Devil himself could say so The loss of bodily life wee account a great evil and therefore the Scripture calls Death by the name of the King of Terrours and is it so great an evil to lose a bodily life to have the soul and body but separated Is the face of a bodily death so gastly Oh how great an evil and how gastly is the face of the eternal death and the loss of the immortal soul This Point my brethren is a Point of exceeding great concernment to understand wee shall therefore First Inquire what wee mean by the loss of the soul or when may the soul bee said to bee lost The second thing Wherein doth the dreadfulness of the loss of the soul consist And then thirdly I shall discover to you some aggravations of the evil of the loss of the soul Fourthly And then wee shall come to apply all together For the first then What doth Christ mean when hee saith What profiteth it a man if hee gain the whole world and lose his soul First You are to know this That wee are not said to lose our souls because they shall bee annihilated and cease to bee the ceasing of the soul to bee that is not the loss of the soul the ceasing indeed of our bodily lives is the loss of our lives but it is not so with the soul for the soul of no man or woman shall bee lost so Yea and this would not bee the greatest loss for the soul to cease to bee There are two degrees of evil that are beyond the evil of ceasing to bee to bee miserable to bee in pain and torture is worse than not to bee and to bee sinful is worse than to bee in pain and therefore the ceasing to bee is not the greatest evil What is the loss of the soul then First The loss of the soul it is first in the privation of it of all the good and excellency that the soul is capable of the privation of the true good that the soul was made for Secondly It consists in its departing and wandring from God As a sheep is said to bee a lost sheep that wanders up and down in the wilderness so that is a lost soul that wanders away from God the fountain of all good Thirdly It consists in the subjecting of it to that misery and evil that is contrary to what good it is capable of And then fourthly and lastly in the succourless and helpless condition that it is brought into wee use the phrase of Lost to all these things when a man hath lost his estate wee account such a man as a lost man and when a man is brought into a great deal of misery that heretofore was in a great deal of happiness wee account such a man to bee a lost man but especially when a man is succourless and helpless when hee hath no way to help and relieve himself then hee is a lost man indeed And according to the degrees of these four things then a soul may bee said to
thing as should bee called God-Man and is really and verily God and man together in one I say this is the greatest wonder that ever was in the world that the Divine and humane Nature should bee joyned together that wee should have a Saviour that is as verily man as God and as verily God as man that those two Natures the Nature of God and the nature of man should come together in one that were so distant before one from another this is a wonder beyond all sense and reason and wee had need have a Prospective-glass of God to bee able to see indeed any thing into it wee can easily beleeve wee think that Christ was God and man every childe can do so when you ask your children what Christ was you teach them that hee was both God and man I but I appeal to you when were your hearts taken with this as the geatest wonder in the world that there should bee ever such a thing as God and man in one and that to be the Savior of mankinde That man that is miserable should look up to God to save him look up to the mercy of God this were not so wonderful but that miserable man must bee saved by one that is God-Man Man and God this is that that except the Spirit of God that searches the deep things of God as you had it before reveal it unto a man it were impossible for man ever to have such a thought as this is and indeed the setting out of this so great a mystery is one great argument that the Scriptures are Divine for it is too high a thing to have entred into the thought of a creature I say too high a thing that ever a creature should have such a thought that the saving of man must bee by Gods being man it cannot bee imagined how such a thought could have come into a creature to bee verily man I say this argues the Scripture to bee from God it is too great a mystery for any creature ever to have imagined or thought of it is that that is the stumbling-block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles but the power and glory of God to those that shall bee saved If God should have put this unto us and said Well I am inclined to do good to you and willing to save you but know your estate is such as you can never bee saved except there bee such a Saviour such a Mediator for you as must bee God and man both why certainly both Angels and Men would have stood amazed at this and have concluded that the estate of Man-kinde is desperate then if so bee that the estate of man that is fallen from God and hath sinned against him bee such as there is no way to deliver one soul from eternal condemnation and eternal wrath but by such a Saviour as must bee both God and man I say All Angels and Men would have even concluded then man must perish for ever but it is God the Wonder-woâ—king God that hath wrought thus for Mankinde which hath sent us such a Saviour as is both God and Man Surely then his Name may bee called Wonderful Christ is wonderful in his Person But Secondly Here is a greater wonder than that God is God and man God and man you will say that may bee hee hath come in the similitude of flesh and hath taken the shape of man some kinde of union there may bee between the Divine and humane Nature but consider this second Wonder hee is not onely God but a second Person in Trinity Consider these two things in the Person of Christ First He is to be looked at not meerly as God but as God the second Person of the Trinity and this is a great wonder in Christian Religion for it was little known before Wee read but little in the Old Testament about the Trinity onely in Christ the Trinity comes to bee known when wee are in streights wee will cry to God that made the heavens and earth to bee a Saviour but for us to know that wee must bee saved by God in the Second Person that is the character and ingraven form of his Image the Son of God and yet so the Son of God as hee is Co-eternal with his Father equal with his Father as the Scripture speaks and so God the Second Person in Trinity as yet hee is of the same Nature that his Father is of the same God and yet the Son of God the consideration of the mystery of the Trinity that appears in Christ is a great wonder above reason that wee may adore it but search into it wee are not able And then the second thing to bee considered in his Person is this That hee is not only God and man but God and man hypostatically united the union of the Natures that these Natures should bee united both in one Person this is the great wonder in Christian Religion There are two principal Wonders in Christian Religion I beseech you consider aright of them The first is divers Persons in one Nature 2 Wonders in Christian Religion The second is divers Natures in one Person These are the two Wonders in Christian Religion First divers Persons in one Nature and that is the wonder of the Trinity for there you have but one Nature the Divine Nature but three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost and that is a Wonder that the Heathens knew nothing of and was little known till Christ came And the second Wonder in Christian Religion is divers Natures in one Person that is in Christ Christ is God-man but one Person united hypostatically now to search into this that the same Person that is God is man and how the humane nature subsists in the Deity and hath no subsistence at all in its self but in the Deity how this is onely the Scripture reveals it to bee so but how it is I say is too deep a sea for any creature to wade into wee must stand and admire it and adore God in it that hath revealed this as the object of our faith but to bee able to search how such a thing can bee that that union can bee in one person this is that that is a wonder above all admiration Indeed it is one of the most wonderful works that ever God did in the world to unite two such creatures that seemed to bee of such distant Natures as the body of man and the Soul of man in one Person to unite a peece of earth and a peece of flesh to such a glorious thing as a rational immortal soul is the union of these two together in one person is the greatest work for the works of Nature that ever God did in the world David saw his body wonderfully and fearfully made but certainly the union of the body and soul the soul being of the same nature with the Angels that it should bee united with the body to make but one Person this is a
it is but a dissolution hee rather desired a dissolution that hee might bee with Christ which is best of all Certainly it was this that made the streight If I dye I shall bee with Christ immediately and if I live I shall injoy some communion with him and likewise do a great deal of service for him If Paul had thought that his soul and body should have dyed both together certainly hee would have desired to have lived rather than to dye for when hee did live his soul did injoy communion with Jesus Christ and hee did do abundance of service for him Now is it possible to think that a man that did so much service for Christ as ever man did and that injoyed so much sweet communion with Jesus Christ that such a man should bee willing to dye Certainly no but that hee knew that upon the dissolution of his body his soul should injoy further communion with Jesus Christ than it could do here It is an immortal substance it runs parallel with eternity of such an excellent nature the soul of man is And then further in this appears The excellency of it that it is the measure of all other kinde of excellency 5 The soâ—ls excellency shewed in being the measure of all other excellencies The soul of man is the measure of all other kinde of excellencies as thus look how far any thing may bee subservient for the good of the soul so far that thing hath an excellency in it and if it bee not subservient for the good of the soul it hath no worth and excellency in it as thus Suppose a man have a great estate in the world great comings in many friends many places now there is some excellency you will say in these things but are these subservient for the good of thy soul that thy soul can injoy communion with God so much the better then these things are good to thee but if so bee that these things hinder the work of thy soul and do not help it forward in the service that it is most capable of and made for there is no excellency in these things And indeed I know no one better sign that a man doth understand the true worth of his soul than this What doth hee account to bee the measure of the excellency of all the things of this world Thou wouldest fain have an estate and outward things in abundance as other men have Why thou sayest they are the good creatures of God I grant it they are so but now wherein dost thou think the excellency of these creatures doth most consist Certainly if thou comest to know the true worth of thy soul thou wilt say God gives mee these outward things and blessed bee his Name by a more large portion of these things am I inabled to do more large service for God my soul is freed from incumbrances in the world and they do help forward the work that my soul is specially concerned in viz. the service of God and therefore I account it a greater good to injoy these things than to bee without them now if thou comest to reason in this manner it is a sign that God hath shewn thee what the true worth and excellency of thy soul is 6 The price paid for souls proves its excellency But that I might draw to a conclusion This is that that above all things will demonstrate the worth and excellency of the soul The great price that was paid for it That Jesus Christ should bee willing to lay down his life to purchase the pardon of the sin of thy soul to deliver thy soul from eternal misery 1 Pet. 1.18 this shews the great worth of the soul Wee are not redeemed by silver and gold saith the Apostle Peter by any of these corruptible things Vers 19. but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ According to the price that is paid for one you may know the worth of such a one Suppose there were divers men that were taken captives one is but an ordinary Mariner you will say perhaps forty pound will redeem such a one but suppose the other bee a Gentleman or a Knight a Noble-man there must go five hundred or two or three thousand pounds for their redemption according to the excellency of the man so must bee the price of his ransome So my brethren when wee consider the price of mens souls that were taken captive by sin what was paid for them it was a price that was more worth than ten thousand thousand worlds certainly the soul is of an excellent nature Indeed it cannot bee imagined that Jesus Christ would have taken mans nature upon him and dyed an accursed death to have saved the whole world from being dissolved Suppose it had lain upon this that heaven and earth must have been dissolved except Jesus Christ would take mans nature upon him certainly Jesus Christ would have suffered heaven and earth to have gone to nothing rather than to have done as he did But when Jesus Christ saw that these immortal souls by their sin were brought into such a condition that they must perish to all eternity except hee come and take their nature upon him and lay down his life and dye an accursed death saith Jesus Christ rather than such precious souls which my Father hath made capable of injoyment of so much good from him and bringing glory to him rather than these should perish I am content to come and dye and suffer the wrath of my Father surely the price that was paid for souls doth hold forth the great worth of them In the death of Christ wee may read in large characters the worth of a soul And my brethren Even the body its self 7 The excâ—llency of the soul proved from the body because it is as the case of the soul it is a very excellent thing Of all the corporeal things that ever God hath made the body of man is the most excellent thing therefore David in Psal 139. speaking of his body saith verse 14. I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well And then vers 15. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest part of the earth When I was curiously wrought From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word in the Hebrew signifies Imbroydred the body of man is Imbroydery and hence in Gen. 2. it is said there that God formed man ampigore and here in Psal 139. God did imbroyder him And therefore Gallen that was an Atheist a long time when hee came to see the Anatomy of a mans body hee cryed out Now I adore the God of Nature Now the Lord hath wrought the body so curiously because it is the case of the soul and that being such an excellent creature must have a suitable case As if you have a curious Watch you will not put it into
into the bodies of men but for their faults as a punishment to them because they saw how meanly mens souls lived while they were in their bodies and therefore thought it impossible for such a precious soul as a man had to come to live so meanly were it not for Gods anger punishing the soul for some sin or other Oh do not dishonour them by imploying of them about unworthy and low things Thirdly Do not dishonour them by defiling of them by casting filth and dirt upon them Would not a Prince account himself dishonoured to have the filth and dirt of the street to bee cast into his face Certainly when thou doest defile thy soul by sin when thou doest sin thou doest as vile an act as casting dirt in the face of a Prince There is no Princes body upon earth so excellent as the soul of the poorest and meanest man no filth in the world so vile as the filth of sin and by thy sin thou doest cast this filth upon thy soul and so doest all besmear it and defile it You love to have clean and handsome bodies and are loath to come into company all besmeared and besooted Oh but how often do you go into the presence of God most abominable and loathsome Oh do not put that dishonour upon your souls Fourthly Do not dishonour your souls by making them drudges to your bodies by making them to bee Caters to provide for the body and to satisfie the lusts of the flesh I have seen saith Solomon servants upon horses Eccles 10 â— and Princes walking as servants upon the earth This was an evil Solomon thought but to see our base vile bodies to bee set up and our souls to bee brought under and servants and slaves to this body Oh how vile is it If you should see a great Prince to bee made a slave to some Scullion-boy you would account it a great leaving of his condition and dishonour put upon him but while thou makest thy soul to bee a slave to thy body it is worse a great deal Seneca though hee were but a Heathen yet hath this notable speech I am greater and born to greater things than that I should bee a drudge to my body and the slave of my body A Heathen thought himself too great and born to greater things than that ever hee should bring that soul of his to bee a drudge and slave to his body And indeed did wee know our souls wee should think so and wee should never make them drudges to our bodies meerly to satisfie the lusts of the flesh and yet how many men and women are loath to dye only upon this ground because that then they shall have no more satisfaction to the lusts of the flesh Oh what dishonour is there put upon this precious and excellent soul in this but much more dishonour when thou makest it a drudge and slave to the Devil it is an evil to have our souls to bee slaves to our bodies but a greater evil to bee a slave and drudge to the Devil that the Devil should have command of them and carry them up and down as hee pleases I remember it is reported of Theodosius and another Emperour that did use to call themselves the vassals of Christ but as for those precious souls now to bee vassals to the Devil Oh this is too great a dishonour that is put upon them Fifthly Again you dishonour your souls by grudging the time and cost that is spent upon them how many men and women think the time is lost that is spent upon their souls more immediately they must indeed sometime pray and sometime hear the word but the time and all the charge they are at for their souls they look upon it even almost as lost and so grudge it and so would fain bee about some thing for their bodies speak to them about praying in their families they have business and what is all their business for but onely for their bodies Indeed wee should rather turn our plea the other way and bee loath to spare time for our outward estate rather than for our souls those immortal souls of ours it is a wonder how any one that knows the worth of his soul can finde in his heart but upon meer necessity and out of duty to spare time for his outward condition The soul is dishonoured when the time and cost that is bestowed about it is grudged as if it were meerly lost and cast away Sixthly Again wee dishonour our souls when as wee lay not up provision for them against an evil day this is a dishonour put upon them Seventhly And lastly you dishonour your souls when as you think to satisfie them with any thing but God himself if you should have any of your friends that are of quality come to your house if you should set a bowl of swill before them and think to satisfie their hunger that way they would think it a great dishonour to them Now if you do think to satisfie your souls with any thing here but God himself you do as it were bring bones to set before a Prince It was a speech unworthy of a man which wee read of in the Gospel concerning rich Dives Soul Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years Soul Soul eat drink and take thine ease Why what had that to do with eating and drinking How unworthy was this I say of one that had an immortal soul thus to speak Oh this is a great dishonour that is put upon the soul Now then learn wee in a right way to put honour upon our souls and to love them and make them our Darlings and manifest your love to your souls First By having your thoughts often upon them wee manifest our love to a friend by having our thoughts run upon him Oh let your thoughts run much upon your souls I am thus and thus in regard of my outward estate in regard of my body through Gods mercy I have all my limbs and senses and comfortable provision for it Oh but my soul how is it with thee bee often conferring with your souls as you know one friend loves to confer with another Can you say you love such a friend that is your next neighbour and never spend any time in conference together scarce ever speak one with another Certainly so it is with the souls of men they think but little of the tearms that their souls are in with God of what conditions their souls are in whether good or bad and the day is yet to come wherein many a man hath spent one half hour in conference with his soul to know how tearms do stand between his soul and the Almighty God Oh love your souls by thinking on them and thinking often what should become of them 2. And further love them by making them Emperesses of your bodies by keeping your bodies under them Those that the Scripture sets out unto us which have had the most
other creature in this or the other manner So God is the fountain of all good to all creatures whatsoever they are to look upon him as having all coming from him And therefore hee alone is excellent and his glory is above the Heavens and Earth 14 Further As all things are from him so they depend upon him all excellencies that are in the creature as they come from God so they have their absolute dependency upon God so as God need do nothing to destroy a creature if hee doth but withdraw himself from it it falls to nothing presently take the most glorious Angels and the highest Heavens Sun Moon Stars Sea and Earth if God should but withdraw his hand from these creatures they would presently fall down to nothing they do depend upon God as the light upon the Sun there is no more light if the beams of the Sun bee withdrawn so if God withdraw his influence from the creature it can do nothing and it s nothing presently so that the influence that there is from God to the creature it is to maintain the creature in his being every moment the Lord must put forth as infinite a power to maintain thee and mee and every creature as hee did at the first for the making of the world Heb. 1.3 And this is Gods excellency to uphold all things they do so depend upon him If a work-man make a house hee goes away the house can stand without him but when God built the world the world could not stand one moment without him And not onely God must have an influence into the creature to preserve the being but likewise to inable the creature to act the creature cannot act one moment without God no creature can stir in the least degree Act. 17.28 except the Lord concur with it Therefore the Name of God alone is excellent By him saith the Scripture wee live wee move wee have our being not onely wee are upheld in our being and lives but wee move wee cannot stir one moment but God must concur with his creature for the motion and action of it 15 Further God alone is excellent in his operation in his power in the manner of his working though God give a power to other creatures to work yet God works in a different way from all other creatures First God hee doth whatsoever hee pleases either in heaven or earth The will of God as I shewed you before it cannot bee beyond Gods power God cannot will to do more than hee hath power to do Psal 115.3 Psal 135.6 Eccles 8.3 Therefore the Lord hee doth whatsoever hee pleases in heaven and earth The power of every creature can but work within the sphere so far as the causes give a vertue and efficacy so far it is able to work and no further Secondly The power of God appears in this that the Lord doth the greatest and the most difficult things as easily as hee doth the least and the easiest as thus God makes the whole world as easily as hee can make a crum of dirt God can make the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars and all the Seas and Earth with as much ease as hee can make a flye God can make ten thousand Angels as soon as hee can make one worm And therefore God hee can as soon speak the word to the soul of a man that is dead Joh. 5.25 to live hee can as soon raise aâ—l the dead out of their graves as hee can give them a peece of bread to eat while they are alive such is the infiniteness of Gods operation 3 Further God is excellent in all that hee doth There is nothing that God doth in any time but was decreed to bee done from eternity that is the excellency of Gods working the creature works something but perhaps a man did not think of what hee doth a few dayes ago but God doth nothing nor never will do any thing but it is that that was decreed from all eternity that hee would do and God will never do any thing to all eternity but what hee had decreed from all eternity before yet it is for us creatures to observe according to his revealed will but this is the excellency of God above all creatures whatever 4 And then there is a further thing that is as considerable as any of the other God is so far from needing any matter to work upon or instrument to work by when he doth do anything as there is no more required for any creature to bee or work at any time when God would have it but the alone act of Gods will that was from eternity As now the world it was not made six thousand years ago Now God willed from all eternity that there should bee a world in time and there was nothing required to make this world but that act of Gods will that was from all eternity that it should bee at that time Man hee doth will and decree to do such a thing now when the time comes then hee bestirs himself and takes this tool or instrument and puts forth a power that hee did not put forth before But the act of Gods will from all eternity was sufficient to make all creatures that ever since have been made and to provide for all creatures that ever since have been provided for one act of Gods will hath done all this and that act of the will of God that hath been from all eternity hath done it there are not several acts of Gods will but Gods act is himself Divers other things might bee shewed as this 5 Where God hath done any work all his works adde nothing to him The creature hath somewhat added to him by his works as thus A man that is a work-man hee can make a house and so hee hath the benefit of it to dwell in to keep off the weather and so hee makes cloath and hath the benefit of it But all the works of God adde nothing to him A man can do something by the work that hee hath made that hee could not do without his work but God can do nothing by any work that hee hath made but hee can do the same without that work when hee hath made all his works they are not helpful to him but this was a branch of the All-sufficiency of God 16 In the next place God alone is excellent in the manner of his communication of himself God doth so communicate himself to his creatures as one creature cannot to another First God can let out as much of himself as hee will to any creature now one creature cannot let out as much as hee pleases to another for instance A man that hath learning hee cannot make another as learned as hee will a man that hath holiness and goodness cannot make another as holy and as good as hee will but God can this is Gods propriety hee can let out of himself as much as hee pleases as much holiness as much
goodness as much power as hee pleases hee is able to let out Secondly the creature When it doth communicate any excellency the more it lets out the less it hath but God hath never a whit less by that that hee doth let out to his creatures as thus the Sea is full of water yet if you take out but a little water the Sea hath so much the less therefore some of the Fathers would set out Eternity by this that if a Sparrow should but once in a thousand years fetch one drop of water from the Sea in the bill of it yet the Sparrow would sooner empty all the Sea than the torments of the damned should bee at an end so that if a drop bee taken out of the Sea it is the less but God is such an infinite ocean of beeing of excellencies of happiness that let him let out and communicate never so much of himself yet hee hath as much still as ever hee had God hath let out excellency and good to all his creatures ever since the world began all the good the comfort the happiness the sweetness the beauty and excellency of all creatures have been from God that infinite fountain but now this fountain is as full as ever it was and will bee as full to all eternity as ever it was And here lyes the excellency of God beyond all creatures whatsoever 17 In the next place God alone is excellent there is no comparison to bee made between him and any thing else as thus Take the creature in what wee think it comes nearest to God and the truth is to speak properly it comes no nearer to God than those things that wee think come less as when wee say that God is a great God and fills all places if you should suppose a body that should fill all this world it is no nearer to Gods immensity than a moat that flyes in the Sun or thus Take never so many thousand years as wee spoke the last day if an Accountant that should write down figures all his life time they would come wee think to an infinite summe yet all those infinite millions of years come no nearer to Gods eternity than one minute doth and the reason that I give is unanswerable because that there must needs bee alwayes an infinite distance between what is finite and what is infinite and greater than an infinite distance there cannot bee now take such a body as should fill the space between heaven and earth there remains still an infinite distance between the Immensity of God and this body and take so many numbers of years as possibly can be imagined by Men or Angels yet there will remain an infinite distance between Gods eternity and those numbers of years now greater than an infinite distance there cannot bee therefore all those years do not come nearer to eternity than a minute and all the greatness doth not come nearer to Immensity than a moat in the Sun God is beyond all comparison whatsoever and the understanding that God is an infinite beeing will help us to understand all the rest that I have named 18 And there is one more and that is this Hee is the last end of all things Hee is the highest end for which all Creatures had their beeing and the more any Creature is subservient unto God the more excellency a Creature hath For of him and through him and to him are all things Rom. 11.36 to whom be glory for ever All things must tend to God as the highest end cursed bee that Creature that shall challenge to bee the highest end of any good thing whatsoever this makes it to bee a cursed thing for any man to make himself to bee his last end to make his name honour or credit to bee the end that hee aims at and indeed this is the very thing that makes pride to bee so great a sin the Scripture never speaks so of other things as it doth of pride it is said of other sins that God hates the workers of iniquity but it is said of no sin that God doth resist it onely the sin of pride why James 4.6 1 Pet. 5.5 because a proud man doth cross God in that which is indeed his excellency and that is this That God is the highest end of all things for whom all things were made now a proud man crosses God in this nay saith hee I will aim at my self as the highest end wee may aim at our own good in a subordinate way but wee must bee sure to lift up God as the highest end of all because hee is excellent above all now put all these together First That God hee is and there is none else Hee is such a beeing as in comparison of him nothing else hath a beeing Hee is that beeing that hath no succession that is alwaies the same Hee is an excellency in all places that fills all places without any local motion at all Hee is a beeing that hath all sufficiency in himself hee hath all excellencies in him is an universality of all excellencies hee hath all excellencies united in one that are scattered up and down in Creatures yea all the attributes of God are in him but one hee hath in him all possible good whatsoever all things that are in God are equally in him they are all infinitely in him they are eternally immutably essentially purely without mixture originally hee is the fountain of all good to the Creature all excellencie in the Creature doth absolutely depend upon him hee is excellent in his operation hee can do whatsoever hee will hee can do the greatest thing as easily as the least and one act from eternity is enough to do all that ever hee hath done Hee can communicate as much of himself as hee will to his Creature and hee hath never a whit the less in himself there can bee no comparison between him and the Creature the highest Creature comes not nearer him than the least and hee is the highest end of all things whatsoever and this God is our God this is the God that wee profess to serve that wee profess to worship and these are to bee the thoughts that wee are to have of God when we come before him Now you cannot but imagine that there must needs bee abundance of streams of Use and Application that must follow from these things all that I have done it is but to present what God is Now meethinks I hear many that give their minds to understand what God is even saying within themselves Oh that wee did but acknowledge God to bee thus surely there is a farther excellency in God than wee have imagined and might wee have but further sight into these things that have been thus briefly presented to us Oh of what excellent use might all these be I shall endeavour therefore to present but to you and even as briefly as I have done the other the several uses that may flow from all these things
I will onely give you a hint of one or two now Oh what infinite cause have wee all to bee ashamed of those low thoughts wee have had of God! Use If God bee thus as hee hath been but a little presented to us now and by what wee see wee may gather that there is infinitely more in God and God is infinitely higher than ever wee thought of I say then upon the very hearing of such things as these are and especially wee being conscious to our selves how little wee are able to understand of them wee may see cause to bee ashamed of the poor and low thoughts that wee have had of this infinite Majesty the unworthy thoughts that wee have had of him when wee have come into the presence of God you have come to prayer to God have you come to prayer as unto such a God have you had such kind of thoughts as these are that hee is that high Majesty Certainly you cannot sanctifie Gods Name but you must have high thoughts of God and though I will not say that those do not sanctifie Gods Name that have not every one of these thoughts of God yet thus much I will say that those that have not apprehended every one of these things of God have not sanctified Gods Name as much as they should for wee are to apprehend what it is possible for us to apprehend here in this world or otherwise wee do not sanctifie Gods Name so as wee ought when wee come to God in prayer or to worship him in any other duty of his worship if wee do not apprehend of God as much as wee possibly can in this world wee do not sanctifie Gods Name as much as wee ought to do and wee are to bee ashamed that wee have not such apprehensions of God as wee might possibly have if God bee such a God as this what poor thoughts of God are these that hee is as an old man in Heaven some have such poor apprehensions of God and when they hear the Scripture speak of Gods eyes and ears and hands they think that God hath a body when as the Scripture doth but speak to our capacities that is what a man can do with his eyes or hands or ears that God is able to do by his infinite power I appeal to you have you apprehensions of the majesty and glory of God beyond all majesty and glory that any Creature is capable of in this world wee do not sanctifie Gods Name except I say wee apprehend God higher in majesty and glory than all creatures in the world are Suppose you were to come to a King that had all the glory and honour put upon him that ever any creature had in this world with what fear and trembling would we come before such a Majesty as this is but if thou hast not come with further trembling and fear before God when thou camest into his presence if thou hast not come with higher thoughts of that God that thou hast to deal withall I say thou hast not glorified God as a God no marvel though people are so slight and vain in the duties of Gods worship because they do not know what a God hee is that they have to do withall Use 2 This sheweth you the dreadful evil there is in sin why because it is against such a God as this God is dost thou know whom it is that thou sinnest against Oh thou sinner dost thou know whom it is thou strikest at it is this infinite God that is thus presented to you Whose Name alone is excellent and whose glory is above the Earth and Heavens Know sinner and the Lord smite this upon thy heart thou that art a wicked and ungodly man all the daies of thy life thou hast done nothing else but fought against this God this infinite and glorious God thou hast been an enemy to all the daies of thy life and every time thou renewest thy sins thou dost do nothing else but strike at this infinite God and provokest the wrath of this infinite deity against thy soul and body and darest thou stand out against this God wilt thou put it to the trial to see whether that God that thou sinnest against bee such a God as this is wilt thou put it to the ttial that God should set thee apart to make thee an object upon whom to exercise all that infinite power that there is in God to bring evil and misery and torments upon thee for thy sin this is the case of all desperate sinners that do go on in a desperate way of sin the language of their sin is this I do hear much spoken concerning the greatness and excellency and glory of God I le try and venture I le put it to the experiment whether God bee such a God or no as hee hath manifested himself in his word Oh woe to that Creature that shall come to feel what the greatneâ—s of God doth mean Oh it is infinitely better for thee to fall down before him and therefore this should bee the Exhortation to all sinners Consider Exhort Oh sinful man or woman what a God it is thou dost contest withall shall the potsheard strive with his Maker let one potsheard strive with another but let not the Creature strive with the Almighty for hee will bee infinitely too hard for thee and hee will appear alone to bee excellent thou dost lift up thy will above his will as if so bee that thou wouldest rise above this infinite God but know in despite of thy heart hee will bee above thee hee hath thee under his feet this moment and the sword of his justice is at thy very heart and hee can take thy heart blood when hee pleases and send thee down to eternal miseries there is no striving with such a God as this is who is alone excellent Isa 45.23 Rom. 14.11 the word hath proceeded out of his mouth in Righteousness that every knee must bow unto him and every tongue must confess this God certainly one way or other hee will have his glory out of thee God can as well cease to bee as not to have his glory out of every Creature do but consider of this and learn to tremble before this God The Lord is excellent and glorious above all things and hee is resolved that hee will have his gloâ—y from every Creature one way or other and if it prove that hee comes upon thee to force it out of thee better ten thousand times that thou hadst never been born 1 Pet. 5.6 James 4.10 therefore according to the Exhortation of the Holy Ghost in Scripture Oh! let us humble our selves under the mighty hand of God and let us all say Thou O Lord art alone excellent and thy glory is above the Heavens and Earth and the desire of our souls is to lâ—ft up thy Name as the excellent thing above all Creatures While wee live here in this world this is our excellency and
blessed is that man or woman that comes to see this to bee his or her excellency namely that I might lift up Gods Name in the place where hee hath set mee heretofore I have lift up other things as excellent if I could get an Estate c. But the Lord hath made mee to see that hee alone is excellent and his excellency hath darkned all the excellency of the Creature in my eyes I see nothing excellent but God and all in order unto God that is a good sign of the work of grace in a man or woman when hee shall see so much of the excellency of God as Gods excellency shall darken all the excellency in the world The Third SERMON ON The Nature of God PSAL. 148.13 For his Name alone is excellent BUt a second Use is this that wee are now to proceed in Oh how vile is sin then that is committed against such a God as this is there is nothing in the world can shew a soul the evil of sin but the sight of God If wee should tell you never so much of the terrours of the Law and of hell fire though you might see the desert of sin somewhat yet until you come to see with what a God you have to deal you can never know what the evil of sin means Against thee thee onely have I sinned Psal 51.4 saith David that was the thing that strook Davids spirit David knew that it was against God that hee sinned when God shall come to the conscience of a sinner and present himself before his conscience and say Oh wretched sinner it is I that you have sinned against as Christ did in Act. 9. unto Saul Saul Saul why persecutest thou mee Act. 9.4 So when God shall say Sinner sinner why dost thou rebel against mee If God would but give us one sight of himself that wee might behold him as hee is upon his Throne in this excellency of his Name above all things it were impossible but the heart of a sinner should even break at such a sight Certainly one day every sinner shall have a sight of God Happy it is now for us to have such a sight of God here in this world that may cause us to see the evil of our sins for otherwise the sight of God hereafter will certainly sink our souls into the bottomless gulf of horrour and despair When Daniel was about to confess his sin in Dan. 9. Mark how hee begins because hee would get his heart to bee affected with his sin and the sins of the people that there hee confest Mark how hee begins his prayer Dan 9.4 And I prayed saith hee in the 4. verse unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said O Lord the great and dreadful God thus hee begins I made confession saith hee I prayed and made confession of sin and said Oh Lord the great and dreadful God first hee looks upon God how great and dreadful hee was and this it was that caused him to confess his sin with humiliation you that say your prayers and will confess that you are sinners did you but at the beginning of your prayers when you go to confess your sin cast up one eye to heaven and behold this God upon his Throne and see him to bee the great and dreadful God it would cause you to confess sin after another manner than ever yet you have done It is a good thing therefore in our prayers when wee are about to confess sin first to set before our souls the greatness and the dreadfulness of that God that wee have sinned against When this Prophet Daniel would humble that proud Belshazzer in Dan. 5.23 Mark what hee saith And the God in whose hand thy breath is and whose are thy wayes hast thou not glorified This speech set home upon a mans conscience were enough to break the proudest and stoutest heart in the world If so bee that the eyes of the proudest stoutest sinner were opened to see God in his glory and to hear the Lord speak thus to him that God in whose hand is the breath of thy nostrils and all thy wayes that is the God that thou hast not glorified thou doest not think with whom it is that thou hast to deal but that is the God that you have heard preached of thus Whose Name alone is excellent such an infinite and glorious Deity is that Deity that thou hast neglected and despised and preferred thy lusts before Oh if God would but give commission unto your consciences to speak this with power to you that God that is thus glorious and excellent you have sinned against oh it would bee of wonderful force to break the hardest heart of men And in Psal 104.1 2. Psal 104.1 2. Do but see there how David had his heart rising against sin and sinners upon the consideration of the excellency of God there hee speaks of the same argument that wee have here in the Text Bless the Lord Oh my soul my God thou art very great thou art cloathed with honour and majesty and so hee goes on who coverest thy self with light as with a garment Hee proceeds in the Psalm describing the greatness and excellency of God But then when hee had done describing Gods excellency and found his heart warmed and inlarged and raised with the meditation of the excellency of God Mark how hee breaks forth in the last words of the Psalm Let the sinners bee consumed out of the earth and let the wicked bee no more Vers 35. bless thou the Lord Oh my soul As if holy David should have said thus Oh Lord I see thee to bee very great and thou art cloathed with honour and Majesty and thy Name is excellent above all things What And are there any wretched creatures that will dare to presume to rebel against thee who art so great that will dare yet to set their will against thy will and to prefer their lusts before thee Oh cursed bee those sinners Let the sinners bee consumed from the earth and let the wicked bee no more There is infinite reason that wicked wretched creatures should bee for ever consumed that sin against such a God as thou art who art so great as thou art My brethren it is no marvel though the people of God are so afraid of sin many of you wonder at the niceness of the consciences of many people that they dare not commit any known sin for a world you wonder at them why they should bee so nice you think it is foolishness Would you know the reason It is this God hath shewed unto their consciences a sight of himself they have had a sight of the glory of the Majesty of the great God Whose Name alone is excellent and it is that that makes them afraid of sin for ever and makes them look upon sin as the greatest evil and even tremble at the least temptation unto any sin whatsoever And that is the second
come out from them and this was a great incouragement unto them to expect mercy from God because they were a people that the Lord would bring the great Saviour of the world out of And then thirdly That by the propounding of so great a mercy as Jesus Christ should bee to the world they might hereby have a help to their faith that surely God would not deny them lesser mercies what great matter was it for them to expect from God deliverance from some outward affliction when as God makes known unto them that love and that infinite compassion those tender bowels of his even to send his own Son into the world for them And then fourthly It was to teach them this that the way of deliverance from any outward affliction it was to exercise their faith upon Christ the Messia that was to come the Lord would teach his Church when it was in afflictions not so much to bee looking at the present affliction that was upon them and so to seek for outward help and means of deliverance but would have them exercise their faith upon the Messia that was to come though many hundred years after and this exercise of faith was so pleasing to God as it was the onely means or the chief means of deliverance from all outward afflictions Nay saith God if so be that they will relye upon mee and exercise their faith upon that great promise of mine to send my Son into the world as for their deliverance out of these outward troubles and afflictions it shall bee but a little matter for mee to do that for them ordinarily when wee are exercised with outward afflictions wee onely think of some natural helps and comforts contrary to those particular afflictions that are upon us whereas the way indeed for us to sanctifie Gods Name to do that that is acceptable to God when any outward affliction befalls us it is presently to exercise our faith upon the great promise of God in Jesus Christ upon the great Covenant of Grace that God hath made with us in him upon that great mercy of God in sending his Son into the world my condition is very sad and I am grievously afflicted I but surely that mercy that would send Jesus Christ into the world that mercy is enough to deliver mee out of any affliction or at least to bless it to mee therefore do not onely cry to God when you are sick or in trouble to deliver you from it but labour to exercise faith upon the Covenant of Grace in Christ upon that glorious mercy of God in his Son that is the way that God would have us to sanctifie his Name in And that is the reason why in times of great affliction there were such clear Prophesies of Jesus Christ as here in my Text For unto us a childe is born unto us a Son is given and his Name shall bee called Wonderful Counseller c. Now in this latter part of this verse wee have Christ set out unto us in five notable and famous Titles of his His Name is 1. Wonderful 2. Counseller 3. The Mighty God 4. The Everlasting Father 5. The Prince of Peace I intend onely to speak of the first His Name shall bee called Wonderful because I would have some kinde of proportion between what I have presented to you about God and what I shall about Christ And as for other things more largely about God or Christ it may bee afterwards but onely now I shall desire to present Christ unto you in this one Title of his His Name shall bee called Wonderful From whence the Point is this Doct Jesus Christ is the great Wonder of the world That is our point of Doctrine God himself above seven hundred years before hee was born gives him this Name Wonderful in the 19. of this Prophecie vers 20. wee read of a Saviour Isa 19.20 a Great one saith the Text surely Jesus Christ hee is a Saviour and a Great one hee is the Wonder of the world Judg. 13.17 18. The story of the Angels appearing unto Manoah Manoah would fain know his name And Manoah said unto the Angel of the Lord What is thy Name vers 18. the Angel of the Lord said unto him Why askest thou after my name seeing it is secret Now the word that is translated in your books Secret it is a word that signifies Wonderful And Austin in his Questions upon this Book of Judges hee is consident that this Angel was Jesus Christ and that his ascending up in the sacrifice that Manoah offered it was to fore-signifie Jesus Christ to bee the onely Sacrifice that should ascend up to the Father for a sweet savour in the nostrils of the Father it was Jesus Christ that did appear here to Manoah and his Name is Wonderful Luther hath such a speech I remember of Christ saith hee the most famous and wonderful and glorious Miracle of all Miracles is Jesus Christ hee is the Wonder of the world God is very wonderful in all his works in the works of Creation Psal 8.1 Oh Lord our Lord how excellent is thy name and in the end of the Psalm Oh Lord our Lord how excellent is thy Name in all the earth yea in that one work of his in making of our bodies Psal 139.14 I am fearfully and wonderfully made saith the Psalmist God hath made our very bodies fearfully and wonderfully it is a wonderful work of God the framing of our bodies in the womb It was a means of the conversion of Gallen from Atheism hee saw the Anatomy of a mans body and beholding the wonderful work of a mans body it did force him to acknowledge the God of Nature that there was a being above Nature Now though God bee wonderful in all his works yet all his wonderful works in the Heavens and in the Earth and in the Seas they must all stand by and give way to this great Wonder as the Stars though they be glorious creatures in themselves yet when the Sun arises all their light is eclipsed you see nothing of them so though God hath many wonders in the world and hath done many wonderful works yet when the Son of Righteousness doâ—h arise when Jesus Christ comes to appear all the other works of God are darkned with the glory of this great Wonder other things are wonderful unto us because of our ignorance because wee are not able to understand the reason of things things are wonderful to children that are little regarded by wise men and understanding men Ignorance makes men to wonder at many things that have nothing in them but Christ hee is a Wondeâ— so as God himself the Father accounted him a Wonder God himself gives unto Jesus Christ this Name Wonderful and no marvel though hee bee a wonder to the Angels themselves in Heaven 1 Pet. 1.12 The Angels are said to desire to look into the things of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To pry into them They
higher than naturalness of the place If I shall make this place by the consecration of man to bee used as an Ordinance to draw mee nearer to God or God nearer to mee that is to think that my prayers in that place are more acceptable than in another that because I perform services in that place it shall bee more accepted Here I say man raises it higher than natural and puts a Divine Institution upon it and so it comes to bee sinful and so now you may come to know what the meaning is when wee say that Christ only can make Lawes for his Church and Officers for his Church Why because whatsoever is spiritual it must bee only by the Authority of Jesus Christ this great King of his Church 6 And then Sixthly Christ is a wonderful King in this that his Soveraignty is absolute which no Kings power is though they have great power in the world yet they have not an absolute power to doe what they list and certainly no Subjects are bound so farre to the humours of men that they shall doe what they list there is no absolute power that one man hath over another bur the power that Jesus Christ hath is absolute an absolute Kingly power his Will it is the Law no mans will in the World is sufficient to be a law but the will of this King it is sufficient 7 And then in the Seventh place hee hath power to bind Conscience his Laws are such as lay obligations and bonds upon the Consciences of men no Law that would be made by all the Angels in heaven could lay bonds upon conscience but the Lavv only of Jesus Christ all the Lavves that men can make must receive their povver and authority especially from the end of them and therefore if they should not conduce unto that end for vvhich God sets up Magistracy over men that is for the good of the place then the rule vvill hold that if there be not scandal or contempt there is no obligation upon a mans conscience meerly because it is the will of man But now the Lavves of Christ vvhatsoever they are they lay bonds upon consciences and if I doe offend them never so secretly I stand as guilty before the great God and that is the seventh thing 8 And then in the Eighth place Christs Kingly power it reaches to mens hearts I must not as I goe along enter into the large opening of any thing that may be controversal but meerly present vvhat at large might be opened to you about the Kingly povver of Christ I say Christs Kingly povver is vvonderful in this in that it rules over the hearts of men as vvell as their consciences Christ by his povver is able to subue the vvills of men and bring their hearts to obedience to him all the power there is in the World cannot doe this vvhy the Kings of the earth if they vvere put all together they could not subdue the heart of any one poor man in the world the will of the poorest Creature in the world cannot be subdued by all the powers of all the Potentates and Emperours upon the face of the earth they may beat his body or torter his body or kill his body but to subdue his heart to make his soul to bee subject and obedient to them that I say all the powers of all the Potentates in the world nay all the Angels in heaven cannot doe it the will of a man or woman is such that all the Angels in heaven cannot bring it down only God himself you many times say you will break the will of such a one that is you will make them not to doe such a thing but you are never able to break their wills Kings may prevail over their subjects to make them to doe what they would have them doe and their Estates and Liberties may come to be at their dispose but all this while it may be he hath never a one of their hearts and that is but a very mean kind of Kingly power only to rule over men by fear and they not to love him But now Christ in his Church he hath never a subject that is truly under his Kingly power but he rules his very will and hath never a subject but loves him where Christ doth rule Spiritually in the hearts of his people though they were never so stubborn and rebellious before yet when Christ comes and brings them under his power hee brings their wills and their hearts to him and that is the glory of the Kingly power of Christ 9 And then in the Ninth place Christ is a wonderful King in this that he hath the perfect knowledge of all his Subjects and of their wants alas Kings and Princes in great States they know but very few Subject that they have but now Jesus Christ takes notice of every subject that is in his Kingdom and knowes all their thoughts and all their vvayes and all their vvants all their conditions he knovves them all perfectly Oh this is the glory of this King and vvonderful is hee in his Kingly povver in this 10 Hee is present vvith them all in all the Administration of Justice the King hee cannot administer Justice but hee must use Instruments to doe it and hee cannot bee present alvvayes but Jesus Christ hee is alvvayes present in the Administration of vvhat ever is administred to any of his Subjects he stands by and looks upon them all 11 Christ is such a King as he hath no need of any Instruments at all hee may make use of them sometimes but he hath no need of any Kings can doe but very little vvithout some Instruments vvhat can a King doe for the ruling of a Kingdom but vvith such and such Instruments But Jesus Christ is vvonderful in his Kingly povver in that hee hath no need of any Instruments for the administration of any Justice but he can doe it all immediately himself if he pleases 12 Christ is glorious in his Kingly power in this that he doth over-rule all the plots and counsels of all the enemies of his Subjects for the furtherance of the glory of his Kingdome and the good of his Subjects now my brethren look upon these things as real and certainly by faith they are made real to the hearts of the Saints and they doe rejoyce in this if we had such kind of Governours that had power over all the plots and designs of the enemies what a happy condition would we think our selves to be in Now this is in our King the Lord Jesus Christ he hath power over all the plots and endeavours of all adversaries to work them all for the good of his Church 13 Further the Lord Christ is wonderful for his Kingly power in regard of his righteousnesse Thy scepter is a righteous scepter he is King of righteousnesse and so King of peace as Melchisedeck was It is a happy thing when people live under righteous Governours that they
typifie that Christ as hee was man hee had no Father and as hee was God hee had no Mother and hee had no beginning in his Priestly office it was from everlasting and it shall indure to everlasting So hee is a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedeck and not after the Order of Aaron 2 And in the next place All the Priests in the Law did typifie Christ and all did cease in him certainly hee must needs bee a great High Priest that was typified by them and in whom all ceased and vanished As when the Sun arises the light of the stars doth no more appear there was no further Priesthood when Jesus came and took that Office to himself in his humane Nature in this world 3 But further Christ is wonderful in his Priest-hood in this that hee had no need to offer for himself as others had for hee was blameless and without sin 4 Yea and consider what Christ offered and there you shall see him wonderful the Offering that Christ offered it was the blood of God I say it was that that wee may call safely according to Scripture language the blood of God and that will not seem to bee a hard expression if wee understand what the personal union of the two Natures are in Act. 20.28 faith the Apostle to the Church of Ephesus Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God which hee hath purchased with his own blood These kinde of phrases wee have that come from the Personal union of the two Natures so that the blood that Christ did shed and offer unto God as a Sacrifice for the sin of man it is that that the Scripture calls the blood of God Now the blood that other Priests did offer was the blood of Goats and Bulls and Lambs and Kids but now what a wonderful Priest have wee that comes to offer Sacrifice to the Father for us and comes to offer blood that is the blood of God Hee is wonderful in his Priestly Office in regard of his Offering 5 Further from this follows that Christ offered a Sacrifice unto God that was sufficient to satisfie God for all the wrong that ever was done him by mans sin they offered poor things unto God you know in the time of the Law things that were worthless But now the Sacrifice that Christ offered unto the Father when hee that High Priest came to offer it was a Sacrifice that did satisfie Gods infinite Justice did make up all the wrong that all the sins of the Elect had ever done to God it was that that infinite Justice said it was well-pleased withall It was worth all that Christ did render it up to his Father for not onely a Sacrifice that was a sweet savour because God would bee pleased to accept of it but a Sacrifice that had in its self such a savour that could not but bee sweet in the nostrils of God the Father for it did fully satisfie the Justice of God the Father for the sins of mankinde here is a wonderful High Priest now that hee should come and offer such a Sacrifice that should bee of such infinite merit and worth as it was 6 Yea and hee was wonderful because that hee did offer himself not onely his blood but himself soul and body hee made himself a Sacrifice none of the Priests did so in the time of the Law was there ever heard of such a Priest that came to offer sacrifice that did offer himself for such as hee would make attonement for Jesus Christ hee was anointed by God the Father as a Priest of his Church to offer sacrifice now hee must have so nothing to offer and Christ saw that whatsoever hee could offer if so bee that hee had offered that that had been the worth of Heaven and Earth whatsoever it had been it could never have been an Attonement for those souls which hee did undertake for therefore Christ offers himself as there is nothing but God can bee a satisfying portion to an immortal soul so no sacrifice but Christ himself could bee a Sacrifice to pacifie Gods wrath for the sins of mankinde if Christ should have said Father Thou hast made mee Lord over all the world and I will give it all for a Ransome for the soul of this poor sinner God would have said It will not do it but it must bee thy self I and Christ yeelds to it A body hast thou prepared mee Isa 53.10 And bee made his soul an offering for sin And a body hast thou prepared for mee both body and soul of Christ was offered to God the Father for a sacrifice that hee might smell a sweet savour of rest even concerning us who are wicked and wretched sinners Either Christ must offer himself soul and body to bee a Sacrifice for thy sin or else thy soul and body must have been offered as a sacrifice to Gods Justice and then it must eternallâ— have been under the stroke of Gods Justice but to that end to free that soul and body of thine if thou beest a beleever to free thee from the eternal Justice of God therefore Christ did offer his soul and body as a sacrifice to his Father 7 And yet further Christ was wonderful in his Priestly Office for hee was not onely the Sacrifice but the Altar It would bee wonderful to hear of a Priest that should offer himself but the Priest to bee the Sacrifice and the Altar too that should sanctifie the Sacrifice it is a greater wonder and because this expression seems to bee very hard I take this out of Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the bloud of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God he offers his body and soul as it were upon his Divine Nature that as the Altar did sanctifie the Offering so the Divine Nature of Christ did sanctifie the offering of his Humane Nature so that he indeed became both the Altar and the Sacrifice 8 And then further Christ is wonderful in his Priestly Office and that is in this That he offered but one Sacrifice and at one time now the Priests in former time they offered many Sacrifices and they offered often but now if you would read of Christs Priestly Office read especially the seventh eighth and ninth Chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews and there you shall have as much almost as in all the Scripture besides of the Priestly Office of Jesus Christ The Priests in the Law they offered often but Christ offered but once and having but once offered hee sits down in glory upon his offering of himself but once before the Father it was available for ever for so the Scripture tells us in divers places of the Hebrews and hee was able to save to the uttermost upon his once offering of himself And then further Christ is wonderful in his Priestly Office in this which
from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. This Scripture hath very much in it hee speaks of the Gospel and compares that to a Glass wherein the glory of God shines so as wee may behold it with open face and so behold it as that we are changed into the very same image of it from glory to glory from one degree unto another Wee may behold the glory of God in the glass of the creature and never bee changed into the same image but when wee behold the glory of God in the glass of the Gospel wee then come to bee changed into the same Image and still to bee changed more and more and with open face wee do behold it And in chap. 4. vers 6. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ Mark it hee is the knowledge of God the light of the knowledge of God and the light of the knowledge of the glory of God and all this is in the face of Jesus Christ in the face of the creature there may bee the knowledge of God but the light of the knowledge of the glory of God this is in the face of Jesus Christ Hee that hath seen mee hath seen the Father saith Christ to Philip It was a maxim among the Fathers in the time of the Law that no man could see God and live God was so glorious that they thought that hee could not bee seen but it would overwhelm any creature that was in the flesh that should see him but now mark in that Prophecy that wee have of the times of the Gospel in Isa 40.3 There is a Prophecie of Christ that is apparent The voice of him that cryeth in the wilderness prepare yee the way of the Lord which is in express words applied to John the Baptist the forerunner of Christ And in the very same words make streight in the Desart a high way for our God every valley shall bee exalted and every mountain shall bee made low and the crooked shall bee made streight and the rough places plain Then it follows in the fift verse And the glory of the Lord shall bee revealed and all flesh shall see it together before no man could see God and live Flesh was not able to behold God but now when the Word was made Flesh when the times of the Gospel came wherein God would make himself appear through his Son more clearly and fully now all Flesh shall see it shall see the glory of the Lord now the glory of God appears wonderfully in Christ in these four or five particulars The Power of God appears in Christ First The glory of Gods Attributes do shine more brightly in the face of Christ than any other wayes As for instance The power of God appears infinitely more in Christ than in making heaven and earth for God to unite God and man together in one Person is a greater work than making heaven and earth there is more power of God put forth in the hypostatical union of the Natures of Christ besides all the power of God that appears in the great Works that Christ did do and in carrying Christ through all those great Works that hee was carried through than in making of heaven and earth There is more power of God appears in the conversion of one soul to Christ than in making heaven and earth Then what power of God appears in Christ himself And the wisdome of God appears more in Christ than in the creation of heaven and earth The Wisdome of God appears in Christ Now for God to finde out such a glorious way of Reconciliation as hee hath found out in his Son in this the wisdome of God is more glorious than in all his works infinitely the glory of Gods wisdome in other things is darkned in comparison of his wisdome in this If God had put it to Angels to finde out a way of Reconciliation they could never have guest at such a way as this is that wee should bee reconciled in Christ here is the glory of wisdome There likewise doth appear the glory of Gods holiness more in Christ than in any other way it is true The Holiness of God appears in Christ the Law is a glass of Gods holiness and those that cast reproach upon the Law they spit in the very face of Gods holiness I but that is no such glass as Jesus Christ is there wee see the holiness of God in another manner than wee can do it in the holy Law that God hath made God never shewed his hatred of sin so much as hee did in Christ and it cannot bee devised by all Angels and men how it were possible to have such an Argument to manifest the hatred of sin so as it is manifested in Christ that God should deal so with his Son as hee hath done for the sin of man I say if an infinite Wisdome should set it self on work never so much to finde out an Argument to manifest the hatred of sin there could not bee a greater Argument So that when God sent his Son into the world to dye for mans sin hee did as it were say I have many wayes to manifest my holiness to the children of men how infinitely I do hate sin but here is a way that it shall appear to the uttermost they shall see it in my dealing with my Son certainly in Christ Gods wisdome hath found out an Argument to make us all to bee convinced of the infinite holiness of God that God hates sin more than hell its self and that wee should do so too Again the Justice of God appears in Christ more than in any thing else It appears not so much in all the torments of the damned as in Gods dealings with Christ The Justice of God appears in Christ in that hee required such satisfaction from him as hee did when as wee hear of the dreadful curses of the Law and of the torments that are in hell wee may thereby be put in minde of an infinite Justice Oh how righteous is God in his wayes there and his Justice seems to bee wonderful unto us But when you behold in this red glass of the blood of Christ Gods Justice it is a great deal more glorious here than in all the damned in hell If God should grant to any of you to stand upon the very brink of hell and there to look into the pit and see all the torments and tortures there and hear all the cries there then you think your hearts would bee affected with the Justice of God to fear it I but when God makes himself known to you in Christ when you hear of the sufferings of Christ for sin God would have you to bee more affected with his Justice and to fear it more than if you saw all the Torments of hell
would see them to bee plunged into the bottomless gulf of eternal misery hee would put himself into it to keep them out hee did it willingly When hee did fir stundertake this great work with his Father hee knew what hee should suffer A body hast thou prepared mee it is written in the volume of thy book I should do thy will Heb. 10 5 7. and lo I come I delight to do thy will And what was it It was the suffering of all these things that I have named unto you and I have but even named them unto you Eighthly And yet further the wonder of Christs humiliation my scope is now to present as briefly as may bee as much of Christ as I can unto you that you may have some help for your more clear apprehensions of Christ and how to make him the object of your faith The wonder of Christ appears in this that there should bee such a way to save men as this is that the Son of God should bee thus humbled and this wee finde clearly in Scripture set out to us but that God would have such a way to save sinners and no other this is as great a wonder as any thing it is certainly the astonishment of the Angels and the admiration of the Saints to all eternity that the Lord should look upon base man and that hee should have thoughts to save him that was nothing but when God saw that if hee bee saved hee must bee saved after this way that God should as it were trouble heaven and earth for the saving of a poor wretched sinful creature and though God saw that it would cost him so dear to save a soul yet that hee should go on with his work to save him here is the wonder but this is the way of salvation and this is that that is infinitely above reason not onely above sense but above reason which of the Heathens could have imagined that there should have been such a way to save man by as this Why how wilt thou bee saved I will cry to God for mercy and break off my sin and bee sorry with all my heart why if this were the way there was no wonder in that but know oh thou sinner whosoever thou art that if ever thou bee saved that thou must bee saved by a wonderful way and the truth is considering that this is the way of saving sinners wee may stand and wonder that any are saved when you hear of but few that go to heaven and that most people in the world perish and when you come to hear the way of saving man and what it cost and the great difficulty of it you may then stand and wonder that any should bee saved Oh when ever you think of salvation think wisely of this it is a wonderful work of God to save a sinner and the most wonderful work that ever God did do why because the way of saving a sinner is so strange and truly my Brethren then doth God begin to work savingly upon the heart of a sinner when the sinner begins to stand and wonder at the way of saving and till that time it cannot bee conceived that God is beginning savingly to work upon your hearts I appeal to your consciences you that have gone on in a secure dead-hearted way when was ever your hearts taken up in admiring at the way of Gods saving sinners why if it hath done so that is a good evidence that God is beginning to shew himself unto you in a saving way But now if you go on and have but low thoughts about the way of salvation if your hearts do not sanctifie Gods Name in admiring at the wonderful way of salvation know that yet the Gospel is hidden to you certainly you yet do not understand the counsels of God about the way of salvation when your hearts are not taken up with admiring at the glory of God in it A note of Trial. I will but leave this note of Trial with you whether Christ bee revealed to you have your souls wondred at him My Brethen there are divers things that men wonder at in the world and their hearts are taken with them and all because they understand not Christ the great Wonder of the world Wee read in Rev. 17. that when Antichrist had gotten a great deal of power that the world did wonder at him vers 6. When I saw her I wondred with great admiration c. Antichrist having a great deal of power makes men to wonder much at him Now in vers 8. The Beast which thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they behold the Beast that was and is not and yet is saith hee those whose names are not written the book of life that was written from the foundation of the world they shall make a wonder at Antichrist and at his great power and at the way of his falling too So in Rev. 13.2 3. And the Dragon gave him his power and his seat and great Authority c. When the Dragon had given his power to the Beast that is the Civil state and power had given its power unto Antichrist unto their Church-state so that they had the Civil sword in their own hands and were able by that Civil power to force all to come in to their Dictates now the Text saith That they all wondred at it but who are they in Chap. 17. v. 8. those whose names were not written in the book of life so that carnal hearts now may bee taken with the wondring after the pomp and glory of the word and after the power of Antichrist because Antichrist prevails in the world but they are those whose mames are not written in the book of life those whose names are written in the book of life they will never stand wondring at the excellency of Antichrist because of his outward glory no Those whose names are written in the book of life they have learned to wonder at Jesus Christ not at Antichrist let Jesus Christ bee never so mean and humbled and low and persecuted in his members in his Ordinances yet they see that excellency in Jesus Christ as makes them wonder and it is such a wonder as it doth darken all the wonders in the world besides The Fifth SERMON ON The Excellency of Christ Isaiah 9.6 And his Name shall bee called Wonderful THe point that wee are upon you may remember is this That Jesus Christ is the great Wonder of the world As is his Name so is hee Wonderful 9 Therâ— is yet more wonder in it if wee consider that God the Father was well pleased with all this it pleased him so you may finde in Isa 53.10 It pleased him to bruise him It pleased the Father For God the Father taking such delight
of rejection of Jesus Christ must needs bee a dreadful sin because Jesus Christ is so great a wonder as you have heard The Sixth SERMON ON The Excellency of Christ Isaiah 9.6 And his Name shall bee called Wonderful NOw wee come to the Application of all which is the work of this exercise Application First Certainly Jesus Christ is little known in the world if this bee hee this great wonder of the world Oh how little is Christ known Christ is but a meer Notion and Imagination to most people in the world you heard the very sound of this name and how Christ came into the world to save sinners but I appeal unto your consciences when were your hearts taken with the admiration of the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ hath Christ been made the greatest wonder in the world unto you some of you have seen many wondrous works of God some of you perhaps in the Seas or abroad in other Countries or if not there yet you have seen the Heavens and the Earth at which you many times wonder but when did God dart light into your spirits to cause you to see so much of Jesus Christ as made him to bee the great wonder of all his works certainly that soul knows not God nor Christ savingly that knows him not as the wonder of the world it is impossible that such a poor creature as man is should come to understand such great mysteries of godliness as are in Christ in any measure but must needs admire at the glory of that great work and say with acclamation Oh the height and depth and breadth and length of the glory of God his Wisdome and Mercy and Truth and Power Many Notes of Trial there may bee of Faith but I know not any one more familiar than this is at least negatively it must needs bee a true Note that is that there cannot bee Faith without it namely if the heart hath not been taken up with the wonder of Christ so as all the wonders in the world have been darkened in the soul in comparison of Jesus Christ Secondly If Christ bee so great a wonder then O how vile a thing is it for the hearts of men to prefer any base filthy lusts before Jesus Christ when God hath manifested him in that wonderful way unto the children of men and so much of his glory in him yet that their hearts should bee taken off from him and every base lust to bee preferred before him Oh how just must the condemnation of such bee for ever wee may take up that complaint that there was in Psal 106.7 Psal 106.7 Our Fathers understood not thy wonders saith the Psalmist So the truth is as our Fathers did not so few there are that understand the wonders of the Lord in Jesus Christ and therefore every thing is preferred before him with what infinite indignation must God needs look upon that wretched soul that shall prefer every base lust before Jesus Christ I remember a speech of Chrysostome speaking of that Text That our vile bodies shall bee made like unto the glorious body of Christ saith hee were all the world turned into tears yet they were not sufficient to lament the misery of that soul that forsakes Jesus Christ his heart was so much taken with the excellency of Jesus Christ that hee thought it impossible to lament the misery of the creature that should forsake him and so St. Paul having his heart filled with the glorious Mystery of Christ hee breaks forth with this dreadful curse Hee that loveth not the Lord Jesus Christ let him bee Anathema Maran-atha as if St. Paul should say having his spirit filled with the glory of Christ Oh what shall God manifest so much of his glory in his Son and shall base wretched vile creatures prefer their lusts before him and have their hearts taken up with other vain things and not love the Lord Jesus Christ let that soul bee cursed with a bitter curse saith Paul such a soul doth deserve indeed to bee cursed with a bitter and an eternal curse that shall hear so much of Jesus Christ and how God hath revealed himself in that wonderful way in his Son and yet that soul shall not bee willing to forsake a base lust for all the good there is in Jesus Christ let that soul bee cursed with a bitter curse It deserves above all creatures to have the most bitter curse to bee upon it to all eternity certainly the more glory there is in Christ the more dreadful will the condemnation of wicked men bee This is the condemnation that such glorious light is come into the world and men chose darkness rather than light How many hear of Christ and minde little but onely have a noise they hear some strange things of Christ and let them pass by and think there is little reallity in what they hear but the onely real comfort is in satisfying of the flesh in the lusts of it In Act. 13.41 Act. 13.41 wee have an excellent Scripture for the reproof of such that hear the Gospel and minde it not Beware therefore lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the Prophets Behold yee despisers and wonder and perish for I work a work in your daies a work which yee shall in no wise beleeve though a man declare it unto you It is spoken concerning Christ as appears in the verse before And by him all that beleeve are justified from all things by which yee could not bee justified by the Law of Moses Now then it follows Beware therefore lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the Prophets Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish as if hee should say you hear the Gospel about the glorious way that God hath to reconcile sinners to himself to justifie sinners but in the mean time your hearts do close with your own Conceits and your own waies with the Law of Moses and think by your own good meanings and your own good works that you shall do well enough and shall stand before God but saith the Apostle Beware lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the Prophets Behold yee despisers and wonder you perhaps when you hear such things declared unto you you account it strange doctrine and you stand and wonder what the meaning of those things should bee but as you wonder so you do despise you condemn it as a strange thing that you were not wont to hear heretofore and as a thing you cannot understand the reason of this is the usual guize of carnal hearts when they hear any doctrine though there bee never so much of God in it and of the Mystery of the Gospel that is revealed in it yet if they understand not the reason of it if it appear to them as a new thing they wonder indeed but they despise withall and condemn it and slight it and pass it over as they did St.
him as musick good cheer friends estate yet there is that horror and torment in his spirit sometimes through the consciousness of the guilt of sin that hee is not able to bear nay were there not somewhat beyond this bodily substance certainly this could never bee verily then there is a spirit in man and hence therefore you see that there is somewhat doth concern you all beyond your present outward and bodily condition Let no man think that hee hath provided well for himself when hee hath provided mony and house and lands and good chear and cloaths and such kinde of things do not think that thou art happy in that for these are things that concern thy outward man there is still another substance in thee that thou art to look after that takes little notice of such things as these are Neither do you think that you have provided well for your children when you have provided an estate an inheritance somewhat to leave them know that there is another substance in your children besides that outward bodily substance you look upon Do you see a fine feature comely parts comely countenance and your children finely cloathed I but know there is a spirit in that childe besides that bodily substance that you are to look to Certainly man is very far fallen from God that none scarce takes notice of his own spirit We do not only naturally live without a God in the world so as to know little of that infinite divine Spirit that is the first being of all things but wee live without the knowledge of our own spirits of our own souls Truly few men there are that know their own souls As a man by his eye sees things that are without him but he doth not see his own eye so by the soul wee come to understand many things without us but yet how little do wee understand of our own souls well might the Psalmist therefore complain and say in Psal 49.20 Man that is in honour and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish God did indeed make man at first in honour but now hee is become like the very beasts hee doth minde little or nothing more than the very beasts themselves hee blesses himself if hee hath but content for the body for a while as if there were nothing else concerned him I appeal unto your consciences in this thing whether the uttermost sphere of your thoughts have been any further than meerly within the compass of bodily content If you should come to a beast and talk to it about Trades and titles of honour and Arts and Sciences and such kind of things why what is all this to a beast Give a beast hay or corn and such kinde of things that are suitable to it and it mindes that more than it doth any high notions that you are able to tell it and truly thus it is with sensual men even as the Atheist who saith in his heart That there is no God so a kinde of Atheism there is in their hearts to say they have no souls that there is no difference between them and the brute-beasts hence it is that they savour spiritual things so little Tell carnal men of the excellency of the Name of God Tell them of Jesus Christ how wonderful hee is of the wonderful mysteries of the Gospel and of the things of eternal life they are dry things to such a one hee savours them not Tell him of money and meat and drink and sports and cloaths and such kinde of things they are suitable unto him there is some savour in them but for the great things of the Kingdome of God and of eternal life there is no savour at all in them and thus far is man fallen from God and lives for the most part as if so bee hee were capable of no higher good but meerly to eat and drink and live for a while here like a beast Thus doth the Devil gull and deceive most of us Now my brethren this is a work that I have undertaken and it concerns as much the Ministers of God to shew unto you what you are your selves what God hath made you as to shew you what God is and what Christ is that you may come to understand your selves you can never come to know your reference unto God untill you come to know what God hath made you this is therefore my scope in this Scripture to shew unto you what God hath made you and that you have souls within you and souls of exceeding great worth I will not say infinite for none is infinite but God himself but more worth than all the world than all the creatures that God hath made except the Angels in heaven The souls of the children of men are most excellent creatures did but a man or woman consider seriously that they have souls in them beyond their bodies it would raise them up a little But this next Point that is the main and principal Doct 2 Did they but know the worth of their souls it could not but raise them very high above those poor empty vanities that they have minded all this while Therefore there is in man not onely a soul but that that is more worth than all the world that if it should bee lost that man that gained the whole world would bee a great loser in his bargain Know therefore this that there is not the poorest man or woman living nay not the poorest childe that lyes begging a crust of bread at your door but this childe hath a soul in it that is more worth than heaven and earth this poor ragged tattered childe that lyes in rags I say crying at your threshold and begging a peece of bread it hath a soul in it that hath greater excellency than the Sun Moon and Stars than all the Heavens than the Sea than the Earth put all the creatures in the world together that are under Angels the spirit of this poor childe hath more excellency in it than all these things and that is the thing that I am to make out unto you Why natural life hath more excellency in it than any creature that hath no life I remember Austin saith of a Flye because it hath life that it hath more excellency in it than the Sun its self because though the Sun bee a glorious creature yet it hath no life in it life in the meanest creature hath a greater excellency than any thing else that hath not life But now the soul hath the highest natural life that is and capable of the highest happiness that any creature is capable of and therefore more excellent than all the world But that wee shall come too in its order The excellency of the soul may bee discovered first In the relation it hath to God The Excellency of the Soul discovered 1 In its relation to God God doth challenge a peculiar relation to the spirits of men and therefore in Heb. 12.9 â—od is called the Father
an ill-favouâ—ed dirty leather case but will have a curious silver case for it Now because the Lord did make a curious peece the soul of man which was the master-peece of Gods creation next to the Angels therefore hee puts it into a very curious case this shews the excellency of those spirits that are within us howsoever they are now defiled with sin yet thus they were made at first When we are speaking to men about their own excellency one would think that then they should attend I have spoken of God and Christs excellency they may seem to bee things above you But now I am speaking of your own excellency what you are and what you are capable off Oh remember this you poor people and others for as wee shall shew afterwards you have souls as excellent as the greatest men in the world And there is nothing to the contrary but you may have that spiritual substance of yours filled with so much good as is infinitely more worth than ten thousand thousand worlds if you have hearts to look after it The Second SERMON ON The Excellency of the Soul Matth. 16.26 For what is a man profited if hee shall gain the whole world and lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul I Shall adde one thing more which shews the excellency of the soul in the relation that it hath to God and that is this That it is satisfied onely with God himself there is nothing can fill the soul of man to satisfie it but God himself For the true object of mans understanding it is not this truth or the other truth but truth in general and the highest truth and that is God and the object of this soul it is not this or that good but good in general the highest and the chiefest good and that is God Let all the creatures in the world present themselves before the soul of man to bee the portion of him Mans soul would say these are not the things that can satisfie mee saith Austin Lord thou hast made us for thy self and our heart is unquiet till it comes unto thy self and this is the excellency of mans soul it is above all creatures it is a vertue in the soul of man to have a holy kinde of pride to think all creatures in the world to bee too little to bee the portion of it and God takes this well hee likes it well that we should know our own souls so far that wee should have this kinde of pride of spirit as wee may so call it or rather a right elevation of spirit to look upon all creatures in the world as too low and too mean to bee the portion of one immortal soul Many other things were delivered about the excellency of mans soul that so you might know something of your worth that you are too good to bee slaves to the Devil and it is good for you to know your own worth in this thing that so your hearts might bee elevated above those bare things that you sought to have your happiness in all those that ever have had true wisdome have accounted souls to bee very precious I remember Zozomen the Ecclesiastical Historian saith of the Martyrs that they suffered torment in their bodies as if they were other folks bodies and not their own they lookt not upon them as any part of themselves but on their souls as themselves and so you finde it in Scripture that it is the soul of man that is a mans self Compare for this my Text in Matthew with Luke 9. where you have the same speech of our Saviour setting out the excellency of a mans soul In the one it is What will it profit a man if hee gain the whole world and lose his own soul In the other it is If hee lose himself this is all one the losing of a mans soul and the losing of himself for a mans self it is his soul as for the body it is but the case it is but the out-side and so indeed some of the Heathens accounted their bodies Anaxarchus Tunde tunde Anaxarchi follem Anaxarchum enim non tundis when hee was beaten in a Mortar to death by the Tyrants hee calls to them Beat Beat as long as you will you beat but the outward part of Anaxarchus it is but the vessel in which hee is The Devil himself hath high esteem of souls the Devil cares not so bee it hee may gain mens souls what they have for their bodies the Devil doth not envy any wicked man to prosper in this world to have a healthful lusty body and to have stature and strength and beauty But now if hee sees that there bee any means for the good of their souls hee envies that may the Devil have but their souls hee cares not what they have otherwayes But wee come to the application of this first point in my Text Of the excellency of mans soul And the first Use is this Use Surely then wee ought to look upon every childe of man with some reverent respect and honour there is not the poorest childe as I told you the last day that lyes crying at your doors for a crust but hath a soul in it more worth than heaven and earth And the consideration of this should make us look upon the meanest childe servant the poorest body with an honourable esteem and respect how ever the glory of their souls bee darkned for the present yet they have still in them such souls as are capable of a kinde of infinite good more than all the other works that ever God made except the Angels do not look upon your servants that are under you with scorn and contempt do not use them doggedly as if they were brute-beasts Remember though you bee a Master a Mistress a Governour you are a Governour of one that hath an immortal soul more worth than all the world A good man saith the Scripture is merciful to his beast and surely then a good man will bee merciful to one that hath an immortal soul and it may bee an immortal soul better than his Governour how many have more respect to Dogs to brute-beasts than they have to servants and children and poor people who have immortal souls I have read of the Turks that though they bee noted for most cruel people to men as you heard of their cruelty to those in the Gallies yet they are very pittiful to brute-beasts and therefore they will give alms and stipends out of charity to maintain brute-beasts withall and there is a story of a youth that abusing a bird that had a long bill was like to have been stoned to death in the street they did so hate cruelty to those kinde of creatures though they bee cruel to men Many have this Turkish disposition that are dogged and cruel to those of their own kinde to those that have immortal souls together with themselves though pittiful even to brute-beasts
bee lost And here for the present every man and womans soul in the world by nature is a lost soul First Every man and woman as they come into the world are deprived of the glory and excellency that God did indow the souls of men withall in their first creation wee are all deprived of the glory of God saith the Scripture And secondly All our souls do now naturally wander away from God continually depart and wander from the infinite glorious first-being of all things Thou that art an old man or woman that hast lived many years and God hath not revealed himself in working the true work of conversion in thee to change thy estate know that thy soul hath been departing and wandring from the Lord all the dayes of thy life to this very present thou art like a lost sheep wandring up and down in the wilderness and in danger to bee destroyed every minute of an hour by some wilde beast or other though it is true thy soul is not made a prey to the Devil so as to destroy thee utterly yet thou hast been in danger all the while thou hast been wandring from the Lord to bee made a prey upon by the Devil and utterly to have been cast away Yea and thirdly There is a great deal of misery upon thy soul if thou knewest it as contrary to that light that hee hath set up in thy understanding there is blindness in thee there is errour in thee contrary to that holiness that was at first in thy heart and soul there is nothing but sin and wickedness all the spauns and seeds of all kinde of sin is in thy heart there is a great deal of that evil that is contrary to what thy soul was made withall at first there is enmity in thy soul against God himself Yea and fourthly Thy soul is in a succourless helpless shiftless condition in respect of what thou art able to do or what all the creatures in heaven or earth are able to do for thee let all the Angels in heaven and men in the world joyn together to seek to do good to thy soul they are not able to deliver thy soul from that evil that now it is in and that it is in further danger of And this is the reason of that phrase that you have in Luke 19.10 The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost Wee are all lost sheep going astray and Jesus Christ came to seek and to save lost souls Souls deprived of the glory of God Souls wandring away from God Souls filled with evil Souls succourless and helpless in regard of any power in any creature in heaven and earth to save them Christ beholding how such precious souls were every one of them lost if hee had not come to save them hee was pleased to come from heaven to seek and to save souls thus lost Now though souls bee for the present in a lost condition yet there is a further loss of the soul than this for if the soul be neglected here it will bee lost forever there are many that are lost now for the present and yet afterwards Christ findes them and there is joy in heaven at the finding of them but there is a loss that shall bee eternal and that loss is more dreadful than the former yet the former hath the degree of it but that the perfection of the former Now the loss of the soul in hell consists in these three particulars First The full and perfect eternal rejection of the soul from God and from all good in him together with the fulness of all kinde of evil that the soul is capable of this is the condition of a lost soul that perishes Secondly And then in the next place it consists in the making of this soul to bee perfectly sensible of the loss of that good and of all the evil it is possest withall making of it perfectly sensible of it Here men and women are in lost conditions but they know it not they are not sensible of it But God will bring the soul into such a condition as it shall bee made perfectly sensible of the loss of all the good that it might have had and of all the evil that is upon it Thirdly And then lastly It shall bee in such a condition so succourless so helpless as is not onely beyond the power of Angels and all men to help it but I say so succourless so lost as that Gods mercy and all the good there is in Christ shall never save it and as God hath set and ordered things can never save it Now then these things being opened to you you will understand what this Text means When you read this Text you think there may bee truth in it and in general you will â—ssent unto it but if you come to understand but these things then indeed you cannot but all subscribe to it and acknowledge Oh it is indeed a dreadful thing the loss of the soul But now because it is a point of so great moment I will not satisfie my self meerly in telling you these things but endeavour to open them unto you what the evil of this loss is that if it might bee by presenting this before the souls of men they may see more the danger that they are in and how the Devil hath gulled and deceived them all this while It may make many souls to bee at a stand if they come to know what this loss indeed doth mean Now I shall endeavour the opening of this in the three last particulars that I named First For the rejection of the soul from God so as to bee deprived of all the good there is in God and that it is capable of Now for the understanding of the evil of this wee must inquire what is that good that the souls of men are capable of or else wee cannot come to understand what an evil thing it is to lose it Now for the good that the soul is capable of I will but onely name some heads unto you for in a Treatise that some of you have in your hands of Moses looking to the recompense of reward there are the principal heads of the good and excellency that the soul is capable of and shall bee blessed in heaven eternally with And the apprehending the loss of these things will discover much The first part of the evil of the loss of the soul I will but in a very brief way present them unto you Why the Glory of God upon the soul the Image of God the Life of God the Divine nature that the soul is capable of Now for the soul never to live the Life of God nor to have his Image nor any of the Glory of Gold upon it this is a fearful evil to those that know the excellency of these things of the blessed vision of God in heaven to see him that is the infinite first-being of all things to see him as hee
a surfeit of good meat though the meat bee good yet hee may surfeit upon it so though the things of this world the cares and the pleasures may bee as some things are in themselves lawful yet by an inordinate and immoderate letting out thy heart to lawful things thou mayest surfeit thy soul and it may die of that surfeit Many men think themselves out of danger if the things that their hearts are upon bee in themselves lawful they are not swearers and whoremasters and drunkards and theeves as others are and therefore they think their souls may bee saved I say thou mayest busie thy heart onely about that which is in its self lawful and yet thy soul may take a surfeit and perish eternally Tenthly and lastly Many lose their souls by forfeiting them and that by these two waies First A man forfeits his soul as men do their Coppy-holds by not tendering that homage to their Lord that is due by which they hold their Lands and so their Lands come to bee forfeit so dost thou God hath given thee thy precious soul more worth than all the world and thou holdest it of God but so as thou must tender up to this Lord that homage that is due to him that is thou must worship God When wee come to worship God this is that wee do wee come to tender up that homage that wee acknowledge to bee due to God for these souls of ours that hee hath given unto us that is our worship that is the nature of worship The tendering up something by way of homage to acknowledge that due respect wee owe unto God as that Lord that hath the absolute dispose of us now by neglect of worshipping of God of tendering up his homage thou forfeitest thy soul and indangerest thy self to perish eternally and oh how few people regard any such worship of God! and though they do the thing that God requires as praying and coming to hear the Word yet do they not do it as in a way of tendering up homage to that God upon whom they do onely depend but now this is that which God requires of us or otherwise our souls are forfeited Secondly Men forfeit their souls by breaking covenant with God however there may bee some that God will not take the forfeiture of yet certainly upon thy breach of covenant with God thy soul is forfeited Thou dost ingage thy soul to God every time thou dost enter into covenant with him It may bee said of any man or woman that enters into covenant with God who is this that hath ingaged his soul to God now thou ingaging and binding thy soul to God in thy covenant upon thy breach of it dealing falsely thou dost forfeit thy soul And by these several waies souls are lost and oh how many thousand souls perish with such waies and manners as these are and therefore seeing there are such several waies of the loss of souls let not people think themselves safe though they do not go in some waies whereby they may come to lose their souls for there are very many waies whereby thou mayest lose thy soul and so miscarry to eternity Use The other Use that remains is this If the loss of our souls bee so dreadful a thing and there bee so many waies for the losing of them then it concerns us neerly to examine whether wee bee not in such a condition for the present that if our souls should depart out of our bodies they would certainly bee lost this is a needful scrutiny and a most necessary inquiry Many men have these thoughts what if I should now die I have not made my Will and my estate would go such and such waies as I would not have it it would bee squandered away it would bee spent in Sutes of Law I but rather let thy thoughts run out thus what if I should now die would not my soul bee lost and perish for ever Now though I have said wee cannot set forth such a man or woman and conclude that their souls shall certainly bee lost because wee know not what God may do hereafter but wee may say this that such a man or womans soul in the condition it is If God do no more for it than hee hath yet done that then it will certainly bee lost Indeed a man or woman may come to know and certainly to conclude that they are elected but none can come to such a conclusion to know certainly that they are Reprobates the vilest wretch that is upon the face of the earth hee hath not ground sufficient to conclude against himself that hee is a Reprobate and that his soul shall for ever bee lost and therefore surely wee cannot conclude against another if not against our selves Well but who are they that if God should work no otherwise upon them than hee hath done that then their souls would bee lost First In the first place That soul to whom God hath not made known and convinc'd it of the dangerous natural condition in which it is if such a soul should depart from the body it would bee lost Onely let mee premise these two cautions I do not speak of Infants but of those that are come to years and that live under means And I speak of Gods ordinary way wee will not limit God what hee may do in extraordinary waies but in an ordinary course and way of Gods dealings with the children of men that hee lets live to come to years and bee under means these following rules will discover who they are that at the present are in a lost condition I say such to whom God hath never revealed and convinced them of the evil of their natural condition in which they were born in which they are if God should let them so die and make known no more to them than hee hath such a soul would bee lost and that upon this ground because that without Faith it must bee lost that is acknowledged by all hee that beleeves not shall bee damned is condemned already Now there cannot bee Faith in a Saviour to save the soul but it must needs imply that I know what a dangerous condition I am in by sin For there is even a contradiction implied in my beleeving in Christ as a Saviour and yet I not convinced of the damnable condition that I am in without this Christ Secondly That soul that yet hath not made it to bee its great care above all outward things in this world to save its self that soul if it should now depart from the body would bee lost I say if God hath not first convinc'd thee and made thee sensible of that damnable condition in which thou art in thy self and secondly if hee hath not taken off thy heart from the creature from the things that are here below and made it to bee the great care of thy soul for to get it to bee saved hath not made thee to bee solicitous about the work of saving of
to himself as ever was I think since the beginning of the world and the Devil knowing that hee could not get them to turn to lewdness and prophaneness presently again therefore hee labours to put them upon turning all their Religion into questions about controversal things which they could not be able to mannage and understand and so puts them off the thoughts of that great question What they should do to bee saved But O labour to inquire and to bee satisfied and resolved in that question betimes Secondly If you ask this question as you are to do it betimes so do it earnestly do it with a great deal of fervency of spirit as a matter of infinite concernment so in Matth. 10.17 When hee was gone forth into the way there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him good Master what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life Hee came running with a great deal of fervency and earnestness about the business and the fervency that youth hath should bee manifested in this in being earnest in the inquiring after the way of salvation people that are elder they think they are well enough and they have not lived so long they think as not to know how to bee saved all this while and therefore will not enquire so that their spirits do not boil with that fervency and heat as young ones do hee came running to Christ Thirdly If you do inquire inquire sincerely with a heart truly willing to do whatsoever God shall make known to you wee are this day about this great question what a man should do to save his soul I suppose many of you would bee glad to know what should bee done and mee-thinks every one is ready to ask such a question as this is But before wee come to answer it let mee speak to you as in the Name of God do you desire to know it with a heart truly willing to yeeld to whatsoever should out of Gods Word bee revealed to you put this to your own hearts before wee come to give any answer otherwise what do you hear this day if there bee not such a heart as this that you can appeal to God and profess that whatsoever this day the Lord shall reveal unto meâ— from his Word that I should do to save my soul here I am and profess to yeeld my self up to the truths of God if your hearts bee so fram'd then wee may have incouragement to come and shew you what should bee done Fourthly And you must inquire constantly too if you should not bee satisfied at one time never bee at rest till you are satisfied do not ask what I should do and come to hear what you should do and then pass it over and let every little thing take this out of your minds again but when you begin to bee inquiring after the way of salvation resolve that you will never give rest to your souls till you have gotten this question answered to you And there is a great deal of reason that wee should ask this question in such a way For Reas First Every one of your souls are in a lost condition naturally therefore it concerns you to bee inquiring after the way of salvation Secondly The salvation of a soul is the most difficult thing in the world if ever thy soul bee saved it must cost more than Heaven and Earth is worth to save it it is not therefore such a trifling business the saving of souls This I dare avouch as in the Name of God that the soul of the poorest girl or servant that is here if it bee saved it must cost more than Heaven and Earth is worth to save it therefore there is a difficulty in it Thirdly and lastly There are but few that shall bee saved there is nothing more clear in the Word of God than that that there are but few souls that shall bee saved wee cannot tell as I have said that this or the other soul cannot bee saved wee are not to enter into Gods counsels concerning particular souls but this wee may say Matth. 7.13 compared with Luk. 13.24 and have warrant from the Word to say that there are but few souls that shall bee saved Strive to enter in at the strait gate for strait is the gate and narrow is the way and few there bee that enter And upon that ground Christ himself raises that exhortation therefore strive therefore inquire you after the way of salvation with all your might if there should a voice come from Heaven at this time and say there are but few in this Congregation shall go out alive it would put every one to a stand every one would think with himself Oh Lord must I die here why there is this voice from Heaven that there are but few souls in the world but shall perish eternally then certainly it is not for us to bee quiet but it concerns us to bee restless in our conditions and every one to say what is it I what is it I when Christ did but say that one of you shall betray mee every one was inquiring Is it I Is it I but when it is said that there shall bee but few saved the flock of Christ is but a little flock the words in the original are two diminutives and may be translated a little little flock Oh it concerns you all to look about you But now these things being premised for the putting of you on to the enquiring after salvation with all your might now wee come to the answer of this question What wee should do that our souls may bee saved And in the answer to this wee must premise further First There is nothing that any man can do that saves him there must bee somewhat higher that what hee can do and yet God requires that hee should do what hee can do Indeed what any man can do of himself yea or by assistance from common grace yea wee will say further by assistance from any grace whatsoever though it may help forward his salvation by an ordinance of God yet it cannot be the thing that saves him the thing that saves him is higher than what is done by the creature it is what is done by Christ or what is suffered by Christ it is that that saves the soul and not I say what is done or suffered by us But yet now wee must not make such a vain and foolish and dangerous inference that therefore nothing is to bee done because the things that wee do are not the things that save us there is a great deal of evil comes from men and womens presuming to draw consequences they think that if this bee true the other will follow and so through the weakness of their understandings Ephes 2.1 John 15.5 they come to draw dangerous consequences from true positions Why wee are dead in sins by nature and without mee yee can do nothing saith Christ upon this here is this consequence drawn by
many ignorant people that pervert the Word to their own destruction If God bee not merciful to them therefore why should wee pray or read or hear or use any means let us lay aside all wee can do nothing wee are dead in sins and the like Now wee are to know that though nothing can bee done by us till God bring us into a state of grace and salvation that is acceptable so as certainly shall bring us to Heaven yet if it bee but that that shall stop us in the contrary way a little it is worth our labour If it be but that that any way may tend towards the bringing of us unto any means that may do us good why it is worth our labour and all our pains but especially if wee consider this that though wee are not able to do that that shall save us yet God is pleased often to convey his strength to those hee doth intend to save through the use of those means rather at that time when they do improve their natural abilities than at that time when they sit idle and do nothing and therefore you must bee up and bee doing Wee read in the Gospel concerning the young man that I told you came to Christ and inquired what hee should do for eternal life Christ profest to him that hee was not far from the Kingdome of Heaven hee was not so far as others It is true if a man abuses his doing and rests in his doing that sets him as far from the Kingdome of Heaven as prophane ones and therefore Publicans and Harlots may enter into the Kingdome of Heaven as soon as Scribes and Pharisees But there may bee many actions done by a common assistance of Gods Spirit that may bring some nearer to the Kingdome of Heaven than others and the denial of such a thing as that is would bee an extream boldness in any for they are the very words of Christ to the young man That hee was not far from the Kingdome of Heaven and therefore notwithstanding your inability and notwithstanding the things that wee do are not the things that save us yet wee have ground enough to put on men and women to do Now the meaning of this great question is this What is the way that God ordinarily takes to bring men and women to salvation by or how should I follow God on in his way that is a certain truth of the Antients Though God made thee without thee yet hee will not save thee without thee God works upon us as upon rational creatures and therefore it doth concern all the children of men that would have their souls saved to observe the work of God and to stir up what is in them to joyn with the work of God in the way of salvation and certainly whatever conceits there are to the contrary they are not onely foolish but extream dangerous and Satans policy and cunning is exceedingly much seen in them A further thing that I would premise before I come to particulars is this when I speak of any thing that should bee done I prescribe no particular order knowing that the works of God are various And sometimes God stirs up a soul to do one thing and sometimes to do another thing but take them in what order you will yet wee must name them for memory sake in some order and God expects them from you and you are to joyn with God in those works if you would have your souls to bee saved The great Question of what wee should do to bee saved answered First If you would have your souls saved do you joyn with God in what hee hath revealed to you concerning your lost condition labouring to understand those truths clearly that are delivered in the Word concerning the lost condition of souls by nature and to work those truths upon your hearts to bee sensible of them Those whom God intends to save hee shews unto them what this salvation is hee shews them from what it is they are to bee saved that so they may not run away vvith the meer word Salvation and saving of souls now God reveals this in his Word and when hee intends to save a soul hee doth by his Spirit stir it up to joyn with the Word of God and work those things upon its self so as to bee made sensible of them As thus the soul being solicitous how it should come to bee saved it searches the Scripture and there it findes how wee are by nature the children of wrath there it findes that God had made man according to his own Image at first but man hath sinned against God and broken the covenant upon which his eternal state did depend and in the sin of the first man all men have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God and now are conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity so that there is a most dreadful breach between God and the soul and that man by nature is become an enemy to the Infinite God That now hee hath the seeds of all kind of sin in him and that all his life while hee continues in his natural estate here is nothing else but a fighting against God a flying in the very face of God Hee findes that by sin hee is brought under a most dreadful curse the curse of the Law and that hee is bound over by the bonds of the Law even to death to eternal death as the wages of sin these things the soul findes in Scripture now if thou wouldest bee saved when thou findest God revealing such things labour thorowly to convince thy soul of the truth of them and are these things so indeed is this my condition am I thus and thus naturally Oh what good then will it do to mee to have all the world and bee in such a condition as this is Oh my soul when wert thou sensible of this condition dost thou walk as it becomes one that is sensible of such a lost estate as this is Oh! labour to drink in these truths and to work them upon thy heart and cry to God to set them home upon thy spirit to make thy soul thorowly sensible of them as hee uses to make those whom hee hath a purpose to save Here 's the first thing And yet one thing about this further is That you must come to a conviction not onely of your lost estate but of your inability to save your selves and the inability that there is in all creatures in Heaven and Earth to save them that thy fall from God is so dreadful that all the created power in Heaven and Earth cannot help thee yea and that thou thy self now art unable to help thy self to save thy soul bee convinc'd thorowly of this This was the way that Christ took with the young man hee tells him of the Law first and then afterwards because hee was conceited that hee had fulfilled the Law and done it Christ puts him upon a duty that might convince him
Collins of Norwich The sum of practical Divinity or the grounds of Religion in a Catechistical way by Master Christopher Love late Minister of the Gospel an useful piece Heaven and Earth shaken a Treatise shewing how Kings and Princes and all other Governments are turned and changed by J. Davis Minister in Dover admirably useful and seriously to be considered in these times The Treasure of the Soul wherein wee are taught by dying to sin to attain to the perfect love of God A Treatise of Contentation fit for these sad and troublesome times by J. Hall Bishop of Norwich Select thoughts or choice helps for a pious Spirit beholding the excellency of her Lord Jesus by J. Hall Bishop of Norwich The holy Order or Fraternity of Mourners in Zion to which is added songs in the night or chearfulness under afflictions by J. Hall Bishop of Norwich The Celestial Lamp enlightning every distressed soul from the depth of everlasting darkness by T. Fetisplace Excellent 〈…〉 Mathematicks Geometry of Arithmetick 〈…〉 â—nd other Arts or Mechanicks The incomparablâ—â—â—â—atise of Tactometria sâ—â— Tetagmenometria or the Geometry of Regulars practically proposed after a new and most expeditious manner together with the Natural or Vulgar by way of Mensural comparison and in the Solids not onely in respect of Magnitude or Demension but also of Gravity or Ponderosity according to any Metal assigned together with useful experiments of Measures and Weights observations on gauging useful for those that are practised in the Art Metricald by T. Wybard Tectonicon shewing the exact measuring of all manner of Land Squares Timber Stones Steeples Pillars Globes as also the making and use of the Carpenters Rule c. fit to be known by all Surveyors Land-meters Joyners Carpenters and Masons by L. Diggs The unparallel'd work for ease and expedition entituled the Exact Surveyor or the whole Art of Surveying of Land shewing how to plot all manner of Grounds whether small Inclosures Champian Plain Wood-lands or Mountains by the plain Table as also how to finde the Area or Content of any Land to Protect Reduce or Divide the same as also to take the Plot or Chart to make a Map of any Mannor whether according to Rathburn or any other eminent Surveyors Method a Book excellently useful for those that sell purchase or are otherwise employed about buildings by J. Eyre The Golden Treatise of Arithmetick Natural and Artificial or Decimals the Theory and Practice united in a sympathetical proportion betwixt Lines and Numbers in their Quantities and Qualities as in respect of Form Figure Magnitude and Affection demonstrated by Geometry illustrated by Calculations and confirmed with variety of Examples in every Species made compendious and easie for Merchants Citizens Sea-men Accomptants c. by Th. Wilsford Corrector of the last Edition of Record Semigraphy or the Art of Short-writing as it hath been proved by many hundreds in the 〈…〉 â—â—â—don and other places by them practised 〈◊〉 â—â—owledged to bee the easiest exactest and swiftest Method the meanest capacity by the help of this Book with a few hours practice may attain to a perfection in this Art by J. Rich Author and Teacher thereof dwelling in Swithins-lane in London Milk for Children a plain and easie Method teaching to read and write usefull for Schools and Families by J. Thomas D. D. The Painting of the Ancients the History of the beginning progress and consummaâ—ing of the practice of that noble Art of Painting by F. Junius Excellent and approved Treatises in Physick Chirurgery and other more familiar Experiments in Cookery Preserving c. Culpeper's Semiatica Vranica his Astrological Judgement of Diseases from the decumbiture of the sick much enlarged the way and manner of finding out the cause change and end of the Disease also whether the sick bee likely to live or die and the time when Recovery or Death is to bee expected according to the judgement of Hyppocrates and Hermes Trismegistus to which is added Mr. Culpeper's censure of Urines Culpeper's last Legacy left to his Wife for the publick good being the choicest and most profitable of those secrets in Physick and Chirurgery which whilest he lived were lockt up in his breast and resolved never to bee published till after his death The Yorkshire Spaw or the virtue and use of that Water in curing of desperate Diseases with directions and rules necessary to bee considered by all that repair thither Most approved Medicines and Remedies for the diseases in the body of man by A. Read Doctour in Physick The Art of simpling an Introduction to the knowledge of gathering of Plants wherein the definitions divisions places descriptions differences names virtues times of gathering temperatures of them are compendiously discoursed of also a discovery of the lesser World by W. Coles Adam in Eden or Natures Paradise the History of Plants Herbs and Flowers with their several original names the places where they grow their descriptions and kindes their times of flourishing and decreasing as also their several signatures anatomical appropriations and particular physical virtues with necessary Observations on the seasons of planting and gathering of our English plants A work admirable useful for Apothecaries Chirurgions and other ingenuous persons who may in this Herbal finde comprized all the English physical Simples that Gerard or Parkinson in their two voluminous Herbals have discoursed of even so as to bee on emergent occasions their own Physicians the Ingredients being to bee had in their own Fields and Gardens published for the general good by W. Coles M. D. The Compleat Midwives practice in the high and weighty concernments of the body of Mankinde the second Edition corrected and enlarged with a full supply of such most useful and admirable secrets which Master Nicholas Culpeper in his brief Treatise and other English Writers in the Art of Midwifry have hitherto wilfully passed by kept close to themselves or wholly omitted by T. Chamberlain M. P. illustrated with Copper-Figures The Queens Closet opened incomparable Secrets in Physick Chirurgery Preserving Candying and Cookery as they were presented to the Queen by the most experienced persons of our times many whereof were honoured with her own practice True History and Divine Poetry The Tears of the Indians the History of the bloody and most cruel proceedings of the Spaniards in the Island of Hispaniola Cuba Jamaica Mexico Peru and other places of the West-Indies in which to the life are discovered the tyrannies of the Spaniards as also the justness of our War so successfully managed against them Harvey's Divine Poems the History of Balaam of Jonah and of St. John the Evangelist Fons Lachrymarum or a Fountain of Tears the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah in Verse with an Elegy on Sir Charles Lucas by J. Quarles The Admirable ingenuous Satyr against Hypocrites Several other accurately ingenuous Treatises lately printed Themis Aurea The Laws of the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross in which the occult Secrets of their Philosophical Notions are brought