the flesh is the onely King who did eat at the table of mens redemption Christ is he alone who hath troden the wine-press Isa 63.3 I have troden saith our Saviour speaking of that he was certainly to perform the winepress alone and of the people there was none with me Christ is he alone who hath been consecrated by afflictions for our salvation Heb. 5.9 For Christ being consecrated through sufferings became the authour of eternal salvation unto all those that obey him and there is no other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved but this of Jesus Christ who saith My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work Conclusion and Application Now brethren to conclude let us consider the great work of our Redemption which our Lord and Saviour performed from the birth of his sacred person to his death upon the Cross where he saith It is finished that we may abstain from sin and run after righteousness let us look upon the divine wisedom that found a way to punish our sins and with all save men by it nay more then that a way where the Physician took Physick for his Patient to cure him of all his spiritual diseases that we may never cease to praise the Lord our God whom we adore ler us admire here the tender affection of our dear Saviour who being offended as well as his Father notwithstanding the reconciliation of men with their God and him through his bloud that we may exclaim with the Apostle that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ Moreover let us consider in the work of our Redemption the union of heaven and earth which our sins had broke and you shall see that the sacred angels descend from heaven to protect help and comfort us against our enemies and eminent dangers which beset us in this corrupted world being now ministring spirits for them who shall be heirs of salvation Heb. 1.14 But to admire yet more the great benefits of the incomparable work of our Redemption consider seriously what we were by our sins before the decretal resolution of God to save men by Christ examine what we are now by nature the slaves of the Prince of darkness the sons of this corrupted world and the children of death and eternal damnation our condition was as it is by nature worse then Lots in Sodom then Israels in Egypt then Sampsons among the Philistins then the Jews in Babylon and the Prophets and Apostles in the obscure prisons for we were under the power of the god of this wotld bound with chains of obscurity and tyed fast to the infernal pillory for our eternal shame if Christ had not come to destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil Moreover let us learn here that although Christ is alone in this great work of our Redemption yet in the general enterprise of doing the will of God every one according to his condition is sent from him to do his will Kings and Princes have their work from God to do for as S. Paul saith Rom. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Princes are the Ministers of God for good they must kiss the eternal Son of God the Lord of lords and King of kings they must lay down at his feet their Sceptre and Diadem that their kingdoms may continue longer under them nay more then that they must administer all things for his glory all the kings of the world being under Christ the King of kings which the great Monarch of England most piously acknowledgeth by the Church when she saith that his Majesty is next and immediately under God and his Christ in his Dominions supreme Governour The subordinate Magistrates have also their work from God to perform they ought to do all things according to equity and minister justice without partiality and weigh with deliberation the considerable matters which they have in hand lest too much rashness in the execution of them should embroyl them and the people with ruine and confusion or some other fatal accidents All the Spiritual Guides and Ecclesiastical Superiours have a work from God to do which must be their meat they must consider that all things ought to be done decently and in order in the Church of God and that they must not do things to please their fancies or the common sort of people but our God and Christ our Redeemer who did seek onely the glory of his Father that sent him the nurses of piety and learning ought to apply their understandings for the work that they have to perform that they may finde some means to advance and promote the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and keep the Church of God from schism licentiousness and heresie all the Ministers have a work from God which they must accomplish for we are embassadours for Christ who hath given unto us the ministery of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18 which is a work of a sublime excellence where we feed our selves with divine meat when we give others the sincere milk of the word of God But further you know that all Christians have a work from God to do for they are sent from him to seek after the meat of obedience unto the word of God that they may live soberly and religiously before him and by a Christian conversation inflame the hearts of others to the glory of his holy Name Lastly all men and women have their work from God to accomplish in their vocation and family as well the greatest and richest as the least and poorest of all as well the Nobility as others their inferiours for to all the intelligent but mortal creatures the time is precious and given for a pious exercise it must not be employed about drunkenness but soberness not about the profanation of the sacred Name of God but its holy celebration nor about idleness but watchfulness Let us then brethren forsake our covetous desires let us not run after the impetuons blast of this world the time which we have employed for our covetousness pride and vanity ought to oblige us to redeem it and to lay aside the sin which doth so easily beset us in this corrupted world pursuing with patience the race that is set before us and looking unto Jesus the authour and finisher of our faith who saith My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work Amen FINIS
vegetative sensitive reasonable and intelligent creatures for we know that the God of heaven and earth gives life to all these creatures and that the natural life dependeth of him as of the God of nature but it is so called because God by the life of his grace liveth in his children that they may live unto him and conform themselves to his sacred Will for the regenerated know that by that life we die to sin and live to righteousness always tending towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God Moreover the life of grace is such an advantage to the regenerated Christian that by it the image of our God which we by our sins have desiled is restored in our corrupted nature and therefore the Scripture shews us that the life of grace is nothing else but the new creature and the new man I wish that I could speak with the tongue of Angels to express in some kinde that celestial and spiritual life which the Saints enjoy in our Saviour for I am sure that you would be ravished with admiration in the very hearing of that sacred life yet I desire that you give place to my weakness excuse my infirmities and suffer me to exhort you to run after it with all the sincerity of your hearts But before forsake the world and its lusts for it is impossible to live with Christ while we live the life of this corrupted world let then every one of us pull down the Idols which we have erected upon our hearts to the profanation of the Name of the Almighty God and confusion of our immortal souls you that are covetous let me perswade you to remove Mammon from your affections that you may offer an agreeable sacrifice unto God and come to the life of grace consider that riches continue not long with us for you know that sometimes the sea that unconstant Element takes by violence all ours and that which we had from others as great Merchants by experience may inform you and sometimes a sickness will consume our estate nay sometimes the negligence or bad conscience of our debitours will deprive us of all our revenues and make us poor and miserable but suppose that all your goods remain with you all your lives time at last they must leave you although you will not leave them for at death you carry nothing with you but a winding-sheet in the grave and a good or bad conscience before the tribunal of God You that are voluptuous leave your sensual pleasures that hinder you to come to the life of grace Consider that the pleasures of this world pass as soon as they appear unto us you enjoy them for some moments onely and that with grief after their possession for you know that sorrow inseparably follows the sensual pleasures of this world those beauties which captivate our affections are mortal and changeable and vanish at the least sickness but we are blinded by the fatal and irreligious Cupid which holds us fast with his voluptuous chains which we must break to turn our faces to the eternal beauty which is unchangeable and full of purity and holiness that we may enjoy the celestial pleasures with the spiritual life which we have in Christ you that are ambitious leave your worldly honours and pull down your pride and with humility desire of God through Jesus Christ the life of grace that you may live with our blessed Saviour let every sinner pluck his sins out of his own heart that he may be able to receive the celestial impressions upon it to die unto sin and live unto righteousness But observe that if the Saints or faithfull live with Christ in this world they reign also with him for it is onely in the gracious kingdom of Jesus Christ that we live the life of grace and it is true enough nay no Christian can deny that the Saints reign here with Christ for in his kingdom the Saints have power over their sinfull flesh when before their coming into it the flesh had power over them which obliges the grand Apostle S. Paul Rom. 6.12 to say let not sin reign therefore in your mortal bodies that you should obey it in the lusts thereof in that kingdom of Christ we have power over the prince of darkness the god of this world for in that kingdom we have him under our feet all that he can do is to howl and cry but not hurt nor offend for in all the assaults which the devil presents unto the regenerated Subjects of our Saviour in the kingdom of Christ they obtain the victory through him who suffered for their sins and destroyed for them that power which Satan had over them in that kingdom of our Lord we have also power over this corrupted world when before it had an Empire over us you are no more subjects nor slaves of its corruptible treasures vanishing honours and sensual pleasures for if you possess some honours enjoy some pleasures and have riches you apply not your hearts unto them and so you possess them as possessing them not Moreover Consider what advantage we have in that spiritual kingdom of Christ for reigning with him we are in some kinde mundi Domim the Lords of the world because we have a spiritual right to all the creatures of God for as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 3.21 all things are yours but I say a spiritual right to distinguish it from that which we call natural and civil right which men have to that which they legally possess for we must take heed of this errour which makes an universall confusion whereever it prevaileth Now give me leave to tell you that it is by faith that we here reign with Christ and that it is by hope by charity and by patience with all the rest of the Christian vertues for you know that they defend and hold us fast against our enemies so that we prevail against them in our afflictions and calamities even in our death Leave then the Millenaries with the earthly opinion of their worldly kingdom let them possess the earth if they will as for us we must look up to heaven to give there all our meditations while we live upon the earth we must leave the earthly kingdoms to the Alexanders and Gaesars and seek after the spiritual kingdom of Christ for it is impossible to come into the Celestial Palace of our God if we have not been in the gracious kingdom of our Saviour then let us all look now for that kingdom and keep there all our life time that having lived and reigned with Christ in grace we may hereafter live and reign with him in glory Amen To the truly Noble and Religious Gentlewoman M. rs TAMISEN BROOK Grace Happiness and Peace Madam IF I were ignorant of your great Piety and Charity many hundred Families would make me know it you and your most worthy Family is always at work for the poor members of our blessed Saviour you are another
the angel that came and stood at the altar is our blessed Saviour as the best of interpreters teach us God manifested in the flesh an object which angels and men are not us'd to behold Christ the angel of the great council and the messenger of the covenant as the Prophet Malachy tels us Mal. 3.1 Christ our high-Priest who offered a sacrifice not of beasts but of himself upon the altar of the Cross and therefore at his coming into the world to assume our humane nature to satisfie the divine justice for mens sins he caused a great admiration unto angels and at his manifestation procured in heaven the militant Church a profound silence But that you may have a greater satisfaction I beseech you look upon the 3. verse of our Chapter and you will easily see the cause of this silence to be Christ our Redeemer for it is said in that verse that another angel Christ our Priest and Mediatour came having assumed our humane nature and stood at the altar to shew us that he was offered in sacrifice for our sins where you must observe that Christ is our Priest according to both his natures our altar according to his divine nature for as the altar sanctified the oblation Mat. 23.19 so Christ as God sanctified himself in his humane nature according to which humane nature Christ properly is our sacrifice as you may see in the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians 22. ver and in 1 Pet. 4.1 although the principal vertue of his sacrifice did depend on his divine nature Moreover it is said that the angel had a golden censer to teach us that Christ gave God the Father a perfect and eternal satisfaction that we might be delivered from the eternal slavery of the prince of darkness which our sins had made us subject to and further it saith that much incense was given him to shew us that the peculiar office of Christ is to present God the Father the prayers of the righteous and make them acceptable unto him through his intercession which alone without the intercession of the departed Saints is sufficient for all those that he redeemed by his precious bloud as you may see in the 4. verse where it is said that the smoak of the incense which came with the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the angels hand all which things could not but cause silence in heaven the militant Church and ravish with admiration all the intelligent creatures in the opening of so great a mystery which the angels desire to look into 1 Pet. 1.12 Moreover seeing that the angel Christ took the censer and filled it with fire of the altar as we reade in the 5. verse and cast it into the earth to prepare by that sacred sire the Ministers of the holy Gospel to preach one Jesus Christ and him crucified as he did after his ascension into the glorious palace of his Father as we reade Act. 2.3 the Church could not but keep silence and further hearing voices thundrings lightnings and earthquakes at the opening of the great and sublime mystery of our redemption for the confirmation of it she could not but admire with a profound silence such prodigious effects as many for certain do in this world at the hearing of this great mystery and I hope many in this company cannot but wonder at it and say being ravished in admiration with S. John at the opening of so great a mystery there was silence in heaven but I am afraid of abusing of your patience seeing that this silence should continue but half an hour there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour which leads me to the second part of my Text. The second part As the intelligent creatures are limited and finite so is their contemplation which doth not permit them to consider several things at once for their understandings present them the objects one after another according to the capacity of their natures and indeed God alone is he who can at once comprehend all things because he alone compasseth about all the creatures of the Universe and which is most admirable in the knowledge which God hath of all things is that to know them he doth not look upon them but upon himself for in his wisdom he sees the eternal models of all things and in his will the efficient cause of all the events so that by the knowledge that God hath of himself he knoweth all things but it is not so with the intelligent creatures for they must alternatively and by degrees consider several natures whether they look upon them Intuitivè intuitively as angels or discursivè discursively as men or consider them with admiration as both angels and men as you may see in our Text there was silence in heaven for the space of half an hour because the sacred attendants of the militant Church could not at once in a moment perceive all those wonders which we have told you were seen in heaven during the celestial silence of which S. John speaks saying there was silence in heaven for the space of half an hour But this duration of time half an hour hath some difficulty in its explication for some learned men will have it to be the duration of the external peace of the Church of God under Constantine the Great which seemed to have lasted but about the space of half an hour for soon after that peace heresies and schisms did spring up in the Church as it did appear by the Arians against whom the great Council of Nice was held being called by Constantine the Emperour Lyranus will have the space of half an hour to be the duration of the persecution of Julian the Apostate who imposed silence unto the Church and commanded her not to instruct her children nor give them any consolation grounded upon the merit of our blessed Saviour which continued but a little while about the space of half an hour for soon after he died in the wars which he did undertake against the Persians where this monstrous Apostate vomited out a damnable blasphemy against our blessed Lord whom he used to call Galilean for he dying took some of his bloud cast it up in the air and said Vicisti Galilaee vicisti thou hast overcome Galilean thou hast overcome at last but Leaving those interpretations with many others give me leave to tell you that by the space of half an hour is understood all the time of the actings which S. John saw in heaven the militant Church at the opening of the seventh seal from the 2. ver of our Chapter to the 7. for the things which are represented unto that verse did seem to Saint John to have continued but a little while about the space of half an hour so short a time that S. John was nothing weary in the contemplation of them and indeed if you observe our Chapter you will easily perceive a perfect silence kept in the
militant Church by the sacred members of it unto the 7. verse where the first angel by the sounding of his trumpet did break that sacred silence for you must observe that those voices thundrings lightnings and earthquakes which are mentioned in the 5. verse and seem to break our sacred silence do not at all break it for you see that it was the angel Christ our Redeemer and not the Church that caused such things and these thundrings voices lightnings and earthquakes which follow after the casting of the sire into the earth signifie and represent to us the effects of the Evangelical doctrine of which the sacred object is Christ and him crucified For the Evangelical doctrine tels us with a sweet voice that salvation comes into the house of those that are in Christ Jesus and with a thunder teacheth us what punishments attend the impenitent and if the wicked do not repent they will be consumed by the thunder of the divine justice this celestial doctrine with lightnings declareth unto us the purity of our conversation the holiness of our life and integrity of our actions which are as so many lights shining before men to the glory of God and sacred assurance of our salvation and with a kinde of earthquake the doctrine of the Gospel reacheth unto us because it makes us tremble when we hear that we must give an account of all our actions even of our idle words Mat. 12.36 before the tribunal of the Almighty God which things did not break the silence but rather confirmed and caused it for the Church could not but keep silence at the hearing and considering of all these sacred and heavenly effects of the Evangelical doctrine So then you will easily perceive that silence was kept in the latter end of the second vision which appears in the 4. Chapt. the beginning of the prophetical revelation and endeth at the 7. verse of our chapter in which there was silence during all the time of the actings that the preceding verses represent unto us which S. John expresseth to have continued about the space of half an hour and not without cause for these things are so agreeable unto the sacred angels and holy members of the Church that the continual contemplation of them seems not long Moreover you must observe that S. John is very judicious when he represents unto us our contemplation in this life on the great mystery of our redemption with a profound silence under the space of half an hour for he did know that the life of the militant Church upon the earth is short and passes almost as soon as it appeareth in this world nay more then that he was not ignorant that whilest we live in our mortal bodies our contemplations upon that great mystery continue not long for soon after our divine meditations even in our contemplations the devil the world and our flesh cause our attention to be turned from them to look upon some terrestrial vain and corruptible objects by the representing of several things which sollicite us to obey that cruel master run after its ambition and follow the sinful motion of our lust Conclusion and Application But let us conclude and being here taught to admire with a profound silence the great mystery of our Redemption let us learn to look upon Christ the angel of the great counsel of the almighty God and the messenger of the covenant Mal. 3.1 6. our Mediatour who performed that incomparable work for as himself saith Joh. 4.34 My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work which was our redemption and indeed as the world was erected by Christ so it was redeemed by him let us consider that in the performance of our redemption the just did suffer for the unjust as S. Peter teacheth us 1 Pet. 3.18 where God commendeth his love towards us as S. Paul saith Rom. 5.8 in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Christ a lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1.19 Christ our High-Priest holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and higher then the heavens Heb. 7.26 but let us stay here to cast the eyes of our understanding on our blessed Redeemer that we may seriously consider the holiness and integrity of his life and conversation to imitate our Saviour for saith S. Paul Rom. 8.29 whom God did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son Let us consider the punishments which Christ endured upon the Cross to redeem us from our iniquities which punishments were so great that they drew from his sacred mouth this complaint My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27.46 Let us look upon them that we may impose silence to our sins which speak so loud in our mortal bodies that the clamour of them ascends up to heaven and draweth down upon our heads the punishing thunder of the divine Justice Silence to our ambition the first and greatest of all sins which opposeth Gods independency and immensity and fights against him for his crown of glory that vice and immoderate affection of our souls the inheritance of our first Parents possesseth all men from their infancy groweth with them to the grave where in golden letters upon a most rich Tomb you see the rest of our ambition which should teach us to avoid such a monster indeed the birth of ambition is different from that of other vices for other vices as gluttony and drunkenness have vices for their parents but ambition proceeds from vertue as a base born child for it was born in the highest heaven when those Angelical spirits now devils were pure and in the estate of integrity then in the terrestrial Paradise for that bastard daughter of vertue ambition descended from heaven and at the creation of our first Parents sho did secretly enter into the garden of Eden where she seduced them when they were in their most pure condition for both angels and men desiring most ambitiously to be like unto God did become the most odious of all the creatures angels became devils and men the slaves of the prince of darkness the god of this world as the grand Apostle speaks the chief of these apostate intelligences Silence to our vanity for vanity is nothing else but a mortal folly and the object of it corruption and filthiness as the wisest of kings teacheth us Let us not then glory our selves in vain things in corruptible riches worldly honours and sensual pleasures let us not boast of our beauty nor worship that fatal idol of lasciviousness for you know that the greatest beauty of the world is but a mortal beauty the least distemper sometimes will change the fairest face into a monstrous visage as Cleopatra did well know for seeing that beauty decayed she did think to have found a way to render hers immortal by causing her self to be engraved upon a most rich diamond but she was mistaken for the
not question being fully perswaded of your Affection towards me which I shall ever acknowledge and highly esteem remaining unto death Sir Your Worships most humble and obliged Servant James Le Franc. Christ's and the Saints Reign OR The Millenaries Confuted Delivered in a Sermon Preached at S. Andrews in Norwich REV. 20.4 And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years IF any matter hath ever required attention I am perswaded that you will confess that this doth require it for the learned Interpreters have so variously expounded it that it is difficult to determine our selves upon this Subject Indeed I had not medled with it if I had not perceived the errour of some of the common people which follow some blinde leaders whose ambition is to extoll themselves and break asunder the Church of God to have some followers for amongst the Sectaries you see so many of them blinded by their ignorance that they will rather choose a worldly reign then a Spiritual Kingdom earth for heaven and temporal delights for eternal pleasures but leaving them for a while upon their earthly Throne give me leave to tell you that this Chapter contains three principal parts The first of which regards the space of a thousand years under which Christ with his Saints shall reign upon the earth The second includes the short time in which Satan after the expiration of the thousand years shall be loosed out of his prison from whence you may consider what will be the condition of the world when in that time you shall see it embroiled with dissentions wars and seductions as you may see by the 8. and 9. ver of our Chapter The third part teacheth us the general Judgement of the Universe where the wicked shall be condemned to eternal punishment and the godly declared the heirs of eternal felicity and glory But as our Text is under the first part of our Chapter let me tell you that S. John in the beginning of it brings in an angel which is Christ coming down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit with a great chain in his hand to binde with it the dragon which is the devil Satan a thousand years shut him up into the bottomless pit with a seal upon him to stay his power and hinder his tyrannical Empire over the humane kinde that he may deceive the nations no more where in the golden age of Satans chaining you may consider the condition of the faithfull and godly men and see their conquests triumphs and victories over their enemies in their very punishments death for the promulgation of the Gospel and the advancing of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ for in the 4. ver the beloved Disciple of our Saviour S. John saith that he saw thrones and they that is the Martyrs sate upon them and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God which had not worshipped the Antichristian beast neither his image nor bad received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands adding and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years which are the words which I have chosen to entertain you with by the special assistance of the blessed Spirit but for a clear intelligence of them I shall divide my Text into two parts where in the first I shall speak of the life and reign of the Saints with Christ in these words and they lived and reigned with Christ and in the second part I shall shew you the duration of it a thousand years and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years The first Part. If we consider the holy Scripture we may evidently see that our Saviour hath onely two several Kingdoms the one providential which is that universal Soveraignty by which Christ manageth the affairs of all the whole world both in heaven and earth the other spiritual which is that royal but celestial authority which he exerciseth over his people the elect which is that kingdom in which the Saints or faithfull live and reign with Christ as you may see in Revel 5.10 where it is said that Christ hath made us unto our God kings and priests that we may reign on the earth or and we shall reign on the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that in a spiritual manner so in Rom. 5.12 we reade that if by one mans offence death reigneth by one much more they which receive abundance of grace shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ and in our Text and they lived and reigned with Christ Which makes me wonder at the Chiliasts or Millenaries opinion which gives our Saviour in this place of Scripture as in many others a third Kingdom which they call Monarchical wherein Christ when he enters upon it will govern as earthly Monarchs do universally over the world in a visible and earthly glory and splendour which is the personal reign which they give to our blessed Lord and which I observe to be diversly understood by its assertors For the Jews perswade themselves that at the possession of that Kingdom Jerusalem shall be most splendidly reedified with the Temple which according to them will be the third Sacrifices offered unto the God of Israel Marriages amongst themselves most gloriously celebrated and all prosperity and happiness without any molestation or hindrance of their enemies enjoyed so that they understand that reign of Jesus Christ both carnal and spiritual Some ancient Doctours of the Christian Primitive Church as Justin dialog contra Tryphon Lactantius ille Firmianus Tertullian against Marcion lib. 2. and others were of that opinion that the Monarchical Kingdom of Jesus Christ should be administred in a spiritual manner without any bloudy sacrifice or libation without marriages or sensual pleasures for as Justin Martyr after his discourse about the day of judgement which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith to Trypho the Jew at that time we shall immolate true and spiritual sacrifices and offer praises and thanks-givings unto our God without any bloudy sacrifice upon an altar Some hereticks as Cerinthius and Apollinaris understood that Monarchical Kingdom of Jesus Christ in a fleshly manner saying that the Saints should reign with Christ upon the earth in all manner of voluptuous pleasures gulae luxuriae of gluttony and wantonness which perhaps may be the sense of some of our Sectaries although they pretend to interpret it of a visible and earthly Monarchy without any fleshly and sinfull volupty as one Archer a London-Divine expresseth it But I will not stay so long upon that Monarchical Kingdom for we do not know such a kingdom in the holy Scripture attributed unto Christ nor to the Saints although you reade in my Text and they lived and reigned with Christ and indeed it is evident that the Scripture denies it for we read S. Joh. 18.36 that Christ said to Pilate my Kingdom is not of this world nor
Dorcas full of good works your thoughts are always in heaven though you live upon the earth your words tend continually to union and peace and your great care is to work out your salvation with fear and trembling which is seen not onely in your private devotions but in the publick ones where I may say that you are a pious and godly example to all others of your Sex indeed the Church of England among all the daughters she did procreate there are few to be compared with you but if your humility will not accept of that expression permit me to make all the English world know that the Church never possessed a better one for every one knows that your house is a Temple and a little Church where Vows and Prayers are continually sent up to heaven for the preservation of the Church of England our mother and for our gracious Prince nay for the conversion of those that are distant from the true knowledge of our Saviour who came into the world to redeem us from our iniquities the redemption of men being our Saviours meat which I present you with as it was delivered by me in a Sermon which I hope you will accept being the meat which daily you and your worthy Family feed upon for I am not ignorant that it is your singular pleasure and delectation nay I am sure that it is so agreeable unto you that you will kindely receive it from him who is Madam Your most humble and obedient Servant James Le Franc. Christs Spiritual Meat Delivered in a Sermon Preached in English at the French Church in Norwich S. JOH 4.34 My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work IT is common amongst men to extoll the persons of merit and reputation but if any amongst you hath ever esteemed a learned and most prudent wit that could upon any matter choose considerations fit for the instruction of his auditours and by the object of the sight and other external senses could with a marvellous industry and aptness awake the internal senses and lift up our understandings to the contemplation of the highest things let him now reflect upon our Master the eternal Wisedom of God the Father our great doctour Christ who is over all God blessed for ever let him say with me that there is none that ought to be parallel'd with him for if you consider the industry which Christ our Mediatour used when he was living upon the earth you will easily conclude that it was admirable for he ever made use of his Celestial Industry to promote his Fathers glory and mens salvation taking sometimes an occasion from their too great inclination which they had after the things of this world to draw them into the knowledge and inquisition of spiritual and eternal things of the heavenly Jerusalem as you may observe in the 6. Chapt. of S. John where Christ seeing the people carefull to seek after him for onely corruptible and common meat took occasion to discourse with them about the sacred bread of God and the spiritual manna which if any man eat of he shall live for ever Now let us follow Christ through Samaria to observe some things of his celestial actions and wonderfull works but seeing that Christ doth stay let us stay with him for I perceive that our Saviour is weary of his journey and forced to rest himself on Jacobs well but while he resteth himself there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water Christ discourseth with her about the true and spiritual worship of God and takes occasion from the water to instruct her about the celestial fountain of living water which she tasted of with such pleasure that she leaving her waterpot went into the City to call her fellow-Citizens the Samaritans and invite them to the participation of that spiritual water which she had received from our blessed Saviour But while she thus runs to invite them the disciples of our Lord desire him to eat but Christ whose hunger was after the souls of men said unto them I have meat to eat that ye know not of which made them beleeve that while they were absent some body had brought him something to eat saying one to another hath any man brought him ought to eat but Christ that he might no longer keep them in suspence because it was given unto them to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven teaches them with sew but significant words a great and sublime mystery saying My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work which are the words which I have chosen to entertain you with by the special assistance of the holy Ghost but for a clear intelligence of them I shall divide my Text into two parts where in the first I shall entertain you with the will and work of him that sent Christ and in the second part I shall shew you that that will and work of God is our Saviours meat My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work The first Part. As the Philosophers place the moral vertues in two ranks where in the first the vertues are glorious and worthy to be loved of themselves as Justice and in the second rank worthy to be wished for the vertues of the first as Courage which is a sit vertue when justice ceaseth amongst men so the Schoolmen divide the attributes of God into two orders where in the first the attributes are incommunicable unto the creatures as Gods Immensity Independency and Unchangeableness for all the creatures of the Universe even the Angels are dependent changeable and limited natures but the attributes of the second order are said to be proportionably communicable in effectis analogis by the resemblance of the effects as Gods Wisdom Goodness and Will for you know that those attributes are ascribed unto Angels and given unto men and as God hath a will so have Angels and men as being the right of the intelligent creatures But here we shall not speak of Angels nor mens will but of Gods will My meat is to do the will of him that sent me for he that sent Christ is God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost according to the old Maxim of Divinity opera Dei ad extra sunt indivisa seu toti Trinitati Communia the outward operations of God are common to the whole Trinity so that you must observe that the Son the second Person of the blessed Trinity was sent as Mediatour for he was one of those blessed Persons who did consult about mens redemption nay more then that he was that sacred one who of his own free-will offered himself to be consecrated for the performance of that gracious work as you may see Heb. 10.5 6 7. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared me in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure then said I lo I come