in both and how short we have been of that due Reverence and regard those Sacred Mysteries require Shall I ask you then for so he must do that will examine what time you have taken from your earthly affairs to bestow on this holy imployment nay ask but your own hearts and they will quickly answer you for have you afforded your selves I say not a month or a week but a day or two or some hours of them to call your Souls to a strict account to strip your hearts of worldly cares and vanities and recal your wandering thoughts to those severe and serious cogitations as may become your own sanctification and the high and holy institution of your Saviour Consider well whether with David you have entred into the Chambers of your own bosoms and faithfully communed with your own Souls whether you have tryed out your hearts and reins and your spirit hath made diligent search as he both did and requires Observe heedfully whether casting off all masks and visors of Hypocrisy all Fig-leaves of diminution and excuse how thou hast exposed thy self and thy Soul naked unto the view of thy searching Conscience whether thy mortified heart beginning to thaw with remorse hath freely opened her pleits and folds wherein she hid her iniquity and presented thee with her sins in their true shape that thou mightest as truly detest and abhor them If it be so it is well if not take heed labour and strive weep cry pray do not cease be not satisfied till it be so for then it will never be right thy preparation will lack of his due and thy examination will be lame But I examine this examination no farther It is a secret act known only to their own reins and the searcher of them to whom therefore I remit it and pass on to the qualities and vertues wherewith you are to prepare and wherein I may more freely examine and evict your Souls as having outward and sensible effects whereby they may be judged And the first of these to omit knowledge whereof we have spoken sufficiently already is Faith but here examination thou thinkest altogether needless for thou art most sure and certain thou believest Yet what if one should tell thee thou didst not believe like enough thou wouldst tell him againâ— thou dost not believe him in that for thou wilt still say thou knowest nothing better than that thou believest why and I know it too and know more that the very Devils believe and tremble which is something farther and their Faith peradventure something better than thine who believest and dost not tremble which yet thou well mightest didst thou understand thy self or believe in God aright and as thou oughtest But the truth is most mens Faith as we shewed but now of the understanding follows their affections believing little more than what they desire Should a Man preach and maintain that the goods of this world ought not to be ingrossed into private and particular hands but that all things as it was in the primitive Church amongst Christians should be common who think you would believe this soonest the Rich or the Poor The Poor indeed would quickly embrace it because beneficient to them but the Rich that should be losers by it would hardly or never assent In like manner should we urge that precept under the Law that money should be lent freely to our brethren that want and not be put out to interest or inforce that Divine Precept of the Gospel to lend and look for nothing again Matth. vi the poor Creditor you may be sure will entertain this for his relief but the griping â—surer is deaf on that side and can easily find out shifts and distinctions to avoid his own inconvenience Search now and examine thy self narrowly and see if thy Faith doth not deal thus with God in the chief Articles of it scarce ever believing any thing but what it likes The object of Divine Faith is the word of God wherein besides Histories the chief things it proposeth to believe are but three Precepts Comminations and Promises Precepts of duty Comminations of punishments and Promises of reward to the observers or neglecters of them And all those equally to be assented unto because delivered by the word of the same God otherwise thy Faith is defective and maimed See then and consider truly whether thou dost adhere unto the one as to the other whether thy Faith doth not rest only upon the promises neglecting the duties and yet slighting the threatnings against those that neglect them The promises of Mercy indeed are sweet and comfortable who doth not willingly and gladly believe them but comminations and duties are terrible and troublesome and few will give them faithful entertainment That Christ suffered on the Cross and shed his blood for the sins of the whole world and every mans in particular is a pleasant and grateful Doctrine how doth our Faith hug and embrace it as if there were nothing else to be believed But should we once thunder out that of St. Paul That notwithstanding this blood no Lyer no Drunkard no Adulterer no covetous or unclean Person shall enter into the Kingdom of God here our Faith is at a stand and will be sure either not to believe it or never to acknowledge that themselves are such Again blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin saith David yea marry blessed be that tongue for ever I believe it with all my heart nay read a little farther and in whose spirit there is no guile how now why dost thou stagger pish 't is impossible this seems to have crept into the Text no body knows how St. Paul when he cited it left it out and weare not bound to believe it or any thing else we cannot away with There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus saith St. Paul a gracious promise and aâ—very cordial to the Soul every Man is ready to lay hold of it before it be out of his mouth but to whom doth it appertain To them as it follows which walk not after the flesh but after the spirit This is a severe duty on our part and a very corrosive to the flesh which will hardly be brought in subjection to the law of God and therefore will not easily believe it should or possibly may be Thus thy fruitless and preposterous Faith is ever strong to lay hold on the promises though weak and of no power to work obedience to the commands or believe the judgments denounced against disobeyers For didst thou so truly thy belief would teach thee to tremble for which cause I told thee thy Faith which in this case is only a carnal confidence falls short of that which the Scripture tells us is found in Devils that believe and tremble Nay if we search and examine a little farther we shall find thy Faith failing even in the very promises For though in spiritual promises that concern mercy and remission of
sins now or the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter thou art more than faithful even foolishly presumptuous yet in the promises which pertain unto this life we are all for the most part though Christians in profession yet in truth and practice gross and palpable Infidels Thou beginnest thy Creed with I believe in God the Father Almighty wherein thou dost acknowledge him thy Father and therefore willing Almighty and therefore able to relieve and succour thee in all thy wants and distresses but from the teeth outwards for let want or distress approach though but afar off how art thou presently perplexed what anxious and heart-breaking care doth instantly vex and discâ—ciate thy very Soul how are thy thoughts lost and distracted this way and that and every way searching and bending thy will upon all humane helps and succours that may be imagined with such fear and distrust as if there were no God in Heaven or providence of his upon earth Tell him how of his Father Almighty that knows whereof he shall need and will not fail if he first seek his kingdom and the righteousness thereof to add and supply all other things that are necessary and you shall give him as much comfort as if you had cast water in his Shooes He is clear out of his belief now and Pater noster too when if you shew him the plain Text in Mat. Take no care that is no anxious and solicitous care what you shall eat or wherewith you shall be cloathed or in David do good and verily thou shalt be fed he will sooner laugh at their promises than believe them Nay which is strange a Man whom God hath well blest that hath 〈◊〉 want within ken nor likely to have any yet scrapes and scratches on every side as if poverty were coming on him like an armed Man as Solomon speaks who if urged to relieve the necessities of his poor Brother without a small piece of Silver though the King intreat and the King of Heaven command and his Ministers perswade yet it may not be wrâ—ng from him He can presently cast doubts who knows whether himself or his Children may not live to want Shew him the promises of God in the Scripture assuring the contrary that it shall be a means to prosper and multiply the rest tell him that of the Wiseman Cast thy bread upon the waters and after many days thou shalt find it or that of another be that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord yet nothing can move him which manifestly argues either he doth not believe God when he says it or at least not believe he is a good paymaster yet this Man thinks he hath Faith nay many of them are so far from relieving as they can find in their hearts to oppress and grind those that are poor enough already and as if they conceived that honest courses and Gods blessing on them were too weak means to provide sufficiently for themselves and Children they can shift and shark project and undermine screw themselves into testaments and deceive trusts buy over their Brothers head that imploys them for himself and use all their wits and fraudulent devices to compass an estate and root their possession in it for ever madly supposing to establish their Generations by those ways for which God never fails as he every where threatens to weed them or their posterity out of the Inheritance so purchased it being his glory ever to destroy the wisdom of the wise and to ruine the house built in fraud or on the ruines of others For the hope of the wicked saith Job is as the spiders web cunningly spun out with a great deal of labour all night and suddenly swept away in the morning What Faith then is there in this or indeed what is it else but a wild branch of meer Gentilism and infidelity if not absolute Atheism For did he truly believe God or his comminations it were not possible one that loves his Children so well could run so direct a course to destroy them But assuredly he doth not believe and whatsoever we pretend yet for the most part we secretly say in our hearts with that Fool in the Psalm if not there is no God yet at least there is no knowledge in the most high or else with those wicked ones in Job tush God careth not circa cardines coeli perambulat his walk is about the hinges of Heaven he doth not trouble himself to behold or regard the things upon Earth Do not suppose I wrong you search your own Consciences truly and I believe the best of you all will find even this infidelity lurking in them For wert thou absolutely assured in thy Soul of the omniscience and omnipresence of the Lord didst thou faithfully believe that he is every where and beholdeth every action and operation of thine though never so secret that he is about thy path and about thy bed and spyeth out all thy wayes and seeth thy thoughts more clearly than thou thy self how were it possible for thee in his presence and under those eyes so often and deeply to dissemble with thy Brother with thine own heart and with God himself Couldst thou imagine a window in thy bosome and thy Neighbour permitted now and then when thou dreamest not of it to look in upon thy impure and fraudulent thoughts and see how thy cogitations are busied how would thy Soul shame and blush to be taken tardy in such base and unworthy imployments which yet thou canst freely exercise and continue without any trouble or interruption at all though God himself and his pure eyes behold them whereunto thy breast is transparent as glass and more open than the air what doth this shew but that thou believest it not for to believe his presence truly and so much contemn it is meerly impossible It is beyond imagination to conceive were thy Faith firm in this point how it possibly can be that the sight of God and his holy Angels should not deter thee not only from thinking but from acting those secret works of darkness which the coming in but of a little child can utterly interrupt and hinder Of necessity thou must be driven to confess either that thy Faith is asleep and thou dost not believe it or thy reverence utterly dead that thou esteemest of a child more than thy Maker Assuredly could we fortify our perswasions but in this one Article of Faith and strongly apprehend the truth of it nothing could be of greater power to purge our hearts and our hands too from all evil and uncleanness Thus if thou carefully examine thy faith by the effects and judge of it as thou shouldst by thine actions for the tree is known by her fruit thou wilt easily find notwithstanding thy former conceipt of thy self how full of infidelity thy false heart is and how little thou believest either threats or precepts or promises or providence or any thing else sincerely and as thou shouldest Well therefore it would
hope I may have good leave so to order it setting the first last and the last first as in Nature and dignity they deserve And therefore reserving the second place and ending of this discourse unto the destruction of the wicked that shall never end we will begin through the help of God with that help and salvation which the Elect receive of God by a Decree that never had beginning but is as Eternal as he himself who for this respect here saies In me is thy help At the feet of whose Divine Majesty I now cast my self humbly beseeching and imploring his aid and assistance unto my Heart and Tongue in these high and secret Mysteries that I may speak nothing but what is agreeable unto his holy word and that with such reverence as becomes his Majesty and this Sacred Place Since this whole sentence as I said is appliable unto either sort of people it followeth that before we speak of this special help of the Elect we say something of that destruction whereunto this help doth relate wherein notwithstanding we shall not need to spend much time for that the Elect of God have destroyed themselves that is were and are in themselves worthy of destruction none I think do either doubt or deny Only concerning the order and precedence question hath been made some giving the priority unto Election affirming that they were first elected who afterwards through sin came to deserve destruction as thinking it impossible that the merit of destruction as being a temporal Act should preceed the free mercy of God established by an eternal Decree and thereby which is the cause of no few errours inverting and perverting both the order of my Text and the nature of the things strangely presupposing help or salvation without supposing any former destruction which such relative terms must of necessity respect As strange a contradiction as if they should say that punishing Justice did precede the fault which it doth punish or acts of mercy might be extended on those that never were in misery For since the decrees of Election and Reprobation are made and ordained by the same properties in God whereby men are punished or saved it follows that as Reprobation must needs be an act of punishing Justice so Election an effect of contrary Mercy And herein doth consist the special difference between the Predestination of Men and Angels For their Election was a mercy preserving them from falling into the pit of destruction But ours a mercy raising us up and drawing us out of that destruction whereinto we were faln Theirs may better be termed Goodness than Mercy because it is not opposite unto Justice as ours is and therefore is not goodness but strictly and properly the mercy of God now Misericordiae propria sedes miseria est the proper seat or object of Mercy is misery saith St. Bernard And therefore Qui non ponit primò miseriam in lapsâ— hominis ponere ill misericordiam in Electione non potest He that first grants not misery in the fall can never place mercy in the Election of man said a late worthy Bishop both agreeing with that of Esdras after his confession unto God But because of us senners thou shalt be called merciful To make this yet more manifest by the definition of Election It is saith St. Austin Praeparatio benoficiorum Dei quâ—bus certissimè liberantur quieunque liberantur A preparation of those benefits of God whereby they are certainly saved whosoever are saved And what are these benefits but a new heart and a new Spirit begotten through effectual grace and a powerful vocation unto sincere repentance and to lively faith in the death and blood of the Son of God Now what have any of these to do with Innocency To whom else may they belong but a sinner but to one subjected and devoted unto that destruction from whence he could not be delivered but by the mercy of such a Redeemer As for the reason drawn from the time of sin and the Decree of Salvation before all time the deceit and errour of that doth apparently consist in a wrong comparing of an external Act of mans with an internal Act of Gods when the comparison should have been if rightly made between two internal acts of God for mans work is here to be considered not as it was done by him but as it was foreseen by God and then if thus taken you shall easily find the temporary sin of man to be no less eternal in Gods prescience than the deliverance from it or punishment for it could be in his Decree For as Gods Electing doth in order of necessity presuppose the foresight of their being that are elected though they be elected before they be quia objectum prius est in se quà m objiciatur actus in ipsum tendenti So for the same reason that it doth presuppose this positive foresight of their being it must also the permissive of their being miserable because Election is from mercy and mercy as is said doth always presuppose its object which is misery It follows therefore to conclude this point that the very Elect of God acknowledge to the praise of the riches of his exceeding free compassion that when he in his secret determination set it down Those shall live and not die they lay as ugly spectacles before him as Lepers covered with dung and mire as Ulcers putrified in their Fathers Loins miserable and worthy of nothing but to be had in detestation In the proof whereof I have made the longer stay partly because it opens a passage for some things that must follow anon but especially that the truth of St. Austins opinion might more clearly appear affirming that in the search of Election and Reprobation no mans wit should presume to ascend above the miserable mass of corruption Mans Nature at first was by Creation Gold but Sin was the poysonous menstruum the aqua regis more than Chymical that dissolved it and drew off the purer parts leaving unto us nothing but this earth and these faeces of that Gold Thus was his fall a great fall indeed from the purity of Gold to the vility of Clay and this Clay is that impure lump meant by St. Austin over which he grants with the Apostle that the Potter hath power thereout to frame Vessels either to dishonour or honour as it pleaseth him best The one being their desert the other his own mercy Huic fit misericordia tibi nou fit injuria saith the same Father God chuseth one he refuseth another to him he sheweth mercy to thee he doth no injury since the one doth receive but what all do deserve But enough of the desert of destruction now of the undeserved help For Man might fall of himself but rise again he could not without the help of another nor of any other but him who here saith In me is thy help And that we have help from God and that we need so to
but his wilful self if he perish It is that Calix salutaris Davids Cup of Salvation wherein is a potion mixed and tempered for all Complexions and all Distempers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the universal medicine of the World of power and virtue enough to cure all if all drink it so they drink it not upon full Stomachs but after a time of fasting and abstinence if not from flesh yet from those fleshly Lusts that war against the Soul As Naamans servants said unto him when Elisha willed him to repair unto Jordan for the cure of his Leprosy If the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it how much rather then when he saith unto thee only Wash and be clean so may we unto you if God should command you sick unto death and poisoned with a more contagious Leprosie than ever Naaman was to do some great thing for your recovery would you not do it how much rather then now when he says only Drink and be whole It is open and proposed to all no Man is debarred no Man excepted yea all are invited nay all commanded Drink ye all of this even when Judas himself was one of them all yea and there is no doubt but if Judas afterwards with a faithful and penitent heart had drank it he might have been saved by a draught of that blood which himself drew out and betrayed There can be no stronger argument for the general intent of Christs death than this holy Mystery wherein it is generally offered If his purpose in shedding be not as large as his command for drinking his blood he must say one thing and purpose another which is hypocrisie with Men and let his portion be with Hypocrites for my part that shall think so of god Doth he enjoin you upon pain of death those many which are called to receive that which he never meant to give but to those few only that are elected doth he now bind those to believe in his death to whom he never intended any good or benefit when he died who therefore if they should believe must notwithstanding be damned in their belief or else saved for believing a falshood Both infinitely absurd and contain as a Sea of injury against God so a swallowing Gulf of disconsolation and desperation against Men. To avoid which shall we minister this blessed Sacrament with a tacite and secret condition if thou belong unto the Elect as Zanchius and some others otherwise learned driven by the like or rather the same absurdities confess they baptized Children even the Children of the faithful a dangerous Doctrine and of most fearful consequence making Christ himself that is the truth it self in whose mouth was never guile found for in his person all Ministers that are his in the dispensation of those mysteries speak amidst the comfortable and gracious promises of Mercy and Salvation to deceive and delude poor creatures like a false Jesuit with mental reservation Thus to decline one errour they fall into another and it is hard to judge which is the worst How much better the Valentine Synod In Ecclesiae sacramentis nihil cassum nihil ludificatorium sed prorsus totum verum ipsa sui veritate ac siuceritate subnixum In the Sacraments of the Church there is nothing empty and hollow nothing delusory but all in them altogether true as being upheld by no other props but their own proper sincerity and truth And therefore as the judicious and Learned Hooker hath it Unless we our selves hinder they ever give and exhibite what they promise and are unto us what they signify They are the Conduits of Grace it is conveyed from the common Fountain unless we our selves obstruct the Pipes to every Mans private Cistern the Seals of the promise of life which being given in general in the word is here by the Elements of Bread and Wine sensibly applyed in particular Now the promise saith St. Peter in the Acts belongs to you and your Children even unto as many as the Lord our God shall call not to those only which he shall Elect and many are called though few are chosen And then to as many as the promise doth belong to the Seals of the promise yea and sanguis tastamenti the blood of the promise both promised and sealed must of necessity appertain This being too plain to be denied they grant that every Man called by the Gospel ought to believe that his blood was shed for himself in particular but withal ought to believe also that it was not shed for all others that ought to believe it All may believe of themselves that themselves may not believe of all and my Faith must deny me to believe that of them which I must enjoin them to believe and so make one Faith to contradict and like opposite pellets to shoot out one another every Man conceiving that every other may be deceived in his Faith beside himself and so mutually deceive both themselves and each other why if he died for every one in particular how could he chuse but die for all in general and if he died not generally for all with what truth may every one believe it in particular But such mazes and Labyrinths errour once hunted out of knowledge is enforced to tread and it would weary me to follow her The end of the Chase I am sure is an abrupt and dangerous precipice for how doth it evatuate and frustrate the general Will and Testament of God like a quirk or gull in Law that all may fall to the particular Heir It cuts the very strings and Sinews of our general hope and looseth the Cable of our Anchor if not clean through yet more than half way it lops and maims the everlasting promises of bliss nay it troubles and shakes our very Faith the life of our Souls and renders it both dubious and deceitful In a word it digs so low and close upon the foundation as I think it should not be endured But to such inconveniences are they driven who having the persons of Men in too much admiration think they cannot sufficiently admire their Teachers vertues unless withal they maintain their errours But from whence soever the doctrine comes and howsoever it be so frequently taught in this Kingdom I am sure it is not the Doctrine of this Church who enjoins all by subscription that shall teach in it so to preach the particularity of predestination in particular as they destroy not the universality of the promise And yet though the promise be universal it doth not follow that all must receive the benefit of it because though the promise of Christ and his blood be absolute yet the application of it is upon condition which when all do not perform all do not receive but it is their own fault who being prevented by Grace may but neglect to perform it Let us therefore fear saith the author to the Hebrews lest a promise being left us of
deserve thy frequent cogitations and prayers and tears to consider and bewail it thoroughly crying out with him in the Gospel Lord I believe help my unbelief And never think it helped till thou findest it reforming thy affections and lusts not led and ruled by them till thou perceivest it working powerfully in all the thoughts of thy heart and actions of thy hands and the whole course of thy life For this is the true test and tryal and to these marks our Saviour himself sends thee to make full proof of it These are the signs saith he that shall follow them that believe In my name shall they cast out devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them and when they lay their hands on the sâ—â—k they shall be healed If those signs follow not thy Faith it is vain and thou art yet in thy sins But thou wilt say the time of Miracles is past and these days require them not Neither do I require them as then neither then and in those times were they common unto all Believers But the saying of our Saviour is universal and in the spiritual sence is ever true that these signs follow them and all them that unâ—â—ignedly believe For every Man naturally hath Devils enough within him to be thrown forth and unless thy Faith have power and virtue enough to dispossess and cast out the impure spirits of luxury and avarice of envy wrath malice and hypocrisie and the like foul Fiends wherewith our nature is full unless it be able to give thee a new tongue and a new language and cleansing thy mouth of all oaths and blasphemies of slanders and reproaches of deceit and scurrility can teach thee to speak the words of sobriety and sanctity and of truth every Man unto his Neighbour unless it can embolden thee to take up Serpents to receive and lovingly embrace thy mortal enemies and make treacle of them too drinking up all the deadly venome which their poysoned stomachs can disgorge against thee not only without hurt but even as thy physick that so lifting up pure and innocent hands upon them with prayers and benedictions though they revile and curse they may yet at length be won from it and cured of the malice wherewith they were sick and others also by thy example of their several diseases who seeing thy good works may glorify thy Father which is in Heaven Until I say thy Faith hath power to work these things unless our Saviours signs be false it is never current and effectual If you say these things are too high and hard for us we cannot attain unto them you do withal say and confess that you do not truly believe For true Faith is not dead or droâ—zy but powerful and operative working even wonders unto flesh and blood which St. Paul proves by a full cloud of witnesses in the 11. to the Hebâ— producing a whole Catalogue of the antient Wâ—â—thies who all through Faith aspiring to the promises were mighty and marvellous in their actions overthrowing Kingdoms working righteousness and doing such great things as we cannot consider without admiration And whence all this but because their Faith was stirring and active not lazy and languishing like ours which is only a Carkass of belief without any soul of life and vigor in it otherwise we should soon find in our selves what the same Author elsewhere affirms that nothing is available like Faith when it is working working by love which is ever impatient and restless till it attains what it desires Who then or what power is able to resist it not the power of the whole world this is it that overcometh the world even your faith John v. 3. no nor the power of any thing else credenti omnia sunt possibilia to him that believes all things are possible saith our Saviour And therefore if ever these things be impossible to thee if thy Faâ—th be so weak that it cannot dispossess thee of thy wicked spirits and work those spiritual miracles on thy Soul it is a greater miracle if ever it save thy Soul For true Faith purifies the heart and cleanseth the very reins and is assuredly dead if it do not work powerful effects within us If of unclean and covetous of malitious envious and deceitful persons it doth not make us pure and temperate mild and merciful upright and just in our actions it is unprofitable and shall never justify with God In whose account whatsoever you think none are taken for believers any farther than they are practisers of his word He that says he knows God and hateth his brother is a lyer saith St. John and sure he that says he believes in God and yet forsaketh not his sins lyes as loudly and doth but abuse his own Soul vainly dreaming of Faith when he hath but the shadow of it without truth or substance and will be found at last but in that poor Mans case who dreamt all night of treasure and in the morning when he awoke was not worth a farthing With that Church in the Revelation they have a name that they live and conceit they are rich whenas there it is said they are blind and poor and naked and miserable and shall so understand themselves in the end for however now we please our selves for a while with the vain opinion of our imaginary Faith yet when we have slept our sleep and dreamt our dreams in the morning when we shall all awake from our graves and come unto Judgment it will be found far otherwise than we conceived When the son of man cometh saith our Saviour himself shall he sind faith upon the earth surely yes such as ours for the most part is Faith enough such a speculative fancy that floats only in the brain never affecting the heart such a presumptuous confidence that can seize on mercies neglecting commands lay hold on the passion and death of a Saviour but neither obey his precepts nor imitate his life of such Faith we doubt the Christian world will be then and now is full as it can hold he shall every where find it But of that true and real Faith rooting out sinful affections of that high and mighty Faith inthroned in the very heart of the Soul and from thence commanding all the powers and faculties which it hath of that prevalent and victorious Faith conquering Sin and Satan and treading under foot the glory and vanity of the whole world of this solid and substantial Faith which only deserveth the name of Faith and he only looks for of this he shall then find but little in the world as indeed there is very little now Some scattered sparks of it only there are in a few of our bosoms but raked up in a great deal of embers and if we take not heed like enough to be stifled ere we are aware O preserve and collect them carefully blow upon them with thy
most admiration is begotten only with a look by mere aspect and intuition as the Fathers speak and the Scriptures intimate and therefore who shall declare These and many other the like high and inexplicable mysteries of this wonderful generation the Apostle seems not to express but to shadow as well as he might when he terms him the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express image of his Person Heb. i. 3. For though these words cannot reach home to the thing yet others more apt and significant may not be found For brightness is ever coeval with the thing that is bright if bright in it self the brightness of the Sun is neither before nor after but fully as ancient as that Sun that begat it and so begat it as it doth not cease still to beget it For it is not produced once for all but is generated perpetually and generated not of two but of one only who can communicate it to other things and yet lose none of it himself Excellently therefore the brightness of his glory and as fully the express image of his person to shew as far as may be shown the manner of his generation by sight and intuition For the images which we behold when we look on our selves in a glass are of all others the most exact and perfect Now God himself is his own mirrour wherein beholding and comprehending himself he produceth the most express and absolute image of himself So that the Divine intellect of the Father reflecting inwards and fully conceiving his own perfection doth at once both conceive and bring forth his own and only Son the substantial and essential picture of himself And therefore no thought here of Mother or Matrimony nor imperfection or inquination but he is begotten after a pure clean chast high and sublime manner as the beam from the Sun as the image from the glass as being the brightness of his Fathers glory and the ingraven Character of his person Though neither of these can fully express it for it is wonderful and therefore to our ears cannot be uttered it is singular and therefore hath no example for how should the imperfect Creature every way square with the absolute perfection of the Creatour And therefore let us adore in Soul and believe it in heart but lay our hand on our lips and not think to utter it in words whereof when we have spoken yea and thought all that we can we must shut up all with the Prophets Admiration who shall declare And this shall suffice for the non-declaration of his Divine birth and generation we now pass on to his humane the subject of this days Solemnity and therefore the chief theam of this hours discourse but a theam every way beset also with so many Pearls of highest admiration as we may well say of it as of the other Quis enarrabit Nay in some things it may seem something stranger than his other generation For that God should be born of God though we can no way apprehend it yet in reason it carries some Correspondence and proportion But that God should be born again and born of a woman hath such an infinite disparity that unless it had been foreshewn by such illustrious prophecies and confirmed by so many and great miracles it had exceeded not only reason but even all belief Well therefore did S. Paul term it a mystery and a great mystery and great too without controversie without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. iii. God in the flesh a great mystery indeed yea how many great mysteries are there in it The Antient of days is become a swadled Child and he who was the Son of God without a Mother now made the Son of a woman without a Father a woman that is at once both a Mother and a Maid conceiving and bearing a Son and yet a Virgin in and after both conception and birth Nay more the Mother of her own Maker and so the daughter of her Son as he the Son of his own daughter No marvel therefore that at this admirable birth of his he had marvail and admiration it self given him for his name for his first To us a Child is born and to us a Son is given the principality shall be upon his shoulders and you shall call his name Wonderful Isa. ix wonderful and full of wonders as in other things so especially in his birth and generation and therefore Quis enarrabit Wise Solomon having with all his skill and diligence searched into the depths and profundities of Nature after all his travel could find out no new thing under the Sun but that you may know a greater than Solomon is here our Saviour this day together with himself brought many new things you see into the world which the Sun never saw before nor ever shall see again A new birth new man new person new Heavens new Earth a new Creation for all had need of renewing and all things in him are made new Ecce nova jam facta sunt omnia behold all things are become new saith the Apostle All things but wretched men that regarding it not grew old in their Sins but shall receive a punishment hereafter that shall never grow old in it self because it shall never be ended And therefore Quis Yet that we may declare it as far as we can or at least declare how far it is above all declaration we will in their order briefly touch upon these circumstances of his birth and generation Who it is that is born of whom and in what manner and where he was born For there is newness and strangeness in them all not fully to be declarable And first who or what he is that is born And what is he an ordinary man as we our selves are one of the rout one of the vulgar A Man indeed he was and when he was at the lowest and worst Pilate could term him so ecce homo behold the Man but yet no ordinary Man he was a King too and a King born where is he that is born king of the Jews say the Wisemen of the East Nay no petty King no King of the Jews alone he shall have the Nations too for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possessions saith God in the Psalm And therefore an universal Monarch And yet higher for I will make him my first-born higher than the Kings of the earth higher indeed even the high God that is King both of Heaven and Earth and therefore his name shall be called Wonderful and mighty counsellor and Deus fortâ—s the strong God pater aeternus the everlasting Father saith my Prophet in the place but now quoted And it is worth the observing in the beginning of the verse A child is born and a son is given towards the end this weak child is the mighty God this young Son is the everlasting Father for the Son of God is our
another How did that one word of the Witch strike Saul thorough and thorough leaving him tumbling on the earth in a swoon To morrow by this time thou and thy sons shall be with me so bitter indeed is the remembrance even of bodily death unto those that have no spiritual life in their Souls But what misery may we think will there be in the enduring and suffering of that whose only expectation is so fearful Sad and fearful is the departure of the wicked though it outwardly appear not in all the comforts of my Text belong not to them as their Spirits were dead whilest they lived so they shall not live when they die Where there is no righteousness there can be no life For the Spirit c. No the righteous the righteous that is the faithful and penitent Souls these are they who as they have the true spiritual life in present so in death they shall have the true comforts of the blessed life which is to come for however God at other times brings trouble heaviness and afflictions on his best servants yet at that hour he never fails to assist them and in the midst of death to make the life of their Souls appear more clearly for righteousness sake He may seem to absent himself from them and to hide his counâ—◠〈◊〉 but then in that day of need in that last and fearful time which most requires it they shall be sure of his comforts he will not fail then to discover his face and make the light of his countenance to shine into that region of darkness and by the gracious beams thereof to chear up his people lighting and guiding their feet through that obscure Valley and shadow of death into the blessed ways of immortality and peace Believe not me look upon the holy men of God a little and see it perfomed with your Eyes Behold the Patriarch Jacob the Father of the Patriarchs he who wrestled not only that one time at the River Jabbock but all his life long with the arme of the Almighty continually afflicting him But see how contrary it fell out in the end when all the clouds of affliction being blown over a calm of contentment follows and he is gathered unto his Fathers in peace but first mark how the Lord gave him strength before he went hence and was no more seen wherewith he collects his fainting Spirits raiseth himself in his bed calls his Sons about him tells them of things to come great things to come for many generations and with an inspired Spirit ready to expire gives every one his several blessing and benediction in such a prophetical so high and Heavenly a strain and stile as if an Angel had sate on his lip and I doubt not but many Angels sate waiting in that door of the body for the coming forth of his Soul which stayed not long after to receive and convey it into the bosom of his Grand-father Abraham there to rest in everlasting peace Look upon Joshua that valiant Captain who having spent his life in travail and more than Herculean labours warring against Gyants and the Sons of Aâ—ak yet at last you may see him sitting down in peace and dividing the spoil among the Children of Jacob And in the end death drawing near see how he summons the Tribes of Israel together and in a sweet Oration recounts unto them all the mercies of God which had followed them from Terab the Father of Abraham that dwelt beyond the flood to Cheusem that had now gotten possession of the promised land within Jordan And being full of the spirit and spiritual life with such power of speech he exhorts them to the fear and service of this merciful God that the whole Congregation as if they had had but one heart and one Soul and both throughly affected joyntly cry out God forbid that we should forsake the Lord nay he is our God and we will serve him Josh the last After this manner from the flame of his own zeal having kindled a fire in the hearts of others this great Worthy and worthy Servant of the Lord lived in his death and dyed in peace See holy Samuel the Judge of Israel going to his grave as to his bed and in him consider the power and vertue of a good conscience arising from the memory of a well acted life Whose Ox or whose Ass have I taken whom have I defrauded or opprest or at whose hands have I received a bribe saith he in the publick assembly and all the people bare witness unto him saith the Text. Hoc ducit ad fâ—nus sepulturam this is it that accompanies him to his Grave and layes him in his rotten Sepulcher The like blessed savour of rest did this peace of conscience send forth in the blessed Apostle S. Paul who in that wonderful confidence was bold to deliver up his Soul in the breath of the same words as it were his Saviour had done before him a Consummatum est I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the just Judge shall give me in that day words worthy of a Soul so near its Heaven Lastly view the Protomartyr Steven blessed with peace in the midst of a cruel death for all torments are easy if they have answerable comforts The obstinate Jews threw the stones of death at him but he filled with the Holy Ghost looks stedfastly into Heaven where he beholds his Saviour standing at the right hand of God to whom now dying he speaks as he had done before to his Father in manus tuas into thy hands O Lord I commend my Spirit Such have been the blessed ends of these holy men of God and of many others famous in their Generations and such it shall be in all others that faithfully serve him though peradventure it is not manifest in all Their bodies are buried in the Earth but they have left a name behind them and a memory sweeter than the perfume made by the art of the Apothecary as was spoken of the good King Josiah And what is there now that can more deeply affect an honest and a good heart what can a religious mind either so much desire unto it self or behold with so great joy in another as to see a devout and penitent Soul give a peaceful farewel unto Nature and in the depth of death depart full of the comforts of immortality and life But it may be far off examples will be left too far off respects for likely those that are nearest do affect us better if so you want them not neither two among the rest more remarkable you have had of late The one not long since the other now before your eyes The Mother and the Daughter of both whom I may truly say in the words of my Text their bodies were dead while they lived and their Souls lived in the death of their bodies for righteousness sake A