the beginning and abode not in the truth but now they abound like Bees in Hibla like Serpents in Iohn 8. 44. Sinai like lice in Aegypt Cornelius Agrippa derided Moses calling him a coozener and said that the sea dried not up but that hee marked the tides and course of the Moone that hee drew no water out of the rocke but marked the haunts of the wild beasts The Philosophers called Christ a Magician that hee did all by Necromancie The Libertines contemne all the Apostles they call Mathew an usurer Peter an Apostata Luke a pelting physician Paul vas confractum a broken vessell Iohn adolescentem stolidum a foolish yong man The Novatians called Cyprianus Caprianus the Arrians called Athanasius Sathanasius but all this is nothing to the contempt of these dogs We may say now as the Prophet said The children shall presume against the ancient and the vile against Esay 3. 3. 2 Reg. 2. the honorable The boyes of Bethel scorned Elisha and the sawcy boyes of England scorne at all doctrine Veni Domine Iesu Come Lord Iesus come quickly O beloved our time is now to bee wise To kisse the Sonne if we do not Mercy passeth and Iudgement Psal 2. commeth and warned men must die in their sinnes and their bloud be upon them Lastly he noteth in these mockers that they live at randon They walke after their lusts like beasts they fulfill their sensuall appetites they doe what seemeth good in their owne eyes They make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts of it All their care is for Rom. 13. 14. the flesh none for the spirit all for the body little or none for 2 Cor. 10. 3. the soule all for earth little for heaven they walke after the flesh and they warre after the flesh For so doth Paul distinguish Rom. 16. 18. them these men are the slaves of the flesh they serve not the Lord but their belly they thinke themselves the only men of the world and count their life the happiest promise to themselves liberty yet are they worse then gally-slaves the vilest prisoners in the world other prisoners have mē to be their Iaylers these have 2 Tim. 2. 26. Mat. 22. 13. divels For they are in the snare of the Divell and are taken of him at his will Others have chaines of iron these have chaines of darkenes others are for a time these for ever Thou shalt not come out thence Mat. 5. 26. till thou hast paid the utmost farthing but that will never be now that 2 Pet. 2. 19. they are prisoners Note Peters reason Of whomsoever a man is overcome even unto the same is he in bondage but their malice their envy their pride overcommeth them therfore be they in bondage to them Pius etsi serviat liber est a godly man though he serveth yet is he a free man I will walke at libertie saith David for I seeke thy precepts Malus etiamsi regnat seruus est a bad man although he ruleth yet is he a servant et tot dominorum quot vitiorum and that of so many masters as he hath vices Hereupō saith our Saviour Iohn 8. 34 35. Whosoever committeth sinne is the servant of sinne and the servant abideth not in the house for ever His leachery envy malice covetousnesse The Vnderstanding and Will the subiects of Wisedome mastereth him Be not therefore overcome of evill but overcome evill with goodnesse Vincimur non vincimus wee are not overcome wee not overcome Let not sinne therefore raigne in your mortall bodies that yee should obey it in the lusts thereof And againe Rom. 6. 12. 21. Rom. 12. 14. Let not sinne have dominion over you In these men all the members of their body are defiled they bee arma injustiviae weapons of unrighteousnesse and all the powers of their soule are corrupted peccati enim sedes est anima the soule is the seate of sinne the two powers of the soule are Vnderstanding and Will either wee know not that which is good or wee cannot performe it for the weakenesse of our understanding The naturall wise man 1 Cor. 2. 14. whose knowledge is not cleered by Gods Spirit perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned And further the Apostle saith that the wisedome of the Flesh is death and the reason hee rendreth after in the next verse saying Because Rom. ◠6 7. the wisedome of the flesh is enmity against God for it is not subject unto the Law of God neither can be Naturally our cogitations are darkened and wee strangers from the life of God through the ignorance that is in Ephes 4. 18. us Thus wee either know not that which is good or wee doe it not by reason of the weakenesse of our understanding Or otherwise wee know Gods Commandements and doe them not ob voluntatis defectum because our wils are defective our wils are readily carried unto lusts to fulfill them not to the commandements of God to obey them Video meliora proboque I see better Ovid. things ct I allow them quoth Medea We fulfill the lusts of the flesh and of the minde serving lusts and divers pleasures Vnderstanding Ephes 2. Tit. 33. and Will are the two subjects of true Wisedome in the one Knowledge in the other Affection cleaveth and sticketh and both are to be holpen by Grace the Vnderstanding without the Will is weake and profiteth not and the Will without it is blinde To know God and not to love him is very little and who can love him except hee know him Knowledge and Vnderstanding is the gate by which things at pleasure enter but wee must not stand in the gate wee must goe further for God respecteth not how much a man understandeth but how much hee loveth affectus subiugat and how much he subdueth his affections The Vnderstanding is to be enlightned the Will to be moved the Vnderstanding to be instructed the Will to be defended the Vnderstanding to be lightned by Faith the Will to be inflamed with love to trample tread all lust under the feete Hee that can overcome his lusts as Samson the Philistines with the jaw-bone of an Asse as David did Goliah Iudg. 13. 1 Sam. 18. with a sling he that can overcome this tower of Babylon pull downe these walles of Iericho hee shall see the goodnesse of the Lord Psal 27. in the land of the Living We talke of Christianity but it is true in the Land of the living wee talke of Christianity but it is true Mortification a signe of Iustification Christianity true manhood to master thy lusts For they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts This is Christianity indeed this is to professe to know God both in Gad. 5. 24. Tit. 1. 15. 2
the heart of man conceive Even for thousands and thousand yeeres What Arts and Sciences have beene found out by man yet cannot the eye see nor the eare heare nor the tongue utter nor the heart conceive of Life eternall The Apostle maketh a glorious comparison and yet speaketh but of an earthly building and of earthly and corruptible things So the Prophet Esay describeth the Church militant and triumphant but yet by earthly things For it passeth his skill and cunning to set out the perfect beauty and glorie of it God is infinite so the reward layd up for the just is infinite like unto himselfe the infinite God giveth infinite paines to sinners and infinite joyes unto the just Peter having but a glimmering of Heaven was ravished and cryed out Master here is good being let us build Tabernacles one for thee another for Moses and another for Elias How great then is Mat. 17. 4. the full sight of Heaven There bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such joyes as are not possible for a man to utter Mount Thabor was a goodly 2 Cor. 12. 4. Mount but in the celestiall Mount in Heaven you shall see that that eye never saw riches without measure glorie without comparison life without death day without night solace without ceasing joy without ending a land that floweth with milke and hony there wee shall see the City of the living God the celestiall Ierusalem a company of innumerable Angels the congregation of the Hebr. 12. 22. first borne which are written in Heaven the Spirits of just and perfect men Iesus the Mediator of the new Testament and the bloud of sprinkling speaking better things than the bloud of Abel But to reason from the lesse to the greater If here in an Inne bee so many pleasures what are in our owne home For whiles wee are strangers in the body wee are absent from the Lord but when wee 2 Cor. 5. 6. shall remove out of the body wee shall ever dwell with the Lord and abide in Heaven which is our home If in a prison our senses are filled with so many delights what shall bee in a Palace There shall bee fulnesse of joy and pleasures for evermore If here in a Iayle there bee so many pleasures to entertaine us such variety Psal 16. 11. of colours for the eye such melody and sweete sounds for the eare such fragrant odors for the nose such multitude of dishes for the taste if in Mount Horeb are so many things What are in Mount Sion in our owne Countrey For here wee are but strangers and pilgrimes but wee seeke another Countrey and wee desire a Hebr. 11 13 16. better that is to say an Heavenly If a corruptible body feele Our glorified boâ—y shall have Spirituall and Heavenly qualities such great sweetnesse what shall a glorified body feele For our bodies shall one day bee glorified Though they be sowne in dishonour they shall bee raised in glory though sowne in weakenesse they shall be raised in power though sowne a naturall body it shall be raised a spirituall body There is no comparison betweene Light and Hebr. 11. 13 16. 1 Cor. 15. 42 43. Darkenesse Gold and Lead Glasse and Pearle Men and Angels Heaven and Earth Corruption and Glory Weakenesse and Power Honour and Dishonour Our life is hid with Christ in Col. 3. 3. God and when Christ which is our life shall appeare then shall wee also appeare with him in Glory For life is threefold Of Nature Grace and Glory The life of Nature is sweete the life of Grace sweeter and the life of Glory sweetest of all and this life of Glory is hid with Christ in God and in this life of Glory there shall bee in our bodies first Claritas beauty and cleerenesse in so much that as Saint Chrysostome saith that the bodies of the Saints shall bee septies clariora Sole seven times brighter than the Sunne Secondly in this life of Glory there shall bee in our bodies spirituall agility and hence is it that some ascribe the activity and quicknesse of our soule spirit to a glorified body saying that such bodies are not spirits but spiritualized bodies Thirdly in this life of Glory there shall be in our bodies Impassibility For though here we suffer of every thing yet there wee shall bee subject to no corruptible passion or suffering Lastly in this life of Glory there shall bee in our bodies Immortality here indeed orimur morimur at our byrth wee beginne to dye accedimus wee enter into the world succedimus wee succeede one another in the world and last of all decedimus wee depart all out of the world but in this life of Glory wee shall have immortall bodies And as the body so the soule in this life of Glory shall bee glorified and this her glory consisteth of two things in her union with God and in our vision of God both of these may be gathered out of that of Saint Iohn When hee shall appeare we shall bee like him and see him as hee is wee shall be like unto him there 1 Iohn 3. is our union we shall see him as hee is there is our vision Others adde to the beatitude of the soule two other actions one the fruition the other the eternall retention of God and it is a question among the Learned in which of these foure the felicity of the soule doth consist some in her vision of God some in her fruition of God some in her retention of God I will not determine onely I say that in this life of Glory both soules and bodies shall have triumphum gaudium triumph and joy they shall triumph over Death for Death shall bee no more over him that hath the Lordship of Death the Divell for hee shall never bee able to hurt him Againe they shall have joy God all in all to the glorified Saints first in the Majestie of God secondly in the humanity of Christ thirdly in the society of Angels and Saints Vide intùs extrà suprà infrà circumcircà ubique gaudium Looke Aug. within thee and without thee above thee and beneath thee about thee and every-where there is joy Nay Gaudium super gaudium joy above joy joy surmounting all joy and without the which there can be no joy within thee shall bee joy in the glorification of body and soule without thee in the company of the blessed Saints and Angels above thee in the sight of God beneath thee in the beauty of the Heaven and Earth For there shall bee a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth 2 Pet. 3. righteousnesse round about us in the delight of all our senses for God himselfe shall bee the object of all our senses Erit enim speculum visui Hee shall bee a glasse to our eyes musicke to our eares hony to our mouthes a flowre to our hands balme to our nose Ibi erit candor Aestatis
No peace to the wicked in which we fall from the Lord of life One day in thy Courts saith David is better than a thousand other where I had rather be a doore keeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tabernacles of wickednesse Sed impiis non est pax there is no peace unto the wicked their hearts never rest they are never quiet their sinne lyeth at the doores Esa 57. 20. Gen. 4. 7. alwayes dogging them and ever ready to pull out the very throat of their soules As good men have the first fruits of the Spirit and certaine tastes of heavenly joyes in this life So on the contrarie the wicked have certaine flashings of hell-flames on earth and are as the sea which alwayes rageth and never resteth And as the good man when he dyeth bequeatheth his body which is earthly to the earth and sinnes which are divellish unto the Divell and his goods that are worldly to the world and his soule that is heavenly to heaven So the wicked when he dyeth bequeatheth his goods to the world his body to the earth his soule to the Divell But some will say The wicked are merry and quiet none so merrry as they they sing like birds in May like Nightingales in a cleare night I must distinguish and say that some wicked are blockish and senselesse like swine their consciences are seared like dead flesh Mat. 7. 6. 1 Tim. 4. 2. others are desperate having an hell in their conscience trembling like Agag but yet both states damnable For is the fish that skippeth in the net or the bird that singeth in the snare or the prisoner that is merry in the iayle in any good case No 1 Sam. 13. 1 Thes 5. 3. Esa 9. 6. Ephes 2. 17. no Even so is it with the wicked when They crie peace peace sudden destruction shall come upon them as upon a Woman in travell But there is peace to the godly Peace shall come they shall rest in their beds c. Christ is their peace Pacem Evangelizavit iis qui prope iis qui procul he preached peace unto them that are neare and unto them that are afarre off To this end he died rose againe ascended into heaven the first was the lowest step of his humiliation in earth the second the highest steppe of his exaltation in earth the third the highest steppe of his glorification in heaven In the first he suffered in the second he conquered in the third he triumphed the first tooke away sinne and destroyed death and him that had the Lordship of Death The second brought Righteousnesse for he rose againe for our justification The third Heb. 2. 14. Rom. 4. 25. bringeth glory and all to this end to make peace between God and man Thirdly peace is taken for prosperitie and happy successe of all things as in the Psalme O pray for the peace of Ierusalem they shall Psal 122. 6. prosper that love thee peace be within thy walls and plenteousnesse be within thy palaces Peace and plentie are here Synonymies the one openeth the other he prayeth for plentifull peace or peaceable plentie God hath promised his Church this peace saying The Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods in the fruit of thy body in the Prosperitie is termed peace fruit of thy cattell in the fruite of thy ground the Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure even the Heaven to give raine unto thy land in due season and to blesse all the workes of thy hands thou shalt lend to many Deuter. 28. 11 12 13. nations and not borrow thy selfe The Lord shall make thee the head and not the taile thou shalt be above only not beneath c. Iacob blessing Iudas saith That he shall bind his Asse fole to the Vine his Asses colt to the best Vine he shall wash his garments in wine his Cloake with the Gen. 49. 11 12. blood of the grape that is he shall have all prosperitie and this prosperitie Iude wisheth unto them saying peace be multiplied upon you Esay prophecied of the wealth and abundance of the Church saying Thou shalt sucke the milke of the Gentiles and shalt Esa 60. 16 17. sucke the brests of Kings and thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy redeemer the mightie one of Iacob For brasse I will bring gold and for Iron I will bring thee silver and for stones Iron I will also make thy government peace and thine exactors righteousnesse violence shall no more be heard in thee neither desolation nor destruction c. And God wisheth that his Church had hearkened to his commandements Then had thy prosperitie beene as the Flood and thy righteousnesse as the Waves of the Sea In six evils God would have delivered Esa 48. 18. Iob. 5. Psal 65. 11. Mal. 3. Iob. 1. Gen. 26. 1 Reg. 10. 27. it the clouds shall droppe fatnesse upon it God would open the windowes of heauen and powre downe a blessing with plenteousnesse God hath inriched the members of his Church in all ages as Iob in Huz Isaac in Gerar Salomon in Israel who had silver as stones Yea this peace and plentie is proper and peculiar to the Church onely to the godly the wicked have no right nor interest in the blessings of the earth For the elects sake God made Gen. 1. 1 Tim. 4. 8. Iohn 3. Mar. 13. Apo. 6. Rom. 8. the world For them he enriched it for them he redeemed it for their sakes he preserveth it for their sakes hee deferreth his comming to judge this world That the wicked enjoy ayre fire water let them thanke the godly who are coheires with Christ in all things the wicked are usurpers intruders into all Gods blessings they have no right to any furrow or foot of land The faithfull only are coheires with Christ in whose right they are invested into all the benefits of this life Thou art no more a servant but a Sonne saith Paul now if thou be a Sonne those art also the heyre of Gal. 4. 7. God through Christ As a bastard hath no inheritance among the legitimate Children So the wicked as bastards have no inheritance among the faithfull They may say of God and heaven as the tenne Tribes said of David and his Kingdome What portion have we in David we have no inheritance in the Sonne of Ishai So they have no portion in heaven no inheritance in the Sonne of God Christ Iesus they are Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel strangers from the Covenant and promise But the godly have right and interest in earth and heaven also In their elder brother Christ Iesus heaven is theirs heaven and earth is theirs land and sea are theirs yea all theirs men and Angels are subject unto them Prosperitie oft hurt to the Church All things are ours saith the Apostle whether it be Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the World
comparative and the superlative and all good Accedens ad flumen tantum haurit quantum urna capere potest A man comming unto the river or fountaine he draweth as much as his vessell will hold the defect or want is not in the flood or fountaine but in the vessell so draw from Christ from his word and Sacraments as Rebecca out of the well of Iacob there is no defect in Christ or in the word and Sacraments but in the vessell the heart that doth not beleeve Accede aegrotus sanaberis debilis confortaberis famelicus satiaberis Come thou sicke man and thou shalt bee healed Esa 55. thou weake one and thou shalt be strengthened thou hungry one and thou shalt be satisfyed But come Non pedibus corporis sed cordis not with the feet of thy body but of thy heart Non ambulando sed credendo not in walking but in beleeving Faith is Illuminatio mentis the light of the minde Infidells are blind and shall not see heaven they are filii irae children of Luk 15. Act. 15. wrath and they that beleeve not cannot be saved Faith is Gods gate whereby God enters into our soule the light that found the lost groate the purifier of our heart the conqueror in the race the pole-starre for the sayler the life of the soule and by Faith Christ dwells in our hearts O help us Lord wee beleeve ô help our unbeleefe he must beleeve that comes to God and as is our faith so is our blessing faith is the victory that overcometh the world O Lord increase our faith The second example used for Confirmation of his former proposition That we must strive for faith is taken from Gods vengeance upon the Angels who because they kept not their estate but left their habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chaines of darkenesse to the Iudgement of the great day So that here in these Angels Observe First Their sinne Secondly Their punishment Thy sinne of these Angels I will not precisely discusse their sinne like Adams sinne was not alone but many First there was pride in them as it appeareth by Pauls words to Timothie where handling the office of a Minister among other 2 Tim. 3. 6. things he would not have him to bee a young scholler Lest hee being puffed up fall into the condemnation of the Divell that is lest being proud of his degree hee bee likewise condemned as the Divell was for lifting up himselfe by pride so that it is manifest What was the Angels sinne that pride was the sinne of the Angels But besides pride there were many other sinnes in them as Infidelity Ingratitude Envy and Rebellion Denique quid non to conclude what not not one vice but many even a troope an armie of sinnes For sinnes are like Pismires in a moll-hill like Bees in an hive like Motes in the Sunne there are many ever together not one sinne alone they grow like clusters of grapes sinne is like the linke of a chaine take hold of one linke and draw the whole chaine so take hold of one sinne and draw a number Other things concerning Angels as their names their number their orders I dare not define 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us bee Rom. 12. 3. Iob 4. 18. 1 Tim. 3. 6. 2 Pet. 2. 4. Psal 78. 49. Iohn 8. 44. Wisd 2. 24. wise unto sobriety Iob nameth folly or pravity in the Angels as if that were their sinne Paul nameth pride Peter onely calleth it their sinne Asaph calleth them evill but noteth not the kindes of of their evill what the evill or sinne was which they committed Christ nameth murther to be their sinne and saith That the Divell was a murtherer from the beginning The Wise man nameth envie Iude here nameth Apostasie but the time the manner and the circumstance of their fall is not plainely expressed in the Scripture and in that they are not it teacheth us Sapere ad sabrietatem not to presume to understand above that which is meete to understand but Rom. 12. 3. Pro. 25. 27. Ro. 11. 33. Col. 1. 18. that we understand according to sobriety Too much honie is not good who hath knowne the minde of the Lord Many are puffed up with a fleshly minde as though with Moses God had revealed to them the Creation of the world as though with Stephen they had seene Gen. 1. Act. 6. 2 Cor. 12. Apoc. 1. Ezra 4. the heavens open as though with Paul they had beene lifted up to the third Paradise as if the Angell had talked with them as he did with Iohn in Pathmos and with Ezras in Ierusalem Such are Holcot Briccot Dionysius Areopagita whom they call Aquilam seu volucrem Coeli the Eagle or bird of heaven and make nine orders of Angels but no man hath so tasted Ionathans honie combe but he may see and oversee many things in this and in all other questions If any man aske what Angels be I say that they be spirits of essence but having neither body nor soule For they differ from bodies in that they have no flesh from soules in perspicuity understanding what the soule cannot Indeed they sometimes take bodies unto them as the Angell that appeared to Abraham Mat. 22. 30. Gen. 18. Iudg. 13. Mat. 26. to Manoahs wife to Marie So that in respect of their essence they are called spirits and as the Apostle speaketh Ministring spirits but in respect of their office they are called Angels Wherupon David He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keepe thee in all thy wayes Angell is a name of office not of nature Some make them of a fiery nature as Hemingius in his Enchiridion I see no soundnesse in it For sometime they have their denomination from heat as the Seraphins sometime for knowledge and brightnesse The Apostacy of the Angels irrecoverable as the Cherubins sometime they have appeared in a firy nature so they appeared to Elisha and his servant for the mountaine was full of Chariots and horses of fire that is Angels to defend them from the Syrians And so againe while Elias and Elisha Esay 6. 2 Reg. 6. 17. 2 Reg. 2. 11. Psal 114. went walking and talking together Behold there appeared a Chariot of fire and horses of fire and did separate them twaine And David saith He maketh his spirits his Messengers and a flaming fire his Ministers And as they have appeared in these formes so have they appeared in other formes also as pleaseth the Creator but to leave this The sinne of Angels is notorious and their punishment is as famous they are falne from light to darkenesse from Heaven to hell from felicity to misery Valerian fell from a golden chaire to a cage of iron Dionysius fell from a King to a Schoolemaster Alexander the third fell from being Pope to be a Gardener in Venice Nabuchadnezzar fell from a man to a beast but the celestiall Dan. 4. spirits
tendeth the exhortation of Saint Iames See that yee bee doors of the Word not hearers only deceiuing your owne selves So did the Thessalonians Iam. 1. 22. they received the Word not as the word of man but as it is 1 Thess 2. 1. indeed the Word of God 4. It must expell dishonest things as namely all maliciousnes and all guile all dissimulation and envy and all evill speaking So did 1 Pet. 2. 1. the Antiochians for the hand of the Lord was with them so that a great Act. 11. 21. number beleeved and turned unto the Lord. All these benefits come by the teacher under God For as the nurse hath two brests to give milke to the Infant so the Minister hath two also doctrine and life the one for example the other for instruction touching both wee will say as Paul said Yee are witnesses and God also how 1 Thess 2. 10. holily and justly and unblameably wee behaved our selves among them that beleeve Wee appeale not to the Infidels but to the beleevers For if an inquest of Infidels bee impannelled on us certenly wee goe downe Elias shall be said to trouble Israel the Apostles shall bee seditious Iohn Baptist shall have the Divell 1 Reg. 18. Christ is an enemy to Caesar wee appeale therefore from Infidels to beleevers and wee hope they will acquite us for wee may labi in domo fall in the house but not à domo from the house they shall find us sine crimine without offensive fault though not sine peccato without fault Ministery the meanes of salvation Well said the women of Rome to Constantius the Emperour when hee would have deposed Foelix the Bishop or have joyned with him Liberius the hereticke Vâ—us Deus unus Christus una fides unus Episcopus One God one Christ one faith one Bishop quoth he Pretty is the fable of Demostenes how the woolves made league of peace with the sheepe so that the dogges might bee removed but when the dogges were removed the sheep were woorried so the Divell maketh league with worldlings so that they will put away their Ministers but when they are removed bee sure the Diuell will woorry and devoure the soules of the people as the woolves did the sheepe For the great redde Dragon that hath seven heads and ten hornes and seven crownes upon his heads and who with his taile drawes down the third part of the starres of Heaven and casts them to the earth stands before the woman travelling with Child to devoure the Child as soone as it is brought forth For when the shepheard is smitten the flocke will be scattered and your adversary Mat. 26. 1 Pet. 5. 8. the Divell as a roaring Lion goeth about seeking to devoure Well of all the indignities offered to us we will say as Mauritus said to Phocas murdering his children Videat Dominus judicet So let God judge betwixt you and us wee labour to save you and you are like the dogge in the water who biteth him by the hands who would save him from drowning When Fulvius cóquered over the French Scipio over Numantia the people cried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Saviour A Saviour the earth rebounded and the birds of the ayre fell down dead with the resound of the earth yet these saved but mens bodies Ministers save mens soules As wee cannot have trees without planting 1 Tim. 4. 13. nor corne without sowing nor houses without building so wee cannot come to heaven without teaching the clowds powre downe rayne and make the earth fruitfull Ministers are the Ephes 4. 20. Deuter. 32. clowds and their doctrines as the dew to make our hearts fruitfull Can a bird live without aire or a fish without water or a body without a soule No more can the soule without the Word It is Verbum vitae the Word of life Triplex est vita there is a threefold life Vitanaturae brutis peculiaris a life of nature peculiar Iobn 6. Eccles 2. Col 3. 3. Ephes 4. 18. to beasts Vita gloriae Angelis A life of glory proper to the Angels Vita gratia elect is and life of grace to the elect and this life is had by the Word of God Pregnant are the similitudes that the Holy Ghost useth in the Scriptures where hee compareth Ministers to Fathers to mothers nurses watchmen 1 Cor. 4. 15. Gal. 4. Ezeeb 3. 1 Reg. 13. Hebr. 13. 7. Apoc. 12. 2. and souldiers overseers starres Children cannot bee without fathers nor brought up without mothers nor tended without nurses Cities in warre cannot bee kept without watchmen nor kingdomes without souldiers nor men walk in the dark without sta-light Solem mundo tollunt qui Verbum Dei tollunt They take the Sunne out of world that take away the Word they are the Without the light of the Ministery all in darkenesse light of the world the salt of the earth all would wander and ranckle in their affections if they were not they should bee as the men of Cimmeria who never saw the Sunne men should sit in the Church as the Aegyptians did in their houses not able to Exod. 10. Wisd 5. 6. arise in three dayes Men might say We have erred from the light of trueth the light of righteousnesse hath not shined unto us and the Sunne of Vnderstanding rose not up uponus Philip rejoiced that Alexander was borne in the dayes of Arislotle Socrates rejoiced that he was borne an Atheuian and rejoice thou that thou art a Christian that thou livest in the dayes of a learned Ministery The Queene of Sheba pronounced Salomons servants happy for hearing him 1 Reg. 10. how happy then shall wee thinke our selves that heare God speake to us by a Minister O blessed men that may heare God speake to us every Sunday and every Thursday for the increase of faith and repentance in every one of us Blessed bee that day and happy bee that houre wherein God speaketh unto thee by a man How happy was Galatia then How did all the Churches count that a blessed Church Philip thought Alexander happy that hee was borne in the dayes of Aristotle and wee thinke our selves unhappy that wee are borne in the time of Light and doctrine We wish a change we wish Mariana tempora we say that it was a good world then men loved one another yet then they knew no love no faith no hope no God no Christ they beleeved as the Church beleeved and the Church beleeved as they beleeve and neither could tell what they beleeved O blind times ô vile dayes If a Prince should send an Ambassadour to Rebels to proclaime pardon and they should take and abuse him would it not kindle the ire of the Prince So standeth the case betwixt God and his people Ministers being Gods Legats Gods Harolds men having runne all the dayes of their life the broad way when death commeth then they call for a Guide but then
and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life Nay the service of God is the end of our glorification Therefore the Apostle would have us to walke worthy our God who hath 1 Thess 2. 12. called us unto his Kingdome of glory And therefore unlesse wee esteeme vilely of our Creation Redemption and Glorification wee must become Gods servants and serve him in feare and rejoyce Psal 2. 11. before him with trembling Austine Observeth God was never called Lord until he had placed Adam in Paradise before he was called God simply but now the Lord God because hee was not so much a Lord to Angels and other creatures as unto man to teach him that hee must live under Gods lordship and serve him For though Adam was lord of the creatures and the creatures must serve him yet Adam had a Lord whom he must serve And yet God needeth not our service and therefore saith David O my soule thou hast said unto Psal 16. 2. Psal 50. 10 11. the Lord my well doing extendeth not to thee all the beasts of the Forrests are his and the beasts on a thousand Mountaines hee knowes all the fowles on the Mountaines and wilde beasts of the Fields are his Who saith the Apostle hath knowne the minde of the Lord or Who was his Counsellor or Who hath given unto him first and hee shall bee recompenced Rom. 11. 35 36. But howsoever hee standeth not in need of our service wee stand in need of his Lordship and protection that wee may bee safe under his Wings that wee feare not the feare of the Psal 91. night nor the arrow that flyeth by day nor the pestilence that walketh in the darke nor the plague that destroyeth at noone-day And doe wee stand in need of his Lordship Let us understand our wants and performe our service and duty to the Lord For thus hee reasoneth by the Prophet The Sonne honoureth his Father the Servant Mal. 1. 5. his Master If I bee your Father where is my honour If your Master where is my feare Let not God say of us as of the Israelites I have nourished and brought up children but they have rebelled against mee Ravenna saith thus A move radium a Sole non lucet rivulum Esa 1. 2 3. a fonte arescit a radice ramum exiccatur a corpore membrum putrescit obedientiam a Christiano perit Take away the beame from the Sunne and it shineth not the river from the Fountaine and it dryeth up the bough from the Roote and it withereth the member from the Body and it rotteth and obedience from a Christian and hee perisheth Consider what Adam lost by his evill service he fell from purity Adams losse for his evill service If we wil serve God the creatures shall serve us to corruption from eternitie to mortalitie from Angels to men from heaven to hell had not the promised seed come in Hee was expelled out of Paradise as a Rebell an Outlaw and a shaking Sword hanging to keepe him out Hee came out of Eden a pleasant garden to toyle among Nettles Bryers brambles like the men of Penuel Hee became a slave to the creatures Gen. 3. 15. Iudg. 9. the creatures rebels against him to this day Homo nascitur cum dolore man is borne with griefe Vivit cum labore he lives by labour Moritur cum moerore hee dyes with sorrow Quis mihi dabit fontem lachrymarum ut defleam hominis miserabilem ingressum culpabilem Innocentius progressum desolatum egressum Who shall give mee a fountaine of teares that I may bewaile mans miserable ingresse his culpable progresse and desolate egresse I know that God hath turned this curse into a blessing for Plus in Christo lacrati sumus quam perdidimus in Adamo wee have gained more in Christ than ever wee lost in Adam For if by the offence of one saith Saint Paul Death raigned through one much more shall they which Rom. 5. 17. 18. receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousnesse reigne in life through one that is Iesus Christ Likewise then as by the offence of one the fault came on all men to condemnation So by the justifying of one the benefit abounded toward all men to the justification of life Thus wee have gained more in Christ than wee lost by Adam Yet this is of mercy not of merit of favour not of duty Witnesse the Apostle saying But when the bountifulnesse and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared not by the workes of Tit. 3. 4 5. righteousnesse which wee had done but according to his mercie hee saved us by the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the holy Ghost Which he shined on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour But Augustine answereth this more fully and saith That Adams disobeying God lost his honour hee serving God all creatures served him hee disobeying God all disobeyed him The earth bringeth forth Weedes Thornes Venimous things The sea swallowes us up with flowes and stormes the ayre fighteth against us with Thunders Lightenings Tempests the heavens conspire against us with mortality of Pestilence the wilde beasts devoure us But to them that serve God God maketh his creatures serve them the earth to bring forth corne grasse fruits the ayre to be sweet the sea to bee calme the beasts to be helpefull Even so the Lions hurted not Daniel the Viper stung not Paul the Whale crushed not Ionas the Crowes Dan. 6. Act. 28. Iob. 2. 1. Reg. 19. Luke 16. Num. 21. fedde Elias the dogges licked Lazarus the Serpents of Sinai poisoned not Israel The Ecclesiasticall and tripartite historie tels us how the Crowes nourished Anthony an Hermit and Paulus Thaebeus how a Lionesse fedde Marcarius how an Hart brought Egidius meat into the Wildernesse how Helenus commanded a wilde Asse to carry his burthen I passe over that of Linus Romulus and Rhemus nourished of a shee-Woolfe and God must bee served sinne brought in the first service that of Plutarch of the Elephant that loved a Maid of Etholia and that of Plinie of a Panther that ledde a man out of the desart into a plaine way and that of Lucian of a Dolphin that carried Arion If wee serve God The stones in the streete shall bee in league with us and the beasts of the field shall bee at peace with us Ieb 5. 23. that is all creatures shall serve us Let us then addict our selves wholy unto his service not serving any other Master but him not the World not the Flesh not the Divell not Antichrist Not the World Ne illecti lest wee are allured with vaine pleasures and the lying vanities thereof not of the Flesh Ne infecti lest stayned polluted defiled therewith not the Divell Ne interfecti lest devoured and destroyed by him not Antichrist Ne decepti lest seduced and misled by him It is a base service to serve the
So Christ doth regenerate and sanctifie us by the vertue of his Spirit quo homo Deus est as he is man and God not as he is man alone or as he is God alone and yet he doth not transferre his essence into us and therefore Osiander is much deceived The place of Paul quoted by him helpeth him nothing for we are the righteousnesse 2 Cor. 5. 21. of Christ ut ille fuit peccatum pro nobis as he was sinne for us but sinne was not really in Christ no more is Christs righteousnesse really in us but onely imputatively faith as the hand applyeth it unto us and flyeth into heaven and there maketh us partakers of his Sanctity Our faith wrastleth with God in heaven our charity wrastleth with men here below on earth both of them are exercised neither idle nor unfruitfull and therefore the Apostle joyneth Faith in Christ and love toward Col. 1. 4. all Saints together O Brethren how many bee there that can tell a smooth tale of Christ and yet cannot speak one wise word of Iustification and Sanctification and yet Peter requireth it of all Hence am I to derive an exhortation to all men to holinesse and sanctification seeing that Rahabs house was knowne by a Ios ◠Iudg. 11. Mat. 26. 2 Reg. 9. red thread and the Ephramites by lisping and Peter by speaking and Iehu by driving his Chariot So Christians are knowne by sanctification Every child of God is sanctified Secundum plus aut minus either more or lesse But first let me speake of the diverse acceptions of the word ne inpingamus ubi non est lapis lest we stumble where there is no stone 1. It is taken for that which is pure and perfect and cleane Levit. 19. 2. So God alone is said to be holy 2. It is taken for that which is lawfull as 1 Cor. 7. 14. The unbeleeving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbeleeving wife is sanctified by the Husband else were your children uncleane but now they are holy 3. For that which is separated and set apart from common uses and reserved to sacred and holy uses Thus in the Law those things were called holy and sanctified which were taken from the common use of the people and set apart for the use and service of God as the Oyle Shew bread first fruits vessels of the Tabernacle In this sense the Priests were called holy because they were separate from the common life of men to serve in the Tabernacle Thus the people of Israel separated from the rest of the Nations were called by Moses a sanctified people to the Lord and by Ieremy a thing hallowed to the Lord. 4. For that which is consecrated to a godly and holy use Wee must bee holy because God is holy In which respect it is opposite to prophanenesse So the Temple was holy Ieremy was sanctified that is consecrated to be a Prophet So Christ sanctified himselfe that is dedicated himselfe to be a sacrifice for the sinnes of the world 5. It is taken for purity of body and minde as 2 Cor. 7. 5. So it is taken here And that wee should bee holy that is pure both in body and in minde it is the will and commandement of God Would you know his will and doe it that thou maist enter into heaven For not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into heaven but hee that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven then be holy For Mat. 7. 21. this is the will of God even your holinesse 1 Thes 4. 3. There be many reasons to move us to Sanctification to Holinesse whereof one is often used drawne from the person of God our Father that children must resemble their Father else are they Bastards rather than sonnes So reasoneth God Ye shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy repeated by Peter As hee Levit. 19. 2. which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy All that is in God our Father is holy all that pertaineth to Gods name is holy Holy is his name His person is holy Hereupon the Seraphins cryed Luke 1. 49. one unto another and said Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole world is full of his glory his workes are holy So saith David Esay 6. 3. The Lord is righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his Workes His Iudgements are holy O my God saith the Prophet in his distresse Psal 45. 17. I cryed by day but thou hearest not and by night but have no audience but thou art holy c. His Temple or House is holy so Psal 22. 1 2. saith Paul The Temple of God is holy which ye are His Mountaine is holy and therfore called A holy Mountaine His Kingdome is 1 Cor. 3. 17. holy for no uncleane thing shall enter his Kingdome neither whatsoever Psal 15. worketh abomination or lyes Therefore we must be holy if wee Apoc. 21. 27. looke to live with God Extra sunt Canes without bee dogges prophane and polluted persons Apoc. 22. 15. The same reason holdeth for holinesse that doth for mercy clemency love meeknesse and all other attributes of the Lord. Let mee reason as the Scripture reasoneth God is mercifull therefore wee must bee mercifull God forgiveth his enemies therefore we must forgive So reasoneth Christ himselfe Love your enemies blesse them that curse you doe good to them that hate you and pray for them that hurt you and persecute you that you may bee the Children of your Father which is in Heaven God is love therefore we must love So reasoneth Saint Iohn Beloved let us love one another 1 Iohn 4. 7 8. for love commeth of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love God is meek therfore we must be meek Learn of me saith Christ for I am meek c. So God is holy therefore we must be holy Mat. 11. 29. Another reason is taken from the end of our Redemption urged Holinesse the end of our Redemption without it wee shall not see God by the Apostle saying The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared and teacheth us that we should deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and that wee should live soberly righteously and holily in this present world Hath Christ sweat water and blood hath his heart beene molten like waxe his strength dryed up Tit. 2. 11 12. Psal 22. 14 15. like a potsheard hath his tongue cloven to his iawes and brought to the dust of the earth that wee should be wantons O caecas hominum mentes O pectora caeca nati sumus è silice nutriti lacte ferino O blinde mindes of men O blind hearts wee are borne of a flint-stone and nourished
of his little Mat. 18. 10. ones saith The Angels of his little ones doe alwaies behold the face of his Father which is in Heaven Miraculously doth hee keepe us untill the day of our death Therefore saith David Thou hast shewed mee great troubles and adversities but Psal 71. 18. thou wilt returne and revive mee and wilt come againe and take mee from the depth of the earth Miraculously doth he continue his benefits towards us Therefore saith the sweet Singer of Israel Cast me not away in the time of my age forsake me not when my strength Psal 71. 8. faileth me let it be our Prayer If God had not aswell preserved us and kept us it had beene to small purpose to call us and sanctifie us This Doctrine then is a Doctrine of comfort that God preserveth us it is as Davids Harpe which rejoyced Saul in his melancholy God hath not onely made us but also preserved us in a wonderfull mercy He telleth all our steps He numbreth Iob 14. Psal 56. Psal 38. Psal 139. Psal 34. Mat. 10. our teares He counteth our dayes and times He telleth our members He reckoneth our bones Yea he telleth our haires Our steps our teares our dayes our members our bones our hayres are told and yet all these are but little a steppe is but a little space a teare is but a little water a member is but a little flesh a bone a little substance our dayes a little time our haire a little exerement yet all these are kept of God he that keepeth these little things will keepe our bodies and soules As Paul prayed for Thessalonica Now the very God of peace sanctifie you throughout and I pray God that your whole spirit soule and body may 1 Thes 5. 23. bee kept blamelesse untill the comming of our Lord and Saviour â—esus Christ. God therefore is continually to be praised quoth Ambrose The Saints though afflicted yet delivered In prosperis quia consolamnur in adversis quia corrigimur in prosperity because we are comforted in adversity because we are corrected before we were borne because he made us after we were borne because he saveth us in our sinnes because hee Ambr. in ora fu nebri in Theodosium Apoc. 2. 10. pardoneth us in our conversion because hee helpeth us in our preservation because he keepeth us and crowneth us But some will say doe we not see good men take harme sometime breake an arme a legge yea and sometime their necke Where is Gods providence how are they preserved I say that GOD sometime throwes them down and leaveth them to themselves that they may the better see their weakenesse and Gods power and being delivered glorifie him in it according to that precept of the Almighty call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie mee Hereof come all those tragicall Psal 50. 15. speeches of the Saints that God maketh them as Buts and all his arrowes sticke deepe in them that hee feareth them with Iob 7. 12. 14 19. dreames and astonisheth them with visions and will not give them so much rest as to swallow their spettle that their heart panteth that their strength faileth the light of their eyes is Psal 38. 5. 8. 10. gone that their wounds are putrified and corrupt that they are weakened and sore broken and doe rore for the very disquietnesse of their hearts that they are as water powred out that all their bones be out of ioynt that their heart is as waxe melted Psal 22. 14. in the middest of their bowels that God bruiseth them as a Lion like a Crane or Swallow so God maketh them to chatter and to mourne like Doves True it is that they bee often Esay 38. 12 13. 14. in perill for a time Iacob lyeth in the Fields Gen. 30. 1 Sam. 24. Psal 125. Ier. 20. Dan. 3. David in the Wildernesse Ioseph in Prison Ieremy in the Dungeon The Three Children in the Oven Iohn in the hot Oyle at Ephesus Elias among Crowes Moses among Sheepe 1 Reg. 17. Exod. 2. Mat. 12. Dan. 6. Luke 16. Acts 27. Ionas among Fishes Daniel among Lions Lazarus among Dogges Paul among Snakes But at last commeth the yeere of Iubile and they are freed the cloud is dispersed and the Sunne shineth the clay is removed and the water runneth the ashes is scattered and the fire burneth the snare is broken and the Birds are delivered It is God that preserveth all things that he may have the glory Psal 174. 7. He kept the old world many yeeres from perishing and when it was destroyed he reserved a seed of 8. persons He will keep Gen. 8. this new World in the great burning For there shall bee a new God hath preserved his Scriptures God preserves Bodies and Soules Heaven and a new Earth Hee kept the primitive Church from ten great persecutours when the rivers were dyed with bloud when five thousand died every day except the Calends of Ianuarie hee kept the Scriptures from Antiochus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Dioclesian the one made monthly Inquisition for the Bibles and 2 Pet. 3. beheaded them that kept them the other commanded all to bee burnt yet Ezra and they continue to our good hee kept the knowledge of his Name in all the darkenesse of the World For as Iosephus saith Adam made two tables of stone or pillars Euseb lib. 1. in the one hee wrote Hominis lapsum Mans fall In the other Promissionem de Messia the promise of the Messiah and so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 continueth to this day hee kept the Religion in the dayes of Queene Mary as hee kept the Law in the dayes of Manasses and Amon two or three Berries were left on the top of the tree some grapes after the vintage some eares of corne after the gleaning Hee kept our late blessed Queene when Stephen Gardiner bad Hew at the roote and when some others used her roughly when the plot of her death was layd Let our Soules praise the Lord and Psal 103. all that is within us praise his holy name God preserved the Fathers Aegypt received Athanasius from exile having beene seven yeeres in a Cisterne at Treveris France received Hilary returning from battell Antioch received Chrysostome from the malice of Arcadius and Eudoxia Italy welcomed Eusebius from exile and Millaine entertained Ambrose from the rage of Valentinian and Iustina God preserveth the World and all men in it and this preservation of the World is greater than the Creation of the World greater than the Ios 10. Iohn 2. John 6. drying up of the redde Sea greater than the standing of the Sunne and Moone in Aialon greater than the turning of Water into Wine greater than the feeding of five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes Et tamen haec omnes mirantur non quia majora sed quia rariora Vilescunt miracula
Sabboth the Sacrifice and after tooke them away againe yee shall understand that hee gave them as figures and shadowes and therefore no mutability in the Lord The shadow must give place to the body the figure to the truth the greene blossome to the ripe fruit the seed time to the harvest So reasoneth Paul Let no man condemne you in meate and drinke or in respect of an Holy day or of the new Moone or of the Sabboths which are but a shadow of things to come but the bodie is in Christ The day-starre must give place to the Sunne-rising and that to the Sunne at Noone-day Chrysostome compareth Though types cease yet truth and substance remain ever the same the Iewes to a candle the Christians to the brightnesse of the Sunne The Iewes to the first draught of an Image in bare lines the Christians to the same Image filled up with all due proportion and furniture of colours the one to the seed-time Hom. 10. in Mat. Gal. 4. the other to the harvest and reaping of the Corne So Paul compareth the Iewes to a Child the Christians to a perfect man the same light though not in the same quantitie the same Image though not with like furniture the same corne though not growne to the like ripenesse the same person though not in the like perfection of age The Iewes note five things wanting in the Gospell and in the latter Temple that were in the first to disprove this that I have said First the fire that came downe from heaven to burne the Holocausts Secondly the glory of the Angells appearing among the Cherubins Thirdly the inspiration of Gods spirit speaking in the Prophets Fourthly the prefence of the Arke Lastly Vrim and Thummim But all this is nothing for there is now a fuller knowledge of God and greater liberty to the conscience yet the same faith still For the Fathers and we have all Col. 2. Ier. 23. 5. but one faith they beleeved that Christ should come according to Ieremies prophecie Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a King shall raigne and prosper and shall execute iudgement and iustice in the earth We beleeve that he is come and that Christ our Passeover is sacrified for us 1 Cor. 5. 7. Esa 7. They said Virgo concipiet a maid shall conceive and bring forth a Sonne we say Virgo concepit a maide hath brought forth her Sâ—â—ne For when the dayes were accomplished that she should be delivered Luk. 2. 7. she brought forth her first begotten Sonne and wrapped him in swadling clothes and laid him in a Cratch They had sacrifices that prefigured his comming we have Sacraments that represent his comming Heb. 9. and being with us they and wee had but one light they had Lucem matutinam the moning light wee Lucem meridianam the light at noone-day Wee differ but In plus minus therefore saith Christ Blessed are the eyes that see the things that yee see Mat. 10. 24. For I tell you that many Prophets and Kings have desired to see the things that yee see and have not seene them and to heare those things that yee heare and have not heard them If any object that God giveth us daily new Paith new graces I answere that God giveth not a new a strange faith but addeth to our old faith to our old graces God increaseth faith and his graces in us but not a new a diverse faith like the Arrians that had Fidem annuam menstruam a yeerely and a monthly The Gospell immutable Traditions uncertain Faith For whom God loves hee loves to the end This also commendeth unto us the Gospell that whereas other Lawes and Doctrines are changed altered augmented and diminished Gods Law is not The Law of the Lord is perfect Iohn 13. 1. Psal 19. The Lawes of the Romanes written by Numa Pompilius in Gold The Lawes of the Athenians written by Draco in Bloud the Lawes of the Persians written in Brasse The Lawes of the Lacedemonians written in Milke were altered but Gods Lawes are not Quoad substantiam as concerning their substance Sed quoad maledictionem as concerning the curse 2 Cor. 3. All traditions therefore all Gospels of Thomas Nicodemus Thaddeus and the eternall Gospell invented in Saint Cyrils time by abusing the place in the Revelation which runneth thus I saw another Angel flying in the middest of Heaven having an Apoc. 14. 6. everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the Earth c. must fall to the ground like the house built upon the sand as also all those Revelations of the Paraclete devised by Montanus together with all those that came after the giving of the Gospell which is perfect for ever and so perfect that If any man shall adde unto it God shall adde to him the plagues that are written in Apoc. 22. 18 19. the Booke and if any man shall diminish from the words of the Prophecie of Gods Booke God shall take away his part out of the Booke of Life and out of the holy Citie c. Let us not then adde nor diminish from the Gospell being so perfect for there is but one God one Faith one Baptisme one Christian Hope once revealed Ephes 4. for all But of the late Romish traditions which have entred long since the Gospell entred one may say to Rome as Esay said to Ierusalem Thy Gold is turned into Drosse thy Wine is mixed with Water thy Seede with Cockle thou wert sometime a faithfull Esay 1. City but now become an Harlot thou wert once the house of God but now turned into a cave of theeves Thou sayest that thou art rich and increased in wealth and standest in neede of nothing Apoc. 3. 17. but thou art poore and blind and naked as God said to the Church of Laodice poore and blind and naked indeed God give them hearts to understand and eyes to see their poverty and nakednesse But to passe with this heavenly Scripture as Moses did with the people to the land of Canaan Thirdly this Faith is given to the Saints By Saints hee meaneth the children of God truely converted not because they are perfectly holy and without sinne but in these foure respects First in respect of Separation for they they are elected and gathered out of this world and joyned to Gods people and dedicated to holy services and uses Secondly In respect of Vocation and therefore the Apostle The Saints the subiects of Faith and all Graces when hee said they were sanctified he said by explication that they were Saints by calling Thirdly In respect of Regeneration because they are now new creatures 1 Cor. 1. 2. And lastly In respect of Iustification or imputation because the holinesse and sanctity of Christ is imputed unto them For men may be Saints in this life For there are Saints in Earth as well as in Heaven
on Pilgrimage c. The Friers under a colour of wilfull povertie begged and robbed the world The Nunnes under a shew of single life filled the world full of bastardie Sexcenta millia capita infantum in Gregorii piscina reperta sunt there were six hundred thousand Childrens heads found in Gregories fishpoole The Priests by a colour of Masses made merchandise of soules and filled Iudas satchells The Abbeies under a colour of almes and hospitalitie robbed most parishes of their Ecclesiasticall livings they stole a goose and gave a feather greater theeves than ever was Barabbas they gave a meales meate and robbed a parish of their Church maintenance The Confessors under pretence of auricular confession knew the secrets of all Kingdomes It was the Popes fishing net it hath deposed more than two hundred lawfull Princes it made Fredericke Barbarossa the Popes Footstoole at Venice it exiled the King Desiderius into Lions The Pope under shew of Bulls or pardons hath robbed God of his glorie men of their money and soules of salvation he hath gotten thereby in America foure millions yearly they are like their fathers the Pharisies They devoure widowes houses even under a colour of long prayers wherefore they shall All Atheists before regeneration and conversion receive the greater damnation The whore of Babylon giveth poyson in a golden cup Beda Venerable Beda saith that the serpent in paradise had vultum virgineum a virgins face that hee might deceive Heva a virgin for he is a deceiver Yea from the beginning Math. 23. 14. Apoc. 18. Iohn 8. 44. Apoc. 20. 2. and abode not in the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Dominicans under the pretence of preaching the Franciscans under pretence of chastitie Nam virilia amputarunt the Carmelites under shew of virginitie and the Augustines under pretext of povertie have erected the Papall Kingdome by hypocrisie under colour of religion But Babylon is fallen even Rome the Queene of pride the nurse of idolatries the mother of whordomes the sinke of iniquitie Sentina malorum lacuna scelerum yea the Romish Iezabel is throwne downe and if the palmes of her hands and her skull or any thing of her remaine with us let us pray that it may bee buried also This Dagon is fallen downe twise once in King Edwards daies and againe in our dayes let it never rise againe Let this golden Diana be beaten downe for ever Let this whore of Apoc. â—8 Babylon perish and let her smoke rise up for evermore and let all that love the Lord Iesus say Amen But to proceed in the description of the wicked Secondly they are here described by their impietie hee saith that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without God without Faith without religion they denie God the only Lord and our Lord Iesus Christ so Paul said Ephes 2. 12. Phil. 3. 17 18. of the Ephesians before their conversion They were without Christ alienes from the Commonwealth of Israel strangers from the Covenant and promise and had no hope and were without God in the World And such were the Philippians They were enemies of the Crosse of Christ whose Ephes 4. 17 18. end is damnation whose God is their bellie and whose glorie is their shame which mind earthly things Such were all the Gentiles spiced with impietie For they walked in the vanitie of their minde having their cogitations darkened and being strangers from the life of God through the ignorance that was in them The world is full of such Atheists they swarme like bees in Hibla they abound like lice in Aegypt all the dust was turned into lice and in England all or most mens profession is turned into Atheisme Machivelisme saying that Religion is but policie to keep men in awe Many are of the Luk. 12. fooles religion to eate drinke play but to remember no God to pluckedown to build up to gather in but not to serve God in holinesse and righteousnesse Heu vivunt homines tanquam mors nulla sequatur Et velut infernus fabula vanaforet Alas men live as if no death should follow and as if Hell were but a fable There be many now like that Captaine that warred under Adrian the Emperor called Similus who at his death caused this Epitaph to be written upon his tombe Hic jacet Similus c. Here lieth Similus a man that was of many yeares and lived only but Seven many yeares without God but seven yeares in God many yeares wickedly but seven yeares religiously many yeares like an Atheist Atheists consuted by reason and sense but seven yeares like a Christian So a number of us may say that we have lived many yeares and yet but few yeares for God many yeares in sinne and wickednesse but few yeares in vertue and godlinesse There is a double life of Nature Grace In the one all live but in the other the elect only In all ages Atheists have abounded in Davids dayes The foole said in his heart there is no God In Salomons dayes they cryed A quicke dog is better Psal 14. Prov. 9. than a dead Lion We know what we have here but we know not what we shall have in another world In Esayes dayes For there were that said We have made a covenant with death and with Hell are Esa 28. 15. we at agreement In Christs time For there were Sadduces that denyed the Resurrection and affirmed that there was neither Angell nor spirit In Peters dayes For there were that said Where is the promise of his comming and so denyed the last Iudgement In 2 Pet. 3. Chrysostomes time they cried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. give us that which is present let God alone with that which is for to come In Calvins time for then there were such that tooke away all difference betweene good and evill vertue and vice sinne and righteousnesse And in our dayes wee have that deny God and Christ and heaven and hell Angells Spirits and all David calleth them fooles Salomon calleth them Epicures Esay noteth them as blasphemers Christ calleth them Sadduces Chrysostome Nullifidians Calvin Libertines wee call them Machiavels ungodly men Such are worse than the Divell For hee confesseth God but these perhaps deny that there bee Divells so did the Sdaduces these men therfore shal feele Divels before they beleeve Divels I would not be in their coate for the Kingdome of England no not to be Monarch of the world for ten thousand yeares Divels are seene they are felt they are heard yet these men deny them but I will remit them to Philosophie to bee counselled that Sensus non fallitur circa proprium objectum sense cannot be deceived about his proper object The very Heathen will condemne us Tullie saith Non temerè nec fortuitò sati aut creati sumus sed profectò fuit divina quaedam vis quae generi consuleret humano nec id gigneret quod cum exantlavisset labores omnes tum
that they know him it is evident Col. 3. 1 2 3. by the testimony of the Apostle Behold thou art called a Iew and restest in the Law and gloriest in God but that they did not know him truly the same Apostle also testifieth saying The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you yea the Rom. 2. 17. 24. Divels knew him and his death but yet idly historically onely not unto Salvation And many so beleeve historically no further than the very Divels themselves doe For sinne still raigneth Iam. 2. 19. in them notwithstanding the commandement of the Apostle Let not sinne raigne in your mortall bodies that yee should obey it in the lusts thereof Rom. 6. 12. But to returne to our Papists who have opened their mouth against Heaven whose tongue walketh through the world for pride is to them as a chaine they are found to be notable hereticks denying not in words but in truth the Lord Iesus First they make him no Iesus by ascribing purging of sin to the bloud of Martyrs which they call Thesaurum Ecclesiae the treasure of the Church out of which they grant their Indulgences They make him no Christ by denying his Offices first they make no Priest by erecting a daily unbloudy sacrifice they rob him of his intercession by praying to Saints They make him no Prophet by ascribing so much to their traditions by giving the Pope authority over the Gospell to coyne Lawes as they list by bringing in with Cyrill the Monke Evangelium aeternum an everlasting Gospel which say they abolisheth the Gospell of the Father in the time of the Law and the Gospell of Christ in the time of Grace They make him no King by giving all power to the Pope to save to destroy to pull out of Heaven to pluck down to Hell Such a Cerberus is this of Rome not with three heads but with three crownes boasting De plenitudine potestatis of the fulnesse of power whose comming is by the working of Sathan with all power and signes and lying wonders and in all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse among them that perish This hath Sathan parted his Kingdome that the Turke in the 2 Thess 2. 9. East should deny Christs Natures and the Pope in the West his Offices and Merits For the former Romane Empire stood on Injustice the latter of Impiety the first injuring Men the other God yet not so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against God as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against Christ The Papists alleage the words of the Apostle Hereby shall yee know the spirit of God every spirit that confesseth that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God but by the Spirit there is meant the doctrine not of men the doctrine is of God though not the man They quote also another place of Iohn Whosoever Christ alone paid the whole ransome of our Redemption beleeveth that Iesus is Christ is borne of God but Saint Iohn speaketh not of a bare confession but of a right beleefe for the Divels confessed Christ To conclude they hold not the foundation with us For other 1 Iohn 5. 1. Luke 4. 1 Cor. 3. 11. Gal. 5. 2. foundation can no man lay than that which is laid which is Christ Iesus For if the Galathians joyning Circumcision with Christ overthrew all for so saith the Apostle If yee circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing The Papists joyning workes with faith nature with Grace the Law with the Gospell the Sacrifice with the Sacrament Moses with Christ must needs overthrow all for whole Christ or no Christ Totus Christus aut nullus Christus Hee payd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ransome and either hee paid all or not a 1 Tit. 2. Act. 4. penny Non est aliud nomen there is no other name given unto men whereby they shall bee saved save onely by the name of Iesus One compareth Christ to a man that purchaseth a Lease with his owne money and lets it to his successors to hold it by a Pepper kernell or a Rose leafe Christ hath paid for our Salvation For we are redeemed not with corruptible things as Silver and Gold c. But with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lambe undefiled all our 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. workes are but as a pepper kernell yea as nothing For when we have done all those things that are commanded us wee may say that wee are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duties to do Luke 17. 10. If the fathers of these men had never sinned yet could they not doe greater injury to the Church of God than to beget such sonnes or monsters rather as Tully said of Catiline Ecce ecclesiam apostaticam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non Catholicam utinam Deus Nestorem excitaret qui lites inter nos illos componeret Behold a Church Apostolicall and strife-stirring not Catholike I would God were pleased to raise some Nestor up to compose these jarres betweene us and them But to leave this note that Christ here is called our Lord which he is two wayes Iure creationis Iure redemptionis First By right of Creation for by him God made the World Hebr. 1. 2. Secondly By the right of Redemption for God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Sonne to save the World Hereupon Iohn 3. 16. 1 Cor. 6. 20. saith Paul Yee are bought with a price Now redeeming is either by price and paying or by power and force Christ hath done both hee gave a price to God And gave himselfe a ransome for all 1 Tim. 2. 6. men Hee came by water and bloud not by water onely but by water 1 Iohn 5. and bloud In water is signified washing by bloud Redemption Secondly by his Power he redeemeth and hath taken us from the Divell So saith the Author to the Hebrewes Hee hath delivered Hebr. 2. us from death and him that hath the Lordship of death And Saint Iohn saith that Hee saw a great battell in Heaven Micbael and his Divers effusions of Christs bloud Angels fought against the Dragon and the Dragon fought and his Angels but prevailed not neither was their place any more found in Heaven It was a greater matter to Christ to redeeme the World Apoc. 12. 7. than to make the World Hee made it in six dayes but he was thirtie and three yeeres in redeeming it hee made all with a word yea with a breath By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and the hoast of them by the breath of his mouth For the letter Psal 33. 6. ◠He in the Hebrew is but a breath But hee redeemed it with a great price not with silver and gold but with bloud not with bloud of Buls Goats but with his own precious Bloud 1 Pet. 1. 18. Gold and silver are but red earth and white earth which the error of
For not everie one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdome of Heaven but he that doth the will of the Father which is in Heaven 4 The fourth signe is a strife against sin For as the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit so doth the Spirit against the Flesh And they that are Christs Have crucified the Flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5. 17. 24. And hee that is elected will cry out with the Apostle O wretched man that I am who shall deliver mee from the body of this death Rom. 7. 24. Meaning the corruption which yet remained The Law in our members which rebelleth they will tame and give no way to the motions of the flesh 5 The fifth and last signe is the reformation of our whole life a generall walking in the paths of righteousnesse holinesse as our election is knowne unto God from all eternity For the foundation of God remaineth sure and hath his seale The Lord knoweth 2 Tim. 2. 19. who are his so is it knowne to us by our workes and therfore wee are willed To give all diligence to make our election and calling sure by good workes if wee can so live that at the last when we 2 Pet. 1. 10. shall leave this World wee can say with Simeon Lord now lettest Luke 2. thou thy servant depart in peace It is an undoubted signe of our election Our election is perfected by many degrees Paul nameth three degrees of it Vocation Iustification and Glorification for so runne his words Those whom hee knew before hee predestinate and whom hee predestinate them also hee called and whom Rom. 8. 29 30. hee called them also hee Iustified and whom hee Iustified them also hee Glorified But others make other degrees The first to be Christs with his gifts 1 Cor. 3. Rom. 8. 2 Tim. 1. 9. Rom. 4. 25. Ephes 2. 10. 2 Tim. 4. 8. The second degree is our Adoption The third is our Vocation by the Gospell The fourth is Iustification The fifth is our Sanctification The sixth is our Glorification These are the signes of our election and this election is every God reprobateth in Iustice as well as elocteth in Mercy way free Never man layd hand on this worke never man brought stone to this building but all is from God and his Mercy Let us therefore throw downe our crownes with the Elders and let us say with David Not unto us Lord not unto us but unto thy name give the praise And if our reason cannot comprehend this our election Psal 115. 1. let our Faith comprehend it Vbi ratio definit sides incipit where Ambr. reason faileth faith beginneth Let our reason bee as Hagar our faith as Sara if reason will presume let Sara let faith take her downe a pegge The other part of Gods decree is Reprobation here named of Iude Of old ordained to condemnation Now whereas many grant election but not Reprobation Reprobation is proved by many places of Scripture Christ saith Every plant which my Heavenly Mat. 15. 13. Father hath not planted shall bee rooted up And Paul speaketh of Vessels of wrath ordained to destruction And Esay telleth us that Rom. 9. 22. Tophet is prepared of old it is prepared even for the King hee hath made Esa 30. 33. it deepe and large c. yet many are squeamish of Reprobation utterly denying it And Ierome was once of the minde hee said that God elected some but reprobated none Now if he deny all reprobation this must bee wrapped up amongst the rest of his errors Haec patrum pudenda tegi patior I love to hide these imperfections 1 Cor. 3. of the Fathers for they did not ever build gold upon the foundation but sometime hay and stubble c. Indeed God reprobates none but for sinne but for sinne he reprobates And thus God is righteous and his judgements just thus Christ divideth the whole world into two parts Corne and Tares Goats and Sheepe the Tares shall bee bound up in bundels and cast into the fire the Goats Mat. 13. 25. shall stand at Christs left hand and shall heare Goe yee cursed into everlasting Hell fire prepared for the Divell and his angels and marke that he saith prepared for the Divell and his angels If of five senses we want foure we cannot deny this Reprobation But what should I light a candle at noone-day or powre water into the Sea or bring the breath of a man to helpe the blast or gale of wind Magna est veritas praevalet great is truth and prevaileth for wee cannot doe any thing against the truth but for the truth 2 Cor. 13. 8. Reprobation standeth with the glory of God for as his Mercy appeareth in Election so his Iustice in Reprobation and his Iustice in punishing sinne is as lawfull as holy as glorious as his Mercy in Christ Iesus For in God they are equall and not qualities but of the essence of God For hee is Iustice and Mercy it selfe God is not made of mercy only as a loafe is of Corne or wood of Trees but of Iustice also And Gods glory shineth as much in his Iustice as in his Mercy God hath made all things for his glory and the wicked for the day of vengeance Shall wee then reason against God and say Why doth he thus Absit God forbid Againe all the works of God have their contraries wherein God not the author of evil but the disposer the infinite Wisedome of God appeareth In Physicke one thing bindeth and another looseth one thing comforteth nature and another thing destroyeth it In the state of the World there is light and darkenesse hony and gall sweet and sowre prickes and roses faire and foule hearbes and weeds In the creation of the creatures every thing hath his contrary the Woolfe to the Sheepe the Weesell to the Cony the Mouse to the Elephant the Dragon to the Vnicorne the Spider to the Flie the Lion to the Beasts the Eagle to the Birds Againe in the Church there are contraries the Elect to the Reject Cain against Abel Ismael against Isaac Hagar against Sara Esau against Iacob Pharaoh against Moses Saul against David the Pharises against Christ the false god against the true God Againe all vertues have their contrary vices Falshood against Truth Hatred against Love Faith against Infidelity Temperancie against Riot Prudence against Folly Liberality against Covetousnesse Chastity against Incontinency Fortitude against Pusillanimity So God hath them that are elected to life and fore-written to judgement for in the whole state of the world God hath shewed himselfe the Authour of Iustice and Mercy If there were no Darkenesse wee should not know the benefit of Light If no sicknesse wee should not know the benefit of health If no death wee should not know the goodnesse of life So Hell makes the blisse of Heaven seeme the greater and this destruction of the wicked the
be evill company and therefore the Holy Ghost gives this rule to those that would not bee ensnared with the strange woman Walke thou in the way of good men and keep the way of the righteous Prov. 3. 29. A fifth hand to pull downe this sinne upon them might bee their high estimation of earthly things and their too great liking of them for this love brings in lust This the Apostle affirmeth That the love of money and riches breeds noysome lusts which in short Sodomes sins abound in England time drawne men in perdition And thus yee see the meanes how Sodome came to this uncleanenesse and Hell full of uncleane persons For if yee could see into Hell ye should find it so full of 1 Tim. 6. 9. whoremongers adulterers fornicators that scarce there is any roome left for idolaters blasphemers cursed Sabath breakers damnable mocke-preachers biting usurers cruell murderers c. Many are of the Corinthians minde that whordome is a thing indifferent and of the Gentiles opinion which maintayned the same thing that the Corinthians did But contrariewise 1 Cor. 7. Act. 15. the Counsell of Gangra affirmed that the Church admired virginitie honored mariage praised widowe-hood and condemned fornication And so must we For every man must keepe his vessell in holynesse and not in the lust of concupiscence as doe the heathen our bodies are The temples of the holy Ghost If the materiall temple must 1 Thess 4. 1 Cor. 6. 19. be kept cleane much more the mysticall Finely saith a Father Quia templum dei sumus c. because we are the temple of God and the chiefe chaplaine of this temple is chastitie we must not Tertull. suffer any uncleane or unworthy thing to be brought thither lest God who dwelleth there taking displeasure to see his mansion defiled should forsake it Well Sodome was destroyed and the Cities about it it was the Metropoliticall Citie and the little townes about it learned of it but God destroyed them both Wee see therefore those to bee most vile Cities which are most large and great and most subject to ruine as Babylon Ninive Ierusalem Carthage Constantinople Corinth Athens Rome under Tiberius the Emperor thirteene Cities of Asia fell downe with an earth-quake and six under Trajan and twelve under Constantine in Campania Ferraria In Italy Anno 1569. in the space of forty houres by reason of an earth-quake many palaces temples houses were overthrown Fardentius in hunc locum with the losse of many a man amounting to forty hundred thousand pounds Burdeaux was mightily shaken with an earth-quake which reached to Spaine and marveilously shooke the Pyrenean hils What a mighty earth-quake was in the yeere 1171. that the City Tripolis and a great part of Damascus in Antiochia and Hulcipre the chiefe City in the kingdome of Loradin and other cities of the Saracens either perished utterly or were wonderfully defaced At Venice Florence and divers other places there were great earth-quakes in the yeere 1539. and did much harme When Arrius heresie was entertained at Antioch God punished it with earth-quakes I passe over with silence Paris Antwerpe Gant Magline c. all which Cities and many others God hath punished for their sinnes Little townes of the Countrey learne of the greater and shall perish together with them and therefore the Prophet having denounced Gods judgements against some Countries and Cities he maketh this demand What is the The greatest Cities as most sinfull so most punished wickednesse of Iacob is not Samaria and which are the high places of Iuda is not Ierusalem meaning that Samaria and Ierusalem which should have beene an example to all Israell of true repentance holinesse was the puddle and stewes of all idolatry Malach. 5 6. and corruption Therefore will I make Samaria saith God as an heape of the field and for the planting of a vineyard and I will cause the stones thereof to tumble downe into the Vallie and will discover the foundations thereof And as the Prophet saith What is the sinne of Iacob is not Samaria and what is the sinne of Iuda is not Ierusalem So say I What is the sinne of Norffolke is not Norwich and what is the sinne of England is not London For men are led by example more than by doctrines But let not our little townes follow our great Cities in evill lest God come in judgement against them as hee did against Sodome and the Cities about it Foelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum Happy is hee whom other mens harmes make to beware THE FIFTEENTH SERMON VERS VII Are set forth for example and suffer the vengeance of eternall fire Sodomes punishment an example to all uncleane persons THE Apostle having laid fourth the sinne of Sodome which was uncleannesse for They followed strange flesh and most horrible pollutions hee commeth now to the second part of this verse which containeth Sodomes punishment and Gods judgements upon the Cities round about But before he commeth to Sodomes punishment he setteth downe unto us the end thereof and saith They are set forth for an example For howsoever every example is not our imitation yet every example is our instruction It teacheth whoremongers to take heed of whoredome and all men of turpitude and filthinesse Gods judgements Esa 26. 9. are in the earth to teach the inhabitants of the world to learn righteousnesse to learne them to feare God and to sinne no more Paul applyed every example of Israel to the Corinthians saying These are ensamples for us that we should not lust after evill things as 1 Cor. 10 11. c they lusted neither be ye idolaters as were some of them as it is written The people sat downe to eat and drinke and rose up to play Neither let us commit fornication as some of them have committed fornication and fell in one day three and twenty thousand neither let us tempt Christ as some of them have tempted him and were destroyed of Serpents neither murmure yee as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of All examples are lor instructions and cautions the destroyer now all these things came upon them for ensamples and were written to admonish us upon whom the latter ends of the world are come that he will plague us as he punished them if we be subject to the like vices Thus Daniel aggravated the sinne of Balthasar by this that he profited not by the example of his father For Daniel told him that his fathers heart was puffed up and his mind hardened in pride whereupon he was deposed of his Kingdome and honour and he was driven from the Sonnes of men and his heart was made like the beasts his dwelling was with the wilde Asses he was fed with grasse like an Oxe and his body was wet with the dewe of heaven c. But saith he Thou hast not humbled thy heart though thou knew est all these things but hast lift
whose hands are full of blood The Drunkard whose body is as the swill-tub the irreligious person that seldome prayeth seldome giveth thankes or heareth Gods Word Quaeres quae spes quoad animi solatium hisce What hope of heaven and happinesse can these men have how thinke they to escape this fire of hell Scientes prudentes vivi videntesque pereunt knowing understanding alive and seeing they shall perish GOD shall raine upon them snares fire brimstone this shall bee their portion to Psal 11. drinke So much for the first punishment of the reprobate Fire The second punishment of the reprobate is eternall fire fire and eternity of fire All paines here have an end but the paines of hell have no end Whereupon Augustine Miseris erit mors fine morte finis sine fine defectus sine defectu c. To these miserable Aug. lib. de Spiritu anima cap. 56. wretches there shall be a death without death an end without end a decay without decay because their death shall ever live and their end shall ever begin and their decay knoweth not how to decay death shall presse them but not extinguish them sorrow shall torment them and not drive away their feare the fire shall burne them and not consume them nor yet dispell their darkenesse for in this fire is obscuritie darkenesse and in this obscurity and darkenesse feare and trembling and in this combustion and burning sorrow they shall alwaies suffer torment and alwayes shall feare because they shall be tormented without hope of pardon If after so many thousand yeeres as Eternity of torments in hell aggravate misery they have haires on their heads they might have an end of their torment there were some hope and they might indure those torments more quietly but because they have no hope that ever their paines shall be either eased or ended desperatione deficiunt they faile they faint and quaile thorow despaire Et ad tormenta non sufficiunt and they are no way able to indure those torments Ibi erit tortor semper caedens there shall be a tormentor ever beating them Et vermis semper corrodens and a worme alwayes gnawing them Etignis semper comburens a fire alwayes burning them For their worme shall not dye neither shall their fire be quenched sinnes shall bee detected and the sinnes shall be punished Esa 66. 24. and that for ever they shall see divels but not God Quod est omnium meseriarum miserrimum which of all miseries is most miserable For if Absalom tooke it so grievously that hee 2 Sam. 14. 32. was banished his Fathers presence and could not see his face how grievously shall the Reprobate be afflicted to be banished Gods presence and not to see his face for they shall be punished with eternall perdition from the presence of God and glory 2 Thes 1. 9. of his power But to follow this point a little further all men in misery comfort themselves with hope of an end the prisoner with hope of a gaole-delivery the mariner with hope of arrivall the souldier with hope of victory the prentise with hope of liberty the gally-slave with hope of ransome onely the poore caitiffe in hell hath no hope he shall have end without end death without death night without day morning without mirth sorrow without solace bondage without liberty Let fire and eternall fire move us common fire is quenched with water wilde fire with milke and vinegar but hell fire is not quenched their worme dyeth not and the fire never goeth out And Mar. 9. 44. why should not wee beleeve this seeing that their is a certaine stone in Arcadia called Asbestos which being once kindled never goeth out never can be quenched If this be in a stone how much more in the power of God This earthly fire except it be nourished with wood and other combustible matter will out but the fire of hell never goeth out it alwaies burneth and never ceaseth The reason is because our fire is not In loco proprio in his proper place sed violenta but in a violent The fire of hell is in his proper place for the breath of the Lord kindleth it We Greg in moralibâ—â— see Aetna to burne alwayes for it hath burnt from the beginning of the world and still doth burne why should not then hell fire burne alwayes and why should not we beleeve that men shall alwayes live in the fire of hell seeing wee see and know the Salamander to live in the fire If this may be by the power of nature why may not that by the power of God The paines of hell be such that all the Arithmetitians in the world cannot number them nor all the Geometritians measure them The terrours of hell should deterre from sinne nor all the Rhetoritians expresse them Quid hora ad diem c. saith one what is an houre to a day a day to a month a month to a yeere a yeere to a thousand yeeres and a thousand yeeres to eternity Mathuselah lived almost a thousand yeeres but the yeeres that are past are nothing we have nothing of time but that which is present The Pigmaeans lived onely seven yeeres never reached unto eight yeeres And their be certaine creatures bred and borne at the river Hispanis that live but a day in the morning they are bred and brought forth at noone they are at their full strength at night they make their end and are gone compare our yeeres with eternity and wee are in the same state and condition The reason of this endlesse punishment is the infinite Majesty of God words against common persons beare but common actions against noble men they be Scandala magnatum against Princes they be treason so the person of God aggravateth the sinne If any aske then how Christs death could satisfie the justice of God seeing it was not eternall I answer that he did it thorow the excellency of his Person and the perfection of his merits The remembrance of these paines in hell will drive away the remembrance of sinne as the Adamant is contrary to the Loadstone and suffereth it to draw no iron to it behold the weight of hell paines in Christ How sweat he how cryed he Deus meus deus meus quare dereliquisti me My God my God why hast thou forsaken me How did teares of blood trickle from him If hell paines were so grievous unto him what will they be to us Onely this difference is betwixt Christ and us that hee sustained all mens sinnes wee but our owne sinnes our paine therefore not so great as his but yet of greater and longer continuance his was but temporall ours eternall if we repent not We must suffer the vengeance of eternall fire The remembrance of fire and eternall fire swalloweth up all our cogitations How can our hearts endure or how can our hands be strong in that day When the Lord shall have to doe with us the
aside saith the Apostle all maliciousnesse and all guile and dissimulation and envy and all evil speaking as new borne 2 Pet. 2. 1. Babes desire the sincere milke of the Word that yee may growe thereby Among all the indignities that were offered unto Christ this was not the least they nipped his cheekes they buffeted his face they blinded his eyes they nayled his hands they peirced his feet they lanced his heart but especially they rayled on him saying He saved others let him also save himselfe if he be the Christ the Luke 23. 35 36. chosen of God The Souldiers also mocked him and came and offered him vynegar mixt with myrh and gal to hasten his death and said if thou be the King of the Iewes save thy selfe Therefore wee are willed to thinke upon him that endured such speaking against of sinners Heb. 12. 3. As an image is not seene in water that is troubled no more is truth in a mind that is malitious but it sendeth forth with violence all manner of evill speakings A soule mouthed an evill tongued man is worse than the divell not simply but in respect For a man may avoid the divell Resist the divell and hee Jam. 4. 7. will flye from you but we cannot resist a slanderer a rayler And albeit the Apostles charge is Speake not evill one of another brethren he that speaketh evill of his brother or he that condemneth his brother Iam. 4. 11. speaketh evill of the Law and condemneth the Law Yet the world is as full of evill speakers as Nilus of Crokadyles as Sodome of Sulphur and Egypt of Lice In conviviis rodunt in circulis vellicant maledico dente omnia carpunt It is salt to their meat to rayle on men in feasts and bankets A good name is a pretious oyntment and woe to them that bereave a man of it many mens tongues walke at randome and speake evill of the things they know not Can the wound be cured so long as the iron remaine in it Can the iron be cold so long as it is in the Smiths forge Can the River cease running so long as the Fountaine floweth And can the tongue refraine from evill speaking so long as hatred boileth in the heart Of the abundance of the heart the mouth Luke 6. 45. speaketh And as the water turneth the wheele so the heart the tongue Boetius saith Si irâ fremis Leo es si fraude inniteris Vulpes es si inconstans Camaeleon es si luxuriaris porcus es si convitiaris Canis es if thou beest greatly moved with anger thou art a Lion if thou delightest in fraud thou art a Fox if thou beest unconstant thou art a Camaeleon if lecherous a Hog if foule-mouthed or evill-tongued a dogge and Beware of dogges saith the Phil. 3. 2. Apostle they are alwayes barking and biting and snarling One resembleth a foule-mouthed man an evill speaker to the Basiliske for as the Basiliske killeth the Bird that flyeth in the ayre with his breath so doth the evil speaker kil men with his tongue I will say of these foule-mouthed men as Hierom sometime said Brownists raile on our Church doctrin and Ministery of Iovinian Tacere nesciunt maledicere non cessant nunquam enim bene loqui dedicerunt they cannot hold their peace they cannot cease from evill speaking they never yet learned to speake well There is an art in speaking as well as in writing for there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Right speaking as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Right writing and both necessary Iudge now of what spirit our Brownists be as Christ said of his disciples that would have fire come downe from Heaven and Luke 9. 35. destroy Samaria Yee know not of what spirit yee are So they know not of what spirits they be of for all their eloquence standeth in biting speeches that our Church is Babylon Sodome as Apoc 11. 8. that our ministers have the marke of the beast as Apoc. 13. 16. that our people are swine and dogges as Mat. 7. 6. that our Communion cup is Calix diaboli the cup of the Divell that Mensa Christi is Mensa diaboli the table of Christ is the table of the Divell as 1. Cor. 10. 20. our pulpits bee tubs our Geneva Psalmes Gehenna Psalmes But I will say to them as one said Hoc genus hominum ridere soleo non odisse I am wont to laugh at these kind of men not to hate them they thinke much to be touched in doctrine but I will answere them as Erasmus answered Longolius deponant gladios nos scuta abiiciemus removeant venena nos antidoto uti cessabimus cessent maledicere nos non regeremus in hoc illis consentire non possumus ut pareamus schismaticis Let them lay away their swords and wee will throw away our shields Let them remove their poyson and wee will cease to use any Antidote Let them refraine from evill speaking and we will not taunt againe In this wee cannot consent unto them in their schismes I but say they wee are willed To come out from Babylon yea and To separate our selves and to touch no uncleane thing I 2 Cor. 6. 14. confesse Schismatikes interpret this discession locally but the Fathers understand it mentally and morally The Prophets and Apostles proclaimed Touch no uncleane thing but how Contactu cordis non corporis Doth hee that commit sinne displease thee thou touchest no uncleane thing Hast thou charitably rebuked him thou art come out from him yet they cry out we have no Ministers no Sacraments no Church at all What is their reason our lives are not answerable to the doctrine of the Gospell Be it so yet this is no reason why they should make discession from us How corrupt was Ierusalem so corrupt that Esay compareth her to Sodome and Gomorah yet hee erected Esa 1. not new Altars whereupon to offer sacrifice apart but entred into the same Temples and celebrated the same Sacraments with them while Moses received the Law in the mount the people made a Golden Calfe below in the valley God shewed Exod. 32. their idolatry to Moses making an offer to destroy them and to multiply him to a greater and better nation Had not Moses now a faire occasion of departing from them lest hee should No men perfectly pure no state totally corrupt touch any uncleane thing yet he leaves them not but goeth unto them reproveth them and maketh intercession to God for them How desperate was the impiety of the Pharisees in the dayes of our Saviour Yet for all that Christ our Saviour frequented their Temple and would not forbeare their religious exercises The Church of Corinth was defiled with many sinnes and horrible out-rages both in life and Doctrine they were deriders sectaries incestuous prophaners of the Lords supper denyers of the most essentiall Article of the Resurrection yet so long as the Ministery of the Word
Woe be to them that joyne Esa 5. 8. to house and lay field to field till there be no place that they may bee placed by their selves in the middest of the earth And againe Esay 30. 1. Woe to the rebellious children saith the Lord that take councell and Esa 30. 1. not at mee and cover with a covering but not by my Spirit c. And Habakuk 2. 9. Woe be to him that coveteth an evill covetousnesse to his Hab. 2. 9. house that he may set his nest on high and escape from the power of evill And Amos 6. 1. Woe to them that are at ease in Sion and trust in the mountaine of Samaria And Luke 6. 24. Woe bee to you that are Amos 6. rich for yee have received your consolation And Saint Iames saith Luke 6. 24. Iam. 5. 1 2 3. Plorate divites Goe to now ye rich men weepe and howle for the miseries that shall come upon you your riches are corrupt your garments moth-eaten your gold and silver is cankered and the rust of them shall be a witnesse against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire And no marvell though so many woes are threatned against this sinne of covetousnesse for it is the originall of all sinne committed against God or man Against God the covetous man maketh gold his hope and saith to the wedge of Gold Thou art my confidence His Oxen his wealth his Iob 31. 24. riches is his creator redeemer and sanctifier his God the Father his God the Sonne his God the Holy Ghost His Creator for when he gets abundance of riches he thinks himselfe made but when by some accident he loseth a yoake of Oxen or some other temporall thing hee thinkes himselfe undone The Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth is not his Creator he sings that old song Sol re me fa sola res me facit only his wealth makes him God the Sonne is not his Redeemer his money delivers him from evill Hath he escaped any danger He thankes not God he thankes his gold Is he like to fall into any mischiefe hee puts his trust in his uncertaine riches Soule thou hast much goods in store take thy rest Luke 12. The Holy Ghost is none of his Sanctifier Ille sanctior qui ditior he is best that hath most he is good enough that hath gold enough goods enough And as covetousnesse is hatefull to God so is it to men Avarus nemini bonus sibi verò pessimus hee is good to none but worst to himselfe for covetousnesse exposeth the heatt to all manner of lothsome sinnes for the divell hath the covetous alwayes upon Covetousnesse makes uncapable of all the eight beatitudes the hip as we speak that is ever at such advantage that he will be sure to overthrow him for whatsoever sinne hee will have him to commit let him but hollow and cast up the lure of commodity he stoopes presently and falls upon it Would ye have him lye promise him but profit and he will tippe his tongue with lyes Will ye have him forsweare himselfe shew him but a commodity use silver perswasions he will pollute the name of God with a thousand othes Would ye have him murther shead blood the glistring shew of gold will make him wade up to the chin in a streame of blood This mercinary souldier doth never thinke himselfe too good for any service the Divell will command him Covetousnesse is the Divels great Ordnance wherewith he hath battered the wals of mens consciences as it is most pittifull to consider yea and farther a man may fall into other sinnes and repent for them but this sinne of covetousnesse is like the harlot a deepe and a narrow ditch and like the wicked woman Prov. 23. 27. Prov. 5. that Salomon calls more bitter than death whose heart is as nets and snares and her hands as bands to keepe a man fast in the ward and prison of the divell For whosoever is overtaken with this sin cannot set one step to heauen his couetous desires are as lead to pull him downe Yee know that our Saviour hath Mat. 5. 3 4 c. eight beatitudes The first to be poore in spirit The second to mourne inwardly The third to be meeke The fourth to hunger and thirst after righteousnesse The fifth to be mercifull The sixth to be pure in heart The seventh to be a peace maker The eighth to suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake These are the steps and stayres to bring men to Heaven and and therefore so long as men be covetous it is impossible for them to come there First poore in spirit he cannot be for he so feareth purse-poverty that he feeles not the misery into which the fall of Adam and his owne sinnes have cast him Secondly he cannot mourne for his sinnes for worldly sorrow and vexation doe turne the streame of weeping quite another way Thirdly he cannot be meeke in spirit for the Spirit of God calls him a trouble-house saying Hee that is greedy of gaine troubleth Prov. 15. 27. his owne house and it is impossible that his heart should bee mâ—eke and quiet when hee cannot suffer his owne house so to bee Fourthly for hungring and thirsting after righteousnesse it cannot be that his appetite should stand that way for the dogs-hunger and the dropsie-thirst of wealth doth so gnaw and torment his The covetous subiect to all the curses contrary to the eight beatitudes soule that hee makes no account of CHRISTS righteousnesse Fifthly to bee mercifull stands not in any sort with his profession to open his heart to pitty and his purse to relieve a poore man he thinkes will undoe him a piece of money goes from him as a drop of blood from him heart with griefe and sorrow enough Sixthly Pure in heart hee cannot be for he that hath the root of all evill in his heart cannot have a pure heart Seventhly he is no peacemaker crosse him in his penny and he will trouble all the world for all the world can tell that covetousnesse is the father mother and nurse of most debates and strifes that are in the world covetousnesse wil not lose a penny he will give the Lawyer a pound first Eighthly the covetous man will never suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake his goods are his god and if he come to those termes that he must either leave riches or righteousnesse 't is righteousnesse that hee will forsake before riches the world is his Mistresse hee must embrace her then farewell righteousnesse So that now a man may very truely turne the speech of our Saviour against the covetous man and say Cursed be the covetous for he is not poore in spirit and therefore the kingdome of Hell is his Cursed be the covetous for he cannot mourne for his sinnes but for his losses onely therefore hee shall never bee comforted Cursed be the covetous for he is not meeke but froward
like a Serpent and hurt like a Cockatrice Thine eyes shall looke upon strange Women and thy heart shall speake lewde things c. Fulnesse of bread that is Epicurisme was one of the sinnes of Sodom and no doubt it was a hand to pull uncleanenesse the sooner upon them Raine engendreth Ezech. 16. Snow so Epicurisme engendreth whoredom Paul exhorting to a Christian life beginneth with sobriety as the first staffe of the Tit. 2. 12. ladder for hee that liveth not soberly to himselfe will not live righteously with men nor holily with God Saint Peter speaking of the last day beginneth with sobriety as an helpe to prayer and to all Christian vertues This hee learned of his 1 Pet. 4. 7. Master who gave this covenant to all To take heede to your selves Luke 21. 34. lest at any time your hearts bee not overcome with surfeiting and drunkennesse Paul reckoneth drunkennesse among the workes of the flesh which exclude us out of the Kingdome of Heaven As no Gal. 5. 20. Numb 5. Iudg. 12. Iudg. 7. Deut. 23. Aug. 1 Tim. 5. Leper might bee in the campe of Israel as no Gileadite might passe over Iordan as no fearefull man might enter into the warres of Madian as no bastard might enter into the Sanctuarie so no Drunkard no Epicure shall enter into Heaven A Drunkard an Epicure is Dead being alive as Paul said of the wanton Widowes a voluntary divell and uncurable disease a breach unrepairable a common opprobrie of mankinde of all sinners wee see fewest drunkards reformed the Adulterer may become chaste a thiefe a true man the swearer have a sanctified tongue but these come seldome to Repentance Wee should eate to live and live to praise the Lord but wee live to eate and drinke Sardanapalus his Epitaph might bee graven on our tombes Haec habeo quae edi quaeque exaturata libido hausit c. for our belly is our God our kitchen our Religion Phil. 3. 18. our altar our dresser our Minister our Cooke our whole felicitie in eating and drinking most mens bodies are as spunges to receive all liquor their throats open sepulchres their bellies graves to burie all Gods creatures there is not that bird that flyeth that fish that swimmeth that beast that moveth that is not buried in their bodies the earth is weary of such unprofitable burdens the creatures by them abused will bee a witnesse against them as Saint Iames speaketh in another case from the French the Spaniards and Turke wee have Iam. 5. 1 2. Soph. 1. 9. learned strange attire from the Italians wee have learned pride and Atheisme and wantonnesse from the Dutch wee have learned to drinke we never learne from any nation any good thing Nature teacheth sobriety and temperance And it is a wonder that wee should bee such Epicures for among all the creatures God hath given to none so little a mouth as he doth to man according to his proportion which argueth that man should be more temperate in meat and drinke than other creatures and not to be spots in feasts Well noteth Augustine that God hath not given to man talons Aug. and clawes to rent and teare in pieces as to Beares and Leopards nor hornes to push as to Bulls and Vnicornes nor a sting to pricke as to Waspes and Bees and Serpents nor a bill to strike as to Eagles and Ostriches nor a wide mouth to devoure as to Dogges and Lions Againe the mouth of man is not bent to the earth as the mouth of other creatures os homini sublime dedit to note that he must not eate and drinke as other Ovid. creatures I say of meate as Paul said of fornication Meat for the belly and the belly for meat but God shall destroy both it and them 1 Cor. 6. 13. Fire is to warme us not to burne us water is to wash us not to drowne us weapons are to defend us not to kill us so meats and drinkes are to refresh us not to oppresse the body and vitall spirits If ever Satan hath the vantage of us it is in our fulnesse for then eyes eares tongue heart and all members are out of frame then we forget God Christ Heaven Hell and all This is the Caveat that God gave his people When thou hast eaten and filled thy selfe thou shalt blesse the Lord thy God for the good land which Deut. 8. 10 11 12. he hath given thee lest when thou hast eaten and filled thy selfe thou forget the Lord c. Israel sate downe to eate and to drinke and rose up to 1 Cor. 10. 7. play So we at our feasts handle nothing but cards dice bowles c. The false witnesses are noted to be Sonnes of Belial such are 1 Reg. 21. meetest for villany Gods Spirit and drinke are set as opposite by the Apostle Be not drunken with wine saith he wherein is excesse Ephes 5. 18. but bee filled with the Spirit When wine is in wit is out and where drinke is in Gods Spirit is out we cannot be full of them both at one time and if Gods Spirit be not in us the uncleane spirit is in us God will have the hand of the Father to be first Deut. 21. 21. on the riotous child O that we had the Spirit of zeale O that one Epicurish drunkard were so served O that the streets of this Towne were sanctified that all England might heare it and tremble at it It was a good argument in the Primitive Church against drunkards that it was but the third houre of the day that is Act. 2. 15. nine of the clocke but it is not so now for our men beginne at Sun-rising and continue to Sun-setting and often call for a candle because the day is too little for them The Idolaters served god Bel in the day and god Belly in the night we serve god Dan. 14. Belly day and night The Holy Ghost maketh mention of a great cup belike great Iudg. 5. 25. men drunke in great cups Amos reproveth them for drinking in bowles but we I thinke shall drinke in Troughes and eate in Amos 6. 6. Chargers not in platters It may be said of many that was said God punisheth drunkennesse and gluttony of Bonosus the Emperour that wee are borne not to live but to eate and drinke to feast and banquet wee strive to match with Heliogabalus who at one supper was served with sixe hundred Ostriches and to match Vitellius who had at one feast two thousand fishes and seven thousand birds This Epicurisme of ours God will punish and hath punished it with three yeeres dearth when did God smite the Amalekites he did it in the middest of 1 Sam. 30. 16 17. their glossing as in a time wherein their sinne was ripe When came God to Balthazar but in his cups and banquets and when did God strike downe the chosen men of Israel but then for Dan. 5.
this my text Blacknesse of darknesse for evermore yet all these doe but shadow out the matter they cannot paint it lively Tophte and Gehinnon shadowed out hell there they sacrificed their children to Moloch in hot brasse had a noise of instruments to darken the cry of their children Christ alludeth unto it in the word Gehenna Ier. 19. 4 5. Mat. 5. 2. But as all the ioyes of the elect heere are but earnest pennies and first-fruits of heaven for here is but the seed-time there is the harvest There is fulnesse of ioy and pleasure for evermore so all Psal 16. 11. the paines and torments that the wicked suffer here they are but moll-hilles to mountaines as a sparke to the fire as a drop of water to the maine Ocean nothing in respect of that which they shall feele there all the paines of Achitophel Saul Iudas Francis Spira are nothing to their paines now Christ having reckoned up many plagues as how that nation shall rise up against nation and Kingdome against Kingdome Luke 21. 10 11 25 26. and great earth quaks shall be in divers places and hunger and pestilence and fearefull things and great signes shall there bee from heaven in the Sunne and in the Moone and in the Starres and upon the earth trouble among the nations with perplexity For mens hearts shall faile them for feare and for looking after those things that shall come on the world at last he addeth Initium dolorum haec these are but the beginnings of sorrow as if he should have said All these things are but smoake in respect of the terrible fire ensuing as a muster of souldiers before the terrible bloody battel What will the end be if the beginning be so grievous If his little finger be so heavy what will be the weight of his loines He beateth us on earth with whips but he will beate us in hell with Scorpions as Rehoboam said of the ten tribes The torments invented by tyrants and inflicted upon the Saints and servants of God have beene most hideous and fearfull as the teeth of wild beasts hot glowing Ovens and Furnaces caldrons of boyling oyle fiery brazen bulles powning to death in morters rowling in barrelles of nayles rosting upon spits boaring with angers parting the nayles and fingers ends with Needles nipping the flesh with pinsers racking and rending asunder the joynts with wilde horses no pitty no remorse taken whilest there was either flesh or blood or synew or bone but the torments of Hell are greater the mourning of Hannah the griefe of Iob the sorrow of David the lamentations of Ieremie the bitter smart of Ierusalem were great as much as mortality could beare yet all nothing to the mournings grief The torments of Hell opposed to the ioyes of Heaven sorrowes and lamentations of the wicked in Hell If all griefes and woes and as many besides as ever wrung and wrested the spirit and heart of man since the breath of life was breathed into him were put together to part the torments of Hell among them part after part as if they would empty the store-houses and breake the streame of it yet hath the hand of Hell an unmeasurable portion behinde to distribute to her children an endlesse patrimony of how ling and wringing and gnashing which all the foreprized griefes and torments of this life have scarce beene shadowes and counterfeits of all the paines in the World are nothing to the paines of Hell therefore saith our Saviour If thy hand and thy foot offend thee cut them off and cast them from thee it is better for thee to enter into life halt and maimed than having two hands and two feete to bee cast into everlasting fire Mat. 18. 8. Againe as two contraries set together the one doth set out the other as blacke being set by white seemeth the blacker and gall set by honey seemeth the bitterer for contrariorum contraria est ratio therefore whatsoever can bee said of the joyes of Heaven may bee said of the paines of Hell Well of the one Paul saith The eye hath not seene the eare hath not heard the heart of man cannot comprehend nor containe the great joyes of Heaven 1. Cor. 2. 9. then of the other side it may be said of the paines of Hell that the eye hath not seene the eare hath not heard nor the heart cannot conceive the paines of Hell O brethren if all the trees and plants in the World were pennes all the Earth paper all the water of the Sea Inke and all creatures in Heaven and Earth Pen-men yet are they not able to set out the paines of Hell No if a man had the learning of Moses the understanding of Esay the zeale of Elias the thundering tongue of Iames and Iohn the eloquence of Apollo yet they cannot give thee a shadow of the torments of Hell Againe as touching Heaven it is said of the faithfull But ye Heb. 12. 22. 23. are come to Mount Sion to the City of the living God to the colestiall Ierusalem to the company of innumerable Angels and to the Congregation of the first borne which are written in Heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the spirits of just and perfect men but the wicked come to mount Ebal where the sixe Tribes cursed to the valley of Achor they come not to the celestiall but the infernall Ierusalem c. not to the company of innumerable Angels but to a company of innumerable Divels not to the spirits of perfect and just men but to the damned spirits of wicked and vile men not to Iesus the Mediator of the New testament but unto Belzebub the Prince of darkenesse Againe as touching the elect Augustine saith they shall have joy every way joy within joy without joy beneath and joy above and joy round about them Ioy within for they shall have The damned tormented in all parts in hell peace of conscience joy without for they shall have the fellowship of God and Angels joy above from the sight of God joy beneath from the beautie of the World For there shall be a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein shall dwell righteousnesse and joy round about them for they shall see all the delights that may be God shall be a glasse to their eyes musicke to their eares a Iubilee to their hearts yea God shall bee unto them all in all as 1. Cor. 15. Is it thus with Gods elect then the damned shall have sorrow within and sorrow without sorrow above and sorrow benath and sorrow round about them sorrow within from the worme of their conscience sorrow without by meanes of the accusation of the Divels sorrow above for the angry Iudge sorrow beneath for the gaping gulfe of hell fire ready to swallow them up and sorrow round about them for the world burning For à dextris erunt peccata accusantia à sinistris infinita daemonia subtùs horrendum Chaos inferni desuper Iudex
At the first he came as a Lambe now shall he come as a Lion Venit tunc salvare nunc iudicare he came then to save us now he shall come to judge us And yet to speake fully his first comming was not without glory two contraries were conjoyned Summa humilitas summa sublimitas the deepest humility and the highest sublimity Aug. he lay among the beasts yet praised of Angels which sung Gloria in excelsis Glory bee to God on high What is hee Luk 2. that is so base and so glorious so little and so great so poore and so rich poore in the flesh poore in the manger poore in the stable but great and rich and glorious in heaven whom the starres obey great and glorious in the aire Mat. 2. where the Angels sing great and glorious in earth for Herod and all Ierusalem were moved at the tidings of him It is the greatest basenesse Luk 2. for God to bee conceived and the greatest glory to bee conceived by the Holy Ghost the greatest basenesse to be borne Esay 7. of a Woman and the greatest glory to be borne of a Virgin the greatest basenesse to be borne in a stable and the greatest glory to shine in the Heavens the greatest basenesse to deplore among beasts and the greatest glory to be sung of Angels the greatest basenesse to be baptized among sinners and the greatest glory to have the heavens open the spirit to descend and to heare the Father of heaven speaking from heaven This is my beloved Sonne Mat. 3. 16. in whom I am well pleased It is the greatest basenesse to suffer death upon the Crosse and the greatest glory to rise againe from the dead formosus erat in Coelis formosus erat in terra he was faire and beautifull in heaven faire and beautifull in earth faire and beautifull in his throne of glory faire and beautifull in the manger faire and beautifull among the Angels faire and beautifull among the beasts Quid facitis ô Magi puerum ne adoratis What doe yee ô yee Wise-men doe yee worship the child Is he not therefore a King I but where is the Kings Court Where is his Throne Where the continuall resort and haunt of this Court Is not his Court the stable his Throne the Manger They that resort and haunt this Court the Oxe and the Asse Yet vndique formosus est on every side he was faire and glorious The Lords two Courts one of Mercy the other of Iustice For when he spake the sea was calme when he commanded the windes were whist when he called the dead did rise and when he died the Sunne was eclipsed when he rose the earth trembled when he ascended the heavens opened so farre Augustine Thus his first comming was not without glory but his second shall be glorious indeed He shall come in the glory of his Father with Mat. 24. all the holy Angels One speaking of this comming of Christ to iudgement saith Posterior Christi adventus non erit mitis sed terribilis Christs latter comming shall not bee gentle but terrible and fearefull For measure me the greatnesse of one arme by the quantity of another the Iustice of God by the mercy of God If he was so mercifull in his first comming as to take our flesh and to suffer death upon the Crosse for us and how iust how severe will hee bee in his second comming to all those that have either contemned or abused his mercy Quam facilis fuit in primo adventu Looke how facile gentle and propice he was in his first comming tam difficilis erit in secundo adventu so hard so uneasy to bee intreated will he be in his second comming infinit in mercy infinit in Iustice ready to pardon and ready to punish God shall arise and his enemies shall be scattered they also that hate him shall fly before him As Psal 88. 1 2. the smoke vanisheth so shalt thou drive them away and as Wax melteth before the fire so shall the wicked perish at the presence of God And as the Prophet saith God is jealous and the Lord revengeth even the Lord of anger the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth Nahum 1. 1 2. wrath for his enemies the Lord is slow to anger but great in power and will not surely cleere the wicked As we treasure up our sinnes so hee treasureth up his wrath Indies crescunt peccata indies crescit ira our sinnes increase daily and his wrath daily Bernard saith that the Lord hath two Courts the one of mercy the other of iustice the one in this life the other in the life to come when he shall come with thousands of his Saints to judgement Here is forum miscricordiae the Court of mercy there shall be forum Iustitiae the Court of Iustice for there he will reward every man according to his Works Augustine bringeth in Christ thus Rom. 2. 6. speaking at the last day Ecce fabri Filium quem irrisistis Behold the Carpenters Sonne whom yee have derided Ecce eum in quem non credidistis Behold him in whom yee have not beleeved behold the wounds which yee have made in my hands and feet behold the side which yee have pierced behold the face which you have beraide with your spittle Behold the glory that shall presse and overwhelme you and the Majesty that shall breake and bruise you For our Iudge will iudge righteously and iustly Hee will reward every man according to his worke that is to them which by continuance Rom. 2. 6 7. in well doing seeke glory and honour and immortality eternall life but unto them that are contentious and disobey the truth and obey Wee must meditate as well on the Iustice of God as on his mercy unrighteousnesse shall be indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish shall be upon the soule of every man that doth evill And here note the blindnesse of the World All men prate of mercy but few talke of Iustice like the Benjamites we cast stones with one hand like Iudg. 19. Mat. 26. Polipheme we see but with one eye with Malchus wee heare but with one eare like the Vnicorne we defend our selves with one horne from God like the Amazones many brethren give sucke to the Church with one pap delivering but one doctrine namely that of mercy But let me speake familiarly If a fellon will not trust only on the mercy of the Iudge at the Assise Let us not deceive our selves against that great Assise day Whatsoever Gal. 6 7 8. a man soweth that shall he reape for he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reape corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reape life everlasting In quo statu novissimus vitae dies relinquet in eo resurrectionis primus dies inveniet qualis in isto die quisque moritur talis in die illo iudicabitur In
treacherous domesticall enemy and not only so but also a tyrannicall enemy it will not be pleased except it raigne a most secret enemy for she sits at the fountaine and poy soneth all she lets in the Divell and suffers him to set up his holds and fortifications in us and is never quiet till it bring the soule into actuall high treason against God snibbe her punish her chastise her tame her therefore lead all thy thoughts into captivity and bring them to the obedience of Christ The Iewes would not listen to the Prophets but walked after their owne fleshly 2 Cor. 10. lusts and therefore saith God unto his Prophet Speake thou now unto the men of Iudah and to the Inhabitants of Ierusalem saying Ier. 18. 11 12. Thus saith the Lord Behold I prepare a plague for you and purpose a thing against you returne you therefore every one from his evill way and make your wayes and your works good But they said desperately as men that had no remorse but were altogether bent to rebellion and to walke after their fleshly lusts Surely we will walke after our owne imaginations and doe every man after the stubbornesse of his own wicked heart This is our case thus wee say Let them teach let them preach their bellies full it is but one Doctours opinion The Iewes for all Ezechiel followed their covetousnesse They come unto you saith God as a people useth to come and my people sit before thee and heare thy words but they will not doe them for with their Bad thoughts must be banished mouthes they make iests and their heart goeth after their covetousnesse and lo thou art unto them as a iesting song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can sing well for they heare thy words but do them not This English people in the like sort giveth us the hearing but not the doing they are covetous still bribers oppressours usurers and still they follow their lusts c. Quid odit Deus nisi propriam voluntatem What doth God hate but our owne proper will What doth God punish but our will Let thy will cease and Hell shall cease Non erit tibi infernus Thou shalt feele no hell for if thou turne away thy foote from the Sabbath from doing thy will refraine from wicked workes and honour thy God not doing thine owne wayes nor seeking thine owne will nor speaking a vaine word I will cause thee to mount upon thâ— high places of the earth and feed thee with the heritage of Iacob c. The heart is warily to be kept from two things A vanis cogitationibus inordinatis affectibus from vaine cogitations and inordinate affections or wandrâ—ng lusts From these two let thy heart bee free wherein the Spirit dwelleth As Painters use to blanch and make white their tables wherein they doe paint and to draw out the shape and forme of any thing so make thou cleane and expunge the tables of thy soule thy understanding and will as touching thy desires and lusts that is as touching thy thoughts and cogitations that the finger of God that is the Holy Ghost may paint good things in thy heart The heart of the evill is as an high-way continually trampled upon worne with their affections by the instigation of Satan For what affection doe the wicked represse What lust doe they resist What did they ever deny the flesh that it longed for or desired God may now complaine of us as hee did of his owne people Wherefore is this people of Ierusalem turned backe with a perpetuall rebellion they gave themselves to deceit and would not returne I harkened Ier. 8. 5 6. and heard but none spake aright none repented him of his wickednesse saying What have I done every one turned to his race as the horse rusheth into the battell drawing iniquity with cordes of vanity and sinne like Esay 5. 18. cart-ropes they use allurements occasions and excuses to harden their hearts in sinne and as the Apostle speaketh They are past feeling and have given themselves to wantonnesse to worke all uncleannesse Ephes 4. 19. with greedinesse The malicious pursue their revenge the drunkard his cups the whoremonger his pleasures the covetous their gaine Sed aequum est ut qui nunquam voluit carere vitio nunquam careret supplicio It is meete and right that he that would never want sinne should never want punishment but that God should raine upon them snares and fire and brimstone storme and tempest evermore To these men it shall be said as unto Babylon Reward her even as she rewarded you and give her double according Psal 11. Apoc. 18. 8. to her workes and in the câ—p that shee hath filled to you fill her the double in asmuch as she glorified her selfe and lived in pleasure so The Word of God the chiefest meanes to restraine lusts much give you to her torment and sorrow Cor verò bonorum est ut hortus conclusus the heart of good men is as a garden shut up and as a fountain sealed whereof no man must taste no man must drinke Cant. 3. 7. but God as the bed of Salomon that had threescore strong men round about it of the valiant men of Israel but the heart of the wicked is as a vessell withour a cover ad accipiendam omnem spurcitiem to receave all filthinesse all uncleannesse as Paul speaketh of the Gentiles They kept not their vessels in holinesse but in the lust of concupiscence 1 Thess 4. 5. It intertaineth any sin whatsoever Againe Let thy heart be free and at liberty from affections there is nothing that troubleth and disquieteth the heart so much as our naturall affections and passions as are love and hatred joy and sorrow hope and feare anger and desire c. These are the winds which vehemently tosse and trouble this sea these are the clouds which darken this Heaven these are the weights which doe depresse the spirit Let us therefore cast away every thing that presseth downe Hebr. 12. 1. and the sinne that hangeth on so fast As our bodily eyes cannot behold the Sunne and the starres in cloudy and darke weather so our spirituall eyes the eyes of our soule cannot see God nor heaven the seate of God when they are obscured and darkened with the clouds of lusts passions As in a cleere pure water all things are seene even unto the least sand which in a troubled foule water cannot bee so the soule is blind and seeth not when passions and lusts obscure her Beware therefore lest the two wings of thy soule understanding and will bee not defiled with the bird-lime of earthly things that is to say wicked affections Rule therefore thine affections by the Word of God Let this Word be a lanterne unto thy feet and a light unto thy pathes For Psal 119. 105. of our selves we are but darkenesse and cannot see except we bee lightened with Gods Word Refraena
thy lusts Sequere carnem ducet te adinteritum Follow the flesh and it will lead thee to destruction For if yee live after the flesh yee shall dye Now to live Rom. 8. 13. after the flesh is to commit the workes of the flesh and the Gal. 5. 19 20 21. workes of the flesh are first Adultery secondly Fornication thirdly Vncleanenesse fourthly Wantonnesse fifthly Idolatrie sixthly Witch-craft seventhly Hatred eighthly Debate ninthly Emulations tenthly Wrath eleventhly Contentions twelfthly Seditions thirteenthly Here sies fourteenthly Envy fifteenthly Murders sixteenthly Drunkennesse last of all Gluttony and they that doe these things shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Divide the World into an hundred parts and scarce one is Christian and among a hundred Lust promiseth pleasure but brings damnation that are called Christians scarce one can say with Paul Miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sinne The flesh speaketh guilefully to the Spirit that hath left her with her lusts as Laban did to Iacob to cause him to retire and goe Rom. 7. 24. home againe with him so saith the flesh to the spirit and body I would have filled thine eyes with goodly sights thine eares with sweete musicke thy palat with dainty dishes thy appetite with all lusts and pleasures So Augustine bringeth in his affections lusts and concupiscences thus speaking unto him and crying Dimittes ne nos nunc Wilt thou leave us now and shall we not be with thee for ever The flesh fighteth against the spirit herein it resembleth Eva alluring Adam to the forbidden fruit like Gal. 5. 16. Gen. 3. Gen. 39. Iudg. 4. Iudg. 16. Putiphars wife solliciting Ioseph to all filthinesse like Iael who slew Sisera under the shew of love like Dalila who delivered Samson sleeping in her lap into the hands of the Philistians Sed opera carnis damnabilia the workes of the flesh are damnable Gal. 5. â—2 If wee live after the flesh wee shall dye Seneca a Gentile could say Major sum ad majora natus quà m ut carnis mancipium fiam I am greater and borne to greater things than to bee a slave unto the flesh So must a Christian say I am borne to greater things than to serve the flesh which yeeldeth nothing but corruption For hee that soweth in the flesh shall of the flesh reape corruption I Gal. 6. 8. Gen. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 18. 1 Cor. 6. 11. Ephes 4. 1 Cor. 10. 3. Phil. 3. 21. am created after Gods image redeemed with his Bloud sanctified by his Spirit instructed by his Word fed by his Sacraments appointed to be glorified that I may live to God here in Heaven hereafter What man having two servants the one wise the other foolish wold have the foole to over-rule the wiseman So we let the flesh over-ruel the Spirit Our lusts are as fire unquenchable as a devouring beast that is not satisfied as the horse-leech which sucketh till she burst Quod solatiuÌ„ habere potest pater What coÌ„fort or joy can a Father have that having 10 or 12 hungry sons ready to starve for want heare them cry out for food succor hath not wherwith to feed still them So what quiet can a man have whose appetites desires cry out yet caÌ„not satisfie nor suffice theÌ„ Clamat luxuria Leachery crieth Give me women yet thy strength caÌ„not performe that thou lustest after Clamat superbia Pride cryeth Be liberall a good companion Tuae tamen facultates hoc negant Thy wealth denyeth this Clamat invidia Envy cryeth Revenge thy selfe of such such injury yet thy weakenesse will not suffer thee to bee revenged Clamat voluptas Pleasure cryeth Ede bibe Eate drinke fish fowle hunt hawke rush ride reclamat tamen senectus but old age cryeth againe Desunt vires Strength is wanting to performe these things hee must sit coughing in his chaire and grunting in his bed his will is good to follow these delights but poore man he wanteth strenght Miserè torquentur isti libidinosi nunquam explentur these libidinous men are miserably tormented but never filled like the horse-leech daughters they are never satiate quot sensus tot arma so Lust poysons all the powers of the soule many senses so many weapons our words blow our works wound our eyes and eares open gates for the Divell to send loads of sinne into our mind our taste and senses and feeling are Prov. 30. 15. Rom 6. 1 Cor. 6. tinder and fewell to feed the fire of our concupiscence our bodies which should have beene Templum Spiritus Sancti the Temple of the Holy Ghost a haunt of Divels and a sepulcher of a corrupted soule the soule betrothed to Christ in Baptisme a 1 Cor. 2. 14. riotous disloyall losell our understanding darkened our will with her affections a common Curtisan lusting after every offer Ephes 2. 3. of the flesh in so much as one Father bringeth in the Divel speaking thus to Christ I have more right to this man than thou Iudge him to be mine I never loved him and yet he served me I never did him good yet hath he obeyed me what I suggested he performed what I proffered he imbraced Meus est per naturam tuus est per gratiam he is mine by nature he should have been thine by grace mine he is by transgression but thine he should have been by redemption but he gave himselfe to lust and lust being conceived brought forth sin therefore he is mine mine mine An elegant Prosopopeia without us are our affections to seduce us within our conscience to accuse us above us Gods justice beneath us hell fire Let us not therefore lust after evill things but crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts Where lust is there is no mortification and where no mortification is there is no rising againe with Christ where there is no rising againe with Christ there is no salvation For Peter Martyr devided mortification into two members patience in bearing aduersity and temperancy in brideling the lusts of the flesh Now measure our Christianity by this and Lord how little would be found in the world as one said Call on houses and chambers under which thou hast lived aske the fields gardens where thou hast walked summon seates whereon thou hast sitten examine thy pillowes upon which thy head hath rested all these will cry with one mouth that we have walked after our lusts that we have lived at randon that wee have followed our pleasures that we have lived in gluttony in chambring and wantonnesse that we take no thought but for the flesh To fulfill the lusts of it this is not to walke honestly as in the day time The Image of God is not restored in us till our lusts be subdued and we cease to walke after our lusts Imaginis Dei duae sunt partes sanctitas intellectus sanctitas voluntatis
did undoe in the night so wee learne and unlearne whatsoever wee learne on the Sunday wee forget in the weeke day we may say of our comming to Church as Peter said of his fishing Master wee have Luke 5. 5. travelled all night and have taken nothing So wee have come to the Church twenty thirty forty fifty sixty yeeres some more and have gotten nothing have learned nothing got no Faith no Zeale no Knowledge But to proceed As they must edifie themselves increase and goe forward so the thing that they must increase and goe forward in is Faith for that is the foundation of all Christian Vertues it is Alpha and O mega absque ea nemo potest placere Deo Heb. 11. 6. Rom. 14. 23. Without it no man can please God for whatsoever is not of faith is sinne Omnia ergo splendida opera Paganorum Infidelium sant splendida peccata all the glistering workes of Pagans and Infidels bee glistering sinnes their prayers almes fastings the patience of Socrates the justice of Aristides the piety of Epaminondas Faith the originall of all good workes the constancie of Phocion they were but bastard-workes not right workes they are begotten of Hagar not of Sara the free-woman they spring from the waters of Marah not of Siloh from the bitter poole Exanthe not the sweet flood of Hispanis they proceed from feare or vaineglory not from faith For as unto the Tit. 1. 15. pure all things are pure so unto them that are defiled and unbeleeving is nothing pure but their mindes and consciences are defiled It is true in all workes that Paul said of prayer How shall they call on him in whom Rom. 10. 14. they have not beleeved Even so how can they glorifie God or love God or serve God in whom they never beleeved Paul making a Catalogue of good men beginneth with Faith and saith By faith Abel offered to God a greater sacrifice than Cain Heb. 11. 4 5 7. 8 20 21 33-34 By faith Enoch was taken away that hee should not see death c. By Faith Noah being warned of God of the things which were not yet seene moved with reverence prepared the Arke c. By Faith Abraham when hee was called obeyed God offered Isaac c. By Faith Isaac blessed Iacob and Esau By Faith Iacob when hee was a dying blessed the sonnes of Ioseph and thus hee goeth on and at the last concludeth that by faith they subdued Kingdomes wrought righteousnesse obtained the promises stopped the mouthes of Lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword of weake were made strong waxed valiant in battell turned to flight the armies of the Aliants c. In every good worke three things are to be considered Origo Finis Vsus The beginning The end and Vse The originall or beginning of every good worke is faith faith is as the Mother and the holy Ghost the Father of all good workes Faith begetteth Love and Love blossometh forth in Vertue and Vertue buddeth foorth in good Workes whereupon Saint Peter inferreth this exhortation Ioyne moreover Vertue with your Faith and with Vertue Knowledge and with Knowledge 2 Pet. 1. 5 7 8. Temperance and with Temperance Patience and with Patience Godlinesse and with Godlinesse Brotherly-kindnesse and with Brotherly-kindnesse Love Secondly the end is the glory of God Hereupon saith the Apostle Whether yee eate or drinke or whatsoever yee doe doe all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 1 3â— Thirdly the use is manifold First they are unto us signes of our election and therefore Saint Peter would have us to make our election calling sure by them Indeed our election is sure in it selfe 2 Pet. 1. 10. for God cannot change yet we must confirme it in our selves by the fruits of the Spirit Secondly they edifie others Hereupon saith our Saviour Let your light so shine before men that they may see No life of grace without Faith your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Thirdly that they may stop the mouth of the Adversary For which cause we are willed to have honest conversation among the Gentiles that wheras they doe backbite us as evill doers they may see our good works and glorify Mat. 5. 16. 1 Pet. 2. 12. our Father which is in Heaven Here is the triall of a Christian that proveth us either sonnes or bastards this proveth us dead or alive by Faith wee live this is the spirit and soule of the inner man wee have a name to live yet are wee dead if wee want Iohn 1. 12. Faith There is a double life of grace and of nature Infidels Vnbeleevers are strangers from the life of grace As a tree liveth not without Ephes 4. 18. moysture nor a bird without aire nor the fish without water nor a body without a soule so neither the soule without faith For in that wee live now in the flesh wee live by the Faith of the Sonne of God who hath loved us and gave himselfe for us Yee see Infidels eating Gal. 2. 20. drinking sporting playing yet are they dead they are alive to the world but dead unto God but the faithfull they are dead with Christ unto the world but their life is hid with Christ with God and when Christ which is their life shall appeare then shall they Col. 2 3 4. also appeare with him in glory Pandora carried deadly poyson in a painted boxe and Lusimachus the cutter a leaden sword in a golden sheath and many men a dead soule in a living body the body is alive but the soule is dead as Paul said of the voluptuous widow But shee that liveth in pleasure is dead while shee liveth To conclude faith joyneth us to Christ For Christ dwelleth in 1 Tim. 5. 6. our hearts by Faith Christ uniteth us to God 1 Iohn 5. God assureth Ephes 3. 17. us of life For in him wee live and move and have our being So that no faith no Christ no Christ no God no God no life God Act. 17. 28. so loved the world that hee gave his only be gotten Sonne that whosoever Iohn 3. 16 18. beleeveth in him should not perish but have life everlasting hee that beleeveth in him shall not bee condemned but hee that beleeveth not is condemned already because hee beleeveth not in the name of the only begotten Sonne of God Knowledge is the fountaine of all vertue and Faith is the sea in which they all runne and where they jointly end their course But it is to bee observed that hee calleth it not simply Faith but holy Faith yea most holy Faith he riseth to the superlative degree as David extolled Bashan above all mountaines saying The mountaine of God is like the mountaine of Bashan it is a high mountaine Psal 68. 15. as the mount Bashan As Salomon extolled his huswife above all women saying Many daughters
than light can bee from the Sunne or heat from the fire or moisture from water Lastly note that hee saith that this faith is edified and increased If wee had never such measure of faith yet wee must heare dayly by hearing there understood not expressed of Saint Iude for the Word is the foundation Paul in naming the Christian armour coupleth Faith and the Word together Above all take the shield of faith whereby yee may quench the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of Salvation and the swrd of the Ephes 2. 20. Ephes 6. 17 18. Rom. 10. 14. Spirit which is the Word of God Fides ex auditu Faith commeth by hearing As possible for a man to see without eyes or a tree to grow without moysture or a bird to live without meate or a house to stand without a foundation as Faith to bee without the Word Esay cryeth out Heare and your soules shall live Ita Esay 55. 3. Ephes 4. 20. 1 Cor. 1. 21. didicistis Christum Have yee so learned Christ saith the Apostle It pleaseth God through the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that beleeve Wee thinke that wee are wise enough that the Preacher can tell us nothing that wee know not and this is the cause of all contempt but if thy knowledge were as great as Salomons to 1 Reg. 4. 29 30 32 33. whom God gave Wisedome and Vnderstanding exceeding much and a large heart even as the sand which is by the sea shoare and Salomons Wisedome excelled the Wisedome of all the children of the East and all the Wisedome of Aegypt and Salomon spake three thousand Proverbs and his Songs were one thousand and five and he spake of trees from the Cedar of Lebanon to the Hyssope that groweth out of the wall hee spake also of Beasts and of Fowles and of creeping things and of Fishes I say were thy wisedome as much as Salomons yet must it be holpen with doctrine wee must still be remembred of that which wee know and still know more Yea the Preacher though he be learned teacheth himselfe as well as thee and his owne faith as well thine and speaketh to his owne heart as well as to others such a secret power hath God put into his Word and such is his Ordinance Hee hath given some to be Apostles and some Ephes 4. 11. Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers By these are the Saints gathered thus is Christs body edified thus are the godly repaired thus wee meet in unity of faith Paul bidding the Gaoler beleeve preached unto him the Word Never Act. 16. 31. thinke to goe to Heaven without faith or to have faith without preaching I speake of ordinary faith For God can worke miraculously as in children and deafe men as in Medaelde mentioned by Danaeus and in captives A man may live without meate but all the world cannot assure thee of it thou maist have faith by miracle but neither men nor Angels can assure thee of it where meanes are wee must use meanes Wilt thou fast forty dayes because Moses and Elias did so or goe thorow the red Sea because the Israelites did so Or goe into an hot Exod. 32. Exod. 14. oven because the three children did so Thou mayst perhaps starve then or bee drowned or burned Where God giveth meanes hee giveth no miracles So long as Israel was in the desart God gave Manna but when they came into Canaan where God works not by miracle when hee affords means they might plowe and sow Manna ceased the Starre appeared to the Wisemen in the way but in Ierusalem it vanished for there they might inquire Let us therefore use the meanes and seeing the means of the edifying and increasing of our most holy Exod. 16. Iosh 5. faith is doctrine let us attend unto it even so long as God shall give us a body as an house hands as keepers legs as strong men Eccles 12. eyes as windowes eares as doores and an heart as a Treasure-house THE TWO AND THIRTIETH SERMON VERS XX. Praying in the Holy Ghost Faith and Prayer inseparable FRom faith hee commeth to prayer for increase of faith and all graces must bee had by prayer where by the way note that the originall of faith is immediatly from God it is his worke so saith our Saviour This Iohn 6. 25. is the worke of God that yee beleeve in him whom he hath sent And for this cause the Apostle calleth Christ Iesus The Author and finisher of our Luk. 17. 5. faith But the increase of faith is by prayer prayer mediate from God by faith is the gift of God and prayer is ever a companion nay the daughter of faith faith the mother and it the daughter for how can wee pray without faith How shall they call upon him in Rom. 10. 14. whom they have not beleeved A question grew betweene Musculus Bullinger and other Churches of Mensbelgarde Num fides sit à Deo petenda Whether faith is to bee begged of God Calvin being to decide the question said that Musculus and Bullinger spake duriusculè somewhat hard Nam nulla oratio nisi fide fundata probatur God alloweth of no prayer except it bee founded on faith For whatsoever is not of Rom. 14. 29. faith is sinne Faith is the mother of prayer and the mother goes before the daughter Augustine proveth that Cornelius beleeved because his Prayer the conduit whereby all good things are conveyed to us prayers were heard Infideli dat Deus fidem at non per orationem sed immediatè God giveth the Infidell faith not by prayer but immediatly A strong faith begetteth many prayers a weake faith weake and few prayers No faith no prayer Paul coupleth them together Act. 10. Aug. Ephes 6. 16 18. as an armour of proofe Above all take the shield of Faith and by and by in the next subsequent verse save one and pray alway with all manner of supplication in the Spirit c. Faith begetteth prayer and prayer increaseth faith For as fire kindleth the wood and the same wood increaseth the flame so faith begetteth prayer Rejoice evermore saith the Apostle and pray continually 1 Thess 5. 16 17. Faith worketh joy for being justified by faith we have peace with God and yet the same joy is augmented by prayer Rom. 5. 1. But now more generally to handle this doctrine because increase of faith and all graces must bee had by prayer for by that hand God reacheth them and in that conduit hee conveigheth them unto us therefore Saint Iude saith Orate per Spiritum Aske seeke knocke and promiseth us that wee shall have find and Mat. 7. 7. that it shall be opened unto us Wee have not because wee aske not Iam. 4. Salomon nameth prayer as the Indian stone that remedieth all diseases For marke his prayer which he powred forth to God in the
with a true Heb. 10. 22. heart in assurance being sprinkled in our heatts from an evil conscience and washed in our bodies with pure water All living creatures have their nourishment every one in their kinde some live of the Earth as Molles other some of the Water as Fishes some of the Ayre as the Camelion some of the fire as the Salamander other creatures more noble than they live by meat as the naturall man but others more noble than he as the Angels by meditations contemplations The Soule therefore being a spirituall substance as the Angels is nourished and fed with the same meate that they bee Here is the difference their vision of God is Col. 3. 3. Ephes 4. 18. cleere and manifest ours obscure and darke their life perfect ours imperfect their life is a life of glory ours is called the life of grace As the sea followeth the moving of the Moone for as shee increaseth that waxeth so the perfection of a Christian life dependeth on prayer as our prayers increase so doth our perfection in Christianity increase also For seeing the heart is the beginning of life and of workes Et quale cor talia opera and as our heart is such be our workes if the heart therefore be devout and well ordered our workes will bee devout and good also if otherwise our workes will be vile and naught For unto Tit. 1. 15. the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbeleeving is nothing pure but even their mindes and consciences are defiled To conclude it is no little proofe of the vertue of prayer to behold the two principall glories and testimonies which the Father gave to Christ Iesus in prayer for in his transfiguration while hee prayed His face did shine as the Sun and his cloathes were as Mat. 17. 2. white as the light and in his Baptisme while he praied The Heavens were opened unto him the Spirit of God descending like a Dove lighted Mat. 3. 15. upon him This should incourage us to pray and to pray alwayes to pray and to pray continually even every moment as the least occasion is offered prayer should bee the key to open the day and the locke to shut in the night when wee rise in the morning we should pray with Abrahams servant and say O Lord God Gen. 14. 12. I beseech thee send me good speede this day when we lay us down at night to pray with the sweet Singer of Israel Lighten mine eyes that I sleepe not in death and whatsoever wee take in hand Psal 13. 3. either by day or night to prevent it with the blessing of the Psalme Prosper the worke of our hands O prosper thou our handy worke Egredientes de hospitio armet oratio regredientibus de platea occurrat Psal Ier. Ep. intercessio when thou goest out of the house let prayer arme thee Prayer the means whereby wee receive all good things when thou returnest into thy house let prayer meete with thee prayer is vinculum invincibile wouldest thou binde the Almighty that he may not hurt thee Prayer is the band by which hee is tyed and wouldest thou untie him to doe thee good Prayer must doe it Prayer is Clavis Scripturae it is our Oedipus to resolve our doubts it is our Commentary to understand Gods Word Oratio est Deo sacrificium Diabolo flagellum oranti subsidium Prayer is a sacrifice to God a scourge to the Divell and a helpe to our Aug. selves in all our troubles And againe Orationis purae magna est virtus velut fidelis nuntius mandatum peragit penetrat quò caro non pervenit Great is the power of pure prayer for it is a faithfull Aug. in Psal 36. messenger shee delivers her errand and pierceth thither whither flesh cannot come And this was it which made Bernard to say Nemo nostrûm parvipendeat orationem suam dico enim vobis quodipse ad quem oramus non parvipendet eam postquam egressa est ab ore nostrùm ipse scribit eam in libro suo unum in duobus indubitanter sperare possumus quoniam aut dabit quod petimus aut quod novit utilius Let none of us lightly esteeme his prayer I tell you that hee to whom we pray doth not lightly esteeme it after it is out of our mouth he writes it in his booke and one of these two wee may doubtlesse expect either that hee will grant our petition or that which hee knoweth to bee better for us Call upon mee and I will heare thee saith God Aske and you shall have saith Christ Before they cry I will heare them saith Iehovah The Lord is nigh to all that call upon him saith David O then let us call and cry unto him by earnest and hearty prayer night and day but let us pray in knowledge with understanding in faith by beleeving in remorse with seeking in zeale without cooling in attention without wandering in reverence without contemning in constancy without revolting and in love without revenging Let our eyes bee fastned hearts fixed knees bowed mouthes opened and our hands lifted up as to the King of Kings and as Iacob would not let the Angell goe till he were blessed so let not God goe till wee be heard Finely said one Orat misericordia non orat miseria orat innocentia non orat nequitia orat judex desiderat parcere non orat reus ut indulgentiam mereatur accipere Doth mercy pray and shall not miserie piety intreate and shall not iniquity the Physician request and shall not the sicke the rich begge and not the poore the innocent pray and not the guilty the just and he that never sinned fall downe and the sinnefull sinner stand upright the Sonne of righteousnesse bee humbled and the sonne of wickednesse waxe proud shall the judge intreate and desire to pardon and the traytor not begge to bee forgiven Is not Christi actio Christiani institutio Christs practice our president But hee prayes and shall not wee pray Wee must pray for our bodies that they may be preserved for our soules The Holy Ghost the Author of prayer that they may bee saved for our estates that they may bee maintained for our thoughts that they may bee sanctified for our words that they may bee seasoned for our actions that they may bee ordered by Gods Spirit But Saint Iude doth not onely exhort to prayer but also sheweth how wee must pray In the Spirit the which words may be understood two manner of wayes either of the Author of prayer or of the Manner of praying If we understand it of the Author the sense is good for Gods Spirit causeth prayer and every good worke For wee know not how to pray as wee ought but the Spirit it selfe maketh requests for us Rom. 8. 26 27. with sighs that cannot bee expressed for hee that searcheth the
Father and the Sonne so that prayer is a worke of the Trinity as are all good works O noble worke ad quod tanti artifices concurrunt to Visinu◠the performing whereof so many Artisans doe concurre and meet the Omnipotency of the Father the wisdome of the Son and goodnesse of the Holy Ghost where goodnesse willeth wisdom disposeth Omnipotency performeth potens est sapiens est bonus est tamen unus Deus est qui omnia in omnibus operatur hee is mighty hee is wise hee is good and yet but one God that worketh all in all Or these words Orate in spiritu Pray in the spirit may bee meant of the quality of prayer that it must be spirituall not carnall proceed from the heart not from the lippes from the soule 1 Sam. 1. 15. not the mouth only Hence is it that they which pray in the Spirit are said to powre out their soules and their heart unto God The Virgin Mary who without all question praised God in the Spirit saith My soule magnifieth the Lord my Spirit rejoiceth in God Luk. 1. 46. Rom. 8. 26. And Paul telleth us that the Spirit maketh intercession with groanes Now groanes proceed from the heart and Spirit not from the tongue and lippes And the Apostle telleth us that the Spirit which crieth Abba Father is sent into our hearts The Iewes prayed with their lippes but not with their hearts therefore God complaineth of them saying This people draw neere unto mee Esay 29. 13. with their lippes but their hearts are farre from me Our prayers must be fervent like the spirit Be fervent in spirit saith the Apostle our hearts in prayer must be lifted up to God the heart of man is as it were Gods chaire of estate whereunto no creature can come it is proper to God alone it is his Palace wherein hee most delighteth wherfore Gods Spirit maketh his abode there and stirreth it up to pray The prayer that commeth not from the heart and spirit it is a key cold prayer it is frozen before it commeth half-way to heaven David to note his earnestnes in prayer said that he rored he spake not but rored cried out and indeed Psal 38. the Spirit of God is a crying Spirit not a cold spirit Hereby then may wee judge whether the Spirit of God bee Rom. 8. 15. in us and move us to pray or no If thy prayer come but from Fervent prayer prevailes with God the teeth though it be never so well framed in regard of words and though thy gestures bee never so reverent and humble yet all is nothing the Spirit of God hath no part in this worke if thy spirit pray not thou doest but babble a kind of praying condemned by our Saviour Paul would have us to pray in the Spirit Mat. 6. 7. 1 Cor. 14. and to pray with the understanding that is earnestly from the heart and yet intelligibly of the Church and congregation he had reference to this when writing to the Saints of Ephesus he biddeth them to be filled with the Spirit speaking unto your selves saith hee in Psalmes and Hymnes and spirituall songs singing and making melody Ephes 5. 18 19. to God in your hearts Hearty singing hearty praying hearty speaking unto God is the thing that God accepteth My Sonne saith Prov. 23. hee give mee thy heart It is of the essence of prayer to be hearty spirituall and servent As a painted fire is no fire a dead man no man so a cold lip-labour prayer no prayer in a painted fire there is no heate in a dead man no life in a cold prayer no devotion no blessing The prayer of the righteous availeth much if it bee Iam. 5. 16 17 18. fervent it is that that makes and marres all And he exemplifieth this by the prayer of Elias hee prayed that it might not raine and it rained not on the earth for three yeeres and six moneths and he prayed againe Heaven gave rayne the earth brought forth her fruit A cold prayer could not have locked up heaven three yeeres nor opened heaven such a prayer made Hanna 1. Sam. 2. her lippes went yet spake nothing Loquebatur non voce sed corde prece occulta sed manifesta fide She spake not with the mouth but with the heart Aug. her prayer was hid her faith made manifest such a prayer made Moses yet spake not a word with his mouth his heart spake but his tongue was silent such must our prayers bee or els they rebound Exod. 14. backe againe as a tennis ball yea they turne to bee sinne Psal 109. 7. unto us What Is hony turned into gall And balme into wormewood Is treakle become poyson is prayer become sin Yea a plaine sinne a notable sinne if wee doe it not rightly quot preces tot peccata As physicke killeth the body if it worke not in the body so prayer killeth the soule if it proceed not aright from the soule For we have two Axiomes in Divinity 1. That God regardeth not only the matter but the manner 2. Quod non actibus sed finibus pensantur officia That duties are esteemed not by their acts but by their ends The manner must be good and the end good The Church of Rome saith that virtualis intentio nonex necessitate requiritur in precibus sed actualis intentio a vertuous intent is not of necessity required in prayer but an actuall But better said the Papist Criton who said that God loved better Adverbes then Nownes not to pray only but to praywell Non bonum sed bene agere Not to doe good but to doe it well for wee may doe bona good things and yet goe to hell as did the Pharises Oratio nec timida nec temeraria Mat. 23. nec tepida sit Prayer must be neither false-hearted nor They that call upon God must depart from iniquity foole-hardy nor luke-warme Oratio timida coelos non penetrat A false-hearted prayer cannot pierce the Heavens temeraria resilet ut pila palmaria a foole-hardy a rash prayer reboundeth backe againe like an hand-ball tepida frigescit conglaciatur priusquam coelos ascendit the luke-warme prayer is cooled and frozen up before it can get heaven In prayer two things are required Tempus cor time and the heart much businesse steales away the time and a multitude of cogitations the heart so that we cannot conferre quietly with God Here therefore the prayers of the wicked are rejected I will saith Paul that men pray every where lifting up pure hands to God 1 Tim. 2. 8. without wrath or doubting but the hands which they lift up in prayer are impure hands and so are the hearts also Pretily said Bias to the Grecians in a naufrage in a ship-wracke when they prayed and cried out to their gods Silete ne orate ne dij vos nebulones hîc navigantes sentiant Be silent pray not that the
sustaineth the souldier but hope of victory and the mariner but hope of arrival and the husband-man but hope of harvest and the prentise but hope of freedome And shall not the hope of eternall life sustaine us Dum spiro spero whilest I breathe I hope this is the poesy of a Christian the hope of salvation we must put it on as a helmet though we sowe in teares we shall reape in joy Paul 1 Thess 5. 8. Psal 126. 5. setting downe the parts of a Christian life to sweeten the actions of it they being hard to flesh bloud propoundeth the blessed hope saying The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath Tit. 2. 11 12 13. appeared and teacheth us to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and that we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World looking for the blessed hope appearing of the glory of the mighty God and our Saviour Iesus Christ It is a blessed hope a blessed place that we looke for it is mount Garisim not mount Hebal Hee is a blessed God Deut. 27. 1 Tim. 6. 16. Rom. 9. 5. Iohn 16. Mat. 25. Apoc. 21. Deut. 27. Exod. 19. Numb 21. Exod. 10. Gen. 3. cap. 13. Zach. 14. Christ is a blessed Saviour the holy Ghost a blessed Comforter wee are blessed Children Heaven is a blessed Kingdome There is mount Garisim without any curse mount Horeb without any thunder the wildernes of Sinai without any serpent the land of Goshen without any darkenesse a Paradise without any serpent Eden without any weeds Ierusalem without any Canaanite there is day without night Summer without Winter riches without measure fulnesse without hunger pleasure without loathing life without death The faith and love of the Colossians sprang from the hope of Heaven therefore Paul tels them that hee thanked God for them and prayed for them ever since hee heard of their faith in Christ and of Col. 1. 4 5. their love towards the Saints for the hopes sake which is layd up for them in Heaven This stayd Iob in all his extremities when his cattell were stollen his houses blowne downe his children slaine his friends grieved his body wounded his wife alienated from him I am sure saith hee my Redeemer liveth and Iob 19. 25. I hope to finde him my deliverer and Saviour yea the Lord Iesus for the joy that was set before him indured the Crosse God will put a Hebr. 12. 2. difference one day betweene his children and bastards betweene them that say that it is but vaine to serve God and what profit is it that wee have kept his Commandements and that wee walked humbly Mal. 3. 14 15. before Lord of Hoasts and those that feare God the Corne shall bee gathered into the Garner the Chaffe shall bee burnt the Mat. 3. Goats shall bee separated from the Lambes the vessels of Clay shall bee broken Here is a mixture of sonnes and of bastards Ma◠25. of Corne and Chaffe of Goates and Lambes vessels Apoc. 2. of Clay and of Gold but in Heaven shall bee a difference and Body and soule shall be glorified in all parts and powers if that were not wee were the most miserable even Tully would not bee rocked againe in his Cradle Amas vivere quoth Aug. in vita aeterna Doest thou love to live everlastingly Hope with David to see the goodnesse of the 1 Cor. 15. 19. Aug. Lord in the land of the living In this life quoth Bern. erit mira serenitas plena securitas aeterna foelicitas wonderfull serenity full security eternall felicity then the whole man shall bee renewed our soules shall bee fully reformed to the Image of God as touching the two powers thereof From our understanding shall be dispelled all darkenesse and it shall be filled with new light and that of her selfe she shall know God and the will of God without preaching without praying without Sacraments without bookes and writings to instruct her for preaching shall have an end prayer an end Sacraments an end wee shall bee as the Angels of God understanding all things Now we know but in part 1 Cor. 13. 12. but then shall wee know even as wee are knowne Our will also shall want all wicked lusts and shall bee filled with all true Love both towards God and man and this love shall never bee interrupted To conclude all the faculties of the soule shall bee filled with God and with his power so as the soule shall nourish the body without meate drinke sleep because hee shall bee replenished with God and God shall be all in all Erimus cives Coeli socij Angelorum Ephes 2. 3. cohaeredes Christi we shall bee Citizens of Heaven fellowes of Angels coheires with Christ Citizens with Saints and of the houshold of God As touching the body the other part of man it shall also bee glorified nulla illius erit senectus nulla mors nullus morbus nullum peccatum No old age shall molest it nor death nor disease nor sinne our bodies shall be like the glorious body of the Lord Iesus Nemo ibi irascitur nemo invidet nemo laeditur there is no man angry no man envieth no man is any way hurt or harmed No lust doth annoy no divell doth terrify there is a Sunne without setting life without dying labour without wearinesse pleasures without tediousnesse there we shall see God as he is in the sight 1 Iohn 2. 3. Aug. of whom wee shall doe foure things wee shall know wee shall love wee shall rejoyce and wee shall praise wee shall know the secrets of God which is a depth without bottome wee shall love God above all and our neighbour as wee should wee shall rejoyce for in Heaven there is fulnesse of joy and at the right Psal 16. 11. hand of God there is pleasure for evermore and we shall praise God without ceasing For saith David Blessed are they that dwell in thy Psal 84. 1. house they shall alwayes bee praysing of thee there our joy shall be full all joy here is at an ebbe but there is the flood of joy perfection Iob 15. 11. fulnesse of joy Againe here all joy is mixt with paine Health with Sicknes Life with Death Summer with Winter the Spring with the Autumne Libertie with bondage there is all solace no sorrow The joyes of of heaven unspeakable incōprehensible the first sorrow cast out into shame But as touching this eternall Life whereof Saint Iude here speaketh a man may well thinke of it and talke of it but hee Apoc. 21. 4. can never thinke nor talke of it as it is Paul saith The eye hath not seene the eare hath not heard the heart of man cannot conceive the 1 Cor. 2. 9. joyes of this life The eye of man What can it not see How little a sound will the eare heare What great matters can the tongue utter What wonderfull things can
fault betweene him and thee if he heare thee thou hast wonne thy brother If parents were as carefull to winne the soules of their children as they are to save their bodies and masters to do the same to their servants by instructing their family God should have more glory and they more comfort but to complaine of this Vbi incipiam aut ubi desinaem Where should I beginne and where should I make an end All the foundations of the earth are out of course most men have no conscience of them that be under them and an heauy judgement remaineth for them their judgement is just and their damnation sleepeth not Paul would not 2 Pet. 2. have the husband to leave the wife nor the wife the husband for that the one may save the soule of the other for marke his words For what knowest thou ô wife whether thou shalt save thy husband 1 Cor. 7. 16. or what knowest thou ô man whether thou shalt save thy wife Even so what knowest thou ô Father whether thou shalt save thy child And what knowest thou ô master whether thou shalt save thy servant doe thou thy duty leave the successe to God For neither is hee that planteth any thing nor he that watereth but God 1 Cor. 3. 7. that giveth the increase So the Minister is said to save men Take heed saith Paul to Timothy to thy selfe and to thy doctrine and continue 1 Tim. 4. 16. therein for in so doing thou shalt save thy selfe and them that heare thee And yet to speake strictly and properly there is no Saviour but God for there is salvation in no other neither is there any Act. 4. 12. other name given unto men whereby they shall bee saved that is no other cause or meane Yet it is said that grace saveth The grace Tit. 2. 11. of God bringeth salvation to all men And that the Word saveth For it pleaseth God by the foolishnesse of preaching to save them Many coÌ„curre in the worke of Salvation that beleeve And that faith saveth By grace are yee saved through faith And that the Sacraments save us so saith Saint Pâ—ter The figure that now saveth us even Baptisme c. 1 Cor. 1. 21. Ephes 2. 8. 1 Pet. 3. 21. And that Ministers save us so said Paul afore Agrippa that God had appeared unto him for this purpose To open the eyes of the Gentiles that they may returne from darkenesse to light from the power Act. 26. 18. of Satan unto God meaning that they might bee saved and that God saveth us Ego sum ego sum praeter me non est Salvator I am Esa 42. I am and besides mee there is no Saviour that Christ saveth us for the Apostle saith That hee is the Saviour of all men but especially 1 Tim. 4. 10. of them that beleeve That the Holy Ghost saveth us and all this is true in a godly sense grace saveth as the origen the roote of all 1 Iohn 5. the Word as a meanes under God faith as the instrument Sacraments as helpes and leaders to Heaven Ministers as Legates from God God as the efficient cause Christ as the materiall Iohn 3. 16. 1 Iohn 3. 2. 1 Cor. 6. 11. the Holy Ghost as the applying cause And by the way note that if the Minister under God saveth men how then dare some say that they doe no good Doe they no good that save mens soules Yes their lips feed many The Prov. 10 11 20 21. mouth of a righteous man is a well of life the tongue of a just man is as fined silver the lippes of the righteous doe feed many But many thinke that the Preacher doth no good they thinke that they can goe to heaven without a guide they thinke themselves wise and to see into all duties as farre as the Minister Well it may be that they are wise in some respect yet as the little eye of the Eagle can see from the height of Heaven and the great eye of an Owle cannot see the Sunne so great men and old men may oversee that which base men and poore men may see being learned in the Word Hereupon said Elihu Surely there is a spirit in man but Iob 32. 8 9. the inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding Great men are not alway wise neither do the Ancient alway understand judgement David said I have had more understanding than all my teachers Psal 119. 99 100. for thy testimonies are my meditation I understand more than the ancient because I keepe thy precepts As Polypheme had but one eye so these Cyclopeans see but with one eye they see but the world they see not Heaven Oh how long shall wee charme these Psal 55. Mat. 7. deafe Adders How long shall wee give holy things to dogges and cast pearles to swine How long shall wee play on Orpheus harpe to these Asses How long shall wee sow seed in this barraine ground We pray to bee delivered from these unreasonable 2 Thess 3. 2. and evill men Shall Titius Sabinus his dogge bring meate to the mouth of his dead Master and hold up his head in Tyber from sinking because sometime hee gave him a crust of bread And shall not the people love the Pastour that giveth theÌ„ the Bread of Heaven and saves their soules Shall dogges be kinder than men Or is there no good to bee done to a Parish but bodily The saving use should bee made of the Word good Christ fedde foure or five thousand with five barly loaves and two fishes but we reade not that hee did it above twice and that in necessity But hee bestowed three whole yeeres in preaching to them the greatest good that hee did in his life was in Iohn 6. Mat. 14. Mat. 5. Mat. 13. Luke 24. Luke 10. Mat. 12. Act. 10. 38. teaching them In the Mount In the Ship In the Temple In their Houses In the Fields Yea in all places for he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Divell These men therefore that say that wee doe no good have lost their senses and their soules also For the living soule as touching the naturall life hath foure powers and foure touching the spirituall life that is Appetitive Retentive Digestive Expulsive It must desire the Word Hereupon saith S. Peter As new borne babes desire the sincere milke of the Word so did David I will saith 1 Pet. 2. 2. he go to the Altar of God even unto the God of my joy and gladnes c. 2. It must keepe for Blessed are they that heare the Word and Luk. 11. 28. keepe it So did the Corinths for which cause Paul did much praise them saying Now I commend you brethren that yee remember all my 1 Cor. 11. 2. things and keepe the ordinances as I delivered them to you 3. It must digest it into good manners and to this purpose
sola Dei misericordia benignitate reponere For the uncertainty of our owne righteousnes and danger of vaine glory it is the safest way to repose all our confidence in Gods only mercy and bounty Then is it not as hee disputes Lib. 1. de justificatione cap. 4. wrought by charity but contrariwise charity doth arise from faith I will conclude with Bernard Omnia merita Dei dona sunt ita homo magis propter ipsa Deo debitor est quà m Deus homini all our merits are the gifts of God so man is rather a debtour to God for them then God to man So much as touching this life Touching the other life hee commends them to God that they may behold the presence of his glory with joy for in the life to come wee shall have plenitudinem gaudy fulnes of joy Here all Psal 16. joy is at an ebbe it is mixed with some sorrow light with darkenesse heate with cold health with sicknes life with death glory with ignominy but there is joy and nothing but ioy no change no alteration day without night light without darkenesse summer without winter youth without age life without death there we shall have all teares wiped away from our eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow neither crying neither shall Apoc. 21. 4. there bee any more paine but they shall have perpetuall ioy death The ioyes of Heaven fill all powers of soule body and Hell shall bee cast into the lake of fire and shall bee destroyed for ever The second death shall have no power upon them that be in heaven but they shall bee the Priests of God and of Christ and shall raigne with him a thousand yeeres That is for ever We looke too much to Apoc. 20. 6 5 14. Hebr. 6. the pleasures of this world which maketh us care lesse for Heaven but looke into the powers of the world to come vide intùs extra supra infra circumcirca ubique erit gaudium Looke within and without above and beneath and round about and yee shall find ioy every where within shall be ioy for the glorification of the body and soule for our Saviour even The Lord Iesus shall change our vile body and make it like his glorious body according Phil. 3. 21. to the working whereby he is able to sub due all things unto himselfe It is much to have our bodies changed more to have our vile bodies changed but to have our vile bodies so changed that they shall be facioned like the glorious body of the Lord Iesus is most of all and must needs fill us with ioy Wee shall have ioy without by reason of the company of the blessed Angels for wee shall inioy not onely the celestiall Ierusalem but also the company of innumerable Angels which shall glad us and reioice us exceedingly Wee shall have ioy above in the sight of God for wee shall bee like God and see him as hee is Wee shall have ioy beneath of the beauty of Heaven and of the world for 1 Iohn 3. 2. Wee looke for new Heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse 2 Pet. 3. 13. Wee shall have ioy round about of the delight of all our senses when God shall bee the obiect of them all for he shall be a glasse unto our eyes musicke unto our eare hony to our taste a flowre to our hands and sweet Balsamum to our smell there shall be the fairenes of the Summer the sweetnes of the Spring the plenty of the Autumne the rest of the Winter yea God shall 1 Cor. 13. bee all in all unto us This life is as a seed-time in teares as the travell of a woman as a weary prentice-hood as a tedious iourney but the harvest is in the life to come there shall we reape joy there Psal 126. 5. are wee delivered of our child birth and forget our sorrow for ioy that salvation is come our sorrow shall be turned into ioy A Iohn 16. 21 22. woman when shee travaileth hath sorrow because her houre is come but as soone as shee is delivered of her Child she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man is borne into the world In this world wee have sorrow but in Heaven joy there wee shall rejoice and our joy shall no man take from us Looke to Iesus the Author and finisher of our faith and let the same animate us that did him hee for the joy that was set before Hebr. 12. 2. him endured the Crosse and despised the shame and is set at the right hand of the Throne of God Let us so doe and wee shall follow the Lambe and be partakers of the price of our high calling which is in Christ Iesus tantum gaudebunt quantum amabunt tantum amabunt quantum cognoscunt Deum sic cognoscunt ut cogniti Rom. 8. sunt so much shall they reioice by how much they love and so The land of the living cōpared with the land of the dead much shall they love by how much they know God and they so know as they are knowne The situation and height of Heaven may teach us the quantity and quality of the glory of heaven Coelum Empyraeum is 1 Cor. 13. higher greater and more excellent than all Heavens the Scripture calleth it The land of the living as if the earth which we inhabit were the land of dead men and indeed Wee are dead and Psal 116. 9. our life is hidde with Christ in God and when Christ which is our life Col. 3. 3. shall appeare then shall wee also appeare in glory Now if in this land of dead men the creatures bee so precious what shall they bee hereafter in the land of the living In this dead land see the greatnesse of the heavens the brightnesse of the Sunne and Moone and starres the beauty of the earth how pleasant is it to see the height of the mountaines the plaines of the fields the greenenesse of the vallies the fountains of waters the current of the streames and rivers which like veines runne thorow the earth the mines of gold and silver pearle the mines of metals If all these bee in the land of the dead what is in the land of the living There shall bee a new Heaven and a new earth and new creatures 2 Pet. 3. 15. Againe there be three places in this life The first is in the wombe from our corruption The second is in the world from our birth The third is in Heaven after death Betwixt these three there is a proportion looke how much the world is bigger and pleasanter than the wombe so much is Heaven bigger and fairer than the world as well in length of time as in beauty Touching durance the first life in the 2 Mathab 7. wombe is not above nine moneths the second life is foure score yeeres at the most the third is infinite and
Spirituall presence hee is with his Church unto the end of the world secundum ineffabilem invisibilem gratiam impletur illud Ecce vobiscum sum according to his unspeakable and invisible grace that is fulfilled I am with you alwayes to the end of the world but according to the flesh which the Word did take and as hee was borne of a Virgin and apprehended of the Iewes and fastned to the Crosse and as he was taken from the Crosse and wrapped in linnen clothes and laid in the grave that is fulfilled which is said Mee yee shall not have alwayes for forty dayes after Iohn 20. his resurrection hee ascended Et non est hîc and hee is not here for hee sitteth at the right hand of his Father in Heaven est hîc and yet he is here for he departed not from them in regard of his Majesty and power but is still with them Magna quidem sententia tali viro digna A worthy saying fitting so worthy a Father As the soule is whole in the whole body and whole in every part of the body so Christ secundum potentiam by his power and might is all whole in Heaven all whole in earth and all The Christian is strong in Christ who is all sufficient whole in every part of the earth and this is our comfort for in his passion love is kindled in his resurrection faith is confirmed in his resurrection hope is strengthned for while our Head by his power ascended into Heaven wee also with him shall together ascend For all power is given unto him If Iacob understanding that Mat. 28. Ioseph was alive could say Sufficit mihi quòd filius meus vivit It suffiseth me that my sonne liveth much more ought every faithfull Gen. 45. soule to say It sufficeth mee that Christ liveth and sitteth at the right hand of his Father who is unto me in mourning mirth in hunger meate in sicknes health in poverty wealth in darkenes light in weakenes power in death life and this is to give power to God alwayes to depend and hang on his power not to say as the Aramites to make him weake in one place and at one time and strong in another place and at another time but strong 1 Reg. 20. 28. for ever in his strength wee are strong in his victory wee overcome In all things wee are more than conquerors through him that loved Rom. 8. 37. us Conquerers and more than conquerers What is this more than Conquerors O noble Apostle thou wantest words to expresse thy meaning what men or Angels can expresse it fitly what wee shall call this more Rest in him trust in him though your bodies bee weake your beauty fraile your health uncerten your life short your honours vaine your pleasures brittle your troubles great your wisdome little your vertues few your affections many and turbulent and one day yee shall bee conquerours and more then conquerours for his power is made perfect through weakenes he can bring strength out of weakenes light 1 Cor. 12. 9. out of darkenesse life out of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and make the weake things of the world to confound the mighty 1 Cor. 1. 27. Thomas Aquinas doth set out unto us the power of God by the Aquin. order of naturall things Nam majora sunt quae semper nobiliora for they be the greater which are alway the most noble saith hee As in the Elements the Water is ten times more then the earth in greatnes the ayre is greater than the water the fire which wee call the ayre is greater than the ayre and the Heavens are greater than the fire and the highest Heaven greater than the rest because it containeth and is not contayned God therefore which made all is more noble more great than all and is infinite in his essence and power Sum qui sum I am that I am is his name he is of himselfe as Kings are of themselves in their owne Kingdomes we of him as the authority of Magistrates dependeth on the King I am that I am is his name As the eye Exod. 3. which is ordayned to see all colours wanteth all colour otherwise all things should seeme to bee of the same colour so the first Mover is subject to no body and yet can rule all bodies by his power and to bee ruled of none his power is incomprehensible The meditation of Christs power is sweet and comfortable who can despaire knowing that in him is fulnes of power Thus the Christ is all in all unto us Apostles solaced themselves among the middest of their persecutions thus let us solace our selves for who can doe as Christ Act. 4. hath done Aesculapius among the Heathen is adored as God in physicke but Christ hath cured all diseases he hath given sight to the blind and tongues to the dumbe and legges to the lame Mat. 9. Luk. 7. and life to the dead Aesculapius did it by hearbes but Christ by his Word Hercules is adored for his strength for killing men beasts and monsters but Christ hath overcome Divels and death it selfe Bacchus is worshipped for wine and Ceres for bread but Christ Hebr. 2. turned water into wine and fedde five thousand men with five 1 Cor. 15. Iohn 2. cap. 6. loaves and two fishes Minerva is famous for learning but Christ by twelve unlearned men subdued the world Alexander with the sword and the Apostles with the Word one of the greatest miracles in the world Athanasius libro de incarnatione Christi layeth out the power of Christ foure wayes that at his first comming the miralces of Boetia Licia Lybia Aegypt Cabirus ceased and secondly all the oracles of the Divels in Delphos Dido Delos and all Greece thirdly their magicke of Chaldaea and India vanished then away and lastly that the wisdome and eloquence of Philosophers was silenced and suppressed by the doctrine of the Apostles Whereupon libro de Passione Dei he thus crieth out O Christe tu lumen nobis in tenebris illuminasti thou ô Christ our light didst Iohn 3. 19. lighten us in darkenes thou at the right hand of thy Father hast Act. 2. loosed our sorrowes thou being life hast quickened us being dead Col. 2. thou being poore hast inriched us with thy poverty thou being 2 Cor. 8. Rom. 8. 38. our Mediatour hast reconciled us to thy Father thou art to us all in all If any object that hee cannot doe some things for hee cannot lie I answere that Gods power doth not fight with Gods truth Dicitur omnipotens faciendo quod vult non patiendo quod non vult he is called Omnipotent in doing what hee will not in suffering what Aug. lib. 5. de Civitate Dei hee will not Nil Deo difficile There is nothing hard for God Potest Deus omnia sed non vult God can doe all things but hee will not
excellent of all vertues 413 All vertues vaine without love ibid. Many excellent properties of Love 414 Little love in this age ibid. Love makes men of one heart 415 Many men implacable cruell like Wolues or Divels ibid. An exhortation to love 416 Foure properties of love that it be holy just true constant ibid. The love amongst Atheists and impious condemned 417 The excellency of Love ibid. Atheists agree like a kennell of dogs 418 Most love for lucre ibid. Gods love to us infinite 419 Gods love to us diversly distinguished ibid. Gods loue set out by all the dimensions yet transcendent and unmeasurable ibid. No love comparable to Gods Love 420 Gods love to us the cause of our love to him and the godly ibid. Foure reasons or motives to incite us to love God 1. à mandato 2. ab aequo justo 3. à commodo 4. ab officio 421 The manner how God is to bee loved 422 Love a debt that all owe to God and man but few poy it ibid VVe must shew our love to God by keeping his commandements and serving him 423 An honorable and happy thing to love God ibid. Sermon 34. THe hope of eternal life allays the hardnesse of Gods Commandements 425 Hope of reward makes men endure labours and dangers 426 The blessed estate of the Saints in Heaven 427 Christ and the Saints in their sufferings had an eye to the reward ibid. The joyes of Heaven unspeakable incomprehensible 428 The glorified bodyes shall have spirituall and heavenly qualities namely clarity agility subtility unpassibility and immortality 429 The principall points wherein the glory and joy of the glorified soule and whole Saint consist 430 Earthly mindes regard not Heavenly joyes 431 Divers errours concerning eternall life 432 The joyes of Heaven eternall and infinite ibid. Heaven compared with the wombe of the world 433 An exhortation to seeke after eternall joyes ibid. Eternall life onely the free gift of God 434 Merit end mercy gift and desert opposite ibid. Papists works many of them merit death 435 Merit three-fold Congrui Digni Condigni ibid. None can merit ex condigno but Christ 436 Our works cannot merit because finite and unperfect ibid. Christs righteousnes ours 437 Our works merit not jointly with Christs ibid. Grace threefold Praeveniens Subsequens Consummans ibid. Many Papists renounce their merits and fly to Gods mercy 438 Our election vocation justification sanctification all from grace 439 We must not trust in our works but confesse our sinnes ibid. Sermon 35. DIscretion necessary for distinguishing sinnes and sinners 441 Ministers must use discretion not deale alike with all sinnes and sinners ibid. How to restore with mâ—ekenes them that are fallen 442 VVee should pitty and pray for sinners and not despise them ibid. Many men more compassionate toward their beasts nhan brethren 444 Wee must tak away sinnes with mildenesse and mercy if possible ibid. Reproofe though not pleasing yet profitable 446 Compassion must be shewed especially to the soule 447 The Saints bewaile the estate of the wicked ibid. Threats of judgement belong to the wicked 448 The obstinate must be terrified not soothed ibid. Iudgements denounced against soothing false prophets 449 Reproofes more profitable than soothing flattery 450 Excommunication a grievous censure ibid. Excommunication three-fold 451 Two uses of Excommunication ibid. Sermon 36. THe sinner alwayes in danger 452 The fickle estate of the wicked set out by divers resemblances 453 No estate permanent 454 Sudden destruction waite on the wicked ibid. Death comes not sudden to the Godly 455 The Godly prepare by repentance and godly life for death while they have time 456 Repentance must not be deferred ibid. The saving of soules a most blessed worke 457 Though God save yet both Grace and Faith and Ministery concurre 458 Tho Ministrie being Gods ordinance to save soules is not to be slighted though the World despise them ibid. Foure faculties in the soule whereby it converts the food of the Word and Sacraments to nourishment of the spirituall life 459 The necessitie and excellent fruits of the Ministery set out by divers resemblances 460 The happy estate of them that have means of knowledge 461 Salvation and the misery of them that want it ibid. Sermon 37. NOt onely evill but all appearance of evill is to bee avoided 462 Sinne must bee hated not sported at if if wee love our owne soules ibid. No communion to be holden or society with the wicked 463 Wicked men must be avoided in respect of God and ourselves ibid. Sinne as contagious as the plague and more dangerous 464 Wee must hate sinne because the whole Trinity detest it 465 Wee must hate sinne because Satan is the author being enemie to God and our soules ibid. Sinne must bee hated because it dishonours God not our selves 466 Wee may not hold amity with the wicked boing Gods enemies 467 The amity of the wicked treachery ibid. Sinne onely is hated of God and man and not the person except reprobate 468 Two judgments the one of Faith the other of Charity 469 Wee must leave sinne of conscience not for other respects 470 The punishment of sinne ought to deterre from sinne ibid. Earthquakes an evident signe of Gods anger and a forerunner of judgement 471 Many earth-quakes in many places and much hurt 472 Christians not to be prophaned 473 Sermon 38 VVE are not sufficient to doe any good of our selves without grace 476 Exhortations do not shew what we can but what we should doe 477 Grace both preserves from falling and raiseth us being fallen 478 Our enemies many and powerfull 479 Prayer the best meanes to repell Satan and his temptations 480 All sorts of men have fallen even the Saints ibid. All have the Seminarie of all sinnes in them 481 Grace worketh all in all ibid. Wee walke in the middest of snares 482 God suffered Adam and doth still suffer the Saints to fall for divers reasons 483 Difference betweene the sinnes of Saints and Reprobates ibid. Whether and how the Church may erre 484 The best have erred ibid. The Pope may erre and many of them have erred 485 The distinctions about the erring of the Pope nice and frivolous 486 Sermon 39. HOw wee are said to bee blamelesse notwithstanding we are full of sin 487 Two kindes of righteousnesse 488 Our righteousnesse consists rather in the remission of sinne than perfection of vertue ibid. How we are said to be perfect and yet imperfect 489 The Iesuits and latter Popish writers the worst 490 The Church and members of it impure in it selfe but perfect and pure in Christ 491 Our service may be sincere not perfect 492 Iustification by workes confuted how justified by faith explained 493 Papists flye to the mercy of God and merit of Christ 494 No true joyes and pleasures in this world but all in Heaven ibid. The Saints in Heaven shall have fulnesse of joy undique 495 Heaven the land of the living and Earth land of dead men 496 God shall be all in all to the Saints in Heaven ibid. Worldly minded men desire not Heaven 497 Our life nothing to eternall life ibid. All honours and pleasures on earth nothing to them in Heaven 498 The World fraudulent turbulent momentary 499 Christ the onely comfort to the elect both in this life and that to come ibid. Many hindred from Heaven by pleasure Sermon 40. PRayer and praise the two chiefest parts of Gods worship must follow one another 501 The glory of God hath beene celebrated by all Saints 502 Wee slauld not thinke of the mercies of God in Christ without praising him 503 God described by many attributes yet none can sufficiently set him out ibid. God onely wise all men ignorant and foolish 504 Wee have no true wisedome till infused by God ibid. All wisedome and Knowledge hid in Christ 505 Destinction betweene Science and Sapience ibid. Worldly wisedome folly ibid. Gods Wisedome seene in creation and disposing of all creatures and governing the Church 506 Christ a mercifull and powerfull Saviour in life and death ibid. No Saviours comparable to Christ 507 The Papists derogate from the power and merit of Christ ibid. The imputative righteousnes of the Saints more set out Gods glory than the inherent 508 Mans worke cannot merit ibid. What it is to glorifie God 509 Thankefulnesse the onely sacrifice that God requires ibid. We pray in our wants and doe not praise God when we are releeved 510 Thankesgiving and the praise of God the end of our creation ibid. They thrt doe not glorifie God here shall not be glorified of him hereafter ibid. Two theeves that rob God of his glory and justice 511 A powerfull exhortation to praise God and give up our selves in thankefulnesse ibid. If no praise of God in the mouth no thankfulnesse or grace in the heart 512. Sermon 29. VVHat it is to ascribe majestie to God 514 Miracles are admired for the rarenesse 515 All Gods ordinary workes wonderfull 516 Our dulnesse in ascribing to God majestie in regard of his workes ibid. God reâ—eales himselfe sixe wayes ibid. Gods judgement do not worke Repentance ibid. Wherein Gods dominion standeth 517 Gods three-fold kingdome of power grace glorie ibid. Wee ackowledge our selves subjects of Christs kingdome of grace and yet are rebellious 518 Three properties in the Angels Obedience Libentissime Citissime Fidelissime Obediunt 519 Notorious sinners Satans bond-slaves ibid. Wee must be pure in soule and body that Christ may dwell and rule in us 520 Gods power omnipotent ibid. Christ every where present by his power though not corporally ibid. Christs omnipotenty gives comfort to the Christian 521 Gods incomprehensiblenesse set out by comparison ibid. Christ all in all to us 522 God cannot doe those things that imply contradiction or defect ibid. How attributes are ascribed some time to the whole Trinitie sometime to particular persons 523 All Gods attributes are eternall ibid. God must bee praied and praised for all things temporall and eternall 524 Amen the diverse significations thereof and the efficacie thereof in the conclusion of our praiers ibid. Note that the folio's are mistaken at fol. 425. where you shall finde this marke 〈◊〉 FINIS
Is this to celebrate the Nativity of the Lord Iesus Erubescat Sol confundatur Luna Let the Sunne blush and let the Moone bee ashamed Did the Heavenly souldiers thus did the shepheards thus did Mary thus We make melodie Luk. 2. Ephes 5. 19. but not to the Lord our rejoycing is not good God will turne our feasts into mournings 1 Cor. 5. 6. Amos. 8. To this riotous time God fitted this earth-quake a rare worke of God the earth being seventeen hundred miles thick odde it being 800. miles and odde to the Center as saith Munster what a work of God is it to shake the whole Globe the whole wombe of the earth being so mighty A great earth-quake there was in the raigne of King Henry the sixth thorow the world in the even of S. Michael which continued two houres with thunder and lightning so that the beasts rored and the fowles of the ayre cryed out but in this Queenes time there have beene two earth-quakes a thing not observed in the raigne of one Prince of this Land this five hundred yeeres A new starre appeared in Heaven in this Queenes raigne Anno. 15. that was never seene before 26. acres of ground removed in Hartfordshire and three acres at another time in Devonshire strange monsters have appeared strange Comets have beene seene Hate your sinnes the Iudge is at the doore THE EIGHT AND THIRTIETH SERMON VERS XXIIII Now unto him that is able to keepe you that yee fall not c. We can neither stand nor rise being fallen without Christ THis is the Epilogue the conclusion the last part of this Epistle and it containeth two things First A commending them to God and his Grace And secondly A celebration of the name and praises of God The first is double for hee commendeth them two wayes to God for this life and the life to come Againe for this life two wayes first that they fall not but persist and stand in the grace begun Secondly that they may bee pure perfect absolute untill the day of Christ Lastly for the other life that they may bee glorious lambs and not goats sonnes and not bastards citizens and not strangers built on the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Iesus Christ Ephes 2. 20. himselfe being the chiefe corner stone that they may follow the Lambe on mount Sion and there sing the songs of their joy Apoc. 14. 3. which none can understand save the hundred forty and foure thousand which were bought from the earth Now in the first part of this prayer Saint Iude noteth two things First the weaknesse of man ready to fall All our sufficiencie is of God Secondly the power of God able to keepe us Touching our weakenesse we neither rise when wee are fallen nor stand when wee are risen of our selves all is of God for we are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency 2 Cor. 3. 5. is of God Cum Christo nil nobis deficit With Christ nothing is wanting unto us for as Paul saith I am able to do al things through the Phil. 4. 13. helpe of Christ which strengtheneth me Sine Christo nil nobis sufficit and without Christ nothing is sufficient for us For as the branch cannot Iohn 15. 4 5. beare fruit of it selfe except it abide in the vine no more can yee except yee abide in mee I am the vine yee are the branches hee that abideth in mee and I in him the same bringeth foorth much fruit In eo omnia possumus absque eo nil possumus in him we can doe all things without him we can doe nothing And therefore Paul willeth us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might for all our sufficiencie Ephes 6. 10. Iohn 15. 5. Psal 18. 1 2. is of God Hence is it that David saith unto God I love thee dearely oh Lord my Strength the Lord is my Rocke and my Fortresse c. Wee can neither beginne nor continue nor make an end of our selves but by God therefore Paul commendeth the Churches to God ever as hee onely that keepeth them that the whole worke of our salvation may bee ascribed unto him Initium incrementum finis the beginning the increase and the end Wee are of him in Christ Iesus who of God is made unto us Wisedome 1 Cor. 1. 30 31. and Righteousnesse and Sanctification and Redemption that according as it is written He that rejoyceth let him rejoyce in the Lord. Wherein hee noteth three things What wee are of our selves what in God and the end of all that God may have the glory Thus Paul commendeth the Church of Thessalonica to God saying Now the very God of Peace sanctifie you throughout and I 1 Thess 5. 23. pray God that your whole spirit and soule and body may bee kept blamelesse unto the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ and thus he commended the Church of Ephesus at Miletum to God saying Now brethren I commend you to God and the Word of his Grace which is Act. 20. 32. able to build further and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified And thus hee commended the Church of Rome to God To him now that is of power to stablish you according to Rom. 16. 25. my Gospell and preaching of Iesus Christ by the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world beganne c. And thus did the Apostle commend the Church of the Iewes to God whether it was Paul or Luke or Barnabas it skilleth not The God of peace saith hee which brought againe from the dead our Lord Iesus the great Heb. 13. 20 21. Shepheard of the sheepe through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in all good workes to doe his Will working in you that which is pleasant in his sight through Iesus Christ Here by the way let mee answere one cavill in Popery they urge that wee are bidden to stand fast to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Iesus to goe forward to Wee cannot but fall except we bee preserved continue I answere that all those places are meant conditionally if God doth assist us with his Spirit Sit unus contextus instar mille Let one context bee in stead of a thousand as namely that of Pauls to the Thessalonians where hee telleth them that it is God which worketh in us both the will and the deed even of his good pleasure 2 Thes 1. Psal 4. 1. He biddeth them worke yet he explaneth it by and by that it is God that worketh Agimus passivè quatenus è coelis suggeritur facultas Calvin agis ageris tunc bene agis cum à bono ageris Spiritu Wee worke passively because wee are holpen from Heaven power is ministred unto thee thou workest and art wrought and then thou workest well when thou
art wrought of the good Spirit so Paul ascribed the rising and the standing of the Philippians to God I am perswaded saith Paul that he that hath begunne this good Phil. 1. 6. worke in you will performe it untill the day of Christ Iesus And writing to the Corinthians hee saith That God shall confirme them to the end that they may be blamelesse in the day of our Lord Iesus Christ 1 Cor. 1. 8. To that end Christ prayed for the Apostles saying Holy Father Iohn 17. 11 12 15. keepe them in thy name even them whome thou hast given mee that they may bee one as wee are while I was with them in the world I kept them in thy name those that thou gavest me have I kept I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but that thou keepe them from evill If then the Papists should use these words tenne thousand times Stand fast againe Continue tenne thousand times would I retort upon them that wee cannot stand fast wee cannot continue but by God We flye not with our owne wings we swimme not in our owne barke not nature but grace not man but God doth all in the worke of salvation Wee stand not of our selves in our owne strength but in God Leviores sumus vanitate Wee Psal 62. are lighter then vanity it selfe If God kept us not wee should fall every day every houre every moment so great are our temptations Quomodo stabit debilis inter tot fortes homines How can a weake man stand betweene so many strong men homuncio inter tot fortes Gigantes a litle dwarfe between so many strong Giants â—ndus inter tot armatos a naked man betweene so many armed men Caecus inter tot laqueos a blind man between so many snares Viator inter tot fures a traveller betweene so many theeves Mortalis inter tot immortales immundos spiritus a mortall man betweene so many immortall and uncleane spirits For wee wrastle Ephes 6. 12. not against flesh and blood that is principally and chiefely for our most mortall enemies are more than flesh and blood more in number greater in power craftier in their wiles or longer continuance more envious malicious cruell as namely against principalities against powers and against the worldly governours the Princes of the darkenesse of this world against spirituall wickednesses which are in the high places Hee cals them Principalities because they have great rule and dominion not so much over other Our enemies many and powerfull Divels as over wicked men and calls them Powers to shew that their principality is not a meere titular matter but is armed with power so as they are able to doe great matters He cals them worldly governours to shew over whom the Divell hath government not over the elect but over the world the reprobates of the world He cals them spirituall wickednesse to declare their nature that they are spirits and that they bee evill and malicious the words in the originall signify spirituals of wickednesse or spirits of wickednesse that is most monstrous wicked spirits these are they against whom wee warre and fight how can wee stand against them of our selves Nam illi sunt astuti nos fatui they are crafty wee are foolish illi fortes nos debiles they strong wee weake illi experti nos inexperti they expert wee unexpert illi vigilantes nos somnolenti they watching wee sleepy illi spiritus nos caro they Ephes 6. 14. 1 Pet. 5. 8. Apoc. 12. cap. 10. Luk. 11. Iohn 12. 1 Cor. 4. spirit we flesh the armour therefore is called the Armour of God not our armour but his The Divell is ever described mighty and wee weake to this end hee is called Leo rugiens a roaring Lion Draco volans a flying Dragon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that old serpent homo fortis a strong man princeps mundi the prince of the world Deus mundi the God of the world it is therefore the miraculous grace of God that hee killeth not our soules every houre for God would have us to live both lives the naturall and supernaturall As concerning the naturall life from the soule the naturall powers of understanding will and perceiving flow as touching the supernaturall from grace prayer thankesgiving zeale love repentance mortification doe proceed and this is called The life of God if God withdraw his grace wee fall presently even the best men Peter a notable Apostle yet fell Ephes 4. 18. Mat. 26. Ier. 2. 14. for all his brags at the voice of a girle Ieremy a worthy Prophet yet grew desperate hee that foyled our first parents standing Gen. 3. upon legges of brasse would soone foyle us standing upon legges of clay it is as great a matter to resist temptations being moved unto it as for dry wood and flaxe to resist fire being put to it it is supernaturall in the one so is it in the other for us to resist sinne therefore pray as Christ said Watch and pray Mat. 26. 41. that yee enter not into temptation The fish is not more taken in the nette nor the bird in the snare than wee of the Divell soone hee Iohn 13. 2. entred into the heart of Iudas soone he filled Ananias his heart quickly he tempted David to number the people and quickly Act. 5. will hee overthrow us unlesse God keepe vs that wee fall not But to make further use of this doctrine S. Iude here intimateth unto us that of our selves wee are ready to fall our building by nature is upon the sand not upon the rocke our shields and swords are of blotting paper not of steele our wings like Icarus are of waxe All which I speake to humble the pride of None can presume of his owne strength but must fly to Prayer flesh and blood that no flesh rejoyce in Gods presence To which end Paul applieth his speech Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed that hee fall not Adam fell in Paradise Iudas in the schoole of our Saviour the Angels from heaven and doe wee thinke to stand of our selves No no. Doest thou trust in 1 Cor. 10. 12. Gen. 3. Mat. 27. 2 Pet. 2. 4. 1 Reg. 11. Iudg. 15. thy wisdome None was ever wiser than Salomon yet was he deceived Doest thou trust in thy strength None was ever stronger than Samson yet was hee vanquished doest thou trust in thy stablenesse and constancy None more stable more constant than Peter yet hee fell For hee that said unto Christ I will dye with Mat. 26. thee before I deny thee denied him thrice and every time more fearefully than other Doest thou trust in thy riches None richer than the Epulo and yet hee is in hell in torments God saith unto Luk. 16. all Let not the rich man glory in his riches nor the wiseman in his wisdome nor the strong man in his strength O pray to God for