but as the Prophet expresses it a meer dream of eating and drinking It is even as when a hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty or as when a thirsty man dreameth and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint and his soul hath appetite Isa. 29. Such is the condition of all the adversaries of Sion the holy people of God that hunger and thirst after God and his Righteousness the fulfilling of the Will of God for this alone can fill the Soul of man He that feeds of any thing else sucks but in a rotten mist or fog of scarce so good as the Prodigals husks of no better than Mahomets Ezeck that infernal Tree whose fruit be but Devils heads and root streams with flames of fire and tracts of smoke of which who tasts feeds not but is fed upon ever consuming in unsatiable fiery appetite and restless desire But the sound and satisfying meal of the Soul is the Will of her Maker not when it is done without her but when her Life is that and she never finds her self to live but in that The very Life and Spirit of God drunk in by mans thirsty Soul that by continual repast from thence growes stronger and stronger and sucks so sweet delight from these breasts that she never hungers nor thirsts again never desires the tempting Poysons the pernicious Pleasures and false Contentments of this vain World This is Christ alive in us quite another Principle of Life and another Food from all that feeds our Eyes or Ears or worse than these our inordinate desires of Pleasure Profit or Honour This is that true Manna that Bread from Heaven Of this our Saviour witnesses viz. of himself I am the bread of life He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst Iohn 6. 35. DISCOURSE VI. JAM i. 22. Be ye Doers of the Word and not Hearers only deceiving your own selves NOT to be troublesome neither to you nor to my self by any tedious Preface or Introduction The Text will afford us at least these Three Doctrines 1. We must be Hearers of the Word 2. We must be Doers of the Word as well as Hearers 3. We are not to deceive our selves I. WE must be Hearers of the Word To exhort men to hear sith there is naturally in them such an itching Desire of hearing and knowing it may seem but a losing of time and labour But because some mens dispositions are low and groveling veluti pecorum quae natura prona atque ventri obedientia finxit as Salust speaks all their desires and imagination tending downward it will not be amiss to shew what good Causes there are that men should give their mind to the hearing of the Word 1. And surely no mean one is the Resuscitation of that better part of Mans Soul that lieth slumbering in a Trance which many times being strongly called upon by the Word with much adoe is reared up and slowly and heavily moves its dull sight that darkness so strongly had possessed before But if so be a man here be not propitious to himself and foster that Life which is then given him like one not perfectly recovered out of a swound he sinks down again out of the hands of him that held him and many such neglects may enter his name amongst the Dead whom Death gnaweth upon because he heard not the Monitions of his Teachers The eye that slighteth his fathers counsel and despiseth the instruction of his mother the ravens of the valley will pick it out He lying thus like a dead carryon exposed to the fowls of the Air the accursed Angels of darkness shall seize upon him and quite eradicate the principles of true light and sight in the valley of the shadow of death Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Awake thou that sleepest that Christ may give thee light Surge ne longus tibi somnus unde Non times detur And indeed a man least of all suspects his Friend to be his deadly enemy Yet it fares so with foolish wicked men Righteousness is immortal But unrighteousness bringeth death and the ungodly call it unto them both with hands and words and while they think to have a friend of it they come to nought Wisd. 1. Which mischief might happily be prevented by giving due heed and attention to the Word 2. For this Word if we were grown fitly prepared for the receiving of it is the Seed of Eternal Life whereby we may be born again and regenerate into the image of Christ And it is our Saviours own gloss The seed is the word of God Luke 8. Wherefore as in Nature were it not for Seed there would be no Herbs no Plants no Living Creatures so without the Word there would be no generation of the New Creature which S. Paul also confirms For this is plain where no Salvation no Regeneration and without the calling upon the Lord no Salvation For so it is written in the 10th to the Romans Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved But how shall they call on him on whom they have not believed And how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a preacher And at last he concludes Then faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God But here some for the infringing of the necessity of this Seed perhaps may demand otherwise than the Apostle for he presently annexeth But I demand have they not heard Some might be prone to say Have they heard But the Answer is indifferent to both No doubt their sound went through all the earth and their words to the end of the world And this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the voice of the Heavens or the voice of that vast expansum from the Earth upward For that no man too confidently restrict and straiten this Preaching and this Word that S. Paul speaks of in this place the Quotation is a part of the 19th Psalm which begins The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theon calls it in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon Aratus this far-stretched Firmament or all-incircling Air 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We never let rest ever anvelling out its Makers praise by Air-beating sounds and voices Yea that lower noise of the breathing of Men and Beasts call aloud unto us for obedient thankfulness to him that is the life and breath of all living things that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Life of the World as R. Moses the AEgyptian calls him who if he should draw in his rayes of livelihood out of this great Universe the World would be as a dead fabrick in silence and desolation But this by the way for the due extent of S. Pauls words in that place For I
he doth not a good man count every day a Festival Surely if it be so he must needs count it so And that it is so my Text can witness Solomon hath asserted it and the Devil himself cannot deny it nor good men conceal it nor wicked men confute it for they have not experience of it But do I not seem to Tantalize you all this while by describing so desirable a Banquet and not shew you the way to be partakers of it Verily neither God nor good men do envy us it But to say the truth the way to it is as undesirable as the Feast is to be wished for Abstinence and emptyness is the way to be filled with this precious Food The full soul saith Solomon loatheth the honey-comb And if we be taken up with and filled with the delights of this sensible World and the pleasures of the Flesh we shall never relish the sweetness of this Banquet never so much as taste of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If false transitory pleasures get possession of the Soul they will exclude that true light and safe delight in God What 's the way then to this continual Happiness A contemptible thing they call Self-denyal or abstinence from our own Wills and Desires Upon which if I should enter a Discourse you especially of the younger sort might account it or a dull Melancholick Dream or a pretty solemn Night-piece but when you have viewed it immerse your selves again into the false light of this bewitching World and closely embrace that life and pleasure that I should wish you to part with But be you assured that he that is so slightly affected with the most solemn and solid Duties of Christianity is so far off from the good Conscience or good Heart named in the Text that he is not so much as in a preparation to it which is Contrition and Brokenness of Spirit But he that even now begins and sets himself seriously upon the curbing of his Lusts and denyal of his own wayes and endeavours cordially from the very depth of his Heart to perform whatsoever he conceives is the Will of God and allowes himself in no fault this man shall in due time be wrought into the Life and Spirit of Christ And shall continually enjoy in a more eminent manner whatsoever or Sight or Hearing or Smelling or Tasting shall judge pleasant and delectable such Beauty such Harmony such Fragrancy such Deliciousness as no man can conceive but he that hath it nor he that hath it can know how to utter it To this Happiness God grant that we may all arrive through Iesus Christ our Lord to whom c. DISCOURSE VIII PSAL. xvii 15. As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness THE Excellency of this Holy resolution and High aspires of the Prophet David will be better set off and more-savourly relished if we bring into view that lively character of men of a quite contrary dispensation in the foregoing Verse which are stiled men of the world which have their portion in this life who are very Belly-gods and Cormorants greedy devourers of the Temporary good things which God has treasured up in these lower Regions of the Universe These they dig out and rake up together and lay on heaps that they may satisfie their own Worldly Appetite and gratifie themselves in the lusts of the Flesh in the lusts of the Eyes and in the pride of Life that they may eat and drink plentifully yea riotously fill their Bellies with the choicest delicates and feed their Eyes with the inexhaustible store and plenty of their riches and their treasure being inexhaustible when they have lived in all the jollity and gayity of this World in all the affluency and felicity this present Life will afford bequeath or entail upon their Posterity the like Happiness themselves enjoy'd by leaving the rest of their Substance to their Babes as is described in the foregoing Verse This is the state of that Blessedness which the meer Natural man breaths after neither his foresight nor desire piercing any further But this Holy man of God who was inspired from above has a thirsty presage of matters of far greater moment whose mind is not fixt upon these hid treasures of the Earth but upon that treasure which is reserved in Heaven whose neither hopes nor enjoyments are in the things of this Life but deems this Life as Death or Sleep in comparison of that which is to come who evangelizes before the Gospel and speaks the language of Christians before the coming of the Messias as if he would anticipate the words of S. Paul Col. 3. 3. Our life is hid with Christ in God But when Christ which is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Wherefore let others enjoy themselves as much as they will let these men of the World have all things succeed according to their desire and please themselves to the height in their Wealth Pleasure and Honours I do not at all envy their condition nor place my Happiness in these things While these mens Eyes and Minds while their Affection and Animadversion is wholly taken up with these Worldly Objects the pantings and breathings of my Soul are entirely directed towards God and to the blissful enjoyment of the Light of his Countenance As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Or as the Psalms in our Liturgy have it When I awake up after thy likeness I shall be satisfied with it That Saying of Heraclitus in Clemens Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All that we see waking is Death and what we see dreaming Sleep which is the Brother of Death as another termed him as if in this Body whether sleeping or waking it were in the valley of the shadow of Death I say this Speech of Heraclitus may seem to savour much of a very deeply Melancholized Spirit yet if to speak conformably to inspired men were an Argument of Inspiration Heraclitus his Melancholly would approve it self Divine by the apparent conformity it bears with the most notable passages of those who certainly were inspired God forbid saith S. Paul that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Iesus Christ whereby the world is crucified to me and I unto the world What was it not sufficient that S. Paul was crucified to the World but the World must be also crucified unto him That he was dead to the World but the World must be also dead to him Or who ever except S. Paul ventur'd on such a Phrase as the Worlds being crucified or dead to us though we be rightly said to be crucified or dead to it Why yes Heraclitus said so long before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All these things which we see with these Bodily Eyes it is but a Scene of Death That vivid and chearful colour of the Heavens which
Pet. 2. 5. And ye as living stones be made a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Iesus Christ. Ver. 9. You are a chosen generation a royal priesthood And if we consider the qualification of the righteous man the unfeigned Christian we shall find him fit for this employment Who more gracious with God than he Who more loving to men than he Who therefore more fit to make Prayers and Supplications for the People than he That Life which is in him even the Spirit of Christ doth adopt him into an higher Order than the Order of Aaron Or rather Christ whose Spirit of Life is in him is that High-Priest higher than the Order of Aaron A Priest after the Order of Melchizedek A Kingly Priest who officiates in Everlasting Righteousness Here 's a Priest without exception above all commendation worthy all honour and admiration worthy to be heard of God worthy to be obeyed by Men worthy to be attended by Angels worthy to whom all power should be given in Heaven and Earth worthy of that Glorious Throne even the Right-hand of God the Father in the height of Heaven where he makes intercession for us his poor members wandering and toyling in the mire and mud of this wicked earth That vve being redeemed vvith his most precious Blood may be made Kings and Priests to his Father to offer Spiritual Sacrifices and first of all our selves in a sensible apprehension that vve are vvholly from him nothing at all of our selves and then an open and free-hearted love to our Neighbour in acknovvledgment that our fulness is not of our selves but of God And this contains the last and best requisite in that description of a Sacrifice the acknowledgment of our Humane infirmity and the praise and profession of the Divine Majesty HITHERTO we have compared this Christian Sacrifice with the general notion of a Sacrifice We will now see how it fits with the kinds of Sacrifice Which according to the Schoolmens Division are three 1. Sacrificing or slaying of living Creatures which is most properly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is the word in my Text. 2. Immolation which is a Sacrifice of inanimate things as of Meal Bread Salt Frankincense and such like Or 3. Libamentum a Drink-offering as of Wine or other liquid things How well some kinds of doing good will agree with that first kind of Sacrifice we should easily understand if we did but rightly apprehend how that the sundry lives of beasts lurk in the bodies of men as in some the Fox in others the Lyon in others the Bull in some one in some other in others many Our Saviour calls Herod Fox S. Paul his Persecutors Lyons So Eccles. 6. Be not proud in the device of thine own mind lest thy soul rend thee as a bull Where there is the living property of a Beast in a man no wonder that the Spirit of Truth that pierceth through the surface of things into the depth of Life calls them by that which they are within not by that which they seem without He therefore that can kill the Oxe the Bull the Goat in any mans Soul that is a stupid laborious toyl in the dirt an high raving unquietness of mind or that goatish nature that brutish sensual lust He that can exhibit these animalities dead before God who is Judge of the Quick and the Dead he offers of the first kind of Sacrifice which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mortification of some Life that God was displeased with He that doth this either in himself or others doth sacrifice in this kind He that gives his Bread to the hungry sacrificeth an Immolation He that gives his Drink to the thirsty offers a Drink-offering As much as you did it to one of these little ones you did it unto me He that goes about doing good as our Saviour Christ that is He that lives not to himself but according to the Command of God and Example of his Son spends all his time power and ability in diffusing of that good which God hath bestowed on him offers Frankincense Or rather that precious composition of sweet odours which is mentioned Exod. 30. 34 35. And the Lord said unto Moses Take unto thee sweet spices Stacte and Onicha and Galbanum sweet spices with pure Frankincense of each like weight And thou shalt make of it a perfume c. Philo Iudaeus will have these four ingredients to be Emblems of the four general Principles or Elements of which this World consists and the evaporation of this fume to be that acceptable re-ascending of the Creature to God in holy thankfulness and evacuation of it self into that great ocean His words are very significant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a Life saith he well befitting the World to give uncessant thanks to its Father and Maker even quite exhausting it self in a continual ascent and grateful fume and simplifying it self into its Elements that all may see that it hoards up nothing for it self but consecrates it self wholly unto God that made it Such a Sacrifice doth every Microcosm or little World every particular man offer dayly unto God when he spends all his dayes and employes all the strength and faculties of his Soul and Body It is a thankful acknowledgment of what he hath received resunding that goodness that he is partaker of back again to God through those sure conduits or conveiances the poor necessitous Brethren But there is yet another Division of Sacrifices into three kinds as before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Philo Which our Modern Writers call thus Holocausta Hostias pacificas Hostias pro peccato The reason of this Division Philo thus unfolds The two main and general causes of Sacrificing be these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The latter consists in two things The participation of good and the removing or preventing of evil Hence that Sacrifice that respects the profit of the Sacrificer is twofold A Sin-offering for the preventing the just punishment thereof and a Peace-offering which was either pro beneficio accepto or accipiendo for a benefit received or at least hoped for 1. That the doing or communicating good appertains to the first sort which Philo calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Holocaust which respects merely the Glory of God and not the Profit of the Sacrificer will appear out of places of Scripture concerning this Duty of communicating Let your light so shine before men that they seeing your good works may glorifie your Father which is in heaven Matth. 5. 16. There 's the Honour of God Now that we are not to participate our selves in this but that it be wholly to God and for God a true Holocaust Our Saviour shews Matth. 6. 3. When thou doest thine almes let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth That is We must not have any sinister respect but do it simply in obedience to God and for his Glory Consult
health of his Bodies sake when every such perception so heartily and feelingly taken in is either poyson or a stab to the life of the Soul But that will be more seasonably considered anon In the mean time I hope I have made it clear enough what is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Fleshly Lusts as also what it is to abstain from them WE come now to consider the Second part of our Discourse the means or artifice the Apostle uses to fasten this Duty I have described upon the Hearts and Consciences of his Auditors His humble Address I beseech you and that kind and friendly compellation Dearly beloved And indeed the one implies the other Non bene conveniunt nec in unâ sede mor antur Majest as Amor While he calls them Dearly beloved it is more comely and suitable to beseech them than command them But the Prudence and Discretion of the Apostle is very conspicuous in both thus to insinuate himself into the Affections of his Auditors by such sweet and wining Rhetorick he being to convey something to them which is over bitter and distastful to Flesh and Blood and therefore he does well to besmear the brim of this cup of Wormwood with the sweetness of Honey that his Patients may the better take this wholesome Potion as Lucretius uses this Similitude though in a subiect of less moment Sea veluti pueris absynthia tetra medentes Cum dare conantur priùs oras pocula circùm Contingunt meltis dulci flavuque liquore Hard commands given with an harsh imperiousness befits not the Spirit of the Gospel And it is not so much external force at the assurance of the kindness integrity and fidelity of the Instructer that can engage the Affections and Conscience of the Auditor to the observance of such Spiritual Precepts as these Indeed the falsly-pretended Successor of Peter may by law and force keep Men from eating Flesh in Lent and engage them to observe such Commandments of Men whereby they more easily make the Commandments of God of no effect But to win upon Mens Consciences indeed to set upon the true and real mortification of our Fleshly Lusts in such a sense as I have described this is more likely to proceed from the perswasion they have of him that gives this wholesome Counsel that it is out of sincere kindness and faithfulness to them for the safety of their Souls than if they discern it proceeds out of an affectation of dominion over their Consciences and of exposing them to unnecessary faults and mulcts While the Apostle therefore layes aside all imperiousness of Command he seems to insinuate his sensibleness of the hardness of the task and to suggest that it is not out of an affectation of dominion over their Christian Liberty that he offers this Advice but out of the mere indispensableness of the Duty in order to their Salvation For as he calls them Dearly beloved so he treats them as in that endearing respect and seems to profess that it is merely out of his Brotherly Love and Tenderness towards them and faithful care of their highest and most important concerns that constrains him to offer this severer Counsel unto them Those whom we dearly love we cannot endure to hurt or grieve any way And therefore professing this tender affection to them in the midst of severer Counsel it is a plain manifestation that nothing but the indispensableness thereof could extort from him the Advice as when a tender Mother perswades her Child to endure the Searing Iron or Incision-Knife and to be content to quit some festred or gangren'd part of the securing of the whole Body This is the genuine sense of this wise and discreet insinuation of the Apostle into the affections of his Auditors that his Exhortation to Abstinence from Fleshly Lusts may take the more certain effect with them WE proceed now to the last part of our Discourse which is to consider the Apostles Argumentation whereby he would engage them to this Duty Which Argumentation as I said was fetched from a two-fold Topick First From the dignity of an Humane Soul especially Christian. Secondly From that enmity or hostility of the Fleshly Lusts against her 1. The dignity and excellency of Humane Souls is intimated in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The former whereof signifies such Qui sedem habent extra Patriam the latter qui extra Patriam peregrinantur as Grotius notes upon the Text. So that according to the sense of either of these expressions it is manifest that we carry something about us that is of a far higher dignity than to be accounted a Citizen or Indigena of this Terrestrial Globe If this round Hillock of Earth can lay claim to any thing of us born therein or therefrom it is only this Earthly Body At verò animis aeterna Coeli sedes quaerenda eaque propriae illorum Patria as Cicero speaks And something like this is intimated by the Author to the Hebrews who according as Philo Judaeus also somewhere insinuates touching the Souls of the Patriarchs here upon Earth does declare them Pilgrims and Strangers in this present World upon their own confession which he will also have further to imply that in thus saying they are Pilgrims and Strangers that they seek a Country which belongs more peculiarly to them that they desired a better Country that is an Heavenly and adds Wherefore God is not ashawed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City namely in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We come into his World to sojourn uot to dwell here for the soul of every wise man has Heaven for its Country but this Earth for its land of Pilgrimage as Philo speaks Like that of Cato in Tully Commorandi enim Natura diversorium nobis non habitandi locum dedit And Plato in his Axiochus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Philo de Somniis does expresly make the History of the Pilgrimages of Abraham and the Patriarchs a Type or Shadow of the Peregrination of Humane Souls here upon Earth but that they have their proper Country in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which methinks with more elegancy the Holy Apostle calls his Tabernacle which alludes to the pilgrimage of the Israelites through the Wilderness into the Promised Land that illustrious Type of Heaven in which journey they liv'd in Tabernacles or Booths Yea I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle Which Tabernacle being dissolved we have a building of God saith S. Paul an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens That was only commorandi diversorium This an everlasting habitation to dwell in Wherefore the littleness of the concerns of this Life being proportioned to our short stay here and the Soul of Man being capable of so high and lasting
scarce dare to name had not the Apostle himself taken notice of it That this Beastly Lustfulness has made Women change the natural use into that which is against Nature and likewise also the Men leaving the natural use of the Woman burned in their Lusts one towards another men with men working that which is unseemly Rom. 1. With such base and inglorious with such wretched and hideous Servilities do the Fleshly Lusts tyrannize over the Soul when they have once captivated her carrying her thus in triumph and exposing her to all baseness and lewdness and dragging her by her chains of captivity through all filthiness and unseemliness and having thus besmear'd and defac'd her with the filth of all manner of Sins in this Life fit her for a delivery to her fellow-Devils in the other to be reserv'd with them in everlasting chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day This is the lamentable success of that Warfare betwixt the Lusts of the Flesh and the Soul if she suffer her self to be overcome And therefore it is no wonder the Holy Apostle uses all the Reason and Rhetorick he has to make us stand upon our guard and defend our selves from so subtle and malicious Enemies Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. DISCOURSE II. PSAL. lxxxiv 7. They go from strength to strength every one of them appeareth before God in Sion THE Text is a Presage of admirable Prosperity and Success to some sort of People so that it may well excite in us a desire of searching out who they may be And if we begin further off at first or go about yet it may according to the Proverb prove the nighest way home If any one therefore demand who these are I shall answer him out of the 24th Psalm the subject whereof seems to be the very same with this and in the words of the same Prophet This is the generation of them that seek him that seek thy face O Iacob the God of the People that prevail by their importunities and wrestlings with God as Iacob is said to do Gen. 32. whereby he purchased to himself the name of Israel because as a Prince he had power with God And David as being one of this extraction himself he seems to challenge a Blessing from God on that very account O Lord God of Hosts hear my prayer give ear O God of Iacob in the Verse immediately following my Text. In this present Psalm as also in the 24th and 15th Psalms the Holy Prophet so speaks of the Court Tabernacle Temple or House of God as of a place of the highest enravishments that the Soul of man can enjoy which Expositors generally and I doubt not but truly interpret of the Mosaical Tabernacle and Literal Temple But that the mind of the Prophet was carry'd up also to some higher matter I do not at all question And the first Verse of the 15th Psalm Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy Hill which is almost verbatim repeated again in the 24th Psalm the Chaldee Paraphrast does expresly interpret of Heaven So warrantable is it not to be ty'd down to the Letter but to seek a further edifying Mystery in the Holy Oracles of God And such a Temple as the abode wherein will be more suitable to such earnest breathings and vehement expressions of the Prophet Ver. 1. 2. How amiable are thy tabernacles O Lord of Hosts My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God And again Ver. 4. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be still praising thee These things do not suit so well methinks to a house that is made of any earthly materials into which the wicked can throng as well as the just Nor does God dwell in any House made with hands according to the Apostolick Philosophy Acts 7. Any yet according to their Doctrine We are the Temple of God at least design'd so to be And the Apostle Paul sayes expresly 1. Cor. 6. 19. What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost And yet the same Apostle Rom. 7. 18. I know saith he that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing This Earthly Tabernacle is no House of God as being from the Earth From whence it is that we groan earnestly as the same Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5. desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon or further clothed that mortality might be swallow'd up of life Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit That is to say He that works us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into this condition is God himself by the operation of his Spirit which is the Architect of its own House as it is said of the Soul the Builder of that Holy Temple in us in which all is fulfilled which the Prophet David sets out in such devotional and vehement Language For when we are come to this state we are then truly the Temple of the Living God and it is Strength to a mans Navel and Marrow to his Bones So that well may the Holy Prophet raise himself into so high expressions touching this condition Ver. 2. My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God For this Earthly Tabernacle destitute of this is but a burden or body of Vanity wherein are all the Seeds and Fruits of Sin and Misery But of this Heavenly House is that plentifully verify'd which the Prophet David presageth Blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be still praising thee And they that are arrived to this condition will easily fulfil that Precept of the Apostle Eph. 5. 18 19. Be not drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit speaking to your selves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. This is the real participation of the Body or Flesh of Christ the true Bread from Heaven which is the immediate receptacle of the Divine Spirit so that he that comes hither cannot fail to be replenish'd with Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And this may serve for a brief intimation Who these Persons are to whom such good Success is promised in the Text and what the place is towards which they are journeying viz. the Tabernacle Temple or House of God mystically understood LET us now consider 1. The Country through which they pass 2. How well accoutred they are in their persons for the Journey 3. What Convoy to guard them safe 4. Under what Influences of Heaven they travel 5. What the
Phancies suggest or our vacillant Reason blind or drunk with the foul steams of an impure and unsanctify'd Heart would pretend to coin for us Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose heart are thy wayes The next is Faith By which I do not so much understand Faith in general as that which has for its proper Object the Power of God for the destroying of Sin and the erecting his Kingdom in us For out of this ariseth our Strength in God and our Victory over the World This is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith as S. Iohn speaks Which Requisite is also hinted in this Psalm the last verse O Lord of Hosts blessed is the man that trusteth in thee And indeed sith our Faith and Trust and Confidence is in the Lord of Hosts how can we despair of the victory over any Sin whatsoever Cannot he that created Heaven and Earth by his Word create in us a pure Heart and renew a right Spirit within us I can do all things saith S. Paul through Christ that strengthens me Certainly it is a Contradiction that Omnipotency should not be able so effectually to assist a willing Soul as to bring all her enemies under her feet Can he that is the Lord of Hosts and has the power over all Nature be baffled in his assaults upon the corrupt Nature of any poor Creature so that he cannot reduce it if he will And can we possibly imagine God not to be willing to subdue Sin in the World who has given us such express Laws against it both within and without who expresses his Wrath and Vengeance against it so frequently in Scripture who is so irreconcileable an enemy unto it that nothing less than the Death of his only begotten Son could make an Atonement for it And lastly the Holiness of whose Nature is so contrary and diametrically opposite to the pollutedness of it Wherefore the fault most assuredly lyes at our own doors viz. because we are not sincerely willing to have our Sins vanquished and overcome by the Power of God Which therefore is the third and last Requisite which the Travellers in the Valley of Baca are said to be provided with namely Sincerity which comprehends not only a belief that all our Sins ought to be subdued and that they are all vanquishable through the assistance of Gods Spirit but also an unfeigned willingness to have them subdued and an hearty endeavour to the utmost of that power we have received to conquer them and subdue them He that is provided of all these three is fitly furnished for a prosperous Journey toward the House of God and the Almighty will be his safeguard in his travel 3. Which is the Third Particular we named What Convoy to guard them safe in their Iourney which is intimated in the Psalm also For the Lord is a sun and a shield the Lord will give grace and glory and no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly that is to say that walk sincerely In which Sincerity if they keep themselves he will also be faithful unto them and not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able and will deliver them from all straits and assaults of their enemies both inward and outward The Lord will be their fortress and tower their defence and shield a present help in the day of trouble The Angels of the Lord will encamp round about them and deliver them For such as these as it is said of those few names in Sardis Christ will confess their names before his Father and his holy Angels namely profess how dear they are to him and so commit them to their safe protection 4. And surely the Influences of Heaven which is the Fourth Particular cannot but be very benign to those that are thus dear to the God of Heaven And therefore for light and warmth and kindly dews and showres they shall not be destitute of these in this Journey of theirs to the Temple of God And therefore God is said as well to be a Sun to them as a Shield in the forecited Verse of this Psalm And in Ver. 6. They that pass through the valley of Baca are said to make it a well and that the rain filleth the pools Like that in Psalm 68. O God when thou wentest forth before thy people when thou didst march through the wilderness the clouds dropped at thy presence thou sentest a gracious rain upon thy inheritance and refreshedst it when it was weary But in this present Psalm the Rain is said to be received into some hollows of the Earth dug out the Latin renders it cisternas I suppose any fossae or hollows of what form soever will serve the turn made by the diging away the Earth that this Heavenly Liquor may supply the vacuity For that is a great mistake in the Carnal-minded that they think that when we empty our selves of the Old Adam and the comforts of that Life that we thus stand empty for ever and that Religion is a forlorn disconsolate condition No dig away thy Earth and God will fill the vacuity with a substance from Heaven Or starve away the fulsomness of thy Flesh by assiduous mortification and purification and thou shalt make this arid Soil this Valley of Baca a springing Well as it is suggested in the beginning of the Verse When our Terrestrial substance becomes a dry barren Soil as to the fruits of the Flesh then will those Well-springs of living Water bubble up in us as our Saviour has promised unto Eternal Life by which is understood the irrigation of the Spirit Non datur vacuum is a Maxime as true in Divinity as in Philosophy Empty thy self therefore of thy Earth and thou shalt most certainly be replenished with Heaven 5. Now for the Fifth Particular which occurs in my Text properly so called for I have made the whole Psalm in a manner my Text hitherto it is of the greatest importance of all throughly to consider it namely our gradual advance in this journey through the Valley of Baca. They go from strength to strength è virtute in virtutem the Latin has it from vertue to vertue And indeed this progress from strength to strength is nothing else but a proficiency in Vertue either from one vertue to another Add to your Faith Fortitude to your Fortitude Patience c. or from one Degree of vertue to another And this vertue is very significantly termed strength there being no true Vertue which is not such It is but the imagination of vertue if it be not accompanied with Life and Power And forasmuch as Vertue and Grace are all one let every one take notice that he that has no Vertue has no Grace as well as he that has no Power has no Vertue Which is a plain Note to examine a mans self by that he may not lye lusking in his softnesses and infirmities and in the mean time flatter himself that
sides that Obedience and the Fear of God is the Begetter of Saving Knowledge surely the practice of a Godly Life and Conversation will notwithstanding be exceeding abundantly worth our labour though it had not the promise of this Life as well as that which is to come But if I shall shew plainly that there is a further abundant luxuriancy of the goodness of God upon an Obedient mans Understanding intimated in this word Wisdom I hope there will be nothing wanting for the inflaming of our desires to a Godly Life and Conversation Prov. cap. 8. Wisdom is said there to cry and Vnderstanding to utter her voice to speak to men from the high places and by the way of the places of the path to cry unto them beside the gates of the city to speak unto them at the entry of the doors to take all occasions to be acquainted with them She would salute them at every turn For the good Spirit of Wisdom is loving and sincere aud would fain clasp with our Souls if they were pure that she might discourse with us of the wonders of the Almighty and shew unto us his Everlasting Glory Now that this Blessed Spirit would reside with us is plain What be her operations when she doth reside will anon be as plain I wisdom dwell with prudence and I find forth knowledge and counsels I have counsel and wisdom I am understanding and I have strength I love them that love me and they that seek me early shall find me This Wisdom therefore will make a man no Idiot when it stores a man with Prudence and Counsels But it affords not this only to the Souls of Holy men but it gives them a Theory of the hidden things of God This Wisdom was at the making of the World and so can best unfold the Mysteries of the whole Creation When he prepared the Heavens I was there when he set the compass upon the deep when he established the clouds above when he confirmed the fountains of the deep when he gave his decree to the sea when he laid the foundations of the earth then was I with him as his darling I was dayly his delight rejoycing alway before him and took my solace in the compass of his earth and my delight is with the sons of mens But it is yet more evident out of the 7th of Wisdom For he hath given me saith Solomon the true knowledge of the things that are So that I know how the World was made and the powers of the Elements the beginning and the end and the middes of times how the times alter and the change of seasons the course of the year and the situation of the stars the nature of living things the furiousness of beasts the powers of the winds and the imaginations of men the diversity of plants and the vertue of roots and all things both secret and known do I know For Wisdom the worker of all things hath taught me it It is very apposite to this purpose that which is in Philo Iudeus in his Tractate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon these words of Moses And God saw all that he made and behold it was very good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For none else were able to discern and judge accurately of the things that were made but he that was the Maker of them Go to now saith he you seeming wife ones full-fraught with Pride Ostentation and Ignorance You that say not only you know every thing but dare so boldly and confidently avouch this or that to be the Causes of them as though you had been present at the making of the World and had seen the composure of all things as they were put together as though the Creator had consulted with you about the means and contrivements of his work A just increpation of the bold and blind attempts of those that pursue after Wisdom without the guidance of God the Giver of it Why What you will say must we think to get Wisdom as Solomon did Nay but I say rather is it to be thought that we are already wiser than Solomon that we should have found out a better way to trafick for Wisdom than he could light on Prayer and a serious seeking after God with industrious study was the way that he went to compass it And surely it is a way no whit mis-becoming any good Christian Neither ought we to be inwardly ashamed of doing of that which the Apostle openly exhorts us to Iames 1. 5. If any of you lack wisdom let him ask it of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him But what true Christian can with patience think upon the stupid Atheism that is so rife in these wicked ungodly dayes When as in the highest attempts of men the power of Heaven is held but for a Cypher Their Philosophy certainly hath removed God into so high and remote an Excelsis that they think him out of the call of mans voice and man out of the reach of his sight He must sit upon the primum mobile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so speaks Aristotle Afraid forsooth that the Godhead should be defiled if his Presence should be among men on the Earth So he confines him to that fine phantastick place the Eighth Sphere O goodly and profound Mystery Like to that of Mahomet that makes God clamber back to Heaven when he had finished here his six days work O high Divinity And now who shall rule among men I know well enough who doth rule among men Verily the Devil or that Devilish Natural Spirit of man who sets it self up for a Deity attributing all to its self with detestable arrogancy Our good Natural parts are our Gods Or if they chance to fail and not answer our desire in their performance whither go we Right readily to some Temple of Bacchus to the Sacred Tavern Where we do devoutly magnifie the miraculous power of that sparkling Deity enthron'd in his Crystalline Heaven and somewhat more largely partaking of that fiery aethereal Spirit our Eyes no question are so illuminated that vve see double All things are then augmented and seem bigger as the Horizontal Sun by reason of muddy Vapours We find then our selves and our Comrades such notable Wiselins as not vve our selves nor others could ever have suspected O the deplorable vanity of misled Youth When it hath cast off the memory of God and due respect to its careful Tutors and faithful Governours Is not this Idolatry in preferring the povver of Sack before the Spirit of God a greater shame than a timely practice of true Piety and adorning our minds vvith all manner of Vertues in the highest degree Fighting manfully against all manner of Passions to the utter suppression of that Life of Darkness in our lovver Spirit that the Spirit of Truth may shine in our purged Souls as the Sun in a pure diaphanous substance And what hurt can come of this Why surely
of mind and Disquietness And this very latter disposition is good too but not alwayes that is when it is accompanied with a Iudas-like despair otherwise it is good as wholsome Physick not as a pleasant Banquet But it is seldom or never known that the Heart was ever established without the fore-going of this disquietness of mind For mans Natural Inclinations lead him astray and Childhood and Youth betray him unto vanity So that man being lost thus in his Natural blindness when Christ begins to open his eyes by his Truth and he is convicted of his wicked errours what can come of it but sorrow Nay but being thus in some good measure enlightened afterward to have rebelled against this measure of light or at least through weakness or rather the love of sin and neglectful yielding to the Devils assaults to fall into the same filth he was warned of before surely this must needs breed great distraction and confusion of Spirit And so long will this be as that Holy Light keeps in and we live not conformable unto it For God is a God of pure eyes and cannot behold wickedness and so long as we see this eye upon our wayes this light over our actions which we see by light imparted from it in lumine tuo videbimus lumen as it is said in the Psalms In thy light we shall see light Every work of darkness will so ashame us and confound us that we shall never be at quiet till we vvalk uprightly before the avvful Majesty of Heaven that is ever present before us But vvhen through the Mercy and Might of Jesus Christ and his quickning Spirit vve vvalk in unfeigned Obedience in the sight of the Father of Lights our Conversation being in Heaven vvhere Christ sits at the Right Hand of the Povver of God having led captivity captive as the Psalmist speaks Then shall our mouth be filled with laughter and our tongue with joy as it is said in another Psalm about the turning again the captivity of Sion And Psal. 63. My soul shall be filled even as with marrow and fatness when my mouth praiseth thee with joyful lips But there is a more apt and ample description of this joy and feasting Esay 25. In this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things a feast of fined wines and fat things full of marrow of wines fined and purified This is Mount Sion whom the Lord hath chosen to be an habitation for himself which he hath longed for which shall be his rest for ever Here will he dwell for he hath a delight therein Ps. 132. Here he keeps open house all the Year long or rather all Eternity long Ho! every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and ye that have no silver come buy and eat Come I say buy wine and milk without silver and without money Wherefore do you lay out silver and not for bread and your labour without being satisfied Hearken diligently unto me and eat that which is good and let your soul delight in fatness Esay 55. But what is this Mountain that God should promise such Joy upon it Or what is Sion that such Feasting and Mirth should be in it Mount Sion is called the Hill of the Holiness of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hill of his holiness Psal. 3. Such a kind of Holiness such a kind of Purity as a man may stand before God in that a man sees God in that is approved of God and will abide the fire For our God is a consuming fire and burns and pains a mans Soul so long as filth resides there Who amongst us shall dwell with devouring fire Who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burning He that walketh in justice and speaketh righteous things c. He shall dwell on high his defence shall be the munition of rocks bread shall be given him and his water shall be sure saith the Prophet Esay He shall dwell on Mount Sion that high and holy Hill where God hath prepared this great Feast This is the Hill of the thirsty for so may this word Sion signifie And blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied Or more properly it may signifie dry Earth And so we may fitly use that of the Psalmist My soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land And the same Happiness will return again as before they shall be satisfied so our English 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall be fed so the Greek They shall be sufficiently fed they shall be feasted continually feasted For he that eateth of this bread shall never hunger and he that drinketh of this drink shall never thirst saith our Saviour How excellent is thy mercy O God! therefore shall the children of men trust under the shadow of thy wings They shall be satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt give them drink out of the river of thy pleasures Psalm 36. This is the excellent inward state of the upright Soul and undefiled Conscience streaming and over-flowing with strong and full torrents of Heavenly Delight issuing from the Throne of God and of the Lamb. But to handle the matter some what more distinctly I will consider the nature of a Feast and of what parts it chiefly consists The curious Varro in Gellius makes a compleat Feast to consist of these four things Si belli homuncali collecti sunt si electus locus si-tempus lectum si apparatus non neglectus i. e. If good disposition'd People be gathered together if the Provision be not poor or sordid if the Place be convenient if the Time fit and seasonable 1. That those that are assembled to this Feast are belli homunculi in the best sense I shall easily prove Mat. 8. Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of Heaven There is very good Company you 'll all grant it But the Doubt will be what this Kingdom of Heaven is Let the Apostle resolve you Rom. 14. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost All which things may be obtained in some good measure at least here without spreading a Table-cloth in the Coelum Empyreum But to proceed You saw before out of the Prophet how that God prepares a Feast in Mount Sion The Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews makes known to us the Guests But you are come to the mount Sion and to the city of the living God the celestial Ierusalem and to the company of innumerable Angels and to the congregation of the first-born written in heaven and to the spirits of just and perfect men All these are the Guests of Gods Heavenly Table There these are assembled Wheresoever the carkass is there will the eagles resort saith our Saviour This is the great Communion of Saints who do all eat of the same spiritual
in us And Israel is called the inheritance of God Wherefore God in a kind of Gratitude as I may so say will provide us an Inheritance sith that we as he himself testifieth are an Inheritance to him Now if any man be desirous to know what an Inheritance this is that God hath prepared It is no less than a Kingdom And how great an esteem is put upon an Earthly Kingdom is very well known to you all Which if it be so desirable how much more desirable is the Kingdom of Heaven that nor time nor tumult can ever demolish This Kingdom of Heaven of God or Christ is the Inheritance of the Sons of God with Christ. But if any one rest unsatisfied yet and would further know what the Kingdom of God is Let him listen to S. Paul Rom. 14. 17. The kingdom of God is not meat nor drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost But this will seem even nothing to him that hath not the Spirit of Righteousness Peace and Joy Wherefore saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 7. c. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory Which none of the princes of this world knew for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory But as it is written Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit For the Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man that is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit that is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God In a word therefore Beloved the Inheritance of the Children of God is the Spirit of God and all that it doth discover as the Sun is the lot and the inheritance of the Natural Eye and all visibles laid open by it in Nature And can any thing be wanting to them that are sharers in that Inheritance If I may call them sharers where every one is full possessour of the whole as the Sun is alike wholly in every eye Can our Souls be larger than the Life of God Or our Understanding not filled and satisfied by his all-knowing Spirit Can our Will wax restless or anxious where the Understanding finds out and feels the greatest good that any thing is capable of where the pure and undefiled Affection baths her silver plumes in eternal love and delight What is the Soul more than infinite that it should desire any Inheritance greater than God But it were now more seasonable to make some Vse to our selves from this Doctrine so infinitely plain or infinitely inexplainable First Who cannot hence condemn all Avarice Drunkenness Fleshly Lust Voluptuousness the bartering away this Glorious Inheritance of the Everlasting Kingdom of God for the Muck of this World choak'd with the Cares of this World undermining our Neighbours by false and treacherous practices over-reaching them in bargainings and cheating indeed our selves of Eternal LIfe by our own couzenages Instead of being filled with the Spirit to be full of base liquor drowning our Reason and Conscience and laying our selves open to the despight of the Devil and the shame of the World Chaffering away for a light momentany fit of Pleasure or some seducing wanton Lust the Inheritance of the good Spirit of God the sweet and comfortable Fellowship of the Holy Ghost the Joyes of Heaven the full Contentments and unspeakable Delights of that hidden Paradise that Garden of all sweetness and deliciousness Secondly The consideration of this future excellent state and glorious royal condition may afford much comfort to men of low degree and meaner fortune What though our Means be small our Calling base and dishonourable before men This time vvill certainly over and that quickly Though I be poor here a Servant and Bond-slave a Beggar Yet hereafter I shall be rich free noble a Prince a King an Emperour Then shall I be Lord not of a larger spot of Ground consisting of Dirt and Gravel and vvithering Grass and perishing Trees the sight of vvhich every nights sleep takes from me but of the boundless Heavens the everlasting Beauty of God vvhere vvith never-vvaking Eyes I shall alvvayes behold his excellent Glory This I say may comfort the poorer sort they being as capable if not more capable of this precious Inheritance than Lords and Princes of the Earth than Kings and Caesars than Dukes and Emperours Gal. 3. 26 c. For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Iew nor Greek there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female For ye are all one in Christ Iesus And if ye be Christs then are you Abrahams seed and heirs according to promise But Thirdly and Lastly Is it so indeed that there is prepared for men of all conditions of Life such a rich Inheritance Let then all men of what condition soever examine themselves and try what assurance they find in themselves in their own Souls of this future Happiness What then is the Sign That brings me to my Second Doctrine viz. II. That the heirs of the Kingdom must suffer So saith the Text Heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified with him Which Truth is manifest out of sundry places of Scripture I will name only two Acts 14. 22. We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God And Coloss. 1. 10 11 12. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light What Shall we think Beloved to obtain Heaven at a more easie rate than we purchase any Temporal Honour or Estate Multa tulit fecitque puer Those that are designed for some special piece of Earthly Preferment sweat and toil for it even from their very Childhood by industrious Education But we think to have Heaven for an old song as they say or for a lazily repeated Pater Noster for a word for an imagination for a phansie a thought an empty faith for nothing Who in the name of God told us so My Text contradicts it And Scripture will not contradict my Text because my Text is Scripture No verily It confirms it Be not deceived God is
to the Second requisite in our Beneficency which is the Vniversality thereof Gal. 6. 10. While we have time let us do good to all men especially to them of the houshold of faith Here 's no evasion out of this injunction If so be the Apostle had said Do good to all some cavilling Sophister would have said I to all Christians or to all true Professours As every Sect will be found to stile themselves so Thus this All is to be restricted But the Apostles command or rather the manner of it prevents all such self-seeking Sophistry Do good to all men whatsoever so far as they are capable though in the first place I could wish you to have a special tender care of them of the Holy Faith and upright Godly Life I but will Flesh and Blood reply to our Enemy Yes to our Enemy If a man find his enemy will he let him go This was that that amased Saul so mightily That David a Type of the Divine Love a Symbol of the very Life and Spirit of Christ that David whom he had sought to kill should let him escape when he was in his power It wrought so upon Sauls Spirit that it forced tears from his eyes and made his heart in his body like melting wax When David had made an end of expostulating with Saul about his unjust pursuit of him and had shewed how dear his Masters Life was in his sight Saul said Is this the voice of my son David And Saul lift up his voice and wept And said to David thou art more righteous than I For thou hast rendered me good and I have rendered thee evil 1 Sam. 24. I will only add the Apostles Exhortation Rom. 12. 26. If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink 3. And so I go on to the Third requisite which is the Qualification of the mind of the giver which consists chiefly in these two things 1. In chearfulness and willingness of mind 2. In an honest and humble simplicity of heart without any reference to the applause and approbation of men but in an unfeigned obedience unto God and tender heartedness toward his Neighbour 1. That Chearfulness S. Paul speaks of 2 Cor. 9. As every man wisheth in his heart so let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a chearful giver And Rom. 12. 8. He that sheweth mercy let him do it with chearfulness It should seem that in time past the Holy Saints of God distributed their Alms to men with such a loving and kind Spirit that they out of the abundance of their good affection added sweet and comfortable words to their Christian Bounty whence in the New Testament in the original Beneficency is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good-speaking blessing or well-wishing to the party to whom they do communicate And the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath the same notion which signifies both benediction and a gift 2. The Second qualification of mind is the Sincereness of communicating without respect to popular applause but merely out of love to God and our Neighbour Take heed that you give not your almes before men to be seen of men or else you shall have no reward of your father which is in heaven Not that it is unlavvful to give Alms in the sight of men but unlawful it is to give Alms in the sight of men of a purpose to be seen of them A man among other Gifts and Graces of God may let this light of Mercy shine also before men that they seeing his good works may glorifie his Father which is in Heaven I say with this proviso we may do our works in publick that it be not for our own proper ostentation but for the Glory of God HITHERTO I have declared To what persons we are to give what we are to give to these persons and after what manner we are to give I will now set down some Motives to stir us up to give our Beneficence to due Objects of our Beneficence 1. The First Motive may be drawn from the things themselves that we communicate For such is the nature of them that no man can assure himself the possession of them no not an hour Wilt thou cast thine eyes upon that which is nothing For riches taketh her to her wings as an eagle and flyeth into heaven Prov. 23. Here 's a double Argument to unty our hearts from that which Flesh and Blood so easily cleaveth to The most envious and nigardly man that is will be very well content to give nothing or to part with that which he conceives to be worth little or nothing And such is Riches in themselves unless made good use of for further happiness instead of being of our substance they are nothing if Solomons judgment be better than ours But grant they be something I and some great thing too and very desirable Yet it being so uncertain how long we shall enjoy them being they are so suddenly stone as an Eagle that in a moment gets upon her wing surely we would do wisely to follow our Saviours counsel Make you friends with the mammon of unrighteousness that when you fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations Luke 16. The Covetous man holds his Wealth so fast as if he was perswaded whensoever his Riches take their flight as an Eagle and mount to Heaven they will draw him up with them I but if he hold so fast how shall they fly Or if they get from him he holds not fast then and so is disappointed of his post But to let this pass and fall more seriously upon Instruction There 's no way of making Riches serviceable for our journey to Heaven but willingly to let them fly thither before us And that is by giving them to poor honest necessitous people to them that are as poor in Spirit as in Purse Thus may your Liberality happily arrive at Heaven For Heaven is where God is and God is there if any where In so much as you did it to any of these little ones you did it unto me as you heard before out of the 25th of S. Matthews Gospel He that gives unto these doth rather purchase than part with his Means He doth but remove his goods to another house whither he himself shall follow after a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2. And this is the Second Motive viz. The profit which doth accrue to us from our liberal distributions But if we be so sharp set that we cannot wait till that great payment That we have no excuse to hold our hands from doing good God hath promised even a Temporal Reward too Prov. 28. 27. He that giveth to the poor shall not lack And elsewhere in the Proverbs He that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord. And the borrower you know returns the same kind to the lender So we lending Temporal things to God God will return to us Temporal things here and
naturally from the Text and be most profitable for you to hear But God forbid That hath reference to the precedent Verse But they desire to have you circumcised that they might glory in your flesh Yet the Holy Apostle devoid of all ambition and emulation and of making an outward shovv among them contents himself vvith that vvhich is but the scorn of Worldly men nay glories in it and in it alone the Inward Cross the Mortification of the Old man the Circumcision of the Heart God forbid that I should glory in any thing c. See the exceeding deep humility of the Apostle a man endued vvith such excellent gifts from God so learned and vvell versed in the Lavv one acquainted vvith so Divine Revelations rapt up into the Third Heavens an Hebrew also an Israelite a Son of Abraham such an excellent Oratour as he approved himself before Felix before Festus before Agrippa and also at Lysta vvhere they took him to be the God of Eloquence Mercury himself and would have Sacrificed unto him so well versed in the Poets as his quotations out of Aratus and others testifie him to be But these are but trifles I mean Poetry and Oratory You may see him in the Acts casting out Devils healing the Sick making the Lame walk recovering the Dead to Life nay giving the Spirit of Life even the Holy Ghost and with it the power of Prophesie and speaking with Tongues Yet all these and many more the least whereof were able to puff up the vain mind of our ordinary Christians and swell them to an unusual extent stir not S. Paul above his wonted measure But he still continues himself a Paul i. e. little in his own eyes though the endowments God had bestowed on him were very great A true Disciple of Christ who taught his to be thus minded Learn of me for I am meek and lowly And methinks I hear the Apostle call to us out of this Text saying Be you followers of me as I am of Christ. But if a man propound the Example of the Apostles and Saints of God to some they look on them rather as Prodigies to gaze at than Examples to imitate and do usually with the rude Cyclops in Erasmus return this answer Paulus est Paulus Ego sum ego Paul had a privilege to be good my privilege is to be as bad as he was good But let Reason move thee if Example will not Why shouldst thou glory and in what Art thou Noble No more than the blood that runs out of thy Fathers Nose or that which is blown out of it unless thou be Vertuous Art thou well Apparel'd Yet a Lilly is better Art thou Fair It is but in thy superficies or surface of thy Body within is stinking dung and dirt Art thou Strong Yet weaker far than an ordinary Cart-horse Art thou Proper Yet not so tall as a Pine A goodly great-bodied man The whole Earth is but a Point why struttest thou then so proudly as if thou wouldst out-face Heaven Thou art a wise and subtil piece So is the Devil and a Serpent Thou art extolled and admired of men So is Vanity Beloved of women But their own Lust and Lasciviousness a great deal more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All whatsoever thou boastest thy self in is but ludicrous and ridiculous contemptible dust and less than dust even nothing Why then dost thou glory in any thing God forbid that I should glory in any thing save in the cross What a Paradox is this More strange than not to boast at all For not to boast there being nothing worthy boasting of is but reasonable But to boast of that which is a shame and reproach among all men is uncouth and strangely admirable Crux crux inquam infaelici miseris The Cross was but the fate and doom of Thieves and Malefactors and as little glorious as the deserts that bring to it But it may be it was some fine Silver or Golden Crucifix A pretty toy for Children to glory in What was it The Cross of our Lord Iesus Christ Yet it is but a stumbling-block to the Iews and to the Greeks foolishness I but it is the Cross of Christ Whereby the World is crucified to him and he unto the World This is worse and worse a scandal also to the Christians themselves Sufficient for them it is that Christ bore his own Cross and the Cross bore him It was fitter one man should dye for the people What that we may securely live in sin God forbid He that will be my disciple let him take up his cross and follow me saith our blessed Saviour The death therefore of the Cross belongs to us as well as to him though we would fain avoid it This is true then truer than we would have it that a right Christian whose Pattern S. Paul is must be crucified to the World and the World to him be dead unto the World and the World dead to him But what is the World and what to be dead to it S. Iohn in his 1 Ep. Chap. 2. describes it from its parts Ver. 15 16. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world These then ought we to be dead to viz. The lust of the flesh i. e. all carnal concupiscence and unlawful desires of the Body all gluttony drunkenness and leachery To the lust of the eyes i. e. all covetousness and filthy avariciousness desiring to encroach and compass all that we see and pleasing our selves with looking upon what we have got already but making no good use of it to the glory of God or good of our Neighbour To the pride of life i.e. ambition stately and lordly living the praise and applause of men superiority and authority over others All these things we are to be dead to by the inward Cross by an holy and serious mortification of our corrupt Life But how shall a man be able to mortifie this corruption to kill these inordinate desires I will tell you an infallible way upon condition you will remember it By a constant denial of their Cravings Give a Beggar nothing at thy door and he will never visit thee Desire is starved by being unfulfill'd A man you know often loseth his appetite by staying very long for his Dinner Inordinate desire will hurt a man like an Ague if we pamper or satisfie it The Devil and the Sop will both down into our guts at once But thou mayst pine out both Desire and the Devil that lurks in it by a pertinacious Temperance or stopping thy self in thy outward actions Affect not vain glory in thy actions or words but modestly decline it and Pride will fall in thy Soul in good time thou shalt find Humility rise
this Resurrection of the Soul is I will also endeavour to satisfie you in that too but very briefly It is the inward Life of Righteousness it is the renewing of the Soul the shaping of it again into the image and similitude of God in a word it is the Life or Spirit of Christ whereby a mans Soul is alive to all Spiritual and Heavenly things I will explain it by a comparison When a mans Natural Life is gone all his imaginations and machinations perish He desires not any thing belonging to this Natural Life nor Food nor Clothing he feels not though his Body be rent or cut or rot away goes not about to preserve or recover the Health or Life of his dead Body thinks not of Wife nor Children nor any Natural thing else But when a man is alive according to Nature he desires Food Meat and Drink for the preservation of his Natural Life Cloths both for shelter and ornament is sensible of what hurts his living Body provides for his Health and Strength is active in the deeds of Nature and if he be a mere Natural man all his joy pleasure and content is in the same Just thus it is Beloved in the Death and Life of the Soul While the Soul is dead Spiritually it hath no true desire to the Word of God which is the Food of the Soul but doth come to the Church only for fashion sake gives no ear to the Voice of God rebuking her in her Conscience hath no unfeigned thirst after Righteousness nor is she sensible of the violent heat of Passion how wicked it is nor feels her self frozen and stark cold to all Charity and due Devotion she goes not about to obtain that saving Health even Jesus Christ that precious Balsam of the Soul nor is she a whit moved whatever mischief betides him But when the Soul hath risen from this Death and hath got the new Life of Christ being enquickened by his Spirit Then hath she a right healthful appeal to that Heavenly Bread and those Spiritual Waters those Refreshments from above the sweet Comforts of the Holy Ghost Then doth she heartily abhor all filth of Sin and keeps her Affections unspotted before her Lord and Husband Jesus Christ clothed in fine Linnen pure and white which is the Righteousness of the Saints Then is the living Law of God to her sweeter than the Honey and the Honey-comb so delightful and pleasant that she meditates thereon day and night She is very sensible of whatsoever is disgraceful to Christ or wounds or hurts his precious Body in any thing very tenderly loves the Communion of Saints and hath a very forward desire to propagate and enlarge the true and living Church of God She never falls by any infirmity or surprisal but is grieved and hurt as the Natural man is vexed when his Body chanceth to fall upon stones and is bruised Beloved where there is Life there is also Sense and where there in Sense there is also Grief and Joy Grief at such things as are contrary or destructive of the Life and Joy at such things as are agreeable and healthful for the same BY this time I hope you are sufficiently instructed concerning the Spiritual Resurrection both that it is and what it is Let us now make some Vses of this Doctrine That there is a Spiritual Resurrection belonging to every true Christian. 1. Then it is plain from hence That every Christian be he what he will that hath been made partaker of this Resurrection was once dead himself For as rising presupposeth a being down first so doth also a rising from death or being quickened presuppose a being dead Hence therefore it is plain That every Christian man or if you will even every man or was once or is at this present Spiritually dead Now the Nature of Death you know is such that nothing that is held therewith nothing that is Dead can recover it self to Life As it is also said in the Book of Psalms No man hath quickened his own Soul Wherefore Beloved this is the proper Vse we can make of this Consideration That if we find the fruits of the Resurrection of Christ Spiritually in our Souls we give God alone the Glory For it is he alone that killeth and maketh alive that leadeth down to Hell and bringeth up again He it is that is the death of deaths and a mighty destruction to the destroyer He it is that is the Resurrection and the Life as he himself witnesseth of himself He it is I mean the Spirit of Christ in us that fights against all the powers of Death and Darkness in our Souls and triumpheth gloriously over his and our enemies He is the strong arm of Salvation from God He hath wrought all our works in us Therefore not to us but unto God be the praise for his mercy and truths sake Nor only are we to praise God but also to live humbly and meekly before our Neighbour For thou whoever thou art that presumest thou hast attained to the Resurrection or enquickening or enlivening of the Spirit of Christ If hereby thou contemnest thy sinful Brother and settest him at nought and art not mercifully and kindly affected toward all men acknowledging very sensibly and inwardly that wherewith thou conceivest thy self to excel others or to be distinguished from them to be the Grace of God and his free work Thou art a lyar and a deceiver and jugglest with God and thine own Soul and art vainly puffed up in thy Carnal Mind For where Pride is there is not the saving Spirit of Christ where harshness of Mind is and contempt of our Neighbour there abides not the Love of God 2. If men be dead till they partake of the Resurrection of Christ then such neither can nor ought to take upon them any office of the living Who will make a Blind man judge of Colours or a Sick man of Tasts or a Deaf man of Musick But he that is Dead is worse than Sick or Blind or Deaf Wherefore no man that is devoid of the Resurrectiod of Christ in the Spirit is fit to judge in Spiritual things or in the secret Mysteries of God It is the Spiritual man that judgeth all the Heavenly man the Lord from Heaven and yet with man upon Earth the true Emanuel God with us and in us by his Spirit the true Judge of the Quick and the Dead As it is written The first man is of the earth earthly the second man is the Lord from heaven As is the earthly such are they that are earthly and as is the heavenly such are they that are heavenly Wherefore Beloved judge nothing before the time that is till the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus till his glorious appearing from Heaven when he shall make every work of man manifest and shall judge with right judgment 3. I will only add an Vse of Examination and so conclude Is there such a State of the Soul belonging to every