unto a worm thou art my father and unto rottenness thou art my mother Thus you see what we are food for worms but let us take heed we meet not with another worm and that 's the worm of Conscience it is no matter though other worms eat us Though I be meat for worms saith Job yet I know that my Redeemer lives and that I shall see him with these eyes c. But the worm of Conscience shall never die the fire of Hell shall never go out And if your bodies be vile of themselves make them not viler The Drunkard he makes himself a swine and the Glutton he makes it an hoggeshead the adulterer makes his body the member of an harlot yet with a good Conscience though this be our misery that they are vile bodies yet this shall be our happiness that they shall be made like unto his glorious body And there are four special indowments or privileges of a glorious body Impassibility Activity Spirituality and Clarity First Impassibility we shall be past suffering at the last day sentire est pati even to feel is to suffer now and in every action there is a passion but it shall not be so hereafter when our bodies shall be changed then there shall be no sorrow no fainting no crying Farewel Gout and Stone and Strangury and all if I shall be brought to happiness I shall be brought to safety Secondly there is Activity here our bodies are dull and slow these Asses of ours must be beaten and spurr'd and whipt to do any good our spirit may be willing when our flesh is weak It shall not be so hereafter we shall be vigorous and active and lively and these our bodies which are now so dull shall be then lively and go on with cheerfulnesse And thirdly it is a spiritual body corpus spirituale a spiritual body but not a spirit it shall be spiritual but not a spirit Fourthly it shall be a clear body a clarified body that 's the fourth prerogative of a glorified body Daniel 12.1 The righteous shall shine like the stars in the Firmament and those that convert many to righteousness like the Sun for ever and ever nay more then this our Saviour goes farther they shall shine sicut Sol in potestate like the Sun in its strength yet farther here in the Text our bodies shall be like unto his glorious body What sayest thou Paul faith Saint Chrysostome to Saint Paul here Dost thou know what thou sayest What like unto Christs glorious body That body that sits at Gods right hand that body that is worshipped by Angels Yes like unto his glorious body Let me then look for the saving of my soul Let the world weep for what they please I will weep more for the losse of my body and soul I wonder saith Saint Chrysostome That men should give away their souls throw them away upon trifles to disrobe themselves of this transcendent glory to lose such a glory as this is to be made like unto the glorious body of our Saviour Wilt thou cast away this soul what a madnesse is it of thee Many men do compare the pain of losse with the pain of sence which the damned have in Hell and do think the pain of losse to be worse then the pain of sence To lose the sight of my Saviour to lose this glory that I should have arrived at this sticks more at me then all the pains of Hell could do so I may enjoy my God O Lord whatever thou takest from me take not from me this glory this eternal glory Lord here cut me and slay me do what thou wilt with me onely save my soul There are many losses in this world of husbands of children of goods by unfaithful servants by fire by irreligious and prodigal children but these are not to be named when we speak of the losse of Heaven And therefore to conclude this point I lose my father my mother my husband my wise my children but from this this losse this eternal losse of the soul good Lord deliver us And thus much the fourth Preacher He was also even in Heaven while he was on earth as his Text speaks Our conversation is in Heaven and if ever there were a lively Commentary upon the Text his Preaching was the Commentary it self he was an example next to the example of Saint Paul while he preached he spake as if he had been in Heaven And thus have I run this race done this task laid upon me with my small abilities I hope you will not lay unto my charge the slips the infirmities which have passed from me The three last they were old Disciples of Christ they made among them two hundred and thirty or two hundred and forty years Christ doth love old Disciples and he loves young ones he loves old Disciples because they hold out so long and he loves young Disciples because they begin so soon Juniores Discipulos Christus diligit c. Christ loved his young Disciples best because they began early he loves his old Disciples because they cleave closely unto him But the Tyrant time requires another discourse of me but I must tell you before hand that it will be but as a dinner of herbs after a Feast of fat things Take it as it is You have heard of the death of our Saviour in the first of the resurrection of our Saviour and of his manner of rising in the second you have heard of the mercy of God in the forgivenesse of sin propounded to all that serve him in an heavenly conversation in the third and of our body by an heavenly conversation transformed to be like unto his glorious body in the fourth These are rare mysteries and when we have said all we can we must break off with silence with amazement and stupefaction These are deep mysteries we are not able to sound them with our corrupt judgement Great is the mystery of Godliness God manifest in the flesh seen of Angels c. We are not able to conceive of him we cannot expresse him and therefore I think it will cohere with the matter in hand to display before your eyes the profoundnesse of these mysteries which we may see in 1 Cor. 13.9 A Sermon Preached by Master Price at S. Paul's Church on Low-Sunday May 2. 1641. 1 CORINTHIANS 13.9 For we know but in part and we prophecie but in part AS the eleventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews may be called the Triumph of Faith so this Chapter may be well stiled the Triumph of Love Which triumphant grace besides that it is invested with admirable qualities and seconded by glorious effects and besides that it bears away the bell from the knowledge of the brain from the prophecie of the tongue the eloquence of that little member the munificence of the hand and the Martyrdome of the whole body All which we find spoken of in this Chapter Without love what is faith but fancie what is
in the womb he was accounted by his supposed father to be but a bastard in his Cradle cruelly dealt withal exiled banished into Egypt tumbled and tossed up and down tempted in the wildernesse by the Devil In all places in the Temple in the Pharisees house in the City in the Countrey in the wildernesse within and without abused by all sorts of men the Scribes and Pharisees the high Priests and Rulers and by the multitude of people he did suffer in every action Did he preach where had he his learning Did he eat and drink a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber Did he keep company a friend of Publicans and sinners Did he cast out Devils 't was censured to be by Belzebub the Prince of the Devils In his life in his death in all things and in his sufferings two things are remarkable First that he suffered alone he trod the wine-presse alone he suffered solus Secondly he suffered totus he suffered for his Preaching for his works of mercy that for which he should have been applauded The Disciple that before hugg'd his Master and lay in his arms now for haste left his shirt behinde him he ran so hard that he left his linnen garment Thomas that before would dye with Lazarus he is now gone The sons of Zebedee that forsooth could drink of the cup that he drank of they were far enough off not onely his friends on earth but his best friend in Heaven he suffered a terrible withdrawing of his countenance he sees him not as he was wont to be in his glorious Majesty yet still he cryes Deus meus My God his best friends on earth fled and his best friend in Heaven hid his face from him he suffered totus his head buffetted his face spitted on his hands nailed and his feet bored his side pierced his glorious temples crowned with thorns he led Captivity captive to whom we pray Lord enter not into Captivity with thy servant he to whom the Saints cry Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts he to whom the blessed Spirits sing Hallelujahs to him that sits on the Throne upon him they cryed All Hail King of the Jews he that lashed the Nations with a rod of Iron to have his back beaten with a whip he suffered in all his outward senses What tastes he What sees he What hears he What smells he What feels he In all his faculties and members in his understanding the whole wrath of God in his memory what he was and what he had been in his judgment what strugling and irresolution Let this Cup passe and let it not passe he will have his will and he will not have his will he was astonished affrighted perplexed in an agony such an agony wherein he sweat drops of bloud of the reproches done to him if we consider ubi where He suffered at Jerusalem the stage of the world and where he did display all his works of mercy Quando at what time at the time of the Passeover at the concourse of most people that he might be a scorn to all and cum quibus with two thieves and between them both as the worst of the three and per quos by whom this was done by his own Countreymen those for whom this was done so gracelesse not so much as thanking him for what he did when he was at his last gasp upon the Cross beneath beneath him the Devil gaping for him on the one side a thief reviling him on the other none but a thief Hell wide open under him his friends flying from him round about him what sees he the earth trembling and quaking the rocks rending in pieces the mountains leaping the air thundering the clouds pouring down the Heavens as it were burning with lightning the Sun hiding his face as ashamed to see his Master so used at their hands for whom he thus suffered What hears he those that did it crying His bloud be upon us and our children and if there be any evil in us not to save us but to damn us when an Angel durst not shew his head or so much as peep out of Heaven upon him A preservation wrought by such a Saviour to free us from such a condition and bring us to such a condition by such a means he suffered both in body and soul I think I need not say more of it doth not this deserve to be prized as a great mercy But because the keeping of a Good Friday doth not consist so much by the making of a Tragical relation of his sufferings as it doth in something else this is not all that is to be done 'T is true our presenting him to your eyes is no more then needs but we must praise the Lord for his wondrous works Can we with the Israelites look up to this Brasen Serpent that it may cure our souls Here is an object of love of fear of joy of grief of affection and what not There is something of the solemnity lies in this to consider what God hath done for our souls I gave you a taste at the beginning how that Job after his sin comes home to the Preserver of men So this points us to the duty of the day and that is to make use of Christs sufferings and considering that Job in the midst of all his sufferings had his eye to the Preserver of men he deplored his sins and cast his eyes upon him I finde the holy Ghost more then once mentioning the duty of the day they shall look upon him whom they have pierced Zach. 12. and looking to the Author and Finisher of their faith Hebr. 12. looking with such eyes upon him as the lame man in the Gospel upon Paul and Barnabas to have some good from him Looking upon him as a Preserver as those Israelites did upon the Brasen Serpent to cure them not to wink with our eyes let no man think the work of a Good Friday to see him with our bodily eyes as the Papists in the sight of the Crucifix but the eyes we are to make use of are the eyes of our souls the beholding of Christ crucified in our thoughts Take him into your hearts and souls and there preserve him let him challenge a mansion room in thee thy whole heart Christ is to be made the sole object of this day if you celebrate his crucifying aright What kind of object Christ ought to be I will deliver in few words Our Saviour doth present himself as an object of the eye to behold him as an object of the ear as an object of trouble as an object of joy as an object of hope if upon our sin then he is an object of wonder an object of fear The motive of Christs sufferings it was his love the merit of Christs sufferings procures us pardon and the end of Christs sufferings was our salvation Give me leave to point my finger at each of these and that in a familiar way without danger of puzling our selves He
reference in the eighteenth and nineteenth verses There were many false Apostles whose glory was their shame and minded earthly things but there was a distinction between true and false Apostles But our conversation is in Heaven whereever the conversation of false Apostles is Take it which way you will by way of a motive or a distinction it is not so much for us to know what Saint Paul did but what we ought to do what we should do There are four things considerable in the Text First that the Christians conversation it is in Heaven Secondly his expectation he looks for our Lord and Saviour there Thirdly his happinesse who shall change our vile bodies and make them like unto his glorious body Fourthly the ground of this hope and confidence according to that mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things Having taken his rise from the first of these the Christians conversation But our conversation is in Heaven The word Conversation is in the Old Testament every where up and down For Conversation the word here used is Politeuma and it is a word that concerns those that live in Cities So Greg. Nazianzen Beza and Tertullian do interpret it Tertullian saith But our Burgessship is in Heaven and so Beza We are Burgesses or freemen of Heaven But Beza and the rest they have faln short of this Politeuma It signifies more then a Burgessship or freedome but they are Citizens you make many free that are far from you you account them onely Citizens that inhabit among you Saint Paul did excusâ— himself from rods by saying he was a Roman but yet he was born at Tarsus he was free there but yet he was not a true Citizen there So there is a medium between these two So Anaxagoras when it was laid to his charge that he followed his study so much that he did not care for his Countrey no saith he but I do and pointing up his finger said that Heaven was his Countrey I care for that So saith David I am a stranger he was not onely a stranger when he was in Philistia with the King of Gath but in this earth as all my fathers were When I am at home I am not at home though I am in my Countrey yet I am not in my own Countrey For our conversation is in Heaven Heaven it is the Haven of the Saints God hath prepared Heaven for them and them for Heaven There are two Cities whereof Saint Paul speaks the one he calls Heaven the other Earth the one Jerusalem the other Babylon Let every man consider to which City he belongs for all of us belong either to Babylon or Jerusalem either above or below Monicha the mother of Saint Austin when she saw her son converted cryes out Nescio quid faciam c. 'T is true the time was that I desired some length of time to see thee become a good Christian but now I see that performed what if I dye if I dye now I see my son a true Orthodox Christian and a right honest man she cared for no more But if you will ask the Church of Rome especially the more Ancient or some others before the Church of Rome came into the world they will say an Hermites life is that which is the most Heavenly As Paul the Hermite prefers a Monastical life as if Saint Paul had said In Cellis and not In Celsis in Caves and not in Heaven But that life though it keeps them from a great deal of evil so it hinders them from doing a great deal of good a contemplative life it may be a blear-eyed life A contemplative life were good if God had no other businesse for us in this world but to leave our parents and friends our professions and callings and to run into Cells this is not the right conversation We may use the world but not love it saith Saint Paul use the world but not abuse it by riot gluttony surfets excesse which is a fighting with God with his own weapons if you love the world you do abuse the world But now let us consider our selves what we are There are many in the world that have nothing to do in the world but to care for the world They are of the earth earthly as Saint Paul speaks that think of the earth talk of the earth and do nothing but trade in the earth So that silver and gold may flow in they desire no more they see nothing sufficient but that To whom shall I liken this generation to Bees and to Ants. The Ants they are a Nation a wise Nation as Solomon calls them though not a strong there is an Aristocracy among them But now there are the Bees and they have a Monarchy and they are busie too So also men are wise in their generation this way they remember that Summer will not alwayes last but that Winter will come that health will not last alwayes but sicknesse will come But Oh who looks for their souls who provides that when Earth forsakes them Heaven may finde them I will give you the character of those whose conversations are in Heaven to characterise them We use to say of a man that 's dead he is a man of another world and so true Christians they are men of another world 'T is true you finde them here but they are here and not here while they are below they are above They do not slight the favors of God in the world but they do not use them as though they loved them They do not hate the world nor do they fear the frown of the world A good Christian takes care to shift himself out of the world with faith and a good Conscience with the peace of God 'T is true he is imparted in worldly things but he hath an heavenly minde He never ventures upon any worldly businesse but his thoughts and his heart are lifted up in the midst of his worldly businesse with many ejaculations and short prayers When things fall 〈◊〉 â—ccording to his expectation he sings Hallelujah's and Hosanna's when things fall out crosly he looks for better dayes to come he hath sorrow here but joyes hereafter He will lighten himself in any storm by casting his estate away one thing one way and another thing another way so he may come safe to Heaven His eyes are upon that Celestial place where the Angels are and the spirits of just men made perfect and where the body is to which the Eagles do resort and they look for our Saviour Christ from thence and that leads me from the first part which is the Christians conversation unto the second the Christians expectation From whence we look for our Lord c. And herein there are three particulars considerable First the person expected our Lord and Saviour Secondly the place from whence he is expected from Heaven And thirdly the act it self Expectation First the person expected our Lord and Saviour Jesus and Christ both answer
one another the two latter are but explicable to the former not to hold you long upon these beginnings of Divinity although they are profitable First he is our Jesus our Saviour Our Saviour saith Tully what word 's that reading it in an Inscription over a door in Syracuse What mean the words Non possunt exprimi it cannot be expressed with one word Will you say it is Servator or Salvator it is a made word Tertullian in his African Language will call it Salutifica but this comes from the former Well but saith Saint Austin he is a Saviour which is a Saviour and will be a Saviour He came at the first to save our bodies from sin he shall come to save our souls and he shall come from Heaven This is the name by which we must look to be saved and there is no other name under Heaven He is a Lord also as well as a Jesus Lord is a name of honour and a name of power A name of honour and therefore given unto Kings unto Priests unto Prophets and unto great men Unto Kings My Lord the King every where used Unto Priests so Hannah unto Eli. To the Prophets so to Elisha To great men so to Naaman the Syrian My Lord if the Prophet c. And therefore Christ being a greater King then David a greater Priest then Eli a greater Prophet then Elisha doth well deserve this title of Lord. And secondly in regard of power there is in Christ a double power there is potestas innata and potestas data a power innate and a power given And he is sometimes called the Lord with addition the Lord of the world the Lord of his Church sometimes he is called the Lord by way of Appropriation My Lord 〈◊〉 my God saith Thomas The Lord said unto my Lord saith David Sometimes in a way of Foundation My Lord the King but what 's the Lord without his honour If Christ be a Lord then in the first place let us honour him If I be a Lord where is my fear Secondly let us obey him To give him the name and to deny obedience it were to mock him Thirdly submit to his Law in all things whatsoever It is the Lord saith Eli let him do what seemeth good in his own eyes Fourthly you must part with any thing for this God They let loose the Foal and the Asse because the Lord hath need of them It is the Lords wherefore wilt thou keep it from him Fifthly take heed of giving thy self over to any lust to be Lord Pride would be Lord as Tertullian saith Idlenesse would be my Lord Vain-glâ—â—â— would be my Lord but thou onely shalt be my Lord. Sixthly we must not use our own means we cannot say our tongues are our own our hands are our own we have a Lord over them and us You that are Lords on earth have a Lord in Heaven You that are Kings on earth have a King in Heaven And lastly we must expect this Lord we must look for him And so I come from the first particular of this general the person expected to the second the place from whence he is expected and that 's from Heaven But our conversation is in the Heavens Out of which Heavens we must expect our Saviour it is a dissonant in the expression and it is but a circumstance but we must pause upon it Heaven is the place from whence we expect Christ When Christ is in Heaven he cannot be on earth Christ is not upon the earth bodily as the Papists would have him but he is now in Heaven and the Heavens must contain him till the time of the restitution of all things 'T is true Christ is here by his protecting power by his Word and by his Love and by his Spirit he walks amidst the golden Candlesticks I am he you know the Text saith but not in a bodily way he hath not lost the essential property of his Godhead he is in all places in heavenly things he hath called us together to sit down with him not onely in hope we are in Heaven even while we are on earth Securi estis c. saith Tertullian Oh my flesh and spirit be you secure Christ is gone to prepare Heaven for you he is gone he hath left us the pledge of his Spirit that he will come to us and he hath taken with him the pledge of our flesh to assure us that we shall come to him What would we have more What better rock can we rest upon then this our Saviour is in Heaven There 's a double expectation of our Saviour Christ First his first coming was expected Oh that thou wouldst rend the Heavens and come down Esa 66. He is called the desire of the Nations Heb. 2. The hope of the people of God We see how Hannah the Prophetesse and the rest did wait for the coming of Christ and there 's another expectation and that 's of the second coming of Christ And thus we must expect our Saviour but how after what manner There are many conditions we must expect him in We must first look for him with faith and with assurance that he that shall come will come and will not tarry he will come in his own time but we must wait for him Secondly we must wait for his coming with the love of his coming There are many accused as Malefactors that look for the Judge to come to absolve them and to deliver them out of prison Others to condemn them one looks with an hateful and an angry eye the other with a loving expecting and a longing eye So the Saints of Christ they wait and long for his coming they are sick of love and desire to be united to him not with remisse affections but with ardent love intensively and yet patiently expecting him To him that believes he will make haste to come and sup with him Even so Come Lord Jesus And then lastly we must look for this coming of our Saviour with care and with Conscience 1 Pet. 3.11 We look for a new Heaven and a new Earth according to his promise Consider therefore what manner of persons we ought to be if we look for the Resurrection for Christs coming in all holinesse The word in the Original is in all holinesses There are many have forms of godlines but they deny the power of it Oh the swearing the lying the Sabbath-breaking the murdering the abuse and injuring one of another doth this fit us for the coming of Christ with what tongues can we say Come Lord Jesus when we live so basely and entertain such horrid crimes we must be carefull as well as expecting Christians we must live in heaven and therefore expect our Saviour thence that he may change our vile bodies to be like unto his glorious body when he shall come in glory The very creatures groan for the coming of Christ the very creatures desire a dissolution and much more Christians It is to put forth the
The Great Work of Redemption Deliver'd in Five SERMONS At St. Paul's and at the Spittle Aprill 1641. I. On the Passion of our Saviour By Dr. Soames Vicar of Staynes II. On our Saviours Resurrection By Dr. Morton Bishop of Durham III. An Appeal to Gods Mercy By Dr. Potter Bishop of Carlile IV. The Expectation of a Christian By Dr. Westfield Bishop of Bristol V. The Imperfection of a Christian in this Life By W. Price B. D. London Printed for J. Playford and are sold at his Shop in the Temple neer the Church door 1660. The Texts of the following Sermons First a Sermon on the Passion Job chap. 7. vers 20. I have sinned What shall I do unto thee O thou Preserver of men Second a Sermon on the Resurrection St. Matt. chap. 28. vers 6. He is not here for he is risen Third Sermon An Appeal to Gods mercy Psal 130. vers 4. But there is mercy with thee that thou mayst be feared Fourth Sermon The Expectation of a Christian Philip. chap. 3. vers 20 21. But our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who shall change c. Fifth Sermon The Imperfect state of a Christian here 1 Cor. chap. 13. vers 9. For we know but in part and we prophesie but in part To the READER Christian Reader ALthough we should love the Ministers for the word yet sometimes yea very often men are occasioned to love the Word by the Worth of the Ministers that Deliver it a cracked Bell is not good to Call men together nor Ministers of cracked and blemished Reputations fit Instruments to perswade others to Holiness and therefore it is that the Names of these Reverend and Eminent Divines who spake and wrote these following Sermons are prefixt in the Title Page that the Honour and unblemished Reputation they have in the Churches of Christ and amongst all sincere and pious Christians may the more commend them to thee Thou hast Good Reader here unfolded and opened the Great and Glorious Mysteries of thy Salvation then which there is nothing more pleasant and comfortable more animating and enabling more ravishing and soul contenting to a true Christian then the frequent and most serious Meditation Thou hast here the Passion Resurrection and the Glorious Expectation of a Christian enlightned to thee by Stars in the Right hand of Christ of the First Magnitude Oh! that the Light held forth in the Ignominious and painfull Sufferings of thy Saviour may give thee a true sight and sense of thy sins and the greatness of them which nothing could expiate but the Pretious Blood of the Immaculate Lamb of God and that with a Broken and Contrite heart thou mayst cry out with Holy Job I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou Preserver of men Oh! that the Light also held forth in the Glorious Resurrection of Christ which is Arrham Resurrectionis nostrae which is the Earnest of our Resurrection may sustain and support thy spirits in these evill and last dayes knowing that this Body of thine now chiefly subject to many miseries and calamities through the Iniquity of the Times it may be to be cast into some loathsome Prison or put to a shamefull death yet this same Body of thine shall Rise and that by a lively faith thou mayst say with Job Job 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth and that though wormes destroy this Body of mine yet in this Flesh I shall see God with these mine Eyes and not other though my Reins be consumed within me yea thy hope and expectation shall not be cut off but all those afflictions which it pleaseth thy good God to permit Sathan or his Instruments to exercise thee with shall not be like idle Indifferents which do neither good nor harme but they shall all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 work together for the Glory of God and the Dear Salvation of thy pretious Soul be perswaded therefore seriously to peruse these Sermons and the God of all Grace and Consolation sanctifie the Reading them to thee The Introduction made by Master Price before his Rehearsal of the Subsequent Sermons in Saint Pauls Church May 2. 1641. IT was a Constitution of those admired sons of Justice the Areopagi that such as pleaded before them should plead without Prefacing and without passion But I must crave your gracious pardon if at this time I transgresse beyond those bounds For I made account to have been so happy as to have been an Auditor but it fals out to be my unhappy lot now to be a Speaker The Speaker appointed for this dayes work being the prisoner of God upon his bed of sickness His place my great weakness is forced to undertake and therefore rolling my self upon the Almighty Providence of God I must indevour to go through this difficult travel more fit for an Angel crowned and invested with eternity then a mortal man and I am confident that my first summons to this work was since the preaching of the Passion Sermon in this place and therefore I hope you will not expect from me that curiosity of Introduction elegancy of expression volubility of tongue or exquisitenesse and readiness in delivery as otherwise you might A review of remarkable words or actions it is as ancient as it is profitable When God had done with the first dayes work he repeats it the second day What is the Book of Deuteronomy but the Law the second time repeated What are the Books of the Chronicles but a recapitulation of the Books of the Kings What is the New Testament but an open explication of that which is closely comprehended in the Old It was the request of the Jews when they heard Saint Paul preach of the Resurrection and the Resurrection is the chiefest Argument of the Sermons I am now to rehearse that they might hear it again the next Lords day Phil. 3.1 Repetition is like unto the third and last concoction that turns the meat into wholesome and nourishing sustenance In a word Repetition is a recollection so that I am to make a recollection of these Sermons whereof I may say as it is recorded of the men of Gibeath of Benjamin that they were such good Archers that they could shoot at an hairs breadth Such were these men in their several transcendent expressions though their Sermons were long I cannot say they were tedious many are brief and tedious but these were long and not tedious As Plinius secundus saith of Cicero his longest Orations were accounted the best They were not like Simon Magus expert in Sorcery but like Simon Peter faithful Shepherds They delivered not any Socinian or Pelagian doctrine in all their discourses their Bells were like the Bells of Aaron and so they did sound in our ears and for the manner of the setting forth of those discourses they were not affectatious of them they studied rather for Divinity then Rhetorick for sanantia rather then sonantia verba
suffered on the Crosse to make good our comforts he was bound to purchase our freedome And here first of all the work of the day doth challenge at our hands matter of admiration it is a duty the Heavens are called upon upon a lesse occasion Hear O ye Heavens and be astonished O earth Who is there that hath any thing of Heaven in him let him obstupescere he amazed and wonder it is a wonder in all the particulars of it First to wonder at the hainousness of that sin the nature of which was such that it could no otherwise be expiated but thus That which threw Adam out of Paradise the Angels out of Heaven Saul from his Kingdome that at this day pulls down Families and Nations and Kingdomes that makes some Nations an hissing and reproch to others pray God it doth not serve us so That which doth tumble a Kingdome into the dust pray God it do not serve us so It made the Son of God to bleed and to cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Which of us in the strongest temptation to any sin that is remembring the price of it could chuse but be intreated to hold his hand Consider in the strongest temptation to any sin it was the price of my Saviours bloud And secondly this serves for matter of gratulation to be thankful for Christs love that he would thus suffer and that we despair not though we find it not in our Ware-houses in our Closets in our Chambers in our Chests in our Cupboards or the like outward things Potiphar looks upon Joseph and sees all things thrive under him and therefore he loves him so Laban for the same reason loves Jacob But here is Gods love that he gave himself for us that 's the second A third Instruction is for admiration of that obligation God hath cast upon thee He that could have gloryed in thy destruction that he should glory in thy salvation what canst thou do but rejoyce But to wonder is nothing if we go no farther Therefore in the fourth place here is matter of thanksgiving which is a duty for every Ordinance Every ordinary blessing it calls for a Trophee a Pillar an Altar a Song a Sacrifice a Chronicle so did David Moses and other servants of God What thanks doth he expect for this dayes deliverance If among the Heathen he that delivers his Countrey from any potent enemies had such applauses and acclamations mille annos vivat he that slew a thousand of our enemies may he live a thousand years may his name be precious a thousand years How can we pour out our hearts before God without giving thanks for this dayes deliverance Neither is admiration or gratulation sufficient unlesse we blesse our selves in this day in the apprehension of him that was this Preserver with reference to our sins the bloud of Christ hath a vertue to bind up the bleeding soul and to make the bones that were broken to rejoice Is not this a matter of admiration gratulation and consolation therefore in the fear of God these are the thoughts that belong to this day let your contemplations be upon what he did these contemplations would preserve us from the sense of temporal calamities When Jacob saw the Ladders and the Angels ascending and descending he said Haec est porta coeli this is the gate of Heaven The gate of Heaven It is well saith one that Heaven hath a gate it is well for Gods children that there is a Preserver that their hopes are above with him whose care is to preserve things perishing here below among so many destructions from those that cry to our Jerusalem Down with it down with it even to the ground There is one above who is the Preserver who doth never keep back his mercy but when things look most desperately upon earth when the enemies hope to take them at a disadvantage and to fall upon them when there is none to deliver them then if we call upon him with David saying Remember the dayes of old and thy great mercies unto me then it is for our comfort that after a time God will have mercy upon us When the night is at the darkest the day is neerest at hand When the throws of a woman in travel are the greatest her deliverance is neerest When Moses saw the children of Israel in the greatest danger Now stand saith he and see the glory of the Lord the enemy that now threatens you shall see him no more The earth mourned Lebanon was ashamed Bashan and Carmel have all lost their fruit now will I exalt my self As if he should say mans misery that 's my opportunity When things are at the worst with Gods children and his Church then will he shew himself a Preserver The comfort of Christs Crosse that 's comfort to a soul wounded with misery Is there any of you here this day that is at his Golgotha with his strong cryes to God in the sight of his sins and the terrors of Gods wrath at the sight of Gods justice Are any such here then behold consolation that his bloud this day shed if thou dost but conceive it if there be but a true apprehension in thee that that bloud was shed for thee 't is enough for thy salvation that thy price is paid for thee by his death on the Crosse when his arms were extended both wayes as well to the thief that despised as to the good thief and in that prayer he put up upon the Crosse for the worst of his enemies for them that nailed him the worst of men Father forgive them for they know not what they do Those that nail me that crucifie me even for them I pray It is very probable that when the good thief saw Christs mercy extend so far to the worst of men he reasons thus with himself What! is there mercy for these why not for me Though a thief yet not such a wretch as these are thus to crucifie my Saviour Lord remember me when thou comest into Paradise and remember in that prayer of Christ there is forgivenesse for thee and in those arms stretched out there is a receptacle for thee in that bloud that came out of his wounds there is cure for thee rather then thou shalt dye he will dye for thee But beloved to enlarge the merits of Christ longer you will think I spread this plaister too far in the mean time not knowing whether we have any part in him or no. We must understand the Mystery of Christ as well as the History there is something to be done by way of examination to examine what title we have to this Saviour Look upon thy own sins bleed for them as well as Christ bled for thee Christ doth not actually save all For the resolution of which I cannot give you a better answer then what I told you of the Israelites concerning the Brasen Serpent that which gave them a cure gives me a capacity of this
upon the next verse He is risen as he said What said he The Evangelist Saint Luke chap. 24. as he said to you women when you were in Galilee Then the saying must be taken as it was told them by Christ in Galilee before he was crucified What was his saying He said unto them I shall rise the third day What meant Christ by rising was it rising in the grave or out of the grave Certainly out of the grave VVill you have our witnesses Two Angels Luke 24.5 Say unto these women Why seek you the living among the dead If he be living he is not among the dead therefore not in the grave but out of the grave It is the conclusion of the very Angels themselves Come to the next words following here Go quickly tell his Disciples that he is risen Tell his Disciples then the Angels instructed them so that they might have a faith that he was out of the grave to the end they might perswade the Disciples being now a foundation of the Articles of the Christian Faith But above all you will see it Luke 24.6 He renders the words of Christ thus He is not here but he is risen But that is a particle adversitive alwayes implying a contradiction from the former as if he should say such a one is not dead but alive if therefore alive not dead Christ saith of his body I am not spirit but flesh flesh therefore not spirit Thus in all it is a contradiction in adjuncts Therefore the truth is this is an impossibility that the body of Christ can be in two places at once which is the conclusion drawn from thence Now beloved I had not insisted so much upon this except it had been First that it was so full in my way that I could not passe by it Secondly because of the jealousie of these times wherein it is suspected that divers of the Ecclesiasticks are infected with this leaven or rather leprosie of Popery to think that the body of Christ can be in divers places at once Therefore now I shall crave leave to inlarge my self and the rather because in thus saying whosoever they be they destroy it I am therefore now beloved to prove it unto you not by testimonies and allegations onely but to deliver unto you the heads as I may say the form and the reasons summarily of true Antiquitie in the Primitive Church and that shall confirm unto us this our doctrine to have been not onely a Catholique truth but to have had the degree of a Catholique faith in the Church of God for six hundred years together Briefly then thus those holy Fathers taught first that no creature can be in divers places at once why for that this to be in divers places at once is the Prerogative of God himself Secondly they prove that the holy Ghost the third Person in the Trinity is God Why for that it was in divers Prophets at once Jeremiah in Jewry Daniel when he was in Babylon Ezekiel in Cabar and also after that when he was in divers Apostles at once they being dispersed into divers Regions of the world Thirdly they prove that the Angels are not Gods Why Because Angels cannot be in divers places at once Fourthly they prove that no body no bodily substance can be in divers places at once Why For that it is one body and to be here and there in one instant were to divide it self from it self that it were two and one and not one are contradictions Lastly that we may omit divers others they prove that the Humanity is thus distinguished from the Divinity because the Deity the divinity nature that being in Heaven is in Earth and every where else but the humane nature if it be in Heaven it is not on Earth if on Earth it is not in Heaven Thus these holy Fathers You have their doctrine of truth Now that it may appear unto you that this doctrine of truth was also a doctrine of faith and that by two reasons First because by these for 's which are answerable to this for of the Angel here they urged them against the Hereticks of their times such were the Marcionites the Manichees the Neucomitans and such like Secondly because they did this to this end that they might confirm unto all the world the doctrine of the Deity to know that this is a Prerogative belonging to God alone and secondly for the preservation of the true nature of the manhood of Christ for whereas the Manichees might say that the body of Christ was in the Moon and the Deity together fieri non potest saith Saint Austin it cannot be for by this means you will not make it a true body of Christ I will conclude and it shall be in the words of an holy Father that lived six hundred years after Christ Vigilius by name who saith thus Humanitas Christi si in terra tunc non in coelo c. The Humanity of Christ if it be on Earth then certainly it is not in Heaven if in Heaven bodily then certainly not on earth Was this his private opinion onely No Haec est Confessio Catholica quam c. This is the Confession a Catholique confession saith he which the Apostles have delivered the Martyrs of Christ have confirmed and now all the faithful in Christ do preserve to this day Beloved this Vigilius was Bishop of Trent and he hath delivered unto us a confession as contrary unto the last Councel of Trent as yea and nay truth and falsity Antiquity and Novelty so that if the Primitive Church of Christ was the Catholique Church certainly the now Romish church it is a step-dame and degenerate If the Primitive doctrine was a Catholique faith and a legitimate childe then the now doctrine of the Church of Rome it is a bastard-brat Now then beloved I have delivered unto you the points concerning the Logical part wherein if I have been too obscure if that Logick part be too obscure for some I may make amends in the Historical where I shall not make it so plain to your brains as to your senses He is not here for c. This Historical part will offer unto you 3 observations concerning this doctrine of Christs Resurrection the first is 1. That it is a truth most evident 2. It is a truth Omnipotent 3. It is a truth Trimphant For Christ after his Resurrection manifested himself unto all men all kinds of men that heard him Preach he manifested himself to two to twelve to five hundred at once to Saint Paul after his Ascension into Heaven here is all the eye-sight to other senses he manifested himself to his Apostles by feeling and handling his body here are three senses Now beloved why should not this be a foundation of truth to know and discern to build our faith upon these things The Apostlâ—â—aint John tells us that it ought to be so for saith he 1 John 1.1 That which you have heard that which you
them that have bodies and souls know that there is a duty lies upon them to glorifie God in their lives both in their bodies and souls The next point is this That the sinful body hath a dead soul every sinful body wallowing in sin hath a dead soul So we read 1 Tim. 1.5 The woman living in pleasure she was dead though she lived Again the Bishop of Sardis a wicked Bishop but yet a Bishop I am sure a Bishop Thou hast a name that thou livest but thou art dead Our Saviour Christ said unto the survivers of those that were dead Survivers unto them and go and attend their Funeral and Herse Go saith he let the dead in sins bury their dead So you see that these wicked ones they have but the carkasse of Christians And as nothing is more ugly and odious in the sight of man then the carkasse of man so there is nothing more detestable in the sight of God then a wicked obstinate and impenitent sinner Again the mortified body hath a living soul It is necessary that this be preached unto all the world because most of the world have forgot themselves And the principal part of Christianity consists in this mortification and sanctification We all live in sins dost thou live in actual sin bodily sin thou art dead if thou be not mortified in them Give up your bodies a living sacrifice that is mortification let not sin reign in your mortal bodies I will give you a pattern of S. Paul himself 1 Cor. 9. But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection So then you see that this is a matter on which consists eternal life The Apostle tells us If you mortifie the lusts of the flesh you shall live if not you shall dye It s a matter of life and death which is to shew that those that are mortified men have a living soul Again we must take heed of bodily and actual transgressions for I must tell you that these acts of men done in their bodies shall have resurrection with them even with their bodies This is a profitable point for God sees all things before him all things that have been or can be he sees them all in present as it were in present that 's the infinitenesse of his Science Now then what saith the Apostle We all must appear before the Tribunal-Seat of Christ and every one shall give an account of those things that are done in his flesh fleshly body So then whereas the Epicure sings his Ballad and the burthen of his Song is Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dye yet death will come and then we must give an account of all our actions So much for my Text. Because I was told I should make some application concerning the present occasion I do therefore addresse my self and my speech unto you Right Honourable and to all your reverend Senate and to all your Associate Worthies First we must give an acknowledgment unto God and blesse his great goodnesse that hath so sanctified the hearts of our Predecessors of former times to leave such worthy and real Testimonies to the world of their piety and godly devotion devotion both for the Church and Houses of God and charity unto the poor these have received their rewards the full rewards of all their labours on Earth in the Heavens where they shall remain for ever in the highest Seat of Glory they are now Canonized by God himself and have left themselves in their memories and examples for you and those that shall be able to walk in their steps The Roll that I have seen speaks of wonderful blessed Foundations of Hospitality for the relief of hundreds and hundreds and thousands It doth not need so much to put them here in your Calendar and Paper for the comfort of men but that their good examples might stir up others to the like duties of piety and charity in respect of those that are the Founders all their names are registred in the Book of Life for all Eternity My Exhortation unto you must be that you would enlarge your munificence both wayes in duties of piety and charity but especially of charity because of the objects before our eyes the Orphans that have sung joyfully and comfortably unto God by way of Thanksgiving I shall not stand to reason with you I shall onely apply those things which are appliable unto the men of the world as they are worldly men and apply the promises of God unto them as they are worldly though the promises are all Heavenly and ye with a recommendation to men as worldly men for you look to have habitation here in the world behold the poor that you bestow your charity on they shall bring you you know the place of Scripture I do but name the words into eternal habitations You labour for treasure and the promise is that you shall have treasure in Heaven Will you have bags for your treasures the Gospel is that these Orphans and such like how mortal soever they may be yet unto God they are bags those bags that will never wear out Will you have a trade of life for the best advantage then without all comparison it is charitable usury the promise is You shall receive an hundred fold be the poor what they will of themselves the gift is to God and to Christ not so much unto them for be they wanderers in the world as we say rogues sometimes charity is not alwayes suspicious without cause What faith the Wise man to us Cast thy bread upon the waters for after many dayes thou shalt find it with advantage that thou givest unto such a man though unworthy what saith Job his loins shall bless thee thou givest mortal things and he gives immortal blessings his loins shall blesse thee Whatsoever thou dost to the poor their loins and their back and their belly shall blesse thee for it comes from God But withal let us know and remember why it is that the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour would set down the tenure of salvation or damnation upon the giving or not giving unto the poor it is because it is such a work if rightly done that proceeds from a true faith and therefore God knows that it is a work that proceeds from true charity and those that do thus and make conscience of it as giving it for Gods sake indeed and Christs sake indeed certainly they are Christs and will walk according to the Precepts of Faith And now I conclude with prayer c. And thus this Pillar this reverend Father of the Church of God this sound Divine as heretofore he hath asserted the truth of our Religion by his hand-writing against grand Apostates and against all the Chaos of Antichrists devises as then by his pen so now by his tongue did vindicate the Resurrection which is the Fundamental Article of our Religion for Resurrectio à mortuis est fides Christianorum the resurrection from the dead
leave granting till Abraham did leave asking It may be if he had come to lesse God would have spared them he did so in another place If there be but one to stand in the gap I will spare them Look upon Manasseh a most abominable Idolater who cut Esau in pieces with an iron sawe and made the streets of Jerusalem to run with bloud yet when he prayed unto God God did forgive him Mary Magdalene that had seven Devils she washed our Saviours feet with the hairs of her head that had been nets to catch fools bestowed that costly ointment which she had used upon her self upon Christ Christ accepts of it he applauds it he rewards it he is prone unto mercy and more prone unto mercy then unto judgement The Prodigal son when he returns home to his Father his Father runs and meets him when he was afar off and he doth not strike him or chide him but he falls upon his neck puts his ring upon his finger The Shepherd when he findes his sheep that was lost he doth not beat it but he laies it upon his neck Thirdly consider the circumstances of this mercy Consider first who it is that doth forgive Who why the God of Heaven and Earth he that hath Vials of wrath in his hand and could pour them upon us we that are his inferiours and his enemies we though we do bear with our superiours we will trample upon our inferiours but God doth not so Thirdly Consider what God in mercy doth forgive us and that is sin Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sin is pardoned David doth not place his blessings in his Beauty he was ruddy of complexion nor in his government though he was a great King nor in his preferment he was taken from the sheep to be head over Israel But here is his happinesse Blessed is he whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sin is pardoned Nay how often doth God do this seven times no but as often as Christ commands us to forgive our brethren seventy seven times as often as we forgive our brethren so we offend not out of malice but return and repent God will have mercy on us There went but one word to the making of the world but there go many to the saving of a soul 1 Pet. 1.8 And now judge and examine if you can imagine what a depth and height there is in this mercy of God I come to the Application in brief and so to put an end to this Sermon This may be an Antidote a Preservative against desperation unto poor dejected souls and disconsolate sinners that God is as merciful as just and delights more in mercy then in justice What a precious balsome is this for a wounded sinner And consider first that desperation it is most injurious unto our selves a wound that cannot possibly be healed by us If a Chirurgeon laies on a plaister and we cast it away what hope is there of cure for us And if God sends us the comforts of the Gospel and if we sit down sullen and cast them away what comfort can we have Desperation is compared to a beast with horns it pushes against mercy What for a man to despair of mercy is it but to spill his bloud upon the ground or to throw it in the air with Julian or to hang it on a Tree with Judas that God should drink to us in a cup of salvation and we to pledge him in a cup of damnation that is derogatory from God The Devil comes to us and sayes Thy sins are too great the mercies of God are too precious for thee shall we believe that lyar rather then he that sayes I have been wounded for you I will take your sins upon me and heal you Will you make God a lyar and the Devil true Secondly look upon the steps of desperation the several steps of it he did name divers * Ingratitude Infidelity steps but insisted only upon this to wit Presumption The wicked man begins in presumption but ends in despair When their flatteries have touled them a long time on and perswaded them that their case is good at last their souls are stifled with the consideration of their sins by presumption what more contrary and yet presumption it is the very rode way to desperation If I am abroad long either in the Sun or in the Snow my eyes will be so dazeled I shall hardly see When I have been in the glorious Sun-shine of the mercy of God in the Halcyon dayes of prosperity I cannot taste any thing but of a Saviour A presumptuous man is like unto one that is asleep upon a rock and dreaming of a rock of Pearl suddenly starts up and falls into the Sea Take heed the Devil do not finde you upon this pinacle upon presumption and so cast you down to eternal destruction Shall I be bold and presumptuous because God is merciful Shall I cut and gash my self because a good Chirurgeon lives where I live Shall I use spectacles to go over a Bridge to make the Bridge seem better and so perish Look not upon the mercy as if it were greater then it is no as God is merciful to penitent so he is just to impenitent sinners And so this reverend Father of our Church who was in Heaven while he was on Earth preached against those two main enemies of our salvation Desperation and Presumption His words were all excellent of the justice and mercy of God and the merits of our Saviour But what will become of all this what comfort springs from the mercy of God from the forgivenesse of sins unto us if our hearts our thoughts creep still on the ground if we be taken up with Earthly things and prefer riches and honour before God and therefore came to the chance of our fourth and last Divine to draw up our hearts sursum corda unto Heaven If you look for mercy lift up your hearts where it is to be had wherefore should we look down or kill flies any longer our conversations must be in Heaven if our hearts be in Heaven This was the bag out of which he did fetch treasure new and old precious treasure A Sermon Preached by Doctor Wesphale at the Spittle on Wednesday in Easter week PHILIPPIANS 3.20 21. But our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who shall change our vise bodies that they may be like unto his glorious body according to that mighty word whereby he is able to subdue all things THE words may be read two wayes either For our conversation is in Heaven or But our conversation is in Heaven If For our conversation is in Heaven it is an argument to inforce a duty set down in the seventeenth verse That we should not minde the things here below for Saint Paul and the rest of the Saints have their conversation in Heaven If you will read it but then there 's another