in the â—…ane time before a man come to enjoy and â—…eive what hee looks for Faith gives God 〈◊〉 glory of all his attributes the glory of his â—…th he hath spoken and therefore hee will â—…ke it good The glory of his wisedom that 〈◊〉 hath found out such a course for us to walke 〈◊〉 The glory of his mercy that hee hath â—…de such promises to such wretches so all â—…er attributes faith gives glory to therfore â—…od glorifies faith and the speciall act of â—…ith is waiting If I tarrie long waite thou â—…nd we have need of patience Faith stirs up â—…tience to helpe and assist it as wee see here â—…ese waited seven dayes Remember thereâ—…re to exercise faith in continuall dependance â—…pon God take heed of being short spirited â—…ough God deferre the rewarding of the â—…ighteous and the punishment of the Wicâ—…ed yet hold out still hee that hath promiâ—…d will come in time and make good that that â—…e hath said in due time Give God the glory â—…f appointing the fittest time Hee is the best â—…iscerner of opportunities Our times are in â—…is hand all kind of times therefore let us deâ—…end upon him for that only labour to have a â—…trong spirit of faith that wee may waite his good leisure And to helpe us doe but consider what if wee waite a few yeares what is that to Eternitie I might inlarge the point what great matters faith will doe both in heaven and earth every way Wee see here faith shakes the very earth God he is the Lord of heaven and earth The earth is the Lords because these wals were built upon Gods earth we see here one puffe of God blowes them all down and faith laying hold upon this casts them downe though faith doth it not immediatly yet God doth it because he is laid hold on by faith Let us labour therefore to have faith above all other graces It is the Mother Grace it is the Grace that is the spring of all Graces if we woâ—…ld have patience and hope and love and perseverance and constancie together let us labour to have faith strengthened and to feed our faith the more let us looke to the word of God make it familiar to us the Spirit goes together with the word to strengthen and increase our faith and that being strengthned all is strengthned whatsoever Now the way to try whether we have this faith or no not to speake largely of the point but as the Text leads me is if we humbly attend upon the meanes that God hath appointed though they seeme base to carnall reason As how doe we know that these Israelites had faith when they went about the wals of Iericho because they have humbled themselves to use the base means that God had appointed though they were very unlikely Naaman out of the pride of his heart saith he what are the waters of Iordan have not wee waters that can doe as much but if the servants had not beene wiser then the Master hee had gone home a Leaper as he came so when men hear the word preached they thinke cannot wee reade good bookes at home and for the Sacrament it is a poore Ordinance what is there but wine and bread and such like Take heed of a proud heart God will have weaker meanes to try us whether we will humble our selves to his vvisedome or no vvhere there is true faith it will be carefull to use all good meanes or else it is a tempting of God and not a trusting of him when wee doe not use the meanes that he hath sanctified And where there is faith as there will bee a carefull use of all meanes so there wil be a care in the use of meanes not to depend upon the meanes but to trust in God There will bee a joyning of both together faith doth not take away the use of means nay he that is most certaine of the end should strive to be most careful of al means used to that end There ought no man to be more diligent in using the means then he that is most certaine of the end because hee is incouraged to use the meanes knowing that he shall not beat the aire that he shall not loose his labour so if we by faith lay hold upon God for the destruction of Antichrist and that God would subdue our corruptions and that they shall fall before the Spirit by little and little if by faith we lay hold upon this that God will perfect the good worke hee hath begun in the use of good meanes this will stirre us up to use all means with chearfulnesse and constancie There are none that are more carefull of the means then those that are most sure of the issue Those that are carelesse of the meanes let them pretend what they will they are presumptuous persons they have no faith for that will stirre us up to use the meanes and in the use of meanes to depend upon God so carefull is faith to use the meanes as if without them God would doe nothing and yet in the meanes it is so carefull to depend upon God as if the means could not doe any thing without God Thus faith walkes betweene the means and the great God Let us goe on constantly in living the life of faith and using all the blessed means that God hath sanctified God haâ—…h sanctified the preaching of the Word to beat downeal these spirituall wals let us goe on all our life time and at length the last Trump shall sound another Trumpet shall sound and then not only the wals of Iericho but the wals of heaven and earth shall fall downe and then wee shall enter into that heavenly Canaan both body and soule In the meane time let us exercise faith and to quicken our faith the more let us have those blessed times in the eye of our soule let us see them as present It is the nature of faith to apprehend things to come as present let us see heaven and earth on fire see Christ coming to judgement let us see â—…ll the wals downe the Graves open whatsoeâ—…er opposeth and stands betweene us and gloâ—…y see all gone let us see our selves at the â—…ight hand of Christ and triumphing in heaâ—…en For the Scripture speakes of that that is â—…o come as if it were past Wee sit in heavenly â—…laces with Christ and we are saved by faith and â—…ee are glorified Thus the Spirit of faith â—…eakes of the glorious times to come when â—…ll enemies shall be trodden under foot Saâ—…han and all enemies whatsoever shall goe to their place the opposite Church shall bee no longer when the last Trump shall blow wee shall all stand together at the right hand of Christ and be for ever glorious with Him THE VNPROSPEROVS BVILDER A Sermon preached upon the 5th of November in remembrance of Our Deliverance from the Papists Powder-Treason BY The late Learned and Reverend Divine RICH. SIBBS Doctor in Divinity Mr. of KATHERINE Hall
from heaven to earth and here he conversed as a stranger he dwelt in his body here as a tabernacle which he layd aside for a while to work the worke of out redemption and then after to dwell in it for ever He was the prime stranger of all strangers he that makes us all strangers here and Citizens of heaven he was a stranger on earth He was not indeed a stranger for hee was Lord of heaven and earth yet in regard of his state of exaltation that was to come after in regard of dispensation he was here as a servant he lived here as a stranger And indeed he was as strangely used for hee came among his owne and his owne knew him not as it is in Iohn 1. he was not knowne among his owne Countrie men the Iewes hee was a stranger on earth He conversed with us here and was among us as a stranger you see how his speech and carriage and conversation on earth it was as a strangers He was talking alway of his fathers house and of the kingdome of heaven When he speakes of the estate of the Church which is the only company of people here in whom God rules by his spirit yet because they are ordained for the kingdome of heaven he calls them strangers here and termes them by that that they are ordained to All his minde was of the kingdome of heaven we see after he was risen the matter of his discourse as the Gospell tells it was of the kingdome of heaven he talked of things that belonged to the kingdom of God all his speeches were that way and his comparisons were fetched that way The kingdome of heaven is like to such a thing and such a thing And all his worke was to draw men from the earth As it was his grand work to redeem men from the earth that is from hell and from their cursed condition so the matter of his teaching was answerable to his work to draw men to heaven all the paines that he tooke before and after his death till he was taken into heaven it tended that way He came from heaven to earth to wooe us to be a spouse to himselfe he came from heaven into a strange countrie to take us for his spouse to take our nature and in our nature to winne us to die for us he carried himselfe as a stranger every way he regarded not earthly things Now answerable to our head Christ must all Christians bee in their affections and dispositions we must be conformable to him we must be strangers as he was All that looke to die in the faith of Christ and to be happy for ever they must witnesse their believing and loving of better things by an answerable carriage to all things here below they must have the affection of strangers and travailers Faith doth enforce this It is the nature of the soule from a principle and ground of nature that when the soule is carried up one way it is shut another when it cleaves unto and imbraceth better things when it is open to heaven the point of the soule is shut to the earth and wee looke upon these things as strangers and pilgrims only for necessary use These holy men the Patriarchs were strangers Strangers in their owne esteeme As Abraham and Iacob they confesse they were sojourners and David though he were a King yet he saith he was a stranger as all his fathers were So all the Patriarchs they professed themselves to be strangers and sojourners and they did it not in word only but in deed they shewed it by dwelling in tabernacles and tents poore things fit for strangers heaven was their house Tabernacles are moveable weak things that have no foundation So they knew their life was like a tabernacle here And their manner of life shewed what they looked for they carried themselves as those that hoped and looked for better things They were strangers in their dispositions they affected things above and cared no more for these things then for necessary use to helpe them to serve God in their places and those that are strangers in their dispositions they desire to be at home Againe they were strangers in GODS esteeme God termed them so and so it is with all that believe in Christ when we once believe and are new creatures new borne to a better inheritance presently at the same time we are strangers here Strangers likewise in the esteeme of the world The world used them as strangers strangely When a man leaveth the world and cleaveth to God presently the world setteth on him by reproaches and all they can because they think he will disgrace them by his change therefore they labour to make him as black as they may that way they use all strangely that breake from them God will have it so because he will have his children not to love the world therefore he will have the world hate them So they are strangers in that respect they think it strange that they doe not as they did formerly that they doe not as they doe wicked men thinke it strange that they runne not with them into the same excesse of ryot so they are strangers in the esteem of wicked men So they are strangers in regard of their place heaven is their hope they are begotten to an inheritance immortall undefiled c. they live in a place where they are strangers they are every way strangers But you will say wicked men are strangers and pilgrims too I answer they are indeed so for in regard of the shortnesse of their lives and the uncertaintie of the things they injoy for they out-live all their happines here they are snatched hence before they bee aware therefore they are but travellers here but they goe from ill to worse yet in regard of their affections they are no strangers but account themselves at home from a spirit of infidelity and pride and earthlinesse Therefore they are called men of the earth and those that dwell on the earth in the Revelation because they looke no furtherthen the earth and here they roote and fix their affections upon this earth they do not fix their hearts and affections upon the things above they looke not after them they care not for them they value them not nor esteeme them Therefore answerable to their thoughts and bent of their soule and mind is their discourse their speech and carriage and thereupon they are called men of the earth and called the world because they love nothing but the world they are as it were changed into the things they love they are earth as the Prophet saith Oh earth earth c. and they are the world because their affection of love joynes them to these earthly things The Church in the Revelation is called heaven but the beast is said to rise out of the earth for that which bred the carnall religion of Popery it was nothing but earth and
ascension riseth from his and our sitting at the right hand of God from his And so at the day of judgement our being glorious it comes from his He then shall appeare in glory as the head and husband of his Church and shall shine upon all his members He as the Sun shall cast a lustre and beauty and glory upon all that are his and then they shall reflect that glory they have from him upon him againe and he upon them againe so he shall be glorious in them and they in him but the ground of all is he is first in glory he shall appeare in glory and then we in him I speake this the rather because I would have humble consciences to make use of it in times of desertion when God seemes to bee a God that hides himselfe when they find no life nor comfort yet if they have but grace to believe they may comfort themselves in this well I have it but from Christ and he is perfect in glory he is ascended and I shall ascend and rise and be glorious because hee is so Put case now I feele no such matter it is no matter I live by faith in Christ that hath all in fulnesse and what hee hath done for me hee will doe in me if I believe in him Let a troubled soule comfort it selfe with this it is as impossible that he should be damned that believes in Christ as that Christ should be damned because hee believing in Christ is one with him and as verlly as Christ is in heaven hee shall bee there for Christ rose for all his The little finger lives the same life as the hand or the foot doth so a weake christian that hath little grace he lives by the same faith in Christ that is in glory as well as they that are stronger Let us strive and fight with this encouragement as S. Paul saith fight the good fight of Faith Oh! but shall we be alwayes fighting and striving No saith hee lay hold of eternall Life and then wee may well fight against doubts and despaire Let us therefore labour to fight so that we may lay hold on eternall life which Christ keepes for us and keeps us for it and ere long we shall partake of that wee hope for FINIS THE REDEMPTION OF BODYES In one Funerall Sermon upon PHIL. 3. 2â—… BY The late Learned and Reverend Divine RICH. SIBBS Doctor in Divinity Mr of KATHERINE Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher to the Honourable Society of GRAYES-INNE 1 COR. 15 44. It is sowne a naturall Body it is raised a spirituall body LONDON Printed by E. Purslow for N. Bourne at the Royall Exchange and R. Harford at the gilt Bible in Queenes head Alley in Pater-Noster-Row 1639. THE REDEMPTION OF BODIES PHIL. 3. 21. Who shall change our vile Body that it may bee fashioned like unto his glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe THE Apostle was now in prison yet hee had a spirit of glory resting upon him for he speakes as if he were entred into Heaven as if he were there before his time and therefore in Chap. 1. saith he I desire to bee dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all And I account all dung in comparison of Christ as he saith in this Chap. and here in the former verse Our conversation is in Heaven from whence we looke for the Saviour Iesus Christ who shall change our vile bodyes c. God reserves abundance of comforts to the fittest times as we see here in Saint Paul in this place Now he brings in his owne example to good purpose as opposite to false Christians and false â—…eachers that he had mentioned before There are many walke of whom I have told you oft c. they are enemies to the crosse of Christ that mind earthly things c. verse 18. But saith hee our conversation is in heaven he regards not which way they went hee tooke an opposite course to the world and swims against the stream As we see the stars they have a motion of their own opposite to the motion that they are carried with So S. Paul had a motion of his owne opposite to the course of the world their end is damnation but our conversation is in Heaven A christian hath his conversation in Heaven while hee is on earth hee rules his life by the lawes of heaven There are alway in the visible Church some that walke contrary wayes who make their Belly their God whose end is 〈◊〉 There were some that were christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…achers of Christians many of them yet he saith their end is damnation their God is their belly carnall Christians say wee have all 〈◊〉 the sacrament c. Alas we may all partake of this common privilege and yet our end may be damnation St. Paul looked on them with a a spirit of compassion I tell you weeping So it may be with us in our Gosheâ—… here there may be a spirit of cast-awayes in many and in the abundance of meanes there may bee many dead souls But S. Paul regards not what their course was for saith he our conversation is in Heaven From whence we looke for the Saviour c. That shewes why his conversation was in heaven because his Saviour was in heaven and therefore his hope was in heaven Where the treasure is the heart will be Having entred into this blessed discourse he goes on still who shall change our vile bodies and fashion them like his glorious body He brings it in by way of answering an objection If our conversation be in heaven why are our bodies yet subject to such afflictions and basenesse in this world It is true they are but the time shall come that Christ shall change these vile bodies of ours and fashion them like to his glorious body I but this requires a great deale of power and strength and we see not how it may be Therefore saith he he shall doe it by that almighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe therefore he shall subdue death the last enemy he will not doe it perhaps according to thy fancy and conceit but according to the working whereby hee is able to subdue all things to himselfe we must not regard our weake conceits in great matters but Gods power yee erre saith Christ to the Pharisees not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God Saint Paul then in these words and in the verse before sets downe three reasons why his course is opposite to the course of wicked men in his time First my City is in heaven and my conversation is answerable I take a contrary course for I am a citizen of another City And then another reason is his hope and expectation of a Saviour from heaven the Lord Iesus Hope faith which is the ground of hope carry up the soule where the thing hoped for is Our conversation is in
in his time that is it is as sure to fall as if it were fallen already the word of God hath said so the power of man cannot hinder it He that put it into the heads hearts of the Kings to betray their Kingdomes he shall also put it into their hearts and heads to hate and burn the Whore with fire at the last It must be so the Angell said it was done as if it were done already it is as sure as if it were done therefore let us never take scandall at the flourishâ—…ng state of the enemies of the Church abroad let us never dislike our Religion for that Babylon is fallen the time will come when it shall be done Heaven hath concluded it and earth cannot hinder it no nor Hell neither God hath said it and shall not he doe it It is the word of him that is Lord of his word because hee is Lord of hosts and Lord of the Creatures It is the word of him that is Lord of Lords that is Lord of heaven and earth Lord of all things He hath said that Babylon is fallen and therefore it must be so he being Governour and Lord of all things and of his word too that can make all things prove serviceable to his purpose Let us comfort our selves therefore as if it were present and not take offence at the state of the Beast and the Whores flourishing but present him to your selves as hee is set out in the Text see him growing see him rising see him decaying and at last see him cast into the bottomlesse pit to burne in the Lake of fire for ever It is you see the word of God from heaven that he is fallen and cast into the earth as a Milâ—…one and shall never â—…ise againe He shall never quicken againe Heathen Rome was quickned by Papall Rome the Pope quickned the former Beast But there shall never be Beast after this Rome and therefore he is said in this Chapter To goe into destruction that is he and his state and all without repentance shall so go into destruction that there shall never be other Beast And that that shall helpe this destruction forward shall bee the course that themselves take God as he hath decreed their destruction so hee hath appointed that their owne plots which they have devised for their owne maintenance shall turne to their confusion Doe you not thinke that the ruine of the Pope will be by the Iesuits who are growen by their pressing themselves and by their pragmaticall medling into Princes affaires by their drawing and assuming all busines to themselves and by their striving and bringing all to their profession to such hatred of the world that even these meanes which they themselves take will be the meanes of the overthrow and downefall of Popery As the counsell of Achitophel was the meanes to infatuate him so their owne courses will cause their own overthrow In the Powder-treason they thought they had been made for ever but God turned their wickednesse upon their owne heads And now in these later times we may see that God takes his cause into his owne hands and you know who spake it by observation Hamans wife If thou begin to fall thou shalt not prevaile but shalt surely fall before him so if God take the matter into his owne hands as hee hath done already let them feare For they shall surely fall and not prevaile untill he hath wrought his worke in Sion untill he hath thorowly purged his Church they shall prevaile there is a little time alotted them but it is nothing let us see by the eye of faith what this Book saith of them that they shall be destroyed and let us looke on the courses they themselves take which wil cause their destruction was there ever any thing that weakned Popery so much as this desperate attempt that we now celebrate this day Indeed if wee goe to an ignorant Papist and tell him what doctrine they teach and what upholds their doctrine tell him of the Powder treason aske him concerning the traytors he will mince the matter oh they were unfortunate Gentlemen c. But how did Sixtus Quintus mince the matter when they had successe in the massacre in France when many thousands of people weâ—…e slâ—…ine against the Law slaine under pretence of being married and bidden to a marriage He was so farre from disallowing the act as that he caused it to be pictured in his Palace So if these had achieved this they had not been unfortunate Gentlemen they had beene made they had beene sainted as some of them are Saint Garnet S. Devill if the Devill himselfe will helpe them and further Popery hee shall be sainted and if they be never so base yet for their Rebellion and destruction of Kings they shall be sainted by them will not this provoke men to hate the Beast and the Whore to make her desolate and naked and to eat her flesh and to burne her with fire Well the time is past I cannot finish the Text as I thought to have done To speake to the particular occasion I need not it is yet fresh And what should we speake of the Gunpowder-treason the Iesuits and Priests having the Devill for their Mid-wife they are big of such like plots Hell Rome and Sathan and the Iesuits those Frogs of the Bottomlesse pit they are full of devising such attempts But I rather thought to speak against Popery against the Beast and her Religion at this time then Rhetorically to amplifie that act of theirs when indeed we are ready to have a new one continually for they are alwayes plotting and devising I meane those Iesuits Our comfort is to looke to the Scripture to looke here what shall bee the end of these Frogs and of the Beast ere long they shall be cast into the burning Lake Let us blesse God that we live under this government of so Gracious a Prince that hath more weakned the Pope by his learned Writings then ever any Prince did So much for this time THE RVINE OF MYSTICALL IERICHO A Sermon preached upon the 5th of November in remembrance of Our Deliverance from the Papists Powder-Treason BY The late Learned and Reverend Divine RICH. SIBBS Doctor in Divinity Mr. of KATHERINE Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher to the Honourable Society of GRAYES-INNE IOSH. 6. 10. And it came to passe when the people heard the sound of the Trumpet and the people shouted with a great shout that the Wall fell downe flat c. LONDON Printed by T. B. for N. Bourne at the Royall Exchange and R. Harford at the guilt Bible in Queenes-head Alley in Pater-noster-Row 1639. THE RVINE OF MYSTICALL IERICHO HEB. 11. 30. By faith the Wals of Iericho fell downe after they had beene compassed about seven dayes THIS Verse suites somewhat to the occasion therefore I have made choâ—…se of it at this time This Chapter containes the triumph of Faith in the hearts and soules of
God hath the supream power of life and death Then we must know againe that children â—…re part of their Parents God punisheth the parents in their children and it is a heavier punishment oft times in their esteeme then in themselves for they thinke to live and continue in their children now when they see their children tooke away it is worse then death men oft times live to see things worse â—…hen death as those that see their children killed before them as Zedechias and Mauritius the Emperour for indeed it is a death oft A man dies in every child this man hee died in his eldest son and he died in his youngest son he died in regard of the apprehension of death it was more sharpe in apprehension then when he died himselfe So it is a heavie judgement to be stricken in our children God when hee wil punish he punisheth oft times in posterity As we see it was the most terrible judgement of all upon Pharaoh that in his First-borne God drew them all to let Israel goe out when He smote their First-borne It is a heavie judgement for a man to be stricken in his First-born either when they are dissolute and debauch ed and lawlesse for God hath judgements for the soule as well as for the body or else when they are taken out of the world But thirdly which is very likely another reason that moved God that we may justifie God in all our sentence that we give of him hee tooke them away because they imitâ—… their father in ill and God hath a liberty 〈◊〉 strike when he will when there is cause and whom hee will he will spare for so many Generations You will say why doth he light on such 〈◊〉 Generation and why not on such a place It is his liberty and prerogative when 〈◊〉 deserve it and hee lights upon one and 〈◊〉 upon another we must not quarrel with God but leave him to his liberty it is a part of 〈◊〉 prerogative Who art thou oh man that disâ—…test Why God when all are equally 〈◊〉 strikes one and not another why he execâ—… judgements in one age and not in another there may bee reasons given of it but it is 〈◊〉 mysterie that must not be disputed but I cannot stand on these things Hee shall lay the foundation thereof in his First-borne and in his youngest Sonne set up the Gates thereof This terrible sentence wee see executed 〈◊〉 1 King 16. 34. In Achabs time there was one so venterous as to build Iericho againe There is an accent to be set upon that that it was in Achabs time Hiel would needs build Iericho againe and why should hee build it Hiel no doubt saw it a wondrous commodious place to found a Citie being near to Iordan And then he saw and considered that it was accounted a famous thing to be founder of a â—…itie And then no doubt he thought that â—…hab would not only permit him to doe it but â—…ould gratifie him wicked Ahab which had â—…ld himselfe to worke wickednesse that was 〈◊〉 abhominable Idolater himselfe and counâ—…nanced Idolatry and had set up the false â—…orship of Bâ—…al it was likely enough in his â—…me that Iericho should bee built and thereâ—…ore no doubt but he did it partly to insinuate â—…imselfe with Ahab And to shew how little â—…e cared for Iosua's or Iehova's threatning as â—…sually such impudent persons that are grown up with greatnesse that have sold themselves to be naught that have put off all humanity and modesty they are fittest to carry wicked and desperate causes being agreeable to them so this wicked person was a fit man to doe this and he thought to please Ahab by it Man is a strange creaâ—…ure especially in greatnesse of riches or place c. A piece of earth that will be puffed up if he have flatterers and sycophants about him and a proud heart withall hee will forget and dare the God of heaven and trample under foot all threatnings and menaces whatsoever As this wicked Hiel rather then he will misse of his will hee will breake through thick and thin and redeeme the fulfilling of his will with the losse of his owne soule and of his children his First-borne and his last and all Mens mihi pro regno let a man be happy in his will hee cares not for all the world if he may have his will 〈◊〉 all goe upon heapes this is the nature of maâ—… One would thinke that this threatning mighâ—… have scarred a man that had loved himselfe 〈◊〉 his posterity but nothing would keepe hiâ—… hee would venture upon it as wee see in 〈◊〉 place 1 King 16. Thus wee have passed ovâ—… the words To come to handle the words by way of Analogie how they may agree to other thingâ—… by way of proportion and in a spirituall mysticall sense There are divers degrees of men that venter upon curses and thereupon grow to be cursed themselves even as this man ventered upon the building of Iericho so there be many thaâ—… doe the like in a proportionable kind I shall name some few God did determine that the Iewish Ceremonies should determine and have an end and period Now in Saint Pauls time there were many that would put life into them and joyne them with the Gospel Saint Paul tels them Christ shall profit you nothing Those are they that build Iericho againe that revive and put life into that that God hath determined should never revive againe When the Iewish Ceremonies were honourably interred and laid in their graves these men would raise them out of their graves againe and so venter upon Gods curse and bee excluded from Christ. These are one sort of men that raise Iericho againe And so afterwards in the Church â—…here were those that would build up Iericho â—…hat would still retaine Iewish Ceremonies â—…nd Heathenish in the Church and some at the â—…irst with no ill minds But then afterwards as Augustine complaines they so pestered the Church with Iewish and Heathenish Ceremonies that the Iewes condition was better then theirs for these things should have beene buried Gerson that had many good things in him though he lived in ill times Oh saith he good Augustine Dost thou complaine of those times what wouldest thou have said if thou hadst lived now What is Popery but a masse of Iewish and heathenish Ceremonies besides some Blasphemies that they have I speake concerning what they differ from ours which are decent and orderly what a masse of Ceremonies and fooleries have they to mislead men that are taken away with fancies to distaste the truth of God and to have respect to fancies to outward pompe and gorgeous things rather then the Gospel These men build up Iericho againe and bury the Gospel as much as they can There are another sort of men that raise up Iericho that revive all the heresies that were damned to Hell by the ancient Councels The heresie of
the covenant betweene God and â—…em was made before they have given up â—…emselves to GOD and committed their â—…ules to God before for a Christian gives â—…p himselfe every day he commits himselfe â—…ule and body continually to God as a blesâ—…ed sacrifice of a free-will offering so hee â—…arns to die daily daily labours to live in the â—…state he would die in he ought to doe thus â—…nd many Christians doe thus therefore notwithstanding these distempers the covenant â—…etweene GOD and the soule remaines still â—…nd he dies in faith It is said here they all diâ—…d in faith he saith not they all died in feeâ—…ing A man may die in faith and yet not die â—…n feeling and sometimes the strongest faith â—…s with the least feeling of Gods love Feeâ—…ing may be reserved sometimes for heaven â—…et notwithstanding wee must not take it so as 〈◊〉 there were no feeling where there is faith for there was never faith yet but upon the â—…ouch of faith the soule drew some strength â—…nd some inward feeling though it be not discerned of the soule in regard of the immodeâ—…ate desire of the soule to have more yet there is alway so much feeling and strength and comfort that supports the soule from despaire take the childe of GOD at the worst Therefore when I speake of feeling I speak of a glorious demonstration that God sometimes takes away from his children They died in faâ—…th though not alway in feeling of 〈◊〉 they died in faith though not alway by a faiâ—… death or in a comely manner outwardly 〈◊〉 the applause of the world it is no matter for that they all died in faith and that is sufficient It is the desire of Gods Children that they may dye in faith and die in Christ as they have lived in faith and lived in Christ. Faiâ—… is a blessed grace by it we live by it we stand by it we conquer and resist by it we indure by it we die by it we do all those worthy matters we doe in spight of the devill and his kingdome this is that excellent grace of faith by which we live and by which we die These all died in faith For they lived as they died and died as they lived It is a usuall generall rule as men live so they die he that lives by faith dies by faith he that lives prophanely dies prophanely If we suffer the devill to lead us and abuse us all the time of our life we must thinke God in just judgement will give us up that he shall delude us and abuse us at the houre of death Carnall confidence disposeth men to thinke they shall step our of their filthy blasphemous course of life out of their sinfull cursed condition to leape to heaven presently it is no such matter Alas heaven it must be entred into on earth there must bee a fiting and preparing time on earth for heaven we must looke to die as we live There is but one example of a man that died by faith that did not live by faith that is the good thiefe and yet that little time of life we see how fruitfull it was but the rule is all that will die in faith must live in faith and usually men are affected and disposed and their speeches and carriage are on their death bed as they were when they lived GOD in just judgment giving them up to that course Many wish that they may live in popery and enjoy the liberty of that carnall religion but they would not die by that religion they live by that religion and die by ours when they have had the sweetnesse and liberty that is given them there to sin and then open all in confession and be cleane and then sin againe and such easie courses they have that betrayes thousands of soules to damnation Now this is their course when conscience is awakened they flie to savation by CHRIST if they understand any thing at all or else they die desperate if they looke to be saved by that religion as they live by it if we look to die by faith we must live by it These all died in faith not having received the promises For God promised them Canaan and they died many hundred yeares before their posterity came into Canaan hee promised them Christ and they died long before Christ came he promised them heaven and they entred not into heaven till death so they received not the promises that is they received not the things promised for else they received the promise but not that that was promised they received not the type Canaan not the things typified Christ and heaven This is added as a commendation of their faith that though they received not the things that they looked for yet notwithstanding they had such a strong faith that they continued to live by faith and died in faith The promises here are taken for the blessed things promised This should teach us this lesson that Gods promises are not emptie shells they are reall things And then whatsoever God promiseth it is not barely propounded to the soule but in a promise it is wrapped up in a promise hee gives us not emptie promises nor naked things but hee gives us promises of things which we must exercise our faith in in depending upon him for the performance of them till we be put in possession For here all the blessings they looked for is wrapped up in the name promises they received not the promises the meaning is they received not Canaan they received not Christ in the flesh not life everlasting Now the believing soule it lookes upon all the good things that it looks for from God not nakedly but as they are involved and wrapped and lapped up in promises it must have a word for it it looks to GODS word For the soule looks not now immediately as it shall doe in heaven it looks not to God and to Christ directly but it lookes to Christ and heaven and happinesse as it is in a promise It dares not expect any thing of God but by a promise Alas the guiltie soule how dares it look God in the face but by a promise except he have ingaged himselfe by promise and he hath ingaged himselfe by promise that he will doe it he hath pawned his faithfulnesse that he will doe it and then the soule lookes to the promise and in that it looks to Christ and grace and heaven and happines and all good things A presumptuous idle person that knowes not what God is that he is a consuming fire he rusheth into Gods presence Faith dares not go to God but first it pleads his word to him it pleads his promise to him it lookes on God by a promise The very phrase inforceth this upon us that we should make great account of the promises because we have all good wrapped in them The promises are the swadling clouts Christ and Heaven is wrappped in them And when wee have a promise let
as some idle persons doe in a bravery we are but strangers here and we must be gone c. Though I say they doe not speake thus as some doe that never thinke so yet notwithstanding their carriage bewrayes it their course and company and conversation shewes that indeed they confesse themselves pilgrims and strangers Now the order of the words is this strangers and pilgrims there is little difference betweene these two Strangers shewes our absence from home that we are abroad in another country that we are in another place And Pilgrims shewes our carriage to our country our going home a pilgrim or traveler is he that is going homeward They confessed themselves that they were not at home but they were going toward that that was their home toward heaven to that Citty whose builder and maker was God himselfe Wee are strangers to shew what we are here on earth In regard of heaven we are strangers on 〈◊〉 and not meere strangers that rest and doe nothing but such strangers as are passing home toward their country we are strangers and pilgrims on earth the one implies our absence the other implies our moving to the place of our abode The points considerable are first this Thâ—…s Gods children upon earth here are strangers and pilgrims They are not at home but are travelling toward their country The second is this that They prosesse themselves to be so They know they are so and they confesse that they are so they are not ashamed of it For the first It is the disposition of him that hath truly interest in better things though but in faith and hope to bee a stranger and a pilgrim in regard of all things here below And this followes the other for where the eyes of the understanding are opened and a man is perswaded there is an imbracing of better things as our proper good things there is a considering of all other things as things that doe not belong to us in a manner we are strangers When faith apprehends Christ and heaven and happinesse to be our own and our country to be above faith apprehending and grasping these things and imbracing them at the same time it is to be supposed and necessarily followes that we are strangers It followes out of the necessity of the thing it selfe for upon the very consideration that a man is an heire of heaven that he hath another country and condition out of the necessitie of the thing it selfe though there were no other reason for it the affections of the soule will be closed up as it were to other things and he will consider of other things in an inferiour condition as they are For the things though they bee good in their kind and order both the things above and the things below yet there being such a difference in these good things and the things here below the contentments here on earth being so meanely good and so short in continuance and so weake in their satisfaction of the soule that they cannot bee possessed together with the blessed assurance of better things but with the affections of strangers and pilgrims this followes I say from the nature of the thing that in whose eyes heavenly things are great in his eyes earthly things are meane They are accounted as they are secondary meane things of the way to help him forward home If a man were on the top of a great mountaine he would see the things below to be very little and the things above would appeare greater to him so when the soule is raised up to see great things though they be a farre off as these did with the eye of faith at the same time his soule looking to things below must needs apprehend them to be little in quantity as indeed they are If a man were in body lift up to heaven and should looke upon the earth what were the earth but a pooresilly point the whole earth iâ—… selfe much more a mans owne possession so when the soule is lifted up to heaven by faith which sets a man in heaven before his time when it looks from thence to the earth and earthly things it must of necessity consider them as they are to bee poore meane things Therefore this followes that being perswaded of the promises that is of the good things promised in religion in the word of God to earthly things they were strangers and pilgrims He that is from home and hath another home which he is not at he is a stranger but Christians have another home For first they are bred from heaven they are borne from heaven they are borne in Ierusalem that is from above they are borne in the Church by the seed of the word and spirit now as they are from heaven so their 〈◊〉 is to heaven againe for every thing naturally riseth as high as it springeth As we say of water it mounts as high as the head of it is so our affections mount as high as the spring of them is Now a Christian being borne from heaven he tends to that in his affections that is his country It is his country because his father is there in his glory and his Saviour is there and a great part of his kindred are there the soules of perfect men and the glorious Angels in a most glorious manner though they be in their attendance upon the earth there is his country his Citie his house there is his happinesse his home I shall not need therefore to prove that the godly are strangers If heaven be his country earth must needs be the place of his pilgrimage there is no question but that followes It is said here they were pilgrims and strangers upon earth Vpon earth Because where ever a Christian is if it be upon any place upon earth he is a stranger and a pilgrim if he be in his owne house he is upon earth and therefore he is a stranger in his owne house if he be in his owne possession he is upon earth and therefore he is a stranger in his own possession As David confessed though he were a King I am a stranger and a pilgrim here as all my fathers were 1 Chron. 29. 15. A King in his kingdome is upon Gods earth and therefore he is a stranger in his own kingdome here As Austin saith very well quisque domus suae c. every man is a stranger in his owne house wee are strangers here on earth therefore It is not any condition on earth that exempts a child of God from being a stranger when the greatest Kings in the world have confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims so that all Christians of what condition Ioever they are from the highest to the meanest they are all strangers upon earth it is a cleare point And it must needs be so for the head of Christians was a stranger his love made him a stranger for he left his fathers bosome his love drew him
earthly respects Therefore how ever they are strangers here that they cannot be here long and they have soules that are of an everlasting continuance yet because their affections and the bent of their soules are all here they account themselves at home here and here they plant themselves and their posterity therefore though in some sence they be strangers yet not in that sence that the children of God are Every Christian is borne from above and borne to things above and hee is a stranger here All his course from his new birth till he come to the possession of his inheritance in heaven it is nothing but a travailing he never sits down but is alway in his motion and passage Every good work is a step of his way he is in motion still he takes degrees from better to better from grace to grace from knowledge to knowledge till he come to his home Let us make a tryall of our selves how our affections stand to these things whether our hearts bee weaned from earthly things undoubtedly if we have imbraced Christ we shall use the world as though wee used it not We shall be transformed into the Image of Christ and he used the things of this world as a stranger only to comfort him in the way we shall have the same mind that he had We shall carrie our selves as strangers as those that hope for a country in heaven Therefore I will name some particulars to shew the condition and carriage of a stranger First of all a stranger is travailing to another country to joyne both in one for the one followes the other he that is a stranger that apprehends what he is and apprehends that he hath a countrie to goe to hee travailes toward it A stranger that is travailing homeward he is content with his present condition for he knowes he shall have better at home In Iere. 45. God by Ieremy speakes to Barâ—…ch a good man I will destroy all these things and dost 〈◊〉 seeke great things for thy selfe If a Christian did consider Iam going to heaven to God what do I seeking great things here which God will destroy What will become of heaven and earth and all things here ere long And if the time be long ere heaven and earth be destroyed yet what will become of me ere long I shall be turned to earth and shall I seeke great things here upon earth Shall I not be content with my portion certainely a stranger is content with his present portion he that is a traveller when he comes to his Inne if perhaps things be not so cleane if his usage bee not so good he thinkes it is but a night and away it is no great matter this is not the maine he will not be over much discontent and quarrell at any unkind usage in the way for he knowes he shall have better usage when he comes home Therefore as he will bee content with little be it what it will be he knows it is not the maine So he will be patient if he meete with unkind usage hee will not stand quarrelling by the way and so hinder himselfe in his journey he will be patient in the injuries and wrongs in this life If a Prince be mis-used in another country he is contented and thinkes with himselfe I have a country where I shall be more respected and therefore he beares it the more willingly So a Christian is a King he is an heire and being a stranger he shall meete with dogges in this world as who doe dogs bark at but at strangers now being strangers we must looke for dogged usage It is no wonder that dogs barke at strangers it is their kind they consider it is the disposition of wicked men to doe so they doe but their kind Would a man have dogs not to barke and would we have wicked men that have evill tongues not to scorne that they know not to doe otherwise is to forget their kinde A Christian knowes they doe but their kind he pitties them and he doth not stop his journey and his course for it He will not be scorned out of his religion by a company of prophane spirits hee will not be laughed out of his course he knowes what he doth better than they they are madde and fooles he knowes it and they shall know it themselves ere long He knowes that he is in a serious judicious course that he can approve and they cannot theirs therefore he will not be scorned out of his course Thus faith in Christ makes him that is a stranger here content and patient He whose soule hath imbraced Christ is contented with any thing any thing is sufficient to his soule that is filled with better things Nothing will content a covetous earthly man a man of the earth such men think themselves at home they make a league with hell and death the men of the world they thinke they shall live here alway but a Christian that imbraceth a better life with Christ in happinesse to come he knowes he shall not be here long hee is here but as a stranger and shall shortly bee at home and therefore he is contented with any thing Likewise the knowledge of this that we are strangers and pilgrims it will make a man not only content and patient but thankfull for any kindnesse he finds in this world that God sweetens his absence from heaven and his pilgrimage on earth what that God should love me so not only to give me heaven but to give me contentments on the earth to sweeten my way to heaven what a mercy is this He is thankfull for any contentment hee is thankfull to the world to those that doe any thing for him that afford him any courtesie here that may helpe him in his pilgrimage and make it lesse troublesome and cumbersome to him All the Saints in former time were wondrous thankfull for that they had for what can a travailer look for but discourtesies and hard usage and if he find any thing better he will be thankfull certainely it is more then I â—…ooked for saith he When a man is bent toward heaven hee cannot but looke for hard â—…sage from the world We see when Christ did but look toward Ierusalem the Samaritans â—…ad enough they began to maligne him why his face was toward Ierusalem So when base worldlings see that a man will to heaven and leave their company and courses they cannot digest this A man of an ill conscience when hee sees another oppose that course that he resolved to sticke to he sees he confutes his course he sees his face is toward heaven and therfore labours to disgrace him As the wench said to Peter Thou speakest as one of Galile thy speech bewrayes thee So when a man is going toward heaven every base person the veriest rascall of all hath pride enough to scorne Religion So wee see they make not much of the world nor the world
for all for this sickenesse of body and disquiet of mind and all annoyance and adversity and it is revealed before hand for our comfort that there shall be such a time that wee may make use of it that we may ground our patience upon it When Saint Paul exhorts to patience saith hee The Lord is at hand and Saint Iames saith The Iudge standeth at the doore Let us be patient in infamies and sufferings it will bee otherwise ere long Christ is at hand Againe that wee might continually be breathing out thankefulnesse to God Our whole life should be spent in thankefulnesse to God Even as the Angels in heaven that stand in the presence of God and the blessed spirits in heaven they spend that vigour that is in them they spend all that is in them in praising God in thanks and laud to God and sing Glory glory so before-hand knowing that ere long we shall appeare with Christ and appeare in glory let us thank him before hand As Saint Peter saith Blessed be God that hath begotten us againe to an inheritance immortall undefiled c. reserved in heaven for us Let us blesse God before-hand as if we were in heaven already Certainely if we hope to be with those that shall sit in heavenly places in heaven to prayse God we will begin it on earth for the life of heaven is begun on earth we are Kings now we are Priests now wee are conquerours now we are new creatures now we must praise God and begin the imploiment of heaven now for what they do perfectly that we begin to do In heaven we know there is no ill company we will abstaine from it now there is no defilement of sinne wee will conforme our selves to that estate wee hope for There is nothing but praising of God as much as may be wee will warme our hearts with the moditation of what God hath done what he doth and what he hath reserved for the time to come with that we have in hope The best things of a Christian especially are in hope for that which we have by Christ principally is not in this world therefore considering that the best things that Christ died for are in hope let us rejoyce in hope and in rejoycing have our hearts inlarged with praysing of God for that we hope for And be comforted in all the changes of this life all the changes for the time to come and in death it selfe which is the last change are not all degrees to make way for that glorious appearing with Christ for the soule at death goes to heaven and the body shall come after why should wee be loath to die when death is nothing but a change from misery to happinesse a change from the danger of sinning to an impossibility of sinning from a vale of misery to a place of happinesse from men to God from sinfull persons that trouble our peace and quiet to better company in heaven from actions that are sinfull to actions altogether free from sinne It is a glorious and blessed change every way wee shall have better company better place better imployment all glorious then till the time come that all the Elect be gathered together and then body and soule shall be for ever with the Lord 1 Thess. 4. Why then should we feare changes when all changes shall end in that that is better Is a labouring man loath to have his hire or a weary man loath to have rest is a King loath to be crowned is a partie contracted loath to have the marriage consummate why should wee bee loath to die Wee should be ashamed of our selves that we have bin so long in the Schoole of Christ and yet have not learned to unloose our affections from earth to beter things that wee stand in feare of death that makes way to the glory of the soule now and the eternall glory of body and soule after In a word wee are exhorted in the beginning of the Chapter to have our minds in heaven where Christ is and wee are exhorted after the text to mortifie our earthly members two necessary duties to have our conversation in heaven before we be there and to mortifie our earthly members to dye in our affections to earthly things before wee dye indeed would wee have strength put into our soules to performe both these Let us oft meditate of the things that are betweene these verses Let us consider that we are dead so we should bee more lively to God Consider that our life is hid with Christ that Christ shall appear ere long and wee with him in glory Wee should raise our thoughts to be with Christ and draw our souls up to Heavenly things for the more our affections are upwards the lesse they will bee below our affections are finice the more we spend them on heavenly things the lesse they will run on earthly As a man in a trance his thoughts are taken up with one matter that he is dead to other things so the soule which is taken up with the glory to come and with Christ it is dead to earthly things only it takes them for necessary use as having use of them in our travell but it useth the world as if it used it not And this issues from this principle that wee shall ere long appeare with Christ in Glory There is no man but will drowne himselfe too much with the things of the world that hath not this to raise up his soule I shall appeare ere long with Christ in glory and then these things will be consumed The last point is how these depend one upon another that because Christ shall appeare in Glory therefore we I will touch it a little because it is a point of faith that helpes our judgement a little It is a ground of Divinity that whatsoever is in us that are members it is in our head first for God is first and then Christ mediator and then we whatsoever is good is in us or shall be to us it is in Christ first He is justified from our sinnes for he was our surety for sinne hee was abased for them first therefore hee shall appeare then without sin to Glory Our sin was but imputed to Christ he became our surety for sin and he must be abased therefore we cannot bee glo rious here because of our corruptions Christ was surety for our sinnes in his first comming now his resurrection shewed that hee had satisfied for our sinnes the second time he shall appear in glory why are we justified from our sins because Christ our surety was acquitted We ascend gloriousâ—… to heaven where is the ground of it he ascended first and we ascend for him and in him We sit in heavenly places why because he is in heaven before hand as the Husband takes up a place for his wife why doth she goe into the countrey and take it up after because her husband hath gone before and taken it Our
blessed meanes either in private admonitions or publike teaching let men pretend what they will there is no true desire of grace and to be in the estate of Gods people for then they would not be contrary to the means This wretched man Balaam when the Angell stood in his way with his sword drawne to stoppe his way yet notwithstanding he goes on still he was so carryed with covetousnesse and so blinded that neither the miracle of the beast speaking nor of the Angell in his way nor God in the way could stoppe him alas where was this desire then No no the glo ry of earthly things dazeled the glory of the estate of Gods people therefore wee see hee goes against all meanes that was used to stop him in his journey If a man desire to be good and to leave his sinnes he will not stand against the meanes Have wee not many that stand against the Ministery of Gods Ministers are Gods Angels they stand in the way and tell people if you live in this course you shall not inherite heaven if you live in oppression and base lusts unlesse you be changed you shall all perish They come to particular reproofes and hold forth the sword of Gods Spirit yet men breake through all and wreake their malice upon Gods Messengers Is here a true desire when they are not willing to have the hinderances removed when there is not respect of the meanes that should be used Againe true desires of grace they are growing desires though they bee little in the beginning as springs are yet as the springs grow so doe the waters that come from them so these desires they grow more and more still They grow sometimes in Gods children that they will have no stop till they come to have their sull desire to have perfect union and communion with God in heaven The desires of a blessed soule they are never satisfied till it come to heaven Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth saith the Church oh let mee have nearer communion with Christ. It desires in the vord and sacraments to come nearer and closer to God and in death then Come Lord Iesus come quickly And when the soule is in heaven there is yet nearer union a desire of the bodies resurrection that both may be for ever with the Lord. Till a Christian be perfect in body and soule there is desire upon desire till all desires be accomplished they are growing desires as S. Peter saith As new born babes desire the sincere milke of the word that yee may grow thereby It is a desire that is never satisfied because there is alway somewhat to be desired till we be perfectly happy And then they are desires that will not bee stilled A child if it have not strong desires it will be stilled with an apple but if the desires be strong nothing will still it but the dug so Gods Children if their desires be strong it is no bauble they desire nothing but grace and inward comfort will quiet the inward man It is a desire that is growing and strong it will not be staid with any thing in this world but wil break through all impediments as a strong stream it will never rest till it have communion with God And therefore the desires that men think are good and earnest enough that goe on plodding in a constant course and never labour to grow they are no desires at all no sanctified desires from a supernaturall principle of grace The desires of a Christian grow and are never satisfied till hee have perfect happinesse The three worthies of David brake through the host and got the water of Bethel for David oh that I had of the water of Bethel So where there are strong desires they are like Davids worthies they carry the soule through all impediments they grow stronger and stronger and are never satisfied till they come to the water of life Let us consider these things whether we have this desire or no if we have but sometimes flashes inconstant ineffectuall desires desires that grow not that are soone satisfied and are stilled with any thing alas these desires the spirit of God never kindled and bred in the heart they are ordinary flashes that shall serve for our deeper damnation Therefore let us take heed and not rest in a cast-awayes estate let us not rest in Balaams state but labour that the desires of our souls may be as they should Desires I confesse are the best character to know a Christian for workes may be hypocriticall desires are naturall Therefore wee ought to consider our desires what they are whether true or no for the first thing that issues from the soul are desires thoghts thoghts stir up desires This inward immediate stirring of of the soule discovers the truth of the soule better then outward things Let us oft therefore examine our desires And let me adde this one thing to the other let us examine our desires by this besides the rest whether we desire holinesse and the restauration of the Image of God the new creature and to have victory against our corruptions to be in a state that we may not sinne against God to have the spirit to be new born as well as we desire happinesse and exemption from misery Balaam desired happinesse but hee desired not the Image of God upon his Soule for then he would not have bin carried with a covetous divell against all meanes No his desire was after a glympse of Gods childrens glory only A wicked man can never desire to be in heaven as he should be for how should we desire to be in heaven to be freed from sinne that wee may praise God and love God that there may be no combate betweene the flesh and the spirit Can he wish this No his happinesse is as a swine to wallow in the mire and he desires to enjoy sensible delights as for spirituall things especially the Image of God and the vision of God they are not fit objects for him as farre as it is a freedome from sin but as hee hath a conceit oh there are goodly things to be seene c. So it corresponds with his disposition but to bee free from Sin and from the conflict of the flesh and spirit and to be set at liberty to serve God alway he cannot desire it so Tell him of heaven he loves it not there is no gold there is not that that he affects therfore he cares not for it he cannot relish it he is not changed Therefore it is a notable Character of a true Christian to desire heaven to be freed from sinne to have communion with God in holinesse other prerogatives will follow this Let us therefore consider what our desires are how they are carryed for desires discover what the soule is As a spring is discovered by the vapours that are about it so is this hidden state of the soule discovered by the
Court As the Devill is a Lyar and a Murtherer so is this Sonne of the Devill who is led by the Spirit of the Dragon in disposition they are alike In course of life they are alike The Dragon is said to draw the third part of the stars of heaven downe to the earth that is to draw men which were as the stars of heaven to make them deny their Religion So this Dragon this Pope the instrument and vassal of Sathan hee drawes the third part of the stars from heaven and hee drawes men from the love of the truth by preferment and honour men that are learned men that are otherwise of excellent parts hee drawes them from heaven to earth that is hee drawes them from the knowledge of the truth and goodnesse to earth and lower then earth too if they do not repent even to hell it selfe from whence hee came Thus I might goe on to shew that this Beast is Rome under the Pontificality and not Rome under the Heathen Emperours likewise that this Beast is acted lead and guided by the spirit of the Dragon by reason of the resemblance which it holds parallel with him in these and other things So much for explication of this Beast But why is the state of Rome called the Beast Daniel first knew the great Empires the one of Babylon called a Lyon the Persian Monarchy a Bear the Grecian a Leopard but here in this Chapter is a strange Beast that hath all the cruelty and fiercenesse of all those Monarchies Called therefore a Beast for her fiercenesse and cruelty Gods Church they are sheepe and lambes Christ himselfe the Lambe of God the opposite Church of Antichrist a Beast acruel Beast If you go to plants Gods Church are lilies the opposite kingdome are thornes If you goe to Fowles Gods Church are Doves Turtles mild and gentle the opposite Church are Eagles and birds of prey But I say they are called Beasts for their cruelty The state of Rome under those heathenish Emperours was a Beast and in those ten persecutions the Emperours are rightly called Beasts so likewise Rome Papall is a Beast Our Religion true Religion entertained makes of Beasts men the true knowledge of Christ alters their natures turnes Lyons into Lambes as the Prophet saith Isa. 11. But the Popish religion it makes of men beasts makes them worse then themselves For these Gun powder-traytors many of them as they were by birth Gentlemen so their dispositions were gentle and mild divers of them not of the worst dispositions only that bloody Religion made them worse then their nature was So I say Papall Rome is a Beast and popish religion makes men beasts Well I will not inlarge my selfe in the uses of this point because I shall speake of it afterward if the time will give me leave only this have nothing to doe with this Beast keep out of her pawes keepe out of her clawes A Lion or a cruell Beast may seeme to bee calme for a while but a Lyon will as we say shew a Lyons trick once a yeare Meddle not therefore with this Beast it is a Beast so much for that what the Beast is the state of Rome under the Bishop of Rome For God hath put into their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree to give up their kingdomes to the Beast Whose The Angell sets down in the verse before the ten Horns the ten Kings the ten western Kings whether it be a certaine number for an uncertain or whether it be a certain number I wil not dispute of now but take it so as it cannot be disputed against a certain number for an uncertaine A number of the VVesterne Kings gave up their kingdomes for a while to the Beast untill the Word of God should bee fulfilled But marke the phrase God put it into their hearts to give up their kingdomes to the Beast Wil God put into their hearts to give up their kingdomes to the Beast why then the Pope of Rome need not pretend Constantines donation that he 300. yeares after Christ gave unto them many territories about Rome But they may depend upon a higher donation God put it into the hearts of the Kings to give up their kingdomes to the Beast Here is a higher title then the donation of Constantine But we must know that this is not meant as if God gave him a right by putting into the hearts of the Kings to give up their kingdomes to the Beast but God seeing these ten Hornes these ten Kings to be in a sinfull estate who deserved to be left of him and to bee given up to further illusion and by with-drawing his grace to give them up to the occasions of sin to this seducing Beast and Whore he put into their hearts to give up their kingdomes to the Beast But this must be a little cleared Is God the Author of sinne God put it into their hearts he did not only rule the events but he put into their hearts c. I answer The phrases of the Scripture are well enough knowne in this kind God gave them up to a reprobate sense Rom. 1. 12. The falling of the people from Rehoboam it is said it was of the Lord And God bad Shemei rayle divers such phrases there are in the Scripture How must these bee understood thus Not that God doth allow or command any thing that is evill much lesse that hee doth infuse any evill into men so that when it is said he put these things into their hearts here is neither an outward command nor an inward infusion what is it then Here is a finding of them in an evill and sinfull estate and God useth that evil and mischiefe and wickednesse that he finds to his owne end and purpose He infuseth no malice or evil but finding of it he useth it to his owne particular end and purpose makes way and vent for it upon particular occasions These ten Kings he infuseth no love of superstition into them but finding them evill and not as they should be Subjects of his kingdome and misliking his sweet government it was just with God to give them up to be slaves to the Beast by consequence to the Devill himselfe that spake and wrought by the Beast So I say God tooke away the impediments and opened a way to their evill disposition He used their evill disposition to this or that particular thing even as a Workeman that finds an ill piece of timber he makes not the timber ill but when he finds it ill hee useth it to his owne good purpose and as a man it is Luthers comparison as a man that moves a Horse that is lame hee doth not put lamenesse into the Horse but useth him to his owne purpose being lame so God finding these men evill in the generall he directs this ill into particular courses to worke it selfe this way and not that in this particular action not in that For God although he be not the
nature so wee make our selves twise dead a hundred times dead by sinne and bring curse upon curse by our sinfull conversation wee are then under Gods broad seale cursed Wee are all borne accursed til we get out of the state of nature to free us from which Christ became a curse if wee get not out of this but goe on and feed our vanity and corruption what will bee the end of it but an eternall cursr afterwards Therefore let us consider what we doe when we maintaine and cherish corruptions and abuses in our selves and others We build that that God hath cursed wee build that that wee have vowed against our selves And how will God take this at the houre of death thou that art a carelesse drowsie hearer of the word of God and a liver contrary to the word of God how will God take this at thee at the houre of death when thy conscience will tell thee that thy life hath beene a practise of sin a strengthning of corruption The old Adam that thou hast cherished it will stare and looke on thee with so hideous a looke that it will drive thee to despaire For conscience will tell thee that thy life hath bin a strengthning of pride of vanity of covetousnesse and of other sins thy whole life hath beene such and now when thou shouldst looke for comfort then thy corruptions which thou shouldest have subdued they are growne to that pitch that they will bring thee to despaire without the extraordinary mercy of God to awaken thy heart by repentance Why therefore should we strengthen that that is a curse and will make us cursed too and will make the time to come terrible to us the houre of death and the day of judgement How shall men thinke to hold up their faces and heads at the day of judgement whose lives have beene nothing else but a yielding to their owne corruption of nature and the corruptions and vanities of the times and places they have lived in that have never had the courage to plead for God that have beene fierce against God Who ever was fierce against God and prospered When men make their whole life fierce against God against the admonitions of his word and Spirit and their whole life is nothing but a practise of sinne how can they thinke of death and judgement without terrour Now it were wisedome for us to carry our selves so in our lives and conversations that the time to come may not bee terrible but comfortable to thinke of that wee may lift up our heads with joy when wee thinke of death and judgement but when we doe nothing but build Iericho when we raise up sin that wee should ruine more and more what will the end of this be but despaire here and destruction in the world to come You may shake off the menaces and threatnings of the Ministers as Hiel shooke off Iâ—…suah's he was an austere singular man and it is a long time since Iericho was cast downe and God hath forgotten hath hee so hee found that God had not forgotten So there are many that thinke that words are but wind of men opposite to such and such things but though our words may bee shooken off now and the word of God now in the preaching may be shooke off yet it will not when it comes to execution When wee propound the curse of God against sinfull courses you may shake off that curse but when Christ from Heaven shall come to judge the quick and the dead and say Goe yee cursed that were borne cursed that have lived cursed that have maintained a cursed opposition to blessed courses that have not built up your owne salvation but your corruptions you that loved cursing Goe yee cursed to Hell fire with the Devill and his Angels for ever will you shake off that No no howsoever our ministeriall in râ—…aties may be shaken off yet when God shall come to judge the quicke and the dead that eternall threatning shall not be shaken off Therefore I beseech you consider not so much what wee say now but what God will make good then What wee bind on earth cut of the warrant of Gods booke Shall be bound in Heaven and God will say Amen to that wee say agreeable to his word Thinke not light of that wee speake for God will make good every word hee is Iehovah he will give being to every word Hee is not only mercie but justice we make an Idol of him else and wee must feaâ—…e him in his justice He loves to dwell with such as are of a contrite Spirit that tremble at his word It is said of David that when Vzzah was stricken he trembled Hiel and such kind of persons regard not the threatnings of God but goe on and treasure up wrath It is a signe of a wicked man to heare the menaces and threatnings and not to tremble To end all with two places of Scripture saith Moses He that heares these things and blesseth himselfe my wrath shall smoke against him Gods wrath shall smoake and burne to hell against such a one as blesseth himselfe that knowes he is cursed under the seale of God that doth ill and yet hee blesseth himselfe in doing ill therefore take heed of that adde not that to the rest Gods wrath will smoake against such a one And you know what Saint Paul saith Rom. 2. If thou goe on and treasureup wrath thou buildest Iericho that thou hast vowed the destruction of Every time thou takest the Communion thou treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath For there will be a day of the manifestation of the just wrath of God and then these things will be laid to thy charge Let us every one labour to get out of the state of nature to breake off our wicked lives and to get into Christ the blessed seed and then we shall be blessed we shall be made free free from the curse of nature and of sin Let us renew our Covenants against all sinne and make conscience to bee lead by the Spirit of Christ that wee may gather sound Evidence every day that wee are in Christ and so out of the Curse THE SVCCESSEFVLL SEEKER In tvvo Sermons on PSALME 27. 8. BY The late Learned and Reverend Divine RICH. SIBBS Doctor in Divinity Mr. of KATHERINE Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher to the Honourable Society of GRAYES-INNE 1 CHRON. 16. 11. Seeke yee the Lord and his strength seeke his face continually LONDON Printed by T. B. for N. Bourne at the Royall Exchange and R. Harford at the guilt Bible in Queenes-head Alley in Pater-noster-Row 1639. The Successefull SEEKER PSAL. 27. 8. When thou saidst seeke yee my face my Heart said unto thee thy face Lord will I seeke IN the former Verse David begins a prayer to God Heare oh Lord have mercy upon me and answer mee This Verse is a ground of that prayer Seeke yee my face saith GOD the heart answers againe Thy face
that once the heart hath enough from heaven-ward it hath enough from heaven God hath said and promised it then the heart by a worke it hath of it selfe speaks to it selfe and to the whole man to seeke God The heart will not stoop without reason the heart of an understanding man but when it sees the command first seeke my face then it answers thy face Lord will I seeke So that this command of God and this incouragement and warrant from God Seeke yee my face it was in Davids heart it was written and set and grafted in his heart and then his heart being awed with the command of God God hath said thus the heart goes again to God thou hast said thus Lord Thy face will I seeke See the depth of Davids speech when hee faith Lord thy face will I seeke It came from his heart root not only from the heart but from the heart grounded upon the command and incouragement of God Seeke my face there is the ground the heart digesting this thorowly this is Gods Command I understand it and understand it from God I see the authority from whence itcomes therfore I wil stirre up my selfe Thy face Lord will I seek I shall have occasion to speake somewhat of it afterwards in the next thing his obedience therefore I goe on Thy face Iehovah will I seeke Here is his returne againe to God that he will seeke the face of God I will seeke thy face in all my necessities then I will seeke to thee and in all thine ordinances I will seeke to thee whereinsoever thy presence is discovered thy presence is in all places especially in thine ordinances thy presence is in all times especially in the time of trouble and need in all times of need I will seeke to thee in all exigences I will seeke unto thee and in all thiâ—…e ordinances wherein I may find thee I know I may meet with thee there thou givest thy people meetings in thine ordinances it is thy walke therefore thy face Lord will I seeke where I may be sure to meet thee in thine owne way and ordinances So much for the meaning Thy face Lord will I seeke Here is first of all an Application and obedience from Application they be words of particular Application Thy face will I seeke God had given him a ground Seeke yee my face his heart makes the Application Thy face I will seeke applying the generall incouragement to himself in particular So that you may observe hence that The ground of all obedience of all holy entercourse with God is a Spirit of Application Applying the truths of God though generally spoken to our selves in particular It is spoken here in the plurall number Seeke yee my face but the generall implies the particular as London is in England Seeke yee my face all yee that are the people of God but I am one of them what though I be not named that tenent in Popery is against sense when a man is condemned by the law is his name in the law It is against such a fact hee is a Malefactor And so the particular is included in the generall Seeke yee my face David knew that reason taught him that and not Religion Now the ground of Application of divine truths to our selves in particular is this that the truth of God setting aside some circumstantiall things that arise sometimes to particular persons that sometimes limit the command to one person or the promise to one person cut off those distinctions all comfortable truths agreeto Gods people in all ages while there is a Church in the world Al truths are eternall truths die not as men doe David is dead and Moses is dead but this truth is not dead Seeke yee my face Paul is gone and Peter is gone we are the Davids and the Mose's the Peters and the Pauls now those truths that were good to them are good to us Whatsoever was written before was written for our comfort There is an eternall truth that runs through all ages of the Church that hath an everlasting comfort God hath framed the Scriptures not to be limited to the times wherin they were written as the Papists idly speak Bellarmine and others as if they were occasionall things that the Scriptures were written by occasion of such and such men and concerned only those times but the Scriptures were written for all times and it concernes a times to apply all truths to themselves setting aside those circumstances that are applyed to particular men which are easie to discern in Heb. 13 that that was said to Iosua Ios. 1. the Apostle applies it to the Church in his time and to all Bee not afraid I will not faile thee nor forsake thee it is a generall truth And Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse that whosoever beleeves as Abraham is a sonne of Abraham These truths are universall and concerne every one as well as any And so many other places of Scripture The promise of the blessed seed the beleeving of it runs from the beginning of the world in all ages to the comming of Christ. All other promises were but an inlargement of that that was the Mother-promise that is the ground of Application that the generall truths agree to all the Churches The truth of God is the portion of every child of God he may claime every promise and ought to follow the direction of every command The reason is because al the Church of God are Heires alike Heires of the Promise Children of Abraham Heires of salvation they have interest in Christ-alike in whom all the promises are Yea and Amen in whom all the promises have their making and their performance And by reason that there is an indifferent equality in regard of the maine things of all the children of God they have interest alike in all the benefits by Christ in all truths in all substantiall duties to God and all favours from God that is the ground of the equity of Application But if you will have the ground of the necessity of it nature will shew that for the truths are food if food bee not taken what good doth it doe without application The word of God is a sword what will a sword doe if it hangs up in a mans Chamber or if it be not used when the enemy approacheth The Application of the sword of the Spirit gives the vertue to it it is to no purpose else divine truths are physick if it be not applyed what use is there of physick There is a necessity if wee will obey God of a Spirit of Application there is nothing that will doe good but by application neither in nature nor in grace There must bee a virtuall application at least the heavens worke upon the earth there is no Application bodily the heavens are too high but there is a virtuall Application there comes light in and influence to these inferiour bodies therefore we
come to heaven they must bee a generation of Seekers Heaven is a generation of Finders of Possessors of Enjoyers Seekers of God but here we are a generation of Seekers wee want somewhat that we must seeke when we are at best we want the accomplishment of our happinesse It is a state of seeking here because it is a state of want we want something alway But to come more particularly to this seeking the face of God or the presence of God The presence of God and the face of God where is it to be sought for Know that first for a ground The presence of God it is every where but that is not the thing here purposed There is a face and presence of God iâ—… every thing in every creature therefoâ—… every creature hath the name of God some times a Rock because as God is strong soâ—… Rock is strong So likewise a shield as a shieâ—… defends so God defends us there is somâ—… resemblance of God in the creature therefore God hath the name of the creature but thâ—… is not here meant The presence of God meant here is that presence that hee shewes in the time of need and in his ordinances Hee shewes a presence in need and necessity that is a gracious presence to his children a gracious face As in want of direction hee shewes his presence of light to direct them In weaknesse hee shews his strength In trouble and perplexity he will shew his gracious and comfortable presence to comfort them In perplexity he shewes 〈◊〉 presence to set the heart at large answerable to the necessity there is a presence So in need God is present with his children to direâ—… them to comfort them to strengthen them if they need that And in the issue of all busines there is a presence of God to give a blessing for there is a presence must be even to the end of things when we have all wee would have yet God must give a blessing so you see there is a presence of God answerable to the necessity of man as it hath reference to this place Thy face will I seeke to direct me by thy heaâ—…enly light when I know not what to doe as â—…ehosaphat said we know not what to doe but our â—…yes are towards thee And so in weakenesse when we have no strength of our owne then goe to God to seeke the face of God that he would be present with us So when wee are comfortlesse goe to God that comforts the abject The God of all comfort goe to him for his presence for helpe And when wee are troubled in our hearts about successe what will become of such and such a businesse goe to GOD that gives successe and issue to all Thus we see a presence of God answerable to every necessity of man There is a gracious presence of God likewise in his ordinances that is the chiefe presence next to heaven the presence in Gods Ordinances that is in the unfolding of the word in the administration of the Sacraments in the communion of Saints Indeed in the Ordinances God is graciously present Where two or three are gathered together I will be in the midst of them Therefore in Rev. 1. It is said that Christ walks in the middest of the seven golden Candlestickes that is in the middest of the Church There is a gracious presence of of Christ in the middest of the Candlesticks he takes his walkes there Christ hath a speciall presence in his Church in the ordinances and that David aymes at here too not onely I will seeke thy face introuble and necessitie when I need any thing from thee but Thy face will I seeke in all thine ordinances to inable me for the other For it is in vaine for a man to thinke to seeke God in his necessity and exigence if he seeke not God in his ordinances and doe not joy in them So you see where the face and presence of God is to be sought in necessities of all kinds and in the ordinances Now in our seeking the presence or face of God there is foure or five things that I will touch the heads of First of all seeking implyes observance seeke my face that is observe me respect me as a God Thy face I will seeke I will bee a follower of thee As in English an observer is a follower a creature It is a proud word as if man could make a man of nothing And indeed they are creatures in that kind they are raysed of nothing To seeke a man is to observe him there is a notable place for it Prov. 29. 26. Many seeke the rulers favour In the Greeke translation the Septuagint the word is to observe and respect a man which is translated seeking Many observe the ruler but every mans judgement commeth from the Lord. You see those that thinke to rise by the favour of such or such a man they will be his followers as I said and observe him they studie men as those that rise by favour that way they study not bookes so much as men what may delight such a man what hee respects surely they will serve him at every turne A base Atheist makes a man his god that he may rise he will deny God and the motions of Conscience and honesty and all to observe the face of a great man whom hee hopes to rise by but a true Christian observes the great God the greatest preferment comes from him so it signifies to observe In Psalme 62. there you shall see the ground of observation is that power belongs to God I have heard once nay twise Hee heard it twise by the meditation of it by going over it in his heart againe I have heard once nay twise that is I thoâ—…ght againe and againe on it that is hearing of it oft We may heare a truth a hundred times that is by meditating of it I have heard once nay twice that power belongs to God that is riches and power to advance a man Atheisticall men thinke all belongs to the creature but power belongs to God That is one thing that is meant by seeking diligent observing of GOD and respect to him and his will and commandements in all things If so be that a person of great place should say observe me and I will prefer you I hope men would bee ready enough they need no more words Here is the Atheisme of our hearts God saith I will doe all good for you the greatest preferment is to bee the child of GOD here and the heire of heaven after What preferment is there to that of Christianity and he saith seeke my face observe me respect me let the eye of your soules be to me as it is in the Psalme As the eyes of a mayd are toward the hand of her Mistris The obedience of a servant is toward the eye of the Commander so the obedience of a Christian is toward the
Canaan and of heaven the benefits by Christ is the upshot of all this They died in faith He doth not say how otherwise they died because it is not materiall whether they died rich or poore great or meane God takes no great notice of that nor a Christian takes no great notice of it They died in faith Whether they died a violent or a peaceable death it is no matter they died blessed in that they died in faith They died in faith which in other phrases is to dye in the Lord to sleepe in the Lord because whosoever dies in faith dies in Christ. Faith lifts them up to Christ and they steepe in Christ. It is a happy thing to dye in Christ Now those that die in faith they die in Christ Blessed are those that dy in the Lord they rest from their labours saith the Apostle All these died in faith They continued in faith to death and then they ended their dayes in faith When death closed up the eyes of their bodies then with the eye of faith they looked upon Christ upon God in Christ reconciled to them the point is cleare that The grace of faith it is such a grace that it carries a Christian through all the passages of this life It inableth him to hold oâ—…t to the end to suffer those things that he is to suffer and in the end by it he dies and when all things else leave him in death when riches leave him when friends leave him when honour and great places leave him when his life sences leave him when all leave him yet faith will never leave him till it have put him in full possession of heaven and then it ceaseth when it hath done the worke it hath to doe which is to bring us to heaven then it is swallowed up in vision and sight and hope into fruition and enjoying of the thing hoped for It is a blessed grace that stands by us and goes along with us and comforts us in all the passages of this life and even in death it selfe in those darke passages it never forsakes us till it have put us in possession of heaven All these died in faith What is it to die in faith To die in faith as I said is to die in the Lord by faith and it lookes to the Time Past. Present To come To the time past to die in faith is to die in assurance of the forgivenesse of sins when by faith and repentance we have pulled oâ—…t the sting of sins past for faith looks upon Christ and Christ hath taken the sting of death in his owne body and death ever since hath beene stinglesse and harmelesse to his members he hath disarmed it death had nothing to doe to kill Christ now seizing upon him who should not have died who was our suretie death hath lost his sting so that to die in faith is to die in assurance of forgivenesse of sinnes past by Christ. For the present in the present instant of death to die in faith is to see God reconciled to us in Christ and with the eye of Stephen to see Christ ready to receave our soules to see Christ sitting at the right hand of God to breake through all that is betweene to see our selves sitting at the right hand of God in heavenly places with Iesus Christ This is to die in faith to see our selves there with our head where wee shall bee ere long Faith makes things to come present To die in faith is to die in assurance of that blessed salvation presently even at that instant of time at the parting of soule and body that Christ will receive our soules that are redeemed with his precious bloud that cost him so deare he will not suffer the price of his bloud to miscarry Faith apprehends that Christ will goe downe with us to the grave as God said to Iacob feare not to goe downe into Egypt I will goe with thee so God would not have us feare to goe down into the grave those darke cels and dungeons God will goe downe with us Our flesh shall rest in hope because Christ our surety was raysed out of the grave and sits in heaven in glory and majesty therefore our flesh rests in hope as it is Psalme 16. 5. Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption therefore our flesh rests in hope till the resurrection because GOD did not suffer his holy one to see corruption this is to dye in faith And for the time to come to die in faith is by faith to overcome all the horrour of death Death is a terrâ—…ble thing and of all the passages wherein we have occasion to use faith it is most exercised in death It requires more to die in faâ—…th then to live in faith for then the soule it lookes to the horrour of the grave it sees nothing there but dust and rottennesse It lookes to the panges of death sense and nature doth And likewise the soule so farre as it hath nothâ—…ng but nature in it it looks to the dissolution of two friends the body and the soule who have been long coupled together and their parting is bitter And then it looks to the parting with friends here with whom they have lived lovingly and sweetely In death nature sees an end of all imployment in this world of all the comforts of this life c. and therefore it is a terrible thing Now to die in faith is to die in conquering all these with a spirit above all these What doth faith in the houre of death It over-comes all these and all such like For when the soule by faith considers the horrour of the grave as the chambers of death faith considers they be but resting places for the body that it sleepes there a while till the day of the resurrection and then they meete againe And it considers that the flesh rests there in hope of a glorious resurrection and faith sees a time of restoring as Saint Peter saith There shall be a day of restoring of all things There is a day of refreshing and restoring to come when those eyes where with wee now looke up to heaven and those feeâ—…e that carry us about our callings and about the exercisâ—… of religion and those hands that have beene lift up to God that body that hath beene the vessell of the soule shall be restored thoâ—…gh it be turned to dust and rottennesse Faith seetâ—… the faithfulnesse of God that God in Christ hath taken these bodies of ours in trust 〈◊〉 know whom I have believed 2 Tim. 1. 12. and be is able to keepe that I have committed to him I have committed to him my soule my body my whole salvation I know he is able to keep that I have committed to him And I knâ—… that my Redeemer liveth saith Iob it was his comfort in all extremity that he should see him with his very same eyes And then for the
sees more comfort and joy and matter of benefit and blessing to the soule in the promises and in the word of God then in Isaac that is then in the dearest thing in our owne account that we have that the faithfull soule had rather part with all then with God it will not part with his promises for all that is in the earth not for the dearest thing in this world Isaac shall goe rather Then for their light to goe by it was but little what a little light had they Answ. Promises they saw things in types and glasses a few promises and what was that they sought A heritage farre off Wee on the contrary have all set nearer hand that may helpe us but wee have a weaker faith One would thinke it should greatly help us to lead our lives till we come to heaven for that that we believe is nearer heaven is nearer how little a time is betweene us and the day of judgment how little a time betweene us and the glory that is to be revealed For the clouds that we have betweene they are none in comparing our light with theirs How many promises have we discovered before hand we have Christ come in the flesh and risen again we have the Gentiles called and all these things we have light upon light we have larger promises and a larger unfolding of divine truths the Canon is inlarged the Bible is enlarged more than it was then there are many books added and the New Testament Now how doth it come to passe that we see not so well as they nor so strongly as they I answer the reason is this their light was lesse but their sight was stronger we have more light and lesse sight we have things nearer but our sight is weaker the more shame for us A strong eye may see a farre off by a little light When a weake eye cannot see so farre by a greater light The eye of their soule the eye of faith was stronger and more light some the spirit of God was stronger in Abraham but his light of revelation was lesser he had fewer promises for he desired to see Christs day and saw it not So it is with Christians sometimes when there is a great strength of faith yet it may be there is not so much light a weake Christian may have more light but he hath a weaker eye and he in that respect sees better then a stronger To a stronger God doth not discover to him so much outwardly sometimes sutable to his inward Gods dispensations are diverse in this kind Now to helpe our sight to heaven this sight of faith that wee may every day ascend with the eye of our soules with this blessed sight Let us take heed of the God of this world Satan that hee doe not with the dust of the world dimme our sight what is the reason that many cannot see the glorious things of GOD The God of this world saith the Apostle hath blinded their eyes hee casts dust in their eyes they are covetous they are blind in their affections they have darke soules The soule when it is lead by affections and lusts when the affections will not suffer it to see it covers the eyes of it And then the outward things of the world they are cast into the eyes we must take heed of these inward and outward lets take heed of Sathan that he doe not with outward objects bewitch us For as it is in prospective glasses you know such glasses some are of that nature they represent to a man things that are a farre off as if they were neare so faith it is a kind of prospective glasse it presents to the soule by reason of this super naturall light things that are farre off as if they were neare Now as God hath his prospective glasses to see a farre off so the Devill hath prospective glasses that when things are neare he makes them seene a farre off as such glasses there are too when death and danger and damnation are neaâ—…e When a man carries the sentence of damnation in his bosome when he carries a stayned defiled conscience the devill with his prospective glasse makes him see death and destruction as a farre off I may live so many yeares and enjoy my pleasure and my will Now this is but a false glasse the devill abuseth them for your life is but a death and when we begin to live we begin to die why should we account therefore of the time to come death and life goe in equall pace one with another everyday we live so much is taken from our life and then the cutting off of all is uncertaine let us take heed that Satan blind us not And withall desire God to open our eyes every day to take the scales from the eye of our soules that we may see the promises that we may see Christ that we may see God shining on us in Christ that he would take away the vaile from the things by exposition that he would open the truth to us by his Ministers and that hee would take away the vaile from our hearts that our hearts may joyne with the things That when by ministeriall meanes the things are cleare that there may not be a vaile of infidelity on our hearts but that our hearts may sweetly joyne with them Let us begge daily that GOD would take away the things that hinder inward and outward that we may see the things a farre off that we may not be as Peter saith mop eyed that wee cannot see a farre off but that we may set heaven before our eyes and the judgement and the happinesse to come that we may see and view and eye those things by faith and that wee may square our lives answerable Then againe to helpe our sight of Christ and happinesse let us get a fresh sight of our corruption and sinne every day let us every day look on that terrifying object of our corruption of nature hang it in the eye of our soules as an odious object to humble us Let us see every day what a corrupt heart we carry about us see how odious these things are to God how it offends him see how it exposeth us to the wrath of God if he should take us in the middest of our sinnes and corruptions let us have these things fresh in our eyes every day and that will cleare our sight Men are loath to looke in the booke of their consciences because they are loath to be disturbed from their pleasures Let us see what need we stand in of Christ the view of our corruptions will make us glad to see a better object it will make us turne our eyes to CHRIST to the promises and all things that we have by Christ we shal be glad to look to him What is the reason we have no more delight to see the glorious things afarre off We see not the dimension of our corruptions for then
should not be carried in his affections to a good that he is perswaded of and how is it possible he should not loath ill and dest 〈◊〉 things If he were perswaded that hell were such as it is and that these courses lead to hell and destruction and estrange him from the favour of God whose loving kindnesse is better then life it self if men were perswaded of 〈◊〉 things in any strength their soules would not be affected as they are Therefore if wee would know whether nature be corrupted or no we may do it by this You have some men that are conceited especially when they are in their ruffe and have all things plenty Divines talke much of the corruption of nature and such things they think all is well O! but do but lay these things together the excellency of the things promised and the terrour of the things threaâ—…ed and our â—…ndisposition to these things in regard of perswasion that we live as if we did not think these things to be true What a disposiâ—…on oâ—… soule is that that cals divine truths into question To believe the lies of our owne hearts and the temptations of the devill and the world that lies in mischiefe before the 〈◊〉 ved truth of GOD it selfe that is sealed 〈◊〉 the oath of God And yet the heart of man 〈◊〉 naturally carried to believe these things moâ—… than God himselfe Witnesse the lives of meâ—… who have dead carâ—… base affections 〈◊〉 regard of heavenly things they shew 〈◊〉 they are not perswaded of them notwithstanding all the sweete arguments and perswasions that the Scripture hath They doe not professe that they call them in question yet they live as if they made no doubt that they are all false It is a folly not to believe those things that are sealed by so many evidences as divine things are but it is more desperate folly to live as if wee did not believe them at all If these things were digested they would make us out of love with our owne naturall estate and to labour for a spirit of faith to perswade our soules both that those things are so indeed that God hath revealed and to get assured perswasion of our part and interest in them Indeed a dead faith is no faith at all it is the effect of the whole Epistle of S. Iames that it is no faith that is dead it doth not worke upon the heart and affections nor the life and conversation a dead faith is no faith at all Let us shame our selves therefore Lord doe I professe I see things above nature that I see Christ in heaven and see my selfe there and do I professe that I am perswaded that the word of God is true and am I no more affected where is my love where is my joy where is my comfort doth my heart runne after other things that professe my selfe to bee perswaded of better things Let us never rest but bee angry and wroth with our hearts and affections for they are made for these promises our precious faith is made to imbrace precious promises and to carry the whole soule to them And let us helpe this with complaining of our selves and with prayer Lord thou hast discovered excellent things in thy word and hast perswaded me Lord open my heart the heart is thy throne the heart and will and affections thou dealest with especially Lord incline my heart inlarge my heart The LORD hath promised in the new covenant to teach our bowels to love Lord teach my heart to love thee Thou hast opened my understanding to conceive holy things or else I had never beene able to understand thee and thy truth teach my bowels also to love teach them to cleave to the things take off my love my joy and delight from earthly things and plant them where they should be inlarge them the right way fill my heart with thy selfe as thou hast made it for thy selfe This should be our desire What be the affections wherby the soule imbraceth these good things it is perswaded of The soule imbraceth these things in the affections of faith and hope in the first place for faith is an emptiegrace in it selfe it is carried to somewhat out of it selfe that it imbraceth and layeth hold on and hope is with faith alway Together with the work of faith and hope there is a sanctifyed affection of the imbracing soule there is a love of the things promised which is imbracing and a love of the meanes and likewise joy and delight in them expressed by thankfulnesse As you see the Patriarchs in the story of Genesis when God discovered holy things to them aâ—…resh that he would give them the land of Canaan and the Messias to come and all that happinesse there was thankfulnesse presently they built Altars to God And which alway accompanies thankfulnesse humility As Abraham Genesis 17. 3. downe he falls when God made him such a large promise he fals downe on his face as if he were unworthy of such a thing so this disposition alway accompanies a soule that imbraceth together with faith and hope that leads the affections after them there is love expressed in a constant obedience and care of duty to God many wayes As it is an affection that will not bee concealed And joy and delight with thankfulnesse and humility considering the excellency of the things and our unworthinesse that we cannot but have this disposition alway thankfulnes and humility And likewise contentment to end our dayes a disposition that followes imbracing in faith for where imbracing of faith and love is in an imperfectestate there will be joy when that comes that makes way to full imbracing that is in heaven it selfe as Simeon rejoyced when hee imbraced Christ in his armes what did the old man thinke we when he came to heaven when Christ and he met there And Abraham rejoyced to see CHRISTS day with the eye of faith and likewise imbraced it with faith and that wrought joy What did Abraham then when he came to heaven when he see all ended there I say death that makes way to full enjoyning and imbracing in this very respect it is not only patiently entertained of Gods children but comfortably as letting them in to the good things that they esteeme above all the world besides to the possession of Christ to heaven and happinesse Let us consider of these things To come to direct us a little about this imbracing in faith and hope and love and joy and the whole soule when the soule as it were goes out to the things wee are perswaded of How shall this be wrought upon the soule This imbracing wee see it followes upon perswasion and perswasion followes seeing they saw them farre off and were perswaded of them and thereupon they imbraced them Therefore let us labour for a cleare understanding of divine things That which the eye sees the heart grieves for in ill and that that
the eye sees the heart imbraceth in good And in what measure our eye sight of heavenly things is clearer and our perswasion stronger in that measure our imbracing is lovely and full of joy and delight Therefore let us labour to grow in knowledge in supernaturall spirituall knowledge and that our perswasion may be stronger every day more and more for answerable to that our affections will grow and will be carried to the things discovered And there is nothing more effectuall to commend knowledge to us then this that it is a meanes to work a holy and heavenly disposition and temper in us especially if it be spirituall And let us meditate upon what wee seeme to know and are perswaded of let us dwell upon things still to work them upon the will and affections let us dwell upon them till our hearts bee warmed well with the things knowne and that we professe our selves to be perswaded of And joyne with it an enquiry upon the soule are these things so doe I know these things and am I perswaded of these things that they are so how is my disposition answerable then am I so affected as I should be is my love so hote and my joy so working and spiritly and quicke as it should or no and hereupon take occasion to stirre up our selves and to checke our owne soules Alas that I should have such things discovered and that I should see such things in such a strong perswasion in the booke of God and professe my selfe to be perswaded of these things and yet be so dead at all times And if we find our affections any thing working that wee are disposed to imbrace these things then wee cannot but be in an excellent temper and blesse God that vouchsafed together with the excellency of the things themselves to shew us our portion by his holy spirit to enlighten our understandings and to perswade us let us blesse God for this for it is a worke above nature And withall because the soule cannot close with and imbrace these things but it must let loose other things for you know in imbracing there must bee a letting goe of those things that were formerly within the gripe if we would gripe these things in our affection and will we must have them only we must not think to graspe the world and them together the things here below and them together as wee shall see after in that point they accounted themselves strangers to earthly things Therefore this is one way to come to this imbracing to come to the sight of the vanity and insufficiency of all things in comparison of Christ and the happinesse wee have by Christ. To see in matter of judgment the insufficiencie of workes and merit and such like in the matter of justification the insufficiency of all such trash as the popish religion abuseth the world withall And so in matter of conversation to see the insufficiency and empâ—…nesse and vanity yea the vexation of all things besides these good things here offered the good things that Gods spirit offers to the eye of our soules that he offers to our wills and affections what are all to these and effectually thinke so thinke what should draw a mans affections after it beauty or strength consider what will become of these ere long And then withall consider the excellency of the estate of the body and soule in heaven if we carry our selves as wee should doe and preserve our selves in our spirituall condition let us lay these things together and then wee shall see how infinitely the one is beyond the other If it be for honour and favour of the world consider the vanity of them and how short a time wee may enjoy them and the things themselves are subject to alteration And withall consider the constant excellency of the favour of GOD in Christ Iesus which will comfort us in life in death and for ever And so for riches and possessions in this world consider how soone all here must be left and how the soule is larger then all these things if wee had a thousand times more abundance then we have and that our soules that are more large and more excellent they are not made for these things but for better and what use we shal have of better things when these faile the soule being immortall and eternall This will make us let goe earthly things in our affections and hold them in their place in a secondary place as things serviceable in the way to heaven and not to graspe them in our affections for then they pierce the soule to death and damnation And if we would be affected as we should be to good things let us keepe our affections tender and keepe them cleare from the guilt of any sinne that may work feares and doubts for together with sin goes feares and doubts they are bred in sinne naturally therefore if we would maintaine this imbracing oh let us keepe our soules as we keepe our understandings cleare so keepe our affections tender by all meanes and keepe our consciences unspotted that so our affections of joy and delight and love may bee ready prest to good things even to the best things Another way is in particular to meditate of the love of Christ the love of GOD in Christ and of his imbracing of us For wee must know that our imbracing is upon perswasion of Gods imbracing of us We imbrace not the promises of Christ as a man imbraceth a dead post that cannot returne imbraces to him againe this imbracing of Christ and heaven it is a mutuall imbracing and it is a second reflexive imbracing wee imbrace God and Christ because we find God in Christ imbracing our soules first in the armes of his love therefore we imbrace him again in the armes of our affections because we find Christ imbracing us in the armes of his affections Therefore let us attend upon the meanes upon private reading of the word and upon the ministry for what are the ministers but to contract Christ and the soule together they are friends of the Bridegroome to discove CHRISTS love to us and his lovelinesse his lovelinesse in himselfe his riches in himselfe and his love to us to allure us againe to CHRIST the ministery is for this end especially to draw Christ and the foule together And what is the Scripture in the intent and scope of it but to discover to us the excellen ciâ—… of Christ and the good things we have by him his love good intention to our soules Now hearing these things in the ministery they are effectuall together with the spirit to draw our affections backe againe to him And naturally wee cannot but love those that love us Now when we are perswaded of Gods love tous in Christ and Christs love to us God having made our soules for love to himselfe and friendship with himselfe and the nearest and sweetest conjugall friendship now therefore the more his
labour to get assurance of another a better country for what made these holy men confesse themselves strangers and pilgrims here They saw the promises a farre off and were perswaded of them and imbraced them and in that measure they were assured of a better condition they carryed themselves as strangers and pilgrims here To wind up all in a word you see here their disposition I beseech you make this text your patterne to be molded into you see how these blessed men long agoe lived in faith when their light was lesse then ours is and they died in faith and will welcome us when we shall come to heaven we shall goe to Abraham Isaac and Iacob and the rest of the Patriarchs and holy men It will bee a blessed time when all the blessed men that have gone before shall welcome us to heaven If we looke to be happy as they are we must live as they did and die as they did though we cannot so strongly as they did see that with the eye of faith that no eye else can see yet let us desire God to perswade us of these truths more strongly then the devill of our own lusts shall perswade us to the contrary let us desire God to set on his truths so strongly that all other things may not hinder us that we may imbrace them with our best affections of love of desire of contentment that we may witnesse all this by our demeanour to earthly things by our base esteem of them and carry our selves as pilgrims and strangers on earth If we do thus live in faith and die in faith we shal live with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of heaven eternally FINIS THE HIDDEN LIFE In two Funerall Sermons upon COL 3. 3 4. BY The late Learned and Reverend Divine RICH. SIBBS Doctor in Divinity Mr of KATHERINE Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher to the Honourable Society of GRAYES-INNE 1 JOHN 3. 2. Beloved now yee are the Sonnes of God and it doth not appeare what wee shall bee LONDON Printed by E. Purslow for N. Bourne at the Royall Exchange and R. Harford at the gilt Bible in Queenes head Alley in Pater-Noster-Row 1639. THE HIDDEN LIFE COLLOS 3. 3 4. For yee are dead your life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appeare then shal yee also appeare with him in glory THE dependance of these words in a word is this The Apostle after he had laid the grounds of some Doctrines hee doth frame the building of a holy life and conversation It is in vaine to believe well unlesse a man worke accordingly hee that lives against his faith shall be damned as he that believes against it Thereupon in this Chapter hee comes to raise their affections to be Heavenly minded and stirres them up to subdue what soever is contrary to Heavenly mindednesse And because it is a duty of great moment to be heavenly minded and to subdue base affections he inserts weighty reasons betweene If yee bee risen with Christ seeke those things that are above And among other reasons theâ—… 〈◊〉 this yee are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God And therupon he forceth seeking of the things that are above and the mortifying of earthly members For the duties of Christianity â—…e to be applyed two wayes to be heavenly affected to subdue that which is contrary to be heavenly minded to mortifie our earthly members Now how shall we doe both For yee are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God c. You see the first proposition yee are dead with whom with Christ in God A Christian is dead many wayes He is dead to the law to the morall law he lookes not to have comfort and salvation by it by the law he is dead to the law and so flyes to Christ. A Christian is dead also to the ceremonâ—…ll law now in the glorious lustre of the Gospell what have we to doe with those 〈◊〉 element that were for Children A ceremoâ—… disposition is opposite to the glory and lustre of the Gospell as the Apostle speakes in the former Chapter He is dead likewise to sinne having communion with Christ when he dyed for sinne hee is dead to sinne He that hath communion in the death of Christ hath the same affection to sinne that Christ had Christ hated it infinitely when he suffered for it so every Christian thinkes that Christ dyed for my sinnes and by union with Christ he hath the same affection to it he is dead to it And because this is but an inchoation and beginning a Christian is not perfectly dead to sinne hee stands in need of afflictions and in regard of afflictions he is dead they must help the worke of mortification And because no affliction can sufficiently worke mortification but death it self which is the accomplishment of mortification we are dead in respect of death it selfe which is the accomplishment of all though we live here for a time we are dead in regard of the sentence that is passed on us as wee say a man is dead when the sentence is passed on him in that respect wee are dead men for our life is but a dead life besides the sentence that is passed upon us death siezeth upon us in the time of our life in sicknesses c. And so they prepare us to death thus and many other wayes we are dead The second proposition is Our Life is hid with Christ in God We are dead and yet we have a life A Christian is a strange person hee is both dead and alive he is miserable and glorious he consists of contraries he is dead in regard of corruption and miseries and such like but he is alive in regard of his better part and he growes two wayes at onâ—… it is a strange thing that a Christian doth hee growes downewards and upwards at the same time for as he dyes in sin and misery and naturall death approaching so he lives the life of grace and growes more and more till he end in Glory This life is said to be a hidden life It is hid with Christ in God The life of a Christian which is his glorious spirituall life it is hid among other respects It is hid to the world to worldly men because a Christian is an unknown man to them because they know not the Father that begets therefore they know not them that are begotten as S. Iohn saith they know not the advancement of a Christian he is raysed into a higher ranck then they Therefore as a beast knowes not the things of a man no more doth a carnal man in any excellency know the things of the spirit for they are spiritually discerned therefore it is a hidden life in the eyes of the world a wordly man sees not this life in regard of the excellency he passeth scornes and contempts of it of folly and the like A Christian in respect of
full and our joy shall bee full by Christ who is our life So then we see we have in Christ the second Adam whatsover wee lost in the first roote Whence did we draw sinne and misery by union with the first Adam we have damnation we have the wrath of God we have corruption opposite to sanctification we have terrours and horrour of conscience By the second Adam and union with him we have a spring of life and peace and all that we lost in Adam and more then all we lost he being God-man The sinne of the first Adam was the sinne of a man the obedience of the second Adam was the obedience of God-man which raiseth us to life everlasting Rom. 5. So that there is more comfort in the life we have by Christ then there is discomfort in our death by Adam We see then hence that in all our deadnesse and dulnesse and want of grace there is a spring in our nature God hath given Christ God-man that there should be a treasure in him for all the Church that we may fetch supply out of our nature He is fit to be our life for our nature in him is united to the Godhead therefore Christ is a fit fountaine to derive grace to beleevers because mans nature in him is advanced by being united to the second person he is God-man able to derive all grace and comfort and righteousnes whatsoever Shall the first Adam derive unrighteousnesse discomfort and misery that was a man shall not Christ God-man derive righteousnesse and comfort and joy and peace and whatsoever is good undoubtedly he shall Therefore in all want of grace in all temptations and assaults let us goe to the fountain to the fulnesse of grace to the fulnesse of Gods love in Christ Christ God-man is our life As when we are cold we come to the fire so when we are dull-hearted let us come to this quickening spirit And to this end let us be stirred up to use those meanes wherein Christ will be effectuall whereby as by veines the blood of this spirituall life is conveyed as the Word and Sacraments the Communion of Saints and all sanctified meanes whereby the life of grace and comfort may be conveyed to us let us never be out of such wayes and courses as where by Christ derives this life of grace and let us take heed of those that are contrary But how shall I know saith a weake soule that finds little comfort and peace and little sanctification and is besieged with troubles and is doubtfull and knowes not whether his sinnes be forgiven or no how shall I know whether Christ be my life or no I answer that the life of Christ is but now begun in us and it is very little at the first There is nothing lesse then grace at the beginning The life of Christ is conveyed to us from Christ voluntarily not by necessity Hee gives the will and the deed according to 〈◊〉 therefore we must know that we have more or lesse comfort and more or lesse grace as he pleaseth He brings all to heaven in all ages that have the true life of grace though he make a difference and give to some more and to some lesse because he is a head that flowes into his members not out of nature but of his owne pleasure And a Christian soule that hath union with Christ that hath a being and station in him may know it there are alway some pulses from this heart as we know there is some life by the beating of the pulses so Christs dwelling in the heart is knowne by these pulses there will be striving against corruption and complayning of it Nature and corruption will not complaine against corruption coâ—…ption will not strive against corruption there will be sighing and groaning which is seconded with a constant indeavour to grow better it is not a flash these pulses beating in the soule of a true Christian shew that there is the life of grace in him that Christs dwells in his heart And this oft times doth more appeare in the greatest temptations Take a Christian at the worst his heart sighs to God to recover him he is sick and yet he hopes in Christ Christ in the greatest desertion is his life who was also our paterne when he was at the lowest My God my God So a Christian at the lowest he hath a spirit of prayer though it may be he cannot pray distinctly yet he can sigh and groane and God heares the sighs of his owne Spirit alwayes Therefore when these pulses beate in him in the greatest temptations hee may know that Christ lives in him Sometimes Christ in respect of this life in this world reserves himselfe to the chiefe occasion as some great affliction of the outward man In 2 Cor. 4. We see there when the body of Saint Paul was afflicted when it was abased by many afflictions The life of Christ was most manifested in him God reserves to poore Christians that now live in peace and quiet the greatest feelings and manifestations of Christs living in them till some great crosse till the houre of death till a time of need The life of Christ is most manifest in the time of abasement By the way therefore let us not avoid crosses for Christs sake avoid not any abasement though it be imprisonment or death the more our outward man is abased if it be for Christs sake the more this life of Christ this blessed life this peace that passeth understanding and this joy in the Holy-ghost is increased we shall feele our absolution and justification the more This life of Christ is most manifested when wee honour him most by suffering for him Therfore let us avoid no crosse for him Christ who is our life Shall appeare There are two appearings wee know of Christ his first appearing and his second appearing His first appearing was to worke our salvation his second shall be to accomplish and finish what he hath begun to worke His first appearing was to redeeme our soules from death his second shall redeeme our bodies from the corruption of the 〈◊〉 so his second appearing shall be to accomplish all the good that he came to doe and to worke by his first As verily therefore as Christ is come in his first appearing so verily and certainly he shall appeare the second time And as it was the description of holy men before his first comming to wayte for him To wayte for the consolation of Isâ—…ael so Christians now those blessed soules that have the report of this they waite for the comming of Christ. There were all kind of witnesses then of his first comming Angels men women shepheards the Devils themselves The Trinitie from heaven witnessed of him so for his second comming there are witnesses Christ himselfe saith hee will come The Angels say This Iesus that ye see goe up shall come againe It is an Article of our faith that he shall come
The Spirit of God in every Christian saith come and that is not in vaine the desires of the Spirit of God must be fulfilled therefore he shall come and the Spirit of God stirres up our spirits to say come There are all kind of proofes arguments for it It is an Article of our faith it is laid here for a ground and therefore I will not inlarge my selfe in it but come to the next point Christ will appeare and We shall also appeare with him in glory We shall appeare and appeare with him and appeare in glory with him Christ himselfe his glory is in some sort hid now for though he be King of the Church yet wee see what enemies are in the Church and Satan ruffles in the Church a great while and the nearer he is to his end the more he rageth so that Christs glory seemes to be hid but Christ then shall appeare and his Church shall appeare with him in glory Why shall wee appeare with Christ and be glorious with him I answere this is cleare partly because it is Christs will in Iohn 17. Father I will that where I am they may be also It is Christs last Testament that we should be where he is and be glorious with him and Christs will must be fulfilled Againe consider what we are to Christ how neare wee are brought to him and then this will be cleare that when Christ shall appeare in glory we must appeare with him for Christ is our Husband and we are his Spouse when Christ comes to be glorious therefore his Spouse must be glorious now is but the time of contract the time of the marriage solemnity shall be at the appearing of Christ therefore when he shall appeare we shall appeare with him in glory Christ in his owne person distinct from his Church is now glorious as a head but Christ mysticall is not glorious Christ mysticall suffers there are many members that are not yet called Some are abased some are not brought to the fold And Christ hath a care of his mysticall body as of his naturall body and as that is glorious in heaven so hee will bring all his members to be one glorious body He gave his naturall body to redeeme his mysticall body therefore as he is glorious in that in heaven so hee will be glorious in his mysticall body in every beleeving soule at the last when hee shall come to be glorified in his Saints as the Apostle saith 2 Thess. 1. Hee is glorious in himselfe now then he will be glorious in his Spouse And then from the ground of predestination Rom. 8. We are predestinate to be conformed to Christ that he might be the first borne among many brethren Now Christ being glorious and we being predestinate before the world was to be like unto Christ first in abasement to be abased for him that was abased for us to suffer for him that suffered for us and to be conformed to him in grace there must be a time to be conformed to him in glory From the ground of Election there must be a state of glory our glory must be revealed when Christ shall come and appeare I will presse no more reasons that we must be glorious at the second comming of Christ as well as himselfe Wherein stands this glory To cleare this point a little I will not be long in it because indeed this glory is such as eye hath not seene nor eare heard nor hath entred into the heart of man The Apostles speake not much of it they speak of it in negative tearms by denying imperfections It is an inheritance incorruptible immortall c. And when it is resembled to earthly things it is compared to a banket to a marriage c. But this glory it shall be in body in soule in the whole man In soule there shall be the knowledge of those mysteries of salvation that now wee are ignorant of Now wee are in the Grammar schoole but that shall be as the University Then we shall know things more clearely we shall see God face to face and then our soules shall be raised to be capable of more knowledge and grace Now the vessell of our soule is not capable to know that that we shall then they are not capable as they shall be in heaven Saint Paul himselfe was not capable therefore when he was taken up into the third heavens least he should be proud of his revelations he was faine to be abased Wee are not capable we cannot know the glory of heaven in a full measure now but then God shall inlarge the heart and sanctifie it that we shall have strong spirits and holy understandings and affections to understand holy things we shall know God face to face There shall be a proportion betweene the glorious things in heaven and our soule there shall be a heavenly soule for a heavenly place where as yet it is not so I forbeare to shew the particulars of the glory of the body the Apostle Paul sets it downe 1 Cor. 15. It shall be a spirituall body it shall be guided by the Spirit and the body it shall not then need meats and drinks but God shall be all in all Now our life at the best is fed and cloathed by the creatures then all shall be taken out of God himselfe God himselfe shall be All in all The presence of God and of Christ our Saviour shall supply all that we have now other wayes Now comfort is conveyed from this creature and from that but whatsoever comfort we have now dropped by the creatures we shall then have all in him and in fulnesse and for evermore So we shall be glorious in soule and body And in our whole man the Image of God and Christ shall be perfectly restored we shall be like Christ reserving the difference between the head and the members reserving the difference of a naturall Sonne and of sonnes adopted he shall be more glorious then we we shall be glorious as much as we are capable off in all fulnesse of joy and grace and dominion over the creature in freedome from ill and readinesse to good we shall be glorious sons of God I need not to be long in unfolding these things When shall this be When he shall appeare saith the Apostle we shall also appeare with him in glory It is carryed indefinitely to stoppe curiosity there is no time set downe but when hee shall appeare c. In a word when all the Elect shall be gathered together It is not meet that our bodies and soules should be glorified till all Gods people be gathered together As in a family they doe not sit downe till all the servants be come in and then they sit downe together so in this great family of God the Saints in heaven and earth there shall not be perfect glory till all be gathered and saved And then what a blessed time will
and indeavours and labours to the contentment of it certainly this is forgotten which the Apostle saith here It is a vile and base body Againe is our body a vile body a base body as wee have it here then let us not make it more vile by intemperate courses as wicked persons doe they dishonour their bodies They are vile indeed make the best of them we can and they will end in dust but we ought not sinfully to make them more vile and base as many wretched persons doe by their loose and licencious courses of life Againe if our bodies be vile base bodies while we live here let us not offend God for any thing to gratifie our vile bodies let us doe as Ioseph did when his mistris tempted him he left his garment behind him rather so when we are tempted to any sinne let us rather leave our garments behind us let us leave our bodies they are but vile bodies let us be stripped of them rather then offend God It is pittifull to consider how this vile body as vile as it is and shall be in death how it tyrannizeth over the poore soule and how men wound their soules for their bodies How many are there that justifie errours that they condemne in their hearts to live a lazy idle a full a plentifull life and how many doe condemne those things those courses and those truths to please others and to live a large and idle life which they justifie in their very soules and all to please the flesh It is but a bad counsellor a bad solicitor I say it tyrannizeth over the poore soule Let us not offend God or conscience to breake the peace of it for any thing to gratifie this vile flesh This I thought good to touch concerning that Who shall change our vile bodies Change The action that Christ shall exercise about them is Change Christ will Change our vile bodies They are vile now they shall not be alwayes so but Christ will Change our vile bodies He will not give us other bodies for them but hee will change them in regard of quality For even as the great world was the same after the flood as it was before the flood and shall be when it is consumed by fire it shall be a new world for quality but the same for substance so this body of ours it shall be the same after the resurrection for substance that it is now it shall be altered for quality it shall not be changed for substance Therefore he shall change he shall not abolish our vile bodies This is the action that our blessed Saviour will exercise upon these vile bodies they shall be changed Man is the most changable creature in the world for soule and for body too Take him in his soule how many states is he in There is first the state of nature in perfection and then the state of corruption in originall sinne and then the state of grace in the new creature and then the state of glory So likewise he is changeable in his body hee was first taken out of the dust out of the dust God made this glorious creature of mans body he is a painefull creature in labour in sicknes and then from strength he is changed to old age and from thence to death and dust and from dust then he is changed againe to a more glorious estate then ever he was in the body is made like the glorious body of Christ hee is changeable in soule and in body But this is our comfort we shall change for the best all the changes of our bodyes serve for the last change after which there shall never bee any more change when they are changed once to be glorious they shall be for ever glorious a blessed change a blessed estate of a christian all his changes tend to a state that shall never change for after these bodies are once changed from base to bee glorious they shall be for ever glorious Who The person that shall change them is Christ â—…ho who shall change our vile bodyes In the person wee may consider the object and the action Christ shall change our vile bodyes hee that made us will make us againe hee that is the Image of God will refine us he will renew us in body and soule to be like God to be like himselfe and he that changeth our soules in this world will change our bodyes in the world to come His first comming was to change our soules to deliver them from the bondage of Satan his second comming shall be to deliver our bodies from the bondage of Corruption that is the day of the Redemption of our bodies as the Apostle cals it Rom. 8. So it is hee that shall change but of this I shall speake more afterward What is the patterne according to which this body shall be changed by this author of it Christ Jesus His own body he shall change our vile bodies That it may be made like or fashioned 〈◊〉 his glorious body He is both the câ—…se and the paâ—…e the efficient and the exempâ—… cause He is the patterne our bodyes shall be like his glorious body even as our â—…oules are like Christs 〈◊〉 for this is certaine wee are renewed in grace not to the Image of the first Adam but to the Image of the second Adam we are conformed in soule to the Image of Christ in â—…nesse and righteousnesse so likewise in the body we shall be conformable to the body of Christ the second Adam As we bare the Image of the first Adam in our first creation so wee must beare the Image of the second in our 〈◊〉 tion at the day of the resurrection The glorious body of Christ is the patterne of this transmutation and change But we most understand this as I said 〈◊〉 regard of quality and not in regard of equality our body shall be like his glorious body not equall to his glorious body There must bee a reservation therefore of difference in heaven betweene the head and the members the husband and the spouse our bodyes shall bee like his glorious body not equall to it To our capacity wee shall have full satisfaction and contentment for body and soule too and they shall have security to be in that estate for ever therefore though there be a difference of glory yet that difference is no prejudice to the glory wee shall have we shall have that that is fit for us Our body shall bee made like unto his glorious body Christ is our patterne Whence we see this point of Divinity cleare to us that Whatsoever is in us both for soule and body but here wee speake of the body whatsoever excellency is in us it is at the second hand It is first in our head first in Christ and then in us He is first the Sonne of God by nature wee are the Sonnes of God by Adoption hee is the predestinated Sonne of God to save us to be our head we are
body of our blessed Saviour now in heaven is wondrous beautifull and so shall our bodyes be how deformed soever they be now Let us not stand therefore upon any present deformity of our bodyes now with yeares or sicknesse or other meanes they shall not alway be so we shall have beautifull bodyes Nay more then so the third indowment is we shall have glorious bodyes as we see Christ in the mount when hee was transfigured and Moses and Elias were with him his body was glorious they could hardly behold him And Christ in Revel 1. he appeares as the Sunne in his full strength his body is wondrous glorious now in Heaven and so hee is represented there If the very representation of him while he was upon earth was so glorious in the mount what is it in Heaven S. Paul could not endure the light that shined to him Act. 9. So shall our Bodies bee like the glorious Body of Christ. What a glorious time will it be when the glorious body of Christ shall appeare and all the Saints shall appeare in glory what a reflexion of beauty and glory will there be one shining upon another when Christ shall come to be glorious in his Saints Oh! the glory of the body of Gods children it shall put downe all created glory all the glory of the Sunne and Moone and all the glory of these inferiour bodies are nothing to the glory of the body of a Christian that doth abase his body here for Christ and the Churches sake You see then these bodies shall be perfect and beautifull and glorious bodies in regard of the Iustâ—…e of them And likewise in the fourth place they shall be immortall bodies bodies that shall never die unchangeable bodies there shall be no altoration no death no sicknesse all teares shall be wiped from our eyes they shall be immortall bodies that shall never die as Saint Peter saith Wee shall have an inheritance undefiled immortall c. This is cleare therefore I will not stand in the inlarging of it In the next place our bodies shall be powerfull and vigorous now they are weake as Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 15. Our bodies are â—…wen in weakenesse but then they shall be able to ascend and descend they shall be strong even as the body of Christ wee shall have strong bodies as all imperfection so all weaknesse shall be taken away In the sixth place they shall be spirituall bodies that is they shall not stand in need of meat and drinke and sleepe and refreshings as now they doe but Christ will be all in all to them he will be instead of meat and drinke cloathes yea and in stead of the Ordinances that we stand in need of here the Word and Sacraments he will be all in all And our bodies shall be spirituall in another regard because they shall be subject to the spirit whereas now our very spirits are flesh because the flesh rules and tyrannizeth over them so our soules follow our bodies the soule of a carnall man is flesh but then out flesh our bodies shall be spirituall not that they shall be turned into spirits that is not the meaning but spirituall bodies obedient and obsequious to the very guidance of the soule to a sanctified and glorious soule these shall be the indowments of our bodies They shall be perfect bodies beautifull glorious shining bodies immortall unchangeable bodies powerfull strong and vigorous bodies ready to moove from place to place and spirituall bodies they shall stand in need of no other helpe and they shall be obedient altogether to the spirit You see now how these vile bodies draw away our soules then all imperfections shall be taken away wee shall have purged bodies and purged soules Thus you see wherein the glory of the body shall consist Let us therefore often seriously thinke of these things and let me renew my former exhortation let us be content to make our bodies here vile for Christs sake that they may be thus glorious Let us abase them in labour and paines in our calling in suffering we doe no more then he did for us first Was not his body first vile and then glorious and doe we thinke that our bodies must not be vile before they be glorious not onely vile whether we will or no but we must willingly make them vile we must be willing to be disgraced for Christs sake to carry his death about us to die daily in the resolution of our soules How was he abased before he was glorious hee tooke on him our bodies at the worst not in the perfection as it was created but hee tooke the body of man now fallen Againe what paines did hee take in this body and how was he disgraced in this body that sacred face was spit upon those blessed hands and feet were nayled to the Crosse that blessed head that is revereâ—…ced of the Angels it was crowned with thornes How was his body every way in all the parts of it abased and made vile for us he neglected his refreshings for us it was meate and drinke to him to doe good If he became vile for us if he abased his body for us certainely wee should be ashamed if wee be not content that our bodies should be made vile for him that afterwards they may be made like his glorious body Away with these nice Christians that are afraid of the wind blowing on them or the Sunne shining upon them that are afraid to doe any thing or to suffer any thing and so in sparing their bodies destroy both body and soule Consider whoever thou art this is not a life for thy body this present life is a life for the soule we come now to have the Image of God in our soules in this life especially and to have in our soules the life of grace here but the life and happinesse of our body is for this second comming of Christ the glory of the body this life is not a time for the body doe what wee can it will be a vile body cherish it set it out how thou canst those painted sepulchres that would out-face age and out-face death and by colours and complexion c. hide those furrowes that age makes in the face they are but vile and age and death will be too good for them to dust they will Why should we regard our bodies this life is not for them though we 〈◊〉 dainty of them Let us use this body here so as it may be glorious in the world to come we should suffer our soules to rule our bodies and to doe all here that both body and soule may be glorious after For indeed all that the body hath here it is beholding to the soule for why therefore should it not be an instrument for the soule in holy things doth not the soule quicken it hath it not its beauty from the soule when the soule is gone out of the body where is the life where is the
beauty where is any thing the body is a loathsome carkasse Now therefore while the soule is in this body looke to the soule especially that when the soule shall goe to heaven the soule be mindfull of and speake a good word for the body as Pharaohs Butler did for Ioseph that the soule there may thinke of the body that it may thinke of the paines of the suffering as the soule doth it hath an apetite in heaven a desire to be joyned againe to the body which it useth to labour in to pray to God in which it used to fast in which it used as an instrument to good actions Let us use it so here that the soule may desire to meete it againe that Christ at that day may bring body and soule together to be glorious for ever That it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body We see here then that the best is to come the best change after which there shall be no change is to come The weakest is the first and the second is better the second Adam is better then the first and the second life shall be better then the first our bodies as they shall be glorious shall be better then they were in the first creation they shall be glorious bodies like unto Christs Oh! the comfort of a Christian there is nothing that is behind nothing to come but it is for the better there shall be a change but it shall be a change for the better A Christian is a person full of hope he is under a glorious hope under a hope of glory of soule and body he is alway under hope the hope of glory therefore he joyes under this hope Rom. 5. 1. That it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body But how shall any Christian know that his body shall be like to the glorious body of Christ I answer hee may know it from this The change of a Christian begins in his soule Christ begins the change of our soules to be like his full of love and obedience to God full of pitty and compassion to men full of industry to doe good our soules will be like Christs soule first looke to thy soule what stampe that beares is there the Image of Christ on thy soule certainely he that hath transformed this soule to be gracious he will transforme the body to be glorious like his glorious body Looke to thy soule then if thou art the child of God by adoption if thou hast the spirit of adoption and grace and findest peace of conscience and joy in the Holy-Ghost thou maist know thou shalt have the adoption of thy body thou hast the first adoption in thy soule thou art the child of God know that thou shalt have the second adoption spoken of Rom. 8. Wee wayte for the adoption of our bodyes If thou partake of the first resurrection that thy soule is raysed from sinne thou shalt partake of the second resurrection at the day of Judgement For Christ is a perfect Saviour hee saves not onely the soule but the body though hee begin with the soule he ends with the body He tooke our bodies as well as our soules and hee will glorifie our bodies as well as our soules and if wee find the worke of grace a Spirit of glory in our soules undoubtedly wee may know that our bodyes shall be glorious Againe thou maist know that thou shalt partake of this glorious estate that thy body shall be like the glorious body of Christ by the use that this body is put to how doest thou use this vile body for the time thou livest now dost thou use it to the base services of sinne doest 〈◊〉 beat thy braine and thy breast and thy spirits doest thou take up thy time and all to provide for the flesh whither doth thy feet carry thee what dost thou â—…eddle with in the world are all thy members weapons of an unsanctified soule to offend God and to fight against thy soule to cherrish lusts that fight against thy soule and against thy Maker and Redeemer then know this that thou hast no hope of glory He that hath this hope purgeth himselfe and is pure as hee is pure This hope where it is found it is a purging a cleansing hope and all the members of the body will be used to a sanctified purpose a man will not sacrilegiously use those members that are dedicated to Christ that are Temples of the Holy-Ghost that are fellow heires as Saint Peter saith concerning the wife and the husband the body is a fellow-heire with the soule of glory he will not use it to the base services of sinne Hee that shall have a glorious body will esteeme so of it here What shall I use the Temple of the Holy-Ghost that that is a fellow-heire of heaven with my soule that is the Spouse of Christ a member of Christ as well as my soule shall I use it to these and these base services It cannot be if a man have the new nature in him he cannot it will not suffer him to sinne in this manner hee cannot prostitute his body to base services those that doe so how can they hope that their bodies should be glorious like unto Christs Saint Paul gives three Evidences in one place to know our interest in this glory of our bodies in 2 Cor. 5. 1. saith hee wee know that when this earthly house or Tabernacle shall be disolved wee have a building c. We know we have a glorious building a double building heaven and our bodies wee have two glorious houses heaven and these bodies shall be a glorious house But how doe we know this Saith he in the second verse we groane earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon there is a wondrous desire after this cloathing Rom. 8. The creature groaneth much more wee that have the first fruits of the Spirit There will be a sighing for this glory awayting for the blessed comming of Christ for Christ to redeeme soule and body perfectly that is the first signe a desire and groaning earnestly In the fourth verse there is another evidence He that hath wrought us for the same things iâ—… God He that hath wrought us for the blessed estate to come is God so whosoever hopes for a house in heaven when this Tabernacle is dissolved he is wrought for it that is he is a new creature for it God hath wrought his soule and body for it God fits our soules here to possesse a glorious body after and hee will fit the body for a glorious soule so both shall be glorious a glorious soule and a glorious body he hath wrought us for the same If a man therefore find the beginning of the new creature that it is begun to be wrought in him he may know that he shall partake of this glory of the body because He is wrought for it The third is Who hath also given us the earnest of the Spirit whosoever finds in
them the Spirit of God sanctifying their soules and bodies stirring them up to holy duties guiding and leading and mooving them to holy actions they may from the sanctifying Spirit that is an earnest to them know what shall become of their bodies Hee hath given us the earnest of the Spirit To confirme this there is an excellent place in Ro. 8. 10 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his If Christ bee in you the body is dead c. It is a vile body it as good as dead it hath the sentence of death already it is dead in regard it is sentenced to death for sinne as a malefactor that hath his sentence But the Spirit is life in regard of righteousnesse What then if the sanctifying Spirit of Christ dwell in you Hee that raised Iesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies The same Spirit that sanctifies these soules of ours our bodies and quickens them to holy duties the same Spirit shall raise our bodies As the same Spirit that sanctified the blessed masse of the body of Christ that he carryed and raised his body the same Spirit that sanctifies our soules shall raise our bodies The Spirit of God when hee hath begun to sanctifie us he never leaves us hee goes along in all changes in life in death to the grave as God said to Iacob I will be with thee there The Spirit of God he will mold our dead bodies and make them like the glorious body of Christ the Spirit of God never leaves our soules or bodies Therefore if wee find the earnest of the Spirit if we find the worke of the Spirit or the comfort of the Spirit which is the tearme the Scripture gives Ioy in the Holy-Ghost and peace of conscience together with the Spirit sanctifying us especially in the time of trouble when God sees his Children have most need they have the earnest of the Spirit the beginnings of grace and joy the beginnings of heaven upon earth by this they may know as the first fruit is so likewise is the harvest as the earnest is even so is the bargaine as wee have it now in our soules so we shall also have it in our bodies and soules hereafter These three grounds Saint Paul hath why his hope of heaven was a good hope wee groane for it and wee are wrought for it wee are fitted for it There is no man can hope to be glorious in his body but his soule must be fitted for it it must be a fit jewell for so glorious a casket a fit inhabitant for so glorious a Temple as the body shall be the body shall be fitted for the soule and the soule for the body they are wrought for it And then hee hath given us the earnest of the Spirit What need I quote further evidences the Scripture being thus pregnant I beseech you often consider your desires whether you be content to live here alway or no to satisfie the vile lusts of your body or whether you desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ when you have done the worke that God sent you for into the world if wee be content to abase our selves for God here who hath provided so much glory for us hereafter and when the time comes we can desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ it is a good signe if wee have the beginnings of the new creature yee are wrought for it that our soules are fitted for a glorious body we have the earnest of the Spirit the same Spirit that sanctifieth our soules and that quickens our soules with joy and peace the same Spirit shall raise our bodies Comfort your selves you that are Christians though you bee weake with this that if you have but the earnest of the Spirit undoubtedly you shall have a glorious house instead of this tabernacle of dust Christ will change these vile bodies that they shall be fashioned like his glorious body I beseech you therefore oft thinke of this think of the time to come comfort your selves with things to come In 1 Thess. 4. Saint Paul would have us talke one to another often of this this should be the matter of our conference not onely the state of the Church and our owne estate here but how it shall be with us when we are gone hence how it shall be with us world without end hereafter we should conferre and speake and oft meditate and thinke of these things What can be grievous what can be over burdensome to that soule that knowes it hath the pledge and earnest of glory hereafter How doth it quicken the soule to any indeavour when once we know that how soever we abase our selves here yet we shall have glorious bodies hereafter It will quicken us to any indeavour to any thing for Christ therefore let us oft thinke of our estate to come let us set our thoughts foreward to the time to come Let faith make the times to come present and that will make us heavenly minded What made Saint Paul converse as if he were in heaven faith made the estate to come present and hope which is grounded on faith it lookes to Christs comming to change our vile bodies so faith and hope they make the soule looke upward they make it heavenly minded Our soules are dull and our bodies are dull in this world but as Iron if it be touched with a Load stone up it will so if wee get faith and hope to looke foreward what shall be done to us for the time to come the spirit of faith and hope if it touch the soule will carry our dull bodies and our dead soules upward Therefore let us cherish our faith and hope by often meditation of the blessed estate to come and thinke of these two things of the excellent estate of our bodies and soules then for if our bodies shall then be glorious like the body of Christ our soules much more the inhabitant which is the speciall part the soule shall be much more glorious Let us thinke oft of this glory as it is described in the Word it transcends our thoughts wee cannot thinke high enough of it and our interest and assurance of it And daily search our selves whether our hope be good or no that we have sound evidence that our title is good to glory Let us examine our selves by those signes I named before Where are our desires what worke hath the Spirit of God in us how doe we use these bodies of ours As we use them now wee must looke they shall be used hereafter Let our tongues be our glory now and they shall be glorâ—…ous tongues afterward to praise God in heaven their bodies that have beene glorious here shall be glorious in heaven Wee may read our estate to come by that we are here those that carry themselves basely and filthily and dishonourably here we may know what will become of them hereafter Let us oft thinke of the estate
to come and of our interest in it and both these together the excellency of the estate and our interest in it without deceiving of our soules what life will it put into all our carriage what will be grievous to us in this world when our soules are thus settled Oh let us spend a few dayes fruitfully and painfully here amongst men and doe all the good we can and use these bodies of ours to all the happy and blessed services we can why wee shall have glory more then we can imagine Let it comfort us in the houre of death what death soever we die or are designed to Now you know the sickenesse is abroad and alas those bodies especially are vile bodies that are under the visitation so then that their dearest friends dare not come neare them yet let this comfort us they are vile bodies for a time put case wee die the death that may hinder the comforts of this life Those that die in much honour and pompe and have their bodies imbalmed doe all what they can with the body it will come to dust and rottennesse it will be vile in death or after death at one time or other and those that die never so vile and violent a death for Gods sake those that die of this base death that they are deprived of much comfort yet let it comfort them Christ will transforme their vile bodies to be glorious They talke much of the Philosophers stone that it will change metals into gold here is the true Stone that will change our vile bodies to be glorious Let us die never so base or violent a death let us comfort our selves in our owne death if it be thus with us and in the death of our friends these vile bodies when they are most vile in death they shall be made like the glorious bodie of Christ. Let us oft thinke of these things FINIS BALAAMS VVISH In one Funerall Sermon upon NVMB. 23. 10. BY The late Learned and Reverend Divine RICH. SIBBS Doctor in Divinity Mr of KATHERINE Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher to the Honourable Society of GRAYES-INNE PRO. 13. 4. The soule of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing LONDON Printed by E. Purslow for N. Bourne at the Royall Exchange and R. Harford at the gilt Bible in Queenes head Alley in Pater-Noster-Row 1639. BALAAMS VVISH NUMB. 23. 10. Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his THe false Prophet Balaam goes about to curse where God had blessed but God reveales his wonders in his Saints by delivering of them and keeping them from dangers when they never thinke of them they never thought they had such an enemy as Balaam The Church of God is a glorious company and the great God doth great things for it so long as they keepe close to him their state is impregnable as wee may read here neither Balak nor Balaam that was nired to curse them could prevaile but the curse returnes upon their own head These words I have read to you they are Balaams desire Balaams acclamation Diverse questions might be moved concerning Balaam which I will not stand upon but come directly to the words wherein are considerable these things First that the righteous men die and have an end as well as others Secondly that the state of the soule continues after death it was in vaine for him to desire to dye the death of the righteous but in regard of the subsistence of the soule Thirdly that the estate of righteous men in their end is a blessed estate because here it was the desire of Balaam oh that I might dye the death of the righteous Fourthly there is an excellent estate of Gods people and they desire that portion oh let mee dye the death of the righteous These are the foure things I shal unfold which discover the intendment of Balaam in these words For the first I wil touch it briefly so go on The righteous dye and in the same manner outwardly as the wicked doe For Christ in his first comming came not to redeeme our bodies from death but our soules from damnation his second comming shall be to redeeme our bodyes from corruption into a glorious liberty Therefore wise men dye as well as fooles those whose eyes and hands have beene lift up to God in prayer and whose feet have carried them to the holy place as well as those whose eyes are full of adultery and whose hands are full of blood they dye all alike in manner alike ofttimes it is the same in the eye of the world Death comes upon good and bad but to the good for their greater glory for the shell must be broken before they come to the pearle death it fits them for the blessed life after the body lying a while in the grave the soule being in the hands of God and death now it makes an end of sinne that brought in death and it makes us conformable to the son of God our elder brother that dyed for us The point is pregnant and full of gracious and serious meditations It should enforce this excellent duty that considering we have no long continuance here therefore while we are here to doe that wherefore we come into the world As a factor that is sent into a place to provide such goods before hand let us consider that here we are sent to get into a state of Salvation to get out of the state of nature into the state of grace to furnish our soules with grace to fit us for our dissolution to come let us not forget the main end of our living here considering we cannot be here long let us doe the worke that God hath put into our hands quickly and faithfully with all our might And let it enforce moderation to all earthly things the time is short therefore let those that use the world be as if they used it not c. Those friends that have bin joyned together will part therefore let us use our bodies and soules so that we may present them both comfortably to God Let us begge of God to make a right use of this fading condition But I hasten The second point is this that The estate of the soule continues after death For here he wisheth to die the death of the righteous not for any excellency in death but in regard of the subsistence and continuance of the soule after death Scripture and reason and nature enforceth this that the soule hath a subsistence of it selfe distinct from the life it communicates to the body There is a double life a life proper to the soule and the life it communicates to the body now when the life it communicates to the body is gone to dissolution it selfe hath a life in heaven And indeed it is in a manner the whole man for Abraham was Abraham when he was dead when his soule was in heaven and his body in the grave it is the
is in heaven as it were before his time What is death to him The end of all misery of all sin of body and soule it is the beginning of all true happinesse in both This I might shew at large but I have spoken somewhat of this point out of another Text. They are happy in their death for their death is precious in Gods sight the Angels are ready to doe their attendance to carry their soules to the place of happinesse They are happy in their death because they are in the Lord when death severs soule and body yet notwithstanding neither soule nor body are severed from Christ They die in the Lord therefore still they are happy Much might be said to this purpose and to good purpose but that the point is ordinary and I hasten to presse things that I thinke will a little more confirme it They are blessed in death And blessed after death especially for then we know they are in heaven waiting for the resurrection of the body There is a blessed change of all for after death we have a better place better company better imployment all is for the better There are three degrees of life The life in the wombe this world heaven The life in the wombe is a kind of imprisonment there the child lives for a time The life in this world it is a kind of inlargement but alas it is as much inferiour to the blessed and glorious life in heaven as the life in the wombe is narrower and straiter and and more base then this life wherein wee behold the blessed light and enjoy all the sweet comforts of this life They are happy after death then the Image of God is perfect in the soule all graces are perfected all wants supplied all corruptions wrought out all enemies subdued all promises accomplished waiting their time for the resurrection of the body and then body and soule shall sit as Judges upon the wretches that have judged them on earth and they shall be both together for ever with the Lord. I might enlarge the point much it is a comfortable meditation And before I passe it let us make some use of it If godly men be blessed and happy not onely before death in the right and title they have to heaven but in death because then theâ—… are invested into possession of that that makes them every way happy Therefore this may teach us who are truly wise A wise man is he that hath a better end then another and works to that end A true Christian man he hath a better end then any worldling his end is to be safe in another world and hee works and carries his forces to that end Let my last end be like his saith Balaam insinuating that there was a better end inregard of condition and state then he had aymed at A gracious man his end is not to be happy here his end is to enjoy everlasting communion with God in the heavens and hee frames all his courses in this world to accomplish that end and he is never satisfied in the things that make to that end A worldling he hath no such end he hath a naturall desire to be saved as wee shall see afterwards but a man may know that it is not his end for hee workes not to it He is not satisfied in prouling for this world he is not weary of getting wealth hee is not satisfied with pleasure so that his end is the things of this life Therefore let him be never so wise he is but a foole for he hath not the true end nor workes to it Wicked men are very fooles in the manner of their reasoning for they will grant that there is a happy estate of godly men in death and after death better if it be so why doe they not worke and frame their lives to it Herein they are fooles because they grant one thing and not another which must needs follow they doe beleeve there is such a happinesse to Gods children and yet seeke not after it If there be such a blessed estate of Gods children in death and after death I beseech you let us carry our selves so as that wee may be partakers of that happinesse let us labour to be righteous men labour to be in Christ to have the righteousnesse of Christ to be ours to be out of our selves in Christ in Christ in life in Christ in death and at the day of Judgment in Christ not having our owne righteousnesse as the Apostle saith but his righteousnesse and then the righteousnesse of grace and of a good conscience will alway goe with the other For this makes a righteous man to be in Christ and to have his righteousnesse and to have his spirit and the beginnings of the new creature in us Let us labour to be such as may live and die happily and blessedly and be for ever happy So much for that third point That which I intend mainly to dwell on is the last and that is this that Even a wicked man a wretched worldling may see this hee may know this happinesse of Gods people in death and for ever and yet notwithstanding may continue a cursed wretch Balaam here wishes Oh that I might die the death of the righteous and that my last end might be like his It was a strange speech of such a man as this was that his soule should be rapt up in this manner but indeed Balaam was scarse himselfe hee scarce understood what he said no more then the beast that carryed him But God will sometimes even stirre up the hearts of wicked men to a sight and admiration of the excellent estate of Gods children why For diverse reasons Among the rest for this that he may convince them the more of their owne rebellion when they see a more excellent estate then they are in if they will not take the course to partake of it Therefore at the day of Judgement it will justifie the sentence of damnation upon such wretches and they may pronounce selfe condemnation upon themselves Oh! what a terrour will it be when they shall thinke I had a better estate discovered I heard of it in the ministery of the Word and Gods Spirit revealed an excellent estate and I might have gotten it if I had improoved the blessed meanes that God made me partaker of and now I am shut out for ever and ever from communion in that estate To convince wretched men I say and to justifie the just sentence of damnation upon them that their hearts may goe with the sentence at the day of Judgement God thus enlightens them oftentimes that they see better courses if they had grace to take them What a thing is this that a wicked man should see such an estate and not take it And what serves that knowledge for but to damne them the more This is the estate of many men that live in the bosome of the Church and
breaking out of desires They are the breath and vapour of the soule Let us consider what is set highest in our soules what we desire most of all Oh! a Christian soule that hath tasted of the loving kindnesse of the Lord accounts it better then life it selfe It is not Corne and wine and oyle he desires but Lord shew me the light of thy countenance The desires of his heart are large to serve God and to doe good more then for the things of the world He desires earthly things but as instruments for better things and this is the desire of every sanctified soule in some measure Let us hence make a use of convinction of the folly of base men that live in the Church and yet come not so farre as Balaam that come not so farre as those that shall goe to hell They turne over all Religion to a Lord have mercy upon us and Christ dyed for us and we hope we have soules to God ward as good as the best and to a few short broken things They turne Religion to compendiums to a narrow compasse and make the vvay to it wide and broad and complaine of Preachers that they straiten the way to heaven This is the disposition of worldlings whereas alas there must be a righteousnesse that must exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharises there must be a righteousnesse from an inward principle there must be a strong constant desire of righteousnesse more then of any thing in the world before we can be assured of our interest and part with Gods people Let us take heed that we delude not our selves this way But to come to an use of direction How may we so carry our selves as we may have a spring of blessed desires a spring of holy desires that may comfort us that we may have our interest and portion in the state of Gods people That we may have these desires let us desire of God the spirit of revelation desires follow discovery for desires are the vent of the soule upon the discovery of some excellency it beleeves Therefore let us beg of God the spirit of revelation to discover the excellent estate of Gods people And because this is given in the use of meanes let us present our selves with all diligence under such means as where we may have somewhat of the Kingdome of God that the riches of Christ being unfolded our desires may be carryed to such things for there is never any discovery of holy and good and gracious things to a Christian soule but there are new desires stirred up Our soules are like a mill that grinds what is put into it so the soule it workes upon the things that are put into it if it have good desires and good thoughts put into it by good meanes used and by prayer it feeds upon them let us alway therefore be under some good meanes that good thoughts may be ministred unto us that may stirre up gracious desires for the soule to worke upon Let us be in good company Saul among the Prophets we see hee prophesied and the heart is kindled and enflamed when we are among those that are better then our selves especially if their hearts be inlarged to speake of good things but to come nearer That we may have holy and gracious and constant desires let us take notice and make tryall continually of the state and frame of our soules which way for the present they are carryed in what current our desires run If they runne the right way to heavenly things it is well if not take notice what drawes and diverts and turnes the streames of our desires the false way let us thinke what the things be and the condition of those things that drawes our desires downe and make us earthly and worldly whether the pleasures or profits or honours of this life The way to have better desires is to weane our selves from these things by a constant holy meditation of the vanity of these things that the soule is carryed after Salomon to weane his heart from these desires from placing too much happinesse in these things he sets them before him and saith they were vanity and vexation of spirit Let us set them before us as nothing as they will be ere long Heaven and earth will passe away the world will passe away and the concupiscence and lust of it Let us consider the basenesse ficklenes and uncertainety of things that our soules are carryed after and this will be a meanes to weane them from them And the soule being weaned from earthly things it will run amaine another way Let us study therefore to mortifie our base affections and study it to purpose to cut off the right hand and to pull out the right eye spare nothing that God may spare all that God may have mercy upon us and spare us let us spare nothing These lusts they fight against our soules And as I said before feed our soules minister unto them better thoughts continually Those that are governours of those that are yong season them while they be yong with good things for while the soule is not filled with the world and while covetousnesse and ill lusts have not wrought themselves into the soule good things and good desires are easily rooted and planted and grow up in the soule As letters graven in the body of a tree they grow up with the tree and the fruit of the tree growes up with the tree and therefore the twigs breake not with the greatnesse of the weight of it because they grow up together so plant good things in those that are yong inure them to know good things to hate ill wayes plant in them blessed desires and inure them to holy exercises and good duties that good exercises may grow up with them as the fruit wth the tree We see what 〈◊〉 hard matter it is to convert an old man to draw the desires of a carnall worldly man to heaven when we speak of good things to him his soule is full of the world what is in his brain the world what is in his heart the world So he is dry and exhausted of all good things and that that is in him is eaten up with the world It is a great improvidence in those that governe youth that they labour not that their desires may be strong to the best things And let us all both young and old labour for heavenly wisedome that when good things are ministred to us from without or good motions stirred up by the Spirit of God to close with them and not to quench those motions and resist the Spirit but to imbrace those motions and cherish them till they come to resolutions and purposes and actions If we have a motion stirring us up to repentance let us ripen it till it come to perfect repentance till we repent indeed and have turned from all our evill wayes and turne to God with full purpose of heart
seed shall all the Nations of the earth bee blessed That 's the fundamentall promise all other promises the promise of the Land of Canaan the promise of the multiplying his seed as the starres of Heaven they were all but accessary this is the grand promise in thy seed in Christ shall all the Nations of the earth bee blessed So it is a sure Covenant because it is established in the Messiah Christ God-man And Christ being God and man is fit to be the foundation of the Covenant betweene God and man for he is a friend to both parties as man hee will doe all that is helpefull for man and as God he will doe nothing that may derogate from God and so being God and being God and man he brings God and man together comfortably and sweetly and keepeth them together in a sure and firme agreement For first of all hee takes away the cause of division that was betweene God and us because by his sacrifice and obedience he did satisfie Gods wrath and that being satisfied God and us are at peace and friendship for God till then though he bee a fountaine of goodnesse yet he was a fountaine sealed the fountaine was stopped by sinne but when there is a satisfaction made by Christ and we believing on him the satisfaction of Christ is made ours it is a sure Covenant because it is established in Christ the blessed seed And as it is a sure Covenant so thirdly it is an everlasting Covenant I will make an everlasting Covenant with thee so it is set downe here Everlasting in these respects For when wee are in Christ and made one with him by faith hee having satisfied Gods wrath for us and made him peaceable then God is become our father and he is an everlasting father his love to us in Christ is like himselfe immutable For even as Christ when hee tooke upon him our nature he made an everlasting Covenant with our nature married our nature to himself for ever and never layeth aside his humaine nature so he will never lay aside his misticall body his Church As Christ is God-man for ever so misticall Christ the Church is his body for ever As Christ will not lose his naturall so he will not lose his misticall body I will marry thee to my selfe for ever saith God in the Prophet so then it is everlasting in respect of God hee being Immutable I am God saith he Mal. 3. 6. and I change not and Christ the foundation of the covenant is everlasting And then againe it is everlasting in regard of us because if wee bee not wanting to our selves wee shall bee for evermore in Grace heere and in Glory for ever the fruites of Grace in us that is the work of the Spirit it is everlasting for howsoever the graces we have be but the first fruits of the spirit yet our inward man growes more and more till grace end in glory till the first fruits end in a harvest till the foundation bee accomplished in the building God never takes away his hand from his owne worke Everlasting also in regard of the body of Christians God makes a covenant with one and when they are gone with others alwayes God will have some in Covenant with him he will have some to be a God to when we are gon so long as the world continueth So that we see it is in every respect an everlasting covenant God is everlasting Christ is everlasting the graces of the spirit are everlasting When we are dead he will be a God unto us as it is said I am the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Iacob their God when they were dead he is the God of our dust of our dead bodies he will raise them up for they are bodyes in Covenant with him I am the God of whole Abraham and not of a piece therefore his body shall rise againe It is an everlasting Covenant That is the third quality Lastly it is a peculiar Covenant I will be thy God and the God of thy seed All are not the children of Abraham but they that are of the faith of Abraham God is in Covenant only with those that answer him that take him for their God that are a peculiar people It is not glorying in the flesh but there must be somewhat wrought that is peculiar before we can be assured we are of Abrahams seed and in Covenant with God And we may know that we are Gods peculiar by some peculiar thing that wee can doe what peculiar thing canst thou doe to speak a little of that by the way thou lovest and art kind but saith Christ what peculiar thing canst thou doe A heathen man may be kind and loving but canst thou overcome revenge canst thou spare and doe good to thine enemies canst thou trust in God when all means faile what is the power of the spirit in thee doth it triumph in thee over thy naturall corruption canst thou doe as Abrams did hee left all at Gods command canst thou doe that if need should be canst thou leave children and wife and life and all at Gods command Canst thou sacrifice Isaac as he did canst thou more trust in the promise of God then in the dearest thing in the world yea then in thy own feeling of grace whatsoever is not God canst thou be content to be without canst thou relye upon God when he appeareth to be an angry God Abraham knew that there was more comfort in the promise than in Isaac if thou have comfort in the promise more than in any thing else then thou art one of Abrahams seed thou hast sacrificed thy Isaack never talke of Abraham else never thinke that thy portion is great in God be what thou wilt by profession if there be no particular thing in thee which is not in a naturall man if thou art covetous as gripple for the world as very a drudge in thy calling as licentious in thy course as carnall men are thou art none of Gods peculiar ones thou art none of Abrahams seed Gods people have somewhat peculiar that the world hath not It is a peculiar Covenant Thus you see the qualities of this Covenant it is a free Covenant a sure Covenant stablished in the blessed seed the Messiah it is an Everlasting Covenant and it is a peculiar Covenant To make some vse of this in a word Heere then you see is another Spring of blessed comfort opened to a Christian. If hee findeth God though this assurance bee little to be his God in regard of peculiar favours let him remember it is an everlasting favour his love is everlasting the foundation is everlasting the graces of the spirit are an everlasting spring alwayes issuing from Christ our head grace is never drawne dry in him God is our God to death and in death and for ever all things in the world will faile us friends will faile us all comforts will faile us life will faile us ere long but this
he foments malice and cherisheth that malicious poysonfull disposition and a malicious disposition never wants malicious words As one saith of anger and furie it ministreth weapons so we may say of malice and hatred it ministreth words alway a malicious heart will never want words They say to me daily these are but circumstances but yet they are somewhat considerable for they tend to the aggravation of the disconsolate estate of this holie man that he should meet with such wretched men that had no pittie at all on him but say to him dayly Where is now thy God You see then from hence that God is a God as the Prophet saith oft times hiding himselfe that God vayles himselfe oft times to his children Not onely from the eyes of wicked men that they thinke godly men deserted of God but sometimes from the very sence and feeling of Gods children themselves they are in such desertions that they are faine to complaine that God hath hid himselfe and is as a stranger to them This is the state of Gods children in this world though God love them dearely as the apple of his eye and as the signet on his hand yet notwithstanding his carriage to them is oft times so strange that those that looke upon their estate in this world thinke they are men as it were for lorne and destitute of God And this estate must needs be Because of necessitie there must be a conformitie betweene us and our Saviour it was so with our Saviour my God my God why hast thou forsaken me God was never nearer him in all his life then then and yet he cryes out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me And as he spake so the rest thought of him as if he had beene a man forsaken and so here they say to this holy man where is thy God Therefore let us lay up this likewise for the strengthening of our faith in the like case that we be not overmuch discouraged if God hide himselfe if others thinke our estates miserable and our selves thinke our selves so it is no strange matter it was thus with David he was so neglected of God that they thought God had cleane forsaken him where is thy God Our life is now hid with Christ as the Apostle saith Colos. 3. We have a blessed and glorious life but it is hid in our head Even as in winter time the trees have a life but it is hid in the roote so a Christian hath a blessed condition at all times but his glory and happinesse is hid in his head and there is a cloud betweene him and his happinesse Therefore let us support our selves with this in all times was God gone from David indeed when they said Where is thy God Oh no God was as neare David now as ever he was nay rather nearer God was never nearer Moses then when he was sprawling upon the water in that Arke they had made for him He was never nearer Daniel then when he was in the Lyons Den God came betweene the Lyons teeth and Daniel and as I said he was never nearer our Saviour then when he was on the Crosse. And he was never nearer to David then when they said where is thy God When trouble is neare God is never farre off that is an argument to make God neare Lord be not farre off for trouble is neare And extremitie and danger and trouble it is Gods best opportunitie to be with his children how ever he doe not helpe for the present oft times Where is thy God David might rather have said to them where are your eyes where is your sight for God is not only in heaven but in me Though David was shut from the Sanctuary yet Davids soule was a sanctuary for God for God is not tyed to a sanctuary made with hands God hath two Sanctuaries he hath two heavens the heaven of heavens and a broken spirit God dwelt in David as in his Temple God was with David and in him and he was never more with him nor never more in him then in his greatest afflictions they wanted eyes he wanted not God Though sometimes God hide himselfe not onely from the world but from his owne children yet he is there howsoever their sorrow is such that it dims their sight as we see in Hagar so that they cannot see him for the present he sometimes lookes in their face as we see Mary she could not see Christ distinctly but thought him to be the Gardiner There is a kind of concealement a while in heavenly wisedome yet notwithstanding God is with his children alwayes and they know it by faith though not by feeling alwayes As we know what Iacoh said God was in this place and I was not aware when he slept upon the stone and had that heavenly vision So it is with Gods people in their trouble God is with his Church and children and wicked men are not aware of it Christ is in them and they are not aware of it Christ was in the Saints when Saul persecuted them and Paul was not aware of it Saul Saul why persecutest thou me who art thou Lord saith he alas he dreamed not of Christ. How ever wicked men of the world thinke yet God is neare his owne children in the most disconsolate condition that can be It is when they say where is thy God as if a man should aske what is become of the Moone betweene the old and the new when the darke side is towards us when we see no Moone at all for a time till the new come The Moone is neare and more enlightned with the Sunne then then at other times and is nearer to him So in affictions how ever the darke side of Gods children be toward the world that they cannot see them yet their light side is towards God God shines upon them and enlightens them more then at that time with solid comfort that keepes them from sinking then at other times therefore it was an ignorant question of them to aske where is thy God It shewed they were Ignorant of the passages of Gods dealing with his children as indeed none are greater Atheists then your scoffers Where is thy God As if God had beene onely a God of observation to be observed outwardly in all his passages toward his children whereas as I said he is a God hiding himselfe oft times and he shewes himselfe in contrary conditions most of all most comfortably his worke is by contraries But these carnall men were Ignorant of the mysteries of Religion and the mysteries of Divine providence towards Gods children therefore their question savours of their disposition where is now thy God Thus briefely I have gone over their disposition and carriage towards the holy man David That they were enemies of hostile nature and disposition they reproached him and dayly and that in his Religion where is thy God I beseech you let us look to it in time that it may
the knowledge of being in a good estate 1 To humble us Quest. Answ. How to know Gods children in losse of assurance Psalme 73. Vsually Gods children have particular perswasion Quest. Answ. If perswasion be not supernaturall 1 There will not be obedience 2 No holding out 3 No fruitfulnes Quest. Answ. Perswasion wrought by the spirit Quest. Answ. How the spirit perswades The manner of working this perswasion 1. Sweetly 2. strongly A strong work to perswade the soule Deut. 29. Use. To labour for spirituall perswasion 2 Cor. 2. 10 11. To begge the spirit Luke 11. Use. To desire God to perswade us God perswades with enlightning Evidence that we are not perswaded Faith makes much of what it hath Imbracing followes perswasion Triall of our estate by imbracing 2. Branches of faith To trie our està te by our affections Faith carries the whole soule The soule made for heavenly things Love of earthly things abaseth the soule What quiets the soule Micah 2. Want of faith scene by want of affections How to know nature is corrupted To shame our selves in want of affections To pray for affections Quest. Answ. What affections imbrace good things Gen. 17. 3. Quest. Answ. How this imbracing is wrought 1. By supernaturall knowledge To let goe other things Keepe the affections tender To meditate of Gods love in Christ. The excellency and necessitie of the good we hope for The hopefulnesse of them Iohn 17. Case Sol. Why the affections of Gods children are somtimes dead Scope of the words Difference betweene pilgrims and strangers Doct. Gods people strangers on earth Christians borne anew from heaven Heaven a Christians Country 1 Chron. 29. 15. August Christ a stranger on earth Iohn 1. We must have affection of strangers The Patriarchs strangers 1. In their owne esteeme Psal. 39. 12. 2. In Gods esteeme 3. In the worlds esteeme Object Answ. Wicked men how strangers here The carriage oâ—… him that is a stranger 1. He is going toward his country 2. Hee is contented Jerem. 45. 3. Patient 4. Thankefull The way to heaven smoother to some 5. He is glad of company 6. They minde their journies end 7. Though he step out of his way he comes in againe 8. He provides for all incumbrances 9. Inquires of the way 10. He useth things as they may help in his journey Indifferent things Apparent sins I Peter 2. 11. Hâ—… values not himselfe by outward things Dependance of the words A Christian dead how Life of a Christian hidden Psal 73. 7. Object Answer Question Answer 2 Cor. 4. Question Answer Iohn 17. 2 Thess. 1. 10. Rom. 8. Quest. Answer 1 Cor. 15. Quest. Answer Simile 1 Tim. 6. 13. 2 1 Pet. 1. 1 Thess. 4. Simile Simile Simile Iohn 14. 1. Quest. Answer Revel 1. Act. 9. 1 Cor. 15. Rom. 5. 1. Quest. Answer Rom. 8. 2 Cor. 5. 1. 1 Thess. 4. Observ. 1. The righteous die as well as the wicked Vse 1. To improoveâ—… the short time of life Vse 2. To use the world moderatly Observ. 2. The soule continues after death Life of the soule double 1 Reason It crosses the desires of the bodie 2 Reason It operates most in the bodies weakenesse 3 Reason It projects for the time to come Vse To use our soules to the end they were given Worldly men out live their happinesse Observ. 3. Great difference between the death of the godly and the wicked 1 The godly happy in life 2 In death 1 In disposition 2 In condition * See the Sermons on Philip 3. 21. 3 After death Three degrees of life Vse Who truly wise Godly mans end what Vse 2. To labour to partake of this happinesse Righteous man who A wicked man may know the happy estate of Gods children Reason 1. To justify God in their condemnation Reason 2. To restraine their malice Degrees of wicked men Vse Not to refuse all that ill men say Vse 2. To go beyond wicked men in our desires Difference of desires in true Christians others 1 They are notâ—… constant 2 They are not from an inward principle 5 They are not growing desires Cant. 1. 6 They are not strong Desires the best character of a christian 7 They desire happines not holinesse Wicked men desire not heaven aright Simile Conviction of such as come short of Balaam Directionshow to have holy desires 1 Beg the spirit of revelation Simile See what hinders good desires To â—…cherish good motions To renewe our covenants Question Answer Quest. Answer Why men want comfort in death Objection Answer When God accepts the will for the deed Objection Answer God leaves not good desires Gal. 2. Zach. 13. Gen 15. 1. Psal. 84. 1. The Arke a figure of Baptism in divers respects 2. Parts of the Text. 2. Parts of Baptisme The Devill carries to extreames Men prone to give too much to outward worship Psal. 50. Isay 1. Isay ult Reason outward performances easie and glorious 2. They dawbe Conscience Vse To performe inward service 2 Tim. 3. Vse 2. Ministers duty Christ the foundation of the Covenant of Grace Observ. There must be somewhat in us to make use of that is in Christ. Reas. 1. From the nature of the Covenant Reas. 2. Where agreement is there is a like disposition Vse To search our hearts for the evidence of our estate Covenant of grace why so called Demand of conscience proceedes from the answer of it Good conscience what Three degrees of a good conscience A troubled good Conscience 2. A peaceable good Conscience 3. A gracious good Conscience Heb. 13. Double ground of comfort Quest. Ans. How to know a good Conscience though troubled 1. If it answer God in trouble 2. By allowing Gods truth 3. By acknowledging Gods goodnesse Psal. 73. Quest. Ans. A man may know when he doth things graciously Ans. How to know what we doe from a good Conscience 1. It answeres towards God 2. From an inward principle Object Ans. Why Children are Baptised Simile Baptisme binds when we come to yeares Covenant in Baptisme Those that live in sins against Conscience renounce their Baptisme Exhortation to get this answer of a good Conscience Marke 9. Cant. 6. Psal. 51. How to get the answer of a good Conscience To make use of our Baptism 1. Against temptations to sin 2. In temptations to discouragment Ier. 3. 2. To distrust Comfort from the answer of a good Conscience Levit. 26. Verse 5. Psal. 41. Gal. 4. Psal. 109. Colos. 3. Simile Prov. 12. 18.
us thinke we are rich indeed for God will performe his promise From the promise then the soule goes to the nature of GOD then it thinkes of his justice his justice ties him to performe it it thinkes of his mercie and truth faithfull it hee that hath promised Then it thinkes of that great name Iehovah that gives being to the world gives being to 〈◊〉 things nay and that will turne all things that are now to nothing as when they were nothing he gave them being at the first that Iehovah hath made these promises of life everlasting of necessary grace to bring us thither he hath made a promise of perseverance and of comfort under the crosse and affliction a promise of provision and the like That great God Iehovah that gave being to all is faithfull he hath bound himselfe he hath laid his faithfulnesse to pawne that he will make all good that is here promised The soule after it sees the promise it riseth up and lookes to God They received not the promises that is the things promised so much I desire to observe from the phrase They received not the promises He speakes in the plurall number though he meane but one maine promise that is the Messias for all other were types of him Beleevers are called Children of the promise Here they are called promises for the repeating of them The promise of the same thing it was made oft there was no new promise the promise of the same thing was seven times repeated and renewed to Abraham presently one after another So they are called promises to shew that the promise can never be too much thought on though it be the same promise of life everlasting the same promise of grace and of comfort the same promise of the resurrection c. All the promises of good things to come we cannot think of too oft nor receive the SacrameÌ„t the seale of the promise too oft God knowes what we are he will have us oft receive the Sacrament and oft heare the same things We see the Prophet Esay and the rest how oft they inculcate the same promises of comfort to the people in captivity concerning their deliverance out of it they repeate it againe and againe the same reason should enforce the soule to have recourse to the promises againe and againe When there is any doubt or darkenesse ariseth to comfort the soule with the promise againe and againe Satan puts clouds and darkenesse before the soule every day there is a repeating of sin of infirmities and darknesse every day we should every day repeate the promises still though it be the same pro mise and the seale of them This I observe from the number They received not the promises There is a distinction of the words Evangelion and Epangelia in the Greeke they have a different signification Epangelia is of the time of the promises that were before Christ and they were all in expectation of the promise of the promised Messias the time of that dispensation was Epangelia Evangelion that was the time of the Gospell when the promise was brought into performance when our salvation was wrought by Christ in his first comming so they lived under the promise but they lived not under the things promised they had Epangelia the promise made to them but they had not Evangelion that is the dispensation of time wherein Christ lived which were indeed glorious times when Christ came in the flesh they received not those yet notwithstanding they died in faith To shame us that have so many meanes and helps and yet notwithstanding are so earthly minded and so stagger and doubt in matters of salvation and have our faith to seeke when all these blessed worthies the Patriarchs died in the faith that they lived in and yet they received not the promises no not the type of the promises they received not Canaan which was an earthly type of heavenly Canaan which was promised them they came not to reap that till long after when they came out of Egypt as for Abraham Isaac and Iacob they lived in the land of promise as strangers They received not the promises They were comforted notwithstanding that their posterity should receive them Canaan was a type of CHRIST and of Heaven I observe this by the way that God doth not reveale all things at all times God doth leave diverse things to be revealed in diverse ages of the Church God doth not reveale every thing in every time To comfort all ages of the Church We see not every thing in our times we must bee content There is to come the conversion of the Iewes many good soules desire that there is to come the confusion of Antichrist and many good things that God will bring to passe in another age our posterity they shall see it Let it comfort us by faith we see the promises though we do not receive the things promised we have the promise in the Scriptures let us comfort our selves in that that the benefit is reserved to our posterity Every age hath severall priviledges that that one age hath not another hath these-grand Patriarchs saw not what their posterity saw their posterity saw not what those that lived in the time of Christ saw those in Christs time saw not the discovery of Antichrist which we see our posterity shall see the confusion of Antichrist which it may bee wee shall not see Againe this should help us against the common infirmity that Christians are subject unto we should be thankful for some things though we have not all that we would have These received not the promises they had the promise they had the word though they had not the things promised and that comforted them though they had not the thing no not so much as the type of the thing not Canaan these blessed Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Iacob yet they were thankfull and chearefull and died in faith It is a common infirmity which our naâ—… is too prone to if the Church bee notinall things as we would we will not heare we care for nothing like curst children if they have not all they would have they care for nothing Theseall they had the promises they had not the things promised but did they take pet upon this Oh no they imbraced 〈◊〉 promises and looked for thethings promised in due time though they had them not themselves So it is with particular Christians other Christians they see goe comfortably iâ—… their Christian course and they have nothing no grace no faith no love no goodnesse because they have not all they would have therfore they have nothing what an ill affection is this We should be thankful for that we have that we can deny ourselves and we should be content to waite for that we have not this is the disposition of a Christian that is in a right temper and that is it which holds many from comforts that they doe not thankefully
that be when every one shall be glorious himselfe and shall put downe the Sunne in glory in his body and soule and when there shall be such a world of them so glorious If every Starre be beautifull how beautifull are all in their lustre when so many Saints shall be gathered together they shall be farre more glorious then the Sunne in his Majestie and this glory is reserved till all be gathered together God said of the creatures severally they were good but when hee looked on them together they were exceeding good so the severall soules of Christians are glorious but at the day of Judgement when all shall be gathered together there shall be an exceeding glory It is reserved I say for the gathering together of the Saints when Christ who is the head shall have gathered all by his word and ministery out of this sinfull world which are scattered here and there then they shall come to perfect glory Then there shall be perfect union betweene the body and soule then there shall be a perfect union betweene us and all that are dead together then there shall be a perfect union betweene us and Christ then we shall have the perfect fruition of God of Angels of all the blessed company in heaven Oh! what a blessed time will this be and this shall be at the glorious appearing of Christ. Christ shall appeare in glory himselfe as verily as he appeared in his first comming and wee shall appeare with him in glory Why should wee doubt of it is not that which is greater done already hath not God himselfe become man hath not God dyed and God beene abased in his first comming Is not that more wonder then that man should become like God in his second comming whether is greater for God to become man or for men to be raised out of their graves and become glorious certainely this is the lesser why should we doubt of it Let us rayse our hearts with this that as verily as he came in abasement to worke our salvation so verily hee shall come and rayse us to glory and this is a lesser worke then the former But to come nearer to make some further use of this surely these are maine points and should bee oft thought on O! that the hearts of Christians were exercised with them Could wee be dead either for grace or comfort if wee did oft thinke of this with application Let us oft warme our selves with these things let us bring our selves to the light let us thinke of the blessed times to come could we be unfruitfull This made Saint Paul adjure Timothy and the Thessalonians I beseech you by the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ c. I shall need no greater argument to presse you then as verily as Christ shall come in glory and as you shall be gathered to him so heare what I say So Saint Paul chargeth Timothy 1 Tim. 6. 13. I charge thee before Christ who at his comming c. Keepe this Commandement This will moove a mans conscience and carry him to duty if nothing else will Let us thinke seriously Christ will come with thousands of his Angels in glory and majestie and all shall be glory then there shall be nothing but glory glorious in his company glorious in himselfe glorious in his enemies he shall trample them under his feet by a glorious confusion there shall be nothing but glory in heaven and earth then And wee shall come to the same glory the Spouse shall partake of the glory of her husband Let us thinke of this it will quicken and inspire all our courses with a spirituall kind of light to all actions it will enliven and quicken them And it will put a kind of manner upon all our actions that they shall be acceptable to God For how should wee performe all that comes from us All should be done in sincerity and constantly and abundantly chearefully readily and willingly for God requires these qualifications in what wee doe now what stirres us up to do all in this manner acceptably to God but this consideration What stirres us up to doe things sincerely to Christ He will appeare in glory therefore let us doe things that may stand with his judgment It is no matter what the reprobates of the world judge let us doe things so as wee may stand before Christ at that day A Christian studies to arraigne himselfe before Christ that he may doe that that may approve him to him that shall be his judge ere long And so let us hold out we shall receive a reward what will make us constant but this what makes a man sowe his seed that he scarcely can spare but the hope of a harvest what makes a man runne but the victory and the Crowne so what makes a man worke but the hope of reward be constant for in him yee shall receive the reward if yee faint not And so for abounding in good workes your labour is not in vaine in the Lord what made Saint Paul presse the abounding in good workes Finally my brethren be stedfast and unmooveable alâ—…y abounding in the work of the Lord why for your labour is not in vayne in the Lord your bodies shall rise againe ere long in glory when Christ shall appeare you shall appeare and be glorious with him Therefore abound in the worke of the Lord sow to the Spirit and you shall reape glory they that sow sparingly shall reape sparingly What mkes men abound in workes of mercy and love but this appearing of Christ If their love be perfect they have comfort in this appearing and if they abound in mercy Christ will appeare in mercy to them And so for chearefulnesse that God also requires in every action what inlargeth the heart of a man in Gods worke what puts fire into his affections but this that Christ will come and appeare in glory ere long that he will come and crowne every good worke that we shall not loose a good word that hath beene spoken in a good cause not the least good action not a cup of cold water but all shall stand on our reckoning at that day when Christ shall come to be 〈◊〉 in his Saints This makes us doe things sincerely constantly abundantly and chearefully I beseech you consider from what ground these things come for these are principles that should be grounds of faith they are pregnant and spred themselves through the whole course of a Christians life and therefore are worthy to be thought often on Againe why doth God reveale these things before hands that wee shall appeare in glory in our body and soule in our whole man As it shewes us our duty and the manner ofit so it is a ground of comfort in all estates A Christian may thinke Now my life is a hidden secret life I passe under censures it is thus in the world and thus with me well there will a time come the time of Resurrection that will make amends
whole man And it discovers indeed that it hath a distinct life and excellency in it selfe by reason that it thwarts the desires of the body when it is in the body Reason if there be no grace in the soule that crosseth the inclination of the body grace much more And we see oft-times when the outward man is weake as in sicknesse c. then the Understanding Will and affections the inward man is most sublime and rapt unto heaven and is most wise Take a man that hath been besotted all his life time that hath beene drunke with the pleasures of a carnall life that hath beene a covetous wretch an earth-worme that enjoyes not heaven but lives as his wealth and lusts carry him in slavery yet at the houre of death when hee considers that he hath scraped together and considers the way that his lusts have lead him and that all must leave him now he begins to be wiâ—…e and speakes more discreetly hee can speake of the vanity of these things and how little good they can doe Indeed many way the most men are not wise untill that time therefore the soule of it selfe hath a distinct being because when the body is lowest it is most refined and strong in its operations Likewise it appeares by the projects that it hath of the time to come the soule especially of men that are of more elevated and refined spirits it projects for the time to come what shall become of the Church and Common-wealth what shall become of posterity and of reputation and credit in the world Certainly unlesse there were a subsistence of it selfe it would never looke so much before hand and lay the grounds of the prosperity of the Church and Common-wealth for the time to come I will not stand further on it but rather make some use of it Let us know which is our best part namely the soule that hath a being after death that we doe not imploy it to base uses for which it was not made nor given us doe we thinke that these soules of ours were made and given us to scrape wealth to travell in our affections to base things worse then our soules are they not capable of supernaturall and excellent things are they not capable of grace and glory of communion with God of the blessed stampe of the Image of God Let us use them therefore to the end that God gave them And let us not deserve so ill of our soules as to betray them to cast them in the dirt to lay our Crowne in the dust This is our excellency what can keepe our bodies from being a deformed loathsome thing if the soule be taken away yet so we abase this excellent part oft times we abase it to serve the base lusts of the body which is condemned to rottenesse What is the life of most men but a purveying and prouling for the body The lusts of the body set the wit and affections on worke to proule for it selfe what a base thing is this Were our soules given us for this end and especially considering this that our soules are immortall that they shall never die but be for ever let us not altogether spend this precious time that is given us to save our soules and to get the Image of God stamped upon them I say let us not spend this precious time in things that will leave us when our soules shall live still let us not carry the matter so that our soules shall out-live our happinesse All worldlings and base creatures they out-live their happinesse for where do they plant it in the base things of this life all their life long they are prouling for those things that they must leave when they die whereas their soules shall not die but everlastingly subsist What a misery is this that these soules of ours shall have a being when the things wherein we placed our happinesse and abused our soules to gaine them they shall have an end The soules of such men that seeke the things of this life shall have a being in eternall misery Indeed so it is for these soules of ours the same degree they have in excellency if they be used as they should if we doe not abase them the same degree they shall have in basenesse and misery if wee abuse them and make them slaves to earthly things For as the Devils the same degree they had of excellency when they were Angels the same degree they have in misery now they be Devils The more excellent the creature is when it keepes its excellency the more vile it is when it degenerates so these soules of ours that next to Angels are the most excellent creatures of God the more excellent it is if it get the Image of God stamped upon it and the new creature and have the life of grace the more cursed is the state of the soule if it subsist to everlasting misery It were happy if the soules of such creatures were mortall that labour for a happinesse in this life Oh! that we would thinke of this Most men in the bosome of the Church which is lamentable to thinke they live as if they had no soules They overturne the order that God hath set that hath given us our bodies to serve our soules they use all the strength and marrow of their wits all the excellencies in their soules for the base satisfaction of the lusts of the body so much for that point The third is that There is a wide broad difference betweene the death of the godly and of the wicked The godly are happy in their death for here we see it is a matter desirable This caitiffe this wretched man Balaam Oh! saith he Let me die the death of the righteaus and let my last end be like his It being the object of his desire it is therefore certainly precious the death of the righteous And indeed so it is holy and gracious men they are happy in their life while they live they are the sonnes of God the heirs of heaven they are set at liberty all things are theirs they have accesse to the Throne of grace all things worke for their good they are the care of Angels the Temples of the Holy-Ghost Glorious things are spoken of these glorious creatures even while they live But they are more happy in their death and most happy and blessed after death In their death they are happy in their disposition and happy in condition Happy in their disposition what is the disposition of a holy and blessed man at his end His disposition is by faith to give himselfe to God by which faith he dies in obedience he carries himselfe fruitfully and comfortably in his end And oft times the nearer he is to happinesse the more he layes about him to be fruitfull Besides his disposition he is happy in condition for death is a sweet close God and he meet grace and glory meete he