Belial God and Baal is most insufferable yea more than the clear rejection of him Utinamcalidus esses aut frigidus I would you were hot or cold saith the Lord to some in the Revelations As if since they were not throughly hot he had rather by much they were utterly cold than in that faint temper between both fit for nought but evomition as is there threatned for the indignation of God riseth at nothing so much as when Men neither so cold as to contemn Religion nor yet so hot as to forsake their sins present him with a cooler mixture of both Better therefore be a pure Gentile or a graceless sinner than a compounded and perfunctory Christian worse than either and harder to be cured his mediocrity being grown venerable unto the world and himself under the shew and title of calmness and moderation For which cause that may be verified of these our Saviour said of others Publicans and harlots shall sooner enter the kingdom of heaven If we mean to find entrance there it may not be by the formal and falsehearted seeking seek the Lord and you shall find him but if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul otherwise instead of finding a Kingdom we may chance to fall upon a curse Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently Seek ye therefore first with all Industry and with all speed too that it may be the first thing you seek every way first in time as well as in intention Death is uncertain and delays are dangerous whilst we take farther day unto our selves enlarging our time as the rich Fool did his Barns God oftentimes derides us as he did him Stulte hac nocte Thou Fool this night shall thy soul be taken from thee And who in his own particular knows the length and date of this his day who can tell how many hours there are in it or how many of them are spent already How soon that now that henceforth of obstruction and blindness may come upon him and refusing to cleanse his Soul whilst the Spirit like that Angel in the Pool of Bethesda is moving the waters how suddenly he may fall under that fearful Sentence of the same Spirit in the Revelation He that is filthy let him be filthy still If that Fig-tree were cursed even before the time of fruit in comparison was come before the Gospel was throughly published may not those that have lived long under the bright beams and Sun-shine of it and still bring forth nought but leaves of shew and formality have just cause to fear every moment the approach and probation of that final and fatal doom Never fruit grow on thee more Whilst Men in their presumption are sporting themselves and grieving God with their sins God in his wrath in the mean while may be swearing they shall never enter into his rest Undoubtedly did the rays of true wisdom and divine pierce into the Soul had the heart any true impression of future things or of the vanity of the present did Men taste and relish the good gift of God and the powers of the world to come they would not permit any quiet to their Spirits or peace unto their Souls till their Souls had made and gained peace with their God and freed themselves from such uncertainties This is the Haven of our Rest and Heaven upon Earth and we that see it may well say unto our Souls better than he did say but saw it not O quid agis anima meâ— fortiter occupa portum what dost thou O my Soul the Port is before thee steer away before Sea and Wind manfully foul weather is behind thee make haste to escape the stormy Wind and Tempest And however there should chance not to be any for there may be room for misericordia Domini inter pontem fontem He hath not shut up life nor the gate of his mercy upon any yet it will concern wise men to fear the worst that is more likely and prevent it whilst they have time to work the work of the Lord whilst it is yet high day before that dreadful and terrible night approach wherein no man can work To defer it to the eleventh hour to the evening and twilight were a presumption too full of boldness especially since our Sun may set at noon and our light go out in the midst of our life For we are but dust as our Fathers were and the Spirit of the Lord will not always strive with us Let us therefore laying aside all delays be resolute and vigilant attending speedily to open when it pleaseth him to knock when he calls instantly to answer Lo I come when he says seek ye my face to echo immediately thy face Lord will I seek So seeking his face in holiness here you may be sure to see it in glory hereafter In the mean time that God who hath added all things else plentifully unto you all abundantly unto one continue and multiply his favours unto all but principally and above all unto that one For since it is one of the last services your Majesty before your journey is to receive from this place I would not willingly leave it without one word of apprecation For though I may not bless yet I may pray God almighty whom you seek and serve hath blessed you ever hitherto and may his faithfulness and truth be your shield and protection ever hereafter He that went with Abraham in his Journey be with you in yours Let him lead you forth in peace and to the joy of all hearts return you again in safety May he carry you from Crown unto Crown from one Kingdome to another upon earth and having ministred all things else unto you according to your hearts desire here may he at last and let that be late minister an entrance unto you also abundantly into his own Kingdom this Kingdom of God Whereunto the same God of his infinite mercy vouchsafe to bring us all for and in the meritorious blood of his dearly beloved Son and our most blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen Laus Deo in aeternum A PREPARATION FOR THE Holy COMMUNION SERMON VIII Upon 1 COR. XI 28. But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. THE holy but fearful Sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord as it is the highest and noblest Institution the Christian Religion hath so is it to be approached unto with the greatest reverence and regard For as it affords inestimable comfort to the worthy participant so not less danger and terrour to the unworthy Receiver He that takes it must know he takes a powerful medicine that will work one way or other either cure or kill prove wholsom Physick or deadly poyson As the patient is prepared so it works this way or that even either life or death For the blood which is received if it do not wash and cleanse it willâ— certainly stain
though there be no absolute cause of his will yet his will is a reasonable cause of all other things and it were most unreasonable to conceive that he should want reason for what he doth that doth all things according to the counsel of his own will that is all outward things for the internal and eternal operations of the Divinity are natural and necessary and of such there is no counsel but all his transient and outward works or immanent acts if they have outward objects of which sort Election is one are free and voluntary and must needs have a reason why they are done because there was no necessity they should have been done All these things he doth not only according to his will but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to the Counsel of his Will And whatsoever is done with Counsel or wise resolution hath of necessity some reason why it is done And though this reason as here it is be often unknown unto us who can know no more of his Will than he himself shall please to reveal yet howsoever we know not the reason yet this we know whatsoever the reason be it cannot be drawn from our merits The Election of the blessed Angels who received either a more excellent nature or else a greater ability of Grace than the rest as St. Austin disputes was therefore free and without merit Nay the Election of Jesus Christ the Man to be made the Son of God was of meer grace and goodness as the same Father doth in sundry places affirm And shall Man a Worm and dust of the earth plead desert that only of all the rest deserved nothing but destruction which though otherwise he did not yet for this very arrogance he worthily should deserve How much better were it for them with those Saints in the Revelation to cast their Crowns at the foot of the Throne and with true humility to cry out with David Non nobis Domine non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy name give the glory for thy mercy and thy truths sake For we have destroyed our selves but thou hast redeemed our life from destruction and wilt crown us in mercy and loving kindness Then our mouths shall be satisfyed with good things In the mean time let them be full of thy praise for in thee O Lord is our help in whom we live move and have our being for whom and from whom and by whom are all things and to whom be glory for evermore Amen A DISCOURSE OF ELECTION AND REPROBATION PART II. SERMON VI. Upon HOSEA xiii 9. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in Me is thine help HItherto That help and Salvation is of the Lord Now That the death and destruction of man is from man O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self For however it be true that it is God only who properly inflicts destruction in regard whereof it is rightly said vita Mors à Domino Life and death is from the Lord yet because he doth inflict it but for mans wilful offence it is as true that he is not so specially the author of destruction the inflictour as he that deserves it And therefore it is no less rightly said by the Wiseman on the other side Deus mortem non fecit God hath not made death for he desireth not the destruction of the living but they themselves by the errours of their life and works of their hands have sought it out and drawn it down upon their own heads And therefore though life and death be both of God yet after a different manner Vita scilicet à donante mors à vindicante Life is his free giâ—t saith St. Austin but death the reward and wages as the Apostle of mans merit From whence it is that God is ever termed Pater misericordiarum the Father of Mercies but never of Justice because no desert of man can make any claim unto it It is born and bred within himself a Thread like that of the Spiders woven and spun out of his own bowels whose nature and property it is to have mercy and compassion But for his Justice it is not so with it that seems so far from being natural whereunto he is as it were violently drawn against his nature tactus dolore cordis intrinsecùs Repenting and as it were grieved at the heart he said I will destroy the man which I have made Neither is it more proper than natural it is opus suum his Act indeed but Opus alienum suum not his proper but his strange Act as it is in Isaiah because there is something without him which calls for it and requires it too of him And therefore excellently St. Austin Bonusest Deus justus est Deus potest sine bonis meritis liberare quia bonus est non potest sine malis meritis dâ—â—â— are quia justus est God is good and God is just He may save without good deserts because he is good but he cannot condemn without evil because he is just Some notwithstanding affirm he may because they imagin the Creatour hath an absolute power over his Creature but we must beware how we set the properties of God at variance among themselves attributing unto him such a Power as shall thwart and shoulder with his Justice It is no less nay it is more true of him than of his Creature Iâ—lâ—d potest quod jure potest That he only can do which he lawfully may do Not that he is bound by any superiour Law but because as the Apostle said of the Gentâ—le Sibi ipsi Lex He is a Law unto himself which Law in these kind of actions is his Justice not his absolute Will For their Rule is not to be approved that say God doth not will actions because they are right and good but all actions are right and good because he wills them For then he might will any thing without injustice since by willing he makes it just even the destruction of the righteous with the wicked which notwithstanding Abraham thought and was bold to affirm unto God himself of whom he was not blamed for it neither that even in him it would be unjust Whereunto that round and witty saying of St. Austin doth also subscribe Deus reddit mala pro malis quia justus est bona pro malis quia bonus est bona pro bonis quia bonus justus est solumnon reddit mala pro bonis quia injustus non est But this Rule and that power was purposely invented to defend the direful decree of absolute Reprobation that so they might establish dominion and that by might which they saw by equity could not be maintained as I am now to shew and prove being it throws the blame of mans destruction upon God no otherwise than the former Election gives Gods glory unto man The Authors of the one and the other opinion being deceived
did secure him out of that danger and deep distress wherewith he was environed on every side and wherewith he was inclosed shut up and surrounded as in a Prison And out of this Prison Educ animam redeem deliver bring forth my Soul But besides the literal the holy Scripture it cannot be denied especially the old Testament and the Psalms more than any else doth every where abound with many other both moral and mystical sences for as St. Paul hath it omnia contingebant illis in figura all things happened unto them under the Law in a figure and are for examples unto us on whom the ends of the world are come Their very Histories were Prophecies and their actions predictions saith St. Austin and as when words signify actions there ariseth the historical sence so when those actions again are instead of words to signify other several operations from thence doth emerge the mystical interpretation For which reason it is that the Fathers and learned Writers of our own and former ages have given unto this place such variety of expositions and that not by way only of accommodation but as the proper and intended meaning of the Spirit that endited it justly taking that for the Souls Prison which doth any way either naturally or morally straiten or oppress the Soul or restrain the freedom and liberty of it in her operations And therefore every faithful Christian under what distress soever whether of outward afflictions or inward and inherent sins whether of bodily infirmities or worldly troubles and cares whether meaning any or all and every of them he may truly say with David Bring my Soul è custodia out of the inclosure and custody of this miserable Prison for though David peradventure did not himself actually behold all those meanings when he prayed yet the Holy Ghost which did dictate to him might easily forethink and intend unto more senses than the wits of men can according to the analogy of faith find out or discover And as this first part is something troubled with diversity of Interpretations so the latter part is become much more difficult through variety of readings Here it is Which thing if thou shalt grant me then shall the Righteous resort unto my company as if it were promissory and votive In the rest it seems rather assertory and positive The Righteous shall compass me about for thou shalt deal bountifully with me so our new Translation Then shall the Righteous come about me when thou hast been good or beneficial unto me so Junius and Tremelius render it Me expectant Justi donec reâ—ribuas mihi The Righteous wait and expect till thou dost reward me with deliverance so the vulgar edition Yet all seem to agree in this that upon his deliverance the Righteous shall compass him about and he either to them or they with him shall praise and magnify the name of the Lord by whom he was delivered But this help these divers readings will afford us it will make the Text more appliable unto the several expositions the Antients have given us So having opened the passage and a little cleared the sence of the Text we may now go on without offence to the divisions of it wherein we shall not need to labour much it requires neither Art nor Industry Nature hath already done it to our hands It runs forth of its own accord into two Branches and no mans eye so weak but he may see them of himself Prayer and Praise Prayer for deliverance Praise and thanksgiving when he hath obtained it in the one ye may behold the devotion in the other the gratitude of his Soul Deliver my Soul out of Prison see the Prayer That I may give thanks unto thy name see the Praise And yet you see not all of the praise neither Praise his name he may do in his own heart and within himself and that is but private praise but this is not enough he will have it publick too his good heart is already filled but to think of his deliverance and he presently meditates where he may vent it and no where so well as in the Ears of the righteous who will soon flock about him to rejoyce in his mercy and gladly bear a part in his song of thanksgiving among them therefore he will pour it forth that the voyce of honour and praise as from a full Quire may ascend into the Ears of the Lord his deliverer Which thing if thou wilt grant me then c. But because it will be more convenient for us to end with the Prayer we will begin first with this last the Praise and it will agree well with the order of nature for indeed every Mans praise should be first in his resolution before he offer to open his mouth in his prayer Offer unto God thanksgiving saith David and pay thy vows unto the most High and then call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee as if no Man might expect deliverance in that day the day of trouble unless he first resolve on and vow thanksgiving unto the most High And indeed thus far we can go with the Prophet we are all apt enough to promise and vow many thankful returns unto the Lord when our Souls are in sorrow and his afflictions lie heavy upon us but for performing of these promises and paying of these vows afterwards there is the difficulty and there we leave him Under our burthens and distresses especially if great and pressing it is almost every Mans vow O if the Lord will but deliver me now free me but this time we will do this and that and marvellous things then but the hand of the Lord is no sooner removed the prison of our afflictions broken up and our Souls brought forth in safety but all is instantly forgotten as if it had never been We are now well and at liberty and have no need we think of the Lord when we have he shall hear of us again in the mean time pay vows he that list it is enough for us to smile in our sleeves as if we had over-reacht the Lord and cheated him out of a deliverance with fair language But God will not fail to reach home one time or other unto such false hypocrisie for Hypocrites they are and no better and for such they are esteemed and stiled by God himself though they promised nothing but what at that time they truly meant to perform When God slew the Israelites saith David then they returned and inquired early after God they remembred that God was their rock and the high God their redeemer and no question but all this with true devotion yet because upon the deliverance they fell back like their forefathers starting aside as a broken bow the Prophet presently subjoins Nevertheless they did but flatter with their lips and dissemble with their double tongue for their heart was not right in them neither were they stedfast in his Covenant not stedfast and
as thy soul liveth so frequent amongst the holy men under the Law is to be received for they sware not by the soul alone but by that God whose image and likness it is for so it is to be understood As thy soul liveth by the power and providence of him that first made it to his likeness and doth still preseve it by his mercy The Third and last is when a man names a Creature in an Oath not as swearing by it but as exposing it by way of imprecation unto the judgment of that God who is the true witness of his speech which is the execratory Oath touched in the beginning so when a man swears by his own Soul it is not meant as if that were called to the record of that he speaks but as pledging and pawning unto God the welfare and Salvation of it upon the truth of his speech And therefore he that swears by his Soul doth in abbrevation say no other than what St. Paul did in plain and full terms I call God to record upon my Soul for that is the meaning of it and both the meaning and example are strong proofs that it cannot be simply understood Now that other of Joseph by the life of Pharaoh may be understood both these ways for either he calls that God to witness whose judgment by the ministry of Pharaoh was executed upon Earth or else by way of imprecation he doth upon the truth of the speech appignorate unto God the health and safety of Pharaoh as a thing of all other most dear unto him The Master of the Sentences is for the first and others for the latter both may be good but this in the Text the more probable So then there may be divers forms wherein the Creature is named and yet the Oath made only by the Creator for he doth still swear by him that swears by any excellent work or mercy of his with reference to him in which sort he that says as thy Soul liveth doth at the same time and in the same words swear as my Text requires At the Lord liveth for the full sense and meaning is as the Lord liveth by whom thy Soul hath life And though peradventure it may be better when just occasion doth require an Oath to make it clearly and expressly in the Name of the Lord yet the interpretation of our Saviour and the examples of so many holy men do forbid us utterly to condemn all such as do but implicitely call him to record under his Creatures And sure if they want not other necessary conditions of an Oath they will hardly be believed for this the form will free it self if they want not the right manner and matter if they be performed in truth judgment and righteousness the qualities and inseparable companions of a lawful Oath which now come to be considered in their order and first of the first Jurabis in Veritate Thou shalt swear The Lord liveth in Truth From the Form we come unto the Matter and having seen in whose Name an Oath is to be made we are now to consider with what Conditions it is to be qualified And they are but three in all whereof Truth hath the first place and most deservedly since nothing is so opposite to the very nature and essence of an Oath as falshood for the Person whose name in an Oath is assumed is the God of truth the end for which an Oath it self was ordained is the confirmation of truth and the perjurer by dishonouring that and frustrating this abuseth both oftentimes to the hurt and damage of his Neighbour but ever unto the great prejudice of his Creator And therefore the Egyptians saith Diodorus Siculus did ever punish the perjurer with death whereof they esteemed him twice worthy ut qui pietatem in deos violaret fidem inter homines tolleret maximum Societatis vinculum as one that did both violate his piety to God and his faith to men the greatest bond of Society But to omit these injurious effects of a false Oath unto man as depriving him sometimes of his Credit good name and reputation and sometimes even of his Goods and Life too do but only see and consider how impious it is against God and how infinitely he sins that shall call him who is not only true but truth it self to testify his falshoods and so as far as in him is make him a Lyar like himself for as Estius says in lib. 2. sent dist 39. 5 6. Qui falsum jurat quantum in se est Deum facit vel mendacem vel ignorantem he that swears falsly as much as in him lies makes God either ignorant or a liar Falshood is ever vile and odious in it self but when it is fastened upon God when we teach our own Inventions those spurious brats and bastards of our own Brain to call him Father it must needs be detestable For we cloath him with the Attribute of the Devil who is properly a liar and the Father of lies Job viii And therefore even we our selves though we be all liars yet we cannot endure to hear it and when we do nothing can satisfie but his blood that tells us so though never so truly How then may we think and with what indignation will God receive it when they are so unjustly pinned and stuck upon him who hates a lie more than we can love our selves And with what severity may we imagin he will revenge it what reward will he give unto such a false Tongue but sharp Arrows and hot burning Coles at the least even those Arrows in Job the Arrows of Gods wrath the venom whereof drink up the spirits of him in whom they stick and those Coles or rather Flames of St. John for all liars saith he shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. xxi 8. And if all Liars have a part then how great a portion will be assigned to the Perjurers for if God will not hold him guiltless that useth his holy Name but vainly how shall his guilt multiply and his Sin become exceeding sinful that doth abuse it falsly and if he will destroy those that do but speak out their lies as it is in the v. Psalm Thou shalt destroy those that speak Leasing how great shall their destruction be that fear not to swear them out and uphold them by the holiness of his name Certainly so great as I think the depth and bottom of Hell doth not know any greater for I assure my self that neither the Idolatrous Gentile nor the unbelieving A theist shall lie lower in that Pit of everlasting horror than the contemptuous Perjurer for the one doth worship no God the other a false God but this makes a false witness of the true God his Sin is Infidelity the others Idolatry but this man's is not without blasphemy which is worse than either for it may worthily be esteemed a less Crime to acknowledge any thing for God
it hath not wanted manuring and culture sepsi elapidavi I enclosed hedged it in and threw the stones and weeds out after all I built a Tower and a Vine-press therein expecting Grapes fecit mibi labrùscas and it brought forth wild grapes now judge I pray you Quid amplius debui facere vineae meae what I ought more to have done unto my Vine This was enough to convince them but these times are more acute Had some Men of our Israel been made Judges they would quickly have stopt the mouth of this Plantiff Why you have withheld the first and the latter rain the dew of Grace and the influence of Heaven no marvel if your Plants thrive not if you would needs plainly know this you ought not to have done if you would have expected grapes Give but that blessing and your earth will bring forth its encrease As if in the enumeration of some few particulars those that these speak of and whatsoever else is simply necessary for this rational Vine were not virtually included Surely the Lords Vineyard was not planted upon those cursed Mountains of Gilboa on which there fell neither dew nor rain for certainly the influence of Heaven hath not been restrained the Sun of righteousness hath risen and shined upon this Vine but it hath loved darkness more than light the dew of Divine Grace was not wanting to the branches thereof but they have turned his grace into wantonness quenching and grieving his holy Spirit And therefore a little before the utter rooting up and casting out these degenerate Plants St. Stephen frames the Inditement unto their just destruction why ye are a stiff-necked people and a stubborn generation as your Fathers did so do ye ye have always resisted the Holy Ghost And this leads us unto the third and last point That God reprobates none but after the often abuse of his grace for as they were cut and cast off so are all other also rejected and reprobated for first rejecting and resisting the same Holy Ghost My people would not bearken unto my voice and Israel would none of me saith the Lord So I gave them up unto their own hearts lufts and they walked in their own counsels Psal. 81. 11. And this is the first external act of Reprobation when God gives Men up unto a Reprobate sense withdrawing his abused Grace and leaving them unto the counsels and lusts of their own hearts A Judgment never denounced in Scripture but for contempt of Mercy Now by the external act Man must judge of the internal and eternal decree for what God in time doth that before all time he did decree to do for they that imagine that difference between the decree and the execution of the decree that the one hath respect unto Sin but the other none must either make a decree that is never executed or an execution that varies from the decree as if God did ordain one thing and do another And therefore if he doth now give up and reject a people for their obstinate sins for the same cause in his Eternal Reprobation he did order so to reject them And as it is in rejection from Grace so it fares in exclusion from Glory from which no Man is irrecoverably abdicated but for long and wilful grieving of that God who would have brought them to it Forty years long was I grieved with this generation and then I sware they should not enter into my rest Than which I know no sentence that doth so clearly represent and express the true nature of Reprobation for what is it but Gods eternal oath of rejecting wicked Men from his Glory into that destruction they have deserved And this he doth not suddenly in a passion of choler upon every light occasion but in his wrath his wrath urged and provoked by a long Rebellion even forty years long was he grieved and then he sware in his wrath he resolutely determined they should not enter into his rest A decree that seems not to proceed but when by extremity of injury it is as it were violently extorted so loth and unwilling he is to be brought unto it as he doth not so much as think or speak of it without passionate interjections of sorrow O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self And upon these exhibitions of Gods mercies and goodness unto the Reprobate depends the verity and truth and justice of this complaint against them for they that never received any means of Salvation can by no means ever be termed the authors of their destruction But now since God and his favours have not been wanting unto them but they unto God since they have wilfully forsaken his mercy they can rightly blame none but themselves for their own misery for as the antient Father Irenaeus hath it Judicium justum recipient quoniam non sunt operati bonum cum possent operari illud The judgment of God is just which they shall receive because they did not do well when they might have done it Whereunto Clemens Alexandrinus doth agree All impenitents saith he shall be judged aliqui quidem quod cum possent noluerunt Deo credere alii vero quod cum vellent non elaboraverunt ut fierent fideles Some because when they might believe they would not others because when they would yet they did not labour truly to become what they desired And it were easie that no man might conceive the Doctrine to be new to shew the like out of the Fathers yea generally out of all both before the Pelagian heresy and after but left the time should fail me to those already mentioned I will only add the Judgment of the third Synod of Arles assemblged for the defining of these very questions wherein what you have now heard is not only affirmed but a Curse and an Anathema laid upon those that shall think the contrary Anathema illi qui dixerit quòd Christus non pro omnibus mortius sit Cursed be he that says that Christ died not for all And Anathema illi qui dixerit illum qui periit non accepisse ut salvus esse posset Cursed be he that says he that perished did not receive means whereby he might be saved But unto this and whatsoever else in this kind may be said that in the ix to the Romans of Jacob and Esau before ever they had done good or evil that the purpose of God might stand according to Election it was said The elder shall serve the younger according to that of the Prophet I have loved Jacob but Esau have I hated like Medusa's head is ever objected though seldome or never understood But that it may be besides theirs of absolute Reprobation I will first shew you the several interpretations of others The ancient Fathers both Greek and Latin before St. Austin yea and St. Austin for a while until the Pelagian heresy arose interpret these words of the Election of some unto salvation upon prevision of their future faith and
deserve thy frequent cogitations and prayers and tears to consider and bewail it thoroughly crying out with him in the Gospel Lord I believe help my unbelief And never think it helped till thou findest it reforming thy affections and lusts not led and ruled by them till thou perceivest it working powerfully in all the thoughts of thy heart and actions of thy hands and the whole course of thy life For this is the true test and tryal and to these marks our Saviour himself sends thee to make full proof of it These are the signs saith he that shall follow them that believe In my name shall they cast out devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them and when they lay their hands on the sâ—â—k they shall be healed If those signs follow not thy Faith it is vain and thou art yet in thy sins But thou wilt say the time of Miracles is past and these days require them not Neither do I require them as then neither then and in those times were they common unto all Believers But the saying of our Saviour is universal and in the spiritual sence is ever true that these signs follow them and all them that unâ—â—ignedly believe For every Man naturally hath Devils enough within him to be thrown forth and unless thy Faith have power and virtue enough to dispossess and cast out the impure spirits of luxury and avarice of envy wrath malice and hypocrisie and the like foul Fiends wherewith our nature is full unless it be able to give thee a new tongue and a new language and cleansing thy mouth of all oaths and blasphemies of slanders and reproaches of deceit and scurrility can teach thee to speak the words of sobriety and sanctity and of truth every Man unto his Neighbour unless it can embolden thee to take up Serpents to receive and lovingly embrace thy mortal enemies and make treacle of them too drinking up all the deadly venome which their poysoned stomachs can disgorge against thee not only without hurt but even as thy physick that so lifting up pure and innocent hands upon them with prayers and benedictions though they revile and curse they may yet at length be won from it and cured of the malice wherewith they were sick and others also by thy example of their several diseases who seeing thy good works may glorify thy Father which is in Heaven Until I say thy Faith hath power to work these things unless our Saviours signs be false it is never current and effectual If you say these things are too high and hard for us we cannot attain unto them you do withal say and confess that you do not truly believe For true Faith is not dead or droâ—zy but powerful and operative working even wonders unto flesh and blood which St. Paul proves by a full cloud of witnesses in the 11. to the Hebâ— producing a whole Catalogue of the antient Wâ—â—thies who all through Faith aspiring to the promises were mighty and marvellous in their actions overthrowing Kingdoms working righteousness and doing such great things as we cannot consider without admiration And whence all this but because their Faith was stirring and active not lazy and languishing like ours which is only a Carkass of belief without any soul of life and vigor in it otherwise we should soon find in our selves what the same Author elsewhere affirms that nothing is available like Faith when it is working working by love which is ever impatient and restless till it attains what it desires Who then or what power is able to resist it not the power of the whole world this is it that overcometh the world even your faith John v. 3. no nor the power of any thing else credenti omnia sunt possibilia to him that believes all things are possible saith our Saviour And therefore if ever these things be impossible to thee if thy Faâ—th be so weak that it cannot dispossess thee of thy wicked spirits and work those spiritual miracles on thy Soul it is a greater miracle if ever it save thy Soul For true Faith purifies the heart and cleanseth the very reins and is assuredly dead if it do not work powerful effects within us If of unclean and covetous of malitious envious and deceitful persons it doth not make us pure and temperate mild and merciful upright and just in our actions it is unprofitable and shall never justify with God In whose account whatsoever you think none are taken for believers any farther than they are practisers of his word He that says he knows God and hateth his brother is a lyer saith St. John and sure he that says he believes in God and yet forsaketh not his sins lyes as loudly and doth but abuse his own Soul vainly dreaming of Faith when he hath but the shadow of it without truth or substance and will be found at last but in that poor Mans case who dreamt all night of treasure and in the morning when he awoke was not worth a farthing With that Church in the Revelation they have a name that they live and conceit they are rich whenas there it is said they are blind and poor and naked and miserable and shall so understand themselves in the end for however now we please our selves for a while with the vain opinion of our imaginary Faith yet when we have slept our sleep and dreamt our dreams in the morning when we shall all awake from our graves and come unto Judgment it will be found far otherwise than we conceived When the son of man cometh saith our Saviour himself shall he sind faith upon the earth surely yes such as ours for the most part is Faith enough such a speculative fancy that floats only in the brain never affecting the heart such a presumptuous confidence that can seize on mercies neglecting commands lay hold on the passion and death of a Saviour but neither obey his precepts nor imitate his life of such Faith we doubt the Christian world will be then and now is full as it can hold he shall every where find it But of that true and real Faith rooting out sinful affections of that high and mighty Faith inthroned in the very heart of the Soul and from thence commanding all the powers and faculties which it hath of that prevalent and victorious Faith conquering Sin and Satan and treading under foot the glory and vanity of the whole world of this solid and substantial Faith which only deserveth the name of Faith and he only looks for of this he shall then find but little in the world as indeed there is very little now Some scattered sparks of it only there are in a few of our bosoms but raked up in a great deal of embers and if we take not heed like enough to be stifled ere we are aware O preserve and collect them carefully blow upon them with thy
these benefits To all three therefore to the Father that sent to the Son that came to the Holy Ghost that made him at his coming for by him he was conceived to the Father for his mission to the Son for his redemption to the Holy Ghost for his adoption for by him it is wrought he that made him the Son of man doth likewise regenerate us to the state of the Sons of God worthily therefore to all three is all thanks and praise and honour to be rendred for evermore But yet this thankfulness is but verbal and therefore not yet full for fulness of thanks would surely be exprest in something more than words and in what may that better be than in the holy Eucharist the Sacrament of thankfulness and is by interpretation thanksgiving it self When Davids zeal throughly warmed with the consideration of Gods mercies brake forth into that fiery demand quid retribuam Domino what shall I return unto the Lord for all his benefits he could find our nothing so full as this accipiam Calicem salutis I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. Surely if our hearts be hot within us as his was and we meditate a return as he did Ecce calix salutis behold the Cup of salvation let us take it and with it in our hands call upon him render him our true Eucharist or real thanksgiving indeed The Cup of Salvation cannot but do well in the day of salvation In it is the blood of the Covenant the price upon Covenant to be laid down for us and therefore the Cup of Redemption In it is the blood of the Testament wherein our glorious inheritance is by way of legacy conveyed unto us and therefore the Cup of Adoption So that our freeing from under the Law and our investiture into our new adopted estate are not full nor fully consummate without it And yet this may not be all No when this is done there is an allowance of twelve days more for this fulness of time that we shrink not up our duty into this day alone but continue it throughout the whole Sure every good heart in this solemn commemoration of our Redemption and Adoption will himself remember to redeem some part of the time to adopt too some hour in the day at the least to think on him a little and bethink himself of the duty the time calls on him for That so no day be empty quite empty in this fulness of time but that fulness of time fulness of mercy and fulness of duty may all meet together and make a full union That as the time is filled with the compassion of the Father and the love of the Son so we may be filled with the grace of the Holy Ghost Then shall we be sure to pass on from one fulness to another from this here to another which is behind from the fulness of Grace to the fulness of Glory For all this is but the fulness of time that is the fulness of eternity when time shall be run out and his glass empty and tempus non erit amplius and shall be no more which will be at his next sending for yet once more shall God send him and he come again At which coming we shall then indeed receive the fulness of our Redemption not from the Law that we have already but from corruption to which our bodies are yet subject and receive the full fruition of the inheritance whereunto we are here but adopted And then it will be perfect compleat absolute fulness indeed when we shall all be filled with the fulness of him that filleth all in all Eph. i. 23. that is with the fulness of God himself For Deus erit omnia in omnibus God it is that shall be all in all 1 Cor. 15. and then sure all will be throughly full indeed To this we aspire and in the fulness appointed of every one of our times Almighty God bring us by him and for his sake that in this fulness of time was sent to work it for us in his person and work it in us by the operation of his blessed Spirit To whom with the Father and the Son be rendred all thanks c. Laus Deo in aeternum THE THIRD SERMON ON CHRISTMAS Day SERMON XI Upon ESAY liii 8. And who shall declare his Generation OF whom speaketh the Prophet this of himself or of some other man said the Queen Candace's Treasurer unto Philip and Philip saith the Text began at that scripture and preached unto him Jesus Act. viii And this is that self-same Scripture at least part of it which that Ethiopian Eunuch then read and Philip that we be not ignorant whom it concerns of Christ Jesus expounded And though he who was a stranger unto the Common-wealth of Israel and the Oracles of God could not understand it without a Teacher yet unto us that are conversant in the mystery of Christ it is manifest in it self there being no clearer nor more illustrious Prophecy of it than this whole Chapter wherein his birth passion death and resurrection are so fully and evidently described as it may well be termed an Evangel a Gospel rather than a Prophecy It begins first with his first birth and beginning He shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground v. 2. It goes on to his sorrows and sufferings and for whom he endured them He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief c. He suffers then and for us he suffers but he must suffer unto death and of that it will assure you too He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter c. But though he be mean slain and slaughtered yet he may not abide under death though judgment be passed on him and executed too and he imprisoned in the grave and jaws of the pit yet all the bands and cords of death cannot hold him he must up in despight of them all And therefore it follows he was taken from prison and from judgment which was verified in his resurrection from the dead wherein the judgment and sentence of death was disannulled and the Prison of the Grave broken up In contemplation of which high argument of his Divinity that could so arise the Prophet breaks forth into this admiration of his Celestial descent and off-spring Who shall declare his generation So then it is manifest not only by Philip's interpretation but by the Prophecies own clearness and fullness that the Prophet spake not this of himself but of some other man and that other man to be none other than Christ Jesus the Eternal Son of God whose Incarnation birth or generation we this day with all joy and thankfulness publickly Celebrate and are now as well as we can to discourse of yet not as thinking to express it but only to shew you how inexpressible it is for Generationem ejus c. Now
satisfaction He is the eternal wisdom of the Father and indeed none but the Fathers wisdom could have found out a way to shew mercy unto Man and yet give full satisfaction unto his own justice For Justice and Mercy Man offending were as it were at variance either pretending who should have him Justice demands him to be given to her for revenge Mercy opposeth and with all her might pretends for a pardon both strugling in the bowels of the Almighty that dearly affects both Justice proposeth but few only two arguments but they are powerful The first urgeth the Almighty with his own verity and truth Thou hast spoken the word the day that thou eatest thou shalt die the death And with thee there is no shadow of change therefore thou must not alter the thing that is gone out of thy lips The second with a precedent drawn from his former actions The Angels sinned and thou didst not spare them why be alike then unto all For why shouldest thou afford earthly men that favour which thou deniedst unto Celestial Spirits of far more excellent Nature But now Mercy on the other side cries out pitifully with that cry in the Psalm wherefore hast thou made all men for nought what though thou hast said the word it was but the word of legislation and thou art Lord of the Law the supream Lawgiver and therefore maist dispense with the Law which thou givest and in doing so thou dost but remit thine own right thou wrongest none other which therefore is without all wrong to thy Justice And for the Angels they were but some of them not all the Angels that sinned and they sinned willingly and wilfully of their own accord and without a Tempter their sin remaining in themselves not propagated to others and therefore they perished worthily in thy wrath and I made no intercession for them But Man was deceived and seduced by the subtlety of the Serpent his sin besides not cleaving to himself alone but passing forth upon all his posterity that pass from him And shall the whole generation and kind who sinned not of their own will but by being in his loins be eternally destroyed for one and that anothers transgression It is sufficient that Justice hath triumphed in those evil Spirits let me have my victory now in these Good reason there should be some regard had of me as well as of her she is thy Daughter indeed yet she is but thy Daughter-in-law I am thy natural it is thy nature and property to have Mercy and compassion Thus these two the very favourites and darlings of the Divinity contend together and who or what wit shall decide the controversy or give both content when they have contrary demands Herein then shines the infinite wisdom of God that in so difficult a case and perplext as Damascen terms it could discover a way find out an issue that should give full satisfaction unto either and not only so but manifest the glory of the rest of his Attributes of his power wisdom goodness and all and all at once and in one action by informing a piece of our clay and contriving himself and his whole Divinity into a trunk of Earth that so one person might be made of both A person on whom Justice might take her full revenge that Mercy afterwards might be shown unto the offender that so both death might be inflicted as the one urged and a pardon granted as the other intreated For being Man he could die and being God his temporary death could satisfy for an eternal And being God and Man he could dye and with conquest having satiated revenge rise again from the dead and proclaim life and grace unto the whole world So by the infinite wisdom of this work all strife ends and both are well pleased Mercy and Truth are met together Righteousness and Peace do kiss each other Yea so great is the wisdom of it that the blessed Angels themselves desire to pry into it profoundly Sure it exceeds the natural understanding of the wise and subtle Lucifer himself who for all his wit and cunning was clearly deceived and foil'd in this mystery whereby he was drawn on to bite at that heel which he little dreamt would crush his head even whilst he bit it For supposing to swallow the humanity which he saw he was suddenly choaked with the divinity which he could not comprehend So wisely God by Man restored Man and vanquisht Satan in theself-same nature he had conquered before And therefore who shall declare the wisdom of his generation But above all either power or wisdom the wonderful love and goodness of the Lord in this act shown unto the whole world especially unto wretched Man may well drink up admiration and confound the understanding of both Man and Angel For what an astonishing consideration would it be could we consider it as it deserves that such vile worms and wretches as we should receive such high and undeserved favour from that God whom we had so grievously offended and having offended never notwithstanding so much as sought or regarded That he for all this should seek us yea and assume our nature and become as one of us that he might the better find us That instead of hurling such rebellious sinners into the depth of Hell as they well deserved he descended from his own glory in the highest Heavens and took on him the infirmity and baseness of our earth that he might carry it thither and into that glory from whence he descended O the infinite goodness of this God to undergoe the wretchedness of Man that Man might be assumed to the blessedness of God that sinful Man to the blessedness of that God against whom he sinned and delighted only to sin O Lord saith David what is man that thou didst so regard him or the son of man that thou didst so visit him Surely homo est res nihili Man is a thing of nought of no worth no value yet such the eternal Son of God vouchsafed to become that he might advance this thing of nought far above all Principalities and Powers and Crown him with Worship and Glory Neither did he by this act glorify that particular humanity alone which he assumed but the benefit shall redound though not in that manner nor yet so fully yet in a marvellous degree unto all others that shall but glorify him for in him they shall be made partakers too even of the Divine Nature 1 Pet. 1 4. He was anointed indeed with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows not alone then anointed but above and more abundantly than any others As that precious Oyntment which was poured forth on Aarons head so Divine honours and graces by this union descended upon His which it most plentifully drenched but drencht not it alone for of his fulness we have all received and therefore it trickles down upon his beard and all men living that shall adhere unto him and not so only but from
said in the loss of his friend is most true in her case Her bowels were pluckt from her and she could not but feel the wound and therefore if for nought else but her sorrow and afflictions sake she might well pray educ animam c. But other troubles she had besides and distractions in the world that often called her meditations from Heaven where they delighted wholly to converse especially in her later time wherein she so inured her Soul unto blessed contemplation as she had almost freed her self from this prison ere she was freed from the body that indeed was still in the world but her mind and affections were usually with her Maker So that those earthy cares which hang at the heels of other mens Souls like talents of lead hung at hers only but as a line that usually gave her leave to soar aloft only humane necessity that held the end of it had power now and then to draw her down to the grief and sorrow of her heart I am a witness of her complaint and of her tears too that any worldly occasions though never so necessary should trouble and interrupt her spiritual devotions and therefore I am sure in this regard it was her frequent prayer Bring my Soul out of prison And besides afflictions and cares sins she had too no question for what Soul is without them but yet so few and so far from habit as I think no man can easily tell what they were Infirmities and omissions it may be though for my part I know them not yet this I know that her goodness esteemed them as the greatest sins and bewailed them with sorrow enough to suffice one that had murdered his Father or betrayed his Country never ceasing to send forth her fervent supplications in this behalf unto the last gasp Her tongue her hands her heart all prayed this prayer her tongue as long as it could move and when that failed her hand spake and when both were gone yet questionless her heart cried this cry deliver my soul out of this prison the prison of sin But yet until the body be severed from the Soul the Soul can never utterly be severed either from sin or care or sorrow of affliction And a body she had it is now you see a carkase but sometimes was a goodly frame a well built and comeâ—y maniâ—on and even cut out of an antient Quarry but unto her whose thoughts were on another habitation above as it was in it self by reason of the corruption whereunto it was subject so she esteem'd it but a prison unto her Soul and that did at last trouble her peace with pains and delay her from those joys that are pure and know no mixture of sorrow No marvel therefore if in the desire of these she could make that her prayer which others tremble to think on deliverance from her Prison But yet there needed no earnest Prayer for this death comes fast enough on of it self without hastning it more concerns us to die well and with the comforts of God in our bosomes that may shield us from our spiritual enemies that are then busiest and guide and conduct us through the dark valley of death that is terrible in it self And therefore in this respect I rather conceive she that was so careful of her Soul could not but make it her humblest and heartiest prayer that when the time should come the Lord of his mercy would be pleased to lead it out of Prison So fit was it every way and in many regards so good a choice did she make of her prayer whilst she lived and the Lord from his holy habitation heard her cry and at last accomplisht and fulfilled it all in her death Though before he pleased to lay sorrows enough upon her yet now in the midst of them all his comforts did refresh her Soul Now he comes to it in his dearest loving kindness and leads it forth indeed with his choicest consolations and graces to make her a full recompence for all her former afflictions How doth it now rejoice others about her even in the depth of their sorrow to see her full of the Spirit and out of the abundance of it sometimes pouring down blessings on her children and childrens children and every one his several blessings like Jacob sometimes stirring up and exhorting to the fear and service of the Lord with holy Joshuâ— sometimes again solacing her self in the sweet peace of a good Conscience as blessed Samuel and lastly sometimes venting out her strong hope and stedfast confidence with St. Paul but in the words of Job I know that my Redeemer liveth and I shall see him with these eyes as she often repeated But what may be said enough of her fervent praying she was ever pious and frequent in this holy exercise through the whole course of her life thrice a day at the least at morning at noon and at night besides her times of publick prayer so five times a day she prayed and I doubt not but instantly too But now when her prison began to ruine and death to appear within ken how assiduous is she now it is not Davids seven nor twice seven times a day that can suffice but she plies it as if she had meant to fulfil the Apostles precept pray continually I told you but now her heart tongue and hand prayed to the last gasp and I think that gasp was a prayer too when her understanding failed and she could neither hear nor see others yet others might see and perceive that she prayed So perfectly had she taught her tongue to pray that when her senses were locked up it could run of it self And if such a Soul as this be not whose shall ever be led forth with comfort and peace But yet before her leading forth being remembred of it she willingly made confession of her Faith acknowledging all the Articles of her Belief and adhering only unto the blood of Christ Jesus for her hope in these she had lived and in them she would die but die in charity too forgiving and desiring to be forgiven of the whole world as at other times she did not refuse to ask it even of her own Servants when she had but uttered a word with a little more earnestness than ordinary And this solemn profession made that she might farther yet fulfil all rights she gladly makes her Son her Father and receives his absolution And not long after the God of all mercies on whom she continually called answered her gently and opening the Prison eduxit animam led forth her blessed Soul full of gracious comforts unto everlasting glory for with this all the other prisons are utterly dissolved No more afflictions now nor sin nor death for ever all tears are wiped from her eyes and sorrow from her heart all pain from her Body and sin from her Soul which now in the highest Heavens compassed about with the righteous sings the songs of praise and honour and
glory unto him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb for evermore Who now shall mourn who shall weep for such a Soul none can sorrow for her unless they envy her happiness foelix illa anima imitationem desiderat nâ—n planctum that blessed Soul is no subject of grief but a pattern for imitation And therefore if any weep in her death they must be tears of joy not of sorrow and if they be of sorrow they must not be for her but for our selves and our own loss This indeed is great and invaluable and when you think on it weep a Gods name Quis natum in funere matris flere vetat he were barbarous that would forbid it you yet you shall not have all to your selves we 'll bear you company for she was a publick loss Such a Wife such a Mother such a Friend such a Mistriss such a Neighbour such and so good a Woman and so great an example of Virtue cannot should not go to the grave with dry eyes in whose loss so many have interest I would praise her if I could to make you weep more but she is beyond my commendations A Woman of her Wisdom and Judgment of her Wit and discourse so free and liberal and yet so prudent and provident withal for she was so in her self though misfortunes befel her so sweet so kind so mild so loving and respective to all and withal so charitable to the poor a Chirurgeon to the hurt and a Physician to the sick she eat not her morsels alone and their loins were warmed with her wooll as Job speaks such a Woman so well born and bred and of such a strain beyond ordinary as she seemed with the blood to inherit too the virtues of all her Ancestors so upright and clear and innocent in her whole course that the eye of envy nay were all the malice of the world infused into one eye it could not find any just stain to fasten on her such a one so every way compleat surely no Man unless he had her own or the wit and tongue of an Angel can sufficiently commend neither can we if we regard our own loss sufficiently bewail But the truth is she is not lost non amissa sed praemissa sent before she is lost she is not And therefore you whom it most concerns though you mourn mourn not as those without hope It is but a short separation and the time will come when you shall see her again though not with these earthly affections Pay the due tribute unto nature but then shut up the sluces for graces sake And the God of all grace give you comfort the Holy Ghost the Comforter himself replenish your heart with consolations And the blood of Jesus Christ wash us all from all our sins and strengthen us with the power of his might that we may so live whilst we remain here in this Prison of the Body that when it shall be dissolved we may obtain mercy from him to lead forth our Souls To lead them with his grace and then as he hath done to this blessed Saint receive them unto glory There with her and all the company of righteous spirits that are gone before us to sing praise and honour unto his holy name for evermore To this God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost c. Laus Deo in aeternum THE Second FUNERAL SERMON FOR THE DAUGHTER SERMON XIII Upon ROM viii 10. And if Christ be in you the Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is life because of Righteousness MAN of all Gods Creatures is the strangest compounded the most marvellous mixture that ever was a very fardel of contrarieties wonderfully united and wrapt up in one bundle Heaven and Earth light and darkness Christ and Belial may seem to dwell together and man the house of their habitation what can be more directly opposite than Flesh and Spirit Life and Death Sin and Righteousness and lo all of them united here in one verse nay in one man For the Text is but the Anatomy of man and must therefore be composed of and divided into the same parts man himself is As his body is composed of contrary Elements heat and cold fire and water So his person is composed of contrary Natures Corporal and Spiritual Body and Soul His Natures again of contrary qualities Life and Death the Body is dead the Soul lives and lastly these qualities issuing from contrary causes sin and righteousness death from sin and life from righteousness The Body c. And though the sin by which the body dies is our own yet that we may know that the righteousness whereby the Soul lives is not of our selves but received from our Saviour there is a caution given in the entrance of the verse If Christ be in you So then here are three couples a Body and a Soul Sin and Righteousness Life and Death The body with her two attendants sin and death the Soul with her two endowments righteousness and life The former is universal and common to all the Sons of Adam according to the flesh the latter particular and proper only to the Children of the second Adam begotten by the Spirit If Christ c. I begin with the first part which is a meditation of death and our chief Christian comforts against death But yet before the Apostle brings in his consolations he premises a conditon If Christ be in you To teach us that the comforts of God belong not indifferently to all men He that is a stranger from Christ hath nothing to do with them What hast thou to do to take my Covenant into thy mouth so long as thou hatest to be reformed saith God in the Psalm I. When our Saviour commanded his Disciples to proclaim peace unto every house they came to he foretold them it should rest only on the Sons of peace He forbad them in like manner to give those things which were holy unto doggs or to cast pearls before Swine This stands a perpetual Law to all his messengers that they presume not to proclaim peace to the impenitent and unbelieving but as Jehu said unto Jehoram's horsman what hast thou to do with peace so are we to tell the wicked who walk on still in their sins that they have nothing to do with the peace or promises or priviledges of the Gospel If Christ be in you c. Secondly if we compare the verse immediately precedent or that which is subsequent with this between both you shall easily perceive after what manner Christ dwells in his Children Sometimes we are said to be in Christ and sometimes Christ is said again to be in us and both in effect come to one we are in Christ by faith and Christ is in us by his Spirit For so it follows If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies It is
memorable and exemplary couple I may well join them in my speech they were so many ways joined in themselves They were joined in affinity and alliance they were joined in affection and love they were joined in the quality and nature of their Disease and would not be severed till death did it in the time of their sickness they were joined in the comforts of death and now they are joined in the glory of an everlasting life But the formers rites are passed yet they might not be now passed over I cannot but give her a touch she desired it from me and I am sure she deserved it For the latter here now in your sight I shall not speak much because I can hardly speak enough with her former times I have had no acquaintance and therefore can make no relation of it only I assure my self that she who was so patient and penitent in her sickness so devout and cheerful in her death could not but be well and religiously disposed in the course of her life But for the latter part of her days them I have known and in them been an eye-witness of the expression of more goodness than I have often seen or from a Woman of her quality could have expected The things of note which I especially observed in her and shall commend unto you are principally these her willingness to entertain death and her deadness unto the world and worldly affairs her joy in spiritual discourses and her frequency and fervency in devout prayer For the first if we consider the impediments it was much she should do it so cheerfully she was but young and entring upon the prime of her years She had small and tender Infants of her own that went near her she was well bestowed where she found both youth and love and means too wanted nothing nor was likely to want haec sunt quae faciunt homines invitos mori and these are the things that make Men unwilling to die could the Philosopher say Yet notwithstanding all these she gently submitted her self unto it she resolutely went forth to meet it and lest he should miss her she call'd it unto her Come gentle death and even held forth her arms to receive and embrace it For the second I was with her often yet never heard a word of worldly matter or secular affair so much as fall from her tongue Her heart was bent on Heaven which made it delight so much in heavenly contemplations they came down upon her as the Scripture speaks like rain into a fleece of wooll and as a shower upon a thirsty land With what an open and greedy ear did she suck in celestial comforts which she shortly after vented out again in devout supplications wherein the mercy of the Lord did not forsake her even to the last gasp And then at last when her hands forsook her tongue and her tongue had almost forsaken her heart yet her heart did still adhere unto God in uncessant prayer and therefore she intreated others to hold her fainting hands that her tongue failing they at least might testify that her Soul did commune with her Maker It calls to mind the story of Moses having Aaron and Hur to support his arms for whilst he prayed Amalek fled and Joshua conquered Sure I am whilst she did in like manner the true Joshua conquered all the spiritual Amalekites and enemies of her Soul who only could batter down the prison of her body that her spirit being loose and at liberty might freely clear the air and mount up to the desired place of everlasting rest where she now is and where may she still in peace remain till another day shall invest both Body and Soul with unspeakable glory Who can now mourn who can weep for such a Soul if ye do they must be tears of joy not of sorrow at least they must be for your selves not for her You may bewail your own loss you cannot grieve at her death unless you envy her happiness foelix iss a anima imitationem desiderat non planctum that happy Soul is no subject of sorrow but a pattern of imitation And therefore I now leave the dead and conclude to the living that their Spirits may live in death as hers hath shown them the example For this should be the chief endeavour this should be the principal care of a Christian in his whole life that when his life shall end yet the life of his Soul may not end with the death of his body It little matters how it fares with us in the rest of our time so it go well with us here when if wrath overtake us it shall eleave unto us for ever but if peace end our days our days afterwards of peace shall never end For as the tree falleth there it shall lie Wretched Men that can willingly think of any thing save this that infinitely concerns them above all things else that can wish with Balaam let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his but never endeavour themselves in the works of righteousness whereby they may procure it as if they might be like them in their death whom they refused to imitate in their actions But they may wish like Solomons fool till their tongue cleave to their gums for so long as they live the life of Balaam loving the wages of iniquity they shall never die the death of the righteous nor have their last end like his whom they are nothing like in conversation No if the Soul then live it must be as my Text hath it for righteousness sake Set thy self therefore to it seriously and speedily Wise Princes make many days preparation for a field that must be fought in one Beloved let us be wise too and lay up something every day for the last when we shall wrestle with death If we win that skirmish we have enough but where or when or how soon we shall be called to the conflict who can tell be not secure therefore and presume not on the last hour it may come suddenly upon thee flatter not thy self and thy sins and frame not delay unto thine own Soul Send not Religion before thee unto thine old age whither peradventure thou shalt never come or else come hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Give not thy youth and strength unto Satan and then when thou art low drawn and upon the lees think to present God with the dregs of thy life What a folly were it for thee to adventure thy surest thy everlasting weal or wo making or marring on so sandy and sinking a foundation how much better were it for thee to remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth before the evil day come and thou say I have no delight herein that thy Creator may not forget thee in thine old age when strength faileth and Man returneth to his long home Sure in these great water-floods we shall hardly come nigh him and therefore let