it be to thee and what Job 34. 9. Job 35. 3. profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sin or as they in Malachy 3. 14. It is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances and walked mournfully before him What profit Why as the Apostle saith in another case much every Rom. 3 1 2. way for us and ours for Body and for Soul in Prosperity and Adversity in Life and especially in Death and after Death When Christ is our Life and Death our gain when such Scoffers will call themselves Fools for accounting such Mens lives Madness and their end to be without honour when they shall see Wisdom 5. 4 5. it 's their greatest gain and they numbred amongst the Children of God and their lot among the Saints and those Deriders then have those two questions returned upon them to answer that in Job 27. 8. What is the hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his Soul And that other of our Saviour Matth. 16. 26. What is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul and what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul These they will never be able to say though they will be sadly thinking of them in Hell to Eternity And therefore what should our greatest care and endeavour be but that we may attain to this happiness that Death which Vse 2 is most Mens greatest loss may with Paul's be our gain It 's a busy World we live in and except only such slothful Drones or debauched Prodigals who labour for nothing but to gratify their Ease or their Lusts all that would not be idle and sensual Bruits are busy in trading in something or other that they think will turn to account and bring in some advantage and procure at least a livelihood but alas it 's only a livelihood it 's for a short life only but there are too few that think what will be gain to them at Death when they will be in greatest need of something that may make their hearts then to live upon which they may live to Eternity And therefore it would be a great part of their Wisdom and Thrift whilst they think they have too little time to compass their other ends and projects to gain time as the phrase is Dan. 2. 8. to get ready a Cordial against that swooning Fit that they may be gainers not only at Death but by it when time shall be no more So they may be gainers indeed and be profitable to themselves as Eliphaz saith a wise Man is profitable to himself Job 22. 2. and that gain will not be only great but so sure that there will be no undoing after-claps as Job saith there will be with others after their greatest gains when God takes away their Souls Job 27. 8. Socrates the night before he died was desirous to learn Musick happy we if then instead of fears and sorrows for the losses we shall then undergo we can make melody in our Hearts but it will be good to have been tuning of them to it before And for this purpose 1. Let it be one great part of our good Husbandry not to deal in or to make a trade of any sin which in other respects we may account most gainful and profitable for it will certainly eat out all our gains it may be in this Life whilst God blasts them or our Souls be blasted and it may be here tormented by them Solomon's word will for certain be found true the wicked worketh a deceitful work Prov. 11. 18. and it is the word of him that repents for sin I have sinned and it profited me not Job 33. 27. Isa 44. 9 10 47. 12. 57. 12. Jer. 2. 8 11. 12. 13. 16. 19. 23. 32. And how frequent in the Prophesies of Isaiah and Jeremiah are those expressions that they do not profit they shall not profit that they cannot profit that such Idols are profitable for nothing But to be sure at Death it will more fully appear to be so when such gains will not only be lost but prove loss whilst we are for ever lost by them The very Sting of Death is Sin 1 Cor. 15. 56. and then although we before thought the gain of sin was sweet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. contra celsum lib. 5. Psal 17. 14 Eccles 41. 2. yet it will then be as bitter as Death when with the Hony we have got this Sting with it which will prove the Worm that never dies Mark 9. 44. 2. Learn to undervalue the World more with all the gains profits and contentments of it for if we be of the Men of the World who have their Portion in this Life and they be our Portion they Will make us unwilling to dye according to that O Death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a Man that liveth at rest in his Possessions And it will be Death indeed to us when we must die when all that is lost and scattered which the very Life of our Souls was wrapt up in when such Men with him Act. 16. 19. see that all hopes of after gains are gone they then sink into Despair before their Souls do into Hell nay when they see all their former gains are lost they are lost too and so end their lives with that Emperour's last words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have been all things and all now profit me nothing It was therefore no bad husbandry of Matthew the Publican to leave his Toll-Booth to follow Christ nor will it be to us to loosen our Hearts from our most profitable employment in Life to get nearer to Christ that by his Death our Death may be gain to us and we may then be no losers which leads to 3. The third Direction which is a high valuation of Christ so as to be willing to part with all for him for so the same Paul who here saith that Death is his gain in the third Chapter of this Epistle v. 7 8. saith that those things which were gain to him he accounted loss for Christ If we account gain loss for Christ then Death with the loss of all things will be gain to us by Christ If the main Pillar by which the House is held up do but stand it will not fall down though other props be taken away and if Christ be our All in all then although all things else at Death be taken from us and we from them we have lost nothing no have gained by it fullest union with him and possession of him which is our greatest gain because our greatest happiness 4. Improve the Talents we are betrusted with so as our pound may gain ten pounds Luke 19. 16. and that at Death when thou comest to thy account will gain thee Authority over ten Cities v. 17. Beest thou a private Christian especially if a Minister of
more is his grief when with anguish and horror he thinks and saith surgunt indocti rapiunt coelum I repeat not what followeth in the sentence as desiring it may never overtake any of us in those straits But wo to us if it do But the more blessed therefore is this more excellent knowledge that we now speak of which is not so much a tree of knowledge as a tree of life and is therefore called eternal life John 17. 3. by which my Soul lives in death that I can tell what to do when other far more learned men are at their wits end that in mine evening I may have light Zech. 14. 7. whilst others far more sharp-sighted stumble in that dark entry into outer darkness for ever O give me that sweet Bird that will sing in such a Winter that lamp of a wise Virgin that will burn clear at midnight that Matth. 25. 6 7 8. torch which will not light my body to the Grave but my Soul to Heaven I this this is the light of life John 8. 12. by which when my bodily eye grows dim and upon my eyelids sits the gloomy Joh 16. 16. shadow of death I may then lift up an Eye of faith with Steven at the very point of Death Act 7. 56. and then see Christ more clearly and know much of him more fully than ever before as it is related of Oecolampadius upon his Death-Bed being asked Mylii Apophthegmata merientium whether the light of the Candle troubled him laying his hand on his breast said Hîc abunde lucis est or with Laurentius At Nox mea tenebras non habet The more darkness without the more light within when the Curtains are drawn Christ more unvailed and when the dying body smells now of the Earth to which it is sinking the Divine Soul ut in rogo Imperatorum savours of Heaven to which it is ascending with a farewel-faith and welcom-Vision no more to see Christ as here through a glass darkly but face to face to know him no more in part but 1 Cor. 13. 12. even as I am known I close mine eyes to see my Saviour and like old Simeon lay down my head in my Fathers bosom with his Nunc dimittis Now Lord let thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation THE Text had two parts 1. The Purchase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the excellent Sermon II knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. 2. The price that our Apostle Preacht at St. Maries Octob. 18. 1646. was chearfully willing to come up to that he might compass it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he accounted all things loss that he might gain it In the handling the former part the last time I endeavoured as I was able though infinitely under its worth to hold forth and commend to you the supereminent excellency of the saving knowledge of Christ above all other things and all other knowledge whatsoever But as they say the Jews are now wont when ever they build an House to leave some part of it imperfect in reference to Jerusalems ruins which they would remember so in all our largest discourses of Christ and his Excellencies of necessity something yea much must be left unsaid because there is infinitely more than we can comprehend the half of our Solomons glory will 1 King 10. 7. never be told Here the most copious and fluent Orator must close his imperfect speech with a Dicebam instead of a Dixi and draw the Curtain of silence over those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he cannot draw and set out to the life And yet it 's good digging deeper in such golden Mines and another hour would be well spent in viewing and admiring that infinite excellency which in Heaven we shall be adoring to Eternity Should we lanch out we may soon be swallowed up in that bottomless Ocean And therefore for this time let us rather draw the net to the shore and in the second applicatory part of the Text see what we have taken or whether our selves rather be so taken with an holy admiration and desire of it that with our Apostle we can be willing to suffer the loss of all for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea doubtless and I count all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. And if that be such a transcendent excellent knowledge First How low should the consideration of it lay even Scholars Use 1 of the highest form in their thoughts and estimate of all their other knowledge in comparison of it and of themselves as long as they fall short of it Behold the height of the Stars how high they are said Eliphaz to Job But it was that he might have Cap. 22. 12. more lowly thoughts of himself And when we look up and see how high Heaven is above we cannot but think what poor low things we are in the Ant-hill here beneath Yea by how much more exactly the Astronomer by his instrument can take the height of Sun or Star by so much the more fully he apprehends at what a wonderful distance he and the highest Mountain of the whole Earth is under it O that the consideration of this high transcending excellency of the knowledge of Christ might help us though not to low thoughts of learning yet to more lowly thoughts of our selves notwithstanding all our other knowledge that the dazeling brightness of the sun of Righteousness might at least so far blind us as to hide pride from us pride which is the great learned mans greatest and dangerousest snare in which by reason of his learning and knowledge he is easiliest taken and by which he is most of all hindred from this more excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ 1. Most easily taken with it it being a very hard thing to be a knowing man and not to know it to be learned and humble together for the King of Tyre to be as wise as Daniel and not to be as Ezek. 28. 2 3. proud as Lucifer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowledge puffs up saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 8. 1. and usually the more aiery and empty the knowledge is it makes the bladder swell the more The Devil is a very knowing and a very proud Creature The most learned Philosophers and wisest Statesmen amongst the Heathen have been noted for pride vain-glory and an impotent desire of applause being accounted by them a piece of gallantry rather than a vice And although by Christians it cannot but be accounted a sin yet even amongst them such as excel others in knowledge are oft known by it The more able in this kind of old were very ready to despise the weak and to over-look them which were under them Rom. 14. 3. The supercilium with which the great Rabbies despised the poor ignorant people that knew not the punctilioes of the law John 7. 49. and the Typhus of many of our great Criticks who
32. not the growing up to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes 4. 13. Satans filling our hearts as Acts 5. 3. and not Christs filling our Treasures The treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2. 5. and not the laying up in store of a good foundation that we may lay hold of eternal life 1 Tim. 6. 19. What James saith of the tongue that it 's full of deadly poyson will at length prove true James 3. 8. of all those kind of fillings Such a Plethorie will be sure to end in some deadly sickness Like a foolish Mariner that overlades his Ship with that stowage that will be sure to sink her or the unwise husbandman that fills his barns with such stuff which will certainly set them on fire if not better looked to Or if not so bad yet at best and most ordinarily we fill our selves if not with that which is poison and simply evil which will certainly destroy us yet with that which is not bread this substance in the Text. No substantial lasting Treasure which we may live on in a dear day Such are all outward profits pleasures honours and such like enjoyments as the Philistins filled up Abrahams wells with earth so it 's earth and earthly Gen. 26. 1◠contentments that we usually stop and fill up our hearts with Belly-treasures as they are called which God fills worldlings with Psal 17. 14. Not like these in the Text which he fills for those that love him The Body full fed and the Soul starved The belly filled with meat and the purse and coffers with coin and it may be the head with notions and the heart empty of grace all the while We treasure and heap up honour and wealth and Pelion Ossae learning and are here insatiable as the Prophet saith There is no end of their treasures Isa 2. 7. nor of our desire of them In the multitude of our thoughts and deep studies these do utramque paginam implere whilst God not in all our thoughts Psal 10. 4. No room for Christ whilst the Inn is filled with other strangers No hungring after the Bread of life when thus filled with other Cates. Nay the full soul loatheth the hony-comb Prov. 27. 7. None more fully loathing Christ than such as are thus filled with other dainties And yet what do all these Tympanies fill us with but wind and the east-wind with anguish or at best with emptiness To have our barns filled with such gayes and fine nothings when a dear day cometh will prove but a pining crop and leave such a storer but a very poor empty man Which therefore on the contrary calls upon us to rest fully satisfied with nothing that falls short of Christ that we be sure that it 's he that fills our treasures Let nothing fill us but Christ no nor in part conduce to it further than Christ is in it or with it Christ his Spirit his Presence Grace and Peace only should fulfil our joy The best duty or ordinance so far as Christ in it else it will be but empty and leave us so Word Sacrament Prayer Christian Communion so far as this water of life is conteined in them and conveyed by them are full wells of Salvation Isa 12. 3. Otherwise we too often find them but dry empty Cisterns If the spouse find not her Beloved in these Beds of love she is wholly at a loss and in the midst of other crowds like a lonesom desolate widow crieth out Saw ye him whom my soul loveth Cant. 3. 1 2. And so Paul in enjoying Communion with the Saints at Rome speaks of being filled with their company Rom. 15. 24. yet his word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It 's only in part or as our English render it somewhat filled and this so far as Christ according to his promise Matth. 18. 20. is in the midst of them The fullest ordinances can only so far fill our hearts with joy and gladness as Christ is in them And therefore so much more for the most delightful outward contentments Poor broken empty cisterns indeed they are unless we have Christ with them The Egyptians take measure of the fruitfulness of their land by the rise and over-flow of their River Nilus and so may we of our joy and comfort in any thing by the more full communications of Christ in and with all So far as he fills all is full Else it sounds hollow and we find it empty To this purpose it is that he in Scripture is wont to be compared to all sorts of things that are useful and contentful He is Husband Father Friend Bread Light Life c. to shew that the satisfying fulness of all these is in and from him and that without him if he be not in and with all those they are but empty He is All in All these and therefore without him all these and all else are nothing Unless we enjoy Christ in a friend our friendship is not every way full Till we tast something of Christ in our food an hungring soul riseth up from the greatest feast empty Till he dwell in our hearts Ephes 3. 17. the House is but empty and till he take more full possession of it and more fully manifest himself it will not be full It was by declaring Christ to them 1 John 1. 1 2 3. whereby their joy might be full v. 4. And therefore as our Saviour when he sent his Disciples abroad he bad them where they came to enquire whether the son Matth. 10. 11. Luke 10. 5 6. of Peace were there so the like enquiry after the Prince of Peace we should make in all persons Companies Ordinances Providences Mercies Enjoyments But is Christ in them Have I Christ or something of Christ with them Less than Naphtali's blessing will not be to me a full portion O Naphtali satisfied with favour and full with the Blessing of the Lord Deut. 33. 23. It 's nothing but Christ that can that must fill up my treasures 2. And doth this Text assure us that he is both able and willing to do it It doth then suggest further matter of Complaint and Duty For is Christ in himself so full and so able and willing so abundantly to supply us as to fill even our Treasures then how is it that we are so poor and empty that as positively we are full of other matters so privatively so empty of Christ O curvae in terras animae coelestium inanes What! The fountain so full and runs with so full a stream and yet runs 1. either wholly wast to the most and 2. to the no more full watering and inriching of those that make use of it I shall not insist on those who either carelesly or wilfully do altogether neglect or refuse all saving participations of Christ's fulness He disdains to feed such full stomachs with the bread of life and therefore although such deserve to be
that few or none in our well days are perfectly free However Old-age comes limping on a-pace which will bring more Diseases than we can before-hand provide Remedies Or it may be before that as it was observed that grievous Plague at Athens followed upon a most healthful fore-going year so our most healthful years may be overtaken with untimely Deaths And thus one dieth saith Job in his full strength being wholly at ease and quiet Chap. 21. 23. And so an end of that Perfection And when Health is gone we cannot think that Strength will stay behind for they always stay and go together The same Disease that hinders the one weakens the other And so the lusty young Man often comes to say with the Psalmist Psal 102. 23. He hath weakned my strength in the way But if not so be sure it will begin to faint in the end of the Journey If Plinies Miracle were true that one Xenophilus lived one hundred and five years without any Disease yet I cannot believe that he was another Moses that his natural force was not abated for in ordinary course that part of Solomon's description of Old-age is true Eccles 12. 3. The time will come when the strong Men shall bow When old Milo may look on his withered Arms and weep and say at hi quidem mortui jam sunt Thus the strong Mountains fall and come to nought Job 14. 18. c. Huzzab or that which is most established is led away Captive Nahum 2. 7. And to add no more in the third Chapter of the same Prophecy at the ninth Verse Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength and it was infinite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is and there was no end The same word almost both there and here so that you might begin to think of a Contradiction but if we shall read on we shall find none and therefore it 's added for all her infinite strength she was carried away She went into Captivity ver 10. And there we see an end of that Perfection And if these more substantial Perfections so soon vanish we may well think the least Breath will blow off all the Paint of Beauty which so many pride themselves in and therefore if any shall trust in it as she did Ezek. 16. 15. they shall certainly find that true Prov. 31. 30. Favour is a lie and Beauty is vain Any sickness can spoil it for the time and some for altogether Or if it miss them be sure it will consume in the Grave Psal 49. 14. Thou changest his Countenance and sendest him away saith Job Chap. 14. v. 20. And David had seen his ruddy Complexion and beautiful Countenance altered and so an end of that Perfection A poor one that 's only in the outward Skin which if flea'd off leaves a deformed Anatomy Life is yet behind a Perfection arising from Body and Soul united but yet this Shadow 1 Chron. 29. 15. soon gone this Post this Ship Job 9. 25 26. soon past by This Flower Job 14. 2. soon withered this Vapour James 4. 14. soon vanisheth This Smoak Psal 102. 3. soon blown away of it self it would be gone and therefore we have those Phrases of God's keeping our soul in Life Psal 66. 9. And withholding it from Death Psal 78. 50. But if we consider all that continually either undermine or assault it the liveliest Man in his best Health may say with David 1 Sam. 20. 3. There is but a step between me and death Or if he live longer and it may be longer than he hath comfort yet Methuselah that went the fairest of any for Eternity after he had lived 969 years yet he died Gen. 5. 27. And so as the Lord speaks Ezek. 24. 16. with a stroke even with this one stroke God takes away both Life and all besides and so with it an end of all Perfection So that I need not now speak any thing of that third kind of Perfections without us which as they are of less Worth so also of less Continuance If Riches be the Perfection thou aimest at let me tell thee that as it is but low so it is not lasting for the Gospel tells us that The rich Man died and was buried And Wilt thou cause thine eyes to flie upon that which is not saith Solomon Prov. 23. 5. A strange kind of Speech we would think that use to call our Riches our Goods and Substance He thinks them to be neither but calls them plain Non-entia or if they have any being yet so uncertain that he would not have us flie so eagerly upon them in our desires as the Eagle upon the Prey in the beginning of the Verse which use to make themselves Wings and flie away as the Eagle towards Heaven as he shews in the end of it It 's not good therefore to have our Treasure in a Jewel hanged about such an Eagle's neck which may soon flie away it may be never to return again Flie away as the Eagle towards Heaven and that 's most swiftly Witness that one Day that saw Job both on the Throne and on the Dung-hill for God may blow the Moth may fret the Rust may canker the Thief may break through so that a rich Man lieth down but either through Malice of some or Carelesness of others when he opens his eyes he is not namely what he was Or there is nothing as some read that place Job 27. 19. Thus the Golden City ceaseth Isa 14. 4. and though in one sense there be no end of thy Riches as it is Isa 2. 7. Yet assuredly either they will vanish or as St. James saith Thou wilt vanish in them Only take heed that the end of them bring not an end to thy Comfort Take heed of Simon Magus his Doom Thy Money perish with thee both thou and it together But it may be thou wilt say that Honour and Promotion will lift thee up as upon Eagles wings above all such Disasters And I would believe thee if I were not bound to believe God rather who hath said it in his Word that Man being in Honour abideth not Psal 49. 12. Or if the Prophet Daniel had not seen such Wings as these pluckt Dan. 7. 4. and the Prophet Hosea had not seen them flying away As for Ephraim their Glory shall flie away as a Bird Chap. 9. 11. If I had not heard that Voice from Heaven to Nebuchadnezzar Thy Kingdom is departed from thee If I had not seen an Hand-writing before Belshazzar on the Wall Meneh Meneh c. God hath numbered thy Kingdom and finished it Thus the Royal City is taken 2 Sam. 12. 26. Oftentimes those that have been in highest places after a while have been cast aside as a Vessel in which there is no pleasure Yea even Princes breath goeth forth he returns to the Earth and then all his thoughts perish Psal 146. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word is and according to the signification of the Verb from whence it comes
tota plena te saith holy Augustin Confess l. 10. c. 28. There 's no grief in him when he is all in God he hath a lively life of it when he can sit so near the Fountain of Life as to be filled with the blessed inflowes of it If David cannot tell how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity you had Psal 133. 1. need of the tongue of an Angel and not mine to tell the unutterableness of that delight and Joy when Children and Father Spouse and Husband Head and Members cleave together in closest Union And if Honour use to go in the first rank of the World's excellencies Honorificum then he that 's nearest to God must needs herein have the upper hand Our blessed Saviour is exalted to highest Honour in that he is at the right hand of God and then sure that soul is no base one that lies nearest to the heart of Christ Seemeth it a small thing to you said Moses to Korah that the God of Israel hath brought you near to himself in the Ministry of the Tabernacle Numb 16. 9. in which respect Nazianzen highly extolls the now despised Ministry and Chrysostom lifts it up above Crowns and Scepters but how much more honourable is it to draw near to God in saving Grace than in that Sacred Office which sometimes they that are most unworthy climb up to They were the Grandees of Persia who sat next to the King and saw his face Esth 1. 14. May I never affect greater Grandure in this World than in nearest approaches to see the face of God in Christ though the great ones of the World set me under their footstool I might add a word of Beauty which according to the Hebrew Honestum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 24. 16. phrase hath a kind of goodness in its comeliness But even that is when the parts of the body are joyn'd together amongst themselves and all united to the head which if parted or dislocated occasion horror rather than delight But O the ravishing Beauty of Christ mystical when from him and with him the whole body is fitly joyned together Ephes 4. 16. when met together to meet with Christ they are the Beauty of Holiness Psal 110. 3. This made Moses's face shine when he talked with God Exod. 34. 29. This encompasseth the Saints in their approaches to Christ with rayes of Divine lustre that they need not be beholden to the Limner or Painter for a painted glory Though the Moon be at the full of her light and beauty when she is in furthest opposition to the Sun yet our Full is in our nearest Vnion with the Sun of Righteousness I forbear further instances But that you may further see how good it is to draw near to God give me leave to propound these two convincing Arguments That 's indeed good and good to me that makes me better but so Argument 1 do not the profits pleasures honours and the rest of those things which the World calls good A man may be extremely bad with them and too often whilst they prostitute his body and debase his mind is made the worse by them But was it ever so by our humble drawing near to God Doth it not elevate the mind The soul is then in Apogaeo 2 Cor. 3. 18. enlarge the heart innoble spiritualize and by a Divine Metamorphosis transform the soul into the Image of Christ in its nearer approaches and interviews Intellectus fit idem cum objecto The understanding is made one with him in its Divine Contemplations and love makes him one with it in its cordial embraces not in H. N. his mad phrase Godded with God but yet in the Apostles 2 Pâ—t 1. 4. divine expression made partakers of the Divine Nature Here 's cure by coming near and touching Luke 8. 44. Healing under his wings Mal. 4. 2. Life and Joy in his Presence Psal 16. 11. The Prodigal dare not be so bad as he would be unless he run far from his Father's house And that tells you the good child is better Luke 15. 13. for keeping in his Father's presence When we keep near to God Heaven is not only near to us but Heaven is in us we then have not only heavenly Joyes but also heavenly Hearts and is it not good to be there and therefore to draw nearer And again good to draw near because best when nearest and Argument 2 worst when farthest off 1. First best when nearest Angels and Men by nature the best of God's Creatures because in nature they are nearest to him and most resemble him and are capable of communion with him Of Angels they are the good ones that continually behold him Maâ—th 18. 10. and they the best that are nearest and therefore the chief of them are wont to be called Assistentes Of Men as first when was Adam best when now created and enjoyed converse with God or when fallen and then run away from him Of all Men the Saints that are most honoured by him are a people near unto him Psal 148. 14. their first beginning to be well being when at first in conversion they begin to turn towards him and how well are they never better than when in the exercise of Grace performance of service in Meditation Prayer Word Sacrament in doing nay though it be in suffering they can get nearest to him let it be upon the Canon's mouth saith the soul that is truly touched if I may but so make my approaches to my Lam. 3. 25 26 27. God Let my Father whip me if whilst he so doth he takes me into his Arms. The Child is not afraid in the dark if then he have his Father by the hand nor is David in the valley of the shadow of death if his good Shepherd be with him Psal 23. 4. The whole World is not worth a Dungeon's light and a Prison's inlargement when Christ shines in and his Spirit sets the soul at liberty to go out to him The Martyr is not bound when tyed to the stake his soul is upon the wing to take her flight to her Saviour It seems then that it is so good to draw near to God that in so doing the Serpent hath lost it's sting the Lion is become a Lamb the Gridiron a bed of Roses Darkness is no Darkness Psal 139. 12. the worst evils are not themselves It s good to be afflicted tormented to suffer to dye good to be to do to suffer any thing if thereby we â—e set nearer to Christ who is all in all But how good then when in a better conditon when once come nearest in Heaven's full vision and perfect communion there and so to be with Christ what saith Paul of it he wants words and yet multiplies them it 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multò magis melius Comparative upon Comparative which riseth higher than a Superlative It 's much more better even
meditate v. 14. not to be over-anxious for those things but here in the Text he would have them to make sure of their Chance Let Martha like the good House-Wife be Luke 10. 41 42. troubled about many things But see that you like wise Christians with Mary make sure of the one thing necessary as though he had said in your getting your other Goods out of the Scare-fire be sure you look that you save your selves And whatever else Thieves and Robbers run away with be sure to keep possession of your Souls that the Man be not first Wounded and at last Killed out-right that your Souls be not now Defiled Distracted or Distempered and at last Perish everlastingly Let thy Soul be precious in thine Eyes as 1 Sam. 26. 21. that it may not be as 1 Kings 20. 39 40. it missing thy everlasting Life go for it This is here our best Friend's advice and that which his best Servants have followed What ever else hath comparatively been neglected yet their God and their Souls have been secured David was so encompassed with outward Enemies and Dangers that he had his good Name Estate and his very Life to defend and provide for But his Soul was his Darling which he tenders as much as he can himself And because his care and strength was too short he commends it to God it in a manner only it I am sure especially and that frequently and most pathetically How often do you hear those sweet strains among his bitter Complaints Lord keep my soul Psal 6. 4. 7. 2. 17. 13. 22. 20. 25. 20. 86. 2. 142. 8. preserve my soul deliver my soul leave not my soul destitute In which places though Life may be in part meant yet the Soul properly so called is not to be excluded And if it be the Will of God that we should know how to pâ—ssess our Bodies in Hâ—liness 1 Thes 4. 3 4. it 's all reason that according to the former Particulars we should endeavour to possess our souls in Patience And that upon these following Grounds and Considerations 1. Because all outward Comforts and Possessions may be lost 2. Even then if due care be taken our souls may be secured 3. Yet they are in greatest danger to be Assailed 4. Of such unvaluable worth that the saving and possessing of them will more than countervail the loss of all else As on the contrary the loss of them is both irrecoverable and unvaluable not to be made up by all other Enjoyments and if joyned with other losses makes them complete and utterly undoing 1. We had need be careful and watchful to keep possession of our souls that we may be best possessed of something Because of all else we may easily be dispossessed At all Times it 's possible but in perilous Times too likely and probable He was but a fool and that upon Record that said to his soul he had Goods Luke 12. 19 20. laid up for many years when the following night turn'd him out of possession of all The Women of my People have you cast out of their pleasant Houses saith the Prophet Mic. 2. 9. I need not tell you how suddenly Job was partly Plundered by the Chaldeans and Sabeans and partly by an immediate Hand of God stript naked of all Our Saviour in general hath said of all Treasures upon Earth that the Moth and Rust will corrupt and Mat. 6. 19. Thieves break through and steal Either of themselves will decay as the Cloth breeds that Moth and the Iron that Rust which consumes it or at least some either violent Hand will break through or some false Fingers will more slily steal and carry away The Grass will either wither of it self or be cut down by the Sithe so that Sidonius truly affirms Hominem in Lib. 7. Epist 4. hunc mundum non tam editum quam ejectum Like a Ship-wrackt Man Ship split his Goods sunk in the Sea or made a Prey of on the Shoar And it 's well if he scape with his Life and that sooner or later will be sunk too for Death will be sure to turn all out of Doors when it seiseth upon us But when Death thus dispossesseth our very souls of their Bodies would it not be sorrow upon sorrow as the Apostle speaks Phil. 2. 27. for us then to be dispossessed of our souls also to lose all and our souls to boot When Out-works are taken to have no Fort within to flie to To come to Adrian's animula vagula blandula quae nunc abibis in loca Not then to know whither our Souls shall go or to be the more exanimated if we do how woful and miserable will it be Especially he so great an Astronomer Qui cuncta de se scivit praescivit able before-hand to write a Diary of all things that should befal him until the hour of his death and then to be at a loss You have taken away my Gods that I have made and the Priest and what have I more said Micah when the Children of Dan had plundered him Judg. 18. 24. Poor wretched undone Man They took away the Gods that thou hadst made But wouldst thou have been at such a loss if thou hadst had an interest in that God that made thee They had stolen away thy Priest but if he had not first stolen away thy heart thou mightest then have possessed thy soul which might have beeh both Priest and Temple for thee to have taken Sanctuary in Which leads to 2. The second thing propounded That when all else is lost yet if due care be taken the soul even then may be secured Our Estate and Esteem yea our Life it self though they be our own yet they are to be Inventoried amongst those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things of another Man's of which our Saviour speaks Luke 16. 12. because he that cares not for his own Life may easily be master of mine But our souls and our God are that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among those things which are so our own that unless it be by our own default as no Creature gave them so none can take them away That violent Hand which takes away Riches Honours Friends and Life it self doth but with Joseph's Mistress get the Garment whilst the Man goeth free If we be but as wise as the Serpent in such a strait we lose but the skin but find our selves Job when stript of all at worst was not a maimed but a naked Man Chap. 1. 21. but yet himself a Man still and by being naked it may be coming nearer to our first Innocency and Perfection It 's the infinite Perfection of God that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfectly Self-sufficient that neither needs nor indeed can go out of himself for any supply and as in the foul of Man appears most the Image of God so herein it bears one of the liveliest Resemblances of his Divine Perfection that as to all
if we look to it may be the glorious Mansions of the Blessed God to dwell in and which to be sure we must dwell with either in weal or woe to Eternity Had we nothing else to say these two words might heighten our Souls worth and should our care in possessing of them 1. They are the purchase of the Blood of the Son of God And shall we trample under foot his Blood in so neglecting our Souls which were purchased by the Blood of the Shepherd of Souls 1 Pet. 2. 25. 2. And this that they might be holy and glorious Temples for the Blessed Spirit of God O then be sure to keep possession for so happy a Guest that the Devil may not prove an Intruder And thou that wilt be stiff and earnest and peremptory to maintain thine Interest in what thy Father or Friend left thee do not so under-value either thy Saviour or thy Soul as not to keep possession of that which He at so dear a rate hath purchased Our Souls should be precious that were purchased by Blood so precious Let that be said to every incroaching Enemy what Jephtah said to the invading Ammonite Judg. 11. 23. The Lord hath dispossessed the Amorites before his People and shouldst thou possess it And let their resolution ver 24. be ours Wilt thou not possess that which Chemosh thy God giveth thee to possess And so Whatsoever the Lord our God hath given to us that will we possess Our Souls he first made Jer. 38. 16. which we afterward lost which he repurchased by the Blood of his Son and restored to us to be kept as an everlasting pledg of his Love and therefore whatever else we lose look to it that we here keep possession But to the quickening of our care herein I need not seek for more particulars to set forth the Soul's worth than what I there propounded 1. Such as the saving and possessing of it 1. Crowns all other Enjoyments Wisdom with an Inheritance doth well Eccles 7. 11. but if mens sana in corpore sano it 's much better It was a Solomon's happiness that amidst all his delights of the Sons of Men his Wisdom also remained with him It 's an happy saving Bargain indeed if a Man especially in losing times when he saves his Estate and his Life can save his Soul too without which a Man with all his other Gettings and Enjoyments is but like a dead Body stuck with Flowers or as a Room round-about-hung and richly furnished and nothing but the dead Master's Hearse in the midst of it 2. Countervails all other Losses David's Mouth praiseth God with joyful Lips though in a dry and thirsty Land when his Soul is filled with marrow and fatness Psal 63. 1 5. And though he was for the outward Man at a weak pass yet it was a sufficient support that God had strengthned him with strength in his Soul Psal 138. 3. Though I possess months of vanity Job 7. 3. and with him be ejected out of all if yet in possession of my Soul I am no harbourless Object Though the invading Enemy hath quite broke down the Fence and laid all open and waste yet as long as with the Christians in Justin Martyr we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When they have possessed themselves and taken away all with them if they have left but a good God and a good Conscience a Soul and a Saviour it 's but the Casket that 's lost the Treasure is saved and lends them a Key for Paul's Riddle of having nothing and yet possessing all things In this sense dum Anima est spes est as long 2 Cor. 6. 10. as my Soul is mine own I am not only in hope but in possession No cause to faint though the outward Man perish if the inward Man be renewed 2 Cor. 4. 16. nor to complain if the same hand that casts the Christian's Body to the Beasts casts his Soul at the same time into his Saviour's Bosom Paul meant not to kill but to cure the incestuous Person when he would have him delivered even to Satan to the destruction of the flesh if his Spirit may but thereby be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5 5. and that will make amends for all Thus we see that the saving and possessing of the Soul crowns all Enjoyments more than Countervailes all other losses 2. But on the contrary the loss of it 1. Compleats all other losses and miseries and makes them utterly undoing David speaks of his Enemies spoiling of his Soul as their greatest cruelty and his chiefest misery Psal 35. 12. The Prophet Lam. 3. 65. when he had given that heavy blow that made the heart ake Lord give them sorrow of heart he strikes the Nail to the Head when he adds thy Curse unto them O woe unto thee thou hast added grief unto thy sorrow Jer. 45. 3. and a curse to both when by thy riotous unclean or otherwise vicious courses thou hast lost it may be thine Estate thy good Name the health and strength of thy Body and which is worst of all thy Soul and all Undone wretch It was a desperate prodigal expense which all the Money in thy Purse and thy whole other Substance could not discharge but thy Soul also must go in to pay the reckoning Thy Saviour's Soul being heavy to the death was more sad than all his bodily Mat. 26. 38. Sufferings and that thrust which lets out the heart-blood of thy Soul is far beyond all other Wounds and makes them deadly To see an Enemy in the Habitation is one of Eli's sorest Afflictions 1 Sam. 2. 32. and to be a possession to Enemies is Edom's heaviest Cursé Numb 24. 18. but not so heavy as to see an Enemy possessed of this inward Mansion The loss of the Soul compleats all other losses and miseries 2. Cannot be made up and recompenced with all other Gains and Enjoyments The round World is but a Cipher to it For what is a Man profited if he should gain the whole World and lose his own Soul saith our Saviour Matth. 16. 26. He that tenders a whole World makes a great offer but he that loses his Mar. 8. 37. Soul for it sustains a greater loss for that World which cannot satisfie the desires of a Soul before it be lost cannot satisfie for the loss of a Soul when it is And therefore the rich Man Luke 12. 19 20. was but a Fool for all his Riches and the Hypocrite Job 27. 8. is brought in as a desperate Fool for all his Gain when God took away both their Souls How miserable when dead to have so many Friends to accompany the Body to the Grave and Devils only the Soul to Hell such Funeral Pomp and Tombs He that hath lost his Soul is a poor undone Man though with the Young Man in the Gospel he have never so great possessions Mat. 12. 22. For a Silk Stocken will not cure
Patientiae and his Master Tertullian before him in his Book of the like Argument are large in this to shew that Impatience is not only a Sin but a Mother-sin that at first undid the Devil and afterward Adam thrust on Cain to his murder Esau to his profaneness the Jews to crucifie Christ and all Hereticks to corrupt and blaspheme the Truth of Christ which was but impatience to withstand their own Lusts but in suffering time to withstand the rage and lusts of the Devil and Men this the fearful unbelieving impatient Soul finds it oft an harder task and therefore rather than stand out basely yeelds up all and it self and all will be content to do all rather than suffer any thing We may tremble when we think of David counterfeiting the Mad-man Peter denying and forswearing his Lord and Master Cranmer subscribing and others of the choicest Servants of Christ faultring and fowly miscarrying in times of straits and dangers Even their Souls had hereby been lost if Christ had not saved them Peter had utterly sunk in that great Wave had not Christ reached out his hand and re-saved him But howl then Mat. 14. 30 31. Zech. 11. 2. ye Fir-Trees if the Cedars be fallen If the Righteous be scarcely saved where will the ungodly and sinners appear If the Godly for want of the exercise of Patience run such an hazard of their Souls how will the ungodly that wholly want the grace of Patience avoid the utter loss of theirs Upon two grounds 1. Their over-prising outward things which they cannot be without 2. Undervaluing their Souls especially seeing it is their Souls that they least of all look after and expose them to danger and loss rather than any thing else deal with them as the Levit did with his Concubine Judg. 19. 25. who to save himself did prostitute her to their lust to be abused to the very death as the Castor bites off and leaves that part of his Body which they most hunt after to save the rest Or like a Forlorn left to face and entertain the Enemy whilst they draw off their Bag and Baggage that they may secure Body Life Estate Esteem and the like leave the Soul at stake to be wounded and defiled with the fowlest and most horrid sins even to deny Christ and utterly to apostatize from him his Truth and Grace and so merely for want of Faith and Patience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in such a Luke 8. 13. time and pinch of tentation such fall away And so the best bargain they make of it is but to gain the World and lose the Soul But our Saviour in the place parallel to the Text saith He that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 endures to the end shall be saved Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patience is the induring Grace and therefore is the saving Grace at least saves the Soul when it can secure nothing else dare suffer and thereby may expose the outward Man to danger and misery but dare not sin and thereby provides for the Soul's safety and so keeps possession that it be not lost at last 2. That it be not distemper'd and disguised for the present how distracting and intoxicating soever the exercise and affliction be Ira furor brevis As anger is a madness so impatience is an angry Sore that swells and burns Semper aeger caloribus impatientiae De Patientiâ c. 1. as Tertullian speaks of himself and so casts the Soul into a Burning Fever and thereby brings the Man to a perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is so distempered that he knoweth not what he saith or doth And so Asaph in this case by his own confession becomes like a Beast Psal 73. 22. And Heman though he continues a Man yet a distracted Man Psal 88. 15. David when his Heart waxt hot and the Fire burned he saith he spake with his Tongue Psal 39. 3. and as some expound that place more Junius than his share I am sure even Job himself when his Patience began a little to be inflamed into Passion spake over he confesseth that he uttered that he understood not Chap. 42. 3. And if these that were of so sober and gracious a Spirit were whilst in this case so much besides themselves then how stark wild may you expect to find such who have no such inward bridle to check such a wild Horse but lay the Reins loose on the Neck of passion and rage And what is it that you then see A Man in his right wits No but a wild Boar foaming at the Mouth a Lion sparkling with his Eyes a very Bedlam in the height of his phransy And how is the Soul then kept in possession But Patience cools such hot Distempers and being spiritualis Illyricus Patientia sanitatem Tertul. de pat c. 1. incolumitas as he calls it the very health of the Soul it either prevents or cures such phrensies keeps the Soul in a due temper that the Man is still himself as our Saviour That his Patience might have its perfect work in his sensible sufferings of the extremity of his torments refused that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mar. 15. See Galatinus 23. which some say was wont to be given to Men when they suffered to intoxicate and make senseless No better Receipt than a Patient Spirit against a light Head under heaviest Burdens and Afflictions though Job's Messengers trod one on the heel of another and that so long till at last they had nothing more to say because he had almost nothing more to lose yet as long as his Patience received their Messages and he heard them by that Interpreter though indeed at last he started up and rent his Mantle and shaved his Head and fell down upon the Ground and Satan that stood looking on to see how his Train that he had laid took it may be might now think that the distracted Man began his Anticks yet he fell short of his Hopes It 's added that after Job had done all this he worshipped and said Naked came I out of my Mother's Womb and naked shall I return thither The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away Blessed be the Name of the Lord Job 1. 20 21. Now as they said these are not the words of him that hath a Devil So those words of Job John 10. 21. have they the least touch or air of a Distraction or Distemper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You hear not in them a distracted Man's non-sense but rather a Man divinely inspired speaking Oracles Such a full possession and enjoyment of a Man's Soul and self doth Patience put and keep him in that if it have but its perfect work it makes an all of Joy when there is in view nothing but grief and sorrow Jam. 1. 2 4. so that when it comes to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man is round about beset with miseries and mischiefs that another Man is quite-out exanimated and distracted
on the tops of Paris or Ocila First the Extremities of the Church may be so great that nothing under Heaven or less than God can rescue it Experience proves it is so 2. The good pleasure of God is such that on purpose he will have it so As for Instance For Time though Christ's Disciples be in a Tempest yet he Mat. 14. 25. stayeth till the fourth and last Watch that they are toiled out with Rowing and faint with Waiting that so he may say It Mark 6. 48. is I. For Pressure and Danger not till the Case be in a manner desperate the Ship now covered with Waves and now Conclamatum est when they cry out Lord save us we perish or as the Church Lam. 3. 54. Waters flowed over mine Head then I said I am cut off For Persons most weak and helpless He is the Orphan's Father and the Widow's Judg Psal 68. 5. That is said with an Emphasis Judg. 5. 11. The Righteous Acts of the Lord towards the Inhabitants of his Villages in Israel They most subject to be made a Prey Ezek. 38. 11. If he be a Safeguard it 's especially to his poor open unfenced Villages And there if his Spouse be a Flower it 's not one that 's planted and preserved in the Garden by Man's care but Ego sum flos campi Lilium convallium Cant. 2. 1. the Flower of the Field and the Lilly of the Valleys exposed to every Hand to pluck and every Foot to tread on all to make out the truth in hand Quod non humanâ industriâ sed solâ Divinà benignitate caeli influentiâ floreat as Pineda observes They say It 's a Royalty at Sea to joyn with In Job 12. 4. the weakest I am sure it 's the Royal Bounty of Heaven that God chuseth to help the weakest And that in the last place for present Condition when they are at the weakest When he seeth their power gone and there is none shut up or left Deut. 32. 36. When the Physicians had drained the Woman's Purse and not stopped her bloody Issue Mark 5. 26. and now given her over as a desperate Patient and a Beggar together then is she fittest to be our Saviour's Cure And when the Disciples themselves could not cast out the Devil then bring him to me saith Christ Mat. 17. 17. Who meeteth with the Man when the Jews had cast him out John 9. 35. Takes up David when Father and Mother had cast him off Psal 27. 10. is a Strength to the Poor and Needy but it 's added and that in his distress A Refuge from the Storm but then especially when the Blast of the terrible ones is as a Storm against the Wall Isa 25. 4. That heals Simon Peter's Wive's Mother in the Paroxism of a Fever and height of a Fit Cum duplicantur lateres c. Makes Day break a little after it hath been darkest and brings to an happy Birth by the sharpest Throw In a word that takes Extremities for fittest Opportunities for him to come in with most seasonable Mercies and Deliverances that it may be said What hath God wrought Numb 23. 23. That it may be proclaimed to all that Salvation is of the Lord when his blessing is upon his People that when none else can the Lord Jehovah Psal 3. ult in the Text both can and will save his People command and rather than fail as it becomes a Jehovah create deliverance And all this 1. To stamp an Impress of spiritual and eternal Salvation even Vse on our Temporal deliverances that as it 's the same Saviour and saving Love that effects both so in the one we may have a Glimps Representation and Specimen of the other And hence thou shalt be put into such Circumstances and Exigences that thou shalt see plainly that it was God only that saved thy Body or outward Estate the more to mind thee that it was he only that saved thy Soul And if my case sometimes were such that when all others gave me over he himself saved me from Sickness and Death then it was none but He alone that saved me from Sin and Hell that Christ only trod the Winepress alone and there was none with him and that when he looked and there was none to help and wondered that there was none to uphold then his own Arm brought Salvation to us And when Levite and Priest left us then our good Samaritan relieved us Isa 63. 3 5. 2. And therefore secondly To let us know how for both Salvations we are more beholden to one God than all the World besides when in our greatest straits it's He always especially and at sometimes only saves us Others never can without him But he often-times doth without them Be we never so much beholden to other Friends and Creatures for greatest Deliverances yet then even in and for them we are infinitely more beholden to God If the Inhabitants of Jerusalem be my strength it 's in the Lord of Hosts their God Zech. 12. 5. Though others may be Instruments yet he only is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 5. 9. the Author of Salvation And therefore the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon Judg. 7. 20. is but like Caesare Bibulo Consulibus God is the Figure and Gideon is but the Cypher The one but the Sword the other the Arm that smites with it My Physician may Curare valetudinem but it 's my God that works the Cure Counsellers may advise for us and Souldiers may fight for us but it 's God that saves us As they confess We have wrought no Deliverance in the Earth but thy dead Men shall live Isa 26. 18 19. We may Sow and Plant but Heaven's Shine and Showers give the increase For else if the Heaven be Brass the Earth will be Iron When others are and do most Christ even then is All in all Col. 3. 11. and if he be All then all without him are just nothing When others do most it 's all in and from God and He then doth more But sometimes it must needs be God's Salvation only and he do all because all else are and can do nothing When I am in close Prison the best Friend cannot come when in a Pest-House he dare not when on a Death-Bed and I am bidding good night and adieu to all my Physician gives me over and some Friends take leave of me others it may be stand by me and weep over me but cannot help me Oh now none but Christ none but Christ It 's none else but the Living God alone who in that dying Hour can relieve me In a word think what is possible and withal what is certain It is possible that in a more violent way the Man may be stript as naked as ever Job was of all his outward Estate That the Town or City may be so straitly round about begirt that none may come in or go out and only Restat iter caelo
in the Event not till the death of our Bodies is the body of Sin quite dead in us but then it will be for as Sin entred into us at the first union of Body and Soul so it goeth not out till their last dissolution But being then parted As to the Body for fins of omission this lump of Earth doth no longer aggravare animam clog the Soul from doing duty nor as to sins of commission doth this Earthly dusty tabernacle any longer defile the Soul as being a fomes and an Instrument by which it acts its self-pollution And as to the Soul though wicked Mens Souls are in statu separato as sinful as they were before yet the spirits of just Men are then made perfect Heb. 12. 23. and therefore not liable to sin which is the greatest imperfection And what a gain this is a holy Heart will tell you when now groaning under the Burden and Pollution of some defiling lust would give a whole World to be rid of it even exchange his life for Death because by it he shall gain a full deliverance from it And as Death ends the Believer's sin So also all that misery which by reason of his sin he more or less all his Life long was exercised with No more inward sorrows or fears or anguishes and perplexities in and from himself no more temptations from Satan no more molestations or persecutions from the World or if any he is no more sensible of them There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary are at rest there the Prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the oppressor Job 3. 17 18. And if you say that for these outward troubles it is then as well with the wickedest sinners as with the holiest Saints I say but it is not so as to those inward anguishes and perplexities which are the greatest miseries for they in the wicked are not then ended but as to their greatest extremities then begin But for the Godly no more then any of these They then cease from all their Labours Revel 14. 13. and rest quietly in their Beds Isa 57. 2. not one bodily pain or disquieting thought more as Mr. Knox on his death-bed being asked whether his See his Life pains were great answered that he did not esteem that a pain which would be to him the end of all trouble and the beginning of endless Joys Serve the Lord in Fear and Death shall not be troublesome to you Blessed is the Death of those that have part in the Blood of Jesus And is not he who hath attained to this proved a great Gainer having all his former sins and miseries so well and for ever ended 2. And whatsoever of both kinds if he had lived longer he might have fallen into most happily prevented The Apocryphal Solomon saith that Enoch was speedily taken away lest wickedness should have altered his understanding Wisdom 4. 11. But I am sure from authentical Scripture that Josiah was that he might not see that desolation which was coming upon his people 2 Chron. 34. 28. and that the Righteous are taken away from the evil to come Isa 57. 1. of which some expound that Dr. Hammond Revel 14. 13. Blessed are they that dye in the Lord namely at that time there meant because after that time there would be greater misery It may be we cannot but think how miserable some Men would have been if they had lived any longer yea and what sinful Snares some of God's Servants would have been in danger to have been taken in if they had not died the sooner But when they were now falling a Fathers watchful eye saw their danger and with a wary hand snatcht them out of it and took them into his own Bosom out of the reach of it Blessed Father Happy Child And gainful Death that put them into harbor when the storm was coming that would have sunk them prevented those sins and miseries that might have undone them And thus Death to the Godly is gain privatively in preventing loss 2. Secondly Positively in bringing in reallest Gains 1. Of Grace made perfect and that in the most perfect exercise and operation of it Faith then completed in Vision and Hope in Fruition and therefore called the end of our Faith 1 Pet. 1. 9. not so much of cessation as the consummation and perfection of both and for Love what was here imperfect shall then be done away 1 Cor. 13. 10. So that it shall be perfectly then exerted toward God and one another when we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 20. 36. like to the Angels of God every way pliable and expedite in doing his will And we who think how well it is with us when we can here in any measure of freedom and liveliness meditate and pray or in any other kind with enlarged hearts run the way of God's Commandments and feel how burdensom it is to lye under the burden of Sin and have our Chariot-Wheels taken off so that we drive heavily in what he sets us to what unvaluable a gain shall we esteem it when all these cloggs shall be taken off and we shall find our Souls as upon the Chariots of Amminadab freely to expatiate in those latifundia of Eternity and with those Angels in Ezekiel's Vision whither the Spirit is to go to go without hinderance and Ezek. 1. 12. weariness Now a true Christian estimates Gain not by that of Mony as it 's called Judg. 5. 19. or other commodities which the Men of the World traffique in but that which ariseth from being Rich in Faith James 2. 5. and God's fear Prov. 22. 4. Which is the * Luke 16. 11. true and the †Prov. 8. 18. everlasting Riches as our Saviour and Solomon calls them and therefore when such Riches and Gains are come in fullest he accounts himself the greatest gainer and that will be when in Death Grace is perfected 2. And happiness completed and that will be then also if you will only abate that which will arise from the Souls reunion with the Body which will not be till the last day But at Death Paul makes account that when he departs hence he shall be with Christ which he esteems to be best of all v. 23. of this Chapter in a more full Vision and Fruition of God and what attends that Estate and in what else can be our best happiness Mr. Mede indeed saith that he remembers not that Death is On Rev. 14. 13. Diem mortis diem mercedis indigitari ever in Scripture said to be the time of reward Nor it may be is it so said in those express words nor indeed is it the time of the reward of the most full and compleat payment of it which is reserved to the Resurrection-day But I am sure if Paul said true that upon his departure he should be with Christ that the greatest part of the reward is then given and that not only
it self be Gain to us for then our accounts will be summ'd and made up and then Gain and Loss will best appear as Solomon said when he came to his Audit Eccles 2. 11. Then I looked on all the Works that my hands had wrought and on the Labour that I had laboured to do And that was very great as we may see in the fore-going Verses where you find him as a diligent Chymist very busie at his work to extract and gain an Elixir and Quintessence even the Spirit of whatever Contentment the whole Mass and Body of the Creature could afford But alas when all else was evaporated there was nothing left but that Caput mortuum Behold all was vanity and vexation of Spirit and there was no profit under the Sun And as little do all our great Traders and Gainers as they themselves thought that say as James 4. 13. Tomorrow we will go to such a City and buy and sell and get Gain As little profit do they find when at Death they come to their last reckoning In their life and enjoyment oft-times no other profit by what they have Gained but the beholding of them with their Eyes Eccles 5. 11. But to be sure at Death when they must leave them Riches will not profit in such a day of Wrath Prov. 11. 4 will not be able then to purchase a Freedom no not a Reprieve from Death Psal 49. 6 7 8 9. much less everlasting Life and it will be well if not Death eternal And here let me name some few things which Men usually for the present think very Gainful to them which will not at Death turn to account 1. All sins even the gainfullest Demetrius may get no small Gain by making Silver shrines for Diana his Idol and the Master Acts 19. 24. Acts 16. 16. of the Pythoniss by her divination and many others now a days by unlawful Callings and unlawful and dishonest Gains at which God as very angry * Numb 24. 10. smites his hands Ezek. 22. 12 13 27. But none of these can in themselves be true Gain which is wont to be defined to be Boni utilis acquisitio quod ad venerandi Ficinus in argumento Hipparchi Platonis Rom. 6. 23. boni consecutionem conducit It 's the acquiring of something that is profitable towards the acquisition of the chief Good But if the wages of sin be Death this must needs be quite contrary the greatest Loss loss of Peace with God in Life and the loss of God and everlasting Life at Death And then as they said Why should Dammage grow to the hurt of the King Dan. 6. 2. Ezra 4. 22. So I to thee But why should such an utterly undoing Loss grow to thy Soul Or as Paul said to them Acts 27. 10. Sirs I perceive that this Voyage will be with hurt and much Dammage not only of the Lading and Ship but also of our Lives So I must say to every such Sinner unless he strike Sail and steer another Course though thou beest now Top and Top-gallant and goest before the Wind with all Sails spread and filled with as thou thinkest a most prosperous Gale yet this Voyage will be to thy hurt and much Dammage not only of Lading and Ship of that Saburra of outward Contentments that thou art so deeply laden with and of thy Bodie 's brittle Bark but of the Life and that of thy Soul for ever Acquisivit pecuniam Augustine perdidit Justitiam lucrum in arcâ damnum in conscientiâ Gain in the Chest and Loss in the Conscience he hath gotten Money and lost Piety and Justice are sad words but sadder things Such Gainers I compare to such prodigal Unthrifts that lavish it at their Inns and what Gainers they who have got so much Mirth and good Chear Ay but Friends there is a great reckoning that must be paid before or when you go to Bed in Death which will not suffer you to sleep quietly Whilst you by these sinful means increase your Gettings you like such Prodigals run fast and deep into debt which whilst you find the life Isa 57. 10. of your hand as the Prophets phrase is that which supports you with a livelihood you are jolly and never think of it O but there will at Death come a day of payment and then a Prison out of which you will not get till you have paid the utmost farthing and that will never be and so you lie in chains of darkness to Eternity What gain by sin will you then think you have got by that of which you are then ashamed because Rom. 6. 21. by it utterly undone You may then put it all into your Eyes and be there weeping it out for ever Penny-wise and pound-foolish will be then a sad Proverb which you will be sadly thinking of when all is lost and you with it to have gained Lordships and Kingdoms by sinful ways will be found greatest loss at last They will then appear to have been the Devils gifts rather than God's and as they use to say that the Devil's Gold which he gives to Witches is found to be but leaves and trash so you will find these to be such trash as will yet make Fewel for everlasting burnings What therefore you heard out of the Prophet Ambros de Joseph lucrum pietas nescit pecuniae in quo pietas dispendium est God in anger smites his hands at we should with an holy despising with him Isa 33. 15. shake our hands of namely of the gain of oppression bribes and whatever other unlawful profits which will then prove loss with a witness No then Godliness will appear to have been profitable for all things 1 Tim. 4. 8. and although in the profession and practise of it we have met with 2 Cor. 7. 9. inward repentant grief and outward loss and mischief yet as Paul saith we shall in the upshot find that we have received dammage by it in nothing 2. Nor will all even lawful acquisitions of outward profits or pleasures or honours or the like contentments as we use falsly to call them if not better improved and husbanded make Death gainful or be gain to us then when I say not the unlawful getting or using or keeping of them for that I spake to in the former Head but the bare resting and satisfying our selves in them without making out after and sure of Christ who is both in Life and Death advantage will be the loss of our Souls and what hath a Man then gained though he had gained the whole World Matth. 16. 26. In regard of usual events in ordinary providence Solomon saith there is a time to get and a time to lose Eccles 3. 6. and all our Life should be a getting time to get Grace and Peace that so at length we may gain Glory but there is no time to lose at least to lose our Souls especially death is no such time when if they
at Mass or shrift thinks all so well with him that he may fairly step out of the Church to the next Bâ—othel-House at least rest in opere operato a sin which many better men are in part too often overtaken with whilst they too much rest in the duty of praying hearing receiving though they meet but little with Christ in them The very sin of the Jews in 1. taking up Ordinances of our own and 2. taking up with the outward enjoyment even of Christ's Ordinances 2. Which for the second thing propounded to shew the unreasonableness of it the Apostle here calls loss and dung And well he might upon these following Considerations if they be equalled with preferred before or set in opposition to Christ 1. And the first is taken from the uncertainty of their continuing or abiding by us or we by them It 's true indeed in the blessed effect and fruit of them if whilst enjoyed we have gained Christ by them they will abide with us for ever as the Cordial will be to chear us when it may be the Cup is taken away from us and that is only because Christ lives and abides by us But they will not so always Not in Heaven no Ordinances there where it will be our happiness most fully to enjoy his presence to Eternity Thou wilst say no need of them there but there will here And art thou sure thou shalt enjoy them here always May not the Ark be taken from thee as once from Israel 1 Sam. 4. or thou from the Ark as David was often The Priests were not suffered to continue by reason of death Hebr. 7. 23. Your fathers where are they and do the Prophets live for ever Zech. 1. 5. That Minister under whose Ministry thou sometimes satest with great delight and it may be restedst too much in may die or be taken away The Shepherd may be smitten and the sheep scattered and then whither wilt thou cause thy sorrow to go to find sustenance to live on when thy life as Jacob's in Benjamin's is wrapped up in his life how sad will the cries of the famished infant be when pluckt from the dead Nurses Breast which sometimes it sucked so sweetly and in this famine of the word as in that of Jeremiah in his Lamentation the tongue of the sucking Cap. 2. 11 4. 4. Child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth and the sucklings swoon in the midst of the streets of the City Or should the Minister live and thou too the ark not taken yet thou taken from the Ark by sickness with Hezekiah imprisonment 2 King 20. 1 8. with Jeremiah Cap. 36. 5. by banishment as David and then if he then envieth the sparrows that might Nest by the Altar whilst himself sits alone as a sparrow on the house-top or like a Pelican Psal 84. Psal 102. 6. in the Wilderness or an Owl in the desert pants like the Hart Psal 42. 1 2 3 4. after the Water brooks whilst his tears are his drink and he poureth out his soul when he thinks how sometimes he had gone with the multitude to the house of God from which he is now banished and in that distance with a long look looketh toward it from the Mount Hermon and the Hill Mizzar i. e. from every higher Mountain and little lower Hillock that he might get a look thitherward from and this only for want of the Ordinances when yet by his former improving of them he had with him the God of Ordinances How sad and sinking will thy moan be in the like or indeed far worse Case when through thy former negligent non-improvement of them thou wantest both them and him too Will they not then be loss when they are now lost and with them Christ also who otherwise than best Minister never dieth but ever liveth Heb. 7. 24 25. otherwise than best Ordinance would never have left thee or suffer thee to be pluckt from him who would in the most barren Wilderness as he did Israel have fed thee with hidden Manna Revel 22. 17. and as to David Psal 42. made even thy tears thy bread to comfort thee in the darkest Prison shone into thee as to Paul and Barnabas Act. 16. 25 26. in Banishment have more than preach'd to thee as to St. John in Patmos Revel 1. 9. and on thy Death-Bed instead of the Sacrament been thy viaticum 2. But secondly suppose Ordinances should be continued to thee and thou to them they will be loss because at least at best thou wilst be no true gainer by them if as the Apostle here speaks thou dost not gain Christ with them At best they are in themselves but means and media habent amabilitatem à fine they have all their desireableness and goodness from the end without the enjoyment of which by them frustrà omnia they are wholly vain useless idle or rather the use of them is a trouble and not a benefit for what is Paul and what is Apollos but Ministers by whom you believed 1 Cor. 3. 5. and if but Ministers it was but to minister Christ to you and what was John Baptist than whom there was none greater that was born of a woman saith our Saviour but a friend only of the Bridegroom John 3. 29. Not to wooe for himself but to bring Christ and thy Soul as his Spouse together And what are best Ordinances at best but the Bed of loves as some expound that in the Canticles Cantic 1. 16. 3. 1. But what is the Bed of loves if the Spouse find not her beloved there For all that she goeth up and down as a desolate Widow saying But saw you him whom my soul loveth Cant. 3. 1 3. It is Christ in a word in a Sacrament in any Ordinance that the chast Spouse desireth to meet with and seeks after whom if she findeth not though she enjoy them she hath but the Casket without the Jewel the Field but not the Pearl and if he be all in all then Col. 3. 11. Philip. 3. 2. all these and all else without him are nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Circumcision but a cutting and mangling of the flesh and that 's all Prayer without Communion with Christ in it but a meer lip-labour Sacraments but empty Ceremonies and hearing listning to as empty a sound The less is Grace beholden to Pelagian See Dr. Wards Clerum and Arminian Divinity which placeth all the efficacy of it in the bare proposal of Doctrine which without the Spirits inward teachings will prove wholly ineffectual for it 's not the breads touching of the skirt of the Priests Garment that will make it holy but on the contrary any unclean bodies touching it makes it unholy Hagg. 2. 12 13. and so any unsanctified Souls conversing with holy Ordinances rather pollutes them than receives sanctification or other blessing by them Without Christ they are loss because thou losest that
together and now gotten into a wild Wilderness and having lost the right path we irrecoverably lose our selves and are ready to seduce others in numberless by-cross-ways and like so many crooked lines drawn off the Center cross and cut one another or a routed Army run either singly or in some small parties this way and that way justling and treading down each other as well as others who come in their way but yet think that the course which they take is the only way to their own and others safety And thus from these and other such like grounds too many do and we are all too apt to betake our selves to such Sects and to think to commend our selves to God in so doing Which was the second thing I propounded Paul sometimes counted this to be gain But now that he is grown wiser he reckons it as well as other things but loss yea and dung that he might gain Christ 3. Which was the third thing propounded and chiefly intended in the Text and Point That this being of or adhering to any Sect or Party is not that which we should take up with or rest in Whatever vain men say or think it 's not the being wrapt in a Friars Cowl that will either Cure the sick mans Body or save his Soul not being of this or that Sect or Party that will dub or Canonize thee a Saint or make thee meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light that we must be beholding to Col. 1. 12. Christ only for in compare with whom this especially had need be accounted loss and dung and indeed it 's no less than a dishonour to Christ that such dung should come into comparison with him And therefore I must say less in this kind of this particular than of all that hitherto I have compared with Christ or hereafter shall compare with him for in those other particulars there is otherwise much at least some good but in this of following and maintaining of Sects nothing that is pleasing to God and that therefore should please us And what comparison should we then make of Light with Darkness of Christ with Belial will this sect-following justifie and commend us to God or may it be compared with Christ which 1. Is so directly opposite to Christ the Prince of Peace and the spirit of Christ and the Gospel of Peace one body one spirit one hope one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all So many unities and yet universals that it comes to one and all makes a Catholick Vnion which therefore the Apostle calls for in the same place whiles he exhorts us to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of Peace Eph. 4. 3 4 5 6. More in so few words could not be said nor more Emphatically And must Christ then be divided into Parties 1 Cor. 1. 13. and his seamless Coat rent into pieces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Romanus piously Cant. 6. 8. bemoaneth however we may pride our selves in it yet it 's truly filthy and unworthy of Christ and a true Christian conversation Though there be fourscore Concubines of such as do not so sincerely profess Christ and Virgins without number that make no Cant. 6. 8. profession of love to him yet his Beloved is but one And that one should not prove many Straight lines drawn from the centre to the circumference never cut one another and therefore if we so part as to cross and clash the cause must needs be that either we do not truly centre in Christ or that there is some lesser or greater obliquity that we are not right either in heart or life judgment or practice Such secting I may without affectation say is a dissecting and mangling the body of Christ and therefore very much against Christ and the Spirit of Christ 2. Contrary also to God and his Law and that many ways for if where strife and division is there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every evil work as the Apostle saith Jam. 3. 16. in this one offence as it 's usually said of the first Adam's there 's at once a violation and breach of Gods whole Law I insist not in particulars as idolizing our selves or others against the first Commandment and setting altare juxta altare our threshold by God's against the second c. In general I say If love be the fulfilling of the whole Law this is so destructively opposite to love that it 's a perfect evacuating of it By which we are at odds not only with God and our brethren but oft-times even with our selves and our own judgments and consciences which men often cross that they may comply with a party to which they are captivated as Lactantius said of Tully Verùm haec non Ciceronis culpa est sed sectae Thus Lib. 2. cap. 9. such breaches at once snap all asunder And whilst they cry up their own opinion and way if that be Tom 6. de Haeres haeres 54. ut asseveraret quod nihil cuique obesseâ— quorumlâ—â—er perpetratio perseverantia peceatorum si hujus quae ab illo docebatur fidei particeps esset but believed and followed by themselves and their followers a broad way is set open and liberty indulged to trample upon all other Commandments as Eunomius in Austin gave out That the commission of or perseverance in any sin could not hurt that man that would but entertain the faith which he taught as our later Libertines and Antinomians make the worst sins none but only the sense of them and sorrow for them Hence Arch-Hereticks though some few as Pelagius especially at the first were more sober and seemingly religious yet have been observed usually to be very abominable and scandalous in their practices exemplified if not exceeded in our Ranters and other Sectaries railings cursings stark-naked obscenities which Grace could not name and even Nature would cover and blush at A manifest heavy judgment of God upon them written with a Sun-beam had they not unmann'd themselves putting out their own eyes and debauched their very natural consciences But Lord whither do we not run when thou leavest us As this is another manifest Judgment of God upon them that as by these Sects they cut themselves off from others so very often they cannot keep long together amongst themselves O Lord divide their Psal 55. 9. tongues prayeth David against his enemies and it 's that which God most justly inflicteth on these Babel builders What divisions See Socrates l. 5. c. 21 23 24. Graec and subdivisions are they mouldred into and what deadly irreconcileable feuds and animosities amongst themselves do they often fall to Thomists with Scotists and Jesuits against Dominicans Seculars and Regulars and one Sect against another till at last See Watsons Quodlibets Judg. 7. 12. 1 Sam. 14. 20. Ezech. 38. 21. when others could not
Which not only set him off from embracing him but set him on more fiercely to oppose and persecute both him and all that believed in him as ever since none either more hardly brought on to Christ than such worldly wise men or more forward to malign hate oppose and persecute his truth and people than Porphyries Julians and such other learned Adversaries their acuteness setting a keener edg on their malice and their greater knowledge furnishing them with greater abilities to cavil and inveigh and to find out ways to do them more mischief But Paul after that once a brighter light from Heaven had shone round about him though he forgot not his learning for Festus Acts 9. 3. thought he had so much of it that it made him mad yet by it he saw that he had cause to lay aside such thoughts and became of Acts 26. 24. another of a quite contrary mind and judgment Christ was now no longer to him foolishness but The Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. And if the Preaching of Christ were accounted foolishness he was so wise as to become such a fool himself and to call upon every other man that seemeth to be wise to become a fool that he may be wise 1 Cor. 3. 18. even made wise to salvation and accordingly here in the Text 2 Tim. 3. 15. as all other his great excellencies so amongst them this of his being a learned Pharisee he accounts loss and dung 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the more transcendently excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. For as Moses when set on the rock came to see Gods back parts Exod. 33. 21 22 23. so by our being set upon this rock of salvation it is that we come to behold the Countenance of God in the face of Christ without which he that increaseth Eccles 1. 18. knowledge doth but increase sorrow partly here in wearying himself in oftentimes fruitless studies of other matters as he compared the Schoolmens pains about knotty questions to a man R. Gallus gnawing and breaking his teeth on an hard stone whilst he had bread by him to have fed on But the greatest grief will be at last if with all our learning we have not savingly learnt Christ our Books and we shall burn together and all our learning will Quid prodest esse peritum periturum be so far from teaching us how to escape everlasting wrath that it will much increase it and serve only to enlarge and widen our faculties that they may be made capable of greater torment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour Luke 12. 47. and so Clemens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 More light now may then meet with more heat in those everlasting burnings But this particular though fit to be further pressed in this Auditory of Learned men hath been already handled in the first part of the Text when we spake of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the super-excellency of the knowledge of Christ above all other knowledge and learning whatsoever And therefore leaving it I shall proceed to another excellency which Paul as he was a Pharisee sometimes gloried of and rested in which now he accounts loss and dung in comparison with Christ and that was a glittering outside of a glorious Profession and outward appearance of greatest Piety and Devotion in which the Pharisees which as some say came of the Hasidaei Saints would fain out-strip all and be most conspicuous and remarkable from which as best Hebrew Grammarians conceive they had their names of Pharisees quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as separated from others by their greater sanctity and therefore said to others Stand by thy self Come not near me for I am holier than thou Isa 65. 5. To which time and not first to the time of Ezra some refer the first out-looking of Pharisaisme Lâ—ghtfoot Horae Hebraicae And for after-times Josephus tells us their Sect was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was an Order of men among the Jews that seemed and was esteemed more godly and religious than all the rest And if you will measure Religion by exact Tithings frequent Alms deeds Fastings and Washings long Prayers and Broad Phylacteries and the like and take notice what our Saviour spake of them in his time Matth 6. 15. 23. and other places they might be Canonized for the holiest Saints for their trumpet sounded very loud the outside of the Cup and Platter was made very clean those Sepulchres were curiously whited and garnished their Countenances demurely mis-figured the antick garbs gates postures of their seven Orders which others write of exactly or rather ridiculously composed they were perfectly dressed Stage-Players or Hypocrites as our Saviour very often calls them and almost as often saith Wo to them for it Well therefore might our Apostle account this Sepulchre Painting and out side varnish loss and dung that he might gain Christ And so should we And so hence The Note is that no bare outward Professions or outside appearances Note 3. of Piety and Religion can so commend us to God as to be relied upon or rested in for acceptance with him but to be accounted loss and dung that we may gain Christ It 's not a fair stamp on a slip that will make it current Not that simply and in themselves as in the former particular Sects and Factions so all outward appearances and Professions of Religion and Godliness are to be reproved or under-valued Indeed some are such as are of our own devising especially in Gods worship as most of the Pharisees Gayes were and the Papists are Let all such be at the same rate with the fore-mentioned Sects and Factions which they help either to make or uphold and are alike sinful breaches of the second Commandment And the like we may say of all either superstition or affectation in all even the most lawful yea necessary outward appearances and professions of godliness they are not only loss in the want of true piety but in their own natures dung indeed the dressing up or rather the foul dawbing of a Dunghill-Idol a Whorish hearts garish but withal sluttish dress not covering but setting out its inward filthiness by such outward open bare-faced ill-complexioned appearances though looked at by us as gay brouches yet for the very materials and ingredients being made up of Superstition Hypocrisie and Vain-glorious affectation They are but like dirty colours laid on a rotten Post or Mud-Wall or an ugly vizard put on a foul face according to the most proper sense of the Apostles words they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 species mali an appearance of that 1 Thess 5. 22. which in its kind is evil a foul skin of a more foul body and the bad outward Complexion of an inward distempered Soul Such were the Pharisees mis-figured faces which they accounted Beauties and such are not only the ridiculous antiques in the Popish Mass with all the rest of their
in a small present which they had sent him and therefore he appears to be substance whilest he thus substantially satisfieth our vastest desires But of this more in the second point in which we shall consider of his fulness which in the latter part of the verse he promiseth shall fill our Treasures 2. By affording solid comfort in our most pressing pinching smarting griefs and anguishes of inward or outward man He is a substantial real friend indeed who can and will help at a dead lift The true God puts counterfeit Idols upon this trial of their being God by doing good or evil Isa 41. 23. and bids their worshippers go to them to deliver them in the time of their tribulation Judg. 10. 14. It 's but an hollow reed which breaks and rather Isa 36. 6. wounds than supports when such weight is laid on it but it 's a solid foundation that then will be able to keep us up from sinking Such is Christ and his Grace cureth Peter's wives mother in the Matth. 8. 15. height of a fever and when Peter himself was now sinking immediately stretcheth out his hand and saveth him easeth and quieteth Matth. 14. 30. V. 27. the heart in outward sufferings he then said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ego sum when in a storm he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and reviveth the Soul now dying away in sense of God's anger and other inward anguishes Job 33. 18. to 26. These real felt Cures plainly evidence how able and substantial a Physician Christ is not as they Job 13. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Physicians of no value and how soveraign physick his grace and peace are And withal it preventeth or answereth an Objection which a profane heart may be ready to make against all this that hath been said viz. That these we speak of are silly frantick or at best moping Obj. melancholick men their troubles are but fond and weak imaginations and therefore their both deliverances and deliverers may be answerable not real but only imaginary and so the Child 's pin-prick because he is silly and it is nothing may be blown whole and the melancholick man's Incubus whilest he is drowsing may feel very heavy and seem dreadful which as soon as he openeth his eyes vanisheth Like to these some may conceive all the wounds and burdens of Christians troubled Consciences but melancholick fancies and gloomy shadows and as little substantialness in their Cure tied with a straw and loosed with a feather and therefore may look at Ministers as so many jugling Mountebanks who to gain more repute or to make a living of it with fleight of hand tie such false knots which are as easily untied and loosed and then cry out Digitus Dei hic or as they of Simon Exod. 8. 19. Acts 8. 10. Magus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the great power of God To which I answer Ans That it is too true that too often the maladies of many of God's people do arise from ignorance and from melancholick mistakes and like imaginary causes which with Gods blessing sometimes by a very little light and help may be cured as the Bugbears which the frighted man thought he saw in the dark by a little candle-light brought in are driven away 1. But yet sometimes the effects of those weak and imaginary causes may prove very real and strong such as sometimes pose the ablest Physician 's skill to Cure what they work in the Body as in some real Diseases and distractions from frights caused by some vain Bugbears And none but Jesus Christ our Phoebus and only Physician can remove the sad effects of them in some mens Souls so that he shines out to be the true sun of Righteousness in that he can bring healing to them in his wings Mal. 4. 2. 2. Nor are all their maladies melancholick fancies When the Arrows of the Almighty-stuck fast in Jobs heart and the poyson Job 6. 4. thereof drunk up his spirit they were more than the Child 's pin-prick that was before spoken of not to be blown whole but only by the spirit 's breathing And when God's wrath lay heavy upon the Psalmist and his hand pressed him sore it was more than Psal 88. 7. 38. 2. the melancholick man's conceited night-mare Nor was Ananias a Jugler sent by Christ to play tricks with Paul when he was sent to support and comfort him in that agony Acts 9. he then was in The wounds of many a poor Sinner's Conscience have been real and very deep nor were they painted fires that the Martyrs have been broiled in Real transcendent anguishes in both kinds they have been that many of God's people have been exercised with when nothing but realities could satisfie or comfort and both Scripture and Church-story all along and the manifold experiences of God's people in all ages have abundantly testified that in the worst of them Christ hath stood by them and supported them and thereby proved himself a real friend His Grace and Peace and Joy have been real Cordials to their sad hearts so as to inable them to indure those torments not only with patience but with joy and glorying Sure faith was the substance of things not seen and when the wind or breathing of the spirit did blow them on and lift them up so strongly it was something fully felt by them when not seen by others 3. Nor lastly let us conceive them as so many frantick or silly dull men more obstinate than honest like Hereticks that will rather part with their life than their opinion or more honest than wise to harden themselves against sufferings and prodigally to have thrown away their lives which they might have saved and have been no losers David in Scripture-account was a wise man and 1 Sam. 18. 14. 1 Kings 4. 31. Heman is there reckoned up amongst the wisest who underwent these anguishes and the Martyrs whatever the wise men of the world think were no fools needlesly to cast away their precious lives that they might save their more precious souls No dull thick-skinned fools as not really to feel those tortures nor such silly fools as to conceit themselves into a fools paradise of fancied comforts and joyes No as their sufferings for Christ abounded so their Consolations abounded by Christ 2 Cor. 1. 5. both were very real and eminent and thereby Christ really and eminently manifested to them and to all the world how solid and substantial that comfort is which he his grace and presence brings and that in the estimate of wisest men and that when they are fit to judge most wisely and that is in trial of afflictions for vexatio dat intellectum in death it self and hora mortis is hora veritatis then the very Heathens as some dispute were wont to divine and therefore there is more hope that true Christians might better then understand what is truth The night the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
the spirit because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. Christ and his Grace are of such a spiritual Nature and therefore are not fit provision for sensual lusts which are taken with gross corporal sensible objects To such eyes Christ had no beauty in him to be desired Isa 53. 2. As the hungry Plowman must have something that hath cut in it you pine him with dainties so here these spiritual dainties that we partake of by feeding on Christ by faith living on God by hope looking up to heaven in prayer especially if joined with repentance for those things which a carnal heart rejoiceth in and reformation and mortification and denial of those lusts which all the comfort of his life is wrapt up in and if the Kingdom of God consist in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost these are as to Gallio but words and Acts 18. 15. names too thin notions for such cross gross apprehensions A heart that is sensual and carnal cannot skill of things that are so spiritual But are they therefore the less substantial was Christ's and shall our Bodies after their Resurrection be less real Bodies because more spiritual 1 Cor. 15. 44. Are Angels and our own Souls no real Beings because they cannot be seen with bodily eyes A substantive may be such if understood though not felt or heard Is there nothing to be had in Heaven because no bodily meat and drink sleep or such like pleasures that we here delight in God is most blessed without all these And our Saviour speaks of drinking of the fruit of the Vine new in his Father's Kingdom and he told Mat. 26. 29. his Disciples that he had meat which they knew not of John 4. 32. and he hath such even here for his that such strangers think not of Joh. 14. 27. Things maximae Entitatis are least comprehensible And therefore seeing there is no defect in Christ let us be the more sensible of and humbled for this woful sinful defect in our selves in thus wronging and undervaluing him whilest we thus prefer these empty vanities and fine nothings before him committing thâ—se two great evils which God is doubly and bitterly displeased with in forsaking the living fountain and sitting down Jer. 2. 13. by the broken Cistern grasping shadows and letting hold go of that substance which the Text here speaks of In which dangerous mistake let us sadly take notice 1. Of our original miscarriage which hath begotten this in its own image Our first slip in that great Fall began here Eve was Gen. 3. 6. taken with the seeming beauty of the forbidden fruit and with an imaginary conceit of becoming like God in the eating of it and so turning away from the God of Truth both she and we have been naturally pursuing vain shews and lying vanities ever since like the Prodigal in the Gospel who leaving his Father's house where was bread enough was brought to his empty husks and we that were created 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the image of God Gen. 1. 27. to have kept close with him in an uninterrupted union and communion are now the men that do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walk in a vain shew as the Psalmist speaks Psal 39. 6. and as the Prophet saith in the light of our own fire and the sparks which we have Isai 50. 11. kindled which like ignes fatui in these wild vagaries lead us into precipices end in darkness and so we lie down in sorrow Which leadeth to the second thing it should put us in mind of as of our first fall to be humbled for it so 2. Of our last irrecoverable ruine unless we take the better care to prevent it without which taken this pidling with these toyes and trifles will be a sad foregoing sign and means of it The sick man draweth fast on to death when he beginneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 floccos vellere to be picking and plucking the flocks of his covering and no surer way to drown the man that is fallen into the River than for him to lay fast hold on the weeds or such like trash that are at the bottom of it By catching at the shadow thou losest the substance and by building on the sand thou fallest short of the City which hath foundations This therefore being our great sin and the inlet of all our misery 1. Duty our contrary duty is seeing man thus walketh in a vain shew seriously and heartily with the Psalmist to say and pray And now Lord what wait I for my hope is in thee Psal 39. 6 7. my hope is in thee my desire is after thee thou art my choice and portion I have none in heaven but thee and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee My flesh and heart faileth as all Psal 73. 25 26. vain outside comforts will but thou art the strength the solid rock of my heart 〈◊〉 and my portion for ever Count Gold as dust and then God will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 silver of strength to thee See Grotius in locum Job 22. 24 25. And therefore to all poor deluded souls that are gulled and cheated with these shining shells these painted Sepulchres that Matth. 23. 27 28. seem to be what they are not but what they are as our Saviour said of them they appear not be that message sent which Elijah Luke 11. 44. did to Ahaziah Is it because there is no God in Israel that thou 2 Kings 1. 3 6. hast sent to Baalzebub the God of Ekron Is there not that in the true God which can really and substantially satisfy you that you betake your selves to Baalzebub such Gods of flies such vain nothings oh knock at the head of such empty vessels and hear how hollow they sound set down cyphers at the foot of the Account under all such Items Leave off to feed on wind and to fill Hos 12. 1. our bellies with the eastwind which will rather gripe and wring Job 15. 2. than feed and satisfy us and for any substantial real good to be had by them they are but Tanquams are but as if they were what they seem to be And therefore let our carriage to them be accordingly Rejoice in them as if we rejoiced not and use them so as though we used them not for else we shall abuse them 1 Cor. 7. 30 31. But on the contrary really and in good earnest betake we our selves to Jesus Christ that what others have in the shadow we may have in the substance as what Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream Dan. 2. Daniel saw in a vision Dan. 8. 1 2 3. And therefore as you may observe when other Countries traded with Tyrus in other commodities and many of them superfluities Ezek. 27. Judah and the land of Israels trade with them was in the staples commodities of Minnith and Pannag honey and oyl and balm in the substantial
in heaven may be of some good use but such in our brains will never light us thither Let therefore such Spanish Alumbradoes or English Illuminates please themselves Casaubon Enthusiasme p. 131. in such fantastical attainments On the contrary let it be the care of every one that would prove a substantial Christian by all good means to attain to a solid judgment of saving truth and not rest there neither but because Theologia is not scientia speculativa but practica and because in Scripture-use verba sensûs affectum effectum connotant words of knowledge and sense imply affection and Divinity is an art of living and not only of bare knowing as many of us as would be solid Divines and substantial Christians as the lamenting Churches eye affected her heart Lament 3. 54. so let our knowledge effectually press on to earnest affection and real action which leadeth on to the other two Heads before mentioned 2. And as concerning our hearts and affections two things also either fall short of or come cross to that substantialness which is to be expected from them whom Christ causeth to inherit substance 1. The first is a weak faint listlesness and deadness in the out-goings of our souls to Christ an heartless velleity a wishing and a woulding rather than any true and hearty willing Balaam's wishes Numb 23. 10. the sluggards desires half desires which in Gods account are Prov. 21. 25. none as Gods people when with a weaned remisness they close with the things of this world they rejoice as though they rejoiced not 1 Cor. 7. 30. So when our desires and affections to Christ do so freeze in our bosoms they come short of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Est in the Text they are and they are not When we say and profess that Christ is such solid food his flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meat indeed and we bring such flashy desires and such faint appetites to him what do we but make men believe that either he is not found food or at least that we have but sick stomachs He not substance or we not substantial Christians 2. But Secondly There is another distemper in this kind which wanteth not for strength but yet in substance The wind no solid substantial body yet may be very violent and impetuous such a flatulency there is in many mens spirits which makes a shew of a great deal of real zeal and strength of affection for God and Christ and yet is nothing but an empty swelling tympany an impetuous violence to prosecute our own desires opinions and wayes and to bear down whatsoever rather displeaseth us than what offendeth God Such was Jehu's zeal and 2 Kings 10. 16. Luke 13. 14. the Ruler of the Synagogue his indignation and the more to discover the unsubstantialness of it it 's usually not about the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the weightier things of the law and such as concern the substance and power of godliness but about circumstances and externals or other less and lighter matters as it was with the Pharisees about their Mint and Anise and Phylacteries and so now is with the Papists about their Ceremonies and Traditions and with many amongst us about some niceties in Church government and outward forms and other curious Punctilioes which are at a great distance from the heart and soul and substance of Religion Here we have heat enough and too much a feverish heat but not kindly and natural fire but such as proves wild-fire making a blaze in lighter straw but such as putteth all into a combustion Oh beware of such a dangerous mistake as to take the violence of an unmortified passion for the power and substance of saving grace And therefore if ever we would attain to solid and substantial evidence of it our contrary care and effectual indeavour must be 1. Contrary to that coolness and indifferency of our affections to Christ to rise up to more strong and earnest outgoings of our Souls after him such as the Scripture expresseth by hungrings and thirstings and longings breathings breakings pantings and faintings after God not a faintness of indifferency but a fainting upon our being spent in eagerest pursuits of what we cannot fully overtake that it cometh not to I am and I am not but as Christ named himself I am so with truth and reality I can eccho back Exod. 3. 14. again and say Lord I am I am really and in good earnest with strongest bâ—nt of my Soul I am for thee and so indeclinably and earnestly move towards thee that I shall not be quiet till I rest in thee I do not measure substance by quantity nor judge of truth of grace by the degree though some now will needs wholly place it in it There is the true essence and substance of a man in a weak Child and weak desires after Christ may be true and serious if this weakness be occasioned from other hinderances and not from an indifferency but still giving Christ the Soveraignty But yet such weakness should not be rested in but over-grown and more strong and earnest workings of the heart to be grown up to if we would have more real and substantial at least more sensible evidences of the life and power of godliness 2. Nor must we satisfie our selves with this There was strength enough and in some respects too much in that impetuous flatulency of some men's spirits which was the second miscarriage before noted But therefore contrary to it our care must be if we would have evidence of true solid substantial godliness that this strength of passion do not only bluster towards others but that it produceth real and substantial effects in our own hearts and that we find and feel it so doing for as they are wont to say that Tactus est fundamentum vitae sensitivae so real felt inward effects in the Soul are surest evidences of a true spiritual life also such as were before-mentioned in the doctrinal part of this point as substantial and real effects and operations of Christ in us are to this purpose to be really felt and expressed by us A serious and hearty making out after Christ indeed and in good earnest working that really in us which Nature cannot effect and hypocrisie but ill favouredly counterfeit which may evidence to others as least to our selves that God is in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a truth as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 14. 25. really changing our hearts and powerfully mortifying our lusts that we may be not as that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 2. 18. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free indeed as it is John 8. 36. substantially satisfying the vast desires of our Souls and thereby evidencing that Christ is to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only sawce as he is to Hypocrites and many Politicians but meat indeed And as substantially supporting and comforting us in greatest exercises and faintings either in life or death a
should here labour for an enlarged heart and when others enlarge theirs as Hell Hab. 2. 5. we should ours as the expansum of Heaven Christ and Heaven-ward The more we move towards the Earth the more we are straitned He that here promiseth to fill our Treasures would not have us spare his cost but bids us open our mouth wide Psal 81. 10. even widen and enlarge our hearts to their utmost extent and capacity that we may not only taste of his Goodness but take in as much of it as we can As the Prophet bad the Widow borrow Vessels and not a few 2 King 4. 4. and the water-pots were to be filled up to the brim when Christ was to work the miracle John 2. 7. Let the everlasting doors of our Souls be set wide open when it is this King of Glory who is to come in He that hath received most of Christ Psal 24. hath not enough and he who here thinks he hath received enough hath as yet received nothing Our largest draughts are but tasts and those tasts should but quicken the appetite Indeed our Saviour saith that he that drinks of the water that he will give him shall never thirst John 4. 14. But that is Not after other things but yet the more after more of himself not with a feverish hellish thirst as the rich man in those flames and as some Souls here in an hellish anguish but yet with an heavenly enlargement of desire after that which he finds so sweet and hath not yet enough of After fullest in-flows here our emptiness is not perfectly filled nor his fulness exhausted but after fullest communications the thirsty Soul saith Lord one drop one draught more and Christ as the Widow 2 King 4. 6. saith Bring me yet a Vessel and prove me if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out such a blessing that there shall not be room to receive it Mal. 3. 10. Let not the thirsty Earth cease gaping the thirsty Soul craving yet more and yet more till it be filled with all the fulness of God till that as it is in the Text he hath filled our Treasures Ephes 3. 19. 3. How fully should we rest satisfied with Christ alone Will he fill us And would we have any more Doth he fill our Treasures and that with himself and can we desire any thing better or more precious O Naphtali satisfied with favour and full with the Blessing of the Lord said Moses in his blessing of that Tribe Deut. 33. 23. and O blessed Soul say I though thou beest a Naphtali a Wrestler and in never so great conflict as that name signifieth how full may thy joy be How full of comfort if full John 16. 24. 1 John 1. 4. of Christ Though never so empty of other comforts nay though never so full of outward miseries though as it was with the Psalmist thy body be filled with loathsome Diseases Psal 38. 7. and thy soul exceedingly filled with the scorn and contempt of the proud Psal 123. 4. yet if thou beest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the old word was Plenus Deo Full of God and his Spirit if Christ do but fill thy treasures how shouldst thou rejoice in the Lord and joy in the Hab. 3. 17 18. God of thy salvation though there be no herd in the stall nor meal left in the empty barrel no nor oyl in the cruse yet what a feast of fat things full of marrow art thou entertain'd with Isa 25. 6. whilst thou feedest on Christ How doth thy Cup with David's run over when he fills it When God had said I have replenished every sorrowful soul Jer. 31. 25. the Prophet in v. 26. immediately adds Vpon this I awaked and behold my sleep was sweet to me If God please but to undertake from himself in Christ to fill up whatever our dish cup purse or heart wants of full should it be in the darkest night of all wants and miseries and we know not how dark ours may yet prove yet truly our sleep in them might be sweet and our Souls brim-full of comfort And therefore it is our duty as well for our own comfort as for the more full manifestation of his Glory to make up all our wants out of him our emptiness with his fulness Whilest led by sense and not supported by faith this is a very hard Lesson as it was for Moses to believe that Israel's whole Camp should be victualled and filled with flesh for a whole month in a Wilderness and for Philip Numb 11. 21 22. to conceive how so many thousands should be fed in a desert place with five barly loaves and two small fishes In such straits wants John 6. 5 7 8. desertions we cannot believe that Christ will that he can relieve and supply us But O fools and slow of heart to believe where is our faith Is it Christ the Wisdom and Power of God the Amen the faithful and true witness who here promises that he will fill our Treasures and can he not or will he not fulfil his word Though we wrong our selves let us not wrong Christ too If thou canst not believe that he can fill thee thou makest him an empty Saviour If not to fill thy treasure thou sayst he is but a poor Christ If not a friend in the want of a friend and habitation when thou art thrust out of Doors if not all in the want of all thou indeed makest him nothing and he will be nothing Gal. 5. 4. at least not what he truly is and what he here truly promiseth thee and that is to fill thy treasures 4. This might call upon us to follow God fully Numb 14. 24. and to stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God Col. 4. 12. Numb 32. 11. 1 King 11. 6. that our duty and his mercy may hold some proportion 5. But I end all with that which the Text affords And in it we find that all this of Christ's making us to inherit substance and to fill our treasures is promised only to them that love him The love of Christ As it is the condition of the thing promised or rather of the persons to whom it is promised so it is and should be the effect of it when enjoyed For if Christ do all this for us then to love him for it is a very easie demand I am sure but a very poor requital The things promised fall nothing short of perfect happiness Perfecta beatitudo Cartwr They were solid substantial reality an everlasting perpetuity and over-flowing fulness and plenty And what is Heaven more Did they all meet in any earthly commodity that it were a solid staple commodity and such as would last and were there enough of it we should not wish more it would not want high prizers and many buyers Christ we have heard is all this And therefore methinks it would be very hard if he may
17. 1 Pet. 2. 2. 2. Nor is it to strike down such poor Christians as are already sinking by reason of inward faintness I acknowledge that in the new-born babe through weakness of nature this pulse may be weak and in the grown Christian through accidental corruptions and temptations there may be obstructions and interruptions but then the man is the more sick for it and nature thus oppressed if it be Divine struggles and groans the more under it when the man of God cannot do the good that he would he cryeth out of himself as a wretched miserable man for it Rom. 7. 18 24. though the root of the matter be in him as it was in Job yet sometimes it may be under-ground and as seed sown under a great weight of earth that keeps it under but it works and works and at last peeps out and then sprouts and springs apace such an inward principle there is in nature and such also in the soul that is made partaker of the divine nature in its outgoings to that which grace hath made connatural to it 2. Hence in the second place from this inward principle natural motion of it self is ready and free not forced or violent With what inward freedom doth my heart go out to him whom I naturally love and with what a free source doth the fountain cast out or as the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the active form signifieth empty her waters that naturally flow from it And A free spirit Psa 51. 12. how willing a people are God's in the day of his power Psal 110. 3. and our Saviour sheweth that as free a current floweth from this fountain of life when in the place before quoted he John 4. 14. saith that his Spirit and Grace shall be as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a well of water so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aquae salientis of water springing freely fully spouting yea leaping up to everlasting life No need of pumping and pulling How naturally doth such a Soul fall into thoughts of God and desires after him O! never more free than when it can run in this Channel most freely Or if at any time as too often it is this current be hindred or dammed up what a complaining murmur may you hear though without murmuring against God and how may you see it though not rising and swelling in discontent and pride yet running over in tears of true repentance And therefore for trial know that a constant As Hos 11. 7. bent to backsliding from God and total averseness from God and the things of God speaks plainly either a Devilish temper or at best corrupt nature And although as in some cases in a mans body there may be listlesness where there is life so an auk backwardness may and often doth consist with the Divine Nature yet it 's but as life in such a weak sick body in which nature is oppressed Grace is but weak or weakned the man of God in such a case stands in great need of cure and relief that his Soul may freely breath and go out to God as Davids did naturally to his Son Absalom 2 Sam. 13. 39. 3. As natural actions and motions are free so thereupon they are not irksome and grievous but pleasing and delightful How merrily doth the wheel run down the Hill from its natural propension And with what delight doth the Scholar plod even on those harder studies to which he is naturally affected The generous Wine with a kind of jollity and tripudium mantles and sparkles upward when in Solomon's phrase it moves it self Pro. 23. 31. Psal 19. 5. Psal 119. 32. aright and the Sun in its natural course rejoiceth as a mighty man to run his race but not so much as the man of God when his heart is enlarged to run the ways of Gods Commandments The generous spiritual Christian never thinks he mounts so right or with more delight than when he sparkleth and moveth upward How merrily doth this sweet Bird sing when it moves upward and soars aloft in Divine Meditations Prayers praises and such like more pleasing uninterrupted outgoings of the Soul to God! yea what melody in the heart doth it make both to God and it self in its sweet sad notes whilest it is tugging in the snare below 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have a complacency and take pleasure in infirmities reproaches persecutions distresses for Christs sake saith Paul 2 Cor. 12. 10. it's the same word that God the Father said of his Son when he said he was well pleased in him Matth. 3. 17. as though with the like natural complacency that the Father embraced Christ the same doth his servant from the instinct of this Divine nature welcom even heaviest sufferings for Christ With what delight doth this Scholar in Christs School who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read these hard Chapters with which he is so naturally taken for all delight and pleasure ariseth from the sutableness of the faculty and the object and therefore where a law of commands without doth so naturally suit with a law of love within us how doth it hug and embrace Then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I consent and approve for my judgment Rom. 7. 16. and for my affections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 22. I delight in the law of the Lord after the inward man and when it is so within the heart then I delight to do thy will O my God Psal 40. 8. then it 's meat and drink to do the will of God Matth. 11. 30. 1 John 5. 3. John 4. 34. the yoke is easie and the burden light and no command grievous no task but a recreation no distastful Medicine but pleasing food which the palate relisheth and the stomach naturally closeth with I confess the Child is weak and may not be so well able for the time to digest so strong meat and the man of God may be sick and then it may not go down with so much delight Weakness or distemper may sometimes weaken and hinder this actual complacential rejoicing as sickness or a cut finger may take off the Musician from actual playing on his instrument wherein yet he habitually much delighteth but then that sickness maketh him more sick to think of it Where there is habitual delight such actual indisposition causeth actual and hearty grief for it and so this grief for the presence of the contrary impediment proclaims aloud what love he bears and what delight he hath in that from which he is hindred And this sufficiently enough distinguisheth in this Case the true Divine Nature from a counterfeit form of Godliness the one saith with them Mal. 1. 13. Behold what a weariness is it But the other cryeth out oh how weary am I A genuine Child of God crieth out of himself and his own uncomfortable weariness in that which he so naturally loveth and delighteth in bewails his being so weakned and hindred as the
upon it i. e. It shall have as many Senses as they Fancies and Fetches and so justifie Pighius his Blasphemy who called it a Nose of Wax which they may draw out or put together and alter and change as they think good I abhor and so I know do you all these Blasphemies God's Word is not so Broad But yet I thus far yield that it 's a safe way of interpreting Scripture to take it in as broad and large a Sense as all things considered it will bear And if I do so in expounding this place it self will bear me out in it for it saith that God's Commandment is exceeding broad Exceeding broad therefore because every way broad reaching to all Persons in its Commands awing the greatest Kings and in it's Promises comforting the poorest Begger Reaching all Conditions Prosperity v. 14 72. Adversity v. 54. Alâ— Sexes Times Places all parts of body faculties of Soul Actions of both and Circumstances of those Actions I cannot exemplifie them all If you will go no further than this Psalm and but mark what 's said of it in the several Verses you shall find more than I say It 's Life v. 93. Comfort of Life v. 50. End of Life v 17. the Way v. 35. Rule v. 30. Counseller v. 24. a chief Gift v. 29 Better than thousands of Gold and Silver v. 72. It 's our Love v. 47 48. Joy v. 14. Delight v. 16. Choise v. 30. Desire v. 20 40. Hope v. 43. Trust v. 42. Fear v. 120 161. that which he longs for v. 40 82. seeks after v. 45 94. cleaves to v. 31. It 's his All. And if it be all this and much more then sure it 's Exceeding broad But I cannot insist upon all these particulars Only for more distinct Consideration of it we must remember that God's Word is here compared with all other Perfections and its Breadth with their End Now therefore as we heard before of all other best Perfections there was a double End of them Of Length they lasted not alwayes And of Breadth they reached not to all our Occasions and Wants So now on the contrary there is an exceeding Breadth of Gods Word I. Because it reacheth to all Times II. And to all our Wants in them as able to be a Direction and to make a Supply in all 1. For the first Therefore it is exceeding broad because reaching to all Times The place parellel to the Text fully proves it Isa 40. 6 8. All flesh is Grass and all the goodliness of it as the Flower of the Field The Grass withereth and the Flower fadeth But the Word of our God shall stand for ever For ever that 's long but to stand or to be established for ever as the word signifieth is much more and yet no more than is true of every Word of God whether a Command I pray you mark that Expression Heb. 4. 11 12. Let us labour to enter into that rest For the Word of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quick and powerful or as the words are living and active It may be you 'l ask What 's the strength of the Apostle's Reason Strive to enter into this rest for the Word of God is quick c. 〈◊〉 It s from this Ground we are now upon He had before spoken of an Exhortation of David's Psal 95. Of striving to enter into rest which Exhortation the Apostle urgeth upon them in his time Nondum inquit mortua est vâ—x illa Dei vocantis nos Hodie c. Pareus in locum to whom he wrote But now it might be some would say But why trouble you us with a command of David so long time since spoken to the Men of his Generation and now by this time out of Date and antiquated Which kind of Objection the Apostle takes away as though he should say Nay but do not think that David's word is dead with him For it was not his word but God's and therefore as God never dies nor grows old no more doth his Word But it 's quick or living still It 's not dead no nor grown old and weak but it 's as active and powerful as ever And therefore as much concerns you now as it did them to whom David in Person spake it And so we see in this respect God's Commandment is exceeding broad reacheth from David's time to Paul's And so are hiâ— Threats One reached from Doeg to Judas compare Psal 109. 8. with Acts 1. 20. Yea one reached from Enoch the 7th from Adam to the Day of Judgment Jude ver 14 15. And so are all his Promises which David as I said in the Text principally intends In the first Verse of this Ogdoad he saith For ever O Lord thy Word is settled in Heaven A Word of a Promise is in Heaven and settled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there and that for ever a most strong and full Expression that whereas if a Man look to these outward Contentments there 's nothing settled or if settled yet it 's but poorly not for ever according to that as strong Expression Psal 39. 5. Verily every Man at his best estate is altogether vanity or as the Hebrew is all Men are all vanity even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same word in both places when most settled and established yet he continues not so long But when full of Riches and happy in Children and so in a seeming settledness yet it 's soon shaken Nay further whereas if a Man should look at God's Word and Promise as it is in our unsettled hearts we are ready to think that it 's as ready to waver as our Hearts are as the shadow of the Sun or Moon in the Water seems to shake as much as the Water doth which it shines in Yet for all this seeming shaking here below the Sun and Moon go on in a stedfast Course in Heaven So the Psalmist tells us that however our Hearts stagger at a Promise through unbelief nay and our Unbelief makes us believe that the Promise often is shaken withal and when we are at our Wits-end we are ready to think that God's Promise comes to an end too as Psal 77. 8. Yet God's Word is settled though not in our Hearts yet in Heaven yea and there for ever as settled as Heaven it self is yea more than so for Heaven and Earth may pass but not one jot or tittle of the Law and therefore of the Gospel shall fail Luke 16. 17. And thus we see that God's Commandment and Promise in this respect is Exceeding broad reaching to all Times Was a word of Command the Guide of thy youth I assure thee it will be as good a Staff of thine age And I assure you a good Promise is a good Nurse both to the young Babe and decrepit old Man Your Apothecaries best Cordials in time will lose their Spirits and sometimes the stronger they are the sooner But hath a Promise cheared thee say twenty thirty forty years ago
Taste it but now afresh and thou shalt find it as fresh and give thee as much Refreshment as ever If it hath been thy greatest Joy in thy joyful Youth I tell thee it hath as much Joy in it for thy sad Old-age That may be said of God's Word which the Prophet saith of God himself Isa 46. 4. And even to Old-age I am he and even to hoare hairs I will carry you Doth not the Psalmist say as much in the 160. Verse of this Psalm Thy Word is true from the Beginning It 's well it begins well But will it last as well Yes He adds And every one of thy righteous Judgments endureth for ever Answerable to which is that other Expression ver 152. Concerning thy Testimonies I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever For ever and founded for ever O sweet Expression O grounded Comfort Brethren get acquainted with God's Word and Promise as soon as you can and maintain that Acquaintance everlastingly and your knowledg of it shall not either go before or go beyond its Truth Know it as soon and as long as you will or can and you shall never find it tripping or failing But you may after long Experience of God and it say I have known of old that thou hast founded it for ever And so I have done with the First Breadth of God's Word reaching to all Times II. There is a Second answerable to it for God's Word and the New Jerusalem Rev. 21. 16. in this are like Both the Length and Breadth of them are equal God's Word and Promise as it reacheth to all Times that 's the first Breadth so also to all Occasions and Wants That 's the Second Just like the Israelites There I shall have full peace to entertain my self a plentiful store of Ingredients to every Malady to quiet every doubt c. as Dr. Hammond paraphraseth the Text. Garments in the Wilderness which waxed not Old for Forâ—â— years There 's Length and Continuance But withal 〈◊〉 they must grow too as their Children did or else they would not serve their turn So truly here a gracious Promise will be better than a good Garment that will keep a poor Soul warm at heart Forty years together and much longer than so And which is the best of all we cannot out-grow it It will serve to lap the tender Babe in and yet not leave the tallest Christian in any place bare if he will but wear it This is the Second Breadth It will reach to all Needs and Wants which may be further considered in two Particulars 1. Some Word and Promise of God or other is able to reach to all our outward Wants and Evils which no one outward Contentment can do Health only cures Sickness but as many a Man is healthful and poor together it reacheth not to cure his Poverty And Riches take away Poverty but cannot sometimes buy Health Honour persumes a Man and keeps him from stinking in Man's nostrils but many a Man that is well esteemed of may be poor enough One Contentment helps usually but one Want and one Plaister useth not to cover many Sores and truly for outward Matters scarce any Man hath a Plaster for every Sore Say those of you that have most in this kind Have you so much as you want nothing Now truly herein especially is seen the Exceeding breadth of God's Word and Promises Had we but so much Skill as to go to every Box of precious Oyntment in this Myrotheke we might find certainly a Salve for every outward Sore And had we but so much Faith but as to apply it we should find it sovereign too Here 's a Promise that might heal that Wound which a slanderous Tongue hath given me there another which might be my best Cordial on my Sick-bed in another the poor Hunger-starved Body might these hard Times meet with a good Meals-meat yea I assure you and Dainties too I name not more particulars nor have I time to exemplifie any But in general consider only the 92. ver of this Psalm and think whether it speak not one word for all Vnless thy Law had been my delights I had perished in mine Affliction Affliction is a large word and may contain under it many particular Evils Now where 's his Cure for all Truly he hath one Catholicon one Receipt for all Thy Law in the singular number But what of it What can Delectationes in plurali significans nullum esse genus doloris cui non inveniatur in verbo Dei remedium Mollerus one Law do to so many Evils He tells you it's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We read it Vnless it had been my delight But the word in the Original is wonderfully significant in a double respect it s both 1. In numero plurali 2. Forma duplicata In plural number Delights and they doubled too Is my Affliction sickness In God's Word had I but Faith I might get Health and Health again Is it Nakedness I might get Clothes yea and double Clothing And so of the rest Brethren did we but walk so in Obedience to the Word that we were fit for Mercies and then had but Faith to rely upon the Promise for them in this one Bible we might find many Delights and them doubled too Health and Health by the Word is double Health Food and Food with and from a Promise is double Food both first and second Course too So God's Word reacheth to all Wants of the outward Man and in that respect is exceeding broad 2. But secondly It can reach to cover all the Nakedness and heal all the Wounds of the inward Man and if so then sure it is exceeding exceeding broad In this respect though a Man were so outwardly happy that he were clothed and harnessed Cap-a-pe as you say from top to toe in regard of outward Man yet for all this as the Prophet speaks in a like Case Isa 28. 20. This Covering may be narrower than that a Man can wrap himself in it Though harnessed from top to toe in this kind yet truly this is not Armour of Proof Brethren a Man may have a poor naked Soul under all our warm and gay Clothes and truly the Arrow of God's Wrath can wound the Soul through all such Clothes and Armour O Blessed then be God who hath given us his Word which as it can clothe the Body so it can Cover the Soul too that cannot only keep off many a heavy Stroke from the outward Man but can keep the Conscience from many a deadly Wound yea and can heal those which we had got when carelesly we had not it about us I Brethren herein is seen the infinite Breadth of God's Word that one Promise of it can quiet and heal and refresh a weary wounded Conscience which no finite Creature not all the Creatures joyned together can Well are those two joyned together The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul You read
it Converting in the Text and in the Margent Restoring But the same Phrase in the Original is used Lam. 1. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it 's taken for Comforting and Refreshing The Comforter that should relieve or refresh or bring back my Soul is far from me If you please you may take it in all those senses The Law of the Lord is perfect converting and so restoring and so refreshing the Soul Yea this is a perfect Law indeed that can thus convert and refresh the Soul It 's a Metaphor taken from one in a Swoon to whom you give Hot-waters to recover them and so that same Phrase is taken Lam. 1. 11. which you may compare with Lam. 2. 11 12. The poor famished Infants for Famine swoon in the streets and pour out their Souls in their Mothers bosom Propotionable to which Lam. 1. 11. it 's said they gave their pleasant things to relieve or as the word is to bring back the Soul which the other place said was gone and poured out Just so is it sometimes with a poor hunger-starved Christian for his Soul he Faints and Swoons and you would think he would never be recovered more and all his other desirable pleasant things though he should give them all with them Lam. 1. 11. will not recover him and bring his Soul back again Oh! but God's Commandment is exceeding broad his Law is perfect indeed when its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when with some Promise or other it can fetch again and refresh a fainting Soul better than all your Hot-waters a swooning Body In this respect I cannot but again say The Law of the Lord is indeed perfect when it can thus convert and bring back and refresh the wearied Soul In this more than any thing God's Commandment appears to be exceeding broad I have done with the Opening and Proof of the Point in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it For the Reason of it God's Commandment in the former Considerations and Respects Reas must needs be thus exceeding broad 1. Because it's God's Commandment If thy Commandment then exceeding broad So you have the Reason of it in the very Text Were it a Man's Commandment it would fail in both these Breadths Your best Parliament-Statutes reach not to all Times many antiquated repealed and now out of use And whilst in force yet they reach not to all Inconveniencies and so fall short of the other Breadth also And this from Man's weakness who cannot see all present Inconveniencies much less fore-see all that may afterward happen Well but God is Perfect Mat. 5. 48. and so his Work perfect Deut. 32. 4. and so his Word and Law perfect Psal 19. 7. His both Works and Word have a Tincture of himself He an Incomprehensible God Job 11. 7 8 9. Canst thou by searching find out God Canst thou find out the Almighty unto Perfection The measure thereof is longer than the Earth broader than the Sea He without all Dimensions and a proportionable or infinitly improportionable shall I say Latitude he hath made in his Creature Hast thou perceived the breadth of the Earth Declare if thou knowest it all Job 38. 18. And here for his Word David knows not how broad but he puts the greatest word he can to it saith in the Superlative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exceeding yea Exceeding exceeding broad broader than either Earth or Sea than any Creature because it is an Expression of God himself and sometimes called God as some have observed and so Infinite God an Eternal God that fore-sees what will be in all Times and therefore his Word shall reach to all Seasons And God an All-sufficient God and therefore his Word shall reach to all Needs and Wants and therefore his Commandment in both respects exceeding broad 2. As the former Reason was taken from the Author of the Word so this from the End of it expressed ◠Tim. 3. 16. All Scripture is given by Inspiration and is profitable for Doctrine c. That the Man of God may be Perfect and throughly furnished to every good Work I conceive that Man of God is especially to he meant of the Minister of God whom the Word of God fully furnisheth for his Work But if it be able so to furnish him then also other Men because they are furnished from him Well then this is the End of God's Word perfectly to furnish and supply us all in our righteous and chearful Walking But were it not now thus exceeding broad in the former Particulars this End would not be attained Did not a Promise reach to all Times It might be that I might out-live a Promise and so it fail me at the last in some needful time of trouble when I stand most in need of it Should it sustain me all my Life-time and but fail me at my Death my comfort might die with my Life and so I should be but poorly furnished when I fail in the end of my Journey Or again Did it cover my outward Man and leave my inward Man bare I should be but poorly clothed And though it provided well for my Soul but took no provision for my outward Man I should not think my self throughly furnished Did it not reach to all my Needs and Wants though it should leave but one place bare I might be as mortally wounded in it as in twenty Should it arm me against Covetousness and I be struck with the envenomed arrow of Pride Should it fence me from Luke-warmness and I yet be enflamed with Anger and Frowardness or the like One wound if Deadly may speed me If it should help me in many respects and not supply me in all I should not be so throughly furnished as the Apostle there saith the Word is able to do for me And therefore that it might attain its end it is in the second place that in both respects Gods Commandment is exceeding Broad Is it so exceeding broad that it reacheth to all Times then sure Vse 1 the Moral Law is not as yet abrogated Which though it be not wholly meant yet is a special part of this Commandment But against their Error which hold the contrary I have already spoken upon another Occasion and therefore now forbear Is it again so exceeding broad that it reacheth to all times then Vse 2 Papists likewise may be hence confuted which enlarge our abilities unto Works of supererrogation as though we could exceed this Commandment which is so exceeding broad And on the other side they cut short and straiten the Law in making some sins no sins or venial and some sins meritorious performances Of Hell we grant but of nothing else But here also I forbear Is it so exceeding broad let it therefore call upon us to study it Vse 3 and search into it the more Were I now to speak to Students as I do to some I would and do tell them that had they Solomon's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 largeness or broadness of heart as the
word signifies 1 Kings 4. 29. Had they large broad hearts even as the sand on the Sea-shore as it 's there said so large and broad as must needs expatiate into humane and divine Writers of either more late or ancient standing whose vast apprehensions and readings cannot be terminated in the large Volumns of Divinity Physick Law-studies or the like would they but hear me I should now shew them a Field broad and large enough in which they might expatiate En latifundium A Sea broad and deep enough in which even such Leviathans may swim it 's no other than this Word of God which the Text saith is so exceeding Broad I confess it would cut off a great deal of that Babel's superfluous Learning but this you should be sure of you should in this Field meet with no poysoned Fountains as you do in theirs The thing therefore I exhort all especially such as are or may be Students is that of Paul to Timothy 1 Tim. 4. 13. To give You that are Librorum helluones here 's one to be eaten by you as John did the Roll. attendance to Reading even diligently and faithfully to read and study the Scriptures a thing which Men of great note in the Church thought not too mean for them They tell us of Basil and Nazianzen that thirteen years together laying aside all other Studies they set themselves to study the Scriptures and Luther makes it one of the things which he would require of a Minister often to turn over the Bible These belike looked at this 1. Biblia saepe volvere 2. Serio orare 3. Semper esse aâ—scipulum broad Commandment as new Planters would at a huge broad Continent which would require a great deal of both time and pains fully to discover it I assure you Gods Word will An Argument this is which I should think necessary to enlarge my self in were I in another place where other Books and it may be bad ones too are more read and studied than the Scripture I read of Carolostadius that he was nine years a Doctor before he had read the Scripture I my self have been present Anama in Antibarb when one answering his Act for the Degree next to a Doctor could not find the Epistle to the Colossians and was fain to excuse the matter by saying it was not in his Book And knew of another that had been seven years almost in the University and had not had all that while a Bible in his study but he afterward turned Papist as indeed it well agrees with Popery in which by their good wills Scripture should be laid aside and their Schoolmen and Decretals only studied A Popish frame it is to which I wish we even in this particular were not too much warping Papists care not for Scripture and Familists make Scripture-Learned as a term of Reproach But the Jews some tell us dividing their time into three parts would spend Drusius one of them in reading And another saith that they scarce read any other Book than the Scripture I would not straiten Christians so in either kind but truly I should desire you all to Sands inlarge your selves in reading and studying this Commandment which is so exceeding Broad Sure in this broad Field you should find something worth getting Oh then with other Books Debt-Books and Law-Books and Physick-Books and other good Books you are reading let God's Book be one especially Be reading here and gathering there here this word of Direction and there that promise for Comfort And if only one Promise as I have shewed may be of so great and manifold use what encouragement have we to gather when there are so many If that Field be worth going to in which I may get but one ear of Corn to satisfie the hunger of my Soul Oh then it is very good gleaning in a Boaz Field where we may glean even among the Sheaves and have whole handfuls let fall for us Ruth 2 15 16. I mean in the Word of God where we may not only pick by Corns but gather by Handfuls even get Bundles of Promises to lay up against an harder Time and therefore as poor Folks you know will let us glean and gather hard especially seeing God hinders us not to glean among the Sheaves As God said to Abraham in regard of Canaan his Inheritance Gen. 13. 17. Go walk up and down in the length and breadth of it So we that are Heirs of the Promises let us walk up and down in the breadth of this goodly Inheritance of ours of this exceeding broad Commandment As it is Rich so let it dwell in us richly Is the Commandment exceeding broad then search into it as for Vse 4 Knowledg so for Practice I beseech you let us make room for it in our Hearts for it comes with a breadth In this broad Commandment much to be done and more to Motive 1 be avoided In it many particular Graces and Duties c. to be looked to And as our Saviour in a like case said Mat. 10. 23. so truly we shall not have gone over all this broad Field till the Son of Man be come It 's broad and therefore not straitned the way is narrow at first Motive 2 entrance but the Commandment is broad when once entred that you may with enlarged Hearts walk in it It was a complaint which our Saviour took up against the Jews John 8. 37. that his Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did not take place or as the word is could not find room there Oh Brethren we have even strait hearts God knows for this broad Commandment But oh that we were enlarged Are we straitned Sure it is not the Word's fault It would enlarge us did we but receive it as Paul saith in another case 2 Cor. 6. 12. We are straitned in our own Bowels in our own Hearts The more the pity and the more our loss that so much precious Liquour runs beside And let me add that also and I pray you therefore take heed and remember what hath been said that as the Command and Promise is broad lasting to all Times and as Chrysostom expounds it bringing the Obedient to eternal Life so the Threat can reach as far to bring thee to endless Wo if thou beest disobedient The Promise broad reaching to and supplying of all our Wants And the Curse can be as broad too to cross thee in all thy Contentments to wound thee both in Body and Soul in every Joynt of the one and Faculty of the other See Zech. 5. 2 3. The flying roll of the Curse was twenty Cubits long and ten Cubits broad Truly God's Threat and Curse is as broad as all the miseries of this Life nay as broad as Hell And therefore get not a broad Conscience but a broad enlarged Heart in love and obedience to entertain this exceeding broad Commandment Else as the Lawyers term extream Carelesness it will be Lata negligentia But in the
keep house in time of peace nor hold out siege in time of war of which the poorest that have least will have a little and all some useful to all and so prized by all that the spilling of it with some is superstitiously ominous and Homer can give it no less than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divine for its Epithet they using as Plutarch observes to honour such things as were of general and necessary Sympos l. 5. c. 10. use with the title of Divinity Divines we are by our calling and if we be but our selves the salt of the earth as necessary as they that are called the shields of it sine quo saith Austin of our Ministry non possunt homines vel fieri vel vivere Christiani without Psal 47. 9. Epist 180. which we can as little be or live Christians as Pliny said without salt we can live men so that take it away and you take salt off o' th' board and bread out of the house and horsinan and 2 Kings 2. 12. chariot out of the camp even the Sun and light out of heaven and what then but fames faetor unsavouriness and famine and darkness and confusion would be left behind Let not therefore our people grudge us our double Honour 1 Tim. 5. 17. by whom they have such a multiplied and universal Vse blessing Of Repute and Respect Let not us be to your as unsavoury unless you love your own unsavouriness Ministers that are salt of the earth should not be as sale empta mancipia like refuse stâ—ff as they are usually esteemed by the insipid earth-woâ—m qui centum mystas â—urto centusse licetur To spill this salt let it ever be ominous â—ecause it â—ill never be superstitious Of Maintenance if we season you it s but right that you â—eed Salaria dicta quae Ancus Martius 6000 modia sâ—lâ—â— in congiariâ— dâ—dit Pâ—â—n ubi prius us If Salary as Pliny sheweth hath its name from salt then here espâ—cially by all right its due to it From the poor who of this seasoning may have as great a share as the rich And from the rich whose greatest dainties without this salt will be but like Job's white of an egg cap. 6. 6. and greatest estates and honours but like Jericho's tall palm-trees which grow upon barren earth and by bad waters as long as Elisha's salt is not cast into them 2 King 2. 19 c. whatever your fare is it will never make good chear fat bodies but leaness will be sent into the Psal 106. 15. soul as long as there 's neither bread nor salt on the board nor word to bless it and no Minister to say grace to it But it may be we should in both these respects have more of our Vse own if we were more our selves and that is the salt of the earth Not Freshmen from the University which of late have grown barren as Naturalists tell us the earth where salt pits are usually is Omnis locuâ— in quo sal reperitur sterilis est nihilque gignit Plin. Such young Physicians instead of a Church have need of a new Church-yard Plin. lib. 31. cap. 7. Nor Mechanicks from the Loom or Last insipid insulse animals quibus anima est pro sale ut suibus whose souls are only as salt to keep their bodies from stinking whilst they can season neither themselves nor others with either wisdom or grace and yet of these we have too great a sprinkling like Varro's salt which he saith in some parts upon the Rhine in his time the country people made ex lignorum quorundam combustis carbonibus And so here carbo quoque in salem vertitur It were well if Colliers prove not Salters As clothes that are so spotted and spoiled as that they will not take any other colour are usually dyed black which hides the spots but burns the cloth so too often in the Church when men are so blemished in body mind carriage as that they are fit for no other employment they are by their parents or friends or themselves dyed black for such-coloured salt Theoprastus speaks of but it is unsavoury as such are whilst they stain the cloth and defile the Priesthood But I would be salt not to fret but to season rather 2. And therefore I pass on from our Dignity which such dishonour to our Duty which I desire we may all make conscience of which this comparison of the salt also puts us in mind of and that in two particulars 1. What we are to be in our selves 2. And what to others And in both as we go along we shall note the contrary unsavouriness when the salt hath lost its savour which is the second part of the Text that when we come to it we may the less insist on it 1. And first what we are to be in our selves if salt to others then it s presupposed we must be seasoned and savoury our selves Have salt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in your selves saith our Saviour Mark 9. 50. have it and keep it for the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifieth both and this in your selves as ever you would season others for nil dat quod non habet There must be Oyl in the Vessel or else it will not shine long in the Lamp Mat. 25. 4. There must be waters in our own Cisterns yea living running waters in our own Well if we would have them run over so as that our Fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of waters in the streets Prov. 5. 15 16. Ezra that ready Scribe herein writes us a perfect copy who prepared his heart first to seek the Law of the Lord and then secondly to do it and then thirdly to teach it Cap. 7. 10. This this is rectissima methodus concionandi the right method of Preaching with the Priests in the Law to have a Sea in which they first wash themselves as well as Lavers in which afterward they wash the sacrifices which we should labour to offer up as an holy and sweet smelling savour to God in Christ Rom. 15. 16. washed in the Laver but then we our selves first should be washed in the Sea of Christ's bloud salted with salt Mark 9. 49. And therefore we had need have the salt of wisdom and grace of integrity and incorruption in our selves be our selves savoury if ever we would season them And therefore on the contrary as our Saviour in that place elegantly expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Salt is unsalted The Minister is not himself if become either insipid or insulse Insipid having no savour of grace his spirit in regard of any spiritual life dry arid But is there any taste in such a white of an Egg Especially if withall insulse and of an unsavoury spirit qui crapulam olet that smells strong of vomit and drunkenness and uncleanness as some did of old Isai 28. 8. and such filth is not swept wholly out of the house of
Water lib. 31. cap. 7. So such a temper a Scribe rightly instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven should aim at that his word may be not more like Salt to pierce and bite a corrupt Sore than like Oyl to sink into and supple a wounded Conscience Or to keep to the comparison of the Text not more like Salt for smarting than for healing and binding up bleeding Wounds What unmeasurable abundance of this suppling Oyl was poured upon our Saviour in his Ministry to bind up broken hearts Isa 61. 1. Which like that good Samaritan he poured into our deadly Wounds Luke 10. 34. And how would he have Salt and Peace joyned in his Disciples Ministrations together Mark 9. 50. which some froward ones would ever keep asunder How did Peter ply those with Lenients whose hearts he had pricked Acts 2. 37. with 38. 39. And how shall you observe with Austin Paul in his Epistles In Psal 101. 6 7. joyning Paternam authoritatem maternum affectum to a Father's authority over stubborn wantons the tenderest bowels of a Mothers pity Thus when we have this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 healing Tongue Prov. 15. 4. We are indeed as God's Mouth Jer. 15. 19. This this is to be right Salt indeed not more to prick with a sense of sin than to refresh and heal with application of mercy as Pliny saith of Sal Terentinus that Physicians most esteemed of it of which he withal saith that it was Suavissimus omnium atque candidissimus of all the whitest and sweetest Oh how truly medicinal is this Oxymel this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this candor and sweetness in this Ministerial Salt far hereby exceeding the best of all the natural For Ille carnem ligat hic conscientiam That heals the wounds of the Flesh this binds up the bleeding wounds of the Soul And therefore here again the Salt hath lost his savour when the Minister in his Dispensations is 1. Pitilesly careless Le ts the poor man bleed to death whilst with the Priest and Levite he passeth by on the other side Luke 10. 31 32. or with the chief Priests and Elders puts off a deadly wounded Judas with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is that to us Look thou to it Mat. 27. 4. Sure if we will not for certain God will look to it one day and mean while he is Pastour stultus a foolish Shepheard that heals not the broken Zech. 11. 15 16. And it 's Sal infatuatus unsavoury Salt that takes no more care of binding up broken hearts 2. Passionately froward and furious when the Spirit is sowre and all Vineger Only galling and fretting Sermons Satyrs and Invectives at all times but if offended Thunder-claps With those Sons of Thunder will fetch Fire from Heaven at every affront Luke 9. 54. our Saviour tells such that they knew not what spirit they were of ver 55. Not Elias's as they pretended much less of the Spirit of the Gospel which came down in the form of a gall-less Dove and would have those Ministers on whom it sits instruct with meekness even Gain-sayers 2 Tim. 2. 25. The wrath of Man here never working the Righteousness of God James 1. 20. Ever inflaming the Wound rather than healing it and so sprinkling on it not Salt but Poyson 3. Especially if he fret and gall sound Flesh most As the guise of some is to inveigh against the soundest Hearts bitterliest Making the hearts of the Righteous sad whom God would not have grieved Ezek. 13. 22. This is Carnificinam non Medicinam exercere That which thus frets the whole skin I must again say is not Salt but Poyson 3. Salt that it may thus heal cleanseth being of an abstersive nature Mordet quidem sal sed purgat saith Brentius and so keeps from putrefaction partly by its heat and driness and acrimony attenuating and spending superfluous Humours and Spanhemius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Pliny saith cures Dropsies and partly by consolidating the flesh that it lie not open to corrupting Air Therefore the new-born Infant used to be salted Ezek. 16. 4. And Jericho's corrupt Waters by casting in of Salt though miraculously yet so as in a natural way as Vallesius * Sacra Philosoph c. 34. sheweth were healed 2 Kings 2. 20 21. And so it is with our Salt also No savoury Ministry ever either wounds in the Doctrine of Humiliation or healeth in the Doctrine of Justification and Adoption but cleanseth too in the Doctrine of Mortification wounds and cleanses with the Threat of the Law whilst he tells us if we live after the flesh we shall die Rom. 8. 13. And withal healeth and purgeth by the sweet Promises of the Gospel whilst he makes this inference that if we have such Promises of being Sons and Daughters of the Lord Almighty we should cleanse our selves from all filthiness 2 Cor. 6. 18. with Chap. 7. 1. as not being fitting that those which must sit on the Throne should be grovelling on the Dung-hill Thus it eats out the very Core of the Plague-sore the inwardest lust of the heart the original spawn and fomes and first taint of Nature will have the Spirit savoury words seasoned with salt Coll. 4. 6. cuts off the unclean foreskin both of heart and lip In this sense like salt and that with a blessing makes the earth barren Sale sapientiae compescit in terra humanae carnis luxum seculi aut faeditatem vitiorum germinare Bede Ministerium ex faetidis sapidos reddit Cartw. Vt vel scelera caveat vel exedat Zuingl Though Chrysostom seems to deny this in locum but his meaning is that their sprinkling of this salt would not do it without Christ for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whilst it kills the sinful weeds of our natures and hearts as Bede observeth nay herein far above all salt for it only prevents putrefaction and doth not recover it flesh already tainted will take no salt But this Diviner Salt with Gods blessing recovers the most corrupt of all flesh a Manasseh a Mary Magdalene the bloodiest Murderer the horridest Blasphemer the uncleanest Drunkard and Lecher that hath given himself over to all lasciviousnesse to work all uncleanness with greediness so filthy as you would be ready to say let him be filthy still and for ever But yet as the Proverb useth to say in such a desperate case sale perunctus hic adjuvabitur Nor doth Lactantius despair of that but that there is enough in this salt to make such a lazer sound Da mihi iracundum c. Give me whom you will though as mad and furious as though he were possessed with a Devil I 'l tame him with a word though as filthy as if possessed with an unclean spirit when Exorcists superstitious salt will do him no good I 'l with this other salt cleanse him What admirable cures might this salt work if it did not lose its savour By this Gregory who might well be sirnamed
vigilia defendit he wakes that we may sleep his Head is filled with cares that ours may be quiet and his Heart sometimes with fears that ours may be more confident Nehemiah's a good Governour example in this kind is remarkable Chap. 6. 14 15. and justifieth An a good Common-wealths-man's answer to him that found fault with him for neglecting his own occasions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I said he take care of my Country Thus Honorable Lords you have seen not so much your Duty as your Honour and Happiness your being just in making us happy And therefore for close what was said of Eliakim Isa 22. 20 21 22 c. let me apply to you and conclude You are our Eliakims as he under their Hezekiah so you under ours whom God and our King have Clothed with the Robe and strengthened with the Girdle have committed the Judicature to your hand and appointed for Fathers to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem and the House of Judah ver 21. The Lord still fasten you as a Nail in a sure place as ver 23. that as it there followeth we may still and still ever safely hang upon you not only all the glory of your Fathers Houses but also our Off-spring and Issue all Vessels of small quantity from the Vessels of Cups even to all the Vessels of Flagons that the poor Man may come and hang his little Cup upon you in his petty matters and the great Man may come and hang his Flagon his greater Cause whether lesser or greater Matters yet all may hang safely on you whilst fastened as Nails in a sure place settled in your places but more settled in a course of Justice judging and ruling in Righteousness and Wisdom and Moderation and so prove a Hiding-place from the Wind and Covert from the Tempest c. meant of Christ fully as I said at first And therefore what I say now at last is with all humility as becomes my place and yet with all assurance of your Faithfulness in regard of yours to desire and hope that what you would now and at the last day have Christ to be to you you will still please to continue to be to God's and the King's People The Wind may blow and Flouds may come and beat against your Houses and greatest Princes strongest and highest Palaces and therefore you and they may then especially stand in great need of a Covert and Hiding-place in Christ Inward and Spiritual thirst and drought may betide those that water others with clear streams of Justice Sure at the last day when the whole World will be on fire then those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cooling days or days of refreshment Acts 3. 19. A River a Shade then would be welcome Christ both now is and then and ever will be all this to his and therefore I said what you would desire him to be to you then I promise my self you will continue to be to his People The Lord grant in Christ for his Mercies sake that still long and long our gracious King may reign in Righteousness and his Princes and Counsellors and Judges may rule in Judgment that He above them and they under Him may be as an Hiding-place from the Wind and a Covert from the storm as Rivers of water in a dry place and as the shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land Even so Amen Lord Jesus our everlasting Melchisedech SERMON XXVII ISA. 32. 1 2. II Sermon at Boston before Mr. Kirk and other Courtiers Behold a King shall Reign in Righteousness and Princes shall Rule in Judgment And a Man shall be as an hiding place from the Wind and a covert from the Tempest as Rivers of Water in a dry place and as the shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land ANd so we dispatched the Text as a Plat-form of other Kings and Princes in Hezekiah's Type but behold a greater than Hezekiah yea than Solomon is here the Lord Jesus Christ our Melchisedek the King of our righteousness and peace and so in this second brief view of the words as principally meant of him we have First Christs righteous Reign and Government ver 1. He that King who Reigns in Righteousness and his Apostles and Ministers those Princes that rule in Judgment Of which point because I have dilated on Psal 45. 6. on those words the Scepter of thy Kingdom is a right Scepter therefore I here now wholly forbear and only take a short view of the second part namely of the blessed and peaceable fruits of his Government ver 2. That God-Man whatever Hezekiah or best King is yet He above all is an Hiding-place from the wind and a Covert from the storm Rivers of waters c. From which we may observe briefly I. What Christ is to us and therein see his All-sufficiency II. What that cost him from whence we may more fully descry his Love 1. He is no less than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 3. 11. All and to all and so an All-sufficient both protection to his People in the two first comparisons A hiding-place from the Wind and a Covert from the storm And refreshment in the two latter Rivers of waters in a dry place and the shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land But that we may as it were more distinctly spell this blessed Truth take it asunder into these four 1. That he is able and ready to help when greatest Evils fall on us 2. Nay when all meet in us 3. And yet then be a full help 4. Most proper for our Malady and most seasonable for Time and Occasion Which all put together make up this full word of Comfort That when greatest Evils befal us and all evils do round about beset us yet then Christ protects and refresheth most fully and seasonably 1. When greatest Evils befal us For our blessed Eliakim is such a Nail so fastened in a sure place that we may not only hang on him Cups but Flagons Isa 22. 23 24. not only our lesser sins and miseries but if we have but an hand of working Faith to hang the greatest and heaviest in both kinds our Burdens Psal 55. 22. our burdens though so heavy as otherwise would sink our Bodies into the Grave and our Souls into Hell yet of him it 's said that not only Morbos nostros pertulit that he hath born our lesser Griefs but also Dolores nostros bajulavit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath carried the heaviest Burden of our Sorrows as the word signifieth Nor doth this first particular weigh down the weight of the words in the Text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here holdeth out the most blustering Wind from which yet he hides us and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most violent Storm and Stream from which yet he covers us The dry place argueth extremity of Thirst which hath with it acutest Pain Which yet these Rivers quench and ease And this weary Land implieth the more weary sweltred Traveller which
and that where he may be seen in Providences Ordinances in Word Sacraments and although thy case be ill afflicted and tossed with tempests scorched with heat and spent with thirst yet leave not seeking till there you find him to be all this in the Text even an hiding-place from the wind So first as such seek him As such when found trust and rest and glory in him and improve Vse 2 him Thou mayest then cry aloud thy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found him whom my soul loveth and that as these comparisons express it every way happily for Christ was born in Bethlehem Ephrata Mic. 5. 2. The first word whereof signifieth an house of bread and the other fruitfulness There 's therefore no starving or pining there In thy Fathers house there 's bread enough yea and physick enough too for every disease as St. Ambrose fully on Psal 119. 57. those words Portio mea Domine O Lord thou art my portion And indeed a naked Christ is Portion enough besides all other Bequests and Legacies To this purpose it 's worth the marking that Psal 81. 8. God seems to make way to speak of some great matter which he would with greedy attention have listned to Hearken O my people and I will testifie O Israel if thou wilt hearken unto me as though some great promise were to follow and so there doth but what is it see vers 9 10. That there shall be no strange God amongst them besides him as though he by himself were all-sufficient enough and Abraham's exceeding great reward without them So happy every way thou art if thou hast him but more happy if every way we could improve him for as God would have none of our parts and abilities lye idle so neither would he have any thing in him that we have interest in not improved And therefore seeing Christ and Godliness are profitable for all things we should in greater and lesser wants and evils improve Christ and have recourse to him that even to us and in our particular whether inward or outward blusterings and thirstings and faintings we may find him as an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the storm that thy thirsty soul may find him rivers of waters in that dry place and thy tired-out spirit the shadow of a great rock in a weary land This the Application of what Christ is to us For that other what it cost him First see thy sin in the sufferings of thy Saviour what he did Vse 1 endure thou shouldst have done And therefore sinful soul look upon thy Christ arraigned condemned whipt cursed crucified and say all this I should have been Tua O gulosa gula c. as he saith Drunkard it was thy sugred cup that made Christ drink Gall and Vinegar Proud haughty one it was thy pride that hung thy Saviour between thieves thy gayness proud Peacock that crowned him with thorns It was the wantonness of thy flesh that pierced thy Saviour's with nails and tore it with whips and therefore when thou seest thy Saviour's blood arise in his wounds let thine in an holy blush arise in thy face and say all this blast and storm which the roof endured and all that scorching heat which the rock is beaten upon with was procured by my sins and had not Christ interposed had certainly lighted on my person and therefore I 'l first loath both But secondly the more love him yea more than our selves saying with Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Christ as my sins so my love was crucified and by way of thankfulness though it never be a requital I 'l interpose my dearest right hand to save my Head from wounding The servant shall willingly put his own body between his Master and the thrust to save his dishonour who by so doing hath himself saved his soul even by being an hiding-place from the wind a covert from the storm rivers of waters in a dry place the shadow of a great rock in a weary land Tibi Domine Jesu SERMON XXVIII JOHN 5. 14. At St. Paul's Decemb. 27. 1646. Afterward Jesus findeth him in the Temple and said unto him Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee THe prudent Physician 's care is not only perfectly to Medicinae partes duae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cure the present disease but withal to prevent an after-relapse which otherwise might prove more dangerous and accordingly the Lord Jesus our Phaebus Medicus the Son of righteousness that hath healing in his wings in the beginning of the Chapter comes as a loving Physician to the Pool of Bethesda as to a publick Hospital of impotent diseased people vers 2. and of all the multitude he most graciously visits one that had most need of pity and help whose disease Interpreters Dulcis medicus in viset Nosocomium prae caeteris maxime laborantem conceive was most dangerous and for time grown Chronical the Text saith of thirty eight years continuance vers 5. drooping Christian die not of despair for thou shalt not of thy disease though never so desperate if Christ undertake the cure for him he healed vers 7 8. for his body and so much was wrought on his soul that from Bethesda's Porch v. 2. he was now got to the Temple in the Text most likely to return thanks to God Vt mos erat Luc. 18. 10. Act. 3. 1 8. Grotius for his recovery but his Saviour was not as yet savingly made known to him And therefore to perfect the cure in healing his soul and to prevent a relapse of both soul and body into a worse malady he casts about there the second time to meet him and after his cure prescribes him a Diet this Recipe Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee In which words two things are implied and two things injoyned The first thing implied in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin no more was that after his recovery without better care taken he was in danger to sin again The second this that if he did revolt to his former sin he was in eminent danger to relapse into a worse malady in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. lest a worse thing come unto thee Whereupon the two things prescribed and injoyned and the first a means of the second are 1. A serious consideration of the Mercy he had received in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold thou art made whole 2. A studious care that he would avoid the like sin if he would not incur a greater danger in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee Like as the Angel charged Lot now gotten out of Sodom to flie for his life and not look back lest Vengeance should overtake him Gen. 19. 17. Or as if the Physician before spoken of should say thus to his Patient whose wantonness or
bodily Life Your Souls your selves your outward Life Patience as a sure guard keeps you in possession of all A word for natural Life which I exclude not in reference to 1 Life vers 18. they should not perish and here patience is a preservative As God gives us possession of it so patience helps to Doct. 1 keep it So we find in Scripture meek Moses and patient Job long-liv'd whilst bloody and violent Men live not out half their days Psal 55. 23. As stormy Winter days use to be short whilst it 's long before the Sun set in a serene calm Summer's day The Prophet said In quietness and confidence shall be your strength Isa 30. 15 and thereby also their safety whilst frowardness and hastiness makes haste only to destruction Job's Wife when she said Job 2. 9. Curse God and die spake truth when she gave bad counsel for it's curse and die there 's but a step between discontented cursing and dying But if there be any such thing in this frail fading World as via recta ad vitam longam which the Title of his Book promiseth amongst other Vertues and Graces Patience must be one of our Guides and Companions and this whether we consider either God or others or our selves First For God we read that with the froward he will deal Reas 1 frowardly Psal 18. 26. but he delighteth to beautifie the meek with Salvation The Lion of the Tribe of Judah tears his Prey when it struggles and resists but spares it when it lies quiet and prostrate so that if you be weary of your life you may go to it at sharp but if you mean to save it your wisest way is to submit and quietly to lay down your Weapons Crudelem medicum c. The unruly impatient Patient makes his Physician cruel and the Child's strugling doth but increase his stripes whilst a quiet kissing the Rod oft saveth the whipping Our God is our Physician and Father We provoke him to Wrath when we are provoked to impatience by what-ever correction is inflicted by him But it 's meet to be said to him by every dutiful Child and in such a Child's Language I have born chastisement and I will not offend any more if I have done iniquity I will do no more Job 34. 31 32. and that 's the way to prevent a second bout With the Bird of Paradise by a meekned moan to mourn it self out of the Snare not with the wild Bull in the Net Isa 51. 20. to tumble and rave and so the more to entangle himself in the Snare When God hears Ephraim bemoaning himself Ephraim hears God comforting him and telling him that he is his dear Son and pleasant Child that ever since he spake against him he did earnestly remember him that his Bowels were troubled for him and that he would surely have mercy upon him Jer. 31. 18 19 20. Whilst we frowardly struggle 1. our Hearts fret against God and 2. we would be our own Saviours and both these betray us to danger But by a patient lying under God's hand as we acknowledg his Sovereignty and righteous Proceedings so we resign up our selves to him who hath a surer hand than ours to keep that wherewith it is betrusted And thus Patience helps to hold our Souls in Life first in reference to God And secondly in reference to other Men whom we are at a Reas 2 contest with and it may be in danger of for with them though froward Solomon's observation holds good A soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stir up anger Prov. 15. 1. As the soft Wall damps the fiercest Shot whilst the clashing of two earthen Pitchers breaks either one or both Fatigatur De Patient c. 8. improbitas patientiâ tuâ saith Tertullian Patience either wins or wearies the most enraged Enemy so that either he will not or he cannot hurt How easily doth the weak Man when provoked by patient forbearing prevent his own mischief Whilst the passionate Male-content either by busie busling begins the Quarrel or by giving the second stroke makes the Fray and both ways as the furious Horse rusheth into the Battel and so too often sins against his own Life But were there none other to hurt us yet impatience can Reas 3 make our selves to be our own Executioners Whether Achitophel was strangled with an Halter or suffocated with some Humors raised by his grief some of late dispute The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie both But which soever of them it was I Henisius Grotius am sure his impatience of a neglect was the cause of it in him as in both kinds it hath been with divers others Impatience of Pain Poverty Disgrace and the like hath proved in this unhappy World one of the great Apollyons and Abaddons chief Engines in murdering not onely others but our selves also What sudden Inflammations what pining Consumptions Frenzies Lethargies and other splenetick Distempers hath it cast many a Man into and so betrayed them sometimes to more gentle and lingring sometimes to more sudden and violent deaths and that sometimes by their own hands Passions with a witness which make both Body and Soul joint-sufferers like blustering storms that dash these frail Vessels against the Rocks or like roaring and riotous Guests and Inmates that set on fire and pull down those Houses of Clay which they are in present possession of But on the contrary A patient or cool Spirit as Solomon phraseth it Prov. 17. 27. how timely doth it prevent these sparks from kindling or happily quench them when they begin to flame by composing the mind that it dare not quarrel with God nor pitch the Field with a Man 's own self and so quiets the Body that it either prevents Bodily Distempers or helps to bear them quietly that they do not prove deadly whilst the unruly sick Man by raving and tumbling kills himself another more patient by being quiet doth sopire morbum and by lying still makes haste to his recovery Possess but thy Soul with Patience and it Patientiae infirmum non extendit Tertul. c. 15. Centrae infirmus qui impatiens est ipsâ impatientâ—â citius devolvitur in mortens Cerda in locum will keep thee in longer possession of the frail Tabernacle of thy Body Indeed short-winded Men are soon at their Journies end but they that are longer breathed are so more ways than one able through many difficulties to run a longer race and at last in a late evening of a long day come to the end of it in peace Discontents I confess may be long-liv'd but so usually are not froward impatient discontented Men. But when the Psalmist tells us that the Meek shall inherit the Earth * Psal 37. 11. that Phrase expresseth as a surer title so a longer continuance and thus as our Souls are sometimes put for our Lives even so by our Patience we are kept in possession of them So 〈◊〉
it is one and the same thing And this therefore should be a great part of our greatest care that our Souls may be so possessed as they may be saved And that although in dangerous Times all else may soon be lost yet that a sure Course may be taken that our Souls do not perish eternally 2. But secondly This care of a Man's possessing his Soul is not only that it be not wholly lost at last but that for the present in greatest Distractions he be as the Latine phrase is Animi or Sui compos truly himself his own Man yea master of his own Soul and its Faculties Passions and Operations which at such times oft are quite stounded or prove very wild and unruly Men dead with fear as in Nabal 1 Sam. 25. 27. and there is no Life drunk with grief as they Jer. 25. 27. and there 's no sense And mad with Oppression as even the wise Man sometimes is as the wisest King tells us Eccles 7. 7. But where 's then his Wisdom Which is then swallowed up Psal 107. 27. Nay What 's become of his Soul When Nec manus nec pes c. when neither the Eye can see what 's before it or the Ear take heed what 's said to it the Man knows not what either he saith or doth where he is or whither he goeth In these Animi deliquia deliria the Man is truly Exanimated bereft of his Soul the Mind and Understanding amazed confused and darkned the Affections and Passions in a mutiny and perfect uproar But where 's the Soul that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all this while that should keep better order Is it in being Or is the Man in possession of it which is wholly possest with Amazements and Confusions as a Town now entred and possessed by a Conquering Enemy This too often in perilous Times is our Sin and Misery But our Saviour in the Text points out to us what at all times and even then is our duty to take care that whatever else we lose that there be not Ejectio firmae that we be not so cast out of our Freehold but that by Faith and Patience the one as the Fundamentum and the other as the Sustentaculum of all Virtues as Anselm distinguisheth them we may still be our selves and possess our Souls not frighted out of our selves by Fears or sunk below our selves by overmuch Heaviness but then speak and act with Nehemiah Chap. 6. 11. like and worthy our selves with Jehoshaphat when we know not what to do to be so much our selves as to know how to do that which is best not like gaster'd Men to look wildly 2 Chron. 20. 12. about us but with a fixed Eye to God above us not to be out of our Wits but to go out to God and as David when the sorrows of Death and Hell took hold on him Psal 116. 3. to retire inward to our Hearts with his Return unto thy rest O my Soul Ver. 7. even when the sorrows of Death and Hell took hold on him enough to Exanimate him yet to retire inward as a Man into his House out of the Crowd in which he was like to be lost or like a wise Pilot thrusting his Ship out of the Storm into the Harbour And then how safely doth he stand firm on the Shoar whilst he seeth others over-whelmed with the Waves So to turn into our Souls and to turn them over to God and there quietly to rest this is indeed to be our selves and to possess our souls Dum nobis ipsis dominari discimus hoc ipsum incipimus possidere quod sumus as Bede speaks And thus whilst Christ hath held the Heads and Hearts of his Servants they have been never more themselves than when besides him they have had least else to rest either Head or Heart upon never enjoyed themselves or possessed their Souls more than when now to be dispossessed of all else besides as take a Believer on his Death-bed or a Martyr at the Stake It 's but God's bidding Aaron go up to Mount Hor and put off his Garments and die Numb 20. 25 26 27 28. No more than a Parent 's bidding his Child go up to his Chamber and put off his Clothes and sleep They are fully themselves nay then more than ever above themselves now that the Soul is mantling and almost upon the Wing to flie upward in Divinest Contemplations and elevated Expressions Some of which Mylius gathers up in his Book which he calls Apophthegmata morientium When the dying Man's tongue faulters he speaks Apophthegmes nay Oracles and though the bodily Eye grows dim in that shadow of death yet that 's but the shutting of the outward window whilst a more glorious Light is set up within to enlighten that darkness and so that gloomy Evening is but the dawning of the now hasting Morning of the beatifical Vision O the admirable farewel-speeches of Martyrs at their Sufferings Those high-raised Expressions that ravished other Men's hearts shewed plainly that they then most fully possessed their own Souls Sure Stephen was perfectly himself and above himself that when the Stones flew so fast at him he could so quietly and orderly kneel down and look up to Heaven and pray for his Murderes Acts 7. 59 60. as were Daniel's Companions Chap. 3. 25. who when cast into the Furnace did not fall all along as Saul 1 Sam. 28. 20. or down into the Furnace as their Enemies did but then walked erect in the midst of the Fire and as the Apocryphal Addition saith there sung forth God's Praises yea and therein exactly kept time and tune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom observes in the same Order that God made his Creatures they there sung his Praises And thus in these two Particulars we see what 's meant by this possessing of our Souls namely when such care is taken that they now be not distemper'd nor at last utterly lost Which in the Appâ—ication is that which is further to be pressed Vse upon us as that which our Saviour here expresly and peremptorily commands us and which is to be observed at such a busie time when you would think his Disciples had something else necessarily to look after when so Hated Persecuted Betrayed as in the fore-going Verses when every way so beset and so wholly endangered If Nature and Sense like Pharez as Gen. 38. 28 29. it 's ready should put out its hand first it would find something next hand first to lay hold on here would be Wife Children Parents Friends to be provided for It may be my Estate yea my Life to be secured and taken care of How shall I make such a Friend Or what way to pacifie such an Enemy How shall I answer when called before such a King and Ruler v. 12. But our Saviour would take them off from such distracting cares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. In all this unsettledness settle you your heart not to
outward things it 's Self-sufficient and that however in regard of the necessities of the body to which it is joyned it is forced to go abroad into the World and thereby too oft is defiled as Dinah was in such Excursions yet it 's best when it Gen. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato As Moralists to the pacifying our grief and passions tell us what time will wear out at last Wisdom and Virtue should enable us to abate and qualifie at the present So here with some inversion this is a hard Lesson to us that are so immersed in outward and earthly Objects keeps within at Home conversing with and enjoying of it self which it doth most when it is least troubled with outward things What therefore it doth of it self in a more gentle way in abstracting it self from Bodily and outward Objects the very same is done though by a more violent hand when Man or Dâ—vil plucks these outward things from it Thereby it 's left in retirement with it self and never more safe than when so shut up They are Fools and Children that are afraid and cry when they are alone But if the wise Man be Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus I am sure the Godly Man if he be wise is never less lonesome than when alone whilst he hath a good God and a good Heart to bear him company If he in a publick depredation could say Omnia mea mecum he carried all that was his with him when he left all else besides his naked self behind him I know no reason but that a Christian may be as Wise and Happy if he prove not an Out-lyer and live not too much in and upon the World when all else is plundered yet his soul may be secured And accordingly the Apostle 1 Pet. 4 19. most fitly and divinely Instructs them that suffer according to the Will of God to commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing He would have them take care that their souls be kept because he speaks of suffering Times in which nothing else it may be can be secured but he makes account their souls may And yet which is a third Argument for our greater care and diligence though our Souls by a careful watch may be secured yet there 's greater need of it because they are in greatest danger to be assailed Many indeed and horrid have the Miserie 's been which the Devil and his Instruments have inflicted on Men's Bodies but nothing to those innumerable Temptations and deadly Snares by which they have seized on their Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa 51. 23. The precious soul is that which the Adulteress hunts after Prov. 6. 26. And they are the souls of Men which the great Whore trades in Rev. 18. 13. The Devil hath oft possessed Men's Bodies but far oftner their Souls and hath not been unwilling to be dispossessed of the one that he might take more full seisin of the other It being neither great nor small which the Syrian fights against not so much those Rivers of Blood which have run down in all the great Wars and Slaughters in the World which he is satisfied with as the Blood of Souls which he thirsts after God desires not the Blood of Goats and Bulls Psal 50. 13. nor doth the Devil principally the Blood of Men unless it be of their Souls And it 's then he thinks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath hit them under the fifth rib when like the devilish Assassinate he kills the Body and damns the Soul together with the same blow And therefore where the Siege is straitest and the Assault fiercest there our Watch needs be strictest and our Guard strongest Because the Soul is most laid at it needs be most looked after that above all keeping we keep our hearts Prov. 4. 23. so as rather to be dispossessed of all than not to possess our souls As God above all is to be feared so the Devil especially to be watched because both though in their several ways when they have destroyed the Body can cast the Soul into Hell Luke 12. 5. Greatest care therefore need be of our souls 4. And this as in regard of the danger of them so also of the inestimable worth of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My soul 's my glory saith Jacob Gen. 49. 6. where the Chaldee hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my precious ones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Soul is my Darling or mine Prov. 6. 26. Psal 35. 17. only One saith David Psal 22. 20. But should we go no further than the Text this Phrase of possessing the soul saith that the soul it self is a great possession I may not now insist on all its Worth and Excellencies that it is Divinae particula aurae a Sparkle of Heaven a Glymps of God in which you may see most of his Image and one of the Master-pieces of all his Works of a Spiritual immaterial Constitution of an everlasting Continuance and Duration so that if it be not possessed but lost one way it will not be lost in another In its Nature far above all this Terrestrial World in its Apprehensions that which a World cannot stint nor in its Desires a thousand Worlds satisfie made for God and only to be filled with God So Capacious as if possessed and saved can take in much of God and if neglected and lost will take in as much of his Curse and Wrath So admirable in its Operations that it 's a shame if for want of possessing it it should like a Drunken Man be so disquieted and distempered as to be hindred from them for a time But so precious in it self that it 's a thousand pities that any of us should fall so short of possessing our souls that such a glorious Creature should be lost and perish Eternally It 's in Mundo animarum in that World of souls in which we shall hereafter see more fully the worth of souls In Mundo umbrarum in this world of Shadows it 's but little we see or know either of them or their Excellencies But yet so much if we be not grown wholly Brutish as may exceedingly shame us that when others look so much to the Cabinet we take no more care of the Jewel that when others nay our selves are so diligent to keep the Body in health and life the precious everlasting Soul is no better provided for to be kept in a bâ—â—â—er condition Physicians of the Body so honoured and Physicians of the Soul so slighted The Body decked and the Soul neglected and starved nay by the Bodies being crammed the Soul to be pined or surfeited That when we see sometimes so much Watch and ward to keep possession of some sorry House or small Cottage and which it may be at most we have but a short time in we should either carelesly or wilfully yeeld possession to the World the Devil and the Flesh of these spiritual immortal Souls of ours which
a broken Leg nor daintiest Meat make the sick Man well nor all the choicest Extractions from the whole Body and Bulk of the Creature afford a Cordial strong enough to revive a languishing lost Soul And therefore as the Arabick Proverb adviseth Noli gemmam perdere in die festo in our greatest Feasts it would not have us lose our Jewel because it 's of such worth that all the delight we can have in the costliest Meal cannot countervail the loss of it so in all the richest of the World's entertainments let us be so merry and wise together as to be sure to look to our Jewel to our Souls the loss of which all else can no way compensate 3. As being in the last place irrecoverable When our Saviour said What will it profit a Man if he win the whole World and lose his own Soul In those words he tells us that the loss of it is inestimable But when he adds or What shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul He would thereby assure us that if after the price of Purchase which he laid down to redeem our Souls and repossess us of them they shall yet be so neglected as that they come indeed to be lost that Morgage will never be able again to be bought out No 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be given in exchange but the loss absolute and irreparable But shall then such precious Souls be lost for want of looking to pawned for Toys nay sold outright for Trifles That thou mayest take thy pleasure carest not as sometimes thou profanely sayest if the Devil take thy Soul Is not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more sottish than the Indians exchanging Gold for Glass and more profane than Esau's selling his Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage by Drunkenness Passion Drowsiness Lust putting our selves out of possession of the use of our Souls for the present or by these and such-like courses hazarding the utter loss of them for ever Should this be the sad lot of any as it will be of too many let it be of such sensual Brutes that know not the worth of a Soul that can so easily part with it of such sordid Muckworms quibus anima tantum est pro sale whose Souls serve only to keep them alive and to preserve their Bodies from stinking and who are as such something distinct from their Souls as it 's intimated of the Fool in the Gospel to whom God said This night shall they fetch thy Soul from thee Luke 12. 20. But for Christians that believe that the Blood of the Son of God was shed to save Souls for Scholars whose Souls are themselves Animus cujusque is est quisque who study the nature of Souls and therefore should know the worth of them for Divines whose traffique is in trading for Souls let us have ground to hope better things of you and such as are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that accompany Salvation Heb. 6. 9. whilst like wise Men Prov. 11. 30. you labour to win other Mens Souls be not such Fools as to lose your own It 's his Disciples and Apostles that our Saviour especially directs his Speech to in the words of the Text in which there is a double 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatever others do yet you above all in your patience possess ye your Souls SERMON XXXIII LUKE 21. 19. II. Sermon Preacht at St. Maries Cambridg Aug. 19. 1649. In your Patience possess ye your Souls TErtullian begins his Book of Patience with an ingenuous acknowledgment of his own unfitness Homo nullius boni aeger doloribus impatientiae c. And so may I well begin my Sermon of the same Argument with the like Apology but as he there adds The rich Man that so much desires health must be born with if he be speaking of it especially is his speaking help to instruct him in the Cure And therefore in the handling of this Text of Patience having dispatched the two first parts of it the last time which I called the Free-hold and the Seisin and from them held forth our duty to possess our Denotat causam instrumentalem quam necesse est pios adhibere si in calamitatibus spiritualem incelumitatem râ—tinere velint Illyricus Souls I now close with the third viz. the Tenure of it and that 's of Patience In your Patience possess ye your Souls All Graces indeed are of the Soul's Life-Guard and Faith is the Captain of them all according to that Heb. 10. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are of them that believe to the saving of the Soul But under Faith in perilous times Patience in an especial manner is here by our Saviour set upon the Guard And therefore he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c in your Patience possess ye your souls And so James 5. 8. Be ye also patient establish your hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Your Patience What 's that As they are your souls so is it your patience Yes Thus far in the general Both their 's Subjectivè but neither of them Causaliter Both Patience and Soul 's theirs but so as both from God the one from him as an Almighty Creator and Father of Spirits Heb. 12. 9. the other as a gracious Sanctifier and a God of Patience Rom. 15. 5. most patient in himself not forward to inflict any evil And the Giver of Patience to his afflicted Servants whereby they are ready to endure all according to that Col. 1. 11. Strengthened with all Might according to his Glorious Power unto all Patience and Long-suffering with joyfulness Your Patience therefore as thus 1. Subjectivè yours from God's gift in possession And 2. Specificativè yours by way of Distinction and that as some would have it from a Fourfold other kind of Patience viz. 1. Sinful 2. A Natural 3. A Moral 4. A Legal Patience 1. There is a Sinful Patience Falsa probrosa as Tertullian De patientia c. 16. calls it When Men as he instanceth are Patientes rivalium divitum invitatorum impatientes solius Dei Impatient only of Christ's Yoke and God's Commands and Chastisements But basely patient of the Tyranny both of their own and other Mens Lusts can endure nothing for God's Cause but any thing for their own for Profit Pleasure or Preferment sake can patiently here and see God blasphemed and dishonoured tamely prostitute Body Soul Conscience the Honour and Peace of them all The Parasite patient of Abuse and Scorn for his Belly-sake The Courtier can receive an Injury and give thanks for his Preferment 's sake Those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Plutarch to raise themselves make their Backs their Mistresses Footstools Even Pathici are in Authors often Patientes Happy See Cerda in Tertullian de patientia we if we were but as patient in God's Service as too many are in the Devil's drudgery But this Bastard-patience the meekest Christian Spirit is impatient of as of that which in stead
of possessing the Soul betrays and enslaves it that it 's no more it self than the Galley slave his own Man The Coolest Spirit in its own Cause is warm in God's as we see in meek Moses Exod. 32. 19. Nor did Christ speak Contradictions Rev. 2. 2. when he said of the Church of Ephesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know thy patience and that thou canst not bear them which are evil But what cannot Patience bear Any thing for God but nothing against him It 's Impatient of that for which God is angry 2. There is a second kind of Patience which may be called Natural arising from the natural Constitution of the Body or Mind as in a Disease of the Body as a Lethargie or Palsie that feels nothing or from a natural Dulness and Brawniness that is not so sensible of pain and pressure as in the Brawniness of the Hand or Foot in an Ox patient of labour and the dull Ass under a heavy burden Or from the hardiness of the Body patient of Cold and other outward Grievances and from the courage and valour of the Mind patient of wounds and hardship But this is Tolerance rather than Patience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it will not possess the Soul 1. In greatest Extremities if long continued The Ox that stands the Butchers stroke with his Ax twice falls flat at the third The Brawn when cut through to the quick proves sensible And Saul though a Stout Man at last falls all along 1 Sam. 28. 20. 2. This Stoutness though it indure pain yet not disgrace but Christian patience can Acts 5. 41. 3. There is that which I called a Moral Patience such as the Though Aristotle counts it but a Demivertue Heathen Philosophers and the Stoicks especially gloried of by which they will tell you they attained to such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a tranquillity of Mind that no Injury could betide them See Seneca lib. Quod in sapientem non cadit injuria Maximus Tyrius dissert 2. Nothing could trouble them but that like the upper Region they were always serene Homines quadrati which way soever pitcht stood immoveable But as their wise Man was a Notion rather than a Reality so this steady evenness of Mind was sooner to be found in their Books and Disputes than in their Lives and Practices especially when it came to a pinch indeed in the Storm when the poor Skipper was chearful their great Philosopher's heart sunk within him The more Wise and Knowing they were the more sensible they were of their Danger and being always proudly conceited of their own Worth the more fearful they were of their Loss and so the more erect they stood upon their Tip-toes the more flat they fell under that burden which they cold not undergo As Saul higher by the Head than others when such a weight fell upon them with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they fell all along and there was no spirit in them 1 Sam. 28. 20. for although in ordinary cases the spirit of a Man can bear his Infirmities Prov. 18. 14. yet in extraordinary Stresses and Exigencies it 's not a natural Stoutness nor a moral Composedness of spirit but only Christian Faith and Patience that will be able to keep it up from sinking so that it 's indeed a great commendation of patience as Tertullian observes that these Heathen Grandees affected the Counterfeit of it as the chief piece of their Bravery yet in truth as Cyprian affirms it was only Insolens affectatae libertatis audacia De bono patientiae Affectatio caninae aequantmitatis a stupore formata Tertull. exerti seminudi pectoris inverecunda jactantia A vapouring humour rather than any solid settlement of Spirit because upon no good foundation Blown up by Pride in themselves and heartned by Applause of others and so not able to keep possession of the soul in all Emergencies though it may be sometimes parient of Loss and Pain yet usually impatient of Disgrace so that if cut in that Vein none bled more deadly 4. There is a Legal Patience such as the Law requires or rather which the Legal Paedagogie trained them up unto which I think Tertullian somewhat too boldly under-values nay accuses as that which trained them up to a kind of Revenge in allowing to take Eye for Eye and Tooth for Tooth c. Though And so Grotius often speaks that was in a way of Publick Justice and not of private Revenge Sure I am the Law of God was Holy Just and Good and could they have kept it it would have kept them so as to have possessed their Souls with patience This defect was not in the Law but them that lived under it in degree not in kind And accordingly Job then whom Chrysostom calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tom. 6. p. 590. Fortissimus athleta Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by the Apostle held forth to the whole World now in the time of the Gospel as a Mirrour of patience James 5. 11. And truly when we read and think of Abraham's faith and Job's patience and Moses his meekness c. the Eminency of some of them then may justly cast shame on the Deficiency of many of us now that their Twilight should out-shine our Noon-day as though they had lived under the Grace of the Gospel and not we who fall so exceedingly short of that Conformity to the Law which some of them in a greater measure attained to But yet to my purpose that of Illyricus is observable Quomodo autem V. T. Hebraei hanc patientiam vocant ignoro nec etiane locum novi ubi describatur Patience is seldom mentioned in the Old Testament and they scarce have a proper Name for it but when they speak of it most commonly make use of the word Silence to express it as though for the most part of Men it was then more rare and less known under the Law than it is or at least should be now under the Gospel And therefore although it was a great measure of Patience which the Lord enabled some of the Faithful then unto when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. when they were Stoned and Sawn asunder and Tempted c. Heb. 11. 36 37. Yet it was nothing to that which many Christian Martyrs by the Grace of the Gospel were raised up to under heavier Sufferings 5. And therefore in the last place it 's Christiana Patientia Gospel-Christian Patience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Signanter dictum Your patience yours as Apostles as Followers as Servants of Jesus Christ by which when you are forced it may be to let all else go you may even then keep possession of your Souls Nothing else can do it But that can That whereas Impatience usurps a domineering power over the Man according to that of Tertullian speaking of Adam Facile usurpari ab impatientia caepit c. 5.
Sand or Flowers in the Meadow that he loseth his Voyage Nor is he the wisest Traveller who for the more comfort and speed of his Journey being by his Friend led in a plain fair way and through pleasant Meadows is so taken with them that he lies down to sleep in them forgetting his Errand and so loiters as loth to part with them as that he is benighted and falls short of Home A good Traveller is of another mind and takes another course saith the Coast indeed is clear and free from Theeves and Robbers the way pleasant and Inns and other Accommodations by the way commodious but yet for all that as it is in the Proverb utinam domi essem I would I were at home And so the fairer the way is the more haste he makes and puts on It is or should be so with every true Traveller Heaven-ward If in his way he meet with trouble and danger he saith I would I were at Home in Heaven where there is none of this but if safety and prosperity yet would I were at Home in Heaven where there is much better than this Heaven is my Haven and these are but fair Gales to carry me on with more speed thither Christ is the End I aim at and therefore as Austin upon that Title of the Psalm In finem cum audis in Christum intende ne in vita Psal 55. remanendo non pervenias ad finem When I hear of the End I must think of making after Christ and not stand still in my way lest I come not to my Journey 's end Quicquid est ubi infra steteris antequam ad Christum perveneris nihil aliud Divinus sermo dicit nisi Accede How firm soever the Ground be that I stand upon on this side of Christ though Sense and carnal Reason say stand still and abide by it yet Scripture hath nothing else to say to me but this one word Arise this is not thy resting place Mic. 2. 10. There is a Plus ultra Get nearer to Christ advance further to Heaven and when a Sampson hath delivered thee from the Philistines and other such-like Enemies let not this be all thou lookest for but still say with Jacob O Lord now that I am thus saved yet still I wait for thy further and greater Salvation 3. And this Thirdly By reason of the little advantage of the one if we fall short of the other Though we should be saved from Bodily danger by an Arm of Flesh if our Souls should not Mark 8. 36 37. be saved from Hell and Wrath by Christ What wilt thou give me said Abraham to God seeing I go Childless Gen. 15. 2. And in that Child he looked at Christ And so a right Heir of Abraham saith Lord what good will all else that thou hast given me do me if I go Christless We are indeed unworthy of Crums less than the least of Gods Mercies and therefore should be thankful for them But yet because they are amongst those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 16. 10. those least of Mercies it 's but little good we shall reap by them if we have not Christ and his Grace and Salvation that great Gift of God with them It 's not an half-Mercy where Christ is wanting who is All in all As here Consider 1. On the one side how wretched we may be with all other Mercies and Deliverances without Christ Indeed so we may account our selves as Happy as he accounted himself Perfect And therefore made the boasting Question Mat. 19. 20. What lack I yet And Answer here may be made Yet lackest thou one thing and that 's Christ the one thing necessary in whom only we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are complete Col. 2. 10. Happy the World may account and call us Psal 49. 13 if with Judas we bear the Bag But yet for all that so Happy or Miserable rather that with him if we have nothing else it had been better for us that we had never been Born raised from a Sick-bed and upon it fall more desperately Sick to the very Death of Wâ—ntonness and Lust Prison-Door set open and then run wild from God as it was usual with Israel delivered to all those Abominations Jer. 7. 10. set free from Oppressors and Enemies that fought against the Body and then more than ever inslaved and inthralled to Satan and those Lusts that fight against our Souls As God told Israel if the Canaanites should be suddenly destroyed the wild Beasts would devour them Wild Lusts are these wild Beasts which raven most in the quiet Night when the scorching Sun of Persecution is set And like Vermin breed fastest when the Weather is warmest And is there not then need of a further Salvation 2. And so secondly On the other hand when God completeth an outward Mercy and Deliverance he is wont to do more for the inward than for the outward Man in Mercy to Hezekiah's Soul draws his Body out of the Pit of Corruption and casts his Isa 38. 17. Sins behind his Back further than he leaves his Sick-bed behind him A blessed thing to have a good Uprising from a Sick-bed that we Relapse not Mercy is to be taken with a trembling Hand When he plucks David out of the miry Clay then sets his Feet upon the Rock and orders his goings Psal 40. 2. To delivering Mercy adds guiding Mercy as to Jerusalem 2 Chron. 32. 22. when an Out gate from Misery is an Inlet to Grace and so to Heaven And the same good Hand that drew me out of the Water leads me to the Rock that 's higher than I that is a full complete Deliverance And therefore as some of our Cartwright Hist Evang. Divines observe it 's usual with the Prophets when they made largest Promises of greatest Prosperity to Israel to ground them upon or to close them with something of Christ as in whom both such Promises and Mercies had their full accomplishment All our Good being so far indeed good as it leads us on to Christ and his better Salvation Which in the Application of it shews us First a broad Vse 1 difference between a Right-born and a Bastard Israelite The Sons of the Concubines were put off and satisfied with Gifts but Isaac the Son of the Promise must have the Inheritance The Carnal Jews sit down by it in Babylon but those that were more 1 Chron. 4. 23. Spiritual returned to Zion as the Raven takes up with the Carrion but the sole of the Doves foot cannot rest but upon the Ark. It 's on the one hand a plain evidence of a carnal worldly Heart to rest satisfied with Prosperity and Safety without Christ and his Salvation A sign of an Harlot to be contented with the Love-token without true desire of the Lover As of the Mungril-Cur in the Fable to leave the Game and to take up with the Gobbet cast before him Unchaste Soul that commitest folly with the Gift
Apostle meaneth when he saith to him to live is Christ No this is a false Christ or rather an Antichrist when the true Christ is thus disguised and dishonoured by us as when the Jews had muffled and spit upon Christ then for Pilate to bring him forth and say Behold the John 19. 5. Man was rather in way of Derision than any thing else and no better do we yet deal with him when whilst we profess Him we thus dishonour Him 3. But thirdly Christ is a Christian's Life when He is Causa Finalis when He his Honour and Service is the main End and Scope at which in the course of his Life he chiefly aimeth and labours to promote as knowing or designing no end of his Life than to live to God according to that Psal 119. 17. Deal bountifully with thy Servant that I may live and keep thy Word This is that which Interpreters generally agree in to be the principal thing intended by the Apostle in this Expression which divers of them diversly paraphrase but to the same purpose If I live it is to Christ so the Aethiopick reads it Non alia causa Si vivo Christi causâ vivo si morior meo commodo morior Sasbout in promovenda gloria Christi Piscator volui vivere nisi Christi I would not live for any cause else but Christ's So Hierom I have consecrated my life to Christ and his Gospel So Estius He is the scope of my life So Piscator Si vixero nihil aliud mihi proposui non alia mercede vivo c. I propound nothing else in my whole Life I desire no other Stipend or Wages for all my Work and Warfare but only to honour and serve Christ in the Gospel So Calvin Aquinas methinks well resolveth it Life importeth Motion and is the active Principle In locum of it and therefore as in other Cases the end that moves the Agent to act he properly calls his Life Vt venatores venationem amici amicum So Christ and his Glory as being that which as his main end setteth the Christian on working may well be called his Life in which he liveth and in the Design and Prosecution whereof the strength of his Life is spent and exercised Christ is his A and Ω All he hath or is he hath Rev. 1. 8. from Him and all he is hath or can do is all for him All manner of pleasant Fruits new and old I have laid up for thee O my Beloved saith the Spouse Cant. 7. 13. The Best the All of a Christians Abilities Gifts Graces whatsoever and how precious soever they be they are all for Christ ready prest to serve Him paid in as a Tribute to Him As of Him so to Him are all things Rom. 11. 36. As there is one God the Father of whom are all things and we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Him so one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by Him 1 Cor. 8. 6. yea and to Him and for Him for of Him it 's else-where said Whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord and so whether we live or die we are the Lords Rom. 14. 8. And these last words give a sufficient Reason of the former if we are the Lords then we should live to the Lord if we be not our own Men but Christ's ransomed Servants then as the Master's Service Honour and Advantage is or ought to be the Servant's aim and scope in his whole Employment so Christ's should be ours and so He becomes our Life For we live much in our Ends and Designs which we project and endeavour to promote and according to them though not only yet especially our Lives are to be judged of as in other Cases so in this Particular if the constant Tendencies and real Intentions of our Souls be seriously for Christ to please honour and serve Him this is to have Christ for our life and thus to live in the Apostle's Phrase here is Christ when as he spake in the Verse foregoing our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the earnestest out-lookings of our Souls are that Christ may be glorified by us whether by Life or by Death And this is best when it is in our more frequent actual Thoughts and Intentions of it however it must be in our inward general and habitual Disposition Frame and Purpose of Heart and constant course of Life as a Traveller's resolved intention of his Journies end at his first setting out and after progress in the way to it though at every step he maketh he do not actually think of it In a word when we own no other Interests but Christ's or at least none that are contrary but only such as are reducible and subordinate to it when we neither start nor pursue any other false Games which adversâ fronte broadly look and run counter contrary to him no nor with a squint Eye look aside to these golden Apples of Pleasure Profit or other Self-advantage cast in our way when we seem to take never so speedy and straight course to him but when our Eyes look right on and our Eye-lids look streight before Prov. 4. 25. us as Solomon speaketh as they Jer. 50. 5. who asked the way to Zion with their Faces thitherward and as it 's said of our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his Face was going or as though he would go to Jerusalem Luke 9. 53. so when with a single Eye and Heart we directly and indeclinably eye and look at Christ and his Glory so that all that observe us may well take notice which way our Eye and Heart look this is to have Christ indeed fully both in our Eye and Heart and so Christ is our Life when thus in our Heart the seat of Life Otherwise to drive a Trade for our selves whilst we profess our selves only Factors for Christ to seek our own advantage as Paul Phil. 2 21. saith most do and not the things of Jesus Christ or if at all yet only in subordination to our own Ends and Interests this is Self not Christ to seek and find the Life of our own hand as the Prophet's phrase is Isa 57. 10. not to express Christ living in us as it s said of Gad Deut. 33. 21. that he provided the first part for himself and as Pharaoh said my River is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mine own and I have made it for my self or I have made my self Ezek. 29. 3. as the vulgar Interpreter reads it and both the words and the sense of the place will bear it and so proved his own both Creature and Creator together But the Creature whose Life Christ is knoweth that God hath created all for Prov. 16. 4. himself and therefore in the Apostle's sense here in the Text makes his Life to be Christ Si quidem vita mea mea inquam Christus est as the Syriack renders it Christ
Published in Print which I especially shewed that Death being disarmed could privately do us no hurt or procure our loss But here we are principally to make out that on the contrary it positively brings us in much Gain But because even of this many particulars were there spoken to there is less now to be Insisted on Now what our Apostle more plainly expresseth concerning himself saying that his death was his Gain in effect he enlargeth to all true Believers 1 Cor. 3. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether Life or Death or things present or things to come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all is yours and Death as well as Life or the whole World and all the Comforts of either The Apostle here writes the Godly's Inventory and inter peculia amongst all their other Goods he sets down Death for one part of them and therefore as other Goods are therefore so called because they are for the good of the Owner so Death is reckoned amongst them because by Christ it 's for the great good and gain of the Believer For if all things work together for the good of them that love God Rom. 8. 28. then Death also for it is also reckoned among those all things ver 38. Hither also referr that of Solomon Eccles 7. 1. The day of Death is better than the day of ones Birth And that in Rev. 14. 13. where a Voice from Heaven ploclaims Blessed 〈◊〉 they that die in the Lord. So that if Blessedness be Gain Death is so too which puts them into the possession of it And for further Proof it appears that they are fully perswaded and assured of it Else 1. They would never so desire it before it come For Evil and Loss as such can never be the object of Desire but it must appear to be good and profitable if desired but so Death hath been and that earnestly by the Faithful Old Simeon's Nunc dimittis Luke 2. 29. tells us what he did and our Apostle because he could here say that his Death would be his Gain doth in the next Verse save one say that he had a desire to depart and well he might for then he should be with Christ which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more better best of all and that is Gain with an advantage How ambitious were Primitive Christians to die for Christ And how earnestly desirous have others been to Die if it might be in Christ Making use of the Psalmist's expressions my Soul thirsteth for God for the Living Psal 42. ◠God When shall I come and appear before God The Moralist's Maxime is Summam nec metuas diem nec optes that we should neither fear Death nor desire it But a truly believing Christian goeth higher hath Vitam in patientiâ mortem in desiderio fears not Death because it can do him no Dammage but desires it because it brings with it greatest Gain And upon this ground as he desires it before it come 2. So with Joy he welcomes it when it doth come yea though in a violent way As Ignatius blessed God upon Trajan's condemning him Cum gaudio circumponens vincula The Martyr Vide martyrium Ignatii pag. 4. could kiss the Stake and say Welcome the Cross of Christ And well he might when he could add welcome everlasting Life in which expressions we have his joyful Welcome of it with the Ground of it because he gained no less than everlasting Life by it And if so with them that went up to Heaven with Elijah in a fiery Chariot and a Whirl-wind Then no wonder if so with them that are carried hence by the conduct of a more placid and easie departure and if some only from weariness of this troublesome Life account Death such a Gain as to dig for it as for bid Treasure and rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they find the Grave Job 3. 21 22. then we may well conceive how glad the assured Believer may be of it when he knows he shall be greater Gainer by it as not only resting from his Labours of this Life but also then entring into his everlasting both Rest and Joy in a better Life which those others may not then meet with but the contrary But if upon this ground the Righteous hath such hope in his Death Prov. 14. 32. then I hope you will not deny him Joy in it and if Joy then Gain also But this will more particularly be made out if we consider the several kinds of Deaths of Believers And as I even now touched they may be either for Christ or only in Christ 1. If for Christ then as their outward Loss is the greater so is their eternal Gain too no less than of a Crown It is the Crown of Martyrdom Sciant Christi milites se non perimi Cyprian Epist 82. Sect. 2. sed coronari and more massy than others And if there be any such things as Aureolae they will be found on their Heads God's First-born and therefore have a double Portion Tot mercedes Idem Epist 77. Sect. 1. in caelestibus quot nunc dies numer antur in paenis as Cyprian speaketh who compares them to that good Ground that brings forth an Hundred-fold and therefore their Harvest-joy will be greater And therefore Ignatius professeth that it 's better to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Romanos Die for Christ than to be King of the whole Earth He therefore thought it was the greatest Gain To be sure Christ will see they shall be no losers who hath given his Word that he that findeth his Life shall lose it and he that loseth his Life for his sake shall find it Mat. 10. 39. 16. 25. And because we know not what God may call us to it will be good to encourage and comfort our selves with these Words and with firm belief of this undoubted Truth that they who Die for Christ are greatest Gainers 2. And if it be but in Christ most happy Gains will come in to us by that also And that both Privative and Positive 1. First Privative for such a kind of Gain we find in Scripture as Acts 27. 21. that phrase of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where Paul tells them that were in the Ship with him that if they had followed his advice they might have gained that Loss that is they might have prevented it And such a first kind of Gain the Faithful have by Death in freeing them from that both Sin and Misery either by ending what before they were in or preventing what if they had lived longer they might have fallen into 1. It ends Sin which all our Lifes-time we were wofully encumbred with which made Paul so sadly groan out that complaint Rom. 7. 24. O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of Death That is either this outward mortal Body or this inward body of Sin which is more mortal Both may be taken into the Sense because both are together
to him and such like him which the Papists grant but even to all the faithful that dye in Christ whose Souls are not to be sought for in the Papists Purgatory or our new Philosophical Divines lower or upper Quarters where they can tell you in their several Vehicles what Meat they eat and what Recreations they sport themselves with In former times with Protestant Divines and others before them there were but two Receptacles of Souls departed either Heaven or Hell and if they that dye in Christ be not in Hell I hope they are in Heaven and if there then most happy and if Death send them thither then what gain they get by it they will think of and bless God for to Eternity The sum of all these particular proofs is epitomized in that short saying of Austin Mors beatitudinis principium laborum meta peremptoria peccatorum It kills Sin ends Misery begins Happiness in Grace and Glory and therefore upon all Accounts it's gain to the Godly And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the blessedness of that Man whom Vse 1 this may be truly said of Well might Solomon say the Righteous Prov. 12. 26. Man is more excellent than his Neighbour in that when to all other wicked or Worldly Men Death is the loss of all which they account gain as of Life and all the outward comforts of it so that when they are gone they say with Micah when he had lost his Idols what have I more Judg. 18. 24. he can say I thank God I have lost nothing nay I am so far from being a loser that I am a most happy gainer by the bargain and he that is a gainer by Death it self can as to other matters be a loser by nothing nay he is a loser by Life as Paul was v. 23. if Death be gain to him how great is the difference Some would have it hinted by the Psalmist Psal 49. 10. where he saith Wise Men See Muts in locum dye but Fools Perish The Godly-Wise are subject to Death as well as others but Christ by his Death hath changed it to his from a Curse to a Blessing that it 's not now it self not a Death but a Carcase of Death a vanquished Goliah before terrible but then by every little David trampled on a dead Lion whose 1 Sam. 17. 51. Eccles 9. 4. very roaring the noise or mere naming of it was before affrighting as we saw before but now so far from terrifying that as Sampson's Lion it hath sweetest Hony in it when sweetest and Judg. 14. 8. greatest gain comes by it Thus Death sitteth uppon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revel 6. 8. we translate it a pale Horse but the word both according to its derivation and more frequent use signifieth also green and virdant To the wicked it's pallida mors pale Death because it makes them look pale but green and pleasant to the Godly they that in old Age being planted in God's Courts are green and fruitful Psal 92. 13 14. even in Death it self which blasts all else retain their flourish and never more than then when they are now sprouting out to Eternity Hezekiah now sick and in his own sense dying and that in some respects so sorrowing that it 's said he wept sore and as it were now receiving the fatal stroke from God's hand thou wilt make an end of me Isa 38. 13. yet useth a word to express it that had peace and comfort conteined in the signification of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth peace so that although it be an end yet it is a peaceable one and so makes good what David said that the end of that Man is Peace Psal 37. 37. as how full of Peace and Comfort are David's own last words 2 Sam. 23 and some See Muis on that Psalm conceive he made Psal 72. on his death-bed At non sic impii non sic The ungodly are not so it is far otherwise with them Mors peccatorum pessima as the 70. and vulgar read Psal 34. 21. In the last part and end of a sinner's Life it 's worst with him They had in their lives been busily Jam. 4. 13. trading in the World buying and selling and getting gain and ruffling it in the World but mean while by their sins they run James 4. 13. deep in debt with God and for want of Interest in Christ to be their surety at Death it may be on the sudden it comes to that of the Psalmist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ps 55. 15. let death seize upon them let Psal 55. 15. Dr. Hammond in locum them go down quick into Hell Death seizeth on them unawares as a Serjeant or Pursevant casts them into Prison which is expressed by their going down quick into Hell as it 's said Numb 16. 32 33. that Korah and his Company did and there the Psalmist saith they lie like Sheep or Wolves rather and Death feeding on them as they before it may be preyed on the Sheep of Christ Bernard Psal 49. 14. Detracto vellere mundalium divitiarum thinks it 's said as Sheep because their former warm Fleeces of Riches and worldly contentments will then be close shorn and their Skins flayed off and then Death feeds on them though they never dye quia semper moriuntur ad vitam semper vivunt ad mortem and there as Prisoners with the Devils are reserved in everlasting Chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day as the Apostles Peter and Jude express it though it 2 Pet. 2. 4. Jude 6. may be they lie on their Death-Beds like Logs either senseless or smothering in disquietness of mind yet that 's but in the smoak of the Furnace but the worst is that at last they will burn in Hell Of them at Death you may say as you use to say of some miserable Man here that their best days are past but of the Godly if Death be their gain even in the saddest days of their Life that their best days are yet to come even the day of Death and of the Resurrection Oh what a great Gulf will there then be betwixt the Righteous and Ungodly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 16. 26 What a distance what an odds between them when both their Accounts shall then be cast up when the one who counted gain to be godliness shall lose all and the others 1 Tim. 6. 5. Death shall prove their greatest gain And therefore let Hannah's words be said to the head of the proudest profane Worldlings Talk no more so exceeding proudly let not Arrogancy any more come out of your Mouth speak no longer grievous things proudly and 1 Sam. 2. 3. Psal 31. 18. contemptuously against the Righteous Say not as they would have had Job to have said it profiteth a Man nothing that he should delight himself in God What advantage will
the Gospel labour carefully to gain Souls to Christ and that will bring thee plentiful gain both at Death in inward Comfort and after Death in a more plentiful reward Paul was very industrious in this Trade as you may see 1 Cor. 9. 19 to 23. and Chap. 10. 33. in which his Life was so laborious that you find here his Death was gain to him 5. But add Perseverance to all else we lose all that we have gained 2 John 8. As the Nazarite in the Law if after his Vow he were polluted he lost all his former days Numb 6. 12. or as he that runneth a Race though he hath gone on far in it loseth the prize if he give over before he come to lay hold of it and therefore although either the length of the way or our pains in getting on in it put us to it yet with that worthy Knight on his Death-Bed say Sir John Pickring Hold out Faith and Patience yet a little longer and it will not be long before Death pay for all 6. Lastly Remember what went before these words in the Text To me to live is Christ and then to die is Gain Labour that Christ in all the fore-mentioned Particulars be our Life and then we be very certain that Death will be our Advantage A Christ-like though painful Life will certainly end in a most Acts 10. 38. John 17. 4. gainful and joyful Death He went up and down doing good and finished the Work which his Father gave him to do suffered those things which were appointed Him and so entred into Luke 24. 26. Glory And we following Him in His steps need not doubt but we shall into it also But to live like a Beast or a Devil and to think to die like a Saint to live so unprofitably that neither Christ hath service from thee nor any Body any benefit by thee and to hope that Death will be Gain to thee how vain and unreasonable Epictetus could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where there is true Gain there must be true Godliness and the Apostle saith Godliness is Gain 1 Tim. 6. 6. and profitable for all things having promise not only of the Life that now is but also of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. And therefore the profit of it is not ended in Death but then more than ever before comes in and is made over to be enjoyed in everlasting Life and Glory Which therefore for the third Use of the Point should encourage Vse 3 the Faithful against the fear of Death and calls upon them rather to desire it than be afraid of it Our Gain doth not use to be the Matter of our Fear but of our Desire and Joy The Tradesman is not wont to be afraid of a profitable Bargain nor the Labourer of his Day 's work in the evening to receive his Wages and Reward Now this if we believe Paul Death is or brings with it He confidently saith here that it is Gain and therefore as such is not afraid of it but ver 23. desires it Indeed he speaks of some Heb. 2. 15. who through fear of Death were all their life-time subject to Bondage But who were they I confess such he speaks of as were to be saved by Christ as the beginning of the Verse sheweth in those words that he might deliver them c. But yet so as they were out of Christ for the present or if in Christ yet not assured of it but still under a spirit of Bondage according to that Legal Dispensation before Christ And yet I do not remember I read in Scripture of any either under the Law or Gospel truly Godly that were much affrighted at the approach of Death Hezekiah indeed wept sore at the Message of Death and some I confess think he was then under some inward auguish of Spirit But I cannot Isa 38. 3. easily believe that it was simply from any fear of Death whilst he even then had so clear a testimony of his Conscience that he could appeal to God that he had walked before him in truth and with a perfect heart in his life but it was because he yet wanted a Son to continue the Promised Seed or for some other like cause And as Death is an Enemy to Nature so Nature may with submission to God's Will without sin be ready to turn from it So our Saviour desired that the Cup might pass from him And it is said of Peter that some should Matth. 26. 39. John 21. 18. gird him and carry him whither he would not But our Saviour's was more than an ordinary Death than any Martyr's death that suffered never so great Torments in it and was it out of fear of Death when his Face was set to go to Jerusalem to be Luke 9. 53. John 18. 4. John 10. 18. Crucified When he went out to meet His Apprehenders when He saith that no Man took away his Life but that He willingly of himself laid it down and therefore was not thrust out or driven but saith I go to my Father as some observe When John 7. 33. Cartwright even He deprecated to be delivered from that Hour yet saith even for that Cause He came to that Hour And therefore quietly John 12. 27. Matth. 26. 39. Luke 22. 42. Luke 23. 46. and submissively said Father not my Will but Thine be done And even in the Pangs of Death so quietly could say Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit And for Peter when now near to Death we do not find him bewailing it but calling of it only a putting off his Tabernacle 2 Pet. 1. 14. Nor doth the Story of his Death mention any such affrightment of him then but the contrary And for others Moses and Aaron went up the Mounts to die as a quiet Child doth at his Fathers command go up to his Bed to sleep as I have else-where shewed Simeon sings his Nunc dimittis Paul knows his departure is at hand 2 Tim. 4. 6 7 8. but he calls it his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that word signifieth such an Unbinding and Taking off of Burdens as we do to our Beasts when we come to our Inn or return to our Home and that I hope is not dreadful but desireable and welcome as his was there when after his good fighting of his good Fight and finishing his Course he had his hand upon the Crown of Righteousness And it was a breaking of his heart that they should weep and pray him not to go to Jerusalem who was ready not only to be bound but also to Die for Christ there Acts 21. 13. As Ignatius in the very like case said to his Friends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Rom. How chearfully did the Martyrs in former and latter Times make haste to their Torments as fast as an old Man can said old Latimer imbrace the Flames and had less trouble to endure the Torments than their
be lost they are lost for ever 1 Sam 9. 3 20. Psal 119 ult 1 Pet. 2. 25. Mat. 18. 11. Luke 14. 4 5. Saul's lost Asses may be again found and so the lost Sheep and such were the best of us in this Life may be also but Souls lost at Death will never be able afterward to find the way to Life nor will all the riches of the World be able to purchase then a Guide to it Indeed in the right improving of them for God and the Poor thou mayst be laying a good foundation as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 6. 18 19. against time to come that when Death comes thou mayst lay hold of everlasting Life but the bare enjoying of them though it may set thee on higher ground amongst Men here below yet it will never be able to lift thee up to God's favour in Life or to Heaven in Death The gain of these things is the Devil's Bait and therefore he cast it out as his last device to take our Saviour with All this will I give thee c. Matth. 4. 9. and with which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he enticeth Men to the loss of James 1. 14. their Souls and so the same Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth both Gain and Craft or Deceit because by gain he craftily deceives Men to their perdition And so his prime Scholar Simon Magus because as Solomon saith Mony answereth all Eccles 10. 16. Acts 8. 19. things would be chaffering with it for Spirituals but Peter gave him his Answer that his Mony was not current in God's Market but bade it perish with him so that it seems Ver. 20. he might perish for all it with it and if gain be all his Godliness all that his gain will be found to be loss at his 1 Tim. 6. 5. last reckoning and then the Covetous who are most greedy of gain will be greatest losers as the Prophet pronounceth a Woe against such Hab. 2. 9. 3. Nor will the bare enjoying of outward Ordinances though more gainful make Death our gain which yet Men are too ready to phansy and promise to themselves Now know I saith Micah that the Lord will do me good seeing I have a Levite to my Priest Judg. 17. 13. and it is a Plea which some even at Death and Judgment will knock boldly at the Gate of Heaven with to have it opened to them We have eaten and drank in thy presence and thou hast taught in our Streets Luke 13. 26. And to this day it 's a very short cut that some are ready to make from a Death-bed to Heaven they have been Baptized and by it Original sin was taken away from them and they have gone to Church to Prayer Sermon and Sacrament and if then at the point of Death they may have their actual sins taken off by Absolution and receive the Sacrament upon it for confirmation of it they make no question but they shall go bolt right up to Heaven and whatever their lives be Death will be their gain without all peradventure But Friend be not too hasty to reckon without your Host sit down a little and think seriously of these Scriptures Bodily exercise profiteth little 1 Tim. 4. 8. It is the Spirit that quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing John 6. 63. Circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the Law but if thou beest a breaker of the Law thy Circumcision is made uncircumcision Rom. 2. 25. It 's not the bare having them but profiting by them in one sense if either in Life or Death thou wouldst be profited by them in another Indeed we read Rom. 3. 1 2. What advantage hath the Jew or what profit is there of Circumcision Much every way and chiefly because unto them were committed the Oracles of God saith Paul and so say I great is the gain that in Life and Death we get by them if we in Life gain saving-Grace and Souls-advantage by them but they will not be so if we live wickedly or but unfruitfully under them and so have our condemnation aggravated by them as some would gather out of Revel 14. those that will not be gathered in Grotius the Gospel's Harvest v. 15 16. will be pressed in the Vintage of God's Judgments v. 17 18. 4. Nor will outward Profession and a fair shew under those Ordinances which too many rest in and hope to gain Heaven by accrue to their advantage at Death and their last account then Paul could say Though I speak with the Tongues of Men and Angels and though I have the gift of Prophesy and Faith to remove Mountains and bestow all my goods on the Poor and have not true Charity it profiteth me nothing 1 Cor. 13. 1 2. And more near to my purpose that 's a sad question Job 27. 8. What is the hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained this and that and the repute with Men with Christians of more than ordinary proficiency in Grace and Holiness when God takes away his Soul Man thou wilt then be stript for we shall all be judged naked and then as Solomon saith in another case Prov. 23. 8. The Morsel thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up and lose thy sweet words the hid corruption of thy Heart will then up and out to the loathing of both thy self and others and all those sweet words and pretences by which thou didst impose upon others and endeavouredst upon God also will be all lost and thou with them when thou shalt find that of the Apostle Rom. 2. 28 29. made good He is not a Jew who is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the Flesh but he is a Jew who is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of Men but of God Ravennae extat emblema ad picturam Phaenicis Securus moritur qui scit se morte renasci Mors ea non dici sed nova vita potest Expunctâ hâc morte ad immortalitatem venimus Cyprian de mortalitate S. 2. FINIS There are several literal Mistakes and some mispointings in the Hebrew words which the Candid and Learned Reader is desired to amend The other most material here follow PAge 3. Line 13. Read by p. 4. l. 3. r. notional p. 9. in the margent r. John the most Eagle-eyed Evangelist p. 21. l. 32. r. Michal p. 24. l. 8. dele self after him p. 32. l. 31. r. add some p. 81. l. ult r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 88. l. 11. r. Josh 4. 18. p. 91. l. 17. r. lumber p. 112. marg r. legis sectam p. 122. l. 8. r. in Christ p. 182. l. 35. for God himself r. Godliness p. 183. l. 36. for cross r. crasse p. 224. l. 18. r. meant p. 230. l. 8. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 232. l. 9. r. adore him for p. 233. l. 13. r. could bestow p. 239. l. 38. for crimes r. aimes p. 247. l. 4. r. is terminus p. 378. l. 1. r. quid p. 403. l. 15. r. this p. 415. l. 8. dele why p. 441. l. 23. r. faedus p. 462. l. ult 463. l. 1. r. none before the guide p. 469. l. 30. r. persons p. 471. l. 15. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 474. l. 21. r. Anaxagoras p. 478. l. 35. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 489. l. 20. r. Rereward p. 511. marg l. 21. r. prima q. 105. p. 537. l. ult r. conflatus à Vulcano p. 538. l. 2. r. firmer p. 542. l. 34. r. there by p. 560. l. 23. r. main chance p. 561. l. 21. r. left p. 564. l. 1. after small insert But the King p. 566. l. 27. r. Abject l. 26. r. rescued p. 594. l. 35. r. the Psalmist saith p. 614. l. 25. after come add when it doth come l. 37. r. enjoying p. 652. l. ult dele of it p. 661. l. 26. r. Jesuates p. 666. l. 24. r. move p. 668. l. 12. after Gen. 30. 29. add But a Christian should say thus with himself p. 672. l. 8. r. inquam p. 678. l. 15. r. privatively p. 686. l. 12 for say r. answer P. 692. l. 31. r. enow