Omnipotent because the glorie of God wherewith he is glorified is every where or because the Power or Right-hand by which he is strengthned is a Power Omnipotent Omnipotencie it self Thus much of that Absolute Infinitie or Infinitie in Act unto which Christs Humane Nature was not Exalted and yet it was Exalted in some sort Infinitly above all other created substances and so Exalted or at least declared to be so Exalted specially by the Ascension of it into heaven and by its Sitting at the Right-hand of God the Father 8. That is Infinitum actu or actually Infinite Extra quod nihil est which is so perfect and compleat that nothing in the same kind can be added unto it That is Infinitum potentia or potentially Infinite unto which somewhat may successively be added without end or ceasing Thus Philosophers have taught that In continuâ quantitate non datur minimum in discretâ non datur maximum There is not the least quantitie but is divisible into infinite parts There is no member so great but may still be made greater by Addition and albeit Addition were made every moment unto the worlds end yet the Product could not be actually infinite some number might be added unto it which as yet is not contained in it In this manner the participated Power or Glorie of God or the participation of this Power or Glorie may be infinite The participation of this Power or Being may every moment whilest the world lasteth or whilest immortall creatures continue in being be greater then other and yet never come to be so great but that it may be augmented or bettered and that which may be augmented or bettered cannot be actually Infinite The least parcel of earth could not subsist without the participation of Gods Power or Being and the least or dullest part of the earth which participates of his Being doth in a sort infinitly exceed Nothing or that which is not Nothing could have any Being but by participating of his Being who is infinite No power besides Infinite Power could out of Nothing produce Something Trees and plants and other workes of the 4 th and 5 th dayes creation excell the earth Beasts of the field excell them Man excelleth the beasts of the field and the Angels excell man in nobilitie and dignitie of being And yet the most excellent amongst the Angels is but a participation of Gods Power or Excellencie and as Divines collect God hath not made any creature so excellent but he may make it more excellent every day then other yet this supposed should not the Excellencie of it be Actually infinite because it may be still bettered Yet may that which is not actually infinite in any one kind or according to any one branch of Infinitie actually contein greater Excellencie or perfection in it then the addition of perfection unto some other creature though by succession infinite can attain unto And thus Christs Humane Nature by reason of the Personall Union which it hath with the Godhead or with the Son of God containes greater Excellencie in it of diverse kinds then any other created substance not so united though the faculties or perfections of it were continually bettered could reach unto 9. But omitting the Dignitie of Christs humane Nature in the general it will be a more profitable search to examin the particular Effects or Efficacie which his Humane Nature now Exalted hath in respect of us These may not be measured much lesse limited by other mens most noble Faculties or perfections The most dull sight on earth may see as far as the Sun or Starrs and the most quick sight cannot see beyond them No mans eye-sight can pierce through the thickest clouds much lesse through the heavens above or through the rockes here on earth Though thus to do were absolurely impossible to man or any other creature endued with sight we might not hence thus collect Christs glorified eyes are humane eyes as ours are created eyes as ours are Therefore He cannot with these bodily eyes look down from heaven and behold what is done or lyes hid in the most secret corners of the earth or that his facultie of hearing because a created facultie cannot apprehend all the blasphemies or oathes even the most secret murmurings of his enemies either against him or his Church Or admitting any Saints eyes already glorified in bodie in heaven could by vision of the Divine Nature see all things that are done in earth or that his eares could hear all the Conference that passeth in this Kingdom for some one day yet this excellencie of his outward senses being supposed his internal or intellective faculties were not able to distinguish betwixt every thing so heard or seen or to censure every word or deed as it deserves Nor could his memorie perhaps perfectly retain what for the present the apprehends or conceives Yet may we not hence argue Christs intellective Faculties are but Humane not divine Ergo he cannot distinctly and infallibly Judge or censure every thing he sees or hears or infallibly retayne the Records of his Judgment or censure inviolate and entire unto the day of Judgment Bound we are rather to beleive that Christ as Man or with his Humane eyes sees all our wrongs and as Man hears all our prayers and takes notice of all our doings Or that he who as Man shall bee our Judge is in the mean time an Eye-witnesse of all our misdeedes or well doings an Eare-witness of all our speeches good or bad Nor may we again by broken Inductions gathered from the effects or efficacie of natural bodies or created substances upon other bodies take upon us to limit or bound the Efficacie of Christs Bodie upon the bodies or soules which he hath taken to his protection We may not collect that Christs bodie because comprehended within the heavens can exercise no reall Operation upon our bodies or soules here on earth or that the live Influence of his glorified Human Nature may not be diffused through the world as he shall be pleased to dispense it or to sow the seeds of life issuing from it sometimes here sometimes there 10. This Real though Virtual Influence of Christs Humane Nature is haply that which the Lutherans call the Real Ubiquitarie presence of Christ Bodie Luther himself never denyed Christs very bodie or Humane Nature to be comprehended within the heavens and yet he affirmed it to be present with us in such a manner as the sound is present with us which is really made or caused a great way from us And we may not deny This Real Influence or Virtual Presence of Christ to be in a manner Infinite or at least to extend it self to all created substances that are capable of it in what created distance soever they be from his bodie whose Residence we beleive to be in the highest heavens at the Right hand of God This kind of Infinitie of his Presence can seem no Paradox or improbable Imagination to
felicity or in his application of those good Lessons which Nature did suggest unto him he found himself tyed by bond of Conscience to observe the Law of Nature The Original of his positive error was an ignorance or blindness common to him and most Heathen in some degree or other in not being able to discern the corruption of nature from Nature her self or to distinguish between the suggestions or intimations of Nature as it sometimes was and universally might have continued and the particular suggestions or longings of Nature as it was corrupted or tainted in himself or others more or less in all It was a Principle of his Doctrine as Seneca tells us That Nature which he profest to follow as his guide did abhor all vice or wickedness It seems he held those courses or habits of life onely vicious which we Christians account unnatural or prodigious vices as Tyranny Cruelty or excessive Luxury And such vices as these the most Heathens whom corruption of Nature did lead blindfold into many grievous sins and cast such a mist before their eyes as made unlawful pleasures appear unto them as parts of true happiness did by the light of Nature detest as contrary to the unapprehended Remnants or Reliques of Gods Image yet inherent in them though mingled with Corruption or much defaced with the Image of Satan But from what Grounds of Nature or Experiments did this Author or first Founder of the Sect of Epicures collect that Nature did detest all wickedness Thus he did reason and collect Quia sceleratis etiam inter tuta timor est Because he saw such as had polluted their Consciences with wicked and prodigious practises to live in fear even whilest they seemed to have safety her self for their guard against all external Occurrences whose probable assaults or annoyances humane Policy could possibly forecast And none more subject to this slavish fear which their Consciences did inwardly suggest then such as for their greatness and confidence in Tyranny and Cruelty were most terrible to others What was it then which these men did so much fear No other men nor any revenge that man could attempt upon them What then The company of themselves or solitary conference with their own Consciences Yet no mans conscience can make his heart afraid unless the conscience it self be first affrighted What is it then which the consciences of supream earthly Judges or Monarchs absolute by right of Conquest can so much fear in the height of their temporal security The Censure doubtless or check of some superior Judge If this fear had been vain or but a speculative Phansie it could not have been uinversal or general in all or most wicked men specially in such as were by nature terrible and stout and wary withal to prevent all probabilities of danger from men Yet was this check of Conscience or this unknown Doom or Censure which Conscience whilest it checkt the hearts of wicked men did so much fear so universal and constant that Epicurus a man of no scrupulous Conscience did observe it to be implanted by nature in all and upon this observation did ground his former general Principle That nature her self did abhor or detest wickedness The suggestion then or intimation of a future Judgement was natural but the apprehension or construction which Epicurus made of these suggestions was but such as ordinary men make of representations in natural Dreams before they be throughly awaked or before they consult the Philosopher or Physician The Christian Truth which nature in these Heathens being in respect of any supernatural use or end of her own suggestions altogether dumb did seek by these signs or intimations to express was that Lesson which the Author of nature great Physician of our souls hath expresly taught us Fear not them which after they have killed the body can do no more but fear him who is able to cast both body and soul into Hell fire yea I say unto you fear him Matth. 10. 28. Luke 12. 4. 14. As the wicked amongst the Heathens could not by any earthly Guard or greatness exempt themselves from that Dread or Fear which their corrupt Consciences did internally suggest So that confident Boldness which the integrity of conscience doth naturally suggest unto every man in his laudable actions was sometimes represented by the more civil and sober sort of Heathens after a manner more magnificent and in a measure more ample then it usually is by most Christians Their expressions or conceipts of such confidence as integrity of conscience doth arm men withal did as far exceed our ordinary apprehensions of it as the representations of natural Causes working within us which are made unto us in sleep or dreams do our waking apprehensions of the like workings or suggestions of nature Si Fractus illabatur orbis saith Horace a profest Disciple of Epicurus Carm. Lib. 3. Ode 3. impavidum ferient ruinae Albeit the Heavens should rend assunder above his head and this inferior world break in pieces about his ears yet a man of an intire and sound conscience would stand unmoved unaffrighted like a pillar of brass or marble when the roof which it supporteth were blown away or fallen from it This Hyperbolical expression of that Confidence which integrity of Conscience in some measure always affords was in this Heathen if he had been put upon the tryal but as the representation of a mans bodily estate made in a Dream whose true cause is unknown unto the Dreamer As in men that dream so in this Heathen Poet the apprehension of that which Nature did truly and really suggest is most full and lively but full and lively in both without Judgement without true use or right application That Confidence then is the companion of a good Conscience is a truth implanted by Nature and freely acknowledged by the oppugners of Divine Providence But from what original or fountain this truth should issue or to what comfortable Use it might serve were points which Nature could not distinctly teach or points at least which the meer natural man without help of Scriptures or instructions from those Heavenly Physicians of the soul whom God hath appointed Interpreters of this Book of life could not learn But we Christians know and believe that when the Heavens shall be gathered as a Scroul when the Elements shall melt with heat and when the earth shall be removed out of his place that even in the midst of these terrible spectacles such as have their Consciences purified by Faith shall lift up their heads for joy as knowing these and the like to be undoubted Prognosticks or fore-running signs of their Redemption drawing nigh unto them A Crisis rather a kinde of First-fruits of this Holy Confidence was most remarkably attested to have been in the Primitive Christians So Antoninus the Emperor as in our 1. Book chap. 24. out of Eusebius his 4. Book of Hist Eccles chap. 13. we did
and Last consists of Thirteen Select Sermons the fittest I could chuse out to aid and accompany the precedent Discourses especially to attend the Tracts Of Christs coming to Judgment Of the Resurrection Of Life and Death Eternal which as they most flagrantly set forth THE TERROR OF THE LORD so are they most likely by startling and amateing the Conscience to prepare mens minds that the Impressions of those Sermons may be most penetrative and permanent As in the last mentioned Tracts me-thinks I find A Particular Summons directed to my self Prepare to meet thy God Give an Account of thy Stewardship So in the annexed Sermons I find peculiar and proper Remembrances of several things wherein I have done very foolishly deeds that ought not to be done For this cause I bow my knees and pray the Reader to lift his heart up in my behalf to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for Pardon and Peace and that what I have here printed in this Book may so be written in the Table of my heart not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God that I may not only wait for but haste to the Coming of the Day of God Having transferred these things unto my self and thus far made the Reader yea the World it self my Confessor I hope none will offend if I shew what respective parts of the ensuing Work may by others be usefully applyed to themselves And first of all The Sorrowful and rightly suffering soul if his actings be according may reap harvests of Comfort from what Our Author hath written About Judgment Resurrection and the Life to Come Whereas he that adds sin to miserie and wrath may certainly presume all the Desolations and Destructions God hath brought upon the Earth as so many Tastes and pledges of Greater to ensue The Woes past are but Schiographies and portendments scarce beginnings of future evils And I earnestly beseech all of the former sort as to fortifie themselves with Arguments to Charitie and forgiving injuries out of Chap. 32. So to regulate their Conversation and Demeanour by the Directions to be sound Chap. 35. The Section Of Christs coming to Judgment is very useful for such as take upon them places of Judicature and most useful for such as judge in matters of Highest Nature and Difference The Precept of Deborah Judg. 5. 10. Meditate ye Ye that sit in Judgment is the same with that of David Psal 2. 10 12. Be Wise Kiss the Son And the Question which David puts in that Golden Psalm Ne perdas will again be put to the Question by the Son of David when he comes to judge the Judges of the Earth Are your minds set upon righteousness O ye Congregation And do ye judge the thing that is right O ye sons of Men Whether ye do or no will then be justly and finally judged The Tract Of the Resurrection who can express the use of it An astonishing Meditation it is to think I now see as surely the eyes of some shal see those Christian brethren that fel in any late Battail were buried where they fell rising out of their places of Burial whether impleading or forgiving one another and with haste marching into the Valley of Jehoshaphat to see the day won or lost there and whose Heads shall then be crowned with Glory Yet is this but as the drop of a bucket to the Ocean of that days Terrors The Sermons upon that Precept of Christ I might say of Noah and Tullie Do as you would be done to are worth their weight in Gold of Ophir and useful for all Christians of what condition soever There came out a Book some sixteen years ago intituled Autocatacrisis Ladensium To the Partie or Persons that Composed or applauded that Book wherein Our Author is named I would especially recommend His Discourses upon Rom. 2. 1. presuming that that those with the Verifications of them exhibited in these late Revolutions will convince Him or them sufficiently That it is no difficult matter to compile a Larger Volume of Particularities wherein they that have judged others have by doing over and over again and again the same things or things more then equivalent condemned themselves and justified those whom they have condemned The Sermons upon 2 Chron. 24. and Matth. 23. contein very sound reproof of the Pharisaical Duplicitie of such as built the Sepulchres of ancient and yet persecuted the present Prophets and therein of such as in our dayes commend the Lives and condemn the Authors of the Deaths of Bishop Cranmer Hooper Ridley Ferrar Father Latimer c. And yet destroy their successors in Order Discipline and Doctrine I call heaven and earth to Record this day not to condemn such but to convince them that they may be saved That Those Men whom they have cast out as enemies to the Church of England and in Effect by driving them out from the Inheritance of the Lord tempted saying Go serve other Gods are The Men that bear the Burthen and heat of the day in all Contests betwixt parties of the English and Romish Churches and that preserve their undoers from being overborn with Romish Errors And this they do upon disadvantages unimaginable save only to such as have experimented them for want of their own Libraries Their former accommodations of Secessus Otia c. Besides Those Sermons will shew That the guilt of Blood will lye long upon a Nation That it justly may and certainly will be required of late Posterity unless A Signal Repentance of the same and especial abstinence from the like sins intervene I appeal to the meekest Moses upon earth what Degree of Guilt he would apportion to that Communitie suppose it in any Forrain Kingdom or the Posteritie thereof which being not only A Pretender to Christianitie but to the Puritie thereof did Sit as a Spectator whilst a Tumultuous Tempest of People for divers hours together did hunt and chase an Aged man were he good or bad unto the Death Yet was this thing done in our Metropolis which is a kind of standing Representative of the whole Nation some thirtie yeers ago Or what censure he would pass upon three Kingdomes the Generality whereof did though but ex-post-facto only by rejoycing at the deed consent to the Assassination of A Prince the man whom the King had honoured Yet was this also done about the same number of years since It is true Justice did treatably overtake the Partie that did this Fact But Who ever sorrowed for the Joy conceived at it These two seem to have been Portentuous Aboadments of Calamities ensuing as the daily visible desolation and Profanation of Gods House is of future woe And I remember them not as making Intercession against Israel or as things I have whereof to accuse mine own Nation with delight but upon the same account that I call mine own sins to remembrance that God may be intreated for the Land to blot them out of His.
is shameful 3. It is mortiferous Two Motives to engage us in Gods service 1. Present and sweet fruit unto holiness 2. Future happiness p 3469 18. Of the fruitlesnesse of sin Of the shame that followes and dogs sin as the shadow doth the body what shame is whence it ariseth and what use may be made thereof Of fame praise and honor Satans stales false shame and false honor The character of both in Greek and Latin Of Pudor which is alwayes Male Facti of Verecundia which may sometimes be de modo recte Facti Periit vir cui pudor periit Erubuit salva res est p. 3477 19. We are many wayes engaged to serve God rather then to serve sin though sin could afford us as much fruit reward as God doth But there is no proportion no ground of comparison between the fruits of sin the Gift of God The case stated betwixt the voluptuous sensual life and the life truly christian Satans Method and Gods Method A complaint of the neglect of grace p. 3484 20. The first and second Death both literally meant The wages of sin Both described both compared and shewed how and wherein the second Death exceeds the first The greater deprivation of good the worse and more unwelcom death is Every member of the bodie every faculty of the soul the seat and subject of the second death A Map and scale the surface and solidity of the second Death Pain improved by enlarging the capacity of the patient and by intending or advancing the Activitie of the Agent Three dimensions of the second death 1. Intensiveness 2. Duration 3. Unintermitting continuation of Torment Poena damni sensus terms co-incident Pains of the Damned Essential and Accidental Just to punish momentany sin with pain eternal The reflection and Revolution of thoughts upon the sinners folly the Worm of conscience p. 3490 21. Eternal life compared with this present life the several tenures of both The method proposed The instability of this present life The contentments of it short and the capacities of men to enjoy such contentments as this life affords narrower In the life to come the capacitie of every faculty shall be enlarged Some senses shal receive their former contentments only eminentèr as if one should receive the weight in Gold for dross Some formalitèr Of Joy Essential and Joy Accidental p. 3500 22. Of the Accidental Joys of the life to come A particular Terrar or Map of the Kingdom prepared for the blessed Ones in a Paraphrase upon the 8 Beatitudes or the Blessedness promised to the 8 qualifications set down in the 5. Matth. Eternal life the strongest obligation to all duties Satans two usual wayes of tempting us either per Blanda or per Aspera p. 3510 23. The Philosophers Precept Sustine Abstine though good in its kind and in some degree useful yet insufficient True belief of the Article of everlasting life and death is able to effect both Abstinence from doing evil and sufferance of evil for well-doing The sad Effects of the misbelief or unbelief of this Article of Life and Death Eternal The true belief of it includes a taste of both Direction how to take a taste of death eternal without danger Turkish Principles produce Effects to the shame of Christians Though hell fire be material it may pain the soul The Story of Biblis The Bodie of the second death fully adequate to the Body of sin Parisiensis his Story A General and useful Rule p. 3519. 24. The Bodie of Death being proportioned to the bodie of sin Christian Meditation must apply part to part but by Rule and in Season The dregs and relicks of sin be the sting of Conscience and this is a prognostick of the worm of Conscience which is a chief part of the second death Directions how to make right use of the fear of the second death without falling into despere and of the hope of life eternal without mounting into presumption viz. 1. Beware of immature perswasions of certainty of salvation 2. Of this Opinion That all men be at all times either in the estate of the Elect or Reprobates 3. Of the irrespective Decree of Absolute Reprobation The use of the taste of death and pleasures The Turkish use of both How Christians may get a relish of Joy eternal by peace of Conscience joy in the Holy Ghost and works of Righteousnesse Affliction useful to that purpose p. 3529 25. The coldness of our hope of Eternal Life causeth Deviation from the wayes of righteousness and is caused by our no-taste or spiritual disrelish of that life The work of the Ministry is to plant this taste and to preserve it in Gods people Two objects of this Taste 1. Peace of Conscience 2. Joy in the Holy Ghost That Peace may best be shadowed out unto us in the known sweetness of temporal peace The passions of the natural man are in a continual mutiny To men that as yet have no experience of it the nature of joy in the Holy Ghost may best be exemplified by that chearful gladness of heart which is the fruit of Civil Peace It is the prerogative of man to enjoy himself and to possess his own soul In the knowledg of any truth there is joy but true joy is only in the knowledg of Jesus Christ and of saving truths The difference between Joy and Gladnesse in English Greek and Latin p. 3538. 26. Whether the taste of Eternal Life once had may be lost Concerning sin against the Holy Ghost How temporal contentments and the pleasures of sin coming in competition prevail so as to extinguish and utterly dead the heavenly taste either by way of Efficiencie or Demerit The Advantages discovered by which a lesser good gets the better of a greater p. 3547. 27. About the merit of good Works The Romanists Allegations from the force of the word Mereri among the Antients and for the thing it self out of the holy Scriptures the Answers to them all respectively Some prove Aut nihil aut nimium The different value and importance of Causal Particles For Because c. A Difference between Not worthy and unworthy Christs sufferings though in time finite yet of value infinite Pleasure of sin short yet deserves infinite punishment Bad Works have the title of Wages and Desert to Death but so have not Good Works to Life Eternal p. 3558. 28. Whether Charismata Divina that is The Impressions of Gods Eternal Favour may be merited by us Or whether the second third and fourth Grace and Life Eternal it self may be so About Revival of Merits The Text Hebr. 6. 10. God is not unjust c. expounded The Questions about Merits and Justification have the same Issue The Romish Doctrin of Merits derogates from Christs merits The Question in order to Practise or Application stated betwixt God and our own souls Confidence in Merits and too hasty perswasions that we be the Favourites of God two Rocks God in punishing
place either expresly or implicitly to direct our prayers to God the Father that he would be pleased to forgive us our sins to be reconciled unto us and bestow such blessings upon us as he hath promised to such as shall be reconciled unto him In the Second place either expressly or implicitly we are to beseech him to forgive us our sins to be reconciled and blesse us for the merits of his only Son who hath made satisfaction for us This is a Point which every Christian is bound expressely to believe that God the Father doth neither forgive sins nor vouchsafe any Term or Plea of Reconciliation but only for the merits and satisfaction made by the sacrifice of the Son of God who by the eternal spirit offered himself in our humane nature upon the Crosse In the next place we are to believe and acknowledge that as God the Father doth neither forgive nor vouchsafe Reconciliation but for the merits and satisfaction of his only Son so neither will he vouchsafe to conveigh this or any other blessing unto us which his Son hath purchased for us but only through his Son not only through him as our Advocate or Intercessor but through him as our Mediator that is through His humanitie as the Organ or Conduit or as the only Bond by which we are united and reconciled unto the Divine Nature For although the Holy Spirit or Third Person in Trinitie doth immediately and by Personal Proprietie work faith and other spiritual Graces in our Souls yet doth he not by these Spiritual Graces unite our souls or Spirits immediately unto himself but unto Christs Humane Nature He doth as it were till the ground of our hearts and make it fit to receive the seed of life But this seed of righteousnesse immediately flows from the Sun of Righteousnesse whose sweet influence likewise it is which doth immediately season cherish and ripen it The Spirit of life whereby our Adoption and Election is sealed unto us is the real participation of Christs Bodie which was broken and of Christs Blood which was shed for us This is the true and punctual meaning of our Apostles speech 1 Cor. 15. 45. The first man Adam was made a living soul or as the Syriack hath it Animale Corpus an enlivened bodie but the second Adam was made a quickning spirit and immediately becometh such to all those which as truely bear his image by the Spirit of Regeneration which issues from him as they have born the Image of the first Adam by natural propagation And this again is the true and punctual meaning of our Saviours words John 6. 63. It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you are spirit and life For so he had said in the verses before to such as were offended at his words what if you should see the Son of man ascend up where he was before The Implication conteined in the Connexion between these two verses and the precedent is this That Christs Virtual presence or the influence of life which his Humane Nature was to distil from his heavenly Throne should be more profitable to such as were capable of it then his Bodily presence then the bodily Eating of his flesh and blood could be although it had been convertible into their bodily substance This distillation of life and immortalitie from his glorified Humane Nature is that which the Ancient and Orthodoxal Church did mean in their Figurative and lofty speeches of Christs Real presence or of eating His very Flesh and drinking His very Blood in the Sacrament And the Sacramental Bread is called His Bodie and the Sacramental Wine His Blood as for other reasons so especially for This that the vertue or influence of his Bloody Sacrifice is most plentifully and most effectually distilled from heaven unto the worthy Receivers of the Eucharist And unto this Point and no further will most of the Testimonies reach which Bellarmin in his books of the Sacraments or Maldonat in his Comments upon the sixth of Saint John do quote out of the Fathers for Christs Real Presence by Transubstantiation or which Chemnitius that Learned Lutheran in his Books De duabus in Christo naturis and de Fundamentis sanae doctrinae doth avouch for Consubstantiation And if thus much had been as distinctly granted to the Ancient Lutherans as Calvin in some places doth the controversie between the Lutheran and other Reformed Churches had been at an end when it first begun Both Parties acknowledging Saint Cyrill to be the fittest Umpire in this Controversie The end of the Third Chapter A Transition of the Publisher's IT must not be dissembled that I had no Intimation much lesse Commission of the Author's to Insert the Two following Chapters herein this place Yet besides that I knew not of any fitter place where to dispose of them I had these Reasons so to do 1. I held it fit that His Powerful Disputes against the Church of Rome about The Lords Supper in the fourth Chapter and about another Point in the fifth should immediately follow his Learned Argument with the Lutheran 2. The sequence seems very Methodical The Subject of the first Chapter being partly About Christs Exaltation by becoming The Chief Corner-Stone cut out of the Rock or quarrey by his Resurrection from The New Scpulchre lifted up by his Ascension and placed at the Chief Corner by his Sitting at Gods Right-hand and partly about The Union of Christ with true Christians which Union is both a Considerable part of the fourth Chapter and was happily touched upon in the Close of the Third 3. In case any Restive soul should perhaps some faint Dejected Spirit having read Christs Great Exaltation may say Who shall ascend into Heaven that is to bring Christ down from above Such an one besides the quickenings he may hear from other Remembrancers Saint Peter telling us that we are pilgrims here and Saint Paul that we seek a Countrie and look for a Citie Jerusalem that is Free and that being Fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of Gods hous-hold our Conversation or Traffick is to be in heaven for those things which are above where Christ sitteth at Gods Right-hand c. may receive mightie encouragement by Experimenting the Contents of these two next Chapters The avowed neer approach and Intimacie of our Lord Jesus Christ with the Believing and Receiving Christian The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart When the holy Sacramental pledges be in the mouth and Faith in the heart The Word the Eternal Word that was made flesh is nigh indeed For Verily Verily He that eateth my Fesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in Me and I in Him CHAP. 1111. A Paraphrase upon the sixth of St. John In what sense Christ's flesh is said to be truly Meat c. What it is To eat Christs Flesh and drink his Blood Of eating and drinking Spiritual and Sacramental And whether of them is meant
John 6. 56. Of Communion in one Kind and receiving Christs Blood per Concomitantiam Tollet's Exposition of Christs words Except ye eat And drink by Disjunction turning And into Or Confuted And Rules given for Better Expounding like places How Christ dwels in us and we in him The Application All which be seasonable Meditations upon the Lords Supper John 6. 56. He that eateth my Flesh and Drinketh my Blood dwelleth in Me and I in Him Or abideth in me and I in him 1. SEeing these words contain the Grand Mystery of godliness not only of God manifested in the Flesh but of God still with us yea dwelling in us and seeing they are withal the Conclusion or Centre of our Saviours long dispute with the murmuring Jews It will be necessarie to unfold the chief Contents of this Chapter At the tenth verse you may read how our Saviour had satisfied five thousand hungry souls with five barley loves and two fishes and filled twelve baskets with the fragments upon the Experience of this strange wonder this great multitude sought to make him their King A good Project I must confesse if we value it onely by the usual measure or aime of popular Elections What people would not be willing to have such an one for their King as were able to feed a whole Armie without Contribution Tax or Toll from them without any further toil and care either on their part or his then giving of thanks and distribution of extemporarie provision by his Ministers But besides this politick motive they had a Prenotion that their expected Messias or King should enter upon his Kingdom at the Feast of the Passover a little before which time this Miracle was wrought And it was a received Opinion as Tacitus telleth us that there should a great King about this time arise in Judah Nor did this people err much in the circumstance of time wherein their Messias should be enthron'd in the Kingdom of David for so he was at or soon after the Passover following But they utterly mistook the nature of his Kingdom and the manner of his Reign Yet in that they sought to make this man for so and no more then so they conceived him to be their King it is more then probable that they took him for their expected Messias And indeed upon sight of the Miracle which he had wrought they expressly confesse so much ver 14. This is of a truth That Prophet which should come into the world But seeing neither his Kingdome was of this world nor was he to be instated in it by the voyces and suffrages of men he who knew all times and seasons knew this was not the time of his Coronation and therfore when he perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a King he departed again into a mountain himself alone ver 15. And his Disciples being for the present discharged of their attendance crost the sea without him to Capernaum which was the place of his and their abode ver 16 17. The people which had been more then eye-witnesses of the former miracle having observed that he could not come to Capernaum where the next day they found him by ship or boat demand of him ver 25. Rabbi when camest thou hither The strange manner of his coming thither before them did it seems no lesse affect them then the former miracle though neither did affect them as was fitting for so our Saviour plainly tells them ver 26. Verily verily I say unto you ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled These were the same men which saw the miracle but in seeing it they did not see it that is they did not in heart consider that he had fed their bodies with corporal bread to no other end save only to stir up the appetite of their souls after celestial food So our Saviour testifies unto them ver 27. Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth to everlasting life which the Son of man shall give unto you for him hath God the Father sealed that is he was to be a King of Gods appointing not of theirs 2. Now albeit the former miracle of five loaves and two fishes had extorted that confession from them before mentioned Of a truth this is that Prophet which should come into the world yet this reproof of our Saviour's provokes them to question the validitie of their former verdict for they demand a further sign of him before they will acknowledge that he was indeed the Great Prophet or one whom they might believe was sent from God for so they say ver 30 31. What sign shewest thou then that we may see and believe thee What dost thou work our Fathers did eate Manna in the desert as it is written he gave them bread from heaven to eate The question at last comes to this issue Whether the Manna which their Fathers did eate in the wildernesse were the true bread of life or bread from heaven better then which they were not to expect Our Saviour maintaines the negative ver 32 33. Verily Verily I say unto you Moses gave you not that bread from heaven but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world All this they can well brook in Thesi or General for so they reply ver 34. Lord evermore give us this bread But when our Saviour comes from the Thesis to the Hypothesis or from the general Doctrine which they so well approved to make this particular Application I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst ver 35. They leave their questioning and fall to murmuring taking a sudden occasion or strange hint of offence at his person or Parentage Whereas before they were forward to make him their King they now reply Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know How is it then that he saith I came down from heaven vers 42. 3. Thus their fathers had murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wildernesse one while for want of bread Exod. 16. 2. accounting their estate in Egypt much better than their present condition in the wildernesse Another while they murmur for water Exod. 15. 24. And again Exod. 17. 3. Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our Children and Cattle with thirst Thus they murmured against Moses whom they had seen to work so mightie wonders And thus their foolish posteritie murmured against Him whom for the former miracle they had acknowledged the great Prophet whom God had promised to raise up unto them like unto Moses in all things and therefore like unto him in this in that he endured their murmurings against him with greater patience
blood he himselfe here saith it He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him and for this reason his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed the onely meat and the onely drink which men should hunger and thirst after Other meates and drinks should be sought for yea life bodily it self should be desired onely to this End that by the prolonging of it wee might be partakers in greater measure of this meat and drink which preserves the Bodie and soul unto everlasting life 5. The Questions then to be discussed are Two First What it is to eat Christs flesh and drink his Blood Secondly What it is for Christ to Dwell or abide in us and us to dwell or abide in Him All agree that there is A Twofold eating of Christs Bodie and A Twofold drinking of his Blood One meerly Sacramental and another Spiritual Which agreement notwithstanding There ariseth A Third Question viz. What manner of eating Christs Flesh and drinking his Blood is in this place either onely or principally meant For the Resolution of this Question we are breifly to explicate each member of this Division viz. 1. What it is to eat Christs Bodie and drink his Blood Sacramentally onely 2. What it is to eat his Bodie and Drink his Blood Spiritually First then All that are partakers of this Sacrament eat Christs Bodie and Drink his Blood sacramentally that is they eat that Bread which Sacramentally is his Bodie and drink that Cup which Sacramentally is his Blood whether they eat or drink faithfully or unfaithfully For All the Israelites 1 Cor. 10. Drank of the same Spiritual Rock which was Christ Sacramentally All of them were partakers of his presence when Moses smote the Rock Yet with many of them God was not well pleased because they did not faithfully either Drink or participate of his presence And more displeased he is with such as eat Christs Bodie and Drink his blood unworthily though they eat and drink them Sacramentally For eating and drinking so onely that is without faith or due respect they eat and drink to their own Condemnation because they do not Discern or rightly esteem Christs Bodie or presence in the H. Sacrament May we say then that Christ is Really present in the Sacrament as well to the unworthy as to the faithful receivers Yes this we must grant yet must we add withal that he is really present with them in a quite contrary manner really present he is because virtually present to both because the operation or efficacie of his Bodie and blood is not metaphorical but real in both Thus the bodily Sun though locally distant for its substance is really present by its heat and light as well to sore eyes as to clear sights but really present to both by a contrarie real operation and by the like contrary operation it is really present to clay and to wax it really hardneth the one and really softeneth the other So doth Christs Bodie and Blood by its invisible but real influence mollifie the hearts of such as come to the Sacrament with due preparation but harden such as unworthily receive the consecrated Elements If he that will hear the word must take heed how he hears much more must he which means to receive the Sacrament of Christs bodie and blood be careful how he receives He that will present himself at this great Marriage Feast of the Lamb without a wedding garment had better be absent It was alwayes safer not to approach the presence of God manifested or exhibited in extraordinarie manner as in his Sanctuarie or in the Ark then to make appearance before it in an unhallowed manner or without due preparation Now when we say that Christ is really present in the Sacrament our meaning is that as God he is present in an extraordinarie manner after such a manner as he was present before his incarnation in his Sanctuarie in the Ark of his Covenant and by the Power of his God-head thus extraordinarilie present he diffuseth the vertue or operation of his Humane Nature either to the vivification or hardning of their hearts who receive the Sacramental Pledges So then a man by eating Christs bodie meerly Sacramentally may be hardned may be excluded from his gracious presence But no man hath Christ dwelling in him by this manner of eating his flesh and drinking his blood unlesse withal he eate the one and drink the other Spiritually The Eating then of Christs bodie and drinking his blood meerly Sacramentally is not the eating and drinking here meant 6. They are said to eat Christs Flesh and drink his Blood Spiritually which rightly apprehend his Death and Passion which by Faith meditate and ruminate upon them making application to themselves aswel of the great danger which may ensue upon the neglect of such great benefits as he hath purchased for them as of the inestimable good which alwayes accompanies the right esteeme or contemplation of his Bodie which was given for them and of his Blood which was shed for them He which thus eateth Christs Flesh and drinketh his Blood by Faith although he do not for the time present eat his Bodie or drink his blood Sacramentally hath a true interest in this promise He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him so he do not neglect to eat his Bodie and drink his Blood Sacramentally when occasion requires and opportunitie serves So that Spiritual eating and drinking Christ by Faith is the true preparative for the worthy receiving of his bodie and blood Sacramentally He that doth not so prepare himself for the receiving of his body and blood doth receive him unworthily whilest he receives him Sacramentally The main Question is Whether Christs words be to be understood at all of Sacramental eating and drinking or of Spiritual eating and drinking onely 7. Many there were and yet are in Reformed Churches which deny this place to be meant of Sacramental Eating But as Beza amongst others well observes they which deny this place to be meant at all of Sacramental eating err no lesse then they do which restrain it only to Sacramental eating Their error which deny it to be meant at all of Sacramental eating is so much the worse because it gave advantage to our Adversaries of the Romish Church which want no wit to work upon all advantages given To omit others Jansenius and Dr. Hessels two of the most exquisite expositors of Scriptures and most Judicious Divines which the Romish Church had after the Reformation was begun by Luther and Zuinglius and prosecuted by Calvin expressely deny our Saviours dispute in this Chapter with the Jews to be meant at all of Sacramental eating or drinking The Reason which enforced these two great Divines to slight the authoritie of most writers in their own Church and to wave the authoritie of most ancient Fathers which it is evident do understand this
mitto lapidem in Sionem I lay or place a stone in Sion the meaning is as if he had said I lay or found Sion the spirituall Sion or new Jerusalem in a Stone or cheif corner stone elect and pretious But whether this be the grammatical or literal sense of the prophet I leave for Criticks in the Hebrew dialect to determine Both constructions the ordinary and this Critical are true and compatible both in respect of the matter are necessarie Christ God and man was layd in Sion as a sure foundation stone as Imus angularis Lapis as the lowest corner stone unto which S. Peter for precedencie of time so far wee yeild unto his primacie was first annexed Peter was the first living stone which was Built upon this foundation stone the other Apostles were layd not upon Peter but upon the same foundation stone whether one after another or all together wee will not dspute However all that beleive as Peter and the other Apostles did or shall so beleive unto the worlds end are immediately layd upon the same foundation stone not one upon another no one of them upon Peter or upon any other Apostle their union or annexion unto Christ is as immediate as Peters was and is or shal be as indissoluble as his was to Christ albeit their growth be not so great nor for qualitie so glorious The best inscription of this edifice thus immediately erected upon the same stone would be that of the Poet Crescet crescentibus illis As the number of living stones which are layd upon this foundation stone increase so the foundation or corner stone which God did promise to lay in Sion doth still increase As every particular living stone increaseth or groweth from a stone into a pillar of this house of God from a pillar in the house of God unto a temple of God so this foundation stone that is Christ as man still groweth still increaseth not in himselfe but in them For they grow by his growth in them or by diffusion of life from him into them 23. But though Christ be often called A stone a rock a living stone a living rock or a stone which being cut out of a mountain became a Mountain which filled all the earth yet the manner of his growth in us or the manner of his inlarged habitation through the Church may be best conceived by the manner of the soules growth or diffusion of his Vertue throughout Vegetable or sensible bodies that is through trees or plants or through the bodies of men of beasts or such as wee call living creatures There is a vegetable soul in the Ake-corn when it is first set or planted and this soul we may truely say dwelleth or abideth in the Akorn and is the cause why the Akorn sprouteth into a rod the same soul is the cause why the rod or twig groweth greater the true cause why this twig growes into a stemme why the stemme grown greater spreads it self into branches why every branch beareth leaf blossom or seed Now the greater the stemme doth grow the further the vegetable soul doth spread it self The same vegetable soul which was in the Akorn diffuseth it self into the stemme into the branches into the leaf into the blossom into the Fruit or seed None of these could thrive or prosper at all unlesse the vegetable soul did abide or dwell in them none of them can thrive or prosper any longer than the vegetable soul abideth or dwelleth in them Thus was Christ the root out of which S. Peter sprouted the soul of Peter as he was a living or Spiritual man He had no life but from Christ he grew by Christ dwelling or abiding in him And as he did grow by Christ abiding in him So he bare fruit by Christs dwelling in him by the diffusion of life and vegetation from Christ And so all they that abiding in Christ do grow in faith grow by Christ dwelling in them and spreading his vertue through them after such a manner as the vegetable soule doth diffuse it self throughout the Branches which spring from the root or stemme or through the branches which are ingrafted or inoculated into it And this manner of the vegetable souls diffusion of it self or of its vertue into all the Branches which are ingrafted into the same stock or root doth better resemble the manner of Christs dwelling in us than the diffusion of life or vegetation from the root into the stemmes stovens or branches which without ingraffing or inoculation naturally spring from it 24. But this later similitude of the Stock and Grafts although it well expresse the manner of Christs abiding or growing not in himself but in us and the manner of our abiding or dwelling in him it may seem to fail in this That ordinarie Stocks howsoever the ingrafted branches be supported by them and receive life and nutriment from them yet do they not receive their specifical kind of life from the stocks into which they are ingrafted but still retain their own native qualitie As a good Apple or Pear grafted into a Crab stock or Thorn doth not degenerate into a Crab or Thorn but reteins its native sweetnesse and bears the same fruit which it would have done although it had grown up into a Tree from its own root or from the root whereof it was a native Branch It would be a Soloecism to say That any such stock doth remain or dwell in the Graft because it doth not diffuse its specifical qualitie into it But Christ in this manner abideth or dwelleth in us He is the Root and Stem and we the Grafts and inset branches and yet he is said as truely to dwell in us as we in him This argues that the manner of our ingrafting and abiding in him is not natural because the Stock or Stem is for nature and qualitie much better than all the Branches or Grafts which are supported by it which receive life and nutriment by it Hence saith the Apostle Rom. 11. 24. That we Gentiles were cut out of the Olive tree which was wild by nature and were grafted contrary to nature into a good Olive tree This ingraftment is contrary unto nature two wayes First In that the Grafts being wild by nature without any root or fat or sweetness in themselves grow better qualified then they were by participation of the sweetness of the Stock Secondly In that the Stock whereinto they are ingrafted is a good Olive whereas the Olive tree naturally admits no ingraftment or incision being by nature so fat that it seems to envie or scorn to participate his fatness unto any other Branches In arbore pingui non vivunt insita Grafts do not thrive or prosper in any fat tree or stock saith A late Naturalist And as an Hebrew Doctor hath Observed the Olive being the fattest of Trees will admit no incision nor ingraftment Nor will any Olive Graft thrive or prosper unlesse it be ingrafted in an hungry
imagining the stars or host of heaven to be the adaequate or total causes of Sublunary Effects or alterations They might err again in Calculating the Course of the Starrs and for ought I know they did err in denying or not avouching the Immortalitie of the soul But herein they come the nearest to us Christians in this Article That they held it possible and agreeable to Nature for one and the same body for one and the same man consisting of body and soul which had been dissolved for many thousand yeares before to be restored to life again But whereas they thought the conjunction of stars to be the full and total cause of sublunary effects let us suppose Gods Will or Powerfull Ordinance to be the sole cause of all things and there will be no contradiction or impossibilitie in nature why the self same men which have been may not bee again albeit they had died more then 5000. years ago For his Will as it is more powerfull then all the influence of stars so is it more truly One and the same then any conjunction or aspect of stars can be yea His Will or His Power was the true immediat or total Cause of the Matter of every thing as well as of its forme or soul The true cause likewise of the conjunction of the soul and body 6. It being then admitted that the Genethliaci did deny the Immortalitie or perpetual duration of the reasonable Soul which to deny is a gross heresie in Christianitie yet this Errour in them was more pardonable by much then the Inference which some Christians make who holding the Immortalitie of the soul hold it withall to be an Antecedent so necessary for evincing the future Resurrection of the body or restauration of the same man who dyes that if the soul were not immortal there could be no resurrection of the body no Identical restauration of men that perish and are consumed to dust They which deny the Immortalitie of the soul do therefore erre because they know not the Scriptures nor the Will of God revealed in them concerning the state of the soul after death For if the soul of Christ as man were as we must believe it was of the same nature that our souls are of if his soul did not die with his body our souls shall not die with our bodies Now Christ at the very point of death or dissolution of soul and body did commend his soul into his Fathers hands And God the Father took a more special care of his soul then either Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea did of his body That God likewise did take the souls of the faithful into his custody at their departure from their bodies our Saviour long before had taught us in his Answer to the Sadduces Matth. 22. 31 32. As touching the resurrection of the dead have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead but of the living And as St. Luke addeth Chap. 20. ver 38. All live unto him not alwayes in their bodies but alwayes in their souls which alwayes expect a second conjunction or re-union to their proper bodies And St. Stephen when his persecutors did destroy his body commends his soul into Christs hands as Christ had done His Soul into the hands of his Father So that no man can doubt of the Immortality or perpetual duration of the soul unless he be altogether ignorant of these and many like passages in the Scriptures But they which deny all Possibilitie of the Resurrection or Identical restauration of the same man to bodily life in case his soul were mortal or might utterly cease to be with the body do err not only out of ignorance of the Scriptures or of The Will of God revealed in Scriptures but this their ignorance supposeth an ignorance or denial of the Power of God For God who is able out of stones to raise up children unto Abraham is no less powerful perfectly to restore the self same body and soul which now are and really to represent the self same man which now is albeit both body and soul should at his death not only die but be utterly annihilated that is although no more either of body or soul did remain after death then was extant before the first Creation of all things Now before the first Creation there was not so much as a particle or least portion either of mans soul or body For all things were created out of Nothing and all things might be created the same again that now they are albeit they were by Gods power or by substraction of his influence totally resolved into nothing 7. All these Propositions following are most true 1. That as God did make all things of nothing so he is able if it should please him to resolve all things into nothing This is essentially included in the Article of Omnipotencie So is this Second likewise Although all things created were resolved into nothing God is able to make them again the self same substances that they sometimes were or now are So likewise is this Third Albeit the bodies of men be not utterly resolved into nothing when they die but into the Elements of which they consist or are compounded as into the Earth Air Water c. yet every mans body at the day of final appearance before our Judge may be Numerically the same that now it is All these Propositions are Objectively Possible that is they imply no Contradiction in nature and not implying any contradiction in nature they are the proper Objects of Omnipotent Power That is God is able to work all these Effects in nature which unto Nature or natural Causes are impossible But that either the souls or bodies of men shall be annihilated or resolved into nothing we are not bound to believe because the Scripture doth no where testifie Gods Will or purpose so to resolve them Their annihilation or dissolution their re-production or re-union meerly depends upon the Will or Powerful Ordinance of God And albeit the Resurrection of one and the same man may be demonstrated to be in Nature possible Yet That this Possibilitie shall be reduced into Act That every Man shall undoubtedly rise again in the body to receive that which he hath done in his body Or With what manner of body for qualifications they shall arise This cannot be taught by Nature but must be learned or believed from Scripture To begin with the Second Proposition Although all things created were resolved into nothing God is able to make them again the self same numerical substances that they sometime were or now are For Proof of this Proposition I take as granted That all things which by Creation took their beginning had a true Possibilitie of being numerically what they were before they actually were otherwise it was impossible for them actually
that this conversion is rightly called Transubstantiation So that in fine the unitie whereof the children of that Church do so much brag is not an unity of faith or belief but an unity of faction or conspiracy for their own gain such as may be between the Jews the Turks the Heathens and the Arian hereticks which denied the Divinity of Christ to rob or spoil the Orthodoxal or true Catholick Christians 13. Most men have often read All almost have often heard of a Twofold Resurrection The one from death in sin unto newness of life The other from bodily death unto glory and immortality The second Resurrection is the End of our whole life here on earth the first Resurrection from death in sin to newness of life is the mean most necessary for attaining this joyful and happy End Now as the second Resurrection from bodily death unto glory is the End of the first Resurrection from sin to newness of life So is the first Resurrection the End of the blessed Sacrament or solemn commemoration of Christs death till he come to Judgment And although the Omnipotent Power of God by which all things were created of nothing be the most prime and powerful Cause of the second Resurrection yet of our Resurrection unto that Glory and Immortality whereof Christ is now possest Christ as man is not only the Idaeal or Exemplarie but the immediate Efficient or working Cause also Howbeit the power of his Efficiency or working as man be derived from the Omnipotent Power of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily But unto the real participation of this All-powerful Influence from Christs humanity by which the dead shall be quickned by which these mortal bodies shall be cloathed with glory and immortality the bodily or local presence of Christ is not required by the Romish Church It doth not hold it necessary that all or any body which shall be quickened or raised to Glorie shall first swallow Christs Body or be touched by it Of Angelical ministerie or service for gathering the dispersed reliques of mens bodies which have been dissolved by death some use there shall be in the last day as some Romanists with divers Antients think but no use at all of any Mass-Priest to make Christs Body to be locally present unto all that shall be quickened by it There shall be no need then of Transubstantiating Sacramental bread into Christs Body or wine into his bloud for giving life unto those that have been long dead or for effecting that change which shall be wrought in the living Now if by the meer virtual presence of Christs Body and Blood the men which have been long dead shall be restored to perfect life immortalitie shall not the souls of all which receive him in the Sacrament by Faith and true repentance be raised to Newness of life by the same virtual presence without any local touch of His Body but only by that sweet Influence which daily issueth from this Sun of righteousness now placed at the Right hand of God as in its proper Sphere This manner of Christs presence of his real presence in the Sacrament to wit by powerful Influence from his Humanitie our Church did never deny nor doth God the Father or Christ the Son deny this Real Influence of life unto any that hunger and thirst after it in the Sacrament CHAP. XIV 1 COR. 15. 36 c. But some will say How are the dead raised up and With what body do they come Thou Fool That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die c. That this Argument drawn from Seed sown is a Concludent Proof of the Resurrection of The Bodie THe Questions are Two First How the dead shall be raised The second With what bodies shall they come forth The former imports thus much How is it possible that the Dead shall be raised Or it being admitted that it is possible for the dead in some sort or manner to arise to life the next branch of the same Question is in what particular manner they shall de Facto arise as whether by Gods Creative Power by which he made all things of nothing or by his Conservative Power by which he preserveth all things that are in their proper Being or advanceth them to an higher estate or better Tenure of Being The second Question or Quaerie is With what kind of bodies shall the dead arise Whether with the self same bodies wherein they died Or if not every way the same what alteration or change shall be wrought in them Unto Both these Questions our Apostle vouchsafeth but this one Answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Fool that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die But this Answer may seem in the first place to break the Rule of Christian Charity For many of these Corinthians though in this point of the Resurrection erroneous and ignorant were yet Christian though weak brethren and the Law is general he that shall say unto his brother THOU FOOL shall be guilty of Hell fire Matth. 5. 22. The Rule indeed is General if this or the like opprobrious speech be hatched out of malice leavened wrath or invetered hatred But this sentence they do not incur out of whose mouthes these or the like speeches issue by way of just reproof or instruction as from a Master to his Scholers or from a Lord to his Servants in points wherein they err and are to be corrected or instructed by him In these cases or upon these occasions their censure passeth rather upon the folly then upon the persons of them whom they so chastise correct or seek to instruct And it is not altogether impertinent which some have noted upon that place That our Apostles censure doth not aim at any particular or determinate person but it is indefinitely directed to all those which seriously make the former questions either concerning the Possibilitie of mens arising from the dead or the particular Manner how this Resurrection should be wrought or with what bodies they should come forth But many such as will confess his reason or Argument to be free from breach of Christian Charitie or good manners will question the Logical strength or pertinence of it The strength or efficacy of it is questionable upon These points As first How the dayly experiment of seed-corn which first dies and is quickned again can inferr the Fundamental conclusion by our Apostle intended to wit the Resurrection of mens bodies which have been dead and rotten for many hundred years and their Reliques dispersed into so many several Elements or places that if the seed-corn which men sow were but dispersed into half so many places the husband-man should in vain expect an increase or his seed again Secondly admitting this yearly experiment of the seed dying and reviving were of force sufficient to inforce our belief of the former conclusion that the bodies of men dead may be raised to life again yet the
death might have put an unquestionable end to all the Controversies betwixt him and his persecutors there had been no gain but losse rather in the prolongation of his life But when men truly professing the power of Christianitie may be devout be religious be obedient without danger of persecution the case is altered So that our Apostles saying doth not concern the peaceable and prosperous estate of Christians but the iniquitie of those times and of such Times as those 3. But we must consider that there is a great deal of difference between contradicting infidelitie or express denyall of the souls immortalitie or the Resurrection of the body and such an implicit or indistinct notion of some recompence for wel-doing and punishments for ill doings as the wiser Heathens did acknowledge Such of them as constantly acknowledged but thus much though not without interposition of some doubting or distrusting fits concerning the souls imortalitie without any notion at all of the bodies Resurrection did fully accord with our Apostle in this place That the service of sin or to speak in their language a voluptuous life was altogether Fruitless So the Roman Orator tels us Omnis voluptas pro nihilo putanda est quod cum praeterierit perinde sit ac si nulla fuisset All pleasure is to be accompted as nothing worth because when it is once past it is as if it had never been that is it leaves no fruit behind it it is at the best but as a blossom or bud which withers or falls away before the fruit be set and a blossom without hope of fruit is altogether fruitless and of no esteem Thus he spake of Voluptas that is of pleasure of the body but he alwayes mainteined the contrary concerning Gaudium which we call the pleasure or joy of the mind or the inward testimonie of a good Conscience In this Point the same Roman Orator with Seneca and divers other Heathen Poets and Philosophers did accord aswell with Solomon as in the other sentence he did with Saint Paul to wit That a good conscience was a continual Feast See the tenth Chapter of this Book And See Tullie de Finib Lib. 2. De Senectute And his Paradoxes 4. But I know what a more dissolute Heathen then Tullie was or a voluptuous Christian or carnal Gospeller would at this day object that they are acquainted with greater bodily pleasures then the Heathen Philosophers or precise Christians have experience of And for this reason will appeal from us as incompetent Judges And I confesse it is true A dissolute or voluptuous man whether Heathen or Christian oftimes enjoyes for a space some greater pleasures of the flesh then any civil or modest man can do And this was the miserie or ignorance of the best sort of Heathens which did excuse them a Tanto though not a Toto that is in respect of us not simply in that they did not know or suspect an invisible Adversarie which deals with us as a cunning Quacksalver or craftie Mountebank one that secretly corrupts our dyet and by degrees insensible brings many diseases upon us That he may gain credit or esteem by giving us some present ease or pleasant remedie though never any perfect cure And yet the Heathen Philospher had observed that most of those pleasures of the body or flesh by which men are specially drawn from the practise of vertue or moral honestie were usually apprehended to be much greater then they truly were both because most men look upon their faces or approaches in coming towards them not upon their departure or back parts at their going away and because they are the remedies or present abatements of some grievous disease which it were much better not to have then to stand in need of any medicine how pleasant soever He that is cured of a deep wound or sore feels more ease or pleasure when it growes toward the healing then he should have done in that part if it had continued whole Yet who would long for a wound to find such ease and contentment He that is sick of a burning feaver will take more pleasure for the time being in drinking a cup of cold water then a man in perfect health would do in a draught of the pleasantest wine Yet who would chuse to be sick to enjoy such pleasure There is I take it no greater pleasure of any sense then cooling moisture in the extremitie of thirst But it is a greater miserie to be put unto this need or exigence So is it with all dissolute or voluptuous men Take them for the present as they are overgrown in dissoluteness and intemperancie and it is a great pleasure for them to have their desires satisfied But it is a kind of Hell in the mean time to be pestered with such desires which are alwayes more permanent and more durable then their satisfactions or contentments can be Besides that the ease and remedies which for the present they find do in the issue increase and malignifie the nature of their disease And if they had been once acquainted with the true delight and pleasures of a moderate and sober life they would loath their desires as much as a man that knowes what health is would dislike the momentany pleasures of the sick 5. That commendation which the Governour of the marriage feast of Canaa in Galilee did give the Bridegroom in comparison of ordinarie Inne-keepers or wine-drawers in his time may serve to set forth the difference between the service of righteousness and the service of sin or between the the contrary Method which our Lord and master and the prince of this world observe in rewarding their followers Every one saith the Governour of the feast John 2. 10. doth at the beginning set forth good wine and when men have well drunk then that which is worse This is the very picture or image of Satans practise But thou saith the same Governour of the feast unto the Bridegroom hast kept the good wine until now that is until the close of the feast And this is the Type or Emblem of our Saviours Method To apply it more plainly The Divel still labours to glut men in their best dayes with the sweetest pleasures or contentments of the body and when he hath made them drunk or brought upon them an unquenchable thirst or longing after the like then he vents his â—uffes or refuse upon them and plyes them untill they drink the very dregs of Gods wrath But our Saviour keepes his best fruits unto the last and by his first blessings doth but as it were prepare and qualifie our corrupted nature to be every day then other more capable of better And as of Satans malice and mischief so of his mercy and goodness there is no end to such as embrace them untill they bring us to an endless and most blessed life The beginnings of sin are alwayes pleasant at least sin puts us to no pain in producing the
arraign accuse and judge our selves for our former frequent neglect of our Vow in Baptism Secondly To request Absolution and pardon of God which no man humbly and seriously doth but he solemnly promiseth amendment of what is past Thirdly To implore the special aid or assistance of Gods Spirit for better performance of our Vow and of what we now promise And all this only for the merits of Christ and through the efficacy of his Body and Blood I will conclude with that of the Psalmist Vovete vota reddite Jehovae CHAP. XX. ROMANS 6. 21. 21. For the end of those things is Death 23. For the wages of sin is Death The first and second Death Both literally meant The wages of Sin Both described Both compared and shewed How and wherein the Second Death exceeds the First The greater deprivation of Good the worse and more unwelcom death is Every member of the Bodie every facultie of the Soul the Seat and Subject of the Second Death A Map and Scale The Surface and Soliditie of the Second Death Pain improved by inlarging the capacitie of the Patient and by intending or advancing the activitie of the Agent Three Dimensions of the second Death 1. Intensiveness 2. Duration 3. Un-intermitting Continuation of Torment Poena Damni Sensus Terms Co-incident Pains of the Damned Essential and Accidental Just to punish momentanie sin with pain eternal The reflection and revolution of thoughts upon the sinners folly The Worm of Conscience 1. DEath and life have the same Seat and Subject Nothing dieth unless it first live and Death in the General is An Extinction of life Death in Scripture is two Wayes taken First For bodily Death which is the First Death Secondly For the Death of both Body and Soul which is called the Second Death Both are here literally meant both are the wages of sin The former Death is common to all excepting such of the Godly as shall be found alive at Christs coming to Judgment they shall not die but be changed First then of bodily death and secondly of supernatural or the second death and wherein it exceedeth the first death The Opposition between Bodily Death and Bodily Life is meerly Privative such as is between light and darkness or between sight and blindness And this death must be distinguished according to the degrees of life of which it is the Privation Of life the degrees be three The First of meer Vegetables as of trees of plants of herbs or whatsoever is capable of growth or nourishment The Second is of Creatures indued with sense The third is the life of man who besides sense is endued with reason The reasonable life includes the sensitive as the sensitive doth the life vegetable Whatsoever bodily creature is endowed with reason is likewise endowed with sense But many things which are endowed with sense are uncapable of reason And again what Creature soever it be which is partaker of the life sensitive is partaker likewise of Vegetation of growth or nourishment But many things which are nourished and grow as trees herbs plants grass and corn are uncapable of the life sensitive and yet even these are said to die as they properly do when their nutriment fails But albeit the first beginning of mans life in the womb be only vegetative not sensible or reasonable yet no man dieth according to this kind of death only For such as fall into an Atrophie which is a kind of death or privation of the nutritive facultie yet are they not to be accounted as dead so long as they have the use of any sense no nor after they be deprived of all outward senses so long as their hearts do move or their lungs send out breath So that the bodily death of man includes a privation of sense and motion This difference again may be observed in the degrees of bodily death 2. Trees and vegetables alwayes die without pain so do not man and beast For that both of them are endowed with sense and motion both of them are capable of pain And pain if it be continued and extream drawes sensitive death after it Nor can this death approach or finde entrance into the seat of life but by pain And in as much as this kind of life is sweet death which is the deprivation of it is alwayes unpleasant and terrible unto man not only in respect of the pain which ushers it in but in respect of the loss of vitall sweetness which it brings with it The pains of dying may be as great in beasts as in man so is not the loss of that goodness which is conteined in life for reasonless creatures perceive it not A memorie they have of pains past a sense or feeling of pains present and a fear of death when it approacheth But no fore-thought or reckoning of what followes after death This is proper to the reasonable creature Now this Fore-thought of what may follow after makes death more bitter to man then it can be to reasonless creatures And amongst men the more or greater the contentments of life have been and the better they are provided for the continual supply of such contentments the more grievous is the conceipt or fore-thought of death natural unto them The summons of death are usually more unwelcome to a man in perfect health then to a crased body So it is to a man of wealth and credit more then to one of a forlorn estate or broken fortunes So saith Ecclesiasticus Chap. 41. 1. O death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his Possessions unto the man that hath nothing to vex him and that hath prosperitie in all things yea unto him that is yet able to receive meat Yet is not the loss of life of sense or the foregoing of worldly contentments the only cause why men naturally fear death For though it deprive them of all these yet doth not the death of man consist in this deprivation The body loseth all these by the divorce which death makes betwixt it and the soul But seeing the substance of the soul still remains the greatest fear which can possess a natural man is the future doubtful estate of the soul after this dissolution Many which never hoped or expected any Re-union or second marriage between the soul and body after death had once divorced them had yet a true Notion that the soul did not die with the body and out of this conceipt some were more afraid of death then any brutish or reasonless creature can be Some other few became as desirous of it as Prisoners which hope to scape are of a Gaol deliverie and thought it a great freedom especially in their discontented melancholy passion to have the keyes of this mortal prison in their own keeping to be able to let their souls and life out at their pleasure But though it be universally true that the corruptible body during the time of this
life is but a walking prison or moveable Cage unto the immortal soul yet the soul being long accustomed to this prison doth naturally chuse to continue in it still rather then to be uncertain whither to repair after it go hence That some Heathens have taken upon them to let their souls out of their bodies before the time appointed by course of nature or doom given upon them by their supream Judge This was but such a delusion of Sathan as one man somtimes in malice puts upon another For so oftimes a secret enemie or false friend hath perswaded others to break the prison whereto they were upon presumption rather then on evidence of any notorious fact committed to make them by this means unquestionably lyable unto the punishment of death which without such an escape they might have escaped For any man wittingly and willingly to separate the soul and body which God hath joyned is A damnable presumption an usurpation of Gods own office or Authoritie To sollicit or sue for a divorce betwixt them is not safe for any save only for such as have Good Assurance or probable hopes that when they are dissolved they shall be with Christ Now the souls of such as die in him have no desire to return unto the former prison of the body But such as have not in this life been espoused unto him would chuse rather to remain in or to return unto their former prison then to be held in custody by their spiritual enemies Their estate for the present is worse then the sufferance of bodily death being charged both with perpetual sufferance and expectation to suffer the second death 3. And this death differs more from the First death then inter numerandum that is more then in order of accompt or rank of place What then is not the second death a privation of life Yes it is all this and somewhat more besides Every vice includes a privation of the contrary vertue and is a great deal worse then want of vertue So every sickness includes a privation of some branch of health and is much worse then a Neutralitie or middle temper if any such there be between health and sickness So doth the Second death include an extream contrarietie to life and all the contentments of it Blindness is a meer privation of sight and the eye which cannot see is dead in respect of this branch of life and this death or deprivation of this sense is only matter of losse The eye or subject of sight oft-times after the loss of sight suffers no pain no more doth the ear after it becomes deaf nor the sense of feeling after it be numm'd A man stricken with the palsie feels no smart in that part which it possesseth Whilest any part of our body is sensible of pain it is an argument that it is yet alive not quite dead And yet is all pain rather a branch of death then of life For much better it were to die the first death then to live continually in deadly pain No man but would be willing to loose a tooth rather then to have it perpetually tormented with the tooth-ach Now the second death is no other then a perpetual living unto deadly pain or torture Bodily death or not being is not so much worse then life natural with all its contentments as the second death is worse then the First or the bodily pains which can accompany it The parts or branches of the first death are altogether as many as the parts of life natural The seat or subject of the second death is larger There is no member of the body or facultie of the soul whether sensitive or rational which becomes not the seat or subject of the second death As this death is the wages of sin so it is for Extention commensurable unto the body of sin Now there is no part or facultie in man which in this life hath been free from sin And whatsoever part or facultie hath in this life been polluted with sin becomes the seat dwelling place of the second death Wheresoever sin did enter it did enter but as an Harbinger to take up so many several Roomes for that death Who is he that can say that lust hath not sometimes entred in at the eye that the seeds of lust of Envy of murther and of other sins have not taken possession of the ear that his tongue or tast hath not given entertainment to ryot gluttony and excesse in meat and drink That his sense of smell hath not been sometimes a pander to these and the like Exorbitances And the other fifth or grosse sense of Touch is as the common bed of sin for it spreads it self throughout all the rest and is the foundation of every other external sense 4. To give you then a true map of the second death and more then a Map of it or of their estate that are subject unto it we cannot exhibit The Map with the true scale for measuring the Region of death with the miserable estate of its inhabitants is thus Nature and common Experience afford us These general un-erring Rules That all pain and grief are improved by one of these two means or by both As First by enlarging the capacitie of every sense or facultie which is capable of pain or discontent Secondly by the vehemency or violence of the object or agent which makes the impression upon the passive sense or capacitie One and the same Agent aswell for qualitie as for intention of its active force doth not make the same impression upon different subjects though both capable of impression As one and the same flame and steam of fire hath not one and the same effect on iron steel and wax though all of them be in the same distance from it Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis How powerful soever any Agent be the Patient can receive or retein no more of its power then it is capable of Again how capable soever the Patient be of any violent impression yet the capacitie of it is not filled unlesse the force of the Agent be proportionable unto it And though it be able to receive never so much yet it is true again Nihil dat quod non habet nec plus dat quam habet No creature no Agent whatsoever can bestow any greater measure whether of good or evil whether of pain or pleasure then is conteined within the sphere of its activitie From these unquestionable Principles this Universal Conclusion will undoubtedly follow That all excesse or full measure of pain of grief or woe of every branch of malum poenae must amount from the improved capacitie of the sense or facultie which receives impression and from the strength and potencie of the Object which makes the impression 5. There is no humane body which is not by nature capable of the Gout yet such as are accustomed to courser fare to moderate dyet and hard labour are lesse capable
perish What is the reason why they are so careful in these Toyes and we so negligent in matters of such moment and the like They have a Tradition whether received from Mahomet himself or from his Successors their Mufties I know not but a Tradition they have which they strongly believe That before they can enter into such a heaven as they dream of they must pass over a long iron grate red hot without any other fence to save their naked feet from scorching save only so much paper as they shall preserve from perishing Now of the pains or tortures which the violent heat of Iron produceth in naked bodies they have a kind of feeling or experience The conceit or Notion of this pain is fresh and lively and works more strongly upon their affections then the dread of hell fire doth upon many Christians albeit there is no Christian which doth not believe the fire of hell to be everlasting whereas the Turk thinks this his supposed Purgatory to be but temporary and between pains temporary and pains everlasting there is no proportion How then comes it to pass that this superstitious fear of pains but temporary should so far exceed our true fear or belief of pains uncessant and everlasting Many which truly believe there is a Hell whose fire never goeth out yet conceive this fire to be an immaterial fire a fire of whose heat or violence they have no sense or feeling in this life a fire altogether unknown unto them And as no man much desireth that good which he knoweth not how great soever it be so no man much feareth that evil whereof he hath no sense or feeling no experimental knowledge whereby to measure the greatness of it but only believes it confusedly or in gross and hence it is that the acknowledgment or belief of such a fire how great soever it may seem to be in the General abstract conceit is but like a spacious Mathematical body which hath neither weight nor motion which can produce no real effects in the soul or affections of man For this reason I have alwayes held it a fruitless pains or a needless curiosity to dispute the Question Whether the fire of hell be a material fire or no that is such a fire as may be felt by bodily senses seeing most men conceive no otherwise of things immaterial or spiritual then as of Abstract Notions or of Mathematical Magnitudes As the determination of this Question were it possible in this life to be determined would be fruitless So the chief reason which some have brought to prove the Negative to wit That it is not a material fire is of no force in true Philosophie much less in Divinitie 10. Their chief Reason is This That if hell fire were a material or bodily fire it could not immediately work upon the soul which is an immaterial or spiritual substance But let them tell us how it is possible That the soul of man which is an immortal substance should be truly wedded to the body or material substance and I shall as easily answer them That it is as possible for the same soul to be as really wrought upon by a material fire As possible it is for material fire to propagate death without End to both body and soul as it is for the immaterial or immortal soul to communicate life without end to the material substance of the body For the bodies of the damned shall never cease to be material substances and they shall live to everlasting pains by a life communicated unto them from their immaterial and immortal souls And as the bodies do live continually by reason of their continual union with their living immaterial souls so the soul may die the second death continually by its union with or imprisonment in material but everlasting fire Or if any man be of opinion that hell fire is no material fire or hath no resemblance of that fire which we see and know yet let him believe that it is a great deal worse and that the greatest torture which in this life can come by fire is though a true yet but an imperfect scantling of the torments of the life to come and the danger will be less Of this opinion were the Antients and this conceit or notion of hell fire did in some bring forth very good effects So Eusebius in his Fifth Book and first Chapter of his Ecclesiastical Story tels of one Biblis a woman which had professed Christianity but was so danted with the cruel persecutions of Christians that she renounced her profession and was brought unto the place where the Christians were executed with purpose to withdraw others from constancie in their profession by her expected blasphemie against Christ and reproachful aspersions upon Christians But the very sight of those flames wherein the Martyrs were tortured did throughly awake her out of her former slumber her very fear or rather conceit of such torments which they for the time suffered did afford her a measure or scantling to calculate the incomparable torments of hell fire which being now awaked she began to bethink her self that she must suffer them without hope of release if she should deny Christ or renounce her calling and thus expelling the lesser fear by the greater she resolutely professed her self to be a true Christian in heart and so contrary to the expectation of the persecutors and her own former resolution increased the number of the glorious Martyrs and incouraged others after her to endure the Cross 11. But albeit the Scripture usually describes the horrour of the second death by a fire which never goeth out or by a lake of fire and brimstone and so describes it either because that fire is of such nature and quality as these descriptions literally and without Metaphor import or because these are the most obvious and most conspicuous representations of the pains and horrours of hell which flesh and blood are generally most acquainted with most afraid of yet many other branches of pains and tortures there be besides those which fire of what kind soever can inflict and of these several pains most men respectively may have as true a rellish or sensible representation as they can have of hell fire You have read before that as there is in this life A body of sin which hath as many members as there be several senses or several faculties of the soul So there is a body of the second death every way proportionable to the body of sin The extreamitie or deadliness of all the pains discontents or grievances which are incident to any bodily sense or facultie of the soul in this life are contained either Formaliter that is as we say in kind in the body of the second death or Eminenter that is either in a worse kind or in a greater measure then in this life they could be endured though but for a minute and yet must be endured everlastingly in the life to come
Emperours or in love to their Religion is a matter of no greater difficulty then to induce a Merchant to lay out an hundred pounds sterling in his own Country upon such assurance as this world affords to receive ten thousand pounds either in the same coyne or in valuable commodities in another Country by way of return or bill of exchange 9. But as for us Christians albeit our hopes of heaven be far more glorious then theirs can be albeit our Faith which is the ground of our hopes be most firm and sound whereas their belief of such a heaven as they hope for is but grounded upon the sand yet in as much as the most part of Christians have no distinct conceit or notion of the heavenly joys which they hope for but believe them only in general or in gross to be exceeding great their Faith is in a manner but dead their Hopes have no operations upon their affections they do not sway them to constancie in any honorable adventures or undertakings for the heavenly Canaan We that be Gods Embassadors may spend our spirits and our breaths and be answered only with Religion consisting in words or with a zeal of hearing Gods Word not of doing it The Case of most Hearers is much what like to the Case of a man extreamly sick and opprest with distempered humors There is no man so sick unless he be possest with deep melancholy or a frenzie but will acknowledge in the general that such a Diet as his Physician prescribes him is good that such meats as he seeth men in health to feed upon with delight are pleasant and useful for preserving health But press him to make his words good by his practise in particular and you shall find a Real Contradiction those meats which out of his former experience he acknowledgeth to be sweet and pleasant are to him in this distemper and indisposition of body bitter and abominable The best Diet which the Physician can prescribe him is nothing so welcom to him as those meats and drinks which the distempered humor longeth after And albeit you urge him with the authoritie of Hypocrates Galen or other famous Professors of Physick yet you shall not perswade him to follow their Counsel until he have in some measure recovered his Tast and the only means to recover it must be by the removing the noxious humor wherewith it is oppressed Yet such as are bodily sick have had some Tast and experience of wholsom food in the time of their health for bodily health ordinarily goes before bodily sickness But The spiritual diseases of our Consciences have precedencie of spiritual health we all are soul-sick from our birth even in the womb And for this reason it is That to work a Longing in us after a spiritual health or to bring us in love with true spiritual food is a matter of far greater difficulty then to bring a man bodily sick unto a liking of wholsom bodily food We may perswade Men in the General That the joys of heaven infinitely exceed all the pleasures of this life And thus far they will easily believe us But without some Tast or rellish of them no man will set his heart to seek after them 10. For us to give men or men to take A True Rellish of them it is not ordinarily possible until our hearts and consciences be in some good measure disburthened of fleshly lusts of worldly desires or freed from minding earthly matters The ordinary Physick which God doth use in working this First Cure is some Cross affliction or chastisement Every Cross or branch of affliction which in this life can befall us is in the intention of Gods providence as a peculiar Medicine to purge our souls of some one vain delight or other Now If we would seriously ruminate upon the particular afflictions which befall us or suffer the sting of conscience to have its work whensoever our hearts do smite us This would be a good preparation for the recovery of our spiritual Tast without whose recovery we cannot be purified according to the purification of the Sanctuary But say the Lord hath laid no cross no affliction upon us yet this is a Diet so necessary for the soul That every one in case the Lord do not must afflict his own soul that is he must sometimes humble himself in fasting and prayer for this in the language of Canaan is to afflict the soul without such exercises voluntarily undertaken not as meritorious or profitable in themselves but as useful for enjoying of our selves and the gaining of free and retired thoughts our spiritual Tast is not usually recoverable or being in some measure recovered cannot be preserved But you will ask Wherein doth this spiritual Tast consist what is the object of it or that which answers unto it as bodily food doth unto bodily tast or What is the best dyet for recovering of it This you are to learn from our Apostle Rom. 14. 17. The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink it neither consists in our use or abstinence from these what is it then Righteousness peace and joy in the holy Ghost These words if you mark them are well placed First Righteousness Then peace lastly Joy in the holy Ghost For as the Prophet had said long before Opus justitiae pax Peace the peace of conscience towards God towards men and with our own souls and affections is the resultance or work of righteousness as it is opposed unto iniquity For There is no peace to the wicked saith my God Esai 57. 21. Joy there may be without this peace or serenity of conscience but no Joy in the Holy-Ghost without it Peace of conscience is as the first Tast or smell of eternal rest The first sign or Symptome of spiritual health restored Joy in the Holy-Ghost is to the soul as that chearfulness or livelinesse which accompanieth perfect health is unto the body Righteousness or its works are as the food or dyet by which this spiritual health and livelinesse of the soul is procured 11. So then he that desires to have a true Tast of the heavenly gift or of the powers of the life to come must enure himself to the works of righteousness of that Universal Righteousness whose practise is commended unto us in the Affirmative and positive precepts of the first and second Table It is not enough to abstain from the evil works prohibited in the Negative precepts of both Tables This abstinence is as the matter or privation of that true righteousness whereof peace is the work or fruit Howbeit even this Inchoative Righteousness or imperfect Embryon of it is seldom or never framed and conceived without some chastisement or correction which are as gentle Remembrancers of the horrours of the second death Nor is this Inchoative or privative righteousnesse alwayes framed by chastisements or such remembrances but by patient suffering of them or by embracing them as so many tokens
souls and affections are withdrawn from pursuit of that happy and blessed life which hath its beginning here on earth but hath no End in Heaven were the Belief of it firmly rooted in our souls If any man swerve from the wayes of righteousness whether in the General course of his life or in particular Acts it is through want of this Hope either in the Act or in the Habit. The want of this Hope in the Habit proceeds from habitual want of our spiritual Tast The want of the same Hope in particular Acts proceeds from the interruption of this Tast in such as sometimes have been partakers of it The chief part then of our Ministery is First To plant This Tast Secondly To preserve it in our hearers In these Two consists Tota Ars Medendi the whole method of spiritual Physick The objects of our spiritual Tast are Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost for in these two consists the Kingdom of God as was observed before out of Rom. 14. 17. Without Righteousness there is no Peace Without Peace of conscience there is no Joy First then of Peace Secondly of Joy 2. Under the name of Peace All blessings spiritual are included It is the Fruit of Righteousnesse and the Root or stemme of Joy The best tydings which the Angels could bring unto the people at our Saviours birth were tydings of Joy And in their hymn after they had ascribed Glory to God they declare the Original of this Joy to be Peace on earth and Good-will towards men The best Legacie which our Saviour had to bestow upon his Apostles before his death after he had as it were made his last Will and Testament was Peace John 14. 27 Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth give I unto you Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid And at his first appearance to his Disciples being assembled together after his Resurrection he came and stood in the midst of them and said Iohn 20. 19. Peace be with you And after he had shewed them his hands and his side he said to them again Peace be unto you ver 21. The same Salutation is recorded by Saint Luke Chap. 24. 36. And this Salutation is continued to the Church as the sum and brief of all good things which we can desire for our selves or wish to others Peace be to this House and to all that dwell in it Be the very solemn words which The Priest going to visit the sick is by the appointment of our Church to take with him and to say when he enters into the sick persons house And this I suppose is injoyned not so much with reference to The like form of Salutation commonly used among the Jewes as either in Imitation of that Form of Blessing prescribed by our Saviour or rather in obedience and observation of that Precept given by Him Matth. 10. 12. Luke 10. 5. Salute the House ye enter into and Say Peace be to this House And so likewise by the Churches Appointment we conclude our prayers The peace of God that is The Peace wherein the Kingdom of God consists which passeth all understanding keep your harts and minds in the knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ c. The Form of this Blessing is taken from our Apostle Phil. 4. 7. And therein we do but pray for that which the Apostle promiseth in Gods name to the Philippians 3. But if this Peace as our Apostle there speakes surpasseth all understanding how shall we seek after it or discover the nature of it or the nature of that joy in the holy Ghost which is the fruit of it Or is this Peace and this Ioy one or both of them that New Name written in the white stone Revel 2. 17. Which Christ promiseth to give to him that overcometh which no man knoweth saving he which hath it For Answer we say This Peace surpasseth the understanding of all men who are not acquainted with it But if it must keep our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ sure we must have an experimental knowledge of it we must feel and perceive it So in effect the Prophet Esay had said Esay 64. 4. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of any man the things which God hath prepared for them which love him But all this is to be understood of the Natural Man or of the man as yet not partaker of the spirit of regeneration For as the Apostle tels us 1 Cor. 2. 10. God hath revealed these things even unto us by his spirit for the spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God And Again ver 12. We have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God The same spirit gives us a true rellish of that Peace whence these joys do spring 4. But if such as have the Tast or Rellish of it know it better by experience then they can by any Map or description of it How shall we perswade such as do not know it to seek after it Or what description shall we make of it to bring them in love with it The best Description which we can make of it must be taken from the known sweetnesse of Temporal Peace which is but the Emblem or shadow of it And the sweetness of Civil peace is alwayes much better known much better esteemed Carendo quam Fruendo by some interposition of want then by continual fruition of it A consuet is nulla fit passio We of this land which have longer enjoyed Civil Peace without interruption then any Nation in the world besides have not so true a rellish of the sweetness of it as most of our neighbor Nations which within these few years have often felt the bitterness of warre as well domestick or Civil as Forraign Necessary therefore it will be for us which neither have seen or felt the enemies Sword for these Threescore years and more to use some Fiction of Warre for right conceiving the sweetness even of Civill Peace Imagine then we lived in such a Land or State as the State of Israel was in the dayes wherein Esaias prophecied or in the dayes whereof he prophecied Chap. 9. ver 19. 20. Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the Land darkened and the People shall be as the fewel of the fire no man shall spare his brother And he shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry and he shall eat on the left hand and shall not be satisfied they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm Manasses shall be ready to devour Ephraim his brother Tribe and Ephraim's intentions against him shall be as cruel and yet both like Simeon and Levi brethren only in mischief and cruelty shall conspire to ruinate Judah the soveraign Tribe of that people Thus imagine
he be hungry we should give him meat if thirstie drink as the Apostle commands In sum we must feed Him but seek to starve his Humor by substracting all occasions of exasperating his mind and seeking occasions to do him good so the heat of his malice having nothing to work upon will by little and little die as fire goes out when the fewel fails 16. For a Friends sake that has indeared us to him for many of whom we yet expect more kindnesses we think it good manners to tolerate many things which otherwise we would not And shall not Christian Faith and true Religion teach us much more to remit all for Gods sake of whom we have received our selves our very bodies and souls and all that we have of whom we yet expect much more then we have received even everlasting life and immortal bodies to be crowned with Glory What if our Enemies have sought to take away this miserable and mortal life God freely gave it us who likewise at his pleasure may justly challenge it And if we cannot justly complain if he should take it from us is it an hard Precept that he wills us not to revenge yea not to complain by way of revenge of such as would but could not take it from us The Lord may as justly command us to forbear all desire of revenge all complaint of such as would take away our Life as he himself can take it That they would so have done was their own That they could not do so unto us is the Lords doing to whom we owe all thankfulness for preserving it and this may be the best occasion of shewing our thankfulness if we for his sake forgive such as sought to take away our Lives Nay if we would but examine this Precept by exact Reason passion set aside in as much as God hath freely given us life he might most Justly command us not to murmur against such as should take it from us For who can appoint him his Time or who can refuse any for his Executioner whom the Supream Judge of Heaven and Earth shall permit But in as much as God hath preserved our lives which our Enemies sought he may justly command and we must obey him so commanding to do any good unto them that sought our evil God is a a more Absolute Lord over the lives of Kings and Princes then they are over their Lands or goods he hath a more absolute interest in all mens actions and affections then any man hath in his own goods or fruits of his ground Now what Lord or Master is there that would indure such a servant as would not bestow his goods or benevolence on whomsoever it pleased him to appoint albeit he were his servants enemie If this we refuse and yet acknowledge our selves to be Gods servants may not God justly say unto us Ex tuo ipsius ore judicaberis If any refuse to set his affections on whomsoever God shall appoint him to employ his actions for whose good it pleaseth him albeit he be our open enemie How much more ought we to do it if we consider the Hope of reward in the life to come 17. Thus you see The First ground of this precept drawn from The equalitie of all men by nature improved and fortified by the Doctrine of Faith that is by The acknowledgement of One Father and Creator and yet may it be further confirmed if we consider what Affinitie nay what Consanguinitie we all have in Christ and what he hath done for us We are saith the Apostle if we be Christs flesh of his Flesh and bone of his Bone Our conjunction with him if we be or would be conjoyned with Him although it be spiritual and mystical yet is it a True a real and lively conjunction He is a True and lively Head we are true and lively members of him and one of another And must have as true a fellow feeling one of anothers harms or sorrows as one part of our own body hath of the pain of another No body Politick ever on earth not the most united in place in Lawes customes or any other Bond of Civil Societie whatsoever had or can have the like union or so near conjunction as all that are members of Christs mystical Bodie truly have as all that professe themselves members thereof should in practise testifie that they have otherwise as the Lawyers say Protestatio non valet contra factum It is in vain to professe thou art a Christian in vain to protest thou art a true professor or Protestant if thy deeds and resolution if thy practice do not seal the truth of thy profession or Protestation for not doing this as the Apostle saith thou shalt confesse Christ and Christianitie with thy lips but deny both Him and it in thy deeds and in thy practise and so thou shalt be judged not according to thy sayings but according to thy works and resolution or omissions of working Would you know then what some of the Heathen have thought of the duties of every member in a body Politick Plato in his fifth Book De Republica hath a comparison to this purpose If a man receive a wound in any part as in his foot or hand or have but some pain or grief in his finger we will not say That his hand or foot is wounded or that his finger feels pain But The man himself hath suffered a wound in his hand or foot That he himself hath a great pain c. For albeit the pain or grief spring first from this or that part yet it overflowes and affects the whole bodie The branches of it spread throughout all parts and every part is worse because one part is so ill Yea every part forbears its natural function or recreation in some measure for the ease of this The head wants its sleep other parts their rest by reason of the spirits recourse thither as so many comforters sent from them to visit their sick friend or fellow member In like manner Plato thought it meet that in every City or Common-weal as often as any good or harm did happen to any Citizen or Free denizon thereof it should not be counted that mans good or harm only but the good or harm of the whole City and every member thereof should be alike affected If this the Heathens by meer light of nature could discern to be the dutie of the meer natural man what tongue of man or Angel can expresse in Terms befitting so high A mysterie what Brotherhood what fellowship what Sympathie and what affection should be between the members of Christs Body for no society like this no fellowship like to that in Him This union exceeds all other much more then the union of one part of our heart with another doth the union of the heart with the foot Doubtless our Saviour spake according to the duty if not according to the custome of honest hartie neighbours in the good old world in the Parable
good to him because it is from God His soul is good because he knows and as it were feels it to be created by God his health seems good because it springs from him who is The Fountain of Salvation He loves these because they are good But he loves God above all because he is better then all even then the best of all his Blessings These are only Good because they are seasoned with a spice or savor of Gods Goodness Now as it recreates an hungry man to smell meat but much more to tast it so is it a matter to be more desired to tast the Goodness of God as the Psalmist speaks then to enjoy the sweet Savor or Fragrance of him in his Creatures And we best tast the Goodness of God by doing His Will and pleasure as our Saviour saith John 4. 34. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work As we de desire our Spirit at the hour of death should return to God not only because he gave it but because also he is our Blisse so even in this life the sweetest joy that can be found is when we are lifted up in Spirit to behold and tast the Goodness of God when we can say with the Blessed Virgin My soul doth magnifie the Lord. We should never desire Him to do us any Good but with an instant Return of a more earnest desire to be inabled to do what he would have us do to love him above all and all other things for his sake Having our thoughts and desires thus composed although we have not the particular things we desire yet shall we have our Hearts desire because we delight in the Lord who alone can satisfie our hearts otherwise unsatiable Whereas the wicked albeit he get possession of what he most desired yet hath he not his hearts desire because the desire of it was like a good arm as we say cast awâ—â— being set upon a wrong Object not on the goodness of his God nor on his blessings for his sake but for themselves He setteth his eyes upon that which is nothing Prov. 23. 5. and so cannot satisfie This gives witness to the truth of what the Psalmist saith Psal 37. 16. A small thing that the righteous hath is better then great riches of the ungodly To the godly The loving kindness of the Lord is better not only then all the means of life but then life it self his soul is satisfied as it were which marrow and fatness and his mouth praiseth God with joyful lips As Saint John saith we cannot love God whom we have not seen unlesse we love our brother whom we have seen So neither can we delight in God who is a Spirit unless we first delight purely and aright in his blessings which are sensible and agreeable to nature For it is true in this sense First is that which is natural and then that which is spiritual And the more we delight in them so we duly consider they are his blessings and that as well the continuance of them as of our abilitie to delight in them depends upon His pleasure the more still we delight in Him 10. It is an excellent Rule which Solomon hath given in this case Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth while the evil dayes come not nor the years approach wherein thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them Eccles 12. 1. To be a Creator in Solomons Language imports as much as to be the maker of our Bodies and souls the Sole giver of all things wherein we can delight and sole Author of all the abilities and faculties which make us apt to take delight therein sole disposer of all opportunities that bring about the matters wherein we most delight And To remember our Creator in his Language also is diligently and continually to ponder these things and to be affected or moved with them according to their weight and importance But why doth he charge us to remember God in the dayes of our youth Because in that age we are apt to take greatest delight in our selves or any thing truly delightfull our spirits being then most fresh and lively so that the measure of our delight whether in our selves or in things without us being then truly taken would impell us to a equal delight in Him that was Author and Creator of Both and to correspondent Gratulation whereas deferring of this Remembrance or notice of our Creator till old age come upon us wherein life growes to be a burden and the wonted delights of life either irksom or insipid unpleasant or without all tast or rellish our thankfulness for them will be but faint our gratulation worthless our devotion cold and lumpish The former due estimate of our Creators goodness being planted in youth our delight in him would grow as our bodily abilities for all natural performances did decay we might truely say with the Apostle when I am weak then I am strong and with the Psalmist They shall bring forth more fruit in their Age c. 11. Thus it was with Abraham he had feared God in his youth and obeyed him in his Mature age and though he obtained a son by miraculous means in his old age yet was he not more joyful at his Birth and growth then ready to give him Again to God in his best age He did unto God in this particular as God had done to him nay he did as he desired God should do to him and God did to him above what he could desire because he was so Ready to do what God commanded him He took and offered Isaac his son his only son in whom both he and all the nations of the earth as he hoped should be blessed and God in lieu of this his obedience and thankfulness promiseth and in the fulness of Time sendeth his only son in whom he was well pleased to assume Abrahams seed and to offer himself in sacrifice for the sins of the world a sacrifice for a blessing to all mankind Thus if we shew our selves truly thankful for blessings past God gives us over and above what we could desire do we but what he would have done by us he doth more then we could wish should be done for us As he offered Isaac his only Son whom he loved in hope to receive him again in a Joyful Resurrection so must we offer our dearest affections our chief desires yea our bodies and souls in sacrifice to him in hope to receive them glorified and crowned with immortalitie in the life to come This is to love God with all our heart withall our soul and with all our strength There should be the same mind in us which was in Christ Jesus He laid down his life for us and we should be willing to lay down ours for our Brethren which is the chief and most Transcendent part of the second Table but much more should we be willing to offer our
wanton motions and mimick gestures into wailing and gnashing of teeth And as for you Reverend Fathers or you my much Respected Brethren to whom any charge of others either private or publick is committed Consider I beseech you what places you bear in these Houses of God All of you in your several Charges sustain the place of righteous Job in his Familie for your fatherly care over inferiors Whilest then your Sons thus banquet in their houses every one his day and send and call their friends to eat and drink with them Be you sure the Lord will require at your hands that you be so much more vigilant in your Callings not only in punishing the Chief Offendors in this kind as some of you have begun though this no doubt will be an acceptable sacrifice unto God but even in offering up your evening and morning sacrifice for them according to the number of their transgressions For doubtless your Sons have grievously offended and blasphemed God in their hearts And therefore you must be so much the more diligent to offer up the sweet incense every day For all of us Beloved in our Lord and Saviour see the dayes wherein we live are extraordinary evil and the time must be redeemed by our extraordinary vigilancie sobriety and sanctitie As others double and treble the sins of this present in respect of former times so must we in like proportion increase our industry and diligence fervent prayer good exhortation charitable deeds and sacred functions Thus would you Reverend Fathers go before us in these duties as you do in dignitie God would restore your lost sons to you again and besides Jobs Restitution in this life you shall certainly be partakers of Daniels Blessing in the life to come For thus turning others unto righteousness by your good Examples you shall shine like Starrs for ever God grant you Governors wise hearts thus to rule And all inferiors Grace to follow your good Examples and Advice Amen The Later Sermon upon this Text. CHAP. XXXVI JEREM. 45. v. 5. For Behold I will bring a Plague or evil upon All Flesh saith the Lord but thy life will I give thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest The Second Doctrine propounded Chap. 35. Sect. 4. handled 1. In Thesi Touching the natural esteem of life in general 2. In Hypothesi Of the Donative of Life to Baruch as the Case then stood That men be not of the same Judgment About the price of Life when they be in heat Action and prosperitie which they be of in dejection of spirit and adversitie proved by instances Petrus Strozius Alvarez De Sande Gods wrath sharpens the Instruments and increases the Terror of Death Life was a Blessing to Baruch though it shewed him all those evils from sight of which God took away good King Josiah in favour to him Baruch as man did sympathize with the miseries of his people As a faithful man and a Prophet of the Lord He conformed to the just will of God The Application 1. OF the Two Aphorisms deduced out of the Text The later left before untouched comes now to be handled And it is This. In times of publick Calamitie or desolation the bare Donative of life and liberty is a priviledge more to be esteemed then the Prerogative of Princes Or in other Terms thus Exemption from General Plagues is more then a full recompence for all the Grievances which attend our ministerial charge or service in denouncing them Of this by Gods Assistance I shall treat without further Division or Method more accurate then that Usual One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First Of the Natural Esteem of Life or Exemption from common Plagues in General Secondly Of it as the Case here stands with Baruch Vox populi etiam vox Dei est It is the voice of Nature uttering only what is engraven by the Creators Finger in the heart of man and of creatures otherwise dumb Life is sweet and would be so esteemed of all could we resolve to live at home endeavouring rather to improve those seeds of happiness which grace or Nature have sown in us then to encompass large or vast materials of forreign Contentments But unto men whose desires are once diverted from the true End of life unto the remote Meanes destinated for its procurement unto such men as have set their thoughts such Roving Progresses as Pyrrhus did or with the fool in the Gospel are not able to give their souls their Acquietances until they have enlarged their store-houses and laid up goods for many years the attaining of such particulars as for the present they most seek after doth rather whet then satiate their appetite of the like Hence life attended with mean appurtenances becomes either loathsom or little set by because the provision of necessaries actually enjoyed is as nothing in respect of those impertinencies which they have swallowed in hope or have in continual chase The want of these latter unto men wedded unto vast desires is more irksom then the possession of them can be pleasant so that to live without them seems a kind of loss Me-thinks Plinies Hyperbolical or Fabulous Narration of the greedy wild-goose which plucks so eagerly at the roots of what plants I now remember not but so fixt to the ground that she oft-times leaves her neck behind her may be a true Emblem of such mens intemperate pettish hopes usually so fastened to the matters which they much desire that sooner may their souls be drawn out of their bodies then weaned from these Wounds though deep and grievous are scarce felt to smart whilst the blood is hot or the body in motion No marvel then if in the fervent pursuit of honour gain or pleasure men sometimes suffer their souls to escape out of their prison before the flight be discerned In fine as young Gallants for speedy supplies of luxurious expences usually morgage their Lands ere they know their worth So life it self is oftentimes hazarded upon light termes by such as know not what it is to live We have heard of a Souldier so forward to take the advantage which Chance of War had given that he cried out unto his Captain Follow and we shall have a day of them whereas a perpetual night was taking possession of his eyes his entrals being let out whilst he uttered these words I can more easily believe this of an English spirit though not in print because it is upon Authentick Record that Petrus Strozius a famous Italian Commander being shot with a bullet of a larger size under the left pap fell down dead to the ground leaving these words behind him in the air The French King hath lost a true and faithful servant It seems his heart had been too full fraught with swelling Conceits of his own worth I could instance in many did the time permit which have either encountred death with such und antedness or suffered life to be taken from them with so
came to Elijah the Tishbite saying seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me for he rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went softly because he humbleth himself before me I not will bring the evil in his dayes but in his sons dayes will I bring the evil upon his house Such was that Message which Hulda the prophetesse delivered unto Josiahs messengers But to the King of Judah which sent you to enquire of The Lord thus shall ye say to him Thus saith the Lord God of Israel as touching the words which thou hast heard because thine heart was tender and thou hast humbled thy self before the Lord when thou heardest what I spake against this place and against the inhabitants thereof that they should become a desolation and a curse and hast rent thy clothes and wept before me I also have heard thee saith the Lord Behold therefore I will gather thee unto thy fathers and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace and thine eye shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place Yet did the arrowes of Israels and Judahs most inveterate enemies the arrowes of the Aramites and Aegyptians make violent entrance for death into both these Princes bodies long before the time by ordinary course of nature prefixed for dispossession of their souls How then should life be unto Baruch as a welcome Prey being to be fully charged with all these hard conditions and bitter grieviances whose release or avoidance made untimely bloody death become A kind of gracious Pardon unto Ahab and a grateful Boon or Booty to good Josias For what evil did the Lord either threaten or afterward bring upon Iosiahs posteritie or people which Baruchs eyes did not behold Nor did this lease of life and libertie here bequeathed unto him expire till long after Jerusalems glasse was quite run out till after her whitest Towers were covered with dust and all the cities of Judah and Benjamin laid wast till the King the Princes and nobles were led captives or slain and the remnant which War had left in Iudah as a gleaning after harvest disperst and sowen throughout the Land of Egypt never to be reapt but by the Sword which even there pursues them excepting a very small number that escaped Ierem. 44. 28. And what greater evil could Iosias's eyes have seen though he had lived as long as Baruch The Difficulty therefore seems unanswerable How life should be a more grateful prey unto Baruch then it might have been unto Josias 6. But here if we rightly distinguish the Times the Persons and Offices We may easily derive the violent shortning of good Josias his dayes and this lengthening of Baruch's to see the evil which Josias desired rather to be sightless then to see from one and the same loving kindness of the Lord. Josias we must consider was The Great Leader of Gods People and could not but wish their Fall should be under some other then himself It was a Donative more magnificent then the long reign of Augustus that being slain in warre he should go to his grave in peace For this included his peoples present safety whose extirpation had been till this time deferred for his sake though now at length he must be taken out of the way that the Messengers of Gods wrath which could forbear no longer may have a freer passage throughout the Land No marvel if after thirtie one years raign in prosperitie and peace he patiently suffered violent death being thus graced with greater honour then either Codrus the last King of Athens or the Roman Decius purchased by voluntary sacrificing themselves for their people Perhaps the plagues which these men feared might otherwise have been avoided Or it may be the fear it self was but some vain delusion of Satan alwayes delighted with such sacrifices But that Ierusalem and Iudah standing condemned before Iosias's birth were so long reprieved so well intreated for his sake we have the great Judges Sentence for our warrant And therefore the Word of The Lord which Huldah the Prophetess had sent must needs seem good to him It was a message more unwelcome then such a death as Iosias suffered which Isaias brought to his great Grand-father Hezekiah lately delivered from the Assyrian and miraculously restored to life but more forward to receive Presents from Berodash King of Babylon then to render praise and thanksgiving to his God according to the Reward bestowed upon him Behold the dayes come saith Isaias that all that is in thine house and that which thy Fathers have laid up in store unto this day shall be carried unto Babylon nothing shall be left saith the Lord. And of thy sons which shall issue from thee which thou shalt beget shall they take away and they shall be Eunuchs in the Palace of the King of Babylon Doth he repine or mutter at this ungrateful Message No But with great submission replies Good is the Word of the Lord which Thou hast spoken And he said Is it not good if peace and truth be in my dayes Isaiah 39. 8. Shall we hence collect that this Good King was of that wicked Tyrants mind who as he had shortened her dayes from whom he had beginning of life so did he envie his Mother Nature should survive him wishing the world might be dissolved at his death and that Old Chaos might be his Tomb God forbid we should wrong the memory of so Gracious a Prince by the least suspicion of such ungracious thoughts Rather his heart did smite him for shewing his Treasury his Armory and other provision wherein he had gloried too much unto the King of Babels Messengers This sin he knew to be such as his Father Davids had been in numbring the Hosts of Israel The plagues now threatened by his God he could not but acknowledge to be most just and great therefore must his mercy toward him needs seem to be in that for his sake who had so ill requited this strange Delivery and Recovery he would yet deferre them But seeing the wickedness of Manasseh and the mighty encrease of this peoples iniquity from Hezekiah's death did earnestly sollicit the Day of Visitation the former adjourning of it must cost Iosiah dear And Gods Arrows being flesht in him No marvel if they return not empty from the blood of the slain or from the fat of the mighty Having begun with so good A King it might well be expected they would make an end of so naughty a people This was he of whom not the people only but the Prophet hath said Under his shadow we shall be safe As he was a shadow without question of that Great Shepheard which was to be smitten ere the flock were scattered upon the occasion of whose death his Disciples likewise said We trusted it had been he which should have redeemed Israel And for Josias to become the true shadow or the bloody
weighing this place alone For so far hath the misapprehended Doctrine of Predestination and Certaintie of their own Estate in Salvation misswaded some as they have not been affraid to affirm That the Angels are in some sort inferiour to themselves because They minister to them as they are Heires of Salvation Ministers they are indeed yet not to us but to God or Christ though for our good So is every Magistrate so is every Pastor in his place yet God forbid that inferiours should hence collect That their Magistrates and Pastors should be Inferiour to all them for whose good they are Ministers 3. The next Point to be examined is the Extent of this our High Priests Exaltation about the Bounds or limits whereof the Controversies are more then any difficulties in the Rule of Faith do minister but not so many as men of rash or audacious understandings make and the most of them prosecuted with greater vehemencie of contention then the spirit of sobrietie which should be in every good Christian will approve The Questions of more profitable Use are generally Two The First concerns the Logical Subject of Christs Exaltation comprehended in this Title of Sitting at the Right-hand of God and the like And the Issue is this Whether Christ be exalted only as he is the Son of David or as he is the Son of God or according to both his natures as well Divine as humane The second Quaerie is about the Extent or Limits of the Exaltation of his humane Nature The one Question as Logicians speak is about the Extent or limit of the Subject The other about the Extent or limit of the Attribute That Christ was exalted according to his Humane Nature or as he was the Son of David all Christians agree But that he should be exalted as God or according to his Divine Nature which is absolutely Infinite may well seem impossible for the matter and for the Phrase very harsh Howbeit this is avouched by many Orthodoxal and worthy Divines And if Christ be as most Protestants avouch our Mediator Secundum utr amque naturam according to Both Natures why may he not be said to be Exalted according to Both Natures Yet a Difference there is which will disjoynt this Consequence For to be a Mediator betwixt two doth not necessarily include any Defect or inequalitie in the partie mediating in respect of the parties between whom he is a Mediator Whereas to be Exalted doth necessarily include or presuppose some Lower degree from which he is Exalted to an higher And if Christ according to his Divine Nature be alwayes equal to God the Father he was and is and shall be Absolutely Infinite And Absolute Infinitie cannot admit of any Degrees specially of Exaltation This necessarily argues that Christs Divine Nature could in it self receive no Degree of Diminution or Exaltation If then according to his Divine Nature he was exalted this Exaltation was not by any Real Addition of Dignitie to his Nature but only quoad nos in respect of us And it is perhaps one thing to say that Christ was Exalted according to his Divine Nature Another to say That Christ was Exalted as he was the Son of God However thus much we are bound to believe and thus much we may safely say That Christ as God was exalted in the same Sense and manner that he was Humbled as God Now that the Son of God who was as truly God as God the Father truly equal to God the Father did truly humble himself unto death even to the death of the Cross was in the first Chapter of our Eighth Book deduced out of the second to the Philippians Nor did he humble himself only according to his Humane Nature for he humbled himself not only by his life and death here on earth but by taking the Humane Nature in which he was humbled The Humane Nature could not be humbled by being united to his Divine Nature but rather Exalted So that the first and Prime Subject of his humiliation was if not his Divine Nature yet his Divine Person The Person of the Son of God was humbled by his Incarnation or Conception by his Birth by his Life by his Death and Passion And for every degree of his humiliation there is a correspondent degree of his Exaltation by his Resurrection by his Ascension into heaven and by his Sitting at the Right-hand of God the Father In what Sense our Apostle saith He was humbled according to his Divine Person hath been discussed at large before The sum was this If he that thought it no robberie to be equal with God had been at any time pleased to have assumed a body or created substance into the unitie of his Infinite Person such Glorie and honour was unto that his bodie or created substance due as exceeds the Glorie and honour of all other bodies or created substances infinitely more then any creature can possibly exceed another And yet we know that the Son of God who was from Eternitie equal to his Father did in the Fulnesse of Time assume into the unitie of his Divine Person a Bodie and Soul subject to all the infirmites sin only excepted that humane nature is capable of And by assuming such a bodie and by exposing it to all the miseries of mortalitie the Son of God was truly said to be humbled and the Degrees of his humiliation were as many and large as are the Degrees by which his immortal glorified Bodie doth exceed his mortal Bodie as many and large as are the Degrees of Honour and Excellencie betwixt that Royal Priesthood which now he exerciseth and the Form of a Servant wherein he appeared So that not only the Humane Nature of the Son of God but the Son of God in his Humane Nature is truly exalted according to all the Degrees of his former Humiliation But is this all that we are bound to believe or may safely acknowledge concerning the Exaltation of Christ both as he was the Son of God and as he was the Son of David 4. If this were all then his Exaltation as the Son of God should meerly consist in the Abdication or putting off the Form of a Servant It could not include or presuppose any positive Ground of any new and Real Attribute but only a Relation to his former humiliation Some good Divines as well Ancient as modern suppose that albeit man had never sinned yet should the Son of God have been incarnate that is have taken our nature upon him yet our nature not humbled or obnoxious to death but alwaies clothed with glorie and immortalitie For Illustration or Example sake Suppose the Son of God had taken an humane bodie altogether as glorious as now it is from the very first moment of its assumption into the unitie of his Divine Glorious Person Could the assumption of such a bodie how glorious soever or how perpetual soever its glorie had been have added any least degree of Exaltation unto the Son of
and meekenesse than Moses did albeit they had no such occasion of murmuring as their forefathers had For their Fathers murmured in their hunger or thirst whereas this great Prophet had prevented this occasion of murmuring by feeding them plenteously before they had sought to him for food That which Moses saith unto the murmuring Israelites Exod. 16. 8. was now exactly fullfilled The Lord saith he heareth your murmurings which you murmur against him and what are wee Your murmurings are not against us but against the Lord. These Jewes murmur against the son as they suppose of Joseph and Mary lesse weening that in murmuring against him they did personally murmur against the Son of God then their Fathers did when they murmured against Moses that they had murmured against their God But the same Lord which heard their murmurings then by the mediate presence or infinite knowledge of his God head heares them now with the eares of man as immediately and as sensibly as Moses heard their Fathers murmur Now as God in the wildernesse though he heard their Fathers murmurings did yet grant them their desire at evening ye shall eat flesh in the morning ye shall be filled with bread and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God Exod. 16. 12 So the same Lord now albeit this foolish people murmur against him to his face not for denying but for proffering them the true food of life is so farre from chiding them as Moses did that he presseth them to make try all of his bountie and to accept his proffer with greater vehemency of words yet with more meeknesse of language than Moses did at any time use Murmur not saith he amongst your selves ver 43. c. I am that bread of life your fathers did eat Manna in the wildernesse and are dead This is the bread which cometh downe from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not dye I am the living bread that came downe from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh w ch I will give for the life of the world 48 49 50 51. And here again they increase their murmuring for they strove among themselves saying how can this man give us his flesh to eat v. 52. Thus as their Fathers tempted God in their hearts by asking meat for their Lust Ps 78. 18. so have their posteritie They fought him out that they might have their bellye 's filled with corporal bread and yet when he had given them this in great abundance by meanes miraculous they will not beleive that he is able to give them what he promiseth bread from heaven or his flesh to eate which is the bread or staff of life So incredulous their Fathers had been that after the sight of many miracles in Egypt they would not trust him in the wildernesse after the experience of one miracle in the wildern esse they would not trust him for a second They Spake against God they said can God furnish a table in the wildernesse Behold he smote the Rock that the waters gushed out and the streames over-flowed but can he give bread also can he provide flesh for his people therefore the Lord heard this and was wroth so a fire was kindled against Jacob and anger came up against Israel because they beleived not in God and trusted not in his salvation But now this Salvation of God even God himself made their Jesus or Salvation for all is one is come neerer unto this later people and yet they will not beleeve him they will not trust in him Yet his anger is not presently kindled against them for not beleiving The more they doubt the more they question the more they murmur or strive the more he presseth the necessitie of eating his flesh upon them first Negatively verily verily I say unto you except yee eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood yee have no life in you then Affirmatively Who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternall life and I will raise him up at the last day vers 53 54. And lastly he gives the reason as well of the negative as of the affirmative For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed vers 55. So that in him these Jewes were to expect the fulnesse of the body of all those contentments for whose shadowes their Fathers so greedily longed in the wildernesse and for want of which they so murmured against Moses as these men now do against the Lord which appeared to Moses for giving them assurance of them 4. In what sense Christs flesh is said to be truely meate and his blood to be truely drink I have shewd elswhere The summe was this His flesh is meat indeed his blood is drink indeed non Formaliter sed Eminenter meat indeed and drink indeed not in respect of the natural qualities of corporal meat and drink for these must be swallowed concocted digested and finally converted into our bodily substance That Christs flesh according to these qualities is truely meat or his blood truely drink the Romish Church doth not avouch For if his body should be concocted or digested or converted into our bodily substance it should suffer corruption And to be swallowed only and not concocted is no propertie of meat or drink Christs Flesh then is said truly meat and his blood drink indeed in respect of the End whereto all manner of food is destinated The best End of all bodily food is to preserve or continue bodily life And that is the best food or diet which most effectually procureth this End Howbeit bodily life cannot be first given or implanted by the best bodily meat that is but only continuated or preserved But Christs Flesh was given not only to continue life but to give life unto the world it is the root of life as well as the food of life If we speak of life spiritual or Everlasting which onely is life indeed And in as much as his flesh and blood are the rootes and fountaines of this kind of life the one is most truely said to be meat indeed the other most truely drink indeed That is meat and drink more effectuall and more necessary for the attainement of everlasting life than bodily food is for life temporal Again Temporal or bodily life cannot be continued or preserved otherwise than by the corruption or destruction of the bodily meate which preserves it But Christs flesh and blood preserve life spiritual or our soules and bodies unto everlasting life because they are incorruptible and cannot be changed be not so much as subject to alteration Now if all other meat besides this must suffer corruption and lose its nature before it can become a cause or meanes of preserving bodily life Such meat cannot be truely said to remain in us much lesse can wee be said to remain or abide in it But of Christs flesh and
not have appear'd so great in the creation of Earth and Water as it doth in the creation not of them only but of the whole heavens with all their Hosts and furniture The more Gods creatures be the greater be his praises for this Tribute he ought to receive from all of them for their verie Being In like manner though the Redemption of one or some few men do truly argue the value of his sufferings to be truly infinite yet the more they be for whom he dyed the more is his glorie the greater is his praise For all are bound joyntly and severally to laud and magnifie his Name for the infinite price of their Redemption 15. Lastly This Doctrine is so necessarie for manifesting the just measure of their unthankfulnesse which perish that without This we cannot take so much as a true Surface of it not so much as the least Dimension of Sin Some there be which tell us that we had power in Adam to Glorifie God but that finning in Adam our sin is infinite because against an infinite Majestie For so it is that the greater the Partie is whom we offend the greater always the offence is And thus by degrees they gather that everie sin against the infinite Majestie of God deserveth infinitie of Punishment But albeit the degrees of Sin which accrue from the degrees of Dignitie in the person whom we offend be successively infinite yet because these Degrees are indeterminate every man which hath any skill at all in Arguments of Proportion must needs know that it is impossible for the wit or art of man to find out the true Product of such Calculatorie Inductions or to conjecture unto what set measure of ingratitude these infinite degrees will amount It is not the ten-hundreth-thousandth part of any Sin that can be truly notifyed unto us by inferences of this kind How then shall we take the true measure of our Sinnes or the full Dimension of our unthankfulnesse From the Great Goodnesse of God in our Creation and the unmeasurable Love of Christ in our Redemption If God in our Creation as the Psalmist saies did make us but litle lower then the Glorious Angels that the might afterward crown us with Glorie everlasting if when through the First mans follie we had lost that Honour he made his Onely Son for a litle while for 33. yeares space lower then the Angels that he might exalt Him above all Principalitie and Power and in Him recrown us with Honour and Glorie aequal to the Angels Their Sin is truly infinite their unthankfulnesse is unexpressible and justly deserveth punishment everlasting who voluntarily and continually despise so great Salvation which by Christ was purchased for them No Torment can be too great no anguish too Durable because no Happiness could be in any degree comparable much lesse equal to that which they refused though treasured up for them in that inexhaustible fountain of happinesse Christ Jesus our Lord our God and our Redeemer To conclude this meditation It is a thing most seriously to be considered That though Gods mercies in Christ can never be magnified too much yet may they be apprehended amisse And that as it is most Dangerous to sink in Deep waters wherein it is the easiest to Swim so the more infinite Gods mercies towards us are the more deadly sin it is to Dallie with them or to take incouragement by the Contemplation of them to continue in Sin The contemplation of their infinitie is then most seasonable when we are touched with a feeling of the infinitenesse of our sins In that case we can not look upon them but we shall be desirous to be partakers of them and that upon such Termes as God offers them the forsaking of all our sinnes Pro. 28. 13. 16. But is this all that thou art to remember when thou art by Spirituall eating and drinking Christs flesh and blood a preparing thy self for Sacramental and Spiritual receiving him together in The Lords Supper is it enough to acknowledge that he payd as great a Ransom for thee as he did for all Mankind in general No! This is but the first part of thy Redemption and this first part of thy redemption was intirely and alsufficiently and most effectually wrought for thee before any part of thy bodie was framed before thy Soul was created it was then wrought for thee without any endeavour or wish of thine No more was required at thy hands for this work then was required of thee for thy creation But there is A second part of thy Redemption of which that saying of A Father is true Qui fecit te sine te non salvabit te sine te He that made thee without any work or endeavour of thine will not save wil not Redeem thee without some endeavour at least on thy part What then is the second part of the Redemption which wee expect that Christ should yet work in us and for us or what is the endeavour on our parts required that he should work it in us and for us The second part of our Redemption which is yet in most of us to be accomplished is The Mortification of our Bodies the diminishing the Reign of sin in them in a word our Sanctification or Ratification of our Election These are wholly Christ's workes the sole works of God for it is He that works in us both the will and the Deed and yet are we commanded to work out our own Salvation to make our Election sure But how shall we do this which is wholly Gods work or what are we to do that these works may be wrought in us Besides the renewing of the Astipulation or answer of a Pure Conscience and Resumption of our BAPTISMAL VOW heretofore mentioned we are to humble our selves mightily before the Lord by a meek acknowledgement of our vilenesse and sincere confession of our sinnes And if we so humble our selves Hee that giveth Grace to the humble will lift us up if we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse not only to remit and cover our iniquities but to purifie our hearts and renew our spirits and mindes that they shall bring forth fruits unto holinesse We are to call upon God by the prayer of faith and perseverance Turn thou us Good Lord and so shall we be turned Speak but Thou the word and Thy Servants shall be whole 17. Thus we may esteem of Christs love to us and yet not examin or judge our selves as wee ought before we eat This Bread and Drink this Cup. To examin and judge our selves aright requires these Two meditations or Two parts of one and the same meditation First How farre wee are guilty of Christ's Death by our Sinnes But this falles under the former Meditation That Christ Dyed for us all not onely all joyntly considered but for everie one in particular or as alone considered and if
over the souls and spirits of Kings and Monarchs over the blessed Angels under whose Guardianship the greatest Monarchs are then they have over their meanest Vassals So that His dominion extends beyond the definition given by Lawyers which comprehends only things corporal but meddles not with coelestial substances or spiritual as Angels which are not subject to the Iurisdiction of Princes nor can they be imprisoned in their coffers Men as they could not make themselves so neither can they by their valour wit or industrie gain or create a title to any thing which is not Gods and whereof he is not Absolute Lord before and after they come to be Lords and owners subordinate of it They cannot move their bodies nor imploy their minds but by his free donation nor can they enjoy his freest gifts but by his concurse or Co-operation He hath a Dominion of propertie over their souls yea an absolute dominion not of propertie only but of uncontrollable iurisdiction over their very thoughts as it is implyed Deut. 8. 17 18. He doth not only give us the substance which we are enabled to get but gives us the very power wit and strength to get or gather it Not this power only whereby we gather substance but our very Being which supports this power is his gift and unlesse our Being be supported and strengthned hy his power sustentative we cannot so much as think of gathering wealth or getting necessaries much less can we dispose of our own endeavours for accomplishing our hopes desires or thoughts To conclude then All we have even wee our selves are Gods by absolute Dominion as well of propertie as of Iurisdiction There is no Law in heaven or earth that can inhibit or restrayne his absolute Power to dispose of all things as he pleaseth for he works all things by the Counsel of his Will and He only is Absolute Lord. But absolute Lordship or Dominion how far soever extended though over Angels Powers and Principalites from this ground or universal Title of Creation is intirely jointly and indivisibly common to the Blessed Trinitie For so S. Athanasius teacheh us the Father is LORD the Son is LORD the Holie Ghost is LORD absolute Lord as well in respect of Dominion as of Jurisdiction and yet not three Lords but one Lord and if but One Lord then the Lordship or dominion is One and the same alike absolute either for intensive Perfection or Extension in the Son as in the Father in the Holy Ghost as in the Son Yet is it well observed by a judicious Commentator upon S. Pauls Epistles that to be LORD is the proper Title or Epitheton in S. Pauls Language of Christ the Son of God both God and Man and Emphatically ascribed to him even in those passages wherein he had occasion expressely to mention the distinction of Persons in the Trinitie As where he saith The Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ the love of God he doth not say of God the Lord and the fellowship of the Holie Ghost without addition of this title of Lord be with you all And so in our Apostles Creed we professe to Believe in God the Father Almightie without addition of the title LORD and so in God the Holie Ghost not in the Lord the Holy Ghost but in Christ our Lord. Which leades to the Second Point proposed in the Entrance to this Second Section CHAP. VII In what respects or upon what grounds Christ is by peculiar Title called The Lord. And First of the Title it self Secondly Of the Real grounds unto this Title 1. COncerning the name of Lord there is no verbal difference in the Greek or Latin whether this name or Title be attributed to God the Father as oft it is or to God the Holy Ghost unto the Blessed Trinitie or unto Christ God and Man Yet in the Hebrew there is a difference in the very Names or words The Name Jehovah which is usually rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominus or Lord is alike common to every Person in the Holie Trinitie as expressing the Nature of the God-head he that is being it self Howbeit even this Name is sometimes in peculiar sort attributed unto Christ But that Christ or the Son of God is in those places personally meant this must be gathered from the Subject or special Circumstances of the matter not from the Name or Title it self But the name Adonai which properly signifies Lord or King as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek doth implying as much as the Pillar or Foundation of the people is the peculiar Title of the Son of God or of God incarnate And for attributing this Title unto Christ as his peculiar the Apostle St. Paul had a good warrant out of the Prophetical Writings especially the Psalms which he questionlesse understood a great deal better then many great Divines and accurate Linguists have done his writings or the harmonie betwixt the Psalmists and his Evangelical Comments on them This Title of Lord Adonai is used most frequently in those Psalmes which contain the most pregnant Prophecies of Christ or the Messias his exaltation Psal 2. 2 4. The Kings of the earth band themselves and the Princes are assembled together against the Lord and against his Christ But he that dwelleth in the heavens doubtlesse he means the same Jehovah shall laugh Yet he doth not say Jehovah but Adonai the Lord shall have them in derision The Reality of Dominion answering to this Title of Lord whereunto the Messias against whom they conspired was exalted is more fully expressed in the same Psalm v. 8 9 10. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the ends of the earth for thy possession Thou shalt crush them with a Scepter of Iron and break them in pieces like a Potters vessel Be wise now therefore ye Kings be learned ye Judges of the earth serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce in trembling Kisse the Son the Son doubtlesse of Jehovah lest he be angry and ye perish in the way when his wrath shall suddenly burn Blessed are all they that trust in him And so again Psal 45. which is as it were the Epithalamium or marriage song of Christ and his Church The Prophet exhorts the Spouse to do as Christ willed his Disciples to do and as Abraham had done at Gods Command Forget thine own people and thy Fathers house so shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty for he is the Lord reverence or worship him v. 10 11. And again Psal 110. wherein Christs everlasting Priesthood is confirmed by Oath it is said Jehovah said to my Lord Adonai sit thou at my Right hand until I make thine enemies thy foot-stool But may not the Jew thus Object that seeing our Christ or their expected Messias is enstyled Adonai not Jehovah in these very places wherein his Exaltation or supreme Dominion is foretold That therefore he is not truly God as Jehovah is To this Objection our Saviours Reply
more probable it is that our Apostle did aim at the 97. Psal then at the forecited place of Deut. because the other Testimonies following in that Hebr. 1. 8 9. are evidently taken out of the Book of Psalmes unto the SON he saith O GOD Thy throne is for ever and ever the Scepter of thy Kingdome is a Scepter of righteousness Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquitie wherefore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the oyle of gladness above thy fellowes This Testimonie is evident in the 45. Psal v. 6 7. So is that other Heb. 1. 10 11 12. expressely contained in Psal 102 Thou Lord in the beginning hast established the earth and the heavens are the workes of thine hands They shall perish but thou dost remain and they all shall wax old as doth a garment And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy yeares shall not fail The former testimonie is perhaps Typically Propheticall and may in some sort concern Salomon according to the literal sense but Salomon only as he was a Type of that Son of David who was likewise to be the Son of God But the Character almost of every line in the hundred and second Psalm testifies that the Psalmist in this grievous complaint had more then a Typical representation such a distinct and clear vision of Christs Glorie and Exaltation as the Prophet Esay Chap. 53. had of his humiliation in our flesh or humane nature The Title of this Psalm is A prayer of the afflicted when he shall be in distress and powr forth his meditations before the Lord. And The only fountain of comfort to all afflicted in bodie or soul is the Exaltation of Christ the Son of God in our flesh or nature That which must sweeten all our bodily sorrowes or afflictions even the bitterness of death it self whereof this Psalmist and the people of God in his time had tasted must be our meditation upon that and the like speeches of our Apostle If we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with him And for your comfort in all distress I cannot commend any fitter matter of meditation to you then is contained in this 102 Psalm and in the 2. 4. and 12. Chapters to the Hebrews This Exaltation of Christ to be Lord is alike clearly fore-prophesied Psalm 99. and Psalm 145. as every observant Reader may of himself collect 4. The more extraordinary and more special Grounds or Bases whereupon this Title of Lord as it is peculiar to Christ is erected are these First Christ is in peculiar sort called The LORD because it was God the Son not God the Father or God the Holie Ghost who did personally pay the ransom of our Sins and this he fully payed by offering up part of our nature made his own in a bloody Sacrifice to the Father Servants we were by creation of our nature not onely to God the Son but to God the Father and to God the Holie Ghost to the Divine nature or blessed Trinity But we had sold our selves for enjoying the pleasures of the flesh unto Gods adversary And albeit we could not by any compact or Covenant whether implicit or express made with Satan by our first Parents or by our selves alienate our selves from Gods Dominion of Jurisdiction over us yet we did renounce his Service and that Interest which we had in his gracious protection as he was our Lord and alienate unto his enemy that property or disposal of our imployments which by right of creation intirely belong'd to God God after our first Parents Fall was no otherwise our Lord then any King is Lord over Rebels Traytors Murtherers or of others who by their misdemeanors may alienate their allegeance from him and exempt themselves from his gracious protection but not from his power or Dominion of Jurisdiction for he is the minister of God for executing vengeance upon such Our first Parents had declared themselves to be Traytors and we had continued a race of Rebels against our God and Creator without all hope of being restored unto Gods favor and service unless satisfaction were made for our transgression and means purchased for establishing us in a better estate then the estate of Servants which we had by the gift of Creation Now not onely our redemption from the estate of Slaverie unto Satan but all the means for our further advancement after our ransom was paid were purchased by the Son of God And that which most advanceth the peculiar Title of Christs Dominion and Lordship over us was the price which he gave for us For we were not redeemed with corruptible things as with silver and gold though men with these and things more corruptible then these do purchase the real title of Lords and exercise the dominion of Lords over Lands or Servants so purchased but we were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb undefiled and without spot 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. Blood is the most precious and dearest part of mans bodie and greater love we cannot testifie unto our dearest friends then by spending our blood for them Losses we value none so deeply as forgetfulness ungrateful neglects or contempt from them for whose sakes and credit we have been content specially out of sinceritie of love and sober resolution to shed our blood Never was any blood either so copiously shed or out of the like sinceritie of love or sobriety of resolution as Christs blood was shed for all and every one of us This blood did immediatly issue from his Man-hood whereof it was a true and lively part yet was it the blood not of Man onely but of God whence if we consider either our own miserable estate being then the enemies of God or his dignitie that made Attonement for us What real portion branch or degree of service can we imagin answerable to this Soveraign Title of Lord which Christ hath not more then fully purchased over all that are partakers of flesh and blood 5. Yet Besides this Ground or Title of Christs peculiar Lordship or dominion over us there is another more forcible to command our most chearful service unless our hope be quite dead or the affection of love utterly extinguished in us For Christ by his precious blood did not onely purchase our Freedom from the Slavery of Satan but being set free doth by the everlasting efficacie of this blood once shed both wash and nourish us not as his Servants but as the Sons of his and our heavenly Father Sin and slaverie was the Terminus a quo the condition or state from which he redeemed us but the end of our redemption from these was to invest us in the libertie of the Sons of God The height of all our hopes in the life to come is to be Kings and Priests as he is but in the mean time we are or may be live members of his Glorious Body and being such
and Dignity of Lord and to put on The Affection of a Priest perpetually to make intercession on our behalf for Remission of sins past Rom. 3. 26. and for Grace whereby for the future we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Seeing then we have so great an High Priest Let us hold fast our Profession And let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and finde grace to help in time of need Worthy is THE LAMB that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honor and Glory and Blessing Revel 5. 12. And THE LAMB shall overcome them for He is LORD OF LORDS and KING OF KINGS Rev. 17. 14. SECTION III. Of Christs coming to Judgement 2 Cor. 5. 10. For we must all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ That every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Acts 17. 30. But now God commandeth all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given all men assurance in that he raised him from the dead Daniel 7. 9. Rom. 14. 9. To this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living We shal All stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God Revel 20. 12. CHAP. IX THe First Words contain an undoubted Maxim or principal Article of our Faith yea such a Plurality of Articles of Christian Belief that I could not choose fitter for continuation of my former Argument concerning Christs Lordship or Dominion And His Dominion as was said before was A Dominion both of Property and of Jurisdiction We are his servants not our own Men as we say we may not dispose of our own souls or bodies much less of our bodily imployments or endeavours as We please but as He pleases Or in case we wrong him by alienating the imployments of our bodies or of our souls from his service who hath the full Dominion of Propertie we cannot exempt our selves from his Dominion of Jurisdiction to which all flesh is lyable without Appeal Now of his Dominion of Jurisdiction or of his Royal Power over us the Exercise of Final Judgment is the Principal Part And of this Judgment the general Sum or Abstract is contained in 2 Cor. 5. 10. Before I enter upon the Particulars therein contained I am in General to advertise That albeit the Scripture be such A Compleat Rule of Christian Faith That neither those which are appointed to interpret the Scriptures ought to propose or commend any point or doctrine as an Article of Faith unto others nor are others bound to believe any thing as a Point of Faith unless it be either expresly contained in the Scriptures or may out of the express testimonies of them be deduced by infallible Rules of Reason and Art Yet in the things believed because contained in Scripture there is a Difference to be observed Some things we believe without any Ground at all besides the meer Authority of Scriptures Other things we beleive from the Authority of Scriptures too yet so as we have the truth which the Scriptures teach concerning them ensealed unto us by Experiments answering to the Rules of Scriptures And these Experiments be of two sorts Either Observable in the general Book of Nature and course of times or Observable in our selves Of this later rank are the Articles of the Godhead of the Creation of Divine Providence of Original Sin of Final judgment and of Life and Death everlasting The Being of a Godhead or Divine Power the very Heathens which knew not Scriptures did in some sort believe of Gods Providence and of Judgment after this life the Heathens likewise had divers Notions which were as rude materials or stuffe unwrought The frame or fashioning of which Notions into true and Christian Belief cannot otherwise be effected then by the Rules of Scripture which are The Lines by which the structure or edifice of Faith must be squared or wrought Now whatsoever the Heathens without the help of Scriptures or Divine Revelations did believe or conceive concerning the Points mentioned Every Christian man which doth believe the Scriptures though but by an historical Faith may much better believe and conceive by the help of Scriptures albeit his affections be not as yet sanctified by the Spirit of Grace although he be but in the Estate of a meer Moral or Natural man so he be not delivered up unto a Reprobate sense The Branches then of my Meditations concerning this Grand Article of Christs coming to Judgment shall be in general These First Of the Natural Notions which the Heathens had and which every natural man so his Conscience be not seared may have Experienced in himself of a Final Judgment after this life or of a Recompence according to his wayes or works The Second By what Authoritie of Scriptures the Exercise of this Final Iudgment is appropriated to Christ The Third The manner of Christs coming to Iudgment The Fourth The parties that are to be Iudged to wit the Quick and the Dead The Fifth The Sentence or Award of this great Iudge and that is Everlasting Life or Everlasting Death Thus you see Three Principal Articles of Our Creed to wit This of Christs coming to Iudge the quick and the dead and the Two last viz. The Resurrection of the body and The life everlasting are so link't together that they cannot be so commodiously explained in several as they may be in this proposed Link or Chain CHAP. X. Of the Natural Notions which the Heathens had and the Internal Experiments which every true Christian may have answering to these Notions of a Final Judgment 1. THe Notions which the Heathens had of a Iudgment to passe upon them after this life were of Two Sorts Either Implicite and Indirect such â—s give better Testimony to us then they made of it to themselves or Direct and Express though indefinite and imperfect and mingled for the most part with some errour And these Later are most frequent in the ancient heathen Poets Many of whose Testimonies to this purpose are so Express and direct that they may well seem to have been taken from some scattered Traditions of that truth which God had revealed unto the Patriarchs before the Law was written or from the written Law it self which it is probable Plato with some other Philosophers and Poets had read at the least received at the second hand However unless the truth concerning this point delivered in Scriptures had been imperfectly implanted in mens hearts by nature these meer natural men could not have submitted their Assent or Opinions unto it That not the ancient Poets onely but the ancient Philosophers had an
become a better man by this practise by which he doth utterly cease to be a man if his hopes had been terminated with this mortal life or if he had not remained capable of reward or punishment after death That very thing was even by the verdict of the Heathen highly magnified in Regulus a wise States-man and good Patriot which in a bruit Beast of what kinde soever would have been accounted and that justly more then unreasonableness a very madness For no beast unless it be altogether mad will evidently expose it self to death That which exempts Regulus his witting exposing of himself to a more cruel death then any sober man could finde in his heart to put a dumb beast unto from censure of Folly was The managing of his undertakings by Resolution and Reason And all the reason that he had thus to resolve was That he hoped not utterly to perish as beasts do although certain he was to die Beasts which run upon their own deaths are therefore accounted mad because by death they utterly cease from being what they were For them to desire death is to desire their utter destruction which they could not desire but seek by all means possible to avoid unless they had first put of all common sense wherein the height of their madness consists Regulus was therefore accounted manly resolute and resolutely wise for that in choosing rather to die then to live with stain of perjury or taint his soul with breach of oath he did not desire his own destruction but the continuation of his well-being or bettering his own or his Countries estate And this his desire or resolution which supposeth another sentence after this life ended the Heathens which so highly magnified his resolution did subscribe unto as good and fit to be imitated by all honest men and true Patriots albeit perhaps most of them were unwilling to be his seconds in like attempts when the matter came to the tryal 6. Nor did the Romans onely commend this Resolution in Regulus whose Memory for well deserving of that Commonweal they had in perpetual Reverence But other Heathens which did detest the very name of Christians and eagerly sought the extirpation of Christs Church on earth did as much admire and commend the like in Christian Bishops Two memorable stories very apposite to this purpose come to my minde the one related by St. Gregory Nazianzen the other by St. Austin Nazianzens story is of Bishop Marcus Arethusus who was sentenced to a cruel death and torture by Julian the Emperor unless he would at his own cost and charges build up an Idol Temple which he had caused to be pulled down After that his persecutors had brought the damages required at his hands so low that if he would be content to give but an Angel or some small piece of Gold currant in those times to the re-edifying of the Temple which he had destroyed he should live yet he persevered so constantly in his former Resolution which was not to give so much as a peny by way of Contribution for building up any house of Iniquity that his Persecutors were ashamed to take life from him Saint Augustine in his Tract against Lying tells us of Bishop Firmus who being pressed to bewray another Christian Brother whose death or Turning the Heathens earnestly sought having strong presumptions that This good Bishop knew where he was after many torments and threats of more with great constancy refused All the words that they could wrest from him were these Mentiri non possum I cannot lie and yet he must haue lyed if he had denyed that he knew where the Party was whose life they sought But as I cannot lie so I cannot become a Traytor or Bewrayer of my Brother do what you will or can unto me This constant Resolution as Saint Austine testifies did so turn the edge of his Persecutors malice into admiration and reverence of his integrity that they dismist him with honor Howbeit there had been no wit or praise-worthiness in the practise unless the Practiser had expected some beter Sentence after Death to which he did thus constantly expose himself then the applause of these Heathens which he could not hope for which he did not expect And the heathens in commending and admiring his constancy and integrity did though faintly or unwittingly yet necessarily subscribe unto the truth of his hopes or belief of a Iudgment after death as also unto that Oracle of God delivered by his Apostle that seeing Christ hath laid down his life for us we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren 1 Iohn 3. 16. At least we ought to expose our selves to bodily death rather then suffer them to be put upon the hazard of death eternal As it is likely this Good Bishop feared lest he should hazard this poor Christian soul whose death or Turning the Heathens sought being not so certain of his Resolution as of his own but doubtful whether he would not deny Christ or renounce the Christian Faith rather then suffer such tortures as he now felt or expose himself to such a violent and cruel death as they threatned him with 7. Again The most wise and learned among the heathen Philosophers did place Felicity or true happiness in the constant practise of Virtue as in Temperance Justice Wisdom c. The Stoicks were so wedded to this Opinion that they held virtue to be a sufficient recompence to it self at what rate soever it was purchased or maintained though with the loss of life and limbs with the most exquisite and lingring tortures that our senses are capable of They esteemed Regulus more happy even in the middest of his torments then his persecutors were or could be in the height of their mirth and prosperity or in the perfect fruition of their health or best contentments of their senses or understandings Yea so far they went that they judged Regulus to perpetual happiness albeit he had been perpetually or everlastingly so tormented as for a time he was But This 〈…〉 as was formerly intimated then any good Christian is bound to believe 〈…〉 we are bound to believe the contrary For so St. Paul who was more virtuously constant then Regulus was in his profession more then virtuously Religiously constant in all the wayes of Godliness tels us 1 Cor. 15. 19. That if in this life only we had hope that is were quite without hopes of a better life then this present is we Christians such good Christians as he himself was were of all men the most miserable The Heathen then the Stoicks especially did well and wisely in acknowledging Felicity to consist in Virtue in acknowleding Virtue to be a full recompence to it self in respect of any temporary evil or punishment that could be opposed unto it They wisely resolved in holding them more happy which did suffer torments for a good Cause then they which made it a part of their pleasure or happiness
work let us still call to mind that it now is in Executione Officii and its Office is to be our Remembrancer of that which our Apostle admonisheth us 1 Cor. 11. 31. If we would judge our selves we should not be judged In this Judgment or examination of our selves Nature her self would teach us thus much so we would be observant of the Process That seeing Conscience is not onely the Lamp of the Lord but also a part of our selves a principal Ray or beam of our souls it could not be so suspitious of our actions or so inquisitive after every circumstance that may make against us when we do evil unless it were deputed by a supreme Judge to bring us to a Judgment and either in this life to acquit us by perswading us to judge our selves or in that last day to accuse and condemn us It would teach us again That albeit there be a General day for final Judgment appointed wherein Christ himself shall sit as Judge yet he every day holds or cals A private Sessions within our brests wherein Conscience sits his Atturney or Deputy Again let us still remember that albeit the work of the Law be written in our hearts so it was in the hearts of the very heathens that albeit we give Conscience full Audience and leave to examine us by the Law of God whether written in our hearts or in the sacred Book yet is it but a small part of our accounts which we shall be able to read in the Register of our own Consciences in respect of what is to be found written in that Book or Scrowl which shall be opened and unfolded in the day of final Iudgement Rev. 20. 12. Howbeit even so much as every man which will diligently hearken to his own Conscience shall in this life be able to read and hear distinctly will make deep impression in his heart and wound his very spirit And as Solomon speaks a wounded Spirit who can bear rather who can heal it None but he that shall be our Judge Yet may we not look that when he shall come to judge all he will vouchsafe to heal any He healeth all our infirmities as he is our High-Priest not as he is our Judge And so healed by him our Consciences must be in this life otherwise the wound will prove deadly and incurable in that last day Nothing besides the wounds of Christ can cure the wounds and sores of our spirits and consciences Therefore was he smitten and bruised therefore was he wounded unto death that his blood poured forth might be as a Fountain of Oyl or Balm to cure and heal the broken hearted For The broken hearted onely are his true Patients All of us one time or other must feel the sting of Serpents more fiery then such as stung the Israelites in the wilderness even the sting of death and of that old Serpent which in our first Parents envenomed our nature before we can thirst after this fountain of life with that fervencie of spirit which he requireth in his Patients without this thirst thus occasioned by this sting of conscience and poyson of sin in some measure apprehended by us we cannot drink the water of life or suck in the balm of health and salvation which issued out of Christs wounds in such a plentiful measure as may cure the festered wounds of our souls and consciences and purge us from that corruption which we and our Fathers have sucked from our first Parents or contracted by the incessant overflow of our actual and daily sins 10. Yet is not this apprehension of our actual and daily sins or the smart or sting of conscience so perpetually uncessant in any one of us but that we may feel or perceive some interposed gleams of joy and comfort some Gratulations of our Consciences for businesses sincerely managed by us or for those particular actions or good deeds which in respect of some one or other circumstance we have done amiss but for their substance well and with a good intention and without a sinister respect to our own private temporal ends or to the prejudice of others with whom we live So that no man unless he be much wanting to himself can want undoubted Experiments in himself of a future and Final Judgement or of the Two-fold sentence which in it shall be awarded to all according to the diversity of their ways As often then as any of us shall feel the sting or perceive the check of our consciences for the evils we have done let us take this irksomness or indisposition of our minds and souls not for a meer effect of natural Melancholie though that perhaps may concur as a cause to increase our heaviness but rather take all together as a Crisis of that disease growing upon our souls which unless it be cured by our heavenly Physician in this life will prove incurable in that last and dreadful day and will bring upon us perpetual weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth If our Consciences again at any time shall Congratulate us for well doing we may take these Congratulations or Applauses of our souls and spirits as so many undoubted pledges or earnests of that unspeakable and uncessant joy which the supream Iudge shall award to all that by constancy in well-doing acknowledge him for their Soveraign Lord and expect him as their supream Iudge If we cease not to continue these good actions or performances he will not cease to renew the undoubted pledges or earnests of eternal Joy unto us daily For so S. Paul saith He will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortalitie eternal life But unto them that are contentious indignation and wrath tribulation anguish c. 11. The best use which the Heathens as meer Heathens made of such Notions as nature had implanted in them of a future Judgement or rather their misapplications of what nature did rightly suggest unto them to this purpose cannot better be resembled then by the use or applications which men naturally make of Dreams Now of Dreams some are vain and idle as arising onely from the Garboils of the Phantasie most frequent in men sick or distempered or from such thoughts discourses or speeches as we have entertained by day or been entertained with for some short time before Of these Dreams and of their serious observation that of The Son of Sirach Eccl. 34. 1 2 3. is most true The hopes of a man void of understanding are vain and false and dreams lift up fools Who so regardeth dreams is like him that catcheth at a shadow and followeth after the wind The vision of dreams is like the resemblance of one thing to another even as the likeness of a face to a face Howbeit even such Dreams may be resolved into some natural Causes precedent Nor do men fail in the apprehension of particulars represented
accompts to be made or of the words works or thoughts for which we are to render account From this Notion or importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may take a true Notion or scantling of the Attributes or Titles given to the Word of God by St. Paul Heb. 4. and how well they consort with the Word Written or Preached as it hath reference to this Eternal Word The Word of God Written or Preached although in it self it be more powerful then any two edged Sword yet as it is managed or weilded by us his weak Instruments is but as a good sword in an Infants hand but though as uttered by us it doth not exercise its strength upon our hearers yet doth it not utterly perish or lose its efficacy but every Word spoken in his Name though for the present it have no such success as we could wish yet it is not altogether spoken in vain it returns unto him whose Word it is and in his mouth or presence the Word preached by us becomes like Scanderbegs Sword in Scanderbegs hand and shall in the last day recover strength and force from the powerful appearance of this Eternal Word or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that all the glorious Attributes given by St. Paul unto The Word of God are primarily and principally true of the Eternal Word yet secondarily and less principally of the Word preached with reference unto him 14. The Word preached is not altogether dead but lively quick powerful in its operation and shall at the last day be more piercing then any two edged sword and divide between the spirit and the soul A two edged sword may cut the bones and divide the joynts and the marrow it may divide the soul from the body or at least send the soul out of the body before the time by the course of nature allotted But between the soul and the spirit no material sword can make division The most piercing sword though it hath as the Original imports two mouthes to devour yet eyes it hath none to distinguish between the parts which it divides but cuts as it fals or as it is direrected by the eyes and hands of him which weilds it But The Word of God here principally meant seeth all the particles betwixt which it makes division it is a discerner or Judge of the thoughts and intents of the heart how secret soever they be how inseparable soever they be from the soul or spirit though our inward parts be covered with skin with flesh and bones yet are they naked and as it were anatomized for so the Original imports unto the eyes of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom we are to render our account In the first creation he was not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the live Idea or patern unto whose Image men and Angels were created and of whose Excellency the whole world and all the creatures in it are but scattered and broken expressions but withal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the framer or maker of all things visible and invisible for God the Father made all things by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any instrumental help or service after a more excellent and expedite manner then should we suppose or could we imagine such a thing any Architect or skilful Artificer that could be supposed able to frame or make a material building or other work of his profession without any manual labour without any materials or instruments besides the patern or exemplar which he conceives in his mind or imagination In the dissolution of this world or in the erection of the world to come which shall take beginning from the day of our final accompts the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Eternal VVord of God shall manifest himself to be not only the live Idaea or patern of Gods moral or eternal Law by which all mankind shall be judged and our accompts either finally approved or disproved but to be withall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Law endued with Life with wisdom and power Nor such a Law only but a Living Wise Omnipotent Iudge All these Attributes or the things signified by them with all the rest that can be required in a Law a Rule or Iudge are in Him undivided and according to the Infinitie of perfection Yet that we may the better conceive the infiniteness of his perfection as Law and Judge it will not be amiss to consider these Attributes severally as they are found amongst us 15. Every good Law is a kind of silent Magistrate or Judge and every good and perfect Judge or Magistrate is a speaking Law So they ought to be But these Two Perfections seldom meet in the Government of any well ordered Common-weal or Church on earth In some Nations the written Laws be tolerably good or comparatively very good but the Magistrates for the most part either ignorant in the Laws or unexperienced in applying their true intent and meaning to meet with every transgression or so manacled with Golden Fetters that they have no great list or dexterity to put what they know in execution In other places the Magistrates or Judges are learned and sincere laws to themselves and fit Laws for others to be ruled by were not their good purposes restrained or pinyoned by harsh and obsolete Laws or not well consorting with the times wherein they live This Jargon between wise and wholsom Laws and unskilful or corrupt Magistrates or between religious wise and industrious Magistrates and imperfect partial or naughty Laws hath been in most Ages and Nations so common that many accurate Politicians or Observers of the course of Justice have brought the main Question concerning all State Government to this short issue and submitted it to the touch and tryal of learned dispute Whether it be better to be governed by a dead and silent or by a live and speaking Law That is whether were most expedient for all or most States that the written Law should be above the supream Magistrate or Majesty or the supream Magistrate or Majesty of every Nation above the written Laws But admitting that every Nation had Laws as perfect as the wit of man could devise such as would give contentment to every member that were to be governed by them and Magistrates to put such Laws in execution as sincere as wise as well experienced as industrious as couragious as any in former times have been or can in this life be expected yet the most perfect or absolute Law that can be made by man that can be written though made by God himself could not be able to put it self in execution or to recompence every transgression as it deserves Nor can the wisest the most sincere and industrious Magistrate possibly know every transgressor of the Law or every misdemeanor committed within a little Province or Corporation And albeit the Magistrate only can give life to the Law yet can no Magistrate give life to any Law or put it in
seem a welcom Messenger and loss of life and external senses a gainfull exchange if by their loss we might be exempted or acquit from those fearfull Sights wherewith the eyes or from those hideous noyses wherewith the eares and hearts of all then living shall be filled But most men hope for or at least expect a dissolution of this sensitive life before the appearance of that great and terrible day And this very Imagination or conceipt that all our senses shall be locked up by death the eares utterly deprived of hearing the eyes of sight that the whole body even the heart if self being bestript of all feeling or motion shall put on a thick covering of sad earth doth for the most part benum our senses enfeeble our faith and dead our apprehensions either of the Terrours of that day or of the joyes that shall ensue unto all them that do escape them Whilst we think of death or of their estate which have been long dead and consumed in the grave we say in our hearts not as the Psalmist did Lord shall the dead praise thee but shall the dead fear thee O Lord shall such as descend into the pit are covered with dust and resolv'd into rotteness be affrighted with thy voice or stand amazed at thy appearance Thus then as there is no Article of Christian Faith more available to make men live a Christian life then this Article of the last general Judgement So is there no branch either of this general nor any other Article of Christian Faith in particular which requireth more fortification whether from the store-house of the book of Nature or from the book of Grace then this point of the Resurrection doth This is the Hold which Satan the sworn enemy of our Souls eternal peace and welfare seeks by all means to surprize and subvert and unto whose speedie surprizal or utter subversion flesh and blood have been in all Ages most prone to yeild their consent and furtherance As Christ Crucified was the main stumbling-block to the Iew So the preaching of his Resurrection and of our hopes of a joyful Resurrection by the power and virtue of His was the main rock of offence of Contradiction or gain-saying to the Infidels or irreligious Heathens When the Athenians saith S. Luke Act. 17. 32. these were the most civil and learned people amongst the Heathen heard of the Resurrection of the dead some mocked others said we will hear thee again of this thing The rest of his Learned and Philosophical discourse all of them heard with atention and would he have spoken more they would have been willing to have heard him longer upon any other Argument But their entertainment of this Treatise of the Resurection was generally so rude so unrespective on their parts and so unwelcome to him that he immediately departed from them Howbeit God did not leave the truth deliverd by him even in this point without competent Testimonie for Denys of Areopagus and a woman named Damaris with some others did believe Paul But these were but a few in respect of them that did not believe or did mock him Now it is a Rule undoubted that The same motives or temptations which drew the heathen to contradict or oppugn the truth will abate or weaken the Assent of Christians unto the same truth unless they be removed by discovery of their original error 2. The Errors concerning the Final Judgment in general or indefinitely considered are specially Three The First of such as denied the Divine Providence over men or did confine it to this transitory life without expectation of any account or reckoning to be made after death And these were but few among the ancient Heathens to wit the sect of Epicures whose opinion was refuted by the verdict of most other Heathens and by the contradiction which the denial of the Divine Providence did include unto the opinions of the Epicures themselves The Second gross Error or branch of infidelity concerning the Final Judgement was The denial of the Immortality of the human soul And this was accounted an Heresie or impious opinion by the most and hath been exquisitely refuted by the most learned amongst the Heathens The third Error or branch of infidelity concerning the Final Iudgment was The denial ignorance or doubt of the Resurrection of the body or of the whole man as consisting of body and soul And this Error in some degree or other was most general to all the heathen All such as denied either the Divine Providence or the Immortality of the Soul all such as doubted or were ignorant of either of these truths did likewise deny or were doubtful or ignorant of the Resurrection of the body But on the contrary neither all nor most of such as did deny or were ignorant or doubtful of the Resurrection of the body did either deny or were ignorant or doubtful of the immortality of the soul But no marvel if the heathens which did not doubt of the immortality of the soul were altogether or for the most part ignorant of the Resurrection of the body when as in this Church of Corinth which God had visibly graced with many excellent gifts of the Spirit there were some a great sort too many which said There was no Resurrection of the dead and the Thessalonians a people docile and apt to take the impression or most lively character of Christianity a people excelling other Christians in brotherly love were ignorant in part of this great Mystery and from their ignorance or scant measure of knowledge in it did mourn beyond measure for their dead 1 Thess 4. 13 c. Of these Corinthians and Thessalonians and of the Heathens that of our Saviour unto the Sadduces Matth. 22. 29. is most true They therefore erred because they knew not the Scriptures nor the Power of God We are then First To remove that Obstacle of Impossibility which is pretended from Nature and may seemingly be argued by natural and Philosophical Reasons Secondly To set down the manner of the Resurrection and the positive Proofs of it out of the Scriptures or Word of God 3. Albeit none of the heathens did expresly acknowledge such a Resurrection as we believe although the most of them were ready to deny it when it was proposed unto them yet many of them had divers Implicit Notions of it There were though not in any one Sect of their Philosophers yet in divers Sects such scattered Reliques or Fragments of this Eternal Truth as being skilfully put together will represent more then most Christians conceive of it The First Fragment or implicit Notion of it was That antient Opinion fathered upon Pythagoras That the soules of men after their departure from their proper bodies did according to their several demeanors enter into bruit Beasts or other creatures The souls of men which had been given to spoil and raven were in this Philosophers opinion to be imprisoned in the bodies of
Wolves of Lyons or Tygers Such as had been given over to beastly pleasures were to take up their habitations in the bodies of Swine The souls of others less harmful yet stupid and dull had their transmigration allotted by this Philosopher into Sheep or Calves This Metempsychosis or flitting of mens souls into the bodies of beasts is described by Ovid in the 15. of his Metamorphosis seeking to give some countenance to his poetical fictions from Pythagoras his Philosophical opinion plausible in ancient times And from this conceit or opinion it was that Pythagoras and his followers did abstain from eating of any flesh whether of birds or beasts and laboured by all means to perswade others to like abstinence lest by killing or devouring them they might indeed kill or devour their dearest friends kinsfolks or neighbors Mandere vos vestros scite sentite colonos The souls of vertuous or good men or of better spirits did in this Philosophers opinion either go into some place of happiness or else return into some humane body again So as one and the same man might be often begotten born or die Thus Pythagoras himself thought that Euphorbus his soul was come into his body that he himself had been present at the siege of Troy in the shape and likeness of him that was called then Euphorbus whose body was turned to dust long before any part of this Pythagoras his body was framed And in the confidence of this opinion or imagination he laid claim unto Euphorbus his Shield as the Right Owner of it This Opinion or Imagination though gross and foolish doth yet include These Two Branches of Truth First That Animus cujusque est unusquisque The soul or mind of man is the man himself And Second That the Soul remains in Being after the Body or visible part which is but as the Case or Husk be dissolved Both These Tully had Collected as he professes in his Book De Senectute from the followers of Pythagoras of Socrates and Plato These Both he or the Person he makes Speaker there repeats in his piece De Somnio Scipionis Tu vero sic habeto Te non esse mortalem sed corpus hoc nec enim is es quem forma ista declarat sed mens cujusque is est quisque non ea figura quae digito monstrari potest Deum te igitur scito esse Yet were it possible or had God to whom all things are possible so appointed that one and the same immortal soul of man should have its habitation in two three or more distinct bodies they should not be so truly many men as one and the same man for the unity or Identity of mans person depends more immediately and necessarily upon the unity or Identity of the soul then upon the unity or Identity of the body This progress of one and the same soul through divers bodies was not in the opinion of such as first conceived or nurst it to continue for ever For Pythagoras did not deny an eternal Rest unto mens souls after this pilgrimage or progress were ended Now this progress or pilgrimage as some avouch was to endure but unto the production of the third or fourth Body 4. From Pythagoras and the Druides whom Pythagoras did rather follow then teach Plato did not much differ All of them in some Points hold good consort with Christianity In these especially First That the soul of man doth not perish with the body from which it is by death dissolved Secondly That it should go well with such as lived well and ill with such as lived amiss after the dissolution of soul and body But how often one and the same soul by Plato's opinion might become a widower how long it might so continue or with how many several bodies it might successively match we will not question In this and the like particulars Pythagoras and Plato might many wayes err without any gross inconsonancy to their general principles And one of Plato's general Principles was That the humane soul was in the body tanquam nauta in nave after such a manner as the Master Mariner is in the ship to direct and guide it And as a Mariner may without loss undertake the government of divers Ships successively so one and the same reasonable soul might guide or manage sundry bodies In the opinion of Pythagoras or Plato diversity of actions of manners of dispositions did no more argue diversity of human souls or spirits then variety of musical sounds in various wind-instruments as in the Sackbut Cornet Shalm or Trumpet doth argue diversity of breath or of Musicians One and the same musician may wind them all successively and yet the musick shall be much different because of the diversity of the instrument In all these opinions they did only err not knowing the Scriptures They did not err against at least their error includes no opposition unto the Power of God For if it had pleased him thus to place the soul in the body or to take it out of one body and put it into another as these Philosophers dreamed so it might have been so it must have been Nor did their error include any denial of the Power of God but rather an approach or step to the discovery or acknowledgement of it against modern Atheists Others there were who held a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Regeneration or new production of one and the same man again These were the Genethliaci or Nativitie-Casters of whom S. Augustine out of Varro speaks Lib. 22. De Civitate Dei Cap. 28. The time which as That Father there saies they prefixed for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or re-production of the self-same men which formerly had been was 440. years Though as you will soon see other Authors make it far above that proportion This particular errour of theirs took its original from an errour common to most Philosophers whose generally affected custom it hath been to assign some External cause of every External or visible Effect And some modern Astrologers make the heavens such total causes of Sublunary Effects that if the position and conjunction of stars should possibly come to be the self same again as they formerly have been the self same bodies should be produced again which formerly had been And 16000 years I take it in the account of these ancient Astrologers did make up the full period or circuit of all celestial motions Now it is a general Maxim in Philosophie Idem secundum Idem semper producit Idem If the influence of the stars were the full and total cause of the Sublunary Effects it would follow directly that when the conjunction of Stars which 〈…〉 his influence returned the same again which it had been 〈…〉 years more or fewer the Sublunary Effects or events should be the same as they then had been and the same men which had formerly dyed should revive again 5. The Genethliaci did foully err in
and the self same man as if he had been but once created or had continued from his creation without any interruption of his duration or existence This implies no more contradiction in nature then to say that the King may create one and the same man twice Earl or Duke or make him often the same Magistrate The Office or dignity may be the self same albeit there be some vacancie or interruption in the Administration or duration of it As if a man was deposed of his Office and dignity at the end of the first year and restored again at the end of the second year this would imply a diversity of Creation or advancement no diversitie at all in the Office or dignitie unto which the same person is twice advanced Now Gods Power over all his creatures either utterly to annihilate them or to interrupt them in their actuall existence or duration and to create them in the self same or better estate again is farre greater and more Soveraigne then any Princes civill power to advance or depose his subjects or to restore them intirely to their former dignities Admit then That God had resolved the first man Adam into nothing at the very first instant wherein he did eat the forbidden fruit with purpose not to create him again untill the last trumpet shall sound to Judgement the Terrour of that day should make as deep impression in him then first restored to life and sense again as if he had suffered him to live but one day and had called him at even unto Judgment or a final accompt as terrible as in that last day it shall be to all that die in their sins This whole time of vacancy or cessation from actual Being for almost six thousand years would not have seem'd so long to him at his Resurrection as a night past over in a dead sleep is to a malefactor which had murthered his Father in the Evening and is drawn to the execution as soon as he awakes in the morning Thus much of Gods Power in general to raise up the self same men again which have been long dead or by supposition more then dead utterly resolved into nothing Now if we must acknowledge it as an essential Branch of the Almighty Creators Power to be able to raise up or create the self same men again although they had been annihilated or turned to nothing we must needs acknowledge it as a fruit or effect of the same Power to re-unite every mans soul and body again at the last day seeing the soul as Christian Faith doth teach us doth still remain the same it was the body being not utterly annihilated or consumed to nothing but only resolved into dust or into the Elements of which it was first made Sed quomodo inquis dissoluta materia exhiberi potest Consider a temetipsum O homo fidem rei invenies Recogita quid fueris antequà m esses utique nihil meminisses enim si quid fuisses Qui ergo nihil fuer as priusquam esses idem nihil factus cum esse desieris cur non posses esse rursus de nihilo ejusdem ipsius Auctoris voluntate qui te voluit esse ex nihilo Quid novi tibi eveniet qui non eras factus es cumiterum non eris fies Redde rationem si potes quâ factus es tunc require quà Fies Et tamen facilius utique fies quod fuisti aliquando quia aeque non difficile factus es quod nunquam fuisti aliquando Quaecunque te materia destruxerit hauserit aboleverit in nihilum prodegerit reddet te ejus est nihilum ipsum cujus est totum This is the sum of Tertullian's Collections Apolog. cap. 48. 10. This Power of God to create man of nothing and to create every one the self same man he was albeit he had been annihilated or turned into nothing The School Divines of the Romish Church acknowledge and with great subtilty of wit and strength of Argument prove out of the Article of Gods Omnipotencie unto which all Possibilitie meerly Logical or which implies no evident contradiction in nature is alwayes subject and obedient But of This as of most other Orthodoxal Doctrines or Principles of Faith wherein we hold communion and consort with the Roman Church the modern Advocates of that Church the Jesuites especially make a very malicious and Sinister use The most learned amongst the modern Jesuites being pressed by our Writers with the gross absurdities and scandalous inconveniences which necessarily follow upon their doctrine of Transubstantiation or of Christs local Circumscriptive bodily presence in the blessed Sacrament Fly to this doctrine of Gods Almighty Power whereby he is able to create one and the self same Individual Substance again and again as oft as it pleaseth him as to their last Hold and refuge Their only hope is that this General Doctrine being made plausible by them they shall be able to make their quarrel Just not in it self but upon expected advantage if any of our Writers should be so forward as in divers other Cases some have been too forward to deny their Antecedents when as they should Traverse the Inference or conclusions which they labor with subtiltie to infer from plausible and Orthodoxal Premisses Howbeit this Antecedent That God is able to create the self same man or bodily substance again and again and as oft as it shall please him no Protestant Writer to my observation hath yet denied none as I hope will ever deny But such is our adversaries confidence of Christs promise to St. Peter I have prayed for thee that thy faith shall not fail Luke 22. 32. and of the Popes authority as of Peters pretended Successor in this promise that whatsoever doctrine the Pope shall deliver ex Cathedra as he hath done this doctrine of Transubstantiation for a point of Faith they think God bound in Justice to use his absolute and Omnipotent power to make it true For if the Pope or the visible Romish Church could possibly err in this or any other point of faith God by their doctrine should fail in the performance of his former general promise which undoubtedly he will not do so long as he hath power to make his promise good or to make the visible Churches interpretations true and justifiable to the preservation of whose Infallibility he hath as they teach bound himself by solemn promise 11. But The Question betwixt us and them Concerning Christs local or circumscriptive Bodily presence in the Sacrament is not whether God can make one and the same body to be at one and the same time in divers places or whether He can create one and the same body again in every hour or in every place as shall seem good to him But whether it be his will to use this his power Or whether his will thus to do be so fully revealed in Scripture as that we are bound to believe That he doth or will make Christs
Turk from them For what Jew or Turk is there that would not be ready to relieve a Christian with some off-fals from his Table whom he sees ready to pull the flesh off his own arms to satiate hunger yet this is more then the most loving Husband may do unto his dearest Wife then a Father may wish to his Son or any Friend that dies in the Lord may do unto another after death unless they both repair to one Home and be not divided by that Gulf which was set between Dives and Lazarus You know the Story how that Lazarus was not permitted to minister so much as a drop of water unto Dives to cool his tongue Nor shall the Father which dies in the Lord be permitted to do or wish so great a kindness unto the Son nor the Husband to the Wife which live and die in their sins What remedie then can be prescribed for preventing the just occasions of this grief but that Husband and Wife Father and Son Mother and Daughter and others linkt in any bend of love and friendship do mutually labour to wain each others Affections from earth and earthly things and each lend other their helping hand to fasten their affections on things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God CHAP. XV. The Objections of the Atheist and the Exceptions of the Naturalist Both put fully Home and as fully Answered The falsitie of the Supposals and Paradoxes rather then Principles of the Atheist discovered and made even Palpable by ocular demonstration and by Instances in bodies vegetant and sensitive A Scruple that might trouble some Pious mind after all this satisfied A short Application of the Doctrine contained in the whole Chapter 1. BUt here the Atheist will except That the former Reasons are Concludent only in Case the whole substance or bodily part of man be annihilated That indeed which is annihilated is as if it had never been and is as capable of Creation as it was at the first or at the time when it was Nothing For Creation makes that to be which is not and that is most properly said to be created which is made of nothing or without any matter or stuffe pre-existent But thus it is not in the Bodies of men that are dead these are not annihilated or resolved into nothing the matter of them still remaineth though not in the same Place or shape but some part of it in This Body some part in That Of a mans Body which died twenty years ago some part is changed or transformed into the nature of earth some part resolved into vapors or Exhalations Some part into grosser moisture whereof other live creatures are produced No part of it returns into meer Nothing Whatsoever bodily substance hath been by God created out of Nothing hath all its reliques one where or other still remaining And the very least Fragment of the meanest of them is a great deal more then Nothing And here the subtil Naturalist coming in demands What possibilitie can be conceived that the self same Bodies which were consumed a thousand years ago should be intirely restored again This supposed Restauration must either be by a New Creation or it must be only by a Recollection or gathering together of the reliques or matter which have been dispersed and scattered through divers places and transformed into so many several bodies 2. That the bodies which have been dissolved should at the last day be made the self same they were by a new Creation properly so called seems impossible For every bodie must have its proper and immediate Matter and no bodie can be created without the Creation of such a Matter The soul of man may be created in the Body without creation of the Matter whereto it is annexed because the soul is no material substance But the creation of a bodily or material substance essentially includes a Creation of the Matter and this Matter may be either created before The Compound into which it is afterward formed as the Body and Matter of the First Man was created out of the earth before it was wrought by the breath of God into a living or sensitive substance or this Matter may be concreated with the body or Compound whose matter it is Thus the Fishes in the Sea and the Plants in the Earth were each of them created by one intire Creation there was not one creation of their proper Matter and another of their proper Form The bulks or stems of trees were not made or created out of the earth before the vegetable or vital facultie was infused into them Both were made at once The several branches of the Difficulty in this Argument may be framed thus If the bodies of men which have been resolved into dust perhaps into as many several bodies as there be men now living must all be created again and every one created again the self same it was Then either the matter must be the self same which it was or else it must have some new matter equivalent or of the self same use or service in respect of the soul unto which the former matter had been and this new matter not altogether the same but the same by Equivalencie is or is to be united That the self same matter which was in a mans body when he died should become the same again by a new creation ex nihilo implies a Contradiction For that very material substance which was in Adam at his death is not to this day annihilated not the least scrap or fragment of it but is now existent in some body or other And that which at this very hour actually is or existeth in some other body cannot at this very hour begin to Be cannot at this very hour be made of nothing because it self already is something If the matter of Adams bodie which we suppose not to be utterly annihilated could be created again whiles it so continues it should be existent and not existent it should begin to be and not begin to be at the same point of time Both which imply a manifest Contradiction and all Contradictions though in matters meerly speculative are as contrary to the Unitie and truth of the Godhead as dissimulation fraud or cozenage are to the Holiness of God To make both parts of a Contradiction true fals not under the Object or exercise of His Almighty Power If then the Body of Adam cannot be created the same it was unless the self same matter whereof his bodie was first made be restored it is clear that the self same matter cannot be intirely restored by Creation unless those bodies wherein it is be first annihilated or turned into nothing For whilest they remain something or rather whilest the matter which was in Adam remaineth in them the same matter being something in them cannot properly be Created again or begin to Be out of Nothing 3. But that the Body of Adam should be
at the last day the same it was when he died by Recollecting or putting together the self same material parts whereof his soul was possest at her departure from the body is not impossible That the bodies of all men should at the Resurrection become the same they were by this means not by Creation of new bodies or by new creation of any bodily substance or new matter out of nothing the Heathens it seems did conceive to be the Opinion of the ancient Christians when the Gospel of Christ concerning the Resurrection of the body begun to be prest and preached among them For to disprove Christians Belief of this Article or at least to defeat Christians of their hopes of a bodily Resurrection to a better life their heathen persecutors did burn their bodies unto ashes and afterwards sow their ashes some in the waters some in the air or expose them to the blasts of boysterous winds hoping by these practises to find the God of these Christians a cumbersome work before he could accomplish what they profest he had promised unto them concerning the Resurrection of the same bodies and of rendring to every soul the same material portions whereof it was sometimes seized But whether the malicious heathens did punctually oppose these practises unto the assertions of the Christians as if from their mouths they had heard that the Resurrection of the body should be accomplished by Recollection of all the particles into which it had been resolved through what Elements soever they had been in long tract of time dispersed or whether these Heathens did thus practise upon the Christians bodies out of their own imaginations as not conceiving any other means possible by which every man might arise with his own body I find not upon Record Some of the Antient Fathers in their Arguments against the Heathen or in their Apologies for This Article of our Faith suppose the Resurrection of the body shall be accomplished by the Recollection of the Reliques or Fragments into which each ones bodie hath been dissolved And to this purpose use divers Similitudes or illustrations drawn from Gold-smiths or Refiners of Metals who by their Art or Mysterie can extract the fragments of Gold or Silver out of any other metal or body with which they are mingled Howbeit other of the Fathers and sometimes the same Fathers which use these Similitudes or illustrations principally rely upon Gods Creative Power by which he made all things out of Nothing or by which he multiplieth or advanceth things that have some actual Being unto a more excellent and more plentiful kind of Being It was an exercise of the Creative Power to turn Water in an Instant into Wine to multiply five loaves and two fishes unto the sustentation of more then five thousand men besides the fragments remaining which were ten times more then the provision it self And in thus resolving the possibility of every mans Rising with his own Bodie into the Power of God whereby he is able either to make all things out of nothing or to make one thing out of another by means miraculous and far surmounting all force of natural Agents the antient Fathers did wisely For admitting what no Christian can denie that Gods Skill or knowledge to recollect all the several parcels of every mans bodie which way soever dispersed doth infinitely exceed the most exquisite Skill of any Mineralist or Refiner in severing one metal from another and in wedding and uniting every parcel fragment or remnant of what kind soever with others of it own kind Yet this Infinite Skill or knowledge in Recollecting or uniting the several parts of mens bodies which have been dissolved by death could not suffice to the supportance of that truth which in this Article we all believe against the assaults of the Atheists unless this infinite Skill or knowledge were seconded with an infinite Creative Power 4. Against the Recollection of all the Reliques or fragments of mens bodies the Atheist or subtil Naturalist would thus Object All Christians do not die a natural death all come not to the Sepulchres of their Fathers many perish in the Sea and the bodies of many which thus perish are quite devoured by fishes Sea-monsters or other inhabitants of the Sea and the fishes which thus devour even Christian men are again devoured by other men and those men again which have sed on fishes which devoured men become a prey unto other fishes and these fishes are taken again and eaten by men The men that eat these fishes may saies He and we may suppose they do become a prey unto the Canibals a barbarous and monstrous people which feed as greedily upon mans flesh as any Sea-monster or ravenous land Creature would feed on theirs Now the matter or bodily substance of every man that is devoured by fishes or other inhabitants of the Sea is turned into the matter or bodily substance of the devourer The matter again of every fish that is eaten by man is converted or changed into the matter or substance of that man which eats it The Canibal would not so greedily feed upon mans flesh as he doth unless he were truly nourished by it and nourishment is the conversion of the matter or substance eaten into the matter or substance of him that eateth it Now if the Resurrection of every man with his own body with the same body from which his soul was by death divorced did only or principally consist in the Recollection or re-union of the same material parts or reliques which were dissolved by death it would be a hard point to resolve or satisfie the Atheist or incredulous Naturalist how it were possible that every man should have the self same Bodie that he had at the hour of death To twist the difficultie harder according to the Atheists suppositions which are not impossible nor in ordinary conjecture improbable From what creature shall the first mans body which the fish devoured be challenged Or what creature shall the Almighty injoyn to make restitution of his intire matter Shall the Almighty injoyn the fishes of the Sea to cast up the morsels of mans flesh which they have eaten as the Whale did Jonas But it is supposed that the bodily substance or matter of the man was converted into the substance or bodies of the fishes which did eat him for God did not preserve either the life or bodily matter of men devoured by fishes as he did preserve Ionas Shall the mans bodie then be repaired out of the matter or bodily substance of the fishes which did eat him But that as the Atheists suppose and is not in it self improbable other men have eaten and turned it into the matter and substance of their bodies And these men again have been eaten by other fishes or by such Land-monsters as the Canibals Shall the first then or second mens bodies be repaired out of the bodily substance or matter of these later men which have eaten
the fishes that eat the former or out of the bodies of Canibals which have eaten them The Question then remains How the bodies of those men shall be repaired or from what Elements shall the Reliques or dissolved fragments of their bodies be recollected Seeing their bodies also have been either immediately devoured by Canibals or mediately by other men which have eaten the creatures that have devoured the former men The Canibals which devoured men must by this Article of Christian Faith arise again with their own bodies not with the bodies of other men whom they have devoured how then is it possible for every man to arise with his own body seeing the bodies of many men at least the reliques or fragments into which they are dissolved have been swallowed up by some one ravenous creature and some one Canibals humane body may successively be the Tomb or Sepulcher of many mens bodies And here me thinks that question which the Sadduces put unto our Saviour concerning the woman which had been married to seven brethren one after another might be more punctually proposed concerning the women of Samaria or Jerusalem which in the extremitie of seige did make their hunger-starved stomacks the grave or Sarcophagus of those tender Infants whom they had lately conceived in their womb and brought forth with joy The Question by the Sadduces was thus proposed Which of the seven brethren should have the woman to wife at the Resurrection seeing she had been wife successively to all the seven The Atheist or Naturalist would propose his Question thus Whose shall the bodies of the Infants which their mothers devoured at the day of the resurrection be shall they belong as appurtenances to the bodies of their mothers of which they were though most unnaturally made natural or material and substantial parts a little before these cruel mothers died But then the Infants should have no bodily substance they could not arise with their own bodies Or shall the reliques of the bodies which their mothers swallowed be drawn or extracted as a refiner doth gold out of dross or silver out of baser metal out of the ruines of their mothers bodies but so their mothers should seem at the resurrection to want part of their bodily and much pined substances which they had at the separation of their souls and bodies Their bodies by this supposition cannot be the same they were when they dyed 5. This Difficultie might by many like Instances be both increased and inlarged but the same Answer which our Saviour gave unto the Sadduces Matth. 22. 29. will sufficiently satisfie the Atheists Objection though not the Atheist himself He therefore errs because he knows not the Scriptures nor the Power of God We may further add In these Collections he therefore errs because he knows not the Passive obediential Power or capacitie of nature as subject and obedient to the Active or all-working Power of God How cunningly soever the aforesaid or the like knot may be cast by the Naturalist it hath Two Loops by which it may easily be loosed by which it doth in a manner unloose or untie itself First The Atheist takes that as granted which he can never prove nor make probable out of the course of Nature to wit that when one living creature devours another as when fishes devour men or men feed on fishes or when one man eats another the whole Matter or bodily substance of the creature devoured should be converted into the matter or bodily substance of the cater or devourer This never fals out in the whole course of nature Of the most nourishing live creature that is some part or fragment is not fit for nutriment Not the greediest fish that is can so intirely devour a man but some part of his bodily substance will dissolve into the water air or some other Element or mixt bodies so will some part of the fishes or live creatures which men eat alwayes dissolve into some other bodily substance besides the substance of the man which eats them So that notwithstanding all the former supposed transmutations or all that can be in like case supposed some part of every mans body still remains not converted into the substance of any other bodies but into the air earth or water And our of these reliques and remainders every mans body may be raised again and raised again the self same it was but in a condition much advanced and improved for the Better As a great tree grows out of a small and slender root by the Creators Power by that Power which made the earth to bring forth trees most perfect in their kind in an instant So the least fragment of mans body which remains either in the earth in the water or in other Elements may in a moment grow into an intire or perfect bodie And this manner of the Resurrection of one and the same body not by an intire Recollection or gathering together of all the materal parts whereof the same body did sometimes consist but by the Improvement or Multiplication of some one or few principal portions of the body which hath been seems most agreeably to our Apostles Inference in this place of which hereafter 6. Secondly All the Objections of the Atheist or Naturalist against this Article are grounded upon another supposition taken by them as granted which notwithstanding in true Philosophy is apparently false And their false Ground or Supposition is this That unto the Identity or Unity of the same vegetable or sensitive body be it the body of a man of a beast or of a tree the Unity or Identity of the same material parts is necessarily required The grossness of this Paradox or false supposition will appear from the very explication of the Terms The demonstration of its falshood may be made ocular and palpable out of any vegetable or live body wherein the Atheist or Naturalist can make Instance but most apparently in the Oak which is the longest a dying of any tree in the Hart or Raven which are the longest liv'd amongst the beasts of the field or fowls of the air An Oak albeit it stand four hundred years or unto whatsoever height or greatness in that time it grows is still the same tree or vegetable body which it was at the first plantation yet the Material Parts of it cannot be altogether or for the most part the same that they were The whole Matter or bodily substance of it when it was first set was not the thousandth part of that bodily substance which after three hundred years growth it hath And of the matter which it had when it was but a yard high it is not imaginable that any one part so much as a pins head should be remaining the same it was after it come to be twenty yards in height and a yard in thickness It could not grow in height or breadth unless some parts of the matter which it first had did dayly exhale or evaporate
and new matter come into their places Augmentation and growth in vegetables necessarily supposeth nutrition and nutrition includes a dayly decay of nutriment gotten or of the matter whereof the body consists and a new supply or reparation of the matter or substance lost or wasted by preparation of some new nutriment A Raven likewise is the self same Fowl when it is ready to die for age that it was when it was first hatched but the matter of it cannot possibly be the self same it is not conceivable that so much as an inch of the same matter which it had when it was first hatched should continue in it the same till death For its natural heat doth perpetually consume or wast some part of its matter or substance and its blood without perpetual nourishment by new food or matter prepared would be dried up by its natural heat For life consists in calido et humido in heat and moisture and cannot be continued in any live creature without continual nutriment more then the fire or flame can be preserved without fewel Nor could the life or natural heat wherein life specially consists stand in such perpetual need of nutrition or new mater whereon to feed unless there were a continual dissolution of some material parts which vanish or expire out of the body though not so visibly yet as certainly as fume or smoak doth out of the fewel wherewith the fire or flame is fed Unless there were some precedent diminution or wasting of the material parts in mans body there could be no proper growth or augmentation of the whole body or of every part For if every least particle did remain the same it was as well for quantitie as for qualitie the whole body could not be augmented in every part but it must be as great again as it was before after every such growth or Augmentation For there can be no Augmentation or growth in any part otherwise then by addition of some sensible nutriment Now if every least part be augmented by addition of some new or sensible matter or substance the addition which is made unto every least part would be as great as the part to which it is added For it is supposed that every least part is augmented and augmented it cannot be but by addition of some other sensible body which cannot be less then the least part sensible of a body or of a sensible body 7. But if we grant as the truth is that the material parts of the body augmented remain not the self same to day which they were yesterday or a week ago but are still fluent and wasting other material parts coming into their place with some addition of quantitie so as the addition in bodies growing by dayly nutriment be still greater then the wast or diminution The manner of natural growth or augmentation may be easily conceived And it was a truth of nature excellently expressed by the great Philosopher Aucto toto augetur quaelibet pars etiam minutissima Whensoever the whole body is augmented every least part is augmented As if the whole body in the space of a year be augmented by the quantitie of a palm or a span the thousandth part of the body must be augmented by the thousandth part of a palm or span But thus the whole body as the same Philosopher observes is in every part augmented non quoad formam sed quoad materiam And his reason is qua materia est in perpetuo fluxu because the material parts of mans body are perpetually fluent alwayes decaying and alwayes repaired It is a maxim again of the same Philosopher that Auctum manet idem numero that every vegetable body being augmented how long soever the growth or augmentation lasts is numerically the same it was The case then is clear out of the Book of Nature by which the Atheist or infidel will only be tryed That the body or bodily life of man how long soever he live remains one and the same from his birth unto his death albeit the matter of which his body is composed and wherein his life is seated do not remain the same As the face or image of the Sun remains the same in a water or river albeit the parts of the water in which it is imprinted do not continue the same but as one portion of water slideth away another comes in its place altogether as apt to take the impression or picture of the Sun as the former Or as the light continues one and the same in a lamp albeit the oil which preserves its light do continually wast For one drop or portion of the same oyl or of new oyl poured in is as apt to continue the light as the former drops were which are wasted The light then remains the self same albeit the oyl continually wast So that unto numerical Identitie of the same light the numerical unitie or Identitie or the same portion of oil is not required cannot possibly be had It sufficeth that the oyl or matter which feeds the lamp be the same by Equivalencie By these and many like unquestionable instances in nature the Atheists or infidels supposition is altogether false to wit That unto the Resurrection of the same body or unto the restauration of the same bodily life the Identitie of matter or of material parts which it formerly had is necessarily required I adde that This Identitie or unitie of matter is less needfull unto the numerical unitie or Identitie of mans body because the soul of man amongst all other vegetables is only immortal and remaineth the same it was after it be severed from the body 8. Taking then the first supposition of the Atheists as True Suppose the bodily matter of some men to have been altogether or intirely transubstantiatea or changed into the bodily substance of some other men and that two or three of such men might have the whole bodily substance of some other man or child in their bodies when they died it is no probable Argument or forcible Objection to say This man or child whose bodily substance is supposed to be converted into the substance of other men cannot arise again with the same body which he had because he cannot have the same matter which he had unless the other lose some part of the matter which they had in them when they died Suppose the material parts of every man were utterly annihilated when they died yet their bodies may be made the self same again which they were not only by Creation of new matter out of nothing but out of any matter or Elements prae-existent so prepared and proportioned to their individual nature or bodily life as the former was For the numerical unitie or individual entitie of every nature consists in the unitie or proportioned correspondencie to that modell whereto the Almighty Creator did frame it To conclude then seeing the Resurrection of the same bodies wherein we die must be wrought by the Power of God
it is fitting that we refer the particular manner how our bodies shall be intirely restored unto God himself We will not dispute whether the Resurrection of every man in his own body shall be wrought de facto by recollecting of the dust into which men are turned or of the same material parts which every man had when he died or whether it shall be wrought by Creation of some new matter or only by preparing some other Elementary matter prae-existent and working it into the same individual temper or constitution into which our bodily food or nutriment was wrought whilst we lived It sufficeth to have shewed that every man may arise with his own body by any of the former wayes or partly by one partly by another Lastly the Recollection of the same material fragments or reliques into which our bodies are dissolved is no more necessary by the Principles of nature or true Philosophie unto the constitution of the same bodies at the day of the Resurrection which before have been then the recollection or regresse of the same matter or nutriment whereof our blood or flesh was made or by which our life was preserved in childhood is unto the continuance or constitution of the same life flesh or blood in old age The life of every man in old age is the same the body the same the flesh the same the blood the same which it was it childhood albeit the blood or greatest part of our bodies in childhood was made of one kind of nutriment and the blood which we have in mature or old age be made of another much different nutriment Yea albeit we alter our food or diet every year yet our bodies remain still the same every finger the same whilst it continues in the body and whilst this bodily life continues For albeit the nutriment be of divers kinds yet nature or the digestive facultie works all into one temper and this temper continues the same in divers portions of the matter which is continually fluent and the same only by Equivalencie Now if nature by Gods appointment and co-operation can work divers kinds of food or nutriment into the same form or constitution it will be no improbable supposall to say that The God of nature can work any part of the Element of water of ayre or of earth any fragment or relique of Adams body into the same individual form or mould wherein the bodily life of the man that shall be last dead before Christs coming to Judgement did consist Yet will it be no hard thing for God to make Adam the self same body wherein he died out of the reliques of this mans body To work this mutual exchange between the material parts of several mens bodies without any hinderance or impeachment to the numerical Identity of any mans body or without any prejudice to this truth That every man shall arise with his own body which we Christians believe is impossible to nature or to any natural causes they can be no Agents in this work yet it is no wayes impossible for it implyeth no contradiction for nature thus to be wrought and fashioned by the Creator and preserver of mankind In avouching thus much we say no more then some I take it meer Philosophers have delivered in other Termes Quicquid potest prima causa per secundam idem potest per se sola Whatsoever the first cause doth by the instrumental Agencie or service of second causes the same he may do by his sole Power without the service of any instrumental or second cause Now God by the heart by the Liver and by the digestive facultie as by causes instrumental or secondary doth change the substance of herbs of fruits of fish of roots into the very substance of mans body without dissolving the unitie of his bodily life and therefore if it please him may change the material parts of one man into another mans body or substance without the help or instrumental service of the nutritive or digestive faculty or any other instrumental cause All this he may do immediatly by His sole Power But whether it be His Will so to do or no at the last day be it ever reserved with all reverence and submission to his infinite wisdom alone 9. One scruple more there is wherewith ingenuous minds and well affected may be sometimes touched The doubt may be framed Thus. Although it be most true and evident from the Book of nature that the natural or digestive faculty of man doth preserve the unitie of bodily life entire by diversitie of mater or nutriment yet the living body so preserved is one and the same by continuation of existence or duration His dayes whilst natural life continues are not cut off by death he doth not for a moment cease to be what he was But when we speak of Resurrection from death when we say the dead shall arise with their own bodies here is a manifest interruption of bodily life or of mans duration in bodily life His body ceaseth to be a living body as it was And therefore if he must live again in the body the body to which his soul shall be united at his Resurrection may be called his own body because it shall be inhabited or possessed with his immortal soul but how shall it be The same body which he formerly had seeing the existence or duration of him or of his soul in the body is divided by death and division destroyeth unitie This leaf or paper is one yet if we divide it in the middle it is no more one but two papers The question then comes to this short and perspicuous issue Whether the uninterrupted continuance of duration or existence or unitie of time wherewith the duration of mans life is measured be as necessary to the Unitie or Identity of his bodily Nature or Being as Unitie or Continuation of Quantitie is unto the Unitie of Bodies divisible or quantitative The determination or Judgment is easie The Book of Nature being Judge it is evident That Unitie of Time or continuation of mans life without interruption is but Accidental to the unitie of bodily nature or being It is a circumstance only no such part of the Essence or nature as continuation or unitie of quantitie is of the unitie of bodies divisible for time and quantitie are by nature divisible whereas the nature of man or other things that exist in time is indivisible It is true Division makes a pluralitie in things that are by nature divisible but not in natures indivisible Every thing that is divisible though it be unum actu yet it is plura in potentiâ In that it may be divided it is not purely simply or altogether one but may be made two or more And whilst it remains one it is one by conjunction of parts The entire substance of any natural bodie as it is divisible or subject to dimension cannot be contained under one part of quantitie but part of it is
contained under one part of quantitie part of it under another For Omne quantum habet partem extra partem and in that regard is divisible The whole substance divisible cannot subsist but in the whole quantitie or measure The higher and lower parts of a tree or pillar have no unitie betwixt themselves but as both are united to the middle parts If it be divided in the middle the union and unity is lost after the division made it is not one but two one division makes its two two divisions makes it three But in bodies sensible or vegetable considered as parts of the nature or essence of such Bodies the case is quite otherwise A man is the same man the self same bodily substance or vegetable this year which he was three years ago and his bodily substance this year is not therefore one and the same with the bodily substance which he had three years ago because it is one with the bodily substance which he had the last year but intirely one and the same in all We cannot say that part of his bodily nature was existent in the first year part in the second year and part in the third year for his whole bodily nature was intirely in the first year and in every part or hour of the first year The same bodily nature was intirely in every hour of the second year and so in every hour of the third year For though mans body be divisible in quantitie though his duration be likewise divisible yet his bodily nature is indivisible and intirely the same in every moment of its own duration And for this Reason Although death may make a division or interruption in its duration or existence yet it makes no pluralitie or division in its nature in what part of time soever his nature gets new existence it is intirely and indivisibly the same it was 10. The former Instance drawn from the Divisibilitie of a bodie subject to quantitie or dimension would hold much better Thus. As one part of such a body being separated from the rest suppose a branch or slip of a tree being united to another tree by inoculation or ingrafting remains the self same substance it was though it now exist not in the same tree but in another So the bodily substance of man though cut off by death from the company of the living and severed from all co-existence with the things which now are may be the self same substance which it sometimes was although it get no co-existence with the things which now are but with the substances which shall be many hundred years hence it may be at that time the same which formerly it was as truly and properly as if it had continued its co-existence or actual being with the things which now are or actually shall be till it be again As a slip or branch taken from a tree in France and ingrafted in a tree in England is as truly and properly the same branch it was as if it had continued still united to the same tree wherein it did first grow In this later Case there is only A separation of place a pluralitie only of Unitions or Co-existences of the same branch with divers trees no pluralitie of branches Suppose God had cut off Adams dayes on earth at the instant wherein he did eat the forbidden fruit and deferred his replantation in the Land of the living again until these times wherein we live here had been a separation of him from those times wherein he lived many hundred of years here had been a pluralitie of times wherein he lived a pluralitie of his Co-existences with divers times and with divers men no pluralitie of humane natures in Adam His nature might have been one and the same as truly and as indivisibly one and the same in these times distant one from the other by the space of five thousand years as if he had lived from his first creation till the sounding of the last trump unto Judgment And thus much of the Exceptions or Cavils made by Atheists or Infidels against This Article of the Resurrection In which we Christians believe That every man shall arise with his own body the same bodily substance which he had or was whilest he lived here on earth 11. And now for Application or Conclusion let us here suppose that the Atheist as he makes himself worse then a beast whilst he lives on earth could hope to make himself equal to beasts in his death or to be transformed into a swine Imagine he should endeavour to drown his immortal soul in a Tavern or to bury his bodily natural Essence in the Stews suppose his body might by Venus fire or other loathsom fruits of filthy lusts be dissolved into ashes and the ashes of it be dispersed through all the winds Imagine his bones might in some filthy puddle be resolved into slime and become the food or nutriment of crawling toads or of other more venemous creatures The pursuit of these his fearful desperate hopes could nothing avail him they would be at best but as pledges of greater shame and misery to befal him The powerful hand of his Almighty Iudge will raise him up at the last day with the same body which he had exposed to all this shame and misery with the self same body for nature and substance but not the same for qualitie or durabilitie For it shall after death be ten thousand times more capable of pain then in this life it was of pleasure All his bodily pleasures came to an end before he came to an end of his bodily life These alwayes die before he dies that hath wedded himself unto them But his pain shall never die his paines though deadly shall never come to an end These are the endless fruits of that mans short dayes on earth which wholly mispends his time in foolish bodily pleasures or noysom lusts But for the souls of the Righteous whatsoever become of their bodies after death They are still in the hands of God they are wholly at his disposal whether those Bodies wherein they dwelt do fall by the enemies sword or come unto their graves in peace whether they become a prey unto the beasts of the field to the fowls of the Air or to the fishes of the Sea And let us whilst we live establish our souls with this Doctrine of our Apostle And also lay that saying of Tertullian recited before chapter 13. § 9. unto our hearts Consider a teipsum O homo fidem rei invenies Recogita quid fueris antequam esses utique nihil Consider thy self O man and thou shalt find the undoubted truth of what we teach recal to mind if thou canst what thou wast before thou wast and thou shalt find that thou wert nothing Qui non eras factus es cum iterum non eris fies There was a time when thou wast not and yet there was a time wherein thou wast made and albeit the times be now coming
the world and the flesh had been greater than the meer natural man had any the just Lord would not punish them more severely than he doth the heathen or meer natural men for suffering themselves to be vanquished by his enemies They which deny any grace or talent to be always given in baptisme or affirm this Talent to be given onely to some few which are of the number of the Elect either do not understand or do not call to minde what baptisme is Now Baptisme on our part is an Astipulation or promise 1 Peter 3. ver 21. And it is no lesse on Gods part It is a mutual Covenant or Astipulation between God and us And in every Covenant or Astipulation there is Ratio dati et accepti somewhat given and and somewhat taken The giving is properly on Gods part the taking on ours For in true and proper terms we cannot give any thing to God because all we have even we our selves are his by double right by right of creation and redemption Yet it is his pleasure that we in baptisme should sincerely and heartily surrender that unto him which is his own even our selves our souls and bodies And he upon this surrender or vow if it be sincerely made doth give to us that which was not ours even his only son with all the benefits of his death and passion All of us put him on in baptism though not all in the same degree and we may rest assured that God would never presse us in baptisme to fight under the banner of his Son unless he were ready to furnish us with strength with weapons and skill to fight his battails So we will as our Apostle exhorts us yeeld our members unto his service he will teach our hands to War and our fingers to fight and every facultie of our body and soul to do their part 6. The Abstract or Briefe of our Apostles discourse in this chapter is to stir up that Gift of God in these Romans which they had received in baptism or which is all one to animate or incourage them to imploy that talent which God in that Sacrament had concredited unto them unto his glory And this his Exhortation is grounded upon their Profession of dying to sin which they had made in baptisme or upon the assurance of Gods spirit in the sacred War so we will take heart and courage to undertake the fight There is not one branch of this Exhortation from the second verse of this chap. to this one and twentieth but is rooted in one of these two considerations or joyntly in both That all of us in baptisme are dead to sin in that sense which we have shewed before that is by solemn vow or by Professing our death unto it our Apostle infers ver 3. and not onely dead but buried And both this Death and Burial unto sin was solemnly professed not by Word or Vow only but by matter of fact or visible Ceremony then usuall in Baptisme for every one that was baptized seeing all that were baptized were of good years and strength of body to undergo this Ceremony were ter demersi in aquis their whole bodies were plunged thrice in the water to represent their vowed death and buriall unto sin This Ternal demersion of their Bodies as some collect was not only to represent The Holy and blessed Trinitie of the Divine Persons in whose names they were baptized but withall to represent the three several dayes wherein Christ lay buried in the grave Therefore saith the Apostle we are buried with him by Baptisme unto death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newnesse of life ver 4. 7. The meaning of the former Ceremony was and so of Baptisme to this day is That as Christ did leave the burthen of our sins and put off the form of a servant which for our sakes he undertook in the grave so we by baptisme and buriall into his death should put off the old man or body of sin and be raised unto newness of life and become partakers of his Resurrection unto glory This raising unto newnesse of life by the Sacrament of Baptisme was represented by the safe Ascension of their Bodies out of the water in the which they had been thrice plunged And of our Resurrection unto glory we receive the pledge or earnest when we receive the Grace of Regeneration that is the Grace which enables us to walk in newnesse of life And this is called the First Resurrection without which no man shall be partaker of the second unto Glory Now that all such as are truly buried with him by baptisme into death that is all such as observe and perform their vow made in baptisme shall undoubtedly be partakers of his Resurrection unto Glory the Apostle inferres ver 5. For if we have been planted together in the likenesse of his death we shall be also in the likenesse of his Resurrection and vers the sixth Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin For he that is dead is free from sin ver 7. that is He that is dead to sin in this life is freed from the life or reign of sin For it is observable that he doth not say if we have been planted together in his death but if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death It is not required that we should die the death of the body as Christ did but to die as Isaac did in the similitude and figure of his death that is we should die to sin or crucifie that sin in us for which Christ was crucified And as it is not required that we should die the death of the body in baptisme so is it not to be expected that we should forthwith be raised unto that glory whereunto he rose but to be raised unto A similitude or likeness of it that is unto newness of life which is the First Resurrection And of this Resurrection we shall not fail to be actual partakers by vertue of baptisme if we be rightly implanted into the similitude of his death for so the Apostles words are If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection But what is it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 planted together or with whom are we planted we Gentiles together with the Jews So some conjecture But the more ancient and better exposition is that we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Christ planted together with Him yet not so planted together with him as one tree is planted together by another Arbor inter or juxta Arbores each having its several root But as Christ was planted by his death and burial and consecrated to be the root of life So we likewise should be planted by Baptisme in Him to die
seek to hide our souls from the view of others albeit we cannot discern the inward stain or filth of sin but are rather in love with her painted pleasures But when he shall appear that knew no sin in himself and yet knows all the secrets of mans heart it is no vail of flesh no die of nature no covering of the visage with bloud that will avail such as continue to do those things whereof they are or ought to be ashamed or which they are afraid that others should see or know They shall then desire the Hils for a vail and the Rocks and Mountains for a covering to their shame but in vain for perpetual darkness shall be their habitation and their present shame and confusion of face shall then appear to be the harbinger or fore-runner of death CHAP. XIX ROMANS 6. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed c. We are many wayes ingaged to serve God rather then to serve sin though sin could afford us as much fruit and reward as God doth But there is no proportion no ground of Comparison betwixt the fruits of sin and the Gift of God The Case stated betwixt the voluptuous sensual life and the life truly Christian Satans method And Gods method A Complaint of the neglect of Grace 1. THe Scope of our Apostles whole discourse in this Chapter is to deter us from the service of sin and by the help of Super-abounding Grace and Hope of an exceeding great Reward both to encourage and engage our best Endeavors unto the service of God His Motion or Argument was reasonable albeit sin or he that is the Author of sin were able to afford us as much fruit or as full a recompence as the service of God doth There is no man amongst us of this Church I presume but doth abhor the Heresie of the Manichees which was in part this that we were beholding to another God for our bodies then unto Him which made our souls Yet if their abominable doctrine were for disputation sake supposed as true We could not be by any right so ingaged unto the service of this imaginary god as unto the service of the True God which made our souls and doth purifie them by his Word and Sacraments For we are not debters to the flesh but unto the God of the Spirits of all Flesh we are Debtors indeed unto the only God which made both our bodies and souls and spirits He may challenge our service by double right First by the right of Creation which we had shamefully violated by alienating our Allegeance unto his Enemy Secondly by right of Redemption for he that made us all hath redeemed us all and if we continue servants unto sin we do not only violate that antient or former Bond which we owed unto him by right of Creation but that second Bond whereby we stand bound unto him by right of redemption And transgressors we should be and most unthankful wretches if we did not cheerfully and sincerely betake our selves unto his service albeit the reward or recompence which he hath promised and will perform were but equal to the fruits or pleasures of sin But the truth is that so far they are from all equalitie that there is No Proportion between them The wages of sin are lesse then nothing compared to the reward of righteousnesse which is more then all things else that can befal us For not to Be at all never to have had any Being were better then to suffer the death here meant So that death and life especially everlasting death and everlasting life cannot come into any Ballance That which is worse then nothing or not Being so is everlasting death cannot be compared with any thing that is Good much less with the perfection of goodness such is everlasting life which containeth all goodness whereof we can imagine our nature to be capable 2. The only Comparison then must be between the service of sin and the service of righteousness in respect of our present estate or during the time of this mortal life And so if you mark it our Apostle hath Two Motives to withdraw us from the service of sin and Two to draw us to the service of righteousness The first Motive to withdraw us from the service of sin is that it is fruitless and shameful for the present The First Motive again to sway us unto the service of righteousness is the present fruit which we have unto Holiness and between these two there may be some Comparison if we sequester them from the other two to wit from life and death everlasting To sequester the service of righteousness altogether from the hope of everlasting life or the service of sin altogether from the fear of everlasting death is a thing if not impossible yet not warrantable as was shewed before in the tenth Chapter For those things which God hath conjoyned man may not sever Yet we may so far sever them as God permitted them to be severed in the wiser Heathen The very Heathens felt a kind of Compunction or sting of conscience upon the commission of grossers sins which did suggest a kind of tacit fear but of what evil to come they expresly knew not They had again a kind of joy or Grateful Testimonie or congratulation of spirit or conscience upon the practise of things honest and comely And this joy did kindle a secret hope or incouragement to go forwards in those courses but it burst not out into a flame it wanted the light or guidance of divine truth For both this fear and this hope they had without any express hope of everlasting life or express fear of everlasting death However the wiser or more moderate sort of them did prefer the practise of vertue or such pietie as they knew before the wonted pleasures of this life Yet this their greatest Philosophers did not do without the Contradiction of such as were given over to bodily pleasures And this opposition of sensual men may seem to have some Ground of Reason even from the Rule of Faith it self if we had no more express hopes of everlasting life or more distinct fear of everlasting death then they had For shall we not think that the estate of Dives was much better then the estate of Lazarus in this life wherein Dives received pleasure and Lazarus pain Now pleasure is much better then pain And if such a life as Dives here led afforded pleasure how was it Fruitless specially in respect of Lazarus his life which was full of pain Indeed in respect of a life so charged with pain as Lazarus's was or with such vexations and dangers as the life of Saint Paul and other more eminent Saints of God in the primitive Church were That Saying of our Apostle is most true 1 Cor. 15. 19. If in this life onely we have hope in Christ then are we of all men most miserable His meaning is That if bodily
presence is of the two the worse And certain it is that it cannot be less seeing that Everlasting Life which is The Gift of God and Crown of holiness is at the least so much better as the second death or pains of hell are worse then this mortal life But if I mistake not the Members of this Distinction concerning the punishment of losse and the punishment of sense by pain are not altogether Opposite but Co-incident The very conceit or remembrance of this infinite loss and of their folly in procuring it cannot but breed an insufferable measure of grief and sorrow unto the damned which will be fully equivalent to all their bodily pain And this fretting remembrance and perpetual reflection upon the folly of their former wayes is as I take it That Worm of Conscience that never dies But of this hereafter The miserable estate of the damned or such as shall suffer the second death may be reduced to these two Heads to Punishment Essential or to Punishment Accidental or concomitant The Essential Punishment comprehends both Poena damni and Poena sensus The positive pains of that brimstone Lake and the Worm of Conscience which gnaweth upon their souls The Punishment Accidental or concomitant is that Loathsomnesse of the Region or place wherein they are tormented and of their Companions in these torments In this life that Saying is generally true Solamen miseris Socios habuisse doloris it is alwayes some comfort to have Consorts in our pain or distress But this Saying is out of date in the Region of death the more there be that suffer these pains the less comfort there is to every one in particular For there is no concord or consort but perpetual discord which is alwayes so much greater by how much the parties discording are more in number And to live in continual discord though with but some few is a kind of Hell on earth And thus much in brief of the second death wherein it exceeds the First 10. If any one that shall read this should but suspect or fear that God had inevitably ordained him unto this death or created him to no better end then to the day of wrath This very cogitation could not but much abate his love towards God Whom no man can truly love unless he be first perswaded That God is good and loving not towards his Elect only but toward all men towards himself in particular But this opinion of Absolute Reprobation or ordination to the day of wrath I pray may never enter into any mans brains But flesh and blood though not polluted with this Opinion will if not repine and murmur yet perhaps demur a while upon another Point more questionable to wit How it may stand with the Justice of the most righteous Judge to recompence the pleasures of sin in this life which is but short with such exquisite and everlasting torments in the life to come Specially seeing the pleasures of sin are but transient neither enjoyed nor pursued but by interposed Fits whereas the torments of that Lake are uncessantly perpetual and admit no intermission The usual Answer to this Quaere is That every sin deserves a punishment infinite as being committed against an infinite Majestie But seeing this answer hath no Ground or warrant from the Rule of Faith in which neither the Maxim it self is expresly contained nor can it be deduced thence by any good Consequence we may examine it by the Rule of Reason Now by the Rule of Reason and proportion the punishment due to offences as committed against an infinite Majestie should not be punishment infinite for time and duration but infinite for qualitie or extremitie of pain whiles it continues If every minute of sinful pleasures in this world should be recompenced with a thousand years of Hell-pains this might seem rigorous and harsh to be conceived of him that is as infinite in Goodness as in Greatness as full of Mercie as of Majestie But whatsoever our thoughts or wayes be his wayes we know are equal and just most equal not in themselves only but even unto such as in sobrietie of spirit consider them But wherein doth the equalitie of his wayes or justice appear when he recompenceth the momentany pleasures of sin with such unspeakable everlasting torments It appears in this That he sentenceth no creatures unto such endlesse pains but only such as he had first ordained unto an endlesse life so much better at least then this bodily and mortal life as the second death is worse then it Adam had an immortal life as a pledge or earnest of an eternal life in possession and had not lost it either for himself or us if he had not wilfully declined unto the wayes of death of which the righteous Judge had fore-warned him Now when life and death are so set before us as that Hold is given us of life to recompence the wilful choice of death with death it self this is most equal and just And if the righteous Lord had sentenced our first Parents unto the second death immediately upon their first transgression his sentence had been but just and equal their destruction had been from themselves Yet as all this had been no more then just so it had been less then justice moderated or rather over-ruled by mercie Now instead of executing justice upon our first Parents the righteous Lord did immediately promise a gratious redemption and as one of the Antients said Foelix peccatum quod talem meruit Redemptorem it was a happy sin which gave occasion of the promise of such a Redeemer 11. But did this extraordinary mercy promised to Adam extend it self to all or to Adam only or to some few that should proceed from him Our publick Liturgie our Articles of Religion and other Acts of our Church extend it to Adam and to all that came after him But how the Nations whom God as yet hath not called unto the light of his Gospel or whose fore-elders he did not call unto the knowledge of his Laws given unto Israel how either Fathers or Children came to forsake the mercies wherein the whole humane nature in our first Parents was interested is A Secret known to God and not fit to be disputed in particular This we are sure of in the General That God did not forsake them till they had forsaken their own mercies But for our selves All of us have been by Baptism re-ordained unto a better estate then Adam lost Now if upon our first second third or fourth open breach or wilful contempt of our Vow in Baptism the Lord had sentenced us unto everlasting death or given Satan a Commission or warrant to pay us the wages of sin this had been but just and right his wayes in this had been equal because our wayes were so unequal But now he hath so long time spared us and given us so large a time of repentance seeking to win us unto his love by many blessings and
favours bestowed upon us This as the Apostle speakes is the riches of his bountie certainly exceeding great mercy much greater then justice even mercy triumphing against judgment Now if after all this we shall continue to provoke him and defer our repentance turning his Grace into wantonness making the plentifulness of his word the nurse and fuel of Schism and faction no judgement can be too great no pain too grievous either for Qualitie or for Continuance 12. The Doctrine of such Catechists as would perswade or occasion men to suspect that God hath not yet mercy in store or that there is no possibilitie for all that hear the word to repent to beleive and be saved whatsoever it do to the Authors and followers of it in this life it shall in the life to come appear even to such as perish to have been erroneons For one special branch of their punishment and that wherein the punishment of such as hear the word and repent not doth specially exceed the punishment of the Heathen or infidels shall be their continual cogitation how possible it was for them to have repented How possible for them how much more possible for them then for infidels to have been saved The bodily pains of Hell fire shall be as is probable equal to all but the worm of Conscience which is no other then the reflection of their thoughts upon their madness in following the pleasures of sin and neglecting the promises of Grace shall be more grievous to impenitent Christians A true Scale or scantling of these torments we may take from the consideration how apt we are to grieve at our extraordinarie folly or Retchlesness in this life whether that have turned to the prejudice of our temporal estate of our health or bodily life of our credit or good name There is not a man on earth but if he would enter into his own heart might find that he had many times committed greater folly then Esau did when he sold his Birth-right for a messe of pottage He set his Birth-right that is his Interest in the Land of Canaan on sale without the hazard of that inheritance which God had elswhere provided for him for he became Lord of Mount Seir. He did not contract for his own imprisonment or captivitie but we daily set Heaven to sale and hazard our everlasting exclusion from Gods presence for toyes less worth at least less necessarie for us then bodily meat was for Esau in his hunger And yet by such foolish bargains we enter a Covenant with death and contract though not expressly yet implicitely for an everlasting inheritance in Hell Now unto such as thus live and die without repentance the most cruell torments that can be imagined cannot be so grievous as the continual cogitation how they did bind themselves without any necessitie laid upon them to receive the wages of sin by receiving such base earnest as in this life was given them 13. A more exact Scale of the reward for this their folly we have in Two Fictions of the Heathen The one is That of Sisyphus his uncessant labour in rolling a huge stone which still turns upon him with greater force The other is of Prometheus whose Liver as they imagined was continually gnawen upon by a vultur or Cormorant without wasting the substance of it or deading its capacitie of pain The continuall reflection of such as perish upon their former folly is as the rolling of Sisyphus's stone a grievous labour a perpetual torment still resumed by them but still more and more in vain for no sorrow bringeth forth repentance there And every such Reflection or Revolution of their thoughts upon their former wayes is The gnawing of the worm of Conscience more grievous by much unto their souls then if a vultur should so continually gnaw their hearts CHAP. XXI ROMANS 6. 22. 23. But now ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting life The Gift of God is Eternall Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Eternal Life Compared with this present Life The several Tenures of Both. The method proposed The instabilitie of this present Life The contentments of it short and the capacities of man to injoy such contentments as this life affords narrower In the life to come the capacitie of every facultie shall be inlarged some senses shall receive their former contentments only Eminenter as if one should receive the weight in Gold for dross Some Formaliter Joy Essential and Joy Accidental 1. THe Point remaining is that This Eternal Life which is the Crown of Holiness is so much better then this present life and its best contentments as the second death is worse then this present life however taken at the best or worst Now both sorts of life and death may be compared either in respect of their proper qualitie or of their Duration That in respect of Duration or continuance this good and happy life which is the Crown of Holiness and that miserable death which is the wages of sin are equall no Christian may deny may suspect for both are endless That this life was endless that such as are once possessed of it shall never be dispossessed of it even Origen and his followers did never question who not withstanding did deny that this death which was opposed unto it was absolutely endless though in Scripture often said to be everlasting For That in their interpretation was no more then to be of exceeding long continuance But this Heresie hath been long buried in the Church and his sin be upon him that shall seek to revive it The Method then which we mean to observe is this First to set forth the excellencie of everlasting life in respect of this life present Secondly to unfold the Reasons why neither the hope of everlasting life nor the fear of an endless miserable death do sway so much with most Christians as in reason they ought either for deterring them from the fruitless service of sin or for incouraging them to proceed in holy and godly courses whose end is everlasting life In this later we shall take occasion to unfold the Fallacies or Sophisms which Satan in his temptations puts upon us with some brief rules or directions how to avoid them A work questionless of much use and fruit though handled by a few either so seriously or so largely as the matter requires In comparing this life with the life to come we are in the first place to set forth the different Tenures of them Secondly to compare the several joys or contentments 2. This present life even at the best is in comparison but a kind of death For as the Heathen Philosopher had observed it is alwayes in fluxu like a stream or current it runs as fast from us as it comes unto us That part of our life which is past saith Seneca is as it were resigned up to death That part which is yet to come is not yet ours nor can we make any sure
reckoning of it That part which we account as present is equally divided between death and us Not unconsonantly to that of David Psalm 103. 15. The dayes of man are but as grasse He flourisheth as a Flour of the Field As soon as the wind goeth over it it is gone c. Or to that of Job Man that is born of a woman is of few dayes and full of trouble he cometh forth like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not The Addition or Comment upon this in our Liturgie is That in the midst of life we be in death that is we die as fast as we live The first part of our life is the beginning of our death and death it self differs from life but as the Point doth from the Line which it terminates or as the line doth from the surface or the surface from the body whose surface it is Mors ultima line a rerum est The whole course of our life is full of interpunctions or Commaes death is but the Period or full point Take it at the very best it is in respect of true life or stedfast Being but as the Reflex or Image of a star in a flowing stream The seat or subject of life doth not continue the same it was no not for a moment it is but one by continuation or fresh supply of the like As an Army is said to be the same which consists of the like number of men though most of the Commanders and Souldiers of the first levie be slain So Darius the Persian had a Legion which they called Immortal because it was continually supplied with the like number of new Souldiers when the old ones failed For the same reason some have compared the life of man unto a Lamp which burneth so long as it hath supply of oyl but is presently extinguished when the oyl doth fail And indeed as the oyl and light is to the Lamp wherein the one is contained the other shineth so is the natural heat and moisture unto the soul especially as to life sensitive But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption our souls shall then be in our glorified bodies as light is in the stars in their proper sphere Our life shall be one and the same not by continuation or succession of bodily parts So as this first life and that other life which we expect differ for their Tenure and manner as the representation or figure of the Sun in the water and the Sun in its sphere The Tenure of the one is fluent and transitory The Tenure of the other is solid and permanent And proportionable to this difference of their Tenures or durations are the different joyes or contentments If all the possible contentments in this life suppose they were far more in number then they are were put together they could not equalize the Contentments of one minute in the life to come 3. Our desires in this life are vast and our capacities to enjoy the good of what we desire but narrow and slender They consort no better than a decrepit gluttons eye or appetite with his digestive facultie Now it is a miserie to have vast or strong desires and not to be able to give them satisfaction most miserable to take those courses which exclude them from possibilitie of satisfaction Hence an Heathen Philosopher took the want or Emptinesse of this miserie to be the compleat Sphere of true happinesse and out of this conceit defined a happy man briefly this Beatus est qui vivit ut vult He is happy or blessed which hath all the contentments that he desires or wishes But St. Austine tells us that another Heathen whom he names not but whose saying he often applauds corrected this Definition thus Beatus est qui vivit ut vult modo nihil velit quod non debet He is a happy man that hath all that he desireth so he desire nothing but what he ought to desire And certain it is that the former Definition without this Correction comes far short of that true happiness which is contained in everlasting life or which all men by nature confusedly desire For a man in this life may have every thing which in this life his heart desires and yet not have his hearts desire This no man can have in this life nor doth the meer natural man find the way or entrance to it See Christs Answer to Johns Disciples pag. 17. Solomon had tried as great varietie of particular contentments as any man living can project unto himself and yet after long experience of every particular that he could propose unto himself gives up this general verdict Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of mind Yet is this vanitie seated in the unsetled and fluctuant desires of man not in the things themselves which he desires for these have their right Use so they be referred to their proper End which is no other then true happiness and no man can have his hearts desire until his heart do pitch and settle on this as its Center Hence some would Define True happiness to be Plenitudo desideriorum the full satisfaction of our desires This all seek after without cessation and some print some Sent or rellish of it we find in most desires of it Somewhat there is in the right use of every Creature which would lead us the right way unto it did we not run Counter striving to make up a full measure of joy by the abundant fruition of these materials wherein we delight Whereas the delight and contentment which we find in any Creatures should turn our thoughts from them unto the inexhaustible fountain whence all the goodness that we find in them or in our selves is derived The neerer we draw to him the neerer we are to true happiness truly happy we cannot be until we enjoy his presence Irrequietum est cor nostrum ad te Domine donec quiescat in te Our hearts are restless in the pursuit of happiness until they rest in thee O Lord. 4. The first step to happiness which we can make is to be perswaded That true happinesse cannot in this life be obtained Our Senses are uncapable of the Accidental joyes or concomitant glory which attend this happiness And our Reasonable Soul how magnificently soever Philosophers speak of its nature is more uncapable of Essential joy and happiness That consists in the Fruition or enjoyment of the Divine Nature which is Happiness it self All the Contentments of this life will serve to no other use then to be as a Foyl to set forth the happinesse of the life to come All the Contentments possible of this life are entertained either by our bodily Senses or by the internal faculties of our Souls Now by the discovery of the imperfections of such Contentments we may ascend by degrees to some competent Scale or view for discovering the perfection of Joyes in the Life to come
is not through a glass but in a glass Our understanding or intellective facultie is as a Glass wherein this vision is made Now the understanding as the Philosopher observed is as a glass apt to receive the impression of all things intelligible And as he imagined could not be perfected could never understand its own nature aright untill it were made all things until it had received the images or stamps of all things And hence it is that the more men know the more they desire to know The knowledge of many particulars doth but excite our imbred desire of knowing more and this desire can never be satisfied until we know all things Now to know all things successively or one after another is impossile It was the complaint of the father of the Physitians Ars longa vita breuis The true knowledge of any Art or science or the subject of it is long in getting whereas mans life is short There is no end saith Solomon of writing many books and much reading which is but the hunting after knowledge is a weariness unto the body 9. But it being taken as possible or as granted That we could come to know the nature of all things which we see hear or read of that we could be as prompt and perfect in this visible book of nature as we are in the first elements of the easiest book that can be printed for us that we knew the nature of Heaven of earth and of every creature in them as distinctly as children do one letter from another and the nature of mixt bodies as well as they know the just value of letters or Syllables put together yet could not such knowledge make us happie For these things how perfectly soever known could not infuse any new life into us could not make us partakers of any greater joy or goodness then is in themselves But in the life of glorie our souls become living polished glasses wherein the Divine nature wherein Christ God and Man may be seen as he is and he is truth it self life it self and goodness it self and we are transformed into the similitude of all these his Attributes There is no picture-maker that can express either the colour or proportion of a mans body or countenance so exactly as these do themselves in a true glass It receives the true image and similitude of any thing visible as more easily so more exactly then wax doth the stamp and character of the seal For That receives only the Mathematical Form or figure without the matter or any real qualitie As a golden seal leaves no tincture of gold nor a seal of brass any propertie of brass in the wax but only the figure Whereas a glass besides the figure or proportion receives the colour but no other real qualitie But the eye which is a kinde of living glass takes some tincture not of the shape or colour only but of other real qualities or properties of things seen By looking on Green or Azure the eye is much refreshed because the natural constitution of it resembles these most Yet finds it not the like contentment either in colours too sad or too bright because these have less affinitie with its native temper Nor is the effect or efficacy of colours seen terminated only in the eye though the eye sees them That reacheth unto other internal faculties unto the very Seat or Center of the Affections The impression which colors perfectly red as scarlet of the ancient die make upon the eyes of living creatures which abound in blood doth stir the blood and inrage their spirits to fight when as otherwise they would be quiet And to the end they might provoke the Elephants to fight they shewed them the blood of grapes and mulberies 1 Mac. 6. 34. And some good Philosphers have observed that Bears or others creatures which abound with Melancholick blood are more inraged at the sight of colours more dark then scarlet or perfect red So that the eyes of living creatures which see things as they are not through a glass but in themselves as in a perfect glass are apt to take others impressions besides the figure proportion or colour of those things which they stedfastly behold 10. There is no creature in the world more apt to receive the shape or figure of another then man in his first creation was to receive the image or likeness of his Creator who hath no figure or shape whereby he may be visibly represented as the seal is in the wax or as a mans face is in a glass He is infinite in all his Attributes and his infinity cannot be represented must be admired The similitude though of his goodness or of his righteousness wherein happiness consists was truly represented in the First man for he was created Just and holy and wanted nothing to his happiness save onely perseverance in that righteousness wherein he was created But he stained his soul with sin And so far as it was stained with sin it was more apt to take the image of Gods adversarie who was the Father of sin the author of all iniquitie which men commit And so we all are by nature more apt to take this image of the wicked one then the purest glass is to receive the image the proportion and colours of men that look upon it more apt to take the impression of his bad qualities then the eye of any living creature is to take the impression of any qualitie which shall be presented unto it But as the first Adam was made a living soul so the second Adam was made a quickning Spirit A spirit of life to revive the Reliques of Gods image in mens souls And by the reviving of them to expell or blot out the expressions of Satans image in them All this he doth in part even in this life in such as fear and love him And in These Two to wit in the Reviving of Gods image in us and in the Expunction and wiping out the stain of sin which is no other then the image of Satan doth our Regeneration consist And by the spirit of Regeneration we see in part we know God in part but after that which is perfect is come that is when Christ shall appear in glory and we shall be changed Then shall that which is imperfect be done away then shall our souls be as a glass clear and polished apt to receive the image of God wherein we were created in a far better manner then the soul of our first Progenitor in his integritie was 11. We know God by Hear-say in this life we see him not or if we see him in part in his word yet this is but like the sight of things a far off it makes too little impression upon our souls it works too small alteration in our affections Our sight is not effectual until it grow into a kinde of Tast Adam was indued with life with knowledge with righteousness but his life his knowledge and righteousness
first ayme and intentions desires to be disobedient seditious or factious to be an Adulterer or murtherer a fornicator a thief or perjur'd man or to look upon his neighbours conveniences with an envious or malicious eye The means by which Satan tempts us or by which our natural affections sway us to do these things in particular as to be disobedient seditious factious or servants to other lewdness are generally Two Per blanda aut per aspera by proposing some things unto us which respectively either promise some contentment to our senses or threaten some loss some pain or vexation This visible world and the things which we see or know by sensible experiment are as Satans Chess-board which way soever we look or turn our thoughts he hath somewhat or other still ready at hand to give our weak and untrained desires the Check and to hazard the losing of our souls and bodies But Faith as the Apostle speakes is the evidence of things not seen And the things that are not seen as the Apostle saith are eternal and these are for number so many and for worth so great that if we be as vigilant and careful to play our own game as he is to play his for every Check which he can give us we may give him the Check-mate And this advantage we have of him that whereas he usually tempts us but one way at one and the same time that is either by hopes of some sensual contentment or by fear of some temporal vexation loss or pain we may at the same time resist his temptations Two wayes both by proposal of some spiritual good or reward much greater then the particular sensible contentment and by representation of some spiritual loss or fear much more dangerous then any evil wherewith he can threaten or deter us from performance of our duty 19. If he tempt us to excesse in meat and drink which is commonly the root whence other branches of Luxury or sensuality spring we may counterpoize this temptation First with that hanger and thirst and other torments incident to this appetite of sense in the life to come And in the second place by our hopes of our celestial food or full satisfaction of our hunger and thirst so we will but hunger and thirst after righteousness And so again if he tempt us to other unclean pleasures of the flesh we may give our inclinations the check by proposing unto them our assured hope of enjoying the society of immaculate Angels and of our espousall to the immaculate Lamb Christ Jesus in this life and of enjoying his presence in the life to come And again we may controule our natural inclination to this branch of lewdness by serious meditation on that Divine Oracle Adulterers and Whoremongers God will Judge and judging condemn them to everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels 20. If Satan shall tempt us to an immoderate desire of riches the counterpoize to this temptation is likewise two-fold First There is a promise of treasure in Heaven to such as seek after it more then earthly treasure and this is a treasure not chargeable with the like carking care in getting it nor subject to the like inconveniences after it be gotten for there neither rust nor moth doth corrupt nor do theeves break through and steal Besides the heaps of riches even in this life are fruitless for as our Saviour saith in another place though a man have riches in great abundance yet his life doth not consist in them Ten thousand talents cannot adde one minute to the length of his dayes whereas the heavenly treasures are the crown of life Or if the hope of these heavenly treasures cannot oversway mens thirst or longing after earthly treasures you may joyn to this the weight of Saint James his Wo against this sin Chap. 5. 1 2 3. Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you your riches are corrupted and your garments moth-eaten your gold and silver is cankred and the rust of them shall be a witness against you But if this were all a rich worldling would reply that he would keep his gold and silver from rust This he may do perhaps whilst he is alive but more then he can undertake after it once come unto Plutus his custody Therefore Saint James adds the rust of it shall eat your flesh as fire or if this be but a Metaphor he speakes no Parables but plainly in the words following ye have heaped treasure together for the last dayes Behold the hire of the labourers which have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud cryeth and the cries of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth 21. Again if Satan tempt us to do those things which we ought not to do for the favour Or to leave those things undone which we ought to do for the fear of great ones the sacred Armorie affords us weapons sufficient to repell Both temptations The First is that pithy sentence of Saint Paul ye are bought with a price be not ye the servants of men The Second is that of our Saviour Fear not them who after they have killed the body can do no more but I will tell you whom ye shall fear one that can destroy both body and soul in hell fire yea I say unto you fear him Briefly in all assaults Satan hath only Weapons Offensive as fiery darts he hath none Defensive But if the word of God as our Apostle speakes dwell plentifully in us we have both the shield and buckler to repell his darts and the sword of the spirit to chase him away but this word must plentifully dwell in us we must entertain it in our hearts and consciences not only in our lips and tongues nor let it run out of our mouthes faster then it comes into our ears CHAP. XXIII ROMANS 6. 23. For the wages of sin is death but the Gift of God is Eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Philosophers Precept Sustine Abstine though good in its kinde and in some degree useful yet insufficient True belief of The Article of the everlasting life and death is able to effect both abstinence from evil-doing and sufferance of evil for well-doing The sad effects of the Misbelief or Unbelief of this Article of life and death eternal The true belief of it includes A Tast of both Direction how to take A Tast of death eternal without danger Turkish Principles produce effects to the shame of Christians Though Hell fire be material it may pain the soul The story of Biblis The Body of the second death fully adequate to the Body of sin Parisiensis his Story A general and useful Rule 1. THe heathen Philosopher which knew no temper besides himself no temptation but such as the dayly occurences of what he heard or saw or by some sense of the body had
experience of did acknowledge as much as hath been formerly delivered out of Gods word to wit That men are usually misdrawn to do those things in particular which in general they desired not to do and to leave those things undone which in the calm of composed affections they desired to do either by the hope of some bodily pleasures or by fear of some bodily pain And unto this two-fold inconvenience he prescribed this brief Receipt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That men in youth especially should accustome themselves to abstinence and sufferance to abstinence from evil and to sufferance of evil that is unto abstinence from unlawful pleasures which we call Malum culpae or Evil of Sin and to endure with patience malum poenae the evil of pain or of some loss rather then hazard The quiet of Conscience by doing that which is evil or unlawful or by not doing that which is good specially when we are thereto required But this brief receipt or diet of the Soul without some other addition will rather serve to condemn us Christians then enable us to live a true and Christian life The Receipt though is good in the General but defective in these Particulars First Unless he knew more of Gods Will or of the mysteries of Christian Religion then we know any means by which he could possibly know either being an Heathen he was ignorant of many evils from which he was bound to abstain and altogether as ignorant what those good things were for whose love he was to suffer malum poenae the evil of pain loss or grievance rather then disclaim them Secondly Albeit he had known what was to be done what to be left undone yet being ignorant of this main Article of Christianity to wit of A Life everlasting which is the reward of well-doing the Crown of Holiness and of an everlasting Death which is the wages of sin and issue of unlawful pleasures His Receipt of Sustine Abstine was altogether as fruitless and vain as if a Physician should prescribe a Dosis or Recipe to his Patient of such Simples or compounded Medicines as cannot be had in this part of the world but must be sought for at the East or West-Indies or at the Antipodes whence there is no hope they can be brought before the Patient be laid in his Grave The Medicine which he prescribes is no where to be found but in the Word of God The Simples whereof it is compounded can grow from no other root or branch then from The Articles of everlasting Life and everlasting death The Belief of the One is the root of Abstinence from sinful or unlawful Pleasures The Belief of the other is the root of Patience or sufferance of malum Poenae or of sufferance for well-doing Howbeit to speak exactly both parts of his Receipt may be had from the Belief either of Everlasting Life or Everlasting Death but most compleatly from the belief of both The manner how thence they may be gathered is expressed by our Apostle St. Paul Rom. 8. 16. c. The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God And if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ if we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together for I reckon that the suffrings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us c. 2. If all the sufferings of this life be not worthy of the glory which shall be revealed in us as the Rule of Faith teacheth us then conscience and reason it self bindes us to suffer all the Persecutions or Grievances which can be laid upon us rather then hazard our hopes or forfeit our Interests in the Glory that shall be revealed in all such as with patience suffer persecution or other temporal loss or detriment for the truths sake And this hope of Glory is as the Root whence Christian patience or sufferance must grow So is the fear of everlasting Death the root of our abstinence from evil or of repentance for former want of this abstinence This is the same Apostles Doctrine 2 Cor. 5. 10. For we must all appear before the Judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men To what doth he perswade men To do those things which are good and which being done shall be rewarded not in Judgement but in mercy and loving kindness Those things by which we shall be reconciled unto God But were not these Corinthians reconciled to God before our Apostle thus perswaded them Yes so saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 18. God hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ And when our Apostle and those to whom he wrote were reconciled unto God through Jesus Christ we that are now living were by the same means reconciled unto God For God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself Now if the world that is not this or that man not this or that generation of men but all generations the world of mankind were reconciled unto God when our Apostle wrote this Epistle yea when Christ offered himself upon the Crosse what need is there of any further reconciliation For that which God doth he doth most perfectly most compleatly 3. It is true Our reconciliation was most perfectly most compleatly wrought on Gods part by Christs death upon the Crosse he payed the full price of our Redemption of our reconciliation nothing may or can be added thereto Yet A Reconciliation there is to be wrought on our parts though wrought it cannot be but by the spirit of God and wrought it is not ordinarily but by the ministry of men as Gods Deputies or Embassadors So the Apostle adds ver 19. God hath committed to us to wit his Ministers the word of reconciliation Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though Christ did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God So then God hath reconciled us all unto himself from the hour of Christs death and yet every one of us for his own particular must be reconciled to God by the Ministry of his Embassadors And the efficacy of their Ministry is demonstrated by working true repentance in us The means again by which they work this true repentance must be by representing the Terrour of the Lord or as our Apostle saith Act. 17. 30. by putting them in mind of the last and dreadful day The times of this ignorance to wit of the old world before Christs death God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Thus
truth of Scriptures or cannot give a Reason of his Faith or one that neither thinks of Heaven or Hell and such Infidels there be almost in every Congregation But an Unbeliever a man may be although in the General he believe whatsoever the Scripture saith concerning the Resurrection of the Body or Life and Death everlasting unless withall he lay this his Belief to heart unless he have a true estimate as well of the reward proposed to good deeds as of the punishment proposed to evil doers It was a wise Saying of one that was not the wisest Doctor in his time Tractare res humanas norunt plurimi aestimare pauci Many there be that have skill enough in humane affairs that want no wit to atchieve the ends which they propose to themselves and yet but a few which know how to esteem or prize the ends at which they aym aright And of all our Errors and Defects there be but Two General Roots The first An overprizing of secular ends or contentments The second An undervaluing of matters Heavenly specially of Life and Death everlasting The true Reason why many who can discourse well of Heavenly matters and can give a reason of their belief sufficient to convince the Gainsayers of the truth which they believe are not so able to take or give the true Estimate of the things believed is much what the same with that which Philosophers assign Why yong men are no fit Auditors of moral Philosophy or why they prove not so good Proficients in this study as in other Arts and Sciences To learn the Mathematicks as Arithmetick or Geometry yong men or children are as apt as men of mature age And in natural Philosophy they finde no difficulty save onely want of Experience which is never attained unto in just and full measure without length of time or competent number of years Howbeit in the former Studies though all their life time were youth men might attain to the same measure of experience in the same course of time or number of years that they could if all their life were mature age But so it is not in moral Philosophy What is the reason The Philosopher tells us It is because yong men or men whose affections are unsetled can have no taste of moral Goodness or of the sweetness of true vertue And as his Master before him had observed Omnis vita gustu quodam ducitur We must have a Taste or Relish of good or evil or else we shall neither follow the one nor eschew the other with that constancy with that life and courage which is required to Vertue or Morality We may do many good things which a good Christian ought to do and yet not live a Christian life As Herod did Mark 6. 20. who feared and observed Saint John Baptist as a holy Just Man and heard him gladly and when he heard him did many things yet cut off his head 7. To lead a Christian life is more then to be a meer Moral Man although it always includes Morality in it And whatsoever is required to a moral life That and more is necessarily required to a Christian and Godly life And seeing the framing of a true Christian Life depends very much upon the true belief of this Article of Everlasting Life and Everlasting Death the most effectual Method which Gods Ambassadors can use to this end must be to exhibit a true taste or relish of the Goodness contained in the one and of the Evil comprized in the other And this is the Method which by Gods assistance I mean to follow First To set down directions whence or by what means we may take a Tast or Rellish without danger to our souls of Everlasting Death And Secondly How the like Tast or Rellish may be had of Everlasting Life or at the least how we may frame unto our selves a true though a short measure by which we may by diligent meditation take a better Estimate of Both then most men do I will begin with The means how to estimate everlasting Death because it is much easier to have some Tast or Rellish of it then of everlasting Life There is no evil which a man in this life doth suffer no pain or grief but may in some sort serve a diligent meditator to take a view or estimate of the horrors of the second death But alwayes the greater the evil is which we have suffered or have experience of the more fit measure it is for calculating the endless miseries of the Second Death And The very cogitation or remembrance of such particular evils as we have actually suffered or have experience of will be more effectual to withdraw us from those means or practises which procure them then the representation or contemplation of evils in their nature far greater but of which we have had no Tast or experience 8. A Memorable Experiment in this kind we have recorded by Justine and other good Writers of those Scythians which had waged war so long in Asia that their Wives growing weary of their absence did marry with their slaves or bond-men And their slaves being willing to defend the possessions which they had usurpt took arms against their Masters at their return But were quickly routed without stroke of Sword or dint of Lance or other usual weapon of war In stead of these their Masters charged them on horseback with whips in their hands with success according to their own fore-cast or expectation Of hurts or wounds made by Sword or Lance as they wisely did forecast their slaves had formerly had no experience they never had felt the smart or grief of either But their backs had been accustomed to the scourge or lash and the very sight of these weapons reviving the memory of their former smart more affrighted them on a suddain then any terror of war besides could have done To have tried their courage or fortunes either by push of Pike or dint of Sword they would have been more forward then wiser men Dulce bellum inexpertis Want of experience in this kind would have made them for the first brunt at least more insolent and fool-hardy whereas the very sight and noise of the whip whereof they had so often tasted did presently dant them and make them seek their security from it by confused flight The Historical Truth of this Relation and good success of their Stratagem is sealed unto us in the Publick Coin of that Country whose stamp to this day is a man on Horse-back with a whip in his hand 9. It would be a great comfort to us that are Gods Embassadors if we could but perswade men to be as afraid to wrong or deface the monuments of men deceased as the modern Turks are to offer the least indignity unto ordinary papers scattered in the streets or to be as careful in preserving the Goods of the Church as these Infidels are to preserve the least scrap of paper that would otherwise
death The sense or Tast or Overture of the second death doth make the least rellish of the second resurrection unto Life to seem more sweet and pleasant Now it is the rellish or secret intimation of Celestial joyes which must animate and incourage us to undertake all the dangers or discontents wherewith the way unto the heavenly Canaan the land of promise and of our rest is beset The most forcible Reasons which the Divinest Orator can use or the best words wherewith he can apparel his reasons or perswasions are but vain unless he can with them or by them instill this secret tast or rellish into mens souls All the descriptions which the Leaders of the Gaules could make of the pleasures or Commodities of Italy all the newes or reports which they could devise or cause to be made in their publique meetings as it were upon our Royal Exchange could not so much animate their followers to adventure upon the strait and difficult passages over the Alpes as did the tast of the Italian Grape And that which did especially aggravate the Israelites Dastardy for not undertaking that sacred warre whereunto God had called them against the Canaanites the Amorites and the Hittites c. was the sight of those Grapes which such as were sent to discover that good Land had brought from Eschol Their unusual greatness which all the host might have seen and their extraordinary rellish which many did or might have tasted was a pledge or assurance of the truth of Gods promises concerning the fertility or pleasantness of that Land For as we say Ex ungue Leonem The terrour of the Lion which we never saw may be taken from his paw Or as Pythagoras did take the just quantity of Hercules his body by the print of his foot so might the Israelites have taken the true estimate of the Land of Canaan from the unusual quality and extraordinary quantitie of that bunch of grapes which their mutinous spies or Intelligencers could not deny to be the native fruit of that soil But of the Israelites disobedience and dastardy and what both these and the slanderous reports which their spies or intelligencers did raise of that good Land mystically import we shall take occasion if God permit hereafter to handle 7. Such a pledge as these Israelites had of Gods promises concerning the Land of Canaan we may have and must have of the pleasures of the Celestial Canaan before we become valorous in our undertakings for it And if we once attain to a true Tast or rellish of its goodness the least portion of it will serve as a true measure to notifie the incomparable excess of those joyes in comparison of any earthly pleasures or annoyances the one or other of which and nothing besides them can occasion our diversion from the wayes which lead unto them The force or efficacie which experienced pleasures or contentments have upon mens souls or affections Mahomet and his successors too well foresaw and so by a known representation of a counterfeit heaven and by a reall and experienced tast of imaginary or feigned pleasures in the life to come did make their followers more zealous and confident in propagating their Empire and Religion then either Christian Preachers or Magistrates can make their Christian people The obedience of Turkish children to their parents of their greatest Nobles to their Soveraign of their souldiers to their Commanders of inferiour Commanders to their Superiors or Generals far exceeds any obedience which we Christians usually perform to our Superiours in what kind soever One Erroneous principle notwithstanding they have That all things are so decreed by God as nothing can fall out otherwise then it doth and from this prejudicate conceipt when opportunitie suggests fair hopes unto the son of obtaining his fathers Crown they account it no sin but a religious Act for the Son to depose the Father as presuming it is Gods Will thus to have it whensoever he offers opportunity But when there is no hope to gain a Crown by rebellion no intimation given by the signes of the time that God will prosper their attempts against their Superiors there is no subject in any Christian Kingdom that will accept the greatest dignity whereto his Soveraign Lord can advance him with such Loyal respect and submission as the sons or grand-children of their Emperours will imbrace the sentence of death though no way deserved only in obedience to his designes and pleasure There is no malefactor amongst us though openly convicted of capital crimes that will submit himself to the sentence of the Law with that cheerfulness of mind or unregreting affections as their inferiour Commanders or common souldiers will surrender their lives into their Superiors hands be the service whereunto they appoint them never so dreadful or desperate 8. Now the great motives by which Turkish Priests or their Magistrates work this absolute submission and compleat obedience in inferiors is either fear of Hell or torments after this life in case they shall disobey or hopes of Heaven if they continue loyal and obedient and yet the hell which they fear is no way so terrible as that Hell with whose torments we dayly threaten the disobedient Their hopes of heaven are nothing so glorious as those hopes which God promiseth and we professe we believe them to be the reward of our obedience to our God to our Prince and to his just Lawes whether Ecclesiastick or Civil Whence then doth this great difference or odds arise between their obedience and ours From no other root then this They propose unto their followers such an heaven such contentments after this life as they may have a true tast or rellish of in this life by whose multiplication the incomparable excesse of future contentments in respect of present may by ordinary capacities be easily taken There is no delight or pleasure which men in this world can take in the dayes of plenty security and peace no pleasures of the outward senses of touch or tast which they do not hope to enjoy in far greater measure in heaven without annoyance interruption or disturbance then their Emperour or Grand-Segnior in this life can do The meanest amongst them perswades himself he shal have more consorts or concubines then their Luxurious Emperors have all more beautiful then any earthly creatures can be There is no delight again in War or feats of arms which their Common souldiers hope not to enjoy without danger or defatigation of their bodies in far greater measure then the greatest Commanders or Generals of their Armies do And being thus possessed with this Two fold perswasion First That Obedience to Superiors doth merit heaven Secondly That the joyes of heaven are for nature and quality the same with such earthly pleasures and contentments which they have tasted but infinitly exceed them for quantity and duration To perswade them to lay down this life in hope of attaining the life to come by obedience to their
or pledges of our heavenly Fathers providence and loving care over us Hence saith our Apostle Heb. 12. 7. If you endure chastisement God dealeth with you as with sons for what son is he whom the Father chastiseth not Surely no gracious or beloved son so the same Apostle had said ver 6. Whom the Lord loveth he chastneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Sons then he hath whom he doth not receive because they will not endure chastisement or receive correction from him with submission and patience These he gives over as degenerate and lost sons And there is not a more fearful signe of Gods displeasure toward men then his long-suffering of them without chastisement If ye be without chastisement saith the Apostle Heb. 12. 8. whereof all are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons But if all be partakers of it how can any be without it Yes they are without chastisement which will not patiently suffer it which will not embrace it as a pledge of their heavenly Fathers love and these are bastards What is that A bastard is a son but in the language of men unlawfully begotten Hath God any such sons or children God forbid All are his sons all are his children by right of Creation and by right of Redemption and both these are lawful titles of Father-hood and dominion over us Bastards then they are who refuse chastisement in this sense only that they are stubborn and disobedient or misaffected towards the Father of mankind They imagine him not to be so kind and loving to all his sons not to themselves in particular as earthly parents are to their lawfully begotten children This is that imputation which our Apostle seeks to avert from God or rather that suspition which he seeks to remove from all who call him their Father and that by an Argument as the Schools speak a Fortiore ver 9 10. Furthermore we have had Fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live For they verily for a few dayes chastened us as seemed good unto them sometime perhaps without actual intendment or express fore-sight of any good unto us but he to wit our heavenly Father chastiseth us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness 12. The End of his chastisement is alwayes This That we may serve him in Righteousness and have our fruit unto Holiness whose End is everlasting Life And One chief part of our Righteousness consists in the patient submission of our selves unto his chastisements The first part of Righteousness in respect of what Law soever is not to transgress the Law The second is to submit our selves unto the penalty which the Law inflicts in case we transgress it To plead the former part of this Righteousness in respect of Gods Law we cannot To perform the second part of it we are bound upon pain of losing our right of sons The penalty of disobedience to it or refusal of chastisements in this life is The woful estate of bastards or of Sons disinherited The sum of that which hath been said concerning our meditation of the second death especially as this Meditation is A Preparative to the works of Righteousness or of Holiness is excellently comprized by our Apostle Heb. 12. 11. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous neverthelesse afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse unto them which are exercised thereby The burnt child as we say dreads the fire and he is more then a child a very Infant or witless child which will not avoid the scorching flames of it by the experience which he hath of its heat Now there is no chastisement no correction that is grievous for the present but ought to be as a Gentle Remembrancer unto us of hell pains or such a fair Caveat for avoiding them as the experienced heat of visible and known fire unto him that stands neer it is of the harms which it would procure if he should be cast into it And if we would make this or the like use of all the crosses and afflictions of all the bodily pains and grievances of all the perplexities of mind or conscience which in this life we suffer we should be more careful then we are to avoid the temptations by which Satan seeks to draw us into that everlasting fire which is prepared for him and his angels This abstinence from evil is the First branch of our patience in affliction The second is the fruit of righteousness But I suppose the Reader will desire a further Tast First Of the peace of Conscience Secondly Of that joy in the holy Ghost wherein the Kingdom of heaven consists And the Explication of these Two great Points follows in the next Chapter In the Interim the best Use which can be made of the Doctrine hitherto delivered is made unto our hands by our Apostle himself Heb. 12. 12 13 14. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitternesse springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled Lest there be any Fornicator or prophane person as Esau who for one morsell of meat sold his birthright For ye know that after when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears CHAP. XXV ROMANS 6. 22. But now ye have your fruits unto Holinesse and the end everlasting Life c. The Coldness of our Hope of Life Eternal causeth deviation from the wayes of Righteousness and is caused by our No-Tast or spiritual disrelish of that Life The work of the Ministery is to plant this Tast and to preserve it in Gods people Two Objects of this Tast 1. Peace of Conscience 2. Joy in the Holy Ghost That Peace may best be shadowed out unto us in the known sweetness of Temporal Peace The Passions of the natural man are in a continual mutinie To men that yet have no experience of it The nature of Joy in the Holy Ghost may be best exemplified by that chearful gladnesse of Heart which is the fruit of Civil Peace It is the Prerogative of man to Enjoy himself and to possesse his own soul In the knowledge of any Truth there is Joy But True Joy is only in the Knowledge of Jesus Christ and of saving Truthes The Difference betwixt Joy and Gladnesse in English Greek and Latin 1. THe very Hope of Life Eternal would be of it self sufficient to counterpoize all the pleasures and all the grievances incident to this mortal life by the one or other of which our
the Port Towns in this Kingdom were noysom neighbors to one another by sea one Shire or Province ready to make inroads or invasion upon another or every mans hand in the same Town or Shire to be lift up against his neighbor or that a mans worst enemies were of his own house So many Servants Inmates or Sojourners so many Theeves the children ready to rob and spoil their parents without hope of redress by ordinary process of wholsome Laws Might still overcoming Right Besides all this imagine a forraign potent Enemie lying still in wait to take all advantages which these civil broils or intestine dissensions afford for subduing the whole State or Nation for bringing the Nobles into Captivity for putting such as made resistance unto the sword to put their children to death before their parents eyes and to abuse the bodies of the wives and daughters of such as put themselves upon their courtesie If unto a State or Kingdom in this distress or perplexitie through civil dissension and domestick broils any hope of Peace and unitie amongst themselves could be truly suggested how beautiful would the feet of such as brought these glad tydings be And if these hopes were seconded with answerable success I leave it to your mature consideration what publick joy and exultation would ensue Every man would be ready to bear his part in that song Nulla salus bello pacem te poscimus omnes Of Civil dissension there can no good come the very mention of warre would be as the rubbing of an unhealed wound or bleeding Scar Dulce nomen pacis the very name of Peace would ensweeten our thoughts season our cogitations and add strength and courage to our mutual endeavors for the establishment of it 5. Now though civil and intestine broyls are much worse then open war with a forraign Enemy yet the most perfect patern of misery which we can frame unto our selves as effects of civil dissensions within any City or Kingdom is but a Model or picture of that intestine war which every man if we take him in the state of nature or before he be reconciled to God through Christ may find within himself within his own soul and affections For Every Man is a little World or Common-wealth and the less the state or soveraignty is wherein civil dissension is bred and nourished the more grievous it is It is more dangerous when fire doth kindle in the same street or neighbor houses then when it it kindles afar off though in the same Town but when the house wherein we dwell is set on fire the danger is greatest But most bitter and grievous is that dissension or distraction which is bred and nourished in the same brest as either between the affections and passions which lodge in the sensitive part or between them and the reasonable soul or conscience or the perpetual conflict between the flesh and the spirit Now The affections and passions of every dissolute ill nurtured man as the Heathen Philosopher had observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are in continual mutiny amongst themselves Immoderate desire or hope of gain sways the one way and the like desire of other carnal contentments which cannot be procured without cost or charge sways the contrary way The love of rest and ease inclines the soul one way and desire of credit and fame another hopes or opportunities of satisfying lust are still encountred with fear of shame Ambition hales the soul upwards and fear of loss or danger draws it downwards So that the soul of a man not yet reconciled to God is still as it were upon the Rack One while it takes pleasure in the good things which it self injoyes and the more it takes delight in these the more it is tortured with envy against others which injoy the same or like good things in a greater measure Or if it were possible for a natural man to compose or hush these mutinies between his several affections or to draw all his passions or desires unto one head or bent yet this Peace of the affections and passions among themselves uless the Conscience were included in it which it never can be in the natural man is but A Dishonorable Peace and that is much worse then an honorable warre Better it were that a mans desires or passions should band each against other then that all of them should with joynt force band against the spirit or Conscience This would be but as a conspiracie of common Souldiers against their Leaders or as a league or confederacie of Slaves against their Lords or of Subjects against their Soveraign and their Magistrates Or such a peace as the Roman Orator did disswade the Romans from Pax cum Antonio non est pax sed pactio servitutis To make peace with Mark Anthonie a turbulent and seditious Peer was but to condition for their Slavery 6. Whether then our affections our desires or passions be at enmity one with another or whether being at peace one with another they be not in subjection unto reason or conscience as they never are in a man not reconciled to God or in a man which follows not the wayes of righteousness Every branch of the one or other enmity within a mans self doth as it were make a Breach for the common enemy to enter at who wants no skill no industry no vigilancy to work upon all opportunities or advantages for bringing both body and soul both the reasonable and the affective part both the flesh and the spirit into everlasting slavery No foraign Enemy not the Turk or Mahumetan can harbor such cruel intentions against any Christian State or Kingdom no not in his passions or furious mood as this adversary Satan doth against us all Christians Jews or Turks even when he complies with us or seems to be at peace and promiseth the best contentments which he is permitted to bestow upon his followers It was his Catechism unto Judas to cover his murtherous intentions with a fawning kiss The Master knew this lesson much better then the Scholar did and can practise it with more Art and Skill upon Christs Scholars then his Scholar Judas did upon our Lord and Master Of this civil dissention or intestine war between the several affections of our souls or between them and our spirits and consciences and of the danger which by this dissention unless it be timely appeased may certainly accrew unto the whole nature from the common adversary Every man may have a sensible experiment in himself so he would in vacant and sequestred hours unpartially take the information of his own spirit and Conscience and the reflection or ruminating upon the inconveniences of these civil dissentions or intestine wars within our own souls will kindle in us a desire of spiritual Peace and a resolution to follow the wayes which lead unto it And these are the Works of Righteousnesse Such as are not yet at Peace with God many whose affections are not at Peace
one with another nor with their own Consciences which should command in chief may be safe or free from any present evil from any wound as yet given by this adversary But no man living can be secure from future danger or misery until he be thus far at least entred into the Kingdom of God as that he hath some impression or rellish of that Peace His soul and spirit must be brought in subjection to the Spirit of God so must his affections or desires be subject to his reasonable soul or spirit before he can know this Peace by experience or taste the fruit of it which is Ioy in the Holy Ghost 7. But Wherein doth this Ioy in the Holy Ghost consist Seeing it is the issue or fruit of Spiritual Peace The nature of it cannot be better exemplified specially to such as know it not by experience then by that known joy of heart or gladness which is the fruit of civil or temporal Peace And the fruits of this Peace are pithily described by the Prophet When every man may sit under his own Vine and under his own Fig-tree that is to give you the importance of this Proverbial speech in plain English When every man may reap the fruits of his own labors or imployments or of the labors imployments or increase of other Creatures which God hath put in subjection to him when he may so reap them without molestation without danger of annoyance It is not the Possession of Lands of Wares or other good things whatsoever we are lawfully entitled unto but the quiet Fruition or enjoying of them which fills our hearts with gladness To have a full Flock and to be deprived of the milk and of the increase of it to have a goodly Vineyard and to be debarred from gathering the grapes of it is matter of sorrow and grief A principal calamity of War But to enjoy these and the like commodities without danger or molestation is a special Comfort of temporal or civil Peace And in as much as no man can truly injoy those good things which he possesseth or hath right unto but in time of civil Peace Hence it is that under the name of this Peace all good things Temporal are contained for without Peace we cannot enjoy them And this is the Prerogative of man above all visible Creatures that the fruit which other such Creatures do bring forth they do not bring it forth unto themselves but unto man and for his use either mediately or immediately The Fields yearly bring forth grass or other wilde herbs for the food of other living Creatures but even those Creatures with their fruits or increase serve for the use of man Quicquid acquirunt acquirunt Domino The Sheep being nourished by the grass of the Field yields his yearly fleece not so much for his own use as for the use of Man The Bees in Summer gather honey but Man is principal partaker of the sweetness of it These and other like sensitive Creatures how much soever they multiply and increase are never their own but their owners that is some one or other Mans yet not their Owners unless it be in time of Civil Peace Contention whether it be by open Hostility of War or by course of Law always deprives men of the fruition or enjoyment of those good things which are their own though not always of the possession of them By Peace onely we enjoy those things which are our own by right of Title and Possession so that Civil or temporal Peace is the onely noursing Mother of civil or temporal joy or gladness 8. But albeit every one the meanest amongst us could not only quietly possesse but peaceably enjoy this whole visible world such as it is or another as great as this is and all the good things contained in them yet as our Saviour tels us Our life doth not consist in these And what gain or profit could there be in possessing the whole world in enjoying all the good things contained in it if we should lose the enjoyment or possession of our own souls To possesse and enjoy the fruit of all other creatures labours is the Prerogative of man the only remainder of that Dominion which the Lord gave him over all other creatures in his first creation But to enjoy himself is mans peculiar and is the effect of his reconciliation to his God and the well spring of true Joy Other creatures may by mans permission reap the fruits of their own labours as the Bee in winter may eat the honey which it makes in the Summer though perhaps not so sweet unto it self as it is unto man for whose use and service he unwittingly makes it But no visible creature besides man can possibly enjoy it self or its own soul and faculties Sense and feeling many other creatures besides man have Sed non sentiunt se sentire The fowls of the Air the fishes of the Sea the Beasts of the field and the Bee which best resembles man as he is A sociable creature do respectively at least hear and see feel and tast but yet have no true sense or estimate of their own senses as wherein they exceed Grasse Trees or vegetables or wherein they come short of man So that man only is capable of enjoying himself and his own soul and faculties and yet not qualified for injoying himself and his own faculties until the former Peace the peace of conscience be in some measure wrought in his heart His sensitive affections desires and passions must be first subjected to Reason and Conscience his reason his conscience and spirit must be subjected unto the spirit of God before he can possesse his soul in patience and he must possesse his soul with patience before he can Tast of that joy which is in the Holy Ghost before he can bring forth the fruit of holinesse whose End is everlasting Life The Tast of this fruit or Joy is the only pledge or assurance of that endless Joy which is prepared for such as love God in heaven 9. The Vine bringeth forth much pleasant fruit So do the trees of the Garden but they enjoy it not when it is ripe it falleth from them or their owners reap it But this Joy which amounts from the quiet or peaceable possession of our own souls it growes within us it ripeneth within us it multiplieth and it sweetneth within us no man can and God will not take this joy from us How fruitful soever we may be yet we are but unprofitable servants less profitable to our Lord and Owner then the Trees of the Garden or Forrest are to us yet how unprofitable soever we are to him he continues most gracious unto us and permits us to reap and enjoy the fruits of all these good things which he himself alone doth sow and plant doth water and cherish and give encrease unto within our hearts and souls Were it possible for the husbandman or Vine-dresser so to infuse the life
of sense into the Vine as it might continually tast the sweetness of that fruit which it beareth and wherewith as the Scripture saith it cheereth the heart of man How full would it be of gladnesse both root and branch would be as full of mirth and gladness as they are of life and sap How much more graciously doth God deal with those that hearken to his Word and obey the motions of his Spirit We being by nature more dead unto the Fruit of holinesse and more destitute of spiritual Life then the Vine or Fig-tree is of the Life sensitive he infuseth a new sense or Tast into our souls and makes them more fruitful then the Fig-tree which is never without fruit either ripe or green and makes us withall sensible partakers of the sweetness of all the Fruit which his Spirit bringeth forth in us and from the Tast of this Fruit of Holinesse ariseth that Joy and Gladnesse of spirit which is the pledge and earnest of Eternal Life 10. But have we this Joy whilst we sojourn here on earth in our selves or in our own souls or in Christ only So we be fraught with the Fruit of Holinesse we have this Ioy as truly in our selves as we have the Fruit Though we have neither of our selves or from our selves We have Both in our selves in such a manner as the Vine branch hath both Life and sap in it self though both originally from the Root So long as the Vine branch continues in the Vine it is really partaker of the Life and sweetness of the Root The similitude is our Saviours John 15. 1. c. I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman Every branch that beareth not fruit in me he taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you for it is The Word which purgeth us and maketh us apt to bear fruit in our selves so long as we are in Christ For so he addeth ver 4. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit in it self except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me For I am the vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit ver 5. And where there is Much Fruit there is Plenty of Joy For contrary to the custome of other husbandmen or Vine dressers the sweetness of the Fruit redounds not to the Vine-dresser but to the branches that bear it The fruit is wholly Ours The glory is only Gods For so he adds ver 8. Herein is my Father glorified he doth not say profited that ye bear much fruit The more we bear the more we are benefited the more God is glorified by us for no man can truly glorifie God until his heart and spirit be cheered with that joy which is the fruit of peace and holiness God as the Apostle tels us did never leave himself without a witnesse All the good things which the Gentiles received even whilst they walked in their own wayes were so many witnesses of his Goodness though they perceived not it was he that did them good that gave them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling their hearts with food and gladnesse Acts 14. 16 17. He doth not say with Food and Ioy for Joy properly taken hath its seat in the mind and spirit of man nor is it there placed without the spirit of God whereas the gladnesse whereof the Apostle there speakes may harbour in the inferior or affective part This difference which we now observe between joy and gladnesse in our English The Greek writers curiously observe between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so do the Latines between Laetitia and Gaudium Every blessing of God though but a blessing temporal is matter of gladnesse even to such as know not or acknowledge not God to be the Author of such blessings but True Ioy alwayes presupposeth the knowledge of God in Christ and some acquaintance with the spirit 11. As it is said in this 22. verse that the End or issue of the fruits of Holinesse is Eternal life so our Savour tels us Iohn 17. 3. that the same Eternal Life is the effect or issue of the Knowledge of God and of Iesus Christ whom he hath sent These two then do reciprocate without the knowledge of God and of Christ there is no peace of Conscience no fruit of Holinesse no Joy in the Holy Ghost and yet the greater measure of such fruit we have the more we shall abound in the knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ in the knowledge of whom this Ioy in the Holy Ghost which can be had in this world and Life Eternal in the world to come doth consist So that the only way to attain unto this Ioy wherein the Kingdom of God doth consist is to be rightly instructed in the knowledge of God whose the Kingdom and glory is and of Jesus Christ who is Our King even the King of glory There is a kind of secret Joy in the knowledge or contemplation of every truth or true principle though of secular and humane Arts. And no marvel for as God is Righteousness and Holinesse it self So He is Truth it self The truth of all sciences is as truly derived from that Truth which He is as that Righteousnesse and Holiness whereof his Saints are made partakers is from his Holiness and Righteousness Now that Ioy which some heathen Philosophers or Artists did reap from contemplation of some Truths and Principles in themselves but dry and barren did oft-times more then counterpoize that inbred delight or pleasure in other secular vanities which usually missway us Christians to folly and lewdnesse yea this Joy did sometimes bring their souls into a kind of Rapture or forgetfulness of life natural or sensitive with their contentments Many of them in hope to find out the Causes of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea of the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon of other appearances in the heavens and the like have been more abstemious and moderate in their dyet and spent more time and hours in observing the motion of the Stars and in perusing Every leaf of the Book of Nature or of Gods visible creatures then we bestow in fasting and praying or in meditation upon The great Mystery of godliness God manifested in the Flesh and if they hapned to satisfie themselves in these points of truth which they most sought after the Expressions of their Joy and sometimes of their thankfulness to their Gods were oft-times more hearty and cheerful then most of us can give any just proof of for all the benefits which God hath bestowed upon us by his Gospel So * one of them having found out that Mathematical Principle concerning the equalitie between the Square of the base and of the sides
of a Rect-Angled Triangle did offer up presently a Magnificent sacrifice to the Gods or divine powers from whom he conceived this revelation came unto him Another having after long search discovered how much pure Gold the Gold-smith had taken out of the King of Scicilies Crown and made up the weight of it with silver cunningly mixed was so over wrought with joy that he ran instantly out of the Bath naked as he was forgetting his clothes crying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found it I have found it out 12. And such as at their vacant times are able but to try the conclusions which these men have found out or to contemplate the truth and use of those unfailing principles in the Mathematicks or in Naturall Philosophy which they have discovered may hence reap more pure delight and sincere joy then the enjoyment of all things temporal without such contemplation can afford Yet the most admirable principles or surest conclusions of humane Sciences are not so good at best no better then meer shadows of those solid Truthes which are contained in the Mystery of godliness Even the Law it self which God gave unto his people by Moses is but a picture of that intire truth which is contained in the knowledge of God and of his Christ Hence saith our Evangelist John 1. 17. The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ What shall we say then was there no truth in the Law which was given by Moses God forbid It was a Law most true Yet the truth of it was but a Picture of that live substance of Truth which is contained in the Gospel or rather in the knowledge of Christ If we did only desire that Ioy or delight which naturally ariseth from the contemplation of the agreement between the principles and conclusions in the same Art or Science The whole world besides though we had the perfect knowledge of it could not yeeld that plenty of pleasant speculations which the Harmonie or consent between the Types or Figures of the old Testament and the live substances answering unto them in the New or which the known accomplishments of the Prophetical predictions exhibit in Christ to all that will seriously meditate on them What madness is it then to be in love or to dote either on shadowes in the book of nature or in the pictures of the Law and to neglect the live Feature of that substantial truth which presents it self unto our view in the Gospel of Christ The most exact knowledge that can be had in the book of nature or in humane Sciences doth alwayes end in contemplation it is but like musick which vanisheth with the motion it leaves no permanent mirth behind it Whereas the contemplation of the mystery of godliness so it be frequent and serious doth alwayes imprint and instill the sweet influence of life and joy into our souls The knowledge of humane Sciences as it may be comprehended by the wit of man So it is terminated with this life But the knowledge of Christ or rather Christ himself who is the subject of divine knowledge is an inexhaustible fountain of truth whose Current still even in this life increaseth as our capacities to receive it increase and so shall increase in the world to come without stint or restraint For the fruit or issue of it as you heard before is everlasting life and that is a life which hath a beginning here on earth but shall have no end in heaven An Advertisement to the Reader THough it was told the Reader before Book 10. Fol. 3068. That it was the Practise of this Great Author First To deliver in Sermons that matter which he intended afterwards to weave or form into the Body of his printed Discourses Yet the Tenor of the last precedent and the next following chapter seems to require that the Reader be re-minded of The Same here again And withall it be signified That The Epocha or Commencement of These Tracts must be pitched thirtie or more years Retro as may be Collected out of a Passage in the twenty fifth Chapter And lastly that the Place where these Tracts when they were Meer Sermons were preached was The Famous Town of Newcastle upon Tine where our Author was A most Exemplarie Careful and Pious Vicar but how prosperous or successful God only knows for divers years together CHAP. XXVI ROMANS 6. 22. But now ye have your fruits unto holinesse and the end everlasting Life c. Whether the Tast of Eternal Life once had may be lost Concerning Sin against the Holy Ghost How temporal Contentments and the pleasures of sin coming in competition prevail so as to extinguish and utterly dead The Heavenly Tast both by way of Efficiencie and Demerit The Advantages discovered by which a Lesser Good gets the Better of a Greater 1. THe Fruits of Holinesse as hath been said are Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost and in the Fruition of this Peace and Joy consists that Tast of Eternal Life which in this world can be had And this Tast must be perfected and established by the Knowledge of Christ and him crucified Which Knowledge hath been the Main Subject both of my private Meditations and of my labors published in the seventh book of Commentaries upon the Creed We are now to inquire how this Tast of Eternal Life must be preserved The Rule is most true in the General That it must be preserved and perfected by the same means by which it was first planted and that is by the Knowledge of Christ So that it is but One Question how the knowledge of Christ may be perfected in us and how this Tast of eternal life may be preserved The next Particular subordinate unto this General is by what means such as either have or might have had the Tast of Eternal Life come to be deprived of it A great Question not impertinent to this inquiry hath been of late Whether Faith or Grace being once had may be lost or whether lost only for a time or for ever But as I have often told you there is more Contention about this Point amongst modern Writers then Contradiction between their Opinions if they would calmly and distinctly express their meaning That from some Degree of Faith or from some kind of Grace a man may fall no man denies That no man can fall from the Grace of Election or Predestination I do not question And further then This it is not safe for any to be peremptory in any Positive Assertion nor fit to dispute without or beyond these Lists As for such as take upon them to dispute this or the like Question in these Terms Whether a man may fall from saving Grace they bring it in the end to an issue untriable in this life at least on their parts For admit it for a truth which some do question that a man may be certain Certitudine Fidei by the
tast of it he shall be saved without addition of any other Grace besides that which it is supposed he hath Is it then apparent that a man may fall from that Grace or lose the Tast of that Grace in which if he did continue or not lose the Tast of it he should be saved Yes This is as clear as the day light For whosoever doth continue in the Participation of the Holy Ghost or doth not lose the Tast of the heavenly Gift or of the Powers of the World to come shall never perish shall be saved Impossible it is that any man should enter into the estate of death or of reprobation so long as he hath the Tast of the life to come implanted in his heart and spirit and this is for nature and quality saving Grace But some that have tasted of this Grace do utterly lose the tast of it and so fall from Grace in it self sufficient to save their souls For though all that lose this tast do not sin against the Holy Ghost yet no man can sin against the Holy Ghost until he lose this tast and yet no man can lose this tast but he that hath had it The Conclusion then is most pregnant that it is more possible or a shorter passage for a man to fall from seving Grace or to lose the tast of it then to sin against the Holy Ghost The most useful meditations then will be to discover the Means whereby such as once have had the tast of the heavenly Grace do come to lose it with their several degrees and these are divers 5. First It is to be supposed that God doth by his Spirit infuse this tast into mens souls not continually or uncessantly But as we say by Fits or Turns This tast of the powers of the Life to come is sometimes Transient we cannot have it when we list but must expect Gods providence and attend his pleasure for the renewing of it and crave the assistance of his Spirit for producing it by humble supplication and prayer Want of the due esteem of it whilst we have it negligence in the duty of prayer and other Godly exercises doth deprive us of it when we might have had it renewed in us God doth not promise that any shall injoy this pearl besides such as diligently seek after it And when they have found it or rather when it hath found them do duly prize it And as this Tast of eternal life is often for a time lost or much prejudiced by meer negligence in sacred duties so it may be choaked and stifled by errors or misperswasions which insinuate themselves into mens thoughts or phantasies after they have been partakers of it Many there be which will unfeignedly acknowledge that the pledge or Earnest of Eternal Life which they have received is of more worth and value then all the pleasures or contentments of this world which can oppose or countersway the desires of it And yet the same men through the sleights and subtilty of Satan play but the Sophisters with their own souls Thus Assuming or Resolving That albeit the tast of the heavenly Gift be more to be desired then all the temporal contentments which are incompatible with it yet the Tast of these heavenly joyes and the contentments of this life which may be enjoyed with it are better then it alone for One good how little soever being added to another how great soever makes some addition of goodness Thus many covetous men and oppressors will easily be perswaded that they may increase their temporal estate without any forfeiture of their estate in Gods spiritual blessings The ambitious or aspiring mind thinks he may glorifie God more by his high place or dignitie in Church or Common-wealth then by continuing a private and retired life As for the drunkard the glutton and the lascivious man they seldom are perswaded that they may continue their wonted courses and enjoy the Tast of the heavenly Gift And for this reason many that have been subject to these sins have been more easily won to the love of truth and of saving grace then the Proud the Covetous the Ambitious or Envious men are because the one in his sober thoughts fore-sees the danger and acknowledgeth his sins whereas the other rejoyceth continually in his courses without suspition of danger 6. Or if the covetous or ambitious mind sometimes suspects his wayes yet being ingaged to pursue them lest he might be thought to have varied in his course of life the best repentance which he usually attains unto is but like his in the Poet Id primum si facta mihi revocare liceret Non coepisse fuit caepta expugnare Secundum est If I were to begin the world again I should happily make choice of another kind of life but being ingaged the next point is to make the best of that course of life which I have chosen And yet the more he makes of it the worse he speeds in it in the main chance the more he prejudiceth the Habitual or Actual Tast of Eternal life for the more we are accustomed to any course of life the more we delight in it and are weaned from it with greater difficultie And yet we must be weaned even from the world it self before we can rightly Tast the sincere milk of the Gospel or be capable of that strong meat which is contained in this Article of Eternal Life and others concerning Christ by which The Tast of this Life must be fed and nourished So that of all sins pride covetousness and Ambition are the most dangerous both because they be of more credit or less infamie in the world and because they multiply their Acts the most and may work uncessantly But though it be for the most part as true of these times wherein we live as it was in the days of our Saviours conversation here on earth that Publicans and open sinners are oftentimes neerer to the Kingdom of heaven then many which live a more sober or civil life but yet are covetous vain-glorious or envious as the Scribes and Pharisees were yet there is no man that sets his heart to Tast of any unlawful pleasures though of those pleasures which in his sober thoughts he condemnes but doth hereby weaken or dead his Tast of the food of Life and make himself subject to former temptations whensoever they shall assault him However in the absence of temptations they may seem unto themselves and unto others to repent yet when fresh ones arise they usually come to the same vent at which the affections of that incestuous wanton in the Poet broke out when she said Denique non possum innoxia dici Quod superest multum est in vota in crimina parvum I am an offender already and if I shall go on but a little this may give greater satisfaction unto my desires then it can adde unto the measure of my sin But voluntarily to give satisfaction to
Will as his love and zealous Observance of those commandments in whose practise he finds less difficultie increaseth his proneness to transgress the other from whose observance he is by nature or custom more averse will still decrease his Positive diligence or care to practise those duties which are not so contrary to his natural inclinations will alwayes in some proportion or other raise or quicken his weak desires or inclinations to observe those duties which he hath formerly more often and more grievously neglected or opposed 9. But some happily will here demand why our Saviour in this place of St. Matth. 25. 34. c. seeing all Good works are necessarie unto Salvation should instance only in works of one kind that is in works of Charitie towards others and not in works of Pietie and sanctitie as in fasting and praying It is an Excellent observation and so much the more to be esteemed by us in that it was made by Jansenius a learned Bishop not of Reformed but of the Romish Church that However fasting and other exercises of mortification be duties necessary in their time and place yet God is better pleased with us for relieving and comforting others in their affliction be it affliction of body or of soul then for afflicting our own souls and bodies And as for fasting One good Use of it is To learn by our voluntarie want of food truly to pitie and comfort others which want it against their wills we then truly fast or our fast is then truly religious when we fast not for thrift or sparing or for the health of body but that what we spare from our selves we may bestow not sparingly but cheerfully upon our needy brethren So the Prophet instructs us Esai 58. 5 6 7. Is it such a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul is it to bow down his head as a bul-rush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him wilt thou call this a fast an acceptable day to the Lord Is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Again Fasting is useful or expedient only at some certain times and seasons These duties here mentioned Mat. 25. 34. c. are at all times necessarie they are never out of season they are upon the respects last mentioned most seasonable when we Fast and yet in some sort more seasonable when we Feast For feasting of our selves or of the Rich being unmindful of the poor and needy is to bring a curse upon our selves and upon our plentie As we see it set forth in the parable of Lazarus and Dives See Pro. 22. 16. Luke 14. 13. St. Austine observes that the duty of praying continually is not literally meant of praying alwayes with our lips nor of multiplying set hours of Devotion but Omne opus bonum Every good work is a Real Prayer specially if we consecrate our selves to it by prayer The continuance of Good works begun and undertaken by prayer is a continuation of our prayers So that by Praying often and doing Good to others continually we may be said to observe or fulfill that precept Pray continually 10. As we cannot more truly imitate or express our Savior's disposition in more solid Characters then by the practise of these duties for he went about doing good healing all that were oppressed so are there no Duties which are so easie for all to imitate him in as these are None can plead exemption for want of means or opportunity to practise them For though some be so needy themselves that they cannot clothe the naked or feed the hungry yet may they visit the sick or resort to such as are in Prison As every one in some kinde or other may be the object of his neighbors charity so may every one be either Instrument or Agent in the doing thereof The rich may stand in need of visitation or of their Neighbors Prayers either for continuance or restauration of health and they cannot want other on whom to exercise their charity For as our Saviour saith Pauperes semper habebitis vobiscum You shall always have the poor amongst you And who knows whether the Lord in mercy hath not suffered the poor in these places to abound that the rich or men of competent means might have continual and daily occasion to practise these Duties here continually injoyned We of this place cannot want soil to sow unto the Lord For as the former Parable imports we shall not want occasion to put out the Talent wherewith God hath blest us to advantage So Solomon saith He that hath pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord and look what he layeth out it shall be payed him again Pro. 19. 17. What greater Incouragement can any man either give or require to the performance of this service then that which Our Lord and Master hath given to all which either truly love him or esteem of his love What can the Eloquence of man adde to this Invitation in this place What better Assurance could any man require then the solemn promise of so powerful and gracious a Lord Or what greater Reward or Blessing could any man expect to have assured unto him then that which our Savior here assures us Whatsoever we do to the poor and distressed he will interpret it as done to himself and really so reward it And with Reference to this Last Day of Final Retribution did the Psalmist say Psal 41. Blessed is the man that provideth for the sick and needy the Lord shall deliver him in time of trouble Sickness Death and Judgement are Critical days of Trouble But I know it will be Objected that The greatest part of the poor which dwell and sojourn amongst us are not such Little Ones as our Savior here speaks of that is not his Brethren Men or Children they be which for the most part draw near unto him with their lips when they hope to receive an Alms through his Name but are far from him in their hearts more ready at most times and upon no occasion to abuse his Name with fearful Oathes then to call upon it in Prayer in Reverence and Humility Would God the matter Objected were not too true However The truth of it doth not so much excuse the Contraction as it doth exact the Extension of your bowels of compassion towards them 11. Seeing for them also Christ shed his blood their ignorance of Christ and his goodness should move us all to a deeper touch of Pity and Compassion towards them then sight of their bodily distress of their want or calamity can affect us with And this
died for All albeit the Pardon General be proclaimed to all The best Cause or Reason I could render would be This Because All that profess they believe in Christ do not truly believe in Him For if they did They would be careful to maintain Good Works and glorifie God by being Fruitful in them The End of the Fifth Section The sixth SECTION A Transition of the Publishers WE have by Gods Good Blessing dispatched The main of this Book the Five first Sections so many Commentaries or Expositions of such Points or Articles of Christian Faith as are most proper by way of Dread and Terror to awake the Conscience and stirre the Affections To perswade men to reflect seriously upon all their Actions or Omissions Failings or Atchievements and to prepare themselves for that Account which must shortly be Rendred To God the Judge of All who will respect no Persons nor endure Pretences If these have their kindly perfect work They will Produce Judging our selves to prevent the Judgement of the Lord Repentance and Restitution of all things Circumspect walking for the Future and passing the Remnant of our Pilgrimage here in Fear To inrich the volume and to benefit the Reader I have thought good to annex this sixth Section which is A Collection of such Sermons of this Authors as I conceive likely to prove most effectual to the ends above mentioned and be most proper not only for this Place in the Body of His works but for these Times also which may perhaps be startled to see their present sins so flagrantly reproved many years ago by one who knew not any of their persons that commit them Our great Author had in his Eighth Book and third Chapter sadly complained of some that made this Great Rule of Charitie Equitie and Justice Do as you would be done unto This Law of nature and Precept of our Law-giver A nose of wax A verie Lesbian Leaden Rule He had more sadly complained in his Tenth Book Chapter 23. That not only the Practise of this Transcendent Rule was extinct amongst men But that the very Sense of it was if not utterly lost among the Learned Casuists or Expositors yet most shamefully decocted and Piteously shrunk up for want of improving and deducing it into several pipes and Branches of Good Life Lastly in the 29 Chapter of this Book amongst other useful things concerning this Rule He told us That God would Judge the world by it So then This next Discourse I mean the three Sermons upon this Text Comes not in unseasonably And I hope the next but One will follow this as sutably as a silver Thred can follow a needle of Gold And I shall endeavour to pick chuse and so place the rest that the Reader shall not deny their Consequencie to the five precedent Sections treating Of Christs Power to raise the Dead to judge the quick and dead and finally to sentence Both according to the things done in the Body be they Good or Bad. At which day God send this present sinful Generation and amongst them my Soul A Good deliverance and in order thereto a Timely unfeigned Repentance especially of their applauded and avowed transgressions This for Jesus sake who is our Ransom would be our Peace and shall be our Judge Amen The First Sermon upon this Text. CHAP. XXXII MATTH 7. 12. All things Therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you even so do ye unto them For this is the Law and the Prophets Prov. xx 22. Say not thou I will recompence Evil Wait on the Lord and He shall save thee Prov. 24. 29. Say not I will do to him as he hath done to me I will render to the man according to his work The miserie of man of the wisest of men in their Pilgrimage to be wanderers too The short way to Happiness The pearl of the Ocean The Epitome Essence Spirits of the Law and Prophets Do as you would be done unto The Cohaerence The Method Christ advanceth This dictate of nature into an Evangelical Law Fortifies it and gives us proper motives to practise it Two grounds of Equitie in this Law 1. Actual equalitie of all men by nature 2. Possible equalitie of all men in Condition Exceptions against the Rule Answers to those Exceptions This Rule forbids not to wage or invoke Law so it be done with Charitie Whether nature alone bind us to do good to our enemies God has right to command us to love them Plato 's Good Communion The compendious way to do our selves most Good is to do as much good as we can to others The Application IT is whether you list to term it A follie or A Calamitie incident to all sorts of men that when they take a perfect Survey of all their former courses they find their wandrings and digressions far larger then their direct proceedings The more excellent the End is whereat we aim the greater commonly is our Error the more our By-paths from the right way that leads unto it Because The greatest Good is alwayes hardest to come by Thus such as hunt most eagerly after the knowledge of Best matters seeing the Best are worst to find after natures Glass is almost run out and most of their spirits spent whilst they look back upon their former labors like weary Passingers that have wandred up and down in unknown coasts without a Guide desirous to see the way they missed in a Map when they come to their Journeys end begin to discern what Toyl and pains they might have saved had they been acquainted with such good Rules directions at the first as now they know Nor have we so great cause to be ashamed of our folly as to bewail The common miserie of our nature seeing the wisest among the sons of men either for Civil knowledge or speculative learning Solomon himself had almost lost himself in this Maze never finding any other issue of his Tedious course but only this All is vanitie and vexition of Spirit Untill he had almost come to the End of his dayes Then he found out That short compendious way of godly Life Eccles 12. 13. Let us hear the End of all Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole dutie of man In this is contained all we seek 2. Had Solomon in his yonger dayes fixed his eyes upon this Rule which he hath left us as the Mariner doth his upon the Pole or other Celestial sign he might have arrived in half that Time at that Haven which He hardly reached in his old Age after continual danger of Shipwrack by his wandring to and Fro. But how-so-ever This fear of God and our observation of his Commandments be the Readiest the safest and the shortest Cut that Solomon knew unto that True Happiness which all men seek but most seek amiss yet these Commandments cannot be kept unless they be known And known they cannot be without good studie and industrie either in reading or
of the lost sheep and Groat His rejoycing for the recoverie of his strayed sheep was not his alone but his neighbours also Her sorrow for losse of her money was not only hers but her Gossips as after the finding it her joy was theirs too It is worth the consideration and I beseech you to consider what a madness it would seem to a wise man if because the finger did ake or pain him a mans head or heart and inward thoughts should presently resolve to cut it off or vex it more because it did vex them Yet such is our malice and madness if because our brother or fellow member in Christ so we must account all that Communicate with us in the same Sacraments doth vex or torment us we should therefore resolve to vex and torment him again This is A Symptome of such hellish Phrenzie as the Poet describes Ipse suos Artus lacero divellere morsu Certat As monstrous and pitifull a Spectacle to the eyes of Faith as it would be to the eyes of the Body to see as we have heard of some hanged quick in irons ready to starve for hunger and destitute of hopes of other food to eat the flesh of their armes to satisfie their gnawing entrals So monstrous is their sin so miserable their estate that to satiate their revengeful minds or to wreck their imbred spite do harm vex or torment their Fellow-members in Christ If you bite and devour one another saith the Apostle Gal. 5. 16. see that ye be not not consumed one of another His meaning is Whosoever doth vex or harm his brother shall feel the smart of it himself one time or other as certainly as the heart or soul that wounds or cuts an outward member shall feel the smart or want of it And again that whosoever yeelds any comfort to his distressed or comfortless brother shall as certainly be partaker of the good he does to him as the heart which directs or the hand which applies the medicine to any ill affected part shall find ease and rest by the mitigation of the sickly members pain 18. Would you then know the most certain compendious way to do your selves most good seek as far as in you lies to do good to all other men seek not your own good so much as the good of others or rather seek your own good especially by the means of doing good to others Consider that there is a great reward promised to such as do good to others but there is no promise made for doing good to our selves If we seek to inrich our selves or advance our estate we have our reward if we obtain riches or advancement but if we relieve those that be in necessitie if we assist or direct into good wayes those that for want of means may be tempted to ill courses To this double good work which both relieves the Body and rescues the soul There is appointed a great reward There is a reward promised to such as relieve the poor none to such as inrich themselves There is a reward promised to such as comfort the broken hearted none to such as solace themselves with mirth and passe their Time in pleasures There is a reward for those that raise Up them that fall none to them that being in competent estate seek to advance themselves If such as seek riches get riches if such as seek advancement get advancement verily they have their full reward But if they get or seek it to the prejudice of their poor brethren their sin is grievous And our Saviour Christ pronounceth A wo unto them Luke 6. 24. Wo unto you that are rich for you have received your consolation Is this the condition of all such as be rich no but of such rich ones as regard not understand not the poor Of such as seek to enrich themselves more then to relieve others Wo be to you that be full to wit when others are hungry and you give them not to eat Wo unto you that laugh to wit in time of Publick calamitie and wo when you should mourn with your brethren that do mourn for thus not doing unto them as you would be done unto in the like case God shall do that to you which you would not and give them their hearts desire God will turn their mourning into joy and your laughter into tears A False Balance saith Solomon is abomination to the Lord but a perfect weight pleaseth Him Pro. 11. 1. Now to be more desirous to do good to our selves then to others is as it were to buy with a greater measure and sell with a less For even this practise were no cousenage in Hucksters and marketters unless the Balance of their hearts and minds were unequally set before that is unless the measure of their desire of private gain were greater then their desire of doing good to others This is the point wherein their own Beam differs from or disagrees with Gods Balance hung up in their consciences Love thy neighbour as thy self Do as you would be done unto God that tryeth the very heart and reines doth weigh all our secret thoughts more exactly and curiously then we would weigh Gold and by how much we are more desirous to receive good from others then to do Them Good so much more shall we want of our hearts desire This is the second point wherein the Doctrine of Grace exceeds the Law of nature The Heathen had a surmise or fear that some like evil might befall them as they had done to others yet was not their expectation of punishment so certain but they thought it might be and often was prevented with policie or if they escaped unpunished in this life they thought themselves safe enough whereas we certainly know and believe that God will certainly bring all to equalitie and it shall go worst with them that go unpunished in this life for usually his punishments in this life bring men as it were to a composition with their adversaries both teaching them to do as they would be done unto and to repent for the wrongs they have committed but such as passe this life unpunished and impenitent are arrested at their first entry into the other they fall immediately into the Jaylors hands from whence there is no Redemption 19. Thus much of the First Point according to the method proposed § 5. that is Of the equitie of the Precept and of the Grounds or motives which might incite us to the performance of it either drawn from the Law of Nature or from the Law of Grace the Holy Gospel Of the Second Point that is In what sense The Observation of it is the fulfilling the Law and Prophets or How The Command it self contains the Summe of the Law and Prophets afterward Here only for A Ground to Application I take it as granted That natural Reason and the written Law teach every man what is good for himself and whereon to set his desires And this Rule of Nature and
servant Mat. 18. 23. We are in many respects bound most strictly to render unto God himself according to his reward It was Hezekiahs sin that he did not so 2 Chro. 32. 24 First because he hath prevented us with his blessings he gave us Being before we could desire it and with it He gave us a desire of continuing it Secondly he gave it Us of his meer freewill and abundant kindness And therefore in all equitie we are bound First to render what possibly we can unto Him and that with greater alacritie and cheerfulness then unto man for his sake as Reason teacheth us to perform our personal duties and services to our Parents Patrons and Benefactors with greater care and forwardness then such offices as for their sakes we owe to their Followers or Favorites Hence may we descry the equitie of those two main Commandments on which the whole Law and Prophets depend Love God above all and thy neighbor as thy self All the services of worship of praise thankfulness or the like which we return immediately to God himself belong unto the First Table All the duties we perform to men either because we have received or could desire like kindness from them or because we expect some greater matters from God belong unto the second Table It remains we see how this Rule doth direct our thoughts for the true practice of every particular Commandment What I omitt your own meditation may easily supply 8. None of us as in charity I presume is so ignorant of God or his Goodness but often prayes that he would continue his blessings of life and health unto us desiring withall that he would do some other good unto us which yet we want Could we in the next place take a perfect measure of our own desires of what we want whilst they are fresh and at the height and withall duly weigh those Blessings of life and health considering the full and sole dependence they have on the good-wil and pleasure of our God the strength of the one and weight of the other could not but impell and sway our minds to performance of such duties towards God as his Law and this Rule of Reason require These are good Beginnings of such performances as this Rule requires But here we usually commit a double oversight First We do not weigh blessings received as duly and truly as we should For who is he that truly considers what life is till he come in danger of death Or how pleasant health is till he be pained with some grievous sickness wound or other maladie Or if we come by such occasions duly to esteem of life and health or other blessings already injoyed or to take a true measure of our desires of what we want whilst they are fresh and at the height yet either we apprehend not or we consider not what absolute and intire dependance the beginning or continuance of benefits received or the compleating of others desired have on the good-will and pleasure of our God We think we are in part beholden to our Parents for our Life to our Physician to our strength of nature or good diet for recovery of health to our own wit or friends for obtaining such things as we desire These or like conceits arising from ignorance of Gods providence or want of faith in his Goodness are as so many props or stayes that hinder the weight of his best Blessings or the strength of our desires of further good to have their full shock upon our souls and minds Otherwise the true consideration or feeling of their dependence on Gods will and pleasure would sway and impel us to do our duty to him with the same alacritie we desire good from him to love him with all our heart with all our souls with all our strength yea we would be as desirous to do his will and pleasure as we are to obtain the things that please us as unwilling any way to displease him as we are to forgo any thing we have from him As willing to consecrate our lives and actions to his service as we are to injoy life and use of limbs If a Land-lord should command his Tenant at will to do him such a business perhaps to go some errand of importance for him or else he should go without his Tenement but promise him a better if he did it faithfully The sweetness as well of what he injoyed as of the Reward he looked for would disperse it self throughout his thoughts and season his labour with chearfulness and make all his very pains sweet unto him But if he had lately received an Estate for Lives and could not hope for any further good shortly to come from him although perhaps he would do what his Lord bad him least he should be upbraided with unthankfulness Yet his service would but be faint and cold in respect of the former like his that wrought as we say for the dead Horse This may serve to set forth the difference betwixt the faithful or true believers and the unfaithful or unbelievers heart in the performance of this great Commandment The unbeliever although he acknowledge in some sort That he received all he hath and must expect all he hopes for from God and in this respect must do what God commands yet if at any time he do his Will it is without all Devotion or Chearfulness partly because he thinks the Blessings he looks for must be gotten by his own indeavor and such as he hath have been improved by his own good husbandrie nor doth he fear that the Lord should dispossess him of life or health but there will be time enough to gain or renue his Favour before his Lease as he takes it of life of health and prosperitie be run out The faithful man stedfastly believes and knows that God is the Lord and giver of life that he kils and makes alive that he wounds and alone makes whole that we have no hold of either but only during the Term of his Will and Pleasure he firmly believes all the threatnings of his Law as that either God will punish sinners with sudden and unexpected death saying unto them as he did unto the rich man in the Gospel Thou Fool this night shall thy soul be taken from thee or else suffers them to injoy life and health and other Blessings to their greater condemnation He believes likewise all his promises to the righteous to such as do his will Whence as well the Goodness of all the Blessings he injoyes life health wealth and estate as of those which he hopes for whether in this life or in the life to come do as it were provoke a desire in him of worshipping God and doing his will equal at least to his desire of either having present blessings continued or greater bestowed upon him His joy in praysing God and keeping his Laws is greater then in the injoying of life of his soul his strength or other endowments His life is
little ado as their Example may seem a just Temptation unto braver spirits to dis-esteem the proffer here made to Baruch as scarce worth the acceptance unless the conditions were more ample then have been intimated 2. But if that be true whereof some of Natures Principal Secretaries have given us notice In ipso mortis articulo sumus vitae avidissimi Many such as have rusht upon extream danger without dismay or outward sign of fear could their tongues have been their hearts interpreters whilst their souls did take their farewell or whilst their heads were severed from their bodies as Homer relates of his Heroicks their last Ditty I am perswaded would have been Dulce bellum inexpertis It was well observed by the younger Plinie Impetu quodam instinctu procurrere ad mortem commune cum multis deliberare vero causas ejus expendere utque suaserit ratio vitae mortisque consilium suscipere ponere ingentis est animi For his sick friend to weigh life though laden with grief and death not fully apprehended but approaching in steady calm and quiet cogitations not suffering his mind to be so farre byassed or cast with the conceit of the one or other but that the voice of Physician or Friend should sway his choyce to accept of either did in this Romans judgment argue a truly resolute and noble spirit God sometimes in mercy in justice often so appoints that death shall fully attach men before they apprehend the least Terror of it which without the special Assistance of his Spirit is one time or other terrible to flesh and blood without exception That many are never heard expresly to recal their stubborn resolutions for abandoning discontented or disgraced life doth not sufficiently argue they did not finally mislike their choice They might mislike it when it was too late the door of repentance being shut upon them whilest with the foolish Virgins they sought for the oil of mercie to renew the decaying lamps of life For albeit the unwieldy desires of lofty minds may overturn the very foundation whereon they are built ere notice can be taken which way they sway yet at the very moment of dissolution on which the Conceits of what they are and what they must be move upon equal terms as upon an indivisible Centre they will relent And although they had formerly been perswaded that souls might be annihilated by death yet to live although with never so little yea even to live because life is something must needs seem better then to be utterly nothing He that can see no mean betwixt the members of that division Aut Caesar aut nihil is questionless subject to some strange suffusion of his internal eye-sight or hath his hopes hoysted with wine the usual bellows to enflame the heart with rash and desperate resolutions Many for true valour better able to win an Empire and for wisdom more fit to manage it then Caesar Borgia either first Author or chief Practitioner of this false Logick have been content to beg life and liberty at their insolent enemies hands whose presence they never did nor ever would have feared in Battel 3. To give you A full Induction in One Instance It shall be in that Famous Spanish Leader which had Italy France Germany unpartial Witnesses and his professed Enemies professed Admirers of his heroical Worth Alvares de Sande under whose Colours not one of his Country-men but was more afraid to play the Coward then to encounter the fiercest Enemy that durst affront him Or least this his courage might be suspected to be of Cravons kind or the Sohaere of his valor terminated within the bounds of Europe his Africane Exploits against the Moors would hardly be credited by modern Souldiers unless Lanoue a man without the reach of suspition either for Ignorance or vulgar Credulity in matters Martial had given them undoubted Credence and used this Great Spanish Commanders Performance as an Experiment or Probatum to evince the truth of the seeming Paradox Concerning the use of the Pike in warre For what Captain almost since the ancient Romans times would have undertaken to maintain that in the Schools as possible which this Noble Spaniard proved by practise To conduct four thousand pikes over a plain of four or five miles length in despight of eighteen thousand horse appointed of purpose to prevent their passage Yet after six fierce encounters upon the best advantage that so great distance could afford unto his barbarous enemies He brought his company all save 80. safe unto the place intended leaving seven or eight hundred of his assaylants dead on the field the rest repulsed I should not have given so much credence unto La-Noue's reports or discourse unless that Noble English Generall Sir John Norice who intitled Lanoue to the Father of modern Wars had put in execution the rules prescribed by Lanoue for use of the Pike and harquebuse or musket with better success then either Alvarez de Sandè or that well trained Spanish band which slew that Noble Peer of France Guaston de Fois in that uncelebrated yet most famous Retreat at Gant never be forgotten by the English Nation Or if some yong Gallant or hard-bred souldier should here except against Sandeus as the Aramites did against the God of the Israelites It may be he was a man of an intrepid spirit in the field but perhaps more faint hearted then many others of his time to endure a lingering siedge I will refer such to his Defence of Gerbis where having brought himself to the common souldiers stint as well for the qualitie as for the quantity of his meat he perswades the feeble remnant being but one thousand left of many which had been consumed by famine and such languishing diseases as scarcitie or homeliness of diet usually breed to honour their death with the enemies blood rather then to yield themselves into their hands Albeit the successe did not answer his Resolution yet the attempt was on his part so valorous that the Turkish General whose Tent he sought to surprize by night being stricken with admiration of his worth did wooe him upon honourable Terms to become servant to great Solyman his master as Solyman himself afterward did upon the Fame But he whose carriage for any terror or calamitie of Warres was thus invincible was by a short captivitie though not half so miserable as the Princes and nobles of Judah were now to suffer brought to deprecate death in humble sort and afterward to esteem of life as a more welcome prey then the richest spoils of all his former victories then the greatest Kingdom that could have been offered him in the dayes of his prosperitie How easily the Almighty can teach the haughty stomack or intrepid heart to esteem his favour here profer'd to Baruch as they ought we need no better testimonie for no better can be brought then Busbequius his relation of this Noble Spaniards miserable perplexitie during
matter at least to the Prophets foresight of question But that the Lord would repent him of the plagues denounced so they would pray in faith was Iuris liquidi a point whereof he never doubted Nor is it possible our hearts should ever be throughly pierced with the right conceit either of our own or of our Countries sins without this undoubted Perswasion of Gods infinite love towards all and every one of us Impossible it is for us his Embassadors to be armed with such indefatigable Courage and diligence as the times require either for discharge of our duty in denouncing his plagues against the impenitent or in averting men from impenitency and exciting them to true repentance until our souls be firmly possessed with the Prophets Doctrine Of Gods immutable Facility to repent him of such plagues as without our repentance are eternally and immutably decreed against us These Alternations of Gods loving kindness and severitie towards the Same People yea towards the same Individual Persons are as the Tropicks under which the Messengers of Peace must constantly run their contrary courses sometime exhorting with all long-suffering to embrace his mercies otherwhile sharply reproving and powerfully threatning his fearful Judgements Constancy in truly observing and duly entertaining the just occasions of this contrariety in the matter of our message is as the Centre on which our souls being throughly setled the whole Frame of our affections whether of love unto their persons or of hate unto their sins over whom he hath made us over-seers becomes parallel to the Almighties Will who though he punish the impenitent with death temporal and eternal yet doth he not will their impenitencie but useth all meanes possible to bring them unto true repentance 12. It is I confess A matter hard for flesh and blood to conceive so much as may satisfie this desire of knowing the manner how Omnipotency should for many generations be possessed with an eager longing after a peoples safety which in the end must be destroyed How the great Creator of Heaven and Earth which gave Being to all things by his Word and made our souls immortal by his breath should be as it were in a continual childbirth of sinful men seeking to fashion and quicken them with the Spirit of Life and yet they after all this travel prove but abortive and mis-shapen like the untimely fruit of a woman which never saw the Sun never to be seen amongst the living But no marvel if we poor Worms of the earth blind and naked perceive not the force or nature of those burning flames of eternal and unchangeable Love such is the very nature of our God seeing they are seated in that glorious inaccessible light Yet of that eternal and glorious Sun whose brightness no mortal eye may look upon and live we may behold a true and perfect Module in the Ocean of mercy and compassion in the watry eyes of the Son of God with sighs bewailing impoenitent Jerusalems woful Case If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes Luke 19. 42. And elsewhere O Hierusalem Hierusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Matth. 23. 37. If Christ Jesus as truly God as man did thus thirst after Ierusalems peace after Ierusalem thus glutted with the Prophets blood did thirst most eagerly after his farre be it from us to think his loving kindness is utterly estranged from us albeit our sins have made a great separation betwixt him and us Let us not then trifle out the time with Curious Disputes concerning the manner of his Decree but rather seek him with all speed and diligence whilest he may be found laying sure hold on his mercie before the swift approach of his iudgements violently haled down each day more than other by the grievous weight of our sins remove it without the reach of Ordinary Repentance 13. It is a truth most delightful and comfortable to Contemplate That The Immensitie of our God is as full of mercy and compassion as the Sea is of water or the body of the Sun of light But let us withall consider That the more abundant his loving kindness towards us the more sweet and fragrant his invitations have been the more grievously have we provoked his fierce wrath and indignation by our continual wilful refusal to be gathered under the shadow of his wings daily stretcht out in mercy for our safety Be we sure God knows his own as well as we do ours and will not be over-reached by us The longer we deferre the renewing of his wonted favours the dearer we must account it will cost us our suit at death will be more difficult Those prayers those tears those sighs or other attendants or concomitants of true repentance which in times past would have gone for currant will hereafter be esteemed light or counterfeit And yet alas Who is he in Court or Country in the City or in the Village in the Academy or among the Ignorant or illiterate that layes his own or others sins to heart as he should Or poures forth such fervent prayers and supplications unto his God as our Predecessors have done upon lesse signification of his displeasure and fewer fore-warnings of his judgements then we have had continually these divers years past Yea who is he amongst all the Sons of Levi that with Jeremy and Baruch hath utterly disavowed all care or study of his own advancement or contentment that he may entirely consecrate his soul his thoughts and best imployments to his Masters will to take away the precious from the vile to be as Gods mouth to cause others to conform themselves to him not to conform himself to them To set himself as a wall of brass for this rebellious people to fight against whilst he thunders out Gods judgments against great and small without all respect of persons Nay doth not Nobility Gentry and Commonalty Clergy and Laity yea I dare say it as well singula generum as genera singulorum so mightily set their minds on great matters and so stretch their inventions either for getting more or for improving what they have gotten to the utmost value as if we would give God and men to understand that we had no inheritance in that Good Land wherein The Lord placed our Fathers But only a short Remainder of an expiring Estate which we despere to renew or as if we would have it proclaimed in Gath or published in Askalon that the fear of them is already fallen upon the natural Inhabitants of this Land now labouring only to prevent them in gathering up the present commodities or to defeat them of their expected spoil We demean our selves just as the manner is when Enemies more potent then can safely be forthwith
Secondly There lies open a spacious field for such as affect to expatiate in Common Places or dilate upon that Old Maxim Laici semper sunt infensi Clericis to tax the inveterate enmity of secular men against the Clergie Whose violent out burstings into Prodigious Outrages did never more clearly appear then in the wicked suggestions of the Princes of Iudah unto infortunate King Joash against this Godly High-Priest Zechariah for his zeal unto the House and service of the God of their Fore-fathers But however the like prodigious cruelty had not been exemplified before this time yet in many later ages the Prelacie or Clergie have not come an inch short of these Lay-Princes in working and animating Kings and supream Magistrates to exercise like tyranny and oppressing cruelty not upon Laicks only but upon their Godly and religious Priests or inferior Clergie The Histories almost of all Ages and Nations since the death of Maurice the Emperor unto this last Generation will be ready to testifie whensoever they shall be heard or read more then I have said against the Romish Hierarchy whose continual practises have been to make Christian Kings the Executioners of their furious spleen against their own Clergie or neighbor Princes or to stirre up the rebellion of Lay-subjects against all such of their Leige-Lords or Soveraigns as would not submit themselves their Crowns and Dignities or which is more their Consciences unto Peters pretended Primacie The sum of all I have to say concerning this Point is This As there seldom have been any very Good Kings or extraordinary happy in their Government whether in the line of David or in Christian Monarchies without advice and assistance of a Learned and Religious Clergie so but a few have proved extremely bad without the suggestions of covetous corrupt or ambitious Priests So that the safest way for chief Governors is to keep as vigilant and strong Guards upon their own brests and consciences as they do about their bodies or palaces Now the special and safe guard which they can entertain for their souls and consciences is to lay to heart the Examples of Gods dealing with former Princes with the Kings of Judah especially according to the esteem or reverence or the dis-esteem which they did bear unto his Laws and Services 5. Another special meanes to secure even Greatest Monarches from falling into Gods wrath or revenging hand is not to hearken unto not to meditate too much upon or at least not to misconstrue a Doctrine very frequent in all Ages to wit That Kings and supreme Magistrates are not subject to the authority of any other men nor to the coercive authoritie of humane Laws The Doctrine I dare not I cannot in conscience deny to be most true and Orthodoxal And for the truth of it I can add one Argument more then usual That Gods judgments in all Ages or Nations have not been more frequently executed by Counter-passion or Retaliation upon any sort or state of men then upon Kings or Princes or greatest Potentates which pollute their Crowns and Dignities with innocent blood as King Joash did or with other like out-crying sins As if the most Just and Righteous Lord by innumerable Examples tending to this purpose would give the world to understand That none are fit to exercise Iurisdiction upon Kings or Princes besides himself and withall to instruct even Greatest Monarchs that their Exemption from all Controulment of humane Laws cannot exempt or priviledge them from the immediate judgement of his own hands or from the contrivance of his just punishments by the hands of others as by his instruments though his Enemies Agents I forbear to produce more instances of Divine Retaliation upon most Soveraign Princes besides this one in my Text which a bundantly justifieth both parts of my last Assertion or Observation Ioash as you heard before and may read when you please did more then permit did authorize or command the Princes of Iudah to murther their High-Priest Zachariah in the Court of the Lords House A prodigious liberty or licence for a King to Grant and more furiously executed by the Princes of Iudah his Patentees or Commissioners for this purpose And yet the most righteous Judge of all the world did neither animate nor authorize the Prophets Priests or Levites or other cheif men in this Kingdom to be the avengers of Blood or to execute judgement upon the King or Princes of Iudah This service in Divine Wisdom and Justice was delegated to the Syrians their neighbor Nation And the Hoast not by their own skill or contrivance but by the disposition of Divine Providence did Geometrically and exactly proportion the execution of vengeance to the quality and manner of the fact The Princes of Iudah who had murthered Zechariah in the Courts of the Temple of the Lords House were all destroyed by the Syrian Hoast in their own Land and the spoil of their Palaces sent unto the King of Damascus And King Ioash by whose authority Zechariah was stoned to death in his Pue or Pulpit after the Syrians had grievously afflicted him was slain in his own Palace upon the bed of his desired or appointed rest by the hands of two of his own servants yet neither of them by birth his native Subject the one the son of an Ammonitess the other of a Moabitess both the illegitimate off-spring of two of the worst sort of aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel In all this appears the special finger of God But though all this were done by Gods appointment yet may we no way justifie the conspiracy of Ioash his own servants against him though both aliens unless we knew what speciall warrant they had for the execution of Gods judgments which are alwayes most just However we have neither warrant nor reason to exclaim against them or their sins so farre or so much as by the warrant of Gods Word we might against the Princes of Iudah for the instigating of their lawful King or Liege-Lord to practice such prodigious cruelty as hath been exprest upon Zechariah the Lords High-Priest or against the disposition of the stiffe-necked Jewish Nation in general most perspicuous for the Crisis at that time 6. But to exclaim against the Princes or People of that Age we need not for their posterity hath amplified the cursed Circumstances of this most horrible Fact and charged these their fore-fathers with such a measure of iniquity as No Orator this day living without their directions or instructions could have done Septies in die cadit justus The just man fals seven times a day was an ancient and an authentick Saying if meant at all by the Author of it of sins and delinquences rather then of crosses and greivances which fall upon them or into which they fall was never meant of Grosser sins or transgressions But of that dayes work wherein Zechariah was slain these later Jews say Septem transgressiones fecit Israel in illo die I shall not over-English their
destroy but rather to save and heal you If your impenitencie and perverseness have moved me to speak severely or threaten you it is still for your good Severum medicum ager intemperans facit Your obdurate hearts have caused me oft-times the mildest Physician that ever took cure of the body or soul upon him to use tart speeches unto you yet shall it never provoke me to be cruel in my practice So farre am I from seeking your blood or harm that my blood which you have continually sought whensoever you shed it shall make an Attonement for you shall procure a Free and Gracious General Pardon for all your sins and for all the sins of your fore-fathers in shedding the Blood of Prophets sent unto them But when I have done all when all is done that could be done unto this Vineyard which my Father planted according to the Rules of Equity of mercy and benignity without wrong or prejudice to eternal Iustice Unless by sincere Repentance as well for your own sins as for the sins of your fore-fathers wherein you have been too deep part-takers with them you submit your selves unto my Fathers will and with all humility crave allowance of that most Free and Gracious Pardon which my blood shall purchase for you and for all the world besides The City of Abel's and of Zachariah's blood will at the last prevail against you the blood of both of them and of all the Prophets whom your fore-fathers have slain will be Required of this Generation in fuller measure then it was of those which slew them and this will be a burden too heavy for you to bear much heavier then the punishment of Cain albeit neither my blood nor the blood of any of mine Apostles or Disciples do come at all upon the Score or Reckoning wherewith Moses in whom ye trust and the Prophets whose Tombs and Sepulchres ye build and garnish will be ready to charge you in the day of your Account or Visitation For if the blood of Christ or of his Apostles had been Required at their hands which shed it me thinks this Emphatical Ingemination Verily I say unto you it shall be required c. should not be so needful and weighty as were all the words uttered by Him who spake as never man spake 10. But may we from any or all these Premisses conclude that This present Generation was not punished at all for putting our Saviour to death Or that his death or the indignities done unto His more then sacred Person at or before his death was no Cause at all of those Exemplary Punishments or unparalleld plagues which fell upon Ierusalem and Iudah upon this whole present generation God forbid The Question is not Whether our Saviours death was any Cause at all of the exemplary punishments but What manner of Cause it was or In what sense they may be said to be plagued for wronging him thus We answer that the indignities done unto Him at his death and at his arraignment were such Causes of the ensuing Woes and calamities which came upon this Generation as Absentia Nautae is naufragii The Case or Species facti is thus Suppose a skilful Navigator and experienced Pilot which had long governed some tall and goodly Ship with good success in many difficult voyages should at the length either by the greediness of the Owner be casheerd or inforced to leave his place and a storm upon his departure should arise and through want of good steerage or sounding should run them on ground or dash them against the rocks we may say without Solecisme that the Abandoning or Absence of the former Master or Pilot was the Cause of the shipwrack or the loss of men or goods although he neither were any Cause of raising the storm nor prayed against them as Zacharias did against his persecutors nor gave them any wrong directions before he left them Now the Son of God from the time of his peoples thraldom in Egypt but more especially from the time of their deliverance thence had been in Peculiar manner the King and Governor of the Iews in all their Consultations of Peace or Warre their only Pilot in all their storms And however throughout their several Generations they were often greivously punished yet were they alwayes punished Citra condignum much less then their iniquities had deserved Briefly by His wisdom he preserved them safe in such distresses as without his only skill would utterly have overwhelmed the State and Nation And by his Intercession prevented the Out-bursting or fall of that hideous storm which had been secretly and by degrees more insensible gathering against them then that Cloud which Eliah's servant saw rising out of the Sea even from the death of Zachariah the son of Iehoiada and other Prophets and righteous men whose blood their fore-fathers before and after his had shed But after this last Generation had both by express words and practice verified that saying of God to Samuel They have not cast off thee from being King over them but they have cast off Me. That other prophesie or sweetly mild fore-warning for which they took occasion to stone Zachariah to death in the Courts of the Lords House was exactly fulfilled in upon them This Prophecie or fore-warning we have 2 Chron. 24. verse 20. Thus saith God Why transgress ye the Commandements of the Lord that ye cannot prosper because ye have forsaken the Lord he hath also forsaken you This Prophesie with that other of Samuel was most exactly fulfilled Tam verbis quam factis male ominatis mala ominantibus when they solemnly protested before Pilate that they had no other King but Caesar From this time the hideous storms of Gods wrath and anger against them for their own sins and the sins of their fore-fathers did dayly encrease and at last were poured out in full measure upon them when they had no Prophet nor any man that understood any more no Signs or Tokens but such as were dismal no Pilot or skilful Governor to direct them no pious Priest to make Intercession for them For having thus solemnly abandoned The Son of God their King and Lord who had been their continual Sanctuary the destroying Angels who had long waited their Opportunity to put their Commission in Execution did Arrest their bodies delivering up some to the Famine some to the Sword others to the Fowls of the air and Beasts of the field and did seize upon their Land which God had given to their Fore-fathers for the use of others even for the most wicked of the Heathens first bestowing it upon the Romans afterward upon the Saracens and last of all upon the Barbarous Turk under whose heavy yoke the inheritance and some of the posterity of Iacob have long groaned and still must groan until they confess their own sins and the sins of their fore-fathers and return unto the Allegiance of their Gracious Lord and Sovereign whom their Fore-fathers this
Meridian and runs away out of their Hemisphere And in his stead a Comet ariseth out of Egyptian exhalations which portends nothing but war and blood This is Jehoiakim whom Pharaoh Nechoh which slew his father hath now appointed to be King over this people for his purpose the successe of whose Raign in general the people might well prognosticate by his life and manners the Epitome of which Iosephus lib. 10. cap. 5. hath given very pithily in two words He was neither religious towards God nor just towards men And yet besides this his natural disposition was particularly incensed against this people for preferring his younger brother to the Crown and so more ready to wreak his spite by reason of his dependance upon the Egyptian out of whose Country he had the Prophet Uriah brought to satiate his thirst of blood Jer. 26. 23. which bloodie Fact of his and the like with their like successe is the train I have pursued in these present Meditations I will conclude them with that of Solomon Prov. 28. 2. For the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes thereof And of Iudah never a good one after Iosiah such they were as might serve to scourge this people until they were cast like Vagabonds and unprofitable Members out of that City and Land which had bred them 10. Thus you see Gods largest Promises have their limits greatest prosperity hath a period and mightiest Kingdomes have their fall You have likewise seen how for the uncircumcised hearts of this people is he slain by uncircumcised hands who had so throughly cleansed Ierusalem and Iudah from all the abominations of the Heathen The Heroical attempts of whose Princely resolution and zeal in restoring the true worship of God unto this people needs not mine it hath the commendations of Gods Spirit who hath been curious in calculating his particular good deeds throughout this Chapter to have been matchless in Davids Race and how then possible to be parallell'd in any other Princes Line And what If through the religious care and industrie of some one or two Princes whom the Lord in mercie had raised up as Lights unto this Land the foggie mists of Superstition Heresie and Idolatry be driven hence This is an Infallible testimonie of Gods former love unto our forefathers no sure Document of our continuance in his favour if yet this Land and People may be taken in the very manner of those capital Crimes which did condemn Iudah his first-born amongst the Nations in the dayes of good Iosiah even whilest it was acquitted from profession of Idolatrie and Superstition What shall it avail us that those forrain hungrie Hell-hounds which brought Commissions of Charter Warrant for hunting out the good things of this Land and made this people a prey for maintenance of the many-headed beast have been long time prohibited to continue their wanted raunge if the Princes which are left within her be as roaring Lions and her Judges as wolves in the evening which leave not the bones until the morrow What availes it that the secular Priests and Jesuite are would God they were transported out of this Land if her owne Prophets be light and wicked persons and her Priests pollute the Sanctuary and wrest the Law Or what shall it avail us that the Light of the Gospel doth shine amongst us if the just Lord be in the midst of us and every morning bring forth judgment unto light and fail not and yet the wicked will not learn to be ashamed Or what avails it that we have cast off all blind obedience to the Sea of Antichrist if we will not suffer Gods providence to be a Rule and Christs word a Light unto our paths but walk on still in the wayes of the heathens making secular observations our chief confidence and worldly policie our greatest trust Or what avails it to have purged our hearts from all conceit of merit if we pollute our hands with bribes Or what availes it to give God the glory in all good actions and yet daily dishonor his name with bad dealings I will speak more plainly What advantageth it us to object unto the Papists that they seek to merit heaven by their works and share with God in the honour of good deeds if they can truly reply upon us That the free Almes of Papists Founders have been by Protestants set on sale unto their brethren Or that secular Appendices and Alliance of Spiritual men devour a great part of that liberal maintenance which was allotted only for Prophets and Prophets children 11. Beloved in our Lord were we our selves without sin without these enormous sins which I have mentioned all of us might freely attempt to stone that filthy Whore and all her foul Adulterers unto death But such of us as seek most to purge the Land of them and seek not withal to cleanse our own hearts of those sins which have procured Gods wrath against it may justly dread lest we find no better success then good Josiah did to provoke the enemie to do more mischief then haply they meant Mistake me not I beseech you as though I misliked such as sollicite severitie against that Nation yet cannot I hope but some will be as jealous of me as these Iews of Iosiah's and Jehoiakim's dayes were alwayes of the Prophet Jeremy whose footsteps I have resolved to follow through good and bad report Give me leave to explain my meaning thus As from my heart I reverence their religious labors who have of late so effectually stirred up our Sovereignes heart to this purpose and earnestly request your heartie prayers unto Almighty God that his Holy Spirit may continually enflame his royal heart with those good motions which have been kindled in it of late so do I desire from the very centre of my soul both that men of place Authoritie Gravitie Learning and Integritie of life may prosecute it and that young Divines whether young in years or manners it skills not would oftentimes even for Sions sake hold their peace or at least be wary where and when they open their mouths in this argument For he that looks into the temper of this present people with a discreet religious not with a turbulent factious eye may easily discerne that many ill tempered and extravagant invectives against Papists made by men whose Persons wanting Authoritie as much as their speeches do Reason do nothing else but set an edge upon our Adversaries sword whilst the light behaviour and bad example of the Inveighers life infuseth courage to their hearts and addeth strength unto their armes In one word Many of our words in this place increase the wrath and many of our lives out of this place increase the number of that Faction 12. Though all of us by Profession are Christs Soldiers yet every Soldier is not fit for any service Albeit I discourage no man I only advise that every man that means to be a valiant Soldier in Christ and would do his
Godly men respects their former good works p. 3568. 29. Three points 1. Eternal Life the most free gift of God both in respect of the Donor and of the Donee 2. Yet doth not the sovereign Freenesse of the Gift exclude all Qualifications in the Donees rather requires better in them then in others which exclude it or themselves from it Whether the Kingdom of Heaven was prepared for All or for a certain number 3. The first Qualification for grace is to become as little children A parallel of the conditions of Infants and of Christians truly humble and meek p. 3578 30. Matth. 25. 34. Then shall the King say to them on his Right hand c. Two General Heads of the Discourse 1 A Sentence 2. The execution thereof Controversies about the sentence Three conclusions in order to the decisions of those Controversies 1. The Sentence of life is awarded Secundum Opera not excluding faith 2. Good Works are necessary to salvation Necessitate Praecepti Medii And to Justification too as some say Quoad praesentiam non quoad Efficientiam The third handled in the next Chapter Good Works though necessary are not Causes of but the Way to the Kingdom Damnation awarded for Omissions Saint Augustines saying Bona Opera sequuntur Justificatum c. expounded Saint James 2. 10. He that keeps the whole Law and yet offends in one point c. expounded Why Christ in the final Doome instances only in Works of Charity not of Piety and Sanctity An Exhortation to do good to the poor and miserable and the rather because some of those duties may be done by the meanest of men p. 3587 31. Jansenius his Observation and Disputation about Merit examined and convinced of Contradiction to it self and to the truth The Definition of Merit The state of the Question concerning Merit Increase of Grace no more meritable then the first Grace A Promise made Ex Mero Motu sine Ratione dati accepti cannot found a Title to Merits Such are all Gods Promises Issues of meer Grace Mercie and Bountie The Romanists of Kin to the Pharisee yet indeed more to be blamed then He. The Objection from the Causal Particle FOR made and answered SECT VI. CHAP. 32. Matth. 7. 12. Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you c. The misery of man of the wisest of men in their pilprimage to be Wanderers too The short way to Happiness The Pearl of the Ocean The Epitome Essence spirits of the Law and the Prophets Do as you would be done unto The Coherence the Method Christ advanceth This Dictate of Nature into an Evangelical Law Fortifies it and gives us proper Motives to practise it Two grounds of Equity in this Law 1. Actual Equality of all men by Nature 2. Possible Equality of all men in condition Exceptions against the Rule Answers to those Exceptions This Rule forbids not to invoke or wage Law so it be done with charity Whether Nature alone bind us to do good to our enemies God has right to command us to love them Plato's good communion The Compendious way to do our selves most good is to do as much good as we can to others The Application 33. Matth. 7. 12. The second General according to the Method proposed Chap. 32. Sect. 5. handled This Precept Do as ye would be done to more then equivalent to that Love thy neighbour as thy self for by good Analogy it is applicable to all the Duties of the first Table which we owe to God for our very being and all his other Blessings in all kinds bestowed on us Our desires to receive good things from God ought to be the measure of our Readiness to return obedience to his will and all other duties of dependance upon his Grace and Goodness God in giving Isaac did what Abraham desired and Abraham in offering Isaac did what God desired Two Objections made and answered 1. That this Rule may seem to establish the old Pythagorean Error of Retaliation and the new one of Parity in Estates 2. That the Magistrate in punishing offendors it seems in some Cases must of necessity either violate this Rule or some other p. 3628 34. The Impediments that obstruct the Practice of this Duty of Doing to others as we would have done to our selves are chiefly two 1 Hopes and Desires of attaining better estates then we at present have 2. Fears of falling into Worse Two readie wayes to the Dutie 1. To wean our souls into an indifferencie or vindicate them into a libertie in respect of all Objects 2 To keep in mind alwayes a perfect character of our owne afflictions and releases or comforts Two Inconveniencies arising from accersite greatness or prosperity 1. It makes men defective in performing the Affirmative part of this Duty 2. It makes them perform some part of the Affirmative with the violation of the Negative part thereof A Fallacy discovered An useful general Rule 3640 35. Jer. 45. 2 3 4 5. Thus saith the Lord unto thee O Baruch c. Little and Great termes of Relation Two Doctrines One Corollary Times and Occasions after the nature of things otherwise lawful Good men should take the help of the Anti-peristasis of bad times to make themselves better Sympathie with others in misery enjoyned in Scripture practised by Heathens Argia and Portia The Corollary proved by Instance and that made the Application of the former Doctrin 3648 36. On Jer. 45. latter part of ver 5. Thy life will I give thee for a prey The second Doctrin handled first in Thesi touching the Natural essence of Life in general 2. In Hypothesi Of the Donative of Life to Baruch as the case then stood That men be not of the same opinion about the Price of life when they be in Heat Action and Prosperity which they be of in dejection of Spirit and Adversity proved by Instances Petrus Strozius Alvares de Sande Gods wrath sharpens the Instruments and increases the terror of death Life was a Blessing to Baruch though it be shewed him all those evils from sight of which God took away good King Josiah in favour to him Baruch as a man did sympathize with the miseries of his people As a Faithful man and a Prophet of the Lord he conformed to the just will of God The Application 3663 37. On Rom. 2. 1. Therefore thou art inexcusable O man c. From what Premises the Apostles Conclusion is inferred The limitation of the Conclusion to the securing the Lawful Magistrate exercising Judicature according to his Commission and in matters belonging to his cognizance David and Abab judging persons by the Prophets Art feigned did really condemn themselves The sense of the Major Proposition improved by vertue of the Grammar Rule concerning Hebrew Participles and by Exposition of the phrase How the later Jewes judging the deeds of their forefathers did condemne themselves 3678 38. Second Sermon on Rom. 2. 1. 3690 39. Third Sermon on Rom. 2. 1. A Romish