imbibed all this into their hearts and ears cut off all their members which they have upon earth Col. 3.5 I mean their dearest sins as Fornication Uncleanness inordinate affectiō evil concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry and that they will go as far as their legs I mean the legs of Faith will carry them even so far as to the loving of their very enemies the giving of their bodies to be burnt the losing of their estates their ease their sinful and sensual delights and the incurring of the hatred of all their friends yea of all the world rather than go from Christ and go from Life and go from the World which is to come The uses of the point will be these 1. use will be one of Information Then how desirable must needs such a Ministry be You do all desire and covet to have such servants and workmen as do their work so faithfully so painfully and so well as that you may perceive and see your selves how much they do advance your estates on Earth and if so how much to be desired then is that painful and powerful Ministry which doth so labour to advance your spiritual estates and your soules that they may win Heaven We read John 5.4 that An Angel went down at a certain time into that Pool and troubled the waters and that whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of what disease soever he had and how much longed for the comming down of such an Angel was to the people then especially to the lame and to the blind and to the impotent and to the withered ver 3. I leave to you to judge Now every powerful and Christ-preaching-Minister is such an Angel so he comes into the Pulpit so he troubles the water making the Word which he preacheth to be troublesome to obstinate and impenitent sinners and so he causes it by God's blessing to become wholesome to many a poor creature that is blind or lame or impotent or withered which then and thereupon can and will being made whole and sound even offer a Sacred Violence to Heaven it self and strive to take it by force and therefore O how lovely O how amiable O how desirable O how much to be loved and longed for must needs be a powerful Christ-preaching-Ministry and those Gospel-Angels which come to us in the Name of the Lord O how welcome must they needs be to sin-sick and sin-lame souls though they trouble them a little first because they come with healing in their preaching and cure them at last and make them to make out for Heaven 2. Use is one of Exhortation Is it so Then 1. Encourage such a Ministry Quest How I answer 1. Hear it carefully as Mat. 3.5 they came from all parts to hear the Baptist preach even from Jerusalem and from Judea and all the regton round about Jordan So when such Johns teach let all the people that can come and hear them stirring up one another as those in Isaiah saying Come ye and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the House of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his wayes for out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem Isa 2.3 2. Follow and do what such a Ministry teacheth according to that famous Scripture Jam 1.22 But be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves Mark deceiving your own selves so that you do but deceive your own souls when you but come and sit before us and do none of the things which are taught by us when you say What will this babler say when having heard us press the forwardness of the Saints ye will not live as Saints when having been told how ye must force Heaven ye mind nothing less than Heaven when after ye have drunk in our Sermons tending to Life and Glory ye will not so much as wag one foot nor stir at all that ye may drink in those ineffable Pleasures which flow and stream from Jehova's Face in the Kingdom of Glory And besides what encouragement do ye give us as long as ye regard our words no more than fables after they have been with all seriousness and sadness tenderness trueness earnestness and eagerness powerfulness and piercingness faithfulness and ferventness delivered uttered and preached by us O it must needs be a deading of our affections a cooling of our courage a stupifying of our spirits when after all our Gospel-Reports made by us we must take up that sad complaint of Isaiah the Prophet Who hath beleived our Report Isa 53.1 Wherefore as those Sorcerers which heard Paul preach were so affected with and wrought upon with his preaching as that they kindled a fire and burnt their books before all men not at all regarding the price thereof which amounted to fifty thousand pieces of Silver nor the loss which thereby they sustained because they would rather lose their Books and lose their Gain and lose all their Silver than lose their Souls and lose Life and lose Heaven Heaven being far more valued more esteemed more prized of them than all their books which were burned by them So do ye now go and do likewise ye need not kindle a fire for it for I have kindled a fire for you already by this my preaching for is not my Word like Fire saith God Jer. 23.29 Do ye only bring I 'l not say your books but your sins which I have preached against in this Sermon and burn them before all men that is let the Word which I have taught you now so burn them up as that we may see them no more hear of them no more be troubled about them and with them no more as when a thing is burnt we are troubled with it no more O Sirs where are those your books I should say yoursins which must be burnt bring them hither and burn them here before me in and by this Fire which I have made for you bring hither your Usury your Pride your Lusts your Uncleanness your Lasciviousness your Anger your onvious dispositions your idle courses your Drunkenness your Gurmandizing your Laziness your Slothfulness your Covetousness which is Idolatry and all the evils of your tongues which though little are such unruly members and let them all be eaten up by this Fire which I have now kindled crying and saying Lord burn up these our Corruptions by this Sermon O Sirs do not your hearts already burn as the Disciples hearts when Christ opened the Scriptures to them Luke 24.32 Do ye not feel this Fire O that God would work now upon your souls O that he would blow this Fire O that he would cause his holy Spirit to blow upon your spirits O that he would by his co-operation make this Word of his which I preach and which is indeed like Fire effectual to your salvation O that he would make it burn up all
is a Heaven And so Heaven above here * Ut supra meant or the Empyraean Heaven is a Kingdom of Heavens Secondly The Passion it self suffereth Violence 1. Suffereth Strange can Heaven suffer I answer Not properly but as it were 2. Violence And what is that It is a motion {inverted †} Tho. Aqu. in 5 Met. l. 6. proceeding from an exterior agent tending to that which by its own nature it hath no aptitude unto as here what Aptitude hath any of us naturally to win Heaven by force II. An Action And the Violent take it by force Where we have 1. Actors 2. The Action it self to be viewed 1. Actors And the Violent In the †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Original the Violent so called in the English are also invaders endeavourers urgers and such as press hard as these do who are bent for Heaven pressing and urging with the strongest arguments and with all their might and utmost endeavours the God of Heaven 2. The Action it self Take it by force 1. Take it The word in the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Original properly is spoken of wild Beasts which take their prey which here is applyed to Men who take Heaven as a prey which they pursue till they have it 2. By Force To take a thing by force properly and commonly is take it by wrong Whence in the †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebrew Force is called by a name which also signifies wrong and injury and yet here is no wrong done to any when Heaven is taken by the Saints forcibly for it is their proper portion by Adoption that glorious Habitation and therefore when they seize on it by might they do what they do in it in their own * Understand a right derived from Jesus Christ who hath a double right to it Author vit Bern. l. 1. cap. 12. right 1 Pet. 1.3 But I desire now after all these Divisions and Subdivisions to come to some Compositions or Conclusions And 1. Let this be one 1. Doct. A powerful right Teaching and Christ-preaching-Ministry doth very much advance the winning of Heaven by a sacred Violence 2. Then take an other Heaven must be taken by an holy Violence For the first I shall raise and resolve about it these two Queries 1. What such a Ministry is 2. Why such a Ministry doth so advance the winning of Heaven by an holy Violence To the first I answer It is a Ministry which poureth out it self in torrents of affection lists up its voice like a trumpet comes to the heart in the demonstration of the Spirit thunders out the Judgements of God against all that is called flesh and not spirit strikes at the very root of every tree which brings not forth fruit to God labours mightily to desponsate souls to Christ and therefore holds forth none and nothing so much as Christ To the second Query I answer thus in seven Grounds 1. Such a Ministry will cry down sin 2. Will cry up Heaven 3. Will cry up Zeal 4. Will take away the Vail which is over all mens faces 5. Will take away all excuses and vain conceits 6. Will acquaint men with the absolute necessity of believing 7. Will inform them of that strictness of living which Christ requireth of all that will enter into Life everlasting 1. Ground It will cry down Sin according to that of Isa 58.1 and Mat. 3.10 as thus it will tell men that they which do such things as they do commit adultery and whoredom and all manner of uncleanness and lasciviousness with greediness do lie steal pour in strong drink and will be drunk and glut themselves with excessive eating live in usury in the sin of covetousness of anger of envy of pride without fear without remorse without repentance are worthy of death worthy of damnation and shall never inherit the Kingdom of God according to that dreadful Scripture Gal. 5.19 20 21. Thus such a Ministry cryeth out against all sorts of Sins and Sinners who when they hear them cry out so what sins will they not rather miss that eternal Life they may not miss And what evils will they not forsake that Heaven they may take When a man understands that either he must lose his life or his leg or arm or right hand or right eye though his leg be dear to him his arm dear his right hand dear his right eye dear yet will he lose any of these dear things or all rather than life because his Chyrurgion tells him that else he must die So poor Sinners when they are told by the Chyrurgions of their souls that either they must lose their best beloved Sins which are as dear to them as their legs their arms their right eyes right hands or lose Heaven if they will keep them they will with God's blessing do any thing rather than die forgoe any sin rather than go to Hell lose any profit rather than Heaven Heaven being infinitely absolutely indisputably better than both their eyes both hands both legs both arms in a word than all that is near or dear to them in all this worlds circumference 2. Ground It will cry up Heaven as the Baptist came crying and saying Repent the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Mat. 3.2 and as Christ himself came preaching and saying in my Text The Kingdom of Heaven suffers Violence and Rev. 21.17 which when poor souls hear how they will be startled with Gods Blessing how they will come as those Mat. 3.6 confessing their sins and acknowledging their former of citances and neglectings of Life and Salvation and being ready to do any thing to do well hereafter and to be saved as those Luke 3.12 Beloved if this were a Sea-town and a Vessel should arrive here from beyond the Seas and a Cryer should be sent up and down to cry That if any will buy take estates worth thousands in a goodly Country for a small matter yea for nothing upon the matter he may now be carried over in that Vessel and buy and take as much Land as he will and as cheap as he can desire O! how would those of your Town who have but little or no estates and are in want and have but little or no money with both hands imbrace such an opportunity take such a proffer and advantage and embark themselves to be gone and to take such estates in so goodly a Country and to inhabit such stately Seats This now is the case of poor souls we Ministers arrive with our Vessels I should say our Gospel-preaching which we carry in earthen-vessels at your Towns at your Parishes at your Temples we turn Cryers being for that end sent Isa 58.1 and bid to cry and cry up and down in your Towns and solemn Assemblies Isa 55.1 Ho if any man will buy cheap and take Heaven cheap or an estate in Heaven worth not only thousands but whole worlds and desires to have a goodly seat indeed let him come with
and roar in prayer and yet in vain unless we continue in prayer and though we contend never so much yet is it to no end unless we contend so long by our violent Intreaties with God till we have our errands end O my Brethren this is the very Life the Soul the Art the Master-peice of right Praying by it we must needs carry Heaven nay with it we shall win the very God of Heaven even by Force Force your selves therefore my Brethren so to invocate the Name of God and to draw near to the Throne of Grace for Grace even Grace to help in a time of need Heb. 4.16 nay go and strive by many Prostrations before the Throne of Grace and mighty and uncessant Encountrings with God to become Overcomers of God saying to God as once Jacob said I will not let thee go tili thou bless me Gen. 1. By Violent Intreaties for the Effectual Fervent Prayer of a righteous Man availes much Jam. 5.17 O it presseth into the Presence of God it breaks through whole Hosts of hostile Powers it chargeth through the thickest Troups of Oppositions it mounts up beyond the Stars it penetrates the Heavens nay it towrs up beyond all aspectable Heavens and never ceases towring till it enters the very Heaven of Heavens where it wrestles with the God of Heaven for Heaven and never gives him over till by Force it hath won Heaven And therefore let this mighty Champion which we call Wrestling enter the Lists with God for you that Heaven may be taken by you Which God in mercy grant unto you 2. With uncessantly Violent Intreaties For Pray continually saith Christ Luke 18. 1. and With all Perseverance saith the Apostle Ephes 6.18 which is much more For in this Direction is a Climax or Gradation from much to much more For to pray uncessantly is as much beyond Violent Intreaties as the Sun is beyond the Moon in that as the Moon can have no light without the Sun so we without Perseverance in Prayer can see no light of God's Countenance beaming upon us no help to assist us no strength to enable us for high things to be attempted by us there we may cry and roar in prayer and yet in vain unless we continue in prayer and though we contend never so much yet is it to no end unless we contend so long by our violent Intreaties with God till we have our errands end O my Brethren this is the very Life the Soul the Art the Master-peice of right Praying by it we must needs carry Heaven nay with it we shall win the very God of Heaven even by Force Force your selves therefore my Brethren so to invocate the Name of God and to draw near to the Throne of Grace for Grace even Grace to help in a time of need Heb. 4.16 nay go and strive by many Prostrations before the Throne of Grace and mighty and uncessant Encountrings with God to become Overcomers of God saying to God as once Jacob said I will not let thee go tili thou bless me Gen. 32.26 When a City or Citadel is beleagured the great Guns go off often and when they cease the Country concludes that it is taken And so must our Prayers which are our Canons as * Bombardae Christianorum Luther Luther was wont to call them go off often when we go to win Heaven that is even indesinently the same time when we are about it crying as the little Children did once Mat. 21.9 Hosanna Hosanna that is Now save now save even again and again first here in this Temple from your very hearts and when ye are come home from your Closets your doors being shut and never give over crying so and discharging your great Canons so till you have won Heaven that is never come out of your Chambers after they have been shut till you have gotten some assurances from Heaven that you shall have Heaven concluding so because God hath heard them and as it were told them that Heaven is taken by them But here I must resolve two Cases of Conscience 1. Case The first is Sir we have heard all this and yet there is no stirring after all this some will say and therefore what shall we do in this Case To this I answer in four Conclusions 1. There may be no stirring with some of you because you are not yet effectually called and spoken to nor yet blown upon by the Spirit of God John 6.44 like those dry bones in Ezek. 37.2 even very dry so as that there was no stirring among them at all till after when the Prophet prophesied to them and the Wind that is the Spirit of God which is like Wind did breath upon them 2. Conclusion There may be no stirring with some of you as yet because your time is not come yet some are called the third some the sixth hour some the ninth some the eleventh hour Mat. 20.3 5 6. 3. Conclus If there be no stirring with you because you are not yet effectually called nor have been blown upon by the Spirit of God then you must pray to the Lord that this my preaching now at last may work upon you and there may be a stirring among you as thus O our God say Let this man's preaching to us belike Ezekiels prophesying For Lord hast not thou sent him saying Go and prophesie to these dead dry bones which are in that Town of T that they may live and wilt not thou bless his prophesying to our souls O that there were a shaking among us as there was among those bones O most mighty God let there be such a shaking and such a stirring among us now at last after all this prophesying that we may stand upon our feet as a great and terrible Army with Banners Cant. 6.11 and take Heaven by Force Or thus As Moses prayed Numb 14.17 And now I beseech thee let the Power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken So let every one of you now cry and say to Lord And now I beseech thee let the Power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken So let every one of you now cry and say to the Lord And now I beseech thee let the Power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken saying I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live Ezek. 37.5 and Verily verily I say unto you the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live John 5.24 Lord I am dead cause me to hear his Voice this hour this time that I may stir and live O this stirring it is that which must work must move our hearts must remove our affections must elevate our spirits must collocate our souls in a capacity and ability to attain to high atchivements and therefore I advise you so much and perswade you so earnestly to beg it 4. Conclus But if your time
do thou work upon this peoples hearts and let the Spirit of Life come into the wheels of their souls let him so move their affections as that they may be lifted up like those Wheels in Ezekiel Ezek. 1.20 21. because the Spirit of Life is in them O let not all these my labours be utterly lost but let some poor souls be now won to the Shepherd of souls O Souls Souls are ye nothing moved yet with all this I hope you are nay methinks you are by your attention if ye be then move and move indeed I mean so strongly so vigorously so effectually towards Heaven to take it by Force as that the world may see your change your zeal your forwardness your labouring for Heaven Heaven ye see is even at hand as the Baptist said once The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand when he so preached it up Mat. 3.2 it was so and so it is now and divers enter into it nay take it by Force O do you so likewise and so live for ever So be it To God alone be all Honour and Glory A New and Living Way OF DYING OR A TREATISE Shewing how Saints after they have comfortably overcome Sin the World by Faith and after a New and Living Manner have lived an Holy and Heavenly Life by Faith may die at last after a New and Living Way by in and according to Faith Upon that Famous Scripture HEBREWS 11.13 These all dyed in Faith And provided especially for Preparation to be made by all men against the Approach of Death in these Sickly Times By Christopher Jelinger And Published by some Christian Friends London Printed in the Year 1664. To The Vertuous Lady The Lady ANNE SEYMOUR Grace and Mercy be multiplied MADAM MY great Respect and thankful Mind which I bear to your Worthy-Self and to your Noble Family for many Favours received hath caused and compelled me to Dedicate this Tract to your much-honoured Name and if it may but find entertainment and acceptance I shall count my labour well bestowed Only give me leave Much Honoured Lady to give you a short Account of this my present Undertaking These late Times are and have been very sickly and many every where are fallen asleep and when the time of our departure will be the Lord only knoweth and we our selves also know this that it cannot be long before we likewise shal go to our long home and be no more seen at our present homes because our life is but a vapour Jam. 4.14 and we flie away Psal 90.10 which not with standing how few are there which prepare themselves for that time Cogitantes de fine infinito ut vivant in infinitum VVhence it cometh to pass that most men when after they have lived a careless life they come to be unmanned by Death they go Imparati in locum paratum Unprepared to a place prepared idque in aeternum and that for ever for that which ends All is without end And their nearest friends are much the cause of it for the common fashion of Friends is to put their friends in mind of Death when they doubt that they can live no longer Zenas the Lawyer and Luke the Physician must have given them over before they will send for Barnabas to give them good Counsel and solid Consolation against their dissolution But I for my part will not deal so with my Christian Friends My design in this Tract is this To tell men plainly that shortly they must put off their caribly Tabernacles shew them evidently How they must die whilst they live that they may live when they die dying in by and according to Faith This this I aimed at when I penned this Treatise which if it be acted by Faith will so work upon mens and womens precious souls and do them so much good as that they will even long to enjoy the chiefest good and when their work here is done will shew them Heaven open for them where there is health only and no sickness living and no dying incorruption and no corruption ease and no pain singing and no sorrowing For the former things are passed away Rev. 21.4 Many I confess have written on this subject of Death but you will find that I have left the common road as much as I might for my principal aim in this Tract is To put men upon that New and Living Way which the Apostle speaks of Heb. 10.20 and which must be taken by Faith according to which we must die to live for ever That Great God and Saviour who can do whatsoever he will in Heaven and on Earth so bless these my Labours to you Madam and to al that shal read them as that both you and they may fare the better for them here and hereafter for ever So prayeth Your Ladiships Most humble Servants CHRISTOPHER JELINGER A New and Living Way of Dying HEB. 11.13 These all Dyed in Faith ALmighty God as one saith well hath given to men three Mansions of a diverse Quality 1. The World wherein they live 2. The Grave wherein they corrupt 3. Either Heaven wherein they are crowned or Hell wherein they are tormented In the World their Companion is Vanity In the Grave the Worms In Heaven the blessed Angels and in Hell cursed Devils I add For like and like sute best one with an other Good Men I mean with good Angels and evil Men with Angels-Transgressors and yet such is the folly of most men that they would have perpetual habitations and an ever-during happiness in this vain World where neither such felicity nor perpetuity is to be expected for as all have sinned so all for Sin must be by Death dissolved even the best not excepted as by those Worthies which my Text speaketh of it appeareth So that men should rather forecast what course it were best for them to take that being thrust out of those earthly Tabernacles in which now they mansion they might mount up into that most blessed and blissful House of God which is not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 What this Course is which men should take you will understand by my future Discourse wherewith I shall God willing entertain your Christian Patience declaring FAITH to be that most happy Instrument which must bring you to such a firm durable and glorious settlement This ushered and conveyed those gracious Saints which my Text speaks of out of their earthly and unstable habitations into those heavenly Mansions above and places of unexpressable Delights for they all dyed in Faith and the end of Faith is as St. Peter tells us the salvation of our Souls 1 Pet. 1.9 I shall therefore call the whole ensuing Discourse A New and Living Way of Dying and shew therein how we may in a most sweet comfortable manner after an holy and heavenly walking die at last by in and according to Faith Faith I mean unfeigned lively and saving In which the antient Patriarchs dyed according
Heaven won by Violence OR A TREATISE Upon MAT. 11.12 Compendiously containing very nigh The Whole BODY OF Practical DIVINITY And shewing VVhat a Sacred Violence is and how it must be used and offered in Believing Repenting and all the Duties of your High Calling Together with A New and Living Way of Dying upon Heb. 11.1 added thereunto By Christopher Jelinger And Published with the Dedications thereof by some Christian Friends London Printed in the Year 1665. To the Right Worshipful ANTHONY REEVE The Mayor And his Brethren The MAGISTRATES And to all the Inhabitants of the populous Town of TOTNES Mercy and Peace from God the Father and from our Lord Saviour Jesus Christ I Have been much sollicited earnestly written to to communicate these my Labours because when I preached them first at your Town it pleased God of his infinite Mercy thereby to convert a poor soul then present and one more elsewhere from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan to God which hath occasioned the coming forth of this Treatise unto the publick view of the VVorld by a Friend whose desire it was to publish the same For who can tell whether it may not be the Beneplacit and will of God that more souls be thereby won to God The subject matter thereof you see is as apt as any by the good blessing of God to subject souls to the mighty Power of that VVord which here I hold forth and press to make you press toward the Mark for the Price of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus to strive that you may enter into the narrow Way which leads to Life to offer a Sacred Violence to Heaven to your selves nay to God himself blessed for ever to take to win to get that great that glorious that spacious Kingdom of Heaven by Force forcing your selves to leave the VVorld to abandon Sin to fight against Satan and to lay hold on eternal Life O Sirs here is work for all your Town for all this Country for all England for all your dayes The Ancient of dayes so diffuse his holy Spirit into your hearts that you may all become men of another spirit labouring for Heaven Heaven is worth the striving the strugling the pains-taking which in this Treatise is required that you may be saved Townsmen commonly are more at leisure to listen to such a discourse as this is because they are not under such a pressure of worldly work as those are which mansion in the Country therefore I hope you wil afford some of your spare hours to read that Lecture which here is read from so precious a Scripture and that you will not put off these tenders of my Love and such a Theam as this is like that unwise King of Macedon who when one tendred unto him a Treatise tending to Immortality said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is I am not at leisure I beseech you Sirs by the Mercies of God in the Bowels of Christ Jesus that you will be serious once and set your selves in earnest to that great VVork which is here proposed working out your Salvation with fear trembling for your time runs out apace in the Glass of time and I have this confidence in you all 2 Cor. 2.3 that you would not willingly have the silver Cords of your lives broken before your hearts with sorrow for sin be broken nor would depart this evil world before ye depart from sin and have left the vanities of the world and gotten a sound assurance of an other better world nor yet cease to be retainers to the Sun created before ye be retainers to the Sun of Righteousness nor take your farewel of the Elements before you have bid farewel to this present life's Allurements And therefore why do ye linger why do ye not break away from Satan by force why do ye not once begin to have a low and abject esteem of this common way of existence this retaining to the Elements and become the Servants of Holiness why do ye not strive to be the Children of Light before ye cease to be maintained by the usury of light Usura Lucis why do ye not set all things apart to have your part in that holy taking of that great glorious Kingdom of Heaven by Violence I for my part when I take a full veiw and circle of my self do conceive that without this I am nothing my life nothing my performing of duties nothing Do you conceive so too and then be doing as wel as reading the things in this Book contained Nay my Beloved do this especially before ever you take this Treatise in hand to peruse it resolve to be Assaulters urgers Pressers Forcers of your selves and of Heaven by it but withal beg and pray before you read one line that upon your bended knees seriously and ardently that the great God of Heaven himself will write these lines in your hearts which I have written in this Book that you may do them O that you would hear me in this For how many Books have been read in vain without this This this must make this my labour of love auspicious your reading prosperous and your laudable endeavours salutiferous But I also my self will pray for you O my God bedew theresore these silent lines with thy Benediction so as that this populous Town of T may consider in this her day the things which belong to her peace and tend to immortality as they are tendered to it in this Book for all eternity So prayeth Your most humble Orator to the Throne of Grace Christopher Jelinger ORATIO SIVE POEMA Authoris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad Jesum Christum Regem Coeli ac Terrae Potentissimum Dominum suum Clementissimum MAgno Nate Deo Magni Dominator Olympi Verbum subsistens et Patris ore potens Summum Sanctorum Caput Illustrissime Regum Qui Mundum fulcis Numine perpetuo Irrecitabiliter manans de Corde Parentis Quo Mundus sumpsit Principe Principium Ut Philomela suis attemperat Organa Cannis Fitque repercusso dulcior aura melo Sic mea Musa cupit te decantare per Orbem Terrarum totum Divitiasque tuas Non me linque ergo Rex Prestantissime Regnam Qui praesto es Sanctis dasque Salutis opem Sed me sustenta dextrae virtute potenti Quae fulcit Sanctos angelicosque Viros Et mihi Dux esto Cortus Cursumque per auras Dirigito in Caelos Christe beate Tuos Ut ceu constructura favos apis omnia linquens Floribus Instrepitans poplite mella rapit Sic rapere ipse queam Coelestia mella beatis Promissa in Coelis Optime Christe tuis Pierides Christo nune vestras dicite laudes Qui Sermo est Magni Progeniesque Dei Christo Cujus amor suavis mihi Crescit in horas Dicite sit semper Gratia Magnatibi Sit lans excellens celebris sit fama per Orbem Atque in perpetuum Gloria summa tibi
Acts 17.11 enoble then your blood and enable your minds to mind heavenly things for such are the things comprized in this Book called the great things of the Law Hos 8.12 Put your selves to it therefore and force your minds to this most noble exercise which will so enoble your souls 4. In Relieving And Relieving 1. The Bodies of others 2. The Souls of others First Their Bodies with Food and Rayment and such other necessaries as they do want according to that noted Scripture Heb. 13.16 But to do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased And that of our Saviour Sell that ye have and give Atms provide your selves bags which wax not old a Treasure in the Heavens which faileth not where no Thief approacheth neither Moth corrupteth Luke 12.33 Where note that in the †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a nomine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod ab altero nomine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 misericordia derivatur Original there is a word for Almes which by a Metonymie declares the Benefactors and Almes-givers merciful Disposition shewn by his Donation and that he gives his Almes as he ought who by his giving ostends and sheweth that he is affected with the misery of the Relieved and therefore how few give Almes and relieve the Needy as they ought Again Note here that the Chaldeans and Syrians and Hebrews call Almes Righteousness Which * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 name is also retained in the Greek Testament 2 Cor. 9.9 as it is written He hath dispersed abroad he hath given to the poor his Righteousness remains for ever to shew that Almes-giving is a piece of Justice and that he who gives Almes is to observe the Rules of Justice and to distribute to every one according to his need as it is written Acts 4.35 And Distribution was made to every man according as he had Need. And who do so not one of an hundred A little will serve with many for many Few will do as †Clerk in his Life p. 251. Luther who when a poor Student came to his door begging an Almes and his Wife pleaded Penury gave him a Silver Bowl and as * Idem in his Life pag. 760. Bernard Gilpin who when he saw naked People would pull of his Cloaths and cloth them Ministers had need therefore to call upon men frequently Give Almes gives Almes and give to every man as he hath need And you had need to call upon your own souls for it for O how backward are they and how unwilling to be drawn to it With many every penny of money which they give when pressed to it is as a drop of their blood and they are as loath to spare the one as the other But I pray you consider this you that are so backward to this That mans Estate consists of three parts 1. Necessaries 2. Decency 3. Superfluity God allowes you the two former but requires the third for the poor If a man refuse to part with it he forfeits the former too and God oft-times takes the forfeit But I cannot yet so leave Charity for it is so lovely so comely so exceeding goodly O it ravishes with its Beauty replenishes with its Bounty and cherishes with its Benignity all that need it and come near it where it is in truth for it is just like fire for so it warms the naked makes lightsome the sadded and with its comfortableness cherishes the destituted and therefore make much of this Fire O let it not by any means go out but rather go and kindle it go and feed it go and keep it in and let many be fed be filled be refreshed by it nay let it set your selves on fire that your hearts may burn with it like fire which else will be as cold as a Key and had need therefore to be heated with it and inflamed by it Secondly Their Souls you must feed with your lips according to that in Prov. 10.21 The Lips of the Righteous feed many namely with wholesome admonitions seasonable instructions profitable reprehensions and comfortable communications O Beloved what cause have we to inculcate this such a time as this wherein so many who profess much yet express little of that Goodness that Sweetness that Delightfulness that Riches that Happiness which is in God in Christ in his Word in Heaven So as that I may well and seasonably here take up that sad complaint which Isidore made in his time speaking of Heaven Though this Kingdom be Eternal not a word of that for what man is there that spends the least part of a day in meditating upon that that once makes mention of that that instructs his Wife and Children of that all our talk is but vain But let this be mended and because our bashful natures are utterly averse from such talk let us oppose Grace against Nature and force Nature let us offer an holy Violence to our selves and constrain our selves to talk better and to talk more of Heaven * Evagrius 1.4 c. 14. One Writes of some Martys that though their Tongues were cut out yet they did speak and shall not we that have our Tongues and the use thereof lest us speak Oh speak speak one to another and that often as those in Mal. 3.16 and when you do speak speak the wonderful Works of God as the Apostles did Acts 2.11 or as †Nil nisi castum vel Sermo Dei ex ejus ore processi◠Author vitae Hieronymi Jerome of things chaste and of God's Word and begin so to do this very day and after this very Sermon as they at that day O do not defer it any longer the sooner the better the Matter in hand will furnish you with Matter for it is of the great Kingdom of Heaven which must be taken by Force and therefore stir up one another talking of it with your Wives Children Servants Neighbours Fellow-Hearers saying one to another as †Aug. Confess 1.8 c. 1. Austin once said to Alipius his friend after he had heard much of some mens taking of Heaven by Violence What is this What suffer we under the Tyranny of Sin Unlearned men such as Authony and others in Egypt and Milan do take Heaven by Violence and we with all our Learning without Hearts behold how we lie groveling in flesh and blood so what do we suffer say Heaven suffers and suffers Violence and we suffer it to be taken by others and will not take it our selves O! come come let us also offer Violence to it that by force we may take it Heaven is high but not too high for Forcers Forcers will carry it Thesore let us force our selves and do our utmost to win it Thus talk and speak one to another 5. In Fasting For turn to me with Fasting saith God Joel 2.12 And what eminent Fasters have most of the Lords most Renowned Saints and Servants been David that man after God's own
Heart how did he chasten his flesh with Fasting though it was to his reproach Psal 69.10 So Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 20.3 how did he seek the Lord with Fasting So Daniel Dan. 9.3 how did he set himself to call upon his God with Fasting So that great King of Nineveh how did he humble himself before the King of Kings in Sackcloth and Ashes and with Fasting Jona 3.6 7. And what shall I more say For the time would fail me to tell of Joshua Josh 7.6 of Samuel and all Israel 1 Sam. 7.6 and of Esther and of Anna which being a Widdow of four-score and four years to shame many of our young and lusty people that will not fast a day unless it be by constraint and by a command from the Higher-Powers departed not from the Temple but served God with Fastings and Prayers night and day Luke 2.37 The like instances could be given in many others who lived since Christ and flourished in his Church like the Trees of Eden but †Clerk in his life p. 932. Calvin only shall serve who for ten years togegether fasted daily and made but one meal a day at night spending all his time in and about the Things of God and in Prayer insomuch as that a very †Rivetus reports it Papist writing of him calls him in Frend Un grand jeuneur that is a great Faster and shall we spend our time in eating and drinking and neglect so famous a Duty Is that the way to Heaven Is that to offer Violence to the Kingdom of Heaven Because fasting is unsavory to the flesh as making the Belly to suffer therefore forsooth we will not fast but had we that sweet and gracious appetite which the prementioned Saints had then fasting would be as pleasant to us as feasting For it is the Souls feasting because it brings gracious Souls to the greatest dainties and they to a tast with which no savouriness of Meats no variety of Dishes no sweetness of Wine or Women can be parallel'd O sweet feasting then that comes by fasting Fast therefore and thereby feast your Souls often O Beloved and if the flesh draw backward force it forward and make it to suffer for Heaven suffers and suffereth Violence and why shall not our sluggish flesh 6. In Considering or Consideration which differs from Meditation thus Meditation is an Agitation and repetition of things * Langius in sua Polyanth p. 296. Aquin. 2 2. q. 18. a. 3. proceeding from reason and piece by piece and tending to happiness to be injoyed in the enjoyment of the everlasting Verity Consideration is a more †Omnis operatio intellectus Langius p. 257. general operation of the Intellect whereby she looks and dives into things deliberately to find out what she desireth and ought to know Now this consideration how needful it is you may perceive partly by God's express Command in Psal 45.10 Hearken O Daughter and consider and partly by her Operations and Properties for she is the Key which opens the Door to the Closet of our Heart where all our Books of Account do lie she is the Looking-Glass or rather the very eye of our Soul whereby she seeth her self and looketh into all her whole estate her riches her good gifts her defects her safety her danger her way she walks in her pace she holdeth and finally the place and end she draweth to and without which in short she runs on blindly into a thousand brakes and briers stumbling at every step into some one inconvenience or other and is continually in peril of some great and grievous sin and a thing much to be admired it is that whereas in all things else men confess and see that nothing can be either begun prosecuted or well ended without consideration yet in this great business of the Kingdom of Heaven * E. B. p. 12. no man almost thinks the same necessaty Were a Mariner to make a Voyage from England to Jerusalem albeit he had made the same once or twice before yet would he not now take such a great Voyage in hand again without consideration whether he were in the right or no what peace he held how near he were to Rocks and Sands which he must shun and how near to his Voyages end and think you dear Friends to pass from hence to the Heavenly Jerusalem from men to God from this miserable world into that other blessed and pleasant world and that by so many Hills and Hells so many Gulphs and quick-Sands so many Rocks and dangers never passed before and this without consideration at all ye are utterly deluded if you conceive so for this passage hath far more need of consideration then that being much more subject to miscarriages every sinful pleasure every sensual delight every vain thought every idle word every wanton look every inticing sound every provoking and unclean touch and every temptation of men or Devils being a Pyrate lying ready to surprize ready to spoil your poor Souls in their Voyage towards Heaven wherefore let me perswade every one of you that would take Heaven by force to force his Soul to consideration for the Soul is and will be as unwilling to it as some Debtors who are deeply indebted are to cast up their Accounts to avoid trouble for so men count it great trouble to enter into a serious consideration of their estates and of such like things which is one of their greatest Follies for as in things of this Life he were but a foolish Factor who would never look into his own Account-book whether he were before-hand or behind and as the Mariner were very much to be blamed for his follie that for shunning of care and trouble would go into his Cabin and be merry eat drink play not caring for his Ship which way it did run and letting it go whither she would So it is madness and folly in the highest degree to shun consideration because of trouble and to make good chear instead of making Heaven by consideration sure and to be negligent when you should be diligent to get all things by consideration ready against the day of your account which you must give to God that you may give it up with joy and mansion for ever with God O good God stir up this peoples Hearts that they may stir within them yea boil as it were and boil over so as to make them considerate and be you O my Brethren now like a good Factor who when he is sent by his Master beyond the Seas to a place of Traffick there to trade for his Masters benefit doth not spend his time in eating drinking gaming dancing and such like things but rather goeth and considers wherefore am I here am I not here to do my Masters service And so goeth about his Masters business so you being sent by your great Master in Heaven into this World to Traffick for him as you may see Mat. 25.14 15 c. do not spend
drink of the same Cup too 7. Reas Nay how can they be conformable to the same eternal Son of God their Lord and Saviour as they must be even by the unalterable eternal Decree of God Rom. 8.29 if they should not die as he dyed leaving us all an Example to follow after As if he should have said as much in effect as once Gideon said to his followers Judg. 7.17 As I do so shall ye do or rather mutatis mutandis as I die so shall you die after The Third Prosecution Object You will say unto me Why then was Enoch translated before the Flood and Elias after and why saith the Apostle We shall not all sleep 1 Cor. 15.51 if good men must die as well as others To this I answer Sol. Their very Translation was not without a kind of Death for they were changed and Death is but a change Job 14.14 The same may be said of those 1 Cor. 15.51 2d Object If you reply But what meaneth then the Apostle by this Antithesis when he saith expresly We shall not all sleep but we shall be changed Sol. I answer These words have troubled some not a little and therefore we shall find three differing Latin Translations 1. Some read the words thus We shall not die but we shall all be changed 2. Others read them thus We shall all rise but we shall not all be changed 3. Others thus We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed The Cause of which diversity I conceive to be this Because some were offended by the Greek Copies as 〈◊〉 they did contradict that in Heb. 9.29 but we need 〈◊〉 go so far as they a Distinction 〈…〉 all There is a twofold Death 1. Ordinary 2. Extraordinary 1. The Ordinary is a Solution of the Soul from the Body 2. The Extraordinary is an Abolition of mans corruptible Nature Now then when the Apostle tells us We shall not all die but we shall all be changed the sence of his words is not that therefore some shall not die at all but only that some shall not die an ordinary death because their souls shall not be severed from their bodies which notwithstanding it may be said that they shall die a kind of death which we call Extraordinary because there cannot be a change without an abolition of the former corruptible Nature The Third Prosecution I should now set sail and lanch forthwith into the deep of your hearts by some powerful Application but that I must clear all things first behind me before I can comfortably commit my self to such a vast Sea of Matter as is now before me declaring what I mean by the Death of the Godly when I say They must die like other men 1. Some things their death hath common with the deaths of the Ungodly 2. Some thing it hath peculiar I. The Commonness of both Deaths consists in six Respects 1st Respect As the Souls of the Ungodly are separated from their Bodies so the Souls of the Godly unless God take them away by a Death Extraordinary like Enoch and Elias Ecles 12.7 2d Respect As the Dissolution being natural and not violent followeth in the one when natural heat faileth the radical humour being by heat dryed up and exhausted like Oyl in a Lamp which also thereupon goes out and is extinguished so in the other Hence it is that the Grecians have called the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they are humourless 3d. Respect As this Dissolution when it is * Cic. l. 1. Tuscul Quaest violent happeneth in the one either by a casual substraction of the radical humour or by a suffocation of the natural heat upon some opposition made inwardly or outwardly so in the other See 1 Sam. 31.6 4th Resp As the dissolution of the one if it be not sudden happeneth * Suarez Metaphys Disputat 11. to 1. sect 3. fol. 232. two wayes 1. By divers Alterations and Dispositions which precede the instant of Death and corrupt the subject 2. By that destruction which it causeth in the very instant of death So the other 5. Resp As the Dissolution of the one is not only a separation of their souls and bodies but also a dissolution of those things whereof their bodies were compounded which also is aptly called Corruption 1 Cor. 15.12 so the Dissolution of the other 6. Resp As the one leaveth this world and goeth hence to some other place so the other Psal 39.13 Acts 1.25 So that * Socrates apud Plat. Socrates's description of Death may well be received as very proper and pertinent Death is the souls change of one place for another II. The Peculiarity of the Death of the Godly consisteth or will appear in sive things 1. Though the Souls of the Godly be dis-joyned from their Bodies like the souls of others yet are they not so violently taken away like the souls of others Luke 12.20 but rather surrendred with their good will and liking Mat. 27.50 Acts 7.59 2. The death of the Godly is not only a dissolution of the soul and body but also a separation of both from Sin Rom. 6.7 3. It is an abolition of all humane Frailties Rev. 11.4 so that one may truly say of it as a Martyr said to his fellow-Martyr of that bloody Bishop of London My Lord of London will be our good Physitian and cure us both c. 4. It is but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Peregrination as Socrates calls it or a Transitus and an Exodus a going over and comming out not an Interitus or going down I say it is an Exodus or going out like the comming of Israel out of Egypt for so the Godly do but leave this World which is like Egypt full of toyl and pass on even triumphantly thorow the abhorred Confines of the King of Fear being carried upon the wings of Joy and in the arms of Angels into the Celestial Canaan which is full of unknown Delights and endless bliss Luke 23.43 Rev. 14.13 5. Nay it is a making rather than a marring of them a reparation and not a destruction In a word a state of Perfection and not of Perdition for being dead they are said to be made perfect Heb. 12.23 So that the Hebrews have aptly termed Death in that regard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words being inverted are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words signifie Perfection and Innocency to shew that Death shuts up and sinisheth all Imperfection and makes compleat and perfect When therefore I say that the Godly also must die like others I regard those six Respects which their death hath common with the death of others for otherwise though they dye as well as others yet do not they die like others in regard of those five Peculiarities which here I have purposely specified that the vast Difference which is between the Death of both might appear and be
2. Grieve the Spirit that should comfort them Whereas careful providers for death rather 1. Blow up the good motions and workings of the Spirit as much as in them lyeth by their careful and holy walking and applying of the Lord's Promises so that needs they must feel more joy and comfort then others that do not so even as one that bloweth up Coals doth feel more heat then he which suffers them to go out 2. Please the Spirit of God and cherish his motions by their conformity to his Nature in that they labour to be as Spiritual as possible they may and so consequently to partake of his Nature so as that the Spirit being pleased and cherished cannot but please and cherish them again as they please and cherish him for if we that usually are very unkind and ungrateful yet cannot but be kind to those that be kind to us and make much of them as they make much of us how much more will that most kind and holy Spirit of God chear up those that cherish him and make much of them as they make much of him See Acts 9.31 how therefore they that walked in the fear of the Lord are also said to walk in the Comforts of the holy Ghost 2. Such are most fit for comfort and joy For 1. The muchness of Grace which is in them and procedeth from them cannot but be evidently seen and observed by them and cause them to joy in it and to be even exceeding glad for it like a man that hath and finds a treasure that was hid in his field see Mat. 13.44 Now the finding of such a Treasure will chear up the heart 2. The enlargment of their holy desires and endeavours cannot but procure joy which is an Laetitia quasi latitia enlargement of the Heart Psal 119.32 and is given to holy and careful walkers as a gracious remuneration from God Psal 97.11 3. Holy walkers and careful providers for death cannot but attain to a most happy consecution of that good which they desire even the enjoying of Christ by Faith a cognition or knowledge of the same consecution which is * Delectatio requirit consecutionem boni convenientis et consecutionis cognitionem Tho. Aquin. 1.2 q. 32. a. 1. required unto delectation as well as the consecution it self so that they cannot but rejoyce more or less sooner or later with that joy which is called Unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.7 8. or at least with a lesser degree of joy if God for causes best known to himself be pleased to suspend and to deny that higher degree of rejoycing 4. They are in a manner in Heaven already and Heaven is in them in that they mind nothing almost but Heaven as I shewed that men ought so to do so as that they cannot but joy in that which is so full of joy enjoying the very same objective Happiness with the Saints in Heaven though not the same subjective Happiness as not being yet capable of it for if he that is but in a Goldsmiths shop cannot but receive some splendor from the Gold that is in it how much more shall they that mind nothing but Heaven and so have their conversation in Heaven partake also more or less of that Joy Blessedness which is in Heaven and which the true Believer seeth as it were and beholds by his Faith and seeing admireth and admiring in a manner possesseth for by Hope we are saved already saith the Apostle Rom. 8.24 * Arist 2. Rhetor 11. Aristotle saith expresly That Admiration is the cause of Joy and Delectation because it maketh us hope that we shall acquire something which is delectable and joyful And therefore conceive ye what Joy the vision taking possession of Heaven it self which is so rare and so full of admiration must needs cause in a truly serious savingly believing mind For your greater delight and encouragement I 'll here set down some of those triumphant passages which some careful Providers for Death have uttered to this purpose a little before they were by Death unmanned I feel a light said * Fox Justus Jusbery one of Christ's blessed Martyrs which refreshes me with joy far above that which I am able to express desiring nothing more now then to be dissolved and to be with Christ So Adolphus Clarebachius Martyr at his death I believe there is not a merrier heart in the world at this instant than mine And for my part said Mr. Deering as concerning death I feel such joy of spirit that if I should have the sentence of lise on the one side and the sentence of death on the other side I had rather chuse a thousand times seeing God hath appointed the separation the sentence of death than the sentence of life So Mr. John Holland a fruitful Minister of God's Word having the day before he dyed continued his Meditation and Exposition upon Rom. 8. for the space of two hours or more said on a sudden O stay your reading what Brightness is this that I see have ye lighted any Candles No said one it is the Shunshine Sunshine said he No it is my Saviours Shine Now farewel world welcome Heaven the Day-Star from on high hath visiced my heart O speak it when I am gone and preach it at my Funeral for he spake to a Minister c Mr. Leigh in his Sermon intitled The Souls Solace against Sorrow p. 17. who relates it God deals familiarly with men I feel his Mercy I see his Majesty whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God he knows but I see things unutterable O what a happy change shall I make from night to day from darkness to light from death to life from sorrow to solace Thus joyful holy Walkers and true Believers have been at their departure and therefore be ye perswaded to trace their steps and to follow as ye ought those most needful Directions and Rules which were formerly delivered that so living and so dying by with and according to Faith you may also be mounted as the said Believers were upon the wings of Joy and feed as they did on those ravishing and transcendent Comforts which God like Manna is wont to rain down upon his holy Walkers in this men devouring Wilderness the World I mean from which God in mercy bring us all in the end of our dayes to a World of Joy and Glory which shall never have an end Amen Soli Deo Gloria FINIS
your time idlely or doing worse do not drink your selves drunk with the Drunken do no glut your selves with the Glutton do not dilapidate and mis-spend your precious time with Carding Dicing courting of Wanton Women do not give up your selves to Chambering and Lasciviousness but rather retire your selves and consider every one of you with himself Wherefore am I here here in this place here in this Town hath not my great Master in Heaven sent me hither to look after his business and to do him service in this place and shall I do the Devils business and serve him O God forbid Or thus as * Author vitae Bernardi St. Bernard was wont oft-times to call upon himself saying to himself Adquid Bernarde venisti that is Bernard for what art thou come hither menning to Claravall is where his business lay So say thou that hearest me this day to thy self every day calling thy self by thy name John or Peter Wherefore art thou come hither to this Town or Parish Camest thou not hither to serve thy God in this place and in this Generation that having dore the Will of God here thou mayest life with God hereafter and so go about thy business and his business thine in the second place and his in the first and with all earnestness eagerness labouring as for life to obtain by Force that ever-during Happiness and ever-blessed Life 7. In Meditating Meditation is with a man as he that smells the Violets the Roses and the Orange-Flowers in a bundle which is elegantly set forth in the Canticles where the Spouse plaits up her Hair trussing it up into a knot to shew that we should not diffuse our thoughts into variety of conceptions nor yet consider of divers things only but should recollect our conceptions rather into a Knot the Knot I mean of Meditation which I am now to speak of and which is so much commanded and commended to us in sacred writ as Josh 1.8 This Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy Mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night and 1 Tim. 4.6 Meditate upon these things And you know what the blessed Man's Commendation is Psal 1. That he Meditates in the Law of the Lord day and night Which because it is a most difficult thing so to do both day and night makes Meditation so rare as it is For we Ministers can perswade ten twenty nay hundreds to pray to read to give Almes before we can make one to Meditate but one hour of the day So rare is Meditation and so rare Meditators David tells us that the Law of the Lord was his Meditation all the day long Psal 119.97 And Mathias Prideaux in his Introduction one writes of one of the ancient Kings of England that he spent Eight hours in Meditation every day But where are such Davids such Meditators now Where shall we find them where So that we Ministers had need to press this also upon our People very much and you had need to urge to force and to reinforce your dead and backward souls to this very much and often saying every one of you to his own soul O my soul Why art thou so averse from so high and heavenly a Duty Is this to labour for Heaven all the day long not so much as to mind or mention Heaven Is this to take it by Force to let day pass after day week after week opportunity after opportunity and yet never once to lay hold on any or to redeem any part or portion of so much precious time for any serious thoughts to be bestowed upon Eternity O my Brethren will ye therefore be discouraged from meditating because it is difficult work and because few there are that do it O far be it from such as some of ye be Pretenders I mean to the taking of Heaven by Violence The more difficult the work is the greater will be your glory if ye set your selves in good earnest to it and the greater your reward for by it we turn Eagles and like Eagles towr up and draw night to the very Sun it self the Sun I mean of Righteousness the Lord Jesus nay by it we are even clothed with the Sun I mean that Sun like that Mystical Woman in Rev. 12.1 to whom were given two wings as of a great Eagle having about us the unspotted Righteousness of the Lord Jesus to cover our nakedness and unrighteousness and by it we out-soar all humane blandishments overlook all earthly contentments transcend all sublunary Paradises and emparadise our selves in the Paradise of God Where Fulness of Joy is and Pleasures are for evermore Psal 16.11 Betake therefore your selves to your wings of Meditation and Contemplation which some say is somewhat more higher than Meditation and fly aloft like so many great Eagles even beyond the Moon and beyond the Clouds nay beyond the Sun it self which is higher than the Moon yea sar above all Heavens I mean inferiour Heavens as Christ did Ephes 4.8 and strive to be there even by force where he now is having your minds your hearts your conversations in that highest Empyrean Heaven Heaven your selves thus as dear Saints and as other Saints have done before you whose Conversation was in Heaven Phil. 3.20 8. In Fimshing or Persevering Be thou faithful unto Death saith Christ and I will give thee the Crown of Life Rev. 2.10 and I have fought a good sight saith Paul I have finished my course 2 Tim. 4.7 Which therefore puts me upon Finishing for it is not enough for a General to go into the field and to charge an enemy no but he must overcome him to win a Crown So we to overcome and so to win the Crown of Heaven must persevere and hold out to the end of our Militia for he that shall endure to the End the same shall be saved Mat. 24.13 Hence Victory in the Hebrew is called Netsach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Nuseach signifying he hath insisted eagerly urged vehemently and continued indesinently to the very end of his undertaking for Perseverance is needful in wars Persevere therefore most dear Saints to the end if you will have your errands end It is confessed that ye will meet with many lets many discouragements many taunts many reproaches many enemies especially at parting For as a Pyrate will set upon a ship then most and soonest when it is richly laden and near its Haven so will Satan set upon us most busily and eagerly then when we being fraighted and filled with the Fruits of Righteousness are near our end but all this must not emasculate nor dismay us no but we must keep on our pace hold up our heads pursue our intentions be instant in our prayers be constant in all our Christian Duties and maintain our holy and pious Resolutions in despite of all and be retarded by none of them all Our own lazie souls will draw back most and soon grow weary in every one of the
several duties which I have mentioned formerly but we must not cease to put them forward stil and that by Force imitating in this that eminent Convert mentioned formerly blessed Austin I mean whose words are these after he had heard so much of those Worthies which one Potitian a Courtier and a Captain had spoken of to him how they did take Heaven by Violence leading constantly a most strict austere and vertuous Life and had withdrawn himself a little what did I not say against my self in this conflict for he was put thereby into a grievous strait How did I beat and whip mine own soul to make her follow thee O Lord namely constantly for many were her fits but she held back she refused and excused her self and when all her arguments were convicted she remained trembling and fearing as death to be restrained from her loose custom of sinning whereby she consumed her self even unto death As he thus whipt and forced his own soul so let us ours for have not ours their many sits and shists too drawing back when we are almost perswaded and make us give over in our several Performances of the Duties of Prayer and Meditation and such-like when we are almost over but hold them to it as he did his though they be never so averse nay though they do even tremble at it and pine at it and would rather not be than lose then loâ—se courses O Christians our Constancy will coronate all our labours and remunerate all our good Endeavours used for Heaven Heaven at last will pay for all Wherefore let us neither faint nor fail though never so much either discouraged or opposed For a farther manifestation and prosecution of all this that I have spoken I 'll use this familiar Comparison There is a Rock in the midst of the vast and boysterous Ocean Sea the proud Waves of which beat upon it the fierce Winds beat against it those immeasurable Seas of water which are in it encompass it but do either Winds or Waves or Waters move it or are they able to remove it or to break it No no they cannot they cannot Now a true Christian is such a Rock like Peter whose Name signifies a Rock and therefore no Winds of Persecution no Waves of Temptation no Seas of Affliction should turn him aside from his Stedfastness nor from his holy Conversation nor from his going to take Heaven by Violence but he ought to be as stedfast and unmoveable as others be unstable vain light and variable We have a notable place for this 1 Cor. 15.58 Therefore my beloved Brethren Be ye stedfast unmovable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Do ye hear this Sirs what is required of you do ye see what ye must be I believe you do and therefore let every man here present prove a constant man and hold out firmly and strongly till he be unmann'd by death that he may be saved and heavened after death everlastingly which God in mercy grant 2. Be perswaded to force the Kingdom of Heaven it self Q. If you ask me How I answer By a forcible Entry striving 1. To enter in at that strait Gate which is called Christ 2. To press thorow that narrow Way of the difficultest and strictest of all good Works 3. To break thorow the Ranks Files of your great and mighty Enemies which are betwixt you and it 4. To pass with Courage and Patience through great Tribulations 1. Striving to enter in at that strait Gate which is called Christ Mat. 7.13 compared with John 9.10 where Christ himself saith I am the Door Many think that it is the easiest thing in the world to come to Christ and by him to Heaven but they are utterly deceived for so strait and strict is Christ as that he will not allow us so much as a look cast upon a woman to lust aster her in our hearts Mat. 5.28 nor any thing more in our ordinary communications to bind them than Yea or Nay saying Whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil that is as Expositors say of an evil Conscience or of the Devil ver 37. nor any private resistance to be made against evil for * That is resist not out of revenge any evil offered to you resist not Evil saith he ver 39. nor any miscalling of any man by the name of Fool or the like nor yet any passionate sit of anger or the like ver 22. nor any one sin else whatsoever it be for Sin no more saith he John 9.11 and if thy right eye offend thee that is cause thee to sin for the Original is Scandalise thee and sins are Scandals that is †Jun. in loc Stones at which we stumble pluck it out and cast it from thee and if thy right-hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee Mat. 5.29 30. to shew that * Christus hyperbolice docet resecandum quicquid nos impedit ne obsequium Deo praestemus Idem in loc any sin though it be as dear or near as ones right eye or hand must be cast away from us if we would not be Cast-awayes our selves nor have the doom and sentence of Damnation past upon us And besides O! what a hard thing it is by Faith to go into Christ and to lay hold on Christ to believe Christ or a Christ is nothing to that That poor man in the Gospel Mark 9.24 how he wept and cryed when he was to Believe in Christ Take one Comparison more from a Rock A man is Ship-wrackt at Sea but seeth a fair great Rock in the midst of the Sea and strives to get upon it but the Rock is high and he can sind nothing to hold by and besides when he comes very near it the winds and waves of the Sea beat him from it and if with much ado he get upon it one wave of the Sea raketh over his head and another and another and is like to wash him clean away and to cast him back again into the midst of the Sea This man is every man that goeth by Faith to lay hold on Christ for he is one that hath suffered Ship-wrack as well as others in our Father Adam and Christ is like a Rock in the midst of the Sea 1 Cor. 10.4 which this poor Ship-wrackt-man espies and whom to he draws and swims and makes to lie hold on by Faith to save himself in him and by him but Christ is high in his terms upon which he will be taken as ye were told just now and besides when this poor man comes to fasten himself upon him and to hold him he can find no Faith to hold by and so cries out and saith O I have no Faith not so much as a grain of mustard seed and therefore how can I lay hold on Christ O I must needs be cast away and be suffocated and drowned in those