Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	soul_n	true_a	7,689	5	4.8842	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63825	Forty sermons upon several occasions by the late reverend and learned Anthony Tuckney ... sometimes master of Emmanuel and St. John's Colledge (successively) and Regius professor of divinity in the University of Cambridge, published according to his own copies his son Jonathan Tuckney ...; Sermons. Selections	Tuckney, Anthony, 1599-1670.	1676 (1676)	Wing T3215; ESTC R20149	571,133	598

do it they destroy each other whilst Midian-like every mans sword is sheathed in the bowels of his brother So in the Psalm before-cited Divide O Lord and destroy Division and destruction go together or one followeth upon the other Brethren in evil Gen. 49. 5. are scattered asunder v. 7. on which Matth. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fit punishment for dividers See Boyse in locum Grotius well noteth Mala coitio divisione punitur by Gods hand or the Magistrate's or rather than fail by their own Or whatever they do to one another I am sure the Church and people of God deeply suffer by them as by these their impieties furies and divisions partly grieved and offended in themselves and reproached by others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the former Pag. 61. 1 Cor. 1. Clemens to the Corinthians whom Paul had before much blamed for their divisions and it seemeth they yet continued in them that Clemens after him upon a new breach saw cause to take up the same complaint and we now as much as he that our Sects and divisions give Papists Atheists and Infidels too much cause to laugh and blaspheme that either our Christ is not that Christ which the Gospel holds forth or that we are not true Christians and so make some to fall off others to doubt and therefore cannot but make all that are truly grounded grieve and mourn in secret And good reason For unless God please timely to heal these breaches they will not stay here but division will end in dissolution A Church as well as a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand Planks Mat. 12. 25. joyned together make a ship but if once dis-joyned they make a shipwrack Julian knew this too well and therefore that he might the easier undo Christianity he not only tolerated but somented Ammia● Marcellin lib. 22. the differences of Christians These * Lib. 8. c. 1. Eusebius observeth were the inlet of Persecution upon the former flourishing Primitive Churches from enemies without God keep such from us without whilst we are so bickering within amongst our selves and so dum singuli pugnant omnes vincuntur The Devil and his Instruments are not grown so drowsie as not to watch such advantages But should they sleep these intestine Convulsions and Ruptures within our own bowels may be likely to prove deadly For Faction useth to be fierce and enmities and scuffles upon the account of Religion most bloody and the Scripture joyneth such ugly pairs as these are together Whose mouths are full of cursing and bitterness as you know whose now are their feet are swift to shed blood and destruction and misery are in their ways and the way of peace they have not known Rom. 3. 14 15 16 17. The Jews after their Captivity in Babylon were much cured of their former Idolatry but then especially sprung up their several Sects of Sadducees Pharisees and their several Schisms and Parties and so at last it was the Sectary not the Idolatrous Jews that crucified our Saviour God grant that whilst we are or have been reforming Popish Idolatry Christ and his Church do not suffer by our Schisms and that whilst all Parties are tolerated all at last come not to be utterly ruined Oh therefore that once we might be taken off from that which Vse keeps us so off from one another and that we might be effectually disswaded from resting in that which so much dissettles all from thinking to commend our selves to God by Sects and Parties which make us so ridiculous to Enemies so displeasing to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianzen Orat. 14. pag. 218. and all that are truly Godly so unlike yea contrary to Christ and the Spirit of the Gospel and the holy and happy Communion of the Saints the true Professors of it that once there might be no divisions amongst us but that we may perfectly be joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment This is that which Christ begged of God in his most divine prayer before his Passion Joh. 17. and on which he so much insists v. 11 21 22 23. Paul for the Romans Rom. 15. 5 6. and most passionately beseeches the Corinthians for in the beginning of his first Epistle to them Chap. 1. v. 10. and calls upon them and God for in the close of his second Epistle to them Chap. 13. v. 11 12 14. as the both Alpha and Omega of his desires and their happiness That which he injoyns and commands with most conjuring perswasives If there be any consolation in Christ Oh how sweet If any comfort of love how great If any fellowship of the Spirit how intimate and obliging If any bowels and mercies how large and tender in Christ to us and should be in us one towards another Phil. 2. 1 2 3. That which he chides for the want of 1 Cor. 1. 11 12. c. which he takes pains to heal between a Master and a fugitive servant in the Epistle to Philemon and between Euodias and Syntyche two weak women who were fallen out either between themselves or both of them with the Church Phil. 4. 2. and was the breach between two such sorry women or a master And his untoward servant so great a matter as the great Apostle thought it not below him and that when he was writing the Canonical Scripture to take pains to compose as it were on purpose to leave it upon record that it might lye before us as the Canon and Rule of our practice and that the most spiritual amongst us might not think it unworthy of them to restore such dislocated joynts in the spirit of meekness And shall the best of us then think Gal. 6. 1. our selves too good to stoop to such a service Oh remember that whereas we have but two Sacraments they are both tesserae vincula unitatis and therefore the Apostle puts both together in one verse Whatever we are or however otherwise differenced whether Jew or Gentile and they were at odds enough Bond or Free and they are at a sufficient distance yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are all baptized into one body and all made to drink into one spirit 1 Cor. 12. 13. Baptized and made to drink there are the two Sacraments and when once and again he saith We all he tells us that by both we all are but one yea made one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concorporated into one body and as it were identified into one spirit by an happy unio animarum and shall we be divided between whom there is so inward and so firm an union of the same spirit that animates and enacts all Oh no let it never be or if it have been too long let it never be more But as in the body of the Universe though there be various multiplicities of creatures yet because spiritus intus alit magno se corpore miscet all Aeneid 6. are kept in a perfect harmony

in heaven may be of some good use but such in our brains will never light us thither Let therefore such Spanish Alumbradoes or English Illuminates please themselves Casaubon Enthusiasme p. 131. in such fantastical attainments On the contrary let it be the care of every one that would prove a substantial Christian by all good means to attain to a solid judgment of saving truth and not rest there neither but because Theologia is not scientia speculativa but practica and because in Scripture-use verba sensûs affectum effectum connotant words of knowledge and sense imply affection and Divinity is an art of living and not only of bare knowing as many of us as would be solid Divines and substantial Christians as the lamenting Churches eye affected her heart Lament 3. 54. so let our knowledge effectually press on to earnest affection and real action which leadeth on to the other two Heads before mentioned 2. And as concerning our hearts and affections two things also either fall short of or come cross to that substantialness which is to be expected from them whom Christ causeth to inherit substance 1. The first is a weak faint listlesness and deadness in the out-goings of our souls to Christ an heartless velleity a wishing and a woulding rather than any true and hearty willing Balaam's wishes Numb 23. 10. the sluggards desires half desires which in Gods account are Prov. 21. 25. none as Gods people when with a weaned remisness they close with the things of this world they rejoice as though they rejoiced not 1 Cor. 7. 30. So when our desires and affections to Christ do so freeze in our bosoms they come short of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Est in the Text they are and they are not When we say and profess that Christ is such solid food his flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meat indeed and we bring such flashy desires and such faint appetites to him what do we but make men believe that either he is not found food or at least that we have but sick stomachs He not substance or we not substantial Christians 2. But Secondly There is another distemper in this kind which wanteth not for strength but yet in substance The wind no solid substantial body yet may be very violent and impetuous such a flatulency there is in many mens spirits which makes a shew of a great deal of real zeal and strength of affection for God and Christ and yet is nothing but an empty swelling tympany an impetuous violence to prosecute our own desires opinions and wayes and to bear down whatsoever rather displeaseth us than what offendeth God Such was Jehu's zeal and 2 Kings 10. 16. Luke 13. 14. the Ruler of the Synagogue his indignation and the more to discover the unsubstantialness of it it 's usually not about the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the weightier things of the law and such as concern the substance and power of godliness but about circumstances and externals or other less and lighter matters as it was with the Pharisees about their Mint and Anise and Phylacteries and so now is with the Papists about their Ceremonies and Traditions and with many amongst us about some niceties in Church government and outward forms and other curious Punctilioes which are at a great distance from the heart and soul and substance of Religion Here we have heat enough and too much a feverish heat but not kindly and natural fire but such as proves wild-fire making a blaze in lighter straw but such as putteth all into a combustion Oh beware of such a dangerous mistake as to take the violence of an unmortified passion for the power and substance of saving grace And therefore if ever we would attain to solid and substantial evidence of it our contrary care and effectual indeavour must be 1. Contrary to that coolness and indifferency of our affections to Christ to rise up to more strong and earnest outgoings of our Souls after him such as the Scripture expresseth by hungrings and thirstings and longings breathings breakings pantings and faintings after God not a faintness of indifferency but a fainting upon our being spent in eagerest pursuits of what we cannot fully overtake that it cometh not to I am and I am not but as Christ named himself I am so with truth and reality I can eccho back Exod. 3. 14. again and say Lord I am I am really and in good earnest with strongest b●nt of my Soul I am for thee and so indeclinably and earnestly move towards thee that I shall not be quiet till I rest in thee I do not measure substance by quantity nor judge of truth of grace by the degree though some now will needs wholly place it in it There is the true essence and substance of a man in a weak Child and weak desires after Christ may be true and serious if this weakness be occasioned from other hinderances and not from an indifferency but still giving Christ the Soveraignty But yet such weakness should not be rested in but over-grown and more strong and earnest workings of the heart to be grown up to if we would have more real and substantial at least more sensible evidences of the life and power of godliness 2. Nor must we satisfie our selves with this There was strength enough and in some respects too much in that impetuous flatulency of some men's spirits which was the second miscarriage before noted But therefore contrary to it our care must be if we would have evidence of true solid substantial godliness that this strength of passion do not only bluster towards others but that it produceth real and substantial effects in our own hearts and that we find and feel it so doing for as they are wont to say that Tactus est fundamentum vitae sensitivae so real felt inward effects in the Soul are surest evidences of a true spiritual life also such as were before-mentioned in the doctrinal part of this point as substantial and real effects and operations of Christ in us are to this purpose to be really felt and expressed by us A serious and hearty making out after Christ indeed and in good earnest working that really in us which Nature cannot effect and hypocrisie but ill favouredly counterfeit which may evidence to others as least to our selves that God is in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a truth as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 14. 25. really changing our hearts and powerfully mortifying our lusts that we may be not as that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 2. 18. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free indeed as it is John 8. 36. substantially satisfying the vast desires of our Souls and thereby evidencing that Christ is to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only sawce as he is to Hypocrites and many Politicians but meat indeed And as substantially supporting and comforting us in greatest exercises and faintings either in life or death a

should here labour for an enlarged heart and when others enlarge theirs as Hell Hab. 2. 5. we should ours as the expansum of Heaven Christ and Heaven-ward The more we move towards the Earth the more we are straitned He that here promiseth to fill our Treasures would not have us spare his cost but bids us open our mouth wide Psal 81. 10. even widen and enlarge our hearts to their utmost extent and capacity that we may not only taste of his Goodness but take in as much of it as we can As the Prophet bad the Widow borrow Vessels and not a few 2 King 4. 4. and the water-pots were to be filled up to the brim when Christ was to work the miracle John 2. 7. Let the everlasting doors of our Souls be set wide open when it is this King of Glory who is to come in He that hath received most of Christ Psal 24. hath not enough and he who here thinks he hath received enough hath as yet received nothing Our largest draughts are but tasts and those tasts should but quicken the appetite Indeed our Saviour saith that he that drinks of the water that he will give him shall never thirst John 4. 14. But that is Not after other things but yet the more after more of himself not with a feverish hellish thirst as the rich man in those flames and as some Souls here in an hellish anguish but yet with an heavenly enlargement of desire after that which he finds so sweet and hath not yet enough of After fullest in-flows here our emptiness is not perfectly filled nor his fulness exhausted but after fullest communications the thirsty Soul saith Lord one drop one draught more and Christ as the Widow 2 King 4. 6. saith Bring me yet a Vessel and prove me if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out such a blessing that there shall not be room to receive it Mal. 3. 10. Let not the thirsty Earth cease gaping the thirsty Soul craving yet more and yet more till it be filled with all the fulness of God till that as it is in the Text he hath filled our Treasures Ephes 3. 19. 3. How fully should we rest satisfied with Christ alone Will he fill us And would we have any more Doth he fill our Treasures and that with himself and can we desire any thing better or more precious O Naphtali satisfied with favour and full with the Blessing of the Lord said Moses in his blessing of that Tribe Deut. 33. 23. and O blessed Soul say I though thou beest a Naphtali a Wrestler and in never so great conflict as that name signifieth how full may thy joy be How full of comfort if full John 16. 24. 1 John 1. 4. of Christ Though never so empty of other comforts nay though never so full of outward miseries though as it was with the Psalmist thy body be filled with loathsome Diseases Psal 38. 7. and thy soul exceedingly filled with the scorn and contempt of the proud Psal 123. 4. yet if thou beest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the old word was Plenus Deo Full of God and his Spirit if Christ do but fill thy treasures how shouldst thou rejoice in the Lord and joy in the Hab. 3. 17 18. God of thy salvation though there be no herd in the stall nor meal left in the empty barrel no nor oyl in the cruse yet what a feast of fat things full of marrow art thou entertain'd with Isa 25. 6. whilst thou feedest on Christ How doth thy Cup with David's run over when he fills it When God had said I have replenished every sorrowful soul Jer. 31. 25. the Prophet in v. 26. immediately adds Vpon this I awaked and behold my sleep was sweet to me If God please but to undertake from himself in Christ to fill up whatever our dish cup purse or heart wants of full should it be in the darkest night of all wants and miseries and we know not how dark ours may yet prove yet truly our sleep in them might be sweet and our Souls brim-full of comfort And therefore it is our duty as well for our own comfort as for the more full manifestation of his Glory to make up all our wants out of him our emptiness with his fulness Whilest led by sense and not supported by faith this is a very hard Lesson as it was for Moses to believe that Israel's whole Camp should be victualled and filled with flesh for a whole month in a Wilderness and for Philip Numb 11. 21 22. to conceive how so many thousands should be fed in a desert place with five barly loaves and two small fishes In such straits wants John 6. 5 7 8. desertions we cannot believe that Christ will that he can relieve and supply us But O fools and slow of heart to believe where is our faith Is it Christ the Wisdom and Power of God the Amen the faithful and true witness who here promises that he will fill our Treasures and can he not or will he not fulfil his word Though we wrong our selves let us not wrong Christ too If thou canst not believe that he can fill thee thou makest him an empty Saviour If not to fill thy treasure thou sayst he is but a poor Christ If not a friend in the want of a friend and habitation when thou art thrust out of Doors if not all in the want of all thou indeed makest him nothing and he will be nothing Gal. 5. 4. at least not what he truly is and what he here truly promiseth thee and that is to fill thy treasures 4. This might call upon us to follow God fully Numb 14. 24. and to stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God Col. 4. 12. Numb 32. 11. 1 King 11. 6. that our duty and his mercy may hold some proportion 5. But I end all with that which the Text affords And in it we find that all this of Christ's making us to inherit substance and to fill our treasures is promised only to them that love him The love of Christ As it is the condition of the thing promised or rather of the persons to whom it is promised so it is and should be the effect of it when enjoyed For if Christ do all this for us then to love him for it is a very easie demand I am sure but a very poor requital The things promised fall nothing short of perfect happiness Perfecta beatitudo Cartwr They were solid substantial reality an everlasting perpetuity and over-flowing fulness and plenty And what is Heaven more Did they all meet in any earthly commodity that it were a solid staple commodity and such as would last and were there enough of it we should not wish more it would not want high prizers and many buyers Christ we have heard is all this And therefore methinks it would be very hard if he may

spirit of God could effect it for so that particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As by the spirit of the Lord signifieth causam congruam dignam tantae transformationis as C. à Lapide rightly observeth All cometh to this and all fully to my present purpose That now when God is in Christ so fully as I may say exhibited and exposed to our view and in the Gospel so clearly manifested and held forth to us He expecteth and where grace prevaileth he thereby effecteth such a change and transformation that we are not like our former selves but are molded into his likeness and having laid aside our corrupt nature we are made partakers of his Divine Nature This is or should be according to Paul's doctrine there the effect of the Gospel and as Calvin observeth upon my Text according to Peter's doctrine here when he saith that the exceeding great and precious Gospel-promises are given to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by them we should be partakers of the Divine Nature He telleth us this is the end of the Gospel Notemus hunc esse Evangelii finem ut aliquando Deo conformes reddamur id verò est quasi Deificari that at last we may be conformable to God which is as it were to be Deified or as our Apostle phraseth it to be made partakers of the Divine Nature Which whilst we are so plentifully partakers of the Gospel we should be exceedingly ashamed of that we so far fall short of it which yet the very Heathens so much aspired to who fell so short of us as thus in pattern so 2. In principle for as our pattern is more clear so our principle is more high This conformity to God in true Christians you heard from 2 Cor. 3. 18 is from the spirit of the Lord whilst by the spirit of Christ inlightning and regenerating we are renewed after the Image of God Col. 3. 10. As also from faith in Christ laying hold of th●se exceeding great and precious promises of the Gospel and on Christ in them from whose fulness alone God would have us receive grace for grace grace in us answerable and conformable to grace in him and so to be partakers of the Divine Nature Now this faith these promises this Christ and this spirit of Christ those Heathens and their most ●●●limate Philosophers were utter strangers to him they knew not to him by faith they went not nay out of themselves they went not but to their Philosophical moral considerations and their purgative vertues to which they ever joyned their heathenish idolatries and superstitious lustrations and sacrifices With Porphyrie to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sometimes to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 charms and sorceries as utterly inconsistent with the Divine nature as the true God is contrary to a vain idol and therefore it is no wonder that it was so wofully deformed a deiformity which they arrived at how trimly soever their admirers do trim it up and turkess it And therefore when there is so much more light and power in the Gospel when our both pattern and principle so far every way exceed theirs Surely God cannot but expect that it should be another-kins likeness to him that we should attain to than what they arrived at And on the contrary let us sadly think what a shame it is to us and to the Gospel too that when there is so much of God in it there should be so little in us who profess it That when we read David's Psalms and the other Prophets writings in the old Testament we should find so much light and life that they both breath and express so much of God in them and we so little so that in truth although as Eusebius observeth they were not called yet indeed they were the true Christians and many of us are really as much without God as we are strangers from that Commonwealth of Israel Especially that even Heathens should herein exceed us that they should so honourably speak of that God whom we so blaspheme that they should express more of God by the twilight of nature than we in the sun-shine of the Gospel that Erasmus should so hardly forbear to pray to Socrates as a Saint whilst many who are named Christians may without breach of charity be called Atheists that any of us should have upon us such black marks of the Devil when on many of them we may discover though ruder yet very lovely characters and lineaments by the help only of their natural Divinity of the Divine nature which we who have better means in all reason should be more possessed of SERMON XX. ON 2 PET. 1. 4. AND should it be here asked what those means are which Quest we should make use of whereby to attain to this high honour and happiness I must answer that all that we of our selves can do as to any Ans inward worth or efficacy operative of so great an effect is just nothing We that can do nothing to make our selves men surely can do as little to make our selves men of God can less concur to the producing of this Divine nature than we did to our humane both are a Creation and therefore the work of God only but yet so as we are to make our addresses to him for the one now that we have a natural being which we could not for the other when he had none And here as the Divine nature essentially considered in God is common to all th●●hree persons so this communicated symbolical Divine nature in us is the common work of them all and therefore to them all we are to make our applications for it 1. To God the Father who as he is Fons Deitatis and communicates Means that Divine nature to the Son and the spirit so he is Fons Gratiae and through the Son by the Spirit imparts this Divine nature to all his children It was his breath that breathed into Adam at first that soul in which especially was his image and it must be his breathing still that must breath into our hearts that divine grace in which consists that his image renewed and this Divine nature God our Creatour is the Author of this new Creature And here the means of it on our parts is by humble and earnest prayer to breath after him for it as the dying man gaspeth for breath that is going away or rather as the dry earth gapeth for heavens rain and influence which it wanteth and so in this systole and diastole upon the out-breathing of our souls and desires followeth in God's way the breathing in of this Divine breath of life the quickning spirit by which we are made spiritual living souls In this case it was said of Saul Behold he prayeth Acts 9. 11. For although it be true that the prayers of the wicked whilst they purpose to go on in sin are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 28. 9. And as true that the prayer

bodily Life Your Souls your selves your outward Life Patience as a sure guard keeps you in possession of all A word for natural Life which I exclude not in reference to 1 Life vers 18. they should not perish and here patience is a preservative As God gives us possession of it so patience helps to Doct. 1 keep it So we find in Scripture meek Moses and patient Job long-liv'd whilst bloody and violent Men live not out half their days Psal 55. 23. As stormy Winter days use to be short whilst it 's long before the Sun set in a serene calm Summer's day The Prophet said In quietness and confidence shall be your strength Isa 30. 15 and thereby also their safety whilst frowardness and hastiness makes haste only to destruction Job's Wife when she said Job 2. 9. Curse God and die spake truth when she gave bad counsel for it's curse and die there 's but a step between discontented cursing and dying But if there be any such thing in this frail fading World as via recta ad vitam longam which the Title of his Book promiseth amongst other Vertues and Graces Patience must be one of our Guides and Companions and this whether we consider either God or others or our selves First For God we read that with the froward he will deal Reas 1 frowardly Psal 18. 26. but he delighteth to beautifie the meek with Salvation The Lion of the Tribe of Judah tears his Prey when it struggles and resists but spares it when it lies quiet and prostrate so that if you be weary of your life you may go to it at sharp but if you mean to save it your wisest way is to submit and quietly to lay down your Weapons Crudelem medicum c. The unruly impatient Patient makes his Physician cruel and the Child's strugling doth but increase his stripes whilst a quiet kissing the Rod oft saveth the whipping Our God is our Physician and Father We provoke him to Wrath when we are provoked to impatience by what-ever correction is inflicted by him But it 's meet to be said to him by every dutiful Child and in such a Child's Language I have born chastisement and I will not offend any more if I have done iniquity I will do no more Job 34. 31 32. and that 's the way to prevent a second bout With the Bird of Paradise by a meekned moan to mourn it self out of the Snare not with the wild Bull in the Net Isa 51. 20. to tumble and rave and so the more to entangle himself in the Snare When God hears Ephraim bemoaning himself Ephraim hears God comforting him and telling him that he is his dear Son and pleasant Child that ever since he spake against him he did earnestly remember him that his Bowels were troubled for him and that he would surely have mercy upon him Jer. 31. 18 19 20. Whilst we frowardly struggle 1. our Hearts fret against God and 2. we would be our own Saviours and both these betray us to danger But by a patient lying under God's hand as we acknowledg his Sovereignty and righteous Proceedings so we resign up our selves to him who hath a surer hand than ours to keep that wherewith it is betrusted And thus Patience helps to hold our Souls in Life first in reference to God And secondly in reference to other Men whom we are at a Reas 2 contest with and it may be in danger of for with them though froward Solomon's observation holds good A soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stir up anger Prov. 15. 1. As the soft Wall damps the fiercest Shot whilst the clashing of two earthen Pitchers breaks either one or both Fatigatur De Patient c. 8. improbitas patientiâ tuâ saith Tertullian Patience either wins or wearies the most enraged Enemy so that either he will not or he cannot hurt How easily doth the weak Man when provoked by patient forbearing prevent his own mischief Whilst the passionate Male-content either by busie busling begins the Quarrel or by giving the second stroke makes the Fray and both ways as the furious Horse rusheth into the Battel and so too often sins against his own Life But were there none other to hurt us yet impatience can Reas 3 make our selves to be our own Executioners Whether Achitophel was strangled with an Halter or suffocated with some Humors raised by his grief some of late dispute The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie both But which soever of them it was I Henisius Grotius am sure his impatience of a neglect was the cause of it in him as in both kinds it hath been with divers others Impatience of Pain Poverty Disgrace and the like hath proved in this unhappy World one of the great Apollyons and Abaddons chief Engines in murdering not onely others but our selves also What sudden Inflammations what pining Consumptions Frenzies Lethargies and other splenetick Distempers hath it cast many a Man into and so betrayed them sometimes to more gentle and lingring sometimes to more sudden and violent deaths and that sometimes by their own hands Passions with a witness which make both Body and Soul joint-sufferers like blustering storms that dash these frail Vessels against the Rocks or like roaring and riotous Guests and Inmates that set on fire and pull down those Houses of Clay which they are in present possession of But on the contrary A patient or cool Spirit as Solomon phraseth it Prov. 17. 27. how timely doth it prevent these sparks from kindling or happily quench them when they begin to flame by composing the mind that it dare not quarrel with God nor pitch the Field with a Man 's own self and so quiets the Body that it either prevents Bodily Distempers or helps to bear them quietly that they do not prove deadly whilst the unruly sick Man by raving and tumbling kills himself another more patient by being quiet doth sopire morbum and by lying still makes haste to his recovery Possess but thy Soul with Patience and it Patientiae infirmum non extendit Tertul. c. 15. Centrae infirmus qui impatiens est ipsâ impatient●â citius devolvitur in mortens Cerda in locum will keep thee in longer possession of the frail Tabernacle of thy Body Indeed short-winded Men are soon at their Journies end but they that are longer breathed are so more ways than one able through many difficulties to run a longer race and at last in a late evening of a long day come to the end of it in peace Discontents I confess may be long-liv'd but so usually are not froward impatient discontented Men. But when the Psalmist tells us that the Meek shall inherit the Earth * Psal 37. 11. that Phrase expresseth as a surer title so a longer continuance and thus as our Souls are sometimes put for our Lives even so by our Patience we are kept in possession of them So 〈◊〉

if we look to it may be the glorious Mansions of the Blessed God to dwell in and which to be sure we must dwell with either in weal or woe to Eternity Had we nothing else to say these two words might heighten our Souls worth and should our care in possessing of them 1. They are the purchase of the Blood of the Son of God And shall we trample under foot his Blood in so neglecting our Souls which were purchased by the Blood of the Shepherd of Souls 1 Pet. 2. 25. 2. And this that they might be holy and glorious Temples for the Blessed Spirit of God O then be sure to keep possession for so happy a Guest that the Devil may not prove an Intruder And thou that wilt be stiff and earnest and peremptory to maintain thine Interest in what thy Father or Friend left thee do not so under-value either thy Saviour or thy Soul as not to keep possession of that which He at so dear a rate hath purchased Our Souls should be precious that were purchased by Blood so precious Let that be said to every incroaching Enemy what Jephtah said to the invading Ammonite Judg. 11. 23. The Lord hath dispossessed the Amorites before his People and shouldst thou possess it And let their resolution ver 24. be ours Wilt thou not possess that which Chemosh thy God giveth thee to possess And so Whatsoever the Lord our God hath given to us that will we possess Our Souls he first made Jer. 38. 16. which we afterward lost which he repurchased by the Blood of his Son and restored to us to be kept as an everlasting pledg of his Love and therefore whatever else we lose look to it that we here keep possession But to the quickening of our care herein I need not seek for more particulars to set forth the Soul's worth than what I there propounded 1. Such as the saving and possessing of it 1. Crowns all other Enjoyments Wisdom with an Inheritance doth well Eccles 7. 11. but if mens sana in corpore sano it 's much better It was a Solomon's happiness that amidst all his delights of the Sons of Men his Wisdom also remained with him It 's an happy saving Bargain indeed if a Man especially in losing times when he saves his Estate and his Life can save his Soul too without which a Man with all his other Gettings and Enjoyments is but like a dead Body stuck with Flowers or as a Room round-about-hung and richly furnished and nothing but the dead Master's Hearse in the midst of it 2. Countervails all other Losses David's Mouth praiseth God with joyful Lips though in a dry and thirsty Land when his Soul is filled with marrow and fatness Psal 63. 1 5. And though he was for the outward Man at a weak pass yet it was a sufficient support that God had strengthned him with strength in his Soul Psal 138. 3. Though I possess months of vanity Job 7. 3. and with him be ejected out of all if yet in possession of my Soul I am no harbourless Object Though the invading Enemy hath quite broke down the Fence and laid all open and waste yet as long as with the Christians in Justin Martyr we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When they have possessed themselves and taken away all with them if they have left but a good God and a good Conscience a Soul and a Saviour it 's but the Casket that 's lost the Treasure is saved and lends them a Key for Paul's Riddle of having nothing and yet possessing all things In this sense dum Anima est spes est as long 2 Cor. 6. 10. as my Soul is mine own I am not only in hope but in possession No cause to faint though the outward Man perish if the inward Man be renewed 2 Cor. 4. 16. nor to complain if the same hand that casts the Christian's Body to the Beasts casts his Soul at the same time into his Saviour's Bosom Paul meant not to kill but to cure the incestuous Person when he would have him delivered even to Satan to the destruction of the flesh if his Spirit may but thereby be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5 5. and that will make amends for all Thus we see that the saving and possessing of the Soul crowns all Enjoyments more than Countervailes all other losses 2. But on the contrary the loss of it 1. Compleats all other losses and miseries and makes them utterly undoing David speaks of his Enemies spoiling of his Soul as their greatest cruelty and his chiefest misery Psal 35. 12. The Prophet Lam. 3. 65. when he had given that heavy blow that made the heart ake Lord give them sorrow of heart he strikes the Nail to the Head when he adds thy Curse unto them O woe unto thee thou hast added grief unto thy sorrow Jer. 45. 3. and a curse to both when by thy riotous unclean or otherwise vicious courses thou hast lost it may be thine Estate thy good Name the health and strength of thy Body and which is worst of all thy Soul and all Undone wretch It was a desperate prodigal expense which all the Money in thy Purse and thy whole other Substance could not discharge but thy Soul also must go in to pay the reckoning Thy Saviour's Soul being heavy to the death was more sad than all his bodily Mat. 26. 38. Sufferings and that thrust which lets out the heart-blood of thy Soul is far beyond all other Wounds and makes them deadly To see an Enemy in the Habitation is one of Eli's sorest Afflictions 1 Sam. 2. 32. and to be a possession to Enemies is Edom's heaviest Cursé Numb 24. 18. but not so heavy as to see an Enemy possessed of this inward Mansion The loss of the Soul compleats all other losses and miseries 2. Cannot be made up and recompenced with all other Gains and Enjoyments The round World is but a Cipher to it For what is a Man profited if he should gain the whole World and lose his own Soul saith our Saviour Matth. 16. 26. He that tenders a whole World makes a great offer but he that loses his Mar. 8. 37. Soul for it sustains a greater loss for that World which cannot satisfie the desires of a Soul before it be lost cannot satisfie for the loss of a Soul when it is And therefore the rich Man Luke 12. 19 20. was but a Fool for all his Riches and the Hypocrite Job 27. 8. is brought in as a desperate Fool for all his Gain when God took away both their Souls How miserable when dead to have so many Friends to accompany the Body to the Grave and Devils only the Soul to Hell such Funeral Pomp and Tombs He that hath lost his Soul is a poor undone Man though with the Young Man in the Gospel he have never so great possessions Mat. 12. 22. For a Silk Stocken will not cure

Sopita ratione excitato fomite quoquo vult hominem versat Cerda I say Impatience usurps over the Man and then betrays all On the contrary Patience keeps all the Soul at least above all in a quiet possession and accordingly Albertus Magnus makes Prudence and Patience those two Wings of the great Eagle by which the Woman Rev. 12. 14. fled into the Wilderness and was nourished from the Face of the Serpent And that 's the Truth which I am now to prosecute In which I shall 1. Explain what I mean by this Gospel-Christian Patience 2. Wherein it may be said to keep us in possession of our Souls 3. How it doth it And then 4. Conclude with a short Application 1. For the first What Patience is was shewed before and I now only mind you that it relates 1. Either to God according to that Psal 37. 7. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him when it neither swells nor sinks under his Hand but silently waits his pleasure 2. Or to Man according to that 1 Thes 5. 14. Now we exhort you Brethren be patient to all Men. But it 's called Gospel-Christian-Patience as it is found in a Christian now in the time of the Gospel And this 1. As he is directed and animated by the Example of Christ for he hath also Suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2. 21. viz. in patient Suffering as it is ver 20. his Steps having troden out to us a Path that we need not be at a loss in the most unknown Way and if the Souldier be heartned by his Fellow-Souldiers courage and company as Paul said many of the Brethren waxed bold by his Bonds Phil. 1. 14. then sure by looking to Jesus the Captain of our Salvation enduring the Cross end despising the shame we may well run with patience the Race that is set before us Heb. 12. 1 2. and without danger or distraction follow on when our Abimelek our Father-King for Christ is both hath Marched before and given us that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do as I have done as that other Abimelek did Judg. 9. 48. 2. As enabled by the Grace and Spirit of Christ according to that Col. 1. 11. Strengthened with all might unto all patience and Long-suffering with joyfulness but is is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to his Glorious power and that Power the more Glorious in that out of weakness they have been made strong as the Apostle speaks Heb. 11. 34. The fearfullest and every way weakest Ages Sexes Constitutions have oft in suffering Times been enabled with most Courage and Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom speaks which plainly manifests that it was Christ's Spirit that kept them so in possession of their own And if the strong Man armed keep his Palace all is in peace Luke 11. 21. If the Spirit of the Almighty God undertake to keep possession who shall be able to make an Ejectment It 's a deadly aking Head that is distracted if God with his own Hand do but hold it It is an over-grown Burden that sinks me if underneath be an everlasting Arm. Such a Back of Steel will sufficiently strengthen a very weak Bow Though Paul be nothing yet by Christ strengthening him he can do yea and suffer Phil. 4. 13. all things 3. As heartned by the Comforts of the Spirit of Christ for the Joy of the Lord is our strength Neh. 8. 10. Farina in olla Meal in the Pot that takes away the deadly intoxicating bitterness of it Vinum in pect●re the Cordial that Antidotes these Animi deliquia these Swoonings and sainting Fits according to that 2 Cor. 4. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according as we have received Mercy we faint not such sweet Morsels strengthen the heart that it can go on in its work and way and not sink under its burden Thus we had Patience and Joyfulness joyned together Col. 1. 11. as mutually begetting and strengthening each other Patience much furthering our Joy So the Apostle we rejoyce or glory in Tribulation if it work patience Rom. 5. 3. And so Tetullian speaks of a Sagina voluptatis of Patience fatting Saginari voluptate patientia voluit Christus Cap. 5. Assideat Cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Soul with delight and brings it in as the sick Man's Nurse that sits by him and cherisheth him And Joy much strengthening and confirming our patience whilst sense of Mercy drowns the sense of Misery makes the Martyr lie quietly on the Grid-Iron when it is with delight as on a Bed of Roses Whists and silenceth all discontented complaints of Pain Loss Disgrace c. whilst he is sensible of the saving health of God's Countenance can rejoyce in his spiritual Gains yea and can Glory that he is accounted worthy to suffer Shame for the Name of Christ with them Acts 5. 41. When this Candle of the Lord shines upon our head and heart we Job 29. 3. are able with Job to walk through darkness even dance in the dark without stumbling And then with more ease lie down quietly and sleep sweetly in the darkest Night Thus Patience animated by the Example of Christ and spirited by the Grace and Comfort of the Spirit of Christ becomes true Christian Patience Which was the first thing propounded and so as such in most troublesome Times helps us to possess our Souls 2. But wherein doth that consist Which was the second Particular I answer especially in two things viz. 1. In so keeping the Soul that it be not at last utterly lost 2. That for the present whatever the occasion be it be not so Disguised and Distempered but that it may be it self and we still our own Men. This was shewn in the general in the former Point And now in the second we are particularly to shew that Christian-Patience is able to do both these 1. Patience keeps possession of the Soul in taking care that it be not lost and perish eternally So that we find that patient continuance in well-doing ends in eternal Life Rom. 2. 7. And the Apostle Heb. 10. 36. saith that we have need of patience that after we have done the Will of God we may receive the Promise There is absolute need especially in evil Times that the Soul be possessed with patience if it would at last be possessed of Glory as will clearly appear from the contrary Take an impatient Man and let him meet with Trials and Exercises and he presently chuseth Sin rather than Affliction as the phrase is Job 36. 21. He cannot Suffer and therefore he must Sin nor is there the most dreadful and damning Sin which in that fright and hurry he will stick at or set him at a stand but over Hedg and Ditch though with never so many break-neck Falls to his Soul that he may but escape that outward danger that he is more afraid of Cyprian in his Book De bono

to Christ and Heaven To this purpose God even in Paradise would have some Trees Sacramental and Mystical that Adam in that Garden might rise higher than Philosophical speculation and not perish by a Tree of Knowledg but be fed and live by a Tree of Life And for this end likewise Christ as he useth so many Parables and spiritualizeth outward things so he is set out by the Name of some of the Chief and Choice of all kinds of Beings The Angel of the Covenant amongst the Angels the Sun and Morning-Star in the Heavens The Rock and Precious Stone among the Inanimates The Vine and Apple-Tree amongst Vegetables and both Lion and Lamb amongst Sensitives And so of the rest that as Quaelibet herba Deum so in every Creature we see and feel after and find Christ and that as all of them were Acts 17. at first made by him so by all we might be led to him Which therefore in the last place is that which we should all be seriously exhorted to Vse 3 1. That we would not have our desires terminated and so take up with any or all such outward Mercies and Salvations which in the World we may be entertain'd with but still to seek on till we find a better Saviour and Salvation which we may safely and quietly rest in as Joseph and Mary stay not with their Kinsfolk and Acquaintance till they find the Child Jesus Luke 2. 44 45 46. and mean while they seek him sorrowing ver 48. The Beggar that is ready to die for Hunger though he have never so much else given him if not Food waits still as wanting that which he came for and had most need of When Christ said to the Blind-man What wilt thou that I shall Luke 18. 41. do unto thee His answer is Lord that I may receive my sight A Sinner that hath his Eyes so far open as to see Christ's Worth and his own want of him would have said Lord that I might receive Thee A poor Believer hath a further and greater Errand to Christ than for Corn and Wine or outward Safety and Prosperity which those in Hos 7. 14. howled upon their Beds for He hath a Soul to be both saved and satisfied and nothing can do either of them but Christ only O that we had such hungring thirsting desires after him that nothing might stay our Stomachs without him much-less take away our Stomachs as too too oft they do from him Nor is this all that Speech of Jacob calls upon us for not only not to be taken off or hindred in the out-goings of our Souls to Christ by being satisfied with those outward Mercies and Deliverances But 2. By them as Helps to be drawn out and raised up in our desires after him It 's great Mercy if by any means our Hearts may be led out to him though they be the Horrors of Conscience that prick us the Terrors of the Law that whip us outward Wants that drive us or Dangers that affright us It 's well if any thing will bring us even Chains of Affliction will draw us to him but yet not so well as if they were those Cords of Love If we might be preserved in Sugar rather than in Brine If comfortable Supplies and Deliverances be not as Seats to sit down but as Foot-stools to get up to Christ by In times of Want and Danger to seek Christ may be rather to seek our selves than him and to make our selves our End when we only make use of Christ as a means to it Such may be shaken off with Jephtah's check Ye did thus and thus unto me and why are you come to me now that ye are in distress Judg. 11. 7. more out of love of your selves than to me And the like also may be said if In times of enjoyment of Mercy and Deliverance we rejoyce in God and seem to love and praise him This also may be Self-love rather than the Love of God They might rejoyce in God's great Goodness Neh. 9. 25. who yet did not serve him in his great Goodness ver 35. And he might say Blessed be God for I am rich Zech. 11. 5. who yet never truly praised him This may be but their following of Christ for Loaves John 6. 26. as the Roman Emperours did Populum annonâ demereri Heinsius Exercit. But thus to love God and Christ in his Mercies that He is the Oyl of Gladness swimming on the top of all that we are no way satisfied with them without him and best satisfied when we enjoy Him in them and by them this shews the ingenuity of our Love and that it 's not the World or Self but Christ that is the Object of it That as Paul said to his Corinthians I seek not yours but you so it is not our selves but Christ that we 2 Cor. 12. 14. love and desire and not his Portion but his Person and not so much Man's as his Salvation And therefore to conclude as in all our gettings we are to get Wisdom Prov. 4. 7. So in all our seekings let us seek after Christ And in and above all our Enjoyments let us enjoy and eye Him As Jacob here in Sampson's salvation had a further longing look at His. And so Hannah 1 Sam. 2. in a Samuel looks at a Saviour And therefore as it hath been observed by some her Song at his Birth and Mary's at the news of Christ's in many Passages of both very much agree and are perfect Vnisons And this further that Song of Hannah will to our present purpose inform us that the Eying of Christ in all other Mercies will 1. Make little Mercies great As the Diamond adds Value to the Brass-Ring And the Figure added makes empty Cyphers vastest Numbers And so you shall observe that Hannah in that Song for her gaining a Son and prevailing against her Adversary Peninnah as concerning their Houshold-talk and Womens Brabbles speaks of greater Matters carries it in a very high Key in the strain of a Triumphant Song of some glorious Conquerour And such indeed Christ was whom she in that looked at and where ever Faith seeth him it seeth Magnum though in Parvo which will make little Mercies great 2. Will not be they never so great let the heart rest in The greater Light dims the lesser them which would be a dangerous Disease of a vain love-sick Soul like those Obstructions in the Body when those Vessels that should convey Spirit and Nourishment to the other parts stop and intercept them by the way but like the Tennis-Ball toucheth upon the Ground yet thereby rebounds upward so it from the Earth mounts up Heaven-ward as Jacob here from deliverance by Sampson riseth up to Christ's Though Sampson as the Serpent by the way so bites the Horse heels that his Rider falls backward and so he is saved from him yet that 's not enough not all that he looks for And therefore he adds I have waited for

study Christ but as hard as many a close student doth other Arts and Authors But to devour them without any hungring appetite after him is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a false appetite is extream unworthy and ill in it self and shews that we are very ill affected For our better help herein to these Caveats let me add these 3. directions 1. Study other Books but especially the Scriptures for they are they which testifie of me saith our Saviour John 5. 39. other Authors may afford thee some light but it 's the law of God that issues forth the light of life to convert the soul Psal 19. 7. other Books may help to make us wise for the World but the Scriptures only wise to salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. David was a very wise man but he acknowledgeth himself beholden to Gods Testimonies for it Psal 119. 98 99. and Solomon who is accounted the wisest sends us to his Books for it Prov. 1. 1. to 6. he saith it must be digged for Prov. 2. 4. but the Scripture is the field which you must dig in if ever you find this Pearl Matth. 13. 44. His was too bold a word when he added Non in flore Patrum aut Carie Scholasticorum for whatever rotten stuff there may be in some of the latter yet I am sure there is much of Christ to be found in the former But yet as I would not have Abulensis dispute so long as to forget his Creed so nor other greatest Students in their well-furnished Libraries to want a Bible as they say some have or to study either Fathers or Schoolmen more than the Scriptures as it may be too many do One said that Aristotles Ethicks was the Schoolmans Body of Divinity How truly I say not but it 's too true that time was when skill in a Romish Missal and some old Liturgy was more in request than readiness in the Scripture but sure Christ was less known both then and now too when by our Anti-Scripturists their spirit not Gods is so cried up that the Scriptures are decried and H. N. his blasphemy revived with whom to be Scripture-learned is a terminus minuens or title of disgrace But for us that would not be so over-wise but wise to sobriety and salvation as the wise men had their Star Matth. 2. so let the holy Scriptures be ever ours to lead us to Christ And for this purpose let us be careful and conscionable in a constant reading of them as also in a diligent attendance upon the Ministry of them For wisdom is by instruction Prov. 1. 3. Asaph was in a mist till he got into the Sanctuary to know his way Psal 73. 16 17. and the Spouse is directed to the Shepherds Tents if she would find her beloved Cant. 1. 8. And this though we be never so able and wise For wisdoms Proclamation is not only who so is simple and he that wanteth understanding let him turn in hither as Prov. 9. 4. But Hear my words O ye wise and hearken unto me ye men of understanding Job 34. 2 10. The wisest may hear and increase knowledge Prov. 1. 5. 9. 9. especially in the knowledge of Jesus Christ the oldest and wisest may yet live and learn it being the fault of those foolish women not that they were always learning but that they never took out their Lesson in coming to the knowledge of the truth 2 Tim. 3. 7. learn out of Scripture though we our selves be never so learned And this even of those that are weak and it may be in respect of our selves unlearned who yet in some things may be better informed and experienced Thou who in a strange place wilst sometimes ask and learn the way of a simple man or a young Child disdain not to learn more of Christ of the simplest though thou beest a man of God yet herein according to that in the Prophet let even a Child lead thee Thus study other things but the Scriptures most Isa 11. 6. 2. Study much but pray more for this wisdom must be got by asking James 1. 5. as it must be digged for Prov. 2. 4. so it must be cried after v. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou must give or as some render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophare coelum intuens it consecrate thy voice in loudest cries and earnestess prayers for such a Boon Solomon the wisest man that ever was came to it this way 1 King 3. 9. And David that was little short of him at least in this part of Divinest Learning Psal 119. 98 v. 12 13. 64 66 68 108 124 135. Ps 25. 7. 27. 11. 86. 11. 143. 10. 99 100. yet how often in that and other Psalms doth he pray and beg for teaching Daniel must not lie groveling Dan. 8. 18 19 10. 9. but Zechariah must look up Zech. 1. 18. and Ezekiel must be lifted up Ezek. 8. 3. 40. 2. if he would see a Vision and John must come up to Heaven if he would have a Revelation Revel 4. 1. Brightman prayed much when he commented on that Book and I believe they that pray most have most of Christ revealed to them All here is not gotten by poring on a Book but more by looking upward God is the Father of lights James 1. 17. Christ the true light John 1. 9. 8. 12. Ille lux nos lumina dicimur ut oculi lumina and the Holy Ghost is the spirit of wisdom and Revelation Ephes 1. 17. It 's he that sometimes blinds and hides and that can alone Rom. 11. 7 8. Job 17. 4. open Luke 24. 45. and enlighten We want it and it 's in his hand alone to give it And therefore because it can neither be wrested or bought it must be prayed out of it Study much but Psal 51. 6. Exod. 36. 2. 2 Chron. 1. 10 11 12. pray more 3. Lastly Study well but live better And that 's the best course to know most of Christ in a saving way Aristotle could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In foul water you cannot see your own face nor the face of Christ in a foul Conscience The Sons of Belial knew not God 1 Sam. 2. 12. nor do they desire it Job 21. 14. nor shall the wicked understand Dan. 12. 10. and so they leave off to be wise and to do good together Psal 36. 3. but as in one place Augustin in Joan. Tract 2. John 6. 69. its said Nisi credideritis non intelligetis so in another it s added Nos credidimus cognovimus we know by believing and as Jonathan did we see by tasting 1 Sam. 14. 29. Psal 34. 8. And so knowledge and sense are joined together Phil. 1. 9. Non enim haec lectio docet sed unctio non litera sed spiritus non Eruditio sed Epist 108. exercitatio saith Bernard The Romans were filled with goodness and knowledge together Rom. 15. 14. And therefore would we know Christ 1. First make

the lawful Wife and of the Royal Tribe an Hebrew of the Hebrews and so of the seed of Abraham who his servant said was rich and great Gen 24. 34. and the Children of Heth acknowledged him to be a Prince of God or a mighty Prince amongst them Gen. 23. 6. And yet again all this our Apostle accounts as loss and dung in comparison of Christ And so again should we For though this may somewhat difference us amongst men yet as to Christ and Salvation it giveth us no precedency One Hill here on Earth may be higher than another yet as to their nearness to Heaven there is no considerable difference All the Saints sit about Christ in circulo Revel 4. 4. As to this none are nearer to him than another where there is neither Greek nor Jew Gal. 3. 28. Col. 3. 11. 1. Whereas our interest in Christ is amongst those sure mercies of David of which none can devest us on his head his Crown Isa 55. 3. Psal 132. 18. flourisheth and can never be blasted The Nobility and Greatness which we have by birth from our Ancestors we hold but by the courtesie of the Times When they frown and the wheel turns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and you may see Servants on Horseback and Princes lackying it on foot Eccles 10. 7. And the taller such Cedars grow Isa 23. 7 8 9. the more exposed to be storm'd and blown down How often of Nobles especially do we read that they have been brought down Isa 43. 14. Nahum 3. 18. bound in chains Psal 149. 8. Led Captive Jer. 27. 20. Slain Jer. 39. 6. Famished Isa 5. 13. Jer. 14. 3. Thus we see man being in honour abideth not and Psal 49. 12. therefore seeing this Glory as the Prophet saith is so ready to fly away as a Bird how much better is my Christ who will be sure Hos 9. 11. to abide with me for ever But you will say a Pearl is a Pearl though trod down in the dirt and a noble spirit or family may hold its own and continue truly noble under all outward abasement True But then consider 2. Secondly That Not many mighty not many noble are called 1 Cor. 1. 26. That true worth is not always found in those that in the Worlds ordinary Nomenclature are called Nobles and Gentlemen One of this latter rank of ours very lately hath very piously Mr. Mosely in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bewailed their debauchery that they had put off not only the Gentle but the Man for which he feareth in our late Wars the storm hath most heavily and eminently lighted on that rank and order I like not to play the Critick in God's Judgments on others but it were well they on whom they fall would observe them Nor is this the distemper of our times only for of old we find the Prophet Jer. 5. 4 5. complaining that when he found all amiss in the inferiour rank and said I will get me to the great men and speak to them as hoping something more worthy and noble in them he found that of all others they had altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds as Psal 2. 2 3. they were the Kings and Rulers that said Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their Cords from us as some now profanely say what is a Gentleman but his pleasure So Schechem is said to be more honourable than all the house of his father Gen. 34. 19. and yet guilty of a rape And they were the Elders and Nobles of Naboth's City who 1 King 21. 8. 11. out of fear and base compliance with Jezabel's wicked Commands acted his murder as the Nobles of Tekoab's necks were too fine and tender to put them to the work of the Lord Nehem. 3. 5. Now sin ever debaseth when ever it prevaileth is a reproach to any people saith Solomon and so to any family or person how great Pro. 14. 34. 5. 9. Hos 13. 1. Gen. 49. 3 4. soever Ephraim the royal Tribe exalteth himself in Israel but when he offended in Baal he died Reuben as the first-born was the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power but because he defiled his Fathers Bed he must not excel and so he was devested of his dignity his primogeniture translated to Judah and in part to Levi who was taken into his stead of first-born and his double portion bestowed upon Joseph and that Tribe set not on the right hand but on the left not upon Mount Gerizim to bless but on Ebal for the inferior and less desirable office to curse Deut. 27. 13. For Naaman to be said that he was a great man and an honourable and yet to have it added but he was a Leper 2 King 5. 1. that marr'd all And so still to be in the rank of Nobles and Gentles and yet defiled with a worse leprosie of Pride Cruelty Luxury and the like as it stains the blood so it may well prick the bladder With how much more right might the Bereans be said to be more noble Act. 17. 11. and Jaboz to be more honourable than his Brethren 1 Chron. 4. 9. who as the next verse sheweth was more devout and religious and how more noble is it to be a vessel Rom. 9. 21. 2 Tim. 2. 20. of honour of Gods making To be of the Blood-Royal of Heaven Brethren of Christ the Son of God the Lord of glory to have the honour that comes of God to be partakers of his righteousness and grace which truly ennobleth the Soul that hath it as Hierom said of Paula that she was nobilior sanctitate quàm genere Epist 7. Juvenal Satyr 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euripid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phaleu The Heathen Poet could say Nobilitas sola atque unica virtus Christ I am sure made Bethlehem that in it self Micah 5. 2. was amongst the least not to be the least among the Princes of Judah Matth. 2. 6. because he was born in it and the more he will do to any of us if he be born in our hearts And such honour have all the Saints And therefore saving to all their Civil Titles and Privileges we may say as he did those that are truly godly are in a spiritual and so a truer sense the truly Right Honourable So I find in Scripture the devout stiled Honourable Act. 13. 50. and Deut. 26. 19. Exod. 28. 2. Isa 58. 13. 1 Thess 4. 4 Prov. 21. 21. holiness and righteousness often joined with honour as making such truly honourable because God hath undertaken it that they which honour him shall be honoured 1 Sam. 2. 30. 3. But thirdly Though inward worth may be conjoined with outward dignity in Progenitors yet that is not always entailed on and transmitted to Posterity However the outward trappings may Indeed the S●n seeth not a more glorious sight than is Greatness and Goodness continued in a Family from Father to Son to

together and now gotten into a wild Wilderness and having lost the right path we irrecoverably lose our selves and are ready to seduce others in numberless by-cross-ways and like so many crooked lines drawn off the Center cross and cut one another or a routed Army run either singly or in some small parties this way and that way justling and treading down each other as well as others who come in their way but yet think that the course which they take is the only way to their own and others safety And thus from these and other such like grounds too many do and we are all too apt to betake our selves to such Sects and to think to commend our selves to God in so doing Which was the second thing I propounded Paul sometimes counted this to be gain But now that he is grown wiser he reckons it as well as other things but loss yea and dung that he might gain Christ 3. Which was the third thing propounded and chiefly intended in the Text and Point That this being of or adhering to any Sect or Party is not that which we should take up with or rest in Whatever vain men say or think it 's not the being wrapt in a Friars Cowl that will either Cure the sick mans Body or save his Soul not being of this or that Sect or Party that will dub or Canonize thee a Saint or make thee meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light that we must be beholding to Col. 1. 12. Christ only for in compare with whom this especially had need be accounted loss and dung and indeed it 's no less than a dishonour to Christ that such dung should come into comparison with him And therefore I must say less in this kind of this particular than of all that hitherto I have compared with Christ or hereafter shall compare with him for in those other particulars there is otherwise much at least some good but in this of following and maintaining of Sects nothing that is pleasing to God and that therefore should please us And what comparison should we then make of Light with Darkness of Christ with Belial will this sect-following justifie and commend us to God or may it be compared with Christ which 1. Is so directly opposite to Christ the Prince of Peace and the spirit of Christ and the Gospel of Peace one body one spirit one hope one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all So many unities and yet universals that it comes to one and all makes a Catholick Vnion which therefore the Apostle calls for in the same place whiles he exhorts us to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of Peace Eph. 4. 3 4 5 6. More in so few words could not be said nor more Emphatically And must Christ then be divided into Parties 1 Cor. 1. 13. and his seamless Coat rent into pieces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Romanus piously Cant. 6. 8. bemoaneth however we may pride our selves in it yet it 's truly filthy and unworthy of Christ and a true Christian conversation Though there be fourscore Concubines of such as do not so sincerely profess Christ and Virgins without number that make no Cant. 6. 8. profession of love to him yet his Beloved is but one And that one should not prove many Straight lines drawn from the centre to the circumference never cut one another and therefore if we so part as to cross and clash the cause must needs be that either we do not truly centre in Christ or that there is some lesser or greater obliquity that we are not right either in heart or life judgment or practice Such secting I may without affectation say is a dissecting and mangling the body of Christ and therefore very much against Christ and the Spirit of Christ 2. Contrary also to God and his Law and that many ways for if where strife and division is there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every evil work as the Apostle saith Jam. 3. 16. in this one offence as it 's usually said of the first Adam's there 's at once a violation and breach of Gods whole Law I insist not in particulars as idolizing our selves or others against the first Commandment and setting altare juxta altare our threshold by God's against the second c. In general I say If love be the fulfilling of the whole Law this is so destructively opposite to love that it 's a perfect evacuating of it By which we are at odds not only with God and our brethren but oft-times even with our selves and our own judgments and consciences which men often cross that they may comply with a party to which they are captivated as Lactantius said of Tully Verùm haec non Ciceronis culpa est sed sectae Thus Lib. 2. cap. 9. such breaches at once snap all asunder And whilst they cry up their own opinion and way if that be Tom 6. de Haeres haeres 54. ut asseveraret quod nihil cuique obesse● quoruml●●er perpetratio perseverantia peceatorum si hujus quae ab illo docebatur fidei particeps esset but believed and followed by themselves and their followers a broad way is set open and liberty indulged to trample upon all other Commandments as Eunomius in Austin gave out That the commission of or perseverance in any sin could not hurt that man that would but entertain the faith which he taught as our later Libertines and Antinomians make the worst sins none but only the sense of them and sorrow for them Hence Arch-Hereticks though some few as Pelagius especially at the first were more sober and seemingly religious yet have been observed usually to be very abominable and scandalous in their practices exemplified if not exceeded in our Ranters and other Sectaries railings cursings stark-naked obscenities which Grace could not name and even Nature would cover and blush at A manifest heavy judgment of God upon them written with a Sun-beam had they not unmann'd themselves putting out their own eyes and debauched their very natural consciences But Lord whither do we not run when thou leavest us As this is another manifest Judgment of God upon them that as by these Sects they cut themselves off from others so very often they cannot keep long together amongst themselves O Lord divide their Psal 55. 9. tongues prayeth David against his enemies and it 's that which God most justly inflicteth on these Babel builders What divisions See Socrates l. 5. c. 21 23 24. Graec and subdivisions are they mouldred into and what deadly irreconcileable feuds and animosities amongst themselves do they often fall to Thomists with Scotists and Jesuits against Dominicans Seculars and Regulars and one Sect against another till at last See Watsons Quodlibets Judg. 7. 12. 1 Sam. 14. 20. Ezech. 38. 21. when others could not

and as Macrobius out of Plato observeth S●mn Scip. l. 1. cap. 6. though the four Elements be divers and have opposite qualities and so are at odds one with another yet God in his wisdom hath so order'd it that every one of the four Elements have two qualities and so although with one they fight against each other yet by the other they are linked together to a likeness and consistency as water being cold and moist and the Earth cold and dry though in moisture and driness they are opposite yet both agree in coldness and so in the rest of the Elements ut per tam jugabilem competentiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foederari possint so and much rather in the Body of Christ though there be much variety in the members and that if not better looked to may be occasion of too much opposition yet in that they are by one spirit united unto one head and by reason of many other ties and ligaments they have much more to unite and keep them together than there can be to disunite and pluck and keep them asunder It should make us do our utmost to endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace But because it 's the God of Peace and Love who only can make us to endeavour and then make our endeavours successful to so glorious an end and because he may be sooner intreated than froward man be perswaded I end this particular with Noahs wish and prayer Gen. 9. 27. The Lord perswade Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem that our many Sects and Schisms being abandoned and all our rents and breaches made up once at last our Jerusalem may be builded as a City that is compacted together even a Psal 122. 3. Isa 33. 20. quiet habitation a Tabernacle that neither shall be taken down nor any of the Cords thereof broken SERMON X. ON PHILIPPIANS 3. 5 6. THIS is the first Particular which from these words As Touching the Law or the Sect I was of a Pharisee That it is not the being of any Sect or Party that commends us to God or is to be rested in no not though never so learned for such was that of the Pharisees who had their name of Pharisees from their greater skill in explaining the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus expresseth it and therefore were accounted De bello Judaico l. 1. c. 4. amongst their chief Doctors and opposed to the rude ignorant multitude as John 7. 49. Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him But this people who knoweth not the Law are cursed The Jewish Jesuits I called them as for their pretence of greater sanctity so for their either real or pretended knowledge and learning above others And Paul had been one of these and if you consider what is said of him in Scripture or what even Porphyrie thought of him or what he speaks of himself Gal. 1. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he profited in the Jews Religion that is as some expound it in the study and knowledge of the Law and Jewish In Judaicae Religionis notitiâ sive legis studio Grotius Religion above many his equals in his own Nation that he was * Acts 22. 3. 5. 34. brought up at the feet of Gamaliel the great Doctor of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 institutus accuratè as the Tigurine rendreth it most exactly instructed in the Law of his Fathers yea and in other humane literature above all the rest of the Apostles as his disputes and writings testifie I say If you consider all this you will conclude that as he was a Pharisee so one of the highest form amongst them for parts and sufficiencies And therefore when he was but a young man made use of by them as a fit Act. 9. 1 2 3 14. 22. 5. 26. 10 12. and choice instrument for their purpose And yet though he was a Pharisee and such a Pharisee both for his Order and his personal accomplishments so knowing and eminently learned yet this he valueth not himself by nor rests in but counts it also loss and dung that he might gain Christ Whence This Note ariseth That it is not our greatest parts or learning Note 2. either natural or acquired abilities that can so commend us to God that we may rest in them but they also are loss and dung in comparison of Christ and are so to be accounted by us that we may gain Christ And of this now I cannot say as I did of the former that it is of little or no worth No. Next under Christ and his Grace above all things in the World of greatest Excellency Solomon who had most of it can best tell us the true worth of it and he saith that Fools indeed despise wisdom and hate knowledge but Pro. 1. 7 22. he calls them fools for it But for his own judgment it 's positive that Wisdom excelleth folly as far as light excells darkness both Eccles 2. 13. in its own nature and for the admirable usefulness of it which the ignorant fool whilest in the dark perceiveth not but when he once cometh into the light is made sensible of as the● frantick or deadly sick man as long as such feels not his malady till he begin to recover out of sickness and madness and then he begins to discern the difference Scientia Deorum vita They accounted it the life of their Gods and it 's indeed a bright beam of heaven This transcendent worth of knowledge and learning learned men usually know too well whilst they little know themselves and therefore as the Apostles word is swell in pride and are puff'd 1 Cor. 8. 1. up with the conceit of it that like Saul they are higher by the head than all their Neighbours and so do tanquam ex alto despicere 1 Sam. 10. 23. all others as their underlings nay lift up themselves against Christ himself his Truth ways and Ordinances as poor low things too inferior for their Altitudes to stoop to A Psalm of David a dull piece to an Ode of Pindar A Believer an half-witted crackt brain Simplician To such Preachers as to the Athenians are but vain bablers Act. 17. 18. it's the foolishness of preaching and therefore they think they more wisely spend their 1 Cor. 1. 21. time in reading of a Book than in hearing of a Sermon Yea Christ himself though the Wisdom of God to the learned Greeks is no better than foolishness 1 Cor. 1. 23. as to the Jews he was a stumbling block And therefore they thought their saying Have any of the wise Rulers or the learned Pharisees believed in him laid a sufficient block in the way for any that had wi● in their heads ever to have a purpose in their hearts to come to him And such thoughts it 's likely enough our learned Paul had of Christ whilst he continued a Pharisee

Believer that feeleth the benefit of it rejoiceth in it with humble thankfulness There is greatest reality in Gods giving and in faiths receiving Christ hath really satisfied for us and this is really conveyed and applied to us In this first step of justification we are brought to be possessed of Christ and then sure we are made to inherit substance And if such reality in Justification then it 's much more evident even to reason and sense in sanctification and what followes it till we come at last to Glory As for instance 1. They work very real changes in the hearts and lives of men so that it cometh to the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. ● to a transformation and renewal or new molding and that not only of the outside looks and gestures and carriages in an outward form of goodness but even of the mind yea of the very spirit of the mind Ephes 4. 23. of the very inmost and chiefest of the inward man so that although the convert be no such changling as not to be the same man in his natural individuality and so the change in that sense is not substantial yet in a true moral and spiritual sense it is eminently real Though it be the same string yet it is quite otherwise new tuned ●ll old things being past away and all things become new in this new creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. When the spirit of the Lord which was only a spirit of Government came upon Saul it is said he was turned into another man 1 Sam. 10. 6. But when another kind of spirit a spirit of real sanctification came upon another Saul or Paul he was much farther from being the former man he was and therefore saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 2. 20. which Beza and Grotius paraphrase Is qui fueram non sum I live but not the same man I was or if you say that be not the sense of the Apostle in that place and indeed I doubt it yet I am sure it 's that which many happy converts find in their hearts and lives so that they may say with that convert in Ambrose Ego non sum ego I am not my self no● 〈◊〉 former sinful self I am not more the same man that I was than the new man is the old man Ephes 4. 22 24. or light is darkness Act. 26. 18. when the Lion is become a Lamb Isa 11. 6. and Ephraim who was bid let alone as inseparably joined to Idols Hos 4. 17. saith what have I to do with Idols Hos 14. 8. when Paul of a persecutor is become a Preacher and Luther a zealous Protestant of a monachus insanissimus as he calleth himself of a mad monk ready as he confesseth to kill Praefat. in Tom. 1. suorum operum any that in unâ syllabâ should detract from the Popes obedience when the proud are made humble the froward meek the cruel merciful yea and such as by their natural tempers and accustomed practice were sometimes most unclean sensual and profane afterwards become eminently holy and spiritual and heavenly Such great changes Lactantius undertakes by the word of Christ to make and such Christ and His Grace hath made in all ages indeed so great that none else could make them and so visibly appearing not only to themselves and friends but to the eyes and consciences of their worst enemies that they could not be only notions and phansies juggles or outside hypocritical shews and visards but greatest realities and so clearest evidences that Jesus Christ is the Amen the faithful and true witness and Revel 3. 14. these are the real and actual putting of his servants into possession of part of that inheritance which he here in the Text bequeathes them where he promiseth them that he will cause them to inherit substance 2. A Second great work which Christ and his Grace work and thereby sully manifest their true and eminent reality is the quieting of Believers hearts and this triple 1. In satisfying their desires 2. In comforting them in their griefs and anguishes in this life 3. In most fully and eminently perfecting all in glory 1. In satisfying the desires of our Souls and they as we are men This is all my desire 2 Sam. 23. 5. are very large but as Believers and so far more enlarged by the Divine spirits breathings are in a manner infinite Now painted viands will not satisfie a real appetite nor will a man that is hungry indeed though he dream of eating when he is asleep be Isa 29. 8. satisfied with it when he is awake Indeed corporal food may satisfy bodily hunger a beast may have a belly full but that must be solid not frothy trash else you will soon again be hungry as some of late have told us of the Gage luscious fruits in America or they are very much distempered bodies and appetites which such stuff can sa●●● Phansie may be satisfied with phantasms as children may be quieted with toyes and rattles but the intellectual appetite is more both curious and serious and in some things is not quieted without solid demonstrations and yet in some other things takes up in very thin and empty notions especially such is our self love if they be our own as Casaubon some where professeth that he In Athenaeis was fully apaid for all his labours in his studies with the content he took by one poor Criticism and Hadrian the Cardinal when he meets with an Aliud or Aliter or such like particle well De modo lat loq p. 19. set he thinks he hath found a Jewel But those more divine hungrings and thirstings which the spirit of God really raiseth in the hearts of his people are not satisfied with such husks and puff-pasts which do rather feed esuriem animae than esurientem animam Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not saith the Prophet Isa 55. 2. It must be bread the staff of man's life which upholdeth the bodily life and it must be the true bread of life which came down from heaven John 6. 32 33. which only can satisfie the truly hungring soul and feed it to everlasting life And that Christ and his grace both is and doth His flesh is meat indeed and his bloud drink indeed John 6. 55. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 panis supersubstantialis as some translate and expound that in Matth. 6. 11. Christ is substantial supersubstantial bread that really and more than substantially feeds and satisfieth the hungry soul his grace his peace and the light of his countenance do abundantly fill and feast its longing desires and appetite As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness saith David Psal 17. 15. I have all and abound I am full saith Paul Phil. 4. 18. when he had tasted of Christ's sweetness

friend in such straits as we are wont to say is a friend indeed And such we express and proclaim Christ to be when we can experimentally know him by his Name I am and find him to be All when all else is nothing though with them Hebr. 10. 34. we be spoiled of all other goods yet then Christ makes good this his word To those who so love him he maketh them to inherit substance 3. For our outward carriage and Conversation contrary to this substance is empty outside formal Ceremoniousness and superficial Hypocrisie 1. For the first What a glaring shew did the Pharisee make in his Phylacteries and Tephilims the Pope in his Pontificalibus What a Pageant and Puppet play is their Mass and what an heap of light chaff is their Corpus Juris Canonici And yet as of old The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these in these and such like outward services and circumstances such weight laid as though they had been the very heart and life and substance of godliness whilest those who most prest them were the most real and bitter Enemies of the power of grace and many of the people who most doated on them were most debauched and furthest off from the least shew of it but that I may use Tertullian's words did impietatis secreta superficialibus officiis abumbrare and although they did drink and drab and live in all abominable filthiness yet if they could take Sanctuary in such Church-Formalities which could let them alone in their lusts missa non mordet if they could bow and cringe and be ready at their postures in the Church and on their Death-Bed receive their Maker and be absolved and when dead be buried in a Fryers Cowl all was safe enough All this only the Whores garish dress far from the Spouses substantial and durable clothing as it 's called Isa 23. 18. But I forbear now to speak further of this because although little do we know how soon our giddiness and Romes Emissaries through God's just judgment may again bring us to such vanities for the present we are gotten to a quite contrary extream of all rudeness and irreverence in God's outward service as though there were no mean between affected finicalness and right down sordidness The Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might make up this 1 Cor. 14. 40. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this great gulf and keep us from sinking either into Idolatry and superstition on the one hand or Profaneness on the other But again I must say Now no more of that superficial Ceremoniousness in God's service 2. And rather let me speak a little of the vizard of hypocrisie in our outward profession and carriage directly opposite to substantial Christianity a sin which as he saith is the worst of all to be accused of by God but the best by men who too often would pin it on the sleeve of all profession and most odiously of sincere professors So Job with his friends is an hypocrite and Christ with Matth. 27. 63. the Jews but a Deceiver and as soon as ever a Christian was espied statim illud de trivio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I wish we might not have not only in the streets and other places but too often also in the Pulpit the power of godliness wounded through the sides and under the name of hypocrisie But yet this false sin may be too truly charged on too many by better men and I fear never on more than now in this false age in which there are not more slips minted in our Coin than in Religion and none cry out more of Forms than those that are greatest Formalists If not totus mundus exercet histrioniam yet in our little World too too many prove Stage-Players that act parts in Masks and Visards with a great deal of the form but a very little of the power of godliness all shew and no substance such shadows using to be most in brightest Sun-shine and in Bernard's judgment make up that Daemonium Serm. 6. in Ps 91. meridianum But I must not here enlarge on the many ugly deformities of such mens sins and how monstrous such visards make them All that I have occasion from the matter in hand to touch on is what contrariety they bear to this substantial reality which is in Christ and should be in all the true solid members of his Body whereas on the contrary these men may be fitly compared to Sodom's trees and fruit which Chrysostom saith Hom. 8. in 1. ad Thessal are Trees and no Trees fruit and yet no fruit all in shew but nothing in substance And therefore would we write according to the Copy in the Text and according to the exemplar which we there have in Christ our care and endeavour should be in our whole course and carriage instead of these vain shews and non-significant overtures really to express so much of Christ as may declare him to be substance and our selves substantial Christians that Religion and Grace is not an Idea or a vain frothy Notion but a real vital energetical principle and therefore to every one that nameth the name of Christ and makes profession of his grace I must say Loquere ut videam ut sentiam Say and do appear and be as Christ said to his Disciples Luke 24. 39. Behold my hands and feet that it is I handle me and see me for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have so the true Disciples of Christ may be able to say to all beholders and to most quick-sighted and most suspicious Enemies Come near and look and mark diligently that it is I that I am really my self and what I seem for that I am not a Ghost or a Phantasm or a Counterfeit which hath not such real Evidences and solid demonstrations of Christ and his Grace which you see I have That my heart is right when my life expresseth righteousness and true holiness Ephes 4. 24. That my profession is sincere when my Conversation really maketh it good and so the Gnomon and the Clock go both together That in my words and promises with the Apostle I do not use lightness that with me there should be Yea and Nay but according 2 Cor. 1. 17. Matth. 5. 37. See Grotius in locum to my Saviour's Precept my Communication is Est Est That although I do not swear yet I am a substantial man of my word that upon it any man may know where to have me And in the constant tenour of my life and carriage I am a square man a solid Christian that notwithstanding some lesser variations which the best Load-stone hath I in the general point right pretend to no more than my life makes good in a stable frame and way of down-right-godliness Whilest I can really vitally vigorously act for God in general and particular calling And if he please to call to it

〈◊〉 may ever have the upper hand Prefer Jerusalem above our chief joy Psal 137. 6. Love all men as men as the Prophet saith Hide not thy self from thine own flesh Isa 58. 7. but yet so as to love them most with whom we have one and the same spirit 1 Cor. 12. 13. Honour all men but especially Love the brotherhood 1 Pet. 2. 17. Let at least humanity prevail with us to esteem and love all that with us partake of humane nature for so far we love our selves but so as to put more abundant honour on them who are made partakers of the divine nature for so we shall love God in them SERMON XVIII ON 2 PET. 1. 4. BUT that We may have this honour and love it will be Preacht at St. Maries June 21. 1657. Vse 3. required that we examine our selves whether we have attained to this true ground of it this truly honourable state of being made partakers of the divine nature Wherein that consists hath already in the general been declared in the former doctrinal explication the main of it was that divine grace was this divine nature Pelagius heretically called humane nature grace we may piously and truly call saving grace divine nature to be Godly is to be God like God is holy just wise good spiritual heavenly and it is his very nature to be so And he that is of such an heavenly spirit and carriage although nil humani à se alienum putat yet totus divinitatem spirat though otherwise he be a poor weak man subject to humane infirmities yet by this his conformity to God he is raised to divine perfection As the eye of faith under all that bloud and spittle saw on our Saviours face his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth John 1. 14. so the same eye under the mean outside of him who hath filled out of Christs fulness his measure of grace and holiness even grace for grace beholdeth with awful reverence and complacential love bright rayes and reflexions of divinity In his heavenly discourse it saith Non vox hominem sonat there is more than a man God speaks in him as Junius thought In ejus vitâ of that poor godly man who was one means of turning him from his Atheism And when it beholds his holy and heavenly conversation though it do not say with the Lycaonians Acts 14. 11. that Gods are come down to us in the likeness of men yet though but an Idiot he will report that God is in him of a truth 1 Cor. 14. 25. But enough of this in general Let us rather for our better direction consider some particular properties of this Divine Nature by which it may be discovered and manifested some from that it 's called Nature and some from that it 's stiled a Divine Nature 1. Nature is an inward inbred principle In natural bodies it 's ordinarily defined to be principium motûs quietis and so this Principium motûs intrinsecum Aquin. 1. 2 ae q. 10. a. 1. corp divine nature in a gracious spirit is an inward principle of power and act the spring that in this divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sets all the wheeles a going like the spirit of the living creatures in the wheels Ezek. 1. 20. In this sense our Saviour saith that the water which he giveth to the thirsty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it shall be in him but what a well of water springing up to everlasting life John 4. 14. not a Cistern which hath all its water from without put into it It is so indeed as it hath all from God but in regard of outward supplies such a well it is that hath such a spring in it as from it self is continually bubbling and springing up to everlasting life It 's no artificial engine to spout out that water which it had not of its own but a true natural fountain that poureth out of what springeth up in it self Jer. 6. 7. as in the creation the herb brought forth seed and the tree fruit after its kind Gen. 1. 12. from its innate seminal vertue its inward natural temperament and constitution and the stone moveth down to the center and the sparks fly upward from their Job 5. 7. natural propension nature being that ingenita rei vis potentia quâ ipsa à seipsá movetur so in this new creation where there is a Divine Nature there is something within not only a blaze in the lamp but also oyl in the vessel Matth. 25. 4. an inward principle which sets the soul in motion to God and heaven these divine sparks naturally fly upward as it 's said of Timothy Philip. 2. 20. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did genuinely and naturally care for the things of God and his Church and Job said of himself that the root of the matter was in him Job 19. 28. contrary to what is said of the stony-ground hearer that he had not root in himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 13. 21. which is the broad difference between a true born child of God and a formal hypocrite the one flutters and makes a great stir in the things of God but God knows and he himself knows and feels there is no inward vital principle that sets him on work nothing from within unless vain-glory or other finister ●imes and intentions which are only corrupt nature but usually all is from without either the applause or frowns of men and the one as the wind drives about the millsails which else would stand still and the other as those Trochler● or water-works force the water upwards which else would lie below or fall downward But O friend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he laid of Plutarch the dead statue which he could not make stand by it self there must be something within that goes to a divine nature an inward principle of Divine life and love which without these pullies and plummets sets the wheels of the soul on going God-ward Doth not even nature it self teach you saith the Apostle in that case 1 Cor. 11. 14. and doth not the Divine nature it self where-ever it is in truth from an inward principle and pondus animae prompt and incite and carry you out towards God in communion with him and obedience to him as Act. 18. 5. it 's said of Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was pressed in spirit occasioned by the Jews obstinacy but there was a spirit within him that pressed him to it But here take a double caution when I speak of this inward principle it is not with our Enthusiasts so to cry up a Christ within them as to cry down a Christ without them indeed without them because never truly in them Christ indeed dwells in our hearts but it is by faith Ephes 3. 17. and that is both br●d and fed by his word and ordinances Rom. 10.

of their recoveries The Sheep may fall in the dirt but it 's the unclean Swine that continueth to lie and wallow in it The seed of God may sometimes be 1 Joh. 3. 9. under-ground but if it abide in us as the Apostle speaks it will at last get up and out again As there is hope of a tree though when cut down the root thereof wax old in the earth and the stock thereof die in the ground that through the scent of water it will sprout again and bud and bring forth boughs as a plant as Job speaks cap. 14. 7 8 9. So even a plant of righteousness may sometimes be so nipt and blasted that all may seem to be dead but being planted by the river implanted into Christ by the scent of water from this Divine nature and supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ after such a nipping Winter doth recover again its verdure in the spring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle of his Philippians Cap. 4. 10. I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care hath flourished again Not like Jude's trees twice dead and pluckt up by Vers 12. the roots and so even dead without possibility of after-growth Till Nature be quite spent and extinct which the Divine Nature never can be it hath an inward natural Balsam in it which helps on its cure and recovery and as long as there is any breathing of the Divine Spirit it will at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stir up that 2 Tim. 1. 6. grace which seemed to be raked up under the dead ashes and blow it up into a brighter flame And therefore after such falls and stumbles labour we to express this Divine nature by these happy As corrupt nature breeds these decayes so let this Divine nature work these recoveries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. advers Colot as Cyprian Ep. 2. ad Donatum Quod sentitur antequam discitur after recoveries Nor doth it only play such after-games but is much discovered by its forehand quickness Grace is preventing as well as subsequent And this adds A seventh particular Nature hath its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sympathies antipathies its hints instincts and impetus which antevert the Acts of Reason prevent discourse and deliberation At the first blush the heart closeth with this thing or person before it can think why and riseth up in abhorrency and loathing of that other when it cannot tell wherefore Non amo te Volusi nec possum dicere quare It 's so with the Divine Nature It doth abstain and on the sudden start back 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the very first appearance of evil 1 Thess 5. 22. quicquid malè fuerit coloratum as Bernard phraseth it Some expound it of matters of Doctrine De Considerat lib. 3. and so the good Womans Spirit rose against false Doctrine preached though she could not say it was so some understand it of practice and so the chast Soul hates even the garment spotted with the flesh Jude v. 23. is troubled sweats and faints at the first appearance of it as some naturally do at the presence of that against which they have a secret Antipathy On the contrary at first sight or speech by an unio animarum closeth with persons of the same spirit and things that are as it were connatural before it hath time or leisure to give a rational account of it I know the word of God must be the standing rule both of our Faith and practice and am far from indulging the wild phansies and the sudden violent impetus of rash inconsiderate men and yet in some cases give much to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and propendency as also to the aversation of the spirits of sober godly men especially if of all or most as having in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something of the workings of this Divine Nature in them which anticipates their discourse and as John out-ran John 20. 4. Peter is got out before they can come to any deliberate resolution By its nature the Lamb dreads the Wolf when so young that it cannot discern him and we should discover more of this Divine Nature if by the divine instinct of it we can loath sin when we are otherwise so weak or surprized that we have not time or Nature doth act always as high as it can and then how high should this Divine Nature carry us ability to make a deliberate judgment of it 8. As Nature sometimes anticipates Reason so this Divine Nature always exceeds and goeth beyond that which is only humane Divinity is above Humanity Grace above Nature A Christian is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a bare man but more than a man And therefore to have or express no more than what Nature can work or natural men by other helps can attain to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk as men with the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 3. terminus minuens or as Cap. 6. 7. he calls the like it 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a defect in which we fall much short of and below that which a man or God that is made partaker of the Divine Nature should arrive at and come up to For as man by nature and kind is and acts above other creatures so a Christian man should even above himself as a man and above other men that want that Divine Principle The widwives once said that the Hebrew women were not as the Egyptian women Exod. 1. 19. And truly the men of God should not be as other men I mean not more proud and froward and worldly but more holy and humble and unblameable than other men Samson the Nazarite became then only like another man when his locks were shaved off and the Spirit of God departed from him Judg. 16. 17 20. But as long as the sanctifying Spirit acts and abides in us we are true Nazarites as by our holy Vows separated to God so we should be though not wholly separated yet very much distinguished from other ordinary men Christ expects from us a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where much is given much is required and more than a Divine Nature could not be given therefore there he requires most Mat. 5. 47. something singular eminent and transcendent a proportionable distance from others in our lives which may answer that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we expect to be fixed between them and us after our deaths Luc. 16. 26. Contarenus de Justificat makes the comparison of the manners of a Rustick and of a Citizen or Courtier and a like difference he saith there is between the carriage of an earth-born sinner and a Saint made partaker of the Divine Nature The Sons of Princes should not be in the garb of Peasants children but that comparison is too low Between Nature and Grace there should be a more vast distance A Child of God should be as much above a natural man as heaven is above the

say to his sons Why do you look one upon another get you down and buy for us that we may live and not dye Gen. 42. 1 2. And why then should we look here and there and like fools have our eyes in the ends of the earth to find out other vanities when Pro. 17. 24. did we but lift up our eyes and hearts to heaven we might both see and get that which will make us like the God of heaven I say not therefore as Jacob there of Egypt Get you down thither but get we up hither though it be with Jonathan and his Armour-bearer on our hands and keens with humblest prayers and earnestest endeavours though as with them up sharpest rocks through greatest difficulties and dangers But is it possible that a child of wrath by nature may become a Son of God and by Grace be partaker of the Divine Nature One in himself so much the Beast and the Devil be made like the blessed God And so I that am so vile and sinful may I become holy as he is holy perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect Then sure the happiness of it would not be more inconceivable than our neglect of it unexcusable Let us therefore up and be doing 1 Chron. 22. 16. 3. And this yet the rather upon consideration of what others even Heathens have attempted in this kind and when they have been so mantling the wing this way let them shame us if we take not a further and an higher flight How doth Plato up and down define the chiefest good of man to consist in a full conformity to God! and what a noise do they make with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their being God-like whilest they lived and Deifi●d when dead Oh that what we read in their Books we might find in our hearts and others may see in our lives that we might really be and do what they talked of At least for shame let us exceed what they did or could attain to whilst we do so much exceed them both for pattern and principle 1. Our pattern is more fair and our Copy far more clearly and legibly written before us in the word of truth than theirs in the dim light of nature It did more darkly discover to them the footsteps of God that by following him therein they might grope after an Vnknown God and so they fumbled about a poor conformity Act. 17. 23 27. 2 Pet. 1. 19. to him But upon us the day hath dawned and the day-star is risen in our hearts and the Sun of righteousness shineth forth which hath more fully discovered to us the image and nature of God in the face of Jesus Christ unvailed and clearly discovered to us in the glass and bright beams of the Gospel the Deity in its nature persons and properties evidently manifested nor ever could the holiness justice power truth and mercy of God be more fully declared than they are by Christ and as they are held forth in the Gospel In Christ God is manifested in the fl●sh He being 1 Tim. 3. 16. Heb. 1. 3. ●ol 2. 9. the Brightness of His Father's glory and the express Image of his Person in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily and all grace which is this Divine nature in the Text em●nently and without measure for our participation imitation So that our better Abimelech our King and Father in his grace and life saith to us all as the other Abimelech did to his followers Judg. 9. 48. What ye have seen me do make haste and do like me The word was made flesh and dwelt among us that we might at a nearer John 1. 14. view behold his glory full of grace and truth and walkt among us on purpose that we should follow his steps In a word he being 1 Pet. 2. 21. God took upon him the nature and was made in the likeness of man that the like mind might be in us and that whilst Phil. 2. 7. 5. we have such a perfect pattern so near our eye according to our measure in likeness and conformity we might be made partakers of the divine nature And if the rich man thought that one coming from the dead would work so great matters with his brethren Luke 16. 30. what a transformation in our hearts and lives should Christ make who for this very purpose came down from heaven Our pattern in Christ is very fair And it very openly and clearly held out to us in the Gospel Whether by Christs own ministry he being the only begotten Son in his Fathers bosom could best declare him John 1. 18. And should we only consider his sermon on the Mount in the 5 6 7. Chapters of S. Matthew we may understand so much of God's nature and will that were our hearts and lives answerable we should therein very much partake of the Divine nature and in our measure be perfect as our Father who is in heaven is perfect as our Saviour there speaks Matth. 5. 48. Or should we consider the Gospel of Christ as dispensed in the writings or preachings of his Apostles or other servants Paul in the general speaks very full to our purpose 2 Cor. 3. 18. that we all with open face as in a glass beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord. In which Text every clause is very strong and emphatical We all not only Apostles and Ministers as some would expound it but all true Christians for they are not only such as we call Divines that are made partakers of the Divine nature With open face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not through Moses his darker veils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beholding the glory of God that is the glorious nature wisdom justice and mercy of God most fully and perfectly expressed and exposed and manifested in Christ And accordingly most clearly reflected and held forth in the glass and most clear mirrour of the Gospel This ex parte objecti medii But what ex parte subjecti is or should be the effect of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are or at least God expecteth that we should be changed into the very same image not only there to see and behold him but so as to represent him in speculo repraesentantes as Erasmus translateth it and so are transfigured into the same likeness tanquam secundariae quaedam imagines as Beza well expresseth it And that from glory to glory that is not only from one degree of glorious grace to another as most interpreters expound Beza Lapide it but as some add from the glory that is in God and Christ from this reflexion of it to a proportionable glory according to our manner and measure communicated to us by it And all this as by the spirit of the Lord that is so really and gloriously that nothing but the all powerful

Psalmes to the Sun in the midst of the rest of the Planets in some respect the Comparison will suit well Or if a third tell us that it contains in it all the Precepts of Faith and Hilar. Obedience I think he said true Quanto apertior tanto profundior it was Austin's Judgment of it and if we will believe him that said it if we should spend our whole lives in studying it though we should not lose our labours yet we should not fully understand it for it as our Text saith the rest of God's Word is is exceeding broad If nothing else yet the Author 's Alphabetical disposing of it telleth us there is something in it more than ordinary as being worth his more artificial Penning and our more diligent Endeavour to have it as ready in our Memory as the very Letters of our Alphabet The Author is either altogether unknown or at least as Calvin thinks uncertain Yet me-thinks their Opinion is very probable who think that it suits well with the strain of the sweet Singer of Israel as being one of the sweetest Songs of Zion But upon what occasion it was framed and with what coherence of parts Interpreters generally say not nor list I to conjecture Only this we may observe for both that as his chief aim through the whole is to magnifie God's Word and Law which therefore he maketh honourable mention of under different Titles in every Verse save one as some observe though I think four more may be excepted Ver. 22. And for Coherence what-ever reference one Ogdoad hath to another that in every one of them he speaks to some one thing in general which is particularly set out in the several Verses of it A taste of both which we may have in this out of which the Text is taken In which the Author whosoever he was Tanquam taederet eum mutabilitatis hominum as he speaks as it were now wearied with the Mutability of outward Occurrences casts the Anchor of his Soul in the unchangeable Truth and Word of God which he found settled in Heaven ver 1. and in Earth ver 2. in all things ver 3. in his own Person and Occasions in the four following and therefore with an heavenly Epiphonema he makes the first and last Verse sound both the same Note There he begins For ever O Lord thy Word is settled in Heaven And he here ends with the same I have seen an end of all Perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad In which words the large Extent and eternal Duration of God's Word is set out by comparing it with the narrow scantness and short continuance of all other Contentments He had seen an end of all such Perfections But none of God's Word Thy Commandment is exceeding broad For the first words in which though contrary to my first purpose my present Discourse must be bounded this end of Perfection some make Martyrdome many of the Latine Fathers Christ The Greek whom our later Divines in this usually follow by this all Perfection understand either all this inferiour and visible World containing in it the divers Degrees and Perfections of things and therefore called all Perfection Or Metonymically by Perfection is meant whatever particular thing either for Nature or Quality is most perfect and consummate the sight of all which Satan thought would have dazled our Saviour's and therefore we might have thought would have easily blinded David's eyes But by his wise Observation and piercing Eye of Faith he saith he hath seen If you ask what The words of the Text answer but having a double Emphasis 1. Not any meaner or ordinary Contentments but the top and choise of all Perfections And 2. Not one of them or some or few but all and yet through them all something beside He had seen an end of all Perfection As though whatsoever he could see he could see an end of it and that end as I take it double of length of breadth of length and continuance that whereas God's Word is for ever settled in Heaven ver 1. He seeth an end a Period of those lower and fading Perfections and of breadth and extent as we may gather from the Opposition in the end of the Verse they are too scant and narrow to cover all our Nakedness and Defects but God's Word as for continuance can reach to all Times so for breadth and extent to all Persons and Wants But thy Commandment is exceeding broad The Truth then which from these first words I am now to Doct. handle in full sense is plainly thus much That not any not all the best of these things below will last or can help always The first Vanity is That they last not I have seen an end of all Perfection saith David And sure what he by the Spirit saith he saw we may believe is true for the was a Prophet of God and they were called Seers and whatever ours do in other Matters certainly their Eye-sight in such things as these never failed them This our Seer therefore having as it were got to the Top of some high Mountain as Augustine expresseth it from thence as our Saviour Mat. 4. 8. had a view of all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory the Perfection of them He saw all this but withal something beside and therefore as that Watchman Isa 21. 11 12. being asked what he saw answered Advenerat mane sed etiam nox venit as Junius readeth it There had been a lightsome Morning but ended in a darksome Night So our Watchman here being asked what he saw answers he had seen much even all Perfection but withal an end of all I have seen an end of all Perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad Just the same with a part of the Vision of another of God's Seers Isa 40. 6 8. The Voice said cry And he said What shall I cry All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof as the Flower of the Field The Grass withereth and the Flower fadeth But the Word of our God abideth for ever In which words I have a sufficient Draught of what I need speak in this particular For hence we see 1. That all things are but as Grass 2. That all the Glory and Perfection of them but as the Flower of Grass and therefore both subject to decay either to wither of themselves or to be cut down or pluckt up by others First For all things in general I only say this that the round World is but like a round Ball wrapt up of broken Threads amongst which there may be some ends of Gold and Silver So that whilst Men oftentimes as they think are spinning a fair Thread either it comes to the end or as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word in the Text comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to cut off the Hand of God cuts either it or us off as Hezekiah complains Isa 38. 10 12. and so we are left in the

that in the very forefront I light on is Aarons Frontlet in the Text. Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold and grave upon it like the ingraving of a signet sanctitas Jehovae or sanctum Domino Holiness to the Lord. For the literal sense as meant of Aaron I find no difficulty some would who doubt whether both words were ingraven on this golden plate or the word Jehova only But P. Fagius rightly concludes for both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holiness to the Lord both ingraven to let Aaron know what God was and what he should be especially in his holy Ministrations God was holy and he would have him so especially when he came before him For the mystical signification as applied to Christ the High-Priest 1 Pet. 1. 19. John 1. 29. of our profession it agrees fully That spotless Lamb took away the sins of the world who had none of his own so full of holiness he that on his very fore-head all might have read this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holiness to the Lord. For such an High-Priest it became us to have who was holy and harmless and separate from sinners Hebr. 7. 26. And therefore passing by both these the moral application of it especially to Ministers and partly to all Christians will be the subject of my present discourse Which that it may be more orderly give me leave in this Aarons Frontlet out of this and the adjacent verses to observe and handle these particulars 1. Quid what 's expressed and required and that 's Holiness 2. Vbi where it 's to be sought and seen on his very forehead and the forefront of his miter vers 37 38. 3. Quomodo how ingraven there with the ingraving of a signet 4. The Finis cui to whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all this to the Lord. 5. The Finis cujus for what cause that the peoples holy gifts might be accepted and the iniquity of them pardoned vers 38. And of these now briefly 1. The thing here ingraven on the Priest in the Law and required of the Preacher of the Gospel is especially and above all Holiness Not outward riches and greatness they to us but like wings A Sanctus Valerius in the Church of God is a better man than a Valerius Maximus to the Ostrich which she cannot fly with but only flutter and get the faster away By these we only get to outgo other men but by themselves they do not help us to fly up to heaven our selves or to carry others along with us No nor so much inward gifts of Learning and such like abilities though such polishing necessary to the Priest yet it 's not it but Holiness that 's here ingraven in his Crown Knowledge without Grace Learning in the head without Holiness in the forehead is but like a precious stone in a Toad's head or like flowers stuck about a dead body which will not fully keep it from smelling the less half by much of a Minister's accomplishment And therefore they that have it only at best are but like a ship ballasted only on one side that thereby sinks the sooner Or like David's messengers their 2 Sam. 10. priestly garment which should be talaris is cut off by the middle to their greater shame And yet well were it if many were not seen daily go so half naked and yet not ashamed of it The Mathematicians observe that a man that compasseth the earth his head goeth many thousand miles more than his feet but in ascent to heaven the feet would have the greater journey I so it is whilst we rather go about to compass the earth than to get up to heaven our heads outgo our feet our knowledge our practice but yet in the Church of God although there be sixty Queens and eighty Concubines and Virgins without number yet his Love and Dove is his undefiled one and she is but one Cant. 6. 8. And therefore I envy you not your sixty-Queens and eighty Concubines and Virgins without number your numerous numberless perfections of Arts and Tongues had you skill in as many Languages as ever Mithridates could speak or in as many Authors as Ptolomy's library could hold had you the life and strength of Paul or the eloquence of Apollo's preaching had you Chrysostom's tongue or Austin's pen had you all the perfections that could be named or thought of I should not be like profane Porphyrie who accounted it pity that such an accomplished man as Paul was should be cast away upon our Religion nor like profane parents in our days that think much to offer to the Lord a male any that have strength of body or mind but the halt and the blind the impotent of body and Mal. 1. it may be more in mind Cripples and blocks whom they know not what else to do with are they which they think fittest to bestow on the Ministry but cursed deceivers at length learn not to envy God your choisest jewels for the ornament of his Sanctuary for can they be better bestowed Much less brethren and Gospel-Bezaleels do I envy you your rarest endowments and perfections if you will please but with him to employ them in the helping up of Gods Sanctuary I envy you not all your such like Queens and Concubines and Virgins only upon this double condition first that you commit not folly with them and still that your undefiled one be your love and dove that whatever other engravings you have otherwhere about you yet that holiness be as here engraven on your crown on your heart and fore-head ingraven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holiness to the Lord. Holiness But what is that In general a sequestring and setting either person or thing apart for God whether from common or profane use and in both respects be we holy that bear the vessels of the Lord Isa 52. 11. 1. We Ministers should be holy as separated to the Lord from worldly employments not as though I approved the slow-bellied Romish Monkery of our dayes or yet condemned the Monks of old for having honest callings to be employed in or least of all found fault with St. Paul for tent-making Acts 18. 3. and Working with his own hands 1 Cor. 4. 12. Idleness is unlawful in all And Pauls particular case to avoid scandal made his course in that kind both holy and commendable But yet this notwithstanding this first part of holiness required calls for 1. a sequestration from such homely and sordid imployments as will make our selves and Ministry contemptible St. Jerom saith that sacerdos in foro is as bad an eye-sore as Mercator in Templo both to be whipt out A Minister and a Market-man are not unisons It 's not spade or mattock but the sword of the spirit that must be seen in our hands which is that we should both work and fight with It had been shameful if true that which Litprandus avoucheth of the Bishops Apud Baron Anno 968. Num. 11. c. of

because a Servant is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rational tool in his Master's hand to be ad nutum Domini resigning up our Reason to his Wisdome and our Will to his Commands doing it willingly chearfully fully without contradiction or exception Frequently and sadly thinking of our Account Heb. 13. 17. which will be very great when we have so many besides our selves to reckon for and yet most certain and cannot be avoided Luk. 16. 2. Matth. 25. 19. And yet comforting and encouraging our selves in a faithful and joyful expectation and assurance of a faithful and bountiful Act. 13. 36. Lord's reward From Enemies Strangers yea from Fellow-Servants it may be envy and hatred derision opposition and the greatest injuries and mischiefs they can reach us but what 's all this to our Master's last Euge well done good and faithful Servant enter into thy Masters Joy Thus much of your Office as in reference to God in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You are but his Servants 2. Secondly Consider it in reference to his People so you by it are made Rulers of his houshold In which words two things 1. The place it self It 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rulers of the houshold 2. The Institution of it and the investiture or putting them into it in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath made or constituted Ruler of his Houshold I shall briefly touch upon both 1. For the Place or Station Rulers of God's Houshold as he 2 Chron. 31. 13. is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ruler of the House of God I confess the word is not here in the Original as it is there but 1. The Phrase in this place implieth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over the Houshold i. e. in place of Rule and Superiority over the Houshold as Gen. 41. 43. its said Pharaoh made Joseph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over all i. e. as our English rightly expresseth it Ruler over all the Land of Egypt according as it 's expressed Act. 7. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Other places in plain words and full titles express it where they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 5. 17. 1 Thes 5. 12. Heb. 13. 7 17 24. Act. 20. 28. words partly in Scripture and partly in other Authors given to Princes in Common-Wealths to Generals Captains in Armies to Governors in Families in all which there is an authoritative power of Rule and Government over them that are set under them They are called Rulers and that word commands Obedience Fathers and that speaks Authority Elders and such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a Senate hath power Were it but only Shepherds and Stewards as he that is here Act. 20. 1 Cor. 4. 1. called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Luke called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that tells that although like the Centurion Matth. 8. 9. they be under a Superior Authority yet as such they have others under theirs Called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 13. 34. but not taken for an ordinary Porter but servus atriensis a Steward that hath the Keys of all as Isa 22. and yet as Porters to let in and keep out of the House of God and from his Table Eve●●●ey who most of all raise up the Authority of the whole Church as the immediate and first Subject of Church-power as totum and finis do freely grant the Exercise of that Power in some things as only vested in the Officers and in some other things in them especially But the Duty of this place especially of this day is not to dispute Controversals but to exhort and urge Practicals And therefore in that God by this Office hath advanced you Vse 1 so high as to set you over his Houshold Be exhorted so far to know your Place and the dignity and worth of it as not to be ashamed of it nor to be babished in the Execution of it Take heed of such an height of spirit as to grow proud of it of which by and by but yet pray and labour for such a generous magnanimity of Spirit as may in some measure answer the worth of it and may help you with a Holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a free boldness of Spirit to manage it Great Men expect it in their Stewards and the great God requires it in his This Masculine Ingenuity was in Jehoshaphat in his Temple-work It 's said his Heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord 2 Chron. 17. 6. and Nehemiah that unwearied and undaunted Repairer of Jerusalems ruines when the breaches were many and the rubbish that hindred their work much the strength of the Labourers little and yet decaying and the scorns insolencies and oppositions of Enemies very great and yet increasing how did he by Faith and Prayer raise up his own Spirit and by encouraging both Words and Actions endeavour to do as much for his Fellow-Labourers Chap. 4. and 6. Tricubitalis Paulus a low little Man for stature of Body and yet for lowliness of heart yet lower in his own Eyes less than the least of all Saints Ephes 3. 8. yet there was magnum in parvo With what an Heroick Spirit doth he carry on the work of his Ministry How doth the little Man stand as it were on Tiptoes when the Pride and Malice of false Apostles and others would have debased that Fastigium Apostolicum with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I magnify mine Office Rom. 11. 13. Yours is nothing near so high yet whilst it is over God's Houshold too high to be trampled upon by the foot of Pride which yet it is and will on purpose be more if Enemies once perceive that their Scorn and opposition can baffle you into a degenerous Despondency whom this height of your Office should set above any such Indignities A Luther's Courage with a Melancthon's Meekness make between them a fit temper for a right Church-Man Although what I have herein said perhaps is not enough to raise some of our Spirits yet it may be to some is too much who will think I preach that Pride which out of their Charity they say we will practise And therefore because it is a Duty of Humiliation we are now upon I shall rather press Humility And that as from the former Particular because by our Place Vse 2 we are Servants so also even from this because that by it we are set over Gods Houshold For though the Station be High yet be not high-minded but even therefore the rather fear Lower thy Sail the higher the Wind is In Ezekiel's Vision we read the Rings were so high that they were dreadful Chap. 1. 18. As the higher we are the more we tremble when we look downward The height and weight of your Places though it may make an empty pragmatick spirit Proud yet when well considered strongly engageth them that are better advised to be Humble Watchful Fearful As for Instance Are we over Gods Houshold 1. It

what Christ is to a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophylact upon my Text Light and Life and Breath and all things whilst he breaths in from Christ Comfort and Joy and breaths out Love and Praise O Lord by these things Men live saith Hezekiah Isa 38. 16. and in these things is the Life of my Spirit saith a true Christian I cannot live without them without Christ and Interest and Comfort in him I am weary of my Life as Rebekah said and what good will my Life do me Gen. 27. 46. Sine Christo enim vanum est omne quod vivimus Hierom It 's vain and to no purpose not worth the while not worth all the vanity and vexation we here meet with to live if we live out of Christ or not to him or not in communion with him Indeed our Riches and Possessions and outward Enjoyments are usually called our Livelihood or Living in the World's Dialect and according to it the Scripture sometimes so stiles them Luke 15. 12 30. and 21. 4. but withal it elsewhere tells us that which our Experience finds to be most true that a Man's Life confists not in the abundance of such Possessions Luke 12. 15. I am sure a Believer's doth not notwithstanding the greatest affluence of such Livelihoods if he want Christ his is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lifeless Life As the Spouse in Christ's absence Cant. 5. 8. is sick of Love so the faithful Spouse dyeth away and cannot live without him The whole World is not a Paradise but a Wilderness without this Tree of Life in it And although they told Naomi that Obed her Grandchild would be the Restorer of her Life Ruth 4. 15. yet it is neither Child nor Father nor Friend that is either Giver or Restorer or Preserver of a Christian's but Christ only and he alone alsufficiently Quamdiu Christi gloria incolumis perstat c. as he saith as long as Christ's Hyperius Glory and my Interest in him is intire and whole I am well I live and am lively amidst all other cool fainting Qualms and Swoons This is the Life-Bloud of my Heart which keeps it warm and alive whilst my Desires Loves Joys close with him and are animated by him SERMON XL. PHIL. 1. 21. II. Sermon Preacht at St. Maries August 15. 1658. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain ANd as thus our Life is seated in the Heart so as I may say it breaks forth in the lips And so 3. In the third place Christ is our Life when in the course of our Life we much breath Christ making him the Subject of our Discourse and ever frequently and freely setting forth his Truth Grace and Praises when whatever we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Word all is in the Name of the Lord Jesus as the Apostle speaks to this purpose Col. 3. 17. This I the rather mention because it 's a great part of the Apostle's meaning here in the Text where when he saith to him to live is Christ he meaneth that if he live his Life shall be spent in preaching Si vixero nihil aliud mihi proposui quam ut Christum glorificem praedicando c and setting forth of Christ in the Ministry of the Gospel as Calvin and others jointly interpret it And he was as good as his word his Practice herein being very observable for our imitation in these following particulars 1. In delighting very often and upon all occasions to make mention of the Name of Jesus Christ above 450 times in his fourteen Epistles hoc patiebatur Paulus ex nimio amore Christi ut In Ephes 1. quem diligebat superflue extraordinarie nominaret as Hierom expresseth it It seems Christ lived much in his Heart when out of the abundance of it he breathes him so fast and his Mouth Assiduum Jesu nomen domi foris ere resonare docuit Gazaei pia hilaria Tom. 2. Pag. 478. It 's said of Anselm Ejus ori nunquam Christus defuit Edinerus in ejus vitâ so abundantly speaks of him and that so very often that by Heathen Elegancy it would be counted a Tautology but yet no Popish Battology which appears in some of their superstitious Prayers too too affectedly repeating the Name of Jesus to make as it were a Charm of it and with the upstart Sect of Jesuits would be known by their continual both at home and abroad naming the Name Jesus But Paul that had none of their superstition had more love of Christ in this his so frequent not affected but affectionate naming of him 2. Observe likewise that to this purpose he studiously taketh nay often in his Writings maketh occasions to make mention of him and as it were casts about to bring him in as we often do to meet with a Friend or to give occasion of Speech of that which our Heart is set upon So the Vain-glorious Man is wont to hook in a Discourse which may give occasion of speech of that by which he might fan to himself his own praise But humble Paul so as that thereby he might take opportunity to Exalt the Honour of Jesus Christ 3. Take notice also when he hath so gotten an Opportunity of mentioning Christ how then he runneth Descant upon it and as though he had left and forgotten what formerly he was speaking of what large and long Excursions he makes into this happy Latifundium even to Hyperbatons and Anantapodotons * Which make sometimes the coherence and sense of his words more difficult which an Heathen Orator would reckon Inter viti● Sermonis and even Hierom notes in him as Soloecisms But our holy Apostle chose rather to forget himself than Christ and to be esteemed rude and barbarous in Speech than to be tongue-tied nay not exuberant in the Praises of his Lord and Saviour 4. To this purpose in the last place observe when speaking of Christ and the things of Christ how he delights in most emphatical and superlative Expressions in augmentative Compositions of words heaping Comparatives upon Comparatives and Superlatives upon Superlatives when the word signified Eminency adding an augmentative Particle to heighten it as though he could never speak enough or high enough of Christ and his Excellencies in which though something is to be given to that Fervidum ingenium which is observed to be naturally in him yet more to that transcendent high Admiration that Fervour of warm zealous lively vigorous Love of Christ which so abounded in his Heart that it thus burst forth in these Superlative and almost Hyperbolical expressions of it Of this sort are his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 1. 2. 4. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 2. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 1. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 4. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 3. 20. as

live to our selves but to think and designe how we may live and be subservient therein to Christ His Interest should direct determine subordinate and qualify all As the Box smells of the Musk that is in it so should all our designs and undertakings of Christ and as the Artery goeth along with the Vein so should Christ with whatever our warmest Life-Bloud runneth in and therefore our thoughts should run much in this Channel Jacob said to Laban thou knowest how I have served thee but when shall I provide for my own House Gen. 30. 29 30. I have lived thus long and thus much to my self but how much mean while to Christ By all these Employments and Attainments I have exalted my self but have they been as so many under-steps to lift up Christ the more and me nearer to him I have other ways gained so much and so much but how much or rather how little have I gained to my Lord and Master by them This were a right Anagogical Sense and Interpretation of our Lives and Actions And thus to live were Christ whilst we reduce and subordinate all to him 3. And this if with all diligence and seriousness earnestness and liveliness for we do not loiter it when we labour for Life Then Skin for Skin and all that a Man hath will be give for it Job 2. 4. And so when Moses told Israel that their obedience to God's Commands was not a vain thing but it was their Life as much as their Life was worth he thinks he hath cause to bid them set their hearts to it with all seriousness Deut. 32. 46 47. and indeed Life is active and lively I am sure a Christian 's should be so if Christ be his Life for 〈◊〉 was not idle but still in his Fathers business ever going up and down doing good and Paul who Act. 10. 38. laboured as he said that the Life of Christ might be manifested in him how active and serious and unweariable was he in Christ's 2 Cor. 4. 11. service He in another sense said to the Corinthians so then Death worketh in us but Life in you but it was Ironically for v. 12. he was very far from being a dead-hearted Servant No the Life of Christ was excedingly operative in him according to that Colos 1. 29. in which almost every word hath a quick Emphasis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereunto I also labour and the word signifieth a cutting labour striving against Dangers and difficulties as the Actors in the Olympick Games with all contention and earnestness yea this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secundum efficacem illam vim according to the Energy and most effectual power and efficacy and that of Christ which wrought in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 potenter mightily I thus to live was Christ when Christ and his Spirit thus effectually and mightily lived and wrought in him and the like he called for in others not to be slothful in service but fervent in Spirit whilst they served the Lord Rom. 12. 11. For on the contrary nothing almost is so unlike yea and contrary to Life especially the Life of Christ than a dull listless Dead-heartedness a cold benummed Frozenness or an indifferent Lukewarmness in service unworthy and falling short of that animi presentia and vigour of Spirit which was found in Heathen Worthies as in him who said se malle mortuum esse quam Curius Dentatatus non vivere that he had rather dye out-right and be dead than to be dull and rather not to live at all than not to be lively for which Drones and Dullards the Pythagoreans would have prepared a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore how much more unworthy is it for Christians who pretend to the Life of Christ whilst they say Christ is their Life to be either all amort Nabal-like through Dejections or to be dull and dead through the Lethargy of Spiritual Sloth Listlesness and Negligence to be as the Scripture speaketh either dull of hearing Heb. 5. 11. when we should be swift to hear James 1. 19. slow of heart to believe Luk. 24. 25. when we should receive the Word as they Act. 2. 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gladly or as the more noble-spirited Bereans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all readiness of mind Acts 17. 11. when the work of Christ is a weariness to us and we puff at it as Matth. 11. 30. 1 John 5. 3. under a burden Mal. 1. 13. when Christ's Yoke should be easy to us and his Burden light and no command of his grievous In a word when what is said of the wanton Widow in regard of her 1 Tim. 5. 6. wantonness may be said of us for our sloth and negligence that we are dead whilst we live But is not this to seek the living among the dead Or is the Life of Christ in this deadness whilst we thus present God with dead Hearts dead Prayers and Services Is this as the Apostle requireth to offer to him that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. 1. living Sacrifice Thus to live is it Christ Or expresseth it any thing of the Life of Christ whom the Scripture calls a quickning 1 Cor. 15. 45. Spirit not only at the last day to raise up our dead Bodies but now also by his Grace and Spirit to enliven our dead Hearts Is this any partaking of the Divine Nature which is a pure Act to be thus restive Sure those that come nearer to it give another kind of resemblance of it The Heavens in their unwearied motion and the Sun that like a mighty Man rejoyceth to run his Psal 19. 5. Race the glorious Cherubims whose pictures God would have made in his Temple delighting in them as Stella observeth as Emblems maximae velocitatis of greatest swiftness and chearfulness in his Service as also the Seraphims of burning Zeal who in Isaiah's Vision are described to have six Wings to shew saith Isa 6. 2. Cornelius a Lapide that vere obediens est totus alatus and are there said both to stand and fly to signify as he addeth that Deo adstare volare est that to stand before God as his Servants is speedily and chearfully to fly at his Commands But to come lower to them in a lower Orb who dwell in dull and heavier Houses of Clay yet if the Spirit and Life of Christ dwell there especially if with some more freedom Paul often expresses his Course by the metaphor of running which expresseth speed and earnestness and David 2 Sam. 6. 14. 16. danceth before 1 Cor. 9. 26. Gal. 2. 2. 2 Tim. 4. 7. the Ark which manifesteth his chearfulness but the words in the Hebrew are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words not so usual and one of them in formâ duplicatâ to hold forth David's extraordinary and double vigour in that Service and which signify intense strength and seriousness and therefore translated Saltabat

omnibus viribus contentissime to express the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vulgat Junius the whole might and vigour which is chearfully put forth by them that are spirited and inlivened by the Spirit and Life of Christ the true Sabbatism which Philo Judaeus speaks of and describes to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Lord and our Consciences know how far we fall short of and of Pauls Copy which he here setteth us to whom to live was Christ and that expressed great Liveliness and Activity 4. And lastly this that when we can no more live so to Christ to be content and willing and with submission desirous to live here no longer I say with submission to the Will of God to wait his good pleasure for we must not be so proud as when by reason of Age Sickness or other disablements we cannot be longer Christ's Servants to do his work to disdain to be his Beadsmen to live upon his Alms nay by God in his Servants as well as by us in ours it 's taken as Service to wait as well as to work as it was with the Aged Levites of old and when thou art past thy work meekly and humbly and thankfully to wait and receive all from him when thou canst do nothing for him for the setting out and magnifying of his free and munificent Largess and Bounty as well as for the relief of thy necessity But yet saving this humble submission if to us to live be Christ and to do him service then when we can no longer so live to him it beseemeth us to be content and willing with his leave to dye in him when our Day is done to be glad to go to Bed and when our Work is over to go to our Rest as David Act. 13. 36. and Christ himself John 17. 4 5. I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do and now O Father Glorify thou me with thine own self and so our Paul when he had once fought the good Fight and finished his Race then he reacheth out his hand to the Garland and Crown 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. And this not out of an impatient taedium of waiting which even Holy Men have been sometimes overmuch overtaken with much less out of a proud discontent that we out-live our former serviceable active selves and are now proved unprofitable De Tranquil animae burdens of the Earth truncus ficulnus inutile liguum burdensome to many and profitable to none a strong tang of which Seneca expressed in that his ultimum malorum est ex vivorum numero exire Epist 93. antequam moriaris to be dead before we dye and elsewhere ante mortem periit as though he would not be beholden to God for holding all he hath from him in the Tenure of F rank Almonage and free bounty or as though none else could or at least he should be discontented that any should do service when he is once laid aside Far be such proud thoughts from humble Christians But yet this will well consist with their Humility with old Simeon now become Miles emeritus meekly to breath forth their Luke 2. 29. Nunc dimittis with submission to God's Will to desire that he would please to dismiss him at least when God doth express his will in that kind not only contentedly but most willingly and gladly to comply with it And this not only for our own ease and advantage but also for God's further and better service that as Paul when he had no further service to do for Christ in one place was desirous to go to another Rom. 15. 23. so when through weakness or other hindrances we have no more service that we can do for Christ here on Earth we should be well content and glad and desirous when all weaknesses and oppositions shall be once removed and the Eagle's Age renewed to be upon the Wing for Heaven to wait upon him with our praises there where to live will be Christ indeed where we shall be perfectly transformed into him and for ever live with him And thus to us to live will be Christ in these particulars Christ is our Life Which in the Application of it calleth upon us in the general Vse that all of us in our several standings and capacities in this endeavour earnestly to write after our Apostle's Copy here in the Text that every one of us in particular may with him be able truly to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vita mea mea in quam Christus est as the Syriack I said reads it my Life even mine is Christ that what ever others do yet in all the former particulars for Principle Patern End Object of my Thoughts Affections Word and Actions I live Christ and so it is not so much I that live as Christ that liveth in me And this either as we are Ministers or ordinary Christians And first as Ministers for in that capacity especially Paul here 1. As Ministers speaks these words being confident v. 20. that Christ should be magnified by him whether by Life or by Death if he lived by Preaching of Christ and his Truth or if he dyed by sealing it with his Bloud thus to him as an Apostle to live was Christ and Dr. Hammond thus it should be to us as Ministers whilst our Life is spent in preaching Christ the Vigour and Life of our Ministry should be exerted in preaching the whole Counsel of God but especially in preaching Jesus Christ This was the first and best Preachers Text and Theme They Preached Christ as we have it oft expressed 1 Cor. 15. 12. in the Scripture Act. 8. 5. 9. 20. 17. 3 1 Cor. 1. 23. Philip. 1. 15 18. when in their Preaching to Jews and Heathens they laid Christ as the Foundation and he is the Corner-Stone still that by wise Builders must be carried up to the top of the Building 1. From him they have their Commission and therefore are signanter stiled the Ministers of Christ 1 Cor. 4. 1 2 Cor. 11. 23. Col. 1. 7. and Embassadors for Christ 2 Cor. 5. 20. 2. Their Errand and Message is characteristically called the Gospel of Christ Rom. 15. 19. 2 Cor. 2. 12. The Testimony Revel 1. 9. 12. 17. 19. 10. The Doctrine Heb. 6. 1. 2 John 9. The Mystery Col. 4. 3. The unsearchable Riches Ephes 3. 8. But all of Christ The Covenant of God but in Christ Gal. 3. 17. 3. The End and Fruit of their labours in their Hearers was that the Word of Christ might dwell richly in them Col. 3. 16. that they might learn Christ Ephes 4. 20. and every Thought in them might be brought into Captivity to the Obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 5. 4. And accordingly their care was That Seducers should not spoil them through Philosophy and vain Deceit after the Traditions of Men and Rudiments of the World 〈◊〉

in the Event not till the death of our Bodies is the body of Sin quite dead in us but then it will be for as Sin entred into us at the first union of Body and Soul so it goeth not out till their last dissolution But being then parted As to the Body for fins of omission this lump of Earth doth no longer aggravare animam clog the Soul from doing duty nor as to sins of commission doth this Earthly dusty tabernacle any longer defile the Soul as being a fomes and an Instrument by which it acts its self-pollution And as to the Soul though wicked Mens Souls are in statu separato as sinful as they were before yet the spirits of just Men are then made perfect Heb. 12. 23. and therefore not liable to sin which is the greatest imperfection And what a gain this is a holy Heart will tell you when now groaning under the Burden and Pollution of some defiling lust would give a whole World to be rid of it even exchange his life for Death because by it he shall gain a full deliverance from it And as Death ends the Believer's sin So also all that misery which by reason of his sin he more or less all his Life long was exercised with No more inward sorrows or fears or anguishes and perplexities in and from himself no more temptations from Satan no more molestations or persecutions from the World or if any he is no more sensible of them There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary are at rest there the Prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the oppressor Job 3. 17 18. And if you say that for these outward troubles it is then as well with the wickedest sinners as with the holiest Saints I say but it is not so as to those inward anguishes and perplexities which are the greatest miseries for they in the wicked are not then ended but as to their greatest extremities then begin But for the Godly no more then any of these They then cease from all their Labours Revel 14. 13. and rest quietly in their Beds Isa 57. 2. not one bodily pain or disquieting thought more as Mr. Knox on his death-bed being asked whether his See his Life pains were great answered that he did not esteem that a pain which would be to him the end of all trouble and the beginning of endless Joys Serve the Lord in Fear and Death shall not be troublesome to you Blessed is the Death of those that have part in the Blood of Jesus And is not he who hath attained to this proved a great Gainer having all his former sins and miseries so well and for ever ended 2. And whatsoever of both kinds if he had lived longer he might have fallen into most happily prevented The Apocryphal Solomon saith that Enoch was speedily taken away lest wickedness should have altered his understanding Wisdom 4. 11. But I am sure from authentical Scripture that Josiah was that he might not see that desolation which was coming upon his people 2 Chron. 34. 28. and that the Righteous are taken away from the evil to come Isa 57. 1. of which some expound that Dr. Hammond Revel 14. 13. Blessed are they that dye in the Lord namely at that time there meant because after that time there would be greater misery It may be we cannot but think how miserable some Men would have been if they had lived any longer yea and what sinful Snares some of God's Servants would have been in danger to have been taken in if they had not died the sooner But when they were now falling a Fathers watchful eye saw their danger and with a wary hand snatcht them out of it and took them into his own Bosom out of the reach of it Blessed Father Happy Child And gainful Death that put them into harbor when the storm was coming that would have sunk them prevented those sins and miseries that might have undone them And thus Death to the Godly is gain privatively in preventing loss 2. Secondly Positively in bringing in reallest Gains 1. Of Grace made perfect and that in the most perfect exercise and operation of it Faith then completed in Vision and Hope in Fruition and therefore called the end of our Faith 1 Pet. 1. 9. not so much of cessation as the consummation and perfection of both and for Love what was here imperfect shall then be done away 1 Cor. 13. 10. So that it shall be perfectly then exerted toward God and one another when we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 20. 36. like to the Angels of God every way pliable and expedite in doing his will And we who think how well it is with us when we can here in any measure of freedom and liveliness meditate and pray or in any other kind with enlarged hearts run the way of God's Commandments and feel how burdensom it is to lye under the burden of Sin and have our Chariot-Wheels taken off so that we drive heavily in what he sets us to what unvaluable a gain shall we esteem it when all these cloggs shall be taken off and we shall find our Souls as upon the Chariots of Amminadab freely to expatiate in those latifundia of Eternity and with those Angels in Ezekiel's Vision whither the Spirit is to go to go without hinderance and Ezek. 1. 12. weariness Now a true Christian estimates Gain not by that of Mony as it 's called Judg. 5. 19. or other commodities which the Men of the World traffique in but that which ariseth from being Rich in Faith James 2. 5. and God's fear Prov. 22. 4. Which is the * Luke 16. 11. true and the † Prov. 8. 18. everlasting Riches as our Saviour and Solomon calls them and therefore when such Riches and Gains are come in fullest he accounts himself the greatest gainer and that will be when in Death Grace is perfected 2. And happiness completed and that will be then also if you will only abate that which will arise from the Souls reunion with the Body which will not be till the last day But at Death Paul makes account that when he departs hence he shall be with Christ which he esteems to be best of all v. 23. of this Chapter in a more full Vision and Fruition of God and what attends that Estate and in what else can be our best happiness Mr. Mede indeed saith that he remembers not that Death is On Rev. 14. 13. Diem mortis diem mercedis indigitari ever in Scripture said to be the time of reward Nor it may be is it so said in those express words nor indeed is it the time of the reward of the most full and compleat payment of it which is reserved to the Resurrection-day But I am sure if Paul said true that upon his departure he should be with Christ that the greatest part of the reward is then given and that not only

it self be Gain to us for then our accounts will be summ'd and made up and then Gain and Loss will best appear as Solomon said when he came to his Audit Eccles 2. 11. Then I looked on all the Works that my hands had wrought and on the Labour that I had laboured to do And that was very great as we may see in the fore-going Verses where you find him as a diligent Chymist very busie at his work to extract and gain an Elixir and Quintessence even the Spirit of whatever Contentment the whole Mass and Body of the Creature could afford But alas when all else was evaporated there was nothing left but that Caput mortuum Behold all was vanity and vexation of Spirit and there was no profit under the Sun And as little do all our great Traders and Gainers as they themselves thought that say as James 4. 13. Tomorrow we will go to such a City and buy and sell and get Gain As little profit do they find when at Death they come to their last reckoning In their life and enjoyment oft-times no other profit by what they have Gained but the beholding of them with their Eyes Eccles 5. 11. But to be sure at Death when they must leave them Riches will not profit in such a day of Wrath Prov. 11. 4 will not be able then to purchase a Freedom no not a Reprieve from Death Psal 49. 6 7 8 9. much less everlasting Life and it will be well if not Death eternal And here let me name some few things which Men usually for the present think very Gainful to them which will not at Death turn to account 1. All sins even the gainfullest Demetrius may get no small Gain by making Silver shrines for Diana his Idol and the Master Acts 19. 24. Acts 16. 16. of the Pythoniss by her divination and many others now a days by unlawful Callings and unlawful and dishonest Gains at which God as very angry * Numb 24. 10. smites his hands Ezek. 22. 12 13 27. But none of these can in themselves be true Gain which is wont to be defined to be Boni utilis acquisitio quod ad venerandi Ficinus in argumento Hipparchi Platonis Rom. 6. 23. boni consecutionem conducit It 's the acquiring of something that is profitable towards the acquisition of the chief Good But if the wages of sin be Death this must needs be quite contrary the greatest Loss loss of Peace with God in Life and the loss of God and everlasting Life at Death And then as they said Why should Dammage grow to the hurt of the King Dan. 6. 2. Ezra 4. 22. So I to thee But why should such an utterly undoing Loss grow to thy Soul Or as Paul said to them Acts 27. 10. Sirs I perceive that this Voyage will be with hurt and much Dammage not only of the Lading and Ship but also of our Lives So I must say to every such Sinner unless he strike Sail and steer another Course though thou beest now Top and Top-gallant and goest before the Wind with all Sails spread and filled with as thou thinkest a most prosperous Gale yet this Voyage will be to thy hurt and much Dammage not only of Lading and Ship of that Saburra of outward Contentments that thou art so deeply laden with and of thy Bodie 's brittle Bark but of the Life and that of thy Soul for ever Acquisivit pecuniam Augustine perdidit Justitiam lucrum in arcâ damnum in conscientiâ Gain in the Chest and Loss in the Conscience he hath gotten Money and lost Piety and Justice are sad words but sadder things Such Gainers I compare to such prodigal Unthrifts that lavish it at their Inns and what Gainers they who have got so much Mirth and good Chear Ay but Friends there is a great reckoning that must be paid before or when you go to Bed in Death which will not suffer you to sleep quietly Whilst you by these sinful means increase your Gettings you like such Prodigals run fast and deep into debt which whilst you find the life Isa 57. 10. of your hand as the Prophets phrase is that which supports you with a livelihood you are jolly and never think of it O but there will at Death come a day of payment and then a Prison out of which you will not get till you have paid the utmost farthing and that will never be and so you lie in chains of darkness to Eternity What gain by sin will you then think you have got by that of which you are then ashamed because Rom. 6. 21. by it utterly undone You may then put it all into your Eyes and be there weeping it out for ever Penny-wise and pound-foolish will be then a sad Proverb which you will be sadly thinking of when all is lost and you with it to have gained Lordships and Kingdoms by sinful ways will be found greatest loss at last They will then appear to have been the Devils gifts rather than God's and as they use to say that the Devil's Gold which he gives to Witches is found to be but leaves and trash so you will find these to be such trash as will yet make Fewel for everlasting burnings What therefore you heard out of the Prophet Ambros de Joseph lucrum pietas nescit pecuniae in quo pietas dispendium est God in anger smites his hands at we should with an holy despising with him Isa 33. 15. shake our hands of namely of the gain of oppression bribes and whatever other unlawful profits which will then prove loss with a witness No then Godliness will appear to have been profitable for all things 1 Tim. 4. 8. and although in the profession and practise of it we have met with 2 Cor. 7. 9. inward repentant grief and outward loss and mischief yet as Paul saith we shall in the upshot find that we have received dammage by it in nothing 2. Nor will all even lawful acquisitions of outward profits or pleasures or honours or the like contentments as we use falsly to call them if not better improved and husbanded make Death gainful or be gain to us then when I say not the unlawful getting or using or keeping of them for that I spake to in the former Head but the bare resting and satisfying our selves in them without making out after and sure of Christ who is both in Life and Death advantage will be the loss of our Souls and what hath a Man then gained though he had gained the whole World Matth. 16. 26. In regard of usual events in ordinary providence Solomon saith there is a time to get and a time to lose Eccles 3. 6. and all our Life should be a getting time to get Grace and Peace that so at length we may gain Glory but there is no time to lose at least to lose our Souls especially death is no such time when if they