THis whole Universe may not unfitly be divided into three principall Kingdomes; The Pre­face, or in­troduction. the first in Heaven, where God reigneth; the second in hell, where Beelzebub domineereth; and the third on Earth, which God hath given to the children of men. In the first is no­thing but holinesse, and happinesse; in the second nothing but sin and misery; in the third a mixture of all: in the first is light without darknesse, in the second [Page 2]darknesse without light, in the third both light and darknesse. In the first are An­gels, and the spirits of just men made per­fect in glory and blisse; in the second, the Devil, and his angels tormented in flames; and here are men of a middle condition placed on earth, for the tryal of their obedience; and accordingly, as they shall demean themselves in this world, so shall their doom be hereafter, either to live with God, who is the fountain of life; or dye that second death with the dam­ned spirits. Here then we are in a center, from hence are drawen two long lines, the one reaching to heaven, the other to hell: in this world God hath shewed us the way of both; the one, that we might avoid it; the other, that we might walk in it; nay, he hath given us a taste of both, of hell in the miseries of the world; of heaven in the comforts of it; of this, that we might long for the fruition of the harvest; of that, that so we might ever take heed, how we come into that place of torment. So then there are but two conditions after this life; the one of joy, the other of torment; the one of life, the other of death: and there are but two estates of life in this [Page 3]world, as meanes tending thereunto, one evil, another good; some live after the flesh, and some after the Spirit; and they that live after the flesh shall dye, but they that by the Spirit, do mortifie the deeds of the body, shall live: So that here the Apostle describes two contrary waies, and two contrary ends unto which they lead, the first is the broad way that lea­deth to destruction, a way of pleasure, but it endeth in woe. The voluptuous man now fares deliciously, anon cannot get a drop of water; now cloathed in fcarlet, anon tormented in flames; now accompanied with Nobles, anon haled by devils: the other sowes in teares, but reaps in joy; now full of sores with La­zarus, anon with him full of pleasures; now among the dogs, anon among An­gels; now on the dung-hill, anon in Abrahams bosome, verè stupendae vices: the former of these wayes is through the fairest street in the City, but it leads to the place of execution; the other through a narrow dirty Lane, but it brings to the Kings Palace, where is prepared a costly banquet; the first is a way pleasing to flesh and blood, strewed with Roses, over flowery meadows, having all the delights [Page 4]that nature, or art can afford, but it leads at last to the dead Sea, it tends to the chambers of death: the other is beset with briars and thornes, haunted with wild beasts, theeves, and robbers, over craggy Rocks, and steep Mountaines; where if a man cannot find a way, (for few tread that path,) he must make it, (as he did over the Alpes) but this way leads to the new Jerusalem, to the Celestial Paradise; Non quà, sed quò, must be the wise mans quaery, not which way we go, but whither: so that here you have our Saviours two men in the field, two wo­men grinding, the one taken, the other left; you have his broad way, that leadeth to de­struction, the way of the flesh, and many there be that walk that way; the other the narrow way, that leads to life, to mor­tifie the deeds of the body, and few there be that find it. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall dye, &c.

Which words (to avoid needlesse cu­riosity) admit of a threefold considera­tion: The words variously considered.

1. We may consider them absolutely, and so they contain two conditional Pro­positions; Absolutely. the one, a Commination, If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye; the second, [Page 5]a Consolation, If ye by the Spirit morti­fie the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

2. We may note them in their anti­thesis, or opposition; In their antithesis. Though the wicked be destroyed, yet it shall go well with the righteous, intimated in the particle [...], but; and though the wicked perish as dung, yee it shall go well with the righteous: and contrà: there is, and ever will be an op­position.

3. In their coherence, intimated in the illation [...], which briefly lyeth thus: In their coherence. There are two things which molest a Christian that is justified, the reliques of sin, which he thinks cannot stand with Justification, and Sanctification; and the afflictions of this life, which seem re­pugnant both to the mercy, and Justice of God. The Apostle in this Chapter pre­scribeth an antidote for both, giveth both comfort, and counsel: for afflictions, the comfort is, that they shall work our good here, augment our glory hereafter; and the counsel inferred, therefore to be pa­tient under them, and make good use of them: for sin, though it do remain, yet it shall not condemn, unlesse it raign; that is the comfort, and his counsel; and therefore let it not raign, but mortifie it: [Page 6]and in this verse he layes down a twofold Argument to incite Christians, to em­brace that counsel; For if ye live after the flesh, &c. The first is taken from the pernicious consequent of a carnal life, the second from a sweet effect of a spiritual: For if ye live after the flesh, &c. [...], &c.

First then to handle the words abso­lutely, as two distinct conditional Pro­positions, Absolutely considered, and [...] two parts, a Commi­n [...]t [...]on and C [...]n [...]ol [...] ­tion. If ye live, &c. and here per­versum aliquid videtur docere divinus sermo, Strange paradoxes to some Nico­demus, divine riddles like that of Samp­son. If we laugh now, we must weep hereafter; but if we sowe in teares, we shall reap in joy; the way to death, is to live in pleasure; the way to life, is here to dye. He that will save the life of his sin, shall lose the life of his soul; but he that mortifies himself, his most beloved self, he shall live for ever.

In the Commination, 1. Proponit mo­dum culpae, he layes down the kind of sin, to live after the flesh.

2. Ostendit stipendium miseriae, he de­clares the horrour of their punishment, Moriemini, Ye shall dye.

In the Consolation

1. Proponit officium, he prescribes a duty, that is, by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body.

2. Promittit mercedem, he promiseth a reward; Ye shall live.

And first to begin with the Commina­tion, where are laid down two estates of the wicked; the one present, Th [...]m­mination. the other future; the one of pleasure, the other of pain; neither of which the Apostle di­rectly chargeth on the Romans, but shews, that by admitting the former vo­luntarily, they involuntarily plunge themselves into the latter. If ye live af­ter the flesh, ye shall dye; where is the de­scription of the disposition and condition hereafter of every Epicure; yea, every un­regenerate man like that prodigal, he re­ceives his portion from his father, he feeds his eye, his ear, his palate; but with him never returnes to his father any more; but rather like the rich glutton, he goes clad in purple, and Scarlet, and fares deliciously every day, but at last he dies, and that death is but the beginning of death; when his friends leave him, the fi­ends take him, and carry him to the place of torment.

But before we can improve this for your spiritual advantage, we must ex­plicate the two things propounded, what the sinne is, and what the punish­ment.

The sinne is to live after the flesh; where two things offer themselves to our view; 1. The rule (though a crooked one) that is the flesh. 2. The confor­mity to this rule, which is nothing but ir­regularity, to live after the flesh: of which briefly.

1 First for the rule, The flesh and the Spirit are two captaines under whose ban­ners all men in this world are combatants; these have divers lawes, and weapons, constant, and continual opposition, and a several reward. As for unregenerate men, they have the flesh for their guide: now what this flesh is you shall see.

Sometimes it is taken for a substance; so it

1. Signifieth the nature of man, or all mankind, Flesh what it signifi­eth. Gen. 6.12. All flesh had cor­rupted his way; in this sense it is no ene­my, nor must we Timon-like be haters of men, [...], or for humane nature, Is. 40.6 sometimes more strictly it signi­fieth the body, as opposed to the soul, [Page 9]2 Cor. 7.1. in this sense we must not pro­claim enmity against our selves, nor like those foolish Baalites hate, or hurt our own flesh: or most strictly for that solid and similary part of the body, contradi­stinguished to the blood, bones, nerves, and sine wes, Psal. 79.2. the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the earth. It is inhumane, and barbarons for another to abuse this, but unnatural for a man to do it himself, therefore this is not the meaning.

2. It's sometimes taken accidentally, sometimes in the better part, Ezek. 11.19. 2 Cor. 3. more usually in the worse; so it

Signifieth the frailty of humane na­ture, an effect of sin, 1 Cor. 15.50. in this sense Christians are in the flesh. 2 Cor. 10.2, 3, 4. in this sense it is no potent enemy, but a weak friend, not to be opposed with weapons, but comforted with cordials: or most usually for sinne, which is the cause of this frailty, that Leprosie which overspreads the whole nature, mind, will, memory, senses, af­fections, body, and all; disabling a man from that which is truly, and savingly good, and inclining him to every thing [Page 10]that is evil; the unhappy off-spring of our first Parents, the mother, and nurse of all those vipers that daily breed in our own bosomes, and that hereditary disease which we derive unto all our posterity. By the way we must note, that not the body alone, as the Manichees dreamed, or the inferiour faculties onely, as our adversaries of Rome, some of them sup­pose, are termed flesh; for we read of a mind that is carnal, Rom. 8. the purest part of the soul; yea, the quintessence of that part, the intellectus agens, as some will have it, the Spirit of the mind, as the Apostle calls it, Rom. 12.1. that must be renewed: therefore it signifieth that sinful disposition that is in the whole man. Therefore you must not here with the Manichees accuse the nature of the flesh; for he which praiseth the nature of the soul as the chiefest good, and accu­seth the nature of the flesh, as an evil thing, loves the soul carnally, and car­nally flies the flesh. St. August. Lib. 14. de civit. Dei, cap. 5. Nam qui velut sum­mum bonum laudat animae naturam, et tanqùam malum naturam carnis accusat, profecto animam carnaliter appetit, et car­nem carnaliter fugit; and as he saith else­where, The flesh is not naturally repug­nant [Page 11]to reason, but as vicious: Caro non repugnat naturaliter rationi, sed ex vitio: and again, The corruptible flesh makes not the soul sinful, but the sinful soul makes the flesh corruptible: Caro cor­ruptibilis non facit animam peceatricem, sed anima peccatrix fecit esse corruptibi­lem carnem.

Now sin is called by the name of flesh, Sin why called flesh. rather then any other part of man, it may be to cast ignominy upon sin, be­cause this is one of the grossest parts, where is most earth, that is predominant, the basest element; to shew the dissimi­litude and distance betwixt corruption, and the Spirit, he denominates it from that substance which is most unlike the Spirit; or because many motions of it arise from the flesh, are fomented by the flesh, and tend to the pleasing of the flesh, and acted, and perfected by the flesh; the flesh is that oft-times which offers the bait to the soul, as the stomach or spleen, being troubled with oppi­lation, send fumes to the brain; or to shew how near corruption is unto us, as it were incorporated, nay, transformed into us, and we into it; and so much the more dangerous, because it is a viper [Page 12]bred in our own flesh, and harboured in our own bosome; or because the soul in committing of sin doth give over it self to fleshly delights. The soul while, and when it still hankereth after fleshly things is called flesh, Anima verò dum carnalia bona adhuc appetit caro nominatur; and so in the perpetrating of sinne, the soul is made subject to the flesh, and as it were transformed into flesh. St. Aug. renders another, Ser. 48. de verbis Do­mini. because flesh was a sacrifice for sinne, as Christ that knew no sin, is said to be made sin, that is, a sacrifice for sin; whe­ther in some, or in all these regards sin is called by the nameof flesh, I will not fur­ther dispute. You see what is meant by this name, and thereason of the denomination. And so much for the rule, the flesh.

I come now to the conformity of this rule, What it is to live after the flesh. which is indeed meer deformity, which is to live after the flesh: it is cal­led a life, though indeed he that thus lives is dead while he lives, and because flesh, as we heard, is diffused thorow the whole man, we wil consider it both in soul and body, what it is to live after the flesh.

In the mind and understanding, to walk according to the flesh, is to give consent to fleshly desires; In the mind and under­standing. Secundum carnem am­bulare [Page 13]est carnalibus concupiscentiis con­sentire, Aug. When the fancy runs in a muze of sinfull objects with delight, and takes thought for the flesh to fulfil it in the lusts of it, to search out mysteries of iniquity, and prove wise to do evil, that in their judgement esteem a sinful life to be happy, and account it wisdome with profane Esau to sell their eternal birth­right, to purchase this messe of pottage. There are in the mind of man a world of false principles, to harbour these, and to live after them, is to live after the flesh. The flesh is sometimes a Devil to it self, sometimes provoked by the Devil his in­struments, and outward objects; as these and the like are the fleshes Creed, That Religion is but a matter of policy, or a bare profession of it serves the turn, or some Ceremonies and formalities; or to rest in some duties, or avoid some sins; that it is lawful to commit smaller sins, to avoid great or imminent danger; that it is too much precisenesse to make con­science of smaller sins, it is no sin to abuse liberty in things indifferent, to extenuate or hide sin, that we may deferre our re­pentance because God is merciful, it per­swades that Christian duties are tedious, [Page 14]and not necessary, therefore not to do them at all, or else not presently, or else not constantly, or else unseasonably, ig­rantly, or heartlessely, or else to rest in the work done, and grow proud of it, In holy Scripture there is a kind of wis­dome attributed to the flesh, called [...]; Some translate it pru­dence, prudentiam; others understanding, intelligentiam; others affection, or desire, affectum; others sense, sensum; Now [...] is a habit of acting according to right reason, in all things that are good or evil to man, est habitus agendi secundum rectam rationem circa universa bona vel mala homini; but this is carnal wisdome, and our Saviour speaks of some that in their generation are wiser, [...], they do meditate on earthly things, [...], chuse according to the flesh, the world rather then grace, or heaven, fly the smoke, and fall into the fire; chuse sin rather then labour or sor­row, get earthly things rathen heavenly, carnal rather then Spiritual, temporal ra­ther then eternal. This is foolishnesse with God, and they live after the flesh, that hearken to this counsel.

In the will they live according to the [Page 15]slesh, In the will and affecti­ons. that are ruled by that perverse en­mity, which it bears to God and his Law; in the memory, that make it a treasurie of wickednesse; in their affections, that set them upon wrong objects, or inordinate­ly, and immoderately on the right, that love sinful delights constantly; if they are absent, desire them, and greeve for them; if present, rejoyce and delight in them.

In their lives, and actions, In natural actions. men live after the flesh, that eat, drink, sleep, &c. not for necessity, but to satisfie lust unseaso­nably, immoderately: thus in natural actions. So St. Aug. De docu. Salut. He lives accor­ding to the flesh, who so lives according to himself, &c. Secundum carnem vivit qui secundum seipsum vivit, pergit quò vult, dormit quando vult, & quamdiu vult loquitur quae vult, & cui vult, manducat, & bibit, quando vult, & quantum vult, ridet & jocundatur turpiter inter quos vult, & quando vult, postremò quicquid naribus suave est quaerit, quicquid tactui blandum, quicquid oculis delectabile, quicquid corpori suo jocundum exercet, & sequitur qualiter vult, & quando vult, qui omnia licita & illicita carnaliter vult; he that makes himself, his fancy, his lust, [Page 16]the rule in his actions, that goes whither he lists, that sleepes when he will, and as long as he will, that laughs, and sports, talkes scurrilously, or obscenely at any time, in any company, and gives the raines to his lust to please his sensual ap­petite in all things, that desires things both good and bad, according to the cor­ruption of his own heart. And if this be to live after the flesh, we may see by the flesh of many, what it is they live af­ter.

In civil actions that make their lust a law; In civil acti­ons. that Magistrate that useth his sword, or any Superiour his authority for his own private ends, in distributive justice; in inferiours when they desire dignities, eat and drink, and curse Abimelech, walkers after the flesh, when they are full they deny God, much more his Ministers; an­archy is that they affect, that every man might do that which is right, yea, some­times wrong in his own eyes; and if the Magistrates proceedings parallel not with their fancies; their tongue is their own, who is Lord over them? Jude 8. Michael durst not revile the Devil, they speak evil of the gods; in commutative justice, oppresse, defraud, and grind the faces of [Page 17]the poor, so they can carry it smoothly, care not what they do; and so there be too too many, that cast off all obedience in Political, Ecclesiastical, Occonomical Societies.

In spiritual actions many live after the flesh; Matth. 23. In spiritual actions. for not onely Epicures are guilty here, but an abstemious Pharisee, that fasts twice a week, that placeth the power of godlinesse in outward formalities; so our adversaries of Rome when they most abstain from flesh, live after the flesh; preferring sometimes their own traditi­ons to Gods oracles, and sometimes cir­cumstantial parts of his worship to sub­stantial, macerating their bodies, while they mortifie not their sin. Nor can all amongst our selves exempt themselves here, right Formalists, I would they could see this beam in their eye, pray over beads many do; so some preach, and most hear, rather by tole then weight.

Others placing their Religion in nice speculations, zealously striving for they know not what. Once it was a character of a Christian almost among some to be repugnant to Church-Government, or at least to disobey with the heart; and [Page 18]deride with the tongue, what the hand had subscribed to. But now that spirit is well laid, they have a new Creed which they are no lesse hot for, though they understand it lesse; and they are out of charity with that man, and will censure him for an Apostate, that is not to an haires breadth of their conceit, when it is indeed but a meer conceit.

Others undertake acts of Religion with a carnal mind, and a corrupt con­science for base ends, that preach for lucre, so did Judas; and pray for credit, so the Pharisees; that read for profit, like Diana's Chaplaines, and communi­cate for applanse, and hear for all ends, do all for custome, rather then con­science, and were it not for his own ends, would never longer serve that God which he cares not for. Of all walkers after the flesh, the hypocrite is sure to dye, for hell was chiefly prepared for him, and others are said to have their portion with him.

Now that in any of these kinds a man live after the flesh, it is required,

That there be an habitual pursuit of sin, Carnem tanquam ducem sequi; or as Salmer: Imperio, legibus, & carnis desi­deriis [Page 19]subesse. A man may sometimes be drawn aside by the flesh, and yet not live after the flesh; as Noah in his drun­kennesse, Lot in his incest, David in his adultery: as on the contrary you may see Cain sacrificing, Saul among the Prophets, Herod hearing John Baptist gladly, and still living after the flesh: as a passenger sometimes wanders out of the way, and a thief sometimes steps into it. To live accor­ding to the flesh, intimates a constant course of mans life, that makes the law of sin the rule of his obedience; they act this with most vigour, as from an inward principle. A wicked mans education, company, &c. may sometimes restrain from sin; vio­lence of temptation drives a good man upon it, but this is not their rule. Hieron. Omne quod loquimur, agimus, cogitamus, duobus seminatur agris, carne, et spiritu. Let us then examine the habitual course of our life, that is it which denominates, and if we live after the flesh we must dye.

It were as possible to number the stars, to count the dust, as to particularize the many lusts of the flesh; mens conversa­tions give us too many instances. I passe then from the sinne to the punishment, Ye shall dye.

We see what it is to live after the flesh; and is not this a merry life, to go clad in purple, in scarlet, and fare deliciously every day, to neglect God in heaven, and contemne Lazarus on earth, to forget our selves whence we are, or whither we go? Yes, but hear what followes. The bell toles for this voluptuous Epicure, the earth that insatiable grave longs for his corpulent carcase to feed wormes, and the devills stand waiting more eagerly for his soul. The Spirit of God hath writ­ten his doom in letters of blood, which with Belshazzar might make his heart ake, and joynts tremble. Ye shall die. His pleasure is gone, his guilt remains, and his damnation sleepeth not. God wills not, yet he threatens death, Non vult mortem Deus, et minatur mortem; and therefore doth threaten it, because he doth not desire it, as willing to be prevented.

You shall die, What is here meant by death. and what is that? How should that be defined which is onely a privation? or if it had a positive being, how should I describe it, who never con­versed in those Cells of darknesse, or with any that brought news from those Cim­merian regions? or how can that distinctly be known, which contains in it nothing [Page 21]but confusion, and contradiction, fire without light, burning, and no consuming, labour in continual idlenesse, living, and yet ever dying? for they live for nothing else, but that they may continually dye.

If I should procure you a painter to decipher the first death, he would shew you a grim anatomy, with a lean body, a pale face, a wanne countenance, &c. that which hath devoured the whole world so many times over, like Pharaohs lean kine, is as lean as ever.

And had you a Poet to describe unto you the second death, he would tell you of that triceps Cerberus, devouring the flesh of the wicked; he would tell you of the two Rivers Cocitus, and Phlegethon, the one overflowing with tears, and the other boyling with brimstone; they would make a narration of that palus Sty­gia, of Tantalus his apples, and Titius his liver devoured by vultures, of the con­tinual turning of Ixions wheel, and the rolling of Sisiphus his stone, or of those infernal Furies, ready to torment those whom Charon should waft over; and Ri­dentem dicere verum quis vetat? even these mythological expressions hold some pro­portion [Page 22]with the truth. But I will draw my water out of a purer fountain; sure­ly it must needs be an ill-favoured brat that is born of two such hideous Mon­sters, the Devil the father, and corrupt nature the mother; it must needs be ter­rible that is the wages for such work so contrary to God, and goodnesse.

Death is nothing but a privation of life, and a subjecting the creature to those miseries, which are contrary to the com­forts of life. And by life we do not one­ly understand the conjunction of soul and body, but all that perfection, and blisse, which was either actually conferred unto man, or to be communicated to him; so that in this monosyllable is contained the whole world, hell with all the torments of that, earth with all the miseries therein. But is there any death in hea­ven? Surely it is a death to lose heaven, and it contains that also; so that look how variously sin reflects on God, so do his judgments on us, that we may read our sin in the judgment.

But that I may proceed orderly, I will borrow a distinction of Philo, Lib. leg. alleg. [...] [Page 23]There is a death of the man, and a death of the soul; the first is a separation of soul and body; the second a deserting of vertue, and assu­ming of sin. But all misery is called by the name of death, because of all, death is most unavoidable, most bitter.

Death in regard of the kind is either corporal, or spiritual, Death Corporal. Sen. which kinds are to be considered in degrees, inchoation, In regard of inchoa­tion. and perfection; both which kinds are to be considered in regard of losse, and pain: You shall dye, that is, a corporal death, in regard of inchoation; for in this we are mistaken, that we look forward upon death, whereas a great part of it is alrea­dy past; in hoc enim fallimur, quod mor­tem prospicimus, magna pars ejus jam prae­teriit. Death is behind us a great part of it; the life of to day is the death of yesterday. We dye daily. Every little publick, or personal crosse, is a petty death, and a harbenger sent by that in­satiable enemy of humane nature to take possession of his right. Thus you shall lose the good temperature of body in­wardly, and outwardly all those com­forts of nature, whereby life is maintain­ed; [Page 24]in a word, true dominion over the creatures, that in regard of losse: Either you shall lose the world, or have it with a curse, your table shall become a snare; and so some even dye with laughing, with a pleasant gale of wind are carried upon rocks and sands, pampered in fat pastures for destruction, and carried down the pleasant River Jordan into the Dead Sea. In regard of sense, inwardly ye shall be perplexed with grief, and sor­row, and wearinesse: outwardly, with famine, pestilence, sword; both wayes, with ten thousand calamities, as waves of the Sea coming in the neck one of an­other, which as they be vexatious in themselves, so certainly shall they be unto you; insomuch that your life shall be an hard apprentiship, groaning daily under the iron yoke of bondage.

Ye shall dye, And Con­summa­tion. that is, a natural death, in regard of consummation. This inexo­rable Sergeant that rides on the pale horse, will ere long knock at your door, and by violence pull your soul out of that Tabernacle of clay, when the soul shall be kept in chaines of darknesse, till the judgment of that great day, and the body in the grave, as in a loathsome [Page 25]dung-hill, till that general Assize. In regard of losse here is a deprivation of life, and all that supports it, meat, drink, apparel, society, and all the comforts of nature; and though there be no poena sensûs in the body which is kept in that hideous prison, yet there is in the soul; Luk. 16.25. for the glutton cryes, Crucior in hac flamma; nay, and it may be this accur­sed corporal death will take you away in the acting of your sin, with Zimri, and Cosbi, so that you shall not live out half your dayes, but be haled to execution, as soon as your crimes are committed; and it may be before you go, feel the very flames of hell in your soules, as Cain and Judas did.

But this natural death of the body though horrid unto nature, Death spi­ritual, in regard of inchoation. yet it's no­thing to the spiritual death of the soul; that being a more excellent creature, and having a more eminent life. To proceed then, that is spiritually, in regard of inchoation, God shall be separated from your soul, the light of his countenance shall not shine upon you, the understand­ing being full of darknesse, the heart of uncleannesse, the conscience void of se­renity, the whole soul out of order, full [Page 26]of confusion, destitute of true com­fort.

In regard of sense, a servitude and subjection of the soul to your spiritual enemies, and the powers of darknesse, made a vassal unto Satan, who worketh effectually in such a slave to the world, which is the devils slave, yea, unto sin, which is worse then the world or the de­vil. In which regard it comes to passe, though a man retain that natural liberty of his will, which is essential to it, and cannot be lost, yet that liberty which pertaineth to the perfection of humane nature to exercise acts spiritually good, and so savingly acceptable unto God, this is utterly lost, man being dead in sins and trespasses, and the uncircumci­sion of his heart.

But all these are but the beginnings of sorrowes; And of consumma­tion, or eternall death. that which is here principally meant, is the consummation of spiritual death. And now had I but the keyes of hell, and death, to shew unto your bo­dily eyes a glimpse of that infernal fire, and those hideous monsters that dwell in those horrid vaults, I should either lose my auditory, or it may be so prevail with some, that they would beware how they [Page 27]came into that place of torment. But I desire that my speech may work in you such fear of those paines, that you never feel them; and that you may be terrified so now, that hereafter you may be secure; consider what Abraham saito to the rich glutton, Son, remember. We likely re­member it not till it be too late, and therefore smart for it, because we do not remember it.

You shall dye then, that is, first imme­diately, when your soul and body are parted, your soules shall be haled by the Devil into that place of torment. St. Au­gust. speaking of the rich glutton, saith, The soul likewise grieves when separate from the body; for verily the rich man grieved in hell, when he said, I am tor­mented in this flame. Dolet etiam anima non in corpore constituta, nam utique dole­bat dives ille apud inferos, quando dicebat, Crucior in hac flamma.

And not onely with present torment, but with fear and expectation of future; his case is like to a condemned malefa­ctors, who is adjudged to live two or three years under the place of execution, the gallowes, and all those instruments of death continually in his eye, in the [Page 28]mean time he is bound with chains, whip­ped with Scorpions, fed with the bread of affliction. Thus he is most exqui­sitely tormented with pain of the pre­sent, and horrour of that future venge­ance that is likely to fall upon him. So the divels cry out, Torment us not before the time.

But this is not all. The dregs of this cup of vengeance are yet behind. You shall dye, that is, your bodies, at that dreadful day, with the sound of the Trumpet shall be awaked, like a Traytor to be brought before the Judge, and shall hear that doleful doom, Ite maledicti, &c. Go ye cursed.

Now the losse here shall be unspeak­able; In regard of losse. He shall lose God, and that losse is infinite, because he is an infinite good, not in regard of his power, for that will be ever present to torment him; but in regard of the light of his countenance, that shall never more comfort him; Mat. 25.41. here is a total desertion, and a final exclusion from his presence: Chrys. Should any one sup­pose 1000 hells, it will not be so much as to be driven from the happinesse of this beatifical glory; Si mille aliquis ponat gehennas, nihil tale dicturus est, quale est, [Page 29]à beatae illius gloriae honore repelli. Oh what Tophet is not a Paradise, what flames are not a bed of down to this? that that God who is the comfort of our soules, that wisheth, and intreateth us now to be reconciled, shall then shut up his tender mercies in eternal displeasure; Ite maledicti, &c. Go ye cursed.

Again, there shall be a total privation of all the gifts of the Spirit, charity, peace, wisdome, piety, mercy, and all the meanes that tend thereunto, Word, Sa­craments, &c. But it may be they will like the losse of these.

In the next place, there shall be a losse of the world, and all the pleasure of that; therefore St. Aug. notes, that Abraham speaks to the rich man of good things past, Omnia dicit de praeterito, Dives erat, epulabatur, recepisti. No meat, nor drink, cloathing, company, houses, not so much as a drop of water to cool thy tongue.

Nay, which is strange, their very sins they shall lose some of them; those sins which delighted them they cannot com­mit, no adultery, or lasciviousnesse, no drunkennesse, gluttony, and revellings no Play-houses, or brothel-houses there, [Page 30]but those sins which shall torment them, they shall be suffered to commit, if God withdraw the light of his countenance. Wicked men can comfort themselves with the creature now; or if the creature de­ny them solace, Gods people can encou­rage themselves in God: but when both God and the creature are lost, what com­fort can there be?

You shall dye. In regard of sense in hell, In regard of sense. a total, and eternal bondage of the whole man, when soul and body being re-united, both shall be cast into that Lake of fire and brimstone, where the body shall be terrified in all the senses, in all the parts, outer darknesse to the eye; for there are flames, but no light; heat, but no comfort; to the ear howl­ing of tormented spirits, weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth; to the smell, a stench of brimstone, the very dregs of Gods wrath; to the feeling, exquisite pain by fire. There shall be teares in the eyes, for there is weeping, and wailing; horrour in the eares, cursing, and complaining; brimstone to torment the tongue, hands and feet bound with chains, fire to torment the whole body; but Oh forlorn wretch! hear more terror yet.

But the most exquisite pain shall be in the soul, because that is the fountain of sin which being infinitely abhorred by God in his wisdome he will find out, and by his power execute some grievous pu­nishment on it, and this is termed fire; a fire proportionable to a Spiritual es­sence, if not in the nature of it, yet by the supernatural power of the revenging Judge; exalted to a height of transcen­dent efficacy: and the soul though in the nature of it immaterial, yet made passible by the power of a revenging Judge, that noble celestial substance, for subjecting it self willingly to brutish sen­suality, shall be unwillingly subjected to a sensual pain; this pain is the more ex­quisite, being principally in the soul; that disease tormenteth most, which seaseth upon the spirits. Cain that felt but one spark of this fire was a perpetual vaga­bond. Judas so tortured, as to hang himself, when he did but taste of this cup. Oh what will their torment be, that drink the very dregs of this cup! and live in the midst of these flames! Now the intellect shall be perplexed with the continual meditation of this, mourn­ing that happinesse is lost through her [Page 32]own default, and gnashing the teeth, that others have it, and the soul shall not chuse but reflect upon it self, and be­hold her deformity and torment; and shall have nothing to drive away this meditation. The intellect shall represent this unto the will which shall hate it self, and curse God, that doth cause it to be captivated in those chaines of darknesse; so that the soul shall for ever be a bur­then to it self, desire that it were annihi­lated, and hate God that supports her in being; the memory, which is the souls storehouse, shall continually reflect unto the conscience, the cause of all this mise­ry, with a Fili recordare, which shall be as a worm continually gnawing; so that the soul shall hate God who cast it into that place, and the Devil that torments it in that place, and all the infernal spirits which add unto its torment; and the blessed Saints and Angels, which are in a better place, as an unthrift lookes out at prison-grate upon men at liberty, and the body, as a companion of sin and wo, and it self who through her own default is brought unto that place, and by all shall be brought to those exigences, which no tongue of man, or Angel is able to relate. [Page 33]

But that which makes all compleat, this shall be eternal; heaven and all comfort are irrecoverably lost, and the worme dieth not, though this punish­ment cannot be infinite intensively; for then it would annihilate the creature be­ing finite, yet in regard of duration it's in­finite, that so satisfaction may be made to an infinite justice. If the lives of all crea­tures were added together, and spun out into one, and at the expiration of that there might be an end of their torment, it were some comfort. Were they to expiate their sins with an Ocean of tears; and yet but every thousand year to shed a tear, the debt in time would be dischar­ged: And though this be an uncon­ceivable time, yet it would comfort a lit­tle, if then there might be an end, or a mitigation of the torment; but here the worm dieth not, the fire never goes out, here death ever lives, want knows not how to be desective, the end ever beginneth, and death (which we now so fear as [...], the most fearful of all other fearful things; for it is indeed the king of fears) will they then desire as a Paradise, but it will fly from them, and that second death will feed on them as [Page 34]grasse, which suffers a continual death be­ing cropt by the cattel, and yet still lives in the root. If God preserve the three children in the flames that they be not burnt: if mount Aetna sends forth fla­shes continually, and it is not consumed. Its St. Aug. argument, If the Salaman­der live perpetually in the fire, why can­not he by his power support their na­ture to live for ever, that they may ever dye? Oh how much better were it for them that they had never been, or as they had lived like beasts, so they might die like beasts, to be no more. So we see the consolations of the flesh, are the desolations of the soul, Carnis con­solationes sunt animi desolationes. Hell ne­ver restores those whom it once receives, Infernus, quos semel recipit, nunquam re­stituit, saith Cassiod. So Aug. sins are bound, and loosed here, in the world to come is nothing but remuneration, and condemnation, Hic ligantur, & solvuntur peccata, in futuro seculo nihil est nisi remu­neratio, & condemnatio; no end, no ease, no intermission.

And thus you have heard the reward of the wicked, and the fearful doome o them that live after the flesh. This is [Page 35]the cause why the man is deprived of comfort, and filled with sorrow in this world; why the soul is deprived of God in spiritual death, and the body of the soul in corporal: this is the reason why the soul is deprived both of God, and the world from the natural death to the re­surrection, and why both soul and body are deprived of the vision and fruition of God to all eternity. Nor must you think this to be a meer fable, or Poetical fiction, or that we make the matter worse then indeed it is; the singular purity of God cannot abide sin, therefore it must be purged by blood or fire. God will have his justice magnified, therefore will not spare an onely Son; he will have truth maintained, who often hath declared this in his Word; its an irrevocable decree that they, who live after the flesh shall dye. In the first decree, he said to Adam, Mo­riemini, but his goodnesse reversed it; to Nineveh: Ye shall be destroyed, but yet upon their repentance spared, and so may these; else know this is a branch of the second Covenant which shall not be abrogated. For what can God give bet­ter then his Son on his part? or upon what easier termes can he capitulate [Page 36]with us? His wisdome hath thought meet, that there should be som bounds to his mercy, else he should seem prodigal of it, and be thought to have absolute need of his creature: and therefore not­withstanding Christ his satisfaction to declare his justice against contemners of his grace, and haters of purity, he hath said and sworn that unbelievers shall not enter into his rest, and hath peremp­torily decreed, without hope of repeal, or mitigation of the censure, that If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye. It's not fi­nis operantis, but operis; for they would live after the flesh, and not dye; they would live like Devils, and dye like Saints; the life of Balaam, but the death of the righteous. But he that sins volun­tarily, must suffer involuntarily, there is a connexion of these ab ordine justitiae divinae, He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reape corruption. Let not man then separate, what God hath joyned; and though he assay it, he shall never be able to do it. If they will live after the flesh, they shall dye.

But as St. Gregory upon the Parable of the rich man, Recordatione magis eget ver­sus iste quam expositione; so I may say of [Page 37]this: therefore we will draw hence some Corollaries, which may be for our Spiritu­al direction.

First then, will sin cousen us thus? The Use for Informa­tion. who would have suspected that such begin­ings that promised such delight, would have ended thus? that so glorious a Sun­shine morning would have closed with such gloomy blasts, with such thunder, and lightning, stormes, and tempests? then let no child of God envy the wicked their delight in sin, not grudge at his de­licious fare, Silkes, and Sattins. Much good may do Nabal with his good chear, and Haman with his preferment. I en­vy not the whole world to Alexander up­on such hard terms; there is poyson in their delicates, and clothes are fafcinated, their advancement prefers them to the gibbet, their very life is but a continual death; and how bitter shall be the death of these men! Rather let me have Ja­cobs pillow, and Canopy, so I may have his dream; let me have John Bap­tists hair-cloth, so I may have his con­science; No, I admire those worthies of old, that would choose to do or suffer any thing rather then split themselves upon these rocks. Oh happy confessors, and [Page 38]thrice blessed Martyrs, that passed tho­row fire and water, and refused no tor­ment, no death, that they might be de­livered from the second death. Let me passe under Esayes saw, and endure Jere­mies showres of stormes; let me not re­fuse Zacharies sword, nor the Lyons den with Daniel; let me be beheaded with St. Paul, or crucified with Andrew, and Peter; let me be flayed with Bar­tholomew, or my braines dasht out with St. James; let me be put into a vessel of scalding liquor with St. John, or broyled on the Gridiron with Laurence; let me suffer abstinence, affliction, persecution, exile, imprisonment with those holy Fa­thers of old, Chrysostome, Athanasius, Ambrose, Hierom; let me be given to the wilde beasts with Polycarpus, and Ig­natius; yea, if it were possible, let all these meet, and the tormentots prompted by the Devil himself, see if they can in­vent any torment more exquisite; let me suffer in this world what humane nature is capable of, rather then be for­saken by God, and dye ever. Oh blessed Christians, that would offer your selves rather to your persecutors in the dayes of Tertullian, Ego sum Christianus, Chri­stianus [Page 39]et ego! I shall ever subscribe to that of holy St. Aug. Domine hic ure, hic se­ca, ut in aeternum parcas; and again, Do de me poenas, ut ille parcat, I had rather suffer Gods chastisement then his punish­ment.

And I would to God this might be an advertisement to us all, how we live after the flesh, though it be pleasing, and pro­fitable for a while, yet the event should deter wise men. St. Gregories memento, to keep him from walking after the flesh, was this, Wo to them that are at ease in Sion; St. Hierom's, that last trump, Surgite mortui; St. Augustines, Not in surfeiting and drunkennesse; and this may be the Christians, Moriemini. And why will ye dye? God delights not in your destruction. He hath given you this Memento, that you might not walk after the flesh. Needs must you feel this, if you will not now fear it. Remember this you riotous eaters of flesh, you that follow wine and strong drink, till you are inflamed; you that inflame your soules with lust, and drown your bodies with a dropsie, that forget God, and the operation of his hands, the Church and the afflictions thereof, [Page 40]your selves, and your latter end.

But now the question is, what it is to be a drunkard? and it must be a fair print that the drunkard can read, and with Anaxagoras, they will put us to prove, that the snow is white. Surely he is a drunkard and glutton, and so lives after the flesh, that eats and drinks inordinate­ly, immoderately, unseasonably. Inor­dinately, that directs not these to Gods glory, so that he is unfit to pray, read, hear on Gods day, or do the works of his calling on other dayes. Let them think of this that are so good forenoones men, but so bad afternoons. Or immo­derately, which immoderation is to be estimated according to divers particulars; not alone when it is more then the sto­mach can bear, but when it is more then their estate, calling, businesse, or Reli­gion will allow. Or unseasonably, and when that is, nature it self (as a Reve­rend Prelate of our own hath observed) will direct us. When any of these four passions are predominant, we refuse su­stenance, anger, fear, grief, desire. 1. For anger, you see Ahab refused his meat when he was vexed, 1 King. 21.4. When our stomacks are big with indignation [Page 41]against our selves for sin, it is unseason­able to pamper the flesh. 2. In fear, so Paul, and his companions in the ship, cannot eat, Act. 27. So if we have just cause of fear in regard of publick cala­mities, let wise men judge, Is. 22.12. If there be fear of losing the soul much more: in the Plague David, in War Jehosaphat, in Famine Joel. If destru­ction be impendent, Hester, and the Ni­nevites will fast; and whether it be not seasonable for us to fast now, let wise men judge. 3. In grief, fasting and mourning are joyned together, Psal. 102.4. My heart is smitten and withered like grasse, so that I forget to eat my bread. So David, 2 Sam. 12.15. Much more when we have cause to grieve for the abomina­tions of our Land, the desolations of our Neighbour-Countrey, the jeopardy of our own soules, and lives, the losse of God. 4. In desire, 1 Sam. 14.24. So Esau in hunting; in regard of better per­formance of some duty, or to obtain some special favour, it will feather our prayers, and put life into them. In a word, when God by his Judgments, or his Substitutes by their Edicts call us to fasting, they that eat and drink but [Page 42]moderately, live after the flesh.

Nay, I will go one step further: I see no reason, but that the looking upon Wine with a lustful eye, should be ac­counted drunkennesse, as well as hatred, and envy, murther; covetousnesse, theft; or a wanton lustful eye, adultery; and if this be to live after the flesh, how ma­ny embarked in that dangerous Voyage of eternal death! Many like Dionysius lying at a siege, would be sick if they might not surfeit, and be drunk now and then. How doth our Land abound with such monstrous hell-hounds! now swea­ring, and scoffing; anon railing, and blaspheming, disclosing secrets of State, or Family. Will you have the portrai­ture of it? Like Circe it turns men in­to all shapes. Go into Bedlam, where some rave, some sing, some whoop, and hollow, some cry; or, if you will, view some filthy puddle, where swine tumble, and wallow themselves, toads and frogs lie croaking; or, if you will, launch out into the deep, and view the Sea-Monsters. An hospital hath not so many Lazars, nor a dung-hill so many ill sents, as you shall see, and smell in their meetings. Nay, suppose all these together, its not [Page 43]a sufficient expression, you would think devils were come down in the likenesse of men, and entred into the swine, that drives them headlong into the Sea of Gods wrath. Oh this is a dainty life, thinks the Jovial companion; but re­member what followes, Thou must dye, and come to Judgment. Hear thy doom written in letters of blood; Wo to drun­kards, saith Esay. Wo, saith Habakkuk: Wo, saith Solomon; Howl, saith Joel: Weep, saith St. James; Ye shall dye, saith our Apostle; scarce a Prophet, or an Apostle, but hath thrown a stone at him. Look ere long to have a head full of wind, legs swollen with water, cheeks blown with ayr, a face red with fire, ever blushing, though past grace; eyes run­ning, though not a tear of remorse; trem­bling in the joynts, though no fear of Gods Judgments.

Needs must he dye, for this drawes the heart from God, and makes a man break all Gods Commandments, makes his belly his God, blasphemes his Name, profanes his day, despiseth dominion, and dignity. I have often with indignation seen his Majesties portraiture hang'd up for a sign, and that sacred name of Ma­jestie [Page 44]used in an health, when the frothy mouth, and stammering tongue can scarcely speak a distinct word; it kills more then the sword, fills more full of prodigious, and Sodomitical lusts, robs God, and Church, poor, family, a mans self; he is a railer, a reviler, a slanderer, he hardens his heart against God, believes nothing, lives licentiously, and the more likely to dye, there is so little hope of amendment; he despiseth the Magistrate that doth correct him; and for the Mini­ster that reproves him, he is the drun­kards song. How can he repent, that cannot confesse? and how can he con­fesse, that forgets when he is sober what he did when he was drunk? If he be of a more melting disposition, it is his liquor that doth facilitate his teares: but he re­turnes like the dog to his vomit, shame­lesse, and fearlesse.

Remember this ye furious hot-spurres, For Ex­hortation. if anger command, you'l kill and slay; hence so much blood. You shall dye hereafter, and it's pity you should live here.

Oh remember this ye debauched swea­rers, foul-mouthed hell-hounds, that fall upon the sacred body of Christ, and tear [Page 45]him in pieces, swear him all over from head to foot, that pull his precious bo­dy from his soul, his blood from his bo­dy, that rake in his wounds, and crucifie him afresh. The curse shall ere long enter into your houses, and hearts, and never leave you till it bring you to ru­ine.

Remember this, ye ambitious Nimrods, aspiring Hamans, that to attain your ends, swear, forswear, falter, &c. and climb up this craggy rock, though with never so much difficulty, &c.

Consider this, ye insatiable stallions, that neigh after your neighbours Wives, and glory in your shame; you that are perfidious to God and man, forgetting your Marriage-vow, as if your lust were asleep, rouze it up, and foment it with lascivious pictures, scurrilous talk, filthy Poems, pictures, Stage-playes, the semi­naries of filthinesse; you that are wise to do evil, and invent prodigious wayes to satisfie your lusts. Strange punishments shall be for such workers of iniquity. Remember Absalom that defiled his fa­thers Concubines. Heaven would not re­ceive such a miscreant, nor the earth bear him, he was hang'd betwixt both. Re­member [Page 46] Sodom and Gomorrah, that burn­ed in unnatural lusts; God sent fire from heaven to consume them. But if they escape that, a worse is preparing, it will be at the last bitter as wormwood, sharper then a two-edged sword.

Remember this ye haughty persons that speak swelling words of vanity, that wear Lord-ships on your backs, that spend so much time in trimming up that house of clay; you men that are so effeminate, and women that are grown Monsters, wearing apparel against shamefastnesse, utility, and decency; you in whom nor Magistrate, nor Minister can work any reformation, but make idols of your selves; take heed God send not a rent instead of a girdle; and baldnesse instead of your borrowed, powdered, brayded hair. Take heed God do not send an enemy to pull off your ridiculous appa­rel, and discover your shame to your reproach; but if you escape here, you shall be sure to smart for it hereafter.

Remember this ye rich men, you that go clothed in purple and scarlet, and fare deliciously every day. It's impossible for those that live after the flesh to enter into heaven; its very difficult for a rich [Page 47]man not to live after the flesh. You may not do with your own what you will, not be proud of your own cloathes, nor play the gluttons with your own food, nor be drunk with your own wine, nor lascivious with your own wives. Ere long God will pose yon with these two Quaeries; How you came by your wealth; and I will not bid you remem­member how much you have hoarded up by sacriledge, by oppression and cousen­age: the second, How you have im­ployed it, in good chear, in brave appa­rel, so much for the satisfying of my vo­luptuous pleasure; scarce any for the glory of God in heaven, and poor Laza­rus on earth. Your account will be wo­ful, you stand in slippery places; there­fore by how much wealth encreaseth, by so much had you need to be more watch­ful.

Oh remember this, all ye that forget God, lest he teare you in pieces when there is none to deliver. Let no man deceive you with vain words; for these things sake the wrath of God comes upon the childaen of dis­obedience; but if nothing will reclaim you, if you will not fear it, you must feel it. Go on then thou debauched [Page 48]sinner, let loose the reines to all licen­tiousnesse, please the flesh in all sen­suality, eat, drink, and be merry; ac­count our words as wind, and death, and torment, as some Poetical fiction; cloath thy self in purple, and scarlet, and fare deliciously every day; let the poor dye for want of thy superfluities, prefer thy dogs before poor Lazarus, live like an Epicure, like a beast, like a devil; but re­member that destruction will overtake thee as a whirlwind; unsatisfied hell will ere long send pale death, as an inexora­ble Sergeant to arrest thee, and thou shalt be cast into prison, and not come thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. Time will come, when having irrecoverably lost the blessing with Esau, thou wilt howl; and say; Blesse me, even me also; but there shall be no place for repentance. As a man that seeth a costly feast, when he himself is pined; thou shalt see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, set down at Gods Table, then shalt thou think, There is such a one whom I once scorned, now he is comforted, I am tor­mented: Ah wretch that I am, I was invited as well as he; Alas! how much precious time have I now mis-spent, [Page 49]wherein I might have gained much to mine own soul? how many admonitions have I contemned? and now it's irreco­verably come upon me. How ost hath Christ opened his wounds to heal me? stretched out his arms to receive me? intreated me not to grieve his Spi­rit, nor to crucifie him afresh? With what earnest sollicitations hath he wooed me to be reconciled, but I would not? Oh what doth it profit me now that I have been cloathed in purple and scarlet! &c. How much better had it been for me to have been the very off­scouring of the world, a worm and no man? yea, better for me that I had never been, or might yet at the last cease to be; but all this is now justly come upon me, be­cause I would not hear my Saviour, and his messengers, nor pity mine own soul; but while I was seeking my venison, have lost my blessing.

But if all this will not avail, to dehort men from living after the flesh, give me leave to turn my speech to you Reverend Sages, whom under his Majesty, God hath placed at our stern. Let it be your care to revive those gasping Lawes con­stituted against swearing, and surfeiting, [Page 50]and drunkennesse, &c. not onely for the punishing, but for the preventing of this latter: for this purpose remember your oaths; do not play with the Evangelists, as it is the fault of too many; else you through your neglect, may bring ruine to the Land, and the blood of these men upon your heads. Impunitas ausum parit, ausus excessum; so the sin will be ulti­mately terminated in you: and princi­pally let your lives be exemplary, reform your families; let not your Cellars be turned into Ale-houses, nor your houses shops for the devil. Tophet is enlarged for such that live after the flesh, and by their example draw others.

And you that have the Ecclesiastical power, Oh improve it to Gods glory, and for his sake quicken discipline against these walkers after the flesh; If they will needs die, pull them by violence out of the fire. Let not the sword rust in the sheath, or if you do draw it, think it not enough to flourish it; and if you will strike, lay on upon these walkers after the flesh. Oh give not Church-Wardens cause to complain, that they still present, but can see no reformation; nor the de­linquent to boast that they can escape [Page 51]with a ten groats see; nor the soules of these men to complain hereafter, that if the flesh had been punished, the spirit had been saved in the day of Christ. Let Ministers preach, and people pray, and Magistrates punish, and delinquents re­form, and all mourn, lest our patient God, for our transcendent abominations cause our Land to spue out her Inhabi­tants.

But if none of these will perswade, then let those that live after the flesh, know, that their destruction is from themselves: God hath gathered the stones out of the vineyard by his preventing grace, fenced thee about, given thee the sweet influence of his grace, the former, and latter rain; and now judge thou who art a party, whether there hath any thing been want­ing on Gods part, to make thee happy; but thou wilt needs dye, not because thou lovest death, but sin which is the cause of it.

And let us all remember, that our worst enemy is within us. Bern. Ipsi gestamus laqueum, nobiscum circumferimus ini­micum; We carry a snare about with us, our own enemy is within us. We are beaten like Judah, with our own staffe, [Page 52]and manacled with our own bracelets; yea, with Saul we slay our selves with our own sword. It's a Serpent in our own bosome that stings us, Inimici ho­minis sunt ejus domestici, A mans foes are those of his own house. He that dips with us in the dish is it that betrayes us. Blame not Satan, or his instruments, these could not kill us, but that this Traytour opens the doors, their temptations else would fall like a spark of fire in the Sea, much lesse let us murmur against God; though he be the inflicting cause, yet sin is the meritorious.

Take heed of this enemy so much the rather, for it's a potent and politick ene­my, being an old man that receives in­fluence from the Devil; it's worse then the Devil, who hath some natural goodnesse, wisdome, and power, which in them­selves are good, though by him abused. But in the flesh dwells no good thing, it fills the whole man full of impiety; as the mind with wicked thoughts, making it like a dark filthy Dungeon, full of Snakes and Adders, destitute of heavenly light and heat; the imaginations of it onely evil continually; and if the best part be so, what is the worst? It's a store-house, [Page 53]or a common sewer of abominations, fills the eye full of Adultery, the counte­nance of wrath, makes the throat an open sepulchre, the tongue a world of wicked­nesse: if a world in that little member; how many worlds in this little world of ours? fills the hand with extortion, makes the feet swift to shed blood; in a word, all the Devils brats are warmed, conceived, and bred in that wombe: it's an enemy to all Spiritual undertakings; what is wisdome to the Spirit, is foolish­nesse to the flesh; what the one willeth, the other nilleth; what the one endea­vours, the other crosseth; it breakes all Lawes, both of God and man, and makes unreasonable Lawes of its own, of sin and death, Rom. 7.23.8.2. Of sinne, therefore dishonourable to live after them, for it gives unreasonable com­mand. He that obeyeth hath Chams curse, to be a servant of servants. But the service is dangerous, in that rewarded with such wages; for the wages of sin is death; worse then for a man to serve at the Gallies all day, and be hanged at night. Therefore of all enemies, let us take most heed of our selves; these lusts within us fight agaist us, 1 Pet. 2.11. they hunt for [Page 42]the precious life; and if we yeeld to them, we dye. He that soweth the wind, shall reape the whirlwind. If we sowe to the flesh, we shall of the flesh reape corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reape life everlasting; For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall dye; but if ye by the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

But if ye by the Spirit, The Con­olation. &c. Now I am fallen on the second Proposition, the Consolation. Hitherto I have tyred your patience with a discourse of the works of darknesse, and a sad narration of death, the reward of such works; give me leave now to entertain your ears with a more pleasing discourse of life, and of the nar­row way that leads thither. If ye by the Spirit, &c. The flesh like a potent King domineers in a natural man, and makes him yeeld obedience to it in the lusts thereof; yea, in a regenerate man it remains, though weakned and wounded, like the Canaanites; if it cannot dwell in the City, it will lodge in the subburbs; though it raign not like a King, it will re­bel like a Traytor, sometimes assault­ing by open violence; sometimes by se­cret ambushments, and hidden strata­gems, [Page 55]undermining; so that while he dwells in this tabernacle of flesh, the flesh will continue in him; his labour shall not end, so long as his life doth continue: while we live then we shall find work enough to keep under this rebel; and to encourage us herein, God hath given us such an help as will effect it, his Spirit; and propounded such a motive, as may spur on the dullest Laodicean, Ye shall live.

Here the Apostle doth these two things, Divided.1. Proponit officium, If ye, &c. 2. Pro­mittit mercedem. First the work, then the wages; first we must do the will of God, then receive the promise: first God must be glorified by us, and then he will glorifie us; the hardest that is first, and that we must look to, to mor­tifie; the sweetest comes last, and that God will care for, Ye shall live.

In the first we note these particulars; Subdivi­ded.1. Octjectum, deeds of the body. 2. Actio­nem circa objectum, Ye must mortifie the deeds of the body. 3. Causas hujus actic­nis, principalem, the Spirit; minus prin­cipalem, we.

First, The deeds of the bo­dy what. for the object about which mor­tification is conversant, the deeds of the [Page 56]body. Here we must explicate both the fountain, and streams. Some understand a metonymie in this word body, so by it understand the natural body, because sin is acted by the body. Others understand it metaphorically of that old man, and masse of corruption that is in every man, called the body of sin, Rom. 6.6. & 7.24. Col. 2.11. for as the body is a totum in­tegrum, consisting of many members, so is sin, Col. 3.4. the head of sin, vain imaginations; the heart of sin, corrupt af­fections; the tongue of sin, rotten commu­nication; the forehead of sin, impudent avouching; the hands and feet of sinne, wicked executions. Again, as the body hath its dimensions, so hath sin; it reach­eth to heaven, and burneth to the lowest hell; is's of as great a latitude as Gods Commandments, which are exceeding broad. 3. As the body is knit together by joynts, and ligaments, so is sin. If the foot of sin do but stirre, the whole body moves, as we see in the sin of Adam. He that offends in one, is guilty of all; he sins against the general equity of the Law, and righteousnesse of the Law-giver. As the body compasseth us about, so doth sin, it's peccatum circumstans; that for [Page 57]the first, by the body we mean the body of sin.

Secondly, For the deeds of the body. This old man, though old, yet is very stirring and operative. When men grow old, their apprehension is weak, their memory dull, the strong men bow, the whole man is feeble; but it is not so in the body of sin, the older it is, the more vigorous, and lusty. Nothing in the world so fruitful; though these are but [...], unfruitful works. Of Ele­ments, none so fruitful as water; stinking puddles bring forth most troops of ver­mine. Some grounds yield two crops every year; some trees bear fruit twice, this all the year; some creatures breed every moneth, this every moment; and these brats are even conceived and born at once. How many kinds are there of sins? and how many millions of each kind? Gal. 5.21. There is some of the progeny, it is progenies viperarum; all those irregular thoughts, affections, words and actions that passe from a man, come from hence. Now this body hath its activenesse from the parents, the father is the devil, a compasser; the soul the mo­ther, in perpetual motion, and agitation. [Page 58]Now his own will enticeth him to these deeds; and he that is wilfully bent upon a thing, who can stay him? The Devil continually spurs him on, and he must needs go whom the Devil drives; he is fur­ther provoked by the world, by the men of the world, their perswasion as Solomon, their threats as Nebuchadnezzar, their promises as Balaam, their example as Jeroboam: by the things of the world; there is at least a seeming lustre in the ob­ject that doth allure; Bathsheba's beau­ty, the rich wedge of gold, and the Ba­bylonish garment. When the Vessel sailes with the tide, and the sailes blown with such a gale, it must needs go apace. There are deeds of the body which are natural, to eat, drink, sleep; voluntary, to walk, &c. but these are motus, & opera carnis peccatricis, these are they that must be mortified; that is the second thing in the duty.

Mortifie] The body of death must be slain that we may live: What it is to mortifie. Thus if we will become wise, we must first be fooles; if rich, and have a Kingdome, poor in spirit; if free, put our necks under Christs yoke; if save our life; first lose it, if have a true being, old men must be [Page 59]born again; if have the life of grace here, and glory hereafter, first kill our sinful selves. To mortifie, is a Meta­phor taken from Chirurgeons that use to mortifie that part they mean to cut off; so we must mortifie sin, that it may not live; or if it live such a life as is left in the limbs when the head is struck off, or as in those that have an Epilepsie, Rom. 4.19. or as in old Abrahams body, which was as good as dead, unfit for generation. The efficacy and power of these lusts must be slain, that they produce not new Mon­sters, and so bring forth fruit unto death; that is, (as Cajetan tells us) insur gentes compescendo, ne insurgant domando, so mortifie them that they make no rebel­lion; or if they do make insurrection, beat them down that they domineer not. So much for the second thing, the act.

I come now to the causes. The effi­cient cause principal the Spirit. The princi­pal is the Spirit. By the Spirit here (to omit other acceptations) we under­stand either the grace of the Spirit, or the Spirit of grace. If the former, then so far forth as it is enlivened, and actuated by the latter. The Spirit dwells in all crea­tures by a general influence, in Christ by hypostatical union, in some men by creating [Page 60]in them extraordinary gifts, [...]; in the elect by effectual operation. And if the essence of the Spirit be in us, it is in us, not as an essential part, that were to deify man; nor united personally unto us, for then should the third person be incarnate as well as the second; but dwel­ling in Christ as the head, in an unspeaka­ble manner diffused unto us. Thus the devil dwells in the children of disobedi­ence, not by communicating his essence to them, for then they should be incar­nate devills, but taking possession of them as his vassals, blinding their minds, har­dening their hearts, infusing malice into their wills, leading them captive, till at the last he bring them to the pit of destru­ction. But hath man the command of the Spirit? But the Spirit and Gods Ordi­nances are not separated, unlesse for our fault. But is the Spirit our instrument? No, but we the Spirits; for God infu­seth into us this supernatural principle, whereby we are inabled to work, and then quickeneth it up by moral perswasion. But how doth the Spirit mortifie? It's that light that doth detect those deeds of the body: it's contrary to them, and stirs up hatred against them: it's the Spirit of [Page 61]grace which makes us pray against them; it's our remembrance that brings to our mind the Scripture, that declares the odi­ousnesse and danger of them; it's the mighty power of God, that crusheth these brats in pieces: it's that which doth co-operate with the Word, and prayer, and tears, and affliction, and fasting, whereby the flesh is beaten down. That the Spirit worketh, we evidently feel, but how, we cannot certainly define: for if the operation of the wind, the framing of the body in the womb be so strange, much more that of the Spirit.

The lesse-principal cause, We. The lesse-principal, We. The Spirit quickens us being dead, and being quickened we must act by the Spirit. In the receiving the first grace man is a meer passive, habet se ut materia: in the se­cond partly active, partly passive; active, we must mortify; passive, for it must be by the Spirit; and as St. Aug. Gratia non cre­dit, non resipiscit, non sperat, non obtem­perat Deo, sed homo per gratiam; Grace be­lieves not, repents not, hopes not, obeys not God, but man by grace. So we say, Spiritus non mortificat, sed homo per Spi­ritum; The Spirit mortifies not, but man by the Spirit; that we might not be proud [Page 62]or self confident, not we, but the Spirit; that we might not be slothful, or negli­gent, we must do it by the Spirit; that we might avoid all straines of Popery and Pelagianism, it is the Spirit which quickens us at the first, and doth continually send us fresh supplies against the flesh; that we might not be taken with the idle fancies or doting dreames and crotchets of the Familists, we must mortifie by the Spirit. As we cannot mortifie without the Spi­rit, so the Spirit will not without us.

Ye shall live. Having now done with the duty, What life here meant. we come to the reward, and what is better then life? God is pleased to be stiled a living God. This is that which every eye looks at, every heart breaths after, in which the vastest desire is satisfied, beyond which the mind knowes nothing, nor the will desires any thing that might make it happy.

By life here we do not understand the uncreated life of God, but the created life of man, which is twofold: corporal, the union of the soul with the body; spiritual, the union of God with the soul. Indeed there is a natural life of the soul, like that of Angels, in which sense damned spirits [Page 63]may be said to live; this was the eternity the Philosophers knew of. So Aristotle, [...], 3. de an. c. 5. this being concreated with the soul can­not be taken away, but by annihilating of it. The soul considered spiritually may be dead while it thus lives, if it be sepa­rated from God in regard of holinesse and happinesse.

We will briefly see what this includes, Ye shall live, that is, ye shall not dye; and how happy would the damned spirits think themselves, if they might not dye, though they might not live, that indeed they might not be at all rather then so mi­serable!

Ye shall live, That is, a happy life here, Natural. a natural life full of joy and comfort. Godlinesse, which includes mortification, hath the promise of this life; our cloathes shall warm us, our food nonrish us. Though men out of Covenant have a right to these, if they come by them lawfully, yet a sanctified use they have not, but by vertue of the Covenant, as our cloaths receive heat from us, and then warm us.

You shall live when you die, and death shall be as the port, after all the tossings [Page 64]and tumults of this life, the Physician that cures all diseases, the point that puts a period to all our labours; it's the reward of piety, at the least an entrance into that reward, and the birth-day of eternity, the end of our sorrow, the way to our Countrey, the beginning of glory, a general antidote for all aggrievances. God is their God while they live in the grave, and hath engaged his Word to restore them at the last day. Joh. 11. He that be­lieveth in me shall live, though he dye; and he that liveth, and believeth in me, shall ne­ver dye. Vitam non eripit, sed intermittit.

But the spiritual life of a Christian is that which is most excellent, Spiritual, of grace. and that flowes from the union of God with the soul, distinguished into degrees: the first from conversion to the time of death, when God by his Spirit breathes on the dead lump of sin and clay, and makes it a glorious creature after his own Image, Joh. 5.24. This is called the life of God, Eph. 4.18. because it comes from God as the fountain, insomuch that he doth live in them; and if God be at all the life and soul of the world, (as the Platonists say) it is meant of Christians principally. The entrance into this life [Page 65]is through the gate of regeneration, this parallells that vitam plantae, and that first degree of natural life in the womb. Ye shall live; That is, the life of grace.

Secondly, Ye shall live, Of glory. the life of glo­ry in the first degree, from the death of the body to the resurrection of it; When the body sleepeth in the grave sweetned by Christs burial, the soul shall be carried by the ministery of Angels into Abra­hams bosome, Luk. 16.22. Though there be not in this estate a plenary consumma­tion of happinesse, 1 Tim. 4.8. Apcc. 6.9. yet the Spirit returnes to God, Eccles. 12.7. to Christ, Phil. 1.23. it rests from labour, is in comfort, so it was said of Lazarus, Luk. 16.25. to Paradise, so to the thief, Matth. 24.32. Luk. 23.43. Without doubt with great solemnity, and joy do the holy Saints and Angels receive the soul into heaven; into this degree we enter by the gate of death, and it parallels the life of an animal, and the second degree of natural life in men, from the birth till they come to the use of reason.

In the second degree, you shall live the life of glory in regard of the consummati­on of it, from the day of the resurrection to all eternity, enjoying the full vision, [Page 66]and fruition of God: where you shall see God sitting on his throne in inaccessible light, and Jesus Christ sitting on his right hand with an innumerable company of Saints and Angels attending on him, all shining as the Sun in the Firmament, where all sorrow ceaseth for ever, and a conflu­ence of all desirable happinesse.

It may be some will enquire what our conversation shall be there; for your meat and drinke, there is Angels food, a tree of life; for your apparel, long white robes of righteousnesse; for your musicke, a quire of Angels; riches and glory are in this place, the house is made of gold, and the pave­ments of precious stones. As for honour, every man shall be a king, and reigne in blisse; and for delight, at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore; for knowledge, we shall see face to face; and for liberty, the body shall be made spiri­tual; Siquidem ubi volet spiritus, ibi erit corpus.

In a word, they shall enjoy God, in whom is eminently contained all persecti­on, and glory. If a little earthly glory a­maze, as it did Herod, what will that above do? If there be such glory in Gods foot­stoole, what is there in his throne? Si [Page 67]tanta nobis tribuis in carcere, quid dabis in patria? Si tanta tribuis inimicis, quid ami­cis? If, O Lord, thou givest us so much in the land of our pilgrimage, what wilt thou give us in our own countrey? if so much to thine enemies, what wilt thou give to thy friends? The Hebrews report, how truely I know not, that when Joseph had gathered much corne in Aegypt, he threw the chaffe into the river Nilus, that so float­ing to the neighbour-Cities, and Nations, they might know what abundance was laid up, not for themselves alone, but for their neighbours also: so God to make us know what glory is in heaven, hath thrown some huskes to us here, that so tasting the sweetnesse of these things we might as­spire to his bounty above. And surely, if the outward pavement of the base Court doth so glitter with stars, what is there within? Though we cannot measure the content of the soule by the outside of the house, no more then you can measure the comforts of a Christian by the gay outside of a Church.

If I should undertake a full relation of this, my muddy expressions would cloud it from you more then declare it; there­fore I leave it to your apprehension, as a [Page 68]thing beyond expression, yea, beyond con­ceit, while we dwell in these houses of clay. If Moses his face did shine with conversing with God; if the Disciples were so ravished in the transfiguratiou; if S. Paul that saw not all, saw more then he could utter; and if the soules of Gods people are filled with unspeakable joy, and satisfied as with marrow, and fatnesse, that see, and enjoy God but in part here obscurely; there is somthing transcendent in the perfect vision and fruition of God. These little baites serve to stay our sto­macks till we come to that glorious re­past. Aug. l. 4. de. civil. D [...]. Aug. Quod Deus praepara vit diligen­tibus, fide non accipitur, spe non attingitur, charitate non comprehenditur, acquiri potest, aestimari non potest: Faith cannot compre­hend, hope cannot reach, charity cannot fathome, what God hath prepared for those that love him; obtained it may be, but never to its worth valued, and esteem­ed. And elsewhere, Facilius possumus dicere quid ibi non sit, quam quid sit: non est ibi mors, non est luctus, &c. We can more easily say what there is not there, then what there is: there is no death, no mourning, &c. Let us labour to walke in the way, then we shall experimentally [Page 69]feel it, and then even laugh at our scanty expressions when the soule being filled with admiration shall cry out, How full of glory art thou O Lord, and this heavenly Paradise of thine! I have heard of thee by thy Prophets, and Apostles, but the one halfe hath not been resolved. Oh blessed is the man that heareth thy wisdome, seeth, and enjoyeth thy glory.

But by the way note here, that life is referred to mortification, not as the pro­per cause. He that lives after the flesh, shall dye, by his own merit; but he that lives after the Spirit, shall live by Gods mercy, and the merit of Christ; for he that lives after the flesh, acts by a princi­ple of his own; but he that by the Spirit, from an hgher principle, and that imper­fectly. So, Rom. 6. ult. the Apostle shew­eth death is an effect of sin, life a conse­quent of righteousnesse in a different manner: death followeth sin as a just re­ward of it, as a debt, The wages of sin is death; but righteousnesse produceth life, as a consequent, not of debt, but of grace. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord; that as he attributes no­thing to man in the latter, so he wholly cleareth God in the former.

But ever remember what the good Fa­ther saith, Acquiri potest, aestimari non po­test: It may be gotten, but cannot be va­lued. It's possible for to attaine it, but it will cost thee deare; thou must enter in through many tribulations; Ʋnicus qui introivit sine peccato, non exivit sine flagel­lo, thou must deny the world, and be cruci­fied to that, hate father, mother, life, thine own life; but that is not all, thou must mortifie the deeds of the body. Now if any desire to enter into life, I must first aske him, whether he can drinke of this cup, and be baptized with this Baptisme? he must mortifie this body, this old man; corruption is strong, for it's a man; poli­tique, for an old man; a man that is natu­ralized in us, and pleads prescription.

The old man with all his members, pull out the right eye, cut off the right hand, teare, and re [...]t the heart asunder, crowne the head with thornes, pierce the hands & feet with nailes, and the side with a speare, the face must be spit upon, buffetted.

The body, and all the deeds of it. Put off the old man with his deeds, Col. 3. and here mortifie the deeds of the body, and the deeds of the body are manifest. Ne­ver tell me of a good heart, if the actions [Page 71]are naught, as the understanding blind, the will obstinate, the affections disordered, the life dissolute, this man is out of the way to life. What! a good Christian, and a drunkard, a swearer, a scoffer at the good wayes of God? It's impossible. Is the tree good that is fruitlesse? Do you call that a good ground, that bears no­thing but briars, and brambles? The body with the deeds, all the deeds must be mor­tified. Away then with that sweet mor­sel under the tongue; if thou willingly en­tertaine but one sin constantly, suppose contemplative adultery, thou art an un­mortified man.

Againe, these must be mortified, not trifle, or deale more gently with them, pull up these weeds by the very roots; there­fore it must be with paine, and shame, and constant; for it is an act of the whole life, prescribed here to the Romans, so to the Colossians. It may be their acquaintance will reproach thee, and thy best friends forsake thee.

And all this we must do in our per­sons, not buy it out, or do it by our de­puties; we, by the Spirit, and there is no other way but this to life.

Nor do I make the way straiter, or the [Page 72]gate narrower, then Christ, and his Apo­stles have done. Nor do I here dishearten any, but require them sedulously to set about the worke; better know it now then hereafter when it is too late. Eter­nall life is the gift of God, that the Scripture shews, and reason manifests, that it is in the power of the donor to prescribe what conditions he will to the receiver; but the wretchednesse of the world is such, they desire the blessing without the condition; like Ruths kinsman, that would have the land without the woman; like that man in the Gospel, would have eternal life, but the condition is too strict, therefore go a way sorrowful. Thus, how contrary are we to our selves, how unreasonable to God? In the former we would do the work, but not have wages, live after the flesh, but not die; and in the latter we will not do the labour, yet hope for the reward, as Balaam will follow the wages of iniquity, yet die the death of the righte­ous. But if we do the one, the other will follow. And surely had we made our own termes, how could we in modesty have made them more easie? God could do no lesse then demonstrate his purity, love of vertue, hatred of sin. God delights not [Page 73]to make us sad without cause. Certainly he cannot require any thing lesse then mortification without the impeachment of his honour, therefore we cannot per­form lesse without the endangering of our happinesse.

So then I must tell our debauched sin­ners, Ʋse. For Repr. that suffer all manner of abominati­ons to raign, not to be named among Christians, and are so far from crucifying them, that they harbour, and keep them close, extenuate, defend them, are careful to satisfy their lusts, and blow them up to a greater flame, that will be ready to give the stab to those that crosse and contradict them in their waies; there is a thing in Religion called Mortifying the deeds of the body, which they were never acquainted withal, without which there is no life.

I must tell our plausible Atheists, that are enemies to the power of godlinesse, that have no grace and vertue but what was born and bred with them; it is not their plausible carriage will do it; there is a mortifying, crucifying, watching, fasting, striving, denying thy self, or no entrance into life.

I must tell our carelesse procrastinators [Page 74]of repentance. It's not enough to dis­like sin, and so let it alone in time to dye it self, and therefore they will not task themselves with such an unpleasing tor­ment, but you must mortifie it. The fil­thy adulterer resolves, when he hath no more marrow in his bones, nor vigour in his body, to leave his adultery; the drunkard his company when his patrimony is spent; the oppressour his extortion, when his co­vetousnesse is satiated. Sinne, though it be left in regard of the outward act, yet in this case it is not mortified, but retired to the inner closet of the soul, wanting op­portunity to axpresse it self outwardly; and in this case it is damnable; for lusting is adultery, Matth. 5.28. hatred is murther, 1 John 3.15. and he that will inhabit heaven, must have both clean hands and a pure heart, Ps. 24.4. and the tree is not dead, though it want leaves and fruit; and this conquest (if there be any) is to be attributed to the weaknesse of nature rather then the strength of grace; or else here is a Metempsychosis of sinne; where­as a sinne of youth prevailed before, now a sin of age domineereth. Thus a man oft-times changeth his favourites. No man in every estate, and condition is prone to act the same sins. [Page 75]

I must tell our civil Justitiaries, and painted hypocrites; It's not enough to take sin prisoner, and a little to curbe and restrain it, as Eli did his sons; or to cry out, as Pharaoh did when he was upon the rack, and soon return like the dog to the vomit; we must not onely fight, but overcome, if we mean to be crowned; judge, condemne, and mortifie this old man with his deeds.

I must tell our luke-warme Laodiceans, that are half perswaded to be Christians with Agrippa, it will not serve their turn. If they will almost be religious, they shall be almost saved, but altogether damned. To spare some fat sins (as Saul the cattel) for sacrifice, to make ex rapina holocaustum; to rob the Church, and build an Hospital, or maintain a Free-Schoole; to cast away some sin, which to them hath neither profit, nor pleasure in it, and if it were commanded would sin in omitting it: this is no mortification. It will not avail you to abhorre Idols, so long as you commit sacriledge; that can endure John Baptist, till he come to touch the apple of your eye; this is but to pair the nayles, or clip the hair of this old man, not to mortifie the body with [Page 76]his deeds. A Penknife may cut a mans throat, one leake sink a ship, one sparkle burn an house, one sin slay the soul.

I must tell those that would be accoun­ted professours, that this word doth not sufficiently expresse the condition of a good Christian; they must be practisers. It is not enough to say, The Temple of the Lord; the rich man was a son of Abraham, yet in hell; to hear a multitude and variety of Sermons; the devil heares more. Though they could hear men of Seraphical spirits; the Capernaites heard Christ, and notwithstanding this, they were thrown down to hell. You must mortify. I cannot but with indignation complain to see at least the outward form of Godlinesse changed, from what it was in the primitive times; and I am perswa­ded should one of our forefathers rise from the dead, he would as much wonder at the alteration of the fashion in Religion as apparel. The devotion of the Church of old was to joyn in publique prayer, this is accounted but Idolatrous Superstiti­on by many, and cold devotion by the most. Of old it was Religion to keep the body under by fasting, and discipline; this practice is not known now of many, prac­tised [Page 77]by few: they will lose their birth­rights, rather then pottage: either they are troubled with wind, or some infirmity or other, they cannot fast; The truth is they are like Dionysius an epicure, who when he lay at a siege, and was for­ced to keep a diet, fell sick because he might not surfeit. Of old, charity and good workes were in fashion, but now he is almost accounted a Popeling that will preach for charity, and (God help us) an e­nemy to the State, that exhorteth to peace. I condemn not all, but the religion of too many consists onely in hearing such men; and the height of their practice, to ab­stain from some sinnes, which are cryed down. I honour the publique preaching of Gods Word in season, and out of season, and he that opposeth it, is an enemy to Christ, and his king dome: but if he that preacheth unto others may be a reprobate unlesse he do beat down his body, and mortifie his sinne, then he that heareth others much more.

I must tell our curious Correctors of things indifferent, that it is not the eager censuring, and condemning they know not what, nor their envying against Bi­shops, and Ceremonies; and in the mean [Page 78]time to harbour pride, and passion, and uncharitablenesse; the matter is not what thou canst say, or censure in other men, but what thou hast mortified of thine own.

Nor will the keeping of outward or­ders serve the turn; at the best if they go no further, they are no better then Scribes and Pharisees, that tithe Mint, and Cummin, and Anise, and leave the weighty matters of the Law undone.

I must tell our Solifidans, that boast of strange speculations of faith without san­ctity: For ought I know, there are a great many Orthodox men in Hell, and while they live in lying, pride, and pro­fanenesse, their faith without works will not save them.

I must tell our refined wits, and great Clerks: It will not avail though they know the abstrusest mysteries that are; yea, all things knowable, as some say of Berengarius. Knowledge without cha­rity profits nothing: there is neither true piety, nor charity, so long as men live after the flesh, while they continue de­solate. I never knew such a way to hea­ven, as from bed to board; from hoard to play, &c.

I must tell our Popish, and Pelagian Doctors, advancers of free-will, that they cannot mortifie themselves by any power of the flesh: for corrupt nature agree­eth well enough with it self; but walk in the Spirit, Gal. 5.6. not by any Moral or gentle perswasion, or by any violent re­straint. They that deny grace, or call grace by the name of nature; or say, that it is profitable, not necessary, or necessary for our entrance, not our con­tinuance in the wayes of God. Here we see, that as by preventing grace we are made Saints, so by subsequent, and coo­perating grace we are enabled to work like Saints; and it's the Spirit that doth inchoate, continue, consummate all good in us; whence our Saviour saith, Without me ye can do nothing; upon which words, St. Austin glosseth thus, Non dicit, Sine me parum potestis fa­cere, nec dicit Ardui aliquid Sine me non potestis facere, vel Difficulter sine me pote­stis facere, sed Nihil sine me potestis. Nec dicit, Sine me non potestis perfi­cere, sed Nihil potestis facere sine me; He doth not say, we can do but little or no great matter, or very difficultly without Christ. He doth not say, we [Page 80]can perfect nothing without him, but simply do nothing without him.

I must tell our Famelistical dreamers, that we must mortifie by the Spirit; they must not think to have these showres of grace, and glory fall into their laps, while they sit still with a soulded hand. For the getting of the Spirit we must at­tend on God in his Ordinances. Though the Miller cannot make a wind, yet he may set up his sailes, and turn them into the wind. When we have received the Spirir, we are the instruments of the Spi­rit, yet not passive ones, but as servants, that work by the direction of their Ma­sters, as the body works being enabled by the soul. We are not saved altogether, as we were created. He made us, not we our selves; so he saveth us, not we our selves; that is, as of our selves; but be­ing enabled by his Spirit: and thus, though it be true, that he works in us both the will and the deed; yet it is as true, that we must work out our own salvation. A silly Countrey-fellow once bought Or­pheus his harp, and thought it would make melody of it self, without the touch of a skilful hand: so do these men think of the Spirit, that it will work in them, though [Page 81]they be idle, resist, or quench the Spirit, and turn the grace of God into wantonnesse, thus making God the cause of their sins, if not an efficient, at least a deficient; and they think they have done as much good, and omitted as much evil, as God by his grace enabled them.

I must tell our superstitious Baalites, that this mortification, Non fit per disciplinam Monasticam, aut Baaliticam lanienam corporis, sed per Spiritum resistentem operibus carnis; is not done by Mo­nastical discipline, or by Baalitical cut­ting of the body, but by the Spirit op­posing, and resisting the deeds of the body. Though a man fast till he faint and dye, cover himself with sackcloth day and night; though he beat himself black and blue, endure heat, and cold as much as the body will bear, not suffer their eyes to sleep, or eye-lids to slumber; it's not their solitary caves, or tedious pilgri­mages; many that do so nourish pride, vain-glory, self-confidence; but it's the Spirit of God, and yet the Spirit useth other instruments. The Word of God as a two edged-sword, cuts the throat of our corruptions; in prayer we lay them open to God; presse him with his pro­mise, [Page 82]and get grace and assistance from him, in voluntary chastning; our selves ordinari­ly, by sobriety in meat, drink, apparel, re­creation; extraordinarily, by prayer, fa­sting, weeping: we do as it were with Gods plough soften our hard hearts, and so extinguish this fire, by withholding com­bustible matter, or by those that are im­posed by God. In the former we take up our crosse, in this it's laid upon us. In the one we turn without, in this with a bridle in our jawes: But the Spirit must diffuse it self through all these to make them ef­fectual; and without it these bodily exer­cises profit little, the flesh will still re­calcitrare, & therefore Monasticks, and An­chorites have found corruption as strong in the Cloyster, as in the Court; in the Cell, as in the City. He that will not humble his body, cannot, will not humble his soul; but he that humbleth his body without the soul, loseth his labour.

Yea, For Ex­hortation. with your good leave I must tell the best man here, that it is not enough that he hath begun well, but he must go on. So the Apostle writes to converted Romans; so we speak to converted Chri­stians, you have done it Sacramentally, make good your vow; you have done [Page 83]it in profession, let your practice be answe­rable; you have done it really, but it's but in part, continue in well-doing. A good progresse and conclusion, is necessa­ry to life; as a good beginning. Take heed of beginning in the Spirit, and end­ing in the flesh. They that think they are mortified enough, must mortifie that proud conceit, or perhaps they will come short of life. And for Catharists that boast of absolute perfection, their reward shall be, they lead themselves into a fools Paradise.

By all this which hath been said, we may verifie that of our Saviour, Matth. 6.14. Heaven it spued out the Angels that sinned, and will not lick up the Devils vomit again.

But though it be difficult, yet not impos­sible, therefore I would not discourage any. It's easie to a spiritual man, and me thinks the benefit should take away the difficulty; Look unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith. But alas, these joyes are farre off, and serve but little, or else the taste of the world spoiles our re­lish. Our teeth are so set on edge with these apples of Sodom, that we cannot taste the fruit of the tree of life.

See what there is in the Text to encou­rage us. 1. It's but the deeds of the body to be mortified, those which we may well spare; God commands us not to de­stroy any faculty of the soul, either to hurt the understanding, or dull the apprehen­sion, or overload the memory, or clog the conscience; not to kill the body, or con­sume the spirits, by a dull, austere melan­choly, not to destroy the forme or feature of it Religion it depriveth us of nothing that brings true pleasure or profit. Adam in innocency, glorified Saints and Angels, God himself hath transcendent happinesse, to which nothing can be added; yet it's the unhappinesse of some to think they cannot be merry, unlesse they are mad, nor happy except sinful; that mor­tification abridgeth them of true delight. Again, these must but be mortified, not ut­terly abolished. We cannot abolish them, to have no being, but onely mortifie them, that they do not reign; so that while sin doth not prevail, but thou groanest under the reliques of corruption, God will accept thee, and that thou mayest do this, he gives thee his own Spirit to enable thee to the work, & offers thee a Crown of glory at the end of thy labour. Surely if he had com­manded [Page 85]thee a greater matter upon such termes, wouldst thou not have done it?

What remaineth then, but that we set about the work chearfully. I exhort you all to be happy. The fulnesse of glory will answer all the difficulties. I can say no more; Mortifie, and you shall live. If you will not kill, you must be killed. God hath proclaimed these deeds Traytors; they have shed the blood of Christ, done all the mischief in the world, and, in a word, will undo our soules. How can we but with indignation see strumpets more care­full to adorne their bodies then we our soules! St. Augustine mournes to see A­rius take more paines to go to hell, then he could do to go to heaven. How can we endure to see a Papist take more paines to scourge his body, an earth-worme mace­rate himselfe to get wealth, an adulterer dance attendance to fulfil his lust, and yet in the mean time we do nothing to get to heaven!

Go home then with shame in thy countenance, fasting, weeping, and mourn­ing; with anger, indignation, and holy re­venge, looke on that heart of thine that hath offered such indignity to heaven; by an holy Anathema deliver that flesh of [Page 86]thine to Satan, smite on thy thigh with E­phraim, on thy breast with the Publican, weep with David rivers of tears because others keep not Gods Law, and weep bit­terly with Peter for denying thy Lord. Make a bath of tears with Mary for enter­taining so many Devils in thine heart; for get a while to eate thy bread, & by fasting, and abstinence be revenged on thy selfe for sin past, and keep under thy body for time to come. It's one of the nailes that crucifies the flesh, and a meanes to take down the ranknesse of this fertile field, sin­gulare putatis aratrum. But if thou canst not weep, and command tears, at least get that dolorem appretiativum. Value your sins at such a rate, that they deserve tears of blood. Wish that thy head were a foun­taine, and thine eyes, as Conduit-pipes. In­treat God to accept the desire for the deed, and the blood, and tears of Christ for all. But men now adayes can mortifie with­out renting the heart, fasting a day, shed­ding a tear. But withall remember to mor­tifie too, else thy tears will be no better then Esaus, thy fasting like Ahabs. Purge, not that thou mayest surfeit; repent not that thou mayest sin; returne, not like the dog to the vomit; if thou do, thy latter end [Page 87]will be worse then thy beginning. But bles­sed is the man that sorrows, after a godly manner; for this works repentance never to be repented of. Blessed are they that mourne now, that sowe in teares; for they shall reape in joy, they shall finde triumph in torment, joy in tribulation, refreshing in fasting, life in death. Bern. Filii hujus seculi vident cruces nostras, non consolationes: The sons of this world see our crosses, but not our comforts. If any thing were better then life, God would not deny it you; he ac­counts you Martyrs in manner; Mortificare opera carnis genus Martyrii est, horrore quidem mitius, sed diuturnitate molestius: To mortifie the deeds of the body, is a kinde of martyrdome, milder indeed in its horrour, but more troublesome in its long continuance. Certainly they that keep such a Lent, shall have a glorious Ea­ster at the day of their resurrection, when all teares shall be wiped from their eyes, and they shall remaine, and raigne with God in blisse for ever. And thus I have travelled through these Propositions in their abso­lute consideration.

2 We considered these words in their op­position. Here are two contrary wayes, that tend to two contrary ends. They cou­sin themselves that think to fare as well as [Page 88]the best, The word considered in their op­position. and yet sin as bad as the worst; and they fill themselves with unnecessary fears that live strictly, and carefully, and yet comfort not themselves in Gods promises.

1. It doth no whit prejudice the godly in their comfort, that God is so severe against the wicked; Cains profanenesse doth not hurt Abel, he is accepted. Though Judas be a devil, the rest fare not the worse. So at the last day while the wicked wish the hils, and mountains to cover them, the god­ly lift up their heads. Abraham and Moses make use of their interest with God, even when he is provoked against Sodom, and Jasrel.

2. The wicked are not priviledged by Gods mercies on the godly, as we see in the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Gods mer­cies, Christs merits, the precious promises and priviledges of the Gospel availe them nothing. Gods mercies are limited to cer­taine conditions, therefore let not wicked men boulster up themselves in these, heed not lying vanities.

We consider them in their coherence. Therefore we should mortifie sin, And in their co­herence. because if we live after the flesh, we shall die.

It's not absurd to propound life and death as Motives to obedience. God did so to Adam in Paradise.

Yea, to men already converted, our Saviour doth so, Feare not him that can kill the body, &c. So the Father at banquets would talke of hell, to keep men from secu­rity. So the Apostle here to men already converted, If ye live, &c. The meditation of death is not unprofitable for them. They are not out of danger of Gun-shot; though they are in a Cittadel, or strong Tower, yet they have some flesh, and are subject to spiritual security, presumption, or pro­phanenesse. The Tower cannot be demo­lished, but they may looke out at the win­dowes, and battlements, and be wounded.

Hence we may conclude, that a Christi­an may take comfort in an holy life. Here is an Antidote against Presumption, and Despaire. None can presume, but they that mortifie; and that is not presumption, but hope; none can despaire, but such as live af­ter the flesh; and that is a feare upon good grounds.

And now to draw to a conclusion. The agree­ment 'twixt Armin. and their ad­versaries in the rules of practise. How happily might these two Propositions put an end to our unhappy controversies, were men of peaceable spirits. The Areopagites in Athens in a doubtful case wherein they were loath to passe sentence, differred it in diem longissimum, it may be for an hundred [Page 90]years. I would to God we could do so in these that I am sure are doubtful, but this is to suspend men in a Neutrality to beleeve nothing. S. Augustine answers some well, that would not beleeve, unlesse all objections were cleared: Sunt innumera­biles objectiones quae non sunt finiendae ante fi­dem, ne finiatur vita sine fide: There are innumerable objections which must not be dispatched and answered before faith, &c. Moderation in these mysteries is to be shewen, if any where. Neutram partem affirmantes, sive destrueren tes, sed tantum­modo ab audaci affirmandi praesumptione re­vocantes: Affirming, or denying neither of the two, but onely restraining us from bold presumption in taking either part. But now every novice can determine in these things, when the wisest men demurre, and can as ex­actly chalke out Gods secret wayes, as if with S. Paul they had been rapt up into the third heaven, and taken a transcript of the book of life. Either side is confident, and it may be in conclusion it will prove neither so nor so, and so it comes to passe, that religion is turned into nicities and dis­putation, bearing things certaine, and fast­ening upon uncertaine, like Zeuxes, that pictured an old woman so to the life, that [Page 91]he laughed to death at the veiw of her.

So I thinke our gracious Soveraigne hath taken a Religious and Wise course to silence these controversies, more fit for Schooles then Pulpits, or rather fitter for heavens perfection then for earthly frailty to determine; Et Elias quum venerit solvet haec dubia. If I should enter upon the con­troversies, I should contradict authority; or if I might, I would not so far presume upon mine own weaknesse; or if I had abi­lity, and liberty, I durst not so far abuse your patience. Onely let me advise all, e­specially the unlearned, which with much study cannot so much as attaine the stating of the questions, to turne their cavilling a­bout the Theory into Practice. Surely there is no such vast difference in the points as they are handled by moderate men on both sides, whatsoever some say, that ei­ther know not what they speak, or will not know. But howsoever it is in the Theory, unlesse I much mistake, both sides meet in the Practice.

If any man should aske me concerning the decree of election and reprobation, Predestina­tion. here is a counterpane of it in my text. I will not say this is Gods whole decree, I dare say no secret decree contradicts it. We [Page 92]need not climbe up into heaven then to see whether God smile or frowne, nor wrest o­pen his Cabinet to see what secrets are there. Things revealed belong to us; if our names be written here, then infallibly are they there. If we finde them not here, cer­tainely they are not there. I say then, leave disputing about election, and labour to make your calling and election sure. Be­gin at the bottome of the ladder, and adde to your faith vertue, and to vertue know­ledge, and to knowledge temperance, &c. Thus our Saviour stifles such a controver­sie, Master, shall many be saved? Strive to enter in at the strait gate. But what shall this man do? Follow thou me. Let no man comfort himselfe with any illusion, or affright himselfe with any fatall destiny. If ye live after, &c. This is Gods Word, and by this we must be judged at the last day.

For the second Controversie, Whether Redemption be universal; I say to that man Though Christ died for all men, as one side affirm, yet if thou live after the flesh thou shalt dye, notwithstanding the purchase of so precious a redemption, sufficient in it self, though not effectual unto thee through thine own perversenesse; or if but for some few, as the other side affirm, if thou mortify [Page 93]the deeds of the body, thou art one that shall surely live.

For the third, and fourth, The man­ner of recei­ving grace. the manner of receiving grace. One side say, it doth in­fallibly, and necessarily work at such a time, and not before; the other, that through our perversenesse we may turn the grace of God into wantonnesse. Both agree in this; that a man may be saved, grace must be received and improved. The Spirit is the principal cause, but we must co-operate. We are not able of our selves to think a good thought; our sufficiency is from him. Hence St. Paul, I live; yet that he might not seem to usurp any of the honour, checks himself, yet not I. So we say, We must mortify, yet not we, but the Spirit; not we as the principal cause, but the Spirit; not the Spirit as the solitary cause, but we by the Spirit; let us look to it that the work be done, and then we shall not miscarry.

For the last, which is perseverance; one side saith, we shall infalliblly stand, Perseve­rance. and as possible for Christ to fall out of heaven, as a Saint from Christ; the other side, that God will not forsake us, unlesse we forsake him; and gives us grace sufficient that we may not fall; but doth not so infallibly hold us up, but we may fall. Both sides affirm [Page 94]perseverance to be necessary unto life, and the conscionable use of means to perseve­rance. Take heed then that there be not in any of you at any time an evil heart of unbelief to depart from the living God; and that this may never befal thee, put on the whole armour of God, that thou may­est stand in the evil day. Thus the Pro­phet, Ezek. 18. justifies God in his pro­ceedings, and makes the people wary. So the Apostle writing here to Saints; and if any of you whom in charity I judge to be converted would hear any thing from me concerning perseverance, I will answer you in the words of my text; If ye live after, &c. Thus if a man in a modest humility, receive the known truth in the love of it, and so love it as to practise it, his end shall certainly be blessed.

And now behold, Deut. 30.15 The Con­clusion. this day I have set be­fore you life and death, good and evil, blessing and cursing. There are but two estates in this life, and two after, propor­tionably. Some here walk after the flesh, but they shall dye; the delight is present, but momentany; the pain is future, but eter­nal; some here by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, and they shall live here­aftes. The task here is sharp, and present, [Page 95]but momentany; the reward future, but glo­rious and eternal. Were it not for that which followes, Ye shall dye, it were a brave thing to live after the flesh; were it not for that which followes, Ye shall live, nothing more tedious then to mortify the deeds of the body. Wisdome now will soon deride the controversie, and pitch up­on her choice and inheritance so glorious so durable, though it be future; and the en­trance so difficult is to be preferred to a life of sinne, though it had in it never so much pleasure or profit, being momen­tany, and seconded with eternal wo. It's the fools voice, [...] Give me to day, take to morrow to thy self. But if notwithstanding what hath been said, he shall still walk in the waies of his own heart, all the curses in Gods book shall fall on him. God will blot out his name from under heaven, and in heaven out of the book of life, so that in no place he shall be found but in hell. But every man here seems to choose life, in that he comes to hear that Gospel, which is the Word of life. Oh they make it not the savor of death to death. Labour then by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body so shall you live many Halcion daies here upon [Page 96]earth, and when you dye, the Angels shall carry your soules into Paradise, while your bodies repose themselves in their graves, as a bed of down, till the Lord of Glory shall return to judg both quick and dead, where the body being raised and reunited to the soul, both soul and body shall live in the perpetual vision and fruition of God. To which glory he for his mercy bring us, who hath so dearly bought us, even Jesus Christ, the Author and finisher of our faith: To whom with the Father, and the blessed Spirit be ascribed all, honour, glory, praise, thanksgiving and obedience from this time forth and for ever­more.