LXXX sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London whereof nine of them not till now published / by the late eminent and learned divine Anthony Farindon ... ; in two volumes, with a large table to both.

The Fifteenth SERMON. (Book 15)

PART I.

1 COR. VI. 20.

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorifie God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

WE have in our last presented before your eyes the bloudy and victorious Passion and glorious Resur∣rection of Jesus Christ. The later our Apostle men∣tioneth ver. 14. And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power; raise us, not onely out of the grave, but out of that deep prison and dungeon wherein Sin and Satan have laid us. For this is the end of both: For this end Christ suffered, and for this end he rose again: For this end he payed down a price, even his bloud, to strike off those chains, and bring us back into the glorious liberty of the sons of God; to gain a title in us, to have a right to our souls, to guide them, and a right to our bodies, to command them, as he pleaseth. But though the price be payed, yet we may be prisoners still, if we love our fetters and will not shake them off, if we count our prison a paradise, and had rather sport out our span here in the wayes of darkness then dwell for ever in the light. Christ hath done whatsoever be∣longeth to a Redeemer; but there is something required at their hands who are redeemed; namely when he knocketh at our graves and biddeth us come forth, to fling off our grave-clothes, and follow him; not to stay in our enemy's hands, and love our captivity, but to present our selves before our Captain, and shew him his own purchase, a soul that is his, and a body that is his, a soul purged and renewed, and a body obe∣dient and instrumental to the soul, both chearful and active in setting forth his glory. This is the conclusion of the whole matter, this is the end of all, not onely of our Creation (which the Apostle doth not mention here; although even by that God hath the right of dominion over us) but also of our Redemption, which is later and more special, and more glorious, as one star differeth from another in glory. Take all the Arti∣cles of the Creed, take Christ's Birth, his Death, his Resurrection; his Glory is the Amen to all. Take all God's Precepts, all his Promises, and let them stand (as they are) for the Premisses, and no other Conclusion can be so properly drawn from them as this, That we should glorifie God.

The Premisses are drawn together within the compass of the first words of my Text, EMPTI ESTIS PRETIO, Ye are bought with a price; and the Conclus••••n in the last, ERGO GLORIFICATE, Therefore glorifie God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. So the Parts, you see, are as the Persons are, the Redeemer, and the Redeemed, two: 1. a Benefit declared, Ye are bought with a price; 2. a Duty enjoyned, Therefore glorifie God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. The first remem∣breth us what God hath done for us; the second calleth upon us to re∣member what we are to do for him, to give unto God those things which are God's, to glorifie him in our body, and in our spirit, which are God's. These are the parts; and of these we shall speak in their order.

First, of the Benefit, Ye are bought with a price. This Purchase, this Redeeming us, supposeth we were alienated from Christ, and in our ene∣my's hand and power,* 1.1 in the snare of the Devil, and taken captive by him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, taken by him as it were in war. And indeed till Christ bought us, his we were, even made servants to him, as servants use to be, venditione, by sale, and jure belli, by right of war. We had sold our selves, as S. Paul speaketh, unto him; sold our birth-right for a mess of pottage, sold our selves for that which is not bread; for that Pleasure, which is but a shadow; for those Riches, which are but dung; for that Honour, which is but air. E∣very toy was the price of our bloud. He opened his false wares, and we pawned and prostituted our souls, and gave up our hope of eternity for his pianted vanities and a glittering death. His was but a profer; and we might have refused it: But we believed that Father of lies, and so gave up our selves into his power; and his we were by bargain and sale. And as we were his by sale, so we were his in a manner by right of war. For he set upon us, and overcame us, not so much by valour as by strata∣gem, by his wiles and devices, as S. Paul calleth them. For not onely the Sword, but those 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Polybius speaketh, deceits and thefts of war, work out a way to victory: And he that faileth in the battel is as truly a captive when art and cunning as when force and violence maketh him bow the knee and yield. This our enemy setteth upon a soul as a soul, with forces proportioned to a soul, which cannot be taken by force, no though he were ten times more a Lion, more roaring, then he is. He hath indeed rectas manus; some blows he giveth directly, striking at our very face: And he hath aversas tectásque; others he giveth cunningly and in secret. But when we see the wounds and ulcers which he maketh, we can∣not be ignorant whose hand it is that smote us. He is that great invisible Sophister of the world, saith Basil. He mingleth himself with our humour and inclination, and so casteth a mist before us, and cloudeth our under∣standing, that we may be willing to lay hold of Falshood for Truth, of E∣vil for Good; and by a kind of legerdemain he maketh Vertue it self promote sin, and Truth errour. And as there, so in his wiles and enterpri∣ses, ipsa fallacia delectat, we are willing to be deceived and taken, because the sleights themselves are delightful to us. The Devil's Temptations are in this like his Oracles, full of ambiguities. And as Demosthenes said of Apollo's Oracle, that it did 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, speak too much to the desire and mind of Philip, so do these flatter each humour and inclination in us, and at last persuade us that that which we would have true is true indeed. And thus do we give up all into the Enemies hands, and are taken captive and brought under the yoke, sub reatu peccati, under the guilt of sin, which as a poisoned dart sticketh in our sides, and galleth and troubleth us where∣soever we go. I can••ot better call a bad conscience then flagellum Diabo∣li, the Devil's whip, with which he tormenteth his captives, and maketh large furrows in their soul. As the Roman lords did over their slaves, in

terga & cervices saevire, imprint marks and characters and (as the Come∣dian speaketh) letters on their backs; so doth this, laniatus & ictus, wounds and swellings and ulcers. He is not so much a slave that is chain∣ed to an oar as he that liveth under a bad conscience. Now empti estis; From this slavery we are redeemed by Christ. For being justified by faith, we have peace with God, and the noise of the whip is heard no more. Next, we were sub dominio peccati; we were under the power and domi∣nion of Sin, so that it was a Tyrant, and reigned in us. If it did say, Go, we did go, even in slippery places and dangerous precipices, upon the point of the sword and death it self. Like that evil spirit in the Gospel, it rendeth and teareth us, and casteth us on the ground, and maketh us fome at our mouths, fome out our own shame, it casteth us into the fire and water, burneth and drowneth us in our lusts. And if it bid us, Do this, we do it: We are perjured, to save our goods; beat down a Church, to build us a banquetting-house; take the vessels of the Sanctuary to quaff in; fling a∣way eternity, to retain life; and are greater devils, that we may be the greater men. Whilest Sin reigneth in our mortal bodies, the curse of Cana∣an is upon us; we are servi servorum, the slaves of slaves. And if we will judge aright, there is no other slavery but this. Now empti estis; By the power of Christ these chains are struck off. For he therefore bought us with a price, that we should no longer be servants unto Sin, but be a peculiar people unto himself, full of good works, which are the ensigns and flags of li∣berty, which they carry about with them whose feet are enlarged to run the wayes of God's commandments. Again, there is a double Dominion of Sin; a dominion to Death, and a dominion to Difficulty; a power to slay us, and a power to hold us that we shall not easily escape. And first, if we touch the forbidden fruit, we dye; if we sin, our sin lieth at the door ready to devour us. For he, saith our Saviour, that committeth sin, is the servant of sin, obnoxious to all those penalties which are due to sin, under the sen∣tence of death. His head is forfeited, and he must lay it down. Ye are dead, saith S. Paul, in trespasses and sins: not onely dead, as having no life, no principle of spiritual motion, not able to lift up an eye to heaven; but dead, as we say, in Law, having no right nor title but to death; we may say, heirs of damnation. And then Sin may hold us, and so enslave us that we shall love our chains, and have no mind to sue for liberty; that it will be very difficult (which sometimes is called in Scripture Impossibility) to shake off our fetters, Sin gaining more power by its longer abode in us; first, binding us with it self; and then with that delight and profit which it bringeth, as golden chains, to tye us faster to it self; and then with its continuance, with its long reign, which is the strongest chain of all. But yet empti estis; Christ hath laid down the price, and bought us, and freed us from this dominion, hath taken away the strength of Sin, that it can nei∣ther kill us, nor detain us as its slaves and prisoners. There is a power proceedeth from him, which if we make use of, as we may, neither Death nor Sin shall have any dominion over us; a power, by which we may break those chains of darkness asunder. Look up upon him with that faith of which he was the authour and finisher, and the victory is ours. Bow to his Sceptre, and the Kingdom of Sin and Death is at an end. For though he hath bought us with a price, yet he put it not into the hands of those fools who have no heart, but laied it down for those who will with it sue out their freedom in this world. For that which we call liberty is bondage, and that which we call bondage is freedom.* 1.2 When we were the servants of sin, we were free from righteousness, and we thought it a glorious liberty. But this Liberty did enslave us.* 1.3 For that which the wicked feared shall come upon him. They that built the tower of Babel did it that they might

not be scattered; and they were scattered, say the Rabbies, in this world, and in the world to come. So whilest men pursue their unlawful desires, that they may be free, by pursuing them they are enslaved, enslaved in this world, and in the world to come. But let us follow the Apostle, But now being made free from sin,* 1.4 you are servants unto God. See here a ser∣vice which is liberty, and liberty which is bondage, the same word having divers significations, as it is placed. And let us sue out Liberty in its best sense in foro misericordiae, in the Court of Mercy. Behold, here is the price, the bloud of Christ. And you have your Charter ready drawn, If the Son make you free,* 1.5 that is, buy you with a price, ye shall be free indeed. Which words are like that great earthquake when Paul and Sylas prayed and sung Psalms. At the very hearing of them the foundation of Hell sha∣keth, and every mans chains are loosed. For every man challengeth an in∣terest in the Son, and so layeth claim to this freedom: Every man is a Christian, and so every man free. The price is laid down, and we may walk at liberty. It fareth with us as with men who, like the Athenians, hearken after news; Whilest we make it better, we make it worse, and lose our Charter by enlarging it. But if we will view the Text, we may observe there is one word there which will much lessen this number, and point out to them as in chains who talk and boast so much of freedom: And it is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, ye shall be free indeed, not in shew or persuasion (For Opinion and Phansie will never strike off these chains) but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, re∣ally, substantially free, and indeed, not free 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in appearance, or in a dream, which they may be whose damnation sleepeth not. Many persuade themselves into an opinion (they call it an Assurance) of freedom when they have sold themselves. Many sleep, as S. Peter did, between the two souldiers, bound with these chains. Many thousands perish in a dream; build up to themselves an assurance, which they call their Rock, and from this rock they are cast down into the bottomless pit: and that which is proposed as the price of their liberty, hath been made a great occasion to detain them in servitude and captivity; which is the more heavy and dan∣gerous because they call it Freedom. Therefore we must once more look back upon that place of S. John; and there we shall find that they shall be free whom the Son maketh free: So that the reality and truth of our freedom dependeth wholly upon his making us free. If he make us free, if we come out of his hand, formed by his Word, and transformed by the virtue of the price he gave for us, then we shall be free indeed. If we have been turned upon his wheel, we shall be vessels of honour. And now it will concern us to know aright what the meaning of his buying is, and the manner how he maketh us free.* 1.6 By Purchase, by buying us with a price, and so it is here.* 1.7 By Taking away the hand-writing which was against us, and nailing it to his cross.* 1.8 By Satisfaction, being made a sweet-smelling sacri∣fice to God for us. But then also, (which must not be left out, unless we will dimidiare Christum,* 1.9 take Christ by halfs) by Purging and clensing us from all our sins. And all by the virtue of this price. For he did not buy us, that we should sell our selves: He did not pay our debts, that we should run on in arrears: He did not buy us out of the power of Satan, to leave us there: He did not satisfie for sins, to make us greater sinners: And what Purgation is that which leaveth us more unclean beasts then before? Christ doth both, or he will do neither. He freeth us from the condem∣nation of sin, and he freeth us from the tyranny and dominion of sin. His bloud speaketh better things then that of Abel: It speaketh for pardon, but speaketh for repentance; it distilleth sweetly to wash out the guilt of sin, and to wash out the pollution of sin. In a word, Christ did not pay down a price for our liberty, to leave us still in bonds; he did not come

down from heaven, to carry us thither with all our sins, that is, with Hell, about us: But when he buyeth us out of prison, he looketh and waiteth to see with what chearfulness we will come forth: When he calleth us to li∣berty, he calleth to us as the Angel did to S. Peter, Gird your selves, cast your sins from you, and follow me. FACIO UT FACIAS, as it is in the Law, Ye are bought with a price; that is Christ's act. But our act also is required, which may bear a fair correspondence and analogy with his. Ye are re∣deemed; that is the Benefit, and a great one: and, Therefore glorifie God, our Duty, is the inference. And our Duty should as naturally issue from a Benefit as Light doth from the Sun, or a Conclusion from its Principles. If Christ begin, and pay down the price, we must, and right reason will have us, conclude, Therefore glorifie God in our body, and in our spirit, which are God's. This, I say, is our Duty, and commendeth it self in the next place to your consideration.

It is the nature of a Benefit to bind us to the performance of that which shall make it a benefit, to establish a Law which shall establish that, and make it beneficial. Love will empty it self, but it will not lose it self, but deriveth its influence upon the heart it shineth on, to work something in it which may bear some similitude and likeness to its self, which indeed is Glory. When God speaketh to us in love, he expecteth that it should e∣cho back again upon him in glory. For why should so great love be lost? And lost it is, and even dead in us, if it work no life nor spirit in us to magnifie his name, if we look upon it as that which will deliver us whe∣ther we will or no, and save us though we slight it. God loveth us, that we may love him, and so love our selves. And all his commands, all our duties and obligations are founded on his love. Therefore as he hath a bright and piercing, so he hath a jealous eye. His name is Jealous.* 1.10 And if we will see his likeness and representation, we may behold it in the Pro∣phet's vision, where he presenteth God like unto a man made of amber,* 1.11 whose upper part did shine, and his lower was of fire. Which representeth God unto us as a Lover, and a Jealous Lover. The appearance of brightness did express the purity and vehemencie of his Love: And it never shined brighter then in our Redemption. And the fire downward, his Jealousie and Anger, which will smoke against those that dishonour him after such a favour. Of all the attributes of God this of Love seemeth to have the dominion and preeminence, and sheweth and declareth it self by most ma∣nifest signs and notorious effects. And this Love in God, as in Man, is al∣wayes accompanied with Jealousie, which cannot endure a rival or an e∣nemy, or that that which he bought with a price should be snatched out of his hands. Nec adversarium patitur, nec comparem; He can neither en∣dure an adversary, nor a sharer. A sharer is no better to him then an ad∣versary. His Love carrieth the resemblance of the love of a husband to his wife. And so he speaketh to Jerusalem as to his espoused wife, Thy beauty was perfect which I put upon thee: But thou playedst the harlot,* 1.12 and hast poured forth thy fornications on every one that passed by. Where we may conceive God to be as it were in trouble and in rage, in such a passion as a man is when he taketh his wife in the act of adultery. And his anger is the greater because his love was so great. For Jealousie (which is no∣thing at first but the vehemencie of Love) when it hath an image of jea∣lousie set up to provoke it, groweth hotter and hotter, and at last burneth like fire. God's Love is jealous, and would not be cast away; and here in this his buying us it shineth most brightly: wherefore, if it work no∣thing in us by its beams, it will become a fire to consume us. For shall Christ call us to glory, and we dishonour him? Shall his Love make up the Premisses, and shall we against nature deny the Conclusion? Shall the

benefit come towards us, and we run from our duty: Shall he redeem our souls from hell, and our bodies from the grave, and shall we prostitute and pawn and sell them to the Destroyer? No: The Glory of God is like Himself, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the Beginning and the End, the first wheel and the last. Take the whole subsistence of a Christian, in the state of Grace and in the state of Glory, and it is nothing else but one continued and constant motion of glorifying God. For why hath God done these great things for us, why did he buy us with a price, but ad laudem gloriae suae, as S. Paul repeateth it again and again,* 1.13 to the praise of his glory; and S. Peter, that we shew forth his praise?* 1.14 Herein is my Father glorified, saith Christ, that you bear much fruit.* 1.15 So you see our Redemption principally dependeth upon the glory of God.* 1.16 In that it beginneth: For it was his manifold wisdom that made way for it. For that it is furthered and promoted: For we are strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man according to the riches of his glory.* 1.17 Then it is completed to his Glory. The same word in Scripture includeth both,* 1.18 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Salvation, and the Glory of our salvation. It is the voice of the people in Heaven, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and honour and power to the Lord our God. The choicest and last end which God proposeth to himself in the work of our salvation is the manifestati∣on of his perfection, that is, his Glory; Which consisteth in the unfold∣ing and displaying his essential proprieties by acts proper to them. And here they all meet and are concentred, his Justice, Wisdom, Power, Mer∣cy; His Justice satisfied, his Wisdom manifested, his Power raiseth us from the dead, and his Mercy saveth us; and in all God is glorified.

For this 1. we glorifie him in our spirit, in our inward man, by transform∣ing our selves into the likeness of his Son, who is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the brightness, of his Father: And we are too in a lower degree 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the brightness, of God. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is brightness, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is more then brightness, even such a bright thing which hath a lustre cast upon it from some other thing. As in us all the light which is seen in these dark souls of ours is from the Father of lights. His Justice, his Mercy, his Wisdom shine upon us; and all those graces in us are but the reflexion of his light: And this reflexi∣on of his Graces is his Glory. Commonly when we hear mention of the Glory of God, we think of nothing but the calves of our lips. But there is a louder language, of our Conformity to his will: There his glory ap∣peareth as in his holy Temple. No quire of Angels can improve, no ra∣ging Devil can diminish his Glory. He is the same in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphim and Cherubim, in the midst of all the blasphe∣mies of Men or Devils. But as the Woman is the glory of the Man in being subject to him, so are we the glory of God when we do his will. For then it may be said that God is in us of a truth, shining in the perfection of beau∣ty, in those graces and perfections which are but beams of his, in our Meekness, in our Justice, in our Courage and Resolution, in our Patienc••; which are the Christian's tongue and glory, and do more fully set forth God's glory then the tongues of men and of Angels can; these are the best Doxology of the Saints. For how well pleased is God to see his creature Man to answer that pattern which he hath set up, to be what he should be and what he intended! For as every artificer is delighted and glorieth in his work when he seeth it finished according to the rule by which he did work; and as we use to look upon the works of our hands or wits with favour and complacency; as we do upon our Children, when they are like us; so doth God upon Man, when he appeareth in that shape and form of obedience which he prescribed. Thus should the Glory of God be carried on along in the continued stream and course of all our a∣ctions, and break forth and be seen in every work of our hands: it should

be the echo of every word we speak; the echo of every word? nay, the spring of every thought that begat that word. It may seem indeed a hard thing to keep this intention alive, and not to think or speak or act but when this is present before us; not to do a good deed till we have told our selves we will do it for God's glory. And it is so, a hard thing. Nor doth God require at our hands an actual and perpetual intention of his glory. Thou mayest, nay thou dost, work to his glory when thy thoughts are busie and intent upon thy work, though peradventure his glory doth not so fill thy heart as to fix it on it. The Glory of God must be the primum mobile, the first motive of our Obedience; and the force and virtue of that must carry it about from vertue to vertue. We see an arrow flieth to the mark by the force of that hand out of which it was sent. He that travelleth on the way may go forward in his journey though his thoughts sometimes be carried and look upon some occurrences in the way, and do not alwayes fix themselves upon the place to which he is go∣ing. So when the Will and Affections are quickned and enlivened with the love of God's Glory, every word and action will carry with it a sa∣vour and relish of that fountain from whence they spring. An Architect doth not alwayes think of the end for which he buildeth his house, but his intention on his work doth sometimes so fully take him that that is left out and as it were forgotten, when it is not forgotten, but alwayes supposed: And though he make a thousand pieces, yet he still retaineth his art, saith Basil. So though we cannot make this first intention of God's glory keep time with us in all the passages of our Christian conversation, and send up every action thus incensed and perfumed, yet the smell of our sacrifice shall ascend and come before God, because it is breathed forth from that heart which is Gloriae ara, an altar dedicated wholly to the Glory of God. Onely thy care must be to keep it, as thy heart, with diligence; to nourish and strengthen it, that, if it seem to sleep, yet it may not die in thee; to guard and barricado thy heart against all contrary and heterogeneous imaginations, all earthy, all wandring thoughts, which may, as Jacob, take this first-born, this first intention of God's Glory, by the heel, and sup∣plant it, and rob it of its birth-right. For these extravagant and contra∣dicting thoughts will borrow no life from thy first intention of God's glo∣ry, but the intention of God's glory will be lost and die in these thoughts. Remember then to beautifie thy inward man, and fill it with the glory of God, that it may be as a gallery hung round with the fairest pictures and representations of his Glory, those vertues & perfections which will make thee like him; that thou mayest be nothing else but the praise and Glory of thy Maker; that thou mayest sing a new song, nunc Pietatis carmen, nunc modulos Temperantiae, as Ambrose speaketh; now a song of Sion, a Psalm of Piety; and again, the composed measures of Temperance and Chastity; that thou mayest be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and so make up a Gloria Deo in a complete and perfect harmony. And thus we glorifie God in our spirit.

But, in the next place, a body hast thou prepared me; and we must glarifie God in our bodies also. God must have our Knee, our Tongue, our Eye, our Countenance. Philosophus auditur dum videtur; The Philosopher, and so the Christian, is heard when he is seen. Come, saith the Psalmist,* 1.19 let us worship, and fall down.. Nunquam vericundiores esse debemus quàm cùm de Diis agitur, saith Aristotle in Seneca; Modesty and reverence ne∣ver better become us then in those intercourses which are made between God and us. We enter Temples, saith he, with a composed countenance: Vultum submittimus, togam adducimus; We cast down our looks, we gather our garments together: and every gesture is an argument of our inward reverence. Tam corpus est Homo quàm anima, saith the Father; The Body

is Man as well as the Soul: And he consisteth of one as well as the other: When the Body and Soul are parted, the Man is gone. This Flesh of ours, though it hear ill, and seem as an adversary to rise up against the Spirit, yet it may prove a singular instrument to advance God's glory, and so lift up Man to happiness. Adeò Caro est salutis cardo, saith Tertullian; Our flesh is the very hinge on which the work of our salvation turneth it self. For tell me; What Christian duty is there which is not performed by the bo∣die's ministery? Caro alluitur, ut anima emaculetur; It is washed, to purifie the soul; It taketh down bread, to feed it; From it we borrow a Hand, to give our alms; an Ear, to let in faith; a Tongue, to be a trumpet of God's praise. Fastings, Persecution, Imprisonment, nay Martyrdom it self, de bonis carnis Deo adolentur, are the fruits of the flesh subdued and conquered by us. So that Angels themselves may seem in this respect to come short of us mortals. They cannot suffer, they cannot dye for God, because they have no bodies. You cannot scourge, you cannot imprison, you cannot sequester an Angel, you cannot behead him: but all this you may do unto a mortal man, and so make him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, like unto, and even equal to the Angels. I do not read that men are made equal to the Angels till they are dead, till their earthly tabernacles be dissolved and built up a- again, till their natural body be raised a spiritual body. Till then we must glorifie God as Men; and let the Angels have their Hallelujahs and wor∣ship by themselves. Let all the Angels worship him; and let the Sons of men fall down and kneel before him. And let us think the better of our external worship, because we see that which is spiritual and angelical is represented unto us in Scripture by this of ours. To thee all Angels cry a∣loud: and yet who ever heard an Angel's voice? And the Angels stood round about the Throne, and fell before the Throne on their faces, that is, they glorified God. Angels are said to have Voice, and Hands, and Feet, that we, who have them indeed, may use them to his glory. S. Hilary upon Psal. 143. well expresseth it, Homo ipse decem quibusdam chordis, manibus & pedibus, extentus; Man in his body, his Hands and his Feet, is set as an instrument with ten strings, and in every gesture and motion toucheth them skilfully to make a harmony, to sing a new song to the God of hea∣ven, a song composed of divers parts, of Spirit and Flesh, of Soul and Body. Every faculty of the soul, every member of the body must bear a part. What is the elavation of the Soul? Certainly a sweet and high note. But then the prostration of the Body tempereth it, and maketh it far more pleasant. What? the ejaculations of the Soul? Yes, and the incurvation of the Body; the lifting up of the Heart, yea, and of the Hands and Eyes also. A holy Thought? yea, and a reverent Deportment. These make him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as the Apostle speaketh, perfect and complete. Otherwise he is but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a half-strung, a half-tuned Instrument. We are yet in the flesh, Men, not Angels; and we have Knees to bend, and Hands to lift up, and Heads to uncover. Why should we be Angels so soon, Angels here on earth? Why should our glorifying be, as theirs is, invisible? The surest way to happiness is to keep our condition, to make good our worship in our flesh, to bow and prostrate our selves here, that when time shall be no more, we may be as the Angels in heaven. Glorifying too spiritual is the same with too carnal. For that men will not glorifie God but in their spirit, is but a vapour raised out of the dung, an exhalation from the flesh. That men are such enemies to outward expressions and bodily reverence, proceedeth from a spirit, but it is a spirit of slumber, a dreaming spirit, a dumb spirit, a lazy spirit, a stubborn spirit that will not bow, a spirit of contradiction: I had almost said, from the spirit of An∣tichrist. For he doth not confess and glorifie Jesus so far and fully as he

should: And not to confess Christ is from the spirit of Antichrist.* 1.20 For con∣clusion; Let us look up upon the price with which we were bought; and let God's exceeding love in redeeming us raise up in us a love of God's glory, which may be so intensive and hot within us ut emanet in habitum, that it may not be able to contain it self within the compass of the heart, but evaporate and work it self out into the outward gesture, and break forth out of the conscience into the voice, which may open her shop and spiritual wares, and behold her own riches and furniture abroad; her Li∣berality in an open hand, her Sorrow trickling down the cheeks, her Hu∣mility in a dejected countenance, and her Reverance in a bare head and a bended knee; that the body may be the interpreter of the soul, and its many different postures and motions be a plain commentary to explain and discover that more retired and indiscernible devotion within. This should be our constant and continued practice here on earth, to stand as candidates for an Angel's place by glorifying God here in our earthly members, which is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a prologue and preface to that which we shall be and act hereafter. It was a phansie which possessed many of the Heathen, that men after death should much desire and often handle those things which did most take and affect them when they lived. So Lucian bringeth in Priam's young son calling for milk and cheese and such coun∣try cates, which he most delighted in on earth. Even now saith Maximus Tyrius, doth Aesculapius minister physick, Hercules try the strength of his arm, Castor and Pollux are under sail, Minos is on the bench, and Achilles in armes. This was but a phansie, but a fiction: But it is a fair resemblance of a Christian in this respect, whose span is but a prologue to eternity, a short and imperfect declaration of that which he shall act more perfectly hereafter; whose life is Grace, and whose eternity shall be in Glory, which is nothing else, saith the devout School-man, but gratia consummata nulla∣tenus impedita, Grace made perfect and consummate, finding no opposition, no temptation to struggle and fight with. For though there will be no place for Almes where there is no poverty; no use of Prayers, where there is no want; nor need of Patience, where there can be no injury; yet to Praise and Glorifie God are everlasting offices, tribute due to God's Power and Goodness and Wisdom, which are as everlasting as Himself, to be ren∣dred him here on earth in our spirits and in our bodies, and to be continued by us with Angels and Archangels in the highest heavens for evermore.

Notes

• * 1.1

  2 Tim 2.26.
• * 1.2

  Rom. 6.20.
• * 1.3

  Prov. 10.24.
• * 1.4

  Rom. 6.22.
• * 1.5

  John 8.36. Acts 16.
• * 1.6

  1 Cor. 7.23.
• * 1.7

  Col. 2.14.
• * 1.8

  Eph. 5.2.
• * 1.9

  1 John 1.7.
• * 1.10

  Exod. 34.14.
• * 1.11

  Ezek. 8.2.
• * 1.12

  Ezek. 16.
• * 1.13

  Ephes. 1.
• * 1.14

  1 Pet. 2.9,
• * 1.15

  Jo••n 15.8.
• * 1.16

  Eph. 3.10.
• * 1.17

  Eph. 3.16.
• * 1.18

  Revel. 19.1.
• * 1.19

  Psal. 95.6▪
• * 1.20

  1 John 4.3.