THE WAY To Life and Death.  
LAID Down in a SERMON, 1629. before the Lord Major of London then being.  
By N. Waker M. A. late Minister of Jesus Christ at Lawndon in Buckinghamshire.  
Now published for the reasonableness of the advice therein given, touching the five Controverted points, viz. Predestination, general Redemption, Freewill, Conversion, and Perseverance of the Saints.  
Directing a safe way for the Practice of private Christians, as confessed by the disputants on both sides.  
The text, Rom. 8.13. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die, etc.  
LONDON, Printed by J. L. for Phil. Stephens at the gilded Lion in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1655.   

TO The Reader.  
WHat entertainment this sermon will find in the World, I can easily foresee. Some I hope it will both profit, and delight. If it displeaseth some others, I have what I looked for. To the pious, charitable, and ingenious, it cannot (I think) be unacceptable: sure I am unseasonable 'twill never be: so long as the world is so full of walkers after the flesh, the sharpest reproof comes not amiss. Of the Author, my near relation forbids me to express what I might justly make known to the world.  
In the eyes of some he will be in dislike, as being (in their opinion) too mild and moderate in the Controversies about Predestination, General Redemption, Perseverance, etc.  
Touching which Points, he layeth down the Rules for Christian practice according to Godliness; which are confessed to be so by the Disputants on both sides. Live here we must, as if infallibly chosen to life eternal, and yet never cease to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure, implore the special aid, and assistance of his holy Spirit, who worketh in us both to will, and do, even all our works in us, and for us; not forgetting in the meantime to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.  
Further, we have here a portraiture of LIFE and DEATH, the life of the spiritual, with the death of the carnal, both of them pictured and set forth in most lively colours, upon which is grounded a pious and pathetical Exhortation to fasting and mourning, a duty as well now as then, yea, now (if ever) needful: A Platform we have drawn to our hands, by the Learned and most eminently holy Bishop HALL.: 
In a Book entitled. The Holy Order and Fraternity of Mourners in Zion  Let none be ashamed to follow so worthy a guide; and have we not just cause? our sins and Gods Judgements, the confusion of our Land, the ruins of a fair and flourishing Church, will not all this open the flood gates of our tears? yea, let it at last (till then there is no hope of mercy) wring from us bitter cries and lamentations. Let us all with holy David set our faces unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes, nor let us ever cease till our God at length (overcome with our importunity) show mercy unto us, bind up the wounds of this bleeding Island, hear the prayers of those that stand in the Gap, and be favourable unto us. All which that he would for his Son's sake, hear, and grant, is the uncessant prayer of him who professeth himself one of that Holy Fraternity of Spiritual Mourners. Even yours in the Common Saviour,  
John Waker.   

THE Way to Life and Death.  Rom. 8.13. 
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.  
THis whole Universe may not unfitly be divided into three principal Kingdoms; 
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 holiness, and happiness; in the second nothing but sin and misery; in the third a mixture of all: in the first is light without darkness, in the second darkness without light, in the third both light and darkness. In the first are Angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect in glory and bliss; in the second, the Devil, and his angels tormented in flames; and here are men of a middle condition placed on earth, for the trial 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 die that second death with the damned spirits. Here than we are in a centre, from hence are drawn two long lines, the one reaching to heaven, the other to hell: in this world God hath showed 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 world, as means tending thereunto, one evil, another good; some live after the flesh, and some after the Spirit; and they that live after the flesh shall die, but they that by the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, shall live: So that here the Apostle describes two contrary ways, 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 clothed in fcarlet, anon tormented in flames; now accompanied with Nobles, anon haled by devils: the other sows in tears, 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 dunghill, anon in Abraham's bosom, verè stupendae vices: the former of these ways 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 King's 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 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 briers and thorns, haunted with wild beasts, thiefs, and robbers, over craggy Rocks, and steep Mountains; where if a man cannot find a way, (for few tread that path,) he must make it, (as he did over the Alps) but this way leads to the new Jerusalem, to the Celestial Paradise; Non quà, sed quò, must be the wise man's query, not which way we go, but whither: so that here you have our Saviour's 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 mortify the deeds of the body, and few there be that find it. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die, etc.  
Which words (to avoid needless curiosity) admit of a threefold consideration: 
The words variously considered.   
1. We may consider them absolutely, and so they contain two conditional Propositions; 
1 Absolutely.  the one, a Commination, If ye live after the flesh ye shall die; the second, a Consolation, If ye by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.  
2. We may note them in their antithesis, or opposition; 
2 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, ye 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 lieth thus: 
3 In their coherence.  There are two things which molest a Christian that is justified, the relics 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 patiented under them, and make good use of them: for sin, though it do remain, yet it shall not condemn, unless it reign; that is the comfort, and his counsel; and therefore let it not reign, but mortify it: and in this verse he lays down a twofold Argument to incite Christians, to embrace that counsel; For if ye live after the flesh, etc. 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, etc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc.  
First then to handle the words absolutely, as two distinct conditional Propositions, 
1 Absolutely considered, and 〈…〉 two parts, a Commin●t●on and C●n●ol●tion.  If ye live, etc. and here perversum aliquid videtur docere divinus sermo, Strange paradoxes to some Nicodemus, divine riddles like that of Samson. If we laugh now, we must weep hereafter; but if we sow in tears, we shall reap in joy; the way to death, is to live in pleasure; the way to life, is here to die. 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 lays down the kind of sin, to live after the flesh.  
2. Ostendit stipendium miseriae, he declares the horror of their punishment, Moriemini, Ye shall die.  
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, 
1 Th 〈…〉 mmination.  the other future; the one of pleasure, the other of pain; neither of which the Apostle directly chargeth on the Romans, but shows, that by admitting the former voluntarily, they involuntarily plunge themselves into the latter. If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; 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 returns 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 sin is, and what the punishment.  
The sin 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.  
First for the rule, The flesh and the Spirit are two captains under whose banners all men in this world are combatants; these have divers laws, 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, 2 Cor. 7.1. in this sense we must not proclaim enmity against ourselves, 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 sinewes, Psal. 79.2. the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the earth. It is inhuman, and barbarous 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 sin, which is the cause of this frailty, that Leprosy 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 that is evil; the unhappy offspring of our first Parents, the mother, and nurse of all those vipers that daily breed in our own bosoms, 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 dreamt, or the inferior faculties only, 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 civet. 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 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 than 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 show 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 ofttimes which offers the bait to the soul, as the stomach or spleen, being troubled with oppilation, send fumes to the brain; or to show 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 bred in our own flesh, and harboured in our own bosom; or because the soul in committing of sin doth give over itself 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 sin, 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 sin, 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 mere 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 thorough the whole man, we will 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 est carnalibus concupiscentiis consentire, Aug. When the fancy runs in a muse of sinful 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 wisdom with profane Esau to sell their eternal birthright, to purchase this mess 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 itself, sometimes provoked by the Devil his instruments, and outward objects; as these and the like are the flesh's 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 preciseness to make conscience of smaller sins, it is no sin to abuse liberty in things indifferent, to extenuate or hid sin, that we may defer our repentance because God is merciful, it persuades that Christian duties are tedious, 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 wisdom 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 wisdom, and our Saviour speaks of some that in their generation are wiser, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they do meditate on earthly things, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, choose according to the flesh, the world rather than grace, or heaven, fly the smoke, and fall into the fire; choose sin rather than labour or sorrow, get earthly things rathen heavenly, carnal rather then Spiritual, temporal rather then eternal. This is foolishness with God, and they live after the flesh, that harken to this counsel.  
In the will they live according to the flesh, 
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 treasury of wickedness; 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 grieve for them; if present, rejoice and delight in them.  
In their lives, and actions, 
In natural actions.  men live after the flesh, that eat, drink, sleep, etc. not for necessity, but to satisfy 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, etc. 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, the rule in his actions, that goes whither he lists, that sleeps when he will, and as long as he will, that laughs, and sports, talks scurrilously, or obscenely at any time, in any company, and gives the reins 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 Superior his authority for his own private ends, in distributive justice; in inferiors 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 proceed parallel not with their fancies; their tongue is their own, who is Lord over them? Judas 8. Michael durst not revile the Devil, they speak evil of the gods; in commutative justice, oppress, defraud, and grind the faces of 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 only Epicures are guilty here, but an abstemious Pharisee, that fasts twice a week, that placeth the power of godliness in outward formalities; so our adversaries of Rome when they most abstain from flesh, live after the flesh; preferring sometimes their own traditions to God's oracles, and sometimes circumstantial parts of his worship to substantial, macerating their bodies, while they mortify not their sin. Nor can all amongst ourselves 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 toll 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 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 less hot for, though they understand it less; and they are out of charity with that man, and will censure him for an Apostate, that is not to an hair's breadth of their conceit, when it is indeed but a mere 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 Chaplains, and communicate for applanse, and hear for all ends, do all for custom, rather than 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 die, for hell was chief 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 subesse. A man may sometimes be drawn aside by the flesh, and yet not live after the flesh; as Noah in his drunkenness, 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 man's 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 man's education, company, etc. 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 die.  
It were as possible to number the stars, to count the dust, as to particularise the many lusts of the flesh; men's conversations give us too many instances. I pass then from the sin to the punishment, Ye shall die.  
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 far deliciously every day, to neglect God in heaven, and contemn Lazarus on earth, to forget ourselves whence we are, or whither we go? Yes, but hear what follows. The bell toll for this voluptuous Epicure, the earth that insatiable grave longs for his corpulent carcase to feed worms, and the devils 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 ache, and joints 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 only a privation? or if it had a positive being, how should I describe it, who never conversed in those Cells of darkness, or with any that brought news from those Cimmerian regions? or how can that distinctly be known, which contains in it nothing but confusion, and contradiction, fire without light, burning, and no consuming, labour in continual idleness, living, and yet ever dying? for they live for nothing else, but that they may continually die.  
If I should procure you a painter to decipher the first death, he would show you a grim anatomy, with a lean body, a pale face, a won countenance, etc. 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 Cocytus, and Phlegeton, the one overflowing with tears, and the other boiling 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 Ixion's wheel, and the rolling of Sisyphus 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 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 goodness.  
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 only understand the conjunction of soul and body, but all that perfection, and bliss, 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 judgements on us, that we may read our sin in the judgement.  
But that I may proceed orderly, I will borrow a distinction of Philo, 
Lib. leg. alleg.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 virtue, 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 loss, and pain: You shall die, 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 die daily. Every little public, or personal cross, is a petty death, and a harbinger 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; in a word, true dominion over the creatures, that in regard of loss: 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 weariness: outwardly, with famine, pestilence, sword; both ways, 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 apprenticeship, groaning daily under the iron yoke of bondage.  
Ye shall die, 
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 chains of darkness, till the judgement of that great day, and the body in the grave, as in a loathsome dunghill, till that general Assize. In regard of loss 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 cries, 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 days, 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 souls, 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 darkness, the heart of uncleanness, the conscience void of serenity, the whole soul out of order, full 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 darkness, made a vassal unto Satan, who worketh effectually in such a slave to the world, which is the devil's slave, yea, unto sin, which is worse than the world or the devil. In which regard it comes to pass, 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 sorrows; 
And of consummation, or eternal death.  that which is here principally meant, is the consummation of spiritual death. And now had I but the keys of hell, and death, to show 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 came into that place of torment. But I desire that my speech may work in you such fear of those pains, 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 die then, that is, first immediately, when your soul and body are parted, your souls 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 only 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 gallows, and all those instruments of death continually in his eye, in the mean time he is bound with chains, whipped with Scorpions, fed with the bread of affliction. Thus he is most tightly tormented with pain of the present, and horror of that future vengeance that is likely to fall upon him. So the devils 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 die, that is, your bodies, at that dreadful day, with the sound of the Trumpet shall be awaked, like a Traitor to be brought before the Judge, and shall hear that doleful doom, Ite maledicti, etc. Go ye cursed.  
Now the loss here shall be unspeakable; 
In regard of loss.  He shall lose God, and that loss 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 happiness of this beatifical glory; Si mille aliquis ponat gehennas, nihil tale dicturus est, quale est, 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 souls, that wisheth, and intreateth us now to be reconciled, shall then shut up his tender mercies in eternal displeasure; Ite maledicti, etc. Go ye cursed.  
Again, there shall be a total privation of all the gifts of the Spirit, charity, peace, wisdom, piety, mercy, and all the means that tend thereunto, Word, Sacraments, etc. But it may be they will like the loss of these.  
In the next place, there shall be a loss of the world, and all the pleasure of that; therefore St. Aug. notes, that Abraham speaks to the rich man of good things passed, Omnia dicit de praeterito, Dives erat, epulabatur, recepisti. No meat, nor drink, clothing, 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 lasciviousness, no drunkenness, gluttony, and revel not Playhouses, or brothel-houses there, 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, God's people can encourage themselves in God: but when both God and the creature are lost, what comfort can there be?  
You shall die. In regard of sense in hell, 
In regard of sense.  a total, and eternal bondage of the whole man, when soul and body being reunited, 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 darkness 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 God's wrath; to the feeling, exquisite pain by fire. There shall be tears in the eyes, for there is weeping, and wailing; horror in the ears, 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 wisdom 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 passable by the power of a revenging Judge, that noble celestial substance, for subjecting itself 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 seizeth 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 happiness is lost through her own default, and gnashing the teeth, that others have it, and the soul shall not choose but reflect upon itself, 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 itself, and curse God, that doth cause it to be captivated in those chains of darkness; so that the soul shall for ever be a burden to itself, 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 looks out at prison-grate upon men at liberty, and the body, as a companion of sin and woe, and itself 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.  
But that which makes all complete, this shall be eternal; heaven and all comfort are irrecoverably lost, and the worm dieth not, though this punishment cannot be infinite intensively; for than 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 grass, which suffers a continual death being cropped by the , 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. It's 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 die? 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 doom o them that live after the flesh. This is 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 mere fable, or Poetical fiction, or that we make the matter worse than 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 only Son; he will have truth maintained, who often hath declared this in his Word; it's an irrevocable decree that they, who live after the flesh shall die. In the first decree, he said to Adam, Moriemini, but his goodness 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 than his Son on his part? or upon what easier terms can he capitulate with us? His wisdom hath thought meet, that there should be some 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 die. It's not finis operantis, but operis; for they would live after the flesh, and not die; they would live like Devils, and die 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 reap corruption. Let not man then separate, what God hath joined; and though he assay it, he shall never be able to do it. If they will live after the flesh, they shall die.  
But as St. Gregory upon the Parable of the rich man, Recordatione magis eget versus iste quam expositione; so I may say of this: therefore we will draw hence some Corollaries, which may be for our Spiritual direction.  
First then, will sin cousin us thus? 
The Use for Information.  who would have suspected that such beginnings 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, storms, and tempests? then let no child of God envy the wicked their delight in sin, not grudge at his delicious fare, Silks, and Satins. Much good may do Nabal with his good cheer, and Haman with his preferment. I envy not the whole world to Alexander upon such hard terms; there is poison 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 jacob's pillow, and Canopy, so I may have his dream; let me have John Baptists haircloth, so I may have his conscience; No, I admire those worthies of old, that would choose to do or suffer any thing rather than split themselves upon these rocks. Oh happy confessors, and thrice blessed Martyrs, that passed thorough fire and water, and refused no torment, no death, that they might be delivered from the second death. Let me pass under esay's saw, and endure Jeremy's showers of storms; let me not refuse Zacharies sword, nor the Lion's den with Daniel; let me be beheaded with St. Paul, or crucified with Andrew, and Peter; let me be flayed with Bartholomew, or my brains dashed out with St. James; let me be put into a vessel of scalding liquor with St. John, or broiled on the Gridiron with Laurence; let me suffer abstinence, affliction, persecution, exile, imprisonment with those holy Fathers of old, chrysostom, Athanasius, Ambrose, Hierom; let me be given to the wild 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 than be forsaken by God, and die ever. Oh blessed Christians, that would offer yourselves rather to your persecutors in the days of Tertullian, Ego sum Christianus, Christianus 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 God's 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. Gregory's memento, to keep him from walking after the flesh, was this, Woe to them that are at ease in Zion; St. Hierom's, that last trump, Surgite mortui; St. Augustine's, Not in surfeiting and drunkenness; and this may be the Christians, Moriemini. And why will ye die? 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 souls with lust, and drown your bodies with a dropsy, that forget God, and the operation of his hands, the Church and the afflictions thereof, yourselves, 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 God's glory, so that he is unfit to pray, read, hear on God's day, or do the works of his calling on other days. Let them think of this that are so good forenoon's men, but so bad afternoons. Or immoderately, which immoderation is to be estimated according to divers particulars; not alone when it is more than the stomach can bear, but when it is more than their estate, calling, business, or Religion will allow. Or unseasonably, and when that is, nature itself (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 stomaches are big with indignation against ourselves 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 public 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 joined together, Psal. 102.4. My heart is smitten and withered like grass, 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 souls, and lives, the loss 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 Judgements, or his Substitutes by their Edicts call us to fasting, they that eat and drink but 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 drunkenness, as well as hatred, and envy, murder; covetousness, 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 hellhounds! 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 dunghill so many ill scents, as you shall see, and smell in their meetings. Nay, suppose all these together, it's not a sufficient expression, you would think devils were come down in the likeness of men, and entered into the swine, that drives them headlong into the Sea of God's wrath. Oh this is a dainty life, thinks the Jovial companion; but remember what follows, Thou must die, and come to Judgement. Hear thy doom written in letters of blood; Woe to drunkards, saith Esay. woe, saith Habakkuk: Woe, saith Solomon; Howl, saith Joel: Weep, saith St. James; Ye shall die, 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 air, a face red with fire, ever blushing, though past grace; eyes running, though not a tear of remorse; trembling in the joints, though no fear of God's Judgements.  
Needs must he die, for this draws the heart from God, and makes a man break all God's Commandments, makes his belly his God, blasphemes his Name, profanes his day, despiseth dominion, and dignity. I have often with indignation seen his Majesty's portraiture hanged up for a sign, and that sacred name of Majesty used in an health, when the frothy mouth, and stammering tongue can scarcely speak a distinct word; it kills more than the sword, fills more full of prodigious, and Sodomitical lusts, robs God, and Church, poor, family, a man's self; he is a railer, a reviler, a slanderer, he hardens his heart against God, believes nothing, lives licentiously, and the more likely to die, 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 drunkard's song. How can he repent, that cannot confess? and how can he confess, 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 tears: but he returns like the dog to his vomit, shameless, and fearless.  
Remember this ye furious hotspurres, 
For Exhortation.  if anger command, you'll kill and slay; hence so much blood. You shall die hereafter, and its pity you should live here.  
Oh remember this ye debauched swearers, foulmouthed hellhounds, that fall upon the sacred body of Christ, and tear 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 crucify him afresh. The curse shall ere long enter into your houses, and hearts, and never leave you till it bring you to ruin.  
Remember this, ye ambitious Nimrods', aspiring haman's, that to attain your ends, swear, forswear, falter, etc. and climb up this craggy rock, though with never so much difficulty, etc.  
Consider this, ye insatiable stallions, that neigh after your neighbour's Wives, and glory in your shame; you that are perfidious to God and man, forgetting your Marriage-vow, as if your lust were asleep, rouse it up, and foment it with lascivious pictures, scurrilous talk, filthy Poems, pictures, Stageplays, the seminaries of filthiness; you that are wise to do evil, and invent prodigious ways to satisfy your lusts. Strange punishments shall be for such workers of iniquity. Remember Absalon that defiled his father's Concubines. Heaven would not receive such a miscreant, nor the earth bear him, he was hanged betwixt both. Remember 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 than a twoedged sword.  
Remember this ye haughty persons that speak swelling words of vanity, that wear Lordships 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 shamefastness, utility, and decency; you in whom nor Magistrate, nor Minister can work any reformation, but make idols of yourselves; take heed God send not a rent instead of a girdle; and baldness instead of your borrowed, powdered, braided 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 far deliciously every day. It's impossible for those that live after the flesh to enter into heaven; it's very difficult for a rich man not to live after the flesh. You may not do with your own what you will, not be proud of your own , 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 yond with these two Queries; How you came by your wealth; and I will not bid you rememmember how much you have hoarded up by sacrilege, by oppression and cozenage: the second, How you have employed it, in good cheer, 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 woeful, you stand in slippery places; therefore by how much wealth increaseth, by so much had you need to be more watchful.  
Oh remember this, all ye that forget God, lest he tear 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 sinner, let lose the reins to all licentiousness, please the flesh in all sensuality, eat, drink, and be merry; account our words as wind, and death, and torment, as some Poetical fiction; cloth thyself in purple, and scarlet, and far 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; Bless me, even me also; but there shall be no place for repentance. As a man that seethe a costly feast, when he himself is pined; thou shalt see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, set down at God's 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 misspent, 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  hath Christ opened his wounds to heal me? stretched out his arms to receive me? entreated me not to grieve his Spirit, nor to crucify him afresh? With what earnest solicitations hath he wooed me to be reconciled, but I would not? Oh what doth it profit me now that I have been clothed in purple and scarlet! etc. 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 Laws constituted against swearing, and surfeiting, and drunkenness, etc. not only 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 ruin 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 Alehouses, 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 God's 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 Churchwardens cause to complain, that they still present, but can see no reformation; nor the delinquent to boast that they can escape with a ten groats see; nor the souls 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 patiented God, for our transcendent abominations cause our Land to spew out her Inhabitants.  
But if none of these will persuade, 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 God's part, to make thee happy; but thou wilt needs die, 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 staff, and manacled with our own bracelets; yea, with Saul we slay ourselves with our own sword. It's a Serpent in our own bosom that stings us, Inimici hominis sunt ejus domestici, A man's foes are those of his own house. He that dips with us in the dish is it that betrays us. Blame not Satan, or his instruments, these could not kill us, but that this Traitor opens the doors, their temptations else would fall like a spark of fire in the Sea, much less 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 politic enemy, being an old man that receives influence from the Devil; it's worse than the Devil, who hath some natural goodness, wisdom, 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 only evil continually; and if the best part be so, what is the worst? It's a store-house, 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 wickedness: 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 womb: it's an enemy to all Spiritual undertake; what is wisdom to the Spirit, is foolishness to the flesh; what the one willeth, the other nilleth; what the one endeavours, the other crosseth; it breaks all Laws, both of God and man, and makes unreasonable Laws of its own, of sin and death, Rom. 7.23.8.2. Of sin, therefore dishonourable to live after them, for it gives unreasonable command. He that obeyeth hath Cham's 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 Galleys all day, and be hanged at night. Therefore of all enemies, let us take most heed of ourselves; these lusts within us fight agaist us, 1 Pet. 2.11. they hunt for the precious life; and if we yield to them, we die. He that soweth the wind, shall reap the whirlwind. If we sow to the flesh, we shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting; For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.  
But if ye by the Spirit, 
The Conolation.  etc. Now I am fallen on the second Proposition, the Consolation. Hitherto I have tired your patience with a discourse of the works of darkness, 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, etc. The flesh like a potent King domineers in a natural man, and makes him yield obedience to it in the lusts thereof; yea, in a regenerate man it remains, though weakened and wounded, like the Canaanites; if it cannot dwell in the City, it will lodge in the suburbs; though it reign not like a King, it will rebel like a Traitor, sometimes assaulting by open violence; sometimes by secret ambushments, and hidden stratagems, 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 than 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, etc. 2. Promittit mercedem. First the work, than 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 glorify us; the hardest that is first, and that we must look to, to mortify; 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 mortify 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 body. Here we must explicate both the fountain, and streams. Some understand a metonymy 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 mass 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 sin, wicked executions. Again, as the body hath its dimensions, so hath sin; it reacheth to heaven, and burneth to the lowest hell; is' of as great a latitude as God's Commandments, which are exceeding broad. 3. As the body is knit together by joints, and ligaments, so is sin. If the foot of sin do but stir, 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 righteousness of the Lawgiver. As the body compasseth us about, so doth sin, it's peccatum circumstans; that for 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 vermin. Some grounds yield two crops every year; some trees bear fruit twice, this all the year; some creatures breed every month, 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 pass from a man, come from hence. Now this body hath its activeness from the parents, the father is the devil, a compasser; the soul the mother, in perpetual motion, and agitation. Now his own will enticeth him to these deeds; and he that is wilfully bend 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 persuasion as Solomon, their threats as Nabuchadnezzar, 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 sails with the tide, and the sails 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, etc. but these are motus, & opera carnis peccatricis, these are they that must be mortified; that is the second thing in the duty.  
Mortify] The body of death must be slain that we may live: 
What it is to mortify.  Thus if we will become wise, we must first be fools; if rich, and have a Kingdom, poor in spirit; if free, put our necks under Christ's yoke; if save our life; first lose it, if have a true being, old men must be born again; if have the life of grace here, and glory hereafter, first kill our sinful selves. To mortify, is a Metaphor taken from Surgeons that use to mortify that part they mean to cut off; so we must mortify 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 Epilepsy, 
Rom. 4.19.  or as in old Abraham's 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 mortify 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 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 than they should be incarnate devils, 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, unless 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 enabled to work, and then quickeneth it up by moral persuasion. But how doth the Spirit mortify? 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 grace which makes us pray against them; it's our remembrance that brings to our mind the Scripture, that declares the odiousness and danger of them; it's the mighty power of God, that crusheth these brats in pieces: it's that which doth cooperate 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 mere 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, reputes 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 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 strains 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 dreams and crotchets of the Familists, we must mortify by the Spirit. As we cannot mortify 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 than life? God is pleased to be styled a living God. This is that which every eye looks at, every heart breathes after, in which the vastest desire is satisfied, beyond which the mind knows 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 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 holiness and happiness.  
We will briefly see what this includes, Ye shall live, that is, ye shall not die; and how happy would the damned spirits think themselves, if they might not die, though they might not live, that indeed they might not be at all rather than so miserable!  
Ye shall live, That is, a happy life here, 
Natural.  a natural life full of joy and comfort. Godliness, which includes mortification, hath the promise of this life; our  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 virtue of the Covenant, as our  receive heat from us, and then warm us.  
You shall live when you die, and death shall be as the port, after all the toss 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 birthday of eternity, the end of our sorrow, the way to our Country, 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 die; and he that liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die. Vitam non eripit, sed intermittit.  
But the spiritual life of a Christian is that which is most excellent, 
Spiritual, of grace.  and that flows 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 is through the gate of regeneration, this parallels 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 sweetened by Christ's burial, the soul shall be carried by the ministry of Angels into Abraham's bosom, Luk. 16.22. Though there be not in this estate a plenary consummation of happiness, 1 Tim. 4.8. Apcc. 6.9. yet the Spirit returns 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, 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 happiness.  
It may be some will inquire what our conversation shall be there; for your meat and drink, there is Angel's food, a tree of life; for your apparel, long white robes of righteousness; for your music, a choir 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 reign in bliss; 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 God's footstool, what is there in his throne? Si 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 country? if so much to thine enemies, what wilt thou give to thy friends? The Hebrews report, how truly I know not, that when Joseph had gathered much corn in Egypt, he threw the chaff 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 husks to us here, that so tasting the sweetness 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 soul by the outside of the house, no more than 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 than declare it; therefore I leave it to your apprehension, as a 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 than he could utter; and if the souls of God's people are filled with unspeakable joy, and satisfied as with marrow, and fatness, that see, and enjoy God but in part here obscurely; there is something transcendent in the perfect vision and fruition of God. These little baits serve to stay our stomaches 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 fathom, 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, etc. We can more easily say what there is not there, than what there is: there is no death, no mourning, etc. Let us labour to walk in the way, than we shall experimentally feel it, and then even laugh at our scanty expressions when the soul 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 half hath not been resolved. Oh blessed is the man that heareth thy wisdom, seethe, 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 die, by his own merit; but he that lives after the Spirit, shall live by God's 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 showeth death is an effect of sin, life a consequent of righteousness in a different manner: death followeth sin as a just reward of it, as a debt, The wages of sin is death; but righteousness 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 attain it, but it will cost thee dear; thou must enter in through many tribulations; Vnicus 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 mortify the deeds of the body. Now if any desire to enter into life, I must first ask him, whether he can drink of this cup, and be baptised with this Baptism? he must mortify this body, this old man; corruption is strong, for it's a man; politic, for an old man; a man that is naturalised in us, and pleads prescription.  
The old man with all his members, pull out the right eye, cut off the right hand, tear, and re●t the heart asunder, crown the head with thorns, pierce the hands & feet with nails, and the side with a spear, the face must be spit upon, buffeted.  
The body, and all the deeds of it. Put off the old man with his deeds, Col. 3. and here mortify the deeds of the body, and the deeds of the body are manifest. Never tell me of a good heart, if the actions 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 ways of God? It's impossible. Is the tree good that is fruitless? Do you call that a good ground, that bears nothing but briers, 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 entertain but one sin constantly, suppose contemplative adultery, thou art an unmortified man.  
Again, these must be mortified, not trifle, or deal more gently with them, pull up these weeds by the very roots; therefore it must be with pain, 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 gate narrower, than Christ, and his Apostles have done. Nor do I here dishearten any, but require them sedulously to set about the work; better know it now then hereafter when it is too late. Eternal life is the gift of God, that the Scripture shows, and reason manifests, that it is in the power of the donor to prescribe what conditions he will to the receiver; but the wretchedness of the world is such, they desire the blessing without the condition; like ruth's 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 ourselves, 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 terms, how could we in modesty have made them more easy? God could do no less then demonstrate his purity, love of virtue, hatred of sin. God delights not to make us sad without cause. Certainly he cannot require any thing less than mortification without the impeachment of his honour, therefore we cannot perform less without the endangering of our happiness.  
So then I must tell our debauched sinners, 
Use. For Repr.  that suffer all manner of abominations to reign, 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 cross and contradict them in their ways; 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 godliness, that have no grace and virtue 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 thyself, or no entrance into life.  
I must tell our careless procrastinators of repentance. It's not enough to dislike sin, and so let it alone in time to die itself, and therefore they will not task themselves with such an unpleasing torment, but you must mortify 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 oppressor his extortion, when his covetousness is satiated. Sin, 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 itself outwardly; and in this case it is damnable; for lusting is adultery, Matth. 5.28. hatred is murder, 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 weakness of nature rather than the strength of grace; or else here is a Metempsychosis of sin; whereas a sin of youth prevailed before, now a sin of age domineereth. Thus a man ofttimes changeth his favourites. No man in every estate, and condition is prone to act the same sins.  
I must tell our civil Justiciaries, and painted hypocrites; It's not enough to take sin prisoner, and a little to curb 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 only fight, but overcome, if we mean to be crowned; judge, condemn, and mortify this old man with his deeds.  
I must tell our lukewarm Laodiceans, that are half persuaded 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 ) for sacrifice, to make ex rapina holocaustum; to rob the Church, and build an Hospital, or maintain a Free-school; 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 abhor Idols, so long as you commit sacrilege; that can endure John Baptist, till he come to touch the apple of your eye; this is but to pair the nails, or clip the hair of this old man, not to mortify the body with his deeds. A Penknife may cut a man's throat, one leak sink a ship, one sparkle burn an house, one sin slay the soul.  
I must tell those that would be accounted professors, that this word doth not sufficiently express 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 hears 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 Godliness changed, from what it was in the primitive times; and I am persuaded 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 join in public 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 by few: they will lose their birthrights, rather than 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 works 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 only in hearing such men; and the height of their practice, to abstain from some sins, which are cried down. I honour the public preaching of God's Word in season, and out of season, and he that opposeth it, is an enemy to Christ, and his king doom: but if he that preacheth unto others may be a reprobate unless he do beat down his body, and mortify his sin, than 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 time to harbour pride, and passion, and uncharitableness; 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 than 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 profaneness, 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, etc.  
I must tell our Popish, and Pelagian Doctors, advancers of freewill, that they cannot mortify themselves by any power of the flesh: for corrupt nature agreeth well enough with itself; but walk in the Spirit, Gal. 5.6. not by any Moral or gentle persuasion, 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 ways 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 can perfect nothing without him, but simply do nothing without him.  
I must tell our Famelistical dreamers, that we must mortify by the Spirit; they must not think to have these showers 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 sails, 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 ourselves; so he saveth us, not we ourselves; that is, as of ourselves; 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 Country-fellow once bought Orpheus his harp, and thought it would make melody of itself, without the touch of a skilful hand: so do these men think of the Spirit, that it will work in them, though they be idle, resist, or quench the Spirit, and turn the grace of God into wantonness, 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 die, 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 eyelids to slumber; it's not their solitary caves, or tedious pilgrimages; many that do so nourish pride, vainglory, selfconfidence; 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; press him with his promise, and get grace and assistance from him, in voluntary chastning; ourselves ordinarily, by sobriety in meat, drink, apparel, recreation; extraordinarily, by prayer, fasting, weeping: we do as it were with God's 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 cross, in this it's laid upon us. In the one we turn without, in this with a bridle in our jaws: But the Spirit must diffuse itself through all these to make them effectual; and without it these bodily exercises profit little, the flesh will still recalcitrare, & therefore monastics, and Anchorites have found corruption as strong in the Cloister, 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 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 progress 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 mortify 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 verify that of our Saviour, Matth. 6.14. Heaven it spewed 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 easy 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 joys are fare off, and serve but little, or else the taste of the world spoils 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 form 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 happiness, to which nothing can be added; yet it's the unhappiness of some to think they cannot be merry, unless 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 only mortify them, that they do not reign; so that while sin doth not prevail, but thou groanest under the relics 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 thee a greater matter upon such terms, wouldst thou not have done it?  
What remaineth then, but that we set about the work cheerfully. I exhort you all to be happy. The fullness of glory will answer all the difficulties. I can say no more; Mortify, and you shall live. If you will not kill, you must be killed. God hath proclaimed these deeds Traitors; they have shed the blood of Christ, done all the mischief in the world, and, in a word, will undo our souls. How can we but with indignation see strumpets more careful to adorn their bodies then we our souls! St. Augustine mourns to see Arius take more pains to go to hell, than he could do to go to heaven. How can we endure to see a Papist take more pains to scourge his body, an earthworm macerate himself 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, look on that heart of thine that hath offered such indignity to heaven; by an holy Anathema deliver that flesh of 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 God's 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 eat thy bread, & by fasting, and abstinence be revenged on thyself for sin past, and keep under thy body for time to come. It's one of the nails that crucifies the flesh, and a means to take down the rankness of this fertile field, singular 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 fountain, and thine eyes, as Conduit-pipes. Entreat God to accept the desire for the deed, and the blood, and tears of Christ for all. But men now adays can mortify without renting the heart, fasting a day, shedding a tear. But withal remember to mortify too, else thy tears will be no better than Esau's, thy fasting like Ahabs. Purge, not that thou mayest surfeit; repent not that thou mayest sin; return, not like the dog to the vomit; if thou do, thy latter end will be worse than thy beginning. But blessed is the man that sorrows, after a godly manner; for this works repentance never to be repent of. Blessed are they that mourn now, that sow in tears; for they shall reap in joy, they shall find 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 than 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 mortify the deeds of the body, is a kind of martyrdom, milder indeed in its horror, 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 tears shall be wiped from their eyes, and they shall remain, and reign with God in bliss for ever. And thus I have traveled through these Propositions in their absolute consideration.  
We considered these words in their opposition. Here are two contrary ways, that tend to two contrary ends. They cousin themselves that think to far as well as 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 God's promises.  
1. It doth no whit prejudice the godly in their comfort, that God is so severe against the wicked; cain's profaneness doth not hurt Abel, he is accepted. Though Judas be a devil, the rest far not the worse. So at the last day while the wicked wish the hills, 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 privileged by God's mercies on the godly, as we see in the Wise and Foolish Virgins. God's mercies, Christ's merits, the precious promises and privileges of the Gospel avail them nothing. God's mercies are limited to certain conditions, therefore let not wicked men bolster up themselves in these, heed not lying vanities.  
We consider them in their coherence. Therefore we should mortify sin, 
3 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, Fear not him that can kill the body, etc. So the Father at banquets would talk of hell, to keep men from security. So the Apostle here to men already converted, If ye live, etc. The meditation of death is not unprofitable for them. They are not out of danger of Gun-shot; though they are in a Citadel, or strong Tower, yet they have some flesh, and are subject to spiritual security, presumption, or profaneness. The Tower cannot be demolished, but they may look out at the windows, 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 Despair. None can presume, but they that mortify; and that is not presumption, but hope; none can despair, but such as live after the flesh; and that is a fear upon good grounds.  
And now to draw to a conclusion. 
The agreement 'twixt Armin. and their adversaries in the rules of practice.  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 pass sentence, differred it in diem longissimum, it may be for an hundred 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 believe nothing. S. Augustine answers some well, that would not believe, unless 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, etc. Moderation in these mysteries is to be shown, if any where. Neutram partem affirmantes, sive destrueren tes, sed tantummodo ab audaci affirmandi praesumptione revocantes: Affirming, or denying neither of the two, but only restraining us from bold presumption in taking either part. But now every novice can determine in these things, when the wisest men demur, and can as exactly chalk out Gods secret ways, 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 pass, that religion is turned into niceties and disputation, bearing things certain, and fastening upon uncertain, like Zeuxes, that pictured an old woman so to the life, that he laughed to death at the view of her.  
So I think our gracious Sovereign hath taken a Religious and Wise course to silence these controversies, more fit for Schools than Pulpits, or rather fit for heaven's 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 weakness; or if I had ability, and liberty, I durst not so far abuse your patience. Only let me advise all, especially the unlearned, which with much study cannot so much as attain the stating of the questions, to turn 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, unless I much mistake, both sides meet in the Practice.  
If any man should ask me concerning the decree of election and reprobation, 
Predestination.  here is a counterpane of it in my text. I will not say this is God's whole decree, I dare say no secret decree contradicts it. We need not climb up into heaven then to see whether God smile or frown, 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 find them not here, certainly they are not there. I say then, leave disputing about election, and labour to make your calling and election sure. Begin at the bottom of the ladder, and add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, etc. Thus our Saviour stifles such a controversy, Master, shall many be saved? Strive to enter in at the straight gate. But what shall this man do? Fellow thou me. Let no man comfort himself with any illusion, or affright himself with any fatal destiny. If ye live after, etc. This is God's Word, and by this we must be judged at the last day.  
For the second Controversy, 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 die, notwithstanding the purchase of so precious a redemption, sufficient in itself, though not effectual unto thee through thine own perverseness; or if but for some few, as the other side affirm, if thou mortify 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 perverseness we may turn the grace of God into wantonness. 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 cooperate. We are not able of ourselves 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, unless 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 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 departed from the living God; and that this may never befall 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 proceed, 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, etc. 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 die; 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, but momentany; the reward future, but glorious and eternal. Were it not for that which follows, Ye shall die, it were a brave thing to live after the flesh; were it not for that which follows, Ye shall live, nothing more tedious then to mortify the deeds of the body. Wisdom now will soon deride the controversy, 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 sin, 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 thyself. But if notwithstanding what hath been said, he shall still walk in the ways of his own heart, all the curses in God's 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 savour of death to death. Labour then by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body so shall you live many Haltion days here upon earth, and when you die, the Angels shall carry your souls into Paradise, while your bodies repose themselves in their graves, as a bed of down, till the Lord of Glory shall return to judge 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.  
FINIS.