A SERMON Preached before the RIGHT WORSHIPFUL Company OF MERCHANTS Trading into the LEVANT, AT St. OLAVES HARTSTREET LONDON, Tuesday JUNE, 2. M.DC.LXVIII. BY THO. SMITH, M. A. Fellow of MAGDALEN COLLEGE in OXFORD, and Chaplain, to the RIGHT HONOURABLE Sr. DANIEL HARVEY, His MAJESTY'S AMBASSADOR to CONSTANTINOPLE. LONDON, Printed by T. Roycroft, for S. Mearn, Book-binder to the KING'S most Excellent Majesty. 1668. INSIGNISSIMO VIRO, Domino ANDREAE RICCARD Equiti Aurato, Amplissimae Societatis Mercatorum Cum Imperatoris TURCARUM subditis In Oriente Commercia exercentium Praesidi longè dignissimo, Clarissimo D. Vice-Praesidi, D. ASSISTENTIBUS, Reliquisque ejusdem Mercaturae Sociis, Viris Eximiis, Clarissimis, & Humanissimis; THO. SMITH Hanc Concionem qualem qualem, brevì ac tumultuariò conceptam, Et coram jis nuper habitam, In 1 D. Pet. III. cap. 19, 20. v. (Quem difficilem locum pro pio erga Sacras literas amore Discutiendum voluere) Jamque eorundem jussu Publici Juris factam, L. MQ. D. D. CQ. IMPRIMATUR. Sam. Parker RRmo in Christo Patri ac Domino, Dº Gilberto Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi à Sacris Domesticis. Ex. Aedibus Lambeth. Jun. 15. 1668. A SERMON Preached before the Levant-Company. 1. St. Peter, III. 19, 20. By which also he went and Preached unto the Spirits in Prison, Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the Ark was a preparing: wherein few, that is, eight Souls were saved by Water. THE First times of Christianity were times of great trial and danger, and the Gospel, though it brought along with it the glad tidings of Salvation, and laid down rules of Life, beyond the strictest institutions of Philosophy, so conducive to the improvements of reason, which was Clouded and be-nighted with Error, and had lost its command in the Soul, and was become subject to the Sensitive appetite, so directly tending to the advance of Humane nature, and the peace and quiet and benefit of the Universe, beyond the highest reaches and fetches of State-Policy; yet every where met with opposition from the Civil Powers; which might be enough to stagger and shake the weak faith of the newly-converted Christians, and prove a dangerous temptation to make them Renounce that Christian Profession, they had so lately taken up, which they saw was pursued with Scorn, and Persecution, and Death. To Obviate and prevent which, is the design of St. Peter in this Epistle inscribed to the believing Jews, Verse. 1. and especially those of the Asian dispersion, his peculiar charge and care, as being the Apostle of the Circumcision, 〈◊〉. 11.7, 8. and to encourage them to constancy and perseverance, notwithstanding their present sufferings and hardships they were forced to endure and undergo: Which as he does throughout the whole, so especially he urges upon them in this Chapter from a double Consideration: The one, That to Suffer for righteousness sake, and the Gospel, to endure Persecutions and Crosses upon the account of the true Religion, to bear witness to the Truth, though it cost them their lives, was indeed a seeming misery, but a real happiness. Verse, 14. If ye suffer for Righteousness sake, happy are ye. In the eye of the World their condition might seem dolorous and sad, but to them it was to be esteemed a matter of joy and triumph, that They were accounted worthy to suffer for Christ A good Conscience, and the honour of being a Martyr, and the hope of Glory, promised as a reward of their sufferings and constancy, should carry them through all difficulties; only they were to be very solicitous, that they suffered as Christians, that no base or unlawful Act brought them into those sad instances, that their Accusers objected to them no other crime but their Religion, that they were not haled to the Bar, and arraigned as Murderers, or as Thiefs, or evil doers, or busy-bodies in other men's matters, not as Enemies to the Government, under which they lived, not as Seditious nor Pragmatical, not as Invaders of other men's lives, or Civil Rights and Proprieties, nor as guilty of any of those flagitious Crimes, that are justly punishable by Humane Laws. The other, From the Example of our Blessed Saviour in the verse before the Text, For Christ also hath once suffered— He came down from his Glory, wherewith he was encircled, and assumed our Nature, and all its infirmities, and was content to be cloistered up Nine months in a Virgin's Womb, and then came into the World a poor helpless Infant, exposed to all the hardships and miseries of life, to Hunger, and Thirst, and Cold, and all the inconveniencies that attend Poverty; and at last, after he had spent very nigh Four and thirty years in sadness and disgrace, was condemned to the ignominy and torment of the Cross. They could not faint, so long as they had his blessed Example in their eye; this must needs put life into them, and add strength to their Faith, and constancy to their Resolutions; and especially if they would reflect, for whose sake Christ underwent, with such un-wearied patience, all these sufferings; Verse, 18. Christ also hath once Suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the Flesh; Innocence itself was arraigned, that the Criminal might be acquitted, and Justice condemned to die, that We, that were the only Guilty, might survive. It was his Love to man, even when at enmity with God, that brought him dowm from Heaven, and fastened him to the Cross, and laid him in the Grave; and all this, that he might reconcile us to our Maker, whom we had offended, and bring us to God: and shall not we follow after the Author and Finisher of our Faith, this Captain of our Salvation, who was thus consecrated by Suffering, and endure a little for his sake, that Suffered so much for ours? The Apostle having pursued his Argument thus far from the Sufferings and Death of Christ, immediately subjoins the Article of his Resurrection, Being put to Death in the Flesh, but quickened by the Spirit; * Oecumenius in Loc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Et Paulò pòst, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. that is, though Christ, as man, died, and there was a real disunion of Soul and Body, yet he revived again by his Eternal Power and Godhead: for so much we must understand by those words, quickened by the Spirit, which cannot be meant of the Soul of Christ, the other part of the Humanity, which, being immortal, can in no wise whatever be said to be made alive, but are in a direct opposition to the former Clause, where Flesh signifies The whole Humane Nature, as it doth in several places of Scripture, which refer particularly to our Saviour; 1 Tim. III. 16. Without controversy great is the Mystery of Godliness, God manifested in Flesh, St. John, I. 14. The Word was made Flesh; that is, the two Natures, Divine and Humane, were both united in the Person of Christ: Rom. IX. 5. Of whom, as concerning the Flesh, Christ came: and Rom. I. 3. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the Seed of David according to the Flesh; that is, Christ, as man, the Son of a Virgin-Mother, derived his descent and Pedigree from the Jewish Nation, and particularly from the Royal Family, the house of David; and may be further explained by a Parallel place, 2 Cor. XIII. 4. Though he was Crucified through weakness; that is, by reason of the infirmity of the Humane Nature, which is obnoxious to death, yet he liveth by the Power of God, where his being Crucified through weakness is the same with his being put to death in the Flesh, and his living by the Power of God the same with his being quickened by the Spirit. Hereupon the Apostle adds, by which He, that is, Christ, went and Preached to the Spirits in Prison: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in or by which, which, according to all Grammatical Analogy, does plainly and necessarily refer to the word immediately foregoing, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Spirit, and therefore I cannot but wonder at the * Oecumen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Greek Scholiast, who explains them by the Illative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which were to make the Apostle argue at a very loose rate, and is altogether inconsequent and besides his purpose, who in the continued order of his discourse shows, how Christ may be said to Preach to the Spirits in Prison. Which reference being so plain and easy and natural, this Notion of Spirit, so agreeable to Scripture and the Articles of our Faith, will serve for a Key to open the difficulties of the Text. By which also he went and Preached to the Spirits in Prison:— This for the Connexion, which it was necessary for me to show, in order to the full meaning and understanding of the words; which being difficult in themselves, and made more so by the fancies and descants of Interpreters, it will take up some time to explain them, and settle and fix their true meaning, before I can raise any doctrinal Propositions to build us up in our most holy Faith; as in our ordinary building, the Foundation must first be cleared, before we can raise any strong or lasting Superstructure. 1. Some there are, and those great Names, justly reverenced for their Learning and their Antiquity, men that by their Writings and by their Sufferings have deserved well of the Church of God, who, relying too much on the Literal sense of the Words, which they took in gross, and confounded without any distinction, pleased themselves with this Interpretation, That Christ in his Soul, then really separate from his Body, during the intervening space between his Death and his Resurrection, Preached to the Souls of men below in Prison, which they explain by Hell, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, some place separate and distinct from Heaven: and accordingly that the Patriarches and their Posterity, together with Plato and other goodnatured and enlightened Heathen, upon their owning of Him, were freed and delivered from that Prison where they had been so long detained, and redeemed from that state of Thraldom; those only, that rejected him, continuing there upon the account of their Infidelity. An Exposition received by several of the Ancients, and so dispersed in their Writings, that I shall not heap up Citations in the Proof of a Thing that is granted on all hands: I shall therefore content myself with that single one of * Stromatum lib. 6. p. 270. ex Editione Fr. Sylburgii Graec A. C. 1592. Who taking this for granted, presently after argues thus, p. 271. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. For other Testimonies I refer the Learned Reader to Arch-Bishop usher's answer to the Jesuits challenge, Chap. of Limbus Patrum: and to the Learned Dr. pearson's Exposition of the Apostles Creed on the Article of Christ's descent into Hell. St. Clement of Alexandria, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; That the Scriptures manifestly declare, that our Lord preached the Gospel to those that perished in the Flood, yea rather to all them that were enthralled, and detained in Prison, and held in Ward. So that the Text is alleged as the end and design of Christ's descent into Hell, which They understood Locally, and by which They explain it. But whatever be the meaning of that Article, which I am not in the least obliged to explain, (which Ruffinus tells us was left out of the Old Creed of the Roman Church, and is not extant in the Nicene, and was first found in that of Aquileia, where He was a Presbyter) their Interpretation of these words can no way stand. For 1. It supposes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by which, to refer to the Soul of Christ, which before has been sufficiently disproved, (and the Translating the words by vivens spiritu, which perhaps might contribute to the mistake among the Latins, is very untrue, all the Greek Copies having not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not living, but made alive) and by and by shall be more fully evidenced. 2. Supposing the meaning of the Article in their sense, there may be other ends of the descent assigned, this of theirs to free the Patriarches, and to preach to those that were dead long before, being impossible to be true: As being 1. Repugnant to the plain words of the Text, which says expressly, that the Souls preached to were disobedient in the days of Noah; marking out that Generation of men that was contemporary with Noah, and the particular time of their being disobedient, the time before the Flood, while the Ark was a preparing. But this cannot belong to the Fathers, who lived in the Ages before Noah; and yet they reckon * Inconveniens erat, ut cum multi ex eo nati remissionem acciperent peccatorum, & beneficium resurrectionis consequerentur, non magis ipse Pater omnium hominum hujusmodi gratiam consequeretur. Origen. Tract. XXXV. in D. Matth. cap. 27. Adam among those that ascended with Christ, (which they grounded on the XXVII. St. Matthew 52. and the Graves were opened, and many bodies of Saints, which slept, arose) and consequently that He enjoyed the benefit of this descent; nor can They be said to be disobedient or refractory. Abel, and Seth, and Enoch served God in their Generations, and had this testimony that They were righteous. Heb. XI. 13. These died in Faith. 2. It is Repugnant to the condition of departed Souls, whether those of the righteous, or those of the disobedient. 1. The Souls of the righteous were in a blissful and happy condition, and needed not that Christ should be preached to them. They had, when they were upon Earth, a praenotion and belief of Messias that was to be born in the fullness of Time, and by his Merits they were saved, Revel. XIII. 8. who was The Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World, that is, in the Divine decree and appointment; and to all intents and purposes the merits of his death were applicable to those that lived before his coming in the Flesh, as to those that live after. It was by virtue of his precious blood, that was shed upon the Cross, they were accepted that were accepted. I know it was maintained of Old, that, notwithstanding this supposed descent and deliverance, the Souls of departed Saints are still in abditis receptaculis & exterioribus atriis, in some secret recesses, where they expect the Resurrection of the Body. But the holy Scriptures make no mention of a Third estate; no Limbus Patrum or Purgatory to be met with there. 'Tis true, They are not in that perfection and glory in Heaven, to which They shall be advanced after the Resurrection, when their souls and bodies shall be reunited; yet however They are in a state of Bliss and Happiness: The Souls of the Just are in the hands of the Lord, and therefore there was no need they should long and wish for Christ's descent into the lower Parts, who before had been made Partakers of the benefits of his death and passion, as some strangely gloss from * Which Vatablus renders in the Future, and thus interprets; Liberaturus sum Te: Intelligit Patres, qui decesserunt ante adventum Christi, & in fide ipsius Christi venturi mortui sunt: Herein followed by several Pontifician Writers, who cite this Text to prove a Limbus Patrum. Zach. IX. 11, 12. As for thee also, by the blood of thy Covenant I have sent for thy Prisoners out of the Pit, wherein is no Water; Turn ye to the strong hold, ye Prisoners of Hope. Which words in their Literal sense import only thus much, That God either had or would for his Covenants sake free the Jews, (the People of the daughter of Zion, v. 9) out of their Babylonian slavery, (bring them from the dry, and parched, and sandy places of Chaldaea, where they were carried Captive) according to their hopes and expectations. And, 2. For the Souls of the unfaithful and disobedient, who died in their sins, and at defiance with God, They were shut up in Prison, never to be released: The Sentence was passed upon Them, and there is no hope or possibility of ever getting it reversed; nor were they in a capacity of receiving benefit by the Preaching of Christ. There is no saving faith, no effectual repentance in those infernal Regions: Rivers of tears there poured out cannot wash off the stain and guilt of Sin. Heb. XI. 27. After death immediately follows the Judgement, and the Soul at its departure knows its Doom, and what it must trust to for ever. 3. It is contrary to the end and design of the Gospel, which only respects the living in its Publication; Go ye, and teach all Nations. St. Mat. XXVIII. 19 and more fully, St. Mark, XVI. 15. Go ye into all the World, and preach the Gospel to every Creature, was the Commission Christ gave the Apostles after his Resurrection; that is, Publish the Gospel through all the Parts of the known and Habitable World, make known the Doctrine of the Cross to all the Nations of the Earth, and make Proselytes and Disciples by Baptism, and instruct them in the true Faith: it is not, Descend into the Regions below, and there Preach me, as * Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. VI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. p. 271. some have fancied the Apostles to have done after their death, that they might speak congruously to their Hypothesis. But we know, and are assured from Scripture, that He that now refuses and slights the overtures of Life and Salvation, that rejects the offers of a Saviour, and prefers a few brutish Pleasures, which perish in the enjoyment, and yet leave a deadly sting behind them, before the Promises of unmixed Joy and Glory, must never expect the benefit of an after-Faith or Repentance in another World. If we would be happy hereafter, it must be procured in the time of life; Behold, now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of Salvation, 2 Cor. VI 2. even while we live; and the night cometh, that I may apply that of our blessed Saviour, St. John. IX. 4. the night of death, wherein no man can work. Thus you see this First Exposition, however it was so greedily swallowed down by some of the Ancients, and gained credit from their Authority, is very weak, and bottoms upon a Sandy Foundation, and signifies just nothing, as to the true sense and meaning of the Words. 2. Others there are, who, rejecting the Literal sense, fly to a Mystical one, understanding by the Spirits in Prison sinners in general, * Glossa Interlinearis, iis qui eram in ca●cere tenebrarum vel infidelitatis, vel in carcere, i.e. in carnalibus de Adertis vivebant. who are imprisoned and shut up in darkness and infidelity, while they live and are in the Flesh, and are slaves to their carnal desires; * Grot. in loc. Loquitur, quasi iidem fuissent, & fuerant iidem Spiritus sive animi non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ut Aristoteles loquitur, sed genere: i.e. an mi pariter Deo inutiles, illi scil. qui Noae praedicationi non ●rediderunt. who were disobedient after the manner and likeness of those, that lived in the times of Noah. But against this Exposition I have these Two things to allege, 1. In General, That it is a sure Rule of the Schools, and aught to be followed in the explaining of Scripture, Scripturae verba proprie accipienda sunt, quando nihil inde absurdi sequitur; that the words of Scripture are to be taken properly, and according to their Literal meaning, and as they are vulgary understood, when nothing of absurdity, nothing that is disagreeable to Faith, or the common notices of Mankind, can follow from such a literal acception. And therefore to seek for Allegories in plain sense, and find out Mysteries, where none were intended, is neither safe, nor proper; for if a liberty be once indulged herein, what bounds can be set to a roving fancy, which loves to sport itself with pleasing Ideas and Phantasms itself has raised? and men too are very favourable to the issue of their brain, those fine and nice conjectures and interpretations, that owe their conception and being to a strong and ungoverned imagination. And how much Religion has been prejudiced, and the truth of Scripture-story brought into question by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, this vein and humour of Allegorising, which Origen by his great Name and Learning brought into the Church, having borrowed it from Philo the Jew, I wish there was no cause to complain, especially in this Age of ours, wherein every Pretender, out of an itch of vainglory to seem wiser than others, presently sets up for an Origenian, and vents his ill-grounded conjectures for proofs and demonstrations, and revives Old opinions, very uncertain, and vain, and heretical, and justly condemned as such by the Zeal and Learning of former Ages, as the great Truths of God, as if Providence could not be justified without their admittance, nor the Articles of Faith and the Attributes of God Salved, unless we believe a Praeexistence of Souls, Genii living in the Air, and vehicles form out of Aether by the Plastic life and virtue of the Soul after its departure out of the Body. But it is to be feared, that, while they follow Origen too close, even in his errors, and take up his way of interpreting some parts of Scripture, according to a pretended Cabbala and a mystic Theology fetched from Plato and Proclus, they have given occasion to Atheists and profane Persons to deny the Truth of all. 2. In special, That the Text does expressly refer, as was said before, to the times of Noah, and to those that lived in them; and therefore cannot be meant, as the learned † Per quem Dei spiritum missum in Apostolos, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 post quam in coelum ascendit, Christus dicitur praedicasse Gentibus, quia Apostoli id ejus nomine as virtute fecerunt. in loc. Grotius would have it, of Christ's preaching by the Apostles to the Gentiles after his Ascension: For this would be to confound two distant Ages of the World together, and to make St. Peter speak unintelligibly, and contrary to all usage and custom: for who can rationally imagine that St. Peter, when he saith, Christ preached to the Spirits in prison, which were sometimes disobedient, should mean this preaching of his own and after Ages, who is so careful first to tell us of what persons he meant it of, and then is so express and punctual about the right timing of it? for the Spirits that were preached to, were disobedient: but when? why, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Old, which being a general reference of time, and so might comprehend all from the Creation, He limits and restrains to the Age just before the Flood. Besides this, there is another Figurative notion of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, brought in first by St. Hierome, and taken up by the same Grotius and others, which I shall briefly examine. They taking the Greek word, which we justly render Prison, in a large and unconfined sense for any kind of close receptacle, thereby understand the Body, in which the Soul is detained and shut up, as a Sword in a Sheath. Thus † Annot. in Gen. VI 3. Grotius, Hinc interpretari liceat illud, 1 Pet. III. 19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, illis Spiritibus humanis, quos velut in vagina detineri inutiles Deus querebatur; who is herein followed by a late most Excellent, and Learned Person of our own Nation, who takes also these Spirits in Prison to be the Souls of men, that lay so sheathed, Senseless and unprofitable in their Bodies, immersed so deep in carnality, as not to perform any Service to God, who inspired and placed them there. But to this I Answer, That the ground of this Conjecture is very uncertain, as being built upon an interpretation of another place of Scripture, whereto they suppose this to refer, which yet may be otherwise accounted for: it is * In the Hebrew the Words are, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. VI 3. which our Translators have thought fit to render thus; And the Lord said, my Spirit shall not always strive with man; but They by reason of some affinity in sound the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (whence they will have it derived, though contrary to all Analogy and form) which signifies a Sheath or Scabbard; and metaphorically, a Body, thus; And the Lord said, my Spirit shall not always be sheathed in man, which * Annot. p. 800. Grotius in loc. Non permanebit, i.e. nolo diù permaneat. Spiritus à me datus homini non manebit in homine diù inclusus, velut in vaginâ, quip nulli bono usui, non magis quam ensis tectus. Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est vagina, 1 Paral. XXI. 27. Et Corpus Chaldaicè sic dicitur, Dan. VII. 15. nempè quòd Spiritum intrà se contineat. Hinc interpretari liceat illud, I Pet. III. 19 ut supra. And to the same purpose in his Commentary upon the Text; Si proprietatem vocum sequimur, id dicit, non erit ut in vaginâ detentus sic spiritus meus in homine, i.e. non erit inutilis animus, quem ei dedi, sicut ensis in vaginâ, qui nihil efficit ejus, ad quod factus est— Est autem vagina carcer gladio. Chaldaiss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vagina. Eodem modo corpus Hominis Chaldaei vocant, ut Dan. VII. 15. Et in Talmudicis saepè. Sic & Tertullianus, Caro vagina afflatûs Dei. lib. de Resurrect. carnis. Haec interpretatio non nova est, sed Hieronymi ad Esaiam. . They are pleased to Paraphrase, And God said, the Souls which I have breathed and given to men, the Sons of Adam, and which are sheathed in them, imprisoned, detained uprofitably, shall no longer continue and abide in them. But to this I have several things to say; As that 1. There is no need, in favour of this Interpretation, to fancy with † Lib. IU. c. 4. p. 248. Cappellus in his Critica Sacra, and others, that the Greek Interpreters read otherwise in their Copies, either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as He, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, who thus render the Words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, My Spirit shall not abide or continue in these men for ever; who are herein followed by the Syriack and Arabic Translators, and with them Onkelos in his Chaldee Paraphrase (which indeed in the general is nothing but a strict and rigid version, a few words some time being added over and above only for explication) does well enough agree; * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This wicked Generation shall not be established before me for ever. But this without any reference to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the abiding and continuing of a Sword in a sheath, and they may in their Translation * So Mr. Fuller in his Learned Miscellanies. Lib. V. cap. 5. be very probably supposed to allude to, and have in their mind the Syriack Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which in the New Testament is set down to express the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it being usual for defective Verbs of these kinds mutually to exchange their significations. The Hebrew and the Greek being thus reconciled, I say 2. That the Notion of the Word, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it refers to sheathing, is very forced and strained, and not to be paralleled in Scripture, nor in any of the Languages, that derive from the Hebrew, as neither can the Notion of my Spirit for the Spirit, that I have breathed in them. 3. That the ordinary and common acception of the word for striving or contending is very applicable to the scope and design of the Text, And the Lord said, my Spirit shall not always strive with man, I will no longer endure the perverseness and obstinacy of this evil and sinful Generation, I will no longer bear with their Provocations, (and sure as long as God forbears, He may well be said to strive with man) but now am resolved to punish; for that he also is Flesh; that is, hath corrupted his ways, and has polluted himself by abominable acts of uncleaness, yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years, so long time I will forbear, saith God, and no longer. So that Three things are here plainly observable, I. A judgement denounced in the Threat, that his Spirit should not always strive with man; God's patience was provoked, and he expresses his resentments, and threatens Revenge. II. The equity of the judgement in the reason of the Denunciation, For that he also is Flesh, because of their fleshly lusts and abominations. III. A merciful forbearance of the judgement threatened in the time allotted for their repentance, Yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years; not as if the life of man was to be shortened, and brought within the compass of this term of years; but that beyond this time God would not defer his vengeance, as it is excellently Paraphrased by the forementioned Onkelos, * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The space of one hundred and twenty years shall be given to them, to this end, that they may return and repent. God would not cut them off in their sins, but gave them space and time to repent, if they would make a right use of it. All which being so agreeable in themselves, and following so naturally one from the other, and suitable to the scope and design of the Text, and to the common and ordinary signification of the words, do sufficiently confirm and justify this interpretation. 3. I come now in the Third place to fix upon the right meaning of the words, which you may take in this short and plain Paraphrase; that Christ by his eternal Power and Godhead preached to the Generation of men immediately before the Flood, whose Souls are now shut up in Hell, upon the account of their disobedience and infidelity. All which may be clearly and demonstratively made out from the Text. 1. That Christ is here meant, is evident beyond all possibility of contradiction, for about Him the discourse proceeds: He that once suffered for sins, the just one, that He might bring us to God, He that was put to death in the Flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, the same preached to the Spirits in Prison. Which plainly supposes, and proves too, his Godhead, in that He praeexisted long before his Incarnation. For operari sequitur esse, How could He be said to Preach, unless He were? Before Abraham was, I am, said Christ to the Jews. St. John, VIII. 58. Here in the Text, before Noah was, He is; yea, before the Foundations of the World were laid. St. John, I. 1. In the beginning was the Word,— in the beginning of the Creation, (for it is a plain allusion to Gen. I. 1. In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth) when as yet there was nothing made; (for v. 3. All things were made by him, and so Hebr. I. 2. By whom also he made the Worlds) the Word, the Son of God, the Second Person in the Sacred Trinity had his being and existence, and consequently is God Eternal. Rom. IX. 5. (speaking of the Jews and their Privileges, by reason of the Covenant God made with the Patriarches) Whose are the Fathers, and of whom, as concerning the Flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. A Text able to confound all the Sophistry and blasphemies of Socinus and his Party, who deny the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour, and put them to an eternal silence, who very presumptuously reject the Mysteries of Faith, because they cannot fully comprehend them, as if the shallow capacity of a man were to be the measure and standard of divine Truth: when they can give no satisfactory Accounts of the ordinary Phaenomena of Nature, much less of its secret operations, and least of all, of the Mysteries of Providence. And if this were a sufficient reason to deny the Articles of Faith, because They are above our capacity, They may as well deny the being of a God, because they cannot have full and comprehensive Notions of Infinity, Eternity, Omnipresence, and the like. But certainly we have the highest reason in the World to believe the Articles of the Christian Faith, which are so plainly revealed in the Holy Scriptures; because whatsoever God has been pleased to reveal is infallibly certain, and therefore, when proposed to me, I am bound to believe it, though I cannot comprehend the modus, how it is so. This for the Person, He went and preached. 2. The manner or means, by which Christ is said to Preach, by which Spirit, that is, by His eternal Power and Godhead, as was shown in the beginning, and now shall be further proved. For by the same Spirit, by which Christ rose from the Dead, He preached to the Spirits in Prison: But Christ rose from the dead by virtue of his Godhead and divine Power. Rom. I. 4. Declared to be the Son of God with Power, according to the Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the dead. Heb. IX. 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God? that is, How much more available, than the blood of Bulls, and Goats, and Calves, and all the Sacrifices offered up under the Mosaical oeconomy, for the cleansing from sin, and delivering from its Gild and condemning Power, and in order to the serving of God acceptably, is the Blood of Christ, shed upon the Cross, who, after he had raised his Body out of the Grave by his divine Power, presented himself a perfect Mediator to God in our behalf? 3. That Hell is meant by this Prison is very easy to conceive, having before proved it could not be meant of the Body, much less can it of the Grave, for the Soul at its departure takes a flight beyond the Grave and Regions of Death, and cannot be penned up in those Charnel houses under ground; nor does it sleep, as some have fond dreamt, that is, remain in a state of dulness and inactivity, without any apprehension or knowledge till the Resurrection, as we shall see anon, but goes to the place and state allotted for it according to its deserving. And the resemblance and comparison between Hell and a Prison is very fit and proper: When men are legally Imprisoned, it is either for their Crimes or for their Debts; Now every un-repenting Sinner, that dies in his Sins, hath broken the Law of God, hath made assaults upon his Attributes, and rebelled against Heaven, and by this means has contracted a guilt upon his Soul, which binds over to punishment, is a debtor to God, and has forfeited his Soul to Justice, and because He took no care to agree with God, who was become his Adversary, and impleaded him, While He was in the Way with him, did not in his life time compound for the Debt, and get the Bond Cancelled, is justly cast into Hell: A Prison because 1. Without Light, which must needs add to the horror of it. There is utter darkness, and the blackness of darkness for ever. 2. Without Liberty. Here Malefactors are secured and kept safe till their trial. * Jud. vers. 6. 2 St. Pet. II. 4. Thus hath God reserved the Apostate Angels, † vers. 9 and the Souls of wicked men, in everlasting Chains under darkness, unto the Judgement of the great day. But with this vast and great difference, that They shall be remanded and sent back to this Prison, where there will be no possibility of escape or ransom, where they must undergo an eternal Imprisonment. 3. Without Comfort. Prisons usually are dismal and loathsome Places. To be immured and shut up from company, to be deprived of the benefits of converse, and of the sweets and pleasures of liberty, to spend one's days in sadness and melancholy, and to measure out the slow minutes of ones wearisome life with sighs and Groans; This is That, that troubles nature, and puts her into a fright to think of: How dismal then! How insupportable must it be to lie under the wrath of God, under the quick apprehension of a guilty mind, under the sting of Conscience, to be gnawed upon by that worm, that never dies, to have no other company but Fiends and damned Spirits equally miserable with themselves, and to be in a continual expectation of the great Day of Account, when the Body shall be raised to be partaker of the Punishment, as it was of the Sin! 4. Christ preached to the Spirits in Prison; that is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to those men, whose Souls are now in Prison, cast into Hell, but then were alive in their Bodies; those being long since dissolved and consumed in the Waters, that overwhelmed them, while their Souls survive, as being immortal, and are reserved in Hell for Judgement. * Hereto perchance may be referred that difficult place in Job, Ch. XXVI. v. 5. which the Vulgar Latin hath thus, Gigantes gemunt sub aquis; the LXX. render, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; from another signification of the Verb: Symmachus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and so may denote the Giants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (those mighty Apostates, that fell from the belief and Service of God, into Atheism and (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) open rebellion against Heaven) who were upon the Earth in those days, Gen. VI 4. that is, in the days of Noah; and the manner of their punishment by being overwhelmed by Water, and that They and their Accomplices are now troubled, and forced, by reason of the horror and sadness of their condition, to sigh and lament: and Rephaim (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) is so rendered by the LXX in other places, and particularly, Prov. IX. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Symmachus again, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (which name may be well applied to the men in Noah's time, and hence the Heathen in all likelihood borrowed the story of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) T●●dotion, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and St. Hierome, Gigantes. This I take to be the meaning of the words, as deeming it in no degree probable, that they are to be understood of Sea-Monsters, such as Titans and Whales, as Grotius, or of Metals, or Seeds, as Others. So that the Prison plainly refers to the place and condition, in which their Souls are, as a just punishment of their disobedience, and not at all to the Preaching: which will yet further appear from the IV. Chap. of this Epistle, Vers. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, For this cause also was the Gospel Preached to the dead; that is, to those, who are now dead, but then were alive, when the Gospel was preached to them. Where (that I may note this by the way) the Apostle speaks not in general of Gods making known his will to the Ages before Christ, but particularly mentions the Preaching of the Gospel, which must be limited to the times of Messias, and therefore those in that verse, that are dead, to whom the Gospel was Preached, must be supposed to have lived since the coming of Christ in the Flesh, and consequently this place is not parallel, but only in the Phrase or form of speech, with the Text, as some imagine; the one respecting the times of the Gospel, the other, the Age before the Flood. It only remains to be satisfied, How Christ can be said to preach to those that lived in the Old World? I Answer, That it must not be understood, as if Christ did actually preach and appear to the men of that Generation; (though some of the Ancients have thought, that Christ did often appear to the Patriarches in humane shape, as a Praeludium to his Incarnation; which Opinion I shall not now stay to examine) but that he did it by the Ministry of Noah, who is called 2 Pet. II. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Preacher of Righteousness; that is, He denounced the Judgements of God against them for their sins, forewarned them of the danger and ruin They were bringing down upon their own Souls, and continually sounded in their ears an alarm of judgement, that would infallibly overtake them, except they repented, and did by their unfeigned humiliations and amendment of life stop and prevent the Anger of God, which otherwise would break out upon them, and overwhelm them in an Universal Deluge. So that by the same divine Power, by which He preached in the Apostles after the Resurrection, who preached in his name, by virtue of that Commission and Authority They received from Him (and upon this very account, He is said to come, (a Phrase like this in my Text) and preach peace to the Ephesians, Ch. II. v. 17. as * Archb. Usher, Grotius, and the Learned Dr. H. several have well observed) He Preached in the Prophets, that lived before his Coming in the Flesh. 1. Pet. I. 10, 11. Of which Salvation the Prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who Prophesied of the Grace that should come unto you, Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify, when it testified before hand the Sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. The Prophets and Apostles were the Ministers and Ambassadors of Christ, and therefore what They do, He is said to do; and the dishonour that is done to Them, God takes as done to himself: 1 Sam. VIII. 7. They have not rejected you, saith God to Samuel, but They have rejected me; and our Saviour told his Disciples, when He commissioned them to Preach in his name, He that receiveth you, receiveth me; and He that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me. St. Matth. X. 40. according to that usual saying among the Jews, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every man's Delegate or Messenger is as himself. As here upon Earth, the respect or affront that is done to an Ambassador, interpretatively is done to the Person whom He represents; and the King is said in our ordinary discourse to do that, that his Commissioned Minister does in his Name. Let none therefore be so vain as to say in their hearts, Had we lived in the times of Messiah, when he was upon Earth, Had we heard those powerful Oracles of Truth drop from his sacred lips, Had we heard him Preaching to us the Great mysteries of God, how affected should we have been! What deep impressions would his Preaching have made upon our Souls! For Christ still Preaches from Heaven to you by his Ministers. He hath appointed several Orders, and hath settled a Sacred Ministry in his Church, and hath provided also for a constant succession to the World's end. 2 Cor. V. 20. We are Ambassadors for Christ, as though God, (Christ, the Son of God) did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, by ye reconciled to God. Every Sermon you hear is the voice of Christ speaking to you in his Minister: And let me add, As They that heard not Moses and the Prophets, would not have been persuaded, though one had arose from the Dead; so it may be feared, that those that are deaf to so many admonitions, to such continued and earnest entreaties, that they would repent, and lead better lives, that are resolved to continue in their sins, notwithstanding the frequent and often repeated importunities of God's Ministers in his Name to the contrary, would even reject the Preaching of Christ himself, if He were upon Earth. He hath left his Gospel among us, which is vox Scripta, his Word put into Writing, and to that he does require our faith, and our obedience, as much as if He was actually present. He Preached to the Old World by the Ministry of Noah, and still Preaches to us by the Ministry of his Word: Their disobedience to Him, for which They were thrust into that infernal Prison, consisted in this, That They contemptuously refused his mercy, which was offered to them, and disbelieved the Word which Noah Preached: and how shall we escape, if, amidst all those frequent invitations that are made us, we neglect so great Salvation? Thus I have removed the difficulties, and cleared the words with as much brevity as I could. The Propositions, which are deducible hence, are these Four, which I shall but briefly touch. I. That God is graciously pleased to use all means to bring men to repentance, before He cuts them off by his Judgements. He went and preached. II. That the Souls of the disobedient are now shut up in Hell, He went and preached to the Spirits, that now are in Prison, which sometimes were disobedient. III. That God, notwithstanding the daily and great Provocations of sinful men, doth oftentimes give them time and space to repent: The long suffering of God once waited in the days of Noah, while the Ark was a preparing. IV. That in the midst of the severest and terriblest Judgements, that befall the World, there is a mixture of mercy; or, That his Judgements are never so general, but he spares some. In this Universal Deluge, as it is justly called, few, that is, Eight Souls were saved by Water. 1. That God is graciously pleased to use all means to bring men to repentance, before he cuts them off by his Judgements: He went and Preached. God hath set up a light in every man's Soul to direct him in all his ways. Reason is given to him for a guide, and Natural Conscience tells him his duty, and how he ought to behave himself in all capacities whatsoever: without any institution or teaching, every one sees, by an innate internal light, the Essential and Fundamental differences of good and evil, and none can pretend ignorance. * Micha, VI 8. He hath showed thee, O man, what is good, even by those deep impressions, he hath made upon thee, which can never be totally effaced; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? And what is or can be more agreeable to nature, then for a man to do, as he would be done to, to be sociable, and kind, and loving to men of the same nature with himself, and to crouch and humble himself before his Maker, and adore his Goodness, and his other divine Perfections? Yet so foolish, so vain, so inconsiderate a thing is Man, that he is wilfully forgetful of his duty, that he throws off those restraints, which Nature hath laid upon him, breaks through all obligations of Religion and Conscience, refuseth the conduct of his Reason, and gives himself over to the hurry of his Passions and foolish Lusts, and thus puts out his eyes to be lead by a blind guide, till he loseth himself in a maze of error and vanity. But when we are thus lost to ourselves, God will not leave us so: He is pleased to find us out, His Goodness still pursues us. He is unwilling to punish, till all his Methods are frustrated and disappointed and rendered ineffectual. Thus when the Inhabitants of the Old World had forsaken God and themselves too, had corrupted their ways, the whole course of their life, and given up themselves to work wickedness, and that with greediness and delight, He inspires Noah and sends him among them to re-mind them of their duty, to show them how much they had degenerated from their Nature, to rouse them out of their carnal security, by thundering Judgement in their ears, and to bring them home, if possible, to himself. And after the same manner God proceeds with Us. He condescends to entreat and beseech us to accept of his mercy: He woes us by his loving kindness: He frights us by his Judgements. He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the Children of men; if he useth sharp Medicines, it is in order to our recovery, because gentle ones could not work the cure. 'Tis true, God will not force us to be happy against our wills, He will use no violence to our Faculties, He treats us as Rational Creatures. He invites, He threatens; He uses all Arguments to persuade and work upon us to repent, and accept of his mercy. So far is God from decreeing the eternal ruin of myriads of his Creatures, merely to show his Sovereignty and Power, as some maintain to the great prejudice of his Goodness, that most lovely Attribute of a God, that He protests solemnly with an Oath (and sure God is to be believed upon his bare saying so, much more upon his so vehement asseveration) and He commands the Prophet to tell them so in his Name, Ezech. XXXIII. 11. As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the Wicked: To these disobedient obedient and ungodly ones in the Text, Noah is sent, in hope that he might reclaim them. God puts the Question to us, and that most seriously in the same verse, Why will you die? Why will you so foolishly make yourselves away? Why will you ruin your sleves for ever? When we are at the brink of the Pit, and hover over the mouth of Hell, He calls to us to draw back our adventurous Feet, lest we tumble down the Precipice. Turn ye, turn ye, Why will ye die? And as we value our own eternal concern in another World, let us obey this Heavenly call, let us fly to his mercy, which he so freely offers to us now in the time of life, for hearafter it will be too late: The Justice of God will exact punishment on those hereafter, which refused his mercy here, and died in disobedience. Which brings me to 2. The Second Proposition; That the Souls of the disobedient are now shut up in Hell. The Spirits that are now in Prison, which sometime were disobedient. I am not obliged by the nature of the Proposition to vindicate the Justice of God in the punishment of a Sinner with Eternal Torment; but only am hence briefly to show the groundlesness of their fancy, that so easily persuade themselves to the great damping and cooling the heats and ardours of devotion, and to the making men suspicious and mistrustful of its ever being awakened out of such a long and stupid Lethargy, that the Soul sleeps during the interval between death and the Resurrection, that it enters the same Grave with the Body, without any reflexive knowledge or expectation of the last Day, that, in a manner, it is dead for a time, and as senseless as the Body that is dissolved into its first Principles; as if when freed and disentangled from Flesh, it was confined to, and shut up in the Grave, there to sleep out some Thousands of years, if the Goodness of God shall reprieve the World for so long a space, void of all perception, and without exerting any vital operation: A conceit as wild as the Poets, concerning the stupifying Waters of Lethe, which they fancied to drown and overwhelm the sense and memory of things done here upon Earth. But not now to allege the * Eccl. XII. 7. Luke xxiv. 43. Act. I. 25. 2 Cor. V. 1. Phil. I. 23. and many others. several Texts of Scripture that assert the contrary, and that it was the chief design of our Blessed Saviour in the Parable of the Rich man and Lazarus, to assure us of the survival of the Soul after its Emigration, either in a state of bliss or woe, nor to lay before you the Physical Arguments, that might be fetched from the Nature of the Rational Soul, and the independency of its Operations, I shall only urge at present this Moral Consideration. The Soul, we know, in some of its nobler flights soars far above the Earth, and seems oftentimes, not only in its raptures and ecstasies, but ordinary contemplations, to have no intercourse with the Body; and when raised and advanced by Grace and Holiness, grows weary of its confinement, and with furious and impatient desires and longings gasps and pants after a more close and immediate enjoyment of the Divine Presence, breathing out, When shall I come and appear before God While the disobedient and the ungodly, that have made their Souls drudges and slaves to the brutal Part, to procure for their Lusts, and forced them to comply with their appetites and their humours, and have abused all their faculties contrary to the end and design of the Creator, when they come to die, then begin to have too quick a sense, that there is something within them, that will prove immortal, that will pass beyond the Grave, and in all its flittings and wander will never be able to shake off the horror of that guilt, which it contracted here upon Earth. These general sentiments, these hopes and fears, that attend the innocent and guilty at such times, when they have the least reason to flatter or abuse themselves, and when They are the likeliest to make the most impartial judgements, seem to me (if there were no express Scripture or other Argument to induce or compel my belief) conviction enough, that the Soul immediately knows its eternal Doom upon its first entry on a new Stage: and that it is very absurd and irrational to doubt of or deny the possibility of a Souls existing separately, because we cannot fully comprehend the manner of it, or solve all the difficulties, that some men's Curiosity and Scepticism have raised with convincing Demonstrations, and evidence no less than Mathematical. 3. That God notwithsanding men's daily and great Provocations oftentimes vouchsafes to them time and space to repent: The long suffering of God once waited in the days of Noah, while the Ark was a preparing. How much and how greatly God was provoked by their sins, before He threatened them with his Judgements, you may read in the Sixth of Genesis. Wickedness had overspread the Face of the whole Earth: There was a General Apostasy amongst men: They had forgot God that made them: They had thrown off all fear of his Name: They gave up themselves to their Lusts, and their own hearts desire: Their thoughts and imaginations were set upon evil and mischief: They were guilty of unnatural and beastly lusts, and of all manner of injustice and violence: So great was their Wickedness, that it troubled and grieved God at the very heart, that he had made man. Well, God sends Noab among them: But do they hearken to the voice of the Prophet? Hath his Preaching any influence upon their lives? Nothing less: They were in●●rious still, * 2 Pet. II. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a World of ungodly wretches, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text, They were disobedient and refractory still, They would not be persuaded, nor would They believe He threatened them with a Deluge, that should overwhelm them, except They amend; and by God's appointment Sixscore years before the time, that they might not complain of a surprise, sets upon the building of an Ark, to convince them by a visible representation of God's intended purpose, and * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, By which Ark so built: though it may also refer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But the former sense seems to be the most Natural and right. By this He condemned the World, and became Heir of the righteousness that is by Faith, Heb. XI. 7. Every stroke should have been more terrible in their ears, than a Clap of Thunder: but they were resolved to stand it out. Possibly they might come to him, while he was busily employed about his work, and vent their infidelity in a piece of raillery, and laugh at his credulity and fear, as some of our Modern Atheists droll upon the Day of Judgement; What meanest thou, O thou Foolish Builder, by this strange Project and device? The impossibility of the thing seems to us a sufficient confutation of your Prophecy, and your design too, that all the Earth should be covered with Water; and what the Mountains too? and be changed into Sea. This is against Nature, and therefore cannot be. Thus they might dispute and argue themselves into a confident disbeliefe of the threatened Judgement. But see the Goodness of God and his unlimited Patience! Notwithstanding all their infidelity, and beastliness, and abominable immoralityes, His long suffering still waited * In one Word, as in several places of the N. T. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, still patiently, and with all gentleness imaginable, expected their amendment. God needed not to have given them any warning at all; His Justice might have swallowed them up quick, without the least notice or intimation of his intended fury: but He waits, that he may be gracious. If he turn not, He will whet bis Sword; he hath bend his Bow, and made it ready, Psal. VII. 12. And yet though his sword be bright and glistering, it is long before He strikes; though his bow be bend, yet the deadly Arrows do not presently fly abroad. He Summons us to yield, and parles with us, before He storms us with his Judgements. How loath and unwilling is God to put his threats into execution! as if it were a doing violence to his Nature to punish. Hosea, XI. 8. How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee, as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. They wrong God then in the best of his Attributes, in That, that he delights and glories in, that represent him to the World, as plotting and contriving the ruin of his Creatures, by an absolute and peremptory decree, as if he was an Almighty Tyrant. No, He takes no pleasure in revenge, but is very willing and desirous to be prevented in his Executions. Revel. II. 5. Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent, and do the first Works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy Candlestick out of its place, except thou repent. To apply this in one word to ourselves: There is none here, I believe, whose Conscience doth not suggest to him such like thoughts as these; Thus graciously hath God dealt with me; He might have justly cut me off in the midst of my sins at such and such a time, but he was pleased to spare me, and I am this day alive a Monument of his Mercy: and there is none too, but hath had frequent Warnings from God, either by remorse and touches of Conscience, or by his Ministers, or by the Judgements that have been in the midst of us; especially the raging and consuming Pestilence, and the late Dismal Fire. But what use have me made of all these dispensations? Let us therefore at last be persuaded to close with God, and hearken to his Voice, that Thunders out of Heaven, and no longer despise the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, as knowing, and being throughly convinced, that the goodness of God should lead us to Repentance. 4. The Fourth Proposition, That in the midst of the severest Judgements, that befall the World, there is a mixture of Mercy; or, that God's Judgements are never so Universal, but He spares some. In this Universal Deluge few, that is, Eight Souls were saved by Water. Where I might observe. I. The means of their preservation, it was by an Ark. II. The number of those Persons, that were preserved, which was incomparately small in respect of those vast multitudes that perished, wherein few, that is, Eight Souls were saved by Water. The History of which Judgement was recorded and taken notice of by Heathen Writers, being derived down to them by a general and uninterrupted tradition, though not so clear in all particularities, by reason of some mixtures and additions of their own, and the belief of it was retained among them, notwithstanding their ignorance in other matters, and their superinduced Barbarism. But on this I must not now enlarge, only in general as to the Proposition, I shall explain it by the History of the Text, and confirm it by a double instance. God had often forewarned these Inhabitants of the Old World of his Judgements, but they continued careless and unmindful: St. Luke XVII. 27. They did eat, they drank, they married Wives, they were given in Marriage, until the day, that Noah entered into the Ark, and the Flood came and destroyed them all: They continued their sports and their frolicks, They swum in pleasures, and drowned their reason by their full draughts, as carnally minded, as unbelieving and secure as ever, till the very day, whereon the Floodgates and Sluices of Heaven were opened, and Rivers of Water were poured out of the Sky, and the Fountains of the great Abyss were broken up, and then they were forced to mix Tears with their Wine; their rich and costly Dainties, wherewith they had corrupted and overcharged Nature, turned into Gall and Wormwood; their Excesses and their Wantonness and their caresses into loathing and horror and confusion; they exchanged their Marriage-Songs and Triumphs into shrieks and howl; doubly overwhelmed, with the Waves, and with grief as swelling and as impetuous. Thus they perished in the Waters, while Noah and his little Family was safehoused in the Ark. So when Clouds of Fire and Brimstone discharged themselves upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and consumed the impure Inhabitants, who had burned with unnatural Lusts, and were set on Fire of Hell, before they were form Heaven, God sent his Angels to rescue Lot from the Flame: Gen. XIX. 15. St. Pet. II. 6, 7. And thus the believing Jews, that were in Jerusalem, a Voice from Heaven, heard by some of them, admonishing and inviting them to depart thence, as * Historiae Eccles. lib. III. cap. V.— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— Eusebius relates, after the Siege was unexpectedly raised by Gallus, laid hold on the opportunity, and went over Jordan to Pella, and so were freed from all those unparalleled miseries, which their obstinate and perverse and unbelieving Countrymen were forced to endure from the close Siege of Titus, that happened some Months after. To Conclude; As the Old World was once drowned and overwhelmed by Water, so we believe God will one day let loose upon it that other more fierce and raging Element of Fire, which shall consume all its Glories into Ashes, and make it but as one Funeral pile at the dissolution of Nature. We all profess to believe, that Christ will come to judge both the quick and the dead, and we have had frequent Warnings and Alarms of his Coming. How doth it concern us to prepare for that Day, wherein we and all the Generations of men, that ever were or ever shall be, must stand before his Throne, and not delay our repentance one moment, lest Death surprise us on a sudden, and as Death leaves us, Judgement will find us; but secure an Interest in CHRIST, and make him our Advocate, who is to be our Judge: And then happy shall we be at that day amidst the noise of the perishing World; and as Noah and his Family were saved in the Universal Deluge, as the Text says, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, through or in the midst of Water, so shall we be saved in the time of that Universal Conflagration, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, through or in the midst of Fire. Page, 43. l. 24. in some Copies r. impious. p. 47. l. 5. we. p. 47. l. 23. incomparably. FINIS.