it is truly all for our light is the light of good works and that light proceeds from all the other three and so is all those and then it goes beyond all three and so is none of them It proceeds from all for if we consider the first light the light of nature Ephes 2.10 in our creation We are sayes the Apostle his workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works So that we were all made for that for good works even the naturall man by that first light Consider it in the second light in baptisme there we dye in Christ and are buried in Christ and rise in Christ and in him we are new creatures and with him we make a covenant in baptisme for holinesse of life which is the body of good works Consider the third that of faith and as every thing in nature is so faith is perfected by working Jam. 2.26 for faith is dead without breath without spirit if it be without workes So this light is in all those lights we are created we are baptized we are adopted for good works and it is beyond them all even that of faith for though faith have a preheminence because works grow out of it and so faith as the root is first yet works have the preheminence thus both that they include faith in them and that they dilate and diffuse and spread themselves more declaratorily then faith doth Therefore as our Saviour said to some that asked him John 6.28 What shall we do that we might work the work of God you see their minde was upon works something they were sure was to be done This is the work of God that ye beleeve in him whom he hath sent and so refers them to faith so to another that asks him What shall I do that I may have eternall life Mat. 19.16 all goe upon that that something there must be done works there must be Christ sayes Keepe the Commandements and so refers him to works He hath shewed thee O man what is good Mic. 6.8 and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to shew mercy and to walk humbly with thy God This then is the light that lighteth every man that goes out of the world good works for their works follow them Their works they shall be theirs Apoc. 14.13 even after their death which is our second branch in this first part the propriety lux vestra let your light shine I cannot alwaies call the works that I do my works for sometimes God works them Proprietas vestra Esay 28.21 and sometimes the devill Sometimes God works his owne worke The Lord will do his worke his strange worke and bring to passe his act his strange act Sometimes he works my works Thou Lord hast wrought all our workes in us In us and in all things else Esay 26.12 1 Cor. 12.6 Ephes 1.11 Esay 43.13 Rom. 7.15 Operatur omnia in omnibus he worketh all in all And all this in all these Secundum consilium voluntatis suae After the counsaile of his owne will for I will worke and who shall let it But for all this his generall working his enemy works in us too That which I doe I allow not saies the Apostle nay I know it not for saies he what I hate that I doe And if I doe that I would not doe it is no more I that doe it but sin that dwelleth in me Yet ver 20. for all this diverse this contrary working as S. Augustine sayes of the faculty of the will Nihil tam nostrum quam voluntas there is nothing so much our owne as our will before we worke August so there is nothing so much our owne as our workes after they are done They stick to us they cleave to us whether as fomentations to nourish us or as corrasives to gnaw upon us that lyes in the nature of the worke but ours they are and upon us our works work Our good works are more ours then our faith is ôurs Our faith is ours as we have received it our worke is ours as we have done it Faith is ours as we are possessors of it the work ours as we are doers actors in it Faith is ours as our goods are ours works as our children are ours And therefore when the Prophet Habakkuk saies Fide sua Hab. 2.4 The just shall live by his faith that particle His is a word of possession not a word of Acquisition That God hath infused that faith into him and so it is his not that he hath produced that faith in himselfe His faith must save him his own and not anothers not his parents faith though he be the son of holy parents not the Churches faith if he be of yeares though he be within the covenant but his own personall faith yet not his so as that it grew in him or was produced in him by him by any plantation Rom. 1.17 Gal. 3.11 Heb. 10.36 or semination of his own And therefore S. Paul in citing that place of Habakkuk as he doth cite it three severall times in all those places leaves out that particle of propriety and acquisition his and still sayes The just shall live by faith and he sayes no more And when our blessed Saviour sayes to the woman with the bloody issue Fides tua Daughter Mar. 5.34 thy faith hath made thee whole it was said then when he had seen that woman come trembling and fall down at his feet he saw outward declarations of her faith he saw works And so in divers of those places where Christ repeats that fides tua thy faith we finde it added Iesus videns fidem Iesus seeing their faith With what eyes he looked upon them with his humane eyes not his divine he saw not that is considered not at that time their hearts but their outward declarations and proceeding as a good man would out of their good works concludes faith Velle nolle nostrum est to assent or to dis-assent is our own Hieron we may choose which we will doe Ipsumque quod nostrum est sine Dei miseratione nostrum non est But though this faculty be ours it is ours but because God hath imprinted it in us So that still to will as well as to doe to beleeve as well as to work is all from God but yet they are from God in a diverse manner and a diverse respect and certainly our works are more ours then our faith is and man concurres otherwise in the acting and perpetration of a good work then he doth in the reception and admission of faith Sed quae non fecimus ipsi sayes the Poet and he was Vates a Prophet in saying so Vix ea nostra voco nothing is ours but that which we have done our selves and all that is ours And though Christ refer us often to beliefe in this life because he would be sure to plant and fasten
onely yet if we pursue Gods Method and see what our understanding can doe we shall see that out of ratiocination and discourse and probabilities and very similitudes at last will arise evident and necessary conclusions such as these That as there is a God that God must be worshiped according to his will That therefore that will of God must be declared and manifested somewhere That this is done in some permanent way in some Scripture which is the Word of God That this booke which we call the Bible is by better reasons then any others can pretend that Scripture And when our Reason hath carried us so far as to accept these Scriptures for the Word of God then all the particular Articles A Virgins Son and a mortall God will follow evidently enough And then those two Propositions Mysteria credenda ut intelligantur Mysteries of Religion must be beleeved before they be understood and Mysteria intelligenda ut credantur Mysteries of Religion must be understood before they can be beleeved will be all one For God exalts our naturall facultie of understanding by Grace to apprehend them and then to that submission and assent which he by grace produces out of our understanding by a succeeding and more powerfull Grace he sets to the Seale of faith Waite thou therefore upon God his way present unto him an humble and a diligent understanding conclude not too desperately against thy selfe if thou have not yet attained to all degrees of faith but admit that preparation which God offers to thine understanding by an assiduous and a sedulous hearing for a narrower faith that proceeds out of a true understanding shall carry thee farther then a faith that seemes larger but is wrapped up in an implicite ignorance no man beleeves profitably that knows not why he beleeves The subject then that this worke is wrought in is that faculty mans understanding There God begins in the Instruction of this text Thou shalt understand Thou shalt The act shall be thine but yet the power is mine faciam te I will make thee understand which is another Consideration in this part God doth not determine his promise here Faciam in a Faciam ut intelligas I will cast an understanding upon thee I will cause an understanding to fall upon thee but it is faciam te intelligere I will make thee to understand Thou shalt be an Agent in thine own salvation When God made the Asse speake under Balaam God went not so far as this first step not to the faciam ut intelligas he imprinted infused no understanding in that Beast When God suffers the hypocrite to praise him he imprints no understanding Here is a Frustra colunt It is a worship that is no worship when it is with the lips onely and the heart far off So when a Papist cryes Templum domini Templum domini Visibility of a Church Infallibility in a Church here is no understanding He pretends to beleeve as the Church beleeves but he knowes not what the Church beleeves no nor he neither upon whom he relies for his Instruction his Priest his Confessor They are deceived that thinke every Priest or Jesuit that comes hither knowes the Tenets of that Church it is a more reserved a more perplexed a more involved matter then so To contract this Consideration when a Preacher speaks well and destroys as fast by his ill life as he builds by his good doctrine Psal 111.10 here is no understanding neither A good understanding have all they that keepe the Commandements not all they that preach them but that keepe them It is all they 1 Joh. 2.3 and onely they There is no other assurance but that Hereby we are sure that we know him if we keepe his Commandements This is our Criterium and onely this hereby we know it Pro. 18.9 and by nothing els So that as he that is slothfull in his worke is even the brother of him that is a great waster So he that builds not with both hands life and doctrine Chrysost is slothfull in his worke He that preaches against sin and doth it Instruit dominum quomodo eum condemnet He doth not so much teach his Auditory how to scape condemnation as teach God how to condemne him In these cases there is no understanding at all In the case of the Asse and the hypocrite and the blind Romanist and the vicious Preacher In some other cases there is understanding given but without any concurrence any cooperation of man as in those often visions and dreames and manifestations of God to the Prophets and his other servants There was a faciam ut intelligas God would make his pleasure knowne unto them but yet not as in this Text where God makes use of the man himselfe for his own salvation But yet it is God and God alone that does all this that rectifies our understanding as well as that establishes our faith It is my soule that sayes to mine eye faciam te videre I will make thee see and my soule that sayes to mine eare faciam te audire I will make thee heare and without that soule that eye and eare could no more see nor heare then the eyes and eares of an Idol so it is my God that sayes to my soule faciam te intelligere I will make thee understand And therefore as thou art bound to infinite thankesgivings to God when he hath brought thee to faith to forget not thy tribute by the way to blesse and magnifie him if he have enlarged thy desire of understanding and thy capacity of understanding and thy meanes of understanding for as howsoever a man may forget the order of the letters after he is come to reade perfectly and forget the rules of his Grammar after he is come to speake perfectly yet by those letters and by that Grammar he came to that perfection so though faith be of an infinite exaltation above understanding yet as though our understanding be above our senses yet by our senses we come to understand so by our understanding we come to beleeve And though the Holy Ghost repeat that more then once Domine quis credidit Lord who beleeves our report And that Shall the sonne of Man finde faith upon earth when he comes though he complain of want of faith yet he multiplies infinitely that complaint for want of understanding and there are ten Non intelligunts for one Non credunt ten increpations that his people did not understand for one that they did not beleeve because though faith be a nobler operation God takes it alwayes worst in us to neglect those things which are nearest us as he doth to neglect the ordinary and necessary duties of Religion and search curiously into the unrevealed purposes of his secret counsails And this Instruction to the understanding he seemes in this text to extend to all for this singular word Te I will make Thee Thee to understand includes no exclusion
is done sayes the Apostle So that here is the case if the naturall man say alas they are but dark notions of God which I have in nature if the Jew say alas they are but remote and ambiguous things which I have of Christ in the Prophets If the slack and historicall Christian say alas they are but generall things done for the whole world indifferently and not applyed to me which I reade in the Gospell to this naturall man to this Jew to this slack Christian we present an established Church a Church endowed with a power to open the wounds of Christ Jesus to receive every wounded soule to spread the balme of his blood upon every bleeding heart A Church that makes this generall Christ particular to every Christian that makes the Saviour of the world thy Saviour and my Saviour that offers the originall sinner Baptisme for that and the actuall sinner the body and blood of Christ Jesus for that a Church that mollifies and entenders and shivers the presumptuous sinner with denouncing the judgements of God and then consolidates and establishes the diffident soule with the promises of his Gospell a Church in contemplation whereof God may say Quid potui Vineae what could I doe more for my people then I have done first to send mine only Son to die for the whole world and then to spread a Church over the whole world by which that death of his might be life to every soule This we preach this we propose according to that commission put into our hands Ite praedicate Goe and preach the Gospell to every creature and yet Domine quis credidit Lord who hath beleeved our report In this then the Apostle and this Text places the inflexible the incorrigible stiffenesse of mans disobedience in this he seales up his inexcusablenesse his irrecoverablenesse first that he is not afraid of future judgements because they are remote then that he does not beleeve present judgements to be judgements because he can make shift to call them by a milder name accidents and not judgements and can assigne some naturall or morall or casuall reason for them But especially in this that he does not beleeve a perpetuall presence of Christ in his Church he does not beleeve an Ordinance of meanes by which all burdens of bodily infirmities of crosses in fortune of dejection of spirit and of the primary cause of all these that is sin it selfe may be taken off or made easie unto him he does not beleeve a Church Now as in our former part we were bound to know Gods hand and then bound to reade it to acknowledge a judgement to be a judgement and then to consider what God intended in that judgement so here we are bound to know the true Church and then to know what the true Church proposes to us The true Church is that where the word is truely preached and the Sacraments duly administred But it is the Word the Word inspired by the holy Ghost not Apocryphall not Decretall not Traditionall not Additionall supplements and it is the Sacraments Sacraments instituted by Christ himself and not those super-numerary sacraments those posthume post-nati sacramēts that have been multiplyed after and then that which the true Church proposes is all that is truly necessary to salvation and nothing but that in that quality as necessary So that Problematical points of which either side may be true in which neither side is fundamentally necessary to salvation those marginal interlineary notes that are not of the body of the text opinions raised out of singularity in some one man and then maintained out of partiality and affection to that man these problematicall things should not be called the Doctrine of the Church nor lay obligations upon mens consciences They should not disturb the general peace they should not extinguish particular charity towards one another The Act then that God requires of us is to beleeve so the words carry it in all the three places The Object the next the nearest Object of this Belief is made the Church that is to beleeve that God hath established means for the application of Christs death to all in all Christian Congregations All things are possible to him that beleeveth Mar. 9 23. saith our Saviour In the Word and Sacraments there is Salvation to every soule that beleeves there is so As on the other side we have from the same mouth and the same pen He that beleeveth not is damned Faith then being the root of all Mar. 16.16 and God having vouchsafed to plant this root this faith here in his terrestriall paradise and not in heaven in the manifest ministery of the Gospell and not in a secret and unrevealed purpose for faith comes by hearing and hearing by preaching which are things executed and transacted here in the Church be thou content with those meanes which God hath ordained and take thy faith in those meanes and beleeve it to be influxus suasorius that it is an influence from God but an influence that works in thee by way of perswasion and not of compulsion It convinces thee but it doth not constraine thee It is as S. Augustine sayes excellently Vocatio congrua it is the voice of God to thee but his voice then when thou art fit to heare and answer that voice not fitted by any exaltation of thine own naturall faculties before the cōming of grace nor fitted by a good husbanding of Gods former grace so as in rigor of justice to merit an increase of grace but fitted by his preventing his auxiliant his concomitant grace grace exhibited to thee at that time when he calls thee for so saies that Father Sic eum vocat quo modo seit ei congruere ut vocantē non respuat God calls him then when he knows he wil not resist his calling But he doth not say then when he cānot resist that needs not be said But as there is podus glcriae as the Apostle speaks an eternall weight of glory which mans understanding cannot cōprehend so there is Pondus gratiae a certain weight of grace that God layes upon that soule which shall be his under which that soule shall not easily bend it self any way from God This then is the summe of this whole Catechisme which these words in these three places doe constitute First that we be truely affected with Gods fore-warnings and say there Domine credo Lord I beleeve that report I beleeve that judgement to be denounced against my sin And then that we be duely affected with present changes and say there Domine credo Lord I beleeve that report I beleeve this judgement to come from thee and to be a letter of thy hand Lord enlighten others to interpret it aright for thy more publique glory and me for my particular reformation And then lastly to be sincerely and seriously affected with the Ordinances of his Church and to rest in them for the means of our salvation and to
because he may have roome in an Hospitall or reliefe by a pension when he comes home lame but because he may get something by going into a fat country and against a rich enemy Though honour may seeme to feed upon blowes and dangers men goe cheerefully against an enemy from whom something is to be got for profit is a good salve to knocks a good Cere-cloth to bruises and a good Balsamum to wounds God therefore here raises the reward out of the enemy feed him and thou shalt gaine by it But yet the profit that God promises by the enemy here is rather that we shall gaine a soule then any temporall gaine rather that we shall make that enemy a better man then that we shall make him a weaker enemy God respects his spirituall good as we shall see in that phrase which is our last branch Congeres carbones Thou shalt heape coales of fire upon his head It is true that S. Chrysostome and not he alone takes this phrase to imply a Revenge Carbones that Gods judgements shall be the more vehement upon such ungratefull persons Et terrebuntur beneficiis the good turnes that thou hast done to them shall be a scourge and a terror to their consciences This sense is not inconvenient but it is too narrow The Holy Ghost hath taken so large a Metaphor as implyes more then that It implyes the divers offices and effects of fire all this That if he have any gold any pure metall in him this fire of this kindnesse will purge out the drosse there is a friend made If he be nothing but straw and stubble combustible still still ready to take fire against thee this fire which Gods breath shall blow will consume him and burn him out and there is an enemy marred If he have any tendernesse any way this fire will mollifie him towards thee Nimis durus animus sayes S. Augustine he is a very hard hearted man Qui si ultro dilectionem non vult impendere etiam nolit rependere Who though he will not requite thy love yet will not acknowledge it If he be waxe he melts with this fire and if he be clay he hardens with it and then thou wilt arme thy selfe against that pellet Thus much good Origen God intends to the enemy in this phrase that it is pia vindicta si resipiscant we have taken a blessed revenge upon our enemies if our charitable applying of our selves to them may bring them to apply themselves to God and to glorifie him si benefaciendo cicuremus sayes S. Hierome if we can tame a wilde beast by sitting up with him and reduce an enemy by offices of friendship it is well 〈◊〉 much good God intends him in this phrase and so much good he intends us that si non incendant if these coales do not purge him Aben Ezra Levi Gherson si non injiciant pudorem if they do not kindle a shame in him to have offended one that hath deserved so well yet this fire gives thee light to see him clearely and to run away from him and to assure thee that he whom so many benefits cannot reconcile is irreconcileable SERMON XI Preached upon Candlemas day MAT. 9.2 And Iesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsie My son be of good cheare thy sins be forgiven thee IN these words Divisio and by occasion of them we shall present to you these two generall considerations first upon what occasion Christ did that which he did and then what it was that he did And in the first we shall see first some occasions that were remote but yet conduce to the Miracle it selfe some circumstances of time and place and some such dispositions and then the more immediate occasion the disposition of those persons who presented this sick man to Christ and there we shall see first that Faith was the occasion of all for without faith it is impossible to please God and without pleasing of God it is impossible to have remission of sins It was fides and fides illorum their faith all their faith for though in the faith of others there be an assistance yet without a personall faith in himselfe no man of ripe age comes so far as to the forgivenesse of sins And then this faith of them all was fides visa a faith that was seen Christ saw their faith and he saw it as man it was a faith expressed and declared in actions And yet when all was done it is but cum vidit it is not quia vidit Christ did it When he saw not Because he saw their faith that was not the principle and primary cause of his mercy for the mercy of God is all and above all it is the effect and it is the cause too there is no cause of his mercy but his mercy And when we come in the second part to consider what in his mercy he did we shall see first that he establishes him and comforts him with a gracious acceptation with that gracious appellation Fili Son He doth not disavow him he doth not disinherite him and then he doth not wound him whom God had striken he doth not flea him whom God had scourged he doth not salt him whom God had flead he doth not adde affliction to affliction he doth not shake but settle that faith which he had with more Confide fili My son be of good cheare and then he seales all with that assurance Dimittuntur peccata Thy sins are forgiven thee In which first he catechises this patient and gives him all these lessons first that he gives before we ask for he that was brought they who brought him had asked nothing in his behalfe when Christ unasked enlarged himself towards them Dat prius God gives before we ask that is first And then Dat meliora God gives better things then we ask All that all they meant to ask was but bodily health and Christ gave him spirituall and the third lesson was that sin was the cause of bodily sicknesse and that therefore he ought to have sought his spirituall recovery before his bodily health and then after he had thus rectified him by this Catechisme implyed in those few words Thy sins are forgiven thee he takes occasion by this act to rectifie the by-standers too which were the Pharisees who did not beleeve Christ to be God For for proofe of that first he takes knowledge of their inward thoughts not expressed by any act or word which none but God could doe And then he restores the patient to bodily health onely by his word without any naturall meanes applyed which none but God could doe neither And into fewer particulars then these this pregnant and abundant Text is not easily contracted First then to begin with the Branches of the first part of which the first was 1 Part. to consider some somewhat more remote circumstances and occasions conducing to this miracle we cannot avoid the making
Consistory but that the Pope for a certain time inhibites them to give voice And let Aquinas present his arguments to the contrary That those spirits have no naturall power to know thoughts we seek no farther but that Christ Jesus himselfe thought it argument enough to convince the Scribes and Pharisees and prove himselfe God by knowing their thoughts Eadem Majestate potentia sayes S. Hierome Since you see I proceed as God in knowing your thoughts why beleeve you not that I may forgive his sins as God too And then in the last act he joynes both together he satisfies the patient Dat sanitatem and he satisfies the beholders too he gives him his first desire bodily health He bids him take up his bed and walk and he doth it and he shewes them that he is God by doing that which as it appears in the Story was harder in their opinion then remission of sins which was to cure and recover a diseased man only by his word without any naturall or second means And therefore since all the world shakes in a palsie of wars and rumors of wars since we are sure that Christs Vicar in this case will come to his Dimitmittuntur peccata to send his Buls and Indulgences and Crociatars for the maintenance of his part in that cause let us also who are to do the duties of private men to obey and not to direct by presenting our diseased and paralytique souls to Christ Jesus now when he in the Ministery of his unworthiest servant is preaching unto you by untiling the house by removing all disguises and palliations of our former sins by true confession and hearty detestation let us endeavour to bring him to his Dimittuntur peccata to forgive us all those sins which are the true causes of all our palsies and slacknesses in his service and so without limiting him or his great Vicegerents and Lieutenants the way or the time to beg of him that he will imprint in them such counsels and such resolutions as his wisdome knows best to conduce to his glory and the maintenance of his Gospell Amen SERMON XII Preached upon Candlemas day MAT. 5.2 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God THe Church which is the Daughter of God and Spouse of Christ celebrates this day the Purification of the blessed Virgin the Mother of God And she celebrates this day by the name vulgarly of Candlemas day It is dies luminarium the day of lights The Church took the occasion of doing so from the Gentiles At this time of the yeare about the beginning of February they celebrated the feast of Februus which is their Pluto And because that was the God of darknesse they solemnized it with a multiplicity of Lights The Church of God in the outward and ceremoniall part of his worship did not disdain the ceremonies of the Gentiles Men who are so severe as to condemne and to remove from the Church whatsoever was in use amongst the Gentiles before may before they are aware become Surveyors and Controllers upon Christ himself in the institution of his greatest seales for Baptisme which is the Sacrament of purification by washing in water and the very Sacrament of the Supper it self religious eating and drinking in the Temple were in use amongst the Gentiles too It is a perverse way rather to abolish Things and Names for vehement zeale will work upon Names as well as Things because they have been abused then to reduce them to their right use We dealt in the reformation of Religion as Christ did in the institution thereof He found ceremonies amongst the Gentiles and he took them in not because he found them there but because the Gentiles had received them from the Jews as they had their washings and their religious meetings to eat and drink in the Temple from the Jews Passeover Christ borrowed nothing of the Gentiles but he took his own where he found it Those ceremonies which himself had instituted in the first Church of the Jews and the Gentiles had purloined and prophaned and corrupted after he returned to a good use againe And so did we in the Reformation in some ceremonies which had been of use in the Primitive Church and depraved and corrupted in the Romane For the solemnizing of this Day Candlemas-day when the Church did admit Candles into the Church as the Gentiles did it was not upon the reason of the Gentiles who worshipped therein the God of darknesse Februus Pluto but because he who was the light of the world was this day presented and brought into the Temple the Church admitted lights The Church would signifie that as we are to walk in the light so we are to receive our light from the Church and to receive Christ and our knowledge of him so as Christ hath notified himself to us So it is a day of purification to us and a day of lights and so our Text fits the Day Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God In these words we shall consider first Divisie Qui sint who they are that are brought into consideration that are put into the balance and they are mundi corde such as are pure of heart And secondly Quid sint what they come to be and it is Beati blessed are the pure in heart And lastly Vnde from whence this blessednesse accrews and arises unto them and in what it consists and that is Videbunt Deum blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Gen. 6.5 Ask me wherein these men differ from other men and it is in this main difference Mundi corde that whereas every imagination of the thought of mans heart is only evill continually They are pure of heart Ask me what they get by that They get this main purchase Beati That which all the books of all the Philosophers could never teach them so much as what it was that is true Blessednesse That their pocket book their Manuall their bosome book their conscience doth not only shew them but give them not only declare it to them but possesse them of it Ask me how long this Blessednesse shall last because all those Blessednesses which Philosophers have imagined as honour and health and profit and pleasure and the like have evaporated and vanished away this shall last for ever Videbunt Deum they shall see God and they shall no more see an end of their seeing God then an end of his being God Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God These then are our three parts first the Price mundities cordis cleannesse and cleannesse of heart Secondly the Purchase Beati Blessednesse and present possession of blessednesse Blessed are they And then thirdly the Habendum the term Everlastingnesse because it consists in the enjoying of him who is everlasting They shall see God These arise out of the Text but from whence arises the Text it selfe The Text it self is a piece of a Sermon of
no man would ever have thought of of himself nor might have prayed for if he could have imagined it this Mercy of the Father is the object of our Thankfulness The Merit of the Son That into a man but of our nature and equall to us in infirmities there should be superinfused such another nature such a divinity as that any act of that Person so composed of those two natures should be even in the rigour of Justice a sufficient ransome for all the sins of all the Werld is the object of our admiration But the object of our consolation which is the subject of this Text is this That the Holy Ghost by his presence and by inanimating the Ordinances of Christ in the Ministery of the Gospell applies this mercy and this merit to me to thee to every soul that answers his motions In that Contract that past between Solomon and Hiram for commerce and trade between their Nations 1 Kâ—â—g 5. That Solomon should send him Corne and Oyle and Hiram should send him Cedar and other rich materials for Building that people of God received an honor and an assurance in that present Contract for future trade and commerce So did the World in that Contract which past betweene the Father and the Son That the Father should send downe God and the World should deliver up Man The nature of Man to be assumed by that Son and so a Redemption should be wrought after in the fulnesse of Time And then in the performance of this Contract when Hiram sent downe those rich materials from Libanon to the Sea and by Sea in Flotes to the place assigned Ver. 9. where Solomon received them that people of God received a reall profit in that actuall performance of that which was but in contract before So did the World too when in the fulnesse of Time and in the place assigned by God in the Prophet Micah which was Bethlem the Son of God came in our flesh and after dyed for us His Blood was the Substance the Materials of our ransome and actually and really delivered and deposited for us which was the performance of the former Contract between his Father and him But then was the dignity of that people of God accomplisht when those rich Materials so sent were really imploied in the building of the Temple when the Altar and the Oracle were cloathed with that Gold when the Cherubim and the Olive-Trees and the other Figures were made of that rich stuffe which was provided when certaine chiefe Officers and three thousand three hundred under-Officers Ver. 15. Ver. 14. were appointed to over-see the Work and ten thousand that attended by monthly courses and seaven score ten thousand that were alwaies resident upon the Work And so is our comfort accomplisht to us when the Holy Ghost distributes these materials the Blood and the Merits of Christ upon severall Congregations and that by his higher Officers Reverend and Vigilant Bishops and others that have part in the Government of the Church and then by those who like Solomons ten thousand performed the service by monthly courses and those who like his seaven score and ten thousand are alwayes resident upon fixt places that salvation of soules so decreed at first by the Father and so accomplished after by the Son is by the Holy Ghost shed and spred upon particular men When as the world began in a community that every thing was every bodies but improved it selfe to a propriety and came to a Meum Tuum that every man knew his owne so that which is Salus Domini The Salvation of the Lord as it is in the first Decree and that which is Salus Mundi The Salvation of the World as it is in the accomplishment of the Decree by Christ may be Mea Tua My Salvation and thy Salvation as it is applyed by the Holy Ghost in the Ministry of the Church Salvation in the Decree is as the Bezar stone in the maw of that creature there it growes Salvation in Christs death is as that Bezar in the Merchants or Apothecaries provision But salvation in the Church in the distribution and application thereof by the Holy Ghost is as that Bezar working in my veines expelling my peccant humours and rectifying my former defects The last work the Seale and Consummation of all is of the Holy Ghost And therefore as the Manifestation of the whole Trinity seemes to have been reserved for Christ so Christ seemes to have reserved the Manifestation of the Holy Ghost for his last Doctrine For this is the last Sermon that Christ preached And this is a Sermon recorded only by that last Euangelist who as he considered the Divine Nature of Christ more then the rest did and so took it higher so did he also consider the future state and succession of the Church more then the rest did and so carried it lower For S. Iohn was a Prophet as well as an Euangelist Therefore in this last and lasting Euangelist and in this last Sermon Christ declares this last work in this world that is the Consummation of our Redemption in the application of the Holy Ghost For herein consists our comfort that it is He the Holy Ghost that ministers this comfort Christ had told them before that there should be a Comforter sent Ver. 16. But he did not tell them then that that Comforter was the Holy Ghost Here he does at last he does and he ends all in that that we might end and determine our comfort in that too This God gives me by the Holy Ghost For we mistake false comforts for true We comfort our selves in things that come not at all from God in things which are but vanities and conduce not all to any true comfort And we comfort our selves in things which though they doe come from God yet are not signed nor sealed by the Holy Ghost For Wealth and Honour and Power and Favour are of God but we have but stolne them from God or received them by the hand of the Devil if we be come to them by ill meanes And if we have them from the hand of God by having acquired them by good meanes yet if we make them occasions of sin in the ill use of them after we lose the comfort of the Holy Ghost which requires the testimony of a rectified conscience that all was well got and is well used Therefore as Christ puts the Origination of our Redemption upon the Father I came but to doe my Fathers will and as he takes the execution of that Decree upon himselfe I am the way and the truth and the life and the Resurrection I am all so he puts the comfort of all upon the Holy Ghost Discomfort and Disconsolation Sadnesse and Dejection Damnation and Damnation aggravated and this aggravated Damnation multiplied upon that soule that findes no comfort in the Holy Ghost If I have no Adventure in an East-Indian Returne though I be not the
and dignity and outward splendor The Church of God requires also besides unanimity in fundamentall Doctrines an equanimity and a mildnesse and a charity in handling problematicall points and also requires order and comelinesse in the outward face and habit thereof And so we preach a Kingdome So we preach a Kingdome as that we banish from thence all imaginary fatality and all decretory impossibility of concurrence and cooperation to our owne salvation And yet we banish all pride and confidence that any naturall faculties in us though quickned by former grace can lead us to salvation without a continuall succession of more and more grace And so we preach a Kingdome So as that we banish all spirituall treason in setting up new titles or making any thing equall to God or his Word And we banish all spirituall felony or robbery in despoyling the Church Psal 45.13 either of Discipline or of Possessions either of Order or of Ornaments Be the Kings Daughter all glorious within Yet all her glory is not within For Her cloathing is of wrought gold sayes that text Still may she glory in her internall glory in the sincerity and in the integrity of Doctrinall truths and glory too in her outward comelinesse and beauty So pray we and so preach we the Kingdome of God And so we have done with our first Part. Our second Part 2 Part. to which in our order we are now come is a passionate valediction Now I know that all you shall see my face no more where first we inquire how he knew it But why doe we inquire that They that heard him did not so They heard it and beleeved it Acts 17.10 and lamented it When S. Paul preached at Berea his story sayes that he was better beleeved there then at Thessalonica And the reason is given That there were Nobler persons there Persons of better quality of better natures and dispositions and of more ingenuity and so as it is added They received the word with all readinesse of minde Prejudices and disaffections and under-valuations of the abilities of the Preacher in the hearer disappoint the purpose of the Holy Ghost frustrate the labours of the man and injure and defraud the rest of the Congregation who would and would justly like that which is said if they were not mis-led and shaked by those hearers And so worke also such jealousies and suspitions that though his abilities be good yet his end upon his Auditory is not their edification but to work upon them to other purposes Though we require not an implicite faith in you that you beleeve because we say it yet we require a holy Noblenesse in you A religious good nature a conscientious ingenuity that you remember from whom we come from the King of heaven and in what quality as his Ambassadors And so be apt to beleeve that since we must returne to him that sent us and give him a relation of our negotiation we dare not transgresse our Commission The Bereans are praised for this That they searched the Scriptures daily whether those things that Paul said were so But this begun not at a jealousie or suspition in them that they doubted that that which he said was not so nor proceeded not to a gladnesse or to a desire that they might have taken him in a lie or might have found that that which he said was not so But they searched the Scriptures whether those things were so that so having formerly beleeved him when he preached they might establish that beliefe which they had received by that which was the infallible rocke and foundation of all The Scriptures They searched but they searched for confirmation and not upon suspition In our present case they to whom S. Paul said this doe not aske S. Paul how hee knew that they should see his face no more they beleeved as we doe that he had it by revelation from God and such knowledge is faith Tricubitalis er at coelum attingit sayes S. Chrysostome S. Paul was a man of low stature but foure foot and a halfe high sayes he and yet his head reached to the highest heaven and his eyes saw and his eares heard the counsels of God Scarce any Ambassadour can shew so many Letters of his Masters owne hand as S. Paul could produce Revelations His King came to him as often as other Kings write to their Ambassadours Acts 9.4 Gal. 1.1 Gal. 2. Acts 13. Acts 16. Acts 18. Acts 17. He had his first calling by Revelation He had his Commission his Apostle-ship by Revelation So hee was directed to Jerusalem And so to Rome to both by Revelation and so to Macedonia also So hee was confirmed and comforted in the night by Vision by Revelation And so he was assured of the lives of all them that suffered shipwrack with him at Malta All his Cate chismes in the beginning all his Dictats in his proceeding all his incouragements at his departing were all Revelation Every good man hath his conversation in heaven and heaven it self had a conversation in S. Paul And so even the book of the Acts of the Apostles is as it were a first Part of the book of Revelation Revelations to S. Paul as the other was to S. Iohn This is the way that Christ promised to take with him I will shew him Acts 9.16 Acts 20.11 how great things he must suffer for my sake And this way Christ pursued At Caesarea Agabus a Prophet came from Iudaea to Paul and took Pauls girdle and bound his own hands and feet and said Thus saith the Holy Ghost So shall the Iews binde the man that owes the girdle and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles This then was his case in our text for that revelation by Agabus his Prophesie of his suffering was after this he had a revelation that he should never be seen by them more but when or how or where he should dye he had not had a particular revelation then He sayes a little before our text Ver. 12. I goe bound in the Spirit to Ierusalem That is so bound by the Spirit that if I should not goe I should resist the Spirit But sayes he I know not the things that shall befall me there not at Jerusalem much lesse the last and bitterest things which were farther off the things that should befall him at Rome where he died But from the very first he knew enough of his death to shake any soule that were not sustained by the Spirit of God which is another Branch in this Part That no revelations no apprehensions of death removed him from his holy intrepidnesse and religious constancy We have a story in an Author of S. Hieromes time Palladius Non perterritus that in a Monastery of S. Isidors every Monk that dyed in that house was able and ever did tell all the society that at such a time he should die God does extraordinary things for extraordinary