observed in their Publication whereby those that are called to the service of private Churches and have not the convenience of Publick Libraries might have made more use of them for I have seen many great Edifices many noble Palaces erected without one stone taken out of the Quarry but so neer an Age where Holy Confusion is prescribed to the Preacher a little disorder I hope Gentle Reader may be pardoned in the Publisher JO. DONNE Postscript BY the Dates of these Sermons the Reader may easily collect that although they are the last that are published they were the first that were Preached and I did purposely select these from amongst all the rest for being to finish this Monument which I was to erect to his Memory I ought to reserve those materials that were set forth with the best Polish The Impression consists onely of Five hundred which will somewhat advance the Price but the buyer being at liberty he can receive no prejudice Upon the sending the First Volume of these SERMONS to the Right Reverend Father in God the Bishop of Peterborough then my Diocesan I received this Letter SIR YOu have sent me a Treasure and I would not share time to tell you so till I had somewhat satisfied the thirst I had to drink down many of those Excellent Sermons which I have so long desired And by this I have the advantage that I can know what I thank you for though I could presumptuously value them by the rest of his which I have heard and read formerly for I think I have all those that in the Press did foreran these yet by this time I can sensibly acknowledge to you how great cause so many of us have to thank you How well may your Parishioners pardon your silence to them for a while since by it you have Preached to them and their Childrens children and to all our English Parishes for ever For certainly many ages hence when they shall be made good or confirmed in goedness by studying your Father they shall account these times Primitive in which he Preached and you will then if not now be in danger to lose your propriety in him he will be called a Father of the Church Sir Though this Book with his former Printed Sermons be a great Stock to the Church from one man yet if you shall please to perform the trust of a good Executor there is I presume a great remainder of his Legacy which when you have taken breath we must call you to account for in a Court of Equity though you may think this will abundantly satisfie yet believe it Sir it will but increase our appetite We shall give you time Sir but no general release yet his God and yours assist you to whose blessing I commend you and am Sir Your very Friend in Christ Jesus Jo. Peterborough Peterborough July 20. 1640. THE CONTENTS SERMON I. A Lent Sermon Preached at White-hall February 20. 1617. Luc. 23.40 Fearest thou not God being under the same condemnation Page 1 SERMON II. A Lent Sermon Preached at White-hall February 12. 1618. Ezek. 33.32 And lo thou art unto them as a very lovely Song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an Instrument for they hear thy words but they do them not p. 15 SERMON III. A Lent Sermon Preached at White-hall February 20. 1628. James 2.12 So speakye and so Do as they that shall be judged by the law of Liberty p. 28 SERMON IV. A Lent Sermon Preached before the King at White-hall February 16. 1620. 1 Tim. 3.16 And without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into Glory p. 45 SERMON V. A Lent Sermon Preached to the King at White-hall February 12. 1629. Mat. 6.21 For where your Treasure is there will your heart be also p. 61 SERMON VI. A Sermon Preached at White-hall April 21. 1616. Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evil p. 75 SERMON VII A Sermon Preached at White-hall Novemb 2. 1617. Psal 55.19 Because they have no changes therefore they fear not God p. 89 SERMON VIII A Sermon Preached to the Houshold at White-hall April 30. 1626. Mat. 9.13 I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance p. 101 SERMON X. A Sermon Preached at White-hall April 2. 1620. Eccles 5. There is an evil sickness that I have seen under the Sun Riches reserved to the owners thereof for their evil And these riches perish by evil travail and he begetteth a Son and in his hand is nothing Ver. 12. 13. in Edit 1. In alia 13. 14. p. 129 SERMON XI A Sermon Preached at Greenwich April 30. 1615. Esa 52.3 Ye have sold your selves for nought and ye shall be redeemed without money p. 153 SERMON XII A Sermon Preached at White-hall April 12. 1618. Gen. 32.10 I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant for with my staffe I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands p. 169 SERMON XIII A Sermon Preached at White-hall April 19. 1618. 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation That Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners of which I am the chiefest p. 177 SERMON XIV A Second Sermon Preached at White-hall April 2. 1621. 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation That Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners of which I am the chiefest p. 190 SERMON XV. A Sermon Preached at White-hall February 29. 1627. Acts 7.60 And when he had said this he fell asleep p. 205 SERMON XVI A Sermon Preached at White-hall February 22. 1629. Mat. 6.21 For where your Treasure is there will your heart be also p. 220 SERMON XVII James 2.12 So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty p. 241 SERMON XVIII A Sermon Preached to Queen Anne at Denmark-house Decemb. 14. 1617. Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me and they that seek me early shall finde me p. 257 SERMON XIX A Sermon of Valediction at my going into Germany at Lincolns-Inne April 18. 1619. Eccles 12.1 Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth p. 269 SERMON XX. Two Sermons to the Prince and Princess Palatine the Lady Elizabeth at Heydelberg when I was commanded by the King to wait upon my L. of Doncaster in his Embassage to Germany First Sermon as we went out June 16. 1619. Rom. 13.11 For now is our Salvation nearer then when we believed p. 281 SERMON XXI A Sermon Preached at St. Dunstans January 15. 1625. The first Sermon after our dispersion by the Sickness Exod. 12.30 For there was not a house
where there was not one dead p. 285 SERMON XXII A Sermon Preached at the Temple Esther 4.16 Go and assemble all the Jews that are found in Shushan and fast ye for me and eat not nor drink in three days day nor night I also and my Maids will fast likewise and so I will go in to the King which is not according to the Law And if I perish I perish p. 298 SERMON XXIII A Sermon Preached at Lincolns-Inne Ascension-day 1622. Deut. 12.30 Take heed to thy self that thou be not snared by following them after they be destroyed from before thee and that thou inquire not after their gods saying How did these Nations serve their gods Even so will I do likewise p. 311 SERMON XXIV A Sermon Preached at Pauls Cross to the Lords of the Council and other Honorable Persons 24 Mart. 1616. It being the Anniversary of the Kings coming to the Crown and his Majesty being then gone into Scotland Prov. 22.11 He that loveth pureness of heart for the grace of his lips the King shall be his friend p. 322 SERMON XXV A Sermon Preached at the Spittle upon Easter-Monday 1622. 2 Cor. 4.6 For God who commanded light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ P. 357 SERMON XXVI Psal 68.20 And unto God the Lord belong the issues of Death from Death P. 397 A Lent-SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL February 20. 1617. SERMON I. Serm. 1. Luc. 23.40 Fearest not thou God being under the same condemnation THe Text it self is a Christning-Sermon and a Funeral-Sermon and a Sermon at a Consecration and a Sermon at the Canonization of himself that makes it This Thief whose words they are is Baptized in his blood there 's his Christning He dyes in that profession there 's his Funeral His Diocess is his Cross and he takes care of his soul who is crucified with him and to him he is a Bishop there 's his Consecration and he is translated to heaven there 's his Canonization We have sometimes mention in Moses his book of Exodus according to the Romane Translation Operis Plumarii of a kind of subtle and various workmanship imployed upon the Tabernacle for which it is hard to finde a proper word now we translate it sometimes Embroidery sometimes Needle-work sometimes otherwise It is evident enough that it was Opus variegatum a work compact of divers pieces curiously inlaid and varied for the making up of some figure some representation and likelyest to be that which in sumptuous buildings we use to call now Mosaick work for that very word originally signifies to vary to mingle to diversifie As the Tabernacle of God was so the Scriptures of God are of this Mosaick work The body of the Scriptures hath in it limbs taken from other bodies and in the word of God are the words of other men other authors inlaid inserted But this work is onely where the Holy Ghost is the Workman It is not for man to insert to inlay other words into the word of God It is a gross piece of Mosaick work to insert whole Apocryphal books into the Scriptures It is a sacrilegious defacing of this Mosaick work to take out of Moses Tables such a stone as the second Commandment and to take out of the Lords Prayer such a stone as is the foundation-stone the reason of the prayer Quia Tuum For thine is the kingdom c. It is a counterfeit piece of Mosaick work when having made up a body of their Canon-Law of the raggs and fragments torne from the body of the Fathers they attribute to every particular sentence in that book not that authority which that sentence had in that Father from whom it is taken but that authority which the Canonization as they call it of that sentence gives it by which Canonization and placing it in that book it is made equal to the word of God Thesaurus Catholicus It is a strange piece of Mosaick work when one of their greatest authors pretending to present a body of proofs for all controverted points from the Scriptures and Councels and Fathers for he makes no mention in his promise of the Mothers of the Church doth yet fill up that body with sentences from women and obtrude to us the Revelations of Brigid and of Katherine and such She-fathers as those But when the Holy Ghost is the workman in the true Scriptures we have a glorious sight of this Mosaick this various this mingled work where the words of the Serpent in seducing our first parents The words of Balaams Ass in instructing the rider himself The words of prophane Poets in the writings and use of the Apostle The words of Caiaphas prophesying that it was expedient that one should dye for all The words of the Divel himself Jesus I know and Paul I know And here in this text the words of a Thief executed for the breach of the Law do all concur to the making up of the Scriptures of the word of God Now though these words were not spoken at this time when we do but begin to celebrate by a poor and weak imitation the fasting of our Saviour Jesus Christ but were spoken at the day of the crucifying of the Lord of life and glory yet as I would be loath to think that you never fast but in Lent so I would be loath to think that you never fulfill the sufferings of Christ Jesus in your flesh but upon Goodfriday never meditate upon the passion but upon that day As the Church celebrates an Advent a preparation to the Incarnation of Christ to his coming in the flesh in humiliation so may this humiliation of ours in the text be an Advent a preparation to his Resurrection and coming in glory And as the whole life of Christ was a passion so should the whole life especially the humiliation of a Christian be a continual meditation upon that Christ began with some drops of blood in his infancy in his Circumcision though he drowned the sins of all mankinde in those several channels of Blood which the whips and nailes and spear cut out of his body in the day of his passion So though the effects of his passion be to be presented more fully to you at the day of his passion yet it is not unseasonable now to contemplate thus far the working of it upon this condemned wretch whose words this text is Division as to consider in them First the infallibility and the dispatch of the grace of God upon them whom his gracious purpose hath ordained to salvation how powerfully he works how instantly they obey This condemned person who had been a thief execrable amongst men and a blasphemer execrating God was suddainly a Convertite suddainly a Confessor suddainly a Martyr suddainly a Doctor to preach to others In a second consideration we shall see what doctrine he preaches not curiosities
written whole books great Volumes of it may be without it In one word one word will not do it but in two words it is Aversio and Conversio it is a turning from our sins and a returning to our God It is both for in our Age in our Sickness in any impotencie towards a sin in any satiety of a sin we turn from our sin but we turn not to God we turn to a sinful delight in the memory of our sins and a sinful desire that we might continue in them So also in a storm at sea in any imminent calamity at land we turn to God to a Lord Lord but at the next calm and at the next deliverance we turn to our sin again He onely is the true Israelite the true penitent that hath Nathaniel's mark In quo non est dolus In whom there is no deceit For to sin and think God sees it not because we confess it not to confess it as sin and yet continue the practise of it to discontinue the practise of it and continue the possession of that which was got by that sin all this is deceit and destroys evacuates annihilates all Repentance To recollect all and to end all Christ justifies feasting he feasts you with himself And feasting in an Apostles house in his own house he feasts you often here And he admits Publicans to this feast men whose full and open life in Court must necessarily expose them to many hazards of sin and the Pharisees our adversaries calumniate us for this they say we admit men too easily to the Sacrament without confession without contrition without satisfaction God in heaven knows we do not less much less then they For Confession we require publike confession in the Congregation And in time of Sickness upon the death-bed we enjoyn private and particular Confession if the conscience be oppressed And if any man do think that that which is necessary for him upon his death-bed is necessary every time he comes to the Communion and so come to such a confession if any thing lie upon him as often as he comes to the Communion we blame not we disswade not we dis-counsel not that tenderness of conscience and that safe proceeding in that good soul For Contrition we require such a contrition as amounts to a full detestation of the sin and a full resolution not to relapse into that sin and this they do not in the Romane Church where they have soupled and mollified their Contrition into an Attrition For Satisfaction we require such a satisfaction as Man can make to Man in goods or fame and for the satisfaction due to God we require that every man with a sober and modest but yet with a confident and infallible assurance believe the satisfaction given to God by Christ for all mankinde to have been given and accepted for him in particular This Christ with joy and thanksgiving we acknowledge to be come to be come actually we expect no other after him we joyn no other to him And come freely without any necessity impos'd by any above him and without any invitation from us here Come not to meet us who were not able to rise without him but yet not to force us to save us against our wills but come to call us by his Ordinances in his Church us not as we pretend any righteousness of our own but as we confess our selves to be sinners and sinners led by this call to Repentance which Repentance is an everlasting Divorce from our beloved sin and an everlasting Marriage and super-induction of our ever-living God A SERMON Preached at VVHITE-HALL April 2. 1620. Serm. 10. SERMON X. ECCLES 5. There is an evil sickness that I have seen under the Sun Riches reserved to the owners thereof for their evill And these riches perish by evil travail and he begetteth a son and in his hand is nothing Ver. 12. 13. in Edit 1. In alia 13. 14. THe kingdom of heaven is a feast to get you a Stomach to that we have preached abstinence The kingdom of heaven is a treasure too and to make you capable of that we would bring you to a just valuation of this world He that hath his hands full of dirt cannot take up Amber if they be full of Counters he cannot take up gold This is the Book Hierm. which St. Hierome chose to expound to Blesilla at Rome when his purpose was to draw her to heaven by making her to understand this world It was the book fittest for that particular way and it is the Book which St. Ambrose calls Bonum ad omnia magistrum Ambros A good Master to correct us in this world a good Master to direct us to the next For though Solomon had asked at Gods hand onely the wisdom fit for Government yet since he had bent his wishes upon so good a thing as wisdom and in his wishes even of the best thing had been so moderate God abounded in his grant and gave him all kinds Naturall and Civil and heavenly wisdom And therefore when the Fathers and the latter Authours in the Roman Church exercise their considerations August whether Solomon were wiser then Adam then Moses then the Prophets then the Apostles they needed not to have been so tender as to except onely the Virgin Mary for though she had such a fulness of heavenly wisdom as brought her to rest in his bosome in heaven who had rested in hers upon earth yet she was never proposed for an example of natural or of civil knowledge Solomon was of all and therefore St. Austin sayes of him Prophetavit in omnibus Libris suis Solomon prophesied in all his books and though in this book his principal scope be moral and practique wisdom yet in this there are also mysteries and prophecies and many places concerning our eternal happiness after this life But because there is no third object for mans love This world and the next are all that he can consider as he hath but two eyes so he hath but two objects and then Primus actus voluntatis est Amor Aquinas Mans love is never idle it is ever directed upon somthing if our love might be drawn from this world Solomon thought it a direct way to convay it upon the next And therefore consider Solomons method and wisdom in pursuing this way because all the world together hath amazing greatness and an amazing glory in it for the order and harmony and continuance of it for if a man have many Manors he thinks himself a great Lord and if a Man have many Lords under him he is a great King and if he have Kings under him he is a great Emperor and yet what profit were it to get all the world and loose thy soule Therefore Solomon shakes the world in peeces he dissects it and cuts it up before thee that so thou mayest the better see how poor a thing that particular is whatsoever it be
vow is included all the service that he could exhibite or retribute to God Now his staffe is become a sword a strong Army his one staff now is multiplyed his wives are given for staffes to assist him and his children given also for staffes to his age His own staffe is become the greatest and best part of Labans wealth In such plenty as that he could spare a present to Esau of at least five hundred head of cattell The fathers make Morall expositions of this That his two bands are his Temporall blessings and his spirituall And St. Augustin findes a tipicall allusion in it of Christ Aug. Baculo Crucis Christus apprehendit mundum cum duabus turmis duobus populis ad patrem rediit Christ by his staffe his Cross muster'd two bands that is Jews and Gentiles We finde enough for our purpose in taking it literally as we see it in the Text That he divided all his company and all his cattell into two troups that if Esau come and smite one the other might scape For then onely is a fortune full when there is somthing for Leakage for wast when a Man though he may justly fear that this shall be taken from him yet he may justly presume that this shall be left to him though he lose much yet he shall have enough And this was Jacobs increase and height and from this lowness from one staff to two bands And therefore since in God we can consider but one state Semper idem immutable since in the Devil we can consider but two states Quomodo cecidit filius Orientis that he was the son of the Morning but is and shall ever be for ever the child of everlasting death since in Jacob and in our selves we can consider first that God made man righteous secondly that man betooke himself to his one staff and his own staff The imaginations of his own heart Thirdly That by the word of God manifested by his Angels he returns with two bands Body and Soul to his heavenly father againe let us attribute all to his goodness and confesse to him and the world That we are not worthy of the least of all his Mercies and of all the Truth which he hath shewed unto his Servant for with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands A SERMON Preached at White-hall Serm. 13. April 19. 1618. SERMON XIII 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners of which I am the chiefest THE greatest part of the body of the old-Testament is Prophecy and that is especially of future things The greatest part of the new-Testament if wee number the peeces is Epistles Relations of things past for instruction of the present They erre not much that call the whol new-Testament Epistle For even the Gospells are Evangelia good Messages and that 's proper to an Epistle and the booke of the Acts of the Apostles is superscrib'd by Saint Luke to one Person to Theophilus and that 's proper to an Epistle and so is the last booke the booke of Revelation to the severall Churches and of the rest there is no question An Epistle is collucutio scripta saies Saint Ambrose Though it be written far off and sent yet it is a Conference and seperatos copulat sayes hee by this meanes wee overcome distances we deceive absences and wee are together even then when wee are asunder And therefore in this kinde of conveying spirituall comfort to their friends have the ancient Fathers been more exercised then in any other former almost all of them have written Epistles One of them Isidorus him whom wee call Peluciotes Saint Chrysostom's schollar is noted to have written Myriades Nicephor and in those Epistles to have interpreted the whole Scriptures St. Paul gave them the example he writ nothing but in this kind and in this exceeded all his fellow Apostles pateretur Paulus quod Saulus seceret saies St. Austin That as he had asked Letters of Commission of the State to persecute Christians so by these Letters of Consolation hee might recompence that Church againe which hee had so much damnified before As the Hebrew Rabbins say That Rahab did let down Jofuah's spies out of her house with the same cord with which she had used formerly to draw up her adultrous lovers into her house Now the holy-Ghost was in all the Authors of all the books of the Bible but in Saint Paul's Epistles there is sayes Irenaeus Impetus Spiritus Sancti The vehemence the force of the holy-Ghost And as that vehemence is in all his Epistles so amplius habent quae e vinculis as Saint Chrysostome makes the observation Those Epistles which were written in Prison have most of this holy vehemence and this as that Father notes also is one of them And of all them we may justly conceive this to be the most vehement and forcible in which he undertakes to instruct a Bishop in his Episcopall function which is to propagate the Gospell for he is but an ill Bishop that leaves Christ where he found him in whose time the Gospell is yet no farther then it was how much worse is he in whose time the Gospell loses ground who leaves not the Gospell in so good state as he found it Now of this Gospell here recommended by Paul to Timothie this is the Summe That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners c. Division Here then we shall have these three Parts First Radicem The Roote of the Gospell from whence it springs it is fidelis sermo a faithfull Word which cannot erre And secondly we have Arborem Corpus the Tree the Body the substance of the Gospell That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners And then lastly fructum Evangelii the fruit of the Gospell Humility that it brings them who embrace it to acknowledg themselves to be the greatest sinners And in the first of these the Roote it selfe wee shall passe by these steps First that it is Sermo the Word That the Gospell hath as good a ground as the Law the new-Testament as well founded as the Old It is the word of God And then it is fidelis Sermo a faithfull Word now both Old and New are so and equally so but in this the Gospell is fidelior the more faithfull and the more sure because that word the Law hath had a determination an expiration but the Gospell shall never have that And againe It is Sermo omni acceptatione dignus Worthy of all acceptation not only worthy to bee received by our Faith but even by our Reason too our Reason cannot hold out against the proofes of Christians for their Gospell And as the word imports it deserves omnem acceptationem and omnem approbationem all approbation and therefore as wee should not dispute against it and so are bound to accept it to receive it not to
our family We have in the use of our Church a short and a larger Catechism both instruct the same things the same Religion but some capacities require the one and some the other God would catechise us in the knowledge of our mortality since we have devested our immortality he would have us understand our mortality since we have induced death upon our selves God would raise such a benefit to us out of death as that by the continual meditation thereof death might the less terrifie us and the less damnifie us First His Law alone does that office even his Common Law Morte morieris and stipendium peccati Mors est All have sinned and all must die And so his Statute Law too Heb. 9.27 Statutum est It is enacted it is appointed to man once to die And then as a Comment upon that Law he presents to us either his great Catechisms Isai 37.36 Sennacheribs Catechism in which we see almost Two hundred thousand Soldiers more by many then both sides arm and pay in these noiseful Wars of our Neighbors slain in one night 2 Chro. 13. or Jeroboams Catechism where Twelve hundred thousand being presented in the field more by many then all the Kings of Christendom arm and pay Five hundred thousand men chosen men and men of mighty valor as the Text qualifies them were slain upon one side in one day or Davids Catechism 2 Sam. 24. where Threescore and ten thousand were devoured of the Pestilence we know not in how few hours or this Egyptian Catechism of which we can make no conjecture because we know no number of their houses and there was not a house in which there was not one dead or God presents us his Catechism in the Primitive Church where every day may be written in Red Ink every day the Church celebrated Five hundred in some Copies Five thousand Martyrs every day that had writ down their names in their own blood for the Gospel of Christ Jesus or God presents us his Catechism in the later Roman Church where upon our attempt of the Reformation they boast to have slain in one day Seventy Millions in another Two hundred Millions of them that attempted and assisted the Reformation or else Gods presents his lesser Catechisms the several Funerals of our particular Friends in the Congregation or he abridges this Catechism of the Congregation to a less volume then that to the consideration of every particular peece of our own Family at home For so there is not a house in which there is not one dead Prov. 19.18 Have you not left a dead son at home whom you should have chastned whilest there was hope and have not Whom you should have beaten with the rod 23.13 to deliver his soul from Hell and have not Whom you should have made an Abel a Keeper of Sheep Gen. 4.2 or a Cain a Tiller of the Ground that is bestowed him bound him to some Occupation or Profession or Calling and have not You may believe God without an oath 1 Sam 3.13 but God hath sworn That because Eli restrained not the insolencies of his sons no sacrifice should purge his house for ever And scarce shall you finde in the whole Book of God any so vehement an intermination any judgment so vehemently imprinted as that upon Eli for not restraining the insolencies of his sons For in that case God says I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle That is he would inflict a sudden death upon the Father for his indulgence to his sons Have ye not left such a dead son dead in contumacy and in disobedience at home Have you not left a dead daughter at home A daughter whom you should have kept at home and have not but suffered with Dinah to go out to see the daughters of the land and so expose her self to dangerous tentations as Dinah did Have ye not left a dead servant at home Gen. 34.1 whom ye have made so perfect in deceiving of others as that now he is able to take out a new lesson of himself and deceive you Have you left no dead Inmates dead Sojourners dead Lodgers at home Of whom so they advance your profit you take no care how vicious in themselves they be or how dangerous to the State Deut. 31.12 Gather men and women and children and strangers within thy gate says God that they may all learn the Law of the Lord. If thy care spread not over all thy family whosoever is dead in thy family by thy negligence thou shalt answer the King that Subject that is the King of Heaven that Soul We have as we proposed to do surveyed this House in Egypt Part. 3. where the Text lays it and the House at home where we dwell there is a third House which we are this House of Clay and of Mud-walls our selves these bodies And is there none dead there not within us The House it self is ready to fall as soon as it is set up The next thing that we are to practise after we are born is to die The Timber of this House is but our Bones and My bones are waxen old says David and perchance not with age but as Job says His bones are full of the sins of his youth Ps 32.3 Job 20.11 Job 6.12 The lome-walls of this House are but this flesh and Our strength is not the strength of stones neither is our flesh brass and therefore Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm Jer. 17.5 The windows of this House are but our eyes and the light of mine eyes is gone from me says David and we know not how nor how soon Esai 59.10 The foundation is but our feet and besides that Our feet stumble at noon as the Prophet complains David found them so cold as that no art nor diligence could warm them And the roof and covering of this House is but this thatch of hair and it is denounc'd by more then one of the Prophets Esai 15.23 Jer. 48.37 That upon all heads shall fall baldness The House it self is always ready to fall but is there not also always some dead in this House in our selves Is not our first-born dead Our first-born says St. Augustin are the offspring of our beloved sin for we have some Concubine-sins and some one sin that we are married to Whatsoever we have begot upon that wife whatsoever we have got by that sin that 's our first-born and that 's dead How much the better soever we make account to live by it it is dead For as it was the mischievous invention of a Persecutor in the Primitive Church to tie living men to dead bodies and let them die so so men that tie the rest of their Estate to goods ill gotten do but invent a way to ruine and destroy all But that which is truly
another Religion and Prudence As that love which Christ bare to St. John who lay in his bosome towards whom Christ had certainly other humane and affectionate respects then he had to the rest made him not the less fit to be an Apostle and an Evangelist nor the great Office of Apostleship made him not unfit for that love that Christ bare him so both these endowments Pureness of heart and Grace of lips are not only compatible but necessary to him to whom the King shall be a friend And both these doth God require if we consider the force of the Original words when he says Bring ye men of wisdom and known among the Tribes and I will make them Rulers over you For Deut 1.13 that addition known among the Tribes excludes reserv'd men proud and inaccessible men though God do not intend there popular men yet he does intend men acceptable to the people And when David comes to a lustration to a sifting of his Family as he says He that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me expressing in that this Pureness so intending to speak of this Grace of lips Psal 101.6 which is an ability to be useful to others for which nothing makes a man more unfit then Pride and harshness and hardness of access he scarce knows how to express himself and his indignation against such a man Him says he that hath a proud look and a high heart I cannot and there he ends abruptly He does not say v. 5. I cannot work upon him I cannot mend him I cannot pardon him I cannot suffer him but only I cannot and no more I cannot tell what to do with him I cannot tell what to say of him and therefore I give him over Him that hath a proud look and a high heart I cannot Whatsoever his grace of lips be how good soever his parts he doth not only want the principal part Pureness of heart but he cannot be a fit instrument of that most blessed union between Prince and Subject if his proud look and harsh behavior make him unacceptable to honest men It was says the Orator to the Emperor Theodosius Execratio postrema an Execration and an expressing of their indignation beyond which they could not go when speaking of Tarquin Libidine praecipitem Avaritia caecum furore vaecordem crudelitate immanem vocarunt superbum They thought it enough to call a man that was licentious and covetous and furious and bloody proud Et putaverunt sufficere convitium they thought themselves sufficiently revenged upon him for all their grievances and that they had said as much as any Orator in an Invective any Poet in a Satyr could say when they had imprinted that name upon his memory Tarquin the Proud To those therefore that have insinuated themselves into the friendship of the King without these two endowments If the King hath always Christ for his example Matth. 22.12 if he say to them Amice quomodo intrasti Friend how came you in If you had not this wedding garment on or if this wedding garment were not your own but borrowed by an Hypocritical dissimulation Amice quomodo intrasti though you be never so much my friend in never so near place to me I must know how you got in for I have but two doors indeed not two doors but a gate and a wicket a greater and an inferior way A religious heart and useful parts if you have not these if you fear not God and if you study not as I do the welfare of my people you are not come in at my gate that is Religion nor at my wicket that is the good of my people And therefore how near so ever you be crept I must have a review an inquiry to know quomodo intrasti how you came in But for those which have these two endowments Religion and care of the publick we have the word of the King of Kings of God himself in the mouth of the wisest King King Solomon The King shall be his friend And the King hath Christ himself still for his example Who loved them whom he loved to the end For as long as the reason upon which he grounds his word remains Demesthenes Regis verbum Regi Rex est the Kings word the Kings love the Kings favor Regi Rex est is a King upon the King and bindes him to his word as well as his subjects are bound to him To recollect and fasten these pieces these be the benefits of this pureness of heart and grace of lips first That the King shall take an immediate and personal knowledge of him and not be misled by false characters or false images of him by any breath that would blast him in the Kings ear And then tnat he shall take it to be his Royal Office and Christian duty to do so that to those men whom he findes so qualified he shall be a friend in all those acceptations of the word in our Text Amabit he shall love them impart his affections to them Sociabit he shall associate them to him and impart his consultations unto them And Sociabit again He shall go along with them and accompany their labors and their services by the seal of his countenance and ratification And Docebit He shall instruct them clearly in his just pleasure without intangling or snaring them in perplexities by ambiguous directions This is the capacity required to be religious and useful this is the preferment assured The King shall be his friend and this is the compass of our Text. Now Beloved as we are able to interpret some places of the Revelation better then the Fathers could do Accommodatio ad Diem because we have seen the fulfilling of some of the Prophecies of that Book which they did but conjecture upon so we can interpret and apply this Text by way of accommodation the more usefully because we have seen these things performed by those Princes whom God hath set over us We need not that Edict of the Senate of Rome Ut sub titulo gratiarum agendarum That upon pretence of thanking our Princes for that which we say they had done Boni principes quae facerent recognoscerent Good Princes should take knowledge what they were bound to do though they had not done so yet We need not this Circuit nor this disguise for Gods hand hath been abundant towards us in raising Ministers of State so qualified and so endowed and such Princes as have fastned their friendships and conferred their favors upon such persons We celebrate seasonably opportunely the thankful acknowledgment of these mercies this day This day which God made for us according to the pattern of his first days in the Creation where Vesper mane dies unus the evening first and then the morning made up the day for here the saddest night and the joyfullest morning that ever the daughters of this Island saw made up this day Consider the tears of
those faculties by the help of the Law And he calls it Suam their righteousness because they thought none had it but they And upon this Pelagian righteousness it thought Nature sufficient without Grace or upon this righteousness of the Cathari the Puritans in the Primitive Church that thought the Grace which they had received sufficient and that upon that stock they were safe and become impeccable and therefore left out of the Lords Prayer that Petition Dimitte nobis Forgive us our trespasses upon this Pelagian righteousness and this Puritan righteousness Christ does not work He left out the righteous not that there were any such but such as thought themselves so and he took in sinners not all effectually that were simply so but such as the sense of their sins and the miserable state that that occasioned brought to an acknowledgement that they were so Non Justos sed peccatores Peccatores Here then enters our Affirmative our Inclusive Who are called peccatores for here no man asks the Question of the former Branch there we asked Whether there were any righteous and we found none here we ask not whether there were any sinners for we can finde no others no not one He came to call sinners and only sinners that is only in that capacity in that contemplation as they were sinners for of that vain and frivolous opinion that got in and got hold in the later School That Christ had come in the flesh though Adam had stood in his innocence That though Man had nor needed Christ as a Redeemer yet he would have come to have given to man the greatest Dignity that Nature might possibly receive which was to be united to the Divine Nature of this Opinion one of those Jesuites whom we named before Maldonat who oftentimes making his use of whole sentences of Calvins says in the end This is a good Exposition but that he is an Heretick that makes it He says also of this Opinion That Christ had come though Adam had stood this is an ill Opinion but that they are Catholicks that have said it He came for sinners for sinners onely else he had not come and then he came for all kind of sinners Mat. 21.31 for upon those words of our Saviours to the High Priests and Pharisees Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of Heaven before you good Expositors note that in those two Notations Publicans and Harlots many sorts of sinners are implyed in the name of Publicans all such as by their very profession and calling are led into tentations and occasions of sin to which some Callings are naturally more exposed then other such as can hardly be exercised without sin and then in the Name of Harlots and prostitute Women such as cannot at all be exercised without sin whose very profession is sin and yet for these for the worst of these for all these there is a voice gone out Christ is come to call sinners onely sinners all sinners Comes he then thus for sinners What an advantage had S. Paul then to be of this Quorum and the first of them Quorum Ego Maximus That when Christ came to save sinners he should be the greatest sinner the first in that Election If we should live to see that acted Mat. 24.41 which Christ speaks of at the last day Two in the field the one taken the other left should we not wonder to see him that were left lay hold upon him that were taken and offer to go to Heaven before him therefore because he had killed more men in the field or robbed more men upon the High-way or supplanted more in the Court or oppressed more in the City to make the multiplicity of his sins his title to Heaven Or two women grinding at the Mill one taken the other left to see her that was left offer to precede the other into Heaven therefore because she had prostituted her self to more men then the other had done Is this S. Pauls Quorum his Dignity his Prudency I must be saved because I am the greatest sinner God forbid God forbid we should presume upon salvation because we are sinners or sin therefore that we may be surer of salvation S. Pauls title to Heaven was not that he was primus peccator but primus Confessor that he first accused himself came to a sense of his miserable estate for that implies that which is our last word and the effect of Christs calling That whomsoever he calls or how or whensoever it is ad Resipiscentiam Non ad satisfactionem to repentance It is not ad satisfactionem Christ does not come to call us to make satisfaction to the justice of God he call'd us to a heavy to an impossible account if he call'd us to that If the death of Christ Jesus himself be but a satisfaction for the punishment for my sins for nothing less then that could have made that satisfaction what can a temporary Purgatory of days or hours do towards a satisfaction And if the torments of Purgatory it self sustain'd by my self be nothing towards a satisfaction what can an Evenings fast or an Ave Marie from my Executor or my Assignee after I am dead do towards such a satisfaction Canst thou satisfie the justice of God for all that blood which thou hast drawn from his Son in thy blasphemous Oaths and Execrations or for all that blood of his which thou hast spilt upon the ground upon the Dunghil in thy unworthy receiving the Sacrament Canst thou satisfie his justice for having made his Blessings the occasions and the instruments of thy sins or for the Dilapidations of his Temple in having destroyed thine own body by thine incontinency and making that the same flesh with a Harlot If he will contend with thee Job 9.9 thou canst not answer him one of a thousand Nay a thousand men could not answer one sin of one man It is not then Ad satisfactionem but it is not Ad gloriam neither Non ad Gloriam Christ does not call us to an immediate possession of glory without doing any thing between Our Glorification was in his intention as soon as our Election in God who sees all things at once both entred at once but in the Execution of his Decrees here God carries us by steps he calls us to Repentance The Farmers of this imaginary satisfaction they that fell it at their own price in their Indulgencies have done well to leave out this Repentance both in this text in S. Matthew and where the same is related by S. Mark In both places they tell us that Christ came to call sinners but they do not tell us to what as though it might be enough to call them to their market to buy their Indulgencies The Holy Ghost tells us it is to repentance Are ye to learn now what that is He that cannot define Repentance he that cannot spell it may have it and he that hath