the strength of that Grace which God gave me heretofore But as God infuseth a Soul into every man and that Soul elicites a new Act in it self before that man produce any action so God infuses a particular Grace into every good work of mine and so prevents me before I co-operate with him For as Nature in her highest exaltation in the best Morall man that is cannot flow into Grace Nature cannot become Grace so neither doth former Grace flow into future Grace but I need a distinct influence of God a particular Grace for every good work I do for every good word I speak for every good thought I conceive When God gives me accesse into his Library leave to consider his proceedings with man I find the first book of Gods making to be the Book of Life The Book where all their names are written that are elect to Glory But I find no such Book of Death All that are not written in the Book of Life are certainly the sonnes of Death To be pretermitted there there to be left out wraps them up at least leaves them wrapt up in death But God hath not wrought so positively nor in so primary a consideration in a book of Death as in the Book of Life As the aftertimes made a Book of Wisdome out of the Proverbs of Salomon and out of his Ecclesiastes but yet it is not the same Book nor of the same certainty so there is a Book of Life â—ere but that is not the same book that is in Heaven nor of the same certainty For in this Book of Life which is the Declaration and Testimony which the Church gives of our Election by those marks of the Elect which she seeth in the Scriptures and believeth that she seeth in us a man may be Blotted out of the Book of the living as David speaketh and as it is added there Not written with the Righteous Intimating that in some cases and in some Book of Life a man may have been written in and blotted out and written in again The Book of Life in the Church The Testimony of our Election here admits such expunctions and such redintegrations but Gods first Book his Book of Mercy for this Book in the Church is but his Book of Evidence is inviolable in it self and all the names of that Book indelible In Gods first Book the Book of Life Mercy hath so much a precedency and primogeniture as that there is nothing in it but Mercy In Gods other Book his Book of Scripture in which he is put often to denounce judgements as well as to exhibite mercies still the Tide sets that way still the Biass leads on that hand still his method directs us ad Primogenitum to his first-born to his Mercy So he began in that Book He made man to his Image and then he blest him Here is no malediction no intermination mingled in Gods first Act in Gods first purpose upon man In Paradise there is That if he eat the forbidden fruit if he will not forbear that that one Tree He shall die But God begins not there before that he had said of every tree in the Garden thou maist freely eat neither is there more vehemency in the punishment then in the libertie For as in the punishment there is an ingemination Morte morieris Dying thou shalt die that is thou shalt surely die so in the liberty there was an ingemination too Comedendo comedes Eating thou shalt eat that is thou maist freely eat In Deut. we have a fearfull Chapter of Maledictions but all the former parts of that Chapter are blessings in the same kind And he that reads that Chapter will beginne at the beginning and meet Gods first-born his Mercy first And in those very many places of that Book where God divides the condition If you obey you shall live if you rebell you shall die still the better Act and the better condition and the better reward is placed in the first place that God might give us possession In jure Primogeniti in the right of his first-born his mercy And where God pursues the same method and first dilates himself and expatiates in the way of mercy I will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him when after that he is brought to say If his children forsake my Law I will visit their transgression with the rod where first he puts it off for one Generation from himself to his Children which was one Mercy And then he puts it upon a forsaking an Apostasie and not upon every sinne of infirmity which was another Mercy when it comes to a correction it is but a milde correction with the râ—d And in that he promises to visite them to manifest himself and his purpose to them in the correction all which are higher and higher degrees of Mercy yet because there is a spark of anger a tincture of judgement mingled in it God remembers his first-born his Mercy and returns where he begun Neverthelesse my Covenant will I not break nor alter the things that is gone out of my lips once have I sworn by my Holinesse that I will not lie unto David There are elder pictures in the world of Water then there are any of oyl but those of oyl have got above them and shall outlive them Water is a frequent embleme of Affliction in the Scriptures and so is oyl of Mercy If at any time in any place of Scripture God seemed to begin with water with a judgement yet the oyl will get to the top in that very judgement you may see that God had first a mercifull purpose in inflicting that medicinall judgement for his mercy is his first-born His Mercy is new every morning saith the Prophet not onely every day but as soon as it is day Trace God in thy self and thou shalt find it so If thou beest drowzie now and unattentive curious or contentious or quarrelsome now now God leaves thee in that indisposition and that is a judgement But it was his Mercy that brought thee hither before In every sinne thou hast some remorse some reluctation before thou do that sinne and that pre-reluctation and pre-remorse was Mercy If thou hadst no such remorse in thy last sinne before the sinne and hast it now this is the effect of Gods former mercy and former good purpose upon thee to let thee see that thou needest the assistance of his Minister and of his Ordinance to enable thee to lay hold on Mercy when it is offered thee Can any calamity fall upon thee in which thou shalt not be bound to say I have had blessings in a greater measure then this If thou have had losses yet thou hast more out of which God took that If all be lost perchance thou art but where thou begunst at first at nothing If thou begunst upon a good heighth and beest fallen from that and fallen low yet as God
but look to that which is neare thee not so much to those Decrees which have no conditions as to be able to plead conditions performed or at least a holy sorrow that thou hast not performed them Videte Cavete see that you doe heare God else every rumor will scatter you But take heed what you heare else you may come to call conditionall things absolute And lastly since Satan will be speaking too Videte be sure you doe heare him be sure you discerne it to be his voice and know what leads you into tentation For you may hear a voice that shall say youth must have pleasures and greatnesse must have State and charge must have support And this voice may bring a young man to transfer all his wantonesse upon his years when it is the effect of high dyet or licentious discourse or wanton Images admitted and cherished in his fancy and this voice may bring great officers to transfer their inaccessiblenesse upon necessary State when it is an effect of their own lazinesse or indulgence to their pleasures and this voice may bring rich landlords to transfer all their oppression of tenants to the necessity of supporting the charge of wives and children when it is an effect of their profusenesse and prodigality Nay you may heare a voice that may call you to this place and yet be his voice which is that which Saint Augustine confesses and laments that even to these places persons come to look upon one another that can meet no where else Videte see you doe heare that you doe discerne the voice for that is never Gods voice that puts upon any man a necessity of sinning out of his years and constitution out of his calling and profession out of his place and station out of the age and times that he lives in out of the pleasure of them that he lives upon or out of the charge of them that live upon him But then Cavete take heed what you heare from him too especially then when he speakes to thee upon thy death-bed at thy last transmigration then when thine eares shall be deafe with the cryes of a distressed and a distracted family and with the found and the change of the found of thy last bell then when thou shalt heare a hollow voice in thy selfe upbraiding thee that thou hast violated all thy Makers laws worn out all thy Saviours merits frustrated all the endeavours of his blessed Spirit upon thee evacuated all thine own Repentances with relapses then when thou shalt see or seem to see his hand turning the streame of thy Saviours bloud into another channell and telling thee here 's enough for Iew and Turke but not a drop for thee then when in that multiplying glasse of Despaire which he shall present every sinfull thought shall have the proportion of an Act and every Act of a Habite when every Circumstance of every sin shall enter into the nature of the sin it selfe and vary the sinne and constitute a particular sinne and every particular sinne shall be a sinne against the holy Ghost Take heed what you heare and be but able to say to Satan then as Christ said to Peter in his name Vade retro Satan come after me Satan come after me tomorrow come a minute after my soule is departed from this body come to me where I shall be then and when thou seest me washed in the bloud of my Saviour clothed in the righteousnesse of my Saviour lodged in the bosome of my Saviour crowned with the merits of my Saviour confesse that upon my death-bed thou wast a lyer and wouldest have been a murderer and the Lord shall and I in him shall rebuke thee See that yee refuse not him that speaketh says the Apostle not any that speakes in his name but especially not him whom he names there that speakes better things then the bloud of Abel for the bloud of Abel speakes but by way of example and imitation the bloud of Christ Jesus by way of Ransome and satisfaction Heare what that bloud says for you in the eares of the Father and then no singing of the flatterer no lisping of the tempter no roaring of the accuser no thunder of the destroyer shall shake thy holy constancy Take heed what you heare remember what you have heard and the God of heaven for his Sonne Christ Jesus sake by the working of his blessed Spirit prosper and emprove both endeavours in you Amen SERMON XXVIII Preached to the King at the Court in April 1629. GEN. 1. 26. And God said Let us make man in our Image after our likenesse NEver such a frame so soon set up as this in this Chapter For for the thing it selfe there is no other thing to compare it with For it is All it is the whole world And for the time there was no other time to compare it with for this was the beginning of time In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth That Earth which in some thousands of years men could not look over nor discern what form it had for neither Lactantius almost three hundred years after Christ nor Saint Augustine more then one hundred years after him would beleeve the earth to be round that earth which no man in his person is ever said to have compassed till our age That earth which is too much for man yet for as yet a very great part of the earth is unpeopled that earth which if we will cast it all but into a Mappe costs many Months labour to grave it nay if we will cast but a peece of an acre of it into a garden costs many years labour to fashion and furnish it All that earth and then that heaven which spreads so farre as that subtile men have with some appearance of probability imagined that in that heaven in those manifold Sphears of the Planets and the Starres there are many earths many worlds as big as this which we inhabite That earth and that heaven which spent God himselfe Almighty God six days in furnishing Moses sets up in a few syllables in one line In principio in the beginning God created heaven and earth If a Livy or a Guicciardine or such extensive and voluminous authors had had this story in hand God must have made another world to have made them a Library to hold their Books of the making of this world Into what Wire would they have drawn out this earth Into what leafe-gold would they have beate out these heavens It may assist our conjecture herein to consider that amongst those men who proceed with a sober modesty and limitation in their writing and make a conscience not to clogge the world with unnecessary books yet the volumes which are written by them upon this beginning of Genesis are scarce lesse then infinite God did no more but say let this and this be done And Moses does no more but say that upon Gods saying it was done God required not nature to help him to do
go because none stayes behinde so when the holy Spirit which had made himself as a common soule to their foure soules directed one of them to say any thing all are well understood to have said it And therefore when to that place in Matth. 27. 8. where that Evangelist cites the Prophet Ieremy for words spoken by Zachary many medicines are applyed by the Fathers as That many copies have no name That Ieremy might be binominous and have both names a thing frequent in the Bible That it might be the error of a transcriber That there was extant an Apocryph booke of Ieremy in which these words were and sometimes things of such books were vouched as Iannes and Iambres by Paul St. Augustine insists upon and teaches rather this That it is more wonderfull that all the Prophets spake by one Spirit and so agreed then if any one of them had spoken all those things And therefore he adds Singula sunt omnium omnia sunt singulorum All say what any of them say And in this sense most congruously is that of St. Hierome applyable that the foure Evangelists are Quadriga Divina That as the foure Chariot wheeles though they looke to the foure corners of the world yet they move to one end and one way so the Evangelists have both one scope and one way Yet not so precisely but that they differ in words For as their generall intention common to them all begat that consent so a private reason peculiar to each of them for the writing of their Histories at that time made those diversities which seem to be for Matthew after he had preached to the Jewes and was to be transplanted into another vineyard the Gentiles left them written in their owne tongue for permanency which he had preached transitorily by word Mark when the Gospell fructified in the West and the Church enlarged her self and grew a great body and therefore required more food out of Peters Dictates and by his approbation published his Evangile Not an Epitome of Matthewes as Saint Ierome I know why imagines but a just and intire History of our blessed Saviour And as Matthewes reason was to supply a want in the Eastern Church Markes in the Western so on the other side Lukes was to cut off an excesse and superfluitie for then many had undertaken this Story and dangerously inserted and mingled uncertainties and obnoxious improbabilities and he was more curious and more particular then the rest both because he was more learned and because he was so individuall a companion of the most learned Saint Paul and did so much write Pauls words that Eusebius thereupon mistaketh the words 2 Tim. 2. 1. Christ is raised according to my Gospell to prove that Paul was author of this Gospell attributed to Luke Iohn the Minion of Christ upon earth and survivor of the Apostles whose books rather seem fallen from Heaven and writ with the hand which ingraved the stone Tables then a mans work because the heresies of Ebion and Cerinthus were rooted who upon this true ground then evident aud fresh that Christ had spoke many things which none of the other three Evangelists had Recorded uttered many things as his which he never spoke Iohn I say more diligently then the rest handleth his Divinity and his Sermons things specially brought into question by them So therefore all writ one thing yet all have some things particular And Luke most for he writ last of three and largeliest for himselfe 1 Act. 1. saith I have made the former Treatise of all that Iesus began to doe and teach untill the Day that he was taken up which speech lest the words in the last of Iohn If all were written which Iesus did the world could not contain the Bookes should condemne Ambrose and Chrysostome interpret well out of the words themselves Scripsit de omnibus non omnia He writ of all but not all for it must have the same limitation which Paul giveth his words who saith Acts 20. in one verse I have kept nothing back but have shewed you all the counsell of God and in another I kept back nothing that was profitable It is another peculiar singularity of Lukes that he addresseth his History to one man Theophilus For it is but weakely surmised that he chose that name for all lovers of God because the interpretation of the word suffereth it since he addeth most noble Theophilus But the work doth not the lesse belong to the whole Church for that no more then his Masters Epistles doe though they be directed to particulars It is also a singularitie in him to write upon that reason because divers have written In humane knowledge to abridge or suck and then suppresse other Authors is not ever honest nor profitable We see after that vast enterprise of Iustinian who distilled all the Law into one vessell and made one Booke of 2000. suppressing all the rest Alciate wisheth he had let them alone and thinketh the Doctors of our times would better have drawn usefull things from those volumes then his Trebonian and Dorothee did And Aristotle after by the immense liberality of Alexander he had ingrossed all Authors is said to have defaced all that he might be in stead of all And therefore since they cannot rise against him he imputes to them errours which they held not vouches onely such objections from them as he is able to answer and propounds all good things in his own name which he ought to them But in this History of Lukes it is otherwise He had no authority to suppresse them nor doth he reprehend or calumniate them but writes the truth simply and leaves it to outweare falshood and so it hath Moses rod hath devoured the Conjurers rods and Lukes Story still retains the majestie of the maker and theirs are not Other singularities in Luke of form or matter I omit and end with one like this in our Text. As in the apprehending of our blessed Saviour all the Evangelists record that Peter cut off Malchus eare but onely Luke remembers the healing of it again I think because that act of curing was most present and obvious to his consideration who was a Physician so he was therefore most apt to remember this Prayer of Christ which is the Physick and Balsamum of our Soule and must be applied to us all for we doe all Crucifie him and we know not what we do And therefore Saint Hierome gave a right Character of him in his Epistle to Paulinus Fuit Medicus pariter omnia verba illius Animae languentis sunt Medicinae As he was a Physitian so all his words are Physick for a languishing soule Now let us dispatch the last consideration of the effect of this Prayer Did Christ intend the forgivenesse of the Jewes whose utter ruine God that is himselfe had fore-decreed And which he foresaw and bewaild even then hanging upon the Crosse For those Divines which reverently forbeare to interpret the words
it all the yeare and all the yeares of an Everlasting life and of infinite generations Amen SERMON L. A Sermon Preached in Saint Dunstans 1 THES 5. 16. Rejoyce evermore WE reade in the naturall Story of some floating Islands that swim and move from place to place and in them a Man may sowe in one place and reape in another This case is so farre ours as that in another place we have sowed in teares and by his promise in whose teares we sowed then when we handled those two words Iesus wept we shall reape in Joy That harvest is not yet it is reserved to the last Resurrection But the Corne is above ground in the Resurrection of our head the first fruits of the Dead Christ Jesus and that being the first visible steppe of his exaltation begins our exultation who in him are to rejoyce evermore The heart knoweth his owne bitternesse he and none but he others feele it not retaine it not pity it not and therefore saies the Text A Stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy He shall have a Joy which no stranger not he himselfe whilest he was a stranger to God and to himselfe could conceive If we aske as Christs Disciples asked of him Quod signum what shall be the signe of thy comming of this Joy in the midst of thy bitternesse Ipsae lachrymae laetitiae testes nuncii The tears themselves shall be the sign the tears shall be Ambassadours of Joy a present gladnesse shall consecrate your sorrow and teares shall baptize and give a new name to your passion for your Wormwood shall be Manna even then when it is Wormwood it shall be Manna for Gaâ—debitis semper you shall Rejoyce evermore But our Text does more then imply a promise to us for it laies a precept upon us It is not Gaudebitis you shall Rejoyce by way of Comfort but it is Gaudete Rejoyce see that you doe Rejoyce by way of Commandement and that shall be our first part Cadit sub praecepto It hath the nature of a commandement Angels passe not from extreame to extreame but by the way betweene Man passes not from the miseries of this life to the joyes of Heaven but by joy in this life too for he that feeles no joy here shall finde none hereafter And when we passe from the substance of the precept to the extent thereof which will be our second part from the first word Rejoyce to the other Rejoyce alwaies we shall cleave that into two periods Gaudete in bonis Rejoyce in your prosperitie and Gaudete in malis Rejoyce in your adversitie too But because it is in sempiternum that must be in sempiterno because it is alway it must be in him who is alwaies yesterday and to day and the same for ever Joy in God Joy in the Holy Ghost which will be another branch in that second part of which Joy though there be a preparatory and inchoative participation and possession in this life yet the consummation being reserved to our entrance into our Masters Joy not onely the Joy which he gives that 's here but the Joy which he is that 's onely there we shall end in that beyond which none can goe no not in his thoughts in some dimme contemplation and in some faint representation of the Joyes of Heaven and in that Contemplation we shall dismisse you First then it is presented in the nature of a Commandement and laies an Obligation upon all at all times to procure to our selves and to cherish in our selves this Joy this Rejoycing What is Joy Comparatur ad desiderium sic ut quies admotum As Rest in the end of motion every thing moves therefore that it may rest so Joy is the end of our desires whatsoever we place our desires our affections upon it is therefore that we may enjoy it and therefore Quod est in brutis in parte sensitiva Delectatio in hominibus in parte intellectiva est gaudium Beasts and carnall men who determine all their desires in the sensuall parts come no farther then to a delight but men who are truly men and carry them to the intellectuall part they and onely they come to Joy And therefore saies Solomon It is the joy of the just to doe judgment to have lyen still and done no wrong occasions is not this Joy Joy is not such a Rest as the Rest of the Earth that never mov'd but as the Sunne rejoyceth to runne his race and his circuit is unto the end of heaven so this Joy is the rest and testimony of a good conscience that we have done those things which belong to our calling that we have mov'd in our Sphere For if men of our profession whose Function it is to attend the service of God delight our selves in having gathered much in this world if a Souldier shall have delighted himselfe in giving rules of Agriculture or a Architecture if a Counsellour of State who should assist with his counsell upon present emergencies delight himself in writing Books of good counsell for posterity all this occasions not this joy because though there have been motion and though there be Rest yet that is not Rest after the Motion proper to them A Man that hath been out of his way all the day may be glad to find a good Inne at night but yet 't is not properly Joy because he is never the neerer home Joy is peace for having done that which we ought to have done And therefore it is well expressed Optima conjectura an homo sit in gratia est gaudere The best evidence that a Man is at peace and in favour with God is that he can rejoyce To trie whether I be able by Argument and disputation to prove all that I believe or to convince the Adversary this is Academia animae the soules University where some are Graduats and all are not To trie whether I be able to endure Martyrdome for my beliefe this is Gehenna animae the rack the torture of the Soule and some are able to hold it out and all are not But to trie whether I can rejoyce in the peace which I have with God this is but Catechismus animae the Catechisme of the Soule and every Man may examine him selfe and every Man must for it is a Commandement Gaudete semper Rejoyce evermore It is we cannot say the Office but the Essence of God to doe good and when he does that he is said to rejoyce The Lord thy God will make thee plenteous there is his goodnesse and he will Rejoyce again over thee for good as he rejoyced over thy Fathers The Lord will love thee there is his goodnesse and rejoyce in thee and he will rest in his love Such a joy as is a rest a complacency in that good which he hath done we see is placed in God himselfe It is in Angels too Their office is to minister to Men for
washed in my own tears and either out of compunction for my self or compassion for others I passe through this world as through a valley of tears where tears settle and swell and when I passe out of this world I leave their eyes whose hands close mine full of tears too can these persons this Image of God this God himself this glorious God and this vessell of earth this earth it self this inglorious worm of the earth meet without disparagement They doe meet and make a mariage because I am not a body onely but a body and s oul there is a mariage and Christ maries me As by the Law a man might mary a captive woman in the Warres if he shaved her head and pared her nails and changed her clothes so my Saviour having fought for my soul fought to blood to death to the death of the Crosse for her having studied my soul so much as to write all those Epistles which are in the New Testament to my soul having presented my soule with his own picture that I can see his face in all his temporall blessings having shaved her head in abating her pride and pared her nails in contracting her greedy desires and changed her clothes not to fashion her self after this world my soul being thus fitted by himself Christ Jesus hath maried my soul maried her to all the three intendments mentioned in the secular mariage first in ustionem against burning That whether I burn my self in the fires of tentation by exposing my self to occasions of tentation or be reserved to be burnt by others in the fires of persecution and martyrdome whether the fires of ambition or envy or lust or the everlasting fires of hell offer at me in an apprehension of the judgements of God yet as the Spirit of God shall wipe all tears from mine eyes so the tears of Christ Jesus shall extinguish all fires in my heart and so it is a mariage In ustionem a remedy against burning It is so too In prolificationem for children first vae soli woe unto that single soul that is not maried to Christ that is not come into the way of having issue by him that is not incorporated in the Christian Church and in the true Church but is yet in the wildernesse of Idolatry amongst the Gentiles or in the Labyrinth of superstition amongst the Papists vae soli woe unto that single man that is not maried unto Christ in the Sacraments of the Church and vae sterili woe unto them that are barren after this spirituall mariage for that is a great curse in the Prophet Ieremy Scribe virum istum sterilem write this man childlesse that implied all calamities upon him And assoon as Christ had laid that curse upon the Fig-tree Let no fruit grow upon thee for ever presently the whole tree withered no fruit no leafes neither nor body left To be incorporated in the body of Christ Jesus and bring forth no fruits worthy of that profession is a wofull state too Vae soli woe unto the Gentiles not maried unto Christ and vae sterili woe unto inconsiderate Christians that think not upon their calling that conceive not by Christ but there is a vae praegnanti too wo unto them that are with child and are never delivered that have good conceptions religious dispositions holy desires to the advancement of Gods truth but for some collaterall respects dare not utter them nor bring them to their birth to any effect The purpose of his mariage to us is to have children by us and this is his abundant and his present fecundity that working now by me in you in one instant he hath children in me and grand children by me He hath maried me in ustionem and in prolem against burning and for children but can he have any use of me in adjutorium for a helper Surely if I be able to feed him and clothe him and harbour him and Christ would not condemne men at the last day for not doing these if man could not doe them I am able to help him too Great persons can help him over sea convey the name of Christ where it hath not been preached yet and they can help him home again restore his name and his truth where superstition with violence hath disseised him And they can help him at home defend his truth there against all machinations to displant and dispossesse him Great men can help him thus and every man can help him to a better place in his own heart and his own actions then he hath had there and to be so helped in me and helped by me to have his glory thereby advanced Christ hath maried my soul And he hath maried it in aeternum for ever which is the third and last Circumstance in this spirituall as it was in the secular mariage And here the aeternum is enlarged in the secular mariage it was an eternity considered onely in this life but this eternity is not begun in this world but from all eternity in the Book of life in Gods eternall Decree for my election there Christ was maried to my soul. Christ was never in minority never under years there was never any time when he was not as ancient as the Ancient of Days as old as his Father But when my soul was in a strange minority infinite millions of millions of generations before my soul was a soul did Christ mary my soul in his eternall Decree So it was eternall it had no beginning Neither doth he interrupt â—his by giving me any occasion of jealousie by the way but loves my soul as though there were no other soul and would have done and suffered all that he did for me alone if there had been no name but mine in the Book of life And as he hath maried me to him in aeternum for ever before all beginnings and in aeternum for ever without any interruptions so I know that whom he loves he loves to the end and that he hath given me not a presumptuous impossibility but a modest infallibility that no sin of mine shall divorce or separate me from him for that which ends the secular mariage ends not the spirituall not death for my death does not take me from that husband but that husband being by his Father preferr'd to higher titles and greater glory in another state I doe but goe by death where he is become a King to have my part in that glory and in those additions which he hath received there And this hath led us to our third and last mariage our eternall mariage in the triumphant Church And in this third mariage the persons are the Lamb and my soul The mariage of the Lamb is come and blessed are they that are called to the mariage Supper of the Lamb says S. Iohn speaking of our state in the generall Resurrection That Lamb that was brought to the slaughter and opened not his mouth
cover us all over that is all our life because it is not in our power if we put it off by new sinnes to put it on againe when we will I have put off my coate how shall I put it on was the doubt of the spouse in the Canticles even when Christ had called her So hard a thing is it if we devest the righteousnesse of Christ after we have put it on to cloth our selves againe in that garment As then this word Induere to put on to be clothed signifies a largenesse and an abundance according to that The pastures are clothed with sheep and the vallies with corne So is this garment Christ Jesus such a garment as is alone so all sufficient as that if we doe put on that we need no other Put yee on the Lord Iesus Christ and take no thought for the flesh if ye have put on that you are clothed and armed and adorned sufficiently In the first creation in the Faciamus hominem ad Imaginem nostrûm when God seems to have held a consultation about the making of Man man put on all the Trinity all God in the redemption God put on all Man not onely all the nature of Mankind in generall but in particular every Man But as the spirit of God is said to have put on a particular Man Spiritus Domini induit Gedeon the spirit of the Lord clothed or put on Gedeon when he selected him for his service so must the spirit of every particular Man put on Christ he must not be content to be under the generall cover either under his general providence because he is a Creature or a member of his Mysticall body because he adheres to a visible Church he must not say I am as warm clothed as another I have as much of Christ in me as a great many that doe well enough in the world but he must so inwrap himselfe in Christ and in his Merits as to make all that to be his owne No man may take the frame of Christs merit in peeces no Man may take his forty days fasting and put on that and say Christ hath fasted for me and therefore I may surfeit No man may take his Agony and pensivenesse and put on that and say Christ hath been sad for me and therefore I may be merry He that puts on Christ must put him on allâ— and not onely find that Christ hath dyed nor onely that he hath died for him but that he also hath died in Christ and that whatsoever Christ suffered he suffered in Christ. For as Christs merit and satisfaction is not too narrow for all the world so is it not too large for any one Man Infinite worlds might have been saved by it if infinite worlds had been created And if there were no more Names in the book of life but thine all the Merit of Christ were but enough to save thy one sinfull soule which could not have been redeemed though alone at any lesse price then his death All that Christ did and suffered he did and suffered for thee as thee not onely â—s Man but as that particular Man which bears such or such a name and rather then any of those whom he loves should appeare naked before his Father and so discover to his confusion those scarres and deformities which his sinnes have imprinted upon him as his love is devoutly and plously extended by the Schooles and some contemplative Men Christ would be content to doe and suffer as much as he hath done for any one particular Man yet But beyond Infinite there is no degree and his merit was infinite both because an infinite Majesty resided in his person and because an infinte Majesty accepted his sacrifice for infinite But this act of Christ this redemption makes us onely servants servi à servandâ— we are servants to him that preserved and saved us is the derivation of the Law But the application of this redemption which is the putting on of Christ makes us sâ—ns for we are not to put on Christ onely as a Livery to be distinguished by externall marks of Christianity but so as the sonne puts on his father that we may be of the same nature and substance as he and that God may be in us Non tanquam in denario not as the King is in a peece of coine or a medall but tanquam in filio as he is in his sonne in whom the same nature both humane and Royall doth reside There is then a double Induere a twofold clothing we may 〈◊〉 1. Vestem put on a garment 2. Personam put on a person We may put on Christ so as we shall be his and we may put him on so as we shall be He. And even to put him on as a garment is also twofold The first is to take onely the outward name and profession of Christians upon us and this doâ—h us no good yee cloth ye but are not warme says the Prophet of this kind of putting on of Christ. For this may be done onely to delude others which practise God discovered and threatned in the false Prophets The Prophets shall not weare a rough garment to deceive As God himselfe cannot be deluded so for the encouragement of his Church he will take off this garment of the Hypocrite and discover his nakednesse and expose him to the open shame of the world He shall not weare arough garment to deceive For this is such an affront and scorne to Christ as Hanâ—â— cutting off of Davids servants clothes at the middle was we make this garment of what stuffe and what fashion we list As Hanun did we cut it off in the middle we will be Christians till noone in the outward acts of Religion and Libertiâ—es in the after-noone in putting off that garment againe we will be Christians all day and returne to wantoâ—nesse and licentiousnesse at night we do that which Christ says no Man doth that is no Man should doe we put new peeces to an old garment and to that habite of sinne which covers us as a garment we put a few new patches of Religion a few flashes of repentance a few shreds of a Sermoâ— but we put not on that intire and feamlesse garment Christ Jesus And can we hope that these disguises these halfe coates these imperfect services will be acceptable to God when we our selves would not admit this at our children or at our servants hands It is the argument by which the Prophet convinces the Israelites about their uncleane sacrifices offer this now unto the Prince will he be conteâ—t with thee and accept thy person If thou shouldest weare the princes Livery in a scantler proportion or in a different fashion or in a courset stuffe then belongs to thy place would he accept it at thy hands No more will Christ if thou put him on that is take his profession upon thee either in a coâ—â—ser stuffe Traditions of Men in stead
the Sacrament and that hath this effect ut sensum minuat in minimis toliat consensum in magnis peccatis That grace that God gives in the Sacrament makes us lesse sensible of small tentations they move us not and it makes us resist and not yeild to the greatest tentations since I am in this state Quomodo inquinubo How shall I defile them The difference will be of whom thou askest this question If thou aske the world the world will tell thee well enough Quomodo How It will tell thee that it is a Melancholy thing to sit thinking upon thy sinnes That it is an unsociable thing to seeke him who cannot be seen an invisible God That it is poore company to passe thy time with a Priest Thou maiest defile thy selfe againe by forgetting thy sinnes and so doing them over againe And thou maist defile thy selfe againe by remembring thy sins and so sinne over thy sinnes againe in a sinfull delight of thy passed sinnes and a desire that thou couldst commit them againe There are answers enough to this Quomodo How how should I defile them if thou aske the world but aske thy Saviour and he shall tell thee That whosoever hath this water shall never thirst more but that water shall be in him an everlasting spring that is he shall find meanes to keep himselfe in that cleannesse to which he is come and neither things present nor things to come shall separate him from the love of God Thus the voice of this religious indignation Quomodo is how is it possible but it is also Quomodo how that is why should I The first is how should I be so base the other how should I be so bold Though I have my pardon written in the bloud of my Saviour sealed to me in his Sacrament brought home to me in the testimony of the holy Ghost pleaded for me at the tribunall of the Father yet as Princes pardons have so Gods pardons have too this clause It a quod se bene gerat He that is pardoned must continue of good behaviour for whensoever he breakes the peace he forfeits his pardon When I returne to my repented sinnes againe I am under the burden of all my former sinnes and my very repentance contracts the nature of a sinne and therefore Quomodo how should I that is why should I defile them To restore you to your liberty and to send you away with the meditation which concernes you most consider what an astonishment this would be that when Christ Jesus shall lay open the great volumes of all your sinnes to your sight who had forgot them and to their sight from whom you had disguised them at the last judgement when you shall heare all the wantonnesses of your youth all the Ambitions of your middle years all the covetous desires of your age published in that presence and thinke then this is the worst that can be said or laid to my charge this is the last indictment and the last evidence there shall follow your very repentances in the list of your sinnes and it shall be told you and all the world then Here and here you deluded that God that forbore to inflict his Judgements upon new vowes new contracts new promises between you and him even your repentances shall bind up that booke and tye your old sinnes and new relapses into one body And let this meditation bring you ad vocem gratulantis to rejoyce once againe in this Lavi pedes that you have now washed your feet in a present sorrow and ad vocem indignantis to a stronger indignation and faster resolution then heretofore you have had never to defile them againe SERMON IX Preached at a Churching MICAH 2. 10. Arise and depart for this is not your Rest. ALL that God asks of us is that we love him with all our heart All that he promises us is that he will give us rest round about us Judah sought the Lord with a whole desire and he gave her rest round about her Now a Man might think himselfe well disposed for Rest when he lies down I will lay me down and sleep in peace sayes David but it is otherwise here Arise and depart for here that is in lying and sleeping is not your Rest sayes this Prophet These words have a three-fold acceptation and admit a three-fold exposition for first they are a Commination the Prophet threatens the Jewes Secondly they are a Commonition the Prophet instructs all future ages Thirdly they areâ—a Consolation which hath reference to the Consummation of all to the rising at the generall Judgement First he foretels the Jewes of their imminent captivity Howsoever you build upon the pactum salis the Covenant of salt the everlasting Covenant that God will be your God and this land your land yet since that confidence sears you up in your sins Arise and depart for this is not your rest your Ierusalem must be chang'd into Babylon there 's the Commination Secondly he warns us who are bedded and bedrid in our sins howsoever you say to your selves Soule take thy rest enjoy the honors the pleasures the abundances of this world Tush the Lord sees it not The Master will not come we may ly still safely and rest in the fruition of this Happinesse yet this Rest will betray you this rest will deliver you over to eternall disquiet And therefore arise and depart for this is not your Rest and that 's the Commonition And in the third acceptation of the words as they may have relation to the Resurrection they may well admit a little inversion Howsoever you feel a Resurrection by grace from the works of death and darknesse in this life yet in this life there is no assurednesse that he that is risen and thinks he stands shall not fall here you arise and depart that is rise from your sins and depart from your sinfull purposes but you arise and depart so too that you fall and depart again into your sinfull purposes after you have risen and therefore Depart and arise for here is not your rest till you depart altogether out of this world and rise to Judgement you can have no such rest as can admit no disquiet no perturbation but then you shall and that 's the Consolation First then as the words concern the Iewes Here is first an increpation a rebuke that they are fallen from their station and their dignity implied in the first word Arise for then they were fallen Secondly here is a demonstration in the same word That though they lik'd that state into which they were fallen which was a security and stubbornnesse in their sins yet they should not enjoy even that security and that stubbornnesse that fall of theirs but they should lose that though it were but a false contentment yet they should be rouâ—'d out of that Arise first arise because you are fallen and then arise though you think your selves at easeâ— by that fall And
to his owne fleshly passions as some others take it judge not you so neither first judge not that ye be not judged that is as Saint Ambrose interprets it well enough Nolite â—udicare de judiciis Dei when you see Gods judgments fall upon a man when you see the tower of Silo fall upon a man doe not you judge that that man had sinned more then you when you see another borne blind doe not you thinke that he or his Father had sinned and that you onely are derived from a pure generation especially nâ—n maledic as surdo speake not evill of the deafe that heares not That is as Gregory interprets it if not literally yet appliably and usefully calumniate not him who is absent and cannot defend himselfe it is the devills office to be Accusator fratrum and though God doe not say in the law Non erit yet he says Non erit criminator it is not plainely there shall be no Informer for as we dispute and for the most part affirme in the Schoole that though we could we might destroy no intire species of those creatures which God made at first though it be a Tyger or a viper because this were to take away one link of Gods chaine out of the world so such vermine as Informers may not for some good use that there is of them be taken away though it be not non erit there shall be none yet it is at least by way of good counsaile to thee non eris thou shalt not be the man thou shalt not be the Informer and for resisting those that are we are bound not onely not to harme our neighbours house but to help him if casually his house fall on fire wee are bound where where wee have authority to stoppe the mouthes of other calumniators where wee have no authority yet since as the North wind driveth away raine an angry countenance driveth away a back-biting tongue at least deale so with a libeller with a calumniator for he that lookes pleasantly and hearkens willingly to one libell makes another occasions a second always remember Davids case when he thought that he had been giving judgment against another he was more severe more heavy then the law admitted The law was that he that had stoln the sheep should returne fourefold and Davids anger was kindled says the text and he said and he swore As the Lord liveth that man shall restore fourfold Et filius mortis and he shall surely dyes O judicis superfluentem justitiam O superabundant and overflowing Justice when we judge another in passion But this is judicium secundum carnem according to which Christ judges no man for Christ is love and that non cogitat malum love thinks no evill any way The charitable man neither meditates evill against another nor beleeves not easily any evill to be in another though it be told him Lastly Christ judges no man Ad internecionem he judges no man so in this world as to give a finall condemnation upon him here There is no error in any of his Judgments but there is an appeal from all his Judgments in this world There is a verdict against every man every man may find his case recorded and his sinne condemned in the law and in the Prophets there is a verdict but before Judgment God would have every man sav'd by his book by the apprehension and application of the gratious promises of the Gospell to his case and his conscience Christ judges no man so as that he should see no remedy but to curse God and die not so as that he should say his sinne is greater then God could forgive for God sent not his Sonne into the world to condemne the world but that the world through him might be saved Doe not thou then give malitious evidence against thy selfe doe not weaken the merit nor lessen the value of the bloud of thy Saviour as though thy sinne were greater then it Doth God desire thy bloud now when he hath abundantly satisfied his justice with the bloud of his Sonne for thee what hast thou done hast thou come hypocritically to this place upon collaterall reasons and not upon the direct service of God not for love of Information of Reformation of thy selfe If that be thy case yet if a man hear my words says Christ and beleeve not I judge him not he hath one that judgeth him says Christ and who is that The word that I have spoken the same shall judge him It shall but when It shall judge him says Christ at that last day for till the last day the day of his death no man is past recovery no man's salvation is impossible Hast thou gone farther then this Hast thou admitted scruples of diffidence and distrust in Gods mercy and so tasted of the lees of desperation It is true perpetrare flagitium est mors anima sed desper are est descensus ad inferos In every sinne the soule dies but in desperation it descends into hell but yet portae inferi non praevalebunt even the gates of this hell shall not prevaile against thee Assist thy selfe argue thine own case desperation it selfe may be without infidelity desperation aswell as hope is rooted in the desire of happinesse desperation proceeds out of a feare and a horror of sinne desperation may consist with faith thus farre that a man may have a true and faithfull opinion in the generall that there is a remission of sinne to be had in the Church and yet have a corrupt imagination in the particular that to him in this sinfull state that he is in this remission of sinnes shall not be applied so that the resolution of the Schoole is good Desperatio potest esse 〈◊〉 solo excessu boni desperation may proceed from an excesse of that which is good in it selfe from an excessive over fearing of Gods justice from an excessive over hating thine own sinnes Et virtute quis malè utitur Can any man make so ill use of so great virtues as the feare of God and the hare of sinne yes they may so froward a weed is sinne as that it can spring out of any roote and therefore if it have done so in thee and thou thereby have made thy case the harder yet know stil that Objectum speâ— est arduâ— et possibile the true object of hope is hard to come by but yet possible to come by and therefore as David said By my God have I leaped over a wall so by thy God maist thou breake through a wall through this wall of obduration which thou thy selfe hast begunne to build about thy selfe Feather thy wings againe which even the flames of hell have touched in these beginnings of desperation feather them againe with this text Neminem judicat Christ judges no man so as a desperate man judges himselfe doe not make thy selfe beleeve that thou hast sinned
between God and him he is well-near learned enough There may be enough in remembring our selves but sometimes that 's the hardest of all many times we are farthest off from our selves most forgetfull of our selves It was a narrow enlargement it was an addition that diminish'd the sense when our former Translators added that word themselves All the world shall remember themselves there is no such particularity as themselves in that text But it is onely as our later Translators have left it All the world shall remember and no more Let them remember what they will what they can let them but remember thoroughly and then as it follows there They shall turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the Nations shall worship him Therefore David makes that the key into this Psalme Psalmus ad Recordationem A Psalm for Remembrance Being lock'd up in a close prison of multiplied calamities this turns the key this opens the door this restores him to liberty if he can remember Non est sanitas there is no soundnesse no health in my flesh Doest thou wondet at that Remember thy selfe and thou wilt see that thy case is worse then so That there is no rest in thy bones That 's true too But doest thou wonder at that Remember thy self and thou wilt see the cause of all that The Lord is angry with thee Find'st thou that true and wondrest why the Lord should be angry with thee Remember thy self well and thou wilt see it is because of thy sins There is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sinne So have I let you in into the whole Psalm by this key by awaking your memory that it is a Psalm for Remembrance And that that you are to remember is that all calamities that fall upon you fall not from the malice or power of man but from the anger of God And then that Gods anger fals not upon you from his Hate or his Decree but from your sins There is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sinne Which words we shall first consider as they are our present object as they are historically and literally to be understood of David And secondly in their retrospect as they look back upon the first Adam and so concern Mankind collectively and so you and I and all have our portion in these calamities And thirdly we shall consider them in their prospect in their future relation to the second Adam in Christ Iesus in whom also all mankinde was collected and the calamities of all men had their Ocean and their confluence and the cause of them the anger of God was more declared and the cause of that anger that is sin did more abound for the sins of all the world were his by imputation for this Psalm some of our Expositors take to be a historicall and personall Psalm determin'd in David some a Catholique and universall Psalm extended to the whole condition of man and some a Propheticall and Evangelicall Psalm directed upon Christ. None of them inconveniently for we receive help and health from every one of these acceptations first Adam was the Patient and so his promise the promise that he received of a Messiah is our physick And then David was the Patient and there his Example is our physick And lastly Christ Iesus was the Patient and so his blood is our physick In Adam we shall finde the Scriptum est the medicine is in our books an assurance of a Messiah there is In David we shall find the Probatum est that this medicine wrought upon David and in Christ we finde the deceit it self Thus you may take this physick thus you may apply it to your selves In every acceptation as we consider it in David in our selves in Christ we shall consider first That specification of humane misery and calamity expressed here sicknesse and an universall sicknesse No soundnesse in the flesh And more then that trouble and an universall trouble No peace no rest not in the bones And then in a second branch we shall see that those calamities proceed from the anger of God we cannot discharge them upon Nature or Fortune or Power or Malice of Men or Times They are from the anger of God and they are as the Originall Text hath it à facie irae Dei from the face of the anger of God from that anger of God that hath a face that looks upon something in us and growes not out of a hate in God or decree of God against us And then lastly this that Gods anger lookes upon is sin God is not angry till he see sin nor with me till it come to be my sinne and though Originall sinne be my sinne and sicknesse and death would follow though there were no more but Originall sinne yet God comes not to this Non sanitas Nâ— soundnesse in my flesh nor to this Nâ—n pax No rest in my bones till I have made sinne my sinne by act and habit too by doing it and using to doe it But then though it bee but Peccatum in the singular so the Text hath it One sinne yet for that one beloved sinne especially when that my sinne comes to have a face for so the Originall phrase is in this place too à facie peccati from the face of my sinne when my sin looks bigge and justifies it self then come these calamities No soundnesse in the flesh â—o rest in the bones to their heighth because the anger of God which exals them is in the exaltation There is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine anger neither any rest in my bones because of my sin All these particulars will best arise to us in our second consideration when wee consider Hamanitatem not Hominem our humane condition as we are all kneaded up in Adam and not this one person David But because we are in the consideration of health and consequently of physick for the true and proper use of physick is to preserve health and but by accident to restore it we embraâ—e that Rule Medioâ—rum theoria experientia est Practise is a Physicians study and he concludes out of events for says he He that professes himself a Physician without experience Chronica de future scribit He undertakes to write a Chronicle of things before they are done which is an irregular and a perverse way Therefore in this spirituall physick of the soul we will deal upon Experience too and see first how this wrought upon this particular person upon David David durst not presume that God could not or would not bee angry Anger is not always a Defect nor an inordinatenesse in man Be angry and sin not anger is not utterly to be rooted out of our ground and cast away but transplanted A Gardiner does wel to grub up thornes in his garden there they would
every poor soul or inferiour person whom he met in the street and then bid his man give him so much money as the Law would for damages And this oppressing with scorne this proceeding without any respect of fame we note for hast but in two things in the Italian Babylon Rome first in that Book their Taxa Camerae and then in that doctrine their Reservatio Casuum that they durst compose and divulge such a book as their Taxa Camerae which is an Index a Repertory for all sinnes and in which every man may see beforehand how much money an Adultery an Incest a Murder a Parricide or any other sinne whose name he would never have thought of but by that Remembrancer that book will cost him that so he may sinne and not undoe himself sinne according to his means and within his compasse that they durst let the world see such a book was argument enough that they were fear'd up and scorned all that all men could think or say or doe in opposition So also is their Reservation of Cases that though all Priests have an equall power of remitting all sins yet are some sinnes reserved onely to Prelates some onely to the Popes Legats some onely to the Pope himselfe Is not this a scornfull spurning and kicking of the world a plain telling them that all is done for money and shall be so say all the world what it can They have a nationall custome in civill curtesies in that place in Italy to offer entertainments and lendings of money and the like but it must not be accepted It is a discurtesie to take their courteous offers in earnest Will they play so with the great Seale of heaven the remission and absolution of sins and send out their Priests with that commission whose sinnes yee forgive are forgiven but see you forgive none upon which we have set a higher price and reserved to our selves They had such a fashion in old Rome whilest the Republique stood He that was admitted to Triumph must invite the Consuls to the feast and the Consuls must promise to come but they must forbeare lest their presence should diminish the glory of the Triumpher So the Priest must professe that he hath as he hath indeed power to remit all sinnes but there are a great many that he must not meddle withall They practise this reservation upon higher persons then their ordinary Priests upon Cardinals A Cardinall is created and by that creation he hath a voice in all the great affairs of the world but at his creation Os clauditur à Papa he that made him makes him dumbe and he that out of the nature of his place is duly to be heard over all the world must not be heard in the Consistory the Pope gives him an universall voice and then shuts his mouth He makes him first a Giant and then a dwarfe in an houre He makes him thunder and speechlesse all at once fearfull to the Kings of the earth if he might speak but he must not They were not content to make Merchandize of our souls but they make plays jests scornes of matter of salvation and play fast and loose with that soveraign Balsamum of our souls the absolution and remission of sins Though no doubt many of them confess in their own bosomes that which one of them professes ingenuously and publiquely Diffiteri non possumus abusum Reservationum stragem animarum in iis we cannot deny the abuse of reservations even to the butchery of those poor souls who by reason of these reservations want their absolution Dolendum deflendum pecuniâ numeratâ omnia dispensare This deserves all our teares all our sighs that for money and not without it all sinnes are dispensed withall but there are fixed seasons for salvation some remissions and pardons are reserved to certain times of the year and there are fixt shops of salvation some remissions and pardons are appropriated to certain Fairs and Markets and cannot be given that is sold at any other time or place And farther we cannot we need not extend this accommodation of the words of our text literally intended of the condition of Gods Children in Babylon but pregnantly appliable to the condition of our Fathers in the Italian Babylon Rome But having at this time seen the oppressions that those shepheards inflicted there for the rest which are many and important considerations as first that they staid that they eate that grasse that yet they remained Gods sheep and remained his flock his Church though a Church under a greater Church And then the behaviour of the sheep whilst they staid there their obedience to Gods call in comming from them when he called them and made them way And lastly the little ground that our Separatists can have for their departing from us either by Israels departing from Babylon or our Fathers departing from Rome must be the exercise of your devotion another day SERMON XXV Preached at White-Hall The second Sermon on EZEK 34. 19. And as for my flock they eate that which yee have troden with your feet and they drink that which yee have fouled with your feet AS by way of accommodation we have considered these words as they concern the iniquity and oppression of the shepheards that is the chief rulers amongst the Iews in the Chaldean Babylon and as they are appliable to the condition of our Fathers in the Italian Babylon Rome so now in this exercise are we to consider the behaviour of the sheep their nature and their demeanour under all these pressures in which we have many steps to goe All these first Manebant that for all this ill usage there they did stay they did not breake out not scatter themselves manebant And then Edebant though their grasse were troden and their water troubled yet they did eat that grasse and they did drink that water Edebant And doing so Manebant Oves they continued sheep they lost not the nature nor property of sheep Manebant Oves and Oves Dei they continued Gods sheep for the Devill hath his sheep too my sheep says God not those which bad been mine when they eat fresh grasse and drunke pure water but then when they eat troden grasse and drunke troubled water they were Gods sheep And more then that they were Grex Dei Gods flock for those whom our former translation calls my sheep the latter calls my flock God hath single sheep in many corners of the heathen but these though thus fed were his flock his Church But then though they staid Gods leasure and lived long upon this ill diet yet when God was pleased to call them out of Babylon out of Babylon they went when God was pleased to lead our Fathers out of Rome they left it And justly howsoever our Adversaries load us with contumelious names for that departure in which branch we shall see the vanity of their criminations and imputations to us for that secession from them
pieces and slackens the band of the Christian faith which faith is That Christ consisting of two natures in one person suffered for the salvation of man So then not onely to take from Jesus one of his natures God or man but to adde to him another person this addition is a Diminution a dissolution an annihilation of Jesus So also to adde to the Gospel to adde to the Scriptures to adde to the articles of faith this addition is a Diminution a Dissolution an Annihilation of those Scriptures that Gospel that faith and the Author and finisher thereof Iesus grew in stature says the Gospel But he grew not to his lifes end we know to how many feet he grew So the Scriptures grew to the number of the books grew But they grow not to the worlds end we know to how many bookes they grew The body of man and the vessels thereof have a certain and a limited capacity what nourishment they can receive and digest and so a certaine measure and stature to extend to The soul and soul of the soul Faith and her faculties hath a certain capacity too and certain proportions of spirituall nourishments exhibited to it in certaine vessels certaine measures so many these Bookes of Scriptures And therefore as Christ saies Which of you can adde one Cubit to your stature how plentifully and how delicately soever you feed how discreetly and how providently soever you exercise you cannot doe that so may he say to them who pretend the greatest power in the Church Which of you can adde another booke to the Scriptures A Codicill to either of my Testaments The curse in the Revelation fals as heavy upon them that adde to the booke of God as upon them that take from it Nay it is easie to observe that in all those places of Scripture which forbid the taking away or the adding to the Book of God still the commandment that they shall not and still the malediction if they do is first placed upon the adding and after upon the taking away So it is in that former place Plagues upon him that takes away but first Plagues upon him that addes so in Deut. you shall not diminish but first you shall not adde So again in that Book whatsoever I command you observe to do it Thou shalt not diminish from it but first Thou shalt not adde to it And when the same commandment seems to be given in the Proverbs there is nothing at all said of taking away but onely of adding as though the danger to Gods Church consisted especially in that Every word of God is pure saith Solomon there Adde thou not unto his word lest thou be reproved and found a lyer For though heretofore some Heretiques have offered at that way to clip Gods coin in taking away some book of Scripture yet for many blessed Ages the Church hath enjoyed her peace in that point None of the Books are denied by any church there is no substraction offered But for addition of Apocryphal Books to Canonicall the Church of God is still in her Militant state and cannot triumph and though she have victory in all the Reasons the cannot have peace You see Christs way to them that came to heare him Audiistis and Audiistis This and that you have heard others say Egâ— autem dico your Rule is what I say for Christ spoke Scripture Christ was Scripture As we say of great and universall Scholars that they are viventes Bibliothecae living walking speaking Libraries so Christ was lâ—quens Scriptura living speaking Scripture Our Sermons are Text and Discourse Christ Sermons were all Text Christ was the Word not onely the Essentiall Word which was alwayes with God but the very written word too Christ was the Scripture and therefore when he refers them to himselfe he refers them to the Scriptures for though here he seem onely to call upon them to hearken to that which he spoke yet it is in a word of a deeper impression for it is Videte See what you hear Before you preach any thing for my word see it see it written see it in the body of the Scriptures Here then lies the double obligation upon the Apostles The salvation of the whole world lies upon your preaching of that of All That of onely That which you hear from me now And therefore take heed what you hear And farther we carry not your consideration upon this first acceptation of the words as they are spoken personally to the Apostles but passe to the second as by reflexion they are spoken to us the Ministers of the Gospel In this consideration we take in also our Adversaries for we all pretend to be successors of the Apostles though not we as they in the Apostolicall yet they as well as we in the Evangelicall and Ministeriall function for as that which Christ said to Saint Peter he said in him to all the Apostles Vpon this Rock will I build my Church so in this which he saith to all the Apostles he saith to all us also Take heed what you heare Be this then the issue between them of the Roman distemper and us whether they or we do best perform this commandment Take heed what you heare conceal nothing of that which you have heard obtrude nothing but that which you have heard Whether they or we do best apply our practise to this rule Preach all the Truth preach nothing but the Truth be this lis contestata the issue joyned between us and it will require no long pleading for matter of evidence first our Saviour saith Man liveth by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God And this Christ saith from Moses also so that in the mouth of two unreproachable witnesses Moses and Christ the Law and the Gospel we have this established Mans life is the Word of God the Word is the Scripture And then our Saviour saith further The Holy Ghost shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance and here is the Latitude the Totality the Integrality of the meanes of salvation you shall have Scriptures delivered to you by them the Holy Ghost shall teach you all things and then you shall be remembred of all by the explication and application of those Scriptures at Church where lies the principall operation of the Holy Ghost Now is this done in the Roman Church Are the Scriptures delivered and explicated to them To much of the Scriptures as is read to them in their Lessons and Epistles and Gospels is not understood when it is read for it is in an unknown language so that that way the Holy Ghost teaches them nothing Neither are all the Scriptures distributed into these Lessons and Epistles and Gospels which are read so that if they did understand all they heard yet they did not heare all they were bound to understand And for remembring them by the way of preaching though it be true that the
it Moses required not reason to help him to be beleeved The holy Ghost hovered upon the waters and so God wrought The holy Ghost hovered upon Moses too and so he wrote And we beleeve these things to be so by the same Spirit in Moses mouth by which they were made so in Gods hand Onely beloved remember that a frame may be thrown down in much lesse time then it was set up A child an Ape can give fire to a Canon And a vapour can shake the earth And these fires and these vapours can throw down cities in minutes When Christ said Throw down this Temple and in three days I will raise it they never stopped upon the consideration of throwing it down they knew that might be soon done but they wondred at the speedy raising of it Now if all this earth were made in that minute may not all come to the generall dissolution in this minute Or may not thy acres thy miles thy Shires shrinke into feet and so few feet as shall but make up thy grave When he who was a great Lord must be but a Cottager and not so well for a Cottager must have so many acres to his Cottage but in this case a little peece of an acre five foot is become the house it selfe The house and the land the grave is all lower then that the grave is the Land and the Tenement and the Tenant too He that lies in it becomes the same earth that he lies in They all make but one earth and but a little of it But then raise thy selfe to a higher hope againe God hath made better land the land of promise a stronger city the new Ierusalem and inhabitants for that everlasting city Vs whom he made not by saying let there be men but by consultation by deliberation God said Let us make Man in our Image after our likenesse We shall pursue our great examples God in doing Moses in saying and so make hast in applying the parts But first receive them And since we have the whole world in contemplation consider in these words the foure quarters of the world by application by fair and just accommodation of the words First in the first word that God speaks here Faciamus Let us us in the plurall a denotation of divers Persons in one Godhead we consider our East where we must beginne at the knowledge and confession of the Trinity For though in the way to heaven we be travelled beyond the Gentiles when we come to confess but one God The Gentiles could not do that yet we are still among the Iews if we thinke that one God to be but one Person Christs name is Oriens the East if we will be named by him called Christians we must look to this East the confession of the Trinity There 's then our East in the Faciamus Let us us make man And then our West is in the next word Faciamus Hominem Though we be thus made made by the counsell made by the concurrence made by the hand of the whole Trinity yet we are made but men And man but in the appellation in this text and man there is but Adam and Adam is but earth but red earth earth dyed red in bloud in Soul-bloud the bloud of our own soules To that west we must all come to the earth The Sunne knoweth his going down Even the Sun for all his glory and heighth hath a going down and he knowes it The highest cannot devest mortality nor the discomfort of mortality When you see a cloud rise out of the west straightway you say there commeth a storme says Christ. When out of the region of your west that is your later days there comes a cloud a sicknesse you feele a storme even the best morall constancy is shaked But this cloud and this storme and this west there must be And that 's our second consideration But then the next words designe a North a strong and powerfull North to scatter and dissipate these clouds Ad imaginem similitudinem That we are made according to a pattern to an image to a likenesse which God proposed to himselfe for the making of man This consideration that God did not rest in that praeexistent matter out of which he made all other creatures and produced their formes out of their matter for the making of man but took a forme a patterne a modell for that work this is the North winde that is called upon to carry out of the perfumes of the garden to spread the goodnesse of God abroad This is that which is intended in Iob faire weather commeth out of the North. Our West our declination is in this that we are but earth our North our dissipation of that darknesse is in this that we are not all earth Though we be of that matter we have another forme another image another likenesse And then whose image and likenesse it is is our Meridionall height our noon our south point our highest elevation In Imagine nostra Let us make man in our Image Though our Sun set at noon as the Prophet Amos speakes though we die in our youth or fall in our height yet even in that Sunset we shall have a Noon For this Image of God shall never depart from our soule no not when that soule departs from our body And that 's our South our Meridionall height and glory And when we have thus seen this East in the faciamus That I am the workmanship and care of the whole Trinity And this West in the Hominem That for all that my matter my substance is but earth But then a North a power of overcomming that low and miserable state In Imagine That though in my matter the earth I must die yet in my forme in that Image which I am made by I cannot die and after all a South a knowledge That this Image is not the Image of Angels to whom we shall be like but it is by the same life by which those Angels themselves were made the Image of God himselfe When I am gone over this east and west and north and south here in this world I should be as sorry as Alexander was if there were no more worlds But there is another world which these considerations will discover and lead us to in which our joy and our glory shall be to see that God essentially and face to face after whose Image and likenesse we were made before But as that Pilot which had harbor'd his ship so farre within land as that he must have change of Winds in all the points of the Compasse to bring her out cannot hope to bring her our in one day So being to transport you by occasion of these words from this world to the next and in this world through all the Compasse all the foure quarters thereof I cannot hope to make all this voyage to day To day we shall consider onely our longitude our East and West
to come to that light and that glory How then hath God doubled his mercies upon those persons to whom he hath afforded two great lights a Sunne to rule their day honour and prosperity and a Moone to rule their night humiliation and adversity to whom he hath given both Types in themselves to see this future glory by that is Titles and places of honour in this world and spectacles in themselves to see this glory by afflictions and crosses in this world And therefore since God gives both these no where so plentifully as in Courts the place of Honour and the place of Crosses too the place of rising and the place of falling too you you especially who by having your station there in the Court it selfe are in the Court exemplified and copied in your owne noble house you that have seen God characterized in his Types in titles of greatnesse you that have beheld God presented in his spectacle of Crosses and afflictions the daily bread of Courts Blesse ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever and declare the wondrous workes that he hath done for the Sonnes of men for certainly many woes and invincible darknesse attend those to whom neither the hand of God in his works nor the hand of God upon themselves neither the greatnesse of this world nor the crâ—sses of this world can manifest God for what picture of God would they have that will neither have him in great nor litle SERMON XXXII Preached to the Earl of Exeter and his company in his Chappell at Saint Iohns 13. Iun. 1624. APOC. 7. 9. After this I beheld and loe a great Multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lambe clothed with white robes and Palmes in their hands WE shall have occasion by and by to say something of the danger of Curiosity and something of the danger of the broad way in which too many walk we will not therefore fall into either of these faults at first we will not be over curious nor we will not stray nor cast our selves into that broad and boundlesse way by entring into those various and manifold senses which Expositors have multiplyed in the handling of this place and this part of this book but we take the plainest way and that in which the best meet and concur that these words are spoken of the Ioyes and Glory reserved for them who overcome the fraud and the fury the allurements and the violences of Antichrist in whom in that name and person of Antichrist we consider all supplanters and all seducers all opposers of the kingdome of Christ in us for as every man hath spontaneum daemonem as S. Chrysostome speakes a devill of his own making which is some customary and habituall sin in him so every man hath spontaneuÌ„ Antichristum an Antichrist of his own making some objections in the weakness of his faith some oppositions in the perverseness of his manners against the kingdom of Christ in himself as if God would suspend the devill or slumber the devill a day I am afraid we should be as ill that day as if the devill were awake and in action so if those disputed problematical Antichrists Eastern Western Antichrist Antichrist of Rome and Antichrist of Constantinople Turk and Pope were removed out of the world we should not for all that be delivered of Antichrist that is of that opposition to the kingdome of Christ which is in our selvs This part of the book of the Revelation is literally and primarily the glorious victory of them who in the later end of the world having stood out the persecutions of the Antichrist enter into the triumph of heaven And it extends it self to all by way of fair accommodation who after a battel with their own Antichrists and victory over their owne enemies are also made partakers of those triumphs those joyes those glories of which S. Iohn in this propheticall glasse in this perspective of visions saw A great multitude which no man could number of all nations c. We are then upon the contemplation of the joyes of heaven which are everlasting must we wring them into the discourse of an houre of the glory of heaven which is intire and must we divide it into parts we must we will we doe into two parts first the number the great number of those that shall be saved And then the glorious qualities which shall be imprinted on them who are saved first that salvation is a more extensive thing more communicable then sullen cloystrall that have walled salvation in a monastery or in an ermitage take it to be or then the over-valuers of their own purity and righteousnesse which have determined salvation in themselves take it to be for It is a great multitude which no man can number of all nations c. And then in the second place salvation is the possession of such endowments as naturally invite all to the prosecution of that which is exposed and offered to all that we all labour here that we may all stand hereafter before the Throne and before the Lambe clothed in white robes c. In the first of these we shall passe by these steps first we shall consider the sociablenesse the communicablenesse of God himself who gives us the earth and offers us heaven and desires to have his kingdome well peopled he would have many he would have all he would have every one of them have all And then the first word of the text After this will carry us to the consideration of that which was done before which was first that they which were of this number were sealed and then they which were so sealed before were a great number one hundred forty four thousand but they who were made partakers of all this after were innumerable After this I beheld a great multitude which no man could number And therefore we shall shut up that first part with this consideration what sense what interpretation may belong unto those places where Christ says that the way to heaven is narrow and the gate straight of these peeces we shall make up our first part And for the particulars belonging to the second we shall fitliest open them then when we come to the handling of them Our first step then in this first part is the sociablenesse the communicablenesse of God He loves holy meetings he loves the communion of Saints the houshold of the faithfull Deliciae ejus says Solomon his delight is to be with the Sons of men and that the Sons of men should be with him Religion is not a melancholy the spirit of God is not a dampe the Church is not a grave it is a fold it is an Arke it is a net it is a city it is a kingdome not onely a house but a house that hath many mansions in it still it is a plurall thing consisting of
to you for our third part Goe forth behold Solomon c. Here are two duties enjoyn'd at least two steps two degrees Egredimini Go forth and then Videte Behold contemplate And after the duty or wrap'd in the duty we have the Object which we are to look upon in that divers things to be considered as we shall see in their order First when we are bid to Go forth it is not to go so far as out of that Church in which God hath given us our station for as Moses says That the word of God is not beyond Sea so the Church of God is not so beyond Sea as that we must needs seek it there either in a painted Church on one side or in a naked Church on another a Church in a Dropsie overflowne with Ceremonies or a Church in a Consumption for want of such Ceremonies as the primitive Church found usefull and beneficiall for the advancing of the glory of God and the devotion of the Congregation That which Christ says to the Church it selfe the Church says to every soule in the Church Goe thy way forth by the footsteps of the flocke Associate thy selfe to the true shepheard and true sheep of Christ Jesus and stray not towards Idolatrous Chappels nor towards schismaticall Conventicles but goe by the footsteps of the flock there must be footsteps some must have gone that way before take heed of Opinions that begin in thy selfe and the whole flock must have gone that way take heed of opinions vented by a few new men which have not had the establishment of a Church And truly the best way to discerne footsteps is Daniels way Daniels way was to straw ashes and so their footsteps that had been there were easily discerned Walke in thine own ashes in the meditation of thine own death or in the ashes of Gods Saints who are dead before thee in the contemplation of their example and thou wilt see some footsteps of the flock some impressions some directions how they went and how thou art to follow to the heavenly Jerusalem In conversing evermore with them which tread upon Carpets or upon Marbles thou shalt see no footsteps Carpets and Marbles receive no impressions Amongst them that tread in ashes in the ways of holy sorrow and religious humiliation thou shalt have the way best marked out unto thee Goe forth that is goe farther then thy selfe out of thy selfe at least out of the love of thy self for that is but a short a giddy a vertiginous walk how little a thing is the greatest man If thou have many rooms in thy selfe many capacities to contemplate thy selfe in if thou walke over the consideration of thy selfe as thou hast such a title of Honour such an Office of Command such an Inheritance such a pedegree such a posterity such an Allyance if this be not a short walke yet it is a round walke a giddy a vertiginous proceeding Get beyond thine own circle consider thy selfe at thine end at thy death and then Egredere Goe further then that Go forth and see what thou shalt be after thy death Still that which we are to look upon is especially our selves but it is our selves enlarg'd extended into the next world for till we see what we shall be then we are but short-sighted Wouldst thou say thou knew'st a man because thou hadst seen him in his Cradle no more canst thou be said to have known thy self because thou knowest the titles and additions which thou hast received in this world for all those things w ch we have here are but swadling clouts all our motions preferments from place to place are but the rocking of a cradle The first thing that Christ says to his spouse in the Canticles is If thou know not thy selfe for so all the Ancients read it and so the Originall beares it If thou know not thy selfe O thou fairest of women she might know that she was the fairest of women and yet not know her selfe Thou mayst know that thou art the happyest of men in this world and yet not know thy self All this life is but a Preface or but an Index and Repertory to the book of life There at that book beginnes thy study To grow perfect in that book to be dayly conversant in that book to find what be the marks of them whose names are written in that book and to finde those marks ingenuously and in a rectified conscience in thy selfe To finde that no murmuring at Gods corrections no disappointing of thy hopes no interrupting of thy expectations no frustrating of thy possibilities in the way no impatience in sicknesse and in the agony of death can deface those marks this is to goe forth and see thy self beyond thy self to see what thou shalt be in the next world Now we cannot see our own face without a glasse and therefore in the old Temple In or about that laver of brasse where the water for the uses of the Church was reserved Moses appointed looking-glasses to be placed that so at the entring into the Temple men might see themselves and make use of that water if they had contracted any foulnesse in any part about them Here at your coming hither now you have two glasses wherein you may see your selves from head to foot One in the Text your Head Christ Iesus represented unto you in the name and person of Solomon Behold King Solomon crowned c. And another under your feet in the dissolution of this great Monarch our Royall Master now layd lower by death then any of us his Subjects and servants First then behold your selves in that first glasse Behold King Solomon Solomon the sonne of David but not the Son of Bathsheba but of a better mother the most blessed Virgin Mary For Solomon in this text is not a proper Name but an Appellative a significative word Solomon is pacificus the Peacemaker and our peace is made in and by Christ Jesus and he is that Solomon whom we are called upon to see here Now as Saint Paul says that he would know nothing but Christ that 's his first abridgement and then he would know nothing of Christ but him crucifyed and that 's the re-abridgement so we seek no other glasse to see our selves in but Christ nor any other thing in this glasse but his Humiliation What need we Even that his lowest humiliation his death is expressed here in three words of exaltation It is a Crown it is a Mariage it is the gladnesse of heart Behold King Salomon crowned c. The Crown which we are called to see him crowned with his mother put upon him The Crown which his Father gave him was that glory wherewith he was glorifyed with the Father from all eternity in his divine nature And the Crown wherewith his Father crowned his Humane nature was the glory given to that in his Ascension His Mother could give him no such Crown she
to fetch fire at the hearth and incapable of any drop of Christs blood from heaven or of any teare of contrition in themselves not a sheard to fetch water at the pit I will breake them as a Potters vessell quod non potest instaurari says God in Ieremy There shall be no possible meanes of those means which God hath ordained in his Church to recompact them againe no voice of Gods word to draw them no threatnings of Gods judgements shall drive them no censures of Gods Church shall fit them no Sacrament shall cement and glue them to Christs body againe In temporall blessings he shall be unthankfull in temporall afflictions he shall be obdurate And these two shall serve as the upper and nether stone of a mill to grinde this reprobate sinner to powder Lastly this is to be done by Christs falling upon him and what is that I know some Expositors take this to be but the falling of Gods judgements upon him in this world But in this world there is no grinding to powder all Gods judgements here for any thing that we can know have the nature of Physick in them may are wont to cure no man is here so absolutely broken in pieces but that he may be re-united we chuse therefore to follow the Ancients in this That the falling of this stone upon this Reprobate is Christs last irrecoverable falling upon him in his last judgment that when hee shall wish that the Hills might fall and cover him this stone shall fall grinde him to powder He shall be broken and he no more found says the Prophet yea he shall be broken and no more sought No man shall consider him what he is now nor remember him what he was before For that stone which in Daniel was cut out without hands which was a figure of Christ who came without ordinary generation when that great Image was to be overthrown broke not an arme or a leg but brake the whole Image in peeces and it wrought not onely upon the weak parts but it brake all the clay the iron the brasse the silver the gold so when this stone fals thus when Christ comes to judgement he shall not onely condemn him for his clay his earthly and covetous sinnes nor for his iron his revengefull oppressing and rustly sinnes nor for his brasse his shining and glittering sinnes which he hath filed and polished but he shall fall upon his silver and gold his religious and precious sinnes his hypocriticall hearing of Sermons his singular observing of Sabbaths his Pharisaicall giving of almes and as well his subtill counterfeiting of Religion as his Atheisticall opposing of religion this stone Christ himselfe shall fall upon him and a showre of other stones shall oppresse him too Sicut pluit laqueâ—s says David As God rained springs and snares upon them in this world abundance of temporall blessings to be occasions of sinne unto them So plues grandinem he shall raine such haile-stones upon them as shall grinde them to powder there shall fall upon him the naturall Law which was written in his heart and did rebuke him then when he prepared for a sinne there shall fall upon him the written Law which cryed out from the mouthes of the Prophets in these places to avert him from sinne there shall fall upon him those sinnes which he hath done and those sins which he hath not done if nothing but want of means opportunity hindred him from doing them there shall fall upon him those sinnes which he hath done after anothers dehortation and those which others have done after his provocation there the stones of Nineveh shall fall upon him and of as many Cities as have repented with lesse proportions of mercy and grace then God afforded him there the rubbage of Sodom and Gomorrah shall fall upon him and as many Cities as in their ruine might have been examples to him All these stones shall fall upon him and to add weight to all these Christ Jesus himselfe shall fall upon his conscience with unanswerable questions and grinde his soule to powder But hee that overcometh shall not bee hurt by the second death he that feeles his own fall upon this stone shall never feel this stone fall upon him he that comes to a remorse early and earnestly after a sinne and seeks by ordinary meanes his reconcileation to God in his Church is in the best state that man can be in now for howsoever we cannot say that repentance is as happy an estate as Innocency yet certainly every particular man feels more comfort and spirituall joy after a true repentance for a sin then he had in that degree of Innocence which he had before he committed that sinne and therefore in this case also we may safely repeat those words of Augustine Audeo dicere I dare be bold to say that many a man hath been the better for some sin Almighty God who gives that civill wisdome to make use of other mens infirmities give us also this heavenly wisdome to make use of our own particular sins that thereby our own wretched conditions in our selves and our meanes of reparation in Iesus Christ may be the more manifested unto us To whom with the blessed Spirit c. SERMON XXXVI Preached at Saint Pauls upon Christmasse day 1621. JOHN 1. 8. He was not that Light but was sent to bear witnesse of that Light IT is an injury common to all the Evangelists as Irenaeus notes that all their Gospels were severally refused by one Sect of Hereticks or other But it was proper to Saint Iohn alone to be refused by a Sect that admitted all the other three Evangelists as Epiphanius remembers and refused onely Saint Iohn These were the Alogiani a limme and branch of the Arians who being unable to looke upon the glorious Splendour the divine Glory attributed by Saint Iohn to this Logos which gave them their name of Alogiani this Word this Christ not comprehending this Mystery That this Word was so with God as that it was God they tooke a round way and often practised to condemne all that they did not understand and therefore refuse the whole Gospell Indeed his whole Gospell is comprehended in the beginning thereof In this first Chapter is contracted all that which is extensively spred and dilated through the whole Booke For here is first the Foundation of all the Divinitie of Christ to the 15. verse Secondly the Execution of all the Offices of Christ to the 35. verse And then the Effect the Working the Application of all that is who were to Preach all this to the ends of the world the calling of his Apostles to the end of the Chapter for the first Christs Divinity there is enough expressed in the very first verse alone for there is his Eternitie intimated in that word In principio in the beginning The first booke of the Bible Genesis and the last booke that is that