mony is issued that is his Church where his merits should be applied to the discharge of particular consciences Coloss 2.9 So that here is one fulnesse that in this person dwelleth all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily Here is another fulnesse that this person fulfilled all righteousnesse and satisfied the Justice of God by his suffering Thren 1.12 non est dolor sicut there was no sorrow like unto his sorrow It was so full that it exceeded all others And then there is a third fulnesse the Church Eph. 1.23 which is his body the fulnesse of him that filleth all in all perfit God there is the fulnesse of his dignity perfit man there is the fulnesse of his passibility and a perfit Church there is the fulnesse of the distribution of his mercies and merits to us And this is omnis plenitudo all fulnesse which yet is farther extended in the next word Inhabitavit It pleased the Father that all fulnesse should dwell in him The Holy Ghost appeared in the Dove Inhabitavit Remigius but he did not dwell in it The Holy Ghost hath dwelt in holy men but not thus So as that ancient Bishop expresses it Habitavit in Salomone per sapientiam He dwelt in Salomon in the spirit of wisedome in Ioseph in the spirit of chastity in Moses in the spirit of meeknesse but in Christo in plenitudine in Christ in all fulnesse Now this fulnesse is not fully expressed in the Hypostaticall union of the two natures God and Man in the person of Christ For concerning the divine Nature here was not a dram of glory in this union This was a strange fulnesse for it was a fulnesse of emptinesse It was all Humiliation all exinanition all evacuation of himselfe by his obedience to the death of the Crosse But when it was done Ne evacuaretur Crux Christi 1 Cor. 1.17 as the Apostle speaks in another case lest the Crosse of Christ should be evacuated and made of none effect he came to make this fulnesse perfit by instituting and establishing a Church Esay 1. ult The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him saies the Prophet of Christ There is a fulnesse in generall for his qualification The Spirit of the Lord but what kinde of spirit It followes the spirit of wisedome and understanding the Spirit of Counsell and Power the Spirit of knowledge and of the feare of the Lord we see the spirit that must rest upon Christ is the Spirit in those beames in those functions in those operations 〈…〉 as conduce to government that is Wisedome and Counsell and Power So that this is Christs fulnesse that he is in a continuall administration of his Church in which he flowes over upon us his Ministers Joh. 1.16 for of his fulnesse have all we received and grace for grace that is power by his grace to derive grace upon the Congregation And so of his fulnesse all the Congregation receives too and receives in that full measure That they are filled with all the fulnesse of God Eph. 3.19 that is all the fulnesse that was in both his natures united in one person when the fulnesse of the Deity dwelt in him bodily all the merits of that person are derived upon us in his Word Sacraments in his Church which Church being to continue to the end it is most properly said habitavit in him in him as head of the Church all fulnesse all meanes of salvation dwell and are to be had permanently constantly infallibly Now how came Christ by all this fulnesse Complacuit this superlative fulnesse in himselfe this derivative fulnesse upon us That his merits should be able to build and furnish such a house to raise and rectifie such a Church acceptable to God in which all fulnesse should dwell to the worlds end It was onely because complacuit it pleased God for this personall name of the Father It pleased the Father is but added suppletorily by our Translators and is not in the Originall It pleased God to give him wherewithall to enable him so farre for this complacuit is as we say in the Schoole vox beneplaciti it expresses onely the good will and love of God without contemplation or foresight of any goodnesse in man Catharin nam hac posita plenitudine exorta sunt merita First we are to consider this fulnesse to have been in Christ and then from this fulnesse arose his merits we can consider no merit in Christ himselfe before whereby he should merit this fulnesse for this fulnesse was in him before he merited any thing and but for this fulnesse he had not so merited August Ille homo ut in unitatem filii Dei assumeretur unde meruit How did that man sayes St. Augustine speaking of Christ as of the son of man how did that man merit to be united in one person with the eternall Son of God Quid egit ante Quid credidit What had he done nay what had he beleeved Had he eyther faith or works before that union of both natures If then in Christ Jesus himselfe there were no praevisa merita That Gods fore-sight that he would use this fulnesse well did not work in God as a cause to give him this fulnesse but because hee had it of the free gift of God therefore he did use it well and meritoriously shall any of us be so frivolous in so important a matter as to think that God gave us our measure of grace or our measure of Sanctification because he fore-saw that we would heap up that measure and employ that talent profitably What canst thou imagine he could fore-see in thee A propensnesse a disposition to goodnesse when his grace should come Eyther there is no such propensnesse no such disposition in thee or if there be even that propensnesse and disposition to the good use of grace is grace it is an effect of former grace and his grace wrought before he saw any such propensnesse any such disposition Grace was first and his grace is his it is none of thine To end this point and this part non est discipulus supra magistrum The fulnesse of Christ himselfe was rooted in the complacuit It pleased the Father nothing else wrought in the nature of a Cause and therefore that measure of that fulnesse which is derived upon us from him our vocation our justification our sanctification are much more so we have them quia complacuit because it hath pleased him freely to give them God himselfe could see nothing in us till he of his owne goodnesse put it into us And so we have gone as farre as our first part carries us in those two branches and the fruits which we have gathered from thence First those generall doctrines that reason is not to be excluded in matters of religion and then that reason in all those cases is to be limited with the quia complacuit meerly in the good
in a disease very little capable of cure then when he had so farre resolved and slackned his sinewes that he could endure no posture but his bed he suffered himselfe to be put to so many incommodities It was good evidence of a strength of faith in them that they could beleeve that Christ would not reject them for that importunity of troubling him and the congregation in the midst of a Sermon That when they saw that they who came onely to heare could not get neare the doore they should thinke to get in with that load that offensive spectacle That they should ever conceive or goe about to execute or be suffered to execute such a plot as without the leave of Christ if Christ preached this Sermon in his owne house as some take it to have been done or without the Masters leave in whose house soever it was they should first untile or open and then break through the floore and so let downe their miserable burden That they should have an apprehension that it was not fit for them to stay till the Sermon were done and the company parted but that it was likeliest to conduce to the glory of God that Preaching and working might goe together this was evidence this was argument of strength of faith in them Take therefore their example not to defer that assistance which thou art able to give to another Ne dic as assistam cr as sayes S. Gregory doe not say I will help thee to morrow Ne quid inter propositum beneficium intercedat Perchance that poore soule may not need thee to morrow perchance thou maist have nothing to give to morrow perchance there shall be no such day as to morrow and so thou hast lost that opportunity of thy charity which God offered thee to day Vnica beneficentia est quae moram non admittit onely that is charity that is given presently But yet when all was done when there was faith and faith in them all Cum non quiae and faith declared in their outward works yet Christ is not said to have done this miracle quia sides but cum fides not Because he saw but onely When he saw their faith Let us transferre none of that which belongs to God to our selves when we doe our duties but when doe we goe about to begin to doe any part of any of them we are unprofitable servants When God does work in us are we saved by that work as by the cause when there is another cause of the work it selfe When the ground brings forth good corne yet that ground becomes not fit for our food When a man hath brought forth good fruits yet that man is not thereby made worthy of heaven Not faith it selfe and yet faith is of somewhat a deeper dye and tincture then any works is any such cause of our salvation A beggars beleeving that I will give him an almes is no cause of my charity My beleeving that Christ will have mercy upon me is no cause of Christs mercy for what proportion hath my temporary faith with my everlasting salvation But yet though it work not as a cause though it be not qui a vidit because he saw it yet cum videt when Christ findes this faith according to that gracious Covenant and Contract which he hath made with us that wheresoever and whensoever he findes faith he will enlarge his mercy finding that in this patient he expressed his mercy in that which constitutes our second part Fili confide my son be of good cheare thy sins are forgiven thee Where we see first 2 Part. our Saviour Christ opening the bowels of compassion to him and receiving him so as if he had issued out of his bowels and from his loynes in that gracious appellation Fili my Son He does not call him brother for greater enmity can be no where then is often expressed to have beene betweene brethren for in that degree and distance enmity amongst men began in Cain and Abel and was pursued in many paires of brethren after in Sacred and in secular story Hee does not call him friend that name even in Christs owne mouth is not alwaies accompanied with good entertainment Amice Mat. 22.12 quomodo intrasti saies he Friend how came you in and he bound him hand and foote and cast him into outer darknesse He does not call him son of Abraham which might give him an interest in all the promises but he gives him a present Adoption and so a present fruition of all Fili my Son His Son and not his Son in law he loads him not with the encumbrances and halfe-impossibilities of the Law but he seales to him the whole Gospell in the remission of sinnes His Son and not his dis-inherited son as the Jewes were but his Son upon whom he setled his ancient Inheritance his eternall election and his new purchase which he came now into the world to make with his blood His Son and not his prodigall son to whom Christ imputes no wastfulnesse of his former graces but gives him a generall release and Quietus est in the forgivenesse of sinnes All that Christ asks of his Sons is Fili da mihi cor My Son give me thy heart and till God give us that we cannot give it him and therefore in this Son he creates a new heart he infuses a new courage he establishes a new confidence in the next word Fili confide My Son be of good cheere Christ then does not stay so long wrastling with this mans faith Confide and shaking it and trying whether it were fast rooted as he did with that Woman in the Gospell who came after him Mat. 15.22 in her daughters behalfe crying Have mercy upon me O Lord thou Son of David for Christ gave not that woman one word when her importunity made his Disciples speake to him he said no more but that he was not sent to such as she This was far very far from a Confide filia Daughter be of good cheere But yet this put her not oft but as it followes She followed and worshipped him and said O Lord helpe me And all this prevailed no farther with him but to give such an answer as was more discomfortable then a silence It is not fit to take the childrens bread and cast it unto dogs She denies not that she contradicts him not she saies Truth Lord It is not fit to take the childrens bread and to cast it unto dogs and Truth Lord I am one of those dogs but yet she persevers in her holy importunity and in her good ill-manners and saies Yet the Dogs eate of the crums which fall from the Masters table And then and not till then comes Jesus to that O Woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt and her Daughter was healed But all this at last was but a bodily restitution here was no Dimittuntur peccata in the case no declaration of forgivenesse
sacrifice to his memory For whilst his conversation made me and many others happy below I know his humility and gentleness was eminent And I have heard Divines say those vertues that are but sparks on earth become great and glorious flames in heaven He was borne in LONDON of good and vertuous Parents And though his own learning and other multiplied merits may justly seeme sufficient to dignifie both himselfe and posteritie yet Reader be pleased to know that his Father was masculinely and lineally descended from a very ancient Family in Wales where many of his name now live that have and deserve great reputation in that Countrey By his Mother he was descended from the Family of the famous Sir Thomas More sometimes Lord Chancellor of England and also from that worthy and laborious Judge Rastall who left behind him the vast Statutes of the Lawes of this Kingdome most exactly abridged He had his first breeding in his Fathers house where a private Tutor had the care of him till he was nine yeares of age he was then sent to the Universitie of Oxford having at that time a command of the French and Latine Tongues when others can scarce speak their owne There he remained in Hart Hall having for the advancement of his studies Tutors in severall Sciences to instruct him till time made him capable and his learning exprest in many publique Exercises declared him fit to receive his first Degree in the Schooles which he forbore by advise from his friends who being of the Romish perswasion were conscionably averse to some parts of the Oath alwayes tendred and taken at those times About the fourteenth yeare of his age he was transplanted from Oxford to Cambridge where that he might receive nourishment from both soiles he staid till his seventeenth yeare All which time he was a most laborious Student often changing his studies but endeavouring to take no Degree for the reasons formerly mentioned About his seventeenth yeare he was removed to London and entred into Lincolnes Inne with an intent to study the Law where he gave great testimonies of wit learning and improvement in that profession which never served him for any use but onely for ornament His Father died before his admission into that Society and being a Merchant left him his Portion in money which was 3000. li. His Mother and those to whose care he was committed were watchful to improve his knowledge and to that end appointed him there also Tutors in severall Sciences as the Mathematicks and others to attend and instruct him But with these Arts they were advised to instill certaine particular principles of the Romish Church of which those Tutors though secretly profest themselves to be members They had almost obliged him to their faith having for their advantage besides their opportunity the example of his most deare and pious Parents which was a powerfull perswasion and did work upon him as he professeth in his PREFACE to his Pseudo-Martyr He was now entred into the nineteenth yeare of his age and being unresolved in his Religion though his youth and strength promised him a long life yet he thought it necessary to rectifie all scruples which concerned that And therefore waving the Law and betrothing himselfe to no art or profession that might justly denominate him he began to survey the body of Divinity controverted between the Reformed and Roman Church Preface to Pseudo-Martyr And as Gods blessed Spirit did then awaken him to the search and in that industry did never forsake him they be his owne words So he calls the same Spirit to witness to his Protestation that in that search and disquisition he proceeded with humility and diffidence in himselfe by the safest way of frequent Prayers and indifferent affection to both parties And indeed Truth had too much light about her to be hid from so sharp an Inquirer and he had too much ingenuity not to acknowledge he had seen her Being to undertake this search he beleeved the learned Cardinal Bellarmine to be the best defender of the Roman cause and therefore undertook the examination of his reasons The cause was waighty and wilfull delaies had been inexcusable towards God and his own conscience he therfore proceeded with all moderate haste And before he entred into the twentieth yeare of his age did shew the Deane of Gloucester all the Cardinalls Works marked with many waighty Observations under his own hand which Works were bequeathed by him at his death as a Legacy to a most deare friend About the twentieth yeare of his age he resolved to travell And the Earle of Essex going to Cales and after the Iland voyages he took the advantage of those opportunities waited upon his Lordship and saw the expeditions of those happy and unhappy imployments But he returned not into England till he had staid a convenient time first in Italy and then in Spaine where he made many usefull Observations of those Countries their Lawes and Government and returned into England perfect in their Languages Not long after his returne that exemplary pattern of gravity and wisdome the Lord Elsmore Lord Keeper of the great Seale and after Chancellor of England taking notice of his Learning Languages and other abilities and much affecting both his person and condition received him to be his chiefe Secretarie supposing it might be an Introduction to some more waighty imployment in the State for which his Lordship often protested he thought him very fit Nor did his Lordship account him so much to be his servant as to forget hee had beene his friend and to testifie it hee used him alwayes with much curtesie appointing him a place at his owne Table unto which he esteemed his company and discourse a great ornament He continued that employment with much love and approbation being daily usefull and not mercenary to his friends for the space of five yeares In which time he I dare not say unfortunately fell into such a liking as with her approbation increased into a love with a young Gentlewoman who lived in that Family Neece to the Lady Elsmore Daughter to Sir George More Chancellor of the Garter and Lieutenant of the Tower Sir George had some immation of their increasing love and the better to prevent it did remove his Daughter to his owne house but too late by reason of some faithfull promises interchangeably past and inviolably to be kept between them Their love a passion which of all other Mankind is least able to command and wherein most errors are committed was in them so powerfull that they resolved and did marry without the approbation of those friends that might justly claime an interest in the advising and disposing of them Being married the newes was in favour to M. Donne and with his allowance by the Right Honourable Henry then Earle of Northumberland secretly and certainly intimated to Sir George More to whom it was so immeasurably unwelcome that as though his passion of anger and inconsideration should
all timorousnesse that my Transgressions are not forgiven or my sins not covered In the first Act we consider God the Father to have wrought He proposed he decreed he accepted too a sacrifice for all mankind in the death of Christ In the second The Covering of sinnes we consider God the Sonne to worke Incubare Ecclesiae He sits upon his Church as a Hen upon her Eggs He covers all our sinnes whom he hath gathered into that body with spreading himselfe and his merits upon us all there In this third The not Imputing of Iniquity we consider God the Holy Ghost to worke and as the Spirit of Consolation to blow away all scruples all diffidences and to establish an assurance in the Conscience The Lord imputes not that is the Spirit of the Lord The Lord the Spirit The Holy Ghost suffers not me to impute to my selfe those sinnes which I have truly repented The over-tendernesse of a bruised and a faint conscience may impute sinne to it selfe when it is discharged And a seared and obdurate Conscience may impute none when it abounds If the Holy Ghost work he rectifies both and if God doe inflict punishments according to the signification of this word Gnavah after our Repentance and the seals of our Reconciliation yet he suffers us not to impute those sinnes to our selves or to repute those corrections punishments as though he had not forgiven them or as though he came to an execution after a pardon but that they are laid upon us medicinally and by way of prevention and precaution against his future displeasure This is that Pax Conscientiae The peace of Conscience when there is not one sword drawne This is that Serenitas Conscientiae The Meridionall brightnesse of the Conscience when there is not one Cloud in our sky I shall not hope that Originall sin shall not be imputed but feare that Actuall sin may not hope that my dumbe sins shall not but my crying sins may not hope that my apparant sins which have therefore induced in me a particular sense of them shall not but my secret sins sins that I am not able to returne and represent to mine owne memory may for this Non Imputabit hath no limitation God shall suffer the Conscience thus rectified to terrifie it selfe with nothing which is also farther extended in the Originall where it is not Non Imputat but Non Imputabit Though after all this we doe fall into the same or other sins yet we shall know our way and evermore have our Consolation in this That as God hath forgiven our transgression in taking the sins of all mankinde upon himselfe for he hath redeemed us and left out Angels And as he hath covered our sin that is provided us the Word and Sacraments and cast off the Jews and left out the Heathen So he will never Impute mine Iniquity never suffer it to terrifie my Conscience Not now when his Judgements denounced by his Minister call me to him here Nor hereafter when the last bell shall call me to him into the grave Nor at last when the Angels Trumpets shall call me to him from the dust in the Resurrection But that as all mankinde hath a Blessednesse in Christs taking our sins which was the first Article in this Catechisme And all the Christian Church a Blessednesse in covering our sins which was the second So I may finde this Blessednesse in this worke of the Holy Ghost not to Impute that is not to suspect that God imputes any repented sin unto me or reserves any thing to lay to my charge at the last day which I have prayed may be and therefore hoped hath been forgiven before But then after these three parts which we have now in our Order proposed at first passed through That David applies himselfe to us in the most convenient way by the way of Catechisme and instruction in fundamentall things And then that he lays for his foundation of all Beatitude Blessednesse Happinesse which cannot be had in the consummation and perfection thereof but in the next world But yet in the third place gives us an inchoation an earnest an evidence of this future and consummate Blessednesse in bringing us faithfully to beleeve That Christ dyed sufficiently for all the world That Christ offers the application of all this to all the Christian Church That the Holy Ghost seals an assurance thereof to every particular Conscience well rectified After all this done thus largely on Gods part there remains something to be done on ours that may make all this effectuall upon us Vt non sit dolus in spiritu That there be no guile in our spirit which is our fourth part and Conclusion of all Of all these fruits of this Blessednesse there is no other root but the goodnesse of God himselfe but yet they grow in no other ground then in that man 4. Part. Dolus In cujus spiritu non est dolus The Comment and interpretation of S. Paul Rom. 4.5 hath made the sense and meaning of this place cleare To him that worketh the reward is of debt but to him that beleeveth and worketh not his faith is counted for righteousnesse Even as David describeth the blessednesse of Man sayes the Apostle there and so proceeds with the very words of this Text. Doth the Apostle then in this Text exclude the Co-operation of Man Differs this proposition That the man in whom God imprints these beames of Blessednesse must be without guile in his spirit from those other propositions Si vis ingredi Mat. 19.17 If thou wilt enter into life keepe the Commandements And Maledictus qui non Cursed is he that performes not all Grows not the Blessednesse of this Text from the same roote as the Blessednesse in the 119. Psal ver 1. Blessed are they who walke in the way of the Lord Or doth Saint Paul take David to speake of any other Blessednesse in our Text then himselfe speaks of If through the Spirit yee mortifie the deeds of the body yee shall live Rom. 8.13 Doth S. Paul require nothing nothing out of this Text to be done by man Surely he does And these propositions are truly all one Tantùm credideris Onely beleeve and you shall be saved And Fac hoc vives Doe this and you shall be saved As it is truly all one purpose to say If you live you may walke and to say If you stretch out your legges you may walke To say Eat of this Tree and you shall recover and to say Eat of this fruit and you shall recover is all one To attribute an action to the next Cause or to the Cause of that Cause is to this purpose all one And therefore as God gave a Reformation to his Church in prospering that Doctrine That Justification was by faith onely so God give an unity to his Church in this Doctrine That no man is justified that works not for without works how much soever he magnifie his faith
the Kings of Israel themselves their owne Rabbins tell us that they were not ordinarily anointed but onely in those cases where there arose some question and difference about the succession as in Solomons case there because Adoniah pretended to the succession 1 Reg. 1. to make all the more sure David proceeded with a solemnity and appointed an anointing of Solomon which otherwise say their Rabbins had not been done But howsoever it may have been for their Kings there seemes to be a plaine distinction betweene them and the Prophets in the Psalme for this evidence of unction Touch not mine Anointed sayes God there Ps 105.15 They they that were Anointed constitute one rank one classis and then followes And doe my Prophets no harme They they who were not Anointed the Prophets constitute another classis another rank So that then an internall a spirituall unction the Prophets had that is an application an appropriation to that office from God but a constant an evident calling to that function by any externall act of the Church they had not but it was an extraordinary office and imposed immediatly by God and therfore the people might seem the more excusable if they did not beleeve a Prophet presently because the office of the Prophet did not carry with it such a manifestation by any thing evidently done upon him and visible to them that by that that man must be a Prophet But as God clothes himselfe with light as with a garment so God clothes and apparells his works with light too for frustra fecisset sayes S. Ambrose God had made creatures to no purpose if he had not made light to see them by Therefore when God does any extraordinary worke he accompanies that work with anextraordinary light by which he for whose instruction God does that work may know that work to be his So when he sent his Prophets to his people he accompanied their mission with an effectuall light and evidence by which that people did acknowledge in their owne hearts that that man was sent by God to them Therefore they called that man at first Roeh videntem a Seer one whom they acknowledged to have beene admitted to the sight of God in the declaration of his will to them for so we have it in Samuel He that is now called a Prophet 1 Sam. 9.9 was before time called a Seer And then that addition of the name of a Prophet gave them a farther qualification for Nabi which is a Prophet is from Niba and Niba is venire facio to cause to make a thing to come to passe So that a Prophet was not onely praefator but praefactor He did not only presage but preordain that is there was such an infallibility such an inevitablenesse in that which he had said as that his very saying of it seemed to them some kind of cause of the accomplishing thereof For hence it is that we have that phrase so often in the new Testament This and this was thus and thus done that such and such a Prophecy might be fulfilled They never went to that heighth that such or such a secret purpose or unrevealed Decree of God might be fulfilled but they rested in the Declaration which God had made in his Church and were satisfied in the execution of his Decrees in his visible Ordinances Therefore the increpation which the Prophet layes upon the people here Lord who hath beleeved our report is not that they did not beleeve those Prophets to be Prophets for though that were an extraordinary office yet it was accompanied with an extraordinary light neither was it that they did not beleeve that those things which were prophecyed by them should come to passe for they beleeved that man to be Roeh a Seer one that had seen the Counsels of God concerning them And they beleeved him to be Nabi venire facientem one upon whose word they might as infallibly rely as upon a cause for an effect But this was the sinne of this people this was the sorrow of this Prophet that they did not beleeve these predictions to belong to them they did not beleeve that these judgements would fall out in their time In one word present security was their sinne And was that so hainous So hainous as that that is it with which God was so highly incensed Esay 28.14 and with which he meant so deeply to affect his people in that considerable passage in that remarkeable and vehement place where he expostulates thus with them Heare ye scornfull men yee that make a jest a scorn of future judgements Heare ye scornfull men that rule this people sayes God there you that have a power over the affections of the people in the Pulpit and can perswade what you will or a power over the wils of the people in your place and can command what you will you that tell them sayes the Prophet there we have made a covenant with death and are at an agreement with hell feare you nothing let us alone ambitious Princes shall turn their forces another way antichristian plots shall be practised in other nations you that tell them sayes he when the overflowing scourge shall passe through it shall not come to you howsoever superstition be established in other places howsoever prevailing armies be multiplied else-where yet you shal have your religion your peace still for we have made a covenant with death with hell we are at an agreement Heare ye scornfull men sayes God you that put this scorn upon my predictions your covenant with death shall be disanulled Esay 28.18 and your agreement with death shall not stand the faire promises of others to you your own promises to your selves shall deceive you and the overflowing scourge shall passe thorough Esay 28.19 thorough you all for you you scornfull men shall be trodden down by it and as it followes there in an elegant and a vehement expression it shall be a vexation onely to understand the report You that would not beleeve the report of the Prophet that for these and these sins such and such Judgements should fall upon you shall be confounded even with the report the noyse the newes how this overslowing scourge hath passed thorough your neighbours round about you how much more with the sense when you your selves shall be trodden down by it There is scarce any of the Prophets in which God does not drive home this increpation of their security Ezek. 12.22 and insensiblenesse of future calamities As in Esay so in Ezechiel God sayes what is that Proverb which ye have in the Land of Israel it was it seemes in every mans mouth proverbially spoken by all what was it This The dayes are prolonged and every vision failes V. 27. The vision which he sayes is for many dayes to come and he prophesieth of the times afarre off But sayes God there In your dayes O rebellious house will I say the word and performe it Not say it
is done sayes the Apostle So that here is the case if the naturall man say alas they are but dark notions of God which I have in nature if the Jew say alas they are but remote and ambiguous things which I have of Christ in the Prophets If the slack and historicall Christian say alas they are but generall things done for the whole world indifferently and not applyed to me which I reade in the Gospell to this naturall man to this Jew to this slack Christian we present an established Church a Church endowed with a power to open the wounds of Christ Jesus to receive every wounded soule to spread the balme of his blood upon every bleeding heart A Church that makes this generall Christ particular to every Christian that makes the Saviour of the world thy Saviour and my Saviour that offers the originall sinner Baptisme for that and the actuall sinner the body and blood of Christ Jesus for that a Church that mollifies and entenders and shivers the presumptuous sinner with denouncing the judgements of God and then consolidates and establishes the diffident soule with the promises of his Gospell a Church in contemplation whereof God may say Quid potui Vineae what could I doe more for my people then I have done first to send mine only Son to die for the whole world and then to spread a Church over the whole world by which that death of his might be life to every soule This we preach this we propose according to that commission put into our hands Ite praedicate Goe and preach the Gospell to every creature and yet Domine quis credidit Lord who hath beleeved our report In this then the Apostle and this Text places the inflexible the incorrigible stiffenesse of mans disobedience in this he seales up his inexcusablenesse his irrecoverablenesse first that he is not afraid of future judgements because they are remote then that he does not beleeve present judgements to be judgements because he can make shift to call them by a milder name accidents and not judgements and can assigne some naturall or morall or casuall reason for them But especially in this that he does not beleeve a perpetuall presence of Christ in his Church he does not beleeve an Ordinance of meanes by which all burdens of bodily infirmities of crosses in fortune of dejection of spirit and of the primary cause of all these that is sin it selfe may be taken off or made easie unto him he does not beleeve a Church Now as in our former part we were bound to know Gods hand and then bound to reade it to acknowledge a judgement to be a judgement and then to consider what God intended in that judgement so here we are bound to know the true Church and then to know what the true Church proposes to us The true Church is that where the word is truely preached and the Sacraments duly administred But it is the Word the Word inspired by the holy Ghost not Apocryphall not Decretall not Traditionall not Additionall supplements and it is the Sacraments Sacraments instituted by Christ himself and not those super-numerary sacraments those posthume post-nati sacramēts that have been multiplyed after and then that which the true Church proposes is all that is truly necessary to salvation and nothing but that in that quality as necessary So that Problematical points of which either side may be true in which neither side is fundamentally necessary to salvation those marginal interlineary notes that are not of the body of the text opinions raised out of singularity in some one man and then maintained out of partiality and affection to that man these problematicall things should not be called the Doctrine of the Church nor lay obligations upon mens consciences They should not disturb the general peace they should not extinguish particular charity towards one another The Act then that God requires of us is to beleeve so the words carry it in all the three places The Object the next the nearest Object of this Belief is made the Church that is to beleeve that God hath established means for the application of Christs death to all in all Christian Congregations All things are possible to him that beleeveth Mar. 9 23. saith our Saviour In the Word and Sacraments there is Salvation to every soule that beleeves there is so As on the other side we have from the same mouth and the same pen He that beleeveth not is damned Faith then being the root of all Mar. 16.16 and God having vouchsafed to plant this root this faith here in his terrestriall paradise and not in heaven in the manifest ministery of the Gospell and not in a secret and unrevealed purpose for faith comes by hearing and hearing by preaching which are things executed and transacted here in the Church be thou content with those meanes which God hath ordained and take thy faith in those meanes and beleeve it to be influxus suasorius that it is an influence from God but an influence that works in thee by way of perswasion and not of compulsion It convinces thee but it doth not constraine thee It is as S. Augustine sayes excellently Vocatio congrua it is the voice of God to thee but his voice then when thou art fit to heare and answer that voice not fitted by any exaltation of thine own naturall faculties before the cōming of grace nor fitted by a good husbanding of Gods former grace so as in rigor of justice to merit an increase of grace but fitted by his preventing his auxiliant his concomitant grace grace exhibited to thee at that time when he calls thee for so saies that Father Sic eum vocat quo modo seit ei congruere ut vocantē non respuat God calls him then when he knows he wil not resist his calling But he doth not say then when he cānot resist that needs not be said But as there is podus glcriae as the Apostle speaks an eternall weight of glory which mans understanding cannot cōprehend so there is Pondus gratiae a certain weight of grace that God layes upon that soule which shall be his under which that soule shall not easily bend it self any way from God This then is the summe of this whole Catechisme which these words in these three places doe constitute First that we be truely affected with Gods fore-warnings and say there Domine credo Lord I beleeve that report I beleeve that judgement to be denounced against my sin And then that we be duely affected with present changes and say there Domine credo Lord I beleeve that report I beleeve this judgement to come from thee and to be a letter of thy hand Lord enlighten others to interpret it aright for thy more publique glory and me for my particular reformation And then lastly to be sincerely and seriously affected with the Ordinances of his Church and to rest in them for the means of our salvation and to
1 Thes 5.16 I may have leave to speake here hereafter more seasonably in a more Festivall time by my ordinary service This is the season of generall Compunction of generall Mortification and no man priviledged for Iesus wept In that Letter which Lentulus in said to have written to the Senate of Rome Divisiâ— in which he gives some Characters of Christ he saies That Christ was never seene to laugh but to weepe often Now in what number he limits his often or upon what testimony he grounds him number we know not We take knowledgethat he wept thrice Hee wept here when he mourned with them that mourned for Lazarus He wept againe when he drew neare to Jerusalem and looked upon that City And he wept a third time in his Passion There is but one Euangelist but this S. Iohn that tells us of these first teares the rest say nothing of them There is but one Euangelist S. Luke Luke 19.41 Hcb. 5.7 that tells us of his second teares the rest speake not of those There is no Euangelist but there is an Apostle that tells us of his third teares S. Paul saies That in the daies of his flesh be offered up prayers with strong cries and teares And those teares Expositors of all sides referre to his Passion though some to his Agony in the Garden some to his Passion on the Corsse and these in my opinion most fitly because those words of S. Paul belong to the declaration of the Priesthood and of the Sacrifice of Christ and for that function of his the Crosse was the Altar and therefore to the Crosse we fixe those third teares The first were Humane teares the second were Propheticall the third were Pontificall appertaining to the Sarifice The first were shed in a Condolency of a humane and naturall calamity fallen upon one family Lazarus was dead The second were shed in Contemplation of future calamitie upon a Nation Jerusalem was to be destroyed The third in Contemplation of sin and the everlasting punishments due to sin and to such sinners as would make no benefit of that Sacrifice which he offered in offering himselfe His friend was dead and then Jesus wept He justified naturail affectins and such offices of piety Jerusalem was tobe destroyed and then Jesus wept He commiserated publique and nationall calamities though a private person His very giving of himselfe for sin was to become to a great many ineffectuall and then Jsus wept He declared how indelible the naturall staine of sin is that not such sweat as hi such teares such blood as his could absolutely wash it out of mans nature The teares of the text are as a Spring a Well belonging to onehoushold the Sisters of Lazarus The teares over Jerusalem are as a River belonging to a whole Country The teares upon the Crosse are as the Sea belonging to all the world and though literally there fall no more into our text then the Spring yet because the Spring flowes into the River and the River into the Sea and that wheresoever we find that Jesus wept we find our Text for our Text is but that Iisus wept therefore by the leave and light of his blessed Spirit we shall looke upon those lovely those heavenly eye through this glasse of his owne teares in all these three lines as he wept here over Lazarus as he wept there over Jerusalem as he wept upon the Crosse over all us For so often Jesus wept Fitst then 1 Part. Humanitus Jesus wept Humâ—nitus he tooke a necessary occasion to shew that he was true Man He was now in hand with the greatest Miracle that ever he did the raising of Lazarus so long dead Could we but do so in our spirituall raising what a blessed harvest were that What a comfort to finde one man here to day raised from his spirituall death this day twelve-month Christ did it every yeare and every yeare he improved his Miracle Mat. 9.25 In the first yeare he raised the Governours Daughter se was newly dead and as yetin the house In the beginning of sin and whilst in the house in the house of God in the Church in a glad obedience to Gods Ordinances and Institutions there for the reparation and resuscitation of dead soules the worke is not so hard In his second yeare Luke 7.15 Christ raised the Widows Son and him he found without ready to be buried In a man growne cold and stiffe in sin impenetrable inflexible by denouncing the Judgements of God almost buried in a stupidity and insensiblenesse of his being dead there is more difficultie But in his third yeare Christ raised this Lazarus he had been long dead and buried and in probability puttrified after foure daies This Miracle Christ meant to make a pregnant proofe of the Resurrection which was his principall intention therein For the greatest arguments against the Resurrection being for the most part of this kinde when a Fish eates a man and another man eates that fish or when one man eates another how shall both these men rise againe when a body is resolv'd in the grave to the first principles or is passed into other substances the case is somewhat neere the same and therefore Christ would worke upon a body neare that state abody putrified And truly in our srirituall raising of the dead to raise a sinner putrified in his owne earth resolv'd in his owne dung especially that hath passed many transformations from shape to shape from sin to sin hi hath beene a Salamander and lived in the fire in the fire successvely in the fire of lust in his youth and in his age in the fire of Ambition and then he hath beene a Serpent a Fish and lived in the waters in the water successively in the troubled water of sedition in his youth and in his age in the cold waters of indevotion how shall we raise this Salamander and this Serpent when this Serpent and this Salamander is all one person and must have contrary musique to charme him contrary physick to cure him To raise a man resolv'd into diverse substances scattered into diverse formes of severall sinnes is the greatest worke And there fore this Miracle which implied that S. Basil calls Miraculum in Miraculo a pregnant a double Miracle For here is Mortuus redivivus A dead man lives that had been done before but Alligatus ambulat saies Basil he that is settered and manacled and tyed with many difficulties he walks And therfore as this Miracle raised him most estmation so for they ever accompany one another it raised him most envy Envy that extended beyond him to Lazarus himselfe who had done nothing Iohn 12.10 and yet The chiefe Priests consulted how they might put Lizarus to death because by reason of him many beleeved in Iesus A disease a distemper a danger which no time shall ever be free from that whereforer there is a coldnesse a disaffection to Gods Cause those who are any way
use the Law lawfully Let us use our liberty of reading Scriptures according to the Law of liberty that is charitably to leave others to their liberty if they but differ from us and not differ from Fundamentall Truths Si quis quaerat ex me quid horum Moses senserit If any man ask me which of these which may be all true Moses meant Non sum sermones istiâ—â—onfessiones Lord sayes hee Ibid. This that I say is not said by way of Confession as I intend it should if I doe not freely confesse that I cannot tell which Moses meant But yet I can tell that this that I take to be his meaning is true and that is enough Let him that findes a true sense of any place rejoyce in it Let him that does not beg it of thee Vtquid mihi molest us est Why should any man presse me to give him the true sense of Moses here or of the holy Ghost in any darke place of Scripture Ego illuminem ullum hominen venientem in mundum 1.13 C. 10. saies he Is that said of me that I am the light that enlightned every man any man Iohn 1.9 that comes into this world So far I will goe saies he so far will we in his modesty and humility accompany him as still to propose Quod luce veritatis quod fruge utilitatis excellit such a sense as agrees with other Truths that are evident in other places of Scripture and such a sense as may conduce most to edisication For to those two does that heavenly Father reduce the foure Elements that make up a right exposition of Scripture which are first the glory of God such a sense as may most advance it secondly the analogie of faith such a sense as may violate no confessed Article of Religion and thirdly exaltation of devotion such a sense as may carry us most powerfully upon the apprehension of the next life and lastly extension of charity such a sense as may best hold us in peace or reconcile us if we differ from one another And within these limits wee shall containe our selves The glory of God the analogie of faith the exaltation of devotion the extension of charity In all the rest that belongs to the explication or application to the literall or spirituall sense of these words And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters to which having stopped a little upon this generall consideration the exposition of darke places we passe now Within these rules we proceed to enquire who this Spirit of God is or what it is Spiritus whether a Power or a Person The Jews who are afraid of the Truth lest they should meete evidences of the doctrine of the Trinity and so of the Messias the Son of God if they should admit any spirituall sense admit none but cleave so close to the letter as that to them the Scripture becomes Liter a occidens A killing Letter and the savour of death unto death They therefore in this Spirit of God are so far from admitting any Person that is God as they admit no extraordinary operation or vertue proceeding from God in this place but they take the word here as in many other places of Scripture it does to signifie onely a winde and then that that addition of the name of God The Spirit of God which is in their Language a denotation of a vehemency of a high degree of a superlative as when it is said of Saul Sopor Domini A sleepe of God was upon him it is intended of a deepe a dead sleepe inforces induces no more but that a very strong winde blew upon the face of the waters and so in a great part dryed them up And this opinion I should let flye away with the winde if onely the Jews had said it But Theodoret hath said it too and therefore we afford it so much answer That it is a strange anticipation that Winde which is a mixt Meteor to the making whereof divers occasions concurre with exhalations should be thus imagined before any of these causes of Winds were created or produced and that there should be an effect before a cause is somewhat irregular In Lapland the Witches are said to sell winds to all passengers but that is but to turne those windes that Nature does produce which way they will but in our case the Jews and they that follow them dreame winds before any winds or cause of winds was created The Spirit of God here cannot be the Wind. It cannot be that neither which some great men in the Christian Church have imagined it to be Operatio Dei The power of God working upon the waters so some or Efficientia Dei A power by God infused into the waters so others August And to that S. Augustine comes so neare as to say once in the negative Spiritus Dei hic res dei est sed non ipse Deut est The Spirit of God in this place is something proceeding from God but it is not God himselfe And once in the affirmative Posse esse vitalem creaturam quâ universus mundus movetur That this Spirit of God may be that universall power which sustaines and inanimates the whole world which the Platoniques have called the Soule of the world and others intend by the name of Nature and we doe well if we call The providence of God Spiritus Sanctus But there is more of God in this Action then the Instrument of God Nature or the Vice-roy of God Providence for as the person of God the Son was in the Incarnation so the person of God the Holy Ghost was in this Action though far from that manner of becomming one and the same thing with the waters which was done in the Incarnation of Christ who became therein perfect man That this word the Spirit of God is intended of the Person of the Holy Ghost in other places of Scripture is evident undeniable unquestionable and that therefore it may be so taken here Where it is said The Spirit of God shall rest upon him Esay 11.2 upon the Messiah where it is said by himselfe The Lord and his Spirit is upon me And the Lord and his Spirit hath anointed me there it is certainly and therefore here it may be probably spoken of the Holy Ghost personally It is no impossible sense it implies no contradiction It is no inconvenient sense it offends no other article it is no new sense nor can we assigne any time when it was a new sense Basil The eldest Fathers adhere to it as the ancientest interpretation Saint Basil saies not onely Constantissimè asseverandum est We must constantly maintaine that interpretation for all that might be his owne opinion not onely therefore Quia verius est for that might be but because he found it to be the common opinion of those times but Quia à majoribus nostris approbatum because it is accepted for the true
himself I said I shall not be moved And there is a security of the faithfull a constant perswasion grounded upon those marks which God in his Word hath set upon that state That neither height nor depth nor any creature shall separate us from God But yet this security is never discharged of that feare which he that said that 1 Cor. 9.27 Phil. 2.12 1 Cor. 10.12 had in himself I keep under my body lest when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast-away And which he perswades other how safe soever they were Work out your salvation with feare and trembling And Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall As then there is a vitious an evill security and that holy security which is good is not without feare so there is no feare of God though it have some servility so farre as servility imports but a feare of punishment but it is good August For Timor est amor inchoativus The love of God begins in feare and then Amor est timor consummatus The feare of God ends in love 1 sâ—l 2.11 which David intends when he sayes Rejoyce with trembling Conceive no such feare as excludes spirituall joy conceive no such assurance as excludes an humble and reverentiall feare There is feare of God too narrow when we thinke every naturall crosse every worldly accident to be a judgement of God and a testimony of his indignation which the Poet not altogether in an ill sense calls a disease of the soule Quo morbo mentem concusse timore deorum He imagines a man may be sick of the feare of God that is not distinguish between naturall accidents and immediate judgements of God between ordinary declarations of his power and extraordinary declarations of his anger There is also a feare of God too large too farre extended when for a false feare of offending God I dare not offend those men who pretend to come in his name and so captivate my conscience to the traditions and inventions of men as to the word and law of God And there is a feare of God conceived which never quickens but putrifies in the womb before inanimation the feare and trembling of the Devill and men whom he possesses desperate of the mercies of God But there is a feare acceptable to God and yet hath in it a trembling a horrour a consternation an astonishment an apprehension of Gods dereliction for a time The Law was given in thundring Exod. 20.20 and lightning and the people were afraid How proceeds Moses with them Feare not saies he for God is come to prove you that his feare might be before your faces Here is a feare not that is feare not with despaire nor with diffidence but yet therefore That you may feare the Law for in this place the very Law it selfe which is given to direct them is called feare As in another place God himselfe is called feare as he is in other places called love too Iacob swore by the Feare of his Father Isaac that is Gen. 32.53 by him whom his Father Isaac feared as the Chalde Paraphrase rightly expresses it Briefly this is the difference between Fearfulnesse and Feare for sowe are fain to call Timiditatem and Timorem Timidity Fearfulnesse is a fear where no cause of fear is and there is no cause of feare where man and man onely threatens on one side and God commands on the other Feare not thou worme of Iacob I will help thee Esâ—y 41.14 Heb. 11.23 saith the Lord thy redeemer the Holy one of Israel Moses Parents had overcome this fearfulnesse They hid him sayes the Text Et non metucrunt Edictum Regis They feared not the Proclamation of the King Because it was directly and evidently and undisputably against the manifest will of God Queen Esther had overcome this fearfulnesse she had fasted and prayed and used all prescribed and all possible meanes and then she entred the Kings Chamber against the Proclamation with that necessary resolution Si peream peream If I perish Esther 4.16 I perish Not upon a disobedient not upon a desperate undertaking but in a rectified conscience and well established opinion that either that Law was not intended to forbid her who was his Wife or that the King was not rightly informed in that bloody command which he had given for the execution of all her Countrymen And for those who doe not overcome this fearfulnesse that is that feare where no cause of feare is and there is no cause of feare where Gods cause is by godly wayes promoved though we doe not alwayes discern the wayes by which this is done for those men that frame imaginary feares to themselves to the with-drawing or discouraging of other in the service of God we see where such men are ranked by the Holy Ghost when S. Iohn sayes The unbeleeving the murderer the whore-monger the sorcerer the idolater Apoc. 21.8 shall have their portion in the lake of brimstone which is the second death We fee who leads them all into this irrecoverable precipitation The fearfull that is he that beleeves not God in his promises that distrusts God in his owne cause as soone as he seemes to open us to any danger or distrusts Gods instruments as soone as they goe another way then he would have them goe To end this there is no love of God without feare no Law of God no God himselfe without feare And here as in very many other places of Scripture the feare of God is our whole Religion the whole service of God for here Feare him includes Worship him reverence him obey him Which Counsell or Commandement though it need no reason no argument yet the Apostle does pursue with an argument and that constitutes our second Part. Now the Apostles arguments grow out of a double root 2 Part. One argument is drawne from God another from man From God thus implied If God be a Father feare him for naturally we acknowledge the power of a Father to be great over his children and consequently the reverent feare of the children great towards him The Father had Potestatem vitae necis A power over the life of his child he might have killed his childe but that the child should kill his Father it never entred into the provision of any Law and it was long before it fell into the suspition of any Law-maker Romulus in his Laws called every man-slaughter Parricidium because it was Paris occisio He had killed a man a Peere a creature equall to himselfe but for Parricide in the later sense when Parricide is Patricide the killing of a Father it came not into the jealousie of Romulus Law nor into the heart or hand of any man there in sixe hundred yeares after Cum lege coeperunt Seneca facinus poena monstravit sayes their Morall man That sin began not till the Law forbad it and only the punishment ordained for
all the glory ascribed And then that which fals within this commandement this Consideration is Opera ejus The works of God How terrible art thou in thy works It is not Decreta ejus Arcana ejus The secrets of his State the wayes of his government unrevealed Decrees but those things in which he hath manifested himselfe to man Opera his works Consider his works and consider them so as this commandement enjoynes that is How terrible God is in them Determine not your Consideration upon the worke it self for so you may think too lightly of it That it is but some naturall Accident or some imposture and false Miracle or illusion Or you may thinke of it with an amazement with a stupidity with a consternation when you consider not from whom the worke comes consider God in the worke And God so as that though he be terrible in that worke yet he is so terrible but so as the word of this Text expresses this terriblenesse which word is Norah and Norah is but Reverendus it is a terror of Reverence not a terror of Confusion that the Consideration of God in his works should possesse us withall And in those plaine and smooth paths wee shall walke through the first part The historicall part what God hath formerly done Say unto God how terrible art thou in thy works from thence we descend to the other The Propheticall part what upon our performance of this duty God will surely do in our behalfe he will subdue those enemies which because they are ours are his In multitudine virtutis In the greatnesse of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee Where we shall see first That even God himselfe hath enemies no man therefore can be free from them And then we shall see whom God cals enemies here Those who are enemies to his cause and to his friends All those if we will speake Davids language the Holy Ghosts language we must call Gods enemies And these enemies nothing can mollifie nothing can reduce but Power faire meanes and perswasion will not worke upon them Preaching Disputing will not doe it It must be Power and greatnesse of power and greatnesse of Gods Power The Law is Power and it is Gods Power All just Laws are from God One Act of this Power an occasionall executing of Laws at some few times against the enemies of Gods truth will not serve there must be a constant continuation of the execution thereof nor will that serve if that be done onely for worldly respects to raise money and not rather to draw them who are under those Laws to the right worship of God in the truth of his Religion And yet all that even all this This power this great power his power shall worke upon these his and our enemies is but this They shall submit themselves sayes the text but how Mentientur tibi as it is in the Originall and as you finde it in the Margin They shall dissemble they shall lie they shall yeeld a fained obedience they shall make as though they were good Subjects but not be so And yet even this Though their submission be but dissembled but counterfaited David puts amongst Gods blessings to a State and to a Church It is some blessing when Gods enemies dare not appeare and justifie themselves and their Cause as it is a heavy discouragement when they dare do that Though God doe not so far consummate their happinesse as that their enemies shall be truly reconciled or throughly rooted out yet he shall afford them so much happinesse as that they shall doe them no harme And Beloved this distribution of the text which I have given you is rather a Paraphrase then a Division and therefore the rest will rather be a Repetition then a Dilatation And I shall onely give some such note and marke upon every particular branch as may returne them and fix them in your memories and not enlarge my selfe far in any of them for I know the time will not admit it First then we remember you in the first branch of the first part that David 1 Part. Rex gubernat Ecclesiā in that Capacity as King institutes those Orders which the Church is to observe in the publique service of God For the King is King of men not of bodies onely but of soules too And of Christian men of us not onely as we worship one God but as we are to expresse that worship in the outward acts of Religion in the Church God hath called himselfe King and he hath called Kings Gods And when we looke upon the actions of Kings we determine not our selves in that person but in God working in that person As it is not I that doe any good 1 Cor. 15.10 but the grace of God in me So it is not the King that commands but the power of God in the King For as in a Commission from the King the King himselfe workes in his Commissioners and their just Act is the Kings Act So in the Kings lawfull working upon his Subjects God works the Kings acts are Gods acts That abstinence therefore and that forbearance which the Roman Church hath used from declaring whether the Laws of secular Magistrates do bind the Conscience or no that is whether a man sin in breaking a Temporall Law or no for though it have beene disputed in their books and though the Bishop of that Church were supplicated in the Trent Councell to declare it yet he would never be brought to it that abstinence I say of theirs though it give them one great advantage yet it gives us another For by keeping it still undetermined and undecided how far the Laws of temporall Princes doe binde us they keepe up that power which is so profitable to them that is To divide Kings and Subjects and maintaine jealousies betweene them because if the breach of any Law constitute a sin then enters the jurisdiction of Rome for that is the ground of their indirect power over Princes In ordine ad spiritualia that in any action which may conduce to sin they may meddle and direct and constraine temporall Princes That is their advantage in their forbearing to declare this doctrine And then our advantage is That this enervates and weakens nay destroyes and annibilates that ordinary argument That there must be alwayes a Visible Church in which every man may have cleare resolution and infallible satisfaction in all scruples that arise in him and that the Roman Church is that Seat and Throne of Infallibility For how does the Roman Church give any man infallible satisfaction whether these or these things grounded upon the temporall Laws of secular Princes be sins or no when as that Church hath not nor will not come to a determination in that point How shall they come to the Sacrament how shall they go out of the world with a cleare conscience when many things lye upon them which they know not nor can be informed
Fundamentals every man is bound to have but not of the superstructure and superedification 807. B How Imperfect all our Knowledge is in Arts and Sciences 818. A Knowledge against over-much curiosity in attaining to it 63. E. 308. C. 319. A. B Whether wee shall Know one another in the next world 157. C Of sobriety in Knowledge 270. C. 701. A Knowing of our selves how hard a thing it is 563. C Knowing of God foure ordinary wayes of it in the Schooles 229. B L LAbour three-fold Labour in the Scripture 538. B Law and the Gospell of the severall state of either 284. E. 285. A Of the Law of Nature under which every man is 362. C How the Law is said to shew what is sinne 687. B Lawes of Temporall Princes whether or no they binde the conscience of the Subject wherefore never stated by the Pope or by any Councell 741. B Liberality and Bounty Civill and Spirituall what 759. E Liberality a vertue that begets a vertue ibid. The true body and true soule of Liberalitie what it is 760. C Life the excellencie of it 69. D. E. 70. A All that is good included in it 70. A Light the first creature 759. D Literae Formatae in the Primitive Church their Institution and use 415. A Lord whether God could be called the Lord before there were any creatures a disputable thing 757. A The Judgement of Tertullian and S. Augustine either way ibid. B Love the first Act of the Will 225. D How we may love the creatures 398. E 598. B Against the Love of the things of this world 187. C. 399. C Against loving of God for the Temporall blessings he bestowes upon us 750. C Loving our enemies six degrees observed in it 97. B Lust and Licentiousnesse the burdens that it makes men under goe 623. D Lying whether it be lawfull before one that is no competent Judge 491. B M Macchabees their torture and patience 221. E. 222. A. B. C. c. Man what Man is 64. D. E. 65. A. c. The dignitie and honour of Man 655. C. D Hee cannot deliberately wish himselfe an Angel for he should lose thereby ibid. E Of those helps and assistances which Man affords to Man 656. D. E. c. Man is called every creature in Scripture and why 770. C. D Mary the Crownes of England Scotland Denmark and Hungary much about one time fell upon women whose name was Mary 243. E It is a noble and a comprehensive name and why 244. A Marriage of second Marriages 216. D. E. c Masters of that esteeme and regard is to bee had to such as have taught us or have beene our Masters 288. E. 289. A why called Patres-familias 388. B Mediocrity of Estate the commendation of it 661. A. B. c. 685. D Orders in the Church of Rome from both extremes but not one from the Meane 661. B. What is a Mediocrity to one is not nor ought to be to another 714. C Memory the Holy Ghosts pulpit oftner than the Vnderstanding 290. B. C Of the sinfull Memory of past sins how dangerous it is 542. D Mercie of God how much above his judgements 12. B. 67. A. 71. A How full God is of it C Occasionall Mercies what and how many D The Devils capable of Mercy in the judgement of many Fathers 66. A. 262. D The proper difference betweene Mercy and Truth 530. D Against those that abridge the great volume of Gods Mercies 568. E Of severall Mercies and refreshments which are none of Gods 810. E. 811. A God can doe nothing but in Mercy 811. C Merits foreseene no cause of Graces in us 5. A Millenarii their errour what and how generall almost all the Fathers tainted with it 261. C Miracles against multiplying of them in the Roman Chuch 36. D Mirabilis or the man that workes Miracles the first of those great names given to Christ by the Prophet Esay 58. C Nothing dearer to God than a Miracle 215. A They are his owne Prerogative ibid. B It is more to change Nature by Miracles than to make Nature 394. E No man to ground his Faith upon a Miracle as it seemes to him 429. A How to judge of Miracles whether they bee true or false 429. B Dangerous putting of God to a Miracle in saving us 456. B What is properly a Miracle 683. D The Creation it selfe none ibid. Monuments not in Churches in the Primitive times 730 D Mortification outward Mortification and austerity a specious thing 492. E Mortification to be generall of all the parts and not of one onely 541. B Mosselim a kind of Doctors amongst the Jewes that taught the people by parables and obscure sayings 690. E The Multitude of their levity judgement and changing of opinions 482. B. D Against Murmuring at Gods blessings if they be not as great as we desire 576. C Mute against standing Mute at examinations 491. C Mysteries of two kinds in the Schooles 203. D Every Religion under heaven hath had her Mysteries and some things in-intelligible of all sorts of men 690. D N NAmes and Titles nothing puffeth men up more 734. D The Heathen never called their Tutelar Gods by their Names and why 608. A Of getting a good Name amongst men and against those that neglect it 680. A. E Of mens retaining those Names that are most acceptable 285. B Of the Name of Christian and when it was given and how 426. B Adam named all creatures but himselfe and why 563. B Natalitia Martyrum their dayes of suffering so called and why 268. C. 461. C Nativities three Nativities to every Christian and which they are 424. E Nature of that sight which wee have of God even by the light of Nature 227. B. 686. E Of that power which some of the Fathers attribute to Nature without Grace 314. C Men doe not halfe so much against sin as even by the power of Nature they are able to doe 315. B. C Of the testimony which a Naturall soule gives unto it selfe of it selfe 337. B Nature not equivalent to Grace 649 A Nature not our owne ibid. Nature and Grace how they co-operate ibid. D Neighbour-hood and evill Neighbour-hood and communicating with evill men 420. C Noctambulones men that walk in their sleep wake if they be called by their Names 467. A Nothing there is nothing more contrary to God than to be to doe or to thinke Nothing 265. B The Devill himselfe cannot wish himselfe deliberately to be nothing C An Order of Friars in the Roman Church that in humilitie called themselves Nullanos or Nothings 731. C Of the Numberlesse number of Gods benefits to Man 765. A O OCcasionall instruments of Gods glory what cold affections they meet with in the world amongst men disaffected to Gods cause 154. E Occasionall mercies offered what and how many 12. D Occasionall Convertites who 461. C God no Occasionall God and why 586. B Devotion no Occasionall thing and why 244. E A great