and as much as in us lies Heb. 6.6 even crucifie afresh the SONNE OF GOD making a mocke of Him and His piercings These I say for these all and every of them in that instant were before his eyes must of force enter into and go thorow and thorow his Soule and Spirit that what with those former sorrowes and what with these after indignities the Prophet might truly say of Him and he of himselfe In Me Vpon Me not whose body or whose soule but whom entirely and wholly both in body and soule alive and dead they have pierced and passioned this day on the Crosse. 2. The Person à quibus Of the Persons which as it is necessarily implied in the word is very properly incident to the matter it selfe For it is usuall when one is found slaine as heere to make inquirie by whom he came by his death Which so much the rather is to be done by us because there is commonly an error in the world touching the Parties that were the causes of CHRIST 's death Our manner is either to lay it on the Souldiers that were the Instruments Or if not upon them upon Pilate and Iudge that gave sentence Or if not upon him upon the people that importuned the Iudge Or lastly if not upon them upon the Elders of the Iewes that animated the People And this is all to be found by our Quest of Inquirie But the Prophet heere inditeth others For by saying They shall looke c whom They have pierced he entendeth by very construction that the first and second They are not two but one and the same Parties And that they that are here willed to looke upon him are they and none other that were the authors of this fact even of the murther of IESVS CHRIST And to say truth the Prophet's entent is no other but to bring the malefactors themselves that pierced Him to view the body and the wounded heart of Him whom they have so pierced In the course of Iustice we say and say truly when a party is put to death that the Executioner cannot be said to be the cause of his death nor the Sherif by whose commandement he doth it neither yet the Iudge by whose sentence nor the Twelve men by whose verdict nor the Lawe it selfe by whose authoritie it is proceeded in For GOD forbid we should endite these or any of these of murther Solum peccatum homicida Sinne and Sinne onely is the murtherer Sinne I say either of the Party that suffereth or of some other by whose meanes or for whose cause he is put to death Now CHRIST 's owne sinne it was not that he died for That is most evident Not so much by His owne challenge Ioh. 8·46 Quis ex vobis a guit me de peccato as by the report of his Iudge who openly professed that he had examined Him and found no fault in Him No nor yet Herod for Luc. 23.14 15. being sent to him and examined by him also nothing worthy death was found in Him And therefore calling for water and washing his hands Matt. 27.24 he protesteth his owne innocencie of the bloud of this IVST MAN Thereby pronouncing him Iust and void of any cause in himselfe of his owne death It must then necessarily be the sinne of some others for whose sake CHRIST IESVS was thus pierced And if we aske who those others be or whose sinnes they were the Prophet Esai tells us Esa. 53.3 4. Posuit super Eum iniquitates omnium nostrûm He laid upon Him the transgressions of us all who should even for those our many great and grievous transgressions have eternally been pierced in bodie and soule with torment and sorrowes of a never dying death had not he stept between us and the blow and receiv'd it in his owne body even the dint of the wrath of GOD to come upon us So that it was the sinne of our polluted hands that pierced his hands the swiftnesse of our feet to do evill that nailed His feet the wicked devises of our Heads that gored his head and the wretched desires of our hearts that pierced his heart We that looke upon it is we that pierced Him and it is we that pierced Him that are willed to looke upon Him Which bringeth it home to us to me my selfe that speake and to you your selves that heare and applieth it most effectually to every one of us who evidently seeing that we were the cause of this his piercing if our hearts be not too too hard ought to have remorse to be pierced with it When for delivering to DAVID a few loaves Ahimelech and the Priests were by Saul put to the sword if David did then acknowledge with griefe of heart and say I 1. Sam. 22.22 even I am the cause of the death of thâ— Father anâ— all his house when he was but onely the occasion of it and not that direct neither may not we nay ought not we much more juâ—â—ly and deservedly say of this piercing of CHRIST our Saviour that we verily even we are the cause thereof as verily we are even the principalls in this murther and the Iewes and others on whom we seeke to derive it but onely accessaries and instrumentall causes thereof Which point we ought as continually so seriously to thiâ—k of and that no lesse then the former The former to stirre up compassion in our selves over him that thus was pierced the latter to worke deâ—pâ— remorse in our hearts for being authors of it That he was pierced will make our bowells melt with compassion over CHRIST That he was pierced by us â—hat looke on Him if our hearts be not flint as Iob saith or as the nether mil-stone Iob. 41.15 will breed remorse over our selves wretched sinners as we are II. The Act. To looke upon Him The Act followeth in these words Respicient in Eum. A request most reasonable to looke upon Him but to looke upon Him to bestow but a looke and nothing els which even of common humanitie we cannot denie Quia non aspicere despicere est It argueth great contempt not to vouchsafe it the cast of our eye as if it were an Obiect utterly unworthy the looking toward Truely if we marke it well nature it selfe of it selfe enclineth to this act When Amasa treacherously was slaine by Ioab and lay weltring in his blood by the waies side the storie saith that not one of the whole Armie then marching by but when he came at him 2. Sam. 22.12 stood still and looked on him In the Gospell the party that going from Ierusalem to Iericho vvas spoiled and wounded and lay drawing on though the Priest and Levite that passed neere the place relieved him not as the Samaritan after did yet it is said of them Luc. 31 32. they went neere and looked on and then passed on their way Which desire is even naturall in us so that even Nature it selfe enclineth us to
know So accompt But because our knowing is the ground of our accompt the Apostle beginneth with knowledge And so must we Knowledge in all Learning is of two sorts 1 Rerum or 2 Causarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That or in that The former is in the first Verse Knowing that CHRIST c. The later in the Second For in that c. And because we cannot cast up a Summe except we have a particular the Apostle giveth us a Particular of either A particular of our Knowledge Quoad res which consisteth of these three 1. That Christ is risen from the dead 2. That now He dieth not 3. That from henceforth death hath no dominion over Him All in the first Verse Then a particular of our Knowledge Quoad causas The cause of His death Sinne He died to sinne 2 Of His life GOD He liveth to GOD. â— And both these but once for all All in the second Verse Then followeth our Accompt in the third Verse Wherein we consider first 1 The Charge â— and then the Discharge 1. The charge first Similiter vos That we be like to Christ. And then wherein 1 Like in dying to Sinne 2 Like in living to GOD. Which are the two moulds wherein we are to be cast that we may come forth like Him This is the Charge 2. And last of all The meanes we have to helpe us to discharge it in the last words in Christ Iesu our Lord. BEfore we take view of the two Particulars I. Our Knowing The Meanes of it it will not be amisse to make a little stay at Scientes the first word because it is the grownd of all the rest Knowing that Christ is risen This the Apostle saith the Romans did knowing Did know himselfe indeed that Christ was risen for He saw him But how knew the Romanes or how know we No other way then by relation eyther they or we but yet we much better then they I say by relation in the nature of a verdict of them that had seene him even Cephas and the twelve which is a full Iury hable to finde any matter of fact and to give up a verdict in it And that CHRIST is risen is matter of fact But if twelve will not serve in this matter of fact which in all other matters with us 1. Cor. 15.6 will if a greater Enquest farr if five hundred will serve you may have so many for of more then five hundred at once was He seene many of them then living ready to give up the same verdict and to say the same upon their othes But to settle a knowledge the number moveth not so much as the qualitie of the Parties If they were persons credulous light of beleefe they may well be challenged if they tooke not the way to ground their knowledge aright That is ever best knowen that is most doubted of And never was matter caried with more scruple and slownesse of beleefe with more doubts and difficulties then was this of Christ's rising Marie Magdalen saw it first and reported it They beleeved her not Mar. 16.11 Luk. 24.13.36.11.36 The two that went to Emmaus they also reported it They beleeved them not Diverse women together saw him and came and told them Their words seemed to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an idle faigned fond tale They all saw him and even seeing him yet they doubted When they were put out of doubt and told it but to one that happened to be absent it was S. Thomas you know how peremptorie he was Not he Ioh. 20.25 vnlesse he might not onely see with his eyes but feele with his fingers and put in his hand into his side 27.28 And all this he did Saint Augustine saith well Profectò valde dubitatum est ab illis ne dubitaretur a nobis All this doubting was by them made that we might be out of doubt and know that Christ is risen Sure they tooke the right course to know it certainly and certainely they did know it as appeareth For never was thing knowen in this world so confidently constantly certainly testified as was this that Christ is risen By testifying it they got nothing in the earth Got nothing Nay they lost by it their living their life all they had to lose They might have saved all and but said nothing So certaine they were so certainely they did accompt of their knowing they could not be got from it but to their very last breath to the very last drop of their blood bare witnesse to the truth of this Article and chose rather to lay downe their lives and to take their death then to denie nay then not to affirme His rising from death And thus did they know knowing testifie and by their testimonie came the Romanes to their knowing and so doe we But as I said before we to a much surer knowing then they For when this was written the whole world stopt their eares at this report would not endure to heare them stood out mainly against them The Resurrection why it was with the Graecians at Athens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very skorne The Resurrection why it was Act 17.32 with Festus the great Romane 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sicknesse of the braine a plaine phrensie That world 26.24 that then was and long after in such opposition is since come in and upon better examination of the matter so strangely testified with so many thousand lives of men to say the least of them sadd and sober hath taken notice of it and both knowen and acknowledged the truth of it It was well foretold by Saint Iohn haec est victoria quae vincit mundum 1. Ioh. 5.4 fides vestrâ— It is proved true since That this faith of CHRIST 's rising hath made a conquest of the whole world So that after all the world hath taken knowledge of it we come to know it And so more full to us then to them is this scientes knowing Now to our particulars what we know The Particâ—lars Quâ—â—dâ—n a That Christ is risen from the dead Our first particular is That CHRIST is risen from the dead Properly we are sâ—id to rise from 〈◊〉 fallâ— and from death 〈…〉 revive Yeâ— the Apostle rather vseth the terme of rising then reviving â—s serving better to set forth his purpose That death is a fall we doubt not that it came with a fall the fall of Adam But what manner of fall for it hath beene holden a fall from whence is no rising But by Christ's rising it falls out to be a fall that we may fall and yet get up againe For if CHRIST be risen from it then is there a rising if a rising of one then may there be of another If He be risen in our nature then is our nature risen and if our nature be our persons may be Especially seeing as the Apostle in the fourth Verse before hath told
them no it is not so Ecce claves mortis inferni see heer Apoc. 1.18 the keyes both of the first and second death Which is a playn proof He hath mastered and gott the dominion over both death him that hath power of death that is the devill 1. Cor. 15.55 Both are swallowed up in victorie and neither death any more sting nor hell any more dominion Sed ad Dominum Deum nostrum spectant exitus mortis Psal. 68 20. but now unto GOD our LORD belong the issues of death the keyes are at His girdle He can let out as manie as he list This estate is it which he calleth Coronam vitae not life alone Apoc. 2.18 but the Crowne of life or a life crowned with immunitie of feare of any evill ever to befall us This is it which in the next verse he calleth living unto GOD Ver. 11. the estate of the children of the resurrection to be the sonnes of GOD aequall to the Angells subject to no part of death's dominion but living in securitie joy and blisse for ever And now is our particular full 1 Rising to life first â— and life freed from death and so immortall 3 and then exempt from the dominion of death and every part of it and so happy and blessed Rise againe so may Lazarus or any mortall man doe that is not it Rise againe to life immortall so shall all doe in the end as well the uniust as the just that is not it But rise againe to life immortall with freedome from all miserie to live to and with GOD in all joy and glorie evermore that is it that is CHRIST 's resurrection Et tu saith S. Augustine speratalâ—m resurrectionem propter hoc este Christianus Live in hope of such a resurrection and for this hope 's sake carie thy selfe as a Christian. Thus have we our particular of that we are to know touching CHRIST risen And now we know all these yet do we not accompt our selves to know them perâ—â—ctly untill we also know the reasons of them And the Romans were a people that loved to sâ—e the ground of that they received and not the bare Articles alone Indeed it might trouble them why CHRIST should need thus to rise againe because they saw no reason why He should need to dye The truth is we can not speake of rising well without mention of the terminus à quo from whence He rose By meaneâ— whereof there two 1 CHRIST 's dying and His rising are so linked togither and their Auditis so entangled one with another as it is very hard to sever them And this you shall observe the Apostle never goeth about to do it but still as it were of purpose suffers one to draw in the other continually It is not heer alone but all over his Epistles ever they runne togither as if he were loth to mention one without the other And it cannot be denied but that their joyning serveth to many great good purposes These two â— His death and 2 His rising they shew His two Natures Humane and Divine â— His Humane nature and weaknesse in dying 2 His Divine nature and power in rising againe 2. These shew His two Offices His Priesthood and His Kingdome â— His Priesthood in the sacrifice of His death 2 His Kingdome in the glorie of His resurrection 3. They set before us His two mayn Benefits 1 Interitum mortis 2 and principium vitae 1 His death the death of death 2 His rising the reviving of life againe the one what He had ransomed us from the other what He had purchased for us 4. They serve as two Moulds wherein our lives are to be cast that the daies of our vanitie may be fashioned to the likenesse of the SONNE of GOD which are our two duetyes that we are to render for those two benefits proceeding from the two offices of His two natures conioyned In a word they are not well to be sundred for when they are thus ioyned they are the very abbridgement of the whole Gospell 1. The cause of His dying 1 His dying once Of them both then briefly Of His dying first In that He died He died once to sinne Why dyed He once and why but once Once He died to sinne that is sinne was the cause He was to dye once As in saying He liveth to GOD we say GOD is the cause of His life so in saying He died to sinne we say sinne was the cause of His death GOD of His rising sinne of His fall And looke how the resurrection leadeth us to death even as naturally doth death unto sinne the sting of death To sinne then He died Not simply to sinne but with reference to us For as death leadeth us to sinne so doth sinne to sinners that is to our selves And so will the opposition be more cleer and full He liveth unto GOD He died unto man With reference I say to us For first He died unto us and if it be true that Puer natus est nobis it is as true Esay 9.6 that Vir mortuus est nobis If being a child He was borne to us becomming a man He died to us Both are true To us then first He died because He would save us To sinne Secondly because els He could not save us Yes He could have saved us and never died for us ex plenitudine potestatis by His absolute power if He would have taken that way That way He would not but proceed by way of Iustice do all by way of Iustice. And by Iustice Sinne must have death death our death for the sinne was ours It was we that were to dye to sinne But if we had dyed to sinne we had perished in sinne perished heer perished everlastingly That His love to us could not endure that we should so perish Therfore as in Iustice He iustly might He tooke upon Him our debt of sinne sayd as the Fathers apply that speech of His Sinite abire hos Io. 18.8 let these go their wayes And so that we might not dye to sinne He did We see why He died once Why but once because once was enough ad auferenda saith S. Iohn ad abolenda saith S. Peter â— And but once Ioh. 1.29 Act. 3.19 Hebr. 9.28 ad exâ—auriâ—da saith S. Paul To take away To abolish To draw dry and utterly to exhaust all the sinnes of all the sinners of all the world The excellency of His â—erson that performed it was such The excellencie of the obedience that He performed such the excellencie both of His humilitie and charitie wherewith He performed it such and of such valew every of them and all of them much more as made that His once dying was satis superque enough and enough againe which made the Prophet call it copiosam Redemptionem a plenteous Redemption But the Apostle he goeth beyond all in expressing this in one place terming it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
would be layd up well That which is sowen riseth up in the spring that which sleepeth in the morning So conceive of the change wrought in our nature that feast of first fruits by CHRIST our first fruits Neither perish neither that which is sowen though it rott nor they that sleepe though they lye as dead for the time Both that shall spring and these wake well againe Therefore as men sowe not grudgingly nor lye downe at night unwillingly no more must we seeing by vertue of this Feast we are now Dormientes not mortui now not as stones but as fruits of the earth whereof one hath an annuall the other a diurnall resurrection This for the first fruits and the change by them wrought There is a good analogie or correspondence betweene these III. The ground of our hope it cannot be denied To this question Can one man's resurrection worke upon all the rest it is a good answer Why not as well as one sheafe upon the whole harvest This Simile serves well to shew it To shew but not prove Symbolicall Divinitie is good but might we see it in the rationall too We may see it in the cause no lesse in the substance and let the ceremonie goe This I called the Ground of our hope Why saith the Apostle should this of the first fruits seeme strange to you that by one mans resurrection we should rise all seeing by one mans death we die all By one man saith he Rom. 5.12 sinne entred into the world and by sinne death to which sinne we were no parties and yet we all die because we are of the same nature whereof he the first person Death came so certainely and it is good reason life should doe so likewise To this question Can the resurrection of one a thousand sixe hundred yeares agoe be the cause of our rising it is a good answer Why not as well as the death of one five thousand sixe hundred yeares ago be the cause of our dying The ground and reason is that there is like ground and reason of both The wisest way it is if Wisedome can contrive it that a person be cured by Mithridate made of the very flesh of the viper bruised whence the poison came that so that which brought the mischiefe might minister also the remedie The most powerfull way it is if Power can effect it to make strength appeare in weakenesse and that He that overcame should by the nature which He overcame be swallowed up in victorie The best way it is if Goodnesse will admit of it that as next to Sathan man to man oweth his destruction so next to GOD man to man might be debtor of his recoverie So agreeable it is to the Power Wisedome and Goodnesse of GOD this the three Attributes of the Blessed and Glorious Trinitie And let Iustice weigh it in her ballance no iust exception can be taken to it no not by Iustice it selfe that as death came so should life too the same way at least More favour for life if it may be but in very rigour the same at the least According then to the very exact rule of Iustice both are to be alike If by man one by man the other We dwell too long in generalities Let us draw neerer to the persons themselves in whom we shall see this better In them all answer exactly word for word Adam is fallen and become the first fruits of them that die CHRIST is risen and became the first fruits of them that live for they that sleepe live Or you may if you please keepe the same terme in both thus Adam is risen as we vse to call rebellions risings He did rise against GOD by Eritis sicut Dij Gen 3.6 He had never fallen if he had not thus risen His rising was his fall We are now come to the two great Persons that are the two great Authors of the two great matters in this world life and death Not either to themselves and none els but as two Heads two Roots two first fruits either of them in reference to his companie whom they stand for And of these two hold the two great Corpâ—rations 1 Of them that die they are Adam's 2 Of them that sleepe and shall rise that is CHRIST ' s. To come then to the particular No reason in the world that Adam's transgression should draw us all downe to death onely for that we were of the same lump and that CHRIST 's righteousnesse should not be availeable to raise us up againe to life being of the same sheaves whereof He the first fruits no lesse then before of Adam Looke to the things Death and Life Weakenesse is the cause of death Raising to life commeth of Power 2. Cor. 13.4 Shall there be in Weakenesse more strength to hurt then in Power to do us good Looke to the Persons Adam and CHRIST shall Adam being but a living soule Ver. 45.47 infect us more strongly then Christ a quickning spirit can heale us againe Nay then Adam was but from the earth earthly CHRIST the LORD from heaven Shall earth doe that which heaven cannot vndoe Never it cannot be Sicut Sic As and So so runne the termes But the Apostle in Rom. 5. where he handleth this very point tells us plainly Non sicut delictum Rom. 5.15 ita donum Not as the fault so the Grace Nor as the fall so the Rising but the Grace and the Rising much more abundant It seemeth to be A pari it is not indeed It is under value Great odds between the Persons the Things the powers and the meanes of them Thus then meet it should be Let us see how it was Heer againe the very termes give us great light We are saith he restored Restoring doth alwaies presuppose an attainder going before and so the terme significant For the nature of attainder is One person maketh the fault but it taints his blood and all his posteritie The a Heb. 9.27 Apostle saith that a Statute there is All men should dye But when we go to search for it we can finde none but b Gen. 3.19 Pulvis es wherin onely Adam is mentioned and so none die but he But even by that Statute death goeth over all men even those saith Saint Paul that have not sinned after the like manner of transgression of Adam By what law By the law of Attainders The Restoring then likewise was to come and did come after the same manner as did the attainders That by the first this by the second Adam so He is called Ver. 45. Lev. 18.5 There was a Statute concerning GOD 's commaundements qui fecerit ea vivet in eis He that observed the commaundements should live by that his obedience Death should not seise on him CHRIST did observe them exactly therefore should not have beene seised on by death should not but was and that seisure of his was deathe's forfeiture The laying of the former Statute on
for the truth is we fast not at all But when we fast all this is kept That if this should be the meaning we have done before we beginne To destroy a Text is not so evill as to make a Text destroy it selfe which by this sense will come to passe But if this sense be senselesse this glosse as a viper eats out the bowells of the Text. We must then resolve this is no case putt it is a ground layd No Hypotheticall fast If you shall but Categoricall when you doe For except it be all that followes is to no purpose To what purpose is it to direct what not to doe what to doe in our fast if we never meane to fast for CHRIST to sett us downe instructions how to carrie our selves in that we never meane to goe about Plaine dealing were to tell Him we will vse his counsell in some other matter as for fasting we find our selves no waies disposed to it But by the grace of GOD we are not so farr gone yet We see His will is we should doe it and take a time to doe it we will and when is that When ye fast when fast ye A time we said there is if for all things vnder the Sunne then for that Let us speake but after the manner of men goe to it but naturâ tenus as saith Tertullian and nature it selfe will reach us when Marke but when nature will yield to it when and in what case the naturall man will fast without eye to GOD or CHRIST or Religion at all So shall we be within the Apostle's Doth not Nature it selfe teach you 1. Cor. 11.14 The time of feare is a time of fasting with the naturall man 1. Natures time 1 When in feare Nec est cibi tempus in 〈◊〉 〈…〉 in time of danger men have no mind of meat They in the ship with Saint 〈…〉 they looked every 〈◊〉 be call away the tempest was such there was saith Saint Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no spending of 〈◊〉 〈…〉 all that while Will we naturally 〈…〉 of the â—racâ— of our ship and â—or be afraid as much of the wrack of our soules by sinne 〈…〉 for that Doth not nature teach us this There is one when 2. When in griefe When the 〈◊〉 man is in any inward griefe of heart it will take away his stomach he will fast 〈◊〉 or sequela 〈◊〉 vt taetitiae accessio fagina saith Tertullian fasting followeth mourning as feasting doth mirth The a Eccle. 3.4 time of mourning is one of Salomon's 〈◊〉 Why that is our time of fasting b Ioel. 4.12 Fasting and mourning Ioel joynes them both The afflicted soule in his prayer Psal. 102.4 My heart was smitten with heavinesse how then So that I forgat to eate my bread Our SAVIOVR CHRIST shewes iâ— best He was asked Why fast not your Disciples He answers not How can they fast as he should for that was their question but how * c. 9.14 c. can they mourne while the Bridegroome is with them As much to say as if they could mourne they would nor faile but fast certainely So we see did Anna c 1. Sam. 1.10.15 Flebat non capiebat cibos So we see did d 2. Sam. 1 12.15 David for the death of Ionathan and againe when his child lay a dying mourned and fasted for both Vpon sorrow for the death of a friend or a child can we fast then dictante naturá and can we not doe as much for our sinnes the death of our soules Doth not Nature teach us that Nor for the death of CHRIST neither which our sinnes were the cause of There is another a second when 3. When 〈◊〉 Thirdly Anger him throughly the naturall will to his fast * 1. King 21.4 Ahab for curst heart that he could not have his will Naboth would not let him have his vineyard to bedd he goes and no meate would downe with him Could he out of his pure naturalls for curst heart leave his meat and fast and cannot we doe the like for iust indignation at our selves for provoking GOD 's anger with the cursed thoughts of our heart and words of our mouth and deeds of our whole body cannot we be got to it Will not nature teach us this A third when 4. When in a longing desire Fourthly The naturall man when he is in the fervor of his desire if it be an earnest desire he will pursue that he desires so hard as he will forget his meate quite Not a man so hardy as to eat any thing till Sun sett saith Saul when he had his enemies in chase Such was his desire of victorie 1. Sam. 14.24 What speake we of victorie we see Esau so eager in following his sport that he came home at night so faint as he paid deare for his Supper yet felt it not all day while he was hote on his game Did we hunger and thirst for the recoverie of GOD 's favour as did Saul for his victorie or Esau for his sport we would not thinke it much to fast as they did Will not Nature teach us this neither A fourth when Put the naturall man into any of these passions kindly you shall need proclaime no fast for him he will doe it of himselfe Now marke these foure well 1 feare 2 sorrow 3 anger and 4 desire and looke into 2. Cor. 7.11 if they be not there made as it were the foure elements of repentance the constitutive causes of it 1 Feare the middle point the center of it 2 Sorrow that workes it And if sory for sinne then of necessity 3 Angry with the sinner that is our selves for committing it It is there called indignation and no sleight one but proceeding ad vindictam to be wreaked on our selves for it 4 And Desire is there too and Zeale joyned with it to give it an edge These foure the proper passions all of repentance and these foure carry every one as we say his fast on his back Much more where they all meet as in true earnest repentance they all should It is sure GOD planted these passions in our nature to be bestowed chiefly upon their chiefe objects And their chiefe objects are 1 Of feare that which is most fearefull the wrath of GOD. 2 Of Anger that which most certainely procureth it that is our sinne 3 Of Desâ—â—e that then which nothing is more to be desired GOD 's favour 4 Of Sorrow that we have most cause to be sâ—rie for the losse of it There then to shew them there to bestow theâ— which if we did in kind we need never take thought for a Cum to our jejunatis For griefe of heart for worldly losse for bodily feare of drowning for bitter anger we can doe 〈…〉 for griefe of our grievous offenses for feare of being drowned in perdition aeternall why not for indignation of our many indignities offered GOD Alas it but shews out affections
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mercy rich exceeding Eph. 2.7 Eph. 1.8 1. Tim. 1.14 grace overabounding nay grace superfluous for so is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and superfluous is enough and to spare superfluous is cleerely enough and more then enough Once dying then being more then enough no reason He should dye more then once That of his death Now of His life He liveth unto GOD. 2. The cause of His living The Rigor of the law being fully satisfied by His death then was He no longer justly but wrongfully deteyned by death As therefore by the power He had He layd down His life so He tooke it againe and rose againe from the dead And not onely rose Himselfe But in one concurrent action GOD who had by His death received full satisfaction reached Him as it were His hand and raised Him to life The Apostles word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the native force doth more properly signifie raysed by another then risen by Himselfe And is so used to shew it was done not only by the power of the Sonne but by the will consent and co-operation of the Father and He the cause of it who for the over-abundant merit of His death and His humbling Himselfe Phil. 2.8.9 and becomming obedient to death even the death of the Crosse not onely raysed Him but propter hoc even for that cause exalted Him also to live with Him in ioy and glorie for ever For as when He lived to man He lived to much miserie so now He liveth to GOD He liveth in all foelicitie This part being oppositely set down to the former living to exclude dying againe living to God to exclude death's dominion and all things perteining to it For as with GOD is life the fountaine of life against death Psal. 36.10 even the fountayne of life never failing but ever renewing to all aeternitie so with him also is torrens deliciarū a maine river of pleasures even pleasures for evermore never ebbing but ever flowing to all contentment against the miseries belonging to deathe's dominion And there He liveth thus not now as the SONNE of GOD as He lived before all worlds but as the Sonne of man in the right of our nature to estate us in this life in the hope of a reversion and in the life to come in perfect and full possession of His own and His Fathers blisse and happinesse when we shall also live to GOD and GOD be all in all which is the highest pitch of all our hope We see then His dying and rising and the grounds of both And thus have we the totall of our Scientes Now followeth our accompt An accompt is either of what is comming to us II. Our Accompt 1. Of our coming in the benefit and that we like well or what is going from us and that is not so pleasing Comming to us I call matter of benefit Going from us matter of duety where I doubt many an expectation will be deceived making accompt to heare from the resurrection matter of benefit onely to come in where the Apostle calleth us to accompt for matter of duety which is to goe from us An accompt there is growing to us by CHRIST 's rising of matter of benefit and comfort such a one there is and we have touched it before The hope of gayning a better life which groweth from CHRIST 's rising is our comfort against the feare of losing this Thus do we comfort our selves against our deathes Now blessed be GOD that hath regenerated us to a lively hope 1. Pet. 1.3 by the resurrection of IESVS CHRIST Thus do we comfort our selves against our friend's death Comfort your selves one another saith the Apostle with these words what words be they 1. Thes. 4.18 Even those of our SAVIOVR in the Gospell Resurget frater tuus Thy brother or thy Father or thy friend shall rise againe And not only against death Ioh. 11.23 but even against all the miseries of this life It was Iob's comfort on the doung-hill well yet videbo Deum in carne mea I shall see GOD in my flesh Iob. 19.25 And not in our miseries alone but when we do well and no man respecteth us for it It is the Apostle's conclusion of the Chapter of the resurrection Be of good cheer yet 1. Cor. 15.58 labor vester non erit inanis in Domino your labour is not in vaine in the LORD you shall have your reward at the resurrection of the just All these waies comfort commeth unto us by it ◠Of our 〈…〉 1. The duty 〈…〉 But this of ours is another manner of accompt of duety to goe from us and to be answered by us And such a one there is too and we must reckon of it I adde that this heer is our first accompt you see it heer called for in the Epistle to the Romans the other commeth after in the Epistle to the Corinthians In very deed this of ours is the key to the other and we shall never find sound comfort of that unlesse we doe first well passe this accompt here It is I say first because it is praesent and concerneth our soules even here in this life The other is future and toucheth but our bodies and that in the life to come It is an error certainly which runneth in mens heads when they heare of the resurrection to conceive of it as of a matter meerely future and not to take place till the latter day Not only CHRIST is risen Colos. 3.1 but if all be as it should be We are already risen with him saith the Apostle in the Epistle this day the very first words of it and even here now saith S. Iohn is there a first Resurrection Apoc. 20.6 and happie is he that hath his part in it A like error it is to conceit the resurrection as a thing meerely corporall and no waies to be incident into the Spirit or Soule at all The Apostle hath already given us an Item to the contrarie in the end of the fourth Chapter before Where he saith He rose againe for our Iustification Chap. 4.25 and Iustification is a matter spirituall Iustificatus est spiritu sayth the Apostle of CHRIST himselfe Verily here must the spirit rise to grace or els neither the bodie 1. Tim. 3.16 nor it shall there rise to glorie This then is our first accompt that accompt of ours which presently is to be passed and out of hand this is it which first we must take order for 1. To be like CHRIST The summe or charge of which accompt is sett downe in these words Similiter vos That we be like CHRIST carie his Image who is heavenly as we have caried the Image of the earthly Be conformed to his likenesse that what CHRIST hath wrought for us the like be wrought in us What wrought for us by his
â—o become a prisoner as 1. Reg. 1.43 Shemei did Therfore sweare and be sworne in those causes and questions whereto Law doth bind to give answere though Fine and Commitment doe ensue upon them This question remaineth If a man have sworne without those what he is to doe when an oath binds when it doth not We hold No man is so streightened between two sinns but without committing a third he may get forth Herod thought he could not and therfore being in a streight betwixt murder and periurie thought he could have no issue but by putting Saint Iohn Baptist to death It was not so for having sworne and his oath proving unlawfull if he had repented him of his unadvisednesse in swearing and gon no further he had had his issue without any new offense 1. If then We have sworne to be simply evill the rule is Ne sit Sacramentum pietatis vinculum iniquitatis 2. If it hinder a greater or higher good the rule is Ne sit Sacramentum pietatis impedimentum pietatis 3. If it be in things indifferent as we terme them absque grano salis it is a rash oath to be repented not to be executed 4. If the oath be simply made yet as we say it doth subiacere Civili intellectui so as GOD'S oath doth Ieremia 18.8 and therefore those conditions may exclude the event and the Oath remaine good 5. If in regard of the Manner it be extorted from us the rule is Iniusta vincula rumpit Iustitia 6. If rashly Penitenda promissio non perficienda praesumptio 7. If to any man for his benefit or for favour to him if that partie release it it bindeth not A SERMON PREACHED AT VVHITE-HALL upon the Sunday after EASTER being March XXX AN. DOM. MDC IOHN CHAP. XX. VER XXIII Quorum remiseritis peccata remittuntur eis Et quorum retinueritis retenta sunt VVhose-soever sinnes ye remitt they are remitted unto them and whose-soever ye reteine they are reteined The Conclusion of the Gospell for the Sunday THEY be the words of our SAVIOVR CHRIST to his Apostles A part of the first words which he spake to them at his Epiphanie or first apparition after he arose from the dead And they contein a Commission by him graunted to the Apostles which is the summe or contents of this Verse Which Commission is his first largesse after his rising againe For at his first appearing to them it pleased him not to come empty but with a blessing and to bestow on them and on the world by them as the first fruicts of his resurrection this Commission a part of that Commission which the sinfull world most of all stood in need of for remission of sinnes To the graunting wâ—â—reof He proceedeth not without some solemniâ—ie or circumstance The Summariâ— proceeding in it well worthy to be remembred For first Verse 21. he saith As my father sent me so send I you which is their authorizing or giving them their Credence Secondly Verse 22 He doth breath upon them and withall inspireth them with the Holy Ghost which is their enhabling or furnishing thereto And having so authorized and enhabled them now in this Verse heer He giveth them their Câ—mmission and thereby doth perfectly inaugurate thâ—m into this part of their Office A Commission is nothing els but the imparting of a power which before they had not First therefore he imperteth to them a power a power over sinnes over sinnes either for the remitting or the reteining of them as the persons shall be qualified And after to this power he addeth a promise as the Lawyers terme it of Ratihabition that he will ratifie and make it good that His power shall accompanie this power and the lawfull use of it in his Church for ever The dependence in respect of the time Why not before Esai 53.10 Heb. 9.22 Mat. 16.19.18.18 And very agreeably is this power now bestowed by him upon his resurrection Not so conveniently before his death because till then he had not made his soule an offering for sinne nor till then he had not shed his bloud without which there is no remission of sinnes Therefore it was promised before but not given till now because it was convenient there should be solutio before there were absolutio Not before he was risen then Why now And againe no longer then till he was risen not till he was ascended First to shew that the remission of sinnes is the undivided and immediate effect of his death Secondly to shew how much the world needed it for which cause he would not with-hold it no not so much as one day for this was done in the very day of his resurrection Thirdly But specially to set forth his great love and tender care over us in this that as soone as he had accomplished his owne resurrection even presently upon it he setts in hand with ours and beginneth the first part of it the very first day of his rising The Scripture maketh mention of a first and second death and from them two of a first and second resurrection Both expresly sett downe in one verse Apoc. 20.6 Happy is he that hath his part in the first resurrection for over such the second death hath no power Vnderstanding by the first the death of the soule by sinne and the rising thence to the life of grace by the second the death of the body by corruption the rising thence to the life of glorie CHRIST truly is the Saviour of the whole man both soule and body from the first and second death But beginneth first with the first that is with sinne the death of the soule and the rising from it So is the method of Divinitie prescribed by himselfe Mat. 23.16 First to cleanse that which is within the soule then that which is without the body And so is the methode of Physique first to cure the cause and then the disease 1. Cor. 15 56. Now the cause or as the Apostle calleth it the sling of death is sinne Therefore first to remove sinne and then death aâ—â—erwards For the cure of sinne being performed the other will follow of his owne accord As Saint Iohn telleth us He that hath his part in the first resurrection shall not faile of it in the second The first resurrection then from sinne is it which our Saviour Christ heer goeth about wherto there is no lesse power required then a divine power For looke what power is necessarie to raise the dead bodie out of the dust the very same every way is requisite to raise the dead soule out of sinne For which cause the Remission of sinnes is an Article of faith no lesse then the Resurrection of the body For in very deed a resurrection it is and so it is termed no lesse then that To the service and ministerie of which divine worke a Commission is heere graunted to the Apostles And first they have heer their sending from GOD the Father their inspiring
hebrew sheweth there is a reason there is a cause why it commeth 1. Sam. 6.9 And the english word Plague comming from the Latine word Plaga which is properly a stroke necessarily inferreth a Cause For where there is a stroke there must be One that striketh And in â—hat both it and other evill things that come upon us are usually in scripture called Gods judgements If they be iudgements it followeth there is a Iudge they come from They come not by adventure by chance they come not Chance and Iudgement are utterly opposite Not Casually then but Iudicially Iudged we are For when we are chastened we are judged of the Lord. 1 Cor. 11.32 There is a Cause Now what that Cause is Concerning which 1. That Cause is 1. Naturall if you aske the Physitian he will say the cause is in the aire The Aire is infected the Humors corrupted the Contagion of the sicke comming to and conversing with the sound And they be all true causes The Aire For so we see by casting * The aire infected ashes of the furnace towards heaven in the aire the aire became infected and the plague of botches and blaines was so brought forth in Egypt * Exod. 9.8 The Humors For to that doth King David ascribe the Cause of his disease that is that his moisture in him was corrupt dried up 2 The Humors corrupted Psal. 32.4 turned into the drought of Summer Contagion Which is cleare by the Law where the leprous person 3 Contagion Levit. 13.45.46 52. for feare of contagion from him was ordered to crie that no body should come neere him To dwell apart from other men The clothing he had worn to be washed and in some case to be burnt The house-walls he had dwelt in to be scraped and in some case the house it self to be pulled downe In all which three respects Salomon saith Pro. 14.16 A wise man feareth the Plague and departeth from it and fooles runne on and be carelesse A wise man doth it and a good man too For King David himselfe durst not go to the Altar of GOD at Gibeon to enquire of GOD there because the Angel that smot the people with the plague stood betweene him and it 1. Chro. 21.30 that is because he was to passe through infected places thither But as we acknowledge these to be true that in all diseases 2 Supernaturall By which GOD. and even in this also there is a Naturall cause so we say there is somewhat more something Divine and above â—ature As somewhat which the Physitian is to looke unto in the plague so likewise something for Phinees to do and Phinees was a Priest And so some worke for the Priest as well as for the Physitian and more then it may be It was King Asa's fault He in his sicknesse looked all to Physitians and looked not after GOD at all That is noted as his fault It seems 〈…〉 It seemes his concâ—it was there was nothing in a disease but 〈◊〉 nothing but bodily which is not so For infirmitie is not only 〈◊〉 bodily there is a Spirit of infirmitie we finde Luc. 13.11 And some 〈◊〉 spirituall there is 〈◊〉 infirmities something in the soule to 〈◊〉 â—ealed In all â—ut specially in this Wherein that we might knoâ— it to be spirituâ—ll we finde it oft times to be executed by spirits We see an 〈◊〉 destroying Angel 〈…〉 12.13 in the Plague of Egypt another in the Plague in Swaâ—â—â—rib'â— Campe 〈…〉 â—7 36 〈…〉 21.16 〈…〉 16.2 a third in the Plague at Ierusalem under David 〈…〉 pouring his phiall upon earth and ther fell a noysome plague upo◠〈◊〉 and beast So that no man looketh deeply enough into the Cause of this sickenesse unlesse he acknowledge the Finger of God in it over 〈◊〉 â—bove any causes naturall 〈…〉 GOD then hath his part GOD But how affected GOD provoked to aâ—ger so it is in the Text his anger his wrath it is that bringeth the plague among us 〈…〉 The Verse is plaine They provoked him to anger and â—he plague brake in among them 〈…〉 Generally there is no evill saith Iob but it is a sparke of GOD 's wrath And of all evills the Plague by Name There is wrath gone out from the LORD 〈◊〉 21.7 and the plague is begunn saith Moses Num. 16.46 So it is said GOD was displeased with David he smot Israël with the plague So that if if there be a plague GOD is angry and if there be a great plague GOD is very angry Thus much for By what for the anger of GOD by which the plague is sent Now for what 〈…〉 â—hich 〈…〉 general There is a cause in GOD that he is angry And there is a Cause for which he is angry For he is not angry without a cause And what is that cause For what is GOD angry What is GOD angry with the waters when he sends a tempest it is Habacuk's question 〈…〉 Or is GOD angry with the earth when He sends barrennesse Or with the aire when he makes it coÌ„tagious 〈…〉 5. 6. No indeed His anger is not against the Elements they provoke him not Against them it is that provoke him to anger Against men it is and against their sinnes and for them commeth the wrath of GOD upon the children of disobedience And this is the very Cause indeed As there is Putredo humorum so there is also putredo morum And putredo morum is more a Cause then putriedo humorum 1 The Corruption of the soule the 〈◊〉 7. â— 2 corrupting of our waies more then the 〈◊〉 6.12 corrupting of the aire The 〈◊〉 8.38 Plague of the Heart more then the sore that is seene in the body 〈◊〉 5.32 The cause of Death that is sinne the same is the cause of this 〈◊〉 38.5 kinde of death of the plague of mortalitie And as the â—panâ— Balme of ilead and the 〈◊〉 48.46 Physitian there may yield us helpe when GOD'S wrath is removed so if it be not no balme no medicine will serve 〈◊〉 us with the Woman in the Gospell 〈◊〉 5.26 spend all upon Physitians we shall bee never the better till we come to CHRIST and he cure us of our sinnes whâ— is the onely Physitian of the diseases of the soule 〈◊〉 â— 2 And wiâ—â— CHRIST the cure beginns ever withiâ— First Sonne thy 〈◊〉 be for giventhee and then a fier â—ake up thy bed and walke His sinnes first and his limbes after As likewise when we are once well CHRIST'S councell is sinne no more lest a worse thing come unto thee As if sinne would certainely bring a relapse into a sicknesse But shall we say the wraâ—h of GOD for sinnes indefinitely Particular sinn That were somewhat too generall May we not specifie them or set them downe in particular Yes I will point you at three or foure First this
in this this needfull time and to keepe Him sure if it may be For if He keepe with the Host and take their parts Rebelles tui erunt quasi nihil saith Esay Esay 1.11 Esay 7.4 and these smoking tayles of firebrands shall quickly be quenched But if GOD either goe not with them or retire from them If there were among them but naked or wounded men what speake I of men If but froggs or flies they shall be sufficient to trouble them Now then we are at the point For if we will have hold of GOD make Him sure be certeine of Him we must breake with sinne needs Sinne and Satan are His enimies and no fellowship nor communion no concord no agreement no part no portion between them If we will draw Him into league 2. Cor. 6.15 we must professe our selves enimies unto His enimies that He may do the like to ours At one and the same time enter as an outward warr with wicked rebells so an inward hostilitie with our wicked rebellious lusts For that if we keepe our selves from the one He will keepe us from the other and these being suppressed those shall not be hable to stand Thus doing Iud. 7.20 the sword of the LORD shal be with the sword of 〈◊〉 GOâ— shal be with us â—â—iel and we shall prevaile Proâ— â—0 1 〈…〉 For where Iâ—iel is 〈◊〉 will not be away But if we will needs hold on our leâ—â—â—e with hell and continue our wonted entercourse with wickednes still and go forth â—â—to it when it beckens or calls and be so farr from keeping from it that we keepe it as the apple of our eye and cherish it between our breasts if we reteine the marke of it in our very fore-heads and the price of it in the skirts of our garment for not keeping from it He will keepe from us and with-draw His helpe from us and put us cleane out of His protection Therfore without keeping from sinne there is no keeping GOD out of whose keeping there is no safety 3. The Contents of the Instruction to keepe from sinne This advise being so full of behoofe so agreeable to reason and religion both so everie way for their and for our good it remaineth we sett our selves to thinke of it and keepe it * 1. King 8.38 Every one returning to his owne heart to know there as Salomon saith his owne plague even the sinnes wherewith he hath grieved GOD and to make a covenaunt with Him selfe from henceforth more carefully to stand upon his guard and to goe forth to sinne or entertayne it as a friend but to repute it as an enimie and to keepe him from it First for the terme of keeping When thou goest forth against thy enimie goe forth against sinne We should indeed goe forth against sinne and practise those militar impressions that are done in camp against the enimie Give it the assault annoy it pursue it never leave it till we have driven it away These we should do against it But the Scripture offereth more grace and bidds us if we list not goe forth against it only not to goe forth it but keepe our selves that is stand upon our defense to keep good watch Rom. 6.12 that it surprise us not that it get not dominion over us doe but this against sinne and it shall suffice But this must extend to all wickednesse Wherein yet we do humanum dicere propter infirmitatem nostram Rom. 6.19 speake after the manner of men because of our infirmitie retching this All no further then humane infirmite then the failty of our nature will beare then this corruptible flesh wherewith we are compassed and this corrupt world in the middst whereof we live will suffer and give us leave In the bodie we put a difference betweene the soyle which by insensible evacuations goeth from our bodies keepe we our selves never so carefully and that which is drawne forth by chafing or sweat or otherwise gotten by touching such things wherewith we may be defiled That cannot be refraind This falleth within restraint And even so there is a soyle of sinne that of it selfe vaporeth from our nature let the best doe his best I say not we should keepe our selves from this But from provoking it by suffering our minds to wander in it by not keeping our eares from such company and our eyes from such occasions Ezek. 14.3 as will procure it as the Prophet speaketh by putting the stumbling block of iniquitie before our faces From that by the helpe of GOD we may keepe our selves well enough From sinne 's lighting upon our thoughts it is impossible it cannot be but from making there a nest or hatching ought that we are willed to looke to and that by God's grace we may And the word that Moses useth heer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not without a Dixit at least incorde not without a saying within iâ— This or that I will do It must be dictum or condictum sayd to and sayd yea to or els it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The heart not resolving or saying content but keeping it selfe from going forth to any act though wickednesse be not kept from us because of the temptation yet we are kept from it because of the repulse and with that will Moses be content at our hands as our estate now is But with these proviso'es We say generally They that goe forth keepe from all from all such both deeds and words as iustly may be censured to be wickedly eyther spoken or done Words I say as well as deeds For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beares both And indeed if in good words as in prayers there be force to help I make no question but in wicked words as blasphemies irreligious sayings lâ—cis fâ—lmine dignis there is force also to doe mischiefe Therefore keepe from all All those especially as very reason will lead us which have been the ruine of armies in former times a view whereof we may take when we will out of Liber 〈…〉 of GOD 's battâ—iles Wicked Words first Presumptuous termes of trust in our owne strength I will goe I will pursue and overtake I will divide the spoyle Pharaâ—'s words the cause of his perishing and all his host Exo. 15. To keepe them from that Exo. 15.9 Rabsakeh's black mouthed blasphemie Let not Hezekiah cause you to trust in GOD over much the eminent cause of the overthrow of the host of Asshur Esai 36. To keepe them from that Esa. 36.15 And if from words from wicked works much rather Achan's sinne that is Sacrilege Anathemâ— in medio tui non poteris stare coram hostibus tuis GOD 's owne words to Iosua The cause of the armies miscarrying before Ai. To keepe them Iosu. 7.11 12. from that wickednesse Such shamefull abuses as was that at Gibea the expressed cause of the destruction of a whole Tribe To keepe them from that Iud. 1â— Prophaning
holy vessells or holy places with unholy usage the ruine of Balthasar Dan. 5.2 and with him of the whole Chaldean Monarchie To keepe themselves from that Corrupting our compassion Amo. 1.11 and casting of pitie quite and spilling bloud like water the sinne of Edom and the cause he tooke such a foile as he was never a people since To keepe them from that wickednesse From these and from the rest you shall have a time to read them I have not to speake them Arming themselves with a mind to cease from sinne keeping their vessells holy having pay wherewith they may be content and being content with their pay Luk. 3.14 Et neminem concutientes saith Saint Iohn Baptist nor being Torrentes Belial land-flouds of wickednesse Or if this will not be that private conformity will not keepe them at least that Publique authoritie do it that kept they may be one way or other from it If Achan will so farr forget himselfe as to sinne in the execrable thing Or Zamri to play the wretch and abuse himselfe in the camp Let Iosua find out Achan and see him have his due and Phinees follow Zamri and reward him for his desert That the ravine of the one and the villanie of the other be removed as it is committed and so kept from polluting and pulling downe GOD 's wrath upon the whole host For sure it is Psal. 106.30.106.23 Phinee's standing up and executing iudgement hath the force of a praier no lesse then Mose's standing in the gapp to make intercession and both alike forcible to turne away GOD 's anger and to remove evill from the midst of Israël This advise is to take place as in them that goe as before hath been touched so in us likewise that stay at home that what the one build the other destroy not Not by Mose's excercise of prayer and uncessant praier or Iosaphat's excercise of fasting and abstinence 2. Chro. 20. both are out of the compasse of the text 2. Chro. 20.3 but that which is in it by turning from sinne to GOD and that with a serious not shallow and an inward not hollow repentance Not confessing our sinnes to day and committing them to morrow But every one saying Dixi Custodiam I have sayd I will henceforth more narrowly looke to my wayes at least while the sound of warr is in our eares Psal. 39.1 Thinking with our selves it is now warr it is now no time to offend GOD and separate between Him and us in this needfull time of His helpe and protection By entring into that good and vertuous consideration of VRIA 's 2. Sam. 11.11 The Arke of the Lord and all Israël and Iuda dwell in Tents Ioah and the servants of our Sovereigne abide in the open fields and shall we permit our selves as much as we would in the time of peace and not conforme our selves in abridging some part of our wonted libertie and forbearing to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season To conclude if we shall or when we shall be tempted to any of our former sinnes to thinke upod GOD 's owne counsaile even GOD 's owne counsaile from GOD 's owne mouth Memento belli ne feceris Iob 40.27 To remember the Campe and not to doe it To think upon them in the fields and their danger and for their sakes and for their safeties to forbeare it Thus if we shall endevour our selves and eschew our owne wickednesse our hosts shall goe forth in the strength of the Lord and the LORD shall goe with them and order their attempts to an happie issue He that made our forreine enemies like a wheele to goe round about us Psal. 83.23 and not to come neere us shall make these as stubble before the wind Ibid. causing feare and faintnesse of heart to fall upon them as upon Madian sending an evill spirit of dissension among them as upon Abimelech and the men of Sichem Num. 22.3 Iud. 9.23 causing their owne woods to devoute 〈◊〉 them as 〈…〉 owne waters to sweepe them away as it 〈◊〉 Sofera Iudg. 5.20 〈…〉 courses is fight against them as under DEBORA'â— conduct He did Many such things are with Him many such He hath done and can doe againe if to our going forth we ioyne a going from sinne Even so Lord so let it be Those whom thou now carriest forth by thy mercie bring them bacâ—e by thy might in this place the place of thy holy Habitation That Debâ—r a 〈…〉 thee for the avenging of Israel Iudg. 5.2.9 and for the people that offer themselves so willingly For letting her eare heare and her eye see the fall of the wicked that rise up against her Psal. 18.46 That she may praise thee and say The Lord liveth and blessed be my strong helpe and praised be the GOD of my Salvation 47.48 Even the God that seeth I be avenged and subdueth the people unto me It is He that delivereth me from my cruell enemies and setteth me up above all my adversaries 50. Great prosperity giveth He unto His Hand-maid and sheweth still and continually His loving kindnesse to his Annointed Praysed be the LORD for evermore To this GOD glorious in Holinesse fearefull in Power doing Wonders The FATHER SONNE and HOLY GHOST c. A SERMON Preached before QVEENE ELIZABETH AT WHITE-HALL On the XVII of February A. D. MDCII being ASH-VVEDNESDAY IEREM CHAP. VIII c. 4. Thus saith the Lord shall they fall and not arise shall be turne away and not turne againe 5. Wherfore is this people of Ierusalem turned back by a perpetual rebellion they gave themselves to deceit and would not returne 6. J hearkened and heard but none spake aright no man repented him of his wickednesse saying what have J done Every one turned to their race as the Horse rusheth into the battell 7. Even the Storke in the aire knoweth her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their comming but my people knoweth not the judgement of the LORD THE Apostle's counsaile is Qui stat videat ne cadat He that stands let him take heed lest he fall And 1 Cor. 10.12 Esay 30.21 there is saith Esay a voice behind us that crieth Haec est via this is the right way keepe it turne not from it Good counseiles both to those Quorum vita via vitae whose life is a iourney and a iourney to another a better life To looke to their feet they fall not to looke to their way they erre not Good counseiles indeed but of which we must say with CHRIST Qui potest capere capiat Matt. 19.12 Follow them that may For true it is that Not to fall not erre nor doe amisse at all is an higher perfection then our nature in state it is can atteine to Being men saith Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
of sorrow anger feare desire are quick have life are very affections indeed in secular matters but dead and dull and indeed no affections at all but plaine counterfetts in things perteining to GOD or that concerne the estate and hazard of our soules To take downe a peccant humour as we call it in our body whereby we feare empaire of our health we can and do enter into a streict and tedious diet and hold out well We can forbeare this and that as we are bidden though we love it well if we be but told it will doe us hurt If for the health of our body we will doe that which for our soules health we will not I cannot tell what to say to us What speake I of health To winne but a prize at a running or a wrestling Abstinct se ab omnibus saith the Apostle 1. Cor. 9. they will absteine from all things 1. Cor. 9.25 and undergoe a streict regiment for a long time before and all is but for a poore Silver gamâ— What shall I say then if we cannot be got to endure so much to obteine the heavenly prize which is in part done as there he saith by castigo corpus meum This for the naturall mans Cum when he will fast Ibid. ver 27. Will ye now see the Scripture's When when that setts us out our time The Scripture's When. They be in a manner the very same Scripture and Nature varie not dictate to us the same time both Our first When What time any great danger hangs and hovers over our heads When in danger that is GOD's time saith Esai 22.12 GOD Himselfe doth then call us to fasting No time then to kill oxen or dresse sheep eat flesh and drinke wine A great paine is there sett upon it GOD must needs take it ill if when He bidds us fast we fall to feast And this when is of greatest example None so frequent in all the Bible as fasts of this nature Never came there danger toward them a 2. Sam. 24. of plague but David b Ioel. 2.12 of famine but Ioël c 2 Chro. 2.3 of warr but Iosaphat d Est. 4.16 of any destruction threatened but not onely good Queene Hester but wicked e 1. Kin. 21.27 Ahab nay even the heathen King of f Ion. 3.5 Ninive to their fasts streight flying to it as to a forcible meanes and so they ever found it to turne away GOD's wrath and so the danger the matter of their feare This is a time When and we then to do it Now if for the effect we fast for the cause much more Of these 2. When in Sinne 1. To punish it of all other our miseries the cause is within our selves Our sinne whereby GOD 's anger is kindled and these ever follow upon it When therefore we would proceed against our selves for sinne a Levit. 16.29 humble our selves the phrase of the Law b Psal. 35.13 chasten our selves of the Psalme c Ezra 8.21 pâ—nish our selves of the Prophetts d 2. Cor. 7.11 take revenge of our selves the Apostle's phrase tum iciunab unt in die illo this is a way then is a time to doe it Fasting is a punishment to the flesh * 1. Reg. 22.27 Modicum panis et pauxillum aquae was a part of Michea's punishment By it as to amerce our selves as it were for abusing our libertie before and making it an occasion to the flesh and thereby to prevent His iudgement by iudging our selves Do de me poenas ut ille parcat It is Augustine This so proceeding of ours to take punishment on our selves it is illex misericordiae saith Tertullian it allures inclines GOD to mercie when He sees us angry with our selves in good earnest and do somewhat His anger ceasses Nam qui culpâ offenditur poenâ placatur whom the fault offends the punishment appeases whither His punishment or ours But He had rather ours then His that we should do it then He. And this to extend to the body also and to the chastening of it For doth the soule onely sinne Doth not the body also And shall the soule suffer sorrow for sinne and shall the body suffer nothing and yet was in the fame transgression If it shall then at least poena damni for poena sensus I am sure we would be more loth to come to And what poena damni but abstinere a licitiâ— quia illicita 〈◊〉 To deny our selves that we might for doing that we might not There is a another 〈◊〉 Secondly As it is a chasti 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 when it is done 3. 2. To prevent it So hath it alwaies been held to have in it a medicinable forâ—â— a speciall good 〈◊〉 to prevent 〈◊〉 when it is not yet fallen on us or we into it 〈…〉 onely as it 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are like to fall for that we are now leading even entring into tentation This also is a time When. Maâ— 4.1 â— And this time we ground upon CHRIST 's time of fasting His fasting went immediately before His tentation No wayes needfull for Himselfe was CHRIST 's fast None is so simple as to thinke the Tempter would have prevailed against Him though He had taken His meales eat and drunke the fourty dayes before It was not for Himselfe it was for us His fast Exemplarily to teach us it will be a great vantage if prepared by this exercise we shall encounter the evill Spirit Specially if it be some kind of them if an uncleane spirit Ch. 17. ver 21. For that kind is not cast out no nor kept out but either by jejunatis or not at all CHRIST ' s-fasting then before His tentation is to shew us it is good fasting against tentation At least this way we shall weaken his forces by keeping downe our fleshly lusts 1. Pet 2.11 which saith Saint Peter fight against the soule and lying in our owne bosome oft betray us to the fiend For when all is sayd that can be Bernard's saying wil be sound true that Nutriuntur cum carne vitia carnis And if Religion did not Experience teacheth us that Plye the body apace let it be kept high how mellow a soile it proves for the sinnes of the flesh And that if by abstinence we cropp not the budds of Sensualitie they will ripen and seed to the ruine of our soules So there is use both wayes of it 1. Cor. 9.27 1 Vse of castigo corpus for the time past Vse 2 of in servitutem redigo for the time to come Ieiuna quia peccâsti Ieiuna ut ne pecces both saith Chrysostome One as a punishment with reference to sinne already committed The other as a preservative for noli amplius peccare that we commit it not againe Two causes more and two times When. 4. When in want of some good But hath fasting his use in evill things onely and repelling them hath it
point the Prophet here calleth us to even how to looke upon CHRIST often and to be the better for our looking It shall be verie agreeable to the Text and to the HOLY GHOST 's chief entent if we prove how and in how diverse sorts we may with profit behold and looke upon Him whom thus we have pierced 1. Respise transfigere First then looking upon Him we may bring forth for the first effect that which immediatly followeth this Text it selfe in this Text Et plangent Eum Respice plange First looke and lament or mourne which is indeed the most kindly and naturall effect of such a spectacle Looke upon Him that is pierced and with looking upon Him be pierced thy selfe Respice transfigere A good effect of our first looke if we could bring it forth At least wise if we cannot Respice transfigere looke and be pierced yet than it might be Respice compungere that with looking on Him we might be pricked in our hearts Actâ— 2.37 and have it enter past the skinne though it go not cleane through Which difference in this Verse the Prophet seemeth to insinuate when first he willeth us to mourne as for one's onely sonne with whom all is lost Or if that cannot be had to mourne as for a first begotten sonne which is though not so great yet a great mourning even for the first begotten though other sonnes be left Verse 11. And in the next Verse if we cannot reach to naturall griefe yet he wisheth us to mourne with a Civill even with such a lamentation as was made for Iosias And Behold a greater then IOSIAS is heere Comming not as he to an honourable death in battell but to a most vile death the death of a Malefactor And not as Iosias dying vvithout any fault of theirs but mangled and massacred in this shamefull sort for us even for us and our transgressions Verily the dumbe and senselesse creatures had this effect wrought in them of mourning at the sight of his death in their kind sorrowing for the murder of the SONNE of GOD. And we truly shall be much more senselesse then they if it have in us no worke to the like effect Especially considering it was not for them He suffered all this nor they no profit by it but for us it was and vve by it saved And yet they had compassion and vve none Be this then the first Now as the first is Respice transfigere Looke upon him 2. Respice tranâ—fige and be pierced so the second may be and that fitly Respice transfige Look upon him and pierce and pierce that in thee that was the cause of CHRIST 's piercing that is sinne and the lusts thereof For as men that are pierced indeed vvith the griefe of an indignity offered vvithall are pricked to take revenge on him that offers it such a like affection ought our second looking to kindle in us even to take a wreake or revenge upon sinne quia fecit hoc because it hath been the cause of all this I mean as the HOLY GHOST termeth it a mortifying or crucifying a thrusting thorow of our vvicked passions and concupiscences in some kind of repaying those manifold villanies vvhich the SONNE of GOD suffered by meanes of them At leastwise as before if it kindle not our zeale so farre aginst sinne yet that it may slake our zeale and affection to sinne that is Respice ne respicias Respice CHRISTVM ne respieias peccatum That we have lesse mind lesse liking lesse acquaintance vvith sinne for the Passion-sake For that by this means vve do in some sort spare CHRIST and at least make his wounds no wider Wheras by affecting sinne anew we do vvhat in us lieth to crucifie Him afresh and both increase the number and enlarge the widenesse of his wounds It is no unreasonable request That if we list not wound sinne yet seeing CHRIST hath wounds enough and they wide and deep enough we should forbeare to pierce him further and have at least this second fruit of our looking upon Him either to look and to pierce sinne or to looke and spare to pierce him any more Now as it was sinne that gave him these wounds so 3. Respice dilige it was love to us that made him receive them being otherwise hable enough to have avoided them all So that He was pierced with love no lesse then with griefe and it was that wound of love made him so constantly to endure all the other Which love we may read in the palmes of His hands as the Fathers expresse it out of Esa. 49.16 For in the Palmes of his hands He hath graven us that he might not forget us And the print of the neiles in them are as Capitall letters to record his love toward us For CHRIST pierced on the Crosse is liber charitatis the very booke of love laid open before us And againe this love of His we may read in the cleft of His heart Quia Claâ—us penetransfactus est nobis Clavis reserans saith Bernard ut pateant nobis viscera per vulnera The point of the Speare serves us instead of a key letting us through his wounds see his verie bowells the bowells of tender love and most kind compassion that vvould for us endure to be so entreated That if the Iewes that stood by said truely of him at LAZARVS 's grave Ioh. 11.36 Ecce quomodo dilexit Eum when He shed a few teares out of his eyes much more truly may we say of him Ecce quomodo dilexit nos seeing him shedd both Water and Blood and that in great plentie and that out of his heart Which sight ought to pierce us with love too no lesse then before it did with sorrow With one or with both for both have power to pierce but specially Love Which except it had entred first and pierced him no neile or speare could ever have entered Then let this be the third Respice dilige Look and be pierced with love of him that so loved thee that he gave himselfe in this sort to be pierced for thee 4 Respice crede And forasmuch as it is CHRIST his owne selfe that resembling his passion on the Crosse to the Brazen Serpent lift up in the wildernesse maketh a correspondence between their beholding and our beleeving for so it is Ioh. 3. 14. vve cannot avoid but must needs make that an effect too Even Respice crede And well may we beleeve and trust him whom looking a little before we have seene so constantly loving us For the sight of that love maketh credible unto us whatsoever in the whole scripture is affirmed to us of CHRIST or promised in his name So that beleeve it and beleeve all Neither is there any time wherein with such cheerefulnesse or fulnesse of faith we crie unto him Ioh. 20.28 MY LORD and MY GOD as when our eye
thus wounded thus afflicted and forsaken you shall then have a perfect Non sicut And indeed the Pâ—rson is here a weighty circumstance It is thrice repeated Meus Mihi Me and we may not leave it out For as is the Person so is the Passion and any one even the very least degree of wrong or disgrace offered to a Person of excellency is more then a hundred times more to one of meane condition So weighty is the circumstance of the Person Consider then how great the Person was And I râ—st fully assured here we boldly challenge and say Si fuerit sicut Ecce Homo saith Pilate first A man he is as we are And were he but a man Ioâ— 19. â— nay were he not a man but some poore dumb creature it were great ruth to see him so handled as he was A mâ—n saith Pilate and a Iust man saith Pilate's wife Have thou nothing to doe with that Iust Man Mat. 27.19 And that is one degree further For though we pitie the punishment even of Malefactors themselves yet ever most compassion we have of them that suffer and be innocent And he was Innocent â—uc 2â— 14. â—5 Ioh. 14.30 Pilate and Herod and the Prince of this world his very enemies being his Iudges Now among the Innocent the more noble the Person the more heavy the spectacle And never do our bowels yerne so much as over such Alas alas for that noble Prince Ier. 22.18 saith this Prophet the stile of mourning for the death of a great Personage And he that suffered heer is such even a principall Person among the sonnes of men of the race royall descended from Kings Pilate stiled him so in his Title Ioh. 19.22 and he would not alter it Three degrees But yet we are not at our true Quantus For he is yet more More then the highest of the sonnes of men for he is THE SONNE OF THE MOST HIGH GOD. Pilate saw no further Ioh. 19.5 Mar. 1â— 39 but Ecce Homo The Centurion did Verè FILIVS DEI erat hic Now truly this was the SONNE of GOD. And heer all words forsake us and every tongue becommeth speechlesse Wee have no way to expresse it but à minore ad Majus Thus. Of this book the book of Lamentations one speciall occasion was the death of King Iosias But behold a greater then Iosias is heer Of King Iosias as a speciall reason of mourning the Prophet saith Cap. 4.10 Spiritus oris nostri CHRISTVS DOMINI The very breath of our nostrills The LORD 's Annointed for so are all good Kings in their Subject's accompts He is gone But behold here is not CHRISTVS DOMINI but CHRISTVS DOMINVS The Lord 's CHRIST but the LORD CHRIST himselfe And that not comming to an Honourable death in battaile as Iosias did But to a most vile reproachfull death the death of Malefactors in the highest degree And not slaine outright as Iosias was but mangled and massacred in most pitifull strange manner wounded in body wounded in Spirit left utterly desolate O consider this well and confesse the Case is truly put Si fuerit Dolor sicut Dolor meus Never never the like Person And if as the Person is the Passion be Never the like Passion to His. It is truly affirmed that any one even the least drop of blood even the least paine yea of the body onely of this so great a Person any Dolor with this Meus had been enough to make a Non sicut of it That is enough but that is not all for adde now the three other degrees Add to this Person those Wounds that Sweat and that Crie and put all together And I make no manner question the like was not shall not cannot ever be It is farr above all that ever was or can be Abyssus est Men may drowsily heare it and coldly affect it But Principalities and Powers stand abashed at it And for the Quality both of the Passion and of the Person That Never the like thus much Now to proceéd to the Cause and to consider it for without it 1. Of the cause we shall have but halfe a Regard and scarce that Indeede set the Cause aside and the Passion as rare as it is is yet but a dull and heavie sight we list not much looke upon spectacles of that kinde though never so strange they fill us full of pensive thoughts and make us Melancholique and so doth this till upon examination of the cause we finde it toucheth us neere and so neere so many waies as we cannot choose but have some regard of it VVhat was done to Him we see Let there now be a quest of Inquiry to finde GOD. Luc. 22.53 who was doer of it Who who but the Power of darknesse wicked Pilate bloody Caiaphas the envious Priests the barbarous Souldiers None of these are returned heer We are too low by a great deale if we think to finde it among men Quae fecit mihi DEVS It was GOD that did it An houre of that day was the houre of the power of darknesse but the whole day it selfe is sayd heer plainly was the day of the wrath of GOD. GOD was a doer in it wherewith GOD hath afflicted me GOD 's wrath GOD afflicteth some in Mercie and others in Wrath. This was in his wrath In his wrath GOD is not alike to all Some he afflicteth in his more gentle and milde others in his fierce wrath This was in the verie fiercenesse of his wrath His Sufferings his Sweat and Crie shew as much They could not come but from a wrath Si fuerit sicut For we are not past Non sicut no not here in this part it followeth us still and will not leave us in any point not to the end The Cause then in GOD was wrath What caused this wrath GOD is not wroth Sinâ—e but with sinne Nor grievously wroth but with grievous sinne And in CHRIST there was no grievous sinne Nay no sinne at all Not His. GOD did it the text is plaine And in his fierce wrath he did it For what cause Ioh. 18 22. For GOD forbid GOD should do as did Annas the high Priest Gen. 18 25. cause him to be smitten without cause GOD forbid saith Abraham the Iudge of the World should doe wrong to any To any but specially to his owne Sonne That his Sonne of whom with thundering voice from Heaven he testifieth all his joy and delight were in him in him only He was well pleased And how then could his wrath wax hot to doe all this unto him There is no way to preserve GOD 's Iustice and CHRIST 's Innocencie both but to say as the Angell said of him to the Prophet Daniel The MESSIAS shall be slaine Dan. 9.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ve-en-lo shall be slain but not for himself Not for himselfe But oâ—her mens for whom then For some others He took upon
him the person of others and so doing Iustice may have her course and proceed Pitie it is to see a man pay that he never took but if he will become a Surety if he will take on him the person of the Debtor so he must Pitie to see a silly poore Lamb lie bleeding to death but if it must be a sacrifice such is the nature of a sacrifice so it must And so CHRIST though without sin in himselfe yet as a Surety as a Sacrifice may justly suffer for others if he will take upon him their persons and so GOD may iustly give way to his wrath against him Ours And who be those others The Prophet Esay telleth us and telleth it us seven times over for failing Esa. 53.4 5 6. He took upon Him our infirmities and bare our maladies He was wounded for our iniquities and broken for our transgressions The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes were we healed All we as sheepe were gone astray and turned every man to his owne way and the LORD hath layd upon him the iniquity of us all All all even those that passe to and fro and for all this regard neither him nor his Passion The short is It was we that for our sinnes our many great and grievous sinnes Si fuerit sicut the like whereof never were should have swet this Sweat and have cried this Crie should have been smitten with these sorrowes by the fierce wrath of GOD had not he stept between the blow and us and latched it in his owne body and soule even the dint of the fiercenesse of the wrath of GOD. O the Non sicut of our sinnes that could not otherwise be answered To returne then a true verdict It is we we wretched sinners that we are that are to be found the principalls in this act and those on whom we seeke to shift it to derive it from our selves Pilate and Caiaphas and the rest but instrumentall causes only And it is not the executioner that killeth the man properly that is They No nor the Iudge which is GOD in this case Onely sinne Solum peccatum homicida est Sinne only is the murtherer to say the truth and our sinnes the murtherers of the SONNE of GOD and the Non sicut of them the true cause of the Non sicut both of GOD 's wrath and of his sorrowfull sufferings VVhich bringeth home this our text to us even into our owne bosomes and applieth it most effectually to me that speake and to you that heare to every one of us and that with the Prophet Nathan's application Tu es homo Thou art the Man even thou 2 Sam. 12.7 for whom GOD in his fierce wrath thus afflicted him Sinne then was the cause on our part Why we or some other for us But yet what was the cause why He on his part what was that Love of us that moved him thus to become our Surety and to take upon him our debt and danger that moved him thus to lay downe his Soule a sacrifice for our sinne Sure Oblatus est quia voluit saith Esay again Esa. 53 7. Offered he was for no other cause but because he would For unlesse he would he needed not Needed not for any necessity of Iustice for no Lamb was ever more innocent Nor for any necessity of constraint For twelve Legions of Angells were ready at his command but because he would And why would he No reason can be given but because he regarded us Marke that reason And what were we Verily utterly unworthy even his least regard not worth the taking up not worth the looking after Cum inimici essemus saith the Apostle we were his enemies Rom. 5.8 when he did it without all desert before and without all regard after he had done and suffered all this for us and yet he would Regard us that so little regard him For when he saw us a sort of forlorne sinners Non priùs natos quam damnatos Damned as fast as borne Eph. 2.3 as being by nature children of wrath and yet still heaping up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2 5. by the errors of our life till the time of our passing hence and then the fierce wrath of GOD ready to overwhelme us and to make us endure the terror and torments of a never-dying death another Non sicut yet When I say he saw us in this case he was moved with compassion over us and undertooke all this for us Even then in his love he regarded us and so regarded us that he regarded not himselfe to regard us Bernard saith most truly Dilexisti me Domine magis quà mte quando mori voluisti pro me In suffering all this for us thou shewedst LORD that we were more deare to thee that thou regardest us more then thine owne selfe And shall this Regard finde no regard at our hands It was Sinne then and the hainousnesse of sinn in us that provoked wrath and the fiercenesse of his wrath in GOD It was love and the greatnesse of his love in CHRIST that caused him to suffer the Sorrowes and the grieuousnes of these Sorrowes and all for our sakes And indeed but only to testifie the Non sicut of this his Love all this needed not that was done to him One any one even the very least of all the paines he endured had been enough enough in respect of the Meus enough in respect of the Non sicut of his Person For that which setteth the high price on this Sacrifice is this That he which offereth it unto GOD is GOD. But if little had been suffered little would the Love have been thought that suffered so little and as little regard would have been had of it To awake our regard then or to leave us excuselesse if we continue regardlesse all this he bare for us that he might as truely make a Case of Si fuerit Amor sicut Amor meus as he did before of Si fuerit Dolor sicut Dolor meus We say we will regard Love if we will heere it is to regard So have we the Causes all three 1 Wrath in GOD 2 Sinne in our selves 3 Love in Him Our Benefit by it Pertaines it not to us Yet have we not all we should For what of all this What good Cui bono That that is it indeed that we will regard if any thing as being matter of Benefit the only thing in a manner the world regardeth which bringeth us about to the very first words againe For the very first words which we reade Have ye no regard are in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lo alechem which the Seventy turne word for word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latine likewise Nonne ad vos pertinet Pertaines it not to you that you regard it no better For these two Pertaining and Regarding are folded one in another and goe together so commonly as one is
taken often for the other Then to be sure to bring us to Regard He urgeth this Pertaines not all this to you Is it not for your good Is not the benefit yours Matters of benefit they pertaine to you and vvithout them LOVE and all the rest may pertaine to whom they will Consider then the inestimable benefit that groweth unto you from this incomparable Love It is not impertinent this Even this That to us hereby all is turned about cleane contrary That by his Stripes we are healed by his sweat we refreshed By his forsaking we received to Grace That this day to him 2. Cor. 6.2 the day of the fiercenesse of GOD 's wrath is to us the Day of the fulnesse of GOD 's favour as the Apostle calleth it A Day of Salvation In respect of that he suffered I deny not an evill day a day of heavinesse But in respect of that which he by it hath obtained for us It is as we truly call it A good Day a day of ioy and Iubilee For it doth not only ridd us of that wrath which pertained to us for our sinnes but further it maketh that pertaine to us whereto we had no manner of right at all For not onely by his death as by the death of our sacrifice by the blood of his Crosse as by the blood of the Paschal Lambe Exod. 12 1â— the Destroier passeth over us and we shall not perish But also by his death as by the death of our High Priest for he is Priest and Sacrifice both we are restored from our exile Nam 15.28 even to our former forfeited estate in the land of Promise Or rather as the Apostle saith Non sicut delictum sic donum Rom 8.15 Not to the same estate but to one nothing like it that is One far better then the estate our sinnes bereft us For they deprived us of Paradise a place on earth but by the purchase of his blood we are entitled to a farre higher even the Kingdome of Heaven And his blood not only the blood of Remission to acquite us of our sinnes Mat. 26.28 but the blood of the Testament too to bequeath us and give us estate in that heavenly inheritance Now whatsoever els this I am sure is a Non sicut as that which the eye by all it can see the eare by all it can heare the heart by all it can conceive cannot patterne it or set the like by it Pertaines not this unto us neither Is not this worth the regard Sure if any thing be worthy the regard this is most worthy of our very worthiest and best regard Thus have we considered and seene The recapitulation of all not so much as in this sight we might or should but as much as the time will give us leave And now lay all these before you every one of them a Non sicut of it selfe the paines of his body esteemed by Pilate's Ecce the sorrowes of his Soule by his sweat in the Garden the comfortlesse estate of his sorrowes by his crie on the Crosse And with these his Person as being the SONNE of the great and ETERNALL GOD. Then ioyne to these the Cause In GOD his fierce wrath In us our hainous sinnes deserving it In him his exceeding great Love both suffering that for us which we had deserved and procuring for us that we could never deserve Making that to appertaine to himselfe which of right pertained to us and making that pertaine to us which pertained to him onely and not to us at all but by his meanes alone And after their view in severall lay them all together so many Non sicut's into one and tell me if his Complaint be not just and his request most reasonable The complâ—int The matâ—eâ— juâ—t Yes sure his Complaint is just Have ye no regard None and yet never the like None and it pertaines unto you No regard As if it were some common ordinary matter and the like never was No regard As if it concern'd you not a whit and it toucheth you so neere As if he should say Rare things you regard yea though they no waies pertaine to you this is exceeding rare and will you not regard it Againe things that neerely touch you you regard though they be not rare at all this toucheth you exceeding neere even as neere as your soule toucheth you and will you not yet regard it Will neither of these by it selfe move you Will not both these together move you What will move you Will Pitie Heer is Distresse never the like Will Dutie Heer is a Person never the like Will Feare Heer is Wrath never the like Will Remorse Heer are sinnes never the like Will Kindnesse Heer is Love never the like Will bounty Heer are Benefits never the like Will all these Heer they be all all above any Sicut all in the highest degree The manner eaâ—nest Truely the Complaint is just it may move us it wanteth no reason it may move and it wanteth no affection in the delivery of it to us on his part to move us Sure it moved him exceeding much For among all the deadly sorrowes of his most bitter Passion this eâ—en this seemeth to be his greatest of all and that which did most affect him even the griefe of the slender reckoning most men have it in as little respecting him as if he had done or suffered nothing at all for them For lo of all the sharpe paines he endureth he complaineth not but of this he complaineth of No regard That which grieveth him most that which most he moaneth is this It is strange he should be in paines such paines as never any was and not complaine himselfe of them But of want of regard only Strange he should not make request O deliver me or Relieve me But only O consider and regard me In effect as if he said None no deliverance no reliefe do I seeke Regard I seeke And all that I suffer I am content with it I regard it not I suffer most willingly if this I maâ— finde at your hands Regard The 〈…〉 of â—t Tâ—uly This so passionate a Complaint may move us it moved all but us For most strange of all it is that all the Creatures in heaven and earth seemed to heare this his mournfull Complaint and in their kind to shew their regard of it The Sunne in heaven shrinking in his light the earth trembling under it the very stones cleaving in sunder as if they had sense and Sympathy of it and sinfull men only not moved with it And yet it was not for the Creaâ—ures this was done to Him to them it pertaineth not But for us it was and to us it doth and shall we not yet râ—gard it Shall the Creature and not we Shall we not If we doe not it may appertaine to us but we pertaine not to it The benefit if· It pertaines to all but all pertaine not to it
None pertaine to it but they that take benefit by it and none take benefit by it no more then by the brazen Serpent but they that fixe their eye on it Behold Consider and Regard it the profit the benefit is lost without Regard If we do not as this was a day of GOD 's fierce wrath against him The perill if not onely for regarding us so there is another day comming and it will quickly be heer a day of like fierce wrath against us for not regarding him Psal. 90.11 And who regardeth the power of his wrath He that doth will surely Regard this In that day there is not the most carelesse of us all but shall cry as they did in the Gospell Domine non ad Te pertinet si perimus Mar. 4 38. Pertaines it not to Thee Carest thou not that we perish Then would we be glad to pertaine to him and his Passion Pertaines it to us then and pertaines it not now Sure now it must if then it shall Then to give end to this Complaint let us grant him his request The Request Have some Râ—gard and Regard his Passion Let the Rarenesse of it The Neerenesse to us Let Pitie or Dutie Feare or Remorse Love or Bounty Any of them or all of them Let the justnesse of his Complaint Let his affectionate manner of Complaining of this and only this Let the shame of the Creature 's regard Let our Profit or our Perill Let something prevaile with us to have it in some regard Some regard Verily as his sufferings his Love 1. Our best Regaâ—d our good by them are so should our regard be a Non sicut too That is a regard of these and of nothing in comparison of these It should be so For with the benefit ever the regard should arise But GOD helpe us poore sinners and be mercifull unto us Our regard is a Non sicut indeed but it is backward and in a contrary sense That is no where to shallow so short or so soone done It should be otherwise it should have our deepest consideration this and our highest regard 2. At least sâ—me Reâ—â—rd But if that cannot be had our nature is so heavy and flesh bloud so dull of apprehension in Spirituall things yet at least wise some regard Some I say The more the better But in any wise some And not as here No regard none at all Some waies to shew we make accompt of it to with-draw our selves to void our minds of other matters to set this before us to thinke upon it to thanke him for it to regard him and stay and see whether he will regard us or no. Sure he will and we shall feele our hearts pricked with sorrow by consideration of the cause in us our Sinne And againe warme within us by consideration of the cause in him Act. 2.37 Luc. 24.32 his Love till by some motion of Grace he answere us and shew that our regard is accepted of Him And this as at all other times for no day is amisse 3. This Day specially but at all times some time to be taken for this dutie so specially on this Day this Day which we hold holy to the memorie of his Passion this day to do it to make this Day the Day of GOD 's wrath and CHRIST 's suffering a Day to us of serious consideration and regard of them both It is kindly to consider Opus diei in die suo The worke of the Day in the Day it was wrought and this Day it was wrought This Day therfore whatsoever businesse be to lay them aside a little whatsoever our haste yet to stay a little and to spend a few thoughts in calling to minde and taking to regard what this Day the SONNE of GOD did and suffered for us and all for this end that what he was then we might not be and what he is now we might be for ever Which Almightie GOD grant we may doe more or lesse even every one of us according to the severall measures of His Grace in us A SERMON PREACHED before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT Greenwich on the XXIX of March A.D. MDCV. being GOOD-FRIDAY HEBR. CHAP. XII VER II. Aspicientes in Authorem fidei Consummatorem IESVM qui proposito Sibi gaudio sustinuit Crucem confusione contempta atque in dextera Sedis DEI sedet Looking unto IESVS the Author and finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross and despised the shame and is set at the right hand of the Throne of GOD. SAint Luke though he recount at large our SAVIOVR CHRIST 's whole storie yet in plaine and expresse termes he calleth the Passion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Theorie or Sight Luc. 23.48 which Sight is it the Apostle heer calleth us to looke unto Of our blessed SAVIOVR 's whole life or death there is no part but is a Theorie of it selfe well worthy our looking on for from each part thereof there goeth vertue to do us good From each part but of all from the last part or act of His Passion Therefore hath the HOLY GHOST honored this last part only with this name and none but this This is the theorie ever most commended to our view To be looked on he is at all times and in all acts but then and in that act specially When for the ioy set before Him He endured the Crosse and despised the shame Then saith the Apostle looke unto him Saint Paul being elsewhere carefull to shew the Corinthians and with them us CHRIST and as to shew them CHRIST So to shew them in CHRIST what that is that specially concerneth them to know or look unto thus he saith That though he knew many very many things besides yet he esteemed not to know anything 1. Cor. 2.2 but IESVS CHRIST Hunc crucifixum Him and Him crucified Meaning respective as they terme it that the perfection of our knowledge is CHRIST and the perfection of our knowledge in or touching CHRIST is the knowledge of His Crosse and Passion That the chiefe Theorie Nay in this all so that see this and see all The view whereof though it be not restreined to any one time but all the yeare long yea all our life long ought to be frequent with us and blessed are the houres that are so spent yet if at any time more then other certainly this time this day may most justly challenge it For this day was this Scripture fulfilled and this day are our eares filled full with Scriptures about it So that though on other daies we employ our eyes otherwise yet that this day at least we would as exceeding fitly the Apostle wishâ—th us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast our eyes from other sights and fixe them on this object Ioh. 12 32. it being the day dedicate to the lifting up of the SONNE of MAN on high that He may draw every eye unto
once That is that we not only dye to sinne and live to GOD but dye and live as He did that is once for all which is an utter abandoning once of sinn's dominion and a continuall constant persisting in a good course once begoon Sinn 's dominion it languisheth sometimes in us and falleth haply into a 〈◊〉 but it dyeth not quite once for all Grace lifteth up the eye and looketh up a little and giveth some signe of life but never perfectly reviveth O that â—nce we might come to this No more deaths no more resurrections but one that we might â—nce make an end of our daily continuall recidivations to which we are so subiect and once get past these pangs and qualmes of godlinesse this righteousnesse like the morning cloud which is all we performe that we might grow habituate in grace radicati fundati rooted and founded in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 steddie Ephes. 3.17 1. Cor. 15. vlt. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never to be remooved that so we might enter into and passe a good accompt of this our Similiter vos â— The Discharge and meanes of it Iâ— Iesus Christ our Lord. And thus are we come to the foot of our accompt which is our Onus or Charge Now we must thinke of our discharge to goe about it which maketh the last words no lesse necessarie for us to consider then all the rest For what is it in us or can we by our owne power and vertue make up this accompt We cannot saith the Apostle 2. Cor. 3.5 nay we cannot saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make accompt of any thing no not so much as of a good thought toward it as of our selves If any thinke otherwise let him but prove his owne strength a little what he can do he shall be so confounded in it as he shall change his minde saith Saint Augustine and see plainely the Apostle had reason to shut up all with In Christo Iesu Domino nostro otherwise our accompt will sticke in our hands Verily to raise a soule from the death of sinne is harder farr harder then to raise a dead bodie out of the dust of death Saint Augustine hath long since defined it that Marie Magdalen's resurrection in soule from her long lying dead in sinne was a greater miracle then her brother Lazaru's resurrection that had lyen foure daies in his grave If Lazarus lay dead before us we would never assay to raise him our selves we know we cannot doe it If we cannot raise Lazarus that is the easier of the twaine we shall never Marie Magdalen which is the harder by farre out of Him or without Him that raised them both But as out of Christ or without Christ we can doe nothing toward this accompt Not accomplish or bring to perfection but not do not any great or notable summe of it Ioh. 15.5 but nothing at all as saith Saint Augustine upon Sine me nihil potestit facere So in Him and with Him enhabling us to it we can thinke good thoughts speake good words and doe good workes and dye to sinne and live to GOD and all Omnia possum saith the Apostle Phil. 4.13 And enable us He will and can as not onely having passed the resurrection but being the resurrection it selfe not onely had the effect of it in himselfe but being the cause of it to us So He saith himselfe I am the resurrection Ioh. 11.25 and the life the resurrection to them that are dead in sinne to raise them from it and the life to them that live vnto GOD to preserve them in it Where beside the two former 1 the Article of the resurrection which we are to know 2 and the Example of the resurrection which we are to be like we come to the notice of a third thing even a vertue or power flowing from Christ's resurrection whereby we are made able to expresse our Similiter vos and to passe this our accompt of dying to sinne and living to GOD. It is in plaine words called by the Apostle himselfe virtus resurrectionis Phil. 3.10 the vertue of CHRIST 's resurrection issuing from it to us and he praieth that as he had a faith of the former so he may have a feeling of this and as of them he had a contemplative so he may of this have an experimentall knowledge This enhabling vertue proceedeth from Christ's resurrection For never let us thinke that if in the daies of His flesh there went vertue out from even the verie edge of his garment Luk. 8.46 to doe great cures as in the case of the woman with the bloudie issue we reade but that from His owne selfe and from those two most principall and powerfull actions of His owne selfe his 1 death and 2 resurrection there issueth a divine power from His death a power working on the old man or flesh to mortifie it from His resurrection a power working on the new man the Spirit to quicken it A power hable to râ—ll backe any stone of an evill custome lye it never so heavy on us a power hable to drie up any issue though it have runne upon us twelve yeare long And this power is nothing els but that divine qualitie of grace which we receive from Him 2. Cor. 6.1 Receive it from Him we doe certainely onely let us pray and 〈◊〉 ouâ— selâ—es that we receive it not in vaine the Holy Ghost by waies to flesh 〈…〉 vnknowne inspiring it as a breath distilling it as a dew deriving it as a secret inflâ—ence into the soule For if Philosophie grant an invisible operation in us to the câ—lestiall bodies much better may we yeeld it to His aeternall Spirit whereby 〈◊〉 a vertue or breath may proceed from it and be received of us Which breath or Spirit is drawen in by Prayer and such other exercises of devotion on our parts and on GOD 's part breathed in by and with the Word well therefore termed by the Apostle the Word of grace And I may safely say it Act. 20.32 with good warrant from those words especially and chiefly which as He himselfe saith of them are Spirit and Life even those words which ioyned to the element Ioh. 6.63 make the blessed Sacrament There was good proofe made of it this day All the way did He preach to them even till they came to Emmaus and their hearts were whot within them which was a good signe but their eyes were not opened but at the breaking of bread Luk. 24.31 and then they were That is the best and surest sense we know and therefore most to be accompted of There we tast and there we see Tast and see how gratious the Lord is Psal. 34.8 1. Cor. 12.18 Heb 13.9 Heb 9.14 There we are made to drinke of the Spirit There our hearts are strengthened and stablished with grace There is the bloud which shall purge our consciences from dead
and in good health but the houre is comming when we shall leave catching at all other hopes and must hold onely by this in horâ mortis when all hope save the hope of this verse shall forsake us Sure it is under these very words are we layd into our graves and these the last words that are sayd over us as the very last hold we have and we therefore to regard them with Iob and lay them up in our bosome There is in this text 1 a Text and an 2 Exposition 1. The Text we may well call the Angell's text for from them it came first 2. The Division The Exposition is Saint Paule's These words CHRIST is risen were first uttered by an Angell this day in the Sepulcher All the * Mat. 28.6 Mar. 16.6 Luc. 24.6 Evangelists so testifie This Text is a good text but reacheth not to us unlesse it be helped with the Apostle's Exposition and then it will The Exposition is it that giveth us our hope and the ground of our hope CHRIST is risen saith the Angell CHRIST the first fruicts saith the Apostle And marke well that word first fruicts For in that word is our hope For if He be as the first fruicts in His rising His rising must reach to all that are of the heape whereof He is the first fruicts This is our hope But our hope must have a reason saith Saint a 1. Pet. 3.15 Peter and we be ready with it b Heb. 11.1 The hope that hath a ground saith Saint Paul that is c Rom. 5.5 spes quae non confundit Having then shewed us this hope he sheweth us the ground of it This That in very aequitie we are to be allowed to be restored to life the same way we lost it But we lost it by man or to speake in particular By Adam we came by our attainder Meet therefore that by man and to speake in particular that by CHRIST we come to our restoring This is the ground or substance of our hope And thus he hath sett before us this day life and death in themselves and their causes two things that of all other doe most concerne us Our last point shall be to applie it to the meanes this day offered unto us toward the restoring us to life I. The text Christ is risen THe doctrine of the Resurrection is one of the Foundations so called by the Apostle Heb. 6.1 It behooveed him therefore as a skilfull worke-man to see it surely layd That is surely layd that is layd on the rocke and the rocke is Christ. Chap. 10.4 Therefore he layd it on Christ by saying first Christ is risen Of all that be Christians Christ is the hope but not Christ every way considered but as risen Even in Christ un-risen there is no hope Well doth the Apostle beginn heer and when he would open to us a gate of hope carry us to Christ's sepulcher emptie â—os 2.15 to shew us and to heare the Angell say He is risen Thence after to deduce If He were able to do thus much for Himselfe He hath promised us as much and will do as much for us We shal be restored to life Thus had he proceeded in the foure Verses before destructivè 1 Miserable is that man Ver 19.18.17 that either laboureth or suffereth in vaine 2 Christian men seem to do so and do so if there be no other life but this 3 There is no other life but this if there be no resurrection 4 There is no resurrection if CHRIST be not risen for ours dependeth on His. And now he turneth all about againe But now saith he 1 CHRIST is risen 2 If he be we shall 3 If we shall we have as Saint PAVL calleth it a blessed hope Tit. 2.13 and so a life yet behinde 4 If such hope we have we of all men labour not in vaine So there are foure things 1 CHRIST 's rising 2 our restoring 3 our hope and 4 our labour All the doubt is of the two first The two other will follow of themselves If a restoring we have good hope if good hope our labour is not lost The two first are in the first the other in the last words The first are Christ is risen the last we shal be restored to life Our endeavour is to bring these two togither But first to lay the corner-stone CHRIST is risen is the Angell's Text A part of the great mysterie of Godlinesse 1. Tim. 3 16. which as the Apostle saith was seen of Angells by them delivered and beleeved on by the world Quod credibile primum fecit illis videntium certitudo post merientium fortitudo jam credibile mihi facit credentium multitudo It became credible at first by the certainty of them that saw it then by the constancie of them that died for confession of it and to us now the huge multitude of them that have and do beleeve it maketh it credible For if it be not credible how is it credible that the world could beleeve it the world I say being neither enjoyned by authority nor forced by feare nor inveigled by allurements but brought about by persons by meanes lesse credible then the thing it selfe Gamaliel said If it be of GOD it will prevaile And though we cannot argue Act. 5 37. all that hath prevailed is of GOD yet thus we can That which hath beene mightily impugned and weakly pursued and yet prevailed that was of GOD certainly That which all the Powers of the earth sought but could not prevaile against was from heaven certainely Certainely Christ is risen for many have risen and lift up themselves against it but all are fallen But the Apostle saith it is a foundation that he will not lay it againe No more will we but goe forward and raise upon it And so let us doe CHRIST is risen Suppose He be what then Though Christ's rising did no way concerne us or we that yet 2 first in that a man one of our owne flesh and blood hath gotten such a victorie even for humanitie's sake 2 Then in that one that is innocent hath quit himselfe so well for innocencies sake 3 Thirdly in that He hath foiled a common enemie for amitie's sake 4 Lastly in that He hath wiped away the ignominie of His fall with the glorie of His rising againe for vertue and valour's sake for all these we have cause to rejoyce with Him All are matter of gratulation But the Apostle is about a further matter that Text the Angel's Text he saw II. The Apostle's exposition Christ â—s the first fâ—uits would not serve our turne further then I have said Well may we congratulate Him if that be all but otherwise it perteines not to us Christ is risen The Apostle therefore enters further telling us That Christ did thus rise not as Christ onely but as Christ the first fruits Christ is risen and in rising become the first fruits risen
CHRIST was the utter making it void So Iudgement was entred and an Act made CHRIST should be restored to life And because He came not for Himself but for us and in our name and stead did represent us and so we virtually in Him by His restoring we also were restored By the rule si Primitae tota conspersio sic as the First fruicts go Rom. 11.16 so goeth the whole lumpe as the Roote the branches And thus we have gotten life againe of mankind by passing this Act of Restitution whereby we have hope to be restored to life But life is a terme of latitude and admitteth a broad difference which it behooveth us much that we know Two lives there be In the holy Tongue the word which signifieth life is of the duall number to shew us there is a dualitie of lives that two there be and that we to have an eye to both It will helpe us to understand our Text. For all restored to life All to one not all to both The Apostle doth after at the 44 Verse expressly name them both 1 One a Naturall life or life by the living soule The other â— a Spirituall life or life by the quickening Spirit Of these two Adam at the time of his fall had the first of a living soule was seised of it and of him all mankind Christ and we all receive that life But the other the Spirituall which is the life cheifly to be accompted of that he then had not not actually Onely a possibilitie he had if he had held him in obedience and walked with GOD to have been translated to that other life For cleer it is the life which Angells now live with GOD and which we have hope and promise to live with Him Luc. 20.36 after our restoring when we shall be aequall to the Angells that life Adam at the time of his fall was not possessed of Now Adam by his fall fell from both forfeited both estates Not onely that he had in reversion by not fullfilling the conditions but even that he had in esse too For even on that also did Death seise after Et mortuus est CHRIST in his restitution to all the sonnes of Adam to all our whole nature restoreth the former therefore all have interest all shall partake that life What Adam actually had we shall actually have we shall all be restored To repaire our nature He came and repaire it He did all is given againe really that in Adam really we lost touching Nature So that by his fall no detriment at all that way The other the second that He restoreth too but not promiscuè as the former to all Why for Adam was never seised of it performed not that whereunto the possibilitie was annexed and so had in it but a defeicible estate But then by His speciall grace by a second peculiar act He hath enabled us to atteine the second estate also which Adam had onely a reversion of and lost by breaking of the condition whereto it was limited And so to this second restored so many as to vse the Apostle's words in the next verse are in Him that is so many as are not only of that masse or lump whereof Adam was the first fruits for they are interessed in the former onely but that are besides of the nova conspersio whereof CHRIST is the Primitiae a Ioh. 1.12 They that beleeve in Him saith Saint Iohn them He hath enabled b Ioh. 20.17 to them He hath given power to become the sonnes of GOD to whom therefore He saith this day rising Vado ad Patrem vestrum In which respect the Apostle calleth Him c Rom. 8.29 Primogenitum inter multos fratres Or to make the comparison even to those that are to speake but as d Esay 8. â—â— Esay speaketh of them His children Behold I and the the children GOD hath given me The terme He vseth Himselfe to them after His resurrection and calleth them Children And they as His familie take denomination of Him Christians of CHRIST Of these two lives the first we need take no thought for It shall be of all the vnjust as well as the iust The life of the living soule shall be to all restored All our thought is to be for the later how to have our part in that supernaturall life for that is indeed to be restored to life For the former though it carie the name of life yet it may well be disputed and is Whether it be rather a death then a life or a life then a death A life it is and not a life for it hath no living thing in it A death it is and not a death for it is an immortall death But most certaine it is call it life if you will they that shall live that life shall wish for death rather then it and this is the miserie not have their wish for death shall flie from them Out of this double life and double restoring there grow two Resurrections in the world to come set downe by our SAVIOVR in expresse termes Ioh. 5. â—9 Though both be to life yet 1 that is called condemnation to judgement and 2 this onely Heb. 11.35 to life Of these the Apostle calleth one the better resurrection the better beyond all comparison To atteine this then we bend all our endeavours that seeing the other will come of it selfe without taking any thought for it at all we may make sure of this To compasse that then we must be in CHRIST So it is in the next verse To all but to every one in order CHRIST first the first fruits and then they that be in Him Now He is in us by our flesh and we in Him by His Spirit and it standeth with good reason they that be restored to life should be restored to the Spirit For the Spirit is the cause of all life but specially of the Spirituall life which we seeke for His Spirit then we must possesse our selves of and we must doe that heere for it is but one and the same Spirit that raiseth our soules heere from the death of Sinne Rom. 8.11 and the same that shall raise our bodies there from the dust of death Of which Spirit there is first fruits to reteine the words of the Text and a fullnesse But the fullnesse in this life we shall never atteine Our highest degree heer is but to be of the number whereof he was that said Et nos habentes primitias Spiritus Rom. 8 23. These first fruits we first receive in our Baptisme which is to us Tit. 3.5 our Laver of regeneration and of our renewing by the holy Spirit where we are made and consecrate Primitiae Heb. 12.1 But as we need be restored to life so I doubt had we need to be restored to the Spirit too We are at many losses of it by this sinne that cleaveth so faâ—t to us I doubt it is with us as
And gracious in offering to us the meanes by His Mysteries and grace with them as will rayse us also and sett our minds where true rest and glorie are to be seene That so at this last and great Easter of all the Resurrection-day what we now seek we may then finde where we now sett our minds our bodyes may then be sett what we now but tast we may then have the full fruition of Even of His glorious God-head in rest and glorie ioy and blisse never to have an end A SERMON Preached before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT WHITE-HALL on the XXIV of April A.D. MDCXIV being EASTER DAY PHIL. CHAP. II. VER 8. He humbled Himselfe made obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse. 9. For this cause hath GOD also highly exalted Him and given Him a Name above every name 10. That at the Name of IESVS every knee should bow of those in Heaven and in earth and vnder the Earth 11. And that every Tongue should confesse that IESVS CHRIST is the Lord to the glory of GOD the Father FOR this cause The Summe GOD hath exalted Him saith the Text Him that is CHRIST And for this cause are we now heere to celebrate this exalting Of which His exalting this is the first day and the Act of this day the first step of it even His rising againe from the dead Haec est clarificatio Domini nostri IESV CHRISTI quae ab Eius resurrectione sumpsit exordium saith Saint Augustine upon this place This now is the glorifying of our LORD IESVS CHRIST which tooke his beginning at His glorious resurrection Thus is the summe and substance of this Text set downe by that learned Father By him also is it likewise divided to our hands Into Humilitas Claritatis meritum The Division 1. and Claritas humilitatis praemium Humilitie the merit of glory in the first verse of the foure And glory the reward of humilitie in the other three Which two heere and ever are so fast linked together as there is no parting them I cannot but touch and I will but touch the Merit in the first verse It properly pertaines to another day And so come to Opus dici The matter of this dayes exultation is called here His Exaltation And is of two sorts By GOD in the ninth verse And by us in the two last By GOD And that is double Of his Person Of his Name Two Super's either one Super exaltavit Ipsum His Person there is one in the forepart of the ninth verse And Nomen super omne nomen His name there is the other in the latter part of it And this is GOD'S Then commeth ours For GOD exalting it Himselfe He will have us to doe the like And not to doe it inwardly alone but even outwardly to acknowledge it for such And sets downe precisely this acknowledgement how He will have it made by us Namely two waies By the Knee by the Tongue The Knee to bow to it verse 10. The Tongue to confesse it verse 11. And both these to be generall Every Knee every Tongue And not in grosse but deduced into three severall rankes All in Heaven All in earth All vnder the earth which comprehends all indeed and leaves none out This acknowledgement thus but onely insinuated by the Knee is by the Tongue more plainely expressed And this it is That IESVS CHRIST is the LORD LORD of all those three This to be done and so done as it redound all to the glory of GOD the Father But then last take the Vse with us that since in Him His humiliavit se-ipsum ends in Super-exaltavit Deus His humbling Himselfe in GOD 's Exalting That the same minde be in us Verse 5. And the same end shall come to us As His end was so ours shall be in the glory of GOD the Father Propter quod For this cause I. Veâ—se 8. WE touch first upon this word It is the Axis and Cardo the very point whereupon the whole Text turneth 1. Propâ—er First Propter A cause there is So GOD exalts ever for a cause Heere on earth otherwhile there is an Exaltavit without a Propter quod Some as Sobna Plaman Esay 22.15 Est. 3.1 Nehem 4.1 Sanballat sometimes exalted no man knowes wherefore With GOD there goeth ever with men there should goe a Propter quod before Exaltavit 2. Propter quod For a cause for what for this cause And this now casts us backe to the former verse where it is set downe Humiliavit There it is for His Humilitie Humiliavit Now of all causes not for that if we goe by this world which as the Proverbe is was made for the presumptuous Not for the vertue of all others A vertue before CHRIST thus graced it so out of request as the Philosophers looke into their Ethiques you shall not so much as finde the name of humilitie in the list of all their vertues Well this cast vertue of no reckoning is here made the Propter quod of CHRIST 's exalting Luk. 1.48 As Respexit humilitatem the ground of His Mothers Magnificat And He that by Him brought light out of darknesse at the first wil by Him bring glory out of humilitie at last Or this booke deceiveth us With GOD it shall have the place of a Propter quod 2. Cor. 4.6 how poore account soever we make of it here â— Ipse But this Quod is a Collective there be in it more points then one I will but point at them Hâ—miliâ—vit ipse He humbled He which many times is idle but here a circumstance of great waight He so great a Person being in the forme of GOD and without any disparagement at all equall to GOD as he tels us a verse before He humbled Verse 6. Vbi Majestatem praemisit vt humilitatem illustraret That discourse of His High Majestie was but to set out to give a lustre to His humilitie For for one of meane estate to be humble is no great praise It were a fault if he were not But In alto nihil altum sapere For a King as David to say I will yet be more humble 2. Sam. 6.22 for the King of Kings for Him to shew this great humilitie that is a Propter quod indeed Humiliavit Ipse Then secondly that Humiliavit Ipse se. Ipse se and not alius ipsum 2 Se. that He was not brought to it by any other but of his owne accord He humbled himselfe There is a difference betweene humilis and humiliatus One may be humbled Exod 10.16 Matt. 27.32 and yet not humble Pharao was humbled brought downe by his ten plagues Simeon of Cyrene aâ—gariatus to humble his necke vnder the Crosse. This was alius ipsos But Ipse se is the true humilitie For then it is laudabili voluntate not miserabili necessitate of a willing minde and that is commendable not of force and constraint for
bellie and came forth againe alive Dead he was not but lege viventium after the law of the living one throwen overboord into the Sea in a tempest to all intents may be given for dead and so I dare say all the mariners in the ship gave Ionas That he came out againe alive it was by speciall grace not by course of nature For from the Whale's bellie he came for all the world as if one should have come out of his grave risen againe Among the Iewes it goes for currant the Rabbines take it up one after another that this Ionas was the Widow of Sarepta's sonne the childe whom Elias raised from death to life 1. Reg. 17. If so â—eg 17.23 then well might he be a Signe A Signe dead in his cradle once as good as dead in the Whale's bellie now againe In both resembling Him whose Signe he waâ— if both be true But one is most certaine and to that we hold us And this is indeed the maine Sicut the Sicut of the Text and of the Day 3. 〈◊〉 three daies 〈◊〉 three nights 〈◊〉 Whales 〈◊〉 Gen 39 20. Dan. 6.16 One more and I have done and that is of the time precise three dayes and three nights For in this a Non nisi For none but he so just three neither more nor lesse For I aske why not the signe of Ioseph or of Daniel a Ioseph was in the dungâ—on among condemned persons to die b Daniel in the lion's den as deadly a place as the Whale's bellie yet neither of them made the signe of CHRIST Why Ioseph was in his dungeon too long Daniel too short but a night not long enough to represent CHRIST being in his grave Onely Iona's time just And the time is it heere Els might the others have beene his Signe well enough for the matter if that had beene all But the time is still stood on and the daies numbred that His Disciples that all might know how long He would be from them and not a day longer And this not without good cause This day was but the third day and this day they were at sperabamus did hope did but now doe not their hope was fallen into a tertian that Luk. 24.21 it was time He were up againe This Signe set that they might know for a surety by this day at the fardest they should heare of Him againe Of which three To verifie His being there three dayes it is enough if He were there but a part of every one of them for it is not three whole daies As in common phrase of speech we say the Sun shone or it rained these three daies past though it did not so all day long but some part onely of each And if it rained at all in every of them we say true It is enough And so heere the first day of the three Ionas was in the ship and CHRIST on the Crosse till friday somewhat before the Sun-sett All the second day Ionas was in the Whale CHRIST in His Sepulcher The third day Ionas came out of the Whale and CHRIST out of His grave as it might be about the Sun-rising for this day both Sunnes rose together To verifie the three nights that doe we reckoning as did the Iewes and that by warrant out of the Gen. 1. the evening and the morning but for one so Gen. 1.5.8 c. drawing still the precedent night and compting it with the succeeding day So doe they still the night past with the day following as in Genesis they are taught and we doing so it will fall outright To the Sicut then of these three daies There is in each of them The Sicut of these three daies set downe a severall state of Ionas and so of CHRIST 1 Their going thither 2 Their being there 3 And their comming thence 1 In their going thither Good friday Ion. 1.4.5 Thus fell it the first day Ionas was at sea in a ship A great tempest came so great as the ship was upon casting away Of tempests some are of course have their causes in nature and in them art and strength will doe good With Ionas heere it did not prevaile a whit Thereby they knew it to be one out of course of GOD'S immediate sending GOD sends not such tempests but He is angrie He is not angrie but with sinne â— Some great Sinner then there is in the ship and if the ship were well ridd of him all would be calme againe To lotts they went Ionas was found to be the partie Being found rather then all should be cast away he bid franckly Tollite me Ion. 1.12 projicite Take me cast me into the Sea Cast in he was and the storme ceased streight the ship came safe home 15. And the Evening and the morning were the first day Will ye see now what was acted in Ionas actually fulfilled in CHRIST But first will ye note that what is in the Old Testament written of Ionas Ephes. 5.32 is not onely historia vera but Sacramentum magnum not a bare Storie onely but besides the storie pregnant also with a great Mysterie Not onely a deed done but further a Signe of a deed to be done of a farre higher nature Dico autem in CHRISTO I speake it as of CHRIST and His Resurrection Of that historie this the Mysterie this the Sacramentum magnum Will ye note againe it is on CHRIST'S side with advantage Sicut Ionas saith this verse But ecce plus quà m Ionas saith the next and both may stand There may be a Sicut where yet there may be a plus quà m a likenesse in qualitie Verse 41. where an exceeding in degree though Indeed Sicut makes not a non nisi Plus quà m doth and we then so to remember the Sicut in this as we forget not the Plus quà m in that No more will we And now weigh them over well and whithersoever ye looke ye shall finde a plus quà m Plus in the ship in the tempest in the cause in the danger in the casting in in the comming out againe In every one a plus quà m All that was in Ionas in CHRIST more conspicuous and after a more excellent manner in Signato then in Signo That so in this as in all els CHRIST may have the praeeminence Col. 1.18 To beginne then It is no new thing to resemble the Church the Common-wealth yea the World to a Ship A ship there was not a small barke of Ioppe but plus quà m a Great Arke or Argosy wherein were imbarqued all Mankind having their course through the Maine Ocean of the world bound for the Port of Aeternall blisse And in this great Carrick among the sonnes of men the Sonne of Man as He termes Himselfe became also a passenger even as did Ionas in his small bottome of Ioppe Then rose there a tempest A tempest it selfe and the cause of all tempests the heavy wrath of GOD
ready to seise upon sinners which made such a foule Sea as this great Ship and all in it were upon the point to be cast a way The plus heere is plaine take it but as it was indeed litterally For what a tempest was there at CHRIST 's death Chap. 27.51.52 It shooke the Temple rent the veile cleft the stones opened the graves put out the Sunne 's light was seene and felt all the world over as if heaven and earth would have gone together But the miserable storme then who shall declare And no mervaile there was a great Plus in the cause For if the sinne of one poore passenger of Ionas made such a foule Sea the sinnes of the great Hulke that bore in it all Mankind together in one bottome what manner tempest thinke you were they like to raise In what hazard the vessell that loaden with them all But one fugitive there heere all runne-awaies from GOD Master Mariners Passengers and all Now the greater the Vessell the more ever the danger With Ionas but a handfull like to miscarrie In this the whole masse of Mankind like to perish So in the perill Plus too The storme will not be stayed neither till some be cast into the Sea and some great Sinner it would be And heer the Sicut seemes as if it would not hold heer the only Non Sicut Ionas For Ionas there was the onely sinner all besides in the ship innocent poore men Heere CHRIST onely in the ship innocent no sinner all the ship besides full â—raught with sinners Mariners and Passengers grievous sinners all Heere it seemes to halt And yet I cannot tell you neither for all that For in some sense CHRIST was not unlike Ionas no not in this point but like Ionas as in all other respects so in this too 2. Cor. 5.22 Esa. 53.6 Not as considered in Himselfe for so he knew no sinne But Him that knew no sinne for us made He sinne How by laying on Him the iniquities of us all even of all the sonnes of men upon this Sonne of Man And so considered He is not onely Sicut but Plus quà m Ionas heere More sinne on Him then on Ionas for on Him the sinnes of the whole Ship yea Iona's sinne and all For all that heere is another Plus though For what Ionas suffered it was for his owne sinne Luk. 23.41 and meritò haec patimur might he say and we both with the Theefe on the Crosse. But CHRIST what had He done It was not for his owne it was for other mens sinnes He suffered He paied the things he never tooke So much the more likely was He Psal 69.4 1. Pet. 3.18 to satisfie the just for the uniust the LORD for the Servant Much more then if one sinner or servant should doe it for another Ion. 1.12 Ioh. 18.8 Yet was CHRIST as was Ionas content to be throwen in Tollite me said Ionas Sinite hos abire said CHRIST Let these goe Take me my life shall answer for theirs as it did As content said I Nay Plus more For with Ionas there was no other way to stay the storme but overboord with him But CHRIST had other waies could have stayed it with His word with His Obmutesce as He did the VIII Chapter Cha. 8.26 Mat. 3.15 Esa. 53.7 before Needed not to have beene cast in Yet to fulfill all righteousnesse condescended to it though and in He was throwen not of necessitie as Ionas but quia voluit and Voluit quia nos salvos voluit would have us safe and His Father's justice safe both Now to the effect Therewith the storme stayed GOD 's wrath was appeased Mankind saved Heere the Plus is evident That of Ionas was but Salus phaseli no more This was Salus mundi no lesse A poore boat with the whole World what comparison And the evening and the morning were Good-friday CHRIST 's first day * In their beeing there Easter Eve To Ionas now secundo He was drowned by the meanes Nay not so GOD before angry was then pacified Pacified not onely with the ship but pacified with Ionas too provided a whale in shew to devoure him indeed not to devoure but to preserve him downe he went inâ—o her belly There he was but tooke no hurt there 1. As safe nay more safe there then in the best ship of Tharsis no flaw of weather no foule sea could trouble him there 2. As safe and as safely carried to land The ship could have done no more So that upon the matter he did but change his vehiculum shifted but from one vessell to another went on his way still 3. On he went as well nay better then the ship would have carried him went into the ship the ship carried him wrong out of his way cleane to Tharsis-ward Went into the whale and the whale carried him right landed him on the next shore to Ninive whither in truth he was bound and where his errand lay 4. And all the while at good ease as in a cell or study For there he indited a Psalme expressing in it his certaine hope of getting forth againe So as in effect Ion. 2.2.6 where he seemed to be in most danger he was in greatest safety Thus can God worke And the evening and the morning were Iona's second day The like now in CHRIST but still with a plus quà m Doe but compare the whale's bellie with the heart of the earth and you shall finde the whale that swallowed CHRIST that is the grave was another manner whale farr wider throated then that of Ionas That Whale caught but one Prophet but Ionas This hath swouped up Patriarchs and Prophets and all yea and Ionas himselfe too None hath scaped the iawes of it And more hard getting out I am sure witnesse Ionas Into the whale's belly he went and thence he gat out againe After he gat thence into the heart of the earth he went and thence he gat not there he is still The Signe lyes in this by the letter of the Text. And in CHRIST the Signe greater For though to see a whale tumble with a Prophet in the bellie were a strange sight yet more strange to see the SONNE of GOD lye dead in the earth and as strange againe to see the Sonne of man to rise from the grave againe alone A double signe in it The heart of the earth with Iustine Martyr Chrysostome Augustine I take for the grave though I know Origen Nyssen Theodoret take it for hell for the place where the Spirits are as in the bodie that is the place of them And thither he went in Spirit triumphed over the powers and principalities there in His owne person But for His bodie it was the day of rest the last Sabboth that ever was Col. 2.15 and then His bodie did rest rest in hope hope of what that neither His soule should be left in hell nor His flesh suffered to see
so no sinne so high as it To lay hands on him it is too ranck that away with it But that is not the case It is not miserunt heere none were laid The seeking to lay hands is a sinne No matter for that it is mittere quaesiverunt and that is enough To lay and to sâ—eke to lay though one be worse both be naught even misâ—io and quasâ—tio both Seeking is a plowing for sinne and that is sinne saith Iob Iob â— 8 â—sâ—y â—9 5 Is a hatching of a cockatrice-egg and that saith Esay is poison no lesse then that comes of it Sinne to lay Sinne to seeke to lay As to lay though you hurt not so to seeke to lay though you lay not Ever in what degree soever Assuerus's danger is Bigthan's sinne the King's danger their sinne that seâ—ke it But if that be all sinne we shall doe well enough What care men for sinne A Câ—pitalâ— sinne if there be no action at the Common Law for it None but Westminster-hall sinnes do men care for GOD saw it would come to this Men learne no more duty then paenall Statutes did teach them He tooke order therefore to bring it within them too We say further then by vertue of this Text besides that it is a grievous sinne praejudiciall to the state of the soule it is a heinous crime a capitall crime amounting to suspensi sunt as much as their neck is worth to seeke this It will beare not an action onely but an enditement of life and death But it must be in Regem then against Him Against others it is not so This If upon the King is a prerogative Royall And as many other waies so heereby appeareth what a King is That whereas in other mens caâ—es as touching the law of life and death to seeke to lay and to lay are much different in the King's case they be all one Quaesivâ—runt if it be no more but so the Law in that case to eny other is I take it favourable and for a bare purpose â—f no hurt ensue no man shall suffer death Not so with the King voluerunt against him is death if it may be discovered and quaesiverunt if he but seeke though he find it not This helps us to understand the Text Ego dixi Dij estis Dij for other causes Psal. 82.6 and this for one that they participate this divine priviledge that as against GOD so against them the heart is enough Quaesiverunt the seeking whither they find or not Voluerunt the will whither the deed follow or not Eccles. 10 2â— Thou shalt not speake evill of the King how not with thy lipps No not in thy secret thoughts saith the Preacher If not speake evill in heart doe evill in heart much lesse Two Commandements when time was we said there were in Nolite tangere 1 Touch not Psal. 105.15 the act 2 Have not the will to touch the intent Two cases there be upon these two 1 Baana and Rechab's that did lay hands upon King Ishbosheth 2. Sam. 4. 2 And Bigthan and Thare'z case heere that did but seeke it to King Asâ—ucrus Both guiltie both suffered Yea Baana and Rechab hang them and well worthy they murdered the King But Bigthan and Tharez Nay and them too hang them though they found it not onely for seeking This then I would have all beare away it is the substance of the Text distillatio favi as I may call it dropps of it selfe without eny streining We find heer in the Bible a ruled case Bigthan's case that held up his hand not for laying his hand but for seeking to lay it Planè suspensus est uterque put to death they were both Why Quaesiverunt for nothing but that they sought to do it they did it not they might plead Non est factum they did it not It would not serve they died for it for all that upon no other enditement then quia voluerunt Voluimus is enough to attaint eny If that can be proved no pleading not guiltie And this is the Law not of the Persians alone which yet was the Law of a hundred twentie seven Provinces nor ours alone and so may seeme to be the Law of Nations but that which strikes it home by vertue of this enrolement heer is the Law of GOD GOD by thus recording it hath made it His owne that if there were no Law for it they might be executed by this booke and this verse of it Sitt still then and seâ—kâ— it not for if you doe this is your doome expresly set downe heere by the pen of the Holy Ghost Take it as a sentence from GOD 's owne mouth Qui quaesiverunt suspensi qui quaerent suspendendi sunt They that sought went they that shall sâ—â—ke to go the same way 2. The Parties by whom Yet for all this sought it was then and since even the King's life Sed vae per quos And that per quos by whom is the next point The crime is bad 1 In Regem makes it worse But the seekers worst of all for they of all other should not have sought it Two they were in number For I know not how but for the most part they go by two's Two in number Gen 34.25 2. Sam. 4.5 2. King 12.21 Simeon and Levi to the murder of Sichem Baana and Rechab to that of King Ishbosheth Iozebed and Iosacar to that of King Ioas Bigthan and Tharez to this attempt heere against Assuerus and the very same number to that of this day Treason is in Hebrew called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a binding together Two there must be to be bound at least Two to conspire or put their breaths together to make a conspiracie Vpon the point there is in all never lesse then three For inter duos proditores Diabolus est tertius All that doe conjure conjure up a third to them The Divell makes them up three for he is one still he the faggot-band that binds them he the spirit that inspires all Conspirators For indeed these unnaturall treasons do not so much steeme or vapor up out of our nature bad though it be as they be immissiones pâ—r angelos malos sâ—nt into it by some messenger of Satan or rather by Satan himselfe Postquam misit Satanas in cor Iudae After Satan had putt it in his heart For he it is that putts in their hearts Luk. 22.3 to seeke to doe it and to doe it if GOD breake not the band choke not the breath of them as heere he did choke it in these with suspensi sunt Two in number what were they Nobly borne I doubt not to be in the place they were What place There be that thinke Bigthan and Tharez were not their proper names but the names of the roomes they held And they have reason for it Bigthan as the word goes in that tongue is Dapifer Tharez is Pincerna Those we know were rowmes
Nay then a worse matter now ye shall see them grow godly on a sodeine and wax very zealous as the fashion is Nay then now we shall have a Queene of a contrarie Religion we shall now be all Iewes One that cares neither for Mithra nor Oromasdes One by all likely-hood brought in to be the utter ruine of the Ancient Religion established in Persia yer she came there This was it they tell us and like enough so to be As ever ye shall observe marriage-matters are made occasions oft to serve to many purposes For Assuerus may not marrie but where Bigthan and Tharez appoint Els they will be wroth and fall on seeking If eny be in the Text this was it And was not this trow you a goodly occasion and a substantiall to make them quit their allegiance forget their oath cast behind them all his favours betray their trust truth and all lose all these For all these must they lose before they could seeke that they sought But why found they it not It was not so easy for them to find at first by reason that for eny to come there in the King's presence with a weapon nay but having his hands out to be seene not having them hidd held close under their garments it was death Cyrus put to death two of his kin for it That so they might well seeke and so I leave them seeking that I pray to GOD they may never finde But the true cause was GOD was angrie with this anger of theirs that their seeking succeeded not II. His deliverie And now are we come to the Catastrophe or turning about of all For by this time innotuit res Mardochaeo Mardochai came to the knowledge of it forth it came Nay if it come forth 1. The meanes of it By notice given 2 By Marâ—ochai the King shall do well enough To discover the treason is to deliver the King This was by Mardochai what was he No Persian to begin with but a stranger by birth and by Religion and a captive besides One that had better reason to have sought it then they He had as great causes as any are by them alledged that favour such seekings For this King held him and all GOD 's people with him to use Esther's owne termes in bitter captivitie as a Tyrant And this worse he was at least as evill as an haeretick for he was an Idolater One would thinke it had been a worke meeter for him this He to seeke and they to keepe him from finding that he sought they him not he them And how came he to it It skills not how but as he sate in the gate 3 As he sate in in the gate he came to it This is all he stirrd not but sat still And sate not in any lurking corner bâ—t even in the broad gate and there came he to it or it to him This was GOD'S bâ—ing sure Their anger boyled so signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and boyled over it should seeme â—nd brake out into some words Els how should Mardochai take notice of it They would never tâ—ust him with it ye may be sure being a stranger A Iew with their displeasure at the match with a Iew never but some bigg words came from Bigthâ—n that by Mardochai were overheard What in the gate in presence of a stranger The Targum the most auncient exposition we have saith GOD so tooke away their witts as they forbore not to take of it he sitting by but did it in a forrein strange language Knew him a Iew thought he could speake no language but his own or a little broken Persian perhapps not the tongue they had their conference in Which it fell out Mardochai understood as well as they And thus all came out GOD would so have it who so assorted them to make a way as to His mercie for the safeguard of the King so to His iustice to bring that upon their owne heads they sought to have brought upon the King 's And Mardochai when he had it once he kept it not Made it knowne not to him he next mett with but discreetly where he knew he well might to the Queen She was by bloud and bringing up faithfull to him and so did she shew her selfe for what he brake with her she told the King not in her owne but in Mardochaie's name The fashion is otherwise with some to tell it in their owne names and never speake a word of Mardochai from whom in truth it came Well the issue was what she told the King seemed to him no idle phansie of some vaine man but such as was meet to ground an enquiry upon So they were apprehended and committed and so to the Law we leave them Well by this meanes the danger is over and the King safe thankes be to GOD. And many wayes doth GOD give iust cause to mankind to admire His high providence in bringing to light such attempts as this against his Annointed such varietie so diverse strange meanes He hath to effect it by as heer in this I note foure unto you 2. The strangeness oâ— the meaâ—â—s 1. The partie first Mardochai that by him That this health should come to the King of Persia neither by Mede nor Persian not by any of his own people but by a stranger who was none of his lieges borne out of his allegiance a Iew a meer alien that this should come forth by him and by no other meanes But so is GOD wonderfull in His waies and will by an honest stranger sometimes save that a badd subject would destroy That in default of his owne GOD would have him saved by a stranger rather then not at all 2. Observe againe that to this stranger it came no otherwise but as he satt in the gate We may not passe that it stands in the front of the Text as the speciall means of all That it thus came and no other way as he satt still still and went not up and downe searching In the gate a publique place not eny privie corner or lobby he not diving into their bosomes but onely there sitting it should thus happen he should over-heare them talking togither in a strange tongue though to him not strange by a meer casualty one would thinke all this Indeed by a high and wonderfull disposition of GOD'S heavenly providence this that even as he there sate it should be brought to him thus And very oft doth GOD bewray bad enterprises by such one would thinke them meere casuall events But in maximè fortuitis there is minimum fortuiti quae fortuna fieri videntur fato fiunt It seemes chance that is indeed destinie And never let them looke for other all the Bigthans of them One shal be by a wall or at a window under the house eaves neer one cranny or other GOD will so dispose somebody shall be with in the hearing when they full little thinke For GOD will have it out certeinly Rather then
indeed Psal 38.4 that would be looked into by us by reason of another Super Iniquitates nostrae supergressae sunt capita nostra Our sinnes are gone up over above our heads Over head and eares in sinne And another Super yet above them Even the phials of God's wrath hanging over our heads Apoc. 16.1 readie to be powred on us and them were it not that mercie is above them and staies them Were it not that Over whom miserie over them mercie Els were we in danger to be overwhelmed with them every houre We see then the comparison was well laid in Super. Our sinnes over us judgements over them but mercie over all Super omnia Alwaies where there is Super there is Satis Satis superque shewes Super is more then Satis Enough then there is and to spare for them all â— Above the workes of all His workes One more not onely above all ours but if it be above all His works then is it above all the workes of them that be His workes and so not to hold you above the Devill and all his workes For he also is one of them Of GOD'S making as an Angell of his owne marring as a devill Above his works I say and above the works and practises of his limmes and all they can doe or devise against them over whom His mercie is The Sonne of GOD saith S. Iohn in mercie therefore appeared 1. Ioh. 38. Vt solveret opera Diaboli that He might loose â—ndoe quite dissolve the works of the Devill No worke shall he contrive never so deepe under ground never so neere the borders of his own region but GOD 's mercie will bring it to light it and the workers of it His mercie will have a Sâ—per for their Subâ—er There shall be more in Mercie to save then in Sathan to destroy Psal 124 1. More dicat nunc Israël more may this Realme now say A notorious Work of His as ever eny Nay Super omnia as never was eny this day by His mercie brought to light and dissolved quite dissolved We heard it not with our eares our fathers told it 〈◊〉 not our eyes beheld this Super. Psal. 44.1 So we are come to our owne case â—er we were aware That is Super upon 3. Super upon 1 Vpon some more then others of his workes Over all 〈◊〉 yet not over all alike at leastwise not upon all alike upon some more then over 〈◊〉 some Aequaliter est Illi cura de omnibus but not aequalis Aequally a care â—f â—ll but not an aequall care though No His mercie over all in generall is no barre 〈◊〉 upon some there may be a speciall Super and so some have a Super in this Super too For if the reason why mercie is over all His workes be because they be His workes â—hen the more they be His workes the more workmanship He bestowes upon them the more is His mercie over them Whereby it falls out that as there is an unaequalitie of His workes and one worke above another so is there a diverse graduation of his mercie â—nd one mercie above another or rather one and the same mercie as the same Planet in Auge in the top of his Epicycle higher then it selfe at other times To shew this 2 Vpon Man more then other creatures Gen. 1.26 we divide His works as we have warrant into His works of Fiat as the rest of His creatures and the Worke of Faciamus as Man the master-piece of His workes upon whom He did more cost shewed more workmanship then on the rest the very word Faciamus setts him above all 1. GOD 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that He did deliberate enter into consultation as it were about his making and about none els 2. GOD 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Himselfe framed his bodie of the mold Gen. 2.7 as the potter the clay 3. Then that He breathed into him a two-lived soule which made the Psalmist Breake out Domine quid est homo c. Lord what is man Psal. 8.4 thou shouldst so regard him as to passe by the heavens and all the glorious bodies there and passing by them breath an immortall soule put thine owne image upon a piece of clay 4. But last GOD 's setting him Super omnia opera manuum suarum Over all the workes â—f His hands His making him as I may say Count Palatine of the world this shewes plainely His setting by Man more then all of them As he then over them so GOD 's mercie over him Over all His workes but of all His workes over this work Psal. 8.6 Over His chiefe worke chiefly in a higher degree And not without great cause Man is capable of aeternall either felicitie or miserie so are not the rest He sinnes so do not they So his case requires a Super in this Super requires mercy more then all theirs Vpon men then chiefly They the first Super in this Super. But of men though it be true in generall He hath shut up all under sinne that He might have mercie upon all Rom. 11.32 yet even among them a Super too a second Another workmanship He hath yet His workmanship in CHRIST IESV the Apostle calls it Ephes. 2.10 His new creature Gal. 6.15 which His mercie is more directly upon then upon the rest of mankind Servator omnium hominum the Saviour of all men saith the Apostle marie 1. Tim. 4.10 Auâ—em most of all of the faithfull Christian men Of all men above all men upon them They are His Worke wrought on both sides Creation on one side Redemption on the other For now we are at the worke of Redemption And heere now is Mercie right in kind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rahame rahama the mercie of the bird of mercie that is the Pelecan's mercie for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Pelecan which hath her name of mercie as the truly mercifull bird For heer now is not the womb to hatch â—hem nor the wings to clocke them but the Pelecan's bill of mercie striking it selfe to the heart drawing blood thence even the very heart-blood to revive her young ones when they were dead in sinne and to make them live anew the life of grace This is Misericordia super omnes misericordias Shall I say it I may truly Mercie in all els abâ—vâ— His workes but in this above Himselfe For when it brought Him down from Heaven to Earth to such a birth in the manger such a life in contradiction of sinners Luk. 2.12 Heb. 1â— 3 Phil. 2.8 such a death on the Crosse it might truely be said then Misericordia etiam triumphat de 〈◊〉 You shall marke therefore at the verie next words when he comes to his thanks â—is Confitcantur Tibi opera Deus but Sancti tui benedicant Tibi Thy workes let them â—ay Confiteor Thy redeemed Thy Saints let them sing Benedictus Thy workes Verse 10. let them
serveth for a stirrup to mount us aloft in our own conceipts For where each of the former hath as it were his owne circuite as Wisdome ruleth in Counsaile Manhood in the Field Law in the Iudgement seat Divinitie in the Pulpitt Learning in the Schooles and Eloquence in Perswasion onely Riches ruleth without limitation Riches ruleth with them all ruleth them all and over-ruleth them all his Circuit is the whole world For which cause some think when he saith Charge the rich he presently addeth of this world because this world standeth altogether at the devotion of Riches and he may do what he wil in this world that is rich in this world So said the Wiseman long agoe Pecuniae obediunt omnia all things answer Money Money mastereth all things they all answer at his call Eccles 10.19 and they all obey at his commandement Let us go lightly over them al you shall see that they all els have their severall predicaments to bound them and that Riches is onely the transcendent of this world Wisdome ruleth in Counsaile so do Riches for we see Ezra 4.5 in the Court of the great King Artaxerxes there were Counsailors whose wisdome was to be commanded by riches even to hinder a publique benefit the building of the Temple Manhood ruleth in the warre so do riches Experience teacheth us it is so It is said it was they that wan Deventer and that it was they and none but they that drave the Switzers out of France and that without stroke strooken Law governeth in the Seat of Iustice so do Riches and oftentimes they turne justice it selfe into wormewood by a corrupt Sentence but more often doth it turne Iustice into vineger by long standing and infinite delayes yer Sentence will come forth Divinitie ruleth in the Church and Pulpit so do Riches For with a sett of silver peeces saith Augustine they brought Concionatorem mundi the Preacher of the world IESVS CHRIST to the Barre and the Disciple is not above his Master Learning ruleth in the Schooles so do Riches And indeed there Money setteth us all to schoole For to say the truth Riches have so ordered the matter there as Learning is now but the Vsher Money he is the Master the Chaire it self and the disposing of the Chaire is his too Eloquence ruleth in perswasion and so do Riches when Tertullus had laboured a goodly flowing oration against Paul Foelix looked that another Acts 24.27 a greater Orator should have spoken for him namely that Something should have been given him and if that Orator had spoken his short pithy sentence Tantum dabo Tertullus his oration had been cleane dasht Tantum dabo is a strange peece of Rhetorique Devise as cunningly pen as curiously as you can it overthrowes all Tantùm valent quatuor syllabae sâ—ch force is there in foure syllables Though indeed some think it being so unreasonable short as it is but two words that it cannot be the Rhetorique of it that worketh these strange effects but that there is some sorcerie or witchcraft in them in Tantum 〈◊〉 And surely a great Sorcerer Simon Magus used them to Peter and it may well be so for all estates are shrewdly bewitched by them I must end Acts 8 1â— for it is a world to thinke and tell what the â—iâ—h of the world may do in the world So then â—iâ—hes seeing they may do so much it is no marvell though they be much sort by Et divites cum habeant quae magni fiunt ab omnibus quid mirum si ab omnibus ipsi magnifiant cum magnifiant ab omnibus quid mirum si à se Rich men having that which is much sett by no marvell though of all men they be much sett by and if all other men sett much by them no marvell if they sett much by themselves and to sett much by a mans selfe that is to be high-minded It is our owne Proverb in our owne tongue Arriseth our good so riseth our blood And Saint Augustine saith that Each fruit by kind hath his worme breeding in it as the Peare his the Nutt his and the Beane hiâ— So Riches have their worme Et vermis divitiarum Superbia and the worme of riches is Pride Wherof we see a plaine proofe in Saul Who while he was in a poore estate that his boy he could not make five pence between them was as the Scripture saith 1. Sam 9.21 low in his owne eyes after when the wealth and pleasant things of Israël were his he grew so sterne as he forgatt himselfe his friends and GOD too and at every word that liked him not was ready to runne David Ionathan and every one through with his javeline It is very certaine where riches are there is great danger of pride I desire you to thinke there is so and not to putt me to justifie GOD'S wisedome heerein in perswading and proving that this charge is needfull for you that be rich Psal. 62.10 that it was needfull for the Prophet to preach under the Law If riches encrease sett not your heart on the top of them Let not that rise as they rise Nor for the other Prophet Pro. 30.9 Give me not riches lest I wax proud Nor for the Apostle Paul under the Gospell to say Charge them that be rich in this world that they be not high-minded I beseech you Honour GOD and ease me so much as to thinke there was high cause it should be in charge and that if a more principall sinne had been reigning in the rich this sinne should not have had the principall place as it hath How then what are you hable to charge any heere will some say It is not the manner of our Court nor of any Court that I know To us it belongeth onely to deliver the Charge and to exhort that if none be proud none would be and if any be they would be lesse and if any be not humble they would be and if any be humble they would be more You that are the Court your part is to enquire and to present and to endite and that every one in his owne conscience as in the presence of GOD unto Him to approve your innocencie or of Him to sue for your pardon You find none you will say I would to GOD you might not When a Iudge at an Assize giveth his charge concerning treason and such like offenses I dare say he would with all his heart that his charge might be in vaine rather then any Traitor or Offendor should be found A Physitian when he hath tempered and prepared his potion if there be in him the heart of a true Physitian desireth I know that the potion might be cast downe the kennell so that the patient might recover without it So truly it is the desire of my heart CHRIST he knoweth that this charge may not find one man guilty amongst all these hearers amongst so many men not one
the ends of the earth not to know what is His Name or what is his Sonne 's Name That his Name is Iehova And His Sonne 's Name Iehova Iustitia nostra This were we bound to get notice of if it were but civilitie or as Salomon reckoneth it even humanitie But that is not all For seeing as the heathen man confesseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we all either have or may have need of GOD in our necessities of this life but specially in our last need of very necessitie it will stand us in hand to know how to call unto Him There is no Client but will be sure to learne his Advocate 's name nor no patient but will tell his Physition's Nor in a word eny of them of whom we are to have any speciall use but we wil be carefull as to learne his true name that we misse not in it so if he have diverse names and love to be called by any one rather then other to be sure to be perfect in it and ready to salute him by it And such is this Name heere and we therefore not to be to seeke in it seeing not onely Courtesie but very necessitie commendeth it to us Which Name as you see is compounded of three words 1 Iehova 2 Iustitia 3 Nostra all of them necessarie all of them essentiall And they all three concurring as it were three twists Eccles 4.12 they make a threefold chord like that which the Preacher mentioneth that cannot be broken But except it be entire and have all three it loseth the vertue it worketh nothing For sever any one of them from the rest and the other are not of moment A sound but not a name or a name but not Hoc Nomen this Name a Name qualified to save them that call on it Take Iehova from Iustitia nostra and Iustitia nostra is nothing worth And take Iustitia from Iehova and though there be worth in Iehova yet there is not that which we seeke for Yea take nostra from the other two and how excellent soever they be they concerne us not but are against us rather then for us So that togither we must take them or the Name is lost To see this the better it will not be amisse to take it in sunder 1. The â—arts of the Name and to see the ground of every part in order Why 1 Iehova â— Why Iustitia â— Why Iehova Iustitia 4 VVhy Iustitia nostra 5 Both nostra and Iustitia 1. Iehova Touching which word 1. Iehova and the ground why it must be a part of this Name the Prophet David resolveth us Psal â—1 16 Memorabor saith he Iustitiae Tuae solius Because His righteousnesse and onely his righteousnesse is worth the remembring any others beside his is not meet to be mentioned For as for our owne righteousnesse which we have without him Esai telleth us it is but a defiled cloth and Saint Paul â—hat it is but dung Two very homely comparisons but they be the Holy Ghost's owne yet nothing so homely as in the originall where they be so odious as what manner of defiled cloth or what kinde of dung we have not dared to translate Our owne then being no better we are driven to seeke for it elsewhere He shall receive His righteousnesse saith the Prophet Esay 64.6 Phil. 3 8. Pâ—al 24.5 Rom. 5.17 and the gift of righteousnesse saith the Apostle It is then another to be given us and to be received by us which we must seeke for And whither shall we goe for it Iob alone dispatcheth this point Iob 15.15.4.18.25.5 Not to the heavens or starres For they are uncleane in His sight Not to the Saints For in them He found folly Nor to the Angels For neither in them found He eny stedfastnesse Now if none of these will serve we see a necessarie reason why Iehova must be a part of this Name And this is the reason why Ieremie heere expressing more fully the Name given Him before in Esai Immanuel GOD with us instead of the name of GOD in that Name which is El setteth downe by way of explanation this Name heere of Iehova Because that El and the other Names of GOD are communicated to Creatures As the Name of El to Angels for their Names end in it Michael Gabriel c. And the Name of Iah to Saints and their names end in it as Esaiah Ieremiah Zachariah To certifie us therefore that it is neither the righteousnesse of Saints nor Angels that will serve the turne but the righteousnesse of GOD and very GOD he useth that Name which is proper to GOD alone ever reserved to him onely and never imparted by eny occasion to Angel or Saint or eny creature in heaven or earth Iustitia Righteousnesse Why that If we aske in regard of the other benefits which are before remembred Salvation and Peace Why Righteousnesse and not Salvation nor Peace â— Iustitia it is evident Because as in the verse next before the Prophet termeth it Righteousnesse is the Braunch and these two Salvation and Peace are the fruicts growing on it Esai 45.8 So that if this be had both the other are had with it Of Righteousnesse and Salvation Esai saith they growe both togither as it were out of one stalke Esai 32.17 And of Peace that Opus Iustitiae Pax the very worke or proper effect of Righteousnesse is Peace For which cause the Apostle interpreting the name of Melchisedek King of Salem first saith he King of Righteousnesse Heb. 7.2 and after King of Peace Even as on the contrarie parte sinne which is nothing els but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iniquitie or unrighteousnesse 1. Ioh. 3.4 as saith Saint Iohn is that roote of bitternesse from whence shooteth forth both perdition of the soule contrarie to Salvation and unquietnesse of the conscience opposite to Peace And both they and all other miseries are as IOB termeth them sparkes of this brand of hell Iob. 5.8 as health and peace and all blessings are the fruicts of this braunch of righteousnesse Psal. 60.11 Now because there is vana salus a vaine salvation as saith David Ierem. 6.14 and a peace falsly so called A peace which is no peace as saith Ieremie To the end therefore that our salvation might be substantiall and our peace uncounterfeit it behooved us to lay a sure ground-worke of them both and to set a true roote of this braunch which is the Name Iehova For such as the roote of this braunch is such will Salvation and Peace the fruicts thereof be If it be man's righteousnesse which is vaine it will be also vana salus hominis vaine and soone at an end and the peace like the world's peace vaine and of no certaintie But if Iehova be our righteousnesse looke how He is so will they be an everlasting salvation a peace which passeth all understanding â— Iehova Iustitia Iehova
a pardon or m Gal. 4.4 being justified from those things which by the Lawe we could not All these wherein for the most part this is still expressed What speake they but that the sense of this Name cannot be rightly understood nor what manner of righteousnesse is in question except we still have before our eyes This same Coram Rege justo judicium faciente 2. And againe by way of opposition For usually where iustifying is named there condemning which is a term meerly judiciall is set against it In the Law n Deut. 25.1 When there shal be strife the matter shall come before â—hee and sentence to be given see the righteous be iustified and the sinner condemned o Psal. 17.15 To iustifie the wicked and condemne the innocent both are alike abhominable before GOD. p 1. Reg. 8.22 If man cannot iudge heare thou from heaven condemne the wicked and iustifie the righteous In the Gospell q Mat 12.37 By thy words shalt thou be iustified and by thy words condemned r Rom. 8.34 It is GOD that iustifieth who shall condemne s Rom. 5.16 Grace to iustification as sinne to condemnation All these shew manifestly we must imagine our selves standing at the Barre or wee shall never take the state of this question aright nor truely understand the mysterie of this Name For it is not in question whither wee have an inhaerent righteousnesse or no Or whither GOD will accept it or reward it but whither that must be our righteousnesse Coram REGE iusto iudicium faciente Which is a point very materiall and in no wise to be foâ—gotten For without this if we compare ourselves wiâ—h our sâ—lves what heertofore we have beene or if we compare our selvâ—s with others as did the Pharisee we may take a phansie perhapps and have some good conceipt of our inhaerent righteousnesse Yea if we be to deale in Schooles by argument or disputation we may peradventure argue for it and make some shew in the matter But let us once be brought and arraigned Coram Rege iusto sedente in Solio let us set our selves there we shall then see that all our former conceipt will vanish streight and Righteousnesse in that sense will not abide the triall Bring them hither then and aske them heere of this Name and never a Saint nor Father no nor the Schoolemen themselves none of them but will shew you how to understand it aright In their Commentaries it may be in their questions and debates they will hold hard for the other But remove it hither they forsake it presently and take the Name in the right sense t â—ob 1.18 Hast thou considered my servant IOB saith GOD to Satan how just perfect he is This just and perfect IOB standing heere u Iâ—b 9.15.10.15 Though I be iust saith he I wil not hold up my head or as they say Stare rectus in Curiâ will never plead it or stand upon it but putt up a Supplication to be releeved by IEHOVA iustitia nostra David hath the witnesse to have been w 1. Sam. 13.14 a man according to GOD 's owne heart For all that he dareth not stand heere But desireth GOD would not enter into judgement with him For that x Psal. 143.2 In conspectu tuo in His sight not he nor any other living which S. Bernard extendeth to the Angells shall be justified But if he must come as thither we must come all then y Psal. 70.16 Memorabor justitiae tuae solius he will never chaunt his owne righteousnesse but make mention only of this Name IEHOVAH justitia nostra DANIEL z Dan. 9.4 Vir desideriorum as the Angell termed him even he that man so greatly beloved after he saw the a Dan. 7.9 Ancient of dayes sett downe in his Throne and the bookes open before him then b Dan. 9.7 Tibi Domine justitia nobis autem confusio faciei c 9.18 Non in justificationibus nostris Not in our righteousnesse yet was that righteousnesse à Iehovâ but heer it would not serve he must waite for the MESSIAS and the d Dan. 9.24 everlasting righteousnesse which he bringeth with him And e Esai 6.1 Esay likewise at the vision of the LORD sedentis super thronum and the Angells covering their faces before him crieth out f Esai 6.5 Vae mihi Wo is me I am a man of polluted lippes Woe is me for I have held my peace and there he seeth the very sinnes of his lipps and the very sinnes of omission will be enough to condemne him though he had never in act committed any To end this point S. Paul a Vessell of Election So g Act. 9.15 GOD himself doth name him saith plainly if it were before the Corinthians or any Assize of man he would stand upon his righteousnesse But seeing h 1. Cor. 4.4 Qui me judicat est Dominus he will give it over and confesse that though Nihil mihi conscius sum and so had justitia à Domino yet for all that in hoc non sum justificatus it is another righteousnesse and not that must acquite him Thus do the Saints both of the Old and of the New Testament take this Name And do not the Fathers the like Saint Augustine's report it is of S. Ambrose that being now at the point of death he alleadged that the Cause why he feared not death was Quia bonum habemus Dominum and doth he not give this note upon it that he did not presume De suis purgatissimis moribus of his conversation though most holy and cleane but only stood on the goodnesse of the LORD the LORD our Righteousnesse And doth he not in his owne case flye to the same against Cresconius the Donatist That he shunned not to have his life sifted to the uttermost by any Donatist of them all Yet in the eyes of GOD Cum Rex iustus sederit in Solio these very words he alledgeth he saith plainly he dare not justifie himselfe but rather waited for the overflowing bounty of his grace then would abide the severe examination of his judgement And Bernard in his CCCX Epistle the very last he wrote a little before his death to the Abbot of Chartres concludeth he not Calcaneum vacuum meritis curate munire precibus Abandoneth he not then his justitia à Domino and confesseth his heele meaning the end of his life is bare of all merits and desireth to have it by prayers commended to Iehova iustitia nostra Thus doe the Fathers conceive of it Yea the very Schoolemen themselves take them from their Questions Quodlibetts and Comments on the Sentences let them be in their soliloquies meditations or devotions Anselm interrogat Bonaventura in Breviâ—oquio Gers. in Agone and specially in directing how to deale with men in their last agony quando Iudex prae foribus est then take Anselme take Bona venture take
Plague heere as appeareth by the XXVIII Verse 1 Fornication the Verse next before came for the sinne of Peor that is for fornication as you may read And not every Fornication but fornication past shame as was that Zamri there with a daughter of Moab Num. 25.1 And indeed if we marke it well it fitts well For that kinde of sinne fornication doth end in Vlcers and sores and those as infectious as the Plague it selfe A proper punishment such sore for such evill Secondly 2 Pride David's plague of seventy thousand which we mention in our Prayer that came for Pride plainly 1. Chro. 21.14 His heart was lifted up to number the People And that seemes somewhat kindly too and to agree with this disease That pride which swells it selfe should end in a tumor or swelling as for the most part this disease doth Thirdly 3 Baptisme Esai 37.36 Zenacherib's plague it is plaine came from Rabshakeh's blasphemie Blasphemie hable to infect the aire it was so foule In which regard Aaron's act might be justified in putting odours into his Censer Numb 16· 46. to purifie the Aire from such corruption And last the Apostle setts downe the Cause of the plague at Corinth 4 Neglect of the Sacrament 1. Cor. 11.30 For this Cause saith he that is for neglect of the Sacrament Either in not caring to come to it or in comming to it we care not how For this cause is there a mortalitie among you and many are sicke and many are weake and many are fallen asleepe And this is no new thing Exo. 4.24 Moses himselfe his neglect of the Sacrament made him be striken of GOD that it was like to have cost him his life And he saith plainly to Pharao If they neglected their sacrifice GOD would fall upon them with the Pestilence Exo. 5 3. which appeaâ—eth by this that the Sacrament of the passeover and the bloud of it was the meanes to save them from the plague of the destroying Angel in Egypt A little now of the Phrase The phrase for sinne Theiâ— inventions that their sinnes are heere called by the name of their inventions And so sure the yare as no waies taught us by GOD but of our owne imagining or finding out For indeed our inventions are the cause of all sins And if we look wel into it we shal find our inventions are so By GOD'S injunction we should all live his injunction is In matters of Râ—ligion Deut. 12.8 You shall not do every man what seems good in his own eyes or finds out in his own braines but whatsoever I commaund you that only shall you do But we setting light by that charge of his out of the old disease of our Father Adam Eritis sicut Dij scientes bonum malum thinke it a goodly matter to be wittie and to find out things our selves to make to our selves to be Authors and inventoâ—s of somewhat that so we may seem to be as wise as GOD if not wisâ—r and to know what is for our turnes as well as he if not better It was Saul's fault GOD bad destroy Amalâ—k all and he would invent a better way to save some forsooth for sacrifice which GOD could not thinke oâ— And it was Saint Peter's fault when he perswaded CHRIST from His passion 〈…〉 and found out a better way as he thought then Christ could devise This is the proud invention which will not be kept in but makes men even not to forbeare in things perteining to God's worship but there to be still devising new tricks opinions and fashions fresh and newly taken up which their Fathers never knew of And this is that which makes men 〈…〉 17. that have itching eares to heape to themselves Teachers according to their owne lusts 〈…〉 3. which may fill their heads full with new inventions 〈…〉 And this is that that even out of Religion in the common life spoiles all The wanton invention in finding out new meats in diet in inventing new fashions in apparel which men so dote on as the Psalme saith at the 39 th Verse as they even goe a whoring with them with their owne inventions and care not what they spend on them And know no end of them but as fast as they are weary of one a new invention is found out which whatsoever it cost how much soever it take from our Almes or good deeds must be had till all come to nought That the Psalmist hath chosen a very fit word that for our inventions the plague breakes in among us for them as for the primarie or first moving cause of all Indeed for them as much and more then for any thing els We see them 1 First that a Cause there is 2 That that cause is not only naturall but that God Himselfe hath a hand in it 3 God as being provoked to anger 4 To anger for our sinnes in generall and for what sinns in speciall For our sinns proceeding from nothing but our inventions Which cause if it continue and yet we turne not to the Lord as Amos the 4. then will not his anger be turned away but his hand wil be stretched out still as Esai the 9. And no way to avoyd the one but by appeasing the other 〈…〉 Cure For the cure now One contrarie is ever cured by another If then it be anger which is the cause in God anger would be appeased If it be Inventions which is the cause in us of the anger of God they would be punished and removed That so the Cause being taken away the effect may cease Take away our inventions Gods anger will cease Take away God's anger the plague will cease Two Readings we said ther were 1 Phinees prayed or 2 Phinees executed judgement Palal the Hebrew word will beare both And both are good And so we will take them both in 〈…〉 Prayer is good against the plague as appeareth Not onely in this plague in the Text 〈…〉 25.6 〈◊〉 24.17 wherein all the Congregation â— were weeping and praying before the dore of the Tabernacle But in King b David's plague also where we see what his prayer was and the very words of it And in c Esai 38.3 Ezekia's plague who turned his face to the wall and prayâ—d unto GOD and his prayer is set downe GOD heard his prayer and healed him And for a generall rule d 1. King 8.37.38.39 If there be in the Land any pestilent disease Whatsoever plague whatsoever sicknesse it be the prayer and supplication in the Temple made by the people every man knowing the plague of his own heart God in heaven will heare it and remove his hand from afflicting them any further And it standeth with good reason For as the Aire is infected with noisome sents or smellâ— so the infection is removed by sweet odours or incense which Aaron did in the Plague put sweet odours in his Censer
Cor. 9 27. 1. Cor. 11.3 chasten his own body and so judge himself that he may not be judged of the Lord. For every one for his part is a cause of the judgements of God sent down and so may be and is to be a cause of the removing them Somewhile the King as David by the pride of his heart Otherwhile the people by their murmuring against Moses and Aaron So that King and people both must judge themselves every private offender himselfe Zamri if he had judged himselfe Phinees should not have judged him The incestuous Corinthian 1. Chr. 21.1.8 if he had judged himselfe S. Paul had not judged him For either by our selves Num. 16.3 or by the Magistrate or if by neither of both by GOD himselfe For one way or other sinne must be judged Zamri by his repentance Phinees by his Prayer or doing justice or GOD by the plague sent among them Now then these two 1 Phinees stood up prayed 2 and Phinees stood up executed judgement if they might be coupled togither I durst undertake the conclusion would be and the plague ceased But either of them wanting I dare promise nothing To conclude then 1. The plague comes not by chance but hath a Cause 2. That Cause is not altogither naturall and perteines to Physique but hath something supernaturall in it and perteines to Divinitie 3. That supernaturall Cause is the wrath of God 4. Which yet is not the first cause For the wrath of God would not rise but that he is provoked by our sinnes and the certaine sinnes that provoke it have been set down 5. And the cause of them our owne inventions So our inventions begett sinne sinne provokes the Wrath of God the Wrath of God sends the Plague among us To stay the plague God's Wrath must be stayed To stay it there must be a ceasing from sinne That sinn may cease we must be out of love with our own inventions and not goe a whoring after them Prayer that asswageth anger To execute justice that abateth sinne To execute justice either publikely as doth the Magistrate or privately as every man doth or may doe upon himselfe which joyned with prayer and prayer with it will soone ridd us of that we complaine and otherwise his anger will not be turned away but his hand stretched out still A SERMON PREACHED at the FVNERAL of the Right Hono ble and Reverend Father in GOD LANCELOT late LORD BJSHOP of VVINCHESTER In the Parish Church of S t. SAVIORS in SOVTH-VVARKE On Saturday being the XI of November A.D. MDCXXVI By the Right Reverend Father in GOD IOHN then L. Bishop of Rochester now L. Bishop of ELY ANCHORA SPEI LONDON Printed by G. Miller for Richard Badger MDCXXIX A SERMON Preached at the FVNERALL of the R. R. Father in GOD LANCELOT late Lord Bishop of WINCHESTER HEB. CHAP. XIII VER XVI To doe good and to distribute forget not for with such sacrifices GOD is well pleased IN the tenth Verse the Apostle saith We have an Altar of which they have no right to eate that serve the Tabernacle Habemus Altare We have that is Christians So it is proprium Christianorum proper to Christians not common to the Iewes together with Christians they have no right to communicate and eate there that serve the Tabernacle And yet it is commune Altare a common Altar to all Christians they have all right to eate there And so it is externum Altare not onely a spirituall Altar in the heart of every Christian then Saint Paul should have said habeo or habet unusquisque I have and every Christian hath in private to himselfe but We have an Altar that is all Christians have and it must be Externall els all Christians cannot have it Our Head CHRIST offered his Sacrifice of himselfe upon the Crosse Crux Altare CHRISTI and the Crosse of CHRIST was the Altar of our Head where he offered the unicum verum proprium Sacrificium the onely true proper sacrifice propitiatorie for the sinnes of mankind in which all other sacrifices are accepted and applicatorie of this propitiation 1. The Onely Sacrifice one in it selfe and once onely offered that purchased aeternall redemption and if the redemption be aeternall what need is there that it should be offered more then once when once is all sufficient 2. And the True Sacrifice All other are but Types and Representations of this sacrifice this onely hath power to appease GOD 's wrath and make all other Sacricers and sacrifices acceptable 3. And the Proper Sacrifice As the Psalme saith Corpus aptasti mihi thou hast fitâ—â—â—â— me with a Bodie the Deitie assume the Humanitie that it might accipere à nobis qâ—od â—fferret pro nobis being the Deitie could not offer not be offered to it selfe he tooke flesh of ours that he might offer for us Now as CHRIST 's Crosse was his Altar where he offered himselfe for us so the Church hath an Altar also where it offereth it selfe not CHRISTVM in capite but CHRISTVM in membris not CHRIST the Head properly but onely by commemoration but CHRIST the Members For CHRIST cannot be offered truly and properly no more but once upon the Crosse For he cannot be offered againe no more then â—e can be dead againe And dying and shedding bloud as he did upon the Crosse â—nd not dying and not shedding bloud as in the Eucharist cannot be one Action of CHRIST offered on the Crosse and of CHRIST offered in the Church at the Altar by the Priest by Representation onely no more then CHRIST anâ— the Priâ—st are one person and therefore though in the Crosse and the Eucharist tâ—ere be Idem sacrificatum the same sacrificed thing that is the Body and Bloud of CHRIST offered by CHRIST to his Father on the Crose and received and participated by the Communicants in the Sacrifice of the Altar yet Idem sacrificium quoad actionem sacrificij or sacrificandi it is impossible there should be the same sacrifice understanding by sacrifice the action of sacrifice For then the Action of CHRIST 's sacrifice which is long since past should continue as long as the Eucharist shall endure even unto the world's end and his Consummatum est is not yet finished And dying and not dying shedding of bloud and not shedding of bloud and suffering and not suffering cannot possibly be one Action and the Representation of an Action cannot be the Action it selfe And this conceipt was unknowne to Antiquitie All the Fathers held it a sacrifice onely because it is a Representation or Commemoration of the True sacrifice of CHRIST upon the Crosse even as our Saviour commanded Do this in remembrance of me Contra Faustum lib. 20.21 Saint Augustine saith Hujus Sacrificij caroet sanguis ante adventum Christi per victimas similitudinum promittebatur in passione Christi per ipsam Veritatem reddebatur post ascensum Christi per Sacramentum memoriae celebratur c. And Saint