regard so even of judgement and all as neither vernall nor by berâ—all repentance we bring forth Nay not the everlasting iudgement of the LORD do we regard to which sooner or later we must all come and there receive the sentence under execution whereof we shall lye eternally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostome I embrace both senses Both be good and profitable to men Take whither you will or both if you will you shall not take amisse and if both you shal be sure to take right Regard iudgement when either it awaketh from within or when it threateneth from without And when any of these summons us before the great Iudge know for a certeinty that the time of returning is come the Angell is descended the water is mooved let us have grace to goe in Even then Ioh. 5.3 adaquae motum We know not how long it will be or whither ever it will be stirred againe And thus we be come to an anchor at this last word iudgement A word which if with iudgement we would but pause on and rowle it a while up and downe our thoughts duely weighing it and the force of it it would bring us about and cause this whole scripture to be fulfilled make us fly as fast backe as any foule of them all For indeed the not judiciall apprehending of this one word the shâ—llow conceiving sleight regard of it is the cause we foreslow the time The foreslowing the time the cause we come not to quid feci the not comming to that the cause why we runne on still tanquam equus why we rise not returne not yeeld not but stand out in perpetuall rebellion Did we heare this word heare it and regard it aright and scire terrorem hunc know the terror of it that GOD hath fearefull iudgments in store even heer to meet with us Or howsoever heer we scape He hath there a perpetuall iudgement behind and that so streight as the righteous shall scarce escape it so heavie as the mightiest shall not endure it Did we regard this one Point 1. Pet. 4 1â— we would find a with-drawing time for this so serious a worke we would say and say that GOD should heare it what have I done We would rise returne repent and so His whole complaint should ceasse O Iudgement of the very mention of this word Iudgement if a perfect view were taken of it that only were enough But without iudgement or regard we heare it and therefore the complaint continueth still To conclude we sayd at the beginning GOD therefore sheweth Himselfe in passion that He might moove us and in that passion whereto He would moove us Thus complayneth GOD that we might thus inferr and say And doth GOD thus complaine Iob. 22.3 Why it toucheth not GOD it toucheth me He needeth not our repentance and our vnrighteousnesse hurteth Him not It is I that shall winne or lose by it even the best thing I have to lose my soule He is in no danger it is I the hazard of whose eternall weale or woe lyeth vpon it And yet doth GOD shew Himselfe sorrie for me and shall not I be sorrie for my selfe Doth GOD thus complaine of my sinne and shall not I be moued to do as much for mine owne sinne From this meditation to proceed to propound the same questions which GOD here doth and to aske them of our selves What then shall I continually fall and neuer rise turne away and not once turne againe Shall my rebellions be perpetuall Do I this any where els can I shew any reason why not to do it here Shall these Swallowes flie over me and put me in mind of my returne and shall not I heed them Shall GOD still in vaine hearken for quid feci and shall I never speake that He so faine would heare Shall I never once seriously set before me the Iudgements of the Lord Aske these aske them and answer them and upon them come to a resolution saying I will rise and returne and submit my selfe and from my heart say quid feci I will consider volatilia coeli I will not see them flye but I will thinke of the season of my returning but above all I will not be without regard of GOD's iudgement then which nothing in this world is more to be regarded Because the time the time is the maine matter and ever more adoe about it then the thing it selfe to have speciall care of that knowing that it was not but upon great cause Luk. 19.41 42. that our SAVIOVR complaining of this point cried ô if thou hadst but knowen that this day had beene the day of thy visitation and so was faine to breake of the teares comming so fast that He was notable to speake out but forced to weepe out the rest of his sentence O those teares shew what time is shew that oppoâ—tunitie it selfe is a grace even to have it that it is a second grace to know it and a third better then them both to lay hold of it and vse it That the greatest errours in this matter of repentance come from our ignorance in not discerning of the time when we way have it or our negligence in not vsing it when we discerne it Therefore rather then faile or rather that we may not faile to take the time of the text And that time is at this time now Now do these foules returne Who knoweth whether he shall live to see them returne any more It may be the last spring the last Swallow time the last wednesday of this name or nature we shall ever live to heare this point preached Why do we not covenant then with our selves not to let this time slip Surely lest no time should be taken the Prophet pointeth us at this and ensuing the Prophet's mind the Church hath fixed her season at it And nature it selfe seemeth to favour it that at the rising of the yeare we should rise and returne when the Zodiake returneth to the first signe Let the Prophet let the Church let nature let something prevaile with vs. Et Dominus qui sic instat praecepto praecurrat auxilio and ALMIGHTY GOD the vpholder of them that stand the lifter up of those that be downe that GOD who is thus instant upon this point by His complaint prevent us with His gratious helpe that we may redresse it Following with his Spirit where his word hath gone before and making it effectuall to our speedie conversion A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE KING JAMES AT WHITE-HALL On the X. of February A.D. MDCXIX being ASHWEDNESDAY IOEL CAP. II. VER XII XIII Nunc ergo dicit DOMINVS Convertimini ad Me in toto corde vestro in jejunio in fletu in planctu Et scindite corda vestra non vestimenta vestra convertimini ad DEVM vestrum Therefore also now saith the LORD Turne you unto Me with all your heart and with Fasting and with Weeping and with Mourning And rend
gold and of the Worldly men thus Silver and Gold are their Idols We may examine our selves in this point of the charge namely whither our trust be in our riches by two waies For it being a received ground Pro. 24.22 that our strength is our confidence where we take our chiefe Strength to lie that is it certainely which we trust to Now what that is we shall soone finde 1 If we can certifie our selves in our need among all meanes what doth first offer it selfe in our intention 2 And againe when all meanes forsake us and faile us what is our last succour in execution By course of nature every thing when it is assalted ever rouseth that part first wherin his principall strength lieth if it be in his tuskes them or in his hornes or whatsoever it is that To a poore man if he have a cause in hand there is nothing commeth to mind but GOD and innocencie and the goodnesse of his cause there is his strength and that is the Horne of his salvation But Amos 6 13. the rich saith Amâ—s hath gotten him Hornes in his owne strength and not iron-hornes as were Zidkiah's but golden-bornes with which he is hable to push any cause till he have consumed it For indeed if he be to undertake ought the first thing that commeth to his head is Thus much will dispatch it Such a gift will assure such a man and such a gift will stop such a mans mouth and so it is done Neither is GOD in all his thoughts Tell me then in your affaires what commeth first to mind nay tell your selves what it is Aures omnium pulso saith Saint Augustine conscientias singulorum convenio Tell your selves what it is and by this trie and know wherein your trust is whither this charge meet with you or no whither your riches be the strength of your confidence Now lightly what we first thinke of that we last flie to It is so Salomon saw it in his time and said The rich mans wealth is his castle that even as men Pro. 18.11 when they are soiled in the field and beaten from the Citie-walls flie last of all into the Castle and there thinke themselves safe as in their place of chiefe strength So it falleth out with the rich of this world in many of their causes when Iustice and aequitie and truth and right and GOD and goodmen and a good conscience and all forsake them and yet yield they will not in the Priâ—e of a high minde they know when all other have forsaken them their purse will stand to them and thither as to their strongest salvation they flie when nothing els comforts them So that when they cannot in heart say to GOD Iob 31.24 Mic. 2.1 Thou at my hope their matter is so badd they do say 't is he in Iob to their Wedge of Gold Well yet thou art my confidence And surely he that deviseth or pursueth an unâ—ighteous cause because his hand hath strength that man may be arreigned of the point As againe if any say and say within truly dic dic sed intus dic faith Augustine with all my riches with all my friends and all the meanes I can make I can do nothing against the truth when a man is so rich that he is poore to doe evill so â—â—se that he is a foole to do evill so trusteth in his riches that he dare not take an evill cause in hand no more then the poorest commoner in the citie I dare dischâ—rge that than the Court for this point Oh beloved thinke of these things and secretly betwixt GOD and you use your selves to this examination Sure if GOD be GOD and if there be any truth in Him you shall find great peace and comfort in it at the last The Reason The Vncertaintie of Riches Charge the rich that they be not high-minded nor trust c. And why not high-minded and why not trust Inclusively the reason is added in these words because of the uncertainty of riches It is Paul's reason and it is Salomon's too who knew better what belonged to riches Pro. 23.5 then Paul or any other Travaile not too greedily for them bestow not all thy wisedome upon them saith he for they have the wings of an eagle and will take their flight of a sodein Such is Saint Paul's word heere the very same We behold them we hold them they are heer with us let us but turne our selves aside a little and looke for them and they are gone It is as if he should say Indeed if we could pinion the wings of our riches Pro. 27.24 if we could naile them downe fast to us then were there some shew or shadow why we should repose trust in them But it is otherwise they are exceeding uncertaine even the harvest of the water much above all trades Yea I take it the Merchants confesse so much before they be aware For by this he claimeth to be allowed and extraordinarie gaine because he ventureth his traffique as uncertaine and that he is driven to hazard and putt in a venture his goods continually and many times his person and to make him a right venturer many times his soule too And if they be not uncertaine how commeth it then to passe that rich men themselves are so uncertaine that is that they that were but the other day even a little before of principall credit within a while after and a very short while after their bills will not be taken And if riches be not uncertaine what need they upon a night of foule weather any Assurances upon the Exchange What need the Merchants have securitie one of another What need they to have their estates sure and so good such assurances and conveyances so strong yea more strong then the wit of man can devise if both riches and men be not uncertaine I know they pretend the mans mortalitie but they know they meane many times the mortalitie of his riches rather then himselfe or at the least of the one as of the other I will be judged by themselves I would have you marke Saint Paul's manner of speech Before he called them not rich barely but with an addition the rich of this world Sure it is thought of diverse of the best Writers both old and new I name of the new Master Calvin and of the old Saint Augustine that this addition is a diminution and that it is as it were a barre in the armes of all rich men and that even by that word he meanes to enâ—â—wite them and as I may say to crie them down so to make an entrance to his charge that men should not be too proud of them For being of this world they must needs favour of the soile be as this world is that is transitorie fickle and deceitfull And now he comes in with riches againe and will not put it alone but calleth it the uncertainty of riches And I see it
even in Israel too the want of a King Truely Israel being GOD'S owne peculiar might seeme to claime a Prerogative above other Nations in this that they had the knowledge of His Lawes whereby their eyes were lightened and their hands taught and so the most likely to spare one Others had not like light yet this non obstante their light and their law and that they were GOD'S owne people is no super-sedeas for having a King Of which there needeth no reason but this that a King is a good meanes to keepe them GOD'S Israel Heere for want of a King Israel began and was faire onward to be no longer Israel but even Babel When Mica and by good reason any other as well as he might set up Religions and give Orders themselves as it were in open contempt of GOD and his Law So that the people of GOD can plead no exemption from this Since it is His owne Ordinance to make them and keepe them the people of GOD. Was it thus heere in the Old Testament and is it not so likewise in the New Yes even in the New too For there Saint Peter willeth them that they be subject to the King as to the Sovereigne or Most excellent 1. Pet. 2.13 And Saint Paul goeth further and expresseth it more strongly in the style of Parlament and like a Law-giver saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be it enacted that they submit themselves And when Saint Paul there had in his Act said Rom. 13.1 Omnis anima that this Act reacheth to every soule which was enough yet because that seemed too generall Saint Peter came after and goeth to the very point and saith Gens sancta must doe thus too 1. Pet. 1.9 that is there must be a King even in GOD 's Israel And what would we more I come to the third part And to what end a King Quid faciat nobis Rex Quid faciat nobis What will a king doe unto us It hath beene said already He will looke that every one doe not that which is good in his owne and evill in GOD'S eyes He will in his generall care looke to both parts the Eye and the Hand The Eye that men sinne not blindly for want of direction The Hand that men sinne not with an high hand that is wilfully for want of correction He will there be good Ophthalmists with right Eye-salve that the sight may be cured and things seeme as they be and not be as they seeme At the hardest Si noluerunt intelligere but the eye will rove and runne astray that the hand be bound to the good abearing That they doe it not or if they doe it as doe it they will yea though there be a King yet that they may not doe it impunè doe it and nothing done to them for it and scape the punishment due unto it For that is the case when there is no King in Israel And if when there is one that be the case too where have we beene all this while For if so Etiam non est Rex cum est Rex Then when there is a King there is no King or one in name but none indeed Which as it is not good for the state so neither is it safe for themselves To this speciall regaâ—d wil be had Non enim frustra saith S. Paul for they beare not the sword in vaine Rom. 13.4 2. That every one doe not thus Every one but namely which is the occasion of this text that not Mica For Mica's fact brought forth this first sight that they were now come to this passe that he or any such as he was might set up in his house any Religion he would and no man controll him for it To looke to every one therefore but specially to Mica and to care for all but above all the matter of Religion Ne quisque videat quod rectum est there that every one be not allowed to see visions there At least Ne quisque faciat that see what they list they be not sufferd to set them up but if the eye will not be rectified the hand be restreined And sure no where doth the eye more misse nor the hand swerve then in this and therefore no where more cause to call for a King then for this One would think this were impertinent and we were free enough from Mica We are not Even to this day do men still cast images or imaginations all is one in the mould of their conceipts and up they sett them at least for their owne houshold to adore And then if they can get such a fellow as is heer after described a Levite for ten sicles and a suite or because now the world is harder tâ—n pound they are safe and there they have and hold a Religion by themselves 3. For evident it is by this text setting up of false worship is the cause why kings were missed and the redresse of it the cause why they were placed The cause I say and the first cause of their placing and therefore this a part and a prinicipall part of their charge I will touch them severally â— A part to looke to Mica and his false worship Why this is matter Ecclesiasticall It is so and thereby it appeareth I thinke that kings have and are to have a hand in matters of that nature If Religion were at a fault because there was no king and that one there must be to set it right again For is it once to be imagined that the cause of corrupt Religion is layd on the want of a king and yet when there is one he should not meddle with it Rather the consequence is strong one the other side Mica thus did because there was then no king therefore when there is one he will looke better to it that never a Mica of them all shall doe the like Thus it went when there was no king after when there was one I finde againe the not taking away the High places which were places meerly religious where the people did sacrifice imputed still to the king as his fault And yet shall he have nothing to doe with high places or sacrificing either there or any where els Very strange it were that they who are by GOD Himselfe by an expresse Ego dixi Psal. 82.6 termed GODS should yet have nothing to doe with GOD'S affaires Esai 49.23 And no lesse that being termed by Esai Nutritij Foster-fathers to whose care the Church is committed to cherish and bring up should yet be forbidden to intermeddle with the Church in that â—hich is of all fostering the principall part Verily when the Apostle speaketh of the service that Kings doe unto GOD he doth not onely use the terme of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Publique Officer but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too as it were GOD'S Deacon Rom 13 6.4 or Servitor by a name peculiar to the Church-Offices and this he useth twise for one other
Desire II. The Acts of Abraham 1. His Desire exultavitut Glad and faign Vt that he might see that is he desired he longed much to see it Gaudere vt and vellem vt expound one another This day then is dies desiderij or desiderabilis To be desired even of Abraham and if of him of all Of the Cause first Why and then of the Manner How he desired it The Cause why should Abraham so desire to see this day 1 The cause of it two thousand yeares and more after his dayes were at an end and he in his grave what was it to him how was he concerned in it We say Omnia bonum appetunt what good had he by it We say againe Indigentia desiderij parens what need had he of it that he should so desire it Yes Christs Birth he needed he had good by and consequently His Birth day Ye remember Iob's EASTER that in all his heavinesse this was specs in sinu his only comfort and ioy That well yet his Redeemer should rise againe one day Iob. 19. ◠The ioy of Iobs EASTER the same is the ioy of Abraham's Christmasse Even that a day should come wherein his Redeemer should come into the world For Abraham's case was not such but that a Redeemer he stood in need of One he stood in need of and one he had you may read it totidem verbis Esay 29.22 Thus saith He that redeemes ABRAHAM That party Him he needed and Him he desired And desired His day for His sake Diem for Meum the Day for Him that was borne on the day Will ye heare it from his own mouth Thus he setteth down his own case Gen. 18. that very time when he had this day first shewed him the first glimpse of it Thus complaines he there of his need complaining implies his desire Et ecce ego pulvis cinis And lo I am but dust and ashes Dust is plain it refers us to Pulvis es in pulverem He was that Gen. 18.27 Gen. 3.19 by nature by his very creation But why ashes how come they in Ashes he was not made of That is not naturall That sure refers to somwhat els Ashes we know come of fire without it they are not made ever presuppose a fire precedent So that besides death to resolve Him into dust he saw a fire to turne Him into ashes He saw it in his vision Gen. 15. when the sun was downe it was night and a great feare or Horror fell upon Him Gen. 15.17 he saw Clibanū fumantem a fiery furnace Blame him not if after such a night he desired to see day and this day dies contra noctem a day to visit him from on high after so fearfulll a night as this But this was but a vision of the night But when all daies nights should be at an end he saw Luk. 1.78 there was yet a day to succeed that day which Enoch taught the world wherin the Lord should come with thousands of his Saints to execute iudgement upon sinners Iud. 14.15 Which day it seemes Abraham took notice of For speaking to God in the same Ch. he calleth Him by this title Iudge of the world Of which day a visible signe he had before his eyes waking in the consuming of the five Cities immediately after No mervaile then Gen. 18.25 though he desired dies contra diem a day that should quit him of the fear of that day Inasmuch then as dust he was ashes he was to be dust by creation ashes by condemnation and both these he confesseth himself lyable unto He needed one as to restore the ruines of the first so to prevent the danger of the second Being in need he desired desiring he was glad to heare of but more glad would be to see that day that should bring him into the world And ô when shall that day be And sure the sun must go down with us too what fear we shall then be in or whither we shall see the furnace I know not but sure I am that ioyfull it will be then to have a comfortable sight and apprehension of the benefit beginning of this day When the world shall bid us good-night then as S. Austin expresseth it videre in nocte saeculi diem CHRISTI This for the Cause why Abraham himself should desire this Vt to see this day 2 The Manner of it Why but for this day Abraham had been but ashes of the furnace Which sheweth it is a benefit to see this day And as a benefit desired by him and as a benefit and no small benefit vouchsafed him the sight of this day Now for his Manner how how greatly he desired it We may take measure of the greatnesse of the day by the greatnesse of his Desire It was no day of small things for Exultavit vt is no small desire there is vigour there is both passion and action in it The nature of the word exultavit is He did even fetch a Spring for ioy that he should see it And it is not exilijt neither but exultavit And that is a frequentative and so he did it more then once To give a spring and not once but often this was much if al be wel considered For one to do it one in yeares fast upon an hundred as Abraham then was for such a one to do it it was very much 1. Much. First that he should not containe his affection not keepe it in but out it must even breake forth into an externall act into a bodily gesture that all that stood by must see him do it 2. Into a bodily gesture I say But then againe that into such a bodily gesture a gesture on this fashion It must needs be he was greatly yea strangely affected with it that it made him forget his gravitie and put a kind of indecorum upon his age at those yeares to fall on springing All men will easily know that such as he was stayed discreet grave men will never be so exceding moved as to be brought to fetch a spring but upon some verie exceeding great occasion 3. Thirdly to do all this but onely in desire and nothing but desire is yet more strange then the rest In the fruition to ioy is kindly but in the desire altogether vnusuall Exultavit cum videret may well be understood Exultavit ut videret not so well For desire of it selfe is a restlesse thing vnquiet and complaining but a very affliction of the soule It makes men yea the very creature it selfe saith the Apostle ingemiscere which is farr Rom. 8.22 from exultare to grone for griefe not to spring for Ioy Sad rather then glad in that they want their desire Iudge then how great a good is the good of this Day that not in the enioying but even in the desiring and that against the nature of desire did put old father Abraham into this passion
Ezek. 18.20 falsifie the truth that may not be And then steppes up Righteousnesse and seconds her Righteousnesse seconding her Psal. 145.17 that GOD as He is true in His word so is He righteous in all His workes So to reddere suum cuique to render each his owne to every one that is his due and so to the sinner stipendium peccati the wages of sinne that is death God forbid Rom. 6.23 the Iudge of the world should iudge unjustly that were as before to make Truth false so heere to do Right wrong Nay it went further and they made it their owne cases What shall become of me said Righteousnesse What use of Iustice if GOD will doe no justice if He spare sinners And what use of me sayth Mercie if He spare them not Hard hold there was inasmuch as Perij nisi homo moriatur sayd Righteousnesse I dye if he dye not And Perij nisi Misecicordiam consequatur sayd Mercie if he dye I dye too To this it came and in those termes brake up the meeting and away they went one from the other Truth went into exile as a stranger upon earth The first meeting broken up Terras Astraea reliquit she confined her selfe in Heaven where so aliened she was as she would not so much as looke downe hither upon us Mercie she staid below still ubi enim Misericordia esset sayth Hugo well si cum misero non esset Where should Mercie be if with miserie she should not be As for Peace she went betweene both to see if she could make them meet againe in better termes For without such a meeting no good to be done for us For meet they must and that in other termes or it will goe wrong with us Our Salvation lies a bleeding all this while The Plea hangs and we stand as the prisoner at the barre and know not what shall become of us For though two be for us there are two against us as strong and more stiffe then they So that much depends upon this second Meeting upon the composing or taking up this difference For these must be at peace betweene themselves before they at peace with us or we with GOD. And this is sure we shall never meet in heaven if they meet no more And many meanes were made for this meeting many times but it would not be Where stayed it It was not long of Mercie she would be easily entreated to give a new meeting no question of her Oft did she looke up to heaven but Righteousnesse would not looke downe Not look not that Small hope she would be got to meet that would not look that way-ward Indeed all the question is of her It is Truth and she that holds of but specially She. Vpon the Birth you see heer is no mention of any in particular but of Her as much to say as the rest might be dealt with she only it was that stood out And yet she must be got to meet or els no meeting No meeting till Iustice satisfied All the hope is that she doth not refuse simply never to meet more but stands vpon satisfaction Els Righteousnesse should not be righteous Being satisfied then she will remaining vnsatisfied so she will not meet All stands then on her satisfying how to devise to give her satisfaction to her mind that so she may be content once more not to meet and argue as yer-while but to meet and kisse meet in a ioynt concurrence to save us and set us free And indeed Hoc opus there lies all how to set a song of these foure parts in good harmonie how to make these meet at a love-day how to satisfie Iustice upon whom all the stay is Not in any but the Christian Religion And this say I no Religion in the world doth or can doe but the Christian. No Queer sing this Psalme but ours None make Iustice meet but it Consequently None quiet the conscience soundly but it Consequently no Religion but it Withall religions els at odds they be and so as they are faigne to leave them so For meanes in the world have they none how to make them meet Not hable for their lives to tender Iustice a Satisfaction that will make her come in The words next before are that glorie may dwell in our land Verse 9. This glorie doth dwell in our land indeed And great cause have we all highly to blesse GOD Psal. 16.6 that hath made our lott to fall in so faire a ground That we were not borne to enherit a lie that we were borne to keepe this Feast of this Meeting For bid any of them all but shew you the way how to satisfie Iustice soundly and to make her come to this meeting how GODS Word may be true and His worke just and the Sinner find mercie and be saved for all that They cannot The Christian onely can doe it and none els All beside for lack of this passe by the wounded man and let him lie still and bleed to death Luk. 10.31.32 Bid the Turke All he can say is Mahomets prayer shall be upon you Mahomets prayer what is that Say he were that he was not a just man a true Prophet What can his prayers doe but move Mercie But GODS Iustice how is that answered Who shall satisfie that Not prayers Iustice is not moved with them heares them not goes on to sentence for all them He can goe no further he cannot make justice meet Bid the Heathen he sayes better yet then the Turke They saw that without shedding of blood there was no satisfying Iustice Heb 9.22 and so no remission of sinne To satisfie her sacrifices they had of beasts But it is impossible as the Apostle well notes that the blood of bulls or goats should satisfie for our sinnes Heb. 10.4 A man Sinne and a beast dye Iustice will none of that What then will ye goe as farr as some did the fruit of my body for the sinne of my soule Mic. 6.7 Nor that neither For if it were the first borne the first borne was borne in Sinne and Sinne for Sinne can never satisfie This Meeting will not be there Bid the Iew he can but tell you of his Lamb neither And while time was that was not amisse while it stood in reference to Saint Iohn Baptists Lamb Ioh 1.29 the LAMB of GOD this day yeaned as having the operation the working in the vertue of that That being now past there is no more in the Iewe's then in the Gentiles sacrifice Beasts both both short of satisfying So for all that these can doe or say no meeting will there be had Onely the Christian Religion that shewes the true way There is One there thus speaketh to Iustice Sacrifice and sinne-offerings thou wouldest not have then said I Lo I come He of whom it was written in the volume of the booke Psal. 40.6 c. that He should do
hominibus in homines bona voluntas Glorie be to GOD in the high Heavens and peace upon earth and * Or in men towards men good will THE Antheme of the Queere of Heaven for this day For having heard the Angells Sermon at twise 1 Of the Nativitie 2 Of the Invention of CHRIST and seene the Queere of Angells set with their nature and condition there remains nothing but the Antheme to make up a full service for the Day This is it Saint Luke besides that he is an Evangelist hath the honour further that he is the Psalmist of the New Testament foure Hymnes more hath he added to those of the Old Of which foure this is so much the more excellent then the rest in that it is not of any mans setting though never so skilfull the Dittie and it are both Angelicall from the Angells both That we praise GOD with the tongue of Angells whensoever we praise Him with this with Gloria in excelsis The Summe of it is that though all dayes of the yeare and for all benefits The Summe yet this day and for this now above all GOD is highly to be glorified More highly then in others Nay most highly then for it is in altissimis the highest of all That Heaven and Earth and men are to joine in one consort Heaven and Earth first Heaven on high Earth beneath to take up one hymne both in honour of His birth both are better by it Heaven hath glorie Earth peace by meanes of it Heaven hath glorie laetentur coeli Earth peace exultet terra at thy Nativity O LORD Psal. 96.11 Warranted by this Song at thy Nativity O LORD let the heavens rejoice for the glorie let the Earth be glad for the peace that come to them by it And men hominibus though they rest and come in last after both yet they to do it as much Nay much more then both for Gods good will toward them which brought all this to passe in Heaven and Earth both restoring men to Gods favour and grace and all by meanes of this Child their Reconciler to GOD that hath beene their Pacifier on earth that is their Glorifier in Heaven that shall be They therefore if any nay more then any and now if eve r nay more then ever to beare their part in this glorious hymne at the cratch side Ita canunt in Nativitate quae per Nativitatem Thus sing they at His Nativitie of those things that came by His Nativitie Came to Heaven to Earth to Men Glorie to Heaven Peace to Earth Grace and favour to men The Division To take a Song right it behoveth to know the parts of it And they are easily knowne They divide themselves into the number blessed above all numbers because it is the number of the Blessed Trinitie and the mysterie of the TRINITIE do the Fathers finde in the parts of it Eph. 2 14. 1 In GOD on high the Father 2 In peace Ipse est Pax nostra the SONNE 3 And in Good will the HOLY GHOST the Essentiall Love and Love-knott of the God-head and this day of the Man-hood and it Being Ode natalitia if we consider it as a Nativitie they that calculate or cast Nativities in their calculations stand much upon Triplicities and Trigons and Trine aspects And heer they be all A triplicitie of things 1 Glorie 2 Peace 3 and Good-will A Trigon of Parties 1 GOD 2 Earth and 3 Men. And a trine aspect râ—ferendo singula singulis 1 To GOD glorie 2 to Earth peace 3 to Men favor grace or goodwill But if as it is most proper we consider the parts as in a Song The three will well agree with the Scale in Musique 1 In excelsis on high Hypate 2 On earth Nete 3 And men howsoever they come in last they make Mese the Meane Most fittly for they as in the midst of both â—he other partake of both 1 Their soule from on high 2 Their body from the earth Not the heathen but did confesse the soule divinae particulam aurae And for the body there needs no pâ—oofe that earth it is Earth to earth we heare we see before our eyes every day Of these three parts then asunder And after as the nature of a Song requireth of their 1 Conjunction 2 Order and 3 Division 1 Coâ—junction Glorie on high and in earth Peace 2 Then the order or Sequence But first glorie then Peace 3 And last the division sorting them suum cuique each to his owne 1 To GOD glorie 2 Peace to the earth 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to men 4 Last of the singing of the Hymne 1 When the time 2 and by Whom I. The sâ—verall accâ—ption of the Text. There are in this Hymne as the Greekes read and we with them three Rests The ground of which three are three Parties 1 In excelsis Deo GOD on high 2 In terrâ earth 3 and Hominibus men To thâ—se three other three 1 Glorie 2 Peace 3 Good-will as it were three streames having their head or spring in CHRISTS cratch and spreading themselves thence By the Greâ—â—es three sundry wayes having their influence into the three former One of these into some one of them Glorie upward in excelsis Peace downward to the earth Good-will to men in the middest between both compound of both You will marke The Child heer is GOD and Man GOD from on high Man from the earth To heaven whence He is GOD thither goeth Glorie To earth whence man thither Peace Then as GOD and Man is one CHRIST and as the reasonable soule and flâ—sh is one man So CHRIST consisting of these two brings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fullnesse of GODS favour the true and â—eall cause of both yeilding them peace while heer on earth and assuring them of glorie when there on high as thither on high we trust to be delivered after our time heer spent in procuring Heaven glorie and â—arth peace Thus three Rests 2. By the Latines But let me not keepe from you that the Latine hath but two Rests and of the Greeke some likewise To two they reduce all and well The Places are but two 1 On high 2 and in earth The Persons but two 1 GOD â— and Men So the Parts to be but two 1 Glorie on high to GOD 2 Peace on earth to Men. But then what shall become of Good-will Good-will is a good word would not be lost or left out No more it shall And indeed the diverse reading of that one word makes the parts to be either two or three The Greeks read it in the Nominative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which referres to men then there must needs be three there are two besides The Latines seeme to have read it in the Genitive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but one letter more And so they make it of the nature of a limitation Peace on earth to men What to
bearing about us this bodie of flesh the stepps whereof are so vnstaied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and walking in this world the waies whereof are so slipperie It is an Apostle that saith it Iam. 3.2 In multis omnes c. In many things we offend all and it is another that saith that whosoever saith otherwise not he is proud and there is no humblenesse 1. Ioh. 1.8 but he is a lyar and there is no truth in him Iam. 4.6 Our estate then as it is needeth some Scripture that offereth more grace And such there be saith Saint Iames and This is such That they which have not heard the Apostle and his counseile Qui stat c. may yet heare the Prophet heere and his Qui cecidit let him up againe That they which have not heard Esaie's voice Ambulate You are in the way turne not from it May yet heare Ieremie's voice Qui aversus est c He that is out let him get into it againe So that this is the summe of that I have read If we have not been so happie as to stand and keepe our way The Summe let us not be so vnhappie as not to rise and turne to it againe Best it were before we sinne to say to our selves Quid facio what am I now about to doe If we have not that yet it will not be amisse after to say What have I done GOD will not be displeased to heare us so say We should not follow those foules we should have no wings to fly from GOD but if in flying away we have followed them then that we follow them too in the retrive or second flight In a word Yesterday if we have not heard His voice Psal 95.7.8 To day if we will heare His voice not to harden our hearts when He calleth us to repentance This is the summe The manner of the deliverie is not common but somewhat vn-usuall and full of passion For seeing plaine poenitentiam agite doth but coldly affect us It pleaseth GOD hâc vice to take vnto Him the termes the style the accents of passion thereby to give it an edge that so it may make the speedier and deeper impression And the Passion He chooseth is that of Sorrow For all these verses are to be pronounced with a sorrowfull key Sorrow many times worketh us to that by a melting compassion which the more rough and violent passions cannot get at our hands This sorrow He expresseth by way of complain◠For all the speech is so Which kind of speech maketh the better nature to relent as mooved that by his meanes any should have cause to complaine and not find redresse for it That He complaines of is not that we fall and erre but that we rise not and returne not that is still delay still put of our Repentance And that 1. Contrarie to our own course and custome Verse 4. in other things We doe it every where els yet heere we doe it not 2. Contrarie to GOD'S expresse pleasure For glad and faigne He would heare we doe it Verse 8. yet we doe it not 3. Contrarie to the very light of nature For the foules heere fly before us and shew us the way to doe it yet we doe it not for all that Which three He vttereth by three sundry waies of treatie 1. The first by a gentle yet forcible expostulation Verse 4. Will you not Why will ye not 2. The second by an earnest protestation Verse 5. How greatly He doth hearken after it 3. The third by a passionate Apostrophe Verse 7. by turning Him away to the foules of the ayre that doe that naturally every yeare which we cannot be got to all our life long Of which passions to say a word It is certaine the immutable constancie of the Divine nature is not subiect to them howsoever heere or elsewhere He presenteth himselfe in them I add that as it is not proper so neither it is not fitting for GOD thus to expresse himselfe But that He not respecting what best may become Him but what may best seeme to move us and doe us most good chooseth of purpose that dialect that Character those termes which are most meet and most likely to affect us And because good morall counseile plainely delivered enters but faintly and of passionate speeches we have a more quick apprehension He attireth His speech in the habit vttereth it in the phrase figure and accent of anger or sorrow or such like as may seeme most fit and forcible to prevaile with us 1. Tertullian saith the reason this course is vsed is ad exaggerandam malitiae vim to make the haynousnesse of our contempt appeare the more 2. Act. war GOD indeed cannot complaine it falleth not into His nature to doe it But if He could if it were possible by any meanes in the world He might such are our contempts so many and so mighty that we would force Him to it 2. But Saint Augustine's reason is more praised Exprimit in Se vt exprimat de te In himselfe He expresseth them that from us He may bring them Sheweth himselfe in passion that He may move us and even in that passion whereto He would move us As heer now As in greefe He complaineth of us that we might be greeved and complaine of our selves that ever we gave Him such cause And so consequently that we might bethink our selves to give redresse to it that so His complaining might ceasse And from the complaint it is no hard matter to extract the redresse 1. The Division To yeeld to but even as much for Him for Him Nay for our selves as every where els we vse to doe 2. To speake that which GOD so gladly would heare 3. To learne that which the poore foules know the season of our returne and to take it as they doe Three waies to give redresse to the three former greevances These three and the same the three parts of this Text orderly to be treated of TO make His motion the more reasonable and His complaint the more iust He makes them Chancelors in their owne cause And from their owne practise otherwhere GOD frameth and putteth a Case and putteth it question-wise and therefore question-wise that they may answer it and answering it condemne themselves by a verdict from their owne mouth Will they this people themselves fall c Is there any that if he turne c In effect as if He should say Goe whither you will farre or neere was it ever heard or seene that any man if his foot slipped and he tooke a fall that he would lie still like a beast and not up againe streight Or if he lost his way that he would wittingly goe on and not with all speede get into it again I proceed then Men rise if they fall and sinne is a fall We have taken up the terme our selves calling Adam's sinne Adam's fall A fall indeed for it foules as as a fall
There was wont to be a ceremonie of giving ashes this day to put us in mind of this convertâ—ris I feare with the ceremonie the substance is gone too If that conversion into ashes be well thought on it will helpe forward our turning This returning to our heart the sad and serious bethinking us there of Nature's conversion into dust of sinne 's into ashes for ashes ever presuppose fire that the wheele turns apace and if we turne not the rather these turnings may overtake us GOD 's Spirit assisting may so worke with us as we shall thinke Ioel's counseile good that if we have not been so happy as to keepe the way yet we be not so unhappy as not to turne againe from a way the issues whereof surely will not be good And would GOD these would serve to worke it If they will not then must Conversus sum in aerumnâ dum configitur spina some thorne in our sides Psal 32.4 some bodily or worldly griefe must come and procure it But that is not to turne but to be turned And there is great odds between these two As one thing it is to take up the crosse another to have it layd upon us To be turned I call when by some crosse of body or mind as it were with a ring in our nose we are brought about whither we will or no to looke how we have gone astray To turne I call when the world ministreth unto us no cause of heavinesse all is ex sententiâ yet even then the grace of GOD moving us we set our selves about and representing those former conversions before us we worke it out having from without no heavy accident to force us to it We condemne not Conversus sum in aerumnâ Many are so turned and GOD is gracious and reiects them not But we commend this later when without wrench or skrew we turne of our selves And that man who being under no arrest no bridle in his iawes shall in the dayes of his peace resolve of a time to turne in and take it that man hath great cause to rejoice and to rejoice before GOD. And thus much for Convertite or if it may not be had for Convertimini Turne and turne to Me and He that saith it is GOD. Why 2. To Me that is GOD. Ier. 4 â— whither should we turne from sinne but to GOD Yes we may be sure it is not for nothing GOD setteth downe this In Ieremie it is more plaine If ye returne returne to Me saith the LORD Which had been needlesse if we could turne to nothing els wâ—re it not possible to find diverse turnings leaving one by-way to take another from this extreme turne to that and neuer to GOD at all They that have been fleshly given if they cease to be so they turne but if they become as worldly now as they were fleshly before they turne not to GOD. They that from the dottage of superstition runne into the phrensie of prophanesse They that from abhorring Idols fall to commit sacriledge howsoever they turne to GOD they turne not Rom. 2.22 And this is even the motus diurnus the common turning of the world as Moses expresseth it to add drunkennesse to thirst from too little to too much from one extreme to runne into another Deut. 29.19 Would GOD it were not needfull for me to make this note But the true turne is ad Me So from sinne as to GOD. Els in very deed we turne from this sinne to that sinne but not from sinne Or to speake more properly we tuâ—ne sinne we turne not from sinne if we give over one evill way to take another To Me then and with the heart And this also is needfull For I know not how 3. Wâ—th the heart but by some our conversion is conceived to be a turning of the braine only by doting to much on the word resipiscere as a matter meerly mentall Where before thus and thus we thought such and such positions we held now we are of another mind then before and there is our turning This of Ioël's is a matter of the heart sure This Nay to say truth where is conversion mentioned but it is in a manner attended with in corde And so requireth not only an alteration of the mind but of the will a change not of certaine notions only in the head but of the affections of the heart too Els it is vertigo capitis but not conversio cordis Neither doth this in corde stand only against the braine but is commonly in opposition to the whole outward man Els the heart may be fixed like a Pole and the body like a sphaere turn round about it Nay heart and all must turne Not the face for shame or the feete for feare but the heart for very hatred of sinne also Hypocrisie is a sinne being to turne from sinne we are to turne from it also and not have our body in the right way and our heart still wandring in the by-pathes of sinne But if we forbeare the act which the eye of man beholdeth to make a conscience of the thoughts too for unto them also the eye of GOD pierceth Thus it should be Els Conversion it may be but heart it hath none 4. With the whole heart With the heart and with the whole heart As not to divide the heart from the body So neither to divide the heart in it selfe The divell to hinder us from true turning turnes himselfe like Proteus into all shapes First turne not at all you are well enough If you will needs turne turne whither you will but not to GOD. If to GOD leave your heart behind you and turne and spare not If with the heart be it in corde but not in toto with some ends or fractions with some few broken affections but not entirely In modico saith Agrippa somewhat Act. 26.28.29 there is a peece of the heart In modico in toto saith S. PAVL somewhat and altogether there is the whole heart For which cause as if some converted with the brimme or upper part only doth the Psalme call for it de profundis Psal. 130.1 and the Prophet from the bottome of the heart To rent the heart in this part is a fault which is a vertue in the next For it makes us have two hearts hovering as it were and in motu trepidationis and feigne we would let goe sinne but not all that belongs to it And turne we would from our evill way but not from that which will bring us backe to it againe the Occasion the Object the Companie from which except we turne too we are in continuall danger to leave our way againe and to turne backe to our former folly the second ever worse then the first When the heart is thus parcelled out it is easily seene See you one would play with fire and not be burned touch pitch and not be defiled with it love perill and not perish in it
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
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
to play the wise-man and to forethinke him of his folly committed Feare is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is well called of the nature of a bridle to our nature to hold us into refraine from evill if it may be if not to check us and turne us about and make us turne from it Therefore Feare GOD and depart from evill lightly goe togither Pro. 3.7 as the cause and the effect you shall seldome finde them parted So then because it is first it is to stand first and first to be regarded Another reason is because it is most generall For it goes through all heathen and all It goes to omni gente For in omni gente there is qui timet For that they have so much faith as to feare appeares by the Ninivites plainly Nay it goes not onely to omni gente but even to omni animante too to beasts and all yea to the dullest beast of all Num. 22.23 to Balaam's beast he could not get her smite her spur her do what he could to her to runne upon the point of the Angels's sword that they are in worse case then beasts that are voyd of it So first it riseth of all and furthest it reacheth of all And this feare I would not have men thinke meanely of it It is we see the beginning of wisedome and so both Father and Sonne a Psal. 111.10 David and b Pro. 1.7 Salomon call it But if it have his full worke to make us depart from evill it is wisedome complete and the from GOD'S owne mouth c Iob 28.28 Iob. 28. Therefore d Esai 33.6 Esai bidds us make a treasure of it and e Pro. 28.14 Blessed is the man that is ever thus wise that feareth alwaies It is Salomon Proverb 28. For howsoever the world goe f Eccles 8.12 this I am sure of saith he it shall goe well with him that feareth GOD and carrieth himselfe reverently in His Presence Rom 8.15 And care not for them that talke they know not what of the spirit of bondage Of the seven spirits which are the divisions of one and the same Spirit this day heere sent downe the last the chiefest of all is the Spirit of the feare of GOD. Esai 11. So it is the Alpha and Omega first and last beginning and end First and last I am sure There is sovereigne use of it Esa. 11 2. Not regard them not that say it perteines not to the New Testament phanfying to themselves nothing must be done but out of pure love For even there it abideth and two sovereigne uses there are still of it those two which before we named One to beginn 2 the other to preserve 1. To beginn We sett it heere as an introduction as the dawning is to the day For on them that are in this dawning that feare His Name on them shall the Sunne of righteousnesse arise Mal. 4.2 It is Malachi saith it it is Cornelius heere sheweth it As the base Court to the Temple Not into the Temple at first stepp but come through the Court first As the needle to the threed it is Saint Augustine that first enters and drawes after it the threed and that sewes all fast togither Where there happens a strange effect that not to feare the next way is to feare The kinde worke of feare is to make us cease from sinne Ceasing from sinne brings with it a good life a good life that ever carries with it a good conscience and a good conscience casts out feare So that upon the matter the way not to feare is to feare and that GOD that brings light out of darkenesse and glorie out of humilitie He it is that also brings confidence out of feare 2. This for the introduction And ever after when faith is entred and all it is a sovereigne meanes to preserve them also Ther is as I have told you a composition in the soule much after that of the body The heart in the body is so full of heate it would stifle it selfe and us soone were it not GOD hath provided the lungs to give it coole 〈◊〉 to keepe it from stifling Semblably in the soule faith is full of Spirit ready enough of it selfe to take an unkind heate save that feare is by GOD ordeined to coole it and keepe it in temper to awake our care still and see it sleepe not in securitie It is good against saying in ones heat a Psal. 〈…〉 Non movebor saith the Psal. Good against b 〈…〉 33. Etsâ— râ—nnes non ego S. Peter found it so Good saith S. Paul against c Rom. 11 2â— Noli altum saepere And these would marr all but for the humble feare of GOD by that all is kept right Wherefore when the Gospell was at the highest Phil. 2.12 1. Pet. 1.17 worke out your salvation with feare and trembling saith Saint Paul passe the time of your dwelling heer in feare saith Saint Peter Yea our Saviour himselfe as noteth Saint Augustine when He had taken away one feare Ne timete Feare not them that can kill the body Mat. 10.28 and when they have done that have done all and can do no more in place of that feare putts another But sent Him that when He hath slaine the body can cast soule and it into hell fire and when He had so said once comes over againe with it to strike it home Etiam dico vobis 〈◊〉 say unto you feare Him So then this of feare is not Moses's song onely it is the song of Moses and the Lamb 〈◊〉 Made of the harmonie of the ton'e as well as t'other A speciall streign Apoc. 15.4 in that song of Moses and the Lamb Apoc. XV. you shall find this Who will not feare thee ô Lord He that will not may sibi canere make himselfe musique he is out of their queer yea the Lamb 's queer indeed out of both This have I a little stood on for that me thinks the world beginns to grow from feare too fast we strive to blow this Spirit quite away for feare of carnificina conscientiae we seeke to benumme it and to make it past feeling For these causes feare is with GOD a thing acceptable we heare And that the Holy Ghost came downe where this feare was we see So it is Saint Peter affirmes it For certaine of a truth So it is Saint Peter protests it Let no man beguile you to make you thinke otherwise No no but Fac fac vel timore paenae sinondum potes amore justitiae Do it man I tell thee do it though it be for feare of punishment if you cannot yet get your selfe to do it for love of righteousnesse One will bring on the other Esa. 26.18 Ver. 6. A timore Domini concepimus Spiritum salutis It is Esai By it we shall conceive that which shall save us There very words shall save us said the Angel and so they
Law Lex lux saith Salomon totidem verbis Pro. 6. and his Father Pro. 6.23 Psal. 119.105 a lanterne to 〈◊〉 feet Nay in the nineteenth Psalme what he saith at the fourth verse of the Sunne at the eight he saith the same of the Law of GOD lights both 2. Pet. 1.19 3. The light 〈◊〉 prophesie as of a candle that shineth in a darke place 4. There is the wonderfull light of His Gospell So Saint Peter calls it the proper light of this day 1. Pet. 2 9. The tongues that descended so many tongues so many lights For the tongue is a light and brings in light what was before hid in the heart 5. And from these other is the inward light of grace whereby GOD which commanded the light to shine out of darkenesse 2. Cor. 4.6 Be it is that shineth in our hearts by the inward annointing which is the oile of this 〈◊〉 the light of his Holy Spirit chasing away the darknesse both of our hearts and 〈◊〉 6. There is the light of comfort of His Holy Spirit a light sowen for the â—â—ghteous heere in this life And 7. There is the light of glorie which they shall reape the light where GOD dwelleth and where we shall dwell with him Even the inheritance of the Saints in light when the righteous shall shine as the Sunne Col. 1.12 Matt. 13.43 Exod. 25. â—2 in the kingdome of their Father the Father of lights Moses's Candlestick with seven stalkes and lights in each of them Of all which seven lights GOD is the Father acknowledges them all for his children and to his children will vouchsafe them all in their order Now this onely remaineth why He is not called the Author 3 Why Pater not Author but the Father of these In this is the manner of their descending And that is for that they proceed 〈◊〉 Him per modum naturae as the child from the Father per modum emanationis as the beams from the Sunne So both Father and light shew the manner of their comâ—ing Proper and naturall for Him it is to give good Good things come from Him as 〈◊〉 as doe they therefore said to be not the Author the Lord and giver but 〈◊〉 the very Father of them It is against His nature to doe otherwise to 〈…〉 send forth ought but good his very loines his bowells are all goodnesse 〈…〉 darknesse He cannot be being Father of lights nor of ought that is evill For thâ—â— two darke and evill are as neere of kinn as light and good This is the message saith Saint Iohn that we heard of him and that we declare to you that GOD is light 1. Ioh. 1.5 and in Him is no darknesse at all Nâ—ither in Him nor from Him Nemo dicat let never any say it Let it never sinke into you Tempted He is not with evill Tempt He doth not to evill Verse 13. Ascribe it not to Pater luminum but to Princeps tenebrarum to the Prince of darknesse not to the Father of lights But ascribe all good from the smallest sparke to the greatest beame Ephes. 6.12 from the least good giving to the best and most perfect gift of all to Him to the Father of lights So we see 1 why light 2 why lights 3 why the Father of lights So much for the Praedicate and whole Proposition II. The Item And all this may be and yet all this being it seemes some replie may be made and stand with the Apostle's terme of lights well enough That what befalls the lights the children The VII error may also befall the Father of them The great and most perfect light in this world is the Sunne in the firmament and two things evidently befall him the two in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 variation He admitts declines and goes downe and leaves us in the darke that is his parallaxe in his motion from East to West And turning he admitts turnes backe goes from us and leaves us to long winter nights that is his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his motion from North to South One of these he doth every day the other every yeare Successively removing from one hemisphere to the other when it is light there it is darke heere Successively turning from one Tropique to another when the dayes be long there they be short heere And if we shall say any thing of the shadow heere that way we lose him too in part by interposing of the clouds when the day is over-cast So the night is his parallax the winter his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 darke weather his shadow at least Shadowes doe but take him away in part that is not good But darknesse takes him away cleane that is perfectly evill That it may be even so with the Father of lights as with this it is Good and evill come from him alternis vicibus by turne and as darknesse and light successively from them That it may fare with Him as with the Heathen Iupiter who had say they in his Entrie two great fatts both full one of good the other of evill and that he served them out into the world both of the good and of the evill as he saw cause but commonly for one of good two of evill at least It was more then requisite he should cleere this objection So doth he denieth both all three if you will That though of man it be truely said by Iob He nâ—ver continues in one stay Iob. 14.6 though the lights of heaven have their parallaxes yea the Angels of heaven Iob. 4.18 Exod. 3.14 Mal. 3 6· He found not stedfastnesse in them Yet for GOD he is subject to none of them He is Ego sum qui sum that is saith Malachie Ego Deus non mutor We are not what we were a while since nor what we shall be a while after scarce what we are for every moment makes us varie With GOD it is nothing so He is that He is He is and changeth not He changes not his tenor he changes not his tense keeps not our Grammar rules hath one by himselfe Not before Abraham was Io. 8.58 I was but before Abraham was I am Yet are there varyings and changes it cannot be denied We see them daily True but the point is per quem on whom to lay them Not on GOD. Seemes there any recesse Ierem. 2.17 It is we forsake Him not He us It is the ship that moves though they that be in it think the land goes from them not they from it Seemes there any variation as that of the night It is umbra terrae makes it the light makes it not Is there any thing resembling a shadow A vapour rises from us makes the cloud which is as a pent-house betweene and takes Him from our sight That vapour is our lust There is the apud quem Is any tempted it is his owne lust doth it that entises him to sinne that brings
Elias's spirit but of His if they be His Disciples and so must come as He 〈◊〉 Non perdere sed salvare 〈◊〉 because we come not now to learne onely but to give thanks as the dutie of 〈◊〉 â—ay requireth after this we will lay the two cases together case by case this of 〈◊〉 to this in the text by which it will easily appeare I doubt not that we 〈◊〉 great cause every way of joy and thanksgiving nay of the twaine the 〈◊〉 the happie Ne perdas CHRIST 's Ne perdas of this day OR yer we come to the motion let us begin with that I. The Motive that was the beginning of all this quarrell that is Dissent in religion between the Samaritan and the Iew. We see the fruit of it heer and what spirit it maketh men of On the one 〈◊〉 Be they Iewes go they to Ierusalem let them have neither meat drink nor 〈◊〉 that is to say sterve them On the other Be they Samaritans Sectaries 〈◊〉 of their lives put fire to them burne them blow them up Mutuall and mortall â—â—tred breaking forth upon every occasion The woman of Samaria expresseth it by â—on co-utuntur They use not one side the other She might even as well have said Ioh. 4.9 cobutuntâ—r they abuse each the other so they do forgetting humanitie and divinitie 〈◊〉 on either part Heer is the fruit this the spirit it breedeth And these two the â—â—â—aritan and the Iew they made not an end of this till it made an end of them Look 〈◊〉 â—osephus you shall see in the dayes of Claudius Cumanus then deputie the very like 〈◊〉 â—ell to this heer upon the very same occasion taken wholy by the Zelotae and 〈◊〉 hard opened the way to the Iewe's warrs which neuer ended till the utter 〈◊〉 out and desolation of them both Thus it was and thus it wil be and by this 〈◊〉 â—ee how necessarie CHRIST 's Pax vobis is and the Peace-maker that could make 〈…〉 how blessed he should be blessed heer and blessed everlastingly Ioh. 20.26 Mat. 5.9 〈◊〉 let me tell you this withall this spirit was not then in all neither all the 〈◊〉 nor all the Samaritans Some there were on both sides more moderately 〈◊〉 The Disciples I doubt not did all of them the other ten too much dislike 〈◊〉 courtesie offered CHRIST yet all cried not for fire Two onely these two 〈…〉 the twelve On the other side the Samaritans neither all were not thus 〈…〉 Though this town received Him not it is said in the last verse they went 〈…〉 towne and there He was received So all Ver 56. neither all the Disciples thus 〈…〉 all â—he sonnes of thunder some the sonnes of rayne Mar. 3.17 as Bartholomew is 〈◊〉 nor all the Countrie of Samaria GOD provided better for both All had 〈…〉 a generall combustion if all had been of this destructive spirit and all did go 〈…〉 spirits 〈◊〉 the upper hand 〈◊〉 â—or their comfort that are such this that our SAVIOVR CHRIST was 〈…〉 but shewed himselfe on that side that enclined to humanitie and peace Ioâ— â—7 There was no fault in him It was still his desire coüti Samaritanis to use and be used by them He would have had water and asked it of the woman of Samaria Sent his Disciples to that town there to buy meat and now to this towne heer to take up lodging shewed himselfe still willing to breake downe this partition-wall In this very journey Luke 17.16 after this repulse heer yet He healed among others a Leaper yea though a Samaritan Yea so favourable that way He was and so readie to be used as He was counted and called a Samaritan for His labour Ioh. 8.48 Well then let this towne and these two Disciples please themselves in their consuming zeale that other town in the last verse and the other ten were in the right CHRIST was in the right I am sure and it is safe for us that the same mind be in us that was in CHRIST IESVS And so now to the Motion But first to the Motive And when they saw c. Let me say this for Saint Iames and Saint Iohn They saw enough to move any to indignation A great indignitie it is that which is done by common courtesie to every ordinarie traveller harbour for a night to denie that to any Omni animantium generi pabulum latibulum foder and shelter they are due to all living creatures by the law of nature Ver. 58. Within a verse after CHRIST saith Vulpes foveas habent c. Not to allow a man so much as every Fox is allowed a hole for his head a very great inhumanitie to any who could choose but be moved 2. And if to denie this to any were too much it received increase by the person It was CHRIST that was thus repelled of whose well using it stood them upon to be jealous and not to shew themselves cold in putting up any disgrace offered to their Master We must needs allow their zeale in their Master's quarrell 3. And when was this For that circumstance adds much heer It was even then when He was newly come downe from the Mount from His transfiguration immediatly upon that came this Him whom a little before they had seene glorified from heaven to see him now thus vilified upon earth would it not moove any 4. And who were they that did it A pelting countrie towne and they in it a sort of Samaritan-heretiques whom the world were well ridd of at whose hands who could endure to see Him thus used Comming from hatred of heresie how can it choose but be a good motion 5. And now why was it they did Him this disgrace For no other cause but for His religion because His back was to their Mount and his face to Ierusalem And heer zeale is in his prime Never so plausible as when it hath gotten Religion for his pretense and the Catholique cause for his colour then they may sett fire on the towne Put these now together 1 A barbarous indignitie harbour for a night denied and 2 denied Christ 3 Christ so late in all his glorie 4 and that by a sort of heretiques 5 and onely for that He was well affected in religion The case is home when they saw this it moved them to make a Motion Never talke of it the motion cannot be misliked specially comming commended by the Movers two of his Disciples and none of the meanest of them Gal. 2.9 Ioh. 21.7 two Pillers as Saint Paul calleth them and he whom Iesus so loved one of the two II. The Motion We see what moved them Now let us see what they move and upon what warrant They move to have them destroyed by fire from heaven Their Warrant sicut fecit Elias whom they had seen a little before in the mount and who they are sure would never have endured it In their motion me thinks
judicium Iam. 2.13 Mercie had not been above all his workes even justice and all it had been evill with us Mercie it was Iustice it was not For then our owne good deserts might procure it as due to them and so we come about againe to find the first cause in our selves because we were this or that All commeth to one if it were our owne fore-sight it was not God and if it were our owne merit it was not He neither But for this I appeale to our selves For I verily think if we would but call to mind and heer now I would that every man would call to mind in what case he was for his soule to God-ward at that very time whither in state of sinne or of grace Sure if we did but returne to our hearts and there as Salomon speaketh cognoscere quisque plagam cordis sui every man feele how his heart beats 1. Reg 8.28 that heart of ours would soon tell us Best claime not by justice Best even confesse with Ieremie It was God and God's mercie without more adoe We were in consumpti if it were but our consuming sins 1. If but of what then was and may I not say still is consumed and wasted What huge summs in superfluitie not of belly and back and worse matters 2. Our time if but the consuming of it in ease and idlenesse and too well knowne fruits of them both 3. Of the Service of God that is quite consumed by most of us now fallen to but a sermon if that and how little like a Sermon we heare it and lesse I feare after regard it 4. Of God's Name that runns wast and our blessed SAVIOVR that is even peecemeale consumed in our mouthes by all manner oathes and execrations and that without any need at all These with other sinnes that fret like a moth and creep like a canker to the consuming of our soules we should find that as it was our enemie's purpose we should have beene consumed so it was our desert to have beene consumed and that it was His mercie onely we were not consumed This is the true cause God's mercie In which note these two how fitly it answereth and meets both with 1 our consuming and 2 with us 1. As the crueltie of man was the cause we should have been so full against it the mercie of God the cause we were not The true cause of our safetie God's mercie as of our destruction man's crueltie 2. Again to provide that being out of our consumption we fall not into presumption and so pluck a worse judgement upon us The mercie of God against our desert Our desert it was to have been His mercie it was we were not His justice for our deserts would have come upon us It was His mercie turned His justice from us upon them His justice would have subscribed the sumus His mercie it was that gave the Non and stayed it Glorie be to God and to his mercie for it Which mercie yeeldeth us three things to be observed 1 The number 2 the nature and 3 the propertie 1. The number that it is not misericordia but misericordiae not one but many His mercies 1 Their number even a pluralitie of them A multitude of them because a multitude of us They many because we many We many and our sinns many more and where sinnes are multiplied there a multiplicitie of mercies is needfull Ne fortè non sufficiant nobis vobis lest there be not enough for both Houses and for all three Estates in them Mat 25 9. For so is it to be wished there may be a representation of all His meâ—cies as that Assemblie is the representation of all the Realme that so there may be enough for all 2. But then of mercie the cause heer is set down another cause because His compassions faile not How hangs this together Thus the word 2 Their nature which heer is turned compassions in very deed properly signifieth the bowells It is to shew that not mercies nor a number of them at large from any place or any kind would serve for this worke but a certaine speciall kind of choise mercies was required and those are they that issue from the bowells misericordiae viscerum or viscera misericordiae which you will You shall find them together in some speciall works of God such as this was These are the choise for of all parts the bowells melt relent yeeld yerne soonest Consequently the mercies from them of all other the most tender and as I may say the mercie most mercifull The bâ—st 1 both because they are not drie but full of affection and come cheerfully An easie matter to discerne between a drie mercie and a mercie from the bowells 2 And because to mercie one may be enclined by somwhat from without when thâ—â— failes where are we then But the bowells are within Him and when we have brought the cause within Him we are safe Quando causam sumit de Se visceribus Suiâ— that mercie is best and yeeldeth the best comfort But in this word of the Prophet's there is yet more then bowells 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were enough for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are more are the bowells or vessells neerâ— the wombe neere the loynes In a word not viscera onely but parentum viscera the bowells of a father or mother those are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which adds more force a great deale See them in the parable Luk. 15 20. of the father towards his riotous lewd Sonne when he had consumed all vitiouslie his fatherly bowells of compassion failed him not though See them 2. Sam. 18 8. in the Storie In David toward his ungratious ympe Absalon that sought his crowne sought his life abused his Concubines in the sight of all Israël yet heare the bowells of a father Be good to the youth Absalon hurt him not use him welâ— for my sake 1. Reg. 3.26 See them in the better harlot of the twaine Out of her motherly bowells rather give away her childe quite renounced it rather then see it hurt This is mercie heere is compassion indeed ô paterna viscera miserationum when we have named them a multitude of such mercies as come from a father's bowells we have said as much as we can say or can be said And mention of this word is not unfiâ—t whither we regard them our enemies per quos itum est in viscera terrae in which place GOD 's bowells turned against them and toward us or wither we thinke that His bowells had pitie on our so many bowells as should have flowen about all the ayre over and light some in the streets some in the river some beyond it some I know not where Now that which maketh up all is the propertie last putt quia non dâ—ficiunt or which is all one non consumuntur 1 Their property faile not or as ye may read it consume not And
substantia 2. That cause is a Person a single or determinate substance of a Nature indued with reasâ—n It is not Res bruta velmuta no dumbe thing or without understanding is cause of them He speakes we heare saith Per Me. And His very last words before these Ver. 14. be I am understanding Against those that doe Iovi mensam ponere ascribe it to the Position of the starres Esa. 65.11 to this or that Planet in the Ascendent No it is not de luminibus they be no Persons Iac. 1.17 but de Patre luminum He is So a cause there is and no impersonall cause but Per Me a Person 3. Another person beside themselves 1 Reg. 1.5 Psal. 44 6. What Person Per Me regnant and that is not Per se regnant so another person it is besides themselves one different from them That they reigne is not by or from themselves but by or from some other besides Regnabo saith Adonijab but he fayled it would not be To teach him it is not Per se by their owne bow or sword nor Marte nor Arte they raigne And so to sacrifice to them It is not their owne place they sit in nor their owne power they execute Abac. 1.16 It is derived from another person Ipse est qui fecit nos non ipsi nos may they also say He it is that made us Ps. 100.3 and not we our selves A Person And another Person And who is that other Person Let me tell you this first It is but one Person 4. But one Person not many not many Per Me is the singular number It is not Per nos so it is not a plurality no â—ultitude they hold by That clayme is gone by Per Me one single person it is Per 〈◊〉 The other a Philosophicall conceit it came from from those that never had â—eard this Wisedome preach In this booke we finde not any Soveraigne power ever 〈◊〉 in any Body collective or derived from them This we find that God He is King Ps. 93.97.99 Dan. 4.14 Ier. 27.5 that the Kingdomes be His and to whom He will He giveth them That ever they came ouâ— of God's hand by any Per Me eny graunt into the People's hands to bestow that we fiâ—d not One Person it is I aske then this one Person who he is 5. That person neither man nor Angell this I finde at the XXIV ver That whosâ—â—ver he is He was when there were yet no Abyssi no depths nor no mountaines vpon the Earth nor the Earth it selfe He was before all these I find againe at the XXVII 〈◊〉 When the Heavens were spread a decree given to the Sea the foundations of the Earth 〈◊〉 laid He was there a Worker together with God Was at the making of all was â—â—â—selfe Maker of all So neither Man nor Angell they were not so ancient they 〈◊〉 nothing they were created themselves 〈◊〉 sileat omnis caro let all flesh keep silence And Omnis Spiritus too Zach. 2.13 in this point 〈◊〉 Me. Neither the spirit that said of the Kingdoms of the Earth All these are mine 〈◊〉 he that though he have hornes like the lambe yet speaketh words like the Dragon Mat. 4.9 Apoc. 13.11 These foure syllables are a supersedeas to all bookes or booke-makers for any man's Per Me any man's claime Acts 10.16 Heb. 5.2 It is no man And if no man then no Pope for he also is a man as Saint Peter saith He was And Cireâ—ndatus compassed with infirmities Saint Paul saith he is Sure he made not the Earth himselfe is made of earth The Abyssus the deep was made yer he ascended out of it the seven hills long before he sate on them Apoc. 13.1.17.9 He is not this Per Me they hold not of him they hold of Per Me that created heaven and earth And this Per Me will beare no Per alium besides He that must say Per Me Reges must also say Per Me Coelum Terra None but he that can say the one can say the other Therefore none with Him in this Per. None to step forth and rejoyne Etiam Per me and by me too Vnlesse he can say Etiam Per me coelum Terra Per alium then hath no place heer But might not the High-Priest claime deputation under Per Me For that there is a ruled case of it heer in him that was the setter downe of this Salomon Had the High-Priest had Abiathar ever a Per me for him It is well knowne his Per me went with Adonijah against Salomon His Per me if it could would have deposed Salomon But so farre was it from him to say Per me Salomon 1. Reg 1.7 that contrary Salomon might say and did Per me Abiathar Depose Salomon he could not deposed he was himself Non nobis Domine non nobis 1. Reg. 1.27 Psal. 115.1 would he have said It was Per Me the wrong way with him 6. But God Well then being neither man nor Angell since they made not the world God it must be of force There is in the reasonable nature no other person left but He And He it is He the partie that speaks By Me Kings I am the Cause that Kings reigne Then Reges quod sunt per Deum sunt Kings what they are by God they are In XIII ad RoÌ„ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostome and a speciall dignifying of their states it is that so they are It was we find wont to be the usuall style yea even of Popes themselves writing to Kings to wish them health in Eo per quem Reges regnant in Him by whom Kings do reigne And that was neither Pope nor People but God alone whose proper style that is 7. God the Sonne By God then I aske yet further by what Person of the God-Head so farr we have warrant to go by this Text. It is Wisdome whose speech all this is No created wisdome but the Wisdome of God creating all things it selfe uncreate that is the Sonne of God For whom Salomon heer calleth Wisdome the same in the thirtieth Chapter after he tearmeth the Sonne What is His name speaking of God or What is His Sonn's name Chap 30.4 By Him by that Person do they reigne And now at the last are we come to the right Per Me. 1 As the middle cause Per the praeposition would teach us so much if there were nothing els Per dicit causam mediam it designeth a middle cause And He is the middle Person of the great Cause Causa causarum A Deo saith Saint Paul Per Me saith Salomon from God the Father Rom. 1â— 1 by God the Sonne We may know it It is CHRIST 's praepâ—sition this ever Per CHRISTVM Dominum nostrum â— As man And by Him most properly for in that He was to be man all the benefitts which were to come from
God to man were to come by Him He the Per of all among which this one of Regall Regiment is a principall one â— As Wisdome By Him againe Because He is Wisdome which I reckon worth a note that the Per of Kingdomes whereby they consist is not Power so properly the Attribute of the first as Wisdome the Attribute of the second Person they stand rather by Wisdome then force Besides Sapientis est ordinare saith the great Philosopher the proper worke of wisdome is to order And what is Anarchie but a disordered Chaos of Confusion Or what is Rule but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a setting and holding of all in good order This being Wisdome's proper worke this Per is most properly His. By Him yet again because on Him hath the Father conferred all the kingdomes of the Earth we read it Psal. II. We see Him Apoc. XIX with many crownes on his head â— As a â—ing Psal. 2.8 Apoc 19 12. Psal. 47.7 Psal 1â—â— 13 Meet then it was that the Kings of the severall quarters of the Earth should be by Him that is Rex universae terrae That the Kings of the several Ages of the world should be by Him who is Rex saculorum whose Dominion endureth throughout all 〈◊〉 a word Vt utrobique regnetur per Christum And that all Crownes both 〈◊〉 of glory in Heaven and the Crownes of highest dignitie heer on 〈◊〉 should be holden of Him all as all are Thus by this time we see 〈◊〉 Me who He is Now returne I to Per There is much in the right taking of this word The Manner Per. What Per 〈◊〉 There is a Per of permission as we say in the Latine Per me licet You may 〈◊〉 me Good leave have you I hinder you not Or as in English By Him 1 Not by Permission that 〈◊〉 him they came and He stopped them not Is this the Per Indeed some 〈◊〉 thing is blundered at as if God only permitted them And scarce that Tâ—us comes one of them forth with the matter and makes it the very first words of 〈◊〉 The Priest he is à Solo Deo but the King he is ex importunitate populi 〈◊〉 people importun'd God and He yeelded with much adoe aegrè his owne word 〈◊〉 His Will And so we must interpret Per Me that is Contrae me By me that is 〈◊〉 against my mind it is that Kings reigne but I beare them or beare with them Vpon 〈◊〉 matter this it is They would have Kings to be by Toleration onely And so by that â—er are all the evils and mischiefes in the world And are not Kings much beholden to these men thinke you But this Per we reject utterly It cannot be For though the Latin Per will â—eare this sense the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will by no meanes the phrase the â—me of the tongue will in no wise endure it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will admitt no permission nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neyther Away then with that How take we Per then What need we stand long about it having another Per 2 But by Commission Iohn 1.3 aâ—d of the same person to patterne it by Omnia per Ipsum facta sunt saith Saint Iohn â—nd the same saith Salomon by and by after in this Chapter Then as By Him all â—â—â—ngs made there so By Him Kings reigne heer The World and the Government of tâ—e world by the same Per both one and the same cause institutive of both That was 〈◊〉 by bare permission I trust no more these Per Ipsum they and if Per Ipsum per Verbum quia Ipse est Verbum For 3. By the Word how were tâ—ey the creatures made a Psal 146.5 Dixit facta sunt By the Word by Him And how these Kings By the same b Psal. 82.6 Ego dixi Even by the same that He himselfe c Psal. 110.1 Dixit hominus Domino meo As He then they d Iohn 10.35 And so doth CHRIST himselfe interpret 〈◊〉 dixi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Word came to them And what manner word was 〈◊〉 e Rom. 13.2 Saint Paul telleth us it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ordinance a word of high authority the Imperiall Decrees have no other name but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This now then is more than a 〈◊〉 of permission A Per of Commission it is A speciall warrant an ordinance Imperiâ—â—â— by which Kings reigne â—y Him then By what of Him by His VVill 4 By his Will Haec est voluntas Dei faith f 1 Pet 2.15 Saint 〈◊〉 and tibi in bonum saith g Rom. 13.4 1 Exprâ—ssed by his Word Saint Paul for thy good His will then His good 〈◊〉 toward men Expressed by his word Word of power we have heard And word of wisedome for He is VVisdome And word of Love for even h 1 Chr. 9.8 2 By His deed 1 Cor. 15.10 Because God loved 〈◊〉 did He set Salomon King over them Expressed by His word His word onely Nay His deed too His best deed His 〈◊〉 Dedi vobis Regem Gift of grace as even they acknowledge in their styles that 〈◊〉 Dei sunt quod sunt Given by Him sent by Him i Iob 86.7 Placed in their Thrones by 〈◊〉 k Psal. 18.39 Vested with their robes by Him l Psal. 8â— 20 Girt with their swords by Him m Psal. 21.3 Annoynted 〈◊〉 Crowned by Him All these By Him 's we have toward the understanding of 〈◊〉 Me so By Him as none are or can be By Him more â—â—pressed by His word and dâ—ed onely 3 By His Name Nay there is nothing but his Name 〈◊〉 name too so by His name as his very chiefest name CHRIST He 〈…〉 to them And that is not without mysterie to shew their neer alliance 〈◊〉 I have said Ye are Gods which of the persons that are each of them God it 〈◊〉 Filij Altissimi Sonnes of the most High Sonne Psal. 82.6 that is CHRIST 's name He the Person then to whom they are beholden He by whom they are To shew they are Sonnes and haue their descent properly from Him Apoc. 19.16 Rex Regum is 〈◊〉 His thigh and Meâ—â—hisedek His first King and his Type is Heb. 7.3 brought in without Father and without Mother to shew that Kings are the Generation of God 5. By Him and In Him By Him Nay more than By Him if you looke better upon the word There is no By in the Hebrew and yet the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But that in true and exact proprietie rendered iâ— In Me not By Me The meaning is that they are first in Him and so come foorth from Him And yâ—t so from Him as still they be in Him both p Esay 62.3 Corona Regis saâ—e Eâ—â—y and q Ch. 21 1. Cor Regis saith Salomon their
neck of them with a non sunt vires and all is marrd Heer in the Text how many Countries wan Senacherib How neere was he let come to Ierusalem even to Libna within lesse then a dozen mile Newes came sodenly Verse 9. of the Blackmoore's invading his Countrie back he goes had not the power to stirre one foot further How farre was the Invincible Navie suffered to come sailing in LXXXVIII to cast anchor even before the Thame's mouth every houre ready to deliver her children ashore In an instant a fatall faintnesse fell upon them their strength and courage taken from them about they turned like a wheele fled and had not the power to looke behind them But non erant vires pariendi we all know God loves thus to do and then to do it cum venerunt ad partum His glorie is the greater He can let it come so nigh and then put it by let it alone till then and then do it 2. On our parts 2. There is another on our parts For easie account and but easie would have been made if they had been taken at first no great matter that That we might make no easy accompt we scaped not easily but hard and scant so to make our escape the stranger and our joy the more that it went so farre and came so neere and yet missed us Of it selfe it is best Vt malum ubi primùm contingit ibi moriatur Evill be crushed at first the Serpent's head troden at his first peeping in or putting it out But GOD doth not alwaies that which in it selfe is best to do but that which will best affect us and we take in best part And so did He this thereby to begett in us and bring forth of us a new birth of praise and thankes according 4. The infereÌ„ce For now we have done with this degenerate birth of theirs we are to stay a little and see if we can gett another a more kindly birth come from our selves For barren we may not be this deliverie from theirs is to make us delivered of another we to bring forth somewhat for their not bringing forth What is that The Text will leade us to it if we looke but over to the next verse For there when eny evill travaile threatens us we find by Ezechia the kindly birth then Verse 4. on our parts is Tu ergo leva orationem a levie of prayers Now that being turned away and turned away in a manner so miraculous the naturall kind yssue then is another Tu ergò Tu ergò leva gratiarum actionem a new levy of thanks a new leva quia levatus for His easing of us of so heavie a chance like to light so heavie on us At the present sure while it was fresh we were ravished with it for thâ— time we seemed to be even with child as if we would bring forth somwhat and somwhat we did bring forth even an Act that we would from yeare to yeare as upon this Day bring forth and be delivered of thanks and praise for this deliverie for ever And heer we are now to act that we then enacted even to traveile with this new birth God send us strength well to be delivered of it For so shall we double our joy 1 One ioy for the turning away of that miscreant birth of theirs 2 another for the welcomming this of our owne This birth we now traveile with is a good and a blessed birth Blessing and glorie and praise and thanks are in bonis all all good in us if any thing be good in us â—he best fruicts of our nature when it is at the very best And if they be brought forth it is as it should be and as God would have it But if which GOD forbid they should either not come or when they be come our strength faile and they not brought forth then are we at an after-deale againe then would not this day be so joyfull for the mis-going of the other as sorrowfull for the abortion of this Our joy at least not so entire but mixt with sorrow for there is sorrow even to death if we goe with so good a fruit and it come to the birth and there perish if we shall but make an Act and doe no act upon it We seeme to sorrow at nothing more then that many a good purpose there is and many a vow made in time of need sicknesse or adversitie so many as it is by Divines held There be mo good purposes and that by odds in hell then there be in heaven but abortive purposes and vowes all For ô that we were but the one halfe of that we then promise to be when we want and would have somewhat O then how thankfull we would be how never forget how fast the children come to the birth then And when we have what we would our vigor quailes presently our strength is gone from us non sunt vires pariendi For all the world seeth nothing we bring forth Alas how many aborcements are there daily of these Children No where may this Verse be taken up No where so oft so fitly applied No where so used upon better cause then this upon the failing of good desires and intents That this we may doe to take us to leva orationem let this be our last To lift up our prayer first against such unnaturall births as that was the Prophet Hosee's prayer Hosee 9.14 Give them ô Lord what wilt thou give them a barren womb and drie brests There was no strength for that birth of theirs It was well there was not Thanks be to GOD there was not Thanks be to GOD for non erant vires And Ne sint vires say I Never let there be strength for eny like this birth Never strength but weake hands and feeble â—nees for eny such enterprise Ne vires pariendi Nay ne veniant ad partum not thither not so farre Nay ne ad conceptionem Nay then ne ad generationem if it may be If it may not but they scape thither to the birth then lift up your last prayer and let this be it and let it come up to heaven into GOD 's presence and enter in even to His eares for the aequitie of it in all such designes that pariens may be sine viribus and partus sine vitâ the mothers no strength and the Children no life But child and mother perish both as this day they did And better so they perish then such a number then a whole countrie perish by their meanes This a Ne veniant and a Ne sint vires against theirs But for ours for our praise and thanks Veniant Let them come and Sint ô sint vires and let there be strength when they come for such for so good a birth Ever be there strength to kindnesse to thankfulnesse to the accomplishment thereof whereto we are in dutie so deeply bound Strength ever to all honest
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
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
heard of no not among the heathen Last this was now not in a corner but all over the land Mica was at Mount Epâ—raim in the middst Gibea was at one end and Dan at the other So the middst and both ends all were wrapped in the same confusion But what shall this be suffered and no remedy sought GOD forbid First the Eye error in the eye is harme enough and order must be taken even for that For men doe not erre in judgement but with hazard of their soules very requisite therefore that men be travailed with â—hat they may see their owne blindnesse Then that the councel be followed Apoc. 3. that eye-salve be bought of him and applied to the eyes Revel 3 1â— that that may seeme to them right that is so indeed This if it may be is best But if they be strong ly conceited of their owne sight and marveil at CHRIST as they Iohn 9.40 What are we blind trow and will not endure any to come neere their eyes if we cannot cure their eyes what shall we not hold their hands neither Yes in any wise So long as they but see though they see amisse they hurt none but themselves it is but suo damno to their own hurt and that is enough nay too much it may be as much as their soules be worth But that is all if it stay there and goe further then the eye But when they see amisse and that grossely what shall their hand be suffered to follow their eye â—heir hand to be as desperate in mis-doing as their eye darke in mistaking to the detriment of others and the scandall of all That may not be We cannot pull mens eyes out of their heads nor their opinions neither but shall we not pinion their hands or binde them to the peace Yes whatsoever become of rectum in oculis order must be taken with fecit or els farewell all Foule rule we are like to have even for all the world such as was heere in Israel We see then the maladie II. The cause 1 Non erat Rex more then time we sought out a remedie for it That shall we best doe if we know the cause The cause is heere sett downe and this is it Non erat Rex Is this the cause We would perhapps imagine many causes besides but GOD passeth by them all and layeth it upon none but this Non erat Rex And seeing he hath assigned that onely for the cause we will not be wiser then he but rest our selves in it The rather for that Ex ore inimici we have as much For these miscreants whom He sets on worke to bring Realmes to confusion and to root out Religion that every one may do that is good in their own eyes to this point they all drive Vt ne sit REX Away with the King that is their only way Heaven and hell both are agreed that is the cause To make short worke then If the cause be There is no King Let there be one that is the remedie A good King will helpe all If it be of absolute necessity that neither Mica for all his wealth nor Dan for all their forces nor Gibea for all their multitude doe what they list And if the misse of the Kings were the cause that all this were amisse no better way to cease it no better way to keepe Religion from Idolatrie mens lives and goods in safety their vessells in honour then by Kings No more effectuall barr to fecit quisque quod rectum in oculis then Rex in Israël This will better appeare if we take it in sunder There was no King He doth not charge them with a flat Anarchie that there was no Estates no kind of government among them but this onely there was no King What then there were Priests would not they serve It seemed they would not Phinees was to looke to their eyes But somewhere there be some such as Hosee speakes of Populus hic quasi qui contradicit Sacerdoti Osc. 4.4 This People will looke to Phinee's eyes Set their Priests and Preachers to Schoole and not learne of them but learne them Divinitie The Iudges are to looke to their Hands But there are too somewhere such as he speaketh of CHAP. VII VER VII Devorabunt Iudices such Osc. 7.7 as if it take them in the head will not sticke to supp up and swallow downe their Iudges specially inter arma How then shall we have a Militarie Government Nay that is too violent and if it lye long the remedy proves as ill as the disease To me a plaine evidence that though all these were all these were not perfect There was one yet missing that was to do this to better purpose then yet it had been done and till he were had they were not where they should be This is then GOD 's meanes We cannot say his onely meanes in that we see there are States that subsist without them but this vve may say His best meanes The best saith the Philosopher for Order Peace Strength Steadinesse and proves them all one by one But best say the Fathers for that had there beene a better then this GOD would not last have resolved on this This is the most perfect he last brought them to Hither til they came He changed their governement From Iosua a Captaine to the Iudges From the Iudges to Eli and Samuel Priests But heer when he had settled them he changed no more And this Act of GOD in this change is enough to shew where it is not there is a defect certainly such a State we may repute defective Besides you shall observe Of those three estates which swayeth most that in a manner doth over-topp the reâ—t and like a foregrowen member depriveth the other of their proportion of growth The world hath seene it in two already and shall dayly more and more see it in the third Requisite therefore there be One over all that is none of all but a common Father to all that may peize and keepe them all in equilibrio that so all the Estates may be evenly ballanced This Act then of GOD in this change is enough to teach that this Non erat Rex is a defect certainly and where there is not one we may report the estate for deficient At least thus farr that GOD yet may change it into a more perfect as he did his owne And againe this that it is not conformed to the governement simply the most perfect of all the governement of the whole when as the inferior bodies are ruled by the Superiour so a multitude by unitie that is all by one Thus farr on these words There was no King howsoever other States there were Non Rex in Israel The next point is No King in Israel That this is not noted as a defect in grosse or at large but even in Israel GOD'S owne chosen people It is a want not in Edom or Canaan but
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