that 's the use which we have of the North in this place The consideration of our West our low estate that we are but earth but red earth dyed red by our selves and that imaginary white which appeares so to us is but a white of leprosie This West enwraps us in heavy clouds of murmuring in this life that we cannot live so freely as beasts doe and in clouds of desperation for the next life that we cannot dye so absolutely as beasts doe we dye all our lives and yet we live after our deaths These are our clouds And then the North shakes these clouds The North Winde driveth away the raine says Solomon There is a North in our text that drives all those teares from our eyes Christ calls upon the North as well as the South to blow upon his Garden and to diffuse the perfumes thereof Adversity as well as prosperity opens the bounty of God unto us and oftentimes better But that 's not the benefit of the North in our present consideration But this is it that first our sunne sets in the West The Eastern dignity which we received in our first Creation as we were the worke of the whole Trinity falls under a Western cloud that that Trinity made us but earth And then blowes our North and scatters this cloud That this earth hath a nobler forme then any other part or limbe of the world For we are made by a fairer pattern by a nobler Image by a higher likenesse Faciamus Though we make but a man Let us make him in our Image after our likenesse The variety which the holy Ghost uses here in the pen of Moses hath given occasion to divers to raise divers observations upon these words which seem divers Image and likenesse as also in the variety of the pharse For it is thus conceived and laid in our Image and then after our likenesse I know it is a good rule that Damascen gives Parva parva non sunt ex quibus magna proveniunt Nothing is to be neglected as little from which great things may arise If the consequence may be great the thing must not be thought little No Jod in the Scripture shall perish therefore no Jod is superfluous If it were superfluous it might perish Words and lesse particles then words have busied the whole Church In the Councell of Ephesus where Bishops in a great number excommunicated Bishops in a greater Bishop against Bishop and Patriarch against Patriarch in which case when both parties had made strong parties in Court and the Emperor forbare to declare himselfe on either side for a time he was told that he refused to assent to that which six thousand Bishops had agreed in the strife was but for a word whether the blessed Virgin might be called Deipara the mother of God for Christipara the mother of Christ which Christ all agree to be God Nestorius and all his party agreed with Cyrill that she might be In the Councell of Chalcedon the difference was not so great as for a word composed of syllables It was but for a syllable whether Ex or In. The Heretiques condemned then confessed Christ to be Ex duabus naturis to be composed of two natures at first but not to be in duabus naturis not to consist of two natures after and for that In they were thrust out In the councell of Nice it was not so much as a syllable made of letters For it was but for one letter whether Homoousion or Homousion was the issue Where the question hath not been of divers words nor syllables nor letters but onely of the place of words what tempestuous differences have risen How much Sola fides and fides sola changes the case Nay where there hath been no quarrell for precedency for transposing of words or syllables or letters where there hath not been so much as a letter in question how much doth an accent vary a sense An interrogation or no interrogation will make it directly contrary All Christian expositors read those words of Cain My sin is greater then can be pardoned positively and so they are evident words of desperation The Jews read them with an interrogation Are my sinnes greater then can be pardoned And so they are words of compunction and repentance The Prophet Micah says that Bethlehem is a small place the Evangelist Saint Matthew says no small place An interrogation in Micahs mouth reconciles it Art thou a small place amounts to that thou art not Sounds voices words must not be neglected For Christs forerunner Iohn Baptist qualified himselfe no otherwise He was but a voice And Christ himselfe is Verbum the Word is the name even of the Sonne of God No doubt but Statesmen and magistrates finde often the danger of having suffered small abuses to passe uncorrected We that see State businesse but in the glasse of story and cannot be shut out of Chronicles see there upon what little objects the eye and the jealousie of the State is oftentimes forced to bend it selfe We know in whose times in Rome a man might not weep he might not sigh he might not looke pale he might not be sicke but it was informed against as a discontent as a murmuring against the present government and an inclination to change And truly many times upon Damascens true ground though not always well applied Parva non sunt parva nothing may be thought little where the consequence may prove great In our own Spheare in the Church we are sure it is so Great inconveniencies grew upon small tolerations Therefore in that businesse which occasioned all that trouble which we mentioned before in the Councell of Ephesus when Saint Cyrill writ to the Clergy of his Dioces about it at first he says prastiterat abstinere it had been better these questions had not been raised But says he Si his nugis nos adoriantur if they vex us with these impertinencies these trifles And yet these which were but trifles at first came to occasion Councells and then to divide Councell against Councell and then to force the Emperour to take away the power of both Councells and govern in Councell by his Vicar generall a secular Lord sent from Court And therefore did some of the Ancients particularly Philastrius cry down some opinions for Heresies which were not matters of faith but of Philosophy and even in Philosophy truly held by them who were condemned for heretiques and mistaken by their Judges that condemned them Little things were called in question left great things should passe unquestioned And some of these upon Damascens true ground still true in the rule but not always in the application Parva non sunt parva nothing may be thought little where the consequence may be great Descend we from those great Spheares the State and the Church into a lesser that is the Conscience of particular men and consider the danger of exposing those vines to little Foxes of leaving small
compelled to come as it is expressed in the Gospell when the Master of the feast sends into the streets and to the hedges to compell blind and lame to come in to his feast A fountaine breaks out in the wildernesse but that fountaine cares not whether any Man come to fetch water or no A fresh and fit gale blowes upon the Sea but it cares not whether the Mariners hoise saile or no A rose blowes in your garden but it calls you not to smell to it Christ Jesus hath done all this abundantly he hath bought an Hospitall he hath stored it with the true balme of Palestine with his bloud which he shed there and he calls upon you all to come for it Hoe every one that thirsteth you that have no money come buy Wine and Milke without money eate that which is good and let your soules delight in fatnesse and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David This Hospitall this way and meanes to cure spirituall diseases was all that Christ had for himselfe but he improved it he makes it a Church and a glorious Church which is our last consideration Quis sinis to what end he bestowed all this cost His end was that he might make it to himselfe a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle but that end must be in the end of all here it cannot be Cum tot a dicat ecclesia quamdiu hîc est Dimitte debita nostra non utique hîc est sine macula et ruga Since as yet the whole Church says forgive us our Trespasses the Church as yet is not without spots or wrinkles The wrinkles are the Testimonies of our age that is our sinne derived from Adam and the spots are the sinnes which we contract our selves and of these spots and wrinkles we cannot be delivered in this world And therefore the Apostle says here that Christ hath bestowed all this cost on this purchase ut sisteret sibi Ecclesiam that he might setle such a glorious and pure Church to himselfe first ut sisteret that he might setle it which can onely be done in heaven for here in Earth the Church will always have earthquakes Opartet haereses esse stormes and schismes must necessarily be the Church is in a warfare the Church is in a pilgrimage and therefore here is no setling And then he doth it ut sisteret sibi to setle it to himselfe for in the tyranny of Rome the Church was in some sort setled things were carried quietly enough for no Man durst complaine but the Church was setled all upon the Vicar and none upon the Parson the glory of the Bishop of Rome had eclipsed and extinguished the glory of Christ Iesus In other places we have seen the Church setled so as that no man hath done or spoken any thing against the government thereof but this may have been a setling by strong hand by severed discipline and heavy Lawes we see where Princes have changed the Religion the Church may be setled upon the Prince or setled upon the Prelates that is be serviceable to them and be ready to promote and further any purpose of theirs and all this while not be setled upon Christ this purpose ut sisteret sibi to setle such a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle holy to himselfe is reserved for the Triumphant time when she shall be in possession of that beauty which Christ foresaw in her long before when he said Thou art all faire my love and there is no spot in thee and when we that shall be the Children of the Mariage Chamber◠shall be glad and rejoice and give glory to him because the Mariage of the Lambe is come and his wife hath made her selfe ready that is we that are of that Church shall be so clothed as that our own clothes shall not defile us againe as Io◠complaines that they doe as long as we are in this world for though I make me never so cleane yet mine own clothes defile me againe as it is in that place But yet Beloved Christ hath not made so improvident a bargaine as to give so great a rate himselfe for a Church so farre in reversion as till the day of Judgement That he should enter into bonds for this payment from all eternity even in the eternall decree between the Father and him that he should really pay this price his precious bloud for this Church one thousand six hundred years agoe and he should receive no glory by this Church till the next world◠Here was a long lease here were many lives the lives of all the men in the world to be served before him But it is not altogether so for he gave himselfe that he might settle such a Church then a glorious and a pure Church but all this while the Church is building in heaven by continuall accesse of holy Soules which come thither and all the way he workes to that end He sanctifies it and cleanses it by the washing of water through the word as we find in our Text. He therefore stays not so long for our Sanctification but that we have meanes of being sanctified here Christ stays not so long for his glory but that he hath here a glorious Gospell his Word and mysterious Sacraments here Here then is the writing and the Seale the Word and the Sacrament and he hath given power and commandement to his Ministers to deliver both writing and Seale the Word and Baptisme to his children This Sacrament of Baptisme is the first It is the Sacrament of inchoation of Initiation The Sacrament of the Supper is not given but to them who are instructed and presum'd to understand all Christian duties and therefore the Word if we understand the Word for the Preaching of the Word may seeme more necessary at the administration of this Sacrament then at the other Some such thing seems to be intimated in the institution of the Sacraments In the institution of the Supper it is onely said Take and eate and drinke and doe that in remembrance of me and it is onely said that they sand a Pslame and s◠departed In the institution of Baptisme there is more solemnity more circumstance for first it was instituted after Christs Resurrection and then Christ proceeds to it with that majesticall preamble All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth◠and therefore upon that title he gives power to his Apostles to joine heaven and earth by preaching and by baptisme but here is more then singing of a Psalme for Christ commands them first to teach and then to baptize and then after the commandement of Baptisme he refreshes that commandement againe of teaching them whom they baptized to observe all things that he had commanded them I speake not this as though Baptisme were uneffectuall without a Sermon S. Angustines words Accedat yerbum fiat Sacramentum when the Word is
of Saint Iohn and another by Saint Marke to the memory of Saint Peter whilest yet both Saint John and Saint Peter were alive Howsoever it is certaine that the purest and most innocent times even the infancy of the Primitive Church found this double way of expressing their devotion in this particular of building Churches first that they built them onely to the honour and glory of God without giving him any partner and then they built them for the conserving of the memory of those blessed servants of God who had sealed their profession with their bloud and at whose Tombs God had done such Miracles as these times needed for the propagation of his Church They built their Churches principally for the glory of God but yet they added the names of some of his blessed servants and Martyrs for so says he who as he was Peters successor so he is the most sensible feeler and most earnest and powerfull promover and expresser of the dignities of Saint Peter of all the Fathers speaking of Saint Peters Church Beato Petri Basilica quae uni Deo vero vivo dicata est Saint Peters Church is dedicated to the onely living God They are things compatible enough to beare the name of a Saint and yet to be dedicated to God There the bodies of the blessed Martyrs did peacefully attend their glorification There the Histories of the Martyrs were recited and proposed to the Congregation for their example and imitation There the names of the Martyrs were inserted into the publique prayers and liturgies by way of presenting the thanks of the Congregation to God for having raised so profitable men in the Church and there the Church did present their prayers to God for those Martyrs that God would hasten their glory and finall consummation in reuniting their bodies and soules in a joyfull resurrection But yet though this divers mention were made of the Saints of God in the house of God Non Martyres ipsi sed Deus â—orum nobis est Deus onely God and not those Martyrs is our God we and they serve all one Master we dwell all in one house in which God hath appointed us severall services Those who have done their days work God hath given them their wages and hath given them leave to goe to bed they have laid down their bodies in peace to sleep there till the Sunne rise againe till the Sunne of grace and glory Christ Iesus appeare in judgment we that are yet left to work and to watch we must goe forward in the services of God in his house with that moderation and that equality as that we worship onely our Master but yet despise not our fellow servants that are gone before us That we give to no person the glory of God but that we give God the more glory for having raised such servants That we acknowledge the Church to be the house onely of God and that we admit no Saint no Martyr to be a lointenant with him but yet that their memory may be an encouragement yea and a seale to us that that peace and glory which they possesse belongs also unto us in reversion and that therefore we may cheerfully gratulate their present happinesse by a devout commemoration of them with such a temper and evennesse as that we neither dishonor God by attributing to them that which is inseparably his nor dishonor them in taking away that which is theirs in removing their Names out of the Collects and prayers of the Church or their Monuments and memorialls out of the body of the Church for those respects to them the first Christian founders of Churches did admit in those pure times when Illa obsequia ornamenta memoriarum nâ—n sacrificia mortuorum when those devotions in their names were onely commemorations of the dead not sacrifices to the dead as they are made now in the Romane Church when Bellarmine will needs falsifie Chrysostome to read Adoramus monumenta in stead of Adornamus and to make that which was but an Adorning an adoring of the Tombes of the Martyrs This then was in all times a religious work an acceptable testimony of devotion to build God a house to contribute something to his outward glory The goodnesse and greatnesse of which work appears evidently and shines gloriously even in those severall names by which the Church was called and styled in the writings and monuments of the Ancient Fathers and the Ecclesiastique story It may serve to our edification at least and to the axalting of our devotion to consider some few of them First then the Church was called Ecclesia that is a company a Congregation That whereas from the time of Iohn Baptist the kingdome of heaven suffers violence and every violent Man that is every earnest and zealous and spiritually valiant Man may take hold of it we may be much more sure of doing so in the Congregation Quando agâ—â—ine factâ— Deum obsidemus when in the whole body we Muster our forces and besiege God For here in the congregation not onely the kingdome of heaven is fallen into our hands The kingdome of heaven is amongst you as Christ says but the King of heaven is fallen into our hands When two or three are gathered together in my Name I will be in the midst of you not onely in the midst of us to encourage us but in the midst of us to be taken by us to be bound by us by those hands those covenants those contracts those rich and sweet promises which he hath made and ratified unto us in his Gospell A second name of the Church 〈◊〉 in use was Dominicum The Lords possession It is absolutely it is intirely his And therefore as to shorten and contract the possession and inheritance of God the Church so much as to confine the Church onely within the obedience of Rome as the Donatists imprisoned it in Afrique or to change the Landmarks of Gods possession and inheritance which is the Church either to set up new works of outward prosperity or of personall and Locall succession of Bishops or to remove the old and true marks which are the Word and Sacraments as this is Injuria Dominico mystico a wrong to the mysticall body of Christ the Church so is it Injuria Dominico materiali an injury to the Materiall body of Christ sacrilegiously to dilapidate to despoile or to demolish the possession of the Church and so farre to remove the marks of Gods inheritance as to mingle that amongst your temporall revenues that God may never have nor ever distinguish his owne part againe And then to passe faster over these names It is called Domus Dei Gods dwelling house Now his most glorious Creatures are but vehicula Dei they are but chariots which convey God and bring him to our sight The Tabernacle it selfe was but Mobilis domus and Ecclesia portatilis a house without a foundation a running a progresse house but
the Church is his standing house there are his offices fixed there are his provisions which fat the Soule of Man as with marrow and with fatnesse his precious bloud and body there work his seales there beats his Mint there is absolution and pardon for past sinnes there is grace for prevention of future in his Sacraments But the Church is not onely Domus Dei but Basilica not onely his house but his Court he doth not onely dwell there but reigne there which multiplies the joy of his houshold servants The Lord reigneth let all the earth rejoyce yea let the multitude of the Islands be glad thereof That the Church was usually called Martyrium that is a place of Confession where we open our wounds and receive our remedy That it was called Oratorium where we might come and aske necessary things at Gods hands all these teach us our severall duties in that place and they adde to their spirituall comfort who have been Gods instruments for providing such places as God may be glorified in and the godly benefited in all these ways But of all Names which were then usually given to the Church the name of Temple seems to be most large and significant as they derive it à Tuendo for Tueri signifies both our beholding and contemplating God in the Church and it signifies Gods protecting and defending those that are his in his Church Tueri embraces both And therefore though in the very beginning of the Primitive Church to depart from the custome and language and phrase of the Iews and Gentiles as farre as they could they did much abstain from this name of Temple and of Priest so that till Ireneus time some hundred eighty years after Christ we shall not so often find those words Temple or Priest yet when that danger was overcome when the Christian Church and doctrine was established from that time downward all the Fathers did freely and safely call the Church the Temple and the Ministers in the Church Priests as names of a religious and pious signification where before out of a loathnesse to doe or say any thing like the Iews or Gentiles where a concurrence with them might have been misinterpretable and of ill consequence they had called the Church by all those other names which we passed through before and they called their Priests by the name of Elders Presbyteros but after they resumed the use of the word Temple againe as the Apostle had given a good patterne who to expresse the principall holinesse of the Saints of God he chooses to doe it in that word ye are the Temples of the holy Ghost which should encline us to that moderation that when the danger of these ceremonies which corrupt times had corrupted is taken away we should returne to a love of that Antiquity which did purely and harmelesly induce them when there is no danger of abuse there should be no difference for the use of things in themselves indifferent made necessary by the just commandement of lawfull authority Thus then you see as farre as the narrownesse of the time will give us leave to expresse it the generall manner of the best times to declare devotion towards God to have been in appropriating certaine places to his worship And since it is so in this particular history of Iacobs proceeding in my text I may be hold to invert these words of David Nisi Deus aedificaverit domum unlesse the Lord doe build the house in vaine doe the labourers work thus much as to say Nisi Domino aedificaveritis domum except thou build a house for the Lord in vaine dost thou goe about any other buildings or any other businesse in this world I speake not meerly literally of building Materiall Chappell 's yet I would speake also to further that but I speake principally of building such a Church as every man may build in himselfe for whensoever we present our prayers and devotions deliberately and advisedly to God there we consecrate that place there we build a Church And therefore beloved since every master of a family who is a Bishop in his house should call his family together to humble and powre out their soules to God let him consider that when he comes to kneele at the side of his table to pray he comes to build a Church there and therefore should sanctifie that place with a due and penitent consideration how voluptuously he hath formerly abused Gods blessings at that place how superstitiously and idolatrously he hath flatter'd and humour'd some great and usefull ghests invited by him to that place how expensively he hath served his owne ostentation and vain-glory by excessive feasts at that place whilest Lazarus hath lien panting and gasping at the gate and let him consider what a dangerous Mockery this is to Christ Iesus if he pretend by kneeling at that table fashionally to build Christ a Church by that solemnity at the table side and then crucifie Christ again by these sinnes when he is sat at the table When thou kneelest down at thy bed side to shut up the day at night or to beginne it in the morning thy servants thy children thy little flock about thee there thou buildest a Church too And therefore sanctifie that place wash it with thy tears and with a repentant consideration That in that bed thy children were conceived in sinne that in that bed thou hast turned mariage which God afforded thee for remedy and physique to voluptuosnesse and licenciousnesse That thou hast made that bed which God gave thee for rest and for reparation of thy weary body to be as thy dwelling and delight and the bed of idlenesse and stupidity Briefly you that are Masters continue in this building of Churches that is in drawing your families to pray and praise God and sanctifie those severall places of bed and board with a right use of them And for you that are servants you have also foundations of Churches in you if you dedicate all your actions consecrate all your services principally to God and respectively to them whom God hath placed over you But principally let all of all sorts who present themselves at this table consider that in that receiving his body and his bloud every one doth as it were conceive Christ Jesus anew Christ Jesus hath in every one of them as it were a new incarnation by uniting himselfe to them in these visible signes And therefore let no Man come hither without a search and a privy search without a consideration and re-consideration of his conscience Let him that beganne to think of it but this morning stay till the next When Moses pulled his hand first out of his bosome it was white as snow but it was leprous when he pulled it the second time it was of the color of flesh but it was sound When thou examinest thy conscience but once but flightly it may appear white as snow innocent but examine it againe and it
when Epaphras had declrared unto him their love and when upon so good testimony of their disposition he had a desire that they might be fulfilled with knowledge of Gods will in all wisdome and spirituall understanding as he says verse 9. when he knew how farre they had proceeded in mysteries of the Christian Religion and that they had a spirituall hunger of more then it was seasonable to present to them this great point that Christ had suffered throughly sufficiently aboundantly for the reconciliation of the whole world and yet that there remained some sufferings and those of Christ too to be fulfilled by us That all was done and yet there remained more to be done that after Christs consummatum est which was all the text there should be an Adimplendum est interlined that after Christ had fulfilled the Law and the Prophets by his sufferings Saint Paul must fulfill the residue of Christs sufferings was a doctrin unseasonably taught till they had learnt much and shewed a desire to learn more In the Primitive Church men of ripe understandings were content to think two or three yeares well spent in learning of Catechisms and rudiments of Christian Religion and the greatest Bishops were content to think that they discharged their duties well if they caâ—echized ignorant men in such rudiments for we know from Gennaâ—dius an Ecclesiasticall author that the Bishops of Greece and of the Eastern Church did use to con S. Cyrils sermons made at Easter and some other Festivals without book and preached over those Sermons of his making to Congregations of strong understanding and so had more time for their Caâ—echizing of others Optatus thinks that when Saint Paul says Ego plantavi Apollos rigavit I planted the faith and Apollos watered he intended in those words Ego de pagano feci catechumenum ille de catechumeno Christianum That Saint Paul took ignorant persons into his charge to catechize them at first and when they were instructed by him Apollos watered them with the water of Baptism Tertullian thought hee did young beginners in Christianity no wrong when he called them catulos infantiae reâ—entis nec perfectis luminibus reptantes Young whelps which are not yet come to a perfect use of their eyes in the mysteries of Religion Now God hath delivered us in a great measure from this weaknesse in seeing because we are catechized from our craâ—â—â—s and from this penury in preaching we need not preach others Sermons nor feed upon cold meat in Homilies but wee are fallen upon such times too as that men doe not thinke themselves Christians except they can tell what God meant to doe with them before he meant they should bee Christians for we can be intended to be Christians but from Christ and wee must needs seek a Predestination without any relation to Christ a decree in God for salvation and damnation before any decree for the reparation of mankind by Christ every Common-placer will adventure to â—each and every artificer will pretend to understand the purpose yea and the order too and method of Gods eternall and unrevealed decree Saint Paul required a great deal more knowledge then these men use to bring before he presented to them a great deal a lesse point of Doctrin then these men use to aske This was then the Nunc illis their season when they had humbly received so much of the knowledge of the fundamentall points of Religion Saint Paul was willing to communicate more and more stronger and stronger meat unto them That which he presents here is that which may seem least to appertain to a Christian that is loy because a Christian is a person that hath surrendred himself over to a sad and serious and a severe examination of all his actions that all bee done to the glory of God but for all this this joy true joy is truly properly onely belonging to a Christian because this joy is the Testimony of a good conscience that wee have received God so as God hath manifested himself in Christ and worshipt God so God hath ordained In a true Church there are many tesserae externae outward badges and marks by which others may judge and pronounce mee to bee a true Christian But the tessera internaâ— the inward badge and marke by which I know this in my selfe is joy The blessednesse of heaven it selfe Salvation and the fruits of Paradise that Paradise which cannot be expressed cannot be comprehended have yet got no other name in the subtilty of the Schools nor in the fulnesse of the Scriptures but to be called the joys of heaven Essentiall blessednesse is called so Enter into thy Masters joy that is into the Kingdome of heaven and accidentall happinesse added to that essentiall happinesse is called so too There is joy in heaven at the conversion of a sinner and so in the Revelaâ—ion Rejoyce ye heavens and yee that dwell in them for the aâ—câ—ser of our brethren is cast downâ— There is now joy even in heaven which was not there before Certainly as that man shall never see the Father of Lights after this to whom the day never breaks in this life As that man must never look to walk with the Lamb wheresoever he goes in heaven that ranne away from the Lamb whensoever he came towards him in this life so he shall never possesse the joyes of heaven hereafter that feels no joy here There must be joy here which Tanquam Cellulae mellis as Saint Bernard says in his mellifluous language as the honey-comb walles in and prepares and preserves the honey and is as a shell to that kernell so there must bee a joy here which must prepare and preserve the joys of heaven it self and be as a shell of those joys For heaven and salvation is not a Creation but a Multiplication it begins not when wee dye but it increases and dilates it self infinitely then Christ himself when he was pleased to feed all that people in the wildernesse he asks first Quot panes habetis how many loafes have you and then multiplyed them abundantly as conduced most to his glory but some there was before When thou goest to eat that bread of which whosoever eates shall never dye the bread of life in the Land of life Christ shall consider what joy thou broughtest with thee out of this world and he shall extend and multiply that joy unexpressibly but if thou carry none from hence thou shalt find none there Hee that were to travell into a far country would study before somewhat the map and the manners and the language of the Country Hee that looks for the fulnesse of the joyes of heaven hereafter will have a taste an insight in them before he goe And as it is not enough for him that would travail to study any language indifferently were it not an impertinent thing for him that went to lye in France to study Dutch So if wee pretend to make the joys
purpose Can I put an Euge upon his vae a vacat upon his Fiat a Nonobstante upon his Amen God is not man not a false man that he can lie nor a weake man that he can repent Where then is the restorative the consolatory nature of these words In this beloved consists our comfort that all Gods vae's and Amens all judgments and all his executions are Conditionall There is a Crede vives Beleeve and thou shalt live there is a Fac hoc vives doe this and thou shalt live If thou have done otherwise there is a Converte vives turne unto the Lord and thou shalt live If thou have done so and fallen off there is a Revertere vives returne againe unto the Lord and thou shalt live How heavy so ever any of Gods judgements be yet there is always roome for Davids question Quis scit who can tell whether God will be gracious unto mee What better assurance could one have then David had The Prophet Nathan had told David immediately from the mouth of God this child shall surely dye and ratified it by that reason because thou hast given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme this child shall surely dye yet David fasted and wept and said who can tell whether the Lord will be gratious unto me that the child may live There is always roome for Davids question Quis scit who can tell Nay there is no roome for it as it is a question of diffidence and distrust every man may and must know that whatsoever any Prophet have denounced against any sinne of his yet there are conditions upon which the Lord will be gracious and thy soule shall live But if the first condition that is Innocency and the second that is Repentance be rebelliously broken then every man hath his vae and every vae hath his Amen the judgements are denounced against him and upon him they shall bee executed for God threatens not to fright children but the Mountains melt and Powers and Thrones and Principalities tremble at his threatning And so have you the doubled signification of the first word vae as it is vox Dolentis and as it is Vox minantis God is loath but God will infallibly execute his judgement and we proceed to the extension of this vae over all vae mundo woe unto the world and the double signification of that word I have wondred sometimes that that great Author and Bishop in the Roman Church Abulensis is so free as to confesse that some Expositors amongst them have taken this word in our Text Mundo adjectivè not to signify the world but a clean person a free man that it should be vae immuni woe unto him that is free from offences that hath had no offences perchance they mean from crosses And so though it be a most absurd and illiterate and ungrammaticall construction of the place that they make yet there is a doctrine to bee raised from thence of good use As God brought light out of darknesse and raises glory out of sin so we may raise good Divinity out of their ill Grammar for vae mundo indeed vae immuni woe be unto him that hath had no crosses There cannot be so great a crosse as to have none I lack one loaf of that dayly bread that I pray for if I have no crosse for afflictions are our spirituall nourishment I lacke one limb of that body I must grow into which is the body of Christ Jesus if I have no crosses for my conformity to Christ and that 's my being made up into his body must be accomplished in my fulfilling his sufferings in his flesh So that though our adversaries out of their ignorance mislead us in a wrong sense of the place the Holy Ghost leads us into a true and right use thereof But there is another good use of their error too another good doctrine out of their ill Grammar Take the word mundo adjectivè for an adjective and vae mundo vae immuni wo unto him that is so free from all offences as to take offence at nothing to be indifferent to any thing to any Religion to any Discipline to any form of Gods service That from a glorious Masse to a sordid Conventiâ—le all 's one to him all one to him whether that religion in which they meet and light candles at Noon or that in which they meet and put out candles at midnight what innovations what alterations what tolerations of false what extirpations of true Religion soever come it shall never trouble never offend him 'T is true Vae mundo indeed wo unto him that is so free so unsensible so unaffected with any thing in this kinde for as to bee too inquisitive into the proceedings of the State and the Church out of a jealousie and suspicion that any such alterations or tolerations in Religion are intended or prepared is a seditious disaffection to the government and a disloyall aspersion upon the persons of our Superiours to suspect without cause so not to be sensible that the Catterpillars of the Roman Church doe eat up our tender fruit that the Jesuites and other enginiers of that Church doe seduce our forwardest and best spirits not to be watchfull in our own families that our wives and children and servants be not corrupted by them for the Pastor to sâ—acken in his duty not to be earnest in the Pulpit for the Magistrate to slacken in his not to be vigilant in the execution of those Laws as are left in his power vae mundo vae immuni woe unto him that is unsensible of offences Jealously suspiciously to mis-interpret the actions of our Superiours is inexcusable but so is it also not to feel how the adversary gains upon us and not to wish that it were and not to pray that it may be otherwise vae mundo vae immuni wo to him that is un-offended unsensible thus But as I have wondred that that Bishop would so easily confesse that some of their Expositors were so very unlearned so barbarously ignorant so enormously stupid as to take this vae mundo adjective so doe I wonder more that after such confessions and acknowledgements of such ignorances and stupidities amongst them they will not remedy it in the cause but still continue so rigid so severe in the maintenance of their own Translation their Vulgate Edition as in places and cases of doubt not to admit recourse to the Originall as to the Supreme Judge nor to other Translations for by either of those ways it would have appeared that this vae mundo could not be taken adjectivè but is a cloud cast upon the whole world a woe upon all no place no person no calling free from these scandals and offences from tentations and tribulations when there was a vae Sodom that God raigned fire and brimstone upon Sodom yet there was a Zoar where Let might be safe When there was a
they had troden under foot not neglected it not despised it for they collected it and audited it providently enough but they trod it under foot when that which was given for the sustentation of the Priest they turned upon their own splendour and glory and surfet Christ will be fed in the poor that are hungry and hee will be cloathed in the poore that are naked so he would be enriched in those poor Ministers that serve at his Altar when Christ would be so fed he desires not feasts and banquets when he would be so cloathed hee desires not soft rayment fit for Kings houses nor embroyderies nor perfumes when he would be enriched in the poor Church-man he desires not that he should be a spunge to drinke up the sweat of others and live idly but yet as he would not be starved in the hungry nor submitted to cold and unwholesome ayre in the naked so neither would he be made contemptible nor beggerly in the Minister of his Church Nor was there in the world take in Turky and all the heathen for they also have their Clergy a more contemtible more beggerly Clergy then that of Rome I speak of the Clergy in the most proper sense that is they that minister they that officiate they that execute they that personally laboriously do the service of the Church The prelacies and Dignities of the Church were multiplyed in the hands of them who under pretext of Government took their ease and they that labored were attenuated macerated with lean penurious pensions In the best governed Churches there are such Dignities supplies without Cure of soules or personall service but they are intended for recompence of former labours and sustentation of their age of whose youth and stronger days the Church had received benefit But in the Roman Church these preferments are given almost in the wombe and children have them not onely before they can merit them but before they can speake for them and they have some Church-names Dean or Bishop or Abbat as soon almost as they have any Christian names Yea we know many Church dignities entailed to noble families and if it fall void whilest the child is so incapable it must be held for him by some that must resigne it when it may by any extent of dispensation be asked for him So then the Church joyned with the State to defraud the people The Priest was poorly maintained and so the people poorely instructed And this is the first conformity between the two Babylons the Chaldean and the Italian Pursue we then the holy Ghosts purpose and manner of implying and expressing it the food ordained for sheep Grasse In which make we onely these two stops that the sheep are to eate their grasse super terram upon the ground And they are to eate it sinerore when the dew is off First upon the ground that is where the hand of God hath set it which for spirituall food is the Church In hard winters we give sheep hay but in open times open grasse In persecutions of Tyrans in Interdicts of Antichristian Bishops who sometimes out of passion or some secular respect shut up Church dores and forbid service and Sacraments to whole Cities to whole nations sheep must live by hay Gods Children must relieve themselves at home by books of pious and devout meditation But when God affords abundant pastures and free entrance thereunto Gods sheep are to take their grasse upon the ground Gods grace at the Church Impossibile est eum corrigere qui omnia scit Chrysost It is an impossible thing to correct him that thinks he knows all things already As long as he will admit counsaile from another he acknowledges the other to know more then he but if he thinks he knows all before he hath no room for farther instruction nor love to the place where it is to be had We read in the Eastern Histories of a navigable River that afforded all the inhabitants exportation and importation and all commerce But when every particular man to serve his own curiosity for the offices of his house for the pleasures of his gardens and for the sumptuousnesse of Grots and aqueducts and such water-works drew severall channells infinite channells our of this great River this exhausted the maine channell and brought it to such a shallownesse as would beare no boats and so took from them the great and common commodities that it had afforded them So if every man think to provide himselfe Divinity enough at home for himselfe and his family and out of laziness and singularity or state or disaffection to the preacher leave the Church unfrequented he frustrates the Ordinance of God which is that his sheep should come to his pastures and take his grasse upon his ground his instructions at his house at Church And this we could not doe in the Roman Church where all our prayers and all Gods service of that kinde were in a language not onely not understood by him that heard it but for the most part not by him that spoke it It is not of their manifold and scornfull and ridiculous and histrionicall Ceremonies in their service nor of the dangerous poysons the direct Idolatries in the practise of the people in their service that we complain of now but of this that though it had been never so wholesome grasse it was not so to those sheep they could not know it to be their proper aliment for certainly they aske without faith that aske without understanding nor can I beleeve or hope that God will give me that I aske if I know not what I asked And what a miserable supply had they for this in their Legends for many of those Legends were in vulgar tongues and understood by them In which Legends the Virgin Mary was every good mans wife and every good womans mid-wife by a neighborly and familiar and ordinary assistant in all houshold offices as we see in those Legends and revelations In which Legends they did not onely faine actions which those persons never did but they fained persons which never were and they did not onely mis-canonize men made Devils Saints but they mis-christened men put names to persons and persons to names that never were And these legends being transferred into the Church the sheep lacke their grasse upon the ground that is the knowledge of Gods will in his house at Church And this is another conformity between the two Babylons the Chaldean and the Italian Babylon that the sheep lacked due food in the due place So is it also that the sheep eat their grasse whilest the Dew was upon it which is found by experience to be unwholesome The word of God is our grasse which should be delivered purely simply sincerely and in the naturall verdure thereof The Dews which we intend are Revelations Apparitions Inspirations Motions and Interpretations of the private spirit Now though we may see the naturall dew
into this life I would not wish to have come into this world And now that God hath made this life a Bridge to Heaven it is but a giddy and a vertiginous thing to stand long gazing upon so narrow a bridge and over so deep and roaring waters and desperate whirlpools as this world abounds with So teach us to number our dayes saith David that we may apply our hearts unto wisedome Not to number them so as that we place our happinesse in the increase of their number What is this wisedome he tells us there He asked life of thee and thou gavest it him But was that this life It was Length of dayes for ever and ever the dayes of Heaven As houses that stand in two Shires trouble the execution of Justice the house of death that stands in two worlds may trouble a good mans resolution As death is a sordid Postern by which I must be thrown out of this world I would decline it But as death is the gate by which I must enter into Heaven would I never come to it certainly now now that Sinne hath made life so miserable if God should deny us death he multiplied our misery We are in this Text upon blessings appropriated to the Christian Church and so to these times And in theseTimes we have not so long life as the Patriarchs had before They were to multiply children for replenishing the world and to that purpose had long life We multiply sinnes and the children and off-spring of sinnes miseries and therefore may be glad to get from this generation of Vipers God gave his Children Manna and Quails in the Wildernesse where nothing else was to be had but when they came to the Land of Promise that Provision ceas'd God gave them long life in the times of Nature and long though shorter then before in the times of the Law because in nature especially but in the Law also it was hard to discern hard to attain the wayes to Heaven But the wayes to Heaven are made so manifest to us in the Gospel as that for that use we need not long life and that is all the use of our life here He that is ready for Heaven hath lived to a blessed age and to such an intendment a childe newly baptized may be elder then his Grandfather Therefore we receive long life for a blessing when God is pleased to give it though Christ entered it into no Petition of his Prayer that God would give it and so though we enter it into no Petition nor Prayer we receive it as a blessing too when God will afford us a deliverance a manumission an emancipation from the miseries of this life Truely I would not change that joy and consolation which I proposed to my hopes upon my Death-bed at my passage out of this world for all the joy that I have had in this world over again And so very a part of the Joy of Heaven is a joyfull transmigration from hence as that if there were no more reward no more recompence but that I would put my self to all that belongs to the duty of an honest Christian in the world onely for a joyfull a cheerfull passage out of it And farther we shall not exercise your patience or your devotion upon these three pieces which constitute our first part The Primogeniture of Gods Mercy which is first in all The specification of Gods Mercy long Life as it is a figure of and a way to eternity and then the association of Gods Mercy that Death as well as Life is a blessing to the Righteous So then we have brought our Sunne to his Meridianall height to a full Noon in which all shadows are removed for even the shadow of death death it self is a blessing and in the number of his Mercies But the Afternoon shadows break out upon us in our second part of the Text. And as afternoon shadowes do these in our Text do also they grow greater and greater upon us till they end in night in everlasting night The sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed Now of shadowes it is appliably said Vmbrae non sunt tenebrae sed densior lux shadowes are not utter darknesse but a thicker light shadowes are thus much nearer to the nature of light then darknesse is that shadowes presume light which darknesse doth not shadowes could not be except there were light The first shadowes in this dark part of our Text have thus much light in them that it is but the sinner onely the sinner that is accursed The Object of Gods malediction is not man but sinfull man If God make a man sinne God curses the man but if sinne make God curse God curses but the sinne Non talem Deum tuum putes qualis nec tu debes esse Never propose to thy self such a God as thou wert not bound to imitate Thou mistakest God if thou make him to be any such thing or make him to do any such thing as thou in thy proportion shouldst not be or shouldst not do And shouldst thou curse any man that had never offended never transgrest never trespast thee Can God have done so Imagine God as the Poet saith Ludere in humanis to play but a game at Chesse with this world to sport himself with making little things great and great things nothing Imagine God to be but at play with us but a gamester yet will a gamester curse before he be in danger of losing any thing Will God curse man before man have sinned In the Law there are denuntiations of curses enjoyned and multiplied There is maledictus upon maledictus but it is maledictus homo cursed be the man He was not curst by God before he was a man nor curst by God because he was a man but if that man commit Idolatry Adultery Incest Beastiality Bribery Calumny as the sinnes are reckoned there there he meets a particular curse upon his particular sinne The book of Life is but names written in Heaven all the Book of Death that is is but that in the Prophet when names are written in the Earth But whose names are written in the Earth there They that depart from thee shall be written in the Earth They shall be when they depart from thee For saith he They have forsaken the Lord the Fountain of Living water They did not that because their names were written in the Earth but they were written there because they did that Our Saviour Christ came hither to do all his Fathers will and he returned cheerfully to his Father again as though he had done all when he had taken away the sinnes of the world by dying for all sinnes and all sinners But if there were an Hospitall of miserable men that lay under the reprobation and malediction of Gods decree and not for sinne the blood of that Lamb is not sprinkled upon the Postills of that doore Forgive me O Lord O Lord forgive
of Christ when he overshadowed the blessed Virgin did but make man of the woman who was one part disposed by nature thereunto whereas these men make man and God too of bread naturally wholly indisposed to any such change for this power we confesse it is not in our Commission and their Commission and ours was all one and the Commission is manifest in the Gospel and since they can charge us with no rasures no expunctions we must charge them with interlinings and additions to the first Commission But for that power which is to work upon you to whom we are sent we are defective in nothing which they call necessary thereunto This I speak of this Church in which God hath planted us That God hath afforded us all that might serve even for the stopping of the Adversaries mouth and to confound them in their own way which I speak onely to excite us to a thankfulnesse to God for his abundant grace in affording us so much and not to disparage or draw in question any other of our neighbour Churches who perchance cannot derive as we can their power and their Mission by the ways required and practised in the Romane Church nor have had from the beginning a continuance of Consecration by Bishops and such other concurrences as those Canons require and as our Church hath enjoyed They no doubt can justly plead for themselves that Ecclesiasticall positive Laws admit dispensation in cases of necessity They may justly challenge a Dispensation but we need none They did what was lawfull in a case of necessity but Almighty God preserved us from this necessity As men therefore Qui nec jussi renuunt nec non jussi affectant which neither neglect Gods calling when we have it nor counterfeit it when wee have it not Qui quod verecundè excusant obstinatiùs non recusant who though wee confesse our selves altogether unworthy have yet the seales of God and his Church upon us Nec rei nostrae legati not to promove our own ends but your reconciliation to God Nec sine principali mandate not without a direct and published Commission in the Gospell we come to you in Christs stead and so should be received by you As for our Mission that being in the quality of Ambassadours we submitted our selves to those two obligations which we noted to lie upon Ambassadours so here in our Reception we shall propose to you two things that are for the most part practised by Princes in the reception of Ambassadours One is that before they give audience they endevour by some confident servant of theirs to discern and understand the inclination of the Ambassadour and the generall scope and purpose of his negotiation and of the behavior that he purposeth to use in delivering his Message left for want of thus much light the Prince might either be unprepared in what manner to expresse himselfe or be surprised with some such message as might not well comport with his honour to heare But in these Ambassages from God to man no man is made so equall to God as that he may refuse to give Audience except he know before hand that the message be agreeable to his minde Onely he that will be more then man that Man of sinne who esteemeth himselfe to be joyned in Commission with God onely he hath a particular Officer to know before hand what message Gods Ambassadours bringeth and to peruse all Sermons to be preached before him and to expunge correct alter all such things as may be disagreeable to him It cannot therefore become you to come to these Audiences upon conditions to informe your selves from others first what kinde of messages such or such an Ambassadour useth to deliver whether he preach Mercy or Iudgement that if he preach against Vsury you will heare Court-sermons where there is less occasion to mention it If hee preach against Incontinency you will goe whither Is there any place that doth not extort from us reprehensions exclamations against that sinne But if you beleeve us to come in Christs stead what ever our message be you must hear us Doe that and for the second thing that Princes practise in the Reception of Ambassadours which is to referre Ambassadours to their Councell we are well content to admit from you Whosoever is of your nearest Councell and whose opinion you best trust in we are content to submit it to Let naturall reason let affections let the profits or the pleasures of the world be the Councell Table and can they tell you that you are able to maintaine a warre against God and subsist so without being reconciled to him Deceive not your selves no man hath so much pleasure in this life as he that is at peace with God What an Organe hath that man tuned how hath he brought all things in the world to a Consort and what a blessed Anthem doth he sing to that Organe that is at peace with God His Rye-bread is Manna and his Beefe is Quailes his day-labours are thrustings at the narrow gate into Heaven and his nightâ—watchings are extasies and evocations of his soule into the presence and communion of Saints his sweat is Pearls and his bloud is Rubies it is at peace with God No man that is at suite in himselfe no man that carrieth a Westminster in his bosome and is Plaintiffe and Defendant too no man that serveth himself with Process out of his owne Conscience for every nights pleasure that he taketh in the morning and for every dayes pound that he getteth in the evening hath any of the pleasure or profit that may be had in this life nor any that is not at peace with God That peace we bring you how will you receive us That vehemence of zeale which the Apostle found we hope not for you received me as an Angell of God even as Christ Iesus And if it had been possible you would have plucked out your owne eyes and have given them to me Consider the zeale of any Church to their Pastor it will come short of the Pastor to the Church All that Saint Paul saith of the Galatians towards him is farre short of that which he said to the Romanes That he could wish himselfe separated from Christ for his brethren or that of Moses that he would be blotted out of the Booke of Life rather then his charge should When we consider the manner of hearing Sermons in the Primitive Church though we doe not wish that manner to be renewed yet we cannot deny but that though it were accompanied with many inconveniences it testified a vehement devotion and sense of that that was said by the preacher in the hearer for all that had been formerly used in Theaters Acclamations and Plaudites was brought into the Church and not onely the vulgar people but learned hearers were as loud and as profuse in those declarations those vocall acclamations and those plaudites in the passages and transitions in Sermons as ever they
had been at the Stage or other recitations of their Poets or Orators S. Hierom charges Vigilantius that howsoever he differed from him in opinion after yet when he had heard him preach of the Resurrection before he had received that Doctrine with Acclamation and Plaudites And as Saint Hierome saith of himselfe that he was thus applauded in his Preaching he saith it also of him whom he called his Master Gregory Nazianzen a grave and yet a facetious man of him he telleth us this Story That he having intreated Nazianzen to tell him the meaning of that place What that second Sabbath after the first was he played with me he jested at me saith he Eleganter lusit and he bad me be at Church next time he preached and he would preach upon that Text Et toto acclamante populo cogeris invitus scire quod nescis and when you see all the Congregation applaued me and cry out that they are satisfied you will make your self beleeve you understand the place as they doe though you doe not Et si solus tacueris solus ab omnibus stultitiae condemnaberis And if you doe not joyne with the Congregation in those Plaudites the whole Congregation will thinke you the onely ignorant person in the Congregation for as we may see in Saint Augustin the manner was that when the people were satisfied in any point which the Preacher handled they would almost tell him so by an acclamation and give him leave to passe to another point for so saith that Father Vidi in voce intelligentes plures video in silentâ—o requirentes I heare many to whom by this acclamation I see enough hath been said but I see more that are silent and therefore for their sakes I will say more of it Saint Agustine accepted these acclamations more willingly at least more patiently then some of the Fathers before had done Audistis laudastis Deo gratias you have heard that hath been said and you have approved it with your praise God be thanked for both Et laudes vestrae foliae sunt arborum sed fructus quaero Though I looke for fruit from you yet even these acclamations are Leafes and Leafes are Evidences that the tree is alive Saint Chrysostome was more impatient of them yet could never overcome them To him they came a little closer for it was ordinary that when he began to speake the people would cry out Audiamus tertiumdecimum Apostolum Let us hearken to the thirteenth Apostle And he saith Si placet hanc nunc legem firmabimus I pray let us now establish this for a Law between you and mee Ne quis auditor plaudat quamdiu nos loquimur That whilest I am speaking I may speaking I may heare no Plaudate yet he saith in a Sermon preached after this Animo cogitavi Legem ponere I have often purposed to establish such a Law Vt decore cum silentio audiatis that you would be pleased to heare with silence but he could never prevail Sidonius Apollinaris a Bishop himselfe but whether then or no know not saith of another Bishop that hearing even praedicationes repentinas his extemporall Sermons raucus plausor audivi I poured my selfe out in loud acclamations till I was hoarse And to contract this consideration wee see evidently that this fashion continued in the Church even to Saint Bernards time Neither is it left yet in some places beyond the Seas where the people doe yet answer the Preacher it his questions be applyable to them and may induce an answer with these vocall acclamations Sir we will Sir we will not And truely wee come too neare re-inducing this vain glorious fashion in those often periodicall murmurings and noises which you make when the Preacher concludeth any point for those impertinent Interjections swallow up one quarter of his houre and many that were not within distance of hearing the Sermon will give a censure upon it according to the frequencie or paucitie of these acclamations These fashions then howsoever in those times they might be testimonies of Zeale yet because they occasioned vain glory and many times faction as those Fathers have noted we desire not willingly we admit not We come in Christs stead Christ at his comming met Hosann ' as and Crucifige's A Preacher may be aplauded in his Pulpit and crucified in his Barne but there is a worse crucifying then that a piercing of our hearts Because we are as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voyce and can play well on an Instrument and you heare our words and doe them not Having therefore said thus much to you first of our manner of proceeding with you Obsecramus of all those waies of humiliation which we insisted upon and ingaged our selves in we pray intreat you and the respect which should come from you because we come in Christs stead if as the Eâ—â—â—ch said to Philip Here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized so you say to us we acknowledge that you do your duties and we do receive you in Christs stead what is it that you would have us doe it is but this We pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God which is our third and last part and that to which all that we have said of a good Pastor and a good people which is the blessedest union of this world bendeth and driveth what and how blessed a thing it is to be reconciled to God Reconciliation is a redintegration a renewing of a former friendship that hath been interrupted and broken So that this implyeth a present enmity and hostility with God and then a former friendship with God and also a possibility of returning to that former friendship stop a little upon each of these and we have done Amongst naturall Creatures because howsoever they differ in bignesse yet they have some proportion to one another we consider that some very little creatures contemptible in themselves are yet called enemies to great creatures as the Mouse is to the Elephant For the greatest Creature is not Infinite nor the least is not Nothing But shall man betweene whom and nothing there went but a word Let us make Man That Nothing which is infinitely lesse then a Mathematicall point then an imaginary Atome shall this Man this yesterdayes Nothing this to morow worse then Nothing be capable of that honour that dishonour able honour that confounding honour to be the enemy of God of God who is not onely a multipled Elephant millions of Elephants multiplied into one but a multiplied World a multiplied All All that can be conceived by us infinite many times over Nay if we may dare to say so a multiplyed God a God that hath the Millions of the Heathens gods in himselfe alone shall this man be an enemy to this God Man cannot be allowed so high a sinne as enmity with God The Devill himselfe is but a slave to God and shall Man
a widow Nubat in Domino saith the Apostle In Gods name let her marry But the former husband must be dead The husbands absence makes not the wife a widow nor doth the necessary and lawfull absence of the Pastor make the Church vacant The sicknesse of the husband makes not a widow The bodily weaknesse nay the spirituall weaknes of the Pastor in case that his parts and abilities and faculties be grown but weak do not make his Church vacant If the Pastor be suspended or otherwise censured this is but as a separation or as a divorce and as the wife is not a widow upon a divorce so neither is the Church vacant upon such censures And therefore for them that take advantages upon the weaknesses or upon the disgrace or upon the povertie of any such incumbent and so insinuate themselves into his Church this is intrusion this is spirituall adultery for the husband is not dead though he be sick Nay if they would remove him by way of preferment yet that is a supplantation when Iacob had Esau by the heel whether he kept him in till he might be strong enough to goe out before him or whether he pushed him out before he would have gone Iacob was a supplanter Some few cases are put when a wife becomes as a widow her husband living but regularly it is by death In some few cases Churches may otherwise be vacant but regularly it is by death And then Esto vidua in Domâ— Patris saith Iudah to Thamar Remain a widow at thy fathers house Then the Church remaineth in the house in the hands of her Father the Bishop of that Diâ—ces till a new husband be lawfully tendred unto her And till that time as our Saviour Christ recommended his most blessed Mother to Saint Iohn but not as a wife so that Bishop delivers that Church to the care and administration of some other during her widowhood till by due course she become the wife of another Thus our calling is a mariage It should have honour It must have labour and it is a lawfull mariage upon a just and equitable vacancy of the place without any supplantation upon death And then it is upon death of a brother If brethren dwell together and one of them die and have no childe the wife c. Aswell Saint Gregory as Saint Augustine before interpret this of our elder our eldest brother Christ Iesus That hee being dead we mary his wife the Church and become husbands to her But Christ in that capacity as he is head of the Church cannot die That to which the application of this law leads us is That predecessor and successor bee brethren of the same faith and the same profession of faith The Sadduces put a case to Christ of a woman maried successively to seven men let seven signifie infinite still those seven were brethren How often soever any wife change her husband any Church her Pastor God sends us still a succession of brethren sincere and unfeigned Preachers of the same truth sonnes of the same father Who is that father God is our Father Have we not all one Father says the Prophet Yes we have and so a worme and we are brethren by the same father and mother the same God the same Earth Hath not the raine a father The raine hath and the same that wee have More narrowly and yet very largely Christ is our father One of his names is The everlasting Father And then after these after God after Christ the King is our father See my father the skirt of thy robe in my hand says David to his King Saul Now if any husband should be offered to any widow any Pastor to any vacant Church who were not our brother by all these fathers in a right beliefe in God the Father of all men in a right profession of Christ Iesus the Father of all Christians in a right affection and allegiance to the King the Father of all Subjects Any that should incline to a forain father an imaginary universall father he of whom his Vice-fathers his Junior fathers the Iesuites for all the Jesuits are Fathers says That the Fathers of the Church are but sons and not fathers to him They that say to a stock to the Image of the beast Thou art my father who not in a sense of humiliation as Iob speaks the words but of pride say to corruption Thou art my father that is that prostrate themselves to all the corruptions of a prostitute Church If any so inclined of himself or so inclinable if occasion should invite him or rather tempt him be offered for husband to any widow for a Pastor to any vacant Church he is not within the accommodation of this law hee is not our brother by the whole bloud who hath not a brotherhood rooted in the same religion and in the allegiance to the same Soveraign He must be a brother and Frater Cohabitans a brother dwelling with the former brother As he is a brother we consider the unity of faith As he dwels in the same house we consider the unity of discipline That as he beleeves and professes the same articles of faith so by his own obedience and by his instructing of others hee establish the same government A Schismatique is no more a brother to this purpose then an Heretique If we look well we shall see that Christ provided better for his garments then for his flesh he suffered his flesh to be torn but not his seamlesse garment There may bee in many cases more mischief in disobeying the uniformity of the discipline of the Church then in mistaking in opinion some doctrine of the Church Wee see in Gods institution of his first Church whom he called brethren Those who were instructed and cunning in the songs of the Church they are called brethren To oppose the orders of the Church solemnly ordained or customarily admitted for the advancement of Gods glory and the devotion of the Congregation forfeits this brotherhood or at least discontinues the purpose and use of it for howsoever they may bee in a kinde brothers if they succeed in the profession of the same faith yet wee see where the blessednesse is settled Blessed are they that dwell in thy house And we see where the goodnesse and the pleasantnesse is settled Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity So that if they be not brothers in the same faith and brothers in the same houshold of the faithfull and brothers in the same allegiance If they advance not the truth of the Church and the peace of the Church and the head of the Church fomentors of Error and of Schisme and Sedition are not husbands for these widows Pastors for these Churches Hee must bee a brother A brother dwelling in the same house of Christ and then brother to one