into shreds and fragments such as the Prophet speaks of The breaking of a Potters vessell that cannot be made up again Concision is at best Solutio Continui The severing of that which should be kept intire In the State the aliening of the head from the body or of the body from the head is Concision and videte it is a fearefull thing to be guilty of that In the Church which Church is not a Monarchy otherwise then as she is united in her head Christ Jesus to constitute a Monarchy an universall head of the Church to the dis-inherison and to the tearing of the Crownes of Princes who are heads of the Churches in their Dominions this is Concision and videte it is a fearefull thing to be guilty of that to advance a forein Prelate In the family where God hath made man and wife one to divide with others is Concision and videte it is a fearefull thing to be guilty of that Generally the tearing of that in peeces which God intended should be kept intire is this Concision and falls under this Commonefaction which implies an increpation videte beware But because thus Concision would receive a concision into infinite branches we determined this consideration at first into these three first Concisio Corporis the concision of the body dis-union in Doctrinall things and Concisio vestis the Concision of the garment dis-union in Ceremoniall things and then Concisio Spiritus the Concision of the Spirit dis-union irresolution unsetlednesse diffidence and distrust in thine owne minde and conscience First for this Concision of the body of the body of Divinity in Doctrinall things since still Concision is Solutio continui the breaking of that which should be intire consider we first what this Continuum this that should be kept intire is and it is sayes the Apostle Iesus himself Omnis spiritus qui solvit Iesum so the Antients reade that place Every spirit which dissolveth Iesus that breakes Jesus in peeces that makes Religion serve turnes that admits so much Gospell as may promove and advance present businesses every such spirit is not of God Not to professe the whole Gospell Totum Iesum not to beleeve all the Articles of faith this is Solutio continui a breaking of that which should be intire and this is truly concision Now with concision in this kinde our greatest adversaries they of the Romane heresie and mis-perswasion do not charge us They do not charge us that we deny any article of any antient Creed nor may they deny that there is not enough for salvation in those antient Creeds This is Continuitas universalis a continuity an intirenesse that goes through the whole Church a skin that covers the whole body the whole Church is bound to beleeve all the articles of faith But then there is Continuitas particularis Continuitas modi a continuity a harmony an intirenesse that does not go through the whole Church the whole Church does not alwaies agree in the manner of explication of all the articles of faith but this may be a skin that covers some particular limbe of the body and not another one Church may expound an article thus and some other some other way as in particular the Lutheran Church expounds the article of Christs descent into hell one way and the Calvinist another Now in cases where neither exposition destroyes the article in the substance thereof it is Concision that is Solutio continui a breaking of that which should be kept intire for any man to breake the peace of that Church in which he hath received his baptisme and hath his station by advancing the exposition of any other Church in that And as this is Concision Solutio continui a breaking of that which is intire to break the peace of the Church where we were baptized by teaching otherwise then that Church teaches in these things De modo of the manner of expounding such or such articles of faith so is there another dangerous Concision too For to inoculate a forein bud or to engraffe a forein bough is concision as well as the cutting off an arme from the tree to inoculate cleaves the rinde the bark and to engraffe cleaves the tree it severs that which should be entire So when a particular Church in a holy and discreet modesty hath abstained from declaring her self in the exposition of some particular Articles or of some Doctrines by faire consequence deducible from those Articles and contented her self with those generall things which are necessary to salvation As the Church of England hath in the Article of Christs descent into Hell it is Concision it is solution Continui a breaking of that which should be intire to inoculate a new sense or engraffe a new exposition which howsoever it may be true in it selfe it cannot be truly said to be the sense of that Church not perchance because that Church was not of that mind but because that Church finding the thing it self to be no fundamentall thing thought it unnecessary to descend to particular declarations when as in such declarations she must have departed from some other Church of the Reformation that thought otherwise and in keeping her self within those generall termes that were necessary and sufficient with a good conscience she conserved peace and unity with all David in the person of every member of the Church submits himself to that increpation Let my right hand forget her cunning and let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Ierusalem before my chiefest joy Our chiefest joy is for the most part our own opinions especially when they concur with other learned and good men too But then Ierusalem is our love of the peace of the Church and in such things as do not violate foundations let us prefer Ierusalem before our chiefest Joy love of peace before our own opinions though concurrent with others For this is that that hath misled many men that the common opinion in the Church is necessarily the opinion of the Church It is not so not so in the Romane Church There the cōmon opinion is That the blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without originall sin But cannot be said to be the opinion of that Church nor may it be safely concluded in any Church Most Writers in the Church have declared themselves this way therefore the Church hath declared her self for the declarations of the Church are done publiquely orderly and at once And when a Church hath declared her self so in all things necessary and sufficient let us possess our souls in peace and not say that that Church hath or presse that that Church would proceed to further declarations in lesse necessary particulars When we are sure we have beleeved practised all that the Church hath recōmended to us in these generals then and not till then let us call for more declarations but in the mean time prefer Ierusalem before our chiefest joy love of peace
by a generall forbearance on all sides rather then victory by wrangling and uncharitablenesse And let our right hand forget her cunning let us never set pen to paper to write Let our tongue cleave to the roofe of our mouth let us never open our mouth to speake of those things in which Silence was an Act of Discretion and Charity before but now is also an Act of Obedience and of Allegiance and Loyaltie But that which David said to the Lord Psalme 65. 1. Let us also accommodate to the Lords anointed Tibi laus silentium our best sacrifice to both is to be silent in those things So then this is Concisio corporis that Concision of the body which you are to beware in Doctrinall things first non solvere Iesum not to dissolve not to break Jesus in pieces not to depart in any respect with any fundamentall Article of faith for that is a skin that covers the whole body an obligation that lies upon the whole Church and then for that particular Church in which you have your station first to conform your self to all that in which she had evidently declared herself and then not to impute to her not to call such articles hers as she never avowd And our next consideration is Concisio vestis the tearing of the garment matter of discipline and government To a Circumcision of the garment that is to a paâ—ing and taking away such Ceremonies as were superstitious or superfluous of an ill use or of no use our Church came in the beginning of the Reformation To a CircuÌ„cision we came but those Churches that came to a Concision of the garment to an absolute taking away of all ceremonies neither provided so safely for the Church it self in the substance thereof nor for the exaltation of Devotion in the Church Divide the law of the Iews into 2 halfs and the Ceremoniall will be the greater we cannot cal the Morall law the Iews law that was ours as wel as their peculiar to none but of that law w ch is peculiar to the Jews judicial Ceremonial the Ceremonial is far the greater part So great a care had God of those thing which though they be not of the revenue of Religion yet are of the subsidy of Religion and though they be not the soule of the Church yet are they those Spirits that unite soule and body together H's man did but shave the beards of Davids servants he did not cut off their heads He did not cut their clothes so as that he stripped them naked Yet for that that he did says that story he stanke in Davids sight which is a phrase of high indignation in that language and so much as that it cost him forty thousand of his horsemen in one battell And therefore as this Apostle enters this Caveat in another place If yee bite one another cavete take heed yee be not consumed of one another so cavete take heed of this concision of the garment lest if the garment be torne off the body wither and perish A shadow is nothing yet if the rising or falling Sunne shine out and there be no shadow I will pronounce there is no body in that place neither Ceremonies are nothing but where there are no Ceremonies order and uniformity and obedience and at last and quickely Religion it selfe will vanish And therefore videte concisionem beware of tearing the body or of tearing the garment which will induce the other and both will induce the third concisionem spiritus the tearing of thine owne spirit from that rest which it should receive in God for when thou hast lost thy hold of all those handles which God reaches out to thee in the Ministery of his Church and that thou hast no means to apply the promises of God in Christ to thy soule which are onely applied by Gods Ordinances in his Church when anything falls upon thee that overcomes thy morall constancy which morall constancy God knowes is soon spent if we have lost our recourse to God thou wilt soon sinke into an irrecoverable desperation which is the fearfullest concision of all and videte beware of this concision When God hath made himselfe one body with me by his assuming this nature and made me one spirit with himselfe and that by so high a way as making me partaker of the divine nature so that now in Christ Iesus he and I are one this were solutio Iesus a tearing in peeces a dissolving of Jesus in the worst kinde that could be imagined if I should teare my selfe from Jesus or by any jealousie or suspicion of his mercy or any horror in my own sinnes come to thinke my selfe to be none of his none of him Who ever comes into a Church to denounce an excommunication against himselfe And shall any sad soule come hither to gather arguments from our preaching to excommunicate it selfe or to pronounce an impossibility upon her owne salvation God did a new thing Says Moses a strange thing a thing never done before when the earth opened her mouth and Dathan and Abiram went downe quicke into the pit Wilt thou doe a stranger thing then that To teare open the jawes of Earth and Hell and cast thy self actually and really into it out of mis-imagination that God hath cast thee into it before Wilt thou force God to second thy irreligious melancholy and to condemne thee at last because thou hadst precondemned thy selfe and renounced his mercy Wilt thou say with Cain My sinne is greater then can be pardoned This is Concisio potestatis a cutting off the power of God and Treason against the Father whose Attribute is Power Wilt thou say God never meant to save me this is Concisio Sapientiae a cutting off the Wisdome of God to thinke that God intended himselfe glory in a kingdome and would not have that kingdome peopled and this is Treason against the Son whose Attribute is wisdoms Wilt thou say I shall never finde comfort in Praying in Preaching in Receiving This is Concisio consolationis the cutting off consolation and treason against the holy Ghost whose office is comfort No man violates the Power of the Father the Wisedome of the Sonne the Goodnesse of the holy Ghost so much as he who thinkes himselfe out of their reach or the latitude of their working Rachel wept for her children and would not be comforted but why Because they were not If her children had been but gone for a time from her or but sicke with her Rachel would have been comforted but they were not Is that thy case Is not thy soule a soule still It may have gone from thee in sins of inconsideration it may be sicke within thee in sins of habit and custome but is not thy soul a soul still And hath God made any species larger then himself is there more soul then there is God more sin then mercy Truly Origen was more excusable more pardonable if he
cover us all over that is all our life because it is not in our power if we put it off by new sinnes to put it on againe when we will I have put off my coate how shall I put it on was the doubt of the spouse in the Canticles even when Christ had called her So hard a thing is it if we devest the righteousnesse of Christ after we have put it on to cloth our selves againe in that garment As then this word Induere to put on to be clothed signifies a largenesse and an abundance according to that The pastures are clothed with sheep and the vallies with corne So is this garment Christ Jesus such a garment as is alone so all sufficient as that if we doe put on that we need no other Put yee on the Lord Iesus Christ and take no thought for the flesh if ye have put on that you are clothed and armed and adorned sufficiently In the first creation in the Faciamus hominem ad Imaginem nostrûm when God seems to have held a consultation about the making of Man man put on all the Trinity all God in the redemption God put on all Man not onely all the nature of Mankind in generall but in particular every Man But as the spirit of God is said to have put on a particular Man Spiritus Domini induit Gedeon the spirit of the Lord clothed or put on Gedeon when he selected him for his service so must the spirit of every particular Man put on Christ he must not be content to be under the generall cover either under his general providence because he is a Creature or a member of his Mysticall body because he adheres to a visible Church he must not say I am as warm clothed as another I have as much of Christ in me as a great many that doe well enough in the world but he must so inwrap himselfe in Christ and in his Merits as to make all that to be his owne No man may take the frame of Christs merit in peeces no Man may take his forty days fasting and put on that and say Christ hath fasted for me and therefore I may surfeit No man may take his Agony and pensivenesse and put on that and say Christ hath been sad for me and therefore I may be merry He that puts on Christ must put him on allâ— and not onely find that Christ hath dyed nor onely that he hath died for him but that he also hath died in Christ and that whatsoever Christ suffered he suffered in Christ. For as Christs merit and satisfaction is not too narrow for all the world so is it not too large for any one Man Infinite worlds might have been saved by it if infinite worlds had been created And if there were no more Names in the book of life but thine all the Merit of Christ were but enough to save thy one sinfull soule which could not have been redeemed though alone at any lesse price then his death All that Christ did and suffered he did and suffered for thee as thee not onely â—s Man but as that particular Man which bears such or such a name and rather then any of those whom he loves should appeare naked before his Father and so discover to his confusion those scarres and deformities which his sinnes have imprinted upon him as his love is devoutly and plously extended by the Schooles and some contemplative Men Christ would be content to doe and suffer as much as he hath done for any one particular Man yet But beyond Infinite there is no degree and his merit was infinite both because an infinite Majesty resided in his person and because an infinte Majesty accepted his sacrifice for infinite But this act of Christ this redemption makes us onely servants servi à servandâ— we are servants to him that preserved and saved us is the derivation of the Law But the application of this redemption which is the putting on of Christ makes us sâ—ns for we are not to put on Christ onely as a Livery to be distinguished by externall marks of Christianity but so as the sonne puts on his father that we may be of the same nature and substance as he and that God may be in us Non tanquam in denario not as the King is in a peece of coine or a medall but tanquam in filio as he is in his sonne in whom the same nature both humane and Royall doth reside There is then a double Induere a twofold clothing we may 〈◊〉 1. Vestem put on a garment 2. Personam put on a person We may put on Christ so as we shall be his and we may put him on so as we shall be He. And even to put him on as a garment is also twofold The first is to take onely the outward name and profession of Christians upon us and this doâ—h us no good yee cloth ye but are not warme says the Prophet of this kind of putting on of Christ. For this may be done onely to delude others which practise God discovered and threatned in the false Prophets The Prophets shall not weare a rough garment to deceive As God himselfe cannot be deluded so for the encouragement of his Church he will take off this garment of the Hypocrite and discover his nakednesse and expose him to the open shame of the world He shall not weare arough garment to deceive For this is such an affront and scorne to Christ as Hanâ—â— cutting off of Davids servants clothes at the middle was we make this garment of what stuffe and what fashion we list As Hanun did we cut it off in the middle we will be Christians till noone in the outward acts of Religion and Libertiâ—es in the after-noone in putting off that garment againe we will be Christians all day and returne to wantoâ—nesse and licentiousnesse at night we do that which Christ says no Man doth that is no Man should doe we put new peeces to an old garment and to that habite of sinne which covers us as a garment we put a few new patches of Religion a few flashes of repentance a few shreds of a Sermoâ— but we put not on that intire and feamlesse garment Christ Jesus And can we hope that these disguises these halfe coates these imperfect services will be acceptable to God when we our selves would not admit this at our children or at our servants hands It is the argument by which the Prophet convinces the Israelites about their uncleane sacrifices offer this now unto the Prince will he be conteâ—t with thee and accept thy person If thou shouldest weare the princes Livery in a scantler proportion or in a different fashion or in a courset stuffe then belongs to thy place would he accept it at thy hands No more will Christ if thou put him on that is take his profession upon thee either in a coâ—â—ser stuffe Traditions of Men in stead
shall grace grow with this infant to the lifes end And both we and it shall not onely put on Christ as a garment but we shall put on his person and we shall stand before his Father with the confidence and assurance of bearing his person and the dignity of his innocence SERMON VIII Preached at Essex house at the Churching of the Lady Doncaster CANT 5. 3. I have washed my feet how shall I defile them ALL things desire to goe to their owne place and that 's but the effect of Nature But if Man desires to goe the right way that 's an effect of grace and of Religion A stone will fall to the bottome naturally and a flame will goe upwards naturally but a stone cares not whether it fall through cleane water or through Mud a flame cares not whether it passe through pure aire or cloudy but a Christian whose end is heaven will put himselfe into a faire way towards it and according to this measure be pure as his father in heaven is pure That which is our end salvation we use to expresse in Schooles by these two termes we call it visionem Dei the sight of God and we call it unionem an union with God we shall see God and we shall be united to God for our seeing we shall see him Sicuti est as he is which we cannot expresse till we see him Cognoscam ut cognitus I shall know as I am known which is a knowledge reserved for that Schoole and a degree for that Commencement and not to be had before Moses obtained a sight of God here that he might see Posterior a Gods hinder parts and if we consider God in posterioribus in his later works in the fulfilling of all his Prophecies concerning our Redemption how he hath accomplished in novissimis in the later times all that which he spake ab initio by the mouth of his Prophets which have been since the world began if we see God in them it is a great beame of that visio beatifica that beautificall sight of God in heaven for herein we see the whole way of our salvation to be in Christ Iesus all promise all performance all prophecy all history concern us in and by him And then for that union with God which is also our salvation as this vision is when we shall be so united as that we shall follow the Lambe whither soever he goes though that union be unexpressible here yet here there is an union with God which represents that too Such an union as that the Church of which we are parts is his spouse and that 's Eadem care the same body with him and such an union as that the obedient children of the Church are Idem spiritus cum Dominâ— we are the same body and the same spirit So united as that by being sowed in the visible Church we are Semen Dei the seed of God and by growing up there in godlinesse and holinesse we are participes Divinae naturae partakers of the divine Nature it selfe Now these two unions which represent our eternall union with God that is the union of the Church to him and the union of every good soule in the Church to him is the subject of this Song of songs this heavenly Poeme of Solomons and our baptisme at our entrance into this world is a Seale of this union our mariage in the passage of this world is a Sacrament of this union and that which seems to be our dissolution our death is the strongest â—and of this union when we are so united as nothing can disunite us more Now for uniting things in this world we are always put to imploy baser and courser stuffe to unite them together then they themselves If we lay Marble upon Marble how well soever we polish the Marble yet we must unite them with morter If we unite riches to riches we temper a morter for the most part of our owne covetouâ—nesse and the losse and opressing of some other Men if we unite honours to honours titles to titles we temper a morter for the most part of our owne Ambition and the supplanting or excluding of some other Men But in the uniting of a Christian soule to Christ Jesus here is no morter all of one Nature Nothing but spirit and spirit and spirit the soule of Man to the Lord Jesus by the holy Ghost Worldly unions have some corrupt foulnesses in them but for this spirituall union Lavi pedes I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Which words though in the rigor of the coherence and connexion of this Scripture they imply a delay in the spouse of Christ and so in every soule too that when Christ called here the soule was not ready to come forth to him but made her excuses that she had put off her coate and was loath to rise to put it on that she had washed her feet and was loath to rise and foule them againe yet because the excuse it selfe if it were an excuse hath a piety and a Religious care in it the Fathers for the most part pretermit that weaknesse that produced an excuse and consider in their expositions the care that the soule had not to defile her selfe againe being once washed Saint Gregory says that the soule had laid off Omnia externa quae non tam ornant quà m â—nerant all outward ornaments which are rather encumbrances then ornaments And Saint Ambrose says Pedes lavi dum egrederer de corporis contubernio when I departed from the confederation of my body and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I wash'd my feet Quomodâ— in tenebrâ—sum carcerem reverterer And 〈◊〉 I returne into that darke and durty prison againe the love of mine owne body◠〈◊〉 suing therefore their pious acceptation of these words we have in them two festivalls of the soule a Resurrection and an ascension of it This soule hath raised it selfe from the durt and Mud of this world Lavit pedes she hath washed her feet and then she hath ascended to a resolution of keeping herselfe in that state Quomâ—do inquinabâ—eos how shall I defile them Call these two parts a Gratulation of the soule and an Indignation first she congratulates with her good and gratious God that she is cleansed from worldly corruptions Lavi pedes I have washed my feetâ— and then she conceives a Religious scorne and indignation of setting her foot in the same foule way againe Quomâ—do how how is it possible that I should descend to so low a disposition as to foule them againe This Resurrection then of the soule and gratâ—lation this Ascension of the soul Indignation will be our two parts And in the first we shal stop a little upon every one of these five branches There is ablutiâ— necessaria There is a washing that is necessary to all for we enter in foulenesse and corruption into this world and that we have in Baptisme for Originall sinne Secondly
these helps is the more ful and the more ready the more able for Church service he be not also thereby made the more bold and the more confident Nec ament decipere verisimili sermone lest because he is able to make any thing seem probable and likely to the people by his eloquence he come to infuse paradoxicall opinions or schismaticall or which may be beleeved either way problematicall opinions for certain and constant truths and so be the lesse conversant and the lesse diligent in advancing plaine and simple and fundamentall doctrines and catechisticall which are truely necessary to salvation as though such plaine and ordinary and catechisticall doctrines were not worthy of his gifts and his great parts In a word in sheep-pastures you may plant fruit trees in the hedge-rowes but if you plant them all over it is an Orchard we may transfer flowers of secular learning into these exercises but if they consist of those they are but Themes and Essays But why insist we upon this Was there any such conformity between the two Babylons as that the Italian Babylon can be said to have troden down the grasse in that kinde with overcharging their Sermons with too much learning Truly it was far very very far from it for when they had prevailed in that Axiome and Aphorisme of theirs that it was best to keep the people in ignorance they might justly keep the Priest in ignorance too for when the people needed no learned instruction what needed the Church a learned instructer And therefore I laid hold of this consideration the treading down of grass by oppressing it with secular learning there by to bring to your remembrance the extreme ignorance that damp'd the Roman Church at that time where Aristotles Metaphysicks were condemned for Heresie and ignorance in generall made not onely pardonable but meritorious Of which times if at any time you read the Sermons which were then preached and after published you will excuse them of this treading down the grass by oppressing their auditories with over-much learning for they are such Sermons as will not suffer us to pity them but we must necessarily scorne and contemne and deride them Sermons at which the gravest and saddest man could not choose but laugh not at the Sermon God forbid nor at the plainness and homeliness of it God forbid but at the Soloecismes the barbarismes the servilities the stupid ignorance of those things which fall within the knowledge of boys of the first forme in every School This was their treading down of grass not with over-much learning but with a cloud a dampe an earth of ignorance After an Oxe that oppresseth the grass after a Horse that devours the grass sheep will feed but after a Goose that stanches the grass they will not no more can Gods sheep receive nourishment from him that puts a scorne upon his function by his ignorance But in the other way of treading down grass that is the word of God by the Additions and Traditions of men the Italian Babylon Rome abounded superabounded overflowed surrounded all And this is much more dangerous then the other for this mingling of humane additions and traditions upon equall necessity and equall obligation as the word of God it selfe is a kneading an incorporating of grasse and earth together so as that it is impossible for the weake sheep to avoid eating the meat of the Serpent Dust shalt thou eate all the days of thy life Now man upon his transgression was not accursed nor woman The sheep were not accursed But the earth was and the Serpent was and now this kneading this incorporating of earth with grasse traditions with the word makes the sheep to eate the cursed meat of the cursed Serpent Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life Now in this treading down this grasse this way this suppressing it by traditions be pleased to consider these two applications some traditions doe destroy the word of God extirpate it annihilate it as when a Hog doth root up the grass In which case not onely that turfe withers and is presently useless and unprofitable to the sheep but if you dig never so low after down to the Center of the earth it is impossible ever to finde any more grass under it so some traditions doe utterly oppose the word of God without having under them any mysterious signification or any occasion or provocation of our devotion which is the ordinary pretext of traditions and Ceremoniall additions in their Church And of this sort was that amongst the Iews of which our blessed Saviour reproches them that whereas by the law children were to relieve decayed parents they had brought in a tradition of Commutation of Compensation that if those children gave a gift to the Priest or compounded with the Priest they were discharged of the former obligation And of this sort are many traditions in the Roman Church where not onely the doctrines of men but the doctrine of Devills as the Apostle calls the forbidding of Mariage and of meats did not onely tread down but root up the true grass The other sort of Traditions and Ceremonies doe not as the Hog root up the grass but as a Mole cast a slack and thin earth upon the face of the grass Now if the shepheard or husbandman be present to scatter this earth againe the sheep receive no great harme but may safely feed upon the wholesome grass that is under but if the sheep who are not able to scatter this earth nor to finde the grass that lies under be left to their own weakness they may as easily starve in this case as in the other the Mole may damnifie them as much as the Hog And of this sort are those traditions which induce Ceremonies into the Church in vestures in postures of the body in particular things and words and actions in Baptisme or Mariage or any other thing to be transacted in the Church These ceremonies are not the institutions of God immediately but they are a kind of light earth that hath under it good and usefull significations which when they be understood conduce much to the encrease and advancement of our devotion and of the glory of God And this is the iniquity that we complaine of in the Roman Church that when we accuse them of multiplying impertinent and insupportable ceremonies they tell us of some mysterious and pious signification in the institution thereof at first They tell us this and it is sometimes true But neither in Preaching nor practise doe they scatter this earth to their own sheep or shew them the grass that lies under but suffer the people to inhere and arrest their thoughts upon the ceremony it selfe or that to which that ceremony mis-leads them as in particular for the time will not admit many examples when they kneel at the Sacrament they are not told that they kneel because they are then in the act of
staid with it then as closely as when he wrought his greatest miracles Beyond all this God having thus maried soule and body in one man and man and God in one Christ he maries this Christ to the Church Now consider this Church in the Type and figure of the Church the Arke in the Arke there were more of every sort of cleane Creatures reserved then of the uncleane seven of those for two of these why should we feare but that in the Church there are more reserved for salvation then for destruction And into that room which was not a Type of the Church but the very Church it selfe in which they all met upon whitsunday the holy Ghost came so as that they were enabled by the gift of tongues to convay and propagate and derive God as they did to every nation under heaven so much does God delight in man so much does God desire to unite and associate man unto him and then what shall disappoint or frustrate Gods desires and intentions so farre as that they should come to him but singly one by one whom he cals and wooes and drawes by thousands and by whole Congregations Be pleased to carry your considerations upon another testimony of Gods love to the society of man which is his dispatch in making this match his speed in gathering and establishing this Church for forwardnesse is the best argument of love and dilatory interruptions by the way argue no great desire to the end disguises before are shrewd prophecies of jealousies after But God made hast to the consummation of this Marriage between Christ and the Church Such words as those to the Colosrians and such words that is words to such purpose there are divers The Gospell is come unto you as it is into all the world And againe It bringeth forth fruit as it doth in you also And so likewise The Gospell which is preached to every creature which is under heaven such words I say a very great part of the Antients have taken so literally as thereupon to conclude That in the life of the Apostles themselves the Gospell was preached and the Church established over all the world Now will you consider also who did this what persons cunning and crafty persons are not the best instruments in great businesses if those businesses be good as well as great Here God imployed such persons as would not have perswaded a man that grasse was green that blood was red if it had been denyed unto them Persons that could not have bound up your understanding with a Syllogisme nor have entendred or mollified it with a verse Persons that had nothing but that which God himselfe calls the foolishnesse of preaching to bring Philosophers that argued Heretiques that wrangled Lucians and Iulians men that whet their tongues and men that whet their swords against God to God Unbend not this bowe blacken not these holy thoughts till you have considered as well as how soone and by what persons so to what Doctrine God brought them Wee aske but St. Augustins question Quis tantam multitudinem ad legem carni sanguini centrariam induceret nisi Deus Who but God himselfe would have drawn the world to a Religion so contrary to flesh and blood Take but one piece of the Christian Religion but one article of our faith in the same Fathers mouth Res incredibilis resurrectio That this body should be eaten by fishes in the sea and then those fishes eaten by other men or that one man should be eaten by another man and so become both one man and then that for all this assimilation and union there should arise two men at the resurrection Res incredibilis sayes he this resurrection is an incredible thing Sed magis incredibile totum mundum credidisse rem tam incredibilem That all the world should so soone believe a thing so incredible is more incredible then the thing it selfe That any should believe any is strange but more that all such believe all that appertains to Christianity The Valentinians and the Marcionites pestilent Heretiques grew to a great number Sed vix duo vel tres de iisdem eadem docebant says Irenaeus scarce any two or three amongst them were of one opinion The Acatians the Eunomians and the Macedonians omnes Arium parentem agnoscunt sayes the same Father they all call themselves Arians but they had as many opinions not onely as names but as persons And that one Sect of Mahomet was quickly divided and sub-divided into 70 sects But so God loved the world the society and company of good soules ut quasi una Domus Mundus the whole world was as one well governed house similiter credunt quasi una anima all beleeved the same things as though they had all but one soule Constanter praedicabant quasi unum os At the same houre there was a Sermon at Ierusalem and a Sermon at Rome and both so like for fundamentall things as if they had been preached out of one mouth And as this Doctrine so incredible in reason was thus soone and by these persons thus uniformely preached over all the world so shall it as it doth continue to the worlds end which is another argument of Gods love to our company and of his loathnesse to lose us All Heresies and the very names of the Heretiques are so utterly perished in the world as that if their memories were not preserved in those Fathers which have written against them we could finde their names no where Irenaeus about one hundred and eighty yeers after Christ may reckon about twenty heresies Tertullian twenty or thirty yeares after him perchance twenty seven and Epiphanius some a hundred and fifty after him sixty and fifty yeare after that St. Augustine some ninety yet after all these and but a very few yeares after Augustine Theodoret sayes that in his time there was no one man alive that held any of those heresies That all those heresies should rot being upheld by the sword and that onely the Christian Religion should grow up being mowed down by the sword That one graine of Corne should be cast away and many eares grow out of that as Leo makes the comparison That one man should be executed because he was a Christian and all that saw him executed and the Executioner himself should thereupon become Christians a case that fell out more then once in the primitive Church That as the flood threw down the Courts of Princes and lifted up the Arke of God so the effusion of Christian blood should destroy heresies and advance Christianity it self this is argument abundantly enough that God had a love to man and a desire to draw man to his society and in great numbers to bring them to salvation I will not dismisse you from this consideration till you have brought it thus much nearer as to remember a later testimony of Gods love to our
Fifty SERMONS PREACHED BY THAT LEARNED AND REVEREND DIVINE JOHN DONNE D r IN DIVINITY Late Deane of the Cathedrall Church of S. PAULS London The Second Volume LONDON Printed by Ia. Flesher for M. F. I. Marriot and R. Royston MDCXLIX TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE BASIL EARLE OF DENBY My very good Lord and Patron My Lord IN a season so tempestuous it is a great encouragement to see your Lordship called to the Helme who in your publique negociations having spent so many yeares in that so famed Common-wealth of Venice must of necessity have brought home such excellent Principles of Government that if our Fate doe not withstand your Directions we may reasonably at last expect to see our new Brittish Lady excell that ancient Adriatique Queene Neither can I offend much against the State in begging your Patronage and perusall of this Book knowing that your Lordship first mastered all the Learning of Padoa before you did adventure upon that wise Senate who amongst all her other greatnesses has ever had a principall care that Learning might not be diminished When these Sermons were preached they were terminated within the compasse of an houre but your acceptance may make them outlive the very Churches that they were preached in and give them such a perpetuity that Nec Jovis Ira nec Amor edacior multò poterit abolere For though a fiery zeale in succeeding ages hath often both ruined the Temples and casheired the gods that were worshipped in them Yet such sacrifices as these have beemy laies kept unburnt and we are suffered to know those religions that we are not allowed to practice Nor can I expect any greater advantage for the paines I have taken in publishing this Book then that posterity may know I did it when I had the favor and protection of your Lordship and was allowed to stile my selfe Your Lordships most humble Servant JO. DONNE FOR THE RIGHT HONOURABLE BOLSTRED WHITLOCK RICHARD KEEBLE 〈◊〉 JOHN LEILE Lords Commissioners of the Great Seale THe reward that many yeares since was proposed for the publishing these Sermons having been lately conferred upon me under the authority of the Great Seale I thought my selfe in gratitude bound to deliver them to the world under your Lordships protection both to show how carefull you are in dispensing that part of the Churches treasure that is committed to your disposing and to encourage all men to proceed in their industry when they are sure to find so just and equall Patrons whose fame and memory must certainely last longer then Bookes can find so noble Readers and whose present favors doe not onely keep the Living alive but the Dead from dying Your Lordships most humble Servant JO. DONNE A Table directing to the severall Texts of SCRIPTURE handled in this Book Sermons preached at Mariages Sermon I. Preached at the Earl of Bridgwaters house in London on MATTH 22. 30. For in the Resurrection they neither mary nor are given in Mariage but are as the Angels of God in heaven p. 1. Serm ' II. GEN. 2. 18. And the Lord God said It is not good that the man should be alone I will make him a Help meet for him p. 9. Serm. III. HOSEA 2. 19. And I will mary thee unto me for ever p. 15 Sermons preached at Christnings Serm. IV. REVEL 7. 17. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall governe them and shall leade them unto the lively fountaines of waters and God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes p. 23 Serm. V. EPHES. 5. 25 26 27. Husbands love your wives even at Christ loved the Church and gave himselfe for it that he might sanctifie it and cleanse it by the washing of water through the Word That he might make it unto himselfe a glorious Church not having spot or wrinckle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blame p. 31 Serm. VI. 1 JOH 5. 7 8. For there are three which beare record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one And there are three which beare record in the Earth The Spirit and the water and the blood and these three agree in one p. 39 Serm. VII GAL. 3. 27. For all yee that are baptized into Christ have put on Christ. p. 50. Sermons preached at Churchings Serm. VIII CANT 5. 3. I have washed my feet how shall I defile them p. 59. Serm. IX MICAH 2. 10. Arise and depart for this is not your rest p. 67. Serm. X. A second Serm. on the same Text. p. 74. Sermons preached at Lincolns-Inne Serm. XI GEN. 28. 16 17. Then Iacob awoke out of his sleep and said Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware And he was afraid and said How fearefull is this place This is none other but the House of God and this is the gate of Heaven p. 83 Serm. XII JOH 5. 22. The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the Sonne p. 94. Serm. XIII JOH 8. 15. I judge no man p. 101. Serm. XIIII JOB 19. 26. And though after my skin wormes destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God p. 106. Serm. XV. 1 COR. 15. 50. Now this I say Brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God p. 118. Serm. XVI COLOS. 1. 24. Who now rejoyce in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his bodies sake which is the Church p. 128. Serm. XVII MAT. 18. 7. Wo unto the world because of offences p. 136. Serm. XVIII A second Serm. on the same Text. p. 142 Serm. XIX PSAL. 38. 2. For thine arrowes stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore p. 158. Serm. XX. PSA 38. 3. There is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sinne p. 162. Serm. XXI PSAL. 38. 4. For mine iniquities are gone over my head as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me p. 174. Serm. XXII A second Serm. on the same Text. p. 186. Serm. XXIII A third Serm. on the same Text. p. 192. Sermons preached at White-Hall Serm. XXIV EZEK 34. 19. And as for my flocke they eate that which ye have trodden with your feet and they drink that which yee have fouled with your feet 199. Serm. XXV A second Serm. on the same Text. p. 208. Serm. XXVI ESAI 65. 20. For the childe shall die a hundred yeers old but the sinner being a hundred yeers old shall be accursed p. 218 Serm. XXVII MARK 4. 24. Take heed what you hear p. 228 Serm. XXVIII GEN. 1. 26. And God said Let us make man in our own Image after our likenesse p. 239. Serm. XXIX A second Serm. on the same Text. p. 250 Sermons preached to the Nobility Serm. XXX JOB 13. 15. Loe though he slay me yet will I trust in him p. 262. Serm. XXXI JOB 36.
Wives They were preferred before all that liv'd unmaryed but not before maryed persons This fortification and rampart of the World Mariage hath the Devill battered with most artillery opposed with most instruments for as an Army composed of many Nations more sects of Heretiks have concurr'd in the condemning of Mariage then in any one Heresie The Adamites the Tatians and those whom Irenaeus cals the Encratites all within two thousand years after Christ and more after And yet God kept such a hook in the nostril of this Leviathan such a bridle in the jaws of these sects of Heretiks as that never any of them so opposed Mariage as that they justifyed Incontinency or various lust or Indifferency or Community in that kinde Now as in the Pelagian Heresie those that came to modify and mollify that Heresie and to be Semi-Pelagians were in some points worse then those that were full Pelagians as truly in many Cases the half-papist may doe more harme and be more dangerous then the whole Papist that declares himself so the Semi-Adamites the Semi-Tatians and Semi-Encratites of the Romane Church who though they doe not as those whole Heretiks did condemn mariage intirely yet they condemn it in Certaine persons and in so many as constitute a great part of the Body of mankinde that is in all their Clergy exceed those very heretiks in favour of incontinency and fornication and various lusts which those Heretiks who absolutely condemned Mariage condemned too as absolutely whereas in the Roman Church a Jesuit tels us that there are divers Catholiks of that opinion That it is not Heresie to say that Fornication is no deadly sinne And yet it is Heresie to say that Mariage in some persons onely disabled by their Canons is not deadly sinne And when they erect and justify their Academies of Incontinency and various lust various even in the sex if some Authors among themselves have not injur'd them when they maintaine publik stews and maintaine their dignity by them and make that a part of the Revenue of the Church what Advocate of theirs can deny but that these Semi-Adamites Semi-Tatians Semi-Encratites are worse then those Heretiks themselves that did absolutely oppose Mariage We depart absolutely from those old Heretiks who did absolutely condemn Mariage and from those latter men who though they be but Semi-Heretiks in respect of them because they limit their forbidding of Mariage to certaine persons yet they are sequi-Heretiks in this that they countenance Incontinency and Fornication which those very heretiks abhorred And wee must have leave too which we are alwaies loath to doe to depart from the rigidness of some of those blessed Fathers of the Primitive Church who found some necessities in their times to speak so very highly in praise of Continency and Chastity as reflected somewhat upon mariage it selfe and may seem to emply some under-valuation of that Many such things were so said by Tertullian many by S. Hierome as being crudely and nudely taken not decocted and boyl'd up with the circumstances of those times not invested with the knowledge of those persons to whom they were written might diminish and dishonor mariage But Tertullian in his most vehement perswasion of Continency writes to his own wife and S. Hierome for the most part to those Ladies whom he had taken into his own discipline and with one of which he had so near a conversation as that as himself saies the world was scandaliz'd with it and that the world thought him fit to have been made Pope but for that misconstruction which had been made of that his conversation with that Lady Tertullian writing to his Wife S. Hierome to those Ladies may either have had particular reasons of this vehement proceeding of theirs in advancing Continency or they may have conceived that way of persuasion of continency to those persons to have been a fit way to convey down to posterity the love thereof As Dionysius the Areopagite sayes That the Church in those times at funerals did convey their thankes to God for the party deceased by way of Prayer they seemed to pray that those dead persons might be sav'd and indeed they did but praise God that they were sav'd So Tertullian and S. Hierome when they seem to perswade Continency to those persons they do but tell us how continent those persons were But howsoever it be for that no such magnifying of Virginity before as should diminish the honour and dignity of Mariage no such magnifying of Continency after as should frustrate the purpose of Mariage after or the returning to a second Mariage after a true dissolution of the first can subvert or contract the Apostles Nubant in Domino Let them mary in the Lord where the In Domino in the Lord is not to mary for matter of Title and place nor In Domino In the Lord is not to mary for matter of Lordships and possessions and worldly preferment nor In Domino In the Lord is not in hope to exercise a Dominion and a Lordship over the other party but In the Lord is in the feare of the Lord In the love of the Lord In the Law that is in the true Religion of the Lord for this is that that makes the mariages of Christians Contracts of another kinde then the mariages of other people are with all people of the world mariage is as fully the same Reall and Civill and Morall Contract as with us Christians The same Obligations of mutuall help of fidelity and loyalty to one another and of communication of all their possessions lies upon mariage in Turky or China as with us But for Mariage amongst Christians Sacramentum hoc magnum est saies the Apostle This is a great secret a great mystery Not that it is therefore a Sacrament as Baptisme and the Lords Supper are Sacraments For if they will make mariage such a sacrament because it is expressed there in that word Magnum sacramentum they may come to give us an eight sacrament after their seven They may translate that name which is upon the mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth sacrament if they will for it is the same word in that place of the Revelation which they translate Sacrament in the other place to the Ephesians And in the next verse but one they doe translate it so there I will tell thee saies the Angel Sacramentum mulieris the Sacrament of Babylon Now if all the mysteries and secrets of Antichrist all the confused practises of that Babylon all the emergent and occasionall articles of that Church and that State-religion shall become Sacraments we shall have a Sacrament of Equivocation a Sacrament of Invasion a Sacrament of Powder a Sacrament of dissolving allegeance sacraments in the Element of Baptism in the water in navies and Sacraments in the Elements of the Eucharist in Blood in the sacred blood of Kings But Mariage amongst Christians is herein Magnum mysterium A Sacrament in such
glory with the Father before the world was made thou didst admit a cloud and a slumber upon that glory and staiedst for thy glory till thy death yet thou givest us naturally inglorious and miserable creatures a reall possession of glory and of inseparablenesse from thee in this life This is that Copiosa redemptio there is with the Lord plentifull redemption though that were Matura redemptio a seasonable redemption if it should meet me upon my death-bed and that the Angels then should receive my soul to lay it in Abrahams bosome yet this is my Saviours plentifull redemption that my soul is in Abrahams bosome now whilest it is in this body and that I am already in the presence of his Throne now when I am in your sight and that I serve him already day and night in his Temple now when I meditate or execute his Commission in this service in this particular Congregation Those words are not then necessarily restrained to Martyrs they are not restrained to the state of the Triumphant Church they are spoken to all the Children of righteousnesse and of godlines and godlinesse hath the promises of the life present and that that is to come That which involves all these promises that which is the kernell and seed and marrow of all the last clause of the text God shall wipe all teares from their eyes those words that clause is thrice repeated intirely in the Scriptures When it is spoken here when it is spoken in the one and twentieth Chapter of the Revelation and at the fourth verse in both places it is derived from the Prophet Esay which is an Eacharisticall chapter a Chapter of thanksgiving for Gods deliverance of his children even in this world from the afflictions and tribulations thereof and therefore this text belongs also to this world This imprinting then of the seale in the forehead this washing of the robes in the bloud of the Lambe S. Ambrose places conveniently to be accomplished in the Sacrament of Baptisme for this is Copiosissima Redemptio this is the most plentiful redemption that that be applied to us not onely at last in Heaven nor at my last step towards heaven at my death nor in all the steps that I make in the course of my life but in my first step into the Church nay before I can make any step when I was carried in anothers armes thither even in the beginning of this life and so do divers of the later Men and of those whom we call ours understand all this of baptisme because if we consider this washing away of teares as Saint Cyprian says young children doe most of all need this mercy of God and this assistance of Man because as soone as they come into this world Plorantes ac flentes nihil aliud faciunt quam deprecantur they beg with teares something at our hands and therefore need this abstersion this wiping For though they cannot tell us what they aile though if we will enter into curiosities we cannot tell them what they aile that is we cannot tell them what properly and exactly Originall sin is yet they aile something which naturally disposes them to weep and beg that something might be done for the wiping away of teares from their eyes And therefore though the other errors of the Anabaptist be ancient 1000. year old yet the denying of baptisme to children was never heard of till within 100. years and lesse The Arrians and the Donatists did rebapsize those who were baptized by the true Christians whom they counted Heretiques but yet they refused not to baptize children The Pelegians denied originall sin in children but yet they baptized them All Churches Greek and Russian and Ethiopique howsoever they differ in the body of the Church yet they meet they agree in the porch in Limine Ecclesiae in the Sacrament of baptisme and acknowledge that it is communicable to all children and to all Men from the child new borne to the decrepit old Man from him that is come out of one mothers wombe to him that is going into another into his grave Sicut nullus prohibendus à baptisme it a nullus est qui non peccate moritur in baptismo As baptisme is to be denied to none so neither is it to be denied that all that are rightly baptized are washed from sin Let him that will contentiously say that there are some children that take no profit by baptisme shew me which is one of them and qui testatur de scientia testetur de mode scientiae If he say he knowes it let him tell us how he knowes that which the Church of God doth not know We come now to the second part in which we consider first this firstword quoniam for which is verbum praegnans a word that includes all those great blessings which God hath ordained for them whom in his eternall decree he hath prepared for this sealing and this washing Those blessings which are immediately before the text are that in Gods purpose they are already come out of great tribulations they have already received a whitenes by the bloud of the Lambe they are already in the presence of the threne of the Lambe they have already overcome all hunger and thirst and heat Those particular blessings we cannot insist upon that requires rather a Comment upon the Chapter then a Sermon upon the text But in this word of inference for we onely wil observe this That though all the promises of God in him are Yea and Amen certain and infallible in themselves though his Name that makes them be Amen Thus saith Amen the faithfull and true witnesse and therefore there needs no better security then his word for all those blessings yet God is pleased to give that abundant satisfaction to Man as that his reason shall have something to build upon as well as his faith he shall know why he should beleeve all these blessings to belong to them who are to have these Seales and this washing For God requires no such faith nay he accepts nay he excuses no such faith as beleeves without reason beleeves he knows not why As faith witout fruit witout works is no faith to faith without a roct without reason is no faith but an opinion All those blessings by the Sacrament of Baptism all Gods other promises to his children and all the mysteries of Christrian Religion are therefore beleeved by us becuase they are grounded in the Scriptures of God we beleeve them for that reason and then it is not a worke of my faith primarily but it is a worke of my reason that assures me that these are the Scriptures that these Scriptures are the word of God I can answer other Mens reasons that argue against it I can convince other men by reason that my reasons are true and therefore it is a worke of reason that I beleeve these to be Scriptures To prove a beginning of the world I
is in the midst he is in the midst of the throne though al his great glorious company be round about him one hundred and forty foure thousand Israelites innumerable multitudes of all Nations Angels and Elders yet it is the Lambe that is in the midst of them and not they that are about him that sheds down these blessings upon us And it is the Lambe that is there still in the midst of the throne not kneaded into an Agnus Dei of wax or wafer here not called down from heaven to an Altar by every Priests charme to be a witnesse of secrecy in the Sacrament for every bloudy and feditious enterprise that they undertake It is Agnus qui est in medio Throni the Lambe that is there and shall be so till he come at last as a Lion also to devoure them who have made false opinions of him to serve their mischievous purposes here This is the person then that gives the assurance that all these blessings belong to them who are ordained to be so sealed and so washed this is he that assures us and approves to us that all this shall be first Quia reget because he shall govern them secondly Quia deducet because he shall lead them to the fountaines of waters thirdly Quia absterget because he shall wipe all teares from their eyes First he shall govern them he shall establish a spiritual Kingdome for them in this world for to govern which is the word of the first translation and to feed which is in the second is all one in Scriptures Dominabitur gentium he shall be Lord of the Gentiles but Rex Israelis he shall governe his people Israel as a King by a certain and a cleare law So that as we shal have interest in the Covenant as well as the Israclites so we shal have interest in that glorious acclamation of theirs Unto what nation are their Gods come so neare unto them as the Lord our God is come near unto us what nation hath Laws and ordinances so righteous as we have for in that Paul Barnabas express the heaviest indignation of God upon the Gentiles that God suffered the Gentiles to walke in their own ways he shewed them not his ways he setled no church no kingdome amongst them he did not govern them Except one of those Eight persons whom God preserved in the Arke were here to tell us the unexpressible comfort that he conceived in his safety when he saw that flood wash away Princes from their thrones misers from their bagges lovers from their embracements Courtiers from their wardrobes no man is able to expresse that true comfort which a Christian is to take even in this That God hath taken him into his Church and not left him in that desperate and irremediable inundation of Idolatry and paganisace that overflowes all the world beside For beloved who can expresse who can conceive that strange confusion which shall overtake and oppresse those infinite multitudes of Soules which shall be changed at the last day and shall meet Christ Jesus in the clouds and shall receive an irrevocable judgment of everlasting condemnation dut of his mouth whose name they never heard of before that must be condemned by a Judge of whom they knew nothing before and who never had before any apprehension of torments of Hell till by that lamentable experience they began to learn it What blessed meanes of preparation against that fearfull day doth he afford us even in this that he governes us by his law delivered in his Church The first thing that the housholder in the parable is noted to have done for his Vineyard was Sepe circumdedit he hedged it in That God hath done for us in making us his Church he hath inlaid us he hath hedged us in But he that breaketh the hedge a Serpent shall bite him he that breaketh this hedge the peace of the Church by his Schisme the old Serpent hath bitten and poysoned him and shall bite worse hereafter and if God having thus severed us and hedged us in have expected grapes and we bring none though we breake no hedge here amongst our selves that is no Papist breaks in upon us no Separatist breakes out from us we enjoy security enough yet even for our own barrennes Godwill take away the hedge and it shall be eaten up he will breake the wall and it shall be troden down Surely says the Prohet there The Vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the Men of Indah are his pleasant plans Surely we are the Church which God hath hedged in but yet if we answer not his expectation certainly the confusion of the Gentiles at the last day when they shal say to themselves of Christ Nescivi te dost thou condemne us and we know thee not shall not be so great as out confusion shall be when we shall hear Christ say to us whom he bred in his Church Nesiciovos I know not whence you are Even this that the ill use of this mercy of having been bred in his Church shall aggravate our condemnation then shewes the great benefit which we may receive now by this Quod regit nos that he takes care of us in his Church for how many in the world would have lived ten times more christianly then we do if they had but halfe that knowledge of Christ which we have When he hath then brought us into his kingdome that we are his subjects for all the heathen are in the condition of slaves he brings us nearer into his service he gives us outward distinctions liveries badges names visible markes in Baptisme yea he incorporates us more inseparably to himself then that which they imagine to be done in the Church of Rome where their Canonists say that a Cardinall is to incorporated in the Pope he is so made one flesh and bloud with him as that he may not let bloud without his leave because he bleeds not his own but the Popes bloud But of us it is true that by this Sacramēs we are so incorporated into Christ that in all our afflictions after we fulfill the sufferings of Christ in our flesh and in all afflictions which we lay upon any of our Christian brethren our consciences hear Christ crying to us Quid me persequerts why persecutest thou me Christs body is wounded in us when we suffer Christs body is wounded by us when we violate the peace of the Church or offend the particular members thereof First then deducet he shall lead them it is not he shall force them he shall thrust them he shall compell them it implies a gentle and yet an effectuall way he shall lead them Those which come to Christianity from Iudaisme or Gentisme when they are of years of discreation he shall lead them by instruction by Catechisme by preaching of his word before they be baptized for they that are of years are baptized without the
doth nothing so like a subject as when he puts himselfe to the pain to consider the profit and the safety of his Subjects and such a subjection is that of a Husband who is bound to study his wife and rectify all her infirmites Her infirmities he must bear but not her sins if he bear them they become his own The pattern the example goes not so far Christ maried himself to our Nature and he bare all our infirmities hunger and wearinesse and sadnesse and death actually in his own person but so he contracted no sin in himselfe nor encouraged us to proceed in sin Christ was Salvator corporis A Saviour of his body of the Church to which he maried himselfe but it is a tyranny and a devastation of the body to whom we mary our selves if we love them so much as that we love their Sin too suffer them to goe on in that or if we love them so little as to make their sin our way to profit or preferment by prostituting them and abandoning them to the solicitation of others still we must love them so as that this love be a subjection not a neglecting to let them doe what they will nor a tyrannizing to make them doe what we will You must love them then first Quia vestrae because they are yours As we said at first God loves Couples He suffers not our body to be alone nor our soule alone but he maries them together when that 's done to remedy the vae soli left this Man should be alone he maries him to a help meet for himâ— and to avoid fornication that is if fornication cannot be avoided otherwise Every Man is to have his wife and every woman her own husband When the love comes to exceed these bounds that it departs à vestris from a Man 's own wife and settles upon another though he may think he discharges himselfe of some of his subjection which he was in before yet he becomes much more subject subject to houshold and forain Iealousies subject to ill grounded quarrels subject to blasphemous protestations to treacherous misuse of a confident friend to ignoble an unworthy disguises to base satisfactions subject lastly either to a clamorous Conscience or that which is worse slavery to a sear'd and obdurate and stupefied Conscience and to that Curse which is the heavier because it hath a kind of scorn in it Be not deceived as though we were coâ—sened of our souls Be not deceived for no adulterer shal enter into the kingdom of heaven All other things that are ours we may be the better for leaving Vade vende which Christ said to the yong Man that seemed to desire perfection reached to all his goods Goe and sell them sayes Christ and thou shalt follow me the better But there is no selling nor giving nor lending nor borrowing of wives we must love them Quia nostrae because they are ours and if that be not a ty and obligation strong enough that they are Nostrae ours we must love them Quia nos because they are our selves for no man yet ever hated his own flesh We must love them then Quia nostrae because they are ours those whom God hath given us and Quia uxores because they are our wives Saint Paul does not bid us love them here Quanquam uxores but Quia not though they be but because they are our wives Saint Paul never thought of that indisposition of that disaffection of that impotency that a Man should come to hate her whom he could love well enough but that she is his wife Were it not a strange distemper if upon consideration of my soule finding it to have some seeds of good dispositions in it some compassion of the miseries of others some inclination of the glory of God some possibility some interest in the kingdome of heaven I should say of this soule that I would fast and pray and give and suffer any thing for the salvation of this Soule if it were not mine own soule if it were any bodies else and now abandon it to eternall destruction because it is mine own If no Man have felt this barbarous inhumanity towards his owne soul I pray God no man have felt it towards his own wife neither That he loves her the lesse for being his own wife For we must love them not Quanquam says Saint Paul though she be so That was a Caution which the Apostle never thought he needed but Quia because in the sight of God and all the Triumphant Church we have bound our selves that we would do so Here Mariages are sometimes clandestine and witnesses dye and in that case no Man can bind me to love herâ— Quia uxâ—r because she is my wife because it lyes not in proofe that she is so Here sometimes things come to light which were concealed before and a Mariage proves no Mariage Decepta est Ecclesia The Church was deceived and the poor woman loses her plea Quia uxâ—r because she is his wife for it fals out that she is not so but if thou have maried her in the presence of God and all the Court and Quire of heaven what wilt thou doe to make away all these witnesses who shall be of thy Councell to assign an Error in Gods judgement whom wilt thoubribe to embezill the Records of heaven It is much that thou are able to doe in heaven Thou art able by thy sins to blot thy name out of the book of life but thou are not able to blot thy wifes name out of the Records of heaven but there remains still the Quia uxâ—r because she is thy wife And this Quia uxâ—r is Quaâ—diu uxâ—r since thou art bound to love her because she is thy wife it must be as long as she is so You may have heard of that quinquâ—nnium Neronis The worst tyran that ever was was the best Emperour that ever was for five years the most corrupt husbands may have been good at first but that love may have been for other respects satisfaction of parents establishing of hopes and sometimes Ignorance of evill that ill company had not taught them ill conditions it comes not to be Quia uxor because she is thy wife to be the love which is commanded in this text till it bring some subjection some burthen Till we love her then when we would not love her except she were our wife we are not sure that we love her Quia uxor that is for that and for no other respect How long that is how long she is thy wife never ask wrangling Controverters that make Gypsie-knots of Mariages ask thy Conscience and that will tell thee that thou wast maried till death should depart you If thy mariage were made by the Dâ—vill upon dishonest Conditions the Devill may break it by sin if it were made by God Gods way of breaking of Mariages is onely by death It is then a Subjection and it is
speake for him After that first and heavy curse of Almighty God upon Man Morte morieris If thou eate thou shalt die and die twice thou shall die a bodily thou shalt die a spirituall death a punishment which no sentence of any law or law-maker could ever equall to deterre Men from offending by threatning to take away their lives twice and by inflicting a spirituall death eternally upon the Soule after we have all incurred that malediction Morte moriemur we shall die both death we cannot thinke to scape any lesse malediction of any law and therefore we are all Intestabiles we are all intestable in all these senses and apprehensions which we have touched upon We can make no testament of our owne we have no good thing in us to dispose we have no good inclination no good disposition in our Will we can make no use of anothers testament not of the double testaments of Almighty God for in the Old testament he gives promises of a Messias but we bring into the world no Faith to apprehend those promises and in the New testament he gives a performance the Messias is come but he is communicable to us no way but by baptisme and we cannot baptize our selves we can profit no body else by our testimony we are not able to endure persecution for the testimony of Christ to the edification of others we are not able to doe such workes as may shine before Men to the glorifying of our God Neither doth the testimony of others doe us any good for neither the Martyrdome of so many Millions in the primitive Church nor the execution of so many judgments of God in our owne times doe restifie any thing to our Consciences neither at the last day when those Saints of God whom we have accompanied in the outward worship of God here in the visible Church shall be called to the right hand and we detruded to the left shall they dare to open their mouthes for us or to testifie of us or to say Why Lord these Men when they were in the world did as we did appeared and served thee in thy house as we did they seem'd to goe the same way that we did upon Earth why goe they a sinister way now in heaven We are utterly intestable we can give nothing we can take nothing nothing will be beleeved from us who are all falshood it selfe nor can we be releeved by any thing that any other will say for us As long as we are considered under the penalty of that law this is our case Interdicti intestabiles we are accursed and so as that we are intestable Now as this great malediction Morte marieris in volves all other punishments upon whom that falls all fall so when our Saviour Christ Jesus hath a purpose to take away that or the most dangerous part of that the spirituall death when he will reverse that judgment Aqua igni interdicitur to make us capable of his water and his fire when he will reverse the intestabiles the inteâ—â—ability and make us able to receive his graces by faith and declare them by works then as he that will reedifie a demolished house begins not at the top but at the bottome so Christ Jesus when he will make this great preparation this great reedification of mankind he beginnes at the lowest step which is that we may have use of the testimony of others in our behalfe and he proceeds strongly and effectually he produces three witnesses from heaven so powerfull that they will be heard they will be beleeved and three witnesses on earth so neare us so familiar so domestique as that they will not be denied they will not be discredited Three are three that beare Record in heaven and three that beare record in earth Since then Christ Jesus makes us all our owne Iury able to conceive and judge upon the Evidence and testimony of these three heavenly and three earthly witnesses let us draw neare and hearken to the evidence and consider three things Testimonium esse Quid sit and Qui testes That God descends to meanes proportionable to Man he affords him witnesse and secondly the matter of the proofe what all these six witnesses testifie what they establish Thirdly the quality and value of the witnesses and whether the matter be to be beleeved for their sakes and for their reasons God requires nothing of us but Testimony for Martyrdome is but that A Martyr is but a witnesse God offers us nothing without testimony for his Testament is but a witnesse Teste ipso is shrewd evidence when God says I will speake and I will testifie against thee I am God even thy God when the voice of God testifies against me in mine owne conscience It is more pregnant evidence then this when his voice testifies against me in his word in his Scriptures The Lord testified against Israel by all the Prophets and by all the Seers When I can never be alone but that God speakes in me but speakes against me when I can never open his booke but the first sentence mine eye is upon is a witnesse against me this is fearfull evidence But in this text we are not in that storme for he hath made us Testabiles that is ready to testifie for him to the effusion of our bloud and Testabiles that is fit to take benefit by the testament that hee hath made for us The effusion of his bloud which is our second branch what is testified for us what these witnesses establish First then that which a sinner must be brought to understand and beleeve by the strength of these witnesses is Integritas Christi not the Integrity as it signifies the Innocency of Christ but integrity as it signifies Intireness not as it is Integer vitae but Integra vita not as he kept an integrity in his life but as he onely is intirely our life That Christ was a person composed of those two Natures divine and humane whereby he was a fit and a full satisfaction for all our sinnes and by death could be our life for when the Apostle writ this Epistle it seemes there had been a schisme not about the Mysticall body of Christ the Church but even about the Naturall that is to say in the person of Christ there had been a schisme a separation of his two natures for as we see certainly before the death of this Apostle that the Heresie of Ebion and of Cerinthus which denied the divine nature of Christ was set on foot for against them purposely was the Gospell of Saint Iohn written so by Epiphanius his ranking of the Heresies as they arose where he makes Basilides his Heresie which denied that Christ had any naturall body to be the fourth herefie and Ebions to be the tenth it seemes that they denied his humanity before they denied his Divinity And therefore it is well collected that this Epistle of Saint Iohn being written long
before his Gospell was written principally and purposely against the opposers of Christs humanity but occasionally also in defence of his divine nature too Because there is Solutio Iesu a dissolving of Jesus a taking of Jesus in peeces a dividing of his Natures or of his Offices which overthrowes all the testimonies of these six great witnesses when Christ said Solvite templum hoc destroy dissolve this temple and in three dayes I will raise it he spoke that but of his naturall body there was Solutio corporis Christs body and soule were parted but there was not Solutio Iesu the divine nature parted not from the humane no not in death but adhered to and accompanied the soule even in hell and accompanied the body in the grave And therefore says the Apostle Omnis spiritus qui solvit Iesum ex deo non est for so Irenaeus and Saint Augustine and Saint Cyrill with the Grecians read those words That spirit which receives not Jesus intirely which dissolves Jesus and breakes him in peeces that spirit is not of God All this then is the subject of this testimony first that Christ Jesus is come in the flesh there is a Recognition of his humane nature And then that this Jesus is the sonne of God there is a subscription to his divine nature he that separates these and thereby makes him not able or not willing to satisfie for Man he that separates his Nature or he that separates the worke of the Redemption and says Christ suffered for us onely as Man and not as God or he that separates the manner of the worke and says that the passive obedience of Christ onely redeemed us without any respect at all to his active obedience onely as he died and nothing as he died innocently or he that separates the perfection and consummation of the worke from his worke and findes something to be done by Man himselfe meritorious to salvation or he that separates the Prince and the Subject Christ and his members by nourishing Controversies in Religion when they might be well reconciled or he that separates himselfe from the body of the Church and from the communion of Saints for the fashion of the garments for the variety of indifferent Ceremonies all these do Solvere Iesum they slacken they dissolve that Jesus whose bones God provided for that they should not be broken whose flesh God provided for that it should not see Corruption and whose garments God provided that they should not bee divided There are other luxations other dislocations of Jesus when we displace him for any worldly respect and prefer preforment before him there are other woundings of Jesus in blasphemous oathes and exerations there are other maimings of Jesus in pretending to serve him intirely and yet retaine one particular beloved sinne still there are other rackings and extendings of Jesus when we delay him and his patience to our death-bed when we stretch the string so farre that it cracks there that is appoint him to come then and he comes not there are other dissolutions of Jesus when men will melt him and powre him out and mold him up in a waser Cake or a peece of bread there are other annihilations of Jesus when Men will make him and his Sacraments to be nothing but bare signes but all these will be avoided by us if we be gained by the testimony of these six witnesses to hold fast that integrity that intirensse of Jesus which is here delivered to us by this Apostle In which we beleeve first Iâ—sum a Saviour which implies his love and his will to save us and then we beleeve Christum the anointed that is God and man able and willing to doe this great worke and that he is anointed and sealed for that purpose and this implies the decree the contract and bargaine of acceptation by the Father that Pactum salis that eternall covenant which seasons all by which that which he meant to doe as he was Iesus should be done as he was Christ. And then as the intirenesse of Jesus is expressed in the verse before the text we beleeve Quod venit that as all this might be done if the Father and Sonne would agree as all this must be done because they had agreed it so all this was done Quâ—a venit because this Jesus is already come and that for the father intirenesse for the perfection and consummation and declaration of all venit per aquam sanguinem He came by water and bloud Which words Saint Bernard understands to imply but a difference between the comming of Christ and the comming of Moses who was drawen out of the water and therefore called by that name of Moses But before Moses came to be a leader of the people he passed through bloud too through the bloud of the Egyptian whom he slew and much more when he established all their bloudy sacrifices so that Mases came not onely by water Neither was the first Testament ordained without bloud Others understand the words onely to put a difference between Iohn Baptist and Christ because Iohn Baptist is still said to baptize with waterâ— Because he should be declared to Israel therefore am I come baptizing with water but yet Iohn Baptists baptisme had not onely a relation to bloud but a demonstration of it when still he pointed to the Lambe Ecce Agnus for that Lambe was slâ—ine from the beginning of the world So that Christ which was this Lambe came by water and bloud when he came in the risuall types and figures of Moses and when he came in the baptisme of Iohn for in the Law of Moses there was so frequent use of water as that we reckon above fifty severall Immunditi as uncleannesses which might receive their expiation by washing without being put to their bloudy sacrifies for them And then there was so frequent use of bloud that almost all things are by the Law purged with bloud and without shedding of bloud is no Remission But this was such water and such bloud as could not perfect the worke but therefore was to be renewed every day The water that Jesus comes by is such a water as he that arinketh of it shall thirst no more nay there shall spring up in him a well of water that is his example shall worke to the satisfaction of others we doe not say to a satisfaction for others And then this is that bloud that perfected the whole worke at once By his own bloud entred he once into the holy place and obtained eternall Redemption for us So that Christ came by water and bloud according to the old ablutions and old sacrifices when he wept when he sweat when he powred out bloud pretious incorruptible inestimable bloud at so many channels as he did all the while that he was upon the altar sacrificing himselfe in his passion But after the immolation of this sacrifice after his Consummatum est when Christ
we draw a corrupt Nature from our parents and we have lamed the other foot by crooked and perverse customes Now as God provided a liquor in his Church for Originall sinne the water of Baptisme so hath he provided another for those actuall sinnes that is the bloud of his owne body in the other Sacrament In which Sacrament besides the naturall union that Christ hath taken our Nature and the Mysticall union that Christ hath taken us into the body of his Church by a spirituall union when we apply faithfully his Merits to our soules and by a Sacramentall union when we receive the visible seales thereof worthily we are so washed in his bloud as that we stand in the sight of his Father as cleane and innocent as himselfe both because he and we are thereby become one body and because the garment of his righteousnesse covers us all But for a preparation of this washing in the bloud of Christ in that Sacrament Christ commended to his Apostles and in them to all the world by his practise and by his precept too ablutionem pedam a washing of their feet before they came to that Sacrament he washed their feet And in that exemplary action of his his washing of their feet he powred water into a Bason says the text Aqua spiritus sanctus pelvis Ecclesia These preparatory waters are the gift of the holy Ghost the working of his grace in repentance but pelvis Ecclesia the bason is the Church that is these graces are distributed and dispensed to us in his institution and ordinance in the Church No Man can wash himselfe at first by Baptisme no Man can baptize himselfe no Man can wash in the second liquor no Man that is but a Man can administer the other Sacrament to himselfe Pelvis ecclesia the Church is the bason and Gods Minister in the Church washes in both these cases And in this ablutione pedum in the preparatory washing of our feet by a survey of all our sinfull actions and repentance of them no Man can absolve himselfe but pelvis ecclesia the bason of this water of absolution is in the Church and in the Minister thereof First then this washing of the feet which prepares us for the great washing in the bloud of Christ requires a stripping of them a laying of them naked covering of the feet in the Scriptures is a phrase that denotes a foule and an uncleane action Saul was said to cover his feet in the Cave and Eglon was said to cover his feet in his Parler and we know the uncleane action that is intended here but for this cleane action for washing our feet we must discover all our sinfull steps in a free and open confession to almighty God This may be that which Solomon calls sound wisdome My sonne keep sound wisdome and discretion There is not a more silly folly then to thinke to hide any sinfull action from God Nor sounder wisdome then to discover them to him by an humble and penitent confession This is sound wisdome and then discretion is to wash and discerne and debate and examine all our future actions and all the circumstances that by this spirit of discretion we may see where the sting and venome of every particular action lies My sonne keep sound wisdome and discretion says he And then shalt thou walke in thy way safely and thy foot shall not stumble If thy discretion be not strong enough if thou canst not always discerne what is and what is not sinne he shall give his Angells charge over thee that thou dash not thy foot against a stone and that 's good security and if all these faile though thou doe fall thou shalt not be utterly cast downe for the Lord shall uphold thee with his hand says David God shall give that Man that loves this found wisdome humble confession of sinnes past this spirituall discretion the spirit of discerning spirits that is power to discerne a tentation and to overcome it confesse that which is past with true sorrow that is sound wisdome and God shall enlighten thee for the future and that 's holy discretion The washing of our feet then being a cleane and pure and sincere examination of all our actions we are to wash all the instruments of our actions in repentance Lavanda facies we are to wash our face as Ioseph did after he had wept before he looked upon his brethren againe If we have murmured and mourned for any crosse that God hath laid upon us we must returne to a cheerfull countenance towards him in embracing whatsoever he found best for us we must wash our Intestina our bowels as it is after commanded in the law when our bowels which should melt at the relation and contemplation and application of the passion of our Saviour doe melt at the apprehension or expectation or fruition of any sinfull delight Lavanda intestina we must wash those bowells Lavanda vestimenta we must wash our clothes when we apparell and palliate our sinnes with excuses of our owne infirmity or of the example of greater Men these clothes must be washed these excuses Lavanda currus arma as Ahabs chariot and armour were washed If the power of our birth or of our place or of our favour have armed us against the power of the law or against the clamour of Men justly incensed Lavandi currus these chariots and armes this greatnesse must be washed Lavanda retia what Nets soever we have fished with by what meanes soever we raise or sustaine our fortune Lavanda retia These nets must be washed Saint Bernard hath drawn a great deale of this heavenly water together for the washing of all when he presents as he cals it Martyrium sine sanguine triplex a threefold Martyrdome all without bloud and that is Largitas in paupertate a bountifull disposition even in a low fortune parcitas in ubertate a frugall disposition in a full fortune and Castitas in Iuventute a pure and chaste disposition in the years and places of tentation These are Martyrdomes without bloud but not without the water that washes our feet This is sound wisdome and discretion to strip and lay open our feet our sinfull actions by Confession To cover them and wrap them up by precaution from new uncleannesse and then to tye and bind up all safe by participation of the bloud of Christ Jesus in the Sacrament for that 's the seale of all And Christ in the washing of his disciples feet tooke a towell to dry them as well as water to wash them so when he hath brought us to this washing of our feet to a serious consideration of our actions and to repentant teares for them Absterget omnem lachrymam he will wipe all teares from our eyes all teares of confusion towards Men or of diffidence towards him Absterget omnem lachrymam and deliver us over to a setled peace of
gate into Heaven in thy selfe If thou beest not sensible of others mens poverties and distresses yet Miserere animae tuae have mercy on thine own soule thou hast a poor guest an Inmate a sojourner within these mudwals this corrupt body of thine be mercifull and compassionate to that Soule cloath that Soul which is stripp'd and left naked of all her originall righteousnesse feed that Soule which thou hast starv'd purge that Soule which thou hast infected warm and thaw that Soul which thou hast frozen with indevotion coole and quench that Soul which thou hast inflamed with licentiousness Miserere animae tuae begin with thine own Soule be charitable to thy self first and thou wilt remember that God hath made of one bloud all Mankind and thou wilt find out thy selfe in every other poor Man and thou wilt find Christ Jesus himselfe in them all Now of those divers gates which God opens in this life those divers exercises of charity the particular which we are occasion'd to speak of here is not the cloathing nor feeding of Christ but the housing of him The providing Christ a house a dwelling whether this were the very place where Solomons Temple was after built is perplexedly and perchance impertinently controverted by many but howsoever here was the house of God and here was the gate of Heaven It is true God may be devoutly worshipped any where In omni loco dominationis ejus benedic anima mea Domino In all places of his dominion my Soule shall praise the Lord sayes David It is not only a concurring of men a meeting of so many bodies that makes a Church If thy soule and body be met together an humble preparation of the mind and a reverent disposition of the body if thy knees be bent to the earth thy hands and eyes lifted up to heaven if thy tongue pray and praise and thine ears hearken to his answer if all thy senses and powers and faculties be met with one unanime purpose to worship thy God thou art to this intendment a Church thou art a Congregation here are two or three met together in his name and he is in the midst of them though thou be alone in thy chamber The Church of God should be built upon a Rock and yet Iob had his Church upon a Dunghill The bed is a scene and an embleme of wantonnesse and yet Hezekiah had his Church in his Bed The Church is to be placed upon the top of a Hill and yet the Prophet Ieremy had his Church in Luto in a miry Dungeon Constancy and setlednesse belongs to the Church and yet Ionah had his Church in the Whales belly The Lyon that roares and seeks whom he may devour is an enemy to this Church and yet Daniel had his Church in the Lions den Aquae quietudinum the waters of rest in the Psalme were a figure of the Church and yet the three children had their Church in the fiery furnace Liberty life appertaine to the Church and yet Peter Paul had their Church in prison and the thiefe had his Church upon the Crosse. Every particular man is himselfe Templum Spiritus sancti a Temple of the holy Ghost yea Solvite templum hoc destroy this body by death and corruption in the grave yet there shall be Festum encaeniorum a renuing a reedifying of all those Temples in the generall Resurrection when we shall rise againe not onely as so many Christians but as so many Christian Churches to glorifie the Apostle and High-priest of our profession Christ Jesus in that eternall Sabbath In omni loco domiâ—ationis ejus Every person every place is fit to glorifie God in God is not tyed to any place not by essence Implet continendo implet God fills every place and fills it by containing that place in himselfe but he is tyed by his promise to a manifestation of himselfe by working in some certain places Though God were long before he required or admitted a sumptuous Temple for Solomons Temple was not built in almost five hundred years after their returne out of Egypt though God were content to accept their worship and their sacrifices at the Tabernacle which was a transitory and moveable Temple yet at last he was so carefull of his house as that himselfe gave the modell and platforme of it and when it was built and after repaired again he was so jealous of appropriating and confining all his solemne worship to that particular place as that he permitted that long schisme and dissention between the Samaritans and the Iews onely about the place of the worship of God They differed not in other things but whether in Mount Sion or in Mount Garizim And the feast of the dedication of this Temple which was yearly celebrated received so much honor as that Christ himselfe vouchsafed to be personally present at that solemnity though it were a feast of the institution of the Church and not of God immediatly as their other festivalls were yet Christ forbore not to observe it upon that pretence that it was but the Church that had appointed it to be observed So that as in all times God had manifested and exhibited himselfe in some particular places more then other in the Pillar in the wildernesse and in the Tabernacle and in the poole which the Angell troubled so did Christ himselfe by his owne presence ceremoniously justifie and authorise this dedication of places consecrated to Gods outward worship not onely once but anniversarily by a yearly celebration thereof To descend from this great Temple at Jerusalem to which God had annexed his solemne and publique worship the lesser Synagogues and Chappell 's of the Iews in other places were ever esteemed great testimonies of the sanctity and piety of the founders for Christ accepts of that reason which was presented to him in the behalfe of the Centurion He is worthy that thou shouldst do this for him for he loveth our Nation And how hath he testified it He hath built us a Synagogue He was but a stranger to them and yet he furthered and advanced the service of God amongst them of whose body he was no member This was that Centurions commendation Et quanto commedatior qui adificat Ecclesiam How much more commendation deserve they that build a Church for Christian service And therefore the first Christians made so much haste to the expressing of their devotion that even in the Apostles time for all their poverty and persecution they were come to have Churches as most of the Fathers and some of our later Expositors understand these words Have ye not houses to eate and drinke or doe ye despise the Church of God to be spoken not of the Church as it is a Congregation but of the Church as it is a Material building Yea if we may beleeve some authors that are pretended to be very ancient there was one Church dedicated to the memory
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
against the holy Ghost for this is the nearest step thou hast made to it to think that thou hast done it walke in that large field of the Scriptures of God and from the first flower at thy entrance the flower of Paradise Semen mulieris the generall promise of the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpents head to the last word of that Messias upon the Crosse Consummatum est that all that was promised for us is now performed and from the first to the last thou shalt find the savour of life unto life in all those flowers walke over the same alley againe and consider the first man Adam in the beginning who involv'd thee in originall sinne and the thiefe upon the Crosse who had continued in actuall sinnes all his life and sealed all with the sinne of reviling Christ himselfe a little before his expiration and yet he recovered Paradise and Paradise that day and see if thou canst make any shift to exclude thy selfe receive the fragrancy of all these Cordialls Vivit Dominâ—â— as the Lord liveth I would not the death of a sinner Quandocunque At what time soever a sinner repenteth and of this text Neminem judieat Christ judgeth no man to destruction here and if thou find after all these Antidotes a suspitious ayre a suspicious working in that Impossibiâ—e est that it is impossible for them who were once inlightened if they fall away to renew them againe by repentance sprinkle upon that worme wood of Impossibile est that Manna of Quorum remiseritis whose sinnes yee remit are remitted and then it will have another tast to thee and thon wilt see that that impossibility lies upon them onely who are utterly fallen away into an absolute Apostasie and infidelity that make a mocke of Christ and crucifie him againe as it is expressed there who undervalue and despise the Church of God those means which Christ Jesus hath instituted in his Church for renewing such as are fallen To such it is impossible because there are no other ordinary meanes possible but that 's not thy case thy case is onely a doubt that those meanes that are shaâ—â— not be applied to thee and even that is a slippery state to doubt of the mercy of God to thee in particular this goes so neare making thy sinne greater then Gods mercy as that it makes thy sinne greater then daily adulteries daily murthers daily blasphemies daily prophanings of the Sabbath could have done and though thou canst never make that true in this life that thy sinnes are greater then God can forgive yet this is a way to make them greater then God will forgive Now to collect both our Exercises and to connexe both Texts Christ judgeth all men and Christ judgeth no man he claimes all judgment and he disavows all judgement and they consist well together he was at our creation but that was not his first sense the Arians who say Erat quando non erat there was a time when Christ was not intimating that he had a beginning and therefore was a creature yet they will allow that he was created before the generall creation and so assisted at ours but he was infinite generations before that in the bosome of his Father at our election and there in him was executed the first judgment of separating those who were his the elect from the reprobate and then he knows who are his by that first Judgment And so comes to his second Judgment to seale all those in the visible Church with the outward mark of his baptisme and the inward marke of his Spirit and those whom he calls so he justifies and sanctifies and brings them to his third Judgment to an established and perpetuall glory And so all Judgment is his But then to judge out of humane affections and passions by detraction and calumny as they did to whom he spoke at this time so he judges no man so he denies judgment To usurpe upon the jurisdiction of others or to exercise any other judgment then was his commission as his pretended Vicar doth so he judges no man so he disavows all judgment To judge so as that our condemnation should be irremediable in this life so he judges no man so he forswears all judgment As I live saith the Lord of hosts and as I have died saith the Lord Jesus so I judge none Acknowledge his first Judgment thy election in him Christ his second Judgment thy justification by him breath and pant after his third Judgement thy Crown of glory for him intrude not upon the right of other men which is the first defame not calumniate not other men which is the second lay not the name of reprobate in this life upon any man which is the third Judgement that Christ disavows here and then thou shalt have well understood and well practised both these texts The Father hath committed all Iudgment to the Sonne and yet The Sonne judges no man SERMON XIIII Preached at Lincolns Inne JOB 19. 26. And though after my skin wormes destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God AMongst those Articles in which our Church hath explain'd and declar'd her faith this is the eight Article that the three Creeds that of the councell of Nice that of Athanasius and that which is commonly known by the name of the Apostles Creed ought throughly to be received and embrac'd The meaning of the Church is not that onely that should be beleev'd in which those three Creeds agree for the Nicen Creed mentions no Article after that of the holy Ghost not the Catholique Church not the Communion of Saints not the Resurrection of the flesh Athanasius his Creed does mention the Resurrection but not the Catholique Church nor the communion of Saints but that all should be beleev'd which is in any of them all which is summ'd up in the Apostles Creed Now the reason expressed in that Article of our Church why all this is to be beleeved is Because all this may be prov'd by most certaine warrants of holy Scriptures The Article does not insist upon particular places of Scripture not so much as point to them But they who have enlarged the Articles by way of explanation have done that And when they come to cite those places of Scripture which prove the Article of the Resurrection I observe that amongst those places they forbeare this text so that it may seem that in their opinion this Scripture doth not concerne the Resurrection It will not therefore be impertinent to make it a first part of this exercise whether this Scripture be to be understood of the Resurrection or no And then to make the particular handling of the words a second part In the first we shall see that the Iews always had and have still a persuasion of the Resurrection We shall look after by what light they saw that whether by the light of naturall reason And if not by that by what light given in other places
there is but one place of this booke of Iob cited at all To the Corinthians the Apostle makes use of those words in Iob God taketh the wise in their owne craft And more then this one place is not I thinke cited out of this booke of Iob in the new Testament But the authority of Iob is established in another place you have heard of the patience of Iob and you have seen the end of the Lord says Saint Iames. As you have seen this so you have heard that seen and heard one way out of the Scripture you have hard that out of the booke of Iob you have seen this out of the Gospell And further then this there is no naming of Iobs person or his booke in the new Testament Saint Hierome confesses that both the Greeke and Latine Copies of this booke were so defective in his time that seven or eight hundred verses of the originall were wanting in the booke And for the originall it selfe he says Obliquus totus liber fertur lubricus it is an uncertaine and slippery book But this is onely for the sense of some places of the book And that made the authority of this book to be longer suspended in the Church and oftner called into question by particular men then any other book of the Bible But in those who have for many ages received this book for Canonicall there is an unanime acknowledgement at least tacitely that this peece of it this text When after my skin wormes shall destroy my body yet in my flesh I shall see God does establish the Resurrection Divide the expositors into three branches for so the world will needs divide them The first the Roman Church will call theirs though they have no other title to them but that they received the same translation that they doe And all they use this text for the resurrection Verba viri in gentilitate positi erubescamus It is a shame for us who have the word of God it selfe which Iob had not and have had such a commentary such an exposition upon al the former word of God as the reall and actuall and visible resurrection of Christ himselfe Erubescamus verba viri in gentilitate positi let us be ashamed and confounded if Iob a person that lived not within the light of the covenant saw the resurrection more clearly and professed it more constantly then we doe And as this Gregory of Rome so Gregory Nyssen understood Iob too For he considers Iobs case thus God promised Iob twofold of all that he had lost And in his sheep and camels and oxen and asses which were utterly destroyed and brought to nothing God performes it punctually he had all in a double proportion But Iob had seven sonnes and three daughters before and God gives him but seven sonnes and three daughters againe And yet Iob had twofold of these too for Postnati cum prioribus numerantur quia omnes deo vivunt Those which were gone and those which were new given lived all one life because they lived all in God Necquicquam aliud est mors nisi viti ositatis expiatio Death is nothing else but a devesting of those defects which made us lesse fit for God And therefore agreeably to this purpose says Saint Cyprian Scimus non amitti sed praemitti thy dead are not lost but lent Non recedere sed praecedere They are not gone into any other wombe then we shall follow them into nec acquirendae atrae vestes pro iis qui albis induuntur neither should we put on blacks for them that are clothed in white nor mourne for them that are entred into their Masters joy We can enlarge our selfes no farther in this consideration of the first branch of expositors but that all the ancients tooke occasion from this text to argue for the resurrection Take into your Consideration the other two branches of moderne expositors whom others sometimes contumeliously and themselves sometimes perversly have call'd Lutherans and Calvinists and you may know that in the first ranke Osiander and with him all his interpret these words so And in the other ranke Tremellius and Pellicanus heretofore Polanus lately and Piscator for the present All these and all the Translators into the vulgar tongues of all our neighbours of Europe do all establish the doctrine of the Resurrection by these words this place of Iob. And therefore though one and truly for any thing I know but one though one to whom we all owe much for the interpretation of the Scriptures do think that Iob intends no other resurrection in this place but that when he shall be reduc'd to the miserablest estate that can bee in this life still he will look upon God and trust in him for his restitution and reparation in this life let us with the whole Christian Church embrace and magnifie this Holy and Heroicall Spirit of Iob Scio says he I know it which is more in him then the Credo is in us more to know it then in that state then to believe it now after it hath been so evidently declar'd not onely to be a certain truth but to be an article of faith Scio Redemptorem says he I know not onely a Creator but a Redeemer And Redemptorem meum My Redeemer which implies a confidence and a personall application of that Redemption to himself Scio vivere says he I know that he lives I know that hee begunne not in his Incarnation I know he ended not in his death but it always was and is now and shall for ever be true Vivit that he lives still And then Scio venturum says he too I know hee shall stand at the last day to Judge me and all the world And after that and after my skinne and body is destroyed by worms yet in my flesh I shall see God And so have you as much as we proposed for our first part That the Jews do now that they always did believe a Resurrection That as naturall men and by naturall reason they might know it both in the possibility of the thing and in the purpose of God that they had better helpes then naturall reason for they had divers places of their Scripture and that this place of Scripture which is our text hath evermore been received for a proof of the Resurrection Proceed we now to those particulars which constitute our second part such instructions concerning the Resurrection as arise out of these words Though after my skinne worms destroy my body yet in my flesh I shall see God In this second part the first thing that was propos'd was That the Saints of God are not priviledg'd from this which fell upon Iob This Death this dissolution after death Upon the Morte morieris that double death interminated by God upon Adam there is a Non obstante Revertere turn to God and thou shalt not dy the death not the second
vestruâ—â— it is not for you to know times and seasons Before in his state of mortality 〈…〉 ignor antibus he pretended to know no more of this then they that knew nothing After when he had invested immortality per sui exceptionem says that Father he excepts none but himselfe all the rest even the Apostles were left ignorant thereof For this non est vestrum it is not for you is part of the last sentence that ever Christ spake to them If it be a convenient answer to say Christ knew it not as man how bold is that man that will pretend to know it And if it be a convenient interpretation of Christs words that he knew it not that is knew it not so as that he might tell it them how indiscreet are they who though they may seem to know it will publish it For thereby they fill other men with scruples and vexations and they open themselves to scorne and reproach when their predictions prove false as Saint Augustine observed in his time and every age hath given examples since of confident men that have failed in these conjectures It is a poore pretence to say this intimation this impression of a certaine time prepares men with better dispositions For they have so often been found false that it rather weakens the credit of the thing it selfe In the old world they knew exactly the time of the destruction of the world that there should be an hundred twenty years before the flood came And yet upon how few did that prediction though from the mouth of God himselfe work to repentance Naâ—â— found grace in Gods eyes but it was not because he mended his life upon that prediction but he was grations in Gods sight before At the day of our death we write Pridiâ—râ—surrâ—ctioniâ— the day before the resurrection It is Vigilia resurectionis Our Easter Eve Adveniat regnum tuum possesse my soule of thy kingdome then And Fiâ—â— voluntas tua my body shall arise after but how soon after or how late after thy will bee done then by thy selfe and thy will bee knowne till then to thy selfe We passe on As in Massa damnata the whole lump of mankind is under the condemnation of Adams sinne and yet the good purpose of God severs some men from that condemnation so at the resurrection all shall rise but not all to glory But amongst them that doe Ego says Iob I shall I as I am the same man made up of the samebody and the same soule Shall I imagine a difficulty in my body because I have lost an Arme in the East and a leg in the West because I have left some bloud in the North and some bones in the South Doe but remember with what ease you have sate in the chaire casting an account and made a shilling on one hand a pound on the other or five shillings below ten above because all these lay easily within your reach Consider how much lesse all this earth is to him that sits in heaven and spans all this world and reunites in an instant armes and legs bloud and bones in what corners so ever they be scattered The greater work may seem to be in reducing the soul That that soule which sped so ill in that body last time it came to it as that it contracted Originall sinne then and was put to the slavery to serve that body and to serve it in the ways of sinne not for an Apprentiship of seven but seventy years after that that soul after it hath once got loose by death and liv'd God knows how many thousands of years free from that body that abus'd it so before and in the sight and fruition of that God where it was in no danger should willingly nay desirously ambitiously seek this scuttered body this Eastern and Western and Northern and Southern body this is the most inconsiderable consideration and yet Ego I I the same body and the same soul shall be recompact again and be identically numerically individually the same man The same integrity of body and soul and the same integrity in the Organs of my body and in the faculties of my soul too I shall be all there my body and my soul all my body all my soul I am not all here I am here now preaching upon this text and I am at home in my Library considering whether S. Gregory or S. Hierome have said best of this text before I am here speaking to you and yet I consider by the way in the same instant what it is likely you will say to one another when I have done you are not all here neither you are here now hearing me and yet you are thinking that you have heard a better Sermon somewhere else of this text before you are here and yet you think you could have heard some other doctrine of down-right Predestinations and Reprobation roundly delivered somewhere else with more edification to youâ— you are here and you remember your selves that now yee think of it This had been the fittest time now when every body else is at Church to have made such and such a private visit and because you would bee there you are there I cannot say you cannot say so perfectly so entirely now as at the Resurrection Ego I am here I body and soul I soul and faculties as Christ sayd to Peter Noli timere Ego sum Fear nothing it is I so I say to my selfe Noli timere My soul why art thou so sad my body why dost thou languish Ego I body and soul soul and faculties shall say to Christ Jesus Ego sum Lord it is I and hee shall not say Nescio te I know thee not but avow me and place me at his right hand Ego sum I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath Ego sum and I the same man shall receive the crown of glory which shall not fade Ego I the same person Ego videbo I shall see I have had no looking-glasse in my grave to see how my body looks in the dissolution I know not how I have had no houre-glasse in my grave to see how my time passes I know not when for when my eylids are closed in my death-bed the Angel hath said to me that time shall be no more Till I see eternity the ancient of days I shall see no more but then I shall Now why is Iob gladder of the use of this sense of seeing then of any of the other He is not He is glad of seeing but not of the sense but of the Object It is true that is said in the School Viciniùs se habent potentiae sensitivae ad animam quà m corpus Our sensitive faculties have more relation to the soul then to the body but yet to some purpose and in some measure all the senses shall be in our glorifyed bodies In actu or in potentiâ
one person in him My flesh shall no more be none of mine then Christ shall not be man as well as God SERMON XV. Preached at Lincolns Inne 1 COR. 15. 50. Now this I say Brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God SAint Gregory hath delivered this story That Eutychius who was Bishop of Constantinople having written a book of the Resurrection and therein maintained that errour That the body of Christ had not that our bodies in the Resurrection should not have any of the qualities of a naturall body but that those bodies were in subtilitatem redacta so rarifyed so refined so attenâ—ated and reduced to a thinnesse and subtlenesse that they were aery bodies and not bodies of flesh and blood This error made a great noise and raised a great dust till the Emperour to avoid scandall which for the most part arises out of publick conferences was pleased to hear Eutychius and Gregory dispute this point privately before himself and a small company And that upon conference the Emperour was so well satisfyed that hee commanded Eutychius his books to bee burnt That after this both Gregory and Eutychius fell sicke but Eutychius dyed and dyed with this protestation In hâc carne in this flesh taking up the flesh of his hand in the presence of them that were there in this flesh I acknowledge that I and all men shall arise at the day of Judgement Now the principall place of Scripture which in his book and in that conference Eutychius stood upon was this Text these words of Saint Paul This I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God And the directest answer that Gregory gave to it was Caro secundum culpam non regnabit sed Caro secundum naturam sinfull flesh shall not but naturall flesh that is flesh indued with all qualities of flesh all such qualities as imply no defect no corruption for there was flesh before there was sin such flesh and such blood shall inherit the Kingdome of God As there have been more Heresies about the Humanity of Christ then about his Divinity so there have been more heresies about the Resurrection of his body and consequently of ours then about any other particular article that concerns his Humiliation or Exaltation Simon Magus strook deepest at first to the root That there was no Resurrection at all The Gnosticks who took their name from knowledge as though they knew all and no body else any thing which is a pride transferr'd through all Heretickes for as that sect in the Roman Church which call themselves Ignorantes and seem to pretend to no knowledge doe yet believe that they know a better way to heaven then all other men doe so that sect amongst them which called themselves Nullanos Nothings thought themselves greater in the Kingdome of God then either of the other two sects of diminution the Minorits or the Minims did These Gnosticks acknowledged a Resurrection but they said it was of the soul onely and not of the body for they thought that the soul lay dead at least in a dead sleep till the Resurrection Those Heretickes that are called the Arabians did as the Gnosticks did affirm a temporary death of the soul as well as of the body but then they allowed a Resurrection to both soul and body after that death which the Gnostickes did not but to the soul onely Hymeneus and Philetus of whom Saint Paul speakes they restrained the Resurrection to the soule but then they restrained this Resurrection of the soule to this life and that in those who were baptized the Resurrection was accomplished already Eutychius whom wee mentioned before enlarged the Resurrection to the body as well as to the soul but enlarged the qualities of the body so far as that it was scarce a body The Armenian hereticks said that it was not onely Corpus humâ—num but Corpus masculinum That all should rise in the perfecter sex and none as women Origen allowed a Resurrection and allowed the Body to be a naturall body but the contracted the time he said that when we rose we should enjoy the benefits of the resurrection even in bodily pleasures for a thousand years and then be annihilated or absorpted and swallowed up into the nature and essence of God himselfe for it will be hard to state Origens opinion in this point Origen was not herein well understood in his owne time not doe we understand him now for the most part but by his accusers and those that have written against him Divers of these Heretiques for the maintenance of their severall heresies perverted this Scripture Flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdome of God and that occasioned those Fathers who opposed those heresies so diverse from one another to interpret these words diversly according to the heresie they opposed All agree that they are an argument for the resurrection though they seem at first to oppose it For this Chapter hath three generall parts first Resurrectionem esse that there shall be a Resurrection which the Apostle proves by many and various arguments to the thirty fifth verse And then Quati corpore the body shall rise but some will say How are the dead raised and with what body doe they come in that thirty fifth verse And lastly Quid de superstitibus what shall become of them who shall be found alive at the day We shall all be changed verse fifty one Now this text is the knot and corollary or all the second part concerning the qualities of the bodies in the resurrection Now says the Apostle now that I have said enough to prove that a resurrection there is now now that I have said enough what kind of bodies shall arise now I show you as much in the Negative as I have done in the Affirmative now I teach you what to avoid as well as I have done what to affect now this I say brethren that flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdome of God Now though those words be primarily principally intended of the last Resurrection yet in a secondary respect they are appliable in themselves and very often applied by the ancients to the first Resurrection our resurrection in this life Tertullian hath intimated and presented both together elegantly when he says of God Nobis arrhabonem spiritus reliquit arrhabonem à nobis accepit God hath given us his earnest and a pawn from him upon earth in giving us the holy Ghost and he hath received our earnest and a pawn from us into heaven by receiving our nature in the body of Christ Jesus there Flesh and bloud when it is conformed to the flesh and bloud of Christ now glorified and made like his by our resurrectien may inherite the kingdome of God in heaven Yea flesh and bloud being conformed to Christ by the sanctification of the holy Ghost here in this world may inherit the kingdome of God here upon earth for God hath a
Verbum The word and his servants there talk of us here and pray to him for us They talked with him but of what They talked of hiâ— Decease says the text there which he should accomplish at Jerusalem all that they talked of was of his Passion All that we shall say and sing in heaven will be of his Passion accomplished at Jerusalem in that Hymn This Lamb hath redeemed as to God by his blood Worthy is the Lamb that was slaine to receive power and riches and wisdome and strength and honour and glory and blessing Amen Even our glory in heaven at last is not principally for our selves but to contribute to the glory of Christ Jesus If we inquire further then this into the state of our glorifyed bodies remember that in this reall Parable in this Type of the Resurrection the transfiguration of Christ it is said that even Beter himself wist not what to say and remember too That even Christ himself forbad them to say any thing at all of it till his Resurrection Till our Resurrection we cannot know clearly we should not speak boldly of the glory of the Saints of God nor of our blessed endowments in that state The summe of all is Fiducis Christianorum est resurrectio mortuorum My faith directs it self first upon that which Christ hath done he is dead he is risen and my hope directs it selfe upon that which shall bee done I shall rise again And yet says Luther Papa Cardinales primarii viri I know the Pope the Cardinals the Bishops are Iâ—genio doctrinâ ratione prudentiâ excellentes they abound in naturall parts in reading in experience in civill wisdome yet says he si tres sunt qui hunc â—â—ticulum indubitanter â—redunt If there be three amongst them that do faithfully and undoubtedly believe this article of the Resurrection of the body three are more then I look for amongst them Beloved as no things are liker one another then Court and Court the same ambitions the same underminings in one Court as in another so Church and Church is alike too All persecured Churches are religious all peaceable Churches are dissolute when Luther said that of the Church of Rome That few of them believed the Resurrection the Roman Church wall owed in all abundances and dissolutenesseâ— and scarce a man in respect opened his mouth against her otherwise then that the holy Ghost to make his continuall 〈◊〉 and to interrupt their prescription in every age raised up some to declare their impieties and usurpations But then when they bent all their thoughts entirely and prosperously upon possessing this world they thought they might spare the Resurrection well enough As hee that hath a plentifull fortune in Europe cares not much though there be no land of perfumes in the East nor of gold in the West-Indies God in our days hath given us and our Church the fat of the glory of this world too and we also neglect the other But when men of a different religion from them for they will needs call a differing from their errours a different Religion as though all their religion were errours for excepting errours we differ in no point when I say such men came to enquire into them to discover them and to induce or to attempt in divers parts of their government a reformation then they shut themselves up closer then they grew more carefull of their manners and did reform themselves somewhat though not thoroughly and are the better for that reformat on which was offered to them and wrought more effectually upon others As we say in the School that even the Devill is somewhat the better for the death of Christ so the Roman Church is somewhat the better for the Reformation Our assiduity of preaching hath brought them to another manner of frequency in preaching then before the Reformation they were accustomed to and our answers to their books have brought them to a more reserved manner of writing then they used before Let us therefore by their example make as good use of our enemies as our enemies have done of us For though we have no military enmity no hostility with any nation though we must all and doe out of a true sense of our duty to God pray ever for the continuance of peace amongst Christian Princes and to withhold the effusion of Christian blood yet to that intendment and in that capacity as they were our enemies in 88. when they provoked by their Excommunications dangerous invasions and in that capacity as they were our enemies in 603. when they bent their malice even against that place where the Laws for the maintenance of our religion were enacted so they are our enemies still if we be still of the same religion He that by Gods mercy to us leads us is as sure that the Pope is Antichrist now as he was then and we that are blessedly led by him are as sure that their doctrine is the doctrine of Devils now as we were then Let us therefore make use of those enemies and of their aery insolences and their frothy confidences as thereby to be the firmer in our selves and the carefuller of our children and servants that we send not for such a Physitian as brings a Roman Priest for his Apothecary nor entertain such a School-master as brings a Roman Priest for his Vsher nor such a Mercer as brings a Priest for his Tayler for in these shapes they have and will appear But in true faith to God true Allegiance to our Prince true obedience to the Church true dealing with all men make our selves sure of the Resurrection in the next life In carne incorruptibili in flesh that shall bee capable of no corruption by having that resurrection in this life in carne incorruptâ in devesting or correcting the corruptions which cleave to our flesh here that we bee not corrupted spiritually not disputed out of our Religion nor jeasted out nor threatened out nor bought out nor beat out of the truth of God nor corrupted carnally by the pleasures or profits of this world but that wee may conforme our selves to the purity of Christ Jesus in that measure which wee are able to attain to which is our spirituall Resurrection and constitutes our second part That Kingdome of God which flesh and blood may inherit in this life From the beginning we setled that That the primary purpose of the Apostle in these words was to establish the doctrine of the last Resurrection But in Tertullians exposition Arrabonem dedit arrabonem accepit That God hath left us the earnest of his Spirit upon earth and hath taken the earnest of our flesh into heaven it grew indifferent of which Resurrection spirituall or bodily first or last it be accepted but take Tertullian in another place upon the verse immediately preceding our Text Sicut portavimus portemus for so Tertullian reads that place and so does the Vulgate As we
infirmer voice rise together in this resurrection of grace Let him that hath been buried sixty years forty years twenty years in covetousnesse in uncleannesse in indevotion rise now now this minute and then as Adam that dyed five thousand before shall be no sooner in heaven in his body then you so Abel that dyed for God so long before you shall be no better that is no fuller of the glory of heaven then you that dye in God when it shall be his pleasure to take you to him SERMON XVI Preached at Lincolns Inne COLOS. 1. 24. Who now rejoyce in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his bodies sake which is the Church WE are now to enter into the handling of the doctrine of Evangelicall counsailes And these words have been ordinarily used by the writers of the Roman Church for the defence of a point in controversie between them and us which is a preparatory to that which hereafter is to be more fully handled upon another Text. Out of these words they labour to establish works of supererogation in which they say men doe or suffer more then was necessary for their owne salvation and then the superfluity of those accrues to the Treasury of the Church and by the Stewardship and dispensation of the Church may be applied to other men living here or suffering in Purgatory by way of satisfaction to Gods justice But this is a doctrine which I have had occasion heretofore in this place to handle And a doctrine which indeed deserves not the dignity to be too diligently disputed against And as we will not stop upon the disproving of the doctrine so we need not stay long nor insist upon the vindicating of these words from that wresting and detortion of theirs in using them for the proofe of that doctrine Because though at first they presented them with great eagernesse and vehemence and assurance Quicquid haeretici obstrepunt illustris hic locus say the Heretiques what they can this is a clear and evident place for that doctrine yet another after him is a little more cautelous and reserv'd Negari non potest quin ita expeni possint it cannot be denied but that these words may admit such an exposition And then another more modified then both says Primò propriè non id intendit Apostolus the Apostle had no such purpose in his first and proper intention to prove that doctrine in these words Sed innuitur ille sensus qui et si non genuinus tamen à pari deduci potest some such sense says that author may be implied and intimated because though it be not the true and naturall sense yet by way of comparison and convenience such a meaning may be deduced Generally their difference in having any patronage for that corrupt doctrine out of these words appeares best in this that if we consider their authors who have written in controversies we shall see that most of them have laid hold upon these words for this doctrine because they are destitute of all Scriptures and glad of any that appear to any any whit that way inclinable But if we consider those authors who by way of commentary and exposition either before or since the controversies have been stirred have handled these words we shall find none of their owne authors of that kind which by way of exposition of these words doth deliver this to be the meaning of them that satisfaction may be made to the justice of God by the works of supererogation one man for another To come then to the words themselves in their true sense and interpretation we shall find in them two generall considerations First that to him that is become a new creature a true Christian all old things are done away and all things are made new As he hath a new birth as he hath put on a new man as he is going towards a new Ierusalem so hath he a new Philosophy a new production and generation of effects out of other causes then before he finds light out of darknesse fire out of water life out of death joy out of afflictions Nunc gaâ—deâ— now I rejoyce in my sufferings c. And then in a second consideration he finds that this is not by miracle that he should hope for it but once but he finds an expresse and certaine and constant reason why it must necessarily be so because I still up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ c. It is strange that I should conceive joy out of affliction but when I come to see the reason that by that affliction I fill up the sufferings of Christ c. it is not strange it cannot chuse but be so The parts then will be but two a proposition and a reason But in the first part it will be sit to consider first the person not meerely who it is but in what capacity the Apostle conceives this joy And secondly the season Now for joy is not always seasonable there is a time of mourning but now rejoycing And then in a third place we shall come to the affection it selfe Joy which when it is true and truly placed is the nearest representation of heaven it selfe to this world From thence we shall descend to the production of this joy from whence it is derived and that is out of sufferings for this phrase in passionibus in my sufferings is not in the middest oâ— my sufferings it is not that I have joy and comfort though I suffer but in passionibus is so in suffering as that the very suffering is the subject of my joy I had no joy no occasion of joy if I did not suffer But then these sufferings which must occasion this joy are thus conditioned thus qualified in our text That first it be passio mea my suffering and not a suffering cast by my occasion upon the whole Church or upon other men mea it is determined and limited in my selfe and mea but not prome not for my selfe not for mine owne transgressions and violating of the law but it is for others pro vobis says the Apostle for out of that root springs the whole second part why there appertaines a joy to such sufferings which is that the suffering of Christ being yet not unperfect but unperfected Christ having not yet suffered all which he is to suffer to this purpose for the gathering of his Church I fill up that which remaines undone And that in Carne not onely in spirit and disposition but really in my flesh And all this not only for making sure of mine own salvation but for the establishing and edifying a Church but yet his Church for men seduced and seducers of men have their Churches too and suffer for those Churches but this is for his Church and that Church of his which is properly his body and that is the visible Church and
imploys the hand of sicknesse the hand of poverty the hand of justice the hand of malice still it is his hand that breakes the vessell and this vessell which is his own for can any such vessell have a propriety in it selfe or bee any other bodies primarily then his from whom it hath the beeing To recollect these if I will have joy in suffering it must be mine mine and not borrowed out of an imaginary treasure of the Church from the works of others Supererogation mine and not stollen or enforced by exasperating the Magistrate to a persecution mine by good title and not by suffering for breach of the Law mine in particular and not a generall persecution upon the Church by my occasion And mine by a stranger title then all this mine by resignation mine by disavowing it mine by confessing that it is none of mine Till I acknowledge that all my sufferings are even for Gods glory are his works and none of mine they are none of mine and by that humility they become mine and then I may rejoyce in my sufferings Through all our sufferings then there must passe an acknowledgement that we are unprofitable servants towards God utterly unprofitable So unprofitable to our selves as that we can merit nothing by our sufferings but still we may and must have a purpose to profit others by our constancy it is Pro vobis that Saint Paul says hee suffers for them for their souls I will most gladly bestow and be bestowed for your soules says he But Numquid Paulus crucifixus pro vobis was Paul crucified for you is his own question as he suffered for them here so we may be bold to say he was crucified for them that is that by his crucifying and suffering the benefit of Christs sufferings and crucifying might be the more cheerfully embraced by them and the more effectually applyed to them Pro vobis is Pro vestro commodo for your advantage and to make you the more active in making sure your own salvation We are afflicted says he for your consolation that 's first that you might take comfort and spirituall courage by our example that God will no more forsake you then he hath done us and then hee addes salvation too for your consolation and salvation for our sufferings beget this consolation and then this consolation facilitates your salvation and then when Saint Paul had that testimony in his own conscience that his purpose in his sufferings was Pro illis to advantage Gods children and then saw in his experience so good effect of it as that it wrought and begot faith in them then the more his sufferings encreast the more his joys encreast Though says he I be offered up upon the service and sacrifice of your faith I am glad and rejoyce with you all And therefore hee calls the Philippians who were converted by him Gaudium Coronam his Joy and his Crown not onely a Crown in that sense as an auditory a congregation that compasses the Preacher was ordinarily called a Crown Corâ—na In which sense that Martyr Cornelius answered the Judge when he was charged to have held intelligence and to have received Letters from Saint Cyprian against the State Ego de Corona Domini says he from Gods Church 't is true I have but Contra Rempublicam against the State I have received no Letters But not onely in this sense Saint Paul calls those whom he had converted his Crown his Crown that is his Church but he cals them his Crown in heaven What is our hope our joy our Crown of rejoycing are not even you it and where even in the presence of our Lord Iesus Christ at his coming says the Apostle And therefore not to stand upon that contemplation of Saint Gregories that at the Resurrection Peter shall lead up his converted Jewes and Paul his converted Nations and every Apostle his own Church Since you to whom God sends us doe as well make up our Crown as we doe yours since your being wrought upon and our working upon you conduce to both our Crowns call you the labour and diligence of your Pastors for that 's all the suffering they are called to till our sins together call in a persecution call you their painfulnesse your Crown and we shall call your applyablenesse to the Gospel which we preach our Crown for both conduce to both but especially childrens children are the Crown of the Elders says Solomon If when we have begot you in Christ by our preaching you also beget others by your holy life and conversation you have added another generation unto us and you have preached over our Sermons again as fruitfully as we our selves you shall be our Crown and they shall be your Crowns and Christ Jesus a Crown of everlasting glory to us all Amen SERMON XVII Preached at Lincolns Inne MATTH 18. 7. We unto the world because of offences THe Man Moses was very meeke above all the men which were upon the face of the Earth The man Moses was so but the Child Iesus was meeker then he Compare Moses with men and Moses will scarce be parallel'd Compare him with him who being so much more then man as that he was God too was made so much lesse then man as that he was a worme and no man and Moses will not be admitted If you consider Moses his highest expression what he would have parted with for his brethren in his Dele me Pardon them or blot my name out of thy book yet Saint Pauls zeale will enter into the balance and come into comparison with Moses in his Anathema pro fratribus in that he wished himselfe to be separated from Christ rather then his brethren should be But what comparison hath a sodaine a passionate and indigested vehemence of love expressed in a phrase that tasts of zeale but is not done Moses was not blotted out of the book of life nor Saint Paul was not separated from Christ for his brethren what comparison hath such a love that was but said and perchance should not have been said for we can scarce excuse Moses or Saint Paul of all excesse and inordinatenesse in that that they said with a deliberate and an eternall purpose in Christ Jesus conceived as soon as we can conceive God to have knowen that Adam would fall to come into this world dye for man and then actually and really in the fulnesse of time to do so he did come and he did dye The man Moses was very meeke the child Jesus meeker then hee Moses his meeknesse had a determination at least an interruption a discontinuance when hee revenged the wrong of another upon that Egyptian whom he slew But a bruised reed might have stood unbroken and smoking flax might have lien unquenched for ever for all Christ. And therefore though Christ send his Disciples to School to the Scribes and Pharisees because they sate in Moses seat for other lessons yet for
body of story But these Psalmes were made not onely to vent Davids present holy passion but to serve the Church of God to the worlds end And therefore change the person and wee shall finde a whole quiver of arrows Extend this Man to all Mankind carry Davids History up to Adams History and consider us in that state which wee inherit from him and we shall see arrows fly about our ears A Deo prosequente the anger of God hanging over our heads in a cloud of arrows and à conscientia remordente our own consciences shooting poisoned arrows of desperation into our souls and ab Homine Contemnente Men multiplying arrows of Detraction and Calumny and Contumely upon our good name and estimation Briefly in that wound as wee were all shot in Adam we bled out Impassibilitatem and we sucked in Impossibilitatem There we lost our Immortality our Impassibility our assurance of Paradise and then we lost Possibilitatem boni says S. August all possibility of recovering any of this by our selves So that these arrows which are lamented here are all those miseries which sinne hath cast upon us Labor and the childe of that Sicknesse and the off-spring of that Death And the security of conscience and the terrour of conscience the searing of the conscience and the over-tendernesse of the conscience Gods quiver and the Devils quiver and our own quiver and our neighbours quiver afford and furnish arrows to gall and wound us These arrows then in our Text proceeding from sin and sin proceeding from tentations and inducing tribulations it shall advance your spirituall edification most to fixe your consideration upon those fiery darts as they are tentations and as they are tribulations Origen says he would wish no more for the recovery of any soul but that she were able to see Cicatrices suas those scars which these fiery darts have left in her the deformity which every sinne imprints upon the soul and Contritiones suas the attenuating and wearing out and consumption of the soul by a continuall succession of more and men wound â— upon the same place An ugly thing in a Consumption were a fearfull spectacle And such Origen imagins a soul to be if she could see Cicatrices and Contritiones her ill-favourednesse and her leannesse in the deformity and consumption of sin How provident how diligent a patience did our blessed Saviour bring to his Passion who foreseeing that that would be our case our sicknesse to be first wounded with single tentations and then to have even the wounds of our soul wounded again by a daily reiterating of tentations in the same kinde would provide us physick agreeable to our Disease Chyrurgery conformable to our wound first to be scourged so as that his holy body was torn with wounds and then to have those wounded again and often with more violatings So then these arrows are those tentations and those tribulations which are accompanied with these qualities of arrows shot at us that they are alienae shot from others not in our power And veloces swift and sudden soon upon us And vix visibiles not discernible in their coming but by an exact diligence First then these tentations are dangerous arrows as they are alienae shot from others and not in our own power It was the Embleme and Inscription which Darius took for his coin Insculpere sagittarium to shew his greatnesse that he could wound afar off as an Archer does And it was the way by which God declared the deliverance of Israel from Syria Elisha bids the King open the window East-ward and shoot an arrow out The King does shoot And the Prophet says Sagitta salutis Domini The arrow of the Lords deliverance He would deliver Israel by shooting vengeance into Syria One danger in our arrows as they are tentations is that they come unsuspectedly they come we know not from whence from others that 's a danger But in our tentations there is a greater danger then that for a man cannot shoot an arrow at himself but we can direct tentations upon our selves If we were in a wildernesse we could sin and where we are we tempt temptations and wake the Devil when for any thing that appears he would sleep A certain man drew a bow at a venture says that story He had no determinate mark no expresse aime upon any one man He drew his bow at a venture and he hit and he flew the King Ahab A woman of tentation Tendit areum in incertum as that story speaks shee paints she curls she sings she gazes and is gazed upon There 's an arrow shot at randon shee aim'd at no particular mark And thou puttest thy self within shot and meetest the arrow Thou soughtest the tentation the tentation sought not thee A man is able to oppresse others Et glâ—riatur in malâ— quia potens He boasts himselfe because he is able to doe mischief and tendit arcum in incertum he shoots his arrow at randon he lets it be known that he can prefer them that second his purposes and thou putt'st thy self within shot and meet'st the arrow and mak'st thy self his instrument Thou sought'st the tentation the tentation sought not thee when we expose our selves to tentations tentations hit us that were not expresly directed nor meant to us And even then when we begin to flie from tentations the arrow overtakes us Iehoram fled from Iehu and Iehu shot after him and shot him through the heart But this was after Iehoram had talk'd with him After wee have parâ—ed with a tentation debated whether we should embrace it or no and entertain'd some discourse with it though some tendernesse some remorse make us turn our back upon it and depart a little from it yet the arrow overtakes us some reclinations some retrospects we have a little of Lots wife is in us a little sociablenesse and conversation a little point of honour not to be false to former promises a little false gratitude and thankfulnesse in respect of former obligations a little of the compassion and charity of Hell that another should not be miserable for want of us a little of this which is but the good nature of the Devill arrests us stops us fixes us till the arrow the tentation shoot us in the back even when wee had a purpose of departing from that sin and kils us over again Thus it is when we meet a tentation and put our selves in the arrows way And thus it is when we fly not fast enough nor farre enough from a tentation But when we doe all that and provide as safely as we can to get and doe get quickly out of distance yet The wicked bend their bowes that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart In occulto It is a work of Darknesse Detraction and they can shoot in the dark they can wound and not be known They can whisper Thunder and passe an arrow through another mans eare into mine
prison an other story of unwieldy flesh about our souls and if wee give our selves as much mortification as our body needs we live a life of fridays and see no Sabbath we make up our years of Lents and see no other Easters and whereas God meant us Paradise we make all the world a wildernesse Sin hath cast a curse upon all the creatures of the world they are all worse then they were at first and yet we dare not receive so much blessing as is left in the creature we dare not eat or drink and enjoy them The daughters of Gods quiver and the sons of his quiver the arrows of tentation and the arrows of tribulation doe so stick in us that as he lives miserably that lives in sicknes and he as miserably that lives in physick so plenty is a misery and mortiâ—ication is a misery too plenty if we consider it in the effects is a disease a continuall sicknes for it breeds diseases And mortification if we should consider it without the effects is a disease too a continuall hunger and fasting and if we consider it at best and in the effects mortification is but a continuall physick which is misery enough They stick and they stick fast altè infixae every syllable aggravates our misery Now for the most part experimentally we know not whether they stick fast or no for we never goe about to pull them out these arrows these tentations come and welcome we are so far from offering to pull them out that we fix them faster and faster in us we assist our tentations yea we take preparatives and fomentations we supple our selves by provocations lest our flesh should be of proof against these arrows that death may enter the surer and the deeper into us by them And he that does in some measure soberly and religiously goe about to draw out these arrows yet never consummates never perfects his own work He pulls back the arrow a little way and he sees blood and he feels spirit to goe out with it and he lets it alone He forbears his sinfull companions a little while and he feels a melancholy take hold of him the spirit and life of his life decays and he falls to those companions again Perchance he rushes out the arrow with a sudden and a resolved vehemence and he leaves the head in his body He forces a divorce from that sinne he removes himself out of distance of that tentation and yet he surfets upon cold meat upon the sinfull remembrance of former sins which is a dangerous rumination and an unwholesome chawing of the cud It is not an ill derivation of repentance that poenitere is poenam tenere that 's true repentance when we continue in those means which may advance our repentance When Ioash the King of Israel came to visit Elisha upon his sick bed and to consult with him about his war Elisha bids the King smite the ground and he smites it thrice and ceases Then the man of God was angry and said Thou shouldst have smitten five or sixe times and so thou shouldst have smitten thine enemies till thou hadst consumed them Now how much hast thou to doe that hast not pull'd at this arrow at all yet Thou must pull thrice and more before thou get it out Thou must doe and leave undone many things before thou deliver thy selfe of that arrow that sinne that transports thee One of these arrows was shot into Saint Paul himselfe and it stuck and stuck fast whether an arrow of tentation or an arrow of tribulation the Fathers cannot tell And therefore wee doe now not inconveniently all our way in this exercise mingle these two considerations of tentation and tribulation Howsoever Saint Paul pull'd thrice at this arrow and could not get it out I besought the Lord thrice says he that it might depart from mee But yet Ioash his thrice striking of the ground brought him some victory Saint Pauls thrice praying brought him in that provision of Grace which God cals sufficient for him Once pulling at these arrows a slight consideration of thy sins will doe no good Do it thrice testifie some true desire by such a diligence Doe it now as thou sitt'st doe it again at the Table doe it again in thy bed Doe it thrice doe it in thy purpose do it in thine actions doe it in thy constancy Doe it thrice within the wals of thy flesh in thy self within the wals of thy house in thy family and in a holy and exemplar conversation abroad and God will accomplish thy work which is his work in thee And though the arrow be not utterly pull'd out yet it shall not fester it shall not gangrene Thou shalt not be cut off from the body of Christ in his Church here nor in the Triumphant Church hereafter how fast soever these arrows did stick upon thee before God did not refuse Israel for her wounds and bruises and putrefying sores though from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head but because those wounds were not closed nor bound up nor suppled with ointments therefore he refused her God shall not refuse any soul because it hath been shot with these arrows Alas God himself hath set us up for a mark says Iob and so says Ieremy against these arrows But that soul that can pour out flouds of tears for the losse or for the absence or for the unkindnes or imagination of an unkindness of a friend mis-beloved beloved a wrong way and not afford one drop one tear to wash the wounds of these arrows that soul that can squeaze the wound of Christ Jesus and spit out his bloud in these blasphemous execrations shed no drop of this bloud upon the wounds of these arrows that soul and only that soul that refuses a cure does God refuse not because they fell upon it and stook and stook fast and stook long but because they never never went about to pull them out never resisted a tentation never lamented a transgression never repented a recidivation Now this is more put home to us in the next addition Infixae mihi they stick and stick fast in mee that is in all mee That that sin must be sav'd or damn'd That 's not the soul alone nor body alone but all the whole man God is the God of Abraham as he is the God of the living Therefore Abraham is alive And Abraham is not alive if his body be not alive Alive actually in the person of Christ alive in an infallible assurance of a particular resurrection Whatsoever belongs to thee belongs to thy body and soul and these arrows stick fast in thee In both Consider it in both in things belonging to the body and to the soul We need clothing Baptisme is Gods Wardrobe there Induimur Christo In Baptisme we put on Christ there we are invested apparell'd in Christ And there comes an arrow that cuts off half our garment as
to morrow He that forgets what he hath done foresees not what he shall suffer so sin is a burden it crookens us it wearies us And those are the two first inconveniences And then a third is Retardat Though a man can stand under a burden that he doe not sink but be able to make some steps yet his burden slackens his pace and he goes not so fast as without that burden he could have gone So it is an habituall sinnes though we doe not sinke into desperation and stupefaction though we doe come to the participation of outward means and have some sense some feeling thereof yet as long as any one beloved and habituall sin hangs upon us it slackens our pace in all the ways of godlinesse And we come not to such an appropriation of the promises of the Gospel in hearing Sermons nor to such a re-incarnation and invisceration of Christ and his merits into our selves in the Sacrament as if wee were altogether devested of that sin and not onely at that time we should doe Quis ascendes says David who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord It is a painfull clambring up a hill And Saint August makes use of the answer Innocens manibus He that hath clean hands first he must have hands as well as feet He must doe something for himself And then Innocent hands such as doe no harme to others such as hold and carry no hurtfull thing to himself Either he must have the first Innocence Abstinence from ill getting or the second Innocence Restitution of that which was ill gotten or he shall never get up that hill for it is a steep hill and there is no walking up but he must crawle hand and foot Therefore says the Apostle Deponamus pondus Let us lay aside every weight He does not say sin in generall but every weight every circumstance that may aggravate our sin every conversation that may occasion our sin And as hee addes particularly and emphatically The sin that does so easily beset us Easily because customarily habitually And then says that Apostle in that place Let us run when we have laid down the sin that does so easily beset us our beloved and habituall sinne and laid down every weight every circumstance that aggravates that sin then we may be able to run to proceed with a holy chearfulnesse and proficiency in the wayes of sanctification but till that we cannot how due observers soever we be of all outward means for sin is a burden in perverting us in tyring us in retarding us And last of all it is a burden quaetenus praecipitat as it gives him ever new occasion of stumbling He that hath not been accustomed to a sin but exercised in resisting it will finde many tentations but as a wash way that he can trot thorough and goe forward religiously in his Calling for all them for though there be coluber in via A snake in every way tentations in every calling yet In Christo omnia possumus In Christ we can doe all things and therefore in him we can bruise the Serpents head and spurn a tentation out of his way But he that hath been long under the custome of a sin evermore meets with stones to stumble at and bogges to plunge in It is S. Chrysâ—stomes application He that hath had fever though he have cast it off yet he walks weakly and he hath an inclination to the beds side or to a chaire at every turn that he makes about his chamber So hath he to relapses that hath been under the custome of an habituall sin though he have discontinued the practise of that sin And these be the inconveniences the mischiefs represented to us in this metaphore A burden Mine iniquities are as a burden too heavy for me Because they sink me down from the Creator to the creature Because they tire and weary me and yet I must bear them Because when they doe not absolutely tire me yet they slacken my pace and because though I could lay off that burden leave off that sin for the present practise yet the former habit hath so weakned me that I always apt to stumble and fall into relapses Thus have you the mischievous inconveniences of habituall sin laid open to you in these two elegancies of the holy Ghost supergressae Mine iniquities are gone over my head and the gravatae As a burden they are too heavy for me But as a good Emperour received that commendation that no man went ever out of his presence discontented so our gracious God never admits us to his presence in this his Ordinance but with a purpose to dismisse us in heart and in comfort for his Almoner he that distributeth his mercies to Congregations is the God of comfort of all comfort the holy Ghost himself Nay they whom he admits to his presence here goe not out of his presence when they goe from hence He is with them whilst they stay here and hee goes home with them when they goe home Princes out of their Royall care call Parliaments and graciously deliver themselves over to that Representative Body God out of his Fatherly love calls Congregations and does not onely deliver himself over in his ordinance to that Representative Body the whole Church there but when every man is become a private man again when the Congregation is dissolv'd and every man restored to his own house God in his Spirit is within the doores within the bosomes of every man that receiv'd him here Therefore we have reserved for the conclusion of all the application of this Text to our blessed Saviour for so our most ancient Expositors direct our meditations first historically and literally upon David and that we did at first Then morally and by just application to our selves and that we have most particularly insisted upon And lastly upon our Saviour Christ Iesus himself and that remains for our conclusion and consolation for even from him groaning under our burden we may hear these words Mine iniquities are gone over my head and c. First then that that lay upon Christ was sin properly sin Nothing could estrange God from man but sin and even from this Son of man though he were the Son of God too was God far estranged therefore God saw sin in him Non novit peccatum He knew no sin not by any experimentall knowledge not by any perpetration for Non fecit peccatum He did no sin be committed no sin What though we have sin upon us sin to condemnation Originall sin before we know sin before we have committed any sinne They esteemed him stricken and smitten of God and they mistook not in that He was stricken and smitten of God It pleased the Lord to bruile him and to put him to grief And the Lord proceeds not thus where he sees no sin Therefore the Apostle carries it to a very high expression God made him to be sin for
our sakes not onely sinfull but sin it self And as one cruell Emperour wished all mankinde in one man that hee might have beheaded mankinde at one blow so God gathered the whole nature of sinne into one Christ that by one action one passion sin all sin the whole nature of sinne might bee overcome It was sin that was upon Christ else God could not have been angry with him nor pleased with us It was sin and his own sin Mine iniquities says Christ in his Type and figure David and in his body the Church and we may be bold to adde in his very person Mine iniquities Many Heretiques denied his body to be his Body they said it was but an airy an imaginary an illusory Body and denied his Soul to be his Soul they said he had no humane soul but that his divine nature supplied that and wrought all the operations of the soul. But we that have learnt Christ better know that hee could not have redeemed man by that way that was contracted betweene him and his Father that is by way of satisfaction except he had taken the very body and the very soul of man And as verily as his humane nature his body and soul were his his sins were his too As my mortality and my hunger and thirst and wearinesse and all my naturall infirmities are his so my sins are his sins And now when my sins are by him thus made his sins no Hell-Devill not Satan no Earth-Devill no Calumniator can any more make those sins my sins then he can make his divinity mine As by the spirit of Adoption I am made the childe of God the seed of God the same Spirit with God but yet I am not made God so by Christs taking my sins I am made a servant of my God a Beads-man of my God a vassall a Tributary debtor to God but I am no sinner in the sight of God no sinner so as that man or the Devill can impute that sin unto me then when my Saviour hath made my sins his As a Soldier would not part with his scars Christ would not They were sins that lay upon him part with our sins And his sins and as it follows in his Type David sins in a plurality many sins I know nothing in the world so manifold so plurall so numerous as my sins And my Saviour had all those But if every other man have not so many sins as I he owes that to Gods grace and not to the Devils forbearance for the Devill saw no such parts nor no such power in me to advance or hinder his kingdome no such birth no such education no such place in the State or Church as that he should be gladder of me then of other men He ministers tentations to all and all are overcome by his tentations And all these sins in all men were upon Christ at once All twice over In the root and in the fruit too In the bullein and in the coin too In grosse and in retail In Originall and in Actuall sin And howsoever the sins of former ages the sins of all men for 4000 years before which were all upon him when he was upon the Crosse might possibly be numbred as things that are past may easilier fall within a possibility of such an imagination yet all those sinnes which were to come after he himself could not number for hee as the Sonne of man though hee know how long the world hath lasted knowes not how long this sinfull world shall last and when the day of Judgement shall be And all those future sins were his sins before they were committed They were his before they were theirs that doe them And lest this world should not afford him sins enow he took upon him the sins of heaven it self not their sins who were fallen from heaven and fallen into an absolute incapacity of reconciliation but their sins which remained in heaven Those sins which the Angels that stand would fall into if they had not received a confirmation given them in contemplation of the death and merits of Christ Christ took upon him for all things in Earth and Heaven too were reconciled to God by him for if there had been as many worlds as there are men in this which is a large multiplication or as many worlds as there are sins in this which is an infinite multiplication his merit had been sufficient to all They were sins his sins many sinnes the sinnes of the world and then as in his Type David Supergressae his sins these sins were got above him And not as Davids or ours by an insensible growth and swelling of a Tide in Course of time but this inundation of all the sins of all places and times and persons was upon him in an instant in a minute in such a point as admits and requires a subtile and a serious consideration for it is eternity which though it doe infinitely exceed all time yet is in this consideration lesse then any part of time that it is indivisible eternity is so and though it last for ever is all at once eternity is so And from this point this timelesse time time that is all time time that is no time from all eternity all the sins of the world were gone over him And in that consideration supergressae caput they were gone over his head Let his head bee his Divine nature yet they were gone over his head for though there bee nothing more voluntary then the love of God to man for he loves us not onely for his own sake or for his own glories sake but he loves us for his loves sake he loves us and loves his love of us and had rather want some of his glory then wee should not have nay then he should not have so much love towards us though this love of his be an act simply voluntary yet in that act of expressing this love in the sending a Saviour there was a kinde of necessity contracted on Christs part such a contract had passed between him and his Father that as himself says there was an oportuit pati a necessity that he should suffer all that he suffered and so enter into glory when he was come so there was an oportuit venire a necessity a necessity induced by that contract that he should come in that humiliation and smother and suppresse the glory of the divine nature under a cloud of humane of passible of inglorious flesh So be his divine nature this head his sins all our sins made his were gone above his head And over his head all those ways that we considered before in our selves Sicut tectum sicut fornix as a roof as an arch that had separated between God and him in that he prayed and was not heard when in that Transeat Calix Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me the Cup was not onely not taken out of his hands but filled up
the sound of Horns not of Trumpets A homely sound yet it did the worke so neither is the weaknesse no nor the corruptnesse of the instruments always to be considered in the Church of God Our Fathers knew there had passed a contract between God and man A Church there should be Ad consummationem to the end of the world therefore they might safely make their recourse thither and Porta Inferi the gates of hell should not prevaile against it therefore they might confidently dwell there They knew there was a Dic Ecclesiae a bill to be exhibited to the Church upon any disorder and a Si noluerit an excommunication upon disobedience If he neglect to heare the Church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and as a Publican This Church they saw and Gods contract upon them sealed in Baptism they knew God had revealed no other Church nor contract to them And therefore though they did not eat their troden grasse with that ridiculous tentation as the Fryar is boasted to have eaten a Toad which was set upon the Table because he had read whatsoever is set before you eat Nor as their Dorotheus who when his man had reachd him rats-bane in stead of honey which he called for refused it not because sayd he If Gods will had been that I should have had honey he would have directed thy hand to the honey but being under an invi ciblenignorance and indevestible scruples and having this contract and this Church to give them some satisfaction and acquiescence they were partakers of that blessing That though Serpents and Scorpions lurked in their grasse they had power to tread on scorpions and on serpents and nothing could hurt them and That if they drinke any deadly thing it shall doe them no harme And so our Fathers with a good conscience Manebant stayd there and Edebant they eat troden grasse and drunke troubled water and yet Manebantoves they continued sheep still Sheep that is without Barking or biting Some faint and humble bleatings there were alwaies in the daies of our Fathers In every age there arose some men who did modestly and devoutly but yet couragiously and confidently appear and complaine against those treadings and those troublings Every age every nation had some such bleatings some men who by writing or preaching against those abuses interrupted the tyrannicall prescriptions of that Church and made their continuall claime to their Christian liberty But still they continued sheep without denying either their fleece or their throats to those Pastors We read in Naturall story of divers pastures and divers waters which will change the colour of cattell or sheep but none that changes the forme and makes them no such cattell or no sheep Some waters change sheep of any colour to white And these troubled waters temporall or spirituall afflictions may bring Gods children to a faint and leane and languishing palenesse If it doe as Daniel and his fellows appeared fairer and fatter in flesh with their pults and water which they desired rather then the Kings polluted delicates then others that sed voluptuously so the hearts of Gods children shall be filled as with marrow and with fatnesse when others shall have all their hearts desire but leannesse in their soules There are waters that change all coloured sheep to black So may these troubled waters afflictions effect that upon Gods children The enemy shall come and before him all faces shall gather blacknesse as Jerusalem complains That their faces were blacker then coals If it doe yet as long as they stay and continue sheep members of the body as long as they partake of the body they shall partake of the complexion of the Church who saies of her selfe I am black O daughters of Ierusalem but comely acceptable in the sight of my Christ and that shall be verifyed in them which Salomon says By the sadnesse of the countenance the heart is made better that is by the occasion of the sadnesse Gods correction But the strangest change is that some waters change sheep into red the most unlikely most extraordinary most unproper colour for sheep of any other Yet there is one rednesse naturall to our sheep in the Text the rednesse of blushing and modesty and selfe-accusing And there is another rednesse which is not improper the rednesse of zeale and godly anger The worst rednesse that can befall them is the rednesse of sinne and yet lest that should deject them God proceeds familiarly with them Come now and let us reason together Though your sinnes be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as wooll Yea to shew that where sinne abounds grace also may abound to shew that that whitenesse of Gods mercy doth pursue and overtake this rednesse of sinne it pleases the Holy Ghost to use such a phrase as expresses a rednesse in whitenesse it self He says that the religious men of the Jewes before that time were whiter then milke and redder then pearle Mippeninim is the originall word which the Rabbins translate pearle And the Vulgate Edition hath it Rubicundiores ebore antiquo redder then the oldest yvory which is the whitest thing that can be presented Perchance to intimate thus much that there is neither in the holiest actions of the holiest man any such degree of whitenesse but that it is always accompanied with some rednes some tincture some aspersion of sin nor any such deep rednesse in sin any sin so often and deeply died in grain but that it is capable of whitenesse in the application of the candor and purenesse and innocency of Christ Jesus Therefore may the Holy Ghost have wrapped up this whitenesse in rednesse redder then Pearl Our Fathers were not discouraged when they were discolored what palenesse what blacknesse what rednesse soever these troubled waters induced upon them still they were sheep They become not Foxes to delude the State with equivocations nor Wolves to join with the State to the oppression of the rest nor Horses to suffer themselves to be ridden by others and so made instruments of their passions no nor Vnicorns to think to purge and purifie the waters for all the forest to think to reforme all abuses in State and Church at once but they continued sheep opened not their mouthes in biting nor barking in murmuring or reproaching the present government So our Fathers staid Manebant so they eat that grasse so they continued sheep and as it followes next Oves Dei Gods sheep my sheep have eaten my sheep have drunken Gods sheep for nature hath her sheep some men by naturall constitution are lazy drowsie frivolous unactive sheepish men And States have their sheep timorous men following men speechlesse men men who because they abound in a plentifull State are loth to stire Nay the Devill hath his sheep too Men whom he possesses so entirely that as the Law
says Domintum est potestas tum utendi tum abutendi Onely he is truly Lord of any thing who may doe what he will with it he does what he will with those men even to their own ruine And from these folds and flocks did the Devill always serve his shambles in his false Martyrdomes in the Primitive Church when as Eusebius notes envying the honour which the Orthodox Christians had in their thousands of Martyrs the Heretiques studied ways of equalling them in that And though within four hundred years after Christ the Church who could not possibly take knowledge of all was come to celebrate by name five thousand Martyrs as some books have the account for every day in the year yet the Heretiques went so far towards equalling them as that they had some whole sects particularly the Euphemitae which called themselves Martyrians men exposed to the slaughter One limbe of the Donatists the Circumcelliones might have furnished their shambles They would provoke others to kill them and if they fail'd in that they would kill themselves And this was as Saint Augustine says Ludus quotidianus their daily sport they plaid at no other game And left all these meanes should not have provided Martyrs enow Petilian against whom Saint Augustine writes invented a new way of Martyrdome when he taught that if a man were guilty in his Conscience of any great offence to God and onely to punish that fault did kill himselfe he was by that act of Justice a Martyr The Devill had his sheep then He hath so still Those Emissarii papae those whom the Bishop of Rome sends hither into this kingdome whom Baronius calls Candidates Martyrii pretenders to Martyrdome suters for Martyrdome Men who as he adds there do sacramento spondere sanguinem take an oath at Rome that they will be hanged in England and in whose behalfe he complaines de sterilitate Martyrii that there is such a dearth of Martyrdome that they finde it hard to be hanged and therefore perchance they finde it necessary to enter into Powder plots and actuall Treasons because they see that for Religion meerly this State would never draw drop of bloud sacramento sanguinem they have taken an oath to be hanged and are loth to be forsworne But the sheep of our text were not Natures sheep men naturally lazy and unactive nor State sheep men loth to adventure by stirring nor the Devills sheep men headlong to their own ruine even by way of provocation But they were Gods sheep men who out of a rectified conscience would not prevaricate not betray nor forsake God if his glory required the expense of their lives and yet would not exasperate nor provoke their superiours how corrupt soever by unseasonable and unprofitable complaints so our Fathers staied in Rome so they eat troden grasse and drunke troubled waters so they continued harmlesse sheep towards others and the sheep of God such as though they staid there and fed upon an ill diet God had distinguished from Goats and reserved for his right hand at the day of separation And they were more then so they were not onely his sheep but his flock for so this translation reads it my flock hath eaten my flock hath drunk God had single sheep in many nations Iobs and Naamans and such servants and yet not in the Covenants sheep and yet not brought into his flock For though God have revealed no other way of salvation to us but by breeding us in his Church yet we must be so far from straitning salvation to any particular Christian Church of any subdivided name Papist or Protestant as that we may not straiten it to the whole Christian Church as though God could not in the largenesse of his power or did not in the largenesse of his mercy afford salvation to some whom he never gathered into the Christian Church But these sheep in our text were his flock that is his Church Though they durst not communicate their sense of their miseries and their desires to one another yet they were a flock When Elias complained I even I onely am left and God told him that he had seven thousand besides him perchance Elias knew none of this seven thousand perchance none of this seven thousand and knew one another and yet they were his flock though they never met That timber that is in the forest that stone that is in the quarry that Iron that Lead that is in the mine though distant miles Counties Nations from one another meet in the building of a materiall Church So doth God bring together living stones men that had no relation no correspondence no intelligence together to the making of his Mysticall body his visible Church Who ever would have thought that we of Europe and they of the Eastern or Western Indies should have met to the making of Christ a Church And yet before we knew on either side that there was such a people God knew there was such a Church He that lies buried in the consecrated dust under your feet knowes not who lies next him but one Trumpet at last shall raise them both together and show them to one another and joyn them by Gods grace in the Triumphant Church These that knew not one another that knew not of one another were yet Gods flock the Church in his eye for there and onely there the Church is always visible So were our Fathers in Rome though they durst not meet and communicate their sorrows nor fold themselves so in the fold of Christ Jesus that is in open and free Confessions They therefore that aske now Where was your Church before Luther would then have asked of the Iews in Babylon Where was your Church before Esdras that was in Babylon ours was in Rome Now beloved when our Adversaries cannot deny us this truth that our Church was enwrapped though smothered in theirs that as that Balsamum naturale which Paracelsus speaks of that naturall Balme which is in every body and would cure any wound if that wound were kept clean and recover any body if that body were purged as that naturall balme is in that body how diseased soever that body be so was our Church in theirs they vexe us now with that question Why if the case stood so if your Fathers when they eat our troden grasse and drunk our troubled waters were sound and in health and continued sheep and Gods sheep and Gods flock his Church with us why went they from us They ought us their residence because they had received their Baptisme from us And truly it is not an impertinent a frivolous reason that of Baptisme where there is nothing but conveniency and no necessity in the case But if I be content to stay with my friend in an aguish aire will he take it ill if I go when the plague comes Or if I stay in town till 20 die of the plague shall it be lookd that I should stay when there die
1000 The infection grew hotter and hotter in Rome their may came to a must those things which were done before de facto came at last to be articles of Faith and de jure must be beleeved and practised upon salvation They chide us for going away and they drove us away If we abstained from communicating with their poysons being now growen to that height they excommunicated us They gave us no room amongst them but the fire and they were so forward to burne Heretiques that they called it heresie not to stay to be burnt Yet we went not upon their driving but upon Gods calling As the whole prophecy of the deliverance of Israel from Babylon belongs to the Christian Church both to the Primitive Church at first and to the Reformed since so doth that voice spoken to them reach unto us Egredimini de Babylone Goe ye out of Babylon with a voice of singing declare show to the ends of the earth that the Lord hath redeemed his servant Iacob For that Rome is not Babylon they have but that one half-comfort that one of their own authors hath ministred that Romae regulariter male agitur that Babylon is Confusion disorder but at Rome all sinnes are committed in order by the book and they know the price and therefore Rome is not Babylon And since that many of their authors confesse that Rome was Babylon in the time of the persecuting Emperours and that Rome shall be Babylon againe in the time of Antichrist how they will hedge in a Ierusalem a holy City between these two Babylons is a cunning peece of Architecture From this Babylon then were our Fathers called by God not onely by that whispering sibilation of the holy Ghost sibilabâ— populum I will hisse for my people and so gather them for I have redeemed them and they shall increase not onely by private inspirations but by generall acclamations every where principall writers and preachers and Princes too as much as could stand with their safety crying out against them before Luther howsoever they will needs doe him that honour to have been the first mover in this blessed revolution They reproach to us our going from them when they drove us and God drew us and they discharge themselves for all by this one evasion That all that we complain of is the fault of the Court of Rome and not of the Church of the extortion in the practise of their Officers not of error in the doctrine of their Teachers Let that be true as in a great part it is for almost all their errors proceed from their covetousness and love of money this is that that we complain most of and in this especially lies the conformity of the Iewish Priests in the Chaldean Babylon and these Prelates in the Roman Babylon that the Court and the Church joined in the oppression But since the Court of Rome and the Church of Rome are united in one head I see no use of this distinction Court and Church If the Church of Rome be above the Court the Church is able to amend these corruptions in the Court If the Court be got above the Church the Church hath lost or sold away her supremacy To oppresse us and ease themselves now when we are gone from them they require Miracles at out hands when indeed it was miracle enough how we got from them But magnum charitatis argumentum credere absque pignoribus miraculorum He loves God but a little that will not beleeve him without a miracle Miracles are for the establishing of new religions All the miracles of and from Christ and his Apostles are ours because their Religion is ours Indeed it behooves our adversaries to provide new miracles every day because they make new articles of Faith every day As Esop therefore answered in the Market when he that sold him was asked what he could do that he could do nothing because his fellow had said that he could do all so we say we can do no miracles because they do all all ordinary cures of Agues and tooth-ach being done by miracle amongst them We confesse that we have no such tye upon the Triumphant Church to make the Saints there do those anniversary miracles which they do by their reliques here upon their own holy days ten days sooner every year then they did before the new computation We pretend not to raise the dead but to cure the sick and that but by the ordinary Physique the Word and Sacraments and therefore need no miracles And we remember them of their own authors who do not onely say that themselves do no miracles in these latter times but assigne diligently strong reasons why it is that they doe none If all this will not serve we must tell them that we have a greater miracle then any that they produce that is that in so few years they that forsook Rome were become equall even in number to them that adhered to her We say with Saint Augustine That if we had no other miracle hoc unum stupendum potentissimum miraculum esse that this alone were the most powerfull and most a mazing miracle ad hanc religionem totius orbis amplitudinem sine miraculis subjugatam that so great a part of the Christian world should become Protestants of Papists without any miracles They pursue us still being departed from them and they aske us How can ye pretend to have left Babylon confusion Dissention when you have such dissentions confusions amongst your selves But neither are our differences in so fundamental points as theirs are for a principall author of their own who was employed by Clement the eight to reconcile the differences between the Iesuits and the Dominicans about the concurrence of the grace of God and the free will of man confesses that the principall articles and foundations of faith were shaken between them between the Iesuits and Dominicans neither shall we finde such heat and animosity and passion between any persons amongst us as between the greatest amongst them The succeeding Pope mangling the body of his predecessor casting them into the river for buriall disannulling all their decrees and ordinations their Ordinations so that no man could be sure who was a Priest nor whether he had truely received any Sacrament or no. Howsoever as in the narrowest way there is most justling the Roman Church going that broad way to beleeve as the Church beleeves may scape some particular differences which we that goe the narrower way to try every thing by the exact word of God may fall into Saint Augustine tells us of a City in Mauritania Caesarea in which they had a custome that in one day in the year not onely Citizens of other parishes but even neighbours yea brethren yea Fathers did fling stones dangerously and furiously at one another in the streets and this they so solemnized as a custome received from their
no Image no pattern to thy selfe to imitate and yet propose thy selfe for a pattern for an Image to be adored Thou wilt have singular opinions and singular ways differing from all other men and yet all that are not of thy opinion must be heretiques and all reprobates that goe not thy wayes Propose good patterns to thy selfe and thereby become a fit pattern for others God we see was the first that made Images and he was the first that forbad them He made them for imitation he forbad them in danger of adoration For Qualis dementiae est id colere quod melius est What a drowzinesse what a lazinesse what a cowardlinesse of the soule is it to worship that which does but represent a better thing then it selfe Worship belongs to the best know thou thy distance and thy period how far to goe and where to stop Dishonor not God by an Image in worshiping it and yet benefit thy selfe by it in following it There is no more danger out of a picture then out of a history if thou intend no more in either then example Though thou have a West a darke and a sad condition that thou art but earth a man of infirmities and ill counsailed in thy selfe yet thou hast herein a North that scatters and dispells these clouds that God proposes to thee in his Scriptures and otherwise Images patterns of good and holy men to goe by But beyond this North this assistance of good examples of men thou hast a South a Meridionall heighth by which thou seest thine Image they pattern to be no copy no other man but the originall it selfe God himselfe Faciamus ad nostram Let us make man in our Image after our likenesse Here we consider first where this Image is and then what it does first in what part of man God hath imprinted this his Image And then what this Image confers and derives upon man what it works in man And as when we seek God in his essence we are advised to proceed by negatives God is not mortall not passible so when we seek the Image of God in man we beginne with a negative This Image is not in his body Teriullian declined to thinke it was nay Tertullian inclined others to thinke so For he is the first that is noted to have been the author of that opinion that God had a body Yet Saint Augustine excuses Tertullian from heresie because says he Tertullian might meance that it was so sure that there is a God and that that God was a certaine though not a finite Essence that God was so far from being nothing as that he had rather a body Because it was possible to give a good interpretation of Tertullian that charitable Father Saint Augastine would excuse him of heresie I would Saint Augustines charity might prevaile with them that pretend to be Augustinianissimi and to adore him so much in the Roman Church not to cast the name of Heresie upon every probleme nor the name of Heretique upon every inquirer of Truth Saint Augustine would deliver Tertullian from heresie in a point concerning God and they will condemne us of heresie in every point that may be drawne to concerne not the Church but the Court of Rome not their doctrine but their profit Malo de Misericordia Deo rationem reddere quà m de crudelitate I shall better answer God for my mildenesse then for my severity And though anger towards a brother or a Raca or a foole will beare an action yet he shall recover lesse against me at that bar whom I have called weake or mislead as I must necessary call many in the Roman Church then he whom I have passionately and peremptorily called heretique For I dare call an opinion heresie for the matter a great while before I dare call the man that holds it an heretique For that consists much in the manner It must be matter of faith before the matter be heresie But there must be pertinacy after convenient instruction before that man be an heretique But how excusable so ever Tertullian be herein in Saint Augustines charity there was a whole sect of heretiques one hundred years after Tertullian the Audiani who over literally taking those places of Scripture where God is said to have hands and feet and eyes and eares beleeved God to have a body like ours and accordingly interpreted this text that in that Image and that likenesse a bodily likenesse consisted this Image of God in man And yet even these men these Audians Epiphanius who first takes knowledge of them calls but Schismatiques not Heretiques so loth is charity to say the worst of any Yet we must remember them of the Roman perswasion that they come too neare giving God a body in their pictures of God the Father And they bring the body of God that body which God the Sonne hath assumed the body of Christ too neare in their Transubstantiation not too near our faith for so it cannot be brought too near so it is as really there as we are there too neare to our sense not too neare in the Vbi for so it is there There that is in that place to which the Sacrament extends it selfe For the Sacrament extends as well to heaven from whence it fetches grace as to the table from whence it delivers Bread and Wine but too neare in modo For it comes not thither that way We must necessarily complaine that they make Religion too bodily a thing Our Saviour Christ corrected Mary Magdalens zeale where she flew to him in a personall devotion and he said Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father Fix your meditations upon Christ Jesus so as he is now at the right hand of his Father in heaven and entangle not your selves so with controversies about his body as to lose reall charity for imaginary zeale nor enlarge your selves so far in the pictures and Images of his body as to worship them more then him As Damdscen says of God that he is Super-principale principium a beginning before any beginning we can conceive and prae-aeterna aeternitas an eternity infinitely elder then any eternity we can imagine so he is Super-spiritualis Spiritus such a Super-spirit as that the soule of man and the substance of Angels is but a body compared to this Spirit God hath no body though Tertullian disputed it though the Audians preached it though the Papists paint it And therefore this Image of God is not in the body of man that way Nor that way neither which some others have assigned that God who hath no body as God yet in the creation did assume that forme which man hath now and so made man in his Image that is in that forme which he had then assumed Some of the Ancients thought so and some other men of great estimation in the Roman Church have thought so too In particular Oleaster a great officer in the
of nature to behold him so as to fixe upon him in meditation God benights us or eclipses us or casts a cloud of medicinall afflictions and wholsome corrections upon us Naturally we dwell longer upon the consideration of God when we see the Sun eclipsed then when we see it rise we passe by that as an ordinary thing and so in our afflictions we stand and looke upon God and we behold him A man may see God and forget that ever he saw him When saw we thee hungry or naked or sick or in prison say those mercilesse men they forgot but Christ remembers that they did see him but not behold him see him and looke off see him so as aggravated their sin more then if they had never seene him But that man who through his owne red glasse can see Christ in that colour too through his own miseries can see Christ Jesus in his blood that through the calumnies that have been put upon himselfe can see the revilings that were multiplyed upon Christ that in his own imprisonment can see Christ in the grave and in his owne enlargement Christ in his resurrection this man this Enosh beholds God and he beholds him é longinquo which is another step in this branch he sees him afar off Now this seeing afar off is not a phrase of diminution a circumstance of extenuation as though it were lesse to see God afar off and more to see him neerer This far off is far from that it is a power of seeing him so as wheresoever I am or wheresoever God is I can see him at any distance Being established in my foundation upon God being built up by faith in that notion of God in which he hath manifested himselfe to me in his Sonne being mounted and raised by dwelling in his Church being made like unto him in suffering as he suffered I can see round about me even to the Horizon and beyond it I can see both Hemispheres at once God in this and God in the next world too I can see him in the Zenith in the highest point and see how he works upon Pharaoh on the Throne and I can see him in the Nadir in the lowest dejection and see how he workes upon Ioseph in the prison I can see him in the East see how mercifully he brought the Christian Religion amongst us and see him in the West see how justly he might remove that againe and leave us to our own inventions I can see him in the South in a warme and in the North in a frosty fortune I can see him in all angles in all postures Abraham saw God coming to him as he fate at the doore of his Tent and though as the Text sayes there God stood by him yet sayes the Text too Abraham ran to meet God I can see God in the visitation of his Spirit come to me and when he is so he is already in me but I must run out to meet him that is labour to hold him there and to advance that manifestation of himselfe in me Abraham saw God comming Moses saw God going his glory passing by he saw posteriora his hinder parts so I can see God in the memory of his blessings formerly conferred upon me And Moses saw him too in a burning bush in thornes and fire And had I no other light but the fire of a pile of faggots in that light I could see his light I could see himselfe Let me be the man of this Text this Enosh to say with Ieremy I am the man that hath seene affliction by the rod of his wrath Let me have had this third concoction that as I am Adam a man of earth wrought upon that wheele and as I am a Christian a vessell in his house a member of his Church wrought upon that wheele so let me be vir dolorum a man of affliction a vessell baked in that furnace fitted by Gods proportion and dosis of his corrections to make a right use of his corrections and I can see God E longinquo afar off I can see him writing downe my name in the booke of life before I was borne and I can see him giving his Angels The Angell of the great Counsell Christ Jesus himselfe and his spirit charge of my preservation all the way and of my transmigration upon my death-bed and that is E longinquo from before I was to after I shall be no more There remaines a word more 'T is scarce well said for there remaines not a word more There is not another word and yet there is another branch in the Text. This man not every man as before this Enosh not every Adam as before he sees not onely as before but he beholds afarre off and so farre we are gone but what beholds he afarre off That the Text tels us not Before there was an illud Every man may see that aske what is that and I can tell you I have told you out of the coherence of the Text It is Gods workes manifesting himselfe even to the naturall man But this man this Enosh raised by his dejection rectified by humiliation may behold what here is no illud no such word as that no object limited and therefore it is that which no eye hath seene nor eare heard nor heart of man conceived it is God in the glory and assembly of his immortall Saints in heaven How many times go we to Comedies to Masques to places of great and noble resort nay even to Church onely to see the company If I had no other errand to heaven but the communion of Saints the fellowship of the faithfull Lo see that flock of Lambs Innocent unbaptized children recompensed with the twice-baptized Martyrs baptized in water and baptized in their owne blood and that middle sort the children baptized in blood and not in the water that rescued Christ Jesus by their death under Herod to see the Prophets and the Evangelists and not know one from the other by their writings for they all write the same things for prophecy is but antidated Gospell and Gospell but postdated prophecy to see holy Matrons saved by the bearing and bringing up of children and holy Virgins saved by restoring their bodies in the integrity that they received them sit all upon one seate to see Princes and Subjects crowned all with one crowne and rich and poore inherit one portion to see this scene this Court this Church this Catholique Church not onely Easterne and Westerne but Militant and Triumphant Church all in one roome together to see this Communion of Saints this fellowship of the faithfull is worth all the paynes that that sight costs us in this world But then to see the head of this Church the Sunne that shed all these beames the God of glory face to face to see him sicuti est as he is to know him at cognitus as I am knowne what darke and inglorious fortune would I not passe thorow
her selfe had no Crown but that which he gave her The Crown that she gave him was that substance that he received from her our flesh our nature our humanity and this Athanasius and this Saint Ambrose calls the Crown wherewith his Mother crowned him in this text his infirm his humane nature Or the Corwn wherewith his Mother corwned him was that Crown to which that infirme nature which he tooke from her submitted him which was his passion his Crown of thornes for so Tertullian and divers others take this Crown of his from her to be his Crown of thorns Woe to the Crown of pride whose beauty is a fading flower says the Prophet But blessed be this Crown of Humiliation whose flower cannot fade Then was there truly a Rose amongst Thorns when through his Crown of Thorns you might see his title Iesus Nazarenus for in that very name Nazarenus is involved the signification of a flower the very word signifies a flower Esay's flower in the Crown of pride fades and is removed This flower in the Crown of Thornes fades not nor could be removed for for all the importunity of the Jews Pilate would not suffer that title to be removed or to be changed still Nazarenus remained and still a rose amongst thorns You know the curse of the earth Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee It did so to our Solomon here it brought forth thornes to Christ and he made a Crown of those thorns not onely for himself but for us too Omnes aculei mortis in Dominici Corporis tolerantia â—btusi sunt All the thorns of life and death are broken or blunted upon the head of our Solomon and now even our thorns make up our Crown our tribulation in life our dissolution in death conduce to our glory Behold him crowned with his Mothers Crown for even that brought him to his Fathers Crown his humiliation to exaltation his passion to glory Behold your Solomon your Saviour again and you shall see another beam of Comfort in your tribulations from his for even this Humiliation of his is called his Espousals his marriage Behold him crowned in the day of his Espousals His Spouse is the Church His marriage is the uniting of himselfe to this Spouse in his becomming Head of the Church The great City the heavenly Jerusalem is called The Bride and The Lambs wife in the Revelation And he is the Head of this body the Bridegroom of this Bride the Head of this Church as he is The first-borne of the Dead Death that dissolves all ours made up this marriage His Death is his Marriage and upon his Death flowed out from his side those two Elements of the Church water and bloud The Sacraments of Baptisme and of the Communion of himself Behold then this Solomon crowned and married both words of Exaltation and Exultation and both by Death and trust him for working the same effects upon thee That thou though by Death shalt be crowned with a Crown of Glory and married to him in whose right and merit thou shalt have that Crown And Behold him once again and you shall see not a beam but a stream of comfort for this day which is the day of his death he calls here The day of the gladnesse of his heart Behold him crowned in the day of the gladnesse of his heart The fulnesse the compasse the two Hemispheres of Heaven are often designed to us in these two names Ioy and Glory If the Crosse of Christ the Death of Christ present us both these how neare doth it bring how fully doth it deliver Heaven it self to us in this life And then we heare the Apostle say We see Iesus for the suffering of Death crowned with Honour and Glory There is half Heaven got by Death Glory And then for the joy that was set before him he indured the Crosse There is the other half Ioy All Heaven purchased by Death And therefore if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed saith the Apostle but let him glorifie God In isto Nomine as the vulgate read it In that behalfe as we translate it But In isto Nomine saith S. August Let us glorifie God in that Name Non solum in nomine Christiani sed Chriani patientis not onely because he is a Christian in his Baptisme but a Christian in a second Baptisme a Baptisme of bloud not onely as he hath received Christ in accepting his Institution but because he hath conformed himself to Christ in fulfilling his sufferings And therefore though we admit naturall and humane sorrow in the calamities which overtake us and surround us in this life for as all glasses will gather drops and tears from externall causes so this very glasse which we looke upon now our Solomon in the Text our Saviour had those sadnesses of heart toward his Passion and Agonies in his passion yet count it all Ioy when you fall into tentations saith the Apostle All Ioy that is both the interest and the principall hath the earnest and the bargain for if you can conceive joy in your tribulations in this world how shall that joy be multiplied unto you when no tribulation shall be mingled with it There is not a better evidence nor a more binding earnest of everlasting Joy in the next world then to find Ioy of heart in the tribulations of this fixe thy self therefore upon this first glasse this Solomon thy Saviour Behold King Solomon crownd c. and by conforming thy self to his holy sadnesse and humiliation thou shalt also become like him in his Joy and Glory But then the hand of God hath not set up but laid down another Glasse wherein thou maist see thy self a glasse that reflects thy self and nothing but thy selfe Christ who was the other glasse is like thee in every thing but not absolutely for sinne is excepted but in this glasse presented now The Body of our Royall but dead Master and Soveraigne we cannot we doe not except sinne Not onely the greatest man is subject to naturall infirmities Christ himself was so but the holiest man is subject to Originall and Actuall sinne as thou art and so a â—it glasse for thee to see thy self in Ieat showes a man his face as well as Crystall nay a Crystall glasse will not show a man his face except it be steeled except it be darkned on the backside Christ as he was a pure Crystall glasse as he was God had not been a glasse for us to have seen our selves in except he had been steeled darkened with our humane nature Neither was he ever so throughly darkened as that he could present us wholly to our selves because he had no sinne without seeing of which we do not see our selves Those therefore that are like thee in all things subject to humane infirmities subject to sinnes and yet are translated and translated by Death to everlasting Ioy and Glory
go because none stayes behinde so when the holy Spirit which had made himself as a common soule to their foure soules directed one of them to say any thing all are well understood to have said it And therefore when to that place in Matth. 27. 8. where that Evangelist cites the Prophet Ieremy for words spoken by Zachary many medicines are applyed by the Fathers as That many copies have no name That Ieremy might be binominous and have both names a thing frequent in the Bible That it might be the error of a transcriber That there was extant an Apocryph booke of Ieremy in which these words were and sometimes things of such books were vouched as Iannes and Iambres by Paul St. Augustine insists upon and teaches rather this That it is more wonderfull that all the Prophets spake by one Spirit and so agreed then if any one of them had spoken all those things And therefore he adds Singula sunt omnium omnia sunt singulorum All say what any of them say And in this sense most congruously is that of St. Hierome applyable that the foure Evangelists are Quadriga Divina That as the foure Chariot wheeles though they looke to the foure corners of the world yet they move to one end and one way so the Evangelists have both one scope and one way Yet not so precisely but that they differ in words For as their generall intention common to them all begat that consent so a private reason peculiar to each of them for the writing of their Histories at that time made those diversities which seem to be for Matthew after he had preached to the Jewes and was to be transplanted into another vineyard the Gentiles left them written in their owne tongue for permanency which he had preached transitorily by word Mark when the Gospell fructified in the West and the Church enlarged her self and grew a great body and therefore required more food out of Peters Dictates and by his approbation published his Evangile Not an Epitome of Matthewes as Saint Ierome I know why imagines but a just and intire History of our blessed Saviour And as Matthewes reason was to supply a want in the Eastern Church Markes in the Western so on the other side Lukes was to cut off an excesse and superfluitie for then many had undertaken this Story and dangerously inserted and mingled uncertainties and obnoxious improbabilities and he was more curious and more particular then the rest both because he was more learned and because he was so individuall a companion of the most learned Saint Paul and did so much write Pauls words that Eusebius thereupon mistaketh the words 2 Tim. 2. 1. Christ is raised according to my Gospell to prove that Paul was author of this Gospell attributed to Luke Iohn the Minion of Christ upon earth and survivor of the Apostles whose books rather seem fallen from Heaven and writ with the hand which ingraved the stone Tables then a mans work because the heresies of Ebion and Cerinthus were rooted who upon this true ground then evident aud fresh that Christ had spoke many things which none of the other three Evangelists had Recorded uttered many things as his which he never spoke Iohn I say more diligently then the rest handleth his Divinity and his Sermons things specially brought into question by them So therefore all writ one thing yet all have some things particular And Luke most for he writ last of three and largeliest for himselfe 1 Act. 1. saith I have made the former Treatise of all that Iesus began to doe and teach untill the Day that he was taken up which speech lest the words in the last of Iohn If all were written which Iesus did the world could not contain the Bookes should condemne Ambrose and Chrysostome interpret well out of the words themselves Scripsit de omnibus non omnia He writ of all but not all for it must have the same limitation which Paul giveth his words who saith Acts 20. in one verse I have kept nothing back but have shewed you all the counsell of God and in another I kept back nothing that was profitable It is another peculiar singularity of Lukes that he addresseth his History to one man Theophilus For it is but weakely surmised that he chose that name for all lovers of God because the interpretation of the word suffereth it since he addeth most noble Theophilus But the work doth not the lesse belong to the whole Church for that no more then his Masters Epistles doe though they be directed to particulars It is also a singularitie in him to write upon that reason because divers have written In humane knowledge to abridge or suck and then suppresse other Authors is not ever honest nor profitable We see after that vast enterprise of Iustinian who distilled all the Law into one vessell and made one Booke of 2000. suppressing all the rest Alciate wisheth he had let them alone and thinketh the Doctors of our times would better have drawn usefull things from those volumes then his Trebonian and Dorothee did And Aristotle after by the immense liberality of Alexander he had ingrossed all Authors is said to have defaced all that he might be in stead of all And therefore since they cannot rise against him he imputes to them errours which they held not vouches onely such objections from them as he is able to answer and propounds all good things in his own name which he ought to them But in this History of Lukes it is otherwise He had no authority to suppresse them nor doth he reprehend or calumniate them but writes the truth simply and leaves it to outweare falshood and so it hath Moses rod hath devoured the Conjurers rods and Lukes Story still retains the majestie of the maker and theirs are not Other singularities in Luke of form or matter I omit and end with one like this in our Text. As in the apprehending of our blessed Saviour all the Evangelists record that Peter cut off Malchus eare but onely Luke remembers the healing of it again I think because that act of curing was most present and obvious to his consideration who was a Physician so he was therefore most apt to remember this Prayer of Christ which is the Physick and Balsamum of our Soule and must be applied to us all for we doe all Crucifie him and we know not what we do And therefore Saint Hierome gave a right Character of him in his Epistle to Paulinus Fuit Medicus pariter omnia verba illius Animae languentis sunt Medicinae As he was a Physitian so all his words are Physick for a languishing soule Now let us dispatch the last consideration of the effect of this Prayer Did Christ intend the forgivenesse of the Jewes whose utter ruine God that is himselfe had fore-decreed And which he foresaw and bewaild even then hanging upon the Crosse For those Divines which reverently forbeare to interpret the words
that the Gospel of Saint Iohn containes all Divinity this Chapter all the Gospell and this Text all the Chapter Therefore it is too large to goe through at this time at this time we shall insist upon such branches as arise out of that consideration what and who this light is for we shall finde it to be both a personall light it is some body and otherwise too a reall light it is some thing therefore we inquire what this light is what thing and who this light is what person which Iohn Baptist is denied to be Hereafter we shall consider the Testimony which is given of this light in which part in due time we shall handle the person of the witnesse Iohn Baptist in whom we shall finde many considerable and extraordinary circumstances and then his Citation and calling to this testimony and thirdly the testimony it selfe that he gave and lastly why any testimony was requisite to so evident a thing as light But the first part who and what this light is belongs most properly to this day and will fill that portion of the day which is afforded us for this exercise Proceed we therefore to that Iohn Baptist was not that light who was what was Though most expositors as well ancient as modern agree with one generall and unanime consent that light in this verse is intended and meant of Christ Christ is this light yet in some precedent and subsequent passages in this Chapter I see other senses have been admitted of this word light then perchance those places will beare certainly other then those places need particularly in the fourth verse In it was life and that life was the light of men there they understand life to be nothing but this naturall life which we breath and light to be onely that naturall life naturall reason which distinguishes us men from other creatures Now it is true that they may have a pretence for some ground of this interpretation in antiquity it selfe for so says Saint Cyrill Filius Dei Creativè illuminat Christ doth enlighten us in creating us And so some others of the Fathers and some of the Schooles understand by that light naturall Reason and that life conservation in life But this interpretation seemes to me subject to both these dangers that it goes so farre and yet reaches not home So far in wresting in divers senses into a word which needs but one and is of it selfe cleare enough that is light and yet reaches not home for it reaches not to the essentiall light which is Christ Iesus nor to the supernaturall light which is Faith and Grace which seemes to have been the Evangelists principall scope to declare the comming of Christ who is the essentiall light and his purpose in comming to raise and establish a Church by Faith and Grace which is the supernaturall light For as the holy Ghost himselfe interprets life to be meant of Christ He that hath the Sonne hath life so we may justly doe of light too he that sees the Sonne the Sonne of God hath light For light is never to my remembrance found in any place of the Scripture where it must necessarily signifie the light of nature naturall reason but wheresoever it is transferred from the naturall to a figurative sense it takes a higher signification then that either it signifies Essentiall light Christ Jesus which answers our first question Quis lux who is this light it is Christ personally or it signifies the supernaturall light of Faith and Grace which answers our second question Quid lux what is this light for it is the working of Christ by his Spirit in his Church in the infusion of Faith and Grace for beliefe and manners And therefore though it be ever lawfull and often times very usefull for the raising and exaltation of our devotion and to present the plenty and abundance of the holy Ghost in the Scriptures who satisfies us as with marrow and with fatnesse to induce the diverse senses that the Scriptures doe admit yet this may not be admitted if there may be danger thereby to neglect or weaken the literall sense it selfe For there is no necessity of that spirituall wantonnesse of finding more then necessary senses for the more lights there are the more shadows are also cast by those many lights And as it is true in religious duties so is it in interpretation of matters of Religion Necessarium Satis convertuntur when you have done that you ought to doe in your calling you have done enough there are no such Evangelicall counsailes as should raise workes of supererogation more then you are bound to doe so when you have the necessary sense that is the meaning of the holy Ghost in that place you have senses enow and not till then though you have never so many and never so delightfull Light therefore is in all this Chapter fitliest understood of Christ who is noted here with that distinctive article Illa lux that light For non sic dicitur lux sicut lapis Christ is not so called Light as he is called a Rock or a Cornerstone not by a metaphore but truly and properly It is true that the Apostles are said to be light and that with an article the light but yet with a limitation and restriction the light of the world that is set up to convey light to the world It is true that Iohn Baptist himselfe was called light and with large additions Lucerna ardens a burning and a shining lampe to denote both his owne burning zeale and the communicating of this his light to others It is true that all the faithfull are said to be light in the Lord but all this is but to signifie that they had been in darknesse before they had been beclouded but were now illustrated they were light but light by reflexion by illustration of a greater light And as in the first creation vesper mane dies unus The evening and the morning made the day evening before morning darknesse before light so in our regeneration when wee are made new Creatures the Spirit of God findes us in naturall darknesse and by him we are made light in the Lord. But Christ himselfe and hee onely is Illa lux vera lux that light the true light Not so opposed to those other lights as though the Apostles or Iohn Baptist or the faithfull who are called lights were false lights but that they were weake lights But Christ was fons lucis the fountaine of all their light light so as no body else was so so as that hee was nothing but light Now neither the Apostles nor Iohn Baptist nor the Elect no nor the virgin Mary though wee should allow all that the Roman Church aske in her behalfe for the Roman Church is not yet come to that searednesse that obduratenesse that impudency as to pronounce that the virgin Mary was without originall sinne though they have done many
exercise our feares and our jealousies they may raise rebellions and Treasons but they are not fixed and glorious bodies of heaven they are not stars Their non-communions for communions where there are no communicants are no communions when they admit no bread at all no wine at all all is transubstantiated are no communions their semi-communions when they admit the bread to be given but not the wine their sesqui-communions Bread and Wine to the taste and to all other trialls of bread and wine and yet that bread and wine the very body and the very bloud of Christ their quotidian miracles which destroy and contradict even the nature of the miracle to make miracles ordinary and fixed constant and certain for as that is not a miracle which nature does so that 's not a miracle which man can doe certainly constantly infallibly every day and every day every Priest can miraculously change bread into the body of Christ and besides they have certaine fixed shops and Marts of miracles in one place a shop of miracles for barrennesse in another a shop for the tooth-ache To contract this their occasionall Divinity doctrines to serve present occasions that in eighty eight an Hereticall Prince must necessarily be excommunicated and an Hereticall Prince excommunicated must necessarily be deposed but at another time it may be otherwise and conveniencies and dispensations may be admitted these and such as these traditionall occasionall Almanack Divinity they may bee Comets they may be Meteors they may raine bloud and raine fire and raine hailestones hailstones as big as Talents as it is in the Revelation milstones to grinde the world by their oppressions but they are not lux aeternorum corporum the light of the stars and other heavenly bodies for they were made at once and diminish not encrease not Fundamentall articles of faith are always the same And that 's our application of this lux aeternorum corporum the light of those heavenly bodies to the light of our Text Christ working in the Church Now for the consideration of the other light in this third couple which is lux incensionum the light of things which take and give light here upon earth if we reduce it to application and practise and contract it to one Instance it will appeare that the devotion and zeale of him that is best affected is for the most part in the disposition of a torch or a knife ordained to take fire and to give light If it have never been lightned it does not easily take light but it must be bruised and beaten first if it have been lighted and put out though it cannot take fire of it self yet it does easily conceive fire if it be presented within any convenient distance Such also is the soule of man towards the fires of the zeale of Gods glory and compassion of others misery If there be any that never tooke this fire that was never affected with either of these the glory of God the miseries of other men can I hope to kindle him It must be Gods worke to bruise and beat him with his rod of affliction before he will take fire Paulus revelatione compulsus ad fidem St. Paul was compelled to believe not the light which he saw but the power which he felt wrought upon him not because that light shined from heaven but because it strooke him to the earth Agnoscimus Christum in Paulo prius cogentem deinde docentem Christ begun not upon St. Paul with a catechisme but with a rod. If therefore here be any in Pauls case that were never kindled before Almighty God proceed the same way with them and come so neare to a friendship towards them as to be at enmity with them to be so mercifull to them as to seeme unmercifull to be so well pleased as to seeme angry that so by inflicting his medicinall afflictions he may give them comfort by discomfort and life by death and make them seeke his face by turning his face from them and not to suffer them to continue in a stupid inconsideration and lamentable senslesnesse of their miserable condition but bruise and breake them with his rod that they may take fire But for you who have taken this fire before that have been enlightned in both Sacraments and in the preaching of the word in the meanes and in some measure of practise of holinesse heretofore if in not supplying oyle to your Lamps which God by his ordinance had kindled in you you have let this light go out by negligence or inconsideration or that storms of worldly calamities have blowne it out do but now at this instant call to minde what sin of yesterday or t'other day or long ago begun and practised and prevailed upon you or what future sinne what purpose of doing a sinne to night or to morrow possesses you do but thinke seriously what sinne or what crosse hath blown out that light that grace which was formerly in you before that sinne or that crosse invaded you and turne your soul which hath been enlightned before towards this fire which Gods Spirit blowes this minute and you will conceive new fire new zeale new compassion As this Lux incensionum kindles easily when it hath been kindled before so the soule accustomed to the presence of God in holy meditations though it fall asleep in some darke corner in some sinne of infirmity a while yet upon every holy occasion it takes fire againe and the meanest Preacher in the Church shall worke more upon him then the foure Doctors of the Church should be able to do upon a person who had never been enlightned before that is never accustomed to the presence of God in his private meditations or in his outward acts of Religion And this is our third couple of lights that beares witnesse that is admit an application to the light of our Text and then the fourth and last couple which we consider is Lux Depuratarum Mixtionum the light and lustre of precious stones and then Lux Repercussionum the light of Repercussion and Reflexion when one body though it have no light in it self casts light upon other bodies In the application of the first of these lights Depuratarum Mixtionum precious stones we shall onely apply their making and their value Precious stones are first drops of the dew of heaven and then refined by the sunne of heaven When by long lying they have exhal'd and evaporated and breathed out all their grosse matter and received another concoction from the sunne then they become precious in the eye and estimation of men so those actions of ours that shall be precious or acceptable in the eye of God must at first have been conceived from heaven from the word of God and then receive another concoction by a holy deliberation before we bring those actions to execution lest we may have mistaken the roote thereof Actions precious or acceptable in Gods eye must be holy purposes
that in some visible in some permanent manner in writing and that that writing is Scripture if we had not these testimonies these necessary consequences derived even from the naturall reason of man to convince men how should we convince them since our way is not to create Faith but to satisfie reason And therefore let us rest in this testimony of men that all Christian men nay Iewes and Turkes too have ever beleeved that there are certain Scriptures which are the revealed will of God and that God hath manifested to us in those Scriptures all that he requires at our hands for Faith or Manners Now which are those Scriptures As for the whole body intirely together so for the particular limbs and members of this body the severall books of the Bible we must accept testimonium ab homine humane Arguments and the testimony of men At first the Jewes were the Depositaries of Gods Oracles and therefore the first Christians were to aske the Jewes which books were those Scriptures Since the Church of God is the Master of those Rolls no doubt but the Church hath Testimonium à Deo The Spirit of God to direct her in declaring what Books make up the Scripture but yet even the Church which is to deal upon men proceedeth also per testimonium ab homine by humane Arguments such as may work upon the reason of man in declaring the Scriptures of God For the New Testament there is no question made of any Book but in Conventicles of Anabaptists and for the Old it is testimony enough that we receive all that the Jews received This is but the testimony of man but such as prevails upon every man It is somewhat boldly said not to permit to our selves any severer or more bitter animadversion upon him by a great man in the Romam Church that perchance the book of Enoch which S. Iude cites in his Epistle was not an Apocryphal book but Canonicall Scripture in the time of the Iews As though the holy Ghost were a time-server and would sometimes issue some things for present satisfaction which he would not avow nor stand to after as though the holy Ghost had but a Lease for certain years a determinable estate in the Scriptures which might expire and he be put from his evidence that that book might become none of his which was his before We therefore in receiving these books for Canonicall which we do and in post-posing the Apochryphall into an inferior place have testimonium ab homine testimony from the People of God who were and are the most competent and unreproachable witnesses herein and we have Testimonium ab inimico testimony from our adversary himself Perniciosius est Ecclesiae librum recipere pro sacro qui non est quà m sacrum rejicere It is a more pernicious danger to the Church to admit a book for Canonicall which is not so then to reject one that is so And therefore ne turberis novitie saith another great Author of theirs Let no young student in Divinity be troubled si alicubi repererit libros istos supputari inter Canonicos if he finde at any time any of these books reckned amongst the Canonical nam ad Hiero. limam verba Doctorum Concilio rum reducenda for saith he Hieroms file must passe over the Doctors and over the Councels too and they must be understood and interpreted according to S. Hier. now this is but testimonium ab homine S. Hier. testimony that prevailed upon Cajetan and it was but testimonium ab homine the testimony of the Iews that prevailed upon S. Hierom himself It is so for the whole body The bible it is so for all the limbs of this body every particular book of the Bible and it is so for the soul of this body the true sense of every place of very book thereof for for that the sense of the place we must have testimonium ab homine the testimony that is the interpretation of other men Thou must not rest upon thy self nor upon any private man Iohn was a witnesse that had witnesses the Prophets had prophesied of Iohn Baptist. The men from whom we are to receive testimony of the sense of the Scriptures must be men that have witnesses that is a visible and outward calling in the Church of God That no sense be ever admitted that derogateth from God that makes him a false or an impotent or a cruell God That every contradiction and departing from the Analogy of Faith doth derogate from God and divers such grounds and such inferences as every man confesses and acknowledges to be naturally and necessarily consequent these are Testimonia ab homine Testimonies that passe like currant money from man to man obvious to every man suspicious to none Thus it is in the generall but then when it is deduced to a more particular triall what is the sense of such or such a place when Christ saith Scrutamini Scripturas search the Scriptures non mittit ad simplicem lectionem sed ad scrutationem exquisitam It is not a bare reading but a diligent searching that is enjoyned us Now they that will search must have a warrant to search they upon whom thou must rely for the sense of the Scriptures must be sent of God by his Church Thou art robbed of all devested of all if the Scriptures be taken from thee Thou hast no where to search blesse God therefore that hath kept thee in possession of that sacred Treasure the Scriptures and then if any part of that treasure ly out of thy reach or ly in the dark so as that thou understandest not the place search that is apply thy self to them that have warrant to search and thou shalt lack no light necessary for thee Either thou shalt understand that place or the not understanding of it shall not be imputed to thee nor thy salvation hindred by that Ignorance It is but to a woman that Saint Hierome saith Ama Scripturas amabit te Sapientia Love the Scriptures and Wisdome will love thee The weaknesse of her Sex must not avert her from reading the Scriptures It is instruction for a Childe and for a Girle that the same Father giveth Septem annorum discat memoriter Psalterium As soone as she is seaven yeares old let her learn all the Psalmes without book the tendernesse of her age must not avert her from the Scriptures It is to the whole Congregation consisting of all sorts and sexes that Saint Chrysostome saith Hortor hortari non desinam I alwayes doe and alwayes will exhort you ut cum domi fueritis assiduae lectioni Scripturarum vacetis that at home in your owne houses you accustome your selves to a dayly reading of the Scriptures And after to such men as found or forced excuses for reading them he saith with compassion and indignation too O homo non est tuum Scripturas evolvere
Circumcision in the flesh after the spirituall Circumcision in the heart is established by the Gospell their end is not Circumcision but Concision they pretend Reformation but they intend Destruction a tearing a renting a wounding the body and frame and peace of the Church and by all means and in all cases Videte Concisionem Beware of Concision First then we shall from these words consider the lothnesse of God to lose us For first he leaves us not without a Law he bids and he forbids and then he does not surprise us with obsolete laws he leaves not his laws without proclamations he refreshes to our memories and represents to us our duties with such commonefactions as these in our Text Videte Cavete this and this I have commanded you Videte see that ye do it this and this will hinder you Cavete beware ye do it not Beware of Concision And this thus derived and digested into these three branches first Gods lothnesse to lose us and then his way of drawing us to him by manifestation of his will in a law and lastly his way of holding us with him by making that law effectuall upon us by these his frequent commonefactions Videte Cavete looke to it beware of it this will be our first part And then our second will be the thing it self that falls under this inhibition and caution which is Concision that is a tearing a renting a shredding in peeces that which should be intire In which second part we shall also have as we had in the former three branches for we shall consider first Concisionem corporis the shredding of the body of Christ into fragments by unnecessary wrangling in Doctrinall points and then Concisionem vestis the shredding of the garment of Christ into rags by unnecessary wrangling in matter of Discipline and ceremoniall points and lastly Concisionem spiritus which will follow upon the former two the concision of thine owne spirit and heart and minde and soule and conscience into perplexities and into sandy and incoherent doubts and scruples and jealousies and suspitions of Gods purpose upon thee so as that thou shalt not be able to recollect thy self nor reconsolidate thy self upon any assurance and peace with God which is onely to be had in Christ and by his Church Videte Concisionem beware of tearing the body the Doctrine beware of tearing the Garment the Discipline beware of tearing thine owne spirit and conscience from her adhaesion her agglutination her cleaving to God in a holy tranquillity and acquiescence in his promise and mercy in the merits of his Sonne applyed by the holy Ghost in the Ministry of the Church For our first consideration of Gods lothnesse to lose us this is argument enoughâ— That we are here now now at the participation of that grace which God alwayes offers to al such Congregations as these gathered in his name For I pray God there stand any one amongst us here now that hath not done something since yesterday that made him unworthy of being here to day and who if he had been left under the damp and mist of yesterdayes sinne without the light of new grace would never have found way hither of himself If God be weary of me and would faine be rid of me he needs not repent that he wrapped me up in the Covenant and derived me of Christian parents though he gave me a great help in that nor repent that he bred me in a true Church though he afforded me a great assistance in that nor repent that he hath brought me hither now to the participation of his Ordinances though thereby also I have a great advantage for if God be weary of me and would be rid of me he may finde enough in me now and here to let me perish A present levity in me that speake a present formality in you that heare a present Hypocrisie spread over us all would justifie God if now and here he should forsake us When our blessed Saviour sayes When the Son of man comes shall he finde faith upon earth we need not limit that question so if he come to a Westminster to an Exchange to an Army to a Court shall he finde faith there but if he come to a Church if he come hither shall he finde faith here If as Christ speaks in another sense That Iudgement should begin at his owne house the great and generall judgement should begin now at this his house and that the first that should be taken up in the clouds to meet the Lord Jesus should be we that are met now in this his house would we be glad of that acceleration or would we thank him for that haste Men of little faith I feare we would not There was a day when the Sonnes of God presented themselves before the Lord and Satan came also amongst them one Satan amongst many Sonnes of God Blessed Lord is not our case far otherwise do not we we who as we are but we are all the Sonnes of Satan present our selves before thee and yet thou Lord art amongst us Is not the spirit of slumber and wearinesse upon one and the spirit of detraction and mis-interpretation upon another upon one the spirit of impenitence for former sinnes and the spirit of recidivation into old or of facility and opennesse to admit tentations into new upon another We as we are but we are all the Sonnes of Satan and thou Lord the onely Sonne of God onely amongst us If thou Lord wert weary of me and wouldest be rid of me may many a soule here say Lord thou knowest and I know many a midnight when thou mightest have been rid of me if thou hadst left me to my selfe then But vigilavit Doninus the Lord vouchsafed to watch over me and deliciae ejus the delight of the Lord was to be with me And what is there in me but his mercy but then what is there in his mercy that that may not reach to all as well as to me The Lord is loth to lose any the Lord would not the death of any not of any sinner much lesse if he do not see him nor consider him so the Lord would not lose him though a sinner much lesse make him a sinner that he might be lost Vult omnes the Lord would have all men come unto him and be saved which was our first consideration and we have done with that and our second is The way by which he leads us to him that he declares and manifests his will unto us in a Law he bids and he forbids The laborers in the Vine-yard took it ill at the Stewards hand and at his Masters too that those which came late to the labour were made equall with them who had borne the heate and the burden of the day But if the Steward or the Master had never meant or actually never had given any thing at all to them that had borne the heate and the
all the spirituall parts of the Indulgence be performed by the poore sinner yet if he give not that money though he be not worth that money though that Merchant of those Indulgencies doe out of his charity give him one of those Indulgencies yet all this doth that man no good in these cases they are indeed Rei suae Legati Ambassadours to serve their own turns and do their owne businesse When that Bishop sends out his Legatos à latere Ambassadours from his own chair and bosome into forain Nations to exhaust their treasures to alien their Subjects to infect their Religion these are Rei suae Legati Ambassadours that have businesses depending in those places and therefore come upon their own errand Nor can that Church excuse it self though it use to do so upon the mis-behaviour of those officers when they are imployed for they are imployed to that purpose And Tibi imputae quicquid pateris ab eo qui sine te nihil potest facere Since he might mend the fault it is his fault that it is done he cannot excuse himself if they be guilty and with his privity for as the same devout man saith to Eugenius then Pope Ne te dixeris sanum dolentem latera If thy sides ake if thy Legats à latere be corrupt call not thy self well nec bonum malis innitentem nor call thy self good if thou rely upon the counsell of those that are ill They those Legats à latere are as they use to expresse it incorporated in the Pope and therefore they are Rei sui Legati Ambassadours that ly to doe their own businesse But when we seek to raise no other warre in you but to arme the spirit against the flesh when we present to you no other holy water but the teares of Christ Jesus no other reliques but the commemoration of his Passion in the Sacrament no other Indulgencies and acquittances but the application of his Merits to your souls when we offer all this without silver and without gold when we offer you that Seal which he hath committed to us in Absolution without extortion or fees wherein are we Rei nostrae Legati Ambassadours in our own behalfs or advancers of our owne ends And as we are not so so neither are we in the second danger to come sine Principali Mandato without Commission from our Master Christ himselfe would not come of himselfe but acknowledged and testified his Mission The Father which sent me he gave me commandment what I should say and what I should speake Those whom he imployed produced their Commissions Neither received I it of man neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Iesus Christ. How should they preach except they be sent is a question which Saint Paul intended for a conclusive question that none could answer till in the Romane Church they excepted Cardinals Quibus sine literis creditur propter personarum solennitatem who for the dignity inherent in their persons must be received though they have no Commission When our adversaries do so violently so impetuously cry out that we have no Church no Sacrament no Priesthood because none are sent that is none have a right calling for Internall calling who are called by the Spirit of God they can be no Judges and for Externall calling we admit them for Judges and are content to be tried by their own Canons and their own evidences for our Mission and vocation or sending and our calling to the Ministery If they require a necessity of lawfull Ministers to the constitution of a Church we require it with as much earnestnesse as they Ecclesia non est quae now habet sacerdotem we professe with Saint Hierome It is no Church that hath no Priest If they require that this spirituall power be received from them who have the same power in themselves we professe it too Nemo dat quod non habet no man can confer other power upon another then he hath himself If they require Imposition of hands in conferring Orders we joyn hands with them If they will have it a Sacrament men may be content to let us be as liberall of that name of Sacrament as Calvin is and he says of it Institut l. 4. c. 14. § 20. Non invitus patior vocari Sacramentum it a inter ordinaria Sacramenta non numero I am not loth it should be called a Sacrament so it be not made an ordinary that is a generall Sacrament and how ill hath this been taken at some of our mens hands to speak of more such Sacraments when indeed they have learnt this manner of speech and difference of Sacraments not onely from the ancient Fathers but from Calvin himself who always spoke with a holy warinesse and discretion Whatsoever their own authors their own Schools their own Canons doe require to be essentially and necessarily requisite in this Mission in this function we for our parts and as much as concerns our Church of England admit it too and professe to have it And whatsoever they can say for their Church that from their first Conversion they have had an orderly derivation of power from one to another we can as justly and truly say of our Church that ever since her first being of such a Church to this day she hath conserved the same order and ever hath had and hath now those Ambassadours sent with the same Commission and by the same means that they pretend to have in their Church And being herein convinced by the evidence of undeniable Record which have been therefore shewed to some of their Priests not being able to deny that such a Succession and Ordination we have had from the hands of such as were made Bishops according to their Canons now they pursue their common beaten way That as in our Doctrine they confesse we affirm no Heresie but that we deny some Truths so in our Ordination and sending and Calling when they cannot deny but that from such a person who is by their own Canons able to confer Orders we in taking our Orders after their own manner receive the Holy Ghost and the power of binding and loosing yet say they we receive not the full power of Priests for we receive onely a power in Corpus mysticum upon the mysticall body of Christ that is the persons that constitute the visible Church but we should receive it in Corpus verum a power upon the very naturall body a power of Consecration by way of Transubstantiation They may be pleased to pardon this rather Modesty then Defect in us who so we may work fruitfully and effectually upon the mysticall body of Christ can be content that his reall and true body work upon us Not that we have no interest to work upon the reall body of Christ since he hath made us Dispensers even of that to the faithfull in the Sacrament but for such a power as exceeds the Holy Ghost who in the incarnation
man whom he hath not made him able to relieve So then no more being needfull to be said of the persons the poor nor of the Act showing of mercy to the poor there remaines no more in this last part but according to our way all the way to consider the origination and latitude of this last word Cahad this honouring of God The word does properly signifie Augere ampliare To enlarge God to amplifie to dilate God to make infinite God shall I dare to say more God certainely God to more then he was before O who can expresse this abundant this superabundant largenesse of Gods goodnesse to man that there is a power put into mans hands to enlarge God to dilate to propagate to amplifie God himselfe I will multiply this people says God and they shall not be few I will glorifie them and they shall not be small there 's the word of our text God enables me to glorifie him to amplifie him to encrease him by my mercy my almes For this is not onely that encrease that Saint Hierom intends that he that hath pity on the poor Foeneratur Domino he lends upon use to the Lord for this though it be an encrease is but an encrease to himselfe but he that showes mercy to the poore encreases God says our text dilates enlarges God How Corpus aptasti mihi when Christ comes into the world says Saint Paul he says to his Father Thou hast prepared and fitted a body for me That was his naturall body that body which he assumed in the bowels of the blessed Virgin They that pretend to enlarge this body by multiplication by making millions of these bodies in the Sacraments by the way of Transubstantiation they doe not honour this body whose honour is to sit in the same dimensions and circumscriptions at the right hand of God But then as at his comming into this world God had fitted him a body so in the world he had fitted himselfe another body a Mysticall body a Church purchased with his bloud Now this body this Mysticall body I feed I enlarge I dilate and amplifie by my mercy and my charity For as God says to Ierusalem Thou wast in thy bloud thou wast not salted nor swadled no eye pityed thee but thou wast cast out into the open field and I loved thee I washed thee I apparelled and adorned thee prosperataes in regnum I never gave thee over till I saw thee an established kingdome so may all those Saints of God say to God himselfe to the Sonne of God invested in this body this mysticall body the Church thou was cast out into the open field all the world persecuted thee and then we gave thee suck with our bloud we clothed thee with our bodies we built thee houses and adorned and endowed those houses to thine honour prosperatus es in regnum we never gave over spending and doing and suffering for thy glory till thou hadst an established kingdome over all the earth And so thou thy body thy mysticall body the Church is honoured that is amplified dilated enlarged by our mercy Magnificat Anima mea Dominum was the exultation of the blessed Virgin My soule doth magnifie the Lord. When the meditations of my heart digested into writing or preaching or any other declaration of Gods glory carry or advance the knowledge of God in other men then My soule doth magnifie the Lord enlarge dilate amplifie God But when I relieve any poor wretch of the houshold of the faithfull with mine almes then my mercy magnifies the Lord occasions him that receives to magnifie the Lord by this thanksgiving and them that see it to magnifie the Lord by their imitation in the like works of mercy And so far doe these two elegant words chosen here by the holy Ghost carry our meditation in the first Canan God makes the charitable man partaker of his own highest power mercy and in the other Cabad God enables us by this mercy to honour him so far as to dilate to enlarge to amplifie him that is that body which he in his Sonne hath invested by purchase his Church We have done If you will but claspe up all this in your owne bosomes if you will but lay it to your owne hearts you may goe A poorer thing is not in the world nor a sicker which you may remember to have been one signification of this word poore then thine own soule And therefore the Chalde paraphrase renders this text thus He that oppresses the poore reproaches his owne soule for his owne soule is as poore as any whom he can oppresse To a begger that needs and askes but bodily things thou wilt say Alasse poore soule and wilt thou never say Alasse poore soule to thy self that needest spirituall things If thy affections thy pleasures thy delights beg of thee and importune thee so farre to bestow upon them say unto them I have those that are nearer me then you Wife and Children and I must not empoverith them to give unto you I must not sterve my family to feed my pleasures But if this Wife and Children begge and importune so farre say unto them too I have one that is nearer me then all you a soule and I must not endanger that to satisfie you I must not provide Ioyntures and Portions with the damnifying with the damning of mine owne soule It is a miserable Alchimy and extracting of spirits that stills away the spirit the soule it selfe and a poore Philosophers Stone that is made with the coales of Hell-fire a lamentable purchase when the soule is payed for the land And therefore show mercy to this soule Doe not oppresse this soule not by Violence which was the first signification of this word Oppression Doe not violate doe not smother not strangle not suffocate the good motions of Gods Spirit in theeâ— for it is but a wofull victory to triumphe over thine owne conscience and but a servile greatnesse to be able to silence that Oppresse not thy soule by Fraud which was the second signification of this word Oppression Defraud not thy soul of the benefit of Gods Ordinances frequent these exercises come hither And be not here like Gideons fleece dry when all about it was wet parched in a remorselesnesse when all the Congregation about thee is melted into holy tears Be not as Gideons fleece dry when all else is wet nor as that fleece wet when all about it was dry Be not jealous of God stand not here as a person unconcerned disinteressed as though those gracious promises which God is pleased to shed down upon the whole Congregation from this place appertained not to thee but that all those Judgements denounced here over which they that stand by thee are able by a faithfull and cheerfull laying hold of Gods offers though they stand guilty of the same sinnes that thou doest to lift up their heads must still necessarily overflow and surround thee
Oppresse not that soule by violence by Fraud nor by Scorne which was the other signification of this word Oppression Hoc nos perdit quod divina quoque eloquia in facetias in dicteria vertamus Damnation is a serious thing and this aggravates it that we slight and make jests at that which should save us the Scriptures and the Ordinances of God For by this oppression of thy poore soule by this Violence this Fraud this Scorne thou wilt come to Reproach thy Maker to impute that losse of thy soule which thou hast incurred by often breach of Lawes evidently manifested to thee to his secret purpose and un-revealed will then which thou canst not put a greater Reproach a greater Contumely a greater Blasphemy upon God For God cannot bee God if hee bee not innocent nor innocent if hee draw bloud of mee for his owne Act. But if thou show mercy to this soule mercy in that signification of the word as it denotes an actuall performance of those things that are necessary for the making sure of thy salvation or if thou canst not yet attaine to those degrees of Sanctification mercy in that signification of the word as the word denotes hearty and earnest Prayer that thou couldest Lord I beleeve Lord help mine unbeliefe Lord I stand yet yet Lord raise mee when I fall Honorabis Deum thou shalt honour God in the sense of the word in this Text thou shalt enlarge God amplifie dilate God that is the Body of God the Church both here and hereafter For thou shalt adde a figure to the number of his Saints and there shall bee a Saint the more for thee Thou shalt adde a Theme of Joy to the Exultation of the Angels They shall have one occasion of rejoycing the more from thee Thou shalt adde a pause a stop to that Vsquequo of the Martyrs under the Altar who solicite God for the Resurrection for Thou shalt adde a step to the Resurrection it selfe by having brought it so much nearer as to have done thy part for the filling up of the number of the Saints upon which fulnesse the Resurrection shall follow And thou shalt adde a Voyce to that Old and ever-new Song that Catholique Hymne in which both Churches Militant and Triumphant shall joyne Blessing Honour Glory and Power bee unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lambe for ever and ever Amen SERMON XLIII A Sermon upon the fist of Novemb. 1622. being the Anniversary celebration of our Deliverance from the Powder Treason Intended for Pauls Crosse but by reason of the weather Preached in the Church LAMENT 4. 20. The breath of our nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits The Prayer before the Sermon O LORD open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise for thou O Lord didst make haste to help us Thou O Lord didst make speed to save us Thou that sittest in heaven didst not onely looke down to see what was done upon the Earth but what was done in the Earth and when the bowels of the Earth were with a key of fire ready to open and swallow us the bowels of thy compassion were with a key of love opened to succour us This is the day and these are the houres wherein that should have been acted In this our Day and in these houres We praise thee O God we acknowledge thee to bee the Lord All our Earth doth worship thee The holy Church throughout all this Land doth knowledge thee with commemorations of that great mercy now in these houres Now in these houres it is thus commemorated in the Kings House where the Head and Members praise thee Thus in that place where it should have been perpetrated where the Reverend Judges of the Land doe now praise thee Thus in the Universities where the tender youth of this Land is brought up to praise thee in a detestation of their Doctrines that plotted this Thus it is commemorated in many severall Societies in many severall Parishes and thus here in this Mother Church in this great Congregation of thy Children where all of all sorts from the Lievtenant of thy Lievtenant to the meanest sonne of thy sonne in this Assembly come with hearts and lippes full of thankesgiving Thou Lord openest their lippes that their mouth may shew forth thy prayse for Thou O Lord diddest make haste to helpe them Thou diddest make speede to save them Accept O Lord this Sacrifice to which thy Spirit giveth fire This of Praise for thy great Mercies already afforded to us and this of Prayer for the continuance and enlargement of them upon the Catholick Church by them who pretend themselves the onely sonnes thereof dishonoured this Day upon these Churches of England Scotland and Ireland shaked and threatned dangerously this Day upon thy servant our Soveraigne for his Defence of the true Faith designed to ruine this day upon the Prince and others derived from the same roote some but Infants some not yet Infants enwrapped in dust and annihilation this day upon all the deliberations of the Counsell That in all their Consultations they may have before their eyes the Record and Registers of this Day upon all the Clergie That all their Preaching and their Governement may preclude in their severall Iurisdictions all re-entrances of that Religion which by the Confession of the Actours themselves was the onely ground of the Treason of this day upon the whole Nobilitie and Commons all involved in one Common Destruction this Day upon both our Universities which though they lacke no Arguments out of thy Word against the Enemies of thy Truth shall never leave out this Argument out of thy Works The Historie of this Day And upon all those who are any wayes afflicted That our afflictions bee not multiplyed upon us by seeing them multiplyed amongst us who would have diminished thee and annihilated us this Day And lastly upon this Auditory assembled here That till they turne to ashes in the Grave they may remember that thou tookest them as fire-brands out of the fire this Day Heare us O Lord and hearken to us Receive our Prayers and returne them with Effect for his sake in whose Name and words wee make them Our Father which art c. The SERMON OF the Authour of this Booke I thinke there was never doubt made but yet that is scarce safely done which the Councell of Trent doth in that Canon which numbers the Books of Canonicall Scriptures to leave out this Book of Lamentations For though I make no doubt but that they had a purpose to comprehend and involve it in the name of Ieremy yet that was not enough for so they might have comprehended and involved Genesis and Deuteronomie and all between those two in one name of Moses and so they might have comprehended and involved the Apocalypse and some Epistles in the name of Iohn and have left out the Book it selfe in the number But one of their
they their beeing their ever-lasting well-beeing for their service You will scarce receive a servant that is come from another man without testimony If you put your selves out of Gods service whither will ye goe In his service and his onely is perfect freedome And therefore as you love freedome and liberty bee his servants and call the freedome of the Gospel the best freedome and come to the Preaching of that He cals you children as you are servants filii familiares and he cals you children as you are Alumni nurse-children filii mammillares as he requires the humility and simplicity of little children in you For Cum simplicibus sermocinatio ejus as the vulgat reads that place Gods secret discourse is with the single heart The first that ever came to Christ so as he came to us in blood they that came to him so before he came so to us that died for him before he died for them were such sucking children those whom Herod slew As Christ thought himself bound to thank his Father for that way of proceeding I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast revealed these things unto babes so Christ himself pursues the same way Suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me for of such is the Kingdome of heaven Of such not onely of those who were truly literally children children in age but of such as those Talium est regnum coelorum such as come in such a disposition in the humility in the simplicity in the singlenesse of heart as children do An habituall sinner is always in minority always an Infant an Infant to this purpose All his acts all the bands of an Infant are void all the outward religious actions even the band and contract of Baptism in an habituall sinner is void and ineffectuall He that is in the house and favour of God though he be a child a child to this purpose simple supple tractable single-hearted is as Adam was in the state of Innocency a man the first minute able to stand upright in the sight of God And out of one place of Esay our Expositors have drawn conveniently enough both these conclusions A child shall die 100 years old says the Prophet that is say some a sinner though he live 100 years yet he dies a child in ignorance And then say others and both truly He that comes willingly when God cals though he die a child in age he hath the wisdome of 100 years upon him There is not a graver thing then to be such a child to conform his will to the will of God Whether you consider temporall or spirituall things you are Gods children For for temporall if God should take off his hand withdraw his hand of sustentation all those things which assist us temporally would relapse to the first feeble and childish estate and come to their first nothing Armies would be but Hospitals without all strength Councell-tables but Bedlams without all sense and Schools and Universities but the wrangling of children if God and his Spirit did not inanimate our Schools and Armies and Councels His adoption makes us men therefore because it makes us his children But we are his children in this consideration especially as we are his spirituall children as he hath nursed us fed us with his word In which sense the Apostle speaks of those who had embraced the true Religion in the same words that the Prophet had spoken before Behold I and the children that God hath given me And in the same sense the same Prophet in the same place says of them who had fallen away from the true Religion They please themselves in the children of strangers In those men who have derived their Orders and their Doctrine from a forein Jurisdiction In that State where Adoptions were so frequent in old Rome a Plebeian could not adopt a Patrician a Yeoman could not adopt a Gentleman nor a young man could not adopt an old In the new Rome that endevours to adopt all in an imaginary filiation you that have the perfect freedome of Gods service be not adopted into the slavery and bondage of mens traditions you that are in possession of the ancient Religion of Christ and his Apostles be not adopted into a yonger Religion Religio à religando That is Religion that binds that binds that is necessary to salvation That which we affirm our adversaries deny not that which we professe they confesse was always necessary to salvation They will not say that all that they say now was always necessary That a man could not be saved without beleeving the Articles of the Councell of Trent a week before that Councell shut up You are his children as children are servants and If he be your Lord where is his fear you are his children as he hath nursed you with the milk of his word and if he be your Father so your foster Father where is his love But he is your Father otherwise you are not onely Filii familiares children because servants nor onely Filii mammillares children because noursed by him but you are also Filii viscerales children of his bowells For we are otherwise allied to Christ then we can be to any of his instruments though Angels of the Church Prophets or Apostles and yet his Apostle says of one whom he loved of Onesimus Receive him that is mine owne bowells my Sonne says he whom I have begotten in my hands How much more art thou bound to receive and refresh those bowells from which thou art derived Christ Iesus himselfe Receive him Refresh him Carry that which the wiseman hath said Miserere animae tuae bee mercifull to thine owne soule higher then so and Miserere salvatoris tui have mercy upon thine owne Saviour put on the bowells of mercy and put them on even towards Christ Iesus himselfe who needs thy mercy by beeing so tome and mangled and embowelled by blasphemous oaths and execrations For beloved it is not so absurd a prayer as it is conceived if Luther did say upon his death bed Oremus pro Domino nostro Iesu Christo Let us pray for out Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. Had we not need pray for him If he complaine that Saul persecutes him had we not need pray for him It is a seditious affection in civill things to divide the King and the kingdome to pray to fight for the one and leave out the other is seditiously done If the kingdome of Christ need thy prayers and thy assistance Christ needs it If the Body need it the Head needs it If thou must pray for his Gospell thou must pray for him Nay thou canst not pray for thy selfe but thou must pray for him for thou art his bowells when thou in thy forefathers the first Christians in the Primitive Church wast persecuted Christ cryed out why persecutest thou me Christ made thy case his because thou wast of his
Ghost uses here is Mundare to cleanse and this is a Contrition for those sinnes and a Detestation of those sinnes which I have thus gathered in my Memory and poured out in my Confession A house is not clean though all the Dust be swept together if it lie still in a corner within Dores A Conscience is not clean by having recollected all her sinnes in the Memory for they may fester there and Gangreen even to Desperation till she have emptied them in the bottomlesse Sea of the bloud of Christ Jesus and the mercy of his Father by this way of Confession But a house is not clean neither though the Dust be thrown out if there hang Cobwebs about the Walls in how dark corners soever A Conscience is not clean though the sins brought to our memory by this Examination be cast upon Gods mercy and the merits of his Sonne by Confession if there remaine in me but a Cobweb a little but a sinfull de light in the Memory of those sins which I had formerly committed How many men sinne over the sinnes of their youth again in their age by a sinfull Delight in remembring those sinnes and a sinfull Desire that their Bodies were not past them How many men sin over some sins but imaginarily and yet Damnably a hundred times which they never sinned actually at all by filling their Imaginations with such thoughts as these How would I be revenged of such an Enemy if I were in such a place of Authority How easily could I overthrow such a wastfull young Man and compasse his Land if I had but Money to seed his humours Those sinnes which we have never been able to doe actually to the harme of others we doe as hurtfully to our owne Souls by a sinfull Desire of them and a sinfull Delight in them Therefore is there a cleansing required in this Circumcision such a cleansing as God promises I will cleanse their bloud that is the fountaine the work of all corrupt Desires and sinfull Delights Now there is no clensing of our bloud but by his bloud and the infusion and application of his bloud is in the seale of the Sacrament so that that soule onely is so clensed as is required in this spirituall circumcision that preserves it selfe alwayes or returnes speedily to a disposition of a worthy receiving of that holy and blessed Sacrament He that is now in that disposition as that in a rectified Conscience he durst meet his Saviour at that Table and receive him there which cannot be done without Contrition and Detestation of former sins hath admitted this spirituall Circumcision so far as is intended in the second signification of this word which is To clense But then there is a third action which is succidere to cut up to root out all from whence this sinne may grow up againe as the word is used in Iob 18. His root shall be dryed beneath and all his branches shall be cut downe In this Circumcision we must cut the root the mother-sinne that nourishes all our sinnes and the branches too that if one sinne have begot another there be a fall of all our woods of our timber wood our growne and habituall sinnes and of our under-woods those lesser sinnes which grow out of them It is a cutting downe and a stubbing up which is not done till we have shak'd off all that we have gotten by those Sinnes It is not the Circumcision of an Excessive use of that sinne that will serve our turne but such a Circumcision as amounts to an Excession a cutting off the root and branch the sinne and the fruits the profits of that sinne I must not think to bribe God by giving him some of the profit of my sinne to let me enjoy the rest for was God a venturer with me in my sinne Or did God set me to Sea that is put me into this world to see what I could get by Usury by Oppression by Extortion and then give him a part to charitable uses As this word signifies Excedere to cut of all that is grown out of sinne so from this word Namal comes Nemâla which is Formicae an Ant which the Hebrewes derive from this word out of this reason That as an Ant doth gnaw all the Corne it layes up upon one side so that it may never grow againe so this spirituall Circumcision must provide that that sinne take no new roote but as long as thou makest profit or takest pleasure in any thing sinfully gotten thy sinne growes so that this Circumcision is not perfected but by restitution and satisfaction of all formerly damnified These then be all the waies that are presented in these significations and use of this word which the holy Ghost hath chosen here purging by Consideration and Confessing clensing by Contrition and Detesting preventing of future growth by Satisfaction in Restoring A little remains to be said though it be also implyed in that which hath been said of the Ubi the place where this Circumcision is to be applyed The Scripture speaks of uncircumcised hearts and uncircumcised lips and uncircumcised eares And our eyes in looking and coveting and our hands in reaching to that which is not ours are as farre uncircumcised as eares or lips or hearts Therefore we are to carry this Circumcision all over we must Circumcise sayes Saint Bernard In carne peccatum the flesh the body the substance of the sinne in cute operimentum in the skin all covers and palliations and disguises and extenuations of the sinne and in sanguine incentivum in the blood all somentations and provocations to that sinne the sinne it self the circumstances of the sinne the relapses to or towards that sin must be circumcised Iudaeus ut parvulus congruum accepit mandatum exiguae Circumcisionis saies the same Father The Jew was but in an infancy in a minority and God did not looke for so strong a proceeding from the Iew as from us but led him by the armes by the helpe of Ceremonies and Figures and accordingly required but a Circumcision in one part of the body but God lookes for more at the hands of Christians to whom he hath fully manifested and applied himselfe As Christ said to the Jewes Except your righteousnesse exeeed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees it is nothing So except our righteousnesse exceed them that exceeded the Scribes it is nothing and therefore Toto corpore baptizamur saies Bernard quia totius hominis integra Circumcisio to shew that it is the whole man that is to be circumcised we are baptized we are washed all over for so long even to Bernards time it seemes that manner of Baptizing by Immersion of the whole body and not by Aspersion upon the face onely continued in the generall practice of the Church So that if it be not an entire Circumcision of the whole man that will fall upon us which God threatens in the Prophet I will visit all them which
many and very good grammarians amongst the Hebrews have thought and said that that name by which God notifies himself to the world in the very beginning of Genesis which is Elohim as it is a plurall word there so it hath no singular they say we cannot name God but plurally so sociable so communicable so extensive so derivative of himself is God and so manifold are the beames and the emanations that flow out from him It is a garden worthy of your walking in it Come into it but by the gate of nature The naturall man had much to do to conceive God a God that should be but one God and therefore scattered his thoughts upon a multiplicity of Gods and he found it as he thought reasonable to think that there should be a God of Iustice a God of Wisedome a God of Power and so made the severall Attributes of God severall Gods and thought that one God might have enough to do with the matters of Iustice another with the causes that belonged to power and so also with the courts of Wisedome the naturall man as he cannot conceive a vacuity that any thing should be empty so he cannot conceive that any one thing though that be a God should fill all things and therefore strays upon a pluralty of Gods upon many Gods though in truth as Athanasius expresses it ex multitudine numinum nullitas numinum he that constitutes many Gods destroys all God for no God can be God if he be not all-sufficient yet naturally I mean in such nature as our nature is a man does not easily conceive God to be alone to be but one he thinks there should be company in the Godhead Bring it farther then so A man that lies in the dregs of obscured and vitiated nature does not easily discern unicum Deum a God that should be alone a God that should be but one God Reason rectified rectified by the word of God can discern this this one God But when by that means of the Scripture he does apprehend Deum unicum one God does he finde that God alone are there not three Persons though there be but one God 'T is true the RomaÌ„s mis-took infinitely in making 300 Iupiters Varro mis-took infinitely in making Deos terrestres and Deos câ—lesâ—es sub-lunary and super-lunary heavenly and earthly Gods and Deus marinos and fluviatiles Sea Gods and River Gods salt and fresh-water Gods and Deos mares and faeminas he Gods and she Gods and that he might be sure to take in all Deos certos incertos Gods which they were sure were Gods Gods w ch might be Gods for any thing they knew to the contrary There is but one God but yet was that one God ever alone There were more generations infinitely infinite before the world was made then there have been minutes since it was made all that while there were no creasures but yet was God alone any one minute of al this was there not alwais a Father and a Son a holy Ghost And had not they always an acquiescence in one another an exercise of Affection as we may so say a love a delight and a complacency towards one another So as that the Father could not be without the Son and the holy Ghost so as neither Sonne nor holy Ghost could be without the Father nor without one another God was from all eternity collected into one God yet from all eternity he derived himselfe into three persons God could not be so alone but that there have been three persons as long as there hath been one God Had God company enough of himselfe was he satisfied in the three Persons We see he proceeded further he came to a Creation And as soon as he had made light which was his first Creature he took a pleasure in it he said it was good he was glad of it glad of the Sea glad of the Earth glad of the Sunne and Moone and Starres and he said of every one It is good But when he had made All peopled the whole world brought all creatures together then he was very glad and then he said not onely that it was good but that it was very good God was so far from being alone as that he found not the fulnesse of being well till all was made till all Creatures met together in an Host as Moses calls it then the good was extended into very good Did God satisfie himselfe with this visible and discernible world with all on earth and all between that and him were those foure Monarchies the foure Elements and all the subjects of those foure Monarchies if all the foure Elements have Creatures company enough for God was that Heptarchie the seven kingdomes of the seven Planets conversation enough for him Let every Starre in the firmament be so some take them to be a severall world was all this enough we see God drew persons nearer to him then Sunne or Moon or Starres or any thing which is visible and discernible to us he created Angels How many how great Arithmetique lacks numbers to to expresse them proportion lacks Dimensions to figure them so far was God from being alone And yet God had not shed himselfe far enough he had the Leviathan the Whale in the Sea and Behemoth and the Elephant upon the land and all these great heavenly bodies in the way and Angels in their infinite numbers and manifold offices in heaven But because Angels could not propagate nor make more Angels he enlarged his love in making man that so he might enjoy all natures at once and have the nature of Angels and the nature of earthly Creatures in one Person God would not be without man nor he would not come single not alone to the making of man but it is Faciamas hominem Let us us make man God in his whole counsail in his whole Colledge in his whole society in the whole Trinity makes man in whom the whole nature of all the world should meet And still our large and our Communicable God affected this association so as that having three Persons in himselfe and having Creatures of divers natures and having collected all natures in man who consisted of a spirituall nature as well as a bodily he would have one liker himselfe then man was And therefore he made Christ God and Man in one person Creature and Creator together One greater then the Seraphim and yet lesse then a worme Soveraigne to all nature and yet subject to naturall infirmities Lord of life life it selfe and yet prisoner to Death Before and beyond all measures of Time Born at so many moneths yet Circumcised at so many days Crucified at so many years Rose againe at so many Houres How sure did God make himselfe of a companion in Christ who united himselfe in his godhead so inseparably to him as that that godhead left not that body then when it lay dead in the grave but
in that Dispersion which hath continued upon the Jews ever since the destruction of Ierusalem the Jews have been so far from having had any King as that they have not had a Constable of their owne in any part of the world no interest at all in any part of the Magistracy and Jurisdiction of the world any where but they are a whole Nation of Cains fugitives and vagabonds But howsoever it be the heat and the vehemency of this Commination fals upon this particular sine Rege they shall be without a King It was long before God afforded the Jews a King and he did not easily doe it then when he did it Not that he intended not that form of Government for them but because they would extort it from him before his time and because they asked it onely in that respect That they might be like their neighbours to whom God would not have had them too like And also because God to keep their thankfulnesse still awake would reserve and keep back some better thing then he had given them yet to give them at last For so he says as the Coronation of all his benefits to Israel of which there is a glorious Inventary in that Chapter Thou didst prosper into a Kingdome Till the Crown of glory be presented in the comming of the Messias thou canst not be happier Those therefore that allow but a conditionall Soveraignty in a Kingdome an arbitrary a temporary Soveraignty that may be transferred at the pleasure of another they oppose the Nolumus hoc we would not have we would not live under this form of Government not under a temporall Monarchy Nolumus hoc Those that determine Allegiance and civil obedience onely by their own religion and think themselves bound to obey none that is of another perswasion they oppose the Nolumus hunc We will not have this man to reign over us and so make their relations and fix their dependencies upon forein hopes Nolumus hunc Those that fix a super-Soveraignty in the people or in a Presbytery they oppose the Nolumus sic we would not have things carried thus They pretend to know the happinesse of living under that form A Kingdome and to acknowledge the person of the King but they would be governed every man according to his own minde And all these the Nolumus hoc they that desire not the continuance of that form of a Kingdome in an Independency but would have a dependency upon a forein power And the Nolumus hunc they that are disaffected to the person of him that governs for the present And the Nolumus sic they that will prescribe to the King ends and ways to those ends all these assist this malediction this commination which God interminates here as the greatest calamity sine Rege They shall be without a King for this is to Canton out a Monarchy to Ravell out a Kingdome to Crumble out a King There is another branch in this Part which is of Temporall calamities That they shall be sine Principe Without a King and without a Prince The word in the originall is Sar and take it as it sounds most literally in our Translation The Prince is the Kings Son so this very word is used in Esay Sar Salem The Son of God is called the Prince of Peace And so the commination upon the Jews is thus farre aggravated That they shall be without a Prince that is without a certain heire and Successor which uncertainty more then any thing else slackens the industry of all men at home and sharpens the malice of all men abroad fears at home and hopes abroad discompose and disorder all where they are sine Principe without a certain heire But the word enlarges it selfe farther for Sar signifies a Iudge when Moses rebuked a Malefactor he replies to Moses Who made thee a Iudge And in many very many places Sar signifies a Commander in the Warres So that where the Iustice of the State or the Military power of the State faile and they faile where the men who doe or should execute those places will not or dare not doe what appertains to their places there this Commination fals They are without a Prince that is without future assurance without present power or Justice But we passe to the spirituall Commination that is They shall be without Sacrifice without Ephod without Image without Teraphim It is not that their understanding shall be taken away no nor that the tendernesse of their conscience or their zeale shall be taken away It is not that they shall come to any impiety or ill opinion of God They may have religious and well-disposed hearts and yet be under a curse if they have not a Church an outward Discipline established amongst them It is not enough for a man to beleeve aright but he must apply himself to some Church to some outward form of worshipping God It is not enough for a Church to hold no error in doctrine but it must have outward assistances for the devotion of her children and outward decency for the glory of her God Both these kindes are intended in the particulars of this Text Sacrifice and Ephod Image and Teraphim First it is a part of the curse to be without Sacrifice Now if according to S. Hieromes interpretation this Text be a Prophecy upon the Jews after Christs time and that the Malediction consist in this That they shall not embrace the Christian Religion nor the Christian Church entertain them if the Prophet drive to this They shall bee without Sacrifices because they shall not be of the Christian Church certainly the Christian Church is not to be without Sacrifice It is a miserable impotency to be afraid of words That from a former holy and just detestation of reall errors we should come to an uncharitable detestation of persons and to a contentious detestation of words We dare not name Merit nor Penance nor Sacrifice nor Altar because they have been abused How should we be disappointed and disfurnished of many words in our ordinary conversation if we should be bound from all words which blasphemous men have prophaned or uncleane men have defiled with their ill use of those words There is Merit there is Penance there is Sacrifice there are Altars in that sense in which those blessed men who used those words first at first used them The Communion Table is an Altar and in the Sacrament there is a Sacrifice Not onely a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving common to all the Congregation but a Sacrifice peculiar to the Priest though for the People There he offers up to God the Father that is to the remembrance to the contemplation of God the Father the whole body of the merits of Christ Iesus and begges of him that in contemplation of that Sacrifice so offered of that Body of his merits he would vouchsafe to return and to apply those merits to that Congregation A Sacrifice as farre
from their blasphemous over-boldnesse who constitute a propitiatory Sacrifice in the Church of Rome as from their over-tendernesse who startle at the name of Sacrifice We doe not as at Rome first invest the power of God and make our selves able to make a Christ and then invest the malice of the Jews and kill that Christ whom we have made for Sacrifice Immolation taken so properly and literally as they take it is a killing But the whole body of Christs actions and passions we sacrifice wee represent wee offer to God Calvin alone hath said enough Non possumus except we be assisted with outward things wee cannot fixe our selves upon God Therefore is it part of the malediction here that they shall be sine Sacrificio without Sacrifice so is it also in inferiour helps sine Ephod they shall be without an Ephod The Ephod amongst the Jews was a garment which did not onely distinguish times for it was worne onely in time of divine Service but even in time of divine Service it distinguished persons too For we have a Pontificall Ephod peculiar onely to the high Priest And we have a Leviticall Ephod belonging to all the Levites Samuel ministred before the Lord being a child girded with a linnen Ephod And wee have a common Ephod which any man that assisted in the service of God might weare That linnen Ephod which David put on in that Procession when he daunced before the Ark. But all these Ephods were bound under certain Laws to be worn by such men and at such times Christs garment was not divided nay the Soldiers were not divided about it but agreed in one way And shall wee the Body of Christ bee divided about the garment that is vary in the garment by denying a conformity to that Decency which is prescribed When Christ devested or supprest the Majesty of his outward appearance at his Resurrection Mary Magdalen took him but for a Gardiner Ecclesiasticall persons in secular habits lose their respect Though the very habit bee but a Ceremony yet the distinction of habits is rooted in nature and in morality And when the particular habit is enjoyned by lawfull Authority obedience is rooted in nature and in morality too In a Watch the string moves nothing but yet it conserves the regularity of the motion of all Rituall and Ceremoniall things move not God but they exalt that Devotion and they conserve that Order which does move him Therefore is it also made a part of the Commination that they shall be sine Ephod without these outward Rituall and Ceremoniall solemnities of a Church first without Sacrifices which are more substantiall and essentiall parts of Religion as wee consider Religion to be the outward worship of God and then without Ephod without those other assistances which though they be not of Gods Revenue yet they are of his Subsidies and though they be not the soule yet are the breath of Religion And so also is it of things of a more inferiour nature then Sacrifice or Ephod that is of Image and Teraphim which is our next and last Consideration Both these words that which is translated and called Image and that which is not translated but kept in the originall word Teraphim have sometimes a good sometimes a bad sense in the Scriptures In the First Image there is no difficulty good and bad significations of that word are obvious every where And for the other though when Rachel stole her fathers Teraphim Images though when the King of Babylon consulted with Teraphim Images the word Teraphim have an ill sense yet when Michal Davids wife put an Image into his bed to elude the fury of Saul there the word hath no ill sense Accept the words in an Idolatrous sense yet because they fall under the commination and that God threatens it as a part of their calamity that they should bee without their Idols it hath beene not inconveniently argued from this place that even a Religion mixt with some Idolatry and superstition is better then none as in Civill Government a Tyranny is better then an Anarchy And therefore we must not bring the same indisposition the same disaffection towards a person mis-led and soured with some leaven of Idolatry as towards a person possest with Atheisme And yet how ordinarily wee see zealous men start and affected and troubled at the presence of a Papist and never moved never forbeare the society and conversation of an Atheist Which is an argument too evident that wee consider our selves more then God and that peace which the Papist endangers more then the Atheist which is the peace of the State and a quiet enjoying our ease above the glory of God which the Atheist wounds and violates more then the Papist The Papist withdraws some of the glory of God in ascribing it to the Saints to themselves and their own merits but the Atheist leaves no God to be glorified And this use we have of these words Images and Teraphim if they should have an ill sense in this place and signifie Idols But Saint Hierome and others with him take these words in a good sense to bee the Cherubim and Palmes and such other representations as God himselfe had ordained in their Temple and that the Commination falls upon this That in some cases it may bee some want to bee without some Pictures in the Church So farre as they may conduce to a reverend adoring of the place so farre as they may conduce to a familiar instructing of unlettered people it may be a losse to lack them For so much Calvin out of his religious wisdome is content to acknowledge Fateor ut res se habet hodiè c. I confesse as the case stands now says hee speaking of the beginning of the Reformation there are many that could not bee without those Bookes as hee calls those Pictures because then they had no other way of Instruction but that that might bee supplied if those things which were delivered in picture to their eyes were delivered in Sermons to their eares And this is true that where there is a frequent preaching there is no necessity of pictures but will not every man adde this That if the true use of Pictures bee preached unto them there is no danger of an abuse and so as Remembrancers of that which hath been taught in the Pulpit they may be retained And that was one office of the Holy Ghost himselfe That he should bring to their remembrance those things which had been formerly taught them And since by being taught the right use of these pictures in our preaching no man amongst us is any more enclined or endangered to worship a picture in a Wall or Window of the Church then if he saw it in a Gallery were it onely for a reverent adorning of the place they may bee retained here as they are in the greatest part of the Reformed Church and in all that that is