Ghost in the Lamentations That women eate Palmares silios We translate it Lament 2.20 Their children of a span long that is that they procured abortions and untimely births of those children which were in their bodies that they might have so much flesh to eate As that is proposed for the greatest misery that ever was women to destroy their children so so is this for the highest accumulation of Joy to have dead children brought to life againe When we heare S. Augustine in his Confessions lament so passionately the death of his Son and insist so affectionately upon the Pregnancie and Forwardnesse of that Son though that Son if he had lived must have lived a continuall evidence and monument of his sin for for all his Son S. Augustine was no married man yet what may we thinke S. Augustine would have given though it had been to have beene cut out of his own life to have had that Son restored to life again Measure it but by the Joy which we have in recovering a sick child from the hands and jawes and gates of death Measure it but by that delight which we have when we see our Garden recovered frō the death of Winter Mens curiosities have carried them to unlawfull desires of communication with the Dead as in Sauls case towards Samuel But if with a good conscience and without that horror which is likely to accompanie such a communication with the Dead a man might have the conversation of a friend that had been dead and had seene the other World As Dives thought no Preacher so powerfull to worke upon his Brethren as one sent from the Dead so certainly all the Travailers in the World if we could heare them all all the Libraries in the world if we could read them all could not tell us so much as that friend returned from the dead which had seene the other World But wayving that consideration because as we know not what kind of remembrance of this world God leaves us in the next when he translates us thither so neither do we know what kinde of remembrance of that world God would leave in that man whom he should re-translate into this we fixe onely upon the examples entended in our Text who these joyfull Women were that receiv'd their Dead raised to life againe which is our second Branch of this first part for with those three considerations which constituted our first Branch we have done That God gives us this World as we are generall Christians And as we are Faithfull Christians Miracles And the greatest of Miracles The raising of the Dead In the second Branch Mulieres we have two Considerations first what kind of Women these were and then who they were first their Qualities and then their Persons We have occasion to stop upon the first because Aquinas in his Exposition of this Text tels us there are some Expositors who take this word Women in this place to be entended not of Mothers but of Wives And then because the Apostle saies here that Women received their dead that is say they Wives received their dead Husbands raised to life again and received them as Husbands that is cohabited with them as Husbands therefore they conclude saies Aquinas that Death it selfe does not dissolve the band of Marriage and consequently that all other Marriages all super-inductions even after Death are unlawfull Let me say but one word of the Word and a word or two of the Matter it selfe and I shall passe to the other Consideration The Women whom the Apostle proposes for his examples The word Vxores Women taken alone signifies the whole sex women in generall When it is contracted to a particular signification in any Author it followes the circumstances and the coherence of that place in that Author and by those a man shall easily discerne of what kinde of Women that word is entended in that place In this place the Apostle works upon his Brethren the Hebrews by such examples as were within their owne knowledge and their owne stories throughout all this Chapter And in those stories of theirs we have no example of any Wife that had her dead Husband restored to her but of Mothers that had their Children raised to life we have So that this word Women must signifie here Mothers and not Wives as Aquinas Expositors mis-imagined And for the matter it selfe Nuptiae iteratae that is second or oftner-iterated Marriages the dis-approving of them entred very soone into some Hereticks in the Primitive Church For the eighth Canon of that great Councell of Nice which is one of the indubitable Canons forbids by name Catharos The Puritanes of those Times to be received by the Church except they would be content to receive the Sacrament with persons that had beene twice married which before they would not doe It entred soone into some Hereticks and it entred soone and went far in some holy and reverent Men and some Assemblies that had and had justly the name and forme of Councels For in the Councell of Neo-Caesarea which was before the Nicen Councell in the seventh Canon there are somewhat shrewd aspersions laid upon second Mariages And certainly the Roman Church cannot be denyed to come too neere this dis-approving of second Mariages For though they will not speak plaine they love not that because they get more by keeping things in suspence yet plainly they forbid the Benediction at second Mariages Valeat quantnm valere potest Let them doe as well as they can with their second Marriage Let them marrie De bene esse At all adventures but they will affoord no Blessing to a second as to a first Marriage And though they will not shut the Church doores against all such yet they will shut up all Church functions against all such No such Person as hath married twice or married once one that hath married twice can be received to the dignity of Orders in their Church And though some of the Fathers pared somewhat too neare the quick in this point yet it was not as in the Romane Church to lay snares and spread nets for gain and profit and to forbid only therefore that they might have market for their Dispensations neither was it to fixe and appropriate sanctity only in Ecclesiasticall persons who only must not marry twice but out of a tender sense and earnest love to Continency and out of a holy indignation that men tumbled and wallowed so licentiously so promiscuously so indifferently so inconsiderately in all wayes of incontinency those blessed Fathers admitted in themselves a super-zealous an over-vehement animosity in this point But yet S. Ierome himselfe though he remember with a holy scorn Ep. ad Agers chiam that when he was at Rome in the assistance of Pope Damasus as his word is Cum juvarem he saw a man that had buried twenty wives marry a wife that buried twenty two husbands Apolog. ad Pamnach yet for the matter and
faine reduce it to a narrower compasse of time Hâ—die si vocem ejus audieritis that you would heare his voyce to day and not harden your hearts to day And to a narrower compasse then that Dabitur in illa hora sayes Christ Luk. 12.12 The holy Ghost shall teach you in that houre In this houre the holy Ghost offers himselfe unto you And to a narrower compasse then an houre Beati qui nunc esuritis qui nunc fletis Luk. 6.21 Blessed are ye that hunger now and that mourn now that put not off years nor dayes nor hours but come to a sense of your sins and of the meanes of reconciliation to God now this minute And therefore when ye reade Iusta pondera just weights and Just balances Levit. 19.36 and just measures a just Hin and a just Ephah shall ye have I am the Lord your God Do not you say so I will hereafter I will come to just weights and measures and to deale uprightly in the world as soon as I have made a fortune established a state raised a competency for wife and children but yet I must doe as other men doe Levit. 23. when you reade Remember that you keep holy the Sabbath day and by the way remember that God hath called his other holy dayes and holy convocations Sabbaths too remember that you celebrate his Sabbaths by your presence here doe not you say so I will if I can rise time enough if I can dine soon enough when you reade sweare not at all doe not you say Matt. 5.34 no more I would but that I live amongst men that will not beleeve me without swearing and laugh at me if I did not sweare for duties of this kinde permanent and constant duties arising out of the evidence of Gods word such as just and true dealing with men such as keeping Gods Sabbaths such as not blaspheming his name have no latitude about them no conditions in them they have no circumstance but are all substance no apparell but are all body no body but are all soule no matter but are all forme They are not in Genere deliberativo they admit no deliberation but require an immediate and an exact execution But then for extraordinary things things that have not their evidence in the word of God formerly revealed unto us whether we consider matters of Doctrine Extraordinary and new opinions or matter of Practise and new commands from what depth of learning soever that new opinion seeme to us to rise or from heighth of Power soever that new-Command seeme to fall it is still in genere deliberativo still we are allowed nay still wee are commanded to deliberate Melch. Canus to doubt to consider before we execute As a good Author in the Roman Church sayes Perniciosius est Ecclesiae It is more dangerous to the Church to accept an Apocryphall book for Canonicall then to reject a Canonicall booke for Apocryphall so may it be more dangerous to doe some things which to a distempered man may seeme to be commanded by God then to forbeare some things which are truely commanded by him God had rather that himselfe should be suspected then that a false god should be admitted The easinesse of admitting Revelations and Visions and Apparitions of spirits and Purgatory souls in the Roman Church And then the overbending and super-exaltation of zeale and the captivity to the private spirit which some have fallen into that have not beene content to consist in moderate and middle wayes in the Reformed Church this easinesse of admitting imaginary apparitions of spirits in the Papist and this easinesse of submitting to the private spirit in the Schismatike hath produced effects equally mischievous Melancholy being made the seat of Religion on the one side Basil by the Papist and Phrenzy on the other side by the Schismatick Multi prae studio immoderato intendi in contrarium aberrarunt à medio was the observation and the complaint of that Father in his time and his prophecy of ours That many times an over-vehement bending into some way of our owne choosing does not onely withdraw us from the left hand way the way of superstition and Idolatry from which wee should all draw but from the middle way too in which we should stand and walk And then Leo. the danger is thus great facile in omnia flagitia impulit quos religione decepit diabolus As God doth the devill also doth make Zeal and Religion his instrument And in other tentations the devill is but a serpent but in this when he makes zeale and religion his instrument he is a Lyon As long as the devill doth but say Doe this or thou wilt live a foole and dye a begger Doe this or thou canst not live in this world the devill is but a devill he playes but a devils part a lyer a seducer But when the devill comes to say Doe this or thou canst not live in the next world thou canst not be saved here the devill pretends to be God here he acts Gods part and so prevails the more powerfully upon us And then when men are so mis-transported either in opinions or in actions with this private spirit and inordinate zeale Quibus non potest auferre fidem aufert charitatem sayes the same Father Though the devill hath not quenched faith in that man himselfe yet he hath quenched that mans charity towards other men Though that man might be saved in that opinion which he holds because perchance that opinion destroyes no fundamentall point yet his salvation is shrewdly shaked and endangered in his uncharitable thinking that no body can be saved that thinks otherwise And as it works thus to an uncharitablenesse in private so doth it to turbulency and sedition in the publique Of which Eusebius we have a pregnant and an aplyable example in the life of Constantine the Emperour In his time there arose some new questions and new opinions in some points of Religion the Emperor writ alike to both parties thus De rebus ejusmodi nec omnino rogetis nec rogati respondeatis Doe you move no questions in such things your selves and if any other doe yet be not you too forward to write so much as against them What questions doth he meane That is expressed Quas nulla lex Canonve Ecclesiasticus necessario praescribit Such questions as are not evidently declared and more then evidently declared necessarily enjoyned by some law some rule some Canon of the Church Disturbe not the peace of the Church upon Inferences and Consequences but deale onely upon those things which are evidently declared in the Articles and necessarily enjoyned by the Church And yet though that Emperor declared himselfe on neither side nor did any act in favour of either side yet because he did not declare himselfe on their side those promovers of these new opinions Eo pervenere sayes that Author ut imagines Imperatoris violarint They
our virility our holy manhood our true and religious strength consists in the assurance that though death have divided us and though we never receive our dead raised to life again in this world yet we do live together already in a holy Communion of Saints and shal live together for ever hereafter in a glorious Resurrection of bodies Little know we how little a way a soule hath to goe to heaven when it departs from the body Whether it must passe locally through Moone and Sun and Firmament and if all that must be done all that may be done in lesse time then I have proposed the doubt in or whether that soule finde new light in the same roome and be not carried into any other but that the glory of heaven be diffused over all I know not I dispute not I inquire not Without disputing or inquiring I know that when Christ sayes That God is not the God of the dead he saies that to assure me that those whom I call dead are alive And when the Apostle tels me That God is not ashamed to be called the God of the dead Heb. 11.16 he tels me that to assure me That Gods servants lose nothing by dying He was but a Heathen that said Menander Thraces If God love a man Iuvenis tollitur He takes him young out of this world And they were but Heathens that observed that custome To put on mourning when their sons were born and to feast and triumph when they dyed But thus much we may learne from these Heathens That if the dead and we be not upon one floore nor under one story yet we are under one roofe We think not a friend lost because he is gone into another roome nor because he is gone into another Land And into another world no man is gone for that Heaven which God created and this world is all one world If I had fixt a Son in Court or married a daughter into a plentifull Fortune I were satisfied for that son and that daughter Shall I not be so when the King of Heaven hath taken that son to himselfe and maried himselfe to that daughter for ever I spend none of my Faith I exercise none of my Hope in this that I shall have my dead raised to life againe This is the faith that sustaines me when I lose by the death of others or when I suffer by living in misery my selfe That the dead and we are now all in one Church and at the resurrection shall be all in one Quire But that is the resurrection which belongs to our other part That resurrection which wee have handled though it were a resurrection from death yet it was to death too for those that were raised again died again But the Resurrection which we are to speak of is forever They that rise then shall see death no more for it is sayes our Text A better Resurrection That which we did in the other part 2 Part. in the last branch thereof in this part we shall doe in the first First we shall consider the examples from which the Apostle deduceth this encouragement and faithfull constancy upon those Hebrewes to whom he directs this Epistle Though as he sayes in the beginning of the next Chapter he were compassed about with a Cloud of witnesses and so might have proposed examples from the Authenticke Scriptures and the Histories of the Bible yet we accept that direction which our Translators have given us in the Marginall Concordance of their Translation That the Apostle in this Text intends and so referres to that Story which is 2 Maccab. 7.7 To that Story also doth Aquinas referre this place But Aquinas may have had a minde to doe that service to the Romane Church to make the Apostle cite an Apocryphall Story though the Apostle meant it not It may be so in Aquinas He might have such a minde such a meaning But surely Beza had no such meaning Calvin had no such minde and yet both Calvin and Beza referre this Text to that Story Though it be said sayes Calvin that Ieremy was stoned to death and Esay sawed to death Non dubito quin illas persecutiones designet quae sub Antiocho I doubt not sayes he but that the Apostle intends those persecutions which the Maccabees suffered under Antiochus So then there may be good use made of an Apocryphall Booke It alwayes was and alwayes will be impossible for our adversaries of the Romane Church to establish that which they have so long endeavoured that is to make the Apocryphall Bookes equall to the Canonicall It is true that before there was any occasion of jealousie or suspition that there would be new Articles of faith coyned and those new Articles authorized and countenanced out of the Apocryphall Books the blessed Fathers in the Primitive Church afforded honourable names and made faire and noble mention of those Books So they have called them Sacred and more then that Divine and more then that too Canonicall Books and more then all that by the generall name of Scripture and Holy Writ But the Holy Ghost who fore-saw the danger though those blessed Fathers themselves did not hath shed and dropt even in their writings many evidences to prove in what sense they called those Books by those names and in what distance they alwayes held them from those Bookes which are purely and positively and to all purposes and in all senses Sacred and Divine and Canonicall and simply Scripture and simply Holy Writ Of this there is no doubt in the Fathers before S. Augustine For all they proposed these Bookes as Canones morum non sidei Canonicall that is Regular for applying our manners and conversation to the Articles of Faith but not Canonicall for the establishing those Articles Canonicall for edification but not for foundation And even in the later Roman Church we have a good Author that gives us a good rule Cajeâ—an Ne turberis Novitie Let no young Student be troubled when he heares these Bookes by some of the Fathers called Canonicall for they are so saies he in their sense Regulares ad aedificationem Good Canons good Rules for matter of manners and conversation And this distinction saies that Author will serve to rectifie not onely what the Fathers afore S. Augustine for they speake cleerely enough but what S. Augustine himselfe and some Councels have said of this matter But yet this difference gives no occasion to an elimination to an extermination of these Books which we call Apocryphall And therefore when in a late forraine Synod that Nation where that Synod was gathered would needs dispute whether the Apocryphall Bookes should not be utterly left out of the Bible And not effecting that yet determined that those Bookes should be removed from their old place where they had ever stood that is after the Bookes of the Old Testament Exteri se excusari petierunt Sessio 10. say the Acts of that Synod Those that
opinions yet even from their various opinions there arise good instructions we shall rather Problematically inquire then Dogmatically establish first whether these words were spoken of Angels or no whether this word Angell in this text be not as it is in many other places of Scriptures and in the nature of the Word it selfe communicable to other servants and other messengers then those whom ordinarily we intend when we say Angels and then secondly if the words be spoken of Angels then whether of Good or Bad Angels of those which stand now or those which fell at first and againe if of those that stand then what degree of perfection they have and what that which we use to call their Confirmation is how it accrues to them and how it works in them if even of them it be said Behold he put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly In our second part what was inferd upon these premisses what was concluded out of these propositions what reflected upon us by this assimilation of ours to the Angels because it is a matter of much weight we shall first in our entrance into that part consider the weight of the testimony in the Person that gives it for it is not Iob himselfe that speaks these words It is but one of his friends but Elephaz but the Temanite a Gentile a stranger from the Covenant and the Church of God and yet his words are part of the Word of God And then for the matter that is inferd from our assimilation to the state of Angels will be fairely collected that if those Angels stand but by the support of Grace not by any thing inseparably inhering in their nature when we are at our best in heaven we shall do but so neither much lesse whilst we are upon earth have we in us any impossibility of falling by any thing already done for us Our standing is meerely from the grace of God and therefore let no man ascribe any thing to himselfe and Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall for God hath done no more for the best of us here nor hereafter then for those Angels and of them we heare here He put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly First then 1 Part. An Angeli for our first Disquisition in our first part De quibus the persons of whom these words are spoken Amongst all our Expositors of this book of Iob which are very many and amongst all Authors Ancient and Moderne which have had occasion in their Sermons and Tractates to reflect upon this text which are many more infinite I have never observed more then one that denies these words to be spoken of Angels or that there is any mention any intention any intimation of Angels in these words And which is the greater wonder this one single man who thus departs from all and prefers himselfe above all is no Jesuit neither It is but a Capuccin but Bolduc upon this Book of Iob and yet he adventures to say That that Person of whom it is said in this text He put no trust in his Servants and He charged his Angels with folly is not God and that they of whom it is said He trusted not his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly are not Angels But that all that Eliphaz intended in all this passage of Iob was no more but this That no great Person must trust in any kind of Greatnesse particularly not in great retinues and dependances of many servants and powerfull instruments for that was Iobs owne case and yet he lost them all The doctrine truly is good neither should I sodainly condemne his singularity if it were well grounded For though in the exposition of Scriptures singularity alwaies carry a suspition with it singularity is Indicium as we say in the Law some kind of evidence It is Semi-probatio a kind of halfe-proofe against that man that holds an opinion or induces an interpretation different from all other men yet as these which we call Indicia in the Law worke but so as that they may bring a man to his oath or in some cases to the rack and to torture but are not alone sufficient to condemne him So if we finde this singularity in any man we take from thence just occasion to question and sift him and his Doctrine the more narrowly but not only upon that presently to condemne him For this was S. Augustines case S. Augustine induced new Doctrines in divers very important points different from all that had written before him but upon due examination for all his singularity the Church hath found reason to adhere to him in those points ever since his reasons prevailed In our single Capuccins case here in our text it is not so And therefore here we must continue that complaint which we are often put to make of the iniquity of the Roman Church to us If the Fathers seeme to agree in any point wherein we differ from them they cry out we depart from the Fathers If we adhere to the Fathers in any point in which they differ from them then they cry out we forsake the Church Still they presse us with their trent-Trent-Canon You must interpret Scriptures according to the unanime consent of the Fathers and yet they suffer a single Capuccin of their owne to depart from the Fathers and Sons from the Ancient and Moderne Expositors in their owne Church And I may adde from the Holy Ghost too from the evident purpose and meaning of the place in more places then any Author whom I have seene and in this more then in any other place when he saies with such assurance that in these words He put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly there is no mennon no intention of God or Angels but it is onely spoken of men of the infidelity of servants and of the insecurity of Masters relying upon such dependancies We take this then Ande Angelis Boâ—â— as All do All for this single Capuccin makes no considerable exception more then a mole-hill to the roundnesse of the earth to be spoken of Angels which was our first probleme and disquisition And our second is being spoken of Angels of what Angels they are spoken Good or Bad of those that fell or those that stood Here we meet with the same rub as before singularity For amongst all our Expositors upon this book I have not observed any other then Calvin to interpret this place of the good Angels of those that stand confirmed in grace Not that Calvin is to be left alone in that opinion as though he were the onely man that thought that the good Angels considered in themselves might be defective in the offices committed unto them by God for it is evident that Origen in divers of his Homilies upon the book of Numbers in his twentieth and twentie two and foure and twentie sixt and in his
is risen indeed risen of himself as the word sounds yet that phrase and expression He is risen if there were no more in it but that expression and that phrase would not conclude Christs rising to have been in virtute propria in his own power For of Dorcas who was raised from the dead Aâ—â— 9 4◠〈◊〉 11. it is said Resedit she sate up and of Lazarus Prodiit he came forth and yet these actions thus ascribed to themselves were done in virtute aliena in the power of another Christs Resurrection was not so In virtute aliena in the power of another if you consider his whole person God and Man but it was aliena à filio Mariae Christ as the Son of Mary rose not by his own power It was by his own but his own because he was God as well as man Nor could all the Magick in the world have raised him sooner then by that his power his as God he that is that person God and man was pleased to rise So sits he now at the right hand of his Father in heaven nor can all the Consecrations of the Romane Priests either remove him from thence or multiply him to a bodily being any where else till his time of comming to Judgment come Then and not till then The Lord himself shall descend from heaven in clamore sayes the Text in a shout with the voyce of the Arch-angell and with the Trumpet of God which circumstances constitute our third and last Branch of this first Part The dead shall rise first They shall rise in the power of Christ therefore Christ is God for Christ himself rose in the power of God and that power shall be thus declared In a shout in the voyce of the Arch-Angell in the Trumpet of God The dead heare not Thunder nor feele they an Earth quake In clamore If the Canon batter that Church walls in which they lye buryed it wakes not them nor does it shake or affect them if that dust which they are be thrown out but yet there is a voyce which the dead shall heare The dead shall heare the voyce of the Son of God Iohn 5.25 sayes the Son of God himself and they that heare shall live And that is the voyce of our Text. It is here called a clamour a vociferation a shout and varied by our Translators and Expositors according to the origination of the word to be clamor hortatorius and suasorius and jussorins A voyce that carries with it a penetration all shall heare it and a perswasion all shall beleeve it and be glad of it and a power a command all shall obey it Since that voyce at the Creation Fiat Let there be a world was never heard such a voyce as this Surgite mortui Arise ye dead That was spoken to that that was meerely nothing and this to them who in themselves shall have no cooperation no concurrence to the hearing or answering this voyce The power of this voyce is exalted in that it is said to be the voyce of the Archangel In voce Archangeli Though legions of Angels millions of Angels shall be employed about the Resurrection to recollect their scattered dust and recompact their ruined bodies yet those bodies so recompact shall not be able to heare a voyce They shall be then but such bodies as they were when they were laid downe in the grave when though they were intire bodies they could not heare the voice of the mourner But this voyce of the Archangel shall enable them to heare The Archangel shall re-infuse the severall soules into their bodies and so they shall heare that voyce Surgite mortui Arise ye that were dead and they shall arise And here we are eased of that disputation whether there be many Archangels or no for if there be but one yet this in our text is he for it is not said In the voyce of An Archangell but of The Archangell if not the Onely yet he who comprehends them all Colos 1.16 and in whom they all consist Christ Jesus And then the power of this voyce is exalted to the highest in the last word that it is Tuba Dei Tuba Dei The Trumpet of God For that is an Hebraisme and in that language it constitutes a superlative to adde the name of God to any thing As in Sauls case when David surprised him in his dead sleepe it is said that Sopor Domini 2 Sam. 26.12 The sleepe of the Lord was upon him that is the heaviest the deadest sleepe that could be imagined so here The Trumpet of God is the loudest voice that we conceive God to speake in All these pieces that it is In clamore In a cry in a shout that it is In the voyce of the Archangell that it is In the Trumpet of God make up this Conclusion That all Resurrections from the dead must be from the voice of God and from his loud voice In clamore It must be so even in thy first Resurrection thy resurrection from sin by grace here here thou needest the voice of God and his loud voyce And therefore though thou thinke thou heare sometimes Gods sibilations as the Prophet Zechary speaks Gods soft and whispering voyce in ward remorses of thine owne and motions of the Spirit of God to thy spirit yet thinke not thy spirituall resurrection accomplished till in this place thou heare his loud voyce Till thou heare Christ descending from Heaven as the text sayes that is working in his Church Till thou heare him In clamore in this cry in this shout in this voyce of Penetration of perswasion of power that is till thou feele in thy selfe in this place a liquefaction a colliquation a melting of thy bowels under the commination of the Judgements of God upon thy sin and the application of his mercy to thy Repentance And then In voce Archangeli this thou must heare In voce Archangeli In the voice of the Archangel S. Iohn in the beginning of the Revelation cals every Governour of a Church an Angel And much respect and reverence much faith and credit behoves it thee to give to thine Angell to the Pastour of that Church in which God hath given thee thy station for he is thine Angel Mal. 2.7 thy Tutelar thy guardian Angell Men should seeke the Law at the mouth of the Priest saies God in Malachi of that Priest that is set over him For the lips of the Priest of every Priest to whom the soules of others are committed should preserve knowledge should be able to instruct and rectifie his flock Quia Angelus Domini Exercituum because every such Priest is the Angell of the Lord of Hosts Hearken thou therefore to that Angel thine Angel But here thou art directed above thine Angell to the Archangell Acts 20.28 Ephes 5.23 Now not the governour of any particular Church but he Who hath purchased the whole Church with his blood
Dominc Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name be all glory given They would have made him King He would not and Judge to divide the Inheritance and he would not He sent the Holy Ghost And yet he saies I will pray the Father to send him So the Holy Ghost was sent by them both Father and Son But not so as that he was subject to a joynt command of both or to a diverse command of either or that he came unwillingly or had not a hand even in his owne sending But howsoever he were perfect God and had alwales an absolute power in himselfe and had ever a desire to assist the salvation of man yet he submitted himselfe to the Order of the Decree He disordered nothing prevented nothing anticipated nothing but staid till all that which lay upon Christ from his Incarnation to his Ascension was executed and then in the due and appointed time issued his Mission It is a blessed Termination Mission It determines and ends many words in our Language Missio as Permission Commission Remission and others which may afford good instruction that as the Holy Ghost did for his so we may be content to stay Gods leasure for all those Missions A consideration which I presume S. Bernard who evermore embraced all occasions of exalting devotion from the melodious fall of words would not have let passe Nor S. Augustine for all his holy and reverend gravity would have thought Nimis juvenile Too light a consideration to have insisted upon And therefore I may have leave to stay your meditations a little upon this Termination these Missions You may have a Permission Many things are with some circumstances Permitted Permissio Mat. 19.8 which yet in discretion are better forborne Moses permitted divorces but that was for the hardnesse of their hearts and Christ withdrew that Permission S. Paul saies he had a Permission Liberty to forbeare working with his owne hands 1 Cor. 9.6 and so to live upon the Church but yet he did not What Permission soever thou have by which thou maist lawfully ease thy selfe yet forbeare till thou see that the glory of God and the good of other men may be more advanced by the use then by the forbearance of that indulgence and that Permission and afford not thy selfe all the liberty that is afforded thee but in such cases The Holy Ghost staid so for his Mission so stay thou for the exercise of thy Permission Thou maist have a Commission too In that of the Peace Commissio in that for Ecclesiasticall causes thou maist have part But be not hasty in the execution of these Commissions Come to an Inquisition upon another man so as thou wouldst wish God to enquire into thee Satan had a Commission upon Iob but he procured it so indirectly on his part by false suggestions against him and executed it so uncharitably as that he was as guilty of wrong and oppression as if he had had no Commission Thou canst not assist in the execution of those Commissions of which thou art till thou have taken the oathes of Supremacie and of Allegeance to thy Soveraigne Do it not till thou have sworne all that to thy Super-soveraigne to thy God That in all thy proceedings his glory and his will and not thine owne passion or their purposes upon whom thou dependest shall be thy rule The holy Ghost staid for his Mission stay thou for thy Commission till it be sealed over againe in thine owne bosome sealed on one side with a cleerenesse of understanding and on the other with a rectitude of conscience that thou know what thou shouldst doe and doe that There is also a Remission Remissio a Remission of sins It is an Article of Faith therefore beleeve it Beleeve it originally and meritoriously in Christ and beleeve it instrumentally and ministerially in the power constituted by Christ in the Church But beleeve it not too hastily in the execution and in the application thereof to thine owne case A transitory sin a sin that spent a few minutes in the doing thereof was by the penitentiall Canons which were the rule of the Primitive Church punished with many yeares penance And doest thou thinke to have Remission of thy seventy yeares sins for one sigh one groane then when that sigh and that groane may be more in contemplation of the torment due to that sin then for the sin it selfe Nay more that thou canst sinne that sin no longer then for that sin Hast thou sought thy Remission at the Church that is August in Gods Ordinances established in the Church In qua remittuntur extra quam non remittuntur peccata In which Ordinances there is an Infallibility of Remission upon true repentance and in a contempt or neglect of which Ordinances all Repentance is illusory and all Remission but imaginary Hieron For Quodammodo ante diem Iudicii judicant God refers causes to the Church to be prepared and mature there before the great Hearing and so hath given the Church a Power to judge before the day of Judgement And therefore August Nemo sibi dicat occultè ago apud Deum ago Let no man say I repent in secret God sees that I repent It was scarce in secret that thou didst sin and wilt thou repent but in secret At least let us know thy repentance by the amendment of thy life and wee shall not much presse the knowing of it any other way Onely remember that the holy Ghost staid for his Mission Presume not thou of thy Remission till thou have done not onely something towards it that might induce it from God that is Repentance but something by it that may testifie it to man that is amendment of life There is a Manumission also Manumission an emancipation an enfranchisement from the tyranny from the thraldome of sin That which some Saints of God particularly S. Paul have importuned at Gods hand so vehemently so impatiently as he did to be delivered from the messenger of Satan and from the provocations of the flesh exprest with that passion O wretched man that I am Rom. 7.22 who shall deliver me from the body of this death He comes immediately there to a thanksgiving I thanke God through Iesus Christ our Lord But his thanksgiving was not for a Manumission hee had not received a deliverance from the power and oppresssion of tentation But he had here as he had every where an intimation from the Spirit of God of that Gratia mea sufficit That God would be as watchfull over him with his grace as the Devill could be with his tentations And if thou come to no farther Manumission then this in this life that is to be delivered though not from tentations by his power yet in tentations by his grace or by his mercy after tentations have prevailed upon thee attend Gods leasure for thy farther Manumission for the holy Ghost staid for his
of excommunication That others should esteem them so and avoid them as such persons is sometimes debated amongst us in our books If the Apostle say it by way of Imprecation if it sound so you are to remember first That many things are spoken by the Prophets in the Scriptures which sound as imprecations as execrations which are indeed but prophesies They seeme to be spoken in the spirit of anger when they are in truth but in the spirit of prophesie So in very many places of the Psalmes David seemes to wish heavy calamities upon his and Gods enemies when it is but a declaration of those judgements of God which hee prophetically foresees to be imminent upon them They seeme Imprecations and are but Prophesies and such wee who have not this Spirit of Prophesie nor foresight of Gods wayes may not venture upon If they be truly Imprecations you are to remember also that the Prophets and Apostles had in them a power extraordinary and in execution of that power might doe that which every private man may not doe So the Prophets rebuked so they punished Kings So a 2 King 2.24 Elizeus called in the Beares to devoure the boyes And so b 2 Kings 1. Elias called downe fire to devoure the Captaines So S. Peter killed c Acts 5. Ananias and Sapphira with his word And d Acts 13.8 so S. Paul stroke Elymas the Sorcerer with blindnesse But upon Imprecations of this kinde wee as private men or as publique persons but limited by our Commission may not adventure neither But take the Prophets or the Apostles in their highest Authority yet in an over-vehement zeale they may have done some things some times not warrantable in themselves many times many things not to be imitated by us In Moses his passionate vehemency Dele me Exod. 32.32 If thou wilt not forgive them blot me out of thy booke And in the Apostles inconfiderate zeale to his brethren Optabam Anathema esse I could wish that my selfe were accursed from Christ Rom. 9.3 In Iames and Iohns impatience of their Masters being neglected by the Samaritans when they drew from Christ that rebuke You know not of what spirit you are In these Luke 9.55 and such as these there may be something wherein even these men cannot be excused but very much wherein we may not follow them nor doe as they did nor say as they said Since there is a possibility a facility a proclivity of erring herein and so many conditions and circumstances required to make an Imprecation just and lawfull the best way is to forbeare them or to be very sparing in them But we rather take this in the Text Excommunicatio to be an Excommunication denounced by the Apostle then an Imprecation So Christ himselfe If he will not heare the Chruch let him be to thee as a Heathen or a Publican That is Have no conversation with him So sayes the Apostle speaking of an Angel Anathema If any man if we our selves Gal. 1.9 if an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel let him be accursed Now the Excommunication is in the Anathema and the aggravating thereof in the other words Maranatha The word Anathema had two significations They are expressed thus Quod Deo dicatum Just Mart. Quod à Deo per vitium alienatum That which for some excellency in it was separated from the use of man to the service of God or that which for some great fault in it was separated from God and man too Ab illo abstinebant tanquam Deo dicatum Ab hoc recedebant Chrysost tanquam à Deo abalienatum From the first kinde men abstained because they were consecrated to God and from the other because they were aliened from God and in that last sense irreligious men such as love not the Lord Jesus Christ are Anathema aliened from God Amongst the Druides with the Heathen they excommunicated Malefactors and no man might relieve him in any necessity no man might answer him in any action And so amongst the Jews the Esseni who were in speciall estimation for sanctity excommunicated irreligious persons and the persons so excommunicated starved in the streets and fields By the light of nature by the light of grace we should separate our selves from irreligious and from idolatrous persons and that with that earnestnesse which the Apostle expresses in the last words Maran Atha In the practise of the Primitive Church Maran Atha by those Canons which we call The Apostles Canons and those which we call The penitentiall Canons we see there were different penances inflicted upon different faults and there were very early relaxations of penances Indulgences and there were reservations of cases in some any Priest in some a Bishop onely might dispense It is so in our Church still Impugners of the Supremacy are excommunicated and not restored but by the Archbishop Impugners of the Common prayer Booke excommunicated too but may bee restored by the Bishop of the place Impugners of our Religion declared in the Articles reserved to the Archbishop Impugners of Ceremonies restored when they repent and no Bishop named Authors of Schisme reserved to the Archbishop maintainers of Schismatiques referred but to repentance And so maintainers of Conventicles to the Archbishop maintainers of Constitutions made in Conventicles to their repentance There was ever there is yet a reserving of certaine cases and a relaxation or aggravating of Ecclesiasticall censures for their waight and for their time and because Not to love the Lord Iesus Christ was the greatest the Apostle inflicts this heaviest Excommunication Maran Atha The word seemes to be a Proverbiall word amongst the Jews after their returne and vulgarly spoken by them and so the Apostle takes it out of common use of speech Maran is Dominus The Lord and Athan is Venit He comes Not so truly in the very exactnesse of Hebrew rules and terminations but so amongst them then when their language was much depraved Dan. 4.16 Deut. 33.2 but in ancienter times we have the word Mara for Dominus and the word Atha for Venit And so Anathema Maran Atha will be Let him that loveth not the Lord Iesus Christ be as an accursed person to you even till the Lord come S. Hierom seems to understand this Dominus venit That the Lord is come come already come in the flesh Superfluum sayes he odiis pertinacibus contendere adversus eum qui jam venit It is superabundant perversnesse to resist Christ now Now that he hath appeared already and established to himselfe a Kingdome in this world And so S. Chrysostome seemes to take it too Christ is come already sayes he Et jam nulla potest excusatio non diligentibus eum If any excuse could be pretended before yet since Christ is come none can be Si opertum sayes the Apostle If our Gospel be hid now it is hid from them who are lost that is they are lost from
Semel mori that every man must dye once but for any Bis mori for twice dying for eternall death upon any man as man if God consider him not as an impotent sinner there is no such invariable Decree for that death being also the punishment for actuall sin if he take away the cause the sin he takes away that effect that death also for this death it selfe eternall death we all agree that it is taken away with the sin And then for other calamities in this life which we call Morticulas Little deaths the children the issue the off-spring the propagation of death if we would speak properly no Affliction no Judgement of God in this life hath in it exactly the nature of a punishment not onely not the nature of satisfaction but not the nature of a punishment We call not Coyn base Coyne till the Allay be more then the pure Metall Gods Judgements are not punishments except there be more anger then love more Justice then Mercy in them and that is never for Miserationes ejus super omnia opera His mercies are above all his works In his first work in the Creation his Spirit the Holy Ghost moved upon the face of the waters and still upon the face of all our waters as waters are emblemes of tribulation in all the Scriptures his Spirit the Spirit of comfort moves too and as the waters produced the first creatures in the Creation so tribulations offer us the first comforts sooner then prosperity does God executes no judgement upon man in this life but in mercy either in mercy to that person in his sense thereof if he be sensible or at least in mercy to his Church in the example thereof if he be not There is no person to whom we can say that Gods Corrections are Punishments any otherwise then Medicinall and such as he may receive amendment by that receives them Neither does it become us in any case to say God layes this upon him because he is so ill but because he may be better But here our consideration is onely upon the godly and such as by repentance stand upright in his favour and even in them our Adversaries say that after the remission of their sins there remaines a punishment and a punishment by way of Satisfaction to be borne for that sin which is remitted But since they themselves tell us that in Baptisme God proceeds otherwise and pardons there all sin and all punishment of sinne which should be inflicted in the next world for children newly baptized doe not suffer any thing in Purgatory And that this holds not onely in Baptismo fluminis in the Sacrament of Baptisme but in Baptismo sanguinis in the Baptisme of blood too for in Martyrdome as S. Augustine sayes Injuriam facit Martyri He wrongs a Martyr that praies for a Martyr as though he were not already in Heaven so he suspects a Martyr that thinkes that Martyr goes to Purgatory And since they say that he can doe so in the other Sacrament too and in Repentance which they call and justly Secundam post naufragium tabulam That whereas Baptisme hath once delivered us from shipwrack in Originall sin this Repentance delivers us after Baptisme from actuall sinne Since God can pardon without reserving any punishment since God does so in Baptisme and Martyrdome since out of Baptisme or Martyrdome it appeares often that De facto he hath done so for he enjoyned no penance to the man sicke of the Palsie when he said Mat 9. Son be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee Sins and punishments too He intimated no such after reckoning to her of whom he said Many sins are forgiven her Sins and punishments too Luke 17. He left no such future Satisfaction in that Parable upon the Publican Luke 18. that departed to his house justified Justified from sins and punishments too And when he declared Zacheus to be the son of Abraham and said This day is Salvation come unto thy house Luke 19. He did not charge this blessed inheritance with any such encumbrance that he should still be subject to old debts to make satisfaction by bodily afflictions for former sins since God can doe this and does so in Baptisme and Martyrdome and hath done this very often out of Baptisme or Martyrdome in Repentance we had need of clearer evidence then they have offered to preduce yet that God does otherwise at any time that at any time he pardons the sin and retaines the punishment by way of satisfaction If their Market should faile that no man would buy Indulgences as of late yeares it was brought low when they vented ten Indulgencies in America for one in Europe If the fire of Purgatory were quenched or slackned that men would not be so prodigall to buy out Fathers or friends soules from thence If commutation of penance were so moderated amongst them that those penances and satisfactions which they make so necessary were not commuted to money and brought them in no profit they would not be perhaps so vehement in maintenance of this Doctrine To leave such imaginations with their Authors We see David did enjoyne himself penance and impose upon himselfe heavy afflictions after he had asked and no doubt received assurance of the mercy of God in the remission of his sins Why did he so S. Augustine observes out of the words of this Text that because some of Davids afflictions are expressed in the Preter tense as things already past and some in the Future as things to come for it is Laboravi I have mourned and it is Natare faciam I will wash my bed with teares so that something David confesses he had done and something he professes that he will doe therefore David hath a speciall regard to his future state and he proceeds with God not onely by that way of holy worship by way of confession what he had done but by another religious worship of God too by way of vow what he would doe David understood his own conscience well and was willing to husband it to manure and cultivate it well He knew what ploughing what harrowing what weeding and watring and pruning it needed and so perhaps might be trusted with himselfe and hee his owne spirituall Physitian This is not every ones case Those that are not so perfect in the knowledge of their owne estate as it is certaine the most are not the Church ever tooke into her care and therefore it is true that in the Primitive Church there were heavy penitentiall Canons and there were publique penances enjoyned to sinners Either Ad explorationem when the Church had cause to be jealous and to suspect the hearty repentance of the party They made this triall of their obedience to submit them to that heavy penance Or else Ad aedificationem to satisfie the Church which was scandalized by their sins before Or Ad Exercitationem to keepe them in continuall practise the better to resist
expressed it for according to the Originall word Galal it is in the Margin not Commit but Roll thy way upon the Lord which may very well imply and intend this precept Carry thy Rolling trench up to God and gather upon him Gen. 18.23 As Abraham when he beat the price with God for Sodom from fifty to ten rolled his Petition upon God fo roll thy wayes upon him come up to him in a thankfull acknowledgement what he hath done for thee in the Gospel in the Law and in Nature And then as Tertullian sayes of publique Prayers Obsidemus Deum In the Prayers of the Congregation wee besiege God So this way wee entrench our selves before God so as that nothing can beat us out of our trenches for if all the Canons of the Church beat upon me so that I be by Excommunication removed from the assistances of the Church though I be inexcusable if I labour not my Reconciliation and my Absolution yet before that be effected I am still in my first trench still I am a man still I have a soule capable of Grace still I have the light of Nature and some presence of God in that though I be attenuated I am not annihilated though by my former abuses of Gods graces and my contumacy I be cast back to the ends of the earth and a far off upon the Sea yet even there God is the confidence of all them As long as I consider that I have such a soule capable of Grace and Glory I cannot despaire Thus Nature makes Pearls Thus Grace makes Saints A drop of dew hardens and then another drop fals and spreads it selfe and cloathes that former drop and then another and another and become so many shels and films that invest that first feminall drop and so they say there is a pearle in Nature A good foule takes first Gods first drop into his consideration what he hath shed upon him in Nature and then his second coate what in the Law and successively his other manifold graces as so many shels and films in the Christian Church and so we are sure there is a Saint Roll thy wayes upon God And as it followes in the same verse Spera in eo ipse faciet we translate it Trust in him and he shall bring it to passe Begin at Alpha and hee shall bring it to Omega Consider thy selfe but in the state of Hope for the state of Nature is but a state of Hope a state of Capablenesse In Nature wee have the capacity of Grace but not Grace in possession in Nature Et ipse faciet sayes that Text God shall doe God shall work There is no more in the Originall but so Ipse faciet Not God shall doe it or doe this or doe that but doe all doe but consider that God hath done something for thee and he shall doe all for He is the confidence of all the ends of the earth and of them that are a farre off upon the Sea Here is a new Mathematiques without change of Elevation or parallax I that live in this Climate and stand under this Meridian looke up and fixe my self upon God And they that are under my feete looke up to that place which is above them And as divers as contrary as our places are we all fixe at once upon one God and meet in one Center but we doe not so upon one Sunne nor upon one constellation or configuration in the Heavens when we see it those Antipodes doe not but they and we see God at once How various formes of Religion soever passe us through divers wayes yet by the very light and power of Nature we meet in one God and for so much as may make God accessible to us and make us inexcusable towards him there is light enough in this dawning of the day refection enough in this first meale The knowledge of God which we have in Nature That alone discharges God and condemns us for by that He is that is He offers himselfe to be The confidence of all the ends of the Earth and of them who are a far of upon the Sea that is of all mankinde But then Lunae radiis non matureseit botrus fruits may be seene by the Mooneshine but the Mooneshine will not ripen them Therefore a Sunne rises unto us in the law and in the Prophets and gives us another manner of light then we had in nature Prov. 4.19 The way of the wicked is as Darknesse sayes Solomon Wherein It follows They know not at what they stumble A man that calls himselfe to no kinde of account that takes no candle into his hand never knowes at what he stumbles not what occasions his sin But by the light of nature if he will looke upon his owne infirmities his own deformities his own inclinations he may know at what he stumbles what that is that leads him into tentation For though S. Paul say That by the law is the knowledge of sin And Rom. 3.20 Rom. 5.13 Rom. 7.7 Sin is not imputed when there is no law And againe I had not knowne sin but by the law in some of these places the law is not intended onely of the law of the Jews but of the law of nature in our hearts for by that law every man knows that he sins And then sin is not onely intended of sin produced into act but sin in the heart as the Apostle instances there I had not knowne lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet Of some sinnes there is no cleare evidence given by the light of nature That the law supplied and more then that The law did not onely shew what was sin but gave some light of remedy against sin and restitution after sin by those sacrifices which though they were ineffectuall in themselves yet involved and represented Christ who was their salvation So then God was to the Jews in generall as he was to his principall servant amongst them Moses He saw the land of promise but he entred not into it The Jews saw Christ Deut. 34.1 but embraced him not Abraham saw his day and rejoyced They saw it that is they might have seen it but winked at it Luther sayes well Iudaei habuere jus mendicandi The Jews had a licence to beg They had a Breve and might gather They had a Covenant and might plead with God But they did not and therefore though they were inexcusable for their neglect of the light of Nature and more inexcusable for resisting the light of the law That they and we might be absolutely inexcusable if we continued in darknesse after that God set up another light the light of the Gospel which is our third and last part wrapped up in those first words of our Text By terrible things in righteousnesse wilt thou answer us O God of our salvation This word Salvation Iashang is the roote of the name of Iesus 3 Part. Ecclesia Christiana In the beginning of
edification to consider in some particulars in the Christian Church And first consider we it in our manners and conversation Christ sayes In moribus Iohn 15.14 Mat. 22.12 Henceforth I call you not servants but friends But howsoever Christ called him friend that was come to the feast without the wedding garment he cast him out because he made no difference of that place from another First then remember by what terrible things God answers thee in the Christian Church when he comes to that round and peremptory issue Marke 16.16 Qui non credider it damnabitur He that beleeves not every Article of the Christian faith with so stedfast a belief as that he would dye for it Damnabitur no modification no mollification no going lesse He shal be damned Consider too the nature of Excōmunication That it teares a man from the body of Christ Jesus That that man withers that is torne off and Christ himselfe is wounded in it Consider the insupportable penances that were laid upon sinners by those penitentiall Canons that went through the Church in those Primitive times when for many sins which we passe through now without so much as taking knowledge that they are sins men were not admitted to the Communion all their lives no nor easily upon their death-beds Consider how dangerously an abuse of that great doctrine of Predestination may bring thee to thinke that God is bound to thee and thou not bound to him That thou maiest renounce him and he must embrace thee and so make thee too familiar with God and too homely with Religion upon presumption of a Decree Consider that when thou preparest any uncleane action in any sinfull nakednesse God is not onely present with thee in that roome then but then tels thee That at the day of Judgement thou must stand in his presence and in the presence of all the World not onely naked but in that foule and sinfull and uncleane action of nakednesse which thou committedst then Consider all this and confesse that for matter of manners and conversation The God of thy Salvation answers thee by terrible things And so it is also if we consider Prayer in the Church God House is the house of Prayer In oratione It is his Court of Requests There he receives petitions there he gives Order upon them And you come to God in his House as though you came to keepe him company to sit downe and talke with him halfe an houre or you come as Ambassadors covered in his presence as though ye came from as great a Prince as he You meet below and there make your bargaines for biting for devouring Usury and then you come up hither to prayers and so make God your Broker You rob and spoile and eat his people as bread by Extortion and bribery and deceitfull waights and measures and deluding oathes in buying and selling and then come hither and so make God your Receiver and his house a den of Thieves His house is Sanctum Sanctorum The holiest of holies and you make it onely Sanctuarium It should be a place sanctified by your devotions and you make it onely a Sanctuary to priviledge Malefactors A place that may redeeme you from the ill opinion of men who must in charity be bound to thinke well of you because they see you here Offer this to one of your Princes as God argues in the Prophet and see if he will suffer his house to be prophaned by such uncivill abuses Psal 47.3 And Terribilis Rex The Lord most high is terrible and a great King over all the earth Psal 96.4 and Terribilis super omnes Deos More terrible then all other Gods Let thy Master be thy god or thy Mistresse thy god thy Belly be thy god or thy Back be thy god thy fields be thy god or thy chests be thy god Terribilis super omnes Deos The Lord is terrible above all gods Psal 95.3 Deut. 28.58 A great God and a great King above all gods You come and call upon him by his name here But Magnū terribile Glorious and fearefull is the name of the Lord thy God And as if the Son of God were but the Son of some Lord that had beene your Schoole-fellow in your youth and so you continued a boldnesse to him ever after so because you have beene brought up with Christ from your cradle and catechized in his name Psal 111.4 his name becomes lesse reverend unto you And Sanctum terribile Holy and reverend Holy and terrible should his name be Consider the resolution that God hath taken upon the Hypocrite and his prayer What is the hope of the Hypocrite Iob 27.8 Hos 7.14 when God taketh away his soule Will God heare his cry They have not cryed unto me with their hearts when they have howled upon their beds Consider that error in the matter of our prayer frustrates the prayer and makes it ineffectuall Zebedees Sons would have beene placed at the right hand Mat. 20.21 and at the left hand of Christ and were not heard Error in the manner may frustrate our prayer and make it ineffectuall too Iam. 4.3 Ye ask and are not heard because ye ask amisse It is amisse if it be not referred to his will Luke 5.12 Iam. 1.6 Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean It is amisse if it be not asked in faith Let not him that wavereth thinke he shall receive any thing of the Lord. It is amisse if prayer be discontinued 1 Thes 5.17 Luke 22.44 Esay 1.15 intermitted done by fits Pray incessantly And it is so too if it be not vehement for Christ was in an Agony in his prayer and his sweat was as great drops of blood Of prayers without these conditions God sayes When you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes when you make many prayers I will not heare you Their prayer shall not only be ineffectuall Prov. 28.9 Psal 129.7 but even their prayer shall be an abomination And not only an abomination to God but destruction upon themselves for Their prayer shall be turned to sin And when they shall not be heard for themselves no body else shall be heard for them Though these three men Ezek. 14.14 Noah Iob Daniel stood for them they should not deliver thē Though the whole Congregation consisted of Saints they shall not be heard for him nay they shall be forbidden to pray for him forbidden to mentiō or mean him in their prayers as Ieremy was When God leaves you no way of reconciliation but prayer and then layes these heavy and terrible conditions upon prayer Confesse that though he be the God of your salvation and do answer you yet By terrible things doth the God of your salvation answer you And consider this againe as in manners and in prayer so in his other Ordinance of Preaching Thinke with your selves what God lookes for from you In
Element of Fire Indulgences some new Philosophers have made this an argument that it is improbable and impertinent to admit an Element that produceth no Creatures A matter more subtill then all the rest and yet work upon nothing in it A region more spacious then all the rest and yet have nothing in it to worke upon All the other three Elements Earth and Water and Ayre abound with inhabitants proper to each of them onely the Fire produces nothing Here is a fire that recompences that defect The fire of the Roman Purgatory hath produced Indulgences and Indulgences are multiplied to such a number as that no heards of Cattell upon earth can equall them when they meet by millions at a Jubile no shoales no spawne of fish at Sea can equall them when they are transported in whole Tuns to the West Indies where of late yeares their best Market hath beene No flocks no flights of birds in the Ayre can equall them when as they say of S. Francis at every prayer that he made a man might have seene the Ayre as full of soules flying out of Purgatory as sparkles from a Smiths Anvill beating a hot Iron The Apostle complains of them that made Mercaturam animarum Merchandise of mens soules but these men make Ludibrium animarum a Jest of mens soules For if that sad and serious consideration that this doctrine concernes that part of man which nothing but the incorruptible blood of the Sonne of God could redeeme the soul did not cast a devout and a religious bridle upon it it were impossible to speake of these Indulgences otherwise then merrily They do make merchandise of soules and yet they make a jest of them too These then these Indulgences are the children the generation of that Viper the Salamanders of that fire Pliny Purgatory And then Inter omnia venenata sayes Pliny Of all the venemous creatures in the world the Salamander is Maximi sceleris the most mischievous for whereas others singulos feriunt as the same Author sayes they sting but one at once the Salamander destroyes whole families whole Cities together for all that eat the fruit of any tree that hee hath touched perish We need not apply this Our fathers did and our neighbours doe feele the manifold mischiefes that these mercenary Indulgences work in the world and to what desperate and bloody actions men are induced and animated by them what knives these Indulgences have whet in Courts and what Armies they have payed in the open field A cheape discharge and easie Subsidy we have seene Copper coyned and we have read of leather coyned but here they coyne paper and in an Indulgence which require but as much paper as a Ballad they send a man more salvation then the whole Bible can give them Men that will not see light or not watch by the light will not see this Men that delight to wallow still in the mire can digest this Etiam Salamandra à suibus manditur sayes Pliny As venemous as a Salamander is a Sow will eat a Salamander As the citizens of the lowest fire of hell it selfe entred into the heard of swine so these children of this other fire of Purgatory these Indulgences enter into swinish men that consider not their owne foulnesse but think themselves cleane when they have eaten a Salamander that is bought an Indulgence But though they have had a spurious generation and yet have lasted longer then spurious generations use to doe for they have spread into three generations Prayer for the dead begot Purgatory and Purgatory Indulgences yet they have had a viperous generation too for they have eaten out the wombe of their owne Mother and these Salamanders these Indulgences retaine still the nature of Plinies Salamanders Non gignunt They beget no more they proceed no farther For in this enormous excesse of Indulgences the Roman Church tooke her deaths wound from this extreme abuse of Indulgences arose the occasion of the Reformation which God advanced and prospered so miraculously in the hands of Luther upon the indignation that the world took upon these Indulgences How they rose how they grew how they fell is a historicall knowledge and not much necessary to be insisted upon here though indeed our danger be greater from these Indulgences then either from prayer for the Dead or from Purgatory though all three be equally erronious in matter of doctrine yet for matter of fact and danger Indulgences are the most pernicious because that opinion of an immediate passing to Heaven thereupon animates men to any undertakings But as the Christians in abolishing the Idolatry of the Gentiles in some places some times left some of their Idols standing lest the Gentiles should come to deny that ever they had worshipped such monsters So it hath pleased the Holy Ghost to hover over the Authors and Writers in the Roman Church so as that they have left some impressions of the iniquity of these Indulgences in their bookes From them we are able to declare That Indulgencies in the Primitive Church were nothing but relaxations moderations of those severe penances which the Canons called Penitentiall inflicted upon particular sins which Canons were for the most part the Rule of the whole Church and which penances enjoyned by those Canons every Bishop in his owne Dioces might according to his holy discretion moderate according to the bodily infirmity or the spirituall amendment of the penitent sinner That in time the Bishops of Rome drew into their hands all this power of remitting penances reserving to themselves and shedding upon other Bishops as much and as little as they were pleased That after they had extended this overflowing power over this world they enlarged it farther to the next world too to Purgatory And this not long since Postquam aliquandiu ad Purgatorium trepidatum est coepere indulgentiae Roffens sayes a good Author of theirs of our Nation that Bishop of Rochester whose service they recompensed with a Cardinals Hat but somewhat late for his head was off before his hat came After the vapours of Purgatory had blinded mens eyes after men had beene made afraid of those fires for a good while sayes that Bishop then they began to set on foote their Indulgencies This beginning was not above three hundred yeares since and within one hundred they came to that height that though in their Schooles they make the paines of Purgatory to be so violent that they say no soule is likely to remaine there above ten yeares yet they give Indulgencies for infinite thousands of yeares They give one day Plenam and the next pleniorem and after plenissimam They forgive all to day and to morrow the rest and then they finde something beyond that which was beyond all So that as Seneca sayes of the excesse in Libraries in his time That they had Bibliothecas pro Supellectile No man thought his house well furnished if he had not a Library though he understood