know any thing The soul say they of men so purified understands no longer per phantasmata rerum corporalium not by having any thing presented by the fantasie to the senses and so to the understanding but altogether by a familiar conversation with God and an immediate revelation from God whereas Christ himself contented himself with the ordinary way He was hungry Mat. 21.20 and a fig-tree presented it self to him upon the way and he went to it to eat This is that Pureness in the Romane Church by which the founder of the last Order amongst them Philip Nerius had not onely utterly emptied his heart of the world but had fill'd it too full of God for Congrega Orator so say they he was fain to cry sometimes Recede ame Domine O Lord go farther from me and let me have a less portion of thee But who would be loath to sink by being over-fraited with God or loath to over-set by having so much of that winde the breath of the Spirit of God Privation of the presence of God is Hell a diminution of it is a step toward it Fruition of his presence is Heaven and shall any Man be afraid of having too much Heaven too much God There are many among them that are over laden oppressed with Bishropricks and Abbeys and yet they can bear it and never cry Retrahe domine domine Resume O Lord withdraw from me Resume to thy self some of these superabundancies and shall we think any of them to be so over-fraited and surcharg'd with the presence and with the grace of God as to be put to his Recede domine O Lord withdraw thy self and lessen thy grace towards me This Pureness is not in their heart but in their fantasie We read in the Ecclesiastick story of such a kinde of affectation of singularity very early in the primitive Church Catharsitae We finde two sorts of false Puritans then The Catharists and The Cathari The Catharists thought no creatures of God pure and therefore they brought in strange ceremonial purifications of those Creatures In which error they of the Romane Church succeed them in a great part in their Exorcismes and Consecrations Particularly in the greatest matter of all in the Sacraments For the Catharists in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour thought not the bread pure except it were purified by the aspersion of something issuing from the body of man not fit to be nam'd here And so in the Romane Church they induc'd a use of another Excrement in the other Sacrament They must have spittle in the Sacrament of Baptisme For in those words of Tertullian Tertul. In Baptismo Daemones respuimus In Baptism we Renounce the Devil they will admit no other interpretation of the Respuimus but that Respuere is sputo detestari Durantius de citib l. 1.19 n. 30. That we can drive the Devil away no way but by spitting at him Their predecessors in this the Catharists thought no Creatures pure and therefore purified them by abhominable and detestable ways The second sort of primitive Puritans the Cathari Cathari They thought no men pure but themselves and themselves they thought so pure as to have no sin and that therefore they might and so did leave out as an impertinent clause in the Lords prayer that petition Dimitte nobis debita nostra for they thought they ought God nothing In natural things Monsters have no propagation A Monster does not beget a Monster In spiritual excesses it is otherwise for for this second kinde of Puritans that attribute all purity to themselves and spend all their thoughts upon considering others that weed hath grown so far that whereas those Puritans of the Primitive Church did but refuse to say Dimitte nobis Forgive us our trespasses because they had no sin the Puritan Papist is come to say Recede a nobis O Lord stand farther off for I have too much of thee And whereas the Puritan of the primitive Church did but refuse one Petition of the Lords prayer the later puritan amongst our selves hath refused the whole Prayer Towards both these sorts of false puritans Catharists and Cathari derived down to our time we acknowledge those words of the Apostle to belong 2 Tim. 4.2 Reprove Rebuke Exhort that is leave no such means untryed as may work upon their Understandings and remove their just scruples Preach write confer But when that labor hath been bestow'd and they fear up their Understanding against it so that the fault lies not then in the darkness of their Understanding but meerly in the perversness of the will over which faculty other men have no power towards both these sorts we acknowledge those other words of the Apostle to belong too Gal. 5.12 Utinam abscindantur Would to God they were even cut off that disquiet you Cut off that is removed from means by which and from places in which they might disquiet you These two kinds of false Puritans we finde in the Primitive Church And Satan who lasts still makes them last still too But if we shall imagine a third sort of Puritans and make men afraid of the zeal of the glory of God make men hard and insensible of those wounds that are inflicted upon Christ Jesus in blasphemous oaths and execrations make men ashamed to put a difference between the Sabbath and an ordinary day and so at last make sin an indifferent matter If any man list to be contentious we have no such custome 1 Cor. 11.16 neither the Chuch of God The Church of God encourages them and assists them in that sanctity that purity with all those means wherewith Christ Jesus hath trusted her for the advancement of that purity and professes that she prefers in her recommendations to God in her prayers one Christian truly fervent and zealous before millions of Lukewarme Onely she says in the voice of Christ Jesus her head Wo be unto you Mat. 23 25. if you make clean the outside of cups and platters but leave them full of extortion and excess within Christ calls them to whom he says that blinde Pharisees if they have done so If they think to blinde others Christ calls them blinde But if their purity consist in studying practising the most available means to sanctification and in obedience to lawful authority established according to Gods Ordinance and in acquiescence in fundamental doctrines believed in the ancient Church to be necessary to salvation If they love the peace of conscience and the peace of Sion as Balaam said Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last end he like his So I say let me live the life of a Puritan Num. 23.10 let the zeal of the house of God consume me let a holy life and an humble obedience to the Law testifie my reverence to God in his Church and in his Magistrate For this is Saint Pauls Puritan To have a pure heart
The Jewes shall be under a heavier condemnation then the natural man because they had more liberty that is more means of avoyding sin then the natural man had and upon the same reason the Christian under a heavier condemnation then either because he shall be judged by this law of Liberty What judgement then gives this law This Qui non crediderit Mark 16.16 damnabitur and so sayes this Law in the Law-makers mouth He that believes not shall be damned And as no lesse light then Faith it selfe can shew you what Faith is what it is to believe so no lesse time then Damnation shall last can shew you what Damnation is for the very form of Damnation is the everlastingness of it and Qui non crediderit He that believeth not shall be damned there 's no commutation of penance nor beheading after a sentence of a more ignominious death in that court Dost thou believe that thou dost believe yet this law takes not that answer This law of Liberty takes the liberty to look farther Through faith into works for so sayes the Law in the mouth of the Law-maker To whom much is given of him much shall be required Luke 12.48 Hast thou considered every new title of Honour and every new addition of Office every new step into higher places to have laid new Duties and new obligations upon thee Hast thou doubled the hours of thy Prayers when thy Preferments are doubled and encreased thine Almes according as thy Revenues are encreased Hast thou done something done much in this kinde this law will not be answer'd so this law of Liberty takes the liberty to call upon thee for all Here also the Law sayes in the mouth of the Law-maker If thou have agreed with many adversaries sayes Christ Mat 5.25 let that be If thou have satisfied many duties for duties are adversaries that is temptations upon us yet as long as thou hast one adversary agree with that adversary quickly in the way leave no duty undischarged or unrepented in this life Beloved we have well delivered our selves of the feare of Purgatory none of us feare that but another mistaking hath overtaken us and we flatter our selves with another danger that is Compensation that by doing well in one place our ill doing in another is recompenced an ill Officer looks to be sav'd because he is a good husband to his wife a good father to his children a good master to his servants and he thinks he hath three to one for his salvation But as nature requires the qualities of every element which thou art composed of so this law of Liberty calls upon thee for the exercises of all those vertues that appertain to every particular place thou hold'st This liberty this law of Liberty takes It binds thee to believe Christ All Christ Gods Christ as he was the eternal Son of the Father God of God our Christ as he was made man for our salvation and thy Christ as his blessed Spirit in this his Ordinance applies him to thee and offers him into thine armes this minute And then to know that he looks for a retribution from thee in that measure in which he hath dealt with thee much for much and for several kinds of good according to those several good things which he hath done for thee And if thou be first defective in these and then defective in laying hold upon him who is the propitiation and satisfaction for thy defects in these this law of Liberty returnes to her liberty to pronounce and he Judge to his liberty to execute that sentence Damnaberis thou wilt be cast into that prison where thou must pay the last farthing thou must for Christ dyes not there and therefore there they must lie till there come such another ransome as Christ nay a greater ransome then Christ was for Christ paid no debts in that prison This then is the Christians case and this is the Abridgement of his Religion Sic loquimini sic facite to speak aright and to doe aright to profess the truth and not be afraid nor ashamed of that and to live according to that profession for no man can make God the author of sin but that man comes as near it as he can that makes Gods Religion a cloke for his sin To this God proceeds not meerly and onely by commadment but by perswasion too And though he be not bound to do so yet he does give a reason The reason is because he must give account of both both of Actions and of Words of both we shall be judged but judged by a Law a Law which excludes on Gods part any secret ill purpose upon us if we keep his Law a Law which excludes on our part all pretence of Ignorance for no man can plead ignorance of a Law And then a law of Liberty of liberty to God for God was not bound to save a man because he made him but of his own goodness he vouchsafed him a Law by which he may be saved a law of Liberty to us so that there is no Epicurism to doe what we list no such liberty as makes us Libertines for then there were no Law nor Stoicism nor fatality that constraines us to doe that we would not do for then there were no Liberty But the Gospel is such a law of Liberty as delivers us upon whom it works Serm. 4. from the necessity of falling into the bondage of sin before and from the impossibility of recovering after if we be falne into that bondage And this is liberty enough and of this liberty our blessed God give us the right use for his Son Christ Jesus sake by the operation of that Holy Ghost that proceeds from both Amen A Lent-SERMON Preached before the KING At WHITE-HALL February 16. 1620. SERMON IV. 1 Tim. 3.16 And without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into Glory THis is no Text for an Houre-glasse if God would afford me Ezekiah's signe Ut revertatur umbra 2 Reg. 20.9 Josh 10.11 that the shadow might go backward upon the Dial or Joshuah's signe Ut sistat Sol That the Sun might stand still all the day this were text enough to employ all the day and all the dayes of our life The Lent which we begin now is a full Tythe of the year but the houre which we begin now is not a full tythe of this day and therefore we should not grudge all that But payment of Tythes is growne matter of controversie and we by our Text are directed onely upon matter without controversie And without controversie c. Here is the compass that the essential Word of God the Son of God Christ Jesus went He was God humbled in the flesh he was Man received into glory Here is the compasse that the written Word of God went the Bible
the people there was none with me The Angels then knew not this not all this not all the particulars of this The mystery of Christs Incarnation for the Redemption of Man the Angels knew it in generall for it was commune quoddam principium it was the generall mark to which all their service as they were ministring spirits was directed But for particulars as amongst the Prophets some of the later understood more then the former I understand more then the ancients Psal 119.100 sayes David and the Apostles understood more then the Prophets even of those things which they had prophesied Ephes 3.6 this Mystery in other ages was not made known as it is now revealed unto the holy Apostles so the Angels are come to know some things of Christ since Christ came in another manner then before Ephes 3.10 And this may be that which S. Paul intends when he sayes that he was made a Minister of the Gospel To the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdome of God And S. Peter also speaking of the administration of the Church 1 Pet. 1.12 expresses it so That the Angels desire to look into it Which is not onely that which S. Augustine sayes Aug. Innotuit a seculis per Ecclesiam Angelis That the Angels saw the mystery of the Christian Religion from before all beginnings and that by the Church Quia ipsa Ecclesia illis in Deo apparuit Because they saw in God the future Church from before all beginnings but even in the propagation and administration of the Church they see many things now which distinctly effectually experimentally as they do now they could not see before And so to this purpose Visus in nobis Christ is seen by the Angels in us and our conversation now Spectaculum sumus sayes the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.9 We are made a spectacle to men and angels The word is there Theatrum and so S. Hierom reads it Hierom. And therefore let us be careful to play those parts well which even the Angels desire to see well acted Let him that finds himself to be the honester man by thinking so think in the name of God that he hath a particular tutelar Angel that will do him no harm to think so And let him that thinks not so yet think that so far as conduces to the support of Gods children and to the joy of the Angels themselves and to the glory of God the Angels do see mens particular actions and then if thou wouldst not sollicite a womans chastity if her servant were by to testifie it nor calumniate an absent person in the Kings ear if his friends were by to testifie it if thou canst slumber in thy self that main consideration That the eye of God is always open and always upon thee yet have a little religious civility and holy respect even to those Angels that see thee That those Angels which see Christ Jesus now sate down in glory at the right hand of his Father all sweat wip'd from his Browes and all teares from his Eyes all his Stripes heal'd all his Blood stanch'd all his Wounds shut up and all his Beauty returned there when they look down hither to see the same Christ in thee may not see him scourged again wounded torn and mangled again in thy blasphemings nor crucified again in thy irreligious conversation Visus ab Angelis he was seen of the Angels in himself whilest he was here and he is seen in his Saints upon earth by Angels now and shall be so to the end of the world Which Saints he hath gathered from the Gentiles which is the next branch Praedicat Gentib Psal 85.10 Predicatus gentibus he was preached to the Gentiles Mercy and truth meet together says David every where in Gods proceedings they meet together but no where closer then in calling the Gentiles Jesus Christ was made a Minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God Rom. 15.8 wherein consisted that truth to confirm the promises made unto the fathers says the Apostle there and that 's to the Jews but was Christ a Minister of the Circumcision onely for that onely for the truth No Truth and Mercy meet together as it followes there and that the Gentiles might glorifie God for his mercy The Jewes were a holy Nation Gal. 2.15 that was their addition Gens Sancta but the addition of the Gentiles was peccatores sinners we are Jewes by nature and not of the Gentiles sinners sayes S. Paul He that touch'd the Jewes touch'd the apple of Gods eye And for their sakes God rebuk'd Kings and said Touch not mine Anoynted but upon the Gentiles not onely dereliction but indignation and consternation and devastation and extermination every where interminated inflicted every where and every where multiplied The Jewes had all kinde of assurance and ties upon God both Law and Custome they both prescribed in God and God had bound himself to them by particular conveyance by a conveyance written in their flesh Isa 49. in Circumcision and the counterpane written in his flesh I have graven thy name in the palmes of my hands Eph. 2.12 But for the Gentiles they had none of this assurance When they were without Christ sayes the Apostle having no hope that is no covenant to ground a hope upon ye were without God in this world To contemplate God himself and not in Christ is to be without God And then for Christ to be preached to such as these to make this Sun to set at noon to the Jewes rise at midnight to the Antipodes to the Gentiles this was such an abundant such a superabundant mercy as might seem almost to be above the bargain above the contract between Christ and his Father more then was conditioned and decreed for the price of his Blood and the reward of his Death for when God said I will declare my decree That is what I intended to give him which is expressed thus Psal 2. I will set him my King upon my holy hill of Sion which seemes to concern the Jewes onely God addes then Postula a me petition to me make a new suit to me dabo tibi gentes I will give thee not onely the Jewes but the Gentiles for thine inheritatnce And therefore laetentur gentes Psal 97.1 sayes David Let the Gentiles rejoyce and we in them that Christ hath asked us at his Fathers hand and received us And Laetentur insulae sayes that Prophet too Let the Islands rejoyce and we in them that he hath raised us out of the Sea out of the ocean sea that over-flowed all the world with ignorance and out of the Mediterranean Sea that hath flowed into so many other lands the sea of Rome the sea of Superstition There was then a great mercy in that Predicatus gentibus Creditus Mundo that he was preached to the Gentiles
better means of prevention before and of restitution after than the natural man or Jew had yet we consider that it is the law of liberty this law that hath afforded us these good helps by which we shall be judged And so though our case be better than theirs because we have this law of liberty which they wanted yet our case grows heavier than theirs if we use it not aright The Jews shall be under a heavier condemnation than the natural man because they had more liberty that is more means of avoyding sin than the naturall man had and upon the same reason the christian under a heavier condemnation than either because he shall be judged by the law of liberty What Judgement then gives this law This Mar. 16.16 Qui non crediderit damnabitur So sayes this law in the law-makers mouth He that believes not shall be damned And as no lesse light than faith it self can shew you what faith is what it is to believe so no lesse time than damnation shall last can shew you what damnation is For the very form of damnation is the everlastingness of it And qui non crediderit he that believeth not shall be damned there is no commutation of penance nor beheading after a sentence of a more ignominious death in that Court Doest thou believe that thou doest believe yet this law takes not that answer This law of liberty takes the liberty to look farther through faith into works for so sayes the law in the mouth of the law-maker To whom much is given Luc. 12.48 of him much shall be required Hast thou considered every new title of honor and every new addition of office every new step into higher places to have laid new duties and new obligations upon thee hast thou doubled the hours of thy prayers when thy preferments are doubled and encreased thine alms according as thy revenues are encreased hast thou done something done much in this kind this law will not be answered so this law of liberty takes the liberty to call upon thee for all Here also the law saies in the mouth of the law-maker If thou have agreed with many adversaries sayes Christ Mat. 5.25 let that be if thou have satisfied many duties for duties are adversaries that is tentations upon us yet as long as thou hast one adversary agree with that adversary quickly in the way leave no duty undischarged nor unrepented in this life Beloved we have well delivered our selves of the fear of Purgatory None of us fear that but another mistaking hath overtaken us and we flatter our selves with another danger that is compensation That by doing well in one place our ill doing in another is recompensed An ill officer looks to be saved because he is a good husband to his wife a good father to his children a good master to his servants and he thinks he hath three to one for his salvatien But as nature requires the qualities of every element which thou art composed of so this law of liberty calls upon thee for the exercises of all those vertues that appertain to every particular place thou holdst This liberty this law of liberty takes It binds thee to believe Christ all Christ Gods Christ as he was the eternal Son of the Father God of God our Christ as he was made man for our salvation and thy Christ as his blessed spirit in this his ordinance applies him to thee and offers him into thine armes this minute And then to know that he looks for a retribution from thee in that measure in which he dealt with thee much for much and for several kinds of good according to those several good things which he hath done for thee And if thou be first defective in these and then defective in laying hold upon him who is the propitiation and satisfaction for thy defects in these This law of liberty returns to her liberty to pronounce and the Judg to his liberty to execute that sentence Damnaberis thou wilt be cast into prison where thou must pay the last farthing thou must for Christ dyes not there and therefore there thou must lie till there come such another ransome as Christ nay a greater ransome than Christ was for Christ paid no debts in that prison This then is the christians case and this is the abridgment of his Religion Sic loquimini Sic facite To speak aright and to do aright to professe the truth and not be afraid nor ashamed of that and to live according to that profession For no man can make God the author of sin but that man comes as neer it as he can that makes Gods religion a cloak for his sin To this God proceeds not meerly and onely by commandment but by perswasion too and though he be not bound to do so yethe does give a reason The reason is because we must give account of both both of actions and of words of both we shall be judged But judged by a law a law which excludes on Gods part any secret ill purpose upon us if we keep his law A law which excludes on our part all pretence of ignorance for no man can plead ignorance of a law And then a law of liberty of liberty to God for God was not bound to save a man because he made him but of his own goodness he vouchsafed him a law by which he may be saved A law of liberty to us so that there is no Epicurism to do what we list no such liberty as makes us libertins for then there were no law nor Stoicism nor fatality that constrains us to do that we would not do for then there were no liberty But the Gospel is such a law of liberty as delivers us upon whom it works from the necessity of falling into the bondage of sin before and from the impossibility of recovering after if we be fallen into that bondage And this is liberty enough And of this liberty our blessed God give us the right use for his son Christ Jesus sake by the operation of that holy Ghost that proceeds from both Amen A SERMON Preached to Queen Anne at Denmarke-house Serm. 18. December 14. 1617. SERMON XVIII Proverbs 8.17 I love them that love me and they that seek me early shall find me AS the Prophets and the other Secretaries of the holy Ghost in penning the books of Scriptures do for the most part retain and express in their writings some impressions and some air of their former professions those that had been bred in Courts and Cities those that had been Shepheards and Heardsmen those that had been Fishers and so of the rest ever inserting into their writings some phrases some metaphors some allusions taken from that profession which they had exercised before so that soul that hath been transported upon any particular worldly pleasure when it is intirely turn'd upon God and the contemplation of his all-sufficiency and abundance doth find in God fit subject and
by the King to wait upon my L. of Doncaster in his Embassage to Germany First Sermon as we went out June 16. 1619. SERMON XX. Rom. 13.11 For now is our Salvation nearer then when we believed THere is not a more comprehensive a more embracing word in all Religion then the first word of this Text Now for the word before that For is but a word of connexion and rather appertains to that which was said before the Text then to the Text it self The Text begins with that important and considerable particle Now Now is salvation nearer c. This present word Now denotes an Advent a new coming or a new operation otherwise then it was before And therefore doth the Church appropriate this Scripture to the celebration of the Advent before the Feast of the Birth of our Saviour It is an extensive word Now for though we dispute whether this Now that is whether an instant be any part of time or no yet in truth it is all time for whatsoever is past was and whatsoever is future shall be an instant and did and shall fall within this Now. We consider in the Church four Advents or Comings of Christ of every one of which we may say Now now it is otherwise then before For first there is verbum in carne the word came in the flesh in the Incarnation and then there is caro in verbo he that is made flesh comes in the word that is Christ comes in the preaching thereof and he comes again in carne saluta when at our dissolution and transmigration at our death he comes by his spirit and testifies to our spirit that we die the Children of God And lastly he comes in carne reddita when he shall come at the Resurrection to redeliver our bodies to our souls and to deliver everlasting glory to both The Ancients for the most part understand the word of our Text of Christs first coming in the flesh to us in this world the latter Exposition understand them rather of his coming in glory But the Apostle could not properly use this present word Now with relation to that which is not now that is to future glory otherwise then as that future glory hath a preparation and an inchoation in present grace for so even the future glory of heaven hath a Now now the elect Children of God have by his powerfull grace a present possession of glory So then it will not be impertinent to suffer this flowing and extensive word Now to spread it self into all three for the whole duty of Christianity consists in these three things first in pietate erga Deum in religion towards God in which the Apostle had enlarged himself from the beginning to the twelfth chapter of his Epistle And secondly in charitate erga proximum in our mutual duties of society towards our Equals and Inferiors and of Subjection towards our Superiours in which that twelfth chapter and this to the eitghth verse is especially conversant And then thirdly in sanctimonia propria in the works of sanctification and holiness in our selves And this Text the Apostle presents as a forcible reason to induce us to that to those works of sanctification because Now our salvation is nearer us then when we believed Take then this now the first way of the coming Christ in person in the flesh into this world and then the Apostle of directs himself principally to the Jews converted to the faith of Christ and he tels them That their salvation is nearer them now now they had seen him come then when they did only believe that he would come Take the words the second way of his coming in grace into our hearts and so the Apostle directs himself to all Christians now now that you have bin bred in the Christian Church now that you are grown from Grace to grace from faith to faith now that God by his spirit strengthens and confirms you now is your salvation nearer then when ye believed that is when you began to believe either by the faith of your Parents or the faith of the Church or the faith of your Sureties at your Baptism or when you began to have some notions and impressions and apprehensions of faith in your self when you came to some degrees of understanding and discretion Take the word of Christs coming to us at the hour of death or of his coming to us at the day of Judgment for those two are all one to our present purpose because God never reverses any particular judgement given at a mans death at the day of the general Judgment take the word so this is the Apostles argument you have believed and you have lived accordingly and that faith and that good life hath brought salvation nearer you that is given you a fair and modest infallibility of salvation in the nature of reversion but now now that you are come to the approches of death which shall make your reversion a possession Now is salvation nearer you then when you believed Summarily the Text is a reason why we ought to proceed in good and holy wayes and it works in all the three acceptations of the word for whether salvation be said to be near us because we are Christians and so have advantage of the Jews or near us because we have made some proficiency in holiness sanctimony or near us because we are near our end and thereby near a possession of our endless joy and glory Still from all these acceptations of the word arise religious provocations to perseverance in holiness of life and therefore we shall pursue the words in all three acceptations In all three acceptations we must consider three termes in the Text First Quid salus what this Salvation is that is intended here Part. 1. and then Quid prope what this Distance this nearness is and lastly Quid credere what Belief this is So then taking the words first the first way as spoken by the Apostles to the Jews newly converted to the Christian Faith salvation is the outward means of salvation which are more and more manifest to the Christians then they were to the Jews And then the second Term Nearness salvation is nearer is in this That salvation to the Christian is in things present or past in things already done and of which we are experimentally sure but to the Jews it was of future things of which howsoever they might assure themselves that they would be yet they had no assurance when And therefore in the third place their Believing was but a confident expectation and faithfull assenting to their Prophets quando credidistis when you believed that is when you did only believe and saw nothing First then the first Terme in the first acceptation Salvation Salus is the outward means of salvation Outward and visible means of knowing God God hath given to all Nations in the book of Creatures from the first leaf of that book the firmament above to
own or their parents or the Churches we have no ground to deny that Salvation is neer and present to all children rightly baptized but for those who have made sure their Salvation by a good use of Gods graces after we have another fair peece of evidence that Salvation is neerer them It is so to if this believing be refer'd to our first elements and beginnings of faith A man believes the history of Christ because it is matter of fact and a story probable and well testified A man may believe the Christian Religion or the Reformed Religion for his ease either because he cannot or will not debate controversies and reconcile differences or because he sees it best for order and quiet and civll ends which he hath in that state where he lives These be kinds of faith and morall assents and somtimes when a man is come thus far to a historical and a moral faith God super-infuses true faith for howsoever he wrought by reason and natural faculties and moral and civil wayes yet it was God that wrought from the beginning and produced this faith though but historical or moral And then if God do exalt this moral or historical faith farther then so to believe not only the History but the Gospel not only that such a Christ lived and did those miracles and dyed but that he was the Son of God and dyed for the redemption of the world this brings Salvation neerer him than when he believed but then when this grace comes to appropriate Christ to him and more than that to annunciate Christ by him when it makes him as John Baptist was a burning and a shining lamp That Christ is shewed to him and by him to others in a holy life Then is Salvation neerer him than when he believed either as it is credidit primum when he began to believe but had some scruples or credidit tantum that he laid all upon faith but had no care of works To end this this neerness of Salvation is that union with God which may be had in this life It is the peace of conscience the undoubting trust and assurance of Salvation This assurance so far as they will confess it may be had the Roman Church places in faith and so far well but then In fide formata and so far well enough too In those works which declare and testifie that faith for though this good work do nothing toward my Salvation it does much towards this neerness that is towards my assurance of this Salvation but herein they lead us out of the way that they call these works the soul the form of faith for though a good tree cannot be without good fruits yet it were a strange manner of speech to call that good fruit the life or the soul or the form of that tree so is it to call works which are the fruits of faith the life or soul or form of faith for that is proper to grace only which infuses faith They would acknowledge this neerness of salvation this assurance in good works but say they man cannot be sure that their works is good and therefore they can have no such assurance They who undertook the reformation of Religion in our Fathers dayes observing that there was no peace without this assurance expressed this assurance thus That when a man is sure that he believes aright that he hath no scruples of God no diffidence in God and uses all endeavors to continue it and to express it in his life as long as he continues so he is sure of Salvation and farther they went not And then there arose men which would reform the Reformers and refine Salvation and bring it into a lesse room They would take away the condition if you hold fast if you express it and so came up roundly and presently to that If ever you did believe if ever you had faith you are safe for ever and upon that assurance you may rest Now I make no doubt but that both these sought the truth that truth which concerns us peace and assurance and I dispute not their resolutions now only I say for these words which we have in hand now there is a conditional assurance implyed in them for when it is said now now that you are in this state Salvation is neer you thus much is pugnantly intimated that if you were not in this state Salvation were farther removed from you howsoever you pretend to believe Now this hath brought us to our third and last sense and acceptation of these words as they are spoken of Christs last comming 3 Part. his comming in glory which is to us at our deaths and that judgment which we receive then And in this acceptation of the word these three terms Salvation Neerness and Believing are thus to be understood Salvation is Salvation perfected consummated Salvation which was brought neer baptism neerer in outward holyness must be brought neerer than that And this prope this neerness is that now being neer death you are neer the last seal of your perseverance and so the credidistis the believing amounts to this though you have believed and liv'd accordingly believed with the belief of a Jew believed all the Prophets and with the beliefe of a Christian believed all the Gospel believed with a seminal belief of your own or an actuall belief of others at your baptism with a historical belief and with an Evangelical belief too with a belief in your root in the heart and a belief in the fruits expressed in a good life too yet there is a continuance and a perseverance that must crown all this and because that cannot be discern'd till thine end then only is it safely pronounced Now is Salvation neerer you than when you believed Salus Here then Salvation is eternall Salvation not the outward seals of the Church upon the person not visible Sacraments nor the outward seal of the person to the Church visible works nor the inward seal of the Spirit assurance here but fruition possession of glory in the Kingdome of Heaven where we shall be infinitely rich and that without labor in getting or care in keeping or fear in loosing and fully wise and that without ignorance of necessary or study of unnecessary knowledge where we shal not measure our portion by acres for all heaven shall be all ours nor our term by yeers for it is life and everlasting life nor our assurance by precedent for we shal be safer then the Angels themselves were in the creation where our exaltation shal be to have a crown of righteousness and our possession of that crown shal be even the throwing it down at the feet of the Lamb where we shal leav off all those petitions of Adveniat regnum thy Kingdom come for it shal be come in abundant power and the da nobis hodiè give us this day our dayly bread for we shal have all that which we can desire now and shall have a
a Lamb that is but with any reluctation But God knows that may have been accompanied with a dangerous damp and stupefaction and insensibility of his present state Our blessed Saviour admitted colluctations with Death and a sadnesse even in his Soul to death and an agony even to a bloody sweat in his body and expostulations with God and exclamations upon the Crosse He was a devout man who upon his death-bed or death-turse for he was an Hermit said Septuaginta annis domino servivisti mori times Hast thou serv'd a good Master threescore and ten yeeres Hilarion and now art thou loth to goe into his presence yet Hilarion was loath He was a devoure man an Hermite that said that day that he died Cogitate hodie coepisse servire Domino Barlaam hodie finiturum Consider this to be the first days service that ever thou didst thy Master to gloryfie him in a christianly and constant death and if thy first day be thy last day too how soone dost thou come to receive thy wages yet Barlaam could have beene content to have stayed longer for it Make no ill conclusion upon any man's lothnesse to die And then upon violent deaths inflicted as upon malefactors Christ himself hath forbidden us by his own death to make any ill conclusion for his own death had those impressions in it he was reputed he was executed as a Malefactor and no doubt many of them who concurred to his death did beleeve him to be so Of sodain deaths there are scarce examples to be found in the Scriptures upon good men for death in battail cannot be called sodain death But God governs not by examples but by rules and therefore make no ill conclusions upon sodain-Death nor upon distempers neyther though perchance accompanied with some words of diffidence and distrust in the mercies of God The Tree lies as it falls 'T is true but yet it is not the last stroke that fells the Tree nor the last word nor last gaspe that qualifies the Soule Still pray we for a peaceable life against violent deaths and for time of Repentance against sodaine Deaths and for sober and modest assurance against dâ—stemper'd and diffident Deaths but never make ill conclusâ—ion upon persons overtaken with such Deaths Domini Domini sunt exitus Mortis To God the Lord belong the issues of Death and he received Samson who went out of this world in such a manner consider it actively consider it passively in his own death and in those whom he slew with himself as was subject to interpretation hard enough yet the holy-Ghost hath mov'd Saâ—nt Paul to celebrate Samson in his great Catalogue and so doth all the Church Heb. 11. Our Criticall day is not the very day of our death but the whole course of our life I thank him that prayes for me when my bell tolls but I thank him much more that Carechises me or preaches to me or instructs me how to live fac hoc vives There 's my security The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Doe this and thou shalt live But though I doe it yet I shall die too dy a bodily a naturall death but God never mentions never seems to consider that death the bodily the naturall death God doth not say Live well and thou shalt die well well that is an easy a quiet death but live well here and thou shalt live well for ever As the first part of a Sentence peeces well with the last and never respects never hearkens after the parenthesis that comes between so doth a good life here flow into an eternall life without any consideration what manner of death we die But whether the gate of my prison be opened with an oyl'd key by a gentle and preparing sicknesse or the gate be hew'd down by a violent death or the gate be burnt down by a rageing and frantick feaver a gate into Heaven I shall have for from the Lord is the course of my life and with God the Lord are the issues of death And farther we carry not this second acceptation of the words as this issue of death is liberatio in morte God's care that the Soule be safe what agonie soever the body suffer in the houre of death but passe to our third and last Part as this issue of death is liberatio per mortem a deliverance by the death of another by the death of Christ Part. 3. Liberatio per mortem SufferentiaÌ„ Job audiâ—stis judistis fineÌ„ Domini saies S. Ja. 5.11 You have heard of the patience of Job saies he All this while you have done that for in every man calamitous miserable man a Job speaks Now see the end of the Lord saith that Apostle which is not that end which the Lord proposed to himself Salvation to us nor the end which he proposes to us conformity to him but See the end of the Lord saies he the end that the Lord himself came to Death and a painfull and a shamefull death But why did he die and why die so Quia Domini Domini sunt exitus Mortis as Saint Augustine interpreting this Text De Civit. Dei l. 17. c. 18. answers that question because to this God our Lord belong'd these issues of Death Quid apertius diceretur sayes he there what can be more obvious more manifest then this sense of these words In the former part of the verse it is said He that is our God is the God of Salvation Deus salvos faciendi so he reads it The God that must save us Who can that be saith he but Jesus For therefore that name was given him because he was to save us And to this Jesus saith he Mat. 1.21 this Saviour belongs the issues of Death Nec oportuit cum de hac vita alios exitus habere quam mortis Being come into this life in our mortall nature he could not goe out of it any other way then by Death Ideo dictum saith he therefore is it said To God the Lord belong the issues of Death Ut ostenderetur moriendo nos salvos facturum to shew that his way to save us was to die And from this Text doth Saint Isiodore prove that Christ was truly man which as many Sects of Hereticks denied as that he was truly God because to him though he were Dominus Dominus as the Text doubles it God the Lord yet to him to God the Lord belong'd the issues of Death Oportuit cum pati more cannot be said then Christ himself saith of himself These Luk. 24.26 things Christ ought to suffer He had no other way but by Death So then this part of our Sermon must necessarily be a Passion Sermon since all his life was a continuall Passion all our Lent may well be a continual good-Friday Christ's painfull Life took off none of the pains of his Death he felt not the lesse then for having felt so much before nor will