but very soone fals from it For though no man take it from him death will quite strip him of it But the gifts of God are not such or like to the gifts of Princes For neither man nor time nor circumstances of actions nor reason of state nor the Divell himselfe nay nor death can deprive him of them or put him by them You see how the smoaking flaxe being blowne kindles the heat of our zeale and enflameth us on the purchasing the estate of grace by the price of Christs bloud Feele now I beseech you in the second place what warmth it yeeldeth to a benummed conscience and a soule frozen in the dregs of sinne That the bruised reed shall not bee broken nor smoaking flaxe be quenched is a doctrine of singular comfort and use yet must it be very discreetly handled and seasonably applyed to such and such onely as are heavie laden and bruised with the weight and sense of their sinne and through inward or outward affliction smoake for them and are as Arboreus speaketh extinctioni vicini neere to be utterly quenched through inundation of sorrow To tell a presumptuous sinner in the height of his pride and heat of his lust and top and top gallant of his vaine glory Rectus in Curiâ that he stands straight in the Court of heaven is in the state of grace and can never fall away from it or become a cast-away is to minister hot potions to a man in a burning fever which is the ready way to stifle him and as soone to rid him of his life as of his paine hot cordials and strong waters are to be given in a languishing fit and a cold sweat when the patient is in danger of swouning It is the part saith S. a Aug. de bono persev c. 22. Dolosi vel imperiti medici est etiam utile medicamentum sic alligare ut aut non prosit aut etiam obsit Austin of a deceitfull or unskilfull Physician or Chyrurgian to lay a wholsome salve or plaster so on that it doe no good nay rather that it doe hurt Having therefore made a most soveraign salve out of the words of my Text for the sores of a wounded conscience I am now to shew you how to use and when to apply it viz. in deliquio spiritus in a spirituall desertion or dereliction As wee sometimes feele in our bodies ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã deliquium animae a trance and utter failing of the vitall spirits so is there also in the soule of a faithfull Christian sometimes deliquium spiritus an utter fainting and failing in all the motions and operations of grace when God either to humble him that he be not proud of his favours or to make him more earnestly desire and highly esteeme the comforts of the Gospel withdraweth the spirit from him for a season during which time of spirituall desertion he lyeth as it were in a swoune feeling no motion of the spirit as it were the pulse-beating taking in no breath of life by hearing the Word nor letting it out by prayer and thanks-giving void of all sense of faith and life of hope ready every houre to give up the holy Ghost In this extremity we are to stay him with flagons comfort him with the apples in my Text and as his fit of despaire more more groweth on him in this sort and order to minister and give them unto him 1. When he lamenteth in the bitternesse of his soule after this manner There was a time when the face of God shined upon mee and I saw his blessing upon all that I set my hand unto but now he hath hid his face from mee and shut up his loving kindnesse in displeasure hee bloweth upon all the fruits of my labours and nothing prospereth with mee my estate decayes and my friends faile mee and afflictions and calamities come thicke upon me like a S. Bas de patientia conc 13. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Job 1.14 16 17 18. waves of the sea riding one on the neck of the other or like Jobs messengers one treading on the heeles of the other and the latter bringing still worse tidings than the former Apply thou this remedy Many * Psal 34.18 19. Matth 9.12 1 Tim. 1.15 are the troubles of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all he keepeth all his bones so that not one of them is broken 2. If hee goe on in his mournfull ditty saying I am farre from being righteous therefore this comfort belongeth not unto mee Apply thou this salve The whole need not the Physician but they that are sicke This is a faithfull saying and by all meanes worthy to bee received that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners Matth. 9.13 I am not come saith Christ to call the righteous but sinners to repentance 3. If hee reply Oh but I cannot repent for I am not able to master mine owne corruptions Vitiis meis impar sum I cannot shake off the sin that hangeth on so fast I am like one in the mudde who the more he struggleth with his feet to get out the deeper he sinketh and sticketh faster in the mire Apply this recipe Yet bee of good comfort because thou delightest in the Law of God touching the inward man thou strivest against all sinne and because thou canst not get the upper hand of some of thy bosome corruptions thy life is grievous unto thee Thou cryest with the holy Apostle Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver mee from this body of death Thou hungerest and thirstest after righteousnesse and Blessed are they which hunger and thirst for righteousnesse Matth. 5.6 for they shall be filled 4. If hee sinke deeper into the gulfe of desperation and say I feele no such hunger nor thirst in me Custome in sinne hath drawne a kall over my conscience and I am not now sensible of any incision Reach thy hand to him and support him with this comfort Bee of good cheare good brother for it is certaine thou hast some sense because thou art sensible of thy stupidity and mournest in thy prayers and art vexed for this thy dulnesse and blessed are they that mourne Matth. 5.4 for they shall be comforted 5. If he yet sinke deeper and lower crying Alas I cannot mourne my hard heart will not relent my flinty eyes will not yeeld a teare for my sins what hope then for me Answer him great as great as thy sorrow which is by so much the fuller because it hath no vent None grieveth more truly Hierom. Tom. 1. epist Mutus clinguis ne hoc quidem habens ut rogare possit hoc magis rogat quod rogare non potest than hee who grieveth because hee cannot grieve A man that is borne dumbe or hath his tongue cut out when hee maketh offer to speake moving his lips but is not able to bring forth a word beggeth
uttered but it may by ignorance be depraved no action of vertue can be so exactly performed but it may through malice be mis-construed It is not more proper to God to bring light out of darknesse peace out of trouble joy out of sorrow and out of sinne the greatest of all evils to extract much good by governing and disposing it to the declaration of his mercy and justice than it is naturall to the Divell and his impes out of the light of truth to endeavour to draw darknesse of errour and out of the best speeches and actions to straine and force out somewhat to maintaine and nourish their corrupt humours and bosome sinnes And what marvell sith even in Paradise amidst the sweetest flowers and wholsomest herbes and plants a Serpent could live and find there something to feed upon Paradise was the seat of mans happinesse the garden of pleasure the soyle of the tree of life seated in the cleerest ayre watered and environed with sweetest rivers enamelled with pleasantest flowers set by God himselfe with the choicest plants and yet was it not free from the serpent which turned the juices of those soveraign and medicinall simples into poyson Aristotle writeth of the Cantharides that they are killed with the sent of the a Arist de mirabil aus cult sweetest and most fragrant oyntments and it is morally verified in those gracelesse hearers to whom the Word which is the b 2. Cor. 2.16 sweet smelling savour of God to life becommeth a savour of death Such hearers the blessed Apostle Saint Paul sharply censureth in this chapter Occas who when hee preached to them salvation by the free grace of Christ hence concluded free liberty of sinne when to the comfort of all that are heavie laden with the burden of sinne he set abroach that heavenly doctrine where sinne abounded there grace superabounded they subsumed Let us therefore continue in sinne that grace may more abound whereas indeed they should have inferred the cleane contrary conclusion thus Grace hath abounded much more to us therefore wee of all men should not continue in sinne because God offereth us so good meanes to escape out of it The dew of heaven hath fallen plentifully upon us therefore wee ought to be most fruitfull in good workes not only because God hath better enabled us to doe them but also in a duty of thankfulnesse wee are to offer him our best service who hath enriched us with the treasures of his grace Therefore to beat them and in them all carnall Gospellers from the former hold St. Paul in this chapter planteth ordnance of many most forcible arguments drawne from three principall heads Analys 1. Christ and his benefits 2. Themselves and their former condition 3. The comparison between a sinfull and a holy course of life and their contrary effects 1 From Christ and his benefits after this manner The effect of grace is to mortifie sinne how then can they who have received a greater measure of grace by the merit of Christs death and buriall continue in sinne How can they that are dead to sinne live therein Whereas they urged grace for liberty of sinne the Apostle from grace enforceth sanctity of life whereas they alledged their redemption for their exemption from all service Saint Paul strongly concludes from so great a benefit a greater tye and obligation to serve the Lord their Redeemer whereas they built a fort of sin with the wood of Christs crosse he maketh an engine of the same wood to overthrow it by grace we are united to Christ and planted in him therefore we must live the life of the root bring forth the fruit of the c Ver. 5. Ver. 6. spirit If we have been planted together in the likenesse of his death wee shall be also in the likenesse of his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sinne might be destroyed that henceforth wee should not serve sinne c. 2 From themselves and their former condition thus When yee were free from righteousnesse yee were servants unto sinne now therefore being freed from sinne yee ought to be servants unto righteousnesse As yee d Ver. 18 19. yeelded your members servants of uncleannesse and iniquity unto iniquity so now yeeld your members servants of righteousnesse unto holinesse c. 3 From the comparison between the state of sin and grace thus When you were in the state of sinne you had no profit at all of your workes and you were confounded with shame for them and by them were brought to the very brink of death Coharent but now being in the state of grace you reap fruit here in holinesse the fruit of peace and joy and hereafter you shall reap the fruit of everlasting life and glory Thus you see the scope of the Apostle the occasion and coherence of the words which carry this sense Tell mee Exposit Gen. yee unsettled and unstable Christians who have been delivered from the thraldome of sinne and Satan and have given your names unto Christ and your members as servants unto righteousnesse why goe yee about to enthrall your selves anew to your ghostly enemies or make your selves vassals to your fleshly lusts Observe yee not the heavie judgements of God lighting daily upon presumptuous sinners See yee not before your eyes continuall spectacles of Gods justice and marke yee not in them the fearfull ends of those courses which now yee begin to take againe after yee had long left them Beleeve yee not the words of God e Rom. 2 9. Tribulation and anguish upon every soule that sinneth for hee will f Psal 68.21 wound the hairy scalpe of every one that goeth on in his wickednesse Or if you turne away your eyes from beholding the vialls of wrath daily powred upon sinners and stop your eares that yee may not heare the dreadfull threats which God thundereth out in his Law against such backsliders and relapsers as yee are yet can yee stifle your owne hearts griefe can yee forget the wofull plight into which your former courses brought you when free from righteousnesse yee let loose the reines to all licentiousnesse that yee might worke wickednesse even with greedinesse yee glutted your selves with earthly vanities and tooke a surfeit of sinfull pleasures What gaine did yee not then greedily gape after what preferment did yee not ambitiously seek into what mire of impurity did not yee plunge your selves No sinfull pleasure but yee tooke your fill of no dish of Satan which yee left untouched yet speake the truth between God and your owne conscience what true delight or solid contentment tooke yee in those things I know yee are ashamed to speake of it and I will not wound modest eares to relate it and ought yee not much more to be ashamed to returne with the dogge to his former vomit and with the sow to her wallowing in the mire Your soules have been cleansed by
must all appeare before his tribunall which is so certaine a thing to come to passe that Saint y Apoc. 20.12 13. John in a vision saw it as present And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the bookes were opened and they were judged according to the things wrote in those bookes Now for the terrour of that day I tremble almost to rehearse how it is described in holy Scriptures by S. z Apoc. 20.11 John I saw a great white throne and him that sate on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away and by Saint * 1 Pet. 4.17 Peter The time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God and if it begin there what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel and if the righteous shall scarce bee saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appeare It is hard to say whether the antecedents are more direfull or the concomitants more dolefull or the consequents more dreadfull The antecedents are formidable The a Mat. 24.29 Sunne shall be darkened and the Moone shall be turned into bloud and the starres shall fall from the skies and the powers of heaven shall bee shââââ b Luk. 21.25 26. In the earth shall be distresse of Nations and perplexity and the sea and tââ waters shall roare and mens hearts shall faile them for feare and for looking after those things that are comming on the earth The concomitants are lamentable Behold he c Apoc. 1.7 commeth in the clouds and all eyes shall see him and all kindreds of the earth shall mourne before him And yet the consequeââ are more fearfull than either the antecedants or concomitants For the bookes of all mens consciences shall be spread abroad and every man shall answer for all the d Eccles 12.14 workes that he hath done nay for every e Mat. 12.36 word he hath spoken nay for every thought purpose and intent of the heart For when the Lord commeth he will bring to light the f 1 Cor. 4.5 hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart Having set up a faire light I will now take away some blockes and râââ that lye in the way of my discourse The first is that God executeth judgement in this world and therefore Salvianus hath written a booke Deâââââ senti Dei judicio of Gods providence over his Church and present judgement Doth hee not open his treasures to the righteous and poure downe the vialls of his wrath upon the wicked in this life Doth not Saint Paul affirme that those that beleeve are g Rom. 5.1 justified already And Saint John that those that beleeve not are condemned h John 3.18 already What place then remaines for a future tryall Secondly immediately upon our death our soule is carried either by good Angels into Abrahams bosome or by evill into the dungeon of hell what then need they come to the generall assizes who have received their doome at the quarter sessions Thirdly if all mens consciences shall bee ripped up and all their secret sinnes be discovered in the face of the Sunne at the day of judgement that day cannot be but dreadfull to the most righteous man on earth yet Christ saith to his Disciples i Luke 21.28 When these things come to passe lift you up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh and they in this regard long for his second comming and pray continually Come Lord k Apoc. 22.20 Jesu come quickly The first rubbe is thus removed though Gods judgements overtake some yet not all in this life For the afflictions of the godly and the prosperity of the wicked were a great eye-sore to l Psal 73.12 David and m Jerem. 5.28 Jeremy Moreover God hath rewards both temporall and eternall the former he dispenceth in this life the later in that which is to come Hee that beleeveth is justified already before God and in the sense of his owne conscience for he hath peace with God And in like manner hee that beleeveth not is condemned already in Gods decree and hee hath received also the sentence of condemnation within himselfe as a fellon is hanged in the law and may know what his sentence shall be before it bee executed or pronounced against him This hindreth not but that the publike sentence shall passe upon both at the last day for eternall salvation or damnation The second is thus removed Immediately upon death every soule knoweth what shee is to trust to but this it not knowne to the world Besides the body must bee rewarded or punished as well as the soule therefore partly to cleare the justice of God in the sight of men and Angels partly to render to the body and soule that have been partners in evill and good their entire recompence after the private session at our death God hath appointed a publike assizes at the day of judgement The third rubbe is thus taken away The day of judgement is both terrible and comfortable to the godly terrible in the beginning comfortable in the end terrible in the accusation by Sathan comfortable in the defence by Christ our Advocate terrible in the examination but comfortable in the sentence Yea but their sores are laid open and they are fowle their debts are exhibited and they are very many their rents in their conscience are shewed and they are great It is true their sores are laid open but annointed with Balsamum their debts are exhibited but with a faire acquittance signed with Christs bloud their rents in their conscience are seene but mended and filled up with jewels of grace It is farre otherwise with the wicked their sores appeare without any salve their debts appeare but no acquittance their rent in their conscience appeareth and remaineth as wide as ever it was being never made up or mended by repentance therefore they cry n Apoc. 6.16 to the mountaines fall on us and to the hills cover us from the presence of the Lord and from the wrath of the Lambe This point of doctrine is not more evident in the proofe than profitable in the use which is threefold 1. To comfort the innocent 2. To terrifie the secure 3. To instruct all First to comfort the innocent For many that have walked sincerely before God have been censured for hypocrites many innocents have been falsly condemned many just men have suffered for righteousnesse sake and many faithfull Christians have been adjudged to mercilesse flames for their most holy profession To all these the day of judgement will bee the brightest day that ever shone on them For then their innocency shall break out as the light and their righteous dealing as the noone day then they shall have the hand of their false accusers and judge their Judges then they shall see him for whom they have stood all their life time and strived even to bloud Every losse they have sustained for his
3.3 Thou hadst a whores forehead thou refusedst to be ashamed they were not ashamed neither could they blush I answer 1 By distinguishing of shame which is sometimes taken for the inward affection and irksome passion of a sinner that hath cast any foule staine upon his conscience sometimes for the outward expression by dejection in the countenance faultring in the speech a cloud in the eye and flushing in the forehead and cheekes No sinner is without shame in the first sense though many by custome in sinne grow senselesse thereof and consequently shamelesse in the latter sense and in the end they come to that height of impudencie that they blush for it if they blush and are ashamed of their shamefacednesse pudet non esse impudentem But this hardinesse doth them no good at all for they doe but stop the mouth of the wound that it bleed not outwardly it bleedeth inwardly the faster and much more dangerously 2 A sinner may be considered either before or after his regeneration before his regeneration he committeth many sinnes whereof he is not then ashamed either because he accounteth them no sins or not such sinnes as may any wayes trench upon his reputation For though the dim light of corrupt nature discovereth some workes of darkenesse yet not all nor any in the right hiew As a man that is in the water feeleth not the weight of it so the sinner whilest he is in the state of corruption feeleth not the weight of sinne For he accounteth great sinnes small and small none at all but when he is out of that state then he feeleth the smallest sinne unrepented of as heavie as a talent of lead able to drowne his soule in eternall perdition as it followeth For the end For the end of these things is death That is the end of all these things By end here the Apostle meaneth not the finall cause moving the sinner but the finall effect of sinne for the sinner propoundeth to himselfe a divers end either gaine which the covetous man shooteth at or glorie which the ambitious or pleasure which the voluptuous but they misse their marke and in stead of gaine which the covetous man promised himselfe in his sinfull course of life in his returne by weeping crosse he findeth irrecoverable losses for what fruit had yee in stead of glorie and honour which the ambitious aimeth at shame and infamie whereof yee are now ashamed in stead of a pleasant temporall life which the voluptuous shot at a painefull and eternall death For the end of these things Is death Is death That is death temporall which is the sinners earnest as it were and death eternall which is his full hire and wages death corporall which is the separation of the soule from the body is hastened by sinne death spirituall which is the separation of the soule from God is sinne and death eternall in Scripture termed the second death which is the tormenting of body and soule for ever in the lake of fire and brimstone is the full reward of sinne and this death is here principally meant as may be gathered from the words ensuing my text but the gift of God is eternall life for that death which is opposed to eternall life can be no other than eternall death Obser The meaning of the text being thus cleared the speciall points of observation are easily discerned the first is That the smart of the wound of conscience for sinnes past is a speciall meanes through grace to keepe us from sinne to come Upon this the Apostle worketh in the words of my text What fruit had yee in those things whereof ye are now ashamed The burnt child doth not more dread the fire nor the scholar severely corrected beware the fault for which he smarted nor the Pilot keep off from the rock at which he formerly dashed his bark and hazzarded his life and goods nor the intemperate gallant tormented with an extreme fit of a burning feaver forbeare the pouring in of wine and strong drinkes which were the oyle that kindled and maintained the flame within his bowels than he that hath felt the sting of sinne in his conscience and beene formerly confounded with the shame thereof dreadeth and flieth and seeketh by all meanes to shunne those sinnes which have left so sad a remembrance behind them As some parts of our bodies are more sensible than others the sinewie parts more than the fleshly yet all that have life in them have some sense of paine so some consciences are more tender that feele the least pricke of sin some harder and more stupid and benummed like the u Solin c. 29. Matres Ursorum diebus primis 14. in âomnum ita concidunt ut ne vulneribus pridem excitati queant Numidian Beares which scarce feele stripes or wounds yet all that have any life of grace in them or use of reason have some touch of conscience at some times which marreth all their mirth and overcasteth their faire weather with clouds of griefe powring downe showres of teares I know the wicked seeke to dissemble it like the man in Plutarch who having a foxe under his cloake never quatched though the beast bit through his sides and devoured his bowels The * Pro. 14.13 foole saith Solomon maketh a mocke of sinne but the heart knoweth the bitternesse of his soule for even in laughing the heart is sorrowfull and the end of that mirth is mourning I speake not of a melancholy dumpe but of an habituall and constant pensivenesse arising from the sting of sinne left in the soule No tongue can sufficiently expresse it onely the heart that feeleth it can conceive the nature of this griefe and smart of this paine which the lash of conscience imprinteth x Juven sat 13. Mens habet attonitos surdo verbere caedit Occulto quatiente animum tortore flagello Yet some sense wee may have of it by the similitudes whereby it is expressed It is called a y Act. 2.37 pricking of the heart and lest that wee should imagine it to bee as it were a pricke with a small pinne or needle it is called a wound in the heart My z Psal 109.22 heart was wounded within me O what paine must a wound in the heart needs be where the least prick is death Yet farther that wee might not thinke this wound might bee drawne together it is called the cutting asunder of the heart * Joel 2.13 Rent your hearts and not your garments yet farther that wee might not thinke any part of the heart to remaine entire it is called the a Psal 51.17 breaking of it into small pieces and b Psal 22.14 melting these also and can there bee any sorrow like unto this sorrow which pricketh the heart nay woundeth it being pricked nay rents it being wounded nay breaketh it being rent nay melteth it being broken This pricking wounding renting breaking melting the heart is nothing else
Court of justice in which the lesser flyes are strangled but the greater easily breake through them And bee the lawes of any Commonwealth or Kingdome never so exact yet Seneca his observation will bee true Angusta est justitia ad legem justum esse it is but narrow and scanty justice which extendeth no further than mans law A man may be ill enough and yet keepe out of the danger of the lawes of men which are many wayes imperfect and defective but the law of God is no way subject to this imputation it is perfect and as the Prophet David speaketh c Psal 119.96 exceeding broad it reacheth to all the actions words and imaginations of all the sonnes of Adam not a by syllable can passe not a thought stray not a desire swerve from the right way but it falleth within the danger and is lyable to the penalties annexed to it which are most certaine and most grievous 1 Externall in the world 2 Internall in the conscience 3 Eternall in hell The arguments that are hence drawne to deterre men from sinne and wickednesse are of a stronger metall and have another manner of edge than reason can set upon them d Heb. 4 12. For the word of God is quick and powerfull sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart The Hyperbolicall commendation which the e Cic. de orat l. 1. Fremant licet omnes dicam quod sentio bibliothecas omnes Philosophorum unus mihi videtur duodecim tabularum libellus si quis legum fontes capita viderit autoritatis pondere utilitatis ubertate superare Orator giveth of the Romane lawes published in twelve Tables of right belongeth to this member of the Apostles exhortation it hath more weight of reason and forcible arguments of perswasion to holinesse of life and detestation of vice in it than all the discourses of morall Philosophers extant in the world Hence we learn that their losses who trade with Satan are inestimable and irrecoverable that wicked and ungodly courses and means to gain thrive by not onely deprive us of the comfortable fruition of all earthly but also of the possession of all heavenly blessings that even small offences when they come to light are sufficient to cover the sinner with shame and confusion that all the filthinesse that lyeth in the skirts of the soule shall be discovered in the face of the sun before men Angels that not only outward acts but inward motions and intentions not only loud crying sins but also still and quiet that lye asleep as it were in the lap of our conscience not only hainous crimes and transgressions of an high nature but also those seeming good actions that have any secret filthinesse or staine in them if it bee not washed away with the teares of our repentance and blood of our Redeemer shall bee brought into judgement against us and wee for them condemned to death both of body and soule in hell No tragicall vociferation nor the howling and shricking of damned ghosts can sufficiently expresse the horrour and torments of that endlesse death which is the end of sinne What sinne hath proved for the time past yee have heard wee are at this present to consider what it is for the present it hath beene unfruitfull what fruit had yee it is shamefull whereof ye are now ashamed Shame is defined by f L. 2. Rhet. c. 6. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Aristotle Agriefe and trouble of minde arising from such evils as seeme to tend to our infamy and disgrace somewhat more fully it may bee described A checke of conscience condemning us for some intention speech or action whereby wee have defiled our conscience before God or stained our credits before men This affection is in all men even in those that are shamelesse and impudent who are not so called because they are without this irkesome passion but because they shew no signe thereof in their countenance nor effects in their lives As impossible it is that in the conscience of a sinner g Rom. 2.15 thoughts should not arise accusing him as that there should bee a fire kindled and no sparks flye up To pollute the conscience with foule sin and not to be ashamed is all one as to prick the tenderest part of the body and to feele no paine h Suet. in Tib. Tiberius who let loose the raines to all licentiousnesse yet when hee gave himselfe to his impure pleasures caused all the pictures to bee removed out of the roome and Alexander Phereus that cruell tyrant when hee beheld a bloody Tragedy in the Theater and therein the ugly and monstrous image of his barbarous cruelty drawne to the life was so confounded therewith that hee could no longer dissemble his terrour of minde nor expect the end of that dismall Scene Now how deepe an impression shame and infamy make in the soule wee may perceive by those who preferred death before it i Xen. l. 7. Cyr. Paed. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Panthea solemnly wished that shee might bee buried alive rather than constrained to staine her blood and good name by keeping company with any how great soever hee were contrary to her vow to her dearest Abradatus And k Ovid. Epist Phillis Demophoonti Phillis having lost her honour voweth to make amends for it by her voluntary death Stat necis electu tenerum pensare pudorem Which Lucretia also practised flying out of the world to shun the shame thereof and spilling her blood which the tyrant had a little before stayned and Europa thought one death too light a revenge for wronged chastity Levis una mors est Virginum culpae If shame and infamy were not the sharpest corrasives to a guilty conscience the Prophet David would not so oft use these and the like imprecations against the enemies of God Let them be confounded and perish that are l Psal 71.11 83.17 against my soule and let them bee counfounded and vexed evermore let them bee put to shame and perish let mine adversaries bee clothed with shame and let them cover themselves with their owne confusion as with a cloake Yea but if shame and confusion are the very gall and wormewood of Gods vengeance against the wicked most bitter to the taste of the soule what construction are wee to make of those words of the Prophet m Ezek. 36.32 O yee house of Israel bee ashamed and confounded for your owne wayes doth the Prophet here give them counsell to pull down Gods vengeance upon themselves Nothing lesse To cleare this point therefore wee must distinguish of shame which is taken 1 Sometimes for a vertuous habit and disposition of the minde consisting in a mediocrity betweene two extremes impudency in the defect reproved in the Jewes by the Prophet n Jer. 8.12
to heale a time to breake downe and a time to build up A time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourne and a time to dance c. In which distribution of time according to the severall affaires of our life all actions and accidents all intents and events all counsels and acts all words and workes all motions and cessations businesses and recreations beginnings and endings inchoations and perfections yea affections also as joy and griefe love and hatred have some part and portion of time laid out for them sinne only is exempted that is never in season As the Apostle spake to Simon b Acts 8.21 Magus Non est tibi pars neque sors it hath neither part nor lot in this partition and yet it intrudeth upon us and usurpeth upon either the whole or the greatest part of our demised time We heare of a time to build and a time to pull downe a time to spare and a time to spend but not in like manner a time to doe good and a time to doe ill a time to live godly and a time to sinne a time well to imploy and a time to mispend neither God nor Nature hath bequeathed any legacie of time to sinne Sinne should have no existence at all and therefore no time no estate and therefore neither terme Sinne is none of Gods creatures nor the issue of nature therefore hath no just claime or title to time the best of Natures temporall goods much lesse to happy eternity which is the purchase of the Sonne of God to the price whereof Nature cannot come neere Moreover sinne mis-spendeth spoyleth maketh havocke of our time abridgeth it and often cutteth it off and therefore deserveth that not a moment of time should be given to it Will you have yet more reasons ye have them in the Text drawne from all the differences of time sin hath been unfruitfull is shamefull and will prove pernicious and deadly therefore no portion or part of time is to be allowed to it against which all times give in evidence The time past brings in against it all sorts of dammages and losses sustained by it What fruit had yee The present time layeth open the shame filthinesse of sinne Whereof yee are now ashamed The future produceth the great and grievous penalties which the sinner by the breach of the eternall Law incurreth The end of those things is death A wise man holdeth intelligence with the time past by memory with the present by prudent circumspection with the time to come by providence by re-calling that which was fore-casting what will be he ordereth that which is and therefore he cannot but be sufficiently advertised of those hainous and grievous imputations laid upon sinne by the Spirit of God in my Text. It is altogether unfruitfull and unprofitable good for nothing What fruit had yee It is shamefull and infamous Whereof yee are now ashamed Nay it is pestilent and pernicious For the end of those things is death If this forcible interrogatory of the Apostle so full of spirit of perswasion worke not in us newnesse of life and a detestation of our former sinfull courses we are not only insensible of our profit prodigall of our credit and reputation but also altogether carelesse of our life Nihili est saith the c Plaut in Pers Certè nihili est qui nihil amat quid ei homini opus est vitâ Poet qui nihil amat he is of no account who makes account of nothing Non spirat qui non aspirat he breathes not who gaspeth not after something What then is that ye desire How bestow ye your affections What object hath the command of your thoughts and soveraignty over your wills and desires Is it gaine wealth and affluence of all things flye then sinne for it is altogether unfruitfull and unprofitable Is it glory honour and reputation eschue then vice for it bringeth shame and infamy upon you and your posterity Is it long life nay with Melchizedek to have no end of your dayes abandon all wicked courses for they have an end and that end is death and that death hath no end That sinne is unfruitfull not only formaliter but also effectivè not only negatively by bringing forth no fruit but also positively by bringing forth evill corrupt fruit by making the soule of man barren of the fruits of righteousnesse yea and the earth also and trees barren of the fruit which they would otherwise have brought forth to our great joy and comfort hath been the subject of our former discourses spent especially in the proofe of these particulars That sinne eclipseth the light of our understanding disordereth the desires of the will weakneth the faculties of the soule distempereth the organs of our body disturbeth the peace of our conscience choaketh the motions of the spirit in us killeth the fruits of grace inthralleth the soule to the body and the body and soule to Sathan lastly depriveth us of the comfortable fruition of all temporall and the fruition and possessions of all eternall blessings All which laid together will make a weighty argument bearing downe and forcing our assent to this conclusion That sinne is sterill and barren and consequently that every sinner is an unthrift and in the end will prove bank-rupt how gainfull a trade soever hee seeme to drive with Satan for as Christ cursed the figge-tree in the Gospell so God curseth all trees that beare the forbidden fruit of sinne and therefore the Apostle truly tearmeth the works of darknesse unfruitfull saying d Eph. 5.11 Have no fellowship with the unfruitfull works of darknesse but reprove them rather The godly man whose delight is in the law of the Lord is likened e Psal 1.3 4. to a tree planted by the rivers of waters which bringeth forth fruit in due season but the wicked to chaffe which the winde scattereth abroad For although they may sometimes build palaces upon the ruines of the Church and fill their houses with the treasures of wickednesse and their coffers with the Mammon of unrighteousnesse yet in the end they will appeare to bee no gainers no nor savers neither by their trafficke with the Devill For if they gain wealth they lose grace if they gaine glasse they lose pearle if they gaine earth they lose heaven if they gaine an estate for tearme of yeares among sinners they lose an eternall inheritance with the Saints in light if they gaine a small portion of the world they f Mar. 8.36 lose their whole soule and what advantageth it a man to gaine the whole world and to lose his owne soule Alas what gained g Josh 7.25 Achan by his Babylonish garment and wedge of gold nothing but a heape of stones wherewith hee was battered in pieces What gained Gehezi h 2 Kin. 5.27 by his great bribe a leprosie that cleaved to him and his posterity after him What gained i Judg. 8.27 Zeba and Zalmunna by
a threefold inconvenience of sinfull courses because they who pursue them reape no fruit from them sustaine much losse by them come to an evill end through them for the End The end is taken 1 Either physically 2 Or morally Either for the finall cause or for the finall effect Death is not the finall cause of sin but the finall effect for no man sinneth for death but dieth for sinne Others distinguish of ends which are 1 Intermediate as wealth honour or pleasure 2 Ultimate as happinesse Death say they is not the intermediate end but profit or delight but it is alwayes the ultimate end of sinne unrepented of A third sort make a difference betweene the end 1 Peccantis of the sinner that is the end which the sinner intendeth 2 Peccati of sinne that is the end to which sinne tendeth this distinction seemeth to mee coincident with the first Death say they is not the end of the sinner but of the sinne not the end which the sinner propoundeth to himselfe but the end which his sinne bringeth him unto Withall they acutely observe that the Apostle saith not the end of those men is death but the end Of those things By those things hee understandeth the state of the unregenerate or those sinnes which were rife among the Romanes and are reckoned up chap. 1. which may bee reduced to three heads 1 Impiety against God 2 Iniquity against their neighbours 3 Impurity against their owne body and soule yea and against nature also 1 Impiety with this hee brandeth them vers 21. 2 Iniquity with this hee chargeth them vers 29. 3 Impurity with this hee shameth them vers 24 27. Of those things the end is Death The second death say some for he that hath no part in the first resurrection hath his portion in the second death A double death saith Saint Ambrose à morte enim ad mortem transitur for a sinner from one death passeth to another Others more fully thus The end of those things is death 1 Of your estate by ruine of your fortunes 2 Of your good name by tainting your reputation 3 Of your body by separation from the soule 4 Of your soule by separation from God The most naturall interpretation and most agreeable to this place is That by continuing in a sinfull course all our life wee incurre the sentence penalty and torment of eternall death for that death is meant here which is opposed to eternall life Verse 23. which can bee no other than eternall Yea but is sinne in generall so strong a poyson that the least quantity of it bringeth death and that eternall are all sinnes mortall that is in their owne nature deserving eternall death It seemeth so for hee speaketh indefinitely and without any limitation and as before hee implyed all sinne to bee unfruitfull and shamefull so also now to bee deadly What fruit had ye in those things that is in any of those things whereof ye are now ashamed Now it is certain that the regenerate are ashamed of all sins therefore in like manner it followeth that the end of all sinnes is death For the Apostle here compareth the state of sinne and state of grace in generall and as hee exhorteth to all good workes so hee endevoureth to beat downe all sinne as unfruitfull shamefull and deadly See what will ensue hereupon first that there are no veniall sinnes secondly no pardons for them in purgatory thirdly no fee for pardons If all sinnes are mortall and which all Papists will they nill they must confesse no man is free from all sinne for t Jam. 3. â in many things wee offend all saith Saint James and u 1 Joh. 1.10 if we say that we have no sin wee deceive our selves saith Saint John what will become of their Romish doctrines concerning the possibility of fulfilling the law the merit of congruity or condignity and works of supererogation Si nulla peccata venialia nulla venalia if no sinnes are veniall then no sale to bee made of sinnes no utterance of pardons no use of the Church treasury no gold to bee got by the Monks new found Alchymy Yee will say this is but a flourish let us therefore come to the sharpe Mitte hebetes gladios pugnetur acutis The speech of Cornelius Celsus the Physitian is much commended by Bodine Nec aegrotorum morbi nec languentium vulnera dicendi luminibus curantur Soft words cure no wounds wee may say more truely soft words give no wounds and therefore are not for this service of truth against errour and heresie up in armes against her * Hom. Il. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hector truely told Paris that his golden harpe and purfled haire and beautifull painting would stand him in no stead in the x Sen. ep 51. In primo deficit pulvere ille unctus et nitidus field it is not the wrought scabbard but the strong blade nor the bright colour but the sharpe edge of it that helpeth in danger and hurteth the enemy In which regard I hold it fittest to handle schoole points scholastically in tearmes rather significant than elegant and labour more for force of argument than ornaments of speech First then after their plaine method I will explicate the state of the question next meet with the adversaries objections and last of all produce arguments for the truth and make them good against all contrary cavils and frivolous exceptions Sins may bee tearmed veniall or mortall two manner of wayes 1 Either comparatè in comparison of others 2 Or simplicitèr simply and in themselves and that three manner of wayes Either 1 Ex naturâsuâ of their owne nature 2 Ex gratiâ by favour or indulgence 3 Ex eventu in the issue or event Wee deny not but that sinnes may bee tearmed veniall comparatè that is more veniall than others and if not deserving favour and pardon yet lesse deserving punishment than others Secondly veniall ex eventu or in the issue wee acknowledge all the sinnes of the Elect to bee and some sinnes of the Reprobate also or veniall ex gratiâ that is by Gods favour and clemency all the question is whether any sinne of the Elect or Reprobate bee veniall ex suâ naturâ that is such as in its owne nature deserveth not the punishment of death but either no punishment at all or at least temporary onely The reformed Churches generally resolve that all sinnes in their owne nature are mortall the y Bellar. de amis grat stat pec c. 9. Qui dixerit fatue reus erit gehennae ignis ex his tale conficitur argumentum manifestum convitium facit reum gehennae ignis non item subita iracundia c. Romanists will have very many to be veniall Their allegations are chiefly these the first out of Matthew 5.22 Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his brother Racha shall bee in
tender the life of your bodies and soules hearken to a word of exhortation Taste not the least drop of the poyson of sinne for though it put you not to so great torment and be not so present death yet deadly it is and without repentance and saving grace will kill your soules Destroy the Cockatrice in the shell breake the smallest seeds of sinne in your soule as the Emmet biteth the seeds which she layeth up for her selfe that they may not grow againe in the earth Parvulos Babylonis allidite ad petram in quâ serpentis vestigia non reperiuntur Dash the Babylonish babes against that rocke into which no serpent can enter I know not how it commeth to passe that as in nature we see the Adamant which nothing relenteth at the stroake of the hammer is dissolved with the warme bloud of a Goate the Elephant which no great beast dare encounter is killed by a small Mouse creeping in at his truncke and eating his braines and the Lions in Mesopotamia are so pestered with a kind of Gnat flying into their eyes that to be rid of the paine they sometimes teare them out with their clawes and sometimes drowne themselves so the strongest Christians are often over-taken with the least temptations and conquered with a reed nay with a bull-rush To forbeare more examples David was taken by a look only Peter affrighted by the speech of a Damsell Alipius was overthrowne by a shout in the Theater The breach of the Commandement in lesse things even because they are lesse and so might more easily be avoided maketh the disobedience the greater and all sinne is the more dangerous by how much the lesse it is feared Saint Austine maketh mention of certaine flies in Africa so small that they can scarce be discerned from moates in the ayre Quae tamen cum insederint corpori acerbissimo fodiunt aculeo which yet are armed with a most venemous sting those little sins that are so small that we can scarce discerne them to be sinnes are like those Cynifes Saint Austine speaketh of they pricke the conscience with a most venemous sting Now if the sting of these small Flies put the conscience to such paine and affect it with such anguish who will be able to endure the teeth of the Adder or the taile of the Scorpion If whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgement and whosoever shall say unto his brother Racha shall be in danger of the Councell and whosoever shall say Thou foole shall be in danger of hell fire what punishment is he like to endure who beareth malice in his heart against his brother envieth his prosperity undermineth his estate woundeth his good name nay spilleth his bloud this is a crimson sinne and mortall in a double sense not onely because it slayeth the soule but also because it killeth the body If we shall give an account at the day of judgement for every idle word what answer shall we make for irreligious and blasphemous words for calumnious and detractious speeches for uncharitable and unchristian censures for false witnesse for oathes for perjury I am loth harder to rub on the sores and galls of your consciences and leave them raw therefore my conclusion shall be the application of a plaister unto them which will certainly heale them That which our Saviour after his resurrection promised to those that should beleeve on his Name that if they z Mar. 16.18 dranke any deadly thing it should not hurt them was performed according to the letter to the Disciples in the first ages but in the spirituall sense to all of us at this day If we have drunke any deadly poyson of sinne as who hath not yet through repentance and faith in Christs bloud it shall not hurt us The nature of poyson is to work upon the bloud and to venome that humour but contrariwise the bloud of our Saviour worketh upon the poyson of sinne and killeth the venemous malignity thereof Though the most veniall sins in mens esteeme are mortall in their owne nature yet the most mortall are made veniall by grace No sin mortall but to the reprobate and infidell no sinne veniall but to the elect and faithfull nay no sinne but mortall to the reprobate and infidell no sinne but veniall to the faithfull and penitent Nothing deadly to Gods chosen nay not death it selfe For the sting thereof is plucked out by Christ O death a 1 Cor. 15.57 where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Thanks be unto God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be unto thee O b Hieron epit Nepot Gratias tibi Christe Salvator nos tua agimus creatura quòd tam potentem adversarium dum occideris occidisti Saviour who hast given death his deaths wound by thy death Beloved Christians so many sins as we have committed so many deaths eternall wee have deserved from so many deaths Christ hath delivered us and therefore so many lives if we had them we owe unto him and shall we not willingly render him this one for which hee will give us immortality blisse and glory in heaven with himselfe Cui c. THE GALL OF ASPES OR THE PANGS OF THE SECOND DEATH THE XLV SERMON ROM 6.21 For the end of those things it death Right Honourable c. I Hope time hath not razed those characters out of your memory which I borrowed from time it selfe to imprint my observations upon this Text in your mind Sinne as yee have heard may be considered in a reference to a three-fold time 1. Past 2. Present 3. Future In relation to the first it is unfruitfull to the second shamefull to the third pernicious and deadly The unfruitfulnesse of sinne cannot but worke upon all that have regard to their estate in this world the shamefulnesse of sinne cannot but touch neere and affect deeply all that stand upon their reputation and good name but the deadlinesse or pernicious nature thereof cannot but prevaile with all to beware of it that tender their life here or immortality hereafter If sinne be unfruitfull have no fellowship with the workes of darknesse but reprove them rather If sinne be shamefull hate even the garments spotted by the flesh let not such things be named among you much lesse practised which cast a blurre upon your good name and fame among the Saints of God If sinne be pernicious and deadly flye from it as from a Serpent taste not the wine of Sodome nor presse the grapes of Gomorrah for their wine is the bloud of the Dragon a Job 20.14 and the gall of Aspes which we know is present death The end of those things That is all the pompe and vanity of this world the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eye the pride of life all sinfull pleasures wherewith yee surfeit your senses shall have an end and this end is death and this death
shall have no end This is the last and most forcible argument of the three wherewith the Apostle laboureth with might and maine to beat downe sinne and put to flight even whole armies of temptations Yee may observe a perfect gradation in the arguments the first though strong and forcible drawne from the unfruitfulnesse of sinne is not so necessary and constraining as the second drawne from the shame and infamy thereof nor that as the third drawn from the wages thereof which is everlasting death As honour and glory is to be more set by than gaine and commodity life than honour immortality than life so shame and infamy is worse than losse and disadvantage death than shame hell than death The holy Apostle hath now made three offers unto us and put us to a three-fold choice First he laid before us the faire fruits of Paradise to bee gathered from the tree of life and corrupt rotten fruit from the forbidden tree that is invaluable treasures to be got and inestimable profit to be made by godlinesse and irrecoverable losses to be sustained by ungodly and sinfull courses of thriving Secondly he tendered unto you glory and honour to be purchased by the service of God as on the contrary shame and infamy by retaining upon Sathan and pursuing sinfull pleasures Now in the third place hee setteth before you life and death life by the gift of God and death for the hire of sinne Shall I need to exhort you in the words of b Deut. 30.19 Moses Chuse life how can ye doe otherwise Is the flesh appalled at the death of the body though the paine thereof endure but for a moment and shall not the spirit be much more affrighted at the death of the soule the pangs and paines whereof never have an end If there be any so retchlesse and carelesse of his estate that hee passeth not for great and irrecoverable dammages and losses so foolish that hee esteemes not of inestimable treasures if any be so infamous that he hath no credit to lose or so armed with proofe of impudency that hee can receive no wound from shame yet I am sure there is none that liveth who is not in some feare of death especially a tormenting death and that of the soule and that which striketh all dead everlasting Therefore it is as I conceive that the Apostle according to the precept of Rhetoricians c Cic. de orat l. 2. Puncta caeterorum argumentorum occulit coucheth as it were and hideth the points of other arguments but thrusteth out this putting upon it the signe and marke of a reason For. For the end of those things is death And this hee doth for good reason because this last argument is worth all the former and enforceth them all it not only sharpneth the point of them but draweth them up to the head at the sinner For therefore are lewd and wicked courses unprofitable therefore we may be ashamed of them because their end is so bad For the end Why doth the Apostle skip over the middle and come presently to the end why layeth hee the whole force of his argument upon the end 1. Because there is nothing in sinne upon which wee may build or have any assurance thereof but the end as there is nothing certaine of this our present life but the incertainty thereof Sin somtimes hath no middle as wee see in those fearfull examples of Corah Dathan and Abiram who had no sooner opened their mouths against Moses but the earth opened her mouth to swallow them up quicke of Achan who had no sooner devoured the accursed thing but it was drawne out of his belly with bowels heart and all of Herod who had no sooner heard the people cry The voice of God and not of man but hee felt himselfe a worme and no man of Zimri and Cozbi who had no sooner received the dart of lust in their heart than they felt a javelin in their bodies of Ananias and Sapphira who no sooner kept backe part of the price for which they sold their possessions but death seized upon them and they gave up the ghost and of many others whose deaths wounds yet bleed afresh in sacred and profane stories 2 Because there is nothing permanent of sinne but the end the duration if it have any is very short like to that of Jonahs gourd d Jonah 3.7 which rose up in a night and was eaten up with a worme in the morning 3 Because nothing is so much to bee regarded in any thing as the end for fines principia actionum the end setteth the efficient on worke and all is well that endeth well as wee say in the Proverbe e Deut. 32.29 O that they were wise saith God by Moses then they would consider their latter end If wee invert the speech it will bee as true O that men would consider their latter end and then they would be wise For assuredly he that in his serious contemplation beginneth at the end of sinne in his practise will end at the beginning To consider the end of sinne is to take a survey of all the miseries and calamities incident to intelligent natures of all the plagues that light upon the bodies and soules and estates of impenitent sinners in this life with a fearfull expectation of hellish torments then a violent separation of the soule from the body which is no sooner made but the soule is presented before the dreadfull Judge of quicke and dead arraigned condemned and immediately upon sentence haled and dragged by ugly fiends to the darke and lothsome dungeon of hell there in all extremity of paines and tortures without any ease or mitigation to continue till the generall day of the worlds doom when meeting again with the body her companion in all filthinesse iniquity and ungodlinesse they are both summoned to the last judgement where all their open and secret sinnes are laid open to the view of men and Angels to their inexpressible and astonishable confusion after conviction the sentence at which not the eares onely shall tingle the teeth chatter the knees smite one the other but the heart also melt the sentence I say of eternall damnation shall bee pronounced in their hearing f Mat. 25.41 Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divell and his Angels A most heavie sentence never to bee recalled and presently to bee put in execution the Devill with reviling and insultation carrying them with all their wicked friends and associates to the place of endlesse torments to endure the full wrath of God and the paines of everlasting fire O what will it bee to feele the second death which it is death to thinke or speake of who can read the description thereof in Saint g De vit contemp l. 3. c. 12. Fieri patriae coelestis extorrem mori vitae beatae morti vivere sempiternae in aeternum cum diabolo expelli ubi sit mors secunda damnatis
exilium vita supplicium non sentire in illo igne quod illuminat sentire quod cruciat inefficacis poenitentiae igne exuri consumentis conscientiae verme immortaliter rodi inundantis incendii terribiles crepitus pati barathri fumantis amarâ caligine oculos obscurari profundo gehennae fluctuantis mergi Prosper with dry eyes To bee banished for ever from our celestiall countrey to bee dead to all joy and happinesse and to live to eternall death for ever to bee cast out with the Divell thither where the second death serveth for a banishment to the damned and life for a torment there to feele in that unquenchable fire the torment of heat and not receive any comfort of light to bee cruciated with heart burning sorrow and uneffectuall repentance to bee gnawne with the immortall worme of conscience to frye perpetually in crackling flames to have their eyes put out with the smoake of the river of brimstone to be drowned floating in the bottome of hell The end c. Understanding by end the finall effect not the finall cause of sinne by those things all those things hee spake of before and by death that death which is opposed to eternall life each of these words Finis Horum Mors yeeldeth a most wholesome and fruitfull observation 1 That all sinfull courses and wayes have an end Finis 2 That all sins are mortall of which before Horum 3 That eternall death of body and soule in hell is the wages which the impenitent and obstinate sinner shall receive to the uttermost farthing Mors. That all sinfull pleasures and delights have an end no man can doubt for they cannot survive our life here our life often surviveth them and what is our life but h Pind. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã fumi umbra the shadow of smoake or dreame of a shadow that is lesse than nothing Seneca out of his owne experience found honour to bee of the nature of glasse quae cum splendet frangitur which when it most glowes and glisteneth in the furnace suddenly cracketh and pleasure to bee like a sparke quae cum accenditur extinguitur which is quenched in the kindling And surely all comforts and contentments of worldly men are like bubbles of soap blowne by children out of a wallnut-shell into the ayre which flye a little while and by the reflection of the sun beams make a glorious shew but with a small puffe of winde are broken and dissolved to nothing But alas it is not so with the paine of sin as it is with the pleasure that is as lasting as the other is durelesse Leve momentaneum est quod delectat aeternum est quod cruciat The delight of sinne is for a moment but the torment remaineth for ever Who will be content to fast all the weeke for one good meales meat to lye in prison all the dayes of his life for one houres liberty and jollity These similitudes fall short and reach not home to the representing of the sinners folly who for swimming an houre in the bath of pleasure incurreth the danger of boyling for ever in a river of brimstone and torrent of fire Momentaneum est quod delectat aeternum est quod cruciat Those things whereof yee are ashamed have an end and how soone yee know not but the death which is the end of them hath no end and this wee know That wee may more fully understand what is meant by this end wee are to take notice of a double death The first commonly called death temporall The second which is death eternall h Aug. de Civ Dei l. 21. Prima mors animam nolentem pellit de corpore secunda mors animam nolentem tenet in corpore Idem de Civ Dei l. 13. Prima mors bonis bona est malis mala secunda ut nullorum bonorum est ita nulli bona The first death driveth the soule out of the body being unwilling to part with it the second death keepeth the soule against her will in the body the first death is the separation of the soule from the body the second death is the separation of body and soule from God and by how much God is more excellent than the soule by so much the second death is worse than the first The first death is good to good men because it endeth their sorrowes and beginneth their joyes but evill to evill men because it ends their joyes and beginneth their everlasting weeping and gnashing of teeth the second at it belongeth to none that are good so it is good to none Both of these doubtlesse are due to sinne and shall bee paid at their day the sentence pronounced against Adam morte morieris by the reduplication of the word seemeth to imply as much as thou shalt dye againe and againe the first and second death the first death is as the earnest-penny the second as the whole hire both make up the wages of sinne the first is like the splitting of the ship and casting away all the goods and wares the latter as the burning both with unquenchable fire In this death which is the destruction of nature that Maxime of Philosophy holdeth not Omnis corruptio est in instanti for here is corruption in time nay which is more strange and to the reason of the naturall man involveth contradiction Corruptio aeterna mors immortalis an eternall corruption and an immortall death i Aug. loc sup Nemo hic propriè moriens seu in morte dicitur sed ante morté aut post mortem id est viventes aut mortui ibi è contrariò non erunt homines ante mortem aut post mortem sed sine fine morientes nunquam pejus erit homini in morte quam ubi erit mors ipsa sine morte In this life men cannot properly bee said to bee dying or in death but alive or dead for whilest the soule remaineth in the body wee are living and after the separation thereof wee are dead whereas they that are in hell cannot bee said properly to bee dead because they are most sensible of pain nor to be alive because they suffer the punishment of the second death but continually dying and never shall it be worse with man in death than where death it selfe is without death where life perpetually dyeth and death perpetually liveth Saint k Greg. l. 9. moral c. 45. Gregory sweetly quavereth upon this sad note Mors sine morte finis sine fine defectus fine defectu quia mors vivit finis incipit deficere nescit defectus The death of the damned is a deathlesse death an endlesse end and undefcizible defect for their death alwayes liveth and their end beginneth and their consumption lasteth And that this death is meant in my text either only or especially the correspondencie of this member to that which followeth but the gift of God is eternall life maketh it manifest Yet for further confirmation
and reluctancy nay rather they for Christs sake desired them and rejoyced in them Something then it was above all the torments man can devise much lesse beare that our Saviour felt in his agony and expressed by his bloudy sweat and strong cries Whilest our Saviour was in this wofull plight what doe his Disciples Doe they condole him pray with him arme themselves to defend him Nay in this feare and perplexity of their Master they fall fast asleep at the first after in his greatest danger forsake him only Judas commeth neere him and saluteth him with a kisse O that perfidious treachery should touch those lips in which there was no guile that he should be m Cyp. de bon patient Insultantium sputamina exciperet qui sputo suo caeci oculos paulò ante formastet coronaretur spinis qui Martyres floribus coronat aeternis palmis in faciem verberaretur qui palmas veras vincentibus tribuit spoliaretur veste terrenâ qui indumento immortalitatis caeteros vestit cibaretur felle qui cibum coelestem dedit potaretur aceto qui poculum salutare propinavit spit upon who cured the eyes of the blind with spittle that his face should be smitten with palmes of the hand who putteth palmes into the hands of all that overcome that he should be crowned with thornes who crownes Martyrs with never withering flowers that he should be stripped of his earthly garments who arraies us with celestiall robes that hee should be fed with gall who feeds us with bread from heaven that vinegar should be given to him for drinke who prepareth for us the cup of salvation But before we goe out of the garden we will gather some flowers As the first sinne was committed in a garden so the first satisfaction was made in a garden in that garden there was an evill Angel tempting in this garden a good Angel comforting Adams sentence in that garden was that hee should get his living with the sweat of his browes and in this the second Adam procureth life unto us by the sweat of his whole body Adam was driven out of that garden by an Angel brandishing a fiery blade and our Saviour is fetched out of this with swords and staves and brought into the high Priests palace where he is most injuriously dealt withall they cannot hold their hands off him whilest he is examined before the Judge but contrary to all law and good maners they smite him with staves at his arraignment Yea but they were but rude souldiers or fawning servants Is there any more justice in the high Priest or the Councell who not only take willingly any allegation against him but also seeke out for false witnesses and when they find none that were contests yet they condemne him and that for no ordinary crime but for blasphemy in the highest degree Neither were the Judges more unjust than the people mad against him Away with him say they away with him Crucifie him crucifie him Why what evil hath he done Spare Barabbas not him What save a murderer and murder a Saviour O ye people of Judea and inhabitants of Jerusalem what so enrageth you against him He hath cleansed your lepers he hath cured your blind he hath opened your deafe eares he hath loosened your tongue-tyed he hath healed your sicke he hath raised your dead he hath preached unto you the Gospel of the Kingdome and the glad tidings of salvation and is he not therefore worthy to live He inviteth you to grace Come unto mee all ye that are heavie laden unto glory Come ye blessed of my Father and therefore away with him away with him With these out cries Pilate is overborne as if clamours of the promiscuous rout were to be taken for depositions of sworne witnesses and hee pronounceth the unjustest sentence that ever was given that Jesus was guilty of death After the sentence execution immediately ensueth he is stript starke naked before the multitude what would not an ingenuous man rather endure than this shame his flesh is torne with whips and scourges appointed for slaves so cruelly that Pilate himselfe moved at so lamentable a spectacle sheweth him to the people with an ecce homo either to move them to pity or to satisfie their bloud-thirsty appetite As for the insolencies and indignities offered unto him by the souldiers they are so odious and intolerable that I cannot with patience relate them and therefore I passe with our Saviour to Mount Calvarie where foure great nailes were driven into the most tender and sinewy parts of his body wherewith after he was fastened to the crosse his crosse was set up in the midst betwixt two theeves the Mediatour of God and man now hangeth in the middle betwixt heaven and earth I need not amplifie upon the death of the crosse a death for the torment most grievous most infamous amongst men and n Deut. 21.23 accursed of God himselfe Any one may conceive what a torment it must needs be when the whole weight of the body hangeth upon the wounds in the hands feet But there were foure circumstances which very much aggravated his passion 1. The nature of his complexion for being made of Virgins flesh and thereby of the purest and exactest temper hee could not but be more sensible of excruciating torments than any other 2. The place and time the place Jerusalem the Metropolis of all Judea the time at Easter when there was a concourse of people from all parts of Palestine besides an infinite multitude of strangers that came to see that great solemnity 3. The sight of his mother and dearest Disciple in their sight to be put to so infamous and cruell a death what a corrasive must it needs be This was the sword that pierced his mothers heart and how thinke wee it affected him his compassion was no lesse griefe to him than his passion 4. The insolency of his adversaries now flocking about his crosse and by their deriding scoffes and taunts powring sharpest vinegar into his wounds To endure that which man never did nor could to be put to all extremiy of tortures and torments and not to be bemoaned nay to be mocked at and reviled Others he hath saved himselfe he cannot save Thou that destroyedst the Temple and buildedst it up againe in three dayes come downe from the crosse and we will beleeve thee O this is an hyperbole of misery There are yet foure considerations which put as it were a spirituall crosse upon his materiall and more tortured his soule than the other his body 1. His unconceivable griefe for the obstinacy of the Jewish nation 2. The apprehension of the destruction of the City and Temple with a desolation of the whole Country to ensue shortly after his death 3. The guilt of the sins of the whole world 4. The sense of the full wrath of his Father for the sinnes of mankind which he tooke upon himselfe And now ye have the full dosis
sonne when it is ripe which he permitted to grow in the father without applying any such remedy outwardly unto it yet this is most certaine that he never visiteth the sinne of the father upon the children if the children tread not in the wicked steps of their father Thus much the words that follow in the second Commandement imply unto the n Exod. 20.5 third and fourth generation of them that hate mee He often sheweth mercy to the sonne for the fathers sake but never executeth justice upon any but for their owne sinnes The sinne of the sonne growes the more unpardonable because he would not take example by his father but abused the long-suffering of God which should have called him to repentance The Latine Proverb Aemilius fecit plectitur Rutilius Aemilius committeth the trespasse and Rutilius was merced for it hath no place in Gods proceedings neither is there any ground of the Poets commination o Hor. l. 3. od 6. lib. 1. od 28. Negligis immeritis nocituram postmodo te natis fraudem committerâ fo rs debita jura vicesque superbae te maneant ipsum Delicta majorum immeritus lues Romane For God is so far from inflicting punishment upon one for the sins of another that he inflicteth no punishment upon any for his own sinne or sins be they never so many and grievous if he turne from his wicked wayes and cry for mercy in time for God desireth not the death of a sinner but of sinne he would not that we should dye in our sinnes but our sinnes in us If we spare not our sinnes but slay them with the sword of the Spirit God will spare us This is the effect of the Prophets answer the summe of this chapter and the contents of this verse in which more particularly we are to observe 1. The person I. 2. The action or affection desire 3. The object death 4. The subject the wicked 1. The person soveraigne God 2. The action or affection amiable delight 3. The object dreadfull deprivation of life 4. The subject guilty the wicked The words are uttered by a figurative interrogation in which there is more evidence and efficacy more life and convincing force For it is as if he had said Know ye not that I have no such desire or thinke ye that I have any desire or dare it enter into your thoughts that I take any pleasure at all in the death of a sinner When the interrogation is figurative the rule is that if the question be affirmative the answer to it must be negative but if the question be negative the answer must be affirmative For example Who is like unto the Lord the meaning is none is like unto the Lord. Whom have I in heaven but thee that is I have none in heaven but thee On the other side when the question is negative the answer must be affirmative as Are not the Angels ministring spirits that is the Angels are ministring spirits and Shall the Son of man find faith that is the Son of man shall not find faith Here then apply the rule and shape a negative answer to the first member being affirmative thus I have no desire that a sinner should dye and an affirmative answer to the negative member thus I have a desire that the wicked should returne and live and ye have the true meaning and naturall exposition of this verse Have I any desire that the wicked should dye 1. God is not said properly to have any thing 2. if he may be said to have any thing yet not desires 3. if he may be said to have a desire of any thing yet not of death 4. if he desire the death of any yet not of the wicked in his sinne Have I As the habits of the body are not the body so neither the habits of the soule are the soule it selfe Now whatsoever is in God is God for he is a simple act and his qualities or attributes are not re ipsâ distinct from his essence and therefore he cannot be said properly to have any thing but to be all things Any desire Desires as Plato defineth them are vela animi the sailes of the mind which move it no other wayes than the saile doth a ship Desire of honour is the saile which moveth the ambitious of pleasure is the saile which moveth the voluptuous of gaine is the saile which moveth the covetous Others define them spurres of the soule to prick us on forwards to such things as are most agreeable to our naturall inclination and deliberate purposes Hence it appeares that properly there can be no desires in God because desire is of something we want but God wanteth nothing Desires are meanes to stirre us up but God is immoveable as he is immutable If then he be said to desire any thing the speech is borrowed and to be understood ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in such sort as may agree with the nature of God and it importeth no more than God liketh or approveth such things That the wicked should dye A sinner may be said to dye two manner of wayes either as a sinner or as a man as a sinner he dyeth when his sinne dyeth in him and he liveth as a man he dyeth either when his body is severed from his soule which is the first death or when both body and soule are for ever severed from God which is the second death God desireth the death of a sinner in the first sense but no way in the latter he desireth that sinne should dye in us but neither that we should dye the first death in sin nor dye the second death for sinne He is the author of life p Job 7.20 preserver of mankind He is the q 1 Tim. 4.10 Saviour of all especially them that beleeve Hee would not that any should r 2 Pet. 3.9 perish but all should come to repentance If he should desire the death of a sinner as he should gain-say his owne word so he should desire against his owne nature For beeing is the nature of God Sum qui sum I am that I am but death is the not beeing of the creature No more than light can be the cause of darknesse can God who is life be the cause of death If he should desire the death of a sinner he should destroy his principall attributes of wisedome goodnesse and mercy Of wisdome for what wisedome can it be to marre his chiefest worke Of goodnesse for how can it stand with goodnesse to desire that which is in it selfe evill Of mercy for how can it stand with mercy to desire or take pleasure in the misery of his creature Doth he desire the death of man who gave man warning of it at the first and meanes to escape it if he would and after that by his voluntary transgression he was liable to the censure of death provided him a Redeemer to ransome him from death calleth all men by the Gospel to
to the cast of a Die for a matter of naught a toy a trifle a jussle a taking of the wall an affront a word Doe wee make so small reckoning of that which cost our Saviour his dearest hearts bloud 2. If Judges all those who sit upon life and death did enter into a serious consideration thereof they would not so easily as sometimes they doe cast away a thing that is so precious much lesse receive the price of bloud For if it be accounted and that deservedly a sinne of a deep die to buy and sell things dedicated to the service of God what punishment doe they deserve who buy and sell the living image of God It is reported of Augustus that he never pronounced a capitall sentence without fetching a deep sigh and of Titus the Emperour that hee willingly accepted of the Priests office that hee might never have his hand dipped in bloud and of Nero that when he was to set his hand to a capitall sentence he wished that he could not write Utinam literas nescirem therefore let those Judges think what answer they will make at Christs Tribunall who are so farre from Christian compassion and hearts griefe and sorrow when they are forced to cut off a member of Christ by the sword of justice that they sport themselves and breake jests and most inhumanely insult upon the poore prisoner whose necke lyeth at the stake If any sinne against our neighbour leave a deep staine in our conscience it is the bloudy sinne of cruelty Other sinnes may be hushed in the conscience and rocked asleep with a song of Gods mercy but this is reckoned in holy Scripture among those ſ Gen. 4.10 crying sins that never will be quiet till they have awaked Gods revenging justice This is a crimson sinne and I pray God it cleave not to their consciences who wear the scarlet robe If there be any such Judges I leave them to their Judge and briefly come to you Right Honourable c. with the short exhortation of the Apostle Put you on the t Colos 3.12 bowells of mercy and compassion and if ever the life of your brethren be in your hands make speciall reckoning of it in no wise rashly cast it away let it not goe out of your hands unlesse the law and justice violently wrest and extort it from you Assure your selves that it is a farre more honourable thing and will gaine you greater love and favour with God and reputation with men to u Cicer. pro Quint. de Aquil Mavult commemorare se cùm perdere potuerat pepercisse quà m cùm parcere potuerat perdidisse save a man whom yee might have cast away than to cast him away under any pretence whom yee might have saved 4. If a malefactour arraigned at the barre of justice should perceive by any speech gesture signe or token an inclination in the Judge to mercy how would he worke upon this advantage what suit what meanes would he make for his life how would he importune all his friends to intreat for him how would he fall down upon his knees beseech the Judge for the mercies of God to be good unto him Hoe all ye that have guilty consciences and are privie to your selves of many capitall crimes though peradventure no other can appeach you behold the Judge of all flesh makes an overture of mercy he bewrayeth more than a propension or inclination he discovereth a desire to save you why doe ye not make meanes unto him why do ye not appeale from the barre of his justice to his throne of grace why doe ye not flye from him as he is a terrible Judge to him as he is a mercifull Father Though by nature ye are the sonnes of wrath yet by grace ye are the adopted sonnes of the Father of mercy and God of all consolation who stretcheth out his armes all the day long unto us Let us turne to him yea though it be at the last houre of our death and he will turne to us let us repent us of our sinnes and he will repent him of his judgements let us retract our errours and he will reverse his sentence let us wash away our sinnes with our teares and he will blot out our sentence with his Sonnes bloud When * Dan. 5.5 Belshazzar saw the hand-writing against him on the wall his heart mis-gave him all his joynts trembled and his knees smote one against the other Beloved Christians there is a x Colos 2.14 hand-writing of ordinances against us all and if we see or minde it not it writeth more terrible things against us What shall wee doe to be rid of this feare Is there any means under heaven to take out the writing of God against us Yes beloved teares of repentance with faith in Christs blood maketh that aqua fortis that will fetch out even the hand-writing of God against us The Prophet recordeth it for a miraculous accident that the sun went back many degrees in the Dyall of y Esa 38.8 Ahaz Beloved our fervent prayers and penitent tears will work a greater miracle than this they will bring back again the z Mal. 4.2 Sun of righteousnesse after he is set in our soules God cannot sin Angels cannot repent onely man that sinneth is capable of repentance and shall wee not embrace that vertue which is onely ours Other vertues are remedies against speciall maladies of the soule as humility against pride hope against despaire courage against feare chastity against lust meeknesse against wrath faith against diffidence charity against covetousnesse but repentance is a soveraigne remedy against all the maladies of the minde Other vertues have their seasons as patience in adversity temperance in prosperity almes-deeds when our brothers necessity calleth upon our charity fasting when wee afflict our soules in time of plague or any other judgement of God but repentance is alwayes in season either for our grosser sinnes or for failing in our best actions if for no other cause yet wee are to repent for the insincerity and imperfection of our repentance I will end this my exhortation as the Prophet doth this chapter * Ezek. 18.30.31 Repent and turne your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not bee your ruine Cast away all your transgressions whereby yee have transgressed and make you new hearts and new spirits for why will yee die O ye house of Israel saith the Lord God wherefore turne your selves and live yee O Lord who desirest not that wee should die in our sinnes but our sinnes in us mortifie our fleshly members by the power of thy Sonnes death and renew us in the spirit of our mindes by the vertue of his resurrection that wee may die daily to the world but live to heaven die to sinne but live to righteousnesse die to our selves but live to thee Thou by the Prophet professest thy desire of our conversion say but the word and wee shall bee converted
perishing because they were not predestinated but therefore were not predestinated because they were foreknowne that they would be such by voluntary prevarication g Fulgent l. 1. ad Mon. Iniquos quos praescivit Deus hanc vitam in peccato terminaturos decrevit supplicio interminabili puniendos illos ad supplicium praedestinavit quos à se praescivit vitio malae voluntatis discessuros peccata hominum Deus praescivit quib sententiaÌ praedestinatione dictavit Fulgentius Those unjust men whom God foresaw that they would end their life in sin hee decreed to punish in endlesse torments And againe hee predestinated them to punishment who he foresaw would depart from him by the fault of their evill will And againe God foresaw the sinnes of men against which hee pronounced a sentence in his decree of predestination And the Fathers in the Synode held at h Valent. can 2. Nec ipsos malos ideò perire quia boni esse non potuerunt sed quia boni esse noluerunt suoque vitio in massâ damnationis vel merito originali vel etiam actuali permanserunt Valentia The wicked perish not because they could not but because they would not bee good remaining in the masse of corruption by their owne fault originall or also actuall As likewise in the i Concil Arelat 3. Lucidi habetur confessio his verbis Profiteor aeternales flammas factis capitalibus praeparatas Synod at Arles 3. That hee no way desireth nor decreeth nor so much as permitteth the death of any of his Elect though before their calling to the knowledge of the truth and sometimes after also they so grievously transgresse his holy lawes that they may bee numbred at least for the time among the wicked For how farre soever they goe in the wayes of wickednesse they will turne at the last and if a sinner turne from his wayes even at the brinke of destruction and gate of hell hee shall live for Have I any desire at all that the wicked should die saith the Lord God and not that hee should Returne There are many turnings in the life of a Christian The first turning or conversion is by a sanctified phrase called regeneration whereby wee are mortified in the flesh but renewed in the spirit of our minde wee cast off the old man and put on the new All after conversions are but so many particular acts of repentance and returnes from those courses which wee ordinarily fall into and follow if Gods preventing grace stop not the motions of our corrupt nature This first conversion is as it were a generall purgation of all the peccant humors of our soul is of that force that it changeth and altereth our temper and complexion After this all other aversions from sinne and returnes to God are but like speciall purgations prescribed by the Physitian of our soules to bee taken upon speciall occasion for the curing of some particular malady In the first non agimus sed agimur wee worke not but are wrought upon being as the reformed Divines speake meer passive in the other acti agimus being wrought upon wee worke like the wheeles in the vision of Ezekiel being moved by the spirit we move to God-ward At our first conversion the Scripture compareth us to dead men that are not able to stirre any joint but in all later conversions after God hat breathed into us the spirit of regeneration to sicke or weake men lying upon their bed that are able to turne themselves with some helpe This distinction of conversions is not new coyned by us but beareth the stampe of ancient truth and is current in the Scriptures in which wheresoever the faithfull speake thus to God Turne us and wee shall bee turned they aime at the first conversion but where God thus speaketh to his people Turne yee unto mee or turne from your wicked wayes we are to understand such texts of later conversions From his wayes Not from the wayes of God and pathes of righteousnesse but his owne wayes that is such courses as hee hath taken beside and against the direction of Gods Spirit More particularly thus Have I not a desire that the ambitious should leave his inordinate pursuit of honour the covetous of gaine the voluptuous of pleasure and all of vanity and that they should turne to mee with their whole heart with a perfect hatred of their former wickednesse and full and constant purpose of amendment and so Live That is escape eternall death the due wages of sinne and attaine everlasting life the undue reward of righteousnesse If the feare of hellish torments cannot make a separation betweene us and our beloved sinnes nor hope of heavenly joyes winne us unto God it will bee to small purpose to goe about to scare any with temporall plagues threatened in Gods law against sinne or pricke them with the sting of conscience or confound them with shame or amplifie upon the losses of spirituall graces which can never bee recovered but by speedy and hearty repentance The Spye of nature in his booke of the length and shortnesse of life demonstrateth naturall heat and radicall moisture to bee the sole preservers and maintainers of life and the store of both in due proportion to bee the cause of longer life As life is compared in Scripture so it is resembled in sculpture to a light or lampe burning the fire which kindleth the flame of this lampe is naturall heat and the oyle which feedeth it is radicall moisture without flame there is no light without oyle to maintaine it no flame in like manner if either naturall heat or radicall moisture faile life cannot last and as in a lampe if by reason of the thicknesse of the weeke the flame be too great it oversoon sucketh up the oyle if the oyle be poured in in too great abundance it choaketh the light so in us if naturall heat or radicall moisture exceed measure or proportion the lampe of our life burneth dimly and in a short space is extinguished Answerable to the naturall life in the body is the spirituall life of grace in the soule for as that is preserved calido humido by heat and moisture so is this also by the heat of love or zeale of devotion and the moisture of penitent teares Teares are the oyle which feed this flame for when wee pricke deepe the tenderest veines in our heart with remembrance of our manifold and grievous transgressions whereby wee have dishonoured God our Father displeased Christ our Redeemer and grieved the Spirit of grace our Comforter when wee take kindly to heart how that the better God hath beene unto us the worse wee have proved unto him the more grace hath abounded the more sinne hath super abounded when our hearts melt with these considerations and our eyes resolve into showres of teares then we perceive that as salt water cast into fire increaseth the heat so the salt water of our teares inflameth our devotion
that any one Divell should get possession of our hearts yet seven nay a legion may be cast out by fasting and prayer God forbid that any of us should be long sicke of any spirituall disease yet those that have been sicke unto death have been restored yea those that have been long dead have been raised God forbid that wee should forsake our heavenly Fathers house and in a strange countrey waste his goods and consume our portion yet after we have run riot and spent all the gifts of nature and goods of this life and lavished out our time the most precious treasure of all yet in the end if we come to our selves and looke homewards our heavenly Father will meet us and kill the fat calfe for uâ Therefore if wee have grievously provoked Gods justice by presumption let us not more wrong his mercy by despaire but hope even above hope in him whose mercy is over all his workes Against the number and weight of all our sinnes let us lay the infinitenesse of Gods mercy and Christ his merits and the certainty of his promise confirmed by oath As I live I desire not the death of a sinner if hee returne he shall live Oh saith Saint a Bern. in Cant. Quis dabit capiti meo aquam oculis meis fontem lachrymarum ut praeveniam fletibus fletum stridorem dentium Bernard that mine eyes were springs of teares that by my weeping here I might prevent everlasting weeping and gnashing of teeth in hell What pitie is it that we should fret and grieve and disquiet our selves and others for the losse of a Jewell from our eare or a ring from our finger and should take no thought at all for the losse of the Jewels of Gods grace out of our soules We are overwhelmed as it were in a deluge of teares at the death of our friends who yet are alive to God though dead to this world but have we not a thousand times greater reason to open those floodgates of salt waters which nature hath set in our eyes for our selves who are dead to God though alive to the world St. b De laps Si quem de tuis chatis mortalitatis exitu perdidisses ingemisceres dolenter fleres facie incultâ veste mutatâ neglecto capillo vultu nubilo ore dejecto indicia moeroris ostenderes animam tuam miser perdidisti spiritualitèr mortuus es supervivere hic tibi ipse ambulans funus tuum portare caepisti non acritèr plangis non âugitèr ingemiscis Cyprian hath a sweet touch on this string If any of thy deare friends were taken away from thee by death thou wouldst sigh thou wouldst sob thou wouldst put on blacks thou wouldst hang doâne thy head thou wouldst dis-figure thy face thou wouldst let thy haire hang carelesly about thine eares thou wouldst wring thy hands thou wouldst knock thy breast thou wouldst throw thy selfe downe upon the ground thou wouldst expresse sorrow in all her gestures and postures O wretched man that thou art thou hast lost thy soule thou art spiritually dead thou survivest thy selfe and carriest a dead corps about thee and dost thou not take on dost thou not fetch a deepe sigh hast thou not a compassionate teare for thy selfe wilt thou not be thy owne mourner especially considering that all thy weeping and howling for thy friend cannot fetch him backe againe or restore him to life whereas thy weeping for thy selfe in this vale of tears and seriously bewailing thy sinnes may and by Gods grace shall revive thy soule and recover all thy spirituall losses and that with advantage Experience teacheth us that the presentest remedie for a man that is stung in any part of his body by a Scorpion is to take the oile of Scorpions and therewith oft to annoint the place sinne is the Scorpion that stingeth our soules even to death if we apply nothing to it yet out of this Scorpion sinne it selfe and the sorrow for it an oile or water may be drawne of penitent teares wherewith if we annoint or wash our soules we shall kill the venome of sinne and allay the swelling of our conscience c Pind. od 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It is a most soveraigne water which will fetch a sinner againe to the life of grace though never so farre gone It is not Well water springing out of the bowels of the earth nor raine powred out of the clouds of passion but rather like a d Cyp de card Chris op De interioribus fontibus egrediuntur torrentes super omnes delicias lachrymis nectareis anima delectatuâ non illos imbres procellosae tempestates deponunt ros matutinus est de coelestibus stillans quasi unctio spiritus mentem deliniens post affectio se abluit lachrymis baptizat dew falling from heaven which softeneth and moisteneth the heart and is dried up by the beames of the Sun of righteousnesse Have not I a desire that the wicked should turne from his wayes and live When a subject hath rebelled against his naturall Soveraigne or a servant grievously provoked his master or a sonne behaved himselfe ungraciously towards his father will the Prince sue to his subject or a master to his servant or a father to his sonne for a reconciliation Will not an equall that hath a quarrell with his equall hold it a great disgrace and disparagement to make any meanes that the quarrell may be taken up will he not keepe out at full distance and looke that the partie who as he conceiveth hath wronged him should make first towards him and seeke to him Yet such an affection God beareth to us that though we silly wormes of the earth swell and rise against him yet he seeketh to us he sendeth Embassadours to e 2 Cor. 5.19 20. treat of peace and intreate and beseech us to be reconciled unto God For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himselfe not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation Now then we are Embassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be reconciled unto God Stand not out my deare brethren resigne the strong holds of your carnall imaginations and affections deliver up your members that they may serve as weapons of righteousnesse and yeeld your selves to his mercy and yee shall live Turne and live Should a prisoner led to execution heare the Judge or Sheriffe call to him and say Turne backe put in sureties for thy good behaviour hereafter and live would he not suddenly leap out of his fetters embrace the condition and thanke the Judge or Sheriffe upon his knees And what think ye if God should send a Prophet to preach a Sermon of repentance to the divels and damned ghosts in hell and say Knock off your bolts shake off your fetters and turne to the Lord and live would not hell be emptied and rid before
and crucifying the lusts of the flesh than in verbo or signo After these three wayes we must all shew forth the Lords death Till he come To wit either to each particular man at the houre of his death or to all men and the whole Church on earth at the day of judgement This Sacrament is called by the auncient Fathers viaticum morientium the dying mans provision for the long journey he is to take Every faithfull Christian therefore is to communicate as long as he is able and can worthily prepare himselfe even to the day of his dissolution and all congregations professing the Christian religion must continue the celebration of this holy Sacrament till the day of the worlds consummation As often The seldomer we come to the table of some men the welcomer we are but on the contrary wee are the better welcome the oftener wee come to the Lords Table with due preparation There are two reasons especially why wee ought oft to eate of this bread and drinke of this cup the first is drawne from God and his glory the second from our selves and our benefit The oftener we partake of these holy mysteries being qualified thereunto the more we illustrate Gods glory and confirme our faith If any demand further how oft ye ought to communicate I answer 1. In generall as oft as yee need it and are fit for it The x Cypr. ep 54. Quomodo provocamus eos in confessione nominis Christi sanguinem suum fundere si iis militaturis Christi sanguinem denegamus aut quomodo ad Martyrii poculum idoneos facimus si non eos prius ad bibendum in Ecclesiâ poculum jure communicationis admittimus Martyrs in the Primitive Church received every day because looking every houre to be called to signe the truth of their religion with their bloud they held it needfull by communicating to arme themselves against the feare of death Others in the time of peace received either daily or at least every Lords day The former Saint Austine neither liketh nor disliketh the latter he exhorteth all unto 2. I answer in particular out of Fabianus the Synod of Agatha and the Rubrick of our Communion booke that every one at least ought to communicate thrice a yeere at Christmas Easter and Whitsontide howbeit we are not so much to regard the season of the yeere as the disposition of our mind in going forward or drawing backe from this holy Table The sacrament is fit for us at all times but wee are not fit for it y Gratian. de consecrat distinct 2. Quotidié Eucharistiam dominicam accipere nec laudo nec vitupero omnibus tamen dominicis communicandum hortor Ibid. Qui in natali Domini Paschate Pentecoste non communicaverint catholici non credantur nec inter catholicos habeantur wherefore let every man examine his owne conscience how hee standeth in favour with God and peace with men how it is with him in his spirituall estate whether he groweth or decayeth in grace whether the Flesh get the hand of the Spirit or the Spirt of the Flesh whether our ghostly strength against all temptations be increased or diminished and accordingly as the Spirit of God shall incline our hearts let us either out of sense of our owne unworthinesse and reverence to this most holy ordinance forbeare or with due preparation and renewed faith and repentance approach to this Table either to receive a supply of those graces we want or an increase of those we have and when we come let us Eate of this bread and drinke of this cup. For as both eyes are requisite to the perfection of sight so both Elements to the perfection of the Sacrament This the Schooles roundly confesse Two things saith z Part. 3. q. 63. art 1. Ideò ad Sacramenti hujus integritatem duo concurrunt scilicet spiritualis cibus potus Et q. 80. art 12. Ex parte ipsius Sacramenti convenit quod utrumque sumatur corpus scilicet sanguis quia in utroque consistit perfectio Sacramenti Aquinas concurre to the integrity of the Sacrament viz. spirituall meate and drinke and againe It is requisite in regard of the Sacrament that we receive both kindes the body and the bloud because in both consisteth the perfection of the Sacrament And * Bonavent in 4. sent dist 11. part 2. art 1. Perfecta refectio non est in parte tantùm sed in utroque ideò non in uno tantùm perfectè signatur Christus ut reficiens sed in utroque Bonaventure A perfect refection or repast is not in bread only but in bread and drinke therefore Christ is not perfectly signified as feeding our soules in one kind but in both And a Soto in 12. distinct q. 1. art 12. Sacramentum non nisi in utrâque specie quantum ad integram signification em perficitur Soto The Sacrament as concerning the entire signification thereof is not perfect but in both kindes Doubtlesse if the Sacrament be a banquet or a supper there must be drinke in it as well as meate The Popish communion be it what it may be to the Laity cannot be a supper in which the Laity sup nothing neither can they fulfill the precept of the Apostle of shewing forth the Lords death for the effusion of the wine representeth the shedding of Christs bloud out of the veines and the parting of his soule from his body If we should grant unto our adversaries which they can never evict that the bloud of Christ might be received in the bread yet by such receiving Christs death by the effusion of his bloud for us could in no wise bee represented or shewen forth which the Apostle here teacheth to be the principall end of receiving this Sacrament As oft saith he as yee eate of this bread and drinke of this cup Yee shew forth Christs death In Christs death all Christianity is briefly summed for in it we may observe the justice of God satisfied the love of Christ manifested the power of Sathan vanquished the liberty of man from the slavery of sinne and death purchased all figures of the Old Testament verified all promises of the New ratified all prophecies fulfilled all debts discharged all things requisite for the redemption of mankind and to the worlds restoration accomplished Therein we have a patterne of obedience to the last breath of humility descending as low as hell of meeknesse putting up insufferable wrongs of patience enduring mercilesse torments compassion weeping and praying for bloudy persecuters constancy holding out to the end to which vertues of his person if ye lay the benefits of his passion redounding to his Church which hee hath comforted by his agony quit by his taking justified by his condemnation healed by his stripes cleansed by his bloud quickened by his death and crowned by his crosse if you take a full sight of all the vertues wherewith his crosse is beset as with so
silent others crying some prejudiciall only to the delinquent others pernicious to the Church and Common-wealth For the former mercy often intercedeth seldome or never for the latter Againe some offenders are like a Eras Adag ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã heart of oake which many strong blowes of an axe will scarce enter others like the Balsamum of Judea which you kill if you b Plin. nat hist l. 12. c. 25. Inciditur vitro lapide osleisve cultellis fertum odit laesis vitalibus emoritur protenus incidentis manus libratur artifici temperamento ne quid ultra corticem violet touch but the rine of it with an iron instrument and therfore they which keep them provide instruments of glasse or knives of bone to prune them The former resemble the Adamant which can bee cut or pointed by nothing but an Adamant the latter the c Solinus c 40. tit Euphrates Pyrrhites teneri se vehementiu non permittit ac si quando arctiore manu premitur digitos adurit Pyrrhite a precious stone which may be gently ground or cut with a sharpe toole but if you presse it hard or handle it rudely it burneth the fingers For the latter mercy sometimes intercedeth not so for the former Lastly after the offence committed some are like bruised reeds falling downe upon the earth and imploring mercy Others like a stiffe or strait cane never so much as bowing some stand in defence of that they have done others ingenuously confesse their fault some glory in their sinne others are confounded with it in a word some are obstinate some are penitent those mercy disclaimeth these shee often taketh to her protection They who in former times like pipes of reeds have sweetly sounded out the praises of God but now are cracked with some pardonable errour in judgement or slip in manners if they be truely bruised with the weight of their sinne and throughly contrite may plead the priviledge of the bruised reed in my Text not to bee broken by any over hard and severe censure or sentence not the Atheisticall scoffer not the impudent Adulterer not the obstinate Recusant not Jesuited Papists which like the Egyptian reeds mentioned by the Prophet run d Esa 36.6 Thou trustest in the staffe of this broken reed on Egypt whereon if a man leane it will goe into his hand and pierce it into the hands and sides even of e Jaques Clement and Raâiliac who murdered two late Frenâh Kings Henr. 3. 4. See Pierre Matthew and other French Historians Kings and Princes They who have formerly shined before their brethren both in their pure doctrine and good example though now by the violent blast of some fearfull temptation are blowne out as it were and send up bitter fumes of sorrowfull lamentations for their sinfull iniquity or impurity in some cases are not to be quenched what therefore are not hereticall apostataes and schismaticall boutefieus and fire-brands of Church and State not to bee quenched and trode out which if they be not quenched in time will set all in a combustion in the end To conclude as I began with the words of my Text it is the bruised reed that is not to be broken not the poysoned dart it is the smoaking flaxe that is not to be quenched not the burning match A bruised reed he shall not breake Behold in the reed your frailty in the bruised reed your condition in the not breaking the bruised reed a singular rule for your direction of which I spake but now and a strong staffe of comfort of which before God grant that wee may all acknowledge our frailty as being no other than reeds and to arme our selves with patience against manifold pressures and tribulations as being reeds that are or shall bee bruised and when wee are afflicted or oppressed not to despaire of helpe and ease but to trust in Gods mercy and hope for a joyfull deliverance as bruised reeds that yet are not to be broken and lastly expecting mercy for our selves shew mercy with discretion unto others as being reeds therefore not broken that we may learne by the example of our Lord and Master not to break the bruised reed To whom c. THE SMOAKING FLAXE A Sermon preached at Lambeth before his Grace the Lord Bishop of London and other his Majesties Commissioners in causes Ecclesiasticall Decemb. 5. 1618. THE SECOND SERMON MAT. 12. 20. ESAY 42. 3. And smoaking Flaxe shall he not quench Most REVEREND c. THe sweet temper and gracious disposition of our blessed Redeemer is as the sap in the root which conveyeth life to the two branches of this Scripture For by it the dây and bruised reed is nourished as with moisture supplyed and the smoaking flaxe and dying lampe is refreshed as it were with oyle That he will not break this he will not quench Luk. 4.18 He who came to heale the broken hearted and set at liberty them that are bruised will not breake the bruised reed Hee who was sent to give light to them that sit in darknesse Luk. 1.79 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ita 70 Interp. Esay 53 4. and in the shadow of death will not quench the smoaking flaxe or dimly burning weeke He who bare all our infirmities and carried our sorrowes will not lay too heavie a burthen upon those that are truely humbled but will so lightly passe over their sinnes that he will not breake or crush in pieces the bruised reed nor tread out the smoaking flaxe This Text speaketh peace and much comfort yet not to all but to the contrite soule only Matth. 27.30 The bruised and soft reed shall not be broken but the stiffe and hard reed like that wherewith Christ was smitten shall be broken They who after their sinnes committed relent not at all they who are not troubled in conscience nor crushed with feare of judgement but stand in justification of their sinnes and excuse their prophane sports on the Lords day saying they use but lawfull recreations and their defiling the flesh by pretending that it is but a tricke of youth and their drunkennesse that it is but good fellowship and their sacriledge that it is the custome to pay no more and cover other vices with the like cloakes may challenge no interest in this promise but the bruised reed that is the contrite sinner he who is displeased with himselfe because he hath displeased his gracious God he whose spirit grieveth because he hath grieved Gods holy Spirit he who because he hath done that which God abhorreth abhorreth himselfe in dust and ashes hee who when God chasteneth him for his sinnes kisseth his heavenly Fathers rod and acknowledgeth that hee deserveth farre smarter blowes than those which yet hee feeles hee who goeth mourning all the day long and will never be at peace with himselfe till hee hath made his peace with his Maker hee who alwaies feeling the weight of his sinnes sigheth and groaneth under them and never
Jonas in like manner cries I am cast out of thy sight Jonah 2.4 there is smoak in the flaxe yet was not the flaxe quenched for he addeth immediatly yet I will looke againe to thy holy Temple If thou wilt thou canst Matth. 8.2 said one poore man in the Gospel Lord if thou canst said another Marke 9.22 both these were as the smoaking flaxe in my Text. For the former doubted of Gods power the latter of his will yet neither of both were quenched O miserable man that I am saith S. Paul in the person of a Christian travelling in his new birth who shall deliver me from this body of death here is a cloud of smoak Rom. 7.24.25 yet it is blown away in an instant and the flame breaketh out and blazeth into Gods praises Thankes be unto God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ Man for a little smoake will quench the light but Christ every where cherisheth the least sparke of grace and bloweth it gently by his spirit till it breake forth into a flame To encourage us the more hee accepteth the will for the deed and a good assay for the performance If thou canst but shed a teare for thy sins he hath a bottle to put it in if thou steale a sigh in secret he hath an eare for it if thy faith be but as a graine of mustard seed it shall grow to a great tree Nathanael at the first had but a small ground to beleeve that Christ should bee the Messias but afterwards Christ made good his words unto him hee saw greater things to build his faith upon Because I said unto thee John 1.50 I saw thee under the fig-tree beleevest thou thou shalt see greater things than these Apollos at the first was but catechized in Johns Baptisme Act. 18.27.28 but afterwards Aquila and Priscilla expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly and hee helped them much which had beleeved through grace for hee mightily convicted the Jewes and that publikely shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ Joseph of Arimathea richer in grace than wealth and a great dispreader of the Gospel and as many ancient Writers report the first planter of Christian Religion in this Island yet till Christs death had small courage to professe him but when the evening was come Mar. 15.42.43 which was the preparation that is the day before the Sabbath hee went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus Saint Augustine at the first was drawne to the Church by the lustre of Saint Ambrose his eloquence as himselfe a Aug. confess l. 5. c. 4. confesseth but afterwards he was much more taken with the strength of his proofe than the ornaments of his speech and God by his Spirit so blowed the sparke of divine knowledge in this smoaking flaxe that the Church of God never saw a cleerer lamp burning in it since it had him If we consider the smoaking flaxe in the second condition to wit after the lampe is blowne out the spirituall meaning is That those in whom there was ever any spark of saving grace shall never be quenched or that after the most fearfull blast of temptation there remaines yet some divine fire in the heart of every true beleever which Christ will never quench Christ will not quench the smoaking flaxe if there bee any sparke of divine fire in it yet if this sparke bee not blowne and the weeke enlightened againe it will dye in like manner if wee doe not according to the Apostles precept 2 Tim. 1.6 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã stirre up the grace of God in us and use the utmost of our religious endeavours to kindle againe the lampe of faith in our soules that sparke of divine faith and saving grace which wee conceive that wee have will dye As it is not presumption but faith to bee confident in Gods promises when wee walke in his Ordinances so it is not faith but presumption to assure our selves of the end when wee neglect the meanes of our salvation Wee may no otherwise apprehend or apply unto our selves the gracious promises made to all true beleevers in the Gospel than they are propounded unto us which is not absolutely but upon conditions by us to bee performed through the helpe of divine grace namely to wash our selves Esa 1.16 17. to make us cleane to put away the evill of our doings from before Gods eyes to cease to doe evill to learne to doe well to seeke judgement to relieve the oppressed to judge the fatherlesse Dan. 4.27 Job 41. â Apoc. 3.19 Mat. 3.8 and to pleade for the widow to breake off our sinnes by righteousnesse and our iniquity by shewing mercy to the poore to abhorre our selves and repent in dust and ashes to remember from whence wee are fallen and doe our first workes to bee zealous and amend and to bring forth fruits meet for repentance To argue from a strong perswasion of our election and from thence to inferre immediately assurance of salvation is as Tertullian speaketh in another case aedificare in ruinam The safe way to build our selves in our most holy faith and surely fasten the anchor of our hope is to conclude from amendment of life repentance unto life from our hatred of sinne Gods love unto us from hunger and thirst after righteousnesse some measure of grace from godly sorrow and sonne-like feare and imitation of our heavenly Father the adoption of sonnes from continuall growth in grace perseverance to the end from the fruits of charity the life of our faith and from all a modest assurance of our election unto eternall life Not curiously to dispute the Scholasticall question concerning the absolute impossibilitie of the apostacy of any Saint and the amissibility of justifying faith which many learned Doctours of the Reformed Churches hold fitter to bee extermined than determined or at least confined to the Schooles than defined in the Pulpit that wherein all parties agree is sufficient to comfort the fainting spirits and strengthen the feeble knees of any relapsed Christian That God will never bee wanting to raise him if hee bee not wanting to himselfe But if when hee is returned with the Sow to his wallowing in the mire hee taketh delight therein and never striveth to plucke his feet out of it nor rise up out of the dirt if hee never cry for helpe nor so much as put forth the hand of his faith that Christ may take hold of it and by effectuall grace draw him out of the mudde hee will certainly putrifie in his sinnes Hee that heareth the Word of God preached and assenteth thereunto and is most firmly perswaded of Gods love to him for the present if through the rebellion of the flesh against the spirit or the suggestions of Sathan or by the wicked counsels and examples of others hee chargeth himselfe with any foule sinne either of impiety against God or iniquity against men or impurity
overthrow of the Jewish Nation by Vespasian and his sonne Titus Others deferre the accomplishment of this prophecy till the dreadfull day of the Worlds doome when by the shrill sound of the Archangels Trumpet all the dead shall bee awaked and the son of man shall march out of Heaven with millions of Angels to his Judgement seat in the clouds where hee shall sit upon the life and death of mankinde That day saith Saint d August l. 20. de civitate Dei Ille dies judicii propriè dicitur eo quod nullus erit ibi imperitae querelae locus Cur injustus ille sit foelix cur justus ille infoelix Austin may bee rightly called a Day of Judgement because then there shall bee no place left for those usuall exceptions against the judgements of God and the course of his providence on earth viz. Why is this just man unhappy and why is that unjust man happy Why is this profane man in honour and that godly man in disgrace Why doth this wicked man prosper in his evill wayes and that righteous man faile in his holy attempts Nay why for a like fact doth some man receive the guerdon of a crowne and another of a e Juvenal Satyr Sceleris pretium ille crucem tulit hic diadema crosse or gibbet the one of a halter the other of a chaine of gold These and the like murmurs against the justice of the Judge of all flesh shall bee hushed and all men shall say in the words of the f Psal 58.11 Psalmist Verily there is a reward for the righteous Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth And then Christ may bee said properly to bring or send forth judgement when hee revealeth the secrets of all hearts displayeth all mens consciences and declareth the circumstances of all actions whereby all mens judgements may bee rightly informed in the proceedings of the Almighty and all men may see the justice of God in those his most secret and hidden judgements at which the wisest on earth are astonished and dare not looke into them lest they should bee swallowed up in the depth of them I speake of those judgements of God which Saint g August lo. sup cit Dies declarabit ubi hoc quoque manifestabitur quà m justo Dei judicio fiat ut nunc tam multa ac penè omnia justa Dei judicia sensus mentemque mortalium fugiant cum tamen in hac repiorum fidem non lateat justum esse quod latet Austin termeth Occuliè justa and justè occulta Secretly just and justly secret so they are now but at the day of Judgement they shall bee manifestly just and justly manifest then it shall appeare not onely that the most secret judgements of God are just but also that there was just cause why they should bee secret or kept hidden till that day Lastly then Christ may bee said properly to bring forth judgement unto victory because hee shall first conquer all his enemies and then judge and sentence them to everlasting torments Of which dreadfull Judgement ensuing upon the glorious Victory of the Prince of peace over the great Whore and the false Prophet and the Divell that deceiveth them all from which the Archangel shall sound a retreat by blowing the last trump and summoning all that have slept in the dust to arise out of their graves and come to judgement I need not to adde any thing more in this Religious and Christian auditory Wherefore I will fill up the small remainder of the time with some briefe observations upon the ruine and utter desolation of the Jewish Nation who even to this day wandring like Vagabonds in all countries and made slaves not only to Christians but to Moores Turkes and other Infidels rue the crucifying of the Lord of life and the spilling of the innocent bloud of the immaculate Lambe of God that taketh away the sinnes of the World As according to the custome of our country Quarter-Sessions are held in Cities and Shire-townes before the generall Assises so Christ a little more than forty yeeres after his death at Jerusalem and ascension into Heaven held a Quarter-Sessions in Jerusalem for that country and people after which hee shall certainly keep a generall Assises for the whole world when the sinnes of all Nations shall be ripe for the Angels sickle Some of the wisest of the Jewish Rabbins entring into a serious consideration of this last and greatest calamity that ever befell that people together with the continuance thereof more than 1500. yeeres and casting with themselves what sinne might countervaile so heavie a judgement in the end have growne to this resolution that surely it could be no other than the spilling of the Messias bloud which cryed for this vengeance from heaven against them And verily if you observe all the circumstances of times persons and places together with the maner and means of their punishments and lay them to the particulars of Christs sufferings in and from that Nation you shall see this point as cleerly set before your eyes as if these words were written in letters of bloud upon the sacked walls of Jerusalem Messiah his Judgement and Victory over the Jewes 1. Mocking repaid 1. Not full sixe yeeres after our Lords passion most of those indignities and disgraces which the Jewes put upon him were returned backe to themselves by Flaccus and the Citizens of Alexandria who scurrilously mocked their King Agrippa in his returne from Rome by investing a mad man called Carabbas with Princely robes putting a reed in his hand for a Scepter saluting him Haile King of the Jewes Note here the Jewes mocking of Christ repaid unto themselves yet this was not all 2 Whipping repaid The Alexandrians were not content thus scornfully to deride the King of the Jewes they proceeded farther to make a daily sport of scourging many of the Nobility even to death and that which Philo setteth a Tragicall accent upon at their solemnest Feast Note here the Jewes whipping and scourging Christ upon the solemne Feast of Passover repaid unto them 3. Spitting repaid 3. And howsoever their noble and discreet Embassadour Philo made many remonstrances to the Emperour Caligula of these unsufferable wrongs offered to their Nation yet that Emperour because the Jewes had refused to set up his Image in the Temple was so farre from relieving them or respecting him according to the quality he bare that he spurned him with his foot and spit on his face Note here the Jewes spitting on Christ repaid them 4. The Jewes refusing Christ to be their King to flatter the Romane Caesar reveneâd on them by Caesar himself 4. In conclusion the Emperour sent him away with such disgrace and discontent that hee turning to his country-men said Bee of good cheare Sirs for God himselfe must needs right us now sith his Vicegerent from whom wee expected justice doth so much wrong us and contrary
to the law of all Nations most inhumanely insolently and barbarously useth mee employed as a publike minister of state for our whole Nation But all this in vaine these wrongs fell right upon them It was just with God that they who in disdaine of his Sonne cryed out Wee have no King but Caesar should finde no favour at Caesars hands and much lesse at Gods before whom they preferred Caesar Baron annal Noluerunt florem nacti sunt Florum praesidem They would none of the flower of Jesse they cast him away therefore God in justice after the former troubles sent them by Nero's appointment Deputy Florus 5 The Pharisces envie at the peoples crying Hosanna to Christ punished who robbed their Church treasury to raise a rebellion after put them to the sword for this rebellion received money of them to save them from spoile and spoiled them the more for it insomuch that the Scribes and Pharisees and chiefe Rulers who rebuked the people for bringing in Christ to Jerusalem with branches of palmes and happy acclamations of Hosanna to the sonne of David Hosanna in the highest are now forced to bring out all the treasures of the Temple and Priestly ornaments by them as it were to adjure the people and beseech them even with teares to march out of Jerusalem in seemliest order and with expressions of joy to meet and greet the Romane souldiers who requited their salutations with scornes and their gifts with pillaging them Note here the Jewes envie at Christs triumphant riding into Jerusalem punished 6. I beseech you observe the circumstances of time persons and place and you shall perceive that divine Justice did not onely make even reckonings with them in every particular of our Saviours sufferings but also kept the precise day and place of payment Galilee wherein Christ first preached and wrought so many miracles first of all suffers for her unbeliefe and is laid waste by Vespasian The infinite slaughter at Jerusalem began with the high Priest Ananus his death whom the Zelots slew in the Temple Sanguine foedantem quas ipse sacraverat aras A lamentable sight saith Josephus to see the chiefe Priest a little before clad with sacred and glorious vestments richly embroidered with gold and precious stones lye naked in the streets wallowing in dirt mud and bloud to behold that body which had been annointed with holy oyle to bee torne with dogges and devoured by ravenous and uncleane fowle to looke upââ the Altar in the Temple polluted with the bloud of him who before had hallowed it with the bloud of beasts But so it was most agreeable to divine Justice that that order though never so sacred should first and most dreadfully rue our Lords death whose envie was first and malice deepest in the effusion of his most innocent bloud Who can but take notice of that which the Histories of those times written by Jewes as well as Christians offer to all readers observation viz. That the Jewes who escaped out of Jerusalem and fell into their enemies quarter because they were thought to devoure downe their money and jewels that the Romane souldiers might not finde them about them were in great numbers after they were slaine ripped 7 Their giving money to Judas to betray him repaid and bowelled and that besides those Jewes crucified by Flaccus whose death a Philo in legat Alii die festo mortuos de crucibus detraxerunt at hic non mortuos de crucibus sed vivos in crucem sustulit Philo so much bewailed because the execution was done upon them at their great Feasts without any regard to the solemnity of the day there were so many in this last siege of Jerusalem 8 Their crucifying him repaid with advantage crucified on the walls every day that there wanted in the end crosses for mens bodies and spaces for crosses Note here their price of bloud given to Judas to betray his Master as also their crucifying the Lord of glory was repaid with advantage Crucified they are in their persons for some of them that conspired Christs death might live till this time or in their children and nephewes by hundreds who cryed to Pilate when hee would have freed Christ Away with him away with him Crucifie him crucifie him Their bloud is shed for money who gave money to betray innocent bloud and shortly after thirty of them are sold for a piece of silver who bought his life at thirty pieces of silver As wee have compared persons and actions or rather passions so let us now parallel times and places Titus began to besiege Jerusalem as Caesar Baronius exactly calculateth upon the day in which our Saviour suffered hee surveyed the City on Mount 9 Their contempt of Christs teares Olivet whence our Saviour before viewing it wept over it And now the Jewes have their wish against their wills their 10 and their cursing revenged Matth. 27.25 owne curse is returned to their bosome viz. His bloud bee upon us and our children For so indeed it was in such a manner and measure as never before was heard or seene Besides those that fled out of the City which were either crucified upon the walls or slaine by the gates when Titus made a breach into the City hee saw all their streets paved in a manner with carkeises and caemented with bloud yea their channels ran with gore so full that the best meanes they could think of or use to quench the fire of the Temple was the bloud of the slaine And now Jerusalem which had been so free in 11 Their stoning Gods Prophets and spilling innocent bloud repaid casting stones at the Prophets and killing them that were sent unto her to exhort them to repentance unto life and shewed before of the comming of the Just One of whom these later Jewes had been the betrayers and murderers hath not one stone left upon another in her Acts 7.52 but is made even with the dust nay nothing but dust Sutton de Tiber. and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã dirt leavened with bloud the just temper of that Tyrants complexion in whose reigne the Lord of glory was crucified What other conclusion are wee to inferre upon these sad premisses but this that it is a most fearfull thing to provoke the Lion of the Tribe of Judah Who shall bee able to stand before him in the great day of his wrath from whose face the heaven and the earth fled away 1 Pet. 2.7 Mat. 21.42 44. and their place could no where be found The stone which the builders refused is now become the head of the corner Take heed how yee stumble on it or lift at it Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken but upon whomsoever it shall fall it shall grinde him to powder Vid. mag de burg sub finem Cent. prim Baron annal tom 1. as it did Herod and Pilate and Annas and Caiaphas and all that were
accessary to the death of the Lord of life And not only those that committed high treason against the sacred person of the Lords Annointed and imbrued their hands and stained their consciences with that bloud which cleanseth us from all sinne 1 John 1.7 but also Nero and Domitian and Trajan and Antoninus and Severus and Maximinus and Decius and Valerianus and Dioclesianus and Maxentius and all other Emperours that employed their swords and Simon Magus and Cerinthus and Arrius and Nestorius and Manes and all other obstinate arch-Heretickes who employed their pens against him none have hitherto escaped the heavie judgement of God who have bid battell to the Christian Faith and have wilfully and of set malice given the Spouse of Christ the least wound or skarre either by a gash with their sword or a scratch with their pen. Bee wise now therefore O yee Kings Psal 2.10 11 12. bee instructed yee Judges of the earth Serve the Lord with feare and rejoyce with trembling Kisse the Sonne lest hee bee angry and yee perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him Some Interpreters by Judgement understand the spirituall government of Christ which is managed in his Church with excellent wisedome and judgement and by Victory the prevalent power of grace in the faithfull wherby they are victorious in all temptations in such sort that though Sathan labour with all his might to blow out a poore sparke yet hee shall not be able to quench it and that the smallest degree of faith like a grain of mustard seed is stronger than the gates of hell and is able to remove mountaines of doubts and oppositions cast up by Sathan and our rebellious hearts between God and us And from hence they inforce the Apostles exhortation to all the souldiers of Christ to be strong in the Lord Ephes 6.10 and in the power of his might not to looke who are their enemies but who is our Captaine not what they threaten but what hee promiseth who hath taken upon him as to conquer for us so to conquer in us These are sweet and comfortable notes but as I conceive without the rule of this Text for questionlesse the Donec or Untill is not superfluous or to no purpose but hath reference to some future time when Christs mild proceedings shall be at a period and he shall take another course with his enemies such as I have before described in the particular judgement of the Jewish Nation and the generall judgement of the whole World But if Judgement and Victory bee taken in their sense there needed no untill to bee added For Christ even from the beginning of his preaching when he strived not nor cryed nor brake the bruised reed nor quenched the smoaking flaxe sent forth judgment unto victory according unto their interpretation that is wisely governed his Church and gave victory to the faithfull in their conflicts with sinne and Sathan That therefore the members of this sentence bee not co-incident and that the donec or untill may have his full force I conceive agreeably to the exposition of the ancient and the prime of the later Interpreters that in this clause Till hee bring forth judgement unto victory the Prophet determineth the limits of the time of grace Whosoever commeth In between the first and second comming of Christ shall be received into favour but after the gates of mercy shall bee locked up Yet our gracious Ahasuerus reacheth out his golden Scepter to all that have a hand of faith to lay hold on it but then he shall take his Iron mace or rod in his hand to bruise his enemies and breake them in pieces like a potters vessell I must sing therefore with holy David of Mercy and Judgement mercy in this life and judgement in the life to come mercy during the day of grace but judgement at the day of the Worlds doom For although sometimes God meets with the Reprobate in this life yet that judgement which they feele here may bee accounted mercy in comparison of that which shall be executed upon them hereafter without all mitigation of favour release of torments or limitation of time Now the vials drop on them but then they shall bee poured all out upon them Wherefore let us all like the bruised reed fall downe to the earth and humble our selves under the mighty hand of God Let us like smoaking flaxe send forth bitter fumes of sighes for our sinnes assuring our selves that now whilst the day of grace lasteth hee will not breake the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flaxe but if we neglect this time of grace and deferre our repentance till he send forth judgement unto victory we shall smoake for it Cogitemus fratres de tempore in tempore ne pereamus cum tempore Let us thinke of time in time lest we perish with time Let us imagine that we now saw the Angel standing upon the sea Apoc. 10 5 6. and upon the earth and lifting up his hand to heaven and swearing by him that liveth for ever who created heaven and the earth and the sea and the things that are therein that there should be time no longer Jonas 2.8 O let us not forsake our owne mercy but to day if wee will heare his voice harden not our hearts but mollifie them by laying them asoake in teares Let us breake off our sinnes suddenly by repentance and our iniquities by almes-deeds Now is the seed-time let us now therefore sow the seeds of faith hope mercy meeknesse temperance patience and all other divine Vertues and we shall reape a plentifull harvest in heaven Cypr. ad Dom. Hic vita aut amittitur aut tenetur hic saluti aeternae cultu Dei fructu fidei providetur Galat. 6.8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reape corruption but hee that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reape life everlasting Which God of his infinite mercy grant that we may all do in heaven through the merits of his Sonne by the grace of the holy Spirit to whom c. THE TRAITORS GUERDON A Sermon preached on the Gowries conspiracy before his Grace and divers Lords and persons of eminent quality at Croydon August 5. Anno Dom. 1618. THE FIFTH SERMON PSAL. 63. VER 9 10 11. 9. But those that seeke my soule to destroy it shall goe into the lower parts of the earth 10. They shall make him run out like water by the hands of the sword they shall be a portion for Foxes 11. But the King shall rejoyce in God every one that sweareth by him shall glory but the mouth of them that speake lyes shall be stopped Most REVEREND Right Honr. Right Wor sh c. WEe are at this present assembled with religious Rites and sacred Ceremonies to celebrate the unfortunately fortunate Nones of August which are noted in red letters in the Romane Calendar as
thy noble Prophet of the royall race t Esa 53.8 5. He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgressions of my people was he stricken He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes wee are healed therefore was Barabbas acquitted and Jesus condemned to the scourge and the crosse Againe ver 12. hee powred his soule unto death and hee was numbred with the transgressors therefore Jesus was executed with two malefactors the one on the right hand the other on the left Againe hee bare the sinne of many and made intercession for the transgressors therefore Jesus when they crucified him said u Luk. 23.34 Father forgive them for they know not what they doe How readest thou in Moses law * Deut. 21.23 cursed is he that hangeth on a tree therefore Jesus who became a curse for us hung on the tree of the crosse Againe all things by the law are purged by sprinkling of blood with a bunch of Hyssope therefore Jesus blood was x Joh. 19.29 shed upon the crosse and a bunch of Hyssope there offered unto him How readest thou in the booke of Psalmes y Psal 22.21 they gave me gall to eate and when I was thirsty they gave mee vinegar to drinke therefore Jesus said on the crosse I thirst and they filled a spunge full of vinegar and put it on a reede and gave him to drinke Againe z Psal 22.18 they parted my garments among them saith David Christ his type and on my vesture did they cast lots therefore after Jesus * Mat. 27.35 gave up the Ghost the souldiers parted his garments and cast lots Christ was fastened to the wood of the crosse as a Gen. 22.9 Isaak was bound to the faggot Behold the type accomplished and the scripture fulfilled hee b Esa 53.10 made his soule an offering for sinne be not faithlesse but believe Christ was lift up c Num. 21.9 upon the crosse as the brazen serpent was set up upon a pole for a signe Behold the type accomplished and the scripture fulfilled d Zach. 12.10 they shall looke upon him whom they have pierced be not faithlesse but believe Christs flesh was torne bruised pierced and as it were broached on the crosse as the paschall Lambe yet without any bone broken Behold the type accomplished and the scripture fulfilled e Psal 22.16 they pierced my hands and feet and thou f Psal 34.20 keepest all my bones so that not one of them is broken Be not faithlesse but believe sith every circumstance of Christs passion is a substantiall proofe every indignity offered unto him is an Axiome every nayle and thorne a poignant argument every marke and scarre in his flesh a demonstration à signo and his extension on the crosse a declaration and ostension that hee is the true Messiah The Jew hath his payment I now take the Gentile to taske Vs 2 Contr. Graec. Gentiles who maketh a laughing stocke of the crosse O foolish Greeke why dost thou esteeme the doctrine of the crosse foolishnesse in which all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge are hid The Abderites tooke Democritus for a man besides himselfe but Hypocrates that great Physician made them know that they were out of their wits not the Philosopher The folly O Greeke is in thy judgment not in the doctrine of the crosse the shadow is in thine eye or the dust in thy spectacle and not in the object for hadst thou a single eye and a cleare spectacle thou mightst see the crosse beset with foure Jewels 1 Wisedome in the height and top 2 Humility in the depth and basis 3 Obedience on the right side 4 Patience on the left Thou mightest see by God his infinite wisedome light drawne out of darknesse and good out of evill and order out of confusion Thou mightest observe in it infinite justice and mercy reconciled thou mightest admire glory conquered by shame power overcome by weakenesse wisedome confounded by folly death killed by dying the grave destroyed by being buryed in it and hell by descending into it Yea but thy pride will not brooke to have any faith in a man crucified or to hope for salvation from him who could not save himselfe from the accursed tree Indeed if he had beene inforced thus to die if he had not laid downe his life of his owne accord and made his soule an offering for sinne thy objection had something in it considerable but sith he dyed by power and not of infirmity for though to dye simply be of infirmity yet so to dye to lay downe his life at his own pleasure and take it up again was of power sith being in the form of God he g Phil. 2.8 humbled himselfe to death even the death of the Crosse and in it triumphed over death hell and the Divell stop thy mouth for ever from blaspheming the crosse or rather open it to the everlasting praise of him that dyed on it whose misery if thou beleeve is thy happinesse his ignominy thy glory his death thy life his Crosse thy Crown Thou eternizest the memory of Codrus Curtius the Decii and D. Claudius for devoting and sacrificing themselves for their Country how canst thou then but much more love and honour yea and adore Jesus Christ who Codrus-like put on the habit of a common souldier or rather servant and dyed in the battaile to gaine us an everlasting victorie over all our enemies Curtius-like leapt into the Hiatus or gulfe of death and hell to save mankinde from it Decius and Claudius-like devovit se pro terrarum orbe gave himselfe up to death for the life of the whole world Use 3 And so I let the Greeke passe the Romanists turne is next who maketh an Idol of the Crosse Contra Papist O superstitious Papist why dost thou vow pilgrimages and creepe on all foure to the Crosse Why dost thou fall downe at it and often lash thy selfe before it Why dost thou kisse it and weepe upon it and make a woodden prayer to it saying Ave lignum spes unica all haile thou wood of the Crosse our onely hope Was the Crosse crucified for thee Did thy gilt crucifix die for thee Hast thou not heard how the Gentiles of old traduced the Christians quod h Minutius Fâelix ãâã Oââ 12 10. Crucis erant religiosi that they religiously worshipped the Crosse and what answer the godly Fathers in those purest times returned unto them Cruces nec habemus nec optamus we neither have Crosses nor desire them Didst thou never heare what S. Helena the renowned mother of great Constantine did when she discovered the true Crosse to which our Lord was nailed by the inscription St. Ambrose telleth thee i Orat. de obit Theod. Invenit titulum Regem adoravit non utique lignum quia hic est
about it or if musicall termes sound sweeter in your eares here is 1 Planus cantus or the ground Christ 2 Discantus or the division is become the first fruits of them that slept The notes in the descant must answer those in the planus cantus so they doe here The first fruits to Christ Is become to is risen Them that slept to the dead The ditty hath three parts or sentences 1 The doctrine of resurrection is certaine for Christ is risen 2 The prerogative of Christ is singular is become the first fruits 3 The condition of the dead is happy they are them that slept and rest now from their labours Now seemeth here to have more of the Conjunction than of the Adverbe and to bee rather a particle of connexion than a note of time For Christ was not newly risen when Saint Paul wrote this Epistle but many yeeres before The proper and precise Now of Christs resurrection when hee might have beene said to bee now or new risen was the third day after his passion being the first day of the weeke Whence I observe the agreement of the time with the truth not in substance onely but in circumstance also The types were the Paschall Lambe and the first fruits Now as Christ our passover was slayne the very day in which the Paschall Lambe was to bee killed so hee being also the first fruits ver 23. rose againe the very day in which the first fruits were by the law to bee offered Saint r Bern serm in domin Pasch Bernard a little varieth the note yet maketh good harmony On the sixth day on which hee made man hee redeemed him the next day being the Jewish sabbath hee kept his sabbath rest in the grave the third day which was the first of the weeke-dayes he appeared The first fruits of them that slept Of which day I neede say no more to kindle your devotions and stirre up your religious affections than Å¿ Serm. de resur Maximus Taurinensis hath long ago in his meditations piously ejaculated A blessed day first discovering unto us the light not of this world but of the world to come farre happier than that day in which man first saw the light of the sunne For on that day man was made to travell on this day to rest on that day hee was sentenced to death on this day freed from feare of death on that day the sunne arose upon the just and unjust this day the sunne of righteousnesse rose onely upon the just illius diei splendor etiam sepulchra illuminat that day shined only upon the living this also upon the dead as it is written Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Christ u l. 4. divin instit Lactantius interpreteth the King Unctus nomen est imperii anointed is the name of soveraigne majesty Saint * Tract 2. in Johan Christus sacramenti nomen est quomodo si dicatur sacerdos Austine expoundeth it a Priest others a Prophet for Prophets were also anointed Saint Bernard alluding to this name maketh Christ a tender Chirurgian curing our wounds non ustione sed unctione not by lancing or searing but by anointing and plastering The Heathen in Tertullians time expounded it x Tertul in apologet bonum benignum good and bountifull ne sic quidem malè and not amisse saith hee if wee regard the sense and application of that attribute to our Saviour For ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is indeed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã kinde and gracious and profitable to man because y Phil. 1.21 in life and death advantage but amisse if wee respect the derivation For Christ is derived from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ungo and answereth to the Hebrew Messias of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifying to anoint and peculiarly it designeth the Sonne of God and Saviour of the world For albeit others were anointed besides Christ and called the Lords anointed yet Christ alone was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Christ 1 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In verity 2 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã After a singular manner 1 In verity or truth for all Kings Priests that were anointed before him were but types of him and that in part how holy soever they were hee is the onely true Christ anointed and appointed by God to save lost man 2 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã According to excellency or after a singular manner he is the Christ 1 Others were anointed by men he immediatly by God z Psal 45.7 God even thy God hath anointed thee 2 They with a lesse measure of graces he with a greater incomparably greater with oyle of gladnesse above thy fellowes 3 They to beare one office or two at the most he to beare three Melchisedech was a King and a Priest but no Prophet Samuel a Prophet and a Priest but no King David a King and a Prophet but no Priest Christ was all three a Priestly King as Melchisedeck a Kingly Prophet as David and a Propheticall Priest as Samuel I conceive the Apostle here made choice of this name Christ above others because it best fitted his purpose and implyed some cause of his resurrection For as anointing or embalming dead corpses keeps them from putrefying so Christ by the divine unction was preserved from corrupting in the grave because there was no corruption in his soule his body could not corrupt or at least God would not suffer it as the Prophet speaketh * Psal 16.10 thou wilt not suffer thy holy One to see corruption Now if his body must not bee left nor corrupt in the grave because it was a Act. 2.24 impossible for him to be held with the sorrowes of death he must undoubtedly have risen againe as it followeth Is risen In the originall it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã raysed viz. by the right hand of his Father elsewhere ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã hee is risen of himselfe neither is there yet any contradiction For the Father and the Sonne are one in nature and consequently the power of the Father who is God is the power of the Sonne who is one God with him Id resurgit quod prius cecidit that is properly said to bee raised or rise againe which before fell and that is the body which is therefore called in Hebrew ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Greeke ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in latine cadaver a cado Christs resurrection then or resuscitation from the dead must bee the enliving his dead corps and lifting it up and bringing it up out of the darke sepulchre into the light which is a kinde of second birth and not unlike to his first For as that was his proceeding out of the Virgins wombe so this was out of a Virgin tombe the difference was onely in this as b Petrus Chrysolog serm pasch de resur ser 14. Chrysologus acutely hath observed the wombe
of the virgin conceived Christ quicke and accordingly brought him forth alive the wombe of the earth conceived him dead but brought him forth quicke uteri nova forma concepit mortuum parit vivum As we may behold the feature of a mans face either in the countenance it selfe or in a glasse set before it or in a picture drawne by it so wee may contemplate the resurrection either in the prophecies and types of the old law as in glasses or in the hystory of the new as it were in the face it selfe or in our spirituall resurrection from dead workes as in the picture A glasse sheweth the lineaments and proportion of a man but at a distance so wee may see Christ in the predictions visions and figures of the Old Testament as so many glasses but at a distance according to the words of that Seer c Num. 24.17 I shall see him but not neare So Hosea saw him insulting over death and hell and menacing them d Hos 13.14 O death I will bee thy death so Esay saw him risen from the dead and speaking to him sayd e Es 26.19 Thy dead shall live with my body shall they rise awake and sing ye that sit in dust So David in the Spirit saw the day of the resurrection and exceedingly rejoiced at it saying f Psal 16.9 my heart was glad my glory rejoyced my flesh also shall rest in hope For thou wilt not leave my soule in hell nor suffer thy holy One to see corruption So Adam saw him conquering death and triumphing over him that had the power of death to wit the Divell though more obscurely because at the farthest distance in the promise g Gen. 3.15 it shall breake thy head and thou shalt breake his heele the death and resurrection of Christ are mystically involved As the Poets fabled that Achilles after his Mother Thetis held him by the heele and dipt the rest of his body into the sea could bee hurt in no part but his heele so in a divine sense it may bee said of our Saviour that hee could be wounded by Sathan no where but in his heele that is in the lowest part of his humane nature his flesh This the serpent stung at his death but in his resurrection hee bruised the head thereof The Devill saith h Greg. Nyssen de resurrect ser 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Nyssen in his sermon upon the resurrection going about to catch was caught for catching at the bait of Christs flesh hee was caught fast himselfe and wounded by the hooke of his divine nature Besides these predictions and promises wee have in the Old Testament the figure of our Lords resurrection in Adam a type in the scape goat a signe or embleme in Jonas and a vision in Ezekiel The figure may bee thus expounded As Adam rose out of his dead sleepe in which Eve was formed out of his ribbe so Christ after his slumber of death on the crosse in which his spouse the Church was formed out of his side as hath beene said awoke againe The type may bee thus exemplified as the scape-goate came neere to death being within the cast of a lot to it and yet avoiding it was presented alive to God to make an attonement so Christ who seemed to have beene conquered by death and swallowed up of the grave lying there three dayes and three nights yet escaped it and was presented on Easter day to his Father alive to make an attonement for all his brethren To the embleme of Jonas Christ himselfe giveth the word or Motto i Mat. 12.40 As Jonas was three dayes and three nights in the whales belly so shall the sonne of man be three dayes and three nights in the heart of the earth After three dayes Jonas came out of the bowels of the whale Christ out of the heart of the earth The vision of Ezekiel is so cleare that he that runneth may see in it a praeludium of the resurrection k Ezek 37.7 8 9 10. The Prophet saw in a valley a number of dry bones moving one to the other and suddenly they were tyed with sinewes and covered with flesh and the winde breathed into them the breath of life and they stood up like an army Wee have viewed the resurrection in the prophecies and figures of the Old Testament as so many severall glasses let us now contemplate it in the history of the New as it were in the face it selfe 1 Early in the morning while it was yet darke the Angel removed the stone that so Mary and the Apostles might looke into the sepulchre and unlesse the angell of the covenant remove the stone from our hearts wee can never looke into Christs sepulchre with an eye of faith nor undoubtedly beleeve the resurrection 2 Peter and John made hast to the sepulchre but they stayed not there Mary abideth there shee therefore seeth a vision of Angels the one standing at the head the other at the feet where Jesus had lyen either to signifie that the Angels of God attend as well on Christs feet the lowest members of his mysticall body as on his head that is the chiefest in the Church or that the angels smell a sweet savour from our workes of charity and therefore the one sate at the head the other at the feete where Mary had annointed our Lord. 3 A third Angell whereof mention is made in the Gospell of Saint l Mar. 16.5 Marke sitting on the right side appeared like a young man to signifie that in the resurrection our age shall bee renewed and our bodies shall bee in their full strenghth and vigor his rayment shined like lightning to represent the clarity and splendour of our bodies that after death shall be made conformable to Christs glorious body 4 Mary Magdalene hath the honour first to see our Saviour and to bee the first Preacher of the resurrection to the everlasting comfort of all true Penitents and as by the woman death came first so the first newes of life from death was brought by a woman 5 Till Christ called Mary by name shee knew him not but supposed him to have beene the Gardiner who indeed is the Planter of the celestiall Paradise neither can we know Christ till by a speciall and particular vocation hee make himselfe knowne to us 6 Christ appeared first to single witnesses as Mary apart and Peter apart and James apart then to double Cleophas and that other disciple afterwards to the eleven Apostles and last of all to more than 500. brethren at once If Maries testimony might bee excepted at because shee was but a woman what can they say to Saint Peter what to Saint James to whom Christ vouchsafed to shew himselfe in particular If they except against them as single witnesses what will they say to Cleophas and Saint Luke two contests of one and the selfe same apparition If their paucity be cavelled at what will they say to the
eleven Apostles or to more than five hundred brethren that saw him all at one time nay what to more than five millions of Confessors and Martyrs signing the truth of it with their blood and shewing the power of it as well by the wonders which they wrought in his name as the invincible patience wherewith they endured all sorts of torments and death it selfe for his name I might produce the testimony of Josephus the learned Jew and tell you of Paschasinus his holy Well that fils of his owne accord every Easter day and the annuall rising of certaine bodies of Martyrs in the sands of Egypt and likewise of a Phoenix in the dayes of Tyberius much about the time of our Lords resurrection rising out of her owne ashes m Lactant. in Poem Ipsa sibi proles suus pater suus haeres Nutrix ipsa sui semper alumna sibi Ipsa quidem sed non eadem quia ipsa nec ipsa Eternam vitam mortis adepta bono But because the authours of these relations and observations are not beyond exception I will rather conclude this point with an argument of Saint n De civit Dei l. 22. c. 5. Haec duo incredibilia scil resurrectionem nostri corporis rem âam incredibilem mundum esse crediturum idem dominus antequam vel unum horuÌ fieret ambo futura esse praedixit unum duorum incredibilium jam factum videmus ut quod erat incredibile credeâet mundus curid quod reliquum est desperatur Austines to which our owne undoubted experience gives much strength The same Spirit of God saith hee which foretold the resurrection of Christ foretold also that the doctrine thereof should bee publickly professed and believed in the world and the one was altogether as unlikely as the other But the latter wee see in all ages since Christs death and at this day accomplished in the celebration of this feast why then should any man doubt of the former The Apostles saw the head living but not the mysticall body the Catholike Church of all places and ages We have read in the histories of all ages since Christ and at this day see the Catholike Church spread over the whole face of the earth which is Christs body how can wee then but believe the head to bee living which conveigheth life to all the members I have set before you the glasse of the resurrection in the figures of predictions of the Old Testament and the face it selfe in the history of the New may it please you now to cast a glance of your eye upon the Image or picture thereof in our rising from the death of sinne to the life of grace All Christs actions and passions as they are meritorious for us so they are some way exemplary unto us and as none can bee assured of the benefit of Christs birth unlesse hee bee borne againe by water and the Spirit nor of his death unlesse hee bee dead to sinne nor of his buriall unlesse hee have buried his old Adam so neither of his resurrection unlesse hee bee risen from dead workes and continually walketh in newnesse of life See you how the materiall colours in a glasse window when the sun-beames passe through it produce the like colours but lesse materiall and therefore called by the Philosophers intentionales spiritales on the next wall no otherwise doth the corporall resurrection of Christ produce in all true believers a representation thereof in their spirituall which Saint John calleth o Apoc. 20.5 the first resurrection Saint Paul p Heb. 6.1 repentance from dead workes Sinnes especially heinous and grievous proceeding from an evill habit are called dead workes and such sinners dead men because they are deprived of the life of God have no sense of true Religion they see not Gods workes they heare not his Word they savour not the things of God they feele no pricke of conscience they breath not out holy prayers to God nor move towards heaven in their desires but lye rotting in their owne filthinesse and corruption The causes which moved the Jewes so much to abhorre dead corpses ought to be more prevalent with us carefully to shunne and avoid those that are spiritually dead in sinnes and transgressions they were foure 1 Pollution 2 Horrour 3 Stench 4 Haunting with evill spirits 1 Pollution That which touched a dead corpse was by the law uncleane neither can any come nigh these men much lesse embrace them in their bosome without morall pollution and taking infection in their soules from them 2 Horrour Nothing so ghastly as the sight of a dead corpse the representation whereof oft-times in the Theater appalleth not onely the spectatours but also the actours and yet this sight is not so dreadfull to the carnall man as the sight of those that are spiritually dead I speake of foule notorious and scandalous offenders to them that feare God Saint John would not stay in the same bath with Cerinthus and certainely 't is a most fearefull thing to bee under the same roofe with blasphemous heretickes and profane persons who have no feare of God before their eyes 3 Stench The smell of a carkasse is not so offensive to the nostrils as the stench of gluttony drunkennesse and uncleannesse in which wicked men wallow is loathsome to God and all good men 4 Haunting with evil spirits We read in scriptures that the men that were possest of the divel came q Mat. 8.28 out of the tombs and graves and we find by dayly experience the like of these rather carkasses than men that the devill hankereth about them and entereth into their heart as he did into Judas filling them with all wickednesse and uncleannesse After they have exhausted their bodies with incontinency their estate with riotous living and have lost first their conscience and after their credit they fall into the deepest melancholy upon which Sathan works and puts them into desperate courses r Psal 73.19 O how suddenly doe they consume perish and come to a fearefull end Me thinkes I heare some say wee heard of places haunted by evill spirits in time of popery are there now any such not such as then were solitary houses ruined pallaces or Churches in which fearefull noyses are said to have beene heard and walking spirits to have beene met For at the thunder of the Gospell Sathan fell like lightning from heaven and hath left those his old holds but places of a contrary condition such where is the greatest concourse of people I meane profane Theaters disorderly Tavernes Ale-houses places of gaming and lewdnesse yea prisons also which were intended for the restraint of wickednesse and punishment of vice are made refuges of Malefactors and schooles of all impiety and wickednesse Quis custodes custodiet ipsos As in the hot sands of Africa where wilde beasts of divers sorts meet to drinke strange monsters are begotten which gave occasion to that proverbe Å¿ Eras
see thy selfe in heaven with one eye than to see thy selfe in hell with both better hoppe into life with one legge than runne to eternall death with both better without a right hand to bee set with the sheepe at Gods right hand than having a right hand to bee set at Gods left hand and afterwards with both thine hands bee bound to bee cast into hell fire c ver 44.46.48 where the worme never dyeth and the fire is not quenched and againe and a third time where the worme never dyeth and the fire is not quenched At the mention whereof it being the burthen of his dolefull Sonnet our Saviour perceiving the eares of his auditors to tingle in the words of my text hee yeeldeth a reason of that his so smart and biting admonition saying For every one shall be salted c. and withall hee sheweth them a meanes to escape that unquenchable fire which they so much dreaded and to kill the immortall worme which even now began to bite them The meanes to escape the one is to bee salted here with fire and the meanes to kill the other is to be salted here with salt for salt preserveth from that putrefaction which breedeth that worme He who now is salted with the fire of zeale or heart-burning sorrow for his sinnes shall never hereafter bee salted with the fire of hell this fire will keepe out that as d Ovid. Met. l. 2. Saevis compescuit ignibus ignes Jupiters fire drove out Phaetons and hee who macerateth here his fleshly members with the salt of Gods uncorrupt word and the cleansing grace of his spirit shall never putrefie in his sinnes nor feele the torment of the never dying worme The Philosophers make three partitions as it were in the soule of man the first they call the reasonable or seate of judgement the second the irascible or seat of affections the third the concupiscible or the seat of desires and lusts In the reasonable part they who knew nothing of the fall of man and originall corruption find little amisse but in the concupiscible they note ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã something like superfluous moisture inclining to luxury in the irascible ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã something like cold or rawnesse enclining to feare behold in my text a remedy for both fire for the one and salt for the other And that wee may not lose a sparke of this holy fire or a graine of this salt so soveraigne let us in a more exact division observe 1 Two kindes of seasoning 1 With fire 2 With salt 2 Two sorts of things to bee seasoned 1 Men without limitation Every 2 Sacrifices without exception All. God e Gen. 4.4 had respect unto Abel and his sacrifice first to Abel and then to his offering hee accepteth not the man for his sacrifice but the sacrifice for the mans sake First therefore of men and their salting with fire and after of sacrifices and their salting with salt Every one shall bee salted with fire Saint f Hieron in hunc locum Mire dictum est c. ille verè victima domini est qui corpus animam a vitus emundando Deo per amorem consecratur nec sale aspergitur sed igne consumitur quando non peccati tantum contagio pellitur sed praesentis vitae delectatio tollitur futurae conversationi totaÌ mente suspiratur Jerome was much taken with this speech of our Saviour it is saith he an admirable saying That which is seasoned with salt is preserved from corruption of vermine that which is salted with fire loseth some of the substance with both the sacrifices of the old Law were seasoned such a sacrifice in the Gospell is hee who cleansing his body and soule from vice by love consecrateth himselfe to God who then it not onely sprinkled with salt but also consumed with fire when not onely the contagion of sinne is driven away but also all delight of this present life is taken away and wee sigh with our whole soule after our future conversation which shall bee with God and his Angels in heaven It is newes to heare of salting of men especially with fire an uncouth expression yet used by our Saviour to strike a deeper impression into the mindes of his hearers and verily the Metaphor is not so hard and strained as the duty required is harsh and difficult to our nature It went much against flesh and blood to heare of plucking out an eye or cutting off an hand or foot yet that is nothing in comparison to salting with fire salt draweth out the corrupt blood and superfluous moisture out of flesh but fire taketh away much of the substance thereof if not all For the fattest and best parts of all sacrifices were devoured by the flame of such things as were offered to God by fire If such a salting bee requisite wee must then not onely part with an eye or a hand or a foot but even with heart and head and whole body to be burned for the testimony of the Gospell if so the case stand that either we must leave our body behind us or wee leave Christ Such a salting is here prescribed by our high Priest as draweth out not onely corrupt moisture but consumeth much of the flesh also yea sometimes all that is not onely bereaveth us of superfluous vanities and sinfull pleasures but even of our chiefe comforts of life it selfe our friends our estates our honours yea sometimes our very bodies So hot is this fire so quicke is this salt Those that are redeemed by Christs blood must thinke nothing too deare for him who paid so deare for them rather than forfeit their faith and renounce the truth they must willingly lay all at stake for his sake who pawned not onely his humane body and soule but after a sort his divine person also to satisfie the justice of God for us Every one How farre this Every one extends and what this salting with fire signifieth the best Interpreters ancient and latter are not fully agreed Some restraine every one to the reprobate only and by fire understand hell-fire others to the elect onely and by fire understand the fire of Gods spirit or grace burning out as it were and consuming our naturall corruptions They who stand for the former interpretation conceive that Christ in these words yeeldeth a reason why hee said that hell-fire shall never bee quenched Ver. 48. for every one that is say they of the damned in hell shall bee salted with that fire the fire shall be to their bodies as salt is to flesh which keepeth it from putrefying O cruell mercy of hellish flames O saving destruction O preservation worse than perdition O fire eternally devouring and yet preserving its owne fuell O punishment bringing continuall torments to the damned and continuing their bodies and soules in it It is worse than death to be kept alive to eternall pains it is
they who are frozen in their sins were somtimes singed and thawed with the consideration of this infernall and eternall fire If they did but minde it they could not but feare it and if they feared it they would in time seeke meanes to escape it and if they sought them in time they might find them in my text And so I passe from the salting of men with fire to the seasoning of sacrifices with salt Every sacrifice shall bee salted with salt There was nothing but t 2 King 2.14 death and barrennesse in the waters of Jericho till Elisha cast salt in the springs In these waters Saint u Isidor Pelus ep 16. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Isidore descryeth a type of our naturall estate wherein we were dead in sinnes and barren of good workes till the true Elisha Christ Jesus cast salt in the springs I meane our hearts whence are the issues of life Salt hath three most knowne properties 1 To powder 2 To season 3 To cleanse It powdereth flesh and keepeth it from putrefaction it seasoneth meats and drinkes and it cleanseth wounds fretting and eating out the corrupt matter in them And answerable hereunto there are three effects of the word mixed with faith 1 It powdereth the heart 2 It seasoneth the speech 3 It cleanseth the sores of wounded consciences Materiall salt is not more necessary in our houses than this spirituall salt in the house of God for without it no taste of goodnesse no relish of holinesse no sapour pleasing to God In some sacrifices of the old law flesh in some wine in some oyle in some meale but in all and with all salt was offered These sacrifices were not onely shadowes of the body which was Christs sacrifice on the crosse but also types of our spirituall sacrifices the meat offerings of our almes deeds whereby wee feed the hungry the drink offerings of our penitent teares the peace offerings of our praise and thanksgiving the heave offerings of our elevated desires and affections the whole burnt offering or holocaust of martyrdome for the testimony of the Gospel And as the legall sacrifices were seasoned with salt and consumed with fire so all our spirituall sacrifices must bee seasoned with the salt of discretion and consumed with the fire of zeale And because the zeale is in the man and the discretion is seene in his offering it is said Every man shall bee salted with fire and every sacrifice shall bee salted with salt To begin with the holocaust or whole burnt-offering When a servant of Christ overcommeth the violence of fire by his faith and remaines as unmoved in the torment thereof as the x Godwin in Archiep Cant. Cranmerus flammâ saeviente erectis in coelum oculis Domine suscipe spiritum meum exclamavit corpore tam immotus perstitit quam palus cui alligatus est stake at which hee is burnt in this sacrifice salt is most necessary I meane the salt of spirituall wisedome and religious discretion For a man must not offer himselfe to the mercilesse flames but being adjudged to them and by the secular arme brought to them patiently and cheerfully suffer them rather than deny the Lord that bought him No man must seale the truth of the Gospell with his blood unlesse hee bee called in as a witnesse and required to depose and then hee must not onely depose in a free profession of his faith but also deposite his life for the further confirmation of his Christian profession He that is called to suffer must in the first place consider for what he suffereth for all are not blessed that suffer but those that y Mat. 5.10 suffer for righteousnesse Blessed indeed most blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousnesse sake not those who are executed as malefactors for murder felony blasphemy schisme obstinacy or fancy None dyeth a Martyr but hee who dyeth for the faith by which the just liveth If a Jew bee scourged to death for the abrogated rites of the ceremoniall law or a Jesuited Papist hanged drawne and quartered according to the penall statutes of this kingdome for treason against the Prince in the Popes quarrell or if an Anabaptist bee burned to ashes for his fanaticall and fantasticall revelations hee dyeth the Popes or his owne Martyr not Christs His suffering as z Ep. 1. Si occisi extra ecclesiam fuerint corona fidei non est sed potius poena perfidiae Cyprian the blessed Martyr determineth the point against all heretickes is Poena perfidiae non corona fidei a punishment for his heresie or perfidiousnesse not a crowne of faith or a wreath of glory Another sacrifice of the whole man is when a devout Christian giveth up his members as servants unto righteousnesse and his whole body as a living a Rom. 12.1 sacrifice unto God in this likewise the salt of spirituall wisdome and discretion is most requisite For wee must so devote our selves to the service of God that we altogether forget not our duty to man we must so follow the things that are above that we neglect not our affaires below quit not our calling on earth much lesse in aspiring to angelicall perfection cast our selves down beneath Heathens and Infidels by casting away all care of provision for our b 1 Tim. 5.8 If any provide not for his owne and especially those of his house or kinred hee hath denied the faith and is worse than an Infidell family There was never any sect had a more plausible pretext for their heresie than the Euchites who nothing but praied continually yet because they distinguished not between time and season mis-understanding the precept of the Apostle c 1 Thes 5.17 pray continually which requireth that we pray upon every occasion and at all seasons that is fit houres for prayer not simply at all times which are allotted us by God for d Eccl. 3.1 every purpose under heaven but especially because they jusled out all other duties of piety and Christian charity for it they were themselves by the ancient Fathers driven out of the Church and deservedly excommunicated who e Epiph haeres Massal Euchiâ Aug. de haeres ad quod vult Deum communicated nothing to the publicke but were all for their private devotion Undoubtedly as when the fattest and best of the sacrifice was consumed the Priests might take the rest for their use so after wee have given God the flower and best of our time the rest wee may nay wee must employ in the workes of our speciall calling for our owne and others behoofe Next to the sacrifice of the whole man is the sacrifice of the hidden man of the heart I meane f Psal 51.17 a broken spirit and contrite heart In this sacrifice the salt of discretion is as necessary as in the former For even godly sorrow must not exceed the rivers of Paradise must bee kept within their bankes A man may pricke his heart for
secondly the civill thirdly the wealthy fourthly the ordinary and found them all very tardy and imperfect in their accounts which that you might not be I but even now delivered unto you the rule of three or golden rule as it is called in sacred algebray whereby you may easily number your dayes and cast up your accounts and infallibly perfect the bookes of your conscience What remaineth but that at your first and best opportunity you fall on this worke cast your accounts privately in the chamber of your heart peruse the booke of your conscience mend what is amisse by unfained and hearty repentance fetch out all the blots and blurres there with the aqua fortis of your teares and if yet there remaine any thing which you cannot well account for to meet your Master before hand upon your knees and beseech him to put it upon his Sonnes score and to satisfie himselfe out of the infinite treasury of his merits or to wipe it out with the spunge that was offered him on the Crosse This if yee practise daily and make even with God every night you shall be perfect and ready when your Master shall call for your accounts and you shall be found of him in peace and he shall then say unto you Well done good and faithfull Stewards yee have been faithfull in a little I will set you over much yee have been faithfull in temporall I will trust you with eternall goods yee have been faithfull in earthly I will commit to you heavenly treasures yee have been faithfull in a Stewardship I will give you a Kingdome enter into your Masters joy Into which God grant we may all enter when we are passed out of this vale of teares through the merits of Christs death and passion by the conduct of his holy Spirit To whom three persons and one God c. PHILIP HIS MEMENTO MORI OR The Passing Bell. A Sermon preached in Mercers Chappell at the Funerall of Master Benet Merchant THE XXII SERMON DEUT. 32.29 O that they were wise then they would understand this they would consider their later end Right Worshipfull c. HEnoch lived by just computation so many yeeres as there are dayes in the yeere viz. 365. and he was the seventh man from Adam and dyed in anno a Sethus Calvis in Chron. Sabbathico the Sabbathick yeere and thereby became a lively Embleme both of this life and the life to come For the labours of this life are governed by the course of the Sunne which is finished in that period of time and the rest of the life to come is evidently prefigured in the Sabbath It is farther written of him in the holy Records of eternity that he b Heb. 11.5 Gen. 5.24 walked with God and was therefore translated that hee should not see death to teach us that they who walke with God all the dayes of their life as he did shall come into no condemnation but immediately passe from death to life from death temporall to life eternall which was not obscurely disciphered unto us in the narration of the seventh dayes creation After the mention of every day in the weeke and the worke thereof wee reade so the evening and the morning were the first day and so the c Gen. 1.5 8 13.19 23 31. second and the rest but after the relation of the seventh dayes creation on which God rested and blessed and sanctified it the former clause is quite d Gen 2.1 2 3. omitted It is not added as in the rest so the morning and the evening were the seventh day because in Heaven whereof the Sabbath was a type there is no morning and evening much lesse night but as it were perpetuall high-noon For the e Apoc. 21.23 Lambe is the light thereof and this Lambe is the f Mal. 4.2 Sunne of righteousnesse which never riseth nor setteth but keepeth still in the midst of the Empyreall Heaven and Throne of God as on the contrary in Hell there is nothing but continuall midnight and everlasting darknesse Thus the wisedome of God justly and the justice of God wisely hath proportioned the rewards in the life to come to the workes of men in this life they that cast off the works of darknesse and put on the armour of light and walk in the light as children of the light here shall hereafter possesse the inheritance of the g Colos 1.12 Saints in light but they who love darknes more than light and have fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darknesse and continually walke as in the darke in grosse and palpable ignorance in gluttony and drunkennesse in chambering and wantonnesse and the like sinnes of darknesse here shall hereafter inhabit the region of perpetuall darknesse and never vanishing shadowes of death O that we were wise then we would understand these things and in the beginning of our race in this world thinke of our h âân ep 30. Ut mortem nunquam timeâs semper cogita later end For the beginning of wisedome is the consideration of our end and a forcible meanes to bring us to everlasting life is to meditate continually upon our death To thinke what wee shall be stench and rottennesse and worse if we be not better ashes and cinders of hell will through the power of Christs death make us what we should be that is dead to sinne dead to the world dead in our selves but alive in God How can hee live in sinne who perpetually apprehendeth that hee shall dye eternally for his sinne how can he make a trade of iniquity and a sport of religion and a mock of God and a god of his belly who hath hell torments alwayes before the eyes of his minde i Lament 1.9 Jerusalem remembred not her last end therefore shee came downe fearfully and because wee put from us the evill day it commeth fast upon us It were unpossible to goe on forward as wee doe in the wayes of sinne and pathes of death if wee would dwell but a little while upon these or the like thoughts After a few dayes perhaps this very day yea this houre I shall be called to a strict account of my whole life charged with all the sinnes open and secret that ever I have committed accused by the Divell convicted by mine owne conscience condemned by the dreadfull Judge of quicke and dead to be cast into utter darknesse in hell there to endure such torments for ever as it would breake the strongest heart and conquer all humane patience to feele but for an houre Haec cogitare est vitiis omnibus renunciare to enter into a serious consideration of these things is to chase away all wanton and wicked thoughts and to send a bill of divorce to the world and all her minions the mistresses of our carnall affections but this is the mischiefe as S. k Cyp. de mortal Aeterna tormenta nemo cogitat quae metueret conscientia si crederet si metueret
City here present were wise then would wee understand this this spectacle of our nature this embleme of our frailty this mirrour of our mortality Applicat ad defunct and in it consider our later end which cannot bee farre off For our deceased brother is here arrested before our eyes for a debt of nature in which wee are as deeply ingaged as hee and if either the wealth of the world or gifts of nature or jewels of grace might have redeemed him if either skill of Physicians or love and care of his friends or prayers and teares of his kindred and his dearest second selfe could have bayled him hee had not been laid up as now you see him But let no man sell you smoake to dazâ your eyes in such sort but that you may all see your owne faces in thiâ broken glasse There is no protection to bee got from King or Nobles iâ this case no rescuing any by force from this Sergeant of God death aââ baile or mainprise from this common prison of all mankinde the grave all our comfort is that we may hereafter sue out an habeas corpus which the Judge of all flesh will not deny us at the generall Assizes that we may make our corporall appearance at his barre in the clouds and there have our cause tryed Doe you desire to know how this debt with infinite arrerages groweth upon us and all mankinde Saint Austin giveth you a good account the woman tooke up sinne from the Serpent as it were by loane consensu Adam fecit cautionem usura crevit posteritati Adam by consenting sealed the band the interest hath runne upon all his posterity and the interest that death had in him by sinne and upon us by him and the interest upon interest by numberlesse actuall sinnes eateth us out one by one till death that swalloweth us up all in the end be swallowed up into b 1 Cor. 15.15 victory and then shall be fulfilled that prophesie O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory At which Goale-delivery of all deaths prisoners wee that are living shall not prevent our brother that lyeth asleep before us in his winding sheet upon whose hearse after I have strowed a few flowers I will commit him to the earth and you to God 1. The first flower is a Rose the embleme of charity For a Rose is hot in nature it spreadeth it selfe abroad and after it is full blowne shattereth both leaves and seeds so charity is hot in the affection spreadeth it selfe abroad by compassion and scattereth seeds by almes-deeds Our deceased brother like a provence or double Rose for God doubled the blessings of this life upon him spread himselfe abroad every way by largesse and shed seeds plentifully but withall so secretly that his left hand knew not what his right hand did his Legacies by his death were not great because his will was in this kind to be his owne executor by his life time 2. The second flower is the Lilly the embleme of purity and chastity For the Lilly is perfect white in colour and cold in operation and thereby representeth pure chastity which cooleth the heat of lust this flower he kept unblasted in the time and place of most danger in the prime of his youth and in his travels beyond the sea where hee chose his consort out of pure love and ever loved his choice with a constant and loyall affection unto death 3. The third flower is the Violet the embleme of humility For the Violet is little as the humble is in his owne eyes and groweth neere the ground from whence the humble taketh his name humilis ab humo and of all other flowers it yeeldeth the sweetest savour as humility doth in the nostrils of God and man Of his humility hee gave good proofe in his lovely and lowly carriage towards all in his refusing places of eminency in renouncing all confidence in his owne merits at his death and forbidding that a Trumpet should bee blowne before his workes of piety or charity Wherefore I must be silent of the dead by the command of the dead with whose Christian and happy end I will conclude I was the happinesse of Homer to bee borne in Rhodes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã rosa ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã viola a place taâââg the name from Roses and to bee buried in Chios taking the name âââm Violets this was the happinesse of our brother who was borne and buried in the garden of Christs Spouse where he drew in his first and let out his last breath in the sincere profession of the Gospel which is the savour of life unto life which happinesse God grant unto us all for his Son Jesus Christ his sake To whom c. THE EMBLEME OF THE CHURCH MILITANT A Sermon preached in Mercers Chappell THE XXIII SERMON APOC. 12.6 And the woman fled into the wildernesse where shee hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes Right Honourable right Worshipfull c. THe a Caussin parab hist Ceraunias in locis fulmine tactis invenitur Naturalists write of a precious stone called Ceraunias that it is found only in a day of thunder glistering when the skie is overcast with darknes With these gems the Spouse of Christ is adorned whose faith constancy and patience shine most brightly in time of adversity and persecution when all the earth is full of darknesse and cruell habitations As b Plin. nat hist l. 2. In Troglodytis fons solis circa meâidiem maximè frigidus mox paulatim tepescens ad noctis medium ferventissimus est c. 103. the fountaine of the sunne in the country of the Troglodytes is cold or lukewarme at mid-day but most extreme hot at mid-night such is the nature of zeale in the day of prosperity and high noone of temporall glory it is cold or at the best luke-warme but in the night of adversity and dead time of persecution it is most fervent and flagrant Then the sincere professors open their hearts most freely in prayer to God and their bowels of Christian charity and compassion to their afflicted brethren the feare of their enemies husheth their private differences their losse of goods and lands is an inducement to them to contemne the world and as having little or no comfort in this life to set their hearts wholly upon Heaven On the contrary peace usually breeds carnall security abundance luxury wealth pride honour ambition power oppression pleasure sensuality and earthly contentments worldlinesse the bane of Religion In which consideration especially we may conceive it is that our blessed Lord the Husband of the Church who loveth her more than all the world besides which hee preserveth onely for her sake yet seldome crowneth her in this world with worldly happinesse and eminent greatnesse but exerciseth her now under the crosse as hee did under the bondage of Egypt and captivity of
Anthemes first single voices answering one the other and after the whole Quire joyning in one as it were tracing the same musicall steps hath not nature drawne with her pensill a perfect grasse green in the Emrald a skie colour in the Saphir the glowing of fire in the Carbuncle the sanguine complexion in the Ruby and the twinckling of the starres in the Diamond and all these together in the Opall which hath in it the lustre and beautifull colours of all these precious stones c Plin. nat hist l. 37 c 6. In Opale est Carbunculi tenuior ignis Amethysti fulgens purpura Smaragdi virens mare c. incredibili misturâ lucentes Such is this feast of all holy ones it is the Churches ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Kalendars pandect as it were a constellation not of many but of all the starres in the skie in it as in the Opall shine the beautifull colours and resplendency of all those precious stones which are laid in the d Apoc. 21.19 foundation and shine in the gates and walls of the heavenly Jerusalem Upon it we celebrate the chastity of all Virgins the simplicity of all Innocents the zeale and courage of all Confessours the patience of all Martyrs the holinesse of all Saints Upon this day the Church militant religiously complementeth with the Church triumphant and all Saints on earth keep the feast and expresse the joy and acknowledge the happinesse and celebrate the memory and imbrace the love and set forth the vertues of all Saints in heaven Which are principally three shadowed by the allegory in my Text 1. Patience in tribulation They came out 2. Purity in conversation And washed their garments 3. Faith in Christs death and passion Made them white in c. The better to distinguish them you may if you please terme them three markes 1. A blacke or blewish marke made with the stroake or flaile Tribulation 2. A white made by washing their garments and whiting them 3. A red by dying them in the bloud of the Lambe 1. First of the blacke or blew marke They came out of great tribulation The beloved Apostle and divine Evangelist Saint John who lay in the bosome of our Saviour and pryed into the very secrets of his heart in the time of his exile in Pathmos had a glimpse of his and our country that is above and was there present in spirit at a solemne investiture or installation of many millions of Gods Saints into their state of glory and order of dignity about the Lambe in his celestiall court The rite and ceremony of it was thus The twelve e Ver. 5 6 7 8. Tribes of Israel were called in order and of every Tribe twelve thousand were sealed in the forehead by an Angel keeper of the broad Seale of the living God Ver. 2. After this signature Loe a great multitude which no man can number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lambe and they had long white robes put upon them and palmes given them in their hands in token of victory and they marched on in triumph singing with a loud voice Salvation from or to our God that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lambe at which words all the Angels that stood round about the Throne and the Elders and the foure living creatures full of eyes fell before the Throne on their faces and worshipped God saying Amen Praise and glory and wisedome and thankes and honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever Amen This glorious representation of the triumphant Church so overcame and tooke away the senses of the ravished Apostle that though he desired nothing more than to learne who they were that he had seen thus honourably installed yet he had not the power to aske the question of any that assisted in the action till one of the Elders rose from his seate to entertaine him and demanded that of him which hee knew the Apostle knew not but most of all desired to know and would have enquired after if his heart had served him viz. who they were and whence they came that were admitted into the order of the white robe in Heaven The answer of which question when the Apostle had modestly put from himselfe to the Elder saying Lord thou knowest the Elder courteously resolveth it and informeth him particularly concerning them saying These are they that are come out of great tribulation c. Thou mightest perhaps have thought that these who are so richly arrayed and highly advanced in Heaven had been some great Monarchs Emperours or Potentates upon earth that had conquered the better part of the world before them paving the way with the bodies and cementing it with the bloud of the slâine and in token thereof bare these palmes of victories in their hands Nothing lesse they are poore miserable forlorne people that are newly come some out of houses of bondage some out of the gallies some out of prisons some out of dungeons some out of mynes some out of dens and caves of the earth all out of great tribulation They who weare now long white robes mourned formerly in blacke they who now beare palmes in their hands carried their crosses in this world they who shout and sing here sighed and mourned under the heavie burdens of manifold afflictions all the dayes of their pilgrimage on earth they whom thou seest the Lambe leading to the f Ver. 17. living fountaines of waters dranke before deep of the waters of Marah and full cups of teares in the extreme heate of bloudy persecutions and in consideration of the great tribulation which they have patiently endured for the love of their Redeemer he bestoweth upon them these glorious robes whited in his own bloud and hee taketh them neere to himselfe that they may stand before him for evermore g Mat. 5 11 12. Blessed thrice blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousnesse sake for great is their reward in heaven The heavier their crosse is the weightier their crowne shall bee their present sorrowes shall free them from all future sorrowes their troubles here shall save them from all trouble hereafter their temporall paines through his merits for whom they suffer shall acquit them from eternall torments and the death of their body through faith in his bloud shall redeeme them from death of body and soule and exempt them from all danger miserie and feare Which priviledges the spirit sealeth unto them in the verses following They h Rev. 7.15.16.17 are before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them They shall hunger no more neither thirst any more neither shall the Sun light on them nor any heat For the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and shall lead them into living fountaines of waters and God shall wipe away all
the flames of fire are the conquerers c Pareus in Apoc Corporaliter victi sunt spiritualitèr vicerunt dum in verá Christi fide ad mortem usâ perstiterunt Paraeus expoundeth this riddle The servants of Christ who seale the truth with their blood are in their bodies mastered but in their soules undaunted and much more unconquered whilest notwithstanding all the tortures and torments which the malice of man or devill can put them to they persist in the profession of the true faith unto death For this is the d 1 Joh. 5.4 victory of the world even our faith In that famous battell at Leuctrum where the Thebans got a signall victory but their Captaine Epaminondas his deaths wound Plutarch writeth of him that he demanded whether his buckler had beene taken by the enemy and when hee understood that it was safe and that they had not laid hands on it hee died most willingly and cheerefully Such is the resolution of a valiant souldier of Christ Jesus when hee is wounded even unto death hee hath an eye to his shield of faith and finding that out of the enemies danger his soule marcheth out of this world singing Saint Pauls triumphant ditty e 2 Tim. 4.7.8 I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth is layd up for me a crowne of righteousnesse To cleare the summe which I have beene all this while in casting Christian victory is a prerogative of the regenerate purchased unto them by Christs death and resurrection whereby in all conflicts and temptations they hold out to the end and in the end overcome on earth and after triumph in heaven First it is a prerogative of the regenerate for none but those that are f 1 Joh. 5.4 borne of God overcome the world Secondly this prerogative is purchased unto them by Christ and therefore the Apostle ascribeth the glory of it to his grace g 1 Cor. 15.57 Thankes bee unto God who giveth us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thirdly this victory is not in one kinde of fight but in all whether Satan the world or the Devill assault us whether they lay at our understanding by sophisticall arguments or at our will by sinfull perswasions or at our senses by unlawfull delights whether our profession bee oppugned by heresie or our unity by schisme or our zeale by worldly policy or our temperance by abundance or our confidence in God by wants or our constancy by persecution or our watchfulnesse by carnall security or our perseverance by continuall batteries of temptations in all wee are more than conquerours through him that loved us h Rom. 8.35.36.37 What or who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perill or sword as it is written For thy sake wee are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter Nay in all these things we are more than conquerours c. Obser 6 None can overcome who fighteth not valiantly none can fight valiantly unlesse they be trained up in Martiall affaires and provided of good and fit armour both for offence and defence this spirituall armour is got by instant and constant prayer and reading and meditating on Gods word and wee put it on by due application of what wee read and heare and wee use it by the exercise of those divine vertues above mentioned from whence the severall pieces of our armour take their names Moreover that a man may conquer his enemie three things are most requisite 1 Exasperation 2 Courage 3 Constancy Exasperation setteth him on Courage giveth him strength and Constancy holdeth out to the end Exasperation is necessary because anger as Aristotle teacheth is the goad or spurre of fortitude neither indeed can any man maintaine a hot fight in cold blood And this is the cause why wee are so often put to the worst in our spirituall conflicts because wee fight like her in the Poet Tanquam quae vincere nollet wee fight not in earnest against our corruptions but either in shew onely dallying or faintly without any earnest desire of revenge Saint i Aug. confess l. 8. c. 7. In exordio adolescentiae petieram chastitatem sed timebam ne me nimis citò audiret citò sanaret à morbo concupiscentiae quem malebam expleri quam extingui Austine before his thorough conversion prayed against fleshly lusts but as he confesseth with great anguish sorrow of heart for his insincerity so aukwardly against his will that secretly hee desired that his lust should rather be accomplished than extinguished As it was then with him so it is with too many that take upon them the profession of Christians and would thinke it foule scorne to bee taken for other than true converts When the voluptuous person offereth a formall prayer to God to extinguish the impure flame of lust rising out of the cindars of originall sinne Satan setteth before his fancy the picture of his beautifull Mistresse and as the Calor ambiens or outward heat in a body disposed to putrefaction draweth out the naturall heat so this impure heat of lust draweth out all the spirituall heat of devotion and so his faint prayer against sinne is turned into sinne In like manner while the covetous man prayeth against that base affection in his soule which ever desireth that wherewith it is never k Aristophan in Plut. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Sen. ep 15. Si quid in his esset solidi aliquando implerent nunc haurientium sitim concitant Horat. carm l. 2. od 2. Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops nec sitim pellit nisi causa morbi fugerit venis aquosus albocorpore languor satisfied Mammon representeth unto him the rising up of his heapes and swelling of his bagges by his use-mony whereby his heart is tickled and so his prayer also turneth into sinne Thus all sinners that are not brought to a perfect hatred and detestation of their bosome sinne even whilest they pray against the forbidden fruit hold it under their tongue and their carnall delights suffocate their godly sorrow Spirituall courage is most necessary that is confidence in God and in the power of his might This confidence is the immediate effect of a lively faith which S. John calleth l 1 Joh. 5 4. the victory of the world When Christ bad Peter come to him walking on the sea upon the rising of a storme Peters faith began to faile and no sooner his heart sanke in his body but his feete also sanke in the water even so when any storme of persecution ariseth for the word when wee see our selves encompassed on every side with dangers and terrours and our faith faileth wee presently sinke in despaire if Christ stretch not out his hand presently to support us and establish our heart in his promises 3 Thirdly constant perseverance is most needfull for though all vertues runne in
but onely by vertue of the promise of him who here saith To him that overcommeth I will give ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I will render or repay for it is not so in this warre as in others wherein the souldier who carrieth himselfe valiantly in warre and ventureth his life for his Prince and countrey may challenge his pay of desert because wee beare not our owne armour nor fight by our owne strength nor conquer by our owne valour nor have any colour for our service on earth to pretend to a crowne in heaven In which regard though wee may expect yet not challenge looke for yet not sue for desire yet not require as due the reward here promised b Luk. 12.32 Feare not little flock saith our Saviour for it is your fathers pleasure to give you a kingdome it is not his bargaine to sell you it Albeit the wages of sinne is death and there we may plead merit yet the Apostle teacheth us that eternall life is the gift of God Upon which words Saint c L. de grat lib. arbit c. 9. Cum posset dicere recte dicere stipendium justitiae vita aeterna maluit dicere gratia autem vita aeterna ut hinc intelligeremus non pro meritis nostris Deum nos ad aeternam vitam sed pro sua miseratione vocare unde dicitur in psalmo coronat te in miseratione Austines observation is very remarkeable Whereas the Apostle might have continued his Metaphor and said the wages of righteousnesse is eternall life because eternall life is the reward of righteousnesse as death is of sinne yet hee purposely put the word gift in stead of wages that wee might learne this most wholesome lesson that God hath predestinated and called us to eternall life not for our merits but of his mercy according to those words of the Psalmist He crowneth thee in compassion If there be any merit in S. Bernards judgement it is in denying all merit Sufficit ad meritum scire quod non sufficiant merita And verily had the Church of Rome all faith as her proselytes suppose that she hath all the good works yet her standing upon tearms with God pleading merit would mar all her merit and justly fasten upon her the ill name of Meretrix Babylonica the whore of Babylon For Meretrix saith Calepine à merendo sic dicta est hath her name from meriting When wee have done all that wee can d Luk. 17.10 Christ teacheth us to say wee are unprofitable servants we have done but that which was our duty to doe Nay have wee done so much as wee ought to doe Venerable Bede to checke our pride who are apt to take upon us for the least good work we doe telleth us no quod debuimus facere non fecimus we have not done what was our duty to do and if the best of us have not done what was our duty to doe wee merit nothing at our Masters hands but many stripes Yet the Church of Rome blusheth not to define it as a doctrine of faith in her conventicle at Trent that our e Concil Trid. sess 6. Can. 32. Si quis dixerit hominis justificati bona opera ita esse dona Dei ut non sint etiam bona ipsius justificati merita aut non vere merere augmentum gratiae vitam aeternam anathema sit good workes doe truely merit eternall life In which assertion as Tertullian spake of venemous flowers quot colores tot dolores so many colours so many dolours or mischiefes to man so wee may of the tearmes of this proposition quot verba tot haereses so many words so many heresies for First it is faith which intituleth us to heaven not workes by grace wee are saved f Ephes 2.8.9 through faith and that not of our selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast Fides impetrat quod lex imperat Faith obtaineth that which the Law commandeth Secondly if workes had any share in our justification yet we could not merit by them because as they are ours they are not good as they are good they are not ours but Gods g Phil. 2.13 who worketh in us both the will and the deed it is God which worketh in you both to will and to doe of his good pleasure for h 2 Cor. 3.5 we are not sufficient of our selves to thinke any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God Whence St. i de lib. arbit c. 7. Si bona sunt Dei dona sunt si Dei dona sunt non coronat Deus tanquam merita tua sed tanquam dona sua Austin strongly inferreth against all plea of mans merit If thy works are good they are Gods gifts if they are evill God crowneth them not if therefore God crowneth thy workes he crownes them not as thy merits but as his owne gifts Thirdly the workes that may challenge a reward as due unto them in strict justice must be exactly and perfectly good but such are not ours k 1 Joh. 1.8 For if we say that we have no sinne or that our best works are not some way tainted we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us Woe saith St. l Confes l. 13. Vae hominum vitae laudabili si remota misericordia discutias eam Austine to the commendable life of men if thou examine it in rigour without mercy In which passionate straine he seemeth to take the note from m Psal 130.3 David If thou Lord shouldest marke iniquities O Lord who should stand and hee from n Job 9.2.3 Job How should man be just before God if he contend with him he cannot answer one of a thousand Fourthly were our workes free from all aspersion of impurity and suspition of hypocrisie yet could they not merit at Gods hands any thing to whom we owe all that we can or are Dei omne est quod possumus quod sumus The greatest Champion of merit Vasques the Jesuit here yeelds the bucklers because we can give nothing to God which he may not exact of us by the right of his dominion we cannot merit any thing at his hand by way of justice For o Vasques in Thom. disput Non meremur in via justitiae quia pro eo quod alteri redditranquam debitum nihil accipere quis debet ideo servi inâtiles dici possumus quod nihil quasi sponte Deo demus sed demus ea quae in re dominii ex praecepto exigere possit no man can demand any thing as his due for meerly discharging his debt no not so much as thankes Luke 17.9 Doth hee thanke that servant because he did the things that were commanded him I trow not Fiftly might our workes taken at the best merit something at Gods hands yet not eternall life For there is no proportion betweene our finite workes and such
idlenesse and vanity youth to lust perfect age and strength to violence and audacious attempts old age to covetousnesse and every one to the sinnes of the time but making use of the present opportunity to thrust a man suddenly into the next sinne When he had got Christ upon the pinacle of the Temple he tempteth him to cast himselfe downe from it to make experience of the Angels care and diligence in waiting on him and q Mat. 4.6 bearing him in their hands that hee dash not his foot against a stone As soone as David had spied faire Bathsheba bathing her selfe he cast a fiery dart of lust at him and wounded him at the heart Achans eyes were no sooner dazled with the lustre of the rich Babylonish garment but Satan closeth with him And as by taking advantage of the present occasion hee made Achan a theefe so Gyges an adulterer Ananias and Sapphira lyers to the holy Ghost Judas a murderer of himselfe If ever a Christian is like to be in any great distresse and trouble in minde it is either in the travels of his new birth or when hee laboureth for life at his last gaspe therefore Satan at these times is most busie In the beginning of our conversion nature is strong and grace is weake and the practise of religious duties is uncouth unto us then therefore Satan sets upon us and presents to us all our former pleasures and amplifieth upon the austerity of a Christian course of life At the houre of death hee doubleth his files not onely because hee is streightned in time and knoweth that either then hee is to prevaile or never but because many things helpe his temptation viz. the extremity of pain the naturall terrour of death and apprehension of Christs dreadfull tribunall before which the sicke party is presently to appeare Now therefore hee sets upon a man in his greatest weaknesse of body and consternation of minde he chargeth him with all his sinnes secret and open hee exaggerateth the strictnesse of Gods justice and the unsufferable torments of hell and if the dying man hath not prepared himselfe for this last conflict or hath not on the whole armour of God or cannot weild his buckler of faith to quench all the fiery darts of the Devill it is great ods that hee wi l get the upper hand of him and bring him if not to dye desperately yet most uncomfortably To launch out of these deepes of Satan and steere towards the haven Conclus applicat The knowledge of evill is good of fraud is honest of errors is true of things that are most noxious wholesome and therefore Logicians discourse accurately of fallacies Physitians of poysons morall Philosophers of vices and Divines of heresies not that wee should use the first or take the second or practise the third or professe the fourth but that wee be not deceived by the first annoied by the second infected by the third seduced by the fourth And this was my first aime in laying before you these stratagems policies and devices of our ghostly enemie to forewarne you of them that you bee not taken or hurt by them But my chiefe was to instruct you how to employ his owne engines and turne his owne ordnance upon himselfe to make treacle of his poyson and use of serpentine wisedome against the serpent after this manner 1. First doth Satan play the Physiognomer and observing our naturall temper fit his temptations thereunto let us also make use of Physiognomy and take advantage of our naturall inclinations to further the worke of grace in us If wee finde our selves by nature timorous let us endevour to improve this feare into awfull reverence if audacious to improve this boldnesse into spirituall confidence if gladsom and merry to improve our mirth into joy in the holy Ghost if cholericke to improve our wrath into zeale if melancholy to improve our pensivenesse into godly sorrow 2. Secondly doth Satan play the Poet and fit every Player with a part that hee is best able to act let us also make use of Poetry and observing our naturall abilities of minde and body to fit our spirituall exercises accordingly If wee are endued with pregnancy of wit to employ it in the study of heavenly mysteries if with maturity of judgement employ it in discerning betweene the true and false Religion and resolving intricate cases of consciences if with felicity of memory employ it in treasuring up pretious doctrines if with liberty of speech employ it in prayer prayses and godly exhortations if with strength of body and courage of minde employ them in fighting the Lords battels if with wisdome in prudently governing the affaires in Church and Commonwealth 3. Thirdly doth Satan play the Politician and enquire into every mans estate condition of life and accommodate his temptations thereunto let us also make use of policy and by our outward estate better our inward labouring for those graces which are most proper for our place and condition If wee are in authority let us strive for gravity and integrity if under the command of others for obedience and faithfulnesse if in an eminent condition for magnanimity and magnificence if in a low for modesty and humility if in abundance for charity and thankfulnesse if in want for frugality and contentednesse if in prosperity for temperance if in adversity for patience 4. Fourthly doth Satan play the Logician and tempt us by method let us also make use of Logicke and observe method in the science of salvation let us first acquaint our selves with the Catechisme and afterwith profounder mysteries in Divinity let us first practise easier and after more difficult duties of Christianity first accustome our selves to beare lighter and after heavier crosses with patience above all things to kill the cockatrice in the shell nip sinnes in the bud to resist evill motions in the beginning to make a stop at every step by which Satan leads us not easily to bee brought to venture upon any doubtfull or questionable actions if wee have ventured upon any by no meanes to give consent to commit the least sinne if wee have beene overtaken in the act of any sinne let us take speciall care wee breake it off by speedy repentance and make no custome of it if through carelesnesse or conversation with wicked men wee have gotten an ill custome let Satan never so farre prevaile with us as to stand in defence and justification thereof much lesse to glory in our evill courses but let our heart smite us for them and let us never bee at peace with our selves till wee have driven out an iron nayle with a golden an evill custome with a good 5. Fiftly doth Satan play the false Pilot and by perswading us to decline from a rocke on the right hand carry us so farre the contrary way that we split our ship upon a rocke on the left hand let us also make use of the art of navigation in our course to the
of your superiours a crowne of thornes to his head every neglect of charity to his members new nailes to wound his hands and feet every blasphemous word a new spitting on his face every oath a speare to pierce his heart But what moved him to become our surety and sacrifice No reason can be given but his will Oblatus est quia voluit He was offered because hee would hee would because hee loved us and to the end hee might the better undergoe his office because it became us to have such an high Priest that had feeling of our wants and infirmities he became man The man The Hebrewes have foure severall words for a man Adam Enosh Ish Geber Adam signifying red earth Enosh a man of sorrow Ish a man of a noble spirit Geber a strong man wee have found a man here in all these senses Adam earth as wee Enosh a man of sorrowes Ish a man of a noble spirit to encounter all the powers of darkenesse Geber a strong man stronger than hee in the q Mat. 12.29 Gospell which first possessed the house Behold the man saith Pilat but a man of sorrow saith Esay nay a worme and no man saith David nay lesse resisting than a worme for a worme if it bee trod upon will turne againe but this man went like a lambe to the slaughter or if hee may rightly be termed a worme certainely a silke-worme spinning us a precious web of righteousnesse out of his owne bowels yet this worme and no man is Ish one of noble spirit and Geber a valiant man yea such an one as is Gods fellow My fellow For in him the Godhead dwelleth bodily and in him all the Saints are compleat he is the brightnesse of his Fathers glory and the engraven forme of his person ipse paterni Pectoris effigies lumenque a lumine vero Semper cum patre semper de patre semper in patre semper apud patrem semper quod pater saith Fulgentius ex ipso cum ipso hoc quod ipse saith Saint Austine who being in the forme of God thought it not r Phil. 2.6 robberie to bee equall with God and therefore God calleth him here his fellow Such a one iâ became him to be that was to encounter principalities to come upon the strong man whereby is meant the Divell and binde him and spoile his goods to grapple with the great King of feare Death to say to hell and the grave Effata to swallow up the swallower of all things to destroy destruction and to lead captivitie captive and to returne with glory from thence unde negant quenquam redire Againe my fellow yet a man creator matris creatus ex matre saith Saint Austine ipsum sanguinem quem pro matre obtulit ante de sanguine matris accepit saith Emissenus Hee that was the brightnesse of his Father and such a brightnesse as no man could behold and live hath now a traverse drawne over his glorie the word is made flesh sepositâ non depositâ majestate saith Emissenus naturam suscipiendo nostram non amittendo suam saith Saint Austine ad terrena descendit coelestia non deseruit hic affuit inde non defuit and so be became Emmanuel God with us perfect God and perfect man man to receive supplications from man God to deliver them to God man to suffer for man God to satisfie God Apparuit medius saith Saint Austine inter mortales peccatores immortalem justum mortalis justus mortalis cum hominibus justus cum Deo ne vel in utroque similis longè esset à Deo aut in utroque dissimilis longè esset ab hominibus To conclude this point Gods fellow to offer an infinite sacrifice for all mankinde and a man that he might be himselfe the sacrifice killed by the sword which is now awaked to smite him 1 Smite the Shepheard Hachharogneh hacke him hew him butcher him Now are the reines let loose to all the powers of darkenesse now is the sword flying about the Shepheards eares now have they power to hurrie him from Annas to Caiaphas from Caiaphas to Pilat from Pilat to Herod from Herod againe to Pilat and so to Calvarie and in every passage appears a sword that might cleave asunder a heart of Adamant yet the Lord of hostes saith still 2 Smite him Now hath Judas power to betray him the Priests to convent him the standers by to buffet him the officers to whip him the people to deride him Pilat to condemne him and in every act appeares a sword that might cleave in sunder a heart of rocke yet the Lord of hostes saith still 3 Smite him Now the thornes have power to goare him the whip to lash him the nailes to fasten him the speare to pierce him the Crosse to extend him the grave to swallow him and in every one appeares a sword that might cleave in sunder a heart of steele yet the Lord of hostes saith still 4 Smite him Let no part bee free from torment not his head from pricking nor his face from spitting nor his flesh from whipping nor his pallat from vinegar nor his hands and feet from piercing nor his heart from the speare yet still the Lord of hostes saith 5 Smite him The torment of his body was but the body of his torment the soule of his torment was his soules torment Now his soule is troubled saith John nay exceeding sorrowfull saith Marke nay heavie unto death saith Matthew all the streames of bloud that issued from him on the Crosse were nothing to his drops in the garden those were forced with outward violence these were drained out with inward sorrow Sure saith one he was neare some fornace that melted him Here was a blow that if he had not beene Gods fellow would have strucke him downe to hell yet the Lord of hostes saith 6 Smite him The sense of paine is not so grievous as the want of comfort Here all comfort is with-held the people deride him and preferre a murderer before him of his owne people and servants one betrayeth him another denies him all forsake him all this is nothing in comparison For friends are but earthly comforts but that his Father from heaven should forsake him here is the sword that cleaveth his heart and maketh up the full measure of the blow In the very heat of his passion hee tooke no notice of any other torment but this onely that his God had forsaken him It is wonderfull that never any Martyr brake forth into the like speech notwithstanding all their exquisite torments but the reason is assigned by St. Austine Martyres non eripuit nunquid deseruit By this time I know you expect the fulnesse of the blow vox faucibus haeret it is death the ignominious death of the Crosse Vexed he was before his death tortured in his death wounded after his death hic salus patitur fortitudo infirmatur vita moritur Now the Angels stand amazed at the
1. Lightsome knowledge 2. Perfect holinesse 3. In regard of the rule that God gave him over all creatures So St. Basil expoundeth those words Let us make man after our image adding imperiale animal es O homo quid servis affectibus to whom Chrysostome Athanasius Aquinas and all the Schoole-men assent And let this suffice to bee spoken of the man in the third place followeth Put him into the Garden of Eden 3. What he did with him Of this Garden two questions are disputed on by Divines 1. Whether this Garden were a reall place in the earth 2. Whether Paradise yet remaine To the first I answer that questionlesse Paradise was a true and reall Garden as S. Jerome and Chrysostome affirme against Origen Origines sic allegorizat ut historiae tollit veritatem non licet nobis ita nugari simpliciorum auribus imponere dicendo nullum fuisse in terris hor tum quem vocant Paradisum and Bellarmine proves it sufficiently against the fancy of Franciscus Georgius To the second I answer That the place of the earth remaineth in substance though it is not now a Paradise or hortus deliciarum for the beauty of it is gone The curse of the whole earth to beare thornes and thistles is come upon it As for the Paradise mentioned in Saint d Luk. 23.43 Luke and in the e Apoc. 2.7 Apocalypse it was celestiall and Saint f 2 Cor. 12.4 Paul maketh it plaine where having said hee was rapt up into the third heaven by and by hee nameth the place Paradise Upon which words Saint Ambrose thus commenteth Paradisum intelligit coelestem de quo Dominus dixit latroni hodiè mecum eris in Paradiso You have heard where the Lord placed him it remaineth that we enquire in the fourth place 4. To what end God placed him there To dresse and keepe the garden God had not yet cursed the earth neither were the wholsome hearbes degenerated into weeds Every plant and hearbe brought forth fruit according to their kind God that made them good could have preserved them in that state of goodnesse but man had need of some imployment and therefore God injoyned him to dresse this garden of pleasure in this place to make use of his gifts and by his reason and industry to modell it into some delightfull forme yet was his labour without all pain nay it was full of pleasure But why is it added to keepe it Surely saith St. Austine no invading neighbour was feared to put him out of possession nor thiefe to rob him of his choicest plants but God would have him therefore to keepe it to himselfe ne inde projiciatur This is wittily inferred by him but it seemes the naturall meaning of the place is this that he should not onely dresse it as at the first but with continuall care keepe it God would not have man idle no not in Paradise Thus briefly of his dressing and keeping now we are to consider in the fift place 5. Gods large permission That he might eat of every tree in the Garden Behold Gods bounty there was not onely the delicacy of all fruits but variety and Adam was not limited to some few he might eat of every tree neither was he for a short time to have enjoyed this if he had harkened to the command of his Lord. For in the midst grew the tree of life of which he might eat at his pleasure the other trees saith S. f Lib. 13. è Civit Dei Austine were given to him to satisfie his hunger and thirst but this to give vigour to him and keep him from infirmity age and death yet this grant was not so generall but that it had annexed unto it a restraint which we are to consider of in the sixt place 6. His restraint From the tâee of knowledge It was not so called as g Antiq. âudaââ l. 3. c. 9. Josephus dreamed because it had a vertue in it to sharpen the understanding that man might know God the better For it was as the other trees of the Garden without sense or knowledge but it was intituled so in a double respect 1. Because joyned to the commandement it was an outward sign shewing what was good viz. what God commanded and what was evill viz. what God forbad 2. In respect of the event As the waters of Meribah or strife were so called because Israel there contended so was this tree called the tree of knowledge of good and evill because hereby Adam knew experimentally what good there was in obeying and what evill in disobeying what good in innocency and what evill in iniquity what good within the bounds of Paradise and what evill in the accursed world St. h Serm. 14. de verâ Dom. Austine thus openeth the matter Doe not touch this tree Why What is this tree If it be good why should I not touch it If it be evill what maketh it in Paradise Doubtlesse it was good why then may be not touch it That father answereth sweetly quia obedientem te volo non contradicentem serve prius audi domini jussum tunc jubentis disce consilium God like a good Physician shewed Adam what was hurtfull Adam like an intemperate patient would not refraine it 7. Hiâ punishment if he restraine it not In the day that thou eatest thou shalt dye The same day thou forsakest mee in thy disobedience I will forsake thee in my justice thou shalt dye first the death of the body and after the death of the soule if thou beleeve not in the promised seed and not thou onely in thy person but all thy children stand and fall in thee they stand in thy obedience and in thy disobedience they fall and in the truth of this let all confesse to the glorie of God Iniquum est ut bene sit desertori boni it was sinne in Adam to forsake his Maker it was justice in God to punish him that in this manner had forsaken him Thus much for the opening of the Text. Let us now apply it to this honourable assembly 1 This Garden of Eden may well be compared to our mother the Church 2 This man to our spirituall and temporall Rulers 3 This placing man in Paradise to their calling that is of God 4 This dressing and keeping it to their labours in their charge 5 The eating of every tree to their reward 6 Their restraint from the tree of knowledg to that which is forbidden them 7 This threatned death to the punishment of all transgressours 1 Touching our Church and her resemblances to Paradise 1 As Paradise was separated from other parts of the earth so this Land the Poet calleth us Toto divisos orbe Britannos 2 As Paradise was beautified with the lights of nature so our Church with gifts of grace above nature 3 As Paradise was beset with faire trees that hare pleasant fruits so our Church with many Pastours whose lives are
have delivered up those blasphemous Heretickes into the hands of the Magistrate who beareth not the sword of justice in vaine 9 Ninthly if these pious resolutions of the ancient Fathers and noble acts of religious Princes serve not as matches to kindle the zeale of godly Magistrates against the enemies of our Religion the heathen shall one day rise up against them the ancient Romans who had this law written among the rest l Leg. 12. tab Deos privatos nemo habeat Let no man have a private Religion to himselfe the Athenians who banished Protagoras for that atheisticall speech of his de diis Sintne an non sint nil habeo dicere I can say nothing concerning the gods whether there are any or not and put Socrates to death m Plato in apolog Socr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã because he made question of the truth of that Religion which the State professed In a word all nations of the world shall condemn them of whom n Seneca sent Violatarum religionum apud diversas gentes diversa statuitur poena apud omnes aliquo Seneca writeth truly that for the profaning violating or corrupting the worship of God there are divers punishments appointed in divers places but in all Countries some or other And not without cause for if it be a scandall to a State to suffer theeves murtherers to go unpunished are Hereticks to be set free who rob men of that pearle of truth which the rich merchant man sold all that he had to buy who are guilty of spirituall homicide wherewith St. o Tract 11. in Johan Videtis qualia faciant quâlia patiuntur occidunt animas affliguntur in corpore sempiternas mortes faciunt temporales se perpeti conqueruntur Austine directly chargeth them You see what these miscreants doe and what they suffer and have they thinke you any just cause to complaine of the punishments that are inflicted on them They kill the soules of men and smart for it in their bodies by their damnable doctrine they bring men to eternall death and yet grudge that they suffer a temporall Doe not all wise men account Religion to bee the foundation which beareth up the whole frame and fabricke of State And is it possible a building should stand upon two foundations Religion is the soule which animateth the great body of the Common-wealth and will it not prove a monster if it be informed with divers soules The Church and Common-wealth have but one centre any new motion therefore in the one must needs make a commotion in the other In which regard Mecoenas advised Augustus to punish severely all Innovators in matter of Religion p Non solum deorum causâ sed quia nova quaedam numina hi tales inducentes multos impellunt ad rerum mutationem not only out of a regard of pietie but also for reason of State What mutinies what heart-burnings what jealousies what bloudy frayes and massacres may there be feared where Religion setteth an edge upon discontent And all that dye in these quarrels pretend to the Crowne of Martyrdome I forbeare multiplicity of examples in this kind our neighbour Countries have bin for many yeeres the stages whereon these tragedies for Religion have been acted and God alone knowes what the catastrophe will be There was never so great mischiefe done at Rome by fire as when it took the Temple of Vesta and mingled it selfe with the sacred flame q Ovi fast l. 6. Ardebant sancti sceleratis ignibus ignes Et mista est flammae flamma prophana piae Even so if the wild-fire of contention mixe it selfe with the sacred fire of zeale and both burne within the bowels of the same Church it is not a river of bloud that is like to quench the direfull flame Therefore r Ep. 166. Julianus reddidit Basilicas haereticis quando templa Demonus eo modo putans Christianum nomen posse petire de teâââs si unitati Ecclesiae de qua lapsus fuerat invideret sacrilegâs diââânsiones liberas esse pârmitteret Julian the Apostata as S. Austine reports having a desire to set all Christendome in a combustion cast a fire-ball of contention among them by proclaiming liberty to all Heretickes and Schismatickes to set abroach their damnable doctrines hoping thereby utterly to extinguish the name of Christians But to come neere to our Adversaries and turne their owne ordnance upon them Did Queene Mary in her short reigne exempt the servants of God of any age or sexe from the mercilesse flames of the fire Doe not Bellarmine Allan Parsons Pammelius Maldonat and generally all Jesuits set their wits upon the rack and stretch and torture them to maintaine the rackes and tortures of Popish Inquisition Of what hard metall then are their foreheads made who dare supplicate for a toleration in a Protestant state able to suppresse them Why should they not be contented with their owne measure though all the world knoweth the sweet benignity and clemency of our gracious Soveraign abates them more than the halfe Here me thinkes I heare the soules of the slaine under the Altar cry How long Lord holy just dost not thou revenge the bloud of thy servants spilt as water upon the ground by the Whore of Babylon which to this day out-braveth thy Spouse having dyed her garments scarlet red in the goare of thy Saints and Martyrs of thy Son Jesus Christ Righteous Lord wee have been made a spectacle of misery to Angels and men wee have been killed all the day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter wee have been spoiled of all our goods banished our native soile we have been hewen asunder wee have been slaine with a sword we have been whipt scourged cast into dungeons with serpents burnt at a stake to ashes some of us digg'd out of our graves and martyred after our death and she that hath thus cruelly butchered thy servants sits as Queene arrayed in purple and scarlet and fine linnen and carouseth healths to the Kings and Princes of the earth in a cup of gold and after shee hath made them drunke with the wine of her abominations she committeth spirituall filthinesse with them in the face of the Sun Cupio me patres conscripti clementem non dissolutum videri saith the wise Oratour I wish that mercy to which all vertues as Seneca observeth willingly give the place and yeeld the garland may be still the prime gemme in our Soveraignes Crowne I plead for mercy which must be our best plea at Christs Tribunall but I desire it to bee well thought upon whether it be mercy or not rather cruelty to spare those who spare not your sonnes and daughters but daily entice them and by their agents conveigh them over beyond the Sea to sacrifice not their bodies but their soules their faith their religion to the Moloch of Rome * Plin. nat hist l. 8 c. 22. Arcades scribunt ex
and as the Å¿ Pro. 14.18 But the path of the just is aâ the shining light that shineth more and more untill the perâect day light of the Sun shineth more and more till it be perfect day as the branches of the true vine bearing fruit in Christ are purged and pruned by the Father that they may bring forth more fruit Å¿ John 15.2 Herein the supernaturall motions of the Spirit resemble all naturall motions which as the Philosopher teacheth us are velociores in fine quam in principio swifter in the end than in the beginning Of all the proper markes of the elect children of God this is the most certaine and therefore St. t Phil. 3.13 14. Paul instanceth in it onely This one thing I doe forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before I presse towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus And St. u 2 Pet. 3.18 Peter closeth with it as the upshot of all Ye therefore beloved beware lest ye fall from your own stedfastnesse but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ It is not so in the spiritual as in the corporall augmentation for the body groweth according to all dimensions but to a certain age but the soule may must grow in spiritual graces till the houre of death and the reason of the difference is because the aetas consistentiae of our body is in this life but of our soul in the life to come Here the body arriveth to the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã highest pitch of perfection but the soule arriveth not to hers til we come to the heavenly Jerusalem and to the x Heb. 12.23 Church of the first borne and to the spirits of just men made perfect O that our blessed Redeemer had here made an end of his letter and sealed up all the Angels praises with this sweet close what an admirable president should we have had of a perfect Pastour what joy should have beene in the presence of the Angels for the unspotted integrity and absolute perfection of this Angell But because as St. y Ep. ad âust Apud Deum nihil tantum suave placet nisi quod habet in se aliquid mordacis veritatis Jerome acutely observeth that there was no use of hony in the sacrifices of the old law because nothing pleaseth God which is onely sweet and hath not in it somewhat of biting truth therefore after the sweet insinuation I know c. there followeth a sharpe reprehension there is a Notwithstanding that standeth in this Angels light and obscureth the lustre of all his former vertues Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee Origen handling those word z Cant. 1.5 Nigra sum sed formosa I am blacke but comely draweth the face and lineaments of Christs Spouse if I may so speake with a blacke coale a Orig. in Cant. hom 1. Quaerimus quomodo nigra sine candore sit pulchra poenitentiam egit a peccatis speciem ei largita est conversio nigra est propter antiqua peccata sed propter poenitentiam habet aliquid quasi Aethiopici decoris How saith he can she be faire that is all blacke I answer she hath repented her of her sinnes and her repentance hath given her beautie but such as may be in a Negro or Blackmoore Philosophie teacheth that there is no pure metall to be found in the Mines of the earth nor unmixed element in the world What speak I of the earth the starres of the skie are not cleane nor the Angels of heaven pure in Gods eyes Job 25.5 Behold even to the moone and it shineth not yea the starres are not pure in his sight how much lesse sinfull man whose conception is lust and birth shame and life frailty and death corruption After St. Austine had blazoned his mothers vertues as Christ doth here the Angels he presently dasheth them all through with a blacke line b Aug. confes l. 9. c. 13. Attamen vae laudibili vitae hominum si remotâ miserecordiâ discutias eum Woe be to the most righteous upon earth if God deale with them in strict justice c Aug. l. 10. c. 28. Contendunt laetitiae meae flendae cum laetandis moeroribus ex qua parte stet victoria nescio hei mihi Domine miserere mei Contendunt moerores mei mali cum gaudiis bonis ex qua parte stet victoria nescio hei mihi Domine miserere mei Ecce vulnera mea non obscondo medicus es aeger sum misericors es miser sum As for me saith that humble Saint I confesse my sinnes to thy glory but my owne shame my sinfull delights contend with my godly sorrowes and on whether side standeth the victorie I know not woe is me Lord have mercy upon me Againe my ungodly sorrowes contend with my holy joyes and on which side standeth the victorie I know not woe is me Lord have mercy on me Behold I hide not my wounds thou art a Physician I am sicke thou art a Surgeon I am thy Patient thou art pitifull I am in miserie If the light be darknesse how great is the darknesse If our righteousnesse be as menstruous clouts Esay 64.6 what are our monstrous sinnes Yet the Prophet saith not that the covers of our sinnes but the robes of our righteousnesse are as filthy rags Whereupon b Origen in ep ad Rom. c. 3. Quis vel super justitia âuá gloriabitur cum audiat Deum per Prophetam dicentem quia omnis iustitia vestra sicut pannus menstruatae Origen groundeth that question which may gravell all those that build upon the sinking sands of their owne merits Who dare brag of his righteousnesse when he heareth God saying by his Prophet All our righteousnesse is as filthy rags Surely Pope Gregorie was no Papist at least in this point for he prizeth the best endeavours of grace in us at a lower rate than Luther or Calvin they say our purest coyne is allayed with some quantity of baser metall he that it is no better than drosse c Greg. mor. l. 9. c. 11. Omnis humana iustitia injustitia esse convincituâ si districtâ judicetur All humane justice saith he examined according to Gods strict justice is injustice Therefore if we say or thinke God hath nothing against us he hath much against us for so saying or thinking For d Psal 19.12 who knoweth how oft he offendeth O cleanse thou us all from our secret faults Had we arrived to the perfection of this Angel in my text and could exhibite letters testimoniall signed by our Saviour such as this Angel of Thyatira might yet were it not safe to capitulate with God notwithstanding all our vertues and graces he hath somewhat against us either for sinnes of omission or sinnes of commission or at least sinnes of permission I
of his discourse which was the promise of our Saviour I will ease you This indeed is Caput bonae spei the only Cape of good hope If these allusions seem defective and not so apposite as before I searched the land so now I will the sea for fitter and the fittest of all seem to mee to be these foure seas 1. Rubrum 2. Orientale 3. Mediterraneum 4. Pacificum The first because it ran all upon the bloudy passion of our Saviour I liken to the read sea The second I compare to the orientall Ocean not onely in respect of the immensity of matter in it depth of the authors judgment and rare pearles of wit and art but especially because Extulit Oceano caput aureus igniferum sol because out of this Easterne Ocean we saw the Sun of righteousnes Christ Jesus arising The third because it interveyned between the former the latter sea and passed through the whole continent in a manner of Divinity I call the Mediterranean or mid-land sea The fourth for the equall current of it but especially for the subject and matter resembleth mare del zur commonly called Pacificum for his whole discourse tended to this that though the life of a Christian be a sea yet that it is so calmed by Christs promise I will ease you that to every childe of God in the end it proves mare pacificum My peace I give unto you The still sea be not troubled nor feare Et si vultis accipere these judicious and methodicall Sermons foure in number are the foure rowes in Aarons breast-plate of judgement the jewels are their precious doctrines the imbossments of gold in which these jewels were set were their texts of Scripture Sed ubi spiritualis tabernaculi Å¿ Vincent Lerin advers haer Bezaliel qui pretiosas divini dogmatis gemmas exculperet fideliter adornaret sapienter adjiceret gratiam splendorem venustatem I know not how it comes to passe that as sometimes in Israel though there were much metall yet no Smith so at this time in this famous University though we have store of jewels yet there is none who will professe himself in this kind a Jeweller If the true reason hereof be the difficulty danger of this work wherein we fish as it were with a golden hook Cujus jactura nullâ piscium capturâ compensari potest then have all sorts of auditors great reason favourably to interpret their best endeavours who for their sake not only undertake so great a taske but hazzard so great a losse If the Rehearser acquit himself never so well what can he expect for all his pains but the bare commendation of a good memory but if he faile not only his memory but his judgement and discretion also are called in question In which consideration when authority first laid hands on mee I drew backe with all my might till the command for repeating being repeated againe and againe in the end the power of authority more prevailed with mee than the sense of mine owne infirmity Adamas ferrum à magnete tractum ad se rapit vehementiùs though the iron as Agricola observeth is drawn powerfully by the load-stone yet if a diamond be in place the load-stone loseth his force Artificiall memory as t Lib. 3. Rhet. ad Heren Constat artificiosa memoria ex locis imaginibus Cornificius saith consisteth of images and places We need not goe farre for them we have them both in my Text places Ver. 17. Thou shalt set it full of places for stones images most resplendent in the Verses following and very happy were I if as here I have the names so I had the naturall effects attributed to some of these jewels for 1. The Agat keepeth a man moist saith Dioscorides 2. The Beril sharpeneth the wit saith Ystella 3. The Carbuncle infuseth spirits saith Barraeus 4. The Chrysolite helpeth the breathing parts saith Rueus 5. The Emrald is good for the sight and memory saith Vincentius 6. The Onyx strengtheneth the whole body saith Albertus 7. The Saphir freeth a man from wrath and envie saith Tostatus but I perswade my self that many of these authors when they wrote these things had an Amethyst on their fingers the last jewell in the third row in Hebrew called ××××× from ××× u Buxtorf epit radic heb From a word signifying to dreame because they that weare it are much subject to dreaming Amethystus lapis pretiosus sic dictus quòd gestantibus eum somnia inducit and therefore leaving such incredulous relations to * Aben Ezra in Exod. 28.19 Rabbinicall and Philosophicall legends in a warrantable Scripture phrase I will pray to Almighty God to touch my tongue with a coale mentioned by the x Esay 6.6 7. Then flew one of the Seraphims unto me having a coale in his hand and he laid it upon my tongue Prophet Esay which S. Jerome interpreteth a Carbuncle that I may enflame the hearts of this great assembly with a zeale of his glory and both now whensoever I am to speak to the edification of his people so to furnish mee with materialls and assist mee in laying them that upon the true foundation Christ Jesus I may build not hay and stubble but gold silver and precious stones such as shine in my Text which I divide according to the foure rowes into foure parts THE FIRST ROW And in the first row a Ruby a Topaze and an Emrald WHether the Ruby fit not the modesty of the Speaker the Topaze quae sola gemmarum limam sentit his limate and polished stile the Emrald the fresh and green verdour of his sentences I leave to your learned censures sure I am the green and ruddy stones some of them generated in the red sea lively set forth the green wounds and bloudy passion of the worlds Redeemer the subject of his discourse The Ruby hath a perfect colour of flesh whence it is called in Latine Carneolus but with a lustre and resplendency farre above the nature of flesh What fitter embleme of the rayes of divine majesty shining in the flesh of our Saviour which was the argument of the Preachers first part This Ruby nubeculâ quâdam offundebatur as the naturall to wit in his passion and then changed colour and resembled the other two gems death displaying its colours in his flesh which he suffered to pay the wages of sinne for us which was the scope of his latter observations The imbossment of gold in which these gems of divine doctrine were set was his Text taken out of JOHN 11.50 It is expedient for us that one man should dye for the people The first Sermon preached on Good-friday by Master Ozborstone Student of Christ-Church BEhold I bring you a prophesie but of no Prophet I present you lying malice speaking truth unwittingly unwillingly and savage cruelty providing a salve to cure the wounds of all mankind Out of one fountain bitter and sweet out of
one field tares and wheat out of one mouth proceeds cursing and blessing Behold an ambitious simoniacall Priest of the Romane constitution and that but for a yeer vaunt over him that is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek Behold bloudy Caiphas consulting nay determining to put Christ to death not for any fault of his but because it was profitable to the Priests it is expedient for us yet doth hee colour his bloud-thirsty appetite with a varnish of common good If wee let him alone all men will beleeve in him and beleeving him to be a God will advance him to be a King the Romans will come take away this place and our Nation He is but one man what is the bloud of one man to the quiet of a publike state Melius est ut pereat unus quà m unitas let one man dye that the whole Nation perish not This is Caiphas his meaning vouchsafe we a look to it before we consider the meaning of a much better spirit Solomon his Lilly is most beautifull among thornes The Rose sayes Plutarch is never so fragrant as when it is planted by the Nettle the doctrine of the Holy Ghost seemeth never more excellent than when it is compared with the doctrine of Divels It is expedient he should dye he saith not it is just or lawfull Bonum commodis non honestate metitur Caiphas profit is become the rule of justice in whose hands now it is not only to judge according to the rule of law but to over-rule the law also In imitation of whom I verily thinke it was that Clemens the fifth being demanded how the Templer Knights might be cut off made this answer Si non licet per viam justitiae licet saltem per viam expedientiae But if it be profitable to whom cui bono to whom is it so to us now hee speakes like himselfe To S. Paul all things were lawfull yet many things did not seem expedient to Caiphas that is expedient which is not lawfull But shall a just innocent man a Prophet nay more than hee that was more than a Prophet lose his life for nothing but your commodity the answer is that though he be all these yet in a manner he is but unus one man and we are many better it were that he suffer a mischiefe than we an inconvenience therefore be his quality what it may be let him dye Ne saevi magne Sacerdos Let not the high Priest be angry will nothing but his death appease you You have a guard keep him sure manacle his hands fetter his feet only spare his life bring not his bloud upon your head Tush it is for our profit His bloud be upon us Thus crudelitas vertitur in voluptatem jam occidere hominem juvat it was meat drink to them to spill the bloud of Christ Jesus and being pleased to consider him but as a man they trampled on him as a worme and no man Ystel in Exod. Behold here in another sense Caiphas a bloudy Ruby yet as the Rubies about Egypt aureâ bracteâ sublinuntur so hath he gold foyle Scripture in his mouth the words of the Holy Ghost who not only out of the mouth of babes and sucklings will have his praise out of the mouth of asses and brute beasts will have his power to be knowne but also out of the mouth of reprobates and incarnate divels will have the same truth in the same words confirmed which holy Prophets and the holy Spirit by which they spake would have revealed For not onely holy men as the Preacher observed but sometimes also unholy men speake as they are moved by the Holy Ghost Agit Spiritus Dei per bonos per malos per scientes per nescientes quod agendum novit statuit but in a different manner The Holy Ghost so touched the hearts of holy Prophets that their hearts enditing this matter of Christs passion their tongues became the pen of ready writers but on the contrary as Caiphas did honour God with his lips while his heart was farre from him so saith Saint Chrysostome the Spirit of God touched his lips but came not neere his heart It is expedient In the exposition of Caiphas the meaning is it is good for us pretending common good to kill Jesus but the sense of the Holy Ghost is that the precious death of our Saviour would be expedient for us and his alone bloud once shed for his people an all-sufficient ransome for their soules Expedient it was and behoovefull in the first place that he who should satisfie for sinne the wages whereof is death should bee a man subject to death Secondly that he should dye Thirdly inasmuch as with respect to his people he became a man subject to death so that hee should in the end lay downe his life for the people Fourthly that he should be sufficient by his alone death to satisfie in their behalfe for whom he dyed Lastly we must enquire whether the profit of his passion be such as extendeth to our selves or not we shall find it doth for so are the words of the Text It is expedient for us Expedient it was that the Saviour of man should be a man Ecce homo behold he is so for comming to save man suscepit naturam quam judicavit salvandam he became in all things sinne only excepted like unto us It was fit it should be so for if the Deity had opposed it selfe non tam ratio quà m potestas Diabolum vicisset what mystery had there bin for God to vanquish the Divell how should the Scripture have bin fulfilled The seed of the woman shall breake the Serpents head yet there is an experiment beyond all this Experiar Deus hic discrimine aperto an sit mortalis saith the spirituall Lycaon if hee carry about with him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a body subject to dissolution doubtlesse hee is a man Thus therefore that hee might shew himselfe a man it was expedient that hee should die Is this thy reward O sweet Saviour for stouping thine infinite majesty so low as to become earth and thirty three yeeres to converse amongst us must thou dye It must bee so yet not for any necessity of justice in respect of himselfe for never Lambe more innocent nor of constraint for at the very time of his apprehension when hee had lesse than twelve Apostles hee had more than twelve Legions of Angels at his becke at the breath of his mouth the majesty of his countenance the force of those his words I am hee a whole troupe of his persecuters fell backwards but it must bee so because the determination of the Trinity and the conformity of his owne will thereunto will have it so Oblatus est quia voluit saith the Prophet I lay down my life saith himselfe Yea Caiphas said as much in effect It is meet not that one should be put to death but that he
should dye Mori infirmitatis est sic mori virtutis infinitae There wanted not other meanes to redeeme man but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it was meet that by the death of the Sonne of God wee should bee redeemed Sanguine quaerendi reditus animâque litandum No escaping the stroake of the Angel but by sprinkling the Lambes life bloud no meanes to returne from exile till the death of the high Priest Must hee dye then and are the Scriptures so strait in this point O death how bitter is thy remembrance witnesse our Saviour Si fieri potest transeat hic calix but sith for the reasons before named that was neither possible nor expedient sith dye hee must what death doth the Holy Ghost thinke to bee most expedient If hee may not yeeld to nature as a ripe apple falleth from the tree but must be plucked thence there are deaths no lesse honourable than violent shall he dye an honourable death No hee must bee reckoned among the malefactors and dye a shamefull death In shamefull deaths there is a kind of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã rid him quickly out of his paine Misericordiae genus est citò occidere No that was not expedient Feri ut se sentiat mori it was expedient that hee should dye a tedious and most painfull death wherein a tract of lingering misery and lasting torment was to bee endured What death is that I need not amplifie even by the testimony of the Holy Ghost the death of the Crosse was for the torture most grievous for the shame most infamous He humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death Could his humility goe on one step further Yes one step even to the death of the Crosse that is a death beyond death the utmost and highest of all punishments saith Ulpian Having in it the extent of torture saith Apuleius The quintessence of cruelty saith the Roman Oratour It is not amisse to know the manner of the execution of this death First after sentence given the prisoner was whipped then forced to carry his Crosse to the place of execution there in the most tender and sinewie parts of the body nailed to the Crosse then lifted up into the ayre there with cruell mercy for a long while preserved alive after all this when cruelty was satisfied with bloud for the close of all his joynts were broken and his soule beat out of his body This was part of his paine I say part I cannot expresse the whole the shame was much more Infoelix Lignum saith Seneca truly and unhappy for untill this time the curse of God was upon him that was hanged It is a trespasse to bind 't is wickednes to beat it is murder to kill Quid dicam in crucem tollere Look we to the originall it was first devised by Tarquinius as the most infamous punishment of all against such as laid violent hands upon themselves Look we to the use of it they accounted it a slaves nay a dogs death for in memory that the Dogge slept when the Geese defended the Capitoll every yeer in great solemnity they carried a Goose in triumph softly laid upon a rich carpet and a Dogge hanging upon a crosse Looke wee to the concomitancy Non solent suspensi lugeri saith the Civilian no teare was wont to be shed for such as were crucified And was it expedient that our Saviour should dye this death It was expedient that the prophesie of Esay might be verified We saw him made as the basest of men and of David A scorne of men and the out-cast of the people and of himselfe They shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock scourge and crucifie him These were prophesies that it should be so yet we want a prophesie that saith It is expedient That we doe not Oportet filium hominis exaltari ut Moses extulit Serpentem for that Serpent lifted up to cure all that looked upon it was an embleme of Christ Thus himselfe who was a high Priest for ever did prophesie of himselfe being now both priest and sacrifice It was expedient that he should dye thus dye to be forsaken of his friends falsly accused by his enemies to be sold like a slave mocked like a foole spit upon like a made man whipt like a theefe crucified like a traitour make up a misery that the sun shamed the earth trembled to behold it yet it was expedient it must be done God hath said it Mee thinkes I heare our Saviour say in this baptisme of bloud as he said in his baptisme of water Thus it becommeth us to fulfill all righteousnes and thus it became him for whom by whom are all things to consecrate the Prince of our salvation through afflictions The prophesies had said it it should be so and it was expedient that he to whom they pointed should fulfill them that so in fulness of truth he might take his leave of the crosse and say Consummatum est those things which were written of mee have an end All this while we see not the reason why he should be thus tormented Goe to Pilate his answer will be I am innocent of the bloud of this man Enquire you of the Scribes and Pharisees their answer will be We have a law and by this law he must dye because he made himselfe the Son of God This was no fault he was so and therefore without robbery or blasphemy might both think and declare himselfe to be so Goe wee further from popular Pilate and the cruell Jewes to God himselfe and though we be but dust and ashes for the knowledge of this truth presume we to aske Cur fecisti filio sic How may it stand with thy justice that he should dye in whom there was found no fault worthy death nay no fault at all the unswer is Expedit mori pro populo yet O Lord wilt thou slay the righteous with the wicked nay which is more wilt thou slay the righteous and spare the wicked nay which is yet more wilt thou slay the righteous for the wicked shall not the Judge of all the world doe right God cannot chuse but do right the wages of sin is death though he have not sinned the people have If the principall debtour cannot pay the surety must if the prisoner dare not appeare the baile must Christ was the surety the baile of the people and so God might permit his justice against sin to take hold on him and hee must dye for the people if he will not have the people dye It being knowne that he dyed for the people it is worth the while to know who these people were for whom he dyed Caiphas had respect to the Jewes only and their temporall good but the Holy Ghost intended the spirituall good of the Jewes primarily though not of them alone but of the people also through the world But is it possible that of all people he should dye for the Jewes Ab ipsis pro ipsis these were they
that spit upon him whipped him smote him on the face crowned him with thornes tare him with nailes these were they who in the act of his bitter passion when his soule bereft of all comfort laden with the sinne of all the world and fiercenesse of his Fathers wrath enforced from him that speech than which the world never heard a more lamentable My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee then in stead of comfort they reviled him If thou be the Son of God come downe from the crosse all this notwithstanding though they persecuted him hee loved them though they cryed Away with him he dyed for them at his death prayed for them Father forgive and pleaded for them they know not what they doe and wept for them offering supplications in their behalfe with prayers strong cries Greater love than this can no man shew to lay downe his life for his friend yet thou O blessed Saviour art a patterne of greater love laying downe thy life for this people whilest they were thine enemies but not for this people only the Holy Ghost so speakes O Lord we were thine enemies as well as they and whilest we were thine enemies we were reconciled to God the Father by the precious death of thee his Son For the Scripture setteth forth his love to us that whilest we were yet sinners he dyed for us He for us alone for us all the same spirit which set before him expedit mori did sweeten the brim of that sowre cup with this promise that when hee should make his soule an offering for sin hee should see his seed that as the whole earth was planted so it might be redeemed by one bloud as by one offence condemnation seized upon all so by the justification of one the benefit might redound unto all to the justification of life And this bloud thirsty Caiphas unwittingly intimated saying Expedit unum mori pro populo If one and he then dead could do thus much what can he not do now now that he liveth for ever He trod the wine-presse alone neither is there salvation in any other S. Stephen was stoned S. Paul beheaded Nunquid pro nobis No it cost more than so it is done to their hands there is one who by the oblation of himselfe alone once offered hath made a perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world And that whilest it is a world for our Saviour that stood in the gap betwixt Gods wrath us catching the blow in his own body hath by his bloud purchased an eternal redemption every one that beleeveth in him shal not perish but have life everlasting In the number of which beleevers if we be then is the fruit of his meritorious passion extended to us we may challenge our interest therein and in our persons the Prophet speaketh He bare our infirmities and carried our sorrowes he was wounded for our transgressions the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes are we healed Which great benefit as it is our bounden duty to remember at all times so this time this day Vivaciorem animi sensum puriorem mentis exigit intuitum recursus temporis textus lectionis as S. Leo speaketh The annuall recourse of the day and this text fitted to it calleth to our minde the worke wrought the means by which it was wrought on this day to him a day of wrath of darknesse of blacknesse heavie vengeance but to us a good day a good Friday a day of deliverance freedome a day of jubilee and triumph For as on this day by the power of his Crosse were we delivered from the sting of sin and tyranny of Satan so that whereas we might for ever have sung that mournfull Elegy O wretched men that we are who shal deliver us from death hell we are now enabled to insult over both O death where is thy sting O hell where is thy victory Which victory of our Saviour and ours through him so dearly purchased when we call to mind let us consider withall that as the cause of this conflict on his part was his love to us so on our parts it was the hainousness of our sinne not otherwise to be expiated than by his death And as the first ought to raise us up to give annuall daily continuall thankes to him who did and suffered so much for us so the second should withhold us keep us back from sin that since our Saviour dyed for our sin we should dye to sin rather dye than sin This bloud once shed is good to us Expedit nobis if to faith in that bloud we joyn a life beseeming Christianity but if by our crying sins trespasses we crucifie him againe we make even that bloud which of it selfe speaketh for us better things than the bloud of Abel in stead of pardon to cry for vengeance against us Let us therfore looke up to him the author and finisher of our salvation beseeching him who with the bloud of his passion clave rockes stones asunder with the same bloud which is not yet nor ever will be dry to mollifie and soften our hard hearts that seriously considering the hainousnesse of our sins which put him to death and his unexpressible unconceivable love that for us he would dye the death even the death of the Crosse we may in token of our thankfulness endeavour to offer up our soules and bodies as a reasonable sacrifice to him that offered himselfe a sacrifice for us and now sitteth at the right hand of God to this end that where he our Redeemer is there wee his people and dearest purchase may be for ever THE SECOND ROW And in the second row thou shalt set a Carbuncle a Saphir and a Diamond THat the second Speaker that sweet singer of Israel whose ditty was Awake sing ye that sleep in dust made according to my Text a row or Canticum graduum a Psalme of ascents or degrees I cannot but even in a duty of thankfulnesse acknowledge for the help of memory I received from it had not he made a row that is digested disposed his matter in excellent order I should never have bin able to present to you the jewels set in this row which are all as you see most orient Of all red stones the Carbuncle of all blew the Saphir Plin. nat hist l. 37. of all simply the Diamond hath been ever held in highest esteem Maximum in rebus humanis pretium adamas habet non tantum inter gemmas Comment in Esay Carbunculus saith S. Jerome videtur mihi sermo doctrinae qui fugato errore tenebrarum illuminat corda credentium hic est quem unus de Seraphim tulit farcipe comprehensum ad Esayae labra purganda Whether this second Preacher in S. Pauls phrase a Prophet his tongue were not touched with such a coale I referre my selfe to your hearts and consciences Nonne
all spirituall graces necessary to the salvation of the Elect some things conditionally as the blessings of this life so farre as they tend to the attaining of a better hereafter In like manner some judgements he denounceth absolutely as the destruction of the kingdome of Satan and Antichrist others upon condition expressed or understood as the subversion of Niniveh the present death of Hezekiah To apply these distinctions to our purpose and close upon the very point in question when any order set downe by God for a time altereth at the time the date being expired or any Prophesie depending upon a condition falleth with it God is said to repent though he indeed doe nothing lesse the change that appeares in the things themselves being nothing else but the execution of an unchangeable decree of God for their change The meaning then of this phrase will not repent is that the Priesthood of Christ is not like that of Aaron which was after a time to expire and is now actually with all the ceremoniall law abolished but a Priesthood never to be altered or changed The Lord sware and will not repent Thou art a Priest There are three things that especially appertained to the office of Aaron and his Successours 1 To keepe the originall and authenticall copie of the law together with the golden pot of Manna and the two tables written with the finger of God and the Rod that budded 2. To offer sacrifices both ordinary every day and upon their set feasts and sabbaths and extraordinary upon speciall occasions 1. Either to professe their thankfulnesse to God and magnifie his goodnesse which may be called gratulatory or eucharisticall 2. Or to confesse their sins and appease his wrath which are called expiatory or propitiatory 3. To present themselves before God for the people to assure on their part obedience to God by way of promise or stipulation and procure Gods favour to them by way of mediation All which parts of their Priestly function they performed but typically and imperfectly for neither did they keep the Law entirely nor so much as the copy of it in later times neither did their sacrifices purge thoroughly neither did their prayers prevaile effectually but our high Priest hath fulfilled all righteousnesse and by one oblation of himselfe hath made a perfect satisfaction for the sins of the whole world and he is in that grace and favour with God that he putteth up no petition on our behalfe but hee getteth it signed by his Father The Leviticall Priests laid up the true originall of the Law both written in the bookes of Moses and engraven in the two Tables in the Arke as a jewell in a sacred casket but our high Priest both kept the Law it selfe and perfectly fulfilled it and writeth it also in the tables of our hearts they presented offerings for the sin of the soule but he made his soule an offering for sinne Esay 53.10 they appeared but once a yeere in the Holy of holies for the people but hee being entred into the Sanctum sanctorum the Heaven of heavens sits at the right hand of his Father and perpetually by the merits of his passion intercedeth for us Now the reasons which moved him to take upon him this office of a Priest are conceived to be these 1. Because the salvation and redemption of mankind wrought by the sacrifice of his Priesthood being a most noble worke and not inferiour to the creation it was not fit that any should have the honour of it but the Son of God 2. Neither was it agreeable that any should offer him who was the only sacrifice that could expiate the sinnes of the whole world but himselfe therefore by offering himselfe he added infinite worth to the sacrifice and great honour to the Priesthood of the Gospel For as the gold sanctified not the altar but the altar the gold so it may be truly said without impeachment to the dignity of that calling that Christ was rather an honour to the Priesthood than the Priesthood an addition unto him For what got he by the Priesthood which cost him his life what preferment could it be to him to take upon him an office whereby hee was to abase himselfe below himself and be put to an ignominious and accursed death What were we vile miscreants conceived and borne in originall sinne and soyled with the filth of numberlesse actuall transgressions that to purge and cleanse our polluted soules and defiled consciences the second person in Trinity should be made a Priest It was wonderfull humility in him to wash his Disciples feet but in his divine person to wash our uncleane soules is as farre above humane conceit as it seemeth below divine majesty There is nothing so impure as a fowle conscience no matter so filthy no corruption so rotten and unsavoury as is found in the sores of an exulcerated mind yet the Sonne of God vouchsafed to wash and bathe them in his owne bloud O bottomlesse depth of humility and mercy other Priests were appointed by men for the service of God but hee was appointed by God for the service and salvation of men other Priests spilt the bloud of beasts to save men but he shed his owne bloud to save us more like beasts than men other Priests offered sacrifice for themselves he offered himselfe for a sacrifice other Priests were fed by the sacrifices which the people brought but he feeds us with the sacrifice of his owne body and bloud Lastly others were appointed Priests but for a time hee was ordained a Priest For ever The rod of Aaron was a type of the Priesthood of Christ which shooteth forth three buds or blossomes 1. Obedience the fruit whereof is our righteousnesse 2. Sacrifice the fruit whereof is our satisfaction 3. Intercession the fruit whereof is our confidence and bold accesse to the throne of grace The two first buds seemed to wither at our Saviours death though the fruit thereof be still preserved but the third though it put it selfe forth in his life time yet it more flourished after his ascension For although our blessed Redeemer now no more observe the ceremoniall Law to which he gave a period at his consummatum est nor offer any more sacrifice of his owne yet he still offereth up our sacrifices of praises and thanksgiving he still presenteth us unto God and laboureth to reconcile God unto us hee layes open before his Father his bloudy wounds and stripes and by them beseecheth him to have mercy upon us and in this respect as well because the dignity of his Priesthood still remaines in himselfe and the effect in us as because continually he blesseth us and mediateth for us he is stiled a Priest for ever not such a Priest as the Levites were who held their office for their life and after left it to their successors who were in the end to resigne it into the hands of a Mediatour but such a Priest as Melchizedek was a
after what order our Popist Priests are made whether after the order of Aaron or Melchizedek If after the order of Aaron then are they to offer bloudie sacrifices and performe other carnall rites long agoe abrogated if after the order of Melchizedek then they are very happie For then they are to be Kings and Priests then they are not to succeed any other nor any other them then as hath beene shewed they are singular everlasting and royall Priests We may put a like interrogatorie to many of our Brownists or Anabaptisticall Teachers who run before they are sent and answer before they are called being like wandering starres fixed in no certaine course or wilde corne growing where they were not sowne or like unserviceable pieces of Ordnance which flie off before they are discharged If men though endowed with gifts might discharge a Pastorall function or doe the worke of an Evangelist without a lawfull mission St. Pauls question had beene to little purpose u Rom. 10.15 How shall they preach unlesse they be sent What calling have these men ordinarie or extraordinarie If ordinarie where are their orders if extraordinarie where are their miracles If Christ himselfe would not take upon him the Priesthood till he was called thereunto as Aaron what intolerable presumption is it in these not to take but to make their owne commission and to call men by the Gospell without a calling according to the Gospell It is not more unnaturall for a man to beget himselfe than to ordaine himselfe a Priest But because these men will not be ordered by reason I leave them to authority and come to the Sixth observation which is the Prerogative of Christ Obs 6. who was ordained a Priest of Melchizedeks order whereby he was qualified to beare both offices Kingly and Priestly For that Christ alone may execute both charges besides the faire evidence of this Scripture Uzziahs judgement maketh it a ruled case who presuming to burne incense to the Lord incensed the wrath of God against himselfe A rare and singular judgement and worthy perpetuall memorie he who not content to sway the royall Scepter would lay hold on the Censer and discharge both offices was for ever discharged of both and even then when he tooke upon him to cleanse the people was smitten with a foule and unclean x 2 Chr. 26.20 disease So dangerous a thing is it even for Soveraigne Princes the Lords Annointed to encroach upon the Church and assume unto themselves and usurpe Christs prerogative Whereof the Bishops of Roane and Rhemes were bold to bid their Sovereigne Lewis the then French King beware informing him Quod solus Christus fieri potuit Rex Sacerdos that it was the prerogative of Christ alone to beare both offices And Pope y Causab l. de libert Eccles Gratian. dist 96. cum ad verum Nicolas himselfe concurreth with them in judgement When the truth that was Christ saith he was once come after that neither did the Emperour take upon him the Bishops right nor the Bishop usurp the Emperours because the same Mediatour of God and man the man Christ Jesus distinguisheth the offices of each power assigning unto them proper actions to the end that the Bishop which is a souldier of Christ should not wholly intangle himselfe in worldly affaires and againe the Prince which is occupied in earthly matters should not be ruler of divine things viz. the preaching of the Word and administration of the Sacraments To make a medley saith z Syn. âp Synesius of spirituall and temporall power is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã There is great difference between the Scepter and the Censer the Chaire of Moses and the Throne of David the tongue of the Minister and the hand of the Magistrate the materiall sword that killeth and the spirituall that quickeneth To the King saith St. a De verb. Esa Chrysostome are the bodies of men committed to the Priest their soules the King pardoneth civill offences and crimes the Priest remitteth the guilt of sinne in the conscience the King compelleth the Priest exhorteth the Kings weapons are outward and materiall the Priests inward and spirituall A like distinction St. b Hieron ad Heliod Rex nolentibus praeest Episcopus volentibus c. Jerome maketh betweene them The King ruleth men though unwilling the Bishop can doe good upon none but those that are willing the King holdeth his subjects in awe with feare and terrour the Priest is appointed for the service of his flocke the King mastereth their bodies with death the Priest preserveth their soules to life But the farthest of any St. c Bern. de consid ad Eugen. Reges gentium dominanturââs vos non sic aude ergo usurpare aut Dominus Apostolatum aut Apostolicus Dominatum Bernard presseth this point and toucheth Pope Eugenius to the quicke It is the voice of the Lord Kings of the Nations rule over them c. But it shall not be so with you goe to then usurp if thou dare either an Apostleship if thou art a Lord or Lordlike dominion if thou art an Apostle thou art expressely forbid both if thou wilt have both thou shalt lose both But why doe I prosecute this point Doth it concerne any now adayes Doth any one man beare both these offices I answer affirmatively the High-priest at Rome doth For he compasseth his Mitre with a triple Crown and as if he bare this name written upon his thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords challengeth to himselfe a power to depose Kings and dispose of their Kingdomes Doth any one desire to know who is that man of sinne spoken of by the d 2 Thes 2.3 Apostle who opposeth and exalteth himselfe above all that is called God Let him learne of the Prophet who are called gods Dixi dii estis e Psal 82.6 I have said ye are gods and it will be no matter of great difficultie to point at him who accounteth that hee doth Kings a great honour when he admitteth them to kisse his feet hold his stirrop serve him at table and performe other baser offices prescribed in their booke of ceremonies I can tell you who it was that made the Emperour Henrie the fourth with his Queene and young Prince in extreme frost and snow to waite his leisure three dayes barefooted and in woollen apparell at the gates of Canusium it was Gregory the seventh otherwise called Hildebrand I can shew you who set the Imperiall Crowne upon the head of Henrie the sixt not with his hand but with his foot and with the same foot kicked it off againe saying I have power to make Emperours and unmake them at my pleasure it was Pope Coelestine I can bring good proofe who it was that would not make peace with Frederick the first till in the presence of all the people at the doore of St. Markes Church in Venice the Prince had cast his body flât on the ground and the Pope
doe your eyes melt into penitent teares then are you quickned by the Spirit of grace then have you sense and life in you then have your eyes been annointed with the eye-salve of the spirit then stand ye recti in curiâ But on the contrary Are ye tickled with the remembrance of your former follies can ye thinke of them without remorse can ye speake of them without shame can ye glory in them and your heart not smite you then in vaine doe ye flatter your selves with the name of Professours ye falsly arrogate to your selves the title of Sonnes of God ye know not what regeneration or the new creature meaneth the sunne of righteousnesse never shone upon you but ye are still frozen in the dregges of your sinnes Wherefore examine your owne hearts and consciences take a view of your whole life past runne over in your mindes the vanity of your childhood the lusts of your youth the audacious attempts of your riper yeeres and the covetousnesse frowardnesse worldlinesse and distrustfulnesse of your old age call your selves to an account for your unlawfull gaming and sporting your immoderate drinking your Lords day breaking your lascivious dancing your chambering and wantonnesse and if the remembrance of these your former sinnes be loathsome unto you if the sent of them in the nostrils of your soule be like a stinking fume exhaled from the finke of originall corruption then have your senses been purged then have you smelt the savour of life But on the contrary if the cogitation of these things be delightfull unto you if the traversing these thoughts in your mind blow the coales of your former lusts if the Sodome of your unregenerate estate seem to you as a Paradise of pleasure then certainly yee were never redeemed from the corruption of the world yee never felt the pangs and throes of a new birth your understanding was never enlightened nor your will reformed Hee that can take delight to play at the hole of the Cockatrice or behold the shining colour of the Snake was never stung by them but the truly regenerate Christian who hath bin grievously stung by the fiery Serpent the Divell and by fixing his eyes upon the brazen Serpent Christ Jesus hath bin cured dares not come nigh the Serpents hole much lesse gaze upon his azure head and forked tongue 2. If the experience of the unfruitfulnesse and shamefulnesse of sinne be a speciall meanes to restraine Gods children from it certainly the recounting of their former wayes and the survey of the whole course of their life cannot but be a profitable exercise for them It was the practice of Solomon who beheld all the workes of his hands and the delights of his life and passeth this censure upon them o Eccles 1.2 Vanity of vanities all is but vanity and vexation of spirit It was the practice of David p Psal 51.3 I know mine owne iniquity and my sinne is ever before mee It was the practice of Saint Austine who a little before his death caused the q Possid in vit August Penitentiall Psalmes to be written about his bed which hee looking upon out of a bitter remembrance of his sinnes continually wept giving not over long before he gave up the ghost Mee thinkes I heare you say we have buried those sinnes in oblivion long agoe and we hope God hath done so put not these stinking weeds to our noses but gather us a posie of the sweet flowers of Paradise the promises of God in Christ Jesus in which there is a savour of life and we will smell unto it I had rather do so but the other are more proper and fitter for many of you for those whose senses are overcome with over-sweet oyntments can by no better meanes recover their smell than by strong and unpleasant savours and therefore in the country of Arabia where almost all trees are savoury and frankincense and myrrhe are common fire wood r Plin. nat hist l. 12. c. 17. E Syriâ revehunt Stycacem acri odore ejus in focis abigente suorum fastidium Styrax as Pliny writeth is sold at a deare rate though it bee a wood of an unpleasant smell because experience proveth it to bee a present meanes to recover their smell who before had lost it Beloved brethren we all that have lived in the pleasures of sinne have our senses stuffed and debilitated if not overcome and the best remedy against this malady will be the smelling to Styrax the unsavoury and unpleasing smell of our former corruptions Let the covetous man recall to mind his care in getting his anxiety in keeping his sorrow in losing that which nature hath put under his feet how to increase his heapes he hath not onely taken from others but robbed his owne belly and backe Let the Glutton thinke of the loathsomnesse of his sinne which subjecteth him to divers diseases and maketh him a burthen to himselfe the Drunkard his drowning of his reason distempering of his body and exposing himselfe to the laughter and scorne of all men the Adulterer the corruption of his owne body the transgressing the covenant of God the wronging and provoking his neighbour the staine of his owne reputation the rottennesse of his bones and besides all this the heavie wrath of God for his sinnes and feare of hell fire due to him for them I know no man willingly remembreth that whereof he is ashamed and therefore no exercise of Christianity more tedious and irksome than this because it withdraweth the mind from pleasant and delightfull objects to behold her own deformity yet none more necessary none more profitable And though it begins in sorrow yet it ends in joy for even this is an exceeding delight to the soule to find a change in her selfe and an alteration in her affections it is pleasant unto her that shee now distasteth the forbidden fruit and shee rejoyceth that shee can be heartily sorry for her sinnes And God as ſ Cypr. de card op Cyprian saith sweetly wipeth away these teares from the soule Ut magis ploret gaudeat fletibus that shee may weep the more and take pleasure in her weeping For after we have pricked our hearts with the sting of conscience for our grievous sinnes after they bleed with compunction after we have powred out our soules with sighes and groanes into the bosome of our Redeemer his heart will melt within him and his repentings will roll together hee will bind up our wounds and shew his wounds to his Father then shall we see the frownes of an angry Judge turned into the smiles of a loving Father the crimson colour of our sins into the whitenesse of wooll our mourning weed into a wedding garment our sighes and sobs into exultation of spirit and the fearfull cloud which before overcast our minds into a cleare skie into peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost the true taste and beginning of the joyes of heaven To which the Lord
bring us for his Son Jesus Christ his sake Cui c. THE VINE OF SODOME THE XLI SERMON ROM 6.21 What fruit had yee then in those things c. Right Honourable c. ALL the advised thoughts and purposes of men that are not elevated above the levell of earthly desires to a higher marke than the top of worldly happinesse fall and fasten themselves upon such things as most neerly concerne either life it selfe and the commodities or necessities of life or their credit and reputation among those with whom they live These three life estate estimation are their portion in this life and therefore the maintenance of them their chiefe care The world hath nothing besides these to allure and draw on the love of her darlings for the pleasures that are spring out of these and are either their fruits or their blossomes honour is the pleasure of the ambitious wealth of the covetous and the pride of life of all As for those sensuall delights which now I know not how have engrossed the name of pleasures to themselves they receive their birth from youth the spring of our age their nourishment and maintenance from wealth and prosperity So that the former limits within which I have confined the aime and desires of the naturall man stand sure and immoveable Of all things in this life or rather of this life nothing is so deare and precious as life it selfe for without it neither honour nor riches nor pleasures can bring forth any fruit because they can have no root life oftentimes surviveth them they never survive it Howbeit because a miserable and painfull life is a kind of sensible death and to live and not to be reputed of is in effect to be reputed not to be infamy and obscurity being the death of our name and oblivion the buriall of our best parts hence it commeth to passe that the restlesse desires and endeavours of men for riches and honour especially if they be pricked on forward by covetousnesse and ambition are not much lesse eager and violent than is the striving and strugling for life it selfe The pursuit of these is the highest flight of the naturall man but the regenerate Christian who is of a nobler breed soareth farre higher in his desires and affections the life he pursueth is immortality the riches hee esteemeth of are celestiall graces the honour he aspireth unto is a crowne of glory Now the meanes to attaine the ends of both viz. temporall happinesse and happy eternity the glory of the Kingdomes of the earth and a Kingdome of glory in heaven is one and the selfe same the religious service of the onely true God in whose gift they are for a 1 Tim. 6.6 c. 4.8 godlinesse is great gaine and hath the promises of this life and the life to come therefore by the law of contraries ungodly and sinfull courses must needs bee incommodious and to our greatest losse as having the curses of this life and the life to come Whereby as by many other things else we may perceive the folly and blindnesse of the naturall man who taketh a wrong course to compasse his ends for his way lyeth in the straight pathes of Gods Commandements but he taketh by-pathes laid out by Sathan and treadeth endlesse mazes As the b Eras Apoph Athenians against whom Diogenes whet his cynick tooth in the feasts of Aesculapius even when they sacrificed to health banqueted riotously against health so the worldly wise man by inordinately desiring and craftily pursuing and immoderately affecting the blessings of this life loseth them and his life too for these his desires and pursuits are sinnes and by sinne all the promises and covenants of God which are the onely deeds by which wee hold our estate in the blessings of this life are forfeited Good God how doth the god of this world delude the children of the world whom he perswadeth that the ready way to purchase all the comforts and contentments of this life is to fall downe and worship him and to sell themselves with Ahab to worke wickednesse against God whereas sinne unrepented of not onely depriveth them of all hope of a better life hereafter but of all the joy of a good life here For it consumeth their substance it blasteth all the fruits of their labours it disableth and wasteth their body miserably troubleth their consciences staineth their name and shorteneth the dayes of their life I feare there are too many in the world who have no mind of because no knowledge of spirituall riches and celestiall joyes yet there is no man in his right senses who regardeth not either his estate or his credit or his life here The ambitious man little esteemeth worldly gaine because Chamelion-like hee feedeth upon the ayre and breath of mens commendations Againe the covetous man setteth light by praises and honour because he like the worme feedeth upon the earth The voluptuous man careth not much for honour or wealth because like the Beetle hee feedeth upon the doung of unsavoury pleasures yet there is none of all three but tender their life and therefore none who can be unsensible of the Apostles incision in my Text. Doth any desire the commodities of this life let them flye sin for sin bringeth no fruit at all What fruit c. Doe any desire glory and honour they must eschue sinne for sinne bringeth shame Whereof yee are now ashamed Doe any desire continuance of life they must abhorre sinne for sinne bringeth death the end of these things is death Sinne is altogether sterill and unfruitfull and therefore to be set at nought it is shamefull and therefore to bee loathed it is deadly and therefore to be fled from as from a Serpent Here we have three peculiar adjuncts of sinne sinne is unfruitfull for the time past shamefull for the present and deadly for the time to come the first adjunct the unfruitfulnesse of it is so fruitfull of observations that this houre may be fruitfully spent in gathering them What fruit had yee It was the usuall demand of one of the wisest among the c Cic. in Verr. Romane Judges Cassius surnamed the Severe in all cases of doubt in matter of fact about the person of the delinquent Cui bono who gained by the bargaine on whose side lay the advantage assuring himselfe that no man of understanding would put himselfe into any dishonest or dangerous action without hope of reaping some fruit by it as also that there can be no enterprise so beset with difficulties and dangers which some men for apparent hope of great gaine and profit would not goe thorow with no arguments conclude so necessarily in the opinion of the greater part of men as those that are drawne ab d Demost Olynth 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã utili This topick place the Divell made choice of above all other Haec omnia tibi dabo in tempting our Saviour and though this his sharpest dart could not enter into
and rested themselves these three Lords dayes it beareth fruit and that in great variety not only upon the branches but upon the maine stocke which yeeldeth us this fruitfull observation That the sense and taste of the bitternesse of sinnes past and remorse of conscience for them are most forcible motives and meanes to restraine the desires and weane the affections of Gods children from them This fruit we gathered heretofore and since plucked to us the first branch of the Text which affordeth this most wholsome observation That sinne is altogether unfruitfull As no meditation is more serious than upon the vanity of the world no contemplation more pleasant to a regenerate Christian than of the unpleasantnesse of impure delights so no observation is more fruitfull than of the unfruitfulnesse of sinne Who cannot copiously declaime against sinne against which it is a sinne not to declaime Who cannot easily recount all the evils which sinne hath brought into the world which are summarily all that are in the world insomuch that all sciences arts and professions have a blow at sinne The Metaphysicke Philosopher demonstrateth that sinne is non ens naught and therefore to be set at naught The Naturalist sheweth that it destroyeth nature and therefore ought to be exterminated out of nature The Moralists muster all the forces of vertue against it as being the chiefest enemy of mans chiefe good which they define to be actio virtutis in vitâ perfectâ the continuall practice of vertue in a happy life The Physicians observe that the greater part of the diseases of the body arise from sins which are the diseases of the soule Plures gulâ quà m gladio more come to their end by gluttony drunkennesse and incontinency than by the halter or the sword The Grammarians condemne sinne as incongruous the Logicians as illogicall that is unreasonable and all other arts and sciences as irregular but Divinity alone knocketh it downe and battereth it to pieces with the hammer of the Word There is more weight of argument in this one Verse of the Apostle than in all the Oratours declamations and Poets satyres and the Philosophers invectives against vice that ever were published to the world What fruit had yee in those things whereof yee are now ashamed for the end of those things is death As the same metall running upon divers moulds is cast into divers formes so the words of this Text admit of divers divisions according to severall moulds and frames of art It shall suffice to give you your choice of three 1. The Rhetoricall which breaketh them into 1. A poignant interrogation What fruit had yee 2. A forcible reason For the end of those things is death 2. The Logicall which observeth in them 1. The persons Yee 2. The object Those things 3. The attributes which are three 1. Losse What fruit had yee 2. Confusion Whereof yee are now ashamed 3. Perill For the end of those things is death 3. The Theologicall which considereth sinne in a three-fold relation 1. To the time past and so it is unfruitfull What fruit 2. To the time present and so it is shamefull Whereof c. 3. To the time to come and so it is dreadfull or deadly For the end of those things is death First of sinne considered in a relation to the time past What fruit had yee Xerxes as Herodotus reporteth bare a strange affection to the Plane tree which hee hung about with chaines and deckt with jewells of greatest price A fond and foolish affection as being to a tree and such a tree as is good for nothing but to shade us out of the Sunne This folly of so great a Monarch very well resembleth the humour of all those who are not guided by the Spirit of God into the wayes of truth and life but are led by the spirit of errour or the errour of their owne spirit to ungodly and sinfull courses the very beaten paths to hell and death The tree they are in love with adorne and spend so much cost upon is the forbidden tree of sinne altogether as unfruitfull as that of Xerxes it hath neither faire blossomes nor sweet fruit on it onely it is well growne and hath large armes and broad boughes and casteth a good shade or to speake more properly a shadow of good For the shade it selfe of this tree is like the shade of the Cyprus tree gravis umbra a noysome or pestilent shade making the ground barren and killing the best plants of vertues by depriving them of the Sun-shine of Gods grace Yet as divers Nations in the dayes of b Nat. hist l. 12. Tributum pro umbrâ pendunt Pliny paid tribute to the Romanes for the shade of these trees so doe these men pay for the seeming pleasure and delight of sinne being indeed but a shadow of vanity to the Divell the greatest tribute that can be payd the tribute of their soules To reprove this folly to bee bewailed with bloudy teares I have heretofore produced divers passages of holy Scripture the point of doctrine I beat upon and laboured especially to fasten in your hearts was the unprofitablenesse and the unfruitfulnesse of sinne which was proved 1. By the three names of sinne imposed by the Holy Ghost folly vanitie and a lye The reason whereof was because all sinne maketh a shew of and as it were promiseth to the sinner either pleasure or profit or honour or some good whereas indeed it bringeth not any thing to him but shame nor him to any thing but death 2. By divers lively comparisons and resemblances in holy Scripture of sinfull labours and travells as the running in a ring or circle whereby hee that moveth and tireth himselfe getteth no ground impii ambulant in circuitu the weaving of the Spiders web which maketh no garment the sowing of wind whereof nothing can be reaped but the whirlewind stormes and tempests of conscience 3. By the judgements of God falling upon them who seem to drive the most gainfull trade with Sathan For either they themselves are taken away in the midst of their prosperity and as soone as they have gotten the wealth of the world are constrained to leave a world of wealth c Luk. 12.20 O foole this night they shall take away thy soule Stulte hac nocte eripient tibi animam tuam or God bloweth upon their ill gotten goods and they are suddenly consumed or passe the same way that they came as the fogges that are raised by the Sunne when they come to their height are dispelled by his beames Or they prove like the horse of Sejanus or the gold of Tolous or the vessels and treasures of the Temple at Jerusalem which became the bane and ruine of all that laid hands on them Or if they long enjoy their wealth yet they joy not in it at all For howsoever none lay claime to their unrighteous Mammon yet they can never perswade themselves that it is their owne and between
care of keeping and feare of losing and expectation of punishment for ill getting them by tyranny exaction oppression forged cavillation fraud simony or sacriledge no place is left for any joy or comfort in possessing or well using them 4. By putting the seeming profits and advantages of sinne in one scale and the losses and disadvantages by it in the other which being done the scale of dammages and losses will beare downe to the ground nay to hell In all bargaines we are to consider not so much what the commodity is we trade or trafficke for as what the price is for though the merchandize we bargaine for be of great value yet if we must over-buy it giving for it an unreasonable rate the bargaine cannot be good By which rule if we examine our trafficke we shall find that if wee hold on our trade with Sathan our merchandize will no way countervaile our charge our gaines in the beginning will be no way answerable to our losses in the end for we shall lose the inheritance of a Kingdome in heaven and our owne soules Unfruitfulnesse shamefulnesse and deadlinesse are three proper adjuncts and as the Logicians usually speake passions of sinne For all sinne is mortall that is deserving death and nothing is mortall in that sense but sinne all sinne is shamefull and nothing shamefull but sinne all sinne is unfruitfull and nothing absolutely is unfruitfull but sinne The Serpents feed upon and consume that poysonous matter which otherwise would infect the earth water and ayre Physicians make treakle and antidotes of poyson the ashes of a Viper the oyle of a Scorpion the wings of the Cantharides are soveraigne remedies against the poyson of those Serpents yea the very doung of the earth serveth for very good use and fatteneth the ground onely sinne as it is deprived of the good of being a nature so it depriveth nature of all good If any things come neere to sinne in this they are the grapes of Gomorrah and apples of Sodome which have no taste at all in them but as soone as they are touched fall to dust and the dust is of that nature that it serves not as doung to fatten the earth but rather as unsavoury salt which maketh it barren All the endeavours operations of nature when they are not set out of their course by sinne forcibly tend to some good and obtaine it also For if they produce not and leave behind them some worke the worth whereof may recompence the labour about it yet the very contention and exercise of the faculty breedeth a dexterity and facility of doing the like it perfecteth the skill strengtheneth the faculty accommodateth the organ and thereby maketh the whole body more serviceable to the soule and the soule better disposed to vertuous acts and habits The Archer who often misseth the marke set before his eyes yet in some sort hitteth the marke he aimed at in his mind which was the exercise of his arme and learning to shoot As the sons of the husbandman in the fable who being told by their father lying on his death-bed that he left much gold buried under the ground in his Vineyard fell on delving and digging all about the Vines and though they found no gold yet by stirring the mold about the rootes of the trees gained a great vintage that yeere even so it falleth out in the labours and travells of our calling though by them wee reape not alwayes that profit we expect yet thereby wee may manure if I may so speake the ground of our hearts and gaine great store of those fruits which the branches that are graffed into the true Vine Christ Jesus beare But in sinfull labours and travells it fareth otherwise they are not as moderate exercises which strengthen but as violent fits which weaken nature Sinne in the understanding darkeneth the thoughts in the will depraveth the desires in the sensitive appetite disordereth the affections in the outward sense corrupteth the organs and in the whole body breedeth loathsome and painfull diseases Sinne is not only unfruitfull to speake in the language of the Schooles formaliter but also effectivè not only unfruitfull in it selfe as the d Mat. 21.19 figge-tree in the Gospel cursed by our Saviour but also in its effects as that other tree which was to be plucked up ne terram redderet infructuo sam that it might not make the ground e Luke 13.7 barren For sinne maketh the spirit barren of the fruit of good motions the understanding barren of the fruit of good meditations the will barren of the fruit of good resolutions the sensitive appetite barren of the fruit of good affections the whole man barren of the fruit of good works nay the earth and trees also barren of their fruit and increase For the sinne of man God cursed the earth and it f Gen. 3.18 brought forth thornes and thistles and the heaven and skie also and it became as g Deut. 28.23 iron over mens heads the experience whereof brought the Heathen to acknowledge this truth h Senec. in Oedip Sperare poteras sceleribus tantis Dare regnum salubre Fecimus coelum nocens Our sinnes have tainted the influence of the starres dryed up the clouds infected the ayre blasted the fruits of the earth And Claudian in his investive against Eutropius Quae connubia prolem Aut frugem laturus ager quid fertile terris Aut plenum stirili possit sub consule nasci Is it possible any thing should thrive or flourish under the shade of such a Consul Saint i Advers Demet Quereris quod minus nunc tibi uberes fontes aurae salubres frequens pluvia fertilis terra obsequium praebeant quod non ita utilitatibus voluptatibus tuis elementa deserviant Tu enim Deo servis per quem tibi cuncta deserviunt Tu famularis illi cujus nutu tibi unviersa famulantur Cyprian also attributeth the great dearth in his time to the want of charity and the sterility of fruits in the earth to the sterility of fruits of righteousnesse Thou complainest that the springs are not so full the ayre so healthy the showers so frequent the earth so fruitfull as in former time thou thinkest much that the elements are not so obsequious to thee as they have been that they serve not thy profit and pleasure Why art thou so obsequious to God Doest thou serve him by whose appointment all these things serve thee As it was the manner of the Persians when a noble person committed a fault to beat his clothes in stead of him so it pleaseth our most indulgent Father when the noblest of his creatures men his children offend often for them to punish the beasts of the field and fruits of the earth which feed and clothe them As he threatneth k Deut. 28.38 39 40. Thou shalt carry out much seed into the field and shalt gather but little for the Locusts shall consume it
Thou shalt plant vineyards and dresse them but shalt neither drinke of the wine nor gather the grapes for the worme shall eate them Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts but thou shalt not annoint thy selfe with the oyle for thine olive shall cast his fruit Hereunto if we adde the infinite armies of plagues and judgements mustered in this chapter against Gods enemies we cannot but subscribe to the Prophets conclusion Non est pax impio there is no l Esay 48.22 57.21 peace to the wicked saith my God there is no fruit of sinne for it is the vine of m Deut. 32.32 33. Sodome and of the fields of Gomorrah the grapes thereof are the grapes of gall their clusters are bitter Their wine is the poyson of Dragons and the cruell venome of Aspes Would yee know all the miseries that sinne hath brought into the world reckon then all that are or ever were in the world For they are all concomitants effects or punishments of sinne Sinne cast the Angels from Heaven into Hell thrust man out of Paradise drowned the old world burnt Sodome and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone ruinated the greatest Monarchies destroyed the ancientest Cities and hath rooted up the most flourishing Churches and shall wee looke for better fruit of it But this interrogatory of the Apostle What fruit had yee seemeth to mee rather to aime at the particular endammagement and detriments of sinne which every soule that committeth it sustaineth within it selfe whereof many have been already recounted yet the greater part is behind among whom this is not the least that it blindeth the eyes of the mind and infatuateth the sinner Whereupon Saint Austines observation is If a theefe or fellon should presently upon his fact lose the sight of his eyes every body would say that it was the judgement of God upon him Oculum cordis amisit ei pepercisse putatur Deus behold God hath taken away the sight of his soules eyes and doest thou thinke that hee spareth him or letteth him goe n Cic. de Arusp respons Oculorum caecitas ad mentem translata est unpunished What greater losse to a noble mind than of libertie which is forfeited by sinne Sinne enthralleth our soule to our body and our body and soule to the Divell If captivitie of the body be so grievous a calamity what may wee judge of the captivitie of the soule If wee so disdaine to be slaves to men how much more should wee to bee vassals to beastly lusts To speake nothing of peace of conscience which crying sinnes disturbe and divine motions which worldly cares choake and heavenly comforts which earthly pleasures deprive us of and sanctifying graces which impure thoughts and sinfull desires diminish to leave the consideration of shame and death for matter of ensuing discourses by that which hath been already delivered all that are not besotted by sin and blind-folded by Sathan may see great reason for this question of the Apostle What fruit had yee A question which the proudest and most scornfull sinners who have them in derision that make conscience of unlawfull gaine shall propound unto themselves one day and checke their owne folly therewith as we reade in the booke of o Wisd 5.8 Wisedome What hath pride availed us or what profit hath the pompe of riches brought us Then shall they change their mindes when they cannot their estates and sigh for griefe of heart and say within themselves looking up to Heaven and seeing the felicity of the righteous crowned with eternall glory Ibid. Ver. 4 5 6 7. This is hee whom wee sometimes had in derision and in a parable of reproach Wee fooles thought his life madnesse and his end without honour But now how is hee accounted among the children of God and what a portion hath hee among the Saints Therefore wee have erred from the way of truth and the light of righteousnesse hath not shined upon us We have wearied our selves in the wayes of wickednesse and have gone through many dangerous pathes and the way of the Lord wee have not knowne Howbeit two sorts of men in the opinion of the world seeme to make great gaine of sinne the covetous and the ambitious the former is indebted to his extortion oppression and usury for his wealth the other to his glozing dissembling undermining perfidious and treacherous dealing for his honour and advancement in the Court of Princes The spirit of the former hath been conjured downe heretofore by proving that whosoever gathereth wealth or mony by unjust and indirect meanes putteth it into a broken bagge and that his mony shall perish with him unlesse hee breake off his sinne by repentance and make friends of unrighteous Mammon I come to the Politicians who correct or rather pervert that sentence of Saint Paul Godlinesse is great gaine thus a shew of godlinesse is great gaine of whom I would demand what shew of reason they have for this their politicke aphorisme If they beleeve there is a God that judgeth the earth they cannot but thinke that hee will take most grievous vengeance on such as goe about to roote out the feare of God out of mens hearts and make Religion a masque and God himselfe an Image the sacred Story a fable Hell a bug-beare and the joyes of Heaven pleasant phantasies If men hold them in greatest detestation who faulter and double with them shall not God much more hate the hypocrite who doubleth with his Maker maketh shew of honouring and serving him when hee indeed neither honoureth nor serveth him at all Simulata sanctitas est duplex iniquitas counterfeit sanctity is double iniquity and accordingly it shall receive double punishment When our Saviour threateneth the most hainous transgressours that they shall have their p Mat. 24.51 portion with hypocrites hee implyeth that the condition of none in Hell is lesse tolerable than of the hypocrite The q Psal 14.1 foole hath said in his heart there is no God and even in that hee shewed himselfe the more foole in that hee said it in his heart supposing that none should heare it there whereas God heareth the word in the heart before it bee uttered in the tongue and what though other know it not sith hee whom hee wrongeth who is best able to revenge it knoweth it But to wound the Politician with his owne sword If a shew and appearance of Religion is not onely profitable but necessary in politicke respects shall not Religion it selfe be much more Can there bee a like vertue or power in the shadow or image as in the body it selfe If the grapes painted by Zeuxis allured the Birds to pecke at them would not the Birds sooner have flowne at them had they been true grapes All the wit of these sublimated spirits wherewith they entangle the honest simplicity of others cannot wind them out of these dilemmaes If it bee a bad thing to bee good why doe they seem so If
Jeremy were they ashamed when they committed abominations nay they were not ashamed neither could they blush and bashfulnesse or rather cowardise in the excesse reproved by our Saviour in white livered professors o Luk. 9.26 Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words of him shall the sonne of man bee ashamed when hee shall come in his owne glory and in his fathers and of the holy Angels 2 Sometimes for a perturbation of the minde or irksome passion when our hearts smite us for some grievous sinne wherewith wee are confounded within our selves and with holy p Job 42.6 Wherefore I abhorre my selfe and repent in dust and ashes Job even abhorre our selves for the time 3 Sometimes it is taken for infamy and publike disgrace when a man is made q Zeph. 3.19 a spectacle of shame and derision to others According to the first signification men are said to be modest or shamefac'd according to the second ashamed and confounded in themselves according to the third shamed or put to shame or branded with a note of infamy and shame Shame in the first acception is the curbe of sinne in the second the sense and smart of sinne in the third the scourge of sinne shame in the first sense is in us by nature and groweth more and more by custome and is improved by the grace of humility in the second it is brought to us by sinne for as smoake sutteth so sinne blacketh soyleth and shameth the soule in the third sense men are brought to it by justice according to the words of the r Psal 40.14 Psalmist Let them bee brought to shame When the Apostle saith that Å¿ Eph. 5.12 it is a shame to name those things that are done by impure persons in secret hee taketh shame in the first sense and his meaning is the things they doe in secret are so foule so unnaturall so abominable that a modest or shamefaced man cannot endure to heare of them much lesse to rip them up and relate them with all their odious circumstances But when Ezra prayeth in these words t Ezra 9.6 O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God for our iniquities are encreased over our heads and our trespasses are growne up to the heavens hee taketh shame in the second sense Lastly when the Prophets threaten sinners with shame or by imprecations wish it unto them they take shame in the third acception u Hab. 2.10.11 Thou hast consulted shame to thine owne house by cutting off many people and hast sinned against thy soule for the stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it that is thou hast taken a course and advisedly studied how to bring ruine shame and disgrace upon thy selfe * Nah. 3.5 Behold I come upon thee saith the Lord of hostes and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face and I will shew the nations thy nakednesse and the kingdomes thy shame that is I will expose thee unto ignominy and disgrace as the Prophet there expoundeth himselfe x Vers 6. I will cast abominable filth upon thee and make thee vile and set thee at a gazing stocke In this place the Apostle evidently taketh the word in the second sense What fruit had yee in those things whereof yee are now ashamed that is for which you now condemne your selves and seeme filthy and abominable in your owne eyes This shame though it come alwayes from evill yet good may come of it if wee seriously consider what brought this shame and confusion upon us and turne our anger upon it which set us at oddes with our selves and to this end the Prophet Ezekiel endevoureth to stirre up this perturbation or troublous passion in the Jewes y Ezek. 36.32 O yee house of Israel be ashamed and confounded for your wayes that is consider your owne follies give glory to God and take shame to your selves abhorre your selves for those sinnes for which yee have made God to abhorre you Shame in this sense may bee a meanes to keepe us from shame in the third signification and everlasting confusion for though shame bee alwayes a signe of evill past or present yet it is not alwayes an evill signe but oftentimes a signe of grace I cannot hold altogether with him in the Poet who seeing a young man dye his cheekes with the tincture of vertue said z Terent. Erubuit salva res est he hath blushed all is well yet with a little alteration the speech may passe Erubuit salutis spes est hee hath blushed therefore there is hope all may bee well For so it commeth to passe in our inward conflicts with sinne as in the skirmishes with outward enemies in the field though the battell goe sore against us and we lose both ground and men yet till the colours and ensignes be taken by the enemy the fight holdeth out and there may be hope of better successe but when the colours and ensignes are lost wee give the battell for gone Now the colours of vertue displayed by nature in the countenance appeare in the blushes of shame and modesty while these are to bee seene though wee give ground to Satan and lose many other gifts and graces yet there may bee some hope of victory but when Satan hath taken our colours and custome of sinning hath taken away all sense of sinne and blush of shame our case groweth desperate and without new aides and supply of graces from heaven it is impossible to keepe our standing much lesse recover our losses As nothing is more to bee grieved for than for this that wee cannot grieve for sinne so ought wee to be ashamed of nothing more than of this that wee are not ashamed of all finfull and shamefull actions Shame is the strongest barre which nature hath set before our unruly lusts and desires and if it bee removed nothing can keep them within compasse Yee are ashamed The godly and wicked are both ashamed sin affecteth them both with the like malady but they both apply not the like remedy the godly seeke to plucke out the sting that is sinne in the conscience which causeth all their anguish and paine but the ungodly and wicked liver endeavoureth onely to dead the flesh and thereby asswage the paine for the present leaving the sting of death in their soule sinne festring in their conscience The one abstaineth from sinne that hee may avoid the shame of it the other accustometh himselfe to it that hee may be lesse sensible of it hee hardeneth his brow and maketh it in the end of that metall that it will not yeeld or change hiew Hee is like to him that going into the water and finding it extreme cold by lightly touching it with the soles of his feet casteth himselfe suddenly into the river and plungeth himselfe over head and eares that hee may be lesse sensible of the frigiditie of that element
danger of the Councell but whosoever shall say thou Foole shall bee in danger of hell fire Here say they wee may see that there are two punishments lesse than hell fire and that hee onely is in danger of it who breaketh out into that outrage to raile at his brothet and call him foole not hee who is unadvisedly angry Whereupon they inferre that the last of the three sinnes mentioned by our Saviour is mortall not the two former Their second allegation is out of z Mat. 7.5 Moat out of thy brothers eye Matth. 7. and a Luk. 6.41 Luk. 6. and 1 Cor. 3. and such other texts of Scriptures in which some sinnes are compared to very light things as to b 1 Cor. 3.12 Hay and stubble hay to stubble to a moat to a * Mat. 5.26 The uttermost farthing farthing Surely say they they cannot bee grievous and weighty sinnes which are compared to such light or vile things of no value Their third allegation is out of Saint James c Jam. 1.15 Sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death Marke say they not every sinne nor sinne in every degree but when it is come to its perfection bringeth forth death whereby hee insinuateth that no sinnes are mortall but those which are consummate brought into act and committed with full consent of the will The fourth is out of d Mat. 12.36 Matth. 12. I say unto you yee shall give an account for every idle word at the day of judgement Hee saith not wee shall bee condemned for every idle word but onely that wee shall bee called to answere for it as wee shall be for all sinnes Sol. 1 To the first allegation wee answere That no doctrine of faith may bee grounded upon a meere parable as the Schooles rightly determine Theologia parabolica non est argumentativa Now that which our Saviour here speaketh of three severall punishments is spoken by allusion to the proceedings in the Civill Courts in Judaea and all that can bee gathered from thence is but this That as there are differences of sinnes so there shall bee differences of punishments hereafter Secondly hell fire is no more properly taken for the torment of the damned than the other two the danger of the Councell and of Judgement which all confesse to bee taken figuratively and analogically Thirdly Maldonate the Jesuite ingenuously confesseth that by Councell and Judgement the eternall death of the soule is understood yet with this difference that a lesse degree of torment in hell is understood by the word Judgement than Councell and a lesse by Councell than by gehenna ignis that is the fire in the valley of Hinnom Sol. 2 To the second allegation wee answere First that though some sinnes in comparison of others may bee said light and to have the like proportion to more grievous sinnes as a moat in the eye hath to a beame a farthing to a pound yet that no sinne committed against God may bee simply tearmed light but like the talent of lead mentioned Zech. 1.5 Whereupon Saint e Super Ezek. l. 2. Omne peccatum grave est Gregory inferreth Every sinne is heavie and ponderous and Saint f Jer. Epitaph Paulae Ita levia peccata deflebat ut gravissimotum scelerum diceres ream Et ep 14. Nescio an possemus leve aliquod peccatum dicere quod in Dei contemptum admittitur Jerome writeth of Paula That shee so bewailed light sinnes that is such as are commonly so esteemed that a man would have thought her guilty of grievous crimes and hee elsewhere yeeldeth a good reason for it Because saith he I know not how wee may say any thing is light whereby the divine Majesty is sleighted Secondly admitting that some sinnes are to bee accounted no bigger than moats yet as a moat it it bee not taken out of the eye hindereth the sight so the least sinne hindereth grace and if it bee not repented of or pardoned for Christs sake is sufficient to damne the soule of the sinner Thirdly neither Christ by the farthing in the fifth of Matthew understandeth sinne nor the Apostle by hay and stubble lesser or veniall sinnes but Christ by farthing understandeth the last payment of debt Saint Paul light and vaine doctrines which are to bee tryed by the fire of the Spirit For in that place the Apostle by fire cannot meane the fire of Purgatory because gold and silver are tryed that is precious doctrines or good workes by the fire Saint Paul there speaketh of whereas Purgatory fire is for mens persons to cleanse and purge them from their lesser sinnes as the Papists teach Sol. 3 To the third allegation we answer That the Apostle is so farre from denying in that place that all sinnes are mortall that on the contrary he there sheweth how all sinnes become mortall and in the end bring the sinner to eternall death What lesser sinne than lust or a desire in the mind yet this as Saint James affirmeth hath strength enough to conceive sinne and sinne when it is finished to bring forth death Sol. 4 To the fourth allegation we answer That the same phrase is used concerning all kindes of sinnes yea those that are greatest and most grievous as we reade in Athanasius Creed All men shall rise againe with their owne bodies and give an account of their owne workes and if their account be not the better that dreadfull sentence shall passe against them Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire Let us lay all these particulars together and the totall arising out of them will be this That though there be a great difference of sinnes whereof some are lighter compared to a fescu or moate others heavier compared to a beame some smaller likened to gnats others greater to g Mat. 23.24 camels some easier to account for resembled to mites or farthings others with more difficulty as talents and in like manner although there are divers degrees of punishments in hell fire as there were divers degrees of civill punishments among the Jewes yet that we are accountable for the least sinnes and that the weakest desire and suddenest motion to evill is concupiscence which if it be not killed in us by grace will conceive sinne and that sinne when it is consummate will bring forth death We need no more fightings the truth hath already gotten the victory by the weapons of her sworne enemies and Goliah is already slaine with his owne sword yet that yee may know how strong the doctrine of our Church is I will bring forth and muster some of her trained band First we have two uncontrollable testimonies out of the booke of Deuteronomy h Deut. 27.26 30.19 Cursed is hee that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to doe them and Behold I have set before you this day life and good death and evill blessing and cursing The former is cited by Saint Paul to prove that all that hoped to be justified by the
Law were under the curse for it is written saith he i Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every man that confirmeth not all things that are written in the Law to doe them Now there is no commandement which is not written in the booke of the Law to which whosoever k Deut. 4.2 addeth is accursed To these plaine and evident passages of Scripture may bee adjoyned three like unto them The l Ezek. 18.4 Rom. 6.23 1 Cor. 15.56 soule that sinneth shall dye The wages of sinne is death and The sting of death is sinne These pregnant testimonies the Cardinall endeavoureth to elude with these and the like glosses The soule that sinneth that is mortally shall dye and the wages of sinne that is of mortall sinne is death and the sting of death is sinne that is deadly sinne With as good colour of reason in all Texts of Scriptures wherein we are deterred from sinne he might interpose this his glosse and say eschue evill that is all deadly evill flye sinne that is mortall sinne and consequently deny that veniall sinnes are any where forbidden But as when wee reade in the common or civill law these and the like titles the punishment of felony murder treason fimony sacriledge we understand the law of all crimes of the same kind so in like manner when the Apostle saith indefinitely the wages of sinne is death we are to understand him of every sin for Non est distinguendum ubi lex non distinguit we must not distinguish where the law distinguisheth not For he that so doth addeth to the law or taketh from it and thereby incurreth the curse pronounced by the law-giver And though other Texts of Scriptures might brooke the like restriction yet not those above alledged For what is the meaning of this phrase Death is the wages of sin but that sinne deserveth death which is all one as to say that sinne is mortall Now adde hereunto Bellarmines glosse The wages of sinne that is mortall sinne is death and the soule that sinneth that is that sinneth mortally shall dye and the propositions will prove meere tautologies as if the Prophet had said The soule that sinneth a sinne unto death shall dye and the Apostle sinne that deserveth death deserveth death What is it to deprave the meaning of the Holy Ghost if this be not especially considering that the Prophet Ezekiel in the selfe same chapter ver 31. declareth his meaning to be of sinne in generall without any restriction or limitation Cast away from you all your transgressions and make you a new heart so iniquity shall not be your destruction Here ye see no means to avoid death but by casting away all transgressions for sith the Law requireth m Jam. 2.10 Whosoever shall keep the whole Law yet offendeth in one point is guilty of all entire obedience he that violateth any one commandement is liable to the punishment of the breach of the whole Law To smother this cleare light of truth it is strange to see what smoaky distinctions the adversaries have devised of peccatum simpliciter and secundùm quid and peccatum contra Legem and praeter Legem sinnes against the Law and besides the Law Veniall sinnes say they are besides the Law not against the Law Are not they besides themselves that so distinguish For let them answer punctually Doth the Law of God forbid those they call veniall sinnes or not If not then are they no sinnes or the Law is not perfect in that it meeteth not with all enormities and transgressions If the Law forbiddeth them then are they against the Law For sinne saith Saint John is the n 1 John 3 4. transgression of the Law If then veniall escapes are sinnes they must needs be violations of the Law and so not onely praeter besides but contra Legem against it The Law as Christ expoundeth it Matthew the fifth forbiddeth a rash word a wanton looke nay unadvised passion and what lesser sinnes can be thought than sinnes of thought therefore saith o Moral p. 1. l. 4. Azorius the Jesuit we must say that veniall sinne is against the Law as Cajetan Durand and Vega taught we must say so unlesse we will reject the definition of sinne given by Saint Austine and generally received by the Schooles dictum factum vel concupitum contra Legem aeternam that sinne is a thought word or deed against the eternall Law unlesse wee will contradict the ancient Fathers by name Saint p Greg. l. 8. in Job In praesenti mortem carnis patior tamen adhuc de futuro judicio graviorem morte destructionis tuae sententiam pertimesco quantâlibet enim justiciâ polleant nequaquam sibi ad innocentiam vel electi sufficiunt si in judicio districtè judicentur Gregory In the morning if thou seeke mee thou shalt not finde mee Now I sleep in dust that is in this present I suffer the death of the flesh and yet in the future judgement I feare the sentence of damnation more grievous than death for the Elect themselves how righteous soever they are will not be found innocent if God deale with them according to strict justice And Saint q Ep. 14. Omne quod loquimur aut de latâ aut de anguttâ viâ est si cum paucis subtilem quandam semitam invenimus ad vitam tendimus si multorum comitamur viam secundum Domini sententiam imus ad mortem Jerome Whatsoever we doe whatsoever we speake either belongs to the broad way or to the narrow if with a few we find out a narrow path we tend toward life if we keep company with many in the great road we goe to death And in his second r Lib. 2. cont Pel. c. 4. Quis nostrûm potest huic vitio non subjacere cum etiam pro otioso verbo reddituri simus rationem in judicio si ita sermonis injuria atque interdum jocus judicio coucilioque gehennae ignibus delegantur quid merebitur turpium rerum appetitio booke against the Pelagians where rehearsing the words of our Saviour He that is unadvisedly angry with his brother shall bee in danger of judgement thus reflecteth upon himselfe and his brethren Which of us can be free from this vice If unadvised anger and a contumelious word and sometimes a jest bringeth a man in danger of judgement councell and hell fire what doe impure desires and other more grievous sinnes deserve And Saint ſ Chrys com in Mat. 5. Mirantur multi hominem qui fratrem levem aut fatuum appellaverit sempiternae morti condemnari cum tertio quoque verbo alti alus id dicere soleamus Chrysostome who thus quavereth upon the same note Many are startled when they heare that he shall be condemned to eternall death who calleth his brother giddy-braine or foole sith nothing is so common among us wee hardly speake three words in disputing with any man but we breake
out into such course language Yea but some will say What is the nodding at a Sermon the stealing a farthing the breaking of a jest such an hainous matter that it deserveth everlasting torments of body and soule in Hell I answer with Saint t Aug. l. 2. cont Donat. Non afferamus stateras dolosas ubi appendamus quod volumus quomodo volumus pro arbitrio nostro di centes hoc grave est hoc leve sed afferamus stateram divinam de Scripturis sanctis tanquam de thesauris Domini in illâ quid sit grave appendamus Austine in the estimation of sinnes we ought not to bring out deceitfull weights of our owne but out of the Scriptures golden weights sealed by God and in them see what is light and what is weighty In these scales wee shall find the least sinne to be heavie enough to weigh down to the ground yea to Hell for every offence committed against an infinite Majesty deserveth an infinite punishment every transgression of the eternall Law excludeth a man from eternall happinesse and deserveth eternall death Whosoever shall breake one of the least commandements saith our u Mat. 5.19 Saviour and teach men so shall be least in the Kingdome of heaven Here Bellarmine wisheth us to marke that Christ saith not simply hee that breaketh one of the least commandements but he that breaketh it and teacheth others to doe so We mark it well and that clause may serve to brand him and his fellow Priests and Jesuits for who teach men to break the least commandements if not they whose doctrine is that veniall sinnes are not against the Law nor simply and properly to be called sinnes but rather naevuli aspergines and pulvisculi that is dustings or spertings or small spots warts or blisters Yee all perceive how much this Text of Scripture maketh for us in our doctrine against Papists but I feare it maketh as much against us in our lives Doe we so live as if we were perswaded that the least sinnes inasmuch as they are committed against an infinite Majesty and are breaches of his eternall Law are exceeding great nay infinite Could we drink iniquity as the beast doth water if we thought it were deadly poyson Doe we make great account of small sinnes nay doe we not rather make small account of the greatest Who ever espyed an Adder thrusting his sting at him and started not backe Natures insensible of paine and ignorant of that danger doe no lesse For if any venemous thing be applyed to any part of our body the bloud as if it took notice of its deadly enemy flyeth back turneth it streams another way and shall not our conscience which hath knowledge and sense of the venome of sinne be much more fearfull of it It is no amplification of the malignant nature of sinne to compare it to a poyson it is rather a diminution For no poyson could ever yet be made so strong that the least imaginary quantity thereof was deadly the least thought of sinne yea the sinne of thought is so Poysons be they never so pernicious and deadly are pernicious and hurtfull to that part onely which of it selfe is mortall I meane our bodies but sinne killeth that part that naturally cannot dye it slayeth our immortall spirits There are many forcible arguments to deterre us even from small sins and to excite us to watch over them as 1. Quia difficiliùs caventur because it is a thing more difficult to avoid them than the greater Many are choaked with small bones of fishes but few with greater because they are usually felt in the mouth before they goe downe the throat Solinus writeth of a kind of * Polihist c. 8. Brevissima apud Amyclas vipera est ac propterea dum despectui est faciliùs nocet viper of a small quantity that doth much more hurt than the greater because the most part of men sleighten it 2. Quia difficiliùs curantur because the wound that is given by them is with more difficulty cured as a pricke made with a bodkin or a steeletto if it be deep is more dangerous than a wound given with a greater weapon because the flesh presently closeth up and the bloud issuing not forth runneth inwardly with greater abundance 3. Quia ad majora viam muniunt because they are a preparation and disposition to greater offences As the wimble pierceth the wood and maketh way for the auger so the smaller sinnes make a breach in the conscience and thereby a way to greater The least sins are as the little theeves that creep in at the windowes and open the doores to the greater that rifle the house and rob the soule of all her spirituall wealth whence is that observation of Saint x Lib. 9. mor. in Job Si vitare parva negligimus insensibiliter seducti majora etiam perpetramus Gregory If we sticke not at small sinnes ere we are aware we shall make no bones of the greatest 4. Quia parva peccata crebra ita nos praegravant ut unum grande because small sinnes with their multitude and number as much hurt the soule as great sinnes with their weight The Herrings though a weake and contemptible kind of fish yet by their number kill the greatest Whale What skilleth it saith Saint y Aug. ep 108. Quid interest ad naufragium an uno grandi fluctu navis operiatur an paulatim subrepens aqua in sentinam per negligentiam derelicta impleat navem atque submerguntur Et serm 10. de divers Quid interest utrum te plumbum premat an arena plumbum una massa est arenae minuta grana sunt nonne vides de minutis guttis impleri flumina minuta sunt sed multa sunt Austine whether a ship be over-whelmed with one great wave or drowned by a leake in the bottome unespyed in which the water entereth drop by drop What easeth it a man to be pressed to death with a heap of sands more than with a sow of lead Are not the greatest rivers filled by drops The sinnes we ordinarily commit minuta sunt sed multa sunt they are small but they are many and what they lose in the quantity they get in the number These indeed are important considerations yet mee thinkes there is more nay there is all that can be said in this clause of the Apostle The end of those things is death the smaller sinnes as well as the greater in their owne nature are mortall It is a more fearfull thing I confesse to be plunged into the bottome of a headlesse lake than to sinke a little under water yet he that is held under water how neere soever it be to the top till his breath is gone is as certainly drowned as he that is found dead in the bottome It is but a miserable comfort to bee put in hope of an upper roome in Hell and not to be thrust into the lowest dungeon Wherefore as yee
be tormented for ever and ever Non habebunt requiem die vel nocte sed cruciabuntur inaeternùm Each of the former torments is of it selfe intolerable and all of them most insufferable yet all must bee endured without all meanes of ease or hope of release the banishment is perpetuall the chaines everlasting the worme immortall the fire unquenchable No losse so great as of the Kingdome of Heaven no prison so loathsome as the dungeon of Hell no sight so gastly as of the ougly fiends no shreeking so lamentable as of damned ghosts no stench so loathsome as of the lake of brimstone no worme so biting as the remorse of conscience no fire so hot as the wrath of God but such losses never to be recovered such chaines never to bee loosed such darknesse never to be enlightened such sights never to be removed such noyse never to be stilled such fumes never to be dispelled such a worme never to be pluckt off such fire never to be quenched such torments never to be released such misery never to be ended maketh up such a punishment as exceedeth all humane eloquence to expresse patience to endure What shall I say more Who of us is able to hold out long with a vehement fit of a burning feaver or colicke or stone though lying in a sweet roome upon a soft bed having the best meanes of physicke to mitigate the paine and comfort of friends to strengthen our patience If the Physician should tell us that after a moneth or a yeere we should be out of our extreme fits he would be so farre from chearing us up that hee would neere drive us to despaire how then shall wee bee able to endure the scorching flames of the brimstone lake in the darke dungeon of Hell where we have no other comforters about us than insulting Divels or perhaps some of our dearest friends and kinred tormented with us Yet if these paines lasted but for a yeere or an age or a thousand yeeres or the duration of the world though so great misery could admit of no possible comfort yet there might bee some hope but now after many ages and millions of yeeres spent in this insufferable torment to endure as many more and againe as many more and after all this to be nothing neerer to the end than at the first day of their entrance into that place of durance O this is able to breake an heart even as hard as Adamant Happy are we that we have time to think on and means to prevent these endlesse paines for which the damned soules would give a thousand lives if they had them for their neglect thereof while the time served them they now pierce their hearts and rend their soules with these and the like lamentations Woe worth our brutish sottishnesse and beastly folly whereby for painted shewes and vanishing shadowes of sinfull pleasures we have forgone everlasting joyes and the glory of a celestiall Kingdome O that we should be so retchlesse as never to fore-thinke of the wretchednesse we are now come to O that wee should refuse the meanes freely offered unto us to escape these torments for which wee would now give the price of our dearest hearts bloud O that we might be released but for a while out of these torments If we might returne to life againe what would we not doe what would we not suffer that we might not come to this dismall place But alas all is too late the irrevocable sentence is pronounced the time of repentance is past but the time of our sorrow shall never passe All our prayers are now fruitlesse our complaints bootlesse our mourning regardlesse our griefe remedilesse our woe comfortlesse our torments endlesse If the consideration of these things move us not beloved brethren we beleeve them not if we beleeve them not we are not what we professe to be that is Christians If there be no such torments in Hell as I have in part described then which to thinke and much more to utter deserveth a thousand Hells there is no truth in the Gospel upon the expresse Text whereof I have all this while enlarged my selfe Nay yet further I shall be able to demonstrate unto you that if ye beleeve there is no Hell that ye are no men because ye have no conscience There is no conscience if no religion no religion if no God no God if no providence no providence if no justice no justice if no torments to be endured after this life by them who have violated all humane and divine lawes and received no condigne punishment in this world Nature hath given us an image of Hell in Aetna and other hills that continually burne and of the damned in the Salamander and Pyrausts that live in the fire The ancient Grecians and Romans yea the Barbarous Indians that have no learning among them yet acknowledge a kind of Hell so witnesseth the Relator of the * Hist Virgin Animae immortalitatem agnoscunt eamque putant post mortem pro meritis transferri aut ad deorum sedes aut ad ingentem sero bem igne ardentem Popogusso dictam quam in extremis mundi partibus sitam ex itimant Virginia voyage The Virginians saith he acknowledge the immortality of soules and they beleeve that after death according to their desert they are either translated from hence into the seats of the gods or are carried to a huge ditch burning with fire called Popogusso An evident argument that God hath engraven the image of Hell so deep in mens consciences to deterre them from ungodlinesse that the Divell cannot raze it cleane out though he desireth nothing more But I speake to Christians with whom this reason alone is sufficient to enforce their assent If there be no Hell Christ descended not into it nor triumphed over it If no second death Christ hath not redeemed us from it But hee hath certainly i Apoc. 20.6 redeemed all that beleeve and have part in the first resurrection Other things we beleeve because they are so this is undoubtedly so if we beleeve it O what an easie condition is this to have our debts paid for us if by faith we take the summe laid downe for our discharge and tender it unto God and be carefull to run into no more arrerages He is most worthy to lye in the prison of Hell till he pay the uttermost farthing of his debts who can have them paid for him upon so easie termes and will not Wee have looked long enough downe upon Hell and Death let us now looke up to our Saviour who triumphed over both Let the sight of the one as much raise us up in hope as of the other dejecteth us in feare let the serious meditation upon the everlasting flames of Hell kindle in us an everlasting hate of sinne and love of our Saviour who by his fasting hath famished the worme of conscience that now it shall bite no more and by his bloud hath quenched
the unquenchable fire in such sort that it hath no power upon any of the members of his mysticall body and by his temporall death hath delivered all that are his from eternall Shall wee not then eternally sing his praises who hath saved us from everlasting weeping and mourning in the valley of Hinnom Shall any waters of affliction quench in us the love of him who for us quenched unquenchable fire Shall not the benefit of our delivery from everlasting death ever live in our memory Shall any thing sever us from him who for our sakes after a sort was severed from his Father when he cryed k Mat. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee Shall tribulation or anguish or persecution or famine or the sword No I am perswaded I may goe on with the Apostle and say l Rom. 8 38 39. Neither life nor death nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. To whom c. FERULA PATERNA THE XLVI SERMON REV. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Right Honourable c. HOw unwilling the author of life and Saviour of all men especially beleevers is to pronounce and execute the sentence of death and destruction against any if the teares which hee shed over Jerusalem and groanes and lamentations which hee powreth out when he powreth forth the vials of his vengeance testifie not abundantly yet his soft pace and orderly proceeding by degrees in the course hee taketh against obstinate and impenitent sinners is enough to silence all murmuring complaints wrongfully charging his justice and raise up all dejected spirits dolefully imploring his mercy For hee ever first sitteth upon his throne of grace and reacheth out his golden Scepter to all that cast themselves downe before him and if they have a hand of faith to lay hold on it hee raiseth them up before hee taketh hold of his iron rod and hee shaketh it too before hee striketh with it and hee striketh lightly before hee breaketh in pieces and shivers the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction So true is that which hee speaketh of himselfe by the Prophet Hosea a Hos 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe but in mee is thy helpe and the Prophet of him b Psal 25.10 All the pathes of the Lord are mercy and truth in which he walketh thus step by step First when wee begin to stray from him hee calleth us backe and reclaymeth us from our soule and dangerous wayes by friendly counsels and passionate perswasions by increase of temporall and promise of eternall blessings as we may read in the tenour of all the Prophets commissions 2 If these kinde offers be refused with contempt and greater benefits repayed with greater unthankfulnesse he changeth his note but not his affections he exprobrates to us our unthankfulnesse that it might not prove a barre of his bounty c Hos 11 3 4. I taught Ephraim to goe taking them by their armes and they knew not that I healed them I drew them with the cords of a man with bands of love and I was to them as they that take off the yoake from their jawes and d Isa 5.2 My Beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitfull hill and hee fenced it and hee gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest Vine and built a tower in the midst of it and also made a wine-presse therein and hee looked that it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wild grapes 3 If exprobrations and sharpe reproofes will not serve the turne he falls to threatning and menacing fearefull punishments but to this end onely that hee may not inflict what hee threateneth as wee see in Niniveh's case e Jonah 3.4 Yet forty dayes saith the Prophet and Niniveh shall bee overthrowne yet Niniveh was not overthrown f Vers 10. because the Ninivites repented of their workes and turned from their evill wayes God repented of the evill he had said that hee would doe unto them and he did it not 4 If neither promises of mercies nor threats of judgements neither kind entreaties nor sharpe rebukes can worke upon the hard heartednesse of obstinate sinners hee useth yet another meanes to bring them home hee taketh away their goods that they may come to him for them hee pincheth them with famine that hee may starve their wanton lusts he striketh their flesh with a smart rod that it may awake their soules out of a dead sleepe of security and this for the most part is the last knocke at their hearts at which if they open not and receive Christ by unfained repentance and a lively faith the gates of mercy are for ever locked up against them According to this method Christ here proceedeth with the Angel of Laodicea First g V. 15. hee friendly saluteth him next h V. 16. Ver. 17. Ver. 18. hee sharply reproveth him then hee fearfully threatneth him lastly he severely chastiseth him and all in love as you heare in this verse As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Which hath this coherence with the former wherein Christ taxed two vices in this Angel luke warmnesse and spirituall pride against these hee prescribeth two remedies zeale vers 19. and spirituall providence I counsell thee to buy of mee gold tryed in the fire that thou maist bee rich and white rayment that thou maist bee clothed and that the shame of thy nakednesse doe not appeare and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou maist see But here because the Angel of Laodicea might reply Alas to what end is all this what prescribe you unto memedicinal potions who am to be spewed out of Gods mouth what can your counsell doe me good my doome is already past and my heart within mee is like melted waxe Christ opportunely in the words of my text solveth this objection and giveth him a cordial to keep him from fainting Be not too much discouraged at my sharp rebukes nor faint under my fatherly chastisements for I use no other discipline towards thee than towards my dearest children whom I love most entirely yet rebuke most sharply to break them of their ill qualities I chasten those and those onely and all those whom I love and I chasten oftenest whom I love best wherefore faint not but be zealous neither despaire but amend and thou shalt finde my affection as much enlarged and the treasurie of my bounty as open unto thee as ever heretofore Behold then in the words of this Scripture 1 A rule of direction to those that are set in high places of authority 2 A staffe of comfort to those who are fallen into the depth of griefe and misery To the former the Spirit speaketh in the words of my text on this wise Ye Masters of servants Tutors of Scholars
last of all by Antichrist and his adherents Yee see by this Epitomy of her story the reason of her complaints n Cant. 1.6 Regard mee not because I am blacke for the sunne hath looked upon mee the sonnes of my mother were angry against mee o Cant. 5.7 The watchmen that went about the City found me they smote mee and wounded mee and tooke away my vaile from me Stay me with flaggons and comfort me with apples for I am sick for love Hereby also you may give a fit motto to those emblemes in holy Scripture A lilly among thornes A dove whose note is mourning A vine spoyled by little foxes and partly rooted out by the wild bore of the forrest A woman great with childe and a fiery dragon pursuing her According to which patternes Saint Jerome frameth his p Rubus ardens est figura ecclesiae quae flammis persecutionum non consumitur sed viret magis Hier. in verb. Exod. 3.2 A bush burning yet not consuming and as fitly Saint Gregory draweth her with Christs crosse in her hand with her challenge there unto Ecclesia haeres crucis The Church is an inheretrix of the crosse And it appeareth by all records hitherto that she hath possessed it and if wee examine the matter well wee shall finde that Christ had nothing else to leave her at his death For goods and lands upon earth hee never had q Mat. 8.20 The foxes saith hee have holes and the birds nests but the sonne of man hath not where to lay his head His soule hee bequeathed to his father his body was begged by Joseph of Arimathea his garments the souldiers tooke for their fee and cast lots upon his vestments onely the crosse together with the nailes and gall and vinegar bestowed upon him at his death hee left her as a Heriot For these withall the appurtenances scourges cryes sighes groanes stripes and wounds hee bequeathed to her by his life time in those words r Joh. 16.33 Mat. 10.17 18. 24.9 10 11. Joh. 16.10 In the world yee shall have troubles they shall persecute you in their Synagogues and scourge you and yee shall bee hated of all men for my names sake insomuch that they that kill you shall thinke they doe God good service Yee shall weepe and mourne but the world shall rejoice Upon which words Å¿ Lib. de spectac c. 28. Vicibus res disposita est lugeamus ergò dum ethnici gaudeÌt ut cum lugere coeperint gaudeamus ne paritèr nunc gaudentes cum quoque paritèr lugeamus delicatus es Christiane si in seculo voluptatem concupiscis imò niâiâis stultus si hoc existimas voluptatem Tertullian inferreth God hath disposed of joyes and sorrowes by turnes let us mourne when worldlings rejoice that when they mourne wee may rejoice Thou art too dainty and choice O Christian if besides the joyes of heaven laid up for thee thou lookest for a liberall portion of delights and pleasures in this world nay thou art too foolish if thou countest there is any true pleasure in such things wherein they place their happinesse I need not presse many texts of Scripture which yeeld this sharp juice as t Psal 34.19 Many are the troubles of the righteous u 2 Tim. 3.12 All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution * 1 Pet. 4.17 Judgment begins at the house of God this verse alone which I now handle is sufficient to cleare Christs afflicted members from all note of heresie and imputation of reprobates For if afflictions are chastisements of Gods children and tokens of his love I rebuke and chasten as many as I love then are they not necessarily judgements for sinne messengers of wrath much lesse proper markes of heretickes and reprobates The kingdome of heaven is not necessarily annexed to earthly crownes nor is eternall glory any way an appendant to worldly pompe To conclude affluence of temporall blessings is no note of the true because store of afflictions is no note of the false Church Which truth is so apparent that many Papists of note have expresly delivered it in their annotations upon holy Scripture as u Stap. in verb Joh. In mundo pressuras habebitis Stapleton the Rhemists and x Mald. in Mat. 5. Facit solem orire supâr bonos malos unde perspicuum est hominum aut nationum prosperos successus nullum signum aut testimonium esse verioris aut purioris religionis Maldonate God causeth his Sunne to rise upon the just and upon the unjust whence saith the Jesuite it is evident that the prosperity of men or nations is no certaine signe or argument of the truth or purity of religion which they professe Howbeit as Praxiteles drew Venus after the picture of Cratina his Mistresse and all the Painters of Thebes after the similitude of Phryne a beautifull strumpet so Bellarmine being to paint and limme Christs Spouse took his notes from his own Mistresse the Romane Phryne the whore of Babylon and mother of fornications Looke upon the picture of that strumpet drawne to the life by Saint John Apoc. 17. and let your eyes bee Judges I saw saith hee a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast vers 3. full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and ten hornes vers 4. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour and decked with gold and pretious stones and pearles what is this but Bellarmine his note of temporall felicity having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations of which it seemeth the Cardinall dranke deepe when he tooke the pencill in his hand to pourtray the true Church else hee could not be so out in his draught nor so utterly forget not only what others but himselfe also had formerly set downe in this point For in his solution of an objection of Martin Luther who stood in the opposite extreme affirming afflictions to bee an inseparable note of the Church hee confesseth freely that the Church in the beginning and in the end was in great straights and for this purpose to shew that persecutions though they eclipse the glory of the Church yet can never utterly extinguish it hee alledges such remarkable passages out of the ancient Fathers as these y Justin Mart. in apolog Persecution is but the pruning of Christs vine and z Tertul. in Apologet the blood of Martyrs is as seed and * Leo Ser. 1. de Pet. Paul the graines that fall one by one and dye in the earth rise up againe in great numbers If the Church runne into superfluous stemmes without the pruning knife of afflictions if the blood of martyrs turneth into seed to generate new Martyrs if the Church in her nonage had many sore conflicts and shall have greater in her old age certainly abundance ease pleasure and glory which make up temporall felicity are no notes of her for a L. 1. de
did his best to incline his will that way yet he could not keep it to that bent but that it slacked and bowed another way as Christs words imply Ducent te quo nolis They shall d John 21.18 lead thee whither thou wouldest not He saith not they shall draw thee but they shall lead thee Peter therefore was in some sort willing to goe with them that led him to the crosse yet hee somewhat shrinked at it though the spirit was strong in him yet the flesh was weake Who ever did or suffered more for the Gospel than Saint Paul yet he professeth that in regard of the law of sinne in his members the e Rom. 7.19 good which he would doe he did not and the evill which he would not doe that he did And being thus crossed in all his godly desires and endeavours hee cryeth out O * Rom. 7.24 wretched man that I am who shall deliver mee from this body of death Yee see now the root of bitternesse set so deep in our hearts that it cannot be pluck't up till wee are transplanted there is no hope in this life to purge out this matter of continuall diseases it is so mingled with our radicall moisture the balsamum of our lives only wee may abate it by subtracting nourishment from it and allay the force of it by strengthening nature against it by prayers godly instructions and continuall exercises of religious duties A neerer cause of our so great distemper in afflictions wee owe to the delights of our prosperity which as the pleasures of Capua did Hannibals souldiers so weaken our mindes and make us so choice and tender that we cannot beare the weight of our owne armour much lesse the stroakes of an enraged enemy The f Hieron ad Heliod Corpus assuetum tunicis loricae onus non fert caput opertum linteo galeam recusat mollem otio manum durus exasperat capulus body used to soft raiment cannot beare the weight of an helmet the head wrapped in silke night-caps cannot endure an iron head-piece the hard hilt hurteth the soft hand It was wisely observed by the g Senec. sent Res adversae non frangunt quos prosperae non corruperunt Heathen Sage that none are broken with adversity but such as were weakened before and made crazie by ease and prosperity Sound trees are not blowne downe with the wind but the rootes rather fastened thereby but corrupt trees eaten with wormes engendered of superfluous moisture are therefore throwne downe by the least blast because they had no strength to resist Why do losses of goods so vexe us but because we trusted in uncertaine riches Why is disgrace a Courtiers hell but because he deemed the favour of the Prince places of honourable employment his heaven We are therefore astonished at our fall because sometimes with David in the height of our worldly felicity we said Wee shall never bee h Psal 30.6 moved If when we had the world at will we had used the things of this life as if wee used them not now in the change of our estate our not using them would be all one as if we used them The best meanes to asswage the paines of affliction when it shall befall us will be in the time of our wealth to abate the pleasures of prosperity if we sawce all our earthly joyes with godly sorrow all our worldly sorrow shall be mixed with much spirituall joy and comfort Let us not over-greedily seeke nor highly esteem nor immoderately take nor intemperately joy in the delights and comforts which wealth and prosperity afford and the rod of Gods afflicting hand shall fall but lightly upon us Let us not so fill our hearts with temporary pleasures but that wee leave some place for these and the like sad and sober thoughts What are riches honours pleasures and all the contentments of this life that because I enjoy them for the present I should take so much upon mee The Divell offereth them the wicked have them Gods dearest children often want them therefore they are not eagerly to be sought They are not good but in their use nor things but for a moment nor ours but upon trust therefore not greatly to be esteemed They without store of grace in our selves and good counsels from others strengthen the flesh weaken the spirit nourish carnall lusts choake all good motions cloy our bodily and wholly stupifie our ghostly senses cast us into a dead sleep of security but awake Gods judgements against us therefore they are sparingly to be tasted not greedily to be devoured These and the like meditations are not only good preservatives in prosperity but also lenitives in adversity as they helpe us to digest and i Pind. od 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã concoct felicity so they strengthen us to beare misery All that wee now possesse and the world so much doteth upon what are they in their nature and condition but things indifferent therefore wee ought to bee indifferently affected to them and the contrary they are transitory what strange thing then is it if they passe from us they are farre inferiour to the immortall spirit that quickneth our bodies therefore cannot the want of them deprive it of happinesse they are not our inheritance for ever nor our donatives or legacies for life but talents for a while committed to us to employ them to our Masters best advantage therefore the restoring them back is no mulct but a surrender no losse but a discharge The more of this sort wee are trusted with the more liable we are to an account how then are wee hurt or endammaged by the diminution of that which lessens our accounts Finally they are often effects of Gods wrath and their effects usually are sensuality security and stupidity against which afflictions are a speciall remedy To extract then the quintessence of the herbes and flowers of Paradise and make of them a cordiall to comfort us in worldly losses Nothing is absolutely good but God all other things respectively only temporall blessings as they proceed from his love and may be imployed to his glory in this respect only to be desired and loved If then wee affect God in them and enjoy them in God and it be made apparent unto us that afflictions and losses are sometimes more certaine tokens of Gods love and that they minister unto us more matter and greater occasion of testifying our love to him and meanes of setting forth his glory we should be rather glad than sorrowfull when God seeth it best for us to exchange the former for the latter Yea but the forlorne Christian out of all heart because in his conceit out of Gods favour will reply Shew mee that the countenance of God is not changed towards mee nor his affections estranged from mee and it sufficeth surely kissings and embracings not blowes and stroakes are love complements how may I be perswaded that God layeth his heavie crosse upon mee in
yet not willing to bee put to an infamous cruell and accursed death he became obedient to death even the death of the crosse The repeating the word death seemeth to argue an ingemination of the punishment a suffering death upon death It was wonderfull that hee which was highest in glory should humble himselfe yet it is more to bee obedient than to humble himselfe more to suffer death willingly or upon the command of another than to be obedient more to bee crucified than simply to die Hee was so humble that hee became obedient so obedient that hee yeelded to die so yeelded to die as to bee crucified his love wonderfully shewed it selfe in humbling himselfe to exalt us his humility in his obedience his obedience in his patience his patience in the death of the crosse His humility was a kinde of excesse of his love his obedience of his humility his death of his obedience his crosse of his death He humbled himselfe According to which nature divine or humane In some sort according to both according to his divine by assuming our nature according to his humane by taking upon him our miseries And became obedient It is not said hee made himselfe obedient because obedience presupposeth anothers command wee may indeed of our selves offer service to another but wee cannot performe obedience where there is no command of a Superiour parere and imperare are relatives To whom then became hee obedient To God saith Calvin to Herod and Pilate saith Zanchius the truth is to both to God as supreme Judge according to whose eternall decree to Pilate by whose immediate sentence hee was to suffer such things of sinners for sinners To death ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whether inclusivè or exclusivè whether is the meaning hee was obedient all his life even to his last gaspe or hee was so farre obedient that hee yeelded himselfe to the wrath of God to the scorn of men the power of darknesse the infamy of all punishments the shame of all disgraces the cruelty of all torments the death of the crosse The difference betweene these is in this that the former maketh death the limit and bound the latter an act of his obedience to which interpretation I rather subscribe because it is certaine that Christ was not onely obedient unto the houre of his death but in his death also and after his death lying three dayes and three nights in the grave Here then we have the sum of the whole Gospel the life and death of our Lord and Saviour his birth and life in the former words He humbled himselfe his death passion in the latter and became obedient unto death even the death of the crosse He humbled that is took on him our nature infirmities became obedient that is fulfilled the law for us by his active satisfied God for our transgressions by his passive obedience Obedience most shews it selfe in doing or suffering such things as are most crosse repugnant to our wil natural desires as to part with that which is most dear pretious to us and to entertain a liking of that which we otherwise most abhor Now the strongest bent of all mens desires is to life honor nothing men fear more than death especially a lingring painful death they are confounded at nothing more than open shame whereby our Saviours obedience appeares a non pareil who passed not for his life nor refused the torments of a cruel nor the shame of an ignominious death that he might fulfill his fathers will in laying down a sufficient ransom for all mankinde Even the death of the crosse As the sphere of the Sun or Saturn c. is named from the Planet which is the most eminent part of it so is the passion of Christ from his crosse the crosse was as the center in which all the bloody lines met He sweat in his agony bled in his scourging was pricked in his crowning with thornes scorned and derided in the judgement hall but all this and much more hee endured on the crosse Whence we may observe more particularly 1 The root 2 Branches 3 Fruit. Or 1 The cause 2 The parts 3 The end of all his sufferings on it 1 Of the cause S. a Aug. l. 3. de Civ Dei c. 15. Regularis defectio non nisi in lunae fine contingit Austin demonstrateth that the Eclipse of the sun at the death of our Saviour was miraculous because then the Moon was at the full Had it bin a regular Eclipse the Moon should have lost her light and not the Sun so in the regular course of justice the Church which is compared to the Moon in b Cant. 6.10 Scripture should have been eclipsed of the light of Gods countenance and not Christ who is by the Prophet Malachy stiled c Mal. 4.2 Sol justitiae the Sun of righteousnesse But as then the Sun was eclipsed in stead of the Moon so was Christ obscured in his passion for the Church he became a surety for us therfore God laid all our debts upon him to the uttermost farthing The Prophet Esay assureth us hereof d Esa 53.4 5. He bare our infirmities carried our sorrows He was wounded for our transgressions and broken for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him by his stripes we are all healed O the wonderfull wisdom justice of God! the just is reputed unjust that the unjust might be reputed just the innocent is condemned that the condemned might be found innocent the Conquerer is in bonds to loose the captive the Creditor in prison to satisfie for the debtour the Physitian taketh the bitter potion to cure the patient the Judge is executed to acquit the prisoner What did the welbeloved of his Father deserve that he should drink the dregs of the vials of wrath why should the immaculate Lamb be put to such torture in the end be slain but for a sacrifice why should the bread of life hunger but for our gluttony the fountain of grace thirst but for our intemperancy the word of God be speechlesse but for our crying sin truth it self be accused but for our errors innocency condemned but for our transgressions why should the King of glory endure such ignominy shame but for our shameful lives why should the Lord of life be put to death but for our hainous and most deadly sins what spots had he to be washed what lust to bee crucified what ulcers to bee pricked what sores to bee launced Doubtlesse none at all our corrupt blood was drawn out of his wounds our swellings pricked with his thornes our sores launced with his speare our lusts crucified on his crosse our staines washed away with his blood It was the weight of our sins that made his soule heavie unto death it was the unsupportable burden of our punishment that put him into a bloody sweat all our blood was corrupt all our flesh as it were in
the more humble the more grace because they more desire it and are more capable thereof For the more empty the vessel is the more liquor it receiveth in like maner the more empty wee are in our owne conceits the more heavenly grace God z Mat. 11.25 infuseth into us To him therefore let our soules continually gaspe as a thirsty land let us pray to him for humility that wee may have grace and more grace that wee may be continually more humble Lord who hast taught us that because thy Son our Saviour being in the forme of God humbled himselfe and in his humility became obedient and in his obedience suffered death even the most ignominious painfull and accursed death of the crosse thou hast exalted him highly above the grave in his resurrection the earth in his ascension above the starres of heaven in his session establish our faith in his estate both of humiliation and exaltation and grant that his humility may be our instruction his obedience our rule his passion our satisfaction his resurrection our justification his ascension our improvement of sanctification and his session at thy right hand our glorification Amen Deo Patri Filio Sp. S. sit laus c. LOWLINES EXALTED OR Gloria Crocodilus THE LIII SERMON PHIL. 2.9 Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him Right Honourable c. WEe are come to keep holy the solemnest feast the Church ever appointed to recount thankfully the greatest benefit mankinde ever received to celebrate joyfully the happiest day time ever brought forth and if the rising of the sun upon the earth make a naturall day in the Calendar of the world shall not much more the rising of the Sun of righteousnesse out of the grave with his glorious beams describe a festivall day in the Calendar of the Church If the rest of God from the works of creation was a just cause of sanctifying a perpetuall Sabbath to the memory thereof may not the rest of our Lord from the works of redemption more painefull to him more beneficiall to us challenge the like prerogative of a day to be hallowed and consecrated unto it shall we not keep it as a Sabbath on earth which hath procured for us an everlasting Sabbath in heaven The holy Apostles and their Successors who followed the true light of the world so near that they could not misse their way thought it so meet and requisite that upon this ground they changed the seventh day from the creation appointed by God himselfe for a a Ignat. epist ad Magnes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Athanas Homil. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Aug. de verb. Apost ser 25. Domini resuscitatio consecravit nobis diem Dominicum Vide Homil. Eccl. Of the time of prayer Hooker Eccles polit l. 5. sect 70. p. 196. The morall Law requiring a sevent part throughout the age of the world to be that way employed though with us the day be charged in regard of a new revolution begun by our Saviour Christ yet the same proportion of time continueth which was before because in a reference to the benefit of creation and now much more of renovation thereunto added by him which was the Prince of the world to come wee are bound to account the sanctification of one day in seven a duty which Gods immutable decree doth exact for ever Sabbath and fixed the Christian Sabbath upon the first day of the weeke to eternize the memory of our Lords resurrection This day is the first borne of the Church feasts the Prototypon and samplar Lords day if I may so speak from whence all the other throughout the yeere were drawne as patternes this is as the Sunne it selfe they are as the Parelii the Philosophers speake of images and representations of that glorious light in bright clouds like so many glasses set about the body thereof With what solemnity then the highest Christian feast is to be celebrated with what religion the christian Sabbath of sabbaths is to be kept with what affection the accomplishment of our redemption the glorification of our bodies the consummation of our happinesse the triumph of our Lord over death and hell and ours in him and for him is to be recounted with what preparation holy reverence the Sacrament of our Lords body and bloud which seales unto us these inestimable benefits is to be received with that solemnity that religion that affection that preparation that elevation of our minds we are to offer this morning sacrifice Wherefore I must intreat you to endeavour to raise your thoughts and affections above their ordinary levell that they fall not short of this high day which as it representeth the raising and exaltation of the worlds Redeemer so it selfe is raised and exalted above all other Christian feasts Were our devotion key cold and quite dead yet mee thinkes that the raising of our Lord from the dead should revive it and put new life and heat into it as it drew the bodies of many Saints out of the graves to accompany our Lord into the holy City After the Sun had bin in the eclipse for three houres when the fountaine of light began againe to be opened and the beames like streames run as before how lightsome on the sudden was the world how beautifull being as it were new gilt with those precious raies how joyfull and cheerfull were the countenances of all men The Sunne of righteousnesse had been in a totall eclipse not for three houres but three whole dayes and nights and then there was nothing but darknesse of sorâow over the face of the whole Church but now hee appeares in greater glory than ever before now he shineth in his full strength What joy must this needs be to all that before sate in darknesse and in the shadow of death In the deadest time of the yeere we celebrated joyfully the birth of our Lord out of the wombe of the Virgin and shall we not this Spring as much rejoyce at his second birth and springing out of the wombe of the earth Then he was borne in humility and swadled in clouts now he is borne in majesty and clothed with robes of glory then he was borne to obey now to rule then to dye now to live for ever then to be nailed on the crosse at the right hand of a theefe now to be settled on a throne at the right hand of his Father As Cookes serve in sweet meats with sowre sawces Musicians in their songs insert discords to give rellish as it were to their concords and b Cic. de orat l. 3. Habeat summa illa laus umbram recessum ut id quod illuminatum est magis extare atque eminere videatur Rhetoricians set off their figures by solaecismes or plaine sentences in like manner the Apostle to extoll our Saviours exaltation the higher depresseth his humiliation the lower he expresseth his passion in the darkest colours to make the glory of his resurrection appear the brighter
grievous unto you to punish and d 2 Cor. 7.11 take revenge of your selves often who transgresse more often to afflict your soules often who e Eph. 4.30 grieve Gods holy spirit more often whereby yee are sealed to the day of redemption Sit par medicina vulneri let the remedy bee answerable to the malady let the plaister fit the wound if the wounds be many let the plaisters be divers if the wounds bee wide let the plaisters bee large Now to perswade all that heare mee this day willingly to apply these smarting plaisters to undertake joyfully this taske of godly sorrow and perform chearfully this necessary duety of mourning for our sinnes I have chosen this Text wherein God by expressing his desire of the life of a penitent sinner assureth us that wee shall obtaine our desires and recover the health of our soule if wee take the Physicke hee prescribeth Have I any desire that a sinner should dye and not that hee should returne from his wicked way and live Vers 22 24. If the wicked shall turne from all his sinnes that hee hath committed and keepe all my statutes and doe that which is lawfull and right hee shall surely live hee shall not dye All his transgressions that hee hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him in his righteousnesse that hee hath done hee shall live But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall hee live All the righteousnesse that hee hath done shall not bee mentioned in his trespasse that hee hath trespassed and in his sinne that hee hath sinned in them hee shall dye That is briefly If repentance follow after sinne life shall follow after repentance if sinne follow finally after repentance death shall follow after sinne O presumptuous sinner despaire not for repentance without relapse is assured life O desperate sinner presume not for relapse without repentance is certaine death Art thou freed from desperation take heed how thou presumest hast thou presumed yet by no meanes despaire Nec spera ut pecces nec despera si peccasti Neither hope that thou maist continue in sinne neither despaire after thou hast sinned but pray and labour for repentance never to bee f 2 Cor. 7.10 repented of But before I pitch upon the interpretation of the words give mee leave to glance at the occasion which was a Proverbiall speech taken up by the Jewes in those dayes wherein Ezekiel prophecied Ch. 18..2 The g Jer. 31.29 In those dayes they shall say no more the fathers have eaten a sowre grape and the childrens teeth are set on edge fathers have eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge of which wee may say as h Vell. Pater hist l. 2. Disertus sed nequaÌ facundus sed malo publico Velleius Paterculus doth of Curio It is a witty but a wicked Proverb casting a blot of injustice upon the proceedings of the Judge of all flesh i Aristot l. de mirabil auscul Aristotle reporteth it for a certaine truth That vulturs cannot away with sweet oyntments and that the Cantharides are killed and dye suddenly with the strong sent and smell of roses which makes it seeme lesse strange to mee that the doctrine of the Gospel which is a savour of life unto life should prove to some no better than a savour of death unto death and the judgements of God which were sweeter to Davids taste than the honey and the honey comb should taste so sower and sharpe in the mouthes of these Jewes with whom the Prophet had to doe that they set their teeth on edge and their tongue also against God himselfe whom they sticke not to charge with injustice for laying the fathers sinnes to the sonnes charge and requiring satisfaction of the one for the other Our fathers say they have eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge What justice is there in this why should wee smart for our forefathers sinnes and lye by it for their debt The depulsion of which calumny is the argument of this Chapter wherin the Prophet cleareth the justice of God from the former foule aspersion both by denying the instance and disproving the inference upon it They were not saith hee the grapes your fathers ate that have set your teeth on edge but the sowre fruit of your owne sinne Neither doth God seeke occasion to punish you undeservedly who is willing to remit the most deserved punishments of your former sinnes upon your present sorrow and future amendment So far is he from laying the blame of your fathers sinnes upon you that he will not proceed against you for your owne sins if you take a course hereafter to discharge your consciences of them The sufficiency of which answer will appeare more fully by laying it to the former objection which may be thus propounded in forme He who punisheth the children for the fathers fault offereth hard and uneven measure to the children But God threateneth to doe so and he often k Plut. de ser num vind Antigonus propter Demetrium Phylenus propter Augaeum Nestor propter Neleum poenas sustinuere Hes op diei ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Exod. 20.5 Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third fourth generation doth so For l Herod in Clio Croesus quintae retrò aetatis poenas luit hoc est Abavus qui cùm esset satelles Heraclidum Dominum interemit Croesus lost his kingdome for the sinne of his great great great grand-father Rhehoboam the ten Tribes for the sinnes of Solomon The posterity of Ahab was utterly destroyed for the sin of their parents and upon the Jewes forty yeeres after the death of our Saviour there came all the righteous bloud shed upon that land from the bloud of righteous Abel unto the bloud of Zacharias the sonne of Barachias whom they slew between the Temple and the Altar m Matth. 23.35 36. Verely saith our Saviour all these things shall come upon this generation Ergo God offereth hard and uneven measure to the children In which Syllogisme though the major or first proposition will hardly beare scale in the uneven ballances of mans judgement for in some case the sonne loseth his honour for his fathers sake as of treason yet the Prophet taketh no exception at it but shapes his answer to the assumption which is this in effect that their accusation is a false calumny that he that eateth the sowre grapes his teeth shall be set on edge that the sonne shall not beare the iniquity of his father but that the soule which sinneth shall dye For howsoever God may sometimes spare the father for many excellent vertues and yet cut off the sonne for the same sinne because he is heire of his fathers vices but not of his vertues or he may launce sometimes the sinne in the
faith and repentance unto life giveth charge to his Apostles and their successors to preach the Gospel unto every creature saying ſ Mar. 16.16 Whosoever beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved But here some cast a darke mist which hath caused many to lose their way How say they doe we maintaine that God desireth not the death of a sinner who before all time decreed death for sinne and sinne for death This mist in part is dispelled by distinguishing of three sorts of Gods decrees 1. There is an absolute decree and resolute purpose of God for those things which he determineth shall be 2. There is a decree of mandate or at least a warrant for those things which he desireth should be 3. There is a decree of permission for such things as if he powerfully stop them not will be Of the first kind of decree or will of God wee are to understand those words of the Psalmist Quaecunque voluit fecit Deus Whatsoever t Psal 135.6 God would that hath he done and of our Saviour Father u John 17.24 Rom. 9.19 Ephes 1.5 1 Tim. 2.4 I will that they also whom thou hast given mee be with mee where I am To the second we are to referre those words of the Apostle God would have all men to come to the knowledge of the truth God would that all should come to * 2 Pet. 3.9 repentance and This is the will of God even your x 1 Thes 4.3 sanctification and y Rom. 12.2 Be yee not conformed to this present world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is the acceptable and perfect * John 7.17 will of God In the last acception the Apostle seemeth to take the word will in those words It is better if the z 1 Pet. 3.17 will of God bee so that yee suffer for well doing than for evill doing and Saint Austine where he maintaineth that even those things that are most repugnant to the Law of God and so directly against his revealed will are not besides his will but in some sort fall within the compasse of his decrees The * Encharid ad Laurent c. 100. Hoc ipso quod contra Dei voluntatem fecerunt de ipsis facta est voluntas ejus miro inestabile modo non fit praeter ejus voluntatem quod etiam contra ejus voluntatem fit quia nec fieret nisi sineret nec utique nolens sed volens nec sineret bonus fieri male nisi omnipotens etiam de malo facere posset benè will of God is done by or upon them who seeme to crosse his will after a wonderfull and unspeakable manner that comes not to passe but by Gods will that is his secret decree which is done against his will that is his command For it could not be if he suffered it not neither doth he suffer it against his will but with his will neither would he who it good suffer evill to be but that by his omnipotency he can draw good out of evill The second distinction which much cleereth the point in question is of good things which may be sorted thus 1. Some are good formally good in themselves and by for selves as all divine graces and the salvation of the elect 2. Some things are good suppositively and consequently as warre is good not simply but when without it either the safety or the honour of the state cannot be preserved in like manner executions are nor good simply but upon presupposall of hainous crimes worthy of death in him that is executed especially for the terrour of others No man will say that it is simply good to launce or cut off a joynt yet is it good in case that otherwayes the sore cannot be healed or the sound parts preserved from a gangrene 3. Some things are good occasionally onely or by accident from whom some good may come or be made of them or out of them as treacle of poyson and wholsome pills of such ingredients as are enemies to nature If ye rightly apply these distinctions ye may without great difficulty loosen the knots above tyed the first whereof was whether God decreed sinne originall or actuall Ye may answer according to the former distinctions that he decreed effectually all the good that is joyned with it or may come by it or it may occasion but hee decreed permissively onely the a Al Monim Malum praescivit Deus non praedestinavit Anomy obliquity or malignity thereof he neither doth it nor approveth of it when it is done but only permitteth it and taketh advantage of it for the manifestation of his justice When Fulgentius denieth that God decreeth sinne and the b Concil Araus Ad malum divinâ potestate praedestinatos non modo non dicimus sed etiam siqui sint qui id affirmare ausint cum summâ execratione in eos anathema dicimus Arausican Councell thundereth out an anathema against any that dare maintaine such an impious assertion they are to bee understood of a decree of effecting or commanding or warranting it But when Calvin pleads hard for Adams fall to have not come to passe without a decree from God lest he should make God an idle spectatour of an event of so great consequence we are to interpret his words of a decree of permission of the event and disposing of the fall foreseen by him to the greater manifestation of his justice and mercy Ordinavit saith Junius id est statuit ordinem rei non rem ipsam decrevit To the second question which toucheth the apple of the eye of this Text whether God decreeth the death of any ye may answer briefly that he doth not decree it any way for it selfe as it is the destruction of his creature or a temporall or eternall torment thereof but as it is a manifestation of his justice Here I might take occasion as many doe to dispute divers intricate questions concerning the decrees of God especially of reprobation both absolute and comparative and the acts of it privative and positive whether it depend meerly upon the will of God or passe ex praevisis or propter praevisa peccata upon or for sinnes fore-seen originall or actuall as also concerning the object whether it be homo condendus conditus integer or lapsus whether man considered in fieri as clay or red earth in the hands of God out of which some vessels were to be made to honour some to dishonour or as created of God according to his image before his fall or as fallen in Adam tainted with originall sinne or lastly singular persons considered in the state of infidelity or impenitency and so dying sed b Scotus in 1. sent dist 41. nolo scrutari profundum ne eatur in profundum I will not approach too neere this deep whirle-poole lest with many through giddinesse of braine I fall into it For although I
have read what S. Austine writeth touching these points to c Epist 105 lib. 1. ad simpl q. 2. Sixtus Prosper to Vincentius Falgentius to Monimus what the 4. Councels held at Arles Arausica Valentia Mentz decreed against or for Godescalcus what d Aquin. 1. q. 22. art 3. Aquinas Bonaventure Ariminensis Basolis Biel Banes Capreolus and Mediovillanus and the Dominicans resolve on the one side and what f Loc supr cit Potest dici dari reprobationis causam non quae producat reprobationem activè in Deo quia tum Deus esset passurus sed propter quam actio terminetur ad istud objectum c. Scotus Argentinensis Herveus Occham Cumel Molina e In 1. sent dist 41. and the Franciscans generally on the other side and lastly what the Remonstrants Contra-remonstrants in our age have published one against the other to the worlds view yet I professe I find many thorny difficulties which cannot be plucked out but with that strong hand of the Apostle O g Rom. 9.20 21. man who art thou that disputest with God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made mee thus Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour When all mankind in Adam lay in the snares of death in which they intangled themselves to have left all in that woefull plight had been justice without mercy to have plucked all out had been mercy without justice but to draw out some and leave others in that doome which all had deserved declareth both the divine attributes of justice and mercy justice eternally shining in the deserved flames of the damned and mercy in the undeserved crownes of the elect But why more are not ordained to be saved than to be damned why of children yet unborne one should bee loved and another hated why the Infidels child sometimes comes to baptisme and the seed of the faithfull dyeth without it why Christ wrought not those i Mat. 11.20 miracles in Tyrus and Sidon which he did in Capernaum sith he knew they would have brought those Heathens to repentance in sackcloth and ashes whereas they took no good effect with the Capernaits why St. k Act. 16.6 7. Paul was forbid to preach in some places where they found no opposition in the people and commanded to preach in other places where the people shewed themselves l Act. 13.46 unworthy the means of salvation why it is given to some to know the m Mat. 11.25 13.11 mysteries of Christs Kingdome and they are hid from others why God is n Rom. 10.20 found of some who seeke him not and not found of others who seek him with teares why some of most harmlesse and innocent carriage yet live and dye in those places where they never can heare of any tidings of the Gospel others who have given scope to their vicious desires and for many yeeres continued in a most abominable estate of life defiling their mouthes with blasphemy their hands with theft and murder their whole body with uncleannesse yet before their death have the Gospel preached unto them and their hearts opened to give heed unto it and they sealed to the day of redemption I professe with Saint o Amb. l. de vocat gent. c. 5. Cur illorum sit misertus non horum quae scientia potest comprehendere liberatur pars hominum parte pereunte si hoc voluntatis meritis velimus ascribere resistet innumerabilium causa populorum Ambrose Latet discretionis ratio non latet ipsa discretio this difference which God maketh of men is apparent but the reason thereof is not apparent I confesse with S. * Qui in factis Dei rationem non invenit in infirmitate suâ rationem invenit quare rationem non inveniat Gregory he that findeth not a reason of the actions of God finds a reason in his owne infirmity why he cannot find it I resolve with Saint p Aug. de verb. Dom. serm 20. Quaeras tu rationem ego expavescam altitudinem tu ratiocinare ego credam Aug. ep 105. ad Sixt. Cur illum potiùs quà m illum liberet aut non liberet scrutetur qui potest judiciorum ejus tam magnum profundum veruntamen caveat praecipitium Et l. ad Simpl. q. 2. Si quia praesciebat opera Esaui mala proptereà praedestinavit ut serviret minori proptereà scil quia praescivit ejus opera bona praedestinavit Jacob ut ei maâor serviret c. Austine Seeke thou a reason I will tremble at the depth of Gods councels dispute thou I will beleeve I see depth I find no bottome Doest thou O man looke for a reason of mee I am a man as well as thou therefore let us both give eare to him who saith O homo O man what art thou who standeth upon termes with thy Maker and holdeth out argument against him If ever that censure of the Poet fell justly upon any Nae q Terent. in Andria intelligendo faciunt ut nihil intelligant they understand themselves out of their wits it most deservedly lighteth on those in our age who cast all Gods workes in the mould of their owne braine and take upon them to yeeld a reason of his eternall counsels as if they had been his r Rom. 11.33 34. counsellers who search into the unsearchable judgements of God and will seem to find those wayes which are past finding out r Rom. 11.33 34. O the deph of the riches both of the wisedome and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out Who hath knowne the mind of the Lord or who hath been his counseller These men resemble those that unskilfully handle knots of wier strings who by taking the wrong end the more they labour to untwist them the more they tangle them and in the end are forced to cast them away as unserviceable for their instruments wherefore leaving their curious speculations upon my Text I come to a briefe application 1. Doth God take no pleasure in the death of the wicked that daily transgresse his Law grievously provoke his wrath ungraciously abuse his mercy and sleightly regard his judgements Doth hee use all good meanes to reclaime them and save them from wrath to come Is the life of every man so precious in his eyes Doth he esteem of it as a rich jewell engraven with his owne image how carefull then and chary ought we to be who are put in trust with it locked up in the casket of our body that we lose it not by carelesse negligence much lesse expose it for a prey to others by duels either sending or accepting challenges Doe we set such an invaluable jewell as is the life of our bodies and soules at so low a rate that we will put it to the hazzard as it were
call us by thy spirit and wee shall heare thee and hearing thee turne from our wicked wayes and turning live a new life of grace here and an eternall life of glory hereafter in heaven with thee O Father the infuser O Son the purchaser O holy Spirit the preserver of this life Amen Cui c. THE BEST RETURNE THE LV. SERMON EZEK 18.23 Not that hee should returne from his wayes and live Or if hee returne from his evill wayes shall hee not live Right Honourable c. SAint a Possid in vit Austine lying on his death-bed caused divers verses of the penitentiall Psalmes to bee written on the walls of his chamber on which he still cast his eyes and commented upon them with the fluent Rhetoricke of his tears But I could wish of all texts of Scripture that this of the Prophet Ezekiel were still before all their eyes who mourn for their sins in private For nothing can raise the dejected soule but the lifting up of Gods countenance upon her nothing can dry her tears but the beams of his favour breaking out of the darke clouds of his wrath and shining upon her nothing can bring peace to an affrighted and troubled conscience but a free pardon of all sinnes whereby shee hath incurred the sentence of death which the Prophet tendereth in the words of the text Which are as the very heart of this chapter and every word thereof may serve as a principall veine to conveigh life-blood to all the languishing or benummed and deaded members of Christ his mysticall body Returne and live These words are spirit and life able to raise a sinner from the grave and set him on his feet to tread firmly upon the ground of Gods mercy as also to put strength and vigour into his feeble and heavie limbes 1. to creep then to walke and last of all to runne in the pathes of Gods commandements The explication whereof to our understanding and application to our wils and affections were the limits of my last Lords-dayes journey By the light which was then given you yee might easily discerne our lusts which are sudden motions from Gods desires which are eternall purposes and distinguish betweene a sinner who is not purged from all dregges of corruption and a wicked person who Moab-like is settled upon his lees between a common infirmity and a dangerous sickenesse betweene sin in the act and wickednesse in the habit Questionlesse there is more reason to pitty him that falleth or slippeth than him that leapeth into the sink of sinne and daily walloweth in the mire of sensuall pleasures Yet such is the mercy and goodnesse of almighty God that hee desireth not that the wicked such as make a trade of sinne and have a stiffe necke a hard heart a seared conscience that the wretchedst miscreants that breathe should either dye in their sinnes here or for their sinnes hereafter The former of the two is the death of life the latter wee may significantly tearme the life of death which exerciseth the damned with most unsufferable pangs and torments for evermore Here when wee part life dyeth but in hell death liveth and the terrours and pangs thereof are renewed and encreased daily the former death is given to the vessells of wrath for their earnest the latter is paid them for their wages This death is properly the wages of sinne which God cannot in justice with-hold from the servants of sinne and vassals of Satan For God whose infinite wisdom comprehends not only the necessity of all effects in their determined but also the possibility in their supposed causes foreseeing from all eternity what an intelligent nature endued with free-will left to himselfe would doe how hee would fall and wound himselfe by his fall and knowing how hee could so dispose of his fall and cure his wound that his the Creators glory might bee no whit impaired but rather encreased by not powerfully hindering it decreed to create this creature for his glory which he appointed to shew upon him by three meanes 1. By way of generall bounty in placing the first parents of mankinde in Paradise and in them giving all sufficient meanes to bring them to eternall happinesse an end infinitely elevated above the pitch of their owne nature and after the abuse of their free-will and losse of that happy estate in which they were created and bringing themselves into thraldome to sinne and Satan 2. By way of speciall mercy graciously freeing freely justifying justly glorifying some a Rom. 9.23 in and by Christ viz. the vessels of mercy prepared unto glory 3. By way of justice in utterly leaving or uneffectually calling and upon abuse or refusall of some measure of grace offered to them deservedly hardening and upon their finall incredulity and impenitency necessarily condemning and in the end eternally punishing others to wit the vessels of wrath ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã made up or fitted to destruction This fabricke of celestiall doctrine strongly built upon evident texts of Scriptures may serve for a fortresse to defend this text and the principall doctrines contained in it against all the batteries of Heretickes and Atheists made against it viz. 1. That God approveth not the death of the wicked in his sinne but on the contrary liketh and commandeth and taketh pleasure in his conversion 2. That he decreeth not or desireth the death of any wicked for it selfe as it is the misery and destruction of his creature but as a manifestation of his justice For he b Lam. 3.33 punisheth not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with his heart or willingly hee made not death nor delighteth in the c Wisd 1.13 Fulgent ad Mon. Mortem morienti non fecit qui mortem mortuo justè retribuit destruction of the living Thy destruction is from thy selfe d Hos 13.9 O Israel but in mee is thy helpe The wicked after his hardnesse and impenitent heart treasureth up unto himselfe wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgement of God who rendreth to every man according to his workes Upon which texts the Fathers inferre that not onely the execution but the very decree of damnation of the reprobate passeth upon their sinne foreseene Saint e Ep. ad Sixt. Vasa irae homines sunt propter naturae bonu n creati propter vitia sâpplicio destinati si vasa sint perfecta in perditionem sibi hoc imputent Austine The vessels of wrath are wicked men created for the good of nature but destinated to punishment for their sinnes And againe If they are fitted to destruction let them thanke themselves Saint f Prosper ad object 3. Gal. Qui à sanctitate vitae per immunditiem labuntur non ex eo necessitatem pereundi habuerunt quia praedestinati non sunt sed quia tales futuri ex voluntariâ praevaricatione praesciti sunt Prosper They that fall away from holinesse through uncleanness lye not under a necessity of
a fearfull expectation of eternall death I doubt not but that some of you were pricked in heart with this sharp reproofe of sinne which ye heard in the handling of the former Verses and ye resolved forthwith to turne from your evill wayes and walke in the pathes of Gods commandments what remaines but that yee hold on your holy course to the end that ye may winne a garland of the flowers of Paradise Beware of turning out of the way to take up the golden apples which the Divell casteth before you if ye turne never so little aside ye endanger your crowne of glory and hazzard your lives All your former righteousnesse which ye have done shall not be mentioned and in the trespasse that yee have trespassed and in the sinne that ye have sinned in them yee shall dye What a soule and shamefull thing is it with the dogge to returne to your vomit of luxury and with the swine to your wallowing in the mire of sensuall pleasures As in the diseases of the body so also much more of the soule all relapses are dangerous and in some diseases altogether incurable the reason whereof alledged by some learned Physicians is this that when wee first take our bed the malignity of the disease worketh upon corrupt humours in the body which when they are purged and we restored to health if after by any distemper we fall into the same malady the malignity of the disease worketh upon our vitall spirits in like manner the malignity of sinne before our conversion worketh but upon our corrupt nature but after upon the graces of Gods Spirit Remember the possessed man in the Gospel who when the t Luke 11.26 uncleane spirit went out of him returned to his owne home and finding it swept and garnished took seven worse spirits than that which before haunted him and so his last state was worse than his first u John 8.11 Sinne no more saith our Saviour to the impotent man lest a worse thing befall thee * ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Improbè Neptunum accusat qui bis naufragium fecit Eras Adag Lysimachus was wont to say that it was impardonable carelesnesse to stumble twice at the same stone The first time we offend we may plead ignorance and over-sight but hee that twice runneth upon the same rocke if hee bee cast away cannot blame his hard chance but his retchlesse folly x Tertul. de poenitent Comparationem videtur egisse qui utrumque cognoverit judicato pronunciasse eum meliorem cujus se rursus esse maluerit Tertullian acutely observeth that he who after his conversion to God and giving his name to Christ falls againe to serve Sathan in any vicious course of life seemeth to have put God and the Divell in the same ballance and having weighed both their services deliberately and upon a settled judgement to have preferred the service of the Divell and pronounced him the better Master of the two whom he the second time chuseth to serve after hee hath made tryall of both To be overtaken with some kind of temptation or other is the lot of all the sonnes of Adam but when God hath delivered us out of the snare of the Divell and we have escaped the danger and undertaken a new course of life and held it for some time then to turne backe to the wiles of sinne and walke of Sathan what is it else than to breake all our former promises and vowes made to God to resist the motions of the Spirit to strive against grace to cast his feare and commandements behind us and presuming upon his gentlenesse and patience to runne desperately upon the point of his glittering sword which hee hath whet and threatned to make it drunke with the bloud of all retchlesse and presumptuous sinners Notwithstanding all these great and fearfull dangers which we incurre by relapses how many turnings doe we make in our way to Heaven how often doe wee slacke our pace how often doe wee unbend our desires nay rather flye backe like a broken bow After wee have made an open confession of our sinnes and a solemne profession of amendment after wee have protested against our former courses and vowed to walke in newnesse of life and taken the holy Sacrament of our Lords blessed body and bloud upon it yet how soone doe we looke backe to Sodome with Lots wife how soone doe we forget that in private which we promised in publike how soone doe we leave the strait pathes of Gods commandements and follow the sent of our former sinfull pleasures After we have eaten the food of Angels we devoure Sathans morsels after we have drunke the bloud of our Redeemer we greedily swill in iniquity like water Wee find in Scripture many desperately sicke yet cured the first time by our Saviour but where doe we reade in all the Gospel of any blind mans eyes twice enlightened of any deafe eares twice opened of any tyed tongue twice loosened of any possessed with Divels twice dispossessed of any dead twice raised No doubt Christ could have done it but we reade not that ever he did it that we should be most carefull to avoid relapses into our former sins the recovery whereof is alwayes most difficult and in some case as the Apostle teacheth us impossible I tremble almost to rehearse his words y Heb. 6.4 5 6 7 8. It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them againe unto repentance seeing they crucifie to themselves the Sonne of God afresh and put him to an open shame For the earth which drinketh in the raine that commeth oft upon it and bringeth forth herbes meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God But that which bringeth thornes and bryars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned The z Plin. nat hist l. 9. c. 43. Scolopendra hamo devorato omnia interiora evomit donec hamum egerat deinde resorbet Scolopendra having devoured the bait when shee feeleth the hooke to pricke her casteth up all that is in her belly till shee have got up the hooke but as soone as ever that is out of her bowells she suppeth up all that which before she had cast from her How excellently hath nature in the property of this fish set before our eyes the condition and manner of a sinner who after he hath devoured Sathans morsells feeling the hook in his conscience and being pricked with some remorse rids the stomacke of his soule by confession and never leaveth fasting and praying and sighing and sobbing till the hooke be out and the wound of his conscience healed with the balme of Gilead but that being done resorbet interiora omnia he returneth to his former vomit and greedily
and occupation of the Sechemites but of the Hittites 3. Whether Hamor were the father or sonne of Sechem For in Genesis we reade that he was the father of Sechem but in the Acts many translate ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the son of Sechem 1. The first doubt may be thus cleared Joseph alone was buried in Sechem and rested there but the other Patriarchs were at the first buried at Sechem but afterwards removed from thence to Ephron and were buried all in Abrahams vault or cave thus Josephus S. Jerome are easily reconciled For though the bones of them all lay in Ephron yet at Sechem there might be some monument of them remaining as empty tombes with some inscription 2. The second difficulty is much more intricate and those who have stroven to get out of it have more intangled themselves and others in it Calvins answer is somewhat too peremptory that there is an errour in all our copies of the New Testament and ought to be corrected and though Beza goe about to excuse the matter by a semblance of some like misnomer in the Gospel yet this his observation unlesse he could produce some ancient copies wherein such mistakes were not to be found openeth a dangerous gap to Infidels and Heretickes who hereby will be apt to take occasion to question the infallible truth of the holy Writ Canus in going about to take out the blot maketh it bigger saying that Saint Luke erred not in relating Saint Stephens speech but that Saint Stephens memory failed him and that through errour or inadvertency hee confounded Jacobs purchase with Abrahams This answer commeth neere to blasphemy for no man doubteth but that Saint Stephen in his speech spake as hee was inspired by the holy Ghost Therefore Lyranus Lorinus and many others think to salve all by putting two names upon the same man whom they will have sometimes to be called Ephron sometimes Hamor but they bring no good proofe out of Scripture for it and though they could make Ephron and Hamor the same man yet they can never make the cave in the land of the Hittites and that in the land of the Sechemites to be one and the same parcell of ground With submission to more learned judgements quia hic Delio opus est natatore I take it that either ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã should be rendred by joyned to the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and a comma at ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and so the sense is That the Patriarchs were translated into Sechem by the Sechemites and laid in Abrahams sepulchre which he bought for mony or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to be understood and then the meaning will be this That some of the Patriarchs were laid in Abrahams sepulchre some in the field that Jacob bought Thus then according to the originall wee may render this verse And they were carried over into Sechem and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought besides that which Jacob bought of Hamor that is Jacob dyed and our fathers and some of them were bestowed in Sechem in the cave which Jacob bought and some of them in that which Abraham bought 3. The third doubt is easily resolved For Hamor was the father of Sechem as we reade Genes 33.19 neither doth S. Stephen gain-say it for his words are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of Sechem which should have been translated the father of Sechem as Herodotus in Clio saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and in Thalia ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mar. 15.40 and Saint Mark ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Adrastus of Mydas to wit the father of Mydas Cyrus of Cambyses that is the father of Cambyses Mary of James that is Mary the mother of James The mist being thus dispelled we may cleerly see our way and readily follow the Patriarchs in the funerall procession from Egypt first to Sechem and afterwards to Ephron And they were carried over c. This transportation offereth to our religious thoughts two acts 1. Of Piety 2. Of Charity both significative and mysticall For the carrying the Patriarchs bones from Egypt to Canaan shadoweth our removall after death from Egyptian darknesse to the inheritance of Saints in light and the laying them by the bones of Abraham may represent unto us how the soules of all the faithfull immediately after they were severed from their bodies are carried by Angels into the bosome of Abraham The first I call an act of piety or religion because the Patriarchs before their death by faith gave charge of their bones and their posterity executed their last Will in this point to professe their faith in Gods promise which was to give the land of Canaan to their seed for an inheritance and accordingly by their dead bodies they tooke a kind of reall possession thereof And they As by a Synecdoche the soule is put for the man Anima cujusque is est quisque so by the same figure the corpses of the Patriarchs are called the Patriarchs Poole elegantly called his dead body his depositum Scaliger his relique Saint Paul the tent-maker agreeable to his profession called it an earthly tabernacle And although indeed it bee but the casket which containes in it the precious ring our immortall spirit yet in regard of the union of it to the soule and because it concurreth with the soule to the physicall constitution of a man it may by a figure be called a man Yea but had the Patriarchs no priviledge but must they goe the way of all flesh They must for earth is in their composition and into the earth must be their resolution As the world is a circle so all things in the world in this are like a circle that they end where or as they began The vapours that are drawne up from the earth fall downe againe upon the earth in rain The fire that descended at the first from the region of fire in the g Pickolom Phys hollow of the Moone ascends up thither againe The waters that flow from the sea returne backe to the sea in like manner the soule of man which was infused by God returneth to God that gave it but the body which was made of red earth returneth to dust as it was We need not inquire of Scripture where reason speaketh so plaine nor interrogate reason where sense giveth daily testimony to the truth Every passing bell rings this lesson in our eares Omnis loculus locus est every coffin is a topicke to prove it every grave layes it open to us every speechlesse man on his death-bed cries out to us Memento mori quod tueris eris Were carried over into Sechem The life of man is a double pilgrimage 1. Of the outward man 2. Of the inward man The outward travelleth from the cradle to the coffin the inward from earth to heaven Of all creatures man only is properly a pilgrim on earth because he alone is borne and liveth all his time here out of his own country of all men the Patriarchs
Priest Christ Jesus entred after his death and there appeareth for us the curing of all bodily diseases by the word of Christ the healing of all spirituall maladies by his word preached Now if other miracles were significant and enunciative how much more this of tongues Verily he hath little sight of celestiall mysteries who cannot discerne divine eloquence in these tongues diversitie of languages in the cleaving of them and knowledge and zeale in the fire As S. John Baptist was so all the dispensers of Gods mysteries ought to z Bernard in verb. Christi Ille erat lucerna ardens lucens lucere vanum est ardere parum lucere ardere perfectum bee burning and shining lamps shining in knowledge burning in zeale There are three reasons assigned by learned Commentators why the Spirit manifested himselfe in the likenesse of fierie tongues 1. To shew his affinitie with the Word such as is between fire and light the Word is the true light that enlighteneth everie one that commeth into the world and here the Spirit descended in the likenesse of fire 2. To shew that as by the tongue wee taste all corporall meats drinks and medicinall potions so by the Spirit wee have a taste of all spirituall things 3. To teach us that as by the tongue wee speake so by the Spirit wee are enabled to utter magnalia Dei the wonderfull works of God and the mysteries of his kingdome It is not yee that a Matt. 10.20 speake saith our Saviour but the Spirit which speaketh in you which Spirit spake by the month of the Prophets that have beene since the world began Our mouthes and tongues are but like organ-pipes the breath which maketh them sound out Gods praises is the Spirit And those that have their spirituall senses exercised can distinguish betweene the sound of the golden bels of Aaron and of the tinckling b 1 Cor. 13.1 Cymball S. Paul speaketh of for sacred eloquence consisteth not in the enticing words of mans wisdome but in demonstration of the Spirit and power The fire by which these tongues were enlightened was not earthly but heavenly and therefore it is said As of fire Christ three severall times powred out his spirit upon his Apostles first c Vers 1.16 Matthew the tenth at their election and first mission the second is d Vers 22. John the twentieth when he breathed on them and said Receive yee the holy Ghost and thirdly in this place At the first they received the spirit of wisdome and knowledge at the second the spirit of power and authority at the third the spirit of zeale and courage As many proprieties as the naturall Philosophers observe in fire so many vertues the Divines will have us note in the Spirit given to the faithfull they are specially eight Illuminandi of enlightening 2. Inflammandi of heating 3. Purgandi of purifying 4. Absumendi of consuming 5. Liquefaciendi of melting 6. Penetrandi of piercing 7. Elevandi of lifting up or causing to ascend 8. Convertendi of turning For darknesse is dispelled cold expelled hardnesse mollified metall purified combustible matter consumed the pores of solid bodies penetrated smoake raised up and all fuell turned into flame or coale by fire 1. Of enlightening this Leo applyeth to the Spirit 2. Of enflaming this Gregory worketh upon 3. Of purifying this Nazianzen noteth 4. Of consuming this Chrysostome reckons upon 5. Of melting this Calvin buildeth upon 6. Of penetrating this S. Paul e 1 Cor. 2.10 The Spirit searcheth all things pointeth to 7. Of elevating this Dionysius toucheth upon 8. Of converting and this Origen and many of our later writers run upon 1. Fire enlighteneth the aire the Spirit the heart 2. Fire heateth the body the Spirit the soule 3. Fire purgeth out drosse the Spirit our sinnes 4. Fire consumeth the stubble the Spirit our lusts 5. Fire melteth metals the Spirit the hardest heart 6. Fire pierceth into the bones the Spirit into the inmost thoughts 7. Fire elevateth water and fumes the Spirit carrieth up our meditations with our penitent teares also to heaven 8. Fire turneth all things into its owne nature the Spirit converteth all sorts of men and of carnall maketh them spirituall These operations of the Spirit God grant wee may feele in our soules so shall we be worthy partakers of Christ his body and by him be sanctified in body and soule here and glorified in both hereafter To whom c. CHRIST HIS LASTING MONUMENT A Sermon preached on Maundy Thursday THE LXVI SERMON 1 CORINTH 11.26 As often as yee eate of this bread and drinke of this cup yee doe shew the Lords death till he come WHen our Saviour was lifted up from the earth to draw all to him and his armes were stretched out at full length to compasse in and embrace all true beleevers after he had bowed his head as it were to take leave of the world and so given up the ghost a souldier with a a John 19.34 speare pierced his side and forthwith came there out water and bloud Which was done to fulfill two prophecies the one of b Exod. 12.46 Moses A bone of him shall not be broken the other of c Zech. 12.10 Zechary They shall looke on him whom they pierced as also to institute two d Chrysost Cyrillus Theophilact in hunc locum Damascenus lib. 4. de fid c. 10. Aug. l. 2. de Symb. c. 6. tract 9. in Johan Sacraments the one in the water the other in the bloud that ran from him the one to wash away the filth of originall sinne the other to purge the guilt of all actuall The hole in Christs side is the source and spring of both these Wells of salvation in the Church which are continually filled with that which then issued out of our Lords side For albeit he dyed but once actu yet he dyeth continually virtute and although his bloud was shed but once really on the crosse yet it is shed figuratively and mystically both at the font and at the Lords board when the dispenser of the sacred mysteries powreth water on the childe or wine into the chalice and by consecrating the bread apart from the wine severeth the bloud of Christ from his body In relation to which lively representation of his sufferings the Apostle affirmeth that as oft as we eate of that bread and drinke of that cup wee shew the Lords death till he come In the Tabernacle there was sanctum sanctum sanctorum a holy place a place most holy so in the Church Calendar there is a holy time all the time of Lent and the most holy this weeke wherein our blessed Saviour made sixe steps to the Crosse and having in sixe dayes accomplished the workes of mans redemption as his Father in the like number of dayes had finished the workes of creation the seventh day kept his e Bernard in dic Pasch Feria sexta redemit hominem ipso
Angels the inward man pineth away and all the graces of the spirit sensibly decay in us This malady the Apostle suspected not to be in his Corinthians and therefore he imposeth not here a law of often receiving but supposeth they did so for he imagined not that any would be so carelesse of their life safety as not often to exemplifie the copy of their pardon He conceived that he needed not to bid any to drink freely of the wine that maketh glad the heart of every communicant or to eate frequently of the food that perisheth not therefore taking that for granted he prescribeth the manner how and the end why they were often to celebrate this sacrament saying As oft As ye eate There are three kinds of eating 1. Spiritually only 2. Sacramentally only 3. Sacramentally and spiritually 1. They eate Christ spiritually only who beleeve the incarnation passion of our Lord and Saviour yet dye before they are called to his Table 2. They eate sacramentally only who are bid to the marriage feast and come thither also and eate of the Brides cake drink of her wine but have not on the wedding garment such were the Jewes who ate manna in the m John 6.49 wildernesse and dyed in their sins and Judas at Christs last supper and all infidels and hypocrites who receive at the Sacrament panem Domini not panem Dominum the Lords bread but not the Lord himselfe who is that bread of n John 6.48 life 3. They eate Christ both sacramentally and spiritually who beleeving in Christs incarnation and passion according to his command come with preparation unto this Table and with their mouth feed upon the outward element which may be considered three wayes 1. In substance so it is bread or wine 2. In use so it is a sacrament 3. In significancy and efficacy to all beleevers so it is the body and bloud of Christ And drinke It is worth your observation that our adversaries the Papists who are so much against a figure in the words used in the consecration of the bread This is my body yet are forced to admit of a double figure in the words used in the consecration of the cup This is the new Testament in my bloud If they cast not here a double figure they are lost for first there is continens pro contento the cup put for the liquor contained in it Secondly in those words as likewise in the words of my Text they must digest a Metonymie or swallow downe flagons and cups This cup. The sacrament is called a cup in a double respect 1. Quia potus drinke to nourish and refresh the soule 2. Quia potio because a medicinall potion to purge the conscience o In ep ad Cor. 1. c. 11. Materialis qui debet sumi parcè dari largè sacramentalis qui debet sumi innocenter tractari reverentèr spiritualis scilicet passionis vel poenitentiae qui debet sumi libenter sustineri laetanter vituperabilis qui debet estundi simplicitèr Gorrhan findeth out foure sorts of cups and engraveth upon each of them a severall poesie 1. The materiall or ordinary cup which saith hee ought to be taken sparingly but given liberally 2. The sacramentall which ought to be taken innocently and touched reverently 3. The spirituall which ought to bee taken willingly and borne joyfully 4. The abominable and execrable cup which ought to be refused absolutely or shed wholly But although this fourth cup bee mentioned Apoc. 17.4 yet wee will content our selves at this time with these three cups 1. Calix consolationis the cup of mirth and spirituall consolation 2. Calix afflictionis the cup of affliction 3. Calix benedictionis the cup of blessing Of the first p Psal 23.5 David dranke freely Of the second q Jer. 16.7 Lam. 4.21 Ezek. 23.33 Jeremy sorrowfully Of the third the r 1 Cor. 10.6 Corinthians holily If this cup in my text be calix benedictionis the cup of blessing then certainely the Romish Priests deserve calicem maledictionis a cup of cursing who deprive the laity of this cup. They cannot say in their congregation to the people As oft as yee drinke of this cup for they never drinke of it To whom belongeth the commandement of eating Take eate to the Priests onely Why then doe the Laity among them eat To the Laity also Why then doe they not drink sith it is most evident in the text that Christ said ſ Mat 26.27 Drinke ye all of this to whom before he gave the bread saying Take eate t Mat. 19.6 Those things which God hath joyned together let no man put asunder If the cup were not needfull why did Christ adde it to his Supper If it were needfull why doe they take it away Doubtlesse as halfe a meale is no meale nor halfe a hand a hand nor halfe a ship a ship so neither is their halfe communion a Sacrament si dividis perdis This is the cup of the New Testament saith Christ which is shed for * Mat. 26.28 many for the remission of sinnes Are these many onely Priests Had the Laity no sinnes or no remission of sinnes by Christs bloud If they have as they all professe why doe they forbid them that which Christ expressely commandeth them Drink ye all of this for it is shed for you and for many But to go no farther than this chapter when St. Paul requireth ver 28. Let a man examine himselfe I would willingly examine our Adversaries whether this precept concerneth the lay people or no They will say it doth especially because they most need examination that they may confesse their sinnes and receive absolution for them before they presume to come to the Lords Table let them then reade what followeth in the same verse and so let them eate of that bread and drink of that cup. Ye doe shew the Lords death The Apostle doth not hereby exclude other ends of receiving the Sacrament but sheweth this to be the chiefest God never set so many remarkeable accidents upon any thing as on his Sonnes death at which the Sun was eclipsed the rockes were cloven the vaile of the Temple rent from the top to the bottome the graves opened and the dead arose Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints but most precious the death of his holy One for this Sacrament was principally instituted to keepe in remembrance that his precious death Wee shew forth Christs death three manner of wayes 1 In verbo 2 In signo 3 In opere 1 By commemoration of the historie of his passion 2 By representation thereof in the sacred Symboles 3 By expression thereof in our death to sinne And as it is more to shew forth Christs death in signo by administring or participating the Sacrament thereof than in verbo by discoursing of his passion so it is much more to shew it forth in opere in mortifying our members upon earth
many jewells I make no doubt but that you will resolve with the Apostle to desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified Let Israel hope in the Lord saith the b Psal 130 7. Psalmist for with the Lord there is mecrcy and with him is plenteous redemption Plenteous for what store of bloud shed he in his agony in his crowning with thornes in his whipping in his nailing and lastly in the piercing of his side whereas one drop of his bloud in regard of the infinite dignity of his person might have served for the ransome of many worlds one drop of his bloud was more worth than all the precious things in the world As Pliny writeth of the herbe c Plin. l. 22. c. 15. Scorpius herba vâlet adversus animal sui nominis Scorpius that it is a remedy against the poyson of a Scorpion so Christs death and crosse is a soveraigne remedy against all manner of deaths and crosses For all such crosses make a true beleever conformable to his Redeemers image and every conformity to him is a perfection and every such perfection shall adde a jewell to his crown of glory This death of Christ so precious so soveraigne we shew forth in shadow as it were and adumbration when either we discourse of the history of Christs passion or administer the Sacrament of his death but to the life when as Saint Francis is said to have had the print of Christs five wounds on his body so wee have the print of them in our soules when we expresse his death in our mortification when we tye our selves to our good behaviour and restraine our desires and affections as he was nailed to the crosse when we thirst after righteousnesse as he thirsted on the crosse for our salvation when we are pierced with godly sorrow as his soule was heavie unto death and when as his flesh so our carnall lusts are crucified when as hee commended his soule to his Father so we in our greatest extremities commit our soules to God as our faithfull Creatour Cui c. THE SIGNE AT THE HEART A Sermon preached on the first Sunday in Lent THE LXVII SERMON ACTS 2.37 Now when they heard this they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren What shall we do SInnes for repentance to worke upon and repentance for sinne take up in a manner our whole life Not onely the wicked in their endlesse mazes in the rode to hell but even the godly who endeavour to make the streightest steps they can to heaven Ambulant in circuitu walke in a kind of circuit From fasting to feasting and from feasting againe to fasting from Mount Gerizin to Mount Hebal and from Mount Hebal to Mount Gerizin from sinnes to repentance and from repentance backe againe though against their will to sin It is true that grace in the regenerate never quits the field but groweth more and more upon corrupt nature and in the end conquereth her yet so conquereth her as Lucullus and other Romane Captaines did a Cic. de leg Manil. Ita tamen superarunt ut ille pulsus superatusque regnaret Mithridates that nature still ruleth in the members and often putteth the mind to the worst alwaies to much trouble Wherfore as the Sea-mew that maketh her nest on the sea shore is forced daily to repaire it because every day the violent assault of the sea waves moulter away some part thereof so the regenerate and sanctified soule hath need to renew the inward man daily and repaire the conscience by repentance because every day nay almost every houre by the violent assaults of tentation and sinnes as they are termed of ordinary incursion some breach or other is made into it Now albeit private repentance hath no day set nor time prefixed to it but is alwayes in season yet now is the peculiar season of publike when the practice of the primitive and the sanction of the present Church calls us to watching and fasting to weeping and mourning to sackcloth and ashes to humiliation and contrition when in a manner the whole Christian world I except only some few Heteroclites accordeth with us in our groanes and consorteth with our sighes and keepeth stroake with us in the beating our breasts and setteth open the sluces to make a floud of teares and carry away the filth of the whole yeere past Abyssus abyssum invocet let this floud carry away the former deluge Verily such is the overflowing of iniquity and inundation of impurity in this last and worst age of the world that the most righteous among us can hardly keep up their head and hold out their hands above water to call to God for mercy for themselves others hath not then the Church of God great reason to oppose the Eves Embers Lent fasts as so many floud-gates if not quite to stay yet somewhat to stop the current of sin Anselme sometimes Archbishop of Canterbury whom the Church of Rome hath inserted into the Canon of Saints but he ranketh himselfe among the Apocrypha of sinners recounting with hearts griefe and sorrow the whole course of his life and finding the infancy of sinne in the sinnes of his infancy the youth and growth of sinne in the sinnes of his youth and the maturity and ripenesse of all sinne in the sinnes of his ripe and perfect age breaketh forth into this passionate speech Quid restat tibi O peccator nisi ut totâ vitâ deploret totam vitam What remaines for thee wretched man but that thou spend the remainder of thy whole life in bewailing thy whole life What should wee Beloved in a manner doe else considering that even when we pray against sin wee sin in praying when we have made holy vowes against sin our vowes by the breach of them turne into sinne after wee have repented of our sinnes we repent of our repentance and thereby increase our sinne In which consideration if all the time that is given us should be a b Hier. ep 7. In quadragesima abstinentiae vela pandenda sunt tota aurigae retinacula laxanda Lent of discipline if all weekes Embers if all daies of the weeke Ashwednesdayes how much more ought we to keep Lent in Lent now at least continually to call upon the name of God for our continuall blaspheming it Now to fast for our sinnes in feasting now to weep and mourne for our sinnes in laughing sporting and rioting in sinfull pleasures to this end our tender mother the Spouse of Christ debarreth us of all other delights that wee should make Gods statutes our delights for this cause shee subtracteth our bodily refection that wee may feast our soules therefore shee taketh away or diminisheth our portion in the comforts of this life that with holy David wee should take God for our c Psal 119.57 portion This is a time as the name importeth Lent of God to examine our
accounts and cleere them a holy tenth of the yeere to be offered to him the sacred Eve and Vigils to the great feast of our Chrisââan passover Your humbling your bodies by watching and fasting your souâes by weeping and mourning your rending your hearts with sighes the resolving your eyes into teares your continuall prostration before the throne of grace offering up prayers with strong cryes are at this time not only kind fruits of your devotion speciall exercises of your mortification necessary parts of contrition but also testimonies of obedience to the Law and duties of conformity to Christs sufferings and of preparation to our most publique and solemne Communions at Easter To pricke you on forward in this most necessarie dutie of pricking your hearts with godly sorrow for your sinnes I have made choyce of this verse wherein the Evangelist S. Luke relateth the effects of S. Peters Sermon in all his auditours 1. Inward impression they were pricked in heart 2. Outward expression men and brethren what shall we doe What Eupolis sometimes spake of Pericles that after his oration made to the people of Athens d Cic. de clar orat In animis auditorum aculeos reliquit he left certaine needles and stings in their mindes may be more truly affirmed of this Sermon of the Apostle which when the Jewes heard they were pricked at heart and not able to endure the paine cry out men and brethren what shall we doe The ancient painters to set forth the power of eloquence drew e Bodin l. 4. de rep c. 7. Majores Herculem Celticum senem effingebant ex cujus ore catenarum maxima vis ad aures infinitae multitudinis perveniret c. Hercules Celticus with an infinite number of chaines comming out of his mouth and reaching to the eares of great multitudes much after which manner S. Luke describeth S. Peter in my text with his words as it were so many golden chaines fastened first upon the eares and after upon the hearts of three thousand and drawing them up at once in the drag-net of the Gospell Now our blessed Saviour made good his promise to him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã thou shalt catch live men and this accesse of soules to the Church and happie successe in his ministeriall function seemeth to have beene fore-shewed to him by that great draught of fish taken after Christs resurrection the draught was an f John 21.11 hundred fiftie and three great fishes and for all there were so many yet saith the text the net was not broken The truth alwayes exceedeth the type for here were three thousand great and small taken and yet the net was not broken there was no schisme nor rupture thereby for all the converts were of one minde they were all affected with the same malady they feele the same paine at the heart and seeke for ease and help at the hands of the same Physitians Peter and the rest of the Apostles saying Men and brethren what shall we doe Now when they heard these things they were pricked Why what touched them so neere no doubt those words g Ver. 23 24. Him being delivered by the determinate counsell and fore-knowledge of God yee have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slaine whom God hath raised up having loosened the paines of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it This could not but touch the quickest veines in their heart that they should be the death of the Lord of life that they should slay their Messiah that they should destroy the Saviour of the world Of all sinnes murder cryeth the loudest in the eares of God and men of all murders the murder of an onely begotten sonne most enrageth a loving father and extimulateth him unto revenge in what wofull case then might they well suppose themselves to be who after S. Peter had opened their eyes saw that their hands ãâã beene deepe in the bloud of the Sonne of God Now their blasphemous words which they spake against him are sharp swords wounding deeply their soules the thornes wherewith they pricked his head and the nailes wherewith they pierced his hands and feet pricked and pierced their very heart They were pricked in heart That is they were pierced tho row with sorrow they tooke on most grievously Here lest wee mistake phrases of like sound though not of like sense we must distinguish of spiritus compunctionis and compunctio spiritus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã h Rom. 11.8 a spirit of compunction reproved in the unbeleeving Jewes and compunction of spirit or of the heart here noted by S. Luke the former phrase signifieth slumber stupiditie or obstinacie in sinne this latter hearty sorrow for it the former is a malady for the most part incurable the latter is the cure of all our spirituall maladies Now godly sorrow is termed compunction of the heart for three reasons as i Lorin in Act. c. 2. Dicitur dolor de peccato admisso quod est compunctio vel quia aperitur cordis apostema vel quia vulneratur cor amore Dei vel quia daemon dolore invidiâ sauciatur Lorinus conceiveth 1. Because thereby the corruption of the heart is discovered as an aposteme is opened by the pricke of a sharp instrument 2. Because thereby like the Spouse in the Canticles wee become sicke of love as the least pricke at the heart causeth a present fit of sicknesse 3. Because thereby the Divell is as it were wounded with indignation and envie When they heard these things they were pricked in heart when they were pricked in heart They said As the stroakes in musicke answer the notes that are prickt in the rules so the words of the mouth answer k Cic. 3. de Ora. Totum corpus hominis omnes ejus vultus omnesque voces ut nervi infidibus ita sonant à motu quoque animi sint pulsae to the motions and affections of the heart The Anatomists teach that the heart tongue hang upon one string And hence it is that as in a clocke or watch when the first wheele is moved the hammer striketh so when the heart is moved with any passion or perturbation the hammer beats upon the bell and the mouth soundeth as we heard from David l Psal 45.1 My heart is enditing a good matter and my tongue is the pen of a ready writer And from S. Paul m Rom. 10.10 With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and with the tongue confession is made unto salvation And from our Saviour n Luke 6.45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an evill man out of the evill treasure of his heart bringeth forth evill things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Many among us complaine that they are tongue-tied that when they are at their private devotions their words sticke
God only knowes Jam ad Triarios res rediit now the whole shock of the army and the maine battell is to advance and upon the sinceritie of the humiliation and fervency of devotion and strength of our united praiers sighes this day dependeth much the safety and life of our State and in it of our Church and in it of our true and incorrupt Religion Let no man goe about with Mercuries inchanted rod to close the eyes of our Argus's let no man sow pillowes under the elbowes of our true Patriots to make them sleep in security lest destruction steale upon us at unawares It is certaine our enemies sleep not and it is most certaine that our crying sinnes have awaked Gods justice it standeth us therefore upon to watch and pray Judgement is already begun at the house of God the Angel hath poured out his viall of red wine upon the Churches of Bohemia and their fields are thicke sowne with the blood of Martyrs the same Angel hath emptied another viall upon the Churches in the Palatinate and the sweet Rhenish grape yeelds in a manner now no liquor but blood a third viall runneth out at this houre upon the reformed Churches in France and our sinnes as it were holloe to him to stretch his hand over the narrow sea and cast the dregges of it on us who have beene long settled upon our lees and undoubtedly this will bee our potion to drinke if wee stretch not our hands to heaven that God may command his Angel to stay his hand If hee have already turned his viall and wee see drops of bloud hanging in the ayre yet the strong wind of our prayers may blow them away and dispell them in such sort that they shall not fall upon us a gale of our sighes may cleare the skie Moses praiers manicled the hands of Almighty God and shall not the united devotions of this whole Land either stay or turne his Angels hand Away with all confidence in the arme of flesh away with all hope in man away with all cloakes of sinne and vizzards of hypocrisie there is no dissembling with God no fighting against him Albeit our land bee compassed with the sea as with a moat and environed with ships furnished with ordnance as with brazen and iron walls though the most puissant Princes on earth should send us innumerable troupes to succour and aide us yet we have no fence for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã we lye open to heaven wee are naked to the arrowes of the Almighty and no carnall weapons for succours can stand us in any stead onely the helmet of salvation and the buckler of faith and the powder of a contrite heart and the shot of pious ejaculations may doe us some good It is our pride Beloved that hath throwne us downe and it is humility which must raise us our divisions have weakened us and it is union that can strengthen us our luxury hath imbezelled us and now nothing but fasting and abstinence can recover us our sinnes have made a breach and nothing but repentance can make it up our profane oathes our sinfull pleasures our carnall security and sensuality hath driven away the Spirit of grace and comfort from us and nothing can wooe him to returne backe againe but our vowes of amendment unfeigned teares and sorrowfull sighes Let us therefore ply sighes and b Cyp. ep 1. Incumbamus igitur gemitibus assiduis deprecationibus crebris haec enim sunt arma coelestia quae stare perseverare fortiter faciunt haec sunt munimenta spiritualia tela divina quae protegunt nos Et serm de laps Oportet transigere vigiliis noctes tempus omne lachrymosis lamentationibus occupare stratos solo adhaerere cineri in cilicio volutari sordibus prayers for these are the spirituall weapons we alone can trust to through the intercession of Christs bloud which speaketh better things for us than the bloud of Abel These weapons our Lord himselfe made tryall of in my Text and sanctified them to our use viz. passionate teares and compassionate prayers When hee drew neere to Jerusalem and fore-saw in spirit that shee drew neere to her ruine his eyes melted with teares he beheld the City and wept and his heart breaketh out into sighes Oh that thou knewest Teares trickle not down in order neither are sighes fetched by method Expect not therefore from mee any accurate division or methodicall handling of this passionate Text only in the first place fasten the eye of your observation upon the eyes of our Saviour and you shall discerne in them 1. Beames of love He beheld 2. Teares of compassion He wept over it In the next place bow the eares of your religious attention towards his mouth and ye shall heare from him 1. Sighes of desire Oh or if that thou knewest 2. Plaints of sorrow But now they are hid from thine eyes I have pitched as you see upon a c Hom. Il. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã moist plat or fenny ground wherein that your devotion may walke more steadily I have laid out for you five knolls or steps to rest upon and pawse 1. Venit He came 2. Vidit He beheld 3. Flevit He wept 4. Ingemuit He sighed 5. Oravit He prayed 1. Venit or appropinquavit he drew neere The end of our Saviours life here was the sacrifice of his death he was borne that he might die for us and by one oblation of himselfe on the crosse satisfie for the sinnes of the whole world Now all sacrifices by the Law were to be offered at Jerusalem to Jerusalem therefore hee comes up to finish the worke of our redemption and he maketh the more haste because Easter was neere at hand when he was to eate the Paschall Lambe with his Disciples and to be eaten of them in the mysterious rite of the Sacrament to kill the passover in the type but to be killed himselfe in the truth Oh how farre hath our Saviour left us behind him in his love He came with a swift foot to us we returne with a slow foot to him he made more haste to give himselfe than we make to receive him After hee received the commandement from his Father to lay downe his life for his sheep he rode more cheerfully into Jerusalem and was led more willingly to the altar of the crosse where hee lost his life than we repaire to his holy table there to be partakers of the bread of eternall life He came neere to the City that he might view it he viewed it that hee might weep over it hee wept over it that hee might testifie a threefold truth 1. Naturae of his Nature 2. Amoris of his Love 3. Doctrinae of his Doctrine or prophesie 1. Veritatem naturae the truth of his humane nature He must needs be a true man who out of compassion sheds teares ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sic fatur lachrymans Cold stone or metall relenteth not a phantasme
as he he taught blessed are they that mourne and he wept himselfe sanctifying thereby tears and assuring all godly mourners here of comforts hereafter z Gor. in Luc. c. 19. Christus quater flevit 1. in nativitate Sap. 7. Primam vocem nobis similem emisit plorans 2. In Lazari suscitatione Joh. 11. Lacrymatus est Jesus 3. in hac solenni processione flevit super eam 4. in passione Heb. 5. Haec sunt quatuor flumina quae de Paradiso prodierunt Gen. 2. ad totius mundi 1. ablutionem 2. refrigerationem 3. foecundationem 4. potationem Gorrhan observed that Christ shed teares foure times first at his birth next in the raising of Lazarus a third time in his surveigh of Jerusalem and a fourth time on the crosse and these foure saith he are spiritually the foure rivers of Paradise which serve 1. to purge 2. to coole and refresh 3. to water and make fruitfull 4. to quench the thirst of the world of beleevers Notwithstanding I find in the Gospel but two leaves onely wet with our Saviours teares Joh. 11. and here It is likely he cried at his birth after the manner of other children and it is certaine that hee offered up prayers upon the crosse with strong cries yet we reade not of any teares shed by him but here on Mount Olivet and at Lazarus his grave and both teares were teares of compassion and both also funerall teares There he wept for the death of Lazarus and here for the finall period and if I may so speake funerals of Jerusalem to be solemnized with desolation and exceeding great mourning like that of Hadradrimmon in the valley of Megiddo within a few yeeres after his passion It was the manner of the Prophets when they fore-told the calamities that were to fall upon any people or nation to expresse them as well by signes as by words to make a deeper impression in their hearers Ahiah * 1 Kings 11.30 cut Jeroboams cloake Jeremy breaketh his a Jer. 19.10 bottle Ezekiel b Ezek. 5.1 shaveth his beard Agabus c Act. 21.11 bindeth himselfe In like manner Christ prophesying the finall overthrow of the City and Temple representeth the great sorrow mourning and lamentation of the inhabitants of Jerusalem by his owne teares Theodoret yeeldeth another reason Alii flent ex passione Christus ex compassione Others weep saith he out of passion Christ out of compassion Ut ostenderet qualia haberet erga ingrates viscera to shew what bowels hee had toward the ungratefull though they least deserve teares who have no sense at all of their owne misery yet they most of all need them It grieveth mee saith S. d Cypr. de laps Plango quia te non plangis Cyprian that thou grievest not for thy selfe mine eyes are wet because thine are alwaies dry I have little comfort because there is little or no hope of grace in thee Ea fletus majoris causa est cùm rideant qui flere debeant wee have the greater cause to mourne when they laugh who ought to weep Jerusalem was now in a fit of frenzy shee laughed and feasted and revelled even now when shee was neere utter ruine and confusion and this more opened the salt springs in our Saviours eyes hee shed teares the more abundantly by reason of the carnall security obstinacy and senslesse stupidity of the Jewes his Countrimen and especially the inhabitants of Jerusalem who killed the Prophets and stoned them who were sent unto them to fore-warne them of Gods fearefull judgements hanging over their heads I told you before that this was a wet step and many here have slipt For this objection offereth it self to every mans conceit Was not Christ God and consequently omnipotent could not he have prevented their finall overthrow could not hee have given those Jewes beleeving and relenting hearts could he not have converted them all miraculously by a vision from heaven as hee did St. Paul who before that powerfull change wrought in him was as much enraged against the professours of the Gospel as any of these nay more Did not Christ foresee and decree the destruction of Jerusalem how then doth he bemoane it with teares e Calv. harm in evang Sicut è coelo descendit Christus carne humanâ indutus ut divinae salutis testis esset minister vere humanos induit affectus quatenus susceptae functioni intererat quatenus datus erat huic populo minister in salutem pro officii sui ratione illius exitium deploravit Deus erat fateor sed quoties oportuit doctoris officio fungi quievit ac se quodammodo abscondidit deitas Calvin reacheth us a hand to helpe us off of this wet knoll As saith he Christ descended from heaven clad with humane flesh that he might bee a witnesse and minister of divine salvation he truly put upon him also humane affections so far as it was requisite for the discharge of his function therefore as being sent as a minister for the salvation of that people in the faithfull execution of his office hee forewarned them of their danger and bewailed their overthrow which could not but ensue upon their obstinacy and impenitency Hee was God I acknowledge and most certainly fore-saw what would befall the City according to his eternall decree but whilest hee performed the office of a teacher the deity rested as it were and hid it selfe That yee may take faster hold upon this stay which this learned Interpreter reacheth unto you ye are to consider Christ three manner of waies 1. As God 2. As man 3. As Mediatour betweene God and man As God he most justly sentenced that bloody City to utter ruine and desolation as man he could not but bee touched with griefe and sorrow for those heavie judgements which hung over the city and people they taking no course at all to prevent or avert them as Mediatour betwixt God and man he might and ought ex officio both bewaile what hee fore-told and fore-tell what hee now bewailed and that most seriously For pro quibus nunc lachrymas postea effudit sanguinem for hee shed his bloud for those for whom he now shed teares and it was their owne fault that this death was not effectuall to them for their redemption and salvation An all-sufficient remedy was tendered unto them but they would none of it and even this also as it aggravated their sinne and consequently their punishment so it increased their spirituall Physicians griefe and drew more teares from his eyes Utinam Domine ut verbum caro factum est sic cor meum carneum fiat Oh that as the word was made flesh so my heart were made fleshly and tender to receive a deep impression of my brethrens griefe Such a heart was Jeremies which evaporated into these sighes f Jer. 9.1 Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes fountaines of teares that I might weep day and night for the slaine of
hereof that the wages of sinne is eternall death I will produce manifold testimonies of Scripture beyond all exception not so much to convince l Aug. l. 22 de Civ Dei Origines eò erravit deformiùs quò sensit clementiùs the errour of Origen who was of opinion that all the damned yea the Devils themselves should in the end bee released of their torments as to settle a doubt which troubleth the mindes of the godly how it should bee just with God to inflict eternall punishments upon men for temporall transgressions For your better satisfaction herein may it please you to take notice of two opinions concerning the rule of justice and goodnesse the first maketh the will of God the rule of good the latter goodnesse the rule of Gods will If yee embrace the former opinion to prove that it is just to repay eternall punishments to temporary and finite offences it will bee sufficient to shew that it is Gods will and good pleasure so to doe if yee encline to the latter opinion it will bee farther requisite to shew the congruity of such proceedings with the principles of reason and rules of justice among men It is very reasonable to thinke that God hath alwayes a reason for his will yet it is safest for us to take his will for a reason For God cannot will any thing but as hee willeth it it is just and good and that it is Gods will and decree to torment them eternally who dye impenitently appeareth by the words of our Saviour m Mat. 25.46 These shall go into everlasting pain and of Saint n 2 Thes 1.9 Paul These shall bee punished with everlasting perdition from the presence of the Lord and glory of his power and of Saint o Apoc 20.10 John And the Devill that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false Prophet shall bee tormented day and night for evermore Thus much of the torments in generall in speciall that the fire is unquenchable wee reade in Saint p Mat. 3.11 Matthew The chaffe hee will burne with unquenchable fire and in Saint q Jude 7. Jude Which suffer the vengeance of eternall fire How should the fire ever goe out sith as the Prophet Esay informeth us r Isa 30.33 The breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone continually kindleth it And that the worm likewise is immortall Christ teacheth ſ Mar. 9.44 46 48. Where the worm saith he never dyeth and the fire is not quenched and that the darknesse likewise is perpetuall wee heare out of Saint Peter t 2 Pet. 2.17 They are Wells without water clouds carryed about with a tempest to whom blacke darknesse is reserved for ever yea the chaines of this prison wherewith the damned are manacled and fettered are everlasting for the Angels that kept not their first estate saith Saint Jude u Jude 6. God hath reserved in everlasting chaines under darknesse unto the judgement of the great day and lastly The * Apoc. 14.11 fume and the stench of the brimstone lake riseth up perpetually and the smoake of their torment shall ascend for evermore Neither can it bee answered in behalfe or comfort of the damned that indeed hell torments shall still endure but that they shall not be alwayes in durance that the racke shall remaine but they shall not bee everlastingly tortured on it that the Jaile shall stand but that the prisoners shall not alwayes be kept in it for the Scipture is as expresse for the reprobates enduring as for the during of those paines They shall goe saith Christ x Mat. 25.46 into everlasting fire y 2 Thes 1.9 They shall suffer saith Saint Paul the paines of everlasting perdition z Apoc. 20.10 They shall bee tormented saith Saint John with fire and brimstone for evermore and therefore the fire is called * Mar. 9.44 their fire ignis eorum because it burneth them and the worme their worme because it feedeth upon them and the torments their torments because they paine and torture them These texts are so plaine that Cardinal Bellarmine himselfe professedly refuteth those of his owne side who give credit to the legend which relateth that by the prayers of Saint Gregory the soule of Trajan was delivered out of hell The good will and pleasure of God concerning the condition of the damned being thus made knowne unto us wee are to tremble at his judgements and quell and keepe under every thought that mutines against them To call Gods justice in question concerning the everlasting torments of the damned is to bring our selves in danger of them Are not Gods actions just because wee see not the squire by which they are regulated * Aug. l. 2. de Civ Dei Cujus plenè judicia nemo comprehendit nemo justè reprehendit though wee cannot comprehend all Gods judgements yet wee may not reprehend any Multa Dei judicia occulta sunt nulla injusta many judgements of God are secret none unjust In particular concerning this point much hath and may bee said in justification of Gods proceeding with the damned even by humane reason 1. Saint Austine rightly observeth that in punishing offences we are not so much to regard the time as the quality the duration as the enormity A man justly lyeth by it the whole yeere for a rash word spoken in a moment another is condemned to the Gallies all his life for a murder or a rape committed on the sudden in hot bloud therefore howsoever the sins of the reprobate are but temporall yet the circumstances of them may be so odious and the number of them so great and the nature so hainous that they may deserve eternall punishments 2. Where the guilt still remaineth it is not against justice that the party still suffer but in the soules of all infidels and impenitent sinners whose consciences were never washed neither in the salt water of their owne teares nor in the sweet laver of regeneration the guilt of all their sinnes still remaineth and therefore justly they may be eternally punished for them 3. An impenitent sinner if he should alwayes live upon the earth would alwayes hold on his sinfull course and that he breaketh it off at his death it is no thanke to him had he still the use of his tongue he would still blaspheme and curse had he still the use of his eyes hee would still looke after vanity had hee still the use of his feet hee would still walke in crooked wayes had he still the use of his hands he would still worke all manner of wickednesse had hee still the free use of all the faculties of his soule and members of his body he would still make them weapons of unrighteousnes Inchinus the a Inchin lib. de 4 Novis Romish Postillar giveth some light to this truth by an inch of candle whereby two play at tables in the