know any thing The soul say they of men so purified understands no longer per phantasmata rerum corporalium not by having any thing presented by the fantasie to the senses and so to the understanding but altogether by a familiar conversation with God and an immediate revelation from God whereas Christ himself contented himself with the ordinary way He was hungry Mat. 21.20 and a fig-tree presented it self to him upon the way and he went to it to eat This is that Pureness in the Romane Church by which the founder of the last Order amongst them Philip Nerius had not onely utterly emptied his heart of the world but had fill'd it too full of God for Congrega Orator so say they he was fain to cry sometimes Recede ame Domine O Lord go farther from me and let me have a less portion of thee But who would be loath to sink by being over-fraited with God or loath to over-set by having so much of that winde the breath of the Spirit of God Privation of the presence of God is Hell a diminution of it is a step toward it Fruition of his presence is Heaven and shall any Man be afraid of having too much Heaven too much God There are many among them that are over laden oppressed with Bishropricks and Abbeys and yet they can bear it and never cry Retrahe domine domine Resume O Lord withdraw from me Resume to thy self some of these superabundancies and shall we think any of them to be so over-fraited and surcharg'd with the presence and with the grace of God as to be put to his Recede domine O Lord withdraw thy self and lessen thy grace towards me This Pureness is not in their heart but in their fantasie We read in the Ecclesiastick story of such a kinde of affectation of singularity very early in the primitive Church Catharsitae We finde two sorts of false Puritans then The Catharists and The Cathari The Catharists thought no creatures of God pure and therefore they brought in strange ceremonial purifications of those Creatures In which error they of the Romane Church succeed them in a great part in their Exorcismes and Consecrations Particularly in the greatest matter of all in the Sacraments For the Catharists in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour thought not the bread pure except it were purified by the aspersion of something issuing from the body of man not fit to be nam'd here And so in the Romane Church they induc'd a use of another Excrement in the other Sacrament They must have spittle in the Sacrament of Baptisme For in those words of Tertullian Tertul. In Baptismo Daemones respuimus In Baptism we Renounce the Devil they will admit no other interpretation of the Respuimus but that Respuere is sputo detestari Durantius de citib l. 1.19 n. 30. That we can drive the Devil away no way but by spitting at him Their predecessors in this the Catharists thought no Creatures pure and therefore purified them by abhominable and detestable ways The second sort of primitive Puritans the Cathari Cathari They thought no men pure but themselves and themselves they thought so pure as to have no sin and that therefore they might and so did leave out as an impertinent clause in the Lords prayer that petition Dimitte nobis debita nostra for they thought they ought God nothing In natural things Monsters have no propagation A Monster does not beget a Monster In spiritual excesses it is otherwise for for this second kinde of Puritans that attribute all purity to themselves and spend all their thoughts upon considering others that weed hath grown so far that whereas those Puritans of the Primitive Church did but refuse to say Dimitte nobis Forgive us our trespasses because they had no sin the Puritan Papist is come to say Recede a nobis O Lord stand farther off for I have too much of thee And whereas the Puritan of the primitive Church did but refuse one Petition of the Lords prayer the later puritan amongst our selves hath refused the whole Prayer Towards both these sorts of false puritans Catharists and Cathari derived down to our time we acknowledge those words of the Apostle to belong 2 Tim. 4.2 Reprove Rebuke Exhort that is leave no such means untryed as may work upon their Understandings and remove their just scruples Preach write confer But when that labor hath been bestow'd and they fear up their Understanding against it so that the fault lies not then in the darkness of their Understanding but meerly in the perversness of the will over which faculty other men have no power towards both these sorts we acknowledge those other words of the Apostle to belong too Gal. 5.12 Utinam abscindantur Would to God they were even cut off that disquiet you Cut off that is removed from means by which and from places in which they might disquiet you These two kinds of false Puritans we finde in the Primitive Church And Satan who lasts still makes them last still too But if we shall imagine a third sort of Puritans and make men afraid of the zeal of the glory of God make men hard and insensible of those wounds that are inflicted upon Christ Jesus in blasphemous oaths and execrations make men ashamed to put a difference between the Sabbath and an ordinary day and so at last make sin an indifferent matter If any man list to be contentious we have no such custome 1 Cor. 11.16 neither the Chuch of God The Church of God encourages them and assists them in that sanctity that purity with all those means wherewith Christ Jesus hath trusted her for the advancement of that purity and professes that she prefers in her recommendations to God in her prayers one Christian truly fervent and zealous before millions of Lukewarme Onely she says in the voice of Christ Jesus her head Wo be unto you Mat. 23 25. if you make clean the outside of cups and platters but leave them full of extortion and excess within Christ calls them to whom he says that blinde Pharisees if they have done so If they think to blinde others Christ calls them blinde But if their purity consist in studying practising the most available means to sanctification and in obedience to lawful authority established according to Gods Ordinance and in acquiescence in fundamental doctrines believed in the ancient Church to be necessary to salvation If they love the peace of conscience and the peace of Sion as Balaam said Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last end he like his So I say let me live the life of a Puritan Num. 23.10 let the zeal of the house of God consume me let a holy life and an humble obedience to the Law testifie my reverence to God in his Church and in his Magistrate For this is Saint Pauls Puritan To have a pure heart
XXVI SERMONS Never before Publish'd PREACHED BY THAT Learned and Reverend DIVINE John Donne Doctor in Divinity Late DEAN of the Cathedral Church of St Pauls London The Third Volume DVM PREMOR ATTOLLOR LONDON Printed by Thomas Newcomb and are to be sold at the several Book-Sellers-shops in London and at Westminster-Hall 1661. To His most Sacred Majesty CHARLES II. By the Grace of God King of ENGLAND SCOTLAND FRANCE and IRELAND Defender of the Faith c. Most Dread and Gracious Soveraign IN this great Revolution when every body is come to pay unto Caesar those things that are due unto Caesar I am bold to present to Your Sacred Majesty these Sermons not only due unto You as You are Head of the Church but as they were most of them preached in Your Chappel and approved by Your Royal Progenitors Your Statues Pictures and Meddals famous for their Workmanship and Antiquity cannot pretend to a greater Elegancy or a nobler Descent then the Doctrine that is here taught For it is primitively Christian not depending upon the absolute Authority of any present visible company of Men nor yet refusing to be guided by those Antient Fathers of the Church that concur with the Apostolical Writers as being the Supreame Rule of our Faith And though the Author be many times very severe against the Roman-Church yet he is never very indulgent to her Rigid Opposers not being desirous to make a rent in that Garment which is to cover and keep alive the Flock of Christ which being immediately committed to Your Majesties Care in these Your Realms cannot be better preserved then by that exemplar Piety that reigns in Your Sacred Majesty which will be a Living Sermon even to those Reverend Pastors that Your care and Gods Providence has now appointed to restore His Church to her antient Splendor and to have awakened that Light of the Gospell which we could never have expected but by Your Glorious Return or a new Fiat Your Majesties most humble and most devoted Subject JOHN DONNE TO THE READER UPon the Death of my Father Dr. Donne sometimes Deane of Pauls I was sent to by his Majesty of Blessed Memory to recollect and publish his Sermons I was encouraged by many of the Nobility both Spiritual and Temporal and indeed by the most Eminent Men that the Kingdom then had of all Professions telling me what a publick good I should confer upon the Church and that by this means I should not only preach to all the Parishes of England but to those whose Affairs carried them into Forraigne Countries and to those whose infirmities did not suffer them to come to their own Churches at home But above all I was encouraged by the example of St. Paul who though he took wages of other Churches and yet served the Corinthians thought himself excusable in that he was alwaies doing service to the Church of Christ The first Volume that I published consisting of Fourscore Sermons I dedicated to his Majesty then living by whom it was not only graciously received but I had fresh Incouragements to proceed For the Second Volume I was forced to take Protection from those that were then in Authority lest our duty to our King being so often and so pathetically urged they might have incurred the danger First to have been voted No Sermons and then that No Sermons should have bin burnt by the hand of the Publick Executioner and the use that might have bin made of them by keeping up the Banks of the Church against that Torrent of Heretiques that did then invade her might have been absolutely defeated for now began to swarme and muster the Ebionites Sabellians Jovinians Eutichians Corpocratians Sethians Cerinthians Theodotians Nicolaitans Samocetanians Apolenarians Montaneans all against the second Person of the Trinity And although in some parts of the World the Sun may see the Men eating their god and in six hours journey farther he may see the gods eating the Men though he may have beheld as many Religions as he produced Insects yet he could tell us of no such Python as appeared here who swallowing up all the other Heretiques pretended that he himself was the very Son of God not knowing how dearly that Imposter payed for it that adventured upon that designe but in the days of Queen Elizabeth for though it be true That he that is baptized into Christ may put on Christ his Person nay Him so that God may take him for his own Christ and look upon him as all Mankinde Yet 't is a hard matter to appear so before Man for Homo homini daemon we see nothing we hear of nothing but the Imperfections of one another and then we are not only content to ground our Faith upon slight Reports but to believe even Impossibilities The People concluded Paul to be a Murderer but first they saw a Viper seize upon him after he had escaped Shipwrack but still proceeding upon new Evidence when they saw him shake off that Viper they said he was a God and certainly though a Calumniator with a two-edged tongue sharper and more venemous then the teeth of any Viper may traduce the reputation of any man so far as to make impressions upon some pious and godly persons yet if those persons would but retreat from those suddain assaults unto those Forts which their Charity may nay ought to erect but to reasonable Evidences they may reasonably conclude that if many thousands were converted by one Sermon to the Christian Faith he that has spent so many years in publishing so many Sermons for the propagation of that Faith and preserving the Light of that Gospel so as to dazle and extinguish those New Lights those ignes fatuas with their great Leader William-a-the-Wispe who drawing men first out of the known paths carries them into Boggs Quagmires and Whirlepools of Confusion cannot possibly be but a well grounded Christian When the Jews intended the building of the Temple their wise King Solomon sent to Hiram many thousand measures of corn knowing that the Fellers of Timber the hewers of stone and those that bore the burden must be provided for as well as the great Officers the Overseers Fac hoc vives was often repeated to me when I undertook this work and a fair reward was promised me but at last I am constrained hoc facere ut vivam to publish them at my own cost that I may sell them which I had not been able to perform if I had not been assisted by the bounty of our most Honorable Lord Chancellor who is not only content that the Churches should be furnished with good Preachers but that those Preachers should have good Sermons and I am to rest satisfied with that Text that tells us that To those that have much more shall be given and to those that have nothing and there is nothing so near of kin to Nothing as a Reversion that that they have shall be taken away A better method I confess might have been
the people there was none with me The Angels then knew not this not all this not all the particulars of this The mystery of Christs Incarnation for the Redemption of Man the Angels knew it in generall for it was commune quoddam principium it was the generall mark to which all their service as they were ministring spirits was directed But for particulars as amongst the Prophets some of the later understood more then the former I understand more then the ancients Psal 119.100 sayes David and the Apostles understood more then the Prophets even of those things which they had prophesied Ephes 3.6 this Mystery in other ages was not made known as it is now revealed unto the holy Apostles so the Angels are come to know some things of Christ since Christ came in another manner then before Ephes 3.10 And this may be that which S. Paul intends when he sayes that he was made a Minister of the Gospel To the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdome of God And S. Peter also speaking of the administration of the Church 1 Pet. 1.12 expresses it so That the Angels desire to look into it Which is not onely that which S. Augustine sayes Aug. Innotuit a seculis per Ecclesiam Angelis That the Angels saw the mystery of the Christian Religion from before all beginnings and that by the Church Quia ipsa Ecclesia illis in Deo apparuit Because they saw in God the future Church from before all beginnings but even in the propagation and administration of the Church they see many things now which distinctly effectually experimentally as they do now they could not see before And so to this purpose Visus in nobis Christ is seen by the Angels in us and our conversation now Spectaculum sumus sayes the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.9 We are made a spectacle to men and angels The word is there Theatrum and so S. Hierom reads it Hierom. And therefore let us be careful to play those parts well which even the Angels desire to see well acted Let him that finds himself to be the honester man by thinking so think in the name of God that he hath a particular tutelar Angel that will do him no harm to think so And let him that thinks not so yet think that so far as conduces to the support of Gods children and to the joy of the Angels themselves and to the glory of God the Angels do see mens particular actions and then if thou wouldst not sollicite a womans chastity if her servant were by to testifie it nor calumniate an absent person in the Kings ear if his friends were by to testifie it if thou canst slumber in thy self that main consideration That the eye of God is always open and always upon thee yet have a little religious civility and holy respect even to those Angels that see thee That those Angels which see Christ Jesus now sate down in glory at the right hand of his Father all sweat wip'd from his Browes and all teares from his Eyes all his Stripes heal'd all his Blood stanch'd all his Wounds shut up and all his Beauty returned there when they look down hither to see the same Christ in thee may not see him scourged again wounded torn and mangled again in thy blasphemings nor crucified again in thy irreligious conversation Visus ab Angelis he was seen of the Angels in himself whilest he was here and he is seen in his Saints upon earth by Angels now and shall be so to the end of the world Which Saints he hath gathered from the Gentiles which is the next branch Praedicat Gentib Psal 85.10 Predicatus gentibus he was preached to the Gentiles Mercy and truth meet together says David every where in Gods proceedings they meet together but no where closer then in calling the Gentiles Jesus Christ was made a Minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God Rom. 15.8 wherein consisted that truth to confirm the promises made unto the fathers says the Apostle there and that 's to the Jews but was Christ a Minister of the Circumcision onely for that onely for the truth No Truth and Mercy meet together as it followes there and that the Gentiles might glorifie God for his mercy The Jewes were a holy Nation Gal. 2.15 that was their addition Gens Sancta but the addition of the Gentiles was peccatores sinners we are Jewes by nature and not of the Gentiles sinners sayes S. Paul He that touch'd the Jewes touch'd the apple of Gods eye And for their sakes God rebuk'd Kings and said Touch not mine Anoynted but upon the Gentiles not onely dereliction but indignation and consternation and devastation and extermination every where interminated inflicted every where and every where multiplied The Jewes had all kinde of assurance and ties upon God both Law and Custome they both prescribed in God and God had bound himself to them by particular conveyance by a conveyance written in their flesh Isa 49. in Circumcision and the counterpane written in his flesh I have graven thy name in the palmes of my hands Eph. 2.12 But for the Gentiles they had none of this assurance When they were without Christ sayes the Apostle having no hope that is no covenant to ground a hope upon ye were without God in this world To contemplate God himself and not in Christ is to be without God And then for Christ to be preached to such as these to make this Sun to set at noon to the Jewes rise at midnight to the Antipodes to the Gentiles this was such an abundant such a superabundant mercy as might seem almost to be above the bargain above the contract between Christ and his Father more then was conditioned and decreed for the price of his Blood and the reward of his Death for when God said I will declare my decree That is what I intended to give him which is expressed thus Psal 2. I will set him my King upon my holy hill of Sion which seemes to concern the Jewes onely God addes then Postula a me petition to me make a new suit to me dabo tibi gentes I will give thee not onely the Jewes but the Gentiles for thine inheritatnce And therefore laetentur gentes Psal 97.1 sayes David Let the Gentiles rejoyce and we in them that Christ hath asked us at his Fathers hand and received us And Laetentur insulae sayes that Prophet too Let the Islands rejoyce and we in them that he hath raised us out of the Sea out of the ocean sea that over-flowed all the world with ignorance and out of the Mediterranean Sea that hath flowed into so many other lands the sea of Rome the sea of Superstition There was then a great mercy in that Predicatus gentibus Creditus Mundo that he was preached to the Gentiles
as Nathan said to David God will panish thee in taking those children from thee â—hich were the colours of thy sin Eccles 40.13 The children of the ungodly shall not obtain many branches not extend to many generations If they do if his children be in great number the sword shall destroy them His remnant shall be buried in death and his widows shall not weep Howsoever as the words of the text stand Iob. 27.14 the Holy Ghost hath left us at our liberty to observe one degree of misery more in this corrupt man That he is said to have begot his Son after those Riches are perished He had a discomfort in evil travail and in evil affliction before he hath another now that when all is gone then he hath children the foresight of whose misery must needs be a continual affliction unto him Augustin For St. Augustin reports it not as a leading Case likely to be followed but as a singular Case likely to stand alone that when a rich man who had no childe nor hope of any had given his Estate to Auretius Bishop of Carthage and after beyond all expectation came to have children that good Bishop unconstrained by any law or intent in the donor gave him back his Estate again God when he will punish ill getting will take to himself that which was rob'd from him and then if he give Children he will not be bound to restitution But if this rich man have his riches and his Son together the Son may have come from God and the riches from the devil and God will not joyn them together Howsoever he may in his mercy provide for the son otherwise yet he will not make him heir of his fathers estate The substance of the ungodly shall be dryed up like a river Eccles 40. and they shall make a sound like a thunder in rain It shall perish and it shall be in Parabolam it shall be the wonder and the discourse of the time If they be not wasted in his own time yet he shall be an ill but a true prophet upon himself he shall have impressions and sensible apprehensions of a future wast as soon as he is gone he shall hear or he shall whisper to himself that voice O fool This night they will fetch away thy soul he must go under the imputation of a fool where the wisdome of this generation which was all the wisdome he had Luk. 12.20 will do him no good he must go like a fool His soul must be fetch'd away he hath not his In manus tuas his willing surrender of his soul ready It must be fetch'd in the night of ignorance when he knows not his own spiritual state It must be fetch'd in the night of darkness in the night of solitude no sence of the assistance of the communion of Saints in the Triumphant nor in the Militant Church in the night of disconsolatenes no comfort in that sea Absolution which by by the power committed to them Gods Ministers came to the penitent In the name of the Father the Son the holy Ghost and it must be fetched this night the night is already upon him before he thought of it All this that the soul of this fool shall be fetched away this night is presented for certain and inevitable all this admits no question but the Qua perasti cujus erunt there 's the doubt Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided If he say they shall be his Sons God saith here In his hand shall be nothing for though God may spare him that his riches be not perished before his death though God have not discovered his iniquity by that manner of punishment yet Quod in radice celatur in ramis declaraâ—ur God will show that in the bough which was hid in the root the iniquity of the father in the penury of the son And therefore To conclude all since riches are naturally conditioned so as that they are to the owners harm either testimonies of his former hard dealing in the world or tentation to future sins or provocations to other mens malice since that though thou may have repented the ill getting of those riches yet thou maiest have omitted restitution and so there hovers an invisible owner over thy riches which may cary them away at last since though thou maiest have repented and restored and possess thy riches that are left with a good Conscience yet as we said before from Nathans mouth the Child may die God that hath many waies of expressing his mercies may take this one way of expressing his judgment that yet thy son shall have nothing of all that in his hand put something else into his hand put a book put a sword put a ship put a plough put a trade put a course of life a calling into his hand And put something into his head the wisdome and discretion and understanding of a serpent necessary for those courses and callings But principally put something into his heart a religious fear and reverence of his Maker a religious apprehension and application of his Saviour a religious sense and acceptation of the comforts of the Holy Spirit that so if he feel that for his fathers hard dealing God hath removed the possession from him he doth not doubt therefore of Gods mercy to his father nor dishonor his fathers memory but behave himself so in his course as that the like judgment may not fall upon his son but that his riches increasing by his good travail they may still remain in the hands of his son whom he hath begotten A Serm. 11. SERMON PREACHED AT GREENVVICH Aprill 30. 1615. SERM. XI Esay 52.3 Ye have sold your selves for nought and ye shall be redeemed without money IT is evident in it self and agreed by all that this is a prophecy of a deliverance but from what calamity it is a deliverance or when this prophecy was accomplished is not so evident nor so constantly agreed upon All the expositions may well be reduced to three first that it is a deliverance from the captivity of Babylon and then the benefit appertains onely to the Jews and their deliverer and Redeemer is Cyrus Secondly that it is a deliverance from persecutions in the primitive Church and so it appertains onely to Christians and their Redeemer from those persecutions is Constantine And thirdly that it is a deliverance from the sting and bondage of death by sin and so it appertains to the whole world and the Redeemer of the whole world is Christ Jesus For the first since both the Chaldee Paraphrase and the Jewish Rabbins themselves do interpret this to be a prophecy of the Messias because they labour ever more as strongly as they can to wring our weapons out of our hands and to take from us many of those arguments which we take from the Prophets for the proof of the Messias it concerns us therefore to hold fast as much
not Jesus till he began to submit himself to the Law for us which was first in his circumcision when he took the name of Jesus and began to shed some drops of blood for us The name of Jesus was no new name when he took it we find some of that name in the Scriptures and in Josephus we find one officer that was his enemy and another a great robber who lighted upon Josephus more then once of that name and yet the Prophet Esai saies of Christ St. Cyril 62.2 interprets those words of this particular man Jesus thou shalt be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shal name And how was this a new name by which so many had been called before The newness was not in that that none other had had that name but that the Son of God had not that name till he began to execute the office of a Saviour Esa 4.2 â— He was called Germen Jehovae the bud of Jehova before and he was called the Counselor and the wonderful and the Prince of peace by the same Prophet But it is the observation of Origen and of Lactantius after and it appears in the text it self That Moses never cals Oshea the son of Nun Joshuah which is the very name of Jesus till he was made General Num. 13.17 to deliver and save his people so what names soever were attribu to the Son of God before the name of Jesus was a new name to him then when he began the work of salvation in his circumcision Take hold therefore of his name Emanuel as God is with us as there is a person fit to reconcile God and man and take hold of him as he is Christus a person sealed and anointed for that reconciliation But above all be sure of thy hold upon the name Jesus thy Saviour This was his name when he was carried to the Altar to circumcision and this was his name when he carried his Altar the Cross this was his stile there Jesus Nazarenus Jesus of Nazareth and in the virtue of that name he shall give thee a circumcised heart and circumcised lips in the course of thy life and in the virtue of that name he shall give thee a joyful consummatum est when thou comest to finish all upon thy last Altar thy death-bed Servare Now from this consideration of the person so far as arose out of his several names we pass to his action He was able to redeem man He was sent to redeem man He did redeem man How Servavit He came to save And here also is that word which as we said before is above expressing for the word which we content our selves with To save implies but a preserving from falling into ruine but we were absolutely fal'n before The word signifies salutem dare medici and it signifies salutem esse and Christ is truly both both the Physitian and the Physick 9. 13. But how is it ministred we see his method is in St. Matth. veni vocare I came to call his way is a voice now vocat non cogit God doth but call us he does not constrain us He does not drive us into a pound He cals us as Birds do their young and he would gather us as a Hen doth her Chickins It is true there is a Trahit but there is no cogit no man comes to me saies Christ except the Father draw him But Joh 6 44. non inviti trahimur non inviti credimus saies St. Augustine God draws no man against his will no man believes in God against his will non adhibitus violentia sed voluntas exitatur saies the same Father God only excites and exalts our will but he does not force it He makes use of that of the Poet Trahit sua quemque voluptas our carnal desires draw us but this drawing is not a constraining for then we should not be commanded to resist them nor to fight against them for no man will bid me do so against a Cannon bullet that comes with an inevitable and irresistible violence now August habet sensus suas voluptates animus deseritur a suis shall our carnal affections draw us though they do not force us and shall not Grace do the same office too shall we still trust to such a power or such a measure of that Grace at last as that we shall not be able to resist but shall convert us whether we will or no and never concur willingly with Gods present grace Draw me and I will run after thee saies the Spouse Cant. 1.4 she was called before now she awakens and she does not say draw me and so I shall be screwd up unto thee and lay all upon the force of grace but draw me and I will run she promises an application and concurrence on her part So then venit salvare is venit vocare He came to save by calling us as an eloquent and a perswasive man draws his Auditory but yet imprints no necessity upon the faculty of the will so works Gods calling of us in his word God expresses it fully in the Prophet Hose 11.3 I sought Ephraim to go we are not able to go to rise to move without him But how did he teach him I took them by their arms God made use of their faculties which faculties are the limbs of the Soul so he enlightned their understanding and he rectified their will but still their underding and their will I draw them saies God their But how and with what With cords of man saies he and with bands of love with the cords of man the voice of the Minister and the power which Gods Ordinance hath infused into that and with the band of love that is of the Gospel so proposed unto us and as it is added there I took off the yoke from their jaws and I laid meat before them God takes off our yoke the weight of our sins and the indisposition of our natural infirmities and he laies meat before us the Word and the Sacraments in his Church So that his venit salvare is venit solvere solvere that is to pay our debt in his death and solvere that is to unty our bands and by his grace to make our natural faculties formerly bound up in a corrupt inhability to do so now able to concurre with him and cooperate to good actions He prepared and he prescribed this physick for man August when he was upon earth etiam cum occideretur medicus erat then when he died he became our physitian medici sanguinem fundunt ille de ipso sanguine medicamenta facit other Physitians draw our blood He makes physick of blood and of his own blood So he came to save in preparing and prescribing and he came to save in applying when by the preaching of his word Joseph who is in the well and Jeremy who is in the Dungeon do as much as they can for
thy fellow pupils under Gamaliel men whom thou hast accompanied heretofore in other waies think thy present fear of God but a childishness and pusilanimity and thy present zeal to his service but an infatuation and a melancholy and thy present application of thy self to God in prayer but an argument of thy Court-dispaire and of thy falling from former hopes there yet come thou early if it be early yet and if it be not early come apace to Christ Jesus how learned soever thou art thou art yet to learn thy first letters if thou know not that Christ Jesus is Alpha and Omega he in whom thou must begin and determine every purpose Thou hast studied thy self but into a dark and damnable ignorance if thou have labored for much learning only to prove that thou canst not be sav'd only to dispute against the person and the Gospel of Christ Jesus But propose to thine imitation Stephen who though enriched with great parts and formerly accustomed to the conversation of others of a different perswasion applied himself early to Christ as a Disciple v. 5. more then in that general application in a particular function and office as a Deacon as is expressed in the former Chapter Diaconus The Roman Church that delights in irresolutions and gains and makes profit in holding things in suspence holds up this question undetermind whether that office and function which Stephen too of Deacon be so è sacris a part of holy Orders as that it is a Sacrament or any part of the Sacrament of Orders Durand a man great in matter of Ceremony Cajetan a man great in matter of substance do both deny it and divers many very many besides them and they are let alone and their Church saies nothing against them or in determination of the opinion But yet howsoever the stronger opinion even in that Church lead the other way and the form of giving that office by imposition of hands and the many and great capacities that they receive that they receive it carry it to a great heighth yet the use that we make of it here shall be but this that even Stephen who might have been inter Doctores Doctor as Chrysologus saies of him a Doctor to teach Doctors and inter Apostolos Apostolus an Apostole to lead Apostles contented himself with a lower degree in the service of Christ in his Church the service of a Deacon which very name signifies service and ministation It is a diminution of regal dignity that the Roman Church accounts the greatest Kings but as Deacons and assigns them that rank and place in all their Ecclesiastical Solemnities in their Ceremonials But Constantine knew his own place without their marshalling In the midst of Bishops and Bishops met in Council he cals himself Bishop and Bishop of Bishops and the greatest Bishop of this land St. Dunstâ—n in his time professed his Master the King to be Pastor Pastorum a Shepheard of Shepheards It is a name due to the King for it signifies inspection and superintendency as the name of Priest is also given to secular Magistrates that had no part in Ecclesiastical function in the Scriptures particularly in Putipher Gen. 41.45 and to divers others in divers other places But yet though that name of super-intendancy be due unto him let him who is crown'd in his office as Stephen was in his name accept this name and office of ministration of Deacon since the holy Ghost himself hath given him that name The Minister of God for good Rom. 13.4 ther 's the word of ministration the name Diaconos imprinted upon the King and since our Super-Supream Ordinary our Super-Soveraign head of the Church Christ Jesus himself cals himself by that name The Son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister Mar. 10.45 ther 's this word of ministration the office the name of Deacon imprinted upon Christ himself And though in our interest in him who is also a King and a Priest we are all regale Sacerdotium 1 Pet. 2.9 Kings and Priests too yet let us accept the name and execute the office of Deacon of ministration especially upon our selves for as every man is a world in himself so every man is a Church in himself too and in the ancient Church it was a part of the Deacons office to call out to the Church to the Congregation Nequis contra aliquem nequis in Hipocrisi let no man come hither to Church indeed no whether for every place because God is present in every place is a Church either in uncharitableness towards others or in Hypocrisie in dissimulation in himself Bring alwaies a charitable opinion towards other men and sincere affections in thy self and thou hast done the right office of a Deacon upon the right subject thou hadst ministred to thine own Soul But then the height of Stephens exemplariness which is the consideration that we pursue in this branch of this first part is not so much in his active as in his passive part not so much in that he did as in that he suffered not as he answered discharged the duties of his name so we have proposed him to you nor as he was an early Disciple and came to Christ betimes we have proposed him so too nor as he made his ambition only to serve Christ and not to serve him in a high place but only as a Deacon for in that line also we have proposed him to you But as he was a constant and chearful Martyr and laid down his life for Christ and in that qualification propose him to your selves and follow him as a Martyr Eusebius the Bishop of Caesarea Martyr was so in love with Pamphilus the Martyr as a Martyr that he would needs take his name before he could get his addition and though he could not be call'd Martyr then yet he would be called Pamphilus and not Eusebius The name of Stephen hath enough in it to serve not only the vehementest affection but the highest ambition for there is a Coronation in the Name as we told you before And therefore in the Ecclesiastical story and Martyrologes of the Church there are I think more Martyrs of this name Stephen then of any other Name indeed they have all that Name for the Name is a Coronation And therefore the Kingdome of heaven which is express'd by many precious Metaphors in the Gospel is never call'd a Crown till after Stephens death till our Coronation was begun in his Martyrdome but after in the Epistles often and in the Revelation very often For to suffer for God man to suffer for God I to suffer for my Maker for my Redeemer is such a thing as no such thing excepting only Gods sufferings for man can fall into the consideration of man Gods suffering for man was the Nadir the lowest point of Gods humiliation mans suffering for God is the Zenith the highest point of mans
and turns into good blood all the benefits formerly exhibited to us in particular and exhibited to the whole Church of God present that which belongs to the understanding to that faculty and the understanding is not presently setled in it present any of the prophecies made in the captivity and a Jews understanding takes them for deliverances from Babylon and a Christians understanding takes them for deliverances from sin and death by the Messias Christ Jesus present any of the prophecies of the Revelation concerning Antichrist and a Papist will understand it of a single and momentane and transitory man that must last but three yeer and a half and a Protestant may understand it of a succession of men that have lasted so 1000. yeers already present but the name of Bishop or of elder out of the Acts of the Apostle or their Epistles and other men will take it for a name of equality and parity and we for a name and office of distinction in the Hierarchy of Gods Church Thus it is in the understanding that 's often perplexed consider the other faculty the will of man by those bitternesses which have passed between the Jesuits and the Dominicans amongst other things belonging to the will whether the same proportion of grace offered to men alike disposed must necessarily work alike upon both their wills And amongst persons neerer to us whether that proportion of grace which doth convert a man might not have been resisted by perversness of his will By all these difficulties we way see how untractable and untameable a faculty the wil of man is But come not with matter of law but matter of fact Let God make his wonderful works to be had in remembrance Psal 111.4 present the history of Gods protection of his children from the beginning in the ark in both captivities in infinite dangers present this to the memory and howsoever the understanding be beclouded or the will perverted yet both Jew and Christian Papist and Protestant Puritan and Protestant are affected with a thankfull acknowledgment of his former mercies and benefits this issue of that faculty of their memory is alike in them all And therefore God in giving the law works upon no other faculty but this Exod. 20. I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt He only presents to their memory what he had done for them And so in delivering the Gospel in one principal seal thereof the sacrament of his body he recommended it only to their memory Do this in remembrance of me This is the faculty that God desires to work upon And therefore if thine understanding cannot reconcile differences in all Churches if thy will cannot submit it self to the ordinances of thine own Church go to thine own memory for as St. Bernard calls that the stomach of the soul we may be bold to call it the Gallery of the soul hang'd with so many and so lively pictures of the goodness and mercies of thy God to thee as that every one of them shall be a catachism to thee to instruct thee in all thy duties to him for those mercies And as a well made and well plac'd picture looks alwayes upon him that looks upon it so shall thy God look upon thee whose memory is thus contemplating him and shine upon thine understanding and rectifie thy will too If thy memory cannot comprehend his mercy at large shewed to his whole Church as it is almost an incomprehensible thing that in so few yeers he made us of the Reformation equall even in number to our adversaries of the Roman Church If thy memory have not held that picture of our general deliverance from the Navy if that mercy be written in the water and in the sands where it was perform'd and not in thy heart if thou remember not our deliverance from that artificiall Hell the Vault in which though his instruments failed of their plot they did not blow us up yet the Devil goes forward with his plot if ever he can blow out if he can get that deliverance to be forgotten If these be too large pictures for thy gallery for thy memory yet every man hath a pocket picture about him Emanuel a bosome book and if he will turn over but one leaf and remember what God hath done for him even since yesterday he shall find even by that little branch a navigable river to sail into that great and endless Sea of Gods mercies towards him from the beginning of his being Nunc. Do but remember but remember now Of his own wil begat he us with the word of truth Jam. 1.18 that we should be as the first fruits of his creatures That as we consecrate all his creatures to him in a sober and religious use of them so as the first fruits of all we should principally consecrate our selves to his service betimes Now there were three payments of first fruits appointed by God to the Jews The first was Primitiae Spicarum of their Ears of Corn and this was early about Easter The second was Primitiae panum of Loaves of Bread after their corn was converted to that use and this though it were not so soon yet it was early too about Whitsontide The third was Primitiae frugum of all their Fruits and Revenues but this was very late in Autumn at the fall of the leaf in the end of the yeer The two first of these which were offered early were offered partly to God and partly to Man to the Priest but in the last which came late God had no part He had his part in the corn and in the loaves but none in the latter fruits Offer thy self to God first as Primitias spicarum whether thou glean in the world or bind up whole sheaves whether thy increase be by little and little or apace And offer thy self as primitias panum when thou hast kneaded up riches and honor and favour in a setled and established fortune offer at thy Easter whensoever thou hast any resurrection any sense of raising thy soul from the shadow of death offer at thy Pentecost when the holy Ghost visits thee and descends upon thee in a fiery tongue and melts thy bowels by the power of his word for if thou defer thy offering til thy fal til thy winter til thy death howsoever they may be thy first fruits because they be the first that ever thou gavest yet they are such as are not acceptable to God God hath no portion in them if they be not offered til then offer thy self now for that 's an easie request yea offer to thy self now that 's more easie Viximus mundo vivamus reliquum nobis ipsis Thus long we have served the world Basil let us serve our selves the rest of our time that is the best part of our selves our souls Expectas ut febris te vocet ad poenitentiam Hadst thou rather a sickness should bring thee to God than a
by the King to wait upon my L. of Doncaster in his Embassage to Germany First Sermon as we went out June 16. 1619. SERMON XX. Rom. 13.11 For now is our Salvation nearer then when we believed THere is not a more comprehensive a more embracing word in all Religion then the first word of this Text Now for the word before that For is but a word of connexion and rather appertains to that which was said before the Text then to the Text it self The Text begins with that important and considerable particle Now Now is salvation nearer c. This present word Now denotes an Advent a new coming or a new operation otherwise then it was before And therefore doth the Church appropriate this Scripture to the celebration of the Advent before the Feast of the Birth of our Saviour It is an extensive word Now for though we dispute whether this Now that is whether an instant be any part of time or no yet in truth it is all time for whatsoever is past was and whatsoever is future shall be an instant and did and shall fall within this Now. We consider in the Church four Advents or Comings of Christ of every one of which we may say Now now it is otherwise then before For first there is verbum in carne the word came in the flesh in the Incarnation and then there is caro in verbo he that is made flesh comes in the word that is Christ comes in the preaching thereof and he comes again in carne saluta when at our dissolution and transmigration at our death he comes by his spirit and testifies to our spirit that we die the Children of God And lastly he comes in carne reddita when he shall come at the Resurrection to redeliver our bodies to our souls and to deliver everlasting glory to both The Ancients for the most part understand the word of our Text of Christs first coming in the flesh to us in this world the latter Exposition understand them rather of his coming in glory But the Apostle could not properly use this present word Now with relation to that which is not now that is to future glory otherwise then as that future glory hath a preparation and an inchoation in present grace for so even the future glory of heaven hath a Now now the elect Children of God have by his powerfull grace a present possession of glory So then it will not be impertinent to suffer this flowing and extensive word Now to spread it self into all three for the whole duty of Christianity consists in these three things first in pietate erga Deum in religion towards God in which the Apostle had enlarged himself from the beginning to the twelfth chapter of his Epistle And secondly in charitate erga proximum in our mutual duties of society towards our Equals and Inferiors and of Subjection towards our Superiours in which that twelfth chapter and this to the eitghth verse is especially conversant And then thirdly in sanctimonia propria in the works of sanctification and holiness in our selves And this Text the Apostle presents as a forcible reason to induce us to that to those works of sanctification because Now our salvation is nearer us then when we believed Take then this now the first way of the coming Christ in person in the flesh into this world and then the Apostle of directs himself principally to the Jews converted to the faith of Christ and he tels them That their salvation is nearer them now now they had seen him come then when they did only believe that he would come Take the words the second way of his coming in grace into our hearts and so the Apostle directs himself to all Christians now now that you have bin bred in the Christian Church now that you are grown from Grace to grace from faith to faith now that God by his spirit strengthens and confirms you now is your salvation nearer then when ye believed that is when you began to believe either by the faith of your Parents or the faith of the Church or the faith of your Sureties at your Baptism or when you began to have some notions and impressions and apprehensions of faith in your self when you came to some degrees of understanding and discretion Take the word of Christs coming to us at the hour of death or of his coming to us at the day of Judgment for those two are all one to our present purpose because God never reverses any particular judgement given at a mans death at the day of the general Judgment take the word so this is the Apostles argument you have believed and you have lived accordingly and that faith and that good life hath brought salvation nearer you that is given you a fair and modest infallibility of salvation in the nature of reversion but now now that you are come to the approches of death which shall make your reversion a possession Now is salvation nearer you then when you believed Summarily the Text is a reason why we ought to proceed in good and holy wayes and it works in all the three acceptations of the word for whether salvation be said to be near us because we are Christians and so have advantage of the Jews or near us because we have made some proficiency in holiness sanctimony or near us because we are near our end and thereby near a possession of our endless joy and glory Still from all these acceptations of the word arise religious provocations to perseverance in holiness of life and therefore we shall pursue the words in all three acceptations In all three acceptations we must consider three termes in the Text First Quid salus what this Salvation is that is intended here Part. 1. and then Quid prope what this Distance this nearness is and lastly Quid credere what Belief this is So then taking the words first the first way as spoken by the Apostles to the Jews newly converted to the Christian Faith salvation is the outward means of salvation which are more and more manifest to the Christians then they were to the Jews And then the second Term Nearness salvation is nearer is in this That salvation to the Christian is in things present or past in things already done and of which we are experimentally sure but to the Jews it was of future things of which howsoever they might assure themselves that they would be yet they had no assurance when And therefore in the third place their Believing was but a confident expectation and faithfull assenting to their Prophets quando credidistis when you believed that is when you did only believe and saw nothing First then the first Terme in the first acceptation Salvation Salus is the outward means of salvation Outward and visible means of knowing God God hath given to all Nations in the book of Creatures from the first leaf of that book the firmament above to
our family We have in the use of our Church a short and a larger Catechism both instruct the same things the same Religion but some capacities require the one and some the other God would catechise us in the knowledge of our mortality since we have devested our immortality he would have us understand our mortality since we have induced death upon our selves God would raise such a benefit to us out of death as that by the continual meditation thereof death might the less terrifie us and the less damnifie us First His Law alone does that office even his Common Law Morte morieris and stipendium peccati Mors est All have sinned and all must die And so his Statute Law too Heb. 9.27 Statutum est It is enacted it is appointed to man once to die And then as a Comment upon that Law he presents to us either his great Catechisms Isai 37.36 Sennacheribs Catechism in which we see almost Two hundred thousand Soldiers more by many then both sides arm and pay in these noiseful Wars of our Neighbors slain in one night 2 Chro. 13. or Jeroboams Catechism where Twelve hundred thousand being presented in the field more by many then all the Kings of Christendom arm and pay Five hundred thousand men chosen men and men of mighty valor as the Text qualifies them were slain upon one side in one day or Davids Catechism 2 Sam. 24. where Threescore and ten thousand were devoured of the Pestilence we know not in how few hours or this Egyptian Catechism of which we can make no conjecture because we know no number of their houses and there was not a house in which there was not one dead or God presents us his Catechism in the Primitive Church where every day may be written in Red Ink every day the Church celebrated Five hundred in some Copies Five thousand Martyrs every day that had writ down their names in their own blood for the Gospel of Christ Jesus or God presents us his Catechism in the later Roman Church where upon our attempt of the Reformation they boast to have slain in one day Seventy Millions in another Two hundred Millions of them that attempted and assisted the Reformation or else Gods presents his lesser Catechisms the several Funerals of our particular Friends in the Congregation or he abridges this Catechism of the Congregation to a less volume then that to the consideration of every particular peece of our own Family at home For so there is not a house in which there is not one dead Prov. 19.18 Have you not left a dead son at home whom you should have chastned whilest there was hope and have not Whom you should have beaten with the rod 23.13 to deliver his soul from Hell and have not Whom you should have made an Abel a Keeper of Sheep Gen. 4.2 or a Cain a Tiller of the Ground that is bestowed him bound him to some Occupation or Profession or Calling and have not You may believe God without an oath 1 Sam 3.13 but God hath sworn That because Eli restrained not the insolencies of his sons no sacrifice should purge his house for ever And scarce shall you finde in the whole Book of God any so vehement an intermination any judgment so vehemently imprinted as that upon Eli for not restraining the insolencies of his sons For in that case God says I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle That is he would inflict a sudden death upon the Father for his indulgence to his sons Have ye not left such a dead son dead in contumacy and in disobedience at home Have you not left a dead daughter at home A daughter whom you should have kept at home and have not but suffered with Dinah to go out to see the daughters of the land and so expose her self to dangerous tentations as Dinah did Have ye not left a dead servant at home Gen. 34.1 whom ye have made so perfect in deceiving of others as that now he is able to take out a new lesson of himself and deceive you Have you left no dead Inmates dead Sojourners dead Lodgers at home Of whom so they advance your profit you take no care how vicious in themselves they be or how dangerous to the State Deut. 31.12 Gather men and women and children and strangers within thy gate says God that they may all learn the Law of the Lord. If thy care spread not over all thy family whosoever is dead in thy family by thy negligence thou shalt answer the King that Subject that is the King of Heaven that Soul We have as we proposed to do surveyed this House in Egypt Part. 3. where the Text lays it and the House at home where we dwell there is a third House which we are this House of Clay and of Mud-walls our selves these bodies And is there none dead there not within us The House it self is ready to fall as soon as it is set up The next thing that we are to practise after we are born is to die The Timber of this House is but our Bones and My bones are waxen old says David and perchance not with age but as Job says His bones are full of the sins of his youth Ps 32.3 Job 20.11 Job 6.12 The lome-walls of this House are but this flesh and Our strength is not the strength of stones neither is our flesh brass and therefore Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm Jer. 17.5 The windows of this House are but our eyes and the light of mine eyes is gone from me says David and we know not how nor how soon Esai 59.10 The foundation is but our feet and besides that Our feet stumble at noon as the Prophet complains David found them so cold as that no art nor diligence could warm them And the roof and covering of this House is but this thatch of hair and it is denounc'd by more then one of the Prophets Esai 15.23 Jer. 48.37 That upon all heads shall fall baldness The House it self is always ready to fall but is there not also always some dead in this House in our selves Is not our first-born dead Our first-born says St. Augustin are the offspring of our beloved sin for we have some Concubine-sins and some one sin that we are married to Whatsoever we have begot upon that wife whatsoever we have got by that sin that 's our first-born and that 's dead How much the better soever we make account to live by it it is dead For as it was the mischievous invention of a Persecutor in the Primitive Church to tie living men to dead bodies and let them die so so men that tie the rest of their Estate to goods ill gotten do but invent a way to ruine and destroy all But that which is truly
only post eos Come not after them which if we were to reflect at all which we always avoid upon publick things would afford a good note for the publick for the Magistrate Come not after these Idolaters but be still beforehand with them That which is proverbially said of particular Bodies will hold in a Body Politick in any State Qui medicè miserè That man hath no health who is put to sustain it or repair it with continual Physick That State hath no safety that refers all to a defensive War Luke 4.24 and to a reparation of Breaches then when they are made That State will be subject to the other Proverb which Chrysostom foresaw Medice cura teipsum That State which hath been a Physitian to all her neighbour States let blood and staunched blood in them so as conduced best to their own health may be put to imploy all her means upon her self to repair and cure her self if she follow that is in this acceptation of the word come after her Idolatrous enemies and be not still beforehand with them But that is not our sphear the Publick the State but yet States consist of Families and Families of private persons and they are in our sphear in our charge And therefore we lay this Inhibition upon all that are Masters of Families Take heed of being snared by following by coming after them in this sense That because thou thinkest thou hast a power in thy wife in thy children in thy servants and canst do what thou wilt with them at any time therefore thou needest not be so scrupulous at first but mayst admit any supplanters any underminers into thy house because they are good company or because they have relation to great persons Come not to this Post eos play not that after-game to put thy self to a necessity of taking sowre and unkinde courses with wire and children after but be beforehand with such Idolaters prevent their snare We lay this Inhibition too upon every particular conscience Covetousness is Idolatry saith the Apostle and Quot vitia tot Idola saith St. Hierom. As many habitual sins as we have so many Idols have we set up True repentance destroyes this Idolatry 't is true but then Take heed of being snared post ea by coming after them by exposing thy self to dangers of relapses again by consideration how easily thou madest thy peace last time with God It was but a sigh but a tear but a bending of the knee but a receiving of the Sacrament that went to it then And post ea when all is done which was done before in the way of sin all that is easily done over again which was done in the way of remedy Say not so for a merry heart and a chearful countenance upon the testimony of a good conscience is a better way to God then all the dejections of Spirit all the sowre contritions and sad remorses in the world Thou art not sure that thou shalt get so far as to such a sadness as God requires for sin thou mayst continue in thy presumption Thou art not sure that thou shalt go no further then God requires in that sadness it may flow out to desperation Be beforehand with thy sins watch the approaches of those enemies for if thou build upon that way of coming after them upon presumption of mercy upon repentance thou maist be snared and therefore take heed And this is the sense of the phrase as the Original will afford it with Idolaters in the State with Underminers in thy House with sins in thy Soul be still beforehand watch their dangerous accesses But St. Hierom and the great stream of Expositors that go with him give another sense of the word Ne imiteris Be not snared by following them And in that sense we are to take the word now Follow them not then that is imitate them not neither in their Severity and Cruelty nor in their Levity and Facility neither not in their Severity when they will apply all the capital and bloody penalties of the Imperial Laws made against Arrians Manicheans Pelagians and Nestorians Hereticks in the fundamental points of Religion and with which Christ could not consist to every man that denys any collateral and subdivided Tradition of theirs that if a man conceive any doubt of the dream of Purgatory of the validity of indulgence of the Latitude of a work of Supererogation he is as deep in the fagot here and shall be as deep in Hell hereafter as if he denyed the Trinity or the Incarnation and Passion of Christ Jesus when in a days warning and by the roaring of one Bull it grows to be damnation to day to beleeve so as a man might have beleeved yesterday and have bin saved when they will afford no Salvation but in that Church which is discernable by certain and inseparable marks which our Country-man Saunders makes to be six and Mich. Medina extends to eleven and Bellarmine declares to be fifteen and Bodius stretches to a hundred when they make every thing Heresie and rather then lack a Text for putting Hereticks to death will accept that false reading haereticum hominem devita which being spoken of avoiding Titus 3.10 they will needs interpret of killing for Erasmus cites a Witness who heard an antient and grave Divine cite that place so and to that purpose follow them not do not imitate them be content to judge more charitably of them For those amongst them who are under an invincible ignorance because their Superiors keep the Scriptures from them God may be pleased to save by that revelation of his Son Christ Jesus which he hath afforded them in that Church Howsoever they who have had light offered to them and wilfully resist it must necessarily perish Follow them not imitate them not in that severity necessarily to damn all who think not in all things as they do Nor follow them not in that facility to make their Divinity and the Tenets of their Church to wait upon temporal affairs and emergent occasions The Anabaptist will delude the Magistrate in an examination or in any practise because he thinks no man ought to be a Magistrate over him in things that have any relation to spiritual Cognizance and Treason in alienating the Subject from his Allegiance must be of spiritual cognizance Where others are too strong for them they may dignifie their Religion so their Jesuit Ribadineyra says and where they are too strong for others they must profess it though with Arms so their Jesuit Bellarmine argues it In this planetary in this transitory in this occasional Religion follow them not We say in Logick Substantia non suscipit magis minus Substantial and fundamental points of Religion and obedience to Superiors is amongst those do not ebb and flow they binde all men and at all times and in all cases Induite Dominum Jesu says the Apostle Put ye on the Lord Jesus Rom. 13 14. and keep him
a Lamb that is but with any reluctation But God knows that may have been accompanied with a dangerous damp and stupefaction and insensibility of his present state Our blessed Saviour admitted colluctations with Death and a sadnesse even in his Soul to death and an agony even to a bloody sweat in his body and expostulations with God and exclamations upon the Crosse He was a devout man who upon his death-bed or death-turse for he was an Hermit said Septuaginta annis domino servivisti mori times Hast thou serv'd a good Master threescore and ten yeeres Hilarion and now art thou loth to goe into his presence yet Hilarion was loath He was a devoure man an Hermite that said that day that he died Cogitate hodie coepisse servire Domino Barlaam hodie finiturum Consider this to be the first days service that ever thou didst thy Master to gloryfie him in a christianly and constant death and if thy first day be thy last day too how soone dost thou come to receive thy wages yet Barlaam could have beene content to have stayed longer for it Make no ill conclusion upon any man's lothnesse to die And then upon violent deaths inflicted as upon malefactors Christ himself hath forbidden us by his own death to make any ill conclusion for his own death had those impressions in it he was reputed he was executed as a Malefactor and no doubt many of them who concurred to his death did beleeve him to be so Of sodain deaths there are scarce examples to be found in the Scriptures upon good men for death in battail cannot be called sodain death But God governs not by examples but by rules and therefore make no ill conclusions upon sodain-Death nor upon distempers neyther though perchance accompanied with some words of diffidence and distrust in the mercies of God The Tree lies as it falls 'T is true but yet it is not the last stroke that fells the Tree nor the last word nor last gaspe that qualifies the Soule Still pray we for a peaceable life against violent deaths and for time of Repentance against sodaine Deaths and for sober and modest assurance against dâ—stemper'd and diffident Deaths but never make ill conclusâ—ion upon persons overtaken with such Deaths Domini Domini sunt exitus Mortis To God the Lord belong the issues of Death and he received Samson who went out of this world in such a manner consider it actively consider it passively in his own death and in those whom he slew with himself as was subject to interpretation hard enough yet the holy-Ghost hath mov'd Saâ—nt Paul to celebrate Samson in his great Catalogue and so doth all the Church Heb. 11. Our Criticall day is not the very day of our death but the whole course of our life I thank him that prayes for me when my bell tolls but I thank him much more that Carechises me or preaches to me or instructs me how to live fac hoc vives There 's my security The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Doe this and thou shalt live But though I doe it yet I shall die too dy a bodily a naturall death but God never mentions never seems to consider that death the bodily the naturall death God doth not say Live well and thou shalt die well well that is an easy a quiet death but live well here and thou shalt live well for ever As the first part of a Sentence peeces well with the last and never respects never hearkens after the parenthesis that comes between so doth a good life here flow into an eternall life without any consideration what manner of death we die But whether the gate of my prison be opened with an oyl'd key by a gentle and preparing sicknesse or the gate be hew'd down by a violent death or the gate be burnt down by a rageing and frantick feaver a gate into Heaven I shall have for from the Lord is the course of my life and with God the Lord are the issues of death And farther we carry not this second acceptation of the words as this issue of death is liberatio in morte God's care that the Soule be safe what agonie soever the body suffer in the houre of death but passe to our third and last Part as this issue of death is liberatio per mortem a deliverance by the death of another by the death of Christ Part. 3. Liberatio per mortem SufferentiaÌ„ Job audiâ—stis judistis fineÌ„ Domini saies S. Ja. 5.11 You have heard of the patience of Job saies he All this while you have done that for in every man calamitous miserable man a Job speaks Now see the end of the Lord saith that Apostle which is not that end which the Lord proposed to himself Salvation to us nor the end which he proposes to us conformity to him but See the end of the Lord saies he the end that the Lord himself came to Death and a painfull and a shamefull death But why did he die and why die so Quia Domini Domini sunt exitus Mortis as Saint Augustine interpreting this Text De Civit. Dei l. 17. c. 18. answers that question because to this God our Lord belong'd these issues of Death Quid apertius diceretur sayes he there what can be more obvious more manifest then this sense of these words In the former part of the verse it is said He that is our God is the God of Salvation Deus salvos faciendi so he reads it The God that must save us Who can that be saith he but Jesus For therefore that name was given him because he was to save us And to this Jesus saith he Mat. 1.21 this Saviour belongs the issues of Death Nec oportuit cum de hac vita alios exitus habere quam mortis Being come into this life in our mortall nature he could not goe out of it any other way then by Death Ideo dictum saith he therefore is it said To God the Lord belong the issues of Death Ut ostenderetur moriendo nos salvos facturum to shew that his way to save us was to die And from this Text doth Saint Isiodore prove that Christ was truly man which as many Sects of Hereticks denied as that he was truly God because to him though he were Dominus Dominus as the Text doubles it God the Lord yet to him to God the Lord belong'd the issues of Death Oportuit cum pati more cannot be said then Christ himself saith of himself These Luk. 24.26 things Christ ought to suffer He had no other way but by Death So then this part of our Sermon must necessarily be a Passion Sermon since all his life was a continuall Passion all our Lent may well be a continual good-Friday Christ's painfull Life took off none of the pains of his Death he felt not the lesse then for having felt so much before nor will