too as well as any man but bring them to the Commandments to the corporal works either of Charity to the distressed or of bounty for the publick honour and worship of that God whom they pretend to fear and then they leave you This they begin to doubt whether it may be any part of their duty or no But however the soul of the old and outward man may be immortal though severed from the body yet is it not so with the new man Sever the fear of God from the observance of his Commandments and it will instantly cease to be fear As St. John of love so may we say of this fear that includes it He that saith he feareth God and keeps not his Commandments is a liar Again observe the Commandments but not in the true fear of God and it will be not observance but dissimulation A Liar this of all Liars whose hypocrisy can make the very spirit of wickedness to inform and actuate the comely limbs and members of true holiness A prodigious conjunction and therefore a Monster detestable both to God and man It is but right then and as it should be that these two here make but one whole conclusion one whole duty one whole matter one whole man They may be distinguished they may not be divided God hath joined them together and let no man seek to put them asunder but he that fears God let him keep his Commandments also Keep his Commandments durus est hic sermo this is an hard saying and the world sure will be hardly brought to this part of the conclusion yea it were something well if those that seem purest amongst us did not conclude clean contrary That the Commandments were not given to be kept yea that there is no possibility for any man though under the state of grace at any time or in any action to keep without violation even the least Commandment But two things there are that seem especially to deceive men in this point First an erroneous opinion that a spiritual action cannot be good so long as it may be bettered as having so much of sin as it wants of absolute perfection which they suppose the Law under the high terms of eternal death doth require at every mans hands But this is apparently mistaken for evident it is that the Law under the penalty enforceth only essential goodness not so that which is gradual otherwise the holy Angels may now sin in Heaven for they excel one another as in nature so in their zeal and operations yea he that is holier than the Angels Christ himself would be endangered of whom the Scriptures do plainly affirm that he prayed at one time more earnestly than at another And rightly for goodness is not seated in puncto in any precise nick or indivisible Center but hath its just latitude and is capable of degrees of comparison in the Concrete bonus melior optimus So Priscian will instruct them with this opinion not admitting it hath false Latin in it and false Divinity both at once This the first The Second thing is another supposal too and little less erroneous than the former That in every good and divine action the flesh lusting against the spirit doth by that malignant influence corrupt and vitiate even with sin the whole operation But what if the lusting flesh do not always move and in every action What if when it moves it doth not yet enter into composition with that act that subdues and quells it as indeed it doth not what if the vertue of such conquering acts be the greater by the opposition as indeed it is ever the more excellent by how much it breaks through stronger resistance according to that of our Saviour virtus mea in infirmitate perficitur Lastly what if every act of lust it self be not in true propriety a Sin As if it be meerly natural great Clerks conceive it is not because sin is ever voluntary and moral They take it for a true Rule â—Lex datur non appetitui sed voluntati and so they conceive our Saviour doth interpret it when he makes not every one whose flesh lusteth but him only that lusteth in his heart that is with his will to be an Adulterer St. Paul they suppose follows his Masters interpretation and though no man doth define lust more than he yet he doth it with caution as the sin not of the person a subject properly not capable of sin but of the flesh I know that in me but with correction that is in my flesh there is no good thing It is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me And that we take it not for such a sin as transgresseth the Law he is bold to say that the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in those that walk not after the flesh not that have no carnal motions but after the Spirit St. Austin therefore they conceive said well that when the appetite doth lust but the will doth not like it is as when Eve had eaten but not Adam And as we sinned at the first not in Eve but in Adam so is it still for unless Adam eat as well as Eve the will consent as well as the appetite water the fall is not finished The lusts therefore and appetites of Nature if they arise immediately out of the Body and be not raised by our unhappy fancy which the Will sets on work or by some act or custom of Sin which the Will hath already wrought they are not in their opinion sinful unless we will make God the Author of Sin who is the creator of nature and natural appetites yea and Christ too the subject of sin that was not without a natural inclination directly opposite to the known will of God otherwise he could never have said as he doth not my will but thy will be done No doubt but by the lustings of the flesh humane frailties and imperfections more than enough may and do too often cleave like moles and stains unto the divinest actions of the most spiritual men but a mole of frailty is one thing and the corruption of mortal-sin another One thing claudicare in via to go on though halting sometimes and interfering in the way to Heaven and another to cross out of it run counter directly towards Hell And therefore from such surreptitious and involuntary defects to conclude that no man can love God with all his heart clean contrary to the testimonies of the Scripture That the just man falleth seven times a day to wit into sin though that Scripture intend no such matter that all his righteousness is but a defiled rag and the divinest action in the eye of the Law but a mortal and deadly Sin is an exaggeration that doth but rack and tenter a truth until it burst into two errors and dangerous ones both in Gods regard and mans As if men were bound unto meer impossibilities and God that hard man in the Gospel reaping where
joyned too in man their subject the ywill make up that compleat fear which indeed is the full and compleat worship internal worship and service of God And therefore in the Scripture it is usually taken even for our whole Religion Piety and Adoration of the Divinity according to that of David O come hither and I will teach you the fear of the Lord that is the worship of the Lord. So Jonah unto the Mariners that enquired of him I am an Hebrew saith he and I fear the God of heaven and that made the Sea and the dry land So Jacob in like manner when he sware unto Laban he swore by the fear of his Father Isaac to wit by that God whom his Father Isaac feared that is worshiped and served Whence it is that what Moses terms fear Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God that the Septuagint and our Saviour himself renders by worship Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve And therefore we shall not need to scruple much at the enquiry why the Text saith not Believe or Love or the like but rather Fear God and keep his Commndments for he that hath said Fear hath said all no word can go beyond this It includes both faith and hope and love and all yea something more than all Not the meanest of these fears the fear of punishment but implies faith and the fear of offence both faith and hope and love also but the reverential fear is love and something more than love even Veneration too as acknowledging the love to be not like that of ordinary friendships inter Pares between Companions but at a distance and such an infinite distance on Gods part as requires the lowest Reverence and Adoration from all that love him For though it hath pleased his goodness to make and stile us his friends yet I hope we do not cease to be his servants nor he to be our Lord every way our Supream and Soveraign Lord So indeed our Lips stile him at every word and by that stile and Title too he himself requires his fear at our hands if I be your Lord ubi Timor meus where is my fear Where indeed his fear of Reverence for he is Lord of Majesty and Glory Where the fear of offence for he is the Lord no less good than glorious and as terrible as either to his contemners where then the fear of his wrath And sure the question is pertinent enough and it is but right that he demands where it is or what may become of it It seems to be fled with Astraea to Heaven sure I am it may trouble a man to find it out any where upon earth His judgments are far off as David speaks even out of our sight at least they seem yet to be beheld with such security as a Man would think most Men were in a league with death and at a Covenant with Hell as the Prophet speaks so little fear is there of his revenge And sure they that fear not punishment will hardly be restrained by any filial the fear of offence Indeed it were something well if we did not offend with less trouble than any thing else And as for the other the fear of reverence and that principally in the holy place where his special presence hath made it especially due that is so far from regard as it seems to have gotten an ill name of late we are grown some of us into such a familiarity with God as the reverence of his Sanctuary or of him in it or any decency or dignity that may serve thereunto is suspected now a days for an out-work of Popery God grant we do not make it Idolatry too to reverence even God himself in his Temple Is not the question just then in these times also ubi timor meus where is his fear indeed where any of his fears sure they have all left this world and it seems left in it little but worldly fear behind them That indeed and that alone runs through the world and only prevails For her we duck like Die-dappers at every Pebble that is thrown at us by a powerful hand and yet can stand up sturdily like Capaneus upon the walls of Thebes against the Thunderbolts of the Almighty we are become as he said well Gyants yea even Gods against God but Slaves unto Men whose Bodies and Consciences are sometimes equally rotten The revenge of the Law and shame of the world is for the most part all our fear so we may avoid these save our goods from loss our names from disgrace our skin from hurt our bodies from death we can sin on merrily it little matters for him that can cast both body and soul into Hell fire This is the whole of most mens fears but fear not ye their fear neither be afraid but sanctify the Lord himself Is metus vester is pavor esto let him be your fear let him be your dread But what then is God only to be feared and nothing besides surely yes God and not any thing else if any thing shall stand in competition or opposition with God but yet under God and in subordination unto him we are to fear God and others too for Gods sake And all the people feared exceedingly God and his servant Moses So the Apostle fear to whom fear and honour to whom honour appertaineth and both sure appertain to all Superiors but eminently above all to him that is Supream Reverential fear for he hath a character of the Divinity upon him Fear obediential and filial fear too for he is Pater Patriae And fear of his wrath also for he is Gods Minister for vengeance And therefore fear the King for he carrieth not the sword in vain Yea and I must tell you fear the Church too and those in the Church that have power over us also another kind of power indeed but yet such as renders them Gods Ministers in like manner and your Ghostly Fathers and therefore will require in their degree obedience and reverence too yea and fear of their wrath also for they want it not for the wicked when occasions serve and therefore fear these too for they carry not the Keys in vain The Powers that are they are all of God and he that resisteth the power whether Temporal or Spiritual resisteth the ordinance of God and receiveth damnation unto himself It is true these are two distinct powers yet is it as true also they are not simply collateral but subordinate ever subordinate when the Prince is Christian as having though not all power in himself yet a Princely dominion over all Persons and that in all Causes whatsoever neither is more claimed and less cannot be denied For two Supremacies in a Kingdom are no less inconsistent than two Omnipotencies in the world And therefore the Apostle gives unto him universal subjection and conscientious too Let every one yea omnis anima let every soul
their Souls for ever which none of these Saviours could do And therefore a publick general and universal Saviour of whom all had need as being all sinners one much talked of and long expected the great and famous Saviour of all such a one was behind And now he is come this is he the Saviour which is Christ c. He of whom all Prophecies made mention and he the performance of them all of whom all the Types under the Law were shadows and he the substance of them all of whom all the Prophecies ran and he the fulfilling of them all he of whom all those inferiour Saviours were figures and forerunners and he the accomplishment of all that in them was wanting This is he Jacob's Shilo Esay's Emmanuel Jeremy's Branch Daniel's Messias Aggai's desideratus cunctis gentibus the desire of all the nations the desire of them then and now the joy of all nations Gaudium omni populo the joy of all people a Saviour which is Christ. And this this universality of joy is comprised in the very name for Christ signifies anointed and that is as much as S. John delivereth in other terms a Saviour sealed John vi 27. for by anointing Kings and Priests and Prophets in old time were deputed signed and sealed as it were to their several offices and received power and commission to execute those high functions So then a Saviour he is not as those others were raised up upon a sudden upon some occasion to serve the present and never heard of till they came but a Saviour in Gods forecounsel resolved on and given forth from the beginning promised and foretold and now anointed and sent with absolute commission and fulness of power to be a perfect and complete Saviour of all a Saviour which is Christ That is a Saviour ex officio whose office and very profession is to save that all may have right to repair unto him and find it at his hands not a Saviour incidently as it fell out but one ex professo anointed to that end and by vertue of his anointing appointed set forth and sent into the world of purpose to execute this function of a Saviour not to the Jews only as did the rest but to all the ends of the earth So runs his commission unto his Disciples ite in universum orbem go into the whole world and preach the Gospel omni Creaturae to every Creature so runs his own Proclamation venite ad me omnes come unto me and come all Matth. xi 28. and of them that do come I will cast none out Iohn vi 37. Servator omnium hominum the Saviour of all men 1. Tim. iv 4. and as the Samaritans said of him Servator mundi the Saviour of the world of Samaritans Jews and Gentiles of Kings and Shepherds and all And sure this is publick and universal joy gaudium omni populo joy unto all people indeed for whom there is now a saving office erected one anointed to that end a professed Saviour to whom all may resort None shall henceforth be to seek there is a name given under Heaven whereby we may be sure of Salvation and this is that name the name Christ A Saviour which is born c. Two of his Attributes then we have a Saviour which is Christ that is a Saviour and a publick Saviour but he must be a perpetual Saviour too otherwise our joy will not be full Though it be great though it be general though it be general to all people yet it will fade and perish it will not be gaudium quod erit joy which shall be lasting everlasting joy none can give that but an eternal and everlasting Saviour And he that will be such must be something more than Christ so therefore he is a great deal more Christus Dominus Christ the Lord. Not a Lord that is particular and hath reference to a private title whereof he is Lord Lord of this or that place or people and the like but the Lord which is absolute and universal without any addition you may put to it what you will Lord of Heaven and Earth of Men and Angels Dominus Christorum Dominus dominorum Lord paramount over all such was this Saviour and such it behoved him to be not only Christ that name will sort with Men yea it is his name as Man only for God cannot be anointed But he that would save the world must be more than Man and so more than Christ. Indeed Christ cannot save us he that must save us must be Christ the Lord and none but the Lord ego sum ego sum saith God himself and praeter me non est Servator it is I it is I who am the Saviour I am and besides me there is no Saviour none indeed no true Saviour but the Lord all other are short vana salus hominis Mans Salvation is vain saith the Psalmist any Salvation is vain if it be not the Lords though they be Christs as Kings and Princes are who are Gods anointed yet they cannot save Trust not in Kings and Princes for non est salus there is no salvation no no health nor help in them their breath departs and they return to the earth For though they are Christs yet they are but Christi Domini the Lord 's Christs and we shall never arrive at full and perfect Salvation till we come to Christus Dominus Christ the Lord. All the help and Salvation which those other Christs and Saviours can afford doth but concern the body that indeed they may sometimes kill or save at their pleasure but not one of them can quicken his own Soul much less give a ransome for anothers it cost more to redeem it than so and he must let that alone for ever let it alone for this Christ whose work it is Christ the Lord that only can save both Body and Soul his own and other Mens too Secondly those other Christs which are not the Lord as they save only the Body so can they save only from bodily and corporal enemies but we had need of a Saviour from ghostly adversaries from spiritual wickednesses in high places a Saviour that might wrastle with principalities and powers and triumph over them too and no Christ may do this but Christ the Lord the Lord of power and might only able to bind the strong Man in his own house and spoil him of his goods of power alone to destroy Abaddon the great destroyer of the bottomless pit Thirdly those other Christs as they save but from corporal enemies so but from worldly calamities from debts and arrests and prisons and the like penalties of their own Laws But who shall deliver us from sin and death and hell From sin the grand debt of mankind from death the universal Sergeant of all flesh and from Hell the everlasting prison of Body and Soul For these they can give no protection they are all subject unto them themselves
that shall undertake such a debt that in this case shall be content to take up our forfeited bond and put in new security of his own be bound skin for skin body for body and life for life and be content to pay the bond too when the day comes his love sure is full and he brings comfort with him to purpose And even this he did this he undertook and this he performed for us He undertook it at his Circumcision and performed it in his passion Whosoever is Circumcised factus est debitor universae legis he becomes a debter unto the whole Law saith St. Paul Gal. v. 3 At his Circumcision then he undertook the debt he entred bond anew with us and in sign that he so did he then shed a few drops of his blood whereby he signed the bond as it were and gave those few drops as a pledge or earnest that when the fulness of time came he would not fail to shed all the rest And shed it he did what at his Circumcision he undertook at his passion he performed even to the full He bound himself in a bound of death and death he underwent even the death of the Cross the most bitter reproachful cursed death of the Cross so payed all to the uttermost farthing and having paid it delevit Chirographum he cancelled the handwriting the sentece of the Law that till then was of record and stood in full force against us but now that the whole world might know it to be void he hung it up in the same place where it was satisfied he nailed it to the Tree of his Cross Col. ii 14. But yet this is not all the penalty is but one part of the Law and he became debtor universae legis to the whole Law saith the Apostle and the whole Law he payed whatsoever was due In the Law we consider a double force or power it hath a commanding and it hath a condemning power a power directive and a power vindicative it hath precepts which it injoins and it hath punishments which it inflicts by the one it informs us what we are to do by the other what we must suffer if we do it not and he was under both parts that both might be fully discharged for as he satisfied the one at his death so the other in his life In his life he exactly kept and observed all the precepts of the Law to the least tittle and in his death he received the full punishment of the Law to the worst and utmost extremity and so was under both and fulfilled both paid all both principal and forfeiture the principal in keeping the Law himself the forfeiture in suffering the penalty of the Law for others that so others might be freed from both Sure now the Sons humility that humbled himself to death even the death of the Cross is full no less full than the Fathers love The Father sent and sent his Son the Son was made and made of a Woman made of a Woman and made under the Law made under the Law and both parts of the Law that he might be fully made And this is Gods fulness Let us now proceed unto Mans fulness for from this fulness of the Fathers love and the Sons humility we all receive the fulness of our own bliss and happiness contained in our Redemption and Adoption for to these purposes all this was done That he might redeem them c. And these two Redemption and Adoption are the two degrees of our making for without them we had been marred utterly undone and they fully answer unto the two degrees of his making made of a Woman and made under the Law He under the Law that we might be redeemed from under the Law he made the Son of Man that Men might be made the Sons of God So the making of him was his own marring but his marring was our making he twice marred by his making we twice made by his marring He of God made Man and of Man made a sinner we of sinners that is bondslaves to the Law made Freemen and of Freemen Sons Sons of God and Heirs annexed with Christ. And what more is there that we could wish to make it up fuller since our desires can extend no farther than to be rid of all evil and to be endowed with whatsoever good is and by these two Redemption and Adoption we are made partakers of both To be redeemed from under the Law is to be quit of all evil and to be adopted into the state of Children is to be intitled unto all that is good For all evil is in being under the Law from whence we are redeemed and all good in that heavenly inheritance whereunto we are adopted we were created to inherit a glorious Kingdom but through sin we lost our inheritance and not so only but together with it we forfeited our lives a sentence of death and everlasting destruction was passed upon us and from this now we are freed by redemption in that again we are reestated by adoption and what would we more But we must speak a little in particular of both and first of Redemption That he might redeem c. Every deliverance is not Redemption but such only as is obtained by a just and a full price so the word imports and something more Redemption a rebuying or buying back again of something formerly sold or forfeited into the possession of another Ever a former alienation must go before and a valuable satisfaction follow after otherwise there may be a bare emption without the former a reemption without the latter but unless both be precedent it cannot be Redemption And sure such a matter had formerly befallen us A kind of alienation had gone before whereby we had made away our selves sold our inheritance and forfeited our lives A making away indeed rather than a sale it was for such a trifle made away first in Adam for the forbidden fruit a matter of no moment since in our own persons daily made away for some trifling pleasure or profit not much more worth And having thus passed our selves away by this selling our selves under sin the Law seiseth on us whose dreadful doom is death and Hell and everlasting sorrows there with the Prince of Hell So infinite a punishment doth it inflict because in the breach of it an infinite Majesty was offended In this heavy case we lay shut up under the Law as in a Prison Rom. iii. 23. fast bound with the cords of our own sins Prov. v. 22. the sentence passed on us and we waiting but for execution what evil is there not in this estate and on every Soul that is in it Our Faith sure is weak and we do not throughly apprehend what we have only heard of but could we see it with the seeing of the eye as Job speaks were we permitted to stand on the brink and look into that fearful pit of everlasting horror whereunto we are condemned by the Law
out of the hands of corruption into liberty which is glorious Justice because he hath offered up himself a Sacrifice for sin but Sanctification because he hath given us his Spirit Christ therefore unto us is all these but yet not all these by imputation for then his Wisdom should be imputed too yea and even the redemption of our bodies from the grave imputative also Indeed we can dream willingly of nothing but imputation All seems nothing worth unless Christ did so do all for us as we may not have any thing to do for our selves I doubt we may come in time to conceive that he did believe and repent for us too for these are his Commandments and so believe only this that neither Faith nor Repentance are in our persons necessary For if Christ as a surety hath absolutely undertaken any thing for us we like the scape-Goat must go free upon his performance The same debt may not with justice be required of the surety and principal too if so then do what we list all things are done to our hands already O this were to be a gracious Saviour to purpose if we might take our pleasure ryot in Intemperance and Luxury and withal have his Abstinence and Moderation imputed to us be beheld of God at the time as no less Temperate and Chaste than Christ himself Were it not glad tidings a Gospel indeed that we might be Feasting Carousing Swearing Drinking and yet under the eye of God at the same instant as if we were Watching Fasting Praying Weeping even with Christ himself in the Garden As though God beheld Men through Christ as Men do other things by a perspective which representeth them to the Eye not in their own colours but in the colour of the glass they pass through No God is not deceived with shadows neither doth Christ cast any such He takes not good for evil nor yet evil no not for Christs sake ever for good And let not us be deceived with vain shews neither The truth is it is well that upon our Repentance we are justified by imputation we shall be too putative if we conceipt an imputed sanctification too for two such imputations will not well agree together one of them will be needless ever or impossible for justification that is remission of sins is it self sufficient without imputation of farther sanctity because as St. Austin hath it Omnia ut fact a deputantur quando quod factum non est ignoscitur And perfect sanctification imputed on the other side will leave no room for remission or imputative justification so Christs death might have been spared since we should then be saved by his life for what use may there be of his blood for Remission so long as beheld in his righteousness that never sinned If no sinner he needs no pardon if he need a pardon he must of necessity be beheld as a sinner and therefore Remission of sins and perfect Righteousness are opposite forms that cannot at the same time possibly be imputed unto the same person for they expel and shut out one another Let it suffice then that our blessed Lord vouchsafed to shed his blood for our sins let us not therefore suppose that we are not bound to forsake them ourselves that were to shed his blood afresh and crucifie him again as the Apostle speaks But as he did that for us which if we neglect it not will prove our justification so we through his assistance must do this for our selves otherwise we shall want our sanctification and wanting it want the other also That indeed is the meer act of God but on those that are qualified for it This proceeds from God and his grace but is the true duty of man and which gives him his qualification and in man therefore it must inhere for the righteousness of justification is perfect but not inherent but the righteousness of sanctification now inherent but not perfect hereafter in that glory whither it leads us it will be both perfect and inherent yea inherent perfect and perpetual also Rightly therefore to conclude all this righteousness of the Commandments the duty of man still and since Faith is included in it as being now commanded as rightly the whole duty of man That duty which doth accomplish his election for if any man purge him self from these things he shall be a vessel unto honour fulfils the end of his Creation created unto good works that we might walk therein makes effectual the Divine Vocation for we are called unto holiness is it self our sanctification for the Commandment is holy and just and good procures our justification they wrought righteousness and gained the promises and lastly leads into Glory for they that have their fruit in holiness have their end everlasting life That fruit here this blessed end hereafter the God of Glory grant unto us all in his Kingdom even for Jesus Christ his sake the righteous To whom with the Father and the holy Spirit c. Amen A SERMON OF CHRIST'S Coming to JUDGMENT SERMON III. Upon MATT. XVi. 27. For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his Angels And then he shall reward every man according to his works I Left untouched in my former Text the second reason wherewith Solomon ends his Book and confirms his Conclusion of Fear God and keep his Commandments which is this For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil And now for variety sake I have chosen to prosecute the same subject not in Solomons words but in our Saviour's for these are infer'd unto the same end and much too after the same manner In the verses precedent What shall it profit a man saith Christ to gain the whole world and lose his own sâ—ulâ— or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul As if he had said Gain any man what he list or what he can be it never so much for the world indeed runs all after gain and never enough yet if by this means he come at last to lose his own Soul there is no profit in it He will still be a loser by his gain Or on the other side lose in this life whatsoever he hath or may lose Pleasures Profits Honours or any thing else even Life it self yet if in the loss of all other things he may preserve and gain his own Soul he will be a winner even in his losings To keep his Soul he can part with nothing that is too dear or if he would part with his Soul he can receive nothing that is dear enough for what can either way be of sufficient value to make a just exchange for the Soul But yet so it is small things are given in exchange for great and according to the momentany works and behaviour of men here so shall their Souls be gained or lost eternally hereafter For the son of man c. The words deliver
in usilitatem nostram de salvatore salutem operari imploy or make use of him for our best behoof draw his proper extract from him and work salvation out of this our Saviour But how may that be done sure no way better than as God in his infinite mercy this day gave him so we this day again in all thankfulness receive him otherwise we shall but evacuate the gift and dishonour the giver but abuse his goodness and lose our own benefit For it is not so ours but by our own neglect it may be lost For though all be ours because given us yet nothing shall be ours if not accepted Ours indeed he and all his are already by right and interest but they are never throughly ours till they be ours by possession and then they are ours indeed Possession then let us take but how or which way shall we take it no way so well as in the blessed Sacrament in the holy Mysteries instituted of purpose and ordained to no other end but for pledges to assure us and conduits to convey unto us this blessed Saviour and all his benefits There and there only we may be seised and possessed of both for there and there only are both to be received Thither then let us approach with all reverence and due regard to claim our interest in them and then be assured it shall never be denied He himself will presently meet and answer us with an Accipite Here take this is my body by the offering whereof ye are sanctified Take this is my blood by the shedding whereof ye are saved Take and receive them both and with them all the joyes and blessings they both have purchased or this Text doth afford for now after this all are yours in right and yours in possession none can bereave you of them You have the Author of all safe enough and fast enough with you nay within you It is no longer now Natus vobis to you is born a Saviour but in vobis in you he is born and in you he lives and will live for ever Ye may henceforth say with St. Paul jam non ego vivo fed vivit in me Christus it is not I now that live but Christ liveth in me and if he live in us now we shall live in him for ever hereafter For if whilst ye live ye do not live but Christ liveth in you why when ye die ye shall not dye but live in Christ in Christ the Lord of life and glory and joy and with Christ be made coheirs and Lords of them all and whatsoever other blessedness wherewith he himself is everlastingly Blessed Which the Lord God Almighty vouchsafe unto us for this our Saviour Christ the Lords sake who this day came to purchase them for us and to whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit three Persons c. be rendred all c. Amen Laus Deo in aeternum THE SECOND SERMON ON CHRISTMAS Day SERMON X. Upon GAL. iv 4 5. When the fullness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law That he might redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons THE Text begins with the fulness of time but we may well begin with the fulness of the Text for it hath both fulness of time and fulness of matter the love of the Father the humility of the Son and the happiness of man arising from both are here at the full First the fulness of the Fathers love who so loved the world as he gave his only begotten Son When the fulness c. God sent his Son c. Secondly the fulness of the Sons humility not only vouchsafing to take on him our nature made of a Woman but also our miserable condition undertaking to satisfy the Law unto whose condemnation we were subject made under the Law c. Thirdly and lastly the fulness of our bliss and happiness arising from both as being now ransomed from the death of everlasting sorrow which the Law did threaten that he might redeem c. and not so only but adopted also unto that immortal life of glory which the Gospel doth promise that we might c. by the one we are freed from all evil by the other invested with whatsoever is good and both must needs make up the fulness of happiness That he c. So these three are here at the full and in the fulness of them doth consist the fulness of the whole Gospel whose foundation is wholly built upon the Son of God sent into the world of whom there is little to be known and by whom there was little performed and fulfilled which is not even in these verses fully expressed For you have here both foundation and roof both substance of the work and all the circumstances that belong unto it and you may see in it not only that he was a Saviour sent into the world which is the main but also who it was that was sent and by whom and in what manner to what end and in what time which are necessary adjuncts If you demand of it who it was that was sent it tells you the Son of God if by whom it answers by God his Father God sent his Son if in what manner it replies in a twofold made and made again twice made factum ex factum sub made of and made under made of a Woman and made under the Law If to what purpose all this it gives you a double end which is the comfort of all Redemption and Adoption unto men To them that were c. That we might c. Lastly if when it was performed you have it clearly and fully in the first words in plenitudine temporis in the fulness of time When the fulness c. So have you the sending and whatsoever may seem to belong unto it who was sent and by whom how and why and when not one the least circumstance is omitted but you have all so full it is and yet you have not all the fullness For should we inquire more particularly into the nature and person of this Saviour here they are all three one person and two natures or two natures in one person he is the Son of God see his Divinity but of a Woman see his humanity made of a Woman see their union in one person for God cannot be made Man but by making himself one person with Man This for his incarnation will you now inquire for the birth or nativity of the person so incarnate it's here too for as he was made so was he sent as made of a Woman so sent into the world made of a Woman by incarnation and sent into the world by birth and nativity God sent his son made of a woman Should we yet proceed a step or two farther after his incarnation and birth would you behold his life or contemplate his death see what he did in the one or
consider what he suffered in the other that you may do also factus sub lege will give you both For what were the actions of his life but the keeping of the Law in himself or what was the passion of his death but the satisfying of the Law for others that had broken it and in regard of either made under the law under the law to fulfil the precepts which it commands and under the Law to satisfy the penalty which it injoins So by this time I think it is full filled with the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ whose natures person actions passion whose incarnation birth life and death it fully contains verè verbum abbreviatum it may well be termed and abbreviated word a viol of Spirits a very extract and quintessence drawn from four Evangelists and clapt up in two verses by an Apostle Two verses which as I said have but two general parts fulness of time and fulness of matter both tend to declare the greatness of the Fathers love the depth of the Son's humility and the height of mans happiness The Fathers love is full and grows unto its fulness by two degrees He sent and he sent his Son The Sons humility is full and it ariseth unto its fulness by two degrees made of a woman and made under the law Mans happiness is full and it cometh to its fulness also by two degrees Redemption and Adoption that he might or that we might c. If then the greatest thing the Father could send the Son or the worst thing the Son could suffer the malediction of the Law or the best thing men could receive or wish for adoption of Sons can make it full it is full indeed and to purpose for it is filled with all these And of this fulness we will now draw out unto you as much as the short time will permit beginning first with the fulness of the time When the fulness of time was come c. All the works of God saith the Wise man are done in number weight and measure and therefore questionless in a just and opportune time For time it is that doth both number and measure all his works yea and gives weight unto them too his weightiest works and greatest would be something the lighter and lesser were they not designed unto the fullest and fittest times This then as it exceeds all other in the greatness of the work so was it fit to receive an answerable fulness of the season And sure the season must needs be full when so great a work was poured into it when he came to fill it in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily True but yet the Text doth not so much derive the fulness of the time from his coming as apply his coming unto the fulness of the time as being full and fit to receive him Again the time appointed by the Father as it is a little before and foretold by his Prophets was now full come and expired this then must needs be the fulness of time True also they argue the fulness of time but short as we make it for had there not been a fulness and fitness in the time it self it had never been either appointed by the one or foretold by the other though without his appointment it came not to this fulness neither True it is that the wit of Man is too narrow a vessel fully to receive and comprehend all the reasons of this fulness yet sure in that which it doth apprehend it hath reason enough to admire the wisdom of the Lord in the fitness of his appointment not without special convenience chusing out neither the first beginning of the world nor the last end of it but a mid time as it were between both when the world should arrive at his just age Not a time of war but a time of universal peace Not the time of a Common-weal but the time of a general Monarchy not of the AEquinox but the Solstice not in the Summer but the Winter not in the day but in the night for all these may be comprehended within this fulness as not wanting their convenient fitness First then upon great reason the Lord chose not the first ages of the young world but deferred it for some thousands of years that being first shadowed in types and figures and promised by many and antient prophecies and predictions his coming might be the more desired and expected of Men and himself the better received and with less doubt entertained when he should come So great a mystery is the Incarnation of the Son of God that unless his person and actions his birth death and resurrection with all the particulars of either had been clearly and frequently for many ages foretold by the Prophets his forerunners we should have little means either to perswade it to others or at this day to believe it our selves And again upon as good reason he chose not the end and last age of the decrepit world lest all eyes should fail and hope faint in too long expectation with Where is the promise of his coming Rightly therefore in a point and period of time between both these neither when the world was too old and doting nor whilst it was too young and under tutorage as it is two verses before but when it came to full age and strength in the sight of him that made it Secondly he chose not a troublous time of war but of calm and settled peace as being the true Solomon and Prince of peace that came to no other end but to make and establish an everlasting peace between Heaven and Earth God and Man Man and his own Soul Thirdly he chose not a time of Republick neither of Aristocracy wherein few nor Democracy wherein the people have the chief power but a time of Monarchy when one Man Augustus Caesar had obtained the Dominion did sway the Scepter command and give law unto the whole world to shew that the universal Monarch of all Nations the Supream head of all Churches the Catholick Bishop and Pastor of all Souls was now born into the world Fourthly he chose not the AEquinox but the Solstice not the Summer Solstice when the Sun runs at his highest but the Winter Solstice when the days are at shortest because then the Sun first begins to return and the days to increase as in light so afterwards in heat So in like manner he chose the Meridian time not the diurnal Meridian when the Sun by his presence makes light more but the nocturnal when by his absence he makes the deep noon of night because at that time the Sun is in the furthest point he can go from us and first begins to ascend towards the morning And both to shew the true Son of Righteousness was now approaching and drawing near unto us by his comfortable presence to give new light unto our minds and divine heat unto our affections to unthaw our benum'd and frozen consciences and to
satisfaction He is the eternal wisdom of the Father and indeed none but the Fathers wisdom could have found out a way to shew mercy unto Man and yet give full satisfaction unto his own justice For Justice and Mercy Man offending were as it were at variance either pretending who should have him Justice demands him to be given to her for revenge Mercy opposeth and with all her might pretends for a pardon both strugling in the bowels of the Almighty that dearly affects both Justice proposeth but few only two arguments but they are powerful The first urgeth the Almighty with his own verity and truth Thou hast spoken the word the day that thou eatest thou shalt die the death And with thee there is no shadow of change therefore thou must not alter the thing that is gone out of thy lips The second with a precedent drawn from his former actions The Angels sinned and thou didst not spare them why be alike then unto all For why shouldest thou afford earthly men that favour which thou deniedst unto Celestial Spirits of far more excellent Nature But now Mercy on the other side cries out pitifully with that cry in the Psalm wherefore hast thou made all men for nought what though thou hast said the word it was but the word of legislation and thou art Lord of the Law the supream Lawgiver and therefore maist dispense with the Law which thou givest and in doing so thou dost but remit thine own right thou wrongest none other which therefore is without all wrong to thy Justice And for the Angels they were but some of them not all the Angels that sinned and they sinned willingly and wilfully of their own accord and without a Tempter their sin remaining in themselves not propagated to others and therefore they perished worthily in thy wrath and I made no intercession for them But Man was deceived and seduced by the subtlety of the Serpent his sin besides not cleaving to himself alone but passing forth upon all his posterity that pass from him And shall the whole generation and kind who sinned not of their own will but by being in his loins be eternally destroyed for one and that anothers transgression It is sufficient that Justice hath triumphed in those evil Spirits let me have my victory now in these Good reason there should be some regard had of me as well as of her she is thy Daughter indeed yet she is but thy Daughter-in-law I am thy natural it is thy nature and property to have Mercy and compassion Thus these two the very favourites and darlings of the Divinity contend together and who or what wit shall decide the controversy or give both content when they have contrary demands Herein then shines the infinite wisdom of God that in so difficult a case and perplext as Damascen terms it could discover a way find out an issue that should give full satisfaction unto either and not only so but manifest the glory of the rest of his Attributes of his power wisdom goodness and all and all at once and in one action by informing a piece of our clay and contriving himself and his whole Divinity into a trunk of Earth that so one person might be made of both A person on whom Justice might take her full revenge that Mercy afterwards might be shown unto the offender that so both death might be inflicted as the one urged and a pardon granted as the other intreated For being Man he could die and being God his temporary death could satisfy for an eternal And being God and Man he could dye and with conquest having satiated revenge rise again from the dead and proclaim life and grace unto the whole world So by the infinite wisdom of this work all strife ends and both are well pleased Mercy and Truth are met together Righteousness and Peace do kiss each other Yea so great is the wisdom of it that the blessed Angels themselves desire to pry into it profoundly Sure it exceeds the natural understanding of the wise and subtle Lucifer himself who for all his wit and cunning was clearly deceived and foil'd in this mystery whereby he was drawn on to bite at that heel which he little dreamt would crush his head even whilst he bit it For supposing to swallow the humanity which he saw he was suddenly choaked with the divinity which he could not comprehend So wisely God by Man restored Man and vanquisht Satan in theself-same nature he had conquered before And therefore who shall declare the wisdom of his generation But above all either power or wisdom the wonderful love and goodness of the Lord in this act shown unto the whole world especially unto wretched Man may well drink up admiration and confound the understanding of both Man and Angel For what an astonishing consideration would it be could we consider it as it deserves that such vile worms and wretches as we should receive such high and undeserved favour from that God whom we had so grievously offended and having offended never notwithstanding so much as sought or regarded That he for all this should seek us yea and assume our nature and become as one of us that he might the better find us That instead of hurling such rebellious sinners into the depth of Hell as they well deserved he descended from his own glory in the highest Heavens and took on him the infirmity and baseness of our earth that he might carry it thither and into that glory from whence he descended O the infinite goodness of this God to undergoe the wretchedness of Man that Man might be assumed to the blessedness of God that sinful Man to the blessedness of that God against whom he sinned and delighted only to sin O Lord saith David what is man that thou didst so regard him or the son of man that thou didst so visit him Surely homo est res nihili Man is a thing of nought of no worth no value yet such the eternal Son of God vouchsafed to become that he might advance this thing of nought far above all Principalities and Powers and Crown him with Worship and Glory Neither did he by this act glorify that particular humanity alone which he assumed but the benefit shall redound though not in that manner nor yet so fully yet in a marvellous degree unto all others that shall but glorify him for in him they shall be made partakers too even of the Divine Nature 1 Pet. 1 4. He was anointed indeed with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows not alone then anointed but above and more abundantly than any others As that precious Oyntment which was poured forth on Aarons head so Divine honours and graces by this union descended upon His which it most plentifully drenched but drencht not it alone for of his fulness we have all received and therefore it trickles down upon his beard and all men living that shall adhere unto him and not so only but from
not then a Carnal presence but a Spiritual that doth link and associate unto Christ. To make up our union with him it is not needful that his humane nature should be drawn down from Heaven or that his body should be every where present on Earth as the Ubiquitaries affirm or that the Bread in the Sacrament should be transubstantiate into his body as the Papists imagin His dwelling in us is by his Spirit and his union with us is spiritual So himself in the same place where he speaks of eating his flesh and drinking his blood doth interpret himself the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak are spirit and life And his Spirit it is not his body that shall give life unto the Spirit when the body shall perish If Christ c. This touch shall suffice for the condition I proceed to the substance of the Text. The Body is dead It contains as I said an admonition of our frailty corruption and death and comforts against death It is but the body that is dead the Spirit is life First of our corruption and frailry The body is dead That we all tend unto death we all know but the Apostle's speech is more remarkable he says not the body is subject to death but by a more significant phrase of speech he presseth it homer The body is dead There is a difference between a mortal body and a dead body Adams body before the fall was mortal in some sort that is subject to a possibility of dying but now after the fall our bodies are so mortal as they are subject to a necessity of dying yea if we'll here with the Apostle esteem of death by the beginning and seisure of it they are dead already The forerunners and harbingers of death dolours infirmities and heavy diseases have seised already on our bodies and marked them out as lodgings which shortly must be the habitation of their Master But how near this manner of speech draws unto true propriety they best conceive who best understand how that malediction of God and curse of the Law The day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death was fulfilled If God spared not the Angels when they waxed proud will he spare thee who art but a putrifying worm Ille intumuit in coelo erga in sterquilinio he was puft up in Heaven and therefore was cast down from the place of his habitation and if I wax proud lying on a dunghil shall I not be cast down into Hell So often therefore as corrupt nature stirreth up the heart to pride because of youth and health beauty and strength and the like perfections of the body let this consideration humble thee that though these are fair and beauti ful flowers yet they cannot but suddenly wither because the root from whence they sprung is corrupt and rotten and even dead already Neither is it more available to the cutting down of arrogance and pride than to teach us Temperance and sobriety What availeth it to pamper that Carcase of thine with excess of delicate feeding which is possessed by death already If Men took the tenth part of that care to present their spirit holy and without blame unto the Lord which they take to make their bodies fair and beautiful in the eyes of Men they might in short time make a greater improvement in Religion and Virtue than they have done But herein is their folly they make fat the flesh with precious things which within few days the worms shall devour but never care to beautify the Soul with holy and virtuous actions which shortly is to be presented to God Let us therefore refrain from the immoderate cherishing this proud and dead flesh meats are ordained for the belly and the belly for meats but God will destroy them both 1 Cor. vi 13. I might inlarge this point almost infinitely for the benefit of this consideration is not confined unto Humility Sobriety and Temperance or any particular virtues but it 's universal restraining from all evil and inciting powerfully unto all virtue and goodness Nihil sic revocat bominem à peccato quà m frequens mortis meditatio saith St. Aug. nothing can so recall a Man from his evil ways as the frequent meditation of death especially if he consider as the certainty of death so the uncertain time of his death and the unchangeable estate of everlasting misery if he die in his sins Would to God we were wise thoroughly to apprehend and apply this unto our own Souls It is strange that there is nothing so well known nothing of greater benefit and yet nothing so little regarded What a Prodigy is it that sinful Men should carry about their death in their bosoms and in every vein of their Bodies and yet scarce admit a thought of their mortality into their minds but live here as if they verily thought they should never die If we had no Religion yet reason would teach us that our strength is not the strength of stones and yet them even the drops of water weareth nor our sinews of Brass and Iron as Job speaks and yet these the rust and canker consumeth but a vapour but a smoak which the Sun soon drieth or the wind driveth away It was wittily said of Epictetus the Philosopher who going forth one day and seeing a Woman weeping that had broken her Pitcher and the next day meeting another Woman that had lost her Son Heri vidi fragilem frangi hodie video mortalem mori Yesterday saith he I saw a brittle thing broken and to day I see a mortal Man die And what difference of frailty between these two surely none unless Man be the frailer of the two For as St. Austin hath it Take the brittlest veslel of earth or glass and keep it safe from outward violence and it may last many thousand of years but take a Man of the most pure complexion of the strongest constitution and keep him as safe as thou canst he hath that within his own bowels and bones that will bring him to his end Nay I hear some say saith the same Father that such a one hath the Plague or the Pleurisie and therefore sure he will die but we may rather say such a one liveth and therefore sure he will die for diverse have had these Diseases and did not die of them but never any Man lived that did not die The Consumption of the Liver is the messenger of Death the Consumption of the Lungs the Minister of Death the Consumption of the marrow and moisture the very Mother of Death and yet many have had these Diseases and not died of them But there is another kind of Consumption which could never yet be cured it is the Consumption of the days the common Disease of all Mankind David saw it and spake of it when he said my days are consumed like smoke Psal. cii yea the Philosopher saw it and could say of it quicquid praeteritum est temporis mors
habet all our time that is past death hath seised on it and so much of our life is consumed Let me then warn you and stir up your meditations of your mortality in the words of Moses Deut. xxxii 29. O that men were wise then would they understand this then would they consider their latter end Sure we are unwise that we consider not the things past the evil we have committed the good we have omitted the benefits of God we have abused the time we have mispent and yet we grieve not because we think not yet whether we shall die More unwise are we not to consider the things present the deadness of our Body and uncertainty of our death the difficulty of Salvation and the small number of such as shall be saved and yet we shame not because we think we shall not yet die But most unwise are we that we consider not the things to come Death Judgment Hell all to come and yet we fear not because we think we shall never die But O that we were wise then should we understand then should we consider our latter end and considering it we should both prepare for it now and more cheerfully entertain it when it comes memorare novissims remember thy end saith the Wiseman in aeternum non peccabis and thou shalt never offend never do amiss Ecclus vii 36. So universal is the goodness of this consideration and therefore I have stayed the longer on it But now I pass from mortality to the cause of it from death to sin that first brought it into the world The body is dead because of sin Sin it is and only sin which is as the cause of all our dolours and calamities so of death it self that follows them without this there never had been there never could have been any death in the world Death were not death had it not a sting to kill but the sting of death is sin as the strength of sin is the law saith our Apostle The cursed apple of disobedience which our first Parents would needs eat sticks still in all our teeth it was poyson unto his nature and infected his blood and he hath derived the contagion to all his posterity who still continuing to feed on forbidden fruit as he did do perpetually strengthen the original Disease and draw death upon themselves more hastily and violently than either that sin procured or the prime corruption of nature for it doth inforce Hence then we may perceive first how foolish they are who living still in sin yet never consider that they are the Butchers and Murtherers of themselves according to that of the Psalmist The malice of the wicked shall slay themselves xxxiv 21 his own sin which he hath conceived brought forth and nourished shall be his destruction Every Man judgeth Saul miserable that died upon his own Sword but what better are other wretched Men whose sins and iniquities are the cruel instruments of death wherewith they slay themselves Souls and Bodies too Thus are they twice miserable first that they must die and secondly that they are guilty of their own death O the lamentable blindness of Men who albeit in their life they fear nothing more than death yet do they entertain nothing more willingly than sin which causeth their death In bodily diseases Men are content to abstain even from ordinary food when they are informed it will but nourish their sickness and this they do to eschew death only herein they are so ignorant that notwithstanding they abhor death yet they take pleasure in unrighteousness that brings it upon them And secondly which shall be the last use we will make of this point Since sin it is that did first bring and doth still hasten on death upon wicked Men what marvel is it if in these last and worst days the Lord strike the bodies of Men with sundry sorts of diseases and sundry kinds of death seeing Man by sundry sorts of sins doth not cease to provoke him unto anger He frameth his Judgments proportionable to our iniquities if ye walk stubbornly against me and will not obey me I will then bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins Levit. xxvi 25. He hath a famine to punish intemperance and the abuse of his creatures if the memory of our own corrupt and putrifying bodies cannot do it he hath a devouring sword to bring down the pride of our hearts If we have fiery and unclean affections he doth not need burning Fevers and loathsome diseases to punish them And now if the Lord after that he hath stricken us with such a dreadful pestilence shall renew his Plague amongst us or go on to finish that former destruction with the Sword of our enemies what shall we say but the despising of his former fatherly corrections or our stubborn walking against the Lord our God hath procured it justly unto our selves Quid mirum in poenas generis humani crescere ir am Dei cùm crescat quotidie quod puniatur what marvel that the wrath of God increase every day to punish Man when that doth daily increase which deserves that God should punish it But enough of this part it is now time to pass on to the second and most worthy part as of Man so of my Text from the Body to the Soul from the memory of death to the comforts against death for though the body be dead yet it is but the body the spirit which is the highest consolation of a Christian is yet alive Mans life it self But the spirit is life I cannot now stand to discourse of the excellent Nature of Mans Spirit and the wonderful union of it with flesh and blood for Man you see is no simple creature but compounded of both both a Body and a Spirit He is the abstract and brief compendium of all the creatures of God The world was corporeal the Angels spiritual and both were united in Man and made as it were into one creature A creature which hath being with the elements life with plants sense with beasts reason and spiritual existence with Angels that so the Almighty God first uniting all his creatures in Man and then uniting Man unto himself in the person of Christ might in some sort through Man communicate himself to all his creatures Worthily therefore did the Naturalists term him a little world and as worthily did St. Austin say of him that of all the miracles that were ever wrought amongst Men Man himself is the greatest miracle and that not only in regard of his two substances but especially in regard of their marvellous union that a mass of clay should be quickened by a spirit of life and both united into one person That as God himself hath diverse persons in one Nature so man hath diverse and those contrary natures in one person Commonly says Bernard the honourable agrees not with the ignoble the strong overgoes the weak the living and the dead dwell not together