that That he knows nothing S. Paul found that to be all knowledge To know Christ And Mahomet thinks himselfe wise therefore because he knows not acknowledges not Christ as S. Paul does Though a man knew not that every sin casts another shovell of Brimstone upon him in Hell yet if he knew that every riotous feast cuts off a year and every wanton night seaven years of his seventy in this world it were some degree towards perfection in knowledge He that purchases a Mannor will thinke to have an exact Survey of the Land But who thinks of taking so exact a survey of his Conscience how that money was got that purchased that Mannor We call that a mans meanes which he hath But that is truly his meanes what way he came by it And yet how few are there when a state comes to any great proportion that know that that know what they have what they are worth We have seen great Wills dilated into glorious uses and into pious uses and then too narrow an estate to reach to it And we have seen Wills where the Testator thinks he hath bequeathed all and he hath not knowne halfe his own worth When thou knowest a wife a sonne a servant a friend no better but that that wife betrayes thy bed and that sonne thine estate and that servant thy credit and that friend thy secret what canst thou say thou knowest But we must not insist upon this Consideration of knowledge for though knowledge be of a spirituall nature yet it is but as a terrestriall Spirit conversant upon Earth Spirituall things of a more rarified nature then knowledge even faith it selfe and all that grows from that in us falls within this Rule which we have in hand That even in spirituall things nothing is perfect We consider this therefore in Credendis Fides In things that we are bound to Beleeve there works our faith And then in Petendis In things that we are bound to pray for there works our hope And lastly in Agendis In things that we are bound to doe and there works our charity And there is nothing in any of these three perfect When you remember who they were Luk. 17.5 that made that prayer Domine adauge That the Apostles themselves prayed that their faith might receive an encrease Lord increase our faith you must necessarily second that consideration with a confession That no mans faith is perfect When you heare Christ so often upbraid sometimes whole Congregations with that Mat. 6.30 Modicae fidei O yee of little faith And sometimes his Disciples alone with the same reproach Mat. 8.26 Modicae fidei O yee of little faith when you may be perplexed with the variety of opinions amongst the ancient Interpreters whether Christ spoke but to the incredulous Jewes Mat. 17.17 or to his own Disciples when he said O faithlesse and perverse generation how long shall I be with you how long shall I suffer you for many Interpreters goe one way and many the other And when you may be cleared without any colour of perplexity that to whom soever Christ spoke in that place he spoke plainly to his owne Disciples Vers 20. when he said Because of your unbeliefe you cannot doe this In which Disciples of his he denies also that there is such a proportion of faith as a graine of Mustard-seed can ye place a perfectnesse of faith in any When the Apostle takes knowledge of the good estate and condition of the Thessalonians and gave God thanks for their Workes of faith for their labours of love for their patience of hope in our Lord Iesus Christ 1 Thes 1.2.3.10 does he conclude them to be perfect No for after this he sayes Night and day we pray exceedingly that we may perfect that which is lacking in your faith And after this he sees the fruit of those prayers We are bound to thanke God alwayes 2 Thes 1.3 because your faith groweth exceedingly still at the best it is but a growing faith and it may be better There are men that are said to be Rich in faith Iames 2.5 men that are come from the weake and beggarly elements of Nature or of the Law to the knowledge of the precious and glorious Gospell Galat. 4.9 and so are Rich in faith enriched emproved by faith 2 Cor. 8.7 There are men that Abound in faith that is in comparison of the emptinesse of other men or of their owne emptinesse before they embraced the Gospell they abound now But still it is Rom. 12.3 As God hath given the measure of faith to every man Not as of his Manna a certaine measure and an equall measure and a full measure to every man no man hath such a measure of faith as that he needs no more or that he may not lose at least some of that When Christ speakes so doubtfully When the Son of man commeth shall he finde faith upon earth Luke 18. â— Any faith in any man If the Holy Ghost be come into this presence into this Congregation does he find faith in any A perfect faith he does not Deceive not your selves then with that new charme and flattery of the soule That if once you can say to your selves you have faith you need no more or that you shall alwaies keepe that alive The Apostle sayes All boasting that is all confidence Rom. 3.27 is excluded By what Law sayes he by the Law of faith Not by faith but by the Law of faith There is a Law of faith a rule that ordinates and regulates our faith by which law and rule the Apostle cals upon us To examine our selves whether we be in the faith or no 2 Cor. 13.5 not onely by the internall motions and private inspirations of his blessed Spirit but by the Law and the Rule which he hath delivered to us in the Gospell The Kings pardon flowes from his meere grace and from his brest but we must have the writing and the Seale that we may plead it So does faith from God But we must see it our selves and shew it to others or else we doe not observe the Law of faith Rom. 4.11 Abraham received the Seale of the righteousnesse of faith sayes the Apostle Hee had an outward testimony to proceed by And then Abraham became an outward testimony and Rule to the faithfull Walke in the steps of the faith of Abraham sayes that Apostle in that place Ver. 12. Not a faith conceived onely but a faith which you saw The faith of Abraham for so the Apostle proposing to us the example of other men sayes Their faith follow you Heb. 13.7 Not faith in generall but their faith So that it is not enough to say I feele the inspiration of the Spirit of God He infuses faith and faith infused cannot be withdrawne but as there is a Law of faith and a practise of faith a Rule of faith and an example of
of comming to Church which S. Augustine confesses and laments That they came to make wanton bargaines with their eyes and met there because they could meet no whereelse and that more fearfull occasion of comming when they came onely to elude the Law and proceeding in their treacherous and traiterous religion in their heart and yet communicating with us draw God himselfe into their conspiracies and to mocke us make a mocke of God and his religion too betweene these two this licencious comming and this treacherous comming there are many commings to Church commings for company for observation for musique And all these indispositions are ill at prayers there they are unwholesome but at the Sacrament deadly He that brings any collaterall respect to prayers looses the benefit of the prayers of the Congregation and he that brings that to a Sermon looses the blessing of Gods ordinance in that Sermon hee heares but the Logique or the Retorique or the Ethique or the poetry of the Sermon but the Sermon of the Sermon he heares not but he that brings this disposition to the Sacrament ends not in the losse of a benefit but he acquires and procures his owne damnation All that we consider in Simeon Viderunt oculi and apply from Simeon to a worthy receiver of the Sacrament is how he was fitted to depart in peace All those peeces which we have named conduce to that but all those are collected into that one which remaines yet Viderunt oculi that his eyes had seene that salvation for that was the accomplishment and fulfilling of Gods Word According to thy word All that God had said should be done was done for as it is said v. 26. It was revealed unto him by the holy Ghost that hee should not see death before he had seene the Lords Christ and now his eyes had seene that Salvation Abraham saw this before but but with the eye of faith and yet rejoyced to see it so he was glad even of that Simeon saw it before this time then when he was illustrated with that Revelation he saw it but but with the eye of hope of such hope Abraham had no such ground no particular hope no promise that hee should see the Messiah in his time Simeon had and yet he waited he attended Gods leasure But hope defer'd maketh the heart sick Prov. 13.12 saies Solomon but when the desire comes it is a tree of life His desire was come he saw his salvation Perchance not so as S. Cyprian seemes to take it That till this time Simeon was blinde and upon this presentation of Christ in the Temple came to his sight againe and so saw this Salvation for I thinke no one Author but S. Cyprian saies so that Simeon was blinde till now and now restored to sight And I may ease S. Cyprian too of that singularity for it is enough and abundantly evident that that book in which that is said which is Altercatio Iasonis papisci de Messia cannot possibly be S. Cyprians But with his bodily eyes open to other objects before he saw the Lords Salvation and his Salvation the Lords as it came from the Lord and his as it was appliable to him He saw it according to his word that is so far as God had promised he should see it He saw not how that God which was in this Child which was this child was the Son of God The manner of that eternall Generation he saw not He saw not how this Son of God became man in a Virgins womb whom no man knew The manner of this Incarnation he saw not for this eternall Generation and this miraculous Incarnation fell not within that Secundùm verbum according to thy Word God had promised Simeon nothing concerning those mysteries But Christum Domini the Lords Salvation and his Salvation that is the person who was all that which was all that was within the word and the promise Simeon saw and saw with bodily eyes Beloved in the blessed and glorious and mysterious Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus thou seest Christum Domini the Lords Salvation and thy Salvation and that thus far with bodily eyes That Bread which thou seest after the Consecration is not the same bread which was presented before not that it is Transubstantiated to another substance for it is bread still which is the hereticall Riddle of the Roman Church and satans sophistry to dishonour miracles by the assiduity and frequency and multiplicity of them but that it is severed and appropriated by God in that Ordinance to another use It is other Bread so as a Judge is another man upon the bench then he is at home in his owne house In the Roman Church they multiply and extend miracles til the miracle it selfe crack and become none but vanish into nothing as boyes bubbles which were but bubbles before at best by an overblowing become nothing Nay they constitute such miracles as do not onely destroy the nature of the miracle but destroy him that should doe that miracle even God himselfe for nothing proceeds farther to the destroying of God then to make God do contradictory things for contradictions have falsehood and so imply impotency and infirmity in God There cannot be a deeper Atheisme then to impute contradictions to God neither doth any one thing so overcharge God with contradictions as the Transubstantiation of the Roman Church There must be a Body there and yet no where In no place and yet in every place where there is a consecration The Bread and the Wine must nourish the body nay the bread and the wine may poyson a body and yet there is no bread nor wine there They multiply miracles and they give not over till they make God unable to doe a miracle till they make him a contradictory that is an impotent God And therefore Luther inferres well that since miracles are so easie and cheape and obvious to them as they have induced a miraculous transubstantiation they might have done well to have procured one miracle more a trans-accidentation that since the substance is changed the accidents might have beene changed too and since there is no bread there might be no demensions no colour no nourishing no other qualities of bread neither for these remaining there is rather an annihilation of God in making him no God by being a contradictory God then an annihilation of the Bread by making that which was formerly bread God himselfe by that way of Transubstantiation But yet though this bread be not so transubstantiated we refuse not the words of the Fathers in which they have expressed themselves in this Mystery Not Irenaeus his est corpus that that bread is his body now Not Tertullians fecit corpus that that bread is made his body which was not so before Not S. Cyprians mutatus that that bread is changed Not Damascens supernaturaliter mutatus that that bread is not only changed so in the use as when
came as far as they could to violate the person of the Emperour for they violated and defac'd his statues his images his pictures the ensigns of his power and honour And in this insolency they continued sayes that Author even after the Emperour had silenced both parties when he by his expresse Edict had forbidden both sides to write the promovers of the new opinions would write Still such men think that whatsoeuer they think is not onely true in it selfe but necessary for salvation to every man whereas new opinions that may vary from the Scriptures new commands that may vary from the Church are still in Genere deliberativo they admit they require Deliberation Blinde and implicite faith shall not save us in matter of Doctrine nor blinde and implicite obedience in matter of practice neither is there any faith so blinde and implicite as to beleeve those imaginary apparitions of spirits nor any obedience so blinde and implicite as to obey our owne private spirit and distempered zeale Truly I should hope better of their salvation who in the first darker times doubted of the Revelations of St. Iohn then of theirs who in these cleare and evident times accept and enjoyne and magnifie so much as they doe in the Romane Church the Revelations of St. Brigid And I should rather accompany them who out of their charitable moderation doe beleeve that some Christians though possessed with some errours may be saved then them who out of their passionate severity first call every difference from themselves an errour and then every errour damnable and doe not onely pronounce that none that holds any such errour can bee saved but that no man though he hold none of those errours himselfe can be saved if he think any man can be saved that holds them And so we have done with those two propofitions which are the walls upon which our whole frame is to be laid That ordinary duties require a present execution that was our first but extraordinary admit deliberation that was our second Consideration And now our third is to confider Moses case in particular as it was an example of both As Moses was an example of the present performance of an evident duty Moses case we carry you back to the former chapter where this roote this Text is first laid that is this employment first begun to be notified There ver 4. God calls Moses and he calls him by name V. 4. and by name twice Moses Moses Of this Moses could not be ignorant and therefore he comes to a present discharge of this duty to a present answer ecce adsum Lord here I am This is the advantage of innocence above guiltinesse God called Adam in Paradise and he called him by name and with a particular inquisition Adam ubies Adam where art thou And Adam hid himselfe God calls Moses and Moses answers Hee that is used to heare God at home in his conscience and in his eares at Church and used to answer God in both places at home in his private meditations and in publique devotions at Church he that is used to heare and used to answer God thus shall be glad to heare him in his last voice in his Angels Trumpets and to that voice Surgite qui dormitis Arise thou that sleepest in the dust and stand up to Judgement as he shall have invested the righteousnesse of Christ Jesus he shall answer in the very words of Christ Jesus I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen Apoc. 1.18 In this evident duty then Moses permitted himselfe no liberty God called and he answered instantly He answered in action as well as in words and indeed that is our loudest and most musicall answer to answer God in deed in action So Moses did He came V. 5. he hastned to the place where God spake It is one good argument of piety to love the place where God speakes the house of his presence But yet Moses received an inhibition from God there a ne appropies Come not too neare too close to this place God loves that we should come to him here in his house but God would not have us presse too close upon him here we must not be too familiar too fellowly too homely with God here at home in his house nor loath to uncover our head or bow our knee at his name When God proceeded farther with Moses and comes to say descendi ut liberem V. 8. I am come downe to deliver Israel from Egypt which was the first intimation that God gave of that purpose Moses likes that well enough opposes nothing to that that God would be pleased to thinke of some course for delivering of Israel and enable some Instrument for that worke for that is for the most part Gods descending and his comming down to put his power instrumentally ministerially into the hand of another Generall things and remote things doe not much affect us Moses sayes nothing to Gods generall proposition That he was come downe to deliver Israel but when God comes to that particular veni ergâ— ut mittamte Come therefore that I may send thee him into Egypt V. 9 10. Moses to Pharaoh this was a Rock in his Sea and a Remora upon his Ship a Hill in his way and a Snake in his path Some light that this was about the time when Israel should be delivered there was before Moses takes knowledge Gen. 15.16 that God had promised Abraham that after foure generations they should come back and the foure generations were come about Some light that Moses should be the man by whom they should bee delivered it seemes there was before for upon that history which is in the second chapter of this booke that Moses flew an Egyptian who oppressed one of his Countrymen Exod. 2.13 St. Stephen Acts 7.25 in his owne Funerall Sermon sayes That Moses in that act supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them but they understood it not So that it seemes some such thing had gone out in voyce some revelation some intimation some emanation of some kinde of light there had beene by which they might have understood it though they did not But when Moses remembers now that that succeeded not that they apprehended not the offer of his service then and that he was now growne to be eighty yeares old and that forty of that eighty had been spent in an obscure in a Shepherds life and that he must now be sent not onely to worke upon that people who shewed no forwardnesse towards him then and might absolutely have forgotten him now but upon Pharaoh himselfe this created in Moses this haesitation this deliberation perchance not without some tincture of infirmity but farre from any degree of impiety perchance not without some expostulation with God but farre from any reluctation against God Consider Abraham Abraham the Father of the faithfull of whom as the Apostle sayes that he hoped beyond hope we may say that he beleeved beyond faith for
which every one well considered as the petitions of Abraham did upon God may justly be thought to have gained more and more upon his Auditory First this paralytique man in our Text who is Sarcinasibi over-loaded with himself he cannot stand under his own burden he is cadaver animatum It is true he hath a soule but a soule in a sack it hath no Lims no Organs to move this Paralytique this living dead man this dead and buryed man buryed in himselfe is instantly cured and recovered But the Palsie was a sudden sicknesse what could he doe upon an inveterate disease He cured the woman that had had the bloudy issue twelve yeares V. 20. by onely touching the hem of his garment After he extends his miraculous power to two at once he cures two blinde men V. 27. But all these though not by such meanes meerely yet in nature and in art might be possible Palsies and Issues and Blindnesses have been cured but he went farther then ever art pretended to goe V. 24. He raised the Rulers Daughter to life then when he was laughed to scorne for going about to doe it And lastly to shew his Power as over sicknesse and over death so over hell it selfe he cast out the Devill out of the dumb man in some such extraordinary manner as that the multitude marvailed V. 33. and said It was never so seene in Israel This then was his way and this must be ours and it must be your way too Christ preached and he wrought great works and he preached againe It is not enough in us to preach and in you to heare except both doe and practice that which is said and heard Neither may we though we have done all this give over for every day produces new tentations and therefore needs new assistances And so we passe from these more remote to that which is our second Branch of this first part the immediate occasion of Christs doing this miracle When Iesus saw their faith Here then the occasion of all that ensued was faith for without faith Fides Heb. 11.6 it is impossible to please God Where you may be pleased to admit some use of this note for it is not a meere Grammaticall curiosity to note it that it is not said in those words of S. Paul It is impossible to please God or impossible to please him which is with relation to God as our Translation hath it but it is meerely simply onely impossible to please and no more impossible to please any worth pleasing but if we take away our faith in God God will take away the protection of Angels the favour of Princes the obedience of children the respect of servants the assistance of friends the society of neighbours God shall make us unpleasing to all without faith it is impossible to please any but such as we shall repent to have made our selves pleasing companions unto When our Saviour Christ perfected the Apostles Commission and set his last seale to it after his Resurrection he never modifies never mollifies their instructions with any milder phrase then this He that beleeveth not shall be damned It is not that he shall be in danger of a Councell Mark 16.16 no nor in danger of hell fire It is not that it were better a Mill-stone were tyed about his neck and he cast into the Sea It is not that it will goe hard with him at the last day It is not that it shall be easier to Tyre and Sidon then to him For he is not bound to beleeve but that Tyre and Sidon and he too may doe well enough Here is no modification no mollification no reservation roundly and irrevocably Christ Jesus himselfe after his Resurrection sayes Qui non crediderit he that beleeveth not shall be damned If the Judge must come to a sentence of condemnation upon any person of great quality in the Kingdome that Judge must not say Your Lordship must passe out of this world nor your Lordship must be beheaded but he must tell them plainly You must be carryed to the place of execution and there hanged Christ Jesus hath given us the Commission and the sentence there Goe into all the world preach the Gospell to every creature And then the sentence followes upon those that will not receive it He that beleeveth not shall be damned These men then who prevailed so farre upon Christ brought faith though not an explicite faith of all those articles which we who from the beginning have been Catechized in all those points are bound to have yet a constant assurance that Christ could and that he would relieve this distressed person in which assurance there was enwrapped an implicite faith even of the Messias that could remove all occasions of sicknesse even sin it selfe There was faith in the case but in whom Whose faith was it Illorum that Christ had respect to To whom hath that Illorum in the Text their faith reference There can be no question but that it hath reference to those foure friends that brought this sick man in his bed to Christ For else it could not have been spoken in the plurall and called their faith And certainly S. Ambrose does not inconveniently make that particular an argument of Gods greatnesse and goodnesse of his magnificence and munificence Magnus Dominus qui aliorum meritis aliis ignostit This is the large and plentifull mercy of God that for one mans sake he forgives another This Ioash acknowledged in the person of Elisha when Elisha was sick the King came downe to him and wept over his face 2 Reg. 13.14 and said O my Father my Father the Chariot of Israel and the horse men thereof Here were all the forces of Israel mustred upon one sick bed the whole strength of Israel consisted in the goodnesse of that one man The Angel said to Paul when they were in an evident and imminent danger of shipwrack Act. 27.24 God hath given thee all them that sayle with thee He spared them not for their owne sakes but for Pauls God gave those passengers to Paul so as he had given Paul himselfe before to Stephen Si Stephanus non sic orasset Paulum hodiè Ecclesia non haberet sayes S. Augustine If Paul had not been enwrapped in those prayers which Stephen made for his persecutors the Church had lost the benefit of all Pauls labours and if God had not given Paul the lives of all those passengers in that Ship they had all perished For the righteousnesse of a few if those few could have been found God would have spared the whole City of Sodome Gen. 18. And when Gods fury was kindled upon the Cities of that Country God remembred Abraham Gen. 19.29 sayes that story and he delivered Lot And when he delivered Jerusalem from Sennacherib he takes his servant David by the hand he puts his servant David into Commission with himselfe and he sayes I will defend this
your Master hath dealt thus mercifully with you all that to you all all he sends a message Sciant omnes Let all the house of Israel know this Needs the house of Israel know any thing Needs there any learning in persons of Honour We know this characterizes this distinguishes some whole Nations In one Nation it is almost a scorn for a gentleman to be learned in another almost every gentleman is conveniently and in some measure learned But I enlarge not my self I pretend not to comprehend Nationall vertues or Nationall vices For this knowledge which is proclaimed here which is the knowledge that the true Messias is come and that there is no other to bee expected is such a knowledge as that even the house of Israel it self is without a Foundation if it be without this knowledge Is there any house that needs no reparations Is there a house of Israel let it be the Library the depositary of the Oracles of God a true Church that hath the true word of the true God let it be the house fed with Manna that hath the true administration of the true Sacraments of Christ Jesus is there any such house that needs not a farther knowledge that there are alwaies thieves about that house that would rob us of that Word and of those Sacraments The Holy Ghost is a Dove and the Dove couples paires is not alone Take heed of singular of schismatical opinions what is more singular more schismaticall then when all Religion is confined in one mans breast The Dove is animal sociale a sociable creature and not singular and the Holy Ghost is that And Christ is a Sheep animal gregale they flock together Embrace thou those truths which the whole flock of Christ Jesus the whole Christian Church hath from the beginning acknowledged to be truths and truths necessary to salvation for for other Traditionall and Conditionall and Occasionall and Collaterall and Circumstantiall points for Almanack Divinity that changes with the season with the time and Meridionall Divinity calculated to the heighth of such a place and Lunary Divinity that ebbes and flowes and State Divinity that obeyes affections of persons Domus Israel the true Church of God had need of a continuall succession of light a contiuall assistance of the Spirit of God and of her own industry to know those things that belong to her peace And therefore let no Church no man think that he hath done enough or knowes enough If the Devill thought so too we might the better think so but since we see that he is in continuall practise against us let us be in a continuall diligence and watchfulnesse to countermine him We are domus Israel the house of Israel and it is a great measure of knowledge that God hath afforded us but if every Pastor look into his Parish and every Master into his own Family and see what is practising there sciat domus Israel let all our Israel know that there is more knowledge and more wisdome necessary Be every man farre from calumniating his Superiours for that mercy which is used towards them that are fallen but be every man as far from remitting or slackning his diligence for the preserving of them that are not fallen The wisest must know more though you be domus Israel the house of Israel already Crucifixistis and then Etsi Crucifixistis though you have crucified the Lord Jesus you may know it sciant omnes let all know it S. Paul saies once If they had known it they would not have crucified the Lord of life but he never saies if they have crucified the Lord of life 1 Cor. 2.8 they are excluded from knowledge I meane no more but that the mercy of God in manifesting and applying himself to us is above all our sins No man knowes enough what measure of tentations soever he have now he may have tentations through which this knowledge and this grace will not carry him and therefore he must proceed from grace to grace So no man hath sinned so deeply but that God offers himself to him yet Sciant omnes the wisest man hath ever something to learn he must not presume the sinfullest man hath God ever ready to teach him he must not despaire Now the universality of this mercy Sciant hath God enlarged and extended very farre in that he proposes it even to our knowledge Sciant let all know it It is not only credant let all beleeve it for the infusing of faith is not in our power but God hath put it in our power to satisfie their reason and to chafe that waxe to which he himself vouchsafes to set to the great seale of faith And that S. Hierome takes to be most properly his Commission Tentemus animas quae deficiunt a fide natur alibus rationibus adjuvare Let us indevour to assist them who are weak in faith with the strength of reason And truly it is very well worthy of a serious consideration that whereas all the Articles of our Creed are objects of faith so as that we are bound to receive them de fide as matters of faith yet God hath left that out of which all these Articles are to be deduced and proved that is the Scripture to humane arguments It is not an Article of the Creed to beleeve these and these Books to be or not to be Canonicall Scripture but our arguments for the Scripture are humane arguments proportioned to the reason of a naturall man God does not seale in water in the fluid and transitory imaginations and opinions of men we never set the seale of faith to them But in Waxe in the rectified reason of man that reason that is ductile and flexible and pliant to the impressions that are naturally proportioned unto it God sets to his seale of faith They are not continuall but they are contiguous they flow not from one another but they touch one another they are not both of a peece but they enwrap one another Faith and Reason Faith it self by the Prophet Esay is called knowledge Esay 53.11 By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many sayes God of Christ that is by that knowledge that men shall have of him So Zechary expresses it at the Circumcision of Iohn Baptist That hee was to give knowledge of salvation Luke 1.77 for the remission of sins As therefore it is not enough for us in our profession to tell you Qui non crediderit damnabitur Except you beleeve all this you shall be damned without we execute that Commission before Ite praedicate go and preach work upon their affections satisfie their reason so it is not enough for you to rest in an imaginary faith and easinesse in beleeving except you know also what and why and how you come to that beliefe Implicite beleevers ignorant beleevers the adversary may swallow but the understanding beleever he must chaw and pick bones before he come to assimilate him
accrues to us we shall see that though it be presented by Reason before and illustrated by Reason after yet the roote and foundation thereof is in Faith though Reason may chafe the wax yet Faith imprints the seale for the Resurrection is not a conclusion out of naturall Reason but it is an article of supernaturall Faith and though you assent to me now speaking of the Resurrection yet that is not out of my Logick nor out of my Rhetorique but out of that Character and Ordinance which God hath imprinted in me in the power and efficacy whereof I speak unto you as often as I speak out of this place As I say we determine our first part in this How the assurance of this Resurrection accrues to us so when we descend to our second part That is the consolation which we receive whilest we are In via here upon our way in this world out of the contemplation of that Resurrection to glory which we shall have In patria at home in heaven and how these two Resurrections are arguments and evidences of one another we shall look upon some correspondencies and resemblances between naturall death and spirituall death by sin and between the glorious Resurrection of the body and the gracious Resurrection of the soule that so having brought bodily death and bodily Resurrection and spirituall death and spirituall Resurrection by their comparison into your consideration you may anon depart somewhat the better edified in both and so enjoy your present Resurrection of the soule by Grace with more certainty and expect the future Resurrection of the body to glory with the more alacrity and chearfulnesse Though therefore we may hereafter take just occasion of entring into a war 1. Part. in vindicating and redeeming these words seased and seduced by our adversaries to testifie for their Purgatory yet this day being a day of peace and reconciliation with God and man we begin with peace with that wherein all agree That these words Else what shall they do that are baptized for dead If the dead rise not at all why are they baptized for dead must necessarily receive such an Exposition as must be an argument for the Resurrection This baptisme pro mortuis for dead must be such a baptisme as must prove that the Resurrection For that the Apostle repeats twice in these few words Else sayes he that is if there be no Resurrection why are men thus baptized And again if the dead rise not why are men thus baptized Indeed the whole Chapter is a continuall argument for the Resurrection from the beginning thereof to the 35. ver he handles the An sit whether there be a Resurrection or no For if that be denyed or doubted in the roote in the person of Christ whether he be risen or no the whole frame of our religion fals and every man will be apt and justly apt to ask that question which the Indian King asked when he had been catechized so far in the articles of our Christian religion as to come to the suffered and crucified and dead and buried impatient of proceeding any farther and so losing the consolation of the Resurrection he asked only Is your God dead and buried then let me return to the worship of the Sun for I am sure the Sun will not die If Christ be dead and buried that is continue in the state of death and of the grave without a Resurrection where shall a Christian look for life Therefore the Apostle handles and establishes that first that assurance A Resurrection there is From thence he raises and pursues a second question De modo But some man will say sayes he How are the dead raised up and with what body come they forth And in these questions De modo there is more exercise of reason and of discourse for many times The matter is matter of faith when the manner is not so but considerable and triable by reason Many times for the matter we are all bound and bound upon salvation to think alike But for the manner we may think diversly without forfeiture of salvation or impeachment of discretion For he is not presently an indiscreet man that differs in opinion from another man that is discreet in things that fall under opinion Absit superstito Geâ—son hoc est superflua religio sayes a moderate man of the Romane Church This is truly superstition to bring more under the necessity of being beleeved then God hath brought in his Scriptures superfluous religion sayes he is superstition Remove that and then as he addes there Contradictoria quorum utrumque probabile credi possunt Where two contrary opinions are both probable they may be embraced and beleeved by two men and those two be both learned and discreet and pious and zealous men And this consideration should keep men from that precipitation of imprinting the odious and scandalous names of Sects or Sectaries upon other men who may differ from them and from others with them in some opinions Probability leads me in my assent and I think thus Let me allow another man his probability too and let him think his way in things that are not fundamentall They that do not beleeve alike in all circumstances of the manner of the Resurrection may all by Gods goodnesse meet there and have their parts in the glory thereof if their own uncharitablenesse do not hinder them And he that may have been in the right opinion may sooner misse heaven then he that was in the wrong if he come uncharitably to condemne or contemne the other for in such cases humility and love of peace may in the sight of God excuse and recompence many errours and mistakings And after these of the Matter of the Manner of the Resurrection the Apostle proceeds to a third question of their state and condition whom Christ shall finde alive upon Earth at his second comming and of them he sayes onely this Ecce mysterium vobis dico Behold I tell you a mystery a secret we shall not all sleep that is not dye so as that we shall rest any time in the grave but we shall all be changed that is receive such an immutation as that we shall have a sudden dissolution of body and soul which is a true death and a sudden re-union of body and soule which is a true resurrection in an instant in the twinkling of an eye Thus carefull and thus particular is the Apostle that the knowledge of the resurrection might be derived unto us Now of these three questions which he raises and pursues first whether there be a Resurrection then what manner of Resurrection and then what kinde of Resu rrection they shall have that live to the day of Judgement our Text enters into the first For for the first That a resurrection there is the Apostle opens severall Topiques to prove it One is from our Head and Patterne and Example Christ Jesus For so he argues first If the dead be not raised
shall know that I am the Lord God shall restore them to life and more to strength and more to beauty and comelinesse acceptable to himselfe in Christ Jesus Your way is Recollecting gather your selves into the Congregation and Communion of Saints in these places gather your sins into your memory and poure them out in humble confessions to that God whom they have wounded Gather the crummes under his Table lay hold upon the gracious promises which by our Ministery he lets fall upon the Congregation now and gather the seales of those promises whensoever in a rectified conscience his Spirit beares witnesse with your spirit that you may be worthy receivers of him in his Sacrament and this recollecting shall be your resurrection Beatus qui habet partem Apâ—â— 20.6 sayes S. Iohn Blessed is he that hath part in the first Resurrection for on such the second death hath no power He that rises to this Judgement of recollecting and of judging himselfe shall rise with a chearfulnesse and stand with a confidence when Christ Jesus shall come in the second Auâ— And Quando exacturus est in secundo quod dedit in primo when Christ shall call for an account in that second judgement how he hath husbanded those graces which he gave him for the first he shall make his possession of this first resurrection his title and his evidence to the second When thy body which hath been subject to all kindes of destruction here to the destruction of a Flood in Catarrhs and Rheums and Dropsies and such distillations to the destruction of a fire in Feavers and Frenzies and such conflagrations shall be removed safely and gloriously above all such distempers and malignant impressions and body and soule so united as if both were one spirit in it selfe and God so united to both as that thou shalt be the same spirit with God God began the first World but upon two Adam and Eve The second world after the Flood he began upon a greater stock upon eight reserved in the Arke But when he establishes the last and everlasting world in the last Resurrection he shall admit such a number as that none of us who are here now none that is or hath or shall be upon the face of the earth shall be denied in that Resurrection if he have truly felt this for Grace accepted is the infallible earnest of Glory SERMON XXII Preached at S. Pauls upon Easter-day 1627. HEB. 11.35 Women received their dead raised to life againe And others were tortured not accepting a deliverance that they might obtaine a better Resurrection MErcy is Gods right hand with that God gives all Faith is mans right hand with that man takes all David Psal 136. opens and enlarges this right hand of God in pouring out his blessings plentifully abundantly manifoldly there And in this Chapter the Apostle opens and enlarges this right hand of man by laying hold upon those mercies of God plentifully abundantly manifoldly by faith here There David powres downe the mercies of God in repeating and re-repeating that phrase For his mercy endureth for ever And here S. Paul carries up man to heaven by repeating and re-repeating the blessings which man hath attained by faith By faith Abel sacrificed By faith Enoch walked with God By faith Noah built an Arke c. And as in that Psalme Gods mercies are exprest two waies First in the good that God did for his servants He remembred them in their low estate Ver 23. Ver. 24. for his mercy endureth for ever And then againe He redeemed them from their enemies for his mercy endureth for ever And then also in the evill that he brought upon their enemies He slew famous Kings for his mercy endureth for ever And then He gave their land for an heritage for his mercy endureth for ever So in this Chapter the Apostle declares the benefits of faith two wayes also First how faith enriches us and accommodates us in the wayes of prosperity By faith Abraham went to a place which he received for an inheritance And so By faith Sarah received strength to conceive seed Ver. 8. Ver. 11. Ver. 34. And then how faith sustaines and establishes us in the wayes of adversity By faith they stopt the mouthes of Lions by faith they quencht the violence of fire by faith they escaped the edge of the sword in the verse immediatly before the Text. And in this verse which is our Text the Apostle hath collected both The benefits which they received by faith Women received their dead raised to life againe And then the holy courage which was infused by Faith in their persecutions Others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might receive a better Resurrection And because both these have relation evidently pregnantly to the Resurrection for their benefit was that the Women received their dead by a Resurrection And their courage in their persecution was That they should receive a better Resurrection therefore the whole meditation is proper to this day in which wee celebrate all Resurrections in the Root in the Resurrection of the First fruits of the dead our Lord and Saviour Christ Iesus Our Parts are two How plentifully God gives to the faithfull Divisio Women receive their dead raised to life againe And how patiently the faithfull suffer Gods corrections Others were tortured not accepting c. Though they be both large considerations Benefits by Faith Patience in the Faithfull yet we shall containe our selves in those particulars which are exprest or necessarily implyed in the Text it selfe And so in the first place we shall see first The extraordinary consolation in Gods extraordinary Mercies in his miraculous Deliverances such as this Women received their dead raised to life again And secondly we shall seethe examples to which the Apostle refers here What women had had their dead restored to life againe And then lastly in that part That this affection of joy in having their dead restored to life againe being put in the weaker sexe in women onely we may argue conveniently from thence That the strength of a true and just joy lies not in that but that our virility our holy manhood our religious strength consists in a faithfull assurance that we have already a blessed communion with these Saints of God though they be dead and we alive And that we shall have hereafter a glorious Association with them in the Resurrection though we never receive our dead raised to life again in this world And in those three considerations we shall determine that first part And then in the other The Patience of the Faithfull Others were tortured c. we shall first look into the examples which the Apostle refers to who they were that were thus tortured And secondly the heighth and exaltation of their patience They would not accept a deliverance And lastly the ground upon which their Anchor was cast what established their patience That they might obtaine a better Resurrection
tastlesse things Compare the Prophets with the Son and even the promises of God 2 King 4.34 in them are faint and dilute things Elishaes staffe in the hand of Gehazi his servant would not recover the Shunamites dead child but when Elisha himselfe came and put his mouth upon the childs mouth that did In the mouth of Christs former servants there was a preparation but effect and consummation in his owne mouth In the Old Testament at first God kissed man and so breathed the breath of life and made him a man In the New Testament Christ kissed man he breathed the breath of everlasting life the holy Ghost into his Apostles and so made the man a blessed man Love is as strong as death Cant. 8.6 As in death there is a transmigration of the soule so in this spirituall love and this expressing of it by this kisse there is a transfusion of the soule too And as we find in Gellius a Poëm of Platoes where he sayes he knew one so extremely passionate Vt parùm affuit quin moreretur in osculo much more is it true in this heavenly union expressed in this kisse as S. Ambrose delivers it Per osculum adhaeret anima Deo et transfunditur spiritus osculantis In this kisse where Righteousnesse and peace have kissed each other In this person where the Divine and the humane nature have kissed each other Psal 85.10 In this Christian Church where Grace and Sacraments visible and invisible meanes of salvation have kissed each other Love is as strong as death my soule is united to my Saviour now in my life as in death and I am already made one spirit with him and whatsoever death can doe this kisse this union can doe that is give me a present an immediate possession of the kingdome of heaven And as the most mountainous parts of this kingdome are as well within the kingdome as a garden so in the midst of the calamities and incommodities of this life I am still in the kingdome of heaven In the Old Testament it was but a contract but per verba de futuro Sponsabo I will marry thee Hos 2.19 Mat. 9.15 but now that Christ is come the Bride-groome is with us for ever and the children of the Bride-chamber cannot mourne Now by this we are slid into our fourth and last branch of our first part Exhortatic The perswasion to come to this holy kisse though defamed by treachery though depraved by licentiousnesse since God invites us to it by so many good uses thereof in his Word It is an imputation laid upon Nero That Neque adveniens neqùe profisciscens That whether comming or going he never kissed any And Christ himselfe imputes it to Simon as a neglect of him That when he came into his house he did not kisse him Luke 7.45 August This then was in use first among kinsfolks In illa simplicitate antiquorum propinqui propinquos osculabantur In those innocent and harmlesse times persons neare in bloud did kisse one another And in that right and not onely as a stranger Iacob kissed Rachel Gen. 29.12 and told her how near of kin he was to her There is no person so neare of kin to thee as Christ Jesus Christ Jesus thy Father as he created thee and thy brother as he took thy nature Thy Father as he provided an inheritance for thee and thy brother as he divided this inheritance with thee and as he dyed to give thee possession of that inheritance He that is Nutritius thy Foster-father who hath nursed thee in his house in the Christian Church and thy Twin-brother so like thee as that his Father and thine in him shall not know you from one another but mingle your conditions so as that he shall find thy sins in him and his righteousnesse in thee Osculamini Filium Kisse this Son as thy kinsman This kisse was also in use as Symbolum subjectionis A recognition of soveraignty or power Pharaoh sayes to Ioseph Thou shalt be over my house Gen. 41.40 and according to thy word shall all my people be ruled there the Originall is All my people shall kisse thy face This is the Lord Paramount the Soveraigne Lord of all The Lord Jesus Iesus Phil. 2.10 Mat. 28.18 at whose name every knee must bow in heaven in earth and in hell Iesus into whose hands all power in heaven and in earth is given Iesus who hath opened a way to our Appeal from all powers upon earth Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soule Iesus Mat. 10.28 who is the Lion and the Lambe too powerfull upon others accessible unto thee Osculamini Filium Kisse this Son as he is thy Soveraigne It was in use likewise In discessu friends parting kissed Gen. 31.15 Act. 20.37 Laban rose up early in the morning and kissed his sons and his daughters and departed And at Pauls departing they fell on his neck and wept and kissed him When thou departest to thy worldly businesses to thy six dayes labour kisse him take leave of him and remember that all that while thou art gone upon his errand and though thou worke for thy family and for thy posterity yet thou workest in his vineyard and dost his worke They kissed too In reditu Esau ran to meet his brother and fell on his neck and kissed him Gen. 33.4 When thou returnest to his house after thy six dayes labour to celebrate his Sabbath kisse him there and be able to give him some good account from Sabbath to Sabbath from week to week of thy stewardship and thou wilt never be bankrupt They kissed in reconciliation David kissed Absalon 2 Sam. 14.33 If thou have not discharged thy stewardship well Restore to man who is damnified therein Confesse to God who hath suffered in that sin Reconcile thy selfe to him and kisse him in the Sacrament in the seale of Reconciliation They kissed in a religious reverence even of false gods I have sayes God 2 King 19 18. seaven thousand knees that have not bowed unto Baal and mouths that have not kissed him Let every one of us kisse the true God in keeping his knees from bowing to a false his lips from assenting his hands from subscribing to an Idolatrous worship And as they kissed In Symbolum concordiae Rom. 16.16 which was another use thereof Salute one another with a holy kisse upon which custome Iustin Martyr sayes Osculum ante Eucharistiam before the Communion the Congregation kissed to testifie their unity in faith in him to whom they were then Sacramentally to be united as well as Spiritually And Tertullian calls it Osculum signaculum Orationis Because they ended their publique Prayers with that seale of unity and concord Let every Congregation kisse him so at every meeting to seale to him a new band a new vow that they will never break in departing from any part of his
baptized are of this houshold and should be relieved and received But certainly there is a race that have not this Contesseration not these testimoniall letters not this outward Baptisme Amongst those herds of vagabonds and incorrigible rogues that fill porches and barnes in the Countrey a very great part of them was never baptized people of a promiscuous generation and of a mischievous education ill brought into the world and never brought into the Church No man receives an Angel unawares for receiving or harbouring any of these neither have these any interest in the houshold of God for they have not their first Contesseration And as there are sins which we are not bid to pray for so there are beggers which we are not bid to give to God appeared by Angels in the Old Testament and he appeares by Angels in the New in his Messengers in his Ministers in his Servants And that Hospitality and those feasts which cannot receive such Angels those Ministers and Messengers of God where by reason of excesse and drunkennesse by reason of scurril and licentious discourse by reason of wanton and unchast provocations by reason of execrable and blasphemous oathes these Angels of God cannot be present but they must either offend the company by reprehension or prevaricate and betray the cause of God by their silence this is not Abrahams hospitality whose commendation was that he received Angels Those Angels came and stood before Abraham but till he lift up his eyes and ran forth to them they came not to him The Angels of the Gospel come within their distance but if you will not receive them they can break open no doores nor save you against your will The Angel does as he that sends him Stand at the doore and knock Revel 3.20 if the doore be opened he comes in and sups with him What gets he by that This He sups with me too sayes Christ there He brings his dish with him he feeds his Host more then his Host him This is true Hospitality and entertainment of Angels both when thou feedest Christ in his poore members abroad or when thou feedest thine owne soule at home with the company and conversation of true and religious Christians at thy table for these are Angels Abraham then took these three for men and no more when as they were Angels An Christus But were they all Angels and no more was not that one to whom more particularly Abraham addressed himselfe and called him Lord The Son of God Christ Jesus This very many very learned amongst the Ancients did not onely aske by way of Probleme and disputation but affirme Doctrinally by way of resolution Irenaeus thought it and expressed it so elegantly as it is almost pity if it be not true Inseminatus est ubique in Scriptur is Filius Dei sayes he The Son of God is sowed in every furrow in every place of the Scripture you may see him grow up and he gives an example out of this place Cum Abraham loquens cum Abraham comesurus Christ talked with Abraham and he dined with him And they will say that whereas it is said in that place to the Hebrewes That Abraham received Angels the word Angel must not be too precisely taken For sometimes Angel in the Scriptures signifies lesse then Angel as Iohn and Malachy are called Angels and sometimes Angel signifies more then Angel as Christ himselfe is called The Angel of the great Councell according to the Septuagint So therefore Esay 9. they will say That though Christ were there Christ himselfe might be called so An Angel Or it may be justly said by S. Paul That Abraham did receive Angels because there were two that were without question Angels This led Hilary to a direct and a present resolution that Abraham saw Christ and to exclaime gratulatorily in his behalfe Quanta fidei vis ut in indiscreta assistentium specie Christum internosceret What a perspicacy had Abrahams faith who where they were all alike could discerne one to be above them all Make this then the question whether Christ ever appeared to men upon earth before his Incarnation and the Scriptures not determining this question at all if the Fathers shall be called to judge it it will still be a perplexed case for they will be equall in number and in waight S. Augustine who is one of them that deny it sayes first for the generall the greatest worke of all the promulgation of the Law was done by Angels alone without concurrence of the Son and for this particular sayes he concerning Abraham they who thinke that Christ appeared to Abraham ground themselves but upon this reason That Abraham speakes to all in the singular number as to one person And then sayes that Father they may also observe that when this one Person whom they conclude to be Christ was departed from the other two and that the other two went up to Sodome Gen 19.18 there Lot speakes to those two in the singular number as to one person as Abraham did before From this argumentation of S. Augustines this may well be raised That when the Scriptures may be interpreted and Gods actions well understood by an ordinary way it is never necessary seldome safe to induce an extraordinary It was then an ordinary and familiar way for God to proceed with those his servants by Angels but by his Son so extraordinary as that it is not cleare that ever it was done and therefore it needs not be said nor admitted in this place In this place this falls properly to be noted that even in these three glorious Angels of God there was an eminent difference One of them seemed to Abraham to bee the principall man in the Commission and to that one he addressed himselfe Amongst the other Angels which are the Ministers in Gods Church one may have better abilities better faculties then another and it is no errour no weaknesse in a man to desire to conferre with one rather then with another or to heare one rather then another But Abraham did not so apply himselfe to one of the three that he neglected the other two No man must be so cherished so followed as that any other be thereby either defrauded of their due maintenance or dis-heartened for want of due incouragement Wee have not the greatest use of the greatest Starres but wee have more benefit of the Moone which is lesse then they because she is nearer to us It is not the depth nor the wit nor the eloquence of the Preacher that pierces us but his nearenesse that hee speaks to my conscience as though he had been behinde the hangings when I sinned and as though he had read the book of the day of Judgement already Something Abraham saw in this Angels above the rest which drew him which Moses does not expresse Something a man finds in one Preacher above another which he cannot expresse and he may very lawfully make his spirituall benefit
owne will thou hadst quenched hell If thou couldst be content willing to be in hell hell were not hell So if God save a man against his will heaven is not heaven If he be loath to come thither sorry that he shall be there he hath not the joy of heaven and then heaven is not heaven Put not God to save thee by miracle God can save an Image by miracle by miracle he can make an Image a man If man can make God of bread certainly God can make a man of an Image and so save him but God hath made thee his own Image and afforded thee meanes of salvation Use them God compels no man Luke 14.23 The Master of the feast invited many solemnly before hand they came not He sent his servants to call in the poore upon the sudden and they came so he receives late commers And there is a Compelle intrare He sends a servant to compell some to come in But that was but a servants work The Master onely invited he compelled none We the servants of God have certaine compulsories to bring men hither The denouncing of Gods Judgements the censures of the Church Excommunications and the rest are compulsories The State hath compulsories too in the penall Laws But all this is but to bring them into the house to Church Compelle intrare We can compell them to come to the first seale to Baptisme we can compell men to bring their children to that Sacrament But to salvation onely the Master brings and in that Parable the Master does onely invite he compells none Though his corrections may seeme to be compulsories yet even his corrections are sweet invitations His corrections are so farre from compelling men to come to heaven as that they put many men farther out of their way and worke an obduration rather then an obsequiousnesse With those therefore that neglect the meanes that he hath brought them to in sealing them in the fore-head this Angel hath no more to doe but gives them over to the power of the foure destroying Angels With those that attend those meanns he proceeds and in their behalfe his Donec Spare them till I have sealed them becomes the blessed Virgins Donec Mat. 1.25 Psal 110.1 she was a Virgin till she had her Child and a Virgin after too And it becomes our blessed Saviours Donec He sits at his Fathers right hand till his enemies bee made his foot-stoole and after too So these destroying Angels that had no power over them till they were sealed shall have no power over them after they are sealed but they shall passe from seale to seale after that seale on the fore-head Ne erubeseant Euangelium Rom. 1.16 We signe him with the signe of the Crosse in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confesse the faith of Christ Crucified He shall come also to those seales which our Saviour recommends to his Spouse Cant. 8.6 Set me as a seale on thy heart and as a seale on thine arme S. Ambrose collects them and connects them together Signaculum Christi in corde ut diligamus in fronte ut confiteamur in brachio ut operemur God seales us in the heart that we might love him and in the fore-head that we might professe it and in the hand that we might declare and practise it and then the whole purpose of this blessed Angel in our Text is perfected in us and we our selves are made partakers of the solemnity of this day which we celebrate for we our selves enter in the Communion of Saints by these three seales Of Beliefe Of Profession Of Works and Practise SERMONS Preached upon THE CONVERSION OF S. PAVL SERM. XLVI Preached at S. Pauls The Sunday after the Conversion of S. PAUL 1624. ACTS 9.4 And he fell to the earth and heard a voyce saying Saul Saul why persecutest thou me LEt us now praise famous Men and our Fathers that begat us Ecclus. 44.1 saies the Wiseman that is that assisted our second generation our spirituall Regeneration Let us praise them commemorate them The Lord hath wrought great glory by them Ver. 2. through his power from the beginning saies he there that is It hath alwaies beene the Lords way to glorifie himselfe in the conversion of Men by the ministery of Men. For he adds Ver. 4. They were leaders of the people by their counsaile and by their knowledge and learning meet for the people wise and eloquent men in their instructions and that is That God who gives these gifts for this purpose looks for the employment of these gifts to the edification of others to his glory There be of them that have left a name behinde them Ver. 8. as it is also added in that place that is That though God can amply reward his servants in the next world yet he does it sometimes in this world and though not with temporall happinesses in their life yet with honor and commemorations and celebrations of them after they are gone out of this life they leave a name behind them And amongst them in a high place shines our blessed and glorious Apostle S. Paul whose Conversion the Church celebrates now and for the celebration thereof hath appointed this part of Scripture from whence this text arises to be the Epistle of the Day And he fell to the earth and heard a voyce saying Saul Saul why persccutest thou me There are words in the text that will reach to all the Story of S. Pauls Conversion Divisio embrace all involve and enwrap all we must contract them into lesse then three parts we cannot well those will be these first The Person Saul He He fell to the earth and then his humiliation his exinanition of himselfe his devesting putting off of himselfe He fell to the earth and lastly his investing of Christ his putting on of Christ his rising againe by the power of a new inanimation a new soule breathed into him from Christ He heard a voyce saying Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Now a re-distribution a sub-division of these parts into their branches we shall present to you anon more opportunely as we shall come in due order to the handling of the parts themselves In the first the branches will be but these Sauls indisposition when Christ tooke him in hand and Christs worke upon him what he found him what he left him will determine our first part The person First then what he was at that time 1. Part. Quid ante the Holy Ghost gives evidence enough against him and he gives enough against himselfe Of that which the Holy Ghost gives you may see a great many heavy pieces a great many appliable circumstances if at any time at home you do but paraphrase and spread to your selves the former part of this Chapter to this text Take a little preparation from me Adhuc spirans saies the first verse Saul yet breathing threatnings and slaughter Then when he was
I am made Judge and when I have cleare evidence then is the time to passe my judgement for this world But for a finall condemnation in the world to come the Apostle expresses himselfe fully in that place Iudge nothing before the time untill the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse and manifest the counsels of the heart It was a wise and a pious counsel that Gamaliel gave that State Abstinete Acts 5.33 forbeare a while give God sea-roome give him his latitude and you may finde that you mistook at first for God hath divers ends in inflicting calamities and he that judges hastily may soone mistake Gods purpose It is a remarkeable expressing which the holy Ghost hath put into the mouth of Naomi Call not me Naomi sayes she there Naomi is lovely Ruth 1.10 and loving and beloved But call me Mara sayes she Mara is bitternesse But why so For sayes she The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me Bitterly and very bitterly But yet so he hath with many that he loves full well It is true sayes Naomi but there is more in my case then so The Almighty hath afflicted me and the Lord hath testified against me Testified there is my misery that is done enough given evidence enough for others to beleeve and to ground a judgement upon it that he hath abandoned me utterly forsaken me for ever Yet God meant well to Naomi for all this Testification and howsoever others might mis-interpret Gods proceeding with her That Ostracisme which was practised amongst the Athenians and that Petalisme which was practised amongst the Syracusians by which Laws the most eminent and excellent persons in those States were banished not for any crime imputed to them nor for any popular practises set on foot by them but to conserve a parity and equality in that State this Ostracisme this Petalisme was not without good use in those governments If God will lay heaviest calamities upon the best men If God will exercise an Ostracisme a Petalisme in his state who shall search into his Arcana imperii into the secrets of his government who shall aske a reason of his actions who shall doubt of a good end in all his waies Our Saviour Christ hath shut up that way of rash judgement upon such occasions Luke 13.2 when he sayes Suppose ye that those Galileans whom Herod slew or those eighteen whom the fall of the Towre of Siloe slew were greater sinners then the rest It is not safely it is not charitably concluded And therefore he carries their thoughts as far on the other side That he that suffered a calamity was not only not the greatest but no sinner for so Christ sayes Iohn 9.3 Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents speaking of the man that was born blinde Not that he or his Parents had not sinned but that that calamity was not laid upon him in contemplation of any sin but onely for an occasion of the manifestation of Christs Divinity in the miraculous recovery of that blinde man Therefore sayes Luther excellently and elegantly Non judicandum de cruce secundùm praedicamentum Quantitatis sed Relationis We must not judge of a calamity by the predicament of Quantity How great that calamity is but by the predicament of Relation to what God referres that calamity and what he intends in it For Deus ultionum Deus Psal 93.1 as S. Hierome reades that place God is the God of revenge And Deus ultionum liberè agit This God of revenge revenges at his owne liberty when and where and how it pleases him And therefore as we are bound to make good constructions of those corrections that God layes upon us so are we to make good interpretations of those judgements which he casts upon others First for our selves that which is said in S. Matthew Mat. 24.30 That at the day of judgement shall appeare in heaven the signe of the Son of Man is frequently ordinarily received by the Fathers to be intended of the Crosse That before Christ himselfe appeare his signe the Crosse shall appeare in the clouds Now this is not literally so in the Text nor is it necessarily deduced but ordinarily by the Ancients it is so accepted and though the signe of the Son of Man may be some other thing yet of this signe the Crosse there may be this good application That when God affords thee this manifestation of his Crosse in the participation of those crosses and calamities that he suffered here when thou hast this signe of the Son of Man upon thee conclude to thy selfe that the Son of Man Christ Jesus is comming towards thee and as thou hast the signe thou shalt have the substance as thou hast his Crosse thou shalt have his Glory For this is that which the Apostle intends Phil. 1.29 Vnto you it is given not laid upon you as a punishment but given you as a benefit not onely to beleeve in Christ but to suffer for Christ Where the Apostle seemes to make our crosses a kinde of assurance as well as our faith for so he argues Not onely to beleeve but to suffer for howsoever faith be a full evidence yet our suffering is a new seale even upon that faith And an evident seale a conspicuous a glorious seale Cyprian Quid gloriosius quam Collegam Christi in passione factum fuisse What can be more glorious then to have been made a Collegue a partner with Christ in his sufferings and to have fulfilled his sufferings in my flesh For that is the highest degree which we can take in Christs schoole as S. Denys the Areopagite expresses it A Deo doctus non solùm divina discit sed divina patitur which we may well translate or accommodate thus He that is throughly taught by Christ does not onely beleeve all that Christ sayes but conformes him to all that Christ did and is ready to suffer as Christ suffered Truly if it were possible to feare any defect of joy in heaven all that could fall into my feare would be but this that in heaven I can no longer expresse my love by suffering for my God for my Saviour A greater joy cannot enter into my heart then this To suffer for him that suffered for me As God saw that way prosper in the hands of Absalom 2 Sam. 14.30 he sent for Ioab and Ioab came not he came not when he sent a second time but when he sent Messengers to burne up his corne then Ioab came and then hee time but when he sent Messengers to burne up his corne then Ioab came and then hee complied with Absalom and seconded and accomplished his desires So God cals us in his own outward Ordinances and a second time in his temporall blessings and we come not but we come the sooner if he burne our Corne if he draw us by afflicting us Now as we are able to argue thus in our
or to their Masters advantage Yet the opinion which is most imbraced is That this appearing of Christ which is intended here is that appearing which is spoken of by S. Paul 1 Cor. 15.6 when he appeared to more then five hundred at once Christ rests not in his Teste meipso That himselfe was his witnesse as Princes use to doe and as he might have done best of any because there were alwaies two more that testified with him the Father and the Holy Ghost he rests not in calling some of his Councell and principall Officers to witnesse as Princes have used too but in a Parliament of all States Upper and Common house Spirituall and Temporall Apostles Disciples and five hundred Brethren he testifies this Commission Who then can measure the infinite mercy of Christ Jesus to us which mercy became not when he began by comming into this world for we were elected in him before the foundations of the world nor ended it when he ended by going out of this world for he returned to this world againe where he had suffered so much contempt and torment that he might establish this object of our faith this that wee are therefore bound to beleeve a Commission a Church an outward meanes of Salvation here such a Commission there is it is grounded in the Creed and it was given after his Resurrection In which Commission being now come to the last of the circumstantiall Branches Quo. the extent and reach of this Commission we finde that it is Omni Creaturae before the Text Preach to every Creature that is Meanes of salvation offered to every Creature and that is large enough without that wilde extent that their S. Francis gives it in the Roman Church whom they magnifie so much for that religious simplicity as they call it who thought himselfe bound literally by this Commission To preach to all Creatures and so did as we see in his brutish Homilies Frater Asine and Frater Bos Brother Oxe and brother Asse and the rest of his spirituall kindred But in this Commission Omnis Creatura Every Creature is every man and to every man this Commission extends Man is called Omnis Creatura Gen. 3.20 Every creature as Eve is called Mater omnium viventium though she were but the Mother of men she is called the Mother of all living and yet all other creatures live as well as Man Man is called Every creature as it is said Omnis caro Gen. 6.12 All flesh had corrupted his wayes upon earth though this corruption were but in man and other creatures were flesh as well as man Man is every creature sayes Origen because in him Origen Tanquam in officina omnes Creaturae conflantur Because all creatures were as it were melted in one forge and poured into one mold when man was made For these being all the distinctions which are in all creatures first a meere being which stones and other inanimate creatures have and then life growth which trees and plants have and after that sense and feeling which beasts have and lastly reason and understanding which Angels have Gregor Man hath them all and so in that respect is every creature sayes Origen He is so too sayes Gregory Quia omnis creaturae differentia in homine Because all the qualities and properties of all other creatures how remote and distant how contrary soever in themselves yet they all meet in man In man if he be a flatterer you shall finde the groveling and crawling of a Snake and in a man if he be ambitious you shall finde the high flight and piercing of the Eagle in a voluptous sensual man you shall finde earthlinesse of the Hog and in a licentious man the intemperance and distemper of the Goate ever lustfull and ever in a fever ever in sicknesses contracted by that sin and yet ever in a desire to proceed in that sin and so man is every creature in that respect sayes Gregory August But he is especially so sayes S. Augustine Quia omnis creatura propter hominem All creatures were made for man man is the end of all and therefore man is all sayes Augustine So that the two Euangelists have expressed one another well for those whom this Euangelist S. Marke cals all creatures Esay 49.6 S. Matthew cals Omnes Gentes All Nations And so that which is attributed to Christ by way of Prophecy It is a small matter that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribe of Iacob and to restore the preserved of Israel I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou maiest be my salvation unto the end of the earth That which is attributed to Christ there is fulfilled in this Commission given by Christ here That he should be preached to all men In which wee rather admire then goe about to expresse his unexpressible mercy who had that tendernesse in his care that he would provide man meanes of salvation in a Church and then that largenesse in his care as that he would in his time impart it to all men for els how had it ever come to us And so we passe from the Circumstances of the Commission That it is And where it is And whence it comes And whither it goes to the Substance it selfe This is expressed in three actions first Ite praedicate Goe and preach the Gospel And then Baptizate Baptize in the Name of the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost And Docete servare Teach them to observe all those things which I have commanded you for that Hoc Qui non crediderit hos He that beleeves not this which is implied in this Text reaches to all that as well Qui non fecerit hoc He that does not doe all this as Qui non crediderit hoc He that beleeves not this is within the penalty of this Text Damnabitur The first of these three is the ordinance and institution of preaching the Gospel The second is the administration of both Sacraments as we shall see anone And the third is the provocation to a good life which is in example as well as in preaching first preach the Gospel that is plant the roote faith then administer the Sacraments that is water it cherish it fasten and settle it with that seale and then procure good works that is produce the blessed fruit of this faith and these Sacraments Qui non crediderit hoc He that does not beleeve all this shall be damned First then Qui non crediderit He that hath this Apostleship Praedicate this ministery of reconciliation he that is a Commissioner for these new buildings to erect the kingdome of God by the Gospel and does not beleeve and shew by his practise that he does beleeve himselfe to be bound to preach he is under the penalty of this Text. When therefore the Jesuit Maldonat pleases himselfe so well that as he sayes he cannot chuse but laugh In Matth. 28.
with you too Amongst us he that sayes well presents a good text but he that lives well presents a good Comment upon that text As the best texts that we can take to make Sermons upon are as this text is some of the words of Christs owne Sermons so the best arguments we can prove our Sermons by is our owne life The whole weekes conversation is a good paraphrase upon the Sundayes Sermon It is too soone to aske when the clocke stroke eleven Is it a good Preacher for I have but halfe his Sermon then his owne life is the other halfe and it is time enough to aske the Saterday after whether the Sundayes Preacher preach well or no for he preaches poorely that makes an end of his Sermon upon Sunday He preaches on all the weeke if he live well to the edifying of others If we say well and doe ill we are so far from the example of Gods children which built with one hand and fought with the other as that if we doe build with one hand in our preaching we pull down with the other in our example and not only our own but other mens buildings too for the ill life of particular men reflects upon the function and ministery in generall And as it is with us if we divorce our words and our works so it is with you if you doe divorce your faith and your workes God hath given his Commission under seale Preach and Baptize God lookes for a returne of this Commission under seale too Believe and bring forth fruits worthy of beliefe The way that Iacob saw to Heaven was a ladder It was not a faire and an easie staire case that a man might walke up without any holding But manibus innitendum sayes S. Augustine August in the way to salvation there is use of hands of actions of good works of a holy life Servate omnia doe then all that is commanded all that is within the Commission If that seeme impossible doe what you can and you have done all for then is all this done Cum quod non fit ignoscitur August When God forgives that which is left undone But God forgives none of that which is left undone out of a wilfull and vincible ignorance And therefore search thy conscience and then Christs commandement enters Scrutamini Scripturas then search the Scriptures for till then as long as thy conscience is foule it is but an illusion to apprehend any peace or any comfort in any sentence of the Scripture in any promise of the Gospell search thy conscience empty that and then search the Scriptures and thou shalt finde abundantly enough to fill it with peace and consolation for this is the summe of all the Scriptures Qui non crediderit hoc He that believes not this that he must be saved by hearing the word preached by receiving the Sacraments and by working according to both is within the penalty of this text Damnabitur He shall be damned How know we that many persons have power to condemne 2 Part. which have not power to pardon but Gods word is evidence enough for our pardon and absolution whensoever we repent we are pardoned much more then for our condemnation here we have Gods word for that if that were not enough we have his oath for it is in another place God hath sworne Heb. 4.3 that there are some which shall not enter into his rest and to whom did he sweare that sayes S. Paul but to them that beleeved not God cannot lye much lesse be forsworne and God hath said and sworne Damnabitur he that beleeveth not shall be damned He shall be but when does any man make hast though that be enough that S. Chrysostome sayes Chrysot It is all one when that begins which shall never end yet the tense is easily changed in this case Iohn 3.18 from damnabitur to damnatur for he that beleeveth not is condemned already But why should he be so condemned for a negative for a privative here is no opposition no affirming the contrary no seducing or disswading other men that have a mind to beleeve 1 Iohn 5.10 that is not enough for He that beleeveth not God hath made God a lyar because he beleeveth not the record that God gave of his Son Here is the condemnation we speake of Iohn 1. as S. Iohn sayes Light was presented and they loved darknesse so that howsoever God proceed in his unsearchable judgements with the Heathen to whom the light and name of Christ Jesus was never presented certainely we to whom the Gospell hath beene so freely and so fully preached fall under the penalty of this text if we beleeve not for we have made God a lyar in not beleeving the record he gives of his Son That then there is damnation and why it is and when it is is cleare enough but what this damnation is neither the tongue of good Angels that know damnation by the contrary by fruition of salvation nor the tongue of bad Angels who know damnation by a lamentable experience is able to expresse it A man may saile so at sea as that he shall have laid the North Pole flat that shall be fallen out of sight and yet he shall not have raised the South Pole he shall not see that So there are things in which a man may goe beyond his reason and yet not meet with faith neither of such a kinde are those things which concerne the locality of hell and the materiality of the torments thereof for that hell is a certaine and limited place beginning here and ending there and extending no farther or that the torments of hell be materiall or elementary torments which in naturall consideration can have no proportion no affection nor appliablenesse to the tormenting of a spirit these things neither settle my reason nor binde my faith neither opinion that it is or is not so doth command our reason so but that probable reasons may be brought on the other side neither opinion doth so command our faith but that a man may be saved though hee thinke the contrary for in such points it is alwaies lawfull to thinke so as we finde does most advance and exalt our owne devotion and Gods glory in our estimation but when we shall have given to those words by which hell is expressed in the Scriptures the heaviest significations that either the nature of those words can admit or as they are types and representations of hell as fire and brimstone weeping and gnashing and darknesse and the worme and as they are laid together in the Prophet Esay 30.33 Tophet that is hell is deepe and large there is the capacity content roome enough It is a pile of fire and much wood there is the durablenesse of it and the breath of the Lord to kindle it like a streame of Brimstone there is the vehemence of it when all is done the hell of hels the torment of