well Articulus resurrectionis propria Ecclesiaevox It is the Christian Church that hath delivered to us the article of the resurrection Nature says it not Philosophy says it not it is the language and the Idiotisme of the Church of God that the resurrection is to be beleeved as an article of faith For though articles of faith be not facta Ecclesiae they are dicta Ecclesiae though the Church doe not make articles yet she declares them In the Creation the way was Dixit facta sunt God spake and so things were made In the Gospell the way is Fecit dicta sunt God makes articles of faith and the Church utters them presents them That 's manifestè verum evidently undeniably true that Nature and Philosophy say nothing of articles of faith But even in Nature and in Philosophy there is some preparation A priore and much illustration A posteriore of the Resurrection For first we know by naturall reason that it is no such thing as God cannot doe It implies no contradiction in it selfe as that new article of Transubstantiation does It implies no defectivenesse in God as that new article The necessity of a perpetuall Vicar upon earth does For things contradictory in themselves which necessarily imply a falshood things arguing a defectivenesse in God which implies necessarily a derogation to his nature to his naturall goodnesse to that which we may justly call even the God of God that which makes him God to us his mercy such things God himselfe cannot doe not things which make him an unmercifull a cruell a precondemning God But excepting onely such things God who is that Quod cum dicitur non potest dici whom if you name you cannot give him halfe his name for if you call him God he hath not his Christen name for he is Christ as well as God a Saviour as well as a Creator Quod cum astimatur non potest aestimari If you value God weigh God you cannot give him halfe his weight for you can put nothing into the balance to weight him withall but all this world and there is no single sand in the sea no single dust upon the earth no single atome in the ayre that is not likelyer to weigh down all the world then all the world is to coâ—â—â—pose pose God What is the whole world to a soule says Christ but what are all the soules of the world to God What is man that God should be mindefull of him that God should ever thinke of him and not forget that there is such a thing such a nothing Quod cum definitur ipsa definitione crescit says the same Father If you limit God with any definition hee growes larger by that definition for even by that definition you discerne presently that he is something else then that definition comprehends That God Quem omnia nesciunt metuendo sciunt whom no man knows perfectly yet every man knows so well as to stand in feare of him this incomprehensible God I say that works and who shall let it can raise our bodies again from the dead because to doe so implies no derogation to himselfe no contradiction to his word Our reason tells us he can doe it doth our reason tell us as much of his will that he will doe it Our reason tells us that he will doe whatsoever is most convenient for the Creature whom because he hath made him he loves and for his owne glory Now this dignity afforded to the dead body of man cannot be conceived but as a great addition to him Nor can it be such a diminution to God to take man into heaven as it was for God to descend and to take mans nature upon him upon Earth A King does not diminish himselfe so much by taking an inferior person into his bosome at Court as he should doe by going to live with that person in the Countrey or City and this God did in the incarnation of his Sonne It cannot be thought inconvenient it cannot be thought hard Our reason tells us that in all Gods works in all his materiall works still his latter works are easier then his former The Creation which was the first and was a meer production out of nothing was the hardest of all The specific ation of Creatures and the disposing of them into their severall kinds the making of that which was made something of nothing before a particular thing a beast afowle a fish a plant a man a Sun or Moon was not so hard as the first production out of nothing And then the conservation of all these in that order in which they are first created and then distinguished the Administration of these creatures by a constant working of second causes which naturally produce their effects is not so hard as that And so accordingly and in that proportion the last worke is easiest of all Distinction and specification easier then creation conservatioâ— and administration easier then that distinction and restitution by resurrection easiest of all Tertullian hath expressed it well Plus est fecisse quam refecisse dedisse quam reddidisse It is a harder work to make then to mend and to give thee that which was mine then to restore thee that which was thine Et institutio carnis quà m destitutio It is a lesse matter to recover a sicke man then to make a whole man Does this trouble thee says Iustin Martyr and Athenagor as proceeds in the same way of argumentation too in his Apology does this trouble thee Quòd homo à piscibus piscis ab homine comeditar that one man is devoured by a fish and then another man that eats the flesh of that fish eats and becomes the other man Id nec hominem resolvit in piscem nec piscem in hominem that first man did not become that fish that eate him nor that fish become that second man that eate it sed utriusque resolutio fit in elementa both that man and that fish are resolved into their owne elements of which they were made at first Howsoever it be if thine imagination could carry thee so low as to thinke not onely that thou wert become some other thing a fish or a dogge that had fed upon thee and so thou couldst not have thine owne body but therewithall must have his body too but that thou wert infinitely farther gone that thou wert anâ—â—ilated become nothing canst thou chuse but thinke God as perfect now at least as he was at first and can hee not as easily make thee up againe of nothing as he made thee of nothing at first Recogita quid fueris antequam esses Thinke over thy selfe what wast thou before thou wast any thing Meminisses utique si fuisses If thou hadst been any thing then surely thou wouldst remember it now Qui non eras factus es Cum iterum non eris fies Thou that wast once nothing wast made this
wardrobe not to make an Inventory of it but to finde in it something fit for thy wearing Iohn Baptist was not the light he was not Christ but he bore witnesse of him The light of faith in the highest exaltation that can be had in the Elect here is not that very beatificall vision which we shall have in heaven but it beares witnesse of that light The light of nature in the highest exaltation is not faith but it beares witnesse of it The lights of faith and of nature are subordinate Iohn Baptists faith beares me witnesse that I have Christ and the light of nature that is the exalting of my naturall faculties towards religious uses beares me witnesse that I have faith Onely that man whose conscience testifies to himself and whose actions testifie to the world that he does what he can can beleeve himself or be beleeved by others that he hath the true light of faith And therefore as the Apostle saith Quench not the Spirit I say too Quench not the light of Nature suffer not that light to goe out study your naturall faculties husband and improve them and love the outward acts of Religion though an Hypocrite and though a naturall man may doe them Certainly he that loves not the Militant Church hath but a faint faith in his interest in the Triumphant He that cares not though the materiall Church fall I am afraid is falling from the spirituall For can a man be sure to have his money or his plate if his house be burnt or to preserve his faith if the outward exercises of Religion faile He that undervalues outward things in the religious service of God though he begin at ceremoniall and rituall things will come quickly to call Sacraments but outward things and Sermons and publique prayers but outward things in contempt As some Platonique Philosophers did so over-refine Religion and devotion as to say that nothing but the first thoughts and ebullitions of a devout heart were fit to serve God in If it came to any outward action of the body kneeling or lifting up of hands if it came to be but invested in our words and so made a Prayer nay if it passed but a revolving a turning in our inward thoughts and thereby were mingled with our affections though pious affections yet say they it is not pure enough for a service to God nothing but the first motions of the heart is for him Beloved outward things apparell God and since God was content to take a body let not us leave him naked nor ragged but as you will bestow not onely some cost but some thoughts some study how you will clothe your children and how you will clothe your servants so bestow both cost and thoughts thinke seriously execute cheerfully in outward declarations that which becomes the dignity of him who evacuated himselfe for you The zeale of his house needs not eat you up no nor eat you out of house and home God asks not that at your hands But if you eat one dish the lesse at your feasts for his house sake if you spare somewhat for his reliefe and his glory you will not be the leaner nor the weaker for that abstinence Iohn Baptist bore witnesse of the light outward things beare witnesse of your faith the exalting of our naturall faculties beare witnesse of the supernaturall We do not compare the master and the servant and yet we thank that servant that brings us to his master We make a great difference between the treasure in the chest and the key that opens it yet we are glad to have that key in our hands The bell that cals me to Church does not catechise me nor preach to me yet I observe the sound of that bell because it brings me to him that does those offices to me The light of nature is far from being enough but as a candle may kindle a torch so into the faculties of nature well imployed God infuses faith And this is our second couple of lights the subordination of the light of nature and the light of faith And a third payre of lights of attestation that beare witnesse to the light of our Text is Lux aeternorum Corporum that light which the Sunne and Moone and those glorious bodies give from heaven and lux incensionum that light which those things that are naturally combustible and apt to take fire doe give upon earth both these beare witnesse of this light that is admit an application to it For in the first of these the glorious lights of heaven we must take nothing for stars that are not stars nor make Astrological and fixed conclusions out of meteors that are but transitory they may be Comets and blazing starres and so portend much mischiefe but they are none of those aeterna corpora they are not fixed stars not stars of heaven So is it also in the Christian Church which is the proper spheare in which the light of our text That light the essentiall light Christ Jesus moves by that supernaturall light of faith and grace which is truly the Intelligence of that spheare the Christian Chruch As in the heavens the stars were created at once with one Fiat and then being so made stars doe not beget new stars so the Christian doctrine necessary to salvation was delivered at once that is intirely in one spheare in the body of the Scriptures And then as stars doe not beget stars Articles of faith doe not beget Articles of faith so as that the Councell of Trent should be brought to bed of a new Creed not conceived before by the holy Ghost in the Scriptures and which is a monstrous birth the child greater then the Father as soon as it is borne the new Creed of the Councell of Trent to containe more Articles then the old Creed of the Apostles did Saint Iude writing of the common salvation as he calls it for Saint Iude it seems knew no such particular salvation as that it was impossible for any man to have salvation is common salvation exhorts them to contend earnestly for that faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Semel once that is at once semel simul once altogether For this is also Tertullians note that the rule of faith is that it be una immobilis irreformabilis it must not be deformed it cannot be Reformed it must not be mard it cannot be mended whatsoever needs mending and reformation cannot be the rule of faith says Tertullian Other foundation can no man lay then Christ not onely no better but no other what other things soever are added by men enter not into the nature and condition of a foundation The additions and traditions and superedifications of the Roman Church they are not lux aeternorum corporum they are not fixed bodies they are not stars to direct us they may be meteors and so exercise our discourse and Argumentation they may raise controversies And they may be Comets and so
into shreds and fragments such as the Prophet speaks of The breaking of a Potters vessell that cannot be made up again Concision is at best Solutio Continui The severing of that which should be kept intire In the State the aliening of the head from the body or of the body from the head is Concision and videte it is a fearefull thing to be guilty of that In the Church which Church is not a Monarchy otherwise then as she is united in her head Christ Jesus to constitute a Monarchy an universall head of the Church to the dis-inherison and to the tearing of the Crownes of Princes who are heads of the Churches in their Dominions this is Concision and videte it is a fearefull thing to be guilty of that to advance a forein Prelate In the family where God hath made man and wife one to divide with others is Concision and videte it is a fearefull thing to be guilty of that Generally the tearing of that in peeces which God intended should be kept intire is this Concision and falls under this Commonefaction which implies an increpation videte beware But because thus Concision would receive a concision into infinite branches we determined this consideration at first into these three first Concisio Corporis the concision of the body dis-union in Doctrinall things and Concisio vestis the Concision of the garment dis-union in Ceremoniall things and then Concisio Spiritus the Concision of the Spirit dis-union irresolution unsetlednesse diffidence and distrust in thine owne minde and conscience First for this Concision of the body of the body of Divinity in Doctrinall things since still Concision is Solutio continui the breaking of that which should be intire consider we first what this Continuum this that should be kept intire is and it is sayes the Apostle Iesus himself Omnis spiritus qui solvit Iesum so the Antients reade that place Every spirit which dissolveth Iesus that breakes Jesus in peeces that makes Religion serve turnes that admits so much Gospell as may promove and advance present businesses every such spirit is not of God Not to professe the whole Gospell Totum Iesum not to beleeve all the Articles of faith this is Solutio continui a breaking of that which should be intire and this is truly concision Now with concision in this kinde our greatest adversaries they of the Romane heresie and mis-perswasion do not charge us They do not charge us that we deny any article of any antient Creed nor may they deny that there is not enough for salvation in those antient Creeds This is Continuitas universalis a continuity an intirenesse that goes through the whole Church a skin that covers the whole body the whole Church is bound to beleeve all the articles of faith But then there is Continuitas particularis Continuitas modi a continuity a harmony an intirenesse that does not go through the whole Church the whole Church does not alwaies agree in the manner of explication of all the articles of faith but this may be a skin that covers some particular limbe of the body and not another one Church may expound an article thus and some other some other way as in particular the Lutheran Church expounds the article of Christs descent into hell one way and the Calvinist another Now in cases where neither exposition destroyes the article in the substance thereof it is Concision that is Solutio continui a breaking of that which should be kept intire for any man to breake the peace of that Church in which he hath received his baptisme and hath his station by advancing the exposition of any other Church in that And as this is Concision Solutio continui a breaking of that which is intire to break the peace of the Church where we were baptized by teaching otherwise then that Church teaches in these things De modo of the manner of expounding such or such articles of faith so is there another dangerous Concision too For to inoculate a forein bud or to engraffe a forein bough is concision as well as the cutting off an arme from the tree to inoculate cleaves the rinde the bark and to engraffe cleaves the tree it severs that which should be entire So when a particular Church in a holy and discreet modesty hath abstained from declaring her self in the exposition of some particular Articles or of some Doctrines by faire consequence deducible from those Articles and contented her self with those generall things which are necessary to salvation As the Church of England hath in the Article of Christs descent into Hell it is Concision it is solution Continui a breaking of that which should be intire to inoculate a new sense or engraffe a new exposition which howsoever it may be true in it selfe it cannot be truly said to be the sense of that Church not perchance because that Church was not of that mind but because that Church finding the thing it self to be no fundamentall thing thought it unnecessary to descend to particular declarations when as in such declarations she must have departed from some other Church of the Reformation that thought otherwise and in keeping her self within those generall termes that were necessary and sufficient with a good conscience she conserved peace and unity with all David in the person of every member of the Church submits himself to that increpation Let my right hand forget her cunning and let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Ierusalem before my chiefest joy Our chiefest joy is for the most part our own opinions especially when they concur with other learned and good men too But then Ierusalem is our love of the peace of the Church and in such things as do not violate foundations let us prefer Ierusalem before our chiefest Joy love of peace before our own opinions though concurrent with others For this is that that hath misled many men that the common opinion in the Church is necessarily the opinion of the Church It is not so not so in the Romane Church There the cōmon opinion is That the blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without originall sin But cannot be said to be the opinion of that Church nor may it be safely concluded in any Church Most Writers in the Church have declared themselves this way therefore the Church hath declared her self for the declarations of the Church are done publiquely orderly and at once And when a Church hath declared her self so in all things necessary and sufficient let us possess our souls in peace and not say that that Church hath or presse that that Church would proceed to further declarations in lesse necessary particulars When we are sure we have beleeved practised all that the Church hath recōmended to us in these generals then and not till then let us call for more declarations but in the mean time prefer Ierusalem before our chiefest joy love of peace
my selfe as that in that body so glorifyed by God I also shall glorify him So very a body so perfectly a body shall we have there as that Mahomet and his followers could not consist in those heavenly functions of the body in glorifying God but mis-imagine a feasting and banqueting and all carnall pleasures of the body in heaven too But there Christ stoppes A Resurrection there shall be but in the Resurrection we shall not mary c. They shall not mary because they shall have none of the uses of mariage not as mariage is physicke against inordinate affections for every soule shall be a Consort in itselfe and never out of tune not as mariage is ordained for mutuall helpe of one another for God himself shall be intirely in every soul And what can that soul lack that hath all God Not as mariage is a second and a suppletory eternity in the continuation and propagation of Children for they shall have the first Eternity individuall eternity in themselves Therefore does S. Luke assigne that reason why they shall not mary Because they cannot dy Because they have an eternity in themselves they need not supply any defect by a propagation of children But yet though Christ exclude that of which there is clearely no use in Heaven Mariage because they need no physick no mutuall help no supply of children yet he excludes not our knowing or our loving of one another upon former knowledge in this world in the next Christ does not say expressely we shall yet neither does he say that we shall not know one another there Neither can we say we shall not because we know not how we should Adam who was asleep when Eve was made and neither saw nor felt any thing that God had done knew Eve upon the very first sight to be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh By what light knew he this And in the transfiguration of Christ Peter and James and John knew Moses and Elias and by what light knew they them whom they had never seen Nor can we or they or any be imagined to have any degree of knowledge of persons or actions though but occasionally and transeuntly in this life which we shall not have inherently and permanently in the next In the Types of the generall Resurrection which were particular Resuscitations of the dead in this world the Dead were restored to the knowledge of their friends when Christ raised the sonne of the widow of Naim he delivered him to his Mother when Peter raised Tabitha he called the Saints and the Widows and presented her alive unto them So God saies to Abraham Ibis ad patres thou shalt goe to thy fathers he should know that they were his fathers so to Moses Iungeris populis tuis Thou shalt dy and be gathered to thy people as Aaron thy brother dyed and was gathered to his people Iohn Baptist had a knowledge of Christ though they were both in their mothers wombes and Dives of Lazarus though in Hell and it is not easily told by what light these saw these Whatsoever conduces to Gods glory or our happinesse we shall certainly know in heaven And he that in a rectifyed conscience beleeves that it does so may piously beleeve that he shall know them there In things of this nature where no direct place of Scripture binds up thy faith beleeve so as most exalts thine own Devotion yet with this Caution too not to condemn uncharitably and peremptorily those that beleeve otherwise A Resurrection there shall be In the Resurrection there shall be no Mariage because it conduces to no end but if it conduce to Gods glory and my happinesse as it may piously be beleeved it does to know them there whom I knew here I shall know them Now from this In the Resurrection they mary not flows this also Till the Resurrection they doe they may they shall mary Nay in Gods first purpose and institution They must For God said It is not good that the man should be alone Every man is a naturall body every congregation is a politik body The whole world is a Catholik an universall body For the sustentation and aliment of the naturall body Man God hath given Meat for the Politik for societies God hath given Industry and severall callings and for the Catholik body for the sustentation and reparation of the world God hath given Mariage They that scatter themselves in various lusts commit wast and shall undergoe at last a heavy condemnation upon that Action of wast in their souls as they shal feel it before in their bodies which they have wasted They that mary not do not keep the world in reparation And the common law the law of nature and the generall law of God bindes man in generall to that reparation of the world to Mariage for Continency is Privilegtum a Privilege that is Privata lex when it is given it becomes a law too for he to whom God gives the gift of Continency is bound by it it is Privata lex a Law an Obligation upon that particular man And then Privilegium is Privatio Legis it is a dispensation upon that Law which without that privilege and dispensation would binde him so that all those who have not this privilege this dispensation this continency by immediate gift from God or other medicinall Disciplines and Mortifications which Disciplines and Mortifications every state and condition of life is not bound to exercise because such Mortifications as would overcome their Concupiscences would also overcome all their naturall strength and make them unable to doe the works of their callings all such are bound by the generall law to mary For from Nature and her Law we have that voice ut gignamus geniti Man is borne into the world that others might be born from him And from Gods generall Law we have that voice Crescite Multiplicamini Therefore God plac'd man here that he might repair and furnish the world He is gone at Common Law that maries not Not but that he may have reliefe but it is onely in Conscience and by way of Equity and as in Chancery that is If in a rectified Conscience he know that he should be the lesse disposed to religious Offices for mariage he does well to abstaine otherwise he must remember that the world is one Body and Mariage the aliment that the world is one Building and Mariage the Reparation Therefore the Emperor Augustus did not onely encrease the rewards and privileges which former Laws had given to maried persons but he laid particular penalties upon them that liv'd unmaryed And though that State seem to have countenanced single life because they afforded dignities to certaine Vestall Virgins yet the number of those Vestals was small not above six and then the dignities and privileges which those Vestals had were no other but that they were made equall in the state to maryed
glory with the Father before the world was made thou didst admit a cloud and a slumber upon that glory and staiedst for thy glory till thy death yet thou givest us naturally inglorious and miserable creatures a reall possession of glory and of inseparablenesse from thee in this life This is that Copiosa redemptio there is with the Lord plentifull redemption though that were Matura redemptio a seasonable redemption if it should meet me upon my death-bed and that the Angels then should receive my soul to lay it in Abrahams bosome yet this is my Saviours plentifull redemption that my soul is in Abrahams bosome now whilest it is in this body and that I am already in the presence of his Throne now when I am in your sight and that I serve him already day and night in his Temple now when I meditate or execute his Commission in this service in this particular Congregation Those words are not then necessarily restrained to Martyrs they are not restrained to the state of the Triumphant Church they are spoken to all the Children of righteousnesse and of godlines and godlinesse hath the promises of the life present and that that is to come That which involves all these promises that which is the kernell and seed and marrow of all the last clause of the text God shall wipe all teares from their eyes those words that clause is thrice repeated intirely in the Scriptures When it is spoken here when it is spoken in the one and twentieth Chapter of the Revelation and at the fourth verse in both places it is derived from the Prophet Esay which is an Eacharisticall chapter a Chapter of thanksgiving for Gods deliverance of his children even in this world from the afflictions and tribulations thereof and therefore this text belongs also to this world This imprinting then of the seale in the forehead this washing of the robes in the bloud of the Lambe S. Ambrose places conveniently to be accomplished in the Sacrament of Baptisme for this is Copiosissima Redemptio this is the most plentiful redemption that that be applied to us not onely at last in Heaven nor at my last step towards heaven at my death nor in all the steps that I make in the course of my life but in my first step into the Church nay before I can make any step when I was carried in anothers armes thither even in the beginning of this life and so do divers of the later Men and of those whom we call ours understand all this of baptisme because if we consider this washing away of teares as Saint Cyprian says young children doe most of all need this mercy of God and this assistance of Man because as soone as they come into this world Plorantes ac flentes nihil aliud faciunt quam deprecantur they beg with teares something at our hands and therefore need this abstersion this wiping For though they cannot tell us what they aile though if we will enter into curiosities we cannot tell them what they aile that is we cannot tell them what properly and exactly Originall sin is yet they aile something which naturally disposes them to weep and beg that something might be done for the wiping away of teares from their eyes And therefore though the other errors of the Anabaptist be ancient 1000. year old yet the denying of baptisme to children was never heard of till within 100. years and lesse The Arrians and the Donatists did rebapsize those who were baptized by the true Christians whom they counted Heretiques but yet they refused not to baptize children The Pelegians denied originall sin in children but yet they baptized them All Churches Greek and Russian and Ethiopique howsoever they differ in the body of the Church yet they meet they agree in the porch in Limine Ecclesiae in the Sacrament of baptisme and acknowledge that it is communicable to all children and to all Men from the child new borne to the decrepit old Man from him that is come out of one mothers wombe to him that is going into another into his grave Sicut nullus prohibendus à baptisme it a nullus est qui non peccate moritur in baptismo As baptisme is to be denied to none so neither is it to be denied that all that are rightly baptized are washed from sin Let him that will contentiously say that there are some children that take no profit by baptisme shew me which is one of them and qui testatur de scientia testetur de mode scientiae If he say he knowes it let him tell us how he knowes that which the Church of God doth not know We come now to the second part in which we consider first this firstword quoniam for which is verbum praegnans a word that includes all those great blessings which God hath ordained for them whom in his eternall decree he hath prepared for this sealing and this washing Those blessings which are immediately before the text are that in Gods purpose they are already come out of great tribulations they have already received a whitenes by the bloud of the Lambe they are already in the presence of the threne of the Lambe they have already overcome all hunger and thirst and heat Those particular blessings we cannot insist upon that requires rather a Comment upon the Chapter then a Sermon upon the text But in this word of inference for we onely wil observe this That though all the promises of God in him are Yea and Amen certain and infallible in themselves though his Name that makes them be Amen Thus saith Amen the faithfull and true witnesse and therefore there needs no better security then his word for all those blessings yet God is pleased to give that abundant satisfaction to Man as that his reason shall have something to build upon as well as his faith he shall know why he should beleeve all these blessings to belong to them who are to have these Seales and this washing For God requires no such faith nay he accepts nay he excuses no such faith as beleeves without reason beleeves he knows not why As faith witout fruit witout works is no faith to faith without a roct without reason is no faith but an opinion All those blessings by the Sacrament of Baptism all Gods other promises to his children and all the mysteries of Christrian Religion are therefore beleeved by us becuase they are grounded in the Scriptures of God we beleeve them for that reason and then it is not a worke of my faith primarily but it is a worke of my reason that assures me that these are the Scriptures that these Scriptures are the word of God I can answer other Mens reasons that argue against it I can convince other men by reason that my reasons are true and therefore it is a worke of reason that I beleeve these to be Scriptures To prove a beginning of the world I
joyned to the element or to the Action then there is a true Sacrament are ill understood by two sorts of Menâ— first by them that say that it is not verbum Deprecatorium nor verbum Conciâ—natâ—riuâ— not the word of Prayer nor the word of preaching but verbum Consecratorium and verbum Sacramentale that very phrase and forme of words by which the water is sanctified and enabled of it selfe to cleanse our Soules and secondly these words are ill understood by them who had rather their children dyed unbaptized then have them baptized without a Sermon whereas the use of preaching at baptisme is to raise the whole Congregation to a consideration what they promised by others in their baptisme and to raise the Father and the Sureties to a consideration what they undertake for the childe whom they present then to be baptized for therefore says Saint Augustine Acoedaâ— verbum there is a necessity of the word Non quâ—a dicitur sed quia creditur not because the word is prâ—ached but because it is beleeved and That Beleese faith belongs not at all to the incapacity of the child but to the disposition of the rest A Sermon is usefull for the congregation not necessary for the child and the accomplishment of the Sacrament From hence then arises a convenience little lesse then necessary in a kind that this administration of the Sacrament be accompanied with preaching but yet they that would evict an absolute necessity of it out of these words force them too much for here the direct meaning of the Apostle is That the Church is cleansed by water through the word when the promises of God expressed in his word are sealed to us by this Sacrament of Baptisme for so Saint Augustine answers himselfe in that objection which he makes to himselfe Cum per Baptisâ—â—â— fundati sint quare sermoni tribuit radicem He answers In Sermone intelligendus Baptismusâ— Quia sine Sermone non perficitur It is rooted it is grounded in the word and therefore true Baptisme though it be administred without the word that is without the word preached yet it is never without the word because the whole Sacrament and the power thereof is rooted in the word in the Gospell And therefore since this Sacrament belongs to the Church as it is said here that Christ doth cleanse his Church by Baptisme as it is argued with a strong probability That because the Apostles did baptize whole families therefore they did baptize some children so we argue with an invincible certainty that because this Sacrament belongs generally to the Church as the initiatory Sacrament it belongs to children who are a part and for the most part the most innocent part of the Church To conclude As all those Virgins which were beautifull were brought into Susan Ad domum mulierum to be anointed and persumed and prepared there for Assuerus delight and pleasure though Assuerus tooke not delight and pleasure in them all so we admit all those children which are within the Covenant made by God to the elect and their seed In domum Sanctorum into the houshold of the faithfull into the communion of Saints whom he chooseth for his Mariage day that is for that Church which he will settle upon himselfe in heaven we know not but we know that he hath not promised to take any into that glory but those upon whom he hath first shed these fainter beames of glory and sanctification exhibited in this Sacrament Neither hath he threatned to exclude any but for sinne after And therefore when this blessed child derived from faithfull parents and presented by sureties within the obedience of the Church shall have been so cleansed by the washing of water through the word it is presently sealed to the possession of that part of Christs purchase for which he gave himselfe which are the meanes of preparing his Church in this life with a faithfull assurance I may say of it and to it Iam mundus es Now you are cleanâ— through the word which Christ hath spoken unto you The Seale of the promises of his Gospell hath sanctified and cleansed you but yet Mandatus mundandus says Saint Augustine upon that place It is so sanctified by the Sacrament here that it may be farther sanctified by the growth of his graces and be at last a member of that glorious Church which he shall settle upon himselfe without spot or wrinkle which was the principall and final purpose of that great love of his whereby he gave himselfe for us and made that love first a patterne of Mens loves to their wives here and then a meanes to bring Man and wife and child to the kingdome of heaven Amen SERMON VI. Preached at a Christning 1 JOHN 5. 7 8. For there are three which beare record in heaven The Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one And there are three which beare record in the Earth The Spirit and the water and the bloud and these three agree in one IN great and enormous offences we find that the law in a well governed State expressed the punishment upon such a delinquent in that form in that curse Igni aqua interdicitor let him have no use of fire and water that is no use of any thing necessary for the sustentation of life Beloved such is the miserable condition of wretched Man as that we come all into the world under the burden of that curse Aqua igni interdicimâ—r we have nothing to doe naturally with the spirituall water of life with the fiery beames of the holy Ghost till he that hath wrought our restitution from this banishment restore us to this water by powring out his owne bloud and to this lively fire by laying himselfe a cold and bloudlesse carcasse in the bowels of the Earth till he who haptized none with waâ—er direct his Church to doe that office towards us and he without whom none was baptized with fire perfect that Ministeriall worke of his Church with the effectuall seales of his grace for this is his testimony the witnesse of his love Yea that law in cases of such great offences expressed it selfe in another Malediction upon such offenders appliable also to us Intestabiles sunte let them be Intestable Now this was a sentence a Condemnation so pregnant so full of so many heavy afflictions as that he who by the law was made intestable was all these ways intestable First he was able to make no Testament of his owne he had lost all his interest in his owne estate and in his owne will Secondly he could receive no profit by any testament of any other Man he had lost all the effects of the love and good disposition of other Men to him Thirdly he was Intestable so as that he could not testifie he should not be beleeved in the behalfe of another and lastly the testimony of another could doe him no good no Man could be admitted to
there is but one place of this booke of Iob cited at all To the Corinthians the Apostle makes use of those words in Iob God taketh the wise in their owne craft And more then this one place is not I thinke cited out of this booke of Iob in the new Testament But the authority of Iob is established in another place you have heard of the patience of Iob and you have seen the end of the Lord says Saint Iames. As you have seen this so you have heard that seen and heard one way out of the Scripture you have hard that out of the booke of Iob you have seen this out of the Gospell And further then this there is no naming of Iobs person or his booke in the new Testament Saint Hierome confesses that both the Greeke and Latine Copies of this booke were so defective in his time that seven or eight hundred verses of the originall were wanting in the booke And for the originall it selfe he says Obliquus totus liber fertur lubricus it is an uncertaine and slippery book But this is onely for the sense of some places of the book And that made the authority of this book to be longer suspended in the Church and oftner called into question by particular men then any other book of the Bible But in those who have for many ages received this book for Canonicall there is an unanime acknowledgement at least tacitely that this peece of it this text When after my skin wormes shall destroy my body yet in my flesh I shall see God does establish the Resurrection Divide the expositors into three branches for so the world will needs divide them The first the Roman Church will call theirs though they have no other title to them but that they received the same translation that they doe And all they use this text for the resurrection Verba viri in gentilitate positi erubescamus It is a shame for us who have the word of God it selfe which Iob had not and have had such a commentary such an exposition upon al the former word of God as the reall and actuall and visible resurrection of Christ himselfe Erubescamus verba viri in gentilitate positi let us be ashamed and confounded if Iob a person that lived not within the light of the covenant saw the resurrection more clearly and professed it more constantly then we doe And as this Gregory of Rome so Gregory Nyssen understood Iob too For he considers Iobs case thus God promised Iob twofold of all that he had lost And in his sheep and camels and oxen and asses which were utterly destroyed and brought to nothing God performes it punctually he had all in a double proportion But Iob had seven sonnes and three daughters before and God gives him but seven sonnes and three daughters againe And yet Iob had twofold of these too for Postnati cum prioribus numerantur quia omnes deo vivunt Those which were gone and those which were new given lived all one life because they lived all in God Necquicquam aliud est mors nisi viti ositatis expiatio Death is nothing else but a devesting of those defects which made us lesse fit for God And therefore agreeably to this purpose says Saint Cyprian Scimus non amitti sed praemitti thy dead are not lost but lent Non recedere sed praecedere They are not gone into any other wombe then we shall follow them into nec acquirendae atrae vestes pro iis qui albis induuntur neither should we put on blacks for them that are clothed in white nor mourne for them that are entred into their Masters joy We can enlarge our selfes no farther in this consideration of the first branch of expositors but that all the ancients tooke occasion from this text to argue for the resurrection Take into your Consideration the other two branches of moderne expositors whom others sometimes contumeliously and themselves sometimes perversly have call'd Lutherans and Calvinists and you may know that in the first ranke Osiander and with him all his interpret these words so And in the other ranke Tremellius and Pellicanus heretofore Polanus lately and Piscator for the present All these and all the Translators into the vulgar tongues of all our neighbours of Europe do all establish the doctrine of the Resurrection by these words this place of Iob. And therefore though one and truly for any thing I know but one though one to whom we all owe much for the interpretation of the Scriptures do think that Iob intends no other resurrection in this place but that when he shall be reduc'd to the miserablest estate that can bee in this life still he will look upon God and trust in him for his restitution and reparation in this life let us with the whole Christian Church embrace and magnifie this Holy and Heroicall Spirit of Iob Scio says he I know it which is more in him then the Credo is in us more to know it then in that state then to believe it now after it hath been so evidently declar'd not onely to be a certain truth but to be an article of faith Scio Redemptorem says he I know not onely a Creator but a Redeemer And Redemptorem meum My Redeemer which implies a confidence and a personall application of that Redemption to himself Scio vivere says he I know that he lives I know that hee begunne not in his Incarnation I know he ended not in his death but it always was and is now and shall for ever be true Vivit that he lives still And then Scio venturum says he too I know hee shall stand at the last day to Judge me and all the world And after that and after my skinne and body is destroyed by worms yet in my flesh I shall see God And so have you as much as we proposed for our first part That the Jews do now that they always did believe a Resurrection That as naturall men and by naturall reason they might know it both in the possibility of the thing and in the purpose of God that they had better helpes then naturall reason for they had divers places of their Scripture and that this place of Scripture which is our text hath evermore been received for a proof of the Resurrection Proceed we now to those particulars which constitute our second part such instructions concerning the Resurrection as arise out of these words Though after my skinne worms destroy my body yet in my flesh I shall see God In this second part the first thing that was propos'd was That the Saints of God are not priviledg'd from this which fell upon Iob This Death this dissolution after death Upon the Morte morieris that double death interminated by God upon Adam there is a Non obstante Revertere turn to God and thou shalt not dy the death not the second
receiving an inestimable benefit at the hands of God which was the first reason of kneeling then And because the Priest is then in the act of prayer in their behalfe that that may preserve them in body and soule unto eternall life But they are suffered to go one in kneeling in adoration of that bread which they take to be God We deny not that there are Traditions nor that there must be ceremonies but that matters of faith should depend of these or be made of these that we deny and that they should be made equall to Scriptures for with that especially doth Tertullian reproch the Heretiques that being pressed with Scriptures they fled to Traditions as things equall or superiour to the word of God I am loth to depart from Tertullian both because he is every where a Patheticall expresser of himselfe and in this point above himselfe Nobis curiositate opus non est post Iesum Christum nec Inquisitione post Evangelium Have we seen that face of Christ Jesus here upon earth which Angels desired to see and would we see a better face Traditions perfecter then the word Have we read the four Evangelists and would we have a better Library Traditions fuller then the word Cum credimusâ— nihil desideramus ultra credere when I beleeve God in Christ dead and risen againe according to the Scriptures I have nothing else to beleeve Hoc enim prius credimus non esse quod ultra credere debeamus This is the first Article of my Faith that I am bound to beleeve nothing but articles of faith in an equall necessity to them Will we be content to be well and thank God when we are well Hilary tells us when we are well Bene habet quod iis quae scripta sunt contentus sis then thou art well when thou satisfiest thy self with those things which God hath vouchsafed to manifest in the Scriptures Si aliquis aliis verbis quà m quibus à Deo dictum est demonstrare velit if any man will speake a new language otherwise then God hath spoken and present new Scriptures as he does that makes traditions equall to them Aut ipse non intelligit aut legentibus non intelligendum relinquit either he understands not himself or I may very well be content not to understand him if I understand God without him The Fathers abound in this opposing of Traditions when out of those traditions our adversaries argue an insufficiency in the Scriptures Solus Christus audiendus says Saint Cyprian we hearken to none but Christ nec debemus attendere quid aliquis ante nos faciendum putarit neither are we to consider what any man before us thought fit to be done sed quid qui ante emnes est fecerit but what he who is before all them did Christ Iesus and his Apostles who were not onely the primitive but the pre-primitive Church did and appointed to be done In this treading down of our grasse then in the Roman Church first by their supine Ignorance and barbarisme and then by traditions of which some are pestilently iufectious and destroy good words some cover it so as that not being declared to the people in their signification they are uselesse to them no Babylon could exceed the Italian Babylon Rome in treading down their grasse Their oppression was as great in the other In troubling their water My sheep drink that which you have troubled When the Lord is our shepherd he leadeth us ad aquas quietudinum to the waters of rest of quietnesse of these in the plurall quietudinum quietness of body and quietness of Conscience too The endowments of heaven are Ioy and Glory joy and glory are the two Elements the two Hemispheres of Heaven And of this Joy and this Glory of heaven we have the best earnest that this world can give if we have rest satisfaction and acquiescence in our religion for our beleefe and for our life and actions peace of Conscience And where the Lord is our shepherd he leads us and ad aquas quietudinum to the waters of rest multiplyed rest all kind of rest But the shepherds in our text troubled the waters and more then so for we have just cause to note the double signification of this word which we translate Trouble and to transfer the two significations to the two Sacraments as they are exhibited in the Roman Babylon The word is Mirpas and it denotes not onely Conturbationem a troubling a mudding but Obturationem too an interception a stopping as the Septuagint translates it Prov. 35. and in these two significations of the word a troubling and a stopping of the waters hath the Roman Church exercised her tyranny and her malignity in the two Sacraments For in the Sacrament of Baptisme they had troubled the water with additions of Oile and salt and spittle and exorcismes But in the other Sacrament of they came Ad obturationem to a stopping to an intercision to an interruption of the water the water of life Aquae quietudinum the water of rest to our souls and peace to our consciences in withholding the Cup of salvation the bloud of Christ Jesus from us So that if thou come to Davids holy expostulation Quid retribuam what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me And pursue it to Davids holy resolution Accipiam Calicem I will take the Cup of salvation you shall be told Sir you must take Orders first or you cannot take that Cup. But water is as common as Aire And as that Element Aire in our spirituall food that is preaching which is Spiritus Domini the breath of God is common to all Iâ—e praedicate omni Creaturae goe preach the Gospell to every Creature so is this water of life in the Sacrament common to all Bibite ex eo omnes Drink yee all of this and thereby doe the names of Communion and participation accrew to it because all have an interest in it This is that bloud of which Saint Chrysostome says Hic sanguis facit ut Imago Dei in nobis floreat That we have the Image of God in our souls we have by the benefit of the same nature by which we have our souls There cannot be a humane soule without the Image of God in it But ut floreat that this Image appear to us and be continually refreshed in us ut non Languescat animae nobilitas that this holy noblenesse of the soule doe not languish not degenerate in us we have by the benefit of this bloud of Christ Iesus the seale of our absolution in that blessed and glorious Sacrament And that bloud they deny us This is that bloud of which they can make as much as they will with a thought with an intention so as they pretend a power of changing a whole vintage at once all the wine of all the nations in the world into the bloud of Christ if the Priest have an intention to
1000 The infection grew hotter and hotter in Rome their may came to a must those things which were done before de facto came at last to be articles of Faith and de jure must be beleeved and practised upon salvation They chide us for going away and they drove us away If we abstained from communicating with their poysons being now growen to that height they excommunicated us They gave us no room amongst them but the fire and they were so forward to burne Heretiques that they called it heresie not to stay to be burnt Yet we went not upon their driving but upon Gods calling As the whole prophecy of the deliverance of Israel from Babylon belongs to the Christian Church both to the Primitive Church at first and to the Reformed since so doth that voice spoken to them reach unto us Egredimini de Babylone Goe ye out of Babylon with a voice of singing declare show to the ends of the earth that the Lord hath redeemed his servant Iacob For that Rome is not Babylon they have but that one half-comfort that one of their own authors hath ministred that Romae regulariter male agitur that Babylon is Confusion disorder but at Rome all sinnes are committed in order by the book and they know the price and therefore Rome is not Babylon And since that many of their authors confesse that Rome was Babylon in the time of the persecuting Emperours and that Rome shall be Babylon againe in the time of Antichrist how they will hedge in a Ierusalem a holy City between these two Babylons is a cunning peece of Architecture From this Babylon then were our Fathers called by God not onely by that whispering sibilation of the holy Ghost sibilabâ— populum I will hisse for my people and so gather them for I have redeemed them and they shall increase not onely by private inspirations but by generall acclamations every where principall writers and preachers and Princes too as much as could stand with their safety crying out against them before Luther howsoever they will needs doe him that honour to have been the first mover in this blessed revolution They reproach to us our going from them when they drove us and God drew us and they discharge themselves for all by this one evasion That all that we complain of is the fault of the Court of Rome and not of the Church of the extortion in the practise of their Officers not of error in the doctrine of their Teachers Let that be true as in a great part it is for almost all their errors proceed from their covetousness and love of money this is that that we complain most of and in this especially lies the conformity of the Iewish Priests in the Chaldean Babylon and these Prelates in the Roman Babylon that the Court and the Church joined in the oppression But since the Court of Rome and the Church of Rome are united in one head I see no use of this distinction Court and Church If the Church of Rome be above the Court the Church is able to amend these corruptions in the Court If the Court be got above the Church the Church hath lost or sold away her supremacy To oppresse us and ease themselves now when we are gone from them they require Miracles at out hands when indeed it was miracle enough how we got from them But magnum charitatis argumentum credere absque pignoribus miraculorum He loves God but a little that will not beleeve him without a miracle Miracles are for the establishing of new religions All the miracles of and from Christ and his Apostles are ours because their Religion is ours Indeed it behooves our adversaries to provide new miracles every day because they make new articles of Faith every day As Esop therefore answered in the Market when he that sold him was asked what he could do that he could do nothing because his fellow had said that he could do all so we say we can do no miracles because they do all all ordinary cures of Agues and tooth-ach being done by miracle amongst them We confesse that we have no such tye upon the Triumphant Church to make the Saints there do those anniversary miracles which they do by their reliques here upon their own holy days ten days sooner every year then they did before the new computation We pretend not to raise the dead but to cure the sick and that but by the ordinary Physique the Word and Sacraments and therefore need no miracles And we remember them of their own authors who do not onely say that themselves do no miracles in these latter times but assigne diligently strong reasons why it is that they doe none If all this will not serve we must tell them that we have a greater miracle then any that they produce that is that in so few years they that forsook Rome were become equall even in number to them that adhered to her We say with Saint Augustine That if we had no other miracle hoc unum stupendum potentissimum miraculum esse that this alone were the most powerfull and most a mazing miracle ad hanc religionem totius orbis amplitudinem sine miraculis subjugatam that so great a part of the Christian world should become Protestants of Papists without any miracles They pursue us still being departed from them and they aske us How can ye pretend to have left Babylon confusion Dissention when you have such dissentions confusions amongst your selves But neither are our differences in so fundamental points as theirs are for a principall author of their own who was employed by Clement the eight to reconcile the differences between the Iesuits and the Dominicans about the concurrence of the grace of God and the free will of man confesses that the principall articles and foundations of faith were shaken between them between the Iesuits and Dominicans neither shall we finde such heat and animosity and passion between any persons amongst us as between the greatest amongst them The succeeding Pope mangling the body of his predecessor casting them into the river for buriall disannulling all their decrees and ordinations their Ordinations so that no man could be sure who was a Priest nor whether he had truely received any Sacrament or no. Howsoever as in the narrowest way there is most justling the Roman Church going that broad way to beleeve as the Church beleeves may scape some particular differences which we that goe the narrower way to try every thing by the exact word of God may fall into Saint Augustine tells us of a City in Mauritania Caesarea in which they had a custome that in one day in the year not onely Citizens of other parishes but even neighbours yea brethren yea Fathers did fling stones dangerously and furiously at one another in the streets and this they so solemnized as a custome received from their
If wee winke wee cannot chuse but see it if we stare wee know it never the better No man is yet got so neare to the knowledge of the qualities of light as to know whether light it selfe be a quality or a substance If then this naturall light be so darke to our naturall reason if wee shall offer to pierce so far into the light of this text the Essentiall light Christ Iesus in his nature or but in his offices or the supernaturall light of faith and grace how far faith may be had and yet lost and how far the freewill of man may concur and cooperate with grace and yet still remaine nothing in it selfe if wee search farther into these points then the Scripture hath opened us a way how shall wee hope to unentangle or extricate our selves They had a precious composition for lamps amongst the ancients reserved especially for Tombes which kept light for many hundreds of yeares we have had in our age experience in some casuall openings of ancient vaults of finding such lights as were kindled as appeared by their inscriptions fifteen or sixteen hundred years before but as soon as that light comes to our light it vanishes So this eternall and this supernaturall light Christ and faith enlightens warmes purges and does all the profitable offices of fire and light if we keep it in the right spheare in the proper place that is if wee consist in points necessary to salvation and revealed in the Scripture but when wee bring this light to the common light of reason to our inferences and consequencies it may be in danger to vanish it selfe and perchance extinguish our reason too we may search so far and reason so long of faith and grace as that we may lose not onely them but even our reason too and sooner become mad then good Not that we are bound to believe any thing against reason that is to believe we know not why It is but a slacke opinion it is not Beliefe that is not grounded upon reason He that should come to a Heathen man a meere naturall man uncatechized uninstructed in the rudiments of the Christian Religion and should at first without any preparation present him first with this necessitie Thou shalt burn in fire and brimstone eternally except thou believe a Trinitie of Persons in an unitie of one God Except thou believe the Incarnation of the second Person of the Trinitie the Sonne of God Except thou believe that a Virgine had a Soone and the same Sonne that God had and that God was Man too and being the immortall God yet died he should be so farre from working any spirituall cure upon this poore soule as that he should rather bring Christian Mysteries into scorne then him to a beliefe For that man if you proceed so Believe all or you burne in Hell would finde an easie an obvious way to escape all that is first not to believe Hell it selfe and then nothing could binde him to believe the rest The reason therefore of Man must first be satisfied but the way of such satisfaction must be this to make him see That this World a frame of so much harmony so much concinnitie and conveniencie and such a correspondence and subordination in the parts thereof must necessarily have had a workeman for nothing can make it selfe That no such workeman would deliver over a frame and worke of so much Majestie to be governed by Fortune casually but would still retain the Administration thereof in his owne hands That if he doe so if he made the World and sustaine it still by his watchfull Providence there belongeth a worship and service to him for doing so That therefore he hath certainly revealed to man what kinde of worship and service shall be acceptable to him That this manifestation of his Will must be permanent it must be written there must be a Scripture which is his Word and his Will And that therefore from that Scripture from that Word of God all Articles of our Beliefe are to bee drawne If then his Reason confessing all this aske farther proofe how he shall know that these Scriptures accepted by the Christian Church are the true Scriptures let him bring any other Booke which pretendeth to be the Word of God into comparison with these It is true we have not a Demonstration not such an Evidence as that one and two are three to prove these to be Scriptures of God God hath not proceeded in that manner to drive our Reason into a pound and to force it by a peremptory necessitie to accept these for Scriptures for then here had been no exercise of our Will and our assent if we could not have resisted But yet these Scriptures have so orderly so sweet and so powerfull a working upon the reason and the understanding as if any third man who were utterly discharged of all preconceptions and anticipations in matter of Religion one who were altogether neutrall disinteressed unconcerned in either party nothing towards a Turke and as little toward a Christian should heare a Christian pleade for his Bible and a Turke for his Alcoran and should weigh the evidence of both the Majesty of the Style the punctuall accomplishment of the Prophecies the harmony and concurrence of the foure Evangelists the consent and unanimity of the Christian Church ever since and many other such reasons he would be drawne to such an Historicall such a Grammaticall such a Logicall beliefe of our Bible as to preferre it before any other that could be pretended to be the Word of God He would believe it and he would know why he did so For let no man thinke that God hath given him so much ease here as to save him by believing he knoweth not what or why Knowledge cannot save us but we cannot be saved without Knowledge Faith is not on this side Knowledge but beyond it we must necessarily come to Knowledge first though we must not stay at it when we are come thither For a regenerate Christian being now a new Creature hath also a new facultie of Reason and so believeth the Mysteries of Religion out of another Reason then as a meere naturall Man he believed naturall and morall things He believeth them for their own sake by Faith though he take Knowledge of them before by that common Reason and by those humane Arguments which worke upon other men in naturall or morall things Divers men may walke by the Sea side and the same beames of the Sunne giving light to them all one gathereth by the benefit of that light pebles or speckled shells for curious vanitie and another gathers precious Pearle or medicinall Ambar by the same light So the common light of reason illumins us all but one imployes this light upon the searching of impertinent vanities another by a better use of the same light finds out the Mysteries of Religion and when he hath found them loves them not for the lights sake but for the naturall and
true worth of the thing it self Some men by the benefit of this light of Reason have found out things profitable and usefull to the whole world As in particular Printing by which the learning of the whole world is communicacable to one another and our minds and our inventions our wits and compositions may trade and have commerce together and we may participate of one anothers understandings as well as of our Clothes and Wines and Oyles and other Merchandize So by the benefit of this light of reason they have found out Artillery by which warres come to quicker ends then heretofore and the great expence of bloud is avoyded for the numbers of men slain now since the invention of Artillery are much lesse then before when the sword was the executioner Others by the benefit of this light have searched and found the secret corners of gaine and profit wheresoever they lie They have found wherein the weakenesse of another man consisteth and made their profit of that by circumventing him in a bargain They have found his riotous and wastefull inclination and they have fed and fomented that disorder and kept open that leake to their advantage and the others ruine They have found where was the easiest and most accessible way to sollicite the Chastitie of a woman whether Discourse Musicke or Presents and according to that discovery they have pursued hers and their own eternall destruction By the benefit of this light men see through the darkest and most impervious places that are that is Courts of Princes and the greatest Officers in Courts and can submit themselves to second and to advance the humours of men in great place and so make their profit of the weakenesses which they have discovered in these great men All the wayes both of Wisdome and of Craft lie open to this light this light of naturall reason But when they have gone all these wayes by the benefit of this light they have got no further then to have walked by a tempestuous Sea and to have gathered pebles and speckled cockle shells Their light seems to be great out of the same reason that a Torch in a misty night seemeth greater then in a clear because it hath kindled and inflamed much thicke and grosse Ayre round about it So the light and wisedome of worldly men seemeth great because he hath kindled an admiration or an applause in Aiery flatterers not because it is so in deed But if thou canst take this light of reason that is in thee this poore snuffe that is almost out in thee thy saint and dimme knowledge of God that riseth out of this light of nature if thou canst in those embers those cold ashes finde out one small coale and wilt take the paines to kneell downe and blow that coale with thy devout Prayers and light thee a little candle a desire to read that Booke which they call the Scriptures and the Gospell and the Word of God If with that little candle thou canst creep humbly into low and poore places if thou canst finde thy Saviour in a Manger and in his swathing clouts in his humiliation and blesse God for that beginning if thou canst finde him flying into Egypt and finde in thy selfe a disposition to accompany him in a persecution in a banishment if not a bodily banishment a locall banishment yet a reall a spirituall banishment a banishment from those sinnes and that sinnefull conversation which thou hast loved more then thy Parents or Countrey or thine owne body which perchance thou hast consumed and destroyed with that sinne if thou canst finde him contenting and containing himselfe at home in his fathers house and not breaking out no not about the worke of our salvation till the due time was come when it was to be done And if according to that example thou canst contain thy selfe in that station and vocation in which God hath planted thee and not through a hasty and precipitate zeale breake out to an imaginary and intempestive and unseasonable Reformation either in Civill or Ecclesiasticall businesse which belong not to thee if with this little poore light these first degrees of Knowledge and Faith thou canst follow him into the Garden and gather up some of the droppes of his precious Bloud and sweat which he shed for thy soule if thou canst follow him to Ierusalem and pick up some of those teares which he shed upon that City and upon thy soule if thou canst follow him to the place of his scourging and to his crucifying and provide thee some of that balme which must cure thy soule if after all this thou canst turne this little light inward and canst thereby discerne where thy diseases and thy wounds and thy corruptions are and canst apply those teares and blood and balme to them all this is That if thou attend the light of naturall reason and cherish that and exalt that so that that bring thee to a love of the Scriptures and that love to a beleefe of the truth thereof and that historicall faith to a faith of application of appropriation that as all those things were certainly done so they were certainly done for thee thou shalt never envy the lustre and glory of the great lights of worldly men which are great by the infirmity of others or by their own opinion great because others think them great or because they think themselves so but thou shalt finde that howsoever they magnifie their lights their wit their learning their industry their fortune their favour and sacrifice to their owne nets yet thou shalt see that thou by thy small light hast gathered Pearle and Amber and they by their great lights nothing but shels and pebles they have determined the light of nature upon the booke of nature this world and thou hast carried the light of nature higher thy naturall reason and even humane arguments have brought thee to reade the Scriptures and to that love God hath set to the seale of faith Their light shall set at noone even in their heighth some heavy crosse shall cast a damp upon their soule and cut off all their succours and devest them of all comforts and thy light shall grow up from a faire hope to a modest assurance and infallibility that that light shall never go out nor the works of darknesse nor the Prince of darknesse ever prevaile upon thee but as thy light of reason is exalted by faith here so thy light of faith shall be exalted into the light of glory and fruition in the Kingdome of heaven Before the sunne was made there was a light which did that office of distinguishing night and day but when the sunne was created that did all the offices of the former light and moreâ— Reason is that first and primogeniall light and goes no farther in a naturall man but in a man regenerate by faith that light does all that reason did and more and all his Morall and Civill and Domestique and indifferent actions
that in some visible in some permanent manner in writing and that that writing is Scripture if we had not these testimonies these necessary consequences derived even from the naturall reason of man to convince men how should we convince them since our way is not to create Faith but to satisfie reason And therefore let us rest in this testimony of men that all Christian men nay Iewes and Turkes too have ever beleeved that there are certain Scriptures which are the revealed will of God and that God hath manifested to us in those Scriptures all that he requires at our hands for Faith or Manners Now which are those Scriptures As for the whole body intirely together so for the particular limbs and members of this body the severall books of the Bible we must accept testimonium ab homine humane Arguments and the testimony of men At first the Jewes were the Depositaries of Gods Oracles and therefore the first Christians were to aske the Jewes which books were those Scriptures Since the Church of God is the Master of those Rolls no doubt but the Church hath Testimonium à Deo The Spirit of God to direct her in declaring what Books make up the Scripture but yet even the Church which is to deal upon men proceedeth also per testimonium ab homine by humane Arguments such as may work upon the reason of man in declaring the Scriptures of God For the New Testament there is no question made of any Book but in Conventicles of Anabaptists and for the Old it is testimony enough that we receive all that the Jews received This is but the testimony of man but such as prevails upon every man It is somewhat boldly said not to permit to our selves any severer or more bitter animadversion upon him by a great man in the Romam Church that perchance the book of Enoch which S. Iude cites in his Epistle was not an Apocryphal book but Canonicall Scripture in the time of the Iews As though the holy Ghost were a time-server and would sometimes issue some things for present satisfaction which he would not avow nor stand to after as though the holy Ghost had but a Lease for certain years a determinable estate in the Scriptures which might expire and he be put from his evidence that that book might become none of his which was his before We therefore in receiving these books for Canonicall which we do and in post-posing the Apochryphall into an inferior place have testimonium ab homine testimony from the People of God who were and are the most competent and unreproachable witnesses herein and we have Testimonium ab inimico testimony from our adversary himself Perniciosius est Ecclesiae librum recipere pro sacro qui non est quà m sacrum rejicere It is a more pernicious danger to the Church to admit a book for Canonicall which is not so then to reject one that is so And therefore ne turberis novitie saith another great Author of theirs Let no young student in Divinity be troubled si alicubi repererit libros istos supputari inter Canonicos if he finde at any time any of these books reckned amongst the Canonical nam ad Hiero. limam verba Doctorum Concilio rum reducenda for saith he Hieroms file must passe over the Doctors and over the Councels too and they must be understood and interpreted according to S. Hier. now this is but testimonium ab homine S. Hier. testimony that prevailed upon Cajetan and it was but testimonium ab homine the testimony of the Iews that prevailed upon S. Hierom himself It is so for the whole body The bible it is so for all the limbs of this body every particular book of the Bible and it is so for the soul of this body the true sense of every place of very book thereof for for that the sense of the place we must have testimonium ab homine the testimony that is the interpretation of other men Thou must not rest upon thy self nor upon any private man Iohn was a witnesse that had witnesses the Prophets had prophesied of Iohn Baptist. The men from whom we are to receive testimony of the sense of the Scriptures must be men that have witnesses that is a visible and outward calling in the Church of God That no sense be ever admitted that derogateth from God that makes him a false or an impotent or a cruell God That every contradiction and departing from the Analogy of Faith doth derogate from God and divers such grounds and such inferences as every man confesses and acknowledges to be naturally and necessarily consequent these are Testimonia ab homine Testimonies that passe like currant money from man to man obvious to every man suspicious to none Thus it is in the generall but then when it is deduced to a more particular triall what is the sense of such or such a place when Christ saith Scrutamini Scripturas search the Scriptures non mittit ad simplicem lectionem sed ad scrutationem exquisitam It is not a bare reading but a diligent searching that is enjoyned us Now they that will search must have a warrant to search they upon whom thou must rely for the sense of the Scriptures must be sent of God by his Church Thou art robbed of all devested of all if the Scriptures be taken from thee Thou hast no where to search blesse God therefore that hath kept thee in possession of that sacred Treasure the Scriptures and then if any part of that treasure ly out of thy reach or ly in the dark so as that thou understandest not the place search that is apply thy self to them that have warrant to search and thou shalt lack no light necessary for thee Either thou shalt understand that place or the not understanding of it shall not be imputed to thee nor thy salvation hindred by that Ignorance It is but to a woman that Saint Hierome saith Ama Scripturas amabit te Sapientia Love the Scriptures and Wisdome will love thee The weaknesse of her Sex must not avert her from reading the Scriptures It is instruction for a Childe and for a Girle that the same Father giveth Septem annorum discat memoriter Psalterium As soone as she is seaven yeares old let her learn all the Psalmes without book the tendernesse of her age must not avert her from the Scriptures It is to the whole Congregation consisting of all sorts and sexes that Saint Chrysostome saith Hortor hortari non desinam I alwayes doe and alwayes will exhort you ut cum domi fueritis assiduae lectioni Scripturarum vacetis that at home in your owne houses you accustome your selves to a dayly reading of the Scriptures And after to such men as found or forced excuses for reading them he saith with compassion and indignation too O homo non est tuum Scripturas evolvere
quia innumeris curis distraheris Busie man belongeth it not to thee to study the Scriptures because thou art oppressed with worldly businesse Imòmagis tuum est saith he therefore thou hadst the more need to study the Scriptures Illi non tam egent c. They that are not disquieted nor disordered in their passions with the cares of this world doe not so much need that supply from the Scriptures as you that are doe It is an Authour that lived in the obedience of the Romane Church that saith the Councell of Nice did decree That every man should have the Bible in his house But another Authour in that Church saith now Consilium Chrysostomi Ecclesiae nunc non arridet The Church doth not now like Chrysostomes counsell for this generall reading of the Scriptures Quia etsi ille locutus ad plebem plebs tunc non erat haeretica Though Saint Chrysostome spoke that to the people the people in his time were not an Hereticall people And are the people in the Roman Church now an Hereticall people If not why may not they pursue Saint Chrystomes counsel and reade the Scriptures Because they are dark It is true in some places they are dark purposely left so by the Holy Ghost ne semel lectas fastidiremus lest we should think we had done when we had read them once so saith S. Gregory too In plain places fami occurrit he presents meat for every stomach In hard and dark places fastidia detergit he sharpens the appetite Margarita est undique perforari potest the Scripture is a Pearl and might be bored through every where Not every where by thy self there may be many places which thou of thy self canst not understand not every where by any other man no not by them who have warrant to search Commission from God by their calling to interpret the Scriptures not every where by the whole Church God hath reserved the understanding of some places of Scripture till the time come for the fulfilling of those Prophecies as many places of the Old Testament were not understood till Christ came in whom they were fulfilled If therefore thou wilt needs know whether when Saint Paul took his information of the behaviour of the Corinthians from those of Chloe whether this Chloe were a woman or a place the Fathers cannot satisfie thee the latter Writers cannot satisfie thee there is not Testimonium ab homine no such humane Arguments as can determine thee or give thee an Acquittance the greatest pillars whom God hath raised in his Church cannot give a satisfaction to thy curiosity But if the Doctrine of the place will satisfie thee which Doctrine is that S. Paul did not give credit to light rumors against the Corinthians nor to clandestine whisperers but tells them who accused them and yet as well as he loved them he did not stop his eares against competent witnesses for he tells them they stood accused and by whom then thou maist bore this pearle thorough and make it fit for thy use and wearing in knowing so much of Saint Pauls purpose therein as concerns thy edification though thou never know whether Chloe were a Woman or a Place Tantum veritati obstrepit adulter sensus quam corruptor stylus a false interpretation may doe thee as much harme as a false translation a false Commentary as a false copy And therefore forbearing to make any interpretation at all upon dark places of Scripture especially those whose understanding depends upon the future fulfilling of prophecies in places that are clear evident thou maist be thine own interpreter In places that are more obscure goe to those men whom God hath set over thee and either they shall give thee that sense of the place which shall satisfie thee by having the sense thereof or that must satisfie you that there is enough for your salvation though that remaine uninterpreted And let this Testimonium ab homine this testimony of man establish thee for the Scripture that there is a Scripture a certaine book that is the word and the revealed will of God That these books which we receive for Canonicall make up that book And then that this and this is the true sense of every place which the holy Ghost hath opened to the present understanding of his Church We said before that a Christian being a Common-wealth to himselfe the Scripture was his law and for that law that Scripture he was to have Testimonium ab homine the testimony of man And then his Conscience is his Iudge and for that he is to have the same testimony too Thou must not rest upon the testimony and suggestions of thine owne conscience Nec illud de trivio paratum habere thou must not rest in that vulgar saying sufficit mihi c. As long as mine owne Conscience stands right I care not what all the world say Thou must care what the world says and study to have the approbation and testimony of good men Every man is enough defamed in the generall depravation of our whole natureÌ„ Adam hath cast an infamy upon us all And when a man is defamed it is not enough that he purge himselfe by oath but he must have compurgators too other men must sweare that they beleeve he sweares a truth Thine owne conscience is not enough but thou must â—atisfie the world and have Testimonium ab homine good men must thinke thee good A conscience that admits no search from others is cauterizata burnt with a hot Iron not cured but seared not at peace but stupefied And when in the verse immediately before our text it is said That Iohn came to beare witnesse of that light it is added that through him that is through that man through Iohn not through it through that light that through him all men beleeve For though it be efficiently the operation of the light it selfe that is Christ himselfe that all men beleeve yet the holy Ghost directs us to that that is nearest us to this testimony of man that instrumentally ministerially works this beliefe in men If then for thy faith thou must have testimonium ab homine the testimony of men and maist not beleeve as no man but thy selfe beleeves much more for thy manners and conversation Thinke it not enough to satisfie thy self but satisfie good men nay weake men nay malicious men till it come so far as that for the desire of satisfying man thou leave God unsatisfied endeavour to satisfie all God must waigh down all thy selfe and others but as long as thy selfe onely art in one balance and other men in the other let this preponderate let the opinion of other men waigh downe thine owne opinion of thy selfe 'T is true but many men flatter themselves too far with this truth that it is a sin to do any thing in Conscientiâ dubiâ when a man doubts whether he may doe it or no and in
a widow Nubat in Domino saith the Apostle In Gods name let her marry But the former husband must be dead The husbands absence makes not the wife a widow nor doth the necessary and lawfull absence of the Pastor make the Church vacant The sicknesse of the husband makes not a widow The bodily weaknesse nay the spirituall weaknes of the Pastor in case that his parts and abilities and faculties be grown but weak do not make his Church vacant If the Pastor be suspended or otherwise censured this is but as a separation or as a divorce and as the wife is not a widow upon a divorce so neither is the Church vacant upon such censures And therefore for them that take advantages upon the weaknesses or upon the disgrace or upon the povertie of any such incumbent and so insinuate themselves into his Church this is intrusion this is spirituall adultery for the husband is not dead though he be sick Nay if they would remove him by way of preferment yet that is a supplantation when Iacob had Esau by the heel whether he kept him in till he might be strong enough to goe out before him or whether he pushed him out before he would have gone Iacob was a supplanter Some few cases are put when a wife becomes as a widow her husband living but regularly it is by death In some few cases Churches may otherwise be vacant but regularly it is by death And then Esto vidua in Domâ— Patris saith Iudah to Thamar Remain a widow at thy fathers house Then the Church remaineth in the house in the hands of her Father the Bishop of that Diâ—ces till a new husband be lawfully tendred unto her And till that time as our Saviour Christ recommended his most blessed Mother to Saint Iohn but not as a wife so that Bishop delivers that Church to the care and administration of some other during her widowhood till by due course she become the wife of another Thus our calling is a mariage It should have honour It must have labour and it is a lawfull mariage upon a just and equitable vacancy of the place without any supplantation upon death And then it is upon death of a brother If brethren dwell together and one of them die and have no childe the wife c. Aswell Saint Gregory as Saint Augustine before interpret this of our elder our eldest brother Christ Iesus That hee being dead we mary his wife the Church and become husbands to her But Christ in that capacity as he is head of the Church cannot die That to which the application of this law leads us is That predecessor and successor bee brethren of the same faith and the same profession of faith The Sadduces put a case to Christ of a woman maried successively to seven men let seven signifie infinite still those seven were brethren How often soever any wife change her husband any Church her Pastor God sends us still a succession of brethren sincere and unfeigned Preachers of the same truth sonnes of the same father Who is that father God is our Father Have we not all one Father says the Prophet Yes we have and so a worme and we are brethren by the same father and mother the same God the same Earth Hath not the raine a father The raine hath and the same that wee have More narrowly and yet very largely Christ is our father One of his names is The everlasting Father And then after these after God after Christ the King is our father See my father the skirt of thy robe in my hand says David to his King Saul Now if any husband should be offered to any widow any Pastor to any vacant Church who were not our brother by all these fathers in a right beliefe in God the Father of all men in a right profession of Christ Iesus the Father of all Christians in a right affection and allegiance to the King the Father of all Subjects Any that should incline to a forain father an imaginary universall father he of whom his Vice-fathers his Junior fathers the Iesuites for all the Jesuits are Fathers says That the Fathers of the Church are but sons and not fathers to him They that say to a stock to the Image of the beast Thou art my father who not in a sense of humiliation as Iob speaks the words but of pride say to corruption Thou art my father that is that prostrate themselves to all the corruptions of a prostitute Church If any so inclined of himself or so inclinable if occasion should invite him or rather tempt him be offered for husband to any widow for a Pastor to any vacant Church he is not within the accommodation of this law hee is not our brother by the whole bloud who hath not a brotherhood rooted in the same religion and in the allegiance to the same Soveraign He must be a brother and Frater Cohabitans a brother dwelling with the former brother As he is a brother we consider the unity of faith As he dwels in the same house we consider the unity of discipline That as he beleeves and professes the same articles of faith so by his own obedience and by his instructing of others hee establish the same government A Schismatique is no more a brother to this purpose then an Heretique If we look well we shall see that Christ provided better for his garments then for his flesh he suffered his flesh to be torn but not his seamlesse garment There may bee in many cases more mischief in disobeying the uniformity of the discipline of the Church then in mistaking in opinion some doctrine of the Church Wee see in Gods institution of his first Church whom he called brethren Those who were instructed and cunning in the songs of the Church they are called brethren To oppose the orders of the Church solemnly ordained or customarily admitted for the advancement of Gods glory and the devotion of the Congregation forfeits this brotherhood or at least discontinues the purpose and use of it for howsoever they may bee in a kinde brothers if they succeed in the profession of the same faith yet wee see where the blessednesse is settled Blessed are they that dwell in thy house And we see where the goodnesse and the pleasantnesse is settled Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity So that if they be not brothers in the same faith and brothers in the same houshold of the faithfull and brothers in the same allegiance If they advance not the truth of the Church and the peace of the Church and the head of the Church fomentors of Error and of Schisme and Sedition are not husbands for these widows Pastors for these Churches Hee must bee a brother A brother dwelling in the same house of Christ and then brother to one
question because I can have no certaine answer and it is an infectious question too for here is one coale of the Devils fire of his pride kindled in me as the Devil said Similis ere Altissimo I will be like the Highest and see whether I may not stand by my selfe without any Influence from God without any Dependance upon God so in our case I will be so farre equall to God as that I will measure his actions by my reason and nor doe his Commandements till I know why he commanded them And then when the infection is got into a House who can say it shall end here in this Person and kill no more or it shall end this weeke and last no longer So if that infectious inquisition that Quare Why should God command this or this perticular be entred into me all my Humilitie is presently infected and I shall looke for a reason why God made a world or why he made a world no sooner then 6000. yeares agoe and why he sayes some and why but some and I shall examine God upon all the Interrogatories that I can frame upon the Creed why I should believe a Sonne of a Virgin without a Man or believe the Sonne of God to descend into Hell Or frame upon the Pater Noster why I should worship such a God that must be prayed to not to leade me into tentation Or frame upon the Ten Commandements why after all is done and heapt for any sinfull action yet I should be guilty of all for covering in my heart another mans horse or house And therfore Luther pursues it farther with words of more vehemence Odiosa exitialis vocule Quare It is an Execrable and Damnable Monasillable Why it exasperates God it ruines us For when we come to aske a reason of his actions either we doubt of the goodnesse of God that he is not so carefull of us as we would be or of his power that he cannot provide for us so well as we could doe or of his wisdome that he hath not grounded his Commandements so well as we could have advised him whereas Saint Augustine saies justly Qui rationem quaerit voluntatis Dei aliquid majus Deo quaerit He that seekes a reason of the will of God seekes for something greater then God It was the Devill that opened our eies in Paradise it is our parts to shut them so farre as not to gaze upon Gods secret purposes God guided his Children as well by a Pillar of Cloud as by a Pillar of Fire and both Cloud and Fire were equally Pillars There is as much strength in and as safe relying upon some ignorances as some knowledges for God provided for his people as well in this that he did Moses body from them as that he revealed other Mysteries to them by him All is well summ'd and collected by Saint Augustine Dominus cur jusserit viderit faciendum est à serviente quod jusserit Why God commands any thing God himselfe knowes our part is not to enquire why by to doe what he commands This is the Rule 'T is true there should not be but yet is there not sometimes in the minds and mouths of good and godly men a Quare a reasoning a disputing against that which God hath commanded or done The murmuring of the Children in the Desert had still this Quare Quare eduxisti Wherefore have you brought us hither to die here in this miserable place where there is no Seed no Figges no Vines no Pomegrantes no Water Saul had this Quare this rebellious inquisition upon that Commandement of God against the Amalekites Slay both Man and Woman Infant and Suckling Oxe and Sheepe Camell and Asse And from this Quare from this disputation of his arose that conclusion That it were better to spare some for Sacrifice then to destroy all But though his pretence had a religious colour that would not justifie a slacknesse in obeying the manifested will of God for for this God repented that he made him King and told him that he had more pleasure in Obedience then in Sacrifice But to come to better men then the Israelites in the Wildernesse or Saul in his Government Iob though he and his Friends held out long They sate upon the ground even daies and seven nights and none spoke a word yet at last fell into these Quares Why did I not die in the birth or why sucked I the breast Peter himselfe had this reluctation and though that were out of piety yet he was chidden for it Quare lavas saies he Lord doest thou wash my feet thou shalt never wash my feet till Christ was faine to say If I wash thee not thou shalt have no part with me Upon this common infirmitie inherent in the best men that may and not unlikely be that when God commanded Abraham at that great age to circumcise himselfe there might arise such Quares such scruples and doubts as there in Abrahams minde for as Saint Paul saies of himselfe If any man thinke he hath whereof to trust in the flesh much more I Circumcised an Hebrew an Israelite a Pharisee a Zealous Servant in the persecution and in righteousnesse unblameable So if any man might have taken this libertie to have disputed with God upon his precepts Abraham might have done it for when God called him out to number the Starres which was even to Art impossible and promised him that his seed should equall them which was in Nature incredible for all this Incredibilitie and Impossibilitie Abraham believed and this was accounted to him for Righteousnesse And Abraham had declared his easie and forward and implicit faith in God when God called him and he went out not knowing whither he went And therefore when God offered him a new seale Circumcision Abraham might have said Quare sigillum What needs a seale betweene thee and me I have used to take thy word before and thou hast tried me before But Abraham knew that Obedience was better then wit or disputation for though Obedience and good works do not beget faith yet they nurse it Per ea augescit fidei pinguescit saies Luther Our faith grows into a better state and into a better liking by our good works Againe when Abraham considered that it was Mandatum in re turpi That this Circumcision in it selfe was too frivolous a thing and in that part of the Bodie too obscene a thing to be brought into the fancy of so many Women so many young Men so many Strangers to other Nations as might bring the Promise and Covenant it selfe into scorne and into suspicion that should require such a seale to it as that was he might have come to this Quare tam turpe quare tam sordidum why does God command me so base and uncleane a thing so scornfull and mis-interpretable a thing as Circumcision and Circumcision in that part Againe when he considered that to Circumcise all
by nature they are Spirits but by office they are Angels and when they see so good effect of their service as that a Sinner is converted There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God Christ himselfe had a spirituall office and employment To give light to the blind and to inflict blindnesse upon those who thought they saw all And when that was done Exultavit in spiritu in that houre Christ rejoyced in the Spirit and said I thank thee ô Father Lord of Heaven and Earth c. To have something to doe to doe it and then to Rejoyce in having done it to embrace a calling to performe the Duties of that calling to joy and rest in the peacefull testimony of having done so this is Christianly done Christ did it Angelically done Angels doe it Godly done God does it As the Bridegroome rejoyceth in his Bride so doth thy God rejoyce in thee Example as well as the Rule repeats it to you Gaudete semper But how farre may we carry this joy To what outward declarations To laughing Saint Basil makes a round answer to a short question An in Universum ridere non licet May a Man laugh in no case Admodum perspicuum est It is very evident that a Man may not because Christ saies Vae vobis Wo be unto you that laugh And yet Saint Basil himselfe in another place sayes which we are rather to take in explanation than in contradiction of himselfe that that woe of Christ is cast in obstreperum Sonum non in sinceram hilaritatem upon a dissolute and undecent and immoderate laughting not upon true inward joy howsoever outwardly expressed At the promise of a Son Abraham fell on his face and laughed a religious Man and a grave Man 100 yeares old expressed this joy of his heart by this outward declaration Hierome's Translation reads it Risit in Corde he laughed within himselfe because Saint Hierome thought that was a weaknesse a declination towards unbeliefe to laugh at Gods promise as he thinks Abraham did But Saint Paul is a better Witnesse in his behalf Against hope he believed in hope he was not weake in faith he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief Quòd risit non incredulitatis sed exultation is indicium fuit his laughing was no ebbe of faith but a flood of joy It is not as S. Hierome takes it Risit in Corde putans celare deum apertè ridere non ausus he kept-in his laughing and durst not laugh out But as St. Ambrose says well Risus non irrisio diffidentis sed exultatio gratulantis he laughed not in a doubtfull scorne of Gods promise but in an overflowing of his own joy It is well expressed and well concluded O virum aeterno risu vere dignum sempiternae jueunditati bene praeparatum This was good evidence that he was a man well disposed for the joyes of heaven that he could conceive joy in the temporall blessings of God and that he thought nothing mis-becomming him that was an outward declaration of this joy It is a dangerous weaknesse to forbeare outward declarations of our sense of Gods goodnesse for feare of mis-interpretations to smother our present thankfulnesse for fear that some should say it was a levity to thank God so soon till God had done the whole work For God does sometimes leave half his work undone because he was not thanked for it When David danced and leaped and shouted before the Arke if he laughed too it mis-became him not Not to feele joy is an argument against religious tendernesse not to show that joy is an argument against thankfulnesse of the heart that is a stupidity this is a contempt A merry heart maketh a cheerfull countenance If it be within it will be without too Except I heare thee say in thine actions Gaudeo I do rejoyce I cannot know that thou hast heard the Apostle say Gaudete Joy for Gods blessings to us joy for Gods glory to himself may come ad Risum and farther Not onely ad Ridendum but ad Irridendum not onely to laugh in our own prosperity but to laugh them to scorne that would have impeached it They are put both together in God himself Ridebo and Irridebo I will laugh at your calamities and I will mock when your feare cometh And this being in that place intended of God is spoken in the person of Wisdome It mis-becomes not wisdome and gravity to laugh in Gods deliverances not to laugh to scorne those that would have blown up Gods Servants when it is carried so high as to the Kings of the Earth and the Rulers that take counsell against the Lord and against his Anoynted we may come Ad Gaudium to joy in Gods goodnesse but because their place and persons are sacred we leave the Ridere and the Irridere to God who says ver 4. That he will laugh at them and hold them in derision But at lower instruments lower persons may laugh when they fill the world with the Doctrine of killing of Kings and meane that that should animate men against such Kings as they call Heretiques and then finde in experience that this hath wrought onely to the killing of Kings of their own Religion we lament justly the event but yet we forbeare our Ridere and our Irridere at the crossing and the frustrating of their plots and practises Pharaohs Army was drowned Et Cecinit Moses Moses sung Sisera was slaine Et Cecinit Deborah Deborah sung Thus in the disappointing of Gods enemies Gods servants come to outward manifest signes of joy Not by a libellous and scurrill prophanation of persons that are sacred but in fitting Psalmes and Sermons and Prayers and publique Writings to the occasion to proceed to a Ridere and Irridere and as Saint Augustine reades that place of the Proverbs Superridere to laugh Gods Enemies into a confusion to see their Plots so often so often so often frustrated For so farre extends Gaudete Rejoyce evermore Joy then and cheerefulnesse is Sub praecepto it hath the nature of a commandment and so he departs from a commandment that departs and abandons himself into an inordinate sadnesse And therefore David chides his soule Why art thou cast down O my soul why art thou disquiesed within me And though he come after to dispute against this sadnesse of the soul which he had let in Hope yet in God and yet the Lord will command his loving kindnesse and my prayer shall be unto the God of my life yet he could not put it off but he imagines that he heares his enemies say Where is thy God and when he hath wrestled himself weary he falls back again in the last verse to his first faintnesse Why art thou cast down O my soule why art thou disquieted within me For As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather so is he that singeth Songs to