the consideration of that place where our soules should be for ever and we could consider God then but then wee could not see God in his Essence As it may be fairely argued that Christ suffered not the very torments of very hell because it is essentiall to the torments of hell to be eternall They were not torments of hell if they received an end So is it fairely argued too That neither Adam in his extasie in Paradise nor Moses in his conversation in the Mount nor the other Apostles in the Transfiguration of Christ nor S. Paul in his rapture to the third heavens saw the Essence of God because he that is admitted to that sight of God can never look off nor lose that sight againe Only in heaven shall God proceed to this patefaction this manifestation this revelation of himself And that by the light of glory The light of glory is such a light as that our School-men dare not say confidently Lux Cloris That every beam of it is not all of it When some of them say That some soules see some things in God and others others because all have not the same measure of the light of glory the rest cry down that opinion and say that as the Essence of God is indivisible and he that sees any of it sees all of it so is the light of glory communicated intirely to every blessed soul God made light first and three dayes after that light became a Sun a more glorious Light God gave me the light of Nature when I quickned in my mothers wombe by receiving a reasonable soule and God gave me the light of faith when I quickned in my second mothers womb the Church by receiving my baptisme but in my third day when my mortality shall put on immortality he shall give me the light of glory by which I shall see himself To this light of glory the light of honour is but a glow-worm and majesty it self but a twilight The Cherubims and Seraphims are but Candles and that Gospel it self which the Apostle calls the glorious Gospel but a Star of the least magnitude And if I cannot tell what to call this light by which I shall see it what shall I call that which I shall see by it The Essence of God himself and yet there is something else then this sight of God intended in that which remaines I shall not only see God face to face but I shall know him which as you have seen all the way is above sight and know him even as also I am knowne In this Consideration God alone is all in all the former there was a place Deus omnia solus and a meanes and a light here for this perfect knowledge of God God is all those Then sales the Apostle God shall be all in all Hic agit omnia in omnibus sayes S. Hierome 1 Cor. 15.28 Here God does all in all but here he does all by Instruments even in the infusing of faith he works by the Ministery of the Gospel But there he shall be all in all doe all in all immediately by himself for Christ shall deliver up the Kingdome to God even the Father Ver. 24. His Kingdome is the administration of his Church by his Ordinances in the Church At the resurrection there shall be an end of that Kingdome no more Church no more working upon men by preaching but God himself shall be all in all Ministri quasi larvae Dei saies Luther It may be somewhat too familiarly too vulgarly said but usefully The ministery of the Gospell is but as Gods Vizar for by such a liberty the Apostle here calls it aenigma a riddle or as Luther sayes too Gods picture but in the Resurrection God shall put of that Vizar and turne away that picture and shew his own face Therefore is it said That in heaven there is no Temple but God himselfe is the Temple God is Service Apoc. 21.22 August and Musique and Psalme and Sermon and Sacrament and all Erit vita de verbo sine verbo We shall live upon the word and heare never a word live upon him who being the word was made flesh the eternall Son of God Hîc nonest omnia in omnibus Hieron sed pars in singulis Here God is not all in all where he is at all in any man that man is well In Solomone sapientia saies that Father It was well with Solomon because God was wisdome with him and patience in Iob and faith in Peter and zeale in Paul but there was something in all these which God was not But in heaven he shall be so all in all Idem Vt singuli sanctorum omnes virtutes habeant that every soule shall have every perfection in it self and the perfection of these perfections shall be that their sight shall be face to face and their knowledge as they are known Since S. Augustine calls it a debt a double debt a debt because she asked it Facie ad faciem a debt because he promised it to give even a woman Paulina satisfaction in that high point and mystery how we should see God face to face in heaven it cannot be unfit in this congregation to aske and answer some short questions concerning that Is it alwaies a declaration of favour when God shewes his face No. I will set my face against that soule Levit. 17.10 that eateth blood and cut him off But when there is light joyned with it it is a declaration of favour This was the blessing that God taught Moses for Aaron to blesse the people with The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious to thee Numb 6.25 And there we shall see him face to face by the light of his countenance which is the light of glory What shall we see by seeing him so face to face not to inlarge our selves into Gregories wild speculation Qui videt videntem omnia oninia videt because we shall see him that sees all things we shall see all things in him for then we should see the thoughts of men rest we in the testimony of a safer witnesse a Councell Senon In speculo Divinit at is quicquid eorum intersit illucescet In that glasse we shall see whatsoever we can be the better for seeing First all things that they beleeved here they shall see there and therefore Discamus in terris Hicron quorum scicntia nobiscum perseveret in Caelis let us meditate upon no other things on earth then we would be glad to think on in heaven and this consideration would put many frivolous and many fond thoughts out of our minde if men and women would love another but so as that love might last in heaven This then we shall get concerning our selves by seeing God face to face but what concerning God nothing but the sight of the humanity of Christ which only is visible to the eye So Theodoret so some
He who onely is head of the whole Church Christ Jesus is this Archangell Heare him It is the voyce of the Archangell that is the trne and sincere word of God that must raise thee from the death of sin to the life of grace If therefore any Angell differ from the Archangell and preach other then the true and sincere word of God Gal. 1.8 Anathema saies the Apostle let that Angell be accursed And take thou heed of over-affecting overvaluing the gifts of any man so as that thou take the voice of an Angell for the voyce of the Archangell any thing that that man saies for the word of God Yet thou must heare this voice of the Archangell in the Trumpet of God In Tuba Dei The Trumpet of God is his loudest Instrument and his loudest Instrument is his publique Ordinance in the Church Prayer Preaching and Sacraments Heare him in these In all these come not to heare him in the Sermon alone but come to him in Prayer and in the Sacrament too For except the voyce come in the Trumpet of God that is in the publique Ordinance of his Church thou canst not know it to be the voyce of the Archangell Pretended services of God in schismaticall Conventicles are not in the Trumpet of God and therefore not the voyce of the Archangell and so not the meanes ordained for thy spirituall resurrection And as our last resurrection from the grave is rooted in the personall resurrection of Christ 1 Cor. 15.17 For if Christ be not raised from the dead we are yet in our sins saies the Apostle But why so Because to deliver us from sin Christ was to destroy all our enemies Now the last enemy is Death and last time that Death and Christ met upon the Crosse Death overcame him and therefore except he be risen from the power of Death we are yet in our sins as we roote our last resurrection in the person of Christ so do we our first resurrection in him in his word exhibited in his Ordinance for that is the voice of the Archangell in the Trumpet of God And as the Apostle saies here Ver. 15. This we say unto you by the word of the Lord that thus the last resurrection shall be accomplished by Christ himselfe so this we say to you by the Word of the Lord by the harmony of all the Scriptures thus and no other way By the pure word of God delivered and applied by his publique Ordinance by Hearing and Beleeving and Practising under the Seales of the Church the Sacraments is your first resurrection from sin by grace accomplished So have you then those three branches which constitute our first part That they that are dead before us shall not be prevented by us but they shall rise first That they shall be raised by the power of Christ that is the power of God in Christ That that power working to their resurrection shall be declared in a mighty voyce the voyce of the Archangell in the Trumpet of God And then then when they who were formerly dead are first raised and raised by this Power and this power thus declared then shall we we who shall be then alive and remaine be wrought upon which is our second and our next generall part When the Apostle sayes here 2. Part. Nos Nos qui vivimus We that are alive and remaine would he not be thought to speake this of himselfe and the Thessalonians to whom he writes Doe not the words import that That he and they should live till Christs comming to Judgement Some certainly had taken him so But he complaines that he was mistaken We beseech you brethren 2 Thes 2.2 be not soone shaken in minde nor troubled by word or letter as from us that the day of the Lord is at hand so at hand as that we determine it in our dayes in our life So that the Apostle speakes here but Hypothetically he does but put a case That if it should be Gods pleasure to continue them in the world till the comming of his Son Christ Jesus thus and thus they should be proceeded withall for thus and thus shall they be proceeded with sayes he that shall then be alive Our blessed Saviour hath such a manner of speech of an ambiguous sense in S. Matthew Mat. 16.28 That there were some standing there that should not taste of death till they saw the Son of man comming in his Kingdome And this might give them just occasion to think that that Kingdome into which the Judgement shall enter us was at hand For the words which Christ spoke immediatly before those were evidently undeniably spoken of that last and everlasting kingdome of glory The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his Angels c. Then follows Some standing here shall live to see this And yet Christ did not speak this of that last kingdome of glory but either he spoke it of that manifestation of that kingdome which was shewed to some of them to Peter and Iames and Iohn in the Transfiguration of Christ for the Transfiguration was a representation of the kingdome of glory or else he spoke it of that inchoation of the kingdome of glory which shined out in the kingdome of grace which all the Apostles lived to see in the personall comming of the Holy Ghost and in his powerfull working in the conversion of Nations in their life time And this is an inexpressible comfort to us That our blessed Saviour thus mingles his Kingdomes that he makes the Kingdome of Grace and the Kingdome of Glory all one the Church and Heaven all one and assures us That if we see him In hoc speculo in this his Glasse in his Ordinance in his Kingdome of Grace we have already begun to see him facie ad faciem face to face in his Kingdome of Glory If we see him Sicuti manifestatur as he looks in his Word and Sacraments in his Kingdome of Grace we have begun to see him Sicuti est As he is in his Essence in the Kingdome of Glory And when we pray Thy Kingdome come and mean but the Kingdome of Grace he gives us more then we ask an inchoative comprehension of the Kingdome of Glory in this life This is his inexpressible mercy that he mingles his Kingdomes and where he gives one gives both So is there also a faire beam of comfort exhibited to us in this Text That the number reserved for that Kingdome of Glory is no small number For though David said The Lord looked down from heaven and saw not one that did good no not one Psal 14.2 there it is lesse then a few though when the times had better means to be better when Christ preached personally upon the earth when one Centurion had but replyed to Christ Sir Mat. 8.10 you need not trouble your self to go to my house if you do but say the word here my servant will
was a good King for all that Achaz is called ill both because himselfe sacrificed Idolatrously And the King was a commanding person And because he made the Priest Vriah to doe so And the Priest was an exemplar person And because he made his Son commit the abominations of the heathen And the actions of the Kings Son pierce far in leading others Achaz had these faults and yet God fought occasion of mercy If the evening skie be red Mat. 16.2 you promise your selves a faire day sayes Christ you would not doe so if the evening were black and cloudy when you see the fields white with corne you say harvest is ready Joh. 4.35 Esay 1.19 you would not doe so if they were white with frost If ye consent and obey you shall eat the good things of the Land sayes God in the Prophet shall ye doe so if you refuse and rebell Achaz did and yet God sought occasion of mercy There arise diseases for which there is no probatum est in all the bookes of Physitians There is scarce any sin of which we have not had experiments of Gods mercies He concludes with no sin excludes no occasion precludes no person And so we have done with our first part Gods generall disposition for the Rule declared in Achaz case for the example Our second part consists of a Rule and an Example too 2 Part. The Rule That God goes forward in his own wayes proceeds as he begun in mercy The Example what his proceeding what his subsequent mercy to Achaz was One of the most convenient Hieroglyphicks of God is a Circle and a Circle is endlesse whom God loves hee loves to the end and not onely to their own end to their death but to his end and his end is that he might love them still His hailestones and his thunder-bolts and his showres of bloud emblemes and instruments of his Judgements fall downe in a direct line and affect and strike some one person or place His Sun and Moone and Starres Emblemes and Instruments of his Blessings move circularly and communicate themselves to all His Church is his chariot in that he moves more gloriously then in the Sun as much more as his begotten Son exceeds his created Sun and his Son of glory and of his right hand the Sun of the firmament and this Church his chariot moves in that communicable motion circularly It began in the East it came to us and is passing now shining out now in the farthest West As the Sun does not set to any Nation but withdraw it selfe and returne againe God in the exercise of his mercy does not set to thy soule though he benight it with an affliction Remember that our Saviour Christ himselfe in many actions and passions of our humane nature and infirmities smothered that Divinity and suffered it not to worke but yet it was alwayes in him and wrought most powerfully in the deepest danger when he was absolutely dead it raised him again If Christ slumbred the God-head in himselfe The mercy of God may be slumbred it may be hidden from his servants but it cannot be taken away and in the greatest necessities it shall break out The Blessed Virgin was overshadowed but it was with the Holy Ghost that overshadowed her Thine understanding thy conscience may be so too and yet it may be the work of the Holy Ghost who moves in thy darknesse and will bring light even out of that knowledge out of thine ignorance clearnesse out of thy scruples and consolation out of thy Dejection of Spirit God is thy portion sayes David David does not speak so narrowly so penuriously as to say God hath given thee thy portion and thou must look for no more but God is thy portion and as long as he is God he hath more to give and as long as thou art his thou hast more to receive Thou canst not have so good a Title to a subsequent blessing as a former blessing where thou art an ancient tenant thou wilt look to be preferred before a stranger and that is thy title to Gods future mercies if thou have been formerly accustomed to them The Sun is not weary with sixe thousand yeares shining God cannot be weary of doing good And therefore never say God hath given me these and these temporall things and I have scattered them wastfully surely he will give me no more These and these spirituall graces and I have neglected them abused them surely he will give me no more For for things created we have instruments to measure them we know the compasse of a Meridian and the depth of a Diameter of the Earth and we know this even of the uppermost spheare in the heavens But when we come to the Throne of God himselfe the Orbe of the Saints and Angels that see his face and the vertues and powers that flow from thence we have no balance to weigh them no instruments to measure them no hearts to conceive them So for temporall things we know the most that man can have for we know all the world but for Gods mercy and his spirituall graces as that language in which God spake the Hebrew hath no superlative so that which he promises in all that he hath spoken his mercy hath no superlative he shewes no mercy which you can call his Greatest Mercy his Mercy is never at the highest whatsoever he hath done for thy soule or for any other in applying himselfe to it he can exceed that Onely he can raise a Tower whose top shall reach to heaven The Basis of the highest building is but the Earth But though thou be but a Tabernacle of Earth God shall raise thee peece by peece into a spirituall building And after one Story of Creation and another of Vocation and another of Sanctification he shall bring thee up to meet thy selfe in the bosome of thy God where thou wast at first in an eternall election God is a circle himselfe and he will make thee one Goe not thou about to square eyther circle to bring that which is equall in it selfe to Angles and Corners into dark and sad suspicions of God or of thy selfe that God can give or that thou canst receive no more Mercy then thou hast had already This then is the course of Gods mercy Signum He proceeds as he begun which was the first branch of this second part It is alwayes in motion and alwayes moving towards All alwaies perpendicular right over every one of us and alwayes circular alwayes communicable to all And then the particular beame of this Mercy shed upon Achaz here in our Text is Dabit signum The Lord shall give you a signe It is a great Degree of Mercy that he affords us signes A naturall man is not made of Reason alone but of Reason and Sense A Regenerate man is not made of Faith alone but of Faith and Reason and Signes externall things assist us all In the Creation it was part of
first end of letting our light to shine before men is that they may know Gods proceedings but the last end to which all conduces is that God may have glory Whatsoever God did first in his own bosome in his own decree what that was contentious men will needs wrangle whatsoever that first act was Gods last end in that first act of his was his own glory And therefore to impute any inglorious or ignoble thing to God comes too neare blasphemy And be any man who hath any sense or taste of noblenesse or honour judge whether there be any glory in the destruction of those creatures whom they have raised till those persons have deserved ill at their hands and in some way have damnified them or dishonoured them Nor can God propose that for glory to destroy man till he finde cause in man Now this glory to which Christ bends all in this Text that men by seeing your good works might glorifie your Father consists especially in these two declarations Commemoration and Imitation a due celebration of former founders and benefactors and a pious proceeding according to such precedents is this glorifying of God When God calls himself so often The God of Abraham of Isaac and of Iacob Gloria ex Commemoratione Ezech. 14.14 God would have the world remember that Abraham Isaac and Iacob were extraordinary men memorable men When God sayes Though these three men Noah Daniel and Iob were here they should not deliver this people God would have it knowne that Noah Daniel and Iob were memorable men and able to doe much with him When the Holy Ghost is so carefull to give men their additions Gen. 4.20 That Iabal was the father of such as dwell in Tents keep Cattell Iubal the father of Harpers and Organists and Tubal-Cain of all Gravers in Brasse and Iron And when he presents with so many particularities every peece of worke that Hiram of Tyre wrought in Brasse for the furnishing of Solomons Temple 1 Reg. 7.13 God certainly is not afraid that his honour will be diminished in the honourable mentioning of such men as have benefited the world by publique good works The wise man seemes to settle himselfe upon that meditation let us now praise famous men sayes he Ecclus. 44.1 and our fathers that begot us and so he institutes a solemne commemoration and gives a catalogue of Enoch and Abraham and Moses and Aaron and so many more as possesse six Chapters nor doth he ever end the meditation till he end his booke so was he fixt upon the commemoration of good men Heb. 11. as S. Paul likewise feeds and delights himselfe in the like meditation even from Abel It is therefore a wretched impotency not to endure the commemoration and honourable mentioning of our Founders and Benefactors God hath delivered us and our Church from those straights in which some Churches of the Reformation have thought themselves to be when they have made Canons That there should be no Bell rung no dole given no mention made of the dead at any Funerall lest that should savour of superstition The Holy Ghost hath taught us the difference between praising the dead and praying for the dead betweene commemorating of Saints and invocating of Saints We understand what David meanes when he sayes This honour have all his Saints and what S. Paul meanes Psal 149.9 1 Tim. 1.17 when he sayes Vnto the only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever God is honoured in due honour given to his Saints and glorified in the commemoration of those good men whose light hath so shined out before men that they have seen their good workes But then he is glorified more in our imitation then in our commemoration Herein is my Father glorified sayes Christ that ye beare much fruit Gloria ex Imitatione Iohn 15.8 Mar. 4.20 The seed sowed in good ground bore some an hundred fold the least thirty The seed in this case is the example that is before you of those good men whose light hath shined out so that you have seene their good workes Let this seed these good examples bring forth hundreds and sixties and thirties in you much fruit for herein is your Father glorified that you beare much fruit Of which plentifull encrease I am afraid there is one great hinderance that passes through many of you that is that when your Will lyes by you in which some little lamp of this light is set up something given to God in pious uses if a Ship miscarry if a Debtor break if your state be any way empaired the first that suffers the first that is blotted out of the Will is God and his Legacy and if your estates encrease portions encrease and perchance other legacies but Gods portion and legacy stands at a stay Christ left two uses of his passion application and imitation He suffered for us 1 Pet. 2.22 sayes the Apostle for us that is that we might make his death ours apply his death and then as it follows there he left us an example So Christ gives us two uses of the Reformation of Religion first the doctrine how to doe good works without relying upon them as meritorious and then example many very many men and more by much in some kindes of charity since the Reformation of Religion then before even in this City whose light hath shined out before you and you have seen their good works That as this noble City hath justly acquired the reputation and the testimony of all who have had occasion to consider their dealings in that kinde that they deale most faithfully most justly most providently in all things which are committed to their trust for pious uses from others not only in a full employment of that which was given but in an improvement thereof and then an employment of that emprovement to the same pious use so every man in his particular may propose to himselfe some of those blessed examples which have risen amongst your selves and follow that and exceed that That as your lights are Torches and not petty Candles and your Torches better then others Torches so he also may be a larger example to others then others have been to him for Herein is your Father glorified if you beare much fruit and that is the end of all that we all doe That men seeing it may glorifie our Father which is in heaven SERMON IX Preached upon Candlemas day ROM 13.7 Render therefore to all men their dues The Text being part of the Epistle of that day that yeare THe largenesse of this short Text consists in that word Therefore therefore because you have been so particularly taught your particular duties therefore perform them therefore practise them Reddite omnibus debita Render therefore to every man his due The Philosopher might seem to have contracted as large a law into a few words in his suum cuique as the Holy Ghost had done in his Reddite
cals the Firmament that great expansion from Gods chaire to his footstoole from Heaven to earth there was a defect which God did not supply that day nor the next but the fourth day he did for that day he made those bodies those great and lightsome bodies the Sunne and Moone and Starres and placed them in the Firmament So also the Heaven of Heavens the Presence Chamber of God himselfe expects the presence of our bodies No State upon earth can subsist without those bodies Men of their owne For men that are supplied from others may either in necessity or in indignation be withdrawne and so that State which stood upon forraine legs sinks Let the head be gold Dan. 2.31 and the armes silver and the belly brasse if the feete be clay Men that may slip and molder away all is but an Image all is but a dreame of an Image for forraine helps are rather crutches then legs There must be bodies Men and able bodies able men Men that eate the good things of the land their owne figges and olives Men not macerated with extortions They are glorified bodies that make up the kingdome of Heaven bodies that partake of the good of the State that make up the State Bodies able bodies and lastly bodies inanimated with one soule one vegetative soule all must be sensible and compassionate of one anothers miserie and especially the Immortall soule one supreame soule one Religion For as God hath made us under good Princes a great example of all that Abundance of Men Men that live like men men united in one Religion so wee need not goe farre for an example of a slippery and uncertaine being where they must stand upon others Mens men and must over-load all men with exactions and distortions and convulsions and earthquakes in the multiplicity of Religions The Kingdome of Heaven must have bodies Kingdomes of the earth must have them and if upon the earth thou beest in the way to Heaven thou must have a body too a body of thine owne a body in thy possession for thy body hath thee and not thou it if thy body tyrannize over thee If thou canst not withdraw thine eye from an object of tentation or withhold thy hand from subscribing against thy conscience nor turne thine eare from a popular and seditious Libell what hast thou towards a man Thou hast no soule nay thou hast no body There is a body but thou hast it not it is not thine it is not in thy power Thy body will rebell against thee even in a sin It will not performe a sin when and where thou wouldst have it Much more will it rebell against any good worke till thou have imprinted Stigmata Iesu Gal. 6.17 The Markes of the Lord Iesus which were but exemplar in him but are essentiall and necessary to thee abstinencies and such discreete disciplines and mortifications as may subdue that body to thee and make it thine for till then it is but thine enemy and maintaines a warre against thee and war and enemie is the Metaphore which the holy Ghost hath taken here to expresse a want a kind of imperfectnesse even in Heaven it selfe Bellum Symbolum mali As peace is of all goodnesse so warre is an embleme a Hieroglyphique of all misery And that is our second step in this paraphrase If the feete of them that preach peace be beautifull And Vestig 2. Pax bellum O how beautifull are the feete of them that preach peace The Prophet Isaiah askes the question 52.7 And the Prophet Nahum askes it 1.15 and the Apostle S. Paul askes it Rom. 10.15 They all aske it but none answers it who shall answer us if we aske How beautifull is his face who is the Author of this peace when we shall see that in the glory of Heaven the Center of all true peace It was the inheritance of Christ Jesus upon the earth he had it at his birth he brought it with him Glory be to God on high peace upon earth Luke 2.14 Colos 1.20 It was his purchase upon earth He made peace indeed he bought peace through the blood of his Crosse It was his Testament Iohn 14.27 when he went from earth Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you Divide with him in that blessed Inheritance partake with him in that blessed Purchase enrich thy selfe with that blessed Legacy his Peace Let the whole world be in thy consideration as one house and then consider in that in the peacefull harmony of creatures in the peacefull succession and connexion of causes and effects the peace of Nature Let this Kingdome where God hath blessed thee with a being be the Gallery the best roome of that house and consider in the two walls of that Gallery the Church and the State the peace of a royall and a religious Wisedome Let thine owne family be a Cabinet in this Gallery and finde in all the boxes thereof in the severall duties of Wife and Children and servants the peace of vertue and of the father and mother of all vertues active discretion passive obedience and then lastly let thine owne bosome be the secret box and reserve in this Cabinet and then the best Jewell in the best Cabinet and that in the best Gallery of the best house that can be had peace with the Creature peace in the Church peace in the State peace in thy house peace in thy heart is a faire Modell and a lovely designe even of the heavenly Jerusalem which is Visio pacis where there is no object but peace And therefore the holy Ghost to intimate to us that happy perfectnesse which wee shall have at last and not till then chooses the Metaphor of an enemy and enmity to avert us from looking for true peace from any thing that presents it selfe in the way Neither truly could the holy Ghost imprint more horror by any word then that which intimates war as the word enemy does It is but a little way that the Poet hath got in description of war Iam seges est that now that place is ploughed where the great City stood for it is not so great a depopulation to translate a City from Merchants to husbandmen from shops to ploughes as it is from many Husbandmen to one Shepheard and yet that hath beene often done And all that at most is but a depopulation it is not a devastation that Troy was ploughed But when the Prophet Isaiah comes to the devastation to the extermination of a war Esay 7.23 he expresses it first thus Where there were a thousand Vineyards at a cheape rate all the land become briars and thornes That is much but there is more Esay 13.13 The earth shall be removed out of her place that Land that Nation shall no more be called that Nation nor that Land But yet more then that too Not onely not that people Esay 13.19 but no othe shall ever inhabit it It shall
other Heretiques in the Primitive Church would rather admit and constitute two Gods a good God and a bad God then be drawn to think that he that was the good God indeed could produce any ill of himself or meane any ill to any man that had done none And therefore even from Plato himself some Christians might learn more moderation in expressing themselves in this point Plato sayes Creavit quia bonus therefore did God create us that he might be good to us and then he addes Bono nunquam inest invidia certainly that God that made us out of his goodnesse does not now envy us that goodnesse which he hath communicated to us certainly he does not wish us worse that so he might more justly damne us and therefore compell us by any positive decree to sin to justifie his desire of damning us Much lesse did this good God hate us or meane ill to us before he made us and made us only therefore that he might have glory in our destruction There is nothing good but God there is nothing but goodnesse in God How abusively then doe men call the things of this world Goods They may as well call them so they do in their hearts Gods as Goods for there is none good but God But how much more abusively do they force the world that call them Bona quia beant Goods because they make us good blessed happy In which sense Seneca uses the word shrewdly Insolens malum beata uxor a good wife a blessed wife sayes he that is a wife that brings a great estate is an insolent mischiefe If we doe but cast our eye upon that title in the Law Bonorum and De bonis of Goods we shall easily see what poor things they make shift to cal Goods And if we consider if it deserve a consideration how great a difference their Lawyers make Baldus makes that and others with him between Bonorum possessio and possessio bonorum that one should amount to a right and propriety in the goods and the other but to a sequestration of such goods we may easily see that they can scarce tell what to call or where to place such Goods Health and strength and stature and comelinesse must be called Goods though but of the body The body it self is in the substance it self but dust these are but the accidents of that dust and yet they must be Goods Land and Money honor must be called Goods though but of fortune Fortune her self is but such an Idol as that S. Aug. was ashamed ever to have named her in his works and therefore repents it in his Retractations her self is but an Idol and an Idol is nothing these but the accidents of that nothing and yet they must be Goods Are they such Goods as make him necessarily good that hath them Or such as no man can be good that is without them How many men make themselves miserable because they want these Goods And how many men have been made miserable by others because they had them Except thou see the face of God upon all thy money as well as the face of the King the hand of God to all thy Patents as well as the hand of the King Gods Amen as well as the Kings fiat to all thy creatiōs all these reach not to the title of Goods for there is none good but God Nothing in this world not if thou couldst have it all carry it higher to the highest to heaven heaven it self were not good without God For in the Schoole very many and very great men have thought and taught That the humane nature of Christ though united Hypostatically to the Divine Nature was not meerly by that Union impeccable but might have sinned if besides that Union God had not infused and super-induced other graces of which other graces the Beatificall vision the present sight of the face and Essence of God was one Because say they Christ had from his Conception in his Humane Nature that Beatificall Vision of God which we shall have in the state of Glory therefore he could not sin This Beatificall Vision say they which Christ had here and which as they suppose and not improbably in the problematicall way of the Schoole God of his absolute power might have with-held and yet the Hypostaticall Union have remained perfect for say they the two Natures Humane Divine might have been so united and yet the Humane not have so seen the Divine This Beatificall Vision this sight of God was the Cause or Seal or Consummation of Christs Perfection and impeccability in his Humane Nature Much more is this Beatificall Vision this sight of God in Heaven the Cause or Consummation of all the joyes and glory which we shall receive in that place for howsoever they dispute whether that kinde of Blessednesse consist in seeing God formaliter or causaliter that is whether I shall see all things in God as in a glasse in which the species of all things are or whether I shall see all things by God as by the benefit of a light which shall discover all things to me yet they all agree though they differ de modo of the manner how that howsoever it be the substance of the Blessednesse is in this that I shall see God Blessed are the pure in heart sayes Christ for they shall see God If they should not see God they were not blessed And therefore they who place children that die unbaptised in a roome where though they feele no torment yet they shall never see God durst never call that roome a part of heaven but of hell rather Though there be no torment yet if they see not God it is hell There is nothing good in this life nothing in the next without God that is without sight and fruition of the face and presence of God which is that which S. Augustine intends when he sayes Secutio Dei est appetitus Beatitatis consecutio Beatitas our looking towards God is the way to Blessednesse but Blessednesse it self is only the sight of God himself That therefore thou maist begin thy heaven here put thy self in the sight of God put God in thy sight in every particular action We cannot come to the body of the Sun but we can use the light of the Sun many waies we cannot come to God himself here but yet here we can see him by many manifestations so many as that S. Augustine in his 20. Chapt. De moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae hath collected aright places of Scripture where every one of our senses is called a Seeing there is a Gustate videte and audite and palpate tasting and hearing and feeling and all to this purpose are called seeing In all our senses in our faculties we may see God if we will God sees us at midnight he sees us then when we had rather he looked off If we see him so it is a blessed interview How would he that were come abroad at mid-night
shall know that I am the Lord God shall restore them to life and more to strength and more to beauty and comelinesse acceptable to himselfe in Christ Jesus Your way is Recollecting gather your selves into the Congregation and Communion of Saints in these places gather your sins into your memory and poure them out in humble confessions to that God whom they have wounded Gather the crummes under his Table lay hold upon the gracious promises which by our Ministery he lets fall upon the Congregation now and gather the seales of those promises whensoever in a rectified conscience his Spirit beares witnesse with your spirit that you may be worthy receivers of him in his Sacrament and this recollecting shall be your resurrection Beatus qui habet partem Apâ—â— 20.6 sayes S. Iohn Blessed is he that hath part in the first Resurrection for on such the second death hath no power He that rises to this Judgement of recollecting and of judging himselfe shall rise with a chearfulnesse and stand with a confidence when Christ Jesus shall come in the second Auâ— And Quando exacturus est in secundo quod dedit in primo when Christ shall call for an account in that second judgement how he hath husbanded those graces which he gave him for the first he shall make his possession of this first resurrection his title and his evidence to the second When thy body which hath been subject to all kindes of destruction here to the destruction of a Flood in Catarrhs and Rheums and Dropsies and such distillations to the destruction of a fire in Feavers and Frenzies and such conflagrations shall be removed safely and gloriously above all such distempers and malignant impressions and body and soule so united as if both were one spirit in it selfe and God so united to both as that thou shalt be the same spirit with God God began the first World but upon two Adam and Eve The second world after the Flood he began upon a greater stock upon eight reserved in the Arke But when he establishes the last and everlasting world in the last Resurrection he shall admit such a number as that none of us who are here now none that is or hath or shall be upon the face of the earth shall be denied in that Resurrection if he have truly felt this for Grace accepted is the infallible earnest of Glory SERMON XXII Preached at S. Pauls upon Easter-day 1627. HEB. 11.35 Women received their dead raised to life againe And others were tortured not accepting a deliverance that they might obtaine a better Resurrection MErcy is Gods right hand with that God gives all Faith is mans right hand with that man takes all David Psal 136. opens and enlarges this right hand of God in pouring out his blessings plentifully abundantly manifoldly there And in this Chapter the Apostle opens and enlarges this right hand of man by laying hold upon those mercies of God plentifully abundantly manifoldly by faith here There David powres downe the mercies of God in repeating and re-repeating that phrase For his mercy endureth for ever And here S. Paul carries up man to heaven by repeating and re-repeating the blessings which man hath attained by faith By faith Abel sacrificed By faith Enoch walked with God By faith Noah built an Arke c. And as in that Psalme Gods mercies are exprest two waies First in the good that God did for his servants He remembred them in their low estate Ver 23. Ver. 24. for his mercy endureth for ever And then againe He redeemed them from their enemies for his mercy endureth for ever And then also in the evill that he brought upon their enemies He slew famous Kings for his mercy endureth for ever And then He gave their land for an heritage for his mercy endureth for ever So in this Chapter the Apostle declares the benefits of faith two wayes also First how faith enriches us and accommodates us in the wayes of prosperity By faith Abraham went to a place which he received for an inheritance And so By faith Sarah received strength to conceive seed Ver. 8. Ver. 11. Ver. 34. And then how faith sustaines and establishes us in the wayes of adversity By faith they stopt the mouthes of Lions by faith they quencht the violence of fire by faith they escaped the edge of the sword in the verse immediatly before the Text. And in this verse which is our Text the Apostle hath collected both The benefits which they received by faith Women received their dead raised to life againe And then the holy courage which was infused by Faith in their persecutions Others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might receive a better Resurrection And because both these have relation evidently pregnantly to the Resurrection for their benefit was that the Women received their dead by a Resurrection And their courage in their persecution was That they should receive a better Resurrection therefore the whole meditation is proper to this day in which wee celebrate all Resurrections in the Root in the Resurrection of the First fruits of the dead our Lord and Saviour Christ Iesus Our Parts are two How plentifully God gives to the faithfull Divisio Women receive their dead raised to life againe And how patiently the faithfull suffer Gods corrections Others were tortured not accepting c. Though they be both large considerations Benefits by Faith Patience in the Faithfull yet we shall containe our selves in those particulars which are exprest or necessarily implyed in the Text it selfe And so in the first place we shall see first The extraordinary consolation in Gods extraordinary Mercies in his miraculous Deliverances such as this Women received their dead raised to life again And secondly we shall seethe examples to which the Apostle refers here What women had had their dead restored to life againe And then lastly in that part That this affection of joy in having their dead restored to life againe being put in the weaker sexe in women onely we may argue conveniently from thence That the strength of a true and just joy lies not in that but that our virility our holy manhood our religious strength consists in a faithfull assurance that we have already a blessed communion with these Saints of God though they be dead and we alive And that we shall have hereafter a glorious Association with them in the Resurrection though we never receive our dead raised to life again in this world And in those three considerations we shall determine that first part And then in the other The Patience of the Faithfull Others were tortured c. we shall first look into the examples which the Apostle refers to who they were that were thus tortured And secondly the heighth and exaltation of their patience They would not accept a deliverance And lastly the ground upon which their Anchor was cast what established their patience That they might obtaine a better Resurrection
walk by faith and not by sight we are absent from the Lord. 2 Cor. 5.6 Faith is a blessed presence but compared with heavenly vision it is but an absence though it create and constitute in us a possibility a probability a kinde of certainty of salvation yet that faith which the best Christian hath is not so far beyond that sight of God which the naturall man hath as that sight of God which I shall have in heaven is above that faith which we have now in the highest exaltation Therefore there belongs a consideration to that which is added by our Apostle here That the knowledge which I have of God here even by faith through the ordinances of the Church is but a knowledge in part Now I know in part That which we call in part the Syriack translates Modicum ex multis Ex parte Though we know by faith yet for all that faith it is but a little of a great deale that we know yet because though faith be good evidence yet faith is but the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 And there is better evidence of them when they are seen For if we consider the object we cannot beleeve so much of God nor of our happinesse in him as we shall see then For when it is said that the heart comprehends it not certainly faith comprehends it not neither And if we consider the manner faith it self is but darknesse in respect of the vision of God in heaven For those words of the Prophet I will search Ierusalem with Candles are spoken of the times of the Christian Church Zeph. 1.12 and of the best men in the Christian Church yet they shall be searched with Candles some darknesse shall be found in them To the Galatians well instructed and well established Gal. 4.9 the Apostle sayes Now after ye have knowen God or rather are knowen of God The best knowledge that we have of God here even by faith is rather that he knows us then that we know him And in this Text it is in his own person that the Apostle puts the instance Now I I an Apostle taught by Christ himselfe know but in part And therefore as S. Augustine saith Sunt quasi cunabula charitatis Dei quibus diligimus proximum The love which we beare to our neighbour is but as the Infancy but as the Cradle of that love which we beare to God so that sight of God which we have In speculo in the Glasse that is in nature is but Cunabula fidei but the infancy but the cradle of that knowledge which we have in faith and yet that knowledge which we have in faith is but Cunabula visionis the infancy and cradle of that knowledge which we shall have when we come to see God face to face Faith is infinitely above nature infinitely above works even above those works which faith it self produces as parents are to children the tree to the fruit But yet faith is as much below vision and seeing God face to face And therefore though we ascribe willingly to faith more then we can expresse yet let no man think himself so infallibly safe because he finds that he beleeves in God as he shall be when he sees God The faithfullest man in the Church must say Domine adauge Lord increase my faith He that is least in the kingdome of heaven shal never be put to that All the world is but Speculum a glasse in which we see God The Church it self and that which the Ordinance of the Church begets in us faith it self is but aenigma a dark representation of God to us till we come to that state To see God face to face and to know as also we are knowen Now Calum Sphaera as for the sight of God here our Theatre was the world our Medium and glasse was the creature and our light was reason And then for our knowledge of God here our Academy was the Church our Medium the Ordinances of the Church and our Light the light of faith so we consider the same Termes first for the sight of God and then for the knowledge of God in the next life First the Sphear the place where we shall see him is heaven He that asks me what heaven is meanes not to heare me but to silence me He knows I cannot tell him When I meet him there I shall be able to tell him and then he will be as able to tell me yet then we shall be but able to tell one another This this that we enjoy is heaven but the tongues of Angels the tongues of glorified Saints shall not be able to expresse what that heaven is for even in heaven our faculties shall be finite Heaven is not a place that was created for all place that was created shall be dissolved God did not plant a Paradise for himself and remove to that as he planted a Paradise for Adam and removed him to that But God is still where he was before the world was made And in that place where there are more Suns then there are Stars in the Firmament for all the Saints are Suns And more light in another Sun The Sun of righteousnesse the Son of Glory the Son of God then in all them in that illustration that emanation that effusion of beams of glory which began not to shine 6000. yeares ago but 6000. millions of millions ago had been 6000. millions of millions before that in those eternall in those uncreated heavens shall we see God This is our Spheare Medium Revelatio sui and that which we are fain to call our place and then our Medium our way to see him is Patefactio sui Gods laying himself open his manifestation his revelation his evisceration and embowelling of himselfe to us there Doth God never afford this patefaction this manifestation of himself in his Essence to any in this life We cannot answer yea nor no without offending a great part in the Schoole so many affirm so many deny that God hath been seen in his Essence in this life There are that say That it is fere de fide little lesse then an article of faith that it hath been done And Aquinas denies it so absolutely as that his Followers interpret him de absoluta potentia That God by his absolute power cannot make a man remaining a mortall man and under the definition of a mortall man capable of seeing his Essence as we may truly say that God cannot make a beast remaining in that nature capable of grace or glory S. Augustine speaking of discourses that passed between his mother and him not long before her death sayes Perambulavimus cuncta mortalia ipsum coelum We talked our selves above this earth and above all the heavens Venimus in mentes nostras transcendimus eas We came to the consideration of our owne mindes and our owne soules and we got above our own soules that is to
others have thought but that answers not the sicutiest and we know we shall see God not only the body of Christ as he is in his Essence Why did all that are said to have seene God face to face fee his Essence no. In earth God assumed some materiall things to appeare in and is said to have been seene face to face when he was seen in those assumed formes But in heaven there is no materiall thing to be assumed and if God be seen face to face there he is seen in his Essence S. Augustine summes it up fully In Psal 36.10 upon those words In lumine tuo In thy light we shall see light Te scilicet in te we shall see thee in thee that is sayes he face to face And then Vt cognitus what is it to know him as we are knowne First is that it which is intended here That we shall know God so as we are known It is not expressed in the Text so It is only that we shall know so not that we shall know God so But the frame and context of the place hath drawn that unanime exposition from all that it is meant of our knowledge of God then A comprehensive knowledge of God it cannot be To comprehend is to know a thing as well as that thing can be known and we can never know God so but that he will know himselfe better Our knowledge cannot be so dilated nor God condensed and contracted so as that we can know him that way comprehensively It cannot be such a knowledge of God as God hath of himselfe nor as God hath of us For God comprehends us and all this world and all the worlds that he could have made and himselfe But it is Nota similitudinis non aequalitatis As God knowes me so I shall know God but I shall not know God so as God knowes me It is not quantum but sicut not as much but as truly as the fire does as truly shine as the Sun shines though it shine not out so farre nor to so many purposes So then I shall know God so as that there shall be nothing in me to hinder me from knowing God which cannot be said of the nature of man though regenerate upon earth no nor of the nature of an Angell in heaven left to it selfe till both have received a super-illustration from the light of Glory And so it shall be a knowledge so like his knowledge as it shall produce a love like his love and we shall love him as he loves us For as S. Chrysostome and the rest of the Fathers whom Oecumenius hath compacted interpret it Cognoscam practicè idest accurrendo I shall know him Aug. that is imbrace him adhere to him Qualis sine fine festivitas what a Holy-day shall this be which no working day shall ever follow By knowing and loving the unchangeable the immutable God Mutabimur in immutabilitatem we shall be changed into an unchangeablenesse sayes that Father that never said any thing but extraordinarily He sayes more Idem Dei praesentia si in inferno appareret If God could be seene and known in hell hell in an instant would be heaven How many heavens are there in heaven how is heaven multiplied to every soule in heaven where infinite other happinesses are crowned with this this fight and this knowledge of God there And how shall all those heavens be renewed to us every day Qui non mir abimur hodiè Idem that shall be as glad to see and to know God millions of ages after every daies seeing and knowing as the first houre of looking upon his face And as this seeing and this knowing of God crownes all other joyes and glories even in heaven so this very crown is crowned 2 Pet. 1.4 There growes from this a higher glory which is participes erimus Divinae naturae words of which Luther sayes that both Testaments afford none equall to them That we shall be made partakers of the Divine nature Immortall as the Father righteous as the Son and full of all comfort as the Holy Ghost Let me dismisse you with an easie request of S. Augustine Fieri non potest ut seipsum non diligat qui Deum diligit That man does not love God that loves not himself doe but love your selves Imo solus se diligere novit qui Deum diligit Only that man that loves God hath the art to love himself doe but love your selves for if he love God he would live eternally with him and if he desire that and indeavour it earnestly he does truly love himself and not otherwise And he loves himself who by seeing God in the Theatre of the world and in the glasse of the creature by the light of reason and knowing God in the Academy of the Church by the Ordinances thereof through the light of faith indeavours to see God in heaven by the manifestation of himselfe through the light of Glory and to know God himself in himself and by himself as he is all in all Contemplatively by knowing as he is known and Practically by loving as he is loved SERMON XXIV Preached upon Easter-day 1629. JOB 4.18 Rehold he put no trust in his Servants And his Angels he charged with folly WE celebrate this day the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus Blessed for ever and in His all ours All that is the Resurrection of all Persons All that is the Resurrection of all kinds whether the Resurrection from calamities in this world Ezechiels Resurrection where God saies to him Putasne vivent Son of man doest thou thinke Ezek. 8.6 these scattered Bones can live againe or the Resurrection from sin S. Iohns Resurrection Apo. 20.5 1 Cor. 15. Blessed is he that hath his part in the first Resurrection Or of the Resurrection to Glory S. Pauls Resurrection that is more argued and more particularly established by that Apostle then by the rest This Resurrection to glory is the consummation of all the others therefore we looke especially at this and in this our qualification in this state of glory is thus expressed by our Saviour Christ himselfe Erimus sicut Angeli In the Resurrection Luke 20.36 we shall be as the Angels And that we might not flatter our selves in a dreame of a better estate then the Angels have in this text we have an intimation what their state and condition is Behold he put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly In our handling of these words these shall be our two parts De quibus and De quo Divisio Of whom these words are spoken and then of what First what is positively said and then what is consequently inferred what proposed and what concluded what of the Angels and then what of us who shall be like the Angels In the first the Persons of whom these words are spoken because though our Interpreters vary in
Mission There fals lastly into this harmonious consort Dismissio occasioned by this Mission of the Holy Ghost a Dismission A dismissing out of this world Not onely in Simeons Nunc dimittis To be content that we might but in S. Pauls Cupio dissolvi To have a desire that we might be dissolved and be with Christ But whether the incumbrances of this World Psal 120.5 extort from thee Davids groane Heu mihi Woe is me that I so journe so long here Or a slipperinesse contracted by former habits of sin make every thing a tentation to thee so that thou canst not performe Iobs covenant with thine eyes of not looking upon a maid nor stop at Christs period which is Looke but doe not lust but that every thing is a tentation to thee and to be out of this haile-shot this batrery of tentations thou wouldst faine come to a dismission to a dissolution to a transmigration Or whether a vehement desire of the fruition of the presence and face of God in Heaven constitute this longing in thee yet all these reasons arise in thy selfe and determine in thy selfe and are referred but to thine owne ease and to thine owne happinesse and not primarily to the glory of God and therefore since the Holy Ghost staid for his Mission stay thou for thy Dismission too Gather up these scattered eares and binde up this loose sheafe Recollect these pieces of this branch The Holy Ghost was sent by the Son but the Son in his exemplar humility ascribes all to the Father The Holy Ghost had absolute power to come at his pleasure but he staid the order of the Decree and Gods leasure for his Mission Doe thou so too for thy Permission exercise not all thy liberty And for thy Commission execute not all thy authority And for thy Remission presume not upon thy pardon too soon And for thy Manumission hope not for an exemption from tentations till death And for thy Dismission practice not nay wish not thy death only in respect of thine own ease no nor only in respect of thine own salvation In this act of the Holy Ghost That he staid his Mission we have one instruction that we relie not upon our selves but accommodate our selves to the disposition of others And then another in the next That the Father should send him in the Sons name The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name The Holy Ghost comes not so in anothers name as that he hath not a full interest In nomine meo in all the names of Power and of Wisdome and of Essence it self that are attributed to God For not to extend to the particular attributes the Radicall name the name of Essence That name The name Iehovah is given to the Holy Ghost Iehovah sayes to Esay Go and tell this people this and this And then S. Paul making use of those words in the Acts sayes Well said the Holy Ghost by the Prophet Esay So that Esayes Iehovah Esay 6.9 Acts 28.5 is S. Pauls Holy Ghost And yet the Holy Ghost being in possession of the highest names and of the highest power implyed in those names comes in the name of another How much more then may the powerfullest men upon earth the greatest Magistrates the greatest Monarchs who though they be by God himself called gods are but representative gods but metaphoricall gods and God knows sometimes but ungodly gods confesse that they are sent in anothers name inanimated with anothers power and least of all their own or made that that they are for themselves How much more are we we considered in nature and not in office men and not Magistrates Wormes and not men Serpents and not Wormes For we are as S. Chrysostome speaks Spontanei daemones Serpents in our own bosomes devils in our own loynes bound to confesse that all the faculties of our soul are in us In nomine alieno In the name of another That will which we call Freewill is so far from being ours as that not only that Freedome but that Will it self is from another from God Not only the rectitude of the faculty but the faculty it self is his Nay though God have no part in the perversnesse and the obliquity of my will but that that perversnesse and that obliquity are intirely mine own yet I could not have that perversnesse and that obliquity but from him so far as that that faculty in which my perversnesse works is his and I could not have that perverse will from my self if I had not that will it self from God first And that very perversnesse and obliquity of the will is so much his as that though it were not his but mine in the making yet when it is made by me he makes it his that is he makes it his instrument and makes his use of it so far as to suffer it to flow out into a greater sin or to determine in a lesser sin then at first I in my perversnesse intended When I intended but an approach to a sin and meant to stop there to punish that exposing of my self to tentation God suffers me to proceed to the act of that sin And when I intend the act it self God interrupts me and cuts me off by some intervening occasion and determines me upon some approach to that sin that by going so far in the way of that sin I might see mine own infirmity and see the power of his mercy that I went no farther The faculties of my soule are his and the substance of my soul is his too And yet as I pervert the faculties I subvert the substance I damnifie the faculties but I damne the substance it self It would taste of uncharitablenesse to cast more coales of fire upon the devill himself then are upon him in hell now Or not to assist him with our prayers if it were not declared to us that he is incapable of mercy If the devill were now but under the guiltinesse of that sin which he committed at first and not under such an execution of judgement for that sin as induced or at least declared an obstination an obduration a desperation and impenitiblenesse if the devill were but as the worst sinner in this world can be but In via and not In exilio In the way to destruction and not under destruction it self we might pray for the devill himself And these poore souls of ours these glorious souls of ours none of ours but Gods own souls which now at worst God loves better then ever he did the devill when he was at best when he was an Angell uncorrupted and better then he doth those Angels which stand uncorrupted stil for he hath not taken the nature of Angels but our nature upon him we think those souls our own to do what we list with and when we have usurpt them we damne them As Pirates take other mens subjects and then make them slaves we usurp the faculties of the
beard does not make a man fit for the Sacrament nor a Husband a woman a man may be a great officer in the State and a woman may be a grandmother in the family and yet not be fit for that Sacrament if they have never considered more in it but onely to doe as others doe The Church enjoynes a precedent Confirmation where that is not wee require yet a precedent Examination before any bee admitted at first to the Sacrament This was then the effectuall working of the Holy Ghost Super omnes Non spiravit He did not only breathe upon them and try whether they would receive the savour of life unto life or no Non sibilavit He did not onely whisper unto them and try whether they had a disposition to heare and answer Non incubabat He did not onely hover over them and sit upon them to try what he could hatch and produce out of them Non descendit He did not onely descend towards them and try whether they would reach out their hand to receive him But Cecidit He fell so as that he possessed them enwrapped them invested them with a penetrating with a powerfull force And so he fell upon them All. As we have read of some Generals in secular story that in great Services have knighted their whole Army So the Holy Ghost Sanctifies and Canonizes whole Congregations They are too good husbands and too thrifty of Gods grace too sparing of the Holy Ghost that restraine Gods generall propositions Venite omnes Let all come and Vult omnes salvos God would have all men saved so particularly as to say that when God layes All he meanes some of all sorts some Men some Women some Jews some Gentiles some rich some poore but he does not meane as he seemes to say simply All. Yes God does meane simply All so as that no man can say to another God meanes not thee no man can say to himselfe God meanes not me Nefas est dicere Deum aliquid nisi bonum praedestinare It is modestly said by S. Augustine and more were immodesty There is no predestination in God but to good And therefore it is Durus sermo They are hard words to say That God predestinated some not onely Ad damnationem but Ad causas damnationis Not onely to damnation because they sinned but to a necessity of sinning that they might the more justly be damned And to say That God rejected some Odio libero Out of a hate that arose primarily in himselfe against those persons before those persons were created so much as in Gods intention and not out of any hate of their sins which he foresaw Beloved we are to take in no other knowledge of Gods Decrees but by the execution thereof How should we know any Decree in God of the creation of Man according to his Image but by the execution Because I see that Man is created so as I conceive to be intended in this phrase After his Image I beleeve that he Decreed to Create him so because God does nothing extemporally but according to his owne most holy and eternall preconceptions and Ideas and Decrees So we know his Decree of Election and Reprobation by the execution And how is that Does God ever say that any shall be saved or damned without relation without condition without doing in the Old Testament and in the New Testament without beleeving in Christ Jesus If faith in Christ Jesus be in the Execution of the Decree faith in Christ Jesus was in the Decree it selfe too Christ wept for the imminent calamities temporall and spirituall which hung over Jerusalem And Lacrymae Legati doloris saies S. Cyprian Teares are the Ambassadours of sorrow And they are Sanguis animi vulnerati saies S. Augustine Teares are the bloud of a wounded soule And would Christ bleed out of a wounded soule and weepe out of a sad heart for that which himselfe and onely himselfe by an absolute Decree Luke 7.32 had made necessary and inevitable The Scribes and Pharisees rejected the Counsell of God sayes S. Luke In this new language we must say They fulfilled the Counsell of God if positively and primarily and absolutely Gods determinate Counsell were that they should do so But this is not Gods Counsaile upon any to be so far the Author of sin as to impose such a necessity of sinning as arises not out of his owne will Perditio nostra ex nobis Our destruction is from our owne sin and the Devill that infuses it not from God or any ill purpose in him that enforces us The blood of Christ was shed for all that will apply it And the Holy Ghost is willing to fall with the sprinkling of that blood upon all that do not resist him And that is as follows in our text Qui audiunt The Holy Ghost fell upon all that heard Faith in Christ is in the Execution of Gods Decree Qui audiunt and Hearing is the meanes of this faith And the proposition is not the lesse generall if it except them who will not be included in it if the Holy Ghost fall not on them who will not come to heare Let no man thinke that he hath heard enough and needs no more why did the Holy Ghost furnish his Church with foure Euangelists if it were enough to reade one And yet every one of the foure hath enough for salvation if Gods abundant care had not enriched the Church with more Those Nations which never heard of Christ or of Euangelist shall rise up in judgement against us and though they perish themselves thus far aggravate our condemnation as to say you had foure Euangelists and have not beleeved if we had had any one of them we would have been saved It is the glory of Gods Word not that it is come but that it shall remain for ever It is the glory of a Christian not that he hath heard but that he desires to heare still Are the Angels weary of looking upon that face of God which they looked upon yesterday Or are Saints weary of singing that song which they sung to Gods glory yesterday And is not that Alleluiah that song which is their morning and evening sacrifice and which shall be their song world without end called still A new song Be not you weary of hearing those things which you have heard from others before Do not say if I had knowne this I would not have come for I have heard all this before since thou never thoughtest of it since that former hearing till thou heardst it again now thou didst not know that thou hadst heard it before Gideons Fleece Iud. 6.35 that had all the dew of heaven in it self alone and all about it dry one day next day was all dry in it self though all about it had received the dew He that hath heard and beleeved may lose his knowledge and his faith too if he will heare no more They say there is a way of
of spirit though it were Wine in the beginning it is lees and tartar in the end Inordinate sorrow growes into sinfull melancholy and that melancholy into an irrecoverable desperation The Wise-men of the East by a lesse light found a greater by a Star they found the Son of glory Christ Jesus But by darknesse nothing By the beames of comfort in this life we come to the body of the Sun by the Rivers to the Ocean by the cheerefulnesse of heart here to the brightnesse to the fulnesse of joy hereafter For beloved Salvation it selfe being so often presented to us in the names of Glory and of Joy we cannot thinke that the way to that glory is a sordid life affected here an obscure a beggarly a negligent abandoning of all wayes of preferment or riches or estimation in this World for the glory of Heaven shines downe in these beames hither Neither can men thinke that the way to the joyes of Heaven is a joylesse severenesse a rigid austerity for as God loves a cheerefull giver so he loves a cheerefull taker that takes hold of his mercies and his comforts with a cheerefull heart not onely without grudging that they are no more but without jealousie and suspition that they are not so much or not enough But they must be his comforts that we take in Deus Gods comforts For to this purpose the Apostle varies the phrase It was The Father of mercies To represent to us gentlenesse kindnesse favour it was enough to bring it in the name of Father But this Comfort a power to erect and settle a tottering a dejected soule an overthrowne a bruised a broken a troden a ground a battered an evaporated an annihilated spirit this is an act of such might as requires the assurance the presence of God God knows all men receive not comforts when other men think they do nor are all things comforts to them which we present and meane should be so Your Father may leave you his inheritance and little knowes he the little comfort you have in this because it is not left to you but to those Creditors to whom you have engaged it Your Wife is officious to you in your sicknesse and little knowes she that even that officiousnesse of hers then and that kindnesse aggravates that discomfort which lyes upon thy soul for those injuries which thou hadst formerly multiplied against her in the bosome of strange women Except the God of comfort give it in that seale in peace of conscience Nec intus nec subtus nec circa te occurrit consolatio sayes S. Bernard Non subtus not from below thee from the reverence and acclamation of thy inferiours Non circa not from about thee when all places all preferments are within thy reach so that thou maist lay thy hand and set thy foote where thou wilt Non intus not from within thee though thou have an inward testimony of a morall constancy in all afflictions that can fall yet not from below thee not from about thee not from within thee but from above must come thy comfort or it is mistaken S. Chrysostome notes and Areopagita had noted it before him Ex beneficiis acceptis nomina Deo affingimus We give God names according to the nature of the benefits which he hath given us So when God had given David victory in the wars by the exercise of his power then Fortitudo mea Psal 18.2 Psal 27.1 and firmamentum The Lord is my Rock and my Castle When God discovered the plots and practises of his enemies to him then Dominus illuminatio The Lord is my light and my salvation So whensoever thou takest in any comfort be sure that thou have it from him that can give it for this God is Deus totius consolationis The God of all comfort Preciosa divina consolatio nec omnino tribuitur admittentibus alienam Totius Bernardâ— The comforts of God are of a precious nature and they lose their value by being mingled with baser comforts as gold does with allay Sometimes we make up a summe of gold with silver but does any man binde up farthing tokens with a bag of gold Spirituall comforts which have alwayes Gods stampe upon them are his gold and temporall comforts when they have his stampe upon them are his silver but comforts of our owne coyning are counterfait are copper Because I am weary of solitarinesse I will seeke company and my company shall be to make my body the body of a harlot Because I am drousie I will be kept awake with the obscenities and scurrilities of a Comedy or the drums and ejulations of a Tragedy I will smother and suffocate sorrow with hill upon hill course after course at a voluptuous feast and drown sorrow in excesse of Wine and call that sickness health and all this is no comfort for God is the God of all comfort and this is not of God We cannot say with any colour as Esau said to Iacob Hast thou but one blessing my Father Gen. 17.38 for he is the God of all blessings and hath given every one of us many more then one But yet Christ hath given us an abridgement Vnum est necessarium Luke 10.42 there is but one onely thing necessary And David in Christ tooke knowledge of that before when he said Vnum petii One thing have I desired of the Lord What is that one thing All in one Psal 27.4 That I may dwell in the house ef the Lord not be a stranger from his Covenant all the dayes of my life not disseised not excommunicate out of that house To behold the beauty of the Lord not the beauty of the place only but to inquire in his Temple by the advancement and advantage of outward things to finde out him And so I shall have true comforts outward and inward because in both I shall finde him who is the God of all comfort Iacob thought he had lost Ioseph his Son And all his Sons Gen. 37.35 and all his Daughters rose up to comfort him Et noluit consolationem sayes the Text He would not be comforted because he thought him dead Rachel wept for her children and would not be comforted Mat. 2.18 because they were not But what aylest thou Is there any thing of which thou canst say It is not perchance it is but thou hast it not If thou hast him that hath it thou hast it Hast thou not wealth but poverty rather not honour but contempt rather not health but daily summons of Death rather yet Non omnia possidet cui omnia cooperantur in bonum Bernard If thy poverty thy disgrace thy sicknesse have brought thee the nearer to God thou hast all those things which thou thinkest thou wantest because thou hast the best use of them 1 Cor. 3.23 All things are yours sayes the Apostle why by what title For you are Christs and Christ is Gods Carry back your comfort to the
the annointing Oyle and powre it upon his head The Mitre as you may see there was upon his head then but then there was a Crowne upon the Mitre There is a power above the Priest the regall power not above the function of the Priest but above the person of the Priest 1 Sam. 10.1 24. But Unction was the Consecration of Kings too Samuel saluted Saul with a kisse and all the people shouted and sayd God save the King but Is it not sayes Samuel because the Lord hath annointed thee to be captaine over his inheritance Kings were above Priests and in extraordinary cases God raysed Prophets above Kings for there is no ordinary power above them But Unction was the Consecration of these Prophets too Elisha was annointed to be Prophet in Elias roome and such a Prophet as should have use of the Sword 1 Reg. 19.16 17. Him that scapes the Sword of Hazael Hazael was King of Syria shall the Sword of Iehu slay and him that scapes the Sword of Iehu Iehu was King of Israel shall the Sword of Elisha slay In all these in Priests who were above the people in Kings who in matter of Government were above the Priests in Prophets who in those limited cases expressed by God and for that time wherein God gave them that extraordinary employment were above Kings The Unction imprinted their Consecration they were all Christs and in them all thereby was that Nuncupatio potestatis which Lactantius mentions Unction Annointing was an addition and title of honour Psal 109. Psal 2.6 Deut. 18. Much more in our Christ who alone was all three A Priest after the Order of Melchizedek A King set upon the holy hill of Sion And a Prophet The Lord thy God will rayse up a Prophet unto him shall yee harken And besides all this threefold Unction Humanitas uncta Divinitate He had all the unctions that all the other had and this which none other had In him the Humanity was Consecrated anointed with the Divinity it selfe So then Nazian Cyrill Psal 95.7 unio unctio The hypostaticall union of the Godhead to the humane nature is his Conception made him Christ for oleo laetitia perfusus in unione Then in that union of the two natures did God annoint him with the oyle of gladnes above his fellows There was an addition something gained something to be glad of and to him as he was God The Lord so nothing could be added If he were glad above his fellows it was in that respect wherein he had fellows and as God as The Lord he had none so that still as he was made Man he became this Christ In which his being made Man if we should not consider the last and principall purpose which was to redeem man if we leave out his part yet it were object inough for our wonder and subject inough for our praise and thankesgiving to consider the dignity that the nature of man received in that union wherin this Lord was thus made this Christ for the Godhead did not swallow up the manhood but man that nature remained still The greater kingdom did not swallow the lesse but the lesse had that great addition which it had not before and retained the dignities and priviledges which it had before too Damasc Christus est nomen personae non naturae The name of Christ denotes one person but not one nature neither is Christ so composed of those two natures as a man is composed of Elements for man is thereby made a third thing and is not now any of those Elements you cannot call mans body fire or ayre or earth or water though all foure be in his composition But Christ is so made of God and Man as that he is Man still for all the glory of the Deity and God still for all the infirmity of the manhood Idem Divinum miraculis lucet humanum contumeliis afficitur In this one Christ both appear The Godhead bursts out as the Sun out of a cloud and shines forth gloriously in miracles even the raysing of the dead and the humane nature is submitted to contempt and to torment even to the admitting of death in his own bosome sed tamen ipsius sunt tum miraculae Idem tum supplicia but still both he that rayses the dead and he that dyes himself is one Christ his is the glory of the Miracles and the contempt and torment is his too This is that mysterious person who is singularis and yet not individuus singularis There never was never shall be any such but we cannot call him Individuall Idem as every other particular man is because Christitatis non est Genus there is no genus nor species of Christs it is not a name which so as the name belongs to our Christ that is by being annointed with the divine nature can be communicated to any other as the name of Man may to every Individuall Man Christ is not that Spectrum that Damascene speaks of nor that Electrum that Tertullian speakes of not Spectrum so as that the two natures should but imaginarily be united and only to amaze and astonish us that we could not tell what to call it what to make of it a spectre an apparition a phantasma for he was a Reall person Neither was he Tertullians Electrum a third metall made of two other metals but a person so made of God and Man as that in that person God and Man are in their natures still distinguished He is Germen Davidis Iere. 23.5 Isa 4.2 in one Prophet The branch the Off-spring of David And he is Germen Iehovae The Branch the Off-spring of God of the Lord in another When this Germen Davidis the Sonne of Man would do miracles then he was Germen Iehovae he reflected to that stock into which the Humanity was engrafted to his Godhead And when this Germen Iehovae the Son of God would indure humane miseries he reflected to that stock to that humanity in which he had invested and incorporated himself This person 1 Cor. 15.3 Tertul. this Christ dyed for our sins says S. Paul but says he He dyed according to the Scriptures Non sine onere pronunciat Christum mortuum The Apostle thought it a hard a heavy an incredible thing to say that this person this Christ this Man and God was dead And therefore Vt duritiam molliret scandalum auditoris everteret That he might mollifie the hardnes of that saying and defend the hearer from being scandalized with that saying Adjecit secundùm scripturas He adds this Christ is dead according to the Scriptures If the Scriptures had not told us that Christ should die and told us againe that Christ did die it were hard to conceive how this person in whom the Godhead dwelt bodily should be submitted to death But therein principally is he Christus as he was capable of dying As he was Verbum naturale and innatum
15. That some men were baptized Pro mortuis for dead that is as good as dead past all hope of recovery So he dyed then Now beloved who hath seene a Father or a friend or a neighbour or a malefactor dye Luke 16.30 and hath not beene affected with his dying words Nay Father Abraham sayes Dives that will not serve That they have Moses and the Prophets Sermons will not serve their turnes But if one went to them from the Dead they would repent And the nearest to this is if one speake to them that is going to the dead If he had beene a minute in Heaven thou wouldst beleeve him and wilt thou not beleeve him a minute before Did not Iacob observe the Angels ascending as well as descending upon that ladder Trust a good soule going to God as well as comming from God And then as our Casuists say That whatsoever a man is bound to do In articulo mortis at the point of death by way of Confession or otherwise he is bound to doe when he comes to the Sacrament or when he undertakes any action of danger because then he should prepare himselfe as if he were dying so when you come to heare us here who are come from God heare us with such an affection as if we were going to God as if you heard us upon our death-beds The Pulpit is more then our death-bed for we are bound to the same truth and sincerity here as if we were upon our death-bed and then Gods Ordinance is more expresly executed here then there He that mingles falshood with his last dying words deceives the world inexcusably because he speakes in the person of an honest man but he that mingles false informations in his preaching does so much more because he speaks in the person of God himselfe They to whom S. Paul spake there are said all to have wept and to have fallen on Pauls necke and to have kissed him But it is added they sorrowed most of all for those words That they should see his face no more When any of those men to whom for their holy calling and their religious paines in their calling you owe and pay a reverence are taken from you by death or otherwise there is a godly sorrow due to that and in a great proportion In the death of one Elisha King Ioash apprehended a ruine of all He wept over his face 2 King 13.14 and said O my father my father the Charet of Israel and the horsemen thereof He lost the solicitude of a father he lost the power and strength of the Kingdome in the losse of one such Prophet But when you have so sorrowed for men upon whom your devotion hath put and justly put such a valuation remember that a greater losse then the losse of a thousand such men may fall upon you Consider the difference betweene the Candle and the Candlestick betweene the Preacher of the Gospel and the Gospel it selfe betweene a religious man and Religion it selfe The removing of the Candlestick and the withdrawing of the Gospel and the prophaning of Religion is infinitely a greaten losse then if hundreds of the present labourers should be taken away from us Mat. 8.12.21.43 Apoc. 2.5 The children of the kingdome may be cast into utter darknesse and That kingdome may be given to others which shall bring forth the fruits thereof and The Lord may come and come quickly and remove our Candlestick out of his place pray we that in our dayes he may not And truly where God threatens to doe so in the Revelation it is upon a Church of which God himselfe gives good testimony The Church of Ephesus of her Labours that is Preaching Ver. 2. of her Patience that is suffering of her Impatience her not suffering the evill that is her integrity and impartiality without connivence or toleration And of her not fainting that is perseverance and of her having the Nicolaitans that is sincerity in the truth Ver. 6. and a holy animosity against all false Doctrines And yet sayes he I have something to say against thee When thou hast testified their assiduity in Preaching their constancy in suffering their sincerity in beleeving their integrity in professing their perseverance in continuing their zeale in hating of all error in others when thou thy selfe hast given this evidence in their behalfe canst thou Lord Jesu have any thing to say against them what then shall we we that faile in all these look to heare from thee what was their crime Because they had left their first love Left the fulnesse of their former zeale to Gods cause Now if our case be so much worse then theirs as that we are not onely guilty of all those sins of which Christ discharges them and have not onely left our first love but in a manner lost all our love all our zeale to his glory and be come to a luke warmnesse in his service and a generall neglect of the meanes of grace how justly may we feare not onely that he will come and come quickly but that he may possibly be upon his way already to remove our Candlestick and withdraw the Gospel from us And if it be a sad thing to you to heare a Paul a holy man say You shall see my face no more on this side the Ite maledicti Go ye accursed into hell fire there cannot be so sad a voyce as to heare Christ Jesus say You shall see my face no more Facies Dei est qua Deus nobis innotescit sayes S. Augustin That is the face of God to us by which God manifests himselfe to us God manifests himselfe to us in the Word and in the Sacraments If we see not them in their true lines and colours the Word and Sacraments sincerely and religiously preached and administred we doe not see them but masks upon them And if we do not see them we do not see the face of Christ And I could as well stand under his Nescio vos which he said to the negligent Virgins I know you not or his Nescivi vos which he said to those that boast of their works Mat. 7.22 I never knew you as under this fearfull thunder from his mouth You shall see my face no more I will absolutely withdraw or I will suffer prophanenesse to enter into those meanes of your salvation Word and Sacraments which I have so long continued in their sincerity towards you and you have so long abused Blessed God say not so to us yet yet let the tree grow another yeare before thou cut it downe And as thou hast digged about it by bringing judgements upon our neighbours so water it with thy former raine the dew of thy grace and with thy later raine the teares of our contrition that we may still seethy face here and hereafter here in thy kingdome of Grace hereafter in thy kingdome of Glory which thou hast purchased for us with the inestimable price of thine
shall come to the glory of Heaven that hath not a holy ambition of this glory in this world for this glory which we speake of is the evidence and the reflexion of the glory from above for the glory of God shines through godly men and wee receive a beame and a tincture of that glory of God when we have the approbation and testimony and good opinion and good words of good men which is the Glory of our Text as far as this world is capable of glory All the upright in heart shall glory that is They shall be celebrated and encouraged with the glory and praise of good men here and they shall be rewarded with everlasting glory in Heaven In these words we propose to you but two parts Divisio First The disposition of the Persons Omnes recti corde All the upright in heart and then The retribution upon these Persons Gloriabuntur They shall Glory or as it is in the Vulgat and well Laudabuntur They shall be celebrated they shall be praised In the first The qualification of the persons wee shall passe by these steps First that God in his punishments and rewardings proposes to himselfe Persons Persons already made and qualified God does not begin at a retribution nor begin at a condemnation before he have Persons Persons fit to be rewarded Persons fit to be condemned God did not first make a Heaven and a Hell and after thinke of making man that he might have some persons to put in them but first for his Glory he made Man and for those who by a good use of his grace preserved their state Heaven and for those who by their owne fault fell he made Hell First he proposed Persons Persons in being And then for the Persons as his delight is for the most part to doe in this Text he expresses it which is rather to insist upon the Rewards which the Good shall receive then upon the condemnation and judgements of the wicked If he could chuse that is If his owne Glory and the edification of his Children would beare it he would not speake at all of judgements or of those persons that draw necessary judgements upon themselves but he would exercise our contemplation wholly upon his mercy and upon Persons qualified and prepared for his gracious retributions So he does here He speakes not at all of perverse and froward and sinister and oblique men men incapable of his retributions but onely of Persons disposed ordained prepared for them And in the qualification of these Persons he proposes first a rectitude a directnesse an uprightnesse declinations downeward deviations upon the wrong hand squint-eyed men splay footed men left-handed men in a spirituall sense he meddles not withall They must be direct and upright And then upright in heart for to be good to ill ends as in many cases a man may be God accepts not regards not But let him be a person thus qualified Vpright upright because he loves uprightnesse Vpright in heart And then he is infallably imbraced and enwrapped in that generall rule and proposition that admits no exception Omnes recti corde All the upright in heart shall be partakers of this retribution And in these branches we shall determine our first Part first That God proposes to himselfe Persons Persons thus and thus qualified he begins at them Secondly That God had rather dwell himselfe and propose to us the consideration of good persons then bad of his mercies then his judgements for he mentions no other here but persons capable of his retributions And then the goodnesse that God considers is rectitude and rectitude in the roote in the heart And from that roote growes that spreading universality that infallibility Omnes All such are sure of the Reward And then in our second Part in the Reward it selfe though it be delivered here in the whole barre in the Ingot in the Wedge in Bulloyn in one single word Gloriabuntur Laudabuntur They shall Glory yet it admits this Mintage and coyning and issuing in lesser pieces That first we consider the thing it selfe The metall in which God rewards us Glory Praise And then since Gods promise is fastened upon that We shall be praised As we may lawfully seeke the praise of good men so must wee also willingly afford praise to good men and to good actions And then since we finde this retribution fixed in the future We shall be praised we shall be in glory there arises this Consolation That though we have it not yet yet we shall have it Though wee be in dishonour and contempt and under a cloud of which we see no end our selves yet there is a determined future in God which shall be made present we shall overcome this contempt and Gloriabimur and Laudabimur we shall Glory we shall be celebrated In which future the consolation is thus much farther exalted that it is an everlasting future the glory and praise the approbation and acclamation which we shall receive from good men here shall flow out and continue to the Hosannaes in Heaven in the mouth of Saints and Angels and to the Euge bone serve Well done good and faithfull Servant Mat. 25.21 in the mouth of God himselfe First then God proposes to himselfe in his Rewards and Retributions Persons 1 Part. Personae qualificatae Persons disposed and qualified Not disposed by nature without use of grace that is flat and full Pelagianisme Not disposed by preventing grace without use of subsequent grace by Antecedent and anticipant without concomitant and auxiliant grace that is Semi-pelagianisme But persons obsequious to his grace when it comes and persons industrious and ambitious of more and more grace and husbanding his grace well all the way such persons God proposes to himselfe God does not onely reade his own works nor is he onely delighted with that which he hath writ himselfe with his own eternall Decrees in heaven but he loves also to reade our books too our histories which we compose in our lives and actions and as his delight is to be with the sonnes of men Pro. 8.31 Ephes 3.7 so his study is in this Library to know what we doe S. Paul sayes That God made him a Minister of the Gospel to preach to the Gentils to the intent that the Angels might know the manifold wisdome of God by the Church That is by that that was done in the Church The Angels saw God Did they not see these things in God No for These things were hid in God sayes the Apostle there And the Angels see no more in God then God reveales unto them and these things of the Church God reserved to a future and to an experimentall knowledge to be knowne then when they were done in the Church So there are Decrees in God but they are hid in God To this purpose and entendment and in this sense hid from God himselfe that God accepts or condemnes Man Secundum allegata Probata according
see by the light of this glory shed upon me there In this place and at this time the glory of God is but we lack that light to see it by When my soule and body are glorified in heaven by that light of glory in me I shall see the glory of God But then what must that glory of the Essence of God be which I shall see thorough the light of Gods own glory I must have the light of glory upon me to see the glory of God and then by his glory I shall see his Essence Rom. 11.33 When S. Paul cryes out upon the bottomlesse depth of the riches of his Attributes O the depth of the riches both of the wisedome and knowledge of God! how glorious how bottomlesse is the riches of his Essence If I cannot look upon him in his glasse 1 Cor. 13.12 1 Joh. 3.2 in the body of the Sunne how shall I looke upon him face to face And if I be dazeled to see him as he works how shall I see him Sicutiest as he is and in his Essence But it may be some ease to our spirits which cannot endure the search of this glory of heaven which shall shew us the very Essence of God to take this word of our Text as our first translation of all tooke it for one beame of this glory that is Praise Consider we therefore this everlasting future onely so How the upright in heart shall be praised in heaven First The Militant Church shall transmit me to the Triumphant with her recommendation That I lived in the obedience of the Church of God That I dyed in the faith of the Sonne of God That I departed and went away from them in the company and conduct of the Spirit of God into whose hands they heard me they saw me recommend my spirit 1 Cor. 6.19 And that I left my body which was the Temple of the Holy Ghost to them and that they have placed it in Gods treasury in his consecrated earth to attend the Resurrection which they shall beseech him to hasten for my sake and to make it joyfull and glorious to me and them when it comes So the Militant Church shall transmit me to the Triumphant with this praise this testimony this recommendation And then if I have done any good to any of Gods servants or to any that hath not been Gods servant for Gods sake If I have but fed a hungry man If I have but clothed a naked childe If I have but comforted a sad soule or instructed an ignorant soule If I have but preached a Sermon and then printed that Sermon that is first preached it and then lived according to it for the subsequent life is the best printing and the most usefull and profitable publishing of a Sermon All those things that I have done for Gods glory shall follow me shall accompany me shall be in heaven before me and meet me with their testimony That as I did not serve God for nothing God gave me his blessings with a large hand and in overflowing measures so I did not nothing for the service of God Though it be as it ought to be nothing in mine own eyes nothing in respect of my duty yet to them who have received any good by it it must not seeme nothing for then they are unthankfull to God who gave it by whose hand soever This shall be my praise to Heaven my recommendation thither And then my praise in Heaven shall be my preferment in Heaven That those blessed Angels that rejoyced at my Conversion before shall praise my perseverance in that profession and admit me to a part in all their Hymns and Hosannaes and Hallelujahs which Hallelujah is a word produced from the very word of this Text Halal My Hallelujah shall be my Halal my praising of God shall be my praise And from this testimony I shall come to the accomplishment of all to receive from my Saviours own mouth that glorious that victorious that harmonious praise that Dissolving and that Recollecting testimony that shall melt my bowels and yet fix me powre me out and yet gather me into his bosome that Euge bone serve Mat. 25.21 Well done good and faithfull servant enter into thy Masters joy And when he hath sealed me with his Euge and accepted my service who shall stamp a Vae quod non upon me who shall say Woe be unto thee that thou didst not preach this or that day in this or that place When he shall have styled me Bone fidelis Good and faithfull servant who shall upbraid me with a late undertaking this Calling or a slack pursuing or a lazy intermitting the function thereof When he shall have entred me into my Masters joy what fortune what sin can cast any Cloud of sadnesse upon me This is that that makes Heaven Heaven That this Retribution which is future now shall be present then and when it is then present it shall be future againe and present and future for ever ever enjoyed and expected ever The upright in heart shall have whatsoever all Translations can enlarge and extend themselves unto They shall Rejoyce they shall Glory they shall Praise and they shall bee praised and all these in an everlasting future for ever Which everlastingnesse is such a Terme as God himselfe cannot enlarge As God cannot make himselfe a better God then he is because hee is infinitely good infinite goodnesse already so God himselfe cannot make our Terme in heaven longer then it is for it is infinite everlastingnesse infinite eternity That that wee are to beg of him is that as that state shall never end so he will be pleased to hasten the beginning thereof that so we may be numbred with his Saints in Glory everlasting Amen SERM. LXVIII The fourth of my Prebend Sermons upon my five Psalmes Preached at S. Pauls 28. Ianuary 1626. PSAL. 65.5 By terrible things in righteousnesse wilt thou answer us O God of our salvation who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth and of them that are a far off upon the Sea GOd makes nothing of nothing now God eased himselfe of that incomprehensible worke and ended it in the first Sabbath But God makes great things of little still And in that kinde hee works most upon the Sabbath 1 Cor. 1.21 when by the foolishnesse of Preaching hee infatuates the wisedome of the world and by the word in the mouth of a weake man he enfeebles the power of sinne and Satan in the world and by but so much breath as blows out an houre-glasse gathers three thousand soules at a Sermon and five thousand soules at a Sermon as upon Peters preaching in the second and in the fourth of the Acts. And this worke of his to make much of little and to doe much by little is most properly a Miracle For the Creation which was a production of all out of nothing was not properly a miracle A miracle is a thing done
in that Church had charged the Jewes That they had rased that clause out of the Hebrew Leo Castr and that it was in the Hebrew at first A learned and a laborious Jesuit for truely Lorinus Schooles may confesse the Jesuits to bee learned for they have assisted there and States and Councell-tables may confesse the Jesuits to be laborious for they have troubled them there hee I say after he hath chidden his fellow for saying That this word had ever been in the Hebrew or was razed out from thence by the Jewes concludes roundly Vndecunque advenerit Howsoever those Additions which are not in the Hebrew came into our Translation Authoritatem habent retineri debent Their very being there gives them Authentikenesse and Authority and there they must be That this in the Title of this Psalme be there wee are content as long as you know that this particular That this Psalme by the Title thereof concerns the Resurrection is not in the Originall but added by some Expositor of the Psalmes you may take knowledge too That that addition hath beene accepted and followed by many and ancient and reverend Expositors almost all of the Easterne and many of the Westerne Church too and therefore for our use and accommodation may well be accepted by us also We consider ordinarily three Resurrections A spirituall Resurrection a Resurrection from sinne by Grace in the Church A temporall Resurrection a Resurrection from trouble and calamity in the world And an eternall Resurrection a Resurrection after which no part of man shall die or suffer againe the Resurrection into Glory Of the first The Resurrection from sinne Esay 60.1 is that intended in Esay Arise and shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee Of the later Resurrection is that harmonious straine of all the Apostles in their Creed intended I beleeve the Resurrection of the body And of the third Resurrection from oppressions and calamities which the servants of God suffer in this life Calvin Iob 19.26 Ezek. 37. some of our later men understand that place of Iob I know that my Redeemer liveth and that in my flesh I shall see God And that place of Ezekiel all understand of that Resurrection where God saith to the Prophet Sonne of man can these bones live Can these men thus ruined thus dispersed bee restored againe by a resurrection in this world And to this resurrection from the pressures and tribulations of this life doe those Interpreters who interpret this Psalme of a Resurrection refer this our Text Say unto God How terrible art thou in thy works Through the greatnesse of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee Consider how powerfully God hath and you cannot doubt but that God will give them a Resurrection in this world who rely upon him and use his meanes whensoever any calamity hath dejected them ruined them scattered them in the eyes of men Say unto the Lord That he hath done it and the Lord will say unto thee that he will doe it againe and againe for thee We call Noah Divisio Ianus because hee had two faces in this respect That hee looked into the former and into the later world he saw the times before and after the flood David in this Text is a Ianus too He looks two wayes he hath a Prospect and a Retrospect he looks backward and forward what God had done and what God would doe For as we have one great comfort in this That Prophecies are become Histories that whatsoever was said by the mouthes of the Prophets concerning our salvation in Christ is effected so prophecies are made histories so have wee another comfort in this Text That Histories are made Prophecies That whatsoever we reade that God had formerly done in the reliefe of his oppressed servants wee are thereby assured that he can that he will doe them againe and so Histories are made Prophecies And upon these two pillars A thankfull acknowledgement of that which God hath done And a faithfull assurance that God will doe so againe shall this present Exercise of your devotions be raysed And these are our two parts Dicite Deo Say unto God How terrible art thou in thy works that part is Historicall of things past In multitudine virtutis In the greatnesse of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee that part is Propheticall of things to come In the History wee are to turne many leafes and many in the Prophecy too to passe many steps to put out many branches in each In the first these Dicite say ye where we consider first The Person that enjoyns this publike acknowledgement and thanksgiving It is David and David as a King for to Him to the King the ordering of publike actions even in the service of God appertains David David the King speaks this by way of counsell and perswasion and concurrence to all the world for so in the beginning and in some other passages of the Psalme it is Omnis terra All yee lands Verse 1. and All the earth Verse 4. David doth what he can that all the world might concurre in one manner of serving God By way of Assistance he extends to all And by way of Injunction and commandement to all his to all that are under his government Dicite say you that is you shall say you shall serve God thus And as he gives counsell to all and gives lawes to all his subjects so he submits himselfe to the same law For as wee shall see in some parts of the Psalme to which the Text refers he professes in his particular that he will say and doe Iosh 24.15 whatsoever hee bids them doe and say My house shall serve the Lord sayes Ioshua But it is Ego domus mea I and my house himselfe would serve God aright too From such a consideration of the persons in the Historicall part wee shall passe to the commandement to the duty it selfe That is first Dicite say It is more then Cogitate to Consider Gods former goodnesse more then Admirari to Admire Gods former goodnesse speculations and extasies are not sufficient services of God Dicite Say unto God Declare manifest publish your zeale is more then Cogitate Consider it thinke of it but it is lesse then Facite To come to action wee must declare our thankfull zeale to Gods cause we must not modifie not disguise that But for the particular wayes of promoving and advancing that cause in matter of action we must refer that to them to whom God hath referred it The Duty is a Commemoration of Benefits Dicite Speake of it ascribe it attribute it to the right Author Who is that That is the next Consideration Dicite Deo Say unto God Non vobis Not to your owne Wisdome or Power Non Sanctis Not to the care and protection of Saints or Angels Sed nomini ejus da gloriam Onely unto his name be
all claimes and encumbrances upon his childrens children Psal 37.26 The righteous is mercifull and lendeth saies David Mercifull as his Father in Heaven is mercifull that is in perpetuall not transitory endowments for God did not set up his lights his Sun and his Moone for a day but for ever and such should our light or good works be too Hee is mercifull and he lendeth to whom for to the poore he giveth he looks for no returne from them for they are the waters upon which he casts his bread Yet he lendeth Eccles 11.1 Prov. 19.17 He that hath pity on the poore lendeth to the Lord. The righteous is mercifull and lendeth and then as David addes there His seed is blessed Blessed in this which followes there that he shall inherit the land Psal 37.29 Psal 112.4 and dwell therein for ever which he ratifies againe Surely he shall not be moved for ever that is he shall never be moved in his posterity And as he is blessed that way blessed in the establishment of his possession upon his childrens children so is he blessed in this that his honour and good name shall bee poured out as a fragrant oyle upon his posterity Ibid. The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance Their memory shall be alwaies alive Prov. 10.7 Prov. 11.30 and alwaies fresh in their posterity when The name of the wicked shall rot So then the fruit of the righteous is the tree of life saies Solomon that is the righteous shall produce plants that shall grow up and flourish so his posterity shall be a tree of life to many generations Prov. 17.6 and then The glory of children are their Fathers saies that wise King As Fathers receive comfort from good children so children receive glory from good parents in this are children glorified that they had righteous Fathers that lent unto the Lord. So that to recollect these peeces it is no small reward that God affords you if men seeing your good workes glorifie that is esteeme and respect and love and honour your children upon earth But it is not onely that your good workes shall bee an occasion of carrying glory upon the right object They shall glorifie your Father which is in heaven It is not the Father which is in Heaven Non Patrem that they should glorifie God as the common Father of all by creation For for that they need not your light your good works The Heavens declare the glory of God Psal 19.1 saies David that is glorifie him in an acknowledgement that he is the Father of them Deut. 32.6 and of all other things by creation Is not hee thy Father hath he not made thee is an interrogatory ministred by Moses to which all things must answer with the Prophet Malachie Malac. 2.10 yes He is our Father for he hath made us But that 's not the paternity of this text as God is Father of us all by creation Nor as he is a Father of some in a more particular consideration in giving them large portions great patrimonies in this world for thus he may be my Father and yet disinherit me hee may give me plenty of temporall blessings and withhold from me spirituall and eternall blessings Now to see this men need not your light your good workes for they see dayly That he maketh his sun to shine on the evill Mat. 5.45 and on the good and causeth it to raine on the just and the unjust He feeds Goates as well as Sheepe he gives the wicked temporall blessings as well as the righteous These then are not the paternities of our text that men by this occasion glorifie God as the Father of all men by creation nor as the Father of all rich men by their large patrimonies not as he is the Father not as he is a Father but as he is your Father as he is made yours as he is become yours by that particular grace of using the temporall blessings which he hath given you to his glory in letting your light shine before men For it were better God disinherited us so as to give us nothing then that he gave us not the grace to use that that he gave us well without this all his bread were stone Mat. 7.9 and all his fishes serpents all his temporall liberality malediction How much happier had that man beene that hath wasted thousands in play in riot in wantonnesse in sinfull excesses if his parents had left him no more at first then he hath left himselfe at last How much nearer to a kingdome in Heaven had hee beene if he had beene borne a begger here Nay though he have done no ill of such excessive kinds how much happier had he beene if he had had nothing left him if hee have done no good There cannot be a more fearfull commination upon man nor a more dangerous dereliction from God Ps 50.8 12. then when God saies I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices Though thou offer none I care not I le never tell thee of it nor reprove thee for it I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices And when he saies as he does there If I bee hungry I will not tell thee I will not awake thy charity I will not excite thee not provoke thee with any occasion of feeding me in feeding the poore When God shall say to me I care not whether you come to Church or no whether you pray or no repent or no confesse receive or no this is a fearfull dereliction so is it when he saies to a rich man I care not whether your light shine out or no whether men see your good works or no I can provide for my glory other waies For certainly God hath not determined his purpose and his glory so much in that to make some men rich that the poore might be relieved for that ends in bodily reliefe as in this that he hath made some men poore whereby the rich might have occasion to exercise their charity for that reaches to spirituall happinesse for which use the poore doe not so much need the rich as the rich need the poore the poore may better be saved without the rich then the rich without the poore But when men shall see that that God who is the Father of us all by creating us and the father of all the rich by enriching them is also become your father yours by adoption yours by infusion of that particular grace to doe good with your goods then are you made blessed instruments of that which God seeks here his glory They shall glorifie your father which is in heaven Glory is so inseparable to God as that God himself is called Glory They changed their Glory into the similitude of an Oxe Their glory their true God into an inglorious Idol Gloria Psal 106.20 Psal 85.10 That glory may dwell in our land sayes he that is that God may dwell therein The
for they shall have a composition still and every compounded thing may perish but they shal be so assured and with such a preservation as they shall alwaies know they shall never dye S. Augustine saies well Aug. Assit motio absit fatigatio assit potestas vescendi absit necessitas esuriendi They have in their nature a mortality and yet be immortall a possibility and an impossibility of dying with those two divers relations one to nature the other to preservation will consist together So in this soule that hath this first Resurrection from sin by grace a conscience of her owne infirmity that she may relapse and yet a testimony of the powerfulnesse of Gods Spirit that easily she shall not relapse may consist well together But the last seale of this holy confidence is reserved for that which is the third acceptation of this first Resurrection not from persecutions in this world nor from sin in this world but from all possibility of falling back into sin in the world to come and to this have divers Expositors referred these words this first resurrection Blessed and holy is he that hath part in this first Resurrection Now a Resurrection of the soule seemes an improper an impertinent an improbable 3 Part. an impossible forme of speech for Resurrection implies death and the soule does not dye in her passage to Heaven And therefore Damascen makes account De ortho sid l. 4. c. ult that he hath sufficiently proved the Resurrection of the body which seems so incredible if he could prove any Resurrection if there be any Resurrection at all saies he it must be of the body for the soule cannot dye therefore not rise Yet have not those Fathers nor those Expositors who have in this text acknowledged a Resurrection of the soule mistaken nor miscalled the matter Take Damascens owne definition of Resurrection Resurrectio est ejus quod cecidit secunda surrectio A Resurrection is a second rising to that state from which any thing is formerly fallen Now though by death the soule do not fall into any such state as that it can complaine for what can that lack which God fils yet by death the soule fals from that for which it was infused and poured into man at first that is to be the forme of that body the King of that Kingdome and therefore when in the generall Resurrection the soule returnes to that state for which it was created and to which it hath had an affection and a desire even in the fulnesse of the Joyes of Heaven then when the soule returnes to her office to make up the man because the whole man hath therefore the soule hath a Resurrection not from death but from a deprivation of her former state that state which she was made for and is ever enclined to But that is the last Resurrection and so the soule hath part even in that last Resurrection But we are in hand with the first Resurrection of the soule and that is when that soule which was at first breath'd from God and hath long suffered a banishment a close imprisonment in this body returnes to God againe The returning of the soule to him from whom it proceeded at first is a Resurrection of the soule Here then especially I feele the straitnesse of time two considerations open themselves together of such a largenesse as all the time from Moses his In principio when time began to the Angels Affidavit in this booke That shall say and sweare that time shall be no more were too narrow to contemplate these two Hemispheares of Man this Evening and Morning of Mans everlasting day The miseries of man in this banishment in this emprisonment in this grave of the soule the body And the glory and exaltation of that soule in her Resurrection to Heaven That soule which being borne free is made a slave to this body by comming to it It must act but what this body will give it leave to act according to the Organs which this body affords it and if the body be lame in any limme the soule must be lame in her operation in that limme too It must doe but what the body will have it doe and then it must suffer whatsoever that body puts it to or whatsoever any others will put that body to If the body oppresse it selfe with Melancholy the soule must be sad and if other men oppresse the body with injury the soule must be sad too Consider it is too immense a thing to consider it reflect but one thought but upon this one thing in the soule here and hereafter In her grave the body and in her Resurrection in Heaven That is the knowledge of the soule Here saies S. Augustine when the soule considers the things of this world Non veritate certior sed consuetudine securior She rests upon such things as she is not sure are true but such as she sees are ordinarily received and accepted for truths so that the end of her knowledge is not Truth but opinion and the way not Inquisition but ease But saies he when she proceeds in this life to search into heavenly things Verberatur luce veritatis The beames of that light are too strong for her and they sink her and cast her downe Et ad familiaritatem tenebrarum suarum non electione sed fatigatione convertitur and so she returnes to her owne darknesse because she is most familiar and best acquainted with it Non electione not because she loves ignorance but because she is weary of the trouble of seeking out the truth and so swallowes even any Religion to escape the paine of debating and disputing and in this lazinesse she sleeps out her lease her terme of life in this death in this grave in this body But then in her Resurrection her measure is enlarged and filled at once There she reads without spelling and knowes without thinking and concludes without arguing she is at the end of her race without running In her triumph without fighting In her Haven without sayling A free-man without any prentiship at full yeares without any wardship and a Doctor without any proceeding She knowes truly and easily and immediately and entirely and everlastingly Nothing left out at first nothing worne out at last that conduces to her happinesse What a death is this life what a resurrection is this death For though this world be a sea yet which is most strange our Harbour is larger then the sea Heaven infinitely larger then this world For though that be not true which Origen is said to say That at last all shall be saved nor that evident which Cyril of Alexandria saies That without doubt the number of them that are saved is far greater then of them that perish yet surely the number of them with whom we shall have communion in Heaven is greater then ever lived at once upon the face of the earth And of those who lived in our time how few did we
know and of those whom we did know how few did we care much for In Heaven we shall have Communion of Joy and Glory with all Aug. alwaies Vbi non intrat inimicus nec amicus exit Where never any man shall come in that loves us not nor go from us that does Beloved I thinke you could be content to heare I could be content to speake of this Resurrection our glorious state by the low way of the grave till God by that gate of earth let us in at the other of precious Stones And blessed and holy is he who in a rectified conscience desires that resurrection now But we shall not depart far from this consideration by departing into our last branch or conclusion That this first Resurrection may also be understood to be the first riser Christ Jesus and Blessed and holy is he that hath part in that first Resurrection This first Resurrection is then without any detorting 4 Part. any violence very appliable to Christ himself who was Primitiae dormientium in that that action That he rosc again he is become sayes the Apostle the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15.20 Hier. in Mat. 27.52 He did rise and rise first others rose with him none before him for S. Hierome taking the words as he finds them in that Euangelist makes this note That though the graves were opened at the instant of Christs death death was overcome the City opened the gates yet the bodies did not rise till after Christs Resurrection For for such Resurrections as are spoken of That women received their dead raised to life again Heb. 11.35 and such as are recorded in the old and new Testament they were all unperfect and temporary resurrections such as S. Hierome sayes of them all Resurgebant iterum morituri They were but reprieved not pardoned Hier. They had a Resurrection to life but yet a Resurrection to another death Christ is the first Resurrection others were raised but he only rose they by a forraine and extrinsique he by his owne power But we call him not the first in that respect onely for so he was not onely the first but the onely he alone arose by his owne power but with relation to all our future Resurrections he is the first Resurrection First If Christ be not raised your faith is in vaine 1 Cor. 15.17 saies the Apostle You have a vaine faith if you beleeve in a dead man He might be true Man though he remained in death but it concernes you to beleeve that he was the Son of God too And he was declared to be the Son of God Rom. 11.4 by the Resurrection from the dead That was the declaration of himselfe his Justification he was justified by the Spirit when he was proved to be God by raising himselfe But thus our Justification is also in his Resurrection For He was raised from the dead for our Iustification how for ours Rom. 4. ult That we should be also in the likenesse of his Resurrection What is that that he hath told us before Our Resurrection in Christ is that we should walke in newnesse of life Rom. 6.4 So that then Christ is the first Resurrection first Efficiently the onely cause of his owne Resurrection First Meritoriously the onely cause of our Resurrection first Exemplarily the onely patterne how we should rise and how we should walke when we are up and therefore Blessed and happy are we if we referre all our resurrections to this first Resurrection Christ Jesus For as Iob said of Comforters so miserable Resurrections are they all without him If therefore thou need and seeke this first Resurrection in the first acceptation a Resurrection from persecutions and calamities as they oppresse thee here have thy recourse to him to Christ Remember that at the death of Christ there were earthquakes the whole earth trembled There were rendings of the Temple Schismes Convulsions distractions in the Church will be But then the graves opened in the midst of those commotions Then when thou thinkest thy selfe swallowed and buried in affliction as the Angell did his Christ Jesus shall remove thy grave stone and give thee a resurrection but if thou thinke to remove it by thine owne wit thine owne power or the favour of potent Friends Digitus Dei non est hic The hand of God is not in all this and the stone shall lye still upon thee till thou putrifie into desperation and thou shalt have no part in this first Resurrection If thou need and seek this first resurrection in the second acceptation from the fearfull death of hainous sin have thy recourse to him to Christ Jesus remember the waight of the sins that lay upon him All thy sins and all thy Fathers and all thy childrens sins all those sins that did induce the first flood and shall induce the last fire upon this world All those sins which that we might take example by them to scape them are recorded and which lest we should take example by them to imitate them are left unrecorded all sins of all ages all sexes all places al times all callings sins heavy in their substance sins aggravated by their circumstances all kinds of sins and all particular sins of every kind were upon him upon Christ Jesus and yet he raised his holy Head his royall Head though under thornes yet crowned with those thornes and triumphed in this first Resurrection and his body was not left in the Grave nor his soule in Hell Christs first tongue was a tongue that might be heard He spoke to the Shepheards by Angels His second tongue was a Star a tongue which might be seene He spoke to the Wisemen of the East by that Hearken after him these two waies As he speakes to thine eare and to thy soul by it in the preaching of his Word as he speakes to thine eye and so to thy soule by that in the exhibiting of his Sacraments And thou shalt have thy part in this first Resurrection But if thou thinke to overcome this death this sense of sin by diversions by worldly delights by mirth and musique and society or by good works with a confidence of merit in them or with a relation to God himselfe but not as God hath manifested himselfe to thee not in Christ Jesus The stone shall lye still upon thee till thou putrifie into desperation and then hast thou no part in this first Resurrection If thou desire this first Resurrection in the third acceptation as S. Paul did To be dissolved and to be with Christ go Christs way to that also He desired that glory that thou doest and he could have laid down his soul when he would but he staid his houre sayes the Gospel He could have ascended immediatly immediatly in time yet he staid to descend into hell first and he could have ascended immediatly of himself by going up yet he staid till he was taken up Thou hast