my selfe as that in that body so glorifyed by God I also shall glorify him So very a body so perfectly a body shall we have there as that Mahomet and his followers could not consist in those heavenly functions of the body in glorifying God but mis-imagine a feasting and banqueting and all carnall pleasures of the body in heaven too But there Christ stoppes A Resurrection there shall be but in the Resurrection we shall not mary c. They shall not mary because they shall have none of the uses of mariage not as mariage is physicke against inordinate affections for every soule shall be a Consort in itselfe and never out of tune not as mariage is ordained for mutuall helpe of one another for God himself shall be intirely in every soul And what can that soul lack that hath all God Not as mariage is a second and a suppletory eternity in the continuation and propagation of Children for they shall have the first Eternity individuall eternity in themselves Therefore does S. Luke assigne that reason why they shall not mary Because they cannot dy Because they have an eternity in themselves they need not supply any defect by a propagation of children But yet though Christ exclude that of which there is clearely no use in Heaven Mariage because they need no physick no mutuall help no supply of children yet he excludes not our knowing or our loving of one another upon former knowledge in this world in the next Christ does not say expressely we shall yet neither does he say that we shall not know one another there Neither can we say we shall not because we know not how we should Adam who was asleep when Eve was made and neither saw nor felt any thing that God had done knew Eve upon the very first sight to be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh By what light knew he this And in the transfiguration of Christ Peter and James and John knew Moses and Elias and by what light knew they them whom they had never seen Nor can we or they or any be imagined to have any degree of knowledge of persons or actions though but occasionally and transeuntly in this life which we shall not have inherently and permanently in the next In the Types of the generall Resurrection which were particular Resuscitations of the dead in this world the Dead were restored to the knowledge of their friends when Christ raised the sonne of the widow of Naim he delivered him to his Mother when Peter raised Tabitha he called the Saints and the Widows and presented her alive unto them So God saies to Abraham Ibis ad patres thou shalt goe to thy fathers he should know that they were his fathers so to Moses Iungeris populis tuis Thou shalt dy and be gathered to thy people as Aaron thy brother dyed and was gathered to his people Iohn Baptist had a knowledge of Christ though they were both in their mothers wombes and Dives of Lazarus though in Hell and it is not easily told by what light these saw these Whatsoever conduces to Gods glory or our happinesse we shall certainly know in heaven And he that in a rectifyed conscience beleeves that it does so may piously beleeve that he shall know them there In things of this nature where no direct place of Scripture binds up thy faith beleeve so as most exalts thine own Devotion yet with this Caution too not to condemn uncharitably and peremptorily those that beleeve otherwise A Resurrection there shall be In the Resurrection there shall be no Mariage because it conduces to no end but if it conduce to Gods glory and my happinesse as it may piously be beleeved it does to know them there whom I knew here I shall know them Now from this In the Resurrection they mary not flows this also Till the Resurrection they doe they may they shall mary Nay in Gods first purpose and institution They must For God said It is not good that the man should be alone Every man is a naturall body every congregation is a politik body The whole world is a Catholik an universall body For the sustentation and aliment of the naturall body Man God hath given Meat for the Politik for societies God hath given Industry and severall callings and for the Catholik body for the sustentation and reparation of the world God hath given Mariage They that scatter themselves in various lusts commit wast and shall undergoe at last a heavy condemnation upon that Action of wast in their souls as they shal feel it before in their bodies which they have wasted They that mary not do not keep the world in reparation And the common law the law of nature and the generall law of God bindes man in generall to that reparation of the world to Mariage for Continency is Privilegtum a Privilege that is Privata lex when it is given it becomes a law too for he to whom God gives the gift of Continency is bound by it it is Privata lex a Law an Obligation upon that particular man And then Privilegium is Privatio Legis it is a dispensation upon that Law which without that privilege and dispensation would binde him so that all those who have not this privilege this dispensation this continency by immediate gift from God or other medicinall Disciplines and Mortifications which Disciplines and Mortifications every state and condition of life is not bound to exercise because such Mortifications as would overcome their Concupiscences would also overcome all their naturall strength and make them unable to doe the works of their callings all such are bound by the generall law to mary For from Nature and her Law we have that voice ut gignamus geniti Man is borne into the world that others might be born from him And from Gods generall Law we have that voice Crescite Multiplicamini Therefore God plac'd man here that he might repair and furnish the world He is gone at Common Law that maries not Not but that he may have reliefe but it is onely in Conscience and by way of Equity and as in Chancery that is If in a rectified Conscience he know that he should be the lesse disposed to religious Offices for mariage he does well to abstaine otherwise he must remember that the world is one Body and Mariage the aliment that the world is one Building and Mariage the Reparation Therefore the Emperor Augustus did not onely encrease the rewards and privileges which former Laws had given to maried persons but he laid particular penalties upon them that liv'd unmaryed And though that State seem to have countenanced single life because they afforded dignities to certaine Vestall Virgins yet the number of those Vestals was small not above six and then the dignities and privileges which those Vestals had were no other but that they were made equall in the state to maryed
conscience and pinching the bowells by denouncing of Gods Judgements these beare witnesse of the light when otherwise men would sleep it out and so propter non intelligentes for those that lye in the suddes of nature and cannot or of negligence and will not come to heare sol lucernas this light requires testimony These testimonies Gods ordinances may have wakened a man yet he may winke and covet darknesse and grow weary of instruction and angry at increpation And as the eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight so the eare of this fastidious and impatient man longeth for the end of the Sermon or the end of that point in the Sermon which is a thorne to his conscience But as if a man wink in a cleare day he shall for all that discerne light thorough his eylids but not light enough to keep him from stumbling so the most perverse man that is either in faith or manners that winkes against the light of nature or light of the law or light of grace exhibited in the Christian Church the most determined Atheist that is discernes through all his stubbornnesse though not light enough to rectifie him to save him yet enough to condemne him though not enough to enable him to reade his owne name in the book of life yet so much as makes him afraid to read his own story by and to make up his owne Audit and account with God And doth not this light to this man need testimony That as he does see it is a light so he might see that there is warmth and nourishment in this light and so as well see the way to God by that light as to see by it that there is a God and this he may if he doe not sleep nor winke that is not forbeare comming hither nor resist the grace of God always offred here when he is here Propter incredulos for their sakes who though they doe heare heare not to beleeve sol lucernas this light requires testimony and it does so too propter infirmos for their sakes who though they doe heare and beleeue yet doe not Practise If he neither sleep nor wink neither forbeare nor resist yet how often may you surprise and deprehend a man whom you thinke directly to look upon such an object yet if you aske him the quality or colour of it he will tell you he saw it not That man sees as little with staring as the other with winking His eye hath seen but it hath returned nothing to the common sense We may pore upon books stare upon preachers yet if we reflect nothing nothing upon our conversation we shall still remaine under the increpation and malediction of Saint Paul out of Esay Seeing yee shall see and shall not perceive seeing and hearing shall but aggravate our condemnation and it shall be easier at the day of Judgement for the deaf and the blinde that never saw Sacrament never heard Sermon then for us who have frequented both propter infirmos for their sakes whose strength though it serve to bring them hither and to beleeve here doth not serve them to proceed to practise sol lucernas this light requires testimony Yet if we be neither dead nor asleep nor winke nor looke negligently but doe come to some degrees of holinesse in practise for a time yet if at any time we put our selves in such a position and distance from this light as that we suffer dark thick bodies to interpose and eclipse it that is sadnesse and dejection of spirit for worldly losses nay if we admit inordinate sadnesse for sinne it selfe to eclipse this light of comfort from us or if we suffer such other lights as by the corrupt estimation of the world have a greater splendour to come in As the light of Knowledge and Learning the light of Honour and Glory of popular Applause and Acclamation so that this light which we speake of the light of former Grace be darkned by the accesse of other lights worldly lights then also you shall finde that you need more and more Testimony of this light God is light in the Creature in nature yet the naturall Man stumbles and falls and lies in that ignorance Christ bears witnesse of this light in establishing a Chrishian Church yet many Christians fall into Idolatry and Superstition and lie and die in it The Holy Ghost hath born further witnesse of this light and if we may take so low a Metaphore in so high a Mystery hath snuffed this candle mended this light in the Reformation of Religion and yet there is a damp or a cloud of uncharitablenesse of neglecting of defaming one another we deprave even the fiery the claven tongues of the Holy Ghost Our tongues are fiery onely to the consuming of another and they are cloven onely in speaking things contrary to one another So that still there need more witnesses more testimonies of this light God the Father is Pater Luminum the Father of all Lights God the Sonne is Lumen de lumine Light of light of the Father God the Holy Ghost is Lumen de luminibus Light of lights proceeding both from the Father and the Sonne and this light the Holy Ghost kindles more lights in the Church and drops a coale from the Altar upon every lamp he lets fall beams of his Spirit upon every man that comes in the name of God into this place and he sends you one man to day which beareth witnesse of this light ad ignaros that bends his preaching to the convincing of the naturall man the ignorant soul and works upon him And another another day that bears witnesse ad incredulos that fixeth the promises of the Gospell and the merits of Christ Jesus upon that startling and timorous soul upon that jealous and suspicious soul that cannot beleeve that those promises or those merits appertain to him and so bends all the power of his Sermon to the binding up of such broken hearts and faint beleevers He sendeth another to bear witnesse ad infirmos to them who though they have shaked off their sicknesse yet are too weake to walke to them who though they doe beleeve are intercepted by tentations from preaching and his Sermon reduces them from their ill manners who thinke it enough to come to hear to beleeve And then he sendeth another ad Relapsos to bear witnesse of this light to them who have relapsed into former sinnes that the merits of Christ are inexhaustible and the mercies of God in him indefatigable As God cannot be deceived with a false repentance so he cannot resist a true nor be weary of multiplying his mercies in that case And therefore thinke not that thou hast heard witnesses enow of this light Sermons enow if thou have heard all the points preached upon which concerne thy salvation But because new Clouds of Ignorance of Incredulitie of Infirmitie of Relapsing rise every day and call this light in question
disarm them he wil infatuate them he wil make them a prey to their enemies take away all true and all imaginary rest too Briefly it is the mark of all men even naturall men Rest for though Tertullian condemn that to call Quietis Magisterium Sapientiam The act of being and living at quiet wisdome therein seeming to exclude all wisdome that conduces not to rest as though there were no wisdome in action and in businesse Though in the person of Epicurus he condemn that and that saying Nemo alii nascitur moriturus sibi It is no reason that any Man should think himselfe born for others since he cannot live to himselfe or to labour for others since himselfe cannot enjoy rest yet Tertullian leaving the Epicures that placed felicity in a stupid and unsociable retiring sayes in his own person and in his own opinion almost as much Vnicum mihi negotium nec aliud curo quam ne curem All that I care for is that I might care for nothing and so even Tertullian in his Christian Philosophy places happinesse in rest Now he speaks not onely of the things of this world they must necessarily be car'd for in their proportion we must not decline the businesses of this life and the offices of society out of an aëry and imaginary affection of rest our principall rest is in the testimony of our Conscience and in doing that which we were sent to doe And to have a Rest and peace in a Conscience of having done that religiously and acceptably to God is our true Rest and this was the rest which the Jewes were to lose in this place the testimony of their consciences that they had perform'd their part their Conditions so that they might rely upon Gods promises of a perpetuall rest in the Land of Canaan and that rest they could not have not that peacefull testimony of their Consciences They could not have that rest no Rest not there not in Canaan which was the highest degree of the misery because they were confident in their term their state in that Land that it should be perpetuall and they were confident in the goodnesse of the Land that it should evermore give them all conveniencies in abundance conducing to all kind of rest for this Land God himself cals by the name of rest and of his rest I sware they should not enter into my rest So that rest was proper to this Land and this Land was proper to them For as St. Augustine notes well though God recover'd this Land for them and reestablish'd miraculously their possession yet they came but in their Remitter and in postliminio the inheritance of that Land was theirs before for Sem the son of Neah was in possession of this Land and the sons of Cham the Canaanites expel'd his race out of it and Abraham of the race of Sem was restor'd unto it again So that as the goodnesse of the Land promis'd rest so the goodnesse of the title promis'd them the Land and yet they might have no rest there They had a better title then that Those often oathes which God had sworne unto them that that land should be theirs forever was their evidence If then that land were Requies Domini the rest of the Lord that is the best and the safest Rest and that land were their land why should they not have that rest here when the Lord had sworne they should Why because he swore the contrary after but will God sweare contrary things why sâ—lus securus jurat qui falliâ—non potest says Saint Augustine onely he can sweare a thing safely that sees all circumstances and foresees all occurrances onely God can sweare safely because nothing can be hid from him God therefore that knew upon what conditions he had taken the first oath and knew againe how contemptuously those conditions were broken he takes knowledge that he had sworne he denies not that but he sweares againe and in his anger I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest Those Men says he which have seen my glory and my Miracles and have tempted me tenne times and not obeyed my voyce certainly they shall not see the land whereof I sware unto their fathers neither shall any that provoke me see it He pleads not Non est factum but he pleads conditions performed he denies not that he swore but he justifies himselfe that he had done as much as he promised for his promise was conditionall The Apostle seemes to assigne but one reason of their exclusion from this Land and from this rest and yet he expresses that one Reason so as that it hath two branches He sayes we see that they could not enter because of unbeleef and yet he asks the question To whom sware he that they should not enter into his Rest but unto them that obeyed not Vnbeleef is assigned for the cause and yet they were shut out for disobedience now if the Apostle make it all one whether want of faith or want of works exclude us from the Land of Rest let not us be too curious enquirers whether faith or works bring us thither for neither faith nor works bring us thither as a full cause but if we consider mediate causes so they may be both causes faith instrumentall works declaratory faith may be as evidence works as the scale of it but the cause is onely the free election of God Nor ever shall we come thither if we leave out either we shall meet as many Men in heaven that have lived without faith as without works This then was the case God had sworne to them an inheritance permanently there but upon condition of their obedience If they had not had a privity in the condition if they had not had a possibility to perform the condition their exclusion might haveseemed unjust and it had been so for though God might justly have forborne the promise yet he could not justly breake the promise if they had kept the conditions therefore he expressed the condition without any disguise at first If thy heart turne away â—â—prâ—nounce unto you this day that you shall surely perishâ— you shall not prolong your dayes in the land And then when those conditions were made and made knowne and made easie and accepted when they so rebelliously broke all conditions his first oath lay not in his way to stop him from the second As I live saith the Lord I will surely bring mine oath that they have broken and my covenant that they have despised upon their head shall they breake my covenant and he delivered says God there God confesses the oath and the covenant to be his covenant and his oath but the breach of the oath and covenant was theirs and not his He expresses his promise to them and his departing from them together in another Propher God says to the Propher Buy thee a girdle bury it in the ground
of Saint Iohn and another by Saint Marke to the memory of Saint Peter whilest yet both Saint John and Saint Peter were alive Howsoever it is certaine that the purest and most innocent times even the infancy of the Primitive Church found this double way of expressing their devotion in this particular of building Churches first that they built them onely to the honour and glory of God without giving him any partner and then they built them for the conserving of the memory of those blessed servants of God who had sealed their profession with their bloud and at whose Tombs God had done such Miracles as these times needed for the propagation of his Church They built their Churches principally for the glory of God but yet they added the names of some of his blessed servants and Martyrs for so says he who as he was Peters successor so he is the most sensible feeler and most earnest and powerfull promover and expresser of the dignities of Saint Peter of all the Fathers speaking of Saint Peters Church Beato Petri Basilica quae uni Deo vero vivo dicata est Saint Peters Church is dedicated to the onely living God They are things compatible enough to beare the name of a Saint and yet to be dedicated to God There the bodies of the blessed Martyrs did peacefully attend their glorification There the Histories of the Martyrs were recited and proposed to the Congregation for their example and imitation There the names of the Martyrs were inserted into the publique prayers and liturgies by way of presenting the thanks of the Congregation to God for having raised so profitable men in the Church and there the Church did present their prayers to God for those Martyrs that God would hasten their glory and finall consummation in reuniting their bodies and soules in a joyfull resurrection But yet though this divers mention were made of the Saints of God in the house of God Non Martyres ipsi sed Deus â—orum nobis est Deus onely God and not those Martyrs is our God we and they serve all one Master we dwell all in one house in which God hath appointed us severall services Those who have done their days work God hath given them their wages and hath given them leave to goe to bed they have laid down their bodies in peace to sleep there till the Sunne rise againe till the Sunne of grace and glory Christ Iesus appeare in judgment we that are yet left to work and to watch we must goe forward in the services of God in his house with that moderation and that equality as that we worship onely our Master but yet despise not our fellow servants that are gone before us That we give to no person the glory of God but that we give God the more glory for having raised such servants That we acknowledge the Church to be the house onely of God and that we admit no Saint no Martyr to be a lointenant with him but yet that their memory may be an encouragement yea and a seale to us that that peace and glory which they possesse belongs also unto us in reversion and that therefore we may cheerfully gratulate their present happinesse by a devout commemoration of them with such a temper and evennesse as that we neither dishonor God by attributing to them that which is inseparably his nor dishonor them in taking away that which is theirs in removing their Names out of the Collects and prayers of the Church or their Monuments and memorialls out of the body of the Church for those respects to them the first Christian founders of Churches did admit in those pure times when Illa obsequia ornamenta memoriarum nâ—n sacrificia mortuorum when those devotions in their names were onely commemorations of the dead not sacrifices to the dead as they are made now in the Romane Church when Bellarmine will needs falsifie Chrysostome to read Adoramus monumenta in stead of Adornamus and to make that which was but an Adorning an adoring of the Tombes of the Martyrs This then was in all times a religious work an acceptable testimony of devotion to build God a house to contribute something to his outward glory The goodnesse and greatnesse of which work appears evidently and shines gloriously even in those severall names by which the Church was called and styled in the writings and monuments of the Ancient Fathers and the Ecclesiastique story It may serve to our edification at least and to the axalting of our devotion to consider some few of them First then the Church was called Ecclesia that is a company a Congregation That whereas from the time of Iohn Baptist the kingdome of heaven suffers violence and every violent Man that is every earnest and zealous and spiritually valiant Man may take hold of it we may be much more sure of doing so in the Congregation Quando agâ—â—ine factâ— Deum obsidemus when in the whole body we Muster our forces and besiege God For here in the congregation not onely the kingdome of heaven is fallen into our hands The kingdome of heaven is amongst you as Christ says but the King of heaven is fallen into our hands When two or three are gathered together in my Name I will be in the midst of you not onely in the midst of us to encourage us but in the midst of us to be taken by us to be bound by us by those hands those covenants those contracts those rich and sweet promises which he hath made and ratified unto us in his Gospell A second name of the Church 〈◊〉 in use was Dominicum The Lords possession It is absolutely it is intirely his And therefore as to shorten and contract the possession and inheritance of God the Church so much as to confine the Church onely within the obedience of Rome as the Donatists imprisoned it in Afrique or to change the Landmarks of Gods possession and inheritance which is the Church either to set up new works of outward prosperity or of personall and Locall succession of Bishops or to remove the old and true marks which are the Word and Sacraments as this is Injuria Dominico mystico a wrong to the mysticall body of Christ the Church so is it Injuria Dominico materiali an injury to the Materiall body of Christ sacrilegiously to dilapidate to despoile or to demolish the possession of the Church and so farre to remove the marks of Gods inheritance as to mingle that amongst your temporall revenues that God may never have nor ever distinguish his owne part againe And then to passe faster over these names It is called Domus Dei Gods dwelling house Now his most glorious Creatures are but vehicula Dei they are but chariots which convey God and bring him to our sight The Tabernacle it selfe was but Mobilis domus and Ecclesia portatilis a house without a foundation a running a progresse house but
Father or of my friend shall bee glorifyed there mine eyes shall be glorifyed as much and we are both kept in the same proportion there as wee had towards one another here here my naturall eye could see his naturall face and there mine eye is as much mended as his body is and my sense as much exalted as mine object And as well as I may know that I am I I may know that He is He for I shall not know my selfe nor that state of glory which I am then in by any light of Nature which I brought thither but by that light of Glory which I shall receive there When therefore a man finds that this consideration does him good in his conversation and retards him towards some sinnes how shall I stand then when all the world shall see that my solicitation hath brought such a woman to the stews to the Hospitall to hell who had scap'd all this if I had not corrupted her at first which no man in the world knew before and all shall know then Or that my whispering and my calumny hath overthrown such a man in his place in his reputation in his fortune which he himself knew not before and all shall know then Or that my counsell or my example hath been a furtherance to any mans spirituall edification here He that in rectified reason and a rectified conscience finds this in Gods name let him beleeve yea for Gods sake let him take heed of not beleeving that we shall know one another Actions and Persons in the Resurrection as the Apostles did know Christ at the Transfiguration which was a Type of it This Transfiguration then upon earth was the same glory which Christ had after in heaven Qualis venturus talis apparuit such as all eyes shall see him to be when he comes in glory at last those Apostles saw him then but of the particular circumstances even of this transfiguration upon earth there is but little said to us Let us modestly take that which is expressed in it and not search over-curiously farther into that which is signifyed and represented by it which is the state of glory in the Resurrection First his face shin'd as the Sunne says that Gospell he could not take a higher comparison for our Information and for our admiration in this world then the Sunne And then the Saints of God in their glorifyed state are admitted to the same comparison The righteous shall shine out as the Sunne in the Kingdome of the Father the Sunne of the firmament which should be their comparison will be gone But the Sun of grace and of glory the Son of God shall remain and they shall shine as he that is in his righteousnesse In this transfiguration his clothes were white says the text but how white the holy Ghost does not tell us at once as white as snow says Saint Mark as white as light says Saint Matthew Let the garments of the glorifyed Saints of God be their bodies and then their bodies are as white as snow as snow that fall's from heaven and hath touâ—ht no pollution of the earth For though our bodies have been upon earth and have touched pitch and have been defiled yet that will not lye in proof not be given in evidence Though he that drew me and I that was drawen too know in what unclean places and what unclean actions this body of mine hath been yet it lyes not in proof it shall not be given in evidence for Accusator fratrum The accuser of the brethren is cast down the Devill shall find nothing against me And if I had spontaneum Daemonem as Saint Chrysostome speaks a bosome Devill and could tempt my self though there had been no other tempter in this world so I have spontanâ—um Demonem a bosome accuser a conscience that would accuse me there if I accuse my self there I reproach the mercy of God who hath seal'd my pardon and made even my body what sins soever had discoloured it as white as snow As white as snow and as white as light says that Gospel Light implies an active power Light is operative and works upon others The bodies of the Saints of God shall receive all impressions of glory in themselves and they shall doe all that is to bee done for the glory of God there There they shall stand in his service and they shall kneel in his worship and they shall fall in his reverence and they shall sing in his glory they shall glorifie him in all positions of the body They shall be glorified in themselves passively and they shall glorifie God actively sicut Nix sicut Lux their beeing their doing shall be all for him Thus they shall shine as the Sun Thus their garments shall be white white as snow in being glorified in their own bodies white as light in glorifying God in all the actions of those bodies Now there is thus much more considerable and applyable to our present purpose in this tranfiguration of Christ that there was company with them Be not apt to think heaven in an Ermitage or a Monastery or the way to heaven a sullen melancholy Heaven and the way to it is a Communion of Saints in a holy cheerfulnesse Get thou thither make sure thine own salvation but be not too hasty to think that no body gets thither except he go thy way in all opinions and all actions There was company in the transfiguration but no other company then Moses and Elias and Christ and the Apostles none but they to whom God had manifested himself otherwise then to a meer naturall man otherwise then as a generall God For in the Law and in the Padagogie and Schoolmastership and instruction thereof God had manifested himself particularly by Moses In Elias and the Prophets whom God sent in a continuall succession to refresh that manifestation which he had given of himself in the Law before in the example of these rules in him who was the consummation of the Law and the Prophets Christ Iesus And then in the Application of all this by the Apostles and by the Church established by them God had more particularly manifested himself then to naturall men Moses Elias Christ and the Apostles make up the houshold of the faithfull and none have interest in the Resurrection but in and by these These to whom and by whom God hath exhibited himself to his Church by other notions then as one universall God For nothing will save a man but to believe in God so as God hath proposed himself in his Son in his Scriptures in his Christ. These were with him in the transfiguration and they talked with him says that text As there is a Communion of Saints so there is a Communication of Saints Think not heaven a Charter-house where men who onely of all creatures are enabled by God to speak must not speak to one another The Lord of heaven is
and our North and South at another tyde and another gale First then we looke towards our East the fountaine of light and of life There this world beganne the Creation was in the east And there our next world beganne too There the gates of heaven opened to us and opened to us in the gates of death for our heaven is the death of our Saviour and there he lived and dyed there and there he looked into our west from the east from his Terasse from his Pinacle from his exaltation as himselfe calls it the Crosse. The light which arises to us in this east the knowledge which we receive in this first word of our text Faciamus Let us where God speaking of himselfe speakes in the Plurall is the manifestation of the Trinity the Trinity which is the first letter in his Alphabet that ever thinks to read his name in the book of life The first note in his Gammut that ever thinks to sing his part in the Quire of the Triumphant Church Let him him have done as much as all the Worthies and suffered as much as all Natures Martyrs the penurious Philosophers let him have known as much as they that pretend to know Omne scibile all that can be known nay and in-intelligibilia In-investigabilia as Turtullian speakes un-understandable things unrevealed decrees of God Let him have writ as much as Aristotle writ or as is written upon Aristotle which is multiplication enough yet he hath not learnt to spel that hath not learnt the Trinity not learnt to pronounce the first word that cannot bring three Persons into one God The subject of naturall philosophy are the foure elements which God made the Subject of supernaturall philosophy Divinity are the three elements which God is and if we may so speake which make God that is constitute God notifie God to us Father Sonne and holy Ghost The naturall man that hearkens to his owne heart and the law written there may produce Actions that are good good in the nature and matter and substance of the worke He may relieve the poore he may defend the oppressed But yet he is but as an open field and though he be not absolutely barren he bears but grasse The godly man he that hath taken in the knowledge of a great and a powerfull God and enclosed and hedged in himselfe with the feare of God may produce actions better then the meere naturall man because he referres his actions to the glory of his imagined God But yet this man though he be more fruitfull then the former more then a grassy field yet he is but a ploughed field and he bears but corne and corne God knowes choaked with weeds But that man who hath taken hold of God by those handles by which God hath delivered and manifested himselfe in the notions of Father Sonne and holy Ghost he is no field but a garden a Garden of Gods planting a Paradise in which grow all things good to eate and good to see spirituall resection and spirituall recreation too and all things good to cure He hath his beeing and his diet and his physique there in the knowledge of the Trinity his beeing in the mercy of the Father his physique in the merits of the Sonne his diet his daily bread in the daily visitations of the holy Ghost God is not pleased not satisfied with our bare knowledge that there is a God For it is impossible to please God without faith and there is no such exercise of faith in the knowledge of a God but that reason and nature will bring a man to it When we professe God in the Creed by way of beleefe Credo in Deum I beleeve in God in the same article we professe him to be a Father too I beleeve in God the father Almighty And that notion the Father necessarily implies a second Person a Sonne And then we professe him to be maker of heaven and earth And in the Creation the holy Ghost the Spirit of God is expresly named So that we doe but exercise reason and nature in directing our selves upon God We exercise not faith and without faith it is impossible to please God till we come to that which is above nature till we apprehend a Trinity We know God we beleeve in the Trinity The Gentiles multiplyed Gods There were almost as many Gods as men that beleeved in them And I am got out of that thrust and out of that noise when I am come into the knowledge of one God But I am got above staires got in the Bedchamber when I am come to see the Trinity and to apprehend not onely that I am in the care of a great and a powerfull God but that there is a Father that made me a Sonne that Redeemed me a holy Ghost that applies this good purpose of the Father and Sonne upon me to me The root of all is God But it is not the way to receive fruits to dig to the root but to reach to the boughs I reach for my Creation to the Father for my Redemption to the Sonne for my sanctification to the holy Ghost and so I make the knowledge of God a Tree of life unto me and not otherwise Truly it is a sad Contemplation to see Christians scratch and wound teare one another with the ignominious invectives and uncharitable names of of Heretique and Schismatique about Ceremoniall and Problematicall and indeed but Criticall verball controversies and in the meane time the foundation of all the Trinity undermined by those numerous those multitudinous Anthills of Socinians that overflow some parts of the Christian world and multiply every where And therefore the Adversaries of the Reformation were wise in their generation when to supplant the credit of both those great assistants of the Reformation Luther and Calvin they impute to Calvin fundamentall error in the Divinity of the second Person of the Trinity the Sonne And they impute to Luther a detestation of the very word Trinity and an expunction thereof in all places of the Liturgy where the Church had received that word They knew well if that slander could prevaile against those persons nothing that they could say could prevaile upon any good Christians But though in our doctrine we keep up the Trinity aright yet God knowes in our practice we doe not I hope it cannot be said of any of us that he beleeves not the Trinity but who amongst us thinkes of the Trinity considers the Trinity Father and Sonne doe naturally imply and induce one another and therefore they fall oftner into our consideration But for the holy Ghost who feels him when he feels him Who takes knowledge of his working when he works Indeed our Fathers provided not well enough for the worship of the whole Trinity nor of the holy Ghost in particular in the endowments of the Church and Consecrations of Churches and possessions in their names What a spirituall dominion in the prayers and worship of
how much more may we conceive an unexpressible association that 's too far off an assimilation that 's not neare enough an identification the Schoole would venture to say so with God in that state of glory Where as the Sunne by shining upon the Moone makes the Moone a Planet a Star as well as it selfe which otherwise would be but the thickest and darkest part of that Spheare so those beames of Glory which shall issue from my God and fall upon me shall make me otherwise a clod of earth and worse a darke Soule a Spirit of darkenesse an Angell of Light a Star of Glory a something that I cannot name now not imagine now nor to morrow nor next yeare but even in that particular I shall be like God that as he that asked a day to give a definition of God the next day asked a week and then a moneth and then a yeare so undeterminable would my imaginations be if I should goe about to thinke now what I shall be there I shall be so like God as that the Devill himselfe shall not know me from God so far as to finde any more place to fasten a tentation upon me then upon God nor to conceive any more hope of my falling from that kingdome then of Gods being driven out of it for though I shal not be immortall as God yet I shall be as immortall as God And there 's my Image of God of God considered altogether and in his unity in the state of Glory I shall have also then the Image of all the three Persons of the Trinity Power is the Fathers and a greater Power then he exercises here I shall have there here he overcomes enemies but yet here he hath enemies there there are none here they cannot prevaile there they shall not be So Wisedome is the Image of the Sonne And there I shall have better Wisdome then spirituall Wisdome it selfe is here for here our best Wisedome is but to goe towards our end there it is rest in our end here it is to seek to bee Glorified by God there it is that God may be everlastingly glorified by mee The Image of the holy Ghost is Goodnesse here our goodnesse is mixt with some ill faith mixt with scruples and good workes mixt with a love of praise and hope of better mixt with feare of worse There I shall have sincere goodnesse goodnesse impermixt intemerate and indeterminate goodnesse so good a place as no ill accident shall annoy it so good company as no impertinent no importune person shall disorder it so full a goodnesse as no evill of sinne no evill of punishment for former sinnes can enter so good a God as shall no more keep us in fear of his anger nor in need of his mercy but shall fill us first and establish us in that fulnesse in the same instant and give us a satiety that we can with no more and an infallibility that we can lose none of that and both at once Where as the Cabalists expresse our nearenesse to God in that state in that note that the name of man and the name of God Adam and Iehovah in their numerall letters are alike and equall so I would have leave to expresse that inexpressible state so far as to say that if there can be other world imagined besides this that is under our Moone and if there could be other Gods imagined of those worlds besides this God to whose Image we are thus made in Nature in Grace in Glory I had rather be one of these Saints in this heaven then of those Gods in those other worlds I shall be like the Angels in a glorified Soul and the Angels shall not be like me in a glorified body The holy noblenesse and the religious ambition that I would imprint in you for attaining of this Glory makes me medismiss you with this note for the feare of missing that Glory that as we have taken just occasion to magnifie the goodnesse of God towards us in that he speakes plurally Faciamus Let us All us do this and so powers out the blessings of the whole Trinity upon us in this Image of himselfe in every Person of the three and in all these wayes which we have considered so when the anger of God is justly kindled against us God collects himselfe summons himself assembles himselfe musters himselfe and threatens plurally too for of those foure places in Scripture in which onely as we noted before God speakes of himselfe in a Royall plurall God speakes in anger and in a preparation to destruction in one of those foure intirely as intirely he speakes of mercy but in one of them in this text here he says meerly out of mercy Faciamus Let us us all us make man and in the same plurality the same universality he says after Descendamus confundamus Let us us all us goe downe to them and confound them as meerly out of indignation and anger as here out of mercy And in the other two places where God speakes plurally he speakes not meerly in mercy nor meerly in justice in neither but in both he mingles both So that God carries himselfe so equally herein as that no Soul no Church no State may any more promise it selfe patience in God if it provoke him then suspect anger in God if we conforme our selves to him For from them that set themselves against him God shall withdraw his Image in all the Persons and all the Attributes the Father shall withdraw his Power and we shall be enfeebled in our forces the Sonne his Wisdome and we shall be infatuated in our counsailes the holy Ghost his Goodnesse and we shall be corrupted in our manners and corrupted in our Religion and be a prey to temporall and spirituall enemies and change the Image of God into the Image of the Beast and as God loves nothing more then the Image of himselfe in his Sonne and then the Image of his Sonne Christ Jesus in us so he hates nothing more then the Image of Antichrist in them in whom he had imprinted his Sonnes Image that is declinations towards Antichrist or concurrencies with Antichrist in them who were borne and baptized and catechised and blessed in that profession of his truth That God who hath hitherto delivered us from all cause or colour of jealousies or suspitions thereof in them whom he hath placed over us to conforme us to his Image in a holy life that sinnes continued and multiplyed by us against him doe not so provoke him against us that those two great helps the assiduity of Preaching and the personall and exemplary piety and constancy in our Princes be not by our sinnes made unprofitable to us For that 's the heighth of Gods malediction upon a Nation when the assiduity of preaching and the example of a Religious Prince does them no good but aggravates their fault SERMON XXX Preached to the Countesse of Bedford then at Harrington house
what ground he sayes or does or suffers that which he suffers and does and sayes Howsoever he pretend the honour of God in his testimony yet if the thing be materially false false in it self though true in his opinion or formally false true in it self but not known to be so to him that testifies it both ways he is an incompetent witnesse And this takes away the honour of having been witnesses for Christ and the consolation and style of Martyrs both from them who upon such evidence as can give no assurance that is traedi tions of men have grounded their faith in God and from them who take their light in corners and conventicles and not from the City set upon the top of a hill the Church of God Those Roman Priests who have given their lives those Separatists which have taken a voluntary banishment are not competent witnesses for the glory of God for a witnesse must know and qui testatur de scientia testetur de modo scientiae sayes the Law He that will prove any thing by his knowledge must prove how he came by that knowledge The Papist hath not the knowledge of his Doctrine from any Scripture the Separatist hath not the knowledge of his Discipline from any precedent any example in the primitive Church How farre then is that wretched and sinfull man from giving any testimony or glory to Christ in his life who never comes to the knowledge and consideration why he was sent into this life who is so farre from doing his errand that he knowes not what his errand was not whether he received any errand or no. But as though that God who for infinite millions of ages delighted himself in himself and was sufficient in himself and yet at last did bestow six dayes labour for the creation and provision of man as though that God who when man was sowr'd in the lumpe poysoned in the fountaine withered in the roote in the loins of Adam would then ingage his Sonne his beloved Sonne his onely Sonne to be man by a temporary life and to be no man by a violent and a shamefull death as though that God who when he was pleased to come to a creation might have left out thee amongst privations amongst nothings or might have shut thee up in the close prison of a bare being and no more as he hath done earth and stones or if he would have given thee life might have left thee a Toad or if he would have given thee a humane soule might have left thee a heathen without any knowledge of God or if he had afforded thee a Religion might have left thee a Iew or though he had made thee a Christian might have left thee a Papist as though that God that hath done so much more in breeding thee in his true Church had done all this for nothing thou passest thorough this world like a flash like a lightning whose beginning or end no body knowes like an Ignis fatuus in the aire which does not onely not give light for any use but not so much as portend or signifie any thing and thou passest out of the world as thy hand passes out of a basin of water which may bee somewhat the fouler for thy washing in it but retaines no other impression of thy having been there and so does the world for thy life in it When God placed Adam in the world he bad him fill it and subdue it and rule it and when he placed him in paradise he bad him dresse and keepe paradise and when he sent his children into the over-flowing Laud of promise he bad them fight and destroy the Idolaters to every body some task some errand for his glory And thou comest from him into this world as though he had said nothing unto thee but Go and do as you see cause Go and do as you see other men do Thou knowest not that is considerest not what thou wast sent to doe what thou shouldest have done but thou knowest much lesse what thou hast done The light of nature hath taught thee to hide thy sinnes from other men and thou hast been so diligent in that as that thou hast hid them from thy self and canst not finde them in thine owne conscience if at any time the Spirit of God would burne them up or the blood of Christ Jesus wash them out thou canst not finde them out so as that a Sermon or Sacrament can work upon them Perchance thou canst tell when was the first time or where was the first place that thou didst commit such or such a sinne but as a man can remember when he began to spell but not when he began to reade perfectly when he began to joyne his letters but not when he began to write perfectly so thou remembrest when thou wentest timorously and bashfully about sinne at first and now perchance art ashamed of that shamefastnesse and sorry thou beganst no sooner Poore bankrupt that hast sinned out thy soule so profusely so lavishly that thou darest not cast up thine accounts thou darest not aske thy selfe whether thou have any soule left how farre art thou from giving any testimony to Christ that darest not testifie to thy selfe nor heare thy conscience take knowledge of thy transgressions but haddest rather sleepe out thy daies or drinke out thy daies then leave one minute for compunction to lay hold on and doest not sinne alwaies for the love of that sinne but for feare of a holy sorrow if thou shouldest not fill up thy time with that sinne God cannot be mocked saith the Apostle nor God cannot be blinded He seeth all the way and at thy last gaspe he will make thee see too through the multiplying Glasse the Spectacle of Desperation Canst thou hope that that God that seeth this darke Earth through all the vaults and arches of the severall spheares of Heaven that seeth thy body through all thy stone walls and seeth thy soul through that which is darker then all those thy corrupt flesh canst thou hope that that God can be blinded with drawing a curtain between thy sinne and him when he is all eye canst thou hope to put out that eye with putting out a candle when he hath planted legions of Angels about thee canst thou hope that thou hast taken away all Intelligence if thou have corrupted or silenced or sent away a servant O bestow as much labour as thou hast done to finde corners for sin to finde out those sinnes in those corners where thou hast hid them As Princes giveâ— pardons by their own hands but send Judges to execute Justice come to him for mercy in the acknowledgement of thy sinnes and stay not till his Justice come to thee when he makes inquisition for blood and doe not think that if thou feel now at this presentâ— a little tendernesse in thy heart a little melting in thy bowels a little dew in thine eyes that if thou beest come to know that thou art a
the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise This citation is not served by a bell that tolls to bring you hither not by a man that speaks to instruct you here not by a law that compells you to live orderly in the world not by a bell that rings out to lay thee in thy grave but by the great shout of the Lord descending from heaven with the voyce of the Archangel and with the Trump of God to raise the dead in Christ. It is not the Apeperire fores That the Levites have charge to open these doores every day to you that you may come in that is your first citation hither it is not the Domine labia mea aperies That God opens our mouth the mouth of the Preacher to worke upon you that is your second citation here it is not that aperuimus saccos The opening of your sack of Corne and finding that and your money too that is your trading in this world in a calling that is your third citation from hence nor it is not the Aperuit terra os situm That the earth opens her mouth and swallowes all in the grave that is your fourth citation from thence it is none of these Apertions these openings but it is the Aperta monumenta The grave it self shall be open againe and Aperti coeli The heavens shall be open and I shall see the Sonne of man the Sonne of God and not see him at that distance that Stephen saw him there but see him and sit down with him I shall rise from the dead from the darke station from the prostration from the prosternation of death and never misse the sunne which shall then be put out for I shall see the Sonne of God the Sunne of glory and shine my self as that sunne shines I shall rise from the grave and never misse this City which shall be no where for I shall see the City of God the new Ierusalem I shall looke up and never wonder when it will be day for the Angell will tell me that time shall be no more and I shall see and see cheerefully that last day the day of judgement which shall have no night never end and be united to the Antient of dayes to God himselfe who had no morning never began There I shall beare witnesse for Christ in ascribing the salvation of the whole world to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb and Christ shall bear witnesse for me in ascribing his righteousnesse unto me and in delivering me into his Fathers hands with the same tendernesse as he delivered up his owne soule and in making me who am a greater sinner then they who crucified him on earth for me as innocent and as righteous as his glorious selfe in the Kingdome of heaven And these occasions of advancing your devotion and edification from these two branches of this part first the fitnesse of Iohn Baptist to be sent and then his actuall sending by so divers callings and citations in him appliable as you have seene to us More will be ministred in due time out of the last part and the two branches of that first why this light required any witnesse and then what witnesse Iohn Baptist gave to this light But those because they leade us not to the celebration of any particular Festivall as these two former parts have done to Christmas and Midsommer I may have leave to present to you at any other time At this time let us onely beg of God a blessing upon this that hath been said c. SERMON XXXVIII Preached at Saint Pauls 13. Octob. 1622. JOHN 1. 8. He was not that light but was sent to beare witnesse of that light THis is the third time that I have entertained you in a businesse of this nature intended for Gods service and your edification I must not say troubled you with this Text. I begun it at Christmas and in that darke time of the yeer told you who and what was this light which Iohn Baptist is denied to be I pursued it at Midsommer and upon his owne day insisted upon the person of Iohn Baptist who though he were not this light was sent to beare witnesse of this light And the third consideration which as I told you then was not tied nor affected to any particular Festivall you shall by Gods grace have now the office of Iohn Baptist his testimony and in that these two parts first a problematicall part why so evident a thing as light and such a light that light required testimony of man and then a dogmaticall part what testimony this man gives of this light And in the first of these we shall make these two steps first why any testimony at all then why after so many others this of Iohn First then God made light first ut innotescerent omnia that man might glorifie God in seeing the creature and him in it for frustra fecisset says the same Father it had been to no purpose to have a world and no light But though light discover and manifest every thing else to us and it selfe too if all be well disposed yet in the fifth verse of this chapter there is reason enough given why this light in our text requires testimony that is the light shines in darknesse and the darknesse comprehends it not and therefore Propter non intelligentes propter incredulos propter inâ—rmos Sol lucernas quaerit for their sakes that are weak in their understanding and not enlightned in that faculty the Gentiles for their sakes who are weake in their faith that come and heare and receive light but beleeve not for their sakes that are perverse in their manners and course of life that heare and beleeve but practise not sol lucernas quaerit this light requires testimony There may be light then and we not know it because we are asleep and asleep so as Iairus daughter was of whom Christ says the maid is not dead but asleep The maide was absolutely dead but because he meant forthwith to raise her he calls it a sleep The Gentiles in their ignorance are dead we in our corrupt nature dead as dead as they we cannot heare the voice we cannot see the light without Gods subsequent grace the Christian can no more proceed then the Gentile can beginne without his preventing grace But because amongst us he hath established the Gospell and in the ministery and dispensation thereof ordinary meanes for the conveyance of his farther grace we noware but asleep and may wake A sodain light brought into a room doth awaken some men but yet a noise does it better and a shaking and a pinching The exalting of naturall faculties and good morall life inward inspirations and private meditations conferences reading and the life doe awaken some but the testimony of the messenger of God the preacher crying according to Gods ordinance shaking the soule troubling the
and may make thee doubt whether thou have it or no every day that is as often as thou canst heare more and more witnesses of this light and bless that God who for thy sake would submit himselfe to these Testimonia ab homine these Testimonies from men and being all light himselfe and having so many other Testimonies would yet require the Testimony of Man of Iohn which is our other branch of this first part Christ who is still the light of our Text That light the essentiall light had testimony enough without Iohn First he bore witness of himselfe And though he say of himself If I beare witnesse of my self my witnesse is not true yet that he might say either out of a legall and proverbiall opinion of theirs that ordinarily they thought That a witness testifying for himself was not to be beleeved whatsoever he said Or as Man which they then took him to be he might speake it of himselfe out of his own opinion that in Iudicature it is a good rule that a man should not be beleeved in his own case But after this and after he had done enough to make them see that he was more then man by multiplying of miracles then he said though I beare witnesse of my selfe my witnesse is true So the onely infallibility and unreproachable evidence of our election is in the inward word of God when his Spirit beares witnesse with our Spirit that we are the Sonnes of God for if the Spirit the Spirit of truth say he is in us he is in us But yet the Spirit of God is content to submit himselfe to an ordinary triall to be tried by God and the Countrey he allowes us to doubt and to be afraid of our regeneration except we have the testimony of sanctification Christ bound them not to his own testimony till it had the seale of workes of miracles nor must we build upon any testimony in our selves till other men that see our life testifie for us to the world He had also the testimony of his Father the Father himselfe which hath sent me beareth witnesse of me But where should they see the Father or heare the Father speak That was all which Philip asked at his hands Lord show us the Father and it sufficeth us He had the testimony of an Angel who came to the shepheards so as no where in all the Scriptures there is such an Apparition expressed the Angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them but where might a man talke with this Angel and know more of him As Saint Augustine says of Moses Scripsit abiit he hath written a little of the Creation and he is gone Si hîc esset tenerem rogarem if Moses were here says he I would hold him fast till I had got him to give me an exposition of that which he writ For beloved we must have such witnesses as we may consult farther with I can see no more by an Angel then by lightning A star testified of him at his birth But what was that star was it any of those stars that remaine yet Gregory Nissen thinkes it was and that it onely then changed the naturall course and motion for that service But almost all the other Fathers thinke that it was a light but then created and that it had onely the forme of a star and no more and some few that it was the holy Ghost in that forme And if it were one of the fixed stars and remaine yet yet it is not now in that office it testifies nothing of Christ now The wise men of the East testified of him too But what were they or who or how many or from whence were they for all these circumstances have put Antiquity it selfe into more distractions and more earnest disputations then circumstances should doe Simeon testified of him who had a revelation from the holy Ghost that he should not see death till he had seen Christ. And so did the Prophetess Anna who served God with fasting and prayer day and night Omnis sexus aetas both sexes and all ages testified of him and he gives examples of all as it was easie for him to doe Now after all these testimonies from himselfe from the Father from the Angel from the star from the wise men from Simeon from Anna from all what needed the testimony of Iohn All those witnesses had been thirty years before Iohn was cited for a witnesse to come from the wildernesse and preach And in thirty years by reason of his obscure and retired life in his father Iosephs house all those personall testimonies of Christ might be forgotten and for the most part those witnesses onely testified that he was borne that he was come into the world but for all their testimony he might have been gone out of the world long Before this he might have perished in the generall flood in that flood of innocent blood in which Herod drowned all the young children of that Countrey When therefore Christ came forth to preach when he came to call Apostles when he came to settle a Church to establish meanes for our ordinary salvation by which he is the light of our text the Essentiall light shining out in his Church by the supernaturall light of faith and grace then he admitted then he required Testimonium ab homine testimony from man And so for our conformity to him in using and applying those meanes which convay this light to us in the Church we must doe so too we must have the seale of faith and of the Spirit but this must be in the testimony of men still there must be that done by us which must make men testifie for us Every Christian is a state a common-wealth to himselfe and in him the Scripture is his law and the conscience is his Iudge And though the Scripture be inspired from God and the conscience be illumined and rectified by the holy Ghost immediately yet both the Scriptures and the Conscience admit humane arguments First the Scriptures doe in all these three respects first that there are certaine Scriptures that are the revealed will of God Secondly that these books which we call Canonicall are those Scriptures And lastly that this and this is the true sense and meaning of such and such a place of Scripture First that there is a manifestation of the will of God in certain Scriptures if we who have not power to infuse Faith into men for that is the work of the Holy Ghost onely but must deal upon the reason of men and satisfie that if we might not proceed per testimonia ab homine by humane Arguments and argue and infer thus That if God will save man for worshipping him and damne him for not worshipping him so as he will be worshipped certainly God hath revealed to man how he will be worshipped and
it and well To pray And therefore if from our words proceed any vexation to your consciences you must not say Transeat calix let that Cup passe no more of that matter for it is the physick that must first stirre the humour before it can purge it And if our words apply to your consciences the soverain balm of the merits of your Saviour and that thereupon your troubled consciences finde some rest be not too soon secure but proceed in your good beginnings and continue in hearing as we shall continue in all these manners of praying and intreating which fall into the word of our Text Obsecramus by being beholden to you for your application or making you beholden to us for our ministration which was the first use of the words of grieving for you or grieving you for your fins which was the second of troubling your consciences and then of setling them again in a calm reposednesse which was the third signification of the word in their Translation Yet does the Holy Ghost carry our office I speak of the manner of the execution of our office for for the office it self nothing can be more glorious then the ministration of the Gospel into lower terms then these He suffered his Apostles to be thought to be drink They were full of the Holy Ghost and they were thought full of new wine A dramme of zeal more then ordinary against a Patron or against a great Parishioner makes us presently scandalous Ministers Truly beloved we confesse one sign of drunkennesse is not to remember what we said If we doe not in our practise remember what we preached and live as we teach we are dead all the week and we are drunk upon the Sunday But Hannah praid and was thought drunk and this grieved her heart so must it us when you ascribe our zeale to the glory of God and the good of your souls to any inordinate passion or sinister purpose in us And yet hath the Holy Ghost laid us lower then this To be drunk is an alienation of the minde but it is but a short one but S. Paul was under the imputation of madnesse Nay our blessed Saviour himself did some such act of vehement zeal as that his very friends thought him mad S. Paul because his madnesse was imputed to a false cause to a pride in his much learning disavowed his madnesse I am not mad O noble Festus But when the cause was justifiable he thought his madnesse justifiable too If we be besides our selves it is for God and so long well enough Insaniebat amatoriam insaniam Paulus S. Paul was mad for love S. Paul did and we doe take into our contemplation the beauty of a Christian soul Through the ragged apparell of the afflictions of this life through the scarres and wounds and palenesse and morphews of sin and corruption we can look upon the soul it self and there see that incorruptible beauty that white and red which the innocency and the blood of Christ hath given it and we are mad for love of this soul and ready to doe any act of danger in the ways of persecution any act of diminution of our selves in the ways of humiliation to stand at her doore and pray and begge that she would be reconciled to God And yet does the Holy Ghost lay us lower then this too Mad men have some flashes some twilights some returns of sense and reason but the foole hath none And we are fools for Christ says the Apostle And not onely we the persons but the ministration it self the function it self is foolishnesse It pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that beleeve Anger will bear an action and Racah will bear an action but to say Foole was the heaviest imputation and we are fooles for Christ and pretend nothing to work by but the foolishnesse of preaching Lower then this we cannot be cast and higher then this we offer not to climbe Obsecramus we have no other Commission but to pray and to intreat and that we doe in his words in his tears in his blood and in his bowels who sent us we pray you in Christs stead which is that that constitutes our second Part with what respect you should receive us In mittendariis servanda dignitas mittentis To diminish the honour of his Master is not an humility but a prevarication in any Ambassadour and that is our quality expressed in this verse God is the Lord of Hosts and he is the Prince of peace He needs neither the Armies of Princes nor the wisdome of Councell Tables to come to his ends He is the Proprietary and owner of all the treasures in the world Ye have taken my silver and my gold and The silver is mine and the gold is mine All that you call yours all that you can call yours is his your selves are but the furniture of his house and your great hearts are but little boxes in his cabinet and he can fill them with dejection and sadnesse when he will And does any Prince govern at home by an Ambassadour he sends Pursuivants and Serjeants he sends not Ambassadours God does and we are they and we look to be received by you but as we perform those two laws which binde Ambassadours First Reisuae ne quis legatus esto Let no man be received as an Ambassadour that hath that title onely to negotiate for himself and doe his own businesse in that Country And then Nemini credatur sine principale mandato Let no man be received for an Ambassadour without his Letters of Credence and his Masters Commission To these two we submit our selves First we are not Rei nostrae legati we come not to doe our own businesse what businesse of ours is it what is it to us that you be reconciled to God Vae mihi si non Necessity is laid upon me and â—oe unto me if I preach not the Gospel but if I doe I have nothing to glory in nay I may be a reprobate my self I can claim no more at Gods hand for this service then the Sun can for shining upon the earth or the earth for producing flowers and fruits and therefore we are not Rei nostraeâ— legati Ambassadours in our own behalfs and to doe our own businesse Indeed where men are sent out to vent and utter the ware and merchandises of the Church and Court of Rome to proclaime and advance the value and efficacy of uncertain reliques and superstitious charms and incantations when they are sent to sell particular sinnes at a certain price and to take so much for an incest so much for a murder when they are sent with many summs of Indulgencies at once as they are now to the Indies and were heretofore to us when these Indulgencies are accompanied with this Doctrine that if the Indulgence require a certain peece of money to be given for it as for the most part they doe if