God and live in his fear to be mercinarij per laborem to be the workmen of God and labour in his Vineyard to be filij per lavacrum to be the sons of God and preserve that Inheritance which was sealed to us at first in Baptism and last of all Amici per virtutem by the good use of his gifts the King of Kings shall be our friend That which he said to his Apostles his Spirit shall say to our spirit here and seal it to us for a Covenant of Salt an everlasting John 15.14 an irrevocable Covenant Henceforth call I you not servants but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father have I made known unto you And the fruition of this friendship which neither slackens in all our life nor ends at our death the Lord of Life for the death of his most innocent Son afford to us all Amen A Serm. 25. SERMON Preached at the SPITTLE Vpon Easter-Munday 1662. SERMON XXV 2 Cor. 4.6 For God who commanded light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ THe first Book of the Bible begins with the beginning In principio says Moses in Genesis In the beginning God created heaven and earth and can there be any thing prius principio before the beginning Before this beginning there is The last Book of the Bible in the order as they were written the Gospel of St. John begins with the same word too In principio says St. John In the beginning was the Word and here Novissimum primum the last beginning is the first St. John's beginning before Moses Moses speaking but of the Creature and St. John of the Creator and of the Creator before he took that name before he came to the act of Creation as the Word was with God and was God from all Eternity Our present Text is an Epitome of both those beginnings of the first beginning the Creation when God commanded light to shine out of darkness and of the other beginning which is indeed the first of Him in whose face we shall have the knowledge of the glory of God Christ Jesus The first Book of the Bible is a Revelation and so is the last in the order as they stand a Revelation too To declare a production of all things out of nothing which is Moses his work that when I do not know and care not whether I know or no what so contemptible a Creature as an Ant is made of but yet would fain know what so vast and so considerable a thing as an Elephant is made of I care not for a mustard seed but I would fain know what a Cedar is made of I can leave out the consideration of the whole Earth but would be glad to know what the Heavens and the glorious bodies in the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars are made of I shall have but one answer from Moses for all that all my Elephants and Cedars and the Heavens that I consider were made of nothing that a Cloud is as nobly born as the Sun in the Heavens and a begger as nobly as the King upon Earth if we consider the great Grand-father of them all to be nothing to produce light of darkness thus is a Revelation a Manifestation of that which till then was not this Moses does St. John's is a Revelation too a Manifestation of that state which shall be and be for ever after all those which were produced of nothing shall be return'd and ressolv'd to nothing again the glorious state of the everlasting Jerusalem the Kingdom of Heaven Now this Text is a Revelation of both these Revelations the first state that which Moses reveals was too dark for man to see for it was nothing The other that which St. John reveals is too bright too dazling for man to look upon for it is no one limited determined Object but all at once glory and the seat and fountain of all glory the face of Christ Jesus The Holy Ghost hath shewed us both these severally in Moses and in St. John and both together in St. Paul in this Text where as the Sun stands in the midst of the Heavens and shews us both the Creatures that are below it upon Earth and the Creatures that are above it the Stars in Heaven so St. Paul as he is made an Apostle of the Gentiles stands in the midst of this Text God hath shin'd in our hearts Ours as we are Apostolical Ministers of the Gospel and he shows us the greatness of God in the Creation which was before when God commanded light out of darkness and the goodness of God which shall be hereafter when he shall give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus So that this Text giving light by which we see light commanded by God out of darkness and the Object which we are to see the knowledge of the glory of God and this Object being brought within a convenient distance to be seen in the face of Jesus Christ And a fit and well-disposed Medium being illumin'd through which we may see it God having shin'd in our hearts established a Ministry of the Gospel for that purpose if you bring but eyes to that which this Text brings Light and Object and Distance and Means then as St. Basil said of the Book of Psalms upon an impossible supposition If all the other Books of Scripture could perish there were enough in that one for the catechising of all that did believe and for the convincing of all that did not so if all the other Writings of St. Paul could perish this Text were enough to carry us through the body of Divinity from the Cradle of the world in the Creation when God commanded light out of darkness to the Grave and beyond the Grave of the world to the last Dissolution and beyond it when we shall have fully the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus Now whilst I am to speak of all this this which is Omne scibile all and more then can fall within the comprehension of a natural man for it is the beginning of this world and it is the way to the next and it is the next world it self I comfort my self at my first setting out with that of St. Gregory Purgatas aures hominum gratiam nancisci nonne Dei donum est I take it for one of Gods great blessings to me if he have given me now an Auditory Purgatae auris of such spiritual and circumcised Ears as come not to hear that Wisdom of Words which may make the Cross of Christ of none effect much less such itching Ears as come to hear popular and seditious Calumnies and Scandals and Reproaches cast upon the present State and Government For a man may make a Sermon a Satyr he
Serpent was wiser then any beast It is so still Satan is wiser then any man in natural and in Civil knowledge 'T is true he is a Lyon too but he was a Serpent first and did us more harm as a Serpent then as a Lyon But now as Christ Jesus hath nail'd his hand-writing which he had against us to the Cross and thereby cancelled his evidence so in his descent to hell and subsequent acts of his glorification he hath burnt his Library annihilated his wisdom in giving us a wisdome above his craft he hath shin'd in our hearts by the knowledge of his Gospel Measure not thou therefore the growth and forwardness of thy Child by how soon he could speak or go how soon he could contract with a man or discourse with a woman but how soon he became sensible of that great contract which he had made with Almighty God in his Baptism how soon he was able to discharge those sureties which undertook for him then by receiving his confirmation in the Church how soon he became to discern the Lords Spirit in the preaching of his Word and to discern the Lords body in the Administration of the Sacrament A Christian Child must grow as Christ when be was a Child in wisdom and in stature Luc. 2. first in wisdom then in stature Many have been taller at sixteen then ever Christ was but not any so learned at sixty as he when he disputed at twelve He grew in favour says that Text with God and man first with God then with man Bring up your children in the knowledge and love of God and good and great men will know and love them too It is a good definition of ill love that St. Chrysost gives that it is Animae vacantis passio a passion of an empty soul of an idle mind For fill a man with business and he hath no room for such love It will fit the love of God too so far as that that love must be in anima vocante at first when the soul is empty disencumbred from other studies disengaged in other affections then to take in the knowledge and the love of God for Amari nisi nota possunt says St. August truely however we may slumber our selves with an opinion of loving God certainly we do not we cannot love him till we know him and therefore hear and read and meditate and confer and use all means whereby thou mayst increase in knowledge If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them says Christ you are not happy till you do them that 's true but ye can never do them till ye know them Zeal furthers our salvation but it must be Secundum scientiam Zeal according to knowledge Works further our salvation but not works done in our sleep stupidly casually nor erroniously but upon such grounds as fall within our knowledge to be good Faith most of all furthers and advances our salvation but a man cannot believe that which he does not know Conscience includes science it is knowledge and more but it is that first It is as we express it in the School Syllogismus practicus I have a good Conscience in having done well but I did that upon a former knowledge that that ought to be done God hath shined in our hearts to give us the light of knowledge that was the first and then of the knowledge of the glory of God that is our second term in this first acceptation of the Word The light of the knowledge of the glory of this world Gloria Dei is a good and a great peece of learning To know that all the glory of man is as the flower of grass that even the glory 1 Pet. 1.24 and all the glory of man of all mankind is but a flower and but as a flower somewhat less then the Proto-type then the Original then the flower it self and all this but as the flower of grass neither no very beautiful flower to the eye no very fragrant flower to the smell To know that for the glory of Moab Auferetur Esai 16.24 it shall be contemned consumed and for the glory of Jacob it self Attenuabitur It shall be extenuated 17. â—4 that the glory of Gods enemies shall be brought to nothing and the glory of his servants shall be brought low in this word To know how near nothing how meer nothing all the glory of this world is is a good a great degree of learning It is a Book of an old Edition to put you upon the consideration what great and glorious men have lost their glory in this world Give me leave to present to you a new Book a new consideration not how others have lost but consider onely how you have got that glory which you have in this world consider advisedly and confess ingeniously whether you have not known many men more industrious then ever you were and yet never attained to the glory of your Wealth Many wiser then ever you were and yet never attained to your place in the Government of State and valianter then ever you were that never came to have your command in the Wars Consider then how poor a thing the glory of this world is not onely as it may be so lost as many have lost it but as it may be so got as you have got it Seneca Nullum indifferens gloriosum says that Moral man In that which is so obvious as that any man may compass it truly this can be no glory But this is not fully the knowledge of the glory of this Text though this Moral knowledge of the glory of this world conduce to the knowledge of this place which is the glory of God yet not of the Majestical and inaccessible glory of the Essence or Attributes of God of inscrutable points of Divinity for scrutator Majestatis opprimetur a gloria Prov. 25.27 as St. Hiero and all those three Rabbins whose Commentaries we have upon that Book read that place He that searches too far into the secrets of God shall be dazled confounded by that glory But here Gloria Dei is indeed Gloria Deo the glory of God is the glorifying of God it is as St. Ambro. expresses it Notitia cum laude the glory of God is the taking knowledge that all that comes comes from God and then the glorifying of God for whatsoever comes And this is a heavenly art a divine knowledge that if God send a pestilence amongst us we Come not to say it was a great fruit year and therefore there must follow a plague in reason That if God swallow up an invincible Navy we come to say There was a storm and there must follow a scattering in reason That if God discover a Mine we come not to say there was a false Brother that writ a Letter and there must follow a discovery in reason but remember still that though in Davids Psalms there be Psalms of Prayer and Psalms of Praise
Psalms of Deprecation and of Imprecation too how divers soever the nature of the Psalm be yet the Church hath appointed to shut up every Psalm with that one Acclamation Glory be to the Father and to the Son c. Whether I pray or praise depricate Gods Judgements from my self or imprecate them upon pods enemies nothing can fall from me nothing can fall upon me but that God may receive glory by it if I will glorifie him in it So that then in a useful sense Gloria Dei is Gloria Deo but yet more literally more directly the glory of God in this place is the glorious Gospel of Christ Jesus which is that which is intended and expressed in the next phrase which is the last Branch in this first acceptation of these words in facie The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ In facie When our Saviour Christ charged the Sadduces with errour it was not meerly because they were ignorant the Sadduces were not so Mat. 22.29 but Erratis nescientes Scripturas says Christ You erre because you understand not the Scriptures All knowledge is ignorance except it conduce to the knowledge of the Scriptures and all the Scriptures lead us to Christ Heb. 1.3 He is the brightness of his Fathers glory Sap. 2. 26. and the express image of his person The brightness of the everlasting light and the image of his goodness And to insist upon a word of the fittest signification Jo. 6. 27. Hillari Him hath God the Father sealed Now Sigillum imprimitur in Materia diversa A Seal graven in gold or stone does not print in stone or gold in Wax it will and it will in Clay for this Seal in which God hath manifested himself we consider it not as it is printed in the same metal in the eternal Son of God but as God hath sealed himself in Clay in the humane Nature but yet in Wax too in a person ductile pliant obedient to his will And there Signatum super nos Lumen vultus tui says David The light of thy countenance that is the image of thy self is sealed that is derived imprinted upon us that is Ps 4. upon our nature our flesh Signatum est id est significatum est Tertul. God hath signified this pretence manifested revealed himself in the face of Jesus Christ For that is the Office and service that Christ avows himself to have done O Father I have manifested thy Name that is thy Name of Father as thou art a Father for Qui Solum Deum novit Creatorem Cipri Judaicae mensuram prudentiae non excedit Knowest thou that there is a God and that that God created the world What great knowledge is this The Jews know it too Non est Idem nosce Deum opificem esse habere filium It is another Religion another point of Faith Chrysost to know that God had a Son of eternal begetting and to have a world of late making God therefore hath shin'd in no mans heart till he know the glory of GOD in the face of Jesus Christ till he come to the manifestation of God in the Gospel So that that man comes short of this light that believes in God in a general in an incomprehensible power but not in Christ and that man goes beyond this light who will know more of God then is manifested in the Gospel which is the face of Christ Jesus the one comes not to the light the other goes beyond and both are in blindness Christ is the Image of God and the Gospel is the face of Christ and now I rest nor in Gods picture as I find it in every Creature though there be in every Creatare an Image of God I have a livelier Image of God Christ And then I seek not for Christs face as it was traditionally sent to Agabarus in his life nor for his face as it was imprinted in the Veronica in the womans Apron as he went to his death nor for his face as it was described in Lentulus his Letter to the Senate of Rome but I have the glory of God in Christ I and I have the face of Christ in the Gospel Except God had taken this very person upon him this individual person me which was impossible because I am a sinful person he could not have come nearer then in taking this nature upon him Now I cannot say as the man at the Pool Hominem non habeo I have no man to help me the Heathen cannot say I have no God but I cannot say I have no man for I have a Man the Man Jesus him who by being Man knows my misery and by being God can and will show mercy unto me Rom. 13.12 The night is far spent says the Apostle the day is at hand Gregor Nox ante Christum Aurora in Evangelio Dies in Resurrectione Till Christ all was night there was a beginning of day in the beginning of the Gospel and there was a full noon in the light and glory thereof but such a day as shall be always day and overtaken with no night no cloud is onely the day of Judgement the Resurrection And this hath brought us to our last step to the consideration of these three terms 1. knowledge 2. glory 3. the face of Christ Jesus in that everlasting Kingdom For this purpose did God command light out of darkness that men might glorifie God in the contemplation of the Creatures and for this purpose hath God shin'd in our hearts by the Scriptures in the Church that man might be directed towards him here but both these hath God done therefore to this purpose this is the end of all that man might come to this light in that everlasting state in the consummation of happiness in Soul and body too when we shall be call'd out of the solitariness of the grave to the blessed and glorious society of God and his Angels and his Saints there Nazianzen Hoc verbo re-concinnor componor in alium virum migro with that word Surgite mortui Arise yee that sleep in the dust all my peeces shall be put together again Reconcinnor with that word Intra in gaudium Enter into thy Masters joy I am settled I am established Componor and with that word Sede ad dextram sit down army right hand I become another manner of man In alium virum migro another manner of Miracle then the same Father makes of man in this world Quodnam Mysterium says he What a Mystery is man here Parvus sum Magnus I am less in body then many Creature in the World and yet greater in the compass and extent of my Soul then all the World Humillimus sum Excelsus I am under a necessity of spending some thoughts upon this low World and yet in an ability to study to contemplate to lay hold upon the next Mortalis sum immortalis in a Body that may that
VVord of Life hath pour'd in this water into that great and Royal Vessel the Understanding and the love of his truth into the large and religious heart of our Soveraign and he pours it out in 100 in 1000 spouts in a more plentiful preaching thereof then ever your Fathers had it in both the ways of plenty plentiful in the frequency plentiful in the learned manner of preaching Illuxit he hath shin'd upon you before you were born in the Covenant in making you the Children of the seed of Abraham of Christian Parents Illuxit he hath shin'd upon you ever since you could hear and see had any exercise of natural and supernatural faculties and Illuxit by his grace who sends treasure in earthen vessels he hath shin'd upon some of you since you came hither now Consider onely now after all this shining that a Candle is as soon blown out at an open door or an open window as in the open street If you open a door to a Supplanter an Underminer a Whisperer against your Religion if there be a broken window a woman loaden with sin as the Apostle speaks and thereby dejected into an inordinate melancholy for such a melancholy as make Witches makes Papists too if she be thereby as apt to change Religions now as Loves before and as weary of this God as of that man if there be such a door such a window a wife a child a friend a sojourner bending that way this light that hath shin'd upon thee may as absolutely go out in thy house and in thy heart as if it were put out in the whole Kingdom Leave the publick to him whose care the publick is and who no doubt prepares a good account to him to whom onely he is accountable Look then to thine own heart and thine own house for that 's thy charge And so we have done with the action shining evidence and with the time Illuxit there is enough done already and we come to the place in Corde if God shine he shines in the heart Fecit Deus Coelum terram Non lego quod requieverit In Cordibus St. Ambros says that Father God made heaven and earth but I do not read that he tested when he had done that Fecit Solem Lunam as he pursues that Meditation He made the Sun and Moon and all the host of heaven but yet he rested not Fecit hominem Requievit When God had made man then he rested for when God had made man he had made his bed the heart of man to rest in God asks nothing of man but his heart and nothing but man can give the heart to God Gen. 8.21 And therefore in that sacrifice of Noah after the flood and often in the Scriptures elsewhere sacrifice is called Odor quietis God smelt a savour of rest in that which proceeds from a religious heart God rests himself and is well pleased Loqui ad Cor Jerusalem to speak to the heart of Jerusalem is ever the Scripture phrase from God to man to speak comfortably and loquiâ—e Corde to speak from the heart is an Emphatical phrase from man to God too He that speaks from his own heart speaks to Gods heart Did not our hearts burn within us while he opened the Scriptures say those two Disciples that went with Christ to Emaus And if your hearts do not so all this while you hear but me Luc. 24.32 and alas who or what am I you hear not God But let this light the love of the ordinary means of your salvation enter into your hearts and shine there and then as the fire in your Chymney grows pale and faints and out of countenance when the Sun shines upon it so whatsoever fires of lust of anger of ambition possessed that heart before it will yeild to this and evaporate But why do I speak all this to others Is it so clear a case that the hearts in this Text are the hearts of others of them that hear and not of our selves that speak That we are to see now for that 's the next and last Branch in this part who be the persons in Cordibus nostris in our hearts Nostris Certainly this word Nostris primarily most literally most directly concerns us Us the Ministers of Gods Word and Sacraments If we take Gods Word into our mouths and pretend a Commission a Calling for the calling of others we must be sure that God hath shin'd in our hearts There is vocatio intentionalis an intentional Calling when Parents in their intention and purpose dedicates their children to this service of God the Ministry even in their Cradle And this is a good and holy intention because though it bind not in the nature of a Vow yet it makes them all the way more careful to give them such an Education as may fit them for that profession And then there is Vocatio Virtualis when having assented to that purpose of my Parents I receive that publick Seal the Imposition of hands in the Church of God but it is Vocatio radicalis the calling that is the root and foundation of all that we have this light shining in our hearts the testimony of Gods Spirit to our spirit that we have this calling from above First then it must be a light not a calling taken out of the darkness of melancholy or darkness of discontent or darkness of want and poverty or darkness of a retir'd life to avoid the mutual duties and offices of society it must be a light and a light that shines it is not enough to have knowledge and learning it must shine out and appear in preaching and it must shine in our hearts in the private testimony of the Spirit there but when it hath so shin'd there it must not go out there but shine still as a Candle in a Candlestick or the Sun in his sphere shine so as it give light to others so that this light doth not shine in our hearts except it appear in the tongue and in the hand too First in the tounge to preach opportune and importune in season and out of season 2 Tim. 4.2 August that is opportune Volentibus importune Nolentibus preaching is in season to them who are willing to hear but though they be not though they had rather the Laws would permit them to be absent or that preaching were given over yet I must preach And in that sense I may use the words of the Apostle As much as in me is I am ready to preach the Gospel to them also that are at Rome at Rome in their hearts at Rome that is of Rome Rom. 1.15 reconciled to Rome I would preach to them if they would have me if they would hear me and that were opportune in season But though we preach importune out of season to their ends and their purposes yet we must preach though they would not have it done for we are debters to all because all are
our Neighbours Proximus tuus est antequam Christianus est August A man is thy Neighbor by his Humanity not by his Divinity by his Nature not by his Religion a Virginian is thy Neighbor as well as a Londoner and all men are in every good mans Diocess and Parish Irrides odorantem lapides says that Father Thou seest a man worship an Image and thou laughest him to scorn assist him direct him if thou canst but scorn him not Ignoras quomodo illum praesciverit Deus thou knowest not Gods purpose nor the way of Gods purpose upon that man his way may be to convert that man by thee and to bring that man to serve him Religio tuis fortasse quam tu qui irridebas perchance more sincerely then thou not onely when thou didst laugh at him but even when thou didst preach to him For brass I will bring gold says God in Esay and for iron silver God can work in all metals and transmute all metals he can make a Moral Man a Christian and a Superstitious Christian a sincere Christian a Papist a Protestant and a dissolute Protestant a holy man by thy preaching And therefore let this light shine in our hearts in the testimony of a good Conscience in having accepted this Calling but also shine in our tongues preach Though the Disease of St. Chrysostomes times should overtake ours Nicepho Qui quantum placuit tantum principibus displicuit The more good he did by preaching the more some great persons were displeased with him yet all this were but St. Paul's importune a little out of season but out of season we must preach How much more now now when as the Apostle says of God we may say of Gods Lieutenant In whom there is no change nor shadow of change no approach towards a change no occasion of jealousie of it How much were we inexcuseable if either out of fullness of fortunes or emptiness of learning if either out of state or business or laziness or pretence of fear where no fear is we should smother this light which if it have truly shin'd in our hearts will shine in our tongues too It must shine there and it must shine in our hands also in our actions in the example of our life Christ says to his Apostles Vos estis Lux You are light there they were illumin'd ' Mat. 15.14 16. but to what use It follows That men may see your good works For as St. Ambrose says of the Creation Frustra fecisset Lucem Ambro. God had made light to no purpose if he had not made Creatures to show by that light so we have the light of Learning and the light of other abilities to no purpose if we have no good works to show when we have drawn mens eyes upon us Upon those words of Solomons Gregor Tempus tacendi tempus loquendi St. Gregory makes this note That Solomon does not say first There is a time of speaking and a time of silence that when a man hath taken that calling that binds him to speak then he might prevaricate in a treacherous silence but first there is a time of silence of study of preparation how to speak and then speak on in Gods Name But howsoever there may be tempus tacendi some time wherein we may be silent yet there is not tempus peccandi no circumstance of time no circumstance at all can excuse an ill life in an ill man less in a leading and exemplar man least of all in a Church-man To that which is vulgarly said Loquere ut te vidiam speak that I may see thee I do not see thee not see what is in thee except I hear thee preach Let me add more Age ut te audiam do something that I may hear thee I do not hear thee not hear thee to believe thee except I hear of thee in a good testimony of thy conversation I hope our times and our callings is far enough from that suspition of St. Ambrose Ne sit nomen inane crimen immane in Sacerdotibus God forbid the name of Priest should priviledge any man otherwise obnoxious from just censure He were a stranee Master of faculties to himself that would give himself a Dispensation so this were truly to incur a Premunire in the highest Kingdom to forfeit all everlastingly to appeal from our conversation to our profession to make a holy profession the Cloak nay the reason of unholy actions But I speak not now of enormous ill but of omissions of good and of too easie venturing upon things in their own nature indifferent For as for our words St. Bernard says well Nugae in ore laici sunt Nugae in ore Sacerdotis blasphemiae Idle words are but idle words in a secular mans mouth but in a Church-mans mouth they are blasphemies So for our actions it may become us it may concern us to abstain from some indifferent things which other men without any scandal may do Hierom. Vehementer destruit Ecclaesiam Dei laicos esse meliores Clericis Nothing shakes the Church more then when Church-men are no better then other men are 4. 10. Where we read in Genesis Vox sanguinis The voice of Abel's blood calls it is in the Original Vox sanguinum of bloods in the plural many bloods much blood the blood of a whole Parish of a whole Province cries out against the life of such a man for his Sermons are but his Texts his life is his Sermon that preaches Aaron and Moses were joyned in Commission Aaron had the tongue the power of speaking Moses had the Rod the power of doing great works When the Lystrians call'd Paul Act. 14.12 Mercury for his Eloquence they call'd his Companion Barnabas Jupiter their eye was upon their great work as well as their sweet words Clearly and ingenuously we we the Ministers of the Gospel acknowledge our selves to be principally intended by the Apostle in this Text this light that is the knowledge and the love of Gods truth must shine in our hearts sincerely there and in our tongues assidiously there and in our hands evidently there and so we are the persons but yet not we alone though the Apostle express it in that phrase in Cordibus nostris When this Apostle speaks of Hereditas nostra our inheritance and Pax nostra our peace and Spes nostra our hope as he does to the Ephesians and often elsewhere he does not so appropriate Christ of whom he says all that to himself as that they to whom he writes should not have an inheritance and a peace and a hope in Christ as well as he or any Apostle So when he says here in Cordibus nostris in our hearts he intends that the Colossians that people to whom he writes and he writes to all should have that light in their hearts and consequently in their tongues and hands too in words and actions as well as men of the Church It is
that first our branches in this third part will be three these three terms 1 Knowledge 2 Glory and then the face of Jesus Christ Divisio And then we must look upon all these three terms two ways first Inchoative how we have an inchoation of this knowledge of this glory in this face of Christ Jesus here in the Church and then Consummative how we shall have a consummation of all this hereafter Scientia To us then who were created of nothing in the first part and called from the Gentiles in the second in this third part our preparation to glory is knowledge The Persons in this part of the Text are as in the former Not only we we the Ministers of Gods Word but you also the hearers thereof for there is a knowledge an art of hearing as well as of speaking Students make up the University as well as Doctors and Hearers make up the Congregation as well as Preachers A good hearer is as much a Doctor as a Preacher A Doctor to him that sits by him in example whilst he is here a Doctor to all his Family in his repetition when he comes home a Doctor to that which is more then the whole world to him his own soul all his life Christ appear'd to this Apostle Act. 26.16 and said I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a Minister and a witness to open the Gentiles eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God There he received his Degree his learning and the use of it but when St. Paul came abroad into the world when he comes to preach 1.12 and to write he says to the Colos The Father hath made us meet to be partakes of the inheritance of the Saints in his light Us says St. Chrysost and so says Theophylact too and many more then they two Us that is all Us Us that preach you that hear you are bound to study this knowledge as well as we And truly a Hearer hath in some respects advantage of the Preacher for a Preacher though in some measure well dispos'd can hardly exuere hominem put off the affections of man by being a Preacher they stick closer to him then his Hood and habit even in the Pulpit Some little Clouds if not of ostentation and vain glory yet of complacencie and self-pleasing will affect him the hearer hath not that tentation but hath herein a more perfect exercise of the most Christian vertue Humility then the preacher hath Though therefore when you cast your eye upon this part of this Text you see in your Book a difference of Character in this word To give to give light c. which seems to fix all upon the person of the Apostle and consequently of the Minister yet that word is not in the Text but the Text is only for the inlightning God hath shin'd for the inlightning c. which is alike upon all and therefore let us all us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light light it self is faith but the armor of light is knowledge an ignorant man is a disarm'd man a naked man Ignorance then is not our Usher into this presence to shew us the face of Christ Jesus almost in every one of the ancient Fathers you shall find some passages wherein they discover an inclination to that opinion that before Christ came in the manifestation of his Gospel for since that coming every man is bound to see him there many Philosophers men of knowledge and learning were sav'd without the knowledge of Christ Christus Ratio says one of them well for Logos is Ratio and not only Verbum Justin Martyr as it is ordinarily translated Christ is Reason rectified Reason and secundum Rationem vixerunt Christiani semper says he Whosoever lives according to rectified Reason which is the Law of nature he is a Christian and therefore when that Father Justin Martyr who had been before a Philosopher amongst the Gentiles came to be a Preacher amongst the Christians he never left off his Philosophers habit because that gave an impression of his learning and an estimation by it That knowledge was a help to salvation the Ancients thought but that is a new Doctrine that men should make a title to God by being ignorant that whereas all the life of man is either an active life or a contemplative they should in the Romane Church make one Order and call them Nullanos men that did nothing in contempt of the active life and in contempt of the contemplative life another Order whom they call Ignorantes men that know nothing There is an annihilation in sin Homines cum peccam nihil sunt August Then when by sin I depart from the Lord my God in whom only I live and move and have my being I am nothing and truly in this sinful profession of thine of doing nothing of knowing nothing they come too neer being nothing What other answer can this knowing nothing here produce at the last day from Christ Jesus but his Nescio vos I know not you As David says of God Psal 18.26 Cum perverso perverteris With the froward God will be froward so Ignorantes ignorabit of the ignorant God will be ignorant not know them that study not knowledge The miracle that Christ wrought in the conversion of the World was not that he wrought upon men by Apostles that were unlearned for the Apostles were not so they were never unprovided to give a pertinent and satisfactory answer to the learnedest of the Philosophers amongst the Gentiles to any of the Gamaliels and Nicodemusses who were true understanders of the Law amongst the Jews to any of their Scribes the perverters of the Law to any of the Pharisees their Separatists and Schismaticks to any of the Sadduces their formal Hereticks nor to any of their Herodians their State-Divines who made Divinity serve present turns and occasions The Apostles were no ignorant men then when they were imployed but in this consisted the Miracle that in an instant Christ by his Spirit infus'd all knowledge necessary for that great function into them If they had not had it they could not have done his work All must have it Intelligite Reges says David for all their business Kings must study for it Erudimini Judices with their other learning Judges must have this The Prophet denounces it for a heavy curse The Prophet shall be a fool Psa 2. Ose 9.7 he that should teach shall not be able to do it and as it follows The spiritual man shall be mad if he have knowledge he shall not know how to use it St. Hierome translates that word Arreptitius he shall be possessed possess'd with the spirit of fear or of flattery others shall speak in him and he become the instrument of men and not of God It was the Devils first advantage knowledge The
must that does that did dye ever since it was made I carry a Soul nay a Soul carries me to such a perpetuity as no Saint no Angel God himself shall not survive me over-live me And lastly says he Terrenus sum Coelestis I have a Body but of Earth but yet of such Earth as God was the Potter to mold it God was the statuary to fashion it and then I have a Soul of which God was the Father he breath'd it into me and of which no matter can say I was the Mother for it proceeded of nothing Such a Mystery is man here but he is a Miracle hereafter I shall be still the same man and yet have another being And in this is that Miracle exalted that death who destroys me re-edifies me Mors veluti medium excogitata Cyril ut de integro restauraretur homo man was fallen and God took that way to raise him to throw him lower into the grave man was sick and God invented God studied Physick for him and strange Physick to recover him by death The first faciamus hominem the Creation of man was a thing incomprehensible in Nature but the Denuo nasci to be born again was stranger even to Nicodemus who knew the former the Creation Joh. 4.3 well enough But yet the Immutabimur is the greatest of all 1 Cor. 15.57 which St. Paul calls all to wonder at Behold I shew you a Mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed A Mystery which it Nicodemus had discern'd it would have put him to more wonder then the Denuo nasci to enter into his mothers womb as he speaks to enter into the Bowels of the Earth and lie there and lie dead there not nine months but many yeers and then to be born again and the first minute of that new Birth to be so perfect as that nothing can be better and so perfect as that he can never become worse that is that which makes all strange accidents to natural Bodies and Bodies Politike too Scientia all changes in man all revolutions of States easie and familiar to us I shall have another being and yet be the same man And in that state I shall have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus Of which three things being now come to speak I am the less sorry and so may you be too if my voice be so sunk as that I be not heard for if I had all my time and all my strength and all your patience reserv'd till now what could I say that could become what that could have any proportion to this knowledge and this glory and this face of Christ Jesus there in the Kingdome of Heaven But yet be pleased to hear a word of each of these three words and first of Knowledge In the Attributes of God we consider his knowledge to be Principium agendi dirigens The first proposer and Director This should be done and then his Will to be Principium imperans the first Commander This shall be done and then his Power to be Principium exequens the first Performer This is done This should be done this shall be done this is done expresses to us the Knowledge the Will and the Power of God Now we shall be made partakers of the Divine Nature and the Knowledge and the Will and the Power of God shall be so far communicated to us there as that we shall know all that belongs to our happiness and we shall have a will to doe and a power to execute whatsoever conduces to that And for the knowledge of Angels that is not in them per essentiam for whosoever knows so as the Essence of the thing flows from him knows all things and that 's a knowledge proper to God only Neither doe the Angels know per species by those resultances and species which rise from the Object and pass through the Sense to the Understanding for that 's a deceiveable way both by the indisposition of the Organ sometimes and sometimes by the depravation of the Judgment and therefore as the first is too high this is too low a way for the Angels Some things the Angels do know by the dignity of their Nature by their Creation which we know not as we know many things which inserior Creatures do not and such things all the Angels good and bad know Some things they know by the Grace of their confirmation by which they have more given them then they had by Nature in their Creation and those things only the Angels that stood but all they do know Some things they know by Revelation when God is pleased to manifest them unto them and so some of the Angels know that which the rest though confirm'd doe not know By Creation they know as his Subjects by Confirmation they know as his servants by Revelation they know as his Councel Now Erimus sicut Angeli says Christ There we shall be as the Angels The knowledge which I have by Nature shall have no Clouds here it hath that which I have by Grace shall have no reluctation no resistance here it hath That which I have by Revelation shall have no suspition no jealousie here it hath sometimes it is hard to distinguish between a respiration from God and a suggestion from the Devil There our curiosity shall have this noble satisfaction we shall know how the Angels know by knowing as they know We shall not pass from Author to Author as in a Grammar School nor from Art to Art as in an University but as that General which Knighted his whole Army God shall Create us all Doctors in a minute That great Library those infinite Volumes of the Books of Creatures shall be taken away quite away no more Nature those reverend Manuscripts written with Gods own hand the Scriptures themselves shall be taken away quite away no more preaching no more reading of Scriptures and that great School-Mistress Experience and Observation shall be remov'd no new thing to be done and in an instant I shall know more then they all could reveal unto me I shall know not only as I know already that a Bee-hive that an Ant-hill is the same Book in Decimo sexto as a Kingdom is in Folio That a Flower that lives but a day is an abridgment of that King that lives out his threescore and ten yeers but I shall know too that all these Ants and Bees and Flowers and Kings and Kingdoms howsoever they may be Examples and Comparisons to one another yet they are all as nothing altogether nothing less then nothing infinitely less then nothing to that which shall then be the subject of my knowledge for it is the knowledge of the glory of God Gloria Dei Before in the former acceptation the glory of God was our glorifying of God here the glory of God is his glorifying of us there it was his receiving here it
The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart And then to have pure hands That we may lift up pure hands 1 Tim. 1.5 2 8. 3 8. without wrath or doubting And to have pure consciences Having the mystery of faith in pure consciences The heart is the fountain from which my good and holy purposes flow My hand is the execution and Declaration of those good purposes produc'd into the eyes of men and my conscience is the testification of the Spirit of God with my spirit that I have actually made those declarations that I have liv'd according to that profession This is Saint Pauls Puritan Pure in Heart pure in Hand pure in Conscience That I do believe I ought to do this That really I do it Thar my conscience tell me after it was rightly done for a man may do good ill and go by ill ways to good ends And then if our purity be but comparative and not positive that we onely look how ill other men be not how good we should be we shall become either Catharists purifying Puritans quarrelling with men with States with Churches and attempting a purifying of Sacraments and Ceremonies Doctrine and Discipline according to our own fancy Or Cathari purified puritans that think they may leave out the Dimitte debita they need ask no forgiveness And then Cains major iniquitas my sin is too great for God to forgive is not worse then this minor iniquitas Gen. 4.13 My sin is too little for God to consider I cannot have a pardon and I do not need a pardon It is impossible for me to get it and it is unnecessary for me to ask it are equal contempts against the Majesty and Mercy of God But this first consideration The nature of his pureness enlarges it self by flowing into the second branch of this first part that is The place where this pureness is established The Heart He that loves pureness of Heart the King shall be his friend Absolute pureness cannot be attained to In via Locus Cor. It is reserved for us In Patria At home in heaven not in our journey here is that pureness to be expected But yet here in the way there is a degree of it acceptable to God of which himself speaks and there it may be had Blessed are the pure in heart so the pureness be placed there all 's well for they shall see God Mat. 5.9 Whether that fight of God be spoken De cognitione Dei of that sight of God 1 Cor. 13.12 which we have here In speculo in a glass in that true glass of his own making his word explicated in the Church or de visione Beatifica of that beatifical vision of God which is salvation howsoever the reward the sight of God in the perfect fruition thereof may be reserved for the future They shall see God yet they are pure and they are blessed already Blessed are the pure in heart This pureness then must be rightly plac'd for in many things the place qualifies and denominates the things it is not Balsamum if it grew not in Palestine It is not pureness if it grew not in the Heart The Hypocrite is the miserablest of all other he does God service and yet is damned The shedding of our blood for God is not a greater service then the winning of souls to God and the Hypocrite many times does that his outward purity works upon them who cannot know it to be counterfeit and draws them truely and sincerely to serve God He does God service and yet perishes 1 Reg. 14.10 because he does it not from the heart God shall take him away as a man taketh away dung till it be all gone God does not say there that he will take away the dunge but the man not that he will take away the Dissimulation of the Hypocrite but he will take away the Hypocrite himself as dunge is taken away till it be all gone till this Hypocrite be swept not clean but clean away If he have a complacency a joy that he can deceive Job 20.5 and can seem that which he is not The joy of the Hypocrite is but for a moment He hath no true joy at all his joy is but dunge and in a moment comes a Cart and fetches away that dunge sweeps away even that false joy Can he hope for more 8.13 The Hope of the Hypocrite shall perish If he can conceive such a hope it shall perish in abortion and never have life Their Hope shall be as the giving up of the Ghost As soon as it is a Hope 11.20 it shall be as the giving up of the Ghost and a Cart shall carry away that dunge that Hope What Cart first God shall disappoint his Hope of deluding the world God shall discover him and lay him open That the Hypocrites reign not 34.30 lest the people be ensnar'd And then when God hath discovered him The innocent shall stir up himself against the Hypocrite that is 17.8 consider him observe him and arm himself against his imaginations And God shall not onely discover him to men but God shall discover himself to him and make him see his future condemnation Fearfulness shall surprize the Hypocrite Esa 33.14 Job 27.8 And then What is the hope of the Hypocrite when God taketh away his soul when the Cart comes for the last load of dunge his corrupt his putrified soul what hope hath the Hypocrite for the next life It is not pureness then except it be in the right place the heart But where is the heart The heart is vafrum inscrutabile Deceitful above all things Jer. 17.9 and desperately wieked who can know it It is uncertain and unsearchable And it is so because it pursues those things which are in fluxu ever in motion Cast but a paper into the river and fix thine eye upon that paper and binde thine eye to follow that paper whithersoever the river or the winde shall carry it and thou canst not imagine where thine eye will be to morrow For this paper is not addressed as a ship to a certain port or upon any certain purpose but expos'd to the disposition of the tyde to the rage of the winde to the wantonness of the Eddy and to innumerable contingencies till it wear out to nothing So if a man set his heart we cannot call it a setting if a man suffer his heart to issue upon any of these fluid and transitory things of this world he shall have cor vafrum inscrutabile He shall not know where to finde his own heart If Riches be this floating paper that his eye is fixed upon he shall not know upon what course If Beauty be this paper he shall not know upon what face If Honor and preferment be it he shall not know upon what faction his heart will be transported a month hence But if the heart can fix it self upon that which is
fixt the Almighty and immoveable God if it can be content to inquire after it self and take knowledge where it is and in what way it will finde the means of cleansing And so this second consideration The placing of this pureness in the heart enlarges it self also into the third branch of this part which is De Modo by what means this pureness is fix'd in the heart in which is involved the Affection with which it must be embrac'd Love He that loveth pureness of heart Both these then are setled Our heart is naturally foul Modus And our heart may be cleansed But how is our present disquisition Who can bring a clean thing out of filthiness There is not one Job 14.4 Adam foul'd my heart and all yours nor can we make it clean our selves Who can say I have made clean my heart There is but one way Prov. 20.9 a poor beggarly way but easie and sure to ask it of God And even to God himself it seems a hard work to cleanse this heart and therefore our prayer must be with David Cor mundum crea Create Psal 51.12 O Lord a pure heart in me And then comes Gods part not that Gods part begun but then for it was his doing that thou madest this prayer but because it is a work that God does especially delight in to build upon his own foundations when he hath disposed thee to pray and upon that prayer created a new heart in thee then God works upon that new heart and By faith purifyes it Act. 15.9 enables it to preserve the pureness as Saint Peter speaks He had kindled some sparks of this faith in thee before thou askedst that new heart else the prayer had not been of faith but now finding thee obsequious to his beginnings he fuels this fire and purifies thee as Gold and Silver in all his furnaces through Believing and Doing and suffering through faith and works and tribulation we come to this pureness of heart And truely he that lacks but the last but Tribulation as fain as we would be without it lacks one concoction one refining of this heart But in this great work the first act is a Renovation a new heart Coâ— Novâ—m and the other That we keep clean that heart by a continual diligence and vigilancy over all our particular actions In these two consists the whole work of purifying the heart first an Annihilating of the former heart which was all sin And then a holy superintendency over that new heart which God vouchsafes to create in us to keep it as he gives it clean pure It is in a word a Detestation of former sins and a prevention of future And for the first Chromakus Anno 390. Mundi corde sunt qui deposuere cor peccati That 's the new heart that hath disseised expelled the heart of sin There is in us a heart of sin which must be cast up for whilst the heart is under the habits of sin we are not onely sinful but we are all sin as it is truly said that land overflow'd with sea is all sea And when sin hath got a heart in us it will quickly come to be that whole Body of Death Rom. 7.24 which Saint Paul complains of who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death when it is a heart it will get a Braine a Brain that shall minister all Sense and Delight in sin That 's the office of the Brain A Brain which shall send for the sinews and ligaments to tye sins together and pith and marrow to give a succulencie and nourishment even to the bones to the strength and obduration of sin and so it shall do all those services and offices for sin that the brain does to the natural body So also if sin get to be a heart it will get a liver to carry blood and life through all the body of our sinful actions That 's the office of the liver And whilst we dispute whether the throne and seat of the soul be in the Heart or Brain or Liver this tyrant sin will praeoccupate all and become all so as that we shall finde nothing in us without sin nothing in us but sin if our heart be possest inhabited by it And if it be true in our natural bodies that the heart is that part that lives first and dyes last it is much truer of this Cor peccati this heart of sin for this hearty sinner that hath given his heart to his sin doth no more foresee a Death of that sin in himself then he remembers the Birth of it and because he remembers not or understands not how his soul contracted sin by coming into his body he leaves her to the same ignorance how she shall discharge her self of sin when she goes out of that body But as his sin is elder then himself for Adams sin is his sin so is it longer liv'd then his body for it shall cleave everlastingly to his soul too God asks no more of thee but fili da mihi cor Prov. 23.26 My son give me thy heart Because when God gave it thee it was but one heart But since thou hast made it Cor cor as the Prophet speaks a Heart and a Heart a double Heart give both thy Hearts to God thy natural weakness and disposition to sin The inclinations of thy heart And thy habitual practise of sin The obduration of thy heart cor peccans and Cor peccati and he shall create a new heart in thee which is the first way of attaining this pureness of heart to become once in a good state to have as it were paid all thy former debts and so to be the better able to look about thee for the future for prevention of subsequent sins which is the other way that we proposed for attaining this pureness detestation of former habits watchfulness upon particular actions Till this be done till this Cor peccati Peccata Minutiora this hearty habitualness in sin be devested there is no room no footing to stand and sweep it a heart so filled with foulness will admit no counsel no reproof The great Engineir would have undertaken to have removed the World with his Engine if there had been any place to fix his Engine upon out of the World I would undertake by Gods blessing upon his Ordinance to cleanse the foulest heart that is if that Engine which God hath put into my hands might enter into his heart if there were room for the renouncing Gods Judgements and for the application of Gods mercies in the merits of Christ Jesus in his heart they would infallibly work upon him But he hath petrified his heart in sin and then he hath immur'd it wall'd it with a delight in sin and fortified it with a justifying of his sin and adds daily more and more out-works by more and more daily sins so that the denouncing of Judgement the application of Mercies