where there was not one dead p. 285 SERMON XXII A Sermon Preached at the Temple Esther 4.16 Go and assemble all the Jews that are found in Shushan and fast ye for me and eat not nor drink in three days day nor night I also and my Maids will fast likewise and so I will go in to the King which is not according to the Law And if I perish I perish p. 298 SERMON XXIII A Sermon Preached at Lincolns-Inne Ascension-day 1622. Deut. 12.30 Take heed to thy self that thou be not snared by following them after they be destroyed from before thee and that thou inquire not after their gods saying How did these Nations serve their gods Even so will I do likewise p. 311 SERMON XXIV A Sermon Preached at Pauls Cross to the Lords of the Council and other Honorable Persons 24 Mart. 1616. It being the Anniversary of the Kings coming to the Crown and his Majesty being then gone into Scotland Prov. 22.11 He that loveth pureness of heart for the grace of his lips the King shall be his friend p. 322 SERMON XXV A Sermon Preached at the Spittle upon Easter-Monday 1622. 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 P. 357 SERMON XXVI Psal 68.20 And unto God the Lord belong the issues of Death from Death P. 397 A Lent-SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL February 20. 1617. SERMON I. Serm. 1. Luc. 23.40 Fearest not thou God being under the same condemnation THe Text it self is a Christning-Sermon and a Funeral-Sermon and a Sermon at a Consecration and a Sermon at the Canonization of himself that makes it This Thief whose words they are is Baptized in his blood there 's his Christning He dyes in that profession there 's his Funeral His Diocess is his Cross and he takes care of his soul who is crucified with him and to him he is a Bishop there 's his Consecration and he is translated to heaven there 's his Canonization We have sometimes mention in Moses his book of Exodus according to the Romane Translation Operis Plumarii of a kind of subtle and various workmanship imployed upon the Tabernacle for which it is hard to finde a proper word now we translate it sometimes Embroidery sometimes Needle-work sometimes otherwise It is evident enough that it was Opus variegatum a work compact of divers pieces curiously inlaid and varied for the making up of some figure some representation and likelyest to be that which in sumptuous buildings we use to call now Mosaick work for that very word originally signifies to vary to mingle to diversifie As the Tabernacle of God was so the Scriptures of God are of this Mosaick work The body of the Scriptures hath in it limbs taken from other bodies and in the word of God are the words of other men other authors inlaid inserted But this work is onely where the Holy Ghost is the Workman It is not for man to insert to inlay other words into the word of God It is a gross piece of Mosaick work to insert whole Apocryphal books into the Scriptures It is a sacrilegious defacing of this Mosaick work to take out of Moses Tables such a stone as the second Commandment and to take out of the Lords Prayer such a stone as is the foundation-stone the reason of the prayer Quia Tuum For thine is the kingdom c. It is a counterfeit piece of Mosaick work when having made up a body of their Canon-Law of the raggs and fragments torne from the body of the Fathers they attribute to every particular sentence in that book not that authority which that sentence had in that Father from whom it is taken but that authority which the Canonization as they call it of that sentence gives it by which Canonization and placing it in that book it is made equal to the word of God Thesaurus Catholicus It is a strange piece of Mosaick work when one of their greatest authors pretending to present a body of proofs for all controverted points from the Scriptures and Councels and Fathers for he makes no mention in his promise of the Mothers of the Church doth yet fill up that body with sentences from women and obtrude to us the Revelations of Brigid and of Katherine and such She-fathers as those But when the Holy Ghost is the workman in the true Scriptures we have a glorious sight of this Mosaick this various this mingled work where the words of the Serpent in seducing our first parents The words of Balaams Ass in instructing the rider himself The words of prophane Poets in the writings and use of the Apostle The words of Caiaphas prophesying that it was expedient that one should dye for all The words of the Divel himself Jesus I know and Paul I know And here in this text the words of a Thief executed for the breach of the Law do all concur to the making up of the Scriptures of the word of God Now though these words were not spoken at this time when we do but begin to celebrate by a poor and weak imitation the fasting of our Saviour Jesus Christ but were spoken at the day of the crucifying of the Lord of life and glory yet as I would be loath to think that you never fast but in Lent so I would be loath to think that you never fulfill the sufferings of Christ Jesus in your flesh but upon Goodfriday never meditate upon the passion but upon that day As the Church celebrates an Advent a preparation to the Incarnation of Christ to his coming in the flesh in humiliation so may this humiliation of ours in the text be an Advent a preparation to his Resurrection and coming in glory And as the whole life of Christ was a passion so should the whole life especially the humiliation of a Christian be a continual meditation upon that Christ began with some drops of blood in his infancy in his Circumcision though he drowned the sins of all mankinde in those several channels of Blood which the whips and nailes and spear cut out of his body in the day of his passion So though the effects of his passion be to be presented more fully to you at the day of his passion yet it is not unseasonable now to contemplate thus far the working of it upon this condemned wretch whose words this text is Division as to consider in them First the infallibility and the dispatch of the grace of God upon them whom his gracious purpose hath ordained to salvation how powerfully he works how instantly they obey This condemned person who had been a thief execrable amongst men and a blasphemer execrating God was suddainly a Convertite suddainly a Confessor suddainly a Martyr suddainly a Doctor to preach to others In a second consideration we shall see what doctrine he preaches not curiosities
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
may make a Prayer a Libel if upon colour of preaching or praying against toleration of Religion or persecution for Religion he would insinuate that any such tolerations are prepared for us or such persecutions threatned against us But if for speaking the mysteries of your salvation plainly sincerely inelegantly inartificially for the Gold and not for the Fashion for the Matter and not for the Form Nanciscor populi gratiam my service may be acceptable to Gods people and available to their Edification Nonne Dei donum shall not I call this a great Blessing of God Beloved in him I must I do And therefore because I presume I speak to such I take to my self that which follows there in the same Father that he that speaks to such a people does not his duty if he consider not deliberately Quibus Quando Quantum loquatur both to whom and at what time and how much he is to speak I consider the persons and I consider that the greatest part by much are persons born since the Reformation of Religion since the death of Idolatry in this Land and therefore not naturaliz'd by Conversion by Transplantation from another Religion to this but born the natural children of this Church and therefore to such persons I need not lay hold upon any points of controverted Doctrine I consider also Quando the time and I consider that it is now in these days of Easter when the greatest part of this Auditory have or will renew their Hands to Christ Jesus in the Sacrament of his Body and his Blood that they will rather loose theirs then lack his and therefore towards persons who have testified that disposition in that seal I need not depart into any vehement or passionate Exhortations to constancy and perseverance as though there were occasion to doubt it And I consider lastly Quantum how much is necessary to be spoken to such a people so disposed and therefore farther then the custom and solemnity of this day and place lays an Obligation upon me I will not extend my self to an unnecessary length especially because that which shall be said by me and by my Brethren which come after and were worthy to come before me in this place is to be said to you again by another who alone takes as much pains as all we and all you too Hears all with as much patience as all you and is to speak of all with as much and more labour then all we Much therefore for your ease somewhat for his a little for mine own with such succinctness and brevity as may consist with clearness and perspicuity in such manner and method as may best enlighten your understandings and least encumber your memories I shall open unto you that light which God commanded out of darkness and that light by which he hath shin'd in our hearts and this light by which we shall have the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus Divisio Our parts therefore in these words must necessarily be three three Lights The first shows us our Creation the second our Vocation the third our Glorification In the first We who were but but what but nothing were made Creatures In the second we who were but Gentiles were made Christians In the third we who were but men shall be made saints In the first God took us when there was no world In the second God sustains us in an ill world In the third God shall crown us in a glorious and joyful world In the first God made us in the second God mends us in the third God shall perfect us First God commanded light out of darkness that man might see the Creature then he shin'd in our hearts that man might see himself at last he shall shine so in the face of Christ Jesus that man may see God and live and live as long as that God of light and life shall live himself Every one of these Parts will have divers Branches and it is time to enter into them In the first the Creation because this Text does not purposely and primarily deliver the Doctrine of the Creation not prove it not press it not enforce it but rather suppose it and then propose it by way of Example and Comparison for when the Apostles says God who commanded light out of darkness hath shin'd in our hearts he intimates therein these two Propositions first that the same God that does the one does the other too God perfects his works and then this Proposition also As God hath done the one he hath done the other God himself works by Patterns by Examples These two Propositions shall therefore be our two first Branches in this first Part. First Idem Deus the same God goes through his works and therefore let us never fear that God will be weary and then Sicut Deus as God hath done he will do again he works by pattern and so must we and then from these two we shall descend to our third Proposition Quid Deus what God is said to have done here and it is that he commanded light out of darkness In these three we shall determine this Part and for the Branches of the other two Parts our Vocation and our Glorification it will be a less burden to your memories to open them then when we come to handle the Parts themselves then altogether now Now we shall proceed in the Branches of the first Part. Part 1. Memb. 1. Idem Deus In this our first Consideration is Idem Deus the same our God goes through all Those divers Hereticks who thought there were two Gods for Cordon thought so and Marcion thought so too the Gnostiques thought so and the Maniches thought so too though they differ'd in their mistakings for errour is always manifold and multiform yet all their errours were upon this ground this root They could nor comprehend that the same God should be the God of Justice and the God of Mercy too a God that had an earnestness to punish sin and an easiness to pardon sin too Cordon who was first though he made two Gods yet he used them both reasonable well for with him Alter Bonus Alter Justus Iren. 1.28.29 one of his Gods is perfectly good merciful and the other though he be not so very good yet he is just Marcion who came after says worse because he could not discern the good purposes of God in inflicting Judgements nor the good use which good men make of his Corrections but thought all acts of his Justice to be calamitous and intolerable and naturally evil therefore with him Alter Bonus Alter Malus he that is the merciful God is his good God and he that is so just but just is an ill God Hence they came to call the God of the New Testament a good God because there was Copiosa Redemptio plentiful Redemption in the Gospel and the God of the Old Testament Malum Deum an ill God
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
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
Prayers Sermons Sacraments which are the Engines and Ammunition which God hath put into our hands though they have a blessed and a powerful operation and produce heavenly effects where they may have entrance in this habitual sinners can have none Some things therefore some great things every man must depart with before he can come to the God of pure eyes Abac. 1.13 When the heart is emptied of infidelity and of those habits of sin that filled it when it is come to a discontinuance and a detestation of those sins then we can better look into every corner and endeavor to keep it clean clean in that measure that the God of pure eyes will vouchsafe to look upon it and the light of his countenance will perfect the work The diligence required on our part is a serious watchfulness and consideration of our particular actions how small soever In the Law whatsoever was unclean to eat made a man unclean to touch it when it was dead Though the body of sin have so far received a deadly wound in thee as that thou hast discontinued some habitual sin some long time yet if thou touch upon the memory of that dead sin with delight thou begettest a new childe of sin 65.20 And as Esai speaks of a childe and of a sinner of an hundred years old so every sin into which we relapse is born an hundred years old it hath all the age of that sin which we had repented and discontinued before upon it it is born an Adam in full strength the first minute born a Giant born a Devil and possesses us in an instant Every man may observe that a sin of relapse is sooner upon him then the same sin was at the first attempting him at first he had more bashfulness more tenderness more colluctation against the sin then upon a relapse And therefore in this survey of sin thy first care must be to take heed of returning top diligently to a remembrance of those delightful sins which are past for that will endanger new And in many cases it is safer to do as God himself is said to do to tie up our sins in a bundle and cast them into the sea so for us to present our sins in general to God and to cast them into the bottomless sea of the infinite mercies of God in the infinite merits of Christ Jesus then by an over-diligent enumeration of sins of some kindes or by too busie a contemplation of those circumstances which encreased our sinful delignt then when we committed those sins to commit them over again by a fresh delight in their memory When thou hast truly repented them and God hath forgotten them do thou forget them too The pureness and cleanness of heart which we must love was evidently represented in the old Law and in the practise of the Jews who took knowledge of so many uncleannesses they reckon almost fifty sorts of uncleannesses to which there belonged particular expiations of which some were hardly to be avoided in ordinary conversation As to enter into the Courts of Justice for the Jews that led Christ into the common Hall would not enter lest they should be defiled Jo. 18.28 Yea some things defiled them which it had been unnatural to have left undone as for the son to assist at his fathers Funeral and yet even these required an expiation For these though they had not the nature of sin but might be expiated without any inward sorrow or repentance by outward ablutions by ceremonial washings within a certain time prescribed by the Law yet if that time were negligently and inconsiderately overslipt then they became sins and then they could not be expiated but by a more solemn and a more costly way by sacrifice And even before they came to that whilst they were but uncleannesses and not sins yet even then they made them incapable of eating the Paschal Lamb. So careful was God in the Law and the Jews in their practise for these outward things to preserve this pureness this cleanness even in things which were not fully sins So also must he that affects this pureness of heart and studies the preserving of it sweep down every cobweb that hangs about it Scurrile and obscene language yea mis-interpretable words such as may bear an ill sense pleasureable conversation and all such little entanglings which though he think too weak to hold him yet they foul him And let him that is subject to these smaller sins remember that as a spider builds always where he knows there is most access and haunt of flies so the Devil that hath cast these light cobwebs into thy heart knows that that heart is made of vanities and levities and he that gathers into his treasure whatsoever thou wast'st out of thine how negligent soever thou be he keeps thy reckoning exactly and will produce against thee at last as many lascivious glaunces as shall make up an Adultery as many covetous wishes as shall make up a Robery as many angry words as shall make up a Murder and thou shalt have dropt and crumbled away thy soul with as much irrecoverableness as if thou hadst poured it out all at once and thy merry sins thy laughing sins shall grow to be crying sins even in the ears of God and though thou drown thy soul here drop after drop it shall not burn spark after spark but have all the fire and all at once and all eternally in one intire and intense torment For as God for our capacity is content to be described as one of us and to take our passions upon him and be called angry and sorry and the like so is he in this also like us that he takes it worse to be slighted to be neglected to be left out then to be actually injur'd Our inconsideration our not thinking of God in our actions offends him more then our sins We know that in Nature and in Art the strongest bodies are compact of the least particles because they shut best and lie closest together so be the strongest habits of sin compact of sins which in themselves are least because they are least perceived they grow upon us insensibly and they cleave unto us inseparably And I should make no doubt of recovering him sooner that had sinned long against his conscience though in a great sin then him that had sinned less sins without any sense or conscience of those sins for I should sooner bring the other to a detestation of his sin then bring this man to a knowledge that that that he did was sin But if thou could'st consider that every sin is a Crucifying of Christ and every sin is a precipitation of thy self from a Pinacle were it a convenient phrase to say in every little sin that thou would'st Crucifie Christ a little or break thy neck a little Beloved there is a power in grace upon thy repentance to wash away thy greatest sins that 's the true the proper Physick of
another Religion and Prudence As that love which Christ bare to St. John who lay in his bosome towards whom Christ had certainly other humane and affectionate respects then he had to the rest made him not the less fit to be an Apostle and an Evangelist nor the great Office of Apostleship made him not unfit for that love that Christ bare him so both these endowments Pureness of heart and Grace of lips are not only compatible but necessary to him to whom the King shall be a friend And both these doth God require if we consider the force of the Original words when he says Bring ye men of wisdom and known among the Tribes and I will make them Rulers over you For Deut 1.13 that addition known among the Tribes excludes reserv'd men proud and inaccessible men though God do not intend there popular men yet he does intend men acceptable to the people And when David comes to a lustration to a sifting of his Family as he says He that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me expressing in that this Pureness so intending to speak of this Grace of lips Psal 101.6 which is an ability to be useful to others for which nothing makes a man more unfit then Pride and harshness and hardness of access he scarce knows how to express himself and his indignation against such a man Him says he that hath a proud look and a high heart I cannot and there he ends abruptly He does not say v. 5. I cannot work upon him I cannot mend him I cannot pardon him I cannot suffer him but only I cannot and no more I cannot tell what to do with him I cannot tell what to say of him and therefore I give him over Him that hath a proud look and a high heart I cannot Whatsoever his grace of lips be how good soever his parts he doth not only want the principal part Pureness of heart but he cannot be a fit instrument of that most blessed union between Prince and Subject if his proud look and harsh behavior make him unacceptable to honest men It was says the Orator to the Emperor Theodosius Execratio postrema an Execration and an expressing of their indignation beyond which they could not go when speaking of Tarquin Libidine praecipitem Avaritia caecum furore vaecordem crudelitate immanem vocarunt superbum They thought it enough to call a man that was licentious and covetous and furious and bloody proud Et putaverunt sufficere convitium they thought themselves sufficiently revenged upon him for all their grievances and that they had said as much as any Orator in an Invective any Poet in a Satyr could say when they had imprinted that name upon his memory Tarquin the Proud To those therefore that have insinuated themselves into the friendship of the King without these two endowments If the King hath always Christ for his example Matth. 22.12 if he say to them Amice quomodo intrasti Friend how came you in If you had not this wedding garment on or if this wedding garment were not your own but borrowed by an Hypocritical dissimulation Amice quomodo intrasti though you be never so much my friend in never so near place to me I must know how you got in for I have but two doors indeed not two doors but a gate and a wicket a greater and an inferior way A religious heart and useful parts if you have not these if you fear not God and if you study not as I do the welfare of my people you are not come in at my gate that is Religion nor at my wicket that is the good of my people And therefore how near so ever you be crept I must have a review an inquiry to know quomodo intrasti how you came in But for those which have these two endowments Religion and care of the publick we have the word of the King of Kings of God himself in the mouth of the wisest King King Solomon The King shall be his friend And the King hath Christ himself still for his example Who loved them whom he loved to the end For as long as the reason upon which he grounds his word remains Demesthenes Regis verbum Regi Rex est the Kings word the Kings love the Kings favor Regi Rex est is a King upon the King and bindes him to his word as well as his subjects are bound to him To recollect and fasten these pieces these be the benefits of this pureness of heart and grace of lips first That the King shall take an immediate and personal knowledge of him and not be misled by false characters or false images of him by any breath that would blast him in the Kings ear And then tnat he shall take it to be his Royal Office and Christian duty to do so that to those men whom he findes so qualified he shall be a friend in all those acceptations of the word in our Text Amabit he shall love them impart his affections to them Sociabit he shall associate them to him and impart his consultations unto them And Sociabit again He shall go along with them and accompany their labors and their services by the seal of his countenance and ratification And Docebit He shall instruct them clearly in his just pleasure without intangling or snaring them in perplexities by ambiguous directions This is the capacity required to be religious and useful this is the preferment assured The King shall be his friend and this is the compass of our Text. Now Beloved as we are able to interpret some places of the Revelation better then the Fathers could do Accommodatio ad Diem because we have seen the fulfilling of some of the Prophecies of that Book which they did but conjecture upon so we can interpret and apply this Text by way of accommodation the more usefully because we have seen these things performed by those Princes whom God hath set over us We need not that Edict of the Senate of Rome Ut sub titulo gratiarum agendarum That upon pretence of thanking our Princes for that which we say they had done Boni principes quae facerent recognoscerent Good Princes should take knowledge what they were bound to do though they had not done so yet We need not this Circuit nor this disguise for Gods hand hath been abundant towards us in raising Ministers of State so qualified and so endowed and such Princes as have fastned their friendships and conferred their favors upon such persons We celebrate seasonably opportunely the thankful acknowledgment of these mercies this day This day which God made for us according to the pattern of his first days in the Creation where Vesper mane dies unus the evening first and then the morning made up the day for here the saddest night and the joyfullest morning that ever the daughters of this Island saw made up this day Consider the tears of
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
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
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