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
heare not because God speaks not loud enough but because we stop our eares nor that neyther for wee doe hear but because we do not hearken then nor consider no nor that neyther but because we doe not answere nor cooperate nor assist God in doing that which he hath made us able to doe by his grace towards our own Salvation For not to judge De iis qui foris sunt of those whom God hath left fot any thing we know in the darke and without meanes of Salvation because without manifestation of Christ we are Christians incorporated in Christ in his Church and thereby by that Title we have a new Creation and are new creatures and as wee shall have a new Jerusalem hereafter so we have a new Paradise already which is the Christian Church In this Paradise saith St. Augustine Quatuor Evangelia ligna fructifera In the books of the Gospell as they grow and as they are suplicated in the Church growes every Tree pleasant for the sight and good for meat And there sayes that Father lignum vitae Christus Christ Jesus himself as he is taught hee that gives life to all our actions and even so our faith it self which faith qualifies and dignifies those actions And then sayes from the Scriptures in the Church is the Tree of Life for it is he As Christ alone in this Paradise that is the christian Church is this Tree of life so lignum scientiae boni mali The Tree of knowledg of Good and Evill is Proprium voluntatis arbitrium the good use of our own Will after God hath enlightned us in this Paradise in the Christian Church and so restor'd our dead will again by his Grace precedent and subsequent and concommitant for without such Grace and such succession of Grace our Will is so far unable to pre-dispose it selfe to any good as that nec scipso homo nisi perniciose uti potest sayes he still we have no interest in our selves no power to doe any thing of or with our selves but to our destruction Miserable man a Toad is a bag of Poyson and a Spider is a blister of Poyson and yet a Toad and a Spider cannot poyson themselves Man hath a dram of poyson originall-Sin in an invisible corner we know not where and he cannot choose but poyson himselfe and all his actions with that we are so far from being able to begin without Grace as then where we have the first Grace we cannot proceed to the use of that without more But yet sayes Saint Augustine The Will of a Christian so rectified and so assisted the lignum scientiae the Tree of knowledge and he shall be the worse for knowing if he live not according to that knowledg we were all wrapped up in the first Adam all Mankind and we are wrapped up in the second Adam in Christ all Mankinde too but not in both alike for we are so in the first Adam as that we inherit death from him and incurre death whether we will or no before any consent of ours be actually given to any Sin we are the children of wrath and of death but we are not so in the second Adam as that we are made possessors of eternall life without the concurrence of our own Will not that our will payes one penny towards this purchase but our own will may forfeit it it cannot adopt us but it may disinherit us Now by being planted in this Paradise and received into the Christian Church we are the adopted sons of God and therefore as it is in Christ who is the naturall Son of God Qui non nascitur desinit as Origen expresses it He was not born once and no more but hath a continual because an eternall generation and is as much begotten to day as he was 100. 1000. 1000 millions of generations passed so since we are the generation and of-spring of God since Grace is our Father that Parent that begets all goodness in us In similitudine ejus sayes Origen conformable to the Pattern Christ himself Qui non nascitur desinit who hath a continuall generation Generemur Domino per singulos intellectus singula opera in all the acts of our understanding and in a ready concurrence of our Will let us every day every minute feele this new generation of spirituall children for it is a miserable short life to have been borne when the glasse was turned and dyed before it was run out to have conceived some good Motions at the beginning and to have given over all purpose of practise at the end of a Sermon Let us present our own will as a mother to the father of light and the father of life and the father of love that we may be willing to conceive by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost and not resist his working upon our Soules but with the obedience of the blessed Virgin may say Ecce ancilla Behold the seruant of the Lord fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum Be it done unto me according to thy Word I will not stop mine eares to thy Word my heart shall not doubt of thy word my life shall expresse my having heard and harkened to thy word that word which is the Gospell that Gospell which is peace to my Conscience and reconciliation to my God and Salvation to my Soul for hearing is but the conception meditation is but the quickning purposing is but the byrth but practising is the growth of this blessed childe Fidelis The Gospell then that which is the Gospell to thee that is the assurance of the peace of Conscience is grounded in sermone upon the word not upon imaginations of thine owne not upon fancies of others nor pretended inspirations nor obtruded Miracles but upon the word and not upon a suspicious and questionable not upon an uncertain or variable word but upon this that is fidelis sermo This is a faithfull saying It is true that this Apostle seemes to use this phrase of speech as an earnest asseveration and a band for divers truths in other places He saies sometimes This is a true saying and This is a faithfull saying when he does not meane that it is the word of God but only intends to induce a morall certitude when he would have good credit to be given to that which followes he uses to say so fidelis sermo it is a true it is a faithfull saying But in all those other places where he uses this phrase he speaks only of some particular duties or of some particular point of Religion but here he speaks of the whole body of Divinity of the whol Gospell That Christ is come to save Sinners and therefore more may be intended by this phrase here then in other places When hee speaks of that particular point The Resurrection he uses this phrase It is a true saying If we be dead with him we shall also live with him 2 Tim. 2.11 when he would invite men to godlinesse
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
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