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
speake against it so neither should wee doe any thing against it as wee are bound to receive it by acknowledgment so wee are bound to approve it by conforming our selves unto it our consent to it shewes our acceptation our life our approbation and so much is in the first Part the Roote This is a faithfull Word and worthy of all acceptation And in the Second the Tree the Body the substance of the Gospell That Jesus Christ is come into the World to save Sinners First here is an Advent a coming of a new Person into the World who was not here before venit in mundum hee came into the World And secondly hee that came is first Christ a mixt Person God and Man and thereby capable of that Office able to reconcile God and Man And Christus so to a person anoynted appointed and sent for that purpose to reconcile God and Man And then hee is Jesus one did actually and really doe the office of a Saviour hee did reconcile God and Man for there wee see also the Reason why hee came Hee came to Save and whom hee came to Save to save Sinners And these will bee the branches and lymbs of this Body And then lastly when wee come to consider the fruit which is indeede the seede and kernell and soul of all virtues Humility then wee shall meete the Apostle confessing himselfe to bee the greatest Sinner not only with a fui that hee was so whilest he was a Persecutor but with a present sum that even now after hee had received the faithfull Word the light of the Gospell yet hee was still the greatest Sinner of which Sinners I though an Apostle am am still the chiefest First then the Gospell is founded and rooted in sermone Part 1. in verbo in the Word it cannot deserve omnem acceptationem if it bee not Gospell and it is not Gospell if it be not in sermone rooted in the Word Christ himselfe as he hath an eternall Generation is verbum Dei Himselfe is the Word of God And as he hath a humane Generation he is subjectum verbi Dei the subject of the Word of God of all the Scriptures of all that was shadowed in the Types and figur'd in the Ceremonies and prepared in the preventions of the Law of all that was foretold by the Prophets of all that the Soule of man rejoyced in and congratulated with the Spirit of God in the Psalms and in the Canticles and in the cheerefull parts of spirituall joy and exultation which we have in the Scriptures Christ is the foundation of all those Scriptures Christ is the burden of all those Songs Christ was in sermone then then he was in the Word The joy of those holy Persons which are noted in the Scriptures to have expressed their joy at the byrth of Christ in such spirituall Hymns and Songs is expressed so as that we may see their joy was in this That that was now in actu that was performed that was done which was before in sermone in the Promise in the Word in the Covenant of God They rejoyced that Christ was borne but principally that all was done so sicut locutus as God had spoken before that all should be done done of the seede of a Woman as God had said in Paradice done by a Virgin as God had said by Esai done at Bethlehem as he had said by Micheas and done at that time as he had said by Daniel Sicut locutus est sayes Zacharie in his exultation All is performed as he hath spoke by the mouth of the Prophets which have beene since the World began There in the Word the Gospell begins and there and there only it shall continue for ever as long as there is any spirituall seed of Abraham any men willing to embrace it and apply it as the blessed Virgin expresses it when her Soul magnifies the Lord and her Spirit rejoyces in God her Saviour sicut locutus as God hath spoken to our Fathers to Abraham and his seed for ever so then there never was there never must be any other Gospel then is in sermone in the written word of God in the Scriptures The particular comfort that a Christian conceives as it is determined and contracted in himself is principally in this that Christ is come his comfort is in this that he is now saved by him and he might have this comfort though Christ had never been in sermone though he had never been prophesied never spoken of before But yet the proof and ground of this comfort to himself that is the assurance that he hath That this was that Christ that was to save us and then the munition and artillery by which he is to overthrow the forces of the enemy the arguments and objections of Jews Gentils and Hereticks who deny this Christ in whose salvation he trusts to have then any such Saviour And then the Band of the Church the Communion of Saints by which we should prove That the Patriarchs and the Apostles our Fathers in the old and new Testament doe belong all to one Church this assurance in our self this ability to prove it to others this joyning of these two walls to make up the houshold of the faithfull This is not only that that the summe of the Gospel is risen in that Christ is come but in this that he is come sicut locutus est as God had spoken of him and promised him by the mouth of his Prophets from the beginning as he was in sermone in the word In the first Creation when God made heaven and earth that making was not in sermone for that could not be prophesied before because there was no being before neither is it said that at that Creation God said any thing but only creavit God made heaven and earth and no men so that that which was made sine sermone without speaking was only matter without form heaven without light and earth without any productive virtue or disposition to bring forth and to nourish creatures But when God came to those specifique formes and to those creatures wherein he would be sensibly glorified after they were made in sermone by his word Dixit facta sunt God spake and so all things were made Light and Firmament Land and Sea Plants and Beasts and Fishes and Fowls were made all in sermone by his word But when God came to the best of his creatures to Man Man was not only made in verbo as the rest were by speaking a word but by a Consultation by a Conference by a Counsell faciamus hominem let us make Man there is a more expresse manifestation of divers persons speaking together of a concurrence of the Trinity and not of a saying only but a mutuall saying not of a Proposition only but of a Dialogue in the making of Man The making of matter alone was sine verbo without any word at all the making of lesser creatures was in verbo
the sinner so vehemently so pathetically in that catalogue of Comminations and Interminations in that place if all these were never brought into execution we should say at best of those Laws and judgements of God as the Romane Lawyer did of that severe Law of the Twelve Tables by which Law he that was indebted to many men and not able to pay was to be cut in pieces and divided proportionably amongst his Creditors Eo consilio tanta immanitas poenae denuatiata est ne ad eam unquam perveniretur Therefore so grievous a punishment was inflicted that that Law might never come to execution for from the enacting of that Law to the last times in that government there was never any example of one execution of that Law so we should say That God laid those severe penalties upon sins onely to deter men from doing them and not with any purpose to inflict those penalties In Laws to the making whereof there concurs besides the authority of the Prince the counsel and the consent of the Subject there are sometimes Laws made without any purpose of ordinary execution of which the Civil Wisdom and the Religious Conscience and the godly Moderation of the Prince is made a Depository and a Feoffee in trust and those Laws are onely put into his hands as a Bridle the better to rule and govern that great Charge committed to him in emergent necessities though not in an ordinary execution of those penal Laws But who was a counsellor to God or who inserted any Provisoes or Nonobstante's into his Laws or who conditioned them with any such reservations that they should have no ordinary execution And therefore an ordinary execution they have always had The reason why they are sometimes and why they are not always executed St. Chrysostome hath assign'd Si nullus puniretur nemo existimaret Deum pre-esse rebus humanis si omnes nemo expectaret futuram resurrectionem If God should punish no sins here no man would believe a God and if God should presently punish all here no man would be afraid of a future judgement There the obdurate man may finde a reason of the manner of Gods proceeding in the execution of his judgements And if he dare stand the arguing of this case out of Precedent out of Record out of the history of God in his Word he must hear heavie judgments denounced and executed in cases where he would hardly discern any sin to have been committed at least no sin proportionable to that punishment Act. 5. If he were in the case of Ananias and Sapphira of having reserv'd a little of their own whatsoever should befal he would never see Counsel nor petition the judge never apprehend danger in this case and yet God declared by the mouth of Peter that Satan had filled their hearts and that they had lyed to the holy Ghost and a heavie judgement of present death was executed upon them both If he had been of the Jury for that man of God who 1 Reg. 13. though God had forbidden him to eat and drink in that place yet when an old Prophet came to him and told him that God had spoken to him by an Angel that he should go with him and eat did go and eat with him he would have acquitted him of any offence herein and yet Gods judgment overtook him and he was slain by a lion But if he will hear the case of Saul 1 Sam. 15. who did but reserve some of the spoil and that purchased with the bloud of the people and that pretended to be reserved for Gods service for sacrifice and yet Saul heard that judgement Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and transgression is idolatry because thou hast cast away the word of the Lord therefore he hath cast thee away from being king Jos 7. If he will hear Achan's case who had taken an excommunicate thing to his own use and the heavie judgement thereupon Inasmuch as thou hast troubled us the Lord shall trouble thee this day and so all Israel stoned him If he will hear Helie's case 1 Sam. 4. against whom onely for indulgence to his sons God prepar'd and studied and meditated judgements and threatned beforehand when he said to Samuel Behold I will do a thing in Israel whereof whosoever shall hear his two ears shall tingle and so soon after upon the heavie news that Israel was discomfited that the Ark was taken 2 Sam. 6. that his two sons were slain Heli fell from his seat and broke his neck and died If he remember Oziah's case who for putting his hand to the Ark when it was ready to fall felt the wrath of God and died in the place If he study all this Title of Gods heavie judgements upon sins not great in the outward appearance and then come to them by the consideration of the nature of the first sin of our first parents Adam and Eve and findes there such a lightness in that sin of eating forbidden fruit that he durst do it if it were to do again as though it were no more to disobey God when he forbade the eating of fruit then to disobey his Physician in that point and yet shall see the heavie judgement of God upon all posterity for that sin which he esteems so small a one to extend so far as that all his particular sins even this very sin of undervaluing Adam's sin and his very sin of obduration is but a punishment of Adam's sin If he shall climb by this ladder to the highest step of all from Adam in paradise to the Angels in heaven and see that in those Angels a sin onely of Omission of a not turning toward God for there was no creature then to turn upon in so pure Natures and done but once was so heavily punished as that the bloud of Christ Jesus hath not washed it away certainly the hardness the flintiness of this obdurate sinner must necessarily be so much mollified so much entendred as to confess that he can make no good argument out of that That the judgements of God are not executed Speedily But yet howsoever that be they are not executed speedily How desperate a state art thou in if nothing will convert thee but a speedie execution after which there is no possibility no room left for a Conversion God is the Lord of hosts and he can proceed by Martial Law he can hang thee upon the next tree he can choak thee with a crum with a drop at a voluptuous feast he can sink down the Stage and the Player The bed of wantonness and the wanton actor into the jaws of the earth into the mouth of hell he can surprise thee even in the act of sin and dost thou long for such a speedy execution for such an expedition Thou canst not lack Examples that he hath done so upon others and will no proof serve thee but a speedy judgement upon thy self Scatter thy thoughts no farther
shall be stability of thy times strength salvation wisdom and knowledge for the fear of the Lord shall be thy treasure It is our supply if we should fear want and it is our reason that we cannot fear want for he that fears God fears nothing else As therefore the Holy Ghost hath placed the beginning of wisdom in this fear so hath he the consummation and perfection of this wisdom even in the perfect pattern of all wisdom Esai 11.3 in the person of Christ himself The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon thee the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and of might the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of God For without this fear there is no courage no confidence no assurance And therefore Christ begun his Passion with a fear in his Agony Tristis anima My soul his heavie but that fear delivered him over to a present conformity to the will of God in his Veruntamen Yet not my will but thine be done And he ended his Passion with a fear Eli Eli My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and that fear deliver'd him over to a present assurance In manus tuas Domine confidently to commend his spirit into his hands whom he seem'd to be afraid of Since then the Holy Ghost whose name is Love since God who is Love it self disposes us to this fear we may see in that That neither God himself nor those of whom God said Ye are gods that is all those who have Authority over others can be lov'd so as they should except they be fear'd so as they should be too If you take away due Fear you take away true Love Even that fear of God which we use to call servile fear which is but an apprehension of punishment and is not the noblest the perfectest kinde of fear yet it is a fear which our Saviour counsels us to entertain Matth. 10. Fear him that can cast soul and body into hell even that fear is some beginning of wisdom That fear Job had use of when he said 31. Quid faciam cum surrexerit ad judicandum Deus Here I may lay hold upon means of Restitution but when the Lord shall raise himself to judgement how shall I stand So also had David use of this fear Psal 119. A judiciis tuis timui However I was ever confident in thy mercy yet I was in fear of thy judgement It is that fear which St. Basil directs us to upon those words Psal 33. Timorem Domini docebo vos I will teach you the fear of the Lord Cogita profundum barathrum To learn to fear God he sends us to the meditation of the torments of hell And so it is that fear which wrought that effect in St. Hierome Ego ob Gehennae metum carcere isto me damnavi For fear of that execution I have shut my self up in this prison for fear of perishing in the next world I banish my self from this There is a beginning there is a great degree of wisdom even in this fear Now as the fear of Gods punishments disposes us to love him so that fear which the Magistrate imprints by the execution of his Laws establishes that love which preserves him from all disestimation and irreverence for whom the Enemy does not fear the Subject does not love As no Peace is safe enough where there is no thought of War so the love of man towards God and those who represent him is not permanently setled if there be not a reverential fear a due consideration of greatness a distance a distinction a respect of Rank and Order and Majestie If there be not a little fear by Justice at home and by power and strength abroad mingled in it it is not that love which God requires to be first directed upon himself and then reflected upon his Stewards and Vice-gerents for as every Society is not Friendship so every Familiarity is not Love But to conclude As he will be fear'd so he will be fear'd no otherwise then as he is God Non timuerunt Deum is the increpation of the Text They feared not God It is timor Dei and not timor Jehovae God is not here expressed by the name of Jehovah that unexpressible and unutterable that incomprehensible and unimaginable name of Jehovah God calls not upon us to be consider'd as God in himself but as God towards us not as he is in heaven but as he works upon earth And here not in the School but in the Pulpit not in Disputation but in Application It is not timor Jehovae nor it is not timor Adonai God does not call himself in this place The Lord for to be Lord to be proprietary of all this is potestas tam utendi quam abutendi It gives the Lord of that thing power to do absolutely what he will with that which is his And so God as absolute Lord may damn without respect of sin if he will and save without respect of faith if he will But God is pleased to proceed with us according to that Contract which he hath made with us and that Law which he hath given to us in those two Tables Tantummodo crede Onely believe and thy faith shall save thee and Fac hoc vives Live well and thy good works shall make sure thy salvation Lastly God does not call himself here Dominum exercituum The Lord of hosts God would not onely be consider'd and serv'd by us when he afflicts us with any of his swords Famine War Pestilence Malice or the like but the fear requir'd here is to fear him as God and as God presented in this name Elohim which though it be a name primarily rooted in power and strength for El is Deus fortis The powerful God and as there is no love without fear so there is no fear without power yet properly it signifies his Judgment and Order and Providence and Dispensation and Government of his creatures It is that name which goes thorow all Gods whole work of the Creation and disposition of all creatures in the first of Genesis in all that he is call'd by no other name then this the name God not by Jehovah to present an infinite Majestie nor by Adonai to present an absolute power nor by Tzebaoth to present a Force or Conquest but onely in the name of God his name of Government All ends in this To fear God is to adhere to him in his way as he hath dispensed and notified himself to us that is as God is manifested in Christ in the Scriptures and applied to us out of those Scriptures by the Church not to rest in Nature without God nor in God without Christ nor in Christ without the Scriptures nor in our private interpretation of Scripture without the Church Almighty God fill us with these fears these reverences that we may reverence him who shall at last bring us where there shall be no more
not Jesus till he began to submit himself to the Law for us which was first in his circumcision when he took the name of Jesus and began to shed some drops of blood for us The name of Jesus was no new name when he took it we find some of that name in the Scriptures and in Josephus we find one officer that was his enemy and another a great robber who lighted upon Josephus more then once of that name and yet the Prophet Esai saies of Christ St. Cyril 62.2 interprets those words of this particular man Jesus thou shalt be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shal name And how was this a new name by which so many had been called before The newness was not in that that none other had had that name but that the Son of God had not that name till he began to execute the office of a Saviour Esa 4.2 â— He was called Germen Jehovae the bud of Jehova before and he was called the Counselor and the wonderful and the Prince of peace by the same Prophet But it is the observation of Origen and of Lactantius after and it appears in the text it self That Moses never cals Oshea the son of Nun Joshuah which is the very name of Jesus till he was made General Num. 13.17 to deliver and save his people so what names soever were attribu to the Son of God before the name of Jesus was a new name to him then when he began the work of salvation in his circumcision Take hold therefore of his name Emanuel as God is with us as there is a person fit to reconcile God and man and take hold of him as he is Christus a person sealed and anointed for that reconciliation But above all be sure of thy hold upon the name Jesus thy Saviour This was his name when he was carried to the Altar to circumcision and this was his name when he carried his Altar the Cross this was his stile there Jesus Nazarenus Jesus of Nazareth and in the virtue of that name he shall give thee a circumcised heart and circumcised lips in the course of thy life and in the virtue of that name he shall give thee a joyful consummatum est when thou comest to finish all upon thy last Altar thy death-bed Servare Now from this consideration of the person so far as arose out of his several names we pass to his action He was able to redeem man He was sent to redeem man He did redeem man How Servavit He came to save And here also is that word which as we said before is above expressing for the word which we content our selves with To save implies but a preserving from falling into ruine but we were absolutely fal'n before The word signifies salutem dare medici and it signifies salutem esse and Christ is truly both both the Physitian and the Physick 9. 13. But how is it ministred we see his method is in St. Matth. veni vocare I came to call his way is a voice now vocat non cogit God doth but call us he does not constrain us He does not drive us into a pound He cals us as Birds do their young and he would gather us as a Hen doth her Chickins It is true there is a Trahit but there is no cogit no man comes to me saies Christ except the Father draw him But Joh 6 44. non inviti trahimur non inviti credimus saies St. Augustine God draws no man against his will no man believes in God against his will non adhibitus violentia sed voluntas exitatur saies the same Father God only excites and exalts our will but he does not force it He makes use of that of the Poet Trahit sua quemque voluptas our carnal desires draw us but this drawing is not a constraining for then we should not be commanded to resist them nor to fight against them for no man will bid me do so against a Cannon bullet that comes with an inevitable and irresistible violence now August habet sensus suas voluptates animus deseritur a suis shall our carnal affections draw us though they do not force us and shall not Grace do the same office too shall we still trust to such a power or such a measure of that Grace at last as that we shall not be able to resist but shall convert us whether we will or no and never concur willingly with Gods present grace Draw me and I will run after thee saies the Spouse Cant. 1.4 she was called before now she awakens and she does not say draw me and so I shall be screwd up unto thee and lay all upon the force of grace but draw me and I will run she promises an application and concurrence on her part So then venit salvare is venit vocare He came to save by calling us as an eloquent and a perswasive man draws his Auditory but yet imprints no necessity upon the faculty of the will so works Gods calling of us in his word God expresses it fully in the Prophet Hose 11.3 I sought Ephraim to go we are not able to go to rise to move without him But how did he teach him I took them by their arms God made use of their faculties which faculties are the limbs of the Soul so he enlightned their understanding and he rectified their will but still their underding and their will I draw them saies God their But how and with what With cords of man saies he and with bands of love with the cords of man the voice of the Minister and the power which Gods Ordinance hath infused into that and with the band of love that is of the Gospel so proposed unto us and as it is added there I took off the yoke from their jaws and I laid meat before them God takes off our yoke the weight of our sins and the indisposition of our natural infirmities and he laies meat before us the Word and the Sacraments in his Church So that his venit salvare is venit solvere solvere that is to pay our debt in his death and solvere that is to unty our bands and by his grace to make our natural faculties formerly bound up in a corrupt inhability to do so now able to concurre with him and cooperate to good actions He prepared and he prescribed this physick for man August when he was upon earth etiam cum occideretur medicus erat then when he died he became our physitian medici sanguinem fundunt ille de ipso sanguine medicamenta facit other Physitians draw our blood He makes physick of blood and of his own blood So he came to save in preparing and prescribing and he came to save in applying when by the preaching of his word Joseph who is in the well and Jeremy who is in the Dungeon do as much as they can for
kindled Num. 11.15 there and only their doth Moses attribute even to God himself the feminine sex and speaks to God in the original language as if he should have call'd him Deam Iratam an angry she God all that is good then either in the love of man or woman is in this love for he is expressed in both sexes man and woman and all that can be ill in the love of either sex is purged away for the man is no other man then Christ Jesus and the woman no other woman then wisdom her self even the uncreated wisdom of God himself Now all this is but one person the person that professes love who is the other who is the beloved of Christ is not so easily discern'd in the love between persons in this world and of this world we are often deceived with outward signs we often mis-call and mis-judg civil respects and mutual courtesies and a delight in one anothers conversation and such other indifferent things as only malignity and curiosity and self-guiltiness makes to be misinterpretable we often call these love but neither amongst our selves much less between Christ and our selves are these outward appearances alwaies signs of love This person then this beloved soul is not every one to whom Christ sends a loving message or writs too for his letters his Scriptures are directed to all not every one he wishes well to and swears that he does so for so he doth to all As I live saith the Lord I would not the death of a Sinner not every one that he sends jewels and presents to for they are often snares to corrupt as well as arguments of love not though he admit them to his table and supper for even there the Devil entred into Judas with a sop not though he receive them to a kiss for even with that familarity Judas betrayed him not though he betroth himself as he did to the Jews Osc 2.14 sponsabo te mihi in aeternum not though he make jointures in pacto salis in a covenant of salt an everlasting covenant not though he have communicated his name to them which is an act of marriage for to how many hath he said ego dixit Dii estis I have said you are Gods and yet they have been reprobates not all these outward things amount so far as to make us discern who is this beloved person for himself saies of the Israelites to whom he had made all these demonstrations of love yet after for their abominations devorc'd himself from them I have forsaken mine house Jer. 12.7 I have left mine own heritage I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies To conclude this person beloved of Christ is only that soul that loves Christ but that belongs to the third branch of this first part which is the mutual love The Affection but first having found the person we are to consider the affection it self the love of this text it is an observation of Origens that though these three words Amor Dilectio and Charitas love and affection and good will be all of one signification in the sctiptures yet saies he wheresoever there is danger of representing to the fancy a lascivious and carnal love the scripture forbears the word love and uses either affection or good will and where there is no such danger the scripture comes directly to this word love of which Origens examples are that when Isaac bent his affections upon Rebecca and Jacob upon Rachel in both places it is dilexit and not amavit Cant 5.8 and when it is said in the Cant. I charge you Daughters of Jerusalem to tell my well-beloved it is not to tel him that she was in love but to tell him quod vulneratae charitatis sum that I am wounded with an affection good will towards him but in this book of Pro. in all the passages between Christ and the beloved soul there is evermore a free use of this word Amor love because it is even in the first apprehension a pure a chast and an undefiled love Eloquia Dominis casta sayes David All the words of the Lord and all their words that love the Lord all discourses all that is spoken to or from the soul is all full of chast love and of the love of chastity Now though this love of Christ to our souls be too large to shut up or comprehend in any definition yet if we content our selves with the definition of the Schools Amare est velle alicui quod bonum est love is nothing but a desire that they whom we love should be happy we may easily discern the advantage and profit which we have by this love in the Text when he that wishes us this good by loving us is author of all good himself and may give us as much as pleases him without impairing his own infinite treasure He loves us as his ancient inheritance as the first amongst his creatures in the creation of the world which he created for us He loves us more as his purchase whom he hath bought with his blood for even man takes most pleasure in things of his own getting But he loves us most for our improvement when by his ploughing up of our hearts and the dew of his grace and the seed of his word we come to give greaâ—â—r cent in the fruit of sanctification than before And since he loves â—s thus and that in him this love is velle bonum a desire that his beloved should be happy what soul amongst us shall doubt that when God hath such an abundant and infinite treasure as the merit and passion of Christ Jesus sufficient to save millions of worlds and yet many millions in this world all the heathen excluded from any interest therein when God hath a kingdome so large as that nothing limits it and yet he hath banished many natural subjects thereof even those legions of Angels which were created in it and are fallen from it what soul amongst us shall doubt but that he that hath thus much and loves thus much will not deny her a portion in the blood of Christ or a room in the kingdome of heaven No soul can doubt it except it have been a witness to it self and be so still that it love not Christ Jesus for that 's a condition necessary And that is the third branch to which we are come now in our order that this love be mutuall I love them c. If any man loves not our Lord Jesus let him be accursed Mutual saies the Apostle Now the first part of this curse is upon the indisposition to love he that loves not at all is first accursed That stupid inconsideration which passes on drowsilie and negligently upon Gods creatures that sullen indifferency in ones disposition to love one thing no more than another not to value not to chuse not to prefer that stoniness that in humanity not to be
the soul it is the only means to recover thee But yet wert thou not better to make this grace thy diet then thy physick Wert thou not better to nourish thy soul with this grace all the way then to hope to purge thy soul with it at last This as a Diet the Apostle prescribes thee Whether you eat or drink do all to the glory of God He intends it farther there Whatsoever you do and farther then that in another place Whatsoever ye do in deed 1 Cor. 10.31 Col. 3.17 or in word do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Since there is no action so little but God may be glorified in it there is no action so little but the Devil may have his end in it too and may overthrow thee by a tentation which thou thinkest thy self strong enough to leap over And therefore if you have not given over all love of true weights and true measures weigh and measure your particular and indifferent actions before you do them and you shall see at least grains of iniquity in them and then this advantage will you have by this preconsideration and weighing your actions before hand that when you know there is sin in that action and know that nothing can counterpoise nor weigh down sin but onely the Blood of Christ Jesus you may know too that the Blood of Christ Jesus cannot be had before hand God gives no such non-obstantes no such priviledges no leave to sin no pardon for sin before it be committed And therefore if this premeditation of this action bring thee to see that there is sin in it it must necessarily put a tenderness a horror an aversion in thee from doing that to which being thus done with this preconsideration and presumption the Blood of thy Saviour doth not appertain To all your other Wares the baser and courser they are the greater weight and measure you are content to give to the basest of all to sin you give the lightest weight and scantest measure and you supply all with the excuses of the custom of the time that the necessity of your trade forces you to it else you should be poor and poorly thought of Beloved God never puts his children to a perplexity to a necessity of doing any sin how little soever though for the avoiding of a sin as manifold as Adams It is not a little request to you to beware of little sins It is not a little request and therefore I make it in the words of the greatest to the greatest for they are all one Head and Body of Christ to his Church Cant. 2.15 Capite vulpeculas Take us the little Foxes for they devour the Vines It is not a cropping not a pilling nor a retarding of the growth of the Vines but Demoliuntur as little as those Foxes are they devour the Vines they root them out Thy Soul is not so easily devoured by that Lion 1 Pet. 5.8 Apoc. 5.5 that seeks whom he may devour for still he is put to seek and does not always finde And thou shalt hear his roaring that is thou shalt discern a great sin and the Lion of the Tribe of Judah will come in to thy succor as soon as thou callest But take heed that thy Soul be not eaten up with vermin by those little sins which thou thinkst thou canst forbear and give over when thou wilt God punished the Egyptians most by little things Hailstones and Frogs and Grashoppers and Pharaohs Sorcerers Exod. 8.16 which did greater failed in the least in Lice It is true there is Physick for this Christ Jesus that receives thy greatest sins into his Blood can receive these Vermin too into his Bowels even at last but yet still make his Grace rather thy Diet by a daily consideration before hand then thy Physick at last It is ill to take two Physicks at once bodily and ghostly Physick too upon thy Death-bed The Apothecary and the Physician do well together the Apothecary and the Priest not so well Consult with him before at least consult with thine own Conscience in those little actions which either their own nature or the custom of the time or thy course of life thy calling and the example of others in thy calling made thee think indifferent For though it may seem a degree of flattery to preach against little sins in such a City as this where greater sins do abound yet because these be the materials and elements of greater sins and it is impossible to say where a Bowl will lie that is let fall down a Hill though it be let never so gently out of the hand and there is no pureness of heart till even these Cobwebs and Crums be swept away He that affects that pureness will consider well that of St. Augustine Psal 24.4 Interest inter rectum corde mundum corde a right heart and a clean heart is not all one He may have a right heart that keeps in the right way in the profession of the right Religion but he onely keeps his heart pure that watches all his steps even in that right way St. Augustine considers that question of David Psal 24.3 Quis ascendet and quis stabit Who shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place And he applies the answer Innocens manibus mundo corde He that hath clean hands and a pure heart Thus That he that hath clean hands clean from blood clean from bribery and oppression clean from fornication and such notorious sins Ascendet in montem He shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord he shall be admitted to all the benefits that the Christian Church can give him but onely he that hath a pure heart a care to glorifie God in a holy watchfulness upon all his particular actions to the exclusion of lesser sins stabit shall stand safe confident unshaken in his holy place even in the judgment of God clean hands justifie him to men a pure heart to God And therefore this pureness of heart is here wrapped up in the richest mantle in the noblest affection that the nature of man hath that is love For this is not onely a contentment an acquiescence a satisfaction a delight in this pureness of heart but love is a holy impatience in being without it or being in a jealousie that we are without it and it is a holy fervor and vehemency in the pursuit of it and a preferring it before any other thing that can be compared to it That 's love and therefore it deserves to be insisted upon now when in our order proposed at first from the thing it self that is required pureness and the seat and center of that pureness the heart and the way of this fixation of this pureness in the heart detestation of former habits of sins and prevention of future sins in a watchful consideration of all our actions before we do them We are come to that affection
else this is their Attrition and this is their enough for salvation A sigh of the penitent a word of the Priest makes all clean and induces an absolute pureness Thus some of the Ancients went too far They would pardon no sin after Baptism These new Men go not far enough They pardon all too easily Old Physicians thought all hurts in the heart presently mortal These new Physitians can pare off some of the heart and give it to Idolatry for so they say that the worship due to God may be given to a creature so it be not Tanquam Deo as that the Creature is thereby professed to be God and yet they confess that that worship which they give to the creature is idolatry but not that Idolatry say they which is forbidden in the commandment which is that that Creature so worshipped with the worship due to God be also believed to be God and so truely I believe it will be hard to finde any Idolatry in the world That they that worship any thing in representation of God do believe advisedly that representation to be very God But the true reason why no hurt received in the heart can be healed is quia palpitat because it is in perpetual motion If the heart lay still as other parts do so that medicinal helps might be applied to it and admitted by it there were more hope Therefore when we lay such a weight upon the heart as may settle it fix it give it a reposedness and acquiescence though it do receive some wounds though it be touched with some tentations it may be cured But is there any such weight as should so settle the heart the soul of Man This love of Pureness is that weight August Amor est pondus animae sicut gravitas Corporis As the weight of my body makes that steady so this love of Pureness is the weight and the ballast of my soul and this weight stays the palpitation the variation the deviation of the heart upon other objects which variation frustrates all endeavors to cure it The love of this pureness is both the ballast and the frait to carry thee steadily and richly too through all storms and tempests spiritual and temporal in this life to the everlasting Jerusalem If you be come to this love this love of pureness of heart never to lock up your door till you have carried out your dust never to shut your eyes at night till you have swept your conscience and cast your foulness into that infinite sea of the blood of Christ Jesus which can contract no foulness by it never to open your eyes in the morning but that you look out to glorifie God in the rising of the Sun and in his other creatures and in the peace and safety of your house and family and the health of your children and servants But especially to look inward and consider whether you have not that night mingled poyson with Gods Physick whether you have not mingled sloth and laziness in that which God gave you for rest and refreshing whether you have not mingled licentiousness in that which God gave you for a remedy against fornication And then when you shall have found that sin hath been awake in you even when your bodies were asleep be sure you cast not the Spirit of God into a sleep in you when your bodies are awake but that you proceed vigilantly in your several wayes with a fore-knowledge that there is every where coluber in via A Snake in the way in every way that you can take in every course of life in every calling there is some of the seed of the old Serpent presents it self And then if by Gods infallible word explicated in his Church Psal 119.104 which is Lucerna pedibus vestris The word is the light but the Church is the Lanthorne 2 Sam. 22.29 it presents and preserves that light unto you and though it be said Lucerna Dominus Apoc. 21.23 Thou O Lord art my light God himself And Lucerna Agnus The Lamb Christ himself is your light And lucerna mandatum Prov. 6.23 John 5.35 The commandments of God are your light yet it is also said of Iohn Baptist Lucerna ardens he was a burning and a shining light The Ministry of the Gospel in the Church is your light If by the benefit of this light you consider every step you make weigh every action you undertake this is that love of Pureness that Pondus animae the setling of the heart that keeps it from evaporating upon transitory things and settles it so as that it becomes capable of that cure which God in his Church in the Absolution of sins and seals of Reconciliation exhibits to it To recollect and contract that which hath been said This pureness is not a purifying pureness to correct and reform those things that appertain not to us nor it is not such a purified pureness as makes us Canonize our selves and think others Reprobates for all this is no pureness at all neither is it the true pureness if it be not in the heart for outward good works not done to good ends are impure nor is this pureness of heart acquired by any other means then by discharging the heart in a detestation of former habits and a sedulous watchfulness in preventing future attempts nor can this pureness of heart though by these means attain'd to be preserved but by this noble and incorruptible affection of Love that puts a true value upon it and therefore prefers it above all other things And this was the first of the two marks which we found to be upon that person that should be capable of the Kings friendship He that loveth pureness of heart And the other is that he have by honest industry fitted himself in some way to be of use to the publike delivered in that phrase Grace of lips He that loveth pureness of heart There 's his honesty for the Grace of his lips There 's his sufficiency The King shall be his friend There 's his reward his preferment Gratia labiorum Ordinarily in Scriptures where this word lips is not taken naturally literally narrowly for that part of the body but transferred to a figurative and larger sense either it signifies speaking onely as in Solomon As righteous lips are the delight of Kings and the King loveth him that speaketh right things That is Him in whose Counsels Prov. 16.13 and in whose relations he may confide and rely or else it is enlarged to all manner of expressing a mans ability to do service to that State in which God hath made his station and by lips and fruits of lips is well understood the fruit of all his good labors and endeavors And so may those words be well interpreted With the fruit of a mans mouth shall his belly be satisfied and with the encrease of his lips shall he be filled 18.20 That is his honest labors in a lawful calling shall
Declaration of an inward purpose by execution of that purpose that his Dixit his saying R. Moses It is sufficiently expressed by Rab Moses In Creatione Dicta sunt voluntates In the act of Creation the Will of GOD was the Word of God his Will that it should be was his saying Let it be Of which it is a convenient example which is in the Prophet Jonah 2.10 The Lord spake unto the Fish and it vomited Jonah upon the dry Land that is God would have the Fish to do it and it did it God spake then in the Creation but he spake Ineffabiliter says St. Aug. August without uttering any sound He spake but he spake Intemporaliter says that Father too without spending any time in distinction of syllables But yet when he spoke Aliquis ad fuit as Athanasius presses it Athan. surely there was some body with him there was says he VVho Verbum ejus ad fuit ad fuit Spiritus ejus says he truly the second Person in the Trinity his Eternal VVord and the third Person the Holy Ghost were both there at the Creation and to them he spoke For By the Word of the Lord were the heavens framed and all the host of them Spiritu oris ejus Job 33.4 by that Spirit that proceeded from him says David The Spirit of God hath made me 26. 13. and By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens So that in one word thou who wast nothing hast employed and set on work the heart and hand of all the three Perâ—ons in the blessed and glorious Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost to the making of thee and then what oughtest thou to be and to do in retribution and not to make thee that which thou art now a Christian but even to make thee that wherein 〈◊〉 wast equal to a worm to a grain of dust Hast thou put the whole Trinity to busie themselves upon thee and therefore what shouldst thou be towards them But here in this branch we consider not so much not his noblest Creature Man but his first Creature Light He commanded and he commanded Light And of Light we say no more in this place but this that in all the Scriptures in which the word Light is very often metaphorically applyed it is never applyed in an ill sence Christ is called a Lyon but there is an ill Lyon too that seeks whom he may devour Christ is the serpent that was exalted but there is an ill serpent that did devour us all at once But Christ is the light of the world and no ill thing is call'd light Light was Gods signature by which he set his hand to the Creation and therefore as Princes signe above the Letter and not below God made light first in that first Creature he declared his presence his Majesty the more in that he commanded light out of darkness There was Lumen de Lumine before light of light very God of very God an eternal Son of an eternal Father before But light out of darkness is Musick out of silence It was one distinct plague of Egypt darkness above and one distinct blessing that the children of Israel had light in their dwellings But for some spiritual Applications of light and darkness we shall have room again when after we shall have spoken of our second part our Vocation as God hath shin'd in our hearts positively we shall come to speak of that shining comparatively That God hath so shin'd in our hearts as he commanded light out of darkness And to those two Branches of our second part the positive and comparative Consideration of that shining we are in order come now In the first part we were made in this second we are mended Part II. in the first we were brought into this world in this second we are led through it in the first we are Creatures in this we are Christians God hath shin'd in our hearts In this part Divisio we shall have two Branches a positive and a comparative consideration of the words First the matter it self what this shining is and it is the conversion of Man to God by the ministry of the Gospel and secondly how this manner of expressing it answers the comparison As God commanded light out of darkness so he hath shin'd in our hearts And in the first the positive we shall pass by these few and short steps first Gods action Illuxit he shine it is evidence Manifestation And then the time when this day breaks when this Sun rises Illuxit he hath shin'd he hath done enough already Thirdly the place the sphere in which he shines the Orb which he hath illumin'd in Cordibus if he shine he shines in the heart And lastly the persons upon whom he casts his beams in Cordibus nostris in our hearts And having past these four in the positive part we shall descend to the comparative as God commanded light out of darkness so he hath shin'd in our hearts 1. Lucet First then for Gods action his working in the Christian Church which is our Vocation we consider man to be all to be all Creatures Mar. 16.15 according to that expression of our Saviour's Go preach the Gospel to every Creature and agreeable to that largeness in which he receiv'd it Colos 1.23 the Apostle delivers it The Gospel is preached to every Creature under heaven The properties the qualities of every Creature are in man the Essence the Existence of every Creature is for man so man is every Creature And therefore the Philosopher draws man into too narrow a table when he says he is Microcosmos an Abridgement of the world in little Nazianzen gives him but his due when he calls him Mundum Magnum a world to which all the rest of the world is but subordinate For all the world besides is but Gods Foot-stool Man sits down upon his right hand and howsoever God be in all the world yet how did God dwell in man in the assumption of that nature and what care did GOD take of that dwelling that when that house was demolished would yet dwell in the ruines thereof for the Godhead did not depart from the dead body of Christ Jesus in the Grave And then how much more gloriously then before did he re-edifie that house in raising it again to Glory Man therefore is Cura Divini ingenii Tertul. a creature upon whom not onely the greatness and the goodness but even the study and diligence of God is employed And being thus a greater world then the other he must be greater in all his parts and so in his lights and so he is for instead of this light which the world had at first Man hath a nobler light an immortal a discerning soul the light of reason Instead of the many stars which this world hath man hath had the light of the Law and the succession of the Prophets And instead of that Sun which
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
is his giving of glory That prayer which our Saviour Christ makes Glorifie me O Father with thine own self Joh. 17.5 with the Glory which I had before the world was is not a prayer for the Essential Glory of God for Christ in his Divine Nature was never devested never unaccompanied of that glory and for his humane Nature that was never capable of it the attributes and so the Essence of the Glory of the Divinity are not communicable to his Humane Nature neither perpetually as the Ubiquitaries say nor temporarily in the Sacrament as the Papists imply But the glory which Christ asks there is the glory of sitting down at the right hand of his Father in our flesh in his humane Nature which glory he had before the world for he had it in his predestination in the Eternal Decree And that 's the glory of God which we shall know know by having it We shall have a knowledge of the very glory the Essential glory of God because we shall see Sicuti est as God is in himself and Cognoscam at cognitus I shall know as I am known 1 Cor. 13.12 that glory shall dilate us enlarge us give us an inexpressible capacity and then fill it but we shall never comprehend that glory the Essential glory but that glory which Christ hath received in his humane Natute in all other degrees excepting those which flow from his hypostatical union we shall comprehend we shall know by having we shall receive a Crown of glory that sadeth not 1 Pet. 5.4 It is a Crown that compasses round no enterance of danger any way and a crown that fadeth not fears no winter we shall have interest in all we see and we shall see the treasure of all knowledge the face of Christ Jesus Then and there In facio we shall have an abundant satisfaction and accomplishment of all St. Augustines three Wishes He wish'd to have seen Rome in her glory to have heard St. Paul preach and to have seen Christ in the flesh We shall have all we shall see such a Jerusalem as that Rome if that were literally true which is hyperbolically said of Rome In Urbe in Orbe that City is the whole world yet Rome that Rome were but a Village to this Jerusalem We shall hear St. Paul with the whole quire of Heaven pour our himself in that acclamation Saluation to our God that sitteth upon the Throne Apoc. 7.10 and to the Lamb and we shall see and see for ever Christ in that flesh which hath done enough for his Friends and is safe enough from his Enemies We shall see him in a transfiguration all clouds of sadness remov'd and a transubstantiation all his tears changed to Pearls all his Blood-drops into Rubies all the Thorns of his Crown into Diamonds for where we shall see the Walls of his Palace to be Saphyr and Emerald and Amethist Apoc. 21.19 and all Stones that are precious what shall we not see in the face of Christ Jesus and whatsoever we do see by that very sight becomes our Be therefore no strangers to this face see him here that you may know him and he you there see him as St. John did who turned to see a voice see him in the preaching of his Word see him in that seal which is a Copy of him as he is of his Father Apoc. 1. see him in the Sacrament Look him in the face as he lay in the Manger poor and then murmur not at temporal wants suddainly enrich'd by the Tributes of Kings and doubt not but that God hath large and strange ways to supply thee Look him in the face in the Temple disputing there at twelve years and then apply thy self to God to the contemplation of him to the meditation upon him to a conversation with him betimes Look him in the face in his Fathers house a Carpenter and but a Carpenter Take a Calling and contain thy self in that Calling But bring him nearer and look him in the face as he look'd upon Friday last when he whose face the Angels desire to look on he who was fairer then the children of men Psa 45.3 Esai 52.14.53.3 as the Prophet speaks was so marr'd more then any man as another Prophet says That they hid their faces from him despised him when he who bore up the heavens bowed down his head he who gives breath to all gave up the ghost and then look him in the face again as he look'd yesterday not lam'd upon the Cross not putrifi'd in the Grave not singed in Hell rais'd and raised by his own power Victoriously triumphantly to the destruction of the last Enemy death look him in the face in all these respects of Humiliation and of Exaltation too and then as a Picture look upon him that look upon it God upon whom thou keepest thine Eye will keep his Eye upon thee and as in the Creation when he commanded light out of darkness he gave thee a capacity of this light and as in thy Vocation when he shin'd in thy heart he gave thee an inchoation of this light so in associating thee to himself at the last day he will perfect consummate accomplish all and give thee the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus there This is the last word of our Text but we make up our Circle by returning to the first word the first word is For for the Text is reason of that which is in the Verse immediately before the Text that is We preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your servants for Jesus sake We stop not on this side Christ Jesus we dare not say that any man is sav'd without Christ we dare say that none can be saved that hath received that light and hath not beleev'd in him We carry you not beyond Christ neither not beyond that face of his in which he is manifested the Scriptures Till you come to Christ you are without God as the Apostle says to the Ephesians and when you goe beyond Christ to Traditions of men you are without God too There is a fine Deo a left handed Atheism in the meer natural man that will not know Christ and there is a sine Deo a right handed Atheism in the stubborn Papist who is not content with Christ They preach Christ Jesus and themselves and make themselves Lords over you in Jesus place and farther then ever he went We preach not our selves but him and our selves your servants for his sake and this is our service to tell you the whole compass the beginning the way and the end of all that all is done in and by and for Christ Jesus that from thence flow and thither lead and there determine all to bring you from the memory of your Creation by the sense of your Vocation to the assurance of your glorification by the manifestation of God in Christ and Christ in
the Scriptures For God who commanded light out of darkness hath shin'd c. The 26 Sermon Serm. 26. Psa 68.20 And unto God the Lord belong the issues of Death from Death BUildings stand by the benefit of their foundations that sustain them support them and of their buttresses that comprehend them embrace them and of their contignations that knit and unite them The foundation suffers them not to sink the buttresses suffer them not to swerve the contignation and knitting suffer them not to cleave The body of our building is in the former part of this verse it is this He that is our God is the God of salvation ad salutes of salvations in the plural so it is in the original the God that gives us spiritual and temporal salvation too But of this building the foundation the buttresses the contignation are in this part of the verse which constitutes our text and in the three diverse acceptations of the words amongst our expositors Unto God the Lord belong the issues of death For first the foundation of this building that our God is the God of all salvations is laid in this That unto this God the Lord belongs the issues of death that is it is his power to give us an issue and deliverance even then when we are brought to the jaws and teeth of death and to the lips of that whirl-pool the grave and so in this acceptation this exitus mortis this issue of death is liberatio a morie a deliverance from death this is the most obvious and most ordinary acceptation of these words and that upon which our translation laies hold The issues from death And then Secondly the buttresses that comprehend and settle this building that He that is our God is the God of salvation are thus raised Unto God the Lord belong the issues of death that is the disposition and manner of our death what kind of issue and transmigration we shall have out of this world whether prepared or sodain whether violent or natural whether in our perfect senses or shak'd and disordered by sickness there is no condemnation to be argued out of that no judgment to be made upon that for howsoever they dye precious in his sight is the death of his Saints and with him are the issues of death the way of our departing out of this life are in his hands and so in this sense of the words this Exitus mortis the issue of death is liberatio in morte a deliverance in death not that God will deliver us from dying but that he will have a care of us in the hour of death of what kind soever our passage be and this sense and acceptation of the words the natural frame contexture doth well and pregnantly administer unto us And then lastly the contignation and knitting of this building that he that is our God is the God of all salvation consists in this Unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death that is that this God the Lord having united and knit both natures in one and being God having also come into this world in our flesh he could have no other means to save us he could have no other issue out of this world nor return to his former glory but by death And so in this sense this exitus mortis the issue of death is liberatio per mortem a deliverance by death by the death of this God our Lord Christ Jesus and this is St. Augustines acceptation of the words and those many and great persons that have adhered to him In all these three lines then we shall look upon these words first as the God of power the Almighty Father rescues his servants from the jaws of death and then as the God of mercy the glorious Son rescued us by taking upon himself the issue of death and then between these two as the God of comfort the holy Ghost rescues us from all discomfort by his blessed impressions before hand that what manner of death soever be ordained for us yet this exitus mortis shall be introitus in vitam our issue in death shall be an entrance into everlasting life And these three considerations our deliverance a morte in morte per mortem from death in death and by death will abundantly do all the offices of the foundation of the buttresses of the contignation of this our building that He that is our God is the God of all salvation because Unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death First Part. A mâ—â—e First then we consider this exitus mortis to be liberatio a morte that with God the Lord are the issues of death therefore in all our deaths and deadly calamities of this life we may justly hope of a good issue from him and all our periods and transitions in this life are so many passages from death to death Exitus a morte uteri Our very birth and entrance into this life is exitus a morte an issue from death for in our mothers womb we are dead so as that we do not know we live not so much as we do in our sleep neither is there any grave so close or so putrid a prison as the womb would be to us if we stai'd in it beyond our time or died there before our time In the grave the worms do not kil us We breed and feed and then kill those worms which we our selves produc'd In the womb the dead child kils the mother that conceiv'd it and is a murderer nay a Parricide even after it is dead And if we be not dead so in the womb so as that being dead we kill her that gave us our first life our life of vegetation yet we are dead so as Davids Idols are dead Psa 115.6 in the womb we have eyes and see not ears and hear not There in the womb we are fitted for works of darkness all the while deprived of light and there in the womb we are taught cruelty by being fed with blood and may be damned though we be never born Of our very making in the womb David saies 139. 14. I am wonderfully and fearfully made and Such knowledg is too excellent for me for Even that is the Lords doing and it is wonderful in our eyes 118. 23. Ipse fecit nos It is he that hath made us and not we our selves no 200. 3. nor our Parents neither Thy hands have made me and fashioned me round about saies Job and 10. 8. as the original word is Thou hast taken pains about me and yet saies he Thou doest destroy me though I be the master-peice of the greatest Master man is so yet if thou do no more for me if thou leave me where thou mad'st me destruction will follow The womb which should be the house of life becomes death it self if God leave us there That which God threatens so often the shutting of the womb is not
evidences of adoption and spiritual filiation then and so long as I see these marks and live so I may safely comfort my self in a holy certitude a modest infallibility of my adoption Christ determins himself in that the purpose of God because the purpose of God was manifest to him S. Pet. S. Paul determine themselves in those two waies of knowing the purpose of God the word of God before the execution of the Decree in the fulness of time It was prophecied before said they it is perform'd now Christ is risen without seeing corruption Now this which is so singularly peculiar to him that his flesh should not see corruption at his second coming his coming to Judgment shall be extended to all that are then alive their flesh shall not see corruption because as the Apostle saies and saies as a secret as a mystery behold I shew you a mystery we shall not all sleep 1 Cor. 15.51 that is not continue in the state of the dead in the grave but we shall all be changed In an instant we shall have a dissolution and in the same instant a redintegration a recompacting of body and soul and that shall be truly a death and truly a resurrection but no sleeping no corruption But for us who dy now and sleep in the state of the dead we must all pass this posthume death this death after death nay this death after burial this dissolution after dissolution this death of corruption and putrefaction of virmiculation and incineration of dissolution and dispersion in and from the grave When those bodies which have been the children of royal Parents and the Parents of royal Children must say with Job 17.14 to corruption thou art my Father to the worm thou art my Mother my Sister Miserable riddle when the same worm must be my mother my sister my self Miserable incest when I must be married to mine own mother and sister and be both Father and Mother to mine one mother and sister beget and bear that worm which is all that miserable penury when my mouth shall be silled with dust and the worm shall feed and feed sweetly upon me 24.20 When the ambitious man shall have no satisfaction if the poorest a live tread upon him nor the poorest receive any contentment in being made equal to Princes for they shall be equal but in dust 23.24 One dyeth at his full strength being wholly at ease and in quiet and another dies in the bitterness of his soul and never eats with pleasure but they ly down alike in the dust and the worm cover them 24.11 The worm covers them in Job and in Esai it covers them is spread under them the worm is spread under thee and the worm covers thee There is the mats and the carpet that lie under and there is the state and the canopy that hangs over the greatest of the Sons of men Even those bodies that were the Temples of the holy Ghost come to this dilapidation to ruine to rubbish to dust Even the Israel of the Lord and Jacob himself had no other specification Esa 41.14 no other denomination but that vermis Jacob thou worm of Jacob. Truly the consideration of this posthume death this death after burial that after God with whom are the issues of death hath delivered me from the death of the womb by bringing me into the world and from the manifold deaths of the world by laying me in the grave I must die again in an incineration of this flesh and in a dispersion of that dust that all that monarch that spread over many nations alive must in his dust lie in a corner of that sheet of lead and there but so long as the lead will last and that private and retired man that thought himself his own for ever and never came forth must in his dust of the grave be published and such are the revolutions of graves be mingled in his dust with the dust of every high way and of every dunghil and swallowed in every puddle and pond this is the most inglorious and contemptible villification the most deadly and peromptory nullification of man that we can consider God seems to have carried the declaration of his power to a great heighth when he sets the Prophet Ezechiel in the vally of dry bones 37. 1. and saies Son of man can these dry bones live as though it had been impossible and yet they did the Lord laid sinews upon them and flesh and breathed into them and they did live But in that case there were bones to be seen something visible of which it might be said can this this live but in this death of incineration and dispersion of dust we see nothing that we can call that mans If we say can this dust live perchance it cannot It may be the meer dust of the earth which never did live nor never shall it may be the dust of that mans worms which did live but shall no more it may be the dust of another man that concerns not him of whom it is asked This death of incineration and dispersion is to natural reason the most irrecoverable death of all and yet Domini Domini sunt exitus mortis unto God the Lord belong the issues of death and by recompacting this dust into the same body and re-inanimating the same body with the same soul be shall in a blessed and glorious Resurrection give me such an issue from this Death as shall never passe into any other death but establish me in a Life that shall last as long as the Lord of Life himself And so have you that that belongs to the first acceptation of these words unto God the Lord belong the issues of Death That though from the womb to the grave and in the grave it self we passe from Death to Death yet as Daniel speaks The Lord our God is able to deliver us and he will deliver us And so we passe to our second accomodation of these words Unto God the Lord belong the issues of Death That it belongs to God and not to Man to passe a Judgement upon us at our Death or to conclude a dereliction on God's part upon the manner thereof Those Indications which Physitians receive Part. 2. Liberatio in morte and those praesagitions which they give for death or recovery in the Patient they receive and they give out of the grounds and rules of their Art But we have no such rule or art to ground a presagition of spiritual death and damnation upon any such Indication as we see in any dying man we see often enough to be sorry but not to despayr for the mercies of God work momentanely in minuts and many times insensibly to by-standers or any other then the party departing and we may be deceived both wayes we use to comfort our selves in the death of a friend if it be testifyed that he went away like
any thing that shall be said before lessen but rather enlarge your devotion to that which shall be said of his Passion at the time of the due solemnization thereof Christ bled not a drop the lesse at last for having bled at his Circumcision before nor will you shed a teare the lesse then if you shed some now And therefore be now content to consider with me how to this God the Lord belong'd the issues of Death That God the Lord The Lord of Life could die is a strange contemplation That the red-Sea could be dry Potuisse Mori Exod. 14.21 That the Sun could stand still Jos 10.12 That an Oven could be seven times heat and not burn That Lyons could be hungry and not bite is strange miraculously strange But super-miraculous That God could die But that God would die is an exaltation of that But even of that also it is a super-exaltation that God should die must die and non exitus saith Saint Augustin God the Lord had no issue but by death and oportuit pati saith Christ himself all this Christ ought to suffer was bound to suffer Psal 94.1 Voluisse Mori Deus ultionum Deus saith David God is the God of Revenges He would not passe over the sin of man unrevenged unpunished But then Deus ultionum libere egit sayes that place The God of Revenges works freely he punishes he spares whom he will and would he not spare himself He would not Dilectio fortis ut Mors Can. 8.6 Love is as strong as Death stronger it drew in Death that naturally was not welcome Si possibile saith Christ If it be possible let this Cup passe when his Love expressed in a former Decree with his Father had made it impossible Many waters quench not Love Christ tryed many He was baptized out of his Love v. 7. and his love determin'd not there He wept over Jerusalem out of his love and his love determined not there He mingled blood with water in his Agony and that determined not his love He wept pure blood all his blood at all his eyes at all his pores in his flagellations and thornes to the Lord our God belonged the issues of blood and these expressed but these did not quench his love Oportuisse Mori He would not spare nay he would not spare himself There was nothing more free more voluntary more spontaneous then the death of Christ 'T is true libere egit he died voluntarily But yet when we consider the contract that had passed between his Father and him there was an Oportuit a kinde of necessity upon him All this Christ ought to suffer And when shall we date this obligation this Oportuit this necessity when shall we say it begun Certainly this Decree by which Christ was to suffer all this was an eternall Decree and was there any thing before that that was eternall Infiâ—ite love eternall love be pleased to follow this home and to consider it seriously that what liberty soever we can conceive in Christ to dy or not to dy this necessity of dying this Decree is as eternall as that Liberty and yet how small a matter made he of this Necessity and this dying Gen. 3.15 His Father calls it but a Bruise and but a bruising of his heele The Serpent shall bruise his heele and yet that was that the Serpent should practise and compasse his death Himself calls it but a Baptism as though he were to be the better for it I have a Baptism to be baptized with Luk. 12.50 and he was in paine till it was accomplished and yet this Baptism was his death The holy-Ghost calls it Joy For the joy which was set before him he endured the Crosse which was not a joy of his reward after his passion Heb. 12.2 but a joy that filled him even in the middest of those torments and arose from them When Christ cals his passion Calicem a cup and no worse Can ye drink of my cup He speaks not odiously not with detestation of it indeed it was a cup salus mundo Mat. 20.22 A health to all the world and quid retribuem saies David Psal 116.12 What shall I render unto the Lord Answer you with David Accipiam Calicom I will take the cup of salvation Take that that cup of salvation his passion if not into your present imitation yet into your present contemplation and behold how that Lord who was God yet could die would die must die for your salvation That Moses and Elias talked with Christ in the transfiguration both St. Matthew and St. Mark tel us but what they talked of Mat 17.3 Mat. 9.4 Luc. 9.31 only St. Luke Dicebant excessum ejus saies he they talked of his decease of his death which was to be accomplished at Jerusalem The word is of his Exodus the very word of our Text Exitus his issue by death Moses who in his Exodus had prefigured this issue of our Lord and in passing Israel out of Egypt through the red sea had foretold in that actual prophecy Christs passing of mankind through the sea of his blood and Elias whose Exodus and issue out of this world was a figure of Christs ascension had no doubt a great satisfaction in talking with our blessed Lord De excessu ejus of the full consummation of all this in his death which was to be accomplished at Jerusalem Our meditation of his death should be more viseral and affect us more because it is of a thing already done The ancient Romans had a certain tenderness and detestation of the name of death they would not name death no not in their wils there they would not say Si mori contingat but Si quid humanitas contingat not if or when I die but when the course of nature is accomplished upon me To us that speak daily of the death of Christ He was crucified dead and buried can the memory or the mention of our death be irksome or bitter There are in these latter times amongst us that name death freely enough and the death of God but in blasphemous oaths and execrations Miserable men who shall therefore be said never to have named Jesus because they have named him too often and therefore hear Jesus say Nescive vos I never knew you because they made themselves too familiar with him Moses and Elias talked with Christ of his death only in a holy and joyful sence of the benefit which they and all the world were to receive by it Discourses of religion should not be out of curiosity but edification And then they talked with Christ of his death at that time when he was at the greatest heighth of glory that ever he admitted in this world that is his transfiguration And we are afraid to speak to the great men of this world of their death but nourish in them a vain imagination of immortallity and immutability But bonum est