that doth Charity Charity joynes us close to God unites us as it were and makes us one thing with him fixes upon God as God is in himselfe which neither Faith nor Hope in this life can doe For Faith fixes upon God indeed but as he is under the vaile of Revelation There lyes a cloud betwixt the eye of Faith and her Maker Hope fixed upon God as upon a thing at distance a thing that will be enjoyed heâ—caâ—er but is not yet There lyes an Intervallum a kind of long reach betwixt Hope and the object of it while we hope we have not yet attained But love fixeth immediately and totally and â—nâ—eâ—arably upon her object In my love God is present to me and with me and in me He in me and I in him and I am as it were in the joyes of Heaven already while I am in the act of love it twines about and imbraces and â—eaâ—es and unites us together with what wee love never to bee severed from it No wonder therefore that God and Charity are so nearely afsianced that one beareth the name of the other And much lesse wonder that Charity should be the greatest vertue drawing nearer to God then any perfection whatsoever Charity it is that makes us rightly Sonnes of God saith Haymo Sonnes of his love as God the Father of ours nay makes us as it were demy-Gods upon earth Light of Light Spirit of Spirit partakers in a manner of the divine nature saith St. Peter yea by the happy Incarnation of Christ Bone of his bone Flesh of his flesh the very Mysticall members of his Body saith Saint Paul For we are members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bone All this Charity makes us What Grace or Vertue in the World therefore to compare with Charity Yes Faith you will say justifies us and onely Faith If onely Faith then not Charity And Faith is as it were the hand that layes hold of our salvation It is our Armour our Shield against all temptations the Shield of Faith Saint Paul calls it It is our victory whereby wee overcome the world Haecest victoria saith St. Iohn even even your faith It is that which first adopts us Sonnes of God by which wee are Regenerated For Faith is the beginning of all acceptance the Baptisme of Baptisme it selfe without which it is impossible to please God saith the Apostle Moreover Faith is the foundation of Charity the very cause and roote of Love Adde to this that Faith is in the understanding part which is the more nobleâ— but Charity in the will and affections which are more ignoble And therefore in all these respects Faith may doe well to challenge place of Charity at least march even with it not come behind it in so unseemely ranke as it were the Mother behind the Daughter To all which Objections the Commentators frame diverse answers To goe backward with them Whereas it is alleadged Charity is in the affective part the VVill which is the more ignoble but Faith in the intellectuall part viz. the understanding which is more excellent Aquinas answers well that the understanding is indeed more excellent then the VVill because it inlightens and directs the will but yet it followes not for all that but that the will may have a more excellent perfection belonging to it then any the understanding can have To which purpose note that things are in the understanding in a spirituall and resined way but the VVill fixes upon things as they are in themselves Consequently earthly things sensible objects are in a more excellent way in our understanding then they are in their owne natures saith Saint Austine but Divine and Heavenly things are more excellently in their owne nature then they are in our understandings Whereupon it followes that the knowledge of earthly matters and things below us is better then the love of them as the knowledge of pleasure and honour and riches better then the love of these things c. but the love of Heavenly matters and things above us is better then the knowledge So then Faith and Charity being about the most excellent of heavenly things viz. God himselfe it followes Charity which containes the love of God must needs be better then Faith which containes the knowledge of him onely To the next that Faith is the Mother of Charity It is true and yet Charity may be Proles major parente a Daughter greater then the Mother As the fruite is more excellent then the bough that beares it and as the House excells the foundation so doth Charity excell Faith Faith is the beginning of all acceptance it is right and that which first initiates us to bee Sonnes of God But not Faith without love that is certaine For in our Baptisine wee not onely professe our Faith but enter into Covenant with God that wee will forsake the Devill and keepe his Commandements That is Charity and never are wee Sonnes indeed till we love our Faither Faith is the shield of a Christian against temptations we grant it Put Charity is the very arme that beares this shield when Love is once planted in the Soule it moves and commands all other powers And Faith is the hand that layes hold of Christ but Charity is the very heart that gives life to this hand As for the point of Iustification that requires some more exact decision let us heare therefore learned Divines of both sides discusse that Faith onely justifies ergo not Charity Stay there saith Genevensis the Adverb onely may sometimes meane principally as onely vertue is true nobility it excludes not other kinds of nobility but onely puts them behind One thing have I desired of the Lord saith David one thing above other though many other besides Against thee onely have I sinned saith the same Prophet that is against thee principally though he sinned also against Bâ—hshabe and Vrâ—ah as well as God So Faith onely justifies that is Faith principally rather Faith then Charity because Faith goes before Charity in our Justification though Charity comes after and justifies more perfectly Yee may perceive by the sound of his Doctrine of what straine this man is Saint Paul saith plainely By saith we are justified and not by the workes of the Law that is not by Charity for what is Charity but keeping the Law And this man saith yes by the worke of the Law and by Faith both is not this plainely to give the Apostle the lye Much better answers Calvine Faith though it bee lesse then Charity in most regards yet in some respects it may be greater As a more ignoble matter may be fitter for some uses then a more precious Gold is better then Iron and yet to make a weapon of Iron is better then Gold A King is better then a Mariner and yet to guide a Ship a Marriner is better then a King A man is better then a House and yet to run a Race a Horse is better then a man Thus though
delight which abide for ever in his presence hereafter Amen The end of the first Sermon THE SECOND SERMON Hebrews the 11. Chapter the 6. verse For he that commeth to God must beleeve that he is and and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seeke him BEing indebted by my promise to handle particularly the Articles of the Creed which is the summe of our Christian faith I have chosen this Scripture to begin with which is the summe of the whole Creed of all the Articles in it As Faith may bee called the Ground-worke of Religion whereupon Hope and Charity and all other Vertues are built So this Scripture containes the ground-worke of faith it self the very foundation of that on which all Christianity is founded For as no Christian can be saved without faith so no faith possible except wee bee perswaded of thus much before hand namely That God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seeke him Which sentence I deemed so much the more necessary to handle by way of preparative before the Articles of the Creed because it appeares of more antiquity and more universality then the Creed and all the Articles of it yea more ancient then Scripture it selfe out of which the Creed is taken For thus much before any Scripture was written was necessary for all men to beleeve as appeares by the Apostles instance in this place Saint Paul is discoursing here of the faith of the Patriarkes and particularly of Abel and Enochs faith Enoch saith he was translated that he should not see death And he was translated by faith By saith he was translated because he pleased God And without faith it is impossible to please God upon which conclusion if any shall demand what saith had Enoch or what faith Abel that lived so long before any Scripture was written why this faith they had faith Saint Paul this at least without which no saith is imaginable nor any comming to God possible namely that God is and that hee is a rewarder of them that seeke him This faith they had and this as it should seeme was enough to please God and to save them as the world went then but this is not enough for us now We have more Revelations from Heaven even aboundant ones in many ages and many successions in many writings of the Prophets and Apostles and all these are necessary for us to beleeve now Even all the written bookes of the Bible and every thing contained in them for we are to acknowledge them to be Gods Word and if Gods Word then to imbrace and beleeve them and to doubt of nothing in them So that the whole Scriptures are now become necessary for every Christian man of ripe reason on perill of salvation to beleeve To beleeve I say but not particularly to know or remember that is not necessary to salvation for that is businesse enough for a learned Divine that hath nothing else to doe to understand particulars of Scripture and remember them But all must bee beleeved though beleeve I by the most ignorant and all received upon the credit of Gods Spirit as Gods Word whether knowne particularly or no. And yet though all particulars neede not by men of meane capacity bee knowne some must some particulars of Scripture knowne explicitly and beleeved expresly or no salvation for men of ripe judgement possible And those are the heads of Christianity summed up in the Creed which is a short confession of our Faith comprised by the primitive Fathers of the Church to that end that every 〈◊〉 might have it ready as an abstract of all that was necessary And this they did not to make Lay-men carelesse or lazy that they should not care to know more but to direct yong beginners and to leave all of all sorts without excuse that would not know this Because saith Aquinas Faith is the substance of things hoped for And those things only belong essentially to saving faith which concern our Hope the means of salvation And because many things contained in Scripture pertaine not so directly to these as that Isaac had two sonnes that Iacob was in Aegypt and the like therefore are those points that directly concerne mens salvation and the meanes of it summod up in the Creed so that all men are now necessarily bound to know and beleeve thus much at least how much soever they know more Thus then the Scripture is now the rule of Faith and the Creed is the summe of Faith so much as is essentially necessary to every ones salvation But of old before the Scripture was written this ground-work sufficed This may be called Abels and Enochs Creed which is the preparative also to ours and all mens else namely that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that seeke him The words being a conclusion by way of Analysis seeme to imply not onely the summe of our Faith but of our Hope and our Charity too that is the substance of all Religion For our Charity that yee have touched in the first words Hee that comes to God Comes to God that is desires to come neâ—re him to be joyned and united to him saith Estius and such a comming is the very act of love Then for our Hope that yee have in the last words namely that God is a Rewarder of them that seeke him that grounds our Hope For our Faith it is the very heart of the Text that which the Apostle would infer He that comes must beleeve beleeve that God is and that he is a Rewarder c. So that upon presupposall of the necessity of our love St. Paul here grounds our faith and our hope too or rather shewes that our love is to be grounded in faith and hope or else it can never be a right love Love is the top of the building as yee heard last Sunday Love the goodly Tarias the beauty the Crowne and superstructure of all Well but Cogitans â—dificium charitatis necesse est ponaâ— fundamentum fidei saith a Father He that would build up this goodly Tower of Charity must lay the foundation low and strong in a sure faith Oportet accedentem credere Hee that comes that is he that would draw nigh to God by his love must first approach by his faith He that commeth to God must beleeve that he is That the Apostles way of arguing is thus analyticall appeares by what goes before There St. Paul tels us of Enochs translation at the first verse translation to heaven that is glorification glorification presupposes sanctification Before hee was translated Enoch had this testimony that hee pleased God Please God how could he except hee came to him that is except hee loved him For as glorification is the end of our way and implyes an arrivall to and an union with God So Sanctification which is by Charity is the course of our way by which wee still get ground and come neerer and neerer Now impossible we
favour If his Charitie be gone if he have lost his first love his life is gone Of such an one it may be said Thou hast a name that thou livest but thou art dead If his hope be gone he is wrapt in despaire The ship hath lost her anchor and who shall save her from rocks or sands if hee have lost his faith the verie foundation of all is gone then Hee is somewhat worse than an Infidell because hee denies what once hee acknowledged So that as long as well live these three vertues must live in us or towards God wee live not and if these things bee in us they will make us wee shall not bee barren nor unfruitfull as Saint Peter saith For these are the substance of all Religion the ground and foundation of true righteousnesse saith Musculus both in the Old and New Testament without these all Ceremonies all Sacraments all outward worship is but dead Sacraments may vary and Ceremonies may vary but these thorowout all parts of our life and thorowout all ages of the world abide the same There is but one Faith one Hope one Baptisme saith St. Paul Ephes 4. consequently but one Charitie as there is but one God the maiâ—e object of Charity Not only abide then these three vertues doe but they abide still the same And abide now that is in the soules of the faithfull during the state of mortality for this Now points to our state of mortality as appeares by the verse afore our Text Now wee see thorow a glasse darkly but then face to face Now that is in the time of this life Then that is in the time of the next So now abide Faith Hope and Charity that is all the while we live here so doe not miracles so do not tongues and prophesie and the gifts spoken of before For these are neither common to all the Elect saith Musculus nor remaine to the end of our lives nor yet necessarily include Hope and Charity not common to all the Elect for many good men want those miraculous gifts nor abide to the end of life for they that have them oftentimes are at a losse the Prophets alway prophesie not neither do the divinely-inspired alwayes speake with tongues but at set times as the Spirit moves them Neither doe these include Charity for we may understand all Prophecy and speake with the tongues of men and Angels yea and have the gifts of Miracles too to move mountaines and yet for lack of Charity come to nothing Charity therefore and Faith and Hope they abide to the last so as none of the other doe They continue the whole Nunc of our life out to the end and we cannot be a moment without them that is without the habite of them As for the act wee doe not perhaps alwaies actually beleeve actually hope or actually love our weake frailty will not permit it but yet we must alwaies have these Graces in habit that is stand ever prepared for the act as occasion serves And thus they abide all three of them necessarily and joyntly and uninterruptedly while wee abide in this world abide they doe all three but one of the three hath the advantage of them for it not onely abides in this world but in the next too Nunc in saeculâ— saeculoriâ— That is Charity and that is the reason why it is preferred above the other The greatest of these is charity Which brings us to the second generall namely the comparative part wherein Charity carries the preheminence among the divine vertues themselves Major autem horum charitas c. For the proofe of which Proposition observe first how Charity beares the sway among the other It commands and moves and as it were enlivens the rest Our love stirres us up to beleeve more and more to hope more and more and the more we love the stronger wee beleeve the more earnestly we hope As it were the Soule over the members so Charity commands all other vertues All worke all doe their parts at Charities bidding so that very well by the Schoole-men she is termed the essentiall sorme of them all For take Faith without Charity and it is a cold and heartlesse thing no warmth no spirit in it we seele no joy in such a saith at all Take Hope without Charity and what is it but a withering â—erbe in cold of winter no sap no juyce in it there is neither delight nor feeling in either of them till Love breath upon them and give them a new life Then Faith is able to stand all encounters and Hope lifts up her head in the forest tryalls when Charity sweetens them all Charity therefore is the greatest and highest of all vertues so much better then Faith and Hope as the building is better then the foundation as the fruite is better than the stalke that beares it Nay Charity it is like the Sun among the lesser Plannets saith Lapide It gives light and vigour and soule to all other graces It is like the fire among the Elements like Gold among other metalls like the Empyraean Heaven above the lower Oâ—bâ—s like the Seraphims among the lesser Angels For Charity is indeed the 〈◊〉 Celestiall fire that inflames the hearts of Gods chosen Charity the true Gold wherewith in a sort we purchase heavenly Merchandise Charity the true Empyraean Heaven wherein dwells God and his Angels that Heaven which enlightens inspires and regulates all the rest Charity is the Seraphicall vertue indeed which makes the Seraphims themselves ardently burning from whence they have their name The same that the Sunne is in the World the Magistrate in his City the Mariner in his Vessell is Charity in the heart of a Christian Without the Mariner the Vessell slotes at randome and perisheth Without her Magistrate the City falls to confusion without the Sun the whole World were darke and without Charity our very life it selfe hath scarce any life in it For Love is the life of life Love is the soule of the World so that God himselfe is called by the name of love 1 Iohn 4. Nor wonder at Saint Iohn for it for of all the vertues in the World none so nearely joynes and unites us to God as love doth Consequently Charity must bee the greatest of all divine vertues as Aquinas notes well For among morall Vertues that is the greatest which comes nearest to the rule of all vertue to wit Right reason That doth Prudence which toucheth the rule as neare as neare may be being it selfe nothing but the view of right reason Consequently prudence is the greatest morall Vertue because it is next the Rule And by the same reason is Charity the greatest of all divine vertues and morall too for the Rule of divine vertues is not reason but God that made reason who is the Rule of reason it selfe Consequently that vertue which toucheth nearest upon God the prime Rule of Rules must needs be the greatest vertue that may be imagined and