as the children of perdition should be are lost 〈◊〉 are you And where are they gone to their owne place to Iudas their brother Acts 1.25 〈◊〉 as is most kindly the Sonns to the Father of wickednesse there to be plagued with 〈◊〉 for ever The same way may they all goe and to the same place may they all 〈◊〉 all that shall ever once offer to do the like Thus to the very last syllable of the last verse is this Text found true in you and this Covenant made good to 〈◊〉 All the six points of it all of them in futuro in the Text shall and shall be Comes 〈◊〉 the day and puts them all in praeterito to you changeth shall and shall be into was 〈◊〉 did That thus we read it now His hand did hold you fast His arme did strengthen 〈◊〉 the Enemie was not hable to doe you eny violence no more was the Sonne of wickedâ—essâ— to hurt you But He did smite downe your foes and did plague them that hated you 〈◊〉 the Covenant was fully kept with you and sealed even with the blood of them that 〈◊〉 it And now let all them that tooke eny joy in the first finding and annointing 3 Ioy for your delivering heere 〈…〉 their joy afresh for this second when you were thus in a manner lost and found 〈◊〉 When it was just as in the Gospell Perijt et inventa est Luke 15.6.9 And if he in the 〈◊〉 for his sheep and she for her groat called all their friends together and cryâ—â— Congraetulamini mihi how much greater a Congratulamini belongs to this Where not a groat Mar. â— 20 but He that is the Image and superscription of all our groats yea all our Coyne silver and gold is found againe To find some praises of God for this findiâ—g And what shall this be all No I trust having thus at the hands of GOD found the faithfull mercies of David we will stay a little and looke out some of the faithfull prayers of David to render Him for this for such a finding Let us do so I pray you And we shall not need to go farre not any further then our owne Psalme and but even to the very first words of it The first Verse of the Psalme Cantabo Psal. 145.9 Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo Vpon another no lesse worthy Deliverance I well remember you then tooke up the like Misericordiae Domini super omnia opera Ejus Very fitly that but this agrees rather with us now For it is the beginning of the Psalme whereof the text is a part Made as it were the Anthem for this Sermon Mercie in making this Covenant Will ye see how it agrees There was mercie in making this Covenant there was truth in keeping it See then how aptly he hath sett it My song shal be alwaies of the mercie of the LORD that made it with my mouth will I be shewing His truth that kept it from one generation to another And shall not we sing of His mercie And shall not we set forth his truth Truth in keeping it Sing of His mercie that made this Covenant shew forth His truth that made it good every article and suffered not one word of it to fall to the ground The second verse of the Psalme Ego dixi But if we cannot well sing it for lack of a Queere He hath taken order for that too For the very next the second verse of the Psalme that he begins with Ego dixi I have said that if we cannot sing it we may yet say it And it is but the same over againe I have said Mercie shal be set up for ever Thy truth shalt thou stablish in the heavens What truth It followeth in the third verse this truth of His Covenant to David To sing that and to say this to make our songs on this ground and our sermons on this theame He hath said it to set up His mercie He hath done it to exalt His truth Ever to do this in aeternum In aeternum is the word of the verse if our dulnesse could endure it all the dayes of the yeare To do it in aeterâ—um speciaâ—ly this day Luke 19.19 But of all the dayes in the yeare this day not to faile of it Hodiè salus facta est domui huic Nay regno huic Nay Regnis his This day then not to faile of it For having found this mercie and felt this truth this day shall we not at the least this day thank Him for this day Shall the Sun of this day arise and go down upon us and not see us together to render Him praise for this so loving a mercie for this so faithfull a truth Shall he find hand and arme to succour and to save us and shall not we find mouth and lips to blesse and magnifie Him for it GOD forbid Application to Vâ— Let us then sing that My song shal be alwaies of the mercies of the Lord record it at least Or for default of it say this I have said Mercie shal be set up for ever thy truth shalt thou establish in the heavens Be they never so false upon Earth thou in hâ—aven shalt stablish it By way of preaching Say it per modum Concionis so we have Say it then per modum Orationis so let us do and so an end Even so LORD so let it be Set up this thy mercie for ever for ever stablish the truth of this thy covenant By way of prayer with thy Servant our Soveraigne that it never faile Him as not this day so not at any other time Let thine hand be still upon Him and thine arme about Him for ever between Him and His harmes Violence and hurt never come neer Him The sonnes of wickednesse be ever farr from Him Let them be non proficients all the sort of them that studie or practise this wicked lesson Never lose thou Him or suffer Him to be lost Ever find Him good Lord to succour and save Him and let thy right hand find out His enemies to smite and plague them with the same blowes thou didst smite and wâ—th the same plagues thou didst powre on these of this day The destinie of this day come on them all And for Him let His annointing still be frâ—sh on Him and His crowne still flourish on His head Let Him all the day walke in the light of thy countenaâ—ce and at night 〈…〉 the covering of thy wings This day as once it did and as ever since it hath 〈◊〉 let it long and many yeares rise prosperous and happie to him This day and all daies That he that we all may sing of thy mercie and set forth thy truth all the daies of our life Heare us O LORD and graunt it for thy SONNE' 's sake our SAVIOVR c. A SERMON Preached before the KING'S MAIESTIE IN THE CATHEDRAL CHVRCH at SALJSBVRJE on the V. of
worse for the soule therefore simply worse Worse for that would have wasted but to the ground and there left but this should have fetched up foundations and ground and all Worse certainly for that should have consumed but Samaritans onely but this for the good of the Catholique cause Samaritans and Iewes both Yea such as themselves were Disciples and Iames and Iohn too if they had been there for companie Worse for this had the shew of an example Sicut fecit Elias but ours Sicut fecit who Not Sicut fecit Elias No Sicut without example Never the like entered into the heart of any that carried but the shape of a man So still the advantage on our side Now for the deliverie when all is done that which was saved heer was but a poore towne without a name I should much wrong that famous Assembly and flower of the Kingdome if I should offer to compare it with that either in quantitie alas like little Zoar to great Ninive or in qualitie when in ours to say nothing of the rest One there was more worth then ten thousand such as they 2. Sam. 18.3 we have good Scripture for it These heer were rebuked but verbally on earth Ours really rebuked from heaven Really rebuked in their intention by miraculous disappointing the execution And themselves put to a foule rebuke besides GOD first blowing their owne powder in their faces to write their sinne there and after making their bowells their mercilesse bowells to be consumed with fire within the very view of that place which they had meant to consume with fire and all Vs in it CHRIST came to save us There be manifest stepps of His comming Apparant first in that He made them they could not conteine their owne spirits but brought them out by their owne dicimus made them take penn and paper and tell it out themselves and so become the instruments of their own destruction which is the worst of all Againe He came when He gave His Majestie understanding to read the riddle of so soon as the letter is burnt to construe the dialect of these unknowne spirits and pick it out of a period as dark as the cellar was dark where the powder lay There is but one comming in the text He came not to destroy but to save Heer were two in ours both commings of CHRIST 1 He came not to destroy but to save us in mercie 2 He came not to save but destroy them His second comming in judgement To conclude This one notable difference there is on our side They should have been destroyed by miracle and we were saved by miracle The right hand of the LORD brought it to passe which is of all others Psal. 118.16 the most welcome deliverance And shall I then upon all this make a motion Master wilt thou we speake to these whom thou hast delivered that seing thou tookst order the fire should not ascend to consume them they would take order their prayers may ascend up and as the odours of the Saint's phialls burne before Thee still and never consume but be this day ever a sweet smell in Thy presence Their fire they came to put under the earth CHRIST would not have burne another fire He came to put upon earth Luke 12.49 and His desire is that it should burne even that fire whereon the incense of our devotion and the same fire of our praise burne before GOD and be in odorem suavitatis We were appointed Eph. 5.2 â—o be made a sacrifice If Isaac be saved shall nothing be offered in his stead Shall we not thank GOD that he was better to them then Iames and Iohn and to us better then those were that will needs thrust themselves to be of His societie That when this dicimus was said of us too stayed it at dicimus and never lett it come to perâ—icimus miraculously made knowne these unknowne spirits that He turned and rebâ—ked the motion and the spirits that made it that He came once and twice to save 〈◊〉 and destroy them If we shall let us then do it let our soules magnifie the Lord Luke 1.46 and our spirits rejoyce in Goâ— our Saviour that the beginning of the Text and of our case was fire to consume them in the first verse that the end was non perdere sed salvare in the last Such may ever be the end of all attempts to destroy us So may He come still and still as heer He came never to destroy ever to save us And as oft as He to save us so oft we to praise Him And GOD grant that this answer heer of CHRIST may serve for a determination of this case for ever and every Christian be so resolved by it as the like never come in speech more by any dicimus But if as we know not what spirits are abroad that every destroying spirit may be rebuked and every State preserved as this town heer was and as we all were this Day And ever as He doth save still we may praise still and ever magnifie His mercie that endureth for ever Psal. 136.1 Amen A SERMON Preached before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT WHITE-HALL on the V. of November A. D. MDCXII LAMENT CHAP. III. VER XXII Misericordiae DOMINI quia non sumus consumpti quia non defecerunt miserationes Ejus It is the Lord 's mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions faile not THE verse is not amisse The booke suits not so well For this joyfull day of our great and famous Deliverance CHRIST 's Luk. 7.32 tibijs cecinimus is more meete then Iohn Baptist's Planximus and David's harp then Ieremie's Lamentations This I know commeth to your mindes at the mention of this melancholique booke But yet if we weigh our case well not what it fell out to be but what it was ment to have beene the very booke will not seeme so out of season For this very day should it not have beene a day of lamentation to the whole land was it not so marked in their â—â—lendar And they had had their wills would they not have given matter of mâ—king a booke of Lamentations over this State and that another manner Book 〈◊〉 more and with longer Chapters then this of Ieremie's By the mercie of GOD it proved otherwise But what shall we so entend the day what it is as we forgett what it was like to have beene No the booke and the verse Iuxta se posita will do well one sett out the other as the blacke-worke doth the white The Booke putt us in minde but for GOD 's mercie in what case we might have beene The Verse by GOD 's mercie what we are And even to thanke Him that our lott was to hitt the verse and misse the booke to fall within the one and without the other The truth is I had a desire That Misericordiae Domini might have their day and this day I thought to dedicate chiefly to
Repentance Ephrata and Faith Ephrata Et sic de caeteris if they be true Els be they but vites frondâ—sae leaves and nothing els Simulachra virtutum and not vertues indeed Of Zabulon Hos. 10.1 not of Iuda and so not the right Fruictfull them and of what fruict That is in the very name it selfe 3. In good works Beth-lehem of Bethlehem Not the fruict of the lipps a few good words but the precious fruict of the earth as Saint Iames calleth it lehem good bread that fruict Such fruict Iam. 5.7 as Saint Paul carried to the poore Saints at Ierusâ—lem Almes and offerings that is the right fruict Cum signavero fructum hunc it hath the Seale on it for right Such Rom. 15.28 as the Philippians sent him Phil. 4 18.10 for supply of his want whereby he knew they were alive againe at the roote in that they thus fructified yeelded this fruict of a Sweet odour and wherewith GOD was highly pleased as there he tells them Psal. 132.6 It was not sure without mysterie that the Temple was first heard of at Ephrata at this fruictfull place No more was it that which the Fathers observe of the trees that were used about it Not a post of the Temple not a Spar nay not so much as a pin but was made of the wood of a fruit-bearing tree No barren wood at all in it No more was it 2. Sam 18.25 that the very Altar of the Temple was founded upon a threshing floore Areuna's where good come was threshed All to shew it would be plenteous in feeding and clothing and such other pertaining to this of Ephrata Which how ever they be with us Matt 25.35.36 42 43. will be the first and principall point of enquiry at the day of Doome even about feeding and clothing and other workes of mercie By both ioyned Bethlehem parvula Ephrata Now if we could bring these two together make a coniunction of them in Gemini it were worth all For I know not how but if there be in us ought of Ephrata if we happen to be any thing fruitfull but in any degreâ— away goes parvula streight Streight we cease to be little We begin to talke of Merit and Worth and I wote not what Indeed if we be all barren and bare it may be then and scarce then neither but peradventure then we grow not high-minded But so we fall still upon one extreme or other if fertile then proud if humble then barren We cannot get to be humble yet not fruitlesse or to be fruitfull yet keepe our humilitie still Not Ephrata Psal 87.4 and parvula together But that is the true Bethlehem and there was He borne And thus far I hope we have beene led right and are in our way His manner of feeding By the Sacrament Beth-lehem Gen 3 6 Ioh 6 48. But leading is not all Heer is qui pascet too and we may not passe it For to that He leads us also Dux qui pascet We followed a false Guide at first that led us to the forbidden fruit the end whereof was morte morâ—emini This now will lead us to a food of the nature of the Tree of life even the bread of life by eating whereof we shall have life in our selves even life immortall That is His food He leads us to And if we would forget this both the Person and the Place the Person qui pascet that shall feed and the Place Bethlehem the house of bread would serve to put us in remembrance of it Even of the breaking of bread which the Church as this day ever hath and still vseth as the Child-house feast We spake of Transeamus usque Bethlehem going thither that may we even locally doe and never goe out of this Roome inasmuch as heer is to be had the true bread of life Ioh â— 51. that came downe fâ—om heaven Which is His flâ—sh this day borne which He gave for the life of the world Ioh 6.32 41.31 called by Him so the true bread the bread of heaven the bread of life And where that bread is there is Bethlehem ever Even strictè loquendo it may be said and said truly the Church in this sense is very Bethlehem no lesse then the Towne it selfe For that the Towne it selfe never had the name rightly all the while there was but bread made there bread panis hominum the bread of men Not till this Bread was borne there Psal. 78.25 which is Panis Angelorum as the Psalme calleth it and man did eate Angells food Then and never till then was it bethlehem and that is in the Church as truly as ever in it And accordingly the Church takes order we shall never faile of it There shall ever be this day a Bethlehem to go to a house wherein there is bread and this bread And shall there be Bethlehem and so neer us and shall we not go to it Or shall we goe to it to the House of bread this bread and come away without it Shall we forsake our Guide leading us to a place so much for our benefit Luk. 17.37 Vbi Domine was the Apostles question and His answer Vbi corpus ibi aquilae where the bodie is there the eagles will be Let it appeare we are so For here is the Bodie Els doe we our duty to Him but by halves For as our duty to Dux is to be led So our duty to qui pascet is to be fed by Him To end And thus ducendo pascit and pascendo ducit leading He feeds us and feeding He leads us till He bring us whither Even to A principio backe againe to where we were at the beginning and at the beginning we were in Paradise That our beginning shall be our end Thither He will bring us Nay to a better estate then so to that wherevnto even from Paradise we should have been translated to the State of aeternitie to the ioyes and ioyfull dayes there even to glorie ioy and blisse aeternall To which He bring us even our blessed Guide that this day was in Bethlehem borne to that end IESVS CHRIST the Righteous A SERMON PREACHED before the KINGS MAIESTIE at White-hall on Wednesday the XXV of December A. D. MDCXVI being CHRIST-MASSE day PSAL. LXXXV VER X.XI. Misericordia Veritas obviaverunt sibi Iustitia Pax osculatae sunt Veritas de terra orta est Iustitia de coelo prospexit Mercie and Truth shall meet Righteousnesse and Peace shall kisse one another Truth shall budde out of the earth and Righteousnesse shall looke downe from Heaven I Have here read you two Verses out of this Psalme which is one of the Psalmes selected of old by the Primitive Church and so still reteined by ours as part of our Office or Service of this day As being proper and pertinent to the matter of the Feast and so to the Feast it selfe For the meeting here specified
on Him then and these He made choise of then and for ever to be the vertues of this Feast The sooner and the better to procure this meeting the Church meets us as Melchisedek did Abraham with bread and wine but of a higher nature then his farr prepares ever this day a love-feast whereat they may the rather meet Where Truth from the earth may looke up to heaven and confesse and Righteousnesse from heaven may looke downe to earth and pardon where we may shew Mercie in giving where need is and offer Peace in forgiving where cause is that so there may be an obviaverunt a meeting of all hands And even so then let there be So may our end be as the end of the First Verse in peace and as the end of the Second in Heaven So may all the blessings that came to mankind by this meeting or by the birth of CHRIST the cause of it meet in us and remaine upon us till as we now meet together at the Birth So we may then meet in a perfect man in the measure of the fulnesse of the age of CHRIST Eph. 4.13 As meet now at the LAMBES yeaning so meet then at the LAMBE marriage be caught up in the cloudes then to meet Him 1. Thâ—s 4.17 and there to reigne for ever with Him in His Kingdome of GLORIE A SERMON PREACHED before the KINGS MAIESTIE at White-hall on Fryday the XXV of December A. D. MDCXVIII being CHRIST-MASSE day LVK. II. VER XII XIII Et hoc erit vobis Signum c. And this shall be a Signe vnto you ye shall find the Childe swadled and layed in a cratch And streightway there was with the Angell a multitude of heavenly souldiers praising GOD and saying Glorie be to GOD on high c. OF these three verses the points be two 1 The Shepheards Signe and 2 the Angells Song The Signe is a remaine of Angelus ad pastores the Angells speech to the Shepheards We called it as the Angell himselfe called it a Sermon Evangelizo the word he vseth is to preach Of which Sermon there are two parts 1 His Birth the verse before 2 His Finding in this For this is a double Feast not onely the Feast of His Nativitie but the Feast of His Invention also Therefore the Angell makes not an end with unto you is borne but tells them further It is not enough CHRIST is borne but to take benefit by His Birth we are to find Him Natus est His part Invenietis ours Of natus est somewhat hath formerly been said Invenietis now followes and followes well For what is Natus est without Invenietis Such a one there is borne what shall we be the better if we find Him not As good not borne as not knowne To us all one Nobis nascitur cum a nobis noscitur Borne He may be before but nobis natus to us He is borne when to us He is knowne when we find Him and not before CHRISTVS inventus is more then CHRISTVS natus Set downe invenietis then first Invenietis leads us to Hoc erit Signum For how shall they find Him without a Signe So come we from CHRISTVS natus to CHRISTVS signatus Natus borne to be found Signatus signed or marked that He may be found Borne He is that they know And when they know hodiè And where they know in Bethlehem To Bethlehem they will but when they come there how then In such resort the towne so full of strangers as no roome in the Innes whither should they turne them What could they wish but O quod erit Signum Natus est ô that He were Signatus O that we had a signe to find Him by Their wish is honest and good And pitie The Division any that seeks CHRIST should want a signe to find Him by the Angell will not suffer that But before he end his speech he takes order for their Signe and This it is When ye come to Bethlehem never search in any house or chamber In a stable there shall you finde a Babe swadled and laid in a manger You would little think it but that is He. And so Signo dato this Signe given the Sermon ends For to find CHRIST is all All in all A Sermon would have an Antheme of course It hath so And one suitable if it might be An Angell preached it and no man It would be a Queer of Angells and not of men to sing it So it is Gloria in excelsis all the Fathers call it Hymnum Angelicum the Angells Hymne or Antheme This is set downe in the two later verses the 1 Queer that sing it in the former the 2 Song it selfe the dittie of it so in the later 1. The Queer in it five 1. Who That there were certaine heavenly Personages first 2. In what habit that in the habit of souldiers to see to 3. What number that a great multitude of them 4. What they did That they tooke up this Hymne and fell on praising GOD. 5. And fiftly When That they did it instantly upon the speech ended The Song That consists of three streines There are in it 1 GOD 2 Earth and 3 Men these three first And then three to these three 1 Glorie 2 Peace 3 Good-will Each sorted to other 1 Glorie to GOD 2 Peace to the Earth 3 To Men a Good-will So have you the Signe and the Song the one to ballance or counterpeize the other the Song to sing away the Signe to make amends for the manger The Signe very poore and meane the Song exceeding high and heavenly Paupertas in imis the Signe povertie at the lowest Gloria in excelsis the Song Glorie at the highest That well might Leo ask Quis est iste puer tam parvus tam magnus What Child is this so little and so great withall Tam parvus ut in praesepi jaceat Tam magnus ut Ei coâ—cinant Angeli So little as He lyes in a cratch So great though as He hath Angells to sing to Him the whole Queer of heaven to make Him melodie It is a course this the HOLY GHOST began it heer at His Birth and after observed it all along Sociare ima summis insolita solitis temperare to couple low and high together and to temper things mean and vsuall with others as strange every way Out of these we shall learne 1 First what our dutie is To find CHRIST The Angell presupposes this that being borne we will not leave till we have found Him till we can say it was the first word of the first Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have found Ioh. 1.41 found the MESSIAS Invenietis by all means to find CHRIST 2 Then how to find Him at what Signe 3 And last when we have found Him how to salute Him with what words to praise GOD for Him For Him both for His Birth and for His Invention All considered His invention to us no lesse behoofull then
those will make that our joy no man shall take from us â—HIS is the Day This Why are not all daies made by Him I. Of the Day Such daies there be Is there any daies 〈◊〉 made by Him Why then say we This is the day the Lord hath made Divide 〈◊〉 the daies into naturall and civill the naturall some are cleere and some are cloudie 〈◊〉 some are luckie daies and some dismall Be they faire or foule gladd or sadd 〈◊〉 Poet calleth him the Great Diespiter the Father of daies hath made them both 〈◊〉 we then of some one day above his fellow This is the Day c 〈◊〉 difference at all in the dayes or in the moneths themselves by nature they are 〈◊〉 No more in November then another moneth nor in the fifth then in the 〈◊〉 All is in GOD'S making For as in the Creation we see all are the workes 〈◊〉 a plaine difference betweene them for all that in the manner of making Some 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sit Lett there be light a firmament drie land Some with â—aciamus Gen. 1.14.26 〈◊〉 â—ore adoe greater forecast and framing as man that master-peece of His works 〈◊〉 therefore in a different sense it may be said This is the Creature which GOD 〈◊〉 made suppose after a more excellent manner In the very same manner it is 〈◊〉 daies All are His making all aequall in that but that letteth not but He may 〈◊〉 a speciall Faciamus upon some one day more then other and so that day by 〈◊〉 prerogative said To be indeed a Day that GOD hath made 〈◊〉 for GOD'S making it fareth with daies as it doth with yeares Some yeare 〈◊〉 the Psalme GOD crowneth with His goodnesse maketh it more seasonable Psal. 65.11 〈◊〉 fruitfull then other And so for dayes GOD leaveth a more sensible 〈◊〉 of His favour upon some one more then many besides by doing upon it 〈◊〉 mervailous worke And such a day on which GOD vouchsafeth some speciall 〈◊〉 est some great and publique Benefit notable for the time present memorable 〈◊〉 the time to come in that case of that Day as if GOD had said Faciamus diem 〈◊〉 shewed some worke-manship done some speciall cost on it it may with an â—ccent with an emphasis be said This verily is a Day which GOD hath made in comparison of which the rest are as if they were not or at least were not of His â—â—king As for blacke and dismall dayes dayes of sorrow and sadd accidents they are and 〈◊〉 be counted saith Iob for no dayes Nights rather Iob. 3.3.6 as having the shadow of death 〈◊〉 them or if dayes such as his were which Sathan had marrd then which GOD 〈◊〉 made And for common and ordinarie daies wherein as there is no harme so not 〈◊〉 notable good we rather say they are gone forth from GOD in the course of nature 〈◊〉 were with a fiat then made by Him specially with a faciamus So evill dayes no 〈◊〉 or daies marrd and common daies daies but no made daies Only those made 〈◊〉 crowned with some extraordinarie great Favour and thereby gett a dignitie and 〈◊〉 above the rest exempted out of the ordinarie course of the Calendar with 〈◊〉 est Such in the Law was the Day in the Passe over made by GOD Exod. 12.2 the head 〈◊〉 yeare Such in the Gospell of CHRIST 's Resurrection made by GOD Dies 〈◊〉 and to it do all the Fathers applie this verse And we had this day our 〈◊〉 over and we had a Resurrection or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Isaac had But Heb. 11.19 I forbeare to goe 〈◊〉 in the generall By this that hath beene said we may see there be daies of 〈◊〉 it may be safely said This is the day c and in what sense it may be said Such 〈◊〉 then that this of ours one of them that if it be we may so hold it and 〈◊〉 that pertaine to it II. David's day was such David's day heere was one certainely dictante Spiritu and they that are like it to be holden for such so that if oâ—râ— be as this was it is certainely dies à Deo factus Now then to take our rule from the former verse Factum Domini facit diem Domini It is GOD 's deed that maketh it GOD 's day and the greater the Deed the more GOD 's day There must be first Factum est some doing and secondly it must be à Domino He the doer and thirdly that somewhat must be somewhat mervailous and fourthly not in it selfe so but in our eyes These foure goe to it these foure make any day a day of GOD 's making Let us see then these foure First in David's heere and then in our owne and if we finde them all boldly pronounce This is the Day c. In it there was 1 A factum est A deâ—â—â—erancâ— First the factum est in David's what was done sett downe at large in the fore-part of the Psalme It was a deliverance all the Psalme runneth on nothing els Every deliverance is from a danger and by the danger we take measure of the deliverance The greater that the greater the Deliverie from it and the greater the Deliverie the greater the Day From danger and the more likely to be of GOD 's owne manufacture His danger first Verse 10.11.12 what should have been done He was in a great distresse Three severall times with great passion he repeats it that his Enemies 1 came about him 2 compassed him round 3 compassed and kept him in on every side were no swarme of bees so thicke That they gave a terrible lift or thrust at him Verse 13. to overthrow him and verie neere it they were And at last as if he were newly crept out of his grave out of the very jawes of death and despaire he breakes forth and saith I was very neere my death neere it I was Verse 17. but non morâ—ar Die I will not now for this time but live a little longer to declare the workes of the LORD This was his danger and a shrewd one it seemeth it was From this danger he was delivered This the factum est 2. A Domino By GOD not by man But man might do all this and so it be man's day for any thing is said yet Though it were great it maketh it not GOD 's unlesse GOD GOD I say and not man but GOD himselfe were the Doer of it and if He the Doer He denominates the Day This then was not any mans not any Prince's doing but GOD 's alone His might His mercie Verse 8.9 that brought it to passe Not any arme of flesh but GOD 's might not of any merit of His but of His owne meere mercie This was done by His might Thrise he tells us of it It was the right hand of the Lord that brought this mightie thing to passe This was done by His
them We have formerly moved and resolved the question out of the Gospell we have once or twise called to joy out of the Psalmeâ— The barbarousnesse of the act and the parties to it hath been iustly inveighed against A time given to each of these And shall we not allow one day to the magnifying of Him and His mercies that was the cause of all It should have had the first day by right Psal 145.9 and we were pointed to it by Misericordia Domini super omnia opera Ejus Well at last now in this seventh yeare this annus Sabbaticus let us make it our Sabboth rest upon it and put it of no longer Be this day dedicated to the celebrating of them To this end though all the Scripture over GOD 's mercie be much spoâ—en of for where shall ye light but ye shall finde it upon one occasion or other yet to fitt this day and our case as it fell out this day in my poore conceipt none in any other booke falleth out so just commeth so home as this verse to this day It was the mercies c. as upon the opening will fall out Which though it be in the booke yet is nothing of the nature of the booke The Summe and Division The verse is a Recognition or acknowledgement I may add a just and joyfull recognition And that double 1 That we were not consumed and 2 Why we were not So it standeth on two parts 1 That we were not a happie effect 2 Why we were not it was GOD 's mercie the cause of that and all other our happinesse The effect is in these words Non sumus consumpti Of which 1 Consumpti is the danger and 2 Non sumus the deliverance The cause in these words Misericordiae Domini quòd non And there first 1 Non we were not 2 And then there was a cause quòd non that we were not 3 Then that cause was GOD 's mercie 1 Which we take in sunder It was GOD first that did it 2 Then it was His mercie that moved Him to it In the mercie three things we finde 1 Misericordiae more then one many mercies 2 Compassions or as the native signification of the word is bowells the bowells of mercie that speciall kind 3 And those have this propertie they faile not or which is all one consume not not they and so not we Their not consuming is the cause we were not consumed Then last our Recognition That seeing His mercies faile not us that we faile not them seeing they consume not nor we by their meanes that our thankfullnesse doe not neither that it fall not into a consumption But that in imitation of the three we render him 1 plurall thankes 2 and these from the bowells and 3 that uncessantly without failing And this not in words onely but in some realitie some worke of mercie tending to preserve those that are neere consumpti pyning away Plaine it is a danger there was Els vaine were the Recognition I. The Effâ—ct That danger is sett downe in the word Consumpti some consuming there should have beene 1. The danger some such matter was in hand A word even as it were of purpose chosen for us for iâ— forteth just with our danger as may be Consuming may be more waies then one but no way so proper Consumpti igâ—â— as by the element of â—ire Confector consumptor omnium saith the Heathen man that makes away and consumes all things It is the proper peculiar Epithete of that Element Consuming fire and the common phrase of the Holy Ghost is consumed by fire This fitts us right Heb 12.29 Luk 9.54 2 Con-sumpti i. Simul sumâ—tâ— â— Personally Fire it was consuming fire should have consumed us it was a fierie consumption Then Con-sumpti in proprietie is nothing but simul sumpti Con is simul in composition All taken all put together and an end made of all And was it not so with us King and Prince Lords Spirituall and Temporall Iudges Knights Citizens Burgesses and a great number besides of spectators and auditors that day out of all the flower of the Kingdome all couped up together under one roofe and then blowen up all This is simul sumpti and consumpti both Will ye any more for companie This was but personall take the reall too lead stone â— Really timber windowes walls roofes foundations and all must have up too an universall desolation of all both personall and reall That the stone out of the wall Habac. 2.11 and the beame out of â—â—e frame if they could speake might say and we are in simul sumpti and consumpti too all layd wast not one stone standing upon another This was right consumpti Matt. 24.2 spent indeed where nothing left person or things with life or without utter havock made of all Thus farre might Ieremie goe and match us in these three I will touch two or three more beyond him that we may see our case should have beene more lamentable then the booke of lamentations it selfe 1. There was no fire in Ieremie's time none but of wood and cole and no consuming but that way and that fire consumes by degrees peece and peece one peece fire while one is wood still so that one may save a brand's end for a need But this was a 〈◊〉 Ieremie never knew of nor many ages after was ever heard of takes all at once No brand heere no pulling out of the fire no saving any heere is quicke worke Zach. 3.2 all done â—â—d past as soone as the paper burnt â— Another In this of the Prophet's they had faire warning There was a campe â—â—â—ched three severall times in Iehoiakim Iechonias Zedechia's daies they had time to â—â—ke themselves readie But in ours facti essemus sicut Sodoma our destruction had bâ—ene like that of Sodome no camp pitched there but sodainly in a moment Ron. 9.29 to the hazard of many a soule that were I doubt me but evill prepared if they had beene 〈◊〉 sodainly surpâ—ised And that had been a lamentable consumpti indeed of both â—â—die and soule the body heer the soule eternally A terrible blow indeed and we â—â—â—uld not have knowen who would have hurt us 3. Now we doe as hap is and therein we leave Ieremie behind againe It was 〈◊〉 open enemie offered this Vsually destruction commeth from them So did this 〈◊〉 Text from the Chaldees not onely strangers but in open hostilitie with the 〈◊〉 But in ours they were not so much as strangers but borne subjects of one and 〈◊〉 same countrie tongue and allegiance The more lamentable to be consumed by 〈◊〉 sâ—lves to be shott through with an arrow the feathers whereof grew on our owne 〈◊〉 So they were naturally but when they fell once to this unnaturall designe 〈◊〉 â—hen they fell on consuming they were no longer men all humanitie was quite 〈◊〉 in them And this was the danger To
Text 1 Destruction 2 ruine 3 repente and â—uis scit Let us feare those foure and fearing them persist as we have done hitherto in the feare of God and the King and ever feare to have to do or to deale with them that feare neither So I pray GOD we may and that this may be the fruict even our fruict And His blessing upon that hath beene spoken that we may live and die Timentes Deum Regem ever pure from this mixture and so GOD make Vs all A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE KING'S MAIESTIE AT WHITE-HALL ON THE V. of NOVEMBER Anno Domini MDCXV PSAL. CXLV VER IX Suavis DOMINVS universis Miserationes Ejus super omnia opera Ejus The LORD is good to all and His mercies are over all His workes TEN yeares it is now since our memorable deliverie as upon this day And we heere to celebrate not the Anniversarie onely but the Decennalia of it Now in numbering it is well knowne that at ten we beginne anew at the figure of one we returne againe ever to the first So do we now For this was the first Misericordiae DOMINI super opera Ejus We shall never forget it so many of us as then heard it that it was the first that it was thought and that Authore magno to be the fittest theme of all wherewith to beginne the first solemne thanksgiving of all for the great Mercie of GOD and for the great Worke of that Mercie this Day shewed upon us all To this then the first every way the first may I crave pardon to put to my poore cipher and make it ten this tenth yeare So as it was the first fruits it may be the tenth So they may be as they should be Primitiae Decimae de eodem both out of one and the same It led us at the very first whither first and last we must come to the true Cause of thâ—â— our Deliverie of that and of all other we have had or ever shall have the Super 〈◊〉 of His Mercies That deliverance when it came it came not temerè it had a cause That cause was 〈◊〉 and in GOD His Mercie It was the mercie of God we were not consumed Lamen 3.22 so said â—e then out of Ieremie at the seventh yeare That mercie of His that is super omâ—â—â— So say we now out of David at the tenth For this is King David and that way not unfitt neither As written first by a King applied since by a King in the case of saving a King and a Kingdome Or rather one King but more Kingâ—omes then one It was then spoken to the praise And it is a prayse and it is out of a praise For so is this Psalme intitled David's Prayse For howsoever the prayers and the prayses all in this Booke are for the most part of David's penning yet two there are he hath singled out from the rest and set his owne marke on them as proper to himselfe The LXXXVI Psalme his Tephilla David's owne Prayer And this heere his Tehilla his owne Praise or thanksgiving As if he had made the rest for all in common but reserved these peculiarly for himselfe With Exultabo te DEVS it beginnes He will exalt God Every day and for ever so he vowes in the two first verses For what will He exalt Him For many high perfections in Him For the greatnesse of His Nature which is infinite at the third For the greatnesse of His wonderous workes the fourth for His glorious Majestie the fifth For His mightie Power the sixt For His Goodnesse subdivided into His Iustice and Mercie For His Iustice the seventh And for his Mercie the eighth And heere now in the ninth in this verse and these very words He setts the Super omnia the crowne and garland as it were on Mercie 's head gives it the Sovereigntie â—ver all Exaltabo Te God He will exalt and Exaltabo in Te in GOD He will exalt His mercie above all the rest Vpon the matter then all is as we said but a praise of Mercie And a praise The Summe not positivè that is not so effectuall but by way of comparison held ever the better In a comparison ever three points we looke to 1. With whom it is made With the workes of God 2. How large it is laid Not with some one or more but with them all all commers as they say 3. And in what In the point of Super in that there is so much adoe about the point of Supremacie whither above whither Superiour to other Two things of God there are sett downe 1 His Mercies and 2 His Workes these two compared Compared in the point of Super and Mercie found to carrie it Her 's the Supremacie All His Workes high all great all all excellent But major â—â—rum Misericordia the highest greatest most excellent of them all Mercie that the Super omnia of them all Of these then First of the words as they stand in order The Division Then of Mercie 's Super and that three waies 1 Super above So we read it 2 Super over So the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 Super upon So we pray Fiat misericordia super nos Let thy mercie be upon us 1. Super above it may be as a Spire is and not reflect downe and be over 2. Super over it may be and hoover aloft not descend or come downe upon us 3. But Super upon is it when it lights upon us that is Fiat misericordia super nos And of these 1 as well for Mercie 's honour that is over them 2 as for the good of â—he Workes that are under it Then come we to a Super in this Super. Vpon some of God's works more then other 〈◊〉 And so to our selves And so to this day For sure this Scripture if it be well looked unto doth competere agree to no case so as it doth to ours Nor to ours as this day We are His workes once and those Mercies of His heere said to be over all His workes have beene over and upon us Vpon us in LXXXVIII and many other times but above all other most sensibly this day this day of all dayes And that with such a Super in so high a degree in such so great a Mercie so great a Worke of Mercie as great as ever was eny In Saving so gâ—eat a number from so strange and unheard of a crueltie by a Mercie super omnia I may say from a crueltie Super omnia I am sure Then lastly what we are in Super to GOD for this Super. Where 1 of the Super upon the head of all GOD 's Workes for these His Mercies thus over them 2 And of all His Workes and above them all of the Super remaining upon our heads for diverse besides but for this Day and this Worke Super omnia Above all the Daies we ever saw Above all the workes He ever wrought for us And it is
〈◊〉 â—ruth and confesse But Thy Saints let them speake all good and blesse Thee highly bleâ—â—â— Thee for this thy high mercie of all other upon them as of all other they have â—ost cause to doe To elevate it one degree one Super more For I know not how but you shall observe that even among the faithâ—â—ll even among them GOD singles out some one People still from the rest that He makes of above the rest and vouchsafes His speciall favour upon more then the rest though Christen men as well as they and no reason in the world to be given of it but the Super of His Mercie It was ever so Some Nation Psal. 147.20 of whom it might be said Non taliter fecit omni Nationi He hath not dealt so with every Nation Nay Non omni is nulli He hath not dealt so with eny Nation Some of whom it might be said Of all the people in the Earth I have chosen you to come neerest you to vouchsafe you my chiefest my choisest mercies Super omnes Not in matters onely pertaining to the soule in which all Christians are interessed alike but even in the things perteining to the course of this life secular as we call them and temporall In them too And in both is better then one alone In saving that way with the salvation the King rejoyceth in 21. Psalme saving them from plotts and practises even against their worldly prosperitie from Achitophel's plotts from Absalom's Vow and such like III. Our Super in this Super. And now to our Super. For may not we thinke you reckon our selves in all in this last above all His workes first so are all His creatures His chiefe workmanship so are other men His workmanship in CHRIST so are other Christians But above all these His Non taliter For if we be not very dim-sighted without eny perspective glasse we may see such mercies and favours of His Super upon our selves as sure the nations round about us have not seene and I think I may say not eny nation on the Earth seene the like Many waies might this be made appeare and many daies brought to give us light to it But let all els passe in silence this Day this fift of November is instar omnium Nay is super omnes before beyond above them all to elevate to us this point of the tender mercies of our GOD Luk. 1.78 wherby this Day sproong from on high did visit us This Day I say enough and enough to bring from all our mouthes that it brought from His Majestie 's and that with admiration Misericordiae Dei super omnia opera Ejus And the Confiteantur and the Benedicant of right belonging to it 1. The Mercie of Ne inducas We right now divided His workes we will now divide His Mercies That do we according to their Object which is miserie And that is double 1 For either it is already upon us and we in it 2 Or but over us yet so over us as we are within the shadow of death Luk. 1.79 at the very pit's brinke as they say and even now readie to be tumbled in To quirt us of these two there is a double mercie they follow at the fourteenth verse 1 Erigit lapsos 2 Sustinet labantes Lifts up them that be down Staies them that be going down There is a Super in these too 1 One of them the better which our Pater-noster will teach us Ne inducas first and then Libera Better lead us not in then deliver us out If we are in deliver us but better never come in at all Ionas was delivered So was Ninive Ninive's was better they came not in then Ionas his he was in but got out That of Libera GOD send us too if ever we shall need it and send it all them that at this present do But yet give me the mercie of Ne inducas let it not light let it passe over the Passe-over that is the memorable Deliverie that the high Feast And that was the Super vpon us And it behoved so to be We were not in It came not to that thanke Mercie for it If it had it had been past with us past Liberia that other mercie could have done us no good If it had not been praevenisti post-venisti had come too late For if in never out more This our first Super. 2. The Mercie of Libera from a crueltie close to us But being not in we were as neere it as neere might be and scape it Over it was nay it was rather under us then but all is one Super or Subter either will serve heer that Subter would have ended in a Super sent us up high enough I wote well therefore we will keepe the word of the Text Super let it goe First when it was contrived Over us it was then when it was set in hand Over us yet more but when it came to parâ—ta sunt omnia all ready for the match and the match for it for so neere it came then it was over us I trow hard over us and then to â—â—ape it when it was even in a manner ready to seise on us that is another Super for tâ—en to scape it that doth us the more good ever and that is ever praised for the â—â—â—eriour deliverance The second Super. Specially if you add the third that when it was so neer to us and we to it 3 And close from us it was not so close by us as close from us we knew it not And none so miserable as they that are so and know not they are so Nay think it clean otherwise The Laodicean miserie that we say is of all other the most wofull Tu dicis quod Thou saist Apoc. 3.17 thou â—rt this and thou art that safe and sure and happie and behold thou art none of â—ll these but even â—hen when thou sayest it miserable and even in the jawes of death Ier. 6.24 That is the miserie that comes as the throwes of a woman in travaile as the flood upon the old world as the fire upon the five Cities And that was our case right they in the dayes of Noe they in the dayes of Lot Mat. 24.37 Luke 17.26.28 never reckoned lesse of the flood or the fire over them then we of the powder under us And I blame us not Who would not have thought himselfe safe in that place who that he might not have troden on that threshold that floore without danger If safe at all if any where there It is the Asylum the surest place one would think in all the land 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where our greatest trust there our danger most deadly and that is ever the super of all miseries Being then so over us or under us under us and neer us neer us and we not aware of it so neer Psal. 124.3 that they made full account I say not as the Psalme to
works Psalme 91.13 Psalme 110.1 with Super Aspidem et Basiliscum to tread upon them to make His enemies His footstoole and so a Super Over them too And now we have set Mercie in her Chariot of triumph In which if ever she sate IIII. The Super of our Duety she sate in the Super omnia of this Day Let us now come to the last Super the Super of â—â—ety remaining upon the head of all God's works for His mercie over them all but â—mong them all and above them all upon our heads if it were but for the sovereigne Mercie of this Day what we are in Super to GOD for it The Super upon all GOD 's works followes in the words next ensuing From his works a Verse 10. Confiteantur Are His mercies over all his works Why then b Verse 21. O all ye works of the Lord all flesh Psal. 150.6 every thing that hath breath but chiefly his chiefe worke the sonns of men d Psal. 117.1 the nations and the kindreds of the earth come all to confession all ow this to confesse at least Confesse what Nothing but mercie and the Super of the Mercie Nothing but that it is as it is do but as God doth exalt it place it where He setts it Let the deep say it is over me and the drie land say it is over me and so of the rest every one so many works so many confessions There is a further Super upon His Saints they owe more to Him then His ordinarie works His works but to confesse His Saints to confesse and blesse both From his Sainâ—s Verse 10. Psal. 65.1 They are double works needle-worke on both sides more becomes them Te decet hymnus in Sion Both to confesse it is above all and to blesse and praise it above all For if it be above all it followes more praise is to come to Him for it then for all If Mercie above all the praise of His mercie above the praises of all There is a further Super yet upon us that have found and felt the Super of it From Vt. the Non taliter say I above works and Saints both All are bound but we that are heer suâ—er omnes more then all we We that should have been Martyrs of Satan's crueltie it stands us in hand to be Confessors of God's Mercie as to which we owe even our selves our selves and our safetie safetie of soules and bodies every one of us Then let the King Queen and Prince let all the three Estates let the whole Land delivered by it from a Chaos of confusion let our soules which he hath held in life let our bodies which He hath kept together from flying in pieces let all think on it think how to thank him for it say and sing and celebrate it above all We above all for it above all For if ever Mercie were over worke of His if ever Worke of His under it directly it was so over us and we so under it this Day If ever of any it might be avowed or to any applied If ever any might rightly and truely upon good and just cause say or sing this verse we of this land may do both It will fitt out mouthes best best become us For such a Worke did He shew on us this Day as if Mercie have a Super omnia of other this may claime a Super omnia of it of Mercie it selfe His Mercie is not so high â—bove the rest of His works as this Daye 's Worke high above the works of it That supreme to all this supreme to it Mercie in it even above it selfe We then that have had such a Super in this Super we of all others nay more then 〈◊〉 others to have it yet more specially recommended A bare confession will not sâ—rve but the highest confession of all to take the Oath of the Supremaciâ— of it We if â—ver any to say it and sweare it if it had not been in sovereigne manner over some of His works that is our selves we had beene full low yet this infra infimâ—s beneath under all his workes not now above ground to speake and to heare of this theme Let it then claime the supremacie in our Confiteantur and in our Benedicant both â—bove works Saints and all And that not mentally or verbally alone in heart â—o to hold and in tongue so to report it but which is worth all really in worke so to eâ—presse it I meane as our thanks for His mercie above all our thanks so our works of Mercie above all our works But be they so His are so are ours I would to God â— could say they were but sure they are not His mercie above all his works With 〈◊〉 in this point it is cleane contrarie all our works above our mercie The least the last the lowest part of our workes are our workes of mercie the fewest in number the poorest in value the slightest in regard Indeed infra omnia with us they But sure GOD in thus setting it above all his workes sheweth He would have it with us so too That which is Super omnia Ejus to be Super omnia nostra as above all His so above all ours likewise And CHRIST our SAVIOVR would have it so His Estote Luc. 6.36 is Estote misericordes and how not barely Estote but Estote sicut Pater vester coelestis Mercifull as He. And how is He So as with Him it is above all To imitate Him then in this let it be highest with us as with Him it is highest Sure we are not right till it be with us so too As in GOD 's so in ours above ours above them all That so it may have the Supremacie in Confiteantur in Benedicant in praise â—nd thankes in words and workes and all To sett of the Super of this day then and to conclude If the generalitie of His works confesse Him for theirs and the specialitie of his Saints blesse Him for theirs what are we to doe how to confesse how to blesse for the singular Mercie of this Day and let all others goe Psal. 71.8 Sure our mouthes to be filled with praise as the Sea and our voice in sounding it out as the noise of his waves and we to cover the heavens with praise as with clouds for it But we are not able to praise Thee ô Lord or to extoll thy Name for one of a thousand Nay not for one of the many millions of the great Mercies which thou hast shewed upon us and upon our children How often hast thou ridd us from Plague freed us from Famine saved us from the Sword from our enemies compassing us round from the Fleet that came to make us no more a people Even before this Day we now hold before it and since it have not Thy compassions withdrawen themselves from us But this Day this Day above all daies have they shewed it Super omnia
and not over but upon us Wherefore the powers thou hast distributed in our soules the breath of life thou hast breathed into our nosthrills the tongues thou hast put into our mouthes behold all these shall breake forth and confesse and blesse and thanke and praise and magnifie and exalt Thee and Thy mercie for ever Yea every mouth shall acknowledge Thee Every tongue be a trumpet of Thy praise Every eye looke up Every knee bow Every stature stoope to Thee and all hearts shall feare Thee And all that is within us Even our bowells Those our bowells that but for Thee had flowen we know not whether Even our bones those bones that but for it had been shivered bone from bone one from another all shall say Who is like unto Thee ô Lord in Mercie Who is like unto Thee glorious in holinesse fearefull in praise doing wonders wonders of Mercie as this Day upon us all to be held by us and our posteritie in an everlasting remembrance Glorie be to thee ô Lord glorie be to Thee Glorie be to Thee and glorie be to Thy Mercie the Supeâ— omnia the most glorious of all thy great high Perfections Glorie be to Thee and glorie be to it To it in Thee and To Thee for it And that by all thy works in all places and at all times And of all Thy works and above them all by us heer by the â—earts and lungs of us all in this place this day for this Day for the Mercie of this day for the Meâ—cie of it above all mercies and for the Worke of this day above all the works of it And not this day only but all the daies of our life even as long as Thy mercie endureth Psal. 136.1 and that endureth for ever for ever in this world for ever in the world to come Per through the Cisterne and Conduit of all Thy mercies IESVS CHRIST A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE KING'S MAIESTIE AT WHITE-HALL ON THE V. of NOVEMBER Anno Domini MDCXVI ESAI CHAP. XXXVII VER III. Venerunt filij usque ad partum virtus non est pariendi The children are come to the birth and there is not strength to bring forth I Have taken this piece and no more More I could not you see It will not fitt our turne or this day the fore-end of the verse This is a day of trouble rebuke blasphemie cannot we say We must say This is a day not of trouble but of joy not of rebuke but of praise not of blasphemie but of thanksgiving with us And so may we say too and yet keepe these words for our ground still Nothing letts but that one and the same day may be both a day of Ioy and of Sorrow They that have the day and they that lose the day the day is but one but to the winner a Ioyfull day to the loser not so but a day â—f Sorrow and of blasphemie otherwhile And so was this day a day of Sorrow to 〈◊〉 they might have taken up the whole verse as it stands those I meane that do what they can must be faine to father the children that this day were comming but 〈◊〉 not forth That they came not forth the want of strength to be delivered made it to them a day of Sorrow some say of blasphemie too Not so to us To us a day 〈◊〉 â—raise and thankes that they lost their so looked for and longed for children that thâ—y were not borne who if they had been borne would have been the bane of us all 〈◊〉 then as this â— day So this a verse of joy The Summe The words are in Hebrew of the nature of a Proverbe and used by them as a By-word upon the defeating of eny plott Not every defeating but thâ—n when a plott is cunningly contrived and closely followed and is neere brought to the very point to be done yet not done though but defeated even then then take they up this Proverbe and say Venerunt c. And two waies take they it up thereafter as the designe is If it be bad yet well layed and well seconded and for all that in the end disappointed then utter they it cheerefully Aha the children c but as GOD would c by way of gratulation But if good and for a while come fairely forward but in the end prove to nothing then take they it up with a sigh Alas the children c. It â—annot be denied but good King Ezekiah whos 's the words are spake them heer in some griefe Griefe two waies For 1 first grieved he was to heare how Rabsakeh had raged and raved and spewed out most horrible blasphemies Faigne would he he and his men rather then their lives have been at him for it They were even great with this as it were and the children come to the birth But their strength served them not they durst not give him a word for feare of a further mischiefe if they should provoke him Now there is no more hard and grievous case in the world then when a man shall be forced to heare blaspheming and not be in case to answer it home â— But the King of Ashur his Master was not far of with his forces but at the siege of Libna not past a doozen mile of That Towne not like to hold out long and then have at Ierusalem and they GOD wote but meanely provided to welcome him But a poore remnant to so huge an host So huge as with their very feet they dried up rivers Verse 25. as they went Non erant vires was their case right and this was heere a second griefe For the words though they found as if the Queene or some great Ladie were in child-birth yet no such matter All is spoken by Allegorie and no woman but the State of the Kingdome heer meant And it is no new thing to sett forth States by women The Prophets do it oft Esai's Hephsiba Esay 62.4 Ezek 23.36 Hose 1.6 Esay 47.1 Verse 22. Ezekiel's Ahola and Aholiba Hosee's Loruhamah all shew it Nothing more common with them then the Daughter of Babel for the State of the Chaldaeans the Daughter of Sion for the State of the Iewes And not to women onely but to women with child then specially when there comes eny shrewd plunges upon an Estate Hose 4.12 Filia Sion quasi parturiens Hos. 4.12 Sion is ready to crie out in the Old And in the New the Church then hard bestead is represented by a Woman ready to fall in labour Apoc. 12.2 Apoc. 12.2 And States when they would be delivered of ought would and cannot as it were the throwes of child-birth seeme to be upon them and this Proverbe then not unfitly applied to them Venerunt c. A Woman her time is come and strives to bring forth and cannot not having strength for it this we know is a case of great extremitie we know it by Rachel Gen. 35. by Hophni's wife 1. Sam. 4.
and good resolutions Pitie but they should be so Pitie there should want strength for them Well may they be conceived come well to the birth when they be come thither vigor enough to deliver them and never when they be come so farre to miscarie We may take our light from that It is venerunt filij and filij is the plurall number So more then one many there would be And filij falls well with the word gratiae which lacks the singular No such phrase as Agere gratiam A single thanke was never heard of And both falls well likewise to quit the birth we were quitt of For the barrells were many and full and so would our thanks be Againe they would be filij that is such as children be and children be flesh blood and bone I meane some reall some substantiall thankes Not to travaile as it were with winde with a few words onely which are but aire and into the aire they vanish againe Partus opus ye remember we said before some worke there would be Actio gratiarum somewhat actually done leave some realitie behind it as in a child there is Thus farre like but then a difference Come it would not as did theirs ad partum exclusivè thither and no farther but inclusivè to the birth and from the birth have the blessing of the wombe and of the brests of the wombe to bring it forth of the brests to bring it up till it prooved somewhat worth the while That so we may rejoyce as much in the affirmative of this birth of ours Venerunt et sunt vires as we did in the negative of that of theirs venerunt non erant vires So doing GOD shall againe and againe turne away those birthes if any be in breeding take away all strength from them being bred as to Day He did And give us new occasions daily to bring Him forth praise and thankes for His daily continued mercies in delivering our King our Land Vs and Ours all A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE KINGS MAIESTIE AT WHITE-HALL ON THE V. of NOVEMBER Anno Domini MDCXVII LVC. CHAP. I. VER LXXIV LXXV The VII and VIII Verses of Benedictus Vt sine timore de manu inimicorum nostrorum liberati serviamus Illi In sanctitate justitia coram Ipso omnibus diebus nostris That we being delivered from the hands of our enemies might serve Him without feare Jn holinesse and righteousnesse before Him all the dayes of our life THE children were come to the birth Esay 37.3 The Text the yeere before and there was no strength to deliver them There we left last Their not being delivered was the cause of our being delivered And now I go on And our being delivered was to this end That The end or Vt of this dayes deliverance we being delivered from the hands of our enemies might serve Him c. For I demand Delivered we were as this day why was it Was it that we might stand and cry out of the foulenesse of the fact or stand and inveigh against those monsters that were the Actors in it Was it that we might blesse our selves for so faire an escape Or bestow a piece of an Holy-day on GOD for it And all these we may do And all these we have done and upon good ground all Yet none of these the very Vt nor we â—elivered that we might do these But when all is said that can be said hither we must 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 indeed the Vt finalis the right 〈…〉 proper â—hat 〈…〉 we bethink ourselves how to 〈…〉 〈◊〉 the whole 〈…〉 first word Benedictus There is visited and reâ—â—â—med in the 〈…〉 or a miâ—hty salvation in the next After we saveâ— from them 〈…〉 you shall see that all these suspend still no perfect period till yo◠〈…〉 But at this there is Visited redeemed saved mightily saved why all For no other end but that being so visited redeemed and saved we might wholy addict and give over our selves to the Service of Him who was Author of them all Our delivery froÌ„ the Grand Delivery by Christ. 〈◊〉 well that principally and properly the whole Song referreth to the deliverâ—â—â—â— of deliverances 〈◊〉 finall deliverance from our ghostly enemies and from their fire the fire of â—ell by our Blessed Saviour which was so great as it was able to open the mouth and loose the tongue of a dumb man and make him breake forth into a Benedictus But inasmuch as in every kind the chief giveth the Rule or as we say heer the Vt to all that are from and under it And that ours and all other deliverances that have been or shall be are from and under that of His Our enemies set on by those enemies Ours lighted their match at their fire the fire of hell and so do all others whatsoever The same Vt. therefore is it that this Text aptly may be and usually hath been ever applied to any deliverance from any enemies whatsoever those of LXXXVIII these of this Day the same Vt in all as comming all from the same principium à quo and tending all to the same finis ad quem that heer is set downe 1 The same cause From whence For the principium à quo we have formerly endeavoured to set that streight from whence our deliverance came Even from the goodnesse of GOD yet not expressed under that terme goodnesse but under the terme of mercie as elsewhere As heer but a verse before To performe the mercie And a little after Through the tender mercies of our God Verse 5. Verse 11. Which terme is made choise of for two causes One it includes miserie The other Mercie it excludes merit and so fittest for our turne 1. Goodnesse may be performed to one though in good case Not mercie but to such onely as are in miserie In misericordia there is miseri ever And this to putt us in mind of our case the extreme miserie we had come to but for His mercifull deliverance 2. Againe Goodnesse may be shewed to such as may seeme some way to deserve it So cannot Mercie Lam. 3.22 The Text An. 1612. Psal. 145.9 The Text An. 1615. For but where Merit is wanting Mercie is not pleaded properly These set us right in the principium à quo that we ascribe it not to a wrong cause Out of Ieremie It was the mercie of the Lord that we were not consumed Out of the Psalme That mercie of His that is over all His works 2. The same end Whereto And now to the finis ad quem For we are as easily and no lesse dangerously mistaken in that By Mercie 's meanes without all merit of ours we were not consumed but delivered from so great a miserie so neere us Why were we so Were we liberati to become libertines to set us downe and to eate and to drink healths and rise up and see a play was there no Vt in it Yes what
that was the Gentiles case before this orta est But when the partition wall was broken downe and the two met in one then also in a sense Mercie and Truth met togither So these two And so the other two likewise For Righteousnesse she was where the Law was for that the rule of righteousnesse where the Covenant of the Old Testament was doe this and live the very voice of Iustice But Peace was where CHRIST was in the Gospell Ipse est Pax nostra for He is our Peace Peace and Peace-maker both Qui fecit utrunque unum that hath made the Lawe and the Gospell the Old Testament and the New to be bound togither now both in one volume II. Of this meeting in Christianitie Thus we have done with CHRIST I would now apply this meeting to our selves another while For I aske did this hold did these meet only in CHRIST Doe they not in Christianity likewise Yes there too With CHRIST came Christianitie looke what in His birth now in the new birth of every one that shall be the better by it even the same meeting of the very same vertues all Mercie and Truth first to meet Truth of confession confession of our sinnes which if with figge-leaves we seeke to cover 1. Ioh. 1.8 and confesse not there is no truth in us And some truth there is to be at least this truth or no meeting with Mercie But when this truth commeth forth mercy meeteth it streight Will ye see the meeting Peccavi said DAVID there is truth 2. Sam. 12.13 Transtulit Dominus peccatum saith Nathan there is mercie Mercie and Truth met togither Homo in terris per veritatem stimulatus peccásse se confitebatur Deus in coelis per misericordiam flexus confitentis miserebatur Truth pricked man to confesse his sinnes and Mercy moved God to pitie him confessing and send Mercy to meet Truth Will ye goe on to the other Verse It holds there too this For where a true confession is by man made Veritas de terrâ orta est Truth is budded out of the earth And so it must yer Righteousnesse will give us a good looke from Heaven But will assoone as it is for when this truth springs freely from the earth to our owne condemnation immediatly upon it Righteousnesse shewes her selfe from Heaven to our justification Will ye see this too Luc. 18.14 Lord be mercifull to me a sinner there is Truth from the earth descendit domum suam justificatus there is Righteousnesse from Heaven But will ye marke Here are two truths and in either Verse one This later is the truth of Veritas orta est of CHRISTS Religion And in this treaty it was an article of Inprimis mercy not to meet any but them that professe the truth of CHRISTS birth from the earth Both these were borne togither By and by upon the birth of CHRIST the Truth the other birth also of Christian truth did flourish and spread it selfe all over the earth The whole world before given over and even growne over with Idolatry quite covered with the mist of error and ignorance began then to entertaine the Christian profession and by it to worship God in spirit and truth the true Religion which is never true if it have not this meeting And this meeting it cannot have if it have not the meanes of it ortus veritatis de terrâ The same say we likewise for the Righteousnesse which looked downe and shewed her selfe It was not that of the Lawe which never came past the top of Mount Sinai but a new righteousnesse cast in a new mould a heavenly one which never saw the earth nor the earth it before before this birth which is the righteousnesse of CHRIST reveiled in His Gospell when that Truth sprang this Righteousnesse looked downe upon it Now as this of Mercie and Truth enter us so truth not truth alone but truth with truth's paire with righteousnesse carrie us forward to God Truth is not enough not the truth of Religion never so knowne never so professed not without Righteousnesse Truth is but the light to guide us Righteousnesse is the way to bring us thither A light is to see by A way is to goe in So is righteousnesse It followes streight ponet gressus in viâ Verse 13. Righteoâ—snesse shall set us in the way of His steppes Steppes that is the course of life For scienti by knowledge of the truth and not facienti by the practise of righteousnesse peccatum est illi saith S. Iames Iam 4 17. Luc. 12.44 and plagaemultae saith S. Iames his Master Sinne in that man that severs these two is lesse pardonable and more punishable then in any other And then turne Righteousnesse to Peace and they will not meet barely but more then meet Kisse in signe there is betweene them more then ordinarie affection Fac justitiam habebis pacem Saint Augustine stands much on this Psal. 34.14 Eschew evill and doe good saith he there is Righteousnesse and then seeke Peace and ye shall not be long in seeking it She will come forth her selfe to meet Righteousnesse and kisse her And this he assâ—res us as a certeine signe to know on the one side true righteousnesse for that tends to peace not to questions and brabbles wherof there never will be end So on the other side true peace that kisses righteousnesse comes not togither like Samsons foxes by the tailes by indirect meanes but cleerly and fairly Such meanes Iud. 15.14 as all the world will confesse to be right and good Now marke the order how they stand Mercie leads to Truth and the knowledge of it and Truth to Righteousnesse and the practice of it and Righteousnesse to Peace and the waies of it Guides our feet first into the way of Peace And Luc. 1.79 such a way shall there alwaies be do all the Controversie Writers what they can a faire way agreed upon of all sides questioned by none in which who so orders his steppes aright may see the salvation of our God Even the way heer chalked out before us To shew mercy and speake truth do righteousnesse and follow peace And by this rule proceeding in the points whereto we are come already even those truthes wherein we are otherwise minded would in due time be reveiled unto us This is Zacharies peace and this of his well followed in the end will bring us Simeâ—ns peace Nunc dimittis in pace to be dismissed to depart hence in peace Luc. 2.29 and Pax in novissimo Peace at the latter end is worth all Peace in the end is a blessed end and the beginning of a Peace which never shall have end Mercy our beginning and Peace our end This for the meeting as in CHRIST so in Christianitie or the course of a Christian mans life Now a word for the continuance of this meeting For I aske againe Met they to part By no meanes but
then they wish when they say Glorie be in the highest that high and lowe Heaven and Earth Men and Angells would do their parts to make His praise glorious glorious at the highest On earth sound it out farre and wide all the world over to the ends of the earth Psal. 150.4.5 and lift up our voices and help them with instruments of all kinds and make them to be heard up to the very Heavens that so it may be in altissimis indeed Yea that all creatures in both ravished with the consideration of the great favour and good will of GOD in this daies Birth testified would take occasion to fill their mouthes with the praise of His goodnesse in resolving His wisdome in contriving His mercie in promising His truth in pâ—rforming the worke of this Day the blessed Birth of his Sonne For the worke of the Day to make the day of the worke a glorious day causing it to be attended with a number of daies according to the number of the moneths of the yeare as no Feast els Glorious in all places as well at home with Carolls as in the Church with Anthemes Glorious in all Ages even this day this yeare as on the very day on which He was borne Glorious in habit in fare But specially as we see the Angells here doe with the service of GOD the most solemne service the highest the most melodious Hymnes we have and namely with this heere of the Queere of Heaven In a word all the waies â—e can all the waies God can have any glory from us to let Him have it and have it even at the height in altissimis And good reason we should so wish CHRIST lost His glorie by being thus in the cratch We tooke some from Him to wish Him some for it againe That was ignominia in infimis to wish Him gloria in altissimis in liev of it Againe we get glorie by it our Nature so For the glorie we get by GOD heer below to returne some glorie to GOD there on high This is votum gloriae this wish we when we wish gloria in altissimis The next is votum pacis they wish Peace may be upon earth 2. Peace in Earth 1 Even Augustus his peace first that is the first commeth to our minds when we heare that word the shutting of IANVS for that also was a blessed fruict of this Birth Esay fore-told it There should then be a bridge from Ashur to Egypt Esa 19.23 and from Canaan to them both that is from every nation to other to traffique and to trade togither That but not only that but the taking downe also of the partition wall Eph. 2.14 which formerly MOSES had set up between the Iew and the Gentile the making of them both one in the body of his flesh Saint Pauls peace And yet further For both these are peace upon earth of earth with earth Augustus can the world can give that peace though many times they will not But he speakes in a Place of the peace which the world cannot give that is peace with heaven That there should not be ESAIS bridge only Gen. 28.10 but IACOBS ladder set up from Bethel to heaven a peace-able entercourse with that place by the Angells descending and ascending between us and them And further yet peace at home with our selves and with our owne consciences Psal. 116.7 Turne againe â—o thy rest ô my Soule for in finding Him we shall find rest to our Soules And last to answere Gloria in altissimis Pax in novissimis peace at the parting which is worth all Simeons peâ—ce a good Nunc dimittis in pace Ver. 29. a departing hence in peace And all by meanes of viderunt oculi the sight of the Salvation of this Day All these are in voto pacis The third is there may be in GOD a good-will toward men And 3. Good wil toward men good-will is a kind of Peace but somewhat more with an extent or prorogation a kind of peace peculiar to men which the other parts of the earth are not capable of So a further matter to men then bare peace Even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to thinke well to beare good-will to be well pleased with men And what greater wish can there be then In quo complacitum est CHRIST hath no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is His high glorie Mat. 3.17 that for His and this His births sake which we now celebrate that which is verified of His Person is verified of both His Natures of Him not only as SONNE of GOD but even as SONNE of man too And what is verified of Him as SONNE of man may be verified also of the Sonnes of men of all Mankind This wish is at the highest and more cannot be wished then that this favour to day begunne may still and ever continue to us all So have you now the three parts of the Angells wish Summa votorum Glorie be to GOD. c. What is now to be done Three things more To see the 1 Connexion copulative I. The Connexion copulative Glory Peace 2 the Sequence 3 and the Division 1 The Connexion copulative a blessed couple Glorie and Peace 2 The Sequence but first glorie and then Peace 3 The Division which to which 1 One to GOD 2 The other to earth 3 The third to man Glorie and Peace are coupled togither with an and And in earth peace That Glorie would not be soong alone but Peace togither with it We will not we may not skip the Copulative that couples togither high and low heaven and earth and in them GOD and Man But that which I respect specially Glorie and peace must be soong togither If we sing Glorie without Peace we sing but to halves No Glorie on high will be admitted without Peace upon earth No gift on His altar which is a speciall part of His glorie but lay downe your gift and there leave it Mat. 5.24.55 and first goe your way and make peace on earth and that done come againe and you shall then be accepted to give glorie to heaven and not before And ô that we would go and doe the like have like regard of His glorie that He hath of our peace But this knott of Gloria et Pax is against those that are still ever wrangling with one thing or other and all for the Glorie of GOD forsooth as if these two could not ioyne GOD could not have His glorie if the Church were at peace as if no remedie the Angells Et must out 2. The Sequence Glorie before Peace Glorie and Peace but Glorie first and then Peace There is much in the order Glorie to be first els you change the Cleff the clef is in Glorie that the key of the Song That is to be first and before all Peace to give place to her Glorie is the elder Sister And no Pax in terris vnlesse it be first
not on His too I finde that neither vnder the Law He liked of their motion what should the Temple doe with Cedar neither vnder the Gospell of theirs what should CHRIST 's head doe with Nardus But that to his praise he is recorded in the Old Testament that said 1. Chron. 17. â— Shall I dwell in my seeled house and the Arke of GOD remaine vnder Gotes-skinns And she in the New that thought not her best ointment too good for CHRIST 's head Surely they in Aegypt had their service of GOD it may be in a barne or in some corner of a house Yet when Moses moved a costly Tabernacle no man was found that once said Our fathers served GOD well enough without one Vtquid perditio haec After that many Iudges and Prophets and righteous men were well when they might worship before the Arke yet when Salomon moved a stately Temple never any was found that would grudge and say Why the Arke is enough I pray GOD we serve God no worse then they that knew nothing but a Tent Vtquid perditio haec Only in the dayes of the Gospell which of all other least should there stepps up Iudas and dareth to say that against CHRIST 's Church that no man durst evâ—r either against Mose's Tent or Salomon's Temple And if CHRIST had taken it well or passed it in silence or said Sinite illum suffer Iuda's motion to taâ—e place we might have had some shew But seeing He saith Molestus est to Iudas Sinite illam Suffer Marie to go forward and not that only but Bonum opus too why should any after Iudas be thought worthy the answering Surely as the Gospell in this duty hath and so ought to exceed the Law So in the Gospell we heere and our Country above all other I will but say with Chrysostome Appende Christum ô homo doe but construe these two words In Me aright Peize and prize Who it is Et sufficit It is CHRIST IESVS Who hath not spared to annoint us with His own blood and our soules with all the comforts and graces of His Holy Spirit If toward us neither blood nor life were too deer on His part shall on ours any Nardus be too deere or any cost too much that is on Him bestowed Perhaps our particular will more move us It is CHRIST that created for us Nard and all other delights whatsoever either for vse and necessitie we have or for fruition and pleasure we enjoy It is He that hath enriched us that we be hable to bestow it by this long prosperitie plenty and peace as no other Kingdome vnder heaven Is there any good mind can thinke that this is an indignitie that He is not worthy hath not deserved and double deserved this and ten times more at our hands An extraordinarie conceipt is entred into the world by a new found glosse to make whatsoever we like not or list not to doe our selves exrtraordinarie and so some deeme of this as extraordinarie and whereof no example is to be made No ancient Writer is of that minde Luk. 11.37 but that for us it was written and that Vade tu fac similiter may be written upon her box But be it so Why may not I wish on our parts Let us be extraordinarie For GOD hath not dealt ordinarily with us of this land He hath not beene to us a wildernesse or a barren land but hath even our enemies being Iudges been extraordinarie in His goodnesse toward us all And sure in us ordinarie common thankfullnesse is not enough Shall I sett my selfe to recount His benefits An easy matter to find entrance but when then should I make an end In one I will abbridge them all We spake of ointment Verily CHRIST hath annointed over us and given us a most Gracious Soveraigne by whose happy and blessed reigne we long have and longer may we He grant enioyed both the inward and outward annointing the inward the holy and heavenly comfort of GOD 's truth Psal. 45.7 and true oyle of gladnesse the outward of earthly plenty and delight which Nard or any rich confection may affoord and in a word whatsoever happinesse can fall to any Nation vnder heaven From the holy oyle of whose annointing as the dew of Hermon on Sion Psal. 133.2 and as Aaron's ointment upon the skirts of his clothing there daily droppeth upon this whole Realme pure Nard or if any thing els be more precious whether in these earthly or in those heavenly blessings I speake no more then we all feele This is that one I spake of and in this one is all Even the Lord 's Annointed Whom I make no question but the Lora hath and will more and more blesse for that Her Highnesse hath said as Himselfe said Sinite illam And blessed be GOD that hath putt into her heart so to say to like well of Vtquid perditio but to have it so applied I doubt not but this Heroicall vertue among many others shall make her Scepter long to flourish shall make her remembrance to be in blessing to all posteritie and shall be among other her reioycing in the day of the Lord and an everlasting crowne of glory upon Her head This is that ointment I spake of that it selfe alone may make us all confesse we have received from Christ extraordinarie mercie and are therefor to returne more then ordinarie duty Psal. 147.20 Non taliter fecit omni Nay non taliter fecit ulli populo He hath not dealt so with every Nay not so with any people as with us and therefore not any people to deale so thankfully with Him againe This if it were extraordinarie Howbeit if Antiquitie may be admitted Iudge this as a good worke is to be ordinarie with us Since every thing done in this kinde to Christ's Church only upon a thankfull regard is with them reckoned a dramme of Marie Magdalen's ointment At least if we will not come so farre as operata est we doe yet thus farre favour it as to yield to Sinite illam Seeing Marie Magdalen that gave it paid for it and it never came out of our purse And now this question being thus dilated it is every mans duty saith Theophylact to set downe cujus partis sit whose part he will take whose mind he wil be of Whither with Iudas Perditio est or with CHRIST Bonum opus est whither Potuit vendi or Sinite illam But I trust we will stand to CHRIST'S judgement and rather take part with Him for Marie Magdalen then with Iudas against her that we may be with Marie Magdalen that are of her mind which at the houre of death we all shall desire The entrance I make III. The Dâ—ctâ—â—nâ— 1. That Good wâ—rkâ—s are malâ—gnâ—d From this unhappy conjunction of Marie's good worke and Iuda's evill speech this first consideration offereth it selfe nothing pleasant but wholesome and requisite to be called to mind of all that
thus wounded thus afflicted and forsaken you shall then have a perfect Non sicut And indeed the Pâ—rson is here a weighty circumstance It is thrice repeated Meus Mihi Me and we may not leave it out For as is the Person so is the Passion and any one even the very least degree of wrong or disgrace offered to a Person of excellency is more then a hundred times more to one of meane condition So weighty is the circumstance of the Person Consider then how great the Person was And I râ—st fully assured here we boldly challenge and say Si fuerit sicut Ecce Homo saith Pilate first A man he is as we are And were he but a man Ioâ— 19. â— nay were he not a man but some poore dumb creature it were great ruth to see him so handled as he was A mâ—n saith Pilate and a Iust man saith Pilate's wife Have thou nothing to doe with that Iust Man Mat. 27.19 And that is one degree further For though we pitie the punishment even of Malefactors themselves yet ever most compassion we have of them that suffer and be innocent And he was Innocent â—uc 2â— 14. â—5 Ioh. 14.30 Pilate and Herod and the Prince of this world his very enemies being his Iudges Now among the Innocent the more noble the Person the more heavy the spectacle And never do our bowels yerne so much as over such Alas alas for that noble Prince Ier. 22.18 saith this Prophet the stile of mourning for the death of a great Personage And he that suffered heer is such even a principall Person among the sonnes of men of the race royall descended from Kings Pilate stiled him so in his Title Ioh. 19.22 and he would not alter it Three degrees But yet we are not at our true Quantus For he is yet more More then the highest of the sonnes of men for he is THE SONNE OF THE MOST HIGH GOD. Pilate saw no further Ioh. 19.5 Mar. 1â— 39 but Ecce Homo The Centurion did Verè FILIVS DEI erat hic Now truly this was the SONNE of GOD. And heer all words forsake us and every tongue becommeth speechlesse Wee have no way to expresse it but à minore ad Majus Thus. Of this book the book of Lamentations one speciall occasion was the death of King Iosias But behold a greater then Iosias is heer Of King Iosias as a speciall reason of mourning the Prophet saith Cap. 4.10 Spiritus oris nostri CHRISTVS DOMINI The very breath of our nostrills The LORD 's Annointed for so are all good Kings in their Subject's accompts He is gone But behold here is not CHRISTVS DOMINI but CHRISTVS DOMINVS The Lord 's CHRIST but the LORD CHRIST himselfe And that not comming to an Honourable death in battaile as Iosias did But to a most vile reproachfull death the death of Malefactors in the highest degree And not slaine outright as Iosias was but mangled and massacred in most pitifull strange manner wounded in body wounded in Spirit left utterly desolate O consider this well and confesse the Case is truly put Si fuerit Dolor sicut Dolor meus Never never the like Person And if as the Person is the Passion be Never the like Passion to His. It is truly affirmed that any one even the least drop of blood even the least paine yea of the body onely of this so great a Person any Dolor with this Meus had been enough to make a Non sicut of it That is enough but that is not all for adde now the three other degrees Add to this Person those Wounds that Sweat and that Crie and put all together And I make no manner question the like was not shall not cannot ever be It is farr above all that ever was or can be Abyssus est Men may drowsily heare it and coldly affect it But Principalities and Powers stand abashed at it And for the Quality both of the Passion and of the Person That Never the like thus much Now to proceéd to the Cause and to consider it for without it 1. Of the cause we shall have but halfe a Regard and scarce that Indeede set the Cause aside and the Passion as rare as it is is yet but a dull and heavie sight we list not much looke upon spectacles of that kinde though never so strange they fill us full of pensive thoughts and make us Melancholique and so doth this till upon examination of the cause we finde it toucheth us neere and so neere so many waies as we cannot choose but have some regard of it VVhat was done to Him we see Let there now be a quest of Inquiry to finde GOD. Luc. 22.53 who was doer of it Who who but the Power of darknesse wicked Pilate bloody Caiaphas the envious Priests the barbarous Souldiers None of these are returned heer We are too low by a great deale if we think to finde it among men Quae fecit mihi DEVS It was GOD that did it An houre of that day was the houre of the power of darknesse but the whole day it selfe is sayd heer plainly was the day of the wrath of GOD. GOD was a doer in it wherewith GOD hath afflicted me GOD 's wrath GOD afflicteth some in Mercie and others in Wrath. This was in his wrath In his wrath GOD is not alike to all Some he afflicteth in his more gentle and milde others in his fierce wrath This was in the verie fiercenesse of his wrath His Sufferings his Sweat and Crie shew as much They could not come but from a wrath Si fuerit sicut For we are not past Non sicut no not here in this part it followeth us still and will not leave us in any point not to the end The Cause then in GOD was wrath What caused this wrath GOD is not wroth Sinâ—e but with sinne Nor grievously wroth but with grievous sinne And in CHRIST there was no grievous sinne Nay no sinne at all Not His. GOD did it the text is plaine And in his fierce wrath he did it For what cause Ioh. 18 22. For GOD forbid GOD should do as did Annas the high Priest Gen. 18 25. cause him to be smitten without cause GOD forbid saith Abraham the Iudge of the World should doe wrong to any To any but specially to his owne Sonne That his Sonne of whom with thundering voice from Heaven he testifieth all his joy and delight were in him in him only He was well pleased And how then could his wrath wax hot to doe all this unto him There is no way to preserve GOD 's Iustice and CHRIST 's Innocencie both but to say as the Angell said of him to the Prophet Daniel The MESSIAS shall be slaine Dan. 9.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ve-en-lo shall be slain but not for himself Not for himselfe But oâ—her mens for whom then For some others He took upon
owne eyes Videbitis you shall see it is so you shall see Him Indeed Non hic would not serve their turnes He knew their question would be Where is He Gone He is Not quite gone but only gone before Which is the second comfort For if He be but gone before we have hope to follow after I prae sequar so is the nature of Relatives But that we may follow then Whither is He gone Whither He told ye himselfe a little before His Passion c. 14.28 into Galilee 1. No meeter place for IESVS of Nazareth to go then to Galilee there He is best knowne there in a Mat 2.23 Nazareth He was brought up there b Io. 2.11 in Cana He did His first miracle shewed His first glorie meet therefore to see His last there in Capernaum and the coasts about preached most bestowed most of His labour 2. Galilee it was called Galilee of the Gentiles for Mat. 4 15. it was in the confines of them To shew His Resurrection tanquam in meditullio as in a middle indifferent place reacheth to both concerneth and benefitteth both alike As Ionas after his resurrection went to Ninive so Christ after His Ion. 3.4 to Galilee of the Gentiles 3. Galilee that from Galilee the place from whence they sayd No good thing could ever come He might bring one of the best things and of most comfort Ioh 1 46. that ever was the sight and comfort of His Resurrection 4. Galilee last for Galilee signifieth a Revolution or turning about to the first point Whither they must goe that shall see Him or have any part or fellowship in this feast of His resurrection Thither is He gone before and thither if ye follow there ye shall see Him This is the third comfort and it is one indeed For 3. Ye shall see Him Sight is the sense of certaintie and all that they can desire And there they did see Him Not these here only or the Twelve only or the 120. names in Acts 1. only Act 1.15 1. Cor. 15 6. but even 500. of them at once sayth the Apostle 1. Cor. 15. a whole Cloude of VVitnesses to put it cleane out of question And of purpose doth the Angell point to that apparition which was the most famous and publike of all the tenne This was good newes for those here and they were worthy of it seeking Him 4. And his Disciples Peter and all as they did But what shall become of the rest namely of his Disciples that lost Him alive and seeke Him not dead They shall never see Him more Yes which is Evangelium good tydings indeed the chiefe comfort of all they too that left Him so shamefully but three dayes agoe them He casts not off but will be glad to see them in Galilee Well whatsoever become of other Peter that so foully forsooke and forsware Him both he shall never see Him more Yes Peter too and Peter by name And indeed it is more then needfull He should name him He had greatest cause of doubt the greatest stone upon Him to be rolled away of any that had so often with oathes and execrations so utterly renounced Him This is a good message for him and Marie Magdalen as fit a messenger as can be Mar. 14.71 to carrie it one great Sinner to another That not only CHRIST is risen but content that his forsakers deniers forswearers PETER and all should repaire to Him the day of His Resurrection That all the deadly wounds of His Passion have not killed His compassion over sinners That though they have made wracke of their duetie yet He hath not lost His mercie nor left it in the grave but is as readie to receive them as ever His Resurrection hath made no change in Him dying and rising He is to sinners still one and the same still like himselfe a kinde loving and mercifull SAVIOVR This is the last PETER and all may see him And with this he dismisseth them with Ite dicite 2. Their commission with a Commission and precept by vertue whereof He maketh these Women Apostolos Apostolorum Apostles to the Apostles themselves for this Article of the Resurrection did they first learne of these VVomen and they were the first of all that preached this Gospell giving them in charge that seeing this day is a day of glad tydings they would not conceale it but impart it to others even to so many as then were or would ever after be Christ's Disciples They came to embalme Christ's bodie naturall that needs it not it is past embalming now But another body He hath a mysticall body a company of those that had beleeve in Him though weakly that they would goe and annoint them for they need it They sitt drying away what with feare what with remorse of their unkind dealing with Him they need to have some oile some balme to supple them That they doe with this Gospell with these foure Of which foure ingredients is made the balme of this day Thus we see these that were at cost to annoint CHRIST were fully recompensed for the costs they had beene at themselves annointed with oyle and odours of a higher nature and farr more pretious then those they brought with them Oleum laetitiae saith the a Psal. 45.7 Psalme O dor vitae saith the b 2. Cor. 2.16 Apostle And that so plenteously as there is enough for themselves enough too for others for His Disciples for Peter and all The Application But what is this to us Sure as we learned by way of duty how to seeke Christ ' after their example so seeking Him in that manner by way of reward we hope to have our part in this good newes no lesse then they 1. CHRIST is risen that concerneth us alike c Ephe. 4.15 The Head is gott above the water d Rom. 11.16 The Roote hath received life and sapp e 1 Cor. 15.23 The First fruicts are lift up and consecrate We no lesse then they as His members His branches His field recover to this hope 2. And for His going before that which the Angell said heer once is ever true He is not gone quite away He is but gone before us He is but the antecedent we as the consequent to be inferred after Yea though He be gone to Galilaea superior the Galilee that is above Heaven the place of the Celestiall Spheres and Revolutions even thither is He gone not as a party absolute of or for himselfe Heb. 6.20 but as a Herbenger saith the Apostle with relation to others that are comming after for whom He goeth before to take up a place So the Apostle there So Ioh 14.2 the Angell heere So He Himselfe Vado not Vado alone but Vado parare locum vobis I go to prepare a place wherein to receive you when the number of you and your brethren shal be full 3. To us likewise pertaineth the third videbitis
resurrection heer to be passed He that hath his part in this first He shall not faile but have it in the second If then Temples they would be that we so make them for to make them so is the Excitabo of this life And so shall we make them even Temples and no way sooner then if we love this place the Temple well and love to resort to it and to be much in it That they may be Temples By being much in it we shall even turne into it And sure if ever we have aliquid Templi any thing of a Temple in us then it is when we are duly and devoutly occupied and employed they and we in His worship and service Then are we Temples But to be Temples is not all we are further to be Templum hoc this Temple Temples Corporis sui and this was the Temple of His bodie And that are we if at any time then certeinly when as if we were Temples in very deed we prepare to receive not the Arke of His presence but Himselfe that He may come into us and be in us Which is at what time we present our selves to receive His blessed bodie and blood that bodie and that blood which for our sakes was dissolved dissolved three daies since when it suffered for our sinnes Rom. 4.25 And this day raised againe when it â—â—se for our iustification Which when we doe that is receive this bodie or this Temple for Templum hoc and Hoc est Corpus meum are now come to be one for both Templum hoc and corpus hoc are in Templum corporis sâ—i and when the Temples of our bodie are in this Temple and the Temple of His bodie in the Temples of our's then are there three Temples in one a Trinitie the perfectest number of all Then if ever are we not Temples onely but Templa Corporis sui Temples of His bodie and this Scripture fulfilled in us This Feast a fit time for it This are we when we receive Now at no time is this act of receiving so proper so in season as this very day so hath CHRIST'S Church thought it and so practised it ever the very day of this His Excitabo the day of His Rising And by meanes of it of our raising our raising first to the life of righteousnesse to the estate of Temples heer in this world And after of our raising againe to the second the life of glorie and blisse of glorious Temples in the world to come which is the Excitabo when all is done What time they and we shal be loosed as now from sinne so then from corruption And raised and restored as now to the state of grace so then to the state of glorie and glorious libertie of the sonnes of God To which happy and blessed estate may He raise us all in the end that this day was raised for Vs. c. A SERMON Preached before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT WHITE-HALL on the XXXI of March A.D. MDCXVI being EASTER DAY I. PET. CHAP. I. VER III. IV. Benedictus Deus c. Blessed be GOD and the FATHER of our Lord Iesus Christ which according to His abundant mercie hath begotten us againe vnto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead To an inheritance incorruptible and vndefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you THE Summe of this Text The Summâ— and if ye will the Name of it too is set downe in the very first word of it It is a Benedictus The first word is so The first word Benedictus and if you looke the last word is for You. Give me leave to reade it for Vs to put in our selves Seeing to us and for us it was written So a Benedictus it is from us to GOD for something comming from GOD to or for us Something Nay many Benedictus is but one word but the first word the rest of the words of both the Verses are for us all And many they are We reduce them to three 1 Our regeneration which is past 2 Our hope which is present 3 and our Inheritance which is to come 1. Regenerating or begetting is of it selfe a benefit We get life by it if nothing els 2. But to beget to an Inheritance is more then simply to beget 3. And yet more then that to beget to Such an Inheritance as this of which so many excellent things are heere spoken Three then in this 1 To be begotten 2 To be begotten to Inherite 3 To be begotten to Inherite such an Inheritance But then an inheritance is no present matter All heires be heires under hope Vsque dum Tit. 3.7 till the appointed time So comes hope in Therefore first to hope After to the thing hoped for the Inheritance it selfe There is a resemblance of both these in the two Seasons of the yeare At this time the time of CHRIST 's Resurrection and of our celebrating it to hope as to the blossome or blade rising now in the Spring To the Inheritance that as the crop or fruit to come after at harvest And the harvest of this crop saith our SAVIOVR is the end of the world Matt. 13.39 We are not yet come to the point Regenerate whereto to a lively hope Hope whereof of an Inheritance Inheritance what manner one Such as is heere set downe But all these whereby Per resurrectionem by the Resurrection of CHRIST All by Him All by that This By is the maine heere This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that runnes through all this Text. For all arise from CHRIST arising from the dead Now if from CHRIST rising then from CHRIST at this Feast For this is the Feast of CHRIST'S rising And so this the proper Benedictus for this Feast We had a Benedictus made by Zacharie Luk. 1.68 Saint Iohn Baptist's Father for His Birth for Christmasse day knowne by the name of Benedictus We have heere now another for His rising for Easter day of Saint Peter's setting And this it is The Division For the Order we will put the words in no other for we can put them in no better then they stand Every one is in his due place from the first to the last 1. GOD first and the true GOD the Father of our LORD IESVS CHRIST 2. Then His mercie the cause moving 3. Then CHRIST'S Resurrection the meanes working 4. Then our regeneration the act producing Producing 1 hope first of the Inheritance a then after the Inheritance we hope for Of which two points there are 2 How it is qualified Vncorrupt undefiled not fading Every one hath his weight 3 Then how Seated Even in heaven There it is there kept it is And which is the Capitall chiefe point of all kept for us there Now then for these 1 For His Mercie first 2 For our Regenerating by His Mercie 3 For the Hope of this Inheritance 4 but more for the Inheritance it selfe
it then put this addition to and neither Turke Iew nor Pagan will say after you None but the Christian. For this is the Christen man's Benedictus Now ever since Idolatrie first tooke head it hath beene held fit they that are GOD 's chosen People of all the people upon Earth they should have some marke of severance to distinguish as theirs the true GOD so themselves the true worshippers from the false So to settle our Benedictus right upon the right GOD this is added 2. As His best Title 2. For this cause but not for this alone When we blesse Him I dare say we would blesse Him with His best Title So hath it ever beene You shall observe in Titles Ier. 23.7.8 ever upon the comming of a greater the lesse is laid downe No more the Lord liveth that brought thee out of Egypt but the Lord liveth that brought thy captivitie from the North. And now no more that neither For heere is one that after it came putts them downe all as being indeed the greatest of them all the greatest that ever was or that ever shall be One which when we add we set our Benedictus at the highest For if this be to be GOD to be bounteous beneficiall as we seeme to thinke when we say homo homini Deus In nothing was GOD ever so beneficiall so bounteous and so Ioh. 3.16 in nothing ever so GOD as in sending His onely begotten Sonne into the world In that GOD specially and for that specially to be blessed And because a greater then His Sonne He hath not and so a greater then this shall never come therefore this shall never be layd downe This shall be His Title for ever For ever to have a place and a chiefe place in our Benedictus 1 To bring CHRIST in too And yet there is another on CHRIST 's behalfe Our Lord even to bring Him in too For seeing all that which followes comes not but by the rising of Christ and so by CHRIST I see not how well we can leave Him out All the good that comes to us as it comes to us from God so it comes to us by Christ. God the Qui Christ the Per quem God the cause from Him commeth all Christ and all Christ the meanes by him commeth all God and all All things from God and nothing from GOD immediately but mediante Christ◠He the cause mediate the Mediator the Medium No benefactus and so no benedictus without Him This is most plaine in this heere Benedictus Deus qui generavit Christum first that did generate Christ before Benedictus Deus qui regeneravit nos that did regenerate 〈◊〉 If He not generate we not regenerate then no children then no Inheritance then all this Text voyd For in Him this Text and all other Texts are Yea and Amen By this time we see why this addition 1 It is His Title of Soverance 2 It is the highest Title of His honour 3 It takes in CHRIST who would not be left out in our Benedictus Dixit Dominus Domino meo The Lord said to my Lord Psal. 110.1 to take both Lords in and leave neither out And so shall we knit it well to that which followes From the Partie whom we passe to the cause why For 3. The cause why we say not this Benedictus as we say many a one heer without any cause Benedictus for nothing Nay otherwhile a Benedictus for a malefactus for a shrewd turne yea and glad and faine too No heer is a Qui and in this qui there is a quia That doth it that is for doing it that regenerates us that is for regenerating us For GOD is ever aforehand with us Regeneravit is the Preter that is past before any Benedictus can come from us Pater qui Regeneravit followes well is kindly For Generation 1 Mercie it is Actus paternus the proper act of a Father But before we come to it let us not stride over that which in the Text stands before it Secundum misericordiam GOD did this did all that followes but upon what motive According to what did He it According to His mercie And Mercie accords well with a Father No compassion no bowells like His. And as well with regeneravit for of His owne good will begat He us How els when as yet we were not what should move Him but His meer mercie Well therefore sayd regeneravit secundùm for regeneration is but secundum but a second not a first Would ye have a primum a first for it that first is His Mercie ever But the benefitts ensuing are too great to runn in the common current of Mercie As they then are so is the mercie that goes to them Great His abundant or great mercie Therefore according to His great Mercie Mercie the thing Great the measure And great would not be passed by lest we passe not greatly by it lest we conceive and count of it as but of some ordinarie matter But indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rather Multa then Magna a word of number His manifold mercie rather then Magnitude The meaning is no single mercie would do it no though Great there must be many For many the defects to be removed many the sinnes to be forgiven many the perfections to be attained Therefore according to His manifold Mercie According is well said For that indeed is the chord to which this and all our Benedictusses are to be tuned That the Center from which all the lines are drawen The line of CHRIST'S Birth in Zacharie's Benedictus through the tender mercies of our GOD whereby the day-spring from on high did lately visite us The line of CHRIST 's Resurrection in Saint Peter's Benedictus according to His manifold mercies whereby this day sprung from on high doth now visite us The line of all the rest if we had time to goe through all the rest At all times mercie commeth in at no time out of time I trust we shall dye with it in our mouthes let us make much of it while we live Never passe by it but say it say it as oft as we can blessed be GOD blessed be His mercie GOD that doth it His mercie according to which He doth it Doth it and doth all els at this and all other Feasts at Easter at Christmas the fifth of November and all Blessed be He for His merice Yea many times blessed for His manifold mercies Mercie then first Regeneravit secundùm the act of this mercie the second 4. Regeneravit nos ◠Hath begotten us againe that is Regeravit Regeneravit may be said with reference to CHRIST Generavit Christum regeneravit nos and not amisse But better and more properly both to us Generavit nos begot us first in Adam to this regeneravit nos begot us againe in Christ the second Adam to the hope of a better life But why is it not so then qui generavit without re Why
had There then it is and we thither to lift up our hearts whither the very frame of our bodies gives as if there were somewhat remaining for us there It is thought there is some further thing meant by Saint Peter He writes to the dispersed Iewes And that by in Coelo he gives them an Item this Inheritance is no new Canaan heere on earth Nor CHRIST eny earthly Messias to settle them in a new land of promise No that was for the Synagogue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was it self mortall is dead and buried since and so had but mortall things to promise to her children whom she did generate to mortalitie The Church of CHRIST the heavenly Ierusalem Gal. 4.26 hath other manner of promises to her children regenerate by the immortall seed of the Word and Spirit of GOD To them She holdeth forth things immortall and heavenly yea heaven and immortalitie it selfe Reserved in Heaven In heaven then There it is first and there it is kept the being there one the keeping another For that there it is kept is happie for us Earth would not keepe it Heere it would be in hazard there is great odds For my part I give it for lost if in this State we were possessed of it It would goe the same way Paradise went Since it would be lost in Earth it is kept in heaven And a Benedictus for that too as for the regenerating us to it heere on Earth so for the keeping the preserving of it there in heaven Kept and for us kept Els all were nothing that makes up all For us that it is not onely preserved but reserved for us there As Benedictus the Alpha so this the Omega of all But reserved as the nature of the word is and as the nature is Rom 8.24 of things hoped for yet under the veile for Spes quae videtur non est spes But time shall come when the veile shall be taken of and of that which is now within it there shall be a reveiling as followeth in the next verse And so all begins and ends as the Bible doth Verse 5. As the Bible with Genesis So this Text with Regeneration as the Bible ends in the Apocalypse So this heere with a Revelation Onely it stayeth till the worke of regeneration be accomplished Generation and it take end both together and when generation doth then shall corruption likewise and with it the state of dishonor which is in foulenesse and the state of weakenesse which is in fading And instead of them incorruption come in place with honour and power And these three 1 incorruption 2 honour and 3 power make the perfect estate of blisse To which CHRIST this day arose and which shall be our estate at the Resurrection That as all began with a resurrection so it shall end with one Came to us by CHRIST 's rising now this first Easter and we shall come to it by our owne rising at the last and great Easter the true Passe-over indeed when from death and miserie we shall passe to life and felicitie Now for this Inheritance which is Blisse it selfe and in the interim for the blessed hope set before us Which we have as an Anchor of our soule stedfast and sure Heb. 6.18.19 20. Which entereth even within the veile where CHRIST the forerunner is already seized of it in our names and for our behoofes For these come we now to our Benedictus For if GOD according to His manifold mercie have done all this for us we also according to our duty as manifold as his mercie are to doe or say at least somewhat againe It accords well that for so many beneficia one Benedictus at least It accords well that His rising should raise in us and our regenerating beget in us some praise thankes blessing at least but blessing fitts best with Benedictus First then dictus somewhat would be said by way of recognition This hath GOD done for us and more also But this this very day Then Benè let it be to speake well of Him for doing thus well by us A verball Benedictus for a reall blessing is as little as may be For the Inheritance which is blessing for the hope which is blessed for the blessed cause of both GOD'S mercie and the blessed meanes of both CHRIST 's Resurrection this blessed day Blessed be GOD. But to say Benedictus eny way is not to content us but to say it solemnely How is that Benedictus in our mouth and the holy Eucharist in our hands So to say it To seale up as he in the old his quid retribuam with calicem salutaris Psal. 116.12.13 1. Cor. 10.16 the Cup of salvation So we in the new our Benedictus with Calix benedictionis the Cup of blessing which we blesse in His name So shall we say it in kind say it as it would be said The rather so to do because by that Cup of blessing we shall partake the blood of the New Testament by which this Inheritance as it was purchased for us so it is passed to us Alwaies making full accompt that from the Cup of blessing we cannot part but with a blessing And yet this is not all We are not to stay heere but to aspire farther even to strive to be like to GOD and be like GOD we shall not vnlesse our dicere be facere as His is vnlesse somewhat be done withall In very deed there is no blessing but with levatâ and extensâ manu the hand stretched out So our SAVIOVR himselfe blessed Luk. 24. The vocall blessing alone is not full nor the Sacramentall alone Luk. 24 50. without Benedictio manus that is the actuall blessing To leave a blessing behind us to bestow somewhat for which the Church the poore in it so shall blesse us and blesse GOD for us In which respect the Apostle so calleth it expressely 2. Cor. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Cor. 9.5 benedictionem and by that name commends it to th◠Corinthians And that is the blessing of blessings when all is done That is it Matt. 25.33 for which Venite benedicti shall be said to us Even for parting with that heere which shall seed cover and set free the hungrie naked and them in prison That shall prove the blessing reall and stick by us when all our verball benedictions shall be vanished into aire So for a treble blessing from GOD 1 Our regenerating 2 Our hope 3 Our Inheritance we shall returne Him the same number even three for three 1 Benedictus of the voice and instrument 2 Benedictus of the Signe and Sacrament 3 and Benedictus of some blessed deed done for which many blessings upon earth and the blessing of GOD from heaven shall come upon us So as we say heere Benedictus Deus Blessed He He shall say Benedictivos Blessed Ye The hearing of which words in the end shall make us blessed without end in heaven's blisse To which
he passed over to the latter part of the verse and when there was none els to doe it He tooke the matter into his owne hands Himselfe held the assise found him guilty gave order for his excecution sent up one to doe it and one that formerly had beene his speciall friend and if I be not deceived sworne brother as Iâ—ab to bring Absalon to his end that destroyed him for not hearing destroy not And yet the goodnesse of GOD stayed not heere neither but where in the text in Saul's case there was but one blow one danger one delivery In this there were no lesse then three one after another First came Abisai he and his armed man GOD delivered him Then came the other the Master of the mischiefe then bewrayed and as one bewrayed desperately set GOD againe delivered him Then last of all and that was worst of all came the popular tumult whose rage knowes no reason who as they Num. XVI called Core and Dathan the people of the Lord so these little better and even then also did God by his mighty providence turne away the destruction This in the text was soon done a few words and away This of the day it was long first and much adoe yet it was done the longer and the more the more is God to be magnified for it And when all was done there he that was saved was but Saul but heer envie flatters not but if envie it selfe should speak it would say Major Saule hîc a greater then Saul eny For the territorie of the least of your kingdomes was greater then that of his And melior Saule hîc a better then Saul was heere saved better without all comparison So the beginning was as they made account Conclusit Deus inimicum nostrum The end was as it prooved Conclusit Deus inimicos Domini Regis GOD made a conclusion of their wicked premisses and their wretched persons all at once So the conclusion was Ne perdas to the King and Non insons to the children of perdition Now to that GOD that when You were shutt up forsooke You not but delivered You à malitiâ diei hujus à Daemone meridiano that in the depth of all Your danger when there was no tongue on earth could say Ne perdas said it from heaven and sayd it thrice over for that His threefold deliverie render we threefold thankes and praise thrice blessed be His holy Name for it And He grant that this lesson of David's may take deep root in all our hearts that there may never be a Quis in Israël to lift up his hand to the like action all may be quit none found guiltie ever of so foule a crime None on Abisai's side to make any such motion all of David's mind to mislike it to say Ne perdas Ne perdas though it be Saul But for David Neperdas is not enough To Him and such as He is let us with one voyce crie Hosanna not onely not destroy but Hosanna Lord save Lord prosper Lord add dayes to his dayes that his yeares may be as many ages And as this day thou didst so still and still prepare thy loving mercie and truth that they may preserve Him even for ever and ever A SERMON Preached before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT HOLDENBIE on the V. of AVGVST A D. MDCX. I. CHRON. CHAP. XVI VER XXII Nolite tangere Christos meos Touch not mine Annointed HEERE is a Speech but we know not Whose nor to Whom nor yet well concerning Whom onely concerning certaine Persons whom the Speaker whosoever He is calleth His Annointed It behooveth us to know these three who they be The person whose the speech is Persona loquens He that saith Meos Him we finde at the foureteenth verse Ipse est Dominus Deus noster He is the Lord our GOD GOD it is that speaketh heere He that challengeth them for His by calling them Mine The persons to whom in the verse before Non reliquit hominem He leaveth not a man So it is to all in generall but specially to some more quicke of touch then the rest whose fingers are never well till some way or other they be touching whom GOD would not have touched The persons concerning whom whom He stileth His Annointed will fall out to prove the Princes of the earth We must not say it but proove it say it now proove it anon Now as if some body were about to offer them some wrong heere commeth a voice from heaven staying their hands and saying See you touch them not Quos Deus unxit homo ne tangat Whom GOD hath annointed let no man presume to touch Of which it may well be said as the Psalmist saith to us every day Hodiè si vocem To day if ye will heare His voice harden not your hearts and ye may For as this day now ten yeeres from the same Person and the same place a like voice there came concerning His Annointed in whose presence we stand That GOD would not have His Annointed touched this Text is a witnesse and this Day is a witnesse The Text dixit the Day factum est Referred unto the Text next before 1. Sam. 26.9 Touching the same point when time was in this place you heard Ne perdas you shall heare it againe now but from an higher person under a streicter charge and with a larger compasse The person higher for that was David Sedecce major Davide hîc but behold a greater then David is heere This is no voice on earth neither of Prophet nor Apostle we now heare Audivi vocem de coelo We heare a voice from heaven And thence neither of Saint nor Angell but of GOD himselfe To shew His care of them His Annointed He would have none give the charge about them but himselfe Himselfe in person Non alienae vocis organo sed oraculo suae from none other but from His own mouth The charge streicter for there it was Destroy not the worst that could be Heere it is Touch not the least that may be and so even that way amended much The compasse larger That was to Abishai but one man and it was concerning Saul one King onely and therefore it was in the singular Ne perdas This is Nolite and Christos the number altered of a larger extent farre even to All men concerning All his Annointed Nolite in the plurall that is None of you Christos in the plurall that is None of them Them not touched not Any of them You not touch not Any of you Non reliquit hominem He leaveth not a man but forbiddeth All. Now out of this plurall you may deduce any singular Out of Christos any King Out of Nolite any party Out of Tangere any hurt and so not any man to doe any hurt to any His Annointed This Text the first and great Commandement concerning this point A Commandement it is and I may safely say Primum magnum mandatum The first and great
upon the safetie of the Prince Now this Psalme as it was sung with all the musique could be invented of winde 4. Verse 5.42 of hand and of voice to shew the preservation of Kings is a benefit extraordinarie that requireth so solemne a thanksgiving So besides it is ordered every day after 5. Verse 37. to be sung iugiter coram Arcâ that is to be the ordinarie Antheme of their daily service to shew it is a dutie perpetuall that needs so daily a remembrance to wit the care of their preservation For last of all that all the praise and thankes heere in the Psalme are for this Nolite 6. that all the Psalme was set to come to this verse it is plaine There be ninetie two verses more in the Psalme it selfe it is the hundreth and fift Psalme But assoone as ever â—hey once come to this verse all the rest all the verses following are cut of they go no fâ—rther in the Psalme then till they come to it and then breake of all those behind and strâ—â—ght go to another Psalme for this is all of the hundreth and fift and the next verse is the fâ—rst of the ninetie sixt Psalme So that this verse plainely was the end and upshot of all the Psalme besides Of this Verse then of His Nolite tangere and of His Nolo tangi besides of a famous Non permisit nocere in this kinde this Day is a memorâ—all to us and to all our posteritie even to the children yet unborne In GOD 's Annointed not touched I cannot say for touched he was and more then touched But in the touch there is no great matter we said but for the hurt so that in the end not hurt is as good as not touched As good nay better for a Halleluja For to be touched as he was and to take no hurt is a greater delivery farre then at all not to be touched To go through the Red sea and not wet a threâ—d To have been in the fornace and no sent of the fire that is the miracle So to have been touched and taken by the throat that the marke was to be seen many daies after To be thrust at and throwen downe as He was and yet no harme Hîc est potentia Heer was the power and heer was the mercy of GOD Heer it was certainely and that so sensible yee might even touch it And heer Halleluja first and we to praise Him that when Nolite tangere would not serve in word made Non permisit nocere to serve in deed Came forth first with Non permisit nocere as with His shield and so shielded him that He suffered him not to take any hurt at all Annointed the shield made it slippery their hands slid off their touch did him no harme Non permisit was as His shield that he brought forth to save Him But besides it he brought forth His sword too and cut them short Corripuit eos was His sword touched them with it and twitched them for touching His Annointed touched them with Pharaoh's tactus maximi that the markes of it will be seen upon them and theirs for ever For either of these severally a severall Halleluja but especially for noâ— severing them but letting them meet and go together Eripuit and Corripuit both ioyntly arme in arme Not either alone this or that Not permisit nocere sed corripuit suffered them to doe hurt but rebuked them No but Non permisit corripuit both suffered them not to doe any hurt and rebuked them and cut them short too besides And this happy conjunction of these both is it which maketh the speciall encrease of our thankes this yeare more then the last or any before For that since and very lately GOD that suffered not Him hath suffered some other King to be touched as farre as his life True He that did that execrable act Corripuit eum GOD touched him touched him as he did the Mountaines Tange montes fumigabunt touched him Psal. 144.5 till he smoked againe What of that In the meane time a great Prince is fallen But permisit nocere He suffered the King to take hurt And as for non permisit nocere GOD did not Him that favour Not him but Ours He did And did it for the manner not without miracle if we compare the cases For He was then sitting in the midst of diverse his Nobles No likely-hood that any would come neere Him to offer but to touch Him If he did there was odds there would have been many a non permisit he should never have been suffered to do it One man for all that one and no more did it Diverse were neere him None of them All of them kept Him not from his harme But Ours was all alone shut up and so lest as one forsaken not many nay not any no help at all neere him And not one alone and no more but three there were to touch him yet even then even in that case GOD non permisit nocere suffered not not any of them nor all of them to touch him so as they did him any hurt And even in the manner of the Non permisit GOD shewed himselfe more then marvellous for it was not GOD onely suffered him not to be hurt but miraculously he made that of them that came to breake His Nolite even of them one that was set that was ready armed to have touched and to have hurt him he even that partie Non permisit would not did not suffer the other to do him any hurt sed corripuit but rebuked him gave the Noli tangere to the other spake this very Text and stayed his hand that would have done it This was a Non permisit indeed worth a Halleluja and after it came there at the least three other Non permisit's more But I have presumed too much already I will not enter into them but end The more they were the more are we bound to magnifie GOD and to blesse his holy name yearely yea weekely yea daily to sing our Halleluja of praise and thankes to Him for this day's Non permisit and for this day's Corripuit for them both That what He speakes in this Text He made good upon this day Shewed He would not have His Annointed touched Shewed He was displeased with them that did touch him kept Him without hurt and cut them short shortned their armes they could do Him no harme shortned their lives for attempting to do it scattered them first in the imaginations of their hearts and then after made them perish in that their wicked Enterprise And hath made this Nolite this Precept to us Praeceptum cantabile Psal. 119.54 a Precept Psalme-wise that we may sing it to Him There is another in another place of another dittie and tune wherein he takes up a dolefull complaint thus Psal. 89.38.44 45. But thou hast cast of thine Annointed and art displeased with him The daies of his life
praevenisti in David a posuit 〈…〉 eny petijt For when he followed * Psal. 78.71 Psal. 131.2 his ewes great with yong litle dreamt he 〈◊〉 â—â—wne It never came into his lipps it never entred into his heart His soule as 〈◊〉 saith was weined from eny such matters from so much as once phansying 〈…〉 The crowne was in him a meere prevention 〈◊〉 two crownes we read he came to First Saul's crowne And his second crowne 2. Saâ— 1.10 the Amalekite 〈…〉 him that and his braceletts To shew it was a prevenisti meerly Not so 〈…〉 as an Israëlite brought it That was set on first Some thirty yeares after 〈…〉 he came to another crowne the King of Ammon's crowne 2. Sam. 12.30 at the winning of 〈…〉 a more massie crowne finer gold richer stones in it then his first That was 〈…〉 This heer in the Verse was the second say all the Interpreters and this 〈…〉 likewise If you will but remember what case he stood in to God-ward 〈…〉 comming of this second crowne it was presently upon the matter of Vrias and 〈◊〉 you will say he was rather in case of Miserere mei Deus Psal. 51.1 Psal. 103.4 then of ought 〈…〉 GOD crowned him then in mercie and loving kindnesse At this second 〈◊〉 it was veniam petijt and nothing els 〈◊〉 his first crowne it was vitam petijt and nothing els All he askt then was 〈…〉 it followes straight next verse And sure time was in the daies of his 〈◊〉 when partly by Saul's owne jealousie but much more by the wicked 〈◊〉 of Doëg and such like he needed to aske it There was often to use his 〈…〉 but a stepp betweene him and death He asked life then 1. Sam. 20.3 and so that 〈◊〉 have beene assured him would have strained his prayer no further 〈◊〉 must thinke when he was couped up one while in such a Cave another in 〈…〉 wood put to flye for his life to Moab to Gath I wote not whither in danger 〈…〉 made away by one treacherie or another when he received every houre 〈◊〉 â—â—â—tence of death in himselfe all his mind ran upon vitam petijt then then 2. Cor. 1.9 this 〈◊〉 or the gold of it or the finesse of the allay never troubled his head ye may 〈◊〉 life he asked then and more he asked not and well had beene him if he 〈◊〉 have had but securitie of that I say securitie of his life and let the crown 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—old then the blessed goodnesse of GOD that gave him both Both 3 The crowne set on by God that 〈…〉 life we come to it by and by and the crown and another crown too besides 〈…〉 asked not Satisfied him in that prevented him in this Nay prevented 〈…〉 both as ye shall see straight â—ut yer I passe to that heer is a point or two about crownes I thinke good not 〈◊〉 1 The first is against usurpers of the crowne Nemine ponente nisi seipso God 〈…〉 it on none setting it on but themselves That not ipse sibi sed Deus 〈…〉 ipse posuit super caput suum but Deus super caput ipsius â— The second is against 〈…〉 of a power to take of that they never set on deponendi quod non posuit 〈…〉 intruding upon Tu posuisti â—irst the crowne he raught not at it caught it not and clapt it on himself The imposing God's onely it 〈…〉 him he came orderly to it it was set on not by himselfe but by 〈…〉 And that other was the right Setter Tu posuisti GOD. Who will never set 〈…〉 never but on the right head if it be of His setting and if it be not of 〈…〉 it will never prosper never flourish be sure Tua Domine heere too 〈…〉 is in GOD'S hand saith Esai and His hand setts it on David's Esai 62. â— setâ— it on 〈…〉 heads that lawfully weare it It made the Emperours to stamp their 〈…〉 an hand comming out of the clouds holding a crowne and putting it on 〈…〉 And accordingly to stile themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à Deo coronatos crowned by GOD as well they might this Tu posuisti heere is their warrant Aâ—d the dâ—posâ—ng 2. Sâ—condly against usurping of â— power to depose GOD alone is in the Posuisti at â—he setting it on None but He 〈◊〉 GOD hath sett it on Now what GOD hath set 〈…〉 not eny presume to take of Not eny but He that sett it on What by Him alone done by Him alonâ— to be â—nâ—one The law is Ad quem institutio c. To whom the Institution belongs to him and none other the destitution To whom the imposing to him and none othâ—â— the deposing none to interpose himselfe in that businesse but He. And now â—here comes a Tu interposuisti and he will have to doe with that this Tu posuisâ—◠〈◊〉 on Hath not Potestatin ponendi he confesses and all the world knowes 〈…〉 would have potestatem tollendi to take up that he layd not downe But if no 〈◊〉 no Deponent If none but GOD at the Posuisti at the setting it on none but He 〈◊〉 at the deposuisti at the taking it of The Crown the Coronation the Coronant all 〈◊〉 blessings of His goodnesse but the last the chiefest the Tua Domine and à Te the 〈◊〉 of it of Him and Him onely Now then to ioygne these three to the first three Allow the crowne a laetabitur and to the Coronation or setting it on an exultabit but ô quam is for Tu posuisti the Coronant To whom they owe it of whom they hold it without eny Tu interposuisti at all And now to his life Gods goodnesse in granting him 1 Life Vitam dâ—dit But Vitam pâ—tijt first For what is coronam posuit without vitam dedit a crowne without life to weare it Heere is that then and that in a new triplicitie 1 life it selfe 2 a long life and 3 a life for ever Vitam petijt It is not his first vitam petijt this we spake of even now in Saul's time it waâ— after his second crowne was sett on as is evident by thus standing after it And this vitam petijt bodes no good matter For by petijt it should seeme by all likelyhoods he was in case to aske it and so in hazard to lose it it and crowne and all a worse matter then eny yet It was not for nothing the last verse before this Text they crie O Lord save the King by like the King was in some danger of perishing And so he was as appeareth by the Sequele of the Psalme and that by a Mezimma a secret mischiefe Verse 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imagined against him were it that of Absalon or some other like exigent But hard bestead he was when it touched his life In that streight heere was the summe of the desire of his heart of the request of his lipps
go quite crosse in a manner in their Scriptum est's to this Scriptum est in all these three 1 Let loose the hands to that these heer sought and are condemned for it 2 Stop up the mouthes from disclosing of that Mardochai heer did and is commended for it 3 And both these not in the case of Assuerus but even of a Christian Prince what thinke you by them What doe they say in effect but Sint sicut Bigthan Tharez Ne sint sicut Mardochaeus I report me to your consciences GOD thus skoring up these that but sought to lay their hands on a heatheâ— King would He ever approve of such as under-hand sett on Subjects to goe past seeking even to lay their hand on Christian Princes Most Christiâ—â— Princes their owne Princes Owne by nature and nation Owne by masse and religiâ—◠〈◊〉 as in dicbus hijs we have seene two in France a Bigthan and a Tharez both one 〈◊〉 another And what for Mardochai They swear men they give them their Maker upon it never to disclose that which Mardochai is heere honored for disclosing Yea and approve nay more then approve of some for doing clean contrarie to that Mardochai did heere even for concealing nay for sealing up and that under a holy Signature as foule and wicked a treason as ever was This hath been done But we are in writing what say ye to that Will ye compare but the writing of diebus illis with ours in diebus hijs Let there be a Booke written saith GOD this of Esther that no man ever doe the like to these two that no man ever seeke to conceale those that shall so seeke Let there be a Booke written saith some bodie els as it were an Anti-Esther to this booke of Esther to set men on to 〈◊〉 that these heere sought and to teach them the way how to finde it to point out who shall be Bigthan when and how they shall seeke to lay and lay both As it might be a book written by Suarez in defense of Tharez his name of the two names neerest in some case to license the seeking and to command the close keeping of such geere as this But yet we have not all Writing a Record making up a Roll is more then writing a booke Every authentique Record as is this is of the nature of a precedent to do the like of a copie set for us to write by So heere we have further a warrant to make up our Records by this Record to record all that lay their hands for such as Bigthan and Tharez and all that disclose them for such as Mardochai Ever upon like occasions to make like entries Shall we doe it Write them downe saith the King in the Chronicle Write them downe saith GOD in the Bible for traitors these 〈◊〉 Write me downe some such as did the like or worse for other manner persons 〈◊〉 another manner Register even for no lesse then Martyrs You know who 〈◊〉 Register me Mardochai saith the Holy Ghost for a partie well deserving for â—ttering his knowledge of so wicked a treason Paint me up such a one saith another Ghost straw and all and in the border print me him holy martyr for not disclosing as soule a treason nay fouler a great deale But trow you this to be GOD 's Vicar that thus makes act against act checks GOD 's Records with counter-Records of his owne affronts GOD 's Chronicle with his New Calendar on this fashion Or Saint Peter's Successor Nay not his of all oâ—hers his least He laid his hand on his weapon for his Master So would he teach and not otherwise Iudas he indeed laid none himselfe Matt. 26.57 but he it was gave the watch-word This is He lay hands upon him So that Iudas's crue it seemes they be Matt. 26.48 that so do and no better then Iudas himselfe that so teach No Apostle bid ever lay hands 〈◊〉 Iudas He did his Disciples they be his Successors not Saint Peter's that 〈◊〉 â—e may and will then by this warrant be so bold as to enter them traitors in the 〈◊〉 before the King By what warrant they may register them for Martyrs in the Calendar before the Pope let them looke Ours we shew let them shew but the 〈◊〉 and carie it Els if he see allow and print bookes with priviledge that tend to the manumising of Tharez's hand and to the Sealing up of Mardochai's mouth it under confession he animate Tharez and with his Seale of confession muzzle up Mardochâ—i if GOD write one way and he another in effect write King write GOD 〈◊〉 they will write me him Martyr We will be so bold as to write him up with Saint 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that opposes himselfe flat against this booke 2. Thess. 2.4 and the Writer 〈…〉 which Booke stayes all hands from laying and opens all mouthes to the bewrayâ—â—â— such as these The comparing of Diebuâ— hijs with Diebus illis I will pray you I may rather forget my selfe a little then forget in diebus â—ijs after all this we promised to shew that they match and overmatch In diebus illis That they match in many points 1 That Kings both both in danger in the same danger both by the same number and by those of the same ranke and upon the same motive great anger for little cause Againe that both were preserved and both strangely that the seekers in both instead of finding that they sought found their owne confusion But as in many they match So in many more doth this day overmatch those daies More degrees in our dyall then in theirs the day goes beyond the Text and not this Text heer alone but eny other that ever yet I could find The more say I still are we all bound to GOD for his goodnesse that hath so magnified his mercies toward his Annointed and in him to us all as He hath vouchsafed him such deliveries in diebus hijs as He never vouchsafed in diebus illis to eny King of his owne peculiar chosen people or of eny other under the Sunne Such to be found in our Chronicles as not the like in the Chronicles of Persia Nay not of the Kings of Iuda or Israël But are sine exemplo ours none comming home all falling short of them Which me thinks I can let you see sensibly and so that we have greater cause to rejoyce in this of ours In the Kings first The King in diebus illis make the best of him was but a Pagan a worshipper of idolls these be barres in his Armes The King in die hoc neither heathen I am sure nor that can have the least toâ—ch of Idolatrie fastned on him he that shamed not to say No Christian and hath been faine since to eat his word he durst not say an Idolater that would soone have rebounded backe upon himself And no Idolater is a Christian nor Christian an Idolater I am sure This first
but there must needs be as great nay Festum magis duplex for the King heer If for Her a stranger for their owne naturall Liege much more Was so with them In diebus illis and with us to be In diebus hijs Or rather in die hoc For there it was plurall more daies went to it then one many dayes in doing heer it was dispatched sooner No diebus heer begun acted ended all in a day nay halfe a day betweene noone and night And this shall be the first that it was not long in doing Short as it was yet may I take upon me there is as great odds between this day and them as is between the fifth of August ours and the fifteenth of Adar that is December theirs that is between a long and a short a Summer's and a Winter's-day There is not in all the Scriptures a book that expresseth so plentifull joy for the saving of a Prince as doth this of Esther the whole ninth Chapter in a manner is spent in it There is gaudium and laetitia and hilaritas and convivium and tripudium I cannot tell how many times over Chap. 9.21 and the day christened by the name of Dies festus a Festivall day There is joy in Sufan the Cittie there is joy in the villages there is joy in the hundred twentie seven every Province of them joy all over and all this allowed nay a Statute made to keepe it So a day of joy to all posteritie and all this Chronicled so A joy in the Chronicles what would you more Hence have we warrant for this day of ours and for all and every of them on this day of ours the same joy full out the same that was for that in every degree let be for this and more for this as this is more as hath been shewed as by the season of the year the day is longer the Sunne brighter the skie cleerer the weather fairer in August then December As this case more famous GOD 's might and mercie more mervailous More fit for a Chronicle more worthy to be engrossed in the great roll ours then theirs And in one we shall be above them that we begin our joy in the House of GOD whereas they in Persia had none to begin it in Heer do we begin it as GOD would have us begin it in the House of prayers with prayers A prayer for Bigthan and Tharez we cannot either these of the Text or those of the day But a prayer that by their examples both Ruina praecedentium may be admonitio sequentium the destruction of those that are gone before may be the instruction of all those that shall come after This the first part and if this will not be the second So may they ever finde that so seeke If seeke as they sought find as they found A prayer for Mardochai that for his so sitting in the gate he may sit in a better place that so many may follow him in his good example A prayer for the King But first a praise the principall cause we come hither for Praised be GOD ever that saved in Persia Assuerus from his two that saved in Scotland Your Majestie from your two the Saviour of Kings Maximè fidelium Then the prayer That those daies and these daies may never faile him nor he ever see other No more Bigthans good Lord but Mardochai's for them That Mardochai may never faile him but if he do that Thou wouldst not no more then this day Thou didst but ever save ever deliver ever preserve him and make them that seeke his ruine find their owne Either hang aloft as these in the Text or lye on the floore as those of the day And even so let the end of this be the beginning of the other even of the joy of the whole day For the day for it for this happie event on it for the King the Subject of it To the cause of it and of all our joy GOD the Father by which and through CHRIST in the unitie of the Holy Spirit be all blessing honour praise glorie and thanksgiving this day and all daies for ever and ever A SERMON Preached before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT VVINDSORE On the V. of AVGVST Ann. Dom. MDCXXII I. SAM CHAP. XXIV VER V. And the men of David said unto him See the day is come whereof the Lord said unto thee Behold I will deliver thine enemie into thine hand and thou shalt doe to him as it shall seeme good to thee Then David arose and cutt of the lappe of Saul's garment privily 6. And afterward David was touched in his heart because he had cut of the lapp which was on Saul's garment 7. And he sayd unto his men the LORD keepe me from doing that thing unto my Master the LORD' 's Annointed to lay my hand upon him For he is the Annointed of the LORD 8. So David overcame his servants with these words and suffered them not to rise against Saul So Saul rose up out of the cave and went away ECCE Dies venit Behold the day is come So beginns the text so say David's men And Behold the Day is come so may we beginne and as truly so say of this Day as ever did they of that The first words agree well So doe the last Abijt Rex viam suam the King rose up and went his way so ends the text and so ended this day too And not onely the first and last words but the middst and all fall out as fitly For indeed what is the whole Text but a report of a King in danger to have been made away and that closely in a cave and a motion made to that end and a knife drawen and David's men up against him and all Yet see the goodnesse of GOD the King did well enough for all that and went his way without any hurt done him And comes not this home to the day Saul at Engedi in the cave there may he not seeme as I may say a type of His Majestie at Saint Iohnston shutt up to use Saul's words in the close corner there Instead of a knife was there not a dagger drawen there and somewhat els and more sought then a corner of his cloake And as David's men rose heer So rose there not a popular tumult there And yet being in that extremitie was he not delivered out of their bloody hands and did not all end as the text ends The King rose up and went his way And this our meeting now in this publique solemne manner is to no other end but to rejoice togither in the presence of GOD and to render unto him our anniversarie sacrifice of praise and thanks that Eccedies venit Behold the day is come wherein he scaped so faire and went his way so happily And shall we not withall put our incense to our sacrifice that is add our prayers to our praises that as this day there was so still and ever a way may be made him
manus mea super te he twise cries 13.14 Let not my hand be 〈◊〉 thee There is David's hand 3. His heart smote him we see for putting but his knife into the edge of Saul's 〈◊〉 There is David's heart 4. His mouth from that we heare vox clamantis Absit mihi a Domino with great 〈◊〉 of passion There is David's mouth 5. So sayes David and will ye heare how he sings Heare it upon his harp 〈◊〉 his heart and harp agree heare him say it and sing it both Ye may For to 〈◊〉 for ever this day in memorie he made a Psalme of Saul's being in the cave heer and of his scaping out of it And gives it this title destroy not no not in the cave 〈◊〉 not By this meanes to sing into his mens minds their duty in this point And not into theirs alone but into the hearts and minds of all posteritie not to give their wayes to destroy Kings No though they have them in a cave as these had Saul Even there to sing destroy him not Ne perdas in the cave is worth all So have you David at full if any be of his side thus to see and say and sing and thinke and doe Sic ille oculos sic ora ferebat If you would know what his heart beleeveth touching this point percussit eum cor that gave him a shrewd check for buâ— a shred taken of Saul's cloke he beleeves he did not well in it If what his mouth confesseth Absit mihi facere rem hanc Absit saith his mouth Ne sit saith his hand Ne fiat saith his heart Ne perdas saith his harp All keepe time all 〈◊〉 one way this way all It seemed not good in his eyes to doe it that is the text Nor to his hand Let not that be upon him Nor to his mouth he spitt it out with an absit Nor 〈◊〉 his heart least of all to that that for a lesse matter for but drawing his knife though without minde of drawing a dropp of bloud fell on beating and cast him into a cardiack passion And eny who thinking but a thought that way if his heart smite not him let him smite it hardly Els is he not according to David's and so not to God's heart Thus have our eares heard of a King delivered in the Text And the like may our eyes see of a King delivered on this day Sicut audivimus sic vidimus III. The Ecce of this our day Psal 48.8 is the Psalme but Plus vidimus quà m audivimus may it truly be sayd of this day of ours I report me to You if it may not if there be not a greater Ecce nay many greater Ecce's on this day then on that Many wayes I know the ballance is even Kings both in danger and danger of Ecce tradam both Both in a cave for all caves are not under ground some above staires And of a knife or worser then a knife both And of a tumultuous rising both and yet both preserved from both Thus farr even But then in other points they are not No nor even in these For weigh them well and Saul wil be found as Balthasar was Tekel minus habens too light in the ballance Dan. 5.27 and this of ours to over-weigh to weigh him and all his downe many waies To reflect a little on this I have sayd a great deale I have sayd nothing if nothing be sayd of this It is the life of all If of the twaine the Ecce dies of this day be the greater if more Ecce's upon it The more of them the more Behold's the more beholden are we to God the more mervailous His mercies have beene to us the more plenteous our thanks to be to Him for them The Ecce dies is as the Ecce diei Ever the more remarkeable the day the 〈◊〉 the things are so that happen upon it The Ecce diei is of two sorts 1 Ecce 〈◊〉 2 Ecce abijt Rex Tradam the deliverie into the danger Abijt the 〈◊〉 from it And ever this we hold the worse the Tradam that is the danger the better the Abijt the escaping from it and the better it the more is our joy and the more our joy is the more our thanks should ever be Iehova Liberatori And O that such an Ecce might be on our thanks as there is on the day as it and the Ecce's of it do well deserve at our hands 1. To shew then the Tradam is worse I beginne with the Tradent or Traditor Ecce tradam Behold I will deliver him it is GOD that saith this this was GOD'S doing Saul's deliverie into Heer is no trecherie in the Text. Into the cave he came of his owne accord was casually found there not guilefully drawen thither So was it not to day but the King trained thither most treacherously Ecce Behold then it is farr worse when wretched men by wicked alluring meanes shall those one meaning no harme at all into a secret corner as evill as Saul's cave every whit and there set on him Worse I say for heer the Devill betrayes GOD delivers not Suffers I graunt but is not agent in it GOD never co-operates with treason So then no day this de quo dixit Dominus rather de quo dixit diabolus a day in respect of them and their trecherie of the Devill 's owne bespeaking This then the first odds that A Domino factum est illud a Diabolo factum est hoc that of GOD'S this of the Devill 's owne tradam and so the Traditor worse I am sure with an Ecce And who was delivered Inimicum tuum an enemie in the Text. Some reason in that Saul was so indeed David's enemie You were not theirs they were Yours without a cause Nay cause to the contrarie Nay â—â—uses more then one And in that regard worse Worse to deliver an innocent then a deadly enemie And delivered whither The text is into a cave Where Saul indeed saith he was shutt up but to say truth simply he was not so the cave's mouth was open he might have come forth his men might have come to him at his call But with us in our cave the King was secundùm literam in the literall sense shutt up indeed Many locks and doores fast upon him no going out for him no comming in for others The worse his case Nay a worse could not be So doth the Holy Ghost describe the hardest case of all 2. Reg. 14.26 by these three 1 Conclusus 2 derelictus 3 non erit auxiliator All three heere shutt up quite left none to help In farr worse taking then ever was Saul in the cave There is no hurt in a cave if there be no hurtfull thing in it But David saith in the Psalme Psal. 57.4 his was and sure it is Your soule was there among Lions The text is Tradam in manus tuas Tradam in manus I aske into whose hands
à vobis And so He is He from them and they from Him as farr as the bottome of the nethermost hell is from the topp of the highest heaven And ever the same hand of GOD be so layd on them that shall offer to lay hands on GOD'S Annointed So may they all shutt their eyes as many as it shall seeme good in their eyes to doe the like So may their hearts be smitten that ever hatch in their hearts eny thought that way tending And the faithfull mercies of David be upon them Esai 55.3 whose eye and hand heart and tongue shall see say and thinke and doe as he did And let the King live live yet many yeares to see the renewing of this blessed day and to refresh the memorie of God's mercies upon it shewed him and in him shewed us all And now to returne to the beginning We may I trust now say Ecce dies venit Behold the day is come with a higher accent A day in regard of the deliverie into their hands de quo dixit diabolus but in regard of the deliverie from them de quo dixit Dominus which GOD did bespeake Bespeake but in a better sense not thus in quo tradam in manus but rather in quo eripiam de manibus not deliver You into but to deliver You out of their hands And yet it is dies in quo tradam too but the edge turned toward them Not in quo tradam te illis but in quo tradam illos tibi not deliver you into your enemie's but deliver your enemies into Your hands The beginning was they made full accompt You had been given over into theirs and that the good should have beene in their eyes The end as is happily proved they were given into Your hands and the good was in Yours removed thither And you have done and they suffered what was good not in their but Your owne eyes heaven and earth approving it and rejoicing at it Now then as if they had done to You that was good in their eyes it had made many weeping eyes it had been Ecce dies funestus so seeing they have suffered what was good in Yours and even in God's eyes and thereby made many a gladd heart shall it not be Ecce dies festus Psal. 118.15.16 a day of ioy and health in the dwelling of the righteous wherin the right hand of the Lord had the praeminence the right hand of the Lord brought this mightie alteration to passe As they meant it it had beene a day the devill had marred Psal. 118.24 as it fell out this was a day that the Lord hath made and let us reioice and be glad in it with the voice of ioy and thanksgiving among such as keepe holy day Holy I say for let God have the honour of the day for setting so many Ecce's upon it For which all daies but specially as the day it selfe returnes we to make returne of our thanks upon it Even upon it upon this day for this day for the many Ecce's of this day to God the Author of them for the King and his safetie the subiecta materia of them for the Ecce surrexit è spelanc â his rising out of the cave in effect as good as his rising out of the grave or as David in this Psalme calls it his delivery from the Lyon's den Psal. 57.4 thence he rose And for Ecce abijt viam that a way was made him that he was not made away but that his way he went Then went and many â— way since hath gone and many more may still goe and the Angel of the Lord take 〈◊〉 of him to keepe him in all his wayes Psal. 91.11 and the Lord Himselfe preserve his going 〈◊〉 and comming in from this time forth for evermore 〈◊〉 is a Psalme as I sayd the LVII purposely sett of his being there in the 〈…〉 scaping thence the Psalme is like the day represents it fitly The forepart 〈◊〉 full of danger and feare Miserere mei Domine miserere mei Psal. 57.1.4 and My soule is 〈◊〉 Lyons well befitting You when You were under their hands But the latter 〈◊〉 the Catastrophe full of joy and triumph When You were gott out of the cave 〈◊〉 â—ere now upon Your way then it was I trust and ever will be as there it 〈◊〉 My heart is ready ô GOD my heart is ready I will sing and give praise Psal. 57.7.8.9.10.11 〈◊〉 up my glorie awake Lute and harp I my selfe will awake up early I will praise thee among the people I will sing unto thee among the nations For thy mercie is great toward me it reacheth even up to the heavens thy truth above the clouds Sett up thy selfe ô Lord above the heavens and thy glorie over all the earth as this day thou didst indeed So ends the Psalme and a better end there cannot be So will we end with glorie and praise blessing and thanks to all the three Persons of the glorious Trinitie To whom for this day and the Ecce of this day be ascribed this day all these Even this day and for ever A SERMON PREPARED TO BE PREACHED Vpon the V. of AVGVST A. D. MDCXXIII GEN. CHAP. XLIX VER V. VI. VII Simeon et Levi fratres c Simeon and Levi brethren in evill the instruments of crueltie are in their habitations Jnto their secret let not my soule come my glorie be not thou joyned with their assembly For in their wrath they slew a man and in their self-will or furie they digged downe a wall Cursed be their wrath for it was fierce and their rage for it was cruell J will divide them in Iaakob and scatter them in Israel I Have read you a Text out of a peecè of Genesis a part of Iacob's last words before he went out of the world or as they call it a Clause of his last Will and Testament There is in it a Censure upon a couple of his Sonnes In which censure I take it I have read the destinie of another couple in attempting both of a like soule designe they as these and these as they As Simeon and Levi the brethren of the Text so these two the brethren of the day To open the case heer in the Text The day will open it self sufficiently You are to imagine You see Iacob being now about to go out 〈…〉 world lying at the very point of death lifted up in his bedd for so he was his 〈…〉 before him all twelve in order according to their severall ages as 〈…〉 â—he world He had somewhaâ— to say to them it should seeme and 〈…〉 these two his second and third Sonnes he called to mind a foule 〈…〉 â—ommiâ—ted upon Hemor and Sichem and the whole Citie Of which 〈…〉 before at the XXXIIII Chapter 〈…〉 it were done and past many yeares before that it might seeme to have 〈…〉 yet it comes fresh to his mind and troubles him
their wicked counsell and 〈…〉 their hearts Which hearts of theirs the weapons of just defense went through 〈◊〉 â—heir counsell turned to their confusion â—nd now our Benedictus Deus to GOD Blessed be He for this Maledictus 〈◊〉 for the Patriarch's curse that light upon them and theirs And yet our 〈◊〉 too to them their weapons their counsell their furie their soules and their 〈◊〉 And from such blooud-thirstie cursed men GOD ever blesse You. Let me tell you this for a farewell Iacob doth heer two things 1 Delivers us a â—â—cument 2 and denounceth a dreadfull punishment His Document is Ne veniat 〈◊〉 His punishment is Maledictus and Dissipabo And choose they that will not 〈◊〉 veniat with him he will say Maledictus his curse be upon them But as Iacob 〈◊〉 so we to say all all to say after him Ne veniat both passive and active Passive 〈◊〉 be their counsell taken about Iacob's soule or his soule that is to us Iacob even 〈◊〉 Feeder the Pastor and Stone of Israël never come his soule to be the subject or 〈◊〉 treated of in any such counsell Active and never let any true subject's soule 〈◊〉 in any such counsell nor ever any good Christian come in that Church wherein 〈◊〉 Counsell or Counselors are harboured and mainteined or that hold any doctrine 〈◊〉 favours any such consultations But if any will not thus say Iacob's Ne veniat we to be so bold as to say Iacob's Maledictus to him his soule his seed his memorie and all Let all such inherit the curse let it be their legacie Exurgat Deus et dissipentur inimici Let God arise Psal. 68.1.2 and these his enemies be scattered As the stubble before the wind and as the smoke let them vanish and come to nothing Let their lives be for the sword their names be putt out their soules for the curse their houses pulld down and desolate So perish all thine enemies ô LORD Iud. 5.31 c Printed for Richard Badger â—ERMONS OF THE Gun-pouder-Treason PREACHED VPON THE FIFT OF November A â—ERMON â—reached before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT WHITE-HALL on the V. of November A. D. MDCVI PSAL. CXVIII VER XXIII XXIV A DOMINO factum est istud est mirabile in oculis nostris Haec est Dies quam fecit Dominus exultemus laetemur in ea 〈◊〉 is the Lord 's doing and it is mervailous in our eyes 〈◊〉 is the Day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it TO entitle this time to this Text or to shew it pertinent to the present occasion will aske no long processe This Day of ours This fift of November a day of GOD 's making that which was done upon it was the Lord 's doing CHRIST 's own application which is the best may well be applied here This day is this Scripture fulfilled in our eares For Luk. 4.21 if ever there were a Deed done or a Day made by God in our dayes this Day and the Deed of this Day was it If ever He gave cause of mervailing as in the first of reioycing as in the second verse to any Land to us this day He gave both If ever saved prospered 〈…〉 this day He saved prospered and as we say fairely blessed us The day we all know was meant to be the day of all our deaths and we and many were appointed as sheepe to the slaâ—ghter nay worse then so There was a thing doing on it if it had been done we all had beene undone And the very same day we all know the day wherein that appointment was disappointed by God and we all saved that we might not die but live Ver. 17. and declare the praise of the Lord the Lord of whose doing that mervailous Deed was of whose making this joyfull Day is that we celebrate Psal. 111.5 This mercifull and gratious Lord saith David Psal. 111.5 hath so done His mervailous Works that they ought to be had and kept in remembrance Of keeping in remembrance many waies there be Among the rest this is one of making Dayes sett soâ—emne Daies to preserve memorable Acts that they be not eaten out by them but ever revived with the returne of the Yeare and kept still fresh in continuall memorie God himselfe taught us this way In remembrance of the great Deliverie from the destroying Angell Exod. 12.3 c. He himselfe ordained the day of the Passe-over yearly to be kept The Church by Him taught tooke the same way In remembrance of the disappointing of Haman's bloudie lotts Est. 9.26 they likewise appointed the daies of Purim yearely to be kept The like memorable mercie did He vouchsafe us The Destroyer passed over our dwellings this day It is our Passe-over Haman and his Fellowes had sett the dice on us and we by this time had beene all in peeces It is our Purim day We have therefore well done and upon good warrant to tread in the same stepps and by law to provide that this Day should not die nor the memoriall thereof perish from our selves or from our seed but be consecrated to perpetuall memorie by a yearly acknowledgement to be made of it throughout all generations In accomplishment of which order we are all now heere in the presence of God on this day that He first by His Act of doing hath made and we secondly by our act of decreâ—ing have made before Him his holy Angells and men to confesse this His goodnesse and our selves eternally bound to Him for it And being to confesse it with what words of Scripture can we better or fitter do it then those we have read out of this Psalme Sure I could thinke of none fitter but even thus to say A Domino factum c. The Division The treatie whereof may well be comprised in three points 1. The Deed or doing 2. The Day and 3. The Dutie The Deed in these This is the Lord's c. The Day in these This is the day c. The Dutie in the rest Let us c. The other two reduced to the Day which is the center of both The Doing is the cause The Dutie is the consequent from the Day groweth the Dutie To proceed orderly we are to beginne with the Day For though in place it stand after the Deed Yet to us it is first our knowledge is à posteriori The effect ever first where it is the ground of the rest Of the Day then first 1. That such Daies there be and how they come to be such 2. Then of the Doing that maketh them wherein 1 that this of David's was and 2 that ours is no lesse rather more 3. Then of the Dutie how to doe it by rejoycing and being glad for so gaudium erit plenum these two make it full How to take order that we may long and often doe it by saying our Hosanna and Benedictus for gaudium nostrum nemo tollet à nobis Ioh. 16.22
mercie Verse 15.16 Verse 1.2.3.4 His ever-enduring mercie foure times he tells us it was that did it With that he beginnes and makes it the key of the song Then as we have factum est so we have A Domino The Deed and the Doer both 3. â—t mirabile and Mervailous it was GOD 's doings are many and not all of one sise The Prophet * Zach. 4.10 Zacharie speaketh of a day of small things and even in those small must we learne to see GOD or we shall never see Him in greater Yet so dimme is our fight that unlesse they be great commonly we see Him not nay unlesse it be great Vsque ad miraculum so great that mervailous withall we count it not worth a day nor worthy GOD unlesse it be such Psal. 72.18 But if it be such then it is GOD 's Qui facit mirabilia solus Who only workes great mervailes then man is shutt out and then GOD 's must the Day be A Domino factum mirabile 4. 〈◊〉 nostris even in our eyes And yet this is not enough The truth is all that GOD doth all His workes are â—â—â—â—erfull Magna sed ideo parva quia vsitatae Great wonders all but not wonderfull 〈…〉 to us because they be usuall His miracles are no more mervailous then His ordinarie workes but that we see the one daily and the other not Therefore he addeth In our eyes for a full period His doings all mervailous in themselves but not mervailous in our eyes unlesse they be rare and the like not seene before But then they be 〈◊〉 then we say Exod. â— 1â— Digitus Dei est It is the finger of GOD nay the right hand 〈…〉 brought this mighty thing to passe Then we give the day for God's 〈…〉 adoe Now then we have all that goeth to it 1 A Deliverance wrought 〈…〉 by God 3 a wonderfull deliverance 4 and that even in our eyes These 〈◊〉 David's day a day of God's making â—ll these be found in ours and then ours shal be so too They will Our Day was such all of them 〈◊〉 and that in an higher degree in a greater measure match David's day and 〈◊〉 it in all 1. We were delivered and from a danger that is cleere These foure in ours Factum est 1 A deliverance from a danger a greater danger 〈◊〉 for that makes the odds Boldly I dare say from a greater then 〈◊〉 Thus I shew it and go no further then the Psalme it selfe David called upon GOD in his danger he knew of it therefore We did 〈◊〉 imagined no such thing but that all had been safe and we might have gone 〈◊〉 â—arlia-ment as secure as ever The danger never dreamt of that is the danger 〈◊〉 His was by compassing and hemming in that is above ground and may be 〈◊〉 â—rom a watch-tower Ours was by undermining digging deep under ground 〈◊〉 could discerne One cannot be besett but he may have hope to breake through at some part 〈◊〉 from this no way no means no possibilitie of escaping The danger not 〈◊〉 discried not to be escaped that is the danger 4. His were a swarme of bees He calleth them so they buzze and make a noise 〈◊〉 they come Ours a brood of vipers mordentes in silentio still Ver. 12. not so much as a 〈◊〉 till the deadly blow had been given â— His was but of himselfe alone so he saith I was in trouble They came about me Ver. 11.13 〈◊〉 in thrust sore at me But one person David's alone Ours of a farre greater 〈◊〉 David and his three Estates with him Now though David himselfe were 〈◊〉 by them at ten thousand of themselves and not over-valued neither for he is 〈◊〉 more and all Kings like him no lesse worth yet he and they too 2. Sam. 18.3 must needs 〈◊〉 then He alone Not onely King David had gone but Queen Esther too and 〈◊〉 onely they but Salomon the young Prince and Nathan his Brother Nor these 〈◊〉 not all The Scriptures recount David had Iehosaphat for his Chancellor 2. Sam. 20.24 Adoram 〈◊〉 Treasurer Seraja his Secretarie Sadoc and Abiathar and twenty two more the â—hiefe of the Priests Admo his Iudge Ioab his Generall all had gone 2. Sam. 23. His forty eight â—orthies or Nobles all they too The Principall of all the Tribes in the kingdome All 〈◊〉 too and many more then these no man knoweth how many It is out of quesâ—â—â—n it had exceeded this of David's heer 6. One more His danger he confesseth was from man He goeth no further 〈◊〉 not feare what man doeth unto me This of ours was not meerly mans I denie 〈◊〉 it was the Devill himselfe The instruments not as his a swarme of Bees Ver. 6. but a 〈◊〉 of Locusts out of the infernall pitt Not men No not Heathen men Their 〈◊〉 nay their Tragoedies can shew none neer it Apoc. 9.3 Their Poëts could never feigne 〈◊〉 prodigiously impious Not men No not savage wild men the Hunnes the 〈…〉 Turcilingi noted for inhumanitie never so inhumane Even among those 〈◊〉 people this fact would be accounted barbarous How then Beasts There 〈◊〉 Ephesus beasts in shape of men and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brutishnesse is the worst Philosophie 〈…〉 of our nature This is more then brutish What Tiger 1. Cor. 15.32 though never 〈…〉 would have made the like havock Then if the like neither in the nature 〈…〉 not beasts to be found it is so unnaturall we must not looke to paterne it 〈…〉 we must to hell thence it was certenly even from the Devill He was a 〈…〉 from the beginning and wil be so to the ending In every sinne of bloud Ioh. 8.44 he 〈…〉 but all his clawes in such an one as this wherein so much bloud as 〈…〉 made it raine bloud so many baskets of heads so many peeces of rent 〈…〉 and downe and scattered all over the face of the earth Never such a day 〈…〉 of a fearefull day bloâ—d and fire and the vapour of smoake Ioel 2.30 Mar. 9.29 As he is a 〈…〉 so we see iâ— Marke â—y his renting and teâ—ring the poore possessed child 〈…〉 〈…〉 and in this all his cruâ—lties should have mett together Pharao's and 〈◊〉 â—illing innocent and harmelessâ— children yet they spared the Mother Esau's 〈◊〉 smiting mother children and all Nebuzaradan's not sparing the King nor his Lords Haman's not sparing Hâ—ster nor her Ladies Edom's crueltie not sparing the Sanctuarie nor the walls Psal. 137 7. Iob 1.18.19 〈◊〉 2.9.10 Ier. 31.15 〈◊〉 with them to the ground His owne smiting the foure corners and bringing down the house upon the heads of Iob's children Put to all the crueltâ—â—s in 〈◊〉 Lamentations the not honouring the faces of Nobles Priests Iudges the making so many widowes and orphans the voice in Rama of Rachel comfortlesse 〈◊〉 more cruell to them it spared and left behind then to
so as we begunne we end with Non consumpti There cannot be a more kindly consequence then this our not failing from their not failing we doe not because they doe not If they did we should But quia non consumptae illae non consumpti nos for they are not consumed no more are we And why doe not they faile Because He himselfe doth not He is the same still He failes not His bowells are as He is so they faile not no more then He. And in this Quia non deficiunt is all the comfort we have For since Ieremie's time one would be amazed to consider the huge number of foule enormities that have beene committed and yet the parties that committ them not consumed where there should be mercie to serve for them all One would thinke by this they should have beene drawen drie So they had but for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It can never be said Now there is all there is now no more left No an inexhaust fountaine there is of them never dry but floweth still fresh and fresh And looke even the next words Ieremie tells us they renew everie morning No morning comes but a fresh supplie of them And even this morning this V. of November we had a good proofe of it Yea they are never perfect the summe is never made up There is still added every day and they shall not be consummate till the consummatum est of the world And but for these bowells that still melt and for these compassions ever-flowing and never failing they our enemies had not failed of their purpose But because these failed not they failed because these consumed not we were not consumed They are not onely plentifull as in the plurall and choise as from the bowells the bowells of a father but perpetuall what talke we of perpetuall they are eternall These three their 1 multiplicitie their 2 specialtie their 3 eternitie these three we hold by III. Our Recognition And now to our Recognition To performe it to the full as it deserveth that I know we cannot Worthily to celebrate and set forth His mercies therein accorâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 their merit what tongue of men or Angells can doe it But shall we not 〈◊〉 â—â—fore doe it as we can We were not consumed shall our thankefullnesse fall 〈…〉 sumption His compassion failed us not shall our recognition faile them â—hall we not finde our tongues as well to praise His mercies as to pray for them Can we poure out petitions in time of need and can we not drop forth a few thankes when we have what we would No let this be the first that we answer Misericorâ—â—â—on consumptae with gratiae inconsumptae that our thankes fall not into an hectique Then that we imitate the three properties of this vertue that saved us and to whom we owe our selves no other then those that he expressed in the Text. 1. That we keepe the number do it plurally Not single thankes for plurall mercies that agrees not Iterate them over and over as much as we may In the weight we shall surely fall short let us make amends with the number Doe it oft and many times in hope that Saepe cadéndo they shall effect that which Vi by any force in them they are not able This for every one to give as many as we may make them many Now as many as we are many As we should have gone altogether as we should have gone so and no otherwise let us together heere all acknowledge his mercies this day shewed us Psal 148.11.12.13 〈◊〉 praise Him all of us for them Praise him King and Queene c. Yea not onely Dicat nunc Israël but Dicat nunc paâ—ies Psal. 118 2. praise him walls and windowes praise him lime and stone praise him roofe and foundation Let them praise the name of the Lord for He said but a word and they stood fast He commanded 1 Non Psal. 148.5.6 and they were not stirred Ieremie speakes to a wall to weepe Chap. 2.18 we â—ay with as good reason to reioyce and give thankes All that should have perished together praise Him together 2. Next that we put him not of with certaine I know not what hollow thankes that have no bowells at all in them But do it De visceribus De intimis fibris from the very bowells from the innermost veines and the smallest threeds of them with him Praise the Lord ô my soule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all my bowells all that is within me Psal. 103.1 Psal. 35.10 All my bones shall say c. When the bones the bones that should have beene shivered in sunder when the bowells the bowells that should have beene scattered abroad speake that is the right speaking If every one of us to himselfe wouâ—d but say the very words of this verse onely as they stand It was c. It was c. even this onward were worth the while if it be not for forme but feelingly spoken Dic Dic sed intus dic say it but say it from within let the bowells speake it though our words faile us they doe not And indeed the consumption should have been with fire shall our recognition be frozen no sparke no vigor igneus no fervor at all in it How agree these a fierie destruction and a frozen confession It standeth us upon to be delivered no lesse from cold â—hankes then from a hott fire 3. And that we never faile to doe it No yeare to intermitt it no weeke and I would I might add no day neither Answer Misericordia Ejus manet in aeternum Psal. 136.1 Psal. 89.1.2 with Misericordias Domini cantabo in aeternum and not mercies that never faile with short thankes and soone done specially seeing their not failing lyeth upon our not failing them Now it would do well to seale up all with a Recognition reall that is the praise of mercie with some worke of mercie What was done upon us this day our preserving A worke of mercy it was This worke can no way so lively be expressed as by a worke of like nature nothing so well saith Saint Iames by warme breath as by warme clothes Erga consumendos such as are in danger of it not by fire but by cold and nakednesse Iam 2.16 This as it is a most kindly way to resemble it so withall is it a most effectuall meanes to procure the continuance and not fayling of it Magnes est misericordiae Dei â—rga nos misericordia nostra in fratres of GOD 's mercie to us keeping us from consuâ—ing our mercie toward our poore brethren is the loadstone to keepe them from the like So under one shall we both lett it forth and procure it procure that we so much stand in need of and sett forth that vertue to which we were so much this day beholden Now to GOD to Him and to His mercie the bowells of His mercie and the fresh fountaine of
them That â—uffered us not to be consumed but delivered us and that from that fire and 〈◊〉 universall utter sodeine unnaturall consuming by it the decree wherof 〈◊〉 certainely gone forth against us come so neere us and we not aware of it That suffered us not to be consumed but gave them to be câ—â—sumed in our steads and hath this day presented us all alive to give Him praise for it To Him for the multitude of His mercies for the paterna viscera miserationum suarum that never faile nor consume themselves nor suffer us to faile and be consumed To Him I say c. A SERMON Preached before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT WHITE-HALL on the V. of November A. D. MDCXIII PROVERB CHAP. VIII VER XV. Per me REGES regnant By me KINGS reigne THese words may well serve for a Sermon for they be a piece of a Sermon For all the Chapter is a Sermon preached by one standing in the top of the high places ver 2. The high places that was then their Church The top of them that was the Pulpit It is the common question Who Preaches Ever we must know that And though the whole booke be Salomon's and though he be a * Eccl. 1.1 Mat. 12.42 Preacher upon Record yet Major Salomone hîc a greater Preacher then Salomon is heer He was but wise it is Wisedome it selfe made this Sermon And we may be bold to preach what Wisedome preacheth A sermon ouâ— of such a Sermon cannot be amisse Specially this Wisedome the Essentiall Wisedome of GOD which upon the point will proove to be none other but CHRIST And so our Text fall out to be de verbis Domini that is de verbis Domini secundùm Salomonem for so there be no lesse than secundum Matthaeum or Ioannem Which though they were uttered by Him before He was in the flesh what of that they be no whit the lesse but full out as good Gospell as if they had beene recorded by any of the foure Evangelists yea and this we may adde further even Gospell before any Gospell of them all Thus much for the Author of the speech The Summe The speech it selfe seemes as if some question there were Per quem Reges Or some were about to bring the Writt of Quo Warranto to know how they clayme to be Kings how to hold their soveraigne Authority by whose graunt And let not this seeme strange It is no new thing to bring this Writt in like cases Exod. 2.14 Mat. 21.23 One was brought against Moses VVho made thee a Ruler Nay higher one against our Saviour himselfe By what authority doest thou these things and who gave thee that authority Against Moses Against Christ and why not then against Salomon and his fellow Kings And this same Per Me heer is an answer to all Who made you Moses a Ruler He whose Name is I am Exod. 3.14 Iohn 10.36 sent me Who gave CHRIST his authority He that sanctified Him and sent Him to be the Messias of the world And here now Kings by whom Per Me by Him too These words of his Charta Regia This their Charter Royall And He that gave it them will warrant it for good and beare them out against all the Perme's in the world This for the Nature of the speech A point necessary if ever at this time to be weighed well and looked into wherein this question is put up and so vexed that it cannot rest Wherein they have set up an Anti-Per and given him this sentence in his mouth Bellar contra Barcl Ego facio ut Rex tuus Rex ne sit I will make your King no King this Text Per Me notwithstanding One to sever Reges and Regnant that they shall reigne no longer than he sees cause to suffer them And is it not time then to make good their Tenures And that doe this Text and this Day The Text in word the day in deed cum effectu really The Text the words indeed as the words of wisedome are but few and the sentence short scarce eny in Scripture so short In our tongue but foure words and they but foure syllables But it fareth with sentences as with Coynes In Coynes they that in smallest compasse containe greatest value are best esteemed And in sentences those that in fewest words comprise most matter are most praysed And such is this Exceeding compendious that we must needs be without all excuse it being but foure monosyllables if we doe not remember it And withall of rich Contents for upon these foure syllables depend all Kings and Kingdomes of the Earth Of such force are they Of which foure the two latter Reges and Regnant be two as great matters as any he in the World One the Persons themselves as they be Kings The other the Act of their reigning or bearing rule over Nations These two latter depend on the two former Per Me which are but one in effect but He a great One. For it is heere positively set downe asserendo that these two latter are by this former By and through Him that sayes Per Me. By and through Him Kings first setled in their Reignes By and through Him ever since upholden in their Reignes By and through Him vouchsafed many miraculous preservations in their Reignes Thus far the Text. Luc. 1 7â— Then by the tender mercy of our God comes the Day from on high and giveth great light unto the Text This Day on which a very memorable memoriall of a famous Per Me. One in great Capitall letters Even of Per Me Reges and not of Per Me Reges alone but of Per Me Leges and that too followes here in the verse and of Per me Greges too All had gone up but for this Per Me. This Day this Per Me soundeth in your eares and this day this Per Me was sealed in your eyes and this question actually dâ—â—ided 〈◊〉 the Order in treating whereof our Parts must bee as our words The Division Looke how 〈◊〉 wordâ— so many parts foure of either 1 Of Me first the Cause 2 Then of Per 〈◊〉 3 After of Per me Reges the Persons 4 And last of Per Me regnant 〈…〉 〈◊〉 Me. It is a Generall Rule Per dicit causam I. The Cause Me. the Nature of this Praeposition Per is to note a Cause certaine And a certaine cause excludeth Chance First men Kings and Kingdomes have their Per they be not fortè fortunâ 1. Kings and Kingdomes have a Cause Psal. 75.6 Rom. 13.4 at hap-haâ—rd ex concursu atomorum They be no casualties The wind blowes no man to them â—aith the Psalme 57. And Non temerè saith the Apostle where Non temerè as it is not in vaine so is it also not at adventure Causal they are Casual they are not A Per there is a Cause of King's reigning What is that cause Per Me and Me is a Person And a person is Naturae rationalis individua
they swerve not from Him touch Him 〈◊〉 continue with Him and He with them and so He will make them to contiâ—â—â— long â— am ledd to this because you shall see these three duely set upon every King's head 〈◊〉 all the story of the Bible â— Such a King was so many yeares old when he began his reigne there is his 〈◊〉 his Regnant his Dooâ—e of Entrance And then So many yeares he reigned in Ierusalem or Samaria there is his 〈◊〉 his diu regnant his Per of Line or continuance Then ever followes if you marke it either And he did well and walked in 〈◊〉 of his father David there is the manner his benè regnant his Rule or 〈◊〉 Or and he did evill in the sight of the LORD and turned not from the waies of 〈…〉 there is his obliquitiâ— out of rule himselfe and brought all out of rule with him This holds in all and in all will hold after they be once of of the stage 1. Regnant Per januâ— The entrance As it is Actus inâ— hoâ—or they reigne that is they come to the Crowne they beginne their reignes It is generally true that the maine frame of Government the first raising of it could be by none but this Per Me. But I insist on particulars rather Wherein eny that shall but weigh what difficulties what oppositions be raised what plotts and practizes to keepe Reges from regnant those from it whose of right it is shall be forced to confesse that even by Him they have their first entrance Take him that is next hand Salomon and he that shall marke Adonijah's plott drawing the High-Priest Aâ—iâ—thâ—r and the Generall of the field Ioab into a strong faction against him shall finde Salomon was bound to acknowledge that Per Me he came in Or if he will not Adonijah himselfe will he was forced to doe it That the kingdome was turned from him and was his brother's for it came unto him even Per Me by the LORD This confession of his is upon record 1. Reg. 2.15 And your Majestie was non ignara mali hujus was not altogether free from these It is English I speake Possibly from Ioab you were but not from Abiathar His Bulls they were abroad And some there were that could not enter by the doore but were clyming up another way Yet for all these you came to your reigne and you came by the right Per by the doore And this I know You are one of the number of those Kings that ascribe their regnant to this Per Me. This for Actus inchoatus Now they are in 2. Regnant diu Per lineae Their continuance But when they are in they may out againe soone enough when begunne end quickly if Per Me as he was the Cause procreant so He be not also the cause Conservant and make their reigne Actus Continuatus draw the line out along keepe and continue them for many yeares in it Regnant is true in the first instant One reignes if it be but a 1. Reg. 1â— 15 for a sevenight as Zomri reigned no longer But what is that Or what is it to reigne a Moneth as b 2 Reg. 15.13 Shallum or three as c 2 Reg. 23.11 Ioahaz or Six as d 2. Reg. 15.8 Zacharâ—as did Nothing The continuance propriè loquendo that is the reigne and Regnant without this Per is as good as nothing And the Text is for this The word in Hebrew is not Regnant in the Present doreigne but regnabunt in the Future shall reigne or continue reigning And so is the Praeposition Per for it too For Per addit durationem adds over a continuance where it is added as is evident by Persist Permanent Perdurable Perseverance Perpetuit And this now questionlesse depends upon GOD alone even their quick cutting of or their long preserving in their reignes He can draw the line longer or shorter draw it out still or snap it of He can take them from their reigne by the e Dan. 5.26 hand-writing on the wall MENE c. He can take it from them by f Iob. 12.18 Solvit baltheum Regam taking of their Collar and g Psal. 89 44. casting their throne downe to the ground He can call in a forreigne enemie stir up a seditious subject let loose the sea of popularitie in upon them unlawfully to doe it but to doe it though Many such things are with Him Now we are at the maine For heere comes all the danger there is such heaving and lifting at them after they be in such thrusting by force such undermining by fraud So many Per me 's Per Me Clement Castell Catesby and they againe so many Per's Per knives pistoll poyson powder all against this Per of continuance as be the former how it will they cannot but confesse heere that Per Me it is that they hold out their Reignes And heere fall's in kindly this daye 's designe and the visible Per Me that hapned on it Lament 3.22 For By Hâ—m it was and by His mercie that King and all were not quite consumed That your Reigne and your lift were not determined both together Not that you went not downe with David into the pitt Psal. 30.3 but that you went not up up into the ayre in I know not how many pieces and 〈◊〉 now after thus many yeares it is Regnant wâ—â—h you still And may iâ— be Per Me regnat so we all pray and not Per Me regnat onely but Per Me regâ—â—blâ— many times many yeares more I but 〈◊〉 in minde heere of what I told you right now It is In me in Hebrew not 〈◊〉 In Him not By Him though never so hard by Him for that is without Him 〈◊〉 even In Him and then they be safe And in Him You have reigned for He hath inclosed You as it were and compasâ—â— You on every side As in a fortresse strong hold or place of defense so have You 〈◊〉 in Him That as David oft calleth GOD so may You Your Rocke Psal. 18.2 Psal. 89 22. Your 〈◊〉 Your Sanctuarie of safe guard So that the enemie hath not been able to do you 〈◊〉 not the Sonne of wickednesse had power to hurt You. And yet there is more in this Regnabunt greater grace yet For Iam 4.6 For we may extend it yet further to a continuance not in themselves in their persons only but in their posâ—â—ritie too That when it shall cease with them and they in their graves yet it shall be â—â—gnabunt still and they reigne in their race and progeny when they have done reigning themselves This drawes out the Per longer for so reigne they many ages not their owne onely Kings in themselves Kings in their seed Reges à saeculo in saeculum from one generation to another By Saul and by David we may plainely see one thing it is to bring one to be King as Saul was another to establish the Kingdome in his line
the tenth yeare this And naturally Decumana sunt grandiora A Fluctus decumanus Psal. 38.4 a deepe floud it was had like to have gone over our soules And a Misericordia decumana A Mercie of a large size it was that made it went not then That we performe then Laudes decumanas great Praise and large Thankes now this Anno Decimo some way answerable to the greatnesse of our Perill and to the greatnesse of the Mercie that made us so well passe it The numbers of seven and ten are not without their weight The Seaventh the Sabboth The Tenth GOD 's part Both waies as the Sabboth day as the Tenth yeare sacred to GOD is this Day and our dutie upon it I. Of the words in order Misericordiae The Mercies MIsericordiae DOMINI Misericordiae To looke into the nature of the word Mercie It is best conceived by the Object and by the Act. Mercie hath for her Object circa quod her matter and metall to worke upon Miserie the best Vertue the worst Object of all It is not so plaine this in our English word Mercie as in the Latine Misericordia for there is miserie full out at the length Vpon this Object the proper Act of Mercie Miseratio as the Fathers read this Text Misericordia is the Habit Miseratio the Act which is nothing els but Misericordia eliquata that which runnes from Mercie at the melting the Act that relieves us of miserie and all the degrees that lead to it necessities impotencies dâ—fects distresses dangers and whatsoever would make our case miserable more or lesse To relieve these is the Act and this you must take with you without merit to relieve them The opposition the Church makes in diverse her Collects Non nostris meritis sed Tuâ solâ misericordiâ with an expresse obstante of all merit For the eye of Iustice will relieve all them that deserve it Goodnesse in merentes that is Iustice. Goodnesse in immerentes yea and sometimes a degree farther in malè merentes that is Mercie properly Psal. 106.44 Neverthelesse saith the CVI. Psalme for all they deserved it to be miserable when he saw their miserie saw that and nothing els to move Him that moved Him and He heard their complaint and gave order for their reliefe This is Mercie Misericordiae Ejus Mercies in GOD. This Mercie is in GOD Misericordiae Ejus Indeed such is the immutable constancie of the Divine Nature as we should hardly conceive it to be in this wise flexible but that great care is taken of this point of no one so great that there is Mercie in GOD there be Misericordiae Ejus But what Mercie From the nature and force of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I am not now to tell you I have done it heertofore is properly the bowells that is there are tender mercies in God so we turne it in the Benedictus Not of the ordinarie sort flight and such as pierce not deepe come not far but such as come de profundis from the verie bowells themselves that affect that part make the bowells relent And what bowells Not the bowells of the common man for then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been 〈◊〉 word but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the bowells of a parent so we said the word 〈◊〉 and this adds much adds to Mercie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 naturall love To one strong â—â—fection another as strong or stronger then it And what Parent the more pitifull of the twaine the Mother For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the â—â—â—gular of this word is Hebrew for the Womb. So as this to the two former addeth 〈◊〉 Sexe the Sexe holden to be the more passionate and compassionate of both â— Of all mercies those from the bowells 2 and of all bowells the bowells of a parent and of the two parents those of the mother those from the womb Such pitie as the â—â—ther takes of the child of her wombe such as the wombe of the child that lay in it â—ercies are in GOD such mercies are in God And GOD willing to set forth unto us the exceeding great tendernesse of His mercie to have it throughly apprehended by us Humanum dicit speakes to us in our owne Puerilis And to expresse the efficacie of His action takes to Him the affection and to expresse the affection takes to him the part of the bodie the seat of it the bowells and the bowells of a parent of that parent whose bowells in our nature are the pitifullest of all the mother And if you will you may add this that one mother hath but one wombe for all her children but He speakes heere of GOD in the plurall as if He had the compassion of more wombs then one the pitie of many mothers put together It is good newes for us these mercies are in GOD but better yet In GOD with a Super. that they are in Him with a Super. But best of all that that Super a Super not Super quaedam but Super omnia Much is said in few words to Mercie 's praise when this is said Super omnia And that super Super omnia Nihil sâ—pra were much None above it but Super omnia It above all he that saith that lâ—aves no more to say there is no higher degree Super omnia is the Superlative Super omnia Above all For Opera Ejus His workes these two might well be spared All are workes and all are His workes Super omnia opera Ejus that is absolutely Super omnia For workes is no terme diminuent heere All His workes that is all simply Beside GOD and His workes there is in the wide world nothing at all But yet with His workes with them it is laid and well Not with GOD 's other Attributes absolutely but with them in the point of workes His Attributes are all alike all as Himselfe is infinite all and one infinite is not more then another But take the workes and Virtus in actione we know lay it there Compare the workes of â—ny of them nay of all of them with the workes of Mercie and Mercie carries it cleere 1. Sam. 18.7 More workes more in number If they their thousand Mercie her ten thousand More great more glorious Workes of it then of eny of them all Nay then of all 〈◊〉 them Super omnia opera that it is And now to our Super. And first Super above Super above is said heere by way of figure Properly Super is of height II. Of their Super Height iâ— a dimension that perteines to quantitie and quantitie to bodies 1. Super above whereof Mercie is â—one The meaning is it is the chiefest So Heaven in the greater World So the Head in the lesse both of them the highest both of them the chiefest chiefest of all and rule all As indeed of whom is Super said so rightly as of the Sovereigne So doth Mercie Namely His Power which may serve
for all Deus saith the Church thâ— â—inth Sunday after Trinitie qui Omnipotentiam Tuam parcendo maximè miseâ—anâ—â— manifestas GOD which shewest thine Almighty Power most chiefly in shewâ—â—g mercie 〈◊〉 to keepe us to the letter Super above is either 1 reall or 2 locall 1. Reall 〈◊〉 Sâ—ul above the people higher by the head and shoulders then any of them 2. 1 Sam. 10 2â— Luk. 19.4 〈◊〉 as Zachee though low in stature â—et above in the top of a Sycomore tree Mercie is it selfe highest We will soone end this point by the heavens 1 Above really the uppermoâ—â— of all His workes His mercie saith the CVIII Psalme is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above and that Psal. 108.4 â—ith a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great way above the heavens and if above them above all under them 〈◊〉 it selfe highest 2. Above locally 1 In place And it hath the highest place of all above all the precedence before all The highest place The Arke was on earth the figure of the spirituall heaven Over it were the Cherubins Above upon the top of their wings was the Mercie-Seat there fitts Mercie in the highest place of all 2 In praecedence As the highest place above all so the precedence before all In GOD 's owne stile framed and proclaimed by Himselfe Exod. 34.6 Exod. XXXIV consisting of thirteen titles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 measures or degrees next after the LORD GOD the very first is this word heer And take this withall that of the thirteen nine of them belong to Mercie that proportion it hath that so it may have the super every way From this place it hath over all and by GOD 's appointment it tooke it not it selfe we gather the place it hath in GOD 's esteeme That which one most setts by he setts by himselfe and next to himselfe ever the deerest the neerest still GOD by thus setting it next to Him None between GOD and it in His Style shewes plainly what vertue it is He loves above all and what vertue He commends to us above all To us all but specially to them that are above all To be super Omnia in them that be super omnes As the nobler the Nature and the neerer to God the more easie ever to take the impression of it To hold you no longer in this first It is one of God's Titles Melchisedek first gave it Him Altissimus Gen. 14.19 As He Altissimus so Mercie altissima ever Altissima in Altissimo the highest Vertue in Him that is most High Rom. 9 â— which is God above all to be blessed and to be blessed for this above all And this for super above 2. Super Over But there is more then so in it Super is over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is over all All that are above are not over It is not above onely as an Obelisk or Maypole higher then all about them but have neither shadow nor shelter no good they do Mercie hath a broad top spreading it self over all It is so above all as it is over them too As the vault of this Chappell is over us and the great vault of the Firmament over that The super of latitude and expansion no lesse then of altitude and elevation And this to the end that all may retire to it and take covert It over them and they Esa. 32.2 under it Vnder it under the shadow of it as of Esaiâ—s great Rock in the wildernesse Dan. 4.12 from the heat Vnder it under the shelter of it as of Daniel's great Tree from the tempest Super omnia Over all Psal. 104.24 Over all his works now O Lord saith the CIV Psalm how manifold are thy works We shall never get through halfe of them God knowes Non est pertransire infinitum We will contract them thus take the two Extreames so shall we take in all betwixt them Over all that is none of them all so high but as high as they be they need come under it Nor none of them all so mean but as meane as they be they are not left out one way or other within it under it all So we divide His works into His OPERA and His opuscula and Over both it is 1. All His works His OPERA Iob. 15.15 Rom 9.23 Gen 32.10 None so high None on earth not his Saints who of all on earth have the super are of highest perfection In them he found no stedfastnesse Iob XV. they be Vasa misericordiae all If you will take it with Iacob's staffe he saith minor sum cunctis he is under them under them all Not in Earth then No nor in heaven Neither heaven it self nor the brightest part of heaven the starrs they are not cleane in His sight they also need it Nay not the Angells Iob 15.15 Iob 4.18 the very brightest of them all In them He found Pravitatem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somwhat amisse even in them So over them too they need it The very Seraphin have somthing to cover As for the Cherubin they will sett Mercie a seat upon the top of their wings So glad and faign are they to have it over them All the tongues of Saints and Angells must say this Verse with us Misericordiae Domini super omnia opera Ejus Both say it for both need it And if both they I would faign know who needs it not 2. All His Opuscula Now as none so high None of His Opera His Folio-Works So none so meane none of His opuscula but over them too As His art no lesse wonderfull in making the Ant then the Elephant So His care no lesse over the one then over the other Naâ—â—ras rerum minimarum non destituit Deus The very minims of the world 〈◊〉 Mercie leaves them not destitute Not the wild Asses Psalm 104 11.147·9 Mat. 10.29 without a place to quench 〈◊〉 thirst Not the young Ravens crying on Him Not the Sparrow of halfe a farâ—hing let ts not them light on the ground without His providence Even these even such His mercie is over also It is not Pallium breve the Mantle is wide enough it leaves none out None out What say you to hell and those there Not them Nazianzen that had the honour to be called the Divine of his time thinks it may be maintained Not them and so do the Schoolemen all inasmuch as even there Mercie moderates too That it is not with them there as it might and should be but tolerabilius easier then they do deserve by much None no not in that place Luke 12.47 though beaten with many stripes yet not with so many as the qualitie of his offense in rigour of Iustice would require This is sure Deus praemiat ultra punit citra God ever rewards beyond but punishes on this side short still of that we deserve that His very punishment is tempered with mercie that even in His wrath
indeed Psal 38.4 that would be looked into by us by reason of another Super Iniquitates nostrae supergressae sunt capita nostra Our sinnes are gone up over above our heads Over head and eares in sinne And another Super yet above them Even the phials of God's wrath hanging over our heads Apoc. 16.1 readie to be powred on us and them were it not that mercie is above them and staies them Were it not that Over whom miserie over them mercie Els were we in danger to be overwhelmed with them every houre We see then the comparison was well laid in Super. Our sinnes over us judgements over them but mercie over all Super omnia Alwaies where there is Super there is Satis Satis superque shewes Super is more then Satis Enough then there is and to spare for them all â— Above the workes of all His workes One more not onely above all ours but if it be above all His works then is it above all the workes of them that be His workes and so not to hold you above the Devill and all his workes For he also is one of them Of GOD'S making as an Angell of his owne marring as a devill Above his works I say and above the works and practises of his limmes and all they can doe or devise against them over whom His mercie is The Sonne of GOD saith S. Iohn in mercie therefore appeared 1. Ioh. 38. Vt solveret opera Diaboli that He might loose â—ndoe quite dissolve the works of the Devill No worke shall he contrive never so deepe under ground never so neere the borders of his own region but GOD 's mercie will bring it to light it and the workers of it His mercie will have a Sâ—per for their Subâ—er There shall be more in Mercie to save then in Sathan to destroy Psal 124 1. More dicat nunc Israël more may this Realme now say A notorious Work of His as ever eny Nay Super omnia as never was eny this day by His mercie brought to light and dissolved quite dissolved We heard it not with our eares our fathers told it 〈◊〉 not our eyes beheld this Super. Psal. 44.1 So we are come to our owne case â—er we were aware That is Super upon 3. Super upon 1 Vpon some more then others of his workes Over all 〈◊〉 yet not over all alike at leastwise not upon all alike upon some more then over 〈◊〉 some Aequaliter est Illi cura de omnibus but not aequalis Aequally a care â—f â—ll but not an aequall care though No His mercie over all in generall is no barre 〈◊〉 upon some there may be a speciall Super and so some have a Super in this Super too For if the reason why mercie is over all His workes be because they be His workes â—hen the more they be His workes the more workmanship He bestowes upon them the more is His mercie over them Whereby it falls out that as there is an unaequalitie of His workes and one worke above another so is there a diverse graduation of his mercie â—nd one mercie above another or rather one and the same mercie as the same Planet in Auge in the top of his Epicycle higher then it selfe at other times To shew this 2 Vpon Man more then other creatures Gen. 1.26 we divide His works as we have warrant into His works of Fiat as the rest of His creatures and the Worke of Faciamus as Man the master-piece of His workes upon whom He did more cost shewed more workmanship then on the rest the very word Faciamus setts him above all 1. GOD 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that He did deliberate enter into consultation as it were about his making and about none els 2. GOD 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Himselfe framed his bodie of the mold Gen. 2.7 as the potter the clay 3. Then that He breathed into him a two-lived soule which made the Psalmist Breake out Domine quid est homo c. Lord what is man Psal. 8.4 thou shouldst so regard him as to passe by the heavens and all the glorious bodies there and passing by them breath an immortall soule put thine owne image upon a piece of clay 4. But last GOD 's setting him Super omnia opera manuum suarum Over all the workes â—f His hands His making him as I may say Count Palatine of the world this shewes plainely His setting by Man more then all of them As he then over them so GOD 's mercie over him Over all His workes but of all His workes over this work Psal. 8.6 Over His chiefe worke chiefly in a higher degree And not without great cause Man is capable of aeternall either felicitie or miserie so are not the rest He sinnes so do not they So his case requires a Super in this Super requires mercy more then all theirs Vpon men then chiefly They the first Super in this Super. But of men though it be true in generall He hath shut up all under sinne that He might have mercie upon all Rom. 11.32 yet even among them a Super too a second Another workmanship He hath yet His workmanship in CHRIST IESV the Apostle calls it Ephes. 2.10 His new creature Gal. 6.15 which His mercie is more directly upon then upon the rest of mankind Servator omnium hominum the Saviour of all men saith the Apostle marie 1. Tim. 4.10 Auâ—em most of all of the faithfull Christian men Of all men above all men upon them They are His Worke wrought on both sides Creation on one side Redemption on the other For now we are at the worke of Redemption And heere now is Mercie right in kind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rahame rahama the mercie of the bird of mercie that is the Pelecan's mercie for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Pelecan which hath her name of mercie as the truly mercifull bird For heer now is not the womb to hatch â—hem nor the wings to clocke them but the Pelecan's bill of mercie striking it selfe to the heart drawing blood thence even the very heart-blood to revive her young ones when they were dead in sinne and to make them live anew the life of grace This is Misericordia super omnes misericordias Shall I say it I may truly Mercie in all els abâ—vâ— His workes but in this above Himselfe For when it brought Him down from Heaven to Earth to such a birth in the manger such a life in contradiction of sinners Luk. 2.12 Heb. 1â— 3 Phil. 2.8 such a death on the Crosse it might truely be said then Misericordia etiam triumphat de 〈◊〉 You shall marke therefore at the verie next words when he comes to his thanks â—is Confitcantur Tibi opera Deus but Sancti tui benedicant Tibi Thy workes let them â—ay Confiteor Thy redeemed Thy Saints let them sing Benedictus Thy workes Verse 10. let them
have swallowed us up quick but to have blowne us up quick and in a moment sent us up shivered all to peeces it was a third and a principall super this more then ordinarie that made us superesse to remaine still alive after so great so present so secret a danger And yet another super more against this last which will serve 4. The super omnia of this crueltie as black-worke I meane their crueltie to make this white-worke of God's mercie shew the better to us It is a Super omnia too As our Deliverance a worke of Mercie super omnia so our entended Destruction a worke of crueltie super omnia Super omnia above all examples to begin with For the like never seen nor heard of Nay not to be raked out of any storie in any age of any countrie civill or savage of the like And Super omnes over all it would have gone not spared any no degree high or low no estate Nobles or Commons no calling sacred or civill no sexe King or Queen no age King or Prince no religion their owne or others This is but super omnes Nay super omnia it was too Super up with lime and stone and timber yron glasse and lead up with floore windowes and walls roofe and all Yet another super omnia all bands of birth countrey allegiance nature bloud humanitie and Christianitie tread upon them trample upon them all teare them all in pieces Never such a super omnia in all senses So indeed a crueltie for the Devill himselfe To make the opposition perfect of God's mercie and Satan's Crueltie Of whom to give each their due it may be said and no lesse truely said Crudelitates ejus super omnia opera ejus His Cruelties are above all his works then of God that His Mercies are above all His. Super omnia opera ejus it is and contra omnia opera Dei Above all His owne and against all God's works The enemie of God he is and so of all God's works and of those His works most that God most setts by that is mankind And of that part of mankind most God hath done most for and so may be thought most to favour that is Christen men And then of them if there be a Non taliter in His mercy a Non taliter too in his malice streight If a super omnes with God a super omnes with him in sensu contrario To any creature onely because it is a creature is he cruell he will into the hogstie to shew it rather then not to shew it at all Mat. 5.13 But to man to one man rather then to a whole heard of Swine And among men his malice is most at Christen men they are neerer to the kingdome of God To keep them from that himselfe hath irrecoverably lost that is heaven and to plunge them into aeternall miserie whereinto himselfe is fallen without all redemption And among Christen men to the best sort to publique persons rather then to private meane men But if he could get a whole Parliament together A King his Nobles his Commonâ— that is a King Kingdome and all and up with them all at once all together there were none to that that lo he would over sea and land to compasse For that were indeed with him a super omnia He never had done the like Of this their Father were those ungodly men of this Day Vngodly I say For Salomon setts us this signe Pro. 12.10 to know ungodly men by Viscera impiorum crudelia if the bowells be cruell then ungodly certenly No pitie no pietie with him And we find that mercie is a plant of our nature So incident to the nature of man as they are holden inhumaine that are without it No pitie no humanitie Why then Satanitie it must be if GOD and man disclaime it Even of him cujus crudelitas super omnia opera ejus Now GOD cannot abide crueltie at any hand By what He placeth highest may we know what He loves best mercie and by that may we know what he can worst away with crueltie Mat. 18.28 Nay if once he take his fellow by the throte deale cruelly with him never beare him more No crueltie can he endure at all specially no such cruell crueltie as this that passed all And in this case of ours I make no doubt GOD was moved both wayes One way by Mercie for us that our bones might not be scattered in every corner as when one heweth wood Psalme 141.7 chipps flie about And againe for them we should have left behind Mat. 9.36 that Videns IESVS turbas misertus est eis He looked upon them too and saw they should have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scattered all and hurried up and downe like a sort of poore master-lesse sheep His mercie wrought with Him in both these respects But on the other side their Crueltie mooved Him also And I am perswaded GOD looking upon those in mercilesse-bowel'd men when in their hearts they hatched that monster of crueltie even at the sight of that barbarous resolution yea more then barbarous His heart even turned against them His very soule abhorred that devilish intention of theirs They had thought to have had the Day but to the high praise of His mercie and to the confusion of Satan and all his crueltie He gave order Mercie should have the Day and she had it that there might be a Mercie super omnia above this Crueltie super omnia as there was Their counseile brought to light brought to nought brought upon their owne heads and both counsell and counseilours brought to a shamefull end Nay would they make men's bowells flie up and downe the aire Out with those bowells what should they do in that have not in them that that bowells should have Would they do it by fire Into the fire with their bowells before their faces Would they make men's bones flie about like chips Hew their bones in sunder Iust is David's prayer Psal. 109.17 Their delight was in crueltie let it happen to them They loved not mercie therefore let it be farr from them But how now We are gone now from mercie quite No no there is mâ—rcie even in this severitie In the Psalme of Mercie the CXXXVI Slaying is made a work of mercie Psal. 136.10.15.20 Slew the first borne of Aegypt cruel Pharao cruell Og For His mercie endureth for ever Mercie in ridding the world of such For they are not worthie to be inter opera Dei among God's works that renounce that vertue that is super opera Dei over all God's works And so now ye see that Super I told you we should come to at last Over hell and them there The Super Superantis the Over of an Over commer of Mercie a Conqueror Above His other works with the Super of a Sovereigne to protect them Vpon the devill and devilish men and their
Iustitia We are now to seeke the reason why Iehova is in this Name per modum Iustitiae by the way or under the terme of Righteousnesse rather then of some other Attribute as of Power or Mercie that it is not Iehova Misericordia or Iehova Poâ—entia but Iehova Iustitia GOD with us saith Esai With us saith Ieremie of all His properties by that of Righteousnesse cheifly and above other Not of Power as in Esai by His Name El which is His Name of power For in power there is no true comfort without iustice be joyned to it For what is Power except Righteousnesse goe before We see it is a thing very agreeable to our nature to have that we shall have by iustice to choose and that way doe even the mightiest first seeke it and when that way it will not come they overbeare it with power Nor of Mercie not Iehova Misericordia Psa. 59. ult by which Name David caleth Him For though it be a Name of speciall comfort and Saint Augustine saith of it O Nomen sub quo nemini desperanaum yet if we weigh it well of it selfe alone we shall finde there is no full or perfect comfort in it except this also be added For that we have in us two respects 1 One as persons in miserie the other as persons convict of sinne And though Mercie be willing to relieve us in the one for her delight is to help those in miserie Yet what shall become of the other how shal that be answered We have in the Verse before mention of a King ready to execute iudgement and iustice Now iustice is professed enemie to all sinne and iustice in her proceeding may not admitt of any respect either of the might or of the miserie of any to lead her from giving sentence according to law Truâ— it is Mercie is ours ours wholly there is no doubt but iustice is against us and except iustice may be made ours too all is not as it should be But if iustice if that in GOD which onely is against might be made for us then were we safe Therefore all our thought is to be either how we may get Mercie to triumph over iustice with the Apostle or Iam. 2.13 how at the least we may get them to meet togither and be friends in this worke Psa. 85.10 For except iustice be satisfied and doe joyne in it also in vaine we promise our selves â—hâ—t Mercie of it self shall worke our salvation Which may serve for the reason why neither Iehova Potentia or Iehova Misericordia are enough but it must be Iehova Iustitia and Iustitia a part of the Name Nostra And neither may this be left out For without this 4. Nostâ—a Iehova alone doth not concerne us and Iehova Iustitia is altogither against us But if he be Righteousnesse and not only Righteousnesse but ours too all is at an end we have our desires Verily this last this possessive this word of application is all in all By it we have interest in both the former and without it our case is as theirs Quid nobis tibi Mat. 8.29 What have we to doe with thee Iehova Iustitia which is most fearefull and nothing but terror and torment in the consideration of it Therefore we must make much of this For if once he be Nobiscum with us and not against us and not onely Nobiscum with us but Noster our owne all is safe Otherwise it falleth out ofâ— there be many Nobiscum that be not nostri with us talke with us eat with us sit with us which yet are not ours for all that And in this point also doth this Name of Ieremie more fully expresse the Name of Esai's Immanuel no lesse then in the two former first of IEHOVA which is more then El and then of Iustitia which is more agreeable then that of Potentia And now in this heere that there it is Nobiscum which is well and heer it is Noster which is better and more surer by a great deale 1. Cor. 1.30 For if He be as the Apostle saith Factus *** nobis Made unto us Righteousnesse and that so as he becommeth Ours what can we have more Serm. 3 in Missus est c What can hinder us saith S. Bernard but that we should uti nostro in utilitatem nostram de Servatore salutem operari use him and his righteousnesse use that which is ours to our best behoof and worke our Salvation out of this our Saviour So that Nostra may not be spared no more then the other part of the Name For all is in suspense and there is no compleat comfort without it 5 Iustitia nostra To which comfort this may be added for a conclusion of this part no lesse effectuall then any of the former That it is Iustitia nostra in the Abstract and not in the Conrcete Iustificans or Iustificator noster our Iustice or Righteousnesse it selfe not our Iustifier or Maker of us Righteous For thus delivered I make no doubt it hath much more efficacie in it and more significant it is by farr to say Iehova our Iustice then Iehova our Iustifier Rom. 3.26 I know Saint Paul saith much That our Saviour CHRIST shed His bloud to shew His righteousnesse that He might not onely be iust but a Iustifier of those which are of His faith And much more againe in that when He should have so sayd To him that beleeveth in GOD Rom. 4.5 he chooseth thus to set it downe To him that beleeveth in him that iustifieth the ungodly making these two to be all one GOD and the Iustifier of sinners Though this be very much yet certainly this is most forcible 1. Cor. 1.30 that He is made unto us by GOD very Righteousnesse it selfe And that yet more That He is made Righteousness to us that we be made the righteousnesse of GOD in Him 2. Cor. 5. ult Which place Saint Chrysostome well weighing this very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith He the Apostle useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to expresse the unspeakable bounty of that gift that he hath not given us the operation or effect of His Righteousnesse Gal. 1.13 but His very Righteousnesse yea His very selfe unto us Marke saith he how every thing is lively and as full as can be imagined CHRIST one not onely that had done no sin but that had not so much as knowen any sinn hath GOD made not a sinner but Sinne it selfe as in another place not accursed but a Curse it selfe sinn in respect of the guilt a Curse in respect of the punishment And why this To the end that we might be made not righteous persons that was not full enough but Righteousnesse it self and there he stayes not yet and not every righteousnesse but the very Righteousnesse of GOD Himself What can be further sayd what can be conceived more comfortable To have him ours not to make us
Merit signifies in Saint Augustine's sense no dignity of work but only a meanes of obtaining For it is impossible that evill merit that is sinne out of the dignity of the work should merit grace and by the same proportion and forme of speech it is as impossible that the dignity of the work should merit a crowne since Saint Augustine in the same place doth say There would be none unto whom GOD the just Iudge redderet coronam should render a crowne unlesse first as a mercifull Father donâsset gratiam He had given His grace And then He adds Dona sua coronat Deus non merita tua GOD crownes not thy merit but His owne gifts His reason is for if they be such that is thine they are evill and if they be evill GOD crownes them not if they be good they are GOD 's gifts and he crownes them not as thy merits but as his owne gifts Cap. 7. But I have troubled you too long with this Schoole-doctrine and pulpit-divinitie of magnifying mans merits before men since their death-bed-divinitie recants it all and then they are all forced learned and ignorant utterly to renounce it and put all their trust in CHRIST 's mercy and merits as their sure Anchor-head Of which I have onely this to say that merit may have some place in their science but their owne consciences unlesse they be seared tells them there is no true merit but CHRIST 's onely I have now done with my Text Applicatio and now I apply my selfe and my Text to the present Text that lies before us Vir nec silendus nec dicendus sine curâ A man whose worth may not be passed over in silence whom all ages with us may celebrate and admite nor to be spoken of without great care and study Of whom I can say nothing but his worth and vertues will farre exceed all mens words Heere I desire neither the tongue of man nor Angells if it were lawfull I should wish no other but his owne tongue and pen Ipse ipse quem loquar loquatur let him speake of himselfe none so fitt as himselfe was of whom I am to speake this day Et jam loquitur And he now speakes He speakes in his learned Workes and Sermons and he speakes in his life and workes of mercy and he speakes in his death And what he taught in his life and works he taught and expressed in his death He is the great Actor and performer I but the poore cryer Vox clamantis He was the Vox clamans he was the loud and great crying Voice I am but the poore Eccho and it is well with me if as an Eccho of his large and learned bookes and workes I onely repeate a few of the last words No man can blame me if I commend him at his death whose whole life was every way commendable Iustus sine mendacio candor apud bonos crimini non est Iust commendation without flattery is no fault in the opinion of the best men And the ancient custome of the Church did celebrate the memories of holy men to the praise of GOD that gave such eminent graces to them and to stirre up others by their example to the Imitation of their vertues I speake my knowledge of him in many things I loved and honored him for above thirtie yeares space I loved him I confesse but yet Iudicio meo non obstat Amor qui ex Iudicio natus est My love doth not blind or outsway my Iudgement because it proceeded from Iudgement Of whom what can I say lesse then that he was vitâ innocentissimus Ingenio florentissimus proposito sanctissimus In his life most innocent in his knowledge and learning most florishing and eminent and in his purpose and life most holy and devout whose carriage was so happy Quem nemo vituperat nisi etiam laudet no man could ever discommend him but will he nill he he must withall commend him And no mans words were ever able to disgrace him Vera necesse est benedicat falsam vita morésque superant They that spake truth of him could not but speake well of him and if they spake falsely of him his life and manners did confute them And if this Text were ever fully applied in any I presume it was in him for he was totus in his sacrificijs he wholly spent himselfe and his studies and estate in these sacrifices in prayer and the praise of GOD and compassion and workes of charitie as if he had minded nothing els all his life long but this to offer himselfe his soule and body a contrite and broken heart a pitifull and compassionate heart and a thankfull and gratefull heart a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to GOD by IESVS CHRIST which is our reasonable service of Him He was borne in this Citie of LONDON of honest and godly Parents who besides his breeding in learning left him a sufficient patrimony and inheritance which is descended to his heire at Rawreth in Essex It is true Senum vita composita the lives of old men many times are orderly and well composed and disposed and stayed whereas in youth many things that are in true judgement not altogether decent are not so indecent in them but that they well enough become their younger yeares In this he was happy Hujus vita composita à pueritiâ His life was well composed and ordered even from his child-hood I may well say of him as the Prophet doth Bonum est portare Iugum Domini ab Adolescentiâ herein was his happinesse that he tooke up and did stoutly beare the yoke of the Lord even from his youth In his tenderest yeares he shewed such readinesse and sharpnesse of witt and capacitie that his teachers and Masters foresaw in him that he would prove Lumen literarum literatorum The burning and shining Candle of all learning and learned men And therefore those two first Masters that had the care of the first elements of his learning Master Ward of Ratcliffe and Mâ—ster Mulcaster of the Merchant-Taylor's Schoole contended for him who should have the honour of his breeding that afrer became the honour of their Schooles and all learning Master Ward first obtained of his parents that he should not be a prentise and at length Master Mulcaster got him to his schoole And from this time perit omne tempus quod studijs non impenditur he accounted all that time lost that he spent not in his studies wherein in learning he outstript all his aequalls and his indefatigable industrie had almost outstript himselfe He studied so hard when others played that if his Parents and Masters had not forced him to play with them also all the play had been marred His late studying by candle and early rising at foure in the morning procured him envie among his aequalls yea with the Vshers also because he called them up too soone Not like to our moderne scholars qui nondum hesternam edormiverunt
Specially such a one so conditioned as heere is set downe 5 For keeping it for us in heaven in this verse Verse 5. 6 For keeping us for it on Earth the next verse For these all but above all for the meanes of all the rising of CHRIST this dayes worke the dew of this new birth the gate of this hope the pledge of this Inheritance For these owe we this Benedictus to GOD. And this day are we to pay it every one of us It is a Sinne of omission not to doe it he that doth not is a debtour To GOD the Father the Qui and to CHRIST our LORD the Per quem by whom and by whose rising lose this life when we will we have hope of a better betide our Inheritance on Earth what shall we have another kept for us in heaven Thus every one naturally ariseth out of other BLessed be GOD. Yea blessed and thanked and praised Benedictus Magnificat I. The Act Benedictus Blessed be God Inhilate and all All But heere blessed suits best that the best and most proper returne for a blessing That we Inherite is the Blessing Chap. III. verse 9. The hope is a blessed hope Tit. II. 13. But the Inheritance is the State of blessednesse it selfe Therefore Benedictus benè dicitur Benedictus is said well Said well 2. The Partie GOD. Rom 9.5 of GOD who is above all blessed for ever well also of a Father Benedictus a fit terme for him And GOD in the Tenour of this whole Text is brought in as a Father a father begetting begetting us first by nature begetting us againe in it by grace But thereby hangs a Scruple For what are we Blesse GOD we may that we should take upon us to blesse GOD Saint Peter saies it heere Saint Paul seemes to gaine-say it Without all question saith he the lesse is blessed by the greater And is He lesse or we greater Heb. 7.7 that we should offer to blesse Him And if not as GOD not as a Father the next word For shall the Child presume to blesse his Father It becomes him not He us then and not we Him Yes He us and we Him too We have so many Texts for it I make no doubt but there is blessing both waies Of the many I remember that one of Saint Paul's Ephes. 1. Benedictus Deus qui benedixit nos Blessed be GOD for blessing us Ephes 1.3 As if they were reciprocall these One the Echo the reflexion of the other Aequall they are not It were fond to imagine the Father gives the child no other blessing but the childe can give him as good againe No aliter nos Deum aliter Deus nos Otherwise GOD blesseth us and the Parent who represents GOD in begetting our bodies and the Priest who represents Him in begetting againe our soules Otherwise we them GOD'S is reall ours but verball His cum effectu ever Ours if it be but cum affectu that is all His Operative ours but Optative What then he that wisheth heartily would doe more then wish if his power were according Even that then in want of power to shew a good will I know not how but we take it well ever GOD doth I am sure as appeareth by the goates haire of the Old Testament and by the Widowe's mites in the New And this is Saint Peter's but expressing a good minde onely And without all question thus the Greater may be blessed even of the lesse Not tanquam potestatem habens but tanquam vota faciens So we may say Benedictus Deus And let us then say it What say we then when we say Benedictus It is a word compound How we may blesse GOD. Take it in sunder and Dicere is to say somewhat to Speake and that we can and bene is speaking to speake well and that we ought To Speake is Confession To speake well is Praise And Praise becommeth Him and us to give it Him Put together in one word and then Benedicere to blesse in the phrase of ours and of all tongues els is not so much omnia bona dicere to speake all good of Him as omnia bona vovere to wish all good to Him And that becomes Him too not onely Laus but Votum specially where Votum is totum where we have little els left us but it And what good can we wish Him that He hath not Bonorum nostrorum non eget saith the Psalmist nor Benedictionum neither We can add nothing to Him Psal. 16.2 by our Benedictus Say we it say we it not He is blessed alike True to Him we cannot wish not to His person But to His Name we can In His Name And He is blessed when His Name is blessed We can wish His name more blessedly vsed and not in cursing and cursed othes as daily we heare it And to His Word we can We can wish it more devoutly heard and not In His Word as a few streines of wit as our manner is In His Person as united to his Church Yea even to His person we can There is a way to doe that inasmuch as He and His Church are now growne into one make but one person what is said or done to it is said or done to Himselfe Blesse it and He is blessed In a word then to blesse GOD is to wish His Name may be glorious to wish His Word may be prosperous to wish His Church may be happie By wearing of which Name and by hearing of which Word and by being in and of which Church we receive the blessing heere upon earth that shall make us for ever blessed in heaven This we say if we marke what we say when we say Blessed be GOD. GOD and the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the Style of the New Testament 1. Cor. 1.3 Ephes. 1.3 GOD and the Father of our LORD IESVS CHRIST This is stylo novo the style of the New Testament ye read it not in the Old No nor in Zacharie's neither Betweene that of Zacharie's and this of Saint Peter's it fell out this The Sunne was yet under the Horizon when Zacharie made his But now up and of a good height And thereupon this taken up by Saint Peter heere by Saint Paul 1. Cor. 1. Ephes. 1. and upon great reason 1. To fever Him from all false Gods 1. Blessed be GOD Say that and no more and never a Iew Turke or Pagan but will say as much Blessed be GOD we Blessed be GOD they It is never the worse for that But yet seeing the world then was still is full of many Gods and many Lords 1. Cor. 8. It would be knowne 1. Cor. 8.5 which GOD. For we would not bestow our Benedictus upon any but the true GOD neither they nor we I dare say Which is then the true GOD Pater Domini nostri Iesu Christi and He that is not so is a false fained God is an Idoll Put them to