vow is included all the service that he could exhibite or retribute to God Now his staffe is become a sword a strong Army his one staff now is multiplyed his wives are given for staffes to assist him and his children given also for staffes to his age His own staffe is become the greatest and best part of Labans wealth In such plenty as that he could spare a present to Esau of at least five hundred head of cattell The fathers make Morall expositions of this That his two bands are his Temporall blessings and his spirituall And St. Augustin findes a tipicall allusion in it of Christ Aug. Baculo Crucis Christus apprehendit mundum cum duabus turmis duobus populis ad patrem rediit Christ by his staffe his Cross muster'd two bands that is Jews and Gentiles We finde enough for our purpose in taking it literally as we see it in the Text That he divided all his company and all his cattell into two troups that if Esau come and smite one the other might scape For then onely is a fortune full when there is somthing for Leakage for wast when a Man though he may justly fear that this shall be taken from him yet he may justly presume that this shall be left to him though he lose much yet he shall have enough And this was Jacobs increase and height and from this lowness from one staff to two bands And therefore since in God we can consider but one state Semper idem immutable since in the Devil we can consider but two states Quomodo cecidit filius Orientis that he was the son of the Morning but is and shall ever be for ever the child of everlasting death since in Jacob and in our selves we can consider first that God made man righteous secondly that man betooke himself to his one staff and his own staff The imaginations of his own heart Thirdly That by the word of God manifested by his Angels he returns with two bands Body and Soul to his heavenly father againe let us attribute all to his goodness and confesse to him and the world That we are not worthy of the least of all his Mercies and of all the Truth which he hath shewed unto his Servant for with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands A SERMON Preached at White-hall Serm. 13. April 19. 1618. SERMON XIII 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners of which I am the chiefest THE greatest part of the body of the old-Testament is Prophecy and that is especially of future things The greatest part of the new-Testament if wee number the peeces is Epistles Relations of things past for instruction of the present They erre not much that call the whol new-Testament Epistle For even the Gospells are Evangelia good Messages and that 's proper to an Epistle and the booke of the Acts of the Apostles is superscrib'd by Saint Luke to one Person to Theophilus and that 's proper to an Epistle and so is the last booke the booke of Revelation to the severall Churches and of the rest there is no question An Epistle is collucutio scripta saies Saint Ambrose Though it be written far off and sent yet it is a Conference and seperatos copulat sayes hee by this meanes wee overcome distances we deceive absences and wee are together even then when wee are asunder And therefore in this kinde of conveying spirituall comfort to their friends have the ancient Fathers been more exercised then in any other former almost all of them have written Epistles One of them Isidorus him whom wee call Peluciotes Saint Chrysostom's schollar is noted to have written Myriades Nicephor and in those Epistles to have interpreted the whole Scriptures St. Paul gave them the example he writ nothing but in this kind and in this exceeded all his fellow Apostles pateretur Paulus quod Saulus seceret saies St. Austin That as he had asked Letters of Commission of the State to persecute Christians so by these Letters of Consolation hee might recompence that Church againe which hee had so much damnified before As the Hebrew Rabbins say That Rahab did let down Jofuah's spies out of her house with the same cord with which she had used formerly to draw up her adultrous lovers into her house Now the holy-Ghost was in all the Authors of all the books of the Bible but in Saint Paul's Epistles there is sayes Irenaeus Impetus Spiritus Sancti The vehemence the force of the holy-Ghost And as that vehemence is in all his Epistles so amplius habent quae e vinculis as Saint Chrysostome makes the observation Those Epistles which were written in Prison have most of this holy vehemence and this as that Father notes also is one of them And of all them we may justly conceive this to be the most vehement and forcible in which he undertakes to instruct a Bishop in his Episcopall function which is to propagate the Gospell for he is but an ill Bishop that leaves Christ where he found him in whose time the Gospell is yet no farther then it was how much worse is he in whose time the Gospell loses ground who leaves not the Gospell in so good state as he found it Now of this Gospell here recommended by Paul to Timothie this is the Summe That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners c. Division Here then we shall have these three Parts First Radicem The Roote of the Gospell from whence it springs it is fidelis sermo a faithfull Word which cannot erre And secondly we have Arborem Corpus the Tree the Body the substance of the Gospell That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners And then lastly fructum Evangelii the fruit of the Gospell Humility that it brings them who embrace it to acknowledg themselves to be the greatest sinners And in the first of these the Roote it selfe wee shall passe by these steps First that it is Sermo the Word That the Gospell hath as good a ground as the Law the new-Testament as well founded as the Old It is the word of God And then it is fidelis Sermo a faithfull Word now both Old and New are so and equally so but in this the Gospell is fidelior the more faithfull and the more sure because that word the Law hath had a determination an expiration but the Gospell shall never have that And againe It is Sermo omni acceptatione dignus Worthy of all acceptation not only worthy to bee received by our Faith but even by our Reason too our Reason cannot hold out against the proofes of Christians for their Gospell And as the word imports it deserves omnem acceptationem and omnem approbationem all approbation and therefore as wee should not dispute against it and so are bound to accept it to receive it not to
know those Wounds which were in Christs Body Ambr. Non esse Christi sed Latronis amare caepit then he began to love him perfectly when he found his own wounds in the body of his Saviour So he came to declare perfect faith Gregory in professing Christs innocence This man hath done nothing and perfect Hope in the Momento Mei Remember me in thy Kingdome and perfect Charity in this increpation and rebuking of his companion August He was as S. Augustine sayes Latro Laudabilis miraculis such a thief as deserved praise and afforded wonder but the best is the last that he was imitabilis that he hath done nothing but that we may do so too Idem if we will apprehend that grace that he did Assumamus vocem Latronis si non volumus esse Latrones If we will not steal our selves out of the number Idem to whom God offers his saving grace Ut sedeamus a dextris pendeamus a dextris let us be content to suffer but to suffer in the right Suffering as Malefactors is somewhat too much on the left hand though even that suffering do bring many to the right hand too But suffering for Schisme in pretence of Zeal suffering for Treason in pretence of Religion this is both to turn out of this world on the left hand and to remain on that hand for ever after in the world to come This thief hung on the right hand and was suddenly made a Confessor for himself a Martyr to witnesse for Christ a Doctor to preach to his fellow If the favour of a Prince can make a man a Doctor per saltum much more the mercy of Christ Jesus which gives the Sufficiency as well as the Title as he did in this Thief this new Doctor whose Doctrine it self is our next consideration Part. II. Doctrina This doctrine was the fear of God which was a pregnant and a plentiful common place for him to preach upon And upon such an occasion and such abundance of matter we have here one example of an extemporal Sermon This Thief had premeditated nothing But he is no more a precedent for extemporal preaching then he is for stealing He was a Thief before and he was an extemporal preacher at last But he teaches no body else to be either It is true that if we consider the Sermons of the Ancient Fathers we shall finde some impressions some examples of suddain and unpremeditated Sermons Saint Augustine some times eases himself upon so long Texts Ser. 10 de verbis Hpli as needed no great preparation no great study for a meer paraphrase upon this Text was enough for all his hour when he took both Epistle and Gospel Ser. de Sancto Latrone c. and Psalm of the day for his Text. We may see often in S. Bern. Heri diximus and Hesterno die fecimus mentionem that he preached divers days together In the second of those Sermons of Saint Basil which were upon the beginning of Genesis it seems that Basil preached twice in a day and in his Sermon de Baptismo it seemes that he trusted upon the Holy Ghost and his present inspiration Loquemar prout Sermo nobis dabitur in apertione oris I intend to speak so as the Holy Ghost shall give me utterance for the present But as S. Augustine says in another case Da mihi Paulum so Da mihi Basilios and Augustinos bring such preachers as Basil and Augustine were and let them preach as often as they will and let every man whose calling it is preach as often as he can but let him not think that he can preach as often as he can speak An inordinate opinion of purity brought some men to keep two Sabbaths a week and others two Lents every year and an opinion of a necessity of two Sermons every Sabbath and two hours every Sermon may bring them to an opinion that the sanctifying of the Sabbath consists in the patience of hearing Here was an extemporal Sermon but a short one he preaches nothing but the fear of God It is not De arcanis Imperii matter of State nor De arcanis Dei of the unrevealed decrees of God The Thief does not say to Christ Perage quod decreveris Thou hast decreed my conversion and therefore that decree must be executed that must necessarily be performed which thou hadst determined in thy Kingdom before thou camest from thence but he says Memento mei cum veneris Take such a care of me for my salvation and preservation and perseverance as that I may follow thee into that Kingdom into which thou art now going for our salvation is opened to us in that way which Christ hath opened by his death and without him we understand no assurance of election without his second going into his Kingdome we know nothing of that which he did before he came from thence This is then the fear of God Psal 11.10 Prov. 1.7 which those royall Doctors of the old Testament David and Solomon both preached and which this Primitive Doctor of the Primitive Church this new Convertite preached too That no man may be so secure in his election as to forbear to work out his salvation with fear and trembling for God saves no man against his will nor any man that thinks himself beholding for nothing after the first decree Dan. 11.38 There is a name of force of violence of necessity attributed to a God which is Mauzzim but it is the name of an Idol not of a true God The name of the true God is Dominus tzebaoth the Lord of Hosts a name of power but not of force There is a fear belongs to him his purposes shall certainly be executed but regularly and orderly he will be feared not because he forces us imprints a necessity a coaction upon us but because if we be not led by his orderly proceeding there he hath power to cast body and soul into hell fire therefore he will be feared not as a wilfull Tyrant but as a just Judge not as Mauzzim the god of Violence but as Dominus tzebaoth the Lord of Hosts Part 3. This then is his Doctrine and what 's his Auditory He is not reserved for Courts nor for populous Cities it is but a poor Parish that he hath and yet he thinks of no change but means to dye there and there he visits the poorest the sickest the wretchedest person the Thief He had seen divers other of divers sorts Mat. 27.38 revile Christ as deeply as this Thief They that passed by reviled him Praetereuntes they that did not so much as consider him reviled him They that know not Christ yet will blaspheme him if we ask them when and where and how and why Christ Jesus was born and lived and dyed they cannot tell it in their Creed and yet they can tell it in their Oathes they know nothing of his Miraculous Life of his Humble
the people there was none with me The Angels then knew not this not all this not all the particulars of this The mystery of Christs Incarnation for the Redemption of Man the Angels knew it in generall for it was commune quoddam principium it was the generall mark to which all their service as they were ministring spirits was directed But for particulars as amongst the Prophets some of the later understood more then the former I understand more then the ancients Psal 119.100 sayes David and the Apostles understood more then the Prophets even of those things which they had prophesied Ephes 3.6 this Mystery in other ages was not made known as it is now revealed unto the holy Apostles so the Angels are come to know some things of Christ since Christ came in another manner then before Ephes 3.10 And this may be that which S. Paul intends when he sayes that he was made a Minister of the Gospel To the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdome of God And S. Peter also speaking of the administration of the Church 1 Pet. 1.12 expresses it so That the Angels desire to look into it Which is not onely that which S. Augustine sayes Aug. Innotuit a seculis per Ecclesiam Angelis That the Angels saw the mystery of the Christian Religion from before all beginnings and that by the Church Quia ipsa Ecclesia illis in Deo apparuit Because they saw in God the future Church from before all beginnings but even in the propagation and administration of the Church they see many things now which distinctly effectually experimentally as they do now they could not see before And so to this purpose Visus in nobis Christ is seen by the Angels in us and our conversation now Spectaculum sumus sayes the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.9 We are made a spectacle to men and angels The word is there Theatrum and so S. Hierom reads it Hierom. And therefore let us be careful to play those parts well which even the Angels desire to see well acted Let him that finds himself to be the honester man by thinking so think in the name of God that he hath a particular tutelar Angel that will do him no harm to think so And let him that thinks not so yet think that so far as conduces to the support of Gods children and to the joy of the Angels themselves and to the glory of God the Angels do see mens particular actions and then if thou wouldst not sollicite a womans chastity if her servant were by to testifie it nor calumniate an absent person in the Kings ear if his friends were by to testifie it if thou canst slumber in thy self that main consideration That the eye of God is always open and always upon thee yet have a little religious civility and holy respect even to those Angels that see thee That those Angels which see Christ Jesus now sate down in glory at the right hand of his Father all sweat wip'd from his Browes and all teares from his Eyes all his Stripes heal'd all his Blood stanch'd all his Wounds shut up and all his Beauty returned there when they look down hither to see the same Christ in thee may not see him scourged again wounded torn and mangled again in thy blasphemings nor crucified again in thy irreligious conversation Visus ab Angelis he was seen of the Angels in himself whilest he was here and he is seen in his Saints upon earth by Angels now and shall be so to the end of the world Which Saints he hath gathered from the Gentiles which is the next branch Praedicat Gentib Psal 85.10 Predicatus gentibus he was preached to the Gentiles Mercy and truth meet together says David every where in Gods proceedings they meet together but no where closer then in calling the Gentiles Jesus Christ was made a Minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God Rom. 15.8 wherein consisted that truth to confirm the promises made unto the fathers says the Apostle there and that 's to the Jews but was Christ a Minister of the Circumcision onely for that onely for the truth No Truth and Mercy meet together as it followes there and that the Gentiles might glorifie God for his mercy The Jewes were a holy Nation Gal. 2.15 that was their addition Gens Sancta but the addition of the Gentiles was peccatores sinners we are Jewes by nature and not of the Gentiles sinners sayes S. Paul He that touch'd the Jewes touch'd the apple of Gods eye And for their sakes God rebuk'd Kings and said Touch not mine Anoynted but upon the Gentiles not onely dereliction but indignation and consternation and devastation and extermination every where interminated inflicted every where and every where multiplied The Jewes had all kinde of assurance and ties upon God both Law and Custome they both prescribed in God and God had bound himself to them by particular conveyance by a conveyance written in their flesh Isa 49. in Circumcision and the counterpane written in his flesh I have graven thy name in the palmes of my hands Eph. 2.12 But for the Gentiles they had none of this assurance When they were without Christ sayes the Apostle having no hope that is no covenant to ground a hope upon ye were without God in this world To contemplate God himself and not in Christ is to be without God And then for Christ to be preached to such as these to make this Sun to set at noon to the Jewes rise at midnight to the Antipodes to the Gentiles this was such an abundant such a superabundant mercy as might seem almost to be above the bargain above the contract between Christ and his Father more then was conditioned and decreed for the price of his Blood and the reward of his Death for when God said I will declare my decree That is what I intended to give him which is expressed thus Psal 2. I will set him my King upon my holy hill of Sion which seemes to concern the Jewes onely God addes then Postula a me petition to me make a new suit to me dabo tibi gentes I will give thee not onely the Jewes but the Gentiles for thine inheritatnce And therefore laetentur gentes Psal 97.1 sayes David Let the Gentiles rejoyce and we in them that Christ hath asked us at his Fathers hand and received us And Laetentur insulae sayes that Prophet too Let the Islands rejoyce and we in them that he hath raised us out of the Sea out of the ocean sea that over-flowed all the world with ignorance and out of the Mediterranean Sea that hath flowed into so many other lands the sea of Rome the sea of Superstition There was then a great mercy in that Predicatus gentibus Creditus Mundo that he was preached to the Gentiles
needed And that he might give full satisfaction even to Calumniators every way as he answer'd them out of Scriptures and out of Reason so because the Pharisees were States-men too and led by Precedents and Records he answers out of the tenour and letter of his Commission and Instructions which is that part of his answer that falls most directly into our Text Veni vocare I came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance First then venit he came he is come venit actu he came in promise often ratified before Venit Actu now there is no more room for John Baptist's question Tune ille Art thou he that should come or must we look for another For another coming of the same Messias we do look but not for another Messias we look for none after him no post-Messias we joyn none Saints nor Angels with him no sub-Messias no vice-Messias The Jews may as well call the history of the Floud Prophetical and ask when the world shall be drown'd according to that Prophecie or the history of their deliverance from Babylon Prophetical and ask when they shall return from thence to Jerusalem according to that Prophecie as seek for a Messias now amongst their Prophets so long after all things being perform'd in Christ which were prophesied of the Messias Christ hath so fully made Prophecie History Venit actu He is really personally actually come Venit sponte and then venit sponte he is come freely and of his own meer goodness How freely Come and not sent Yes he was sent God so loved the world as that he gave his onely begotten Son for it There was enough done to magnifie the mercy of the Father in sending him How freely then Come and not brought Yes he was brought The holy Ghost overshadowed the blessed virgin and so he was conceiv'd there was enough done to magnifie the goodness of the holy Ghost in bringing him He came to his prison he abhorr'd not the Virgins womb and not without a Mittimus he was sent He came to the Execution and not without a desire of Reprieve in his Transeat Calix If it be possible let this cup pass from me and yet venit sponte he came freely voluntarily of his own goodness No more then he could have been left out at the Creation and the world made without him could he have been sent into this world without his own hand to the Warrant or have been left out at the decree of his sending As when he was come no man could have taken away his soul if he had not laid it down so if we might so speak no God no person in the Trinity could have sent him if he had not been willing to come Venit actu he is come there 's our comfort venit sponte he came freely there 's his goodness And so you have the Action Venit He came The next is his Errand his Purpose what he came to do Vocare Venit vocare He came to call It is not vocatus That Christ came when we call'd upon him to come Man had no power no will no not a faculty to wish that Christ would have come Non occurrere till Christ did come and call him For it is not Veni occurrere That Christ came to meet them who were upon the way before Man had no pre-disposition in Nature to invite God to come to him August Quid peto ut venias in me qui non essem si non esses in me How should I pray at first that God would come into me when as I could not onely not have the spirit of prayer but not the spirit of life and being except God were in me already Where was I when Christ call'd me out of my Raggs nay out of my Ordure and wash'd me in the Sacramental water of Baptism and made me a Christian so Where was I when in the loyns of my sinful parents and in the unclean act of generation Christ call'd me into the Covenant and made me the childe of Christian parents Could I call upon him to do either of these for me Or if I may seem to have made any step towards Baptism because I was within the Covenant or towards the Covenant because I was of Christian parents yet where was I when God call'd me when I was not as though I had been in the Eternal Decree of my Election What said I for my self or what said any other for me then when neither I nor they had any being God is found of them that sought him not Non venit occurrere He came not to meet them who were of themselves set out before Non Cogere But then non venit cogere He came not to force and compel them who would not be brought into the way Christ saves no man against his will There is a word crept into the later School that deludes many a man they call it Irresistibility and they would have it mean that when God would have a man he will lay hold upon him by such a power of grace as no perversness of that man can possibly resist There is some truth in the thing soberly understood for the grace of God is more powerful then any resistance of any man or devil But leave the word where it was hatcht in the School and bring it not home not into practice for he that stays his conversion upon that God at one time or other will lay hold upon me by such a power of Grace as I shall not be able to resist may stay till Christ come again to preach to the spirits that are in prison 1 Pet. 3.19 Christ beats his Drum but he does not Press men Christ is serv'd with Voluntaries There is a Compelle intrare Luk. 14.23 A forcing of men to come in and fill the house and furnish the supper but that was an extraordinary commission and in a case of Necessity Our ordinary commission is Ite praedicate Go and preach the Gospel and bring men in so it is not Compelle intrare Force men to come in it is not Draw the Sword kindle the Fire winde up the Rack for when it was come to that Mat. 22.10 that men were forc'd to come in as that Parabolical story is reported in this Evangelist the house was fill'd and the supper was furnisht the Church was fill'd and the Communion-table frequented but it was with good and bad too for men that are forc'd to come hither they are not much the better in themselves nor we much the better assur'd of their Religion for that Force and violence pecuniary and bloudy Laws are not the right way to bring men to Religion in cases where there is nothing in consideration but Religion meerly 'T is true there is a Compellite Manere that hath all justice in it when men have been baptiz'd and bred in a Church and embrac'd the profession of a Religion so as that
contracts them as we see he contracted Davids pestilence of three dayes into less than one He punishes to the third and forth generation but he shewes mercy unto thousands Exod. 20. He gives more than he promises and he does it sooner Chrys as St Chrysostome observes That whereas mans fashion is to demolish and pull down that in one day which spent many monthes in the setting up God dispatches faster in his building and reparation than in his ruin and distruction He built all the world in six dayes sayes he and when he would destroy but one Town Jerico he imployd Eight Consider him then in Miserationibus in his mercies or in veritate in his truth and wherein were we worthy of the least of these promises or performances Expectatio Now of these mercies grounded upon Gods will and of these truths grounded upon his word we must necessarily acknowledge an unworthyness in our selves if they were proposed to us but as expectancies but as reversions that should be had nay but as possibilities that they might be had Aug. for Perdidimus possibilitatem boni that 's our case now that we have lost all possibility of doing or receiving any good of our selves In decimations upon popular rebellions when they tithe men for execution every man conceives a just hope for it is ten to one he may scape with his life In Lotteries though the odds be great on the other side every man hopes he that is never so far off in a remainder for land would be loth to have his name expunged Joh. 5. and raced out He that had been sick thirty eight years and could never get into the pool yet he came still in hope that he should get in at last It is thus in civil and moral things it is much more so in divine even expectation from God is a degree of fruition There is no paine in Davids expectance expectam Dominum Psal 40.2.3 in waiting patiently for the Lord as long as we know Habakkuks veniens veniet Dominus because the Lord will surely come says he therefore he does not tary It is no loss to stay Gods coming because God will stay when he comes when we are sure that God will come to succour us to weaken our enemies That 's a mercy and that 's a truth which we are not worthy of though he be not come yet But Jacob considers here Experientia and every man may in his particular the mercys and truths which God had shewed him already neither doth the word which both our translations have accepted here answer the original nor reach home It is not onely showing God may shew mercy and truth by way of offering it and withdraw it again as he doth from unworthy receivers of the Sacrament he may shew it by way of example and encourage us by seeing how he hath dealt with others he may shew it and exclude us from it as he shewed Moses the land of promise But there it is onely Videre fecit Deut. ult but here it is fecit it self there it was a land which God shewed here it is Mercies and Truths quas fecisti which thou hast done and performed towards me and then comes David especially to his quid retribuam tibi when he considers omnia quae tribuisti mihi Psal 116. Thine O Lord says he is greatness and power and glory and victory and praise all that is in heaven and earth is thine thine is the kingdome riches and honour come of thee in thy hand it is to make great 1 Cro. 29.14 and to give strength But who am I said David and what is my people that we should be able to offer willingly after this sort all things came from thee and of thine own hand have we given thee Why thus much was David thus much was his people thus much are all they to whom God hath done so in mercy and in truth and hath made gracious promises and performed them that they are thereby become debtors to God his stewards his servants which is Jacobs last step in this part mercies and truths which thou hast shewed to thy servant All this greatness makes him not proud for all this Servus he is not the less his servant whose service is perfect freedome Here men that serve inferiour masters when they mend in their estate or in their capacity they affect higher services and at last the Kings when they are there they can serve no better master but they may serve him in a better and better place if thou have served the world and Mammon all this while yet now that thou hast wherewithall come into Gods service shew thy love to God in imploying that which thou hast to his glory if thou gottest that which thou hast in his service as if thou gottest it by honest ways in thy calling thou hast done so yet come to serve him in a better place in gathering thou hast but served him in his mines Aug. in distributing thou shalt serve him in his treasury If thou have served him in fetters Noli timere serve compedite sed confitere Domino vertentur in ornamenta let not thy fetters thy narrow fortune terrifie thee thy fetters thy low estate shall be rings and collars and garters not onely sufficiencies but abundance and ornaments to thee what dishes soever he set before thee still let this be thy grace Parvus sum I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant for with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands 2. Part Quia We have passed through all the branches of that which we proposed for the first part the confession of his own unworthiness We found a second part implied in this word for which was that this acknowledgement of his proceeded not out of formality and custome or stupidity and dejection but out of debatement and consideration and reason and then we found that reason deduc'd and deriv'd into these two great branches what his former state had been With my staff I passed over this Jordan and what his present state was I am become two bands For the reason in general he that does any spiritual duty even towards God in praising and magnifying him and not upon good reason this man flatters God not that he can say more good than is always true of God but towards God as well as towards man it is true that he that speaks more good than himself believes to be true he flatters how true soever it be that he speaks Pro. 27.14 Such praise shall be counted as a curse and such oyl breaks a mans head Those Sceptique philosophers that doubted of all though they affirmed nothing yet they denied nothing neither but they saw no reason in the opinions of others Those Sceptique Christians that doubt whether God have any particular
and turns into good blood all the benefits formerly exhibited to us in particular and exhibited to the whole Church of God present that which belongs to the understanding to that faculty and the understanding is not presently setled in it present any of the prophecies made in the captivity and a Jews understanding takes them for deliverances from Babylon and a Christians understanding takes them for deliverances from sin and death by the Messias Christ Jesus present any of the prophecies of the Revelation concerning Antichrist and a Papist will understand it of a single and momentane and transitory man that must last but three yeer and a half and a Protestant may understand it of a succession of men that have lasted so 1000. yeers already present but the name of Bishop or of elder out of the Acts of the Apostle or their Epistles and other men will take it for a name of equality and parity and we for a name and office of distinction in the Hierarchy of Gods Church Thus it is in the understanding that 's often perplexed consider the other faculty the will of man by those bitternesses which have passed between the Jesuits and the Dominicans amongst other things belonging to the will whether the same proportion of grace offered to men alike disposed must necessarily work alike upon both their wills And amongst persons neerer to us whether that proportion of grace which doth convert a man might not have been resisted by perversness of his will By all these difficulties we way see how untractable and untameable a faculty the wil of man is But come not with matter of law but matter of fact Let God make his wonderful works to be had in remembrance Psal 111.4 present the history of Gods protection of his children from the beginning in the ark in both captivities in infinite dangers present this to the memory and howsoever the understanding be beclouded or the will perverted yet both Jew and Christian Papist and Protestant Puritan and Protestant are affected with a thankfull acknowledgment of his former mercies and benefits this issue of that faculty of their memory is alike in them all And therefore God in giving the law works upon no other faculty but this Exod. 20. I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt He only presents to their memory what he had done for them And so in delivering the Gospel in one principal seal thereof the sacrament of his body he recommended it only to their memory Do this in remembrance of me This is the faculty that God desires to work upon And therefore if thine understanding cannot reconcile differences in all Churches if thy will cannot submit it self to the ordinances of thine own Church go to thine own memory for as St. Bernard calls that the stomach of the soul we may be bold to call it the Gallery of the soul hang'd with so many and so lively pictures of the goodness and mercies of thy God to thee as that every one of them shall be a catachism to thee to instruct thee in all thy duties to him for those mercies And as a well made and well plac'd picture looks alwayes upon him that looks upon it so shall thy God look upon thee whose memory is thus contemplating him and shine upon thine understanding and rectifie thy will too If thy memory cannot comprehend his mercy at large shewed to his whole Church as it is almost an incomprehensible thing that in so few yeers he made us of the Reformation equall even in number to our adversaries of the Roman Church If thy memory have not held that picture of our general deliverance from the Navy if that mercy be written in the water and in the sands where it was perform'd and not in thy heart if thou remember not our deliverance from that artificiall Hell the Vault in which though his instruments failed of their plot they did not blow us up yet the Devil goes forward with his plot if ever he can blow out if he can get that deliverance to be forgotten If these be too large pictures for thy gallery for thy memory yet every man hath a pocket picture about him Emanuel a bosome book and if he will turn over but one leaf and remember what God hath done for him even since yesterday he shall find even by that little branch a navigable river to sail into that great and endless Sea of Gods mercies towards him from the beginning of his being Nunc. Do but remember but remember now Of his own wil begat he us with the word of truth Jam. 1.18 that we should be as the first fruits of his creatures That as we consecrate all his creatures to him in a sober and religious use of them so as the first fruits of all we should principally consecrate our selves to his service betimes Now there were three payments of first fruits appointed by God to the Jews The first was Primitiae Spicarum of their Ears of Corn and this was early about Easter The second was Primitiae panum of Loaves of Bread after their corn was converted to that use and this though it were not so soon yet it was early too about Whitsontide The third was Primitiae frugum of all their Fruits and Revenues but this was very late in Autumn at the fall of the leaf in the end of the yeer The two first of these which were offered early were offered partly to God and partly to Man to the Priest but in the last which came late God had no part He had his part in the corn and in the loaves but none in the latter fruits Offer thy self to God first as Primitias spicarum whether thou glean in the world or bind up whole sheaves whether thy increase be by little and little or apace And offer thy self as primitias panum when thou hast kneaded up riches and honor and favour in a setled and established fortune offer at thy Easter whensoever thou hast any resurrection any sense of raising thy soul from the shadow of death offer at thy Pentecost when the holy Ghost visits thee and descends upon thee in a fiery tongue and melts thy bowels by the power of his word for if thou defer thy offering til thy fal til thy winter til thy death howsoever they may be thy first fruits because they be the first that ever thou gavest yet they are such as are not acceptable to God God hath no portion in them if they be not offered til then offer thy self now for that 's an easie request yea offer to thy self now that 's more easie Viximus mundo vivamus reliquum nobis ipsis Thus long we have served the world Basil let us serve our selves the rest of our time that is the best part of our selves our souls Expectas ut febris te vocet ad poenitentiam Hadst thou rather a sickness should bring thee to God than a
fixt the Almighty and immoveable God if it can be content to inquire after it self and take knowledge where it is and in what way it will finde the means of cleansing And so this second consideration The placing of this pureness in the heart enlarges it self also into the third branch of this part which is De Modo by what means this pureness is fix'd in the heart in which is involved the Affection with which it must be embrac'd Love He that loveth pureness of heart Both these then are setled Our heart is naturally foul Modus And our heart may be cleansed But how is our present disquisition Who can bring a clean thing out of filthiness There is not one Job 14.4 Adam foul'd my heart and all yours nor can we make it clean our selves Who can say I have made clean my heart There is but one way Prov. 20.9 a poor beggarly way but easie and sure to ask it of God And even to God himself it seems a hard work to cleanse this heart and therefore our prayer must be with David Cor mundum crea Create Psal 51.12 O Lord a pure heart in me And then comes Gods part not that Gods part begun but then for it was his doing that thou madest this prayer but because it is a work that God does especially delight in to build upon his own foundations when he hath disposed thee to pray and upon that prayer created a new heart in thee then God works upon that new heart and By faith purifyes it Act. 15.9 enables it to preserve the pureness as Saint Peter speaks He had kindled some sparks of this faith in thee before thou askedst that new heart else the prayer had not been of faith but now finding thee obsequious to his beginnings he fuels this fire and purifies thee as Gold and Silver in all his furnaces through Believing and Doing and suffering through faith and works and tribulation we come to this pureness of heart And truely he that lacks but the last but Tribulation as fain as we would be without it lacks one concoction one refining of this heart But in this great work the first act is a Renovation a new heart Coâ— Novâ—m and the other That we keep clean that heart by a continual diligence and vigilancy over all our particular actions In these two consists the whole work of purifying the heart first an Annihilating of the former heart which was all sin And then a holy superintendency over that new heart which God vouchsafes to create in us to keep it as he gives it clean pure It is in a word a Detestation of former sins and a prevention of future And for the first Chromakus Anno 390. Mundi corde sunt qui deposuere cor peccati That 's the new heart that hath disseised expelled the heart of sin There is in us a heart of sin which must be cast up for whilst the heart is under the habits of sin we are not onely sinful but we are all sin as it is truly said that land overflow'd with sea is all sea And when sin hath got a heart in us it will quickly come to be that whole Body of Death Rom. 7.24 which Saint Paul complains of who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death when it is a heart it will get a Braine a Brain that shall minister all Sense and Delight in sin That 's the office of the Brain A Brain which shall send for the sinews and ligaments to tye sins together and pith and marrow to give a succulencie and nourishment even to the bones to the strength and obduration of sin and so it shall do all those services and offices for sin that the brain does to the natural body So also if sin get to be a heart it will get a liver to carry blood and life through all the body of our sinful actions That 's the office of the liver And whilst we dispute whether the throne and seat of the soul be in the Heart or Brain or Liver this tyrant sin will praeoccupate all and become all so as that we shall finde nothing in us without sin nothing in us but sin if our heart be possest inhabited by it And if it be true in our natural bodies that the heart is that part that lives first and dyes last it is much truer of this Cor peccati this heart of sin for this hearty sinner that hath given his heart to his sin doth no more foresee a Death of that sin in himself then he remembers the Birth of it and because he remembers not or understands not how his soul contracted sin by coming into his body he leaves her to the same ignorance how she shall discharge her self of sin when she goes out of that body But as his sin is elder then himself for Adams sin is his sin so is it longer liv'd then his body for it shall cleave everlastingly to his soul too God asks no more of thee but fili da mihi cor Prov. 23.26 My son give me thy heart Because when God gave it thee it was but one heart But since thou hast made it Cor cor as the Prophet speaks a Heart and a Heart a double Heart give both thy Hearts to God thy natural weakness and disposition to sin The inclinations of thy heart And thy habitual practise of sin The obduration of thy heart cor peccans and Cor peccati and he shall create a new heart in thee which is the first way of attaining this pureness of heart to become once in a good state to have as it were paid all thy former debts and so to be the better able to look about thee for the future for prevention of subsequent sins which is the other way that we proposed for attaining this pureness detestation of former habits watchfulness upon particular actions Till this be done till this Cor peccati Peccata Minutiora this hearty habitualness in sin be devested there is no room no footing to stand and sweep it a heart so filled with foulness will admit no counsel no reproof The great Engineir would have undertaken to have removed the World with his Engine if there had been any place to fix his Engine upon out of the World I would undertake by Gods blessing upon his Ordinance to cleanse the foulest heart that is if that Engine which God hath put into my hands might enter into his heart if there were room for the renouncing Gods Judgements and for the application of Gods mercies in the merits of Christ Jesus in his heart they would infallibly work upon him But he hath petrified his heart in sin and then he hath immur'd it wall'd it with a delight in sin and fortified it with a justifying of his sin and adds daily more and more out-works by more and more daily sins so that the denouncing of Judgement the application of Mercies