the abundant love of God to man many concluded that howsoever though Adam had not sinned God would have dignified the nature of man in the highest degree that that nature was any ways capable off and since it appears now because that hath been done that the nature of man was capable of such assuming by the Son of God they argue that God would have done this though Adam had not sinn'd He had not come say they ut medicus if man had not contracted that infections sickness by Adams sin Christ had not come in the nature of a Physitian to recover him non ut Redemptor say they If man had not forfeited his interest and state in heaven by Adams sin Christ had not come in the nature of a Redeemer but ut frater ut Dominus ad nobilitandum genus humanus out of a brotherly love and out of a royal favour to exalt that nature which he did love to impart and convey to us a greater and nobler state then we had in our Creation in such a respect and to such a purpose he should have come But since they themselves who follow that opinion come to say That that is the more subtle opinion and the more agreable to mans reason because man willingly embraces and pursues any thing that conduces to the dignifying of his own nature but that the other opinion that Christ had not come if our sins had not occasioned his comming is magis conformis scripturis magis honorat Deum is more agreable to the Scriptures and derives more honor upon God we cannot err if we keep with the Scriptures and in the way that leads to Gods glory and so say with St. August Si homo non periisset filius hominis non venisset If man could have been sav'd otherwise the son of God had not come in this manner ot if that may be interpreted of his comming to suffer only we may enlarge it with Leo Creatura non fieret qui Creator mundi He who was Creator of the world had never become a Creature in the world if our sins had not drawn him to it It is usefully said by Aquinus Deus ordinavit futura ut futura erant God hath appointed all future things to be but to be so as they are that is necessary things necessarily and contingent things contingently absolute things absolutely and conditional things conditionally He hath decreed my salvation but that salvation in Christ He had decreed Christs comming into this world but a comming to save sinners And therefore it is a frivolous interogatory a lost question an impertinent article to enquire what God would have done if Adam had stood But Adam is fallen and we in him and therefore though we may piously wish what St. Augustine utinam non fuisset miseria ne iste misericordia esset necessaria I would man had not been so miserable as to put God to this way of mercy yet since our sins had induced this misery upon us and this necessity if we may so say upon God let us change all our disputation into thanksgiving and all our utrums and quaeres and quando's of the school to the Benedictus and Alelujahs and Osanna's of the Church Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath visited and redeemed his people blessed that he would come at all which was our first and blessed that he is come already which is our second consideration venit He came He is come Venit As in the former branch the Gentils the Heathens are our adversaries they deny the venit that a Messias is to come at all so in this the Jews are our enemies they confess the veniet a future comming but they deny the venit that this Messias come yet In that language in which God spoke to man there is such assurance intimated that whatsoever God promises shall be performed that in that language ordinarily in the Prophets the times are confounded and when God is intended to purpose or to promise any thing in the future it is very often expressed in the time past that which God means to do he is said to have done future and present and past is all one with God But yet to man it is much more that Christ is come then that he would come not but that they who apprehended faithfully his future comming had the same salvation as we but they could not so easily apprehend it as we God did not present so many handles to take hold of him in that promise that he would come as in the performance that he was come They had most of these handles that liv'd with him and saw him and heard him but we that come after have more then they which were before them we have more in the history then they had in the Prophets It was time for him to come in the beginning of the world for the Devil was a murderer from the beginning Joh. 8 44. As the Devil was felo de se a murderer of himself as he killed himself Christ gave him over he never came to him in that line he never pardoned him that sin but as he practis'd upon man Christ met with him from the beginning He sav'd us from his killing by dying himself for us for being dead having taken us into his wounds and being risen and having taken us into his glory if we be dead in Christ already the Devil cannot kill us if we be risen in Christ the Devil cannot hold us And so he was Agnus occisus ab origine mundi the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world that is as soon as the world had any beginning in the purpose of God God saw from all eternity that man would need Christ and as soon as there was conceiv'd an ego occido I will kill in the Devils mouth then was an ego vivificabo I will raise from death in Gods mouth and so there was an early comming from all eternity for he is the Ruler of Israel saies the Prophet Mâ—ch 5.2 and his goings forth have been from the beginning and from everlasting it is goings in the plural Christ hath divers goings forth divers commings all from the beginning not only from Moses his In principio which was the beginning of the Creation for then also Christ came in the promise of a Messiah but from St. Johns In principio that beginning which was without beginning the eternal beginning for there Christ came in that eternal decree that he should come Neither is this only as he is Germen Jehovae the bud of Jehovah issuing from him as his eternal Son Esa 4 2. but as the Prophet Michaeas saies in that place cited before it is as he shall come out of Bethlem and as he shall be a Ruler of Israel so as he came in our humane nature as he came to dye for us as he came to establish a Church so his comming is from all eternity for all this was
wrapped up in a decree of his coming And therefore we are not carried upon the consideration of any decree or if any means of salvation higher or precedent to the comming of Christ for that were to antidate eternity it self So then this coming in the Text is the execution of that coming in the decree which is involv'd in St. Johns In principio and it is the performance of it coming which was enwrapped in the promise in Moses In principio 10.24 it is his actual coming in our flesh that coming of which Christ said in St. Luke many Prophets and Kings 13.17 and in St. Matth. many Prophets and righteous men desired to see these things which you see and have not seen them the prophets who in their very name were videntes seen saw not this comining thus Joh. 8.56 your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day saith Christ and he saw it and was glad All times and all Generations before time was were Christs day but yet he cals this coming in the flesh especially his day because this day was a holy Equinoctial and made the day of the Jews and the day of the Gentiles equal and Testamenta copulat saies St. Chrisostome it binds up the two Testaments into one Bible for if the Partriarks had not desired to see this day and had not seen it in the strength of faith they and we had not been of one communion We have a most sure word of the Prophet 2 Pet. 1.19 saies the Apostle and to that we do well that we take heed but how far As unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts But now since this coming 1 Joh. 1.2 This light hath appeared and we have seen it and bear witness and shew it unto you Simon had an assurance in the Prophets and more immediatly then so in the vision but herein was his assurance and his peace established Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Luk. 2.19 for mine eyes have seen thy salvation The kingdom of Heaven was but a reversion to them and it is no more to us but to them it was a reversion as after a Grandfather and father two lives two comings of Christ before they would come to their state Christ must come first in the flesh and he must come again to Judgment To us and in our case one of these lives is spent Christ is come in the flesh and therefore as the earth is warmer an hour after the sun sets then it was an hour before the sun rose so let our faith and zeal be warmer now after Christ departing out of this world then theirs was before his coming into it and let us so rejoyce at this Ecce venit Rex tuus that our King our Missias is already come as that we may cherefully say veni Domine Jesu come Lord Jesu come quickly and be glad if at the going out of these dores we might meet him coming in the clouds In Mundum Thus far then he hath proceeded already venit He came and venit in mundum He came into the world it is not in mundam into so clean a woman as had no sin at all none contracted from her Parents no original sin for so Christ had placed his favours and his honors ill if he had favoured her most who had no need of him to dye for all the world and not for his mother or to dye for her when she needed not that hell is a strange imagination she was not without sin for then why should she have died for even a natural death in all that come by natural generation is of sin But certainly as she was a vessel reserved to receive Christ Jesus so she was preserved according to the best capacity of that nature from great and infections sins Mary Magdalen was a holy vessel after Christ had thrown the Divel out of her the Virgin Mary was much more so into whom no reigning power of the Devil ever entred in such an acceptation then Christ came per mundam in mundum by a clean woman into an unclean world And he came in a purpose as we do piously believe to manifest himself in the Christian Religion to all the nations of the world and therefore laetentur Insulae saies David The Lord reigneth let the Island rejoyce the Island who by reason of their situation provision and trading have most means of conveying Christ Jesus over the world He hath caâ—ried us up to heaven set us at the right hand of God shal not we endeavour to carry him to those nations who have not yet heard of his name shall we still brag that we have brought our clothes and our hatchets and our knives and bread to this and this value and estimation amongst those poor ignorant Souls and shall we never glory that we have brought the name and Religion of Christ Jesus in estimation amongst them shall we stay till other nations have planted a fals Christ among them and then either continue in our sloth or take more pains in rooting out a false Christ then would have planted the true Christ is come into the world we will do little if we will not ferry him over and propagate his name as well as our own to other Nations At least be sure that he is so far come into the world as that he become into thee Thou art but a little world a world but of a few spanns in length 〈◊〉 and yet Christ was sooner carried from east to west from Jerusalem to these parts then thou canst carry him over the faculties of thy Soul and Body He hath been in a pilgrimage towards thee long coming towards thee perchance 50 perchance 60 years and how far is he got into thee yet Is he yet come to thine eye Have they made Jobs Covenant that they will not look upon a Maid yet he is not come into thine ear still thou hast an itching ear delighting in the libellous defamation of other men Is he come to thine ear Art thou rectified in that sense yet voluptousness in thy tast or inordinateness in thy other senses keep him out in those He is come into thy mouth to thy tongue but he is come thither as a diseased person is taken into a spittle to have his blood drawn to have his flesh cauterized to have his bones sawd Christ Jesus is in thy mouth but in such exrecations in such blasphemies as would he Earthquaks to us if we were earth but we are all stones and rock obdurate in a senselesnes of those wounds which are inflicted upon our God He may be come to the skirts to the borders to an outward show in thine actions and yet not be come into the land into thy heart He entred into thee at baptism He hath crept farther and farther into thee in catechisms and other infusions of his doctrine into thee He
every mans first-born-childe is his zeal to the Religion and Service of God As soon as we know that there is a Soul that Soul knows that there is a God and a Worship belonging to that God and this Worship is Religion And is not this first-born childe dead in many of us In him that is not stirr'd not mov'd not affected for his Religion his pulse is gone and that 's an ill sign In him that dares not speak for it not counsel not preach for it his Religion lies speechless and that 's an ill sign In him that feeds not Religion that gives nothing to the maintenance thereof his Religion is in a consumption In a word if his zeal be quenched his first-born is dead And so for these three Houses That in Egypt that at home that in our selves There is not a house in which there is not one dead Part 4. The fourth House falling under this survey is this House in which we are met now the house of God the Church and the ground wrapped up in the same consecration and in this house you have seen and seen in a lamentable abundance and seen with sad eyes that for many moneths there hath scarce been one day in which there hath not been one dead How should there be but multiplicity of deaths why should it be or be looked to be or thought to be otherwise The Master of the house Christ Jesus is dead before and now it is not so much a part of our punishment for the first Adam as an imitation of the second Adam to die death is not so much a part of our debt to Nature or Sin or Satan as a part of our conformity to him who died for us If death were in the nature of it meerly evil to us Christ would have redeemed us even from this death by his death But as the death of Christ Jesus is the Physick of mankinde so this natural death of the body is the application of that Physick to every particular man who only by death can be made capable of that glory which his death hath purchased for us This Physick all they whom God hath taken to him have taken and by his grace received life by it Their first-born is dead the body was made before the soul and that body is dead Rachel wept for her children and would not be comforted because they were not If these children and parents and friends and neighbours of ours were not if they were resolved into an absolute annihilation we could not be comforted in their behalf but Christ who says he is the Life lest we should think that to belong only to this life says also that he is the Resurrection We were contracted to Christ in our Election married to him in our Baptism in the Grave we are bedded with him and in the Resurrection estated and put into possession of his Kingdom And therefore because these words do not only affect us with that sad consideration That there is none of these houses in whieh there is not one dead but minister withall that consolation That there is none so dad but may have a Resurrection We shall pass another short survey over all these Houses Thus far we have survey'd these four Houses Egypt our families our selves and the Church as so many places of Infection so many temporal or spiritual Pesthouses into which our sins had heaped powder and Gods indignation had cast a match to kindle it But now the very phrase of the Text which is That in every house there was one dead There was invites us to a more particular consideration of Gods mercy in that howsoever it were it is not so now in which we shall look how far this beam of mercy shines out in every of these houses that it is not so now There is not one dead in every house now but the Infection Temporal and Spiritual Infection is so far ceased as that not only those that are alive do not die as before but those whom we called dead are not dead they are alive in their spirits in Abrahams bosome and they are alive in their very bodies in their contract and inherence in Christ Jesus in an infallible assurance of a joyful Resurrection Now in the survey of the first sort of houses of Egypt Egyptus herein we are interrupted Here they were dead and are dead still We see clearly enough Gods indignation upon them but we see neither of those beams of mercy either that there die no more or that we have the comfort of a joyful Resurrection in them who are dead For this fearful calamity of the death of their first-born wrought no more upon them but to bring them to that exclamation that vociferation that voice of despairful murmuring Omnes Moriemur We are all dead men v. 33. And they were mischievous Prophets upon themselves for proceeding in that sin which induc'd that calamity and the rest upon them they pursued the children of Israel through the Red-sea and perished in it and then they came not to die one in a house but as it is expressed in the Story and repeated in the Psalms Exod. 14.28 Psal 106.10 There remained not so much as one of them alive so that in their case there is no comfort in the first beam of mercy that this phrase They were dead or They did die should intimate That now they did not die now Gods correction had so wrought upon them as that God withdrew that correction from them for it pursued them and accompanied them to their final and total destruction And then for the other beam of mercy of transferring them which seemed dead in the eyes of the world to a better life by that hand of death to present happiness in their souls and to an assured resurrection to joy and glory in their bodies in the communion of Gods Saints Moses hath given us little hope in their behalf for thus he encourageth his Countreymen in that place The Egyptians whom you have seen this day Exod. 14.13 you shall see no more for ever No more in this world no more in the world to come Beloved as God empayl'd a Goshen in Egypt a place for the righteous amongst the wicked so there is an Egypt in every Goshen neasts of Snakes in the fairest Gardens and even in this City which in the sense of the Gospel we may call The Holy City as Christ called Jerusalem though she had multiplied transgressions The Holy City because she had not cast away his Law though she had disobeyed it So howsoever your sins have provoked God yet as you retain a zealous profession of the truth of his Religion I may in his name and do in the bowels of his mercy call you The Holy City even in this City no doubt but the hand of God fell upon thousands in this deadly infection who were no more affected with it then those Egyptians to cry out Omnes Moriemur We can
to bear any slavish yoak had a tyrannical meaning in his words But in this Text as in one of those Tables in which by changing the station and the line you use to see two pictures you have a good picture of a good King and of a good subject for in one line you see such a subject as Loves pureness of heart and hath grace in his lips In the other line you see the King gracious yea friendly to such a subject He that loveth pureness of heart for the grace of his lips the King shall be his friend The sum of the words is that God will make an honest man acceptable to the King for some ability which he shall employ to the publike Him that proceeds sincerely in a lawful calling God will bless and prosper and he will seal this blessing to him even with that which is his own seal his own image the favor of the King He that loveth pureness of heart for the grace of his lips the King shall be his friend We will not be curious in placing these two pictures nor considering which to consider first As he that would vow a fast till he had found in nature whether the Egge or the Hen were first in the world might perchance starve himself so that King or that subject which would forbear to do their several duties Serm. 24. till they had found which of them were most necessary to one another might starve one another for King and subjects are Relatives and cannot be considered in execution of their duties but together The greatest Mystery in Earth or Heaven which is the Trinity is conveyed to our understanding no other way then so as they have reference to one another by Relation as we say in the Schools for God could not be a father without a Son nor the Holy Ghost Spiratus sine spirante As in Divinity so in Humanity too Relations constitute one another King and subject come at once and together into consideration Neither is it so pertinent a consideration which of them was made for others sake as that they were both made for Gods sake and equally bound to advance his glory Here in our Text we finde the subjects picture first Divisio And his Marks are two first Pureness of Heart That he be an honest Man And then Grace of lips that he be good for something for by this phrase Grace of lips is expressed every ability to do any office of society for the Publike good The first of these Pureness of heart he must love The other that is Grace of lips that is other Abilities he must have but he must not be in love with them nor over-value them In the Kings picture the principal marke is That he shall be friendly and gracious but gracious to him that hath this Grace of lips to him that hath endeavored in some way to be of use to the Publike And not to him neither for all the grace of his lips for all his good parts except he also love pureness of heart but He that loveth pureness of heart There 's the foundation for the grace of his lips There 's the upper-building the King shall be his friend In the first then which is this Pureness of heart we are to consider Rem sedem Modum what this Pureness is Part. 1. Puritas Then where it is to be lodged and fixed In the heart and after that the way and means by which this Pureness of heart is acquired and preserved which is implyed and notified in that Affection wherewith this pureness of heart is to be embraced and entertained which is love For Love is so noble so soveraign an Affection as that it is due to very few things and very few things worthy of it Love is a Possessory Affection it delivers over him that loves into the possession of that that he loves it is a transmutatory Affection it changes him that loves into the very nature of that that he loves and he is nothing else For the first Pureness it self It is carried to a great heighth Res. for our imitation God knows too great for our imitation when Christ bids us be perfect Mat. 5.48 even as our father which is in heaven is perfect As though it had not been perfectness enough to be perfect as the Son upon earth was perfect he carries us higher Be perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect The Son upon Earth Christ Jesus had all our infirmities and imperfections upon him hunger and weariness and hearty sorrow to death and that which alone is All Mortality Death it self And though he were Innocence it self and knew no sin yet there was no sin that he knew not for all our sins were his He was not onely made Man and by taking by Admitting though not by Committing our sins as well as our nature sinful Man but he was made sin for our sakes And therefore though he say of himself sicut ego John 15.10 Keep my Commandements even as I have kept my fathers Commandements yet still he refers all originally to the Father and because he was under our infirmities and our iniquities he never says though he might well have said so sicut ego Be pure be perfect as I am perfect and pure but sicut Pater be pure as your Father in heaven is pure Hand to hand with the Father Christ disclaims himself Mat. 26.39 disavows himself Non sicut ego Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt O Father We are not referr'd for the pattern of our purity though we might be safely to him that came from heaven The Son but to him which is in heaven The Father Nor to the Sun which is in heaven the Sun that is the pure fountain of all natural light nor to the Angels which are in heaven though they be pure in their Nature and refined by a continual emanation of the beams of glory upon them from the face of God but the Father which is in heaven is made the pattern of our purity That so when we see the exact purity which we should aim at and labor for we might the more seriously lament and the more studiously endeavor the amendment of that extreme and enormous fouleness and impurity in which we who should be pure as our Father which is in heaven is pure exceed the dog that turns to his own vomit again 2 Pet. 2.22 and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Yet there is no foulness so foul so inexcusable in the eys of God nor that shall so much aggravate our condemnation as a false affectation and an hypocritical counterfeiting of this Purity There is a Pureness a cleanness imagin'd rather dream't of in the Romane Church by which as their words are the soul is abstracted not onely à Passionibus but â Phantasmatibus not onely from passions and perturbations but from the ordinary way of coming to
in contemplation of whom that service is done and that is done especially when by a holy and exemplar life we draw others to the love and obedience of the same Gospell which we professe for then have we declared this true and faithfull saying this Gospell to have been worthy of all acceptation when we have look'd upon it by our reason embraced it by our Faith and declared it by our good works and all these considerations arose out of that which at the beginning we called Radicem the Roote of this Gospell the Word the Scripture the Tree it self the Body of the Gospell that is The coming of Christ and the Reason of his coming To save Sinners And then the fruit of this Gospell that Humility by which the Apostle confesseth himselfe to be the greatest Sinner we reserve for another exercise Serm. 14. A Second SERMON Preached at Whitehall April 2. 1621. SERMON XIV 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 WE have considered heretofore that which appertained to the Roote and all the circumstances thereof That which belongs to the Tree it selfe what this acceptable Gospell is That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners and then that which appertains to the fruit of this Gospell the Humility of the Apostle in applying it to himselfe Quorum ego Of which Sinners I am the chiefest were reserved for this time In the first of these that which we call the Tree the Body of this Gospell there are three branches first an Advent A coming and secondly the Person that came and Lastly the worke for which he came And in the first of these we shall make these steps First that it is a new coming of a Person who was not here before at least not in that manner as he comes now venit He came And Secondly that this coming is in Act not only in Decree so he was come and slaine ab initio from all eternity in God's purpose of our Salvation nor come only in promise so he came wrapped up in the first promise of a Messiah in Paradise in that ipse conteret He shall bruise the Serpents head nor come only in the often renuing of that promise to Abraham in semine tuo In thy seed shall all Nations be blessed nor only in the ratification and refreshing of that promise to Judah Donec Silo Till Silo come and to David in Solio tuo The Scepter shall not depart nor as he came in the Prophets in I says virgo concipiet That he should come of a virgin nor in Michaeas Et tu Bethlem That he should come out of that Towne but this is a Historicall not a Propheticall an Actuall not a Promissary coming it is a coming already executed venit he came he is come And then Thirdly venit in mundum He came into the World into the whole World so that by his purpose first extends to all the Nations of the World and then it shall extend to thee in particular who art a part of this world He is come into the world and into thee From hence we shall descend to our second branch to the considerations of the person that comes and he is first Christus in which one name we find first his capacity to reconcile God and man because he is a mixt person uniting both in himself and we find also his Commission to work this Reconciliation because he is Christus an annointed person appointed by that unction to that purpose And thirdly we find him to be Jesus that is actually a Saviour that as we had first his capacity and his Commission in the name of Christ so we might have the execution of this Commission in the name of Jesus And then lastly in the last branch of this part we shall see the work it self Venit salvare He came to save It is not offerre to offer it to them whom he did intend it to but he came really and truly to save It was not to show a land of promise to Moyses then say there it is but thou shalt never come at it It was not to shew us salvation then say there it is in Baptism it is in Preaching and in the other Sacrament it is but soft there is a Decree of predestination against thee and thou shalt have none of it But venit salvare He came to save And whom Sinners Those who the more they ackowledg themselves to be so the nearer they are to this salvation First then for the Advent this comming of Christ Part 1. we have a Rule reasonable general in the school Missio in divinis est novo modo operatio Then is any person of the Trinity said to be sent or to come when they work in any place or in any person in another manner or measure then they did before yet that Rule doth not reach home to the expressing of all commings of the persons of the Trinity The second person came more pretentially then so more then in an extraordinary working and Energie and execution of his power if it be rightly apprehended by those Fathers who in many of those Angels which appear'd to the Patriarcks and whose service God us'd in delivering Israel out of Egypt and in giving them the Law in Sinai to be the son of God himself to have been present and many things to have been attributed to the Angels in those histories which were done by the son of God not only working but present in that place at that time So also the Holy Ghost came more presentially then so more then by an extraordinary extention of his power when he came presentially and personally in the Dove to seal Johns Baptism upon Christ But yet though those pretential commings of Christ as an Angel in the old Testament and this comming of the Holy Ghost in a Dove in the New were more then ordinary commings and more then extraordinary workings too yet they were all far short of this comming of the son of God in this Text for it could never be said properly in any of those cases That that or that Angel was the son of God the second person or that that Dove was the Holy Ghost or the third person of the Trinity but in this Advent which we have in hand here it is truly and properly said this man is God this son of Mary is the son of God this Carpenters son is that very God that made the world He came so to us as that he became us not only by a new and more powerful working in us but by assuming our nature upon himself It is a perplex't question in the School and truly the Balance in those of the middle age very even whether if Adam had not sinned the son of God had come into the world and taken our nature and our flesh upon him Out of the infinite testimonies of
by the King to wait upon my L. of Doncaster in his Embassage to Germany First Sermon as we went out June 16. 1619. SERMON XX. Rom. 13.11 For now is our Salvation nearer then when we believed THere is not a more comprehensive a more embracing word in all Religion then the first word of this Text Now for the word before that For is but a word of connexion and rather appertains to that which was said before the Text then to the Text it self The Text begins with that important and considerable particle Now Now is salvation nearer c. This present word Now denotes an Advent a new coming or a new operation otherwise then it was before And therefore doth the Church appropriate this Scripture to the celebration of the Advent before the Feast of the Birth of our Saviour It is an extensive word Now for though we dispute whether this Now that is whether an instant be any part of time or no yet in truth it is all time for whatsoever is past was and whatsoever is future shall be an instant and did and shall fall within this Now. We consider in the Church four Advents or Comings of Christ of every one of which we may say Now now it is otherwise then before For first there is verbum in carne the word came in the flesh in the Incarnation and then there is caro in verbo he that is made flesh comes in the word that is Christ comes in the preaching thereof and he comes again in carne saluta when at our dissolution and transmigration at our death he comes by his spirit and testifies to our spirit that we die the Children of God And lastly he comes in carne reddita when he shall come at the Resurrection to redeliver our bodies to our souls and to deliver everlasting glory to both The Ancients for the most part understand the word of our Text of Christs first coming in the flesh to us in this world the latter Exposition understand them rather of his coming in glory But the Apostle could not properly use this present word Now with relation to that which is not now that is to future glory otherwise then as that future glory hath a preparation and an inchoation in present grace for so even the future glory of heaven hath a Now now the elect Children of God have by his powerfull grace a present possession of glory So then it will not be impertinent to suffer this flowing and extensive word Now to spread it self into all three for the whole duty of Christianity consists in these three things first in pietate erga Deum in religion towards God in which the Apostle had enlarged himself from the beginning to the twelfth chapter of his Epistle And secondly in charitate erga proximum in our mutual duties of society towards our Equals and Inferiors and of Subjection towards our Superiours in which that twelfth chapter and this to the eitghth verse is especially conversant And then thirdly in sanctimonia propria in the works of sanctification and holiness in our selves And this Text the Apostle presents as a forcible reason to induce us to that to those works of sanctification because Now our salvation is nearer us then when we believed Take then this now the first way of the coming Christ in person in the flesh into this world and then the Apostle of directs himself principally to the Jews converted to the faith of Christ and he tels them That their salvation is nearer them now now they had seen him come then when they did only believe that he would come Take the words the second way of his coming in grace into our hearts and so the Apostle directs himself to all Christians now now that you have bin bred in the Christian Church now that you are grown from Grace to grace from faith to faith now that God by his spirit strengthens and confirms you now is your salvation nearer then when ye believed that is when you began to believe either by the faith of your Parents or the faith of the Church or the faith of your Sureties at your Baptism or when you began to have some notions and impressions and apprehensions of faith in your self when you came to some degrees of understanding and discretion Take the word of Christs coming to us at the hour of death or of his coming to us at the day of Judgment for those two are all one to our present purpose because God never reverses any particular judgement given at a mans death at the day of the general Judgment take the word so this is the Apostles argument you have believed and you have lived accordingly and that faith and that good life hath brought salvation nearer you that is given you a fair and modest infallibility of salvation in the nature of reversion but now now that you are come to the approches of death which shall make your reversion a possession Now is salvation nearer you then when you believed Summarily the Text is a reason why we ought to proceed in good and holy wayes and it works in all the three acceptations of the word for whether salvation be said to be near us because we are Christians and so have advantage of the Jews or near us because we have made some proficiency in holiness sanctimony or near us because we are near our end and thereby near a possession of our endless joy and glory Still from all these acceptations of the word arise religious provocations to perseverance in holiness of life and therefore we shall pursue the words in all three acceptations In all three acceptations we must consider three termes in the Text First Quid salus what this Salvation is that is intended here Part. 1. and then Quid prope what this Distance this nearness is and lastly Quid credere what Belief this is So then taking the words first the first way as spoken by the Apostles to the Jews newly converted to the Christian Faith salvation is the outward means of salvation which are more and more manifest to the Christians then they were to the Jews And then the second Term Nearness salvation is nearer is in this That salvation to the Christian is in things present or past in things already done and of which we are experimentally sure but to the Jews it was of future things of which howsoever they might assure themselves that they would be yet they had no assurance when And therefore in the third place their Believing was but a confident expectation and faithfull assenting to their Prophets quando credidistis when you believed that is when you did only believe and saw nothing First then the first Terme in the first acceptation Salvation Salus is the outward means of salvation Outward and visible means of knowing God God hath given to all Nations in the book of Creatures from the first leaf of that book the firmament above to
must that does that did dye ever since it was made I carry a Soul nay a Soul carries me to such a perpetuity as no Saint no Angel God himself shall not survive me over-live me And lastly says he Terrenus sum Coelestis I have a Body but of Earth but yet of such Earth as God was the Potter to mold it God was the statuary to fashion it and then I have a Soul of which God was the Father he breath'd it into me and of which no matter can say I was the Mother for it proceeded of nothing Such a Mystery is man here but he is a Miracle hereafter I shall be still the same man and yet have another being And in this is that Miracle exalted that death who destroys me re-edifies me Mors veluti medium excogitata Cyril ut de integro restauraretur homo man was fallen and God took that way to raise him to throw him lower into the grave man was sick and God invented God studied Physick for him and strange Physick to recover him by death The first faciamus hominem the Creation of man was a thing incomprehensible in Nature but the Denuo nasci to be born again was stranger even to Nicodemus who knew the former the Creation Joh. 4.3 well enough But yet the Immutabimur is the greatest of all 1 Cor. 15.57 which St. Paul calls all to wonder at Behold I shew you a Mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed A Mystery which it Nicodemus had discern'd it would have put him to more wonder then the Denuo nasci to enter into his mothers womb as he speaks to enter into the Bowels of the Earth and lie there and lie dead there not nine months but many yeers and then to be born again and the first minute of that new Birth to be so perfect as that nothing can be better and so perfect as that he can never become worse that is that which makes all strange accidents to natural Bodies and Bodies Politike too Scientia all changes in man all revolutions of States easie and familiar to us I shall have another being and yet be the same man And in that state I shall have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus Of which three things being now come to speak I am the less sorry and so may you be too if my voice be so sunk as that I be not heard for if I had all my time and all my strength and all your patience reserv'd till now what could I say that could become what that could have any proportion to this knowledge and this glory and this face of Christ Jesus there in the Kingdome of Heaven But yet be pleased to hear a word of each of these three words and first of Knowledge In the Attributes of God we consider his knowledge to be Principium agendi dirigens The first proposer and Director This should be done and then his Will to be Principium imperans the first Commander This shall be done and then his Power to be Principium exequens the first Performer This is done This should be done this shall be done this is done expresses to us the Knowledge the Will and the Power of God Now we shall be made partakers of the Divine Nature and the Knowledge and the Will and the Power of God shall be so far communicated to us there as that we shall know all that belongs to our happiness and we shall have a will to doe and a power to execute whatsoever conduces to that And for the knowledge of Angels that is not in them per essentiam for whosoever knows so as the Essence of the thing flows from him knows all things and that 's a knowledge proper to God only Neither doe the Angels know per species by those resultances and species which rise from the Object and pass through the Sense to the Understanding for that 's a deceiveable way both by the indisposition of the Organ sometimes and sometimes by the depravation of the Judgment and therefore as the first is too high this is too low a way for the Angels Some things the Angels do know by the dignity of their Nature by their Creation which we know not as we know many things which inserior Creatures do not and such things all the Angels good and bad know Some things they know by the Grace of their confirmation by which they have more given them then they had by Nature in their Creation and those things only the Angels that stood but all they do know Some things they know by Revelation when God is pleased to manifest them unto them and so some of the Angels know that which the rest though confirm'd doe not know By Creation they know as his Subjects by Confirmation they know as his servants by Revelation they know as his Councel Now Erimus sicut Angeli says Christ There we shall be as the Angels The knowledge which I have by Nature shall have no Clouds here it hath that which I have by Grace shall have no reluctation no resistance here it hath That which I have by Revelation shall have no suspition no jealousie here it hath sometimes it is hard to distinguish between a respiration from God and a suggestion from the Devil There our curiosity shall have this noble satisfaction we shall know how the Angels know by knowing as they know We shall not pass from Author to Author as in a Grammar School nor from Art to Art as in an University but as that General which Knighted his whole Army God shall Create us all Doctors in a minute That great Library those infinite Volumes of the Books of Creatures shall be taken away quite away no more Nature those reverend Manuscripts written with Gods own hand the Scriptures themselves shall be taken away quite away no more preaching no more reading of Scriptures and that great School-Mistress Experience and Observation shall be remov'd no new thing to be done and in an instant I shall know more then they all could reveal unto me I shall know not only as I know already that a Bee-hive that an Ant-hill is the same Book in Decimo sexto as a Kingdom is in Folio That a Flower that lives but a day is an abridgment of that King that lives out his threescore and ten yeers but I shall know too that all these Ants and Bees and Flowers and Kings and Kingdoms howsoever they may be Examples and Comparisons to one another yet they are all as nothing altogether nothing less then nothing infinitely less then nothing to that which shall then be the subject of my knowledge for it is the knowledge of the glory of God Gloria Dei Before in the former acceptation the glory of God was our glorifying of God here the glory of God is his glorifying of us there it was his receiving here it
the Scriptures For God who commanded light out of darkness hath shin'd c. The 26 Sermon Serm. 26. Psa 68.20 And unto God the Lord belong the issues of Death from Death BUildings stand by the benefit of their foundations that sustain them support them and of their buttresses that comprehend them embrace them and of their contignations that knit and unite them The foundation suffers them not to sink the buttresses suffer them not to swerve the contignation and knitting suffer them not to cleave The body of our building is in the former part of this verse it is this He that is our God is the God of salvation ad salutes of salvations in the plural so it is in the original the God that gives us spiritual and temporal salvation too But of this building the foundation the buttresses the contignation are in this part of the verse which constitutes our text and in the three diverse acceptations of the words amongst our expositors Unto God the Lord belong the issues of death For first the foundation of this building that our God is the God of all salvations is laid in this That unto this God the Lord belongs the issues of death that is it is his power to give us an issue and deliverance even then when we are brought to the jaws and teeth of death and to the lips of that whirl-pool the grave and so in this acceptation this exitus mortis this issue of death is liberatio a morie a deliverance from death this is the most obvious and most ordinary acceptation of these words and that upon which our translation laies hold The issues from death And then Secondly the buttresses that comprehend and settle this building that He that is our God is the God of salvation are thus raised Unto God the Lord belong the issues of death that is the disposition and manner of our death what kind of issue and transmigration we shall have out of this world whether prepared or sodain whether violent or natural whether in our perfect senses or shak'd and disordered by sickness there is no condemnation to be argued out of that no judgment to be made upon that for howsoever they dye precious in his sight is the death of his Saints and with him are the issues of death the way of our departing out of this life are in his hands and so in this sense of the words this Exitus mortis the issue of death is liberatio in morte a deliverance in death not that God will deliver us from dying but that he will have a care of us in the hour of death of what kind soever our passage be and this sense and acceptation of the words the natural frame contexture doth well and pregnantly administer unto us And then lastly the contignation and knitting of this building that he that is our God is the God of all salvation consists in this Unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death that is that this God the Lord having united and knit both natures in one and being God having also come into this world in our flesh he could have no other means to save us he could have no other issue out of this world nor return to his former glory but by death And so in this sense this exitus mortis the issue of death is liberatio per mortem a deliverance by death by the death of this God our Lord Christ Jesus and this is St. Augustines acceptation of the words and those many and great persons that have adhered to him In all these three lines then we shall look upon these words first as the God of power the Almighty Father rescues his servants from the jaws of death and then as the God of mercy the glorious Son rescued us by taking upon himself the issue of death and then between these two as the God of comfort the holy Ghost rescues us from all discomfort by his blessed impressions before hand that what manner of death soever be ordained for us yet this exitus mortis shall be introitus in vitam our issue in death shall be an entrance into everlasting life And these three considerations our deliverance a morte in morte per mortem from death in death and by death will abundantly do all the offices of the foundation of the buttresses of the contignation of this our building that He that is our God is the God of all salvation because Unto this God the Lord belong the issues of death First Part. A mâ—â—e First then we consider this exitus mortis to be liberatio a morte that with God the Lord are the issues of death therefore in all our deaths and deadly calamities of this life we may justly hope of a good issue from him and all our periods and transitions in this life are so many passages from death to death Exitus a morte uteri Our very birth and entrance into this life is exitus a morte an issue from death for in our mothers womb we are dead so as that we do not know we live not so much as we do in our sleep neither is there any grave so close or so putrid a prison as the womb would be to us if we stai'd in it beyond our time or died there before our time In the grave the worms do not kil us We breed and feed and then kill those worms which we our selves produc'd In the womb the dead child kils the mother that conceiv'd it and is a murderer nay a Parricide even after it is dead And if we be not dead so in the womb so as that being dead we kill her that gave us our first life our life of vegetation yet we are dead so as Davids Idols are dead Psa 115.6 in the womb we have eyes and see not ears and hear not There in the womb we are fitted for works of darkness all the while deprived of light and there in the womb we are taught cruelty by being fed with blood and may be damned though we be never born Of our very making in the womb David saies 139. 14. I am wonderfully and fearfully made and Such knowledg is too excellent for me for Even that is the Lords doing and it is wonderful in our eyes 118. 23. Ipse fecit nos It is he that hath made us and not we our selves no 200. 3. nor our Parents neither Thy hands have made me and fashioned me round about saies Job and 10. 8. as the original word is Thou hast taken pains about me and yet saies he Thou doest destroy me though I be the master-peice of the greatest Master man is so yet if thou do no more for me if thou leave me where thou mad'st me destruction will follow The womb which should be the house of life becomes death it self if God leave us there That which God threatens so often the shutting of the womb is not
a Lamb that is but with any reluctation But God knows that may have been accompanied with a dangerous damp and stupefaction and insensibility of his present state Our blessed Saviour admitted colluctations with Death and a sadnesse even in his Soul to death and an agony even to a bloody sweat in his body and expostulations with God and exclamations upon the Crosse He was a devout man who upon his death-bed or death-turse for he was an Hermit said Septuaginta annis domino servivisti mori times Hast thou serv'd a good Master threescore and ten yeeres Hilarion and now art thou loth to goe into his presence yet Hilarion was loath He was a devoure man an Hermite that said that day that he died Cogitate hodie coepisse servire Domino Barlaam hodie finiturum Consider this to be the first days service that ever thou didst thy Master to gloryfie him in a christianly and constant death and if thy first day be thy last day too how soone dost thou come to receive thy wages yet Barlaam could have beene content to have stayed longer for it Make no ill conclusion upon any man's lothnesse to die And then upon violent deaths inflicted as upon malefactors Christ himself hath forbidden us by his own death to make any ill conclusion for his own death had those impressions in it he was reputed he was executed as a Malefactor and no doubt many of them who concurred to his death did beleeve him to be so Of sodain deaths there are scarce examples to be found in the Scriptures upon good men for death in battail cannot be called sodain death But God governs not by examples but by rules and therefore make no ill conclusions upon sodain-Death nor upon distempers neyther though perchance accompanied with some words of diffidence and distrust in the mercies of God The Tree lies as it falls 'T is true but yet it is not the last stroke that fells the Tree nor the last word nor last gaspe that qualifies the Soule Still pray we for a peaceable life against violent deaths and for time of Repentance against sodaine Deaths and for sober and modest assurance against dâ—stemper'd and diffident Deaths but never make ill conclusâ—ion upon persons overtaken with such Deaths Domini Domini sunt exitus Mortis To God the Lord belong the issues of Death and he received Samson who went out of this world in such a manner consider it actively consider it passively in his own death and in those whom he slew with himself as was subject to interpretation hard enough yet the holy-Ghost hath mov'd Saâ—nt Paul to celebrate Samson in his great Catalogue and so doth all the Church Heb. 11. Our Criticall day is not the very day of our death but the whole course of our life I thank him that prayes for me when my bell tolls but I thank him much more that Carechises me or preaches to me or instructs me how to live fac hoc vives There 's my security The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Doe this and thou shalt live But though I doe it yet I shall die too dy a bodily a naturall death but God never mentions never seems to consider that death the bodily the naturall death God doth not say Live well and thou shalt die well well that is an easy a quiet death but live well here and thou shalt live well for ever As the first part of a Sentence peeces well with the last and never respects never hearkens after the parenthesis that comes between so doth a good life here flow into an eternall life without any consideration what manner of death we die But whether the gate of my prison be opened with an oyl'd key by a gentle and preparing sicknesse or the gate be hew'd down by a violent death or the gate be burnt down by a rageing and frantick feaver a gate into Heaven I shall have for from the Lord is the course of my life and with God the Lord are the issues of death And farther we carry not this second acceptation of the words as this issue of death is liberatio in morte God's care that the Soule be safe what agonie soever the body suffer in the houre of death but passe to our third and last Part as this issue of death is liberatio per mortem a deliverance by the death of another by the death of Christ Part. 3. Liberatio per mortem SufferentiaÌ„ Job audiâ—stis judistis fineÌ„ Domini saies S. Ja. 5.11 You have heard of the patience of Job saies he All this while you have done that for in every man calamitous miserable man a Job speaks Now see the end of the Lord saith that Apostle which is not that end which the Lord proposed to himself Salvation to us nor the end which he proposes to us conformity to him but See the end of the Lord saies he the end that the Lord himself came to Death and a painfull and a shamefull death But why did he die and why die so Quia Domini Domini sunt exitus Mortis as Saint Augustine interpreting this Text De Civit. Dei l. 17. c. 18. answers that question because to this God our Lord belong'd these issues of Death Quid apertius diceretur sayes he there what can be more obvious more manifest then this sense of these words In the former part of the verse it is said He that is our God is the God of Salvation Deus salvos faciendi so he reads it The God that must save us Who can that be saith he but Jesus For therefore that name was given him because he was to save us And to this Jesus saith he Mat. 1.21 this Saviour belongs the issues of Death Nec oportuit cum de hac vita alios exitus habere quam mortis Being come into this life in our mortall nature he could not goe out of it any other way then by Death Ideo dictum saith he therefore is it said To God the Lord belong the issues of Death Ut ostenderetur moriendo nos salvos facturum to shew that his way to save us was to die And from this Text doth Saint Isiodore prove that Christ was truly man which as many Sects of Hereticks denied as that he was truly God because to him though he were Dominus Dominus as the Text doubles it God the Lord yet to him to God the Lord belong'd the issues of Death Oportuit cum pati more cannot be said then Christ himself saith of himself These Luk. 24.26 things Christ ought to suffer He had no other way but by Death So then this part of our Sermon must necessarily be a Passion Sermon since all his life was a continuall Passion all our Lent may well be a continual good-Friday Christ's painfull Life took off none of the pains of his Death he felt not the lesse then for having felt so much before nor will
any thing that shall be said before lessen but rather enlarge your devotion to that which shall be said of his Passion at the time of the due solemnization thereof Christ bled not a drop the lesse at last for having bled at his Circumcision before nor will you shed a teare the lesse then if you shed some now And therefore be now content to consider with me how to this God the Lord belong'd the issues of Death That God the Lord The Lord of Life could die is a strange contemplation That the red-Sea could be dry Potuisse Mori Exod. 14.21 That the Sun could stand still Jos 10.12 That an Oven could be seven times heat and not burn That Lyons could be hungry and not bite is strange miraculously strange But super-miraculous That God could die But that God would die is an exaltation of that But even of that also it is a super-exaltation that God should die must die and non exitus saith Saint Augustin God the Lord had no issue but by death and oportuit pati saith Christ himself all this Christ ought to suffer was bound to suffer Psal 94.1 Voluisse Mori Deus ultionum Deus saith David God is the God of Revenges He would not passe over the sin of man unrevenged unpunished But then Deus ultionum libere egit sayes that place The God of Revenges works freely he punishes he spares whom he will and would he not spare himself He would not Dilectio fortis ut Mors Can. 8.6 Love is as strong as Death stronger it drew in Death that naturally was not welcome Si possibile saith Christ If it be possible let this Cup passe when his Love expressed in a former Decree with his Father had made it impossible Many waters quench not Love Christ tryed many He was baptized out of his Love v. 7. and his love determin'd not there He wept over Jerusalem out of his love and his love determined not there He mingled blood with water in his Agony and that determined not his love He wept pure blood all his blood at all his eyes at all his pores in his flagellations and thornes to the Lord our God belonged the issues of blood and these expressed but these did not quench his love Oportuisse Mori He would not spare nay he would not spare himself There was nothing more free more voluntary more spontaneous then the death of Christ 'T is true libere egit he died voluntarily But yet when we consider the contract that had passed between his Father and him there was an Oportuit a kinde of necessity upon him All this Christ ought to suffer And when shall we date this obligation this Oportuit this necessity when shall we say it begun Certainly this Decree by which Christ was to suffer all this was an eternall Decree and was there any thing before that that was eternall Infiâ—ite love eternall love be pleased to follow this home and to consider it seriously that what liberty soever we can conceive in Christ to dy or not to dy this necessity of dying this Decree is as eternall as that Liberty and yet how small a matter made he of this Necessity and this dying Gen. 3.15 His Father calls it but a Bruise and but a bruising of his heele The Serpent shall bruise his heele and yet that was that the Serpent should practise and compasse his death Himself calls it but a Baptism as though he were to be the better for it I have a Baptism to be baptized with Luk. 12.50 and he was in paine till it was accomplished and yet this Baptism was his death The holy-Ghost calls it Joy For the joy which was set before him he endured the Crosse which was not a joy of his reward after his passion Heb. 12.2 but a joy that filled him even in the middest of those torments and arose from them When Christ cals his passion Calicem a cup and no worse Can ye drink of my cup He speaks not odiously not with detestation of it indeed it was a cup salus mundo Mat. 20.22 A health to all the world and quid retribuem saies David Psal 116.12 What shall I render unto the Lord Answer you with David Accipiam Calicom I will take the cup of salvation Take that that cup of salvation his passion if not into your present imitation yet into your present contemplation and behold how that Lord who was God yet could die would die must die for your salvation That Moses and Elias talked with Christ in the transfiguration both St. Matthew and St. Mark tel us but what they talked of Mat 17.3 Mat. 9.4 Luc. 9.31 only St. Luke Dicebant excessum ejus saies he they talked of his decease of his death which was to be accomplished at Jerusalem The word is of his Exodus the very word of our Text Exitus his issue by death Moses who in his Exodus had prefigured this issue of our Lord and in passing Israel out of Egypt through the red sea had foretold in that actual prophecy Christs passing of mankind through the sea of his blood and Elias whose Exodus and issue out of this world was a figure of Christs ascension had no doubt a great satisfaction in talking with our blessed Lord De excessu ejus of the full consummation of all this in his death which was to be accomplished at Jerusalem Our meditation of his death should be more viseral and affect us more because it is of a thing already done The ancient Romans had a certain tenderness and detestation of the name of death they would not name death no not in their wils there they would not say Si mori contingat but Si quid humanitas contingat not if or when I die but when the course of nature is accomplished upon me To us that speak daily of the death of Christ He was crucified dead and buried can the memory or the mention of our death be irksome or bitter There are in these latter times amongst us that name death freely enough and the death of God but in blasphemous oaths and execrations Miserable men who shall therefore be said never to have named Jesus because they have named him too often and therefore hear Jesus say Nescive vos I never knew you because they made themselves too familiar with him Moses and Elias talked with Christ of his death only in a holy and joyful sence of the benefit which they and all the world were to receive by it Discourses of religion should not be out of curiosity but edification And then they talked with Christ of his death at that time when he was at the greatest heighth of glory that ever he admitted in this world that is his transfiguration And we are afraid to speak to the great men of this world of their death but nourish in them a vain imagination of immortallity and immutability But bonum est
he hath reserved by his parsimony and frugallity There is somtimes a greater reverence in us towards our ancient inheritance towards those goods which are devolved upon us by succession There is another affection expressed towards those things which dying friends have left us for they preserve their memories another towards Jewells or other Testimonies of an acceptation of our services from the Prince but still we love those things most which we have got with our own labour and industrey When a man comes to say with Jacob Gen. 32.10 with my staffe came I over Iordan now have I gotten two bands with this staffe came I to London with this staffe came I to Court and now am thus and thus increased a man loves those addisions which his owne Industry hath made to his fortune There are some ungratefull Natures that love other men the worse for having bound them by benefits and good turns to them but that were a new ingratitude not to be thankful to our selves not to love those things which we our selves have compassed We have our reason to do so in our great example Christ Jesus who loves us most as we are his purchase as he hath bought us with his bloud And therefore though he hath expressed a love too to the Angels in their confirmation yet he cannot be said to love the Angels as he doth us because his death hath wrought nothing upon them which were fallen before and for us so he came principally to save sinners the whole body and band of Angels are not his purchase as all mankind is This affection is in worldly men too they love their own gettings and those shall perish They have given their pleasant things for meat Chron. 1.11 to refresh their souls whatsoever they placed their heart upon whatsoever they delighted in most whatsoever they were loath to part withal it shall perish and the measure of their love to it and the desire of it shall be the measure of Gods judgement upon it that which they love most shall perish first In occupatione Those riches then those best beloved riches shall perish and that saith the text by evil travail which is a word that in the original signifies both Occupationem Negotiationem labour and Travail and afflictionem vexationem affliction and vexation They shall perish in occupatione then when thou art labouring and travailing in thy calling then when thou art harkening after a purchase and a bargain then when thy neighbors can impute no negligence thou wast not negligent in gathering nay no vice to thee thou wast not dissolute in scattering then when thou risest early lyest down late and eatest the bread of sorrow then shalt thou find not onely that that prospers not which thou goest about and pretendest to but that that which thou haddest before decaies and molders away If we consider well in what abundance God satisfied the children of Israel with Quails and how that ended we shall see example enough of this You shall eat saith God Num. 11.19 not one nor two daies nor five nor ten nor twenty but a whole moneth until it come out at your nostrils and be loathsome unto you here was the promise and it was performed for the plenty ver 31. that quailes fell a daies journey round about the Camp and they were two cubits thick upon the earth The people fell to their labour and they arose and gathered all that day and all that night and all the next day saith the Text 32. and he that gathered least gathered ten Gomers full But as the promise was performed in the plenty so it was in the course too whilest the flesh was yet between theïr teeth before it was chewed even the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people and he smote them with an exceeding great plague ver 33. Even whilest your money is under your fingers whilest it is in your purposes determined and digested for such and such a purpose whilest you have put it in a ship in Merchandice to win more to it whilest you have sow'd it in the land of borrowers to multiply and grow upon Mortgages and usury even when you are in the mid'st of your travail stormes at Sea theeves at land enviers at court informations at Westminster whilest the meat is in your mouthes shall cast the wrath of God upon your riches and they shall perish In occupatione then when you travail to increase them The Children of Israel are said in that place onely to have wept to Moses out of a lust and a grief for want of flesh God punished not that weeping it is a tenderness a disposition that God loves but a weeping for worldly things and things not necessary to them for Manna might have served them a weeping for not having or for loosing such things of this world is alwaies accompanied with a murmuring God shall cause thy riches to perish in thy travail not because he denies thee riches nor because he would not have thee travail but because an inordinate love an overstudious and an intemperate and overlaborious pursuite of riches is alwaies accompanied with a diffidence in Gods providence and a confidence in our own riches To give the wicked a better sense of this God proceeds often the same way with the righteous too but with the wicked because they do with the righteous least they should trust in their own riches We see in Iobs case It was not onely his Sons and daughters who were banquetting nor onely his asses and sheep and camels that were feeding that were destroyed but upon his Oxen that were ploughing upon his servants which were doing rheir particular duties the Sabaeans came and destruction in their sword His Oxen and his servants perished in occupatione in their labour in their travail when they were doing that which they should do And if God do thus to his children to humble them before-hand that they do not sacrifice to their own nets not trust in their own industry nor in their own riches how much more vehemently shall his judgments burn upon them whose purpose in gathering Riches was pricipally that they might stand of themselves and not need God There are beasts that labour not but yet furnish us with their wool alive and with their flesh when they are dead as sheep there are men that desire riches and though they do no other good they are content to keep good houses and that their Heire should do so when they are dead There are beasts that labour and are meat at their death but yield no other help in their life and these are Oxen there are men that labour to be rich and do no good with it till their death There are beasts that onely labour and yield nothing else in life nor death as horses and there are some that do neither but onely prey upon others as Lyons and others such we need not apply particularly there are all bestial
natures in rich men and God knows how to meet with them all and much more will he punish them which do no good in life nor death nay that labor not for their riches but surfet upon the sweat of other men since even the riches of those that trust in riches shall perish in Occupatione in the very labor and in the very travail which if it were not done with a confidence in the riches when they are got were allowable and acceptable to God You may have a good Embleme of such a rich man whose riches perish in his travail if you take into your memorie and thoughts a Spunge that is overfilled If you presse it down with your little finger the water comes out of it Nay if you lift it up there comes water out of it If you remove it out of his place though to the right hand as well as to the left it poures out water Nay if it lye still quiet in his place yet it wets the place and drops out his moisture Such is an over-full and spungy covetous person he must pour out as well as he hath suck't in if the least weight of disgrace or danger lye upon him he bleeds out his money Nay if he be raised up if he be prefer'd he hath no way to it but by money and he shall be rais'd whether he will or no for it If he be stirr'd from one place to another if he be suffered to settle where he is and would be still these two incommodities lye upon him that he is loathest to part with his money of any thing and yet he can do nothing without it He labours for riches and still he is but a bagg for other men Pereunt in occupatione as fast as he gather by labour God raises some occasion of drawing them from him again It is not then with Riches in a family as it is with a nail in a wall that the hard beating of it in makes it the faster It is not the hard and laborious getting of money the fixing of that in a strong wall the laying it upon lands and such things as are vulgarly distinguished from moveables as though the world and we were not moveables nor the beating that nail hard the binding it with Entailes of Iron and Adamant and perpetuities of eternity that makes riches permanent and sure but it is the good purpose in the getting and the good use in the having And this good use is not when thou makest good use of thy Money but when the Common-wealth where God hath given thee thy station makes use of it The Common-wealth must suck upon it by trade not it upon the Common-wealth by usury Nurses that give such to children maintaint hemselves by it too but both must be done thou must be enriched so by thy money as that the state be not impoverished This is the good use in having it and the good purpose in getting it is that God may be glorified in it some errours in using of Riches are not so dangerous for some imploying of them in excesses and superfluities this is a rust without it will be fill'd of with good counsel or it will be worn of in time in time we come to see the vanity of it and when we leave looking at other mens cloaths or thinking them the better men for their cloaths why should we think that others like us the better for our cloaths those desires will decay in us But an ill purpose in getting of them that we might stand of our selves and rely upon our Riches this is a rust a cancer at the heart and is incurable And therefore if as the course and progress of money hath been in the world from the beginning The observation is St. Augustins but it is obvious to every man acquainted with history That first the world used Iron money and then Silver money and last of all Gold If thy first purpose in getting have been for Iron that thou have intended thy money to be thy strength and defence in all calamities And then for silver to provide thee abundance and ornaments and excesses And then for gold to hord and treasure up in a little room Rom. 2.5 Thesaurisasti iram Thou hast treasured up the anger of God against the day of anger Go the same way still account Riches Iron naturally apt to receive those rusts which we spoke of in getting and using account them silver naturally intended to provide thee of things necessary but at last come to account them gold naturally disposed to make thee a treasure in heaven in the right use of them This is the true value of them and except thou value them thus Nisi Dominus edificaverit insi Dominius custodierit Psal 127. Except the Lord build except the Lord watch the house and city perish so except the Lord and his glory be in thy travail it is not said thou shalt not get by thy travail Sed pereunt in occupatione Even in the mid'st of thy travail that which thou gettest shall perish And then that which makes this loss the more insupportable is as we noted the words to signifie too pereunt in afflictione they shall perish then when thou art in affliction and shouldst have most use of them most benefit by them most content in them If the disfavour of great persons lye heavy upon me abroad mihi plaudo domi I may have health and wealth and I can enjoy those at home and make my self happy in them if I have not all that but that sickness lye heavy upon me yet gold is cordial that can provide all helps that may be had for my recovery and it gives me that comfort to my mind â—hat I shall lack no attendance no means of reparation But if I suffer under the judgement of the Law under the anger of the Prince under the vehemency of sickness and then hear that I am begged for some offence hear of fines and confiscations and extents hear of tempests and ship-wracks hear of Mens breaking in whose hands my estate was This is the wrath of Gods anger in this signifigation oâ— the word percunt in afflictione Those riches perish then when nothing but they could be of use to thee Mala. And all this hath one step lower yet They perish in evill Travail and in evil affliction Now travail did not begin in that curse In Sudore vultus for Adam was appointed to dress paradise and to keep paradise before and that implied a travail But then became his travail to be evil travail when seeing that he could not get bread without travail still that refreshed to him the guiltiness of that sin which had dejected him to that misery Then doth the rich Man see That his riches perish by evil travail when he calls himselfe to account and findes that he trusted wholly to his own travail and not to the blessings of God So also every affliction is not evil it is rather