those faculties by the help of the Law And he calls it Suam their righteousness because they thought none had it but they And upon this Pelagian righteousness it thought Nature sufficient without Grace or upon this righteousness of the Cathari the Puritans in the Primitive Church that thought the Grace which they had received sufficient and that upon that stock they were safe and become impeccable and therefore left out of the Lords Prayer that Petition Dimitte nobis Forgive us our trespasses upon this Pelagian righteousness and this Puritan righteousness Christ does not work He left out the righteous not that there were any such but such as thought themselves so and he took in sinners not all effectually that were simply so but such as the sense of their sins and the miserable state that that occasioned brought to an acknowledgement that they were so Non Justos sed peccatores Peccatores Here then enters our Affirmative our Inclusive Who are called peccatores for here no man asks the Question of the former Branch there we asked Whether there were any righteous and we found none here we ask not whether there were any sinners for we can finde no others no not one He came to call sinners and only sinners that is only in that capacity in that contemplation as they were sinners for of that vain and frivolous opinion that got in and got hold in the later School That Christ had come in the flesh though Adam had stood in his innocence That though Man had nor needed Christ as a Redeemer yet he would have come to have given to man the greatest Dignity that Nature might possibly receive which was to be united to the Divine Nature of this Opinion one of those Jesuites whom we named before Maldonat who oftentimes making his use of whole sentences of Calvins says in the end This is a good Exposition but that he is an Heretick that makes it He says also of this Opinion That Christ had come though Adam had stood this is an ill Opinion but that they are Catholicks that have said it He came for sinners for sinners onely else he had not come and then he came for all kind of sinners Mat. 21.31 for upon those words of our Saviours to the High Priests and Pharisees Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of Heaven before you good Expositors note that in those two Notations Publicans and Harlots many sorts of sinners are implyed in the name of Publicans all such as by their very profession and calling are led into tentations and occasions of sin to which some Callings are naturally more exposed then other such as can hardly be exercised without sin and then in the Name of Harlots and prostitute Women such as cannot at all be exercised without sin whose very profession is sin and yet for these for the worst of these for all these there is a voice gone out Christ is come to call sinners onely sinners all sinners Comes he then thus for sinners What an advantage had S. Paul then to be of this Quorum and the first of them Quorum Ego Maximus That when Christ came to save sinners he should be the greatest sinner the first in that Election If we should live to see that acted Mat. 24.41 which Christ speaks of at the last day Two in the field the one taken the other left should we not wonder to see him that were left lay hold upon him that were taken and offer to go to Heaven before him therefore because he had killed more men in the field or robbed more men upon the High-way or supplanted more in the Court or oppressed more in the City to make the multiplicity of his sins his title to Heaven Or two women grinding at the Mill one taken the other left to see her that was left offer to precede the other into Heaven therefore because she had prostituted her self to more men then the other had done Is this S. Pauls Quorum his Dignity his Prudency I must be saved because I am the greatest sinner God forbid God forbid we should presume upon salvation because we are sinners or sin therefore that we may be surer of salvation S. Pauls title to Heaven was not that he was primus peccator but primus Confessor that he first accused himself came to a sense of his miserable estate for that implies that which is our last word and the effect of Christs calling That whomsoever he calls or how or whensoever it is ad Resipiscentiam Non ad satisfactionem to repentance It is not ad satisfactionem Christ does not come to call us to make satisfaction to the justice of God he call'd us to a heavy to an impossible account if he call'd us to that If the death of Christ Jesus himself be but a satisfaction for the punishment for my sins for nothing less then that could have made that satisfaction what can a temporary Purgatory of days or hours do towards a satisfaction And if the torments of Purgatory it self sustain'd by my self be nothing towards a satisfaction what can an Evenings fast or an Ave Marie from my Executor or my Assignee after I am dead do towards such a satisfaction Canst thou satisfie the justice of God for all that blood which thou hast drawn from his Son in thy blasphemous Oaths and Execrations or for all that blood of his which thou hast spilt upon the ground upon the Dunghil in thy unworthy receiving the Sacrament Canst thou satisfie his justice for having made his Blessings the occasions and the instruments of thy sins or for the Dilapidations of his Temple in having destroyed thine own body by thine incontinency and making that the same flesh with a Harlot If he will contend with thee Job 9.9 thou canst not answer him one of a thousand Nay a thousand men could not answer one sin of one man It is not then Ad satisfactionem but it is not Ad gloriam neither Non ad Gloriam Christ does not call us to an immediate possession of glory without doing any thing between Our Glorification was in his intention as soon as our Election in God who sees all things at once both entred at once but in the Execution of his Decrees here God carries us by steps he calls us to Repentance The Farmers of this imaginary satisfaction they that fell it at their own price in their Indulgencies have done well to leave out this Repentance both in this text in S. Matthew and where the same is related by S. Mark In both places they tell us that Christ came to call sinners but they do not tell us to what as though it might be enough to call them to their market to buy their Indulgencies The Holy Ghost tells us it is to repentance Are ye to learn now what that is He that cannot define Repentance he that cannot spell it may have it and he that hath
is his giving of glory That prayer which our Saviour Christ makes Glorifie me O Father with thine own self Joh. 17.5 with the Glory which I had before the world was is not a prayer for the Essential Glory of God for Christ in his Divine Nature was never devested never unaccompanied of that glory and for his humane Nature that was never capable of it the attributes and so the Essence of the Glory of the Divinity are not communicable to his Humane Nature neither perpetually as the Ubiquitaries say nor temporarily in the Sacrament as the Papists imply But the glory which Christ asks there is the glory of sitting down at the right hand of his Father in our flesh in his humane Nature which glory he had before the world for he had it in his predestination in the Eternal Decree And that 's the glory of God which we shall know know by having it We shall have a knowledge of the very glory the Essential glory of God because we shall see Sicuti est as God is in himself and Cognoscam at cognitus I shall know as I am known 1 Cor. 13.12 that glory shall dilate us enlarge us give us an inexpressible capacity and then fill it but we shall never comprehend that glory the Essential glory but that glory which Christ hath received in his humane Natute in all other degrees excepting those which flow from his hypostatical union we shall comprehend we shall know by having we shall receive a Crown of glory that sadeth not 1 Pet. 5.4 It is a Crown that compasses round no enterance of danger any way and a crown that fadeth not fears no winter we shall have interest in all we see and we shall see the treasure of all knowledge the face of Christ Jesus Then and there In facio we shall have an abundant satisfaction and accomplishment of all St. Augustines three Wishes He wish'd to have seen Rome in her glory to have heard St. Paul preach and to have seen Christ in the flesh We shall have all we shall see such a Jerusalem as that Rome if that were literally true which is hyperbolically said of Rome In Urbe in Orbe that City is the whole world yet Rome that Rome were but a Village to this Jerusalem We shall hear St. Paul with the whole quire of Heaven pour our himself in that acclamation Saluation to our God that sitteth upon the Throne Apoc. 7.10 and to the Lamb and we shall see and see for ever Christ in that flesh which hath done enough for his Friends and is safe enough from his Enemies We shall see him in a transfiguration all clouds of sadness remov'd and a transubstantiation all his tears changed to Pearls all his Blood-drops into Rubies all the Thorns of his Crown into Diamonds for where we shall see the Walls of his Palace to be Saphyr and Emerald and Amethist Apoc. 21.19 and all Stones that are precious what shall we not see in the face of Christ Jesus and whatsoever we do see by that very sight becomes our Be therefore no strangers to this face see him here that you may know him and he you there see him as St. John did who turned to see a voice see him in the preaching of his Word see him in that seal which is a Copy of him as he is of his Father Apoc. 1. see him in the Sacrament Look him in the face as he lay in the Manger poor and then murmur not at temporal wants suddainly enrich'd by the Tributes of Kings and doubt not but that God hath large and strange ways to supply thee Look him in the face in the Temple disputing there at twelve years and then apply thy self to God to the contemplation of him to the meditation upon him to a conversation with him betimes Look him in the face in his Fathers house a Carpenter and but a Carpenter Take a Calling and contain thy self in that Calling But bring him nearer and look him in the face as he look'd upon Friday last when he whose face the Angels desire to look on he who was fairer then the children of men Psa 45.3 Esai 52.14.53.3 as the Prophet speaks was so marr'd more then any man as another Prophet says That they hid their faces from him despised him when he who bore up the heavens bowed down his head he who gives breath to all gave up the ghost and then look him in the face again as he look'd yesterday not lam'd upon the Cross not putrifi'd in the Grave not singed in Hell rais'd and raised by his own power Victoriously triumphantly to the destruction of the last Enemy death look him in the face in all these respects of Humiliation and of Exaltation too and then as a Picture look upon him that look upon it God upon whom thou keepest thine Eye will keep his Eye upon thee and as in the Creation when he commanded light out of darkness he gave thee a capacity of this light and as in thy Vocation when he shin'd in thy heart he gave thee an inchoation of this light so in associating thee to himself at the last day he will perfect consummate accomplish all and give thee the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus there This is the last word of our Text but we make up our Circle by returning to the first word the first word is For for the Text is reason of that which is in the Verse immediately before the Text that is We preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your servants for Jesus sake We stop not on this side Christ Jesus we dare not say that any man is sav'd without Christ we dare say that none can be saved that hath received that light and hath not beleev'd in him We carry you not beyond Christ neither not beyond that face of his in which he is manifested the Scriptures Till you come to Christ you are without God as the Apostle says to the Ephesians and when you goe beyond Christ to Traditions of men you are without God too There is a fine Deo a left handed Atheism in the meer natural man that will not know Christ and there is a sine Deo a right handed Atheism in the stubborn Papist who is not content with Christ They preach Christ Jesus and themselves and make themselves Lords over you in Jesus place and farther then ever he went We preach not our selves but him and our selves your servants for his sake and this is our service to tell you the whole compass the beginning the way and the end of all that all is done in and by and for Christ Jesus that from thence flow and thither lead and there determine all to bring you from the memory of your Creation by the sense of your Vocation to the assurance of your glorification by the manifestation of God in Christ and Christ in
to be angry for this 4. 3. and after about the Gourd dost thou well to be angry for that he replies I do well to be angry even unto death How much worse a death then death is this life which so good men would so often change for death But if my case be St. Pauls case Quotidie morior 1 Cor. 15.31 that I die dayly that something heavier then death fall upon me every day If my case be Davids case Tota die mortificamur psa 44.22 all the day long we are killed that not only every day but every hour of the day something heavier then death fals upon me though that be true of me conceptus in peccatis I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me 51. 5. There I died one death though that be true of me natus filius irae I was born not only the child of sin but the child of the wrath of God for sin which is a heavier death yet Domini Domini sunt exitus mortis with God the Lord are the issues of death and after a Job and a Joseph and a Jeremy and a Daniel I cannot doubt of a deliverance and if no other deliverance conduce more to his glory and my good yet He hath the keyes of death Apo. 1.18 and he can let me out at that dore that is deliver me from the manifold deaths of this world the omni die and the tota die the every daies death and every hours death by that one death the final disolution of body and soul the end of all But then is that the end of all Exitus a morte Incinerationis is that dissolution of body and soul the last death that the body shall suffer for of spiritual deaths we speak not now it is not Though this be exitus a morte it is introitus in mortem though it be an issue from the manifold deaths of this world yet it is an entrance into the death of corruption and putrifaction and vermiculation and incineration and dispersion in and from the grave in which every dead man dies over again It was a prerogative peculiar to Christ not to die this death not to see corruption What gave him this privilege not Josephs great proportions of gums and spices that might have preserved his body from corruption and incineration longer then he needed it longer then three daies but yet would not have done it for ever What preserv'd him then did his exemption and freedome from original sin preserve him from this corruption and incineration 'T is true that original sin hath induc'd this corruption and incineration upon us 1 Câ—â— 15.33 If we had not sinn'd in Adam mortality had not put on immortality as the Apostle speaks nor corruption had not put on incorruption but we had had our transmigration from this to the other world without any mortality any corruption at all But yet since Christ took sin upon him so far as made him mortal he had it so far too as might have made him see this corruption and incineration though he had no original sin in himself What preserv'd him then did the hypostatical union of both natures God and man preserve his flesh from this corruption this incineration 't is true that this was a most powerful embalming To be embalm'd with the divine nature it self to be embalm'd with eternity was able to preserve him from corruption and incineration for ever And he was embalm'd so embalm'd with the divine nature even in his body as well as in his soul for the Godhead the divine nature did not depart but remain still united to his dead body in the grave But yet for all this powerful imbalming this hypostatical union of both natures we see Christ did die and for all this union which made him God and man he became no man for the union of body and soul makes the man and he whose soul and body are seperated by death as long as that state lasts is properly no man And therefore as in him the dissolution of body and soul was no dissolution of the hypostatical union so is there nothing that constrains us to say that though the flesh of Christ had seen corruption and incineration in the grave this had been any dissolving of the hypostatical union for the divine nature the Godhead might have remain'd with all the elements and principles of Christs body as well as it did with the two constitutive parts of his person his body and soul This incorruption then was not in Josephs gums and spices nor was it in Christs innocency and exemption from original sin nor was it that is it is not necessary to say it was in the Hypostatical union But this incorruptibleness of his flesh Psa 16 10. is most conveniently plac d in that non dabis Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption We look no farther for causes or reasons in the mysteries of our religion but to the will and pleasure of God Mat. 11.26 Christ himself limited his inquisition in that Ita est even so father for so it seemed good in thy sight Christs body did not see corruption therefore because God had decreed that it should not The humble soul and only the humble soul is the religions soul rests himself upon Gods purposes and his decrees but then it is upon those purposes and decrees of God which he hath declared and manifested not such as are conceiv'd and imagin'd in our selves though upon some probability some verisimilitude So in our present case Act. 2.31.13.35 Peter proceeded in his sermon at Jerusalem and so Paul in his at Antioch they preached Christ to be risen without having seen corruption not only because God had decreed it but because he had manifested that decree in his Prophet Therefore does St. Paul cite by special number the second Psalme for that decree and therefore both St. Peter and St. Paul cite for that place in the 16. Psal for v. 10. when God declares his decree and purpose in the express word of his Prophet or when he declares it in the real execution of the decree then he makes it ours then he manifests it to us And therefore as the mysteries of our religion are not the objects of our reason but by faith we rest in Gods decree and purpose it is so O God because it is thy will it should be so so Gods decrees are ever to be considered in the manifestation thereof All manifestation is either in the word of God or in the execution of the decree and when these two concur and meet it is the strongest demonstration that can be when therefore I find those marks of Adoption and spiritual filiation which are delivered in the word of God to be upon me when I find that real execution of his good purpose upon me as that actually I do live under the obedience and under the conditions which are
speaking for him Diis Loquimini Deo speak to God And loquimini Diis speak to them whom God hath call'd Gods As Religious Kings are bound to speak to God by way of prayer so those who have that sacred office and those that have that Honorable office to do so are bound to speak to Kings by way of Counsel God hath made all good men partakers of the Divine Nature They are the sons of God The seed of God But God hath made Kings partakers of his Office and Administration And as between man and himself God hath put a Mediator that consists of God and Man so between Princes and People God hath put Mediators too who consider'd in themselves retain the nature of the people so Christ did of man but consider'd in their places have fair and venerable beams of his power and influences of him upon them And as our Mediator Christ Jesus found always his Fathers ears open to him so do the Church and State enter blessedly and successfully by these Mediators into the ears of the King Of our Mediator Christ himself Heb. 5.7 it is said That he offered up prayers and strong cryes and Tears Even Christ was put to some difficulties in his Mediation for those that were his But he was heard says that text in that he feared Even in those things wherein in some emergent difficulties they may be afraid they shall not these Mediators are graciously and opportunely heard too in the due discharge of their offices That which was Davids prayer is our possession Psal 36.11 our happiness Let not the foot of Pride come against us we know there is no Pride in the Head and because there is no fault in the Hands neither that is in them into whose hands this blessed Mediatorship is committed by the great places of power and Councel which they worthily hold the foot of pride forraign or home-oppression does not shall not tread us down And for the continuation of this happiness let me have leave to say with Mordicai's humility and earnestness too to all such Mediators 4.14 that which he said to Esther Who knows whether thou beest not brought to this place for this purpose To speak that which his sacred and gracious ears to whom thou speakest will always be well pleased to hear when it is delivered by them to whom it belongs to speak it and in such humble and reserved manner as such soveraign persons as owe an account but to God should be spoke too Sic loquimini Deo So let Kings speak to God that was our first Sic loquimini Diis So let them whom Kings trust speak to Kings whom God hath called Gods that was our second And then a third branch in this rule of our first duty is Sic loquimini imaginibus Dei So speak you to Gods Images to Men of condition inferior to your selves for they also are Images of God as you are And this is truely Imaginibus Dei most literally the purpose of the Apostle here That you under-value no Man for his outward appearance Vers 2. That your over-value no man for his goodly apparel or Gold Rings That you say not to a poor man Stand thou there Vers 3. or if you admit him to sit Sit here under my footstool But it is a precept of Accessibleness and of Affability Affability that is A civility of the City of God and a Courtship of the Court of heaven to receive other Men the Images of God Apoc. 3.20 with the same easiness that God receives you God stands at the Door and knocks and stays our leisure to see if we will open and let him in Even at the door of his Beloved he stood and knocked till his head was filled with dew and his locks with the drops of the night Cant. 5.2 But God puts none of us to that to which he puts himself and his Christ But Knock says he and it shall be opened unto you Mat. 7.7 No staying at the door opened as soon as you knock The nearest that our Expositors can come to finde what it was that offended God in Moses striking of the Rock for water is that he strook it twice Num. 20.10 that he did not believe that God would answer his expectation at one striking God is no in-accessible God that he may not be come to nor inexorable that he will not be moved if he be spoken to nor dilatory that he does not that he does seasonably Daniel presents God Antiquum Dierum as an Old Man Ambro. but that is as a Reverend not as a froward person Mens in sermonibus nostris habitat gubernat verba The soul of man is incorporate in his word As he speaks we think he thinks Et bonus paterfamilias in illo primo vestibulo aestimatur says the same Father As we believe that to be a free house where there is an easie entrance so we doubt the less of a good heart if we finde charitable and courteous language But yet there is an excess in this too in this self-effusion this pouring of a mans self out in fair and promising language Inaccessibleness is the fault which the Apostle aims at here and truly the most inaccessible Man that is is the over-liberal and profuse promiser He is therefore the most inaccessible because he is absent when I am come to him and when I do speak with him To a retir'd to a reserv'd man we do not easily get but when we are there he is there too To an open and liberal promiser we get easily but when we are with him he is away because his heart his purpose is not there But sic loquimini Deo so speak ye to God that 's a remembrance to Kings Sic loquimini Diis so speak ye to them whom God hath call'd Gods that 's a remembrance to Mediators between Kings and Subjects Sic loquimini Imaginibus Dei so speak ye to Gods Image to all men that 's a remembrance to all that possess any superiority over others as that your loquimini may be accompanied with a facite your saying with Doing your good words with good actions for so our Apostle joyns them here So speak ye and so Do and so we are come to our second rule from the rule of our Words to the Rule of our Actions Facite John Baptist was all voice yet John Baptist was a fore-runner of Christ The best words are but words but they are the fore-runners of Deeds but Christ himself as he was God himself is Purus Actus all Action all Doing Comfortable words are good cordials They revive the spirits they have the nature of such occasional physick but Deeds are our food our dyet that that constantly nourishes us 1 John 3.18 Non verbo says the Apostle Let us not love in word nor in tongue but in Deed and in Truth Not that we may not love in words but
changes and hath already plac'd us in such a Government as being to us a Type and Representation of the Kingdom of heaven we humbly beg may evermore continue with us without changes in Government or in Religion AMEN A SERMON Preached to the Houshold at WHITE-HALL Serm. 8. April 30. 1626. SERMON VIII MATTH 9.13 I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance SOme things the several Evangelists record severally one and no more S. Matthew and none but S. Matthew 1.14 records Josephs jealousie and suspicion that his wife Mary had been in a fault before her marriage And then his temper withall not frequent in that distemper of jealousie not to exhibit her to open infamy for that fault And yet his holy discretion too Not to live with a woman faulty that way but to take some other occasion and to put her away privily In which we have three elements of a wise husband first not to be utterly without all jealousie and providence and so expose his wife to all tryals and tentations And yet not to be too apprehensive and credulous and so expose her to dishonour and infamy but yet not to be so indulgent to her faults when they were true faults as by his connivence and living with her to make her faults his And all this we have out of that which S. Matthew records and none but he S. Mark and none but S. Mark records that story 7.31 of Christs recovering a dumb man and almost deaf of both infirmities In which when we see that our Saviour Christ though he could have recover'd that man with a word with a touch with a thought yet was pleas'd to enlarge himself in all those ceremonial circumstances of imposition of hands of piercing his ears with his fingers of wetting his tongue with spittle and some others we might thereby be instructed not to under-value such ceremonies as have been instituted in the Church for the awakening of mens consideration and the exalting of their devotion though those ceremonies primarily naturally originally fundamentally and meerly in themselves be not absolutely and essentially necessary And this we have from that which is recorded by S. Mark 2.42 and none but him S. Luke and none but S. Luke records the history of Mary and Joseph's losing of Christ in which we see how good and holy persons may lose Christ and how long They had lost him and were a whole day without missing him A man may be without Christ and his Spirit and lie long in an ignorance and senslesness of that loss And then where did they lose him Even in Jerusalem in the holy City even in this holy place and now in this holy exercise you lose Christ if either any other respect then his glory brought you hither or your mindes stray out of these walls now you are here But when they sought him and sought him sorrowing and sought him in the Temple then they found him If in a holy sadness and penitence you seek him here in his House in his Ordinance here he is always at home here you may always finde him And this we have out of that which S. Luke reports and none but he S. John 2.11 and none but S. John records the story of Christs miraculous changing of water into wine at the marriage in Cana In which we see both that Christ honour'd the state of Marriage with his personal presence and also that he afforded his servants so plentiful a use of his creatures as that he was pleased to come to a miraculous supply of wine rather then they should want it Some things are severally recorded by the several Evangelists as all these and then some things are recorded by all four as John Baptist's humility and lowe valuation of himself in respect of Christ which he expresses in that phrase That he was not worthy to carry his shooes The Holy Ghost had a care that this should be repeated to us by all four That the best endeavours of Gods best servants are unprofitable unavailable in themselves otherwise then as Gods gracious acceptation inanimates them and as he puts his hand to that plough which they drive or draw Now our Text hath neither this singularity nor this universality it is neither in one onely nor in all the Evangelists but it hath as they speak in the Law an interpretative universality a presumptive universality for that which hath a plurality of voices is said to have all and this Text hath so for three of the four Evangelists have recorded this Text onely S. John who doth especially extend himself about the divine nature of Christ pretermits it but all the rest who insist more upon his assuming our nature and working our salvation in that the Holy Ghost hath recorded and repeated this protestation of our Saviour's I came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance Which words being spoken by Christ Divisio upon occasion of the Pharisees murmuring at his admitting of Publicans and sinners to the Table with him at that feast which S. Matthew made him at his house soon after his calling to the Apostleship direct our consideration upon the whole story and do not afford but require not admit but invite this Distribution That first we consider the occasion of the words and then the words themselves for of these twins is this Text pregnant and quick and easily deliver'd In the first we shall see the pertinencie of Christs answer and in the second the doctrine thereof In the first how fit it was for them in the other how necessary for us First the Historical part which was occasional and then the Catechistical part which is doctrinal And in the first of these the Historical and Occasional part we shall see first That Christ by his personal presence justified Feasting somewhat more then was meerly necessary for society and chearful conversation He justified feasting and feasting in an Apostles house though a Church-man and an Exemplar-man he was not depriv'd of a plentiful use of Gods creatures nor of the chearfulness of conversation And then he justified feasting in the company of Publicans and sinners intimating therein that we must not be in things of ordinary conversation over-curious over-inquisitive of other mens manners for whatsoever their manners be a good man need not take harm by them and he may do good amongst them And then lastly we shall see the calumny that the Pharisees cast upon Christ for this and the iniquity of that calumny both in the manner and in the matter thereof And in these Branches we shall determine that first The Historical the Occasional part And in the second The Catechistical and Doctrinal I came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance we shall pass by these steps first we shall see the Actions venit he came that is first venit actu whereas he came by promise even in Paradise and by frequent ratification in all the
is without money that we are Redeemed for for that there is reason in Equity but for the Redemption itself there is no therfore no reason at all to be assigned but onley the Eternall goodness of God himself and the Eternall purpose of his will Of which will of God whosoever seeks a reason Aliquid majus Deo quaerit says S. Augustin he that seeks what perswaded or inclind the will of God seeks for somthing wiser and greater than God himself In this redemption then God pursues the devil in all those steps by which he had made his profit of a prodigality for first as we gave away our selves so he restores us to our selves again It is well expresed in the parable of the prodigall Luc. 15. and his case is ours The portion which he asked of his father was the use of his free-will God gave it him Adams first Immortality was posse non mori he needed not to have died It was in his own power whether he would keep a free-will or no and he spent that stock he lost that free-will He spent not his free-will so as Bellarmin understands this spending that that man may be sayd to spend his life ill that misimployes it but yet he hath this life in him still But the prodigall Adam spent is utterly he spent it so that he and we have no freewill at all left But yet even the prodigall sayd that he would return to his father and he came He had not only some sudden thoughts of Repentance but he put himself actually in the way cum longe abesset says that parable when he was a great way off yet because he was in the way his father met him and kissed him and put that Robe upon him which was not onely Dignitas quam perdidit Adam as S. Austin qualifies it a restitution to the same integrity which Adam had and had lost but that was Amictus sapientiae so S. Ambrose calls it it was an ability to preserve himself in that integrity to which he was restored It was a Robe that was put upon him it vvas none of his ovvn but vvhen it vvas put upon him it rectified and restored those faculties which were his own as the eye sees in a man restored to life though the soul enable the eye and not the eye it self so the faculty of free-will works in us as well as it did in Adam though onely the grace of God enable that faculty When God hath wrought that first cure which he does by incorporating us in the Church by baptisme that we are our selves again then as in the case of prodigals in the law as they had Tutors and Curators appointed them so he sends the Holy Ghost to be our Guardian our Curator and as the office of that person in that law was double first to reverse all contracts and bargains which that prodigal person in that state had made and secondly to inhibit and hinder him from making new contracts so this blessed Spirit of consolation by his sanctification seals to our consciences a Quietus est a discharge of all former spiritual debts he cancells all them he nails them to the cross of Christ and then he strengthens us against relapses into the same sins again He proceds farther than this beyond restering us beyond preserving us for he betters us he improves us to a better condition than we were in at first And this he does first by purging and purifying us and then by changing and transmuting us He purges us by his sun-shine by his temporal blessings for as the greatest globes of gold lye nearest the face and top of the earth where they have received the best concoction from the heat of the sun so certainly in reason they who have had Gods continual sun-shine upon them in a prosperous fortune should have received the best concoction the best digestion of the testimonies of his love and consequently be the purer and the more refined mettall If this purging prevail not then he comes to purge those whom he means to lay up in his treasure with tribulation he carries them from the sun-shine into the fire and therefore if those tribulations fall upon thee in a great and heavy measure think thy dross needed this vehemence and do not make afflictions Arguments of God neglecting thee for he that is presented to have suffered very much is also presented to have been very righteous that is Iob And he that was the most innocent of all suffered most of all Christ Iesus thy Saviour From this purifying comes our transmutation that we are changed in semen Dei made the seed of God for so God calls children that are derived from honest and godly parents Mal. 2. The seed of God in the Prophet but more fully in the Apostle whosoever is born of God sinneth not for his seed remaineth in him 1 Ioh. 3. for this generation is our regeneration Iacob 1. of his own will begat he us with the word of truth this grace makes us as properly the seed of God as sin makes us the seed of the Devill of the Serpent 3. and so we are expresly called in Gen. and so also in the Apostles you are of your father the devil Io. 8. and the lusts of your father you will do So we are changed in naturam Dei as S. Peter expresses 2.1 it By his precious promises we are made partakers of the divine nature not Ab anteriori nor a posteriori not that we are so derived from the nature and essence of God as that our souls should be of his very substance as the Manichees imagined nor as Origen mistook upon misinterpreting these words to the Corinthians ut Deus sit omnia in omnibus 1.15 That God should be all in all so as that at last the whole nature of mankind and indeed all other natures and substances if Origen have been rightly understood by some men near his own times should be swallowed up and drowned in the very substance of God himself But this transmutation is a glorious restoring of Gods image in us and it is our conformity to him and when either his temporal blessings or his afflictions his sun or his fire hath tried us up to that height to a conformity to him then come we to that transmutation which admits no re-transmutation which is a modest but infalible assurance of a final perseverance so to be joyned to the Lord as to be one spirit with him for as a spirit cannot be divided so they who are thus changed into him are so much His so much He as that nothing can separate them from him and this is the ladder by which we may try how far we are in the way to heaven And when we are come to this then we are able to see and to consider the poverty and the value of him who had before bought us for nothing and enthraled us 2 Cor. 4. The Devil is called the
sayes he more than once or twice O that men would praise the Lord and tell the wondrous works that he hath done for the sons of men for David determines not his precept in that Ps 100 4. Be thankfull unto him for a thankfulness may passe in private but Be thankful unto him and speak good of his name Glorifie him in speaking to him in speaking of him in speaking for him Diis Loquimini Deo speak to God and loquimini Diis speak to them whom God hath called Gods As religious Kings are bound to speak to God by way of prayer so those who have that sacred office and those that have that honourable office to do so are bound to speak to Kings by way of Counsil God hath made all good men partakers of the divine nature they are the sons of God the seed of God but God hath made kings partakers of his office and administration And as between man and himself God hath put a Mediator that consists of God and Man so between Princes and People God hath put Mediators too who considered in themselves retain the nature of the people so Christ did of man but considered in their places have fair and venerable beames of his power and influences of him upon them And as our Mediator Christ Jesus found alwaies his Fathers ears open to him so do the Church and State enter blessedly and succesfully by these Mediators into the ears of the King Of our Mediator Christ himself it is said that he offered up prayers Heb. 5.7 and strong cryes and tears even Christ was put to some difficulties in his mediation for those that were his but he was heard sayes that Text in that he feared Even in those things wherein in some emergent difficulties they may be afraid they shall not these mediators are graciously and opportunely heard too in their due discharge of their offices That which was Davids prayer is our possession our happiness Let not the foot of pride come against us Ps 36.11 we know there is no pride in the head and because there is no fault in the hands neither that is in them into whose hands this blessed Mediatorship is committed by the great places of power and counsail which they worthilie hold the foot of pride forein or home oppression does not shall not tread us down And for the continuation of this happiness let me have leave to say with Mordechais humilitie and earnestness too to all such mediators that which he said to Esther 4.14 Who knows whether thou beest not brought to this place for this purpose to speak that which his sacred and gratious ears to whom thou speakest will alwayes be well pleased to hear when it is delivered by them to whom it belongs to speak it and in such humble and reserved manner as such soveraign persons as owe no account but to God should be spoke too Sic loquimini Deo so let Kings speak to God that was our first Sic loquimini Diis so let them whom Kings trust speak to Kings whom God hath called Gods that was our second and then a third branch in this rule of our first duty is Sic loquimini imaginibus Dei so speak you to Gods Images to men of condition inferior to your selves for they also are Images of God as you are And this is truly most literally the purpose of the Apostle here Imaginibus Dei that you undervalue no man for his outward appearance v. 2. that you over-value no man for his goodly apparrell or gold rings that you say not to a poor man stand thou here or if you admit him to sit sit here under my footstool v. 3. but it is a precept of accessibleness and of affability affability that is a civility of the City of God and a courtship of the Court of Heaven to receive other men the images of God with the same easiness that God received you God stands at the dore and knocks and staies our leisure to see if we will open and let him in even at the dore of his beloved he stood and knock'd till his head was fil'd mith dew and his locks with the drops of the night Apoc. 3.20 Cant. 5.2 But God puts none of us to that which he puts himself and his Christ but knock sayes he and it shall be opened unto you Mat. 7.7 no staying at the dore opened as soon as you knock The neerest that our Expositors can come to find what it was that offended God Num. 20.10 in Moses striking of the Rock for water is that he strook it twice that he did not believe that God would answer his expectation at one striking God is no inaccessible God that he may not be come to nor inexorable that he will not be mov'd if he be spoken to nor dilatory that he does not that he does seasonably Daniel presents God Antiquum Dierum as an old man but that is as a reverend not as a froward person Ambro. Mens in Sermonibus nostris habitat et gubernat verba The soul of a man is incorporate in his words as he speaks we think he thinks Et bonus pater familias in illo primo vestibulo aestimatur sayes the same Father as we believe that to be a free house where there is an easie entrance so we doubt the lesse of a good heart if we find charitable and curteous language But yet there is an excesse in this too in this self-effusion this pouring of a mans self out in fair and promising language In accessibleness is the fault which the Apostle aims at here and truly the most inaccessible man that is is the over-liberal and profuse promiser he is therefore the most inaccessible because he is absent when I am come to him and when I do speak with him to a retired to a reserved man we do not easily get but when we are there he is there too to an open and liberal promiser we get easily but when we are with him he is away because his heart his purpose is not there but Sic loquimini Deo so speak ye to God that 's a remembrance to Kings Sic loquimini Diis so speak ye to them whom God hath called Gods that 's a remembrance to Mediators between Kings and Subjects Sic loquimini imaginibus Dei so speak ye to Gods images to all men that 's a remembrance to all that possesse any superiority over others as that your loquimini may be accompanied with a facite your saying with doing your good words with good actions for so our Apostle joyns them here so speak ye and so do ye and so we are come to our second rule from the rule of our words to the rule of our actions Facite John Baptist was all voice yet John Baptist was a fore-runner of Christ the best words are but words but they are the fore-runners of deeds But Christ himself as he was God
only in the earth nature and naturall reason do not produce grace but yet grace can take root in no other thing but in the nature and reason of man whether we consider Gods subsequent graces which grow out of his first grace formerly given to us and well employed by us or his first grace which works upon our natural faculties and grows there still this salvation that is this grace is near us for it is within us then the third term believing is either quando credidistis primum when you began to believe either in an imputative belief of others in your baptism or a faint belief upon your first Catechisings and Instrustions or quando credidistis tantum when you only professed a belief or faith and did nothing in declaration of that faith to the edification of others Salus First then salvation in this second sense is the internal operation of the holy Ghost in infusing grace for therefore doth St. Basil call the holy Ghost verbum Dei the word of God which is the name properly peculiar to the Son quia interpres filii sicut filius patris that as the Father had revealed his will in the Prophets and then the Son comes and interprets all that actually this prophecy is meant of my coming this of my dying and so makes a real comment and an actual interpretation of all the prophecies for he does come and he does die accordingly so the holy Ghost comes and comments upon this comment interprets this interpretation and tels thy soul that all this that the Father had promised and the Son had performed was intended by them and by the working of their spirit is now appropriated to thy particular soul In the constitution and making of a natural man the body is not the man nor the soul is not the man but the union of these two makes up the man the spirits in a man which are the thin and active part of the blood and so are of a kind of middle nature between soul and body those spirits are able to doe and they doe the office to unite and apply the faculties of the soul to the organs of the body and so there is a man so in a regenerate man a Christian man his being born of Christian Parents that gives him a body that makes him of the body of the Covenant it gives him a title an interest in the Covenant which is jus ad rem thereby he may make his claim to the seal of the Covenant to baptism and it cannot be denied him and then in his baptism that Sacrament gives him a soul a spiritual seal jus in re an actual possession of Grace but yet as there are spirits in us which unite body and soul so there must be subsequent acts and works of the blessed spirit that must unite and confirm all and make up this spiritual man in the wayes of sanctification for without that his body that is his being born within the Covenant and his soul that is his having received Grace in baptism do not make him up This Grace is this Salvation and when this Grace works powerfully in thee in the wayes of sanctification then is this Salvation neer thee which is our second term in this second acceptation propè neer This neerness which is the effectuall working of Grace Prope Heb. 4.12 the Apostle expresses fully That it pierceth to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit for though properly the soul and spirit of a man be all one yet divers faculties and operations give them somtimes divers names in the Scriptures Anima quia animat sayes St. Ambrose and spiritus quia spirat The quickning of the body is the soul but the quickning of the soul is the spirit If this Salvation be brought to this neerness that is this grace to this powerfulness thou shalt find it in anima in thy soul in those organs wherein thy soul uses thy body in thy senses and in the sensible things ordain'd by God in his Church Sacraments and Ceremonies and thou shalt find it neerer in spiritu as the spirit of God hath seal'd it to thy spirit invisibly inexpressibly It shall be neer to thee so as that thy reason shall apprehend it and neerer then that thy faith shall establish it and neerer then all this it shall create in thee a modest and sober but yet an infallible assurance that thy salvation shall never depart from thee Magnificabit anima tua Dominum as the B. Virgin speaks Thy soul shall magnifie the Lord all thy natural faculties shall be employed upon an assent to the Gospel thou shalt be able to prove it to thy self and to prove it to others to be the Gospel of Salvation And then Exultabit spiritus Thy spirit shall rejoyce in God thy Saviour because by the farther seal of sanctification thy spirit shall receive testimony from the spirit that as Christ is Idem homo cum te the same man that thou art so thou art Idem spiritus cum Domino the same spirit that he is so far as that as a spirit cannot be separated in it self so neither canst thou be separated from God in Christ And this this exaltation of Grace when it thus growes up to this height of sanctification is that neerness which brings Salvation farther than our believing does and that 's the last term in this part Believing Credidistis Now neerer then Believing neerer than Faith a man might well think nothing can bring Salvation for Faith is the hand that reaches it and takes hold of it But yet as though our bodily hand reach to our temporal food yet the mouth and the stomach must do their office too and so that meat must be distributed into all parts of the body and assimilated to them so though our faith draw this salvation neer us yet when our mouth is imployed that we have a delight to glorifie God in our discourses and to declare his wonderfull works to the sons of men in our thankfulness And when this faith of ours is distributed over all the body that the body of Christs Church is edified and alienated by our good life and sanctification then is this Salvation neerer us that is safelier seal'd to us then when we believed only Either then this quando credidistis when you believed may be refer'd to Infants or to the first faith and the first degrees thereof in men In Infants when that seminall faith or potentiall faith which is by some conceived to be in the Infants of Christian parents at their baptism or that actuall faith which from their parents or from the Church is thought to be applyed to them accepted in their behalf in that Sacrament when this faith growes up after by this new comming of Christ in the power of his Grace and his Spirit to be a lively faith expressed in charity then Salus proprior then is Salvation neerer than when they believed whether this belief were their
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