but took a form a pattern a modell for that work This is the North-winde that is called upon to carrie out the perfumes of the garden Cant. 4.16 to spread the goodnesse of God abroad this is that which is intended in Job Job 37.22 Fair weather cometh out of the North. Our West our declination is in this that we are but earth our North our dissipation of that darknesse is in this that we are not all earth though we be of that matter we have on another form another image another likenesse And then whose image and likenesse it is is our Meridionall height our Noon our South-point our highest elevation In imagine nostra Let us make man in our image Though our sunne set at noon Amos 8.9 as the prophet Amos speaks though we die in our youth or fall in our height yet even in that sunne-set we shall have a noon for this image of God shall never depart from our soul no not when that soul departs from our bodie And that is our South our Meridionall height and glory And when we have thus seen this East in the Faciamus that I am the workmanship and care of the whole Trinitie and this West in the Hominem that for all this my matter my substance is but earth But then a North a power of overcoming that law and miserable state In imagine that though in my matter the earth I must die yet in my form in that image which I am made by I cannot die And after all a South a knowledge that this image is not the image of angels themselves to whom we shall be like but it is by the same life by which those angels themselves were made the image of God himself when I have gone over this East and West and North South here in this world I should be sorie as Alexander was if there were no more worlds But there is another world which these considerations will discover and leade us to in which our joy and our glorie shall be to see that God essentially and face to face after whose image and likenesse we were made before But as that Pilot which hath harboured his ship so farre within land as that he must have change of windes in all the points of the compasse to bring her out cannot hope to bring her out in one day so being to transport you by occasion of these words from this world to the next and in this world through all the compasse all the foure quarters thereof I cannot hope to make all this voyage to day To day we shall consider our longitude our East and West and our North and South at another tide and another gale First then we look towards our East I. Part. Oriens the fountain of light and life There this world began The creation was in the East and there our next world began too there the gates of heaven opened to us and opened to us in the gates of death for our heaven is the death of our Saviour and there he lived and died there and there he looked into our West from the East from his terrasse from his pinacle from his exaltation as himself calls it the Crosse The light which arises to us in this East the knowledge which we receive in this first word of our text Faciamus Let us where God speaking of himself speaks in the plurall is the manifestation of the Trinitie The Trinitie which is the first letter in his Alphabet that ever thinks to reade his name in the Book of life the first note in his Gammut that ever thinks to sing his part in the Triumphant Church Let him have done as much as all the worthies and suffer as much as all natures martyrs the penurious Philosophers let him have known as much as they pretend to know Omne scibile all that can be known nay and In-intelligibilia In-investigabilia as Tertullian speaks un-understandable things unrevealed decrees of God let him have writ as much as Aristotle writ or as is written upon Aristotle which is multiplication enough yet he hath not learned to spell that hath not learned the Trinitie he hath not learned to pronounce the first word that cannot bring three persons into one God The subject of naturall Philosophers are the foure elements which God made the subject of supernaturall Philosophie Divinitie are the three elements which God is and if we may so speak which make God that is constitute God notifie God to us Father Sonne and holy Ghost The naturall man that hearkens to his own heart and the law written there may produce actions that are good good in the nature and matter and substance of the work he may relieve the poore he may defend the oppressed but yet he is but as an open field and though he be not absolutely barren he bears but grasse The godly man he that hath taken in the knowledge of a great and powerfull God and inclosed and hedged in himself with the fear of God may produce actions better then the meer nature of man because he referres his actions to the glorie of an imagined God but yet this man though he be more fruitfull then the former more then a grassie field is but a ploughed field and bears but corn and corn God knows choked with weeds But the man that hath taken hold of God by those handles by which God hath delivered and manifested himself in the notions of Father Sonne and holy Ghost he is no field but a garden a garden of Gods planting paradise in which grow all things good to eat and good to see spirituall refection and spirituall recreation too and all things good to cure he hath his being and his diet and his physick there in the knowledge of the Trinitie his being in the mercie of the Father his physick in the merits of his Sonne his dier his daily bread in the daily visitations of the holy Ghost God is not pleased not satisfied with our bare knowledge that there is a God for it is impossible to please God without faith Hebr. 11.6 and there is no such exercise of faith in the knowledge of a God but that reason and nature will bring a man to it When we professe God in the Creed by way of belief Credo in Deum I beleeve in God in the same article we professe him to be a Father too I beleeve in God the Father Almightie and that notion the Father necessarily implies a second person a Sonne And then we professe him to be maker of heaven and earth and in the creation the holy Ghost the Spirit of God is expressely named so that we do but exercise reason and nature in directing our selves upon God we exercise not Faith and without faith it is impossible to please God till we come to that which is above nature till we apprehend a Trinitie we know God we beleeve in the Trinitie The Gentiles multiplied gods there were almost as
that which printed the wax at first can fit that wax and fill that impression after no image but the image of God can fit our soul every other seal is too narrow too shallow for it The magistrate is sealed with the Lion the Wolf will not fit that seal the magistrate hath a power in his hand but not oppression Princes are sealed with the Crown the Mitre will not fit that seal Powerfully and graciously they protect the Church and are supream heads of the Church but they minister not the Sacraments of the Church they give preferments but they give not the capacitie of preferments they give order who shall have but they have not Orders by which they are enabled to have that they have Men of inferiour and laborious callings in the world are sealed with the Crosse a Rose or a bunch of Grapes will not answer that seal ease and plentie in age must not be looked for without crosses and labour and industrie in youth All men Prince and people Clergie and Magistrate are sealed with the image of God with a conformitie to him and worldly seals will not answer that nor fill up that seal We should wonder to see a mother in the midst of many sweet children passing her time in making babies and puppets for her own delight We should wonder to see a man whose chambers and galleries were full of curious master-pieces thrust in a village-fayre to look upon sixpenie pictures three-farthing prints We have all the image of God at home and we all make babies fancies of honour in our ambitions The master-piece is our own in our own bosome and we thrust in countrey-fayres that is we endure the distempers of any unseasonable weather in night-journeys and watchings we endure the oppositions and scorns and triumphs of a rivall and competitour that seeks with us and shares with us We endure the guiltinesse and reproach of having deceived the trust which a confident friend reposes in us and solicite his wife or daughter We endure the decay of fortune of bodie of soul of honour to possesse lovers pictures pictures that are not originals not made by that hand of God Nature but artificiall beauties and for that bodie we give a soul and for that drug which might have been bought where they bought it for a shilling we give an estate The image of God is more worth then all substances and we give it for colours for dreams for shadows But the better to prevent the losse let us consider the having of this image in what respect in what operation this image is in our soul for whether this image be in those faculties which we have in Nature or in those qualifications which we have in Grace or in those super-illustrations which the blessed shall have in Glorie hath exercised the contemplation of many Properly this image is in nature in the naturall reason and other faculties of the immortall soul of man for thereupon doth S. Bernard say Imago Dei uri potest in gehenna non exuri till the soul be burnt to ashes to nothing which cannot be done no not in hell the image of God cannot be burnt out of the soul for it is radically primarily in the very soul it self and whether that soul be infused into the elect or reprobate that image is in that soul as farre as he hath a soul by nature he hath the image of God by nature in it But then the seal is deeper cut or harder pressed or better preserved in some then in others and in some other considerations then meerly naturall therefore we may consider man who was made here to the image of God and of God in three persons to have been made so in Gods intendment three wayes Man had this image in Nature and doth deface it he hath it also in Grace here and so doth refresh it and he shall have it in Glorie hereafter and that shall fix it establish it And in every of these three in this Trinitie in man Nature Grace and Glorie man hath not onely the image of God but the image of all the persons of the Trinitie in every of his three capacities He hath the image of the Father the image of the Sonne the image of the holy Ghost in nature and all these also in grace and all these in glorie too How all these are in all I cannot hope to handle particularly not though I were upon the first grain of our sand upon the first dram of your patience upon the first flash of my strength But a cleare repeating of these many branches that these things are thus that all the persons of the heavenly Trinitie are in their image in every branch of this humane Trinitie in man may at least must suffice In nature then man that is the soul of man hath this image of God of God considered in his unitie entirely altogether in this that this soul is made of nothing proceeds of nothing All other creatures are made of that preexistent matter which God had made before so were our bodies too but our souls of nothing now not to be made at all is to be God himself onely God himself was never made But to be made of nothing to have no other parent but God no other element but the breath of God no other instrument but the purpose of God this is to be the image of God for this is nearest to God himself who was never made at all to be made of nothing And then man considered in nature is otherwise the nearest representation of God too for the steps which we consider are foure First Esse Being for some things have onely a being and no life as stones Secondly Vivere Living for some things have life and no sense as plants and then thirdly Sentire Sense for some things have sense and no understanding which understanding and reason man hath with his being and life and sense and so is in a nearer station to God then any creature and a livelier image of him who is the root of being then all they because man onely hath all the declarations of beings Nay if we consider Gods eternitie the soul of man hath such an image of that as that though man had a beginning which the originall the eternall God himself had not yet man shall no more have an end then the originall the eternall God himself shall have And this image of eternitie this post-meridian this after-noon eternitie that is this perpetuitie and after-everlastingnesse is in man meerly as a naturall man without any consideration of grace for the reprobate can no more die that is come to nothing then the elect It is but of the naturall man that Theodoret sayes A King built a citie and erected his statue in the middest of that citie that is God made man and imprinted his image in his soul How will this King take it sayes that Father to have this statue thrown down Every man doth so if
he do not exalt his naturall faculties if he do not hearken to the law written in his heart if he do not run as Plato or as Socrates in the wayes of vertuous actions he throws down the statue of this King he defaces the image of God How would this King take it sayes he if any other statue especially the statue of his enemie should be set up in his place Every man doth so too that embraces false opinions in matter of doctrine or false appearances of happinesse in matter of conversation for these a naturall man may avoid in many cases without that addition of Grace which is offered to us as Christians That comparison of other creatures to man which is intimated in Job is intended but of the naturall man There speaking of Behemoth that is of the greatest of creatures he sayes in our Translation that He is the chief of the wayes of God S. Hierom hath it Principium Job 40.19 and others before him Initium viarum Dei that when God went the progresse over the world in the creation thereof he did but begin he did but set out at Behemoth at the best of all such creatures He. All they were but Initium viarum The beginning of the wayes of God but Finis viarum the end of his journey and the eve the vespers of his Sabbath was the making of man even of the naturall man Behemoth and the other creatures were vestigia sayes the School In them we may see where God hath gone for all being is from God and so every thing that hath a being hath filiationem vestigii a testimonie of Gods having passed that way and called in there but man hath filiationem imaginis an expression of his image and doth the office of an image or picture to bring him whom it represents the more lively to our memories Gods abridgement of the whole world was man reabridge man into his least volume in pura naturalia as he is but meer man and so he hath the image of God in his soul He hath it as God is considered in his unitie for as God is the soul of man is indivisibly impartibly one entire And he hath it also as God is notified to us in a Trinitie for as there are three persons in the essence of God so are there three faculties in the soul of man The attributes and some kinde of speculation of the persons in the Trinitie are power to the Father wisdome to the Sonne and goodnesse to the holy Ghost And the three faculties of the soul have the images of these three the Vnderstanding is the image of the Father that is Power for no man exercises power no man can govern well without understanding the natures dispositions of them whom he governs and therefore in this consists the power which man hath over the creature that man understands the nature of every creature for so Adam did when he named every creature according to the nature thereof and by this advantage of our understanding them and comprehending them we master them and so Obliviscuntur quod natae sunt sayes S. Ambrose the lion the bear the elephant have forgot what they were born to Induuntur quod jubentur they invest and put on such a disposition and such a nature as we enjoyn them appoint them Serviunt ut famuli as that Father pursues it elegantly and Verberantur ut timidi they wait upon us as servants who if they understood us as well as we understand them might be our masters and they receive correction from us as though they were afraid of us when if they understood us they would know that we were not able to stand in the teeth of the lion the horn of the bull in the heels of the horse and Adjuvantur ut infirmi they counterfeit a weaknesse that they might be beholding to us for help and they are content to thank us if we afford them rest or any food who if they understood us as well as we do them might tear our meat out of our throats nay tear out our throats for their meat So then in this first naturall facultie of the soul the Vnderstanding stands the image of the first person the Father Power And in the second facultie which is the Will is the image the attribute of the second person the Sonne which is Wisdome for wisdome is not so much in knowing in understanding as in electing in choosing in assenting No man needs go out of himself nor beyond his own legend and the historie of his own actions for examples of that That many times we know better and choose ill wayes Wisdome is in choosing or assenting And then in the third facultie of the soul the Memorie is the image of the third person the holy Ghost that is Goodnesse For to remember to recollect our former understanding and our former assenting so farre as to do them to crown them with action that is true goodnesse The office that Christ assignes to the holy Ghost and the goodnesse which he promiseth in his behalf is this that he shall bring former things to our remembrance John 14.26 The wise man places all goodnesse in this facultie the Memorie properly nothing can fall into the Memorie but that which is past and yet he sayes Whatsoever thou takest in hand Ecclus 7.36 remember the end and thou shalt never do amisse The end cannot be yet come and yet we are bid to remember that Visus per omnes sensus recurrit sayes S. Augustine as all senses are called sight in the Scriptures for there is Gustate Dominum and Audite and Palpate Taste the Lord and Heare the Lord and Feel the Lord and still the Videte is added Taste and see the Lord so all goodnesse is in remembring all goodnesse which is the image of the holy Ghost is in bringing our understanding and our assenting into action Certainly beloved if a man were like the King but in countenance and in proportion he himself would think somewhat better of himself and others would be the lesse apt to put scorns or injuries upon him then if he had a vulgar and course aspect with those who have the image of the Kings power the Magistrate the image of his wisdome the Councel the image of his goodnesse the Clergie it should be so too there is a respect due to the image of the King in all that have it Now in all these respects man the meer naturall man hath the image of the King of kings and therefore respect that image in thy self and exalt thy naturall faculties emulate those men and be ashamed to be outgone by those men who had no light but nature Make thine understanding and thy will and thy memorie though but naturall faculties serviceable to thy God and auxiliarie subsidiarie for thy salvation for though they be not naturally instruments of grace yet naturally they are susceptible of grace and have so much in their
the second person And then of the third also in this that his attribute being goodnesse I as a true Christian call nothing good that conduceth not to the glorie of God in Christ Jesus nor any thing ill that draws me not from him Thus I have an expresse image of his goodnesse that Omnia cooperantur in bonum Rom. 8.28 all things work together for my good if I love God I shall thank my fever blesse my povertie praise my oppressour nay thank and blesse and praise even some sinne of mine which by the consequences of that sinne which may be shame or losse or weaknesse may bring me to a happie sense of all my former sinnes and shall finde it to have been a good fever a good povertie a good oppression yea a good sinne Vertit in bonum sayes Joseph to his brethren You thought evil Gen. 50.20 but God meant it unto good and I shall have the benefit of my sinne according to his transmutation that is though I meant ill in that sinne I shall have the good that God meant in it Amos 3.6 There is no evil in the citie but the Lord doth it but if the Lord do it it cannot be evil to me I beleeve that I shall see bona Dei the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living Psal 27.13 that is in heaven but David speaks also of signum in bonum Shew me a token of good and God will shew me a present token of future good an inward infallibilitie that this very calamitie shall be beneficiall and advantageous unto me and so as in nature I have the image of God in my whole soul and of all the three persons in the three faculties thereof the understanding the will and the memorie so in grace in the Christian Church I have the same images of the power of the Father of the wisdome of the Sonne of the goodnesse of the holy Ghost in my Christian profession And all this we shall have in a better place then paradise where we considered it in nature and a better place then the Church as it is militant where we considered it in grace that is in the kingdome of heaven where we considered this image in glorie which is our last word There we shall have this image of God in perfection for if Origen could lodge such a conceit that in heaven at last all things should ebbe back into God as all things flowed from him at first and so there should be no other essence but God all should be God even the devil himself how much more may we conceive an unexpressible association that is too farre off an assimilation that is not neare enough an identification the School would venture to say so with God in that state of glorie Whereas the sunne by shining upon the moon makes the moon a planet a starre as well as it self which otherwise would be but the thickest and darkest part of that sphere so those beams of glorie which shall issue from my God and fall upon me shall make me otherwise a clod of earth and worse a dark soul a spirit of darknesse an angel of light a starre of glorie a something that I cannot name now not imagine now nor to morrow nor next yeare but even in that particular I shall be like God that as he that asked a day to give a definition of God the next day asked a week and then a moneth and then a yeare so undeterminable would my imaginations be if I should go about to think now what I shall be there I shall be so like God as that the devil himself shall not know me from God so farre as to finde any more place to fasten a temptation upon me then upon God nor to conceive any more hope of my falling from that kingdome then of Gods being driven out of it for though I shall not be immortall as God yet I shall be as immortall as God And there is my image of God of God considered all together and in his unitie in the state of grace I shall have also then the image of all the three persons of the Trinitie Power is the Fathers and a greater power then he exercises here I shall have there here he overcomes enemies but yet here he hath enemies there there are none here they cannot prevail there they shall not be So Wisdome is the image of the Sonne and there I shall have better wisdome the spirituall wisdome it self is here for here our best wisdome is but to go towards our end there it is to rest in our end here it is to seek to be glorified by God there it is that God may be everlastingly glorified by me The image of the holy Ghost is Goodnesse Here our goodnesse is mixt with some ill faith mixt with scruples good works mixt with a love of praise and hope of better mixt with fear of worse there I shall have sincere goodnesse goodnesse impermixt intemerate and indeterminate goodnesse so good a place as no ill accident shall annoy it so good companie as no impertinent no importune person shall disorder it so full a goodnesse as no evil of sinne no evil of punishment for former sins can enter so good a God as shall no more keep us in fear of his anger nor in need of his mercie but shall fill us first and establish us in that fulnesse in the same instant and give us a satietie that we can wish no more and an infallibilitie that we can lose none of that and both at once Whereas the Cabalists expresse our nearenesse to God in that state in that note that the name of man and the name of God ADAM and JEHOVAH in their numerall letters are equall so I would have leave to expresse that inexpressible state so farre as to say that if there can be other world 's imagined besides this that is under our moon and if there could be other Gods imagined of those worlds besides this God to whose image we are made in Nature in Grace in Glorie I had rather be one of these Saints in this heaven then one of those Gods in those other worlds I shall be like the angels in a glorified soul and the angels shall not be like me in a glorified bodie The holy noblenesse and religious ambition that I would imprint in you for attaining of this glorie makes me dismisse you with this note for the fear of missing that glorie that as we have taken just occasion to magnifie the goodnesse of God towards us in that he speaks plurally Faciamus Let Vs all Vs do this so poures out the blessings of the whole Trinitie upon us in this image of himself in every person of the three and in all these three wayes which we have considered so when the anger of God is justly kindled against us God collects himself summons himself assembles himself musters himself and threatens plurally too for of those foure