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
Jesus So that the Christians took many names to themselves for distinction Brethren Disciples Faithfull and they had many names put upon them in scorn Nazarites Galileans Jews Christians yet they were never by custome amongst themselves never by commandment from the Church never in contempt from others called Trinitarians the profession of the Trinitie being their specifick form and distinctive character Why so Beloved the name of Christ involved all not onely because it is a name that hath a dignitie in it more then the rest for Christ is an anointed person a King a Messiah and so the profession of that name conferres an unction a regall and a holy unction upon us for we are thereby a royall priesthood but because in the profession of Christ the whole Trinitie is professed How often doth the Sonne say that the Father sent him And how often that the Father will and that he will send the holy Ghost John 17.3 This is life eternall sayes he to know thee the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent and sent with all power in heaven and in earth This must be professed Father and Sonne and then no man can professe this no man can call Jesus the Lord but by the holy Ghost So that as in the persecutions in the Primitive Church the Martyrs which were hurried to tumultuary executions and could not be heard for noise in excusing themselves of treason and sedition crimes imputed to them to make their cause odious did use in the sight of the people who might see a gesture though they could not heare a protestation to signe themselves with the signe of the Crosse to let them know for what profession they died so that the signe of the Crosse in that use thereof in that time was an Abridgement and a Catechisme of the whole Christian religion So is the professing of the name of Christ the professing of the whole Trinitie As he that confesseth one God is got beyond the meer naturall man And he that confesseth a Sonne of God beyond him so is neither got to the full truth till he confesse the holy Ghost too The fool sayes in his heart There is no God The fool sayes David the emphaticall fool in the highest degree of folly But though he get beyond that folly he is a fool still if he say There is no Christ for Christ is the wisdome of the Father And a fool still if he denie the holy Ghost Etiam Christiani nomen superficies est is excellently said by Tertullian The name and profession of a Christian is but a superficiall outside sprinkled upon my face in Baptisme or upon my outward profession in actions if I have not in my heart a sense of the holy Ghost that applies the mercies of the Father and the merits of the Sonne to my soul As S. Paul said Whilest you are without Christ you are without God It is an Atheisme with S. Paul to be no Christian So whilest you are without the holy Ghost you are without Christ It is Antichristian to denie or not to confesse the holy Ghost For as Christ is the manifestation of the Father so the holy Ghost is the application of the Sonne Therein are we Christians that in the profession of that name of Christ we professe all the three Persons In Christ is the whole Trinitie because as the Father sent him so sent he the holy Ghost And that is our specifick form that is our distinctive character from Jew Gentile the Trinitie But then is this specifick form this distinctive character the notion of the Trinitie conveyed to us exhibited imprinted upon us in our creation in this word this plurall word in the mouth of our own God Faciamus Let Vs Vs It is here and here first This is an intimation and the first intimation of the Trinitie from the mouth of God in all the Bible It is true that though the same faith which is necessary to salvation now were alwayes necessary and so in the old Testament they were bound to beleeve in Christ as well as in the new and consequently in the whole Trinitie yet not so explicitely nor so particularly as now now Christ calling upon God in the name of the Father sayes I have manifested thy Name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world John 17.6 They were men appropriated to God men exempt out of the world yet they had not a cleare manifestation of Father and Sonne the doctrine of the Trinitie till Christ manifested it to them I have manifested thy Name thy name of Father and Sonne And therefore the Jewish Rabbins say that the Septuagint the first Translatours of the Bible did disguise some places of the Scriptures in their translation lest Ptolomey for whom they translated it should be scandalized with those places And that this text was one of those places which say they though it be otherwise in the copies of the Scriptures which we have now they translated Faciam and not Faciamus that God said here I will make in the singular and not Let us make man in the plurall lest that plurall word might have misled King Ptolomey to think that the Jews had a plurall religion and worshipped divers gods So good an evidence do they confesse this text to be for some kinde of pluralitie in the Godhead Here then God notified the Trinitie and here first For though we accept an intimation of the Trinitie in the first line of the Bible where Moses joyned a plurall name Elohim with a singular verb Bara and so in construction it is Creavit Dii Gods created heaven and earth yet besides that that is rather a mysterious collection then an evident conclusion of a pluralitie of persons though we reade that in that first verse before this in the 26 yet Moses writ that which is in the beginning of this chapter more then 2000. yeares after God spake this that is in our text so long was Gods plurall before Moses his plurall Gods Faciamus before Moses Bara Elohim So that in this text begins our Catechisme here we have and here first the saving knowledge of the Trinitie For when God spake here to whom could God speak but to God Non cum rebus creandis non cum re nihili sayes Athanasius speaking of Gods first speaking when he said of the first creature Let there be light God spake not then to future things that were not When God spake first there was no creature at all to speak to when God spake of the making of man there were no creatures But were there any creatures able to create or able to assist him in the creation of man who Angels some had thought so in S. Basils time and to them S. Basil sayes Súntne illi God sayes Let us make man to our image and could he say so to Angels Are Angels and God all one or is that that is like an Angel therefore like God
nature as that by grace they may be made instruments of grace which no facultie in any creature but man can be And do not think that because a naturall man cannot do all he hath nothing to do for himself This then is the image of God in man the first way in Nature and most literally this is the intention of the text Man was this image thus and the room furnished with this image was paradise but there is a better room then that paradise for the second image the image of God in man by Grace that is the Christian Church for though for the most part this text be understood de naturalibus of our naturall faculties yet Origen and not onely such allegoricall expositours but Saint Basil and Nissen and Ambrose and others who are literall enough assigne this image of God to consist in the gifts of Gods grace exhibited to us here in the Church A Christian then in that second capacitie as a Christian and not onely as a Man hath this image of God of God first considered entirely And those expressions of this impression those representations of this image of God in a Christian by grace which the Apostles have exhibited to us that we are the sonnes of God the seed of God the off-spring of God and partakers of the divine nature which are high and glorious exaltations are enlarged and exalted by Damascen to a further height when he sayes Sicut Dens homo ità ego Deus As God is man so I am God sayes Damascen I taking in the whole mankinde for so Damascen takes it out of Nazianzen and he sayes Sicut verbum caro ità caro verbum As God was made man man may become God but especially I I as I am wrought upon by grace in Christ Jesus So a Christian is made the image of God entirely To which expression S. Cyril also comes neare when he calls a Christian Deiformem hominem man in the form of God which is a mysterious and a blessed metamorphosis and transfiguration that whereas it was the greatest trespasse of the greatest trespasser in the world Isa 14.14 the devil to say Similis ero Altissimis I will be like the Highest it would be as great a trespasse in me not to be like the Highest not to conform my self to God by the use of his grace in the Christian Church And whereas the humiliation of my Saviour is in all things to be imitated by me yet herein I am bound to depart from his humiliation Phil. 2.6 7. that whereas he being in the form of God took the form of a servant I being in the form of a servant may nay must take upon me the form of God in being Deiformis homo a man made in Christ the image of God So have I the image of God entirely in his unitie because I professe that faith which is but one faith Ephes 4.5 and under the seal of that Baptisme which is but one Baptisme And then as of this one God so I have also the image of the severall persons of the Trinitie in this capacitie as I am a Christian more then in my naturall faculties The attribute of the first person the Father is Power and none but a Christian hath power over those great tyrants of the world Sinne Satan Death and Hell For thus my power accrues and grows unto me first Possum judicare 1. Cor. 6.5 I have a power to judge a judiciarie a discretive power a power to discern between a naturall accident and a judgement of God and will never call a judgement an accident and between an ordinarie occasion of conversion a temptation of Satan Possum judicare And then Possum resistere Eph. 6.13 which is another act of power when I finde it to be a temptation I am able to resist it And Possum stare which is another I am able not onely to withstand but to stand out this battell of temptations to the end And then Possum capere that which Christ proposes for a triall of his disciples He that is able to receive it Matt. 19.12 let him receive it I shall have power to receive the gift of continencie against all temptations of that kinde Bring it to the highest act of power that with which Christ tried his strongest Apostles Possum bibere calicem Matt. 20.22 I shall be able to drink of Christs cup even to drink his bloud and be the more innocent for that and to poure out my bloud and be the stronger for that Phil. 4.13 In Christo omnia possum there is the fulnesse of power In Christ I can do all things I can want or I can abound I can live or I can die And yet there is an extension of power beyond all this in this Non possum peccare 1 John 3.9 being born of God in Christ I cannot sinne This that seems to have a name of impotence Non possum I cannot is the fullest omnipotence of all I cannot sinne not sinne to death not sinne with a desire to sinne not sinne with a delight in sinne but that temptation that overthrows another I can resist or that sinne which being done casts another into desperation I can repent And so I have the image of the first person the Father in Power The image of the second person whose attribute is Wisdome I have in this that wisdome being the knowledge of this world and the next I embrace nothing in this world but as it leads me to the next for thus my wisdome my knowledge grows first 2. Tim. 1.12 Scio cui credidi I know whom I have beleeved I have not mislayed my foundation my foundation is Christ and then Scio non moriturum my foundation cannot sink Rom. 6.9 I know that Christ being raised from the dead Rom. 8.27 dies no more again Scio quod desideret spiritus I know what my spirit enlightened by the Spirit of God desires I am not transported with illusions and singularities of private spirits And as in the attribute of Power we found an Omnipotence in a Christian so in this there is an Omniscience 1. Cor. 8.1 Scimus quia omnem scientiam habemus there is all together We know that we have all knowledge for all S. Pauls universall knowledge was but this 1. Cor. 2.2 Jesum crucisixum I determined not to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him crucisied And then the way by which he would proceed and take degrees in this wisdome 1. Cor. 1.21 was stultitia praedicandi the way that God had ordained When the world by wisdome knew not God it pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that beleeve These then are the steps of Christian wisdome my foundation is Christ of Christ I enquire no more but fundamentall doctrines him crucified and this I apply to my self by his ordinance of preaching And in this wisdome I have the image of
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
places in Scripture in which onely as we noted before God speaks of himself in a royall plurall God speaks in anger and in a preparation to destruction in one of those foure entirely as entirely he speaks of mercie but in one of them in this text here he sayes meerly out of mercie Faciamus Let Vs Vs all Vs make man and in the same pluralitie the same universalitie he sayes after Descendamus confundamus Gen. 11.7 Let Vs Vs all Vs go down to them and confound them as meerly out of indignation and anger as here out of mercie And in the other two places where God speaks plurally he speaks not meerly in mercie nor meerly in justice in neither but in both he mingles both so that God carries himself so equally herein as that no soul no Church no State may any more promise it self patience in God if it provoke him then suspect anger in God if we conform our selves to him For from them that set themselves against him God shall withdraw his image in all the persons and all the attributes the Father shall withdraw his power and we shall be enfeebled in our forces the Sonne his wisdome and we shall be enfatuated in our counsels the holy Ghost his goodnesse and we shall be corrupted in our manners and corrupted in our religion and be a prey to temporall and spirituall enemies and change the image of God into the image of the beast And as God loves nothing more then the image of himself in his Sonne and then the image of his Sonne Christ Jesus in us so he hates nothing more then the image of Antichrist in them in whom he had imprinted his Sonnes image that is declinations towards Antichrist or concurrences with Antichrist in them who were born and baptized and catechized blessed in the profession of his truth That God who hath hitherto delivered us from all cause or colour of jealousies or suspicions thereof in them whom he hath placed over us so conform us to his image in a holy life that sinnes continued and multiplied by us against him do not so provoke him against us that those two great helps the assiduitie of preaching and the personall and exemplarie pietie constancie in our Princes be not by our sinnes made unprofitable unto us for that is the height of Gods malediction upon a nation when the assiduitie of preaching and the example of a religious Prince doth them no good but aggravates their fault FINIS A SERMON Upon the xix verse of the ii Chapter of HOSEA By Dr. DONNE DEAN OF PAVLS ¶ Printed by the Printers to the Vniversitie of CAMBRIDGE MDCXXXIIII Hosea 2.19 And I will marrie thee unto me for ever THe word which is the hinge upon which all this text turns is Erash and Erash signifies not onely a betrothing as our later translation hath it but a marrying and so it is used by David Deliver me my wife Michael 2. Sam. 3.14 whom I married and so our former translation had it and so we accept it and so shall handle it I will marrie thee unto me for ever The first marriage that was made God made and he made it in Paradise and of that marriage I have had the like occasion as this to speak before in the presence of many honourable persons in this companie The last marriage which shall be made God shall make too and in Paradise too in the kingdome of heaven and at that marriage I hope in him that shall make it to meet not some but all this companie The marriage in this text hath relation to both those marriages It is it self the spirituall and mysticall marriage of Christ Jesus to the Church and to every marriageable soul in the Church and it hath a retrospect it looks back to the first marriage for to that the first word carries us because from thence God takes his metaphor and comparison Sponsabo I will marrie and then it hath a prospect to the last marriage for to that we are carried in the last word In aeternum I will marrie thee unto me for ever Be pleased therefore to give me leave in this exercise to shift the Scene thrice and to present to your religious considerations three objects three subjects first a secular marriage in Paradise secondly a spirituall marriage in the Church and thirdly an eternall marriage in Heaven And in each of these three we shall present three circumstances first the persons Me and Tibi I will marrie thee and then the action Sponsabo I will marrie thee and lastly the term In aeternum I will marrie thee to me for ever In the first acceptation then 1 Part. in the first the secular marriage in Paradise the persons were Adam and Eve ever since they are He and She man and woman at first by reason of necessitie without any such limitation as now and now without any other limitations then such as are expressed in the law of God As the Apostles say in the first generall Councel Act. 15.28 We lay nothing upon you but things necessarie so we call nothing necessarie but that which is commanded by God If in heaven I may have the place of a man that hath performed the commandments of God I will not change with him that thinks he hath done more then the commandments of God enjoyned him The rule of marriage for degrees and distance in bloud is the law of God but for conditions of men there is no rule at all given When God had made Adam and Eve in Paradise though there were foure rivers in Paradise God did not place Adam in a Monasterie on one side and Eve in a Nunnerie on the other and so a river between them They that build walls and cloysters to frustrate Gods institution of marriage advance the doctrine of devils in forbidding of marriage The devil hath advantages enow against us in bringing men and women together it was a strange and superdevilish invention to give him a new advantage against us by keeping men and women asunder by forbidding marriage Between the heresie of the Nicolaitans that induced a communitie of women any might take any and the heresie of the Tatians that forbad all none might take any was a fair latitude Between the opinion of the Manichaean hereticks that thought women to be made by the devil and the Colliridian hereticks that sacrificed to a woman as to God there is a fair distance Between the denying of them souls which S. Ambrose is charged to have done and giving them such souls as that they may be priests as the Peputian hereticks did is a fair way for a moderate man to walk in To make them gods is ungodly and to make them devils is devilish to make them mistresses is unmanly and to make them servants is unnoble to make them as God made them wives is godly and manly too When in the Romane church they dissolve marriages in naturall kindred in degrees