upon beauty in that face that misleads thee or upon honour in that place that possesses thee And let the opening of thine eyes be to look upon God in every object to represent to thy self the beauty of his holinesse and the honour of his service in every action And in this rapture and in this twinkling of an eye will thy Resurrection soon though not suddenly speedily though not instantly be accomplished And if God take thee out of the world before thou think it throughly accomplished yet he shall call thine inchoation consummation thine endeavour performance and thy desire effect For all Gods works are intire and done in him at once and perfect as soon as begun And this spirituall Resurrection is his work and therefore quickned even in the Conception and borne even in the quickning and grown up even in the birth that is perfected in the eyes of God as soone as it is seriously intended in our heart And farther we carry not your consideration upon those two Branches which constitute our second Part That some shall be alive at Christs comming That they that are alive shall receive such a change as shall be a true death and a true Resurrection And so shall be caught up into the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Aire and so be with the Lord for ever which are the Circumstances of our third and last Part. In this last part we proposed it for the first Consideration 3 Part. Resurrectio justorum that the Apostle determines the Consideration of the Resurrection in those two Them and Us They that slept in Christ and We that expect the comming of Christ Of any Resurrection of the wicked here is no mention Not that there is not one but that the resurrection of the wicked conduced not to the Apostles purpose which was to minister comfort in the losse of the dead because they were to come again and to meet the Lord and to be with him for ever whereas in the Resurrection of the wicked who are only to rise that they may fall lower there is no argument of comfort And therefore our Saviour Christ determines his Commission in that This is the Fathers will that sent me John 6.39 that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day This was his not losing if it were raised again but he hath only them in charge to raise at the last day whom the Father had given him given him so as that they were to be with him for ever for others he never mentions And upon this much very much depends For Chiliasts this forbearing to mention the resurrection of the wicked with the righteous gave occasion to many in the Primitive Church to imagine a two-fold a former and a later Resurrection which was furthered by their mistaking of those words in S. Iohn Apoc. 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection which words being intended of the Resurrection from sin by grace in this life the Chiliasts the Millenarians interpreted of this Resurrection in our Text That at Christs comming the righteous should rise and live a thousand yeares as S. Iohn sayes in all temporall abundances with Christ here in recompence of those temporall calamities and oppressions which here they had suffered and then after those thousand yeares so spent with Christ in temporall abundances should follow the resurrection of the wicked and then the wicked and the righteous should be disposed and distributed and setled in those Mansions in which they should remain for ever And of this errour as very many of the Fathers persisted in it to the end S. Augustine himself had a touch and a tincture at beginning And this errour S. Hierome also though truly I think S. Hierome was never touched with it himselfe out of a reverence to those many and great men that were Irenaeus Tertullian Lactantius and the rest would never call an Heresie nor an Errour nor by any sharper name then an opinion which is no word of heavy detestation And as those blessed Fathers of tender bowels Pagani enlarged themselves in this distribution and apportioning the mercy of God that it consisted best with the nature of his mercy that as his Saints had suffered temporall calamities in this world in this world they should be recompenced with temporall abundances so did they inlarge this mercy farther and carry it even to the Gentiles to the Pagans that had no knowledge of Christ in any established Church You shall not finde a Trumegistus a Numa Pompilius a Plato a Socrates for whose salvation you shall not finde some Father or some Ancient and Reverend Author an Advocate In which liberality of Gods mercy those tender Fathers proceed partly upon that rule That in Trismegistus and in the rest they finde evident impressions and testimonies that they knew the Son of God and knew the Trinity and then say they why should not these good men beleeving a Trinity be saved and partly they goe upon that rule which goes through so many of the Fathers Facienti quod in se est That to that man who does as much as he can by the light of nature God never denies grace and then say they why should not these men that doe so be saved And upon this ground S. Dionyse the Areopagite sayes That from the beginning of the world God hath called some men of all Nations and of all sorts by the ministry of Angels though not by the ministry of the Church To me to whom God hath revealed his Son in a Gospel by a Church there can be no way of salvation but by applying that Son of God by that Gospel in that Church Nor is there any other foundation for any nor other name by which any can be saved but the name of Jesus But how this foundation is presented and how this name of Jesus is notified to them amongst whom there is no Gospel preached no Church established I am not curious in inquiring I know God can be as mercifull as those tender Fathers present him to be and I would be as charitable as they are And therefore humbly imbracing that manifestation of his Son which he hath afforded me I leave God to his unsearchable waies of working upon others without farther inquisition Neither did those tender Fathers then Angeli lopsi in Coelis much lesse the School after consist in carying this overflowing and inexhaustible mercy of God upon his Saints after their Resurrection in temporall abundances nor upon the Gentiles who had no solemne nor cleare knowledge of Christ Psal 138.2 Psal 17.7 which is Magnificare misericordiam to magnifie to extend to stretch the mercy of God but Mirificant misericordiam as David also speaks they stretch this mercy miraculously for they carry this mercy even to hell it self For first for the Angels that fell in heaven from the time that they
under our senses non sensus nor with any thing which we can bring studiously or which can fall casually into our fancy or imagination non phantasia And upon the whole matter and all the evidence he joynes in this verdict with S. Hierome Tunc cernitur cum invisibilis creditur God is best seen by us when we confesse that he cannot be seen of us S. Augustine denies not That our eyes shall be spirituall eyes but in what proportion spirituall or to what particular use spirituall he will not pretend to know Vtrum in simplicitatem spiritus cedat it a ut totus homo jam sit spiritus whether the body of man shall be so attenuated and rarified as that the whole man shall become spirit Aut animam adjuvet corpus ad videndum whether the body shall contribute and assist the faculties of the soul as in this life it doth Fateor me non alicubi legisse quod existimarem sufficere ad docendum aut ad discendum sayes that blessed and sober Father I confesse I never read any thing that I thought sufficient to rectifie mine own judgement much lesse to change anothers But to all those places of Scripture which are to this purpose That the Angels see the face of God and that we shall be like the Angels and see God face to face he answers well Facies Dei ea est qua Deus innotescit nobis That is the face of God to us all by which God is known and manifested to us in which sense Reason is the face of God to the naturall man the Law to the Jew and the Gospell to us and such a sight of God doth no more put such a power of seeing in our bodily eyes then it puts a face upon God We shall see God face to face and yet God shall have no face to be seen nor we bodily eyes to see him by For Non legi That I have not read sayes he This sayes he I have read Regi incorruptibili invisibili Vnto the King eternall immortall invisible c. Neither dare I sayes S. Augustine 1 Tim. 1.17 sever those things which the Spirit of God hath joyned Vt dicam incorruptibilem quidem in saecula saeculorum invisibilem autem in hoc saeculo I dare not say that God is immortall in this world and in the next world too but invisible in this world only and visible in the next for the Holy Ghost hath pronounced him invisible as far as immortall Si rogas sayes he if you presse me Cannot God then be seen Yes I confesse he can If you ask me how Cum vult sicuti vult He may be seen when he will and how he will If you pursue it can he not be seen in his Essence yes he can If you proceed farther and ask me how again I can say no more sayes he then Christ sayes Erimus sicut Angeli we shall be like the Angels and we shall see God so as the Angels do but they see him not with bodily eyes nor as an object which is that that S. Ambrose and S. Hicrome and S. Chrysostome intend when they deny that the Angels see the Essence of God that is they see him not otherwise then by understanding him All agree in this resolution Solus Deus videt cor solum cor videt Deum Only God can see the heart of man and only the heart of man can see God For in this world our bodily eyes do not see bodies they see but colours and dimensions they see not bodies much lesse shall our eyes though spirituall see spirits in heaven least of all that Spirit in comparison of of whom Angels and our spirits are but grosse bodies So far the Fathers leade us towards a determination herein and thus far the School Nulla visio naturalis in terris Here in this life neither the eyes nor the minde of the most subtile and most sanctified man can see the Essence of God Nulla visio corporalis in coelis The bodily eyes of no man in the highest stare of glorification in heaven can see the Essence of God Nulla visio comprehensiva omnino That faculty of man which shall see the Essence of God in heaven yet shall not comprehend that Essence for to comprehend is not to know a thing as well as I can know it but to know it as well as that thing can be knowen and so only God himself can see and know that is comprehend God To end all in the whole body of the Scriptures we have no light that our bodily eyes shall be so enlightned in the Resurrection Job 19.26 as to see the Essence of God For when Iob sayes In carne mea In my flesh I shall see God and Oculi mei videbunt Mine eyes shall see God if these words must necessarily be understood of the last Resurrection which some Expositors deny and Calvin in particular understands them of a particular resurrection from that calamity which lay upon Iob at that time and of his confidence that God would raise him again even in this life yet howsoever and to which resurrection soever you refer them the words must be understood thus In my flesh that is when my soule shall re-assume this flesh in the Resurrection In that flesh I shall see God he doth not say That flesh shall but Hee in that flesh shall So when hee adds Oculi mei Mine eyes shall do it he intends Oculos internos of which the Apostle speaks The eyes of your understanding being enlightned Ephes 1.18 So then a faculty to see him so in his Essence with bodily eyes we finde not in Scripture But yet in the Scriptures we do finde that we shall see him so Sicuti est As he is in his Essence How It is a safe answer which S. Augustine gives in all such questions Meliùs affirmamus de quibus minimè dubitamus Only those things are safely affirmed and resolved which admit no doubt This hath never admitted any doubt but that our soule and her faculties shall be so exalted in that state of glory as that in those internall faculties of the soul so exalted we shall see the very Essence of God which no measure of the light of grace communicated to any the most fanctified man here doth effect but only the light of glory there shall And therefore this being cleare that in the faculties of our soules we shall see him Restat ut de illa visione secundum interiorem hominem certissimi simus sayes that blessed and sober Father As our reason is satisfied that the Saints in heaven shall see God so so let our consciences be satisfied that we have an interest in that state and that we in particular shall come to that sight of God Et cor mundum ad illam visionem praeparemus Let us not abuse our selves with false assurances nor rest in any other then this that we have made clean and pure our
shall know that I am the Lord God shall restore them to life and more to strength and more to beauty and comelinesse acceptable to himselfe in Christ Jesus Your way is Recollecting gather your selves into the Congregation and Communion of Saints in these places gather your sins into your memory and poure them out in humble confessions to that God whom they have wounded Gather the crummes under his Table lay hold upon the gracious promises which by our Ministery he lets fall upon the Congregation now and gather the seales of those promises whensoever in a rectified conscience his Spirit beares witnesse with your spirit that you may be worthy receivers of him in his Sacrament and this recollecting shall be your resurrection Beatus qui habet partem Apâ—â— 20.6 sayes S. Iohn Blessed is he that hath part in the first Resurrection for on such the second death hath no power He that rises to this Judgement of recollecting and of judging himselfe shall rise with a chearfulnesse and stand with a confidence when Christ Jesus shall come in the second Auâ— And Quando exacturus est in secundo quod dedit in primo when Christ shall call for an account in that second judgement how he hath husbanded those graces which he gave him for the first he shall make his possession of this first resurrection his title and his evidence to the second When thy body which hath been subject to all kindes of destruction here to the destruction of a Flood in Catarrhs and Rheums and Dropsies and such distillations to the destruction of a fire in Feavers and Frenzies and such conflagrations shall be removed safely and gloriously above all such distempers and malignant impressions and body and soule so united as if both were one spirit in it selfe and God so united to both as that thou shalt be the same spirit with God God began the first World but upon two Adam and Eve The second world after the Flood he began upon a greater stock upon eight reserved in the Arke But when he establishes the last and everlasting world in the last Resurrection he shall admit such a number as that none of us who are here now none that is or hath or shall be upon the face of the earth shall be denied in that Resurrection if he have truly felt this for Grace accepted is the infallible earnest of Glory SERMON XXII Preached at S. Pauls upon Easter-day 1627. HEB. 11.35 Women received their dead raised to life againe And others were tortured not accepting a deliverance that they might obtaine a better Resurrection MErcy is Gods right hand with that God gives all Faith is mans right hand with that man takes all David Psal 136. opens and enlarges this right hand of God in pouring out his blessings plentifully abundantly manifoldly there And in this Chapter the Apostle opens and enlarges this right hand of man by laying hold upon those mercies of God plentifully abundantly manifoldly by faith here There David powres downe the mercies of God in repeating and re-repeating that phrase For his mercy endureth for ever And here S. Paul carries up man to heaven by repeating and re-repeating the blessings which man hath attained by faith By faith Abel sacrificed By faith Enoch walked with God By faith Noah built an Arke c. And as in that Psalme Gods mercies are exprest two waies First in the good that God did for his servants He remembred them in their low estate Ver 23. Ver. 24. for his mercy endureth for ever And then againe He redeemed them from their enemies for his mercy endureth for ever And then also in the evill that he brought upon their enemies He slew famous Kings for his mercy endureth for ever And then He gave their land for an heritage for his mercy endureth for ever So in this Chapter the Apostle declares the benefits of faith two wayes also First how faith enriches us and accommodates us in the wayes of prosperity By faith Abraham went to a place which he received for an inheritance And so By faith Sarah received strength to conceive seed Ver. 8. Ver. 11. Ver. 34. And then how faith sustaines and establishes us in the wayes of adversity By faith they stopt the mouthes of Lions by faith they quencht the violence of fire by faith they escaped the edge of the sword in the verse immediatly before the Text. And in this verse which is our Text the Apostle hath collected both The benefits which they received by faith Women received their dead raised to life againe And then the holy courage which was infused by Faith in their persecutions Others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might receive a better Resurrection And because both these have relation evidently pregnantly to the Resurrection for their benefit was that the Women received their dead by a Resurrection And their courage in their persecution was That they should receive a better Resurrection therefore the whole meditation is proper to this day in which wee celebrate all Resurrections in the Root in the Resurrection of the First fruits of the dead our Lord and Saviour Christ Iesus Our Parts are two How plentifully God gives to the faithfull Divisio Women receive their dead raised to life againe And how patiently the faithfull suffer Gods corrections Others were tortured not accepting c. Though they be both large considerations Benefits by Faith Patience in the Faithfull yet we shall containe our selves in those particulars which are exprest or necessarily implyed in the Text it selfe And so in the first place we shall see first The extraordinary consolation in Gods extraordinary Mercies in his miraculous Deliverances such as this Women received their dead raised to life again And secondly we shall seethe examples to which the Apostle refers here What women had had their dead restored to life againe And then lastly in that part That this affection of joy in having their dead restored to life againe being put in the weaker sexe in women onely we may argue conveniently from thence That the strength of a true and just joy lies not in that but that our virility our holy manhood our religious strength consists in a faithfull assurance that we have already a blessed communion with these Saints of God though they be dead and we alive And that we shall have hereafter a glorious Association with them in the Resurrection though we never receive our dead raised to life again in this world And in those three considerations we shall determine that first part And then in the other The Patience of the Faithfull Others were tortured c. we shall first look into the examples which the Apostle refers to who they were that were thus tortured And secondly the heighth and exaltation of their patience They would not accept a deliverance And lastly the ground upon which their Anchor was cast what established their patience That they might obtaine a better Resurrection
to execution Thou hast sinned thy selfe and hast repented and hast had thy pardon sealed in the Sacrament but thy pardon was clogged with an Ita quòd se bene gerat Thou wast bound to the peace by that pardon and hast broken that peace since in a relapse and so fallest under execution for thine old sins God cuts off men by unsearchable wayes and meanes and therefore feare this Father as a Soveraigne as a Magistrate for that use this word in S. Iohn may have In Malachie we consider him in his supreme spirituall power Iudiciaria and in S. Iohn in his supreme temporall power And in this Text this Father is presented in a power which includes both in a judiciary power as a Judge as our Judge our Judge at the last day beyond all Appeale And as this Apostle S. Peter is said by Clement who is said to have beene his successor at Rome to have said Quis peccare poterit c. Who could commit any sin at any time if at all times he had his eye fixed upon this last Judgement We have seene purses cut at the Sessions and at Executions but the Cutpurse did not see the Judge looke upon him we see men sin over those sins to day for which Judgement was inflicted but yesterday but surely they doe not see then that the Judge sees them Rom. 2.5 Thou treasurest up wrath sayes the Apostle against the day of wrath and revelation of the judgement of God There is no Revelation of the day of Judgement no sense of any such day till the very day it selfe overtake him and swallow him Represent God to thy selfe as such a Judge as S. Chrysostome sayes That whosoever considers him so as that Judge and that day as a day of irrevocable judgement Gehennae poenam tolerare malit quà m adverso Deo stare He will even think it an ease to be thrown down into hell out of the presence of God rather then to stand long in the presence and stand under the indignation of that incensed Judge The Ite maledicti will be lesse then the Surgite qui dormitis And there is the miserable perplexity Latere impossibils Apparere intolerabile Bernard To be hid from this Judge is impossible and to appeare before him intolerable for he comes invested with those two flames of confusion which are our two next branches in the Text first He respects no persons Then He judges according to workes Without respect of persons c. Nine or ten severall times it is repeated in the Scriptures and I thinke Acceptor personarum no one intire proposition so often That God is no accepter of persons It is spoken by Moses that they who are conversant in the Law might see it and spoken in the Chronicles that they might see it who are conversant in State-affaires and spoken in Iob that men in afflictions might not mis-imagine a partiality in God It is spoken to the Gentiles by the Apostle of the Gentiles S. Paul severally To the Romanes to the Galatians to the Ephesians to the Colossians And spoken by the chiefe Apostle S. Peter both in a private Sermon in Cornelius his house and now in this Catholique Epistle written to all the world that all the world and all the inhabitants thereof might know That God is no accepter of persons And lest all this should not be all it is spoken twice in the Apocryphall books and though we know not assuredly by whom yet we know to whom To all that exercise any judiciary power under God it belongs to know That God is no accepter of persons In divers of those places this also is added Nor receiver of Rewards whether that be added as an equall thing That it is as great a sin to accept persons as to accept rewards Or as a concomitancy they goe together He that will accept persons will accept rewards Or as an Identity It is the same thing to accept persons and to accept rewards because the preferment which I looke for from a person in place is as much a reward as money from a person rich in treasure whether of these it be I dispute not Clearly there is a Bribery in my love to another and in my feare of another there is a Bribery too There is a bribery in a poore mans teares if that decline me from justice as well as in the rich mans Plate and Hangings and Coach and Horses Let no man therefore think to present his complexion to God for an excuse and say My choler with which my constitution abounded and which I could not remedy enclined me to wrath and so to bloud My Melancholy enclined me to sadnesse and so to Desperation as though thy sins were medicinall sins sins to vent humors Let no man say I am continent enough all the yeare but the spring works upon me and inflames my concupiscencies as though thy sins were seasonable and anniversary sins Make not thy Calling the occasion of thy sin as though thy sin were a Mysterie and an Occupation Nor thy place thy station thy office the occasion of thy sin as though thy sin were an Heir-loome or furniture or fixed to the freehold of that place for this one proposition God is no accepter of persons is so often repeated that all circumstances of Dispositions and Callings Ambros and time and place might be involved in it Nulla descretio personarum sed morum God discernes not that is distinguishes not Persons but Actions for He judgeth according to every mans works which is our next Branch Now this judging according to works Opera excludes not the heart nor the heart of the heart the soule of the soule Faith God requires the heart My sonne give me thy heart He will have it but he will have it by gift and those Deeds of Gift must be testified and the testimony of the heart is in the hand the testimony of faith is in works If one give me a timber tree for my house I know not whether the root be mine or no whether I may stub it by that gift but if he give me a fruit tree for mine Orchard he intends me the root too for else I cannot transplant it nor receive fruit by it God judges according to the worke that is Root and fruit faith and worke That is the worke And then he judges according unto Thy worke The works of Other men the Actions and the Passions of the blessed Martyrs and Saints in the Primitive Church works of Supererogation are not thy works It were a strange pretence to health that when thy Physitian had prescribed thee a bitter potion and came for an account how it had wrought upon thee thou shouldst say My brother hath taken twice as much as you prescribed for me but I tooke none Or if he ordained sixe ounces of bloud to be taken from thee to say My Grandfather bled twelve God shall judge according to The worke that is
owne will thou hadst quenched hell If thou couldst be content willing to be in hell hell were not hell So if God save a man against his will heaven is not heaven If he be loath to come thither sorry that he shall be there he hath not the joy of heaven and then heaven is not heaven Put not God to save thee by miracle God can save an Image by miracle by miracle he can make an Image a man If man can make God of bread certainly God can make a man of an Image and so save him but God hath made thee his own Image and afforded thee meanes of salvation Use them God compels no man Luke 14.23 The Master of the feast invited many solemnly before hand they came not He sent his servants to call in the poore upon the sudden and they came so he receives late commers And there is a Compelle intrare He sends a servant to compell some to come in But that was but a servants work The Master onely invited he compelled none We the servants of God have certaine compulsories to bring men hither The denouncing of Gods Judgements the censures of the Church Excommunications and the rest are compulsories The State hath compulsories too in the penall Laws But all this is but to bring them into the house to Church Compelle intrare We can compell them to come to the first seale to Baptisme we can compell men to bring their children to that Sacrament But to salvation onely the Master brings and in that Parable the Master does onely invite he compells none Though his corrections may seeme to be compulsories yet even his corrections are sweet invitations His corrections are so farre from compelling men to come to heaven as that they put many men farther out of their way and worke an obduration rather then an obsequiousnesse With those therefore that neglect the meanes that he hath brought them to in sealing them in the fore-head this Angel hath no more to doe but gives them over to the power of the foure destroying Angels With those that attend those meanns he proceeds and in their behalfe his Donec Spare them till I have sealed them becomes the blessed Virgins Donec Mat. 1.25 Psal 110.1 she was a Virgin till she had her Child and a Virgin after too And it becomes our blessed Saviours Donec He sits at his Fathers right hand till his enemies bee made his foot-stoole and after too So these destroying Angels that had no power over them till they were sealed shall have no power over them after they are sealed but they shall passe from seale to seale after that seale on the fore-head Ne erubeseant Euangelium Rom. 1.16 We signe him with the signe of the Crosse in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confesse the faith of Christ Crucified He shall come also to those seales which our Saviour recommends to his Spouse Cant. 8.6 Set me as a seale on thy heart and as a seale on thine arme S. Ambrose collects them and connects them together Signaculum Christi in corde ut diligamus in fronte ut confiteamur in brachio ut operemur God seales us in the heart that we might love him and in the fore-head that we might professe it and in the hand that we might declare and practise it and then the whole purpose of this blessed Angel in our Text is perfected in us and we our selves are made partakers of the solemnity of this day which we celebrate for we our selves enter in the Communion of Saints by these three seales Of Beliefe Of Profession Of Works and Practise SERMONS Preached upon THE CONVERSION OF S. PAVL SERM. XLVI Preached at S. Pauls The Sunday after the Conversion of S. PAUL 1624. ACTS 9.4 And he fell to the earth and heard a voyce saying Saul Saul why persecutest thou me LEt us now praise famous Men and our Fathers that begat us Ecclus. 44.1 saies the Wiseman that is that assisted our second generation our spirituall Regeneration Let us praise them commemorate them The Lord hath wrought great glory by them Ver. 2. through his power from the beginning saies he there that is It hath alwaies beene the Lords way to glorifie himselfe in the conversion of Men by the ministery of Men. For he adds Ver. 4. They were leaders of the people by their counsaile and by their knowledge and learning meet for the people wise and eloquent men in their instructions and that is That God who gives these gifts for this purpose looks for the employment of these gifts to the edification of others to his glory There be of them that have left a name behinde them Ver. 8. as it is also added in that place that is That though God can amply reward his servants in the next world yet he does it sometimes in this world and though not with temporall happinesses in their life yet with honor and commemorations and celebrations of them after they are gone out of this life they leave a name behind them And amongst them in a high place shines our blessed and glorious Apostle S. Paul whose Conversion the Church celebrates now and for the celebration thereof hath appointed this part of Scripture from whence this text arises to be the Epistle of the Day And he fell to the earth and heard a voyce saying Saul Saul why persccutest thou me There are words in the text that will reach to all the Story of S. Pauls Conversion Divisio embrace all involve and enwrap all we must contract them into lesse then three parts we cannot well those will be these first The Person Saul He He fell to the earth and then his humiliation his exinanition of himselfe his devesting putting off of himselfe He fell to the earth and lastly his investing of Christ his putting on of Christ his rising againe by the power of a new inanimation a new soule breathed into him from Christ He heard a voyce saying Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Now a re-distribution a sub-division of these parts into their branches we shall present to you anon more opportunely as we shall come in due order to the handling of the parts themselves In the first the branches will be but these Sauls indisposition when Christ tooke him in hand and Christs worke upon him what he found him what he left him will determine our first part The person First then what he was at that time 1. Part. Quid ante the Holy Ghost gives evidence enough against him and he gives enough against himselfe Of that which the Holy Ghost gives you may see a great many heavy pieces a great many appliable circumstances if at any time at home you do but paraphrase and spread to your selves the former part of this Chapter to this text Take a little preparation from me Adhuc spirans saies the first verse Saul yet breathing threatnings and slaughter Then when he was
before they come to the Scriptures then they are with the other duty of repentance which belongs to Prayer for in all Solomons bookes you shall not finde halfe so much of the duty of thankfulnesse as you shall in Seneca and in Plutarch No book of Ethicks of morall doctrine is come to us wherein there is not almost in every leafe some detestation some Anathema against ingratitude but of repentance not a word amongst them all And therefore in that dutie of prayer which presumes repentance for he must stand Rectus in curia that will pray David hath insisted longest and because he would enter and establish a man upon a confidence in God he begins with a deprecation of his anger for but upon that ground no man can stand and because he would dismisse him with that which concerns him most he chooseth to end in a Thanksgiving Therefore at last he comes to his thanks Gratiae actae Now this is so poore a duty if we proportion it to the infinitenesse of Gods love unto us our thanks as we may justly call it nothing at all Bernar. But Amor Dei affectus non contractus The love of God is not a contract a bargaine he looks for nothing againe and yet he looks for thanks for that is nothing because there is nothing done in it August it is but speaking Gratias dicere est gratias agere To utter our thanks to God is all our performance of thankfulnesse It is not so amongst us Philo Iudae Vix aut nunquam apud nos purum merum beneficium Every man that gives gives out of designe Martial and as it conduces to his ends Donat in hamo There is a hook in every benefit that sticks in his jawes that takes that benefit and drawes him whither the Benefactor will God looks for nothing nothing to be done in the way of exact recompence but yet as he that makes a Clock bestowes all that labour upon the severall wheeles that thereby the Bell might give a sound and that thereby the hand might give knowledge to others how the time passes so this is the principall part of that thankfulnesse which God requires from us that we make open declarations of his mercies to the winning and confirming of others This David does in this noble and ingenuous publication Discedite and protestation I have strength enough and company enough power enough and pleasure enough joy enough and treasure enough honour enough and recompence enough in my God alone in him I shall surely have all which all you can pretend to give and therefore Discedite à me Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity Here is then first a valediction a parting with his old company but it is a valediction with a malediction with an imprecation of Gods Justice upon their contempts and injuries There was in the mouth of Christ sometimes such a Discede such an Abito as that farewell was a welcome as when he said to the Ruler John 4.46 Luke 7.50 Abito Goe thy way thy son liveth And when he said to the woman Goe in peace thy saith hath saved thee This going was a staying with him still Here the Abite and Venite was all one He that goes about his worldly businesse and goes about them in Gods name in the feare and favour of God remaines in Gods presence still When the Angels of God are sent to visit his children in the middest of Sodome or where they lie and languish in sordid and nasty corners and in the loathsomenesse of corrupt and infectious diseases or where they faint in miserable dungeons this Commission this Discedite goe to that Sodome to that Spittle to that Dungeon puts not those Angels out of the presence of God No descent into hell of what kinde soever you conceive that descent into hell to have been put the Son of God out of heaven by descending into hell no Discede no Leave no Commandement that God gives us to doe the works of our calling here excludes us from him but as the Saints of God shall follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes in heaven so the Lamb of God shall follow his Saints wheresoever they goe upon earth if they walk sincerely Christ uses not then as yet as long as we are in this world this Discede of David to bid any man any sinner to depart from him But there shall come a time when Christ shall take Davids Discede the words of this Text into his mouth with as much and more bitternesse then David does here Nescivi nos I never knew yee and therefore Depart from me yee workers of iniquity So have you his Protestation Servi sui his Proclamation They must avoid but who Who be these that David dismisses here Take them to be those of his owne house his Servants and Officers in neare places whose service he had used to ill purposes as Davids Person and Rank and History directs us upon that Consideration and we shall finde all such persons wrapt up in this danger that they dare not discharge themselves they dare not displace nor disgrace those men to whom by such imployments they have given that advantage over themselves as that it is not safe to them to offend such a servant Naturâ nec hostem habet nec amicum rex sayes a wise Statesman In nature that is Polybius in the nature of greatnesse and as great great persons consider no man to be so much a friend nor to be so much an enemy but that they will fall out with that friend and be reconciled to that enemy to serve their own turne sayes that Statesman But yet when great Persons trust servants with such secret actions as may bring them into contempt at home or danger abroad by those vices if they should be published they cannot come when they would to this Discedite Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity We have this evidently and unavoidably we cannot but see it and say it in this example which is before us even in King David He had imployed Ioab in such services as that he stood in feare of him and indured at his hands that behaviour and that language Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants that have saved thy life 2 Sam. 19. and thy sons and daughters and wives and concubines thou regardest neither thy Princes nor servants but come out and speak comfortably unto them for I sweare by the Lord except thou doe come out there will not tarry one man with thee this night David indured all this for he knew that Ioab had that letter in his Cabbinet which he writ to him for the murther of Vriah and he never came to this Discedite to remove Ioab from him in his life but gave it in Commandement to his Son 1 Kings 2. Let not Ioabs hoary head goe downe to the grave in peace Here is the misery of David
all timorousnesse that my Transgressions are not forgiven or my sins not covered In the first Act we consider God the Father to have wrought He proposed he decreed he accepted too a sacrifice for all mankind in the death of Christ In the second The Covering of sinnes we consider God the Sonne to worke Incubare Ecclesiae He sits upon his Church as a Hen upon her Eggs He covers all our sinnes whom he hath gathered into that body with spreading himselfe and his merits upon us all there In this third The not Imputing of Iniquity we consider God the Holy Ghost to worke and as the Spirit of Consolation to blow away all scruples all diffidences and to establish an assurance in the Conscience The Lord imputes not that is the Spirit of the Lord The Lord the Spirit The Holy Ghost suffers not me to impute to my selfe those sinnes which I have truly repented The over-tendernesse of a bruised and a faint conscience may impute sinne to it selfe when it is discharged And a seared and obdurate Conscience may impute none when it abounds If the Holy Ghost work he rectifies both and if God doe inflict punishments according to the signification of this word Gnavah after our Repentance and the seals of our Reconciliation yet he suffers us not to impute those sinnes to our selves or to repute those corrections punishments as though he had not forgiven them or as though he came to an execution after a pardon but that they are laid upon us medicinally and by way of prevention and precaution against his future displeasure This is that Pax Conscientiae The peace of Conscience when there is not one sword drawne This is that Serenitas Conscientiae The Meridionall brightnesse of the Conscience when there is not one Cloud in our sky I shall not hope that Originall sin shall not be imputed but feare that Actuall sin may not hope that my dumbe sins shall not but my crying sins may not hope that my apparant sins which have therefore induced in me a particular sense of them shall not but my secret sins sins that I am not able to returne and represent to mine owne memory may for this Non Imputabit hath no limitation God shall suffer the Conscience thus rectified to terrifie it selfe with nothing which is also farther extended in the Originall where it is not Non Imputat but Non Imputabit Though after all this we doe fall into the same or other sins yet we shall know our way and evermore have our Consolation in this That as God hath forgiven our transgression in taking the sins of all mankinde upon himselfe for he hath redeemed us and left out Angels And as he hath covered our sin that is provided us the Word and Sacraments and cast off the Jews and left out the Heathen So he will never Impute mine Iniquity never suffer it to terrifie my Conscience Not now when his Judgements denounced by his Minister call me to him here Nor hereafter when the last bell shall call me to him into the grave Nor at last when the Angels Trumpets shall call me to him from the dust in the Resurrection But that as all mankinde hath a Blessednesse in Christs taking our sins which was the first Article in this Catechisme And all the Christian Church a Blessednesse in covering our sins which was the second So I may finde this Blessednesse in this worke of the Holy Ghost not to Impute that is not to suspect that God imputes any repented sin unto me or reserves any thing to lay to my charge at the last day which I have prayed may be and therefore hoped hath been forgiven before But then after these three parts which we have now in our Order proposed at first passed through That David applies himselfe to us in the most convenient way by the way of Catechisme and instruction in fundamentall things And then that he lays for his foundation of all Beatitude Blessednesse Happinesse which cannot be had in the consummation and perfection thereof but in the next world But yet in the third place gives us an inchoation an earnest an evidence of this future and consummate Blessednesse in bringing us faithfully to beleeve That Christ dyed sufficiently for all the world That Christ offers the application of all this to all the Christian Church That the Holy Ghost seals an assurance thereof to every particular Conscience well rectified After all this done thus largely on Gods part there remains something to be done on ours that may make all this effectuall upon us Vt non sit dolus in spiritu That there be no guile in our spirit which is our fourth part and Conclusion of all Of all these fruits of this Blessednesse there is no other root but the goodnesse of God himselfe but yet they grow in no other ground then in that man 4. Part. Dolus In cujus spiritu non est dolus The Comment and interpretation of S. Paul Rom. 4.5 hath made the sense and meaning of this place cleare To him that worketh the reward is of debt but to him that beleeveth and worketh not his faith is counted for righteousnesse Even as David describeth the blessednesse of Man sayes the Apostle there and so proceeds with the very words of this Text. Doth the Apostle then in this Text exclude the Co-operation of Man Differs this proposition That the man in whom God imprints these beames of Blessednesse must be without guile in his spirit from those other propositions Si vis ingredi Mat. 19.17 If thou wilt enter into life keepe the Commandements And Maledictus qui non Cursed is he that performes not all Grows not the Blessednesse of this Text from the same roote as the Blessednesse in the 119. Psal ver 1. Blessed are they who walke in the way of the Lord Or doth Saint Paul take David to speake of any other Blessednesse in our Text then himselfe speaks of If through the Spirit yee mortifie the deeds of the body yee shall live Rom. 8.13 Doth S. Paul require nothing nothing out of this Text to be done by man Surely he does And these propositions are truly all one Tantùm credideris Onely beleeve and you shall be saved And Fac hoc vives Doe this and you shall be saved As it is truly all one purpose to say If you live you may walke and to say If you stretch out your legges you may walke To say Eat of this Tree and you shall recover and to say Eat of this fruit and you shall recover is all one To attribute an action to the next Cause or to the Cause of that Cause is to this purpose all one And therefore as God gave a Reformation to his Church in prospering that Doctrine That Justification was by faith onely so God give an unity to his Church in this Doctrine That no man is justified that works not for without works how much soever he magnifie his faith
to have beene Gods instrument for the conversion of others by the power of Preaching or by a holy and exemplar life in any calling And with this comfort David proceeds in the recommendation of this duty of Prayer Day and night I have felt thy hand upon me ver 4. I have acknowledged my sinne unto thee and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin thus it stood with me and by my example ver 5. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou maiest be found First then the person that hath any accesse allowed him any title to pray Omnis sanctus is he that is Godly holy Now Omnis Sanctus est omnis Baptismate sanctificatus Those are the holy ones whom God will heare who are of the houshold of the faithfull of the Communion of Saints matriculated engraffed enrolled in the Church Hierom. by that initiatory Sacrament of Baptisme for the house of God into which we enter by Baptisme is the house of Prayer And as out of the Arke whosoever swam best was not saved by his swimming no more is any morall man out of the Church by his praying He that swomme in the flood swomme but into more and more water he that prayes out of the Church prayes but into more and more sin because he doth not establish his prayer in that Grant this for our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus sake It is true then that these holy ones whose prayer is acceptable are those of the Christian Church Onely they but is it all they are all their prayers acceptable There is a second concoction necessary too Not onely to have beene sanctified by the Church in Baptisme but a sanctification in a worthy receiving of the other Sacrament too A life that pleads the first seale Baptisme and claimes the other seale The body and blood of Christ Jesus We know the Wise mans counsaile Ecclus. 5.5 concerning propitiation Be not without feare Though thou have received the propitiatory Sacrament of Baptisme be afraid that thou hast not all Will the milke that thou suckedst from a wholesome Nurse keepe thee alive now Or canst thou dine upon last yeares meat to day Hee that hath that first holinesse The holinesse of the Covenant the holinesse of Baptisme let him pray for more For Omnis Sanctus is Quantumcumque Sanctus How holy soever he be that holinesse will not defray him all the way but that holinesse is a faire letter of credit and a bill of exchange for more When canst thou thinke thy selfe holy enough when thou hast washed thy selfe in snow water In penitent teares Iob 9.30 as the best purity of this life is expressed why even then Abominabuntur te vestimenta tua Thine owne cloathes shall make thee abominable Is all well when thou thinkest all well Prov. 16.2 why All the wayes of a man are cleane in his owne eyes but the Lord weigheth the spirit If thine owne spirit thine owne conscience accuse thee of nothing 1 Cor. 3.4 Iob 4.18 nothing unrepented is all well why I know nothing by my selfe yet am I not thereby justified It is God onely that is Surveyor of thy holinesse And Behold he found no stedfastnesse in his Servants and laid folly upon his Angels how much more in them that dwell in houses of clay Gregor whose foundation is in the dust Sordet in conspectu aeterni Iudieis When that eternall Judge comes to value our transitory or imaginary our hollow and rusty and rotten holinesse Sordet quod in intentione fulget operantis Even that which had a good lustre a good speciousnesse not onely in the eyes of men that saw it who might be deceived by my hypocrisie but in the purpose of him that did it becomes base more allay then pure metall more corruption then devotion Though Iacob Gen. 31.31 when he fled from his Father in law Laban were free enough himselfe from the theft of Labans Idols yet it was dangerously pronounced of him With whomsoever thou findest thy gods let him not live For his owne Wife Rachel had stollen them August And Caro conjux Thy Wife thy flesh thy weaker part may insinuate much sin into thine actions even when thy spirit is at strongest and thou in thy best confidence Onely thus these two cases may differ Rachel was able to cover those stollen Idols from her Fathers finding with that excuse The custome of Women is come upon me But thou shalt not be able to cover thy stollen sins with saying The infirmity of man is come upon me I do but as other men do Though thou have that degree towards sanctification that thou sin not out of presumption but out of infirmity though thou mayest in a modified sense fall within Davids word Omnis sanctus A holy man yet every holy and godly man must pray that even those infirmities may be removed too Qui sanctificatur sanctificetur adhuc Apoâ— 22.11 He that is holy let him be holy still not onely so holy still but still more and more holy For beloved As in the firmament of those stars which are reduced into Constellations and into a certainty of shapes of figures and images we observe some to be of one greatnesse some of another wee observe divers magnitudes in all them but to all those other Stars which are not reduced into those formes and figures we allow no magnitude at all no proportion at all no name no consideration So for those blessed soules which are collected into their eternall dwelling in Heaven which have their immoveable possession position at the right hand of God as one Star differs from another in glory so do these Saints which are in Heaven But whilst men are upon this earth though they be stars Saints of God though they be in the firmament established in the true Church of God yet they have no magnitude no proportion no certainty no holinesse in themselves nor in any thing formerly done by God in their behalfe and declared to us but their present degrees of godlinesse give them but that qualification that they may pray acceptably for more He must be so godly before he pray and his prayer must be for more godlinesse and all directed to the right object of prayer To God Vnto Thee shall every one that is godly pray which is our next the second of our foure Considerations in this first part Ad Te Ad Te. To God because he can heare And then Ad te to God because he can give Certainely it were a strange distemper a strange singularity a strange circularity in a man that dwelt at Windsor to fetch all his water at London Bridge So is it in him that lives in Gods presence as he does that lives religiously in his Church to goe for all his necessities by Invocation to Saints David was willing bee our example for Prayer but he gives no example of scattering our prayers upon