properly Protestant And though the Injunctions of our Church declare the sense of those times concerning Images yet they are wisely and godly conceived for the second is That they shall not extoll Images which is not that they shall not set them up but as it followeth They shall declare the abuse thereof And when in the 23 Injunction it is said That they shall utterly extinct and destroy amongst other things pictures yet it is limited to such things and such pictures as are monuments of feigned miracles and that Injuction reaches as well to pictures in private houses as in Churches and forbids nothing in the Church that might be retained in the house For those pernicious Errors which the Romane Church hath multiplied in this point not onely to make Images of men which never were but to make those Images of men very men to make their Images speak and move and weep and bleed to make Images of God who was never seen and to make those Images of God very gods to make their Images doe daily miracles to transferre the honour due to God to the Image and then to encumber themselves with such ridiculous riddles and scornfull distinctions as they doe for justifying unjustifiable unexcusable uncolourable enormities Va Idololatris woe to such advancers of Images as would throw down Christ rather then his Image But Vae Iconeclastis too woe to such peremptory abhorrers of Pictures and to such uncharitable condemners of all those who admit any use of them as had rather throw down a Church then let a Picture stand Laying hold upon S. Hieromes exposition that fals within the Vae the Commination of this Text to be without those Sacrifices those Ephods those Images as they are outward helps of devotion And laying hold not upon S. Hierome but upon Christ himselfe who is the God of love and peace and unity yet fals under a heavy and insupportable Vae to violate the peace of the Church for things which concern it not fundamentally Problematicall things are our silver but fundamentall our gold problematicall out sweat but fundamentall our blood If our Adversaries would be bought in with our silver with our sweat we should not be difficult in meeting them halfe way in things in their nature indifferent But if we must pay our Gold our Blood our fundamentall points of Religion for their friendship A Fortune a Liberty a Wife a Childe a Father a Friend a Master a Neighbour a Benefactor a Kingdome a Church a World is not worth a dramme of this Gold a drop of this Blood Neither will that man who is truly rooted in this foundation redeeme an Empoverishing an Emprisoning a Dis-inheriting a Confining an Excommunicating a Deposing with a dramme of this Gold with a drop of this Blood the fundamentall Articles of our Religion Blessed be that God who as he is without change or colour of change hath kept us without change or colour of change in all our foundations And he in his time bring our Adversaries to such a moderation as becomes them who doe truly desire that the Church may bee truly Catholique one stock in one fold under one Shepherd though not all of one colour of one practise in all outward and disciplinarian points Amen SERMON XLII A Sermon Preached in Saint Pauls in the Evening November 23. 1628. PROV 14. 31. He that oppresseth the poore reprocheth his Maker but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poore Part of the first Lesson for that Evening Prayer THese are such words as if we were to consider the words onely might make a Grammar Lecture and a Logick Lecture and a Rhetorick and Ethick a Philosophy Lecture too And of these foure Elements might a better Sermon then you are like to heare now be well made Indeed they are words of a large of an extensive comprehension And because all the words of the Word of God are in a great measure so that invites me to stop a little as upon a short first part before the rest or as upon a long entrie into the rest to consider not onely the powerfulnesse of the matter but the sweetnesse and elegancy of the words of the Word of God in generall before I descend to the particular words of this Text He that oppresseth the poore c. We may justly accommodate those words of Moses to God the Father What God is there in Heaven or in Earth that can doe according to thy workes And those words of Ieremie to God the Sonne Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow And those to the Holy Ghost which are in Esay Loquimini ad Cor speake to the heart speake comfortably to my People And those of Saint Iohn too A voyce of Thunder and after A voyce of seaven Thunders talking with me for who can doe like the Father who can suffer like the Sonne who can speake like the Holy Ghost Eloquia Domini eloquia casta saith David The words of the Lord are chaste words sincere pure words no drosse no profanenesse no such allay mingled with them for as it followeth there They are as silver tried and purified seaven times in the fire They are as that silver that is so tried and they are as that fire that trieth it It is Castum a Pure Word in it self and then it is powerfull upon the Hearer too Ignitum Eloquium tuum vehementer saith he Thy word hath the vehement operation of fire and therefore thy servant loveth it well as it followeth there Therefore because it pierces But therefore especially because it carrieth a sweetnesse with it For the sting of the Serpent pierces and the toothe of the Viper pierces but they carry venenosam salivam a venimous and mischievous liquour with them But Dulcia faucibus super Mel Thy words are sweeter to my mouth then Hony then Hony it selfe For verba composita saith Solomon chosen words studied premeditated words pleasing words so we translate it are as a Hony-combe Now in the Hony combe the Hony is collected and gathered and dispensed and distributed from the Hony-combe And of this Hony-combe is wax wax apt for sealing derived too The distribution of this Hony to the Congregation The sealing of this Hony to the Conscience is in the outward Ordinance of God and in the labour of the Minister and his conscionable fitting of himselfe for so great a service But the Hony-Combe is not the Hony The gifts of the man is not the Holy Ghost Iacob laid this blessing upon his sonne Naphtali Dabit Eloquia pulchritudinis That he should be a well-spoken and a perswasive man For of a defect in this kinde Moses complained and so did Esay and Ieremie did so too when they were to be imployed in Gods service Moses that he was of uncircumcised Esay that he was of unclean lips and Ieremie that he was a Childe and could not speak and therefore this was a Blessing upon
was come and gone for so much as belonged to the accomplishing of the types of the old law then Christ came againe to us by water and bloud in that wound which he received upon his side from which there flowed out miraculously true water true bloud This wound Saint Augustine calls Ianuam utriusque Sacramenti the doore of both sacraments where we see he acknowledges but two and both presented in this water and bloud and so certainely doe most of the fathers make this wound if not the foundation yet at least a sacrament of both the sacraments And to this water and bloud doth the Apostle here without doubt aime principally which he onely of all the Evangelists hath recorded and with so great asseveration and assurednesse in the recording thereof He that saw it bare record and his record is true and he knoweth that he saith truth that yee might beleeve it Here then is the matter which these six witnesses must be beleeved in here is Integritas Iesu quae non solvenda the intirenesse of Christ Jesus which must not be broken That a Saviour which is Iesus appointed to that office that is Christ figured in the law by ablutions of water and sacrifices of bloud is come and hath perfected all those figures in water and bloud too and then that he remaines still with us in water and bloud by meanes instituted in his Church to wash away our uncleannesses and to purge away our iniquities and to apply his worke unto our Soules this is Integritas Iesu Iesus the sonne of God in heaven Jesus the Redeemer of man upon earth Jesus the head of a Church to apply that to the end this is Integritas Iesu all that is to be beleeved of him Take thus much more that when thou comest to hearken what these witnesses shall say to this purpose thou must finde something in their testimony to prove him to be come not onely into the world but into thee He is a mighty prince and hath a great traine millions of ministring spirits attend him and the whole army of Martyrs follow the Lambe wheresoever he goes Though the whole world be his Court thy soule is his bedchamber there thou maist contract him there thou maist lodge and entertaine Integrum Iesum thy whole Saviour And never trouble thy selfe how another shall have him if thou have him all leave him and his Church to that make thou sure thine owne salvation When he comes to thee he comes by water and by bloud If thy heart and bowels have not yet melted in compassion of his passion for thy soule if thine eyes have not yet melted in tears of repentancâ— and contrition he is not yet come by water into thee If thou have suffered nothing for sinne nor found in thy selfe a chearfull disposition to suffer if thou have found no wresting in thy selfe no resistance of Concupiscences he that comes not to set peace but to kindle this war is not yet come into thee by bloud Christ can come by land by purchases by Revenues by temporall blessings for so he did still convey himselfe to the Jewes by the blessing of the land of promise but here he comes by water by his owne passion by his sacraments by thy tears Christ can come in a mariage and in Musique for so he delivers himselfe to the spouse in the Canticles but here he comes in bloud which comming in water and bloud that is in meanes for the salvation of our soules here in the militant Church is the comming that he stands upon and which includes all the Christian Religion and therefore he proves that comming to them by these three great witnesses in heaven and three in earth For there are three which beare record in heaven The Father the word and the holy Ghost and these three are one And there are three which bear record in the earth The spirit and the water and the bloud and these three agree in one By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be confirmed says Christ out of the law That 's as much as can be required in any Civill or Criminall businesse and yet Christ gives more testimony of himselfe for here he produces not Duos testes but Duas Classes two rankes of witnesses and the fullest number of each not two but three in heaven and three in earth And such witnesses upon earth as are omni exceptione majores without all exception It is not the testimony of earthly men for when Saint Paul produces them in abundance The Patriarch the Iudges the Prophets the elders of the old times of whom he exhibits an exact Catalogue yet he calls all them but Nubes testium cloudes of witnesses for though they be cloudes in Saint Chrysostomes sense that they invest us and enwrap us and so defend us from all diffidence in God we have their witnesse what God did for them why should we doubt of the like though they be cloudes in Athanasius sense they being in heaven showre downe by their prayers the dew of Gods grace upon the Church Though they be cloudes they are but cloudes some darkenesse mingled in them some controversies arising from them but his witnesses here are Lux inaccessibilis that light that no eye can attaine to and Pater Luminum the father of lights from whom all these testimonies are derived When God imployed a man to be the witnesse of Christ because men might doubt of his testimony God was content to assigne him his Compurgators when Iohn Baptist must preach that the kingdome of God was at hand God fortifies the testimony of his witnesse then Hic enim est for this is he of whom that is spoken by the prophet Esay and lest one were not enough he multiplies them as it is written in the prophets Iohn Baptist might be thought to testifie as a man and therefore men must testifie for him but these witnesses are of a higher nature these of heaven are the Trinity and those of earth are the sacraments and seales of the Church The prophets were full of favor with God Abraham full of faith Stephen full of the Holy Ghost many full of grace and Iohn Baptist a prophet and more then a prophet yet never any prophet never any man how much soever interessed in the favor of Almighty God was such an instrument of grace as a sacrament or as Gods seales and institutions in his Church and the least of these six witnesses is of that nature and therefore might be beleeved without more witnesses To speake then first of the three first the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost it was but a poore plot of the devill to goe about to rob us of their testimony for as long as we have the three last the spirit the water and bloud we have testimony enough of Christ because God is involved in his ordinance and though he be not tyed to the worke of the
of Saint Iohn and another by Saint Marke to the memory of Saint Peter whilest yet both Saint John and Saint Peter were alive Howsoever it is certaine that the purest and most innocent times even the infancy of the Primitive Church found this double way of expressing their devotion in this particular of building Churches first that they built them onely to the honour and glory of God without giving him any partner and then they built them for the conserving of the memory of those blessed servants of God who had sealed their profession with their bloud and at whose Tombs God had done such Miracles as these times needed for the propagation of his Church They built their Churches principally for the glory of God but yet they added the names of some of his blessed servants and Martyrs for so says he who as he was Peters successor so he is the most sensible feeler and most earnest and powerfull promover and expresser of the dignities of Saint Peter of all the Fathers speaking of Saint Peters Church Beato Petri Basilica quae uni Deo vero vivo dicata est Saint Peters Church is dedicated to the onely living God They are things compatible enough to beare the name of a Saint and yet to be dedicated to God There the bodies of the blessed Martyrs did peacefully attend their glorification There the Histories of the Martyrs were recited and proposed to the Congregation for their example and imitation There the names of the Martyrs were inserted into the publique prayers and liturgies by way of presenting the thanks of the Congregation to God for having raised so profitable men in the Church and there the Church did present their prayers to God for those Martyrs that God would hasten their glory and finall consummation in reuniting their bodies and soules in a joyfull resurrection But yet though this divers mention were made of the Saints of God in the house of God Non Martyres ipsi sed Deus â—orum nobis est Deus onely God and not those Martyrs is our God we and they serve all one Master we dwell all in one house in which God hath appointed us severall services Those who have done their days work God hath given them their wages and hath given them leave to goe to bed they have laid down their bodies in peace to sleep there till the Sunne rise againe till the Sunne of grace and glory Christ Iesus appeare in judgment we that are yet left to work and to watch we must goe forward in the services of God in his house with that moderation and that equality as that we worship onely our Master but yet despise not our fellow servants that are gone before us That we give to no person the glory of God but that we give God the more glory for having raised such servants That we acknowledge the Church to be the house onely of God and that we admit no Saint no Martyr to be a lointenant with him but yet that their memory may be an encouragement yea and a seale to us that that peace and glory which they possesse belongs also unto us in reversion and that therefore we may cheerfully gratulate their present happinesse by a devout commemoration of them with such a temper and evennesse as that we neither dishonor God by attributing to them that which is inseparably his nor dishonor them in taking away that which is theirs in removing their Names out of the Collects and prayers of the Church or their Monuments and memorialls out of the body of the Church for those respects to them the first Christian founders of Churches did admit in those pure times when Illa obsequia ornamenta memoriarum nâ—n sacrificia mortuorum when those devotions in their names were onely commemorations of the dead not sacrifices to the dead as they are made now in the Romane Church when Bellarmine will needs falsifie Chrysostome to read Adoramus monumenta in stead of Adornamus and to make that which was but an Adorning an adoring of the Tombes of the Martyrs This then was in all times a religious work an acceptable testimony of devotion to build God a house to contribute something to his outward glory The goodnesse and greatnesse of which work appears evidently and shines gloriously even in those severall names by which the Church was called and styled in the writings and monuments of the Ancient Fathers and the Ecclesiastique story It may serve to our edification at least and to the axalting of our devotion to consider some few of them First then the Church was called Ecclesia that is a company a Congregation That whereas from the time of Iohn Baptist the kingdome of heaven suffers violence and every violent Man that is every earnest and zealous and spiritually valiant Man may take hold of it we may be much more sure of doing so in the Congregation Quando agâ—â—ine factâ— Deum obsidemus when in the whole body we Muster our forces and besiege God For here in the congregation not onely the kingdome of heaven is fallen into our hands The kingdome of heaven is amongst you as Christ says but the King of heaven is fallen into our hands When two or three are gathered together in my Name I will be in the midst of you not onely in the midst of us to encourage us but in the midst of us to be taken by us to be bound by us by those hands those covenants those contracts those rich and sweet promises which he hath made and ratified unto us in his Gospell A second name of the Church 〈◊〉 in use was Dominicum The Lords possession It is absolutely it is intirely his And therefore as to shorten and contract the possession and inheritance of God the Church so much as to confine the Church onely within the obedience of Rome as the Donatists imprisoned it in Afrique or to change the Landmarks of Gods possession and inheritance which is the Church either to set up new works of outward prosperity or of personall and Locall succession of Bishops or to remove the old and true marks which are the Word and Sacraments as this is Injuria Dominico mystico a wrong to the mysticall body of Christ the Church so is it Injuria Dominico materiali an injury to the Materiall body of Christ sacrilegiously to dilapidate to despoile or to demolish the possession of the Church and so farre to remove the marks of Gods inheritance as to mingle that amongst your temporall revenues that God may never have nor ever distinguish his owne part againe And then to passe faster over these names It is called Domus Dei Gods dwelling house Now his most glorious Creatures are but vehicula Dei they are but chariots which convey God and bring him to our sight The Tabernacle it selfe was but Mobilis domus and Ecclesia portatilis a house without a foundation a running a progresse house but
not that the just shall feel no worldly misery but that that misery shall not make them miserable how evill so ever it be in it self it shall not be evill to them but Omnia in bonum All things work together for good to them that love God Who is he that will harme you if you be followers of God says Saint Peter The wicked will not follow you in that strange Country their conversation is not in heaven if yours be they will not follow you thither They will doe as he whose instruments they are do the Devill and Resist the Devill and he will flee from you A religious constancy blunts the edge of any sword dampes the spirits of any counsel benums the strength of any arme opens the corners of any Labyrinth and brings the subtilest plots against God and his servants not onely to an invalidnesse an ineffectualnesse but to a derision not onely to a Dimicatum de coelis that the world shall see that the Lord fights for his servants from heaven but to an Irridebit in coelis that he that sits in heaven shall laugh them to scorn he shall ruine them and ruine them in contempt That prayer that David makes Libera me Domine ab homine malo deliver me O Lord from the evill man is a large an extensive an indefinite prayer for there is an evill man occasion of tentation in every man in every woman in every action there is Coluber in via a snake in every path danger in every calling But Saint Augustine contracts that prayer and fixes it Liberet te Deus à temes noli tibi esse malius God blesse me from my selfe that I be not that evill man to my selfe that I lead not my selfe into tentation and nothing shall scandalize me To which purpose it concerns us to devest that naturall but corrupt easinesse of uncharitable mis-construing that which other men doe especially those whom God hath placed in his own place for government over us that we doe not come to think that there is nothing done if all bee not done that no abuses are corrected if all be not removed that there 's an end of all Protestants if any Papists bee left in the world Upon those words of our Saviour speaking of the last day of Judgement The son of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdome Omnia scandala All things that might offend Calvin says learnedly and wisely Qui ad extirpandum quicquid displicet praepostere festinant They that make too much haste to mend all at once antevertunt Christi judicium ereptum Angelis officium sibi temereusurpant They prevent Christs judgment and rashly and sacrilegiously they usurp the Angels office Christ hath reserved the cleansing and removing of all scandals all offences to the last day the Angels of the Church the Minister the Angels of the State the Magistrate cannot doe it not the Angels of heaven themselves till the day of judgement All scandals cannot be removed in this life but a great many more might be then are if men were not so apt to suspect and mis-constru and imprint the name of scandall upon every action of which they see not the end nor the way for from this jealousie and suspicion and misconstruction of the Angels of Church and State our Superiours in those sphears wee shall become jealous and suspicious of God himselfe that he hath neglected us abandoned us if he do not deliver us and establish us at those times and by those means which we prescribe him we shall come to argue thus against God himselfe Surely if God meant any good to us he would not put us into their hands who doe us no good Reduce all to the precious mediocrity To be unsensible of any declination of any diminution of the glory of God or his true worship and religion is an irreligious stupidity But to bee so ombragious so startling so apprehensive so suspicious as to think every thing that is done is done to that end this is a seditious jealousie a Satyr in the heart and an unwritten Libell and God hath a Star-chamber to punish unwritten Libels before they are published Libels against that Law Curse not or speak not ill of the King no not in thy thought Not to mourn under the sense of evils that may fall upon us is a stony disposition Nay the hardest stone marble will weep towards foul weather But to make all Possible things Necessary this may fall upon us therefore it must fall upon us and to make contingent and accidentall things to be the effects of counsels this is fallen upon us therefore it is fallen by their practise that have the government in their hands this is a vexation of spirit in our selves and a defacing a casting of durt in the face of Gods image of that representation and resemblance of God which he hath imprinted in them of whom hee hath sayd They are Gods In divine matters there is principally exercise of our faith That which we understand not we beleeve In civill affairs that are above us matters of State there is exercise of our Hope Those ways which we see not wee hope are directed to good ends In Civill actions amongst our selves there is exercise of our Charity Those hearts which we see not let us charitably beleeve to bee disposed to Gods service That when as Christ hath shut up his wâ—e onely in those two Va quia fâ—rtes illusiones Wâ—e because scandals and offences are so strong in their nature and Va quia infirmivos wâ—e because you are so weak in yours we doe not create a third Woe Va quia praevaricatores in an uncharitable jealousie and mis-interpretation of him that we are not in his care nor of his Ministers that they doe not execute his purposes nor of one another that when as God hath placed us in a Land where there are no wâ—lfes we doe not think Hominem homini Lupum imagine every man to be a wolf to us or to intend our destruction But as in the Arke there were Lions but the Lion shut his mouth and clincht his paw the Lion hurt nothing in the Arke and in the Arke there were Vipers and Scorpions but the Viper shewed no teeth nor the Scorpion no taile the Viper bit none the Scorpion stung none in the Arke for if they had occasioned any disorder there their escape could have been but into the Sea into irreparable ruine so in every State though that State be an Arke of peace and preservation there will be some kind of oppression in some Lions some that will abuse their power but Vae si scandalizemur woe unto us if we be scandalized with that and seditiously lay aspersions upon the State and Government because there are some such in every Church though that Church bee an Arke for integrity and sincerity there will bee some Vipers Vipers that will gnaw at their Mothers
choice whether hee should pardon me all those actuall and habituall sins which I have committed in my life or extinguish Originall sinne in me I should chuse to be delivered from Originall sin because though I be delivered from the imputation thereof by Baptism so that I shall not fall under a condemnation for Originall sin onely yet it still remains in me and practises upon me and occasions all the other sins that I commit now for all my actuall and habituall sins I know God hath instituted meanes in his Church the Word and the Sacraments for my reparation But with what a holy alacrity with what a heavenly joy with what a cheerfull peace should I come to the participation of these meanes and seals of my reconciliation and pardon of all my sins if I knew my selfe to be delivered from Originall sinne from that snake in my bosome from that poyson in my blood from that leaven and tartar in all my actions that casts me into Relapses of those sins which I have repented And what a cloud upon the best serenity of my conscience what an interruption what a dis-continuance from the sincerity and integrity of that joy which belongs to a man truly reconciled to God in the pardon of his former sins must it needs be still to know and to know by lamentable experiences that though I wash my selfe with Soap and Nitâ—e and Snow water mine own cloathes will defile me again though I have washed my selfe in the tears of Repentance and in the blood of my Saviour though I have no guiltinesse of any former sin upon me at that present yet I have a sense of a root of sin that is not grub'd up of Originall sinne that will cast me back again Scarce any man considers the weight the oppression of Originall sinne No man can say that an Akorn weighs as much as an Oak yet in truth there is an Oak in that Akorn no man considers that Originall sinne weighs as much as Actuall or Habituall yet in truth all our Actuall and Habituall sins are in Originall Therefore Saint Pauls vehement and frequent prayer to God to that purpose could not deliver him from Originall sin and that stimulus carnis that provocation of the flesh that Messenger of Satan which rises out of that God would give him sufficient grace it should not worke to his destruction but yet he should have it Nay the infinite merit of Christ Jesus himself that works so upon all actuall and habituall sins as that after that merit is applyed to them those sins are no sins works not so upon Originall sin but that though I be eased in the Dominion and Imputation thereof yet the same Originall sin is in me still and though God doe deliver me from eternall death due to mine actuall and habituall sins yet from the temporall death due to Originall sin he delivers not his dearest Saints Thus sin is heavy in the seed in the grain in the akorn how much more when it is a field of Corn a barn of grain a forest of Oaks in the multiplication and complication of sin in sin And yet wee consider the weight of sin another way too for as Christ feels all the afflictions of his children so his children will feel all the wounds that are inflicted upon him even the sins of other men as Lots righteous soule was grieved with sins of others If others sin by my example provocation or by my connivence and permission when I have authority their sin lies heavyer upon me then upon themselves for they have but the weight of their own sinne and I have mine and theirs upon me and though I cannot have two souls to suffer and though there cannot be two everlastingnesses in the torments of hell yet I shall have two measures of those unmeasurable torments upon my soul. But if I have no interest in the sins of other men by any occasion ministred by me yet I cannot chuse but feel a weight a burthen of a holy anguish and compassion and indignation because every one of these sins inflict a new wound upon my Saviour when my Saviour says to him that does but injure me Why persecutest thou me and feels the blow upon himselfe shall not I say to him that wounds my Saviour Why woundest thou me and groane under the weight of my brothers sin and my Fathers my Makers my Saviours wound If a man of my blood or allyance doe a shamefull act I am affected with it If a man of my calling or profession doe a scandalous act I feel my self concerned in his fault God hath made all mankinde of one blood and all Christians of one calling and the sins of every man concern every man both in that respect that I that is This nature is in that man that sins that sin and I that is This nature is in that Christ who is wounded by that sin The weight of sin were it but Originall sin were it but the sins of other men is an insupportable weight But if a sinner will take a true balance and try the right weight of sin let him goe about to leave his sin and then he shall see how close and how heavily it stook to him Then one sin will lay the weight of seelinesse of falshood of inconstancy of dishonour of ill nature if you goe about to leave it and another sin will lay the weight of poverty of disestimation upon you if you goe about to leave it One sin will lay your pleasures upon you another your profit another your Honour another your Duty to wife and children and weigh you down with these Goe but out of the water goe but about to leave a sin and you will finde the weight of it and the hardnesse to cast it off Gravatae sunt Mine iniquities are heavy that was our first and gravatae nimis they are too heavy which is a second circumstance Some weight some balast is necessary to make a ship goe steady we are not without advantage in having some sinne some concupiscence some tentation is not too heavy for us The greatest sins that ever were committed were committed by them who had no former sinne to push them on to that sin The first Angels sin and the sin of Adam are noted to be the most desperate and the most irrecoverable sins and they were committed when they had no former sin in them The Angels punishment is pardoned in no part Adams punishment is pardoned in no man in this world Now such sins as those that is sins that are never pardoned no man commits now not now when he hath the weight of former sins to push him on Though there be a heavy guiltinesse in Originall sin yet I have an argument a plea for mercy out of that Lord my strength is not the strength of stones nor my flesh brasse Lord no man can bring a clean thing out of uncleannesse Lord no man can say after I have
true worth of the thing it self Some men by the benefit of this light of Reason have found out things profitable and usefull to the whole world As in particular Printing by which the learning of the whole world is communicacable to one another and our minds and our inventions our wits and compositions may trade and have commerce together and we may participate of one anothers understandings as well as of our Clothes and Wines and Oyles and other Merchandize So by the benefit of this light of reason they have found out Artillery by which warres come to quicker ends then heretofore and the great expence of bloud is avoyded for the numbers of men slain now since the invention of Artillery are much lesse then before when the sword was the executioner Others by the benefit of this light have searched and found the secret corners of gaine and profit wheresoever they lie They have found wherein the weakenesse of another man consisteth and made their profit of that by circumventing him in a bargain They have found his riotous and wastefull inclination and they have fed and fomented that disorder and kept open that leake to their advantage and the others ruine They have found where was the easiest and most accessible way to sollicite the Chastitie of a woman whether Discourse Musicke or Presents and according to that discovery they have pursued hers and their own eternall destruction By the benefit of this light men see through the darkest and most impervious places that are that is Courts of Princes and the greatest Officers in Courts and can submit themselves to second and to advance the humours of men in great place and so make their profit of the weakenesses which they have discovered in these great men All the wayes both of Wisdome and of Craft lie open to this light this light of naturall reason But when they have gone all these wayes by the benefit of this light they have got no further then to have walked by a tempestuous Sea and to have gathered pebles and speckled cockle shells Their light seems to be great out of the same reason that a Torch in a misty night seemeth greater then in a clear because it hath kindled and inflamed much thicke and grosse Ayre round about it So the light and wisedome of worldly men seemeth great because he hath kindled an admiration or an applause in Aiery flatterers not because it is so in deed But if thou canst take this light of reason that is in thee this poore snuffe that is almost out in thee thy saint and dimme knowledge of God that riseth out of this light of nature if thou canst in those embers those cold ashes finde out one small coale and wilt take the paines to kneell downe and blow that coale with thy devout Prayers and light thee a little candle a desire to read that Booke which they call the Scriptures and the Gospell and the Word of God If with that little candle thou canst creep humbly into low and poore places if thou canst finde thy Saviour in a Manger and in his swathing clouts in his humiliation and blesse God for that beginning if thou canst finde him flying into Egypt and finde in thy selfe a disposition to accompany him in a persecution in a banishment if not a bodily banishment a locall banishment yet a reall a spirituall banishment a banishment from those sinnes and that sinnefull conversation which thou hast loved more then thy Parents or Countrey or thine owne body which perchance thou hast consumed and destroyed with that sinne if thou canst finde him contenting and containing himselfe at home in his fathers house and not breaking out no not about the worke of our salvation till the due time was come when it was to be done And if according to that example thou canst contain thy selfe in that station and vocation in which God hath planted thee and not through a hasty and precipitate zeale breake out to an imaginary and intempestive and unseasonable Reformation either in Civill or Ecclesiasticall businesse which belong not to thee if with this little poore light these first degrees of Knowledge and Faith thou canst follow him into the Garden and gather up some of the droppes of his precious Bloud and sweat which he shed for thy soule if thou canst follow him to Ierusalem and pick up some of those teares which he shed upon that City and upon thy soule if thou canst follow him to the place of his scourging and to his crucifying and provide thee some of that balme which must cure thy soule if after all this thou canst turne this little light inward and canst thereby discerne where thy diseases and thy wounds and thy corruptions are and canst apply those teares and blood and balme to them all this is That if thou attend the light of naturall reason and cherish that and exalt that so that that bring thee to a love of the Scriptures and that love to a beleefe of the truth thereof and that historicall faith to a faith of application of appropriation that as all those things were certainly done so they were certainly done for thee thou shalt never envy the lustre and glory of the great lights of worldly men which are great by the infirmity of others or by their own opinion great because others think them great or because they think themselves so but thou shalt finde that howsoever they magnifie their lights their wit their learning their industry their fortune their favour and sacrifice to their owne nets yet thou shalt see that thou by thy small light hast gathered Pearle and Amber and they by their great lights nothing but shels and pebles they have determined the light of nature upon the booke of nature this world and thou hast carried the light of nature higher thy naturall reason and even humane arguments have brought thee to reade the Scriptures and to that love God hath set to the seale of faith Their light shall set at noone even in their heighth some heavy crosse shall cast a damp upon their soule and cut off all their succours and devest them of all comforts and thy light shall grow up from a faire hope to a modest assurance and infallibility that that light shall never go out nor the works of darknesse nor the Prince of darknesse ever prevaile upon thee but as thy light of reason is exalted by faith here so thy light of faith shall be exalted into the light of glory and fruition in the Kingdome of heaven Before the sunne was made there was a light which did that office of distinguishing night and day but when the sunne was created that did all the offices of the former light and moreâ— Reason is that first and primogeniall light and goes no farther in a naturall man but in a man regenerate by faith that light does all that reason did and more and all his Morall and Civill and Domestique and indifferent actions
fruitfull Land but then he who is the Spirit of the Lord he who is the breath of our nostrills Incubat aquis as it is said there in the Creation he moves upon the waters by his royall and warlike Navy at Sea in which he hath expressed a speciall and particular care And by the breath and influence of his providence throughout the Land he preserves he applies he makes usefull those blessings unto us If this breath that is this power be at any time sourd in the passage and contract an il savor by the pipes that convay it so as that his good intentions are ill executed by inferiour Ministers this must not be imputed to him That breath that comes from the East the bed and the garden of spices when it is breathed out there is a persume but by passing over the beds of Serpents and puâ—refied Lakes it may be a breath of poyson in the West Princes purpose some things for ease to the people and as such they are sometimes presented to them and if they prove grievances they tooke their putrefaction in the way that is their corruption from corrupt executors of good and wholesome intentions The thing was good in the roote and the ill cannot be removed in an instant But then we carry not this word Ruach Spirit so high though since God hath said that Kings are Gods the Attribute of the Holy Ghost and his Office which is to apply to man the goodnesse of God belongs to Kings also for God gives but they apply all blessings to us But here we take the word literally as it is in the Text Ruach spirit is the Breath that we breathe the Life that we live The King is that Breath that Life and therefore that belongs to him First our Breath that is serme our speech belongs to him Be faithfull unto him and speake good of his Name is commanded by David of God To Gods Anointed we are not faithfull if we doe not speake good of his Name First there is an internall speech in the heart and God lookes to that the foole hath said in his heart there is no God though he say it but in his heart yet he is a foole for as wise as a Politician would thinke him for saying it in his heart and comming no further yet even that is an overt act with God for God seeth the heart It is the foole that saith in his heart there is no God and it is the foole that saith in his heart I would there were no King That enormous that infamous Tragedy of the Levites Concubins and her murder of which it is said there There was no such thing seen nor done before and many things are done which are never seen with that emphaticall addition Consider of it advise and say your minde hath this addition too In those dayes there was no King in Israel If there had beene any King but a Zedekiah it could not have been so Curse not the King not in thy thoughts for they are sinnes that tread upon the heels of one another and that induce one another to conceive ill of Gods Lievtenant and of God himselfe for so the Prophet joyneth them They shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God He that beginneth with the one will proceed to the other Thus then he is our Breath our Breath is his our speech must be contained not expressed in his dishonour not in misinterpretations of his Actions jealousies have often made women ill incredulitie suspiciousnesse jealousie in the Subject hath wrought ill effects upon Princes otherwise not ill We must not speake ill but our duty is not accomplished in that abstinence we must speake well And in those things which will not admit a good interpretation we must be apt to remove the perversenesse and obliquity of the act from him who is the first mover to those who are inferiour instruments In these divers opinions which are ventilated in the Schoole how God concurreth to the working of second and subordinate causes that opinion is I think the most antient that denies that God workes in the second cause but hath onely communicated to it a power of working and rest himselfe This is not true God does work in every Organ and in every particular action but yet though he doe work in all yet hee is no cause of the obliquity of the perversenesse of any action Now earthly Princes are not equall to God They doe not so much as work in particular actions of instruments many times they communicate power to others and rest wholly themselves and then the power is from them but the perversenesse of the action is not God does work in ill actions and yet is not guilty but Princes doe not so much as worke therein and so may bee excusable at least for any cooperation in the evill of the action though not for countenancing and authorising an evill instrument but that is another case They are our breath then Our breath is theirs in good interpretations of their actions and it is theirs especially in our prayers to Almighty God for them The Apostle exhorts us to pray for whom first for all men in generall but in the first particular that hee descends to for Kings And both Theodoret and Theophylact make that the onely reason why the Apostle did not name Kings first Vt non videatur adulari lest hee should seeme to flatter Kings Whether mankinde it selfe or Kings by whom mankinde is happy here be to be preferred in prayer you see both Theodoret and Theophylact make it a probleme And those prayers there enjoyned were for Infidel Kings and for persecuting Kings for even such Kings were the breath of their nostrils their breath their speech their prayers were due to them But then beloved a man may convey a Satir into a Prayer a man may make a prayer a Libell If the intention of the prayer be not so much to incline God to give those graces to the King as to tell the world that the King wants those graces it is a Libell We say sometimes in scorn to a man God help you and God send you wit and therein though it have the sound of a prayer wee call him foole So wee have seen of late some in obscure Conventicles institute certain prayers That God would keep the King and the Prince in the true Religion The prayer is always good always usefull but when that prayer is accompanied with circumstances as though the King and the Prince were declining from that Religion then even the prayer it selfe is libellous and seditious Saint Paul in that former place apparels a Subjects prayer well when hee sayes Let prayers bee given with thanks Let our prayers bee for continuance of the blessings which wee have and let our acknowledgement of present blessings bee an inducement for future pray and praise together pray thankfully pray not suspiciously for beloved in the bowels of Christ