prevailed so farre as that it is easie to observe in their Expositions upon the Lords Prayer that the greatest part of the Fathers doe ever interpret that Petition Da nobis hodie Give us this day our daily bread to be intended onely of spirituall blessings and not of temporall So S. Hierome saith when we ask that bread Illum petimus qui panis vivus est descendit de coelo we make our petition for him who is the bread of life and descended from the bosome of the Father and so he refers it to Christ and in him to the whole mystery of our Redemption And Athanasius and S. Augustine too and not they two alone refer it to the Sacramentall bread That in that Petition wee desire such an application of the bread of life as wee have in the participation of the body and blood of Christ Jesus in that Communion S. Cyprian insists upon the word Nostrum Our bread For saith he temporall blessings cannot properly bee called Ours because they are common to the Saints and to the reprobates but in a prayer ordained by Christ for the faithfull the petition is for such things as are proper and peculiar to the faithfull and that is for spirituall blessings onely If any man shall say Ideo quaerenda quia necessaria We must pray and we must labour for temporall things because they are necessary for us we cannot be without them Ideo non quaerenda quia necessaria sayes S. Chrysostome so much of them as is necessary for our best state God will give us without this laborious anxiety and without eating the bread of sorrow in this life Non speran dum de superfluis non desperandum de necessariis sayes the same Father It is a suspicious thing to doubt or distrust God in necessary things and it is an unmannerly thing to presse him in superfluous things They are not necessary before and they are not ours after for those things onely are ours which no body can take from us and for temporall thing Auferre potest inimicus homo invito Let the inimicus homo be the devill and remember Iobs case Let the inimicus homo be any envious and powerfull man who hath a minde to that that thou hast and remember Naboths case and this envious man can take any temporall thing from thee against thy will But spirituall blessings cannot bee taken so Fidem nemo perdidit nisi qui spreverit sayes S. Augustin No man ever lost his faith but he that thought it not worth the keeping But for Iobs temporall estate sayes S. Augustine all was lost And lest any man should say Vxor relicta erat Iob had not lost all because his Wife was left Misericordem putatis diabolum saies that Father qui ei reliquit Vxorem doe you thinke that Iob lighted upon a mercifull and good natur'd devill that the devill did this out of pity and compassion to Iob or that Iob was beholding to the devill for this that he left him his Wife Noverat per quam deceperat Adam sayes he The devill knew by what instrument he had deceived the first man and by the same instrument he practises upon Iob Suam reliquit adjutricem non mariti consolatricem He left Iob a helper but a helper for his owne ends but for her Husband a miserable comforter Caro conjux sayes the same Father in another place This flesh this sensuall part of ours is our wife and when these temporall things by any occasion are taken from us that wife that flesh that sensuality is left to murmure and repine at Gods corrections and that is all the benefit we have by that wife and all the portion we have with that wife Though therefore S. Hierom who understood the Originall Language the best of his time in his Translation of the Psalmes doe give the true the right sense of this place yet in his owne Commentaries upon the Psalmes he takes this first sense and beats upon that doctrine that it is but a popular error a generall mistaking to make worldly blessings any degree of happinesse he saw so good use of that doctrine as that he would not see the right interpretation of the words he saw well enough that according to the letter of the text temporall things were blessings yet because they were but left-handed blessings remembring the story in the booke of Judges of 700. left-handed Benjamites Iudg. 20.10 that would sling stones at a haires breadth and were better mark-men then the right-handed and considering the left-handed men of this world those who pursue temporall blessings onely went with most earnestnesse and best successe to their works to correct that generall distemper that generall vehemence upon temporall things S. Hierom and so many of the Fathers as accompany him in that interpretation were content to embrace that sense which is not truly the literall sense of this place that it should be only Beatum dixerint and not Beatus populus a popular error and not a truth that any man for any people were blessed in temporall things and so we have done with the first sense of these words and the reason why so many follow it We are come now to the second Interpretation where there is not Beatitudo falsa and vera for both are true but there is dextra and sinistra 2. Interpretatio a right-handed and left-handed blessednesse there is Inchoativa and perfectiva there is an introductory and a consummatory blessednesse and in the first of these in the left-handed in the lesse perfect blessednesse we must consider three things First Beatitudinem ipsam That there is a blessednesse proposed and secondly In quibus in what that blessednesse is placed in this text Quibus sic blessed are they that are so that is so as is mentioned in the three former verses and thirdly another In quibus not in what things but in what persons this first blessednesse is placed Beatus populus It is when all the people the whole body and not some ranks of men nor some particular men in those ranks but when all the people participate of these blessings Now first for this first blessedness Beatitudo As no Philosophers could ever tell us amongst the Gentiles what true blessedness was so no Grammarian amongst the Jews amongst the Hebrews could ever tell us what the right signification of this word is in which David expresses blessedness here whether Asherei which is the word be a plurall Noune and signifie Beatitudines Blessednesses in the plurall and intimate thus much that blessedness consists not in any one thing but in a harmony and consent of many or whether this Asherei be an Adverbe and signifie beatè and so be an acclamation O how happily how blessedly are such men provided for that are so they cannot tell Whatsoever it bee it is the very first word with which David begins his booke of Psalmes Beatus vir as the last word of that booke
be strong enough to make benefit of that assistance And so death adheres when sin and Satan have weakned body and minde death enters upon both And in that respect he is Vltimus hostis the last enemy and that is Sextum vestigium our sixth and next step in this paraphrase Death is the last and in that respect the worst enemy In an enemy Novisssnsâ—s hostis that appeares at first when we are or may be provided against him there is some of that which we call Honour but in the enemie that reserves himselfe unto the last and attends our weake estate there is more danger Keepe it where I intend it in that which is my spheare the Conscience If mine enemie meet me betimes in my youth in an object of tentation so Iosephs enemie met him in Putifars Wife yet if I doe not adhere to this enemy dwell upon a delightfull meditation of that sin if I doe not fuell and foment that sin assist and encourage that sin by high diet wanton discourse other provocation I shall have reason on my side and I shall have grace on my side and I shall have the History of thousand that have perished by that sin on my side Even Spittles will give me souldiers to fight for me by their miserable example against taht sin nay perchance sometimes the vertue of that woman whom I sollicite will assist me But when I lye under the hands of that enemie that hath reserved himselfe to the last to my last bed then when I shall be able to stir no limbe in any other measure then a Feaver or a Palsie shall shake them when everlasting darknesse shal have an inchoation in the present dimnesse of mine eyes and the everlasting gnashing in the present chattering of my teeth and the everlasting worme in the present gnawing of the Agonies of my body and anguishes of my minde when the last enemie shall watch my remedilsse body and my desconsolate soule there there where not the Physitian in his way perchance not the Priist in hi shall be able to give any assistance And when he hath sported himselfe with my misery upon that stage my death-bed shall shift the Scene and throw me from that bed into the grave and there triumph over me God knowes how many generations till the Redeemer my Redeemer the Redeemer of all me body aswell as soule come againe As death is Novissimus hostis the enemy which watches me at my last weaknesse and shall hold me when I shall be no more till that Angel come Who shall say and sweare that time shall be no more in that consideration in that apprehension he is the powerfullest the fearefulest enemy and yet evern there this enemy Abolebitur he shall be destroyed which is Septimum vestigium our seventh and last step in this paraphrase This destruction this abolition of this last enemy is by the Resurrection Abolebieur for the Text is part of an argument for the Resurrection And truly it is a faire intimation and testimony of an everlasting end in that state of the Resurrection that no time shall end it that we have it presented to us in all the parts of time in the past in the present and in the future We had a Resurrection in prophecy we have a Resurrection in the present working of Gods Sprit we shall have a Resurrection in the finall consummation The Prophet speaks in the furture He will swallow up death in victory there it is Abolebit Esay 25.8 All the Erangelists speak historically of matter of fact in them it is Abolevit And here in this Apostle it is in the present Aboletur now he is destroyed And this exhibites unto us a threefold occasion of advancing our devotion in considering a threefold Resurrection First a Resurrection from dejections and calamities in this world a Temporary Resurrection Secondly a Resurrection from sin a Spirituall Resurrection and then a Resurrection Secondly a Resurrection A calamitate When the Prophets speak of a Resurrection in the old Testament 1. A calamitate for the most part their principall intention is upon a temporall restitution from calamities that oppresse them then Neither doth Calvin carry those emphaticall words which are so often cited for a proofe of the last Resurrection Job 19.25 That he knows his Redeemer lives that he knows he shall stand the last man upon earth that though his body be destroyed yet in his flesh and with his eyes he shall see God to any higher sense then so that how low soeve he bee brought to what desperate state soever he be reducedin the eyes of the world yet he assures himself of a Resurrection a reparation a restitution to his former bodily health and worldly fortune which he had before And such a Resurrection we all know Iob had In that famous and most considerable propheticall vision which God exhibited to Ezekiel where God set the Prophet in a valley of very many and very dry bones and invites the severall joynts to knit again tyes them with their old sinews and ligaments clothes them in their old flest wraps them in their old skin and cals life into them again Gods principall intention in that vision was thereby to give them an assurance of a Resurrection from their present calamity not but that there is also good evidence of the last Resurrection in that vision too Thus far God argues with them áre nota from that which they knew before the finall Resurrection he assures them that which they knew not till then a present Resurrection from those pressures Remember by this vision that which you all know already that at last I shall re-unite the dead and dry bones of all men in a generall Resurrection And them if you remember if you consider if you look upon that can you doubt but that I who can do that can also recollect you from your present desperation and give you a Resurrection to your former temporall happinesse And this truly arises pregnantly necessarily out of the Prophets answer God asks him there Son of man cna these bones live And he answers Domine tu nósti O Lord God thou knowest The Prophet answers according to Gods intention in the question If that had been for their living in the last Resurrection Ezekiel would have answered God as Martha answered Christ John 11.24 when he said Thy brother Lazarus shall rise again I know that he shall rise again at the Resurrection at the last day but when the question was whether men so macerated so seattered in this world could have a Resurrection to their former temprorall happinesse here that puts the Prophet to his Domine tu nósti It is in thy breast to proposeit itis in thy hand to execute it whether thou do it or do it not thy name be glorisied It fals not within our conjecture which way it shall please thee to take for this Resurrection Domine tu nósti Thou
is not onely sent by God but is God Therefore does the Apostle inlarge and dilate and delight his soule upon this comfort Blessed be God 2 Cor. 1.3 even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulations that we may be able to comfort them which are in any affliction by that comfort wherewith our selves are comforted of God The Apostle was loath to depart from the word Comfort And therefore as God because he could sweare by no greater Heb. 6.13 sware by himselfe So because there is no stronger adjuration then the comfort it selfe to move you to accept this comfort as the Apostle did so we intreat you by that If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellow ship of the Spirit if any bowels Phil. 2.1 and mercie Lay hold upon this true comfort the comming of the Holy Ghost and say to all the deceitfull comforts of this world not onely Vanè consolati est is Zach. 10.2 Job 16.2 Your comforts are frivolous but Onerosi consolatores Your comforts are burdensome there is not onely a disappointing of hopes but an aggravating of sin in entertaining the comforts of this world As Barnabas that is Filius consolationis The son of consolation that he might bee capable of this comfort devested himselfe of all worldly possessions so as such sons Acts 4.36 Suck and be satisfied at the breasts of this consolation that you may milke out Esay 66.11 Ver. 13. and be delighted with the abundance of his glory And as one whom his mother comforteth so will I comfort you and you shall be comforted in Ierusalem Heaven is Glory and heaven is Joy we cannot tell which most we cannot separate them and this comfort is joy in the Holy Ghost This makes all Iobs states alike as rich in the first Chapter of his Booke where all is suddenly lost as in the last where all is abundantly restored This Consolation from the Holy Ghost makes my mid-night noone mine Executionera Physitian a stake and pile of Fagots a Bone-fire of triumph this consolation makes a Satyr and Slander and Libell against me a Panegyrique and an Elogy in my praise It makes a Tolle an Ave a Va an Euge a Crucifige an Hosanna It makes my death-bed a mariage-bed And my Passing-Bell an Epithalamion In this notion therefore we receive this Person and in this notion we consider his proceeding Ille He He the Comforter shall reprove This word that is here translated To reprove Arguere Arguet hath a double use and signification in the Scriptures First to reprehend to rebuke to correct with Authority with Severity So David Ne in furore arguas me O Lord rebuke me not in thine dnger Psal 6.1 And secondly to convince to prove to make a thing evident by undeniable inferences and necessary consequences So in the instructions of Gods Ministers the first is To reprove 2 Tiâ— and then To rebuke So that reproving is an act of a milder sense then rebuking is Auguâ—â— S. Augustine interprets these words twice in his Works and in the first place he followes the first signification of the word That the Holy Ghost should proceed when he came by power by severity against the world But though that sense will stand well with the first act of this Reproofe That he shall Reprove that is reprehend the world of sin yet it will not seeme so properly said To reprehend the world of Righteousnesse or of Judgement for how is Righteonsnesse and Judgement the subject of reprehension Therefore S. Augustine himselfe in the other place where he handles these words imbraces the second sense Hoc est arguere mundum ostendere vera esse quae non credidit This is to reprove the world to convince the world of her errours and mistakings And so scarce any excepted doe all the Ancient Expositors take it according to that All things are reproved of the light Ephes 5.13 and so made manifest The light does not reprehend them not rebuke them not chide not upbraid them but to declare them to manifest them to make the world see clearely what they are this is to reprove That reproving then Elenchus which is warrantable by the Holy Ghost is not a sharp increpation a bitter proceeding proceeding onely out of power and authority but by inlightning and informing and convincing the understanding The signification of this word which the Holy Ghost uses here for reproofe Elenchos is best deduced and manifested to us by the Philosopher who had so much use of the word who expresses it thus Elenchus est Syllogismus contra contraria opinantem A reproofe is a proofe a proofe by way of argument against another man who holds a contrary opinion All the pieces must be laid together For first it must be against an opinion and then an opinion contrary to truth and then such an opinion held insisted upon maintained and after all this the reproofe must lie in argument not in force not in violence First it must come so farre Opinio as to be an opinion which is a middle station betweene ignorance and knowledge for knowledge excludes all doubting all hesitation opinion does not so but opinion excludes indifferency and equanimity I am rather inclined to one side then another Lactant. Bernard when I am of either opinion Id opinatur quisque quod nescit A man may have an opinion that a thing is so and yet not know it S. Bernard proposes three wayes for our apprehending Divine things first understanding which relies upon reason faith which relies upon supreme Authority and opinion which relies upon probability and verisimilitude Now there may arise in some man some mistakings some mis-apprehensions of the sense of a place of Scripture there may arise some scruple in a case of conscience there may arise some inclinations to some person of whose integrity and ability I have otherwise had experience there may arise some Paradoxicall imaginations in my selfe and yet these never attaine to the setlednesse of an opinion but they float in the fancy and are but waking dreames and such imaginations and fancies and dreames receive too much honour in the things and too much favour in the persons if they be reproved or questioned or condemned or disputed against For often times even a condemnation nourishes the pride of the author of an opinion and besides begets a dangerous compassion in spectators and hearers and then from pitying his pressures and sufferings who is condemned men come out of that pity to excuse his opinions and from excusing them to incline towards them And so that which was but straw at first by being thus blown by vehement disputation sets fire upon timber and drawes men of more learning and authority to side and mingle themselves in these impertinencies Every fancy should not be so
parts of this text and to all that the Holy Ghost is to do upon the world for howsoever he may rebuke the world of sin he cannot be said to rebuke it of righteousnesse and of judgement according to S. Augustines later interpretation of these words for in one place of his workes he takes this word Reproofe in the harder sense for rebuke but in another in the milder we have and must pursue the second signification of the word That the Holy Ghost shall reprove the world of sin of righteousnesse of judgement by convincing the world by making the world confesse and acknowledge all that that the Holy Ghost intends in all these And this manifestation and this conviction in these three will be our parts In the first of which That the Holy Ghost shall Reprove that is convince the world of sin we shall first looke how all the world is under sin and then whether the Holy Ghost being come have convinced all the world made all the world see that it is so and in these two inquisitions we shall determine that first branch For the first for of the other two we shall reach you the boughes anon 1 Part. Mundus sub peccato when you come to gather the fruit and lay open the particulars then when we come to handle them That all the world is under sin and knowes it not for this Reproofe Elenchus is sayes the Philosopher Syllogismus contra contraria opinantem An argument against him that is of a contrary opinion we condole first the misery of this Ignorance for August Quid miserius misero non miser ante seipsum What misery can be so great as to be ignorant insensible of our owne misery Every act done in such an ignorance as we might overcome is a new sin And it is not onely a new practise from the Devill but it is a new punishment from God August Iussisti Domine sic est ut poena sit sibi omnis inordinatus animus Every sinner is an Executioner upon himselfe and he is so by Gods appointment who punishes former sins with future This then is the miserable state of the world It might know and does not that it is wholly under an inundation a deluge of sin For sin is a transgression of some Law which he that sins may know himselfe to be bound by For if any man could be exempt from all Law he were impeccable he could not sin And if he could not possibly have any knowledge of the Law it were no Law to him Now under the transgression of what Law lyes all the World Lex Humana For the positive Laws of the States in which we live a man may keepe them according to the intention of them that made those Laws which is all that is required in any humane Law to keepe it if not according to the letter yet according to the intention of the Law-maker Nay it is not onely possible Seneca but easie to do so Angusta innocentia ad legem bonum esse sayes the morall mans holy Ghost Seneca It is but a narrow and a shallow honesty to be no honester then the Law forces him to be Thus then in violating the Laws of the State all the World is not under sin If we passe from Laws meerely humane Ceremonialia though in truth scarce any just Law is so meerely humane for God that commands obedience to humane Laws hath a hand in the making of them to those ceremoniall and judiciall Laws which the Jews received immediately from God in which respect they may be called divine Laws though they were but locall and but temporary which were in such a number as that though penall Laws in some States be so many and so heavy as that they serve onely for snares and springes upon the people yet they are no where equall to the ceremoniall and judiciall Laws Psal â— 6 which lay upon the Jews yet even for these Laws S. Paul sayes of himselfe That touching that righteousnesse which is in the Law he was blamelesse Thus therefore in violating ceremoniall or judiciall Laws all the World is not under sin both because all the World was not bound by that Law and some in the World did keepe it But in two other respects it is Lex Naturae first That there is a Law of Nature that passes through all the World a Law in the heart and of the breach of this no man can be alwayes ignorant As every man hath a devill in himselfe Chrysost Spontaneum Daemonem A Devill of his owne making some particular sin that transports him so every man hath a kinde of God in himselfe such a conscience as sometimes reproves him Carry we this consideration a little higher and we may see herein some verification at least some usefull application of Origens extreme error Origen He thought that at last after infinite revolutions as all other substances should be even the Devill himselfe should be as it were sucked and swallowed into God and there should remaine nothing at last as there was nothing else at first but onely God not by an annihilation of the Creature that any thing should come to nothing but by this absorption by a transmigration of all Creatures into God that God should be all and all should be God So in our case That which is the sinners devill becomes his God That very sin which hath possessed him by the excesse of that sin or by some losse or paine or shame following that sin occasions that reproofe and remorse that withdraws him from that sin So all the world is under sin because they have a Law in themselves and a light in themselves And it is so in a second respect Originale peecatum Esay 1.4 Wisd 2.23 That all being derived from Adam Adams sin is derived upon all Onely that one man that was not naturally deduced from Adam Christ Jesus was guilty of no sin All others are subject to that malediction Vae genti peccatrici Wo to this sinfull World God made man Inexterminabilem sayes the Wiseman undisseisible unexpellible such as he could not be thrust out of his Immortality whether he would or no August for that was mans first immortality Posse non mori That he needed not have dyed When man killed himselfe and threw upon all his posterity the morte morieris that we must dye and that Death is Stipendium peccati The wages of sin and that Anima quae peccaverit Ezech. 18.4 ipsa morietur that That soule and onely that soule that sins shall dye Since we see the punishment fall upon all we are sure the fault cleaves to all too all do dye therefore all do sin And though this Originall sin that over-flowes us all may in some sense be called peccatum involuntarium a sin without any elicite act of the Will for so it must needs be in Children and so properly no sin yet as
gainefull workes those workes thou maist not doe upon the Sabbath But those workes in the vertue of the precept of this text thou must doe in the sight of men those that are hard for thee to doe David would not consecrate nor offer unto God 2. Sam. 24.24 that which cost him nothing first he would buy Araunahs threshing floare at a valuable price and then he would dedicate it to God To give old cloathes past wearing to the poore is not so good a worke as to make new for them Mar. 12.42 To give a little of your superfluities not so acceptable as the widows gift that gave all To give a poore soule a farthing at that doore where you give a Player a shilling is not equall dealing Amos 8.6 for this is to give God quisquilias frumenti The refuse of the wheat But doe thou some such things as are truly works in our sense such as are against the nature and ordinary practice of worldly men to doe some things by which they may see that thou dost prefer God before honour and wife and children and hadst rather build and endow some place for Gods service then poure out money to multiply titles of honour upon thy selfe or enlarge joyntures and portions to an unnecessary and unmeasurable proportion when there is enough done before Let men see that that thou doest Opera Bona. to be a worke qualified with some difficulty in the doing and then those workes to be good workes Videant opera bona that they may see your good works They are not good works how magnificent soever if they be not directed to good ends A superstitious end or a seditious end vitiates the best worke Great contributions have beene raised and great summes given to build and endow Seminaries and schooles and Colledges in forraine parts but that hath a superstitious end Great contributions have beene raised and great summes given at home for the maintenance of such refractary persons as by opposing the government and discipline of the Church have drawne upon themselves silencings and suspensions and deprivations but that hath a seditious end But give so as in a rectified conscience and not a distempered zeale a rectified conscience is that that hath the restimony and approbation of most good men in a succession of times and not to rely occasionally upon one or a few men of the separation for the present give so as thou maist sincerely say God gave me this to give thus and so it is a good worke So it must be A worke something of some importance and a good worke not depraved with an ill end and then your worke Vt videant opera vestra That they may see your good works They are not your works if that that you give be not your owne Nor is it your own Opera bona vâ—stra if it were ill gotten at first How long soever it have beene possessed or how often soever it have beene transformed from money to ware from ware to land from land to office from office to honour the money the ware the land the office the honour is none of thine if in thy knowlege it were ill gotten at first Zacheus in S. Luke Luke 19.8 gives halfe his goods to the poore but it is halfe of his his owne for there might be goods in his house which were none of his Therefore in the same instrument he passes that scrutiny If I have taken any thing unjustly I restore him foure-fold First let that that was ill gotten be deducted and restored and then of the rest which is truly thine owne give cheerefully When Moses saies that our yeares are three score and ten Psal 90.20 if we deduct from that terme all the houres of our unnecessary sleep of superfluous sittings at feasts of curiosity in dressing of largenesse in recreations of plotting and compassing of vanities or sinnes scarce any man of chreescore and ten would be ten years old when he dyes If we should deale so with worldly mens estates defalse unjust gettings it would abridge and attenuate many a swelling Inventory Till this defalcation this scrutiny be made that you know what 's your owne what 's other mens as your Tombe shall be but a monument of your rotten bones how much gold or marble soever be bestowed upon it so that Hospitall that free-schoole that Colledge that you shall build and endow will bee but a monument of your bribery your extortion your oppression and God who will not be in debt though he owe you nothing that built it may be pleased to give the reward of all that to them from whom that which was spent upon it was unjustly taken for Prov. 13.22 The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous saies Solomon The sinner may doe pious works and the righteous may be rewarded for them the world may thinke of one founder and God knowes another That which is enjoyn'd in the name of light here is works not trifles and good works made good by the good ends they are directed to and then your workes done out of that which is truly your owne and by seeing this light men will be mov'd to glorifie your Father which is in Heaven which is the true end of all that men may see them but see them therefore To glorisie your Father which is in Heaven He does not say that by seeing your good works Patrem non Filios men shall glorifie your sonnes upon earth And yet truly even that part of the reward and retribution is worth a great deale of your cost and your almes that God shall establish your posterity in the world and in the good opinion of good men As you have your estates you have your children from God too As it is Davids recognition Dominus pars haereditatis meae Psal 16.5 Gen. 4.1 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance so the Possedi virum à Domino was Eves Recognition upon the birth of her first son Cain I have gotten I possesse a man from the Lord. Now that that man that thou possessest from the Lord thy son may possesse that land that thou possessest from the Lord it behooves thee to be righteous for so by that righteousnesse thou becomest a foundation for posterity Prov. 10.25 Prov. 13.9 Prov. 14.23 The righteous is an everlasting foundation his light his good workes shall be a chearefull light unto him for The light of the righteous reioyceth him They shall be so in this life and He shall have hope in his death saith Solomon that is hope for himself in another world hope of his posterity in this world for saies he He leaveth an inheritance to his childrens children that is an inheritance Prov. 23.22 out of which hee hath taken and restored all that was unjustly got from men and taken a bountifull part which he hath offered to God in pious uses that the rest may descend free from
very hearts for only such shall see God Omnis meridies diluculum habuit as the same Father continues this Meditation The brightest non had a faint twi-light and break of day The sight of God which we shall have in heaven must have a Diluculum a break of day here If we will see his face there we must see it in some beames here And to that purpose Visus per omnes sensus recurrit as S. Augustine hath collected out of severall places of Scripture Every sense is called sight for there is Odora vide and Gusta vide Taste and See how sweet and Smell and See what a savour of life the Lord is Apoc. 1.12 Luke 24.39 So S. Iohn turned about To see a voice There Hearing was Sight And so our Saviour Christ sayes Palpate videte and there Feeling is Seeing All things concur to this Seeing and therefore in all the works of your senses and in all your other faculties See ye the Lord Heare him in his word and so see him Speak to him in your prayers and so see him Touch him in his Sacrament and so see him Present holy and religious actions unto him and so see him Davids heart was towards Absalon 2 Sam. 14. sayes that Story Ioab saw that and as every man will be forward to further persons growing in favour for so it should be done to him whom the King will honour Ioah plotted and effected Absalons return but yet Absalon saw not the Kings face in two yeares Beloved in Christ Jesus the heart of your gracious God is set upon you and we his servants have told you so and brought you thus neare him into his Court into his house into the Church but yet we cannot get you to see his face to come to that tendernesse of conscience as to remember and consider that all your most secret actions are done in his sight and his presence Caesars face and Caesars inscription you can see The face of the Prince in his coyne you can rise before the Sun to see and sit up till mid-night to see but if you do not see the face of God upon every piece of that mony too all that mony is counterfeit If Christ have not brought that fish to the hook Mat. 17.25 that brings the mony in the mouth as he did to Peter that mony is ill fished for If nourishing of suits and love of contention amongst others for your own gain have brought it 〈◊〉 12.14 〈◊〉 24.3 it is out of the way of that counsell Follow peace with all men and holinesse without which no man shall see God This is the generation of them that seeke him that seek thy face O Iacob Innocens manibus mundus corde either such an innocence as never fouled the hands or such an innocency as hath washed them cleane againe such an innocency as hath kept you from corrupt getting or such an innocency as hath restored us by restoring that which was corruptly got It is testified of Solomon 1 King 10.24 That he exceeded all the Kings of the Earth for Wisedome and for Riches and all the Earth sought the face of Solomon A greater then Solomon is here for Wisedome and Riches your wisedome is foolishnesse and your riches beggery if you see not the face of this Solomon If either you have studied or practised or judged when his back is towards you that is if you have not done all as in his presence You are in his presence now goe not out of it when you goe from hence Amor rerum terrenarum viscus pennarum spiritualium August God hath given you the wings of Doves and the eyes of Eagles to see him now in this place If in returning from this place you returne to your former wayes of pleasure or profit this is a breaking of those Doves wings and a cieling of those Eagles eyes Coge cor tuum cogitare divina compelle urge sayes that Father Here in the Church thou canst not chuse but see God and raise thy heart towards him But when thou art returned to thy severall distractions that vanities shall pull thine eyes and obtrectation and libellous defamation of others shall pull thine eares and profit shall pull thy hands then Coge compelle urge force and compell thy heart and presse even in that thrust of tentations to see God What God is in his Essence or what our sight of the Essence of God shall be in the next world dispute not too curiously determine nor too peremptorily Cogitans de Deo si finivisti Deus non est is excellently said by S. Augustine If thou begin to think what the Essence of God is and canst bring that thought to an end thou hast mistaken it whensoever thou canst say Deus est this is God or God is this non est Deus that is not God God is not that for he is more infinitely more then that But non potes dicere Deus est thou art not able to say This is God God is this Saltem dicas hoc Deus non est Be able to say This is not God God is not this The belly is not God Mammon is not God Mauzzim the God of Forces Oppression is not God Belphegor Licentiousnesse is not God Howsoever God sees me to my confusion yet I doe not see God when I am sacrificing to these which are not Gods Let us begin at that which is nearest us within us purenesse of heart and from thence receive the testimony of Gods Privy Seale the impression of his Spirit that we are Blessed and that leads us to the Great Seale the full fruition of all we shall see God there where he shall make us drink of the Rivers of his pleasures There is fulnesse plenty Psal 36.8 but lest it should be a Feast of one day or of a few as it is said they are rivers so it is added with thee is the Fountaine of life An abundant river to convay and a perpetuall spring to feed and continue that river And then wherein appeares all this In this for in thy light we shall see light In seeing God we shall see all that concernes us and see it alwayes No night to determine that day no cloud to overcast it We end all with S. Augustines devout exclamation Deus bone qui erunt illi oculi Glorious God what kinde of eyes shall they be Quam decori quam sereni How bright eyes and how well set Quam valentes quam constantes How strong eyes and how durable Quid arbitremur quid aestimemus quid loquemur What quality what value what name shall we give to those eyes Occurrunt verba quotidiana sordidata vilissimis rebus I would say something of the beauty and glory of these eyes and can finde no words but such as I my selfe have mis-used in lower things Our best expressing of it is to expresse a desire to come to it for there onely we
know and of those whom we did know how few did we care much for In Heaven we shall have Communion of Joy and Glory with all Aug. alwaies Vbi non intrat inimicus nec amicus exit Where never any man shall come in that loves us not nor go from us that does Beloved I thinke you could be content to heare I could be content to speake of this Resurrection our glorious state by the low way of the grave till God by that gate of earth let us in at the other of precious Stones And blessed and holy is he who in a rectified conscience desires that resurrection now But we shall not depart far from this consideration by departing into our last branch or conclusion That this first Resurrection may also be understood to be the first riser Christ Jesus and Blessed and holy is he that hath part in that first Resurrection This first Resurrection is then without any detorting 4 Part. any violence very appliable to Christ himself who was Primitiae dormientium in that that action That he rosc again he is become sayes the Apostle the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15.20 Hier. in Mat. 27.52 He did rise and rise first others rose with him none before him for S. Hierome taking the words as he finds them in that Euangelist makes this note That though the graves were opened at the instant of Christs death death was overcome the City opened the gates yet the bodies did not rise till after Christs Resurrection For for such Resurrections as are spoken of That women received their dead raised to life again Heb. 11.35 and such as are recorded in the old and new Testament they were all unperfect and temporary resurrections such as S. Hierome sayes of them all Resurgebant iterum morituri They were but reprieved not pardoned Hier. They had a Resurrection to life but yet a Resurrection to another death Christ is the first Resurrection others were raised but he only rose they by a forraine and extrinsique he by his owne power But we call him not the first in that respect onely for so he was not onely the first but the onely he alone arose by his owne power but with relation to all our future Resurrections he is the first Resurrection First If Christ be not raised your faith is in vaine 1 Cor. 15.17 saies the Apostle You have a vaine faith if you beleeve in a dead man He might be true Man though he remained in death but it concernes you to beleeve that he was the Son of God too And he was declared to be the Son of God Rom. 11.4 by the Resurrection from the dead That was the declaration of himselfe his Justification he was justified by the Spirit when he was proved to be God by raising himselfe But thus our Justification is also in his Resurrection For He was raised from the dead for our Iustification how for ours Rom. 4. ult That we should be also in the likenesse of his Resurrection What is that that he hath told us before Our Resurrection in Christ is that we should walke in newnesse of life Rom. 6.4 So that then Christ is the first Resurrection first Efficiently the onely cause of his owne Resurrection First Meritoriously the onely cause of our Resurrection first Exemplarily the onely patterne how we should rise and how we should walke when we are up and therefore Blessed and happy are we if we referre all our resurrections to this first Resurrection Christ Jesus For as Iob said of Comforters so miserable Resurrections are they all without him If therefore thou need and seeke this first Resurrection in the first acceptation a Resurrection from persecutions and calamities as they oppresse thee here have thy recourse to him to Christ Remember that at the death of Christ there were earthquakes the whole earth trembled There were rendings of the Temple Schismes Convulsions distractions in the Church will be But then the graves opened in the midst of those commotions Then when thou thinkest thy selfe swallowed and buried in affliction as the Angell did his Christ Jesus shall remove thy grave stone and give thee a resurrection but if thou thinke to remove it by thine owne wit thine owne power or the favour of potent Friends Digitus Dei non est hic The hand of God is not in all this and the stone shall lye still upon thee till thou putrifie into desperation and thou shalt have no part in this first Resurrection If thou need and seek this first resurrection in the second acceptation from the fearfull death of hainous sin have thy recourse to him to Christ Jesus remember the waight of the sins that lay upon him All thy sins and all thy Fathers and all thy childrens sins all those sins that did induce the first flood and shall induce the last fire upon this world All those sins which that we might take example by them to scape them are recorded and which lest we should take example by them to imitate them are left unrecorded all sins of all ages all sexes all places al times all callings sins heavy in their substance sins aggravated by their circumstances all kinds of sins and all particular sins of every kind were upon him upon Christ Jesus and yet he raised his holy Head his royall Head though under thornes yet crowned with those thornes and triumphed in this first Resurrection and his body was not left in the Grave nor his soule in Hell Christs first tongue was a tongue that might be heard He spoke to the Shepheards by Angels His second tongue was a Star a tongue which might be seene He spoke to the Wisemen of the East by that Hearken after him these two waies As he speakes to thine eare and to thy soul by it in the preaching of his Word as he speakes to thine eye and so to thy soule by that in the exhibiting of his Sacraments And thou shalt have thy part in this first Resurrection But if thou thinke to overcome this death this sense of sin by diversions by worldly delights by mirth and musique and society or by good works with a confidence of merit in them or with a relation to God himselfe but not as God hath manifested himselfe to thee not in Christ Jesus The stone shall lye still upon thee till thou putrifie into desperation and then hast thou no part in this first Resurrection If thou desire this first Resurrection in the third acceptation as S. Paul did To be dissolved and to be with Christ go Christs way to that also He desired that glory that thou doest and he could have laid down his soul when he would but he staid his houre sayes the Gospel He could have ascended immediatly immediatly in time yet he staid to descend into hell first and he could have ascended immediatly of himself by going up yet he staid till he was taken up Thou hast
the Laver in the Tabernacle of the looking glasses of women Exod. 38.8 Scarce can you imagine a vainer thing except you will except the vaine lookers on in that action then the looking-glasses of women and yet Moses brought the looking-glasses of women to a religious use to shew them that came in the spots of dirt which they had taken by the way that they might wash themselves cleane before they passed any farther There is not so poore a creature but may be thy glasse to see God in The greatest slat glasse that can be made cannot represent any thing greater then it is If every gnat that flies were an Arch-angell all that could but tell me that there is a God and the poorest worme that creeps tells me that If I should aske the Basilisk how camest thou by those killing eyes he would tell me Thy God made me so And if I should aske the Slow-worme how camest thou to be without eyes he would tell me Thy God made me so The Cedar is no better a glasse to see God in then the Hyssope upon the wall all things that are are equally removed from being nothing and whatsoever hath any beeing is by that very beeing a glasse in which we see God who is the roote and the fountaine of all beeing The whole frame of nature is the Theatre the whole Volume of creatures is the glasse and the light of nature reason is our light which is another Circumstance Of those words Iohn 1.9 That was the true light Lux rationiâ— that lighteth every man that commeth into the World the slackest sense that they can admit gives light enough to see God by If we spare S. Chrysostomes sense That that light is the light of the Gospel and of Grace and that that light considered in it self and without opposition in us does enlighten that is would enlighten every man if that man did not wink at that light If we forbear S. Augustines sense That light enlightens every man that is every man that is enlightned is enlightned by that light If we take but S. Cyrils sense that this light is the light of naturall Reason which without all question enlightneth every man that comes into the world yet have we light enough to see God by that light in the Theatre of Nature and in the glasse of Creatures God affords no man the comfort the false comfort of Atheism He will not allow a pretending Atheist the power to flatter himself so far as seriously to thinke there is no God He must pull out his own eyes and see no creature before he can say he sees no God He must be no man and quench his reasonable soule before he can say to himselfe there is no God The difference betweene the Reason of man and the Instinct of the beast is this That the beast does but know but the man knows that he knows The bestiall Atheist will pretend that he knows there is no God but he cannot say that hee knows that he knows it for his knowledge will not stand the battery of an argument from another nor of a ratiocination from himselfe He dares not aske himselfe who is it that I pray to in a sudden danger if there be no God Nay he dares not aske who is it that I sweare by in a sudden passion if there be no God Whom do I tremble at and sweat under at midnight and whom do I curse by next morning if there be no God It is safely said in the Schoole Media perfecta ad quae ordinantur How weak soever those meanes which are ordained by God seeme to be and be indeed in themselves yet they are strong enough to those ends and purposes for which God ordained them And so for such a sight of God as we take the Apostle to intend here which is to see that there is a God The frame of Nature the whole World is our Theatre the book of Creatures is our Medium our glasse and naturall reason is light enough But then for the other degree the other notification of God which is The knowing of God though that also be first to be considered in this world the meanes is of a higher nature then served for the sight of God and yet whilst we are in this World it is but In aenigmate in an obscure Riddle a representation darkly and in part as we translate it As the glasse which we spoke of before was proposed to the sense Scientia Dei and so we might see God that is see that there is a God This anigma that is spoken of now this darke similitude and comparison is proposed to our faith and so far we know God that is Beleeve in God in this life but by aenigmaes by darke representations and allusions Therefore saies S. Augustine that Moses saw God in that conversation which he had with him in the Mount Sevocatus ab omni corporis sensu Removed from all benefit and assistance of bodily senses He needed not that Glasse the helpe of the Creature And more then so Ab omni significativo aenigmate Spiritus Removed from all allusions or similitudes or representations of God which might bring God to the understanding and so to the beliefe Moses knew God by a more immediate working then either sense or understanding or faith Therefore saies that Father Per speculum aenigma by this which the Apostle cals a glasse and this which he cals aenigma a dark representation Intelliguntur omnia accommodata ad notificandum Deum He understands all things by which God hath notified himselfe to man By the Glasse to his Reason by the aenigma to his faith And so for this knowing of God by way of Beleeving in him as for seeing him our Theatre was the world the Creature was our glasse and Reason was our light Our Academy to learne this knowledge is the Church our Medium is the Ordinance and Institution of Christ in his Church and our light is the light of faith in the application of those Ordinances in that Church This place then where we take our degrees in this knowledge of God our Academy our University for that Academia Ecclesia is the Church for though as there may be some few examples given of men that have growne learned who never studied at University so there may be some examples of men enlightned by God and yet not within that covenant which constitutes the Church yet the ordinary place for Degrees is the University and the ordinary place for Illumination in the knowledge of God is the Church There fore did God who ever intended to have his Kingdome of Heaven well peopled so powerfully so miraculously enlarge his way to it The Church that it prospered as a wood which no felling no stubbing could destroy We finde in the Acts of the Church five thousand Martyrs executed in a day Acts 4.4 And we finde in the Acts of the Apostles five thousand brought
richer yet neither am I poorer then I was for that But if I have no comfort from the Holy Ghost I am worse then if all mankinde had been left in the Putrifaction of Adams loynes and in the condemnation of Adams sin For then I should have had but my equall part in the common misery But now having had that extraordinary favour of an offer of the Holy Ghost if I feele no comfort in that I must have an extraordinary condemnation The Father came neare me when he breathed the breath of life into me and gave me my flesh The Son came neare me when he took my flesh upon him and laid downe his life for me The Holy Ghost is alwaies neare me alwaies with me with me now if now I shed any drops of his dew his Manna upon you With me anon if anon I turne any thing that I say to you now to good nourishment in my selfe then and doe then as I say now With me when I eate or drink to say Grace at my meale and to blesse Gods Blessings to me With me in my sleep to keep out the Tempter from the fancy and imagination which is his proper Sceane and Spheare That he triumph not in that in such dreames as may be effects of sin or causes of sin or sins themselves The Father is a Propitious Person The Son is a Meritorious Person The Holy Ghost is a Familiar Person The Heavens must open to shew me the Son of Man at the right hand of the Father as they did to Steven But if I doe but open my heart to my selfe I may see the Holy Ghost there and in him all that the Father hath Thought and Decreed all that the Son hath Said and Done and Suffered for the whole World made mine Accustome your selves therefore to the Contemplation to the Meditation of this Blessed Person of the glorious Trinity Keep up that holy cheerefulnesse which Christ makes the Ballast of a Christian and his Fraight too to give him a rich Returne in the Heavenly Jerusalem Be alwayes comforted and alwayes determine your comfort in the Holy Ghost For that is Christs promise here in this first Branch A Comforter which is the Holy Ghost And Him sayes our second Branch the Father shall send There was a Mission of the Son Missio God sent his Son There was a Mission of the Holy Ghost This day God sent the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost But betweene these two Missions that of the Son and this of the holy Ghost we consider this difference that the first the sending of the Son was without any merit preceding There could be nothing but the meere mercy of God to move God to send his Son Man was so far from meriting that that as we said before he could not nor might if he could have wisht it But for this second Mission the sending of the holy Ghost there was a preceding merit Christ by his dying had merited that mankinde who by the fall of Adam had lost as S. August speaks Possibilitatem boni All possibilitie of Redintegration should not only be restored to a possibility of Salvation but that actually that that was done should be pursued farther and that by this Mission and Operation of the holy Ghost actually really effectually men should be saved So that as the work of our Redemption fals under our consideration that is not in the Decree but in the execution of the Decree in this Mission of the holy Ghost into the World Man hath so far an interest not any particular man but Man as all Mankind was in Christ as that we may truly say The holy Ghost was due to us Luâ—â— 24. And as Christ said of himselfe Nonne haec oportuit pati Ought not Christ to suffer all this Was not Christ bound to all this by the Contract betweene him and his Father to which Contract himselfe had a Privity it was his owne Act He signed it He sealed it so we may say Nonne hunc oportuit mitti Ought not the holy Ghost to be sent Had not Christ merited that the holy Ghost should be sent to perfect the worke of the Redemption So that in such a respect and in such a holy and devout sense we may say that the holy Ghost is more ours then either of the other Persons of the Trinity Because though Christ be so ours as that he is our selves the same nature and flesh and blood The holy Ghost is so ours as that we we in Christ Christ in our nature merited the holy Ghost purchased the holy Ghost bought the holy Ghost Which is a sanctified Simony and hath a faire and a pious truth in it We we in Christ Christ in our nature bought the holy Ghost that is merited the holy Ghost Christ then was so sent A Patre as that till we consider the Contract which was his owne Act there was no Oportuit pati no obligation upon him that he must have been sent The Holy Ghost was so sent as that the Merit of Christ of Christ who was Man as well as God which was the Act of another required and deserved that he should bee sent Therefore he was sent A Patre By the Father Now not so by the Father as not by the Son too For there is an Ego mittam If I depart I will send him unto you But Iohn 16.7 cleane thorough Christs History in all his proceedings still you may observe that he ascribes all that he does as to his Superiour to his Father though in one Capacity as he was God he were equall to the Father yet to declare the meekenesse and the humility of his Soule still he makes his recourse to his inferiour state and to his lower nature and still ascribes all to his Father Thouh he might say and doe say there I will send him yet every where the Father enters I will send him saies he Whom Luke 24.49 I will send the Promise of my Father Still the Father hath all the glory and Christ sinks downe to his inferiour state and lower nature In the World it is far otherwise Here men for the most part doe all things according to their greatest capacity If they be Bishops if they be Counsellors if they be Justices nay if they be but Constables they will doe every thing according to that capacity As though that authority confined to certaine places limited in certaine persons and determined in certaine times gave them alwaies the same power in all actions And because to some purposes hee may be my superiour he will be my equall no where in nothing Christ still withdrew himselfe to his lower capacity And howsoever worldly men engrosse the thanks of the world to themselves Christ cast all the honour of all the benefits that he bestowed upon others upon his Father And in his Veruntamen Yet not my will but thine O Father be done He humbled himselfe as low as David in his Non nobis
so there should be Diluvium Spiritus A flowing out of the holy Ghost upon all Joel 2.28 Esay 2.2 Joh. 3.8 as he promises Effundam I will poure it out upon all and Diluvium gentium That all nations should flow up unto him For this Spirit Spirat ubi vult Breathes where it pleases him and though a naturall winde cannot blow East and West North and South together this Spirit at once breathes upon the most contrary dispositions upon the presuming and upon the despairing sinner and in an instant can denizen and naturalize that soule that was an alien to the Covenant Empale and inlay that soule that was bred upon the Common amongst the Gentiles transform that soul which was a Goate into a Sheep unite that soul which was a lost sheep to the fold again shine upon that soul that sits in darknesse and in the shadow of death and so melt and poure out that soul that yet understands nothing of the Divine nature nor of the Spirit of God that it shall become partaker of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 1 Cor. 6.17 and be the same Spirit with the Lord. When Christ took our flesh he had not all his Ancestors of the Covenant he was pleased to come of Ruth a Moabite a poore stranger As he came so will the holy Ghost go to strangers also Shall any man murmur or draw into disputation why this Spirit doth not breath in all nations at once or why not sooner then it doth in some Doth this Spirit fall and rest upon every soul in this Congregation now May not one man finde that he receives him now and suffer him to go away again May not another who felt no motion of him now recollect himself at home and remember something then which hath been said now to the quickning of this Spirit in him there Since the holy Ghost visits us so successively not all at once not all with an equall establishment we may safely imbrace that acceptation of this word Arguet He shall he will Antequam abierit Before the end come Reprove convince the whole world of sin by this his way the way of comfort the preaching of the Gospell And that is the first acceptation thereof The second acceptation of the word is in the present Arguit not Arguet He shall but Arguit He doth now he doth reprove all the world As when the Devill confessed Christ in the Gospel as when Judas who was the Devils Devill for he had sold Christ to the Chiefe-Priests Mat. 26.14 before Satan entred into him after the Sop Iohn 13.27 professed this Gospel this was not Sine omni impulsu Spiritus Sancti Altogether without the motion of the Holy Ghost who had his ends and his purposes therein to draw testimonies for Christ out of the mouths of his adversaries so when a naturall man comes to be displeased with his owne actions and to discerne sin in them though his naturall faculties be the Instruments in these actions yet the Holy Ghost sets this Instrument in tune and makes all that is musique and harmony in the faculties of this naturall man At Ephesus S. Paul found certaine Disciples which were baptized and when he asked them Whether they had received the Holy Ghost Acts 19.2 they said That they had not so much as heard that there was a Holy Ghost So certainly infinite numbers of men in those unconverted Nations have the Holy Ghost working in them though they have never so much as heard that there is a Holy Ghost When we see any man doe any work well that belongs to the hand to write to carve to play to doe any mechanique office well doe we determine mine our consideration onely upon the Instrument the hand doe we onely say he hath a good a fit a well disposed hand for such a work or doe we not rather raise our contemplation to the soule and her faculties which enable that hand to do that work So certainly when a morall man hath any reproofe any sense of sin in himselfe the holy Ghost is the intelligence that moves in that spheare and becomes the soule of his soule and works that in him primarily of which naturall faculties or philosophicall instructions are but ministeriall instruments and suppletory assistances after And not only in the beginning of good actions but in the prosecution of some evill the holy Ghost hath an interest though we discern him not In the disposing of our sins the holy Ghost hath a working thus That when we intended some mischievous sin to morrow a lesse sin some sin of pleasure meets us and takes hold of us and diverts us from our first purpose and so the holy Ghost rescues us from one sin by suffering us to fall into another What action soever hath any degree of good what action soever hath any lesse evill in it then otherwise it would have had hath received a working of the holy Ghost though that man upon whom he hath wrought knew not his working nor his name As we thinke that we have the differences of seasons of Winter and Summer by the naturall motion of the Sun but yet it is not truly by that naturall motion but by a contrary motion of a higher spheare which drawes the Sun against his naturall course for if the Sun were left to himselfe we should not have these seasons so if the soul and conscience of a meere naturall man have any of these reproofes and remorses though perchance fear or shame or sicknesse or penalties of law yea though a wearinesse and excesse of the sin it selfe may seem to him to be the thing that reproves him and that occasions this remorse because it is the most immediate and therefore most discernible yet there is Digitus Dei The hand of God and spiritus Spiritus sancti The breath of the holy Ghost in all this who as a liberall almes-giver sends to persons that never know who sends works upon persons who never know who works So the holy Ghost reproves all the world of sin that is all the reproofe which even the naturall man hath and every man hath some at sometimes is from the holy Ghost and as in the former sense the Cum venerit When he eomes was Antequam abierit before he goes so here the Cum venerit is Quia adest because he is alwayes present and alwayes working And then there is a third acceptation where the Arguet is not in the future Operatus est That he shall do it nor in the present Arguit That he doth it now in every naturall man but it is in the time past Arguit He hath done it done it already And here in this sense it is not that the holy Ghost shall bring the Gospell before the end to all Nations that is Antequam abierit Nor that the holy Ghost doth exalt the naturall faculties of every man in all his good actions that is Quia semper adest but it
came to put a war upon us The zeale of his glory and the course of this world fight against one another It is not against all warre nay it is not against all victory that David prayes He cannot hope that he should be overcome by no Tentations but against such a war and such a victory as should bring him to servility and bondage to sinne That sin entring by Conquest upon him should governe as a tyran over him against such a sicknesse as should induce a consumption it is that he directs this prayer Sana me Domine Not Lord make me impeccable but Lord make me penitent and then heale me And he comes not to take physick upon wantonnesse but because the disease is violent because the accidents are vehement so vehement so violent as that it hath pierced Ad ossa and Ad animam My bones are vexed and my soule is sore troubled Therefore heale me which is the Reason upon which he grounds this second petition Heale me because my bones are vexed c. We must necessarily insist a little upon these termes Ossa The Bones The Soule The Trouble or Vexation First Ossa Bones We know in the naturall and ordinary acceptation what they are They are these Beames and Timbers and Rafters of these Tabernacles these Temples of the Holy Ghost these bodies of ours But Immanebimus nativae significationi sayes S. Basil Shall we dwell upon the native and naturall signification of these Bones Et intelligentia passim obvia contenti erimus Shall we who have our conversation in heaven finde no more in these Bones then an earthly a worldly a naturall man would doe By S. Basils example we may boldly proceed farther Membra etiam animae sunt Esay 42. sayes he The soule hath her limbs as well as the body Surdi audite caeci aspicite sayes God in Esay If their soules had not eares and eyes the blinde could not see the deafe could not heare and yet God cals upon the deafe and blinde to heare and see As S. Paul sayes to the Ephesians The eyes of your understanding being enlightned so David sayes Psal 3.7 Dentes peccatorum contrivisti Thou hast broken the teeth That is the pride and the power the venom and malignity of the wicked Membra etiam animae sunt The soule hath her Bones too and here Davids Bones were the strongest powers and faculties of his soule and the best actions and operations of those faculties and yet they were shaken For this hereditary sicknesse Originall sinne prevayles so far upon us that upon our good dayes we have some grudgings of that Fever Even in our best actions we have some of the leaven of that sinne So that if we goe about to comfort our selves with some dispositions to Gods glory which we finde in our selves with some sparks of love to his precepts and his commandements with some good strength of faith with some measure of good works yea with having something for the Name and glory of Christ Jesus yet if we consider what humane and corrupt affections have been mingled in all these Conturbabuntur ossa our Bones will be troubled even those that appeared to be strong works and likely to hold out will need a reparation an exclamation Sana me Domine O Lord heale these too or els these are as weake as the worst Ossa non dolent The Bones themselves have no sense they feele no paine We need not say That those good works themselves which we doe have in their nature the nature of sinne That every good worke considered alone and in the substance of the act it selfe is sinne But membranae dolent Those little membrans those filmes those thin skins that cover and that line some bones are very sensible of paine and of any vexation Though in the nature of the worke it selfe the worke be not sinne yet in those circumstances that invest and involve the worke in those things which we mingle with the worke whether desire of glory towards men or opinion of merit towards God Whensoever those bones those best actions come to the examination of a tender and a diligent Conscience Si ossa non dolent membranae dolent If the worke be not sinfull the circumstances are and howsoever they may be conceived to be strong as they are Ossa Bones works in a morall consideration good yet as they are Ossa mea sayes David as they are My bones such good works as taste of my ill corruptions so long they are vexed and troubled and cannot stand upright nor appeare with any confidence in the sight of God Thus far then first David needed this sanation this health that he prayes for Anima that his best actions were corrupt But the corruption went farther to the very roote and fountaine of those actions Ad ipsam animam His very soule was sore vexed It is true that as this word Anima the soule is sometimes taken in the Scriptures this may seeme to goe no farther then the former no more that his soule was vexed then that his bones were so for Anima in many places is but Animalis Homo The soule signifies but the naturall man And so opponitur spiritui The soule is not onely said to be a diverse thing but a contrary thing to the Spirit When the Apostle sayes to the Thessalonians 1 Thes ult 23. Now the very God of peace sanctifie you throughout that your whole spirit and soule and body may be kept blamelesse unto the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ And where the same Apostle sayes to the Hebrews The word of God divideth asunder the soule and the spirit Heb. 4.12 here is a difference put between corrupt nature and the working of the Spirit of God the Holy Ghost in man for here the soule is taken for Animalis home The naturall man and the Spirit is taken for the Spirit of God But besides this these two words Soule and Spirit are sometimes used by the Fathers in a sense diverse from one another and as different things and yet still as parts of one and the same man Man is said by them not onely to have a body and a soule but to have a soule and a spirit not as Spirit is the Spirit of God and so an extrinsecall thing but as Spirit is a constitutive part of the naturall man So in particular amongst many Gregory Nyssen takes the Body to be spoken De nutribili The flesh and bloud of man And the soule De sensibili The operation of the senses And the Spirit De Intellectuali The Intellectuall the reasonable faculties of man That in the body Man is conformed to Plants that have no sense In the soule to Beasts that have no reason In the spirit to Angels But so The Spirit is but the same thing with that which now we doe ordinarily account the soule to be for we make account that the Image of God is imprinted in the soule and that gives him his
thou be tempted with over-valuing thine owne purity finde an Example to answer that Job 14.27 Pro. 20.9 Quis mundum Who can bring a cleane thing out of uncleannesse Or that Who can say I have made my heart cleane I am pure from sinne There is no Example No man ever did it No man can say it If thou be tempted to worship God in an Image be able to answer God something to that To whom will yee liken God or what likenesse will yee compare unto him Esay 40.18 There can be no example no patterne to make God by for that were to make God a Copy and the other by which he were made the Originall If thou have a tentation to withdraw thy selfe from the Discipline of that Church in which God hath given thee thy Baptisme finde an Example to satisfie thy Conscience and Gods people in what age in what place there was any such Church instituted or any such Discipline practised as thou hast fancied to thy selfe Beleeve nothing for which thou hast not a Rule Doe nothing for which thou hast not an Example for there is not a more dangerous distemper in either Beliefe or Practise then singularity for there onely may we justly call for Miracles if men will present to us and binde us to things that were never beleeved never done before David therefore in this Psalme his Psalme of Instruction as himselfe calls it doth both He lays downe the Rule he establishes it by Example and that was our first Consideration and we have done with that Our second is That he goes not far for his Example 2 Part. Exemplum ipse He labors not to shew his reading but his feeling not his learning but his compunction his Conscience is his Library and his Example is himselfe and he does not unclaspe great Volumes but unbutton his owne breast and from thence he takes it Men that give Rules of Civill wisedome and wise Conversation amongst men use to say that a wise man must never speak much of himselfe It will argue say they a narrow understanding that he knows little besides his own actions or els that he overvalues his own actions if he bring them much into Discourse But the wise men that seeke Christ for there were such wise men in the world once Statesmen in the kingdome of heaven they goe upon other grounds and wheresoever they may finde them they seeke such Examples as may conduce most to the glory of God And when they make themselves Examples they doe not rather choose themselves then others but yet they doe not spare nor forbeare themselves more then other men David proposes his owne Example to his owne shame but to Gods glory For David was one of those persons Qui non potuit solus perire Bernar. He could not sin alone his sin authorized sin in others Princes and Prelates are Doctrinall men in this sense and acceptation that the subject makes the Princes life his Doctrine he learns his Catechisme by the eye he does what he sees done and frames to himselfe Rules out of his Superiors Example Therefore for their Doctrine David proposes truly his own Example and without disguising tells that of himselfe which no man else could have told Christ who could doe nothing but well proposes himselfe for an example of humility Iohn 3.15 Titus 2.7 I have given you an example Whom what That you should doe as I have done So S. Paul instructs Titus In all things shew a patterne of good works But whom for Titus might have shewed them many patternes but Shew thy selfe a patterne sayes the Apostle and not onely of assiduous and laborious preaching but of good works 1 Cor. 16.10 And this is that for which he recommends Timothy to the Church Hee works the work of the Lord And not without a patterne nor without that patterne which S. Paul had given him in himselfe He works so as I also doe S. Paul who had proposed Christ to himselfe to follow might propose himselfe to others and wish as he does I would all men were even as my selfe 1 Cor. 7.7 For though that Apostle by denying it in his owne practise 2 Cor. 4.5 seeme to condemne it in all others To preach our selves We preach not our selves but Christ Iesus the Lord yet to preach out of our owne history so farre as to declare to the Congregation to what manifold sins we had formerly abandoned our selves how powerfully the Lord was pleased to reclaime us how vigilantly he hath vouchsafed to preserve us from relapsing to preach our selves thus to call up the Congregation to heare what God hath done for my soule is a blessed preaching of my selfe And therefore Solomon does not speak of himselfe so much nor so much propose and exhibit himselfe to the Church in any Book as in that which he calls the Preacher Ecclesiastes In that Book he hides none of his owne sins none of those practises which he had formerly used to hide his sins He confesses things there which none knew but himselfe nor durst nor should have published them of him the King if they had knowne them So Solomon preaches himself to good purpose and poures out his owne soule in that Book Which is one of the reasons which our Interpreters assigne why Solomon cals himselfe by this name Lorin Proleg C. 5. Ecclesiastes Coheleth which is a word of the Foeminine gender and not Concionator but Concionatrix a Shee-preacher because it is Anima Concionatrix It is his soule that preaches he poures out his owne soule to the Congregation in letting them know how long the Lord let him run on in vanities and vexation of spirit and how powerfully and effectually he reclaimed him at last For from this Book the Preacher the she-Preacher the soule-Preacher Solomon preaching himselfe rather her selfe the Church raises convenient arguments and the best that are raised for the proofe of the salvation of Solomon of which divers doubted And though Solomon in this Book speak divers things not as his owne opinion but in the sense of worldly men yet as we have a note upon Plato's Dialogues that though he doe so too yet whatsoever Plato sayes in the name and person of Socrates that Plato alwayes meanes for his owne opinion so whatsoever Solomon sayes in the name of the Preacher the Preacher sayes this or sayes that that is evermore Solomons own saying When the Preacher preaches himselfe his owne sins and his owne sense of Gods Mercies or Judgements upon him as that is intended most for the glory of God so it should be applied most by the hearer for his own edification for he were a very ill natured man that should think the worse of a Preacher because he confesses himselfe to be worse then he knew him to be before he confessed it Therefore David thought it not enough to have said to his Confessor to Nathan in private Peccavi I have sinned but here before
an idle God which is as great an Atheisme as the other But because it goes thus with them that they have many and great sorrowes they conclude that all have so But The heart knoweth his owne bitternesse Prov. 14.10 They know their own case Ibid. the case of the godly they know not The stranger shall not meddle with their Ioy He that is a stranger to this trust in God understands nothing of the joy that appertaines to them that have it Esth 14.19 Let that be thy prayer which was the prayer of Esther Thy handmaid hath had no joy but in thee O Lord God of Abraham O thou mightie God above all heare thou the voyce of them that have no other hope Our Adversaries of Rome charge us that we have but a negative Religion If that were true it were a heavy charge if we did onely deny and establish nothing But we deny all their new additions so as that we affirme all the old foundations The Negative man that trusts in nothing in the world may be but a Philosopher but an Atheist but a stupid and dead carcasse The Affirmative man that does acknowledge all blessings spirituall and temporall to come from God that prepares himselfe by holinesse to be fit to receive them from God that comes for them by humble prayer to God that returnes for them humble thankes to God this man hath the first marke of this person upon him He trusts in God But he that trusts not in the world nor in God neither is worse then he that trusts in the world and not in God because he is farther removed from all humility that attributes all to himselfe He pretends to be an Atheist and to beleeve in no God and yet he constitutes a new Idolatry he sacrifices to himselfe and makes himselfe his God The second Character Righteous and specification of this Person is that he is Righteous And this word we shall doe best to containe here within a legall Righteousnesse that Righteousnesse in which S. Paul protested and proclaimed himselfe to be unblamable For howsoever this apparant Righteousnesse Righteousnesse in the eyes of the world be not enough alone yet no other Righteousnesse is enough without this The hypocrite by being an hypocrite may aggravate his own condemnation when he comes to reckon with God But to the Church who knows him not to be an hypocrite he does good by his exemplar and outward Righteousnesse He that does good for vaine-glory may lead another man to good upon good grounds And the prayers of those poore soules whom he may have benefited by his vain-glorious good worke may prevaile so with God in his behalfe as that his vaine-glory here may become true glory even in the Kingdome of Heaven So then we carry this word Righteous no farther but to the doing of those honest things which we are bound to doe in the sight of men The word is Tzadok which is often used for the exaltation and perfection of all true holinesse But as it is very often in the old Testament taken for Verax and Aequus when a mans word and worke answer one another towards men so in the New Testament in the Syriake Translation where the word is the same as in the Hebrew it is Oportuit It behoved Christ to suffer and in such a sense in very many places to be Righteous is to doe that which it behoved us to doe became us to doe concerned us to doe in the sight of men Which can be exprest in no one thing more fully then in this To embrace a lawfull Calling and to walke honestly in that Calling That is Righteousnesse For Iustus sua fide vivit The Righteous lives by his owne faith Not without faith nor with the faith of another so Iustus suo sudore vescitur The Righteous eats his Bread in the sweat of his owne browes He labours in an honest Calling and drinks not the sweat of others labours And this is that Righteousnesse in this Text the second marke upon this Person who is partaker of this Portion And the third is Vpright in heart that he is Rectus corde Vpright in heart That he direct even all the works of his Calling all the actions of his life upon the glory of God If you carry a Line from the Circumference to the Circumference againe as a Diameter it passes the Center it flowes from the Center it looks to the Center both wayes God is the Center The Lines above and the Lines below still respect and regard the Center Whether I doe any action honest in the sight of men or any action acceptable to God whether I doe things belonging to this life or to the next still I must passe all through the Center and direct all to the glory of God and keepe my heart right without variation towards him For as I doe no good action here meerly for the interpretation of good men though that be one good and justifiable reason of my good actions so I must doe nothing for my Salvation hereafter meerly for the love I beare to mine owne soule though that also be one good and justifiable reason of that action But the primary reason in both as well the actions that establish a good name as the actions that establish eternall life must be the glory of God Distortum lignum semper nutat August A wry and crooked planke in the floore will alwayes shake and kicke up and creake under a mans foote A wry and a crooked heart will alwayes shake distrustfully and kicke rebelliously and creake repiningly under the hand of God Non potest collineari rectitudine Dei Idem sayes the same Father He is not paralleld with God he is not leveld with God if he use not his blessings if he accept not his corrections as God intends them First To trust in God and then to deale Righteously with men and all the way to keepe the heart straight upon God these three make up the Person And these three his Portion That he shall be glad and he shall rejoyce and jubilabit he shall shout for joy Now as three great summes of gold put into one bagge Mercy these three branches of this Portion of the Righteous are fixt in one roote raised upon one foundation Mercy shall compasse him about But then this mercy this Compassing mercy reaches not so farre as that thou shalt have no affliction though thou trust in God David had been an unfit person to have delivered such a Doctrine who sayes of himselfe Psal 73.14 Daily have I been punished and chastned every morning He had it every day it was his daily bread and it was the first thing that he had he had it in the morning Here is mention of a morning early sorrowes even to the godly and mention of a Day continuing sorrowes even to the godly But he speaks of no Night here the Son of grace the Son of God does not
proofe of the Resurrection of the body and the answer was easie and obvious We doe not baptize living men in the name and in the behalfe of the dead for any other respect then for the salvation of their soules and what is that to the resurrection of the body So that this sense of Tertullians of Baptisme by a Proxy by an Atturney seemes not to be the sense of this place and yet because it savours of charity to the dead though it were an heretical custome Bellarmine prefers this interpretation of Tertullian before any other but his owne which we handled before Theodoret interprets this Baptisme for the dead to be a baptisme of Representation Theodoret. That in baptisme by being put under the water and raised up againe we represent the death and resurrection of Christ for the dead is for Christ for the testimony of Christ And therefore that baptizing by immersion by covering the party with water was so exactly observed in those times as it came to be thought that no man was well baptized except he had received it so by Immersion as by many Treatises and many Consultations amongst the Fathers by way of Letters and the Acts of some Councels we perceive And of this representation of the death of Christ in our Baptisme administred in that manner by Immersion S. Paul is thought by some to have spoken when he sayes Know ye not that all we that have been baptized into Iesus Christ Rom. 6.3 have been baptized into his death That is say they by that representation of his death in Immersion Neither is any thing more evident then that Theodoret was so far in the right that our baptisme and the rather in that forme of Immersion is a representation of the death and buriall and resurrection of Christ but yet to call this Baptisme therefore because it was a representation of Christ who was dead a Baptisme for the dead is a phrase somewhat more hard and unusuall then may be easily admitted in such a matter of faith as this is And besides that Baptisme which is this Representation is a Baptisme common to all all that are baptized are baptized so But the Apostle in this place makes his argument from a particular kind of Baptisme which some did and some did not use Quid de illis sayes he what shall become of them and Quid illi what doe they meane that are baptized in this peculiar manner So that as not Tertullians baptisme by an Atturney so neither Theodorets baptisme by Representation seems to be the sense of this place S. Chrysostome much about the same time with Theodoret and long after them both Chrysost Theophylact. at least six hundred yeares Theophylact meet in a third sense That because at the taking of Baptisme they did usually rehearse the Creed which Creed concluded with those articles The resurrection of the body and life everlasting therefore this baptisme for the dead should onely signifie a baptisme for the hope of the Resurrection But since they rehearsed all the articles of the Christian beliefe as well as that at Baptisme it might as properly be said that they were baptized for Christ baptized for the holy Ghost baptized for the descent into hell as for the dead And besides that this was also a baptisme common to all all rehearsed the Articles of the Creed it was not such a peculiar baptisme as the Apostle hath respect to here in his Quid de illis and Quid illi what shall become of them and what doe they meane by this their Baptisme And therefore this seems not to be the sense That this Baptisme for the dead should onely be a profession of that article of the Resurrection of the dead though S. Chrysostome and Theophylact concur in or derive from or upon one other that interpretation To come lower and to a lower rank of witnesses from the Fathers to the Schoole Aquinas Aquinas hath another sense and certainly an usefull a devout and an appliable interpretation which is That Mortui here are peccata Those that are called Dead here are Dead works sins and so to be baptized for the dead is to be baptized for our sins for the washing away our sins in an acknowledgement That although we did contract a leprous sin even in our conception That we were subject to the wrath and indignation of God before we were able to conceive that there was a God That before our bones were hardned the canker and rust of Adams sin was in our bones That before we were a minute old we have a sin in us that is six thousand years old That though we be as blind after we come out of our mothers bellies as we were there Though we passe over our time without ever asking our owne consciences why we were sent hither Though our sins have hardned us against God and done a harder work then that in hardning God against us yet though we have turned God into a Rock there is water in that rock Num. 20. if we strike it if we solicite it affect it with our repentance As in the stone font in the Church there is water of Baptisme so in the Corner stone of the Church Christ Jesus whom we have hardned against us there is a tendernesse there is a Well of water springing up into everlasting life As we have changed this water into stone petrified Gods tendernesse towards us Psal 114.8 so convertit petram in stagna aquarum sayes David He hath turned that rock into a standing water water and water that stayes with us in his Church and the flint into a fountaine of waters that is sayes S. Augustine seipsum suam quandam duritiam liquefecit ad irrigandos fideles At the beames of his owne mercy God hath thawed that ice and dissolved that stone into which we had hardned him and he hath let in a River of Jordan into his Church the Sacrament of Baptisme in the present act and subsequent efficacy whereof we are washed from originall and from actuall sins All these sins are the fruits of death as they are opposed against the Lord of life and pro hisce mortuis baptizamur sayes Aquinas for the dead that is for these dead workes we are baptized And certainly for a second sense to exalt our devotion by I should prefer this before any other But the principall and literall sense of this place this cannot be because it is a figurative sense and though the figure be not in the word Baptisme where Bellarmine places it for Aquinas speaks literally of a Sacramentall Baptisme yet it is in the other word In mortuis Aquinas doth not speak literally but metaphorically of the Dead and that may as ill be admitted in a matter of faith of so great importance as the other And besides this seems to conclude nothing necessarily for the resurrection of the body that we are washed from our sins And lastly this is still a