25. Every man may see it man may behold it afar off p. 271. Serm. XXXII APOC. 7 9. After this I beheld and loe a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lambe clothed with white robes and Palmes in their hands p. 279. Serm. XXXIII CANT 3. 11. Go forth ye daughters of Sion and behold King Solomon with the Crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals and in the day of the gladnesse of his heart p. 288. Serm. XXXIIII LUKE 23. 34. Father forgive them for they know not what they doe p. 304. Serm. XXXV MAT. 21. 44. Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken but on whosoever it shall fall it will grinde him to powder p. 311. Sermons preached at S. Pauls Sermon XXXVI JOH 1. 8. He was not that Light but was sent to beare witnesse of that Light p. 320. Serm. XXXVII A second Serm. on the same Text. p. 334. Serm. XXXVIII A third Ser. on the the same Text. p. 343. Serm. XXXIX PHIL. 3. 2. Beware of the Concision p. 356. Serm. XL. 2 COR. 5. 20. We pray yee in Christs stead Be ye reconciled to God p. 364. XLI HOSEA 3. 4. For the Children of Israel shall abide many dayes without a King and without a Prince and without a Sacrifice and without an Image and without an Ephod and without Teraphim p. 375. Serm. XLII PROV 14. 31. He that oppresseth the poor reprocheth his Maker but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the 〈◊〉 p. 385. Serm. XLIII LAMENT 4. 20. The breath of our nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits p. 396. Serm. XLIV MAT. 11. 6. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me p. 411. Sermons preached at S. Dunstans Serm. XLV DEUT. 25. 5. If brethren dwell together and one of them dye and have no childe the Wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger her husbands brother shall goe in unto her and take her to him to wife and performe the duty of an husbands brother unto her p. 422. Serm. XLVI PSAL. 34. 11. Come ye children Hearken unto me I will teach you the feare of the Lord. p. 430. Ser. XLVII GEN. 3. 24. And dust shalt thou eate all the dayes of thy life p. 439. Ser. XLVIII LAMENT 3. 1. I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath p. 445. Serm. XLIX GEN. 7. 24. Abraham himself was ninety nine yeeres old when the foreskin of his flesh was Circumcised p. 456. Serm. L. 1 THES 5. 16. Rejoyce evermore p. 466. A SERMON PREACHED At the Earl of Bridgewaters house in London at the mariage of his daughter the Lady Mary to the eldest sonne of the L. Herbert of Castle-iland Novemb. 19. 1627. The Prayer before the Sermon O Eternall and most gracious God who hast promised to hearken to the prayers of thy people when they pray towards thy house though they be absent from it worke more effectually upon us who are personally met in this thy house in this place consecrated to thy worship Enable us O Lord so to see thee in all thy Glasses in all thy representations of thy selfe to us here as that hereafter we may see thee face to face and as thou art in thy self in thy kingdome of glory Of which Glasses wherein we may see thee Thee in thine Unity as thou art One God Thee in thy Plurality as thou art More Persons we receive this thy Institution of Mariage to be one In thy first work the Creation the last seale of thy whole work was a Mariage In thy Sonnes great work the Redemption the first seale of that whole work was a miracle at a Mariage In the work of thy blessed Spirit our Sanctification he refreshes to us that promise in one Prophet That thou wilt mary thy selfe to us for ever and more in another That thou hast maryed thy selfe unto us from the beginning Thou hast maryed Mercy and Iustice in thy selfe maryed God and Man in thy Sonne maryed Increpation and Consolation in the Holy Ghost mary in us also O Lord a Love and a Fear of thee And as thou hast maryed in us two natures mortall and immortall mary in us also the knowledge and the practise of all duties belonging to both conditions that so this world may be our Gallery to the next And mary in us the Spirit of Thankfulnesse for all thy benefits already bestowed upon us and the Spirit of prayer for the continuance and enlargement of them Continue and enlarge them O'God upon thine universall Church c. SERM. I. MATTH 22. 30. For in the Resurrection they neither mary nor are given in Mariage but are as the Angels of God in heaven OF all Commentaries upon the Scriptures Good Examples are the best and the livelyest and of all Examples those that are nearest and most present and most familiar unto us and our most familiar Examples are those of our owne families and in families the Masters of families the fathers of families are most conspicuous most appliable most considerable Now in exercises upon such occasions as this ordinarily the instruction is to bee directed especially upon those persons who especially give the occasion of the exercise that is upon the persons to bee united in holy wedlock for as that 's a difference betweene Sermons and Lectures that a Sermon intends Exhortation principally and Edification and a holy stirring of religious affections and then matters of Doctrine and points of Divinity occasionally secondarily as the words of the text may invite them But Lectures intend principally Doctrinall points and matter of Divinity and matter of Exhortation but occasionally and as in a second place so that 's a difference between Christening sermons and Mariage sermons that the first at Christnings are especially directed upon the Congregation and not upon the persons who are to be christened and these at mariages especially upon the parties that are to be united and upon the congregation but by reflexion When therefore to these persons of noble extraction I am to say something of the Duties and something of the Blessing of Mariage what God Commands and what God promises in that state in his Scriptures I lay open to them the best exposition the best Commentaries upon those Scriptures that is Example and the neerest example that is example in their own family when with the Prophet Esay I direct them To look upon the Rock from whence they are hewen to propose to themselves their own parents and to consider there the performance of the duties of mariage imposed by God in S. Paul and the blessings proposed by God in David Thy Wife shall be a fruitfull Vine by the sides of thy House The children like olive plants round about the table For to this purpose of edifying children by example such as are truly religious fathers
there is but one place of this booke of Iob cited at all To the Corinthians the Apostle makes use of those words in Iob God taketh the wise in their owne craft And more then this one place is not I thinke cited out of this booke of Iob in the new Testament But the authority of Iob is established in another place you have heard of the patience of Iob and you have seen the end of the Lord says Saint Iames. As you have seen this so you have heard that seen and heard one way out of the Scripture you have hard that out of the booke of Iob you have seen this out of the Gospell And further then this there is no naming of Iobs person or his booke in the new Testament Saint Hierome confesses that both the Greeke and Latine Copies of this booke were so defective in his time that seven or eight hundred verses of the originall were wanting in the booke And for the originall it selfe he says Obliquus totus liber fertur lubricus it is an uncertaine and slippery book But this is onely for the sense of some places of the book And that made the authority of this book to be longer suspended in the Church and oftner called into question by particular men then any other book of the Bible But in those who have for many ages received this book for Canonicall there is an unanime acknowledgement at least tacitely that this peece of it this text When after my skin wormes shall destroy my body yet in my flesh I shall see God does establish the Resurrection Divide the expositors into three branches for so the world will needs divide them The first the Roman Church will call theirs though they have no other title to them but that they received the same translation that they doe And all they use this text for the resurrection Verba viri in gentilitate positi erubescamus It is a shame for us who have the word of God it selfe which Iob had not and have had such a commentary such an exposition upon al the former word of God as the reall and actuall and visible resurrection of Christ himselfe Erubescamus verba viri in gentilitate positi let us be ashamed and confounded if Iob a person that lived not within the light of the covenant saw the resurrection more clearly and professed it more constantly then we doe And as this Gregory of Rome so Gregory Nyssen understood Iob too For he considers Iobs case thus God promised Iob twofold of all that he had lost And in his sheep and camels and oxen and asses which were utterly destroyed and brought to nothing God performes it punctually he had all in a double proportion But Iob had seven sonnes and three daughters before and God gives him but seven sonnes and three daughters againe And yet Iob had twofold of these too for Postnati cum prioribus numerantur quia omnes deo vivunt Those which were gone and those which were new given lived all one life because they lived all in God Necquicquam aliud est mors nisi viti ositatis expiatio Death is nothing else but a devesting of those defects which made us lesse fit for God And therefore agreeably to this purpose says Saint Cyprian Scimus non amitti sed praemitti thy dead are not lost but lent Non recedere sed praecedere They are not gone into any other wombe then we shall follow them into nec acquirendae atrae vestes pro iis qui albis induuntur neither should we put on blacks for them that are clothed in white nor mourne for them that are entred into their Masters joy We can enlarge our selfes no farther in this consideration of the first branch of expositors but that all the ancients tooke occasion from this text to argue for the resurrection Take into your Consideration the other two branches of moderne expositors whom others sometimes contumeliously and themselves sometimes perversly have call'd Lutherans and Calvinists and you may know that in the first ranke Osiander and with him all his interpret these words so And in the other ranke Tremellius and Pellicanus heretofore Polanus lately and Piscator for the present All these and all the Translators into the vulgar tongues of all our neighbours of Europe do all establish the doctrine of the Resurrection by these words this place of Iob. And therefore though one and truly for any thing I know but one though one to whom we all owe much for the interpretation of the Scriptures do think that Iob intends no other resurrection in this place but that when he shall be reduc'd to the miserablest estate that can bee in this life still he will look upon God and trust in him for his restitution and reparation in this life let us with the whole Christian Church embrace and magnifie this Holy and Heroicall Spirit of Iob Scio says he I know it which is more in him then the Credo is in us more to know it then in that state then to believe it now after it hath been so evidently declar'd not onely to be a certain truth but to be an article of faith Scio Redemptorem says he I know not onely a Creator but a Redeemer And Redemptorem meum My Redeemer which implies a confidence and a personall application of that Redemption to himself Scio vivere says he I know that he lives I know that hee begunne not in his Incarnation I know he ended not in his death but it always was and is now and shall for ever be true Vivit that he lives still And then Scio venturum says he too I know hee shall stand at the last day to Judge me and all the world And after that and after my skinne and body is destroyed by worms yet in my flesh I shall see God And so have you as much as we proposed for our first part That the Jews do now that they always did believe a Resurrection That as naturall men and by naturall reason they might know it both in the possibility of the thing and in the purpose of God that they had better helpes then naturall reason for they had divers places of their Scripture and that this place of Scripture which is our text hath evermore been received for a proof of the Resurrection Proceed we now to those particulars which constitute our second part such instructions concerning the Resurrection as arise out of these words Though after my skinne worms destroy my body yet in my flesh I shall see God In this second part the first thing that was propos'd was That the Saints of God are not priviledg'd from this which fell upon Iob This Death this dissolution after death Upon the Morte morieris that double death interminated by God upon Adam there is a Non obstante Revertere turn to God and thou shalt not dy the death not the second
of heaven our residence it is a madnesse to study the joys of the world The Kingdome of heaven is righteousnesse and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost says Saint Paul And this Kingdome of heaven is Intra nos says Christ it is in us and it is joy that is in us but every joy is not this Kingdome and therefore says the same Apostle Rejoyce in the Lord There is no other true joy none but that But yet says he there Rejoyce and again I say rejoiâ—e that is both again we say it again and again we call upon you to have this spirituall joy for without this joy ye have not the earnest of the Spirit And it is again rejoyce bring all the joys ye have to a second examination and see if you can rejoyce in them again Have you rejoyced all day in Feasts in Musickes in Conversations well at night you must be alone hand to hand with God Again I say rejoyce sleep not till you have tryed whether your joy will hold out there too Have you rejoyced in the contemplation of those temporall blessingsâ— which God hath given you 't is well for you may do so But yet again I say Rejoyce call that joy to an accompt and see whether you caâ—â— rejoyce again in such a use of those blessings as he that gave them to you requires of you Have you rejoyced in your zeal of Gods service that 's a true rejoycing in the Lord But yet still rejoyce again see that this joy be accompanyed with another joy that you have zeal with knowledge Rejoyce but rejoyce again refine your joy purge away all drosse and lees from your joy there is no false joy enters into heaven but yet no sadnesse neither There is a necessary sadnes in this life but even in this life necessary only so as Physick is necessary Tristitia data ut peccata deleamus It is Data a gift of God a sadnes and sorrow infused by him not assumed by our selves upon the crosses of this world And so it is physick and it is Morbi illius peccati it is proper and peculiar physick for that disease for sinne But as that Father pathetically enlarges that consideration Remedium lippitudinis non tâ—llit alios morbos water for fore eyes will not cure the tooth-ach sorrow and sadnesse which is prescribed for sinne will not cure should not be applyed to the other infirmities and diseases of our humane condition Pecunia mulctatus est says that Father still Doluit non emendavit A man hath a decree passed against him in a Court of Justice or lost a Ship by tempest and hee hath griev'd for this hath this revers'd the decree or repaired the shipwrack Filium amisit doluit non resuscitavit His Son his eldest Son his onely Son his towardly Son is dead and he hath grieved for this hath he raised his Son to life again Infirmatur ipse doluit abstulit morbum Himself is fallen into a consumption and languishes and grieves but doth it restore him Why no for sadnesse and sorrow is not the physick against decrees and shipwracks and consumptions and death But then Peccavit quis says he still deluit peccata delevit Hath any man sinned against his God and come to a true sorrow for that sinne peccata delevit he hath wash't away that sinne from his soule for sorrow is good for nothing else intended for nothing else but onely for our sinnes out of which sadnesse first arose And then considered so this sadnesse is not truly nor properly sadnesse because it is not so intirely There is health in the bitternesse of physique There is joy in the depth of this sadnesse Saint Basill inforces those words of the Apostle 2 Cor. 6. 10. Quasi tristes semper autem gandentes usefully to this point Tristitia nostra habet quasi gaudium non habet Our sorrow says he hath a limitation a modification it is but as it were sorrow and we cannot tell whether we may call it sorrow or no but our joy is perfect joy because it is rooted in an assurance Est in spe certa our hope of deliverance is in him that never deceived any for says he then our sadnesse passes away as a dreame Et qui insomnium judicat addit quasi quasi dicebam quasi equitabam quasi cogitabam he that tells his dreame tells it still in that phrase me thought I spoke me thought I went and me thought I thought so all the sorrow of Gods children is but a quasi tristes because it determines in joy and determines soon To end this because there is a difference inter delectationem gaudium between delight and joy for delight is in sensuall things and in beasts as well as in men but joy is grounded in reason and in reason rectified which is conscience therefore we are called to rejoyce againe to try whether our joy be true joy and not onely a delight and when it is found to be a true joy we say still rejoyce that is continue your spirituall joy till it meet the eternall joy in the kingdome of heaven and grow up into one joy but because sadnesse and sorrow have but one use and a determined and limited imployment onely for sin we doe not say be sorry and again be sorry but when you have been truly sorry for your sinnes when you have taken that spirituall physique beleeve your selfe to be well accept the seale of the holy Ghost for the remission of your sins in Christ Jesus and come to that health which that physique promises peace of conscience This joy then which Saint Paul found to be so essentiall so necessary for man he found that God placed within mans reach so neare him as that God afforded man this joy where he least looked for it even in affliction And of this joy in affliction we may observe three steps three degrees one is indeed but halfe a joy and that the Philosophers had A second is a true joy and that all Christians have but the third is an overflowing and aboundant joy to which the Apostle was come and to which by his example hee would rouse others that joy of which himselfe speaks againe I am filled with comfort and am exceeding joyfull in all our tribulations The first of these which we call a halfe joy is but an indolency and a forced unsensiblenesse of those miseries which were upon them a searing up a stupefaction is not of the senses yet of the affections That resolution which some morall men had against misery Non facies ut te dicam malam no misery should draw them to doe misery that honour as to call it misery And in respect of that extreme anguish which out of an over tendernesse ordinary men did suffer under the calamities of this life even this poore indolency and privation of griefe was a joy but yet but a halfe joy the second joy
vae Egypto wo and wo upon wo upon Aegypt there was a Goâ—hen a Sanctuary for the children of God in Egypt When there is a vae inhabitantibus a persecution in any place there is a Fuge in aliam leave to fly into another City But in such an extension such an expansion such an exaltation such an inundation of woe as this in our text Vae mundo woe to the world to all the world a tide a flood without any ebbe a Sea without any shoare a darke skie without any Horizon That though I doe withdraw my selfe from the wofull uncertainties and irresolutions and indeterminations of the Court and from the snares and circumventions of the City Though I would devest and shake off the woes and offences of Europe in Afrique or of Asia in America I cannot since wheresoever or howsoever I live these woes and scandals and offences tentations and tribulations will pursue mee who can expresse the wretched condition the miserable station and prostration of man in this world vae mundo Take the word World in as ill a sense as you will as ill as when Christ says I pray not for the world and they are very ill for whom Christ Jesus who prayed for them that crucifyed him would not pray Take the word world in as good a sense as you will as good as when Christ says I give my flesh for the life of the world and they are very good that are elemented made up with his flesh and alimented and nursed with his blood Take it for the Elect take it for the Reprobate the Reprobate and the Elect too are under this vae wo to the world from tentations and tribulations scandals and offences So it is if the world be persons and it is so also if it be times Take the world for the times wee live in now and it is Novissima hora this is the last time and the Apostle hath told us that the last times are the worst Take the world for the Old world Originalis mundus as Saint Peter call's it the Originall world of which this world since the flood is but a copy and God spared not the Old world says that Apostle Take it for an elder world then that the world in Paradise when one Adam the Son of God and one Eve produced by God from him made up the world or take it for an elder world then that the world in heaven when onely the Angels and no other creatures made up the world Take it any of these ways we in this latter world do Noah in the old world did so did Adam in the world in Paradise and so did the Angels in the oldest world of all find these woes from offences and scandals tentations and tribulations So it is in all persons in all men so it is in all times in all ages and so it is in all places too for hee that retires into a Monastery upon pretence of avoiding tentations and offences in this world he brings them thither and hee meets them there Hee sees them intramittendo and extramittendo he is scandalized by others and others are scandalized by him That part of the world that sweats in continuall labour in severall vocations is scandalized with their laziness and their riches to see them anoint themselves with other mens sweat and lard themselves with other mens fat and then these retired and cloistrall men are scandalized with all the world that is out of their walls There is no sort of men more exercised with contentious and scandalous wranglings then they are for first with all eager animosity they prefer their Monasticall life before all other secular callings yea before those Priests whom they call Secular Priests such as have care of souls in particular parishes as though it were a Diminution and an inferiour state to have care of souls and study and labour the salvation of others And then as they undervalue all secular callings Mechaniques and Merchants and Magistrates too in respect of any Regular order as they call them so with the same animosity doe they prefer their own Order before any other Order A Carthusian is but a man of fish for one Element to dwell still in a Pond in his Cell alone but a Jesuit is a usefull ubiquitary and his Scene is the Court as well as the Cloister And howsoever they pretend to bee gone out of the world they are never the farther from the Exchange for all their Cloister they buy and sell and purchase in their Cloister They are never the farther from Westminster in their Cloister they occasion and they maintain suits from their Cloister and there are the Courts of Justice noted to abound most with suits where Monasteries abound most Nay they are never the farther from the field for all their Cloister for they give occasions of armies they raise armies they direct armies they pay armies from their Cloister Men should not retire from the mutuall duties of this world to avoid offences tentations tribulations neither doe they at all avoid them that retire thus upon that pretence Shall we say then as the Disciples said to Christ If the case of the man be so with his wife it is not good to mary If the world be nothing but a bed of Adders a quiver of poysoned arrows from every person every time every place woes by occasion of offences and scandals it had been better God had made no world better that I had never been born into the world better if by any meanes I could get out of the world quickly shall we say so God forbid As long as Iob charged not God foolishly it is said in all this Iob sinned not but when he came to curse his birth and to loath his life then Iob charged God foolishly When one Prophet Eliah comes to proportion God the measure of his corrections Satisest Lord this is enough Thou hast done enough I have suffered enough now take away my life When another Prophet comes to wish his own death in anger and to justify his anger and dispute it out with God himselfe for not proceeding with the Ninivites as he would have had him doe nay for the withering of his gourd that shadowed him in all these they did in all such we doe charge God foolishly And shall we that are but wormes but silke-wormes but glow-wormes at best chide God that hee hath made slow-wormes and other venimous creeping things shall we that are nothing but boxes of poyson in our selves reprove God for making Toads and Spiders in the world shall we that are all discord quarrell the harmony of his Creation or his providence Can an Apothecary make a Soveraign triacle of Vipers and other poysons and cannot God admit offences and scandals into his physick scandals and offences tentations and tribulations are our leaven that ferment us and our lees that preserve us Use them to Gods glory and to thine own establishing and
those sins upon other persons But all Israel stones thee arrows flie from every corner and thy measure is not to thank God that thou art not as the Publican as some other man but thy measure is to be pure and holy as thy father in heaven is pure and holy and to conform thy self in some measure to thy pattern Christ Jesus Against him it is noted that the Jews took up stones twice to stone him Once wheÌ„ they did it He went away and hid himself Our way to scape these arrows these tentations is to goe out of the way to abandon all occasions and conversation that may lead into tentation In the other place Christ stands to it and disputes it out with them and puts them from it by the scriptum est and that 's our safe shield since we must necessarily live in the way of tentations for coluber in via there is a snake in every path tentation in every calling still to receive all these arrowes upon the shield of faith still to oppose the scriptum est the faithfull promises of God that he will give us the issue with the tentation when we cannot avoid the tentation it self Otherwise these arrows are so many as would tire and wear out all the diligence and all the constancy of the best morall man Wee finde many mentions in the Scriptures of filling of quivers and emptying of quivers and arrows and arrows still in the plurall many arrows But in all the Bible I think we finde not this word as it signifies tentation or tribulation in the singular one arrow any where but once where David cals it The arrow that flies by day And is seen that is known by every man for for that the Fathers and Ancients runne upon that Exposition that that one arrow common to all that day-arrow visible to all is the naturall death so the Chalde paraphrase calls it there expresly Sagitta mâ—rtis The arrow of death which every man knows to belong to every man for as clearly as he sees the Sunne set he sees his death before his eyes Therefore it is such an arrow as the Prophet does not say Thou shalt not feel but Thou shalt not feare the arrow that flies by day The arrow the singular arrow that flies by day is that arrow that fals upon every man death But every where in the Scriptures but this one place they are plurall many so many as that we know not whence nor what they are Nor ever does any man receive one arrow alone any one tentation but that he receives another tentation to hide that though with another and another sin And the use of arrows in the war was not so much to kill as to rout and disorder a battail and upon that routing followed execution Every tentation every tribulation is not deadly But their multiplicity disorders us discomposes us unseâ—â—les us and so hazards us Not onely every periodicall variation of our years youth and age but every day hath a divers arrow every houre of the day a divers tentation An old man wonders then how an arrow from an eye could wound him when he was young and how love could make him doe those things which hee did then And an arrow from the tongue of inferiour people that which we make shift to call honour wounds him deeper now and ambition makes him doe as strange things now as love did then A fair day shoots arrows of visits and comedies and conversation and so wee goe abroad and a foul day shoots arrows of gaming or chambering and wantonnesse and so we stay at home Nay the same sin shoots arrows of presumption in God before it be committed and of distrust and diffidence in God after we doe not fear before and we cannot hope after And this is that misery from this plurality and multiplacity of these arrows these manifold tentations which David intends here and as often as he speaks in the same phrase of plurality vituli multi many buls canes multi many dogs and bellantes multi many warlike enemies and aquaeâ— multae many deep waters compasse me For as it is said of the spirit of wisdome that it is unicus multiplex manifoldly one plurally singular so the spirit of tentation in every soul is unicus multiplex singularly plurall rooted in some one beloved sin but derived into infinite branches of tentation And then these arrows stick in us the raine fals but that cold sweat hangs not upon us Hail beats us but it leaves no pock-holes in our skin These arrows doe not so fall about us as that they misse us nor so hit us as they rebound back without hurting us But we complain with Ieremy The sons of his quiver are entred into our reins The Roman Translation reads that filias The daughters of his quiver If it were but so daughters we might limit these arrows in the signification of tentations by the many occasions of tentation arising from that sex But the Originall hath it filios the sons of his quiver and therefore we consider these arrows in a stronger signification tribulations as well as tentations They stick in us Consider it but in one kinde diseases sicknesses They stick to us so as that we are not sure that any old diseases mentioned in Physicians books are worn out but that every year produces new of which they have no mention we are sure We can scarce expresse the number scarce sound the names of the diseases of mans body 6000 year hath scarce taught us what they are how they affect us how they shall be cur'd in us nothing on this side the Resurrection can teach us They stick to us so as that they passe by inheritance and last more generations in families then the inheritance it self does and when no land no Manor when no title no honour descends upon the heir the stone or the gout descends upon him And as though our bodies had not naturally diseases and infirmities enow we contract more inflict more and that out of necessity too in mortifications and macerations and Disciplines of this rebellious flesh I must have this body with me to heaven or else salvation it self is not perfect And yet I cannot have this body thither except as S. Paul did his I beat down this body attenuate this body by mortification Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I have not body enough for my body and I have too much body for my soul not body enough not bloud enough not strength enough to sustain my self in health and yet body enough to destroy my soul and frustrate the grace of God in that miserable perplexed riddling condition of man sin makes the body of man miserable and the remedy of sin mortification makes it miserable too If we enjoy the good things of this world Duriorem carcerem praeparamus wee doe but carry an other wall about our
prison an other story of unwieldy flesh about our souls and if wee give our selves as much mortification as our body needs we live a life of fridays and see no Sabbath we make up our years of Lents and see no other Easters and whereas God meant us Paradise we make all the world a wildernesse Sin hath cast a curse upon all the creatures of the world they are all worse then they were at first and yet we dare not receive so much blessing as is left in the creature we dare not eat or drink and enjoy them The daughters of Gods quiver and the sons of his quiver the arrows of tentation and the arrows of tribulation doe so stick in us that as he lives miserably that lives in sicknes and he as miserably that lives in physick so plenty is a misery and mortiâ—ication is a misery too plenty if we consider it in the effects is a disease a continuall sicknes for it breeds diseases And mortification if we should consider it without the effects is a disease too a continuall hunger and fasting and if we consider it at best and in the effects mortification is but a continuall physick which is misery enough They stick and they stick fast altè infixae every syllable aggravates our misery Now for the most part experimentally we know not whether they stick fast or no for we never goe about to pull them out these arrows these tentations come and welcome we are so far from offering to pull them out that we fix them faster and faster in us we assist our tentations yea we take preparatives and fomentations we supple our selves by provocations lest our flesh should be of proof against these arrows that death may enter the surer and the deeper into us by them And he that does in some measure soberly and religiously goe about to draw out these arrows yet never consummates never perfects his own work He pulls back the arrow a little way and he sees blood and he feels spirit to goe out with it and he lets it alone He forbears his sinfull companions a little while and he feels a melancholy take hold of him the spirit and life of his life decays and he falls to those companions again Perchance he rushes out the arrow with a sudden and a resolved vehemence and he leaves the head in his body He forces a divorce from that sinne he removes himself out of distance of that tentation and yet he surfets upon cold meat upon the sinfull remembrance of former sins which is a dangerous rumination and an unwholesome chawing of the cud It is not an ill derivation of repentance that poenitere is poenam tenere that 's true repentance when we continue in those means which may advance our repentance When Ioash the King of Israel came to visit Elisha upon his sick bed and to consult with him about his war Elisha bids the King smite the ground and he smites it thrice and ceases Then the man of God was angry and said Thou shouldst have smitten five or sixe times and so thou shouldst have smitten thine enemies till thou hadst consumed them Now how much hast thou to doe that hast not pull'd at this arrow at all yet Thou must pull thrice and more before thou get it out Thou must doe and leave undone many things before thou deliver thy selfe of that arrow that sinne that transports thee One of these arrows was shot into Saint Paul himselfe and it stuck and stuck fast whether an arrow of tentation or an arrow of tribulation the Fathers cannot tell And therefore wee doe now not inconveniently all our way in this exercise mingle these two considerations of tentation and tribulation Howsoever Saint Paul pull'd thrice at this arrow and could not get it out I besought the Lord thrice says he that it might depart from mee But yet Ioash his thrice striking of the ground brought him some victory Saint Pauls thrice praying brought him in that provision of Grace which God cals sufficient for him Once pulling at these arrows a slight consideration of thy sins will doe no good Do it thrice testifie some true desire by such a diligence Doe it now as thou sitt'st doe it again at the Table doe it again in thy bed Doe it thrice doe it in thy purpose do it in thine actions doe it in thy constancy Doe it thrice within the wals of thy flesh in thy self within the wals of thy house in thy family and in a holy and exemplar conversation abroad and God will accomplish thy work which is his work in thee And though the arrow be not utterly pull'd out yet it shall not fester it shall not gangrene Thou shalt not be cut off from the body of Christ in his Church here nor in the Triumphant Church hereafter how fast soever these arrows did stick upon thee before God did not refuse Israel for her wounds and bruises and putrefying sores though from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head but because those wounds were not closed nor bound up nor suppled with ointments therefore he refused her God shall not refuse any soul because it hath been shot with these arrows Alas God himself hath set us up for a mark says Iob and so says Ieremy against these arrows But that soul that can pour out flouds of tears for the losse or for the absence or for the unkindnes or imagination of an unkindness of a friend mis-beloved beloved a wrong way and not afford one drop one tear to wash the wounds of these arrows that soul that can squeaze the wound of Christ Jesus and spit out his bloud in these blasphemous execrations shed no drop of this bloud upon the wounds of these arrows that soul and only that soul that refuses a cure does God refuse not because they fell upon it and stook and stook fast and stook long but because they never never went about to pull them out never resisted a tentation never lamented a transgression never repented a recidivation Now this is more put home to us in the next addition Infixae mihi they stick and stick fast in mee that is in all mee That that sin must be sav'd or damn'd That 's not the soul alone nor body alone but all the whole man God is the God of Abraham as he is the God of the living Therefore Abraham is alive And Abraham is not alive if his body be not alive Alive actually in the person of Christ alive in an infallible assurance of a particular resurrection Whatsoever belongs to thee belongs to thy body and soul and these arrows stick fast in thee In both Consider it in both in things belonging to the body and to the soul We need clothing Baptisme is Gods Wardrobe there Induimur Christo In Baptisme we put on Christ there we are invested apparell'd in Christ And there comes an arrow that cuts off half our garment as
Evangelists that that voice added Hear him for after that Declaration that he who was visibly and personally come amongst them was the Sonne of God there was no reason to doubt of mens willingnesse to hear him who went forth in person to preach unto them in this world As long as he was to stay with them it was not likely that they should need provocation to hear him therefore that was not added at his Baptisme and entrance into his personall ministery But when Christ came to his Transfiguration which was a manifestation of his glory in the next world and an intimation of the approaching of the time of his going away to the possession of that glory out of this world there that voyce from heaven sayes This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased heare him When he was gone out of this world men needed a more particular solicitation to heare him for how and where and in whom should they heare him when he was gone In the Church for the same testimony that God gave of Christ to authorize and justifie his preaching hath Christ given of the Church to justifie her power The holy Ghost fell upon Christ at his Baptism and the holy Ghost fell upon the Apostles who were the representative Church at Whitsontide The holy Ghost tarried upon Christ then and the holy Ghost shall tarry with the Church usque ad consummationem till the end of the world And therefore as we have that institution from Christ Dic Ecclesiae when men are refractary and perverse to complaine to the Church so have they who are complained of to the Church that institution from Christ also Audi Ecclesiam Hearken to the voyce of God in the Church and they have from him that commination If you disobey them you disobey God in what fetters soever they binde you you shall rise bound in those fetters and as he who is excommunicated in one Diocese should not be received in another so let no man presume of a better state in the Triumphant Church then he holds in the Militant or hope for communion there that despises excommunication here That which the Scripture says God sayes says St. Augustine for the Scripture is his word and that which the Church says the Scriptures say for she is their word they speak in her they authorize her and she explicates them The Spirit of God inanimates the Scriptures and makes them his Scriptures the Church actuates the Scriptures and makes them our Scriptures Nihil salubrius says the same Father There is not so wholsome a thing no soule can live in so good an aire and in so good a diet Quà m ut Rationem praecedat authoritas Then still to submit a mans owne particular reason to the authority of the Church expressed in the Scriptures For certainly it is very truly as it is very usefully said by Calvin Semper nimia morositas est ambitiosa A frowardnesse and an aptnesse to quarrell at the proceedings of the Church and to be delivered from the obligations and constitutions of the Church is ever accompanied with an ambitious pride that they might enjoy a licentious liberty It is not because the Church doth truly take too much power but because they would be under none it is an ambition to have all government in their own hands and to be absolute Emperors of themselves that makes them refractary But if they will pretend to believe in God they must believe in God so as God hath manifested himself to them they must believe in Christ so if they will pretend to heare Christ they must heare him there where he hath promised to speake they must heare him in the Church The first reason then in this Trinity the person that directs is the Church the Trumpet in which God sounds his Iudgements and the Organ in which he delivers his mercy And then the persons of the second place the persons to whom the Church speakes here are Filiae Sion The daughters of Sion her owne daughters We are not called Filii Ecclesiae sonnes of the Church The name of sonnes may imply more virility more manhood more sense of our owne strength then becomes them who professe an obedience to the Church Therefore as by a name importing more facility more supplenesse more application more tractablenesse she calls her children Daughters But then being a mother and having the dignity of a Parent upon her she does not proceed supplicatorily she does not pray them nor intreat them she does not say I would you would go forth and I would you would looke out but it is Egredimini videte imperatively authoritatively Do it you must do it So that she showes what in important and necessary cases the power of the Church is though her ordinary proceedings by us and our Ministery be To pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God In your baptisme your soules became daughters of the Church and they must continue so as long as they continue in you you cannot devest your allegiance to the Church though you would no more then you can to the State to whom you cannot say ◠will be no subject A father may dis-inherit his son upon reasons but even that dis-inherited childe cannot renounce his father That Church which conceived thee in the Covenant of God made to Christians and their seed and brought thee forth in baptisme and brought thee up in catechizing and preaching may yet for thy misdemeanor to God in her separate thee à Mensa Toro from bed and board from that sanctuary of the soule the Communion Table and from that Sanctuary of the body Christian buriall and even that Christian buriall gives a man a good rise a good helpe a good advantage even at the last resurrection to be laid down in expectation of the Resurrection in holy ground and in a place accustomed to Gods presence and to have been found worthy of that Communion of Saints in the very body is some earnest and some kinde of first-fruits of the joyfull resurrection which we attend God can call our dead bodies from the sea and from the fire and from the ayre for every element is his but consecrated ground is our element And therefore you daughters of Sion holy and religious souls for to them onely this indulgent mother speaks here hearken ever to her voice quarrell not your mothers honor nor her discretion Despise not her person nor her apparell Doe not say she is not the same woman she was heretofore nor that she is not so well dressed as she was then Dispute not her Doctrine Despise not her Discipline that as you sucked her breasts in your Baptism in the other Sacrament when you entred and whilst you stayd in this life so you may lie in her bosome when you goe out of it Hear her a good part of that which you are to hear from her is envolv'd inwrapped in that w ch we have propos'd
shall feare the Lord and his goodnesse in the later dayes And beyond this land there is no more Sea beyond this mercy no more Judgement for with this mercy the Chapter ends Consider our text then as a whole Globe as an intire Spheare and then our two Hemispheares of this Globe our two parts of this text will bee First that no perversnesse of ours no rebellion no disobedience puts God beyond his mercy nor extinguishes his love still hee calls Israel rebellious Israel his Children nay his owne anger his owne Judgements then when hee is in the exercise thereof in the execution thereof puts him not beyond his mercy extinguishes not his love hee hides not his face from them then hee leaves them not then in the darke hee accompanies their calamity with a light hee makes that time though cloudy though overcast yet a day unto them the Children of Israel shall abide many days in this case But then as no disobedience removes God from himself for he is love and mercy so no interest of ours in God doth so priviledge us but that hee will execute his Judgements upon his Children too even the Children of Israel shall fall into these Calamities And from this first part wee shall passe to the second from these generall considerations That no punishments should make us desperate that no favours should make us secure we shall passe to the particular commination and judgements upon the children of Israel in this text without King without Prince c. In our first part we stop first upon this declaration of his mercy in this fatherly appellation Children the children of Israel He does not call them children of Israel as though hee disavowed them and put them off to another Father but therefore because they are the Children of Israel they are his Children for hee had maried Israel and maried her to himselfe for ever Many of us are Fathers and from God here may learne tendernesse towards children All of us are children of some parents and therefore should hearken after the name of Father which is nomen pietatis potestatis a name that argues their power over us and our piety towards them and so concernes many of us in a double capacity as we are children and parents too but all of us in one capacity as we are children derived from other parents God is the Father of man otherwise then he is of other creatures He is the Father of all Creatures so Philo calls all Creatures sorâ—res suas his sisters but then all those sisters of man all those daughters of God are not alike maried God hath placed his Creatures in divers rankes and in divers conditions neither must any man thinke that he hath not done the duty of a Father if he have not placed all his Sonnes or not matched all his daughters in a condition equall to himselfe or not equall to one another God hath placed creatures in the heavens and creatures in the earth and creatures in the sea and yet all these creatures are his children and when he looked upon them all in their divers stations he saw omnia valde bora that all was very well And that Father that imploies one Sonne in learning another to husbandry another to Merchandise pursues Gods example in disposing his children his creatures diversly and all well Such creatures as the Raine though it may seem but an imperfect and ignoble creature fallen from the wombe of a cloud have God for their Father God is the Father of the Raine And such creatures as light have but God for their Father God is Pater lâ—minum the Father of lights Whether we take lights there to be the Angels created with the light some take it so or to be the severall lights set up in the heavens Sun and Moon and Stars some take it so or to be the light of Grace in infusion by the Spirit or the light of the Church in manifestation by the word for all these acceptations have convenient Authors and worthy to be followed God is the Father of lights of all lights but so he is of raine and clouds too And God is the Father of glory as Saint Paul styles him of all glory whether of those beames of glory which he sheds upon us here in the blessings and preferments of this life or that waight of glory which he reserves for us in the life to come From that inglorious drop of raine that falls into the dust and rises no more to those glorious Saints who shall rise from the dust and fall no more but as they arise at once to the fulnesse of Essentiall joy so arise daily in accidentiall joyes all are the children of God and all alike of kin to us And therefore let us not measure our avowing or our countenancing of our kindred by their measure of honour or place or riches in the world but let us looke how fast they grow in the root that is in the same worship of the same God who is ours and their Father too He is nearest of kin to me that is of the same religion with me as they are creatures they are of kin to me by the Father but as they are of the same Church and religion by Father and mother too Philo calls all creatures his sisters but all men are his brothers God is the Father of man in a stronger and more peculiar and more masculine sense then of other Creatures Filius particeps con-dominus cum patre as the law calls the Sonne the partner of the Father and fellow-Lord joint-Lord with the Father of all the possession that is to descend so God hath made man his partner and fellow-Lord of all his other creatures in Moses his Dominamini when he gives man a power to rule over them and in Davids Omnia subjecisti when he imprints there a naturall disposition in the creature to the obedience of man So high so very high a filiation hath God given man as that having another Sonne by another filiation a higher filiation then this by an eternall generation yet he was content that that Sonne should become this Sonne that the Sonne of God should become the Sonne of Man God is the Father of all of man otherwise then of all the rest but then of the children of Israel otherwise then of all other men For he bought them and is not be thy Father that hath bought thee says God by Moses Not to speake of that purchase which he made by the death of his Sonne for that belongs to all the world he bought the Jews in particular at such a price such silver and such gold such temporall and such spirituall benefits such a Land and such a Church such a Law and such a Religion as certainly he might have had all the world at that price If God would have manifested himselfe poured out himselfe to the Nations as hee did to
all the rich attire that can be put upon it And howsoever the rich man that is invested in Power and Greatnesse may be a better picture of God of God considered in himself who is all Greatnes all Power yet of God considered in Christ which is the contemplation that concerns us most the poor man is the better picture and most resembles Christ who liv'd in continual poverty And so he that oppresses the poor reproaches God God in his Orphans God in his Picture Saint Augustine carries this consideration farther then that the poore is more immediately Gods Orphan and more perfectly his picture That he is more properly a member of himself of his body For contemplating that head which was not so much crowned as hedged with thorns that head of which he whose it was sayes The Sonne of man hath not where to lay his head Saint Augustine sayes Ecce caput Panperum Behold that head to which the poore make up the body Ob eam tantùm causam venerabiles sayes that Father Therefore venerable therefore honourable because they are members sutable to that head And so all that place where the Apostle sayes That upon those members of the body which we think to be lesse honourable we bestow most honour that Father applies to the poore that therefore most respect and honour should be given to them because the poore are more sutable members to their head Christ Jesus then the rich are And so also he that oppresses the poore reproaches God God in his Orphans God in his Image God in the Members of his owne body Saint Chrysostome carries this consideration farther then this of Saint Augustine That whereas every creature hath filiationem vestigii that because God hath imparted a being an essence from himselfe who is the roote and the fountaine of all essence and all being therefore every creature hath a filiation from God and is the Sonne of God so as we read in Iob God is the father of the raine and whereas every man hath filiationem imaginis as well Pagan as Christian hath the Image of God imprinted in his soule and so hath a filiation from God and is the Sonne of God as he is made in his likenesse and whereas every Christian hath filiationem Pacti by being taken into the Covenant made by God with the Elect and with their seed he hath a filiation from God and is the Sonne of God as he is incorporated into his Sonne Christ Jesus by the Seals of the Christian Church besides these filiations of being in all creatures of the Image in all men of the Covenant in all Christians The poore sayes that Father are not onely filii but Haeredes and Primogeniti Sonnes and eldest Sonnes Sonnes and Sonnes and Heires And to that purpose he makes use of those words in St. Iames Hearken my beloved brethren hath not God chosen the poore of this world rich in faith and Heirs of that Kingdome Heirs for Ipsorum est sayes Christ himself Theirs is the Kingdome of heaven And upon those words of Christ Saint Chrysostome comments thus Divites ejus regnitantum habent quantum à pauperibus eleemosynis coemerunt The rich have no more of that Kingdome of heaven then they have purchased of the poore by their almes and other erogations to pious uses And so he that oppresses the poore reproaches God God in his Orphans God in his Image God in the Members of his own Body God in his Sonnes and Heires of his Kingdome But then Christ himself carries his consideration beyond all these resemblances and conformities not to a proximity onely but to an identity The poore are He. In as much as you did it unto these you did it unto me and In as much as you did it not unto these you did it not unto me And after his ascension and establishing in glory still he avowed them not onely to be his but to be He Saul Saul why persecutest thou me The poore are He He is the poore And so he that oppresseth the poore reproaches God God in his Orphans God in his Image God in the Members of his owne Body God in the Heirs of his Kingdome God in himself in his own person And so we have done with all those peeces which constitute our first part the hainousnesse of the fault in the elegancy of the words chosen by the holy Ghost in which you have seen The fault it self Oppression and the qualification thereof by the marks Violence Deceit and Scorne And then the specification of the persons The poore as he is the Ebâ—onite the very vocall begger and as the word is Dalal a decayed an aged a sickly man And in that branch you have also had that Probleme Whether aemulation of higher or oppression of lower be the greater sinne And then the aggravation of this sinne in those weights That it is a reproach a reproach of God of God as The Maker as His Maker whom he oppresses and as his own Maker And lastly in what respects especially this increpation is laid upon him And farther we have no occasion to carry that first part the fault In passing from that first part the fault to the duty and the celebration thereof in those words of choice elegancy He that hath mercy on the poore honours God though we be to looke upon the persons the poore and the act shewing mercy to the poore and the benefit honouring of God yet of the persons who are still the same poore poore made poore by God rather then by themselves more needs not be said then hath been said already And of the act showing of mercy to the poore onely thus much more needs be said that the word in which the holy Ghost expresses this act here is the very same word in which he expresses the free mercy of God himself Miserebor cujus miserebor I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy So that God hath made the charitable man partaker with himself in his own greatest attribute his power of showing mercy And then left any man should thinke that he had no interest in this great dignity that God had given him no meanes to partake of this attribute of God this power of shewing mercy to the poor because he had left him poor too and given him nothing to give the same word which the holy Ghost uses in this text and in Exodus for mercy which is Canan he uses in other places particularly in the dedication of the Temple for prayer So that he who being destitute of other meanes to relieve the poore prayes for the poore is thereby made partaker of this great attribute of Gods this power of showing mercy He hath showed mercy to the poore if having nothing to give he have given mild and confortable words and have prayed to his abundant and inexhaustible God to relieve that poor
are circumcised with them which are not circumcised If we circumcise in part leave some sinnes and cleave to others we shall be in the sight of God altogether uncircumcised Adam was not the lesse naked in Gods sight for his Figge-leafe halfe-repentances are no repentances either we are in a privation or in a habit covered over with righteousnesse or naked When therefore the Lord and his Spirit cals thee to this spirituall Circumcision remember that Abraham did not say when he was call'd Lord I have followed thy voyce in leaving my Country Lord I have built thee an Altar what needs more demonstration of my obedience Say not thou Lord I have built an Hospitall Lord I have fed the poore at Christmas Lord I have made peace amongst thy people at home I have endowed an Almes-house but persevere in doing good still for God takes not the Tree where it growes but where it fals for the most part the death of a man is such as his life was but certainly the life of a man that is his everlasting life is such as his death is Againe Abraham did not say of this that it was a Commandement in a flight and frivolous and uncivill matter doe not thou say that it is an impertinent thing in this spirituall Circumcision to watch thy eating and drinking and all such indifferent actions and to see that all they be done to the glory of God for as the Apostle saies That the foolishnesse of God is wiser then the wisdome of man so we may piously say that the levity of God is graver then the gravity of all the Philosophers and Doctors of the world as we may see in all his Ceremontall Lawes where the matter seemes very light in many places but yet the signification very important and therefore apply this Circumcision even in thy least and most familiar action So also Abraham was not diverted from obeying God by the inconvenience of having all his family diseas'd at once he did not say I am content to circumcise my Sonne but would spare my Servants yet for necessary uses doe not thou say thou art content to circumcise thine eldest Sonne to abate somewhat of that sinne which thou beganst with in thy youth but wouldst faine spare some serviceable and profitable sinnes for a time and circumcise them hereafter To pursue this example Abraham did not say Cras Domine Lord I will doe all this to morrow but as the Commandement was given in that phrase of expedition Circumcidendo circumcides In Circumcising thou shalt circumcise which denoted a diligent and a present dispatch so Abraham did dispatch it diligently and presently that day Doe not thou say Cras Domine to morrow some other day in the day of mine age or of my Death or of affliction and tribulation I will circumcise all for age and sicknesse and tâ—ibulations are Circumcisions of themselves a Feaver circumcises thee then or an Apoplexy and not thy Devotion and incapacity of sinning is not sanctification If any man put off his Repentance till death Fateor non negamus quod petit saies Saint Augustine I dare not deny that man whatsoever God may be pleased to grant him Sed non presumimus quod bene erit I dare not presume to say that that man died well Non presumo non vas fallo non presumo saies that Father with some vehemency I dare not warrant him let me not deceive you with saying that I dare for I dare not And Beloved that is but a suspicious state in any man in which another Christian hath just reason to doubt of his salvation as Saint Augustine doth shrewdly doubt of these late Repenters Sicut ejus damnatio inoerta it a remissio dubia As I am not sure he is damned so I am not sure he is saved no more sure of one then of the other It is true we have the example of the Crucified Thiefe but it is but a hard case when a Thiefe must guide us and be our Example we suspect wills that are made of temporall goods in that state at the last gaspe and shall we think a Man to be compos mentis of a perfect understanding for the bequeathing of his Soule at his last gaspe non presumo non nos fallo non presumo I should deceive you if I should say it I dare not say it sayes that Father Come therefore to this Circumcision betimes come to it this Day come this Minute This Day thy Savior was Circumcised in the flesh for thee this Day Circumcise thy heart to him and all thy senses and all thy affections It is not an utter destroying of thy senses and of thy affections that is enjoyned thee but as when a Man had taken a beautifull Woman captive in the warres he was not bound to kill her but he must shave her head and pare her nailes and change her garments before he might marry her so captivate subdue change thy affections and that 's the Destruction which makes up this Circumcision change thy choler into Zeale change thy amorousnesse into devotion change thy wastfulnesse into Almes to the poore and then thou hast circumcised thy affections and mayest retaine them and mayest confidently say with the Apostle we are the Circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoyce in Christ Iesus and have no confidence in the flesh Doe this to day as God this day gives thee a New yeare and hath not surpriz'd thee nor taken thee away in the sinnes of last yeare as he gives thee a new yeare doe thou give him a New-years-gift Cor novum a new and a Circumcised heart and Canticum novum a new Song a delight to magnifie his name and speak of his glory and declare his wondrous works to the Sonnes of men and be assured that whether I or any other of the same Ministry shall speake to you from this place this day twelve month and shall aske your consciences then whether those things which you heard now have brought you to this Circumcision and made you better this yeare than you were the last and find you under the same uncircumcision still be assured that God will not God cannot be mocked but as he wil receive us with an Euge bone serve Well done my good and faithfull Servant so he will say to you Perditio tua ex te Your destruction is from your selves Enough hath been done for you by me enough hath been said to you by my Servants Quare moriemini Why will you die ô house of Israel And after a long despising of his graces he will come to a finall separation you shall come to say Nolumus hunc regnare we will not have Christ Jesus to reigne over us and Christ Jesus shall come to say Nescio vos I know you not nor whence you are Hodie si vocem ejus If you wil heare his voice this day Hodie eritis This day you shall be with him in Paradise and dwell in
a heavy heart That heavinesse makes him uncapable of Naturall of Morall of Civill of Spirituall comforts charme the Charmer never so wisely Heli heard that the Battell was lost and that his Sonnes were slaine and admitted so much sorrow for those that when the last was added The Arke was taken by the Enemy he was too weake for that and fell down and brake his neck It was his daughter in Lawes case too shee overcharged her soul with sadnesse for her husbands death and her fathers death and when the report of the Arke came she fell into labour and died and though the women told her Feare not thou hast born a Sonne yet shee answered not Though the Arke of God the worship of his Name bee at any time transferred from where it was despaire not thou of Gods reducing it for this despairing of others may bring thee to despaire in some accident to thy self Accustome thy selfe to keepe up the consideration of Gods mercy at the highest lodge not a sad suspition in any publique in any private businesse that Gods powerfull mercy can goe but thus farre hee that determineth Gods Power and his Mercy and faith here it must end is as much an Atheist as hee that denieth it altogether The Key of David openeth and no man shutteth The Spirit of Comfort shineth upon us and would not be blown out Monasterie and Ermimitage and Anchorate and such words of singularitie are not Synonymâ— with those plurall words Concio Coetus Ecclesia Synagoga Congregatio in which words God delivereth himselfe to us A Church is a Company Religion is Religation a binding of men together in one manner of Worship and Worship is an exteriour service and that exteriour service is the Venite exultemus to come and rejoyce in the presence of God If in any of these wayes God cast a Cloud upon our former joyes yet to receive good at Gods hand and not to receive evill to rejoice in the calme and not in the storme this is to breake at least halfe of the Commandement which is Gaudete semper And so from the first part which is the substance which we have passed by these steps That this rejoycing hath the nature of a Commandement it must bee maintained And that inward joy must be outwardly expressed even to the disgrace and confusion of Gods enemies and to the upholding of a joyfull constancy in our selves We passe now to the extent of the Commandement Gaudeâ—e semper Evermore Did God mean that we should rejoyce alwayes when he made sixe dayes for labour and but one for rest Certainly he did Sixe dayes we are to labour and to doe all that we have to doe And part of that which we have to doe is to rejoyce in our labour Adam in the state of Innocency had abundant occasion of continuall rejoycing but yet even in that joyfull state he was to labour to dresse and to keep the Garden After the fall when God made the labour of man more heavie in sudore vultus that he should not eat but in the sweat of his browe yet God gave him not that penalty that occasion of sadnesse till he had first imprinted the roote of true Joy the promise of a Messias that promise he made before he came to denounce the penalty first came the Ipse conteret and then in sudore vultus upon those words Thou shalt eat the labour of thy hand Debuit dicere fructum non laborem saith Augustine David should have said he shall eate the fruit not the labour of his hands Sed ipsi labores non sunt sine gaudio but the very labours the very afflictions of good men have joy in them Si labor potest manducari jucundari manducatus fructus laboris qualis erit And if labour it self affliction it self minister Joy what a manner what a measure of joy is in the full possession thereof in Heaven And as the consideration of the words immediately after the Text hath made more then one of the Fathers say Etiam Somnia justorum preces sunt Even the sleep of the righteous is a service to God and their very Dreams are Prayers and Meditations so much more properly may wee call the sleep and the bodily rest nay the bodily torments of the righteous joye rejoycing So that neither weeke day nor Sabbath day nor night labour nor rest interrupteth this continuall Joy Wee may wee must rejoyce evermore Gaudete in bonis Rejoyce when God giveth you the good things of this world First in Temporalibus when God giveth you the good Temporall things of this world Gaudete in Terra Rejoyce that God hath placed you in so fertill in so fruitfull a Land Gaudete in pace Rejoyce that God hath afforded you peace to till the Land Gaudete de Temporibus Rejoyce that God giveth good seasons that the Earth may give her increase and that Man may ioy in the increase of the Earth And Gaudete de amicitiis Rejoyce that God giveth you friendship with such Nations as may take of your superfluities and return things necessary to you There is a joy required for Temporall things for hee that is not joyfull in a benefit is not thankefull Next to that detestable assertion as Saint Augustine calleth it That God made any man to to damn him it is the perversest assertion That God gives man temporall things to ensnare him Was that Gods primary intention in prospering Noahs Vineyard That Noah should be drunken God forbid Doth God give any man honour or place Vt glorietur in malo qui potens est that his power might be an occasion of mischief and oppression God forbid God made light at first but wee know not what that light was but God gathered all light into the Sun and all the world sees it God infuses grace and spirituall blessings into a mans heart and no man sees that but the Spirit that is in that man but the Evidence the great Seale that he pleads in the Eye of the world is Gods temporall blessings When Assuerus put the Royall Vesture and Ring and Crown upon Mordecas it was to shew that hee was in his favour in the same intention proceeds God too when he gives riches or honour or favour or command hee would have that soul rejoyce in these as in testimonies of his favour God loves hilarem datorem a cheerfull giver but he that is not a cheerfull receiver is a worse natur'd man and more dishonours nay reproaches his benefactor They then disobey this Commandment of rejoycing in temporall things that employ not their industry that use not all good means to attaine them Every man is therefore planted in the world that hee may grow in the world and as venomous hearbs delight in the shade so a sullen retiring argues a murmuring and venomous disposition To contemn Gods temporall blessings or to neglect or undervalue those instruments those persons by whom God