it self For he that is a just man wrongeth no man And Solomon saith Prov. 16.12 The Kings throne is established by righteousness And again he saith Prov. 14 34. That Righteousness exalteth a Nation so that both King and Kingdom shall prosper through righteousness And he saith further That although evil pursueth sinners yet to the righteous good shall be repaid Prov. 13.21 And when the house of the wicked shall be overthrown Prov. 14.11 Chap. 3.33 the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish because God blesseth the habitation of the just And therefore the very Heathens erected a Temple unto Justice and ascribed divine worship unto Astraea which they termed the Goddess of Justice How just and righteous the Heathens were to the shame of our Fanatick and Cromwellian Christians in Ireland and many of them were very just most singular observers of justice for Homer saith That Sarpedon preserved the Kingdom of Licia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through justice and fortitude And Herodian saith of Pertinax That he was both loved and feared of the Barbarians as well for the remembrance of his vertues in former battels as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because wittingly or willingly he never did wrong or injustice to any man Plutarch ascribeth the like vertues to Lucullus Cicero to Pompey Ovid to Erictthaeus Virgil to Aeneas Suetonius to Octavius Augustus his Father and many others of the Heathens are recorded to have been like Aristides exceeding just And I would to God all those that say they are Christians were as just aâ— these Heathens were or as righteous as the Scribes and Pharisees for they were so strict in their lives especially in shew and made so great account of justice that they would tythe Mynt and Rue and the rest of the very smallest things and therefore S. Paul saith that they were the strictest Sect of all the Jewish Religion and yet our Saviour saith Except your righteousness doth exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven So you see the way that leads you to the Kingdom of God is to be just and righteous and so honest men without which it is in vain to pray to God it is in vain to believe in Christ and in vain to rely on him because as the Prophet David saith you must offer to God the sacrifice of Righteousnes Psal 4.5 and then you may trust in the Lord. But wherein doth the sacrifice of Righteousness consist Q. or how shall we become just or righteous men Rsep and so acceptable in the sight of God I answer that to be just and righteous and to offer the sacrifice of righteousness is reddere unicunque quod suum est That is to render 1. To God 2. To our King 3. To our Neighbours 4. To our selves what belongs to each of these 1 Branch of Righteousness and these are like the four Rivers of Paradise watering the whole Garden of God that being well observed will make it a Paradise indeed 1. What belongs to God Our Fanatique Enthusiasts and Sectaries think that as God is a Spirit so he requires no more but to be served in Spirit and truth for as the Prophet saith If he be hungry he will not tell thee because all the Beasts of the Forrest are his and so are the cattel upon a thousand hills And therefore the Lord saith my Son give me thy heart and so worship me with Faith Hope Love and the like spiritual affections which are most correspondent to me that am a Spirit That God will be worshipped with all that we have But you must know that they are very much deceived for as God hath made both Body and Soul and hath given us all that we have Houses Lands Riches and whatsoever else we do possess so he will be served and worshipped by all that we have with our Hearts to love him with our Tongues to praise him with our Eys lifted up to behold his wonders with our Knees bowed down to submit unto him with our Hands to do the work that he requireth and with our Wealth and Riches to honour him as the Wise man commandeth Honour God with thy riches And so our Saviour when he biddeth us to render unto Caesar what was Caesars and to God what is Gods meaneth it of our Wealth and Riches that we ought to render unto God and not of these internal services and spiritual worship that we do likewise owe to God for here the question was of the Tribute and Mony that the Jews were to pay to Caesar and therefore the true sense of our Saviours answer was secundum materiam subjectam according to their question give that part of your Wealth and Riches to Caesar which belongs to Caesar and that part of it to God which is due to God that Caesar himself may not have that which belongs to God Q But then you will demand what is that part and portion which belongs to God out of that All which God gives unto us Resp Levit. 27.30 I answer that they are first the Tythes which God requireth to be payd unto him and secondly the Donations which his people do freely offer unto him and God doth most graciously accept them which is an unspeakable favour that the great God and creator of all things the giver of all things that owns all things and wants nothing should so graciously accept the small gifts of us his poor creatures far beyond the Clemency of Xerxes that did so curteously accept a little cold water that was presented unto him by a poor subject that had nothing else to offer him But when any Lands Houses or Monies or any other part of our Goods is offered unto God let us not be so unjust as to rob God thereof for you may see what the Prophet saith will a man rob his God yet you have robbed me Mal. 3.8 in Tythes and Offerings that is in converting the Tythes to your own uses which I commanded to be paid to uphold my services and taking those Lands and Houses into your own possessions which most pious men had offeâ—ed to maintain my Religion Or if we do this as I see it commonly don in Ireland and in too many places in England then let us take heed lest that quorum flagitium imitamur eorum exitum inveniamus we find not the like success as they found that had don this before us And what is that I will shew you some examples of good note And I will not insist upon the punishment inflicted upon Achan Gehezi Shisake King of Egypt Johas King of Israel Sennacherib King of Assyria and Belshazzar King of Babylon and others for their Sacriledg and Injustice against God because you may read the same at your leasure in the holy Scripture But I shall desire you to remember what Seneca Sen. de Benefic l. 5. c. 12. a man that
but endeavour to be good in all things think well of themselves because they have some good things in them as a good wit great learning fair speeches some charity and it may be some justice and the like for so the Devils have some good things in them likewise and if thou hadst no good things in thee thou wert worse then the very Devils But if thou wouldest be deemed a good man thou must be ex omni parte bonus good in every way or at least endeavouring to be good in all things such as Job and Zacharias were that walked in all the Commandments of God without reproof 2. You must note that there is none of those good things Point 2 that are in them but as wicked Judges abuse their Authority to pervert Justice and corrupt Lawyers abuse their knowledg to wrest the Law and covetous worldlings do abuse their wealth and their power to oppress the poor so do these wicked spirits corrupt and abuse all the good things that are in them by making them means of effecting the greater evils as by their knowledge and subtilty to deceive us as they deceived Evah by their might and power to torment us as they tormented Job and those poor possessed men that we read of in the Gospel and by their agility to be every where in every corner ready to entrap us And therefore how wary and how watchfull should we be to escape their wiles and to prevent them for the more powerfull our enemies are the more preparation we ought to make against them But to the end we may the better see how farr and how many ways they pervert and turn all these good things that God hath given them to work our destruction and to shew their rebellion against God let us proceed unto the second point and so consider the names and titles whereby they are named and made known unto us because as the Poet saith Conveniunt rebus nomina saepe suis The names do often agree with the natures 2. Of the names and titles of the Devils 2. Touching their names and titles you must understand that all the names which we find given unto them are either In respect 1. Of their Nature and being or 2. Of their Practice and desire to do mischief 3. Of the Forms wherein they appeared 4. Of their Knowledg and Understanding 5. Of their Might and Power to effect what they intend to do Respect 1 1. In respect of their Nature they are sometimes called simply Spirits as in Matth. 4.1 Mar. 1.12 Luke 10.20 and sometimes they are called Angels as in 1 Cor. 6.3 and in 2 Pet. 2.4 But this is rather a name of office than of nature whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Nuncius a Messenger Respect 2 2. In respect of their Practice and desire to work mischief as the same is diverse so in that respect they have divers names As 1. Spiritus malus an evil Spirit and the unclean Spirit and that not onely because he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Sam. 1.16 Matth. 13.19 and 39. Zach 13.2 Matth 12.43 1 Pet. 5.8 Zach. 3.1 Evil in himself but also endavoureth by all means to make all others evil and unclean 2. Adversarius an adversary for so S. Peter saith Your adversary the Devil goeth about like a roaring Lion and he is stiled our adversary because he is always against us and is continually an accuser of the brethren in which respect he is likewise stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Devil that is Calumniator Dei hominum the reviler or slanderer both of God and Men. 3. Spiritus fornicationum the spirit of Fornications for so the Prophet Hoseas saith Hos 4.12 The spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to erre and he is so called not onely because he pricketh our flesh to carnal and unlawfull lusts and uncleanness but especially because he instigateth all men unto spiritual fornication to run a whoring after strange Gods to commit idolatry with the Idols of the Gentiles and by their covetousness and greedy hunting after riches and the wealth of this world which is Idolatry as the Apostle affirmeth when we make a god of our gold and neglect the service of the everliving God 4. Spiritus mendacii a lying Spirit and the Father of lyes for so he saith himself 1 Reg. 22.22 I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the Prophets of Ahab and our Saviour faith he hath been a lyer from the beginning and he is a lyer John 8. not onely because he doth always use to lye as he did to Evah when he said Ye shall be like Gods and yet made them like Devils but also because he suggesteth nothing else but lyes to every one of us and perswadeth us by all means to turn the truth of God into a lye as S. Augustine sheweth August contra Jud Pagan Arian c. 2. That the Devil sometimes speaketh truth But though he be a lying Spirit and the father of lyes yet this proveth not but that as Maldonate very accurately sheweth the Devil may sometimes speak a truth for he spake the truth when he said I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets for so he was And he spake the truth when he alledged the Scriptures to Christ in the Desart and when he confessed Jesus Christ to be the Son of God even as S. Peter did though as S. Augustine well observeth Saint Peter was commended and the Devil reproved because as the Proverb is Non pulchrum est laus in ore peccatoris I desire not the praise of a lewd and dissolute fellow so truth loseth of his lustre when it proceeds from a common lyar whom men do suspect when he speaks the truth and besides this whensoever the Devil speaketh truth he alwayes levelleth at an evil end But alwayes to an evil end as when he spake the truth of Ahabs prophets it was to deceive them and to destroy Ahab and when he alledged the truth of the Scriptures unto Christ it was to see if he could perswade Christ to offend and when he confessed Christ to be the Son of God it was not to perswade us to believe it but to make us not to believe it because the Devil spake it And therefore whensoever lyars or the Father of lyes do speak the truth we should take heed of them and believe the truth not because they have spoken it but because the Scripture saith it or that we have other far better reasons to perswade us to it then their saying of it for that a lyars truth if there were no other reason to believe it is alwayes to be suspected 5. Satanas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Tempter because the Devil doth alwayes provoke us unto sin and attempteth by all means to bring our sins unto perfection But here you must observe in what sense he is called a Tempter because there is a twofold temptation
and humbly pray to God to grant us these eyes with these beasts continually to behold and to consider all these things that we may escape the dreadful doom of the wicked and attain to everlasting happiness through Jesus Christ our blessed Lord and onely Saviour to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be ascribed all honour and glory for ever and ever Amen THE FOURTH SERMON REVEL 4.8 And they rest not or ceased not day and night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come AFTER that the holy Evangelist had described these Beasts he sets down their practice and the exercise that they used Touching which we are to consider 1. Their Constancy They ceased not or rest not day and night 2. Their Harmony saying Holy holy holy c. The which Harmony consisteth of six special parts That is 1. The mystery of the Trinity of persons in the Vnity or one essence of the Deity 2. The sanctity purity and equity of God in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. The power authority and dominion of God in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The knowledge sight and providence of God in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. The strength and omnipotence of God in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. The continuance and eternity of God in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And these six Points cannot well and fully be explained by any humane wit they all and every one of them being as God is ineffable and incomprehensible And therefore as Synefius saith as the Geographers use to draw the great Vniverse and Compass of the world in a little Map so I can speak and express but very little of these great and unspeakable Attributes of the great God 1. For their constancy in the service of God it is said they ceased not day nor night to sing this heavenly harmony saying Holy holy holy Lord God c. and it was not wearisome unto them continually to praise his glorious Names but it was rather their whole joy and felicity to glorifie their God and to magnifie him for ever for they are so satisfied with the sight of his presence the beatical Vision of God and so ravished with the love of his Majesty that they can never leave to praise him And this should teach all the Saints of God to be like these beasts and to do the like to be never weary of well doing but to be like King Therons Horses that as Pindarus saith were never weary of running so should the Servants of God be never weary of serving God but to continue constant in the performance of the duties of their profession night and day without ceasing because as St. Bernard saith Bern. Epist 129. Absque perseverantia nec qui pugnat victoriam nec victores palmam consequuntur without perseverance and continuance in well doing neither can they that fight obtain the victory nor the Victors get the Garland of honour for to triumph And St. Augustine saith He doth not truly believe in Christ that doth not continue constant in his profession unto the end Quia credere vere Aug. tract 106. in Joh. est credere inconcusse firme stabiliter fortiter ut jam ad propria non redeas clam relinquas because that to believe truly is to believe without wavering firmly and strongly so that you return not to your carnal and worldly desires and leave the things of Jesus Christ And therefore the Prophet David describing the blessed man Psal 1.1 2. saith He will not only withhold himself from walking in the counsel of the ungodly and from standing in the way of sinners and from sitting in the seat of the scornful but his delight is also in the Law of the Lord and in his Law will he exercise himself both day and night and so the Lord saith unto Joshua Let not this Book of the Law depart out of thy mouth but meditate therein both day and night that thou mayst observe and do all according to that is written therein Whereby you may see that perseverance and continuance in Gods service and preferring the duties of our calling is not to be done by fits but alwayes and especially without ceasing Alexand. Hal. secund 2. in tract de apostat without apostacy which is Temerarius à statu fidei vel religionis recessus a starting aside like a broken bow from that faith obedience and profession that we have formerly made How men relapse from their duties And such a one was Ammonius Alexandrinus the Master of Origen that being bred a Christian from his childhood and applying himself wholly to Philosophy did quite forsake the orthodoxal Faith And so Ecebelius at the first was a zealous Christian and in the reign of Julian a great persecutor of the Christians and after his death he became a Christian again and for his apostacy cried out and casting himself to the ground at the Church-porch Socrat. l. 3. c. 13. said Calcate me salem insipidum O tread upon me as upon unsavoury salt And how many men have we that like Ecebolius were very loyal and faithful Subjects and good Protestants in the time of Charles the first and when they saw the power of the Parliament increasing they became arrant Rebels and Traytors against their King and amphibolous in their Religion and within a while when God did cut in pieces that gâ—rdian knot and scattered those Rebels like a summers Cloud Who seem more faithful to Charles the second then these Schollers of Ecebolius that ever whirled with the strongest wind and yet they do not with Ecebolius fall down to the earth and cry out with him in true repentance Calcute nos salem insipidum but most of them jet it up and down in pride and shew themselves rather like the Borussians that being perswaded by Boleslaus Crispus King of Poland to imbrace the Christian faith What the Borusâ—ians did Cromerus lib. 6. within a while after renounced the same and told their Prince Se omnia ejus imperata excepta religione facturos they would be obedient to him in all things but only in the profession of his Religion for so these men profess themselves now to be good Subjects but they cannot endure our Ecclesiastical discipline and our Church service And therefore seeing many men do relapse with the Borussians from the true profession of faith or serve God by fits like those that are taken with the fits of an Ague or be like the Laodiceans neither hot nor cold and that we ought to be like these beasts serving God and discharging our duries without ceasing it behoveth us to preach in season and out of season and to do as we are required by the Lord himself Cry aloud ne cesses and give not over but lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgressions Esay 58.1 and the house of Jacob their
the first part of the practice of these beasts which is their constancy in the service of God day and night 2. Of the harmony of these beasts 2. For the harmony of these beasts I told you that it consisted of six parts whereof the first is concerning the mystery of the Trinity Touching which before I proceed any further I must say with St. Augustine Vbi trinitas unitatis unitas trinitatis Aug. de Trin. lib. 1. Of the true knowledge of the mystery of the blessed Trinity Patris Filii Spiritus sancti quaeritur nec periculosius alieubi erratur nec laboriosius aliquid quaeritur nec fructuosius aliquid invenitur we cannot any where erre more dangerously we cannot seek for any thing more laboriously neither can we find any thing more profitable then the knowledge of this holy mystery and therefore as he saith Non pigebit me sicubi haesito quaerere nec pigebit me sicubi erro discere it irketh me not to inquire where I stumble neither will I be ashamed to retract and to learn where I erre And so to proceed The holy Evangelist in this harmony of these beasts setteth down these two principal things Two things set down 1. 1 Of the Trinity of Persons The Trinity of Persons in the Vnity of Gods Essence 2. The Vnity of Gods Essence in the Trinity of Persons For the first To declare the Trinity of persons the Evangelist saith these beasts cry three times Holy holy holy as if they should have said Holy Father holy Son and holy Spirit and yet they say not holy Gods but holy God and to shew the same truth the very phrase and loquution or the like manner of expressing this mystery is used in divers places of the holy Scripture as where Moses saith Creavit Elohim coelum et terram God created the heaven and the earth where the Verb singular creavit doth manifestly declare the unity of Gods Essence and the Noun plural Elohim doth as plainly shew the Trinity of persons And again where he saith Faciamus hominem ad imaginem nostram let us make man in our Image where the Verb plural faciâ—mus declareth the plurality of the Persons and the Pronoun singular nostram sheweth the unity of the Essence even so here the word sanctus three times repeated doth manifestly declare the Trinity of persons and the word Deus God in the singular number doth as plainly shew the unity of Gods Essence And so the whole sum of all is 1. Quod Deus sit unus quoad essentiam that God is one That God is but one Essence and three persons and but one in respect of his Essence 2. Quod Deus sit trinus quoad subsistentiam that in the Vnity of that Essence there are three Persons in respect of their subsistence or manner of being And this will appear most evidently if you do compare together the 6. Deut. 6.4 Matth. 28 29. of Deut. and the 4. ver and the 28. of St. Matthew and the 19. ver For in the former place it is said Dominus Deus tuus Deus unus est the Lord thy God is one God and in the later place our Saviour commandeth his Disciples to go and to baptize all Nations in the Name and not in the names of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost therefore there is a Trinity of persons that is the Father the Son and the holy Ghost in the divine Nature Et una est numero essentia and yet there is but one Essence because no diversity can be given whereby these persons differ in regard of the Essence And therefore in regard of this identity and unity of essence in the three Persons our Saviour said Ego sum in patre et Pater est in me I am in the Father and the Father is in me and yet as St. Cyril saith Non est dicendum Pater est à filio vel in filio continetur we may not say the Father is from the Son or contained in the Son Nec est filius in patre ut nos in Deo esse et vivere dicimur Neither is the Son in the Father as we are said to be and to live in God Quia de ejus essentia nos non sumus because we are not of the essence of God but in and by the vertue grace and power of God But here it may be some will demand from whence have we the name of Trinity About the name of Trinity when as we cannot find the same in all the Scripture I answer that we have the word three from whence the word Trinity is derived for St. John saith There be three that bear witness in heaven and therefore as unity is derived ab uno from one so Trinity may as justly be derived from three and the Church of God Penes quam usus et forma loquendi to whom the phrases and forms of speech are committed hath power to use such words as may best express the Truth and confute the Hereticks so the same be not contrary to the sense and meaning of the holy Scriptures Now the difference between essence and person is this The difference betwixt the Essence of God and the Persons in the Godhead that the essence is the nature which is indivisible and common to the three Persons but a person Est subsistentia in natura divina as the Schools speak a subsistence or the manner of the persons subsisting in the divine Nature when the one person is distinguished from the others distinguished I say and not divided because there is no division in the divine Nature And the difference betwixt each Person is twofold The difference betwixt each Person and the others twofold 1. Difference internal 1. Internal and 2. External 1. The internal difference between the Persons is and consisteth in their internal operations and proprieties whereof the Divines say that Opera Trinitatis ad intra sunt divisa The internal operations of the Trinity are severed and divided because as St. Augustine saith Hoc est proprium patris quod solus est pater et quod ab alio non est nisi à seipso It is proper to the Father that he only is Father and that he is not from any other but from himself Et hoc est proprium filii quod do patre genitus est solus à solo coaeternus et consubstantialis genitori And it is the property of the Son that he is begotten of the Father the Son alone from the Father only coeternal and consubstantial to his begetter Et proprium est Spiritus sancti quod nec genitus nec ingenitus est sed à patre et filio aequaliter procedens It is proper to the holy Ghost that he is neither begotten nor created but equally proceeding both from the Father and the Son And this difference is not essential because the Essence of all three is the same