with a head of gold armes of silver bellie and thighes of brasse and legs of Iron yet thou standest upon feet of clay And what is now become of the head of gold which represented the Assyrian and armes of silver which resembled the Persian and the thighes of brasse which set forth the Grecian and the legs of iron which signified the Roman Monarchy Are they not all broken together and become like chaffe of a summers flower dispersed with the winde How proudly doth Sennacherib insult over those Nations whom his Ancestors had destroyed u Esay 37.13 Where is the King of Hamath and the King of Arphad and the King of the Citie Sepharvaim Hena and Ivah Little did he then thinke of a bird from the East Cyrus by name that after a short time should chirpe the like note at the Court of the great King of Ashur Where is the King of Shinar and the King of Babylon and the King of Damascus and the King of Nineveh and the great Monarch of Assyria Whereas he should with Nebuchadnezzar have x Dan. 4.34.35 honoured for these victories him that liveth for ever whose Kingdome is from generation to generation And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing and he doth according to his will in the armie of heaven and among the Inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him What dost thou x Horat. l. 1. car od 34. Valet ima summis mutare insignem attenuat Deus hinc apicem rapax fortuna sustulit hic posuisse gaudet If the state of Kingdomes and Monarchies is so fickle what follie or rather madnesse is it for any private man to dreame of perpetuities and certainties and indefeisable estates As if a man might be safe in a small cabbine under hatches when the whole Ship is drowned under the water or a Spider secure in his web when the whole window is pulled downe or a young bird out of danger in the nest when the whole arme of the tree is torne off All private mens estates are ventered in the bottome of the Common-wealth and all Common-wealthes in the great vessell of the earth which was once swallowed up with a deluge of Water and shall be ere it be long with a deluge of fire A house infected with some kinde of Leprosie by the Law was to be pulled downe and burnt to ashes and when iniquitie shall so abound on the earth that the whole world shall be infected with the Leprosie of monstrous and enormous sins this great house which hath beene long tottered shall be burned and fall downe about our eares And verily if all other signes be accomplished as many of the learned in their commentaries upon the Apocalyps contend I should thinke the world cannot long stand for y Juvenal sat 1. Quando ubârior vitiorum copia quando Major avaritia patuit sinus c Horat. l. 1. car od 35. Eheu cicatricuÌ sceleris pudet fratrumque quid nos dura refugimus caetas quid intactum nefasti liquimus Omne in praecipiti vitium stetit Every sinne is growne to the height Atheisme to the height even in men of high calling prophanenesse to the height even on the Lords Sabbaths and in his holy Temple Impuritie and immodestie at the height even daring the consistory Iniquitie at the height possessing the place and seat of justice Drunkennesse at the height reeling at noone-day Idolatrie Heresie and Superstition at the height advancing their followers to the highest preferments in the Church and keeping under pure Religion and the sincere Professours thereof It will be said though plagues fall upon all Egypt yet Goshen shall be free though the whole world be destroyed all Israel shall be saved Israel is Gods first-borne who shall dis-inherit him Israel is the Vine which the right hand of God hath planted who shall root it up Israel is the Signet on his finger who shall plucke it off Nay Israel is the apple of his eye who shall pull it out Let heaven and earth passe away yet Gods covenant with Israel shall stand fast his seed shall endure for ever and his throne shall bee as the Sunne before God If these promises stand good unto Israel this Prophecie of Israels downefall must needs fall to the ground For how can the Kingdome of Jacob and the captivitie of Jacob Israels gathering out of all Nations and Israels scattering abroad into all Nations Israels perpetuall standing and Israels falling and utter subversion stand together To compose this seeming difference betweene Gods promises to Israel and his threats against Israel we must distinguish of divers kindes of promises made to Israel and of divers Israels to which the promises may appertaine Israel sometime signifieth 1. Properly 1. Either the whole posteritie of Jacob 2. Or the ten tribes which were rent from Roboam 2. Figuratively The spiritual kingdome of Christ over the Elect. Againe there is a threefold Israel 1. According to the flesh onely of which the a Rom. 9.6 Rom. 11.25 Apostle speaketh expressely They are not all Israel which are of Israel And obstinacie is come to Israel b 1 Cor. 10.18 Behold Israel after the flesh 2. Israel according to the Spirit onely c Heb. 8.10 This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those dayes I will put my Law into their mindes and write them in their hearts c. and so all d Rom. 11.26 Israel shal be saved for this is my covenant with them when I take away their sinnes 3. Israel according to the flesh and spirit which may rightly be called the Israel of Israel as Demosthenes termeth Athens ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Greece of Greece to Israel in this third sense Christ had a speciall commission I am not sent saith he but to the lost e Math. 10.6 Gââ to the lost sheepe of the house of Israel sheepe of the house of Israel Saint Paul pointeth to this Israel when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come in all f Rom. 10.26 Israel shall be saved And Saint John g Apoc. 7 4. There were sealed an hundreth and fourty and foure thousand of all the Tribes of the children of Israel Retaine these distinctions of Israel and put a difference betweene the promises whereof Some are 1. Absolute 2. Conditionall Some are 1. Temporall 2. Spirituall and you shall easily reconcile those texts of Scriptures which seeme to overthrow this prophecie concerning the utter overthrow of the Kingdome of Israel by which we are here to understand the ten Tribes which fell out not long after this Prophecie in the daies of Hosea their last King As for Judah the h Gen. 49.10 Scepter according to Jacobs prophecy departed not from it untill Shilo came but after he came and was rejected of that Nation and the sacred twig of Jesse was nailed to an accursed tree God cut it off root
did his best to incline his will that way yet he could not keep it to that bent but that it slacked and bowed another way as Christs words imply Ducent te quo nolis They shall d John 21.18 lead thee whither thou wouldest not He saith not they shall draw thee but they shall lead thee Peter therefore was in some sort willing to goe with them that led him to the crosse yet hee somewhat shrinked at it though the spirit was strong in him yet the flesh was weake Who ever did or suffered more for the Gospel than Saint Paul yet he professeth that in regard of the law of sinne in his members the e Rom. 7.19 good which he would doe he did not and the evill which he would not doe that he did And being thus crossed in all his godly desires and endeavours hee cryeth out O * Rom. 7.24 wretched man that I am who shall deliver mee from this body of death Yee see now the root of bitternesse set so deep in our hearts that it cannot be pluck't up till wee are transplanted there is no hope in this life to purge out this matter of continuall diseases it is so mingled with our radicall moisture the balsamum of our lives only wee may abate it by subtracting nourishment from it and allay the force of it by strengthening nature against it by prayers godly instructions and continuall exercises of religious duties A neerer cause of our so great distemper in afflictions wee owe to the delights of our prosperity which as the pleasures of Capua did Hannibals souldiers so weaken our mindes and make us so choice and tender that we cannot beare the weight of our owne armour much lesse the stroakes of an enraged enemy The f Hieron ad Heliod Corpus assuetum tunicis loricae onus non fert caput opertum linteo galeam recusat mollem otio manum durus exasperat capulus body used to soft raiment cannot beare the weight of an helmet the head wrapped in silke night-caps cannot endure an iron head-piece the hard hilt hurteth the soft hand It was wisely observed by the g Senec. sent Res adversae non frangunt quos prosperae non corruperunt Heathen Sage that none are broken with adversity but such as were weakened before and made crazie by ease and prosperity Sound trees are not blowne downe with the wind but the rootes rather fastened thereby but corrupt trees eaten with wormes engendered of superfluous moisture are therefore throwne downe by the least blast because they had no strength to resist Why do losses of goods so vexe us but because we trusted in uncertaine riches Why is disgrace a Courtiers hell but because he deemed the favour of the Prince places of honourable employment his heaven We are therefore astonished at our fall because sometimes with David in the height of our worldly felicity we said Wee shall never bee h Psal 30.6 moved If when we had the world at will we had used the things of this life as if wee used them not now in the change of our estate our not using them would be all one as if we used them The best meanes to asswage the paines of affliction when it shall befall us will be in the time of our wealth to abate the pleasures of prosperity if we sawce all our earthly joyes with godly sorrow all our worldly sorrow shall be mixed with much spirituall joy and comfort Let us not over-greedily seeke nor highly esteem nor immoderately take nor intemperately joy in the delights and comforts which wealth and prosperity afford and the rod of Gods afflicting hand shall fall but lightly upon us Let us not so fill our hearts with temporary pleasures but that wee leave some place for these and the like sad and sober thoughts What are riches honours pleasures and all the contentments of this life that because I enjoy them for the present I should take so much upon mee The Divell offereth them the wicked have them Gods dearest children often want them therefore they are not eagerly to be sought They are not good but in their use nor things but for a moment nor ours but upon trust therefore not greatly to be esteemed They without store of grace in our selves and good counsels from others strengthen the flesh weaken the spirit nourish carnall lusts choake all good motions cloy our bodily and wholly stupifie our ghostly senses cast us into a dead sleep of security but awake Gods judgements against us therefore they are sparingly to be tasted not greedily to be devoured These and the like meditations are not only good preservatives in prosperity but also lenitives in adversity as they helpe us to digest and i Pind. od 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã concoct felicity so they strengthen us to beare misery All that wee now possesse and the world so much doteth upon what are they in their nature and condition but things indifferent therefore wee ought to bee indifferently affected to them and the contrary they are transitory what strange thing then is it if they passe from us they are farre inferiour to the immortall spirit that quickneth our bodies therefore cannot the want of them deprive it of happinesse they are not our inheritance for ever nor our donatives or legacies for life but talents for a while committed to us to employ them to our Masters best advantage therefore the restoring them back is no mulct but a surrender no losse but a discharge The more of this sort wee are trusted with the more liable we are to an account how then are wee hurt or endammaged by the diminution of that which lessens our accounts Finally they are often effects of Gods wrath and their effects usually are sensuality security and stupidity against which afflictions are a speciall remedy To extract then the quintessence of the herbes and flowers of Paradise and make of them a cordiall to comfort us in worldly losses Nothing is absolutely good but God all other things respectively only temporall blessings as they proceed from his love and may be imployed to his glory in this respect only to be desired and loved If then wee affect God in them and enjoy them in God and it be made apparent unto us that afflictions and losses are sometimes more certaine tokens of Gods love and that they minister unto us more matter and greater occasion of testifying our love to him and meanes of setting forth his glory we should be rather glad than sorrowfull when God seeth it best for us to exchange the former for the latter Yea but the forlorne Christian out of all heart because in his conceit out of Gods favour will reply Shew mee that the countenance of God is not changed towards mee nor his affections estranged from mee and it sufficeth surely kissings and embracings not blowes and stroakes are love complements how may I be perswaded that God layeth his heavie crosse upon mee in
Jonas in like manner cries I am cast out of thy sight Jonah 2.4 there is smoak in the flaxe yet was not the flaxe quenched for he addeth immediatly yet I will looke againe to thy holy Temple If thou wilt thou canst Matth. 8.2 said one poore man in the Gospel Lord if thou canst said another Marke 9.22 both these were as the smoaking flaxe in my Text. For the former doubted of Gods power the latter of his will yet neither of both were quenched O miserable man that I am saith S. Paul in the person of a Christian travelling in his new birth who shall deliver me from this body of death here is a cloud of smoak Rom. 7.24.25 yet it is blown away in an instant and the flame breaketh out and blazeth into Gods praises Thankes be unto God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ Man for a little smoake will quench the light but Christ every where cherisheth the least sparke of grace and bloweth it gently by his spirit till it breake forth into a flame To encourage us the more hee accepteth the will for the deed and a good assay for the performance If thou canst but shed a teare for thy sins he hath a bottle to put it in if thou steale a sigh in secret he hath an eare for it if thy faith be but as a graine of mustard seed it shall grow to a great tree Nathanael at the first had but a small ground to beleeve that Christ should bee the Messias but afterwards Christ made good his words unto him hee saw greater things to build his faith upon Because I said unto thee John 1.50 I saw thee under the fig-tree beleevest thou thou shalt see greater things than these Apollos at the first was but catechized in Johns Baptisme Act. 18.27.28 but afterwards Aquila and Priscilla expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly and hee helped them much which had beleeved through grace for hee mightily convicted the Jewes and that publikely shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ Joseph of Arimathea richer in grace than wealth and a great dispreader of the Gospel and as many ancient Writers report the first planter of Christian Religion in this Island yet till Christs death had small courage to professe him but when the evening was come Mar. 15.42.43 which was the preparation that is the day before the Sabbath hee went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus Saint Augustine at the first was drawne to the Church by the lustre of Saint Ambrose his eloquence as himselfe a Aug. confess l. 5. c. 4. confesseth but afterwards he was much more taken with the strength of his proofe than the ornaments of his speech and God by his Spirit so blowed the sparke of divine knowledge in this smoaking flaxe that the Church of God never saw a cleerer lamp burning in it since it had him If we consider the smoaking flaxe in the second condition to wit after the lampe is blowne out the spirituall meaning is That those in whom there was ever any spark of saving grace shall never be quenched or that after the most fearfull blast of temptation there remaines yet some divine fire in the heart of every true beleever which Christ will never quench Christ will not quench the smoaking flaxe if there bee any sparke of divine fire in it yet if this sparke bee not blowne and the weeke enlightened againe it will dye in like manner if wee doe not according to the Apostles precept 2 Tim. 1.6 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã stirre up the grace of God in us and use the utmost of our religious endeavours to kindle againe the lampe of faith in our soules that sparke of divine faith and saving grace which wee conceive that wee have will dye As it is not presumption but faith to bee confident in Gods promises when wee walke in his Ordinances so it is not faith but presumption to assure our selves of the end when wee neglect the meanes of our salvation Wee may no otherwise apprehend or apply unto our selves the gracious promises made to all true beleevers in the Gospel than they are propounded unto us which is not absolutely but upon conditions by us to bee performed through the helpe of divine grace namely to wash our selves Esa 1.16 17. to make us cleane to put away the evill of our doings from before Gods eyes to cease to doe evill to learne to doe well to seeke judgement to relieve the oppressed to judge the fatherlesse Dan. 4.27 Job 41. â Apoc. 3.19 Mat. 3.8 and to pleade for the widow to breake off our sinnes by righteousnesse and our iniquity by shewing mercy to the poore to abhorre our selves and repent in dust and ashes to remember from whence wee are fallen and doe our first workes to bee zealous and amend and to bring forth fruits meet for repentance To argue from a strong perswasion of our election and from thence to inferre immediately assurance of salvation is as Tertullian speaketh in another case aedificare in ruinam The safe way to build our selves in our most holy faith and surely fasten the anchor of our hope is to conclude from amendment of life repentance unto life from our hatred of sinne Gods love unto us from hunger and thirst after righteousnesse some measure of grace from godly sorrow and sonne-like feare and imitation of our heavenly Father the adoption of sonnes from continuall growth in grace perseverance to the end from the fruits of charity the life of our faith and from all a modest assurance of our election unto eternall life Not curiously to dispute the Scholasticall question concerning the absolute impossibilitie of the apostacy of any Saint and the amissibility of justifying faith which many learned Doctours of the Reformed Churches hold fitter to bee extermined than determined or at least confined to the Schooles than defined in the Pulpit that wherein all parties agree is sufficient to comfort the fainting spirits and strengthen the feeble knees of any relapsed Christian That God will never bee wanting to raise him if hee bee not wanting to himselfe But if when hee is returned with the Sow to his wallowing in the mire hee taketh delight therein and never striveth to plucke his feet out of it nor rise up out of the dirt if hee never cry for helpe nor so much as put forth the hand of his faith that Christ may take hold of it and by effectuall grace draw him out of the mudde hee will certainly putrifie in his sinnes Hee that heareth the Word of God preached and assenteth thereunto and is most firmly perswaded of Gods love to him for the present if through the rebellion of the flesh against the spirit or the suggestions of Sathan or by the wicked counsels and examples of others hee chargeth himselfe with any foule sinne either of impiety against God or iniquity against men or impurity
erit timor ut mihi perseveranter adhaereant I will put my feare in their hearts that they depart not from me what is it else than to say the feare which I put in their hearts shall be such and so great that they shall assuredly or perseveringly cleave unto me They whose hearts are kept alwaies in this feare need never feare finall Apostacy from God Counterfeit f Sen. de clem l. 1. Nemo potest personam diu ferte ficta cito in naturam suam recidunt things are discovered by their discontinuance variation but true by their lasting That which glareth for a time in the aire and out-braveth the stars even of the first rank or magnitude but after a few daies playeth least in sight is a Comet no true starre Stella cadens non est stella cometa fuit Likewise that which glistereth like gold yet endureth not the fire is Alchymy stuffe no pretious metall The stone that sparkleth like a Diamond yet abideth not the stroke is a cornish or counterfeit not a true orient Diamond It is artificiall complexion and meere painting not true beauty which weareth out in a day and is washed off with a showre Feigned things and false saith the g Cic. de âsâc l. 3. Ficta omnia tanquam slosculi decidunt vera gloria âadices agiâ âque etiam propagatur Oratour soone fall like blossomes true glory taketh root and spreadeth it selfe The truth himselfe our h Joh. 8 31. Lord and Saviour maketh perseverance a certain note of true Disciples If yee continue in my word then are you my Disciples indeed Would any of you know whether he be a true sonne of God and member of Christ he can by no thing so infallibly finde it in himselfe as by the gift of perseverance This St. i 1 Joh. 2.19 John giveth for a touch-stone of a true Apostle They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had beene of us they would have continued with us but they went out that they might bee made manifest that they were not of us Saint Paul of a true k Heb. 3.6 member of Christ or temple of the holy Ghost But Christ is a sonne over his owne house whose house are wee if wee hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firme to the end Saint l Aug. de correp grat c. 9. Tunc verè sunt quod appellantur si manseâint in co propter quod sic appellantur Augustine of the true children of God Then they are truely what they are called the sonnes of God if they continue in that for which they are so called The fourth pillar I named unto you was the power of regenerating grace 1 Pet. 1.3 4. whereby wee are begotten againe unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us That which is incorruptible cannot bee destroyed or perish that which is reserved for us cannot be taken away from us Now if any demand what preserveth faith in the soule in such sort that it is never habitually lost though the act thereof be sometimes suspended I answer 1. Outwardly the powerfull ministry of the Word and Sacraments 2. Inwardly renewing grace infused into the soule at the first moment of our conversion This grace is by the holy Ghost termed the * Jam. 1.21 Receive with meeknesse the engraffed word which is able to save your soules engraffed word sometimes the a 1 Joh. 2.27 But the annointing which ye hâve received of him abideth in you and as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him annointing that abideth in us sometimes the b 1 Cor. 3.16 Know ye not that ye are the temples of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you spirit dwelling in us sometimes a c John 4.14 Whosoever drinketh of the water I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of water springing to everlasting life Well of water springing up to everlasting life sometimes Gods d 1 John 3.9 Whosoever is borne of God doth not coÌmit sin for his seed remaineth in him seed remaining in us sometimes e 1 Pet. 3.23 Being borne againe not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever incorruptible seed whence we may frame an argument like to that of our Saviours to Nicodemus As f John 3.6 That which is borne of the flesh is flesh but that which is borne of the spirit is spirit that which is borne of corruptible seed is corruptible so that which is borne of incorruptible seed is incorruptible How can he that is borne of incorruptible and spirituall seed be corrupted and dye spiritually how can hee that hath in his belly a Well of ever-springing water thirst eternally how can he in whom the annointing S. John speaketh of abideth putresie in his sinnes how can hee in whom the spirit dwelleth be estranged from the love of God how can he that is borne of God become a childe of the Divell Saint g 1 John 3.9 John strongly argueth against it Whosoever is born of God cannot commit sinne because he is borne of God I conclude this argument with that daring interrogation of Saint h Aug. de bono persev c. 7. Contra tam claram veritatis tubam quis voceâ ullâs auaâât humanas Austin Against so cleere and loud sounding trumpet of divine truth what man of a sober and watchfull faith will endure to heare any voices or words from man The fifth pillar is Christs prayer for the perseverance of all true beleevers The pillar is like to Jacobs ladder that reacheth from earth to heaven and though heaven and earth be shaken yet this pillar will stand immoveable I know saith Christ that thou i John 16.23 Verely verely I say unto you whatsoever you aske the Father in my name he will give it you O Father hearest mee alwaies If wee obtaine whatsoever we aske for Christs sake shall not Christ obtaine what he asketh for us If the Word of God sustaine the whole frame of nature shall not Christs prayer be able to support a weake Christian Doth God heare the softest voice and lowest sigh and groane of his children upon earth and will he not heare the loud cry of his Sonne in his bosome in heaven What therefore if Sathan seeke to winnow us like wheat Saint k Cypr. de simpl prelat Triticum non rapit ventus manes paleae tempestate jactantur Cyprian biddeth us never to feare blowing away It is empty chaffe that is blowne away with the winde the corne still abides on the floore Shall Sathans fanning bee more powerfull to scatter than Christs prayer to gather us shall any winde of temptation be of more force
of sinnes is peculiarly attributed to the Spirit and by a metonymie termed the Holy Ghost Barradius bringeth us an answer out of the schooles that z Barrad in harmon Evang. remission of sinnes is a worke of Gods goodnesse and mercy now workes of goodnesse are peculiarly attributed to the holy Spirit who proceedeth as they determine from the will of the Father and the Sonne whose object is goodnesse as workes of wisedome are attributed to the Sonne because hee is the word proceeding by way of generation from the understanding of his Father This reason may goe for currant in their way neither have I any purpose at this time to crosse it but to haste to the period of this discourse in which that I may better discover the path of truth in stead of many little lights which others have brought I will set up one great taper made of the sweetest of their waxe The Holy Ghost is sometimes taken for the person of the Comforter which sealeth Gods chosen to salvation sometimes for the gifts effects or operations of the Holy Ghost as it were the prints of his scale left in the soule these are principally three 1 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Grace 2 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã spirituall power or authority 3 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vertue or ghostly ability to worke wonders and speake with divers languages 1 Is common to all them that are sanctified 2 Is peculiar to Christs Ministers 3 Restrayned to the Apostles themselves and some few others of their immediate successors z Joh. 3.5 Exceât a man be borne of the water and of the spirit 1 Regenerating grace is termed the holyGhost 2 Spirituall order or ministeriall power is called the Spirit or holy Ghost in this place and Luk. 4.18 Esay 61.1 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the Gospell c. 3 Miraculous vertue is called the holy Ghost Act. 2.4 And they were filled with the holy Ghost and spake with divers tongues 1 The Spirit of grace and regeneration the Apostles received at their first calling 2 The Spirit of ecclesiasticall government they received at this time c. 3 The Spirit of powerfull and extraordinary operation they received in the day of Pentecost 1 In their mindes by infallible inspiration 2 In their tongues by multiplicity of languages 3 In their hands by miraculous cures Receive then the Holy Ghost is 1 A ghostly function to ordaine Pastors and sanctifie congregations to God 2 Spirituall gifts to execute and discharge that function 3 Spirituall power or jurisdiction to countenance and support both your function and gifts Thus have I opened the treasury of this Scripture out of which I now offer to your religious thoughts and affections these ensuing observations And first in generall I commend to the fervour of your zeale and devotion the excessive heat of Christs love which absumed and spent him all for us flesh and spirit His flesh he offereth us in the Sacrament of his Supper his spirit hee conferreth in the sacred rite of consecration His body hee gave by those words Take eate this is my body his spirit hee gave by these Receive ye the holy Ghost a gift unestimable a treasure unvaluable for it was this spirit which quickned us when wee were dead in trespasses and sinnes it is this spirit which fetcheth us againe when wee swoune in despaire it is this spirit that refresheth and cooleth us in the extreme heat of all persecutions afflictions sorrowes and diseases to it we owe 1 Light in our mindes 2 Warmth in our desires 3 Temper in our affections 4 Grace in our wils 5 Peace in our consciences 6 Joy in our hearts and unspeakeable comfort in life and death This is the winde which bloweth a Cant. 4.16 Blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits upon the Spouse her garden that the spices thereof might flow out This is the breath which formeth the words in the cloven tongues this is the breath which bloweth and openeth all the flowers of Paradise This is the blast which diffuseth the savour of life through the whole Church This is the gale which carryeth us through all the troublesome waves of this world and bringeth us safe to the haven where we would be And as the Spouse of Christ which is his mysticall body is infinitely indebted to her head for this gift of the spirit whereby holy congregations are furnished with Pastors and they with gifts and the ministery of the Gospell continually propagated so wee above all nations in the world at this day are most bound to extoll and magnifie his goodnesse towards us herein among whom in a manner alone this holy seed of the Church remaineth unmixed and uncorrupt not onely as propagated but propagating also not children onely but Fathers Apostolicall doctrine other reformed Churches maintaine but doe they retaine also Apostolicall discipline laying of hands they have on Ministers and Pastors but consecration of Archbishops and Bishops they have not And because they want consecrated Bishops to ordaine Pastors their very ordination is not according to ancient order Because they want spirituall Fathers in Christ to beget children in their ministery their Ministers by the adversary are accounted no better than filii populi whereas will they nill they even in regard of our Hierarchy the most frontlesse Papists must confesse the children begot by our reverend Fathers in the ministery of the Gospell to be as legitimate as their owne For albeit they put the hereticke upon us as the Arrians did upon the Catholike Fathers calling them Athanasians c. yet this no way disableth either the consecration of our Bishops nor the ordination of our Priests not onely because we have proved the dogge lyeth at their doores and that they are a kinde of mungrils of divers sorts of heretickes but because it is the doctrine of their Church b See Croy in his third conformity Whitaker in fine resp ad demonstrat Sanderi Rivet procem de haeref q. 1. Cath. orthod that the character of order is indeleble and therefore Archbishop Cranmer and other of our Bishops ordained by them if they had afterwards as Papists most falsly suppose fallen into heresie could not lose their faculty of consecration and ordination The consecration of Catholicke Bishops by Arrians and baptisme of faithfull Christians children by Donatists though heretickes is made good as well by the decrees of ancient as later Councels determining that Sacraments administred even by heretickes so they observe the rite and forme of words prescribed in holy scripture bee of force and validity Praysed therefore for ever bee the good will of him that dwelt in the bush that the Rod of Aaron still flourisheth among us and planteth and propagateth it selfe like that Indian fig-tree so much admired by all Travellers from the utmost branch whereof issueth a gummy juyce which hangeth
giving sentences or making decrees The Judges among the Romanes when they acquitted any man cast in a white stone into an urne or pot according to that of the Poet Mos erat antiquis niveis atrisque lapillis His damnare reos illis absolvere culpâ And likewise the Citizens of Rome in choosing their Magistrates wrote his name to whom they gave their voice in a white stone By allusion to which two customes I conceive the Spirit in this place promiseth to every one that shall overcome the lusts of the flesh by the Spirit the assaults of the Devill by faith and the persecutions and troubles of the world by his constancy calculum absolutorium suffragatorium an infallible token of his absolution from death and election to a crowne of life an assurance of present justification and future glorification Thus I take the Quid nominis to bee cleare the greatest controversie is about the Quid rei what that gift or grace is what that signe or token what that proofe or testimony whereby our present estate of grace and future of glory are secured unto us Some ghesse not farre off the truth That it is testimonium renovatae conscientiae the testimony of a renewed conscience For as the eye in a glasse by reflection seeth it selfe looking so the conscience by a reflection upon it selfe knoweth that it knoweth God and beleeveth that it beleeveth in Christ and feeleth that it hath a new feeling sense and life The eye of faith in the regenerate seeth himselfe sealed to the day of redemption and observeth the print of the seale in himselfe and the image of the heavenly which it beareth I shall speake nothing to disparage this testimony of conscience which affordeth to every true beleever singular contentment in life and comfort in death The nearer the voice is the briefer and more certainely wee heare it and therefore wee cannot but distinctly take that deposition for us which conscience speaketh in the eare of the heart And yet wee have a nearer and surer voice to settle our heart in the knowledge of our spirituall estate the testimony of Gods Spirit which is nearer and more inward to our soules than our soules to our bodies and the witnesse thereof may be as great or a greater joy to us than if God had sent an Angell to us as hee did to Daniel to shew unto us that wee were beloved of him or an Archangel as hee did to the Virgin k Luke 1.28 Mary to salute us Haile thou that art highly favoured of God If any demand as shee did not out of any doubt but out of a desire of farther information quomodo that is how doth the Spirit testifie to our spirits that we are the sonnes of God To speake nothing of elevations of Spirit and raptures and speciall revelations which are not now so frequent and so certaine as in former ages I answer The Spirit testifieth this unto us two manner of wayes by Motions or Words Effects or Deeds By words so are the expresse words of Saint l Prolog card vert 1. Dicuntur tibi verba quaedam arcana intrinsecus ut dubitare non possis quin juxta te fit Cyprian As when lightning breaketh the cloud and the suddaine splendour thereof doth not so much enlighten as dazle the eyes so sometimes thou art touched with I know not what motion and feelest thy selfe to bee touched and yet seest not him that toucheth thee there are inwardly spoken unto thee certaine secret words so as thou canst not doubt that hee is neare thee even within thee who doth solicite thee yet doth hee not let thee see him as hee is These secret words Saint m Serm. 1. in annunc Hoc est testimonium quod perhibet Spiritus sanctus dimissa sunt tibi peccata tua Bernard uttereth This is the testimony or record which the Spirit beareth unto thee Thy sinnes are forgiven thee I take it the meaning of the words of these Fathers is not that the holy Ghost doth sound these formall words in our bodily eares but that as God once n 1 Kin. 19.12 spake in a still small voice so in it still hee speaketh to the faithfull by the Spirit verbis mentalibus by mentall words or notions by which hee continually inciteth us to good restraines us from evill forewarneth us of danger and comforteth us in trouble And whilest wee listen to these notions or rather motions of the spirit within us wee heare this testimony often and distinctly But when wee give eare to the motions of the evill Spirit and entertaine him and delight in his society and thereby grieve and despite the Spirit of grace hee being thus grieved by us speaketh no more words of comfort in us but withdrawes his gracious presence and leaveth us in horrour of conscience and darknesse of minde In this time of spirituall desertion wee thinke wee have lost this white stone though indeed wee have not lost it but it is hid from us for a while for afterwards wee shall finde it having first felt the Spirit moving upon the waters of our penitent teares and in our powring out our soules before God assisting us with sighes and groanes that cannot be expressed then after we renewing our covenant with him our sins are blowne away like a thicke mist and light from heaven breaketh in againe upon us and with this light assurance and with assurance peace and with peace joy in the holy Ghost Yea but a weake Christian may yet demand How may I bee assured that my stone is not a counterfeit that my gold is not alchymy that my pearle is not glasse that my Edenis not a fooles Paradise that this testimony in my soule is not a suggestion of Sathan to tempt mee to presumption and thereby drowne mee in perdition The Spirit of God commanding mee to o 1 Joh. 4.1 Beleeve not every spirit but try the spirit whether they are of God Try the Spirits whether they are of God or no implyeth that there are Spirits which are not of God how then may I certainly know that this motion within mee is from the good and not rather from the evill Spirit By this if it accord with the word and the testimony of thine own conscience but if it vary from either thou hast just cause to suspect it If any Spirit shall tell thee that thou art lockt in the armes of Gods mercy and canst not fall from him though thou huggest some vice in thy bosome and lettest loose the reines to some evill concupiscence give that Spirit the lye because it accordeth not with the word of God testifying expressely that p Eph. 5.5 no whoremonger nor uncleane person nor covetous man which it an Idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdome of God and of Christ For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously
life of God but sent from his bosome his word of truth light into darknesse who in the fulnesse of time offered by the light of his countenance to bring us againe to Gods inaccessible brightnesse and by the vaile of his flesh not only to shelter us from the scorching flames of his Fathers fury as the pillar of cloud did the Israelites from the heate of the Sun but also by soliciting our peace to demolish that partition wall which wee had raised against our selves and to reunite us againe inseparably to him from whom wee had rent and dissevered our selves crying in the midst of you as you heare Come unto mee c. The voice of God and not of man or rather of the eternall wisedome which was God and man In these words which I terme Chââsts Proclamation of grace and peace to all soule-sicke sinners wee may note 1. An invitation Come unto mee 2. The reward of our obedience I will ease you In the first part note wee 1. The party inviting Christ 2. The thing he adviseth to Come 3. The object to whom Mee 4. The parties that are envited singled out by their qualities all that are weary and heavie laden In the second part note wee 1. The party promising I. 2. The reward it selfe ease and rest will ease you Here then you see 1. Love inviting Come 2. Truth directing To mee 3. Necessity inciting All that are weary 4. Reward alluring And I will ease you 1. Love inviteth that we feare not to come 2. Truth directeth that we erre not in comming 3. Necessity inciteth that we slacke not to come 4. Reward sustaineth that wee faint not in comming Doctr. 1 Come Venite fides exigitur studium desideratur saith Saint Ambrose Christ his proselytes life must not bee as his confidence in Esay chapt 30. in ease and quietnesse Ver. 15. for then Moab-like he will soone settle on his lees and have his taste remaining in him Jerem. 48.11 The Caldean Sagda as Solinus reporteth by the spirit inclosed in it riseth from the bottome of Euphrates and so closely sticketh to the boards of the ships that passe that river that without slivering of some part of the barke it cannot be severed so sinne by the power of the evill spirit arising from the bottomlesse pit of perdition adhereth so fast to us that till our brittle Barkes of flesh be slivered off this Sagda of sinne can never be removed but like Dejanira's poysoned shirt Qua trahitur trahit illa cutem And therefore this sore travell God hath allotted to all the sonnes of Adam from the first time they become new borne babes in Christ till they breath out their languishing soules into the hands of their Redeemer to wrestle with their inbred corruptions and to seeke to shake off the sinne which hangeth on so fast that howsoever it cannot be altogether dis-severed before wee are dissolved yet it may not be a Remora to our ships much lesse get such strength as to over-rule us Howbeit because the flesh is weake where the spirit is most ready and the spirit it selfe is not so ready as it should be because the faculties thereof through the malignity of sinne are much imbezelled God spareth not by frequent Scriptures to stirre us up to goe on and traverse the way of his commandements some to rowze us up from sleep as Awake thou that sleepest Ephes 5.14 and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Some to incite us to goe on forward when wee are raised Hebr. 12.14 as Follow peace and holinesse without which no man shall see God Some to encourage us that wee faint not as Bee not weary of well doing for in due time yee shall reape if yee faint not Once indeed it was said to the Israelites Galat. 6.9 Stand still and behold the salvation of God but now Come behold and stand not still if you desire the salvation of God Now no more sit still as it was once said to the daughter of Babel but arise and depart for here is no resting place Jacob saw Angels ascending and descending but none standing or sitting on the ladder There are many rounds in our Jacobs ladder whereby wee climbe to the Mount of God Non debemus pigri remanere non debemus superbi cadere saith Saint Austine Paul that honourable vessell of God though hee laid so fast hold on Christ by faith and was so knit to him by love that hee challengeth all powers in heaven and earth to trie if they were able to separate him from the love of his Redeemer Rom. 8. Ver. 35. yet reckoning with himselfe as if hee had not comprehended him of whom hee was comprehended hee forgat that which was behinde and followed hard to the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ So true is that of Saint Bernard Ubi incipis nolle fieri melior ibi desinis esse bonus Use 1 Here then let us tracke out by the footsteps of our spirits motion how forward wee are in the way of the Lord. If the longing desire of our heart bee unsatisfied till wee enjoy againe our happy communion with God if when God saith Seeke yee my face thy soule answer Thy face Lord will I seeke if when Christ soundeth his Venite thy heart springing for joy resound Davids Ecce Loe I come and thy spirit so out-strip the slow motions of thy sluggish flesh that with the Spouse in the Canticles thou desire to bee drawne after him then bee thou assured that this is the finger of God For no man can come to Christ but hee whom the Father draweth But contrariwise if when the World saith Come wee hearken to it and for Hippomanes golden balls wee refuse to follow Christ if when the Divell saith Come wee listen to his lure and for his omnia tibi dabo bow to his will if when the flesh saith Come wee trudge to it and for lascivious lulling in Dalila's lap wee renounce him who calleth us to bee his Nazarites these unsanctified affections blab out our inward corruptions and wee shew our selves to bee the worlds darlings the Divels pesants and the fleshes slaves not Christs sheep For if it bee true Omnis qui didicit venit quisquis non venit profectò non didicit as Saint Austine rightly inferreth Doctr. 2 Unto mee Now followeth the happy terminus ad quem of our spirituall motions Satius est claudicare in viâ quà m currere extra viam halting Jacob will sooner limpe to his journies end than swift-footed Napthali posting speedily out of the way Therefore lest when God calleth us wee should with Samuel runne to Eli or linger our comming for feare of mistaking the Way himselfe chalketh us out the path of salvation saying Come to mee Foure sorts of men seeme to come to Christ yet come not as they should The first begin to come but they fall short in their way and these are
but remorse of conscience for some hainous and grievous sinnes whereby Gods image in us is defaced our credit stayned our profession scandalized and Gods anger provoked against us This remorse is found both in the godly and in the wicked but in the one it is cured or at least eased with seasonable comfort in the other this continuall biting of conscience is without any ease or hope of cure and therefore it driveth them to blaspheme God and curse themselves sometimes to lay violent hands upon their own bodies and apply a remedy worse than the disease In the godly and penitent it breedeth a loathing and detestation of sinne and a speedy recourse to the Physitian of their soules with sighes and groanes that cannot be expressed For as Lactantius writeth that the ashes of a burnt viper are a present remedy against the sting of the viper so the remaines of sin in the conscience viz. remorse and shame are a present remedy against sinne as wee may see in David c Psal 51.3 I know mine owne iniquity and my sinne is ever before mee d Psal 38.4 5. Mine iniquities are gone over my head they are a burden too heavie for me to beare my wounds stink and are putrefied through my foolishnesse and in Solomon who upon experience of the unfruitfulnesse of sinne indited that excellent Sermon delivered in the booke of the Preacher the premisses wherein are e Eccl. 1.2 Vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of spirit and the conclusion f Eccl. 12.13 Feare God and keepe his commandements for this is the whole man and in the Jewes who when Saint Peter set before their eyes their crucifying the Lord of life their saving a murtherer and murthering their Saviour were g Act. 2.37 pricked in heart and said Men and brethren what shall wee doe And in the h 2 Cor. 7.8 9. Corinthians in whom remorse of conscience like the dart of Jason wrought a strange cure whereat the Apostle much rejoiced Though I made you sorry saith hee with a letter I repent not Nay I rejoice not that yee were sorry but that yee were sorry to repentance for godly sorrow causeth repentance to salvation not to bee repented of For behold this thing that yee have beene godly sorry what great care it hath wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation yea what feare yea what zeale in all things ye have shewed your selves to be pure in this matter For this cause Saint Paul in his Epistles often rubbeth up their memory to whom hee writeth with the consideration of their former unregenerate estate as the Corinthians i 1 Cor. 6.9 Know yee not that the unrighteous shall not inherite the Kingdome of heaven Be not deceived Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor wantons nor theeves nor covetous nor drunkards nor extortioners shall inherite the Kingdome of God and such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are cleansed but yee are sanctified but yee are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus And the Ephesians k Eph. 5.8 Ye were sometimes darknesse but now yee are light in the Lord l Eph. 4.17 18 19. This therefore I testifie unto you that yee walke not from henceforth as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind having their understanding darkened and being deprived of the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their heart which being past feeling have given themselves to wantonnesse to worke all wickednesse with greedinesse The Angel bid Tobias to unbowell the fish and take out the gall as being usefull in medicine and a speciall meanes to recover his eye-sight The story is Apocryphall but the application of it is Canonicall and agreeable to the doctrine of the inspired Scriptures If wee unbowell wordly pleasures and carnall delights and take out the gall of them that is seriously thinke upon the bitternesse which they leave behind them it will prove a soveraigne remedy against our spirituall blindnesse A reason of this observation wee neede not fetch farre wise men by others fall prevent their owne but even fooles learne a lesson from their woefull experience m Eras Chil. Piscator ictus sapit the fisherman who hastily thrust his hand into his net to take out a fish and was stung by a Scorpion was ever after wiser Remorse of conscience if no Balme of Gilead bee seasonably applied to it to asswage the paine is farre worse than the sting of a Scorpion which made Cain roare My punishment is greater than I am able to beare which forced Judas to hang and Nero to stab himselfe Julian the Apostata to teare his bowels and throw them into the ayre saying Vicisti Galilaee The greatest bodily torments that can be devised have beene borne chearfully by many Martyrs but a troubled spirit saith the wise man who can indure Pro. 11.14 This observation is not more pregnant in the proofe than poignant in the use both for tryall and instruction For if the experience of the unfruitfulnesse and shamefulnesse of sinne bee a speciall curbe of sinne in the regenerate they surely who are not perswaded hereof who taste no bitternesse in the forbidden fruit who can thinke of their former sinnes not only without griefe and remorse but also with some delight and contentment were never thoroughly converted For there can be no vivification without precedent mortification no mortification where the old man is yet alive There is a strugling in the soule in the travell of our new birth between the flesh and the spirit as there was in the wombe of Rebecca at the time of her labour between Jacob and Esau Every one that is renewed in the spirit of his mind n Rom. 7.22 23. delighteth in the Law of God as touching the inward man and therefore cannot approve the law of the members rebelling against the law of the mind He that truly returneth to God and placeth his chiefe happinesse in his union with him cannot but be offended grievously at the remembrance of those things that made a separation between him and his God The weeds that have taken deep root cannot bee plucked up without stirring the earth Such are the weeds of sinne rooted in our heart they cannot be plucked up without tearing and breaking it through contrition That heart which hath never bin so broken up was never thorowly weeded Wherefore beloved Christians if ye desire to know whether ye are in the way of life whether ye are effectually called whether ye are in the state of grace whether ye have any part in the promises of salvation loe here is a touch-stone to try your spirituall estate When ye recall your former profanenesse and uncleannesse and worldlinesse and maliciousnesse to mind is the remembrance of these sinnes grievous unto you is the burthen of them intolerable are ye pricked in heart with the sting of conscience
them What Christ speaketh of riches may be said of the rest If honours if promotions if all sorts of worldly comforts abound to us let us not set our hearts on them let us neither accept the greatest preferments with his curse nor repine at the greatest afflictions with his love As Fabritius told Pyrrhus who one day tempted him with gold and the next day sought to terrefie him with an Elephant which before he had never seen Yesterday I was no whit moved with your gold nor to day with your beast So let neither abundance transport us nor wants dismay us neither prosperity exalt us nor adversity deject us but both incite us to blesse God In prosperity to praise his bounty and in adversity his justice and in both his provident care over us And the Lord of his infinite mercy informe us by his Word of the true estimate of the things of this life that we neither over-value earthly blessings nor under-value crosses and afflictions that we be neither lifted up with the one nor depressed with the other but alwayes even ballanced with his love And because the bitter cup of trembling cannot passe but first or last we must all drinke it let us beseech him to sweeten it unto us and strengthen us with cordialls of comfort that we faint not under his rod but endure with patience what he inflicteth in love and overcome with courage what he suffered for love that following his obedience and bearing his crosse we may enter his Kingdome and weare his Crowne Cui c. THE LOT OF THE GODLY THE XLVIII SERMON APOC. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Right Honourable c. I Have discovered unto you in the opening of this Text foure springs of the rivers of Paradise for the comfort and refreshing of all that are heavie laden and wearied in their travell to the celestiall Canaan and often scorched with the heat of heart-burning sorrowes and griefe The first arising from the authour of afflictions The second from the nature of afflictions The third from the subject of afflictions The fourth from the end of afflictions 1. God sendeth afflictions I. 2. Afflictions are chastenings chasten 3. Chastenings are the lot of all his children as many 4. All his children thus chastened are beloved as I love 1. God hath a hand in the scourging his children I. Let us therefore 1. Submit under his mighty hand in patience 2. Lay our hand on our mouth in silence 3. Lift up our hands to him and in prayer turne to him that smiteth us 2. All our sufferings are chastenings of our heavenly Father for our amendment Let us therefore 1. Be instructed by them 2. Take comfort in them 3. Be thankfull for them 3. Chastenings are the lot of all Gods children therefore let 1. None repine at them 2. All looke and prepare for them 4. God striketh his children not in anger but in love therefore let us 1. Seeke to be of the number of his children 2. Embrace his love 3. In like manner chasten those whom we love The water of the two former springs we have tasted heretofore let us now draw out of the third which is so great and spacious that all Gods children may bathe in it together As many God scourgeth every sonne whom he receiveth not exempting his best beloved and only begotten Sonne For the * Esay 53.5 chastisement of our peace was laid upon him he was chastened for our sinnes but wee for our amendment In every part of Gods floore there is some chaffe affliction is the fanne to cleanse it in all the gold of the Sanctuary there is some drosse affliction is the fire that purgeth it in all the branches of the true Vine there are some superfluous stems affliction is the pruning knife to cut them off in all the members of the mysticall body there are some peccant humours affliction is the pill to purge them We are all too greedy of the sweet milke of worldly pleasures therefore God weaneth us from them by annointing the teat with wormwood When the Angel in the a Apoc. 14.17 Apocalypse had recorded all the troubles and calamities and miseries that should fall in the last times he closeth up all with this epiphonema Here is the patience of the Saints as if the Saints were to beare them all who certainly beare the greater part For besides common evills in which most men if not all have their part though usually Benjamins portion is the greatest I meane losse of goods decease of friends captivity banishment imprisonment sicknesse and death there are many heavie crosses laid upon the Saints of God which the children of the world never see and much lesse feele the weight of them Many have written learnedly of the divers sorts and formes of materiall crosses wherewith the bodies of Gods children have been tortured by persecuting Tyrants but none yet hath or as I am perswaded can describe the spirituall crosses wherewith many of them have been and are daily martyred in minde I will set five before you and let every one adde his owne particular crosse unto them they are 1. Derision 2. Indignation 3. Compassion 4. Spirituall desertions 5. Godly sorrow 1. Derision for as Ismael derided Isaac and as Michol scoffed at David so they that are b Gal. 4.29 borne of the flesh mocke at them that are borne of the spirit and this scorne and derision so grievously afflicted many of Gods children that it is called in Scripture c Heb. 11.36 persecution and a great triall Others had triall of cruell mockings and as he that was borne of the flesh persecuted him that was borne of the spirit so it is now 2. Indignation at the prosperity of the wicked which was a great eye-sore as wee heard before to d Job 21.7 8 9.10.11 12 13. Job e Psal 73.3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12. David and f Jer. 12.2 Jeremy 3 Compassion for the miseries of Gods chosen 2 Cor. 11.28 29. 4 The state of spirituall desertion when God seemeth for a time to withdraw the comforts of the Spirit from them Psal 22.1 2. 5 Godly sorrow when they are cast downe to the ground with the weight of their sinne and have a quicke sense and feeling of the displeasure of their heavenly Father The three former scourges draw many teares from their eyes but the two latter life-blood from their hearts and if God stayed not his hand and in the depth of their sorrowes refreshed them with comforts they could not but be swallowed up in the gulfe of despaire For the more a man feareth God and is sensible of his love the more tender hee is to beare his wrath and the tenderer hee is the arrowes of God pierce deeper and sticke faster in the soule which none can plucke out but hee that shot them g Ovid. de trist l 1. Qui vulnera fecit Solus Achilleo tollere more potest The reprobate
perishing because they were not predestinated but therefore were not predestinated because they were foreknowne that they would be such by voluntary prevarication g Fulgent l. 1. ad Mon. Iniquos quos praescivit Deus hanc vitam in peccato terminaturos decrevit supplicio interminabili puniendos illos ad supplicium praedestinavit quos à se praescivit vitio malae voluntatis discessuros peccata hominum Deus praescivit quib sententiaÌ praedestinatione dictavit Fulgentius Those unjust men whom God foresaw that they would end their life in sin hee decreed to punish in endlesse torments And againe hee predestinated them to punishment who he foresaw would depart from him by the fault of their evill will And againe God foresaw the sinnes of men against which hee pronounced a sentence in his decree of predestination And the Fathers in the Synode held at h Valent. can 2. Nec ipsos malos ideò perire quia boni esse non potuerunt sed quia boni esse noluerunt suoque vitio in massâ damnationis vel merito originali vel etiam actuali permanserunt Valentia The wicked perish not because they could not but because they would not bee good remaining in the masse of corruption by their owne fault originall or also actuall As likewise in the i Concil Arelat 3. Lucidi habetur confessio his verbis Profiteor aeternales flammas factis capitalibus praeparatas Synod at Arles 3. That hee no way desireth nor decreeth nor so much as permitteth the death of any of his Elect though before their calling to the knowledge of the truth and sometimes after also they so grievously transgresse his holy lawes that they may bee numbred at least for the time among the wicked For how farre soever they goe in the wayes of wickednesse they will turne at the last and if a sinner turne from his wayes even at the brinke of destruction and gate of hell hee shall live for Have I any desire at all that the wicked should die saith the Lord God and not that hee should Returne There are many turnings in the life of a Christian The first turning or conversion is by a sanctified phrase called regeneration whereby wee are mortified in the flesh but renewed in the spirit of our minde wee cast off the old man and put on the new All after conversions are but so many particular acts of repentance and returnes from those courses which wee ordinarily fall into and follow if Gods preventing grace stop not the motions of our corrupt nature This first conversion is as it were a generall purgation of all the peccant humors of our soul is of that force that it changeth and altereth our temper and complexion After this all other aversions from sinne and returnes to God are but like speciall purgations prescribed by the Physitian of our soules to bee taken upon speciall occasion for the curing of some particular malady In the first non agimus sed agimur wee worke not but are wrought upon being as the reformed Divines speake meer passive in the other acti agimus being wrought upon wee worke like the wheeles in the vision of Ezekiel being moved by the spirit we move to God-ward At our first conversion the Scripture compareth us to dead men that are not able to stirre any joint but in all later conversions after God hat breathed into us the spirit of regeneration to sicke or weake men lying upon their bed that are able to turne themselves with some helpe This distinction of conversions is not new coyned by us but beareth the stampe of ancient truth and is current in the Scriptures in which wheresoever the faithfull speake thus to God Turne us and wee shall bee turned they aime at the first conversion but where God thus speaketh to his people Turne yee unto mee or turne from your wicked wayes we are to understand such texts of later conversions From his wayes Not from the wayes of God and pathes of righteousnesse but his owne wayes that is such courses as hee hath taken beside and against the direction of Gods Spirit More particularly thus Have I not a desire that the ambitious should leave his inordinate pursuit of honour the covetous of gaine the voluptuous of pleasure and all of vanity and that they should turne to mee with their whole heart with a perfect hatred of their former wickednesse and full and constant purpose of amendment and so Live That is escape eternall death the due wages of sinne and attaine everlasting life the undue reward of righteousnesse If the feare of hellish torments cannot make a separation betweene us and our beloved sinnes nor hope of heavenly joyes winne us unto God it will bee to small purpose to goe about to scare any with temporall plagues threatened in Gods law against sinne or pricke them with the sting of conscience or confound them with shame or amplifie upon the losses of spirituall graces which can never bee recovered but by speedy and hearty repentance The Spye of nature in his booke of the length and shortnesse of life demonstrateth naturall heat and radicall moisture to bee the sole preservers and maintainers of life and the store of both in due proportion to bee the cause of longer life As life is compared in Scripture so it is resembled in sculpture to a light or lampe burning the fire which kindleth the flame of this lampe is naturall heat and the oyle which feedeth it is radicall moisture without flame there is no light without oyle to maintaine it no flame in like manner if either naturall heat or radicall moisture faile life cannot last and as in a lampe if by reason of the thicknesse of the weeke the flame be too great it oversoon sucketh up the oyle if the oyle be poured in in too great abundance it choaketh the light so in us if naturall heat or radicall moisture exceed measure or proportion the lampe of our life burneth dimly and in a short space is extinguished Answerable to the naturall life in the body is the spirituall life of grace in the soule for as that is preserved calido humido by heat and moisture so is this also by the heat of love or zeale of devotion and the moisture of penitent teares Teares are the oyle which feed this flame for when wee pricke deepe the tenderest veines in our heart with remembrance of our manifold and grievous transgressions whereby wee have dishonoured God our Father displeased Christ our Redeemer and grieved the Spirit of grace our Comforter when wee take kindly to heart how that the better God hath beene unto us the worse wee have proved unto him the more grace hath abounded the more sinne hath super abounded when our hearts melt with these considerations and our eyes resolve into showres of teares then we perceive that as salt water cast into fire increaseth the heat so the salt water of our teares inflameth our devotion
the Prophet should have made an end of his exhortation This Sermon the Prophet Ezechiel now maketh unto us all here present f Ezek. 33.11 18.30.31 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that he turne from his wayes and live turne ye turne ye from your evill wayes for why will yee die Repent and turne your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not bee your destruction Cast away all your transgressions whereby yee have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye perish Shake off the shackles of your sinnes and quit the companie of the prisoners of death and gally-slaves of Satan put in sureties for your good behaviour hereafter turne to the Lord your God with all your heart and live yea live gloriously live happily live eternally which the Father of mercy grant for the merits of his Sonne through the grace of the Spirit To whom three persons and one God be ascribed all honour glorie praise and thankes now and for ever Amen THE DANGER OF RELAPSE THE LVI SERMON EZEK 18.24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall hee live All his righteousnesse that hee hath done shall not bee mentioned in his trespasse that hee hath trespassed and in his sin that hee hath sinned in them shall hee dye Right Honourable c. SAint Jerome maketh a profitable use of the a Gen. 28.12 And hee dreamed behold a ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the Angels of God ascending and descending on it Angels ascending and descending upon the ladder which Jacob saw in a dreame reaching from the earth to heaven The ladder hee will have to bee the whole frame of a godly life set upwards towards heaven whereupon the children of God who continually aspire to their inheritance that is above arise from the ground of humility and climbe by divine vertues as it were so many rounds one above another till Christ take them by the hand of their faith and receive them into heaven They are stiled Angels in regard of their b Phil. 3.20 heavenly conversation these Jacob saw continually ascending and descending upon that ladder viz. ascending by the motions of the spirit but descending through the weight of the flesh rising by the strength of grace but falling through the infirmity of nature and hereby saith that learned Father c Hieron ep 11. Videbat scalam per quam ascendebant Angeli descendebant ut nec peccator desperet salutem nec justus de suâ virtute securus sit wee are lessoned not to despaire of grace because Jacob saw Angels ascending as they fell so they rose nor yet presume of their owne strength for hee saw Angels descending also as they rose so they fell Presumption and desperation are two dangerous maladies not more opposite one to the other than to the health of the soule presumption overpriseth Gods mercy and undervalueth our sinnes and on the contrarie desperation overpriseth our sinnes and undervalueth Gods mercy both are most injurious to God the one derogateth from his mercy the other from his justice both band against hearty and speedy repentance the one opposing it as needlesse the other as bootlesse presumption saith thou maist repent at leasure gather the buds of sinfull pleasures before they wither repentance is not yet seasonable desperation saith the root of faith is withered it is now too late to repent The learned dispute whether of these two be the more pernicious and dangerous the answer is easie presumption is the more epidemicall desperation the more mortall disease Presumption like the Adder stingeth more but desperation like the Basiliske stings more deadly many meet with Adders which are almost found in all parts of the world but few with Basiliskes Presumption is more dangerous extensivè for it carrieth more to hell but desperation intensivè for those whom it seizeth upon it carrieth more forcibly and altogether irrecoverably thither and finall desperation never bringeth men to presumption but presumption bringeth men often to finall desperation To meete with these most pernicious evils God hath given us both the Law and the Gospel the Law to keepe us under in feare that wee rise not proudly and presumptuously against him and the Gospel to raise us up in hope that the weight of our sinnes sinke us not in despaire the threats of the one serve to draw and asswage the tumour of pride the promises of the other to heale the sores of wounded consciences and the Scripture as Saint Basil rightly calleth it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a common Apothecaries shop or physicke schoole wherein are remedies for all the diseases of the soule In these verses as in two boxes there are soveraigne recipes against both the maladies above named against the former to wit desperation vers 23. against the later viz. presumption v. 24. And it is not unworthy your observation that as in the beginning of the Spring when Serpents breed and peepe d Adrianus Chamierus in ep dedicat Eccles Gal. Pastor Sicut ineunte vere cùm primùm è terrae cuniculis prodeunt serpentes ad nocendum parati fraxinum adversus venenatos eorum morsus praesens remedium laturam educit out of their holes the Ash puts forth which is a present remedie against their stings and teeth so the holy Ghost in Scripture for the most part delivereth an antidote in or hard by those texts from whence libertines and carnall men sucke the poyson of presumption The texts are these God hath raised up an horne of salvation for us that we beeing delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare f Rom. 5.20 Where sinne abounded grace did much more abound g Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus * Gal. 5.13 We are called to liberty Now see an antidote in the verses following Lest any man should suck poyson from these words in the first text Serve him without feare it is added in the next words in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life Lest any man should abuse the second the Apostle within a verse putteth in a caveat What shall we say then shall we continue in sinne that grace may abound e Luk. 1.69 72 74. God forbid how shall wee that are dead to sin live any longer therein vers 1 2. Lest any should gather too farre upon that generall speech of the Apostle There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus h Luk. 1.75 there followes a restriction in the same verse who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit Lest any should stumble at those words of the same Apostle Ye are called to libertie he reacheth them a
Col. 1612. Solinus Paris 1577. Sozomen Basil 1570. Stapletonus Paris 1606. Stella Antw. 1618. R. Stephanus Paris 1532. J. Stobeus Franc. 1581. Strabo Paris 1587. Strigelius Lips 1591. Suetonius Paris 1610. Symmachus ex Bin. Col. 1618. Synesius Paris 1612. T. TAcitus Lugd. Bat. 1621. Talmud ex Wemse Lond. 1623. Taxa Camerae Apost Paris 1597. Terentius Basil 1538. Tertullianus Antw. 1584. Theocritus Paris 1586. Theodoretus Paris 1608. Theognis Paris 1608. Theophylactus Basil 1525. A. Thuanus Paris 1604. J. de Turre Gremata Venet. 1578. Tostatus Abulensis Venet. 1596. Tyrius Basil 1549. V. VAlerius Maximus Venet. 1573. G. Vasques Venet. 1600. Vega Madrid 1602. Fl. Vegetius Paris 1535. Velleius Paterculus Antw. 1607. Vincentius Bellov Venet. 1591. Vincent Lerinensis Col. 1622. Victor Pictaboniensis Bib. pat T. 6. Col. 1622. Vigilius Tig. 1573. P. Virgilius Basil 1586. L. Vives Tig. 1563. Fl. Vopiscus Paris 1544. W. J. WEmes Lond. 1623. Wesselus Groningens Basil 1524. Guil. Witakerus Gen. 1610. Geo. Wicelius Lips 1537. Jo. Wiclefus MS. J. Wolphius Tig. 1578. Jo. Woverus Antw. 1605. X. XEnophon Basil 1545. Jo. Xiphilinus Fran. 1590. Y. L. YStella Romae 1601. Z. J. ZAbarella Col. 1598. H. Zanchius Han. 1609. S. Zeno Bib. pat T. 3. Col. 1622. Zonaras Basil 1557. THE BRUISED REED A Sermon preached before his Grace and the rest of his Majesties Commissioners in causes Ecclesiasticall Decemb. 4. An. Dom. 1617. at Lambeth THE FIRST SERMON MATTH 12. 20. ex ESA. 42. 3. A bruised reed shall hee not breake and smoaking flaxe shall hee not quench till he send forth judgment unto victory or as we reade in Esay hee shall bring forth judgement unto truth Most REVEREND c. I Would not presume to found a bruised Reed or winde a crack't Pipe in this place destinated and appointed for the silver Trumpets of Sion nor blow my smoaking Flaxe here where the cleerest Lights of the Sanctuary usually shine if the Text of Scripture even now read in your eares encouraged mee not thereunto teaching the strongest and tallest Cedars of Lebanon by the example of the Highest not to fall upon and breake the bruised Reed and likewise the brightest burning Lampes of the Church not to do ut and quench the smoaking or as the Hebrew beares it the dimly burning Flaxe of their brethrens obscurer parts and labours A bruised Reed c. Whether by bruised Reed with S. Gregory we understand the broken Scepter of the Jewish Kingdome and by smoaking Flaxe the Aaronicall Priesthood destitute of the light of Faith and now ready to goe out and expire or by Arundinem conquassatam the shaken Reed as S. Hierome reades the words wee conceive the wavering faith of the Jewes to bee meant and by the smoaking Flaxe the momentary fervour of the Gentiles which is Tertullians exposition seconded by Rhemigius or we take the bruised Reeds in Saint Hilaries construction for the maimed bodies of such as were brought to Christ and smoaking Flaxe for their troubled mindes and distressed consciences or we be carried with the maine current of later Interpreters who are all strongly for all penitent sinners oppressed with the heavie burden of their sinnes and stricken with the horrour of Gods judgements in whom there remaines any sparke of grace to be shadowed under the Metaphors of the bruised Reed and smoaking Flaxe Vox diversa sonat doctorum est vox tamen una The descant is somewhat different the ground is the same all warbling the sweet note of our Redeemers most gracious and mercifull disposition who was so meek in his speeches that hee never strained his voice to exclaime bitterly and inveigh vehemently against any Ver. 19. He shall not cry nor lift up his voice and so milde and altogether innocent in his actions that he never brake so much as a bruised Reed nor trode out a smothering Week or smoaking Flaxe To cleere then the meaning of this Scripture from all mists of obscurity arising from variety of Interpretations give mee leave as it were to melt many small waxe lights into a great Taper by a generall Paraphrase upon the words Hee that is Jesus the second person in Trinity our Mediatour and Saviour as S. Matthew by applying this Prophecy unto him consequently expoundeth it Shall or will not breake ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is destroy or cast away a bruised Reed or Cane ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is an afflicted and contrite sinner be he Prince or Priest in Saint Gregories sense Jew or Gentile according to Tertullians interpretation afflicted in body or in minde agreeable to S. Hilaries exposition And smoaking flaxe he shall or will not quench that is hee will not dishearten or discourage any Puny or Novice in his Schoole but on the contrary he will cherish the smallest seeds of grace and weake beginnings in new converts neither will he take away his Spirit from any relapsed and languishing Christian exhaling bitter and darke fumes of sighes for his sinnes if there remaine any light of faith in him though never so obscure any heat of true zeale and devotion though very weake and scarce sensible Behold here then store and aboundance of the Balme of Gilead dropping from this sweet Cane in my Text. A Reed what so weak and that bruised what so unprofitable yet shall not be broken And Flaxe or the weeke of a lampe or candle what so vile and that smoaking what so loathsome yet shall not be quenched By this cursory interpretation and illustration of the words you may easily distinguish in them 1. Two members of this Propheticall sentence A bruised c. A smoaking c. 2. Two subjects answerable to the two members Reed Flaxe 3. Two attributes proper to these subjects Bruising Smoaking 4. Two acts sutable to these attributes Breake Quench both removed from and denied of Christ he shall not breake he shall not quench Of these by the concurrence of Gods assistance with your patience now and hereafter according to the order of the words in the originall A reed bruised he shall not breake A reed Although the reed in my Text may seeme hollow and consequently empty of matter fit for our use yet if you please to look narrowly into it you shall finde it like that precious staffe which Brutus offered to Apollo in the hollow whereof much massie gold was inclosed Cujus intus solidum autum corneo velabatur cortice Liv. Dec. Pri. l. 2. To open this horne or cane that wee may finde the treasure hid in it may it please you to take notice of a foure-fold Reed described in holy Scriptures 1. Mysticall 2. Artificiall 3. Naturall 4. Morall Of the Mysticall you have heard already out of the Fathers The Artificiall reed is a golden instrument to mete withall mentioned Ezek. 40.5 Apoc. 21.15 I need not speake of the Naturall reed And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the City it is so well knowne to be a watery plant or tree wherewith nature
silent others crying some prejudiciall only to the delinquent others pernicious to the Church and Common-wealth For the former mercy often intercedeth seldome or never for the latter Againe some offenders are like a Eras Adag ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã heart of oake which many strong blowes of an axe will scarce enter others like the Balsamum of Judea which you kill if you b Plin. nat hist l. 12. c. 25. Inciditur vitro lapide osleisve cultellis fertum odit laesis vitalibus emoritur protenus incidentis manus libratur artifici temperamento ne quid ultra corticem violet touch but the rine of it with an iron instrument and therfore they which keep them provide instruments of glasse or knives of bone to prune them The former resemble the Adamant which can bee cut or pointed by nothing but an Adamant the latter the c Solinus c 40. tit Euphrates Pyrrhites teneri se vehementiu non permittit ac si quando arctiore manu premitur digitos adurit Pyrrhite a precious stone which may be gently ground or cut with a sharpe toole but if you presse it hard or handle it rudely it burneth the fingers For the latter mercy sometimes intercedeth not so for the former Lastly after the offence committed some are like bruised reeds falling downe upon the earth and imploring mercy Others like a stiffe or strait cane never so much as bowing some stand in defence of that they have done others ingenuously confesse their fault some glory in their sinne others are confounded with it in a word some are obstinate some are penitent those mercy disclaimeth these shee often taketh to her protection They who in former times like pipes of reeds have sweetly sounded out the praises of God but now are cracked with some pardonable errour in judgement or slip in manners if they be truely bruised with the weight of their sinne and throughly contrite may plead the priviledge of the bruised reed in my Text not to bee broken by any over hard and severe censure or sentence not the Atheisticall scoffer not the impudent Adulterer not the obstinate Recusant not Jesuited Papists which like the Egyptian reeds mentioned by the Prophet run d Esa 36.6 Thou trustest in the staffe of this broken reed on Egypt whereon if a man leane it will goe into his hand and pierce it into the hands and sides even of e Jaques Clement and Raâiliac who murdered two late Frenâh Kings Henr. 3. 4. See Pierre Matthew and other French Historians Kings and Princes They who have formerly shined before their brethren both in their pure doctrine and good example though now by the violent blast of some fearfull temptation are blowne out as it were and send up bitter fumes of sorrowfull lamentations for their sinfull iniquity or impurity in some cases are not to be quenched what therefore are not hereticall apostataes and schismaticall boutefieus and fire-brands of Church and State not to bee quenched and trode out which if they be not quenched in time will set all in a combustion in the end To conclude as I began with the words of my Text it is the bruised reed that is not to be broken not the poysoned dart it is the smoaking flaxe that is not to be quenched not the burning match A bruised reed he shall not breake Behold in the reed your frailty in the bruised reed your condition in the not breaking the bruised reed a singular rule for your direction of which I spake but now and a strong staffe of comfort of which before God grant that wee may all acknowledge our frailty as being no other than reeds and to arme our selves with patience against manifold pressures and tribulations as being reeds that are or shall bee bruised and when wee are afflicted or oppressed not to despaire of helpe and ease but to trust in Gods mercy and hope for a joyfull deliverance as bruised reeds that yet are not to be broken and lastly expecting mercy for our selves shew mercy with discretion unto others as being reeds therefore not broken that we may learne by the example of our Lord and Master not to break the bruised reed To whom c. THE SMOAKING FLAXE A Sermon preached at Lambeth before his Grace the Lord Bishop of London and other his Majesties Commissioners in causes Ecclesiasticall Decemb. 5. 1618. THE SECOND SERMON MAT. 12. 20. ESAY 42. 3. And smoaking Flaxe shall he not quench Most REVEREND c. THe sweet temper and gracious disposition of our blessed Redeemer is as the sap in the root which conveyeth life to the two branches of this Scripture For by it the dây and bruised reed is nourished as with moisture supplyed and the smoaking flaxe and dying lampe is refreshed as it were with oyle That he will not break this he will not quench Luk. 4.18 He who came to heale the broken hearted and set at liberty them that are bruised will not breake the bruised reed Hee who was sent to give light to them that sit in darknesse Luk. 1.79 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ita 70 Interp. Esay 53 4. and in the shadow of death will not quench the smoaking flaxe or dimly burning weeke He who bare all our infirmities and carried our sorrowes will not lay too heavie a burthen upon those that are truely humbled but will so lightly passe over their sinnes that he will not breake or crush in pieces the bruised reed nor tread out the smoaking flaxe This Text speaketh peace and much comfort yet not to all but to the contrite soule only Matth. 27.30 The bruised and soft reed shall not be broken but the stiffe and hard reed like that wherewith Christ was smitten shall be broken They who after their sinnes committed relent not at all they who are not troubled in conscience nor crushed with feare of judgement but stand in justification of their sinnes and excuse their prophane sports on the Lords day saying they use but lawfull recreations and their defiling the flesh by pretending that it is but a tricke of youth and their drunkennesse that it is but good fellowship and their sacriledge that it is the custome to pay no more and cover other vices with the like cloakes may challenge no interest in this promise but the bruised reed that is the contrite sinner he who is displeased with himselfe because he hath displeased his gracious God he whose spirit grieveth because he hath grieved Gods holy Spirit he who because he hath done that which God abhorreth abhorreth himselfe in dust and ashes hee who when God chasteneth him for his sinnes kisseth his heavenly Fathers rod and acknowledgeth that hee deserveth farre smarter blowes than those which yet hee feeles hee who goeth mourning all the day long and will never be at peace with himselfe till hee hath made his peace with his Maker hee who alwaies feeling the weight of his sinnes sigheth and groaneth under them and never
ceaseth to offer up prayers to God with strong cries till hee be eased of them Are wee such bruised reeds We often in stead of denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts have with Peter denied our Master but doe wee weep bitterly with him and as hee whensoever hee heard the Cocke crow after the deniall of his Master fell on weeping afresh so doe the wounds of our consciences bleed afresh at the sight of every object and hearing of every sound which puts us in mind of our crimson sinnes We have polluted our beds with David but doe wee cleanse them as he did doe wee make our couches to swimme with teares of repentance Wee have intertained with Mary Magdalen many soule sinnes like so many uncleane spirits but have wee broken a boxe of precious oyntment upon Christs head or kneeled downe and washed his feet with our teares If wee have done so then are we bruised reeds indeed and shall not be broken but if otherwayes wee be not bruised in heart for our sinnes and breake them off by mature repentance wee shall bee either broken for them by sore chastisements in this world or which is worst of all like unfruitfull and rotten trees be reserved to be fuell for Hell fire But because the bruised reed was the measure of my former discourse I will now fall to blow the smoaking flaxe which Christ will not quench To quench the light especially the light of the spirit in our hearts seemeth to bee a worke of darknesse how then may it bee ascribed to the Father of lights or what meaneth the Prophet to deny that Christ will doe that which is so repugnant to his nature that if he would he could not doe it Religiously learned antiquity hath long ago assoyled this doubt teaching us that God quencheth as he hardneth Non infundendo malitiam sed subducendo gratiam not by pouring on any thing like water to quench the flame but by taking away that oyly moisture which nourisheth it Our daily experience sheweth us that a lampe or candle may bee extinguished three manner of wayes at least 1. By a violent puffe of winde 2. By the ill condition of the weeke indisposed to burne 3. By want of waxe or defect of oyle to feed it Even so the light of the Spirit may be quenched in us by three meanes either by a violent temptation of the evill spirit as it were a puffe of wind or by the inbred corruption of our nature repelling grace which fitly resembleth the indisposition of the week to take fire or keep in it the flame or lastly by subtraction of divine grace which is the oyle or sweet waxe that maintaineth this light By the first meanes the Divell by the second man himselfe by the third God quencheth the light of the spirit in them who love darknesse more than light but such are not those who in my Text are compared to smoaking flaxe For though they have small light of knowledge to shine to others yet they have heat of devotion burning in themselves Hil. In haec verba igniculum fidei concipientes quadam dilectione cum carne juxta fumantes quos Christus non extinxit sed incendit in iis ignem perfectae charitatis they are such saith St. Hilary Who conceiving in themselves a small sparke of faith because they are in part still flesh burne not cleerly but as it were smoakily whom Christ will not quench but kindle in them the fire of perfect charity St. * Greg. in Evan. Dom. Quod sacerdotes lineis uterentur vestibus Gregory by smoaking flaxe understandeth the Aaronicall Priesthood now dimly burning and ready to go out he thinketh the flaxe to have some reference to the Priests linnen garments made of it Tertullian paraphraseth the smoaking flaxe Momentaneum gentium fervorem The momentary fervour of the Gentiles in whom the light of nature by sinfull filthinesse being extinct exhaleth most pestiferous fumes of noysome lusts St. a Chrysost in Matth. ca. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chrysostome and St. Austin through the smoake discerne the Scribes and Pharisees and other enemies of Christ their envie and malice which soultred within them but brake not out into an open flame Whom Christ quenched not that is destroyed not though he could have as easily done it as breake a reed already bruised or tread out a stinking snuffe cast upon the ground But these expositions in the judgement of later Divines seem either constrained and forced or at the lest too much restrained and narrow They therfore extend the meaning of them to all weak Christians either newly converted or relapsed b Pintus In quibus tamen relucet aliquid bonae spei c Junius Scintilla aliqua pietatis veluti moribunda d Aquinas Tepidi ad opus bonum habentes tamen aliquid gratiae e Arboreus Extinctioni vicini f Guilliandus Qui sceleribus gravissimis seu fumo quodam oculos bonorum offendunt veluti foetore corruptae famae mores piorum infestant Breathing out bitter fumes for their sinnes offending the godly with the ill savour of their lives luke-warm to good workes neere extinction in whom yet remaines some light of faith and hope though very obscure some warmth of charity some sparke of grace Comfort then O comfort the fainting spirits and cheare up the drouping conscience say to the bruised reed that is now unfit to make a pipe to sound or a cane to write the praises of God thou shalt not be broken and to the smoaking flaxe which gives but a very dimme light and with the fume offendeth the eyes of the godly and with the stench their noses thou shalt not bee quenched Nothing is so easie as to breake a reed already bruised the least weight doth it nothing so facile as to quench smoaking flaxe the least touch doth it yet so milde was our Saviour that he never brake the one nor quenched the other The flaxe or weeke smoaketh either before it is fully kindled or after it is blowne out If we consider it in the first condition the morall or spirituall meaning of the Text is that Christ cherisheth the weake endeavours and small beginnings of grace in his children For we must know that in our first conversion the measure of grace is but small in us and mixt with much corruption which if Christ should quench there would be found never a cleere burning lampe in his Church but hee most graciously preserveth it and augmenteth it because it is a sparke from heaven kindled by his owne spirit and it much illustrateth his glory to keep it from going out notwithstanding the indisposition of the weeke to burne and continuall blasts of temptation ready to blow it out I said in my haste quoth David I am cast out of thy sight there is smoake in the flaxe Psal 31.22 yet was not the flaxe quenched for he addeth yet thou heardest the voice of my prayer
after a more effectuall manner even because hee cannot utter his prayer by speech his very dumbnesse pleads for him so the sorrow of a penitent sinner which faine would expresse it selfe by teares but cannot which rendeth the heart continually and maketh it evaporate into secret sighes best expresseth it selfe to him of whom the Prophet speaketh Psal 38.9 Lord thou knowest all my desires and my groaning is not hid from thee 6. If he sink so low that the pit is ready to shut her mouth over him and he being now even swallowed up in the gulfe of despaire breathe out his last sigh and roares most fearfully to the great dis-heartening of all that come about him saying I have no touch of remorse no sense of joy no apprehension of faith no comfort of hope My wounds stinke and are putrefied and all the balme of Gilead cannot now cure mee The Spirit is utterly extinct in me and therefore my case desperate In this extreme fit of despaire give him this cordiall out of the words of my Text Hast thou never felt any remorse of conscience in all thy life Wast thou never pricked in heart at the Sermon of some Peter Wert thou never ravished with joy when the generall pardon of all thy sinnes hath been exemplified to thee in the application of the promises of the Gospel and sealed to thee by the Sacrament Hast thou never had any sensible token of Gods love I know thou hast thou acknowledgest as much in confessing amongst other thy sins thine intolerable ingratitude towards the Lord that bought thee then bee yet of good comfort the flaxe yet smoaketh the fire is not clean out thou hast lost the sense but not the essence of faith Thou art cast out of Gods favour in thy apprehension not in truth Thou art but in a swoune thy soule is in thee Thou discernest no signe or motion of life in thee but others may Thy conscience will beare thee record that sometimes thou didst truly beleeve and true faith cannot be lost Gods covenant of grace is immoveable his affection is unchangeable he whom God loveth he loveth to the end and hee whom God loveth to the end must needs bee saved in the end and so I end And thus have I blowne the smoaking flaxe in my Text and you see what light it affordeth to our understanding and warmth to our consciences what remaineth but that I pray to God to kindle in us this light and inflame this heate more and more to revive the spirit of the humble to cheare up the drouping lookes and cure the wounded consciences and heale the broken hearts of them that mourne for their sinnes that is to beare up the bruised and bowed reed that it be not broken and revive and kindle againe the dying lampe that it bee not quite extinguished So be it O Father of mercy for the passion of thy Sonne through the Spirit of grace To whom three persons and one God bee ascribed all honour glory praise and thanks-giving now and for ever Amen THE STILL VOICE A Sermon preached before the high Commission in his Graces Chappell at Lambeth Novemb. 20. 1619. THE THIRD SERMON MATTH 12.19 Hee shall not strive nor cry neither shall any man heare his voice in the streets Most REVEREND c. IN these words we have set before us in the person of our Saviour an Idea and perfect image of meeknesse the characters whereof are three 1. Calmenesse in affection He will not strive 2. Softnesse and lownesse in speech Hee will not cry c. 3. Innocency in action He will not breake c. 1. Impatience is contentious He will not strive 2. Contention is clamorous He will not cry 3. Clamour is querulous No man shall heare his voice in the street If it be objected that he did strive and that with such vehemency that he sweat bloud and that hee did cry and that very loud for as wee reade Hebr. 5.7 he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares unto him that was able to save him from death and that his voice was heard in the streets when he stood up in the last day the great day of the Feast John 7.37 and cried saying If any man thirst let him come unto mee and drinke wee need not flye to Anselme and Carthusians allegory for the matter who thus glosse upon the words of my Text His voice shall not be heard in the streets that is in the broad way that leadeth to destruction Such Delian divers may spare their paines for the objections are but shallow and admit of a very facile solution without any forced trope Hee will not strive viz. in revenge but in love he will not cry in anger but in zeale neither shall his voice be heard in the street viz. vox querelae but doctrinae no voice of complaint but of instruction or comfort So that the three members in this sentence are like the three strings in a Dulcimer all Unisons Wherefore in the handling of this Text I will strike them all together Seneca in his books of clemency Cambden hist Reg. Eliz. Seneca l. 1. de clem Conditum imò constrictum apud te ferrum sit summa parsimonia etiam vilissimi sanguinis humili loco positis litigare in rixam procurrere liberius est leves inter pares ictus sunt regi quoque vociferatio verborumque intemperantia non ex Majestate est which Queene Elizabeth so highly esteemed that shee gave them the next place to the holy Scriptures reades a divine Lecture to a Prince in these words Let thy sword not onely be put up in the sheath but also tyed fast in it bee sparing of the meanest and basest bloud It is for men of lower condition to fall into quarrels and strifes equals may exchange blowes one with another without much danger it standeth not with the Majesty of a Prince to engage himselfe in any quarrell or fight because he hath no equall to contend with him so far ought it to be from a Prince to brawle or wrangle that the straining of his voice is unbefitting him upon any occasion whatsoever What the wise Philosopher prescribeth to a good Prince the Prophet Esay describeth in our King Messias who was so milde in his disposition that hee was never stirred to passion so gentle in his speech that he never strained his voice in choler so innocent in his actions that he never put forth his strength to hurt any We reade in the booke of a 1. Kin. 19.11 12. Kings that there was a mighty wind but God was not in the wind and after the wind an earth-quake but God was not in the earth-quake and after the earth-quake a fire but God was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voice in which God was There God was in the still voice but here the Evangelist out of the Prophet informeth us that there was a small still voice in
accessary to the death of the Lord of life And not only those that committed high treason against the sacred person of the Lords Annointed and imbrued their hands and stained their consciences with that bloud which cleanseth us from all sinne 1 John 1.7 but also Nero and Domitian and Trajan and Antoninus and Severus and Maximinus and Decius and Valerianus and Dioclesianus and Maxentius and all other Emperours that employed their swords and Simon Magus and Cerinthus and Arrius and Nestorius and Manes and all other obstinate arch-Heretickes who employed their pens against him none have hitherto escaped the heavie judgement of God who have bid battell to the Christian Faith and have wilfully and of set malice given the Spouse of Christ the least wound or skarre either by a gash with their sword or a scratch with their pen. Bee wise now therefore O yee Kings Psal 2.10 11 12. bee instructed yee Judges of the earth Serve the Lord with feare and rejoyce with trembling Kisse the Sonne lest hee bee angry and yee perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him Some Interpreters by Judgement understand the spirituall government of Christ which is managed in his Church with excellent wisedome and judgement and by Victory the prevalent power of grace in the faithfull wherby they are victorious in all temptations in such sort that though Sathan labour with all his might to blow out a poore sparke yet hee shall not be able to quench it and that the smallest degree of faith like a grain of mustard seed is stronger than the gates of hell and is able to remove mountaines of doubts and oppositions cast up by Sathan and our rebellious hearts between God and us And from hence they inforce the Apostles exhortation to all the souldiers of Christ to be strong in the Lord Ephes 6.10 and in the power of his might not to looke who are their enemies but who is our Captaine not what they threaten but what hee promiseth who hath taken upon him as to conquer for us so to conquer in us These are sweet and comfortable notes but as I conceive without the rule of this Text for questionlesse the Donec or Untill is not superfluous or to no purpose but hath reference to some future time when Christs mild proceedings shall be at a period and he shall take another course with his enemies such as I have before described in the particular judgement of the Jewish Nation and the generall judgement of the whole World But if Judgement and Victory bee taken in their sense there needed no untill to bee added For Christ even from the beginning of his preaching when he strived not nor cryed nor brake the bruised reed nor quenched the smoaking flaxe sent forth judgment unto victory according unto their interpretation that is wisely governed his Church and gave victory to the faithfull in their conflicts with sinne and Sathan That therefore the members of this sentence bee not co-incident and that the donec or untill may have his full force I conceive agreeably to the exposition of the ancient and the prime of the later Interpreters that in this clause Till hee bring forth judgement unto victory the Prophet determineth the limits of the time of grace Whosoever commeth In between the first and second comming of Christ shall be received into favour but after the gates of mercy shall bee locked up Yet our gracious Ahasuerus reacheth out his golden Scepter to all that have a hand of faith to lay hold on it but then he shall take his Iron mace or rod in his hand to bruise his enemies and breake them in pieces like a potters vessell I must sing therefore with holy David of Mercy and Judgement mercy in this life and judgement in the life to come mercy during the day of grace but judgement at the day of the Worlds doom For although sometimes God meets with the Reprobate in this life yet that judgement which they feele here may bee accounted mercy in comparison of that which shall be executed upon them hereafter without all mitigation of favour release of torments or limitation of time Now the vials drop on them but then they shall bee poured all out upon them Wherefore let us all like the bruised reed fall downe to the earth and humble our selves under the mighty hand of God Let us like smoaking flaxe send forth bitter fumes of sighes for our sinnes assuring our selves that now whilst the day of grace lasteth hee will not breake the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flaxe but if we neglect this time of grace and deferre our repentance till he send forth judgement unto victory we shall smoake for it Cogitemus fratres de tempore in tempore ne pereamus cum tempore Let us thinke of time in time lest we perish with time Let us imagine that we now saw the Angel standing upon the sea Apoc. 10 5 6. and upon the earth and lifting up his hand to heaven and swearing by him that liveth for ever who created heaven and the earth and the sea and the things that are therein that there should be time no longer Jonas 2.8 O let us not forsake our owne mercy but to day if wee will heare his voice harden not our hearts but mollifie them by laying them asoake in teares Let us breake off our sinnes suddenly by repentance and our iniquities by almes-deeds Now is the seed-time let us now therefore sow the seeds of faith hope mercy meeknesse temperance patience and all other divine Vertues and we shall reape a plentifull harvest in heaven Cypr. ad Dom. Hic vita aut amittitur aut tenetur hic saluti aeternae cultu Dei fructu fidei providetur Galat. 6.8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reape corruption but hee that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reape life everlasting Which God of his infinite mercy grant that we may all do in heaven through the merits of his Sonne by the grace of the holy Spirit to whom c. THE TRAITORS GUERDON A Sermon preached on the Gowries conspiracy before his Grace and divers Lords and persons of eminent quality at Croydon August 5. Anno Dom. 1618. THE FIFTH SERMON PSAL. 63. VER 9 10 11. 9. But those that seeke my soule to destroy it shall goe into the lower parts of the earth 10. They shall make him run out like water by the hands of the sword they shall be a portion for Foxes 11. But the King shall rejoyce in God every one that sweareth by him shall glory but the mouth of them that speake lyes shall be stopped Most REVEREND Right Honr. Right Wor sh c. WEe are at this present assembled with religious Rites and sacred Ceremonies to celebrate the unfortunately fortunate Nones of August which are noted in red letters in the Romane Calendar as
affect the judicious eare which expresse more by expressing lesse the sentence being broken off in the midst to shew the force of violent passion which bereaveth us on the sudden both of sense and speech The Musicians also in their way tickle the eare by a like grace in musicke to that figure in speech by unexpected stops and rests making a kinde of Aposiopesis and harmonicall Ellipsis Surely as the broken joynts and maimed limbes of men uncovered much move us to compassion so the imperfect and maimed members of sentences uttered in anger or griefe are aptest both to signifie and to move passion Such is that broken speech of b 2 King 13.14 Joash the King concerning Elisha over whose face hee wept and said O my father my father the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof And that of c Psal 6.3 David My soule is sore troubled but thou O Lord how long And the like of our d Luke 19.42 Saviour If thou hast knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace And semblable thereunto is this in my text Shikethka Jisrael perdidit te or perditio tua it hath undone thee or thy ruine O Israel For those words ex te which we finde in many latine copies are added by the Translator to fill up the breach in the sentence in the Hebrew there is a verball Ellipsis or defect which expresseth a reall Ellipsis or utter failing of Israels strength and a figurative Ellipsis and seeming deficiency in God himselfe through a deepe taking to heart of Israels now most deplorate estate e Virg Aen. 2. ruit Ilium ingens Gloria Dardanidum The Crowne of Israel is fallen from his head and all his honour lyeth in the dust Israel after many grievous strokes and wounds received now bleeds at the heart and is a breathing out his last gaspe and the God of Israel by a Sympathy of griefe seemeth to lie speechlesse For his words faulter thy destruction Israel or it hath destroyed thee Israel is destroyed who hath destroyed Israel or why is Israel destroyed why is the cause and author of Israels woe concealed and the sentence left abrupt and imperfect f Tertul. adver Hermog c. 22. Adoro Scripturae plenitudinem Tertullian speaking of the perfection of Scripture saith I adore the fulnesse of the Scriptures in another sense yet true I may use the contrary attribute and say I adore the deficiencies and seeming vacuities in Scripture sentences where the roome left for words is anticipated by passion and filled up with sighs and grones Will you have the cause why God expresseth not the cause of Israels plagues Because he would not adde unto them Had he filled up the bracke in the contexture of the sentence it must have bin with these or the like words by the consent of Interpreters It is thy stubborne heart O Israel and thy open rebellion against mee it is thy stoning my Prophets and killing my messengers sent early and late unto thee it is thy spirituall fornication and Idolatrous worship of Jeroboams golden calfes that hath heretofore brought all thy miserie upon thee and now hath wrought thy finall overthrow But alas this had beene to mingle judgement with wormewood to kill them with a word whom he meant to smite with a sword It is enough for a Judge to pronounce the dreadfull sentence of death it is too much then to fall foule upon the prisoner with amplifications and bitter invectives Howbeit whether for these or better reasons best knowne to himselfe God doth not here particularly set down the author or cause of Israels woe yet in the other member of the sentence but in mee is thy helpe removing the cause from himselfe and professing that there had beene helpe in him for them but for some barre he giveth them to understand in generall what it was hee forbare to speake but they could not but conceive and wee must gather out this Scripture for our instruction that the cause of Israels overthrow and the ruine of all other Kingdomes is in their sinnes and from themselves As in musicke though each string hath a different sound by it selfe yet many of them strucke together make but one chord so the last translation which I follow and all the former which I have read though they much differ in words yet they accord in the sense by mee now delivered For whether wee reade as some doe Rex tuus thy King or as others Vitulus tuus thy calfe or as Calvin Aliquid praeter me something besides me hath destroyed thee or as St. Jerome doth Perditio tua ex te thy destruction is from thy selfe or as the Kings Translators render the Hebrew thou hast destroyed thy selfe the sentence is all one thy mischiefe is from thy selfe but all thy hope of help is from thy God Julian gave for his armes in his Scutchion an Eagle strucke through the heart with a flight shaft feathered out of her owne wing with this Motto propriis configimur alis our death flies to us with our owne feathers and our wings pierce us to the heart To apply this patterne to my text and leave the print thereof upon it to imprint the doctrine thereof deeper in your memories The Eagle strucke dead is the Church and Common-wealth of Israel the arrow is the swift judgement of God the feathers shed out of her owne wings which carried the arrow so swift and drave the head of it in so deepe are Israels sinnes It is a lamentable thing to heare of the ruine and utter overthrow of any Kingdome how much more of the downefall of Israel Gods chosen people his chiefe treasure his only joy But that Israel should be Israels overthrow that Israel should be felo de se and accessarie to his owne death and utter confusion this must needs pricke the quickest veine in our hearts And these are the three points which by the assistance of Gods spirit I am first to cleare to your understanding and after to presse upon your religious affections 1. The accident to the subject Destruction 2. The subject of this accident Israel 3. The cause of this accident in this subject Thou or thy sinnes thou by thy sinnes hast destroyed thy selfe O Israel First of the privative accident destruction Destruction is opposed to construction as corruption to generation and as that is the death and dissolution of all naturall bodies so this of all artificiall I except not such as are purposely made to preserve corpses from corruption and putrefaction as coffins of lead and sepulchres of Marble For these also in time corrupt and moulter away Sunt ipsis quo que fata sepulchris Nay we may make this strong line of the Poet a little stronger ver 14. and say truly sunt ipsis quo que fatis fata death it selfe hath his dying day for my Prophet in this chapter threatneth g O death I will be
and hee layeth all the blame either upon bad servants or theevish neighbours or racking Land-lords or hard times or some losses by sea or land but never looketh into his owne heart where the true cause lyes be it covetousnesse or distrust of Gods providence or a quarrelling disposition or pride or idlenesse or luxurie or sacriledge Another is still whining that hee cannot get or keepe his health and he imputeth this either to his crazie constitution by nature or ill ayre or over much labour and study whereas indeed the cause is his ill diet his sitting up all night at Revels his powring in strong wines and spending the greatest part of the day in Tavernes his intemperancy or incontinency All other sinnes are without the body but hee that g 1 Cor. 6.18 committeth fornication sinneth against his owne body First against the honour of his body for thereby he maketh the members of Christ the members of an harlot next the strength health and life of the body which nothing more enfeebleth empaireth and endangereth than greedily drinking stolne waters and coveting after strange flesh A third is troubled in minde and hee feeleth no comfort in his conscience the good spirit hath left him and the evill spirit haunteth him and scorcheth his soule with the flashes of Hell fire and hee ascribeth this to some melancholy bloud or worldly discontent or the indiscretion of some Boanerges sonnes of thunder who preach nothing but damnation to their hearers whereas the true cause is in himselfe hee grieveth the spirit of grace hee turneth it into wantonnesse and quencheth the light of it in himselfe and therefore God withdraweth this holy Comforter from him for a time When h Just hist l. 1. Zopyrus qui sibi labia nares praecidi curasset queritur crudelitatem Regis Zopyrus had cut his owne lips and nose he gave it out that the Babylonians had so barbarously used him such is the condition of most men they disfigure their soules dismember their bodies by monstrous sinnes and yet lay the whole blame upon others i Mat. 10.36 The enemies of a man saith our Saviour are those of his owne house So it is so it is saith S. k Bern med c. 13. Accusat me conscientia testis est memoria ratio judex voluptas carcer timor tortor oblectamentum tormentum inde enim punimur unde oblectamur Bernard in mine owne house in my proper family nay within my selfe I have my accuser my judge my witnesse my tormentor My conscience is the accuser my memory the witnesse my reason the judge my feare the torturer my sinfull delights my torments l Camerar med hist cent 1. c. 20. Plancus Plautius hiding himselfe in the time of the proscription was found out onely by the smell of his sweet oyles wherewith hee used luxuriously to anoint himselfe m Eras adag Sorex ut dicitur suo indicio Sylla hearing some displeasing newes was so enflamed with anger that streining himselfe to utter his passion he brake a veine and spitting bloud died Remember the words of dying Caesar when hee felt their daggers at his heart whom he had saved from the sword Mene servare ut sint qui me perdant O that I should save men to doe mee such a mischiefe O that wee should harbour those snakes in our bosomes which if wee long keepe them there will sting us to death A strange thing it is and much to bee lamented that the soule should prescribe remedies against the maladies of the bodie and yet procure nourishment for her owne diseases What are the vitious affections we feed and cherish within us but so many pernitious infections of the minde What is anger but a fit of a frenzie feare but a shâking feaver ambition but a winde collicke malice but an apostem faction but a convulsion envie but a consumption security but a dead palsie lust but an impure itch immoderate joy but a pleasing trance of the soule These are the greatest causes of our woe not onely because they disturbe the peace of our conscience and set us upon scandalous and dangerous actions but also because they draw upon us heavie and manifold judgements From which if we desire to be freed that they prove not our utter destruction let us First confesse our sinnes with David to be the fuell of Gods wrath and the fountaine of all our miseries n Psal 51.4 Against thee thee onely have wee sinned and done this and that and the third and many more evils in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and cleere when thou art judged and with o Salv. l. 4. de provid Sive miseâae nostrae sint sive infirmitates sive eversiones c. testimoniâ sunt mali servi boni domini quomodo mali servi quia patimur ex parte quod meremur quomodo boni domini quia ostendit quid mereamur sed non irrogat quae meremur Salvianus Whatsoever our miseries are or afflictions or persecutions or overthrowes or losses or diseases they are testimonies of an evil servant and a good master How of an evill servant Because in them we suffer in part what wee deserve How testimonies of a good master Because by them he sheweth us what wee deserve and yet layeth not upon us so much as we deserve Secondly let us compose our selves to endure that with patience which we have brought upon our selves Tute in hoc tristi tibi omne exedendum est Thirdly let us forsake our beloved sinnes and then God will take away his plagues from us let us be better our selves and all things shall goe better with us let repentance be our practise and a speedy reformation our instruction so Gods judgements shall not bee our destruction Now O Father of mercy and tender compassion in the bowels of Jesus Christ who hast shewed us what wee deserve by our sinnes and yet hast not rewarded us according to our iniquities take away our stony hearts from us and give us hearts of flesh that thy threats may make a deepe impression in us and that wee may speedily remove the evill of our sinnes out of thy sight that thou maist remove the evill of punishment from us so our sinne shall not be our destruction but thy mercy our salvation through Jesus Christ To whom c. THE CHARACTERS OF HEAVENLY WISEDOME A Sermon preached before his Grace and divers other Lords and Judges spirituall and temporall in Lambeth THE EIGHTH SERMON PSAL. 2.10 Be wise now therefore O yee Kings be instructed yee Judges of the earth Most Reverend Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. THe mirrour of humane eloquence apologizing for his undertaking the defence of Murena against Cato the elder pertinently demandeth a Cic. pro Muren A quo tandem Marce Cato aequius est defendi Consulem quam a Consule who so fit a patron of a Consull as a consull himselfe The like may be said in
in Lambeth Chappell A.D. 1622. March 23. THE TENTH SERMON JOHN 20.22 And when hee had said this hee breathed on them and saith unto them receive yee the holy Ghost Most Reverend Right Honourable Right Reverend Right Worshipfull c. A Diamond is not cut but by the point of a Diamond nor the sunne-beame discerned but by the light of the beame nor the understanding faculty of the soule apprehended but by the faculty of understanding nor can the receiving of the holy Ghost bee conceived or delivered without receiving in some a Aug tract 16. in Joh. Adsit ipse spiritus ut sic eloqui possimus degree that holiest Spirit b Ciâ de mat Qui eloquentiam laudat debet illam ipsam adhibere quam lââdat Hee that will blazon the armes of the Queen of affections Eloquence must borrow her own pencill and colours nor may any undertake to expound this text and declare the power of this gift here mentioned but by the gift of this power Wherefore as in the interpretation of other inspired Scriptures wee are humbly to intreat the assistance of the Inspirer so more especially in the explication and application of this which is not onely effectivè à spiritu but also objectivè de spiritu not onely indited and penned as all other by the spirit but also of the spirit This of all other is a most mysterious text which being rightly understood and pressed home will not only remove the weaker fence betweene us and the Greeke Church touching the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Sonne but also beat downe and demolish the strong and high partition wall betweene the reformed and the Romane Church built upon S. Peters supremacy For if Christ therefore used the Ceremony of breathing upon his Apostles with this forme of words Receive yee the Holy Ghost as it were of set purpose visibly to represent the proceeding of the holy Spirit from himselfe why should not the Greeke Church acknowledge with us the eternall emanation of the holy Ghost from the Sonne as well as the Father and acknowledging it joyne with us in the fellowship of the same spirit Our difference and contestation with the Church of Rome in point of S. Peters primacy is far greater I confesse For the head of all controversies between us and them is the controversie concerning the head of the Church Yet even this how involved soever they make it may be resolved by this text alone For if Christ sent all his Apostles as his Father sent him if he breathed indifferently upon all if he gave his spirit and with it full power of remittting and retaining sinnes to them all then is there no ground here for S. Peters jurisdiction over the rest much lesse the Popes and if none here none elsewhere as the sequell will shew For howsoever Cajetan and Hart and some few Papists by jingling Saint Peters c Mat. 16.19 Keyes and distinguishing of a key 1 Of knowledge 2 Of power and this 1 Of order 2 Of jurisdiction and that 1 In foro exteriori the outward court 2 Foro interiori the inward court of conscience goe about to confound the harmony of the Evangelists who set all the same tune but to a different key yet this is confessed on all sides by the Fathers Hilary Jerome Austine Anselme and by the Schoole-men Lumbard Aquinas Allensis and Scotus alledged by Cardinall d Bellar. de Rom. pont l. 1. c. 12. Bellarmine that what Christ promised to Peter e Mat. 16. he performed and made good to him here but here the whole f Hieronymus adver Lucifer Cuncti claves accipiunt super omnes ex aequô ecclesiae fortitudo solidatur bunch of keyes is offered to all the Apostles and all of them receive them all are joyned with S. Peter as well in the mission as my Father sent mee so I send you as in the Commission Lastly as this text containes a soveraigne Antidote against the infection of later heresies so also against the poyson of the more ancient and farther spread impieties of Arrius and Macedonius whereof the one denyed the divinity and eternity of the Sonne the other of the holy Ghost both whose damnable assertions are confuted by consequence from this text For if Christ by breathing giveth the holy Ghost and by giving the holy Ghost power of remitting sinne then must Christ needs bee God for who but God can give or send a divine person The holy Ghost also from hence is proved to be God for who can g Mar. 2.7 or Esay 43.25 forgive sinnes but God alone So much is our faith indebted to this Scripture yet our calling is much more for what can bee spoken more honourably of the sacred function of Bishops and Priests than that the investiture and admittance into it is the receiving of the holy Ghost * Primum in unoquoque genere est mensura regula caeterorum The first action in every kind of this nature is a president to all the rest as all the furniture of the Ceremoniall law was made according to the first patterne in the Mount such is this consecration in my text the originall and patterne of all other wherein these particulars invite your religious attention 1 The person consecrating Christ the chiefe Bishop of our soules 2 The persons consecrated The Apostles the prime Pastours of the Church 3 The holy action it selfe set forth 1 With a mysterious rite he breathed on them 2 A sanctified forme of words receive ye the holy Ghost 1 First for the person consecrating All Bishops are consecrated by him originally to whom they are consecrated all Priests are ordained by him to whom they are ordained Priests the power which they are to employ for him they receive from him to whom h Matth. 28.18 all power is given both in heaven and in earth By vertue of which deed of gift he maketh i Matth. 10.2 choice of his ministers and hee sendeth them with authority k Jâh 20.21 as my Father sent me so I send you And hee furnisheth them with gifts saying receive yee the holy Ghost and enableth them with a double power of order to l Matth. 28.19 Teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 11.24 This do in the remembrance of me preach and administer both the sacraments and of jurisdiction also Matth. 18.18 Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall bee bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven And that this sacred order is to continue in the Church and this spirituall power in this order even till Christ resigneth up his keyes and kingdome to God his Father S. Paul assureth us Eph. 4.10.11.12 Hee that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things and he gave some
Ministers of God but by the hand of their laye Elders or Borgomasters for feare of overlaying the Queenes vesture with rich laces of ceremonies they rip them off all cut off the fringe and pare off the nappe also But because the Spouse of Christ as things now stand is more afraid of losing her coat than of her lace or fringe I leave these men as unworthy upon whom more breath should be spent and come to the particular rite or ceremony of breathing used by our Saviour Hee breathed on them Here every Interpreter aboundeth in his owne sense q Barrad in Evang Flatus domini potestatem quam dabat remittendi peccata adumbrabat ut enim flatu nubes toâo aere pelluntur sic flatu domini id est Spiritu sancto peccatorum nubes disperguntur juxta illud Esa 44. delevisti ut nubes iniquitates nostras Barradius his sense is that this breathing shadowed forth the ghostly power of remitting of sinnes which Christ gave to his Apostles For as by a blast of wind clouds are driven out of the aire so by the blast of God that is the holy Spirit the clouds of our sinnes are dispersed according to the words of the Prophet Esay cap. 44.22 I have blotted out as a thicke cloud thy transgressions r Maldonat in Johan Christus per insufflationem declarare voluitipsam Spiritus sancti naturam est enim veluti flatus patris filii Maldonate his sense is that Christ by this visible ceremony of breathing declared the nature of the holy Ghost who is the breath of the Father and the Sunne Å¿ Musculus in Johan Commodè Spiritum per flatum dedit cum illis muneris Apostolici potestatem daret pendebat enim illa a verbis oris ipsius Musculus his sense is that Christ fitly used the ceremony of breathing when he invested the Apostles into their function because it hath a dependance upon the words of his mouth because it is a power of the word it was therefore given by breathing on them t Calvin harm Cumarcana inspiratione posset Christus gratiam conferre Apostolis visibilem flatum addere voluit ad eos melins confirmandos symbolum autem sumpsit à vulgari S.S. more qui Spiritum confert vento Calvin his sense is that Christ added this ceremony of outward breathing upon them to confirme their faith in the inward inspiration the symbole or signe hee tooke from the common custome of the Scripture which compareth the spirit to winde u Athana in Joh. In sufflando dedit animam quae est principium vitae naturalis Spiritum qui est principium vitae spiritualis ut idem quicreator agnosceretur renovator Athanasius his sense is that as God in the creation of man breathed into him his soule which is the beginning or principle of the naturall life so Christ here breathed into the Disciples his spirit which is the beginning or principle of the spirituall life that wee might know that the same God who is the author of the naturall life is also the author of the life of grace and that hee who first created the spirit of man reneweth all the faithfull in the spirit of their mindes But the most naturall genuine and generally approved reason and interpretation of this rite and ceremony is that which is given by Saint Austine and Saint Cyrill viz. that Christ by breathing on his Apostles when he gave them the holy Ghost signified that the person of the holy Ghost proceeded from him as that breath came out of his mouth For although Theophylact infected with the present errour of the Greek Church jeareth at this interpretation yet neither doth hee nor can hee give so apt and fit a one and in this regard Cardinall Bellarmine justly taketh him up for sleighting the judgement of two of the greatest pillars of the Church Verely saith he Theophylact is to be jeared at by all of the Latine Church if hee flout at Saint Austine and of the Greeke Church also if hee flout at Saint Cyril for what interpretation so naturall what reason so proper can be given of coupling this ceremony with the words Receive yee the Holy Ghost that is giving the holy Ghost by breathing as this that the holy Spirit proceedeth from his person And so I passe from the mysterious rite of breathing to the sanctified forme of words Receive yee the holy Ghost Not the person nor the substance of the holy Ghost for that errour the Master of the sentences was long agoe whipt by his schollars Sanctified the Apostles were by receiving the Spirit but not deified What then received they at this time some gift of the holy Ghost that takes not away the doubt but makes it untieth not the knot but fasteneth it rather For as Pythagoras when the question of marriage was put to him in his flourishing age answered ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not yet when in his decaying and withering age hee replyed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not now so if the question be of the ordinary gifts of the holy Ghost it may be said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Apostles were not now to receive them because at their first calling they were seasoned with that heavenly liquor But if the question be of the extraordinary gifts of the holy Ghost or a fuller measure of the ordinary it may be replied ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they were not as yet to receive them For Christ * Joh. 16.7 must first ascend before he send the holy Ghost To take this pearle out of the eye of my text many medicines have beene applyed Theodoret thus offereth to remove it Our Saviour Joh. 16.7 said not that hee would not give the holy Ghost before his ascension but that he would not send him before at this time saith that Father Christ gave the holy Ghost secretly with grace but then he sent him in a visible shape with power x Calvin in Joh. Sic datus fuit Apostolis spiritus hoc loco ut respersi fuerint duntaxat ejus gratia non plena virtute imbuti Calvin helpeth it with a distinction of the receiving the holy Ghost in different degrees now the Spirit was but sprinkled as it were upon them but in the day of Pentecost it was powred out on them now they were gently breathed on and refreshed as it were with a small gale then they were all blowne upon as it were with a mighty winde y Chrys in Joh. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Saint Chrysostome thus expedites the difficulty some say that Christ gave not the holy Ghost at this time but that by his breathing on his Apostles he made them capable or fit to receive him but wee may safely goe farther and say that the Apostles at this time received some spirituall grace or power not of working wonders but of remitting sinne If you further aske why the power of forgiving sinnes or which comes all to one why remission
but rather m Suet. in Tit. Titus Vespasian who suffered no man by his good will to goe sad from him and in this regard was stiled Amor delicrae humani generis the love and darling of mankinde The laity shew in their name what they are durum genus and how ill they stand affected to us ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã stone and hardly entreat our tribe all have experience who have or ever had pastorall charges Wee cannot pray them so fast into heaven as they will sweare us out of our maintenance on earth And what reliefe wee have at secular tribunals the world seeth and if wee must yet expect harder measure from your officers and servants I know not to what more fitly to compare the inferiour of our Clergy who spend themselves upon their parochiall cures and are flieced by them whom they feed and by whom they should bee fedde through vexatious suits in law than to the poore hare in the Epigram which to save her selfe from the hounds leaped into the sea and was devoured by a sea-dogge n Auson epig. In me omnis terrae pelagique ruina est 4 The spirit of humility Matth. 20.28 The Sonne of man came not to bee ministred unto but to minister The head of the Church vouchsafeth o Joh. 13.14 to wash his disciples feet professing therein ver 15. that hee gave them an example that they should doe as hee had done to them Winde blowne into a bladder filleth it and into flesh maketh it swell but the breath of God inspired into the soule produceth the contrary effect it abateth and taketh downe all swelling of pride Take not Austine the Monke for your patterne from whose proud behaviour towards them the Brittish Monkes truely concluded that hee was not sent unto them from Christ but Saint Austine the Father whose modest speech in a contention betweene him and Jerome gained him more respect from all men than ever the Bishops of Rome got by their swelling buls and direfull fulminations According to the present custome of the Church saith he the title of a p August epist ad Hieron Bishop is above that of a Priest yet Priest Jerome is a better man than Bishop Austine As the q Bruson facet exempl Athenians wisely answered Pompey requiring from them divine honour We will so farre account thee a God as thou acknowledgest thy selfe a man for humility of minde in eminency of fortune is a divine perfection so the lesse you account your selfe a Prelate the more all men will preferre and most highly honour you When Christ consecrated his Apostles Bishops he breathed on them to represent after a sort visibly by an outward symbole the eternall and invisible procession of the holy Ghost from his person In regard of which divine signification of that his insufflation no man may presume to imitate that rite though they may and do use the words Receive the holy Ghost All that may bee done to supply the defect of that ceremony is in stead of breathing upon you to breath out prayers to almighty God for you that you right reverend Fathers may give and for you my Lord Elect that you may receive the holy Ghost for us that wee may worthily administer and for you that you may worthily participate the blessed body and blood of our Saviour and for us all that wee may bee nourished by his flesh and quickened by his spirit and live in him and hee in us and dwell in him and he in us So be it c. THE FAITHFULL SHEPHEARD A Sermon preached at the Consecration of three Bishops the Lords Elect of Oxford Bristoll and Chester in his Graces Chappell at Lambeth May 9. 1619. THE ELEVENTH SERMON 1 PET. 5.2.3.4 Feede the flocke of God which is among you taking the over-sight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind not as being Lords over Gods heritage but being ensamples to the flock And when the chiefe shepheard shall appeare you shall receive a crowne of glory that fadeth not away Most Reverend Right Honourable Right Reverend right Worshipfull c. ARchilochus a Arist Rhet. c. 2. sharpning his quill and dipping it in gall against Lycambes that his satyricall invectives might bee more poignant putteth the pen in Archilochus his Fathers hand and by an elegant prosopopeia maketh him upbraid his sonne with those errors and vices which it was not fit that any but his father should in such sort rip up And b Orat. pro M. Coelio Tully being to read a lecture of gravity and modesty to Clodia which became not his yeares or condition raiseth up as it were from the grave her old grandfather Appius Caecus and out of his mouth delivereth a sage and fatherly admonition to her In like manner right Reverend receiving the charge from you to give the charge unto you at this present and being over-ruled by authority to speak something of the eminent authority sacred dignity into which ye are now to be invested I have brought upon this holy stage the first of your ranke and auncientest of your Apostolicall order to admonish you with authority both of your generall calling as Pastours set over Christs flocke and your speciall as Bishops set over the Pastors themselves That in the former words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã feed this in the latter ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã bishoping or taking the over-sight of them Both they are to performe 1 Not by constraint 2 Not for lucre 3 Not with pride 1 Not by constâant constraint standeth not with the dignity of the Apostles successors 2 Not for filthy lucre filthy lucre sorts not with Gods Priests 3 Not in or with Lord-like pride Lord-like pride complyeth not with the humility of Christs Ministers As Tully the aged wrote to Cato the auncient of old age so in the words of my text Peter the Elder writeth to Elders of the calling life and reward of Elders in the Church of God 1 Their function is feeding and overlooking Christs flocke enjoyned ver 2. 2 Their life is to be a patterne of all vertue drawne ver 3. 3 Their reward is a Crowne of glory set before them ver 4. 1 Their function sacred answerable to their calling which is divine 2 Their life exemplary answerable to their function which is sacred 3 Their reward exceeding great answerable to the eminency of the one and excellency of the other May it please you therefore to observe out of the words 1 For your instruction what your function is 2 For correction what your life should be 3 For comfort what your reward shall be As the costly c Exod. 28.14 ornaments of Aaron were fastened to the Ephod with golden chaines of writhen worke so all the parts and points of the Apostles exhortation are artificially joyned and tyed together with excellent coherence as it were with chaines of gold This chaine thus I draw through them all
eleven Apostles or to more than five hundred brethren that saw him all at one time nay what to more than five millions of Confessors and Martyrs signing the truth of it with their blood and shewing the power of it as well by the wonders which they wrought in his name as the invincible patience wherewith they endured all sorts of torments and death it selfe for his name I might produce the testimony of Josephus the learned Jew and tell you of Paschasinus his holy Well that fils of his owne accord every Easter day and the annuall rising of certaine bodies of Martyrs in the sands of Egypt and likewise of a Phoenix in the dayes of Tyberius much about the time of our Lords resurrection rising out of her owne ashes m Lactant. in Poem Ipsa sibi proles suus pater suus haeres Nutrix ipsa sui semper alumna sibi Ipsa quidem sed non eadem quia ipsa nec ipsa Eternam vitam mortis adepta bono But because the authours of these relations and observations are not beyond exception I will rather conclude this point with an argument of Saint n De civit Dei l. 22. c. 5. Haec duo incredibilia scil resurrectionem nostri corporis rem âam incredibilem mundum esse crediturum idem dominus antequam vel unum horuÌ fieret ambo futura esse praedixit unum duorum incredibilium jam factum videmus ut quod erat incredibile credeâet mundus curid quod reliquum est desperatur Austines to which our owne undoubted experience gives much strength The same Spirit of God saith hee which foretold the resurrection of Christ foretold also that the doctrine thereof should bee publickly professed and believed in the world and the one was altogether as unlikely as the other But the latter wee see in all ages since Christs death and at this day accomplished in the celebration of this feast why then should any man doubt of the former The Apostles saw the head living but not the mysticall body the Catholike Church of all places and ages We have read in the histories of all ages since Christ and at this day see the Catholike Church spread over the whole face of the earth which is Christs body how can wee then but believe the head to bee living which conveigheth life to all the members I have set before you the glasse of the resurrection in the figures of predictions of the Old Testament and the face it selfe in the history of the New may it please you now to cast a glance of your eye upon the Image or picture thereof in our rising from the death of sinne to the life of grace All Christs actions and passions as they are meritorious for us so they are some way exemplary unto us and as none can bee assured of the benefit of Christs birth unlesse hee bee borne againe by water and the Spirit nor of his death unlesse hee bee dead to sinne nor of his buriall unlesse hee have buried his old Adam so neither of his resurrection unlesse hee bee risen from dead workes and continually walketh in newnesse of life See you how the materiall colours in a glasse window when the sun-beames passe through it produce the like colours but lesse materiall and therefore called by the Philosophers intentionales spiritales on the next wall no otherwise doth the corporall resurrection of Christ produce in all true believers a representation thereof in their spirituall which Saint John calleth o Apoc. 20.5 the first resurrection Saint Paul p Heb. 6.1 repentance from dead workes Sinnes especially heinous and grievous proceeding from an evill habit are called dead workes and such sinners dead men because they are deprived of the life of God have no sense of true Religion they see not Gods workes they heare not his Word they savour not the things of God they feele no pricke of conscience they breath not out holy prayers to God nor move towards heaven in their desires but lye rotting in their owne filthinesse and corruption The causes which moved the Jewes so much to abhorre dead corpses ought to be more prevalent with us carefully to shunne and avoid those that are spiritually dead in sinnes and transgressions they were foure 1 Pollution 2 Horrour 3 Stench 4 Haunting with evill spirits 1 Pollution That which touched a dead corpse was by the law uncleane neither can any come nigh these men much lesse embrace them in their bosome without morall pollution and taking infection in their soules from them 2 Horrour Nothing so ghastly as the sight of a dead corpse the representation whereof oft-times in the Theater appalleth not onely the spectatours but also the actours and yet this sight is not so dreadfull to the carnall man as the sight of those that are spiritually dead I speake of foule notorious and scandalous offenders to them that feare God Saint John would not stay in the same bath with Cerinthus and certainely 't is a most fearefull thing to bee under the same roofe with blasphemous heretickes and profane persons who have no feare of God before their eyes 3 Stench The smell of a carkasse is not so offensive to the nostrils as the stench of gluttony drunkennesse and uncleannesse in which wicked men wallow is loathsome to God and all good men 4 Haunting with evil spirits We read in scriptures that the men that were possest of the divel came q Mat. 8.28 out of the tombs and graves and we find by dayly experience the like of these rather carkasses than men that the devill hankereth about them and entereth into their heart as he did into Judas filling them with all wickednesse and uncleannesse After they have exhausted their bodies with incontinency their estate with riotous living and have lost first their conscience and after their credit they fall into the deepest melancholy upon which Sathan works and puts them into desperate courses r Psal 73.19 O how suddenly doe they consume perish and come to a fearefull end Me thinkes I heare some say wee heard of places haunted by evill spirits in time of popery are there now any such not such as then were solitary houses ruined pallaces or Churches in which fearefull noyses are said to have beene heard and walking spirits to have beene met For at the thunder of the Gospell Sathan fell like lightning from heaven and hath left those his old holds but places of a contrary condition such where is the greatest concourse of people I meane profane Theaters disorderly Tavernes Ale-houses places of gaming and lewdnesse yea prisons also which were intended for the restraint of wickednesse and punishment of vice are made refuges of Malefactors and schooles of all impiety and wickednesse Quis custodes custodiet ipsos As in the hot sands of Africa where wilde beasts of divers sorts meet to drinke strange monsters are begotten which gave occasion to that proverbe Å¿ Eras
Jud. 5.23 Curse ye Meros curse yee bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to the helpe of the Lord against the mighty accurseth all those in the name of Meros that refuse to come in their best equipage to aide the Lord against the mighty r Magdeburg Cent. 5. Pomp. Laetus compend hist Rom. Anastasius the Emperour for his luke-warmnesse in the Catholicke cause and endevouring to reconcile the Arrians and Orthodoxe or at least silence those differences was strucken to death with a hot thunder-bolt No Sacrifice is acceptable to God that is not salted with the fire of zeale which guided by wisedome quickneth and enflameth all the inward desires as well as the outward actions that appertaine to religion for the chiefe seat of zeale is the fountaine of heat and that is the heart there it Å¿ Psal 45.1 bubbled in David there it t Luk. 24.32 Did not our hearts burne when hee opened to us c. burned in the disciples it u Psal 22.15 My heart is dried c. consumed and dryed up the very substance of the heart in Christ If our zeale burne not inwardly as well as outwardly as well upwards towards God as downewards towards the world if it enflame not our charity as well as incense our piety if the heat of it bee cooled by age or slacked by opposition or extinguished even by floods of bloody persecution it is no true Vestall fire nor such as becommeth Gods altar for that might never this did never go out sincerity it selfe is not so opposite to hypocrisie as zeale Sincerity without zeale is a true but a cold and faint-hearted zeale is an eager fierce hot and couragious enemy of all hypocrites whom shee brandeth with an eternall note of infamy But because all fires are in a manner alike to the eye how should wee know holy fire from prophane heavenly from earthly that is zeale from enraged hypocrisie pretending with Jehu that hee is zealous for the Lord of hostes I answer as a precious Diamond is valued by three things 1 Inward lustre 2 Number of caracts 3 Solidity of substance and thereby is distinguished both from counterfeit gemmes and those that are of lesse value so true zeale is distinguished from hypocriticall by 1 Sincerity 2 Integrity 3 Constancy all which notes are discernable in holy * Psal 119.2 Davids zeale 1 Sincerity I have loved thy testimonies with my heart ver 6. yea my whole heart 2 Integrity I have had respect unto all thy commandements ver 34. all false wayes I abhorre 3 Constancy I have kept thy lawes unto the end ver 44. When the face and hands and outward parts burne as in a feaver the heart is so cold that it quaketh and shivereth so it is with the hypocrite his tongue alwayes and his hands too sometimes burne x Persius satyr Sed pone in pectore dextram Nil calet If you could put your hand into his bowels you should finde his heart like Nabals as cold as a stone True zeale if it bee transported it is in private devotion to God si insanimus Deo insanimus in outward carriage towards men it proceeds resolutely indeed and undauntedly but yet deliberately and discreetly it burneth within most ardently it scarce ever flameth or sparkleth outwardly like those bathes in the Pythecusian Ilands whereof y Balnea in Pythecusiis insulis fervent supra modum calore vi igneâ nec tamen flammam emittunt Vide Aristot mirabilium auscult Aristotle writeth that they are hot above measure and of a fiery nature yet send forth no flame Secondly as insincerity discries the hypocrite so also want of integrity Take the hypocrite that maketh the fairest offer to zeale though hee outstrippe some it may bee in some works of piety and duties of the first Table you shall take him tardy in most acts of charity and duties of the second Table Peradventure he will slay smaller sinnes with the sword of the Spirit like the meanest of the Amalekites but hee will spare Agag and the principall his gainefull sinnes of simony sacriledge usury and oppression hee is never Totus teres atque rotundas Goe he as upright as hee can you shall perceive him to limpe and halt with God or man or both If the point of controversie in the Church no way touch his free-hold hee takes it no more to heart than z Act. 18.17 Gallio did the uproare about Saint Pauls preaching then difference about articles of faith are but contentions about words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but if it rubbe upon his profit or credit with his owne faction then hee never leaveth crying out great is a Act. 19.28 Diana of the Ephesians You may finde an hypocrite zealous against Idolatry but you shall finde him very moderate against sacriledge if he have a moneths minde to Rome he will stickle for the authority of the Church but the scripture is very cheape to him hee will deliver prayers by tale to God the blessed Virgin and Saints but for Sermons hee holds it a kinde of merit to heare few of those of his owne sect and none of any other On the contrary if hee hath beene brought up at the feete of Cartwright or Brown then he is all for Scriptures and nothing at all for the Church all for preaching and nothing for prayer unlesse it be an abortive issue of hiâ owne brain an extemporary indigested incomposed inconsequent ejaculation in which he is never out because he is never in As for the premeditated penned advised and sanctified forme of Service appointed by the Church it is to him like the white of an egge that hath no tast in it But the most certain and infallible character of an hypocrite and his zeale is the soon cooling and abating thereof and in the end evaporating into ayre like a blazing starre he glareth for a time but in a short space playes least in sight like fire-works of danke powder hee never leaves shooting off on these and the like watch-towers whilest his matter lasteth but when that is spent goeth out in a fume or stench True beauty beareth off all weathers but paint is washed off with a shower or discovered by the fire Saint Basil's embleme was columna ignea a fiery pillar fiery there 's his zeale a pillar there 's his constancy I doubt whether nature can present such a stone as the name Asbestus in the original signifieth that is a stone of fire that nothing can extinguish but I am sure grace can and that is this jewell of zeale I have beene so long in describing for it burneth alwayes in the heart and can never be quenched I would bee loath to be thought to goe about to quench the smoaking flaxe or discourage any man in whom there is a sparke of this fire covered with ashes yet I should deceive them or suffer them to be mis-led with an ignis fatuus if I should
see thy selfe in heaven with one eye than to see thy selfe in hell with both better hoppe into life with one legge than runne to eternall death with both better without a right hand to bee set with the sheepe at Gods right hand than having a right hand to bee set at Gods left hand and afterwards with both thine hands bee bound to bee cast into hell fire c ver 44.46.48 where the worme never dyeth and the fire is not quenched and againe and a third time where the worme never dyeth and the fire is not quenched At the mention whereof it being the burthen of his dolefull Sonnet our Saviour perceiving the eares of his auditors to tingle in the words of my text hee yeeldeth a reason of that his so smart and biting admonition saying For every one shall be salted c. and withall hee sheweth them a meanes to escape that unquenchable fire which they so much dreaded and to kill the immortall worme which even now began to bite them The meanes to escape the one is to bee salted here with fire and the meanes to kill the other is to be salted here with salt for salt preserveth from that putrefaction which breedeth that worme He who now is salted with the fire of zeale or heart-burning sorrow for his sinnes shall never hereafter bee salted with the fire of hell this fire will keepe out that as d Ovid. Met. l. 2. Saevis compescuit ignibus ignes Jupiters fire drove out Phaetons and hee who macerateth here his fleshly members with the salt of Gods uncorrupt word and the cleansing grace of his spirit shall never putrefie in his sinnes nor feele the torment of the never dying worme The Philosophers make three partitions as it were in the soule of man the first they call the reasonable or seate of judgement the second the irascible or seat of affections the third the concupiscible or the seat of desires and lusts In the reasonable part they who knew nothing of the fall of man and originall corruption find little amisse but in the concupiscible they note ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã something like superfluous moisture inclining to luxury in the irascible ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã something like cold or rawnesse enclining to feare behold in my text a remedy for both fire for the one and salt for the other And that wee may not lose a sparke of this holy fire or a graine of this salt so soveraigne let us in a more exact division observe 1 Two kindes of seasoning 1 With fire 2 With salt 2 Two sorts of things to bee seasoned 1 Men without limitation Every 2 Sacrifices without exception All. God e Gen. 4.4 had respect unto Abel and his sacrifice first to Abel and then to his offering hee accepteth not the man for his sacrifice but the sacrifice for the mans sake First therefore of men and their salting with fire and after of sacrifices and their salting with salt Every one shall bee salted with fire Saint f Hieron in hunc locum Mire dictum est c. ille verè victima domini est qui corpus animam a vitus emundando Deo per amorem consecratur nec sale aspergitur sed igne consumitur quando non peccati tantum contagio pellitur sed praesentis vitae delectatio tollitur futurae conversationi totaÌ mente suspiratur Jerome was much taken with this speech of our Saviour it is saith he an admirable saying That which is seasoned with salt is preserved from corruption of vermine that which is salted with fire loseth some of the substance with both the sacrifices of the old Law were seasoned such a sacrifice in the Gospell is hee who cleansing his body and soule from vice by love consecrateth himselfe to God who then it not onely sprinkled with salt but also consumed with fire when not onely the contagion of sinne is driven away but also all delight of this present life is taken away and wee sigh with our whole soule after our future conversation which shall bee with God and his Angels in heaven It is newes to heare of salting of men especially with fire an uncouth expression yet used by our Saviour to strike a deeper impression into the mindes of his hearers and verily the Metaphor is not so hard and strained as the duty required is harsh and difficult to our nature It went much against flesh and blood to heare of plucking out an eye or cutting off an hand or foot yet that is nothing in comparison to salting with fire salt draweth out the corrupt blood and superfluous moisture out of flesh but fire taketh away much of the substance thereof if not all For the fattest and best parts of all sacrifices were devoured by the flame of such things as were offered to God by fire If such a salting bee requisite wee must then not onely part with an eye or a hand or a foot but even with heart and head and whole body to be burned for the testimony of the Gospell if so the case stand that either we must leave our body behind us or wee leave Christ Such a salting is here prescribed by our high Priest as draweth out not onely corrupt moisture but consumeth much of the flesh also yea sometimes all that is not onely bereaveth us of superfluous vanities and sinfull pleasures but even of our chiefe comforts of life it selfe our friends our estates our honours yea sometimes our very bodies So hot is this fire so quicke is this salt Those that are redeemed by Christs blood must thinke nothing too deare for him who paid so deare for them rather than forfeit their faith and renounce the truth they must willingly lay all at stake for his sake who pawned not onely his humane body and soule but after a sort his divine person also to satisfie the justice of God for us Every one How farre this Every one extends and what this salting with fire signifieth the best Interpreters ancient and latter are not fully agreed Some restraine every one to the reprobate only and by fire understand hell-fire others to the elect onely and by fire understand the fire of Gods spirit or grace burning out as it were and consuming our naturall corruptions They who stand for the former interpretation conceive that Christ in these words yeeldeth a reason why hee said that hell-fire shall never bee quenched Ver. 48. for every one that is say they of the damned in hell shall bee salted with that fire the fire shall be to their bodies as salt is to flesh which keepeth it from putrefying O cruell mercy of hellish flames O saving destruction O preservation worse than perdition O fire eternally devouring and yet preserving its owne fuell O punishment bringing continuall torments to the damned and continuing their bodies and soules in it It is worse than death to be kept alive to eternall pains it is
Eph. 6.14 15 16 17. The breast-plate of righteousnesse the shooes of preparation the shield of faith the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit Learne of that fortunate Commander of the Gothes who like lightning in a moment appeared from one part of the earth to the other and nothing was able to withstand him This Emperour never put himselfe into the field to fight with his enemy before at home hee had made his peace with God Salvianus who lived at the same time and accurately observed his demeanour attributeth his miraculous victories to nothing more than to his extraordinary and admirable devotion e Sal. de prov l. 7. Ipse rex hostium usque ad diem pugnae stratus cilicio preces fundit ante bellum in oratione jacuit ad bellum de oratione surrexit The King that warreth against us to the very day in which hee draweth out his forces to fight lyeth on the ground at his devotion in sackcloth and ashes before hee goeth into the battell hee is at his prayer in private and never riseth but from his knees to fight Wrestle you in like manner with God that you may bee Israels keep his Law as strictly as your Martiall discipline and I will be bold to give you now at your parting the benediction of the Psalmist * Psal 45.3 4. Gird your swords upon your thighes O yee mighty with glory ride on with honour because of truth meeknesse and righteousnesse and your right hand shall teach you terrible things your arrowes shall bee sharpe in the heart of the Kings enemies whereby the people shall fall under you Hath not the Lord by his Vice-gerent commanded you to help and assist your brethren Bee strong therefore and of a good courage and the Lord God shall bee with you whithersoever you goe To whom c. THE CROWNE OF HUMILITY A Sermon preached in VVooll-Church Aprill 10. 1624. THE NINETEENTH SERMON MATTH 5.3 Blessed are the poore in spirit for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven THey who desire to abide in the Tabernacle of the Almighty and rest upon his holy a Psal 15.1 Hill had need to get by heart and con without booke by continuall practice this Sermon of Christ upon the Mount which hath more ravishing straines of Eloquence more divine a phorismes of Wisedome more powerfull motives to Holinesse more certaine directions to Happinesse treasured up in it than are found in all the parenetiques of Oratours all the diatribes of Philosophers all the apophthegmes of Sages all the emblemes of Poets all the hieroglyphicks of Egyptian Priests all the tables of Lawes all the pandects of Constitutions all the digests of Imperiall Sanctions all the bodies and systemes of Canons all acts of Parliament all rules of Perfection ever published to the worlds view I dare confidently affirme that which all the ancient and later Commentatours upon it will make good that this one Sermon in Monte surmounts them all Ubi desinit Philosophus ibi incipit Medicus Where the Philosophers left and could goe no further the Physician of our soule goes on at the health and eternall salvation of our immortall spirit where they made an end of their discourses which yet came farre short of their marke there hee begins at blessednesse it selfe And doubtlesse if there be any happinesse in knowledge it is in the knowledge of happinesse which the proper owner thereof in himselfe and gracious doner to his creatures capable thereof bestoweth here as a dowry and shareth betweene eight divine vertues 1. Humility poore in spirit 2. Repentance mourning for sinne 3. Compassion ever meeke 4. Devotion hungring and thirsting for righteousnesse 5. Piety alwaies mercifull 6. Sincerity pure in heart 7. Brotherly love making peace 8. Patience enduring all for righteousnesse sake There are no straines in Musicke so delightfull as those in which discords are artificially bound in with concords nor dishes so dainty as those in which sweet things and tart or sowre are seasonably mingled nor pictures so beautifull as those in which bright colours with darke shadowes are curiously tempered nor sentences so rhetoricall as those in which contraries are fitly opposed and set one against the other Such are almost all the straines of this sweet Lesson pricked by our Saviour such are all the dishes placed in this heavenly Banquet such are the pictures set in this Gallery such are the sentences skilfully contrived into the Proeme of this Sermon wherein blessing is opposed to cursing laughing to weeping reward to punishments satisfaction to hungring and thirsting gaine to losses glory to shame and in my Text heavenly riches to earthly poverty 1. Blessed poverty because to be enriched 2. Blessed mourning because to be comforted 3. Blessed hungring because to be satisfied 4. Blessed enduring punishment because to be rewarded Blessed are the poore c. In these words our blessed Saviour the hope of our blessednesse here and blessednesse of our hope hereafter teacheth us 1. Whom we are to call blessed 2. Why. 1. Whom the humble in heart here tearmed poore in spirit 2. Why because their lowlinesse of mind entituleth them to the highest top of honour glory and happinesse a Kingdome and that in Heaven Blessed not in fruition but in hope are the poore not simply in estate but in spirit and these are also blessed not for any thing they have on earth but for that they shall have in heaven an incorruptible Crowne of glory 1. There are some to be held for blessed even in this life 2. These blessed are the poore 3. These poore are poore in spirit Or if you like better of a Logicall division than a Theologicall partition observe in this speech of our Saviour 1. An affirmation Blessed are the poore 2. A confirmation For theirs is the kingdome of Heaven The affirmation is strange and may be called a divine Paradoxe for the world accounteth blessednesse to consist in wealth and abundance not in poverty A good man in the language of the City is a wealthy man Poverty above all things is despised b Juv sat 3. Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se Quam quod ridiculos homines facit And of all poore men we have the meanest opinion of those that are poore in spirit we account not them worth the earth they tread upon yet for these Christ plats the Garland of blessednesse Because the affirmation is strange the confirmation ought to be strong and so indeed it is For saith hee theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven Whether wee take the Kingdome of Heaven for the Kingdome of grace or the Kingdome of glory they have best right to both For the Kingdome of grace is in them according to the words of our Saviour c Luk. 17.21 The Kingdome of God is with you and they shall be in the Kingdome of glory when they enter into their Masters joy therefore they are doubly happy 1. Re. 2. Spe. 1. Re in the present
cursed persons To cleare the meaning of our Saviour it will bee requisite briefly to declare first how man is capable of blessednesse at all secondly how farre in this life truly termed by St. Austin the region of death Blessednesse is a soveraigne attribute of God and as p Nyss hom de ââat Nyssen teacheth primarily and absolutely and eternally belongeth to him onely Creatures are blessed but in part derivatively and at the most from the terme of their creation Beauty first shineth in the living face and countenance that which is resembled in the image or picture is but a secondary or relative beauty in like manner saith hee the primary blessednesse is in God or to speake more properly is God himselfe the blessednesse which is in man made after Gods image is but a secondary blessednesse For as the image is such is his beauty and blessednesse but the image of God in man since his fall is much soiled and defaced and consequently his blessednesse is very imperfect and obscure Yet they that rubbe off the dust of earthly cares and dirt of sinne and by spirituall exercises brighten the graces of God in their soule as they are truly though not perfectly beautifull within so they may be truly though not absolutely stiled blessed even in this life 1. First because they are assured of Gods love and they see his countenance shine upon them which putteth more q Psal 4.7 gladnesse into their heart than is or can be in the heart of them whose corne and wine is increased For if it bee deservedly accounted the greatest happinesse of a subject to bee in continuall grace with his Prince what is it to bee a Favourite of the King of kings 2. Secondly because they have an r 1 Pet. 1.4 inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in the heavens for them A great heire though hee may sometimes pinch for maintenance and bee driven to hard exigents yet hee still solaceth himselfe with this hope it will bee better with mee and I shall one day come to my lands and such comfort have all Gods Saints in their greatest perplexities and extremities 3. Thirdly because they enjoy the peace of a good conscience which Solomon calleth a continuall feast And Saint Paul a cause of t 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience Rom. 8.28 triumph and joy 4. Fourthly because all things work together for their good and tend to their eternall happinesse The joyes of the wicked are grievous their pleasures are paine unto them but on the contrary the sorrowes of the righteous are joyous and the paines which they endure for Christ are pleasures unto them The gaines of the worldly are indeed losses unto them because they help on their damnation whereas the losses of the godly are gaine and advantage unto them because they further their salvation 5. Fifthly because they enjoy God wherein consisteth the happinesse of a man in some measure and degree even in this life For it cannot be denied but that devout Christians even whilest the soule resides in the body have a comfortable fruition of the Deity whose favour is better than life by faith in the heart by knowledge in the understanding by charity in the will by desire in the affections by sight in the creatures by hearing in the Word by taste in the Sacraments by feeling in the inward motions and operations of Gods Spirit which fill them with exceeding and unspeakable joy and comfort Saint u Apoc. 21. John setting forth the blessednesse of the triumphant Church and depainting the joyes of Heaven in golden colours describeth a City situate in Heaven whose temple is God and light the Lambe and walls Salvation and courts praise and streets gold and foundations gemmes and gates pearles twelve in number in a relation to the Lambes twelve Apostles Answerable to the gates in price though not in number are the steps up to them which our Saviour who is the way directeth us unto they are eight in number made of so many whole pearles that is divine Vertues 1. The first step is humility poore in spirit upon which when we stand we may easily get upon the next godly sorrow mourning for sinne none so apt to mourne for their sinnes and humble themselves under the mighty hand of God in sackcloth and ashes as the poore in spirit 2. When we are upon this step we readily get up upon the next which is tender compassion and meeknesse none so compassionate and meeke towards others when they slip into the mire of sinne as those who continually bewaile their fowle falls and wash their defiled soules with their teares 3. When we are upon this third step we may soone get up the fourth which is hungering and thirsting for righteousnesse for those who are most sensible of their owne wants and continually bewaile their corruptions and are compassionately affected towards others when they are overtaken with any temptation must needs hunger and thirst for righteousnesse both in themselves and others 4. When we are upon this fourth step we may soone climbe up to the other three Mercy the fifth Purity the sixth and Peace the seventh for they who eagerly pursue righteousnesse shall certainly meet with these three her companions Lastly they who have attained unto righteousnesse and are enamoured with her three companions Mercy Purity and Peace will suffer any thing for their sake and so ascend up the highest step of Christian perfection which is constant patience and zealous striving for the truth even unto bloud which is not only saved but cleansed also by being spilt for Christs sake The lowest greece or staire and the first step to Heaven is poverty in spirit that is as the Fathers generally interpret Humility which is the ground-colour of the soules beautifull images the graces of the spirit The ground-colours are darke and obscure yet except they be first laid the wooll or stuffe will not receive much lesse retaine the brighter and more beautifull Such is lowlinesse of minde of no great lustre and appearance in itselfe yet without it no grace or vertue will long keep colour and its beauty and therefore Christ first layes it saying Blessed are the Poore in spirit These poore in spirit are not to bee understood poore in spirituall graces such cannot come neere the price of the Kingdome of Heaven and therefore the spirit adviseth them under the type of the Church of * Apoc. 3.18 Laodicea to buy of him gold tryed in the fire that they may bee rich c. nor are they necessarily poore in state much lesse such as are poore in state onely for bare poverty yea though it bee voluntary is but a weake plea and giveth a man but a poore title to a Kingdome in Heaven Wee heare indeed in the Gospel of Lazarus the x Luke 16.22 Beggar in Heaven but wee finde him there in the bosome of rich Abraham to
teach us as Saint Austine noteth that neither the poverty of the one brought him thither nor the wealth of the other kept him from thence y John 14.2 In my Fathers house saith our Saviour there are many mansions some for the rich some for the poore some for noble some for ignoble some for z Agapet ad Justin ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã kings some for beggars and it is hard to say whethers crowne in Heaven shall be more massie and be set with more orient jewells the rich mans who is also rich in God or the poore mans who is poore for God the wealthy who hath given much to Christ or the needy who hath lost all for his sake the noble and honourable man who by his birth and place hath innobled the Christian faith or the ignoble who hath preferred the ignominy of Christs crosse to all the honours of this world the King who layeth downe his scepter at the foot of Christs crosse or the Beggar who taketh up his crosse and readily followeth Christ It is true which Saint a Cypr. de laps Multos patrimonia pondere suo depresserunt in terâam Cyprian chargeth many of the rich in his time with that their great patrimonies and large revenues of their lands with the weight thereof pressed them downe to the earth nay some to hell But the fault was in their minde not in their meanes in their desires not in their fortunes or estates For as when a man taketh a heavie Trunke full of plate or mony upon his shoulders it crooketh his back and boweth him down toward the earth but if the same weight be put under his feet it lifteth him above ground in like maner if we put our wealth and riches above us preferring them to our salvation they will presse us downe to the ground if not to hell with their weight but if wee put them under our feet and tread upon them as slaves to us and quite contemne them in respect of heavenly treasure they will raise us up towards heaven As they did Job who made so many friends of unrighteous Mammon that every eye that saw him blessed him As they did Mary Magdalen whose name is and shall bee like an oyntment powred out to the end of the world because shee brake an Alabaster boxe of most costly b Matth. 26.12 13. Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memoriall of her oyntment upon the head of our Saviour As they did Cornelius whose almes-deeds were a forcible meanes to carry up his prayers into Heaven Acts 10.31 Thy prayer is heard and thine almes-deeds are had in remembrance As they did Dorcas whom the clothes which shee made for the widowes and poore orphants kept warme in her death bed The c Acts 9.39 widowes stood by her weeping and shewing the coates and garments which Dorcas made whilest shee was with them and were motives to Saint Peter by miracle to restore her to life As they did Constantine the great who made his crown the basis of Christs crosse As they did Ludovicus who by continuall largesse turned all his state into obligations The meaning then is not that none are blessed but poore for d 1 Tim. 4.8 Godlinesse is profitable unto all things c. Godlinesse hath the promises of this life and the life to come But to make up the harmony of the Evangelicall doctrine in this place wee must take one note from the words as they are related by Saint Luke and another from the words as they are recorded by Saint Matthew in my Text. The note from Saint Luke is That the worlds miserable man is for the most part Christs blessed man Christs words in Saint Luke are these e Luke 6.20 21 24 25. Blessed be yee poore for yours is the Kingdome of God Blessed are yee that hunger now for yee shall be filled Blessed are yee that weep now for yee shall laugh But woe unto you that are rich for you have received your consolation Woe be unto you that are full for you shall hunger Woe unto you that laugh now for you shall mourne and weep Vicibus res disposita est Happinesse goes by turnes Dives shall be Lazarus hereafter and Lazarus on earth shall be Dives in Heaven those who laugh here shall weep there and those who weep here shall laugh there those who feast continually and riot in pleasures in this world shall fast in the other and those who fast upon earth shall feast with the Lambe in Heaven But the note which we are to take from Saint Matthew is That affliction and penury unlesse it be sanctified to us by God no way maketh us happy Blessed are the poore not simply but with an addition in spirit The poore are blessed if poore in spirit that is humble Blessed are they that mourn if their mourning be a godly mourning either out of sense of their owne sinne or compassion of their brethrens miseries For godly f 2 Cor. 7.10 sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to bee repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death Blessed are they that hunger and thirst if it be for righteousnesse for there are that hunger for the flesh-pots of Egypt and there are that thirst after bloud or after g Prov. 9.17 Stolne waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant but hee knoweth not that the dead are there and that her guests are in the depth of hell stolne waters which are sweet in the mouth but poyson in the belly and rottennesse in the bones And neither of these are blessed All that are in want are not Christs poore neither are all that weare blackes his mourners Saint Luke saith in effect not many rich are blessed Saint Matthew addeth nor all poore but the poore in spirit onely that is such as are of an humble spirit or a h Prov. 16.19 Esay 57 15. I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit contrite spirit Those i Beza in Mat. 5. Qui sive paupertate sive aliis calamitatibus domiti sive ultro peccatorum suorum sensu tacti ab omni superbiâ remoti sese Deo subjiciunt who by any affliction outward or inward are so thoroughly tamed and subdued that they humble themselves under the mighty hand of God wholly relying upon his providence for their estate and upon his mercy for their salvation None is poore in spirit saith k Calvin harm Nemo spiritu pauper est nisi qui in nihilum apud se redactus in Dei misericordiâ recumbit namque desperatione fracti cum adversus Deum fremunt elato superboque spiritu esse oportet Calvin but he who being brought to nothing in himselfe casteth himselfe wholly upon Gods mercy For hee who groweth into desperate fits and murmureth against the most
High must needs be of an impatient and proud spirit Crosses work not alike upon all some are bettered by them some are made worse some are bowed downe by them others rise up against them As under the same flaile the stubble is bruised and the corne purged and in the same l Aug. l. 1. de Civ Dei Sub codem igneaurum rutilat palea fumat fire gold shineth and chaffe smoaketh so the same affliction which tryeth the faith of the godly like gold and maketh it more precious consumeth the temporary beliefe of hypocrites like drosse We reade in the Apocalyps that after the fifth Angel powred out his viall upon the seat of the Beast that his kingdome was full of darknesse and they m Rev. 16.10 gnawed their tongues for paine and blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their paines and sores and repented not of their deeds these turned medicines into poysons whereas on the contrary the true servants of God make medicines even of poysons like silver Bells they ring sweetest when they are struck hardest Of those who are smitten by the hand of God some like solid bones are hardened by his stroake some like tender flesh are softened thereby some turne to him that strikes them others flye away from him the former are blessed not the latter theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven not theses Here some may cast in a scruple Why should Christ preach poverty in spirit to his Disciples who had nothing to be proud of being poore illiterate despicable men Saint Chrysostome answereth First that the greater part of the multitude to whom Christ directed his speech were not Disciples but men of another condition who bare themselves upon their wealth or place of authority and in that regard much needed a Lecture of Humility to be read unto them Secondly he addeth that this admonition was very seasonable even to his Disciples lest they should bee puffed up with their miraculous gifts of casting out Divels and healing all manner of diseases Thirdly it may be thought also that our Saviour used this Preface to his Sermon not so much to instruct his Disciples as to vindicate them and his doctrine from scorne and dis-esteeme For if you draw out at length this rich piece of Arras you shall finde in it the heads and lineaments of this exhortation or the like O yee people of Israel and seed of Abraham you looke for a glorious and majesticall Messias to restore the kingdome unto Israel and to make you all rich and mighty men upon earth and therefore you despise mee and my Disciples in regard of our poverty and meane estate But you erre not knowing the Scriptures not the true characters of the Messias whose Kingdome is not of this world neither is he here to rule this Nation in pompe and state but to bee rejected of it and to bee slaine in it and crucified and so to enter into his glory And as for my Disciples and Followers despise not them though they be poore and in mournfull habit and forlorne and persecuted men for I tell you Blessed are these poore For theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven Blessed are these mourners for they shall be comforted Blessed are these persecuted men for my sake for great is their reward in Heaven As I come now in humility so I preach poverty in spirit As I come in the forme of a servant so I preach obedience As I come to suffer so I preach patience The Disciple is not greater than his Master nor the servant than his lord And so I have done with the assertion or affirmation Blessed are the poore in spirit and am now to examine the reason or confirmation For theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven What Synesius spake concerning his preferment to his disadvantage n Citat à Casaub tract de libertate ecclesiast ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Now saith he ascend downward for before thou diddest descend upward his meaning was that now hee gained in honour but lost in profit but before lost in honour and gained in wealth may fitly be applyed to all mankinde who fell by rising in our owne conceits and * Aug. confes l. 4. c. 12. Descendite ut ascendatis ad Deum câcidistis enim ascendendo contra eum can no otherwise rise againe but by falling in our selves Wee ascended downward in Adam when wee would bee like unto God in knowledge but we descend upward when we strive to be like the son of man and learne of Christ to be meeke and lowly in heart The first precipice or downe fall to Hell both in Angel and Man was by pride therefore humility must needs be the first step to Heaven For the rule holds both in the physicke of soule and body Contraria curantur contrariis As the disease is contrary to health so the remedy is alwaies contrary to the disease Hee that meanes to build high must lay his foundation low hee that setteth any choice plant diggeth the earth deep to put in the root All those precious and resplendent stones reckoned up in the Apocalyps were placed in the o Apoc. 21.19 And the foundation of the wall of the Ci y was gaânshed with all manner of precious stones foundation of the heavenly City to teach us that all Christian vertues are grounded in humility If a vessell be full it will receive no more liquor be it never so soveraigne and precious The proud and high minded man is full of his owne gifts and perfections and therefore letteth not into his soule the wholesome dew of Gods grace What is the reason so few great and mighty and noble and wise and learned enter into Christs schoole or very late because the gate is low and they will not stoop Holy Austin p Aug. confess l. 9. c. 4. Dulce sit mihi confiteri quemadmodum me complanaveris humiliatis montibus cogitationum mearum Tumor meus non capiebat illius modum confesseth with teares that his swelling greatnesse or tumour of pride would not suffer him for a long time to enter in at the q Mat. 7.13 14. Enter in at the strait gate because strait is the gate that leadeth unto life narrow gate that leadeth unto life In whose teares many of our noble Sparkes or lusty Gallants and high Spirits may reade the cause why they are so usually poore and naked and blinde in the inward man and though oft-times neerest to the Court of Princes yet are furthest off from the Kingdome of God They will not confesse their wants either because they suppose they have none or they cannot endure the shame of acknowledging them they will not begge because they are rich in their owne conceits they will not subject their reason to faith because they value their reason above faith but those that are poore in spirit are ever begging and asking at Gods hands and therefore alwaies on the taking hand The soule that feeleth her selfe empty hungereth and
keep the other above As Fishermen so likewise the Fishers of men in the draw-net of the Gospel make use both of corke and lead the generall promises like corke beare us up in hope the conditions like lead keep us downe in feare These conditions cannot bee performed without grace therefore all must implore divine aide yet grace performeth them not without the concurrence of our will We must therefore exercise our naturall faculties we must seeke the Kingdome of God we must strive to enter in at the narrow gate wee must search for wisedome as for treasure we must labour for the meat that perisheth not we must stirre up the graces of God in us we must work out our salvation with feare and trembling t Cic. lib. 2. de orat Lepidus lying all along upon the grasse cryed out Utinam hoc esset laborare O that this were to labour and get the mastery so many stretching themselves upon their ivory beds and living at ease in Sion say within themselves Utinam hoc esset militare O that this were to goe in warfare and fight under the crosse but let them not deceive themselves heaven is not got with a wish nor paradise with a song nor pardon with a sigh nor victory with a breath it will cost us many a blow and wound too before we overcome Observ 3 There can be no conquest without a fight nor fight without an enemy who are then our enemies nay rather who are not evill angels men the creatures and our selves angels by suggestions men by seduction and persecution the creatures by presenting baits and provocations and our selves by carnall imaginations lusts and affections fight against the spirit of grace and kingdome of Christ in us Omnes necessarii omnes adversarii Against all these enemies of our peace with God wee hang up a flag of defiance in our crisme and lift up our ensigne when we are crossed in the forehead and proclaime a warre under Christs banner in our renouncing the Divell and all his workes which beginneth at the Font and endeth at our Grave Philip graced his warre against the Phocenses and our Ancestors their exploits against the Saracens for Palaestine with the title of Bellum sacrum the holy Warre but neither of their expeditions and martiall attempts so properly deserved that appellation as this I am now to describe unto you Those warres were for Religion in truth or pretence but this warre is Religion and true Christianity and the weapons of this warfare are no other than holy duties and divine vertues which by some are reduced to three 1. Prayer 2. Fasting 3. Almes-deeds For say they as our enemies are three the Divell the Flesh the World so they tempt us to three vices especially 1. Pride 2. Luxury 3. Avarice Now our strongest weapon 1 Against pride is humble prayer 2 Against luxurie frequent fasting 3 Against avarice charitable almes Howbeit though these are the most usuall and if I may so speake portable armes of a Christian yet there are in his armorie many more and some more forcible than these which St. u Ephes 6.13 14 15 16 17 18 Paul taketh out and gilds over with these sacred attributes the sword of the Spirit the helmet of salvation the shield of faith the breast-plate of righteousnesse the girdle of truth the shooes of preparation of the Gospel of peace As this warre is thus holy in respect of the weapons used in it so much more in respect of the Prince that decreeth it the Heraulds that proclaime it the field where it is fought and the cause for which it is undertaken The Prince who decreeth this warre is the Holy One of Israel the Heraulds that proclaime it are the Ministers of the Gospel the field where the battell is fought is the militant Church the end for which it is undertaken is the advancement of Christs kingdome of grace in us and us in the kingdome of glory The Roman Historians divide their warres into three kinds 1 Externa forreine 2 Civilia civill 3 Servilia servile Forreine against other States Civill against seditious Citizens Servile against mutinous slaves This our warre partaketh of all these three kinds and may be termed both a forrein a civill and a servile warre A forrein in respect of Sathan and his band A civill in respect of the world A servile in respect of the flesh and slavish lusts that warre against the Spirit In other warres some are exempted by their calling as Priests some by their sexe as women some by their yeares as old men and children some by their indisposition of body or minde as sicke and impotent persons not able to beare armes but in this warre it is otherwise none can challenge any priviledge Not Priests for they blow the trumpet and give the onset not children for as soone as they are borne they are enrolled in the Captaines booke and are crosse-signed for this service in baptisme and it may be said of many of them as x Pet. Dam. serm de sanct Vict. Prius vicit quam vincere noscet Damianus spake of St. Victor the confessour He conquered before he could know what it was to conquer and St. Cyprian of martyred infants for Christ in his dayes y Cyp. ep 4. Aetas necdum habilis ad pugnam idonea extitit ad coronam The age which was not yet fit for warre was found worthy to receive a crowne Not women for they fight daily the good fight of faith and many of them are crowned in heaven with white and red garlands white consisting of lillies in token of their chastity and innocent purity red consisting of roses in testimony of their z Cyp. de âaâ viâg âortior ãâã viâis toâquenâ uâ iâveâtutor blood shed for the name of Christ Not aged and infirme persons for like Saint * 2 Cor 12 10. Paul when they are weake then they are strong nay when they are weakest then they are strongest when they are weakest in body they are strongest in spirit when they lye on their death-bed and are not able to stirre hand nor foot they grapple with the a 1 Pet. 5.8 roaring Lion that runneth about seeking whom hee may devoure and conquer him by their faith In other warres though the fight last many houres yet in the end either the night or the weather or the victory or the flight on one side parteth the armies and oftentimes necessity enforceth on both sides a truce for a time but this warre admitteth no intermission abideth no peace or truce all yeelding is death and treaties of peace mortall In all other battels hee that killeth conquereth and hee that is slaine is conquered but in this the persecuters who slay are b Cyp. dâ laps Seââciunt toââ toâquentibus foââtorâs pulsantes laâântâs unââlas pulsâta lâmatâ membra vicerunt conquered and the Martyrs who are slaine and breath out their soules with a triumphant Io Paean in
sed spe debemus indubitatâ praesumere Gregory impropriateth not this assurance to himselfe or some few to whom God extraordinarily revealeth their state hereafter but extendeth it to all making it a common duty not a speciall gift saying Being supported with this certainty wee ought nothing to doubt of the mercy of our Redeemer but bee confident thereof out of an assured hope By the coherence of the text in the eighth to the Romans we may infallibly gather that all that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit and have received the first fruits thereof and the testimony within themselves are the Sonnes of God know that all things worke together for their good Have wee not all received the spirit of adoption doe we not come to God as children to a most loving father doe wee not daily in confidence of his love cry Abba Father If so then the Apostle addeth farther that the Spirit testifieth to our spirit that we are the sonnes of God And lest any hereticall doubt cast in might trouble the spring of everlasting comfort as if we were indeed made sonnes for the present but might forfeit our adoption and thereby lose our inheritance the Apostle cleareth all in the words following v. 17. If sonnes then heires heires of God and joynt heires with Christ God adopteth no sonne whom he intendeth not to make his heire neither can any that is borne of him cease to be his sonne because the Å¿ 1 Pet. 1.23 Being borne againe not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible seed of which he is borne is incorruptible and this seed still remaineth in him 1 John 3.9 Whosoever is borne of God doth not commit sinne for his seed remaineth in him There are three means of assurance among men 1 Earnests 2 Seales 3 Witnesses In bargaines earnests in deeds seales in trialls witnesses First to secure summes of money or bargaines we take earnests of men or some pledge behold this security given us by God even the t 2 Cor. 1.22 earnest of his Spirit in our hearts On which words St. u Chrysost in secund ad Cor. hom l. 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chrysostome thus plainely glosseth He saith not the Spirit but the earnest of the Spirit that thou mayst be every way confident for if he meant not to give thee the whole he would never have given this earnest in present For this had beene to lose his earnest and cast it away in vaine Secondly to confirme all grants licences bonds leases testaments and conveyances seales are required behold this confirmation also Ephes 1.13 In whom ye are sealed by that holy Spirit of promise and 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemption Whether we speake of the seale sealing or the seale sealed we have both For we are sealed by the Spirit of grace as by the seale sealing and by the grace of the Spirit as the seale sealed that is printed upon us In reference to which place Daniel x Chamierus de fid l. 10. c. 13. Sigillorum varii sunt gradus alia simpliciter ad rei pertinent certitudinem indefinité sic Reges sigillis suis muniunt diplomata sic contrahentes sigillis schedam suam muniunt sed alia spectant personae certitudinem quae obsignari dicitur id est signo peculiari insigniri ut eo sciat se in numerum eorum ascriptum ad quos tale aliquod jus pertinet ut cum Rex Equitibus suis torques concedit ut procerto habeat se Equites esse Chamierus rightly noteth that there are seales put to things for their confirmation and certaine signes or badges answerable to seales given to persons at their investiture as a collar of S's and a blew ribbon with a George to the knights of the Garter c. We have both these seales sigillum rei by the Sacrament and sigillum personae by the Spirit which sealeth us to the day of our redemption Thirdly to prove any matter of fact in Courts of justice witnesses are produced behold this proofe of our right and title to a kingdome in heaven proofe I say by witnesses beyond exception the holy Spirit and our renewed consciences The Spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our Spirit that wee are the children of God Rom. 8.16 On which words St. Chrysostome thus enlargeth himselfe y Chrysost in epist ad Rom. c. 8. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If a man or an Angel or an Archangel had promised thee this honour to be the Sonne of God thou mightest peradventure have made some doubt of it but now when God himselfe giveth thee this title commanding thee to call him Abba Father who dare question thy title If the King himselfe pricke a Sheriffe or send him the Garter or the Seale what subject dare gainesay it Lastly as the Planets are knowne by their influence and the Diamond by his lustre and the Balsamum by his medicinall vertue and the soule by her vitall operations so the gift here promised is most sensibly knowne by the effects 1 Exceeding love 2 Secure peace 3 Unspeakable joy 4 Invincible courage He that is not certain that he hath or ever shall receive any benefit by another or comfort in him loveth but a little He that was condemned to die and cannot tell whether he hath a pardon for his life or no can be at no peace he that heareth glad tidings but giveth little credit to them rejoyceth but faintly he who hath no assurance of a better life will be advised how he parteth with this But the Saints of God and Martyrs of Jesus Christ are exceedingly enflamed with the love of their Redeemer in comparison whereof they esteeme all things as dung they enjoy peace that passeth all understanding they are ravished with spirituall joy they so little passe for this present life that they are ready not onely to be bound but to dye for the Lord Jesu they rejoyce in their sufferings they sing in the middest of the flames they lie as contentedly upon the racke as upon a bed of doune they prove masteries with all sorts of evill they weary both tortures and tormentors and in all are more than Conquerours therefore they know assuredly how they stand in the Court of heaven they feele within them what Christ hath done for them they have received already the first fruits of heavenly joyes and doubt not of the whole crop they haue received the earnest and doubt not of their full pay they have received the seales and doubt not of the deeds of their salvation they have received the testimonie of the Spirit and doubt not of their adoption they have received the white stone in my text and doubt not of their absolution from death and election to a kingdome in heaven What doe their dying speeches that ought to live in perpetuall memory import lesse First St. y 2 Tim. 4.6 7 8. Pauls I am now ready to be
and godly in this present world Againe if any Spirit tell thee that thou art rich in spirituall graces and lackest nothing when thine owne Spirit testifieth within thee that thou art blinde and naked and miserable and poore beleeve not that Spirit For the Spirit of God is a contest with our spirit q Rom. 8.16 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hee beareth witnesse with our spirit that wee are the sonnes of God and when they both sweetly accord we may without presumption conclude with Saint r Tract 22. in Joh Veritas pollicetur qui credit habet vitam aeternam ego audivi verba Domini credidit infidelis cum essem factus sum fidelis sicut ipse monuit transii de morte ad vitam in judicium non venio non praesumptione meâ sed promissione ipsius Austine The truth promiseth whosoever beleeveth in mee hath eternall life I have heard the words of the Lord I have beleeved whereas I was before an Infidell I am now made faithfull and according to his promise have passed from death to life and shall come into no condemnation It is no presumption to ground assured confidence upon Christs promise Hereunto let us adde the testimony of the effects of saving grace As the testimony of the Spirit confirmeth the testimony of the Word so the effects of saving grace confirme both unto us These Saint Bernard reckoneth to bee Hatred of sinne Contempt of the world Desire of heaven Hatred of our unregenerate estate past contempt of present vanities desire of future felicity And doubtlesse if our hatred of sinne bee universall our contempt of worldly vanities constant and our desire of heavenly joyes fervent wee may build upon them a strong perswasion that we are in the favour of God because we hate all evill that we are espoused to Christ because wee are divorced from the world and that heaven belongeth unto us because wee long for it Howbeit these seeme to bee rather characters of christian perfection than common workes of an effectuall vocation Though wee arrive not to so high a degree of Angelicall rather than humane perfection yet through Gods mercy wee may bee assured of our election by other more easie and common workes of the Spirit in us I meane true faith sincere love of goodnesse in our selves and others hungring and thirsting after righteousnesse striving against our fleshly corruptions godly sorrow filiall feare comfortable patience and continuall growth in grace and godlinesse Tully writeth of l Cic. Verr. 5. Syracuse That there is no day through the whole yeere so stormy and tempestuous in which they have not some glympse of the sunne neither undoubtedly after the travels of our new birth are past is there any day so overcast with the clouds of temptation in the soule of a Christian in which the Sunne of righteousnesse doth not shine upon him and some of these graces appeare in him For if hee decay in one grace hee may increase in another if hee finde not in himselfe sensible growing in any grace hee may feele in himselfe an unfained desire of such growth and godly sorrow for want of it and though hee conquer not all sinne yet hee alloweth not himselfe in any sinne and though he may have lost the sense yet not the essence of faith and though hee bee not assured in his owne apprehension of remission of sinnes yet hee may bee sure of his adhesion to God and relying upon him for the forgivenesse of them with a resolution like that of Job Though he kill me yet will I put my trust in him And this is the summe and effect of what our Christian casuists answere to the second question Quid sit what is the white stone whereby as a certaine pledge grace and glory are secured unto us The third question yet remains Propter quid sit to what end this white stone is given In the maine point of difference betweene the reformed and the Romane Church concerning assurance of salvation that wee bee not mis-led wee must distinguish of a double certainty The one of the subject or of The person The other of the object or of The thing it selfe The certainty of the one never varieth because it dependeth upon Gods election the certainty of the other often varieth because it dependeth upon the vivacity of our faith Even as the apple in the eye of many creatures waxeth and waineth with the Moone and as t Solin Poly-hist c. 56. Uniones quoties excipiunt matutini aeris semen fit clarius margaritum quoties vespertini fit obscurius Solinus writeth that the Margarite is clearer or duskier according to the temper of the aire and face of the skie in which the shell-fish openeth it selfe so this latter assurance waxeth and waineth with our faith and is more evident or more obscure as our conscience is more or lesse purged from dead workes If our faith be lively our assurance is strong if our faith faile our assurance flagges and in some fearfull temptation is so farre lost that wee are brought to the very brinke of despaire partly to chasten us for our former presumption partly to abate our spirituall pride and humble us before God and in our owne spirits but especially to improve the value of this jewell of assurance and stirre us up to more diligence in using all possible meanes to regaine it and keep it more carefully after we have recovered it By the causes of Gods taking away of this white stone from us or at the least hiding it out of our sight for a while wee may ghesse at the reasons why hee imparteth it unto us 1. First to endeare his love unto us and enflame ours to him For how can wee but infinitely and eternally love him who hath assured us of infinite joyes eternall salvation an indefeizable inheritance everlasting habitations and an incorruptible crowne 2. Secondly to incourage us to finish our christian race through many afflictions and persecutions for the Gospels sake which we could never do if this crowne of glory were not hung out from heaven and manifestly exhibited to the eye of our faith with assurance to winne it by our patience 3. Thirdly but especially to kindle in us a most ardent desire and continuall longing to arrive at our heavenly countrey where wee shall possesse that inheritance of a kingdome which is as surely conveighed unto us by the Word and Sacraments as if Almighty God should presently cause a speciall deed to bee made or patent to bee drawne for it and set his hand and seale to it in our sight To knit up all that hath beene delivered that it may take up lesse roome in your memory and bee more easily borne away let mee entreat you to set before your eyes the custome of the Romanes in the entertainment of any great personage whom after they had feasted with rare dainties served in covered dishes at the end of the banquet they gave unto him an Apophoreton or
Carry-away as they called it that is some jewell or piece of coine with his name engraven on it or some speciall poesie Such entertainment is promised in my text and performed on this holy Table Christ who is both Hoste and feast biddeth you to his hidden Manna in the Sacrament and tendereth to every one of you a white stone with your new name written in it for your Apophoreton What remaineth but that by particular examination and fervent prayer and speciall faith and intention of devotion yee prepare your stomacks for these covered dishes and the hidden Manna and after you have fed upon it receive the white stone of absolution and keepe it safe by you and have it alwayes in your eyes Let not your importunate clients so trespasse upon your time but that you reserve alwayes some golden moments in every day and especially on the Lords day to bee clients to God So peruse other writings and Records that you forget not to search the deeds and evidences of your owne salvation before you give learned counsaile to others to secure and cleare their titles to their lands on earth aske you counsaile of the spirit and with David u Psal 119.24 make Gods statutes your counsailers to secure your title to a kingdome in heaven Make your election whereof the white stone in my text is a cleare evidence sure unto your selves by the markes which I have described unto you hatred of sinne and contempt of the world and desire of heaven secure it to your soules by the life of your faith and strength of your hope and ardency of your love and extremity of your hunger and thirst for righteousnesse and your earnest strife and most vehement fight against all your corruptions by your deepe sorrow for your sinnes carefull watching over all your wayes sonnelike feare of displeasing your heavenly father universall conformity to his will and humble submission to his rod with continuall growth in grace and mending your pace towards heaven the nearer you come to your journyes end So shall you overcome the devill by your faith the world by your hope the flesh by your spirituall love sinfull joyes by your godly sorrow carnall security by your watchfull care and filiall feare dreadfull crosses by your comfortable patience and dangerous relapses by your proficiencie in godlinesse and all sorts of temptations by your constant perseverance And thus overcomming Christ will make good his promise unto you set before you the hidden Manna and give you this white stone which none shall be able to take away from you and lay you all as so many pretious stones in the x Apoc. 21.19 foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem descending from God To whom c. THE NEW NAME THE XXVIII SERMON APOC. 2.17 And in the same stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving hee that receiveth it Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. IN this close of a letter endited by the Spirit and endorsed to the Angell of the Church of Pergamus our Emperour Christ Jesus his donatives to his victorious souldiers are set forth to the best advantage of art To him that is to every one whosoever hee bee Jew or Gentile bond or free young or old Captaine or common souldier that overcommeth the flesh by subduing it the world by despising it the devill by defying him and quenching all his fiery darts on the buckler of his faith dipt in Christs blood I will give out of my bounty not for the merit of their service the hidden Manna of consolation the white stone of absolution and the new name of adoption which no man knoweth saving hee that receiveth it The hidden Manna I set before you when I first entertained your religious attention with the mysticall delicacies this text affordeth The last time I delivered unto you the white stone and now I am to spell and read unto you your new name and both declare what it is and why engraven in this white stone as also how so engraven that it can bee read by none save him who owneth it For my method I will take it from Masters of Musicke and dancing for as they first tune their instruments then finger the streines of some exquisite lessons on it finally teach their scholars how to foot the dance accordingly so the divine assistance concurring with your patience I will first by endevouring to accord the severall interpretations of the words as it were tune the strings next by delivering unto you the doctrines of this scripture set to the lessons and last of all by applying them to your lives and conversations direct you how you are to order your feet according to the heavenly musicke pricked by the Spirit in the rules of my text But because it is very hard to read letters or characters engraven in brasse or stone if the brasse or stone bee covered with dirt or blotted with inke before I proceed to spell your name I hold it requisite to rubbe out those spots and wipe away those blots which the ancient Pelagians and late Pontificians have cast upon this white stone I meane our Protestant doctrine concerning the assurance of our salvation in particular Object 1. They cast this blurre upon it That it hath no foundation in holy Scripture for where read wee say they thou William or thou John or thou Peter art assured of thy salvation 2. They cast this blurre upon it That it hath no place in the Apostles Creed and therefore in scorne and derision they tearme it the thirteenth article 3. They alledge against it That it hath no footing at all in reason For say they wee ought continually to pray for the remission of our sinnes which wee need not to doe if wee were assured of our justification and salvation 4. They article against it That it crosseth all such texts of Scripture wherein feare is commended unto us as a speciall helpe and furtherance to eternall salvation To what end doth David advise a Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord with feare and Saint Paul admonish b Rom 11.20 Be not high minded but feare and c Phil. 2.12 work out your salvation with feare and trembling and Saint Peter exhort d 1 Pet. 1.17 passe the time of your sojourning here in feare if all true beleevers are so assured of their salvation that they are in no danger of forfeiting their estate of grace here or losing their crowne of glory hereafter 5. They alleage against it That it dulleth the edge of industry and cooleth the heat of zeale and taketh away all care of walking exactly before God and uprightly before men care and watchfulnesse in their judgement are superfluous where salvation and eternall happinesse is secured The first blot is thus wiped out Resp ad 1. As all parts are contained in the whole body so all particulars and singulars are vertually enclosed in generals and universals and therefore as when wee read That all men are sinners and
be no other than grace and he who hath a greater measure of grace must needs more love the Fountaine of grace Christ Jesus As Jesus therefore more loved John so John more loved Jesus hee followed him boldly to the high Priests hall hee never denyed him once as Peter did thrice hee with his mother attended him at the crosse and from that day tooke the blessed Virgin to his owne home and therefore though Christ promised the keyes of heaven to Peter first yet hee gave Saint John a greater priviledge to leane on his breast Which leaned on his breast Of Saint Johns leaning on Christs breast foure kindes of reasons are given 1 A civill by Calvin 2 A Morall by Theophylact. 3 A mysticall by Saint Austine 4 A tropologicall by Guilliandus Though saith a Calv. in Harmon Calvin for a servant to lye on his masters breast may seeme unseemly yet the custome of the Jewes being not to fit at table as we do but at their meales to lye on beds or carpets on the ground it was no more for Saint John to lye on Christs breast than with us to sit next to him unlesse with Theophylact we conceive that Saint John upon the mention of our Lords death and that by treason tooke on most grievously and beginning to languish through griefe was taken by Christ into his bosome to comfort him or wee interpret with Saint Austin and others of the Ancients Sinum Christi Sapientiae secretum the bosome of Christ the cabinet of celestiall jewels or treasury of wisedome and inferre with Saint Ambrose from thence b In psal 118. Johannes cum caput suum super pectus domini reclinaret hauriebat profunda secreta sapientiae That John when hee laid his head to Christs breasts sucked from thence the profound secrets of wisedome and with c Beda in Evang Johan Quia in pectore Christi sunt omnes thesauri sapientiae scientiae reconditi meritò super pectus ejus recumbit quem majore caeteris sapientiae scientiae singularis munere donat Beda That Christ revealed to Saint John as his bosome friend more secrets and that the reason why his writings are more enriched with knowledge especially of things future than the rest is because he had free accesse to Christs breast wherein all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge were hid Moreover as d Guil. com in Johan c. 21. Guilliandus observeth S. John lay upon Christs breast for the same reason that Moses appointed in the law the breast of all sacrifices for the Priest to teach us that wisedome and understanding whose seat is the breast and heart ought to be the speciall portion of the Priests Among so many ingenuous reasons of this gesture of Saint John if wee leane to Saint Austines opinion the use wee are to make of it is with reverence and religious preparation to read and heare all the bookes of holy Scripture and especially Saint Johns writings who received those hidden and heavenly mysteries in Jesus his bosome which Jesus * Joh. 1.18 No man hath seene God at any time the onely begotten Sonne which is in the bosome of the Father hath revealed him heard in his Fathers bosome All Scriptures are given by e 2 Tim. 3.16 divine inspiration and are equally pillars of our faith anchors of our hope deeds and evidences of our salvation yet as the heaven is more starry in one part than another and the seas deeper in one place than another so it is evident that some passages of Scripture are more lightsome than others and some books contain in them more profound mysteries and hidden secrets and most of all S. Johns Gosspell and his Apocalypse wherein by Saint Jeromes reckoning the number of the mysteries neare answereth the number of the words quot verba tot sacramenta If wee like of Theophylact his reason wee are from thence to learne not to adde affliction to the afflicted not to vexe them that are wounded at the heart but to stay with flaggons and comfort with apples those that are in a spirituall swoune and by no meanes to withhold from them that faint under the burden of their sinnes the comforts of the Gospell to support them especially considering that hee as well killeth a man who ministreth not to him in due time those things which may hold life in him as hee that slayeth him downe right Lastly if wee sticke with Calvin to the letter it will discover unto us the errour of many among us that contend so much for sitting at the Communion and a table gesture as they speake whereas Christ at his last Supper neither sate nor used any table at all In eating of the Passeover wee read f Mat. 26.20 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mark 14.18 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Luk. 22.14 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that Christ with the twelve fell down or lay downe after the Jewish manner which was nearer to kneeling than sitting But what gesture precisely hee used in the delivery of the holy mysteries it is not expressed in Scripture most probable it is that he kneeled or at least that the Apostles kneeled when they received the sanctified Elements from him For no doubt they who in the first ages immediatly succeeded the Apostles received the Communion as the Apostles maner was and that they kneeled the heathen cavill against them that they worshipped bread and wine maketh it in a maner evident For had they sate or stood in the celebration of the Sacrament the Gentiles could have had no colour to cast an aspersion of bread-worship on them but because in receiving the sacred elements of bread and wine they kneeled downe and religiously called upon God the Paynims conceived that they adored the creatures of bread and wine And they among us who cannot distinguish betweene kneeling at the Sacrament and kneeling to the element bread worship and the worship of Christ in religiously and reverently participating the holy mysteries of his body and blood are as grossely ignorant in Christian rites as the ancient heathen were Verely did they consider seriously who it is that under the forme of bread and wine offereth unto them his body and blood even Christ himselfe by his Spirit and what they at the same time in a thankfull love offer to God their bodies for a holy and living sacrifice and what then they receive a generall pardon of all their sinnes under the seale of the King of heaven I perswade my selfe their hearts would smite them if they strived not to receive so great a benefit from so gracious a Majesty as in the most thankfull so in the most humble manner But it is not the position of your bodies but the disposition of your mindes which in this rare patterne of my text I would commend to your Christian imitation The best keeping the Feast of a Saint is to raise him as it were to life by expressing his vertues and
blessed Virgin the babe a Luke 1.41 sprang in the wombe of Elizabeth so I doubt not but that at the reading of this text in your eares the fruits of your devotion which are your religious thoughts and zealous affections leap and spring for joy in the wombe of your soule for now is the accepted time the time of grace now is the day of salvation the day of our Lords Incarnation As the golden tongued Father spake of a Martyr Martyrem dixisse laudâsse est to name a man a Martyr is to commend him sufficiently so it may be said of this text to rehearse it is to apply it I need not fit it to the time for the time falleth upon this time and the day upon this day now if ever is this Now in season If any time in all the yeere be more acceptable than other it is the holy time we now celebrate now is the accepted time on Gods part by accepting us to favour now is the day of salvation by exhibiting to us a Saviour in our flesh let us make it so on our parts also by accepting the grace offered unto us and by laying hands on our Saviour by faith and embracing him by love and by joy dilating our hearts to entertain him with all his glorious attendants a troupe of heavenly Souldiers singing b Luke 2.14 Glory be to God on high on earth peace and good will towards men c Esay 49.13 Sing O heavens and be joyfull O earth and breake forth into shouting O ye mountaines for God hath comforted his people and will have mercy upon the afflicted Keepe this holy day above others because chosen by God to manifest himselfe in the flesh bid by an Angell and by him furnished both with a lesson and with an Anthem also Well might the Angell as on this day sing glory in excelsis Deo c. for on this day the Son of God out of his good will towards men became man and thereby set peace on earth and brought infinite glory to God in the highest heavens Well may this be called by the Apostle d Gal. 4.4 The fulnesse of time or a time of fulnesse which filled heaven with glory the earth with blessings of peace and men with graces flowing from Gods good will The heavens which till this time were as clasped boxes now not able longer to containe in them the soveraigne balsamum of wounded mankind burst open and he whose name is e Cant. 1.3 an ointment poured forth was plentifully shed upon the earth to revive the decayed spirits and heale the festered sores of wounded mankind Lift up then your heavie lookes and heavier hearts yee that are in the midst of danger and in the sight nay within the claspes of eternall death you have a Saviour borne to rescue you Cheare up your drouping and fainting spirits all ye that feele the smart and anguish of a bruised conscience and broken heart to you Christ is borne to annoint your wounds bruises and sores Exult and triumph ye gally slaves of Satan and captives of Hell fast bound with the chaine of your sinnes to you a Redeemer is borne to ransome you from spirituall thraldome Two reasons are assigned why festivities are religiously to be kept 1. The speciall benefits of God conferred upon his Church at such times which by the anniversary celebration of the dayes are refreshed in our memories and visibly declared to all succeeding ages 2 The expresse command of God which adjoyned to the former reason maketh the exercises of devotion performed at these solemnities duties of obedience It cannot be denied that in this latter consideration those feasts which are set downe in the booke of God have some prerogative above those that are found wrtiten onely in the Calendar of the Church But in the former respect no day may challenge a precedencie of this no not the Sabbath it selfe which the more to honour him whose birth we now celebrate resigned both his name place and rites to the f Athanas hom de semenie ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Lords day and if we impartially compare them the worke wrought on this day was farre more difficult and the benefit received upon it greater than that to the memory whereof the Sabbath was at the first dedicated It was a greater miracle that God should be made a creature than that he should make all creatures and the redemption of the world so farre exceeds the creation as the means by which it was wrought were more difficult and the time larger the one was finished in sixe dayes by the commandement of God the other not in lesse than foure and thirty yeeres by the obedience of Christ the one was but a word with God the breath of his mouth gave life to all creatures the other cost him much labour sweat and bloud and what comparison is there betweene an earthly and an heavenly Paradise Nay if wee will judge by the event the benefit of our creation had beene none without our redemption For by it we received an immortall spirit with excellent faculties as it were sharpe and strong weapons wherewith wee mortally wounded our selves and had everlastingly laid weltring in our own blood had not our Saviour healed our wounds by his wounds and death and raised us up againe by the power of his resurrection To which point Saint Austine speaking feelingly saith Si natus non fuisset bonum fuisset si homo natus non fuisset If hee had not beene borne it had beene good for man never to have beene borne if this accepted time had not come all men had beene rejected if this day of salvation had not appeared wee had all perished in the night of eternall perdition Behold now is the accepted time In this Scripture as in a Dyall wee may observe 1 The Index 2 The Circles Certaine Behold Different 1 The larger 2 The narrower The accepted time The day of salvation To man in generall it is an accepted time to every beleever in particular it is a day of salvation Lynx cum cessat intueri cessat recordari Because we are like the Lynx which mindeth nothing no longer than her eye is upon it the Spirit every where calleth upon us to looke or behold Behold not alwayes or at any time but now not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not time simply but season the flower of time not barely accepted but according to the originall well accepted or most acceptable not the day of helpe or grace but a day of salvation As in the bodies which consist of similar parts the forme of the whole and the forme of every part is all one for example the whole ocean is but water and yet every drop thereof is water the whole land is but earth and yet every clod thereof is earth the
And the Musicians will tell us that some discords in a lesson binding wise as they speake and falling into a concord much grace the musicke 2. Secondly wee wish that all Magistrates Ecclesiasticall and Civill would first make proofe of gentler remedies and seeke rather to winne men by perswasions than draw them to Church by compulsion Monendo potiùs quà m minando verbis magis quà m verberibus to use rather commonitions than comminations words than blowes discourses than legall courses arguments than torments 3. Thirdly in making and executing penall Statutes against Heretickes and Idolaters all Christian Princes and States must wash their hands from bloud and free themselves from all aspersion of cruelty For no fish will come into the net which they see all bloudy and they who are too quick in plucking at those that differ from them in Religion root up those oft-times for tares which if they had been permitted longer to grow might have proved good corne 4. Fourthly they must put a great difference between those that are infected with Hereticall opinions whereof some are ring-leaders some are followers some are obstinate others flexible some are turbulent others peaceable on some they ought to have g Jude 22 23. compassion making a difference and others save with feare pulling them out of the fire 5. Lastly nothing must be done herein by the intemperate zeale of the heady multitude or any private motion but after mature advice and deliberation be appointed by lawfull authority To the particular instances brought from our neighbour Nations that are repugnant to this rule wee answer with Saint h Serm. 66. in Cant. Approbamus zelum factum non laudamus Bernard Wee approve their zeale yet wee allow not of their proceedings These cautions observed that religions differing in fundamentall grounds are not to be tolerated in the same Kingdome we prove 1. First by the Law of i Deut. 22.10 11. Moses which forbiddeth plowing with an Oxe and an Asse together or to weare a garment of divers sorts as of woollen and linnen together The morall of which Law according to the interpretation of the best Expositors hath a reference to diversities in Religions and making a kinde of medley of divers worships of God 2. Secondly by the grievous punishment of Idolaters appointed by God himself k Deut. 13.6 8 9. If thy brother or son of thy mother or thine own son or thy daughter or the wife that lieth in thy bosome or thy friend which is as thine own soule entice thee secretly saying Let us goe and serve other gods thine eye shall not pity him neither shalt thou keep him secret but thine hand shall be upon him and then the hand of all the people to stone him to death Solùm pietatis genus est hic esse crudelem It is piety in this kinde to shew no pity It is not in the power of Kings and Princes to reverse the decrees of Almighty God or falsifie his Oracles who saith No l Matth. 6.24 man can serve two masters For what fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse and what m 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16. communion hath light with darknesse or what concord hath Christ with Belial and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols 3. Thirdly if these testimonies of everlasting truth perswade us not that God who is truth must be worshipped in truth and not with lyes and in a false manner yet Christ his inditing the Angel of Thyatira for suffering Jezebel and the Angel of Pergamus for not silencing false Teachers I have a few things against thee saith the Spirit that thou hast there them that maintaine the doctrine of Baalam The Spirit chargeth not the Angel with allowing or countenancing but tolerating only false doctrine Therefore the toleration of Heresie and Idolatry is a sinne which God will not tolerate in a Magistrate which I further thus demonstrate 4. Fourthly God will not hold any Prince or State guiltlesse which permitteth a pollution of his name but the worship of a false god or the false worship of the true God is a pollution of his name as himselfe declareth n Ezek. 20.39 Pollute my name no more with your gifts and your Idols God is a jealous God and will endure no corrivall if wee divide our heart between him and any other hee will cut us off from the land of the living as hee threatneth I o Zeph. 1.5 will cut off the remnant of Baal and them that worship the host of Heaven upon the house tops and them that worship and sweare by the Lord and by Malcham 5. Fifthly what shall I adde hereunto save this that the bare permission of Idolatry was such a blurre to Solomon and most of the succeeding Kings of Juda that it obscured the lustre and marred the glosse of all their other Princely endowments For after the description of their vertues this blot is cast upon their reputation But the high p 1 Kin. 15.14 places were not taken away But thrice happy q 2 Kin. 18.4 Hezekiah who by demolishing the brasen Serpent which Moses had made because the children of Israel burned incense to it erected to himselfe an everlasting monument of praise And yet more happy r 2 Kin. 23.25 Josiah after whom the Holy Ghost sendeth this testimony Like unto him there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soule and with all his might according to all the Law of Moses neither after him arose there any like unto him Why what eminent vertues had Josiah above others what noble acts did he which the Spirit values at so high a rate no other than those which we find recounted in the books of Kings and Chronicles Hee brake downe the Altars of Baalim and cut downe the Images that were on high upon them hee brake also the groves and the carved Images and the molten ſ 2 Chron. 34.4 5. Images and stamped them to powder and strewed it upon the graves of them that sacrificed to them and hee burned the bones of the Priests upon the Altar He defiled Topheth which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom that no man might make t 2 Kin. 23.10 11 12 13. his sonne or his daughter passe through the fire to Moloch and he took away the horses that the Kings of Judah had given to the Sun and the Altars that were on the top of the upper chambers of Ahaz the Altars which Manasseh had made in the two Courts of the house of the Lord and the high places that were before Jerusalem which Solomon had builded and so he tooke away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel and u 2 Chro. 34.33 compelled all that were found in Israel to serve the Lord their God 6. Sixthly farther to teach Magistrates that they ought sometimes to use violent and
that spit upon him whipped him smote him on the face crowned him with thornes tare him with nailes these were they who in the act of his bitter passion when his soule bereft of all comfort laden with the sinne of all the world and fiercenesse of his Fathers wrath enforced from him that speech than which the world never heard a more lamentable My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee then in stead of comfort they reviled him If thou be the Son of God come downe from the crosse all this notwithstanding though they persecuted him hee loved them though they cryed Away with him he dyed for them at his death prayed for them Father forgive and pleaded for them they know not what they doe and wept for them offering supplications in their behalfe with prayers strong cries Greater love than this can no man shew to lay downe his life for his friend yet thou O blessed Saviour art a patterne of greater love laying downe thy life for this people whilest they were thine enemies but not for this people only the Holy Ghost so speakes O Lord we were thine enemies as well as they and whilest we were thine enemies we were reconciled to God the Father by the precious death of thee his Son For the Scripture setteth forth his love to us that whilest we were yet sinners he dyed for us He for us alone for us all the same spirit which set before him expedit mori did sweeten the brim of that sowre cup with this promise that when hee should make his soule an offering for sin hee should see his seed that as the whole earth was planted so it might be redeemed by one bloud as by one offence condemnation seized upon all so by the justification of one the benefit might redound unto all to the justification of life And this bloud thirsty Caiphas unwittingly intimated saying Expedit unum mori pro populo If one and he then dead could do thus much what can he not do now now that he liveth for ever He trod the wine-presse alone neither is there salvation in any other S. Stephen was stoned S. Paul beheaded Nunquid pro nobis No it cost more than so it is done to their hands there is one who by the oblation of himselfe alone once offered hath made a perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world And that whilest it is a world for our Saviour that stood in the gap betwixt Gods wrath us catching the blow in his own body hath by his bloud purchased an eternal redemption every one that beleeveth in him shal not perish but have life everlasting In the number of which beleevers if we be then is the fruit of his meritorious passion extended to us we may challenge our interest therein and in our persons the Prophet speaketh He bare our infirmities and carried our sorrowes he was wounded for our transgressions the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes are we healed Which great benefit as it is our bounden duty to remember at all times so this time this day Vivaciorem animi sensum puriorem mentis exigit intuitum recursus temporis textus lectionis as S. Leo speaketh The annuall recourse of the day and this text fitted to it calleth to our minde the worke wrought the means by which it was wrought on this day to him a day of wrath of darknesse of blacknesse heavie vengeance but to us a good day a good Friday a day of deliverance freedome a day of jubilee and triumph For as on this day by the power of his Crosse were we delivered from the sting of sin and tyranny of Satan so that whereas we might for ever have sung that mournfull Elegy O wretched men that we are who shal deliver us from death hell we are now enabled to insult over both O death where is thy sting O hell where is thy victory Which victory of our Saviour and ours through him so dearly purchased when we call to mind let us consider withall that as the cause of this conflict on his part was his love to us so on our parts it was the hainousness of our sinne not otherwise to be expiated than by his death And as the first ought to raise us up to give annuall daily continuall thankes to him who did and suffered so much for us so the second should withhold us keep us back from sin that since our Saviour dyed for our sin we should dye to sin rather dye than sin This bloud once shed is good to us Expedit nobis if to faith in that bloud we joyn a life beseeming Christianity but if by our crying sins trespasses we crucifie him againe we make even that bloud which of it selfe speaketh for us better things than the bloud of Abel in stead of pardon to cry for vengeance against us Let us therfore looke up to him the author and finisher of our salvation beseeching him who with the bloud of his passion clave rockes stones asunder with the same bloud which is not yet nor ever will be dry to mollifie and soften our hard hearts that seriously considering the hainousnesse of our sins which put him to death and his unexpressible unconceivable love that for us he would dye the death even the death of the Crosse we may in token of our thankfulness endeavour to offer up our soules and bodies as a reasonable sacrifice to him that offered himselfe a sacrifice for us and now sitteth at the right hand of God to this end that where he our Redeemer is there wee his people and dearest purchase may be for ever THE SECOND ROW And in the second row thou shalt set a Carbuncle a Saphir and a Diamond THat the second Speaker that sweet singer of Israel whose ditty was Awake sing ye that sleep in dust made according to my Text a row or Canticum graduum a Psalme of ascents or degrees I cannot but even in a duty of thankfulnesse acknowledge for the help of memory I received from it had not he made a row that is digested disposed his matter in excellent order I should never have bin able to present to you the jewels set in this row which are all as you see most orient Of all red stones the Carbuncle of all blew the Saphir Plin. nat hist l. 37. of all simply the Diamond hath been ever held in highest esteem Maximum in rebus humanis pretium adamas habet non tantum inter gemmas Comment in Esay Carbunculus saith S. Jerome videtur mihi sermo doctrinae qui fugato errore tenebrarum illuminat corda credentium hic est quem unus de Seraphim tulit farcipe comprehensum ad Esayae labra purganda Whether this second Preacher in S. Pauls phrase a Prophet his tongue were not touched with such a coale I referre my selfe to your hearts and consciences Nonne
Temporizers who with Peter stand aloofe and dare not come neere lest by continuall conversation with him they might perhaps so alter their licentious lives that in the high Priests Hall their speech might bewray them to bee Galileans A second sort come but in their comming wander out of the way and these are mis-led Papists who in a sottish modesty dare not presume to touch the hemme of Christ his garments but must have Saints to promote their suites A third sort come but a cleane contrary way and these are meale-mouthed hypocrites whose words seeme to bee sweetened with our Saviours breath they are so savoury but compare wee the forwardnesse of their lives in practice to the forwardnesse of their tongues in profession and if yee were as blinde as old Isaac yee may discerne the voice of Jacob but the hands of Esau The fourth sort come but they over-shoot the way and these are Humorists who with Saint Peter in unadvised zeale over-runne themselves and step before Christ but bee not like unto these for they want Saint Pauls ita currite for the levell of their way and Christ his venite for the period of their race Come unto mee not to the Law not to mans traditions they will rather burthen you than ease you Ambulare vis ego sum via falli non vis ego sum veritas mori non vis ego sum vita Accedit qui credit Come unto mee in faith and feare not in hope and doubt not in confidence and despaire not in patience and faint not Use 1 Here then yee see if yee will bee advised by the wonderfull Counseller that in the way of salvation yee are to seeke to no other guide to lead you than himselfe in whom all the promises of GOD are Yea and Amen for under heaven there is no other name given whereby yee may bee saved but the name of Jesus Christ There is one God one Mediatour betwixt God and man the man Christ Jesus Bee it knowne unto you therefore men and brethren that through his name is preached unto you forgivenesse of sinnes and from all things from which by the Law of Moses yee could not bee justified by him every one that commeth unto him is justified for so himselfe promiseth Come unto mee Doctr. 3 All. There was a time when the mercies of God were confined within the narrow precincts of Judea but when the fulnesse of time was come the Sonne of God and heire of all things brake downe the partition wall and dispread his saving health among all Nations teaching and admonishing every man to deny ungodlinesse and embrace the Gospel For the righteousnesse of God is made manifest by faith to all There is no difference but as all sinned in the first Adam and deprived themselves of the glory of God so redemption is freely offered to all in the second Adam that sinners should give all the glory to God Ideo omnibus opem sanitatis obtulit ut quicunque perierit mortis suae causam sibi ascribat qui curari noluit cùm remedium haberet quò posset evadere saith Sain Ambrose Say not then in thine heart I am not the cause of my destruction ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã injurious blasphemy against so good a God who so willingly holdeth out his golden Scepter of grace unto us and so graciously inviteth all that are wearie to rest under the shadow of his mercie Funeris haud tibi causa fui per sidera juro As I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of a sinner thy destruction is from thy selfe O Israel but in mee is thy helpe But if all are invited why doe not all come Some like the Israelites filled with the garlike of Egypt rellish not heavenly manna others like the Laodiceans thinke they are rich enough when indeed they are wretched miserable and poore Whence it commeth to passe that as of many multitudes in Sauls army onely a few bankrupt beggars came to David in the cave of Adullam so none come to Christ but a few sinne-feeling Publicans troubled Hannaes weeping Maries bed-rid Aeneases leprous Naamans in a word none but such as are poore in spirit and vexed in mind with enduring the heavie burden of sinne All that are weary and heavie laden How heavie a burden sinne is if any mans wounded conscience have not felt hee may perceive it in the Angels whom it pressed downe to hell in Cain whom it drove to despaire in David whom it so bruised that he cryed out it is a burden too heavie for me to beare in our Saviour from whom it wrung drops of bloud only for taking our sinne upon him Why then doe wee take so great paines to doe wickedly why doe wee mumble Satans morsels which will one day prove more bitter than the gall of Aspes and more tormenting than the Vipers tongue Are wee now speechlesse can wee not now answer these demands how then shall wee doe when not onely our consciences shall accuse us but God also who is greater than our conscience shall condemne us Issachars legacy was that hee should bee an Asse couching between two burdens Surely if hee were hee might have been like Balaams Asse to rebuke our forwardnesse who load our selves with sinne till with the woman in the Gospel we are so crooked that we are not able to looke up to the hills from whence commeth our salvation Saint Paul chose rather with his hands to cast out the tackling of the ship than that being over-laden it should sinke and shall not wee unlade our barkes of sinne for feare that with Hymineus and Philetus wee make shipwracke of a good conscience Aristippus commanded his servants to cast away his gold in the street quia tardius irent segnes propter pondus and shall not wee be content with Eliah to leave our mantles behinde us that we may with more expedition be carried to heaven in triumph Virtutis via non capit magna onera portantes But why doe wee teach that sinne is a burden sith so many goe bolt upright under it and make it a passe-time Onus non est quod cum voluprate feras saith the Oratour I answer sinne is a burden not to every one at all times but to a conscience feeling sinnes evill Multa mala sunt intus foras nemo tamen ea sentit nisi qui graditur viam mandatorum Dei saith Saint Austine so long as the strong man ruleth the house he possesseth all things in peace grave in suo loco non gravitat they who are dead in sinne feele no weight how great soever it be Use 1 Here then let us view our naturall disposition wee have as Epiphanius saith a wild figge-tree rooted in our hearts which sprouteth out in our words and sheweth the fruit thereof in our workes if the fruit thereof seeme sweet unto us if the grapes of Sodome delight our eyes if the burden of sinne seeme not onely supportable to us but also as
an ornament to beautifie us well may we like the Church of Sardis have a name that we live but we are dead we are in the gall of bitternesse and the burden of sinne hath pressed us downe to the bottomlesse pit which is now ready to shut her mouth upon us O then let us crâ out of the depth abyssus abyssum invocet let the depth of our misery implore the depth of his bottomlesse mercy and behold the Angel of peace is at hand for now and never before are we fit subjects for this good Samaritan to worke upon Come unto mee all that are heavie laden The Spirit of God is upon mee to preach health to those that are broken in heart liberty to the captives and to them that mourne beauty for ashes and the garment of gladnesse for the spirit of heavinesse whence you see that none are admitted into Christs Hospitall but lame sicke and distressed wretches for whom hee hath received grace above measure that where sinne appeared above measure sinfull grace might appeare without measure pitifull Wilt thou then have thy wounds healed open them Wilt thou that I raise thee up to heaven deject thy selfe downe to hell Ille laudabilior qui humilior justior qui sibi abjectior Use 2 As this may serve to rebuke such Seers as labour not to discover the filthinesse that lyeth in the skirts of Jerusalem but sow pillowes under mens elbowes and dawbe up with untempered mortar the breach of sinne in our soules Use 3 so may it lesson all hearers as patiently to abide the sharpe wine of the Law as the supple oyle of the Gospel as well the shepheards rod of correction as his staffe of comfort in a word to endure Bezaliel and Aholiab to cut off the rough and ragged knobs as they desire to be smooth timber in that building wherein Christ Jesus is the corner-stone poenitentia istius temporis dolor medicinalis est poenitentia illius temporis dolor poenalis est now our sorrow for our sinnes will prove a repentance not to be repented of then shall our sorrow be remedilesse our repentance fruitlesse our misery endlesse Wherefore I say with Bernard Illius Doctoris vocem libenter audio qui non sibi plausum sed mihi planctum moveat I like him that will set the worme of conscience on gnawing while there is time to choake it rodat putredinem ut codendo consumat ipse pariter consumatur In the meane time let this bee our comfort that God will not suffer the sting of conscience too much to torment us but with the oyle of his grace will mitigate the rage of the paine and heale the festred sore which it hath made with the plaister of his owne bloud And I will ease you Thus farre you have traversed the wildernesse of Sin tired out in that desart and languishing in that dry land and shadow of death now behold gaudium in fine sed sine fine Happy your departure out of Egypt and blessed your travell and obedience you are now to drinke of the comfortable waters that issue out of the spirituall rocke in Horeb Christ Jesus and to refresh your wearied limbes and tired soules therewith I will ease you Doctr. 4 I. Man cannot for man is a sinner and a sinner cannot be a Saviour Angels cannot for man in Angels nature cannot bee punished God cannot for he is impassible Saints neither may nor can for they need a Saviour but I will For I am man and in your nature can dye I am God and by any infinite merits can satisfie and so by my means Gods mercy and justice may stand together righteousnesse and peace may kisse each other Thus that faith may looke out of the earth to embrace you the day-springing from on high hath visited you Thrice blessed then must poore hunger-bit and distressed soules bee who have not a churlish Nabal with power wanting will nor a King of Samaria with will wanting power but Elshaddai a God all-sufficient to relieve and satisfie them and for his will no Assuerus so ready to cheare up a dolefull Hester as he a drouping soule no Joseph so ready to sustaine his father in famine and death as he is ready with pitty to save a soule from death Noli fugere Adam quia nobiscum est Deus Who shall lay any thing to our charge sith it is God that doth justifie Pleasant and sweet were the waters of Meribah to the thirstie Israelites of Aenochore to Sampsons fainting spirits gratefull the newes of life to sicke Hezekiah but our Saviours Epiphonema thy sinnes are forgiven thee goe in peace is mel in ore melos in aure jubilum in corde The strings of my tongue cannot be so loosened that I may expresse the extasie of joy which every sin-burdened soule feeleth whether in the body or out of the body shee cannot tell in that by assurance of faith shee can say My Justifier is with mee who being Emmanuel God with us is also ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã man with God one with God in will and power and wholly for us in power and will Use 1 Woe worth then all such as forsaking the fountaine of living water dig to themselves broken pits of their owne merits Saints intercession and the Churches treasurie Is there no balme in Gilead to cure us no God in Israel to help us Si verax Deus qui promittit mendax utique homo qui diffidit saith St. Bernard For I demand Doe they distrust his power All power is given him in heaven and in earth Matth. 28.18 Doe they doubt his will Behold he saith Come unto me before we offer our selves and I will ease you not do my best or endeavour it is no presumption to beleeve Christ on his word and rest on it with full assurance Use 2 Againe can none say but Christ I will ease you How hopelesse then is their travell how endlesse their paine who seeke for hearts-ease in any garden but the Paradise of God or hope for contentment in any transitorie object the world affordeth To see Asses feed upon thistles for grapes were enough to move the spleene of an Agelastus they have a faire shew like flowers but pricke in the mouth Alas what anguish and horrour must there needs be Cum domus interior gemitu miseroque tumultu Miscetur when their consciences like Sauls evill spirit haunteth and vexeth them at the heart when they brave it out in the face and what is their foolish laughter among their boone associates but the cracking of thornes under a pot suddenly extinguished and turned into ashes and mourning Well may they like the heathenish Romans of old have their gods of feare and terrour but sure they can have none of ease comfort or quiet O let not our soule enter into their secrets but let our peace be still as it is in God and the repose of our troubled conscience in our Saviours love who was made a curse for us that
for but what he loveth A man may beleeve the truth and be a false man he may hope for good things and yet be exceeding bad himselfe but he cannot love the best things but he must needs be good he cannot affect grace if hee have not received some measure thereof he cannot highly esteeme of God and not be high in Gods esteeme As the love of the world maketh a man worldly and the love of the flesh fleshly so the love of the Spirit makes the children of God spirituall and the love of God partaker of the divine g 2 Pet. 1.4 nature for God is love Now saith Saint Paul that is in this life abideth h 1 Cor. 13.13 faith hope and charity but after this life of these three charity onely remaineth For when we have received the end of our faith which is the salvation of our soules and taken possession of the inheritance which we have so long expected by hope faith shall be swallowed up in vision and hope in fruition but then love shall be in greatest perfection Our trust is that we shall not alwayes walk by faith and our hope is that we shall one day hope no more we beleeve the end of faith and hope for the end of hope but love no end of our love but contrariwise desire that it may bee like the soveraigne object thereof that is eternall and infinite To leap over this large field at once and comprise all in one sentence concerning this vertue of which never enough can be said Love brought God from heaven to earth love bringeth men from earth to heaven In which regard it may not be unfitly compared to the ladder at the foot whereof i Gen. 28.12 Jacob slept sweetly and in his dreame saw Angels climbing up by it to heaven For upon it the religious soule of a devout Christian resteth and reposeth her selfe and by it in her thoughts and desires she ascendeth up to heaven as it were by foure steps or rounds which are the foure degrees of divine love 1. To love God for our selves 2. To love God for himselfe 3. To love God above all things 4. To love nothing but God or in a reference to him First to love God for our selves or our owne respect whereunto wee are induced by the consideration of his benefits and blessings bestowed upon us and continued unto us The second is to love God for himselfe whereunto wee are moved by the contemplation of the divine essence and his most amiable nature The third is to love God above all things whereunto we are enclined by observation of the difference between God and all things else The fourth is to love nothing but God that is to settle our affections and repose our desires and place our felicity wholly and solely in him To which highest round or step of divine love and top of Christian perfection we aspire by fixing our thoughts upon the all-sufficiency of God who hath in him infinite delights and contentments to satisfie all the appetites of the soule whereof the Kingly Prophet David was fully perswaded when lifting up his heart to God and his eyes to heaven he calleth God himselfe to witnesse that he desired no other happinesse than what he enjoyed in him saying Whom have I in heaven but thee These words may admit âf a double construction 1 Either that David maketh God his sole refuge and trust 2 Or that he maketh him his chiefe joy and whole hearts delight For the first sense viz. Whom have I in heaven but thee for my refuge and strength of my confidence we are to know that in heaven and in earth there are other besides God in heaven the elect Angels and the spirits of k Heb. 12.23 just men made perfect in earth there are men and the creatures yet a religious soule reposeth no confidence in any of these First not in the creature in generall for it is l Rom. 8.20 subject to vanity not in riches for m 1 Tim. 6.17 they are uncertaine Charge the rich in this world that they trust not in uncertaine riches not in n Jer. 9.23 wisedome or strength or power nor in the favour of o Psal 146.3 Princes nor any childe of man for there is no helpe in them I will yet ascend higher even to heaven and to the Angels and soules there For whatsoever power or strength or helpe may be in them we may not put our trust in them 1 Not in the soules of Saints departed for they p Esay 63.16 take no notice of our affaires here neither have we any order to addresse our selves to them Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not q 2 Kin. 22.20 Good Josiah seeth not the evill which befell his subjects after his death 2 Not in Angels for though they excell in strength and are ministring r Heb. 1.14 Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation yet we have no charge to worship them or relie upon them for our salvation Nay wee are charged to the contrary both from God and from themselves from God Å¿ Mat. 4.10 Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve and t Col. 2.18 Let no man beguile you in voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels and from themselves also u Apoc. 19.10 22.9 And I fell downe at the feet of the Angel that shewed me these things and he said unto me See thou doe it not I am thy fellow servant worship God For the second sense viz. Whom have I in heaven but thee for my chiefe joy and sole hearts delight we are to know that the faithfull soule is wedded to God and like a loyall Spouse casteth no part of her conjugall affection upon any but him Love she may whom he loveth and what he commandeth her to love for him and in him but not as him if she doth so shee becommeth Adultera Christo as St. Cyprian speaketh and may not be admitted to sing in Davids quire or at least not to bear a part in this Antheme Whom have I in heaven but thee O Lord No more than the life of the body can bee maintained without naturall heat and moisture can the life of grace be preserved in the soule without continuall supply of the moisture of penitent teares and a great measure of the heat of divine love wherewith we are to consume those spirituall sacrifices of prayer and praises which we are now and at all times to offer lifting up pure hands and hearts unto God To kindle this sacred fire I have brought you a live coale from the Altar of incense Davids heart sending up sweetest perfumes of most fragrant and savourie meditations This coale the best Interpreters ancient and later conspiring in their expositions blow after this manner St. u Hier. in hunc locum Neque in coelo neque in terrâ alium praeter
Prophet I rather gather from these words the great honour which Nathan the Prophet received from David the King than the direction or advice that David the King received from Nathan the Prophet The King said Though Kings are e Bils suprem p. 1. supreme Commanders for the truth yet they are not the supreme or sole directers unto truth for in scruples of conscience and perplexed controversies of Religion they are to require the law from the mouth of the Priest to aske counsell of the Prophets and generally in all matters appertaining to God to heare the Ministers of God declaring to them the will of God out of his Word Symmachus was bold to tell Anastasius the Emperour that as Bishops owe subjection to Gods Sword in Princes hands so Princes owe obedience to Gods Word in Bishops mouthes f Causab de lib. eccles Defer Deo in nobis nos deferemus Deo in te O Emperour heare God speaking by us and wee will feare God ruling by thee The same God who hath put a materiall sword in thy hands to smite malefactors in their body hath put a spirituall sword in our mouth to slay sinne in the soule The Magistrate is the hand of God but the Preacher is his mouth And for this cause all wise and religious Kings have given them their eares and taken some of them into their bosome as David doth here Nathan to receive instruction and direction from them how to sway the royall scepter within the walls of the Church Let it not seeme burthensome unto you my dearest brethren upon so just occasion as is offered mee in my Text to speake somewhat of the honour of that calling which calleth you all to God From whose mouth doe ye heare the glad tidings of salvation From whose hands doe ye receive the seales of grace Who have the oversight and charge of your soules Who are the meanes under God to reconcile God unto you by their prayers and bring you unto God by their powerfull ministerie but your faithfull and painfull Pastours who in performing these holy duties of their calling are termed g Prosp de vit contem l. 1. c 25. Hisunt Ministri verbi Adjutores Dei Oracula Sp. S. coadjutores Dei as it were fellow-labourers with God Per istos Deus placatur populo per istos populus instruitur Deo All other lawfull callings are from God but this was the calling of God himselfe other offices he appointed this he executed others he commends this he discharged When he tooke our flesh upon him and lived upon earth he would not be made a King nor sit as a Judge upon a Nisi prius of inheritance yet performed he the office of a Preacher through his whole life and of a Priest at his death offering himselfe by the eternall Spirit upon the high Altar of the Crosse where he was both h Confes l. 10. c. 42. Pro nobis tibi Victor Victima ideo Victor quia Victima pro nobis tibi Sacerdos Sacrificium ideò Sacerdos quia Sacrificium faciens tibi nos de servis filios Victor and Victima ideo Victor quia Victima as St. Austine playeth sweetly in a rhetoricall key May the civill Magistrates glorie in this that God calleth them gods and may not they that serve at Christs Altar take as great comfort in that God himselfe calleth his Sonne a Priest saying i Psal 110.4 Thou art a Priest for ever Wherefore if the glorious titles wherewith God himselfe graceth the Ministerie of Stewards of his house Dispencers of his mysteries Lights of the world Angels of the Church if the noble presidents in Scripture of Melchizedek King and Priest David King and Prophet Solomon King and Preacher suffice not to redeeme the sacred order from the scandall of profane men and contempt of the world yet methinkes sith the Son of God and King of glorie hath taken upon him the office and executed the function of a Priest all men should entertaine a reverend opinion of the Priesthood of the Gospel and not to use the word Priest as a reproach to man which was one of the three dignities of God himselfe much lesse seeke to disgrace their persons who are Gods Instruments to conveigh grace into their soules What shall I say more Nay what can I say lesse He that honoureth not the name of Christ which signifieth k Luke 4.18 Annointed to preach the Gospel is no Christian he that conceiveth basely or speaketh contumeliously of the sacred order of Priests is worse than an Infidell For the heathen l Ca sar Com. de bello Gal. French and English in Julius Caesars time placed their Priests which they called Druides above their Gentrie yea and most of the Nobilitie appointing the chiefe of them to beare on his breast the Image of Truth engraven in a rich Jewell The m Bodin de repub l. 3. c. 8. Turkes Moores and Arabians have their Priests which they call Mophtae in highest estimation and devolve the most important matters of State and doubts of their law to their definitive sentence and order The Syrians adorne their Priests with a n Philost de vit Apo. Tââânâ 2. Crowne of gold the Brachmans with a Scepter of gold and Mitre beset with precious stones The Romans stiled their chiefe Flamen Regem sacrorum adoring that name in their Priests which they abhorred in their Princes and Consuls Lastly the Egyptians Athenians o Strab. geog l. 7. Josâph l. 14. c. 15 Sub Dionââo Archonte principe Sacerdotum Apud quos Lycurgus Legislator Sacerdos erat Apollonis Virgil. âân 3. Râx âdem Anius Phoebique Sacerdos Liv. dec 1. Numa Sacerdos Nymphae Aegeriae Suet. in Aug. Tit. Ovid. âast l. 3. Caesaris innumeris quos maluit ille merei Accessit titulis Pontificalis honos Lacedaemonians and almost all the Heathen who either had Kingly Priests or sacrificing Kings shall condemne such Christians at the day of Christ then they shall see of that calling which seemed so vile darke and obscure in their eyes some glistering as Pearles in the gates others sparkling as Diamonds in the foundation and no small number shining as Starres in the arch of the heavenly Jerusalem and amidst them the Sunne of righteousnesse Christ Jesus exercising his royall Priesthood and making intercession to his Father for all those and those onely who honour his Priestly function here upon earth in his Ministers by maintaining and countenancing them and in themselves by sacrificing their dearest affections to him But I list not to dwell on this argument but rather with the Kingly Prophet in his house of Cedars I dwell in an house of Cedars In these words David findeth not fault with the beautifull roofe of his Princely Palace but the meane and vile covering of the Arke it troubled him not that he was so well provided for but that the Arke was so ill Princes may dwell in houses of
uttered but it may by ignorance be depraved no action of vertue can be so exactly performed but it may through malice be mis-construed It is not more proper to God to bring light out of darknesse peace out of trouble joy out of sorrow and out of sinne the greatest of all evils to extract much good by governing and disposing it to the declaration of his mercy and justice than it is naturall to the Divell and his impes out of the light of truth to endeavour to draw darknesse of errour and out of the best speeches and actions to straine and force out somewhat to maintaine and nourish their corrupt humours and bosome sinnes And what marvell sith even in Paradise amidst the sweetest flowers and wholsomest herbes and plants a Serpent could live and find there something to feed upon Paradise was the seat of mans happinesse the garden of pleasure the soyle of the tree of life seated in the cleerest ayre watered and environed with sweetest rivers enamelled with pleasantest flowers set by God himselfe with the choicest plants and yet was it not free from the serpent which turned the juices of those soveraign and medicinall simples into poyson Aristotle writeth of the Cantharides that they are killed with the sent of the a Arist de mirabil aus cult sweetest and most fragrant oyntments and it is morally verified in those gracelesse hearers to whom the Word which is the b 2. Cor. 2.16 sweet smelling savour of God to life becommeth a savour of death Such hearers the blessed Apostle Saint Paul sharply censureth in this chapter Occas who when hee preached to them salvation by the free grace of Christ hence concluded free liberty of sinne when to the comfort of all that are heavie laden with the burden of sinne he set abroach that heavenly doctrine where sinne abounded there grace superabounded they subsumed Let us therefore continue in sinne that grace may more abound whereas indeed they should have inferred the cleane contrary conclusion thus Grace hath abounded much more to us therefore wee of all men should not continue in sinne because God offereth us so good meanes to escape out of it The dew of heaven hath fallen plentifully upon us therefore wee ought to be most fruitfull in good workes not only because God hath better enabled us to doe them but also in a duty of thankfulnesse wee are to offer him our best service who hath enriched us with the treasures of his grace Therefore to beat them and in them all carnall Gospellers from the former hold St. Paul in this chapter planteth ordnance of many most forcible arguments drawne from three principall heads Analys 1. Christ and his benefits 2. Themselves and their former condition 3. The comparison between a sinfull and a holy course of life and their contrary effects 1 From Christ and his benefits after this manner The effect of grace is to mortifie sinne how then can they who have received a greater measure of grace by the merit of Christs death and buriall continue in sinne How can they that are dead to sinne live therein Whereas they urged grace for liberty of sinne the Apostle from grace enforceth sanctity of life whereas they alledged their redemption for their exemption from all service Saint Paul strongly concludes from so great a benefit a greater tye and obligation to serve the Lord their Redeemer whereas they built a fort of sin with the wood of Christs crosse he maketh an engine of the same wood to overthrow it by grace we are united to Christ and planted in him therefore we must live the life of the root bring forth the fruit of the c Ver. 5. Ver. 6. spirit If we have been planted together in the likenesse of his death wee shall be also in the likenesse of his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sinne might be destroyed that henceforth wee should not serve sinne c. 2 From themselves and their former condition thus When yee were free from righteousnesse yee were servants unto sinne now therefore being freed from sinne yee ought to be servants unto righteousnesse As yee d Ver. 18 19. yeelded your members servants of uncleannesse and iniquity unto iniquity so now yeeld your members servants of righteousnesse unto holinesse c. 3 From the comparison between the state of sin and grace thus When you were in the state of sinne you had no profit at all of your workes and you were confounded with shame for them and by them were brought to the very brink of death Coharent but now being in the state of grace you reap fruit here in holinesse the fruit of peace and joy and hereafter you shall reap the fruit of everlasting life and glory Thus you see the scope of the Apostle the occasion and coherence of the words which carry this sense Tell mee Exposit Gen. yee unsettled and unstable Christians who have been delivered from the thraldome of sinne and Satan and have given your names unto Christ and your members as servants unto righteousnesse why goe yee about to enthrall your selves anew to your ghostly enemies or make your selves vassals to your fleshly lusts Observe yee not the heavie judgements of God lighting daily upon presumptuous sinners See yee not before your eyes continuall spectacles of Gods justice and marke yee not in them the fearfull ends of those courses which now yee begin to take againe after yee had long left them Beleeve yee not the words of God e Rom. 2 9. Tribulation and anguish upon every soule that sinneth for hee will f Psal 68.21 wound the hairy scalpe of every one that goeth on in his wickednesse Or if you turne away your eyes from beholding the vialls of wrath daily powred upon sinners and stop your eares that yee may not heare the dreadfull threats which God thundereth out in his Law against such backsliders and relapsers as yee are yet can yee stifle your owne hearts griefe can yee forget the wofull plight into which your former courses brought you when free from righteousnesse yee let loose the reines to all licentiousnesse that yee might worke wickednesse even with greedinesse yee glutted your selves with earthly vanities and tooke a surfeit of sinfull pleasures What gaine did yee not then greedily gape after what preferment did yee not ambitiously seek into what mire of impurity did not yee plunge your selves No sinfull pleasure but yee tooke your fill of no dish of Satan which yee left untouched yet speake the truth between God and your owne conscience what true delight or solid contentment tooke yee in those things I know yee are ashamed to speake of it and I will not wound modest eares to relate it and ought yee not much more to be ashamed to returne with the dogge to his former vomit and with the sow to her wallowing in the mire Your soules have been cleansed by
doe your eyes melt into penitent teares then are you quickned by the Spirit of grace then have you sense and life in you then have your eyes been annointed with the eye-salve of the spirit then stand ye recti in curiâ But on the contrary Are ye tickled with the remembrance of your former follies can ye thinke of them without remorse can ye speake of them without shame can ye glory in them and your heart not smite you then in vaine doe ye flatter your selves with the name of Professours ye falsly arrogate to your selves the title of Sonnes of God ye know not what regeneration or the new creature meaneth the sunne of righteousnesse never shone upon you but ye are still frozen in the dregges of your sinnes Wherefore examine your owne hearts and consciences take a view of your whole life past runne over in your mindes the vanity of your childhood the lusts of your youth the audacious attempts of your riper yeeres and the covetousnesse frowardnesse worldlinesse and distrustfulnesse of your old age call your selves to an account for your unlawfull gaming and sporting your immoderate drinking your Lords day breaking your lascivious dancing your chambering and wantonnesse and if the remembrance of these your former sinnes be loathsome unto you if the sent of them in the nostrils of your soule be like a stinking fume exhaled from the finke of originall corruption then have your senses been purged then have you smelt the savour of life But on the contrary if the cogitation of these things be delightfull unto you if the traversing these thoughts in your mind blow the coales of your former lusts if the Sodome of your unregenerate estate seem to you as a Paradise of pleasure then certainly yee were never redeemed from the corruption of the world yee never felt the pangs and throes of a new birth your understanding was never enlightened nor your will reformed Hee that can take delight to play at the hole of the Cockatrice or behold the shining colour of the Snake was never stung by them but the truly regenerate Christian who hath bin grievously stung by the fiery Serpent the Divell and by fixing his eyes upon the brazen Serpent Christ Jesus hath bin cured dares not come nigh the Serpents hole much lesse gaze upon his azure head and forked tongue 2. If the experience of the unfruitfulnesse and shamefulnesse of sinne be a speciall meanes to restraine Gods children from it certainly the recounting of their former wayes and the survey of the whole course of their life cannot but be a profitable exercise for them It was the practice of Solomon who beheld all the workes of his hands and the delights of his life and passeth this censure upon them o Eccles 1.2 Vanity of vanities all is but vanity and vexation of spirit It was the practice of David p Psal 51.3 I know mine owne iniquity and my sinne is ever before mee It was the practice of Saint Austine who a little before his death caused the q Possid in vit August Penitentiall Psalmes to be written about his bed which hee looking upon out of a bitter remembrance of his sinnes continually wept giving not over long before he gave up the ghost Mee thinkes I heare you say we have buried those sinnes in oblivion long agoe and we hope God hath done so put not these stinking weeds to our noses but gather us a posie of the sweet flowers of Paradise the promises of God in Christ Jesus in which there is a savour of life and we will smell unto it I had rather do so but the other are more proper and fitter for many of you for those whose senses are overcome with over-sweet oyntments can by no better meanes recover their smell than by strong and unpleasant savours and therefore in the country of Arabia where almost all trees are savoury and frankincense and myrrhe are common fire wood r Plin. nat hist l. 12. c. 17. E Syriâ revehunt Stycacem acri odore ejus in focis abigente suorum fastidium Styrax as Pliny writeth is sold at a deare rate though it bee a wood of an unpleasant smell because experience proveth it to bee a present meanes to recover their smell who before had lost it Beloved brethren we all that have lived in the pleasures of sinne have our senses stuffed and debilitated if not overcome and the best remedy against this malady will be the smelling to Styrax the unsavoury and unpleasing smell of our former corruptions Let the covetous man recall to mind his care in getting his anxiety in keeping his sorrow in losing that which nature hath put under his feet how to increase his heapes he hath not onely taken from others but robbed his owne belly and backe Let the Glutton thinke of the loathsomnesse of his sinne which subjecteth him to divers diseases and maketh him a burthen to himselfe the Drunkard his drowning of his reason distempering of his body and exposing himselfe to the laughter and scorne of all men the Adulterer the corruption of his owne body the transgressing the covenant of God the wronging and provoking his neighbour the staine of his owne reputation the rottennesse of his bones and besides all this the heavie wrath of God for his sinnes and feare of hell fire due to him for them I know no man willingly remembreth that whereof he is ashamed and therefore no exercise of Christianity more tedious and irksome than this because it withdraweth the mind from pleasant and delightfull objects to behold her own deformity yet none more necessary none more profitable And though it begins in sorrow yet it ends in joy for even this is an exceeding delight to the soule to find a change in her selfe and an alteration in her affections it is pleasant unto her that shee now distasteth the forbidden fruit and shee rejoyceth that shee can be heartily sorry for her sinnes And God as ſ Cypr. de card op Cyprian saith sweetly wipeth away these teares from the soule Ut magis ploret gaudeat fletibus that shee may weep the more and take pleasure in her weeping For after we have pricked our hearts with the sting of conscience for our grievous sinnes after they bleed with compunction after we have powred out our soules with sighes and groanes into the bosome of our Redeemer his heart will melt within him and his repentings will roll together hee will bind up our wounds and shew his wounds to his Father then shall we see the frownes of an angry Judge turned into the smiles of a loving Father the crimson colour of our sins into the whitenesse of wooll our mourning weed into a wedding garment our sighes and sobs into exultation of spirit and the fearfull cloud which before overcast our minds into a cleare skie into peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost the true taste and beginning of the joyes of heaven To which the Lord
and rested themselves these three Lords dayes it beareth fruit and that in great variety not only upon the branches but upon the maine stocke which yeeldeth us this fruitfull observation That the sense and taste of the bitternesse of sinnes past and remorse of conscience for them are most forcible motives and meanes to restraine the desires and weane the affections of Gods children from them This fruit we gathered heretofore and since plucked to us the first branch of the Text which affordeth this most wholsome observation That sinne is altogether unfruitfull As no meditation is more serious than upon the vanity of the world no contemplation more pleasant to a regenerate Christian than of the unpleasantnesse of impure delights so no observation is more fruitfull than of the unfruitfulnesse of sinne Who cannot copiously declaime against sinne against which it is a sinne not to declaime Who cannot easily recount all the evils which sinne hath brought into the world which are summarily all that are in the world insomuch that all sciences arts and professions have a blow at sinne The Metaphysicke Philosopher demonstrateth that sinne is non ens naught and therefore to be set at naught The Naturalist sheweth that it destroyeth nature and therefore ought to be exterminated out of nature The Moralists muster all the forces of vertue against it as being the chiefest enemy of mans chiefe good which they define to be actio virtutis in vitâ perfectâ the continuall practice of vertue in a happy life The Physicians observe that the greater part of the diseases of the body arise from sins which are the diseases of the soule Plures gulâ quà m gladio more come to their end by gluttony drunkennesse and incontinency than by the halter or the sword The Grammarians condemne sinne as incongruous the Logicians as illogicall that is unreasonable and all other arts and sciences as irregular but Divinity alone knocketh it downe and battereth it to pieces with the hammer of the Word There is more weight of argument in this one Verse of the Apostle than in all the Oratours declamations and Poets satyres and the Philosophers invectives against vice that ever were published to the world What fruit had yee in those things whereof yee are now ashamed for the end of those things is death As the same metall running upon divers moulds is cast into divers formes so the words of this Text admit of divers divisions according to severall moulds and frames of art It shall suffice to give you your choice of three 1. The Rhetoricall which breaketh them into 1. A poignant interrogation What fruit had yee 2. A forcible reason For the end of those things is death 2. The Logicall which observeth in them 1. The persons Yee 2. The object Those things 3. The attributes which are three 1. Losse What fruit had yee 2. Confusion Whereof yee are now ashamed 3. Perill For the end of those things is death 3. The Theologicall which considereth sinne in a three-fold relation 1. To the time past and so it is unfruitfull What fruit 2. To the time present and so it is shamefull Whereof c. 3. To the time to come and so it is dreadfull or deadly For the end of those things is death First of sinne considered in a relation to the time past What fruit had yee Xerxes as Herodotus reporteth bare a strange affection to the Plane tree which hee hung about with chaines and deckt with jewells of greatest price A fond and foolish affection as being to a tree and such a tree as is good for nothing but to shade us out of the Sunne This folly of so great a Monarch very well resembleth the humour of all those who are not guided by the Spirit of God into the wayes of truth and life but are led by the spirit of errour or the errour of their owne spirit to ungodly and sinfull courses the very beaten paths to hell and death The tree they are in love with adorne and spend so much cost upon is the forbidden tree of sinne altogether as unfruitfull as that of Xerxes it hath neither faire blossomes nor sweet fruit on it onely it is well growne and hath large armes and broad boughes and casteth a good shade or to speake more properly a shadow of good For the shade it selfe of this tree is like the shade of the Cyprus tree gravis umbra a noysome or pestilent shade making the ground barren and killing the best plants of vertues by depriving them of the Sun-shine of Gods grace Yet as divers Nations in the dayes of b Nat. hist l. 12. Tributum pro umbrâ pendunt Pliny paid tribute to the Romanes for the shade of these trees so doe these men pay for the seeming pleasure and delight of sinne being indeed but a shadow of vanity to the Divell the greatest tribute that can be payd the tribute of their soules To reprove this folly to bee bewailed with bloudy teares I have heretofore produced divers passages of holy Scripture the point of doctrine I beat upon and laboured especially to fasten in your hearts was the unprofitablenesse and the unfruitfulnesse of sinne which was proved 1. By the three names of sinne imposed by the Holy Ghost folly vanitie and a lye The reason whereof was because all sinne maketh a shew of and as it were promiseth to the sinner either pleasure or profit or honour or some good whereas indeed it bringeth not any thing to him but shame nor him to any thing but death 2. By divers lively comparisons and resemblances in holy Scripture of sinfull labours and travells as the running in a ring or circle whereby hee that moveth and tireth himselfe getteth no ground impii ambulant in circuitu the weaving of the Spiders web which maketh no garment the sowing of wind whereof nothing can be reaped but the whirlewind stormes and tempests of conscience 3. By the judgements of God falling upon them who seem to drive the most gainfull trade with Sathan For either they themselves are taken away in the midst of their prosperity and as soone as they have gotten the wealth of the world are constrained to leave a world of wealth c Luk. 12.20 O foole this night they shall take away thy soule Stulte hac nocte eripient tibi animam tuam or God bloweth upon their ill gotten goods and they are suddenly consumed or passe the same way that they came as the fogges that are raised by the Sunne when they come to their height are dispelled by his beames Or they prove like the horse of Sejanus or the gold of Tolous or the vessels and treasures of the Temple at Jerusalem which became the bane and ruine of all that laid hands on them Or if they long enjoy their wealth yet they joy not in it at all For howsoever none lay claime to their unrighteous Mammon yet they can never perswade themselves that it is their owne and between
Thou shalt plant vineyards and dresse them but shalt neither drinke of the wine nor gather the grapes for the worme shall eate them Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts but thou shalt not annoint thy selfe with the oyle for thine olive shall cast his fruit Hereunto if we adde the infinite armies of plagues and judgements mustered in this chapter against Gods enemies we cannot but subscribe to the Prophets conclusion Non est pax impio there is no l Esay 48.22 57.21 peace to the wicked saith my God there is no fruit of sinne for it is the vine of m Deut. 32.32 33. Sodome and of the fields of Gomorrah the grapes thereof are the grapes of gall their clusters are bitter Their wine is the poyson of Dragons and the cruell venome of Aspes Would yee know all the miseries that sinne hath brought into the world reckon then all that are or ever were in the world For they are all concomitants effects or punishments of sinne Sinne cast the Angels from Heaven into Hell thrust man out of Paradise drowned the old world burnt Sodome and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone ruinated the greatest Monarchies destroyed the ancientest Cities and hath rooted up the most flourishing Churches and shall wee looke for better fruit of it But this interrogatory of the Apostle What fruit had yee seemeth to mee rather to aime at the particular endammagement and detriments of sinne which every soule that committeth it sustaineth within it selfe whereof many have been already recounted yet the greater part is behind among whom this is not the least that it blindeth the eyes of the mind and infatuateth the sinner Whereupon Saint Austines observation is If a theefe or fellon should presently upon his fact lose the sight of his eyes every body would say that it was the judgement of God upon him Oculum cordis amisit ei pepercisse putatur Deus behold God hath taken away the sight of his soules eyes and doest thou thinke that hee spareth him or letteth him goe n Cic. de Arusp respons Oculorum caecitas ad mentem translata est unpunished What greater losse to a noble mind than of libertie which is forfeited by sinne Sinne enthralleth our soule to our body and our body and soule to the Divell If captivitie of the body be so grievous a calamity what may wee judge of the captivitie of the soule If wee so disdaine to be slaves to men how much more should wee to bee vassals to beastly lusts To speake nothing of peace of conscience which crying sinnes disturbe and divine motions which worldly cares choake and heavenly comforts which earthly pleasures deprive us of and sanctifying graces which impure thoughts and sinfull desires diminish to leave the consideration of shame and death for matter of ensuing discourses by that which hath been already delivered all that are not besotted by sin and blind-folded by Sathan may see great reason for this question of the Apostle What fruit had yee A question which the proudest and most scornfull sinners who have them in derision that make conscience of unlawfull gaine shall propound unto themselves one day and checke their owne folly therewith as we reade in the booke of o Wisd 5.8 Wisedome What hath pride availed us or what profit hath the pompe of riches brought us Then shall they change their mindes when they cannot their estates and sigh for griefe of heart and say within themselves looking up to Heaven and seeing the felicity of the righteous crowned with eternall glory Ibid. Ver. 4 5 6 7. This is hee whom wee sometimes had in derision and in a parable of reproach Wee fooles thought his life madnesse and his end without honour But now how is hee accounted among the children of God and what a portion hath hee among the Saints Therefore wee have erred from the way of truth and the light of righteousnesse hath not shined upon us We have wearied our selves in the wayes of wickednesse and have gone through many dangerous pathes and the way of the Lord wee have not knowne Howbeit two sorts of men in the opinion of the world seeme to make great gaine of sinne the covetous and the ambitious the former is indebted to his extortion oppression and usury for his wealth the other to his glozing dissembling undermining perfidious and treacherous dealing for his honour and advancement in the Court of Princes The spirit of the former hath been conjured downe heretofore by proving that whosoever gathereth wealth or mony by unjust and indirect meanes putteth it into a broken bagge and that his mony shall perish with him unlesse hee breake off his sinne by repentance and make friends of unrighteous Mammon I come to the Politicians who correct or rather pervert that sentence of Saint Paul Godlinesse is great gaine thus a shew of godlinesse is great gaine of whom I would demand what shew of reason they have for this their politicke aphorisme If they beleeve there is a God that judgeth the earth they cannot but thinke that hee will take most grievous vengeance on such as goe about to roote out the feare of God out of mens hearts and make Religion a masque and God himselfe an Image the sacred Story a fable Hell a bug-beare and the joyes of Heaven pleasant phantasies If men hold them in greatest detestation who faulter and double with them shall not God much more hate the hypocrite who doubleth with his Maker maketh shew of honouring and serving him when hee indeed neither honoureth nor serveth him at all Simulata sanctitas est duplex iniquitas counterfeit sanctity is double iniquity and accordingly it shall receive double punishment When our Saviour threateneth the most hainous transgressours that they shall have their p Mat. 24.51 portion with hypocrites hee implyeth that the condition of none in Hell is lesse tolerable than of the hypocrite The q Psal 14.1 foole hath said in his heart there is no God and even in that hee shewed himselfe the more foole in that hee said it in his heart supposing that none should heare it there whereas God heareth the word in the heart before it bee uttered in the tongue and what though other know it not sith hee whom hee wrongeth who is best able to revenge it knoweth it But to wound the Politician with his owne sword If a shew and appearance of Religion is not onely profitable but necessary in politicke respects shall not Religion it selfe be much more Can there bee a like vertue or power in the shadow or image as in the body it selfe If the grapes painted by Zeuxis allured the Birds to pecke at them would not the Birds sooner have flowne at them had they been true grapes All the wit of these sublimated spirits wherewith they entangle the honest simplicity of others cannot wind them out of these dilemmaes If it bee a bad thing to bee good why doe they seem so If
3.18 eye-salve of the Spirit and yee discover the workes of darknesse and cleerly see the filthinesse of your former unregenerate estate ye are now ashamed For now ye have some sense of the wrath of God ye have some remorse of conscience ye perceive what ye have lost ye see the marke of infamy burnt into your name and credit by the hot iron that hath scared your consciences To proceed from farther explication to a seasonable use and application The Apothecaries draw an oyle out of the Scorpion which overcommeth the poyson of that Serpent and applyed to the part that is stung giveth present ease Let us imitate them and of that which issueth from sin make a soveraigne antidote against it Let us lay open and naked before the eies of our mind the loathsome filthinesse and ougly deformity thereof that being agashed and confounded thereat we may turn away from it with greatest detestation Let us apprehend thoroughly as heretofore the unfruitfulnesse so now the odiousnesse loathsomenesse turpitude and shame of sinne A lewd conceit is an unconceivable pollution a profane or impure speech an unspeakable wrong to God a sudden joy a lasting griefe a tickling of the sense for a moment a perpetuall torment with a scar in the conscience and staine in our good name never to be fetched out The advice which e Epist 11. Aliquis vir bonus nobis eligendus est semper ante oculos habendus ut sic tanquam illo spectante vivamus c. Seneca giveth to Lucilius very sage and good Wheresover thou art and whatsoever thou art about suppose that Cato or Socrates is with thee or some such other reverend or grave personage before whom thou wouldest be ashamed to doe any thing that were unseemly Beloved Christians wee need not feigne to our selves or make in our thoughts an imaginary presence of any mortall man were he never so venerable grave or austere for we are alwayes in the presence of our Judge f Hesiod op dies l. 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Wheresoever we are whatsoever we goe about we have a thousand witnesses thereof within us and the blessed Angels without us and which wee are to take speciall notice of malignant spirits our ghostly enemies observers and noters thereof They who tender their credit and estimation saith the g Arist l. 2. Rhetor. Oracle of reason if they imbarke themselves into any dangerous or questionable action most of all shunne and avoid the company of Poets Stage-players Libellers Registers Notaries Promoters and the like because if any thing should bee done amisse these kind of men were like to blab it out act it upon the stage or make a by-word of it to their utter disgrace Such we have alwaies about us when we are about any wickednesse I meane the accusers of the brethren fiends of Hell who keep a register of all our secret and open sins wherewith they will often upbraid us in our life grievously burthen us with them at our death and which is worst of all rip them up all at the day of judgement and insult upon us for them No women among the Romanes might under a great penalty prostitute their bodies for gaine except they first made open profession thereof before the Aediles and the reason of this law was because they thought the very shame of making open profession of such lewdnesse would deterre and keep back all of that sexe from such infamous courses of life Likewise I reade in the ancient Greek stories of the Milesian women that upon some discontent divers of them laid violent hands upon themselves and could not bee restrained from this desperate practice till a law was made that all they that in such sort made away themselves should bee carried naked with a halter about their neckes before the rest of their sexe after which law none were sound to attempt the like villany Those with whom neither love of life nor feare of death could prevaile shame yet manicled and kept perforce from that unnaturall and execrable crime of felony de se or selfe-homicide Deare Christians were Adam and Eve so ashamed to see the nakednesse of their bodies and the Milesian women to behold the naked carkasses of their sexe how then shall we be confounded with shame when our soules and consciences shall be laid open naked to the eyes of the whole world that all may see all our deformities sores markes botches blanes gashes scarres spots and abominable pollutions and uncleannesses When a godly father amplifying upon that Text of the Apostle We must all appeare before the judgement seat of Christ pricked the veines of his auditory in this manner How many things are there which we know by our selves but would not for all the world that two or three should know as much besides how then shall we looke how shall wee be covered with shame and confusion when all these things shall be laid out before the eyes of all men At these words observing divers of his hearers to blush and hide their faces he thus growes upon them Nunquid nunc erubescitit What and doe yee now blush are ye now ashamed at the hearing of these things what will ye be when ye see them how will ye blush and hang downe your heads when the bookes of your consciences shall be opened and men and Angels shall see and reade what is written in them Men and brethren what shall we do to avoid the terrour and horrour the shame and confusion of that day Let us now be ashamed of our sins that we may not then be for as Dolor est medicina doloris So Pudor est medicina pudoris O let us not cast more blots upon the booke of our conscience but rather fetch out those which are there with the aqua fortis of our teares let us open our wounds and sores full of corruption to our heavenly Chirurgian by confession of our sinnes that he may heale them let us make uncessant prayers to our Saviour h Psal 32.1 to cover all our imperfections with the robes of his righteousnesse so shall we be truly blessed For blessed are they whose unrighteousnesse is forgiven and whose sinnes are covered from the sight of the world that they shame them not from the sight of their consciences that they confound them not from the eyes of God that they condemne them not God the Father make us all so blessed for the merits of his Sonne through the powerfull operation of the Spirit to whom three persons and one God be ascribed c. Amen THE WAGES OF SINNE THE XLIV SERMON ROM 6.21 For the end of those things is death Right Honourable c. TO every thing there is a season a Eccles 3.1 2 3 4. and a time to every purpose under heaven A time to be borne and a time to dye a time to plant and a time to plucke up that which is planted A time to kill and a time
danger of the Councell but whosoever shall say thou Foole shall bee in danger of hell fire Here say they wee may see that there are two punishments lesse than hell fire and that hee onely is in danger of it who breaketh out into that outrage to raile at his brothet and call him foole not hee who is unadvisedly angry Whereupon they inferre that the last of the three sinnes mentioned by our Saviour is mortall not the two former Their second allegation is out of z Mat. 7.5 Moat out of thy brothers eye Matth. 7. and a Luk. 6.41 Luk. 6. and 1 Cor. 3. and such other texts of Scriptures in which some sinnes are compared to very light things as to b 1 Cor. 3.12 Hay and stubble hay to stubble to a moat to a * Mat. 5.26 The uttermost farthing farthing Surely say they they cannot bee grievous and weighty sinnes which are compared to such light or vile things of no value Their third allegation is out of Saint James c Jam. 1.15 Sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death Marke say they not every sinne nor sinne in every degree but when it is come to its perfection bringeth forth death whereby hee insinuateth that no sinnes are mortall but those which are consummate brought into act and committed with full consent of the will The fourth is out of d Mat. 12.36 Matth. 12. I say unto you yee shall give an account for every idle word at the day of judgement Hee saith not wee shall bee condemned for every idle word but onely that wee shall bee called to answere for it as wee shall be for all sinnes Sol. 1 To the first allegation wee answere That no doctrine of faith may bee grounded upon a meere parable as the Schooles rightly determine Theologia parabolica non est argumentativa Now that which our Saviour here speaketh of three severall punishments is spoken by allusion to the proceedings in the Civill Courts in Judaea and all that can bee gathered from thence is but this That as there are differences of sinnes so there shall bee differences of punishments hereafter Secondly hell fire is no more properly taken for the torment of the damned than the other two the danger of the Councell and of Judgement which all confesse to bee taken figuratively and analogically Thirdly Maldonate the Jesuite ingenuously confesseth that by Councell and Judgement the eternall death of the soule is understood yet with this difference that a lesse degree of torment in hell is understood by the word Judgement than Councell and a lesse by Councell than by gehenna ignis that is the fire in the valley of Hinnom Sol. 2 To the second allegation wee answere First that though some sinnes in comparison of others may bee said light and to have the like proportion to more grievous sinnes as a moat in the eye hath to a beame a farthing to a pound yet that no sinne committed against God may bee simply tearmed light but like the talent of lead mentioned Zech. 1.5 Whereupon Saint e Super Ezek. l. 2. Omne peccatum grave est Gregory inferreth Every sinne is heavie and ponderous and Saint f Jer. Epitaph Paulae Ita levia peccata deflebat ut gravissimotum scelerum diceres ream Et ep 14. Nescio an possemus leve aliquod peccatum dicere quod in Dei contemptum admittitur Jerome writeth of Paula That shee so bewailed light sinnes that is such as are commonly so esteemed that a man would have thought her guilty of grievous crimes and hee elsewhere yeeldeth a good reason for it Because saith he I know not how wee may say any thing is light whereby the divine Majesty is sleighted Secondly admitting that some sinnes are to bee accounted no bigger than moats yet as a moat it it bee not taken out of the eye hindereth the sight so the least sinne hindereth grace and if it bee not repented of or pardoned for Christs sake is sufficient to damne the soule of the sinner Thirdly neither Christ by the farthing in the fifth of Matthew understandeth sinne nor the Apostle by hay and stubble lesser or veniall sinnes but Christ by farthing understandeth the last payment of debt Saint Paul light and vaine doctrines which are to bee tryed by the fire of the Spirit For in that place the Apostle by fire cannot meane the fire of Purgatory because gold and silver are tryed that is precious doctrines or good workes by the fire Saint Paul there speaketh of whereas Purgatory fire is for mens persons to cleanse and purge them from their lesser sinnes as the Papists teach Sol. 3 To the third allegation we answer That the Apostle is so farre from denying in that place that all sinnes are mortall that on the contrary he there sheweth how all sinnes become mortall and in the end bring the sinner to eternall death What lesser sinne than lust or a desire in the mind yet this as Saint James affirmeth hath strength enough to conceive sinne and sinne when it is finished to bring forth death Sol. 4 To the fourth allegation we answer That the same phrase is used concerning all kindes of sinnes yea those that are greatest and most grievous as we reade in Athanasius Creed All men shall rise againe with their owne bodies and give an account of their owne workes and if their account be not the better that dreadfull sentence shall passe against them Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire Let us lay all these particulars together and the totall arising out of them will be this That though there be a great difference of sinnes whereof some are lighter compared to a fescu or moate others heavier compared to a beame some smaller likened to gnats others greater to g Mat. 23.24 camels some easier to account for resembled to mites or farthings others with more difficulty as talents and in like manner although there are divers degrees of punishments in hell fire as there were divers degrees of civill punishments among the Jewes yet that we are accountable for the least sinnes and that the weakest desire and suddenest motion to evill is concupiscence which if it be not killed in us by grace will conceive sinne and that sinne when it is consummate will bring forth death We need no more fightings the truth hath already gotten the victory by the weapons of her sworne enemies and Goliah is already slaine with his owne sword yet that yee may know how strong the doctrine of our Church is I will bring forth and muster some of her trained band First we have two uncontrollable testimonies out of the booke of Deuteronomy h Deut. 27.26 30.19 Cursed is hee that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to doe them and Behold I have set before you this day life and good death and evill blessing and cursing The former is cited by Saint Paul to prove that all that hoped to be justified by the
out into such course language Yea but some will say What is the nodding at a Sermon the stealing a farthing the breaking of a jest such an hainous matter that it deserveth everlasting torments of body and soule in Hell I answer with Saint t Aug. l. 2. cont Donat. Non afferamus stateras dolosas ubi appendamus quod volumus quomodo volumus pro arbitrio nostro di centes hoc grave est hoc leve sed afferamus stateram divinam de Scripturis sanctis tanquam de thesauris Domini in illâ quid sit grave appendamus Austine in the estimation of sinnes we ought not to bring out deceitfull weights of our owne but out of the Scriptures golden weights sealed by God and in them see what is light and what is weighty In these scales wee shall find the least sinne to be heavie enough to weigh down to the ground yea to Hell for every offence committed against an infinite Majesty deserveth an infinite punishment every transgression of the eternall Law excludeth a man from eternall happinesse and deserveth eternall death Whosoever shall breake one of the least commandements saith our u Mat. 5.19 Saviour and teach men so shall be least in the Kingdome of heaven Here Bellarmine wisheth us to marke that Christ saith not simply hee that breaketh one of the least commandements but he that breaketh it and teacheth others to doe so We mark it well and that clause may serve to brand him and his fellow Priests and Jesuits for who teach men to break the least commandements if not they whose doctrine is that veniall sinnes are not against the Law nor simply and properly to be called sinnes but rather naevuli aspergines and pulvisculi that is dustings or spertings or small spots warts or blisters Yee all perceive how much this Text of Scripture maketh for us in our doctrine against Papists but I feare it maketh as much against us in our lives Doe we so live as if we were perswaded that the least sinnes inasmuch as they are committed against an infinite Majesty and are breaches of his eternall Law are exceeding great nay infinite Could we drink iniquity as the beast doth water if we thought it were deadly poyson Doe we make great account of small sinnes nay doe we not rather make small account of the greatest Who ever espyed an Adder thrusting his sting at him and started not backe Natures insensible of paine and ignorant of that danger doe no lesse For if any venemous thing be applyed to any part of our body the bloud as if it took notice of its deadly enemy flyeth back turneth it streams another way and shall not our conscience which hath knowledge and sense of the venome of sinne be much more fearfull of it It is no amplification of the malignant nature of sinne to compare it to a poyson it is rather a diminution For no poyson could ever yet be made so strong that the least imaginary quantity thereof was deadly the least thought of sinne yea the sinne of thought is so Poysons be they never so pernicious and deadly are pernicious and hurtfull to that part onely which of it selfe is mortall I meane our bodies but sinne killeth that part that naturally cannot dye it slayeth our immortall spirits There are many forcible arguments to deterre us even from small sins and to excite us to watch over them as 1. Quia difficiliùs caventur because it is a thing more difficult to avoid them than the greater Many are choaked with small bones of fishes but few with greater because they are usually felt in the mouth before they goe downe the throat Solinus writeth of a kind of * Polihist c. 8. Brevissima apud Amyclas vipera est ac propterea dum despectui est faciliùs nocet viper of a small quantity that doth much more hurt than the greater because the most part of men sleighten it 2. Quia difficiliùs curantur because the wound that is given by them is with more difficulty cured as a pricke made with a bodkin or a steeletto if it be deep is more dangerous than a wound given with a greater weapon because the flesh presently closeth up and the bloud issuing not forth runneth inwardly with greater abundance 3. Quia ad majora viam muniunt because they are a preparation and disposition to greater offences As the wimble pierceth the wood and maketh way for the auger so the smaller sinnes make a breach in the conscience and thereby a way to greater The least sins are as the little theeves that creep in at the windowes and open the doores to the greater that rifle the house and rob the soule of all her spirituall wealth whence is that observation of Saint x Lib. 9. mor. in Job Si vitare parva negligimus insensibiliter seducti majora etiam perpetramus Gregory If we sticke not at small sinnes ere we are aware we shall make no bones of the greatest 4. Quia parva peccata crebra ita nos praegravant ut unum grande because small sinnes with their multitude and number as much hurt the soule as great sinnes with their weight The Herrings though a weake and contemptible kind of fish yet by their number kill the greatest Whale What skilleth it saith Saint y Aug. ep 108. Quid interest ad naufragium an uno grandi fluctu navis operiatur an paulatim subrepens aqua in sentinam per negligentiam derelicta impleat navem atque submerguntur Et serm 10. de divers Quid interest utrum te plumbum premat an arena plumbum una massa est arenae minuta grana sunt nonne vides de minutis guttis impleri flumina minuta sunt sed multa sunt Austine whether a ship be over-whelmed with one great wave or drowned by a leake in the bottome unespyed in which the water entereth drop by drop What easeth it a man to be pressed to death with a heap of sands more than with a sow of lead Are not the greatest rivers filled by drops The sinnes we ordinarily commit minuta sunt sed multa sunt they are small but they are many and what they lose in the quantity they get in the number These indeed are important considerations yet mee thinkes there is more nay there is all that can be said in this clause of the Apostle The end of those things is death the smaller sinnes as well as the greater in their owne nature are mortall It is a more fearfull thing I confesse to be plunged into the bottome of a headlesse lake than to sinke a little under water yet he that is held under water how neere soever it be to the top till his breath is gone is as certainly drowned as he that is found dead in the bottome It is but a miserable comfort to bee put in hope of an upper roome in Hell and not to be thrust into the lowest dungeon Wherefore as yee
shall have no end This is the last and most forcible argument of the three wherewith the Apostle laboureth with might and maine to beat downe sinne and put to flight even whole armies of temptations Yee may observe a perfect gradation in the arguments the first though strong and forcible drawne from the unfruitfulnesse of sinne is not so necessary and constraining as the second drawne from the shame and infamy thereof nor that as the third drawn from the wages thereof which is everlasting death As honour and glory is to be more set by than gaine and commodity life than honour immortality than life so shame and infamy is worse than losse and disadvantage death than shame hell than death The holy Apostle hath now made three offers unto us and put us to a three-fold choice First he laid before us the faire fruits of Paradise to bee gathered from the tree of life and corrupt rotten fruit from the forbidden tree that is invaluable treasures to be got and inestimable profit to be made by godlinesse and irrecoverable losses to be sustained by ungodly and sinfull courses of thriving Secondly he tendered unto you glory and honour to be purchased by the service of God as on the contrary shame and infamy by retaining upon Sathan and pursuing sinfull pleasures Now in the third place hee setteth before you life and death life by the gift of God and death for the hire of sinne Shall I need to exhort you in the words of b Deut. 30.19 Moses Chuse life how can ye doe otherwise Is the flesh appalled at the death of the body though the paine thereof endure but for a moment and shall not the spirit be much more affrighted at the death of the soule the pangs and paines whereof never have an end If there be any so retchlesse and carelesse of his estate that hee passeth not for great and irrecoverable dammages and losses so foolish that hee esteemes not of inestimable treasures if any be so infamous that he hath no credit to lose or so armed with proofe of impudency that hee can receive no wound from shame yet I am sure there is none that liveth who is not in some feare of death especially a tormenting death and that of the soule and that which striketh all dead everlasting Therefore it is as I conceive that the Apostle according to the precept of Rhetoricians c Cic. de orat l. 2. Puncta caeterorum argumentorum occulit coucheth as it were and hideth the points of other arguments but thrusteth out this putting upon it the signe and marke of a reason For. For the end of those things is death And this hee doth for good reason because this last argument is worth all the former and enforceth them all it not only sharpneth the point of them but draweth them up to the head at the sinner For therefore are lewd and wicked courses unprofitable therefore we may be ashamed of them because their end is so bad For the end Why doth the Apostle skip over the middle and come presently to the end why layeth hee the whole force of his argument upon the end 1. Because there is nothing in sinne upon which wee may build or have any assurance thereof but the end as there is nothing certaine of this our present life but the incertainty thereof Sin somtimes hath no middle as wee see in those fearfull examples of Corah Dathan and Abiram who had no sooner opened their mouths against Moses but the earth opened her mouth to swallow them up quicke of Achan who had no sooner devoured the accursed thing but it was drawne out of his belly with bowels heart and all of Herod who had no sooner heard the people cry The voice of God and not of man but hee felt himselfe a worme and no man of Zimri and Cozbi who had no sooner received the dart of lust in their heart than they felt a javelin in their bodies of Ananias and Sapphira who no sooner kept backe part of the price for which they sold their possessions but death seized upon them and they gave up the ghost and of many others whose deaths wounds yet bleed afresh in sacred and profane stories 2 Because there is nothing permanent of sinne but the end the duration if it have any is very short like to that of Jonahs gourd d Jonah 3.7 which rose up in a night and was eaten up with a worme in the morning 3 Because nothing is so much to bee regarded in any thing as the end for fines principia actionum the end setteth the efficient on worke and all is well that endeth well as wee say in the Proverbe e Deut. 32.29 O that they were wise saith God by Moses then they would consider their latter end If wee invert the speech it will bee as true O that men would consider their latter end and then they would be wise For assuredly he that in his serious contemplation beginneth at the end of sinne in his practise will end at the beginning To consider the end of sinne is to take a survey of all the miseries and calamities incident to intelligent natures of all the plagues that light upon the bodies and soules and estates of impenitent sinners in this life with a fearfull expectation of hellish torments then a violent separation of the soule from the body which is no sooner made but the soule is presented before the dreadfull Judge of quicke and dead arraigned condemned and immediately upon sentence haled and dragged by ugly fiends to the darke and lothsome dungeon of hell there in all extremity of paines and tortures without any ease or mitigation to continue till the generall day of the worlds doom when meeting again with the body her companion in all filthinesse iniquity and ungodlinesse they are both summoned to the last judgement where all their open and secret sinnes are laid open to the view of men and Angels to their inexpressible and astonishable confusion after conviction the sentence at which not the eares onely shall tingle the teeth chatter the knees smite one the other but the heart also melt the sentence I say of eternall damnation shall bee pronounced in their hearing f Mat. 25.41 Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divell and his Angels A most heavie sentence never to bee recalled and presently to bee put in execution the Devill with reviling and insultation carrying them with all their wicked friends and associates to the place of endlesse torments to endure the full wrath of God and the paines of everlasting fire O what will it bee to feele the second death which it is death to thinke or speake of who can read the description thereof in Saint g De vit contemp l. 3. c. 12. Fieri patriae coelestis extorrem mori vitae beatae morti vivere sempiternae in aeternum cum diabolo expelli ubi sit mors secunda damnatis
Fathers of children Magistrates of cities and Kings of realmes who have received your authority from God bee ruled by him by whom yee rule take him for a president in your proceedings from whom yee have your warrant hee first convinceth then reproveth after threatneth and lastly chastiseth those all those whom he loveth doe yee likewise first evidently convince then openly rebuke after severely threaten and last of all fatherly chasten with moderation and compassion all those indifferently without partiality who deserve chastisement not sparing those who are most deare and neare unto you But to the bruised reed to the drouping conscience overwhelmed with sorrow and griefe both for sinnes and the punishment thereof the Spirit speaketh in the words of my text on this wise Why doe yee adde affliction to your affliction and fret and exulcerate your own wounds through your impatience It is not as yee conceive your enemy that hath prevailed against you it is not a curst Master or a racking Land-lord or a partiall Magistrate or an envious neighbour that wreakes his spleene and malice upon you but it is your heavenly Father that striketh you and he strikes you but gently and with a small ferular neither offereth hee you any harder measure than the rest of his children so hee nurtureth them all Neither are yee cast quite out of favour though cast downe for the present nay bee it spoken for your great comfort yee are no lesse in favour than when your estate was entire which now is broken and your day cleerest which is now overcast Yee are so farre from being utterly rejected and abandoned by your heavenly father that yee are by this your seasonable affliction more assured of his care over you and love unto you For hee never saith As many as I love I smile upon or I winke at their faults but I rebuke and chasten whom hee lesse careth for hee suffereth to play the trivants and take their pleasure but hee nurtureth and correcteth you whom hee intendeth to make his heires yea joint heires with his best beloved Christ Jesus Therefore submit your souls under his mighty hand in humble patience after that raise them up in a comfortable hope kisse his rod quae corpus vulnerat mentem sanat which woundeth the body but healeth the soule makes the flesh peradventure blacke and blew but the spirit faire and beautifull Arguite castigate vos ipsos convince your owne folly rebuke your bad courses chasten your wanton flesh with watching fasting and other exercises of mortification confesse your faults and grieve not so much because yee are stricken as that ye should deserve to bee so stricken by him then will the affection of a father so worke with him that hee will breake his ferular and burne his rod wherewith hee hath beaten you and the overflowing of his future favours will make it evident that whatsoever was said or done before was in love to make you partakers of his holinesse and more capable of celestiall happinesse Wherefore let all that mourne in Zion and sigh as often as they breath for their many and grievous visitations heare what the Spirit saith to the Angel of Laodicea I rebuke and chasten as many as I love Spices pounded and beaten small smell most sweetly and Texts of Scripture yeeld a most fragrant savour of life when they are expounded and broken into parts which are here evidently foure 1 The person of Christ I. 2 The actions of this person Rebuke and chasten 3 The subject of these actions As many 4 The extent of the subject As I love 1 The person most gracious I. 2 The actions most just Rebuke and chasten 3 The subject most remarkable Whom I love 4 The extent most large As many 1 In the person you may see the author of all afflictions 2 In the actions the nature of all afflictions 3 In the extent the community of all afflictions 4 In the subject the cause of all afflictions Of this extent of the subject subject of the actions actions of Christ by his gracious assistance and your Christian patience and first of the person 1. That in all afflictions of the servants of God God is the principall agent and hath i Isa 45.7 I make peace create evill the greatest stroake needeth not so much evident demonstration as serious consideration and right and seasonable application in time of fearfull visitations For what passage can wee light upon at all adventures especially in the writings of the Prophets where wee finde not either God threatning or the Church bewailing afflictions and sore chastisements k Amos 3.6 Is there any evill in the city which I have not done saith the Lord And l Lam. 1.12 Is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted mee in the day of his fierce wrath saith his captive Spouse What face of misery so ugly and gastly wherewith hee scareth not his disobedient people To them that have hard hearts and brazen browes that cannot blush hee threaneth to make m Lev. 26.19 the earth as iron and the heaven as brasse hee martials all his plagues against them sword famine pestilence stings of serpents teeth of wilde beasts blasting mildew botches blaines and what not And according as he threatneth in the law he professeth that he had done to the Israelites in the dayes of the Prophet Amos n Amos 4.6.7 8 9 10. I have sent you cleannesse of teeth and scarcity of bread in all your coasts and yet yee have not returned unto mee also I have withholden the raine from you and yet yee have not returned I have smitten you with blasting and mildew your gardens and vineyards the valmer-worme hath devoured and yet yee have not returned unto mee Pestilence I have sent you after the manner of the Egyptians and your young men I have slaine with the sword and yet yee have not returned unto mee I have overthrowne you as God overthrew Sodome and Gomorrah and you were as a fire-brand out of the burning and yet yee have not returned unto mee There being a double evill as the Schooles distinguish Malum 1. Culpae 2. Poenae the evill of sin and the evill of punishment to make him the author of the former and to deny him to be the author of the later is a like impiety For the former errour impeacheth his purity sanctity the later his justice and providence It is true that in the afflicting of his children God sometimes useth none of the best o Job 1.2 2 Cor. 12.7 Hieron lib. de vir illustr in Ignat. De Syria ad Romam pugno ad bestias in mari in terrà ligatus cum 12. Leopardis hoc est militibus qui me custodiunt quibus si benefeceris pejores sunt iniquitas eorum mea doctrina est instruments neither do they intend what God doth in laying heavie crosses upon his children yet he keepeth their malice within such
serious lesson of the vanity of earthly delights worldly comforts we reade in many Texts of Scriptures heare in divers Sermons see in daily spectacles of men troubled in mind at their death yet we never thoroughly apprehend it till Gods rod hath imprinted it in our bodies and soules then finding by our wofull experience that earthly felicity is nothing but misery masked in gaudy shewes and that all the wealth of the world together with all carnall delights cannot ease a burthened conscience nor abate any whit of our paine we begin to distaste them all we grow out of love with this life and entertaine death in our most serious thoughts Here the eye of faith enlightened by divine revelation seeth beyond death the celestiall Paradise in it a chrystall ſ Apoc. 22.1 2. river of the water of life by it a tree of life which beares twelve sorts of fruits and besides these a heavenly City shining with t Apoc. 21.18 19. streets of gold and foundations of pearle and precious stones the sight wherof leaveth an unspeakable delight in the soule which sweetneth all temporall afflictions and stirreth up in us an unspeakable desire of those solid comforts and substantiall joyes u Ramus in orat Heliogabalus was wont to set before his parasites a banquet painted on cloth or carved in wood or cut in stone and whatsoever hee fed upon in truth they had drawne before them in pictures and images such are the joyes and delights which the Divell the World presenteth unto us false shadowie vaine The true are to be found no where but in heaven where those joyes are in substance which we have here but in shadowes x Aug. confes l. 2. c. 5. Fornicatur anima quae avertitur abs te quaerit extra te ea quae pura liquida non invenit nisi cùm redit ad te pure which we have here polluted full which we have here empty sincere which wee have here mixt perpetually flourishing which we have here continually fading to these substantiall full pure sincere everlasting joyes God bring us for his Son Jesus Christ his sake Cui c. THE NURTURE OF CHILDREN THE XLVII SERMON APOC. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Right Honourable c. THat which Pliny writeth and experience confirmeth concerning hony-combes that the thinner and weaker hony runs out of them at the first but the thickest and best is pressed squeezed out of them at the last we find for the most part in handling Texts of holy Scripture compared by the Prophet a Psal 19.10 David to hony-combs the easier more vulgar observations flow out of them upon the lightest touch but we are to presse each phrase and circumstance before we can get out the thickest hony the choicest and most usefull doctrines of inspired wisedome The more we sucke these combes the more we may the hony proveth the sweeter the combe the moister and which is nothing lesse to be admired the spirituall taste is no way cloyed therewith Wherefore with your good liking and approbation I will presse again and againe these mellifluous combes in our Saviours lips dropping celestiall doctrine sweeter than hony to delight the most distempered taste and sharper than it to cleanse the most putrefied sore I rebuke and chasten there is the sharpnesse and as it were the searching vertue of hony As many as I love there is the sweetnesse Parallel Texts of Scripture like glasses set one against another cast a mutuall light such is this Text and that Deut. 8.5 Thou shalt also consider in thy heart that as a man chasteneth his sonne so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee and Job 5.17 Despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty and Prov. 3.11 12. My sonne despise not the chastening of the Lord neither bee weary of his correction for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as a father doth the sonne in whom he delighteth and Hebr. 12.7 If yee endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sonnes for what sonne is he whom the father chasteneth not As a Musician often toucheth upon the sweetest note in his song Paven or Galliard so doth the holy Spirit upon this and therefore we ought more especially to listen to it For 1. It convinceth the Papists who over-value crosses and afflictions accounting the bearing of them satisfactions for sinnes For with a like pride whereby they cry up their actions to be meritorious they would improve their passions to be workes satisfactory by satisfactory intending such as make amends unto the justice of God wherein they as much over-reach as they supererogate or rather superarrogate in the former Satisfactions to our brethren for wrongs done unto them by restitution mulct or acknowledgement of our fault with asking forgivenesse for it we both teach and practise but they shall never be able to satisfie us in this point that any thing they can doe or suffer can satisfie God Neither can our actions satisfie his law nor our penall sufferings his justice none can satisfie for sinne but he that was without sinne nothing can recompence an infinite transgression but an infinite submission or to speake more properly the submission and passion of him that was infinite It cost more to redeem sinnes than the world is worth and therefore they must let that alone for him who f Esay 63.3 trod the wine-presse alone Before I noted the difference between chastisement and punishment in the one a compensation of wrong done to the person or law is intended in the other a testifying of love and a care of amendment of the party chastened Who would ever be so unreasonable as to thinke that a few stripes given by a tender-hearted father to the childe whom he most dearly affecteth were a satisfaction for the losse of a Diamond of great price yet our sufferings hold not such a proportion For what are our finite and momentary sufferings to the offence given to an infinite Majesty Nothing can be set in the other scale against it to weigh it downe but the manifold sufferings of an equall and infinite person the eternall Sonne of God Neither will it help our adversaries any whit to say that Christ satisfied for the eternall but not for the temporall punishment of our sinnes For this is all one as to say that our Redeemer laid downe a talent of gold for us yet not a brasse token or payd many millions of pounds yet not a piece The Apostle said hee gave himselfe a g 1 Tim. 2.6 ransome for all will they deny it to be a sufficient one or was there any defect in his good intention They have not rubbed their foreheads so hard as to affirme any such thing Well then let them tell us how that man is perfectly ransomed by another who is still kept in prison till he have discharged part of his ransome himselfe This very conceit that they merit by
the first law of equity to heare both the plaintiffe and defendant with indifferency For as q Senec. in Trag. Qui aliquid statuerit parte inauditâ alterâ aequum licet statuerit haud aequus est Seneca saith truely Hee that giveth a right judgement without hearing both parties is no righteous Judge and therefore r Suet. in Claud. Pronunciabat saepè alterâ parte auditâ saepè neutrâ Suetonius justly chargeth Claudius with injustice for precipitating his sentence before hee had given a full hearing to both parties nay sometimes to either 2 They must lay all that they heare and what is brought on both sides in an even ballance and poyse them together Res cum re causa cum causâ ratio cum ratione concertet by the collision of arguments on both sides the fire of truth is struck out Protagoras his exception was good against them who to prove the providence of their paynim gods brought a number painted in a Table of them that calling upon them escaped shipwracke At picti non sunt inquit qui naufragio perierunt True saith he but none of those who notwithstanding their prayers to them suffered shipwracke are any where painted neither is there any register kept of them 3 They must maturely advise and seriously consider of the matter before they passe sentence The eye unlesse it bee fixed upon the object cannot perfectly discerne it nor distinguish it from things that are neare and like unto it And howsoever in a cleare water we may easily perceive any thing that is in the bottome yet if it bee troubled wee cannot and in every Court there are many troublers of the water the Lawyers by their wrangling and the witnesses by their varying the Judges by their different opinions to speake nothing of Angels also troubling the cleere streame of justice at certaine times 4 The eyes of their judgement must bee free from all mists of prejudice and clouds of affection For as that which a man looketh upon through red or greene glasse seemeth to bee of that colour the glasse is of though it bee of a far different if not a contrary so that which wee judge out of a forestalled conceit or prejudicate opinion seemeth to answer to our opinion of it how contrary soever it bee The Romane souldiers as t Div. instit l. 1. Lactantius noteth thought verily that the goddesse worshipped at Syracuse being demanded whether shee would bee carryed by them to Rome answered that shee would not that the image spake any such word but because they were before strongly perswaded that the goddesse would give such an answere Unlesse those that sit in judgement observe these rules they may easily take ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a fallacy for a demonstration and a malitious calumniation for a legall conviction If their eyes be either dimme with private affection or blinded with rewards or wink through carelesnesse or are shut through wilfulnesse that will fall out which S. u L. 2. ep 2. Inter leges ipsas delinquitur inter jura peccatur innocentia nec illic ubi defenditur reservatur qui sedet crimina vindicaturus admittit ut reus innocens pereat sit nocens judex Cyprian so grievously complaineth of Injustice sitteth in the place of justice and even in the sight of the lawes hanging about the judgement seat the lawes are broken the Judge who sitteth to revenge wrongs offered offereth that which hee should revenge and committeth that which hee should punish and hath his conscience coloured with sinnes of a deeper dye than the scarlet of his robes The Empresse wisely advised her husband when sitting at play and minding as it seemes that more than the cause before him hee rashly pronounced sentence Non est vita hominum ludus talorum The sitting upon life and death is not like the playing a game at Tables where a Table-man of wood is taken up by a blot and throwne aside without any great losse the life of man is of more worth than so Though all men detested Seianus and that most deservedly yet when they heard him adjudged to a most cruell and infamous death by no legall proceedings or course of justice the hate of all men recoyled backe upon the Judges and the people began to pity that great favourite who before was most odious Crepat ingens Seianus great Seianus is drawn upon an hurdle and hee suffereth for too much abusing his Princes favour * Juven sat 9. Sed quo cecidit sub crimine quisnam Delator quibus indiciic quo teste probavit c. Nil horum Verbosa grandis epistola venit A Capreis Benè habet nil plus interrogo What crime was laid to his charge what evidence was given in against him what witnesses were sworne I heare of none onely I heare of a long letter sent from the Emperour taking his pastime at the Capreae Hush not a word more Who doth not observe in our owne Chronicles how God met to Hastings his owne measure who the same day that the Earle Rivers Gray and others in the reigne of Edward the fourth without triall of law were by his advice executed at Pomfret had his head strucken off in the same manner in the Tower of London Such as Tiberius his Judges or Edward the fourth's are no fit Presidents for Christian Magistrates this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in my text will evidently convince them at Christs tribunall in the clouds for not looking better to their evidence when they sate on the bench here below let them therefore take judicii praefidem for a president in their judgements even God himselfe who as wee x Gen. 18.20 reade though the sinne of Sodome were exceeding great and the cry of it went up to heaven yet came downe from heaven to see whether they had done according to that cry Chrys in Gen. before hee rained down fire and brimstone to burn their bodies with unnaturall fire whose soules burned with unnaturall lust As the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I rebuke rebuketh the carelesnesse rashnesse of Judges and Magistrates in giving sentence upon the life or state of any in question before them so the other word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I instruct by chastening instructeth fathers and mothers to performe that duty which they owe to God and must performe to their children viz. before them continually to rehearse the law of God y Deut. 11.19 4 10. To talke of it when they are in their house and when they walke abroad when they lye down and when they rise up Above all things they must take care to season their young and tender years with pure and incorrupt religion and bring them up in the feare of God otherwise they are but halfe parents if they have not as well a care of their soules as of their bodies if they pamper the flesh in them but starve the spirit if they labour
for then they will cease to be blessings unto you nay they are already become curses because they withdraw you from God which is a kind of death of the soule How then may we know that they are undoubtedly blessings of God unto us that we may rejoyce and take comfort in them By this If we over-joy not in them if they diminish not but contrariwise increase our love of God if they serve as instruments and encouragements of vertue not nourishments of vices if our expence on the poore be some way answerable to our receits from God if we love them only for his sake that gave them and for his sake are willing to part with them x Lib. de mirab cuscuit Aristotle writeth of a parcell of ground in Sicilie that sendeth such a strong smell of fragrant flowers to all the fields and leazes there-about that no Hound can hunt there the sent is so confounded with the sweet smell of those flowers Consider I beseech you this seriously with your selves whether the sweet pleasures of the world have not produced a like effect in your soules whether they have not taken away all sent and sense too of heavenly joyes whether they hinder you not in your spirituall chase if not ye may take the greater joy and comfort in them because it is an argument of rare happinesse not to be overcome of earthly delights not to be corrupted with temporall happinesse But if ye find that these transitory delights and sensuall pleasures have distempered your taste in such sort that ye cannot rellish heavenly comforts if they have made your hearts fat as the Prophet speaketh so that the spirits of your devotion are dull and grosse and ye are altogether insensible of Gods judgements then re-call your minds from those pleasant objects and represent to your conceits the loathsome deformity of your sins the fearfull ends of those that are rich and not in God the vanity of earthly comforts and the heavie judgements which ye have deserved by being not made better but worse by Gods benefits These very thoughts will be as rebukes and inward chastenings which if they worke in you godly sorrow and unfained humiliation God will spare further to afflict you who are already wounded at the heart or humble you whom he finds already humbled Now for those that are under Gods hand afflicting them outwardly with any scourge the Spirit layeth forth this exhortation It is God that rebuketh you justifie therefore not your selves acknowledge your sins that he y Psal 51.4 may be justified in his sayings and cleare when he is judged it is he that chasteneth you resist not but submit and amend hee rebuketh and chasteneth you in love repine not at it but be thankfull What folly is it to resist Gods will I. What profit to be nurtured chasten What honour to be admitted into Christs Schoole and ranked with Gods dearest children as many What comfort to be assured of Gods love as I love The wheat is purged by the flaile the gold tryed by the fire the vine pruned by the knife the diamonds valued by the stroake of the hammer the palm groweth up higher by pressing it downe the pomander becomes more fragrant by chasing If your afflictions be many and very grievous know that God maketh not choice of a weake champion be assured that he will lay no more upon you than he will enable you to beare Souldiers glory in their wounds which they receive in warre for their King and Country have not we much more cause to glory in them which we endure for the love of God What joy will it be at that day when the Son of man commeth with the clouds and layeth open his scarres before all the world to have in our bodies store of his sufferings and to be able to shew like stripes and wounds to his Possesse your soules therefore in patience for a while and on the sudden all prisons shall be opened all chaines loosened all stripes healed all wrongs revenged all your sufferings acknowledged all your miseries ended and your endlesse happinesse consummated I end in the phrase of the Psalmist Though in the great heat of affliction and persecution yee look as if yee had lien among the pots yet ye shall be as a z Psal 68.13 As a dove covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold dove whose feathers are silver and wings of pure gold wherewith your soules shall flye into heaven and there abide and nest with Cherubins and Seraphins for ever Deo Pâââ Filio Spiritui sancto sit laus c. THE PATTERN OF OBEDIENCE THE LI. SERMON PHIL. 2.8 Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse Right Honourable c. OPposita juxta se posita magis elucescunt contraries are illustrated by their contraries the darke shadow maketh the picture shew more lightsome the blacke vaile the face more beautifull a gloomy cloud the beames of the sunne breaking out of it more bright and conspicuous sicknesse health more gratefull paine pleasure more delightfull affliction and misery prosperity and happinesse more desirable in like manner the obscurity and infamy of Christs passion setteth off the glory of his resurrection Neither doth it illustrate it only but demonstrateth it also à priori for his humiliation was the meritorious cause of his exaltation his obedience of his rule his crosse of his crowne so saith the Apostle in the next verse therefore hath God highly exalted him As wee cannot certainly know how high the surface of the sea is above the earth but by sounding the depth with a plummet or diving to the bottome thereof so neither can wee take the height of our Lords exaltation but by measuring from the ground of his humiliation The crosse is the Jacobs staffe whereby to take the elevation of this morning starre and as Ezekiah was assured that fifteene yeeres were added forward to his life by the going backe of the sunne ten degrees in the Diall of Ahaz so wee know that 1500. yeares nay eternity of life and glory is added to our Saviour by the going backe so many degrees in the Dyall of his passion in the which the finger pointeth to these foure 1 Humility 2 Obedience 3 Death 4 Crosse These selfe same steps and staires by which hee descended in his passion he ascended in his exaltation upon these therefore my discourse shall run humility and the manner of his humilitie obedience his death and the manner of his death his crosse How low must the descent needs be where humility and lowlinesse it selfe is the uppermost greece Beneath it lyeth obedience for a man may bee humble in himselfe and yet not voluntarily bow his necke to another mans yoake Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient Obedient a man may bee and yet not ready to lay downe his life at his Masters pleasure hee became obedient unto death Obedient to death a man may bee and
and all the ingredients of that bitter cup which our Saviour prayed thrice that it o Mat. 26.44 might passe from him We have viewed the root and the branches let us now gather some of the fruit of the tree of the crosse Christs passion may be considered two maner of wayes 1. Either as a story simply 2. Or as Gospel The former consideration cannot but breed in us griefe hatred griefe for Christ his sufferings and hatred of all that had their hand in his bloud the latter will produce contrary affâctions joy for our salvation and love of our Saviour For to consider and meditate upon our Saviours passion as Gospel is to conceive and by a speciall faith to beleeve that his prayers and strong cries are intercessions for us his obedience our merit his sufferings our satisfactions that we are purged by his sweat quit by his taking clothed by his stripping healed by his stripes justified by his accusations absolved by his condemnation ransomed by his bloud and saved by his crosse These unspeakable benefits which ye have conceived by the Word ye are now to receive by the Sacrament if ye come prepared thereunto for they who come prepared to participate of these holy mysteries receive with them and by them though not in them the body and bloud of our Lord and Saviour and thereby shall I say they become flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone nay rather he becommeth flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone The spirit which raised him quickneth them and preserveth in them the life of grace and them to the life of glory Howbeit as the sweetest meats turne into p Cal. l. 4. instit c. 14. sec 40. Quemadmodum sacrum hunc panem coenae Domini spiritualem esse cibum videmus suavem delicatum non minus quà m salutiferum piis Dei cultoribus cujus gustu sentiunt Christum esse suam vitam quos ad gratiarum actionem erigit quibus ad mutuam inter se charitatem exhortatio est ita rursus in nocentissimum venenum omnibus vertitur quorum fidem non alit non aliter ac cibus corporalis ubi ventrem offendit vitiosis humoribus occupatum ipse quoque vitiosus corruptus nocet magis quà m nutrit choler in a distempered stomach so this heavenly Manna this food of Angels nay this food which Angels never tasted proves no better than poyson to them whose hearts are not purified by faith nor their consciences purged by true repentance and charity from uncleannesse worldlinesse envie malice ranckour and the like corrupt affections If a Noble man came to visit us how would we cleanse and perfume our houses what care would we take to have all the roomes swept hung and dressed up in the best manner Beloved Christians we are even now to receive and entertaine the Prince of Heaven and the Son of God let us therefore cleanse the inward roomes of our soules by examination of our whole life wash them with the water of our penitent teares dresse them up with divine graces which are the sweetest flowers of Paradise perfume them with most fragrant spices and aromaticall odours which are our servent prayers zealous meditations and elevated affectious tuned to that high straine of the sweet Singer of Israel Lift ye up ye gates and be ye q Psal 24.9 lift up ye everlasting doores and the King of glory shall come in Cui c. THE REWARD OF PATIENCE THE LII SERMON PHILIP 2.9 Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him Right Honourable c. THe drift of the blessed Apostle in the former part of this chapter to which my Text cohereth is to quench the fire-bals of contention cast among the Philippians by proud and ambitious spirits who preached the Gospel of truth not in truth and sincerity but in faction and through emulation Phil. 1.15 Some indeed preach Christ out of envie and strife This fire kindled more and more by the breath of contradiction and nourished by the ambition of the teachers and factious partaking of the hearers Saint Paul seeketh to lave out partly with his owne teares partly with Christs bloud both which he mingleth in a passionate exhortation at the entrance of this chapter If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels of mercies fulfill yee my joy bee yee like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vaine glory Look not every man to his owne things but every man also to the things of others Let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the forme of God thought it no robbery to be equall with God But made himselfe of no reputation c. In this context all other parts are curiously woven one in the other only there is a bracke at the fifth verse which seemes to have no connexion at all with the former for the former were part of a zealous admonition to brotherly love and christian reconciliation add this to voluntary obedience and humiliation in those he perswaded them to goe together as friends in this to give place one to the other in those he earnestly beseecheth them to be of one mind among themselves in this to be of the same mind with Christ Jesus Now peace and obedience love and humility seeme to have no great affinity one with the other for though their natures be not adverse yet they are very divers Howbeit if ye look neerer to the texture of this sacred discourse ye shall find it all closely wrought and that this exhortation to humility to which my Text belongeth hath good coherence with the former and is pertinent to the maine scope of the Apostle which was to re-unite the severed affections and reconcile the different opinions of the faithfull among the Philippians that they might all both agree in the love of the same truth and seeke that truth in love This his holy desire he could not effect nor bring about his godly purpose before he had beat down the partition wall that was betwixt them which because it was erected by pride could be no otherwise demolished than by humility The contentions among the people grew from emulation among the Pastors and that from vaine glory As sparkes are kindled by ascending of the smoake so all quarrels and contentions by ambitious spirits the a Judg. 5.16 divisions of Reuben are haughty thoughts of heart A high conceit of their owne and a low value and under rate of the gifts of others usually keep men from yeelding one to the other upon good termes of Christian charity Wherefore the Apostle like a wise Physician applyeth his spirituall remedy not so much parti laesae to the part where the malady brake forth as to the cause the vanitie of the Preachers and pride of the hearers after this manner Christ
to the cast of a Die for a matter of naught a toy a trifle a jussle a taking of the wall an affront a word Doe wee make so small reckoning of that which cost our Saviour his dearest hearts bloud 2. If Judges all those who sit upon life and death did enter into a serious consideration thereof they would not so easily as sometimes they doe cast away a thing that is so precious much lesse receive the price of bloud For if it be accounted and that deservedly a sinne of a deep die to buy and sell things dedicated to the service of God what punishment doe they deserve who buy and sell the living image of God It is reported of Augustus that he never pronounced a capitall sentence without fetching a deep sigh and of Titus the Emperour that hee willingly accepted of the Priests office that hee might never have his hand dipped in bloud and of Nero that when he was to set his hand to a capitall sentence he wished that he could not write Utinam literas nescirem therefore let those Judges think what answer they will make at Christs Tribunall who are so farre from Christian compassion and hearts griefe and sorrow when they are forced to cut off a member of Christ by the sword of justice that they sport themselves and breake jests and most inhumanely insult upon the poore prisoner whose necke lyeth at the stake If any sinne against our neighbour leave a deep staine in our conscience it is the bloudy sinne of cruelty Other sinnes may be hushed in the conscience and rocked asleep with a song of Gods mercy but this is reckoned in holy Scripture among those ſ Gen. 4.10 crying sins that never will be quiet till they have awaked Gods revenging justice This is a crimson sinne and I pray God it cleave not to their consciences who wear the scarlet robe If there be any such Judges I leave them to their Judge and briefly come to you Right Honourable c. with the short exhortation of the Apostle Put you on the t Colos 3.12 bowells of mercy and compassion and if ever the life of your brethren be in your hands make speciall reckoning of it in no wise rashly cast it away let it not goe out of your hands unlesse the law and justice violently wrest and extort it from you Assure your selves that it is a farre more honourable thing and will gaine you greater love and favour with God and reputation with men to u Cicer. pro Quint. de Aquil Mavult commemorare se cùm perdere potuerat pepercisse quà m cùm parcere potuerat perdidisse save a man whom yee might have cast away than to cast him away under any pretence whom yee might have saved 4. If a malefactour arraigned at the barre of justice should perceive by any speech gesture signe or token an inclination in the Judge to mercy how would he worke upon this advantage what suit what meanes would he make for his life how would he importune all his friends to intreat for him how would he fall down upon his knees beseech the Judge for the mercies of God to be good unto him Hoe all ye that have guilty consciences and are privie to your selves of many capitall crimes though peradventure no other can appeach you behold the Judge of all flesh makes an overture of mercy he bewrayeth more than a propension or inclination he discovereth a desire to save you why doe ye not make meanes unto him why do ye not appeale from the barre of his justice to his throne of grace why doe ye not flye from him as he is a terrible Judge to him as he is a mercifull Father Though by nature ye are the sonnes of wrath yet by grace ye are the adopted sonnes of the Father of mercy and God of all consolation who stretcheth out his armes all the day long unto us Let us turne to him yea though it be at the last houre of our death and he will turne to us let us repent us of our sinnes and he will repent him of his judgements let us retract our errours and he will reverse his sentence let us wash away our sinnes with our teares and he will blot out our sentence with his Sonnes bloud When * Dan. 5.5 Belshazzar saw the hand-writing against him on the wall his heart mis-gave him all his joynts trembled and his knees smote one against the other Beloved Christians there is a x Colos 2.14 hand-writing of ordinances against us all and if we see or minde it not it writeth more terrible things against us What shall wee doe to be rid of this feare Is there any means under heaven to take out the writing of God against us Yes beloved teares of repentance with faith in Christs blood maketh that aqua fortis that will fetch out even the hand-writing of God against us The Prophet recordeth it for a miraculous accident that the sun went back many degrees in the Dyall of y Esa 38.8 Ahaz Beloved our fervent prayers and penitent tears will work a greater miracle than this they will bring back again the z Mal. 4.2 Sun of righteousnesse after he is set in our soules God cannot sin Angels cannot repent onely man that sinneth is capable of repentance and shall wee not embrace that vertue which is onely ours Other vertues are remedies against speciall maladies of the soule as humility against pride hope against despaire courage against feare chastity against lust meeknesse against wrath faith against diffidence charity against covetousnesse but repentance is a soveraigne remedy against all the maladies of the minde Other vertues have their seasons as patience in adversity temperance in prosperity almes-deeds when our brothers necessity calleth upon our charity fasting when wee afflict our soules in time of plague or any other judgement of God but repentance is alwayes in season either for our grosser sinnes or for failing in our best actions if for no other cause yet wee are to repent for the insincerity and imperfection of our repentance I will end this my exhortation as the Prophet doth this chapter * Ezek. 18.30.31 Repent and turne your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not bee your ruine Cast away all your transgressions whereby yee have transgressed and make you new hearts and new spirits for why will yee die O ye house of Israel saith the Lord God wherefore turne your selves and live yee O Lord who desirest not that wee should die in our sinnes but our sinnes in us mortifie our fleshly members by the power of thy Sonnes death and renew us in the spirit of our mindes by the vertue of his resurrection that wee may die daily to the world but live to heaven die to sinne but live to righteousnesse die to our selves but live to thee Thou by the Prophet professest thy desire of our conversion say but the word and wee shall bee converted
a fearfull expectation of eternall death I doubt not but that some of you were pricked in heart with this sharp reproofe of sinne which ye heard in the handling of the former Verses and ye resolved forthwith to turne from your evill wayes and walke in the pathes of Gods commandments what remaines but that yee hold on your holy course to the end that ye may winne a garland of the flowers of Paradise Beware of turning out of the way to take up the golden apples which the Divell casteth before you if ye turne never so little aside ye endanger your crowne of glory and hazzard your lives All your former righteousnesse which ye have done shall not be mentioned and in the trespasse that yee have trespassed and in the sinne that ye have sinned in them yee shall dye What a soule and shamefull thing is it with the dogge to returne to your vomit of luxury and with the swine to your wallowing in the mire of sensuall pleasures As in the diseases of the body so also much more of the soule all relapses are dangerous and in some diseases altogether incurable the reason whereof alledged by some learned Physicians is this that when wee first take our bed the malignity of the disease worketh upon corrupt humours in the body which when they are purged and we restored to health if after by any distemper we fall into the same malady the malignity of the disease worketh upon our vitall spirits in like manner the malignity of sinne before our conversion worketh but upon our corrupt nature but after upon the graces of Gods Spirit Remember the possessed man in the Gospel who when the t Luke 11.26 uncleane spirit went out of him returned to his owne home and finding it swept and garnished took seven worse spirits than that which before haunted him and so his last state was worse than his first u John 8.11 Sinne no more saith our Saviour to the impotent man lest a worse thing befall thee * ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Improbè Neptunum accusat qui bis naufragium fecit Eras Adag Lysimachus was wont to say that it was impardonable carelesnesse to stumble twice at the same stone The first time we offend we may plead ignorance and over-sight but hee that twice runneth upon the same rocke if hee bee cast away cannot blame his hard chance but his retchlesse folly x Tertul. de poenitent Comparationem videtur egisse qui utrumque cognoverit judicato pronunciasse eum meliorem cujus se rursus esse maluerit Tertullian acutely observeth that he who after his conversion to God and giving his name to Christ falls againe to serve Sathan in any vicious course of life seemeth to have put God and the Divell in the same ballance and having weighed both their services deliberately and upon a settled judgement to have preferred the service of the Divell and pronounced him the better Master of the two whom he the second time chuseth to serve after hee hath made tryall of both To be overtaken with some kind of temptation or other is the lot of all the sonnes of Adam but when God hath delivered us out of the snare of the Divell and we have escaped the danger and undertaken a new course of life and held it for some time then to turne backe to the wiles of sinne and walke of Sathan what is it else than to breake all our former promises and vowes made to God to resist the motions of the Spirit to strive against grace to cast his feare and commandements behind us and presuming upon his gentlenesse and patience to runne desperately upon the point of his glittering sword which hee hath whet and threatned to make it drunke with the bloud of all retchlesse and presumptuous sinners Notwithstanding all these great and fearfull dangers which we incurre by relapses how many turnings doe we make in our way to Heaven how often doe wee slacke our pace how often doe wee unbend our desires nay rather flye backe like a broken bow After wee have made an open confession of our sinnes and a solemne profession of amendment after wee have protested against our former courses and vowed to walke in newnesse of life and taken the holy Sacrament of our Lords blessed body and bloud upon it yet how soone doe we looke backe to Sodome with Lots wife how soone doe we forget that in private which we promised in publike how soone doe we leave the strait pathes of Gods commandements and follow the sent of our former sinfull pleasures After we have eaten the food of Angels we devoure Sathans morsels after we have drunke the bloud of our Redeemer we greedily swill in iniquity like water Wee find in Scripture many desperately sicke yet cured the first time by our Saviour but where doe we reade in all the Gospel of any blind mans eyes twice enlightened of any deafe eares twice opened of any tyed tongue twice loosened of any possessed with Divels twice dispossessed of any dead twice raised No doubt Christ could have done it but we reade not that ever he did it that we should be most carefull to avoid relapses into our former sins the recovery whereof is alwayes most difficult and in some case as the Apostle teacheth us impossible I tremble almost to rehearse his words y Heb. 6.4 5 6 7 8. It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them againe unto repentance seeing they crucifie to themselves the Sonne of God afresh and put him to an open shame For the earth which drinketh in the raine that commeth oft upon it and bringeth forth herbes meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God But that which bringeth thornes and bryars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned The z Plin. nat hist l. 9. c. 43. Scolopendra hamo devorato omnia interiora evomit donec hamum egerat deinde resorbet Scolopendra having devoured the bait when shee feeleth the hooke to pricke her casteth up all that is in her belly till shee have got up the hooke but as soone as ever that is out of her bowells she suppeth up all that which before she had cast from her How excellently hath nature in the property of this fish set before our eyes the condition and manner of a sinner who after he hath devoured Sathans morsells feeling the hook in his conscience and being pricked with some remorse rids the stomacke of his soule by confession and never leaveth fasting and praying and sighing and sobbing till the hooke be out and the wound of his conscience healed with the balme of Gilead but that being done resorbet interiora omnia he returneth to his former vomit and greedily
gurmandizeth the bait which before he had vomited up Beloved is God bound to help us up as often as we fall carelesly and wilfully What if hee let us lye as a prey for the Divell who runneth about like a Lion seeking whom hee may devoure Can we promise our selves a continuall supply of grace if wee still turne it into wantonnesse Will he beleeve our sighes and teares which have so oft proved false embassadours of our hearts Wee see by the fearfull judgements of Ananias and Sapphira how dangerous a thing it is to lye to the Spirit of God what doe we else when we daily professe in our prayers that we are heartily sorry for our sinnes that we loath and detest our vicious courses that the remembrance of all our former transgressions is grievous unto us and the burthen of them is intolerable whereas our deeds testifie to the world that we are so farre from loathing our former filthinesse that we hunger and thirst after it so farre from hearty repentance that our heart is set and our affections wholly bent to follow wickednesse with greedinesse Let us not deceive our owne soules Beloved God we cannot so many sinnes as we willingly commit after our humble confession and seeming contrition so many evidences we give against our selves that we are dissembling hypocrites and not sincere penitents for this is the touchstone of true repentance it a plangere commissa ut non committas plangenda so to bewaile that we have committed that we commit not that we have bewailed I before compared this life to a sea and now I may not unfitly most of the fish in it either to the Scolopendra of which before or to the Crab which either standeth still or swimmeth backward Doe we dreame as Nebuchadnezzar did of an image with an head of gold and armes of silver and thighes of brasse and legges of earth and clay Doe we not see many that are gold and silver in their childhood and youth precious vessels of grace brasse and iron in their riper yeeres and no better than earth and clay in their old age The * Plin. lib. 8. c. 16. Aristoteles tradit Leaenam primo soetu 5. catulos ac per annos singulos uno minus ab uno sterilescere Lionesse in the naturall story which at the first bringeth forth five young ones and after fewer by one in a short time becommeth quite barren But because I have spoken at large of the dangerous antecedent heare I beseech you a word of the dreadfull consequent All his righteousnesse that he hath done shall not bee mentioned Would it not vexe a Scrivener after he had spent many dayes and much paines upon a large Patent or Lease to make such a blot at the last word that he should be forced to write it all againe yet so it is that as one foule blot or dash with a pen defaceth a whole writing so one soule and enormous crime dasheth and obliterateth the fairest copy of a vertuous life it razeth out all the golden characters of divine graces imprinted in our soules All our fastings and prayers all our sighing and mourning for our sinnes all our exercises of piety all our deeds of charity all our sufferings for righteousnesse all the good thoughts we have ever conceived all the good words we have ever uttered all the good workes we have ever performed in a word all our righteousnesse is lost at the very instant when we resolve to turne from it As one drop of inke coloureth a whole glasse of cleere water so one sinfull and shamefull action staineth all our former life yet this is not the worst for it followeth In his transgression that he hath committed and in the sinne that he hath sinned in them hee shall dye Doth God threaten this judgement onely doth hee not execute it upon presumptuous transgressours When Balthazar tooke a peece of the plate of the Sanctuary to quaffe in it behold presently a a Dan. 5.5 hand writing his doome upon the wall and in the transgression that hee had committed and in the sinne that hee had sinned in it hee dyed Korah Dathan and Abiram had no sooner opened their mouth against Moses than the b Num. 16.32 earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up quicke and in the trespasse which they had trespassed and in the sinne which they had sinned in it they dyed Ananias and Sapphira had no sooner told a lye to Saint Peter and stood to it but they were c Act. 5.5 10. strucke downe to the ground and in the trespasse that they trespassed and in the sinne that they sinned in it they dyed Herod had scarce made an end of his oration to the people and received their applause crying The voice of God and not of man when the Angel made d Act. 12.22 23. an end of him and in the trespasse which hee trespassed and in the sinne that he sinned in it bee dyed Oh that our blasphemous swearers and bloudy murderers and uncleane adulterers and sacrilegious Church-robbers when the Divell edges them on to any impiety or villany would cast but this rub in their way What if God should take mee in the manner and strike mee in the very act I am about and cast mee into the deep dungeon of Hell there to be tormented with the Divell and his angels for evermore Doe I not provoke him to it Doe I not dare him Hath hee not threatened as much Hath hee not done as much Nonne cuivis contingere potest quod cuiquam potest that which is ones case may it not be any ones case Yea but they will say God is mercifull Hee is so else the most righteous upon earth would despaire a thousand times but not to those that continually abuse his long-suffering and presume upon his mercy If there be e Deut. 29.19 20. among you saith God by Moses a root that beareth gall and wormwood and it come to passe that when hee heareth the words of this curse that he blesse himselfe in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walke in the imagination of mine heart to adde drunkennesse to thirst the Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoake against that man and all the curses that are written in this booke shall lye upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven Yea but God promiseth pardon at all times to the penitent But where doth he promise at all times grace to repent Be it that God would tender us his grace at what houre wee please which is presumption in us to hope for yet the longer we deferre the applying of the remedy the more painfull and dangerous the cure will be In the conversive proposition concerning our conversion to God I admit of the convertens viz. True repentance is never too late so they will take along with them the conversa viz. that late repentance is seldome
have the name of songs of degrees ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from the history others from the ceremony a third sort from the musicke and the fourth from the matter and speciall contents of them 1. They who fetch it from the history affirme that these Psalmes were penned or at least repeated and sung by the b Ezra 7.4 Jewes Hamagnaloth in their ascending or comming up from Babylon into their owne Countrey and this conceit is the more probable because some of the Psalmes speake expressely of their returne from captivitie and most of them of Gods deliverance of his people from great dangers and troubles 2. They who deduce it from the sacred rite or ceremony used in the singing of them relate that the Priest sang these Psalmes Hamagnaloth or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã upon the staires or steps as they marched up into the house of the Lord. 3. They who derive the name from the musicke report that these Psalmes were sung hamagnaloth that is with ascensions or raising up the voyce by degrees as it is said that the Levites praised God with a great voyce or a voyce on high 4. They who take it from the speciall contents of these c Chrysost in Psal 20. Psalmes contend that the verses of this Psalme are like the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã rounds of Jacobs ladder on which we may ascend up to heaven as the Angels did upon that These reasons are in a kinde of sequence like notes in musick for because they are Psalmes full of speciall matter for instruction and comfort it is likely that the chiefe Musitian set them to an higher cliffe and because both tune as well as ditty were excellent it is probable that these were selected both to be sung by the Jewes in their ascending from Babylon as also by the Priests in their going up usually into the Temple Thus the title is cleared on all hands now the song it selfe admitteth a like partition to that of the Musitians in their pricked lessons which consist of 1. A ground 2. Running in division upon it Here the ground containes but three notes 1. The person he 2. The attribute watchfull providence or protection 3. The object his people Israel The division upon the first note is Jehovah vers 1. which was and which is and which is to come maker of heaven and earth vers 2. Upon the second thy keeper vers 3. thy preserver vers 7 8. thy protectour in danger vers 5. from danger vers 7. for the time present and future verse the last Upon the third Israel in generall vers 4. every one of Israel in particular vers 5. in body and soule vers 7. at home and abroad vers 8. Behold let your eye be upon him whose eye never sleepeth nor slumbreth observe your observer and preserver Behold in hee sovereigne majestie and omnipotent power in keepeth his gracious protection in Israel his peculiar affection in neither slumbreth nor sleepeth his continuall watchfulnesse Behold we have rung this larum bell heretofore to awake your attention and affection and now it giveth no uncertaine sound but what or whom are we to behold Hee In the next verse the Prophet nameth him Jehovah is thy keeper Of all names of God this may seeme to challenge a kinde of precedencie for it is taken from the essence of God and never in Scripture is attributed to any creature this is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Greekes Tetragrammaton the Latines Jove the Jewes Dread and Feare who when they meet with it in the old Testament adore it with silence or fill up the sentence with Adonai Lord onely as wee read in the Talmud the high Priest in his holy vestments when he entred into the Sanctum Sanctorum in the sacred action of blessing the people might pronounce it Every syllable in it is a mystery Je hath relation to the time future ho to the present vah to that which is past as some of the Rabbins observe And some Christian Interpreters conceive that S. John alludes thereunto in the description of God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã d Apoc. 1.8 Hee which was and is and is to come The verb from whence the name is derived signifieth to be either to teach us that all beeing is from him or that he alone may simply absolutely be said to be who was from all eternity what hee is and shall be to all eternity what he was and is or to give us e Exod. 6.3 assurance of the performance of all his promises How shall wee doubt of any word that proceeds from his mouth whose name carrieth in it existence or performance of all his words or to insinuate in this name the best definition of his nature which is this an infinite spirit who is his owne being or who hath being from himselfe in himselfe and for himselfe All creatures were of him are in him and must bee for him God alone is of himselfe in himselfe and for himselfe Some wierdraw farther and make so small a line that it will scarce hold viz. that all the letters in this name are quiescent to intimate quietem in solo deo esse that the rest of the soule is onely in God according to that divine speech of S. Austine Domine fecisti nos ad te inquietum est cor nostrum donec perveniat ad te O Lord thou hast made us to or for thee and our heart will never be at rest till we come to thee That keepeth God keepeth us both immediately by himselfe and mediately by Angels men His Angels are our guardians in all our wayes Magistrates both ecclesiasticall and civill Parents Tutors and Masters keepers in time of peace and Generals Captaines and Souldiers in time of warre And if you demand with the Poet Quis custodes custodiet ipsos Who shall looke to the overseers of others who shall watch our watchmen and guard our guardians I answer this Custos Israelis in my text There are two sorts of keepers 1. Some keepe from suffering evill as a Guardian doth his Ward 2. Others keep from doing evill as the Lievtenant of the Tower or a Messenger to whose custody a prisoner is committed God is our keeper in both senses for he is both Custos protectionis and Custos conversationis he keepeth us from suffering evill by his protecting power and from doing evill by his restraining grace hee keepes us in prosperity that it corrupt us not in adversity that it conquer us not hee keepeth us in our conception from abortion in our birth from hurt in our life from manifold dangers in our death from eternall terrours Israel Israel as the learned distinguish is sometimes taken for Israel 1. According to the flesh only as unbeleeving Jewes 2. According to the spirit only as beleeving Gentiles 3. According to the flesh and spirit as the beleeving posterity of Jacob. For as Tertullian spake of Christian Souldiers and Panims
complexa gremio jam reliquà naturà abdicatos tum maximé ut mater operiens nomen prorogat tiâulis c. Pliny calleth the earth our tender mother which receiveth us into her bosome when wee are excluded as it were out of the world and covereth our nakednesse and shame and guardeth us from beasts and fowles that they offer no indignity to our carkasses Now because it is to small purpose to bestow the dead in roomes under ground if they may not keep them Abraham wisely provided for this for hee laid downe a valuable consideration for the field where the cave was Were laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a summe of money As Abraham here bought a field out-right and thereby assured the possession thereof to his posterity so by his example the Synagogue under the Law and the Catholike Church under the Gospel especially in dayes of peace secured certaine places for the buriall of the dead either purchased for money or received by deed of gift and after they were possessed of them sequestred them from all other and appropiated them to this use onely by which sequestration and appropriation all such parcells of ground became holy in such sort that none might otherwise use or imploy them than for the buriall of the dead without sacriledge or profanation As the holy oyle ran from Aarons head to his body and the skirts of his garments so holinesse stayeth not in the Chancell as the head but descendeth to the whole body of the Church and the Church-yard as the skirt thereof Mistake mee not brethren I say not that one clod of earth is holier than another or any one place or day absolutely but relatively only For as it is superstition to attribute formall or inherent holinesse to times places parcells of ground fruits of the earth vessell or vestments so it is profanenesse to deny them some kind of relative sanctity which the holy Ghost attributeth unto them in Scripture where wee reade expresly of holy ground holy daies holy oyle and the like To cleare the point wee are to distinguish of holinesse yet more particularly which belongeth 1. To God the Father Sonne and Spirit by essence 2. To Angels and men by participation of the divine nature or grace 3. To the Word and Oracles of God by inspiration 4. To types figures sacraments rites and ceremonies by divine institution 5. To places lands and fruits of the earth as also sacred utensils by use and dedication as 1. Temples with their furniture consecrated to the service of God 2. Tithes and glebe lands to the maintenance of the Priests 3. Church-yards to the buriall of the dead Others come off shorter and dichotomize holy things which say they are 1. Sanctified because they are holy as God his name and attributes c. 2. Holy because they are sanctified 1. Either by God to man as the Word and Sacraments 2. Or by man to God as Priests Temples Altars Tables c. Of this last kind of holy things by dedication some are dedicated to him 1. Immediately as all things used in his service 2. Mediately as all such things without which his service cannot be conveniently done and here come in Church-yards without which some religious workes of charity cannot be done with such conveniency or decency as they ought The Church is as Gods house and the yard is as the court before his doore how then dare any defile it or alienate it or imploy it to any secular use for profit or pleasure To conclude all Church-yards by the Ancients are termed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã dormitories or dortories wherein they lye that sleep in Jesus Now it is most uncivill to presse into or any way abuse the bed-chamber of the living and much more of the dead What are graves in this dormitory but sacred vestries wherein we lay up our old garments for a time and after take them out and resume them new dressed and trimmed and gloriously adorned and made shining and Å¿ Mar. 9.3 exceeding white as snow so as no Fuller on earth can white them These shining raiments God bestow upon us all at the last day for the merits of the death and buriall of our Lord and Saviour Cui c. THE FEAST OF PENTECOST A Sermon preached on Whitsunday THE LXIII SERMON ATCS 2.1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all together with one accord in one place SAint a Hom. in die ascens ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chrysostome comparing the works of redemption with the works of creation observeth that as the Father finished the former so the Sonne the later in six dayes especially in memorie whereof his dearest Spouse the Catholique Church hath appointed six solemnities to be kept by all Christians with greatest fervour of devotion and highest elevation of religious affections These are Christ his 1. Virgin birth 2. Illustrious Epiphanie 3. Ignominious death 4. His powerfull resurrection 5. His glorious ascension 6. His gracious sending downe of the holy Ghost The day of 1. His incarnation by which he entred into the world 2. His manifestation on which he entred upon his office of Mediatour 3. His passion on which he expiated our sinnes 4. His resuscitation by which he conquered death the grave 5. His triumphant returne into heaven on which hee tooke seizin and possession of that kingdome for us 6. His visible mission of the holy Ghost in the similitude of fiery cloven tongues on which he sealed all his former benefits to us and us to the day of redemption This last festivall in order of time was yet the first and chiefest in order of dignity For on Christs birth day hee was made partaker of our nature but on this wee were made partakers after a sort of his in the Epiphany one starre onely stood over the house where hee lay on this twelve fiery tongues like so many celestiall lights appeared in the roome where the Apostles were assembled on the day of his passion he rendred his humane spirit to God his father on this hee sent downe his divine spirit upon us on the resurrection his spirit quickened his naturall body on this it quickened his mysticall the Catholique Church on the ascension he tooke a pledge from us viz. our flesh and carried it into heaven on this hee sent us his pledge viz. his spirit in the likenesse of fiery tongues with the sound of a mighty rushing wind After which the Spouse as Gorrhan conceiveth panted saying b Cant. 4.16 Awake O North wind and come thou South blow upon my garden that the spices therof may flow out let my Beloved come into his garden eat his pleasant fruits The wind she gasped for what was it but the spirit and what are the fragrant spices shee wishes may flow but the graces of the holy Ghost which David calleth gifts for men in the eighteenth verse of the 68. Psalme the former part whereof may furnish the feast we
setteth them r Aug. serm de Pent. Tanquam duodecim radii solis seu totidem lampades veritatis totum mundum illuminantes forth twelve beames of the sunne of righteousnesse or twelve great torches of the truth enlightening the whole world They were as the twelve Patriarks of the new Testament to be consecrated as oecumenicall Pastours throughout all the earth they were as the Å¿ Exod. 15.27 twelve Wels of water in Elim from whence the chrystall streames of the water of life were to be derived into all parts they were as the twelve t Apoc. 12.1 starres in the crowne of the woman which was cloathed with the sunne and the moone under her feet and as the twelve u Apoc. 21.14 pretious stones in the foundation of the celestiall Jerusalem The present assembly in this upper roome was no other than a sacred Synod and in truth there can be no Synod where the Apostles or their successours are not present and Presidents For all assemblies how great soever of Lay-persons called together about ordering ecclesiasticall affaires without Bishops and Pastours are like to Polyphemus his vast body without an eye Monstrum horrendum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum But when the Apostles and their successours Bishops and Prelates and Doctours of the Church are assembled and all are of one accord and bend their endevours one way to settle peace and define truth Christ will make good his promise to be in the * Matt. 18.20 When two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the middest of them And middest of them and by his spirit to lead them into x John 16.13 When the spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth all truth With one accord All the ancient and later Interpreters accord in their note upon the word accord that Animorum unio concordia est optima dispositio ad recipiendum Spiritum sanctum that Unitie and concord is the best disposition of the minde preparation for the receiving of the holy Ghost The bones in Ezekiel were y Ezek. 37.7 8. joyned one to another and tyed with sinewes before the wind blew upon them and revived them so the members of Christ must bee joyned in love and coupled with the sinewes of charitable affections one towards another before the holy Spirit will enlive them Marke saith S. z Serm. de Temp. Membrum amputatum non sequitur spiritus cùm in corpore erat vivebat precisum amittit spiritum Austine in the naturall body how if a member bee cut off the soule presently leaveth it while it was united to the rest of the members it lived but as soone as ever it was severed it became a dead peece of flesh so it is in the mysticall body of Christ those who sever themselves by schisme or faction from the body and their fellow-members deprive themselves of the influence of the holy Spirit Peruse the records of the Church and you shall finde for the most part that faction hath bred heresie When discontented Church-men of eminent parts sided against their Bishops and Superiours Gods spirit left them and they became authours of damnable heresies This was Novatus his case after hee made a faction against Cyprian Donatus after hee made a faction against Meltiades Aerius after hee made a schisme against Eustatius and doe we not see it daily in our Separatists who no sooner leave our Church but the spirit of God quite leaveth them and they fall from Brownisme to Anabaptisme from Anabaptisme to Familisme and into what not The Church and Common-wealth like the * Plin. l. 2. nat hist c. 105. Lapis Tyrrhenus grandis innatat comminutus mergitur Lapis Tyrrhenus while they are whole swimme in all waters but if they be broken into factions or crumbled into sects schismes they will soone sinke if not drowne And so I passe ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from their unanimitie of affection to their concurrence in place In one place The last circumstance is the place which was an upper chamber in Jerusalem The Apostles and Disciples stayed at Jerusalem after the ascension of our Lord partly in obedience to his a Acts 1.4 command which was not to depart out of Jerusalem till they were indued with power from above partly to fulfill the prophecie the b Esay 2.3 Law shall goe out of Sion and the word of God out of Jerusalem They kept all together out of love and for more safetie and they tooke an upper chamber that they might bee more private and retired or because in regard of the great confluence of people at this feast they could not hire the whole house or as Bernardinus conceiveth to teach us that the spirit of c Com. in Act. Ut discamus quod datur spiritus iis qui se ab imis attollunt reruÌ sublimium contemplatione ut cibo se oblectant God is given to such as raise up themselves from the earth and give themselves to the contemplation of high and heavenly mysteries Now to descend from this higher chamber and to come neare to you by some application of this text It will be to little purpose to heare of the Apostles preparation this day if wee prepare not our selves accordingly to discourse of their entertainment and receiving the holy Spirit if wee receive him not into our hearts It is a mockerie as Fulgentius hath it Ejus diem celebrare cujus lucem oderimus To keepe the day of the Spirit if wee hate his light If wee desire to celebrate the feast of the Spirit and by his grace worthily receive the Sacrament of Christ his flesh wee must imitate the Apostles and Disciples in each circumstance 1. Rely upon Gods promises by a lively faith of sending the spirit of his Sonne into our hearts and patiently expect the accomplishment of it many dayes as they did 2. Ascend into an upper chamber that is remove our selves as farre as wee can from the earth and set our affections upon those things that are above 3. Meet in one place that is the Church to frequent the house of God and when we are bid not to make excuses but to present our selves at the Lords boord 4. Not onely meet in one place but as the Apostles did with one accord to reconcile all differences among our selves and to purge out all gall of malice and in an holy sympathy of devotion to joyne sighs with sighs and hearts with hearts and hands with hands and lifting up all together with one accord sing Come holy Ghost so as this day is Pentecost in like manner this place shall be as the upper roome where they were assembled and we as the Apostles and Disciples and the Word which hath now beene preached unto us as the sound of that mightie rushing wind which filled that roome and after wee have worthily celebrated the feast of the Spirit and administred the
Priest Christ Jesus entred after his death and there appeareth for us the curing of all bodily diseases by the word of Christ the healing of all spirituall maladies by his word preached Now if other miracles were significant and enunciative how much more this of tongues Verily he hath little sight of celestiall mysteries who cannot discerne divine eloquence in these tongues diversitie of languages in the cleaving of them and knowledge and zeale in the fire As S. John Baptist was so all the dispensers of Gods mysteries ought to z Bernard in verb. Christi Ille erat lucerna ardens lucens lucere vanum est ardere parum lucere ardere perfectum bee burning and shining lamps shining in knowledge burning in zeale There are three reasons assigned by learned Commentators why the Spirit manifested himselfe in the likenesse of fierie tongues 1. To shew his affinitie with the Word such as is between fire and light the Word is the true light that enlighteneth everie one that commeth into the world and here the Spirit descended in the likenesse of fire 2. To shew that as by the tongue wee taste all corporall meats drinks and medicinall potions so by the Spirit wee have a taste of all spirituall things 3. To teach us that as by the tongue wee speake so by the Spirit wee are enabled to utter magnalia Dei the wonderfull works of God and the mysteries of his kingdome It is not yee that a Matt. 10.20 speake saith our Saviour but the Spirit which speaketh in you which Spirit spake by the month of the Prophets that have beene since the world began Our mouthes and tongues are but like organ-pipes the breath which maketh them sound out Gods praises is the Spirit And those that have their spirituall senses exercised can distinguish betweene the sound of the golden bels of Aaron and of the tinckling b 1 Cor. 13.1 Cymball S. Paul speaketh of for sacred eloquence consisteth not in the enticing words of mans wisdome but in demonstration of the Spirit and power The fire by which these tongues were enlightened was not earthly but heavenly and therefore it is said As of fire Christ three severall times powred out his spirit upon his Apostles first c Vers 1.16 Matthew the tenth at their election and first mission the second is d Vers 22. John the twentieth when he breathed on them and said Receive yee the holy Ghost and thirdly in this place At the first they received the spirit of wisdome and knowledge at the second the spirit of power and authority at the third the spirit of zeale and courage As many proprieties as the naturall Philosophers observe in fire so many vertues the Divines will have us note in the Spirit given to the faithfull they are specially eight Illuminandi of enlightening 2. Inflammandi of heating 3. Purgandi of purifying 4. Absumendi of consuming 5. Liquefaciendi of melting 6. Penetrandi of piercing 7. Elevandi of lifting up or causing to ascend 8. Convertendi of turning For darknesse is dispelled cold expelled hardnesse mollified metall purified combustible matter consumed the pores of solid bodies penetrated smoake raised up and all fuell turned into flame or coale by fire 1. Of enlightening this Leo applyeth to the Spirit 2. Of enflaming this Gregory worketh upon 3. Of purifying this Nazianzen noteth 4. Of consuming this Chrysostome reckons upon 5. Of melting this Calvin buildeth upon 6. Of penetrating this S. Paul e 1 Cor. 2.10 The Spirit searcheth all things pointeth to 7. Of elevating this Dionysius toucheth upon 8. Of converting and this Origen and many of our later writers run upon 1. Fire enlighteneth the aire the Spirit the heart 2. Fire heateth the body the Spirit the soule 3. Fire purgeth out drosse the Spirit our sinnes 4. Fire consumeth the stubble the Spirit our lusts 5. Fire melteth metals the Spirit the hardest heart 6. Fire pierceth into the bones the Spirit into the inmost thoughts 7. Fire elevateth water and fumes the Spirit carrieth up our meditations with our penitent teares also to heaven 8. Fire turneth all things into its owne nature the Spirit converteth all sorts of men and of carnall maketh them spirituall These operations of the Spirit God grant wee may feele in our soules so shall we be worthy partakers of Christ his body and by him be sanctified in body and soule here and glorified in both hereafter To whom c. CHRIST HIS LASTING MONUMENT A Sermon preached on Maundy Thursday THE LXVI SERMON 1 CORINTH 11.26 As often as yee eate of this bread and drinke of this cup yee doe shew the Lords death till he come WHen our Saviour was lifted up from the earth to draw all to him and his armes were stretched out at full length to compasse in and embrace all true beleevers after he had bowed his head as it were to take leave of the world and so given up the ghost a souldier with a a John 19.34 speare pierced his side and forthwith came there out water and bloud Which was done to fulfill two prophecies the one of b Exod. 12.46 Moses A bone of him shall not be broken the other of c Zech. 12.10 Zechary They shall looke on him whom they pierced as also to institute two d Chrysost Cyrillus Theophilact in hunc locum Damascenus lib. 4. de fid c. 10. Aug. l. 2. de Symb. c. 6. tract 9. in Johan Sacraments the one in the water the other in the bloud that ran from him the one to wash away the filth of originall sinne the other to purge the guilt of all actuall The hole in Christs side is the source and spring of both these Wells of salvation in the Church which are continually filled with that which then issued out of our Lords side For albeit he dyed but once actu yet he dyeth continually virtute and although his bloud was shed but once really on the crosse yet it is shed figuratively and mystically both at the font and at the Lords board when the dispenser of the sacred mysteries powreth water on the childe or wine into the chalice and by consecrating the bread apart from the wine severeth the bloud of Christ from his body In relation to which lively representation of his sufferings the Apostle affirmeth that as oft as we eate of that bread and drinke of that cup wee shew the Lords death till he come In the Tabernacle there was sanctum sanctum sanctorum a holy place a place most holy so in the Church Calendar there is a holy time all the time of Lent and the most holy this weeke wherein our blessed Saviour made sixe steps to the Crosse and having in sixe dayes accomplished the workes of mans redemption as his Father in the like number of dayes had finished the workes of creation the seventh day kept his e Bernard in dic Pasch Feria sexta redemit hominem ipso
and crucifying the lusts of the flesh than in verbo or signo After these three wayes we must all shew forth the Lords death Till he come To wit either to each particular man at the houre of his death or to all men and the whole Church on earth at the day of judgement This Sacrament is called by the auncient Fathers viaticum morientium the dying mans provision for the long journey he is to take Every faithfull Christian therefore is to communicate as long as he is able and can worthily prepare himselfe even to the day of his dissolution and all congregations professing the Christian religion must continue the celebration of this holy Sacrament till the day of the worlds consummation As often The seldomer we come to the table of some men the welcomer we are but on the contrary wee are the better welcome the oftener wee come to the Lords Table with due preparation There are two reasons especially why wee ought oft to eate of this bread and drinke of this cup the first is drawne from God and his glory the second from our selves and our benefit The oftener we partake of these holy mysteries being qualified thereunto the more we illustrate Gods glory and confirme our faith If any demand further how oft ye ought to communicate I answer 1. In generall as oft as yee need it and are fit for it The x Cypr. ep 54. Quomodo provocamus eos in confessione nominis Christi sanguinem suum fundere si iis militaturis Christi sanguinem denegamus aut quomodo ad Martyrii poculum idoneos facimus si non eos prius ad bibendum in Ecclesiâ poculum jure communicationis admittimus Martyrs in the Primitive Church received every day because looking every houre to be called to signe the truth of their religion with their bloud they held it needfull by communicating to arme themselves against the feare of death Others in the time of peace received either daily or at least every Lords day The former Saint Austine neither liketh nor disliketh the latter he exhorteth all unto 2. I answer in particular out of Fabianus the Synod of Agatha and the Rubrick of our Communion booke that every one at least ought to communicate thrice a yeere at Christmas Easter and Whitsontide howbeit we are not so much to regard the season of the yeere as the disposition of our mind in going forward or drawing backe from this holy Table The sacrament is fit for us at all times but wee are not fit for it y Gratian. de consecrat distinct 2. Quotidié Eucharistiam dominicam accipere nec laudo nec vitupero omnibus tamen dominicis communicandum hortor Ibid. Qui in natali Domini Paschate Pentecoste non communicaverint catholici non credantur nec inter catholicos habeantur wherefore let every man examine his owne conscience how hee standeth in favour with God and peace with men how it is with him in his spirituall estate whether he groweth or decayeth in grace whether the Flesh get the hand of the Spirit or the Spirt of the Flesh whether our ghostly strength against all temptations be increased or diminished and accordingly as the Spirit of God shall incline our hearts let us either out of sense of our owne unworthinesse and reverence to this most holy ordinance forbeare or with due preparation and renewed faith and repentance approach to this Table either to receive a supply of those graces we want or an increase of those we have and when we come let us Eate of this bread and drinke of this cup. For as both eyes are requisite to the perfection of sight so both Elements to the perfection of the Sacrament This the Schooles roundly confesse Two things saith z Part. 3. q. 63. art 1. Ideò ad Sacramenti hujus integritatem duo concurrunt scilicet spiritualis cibus potus Et q. 80. art 12. Ex parte ipsius Sacramenti convenit quod utrumque sumatur corpus scilicet sanguis quia in utroque consistit perfectio Sacramenti Aquinas concurre to the integrity of the Sacrament viz. spirituall meate and drinke and againe It is requisite in regard of the Sacrament that we receive both kindes the body and the bloud because in both consisteth the perfection of the Sacrament And * Bonavent in 4. sent dist 11. part 2. art 1. Perfecta refectio non est in parte tantùm sed in utroque ideò non in uno tantùm perfectè signatur Christus ut reficiens sed in utroque Bonaventure A perfect refection or repast is not in bread only but in bread and drinke therefore Christ is not perfectly signified as feeding our soules in one kind but in both And a Soto in 12. distinct q. 1. art 12. Sacramentum non nisi in utrâque specie quantum ad integram signification em perficitur Soto The Sacrament as concerning the entire signification thereof is not perfect but in both kindes Doubtlesse if the Sacrament be a banquet or a supper there must be drinke in it as well as meate The Popish communion be it what it may be to the Laity cannot be a supper in which the Laity sup nothing neither can they fulfill the precept of the Apostle of shewing forth the Lords death for the effusion of the wine representeth the shedding of Christs bloud out of the veines and the parting of his soule from his body If we should grant unto our adversaries which they can never evict that the bloud of Christ might be received in the bread yet by such receiving Christs death by the effusion of his bloud for us could in no wise bee represented or shewen forth which the Apostle here teacheth to be the principall end of receiving this Sacrament As oft saith he as yee eate of this bread and drinke of this cup Yee shew forth Christs death In Christs death all Christianity is briefly summed for in it we may observe the justice of God satisfied the love of Christ manifested the power of Sathan vanquished the liberty of man from the slavery of sinne and death purchased all figures of the Old Testament verified all promises of the New ratified all prophecies fulfilled all debts discharged all things requisite for the redemption of mankind and to the worlds restoration accomplished Therein we have a patterne of obedience to the last breath of humility descending as low as hell of meeknesse putting up insufferable wrongs of patience enduring mercilesse torments compassion weeping and praying for bloudy persecuters constancy holding out to the end to which vertues of his person if ye lay the benefits of his passion redounding to his Church which hee hath comforted by his agony quit by his taking justified by his condemnation healed by his stripes cleansed by his bloud quickened by his death and crowned by his crosse if you take a full sight of all the vertues wherewith his crosse is beset as with so
accounts and cleere them a holy tenth of the yeere to be offered to him the sacred Eve and Vigils to the great feast of our Chrisââan passover Your humbling your bodies by watching and fasting your souâes by weeping and mourning your rending your hearts with sighes the resolving your eyes into teares your continuall prostration before the throne of grace offering up prayers with strong cryes are at this time not only kind fruits of your devotion speciall exercises of your mortification necessary parts of contrition but also testimonies of obedience to the Law and duties of conformity to Christs sufferings and of preparation to our most publique and solemne Communions at Easter To pricke you on forward in this most necessarie dutie of pricking your hearts with godly sorrow for your sinnes I have made choyce of this verse wherein the Evangelist S. Luke relateth the effects of S. Peters Sermon in all his auditours 1. Inward impression they were pricked in heart 2. Outward expression men and brethren what shall we doe What Eupolis sometimes spake of Pericles that after his oration made to the people of Athens d Cic. de clar orat In animis auditorum aculeos reliquit he left certaine needles and stings in their mindes may be more truly affirmed of this Sermon of the Apostle which when the Jewes heard they were pricked at heart and not able to endure the paine cry out men and brethren what shall we doe The ancient painters to set forth the power of eloquence drew e Bodin l. 4. de rep c. 7. Majores Herculem Celticum senem effingebant ex cujus ore catenarum maxima vis ad aures infinitae multitudinis perveniret c. Hercules Celticus with an infinite number of chaines comming out of his mouth and reaching to the eares of great multitudes much after which manner S. Luke describeth S. Peter in my text with his words as it were so many golden chaines fastened first upon the eares and after upon the hearts of three thousand and drawing them up at once in the drag-net of the Gospell Now our blessed Saviour made good his promise to him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã thou shalt catch live men and this accesse of soules to the Church and happie successe in his ministeriall function seemeth to have beene fore-shewed to him by that great draught of fish taken after Christs resurrection the draught was an f John 21.11 hundred fiftie and three great fishes and for all there were so many yet saith the text the net was not broken The truth alwayes exceedeth the type for here were three thousand great and small taken and yet the net was not broken there was no schisme nor rupture thereby for all the converts were of one minde they were all affected with the same malady they feele the same paine at the heart and seeke for ease and help at the hands of the same Physitians Peter and the rest of the Apostles saying Men and brethren what shall we doe Now when they heard these things they were pricked Why what touched them so neere no doubt those words g Ver. 23 24. Him being delivered by the determinate counsell and fore-knowledge of God yee have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slaine whom God hath raised up having loosened the paines of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it This could not but touch the quickest veines in their heart that they should be the death of the Lord of life that they should slay their Messiah that they should destroy the Saviour of the world Of all sinnes murder cryeth the loudest in the eares of God and men of all murders the murder of an onely begotten sonne most enrageth a loving father and extimulateth him unto revenge in what wofull case then might they well suppose themselves to be who after S. Peter had opened their eyes saw that their hands ãâã beene deepe in the bloud of the Sonne of God Now their blasphemous words which they spake against him are sharp swords wounding deeply their soules the thornes wherewith they pricked his head and the nailes wherewith they pierced his hands and feet pricked and pierced their very heart They were pricked in heart That is they were pierced tho row with sorrow they tooke on most grievously Here lest wee mistake phrases of like sound though not of like sense we must distinguish of spiritus compunctionis and compunctio spiritus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã h Rom. 11.8 a spirit of compunction reproved in the unbeleeving Jewes and compunction of spirit or of the heart here noted by S. Luke the former phrase signifieth slumber stupiditie or obstinacie in sinne this latter hearty sorrow for it the former is a malady for the most part incurable the latter is the cure of all our spirituall maladies Now godly sorrow is termed compunction of the heart for three reasons as i Lorin in Act. c. 2. Dicitur dolor de peccato admisso quod est compunctio vel quia aperitur cordis apostema vel quia vulneratur cor amore Dei vel quia daemon dolore invidiâ sauciatur Lorinus conceiveth 1. Because thereby the corruption of the heart is discovered as an aposteme is opened by the pricke of a sharp instrument 2. Because thereby like the Spouse in the Canticles wee become sicke of love as the least pricke at the heart causeth a present fit of sicknesse 3. Because thereby the Divell is as it were wounded with indignation and envie When they heard these things they were pricked in heart when they were pricked in heart They said As the stroakes in musicke answer the notes that are prickt in the rules so the words of the mouth answer k Cic. 3. de Ora. Totum corpus hominis omnes ejus vultus omnesque voces ut nervi infidibus ita sonant à motu quoque animi sint pulsae to the motions and affections of the heart The Anatomists teach that the heart tongue hang upon one string And hence it is that as in a clocke or watch when the first wheele is moved the hammer striketh so when the heart is moved with any passion or perturbation the hammer beats upon the bell and the mouth soundeth as we heard from David l Psal 45.1 My heart is enditing a good matter and my tongue is the pen of a ready writer And from S. Paul m Rom. 10.10 With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and with the tongue confession is made unto salvation And from our Saviour n Luke 6.45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an evill man out of the evill treasure of his heart bringeth forth evill things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Many among us complaine that they are tongue-tied that when they are at their private devotions their words sticke
after the act of sinne is committed there is felt in all that have not seared consciences remorse sorrow feare and shame sorrow for the losse of Gods favour the jewels of his grace the comforts of the Spirit feare for the guilt of sinne and shame for the filthinesse and turpitude thereof Of these three consisteth compunction which y In verbo compunct Compunctio est humilitas mentis cum lachrymis veniens de recordatione peccati timore judicii S. Isidore defineth to be a dejection of the minde with teares caused by the remembrance of sinne and feare of judgement By z Ex Aquinate in supplement Humilitas mentis inter spem timorem annihilans peccatum nam ut vermis qui nascitur in ligno lignum exest ita dolor ex peccato peccatum ipsum absumit S. Gregorie thus A dejection of the mind full of anxietie betweene feare and hope annihilating or destroying sinne For as the worme which breedeth in the wood consumeth it so saith St Chrysostome the sorrow which ariseth from sinne consumeth and destroyeth it Pia proles hoc ipso quod devoret matrem An happie issue in this onely that it eateth out the heart of the parent Thus I have pricked you out to use the phrase of the Musitians a lesson of compunction which though it be a sad pavin to the outward man yet it is a merrie galliard to the inward The physicke which kindly worketh and maketh the patient heart-sicke for the present yet much comforteth him out of assured hope that the present pain will bring future ease help The smarting plaister is the most wholsome such is that I have spread by the amplification of my Text and now I am to lay it to by the application thereof If compunction of the heart be the true marke of a penitent let the eye of our soule look into our heart and see whether we can find it there If we find it we may take comfort in it if we find it not we may be sure we are no true converts There is no vertue in the physick if it paine us not no force in the plaister if it smart not the dis-located bone is not brought to his place if we felt no pain in the setting it As the colours and shapes which are burnt in glass cannot be obliterated unless the glass be broken all to pieces so neither can the ougly shapes of vices images of Sathan be razed out of the soule unlesse the heart be broken with true contrition Spices when they are bruised and pownded in a mortar yeeld a most fragrant smell O then let us bruise our hearts with true contrition Tertul. de poenitent Miserum est securi cauterio exuri pulvoris alicujus mordacitate cruciari attamen quae per insuaviem medentur emolumento curationis offensam sui excusant praesentem injuriam supervenientis utilitatis gratia commendat that our zealous meditations may be like fragrant spices in the nostrils of God If the Jewes were pricked in heart at the remembrance of Christs suffering if their hearts bled for once crucifying the Lord of life how much more ought ours for crucifying him daily O thinke upon this dearly beloved seriously both in the day and in the night and let it make your beds to swim with teares As often as ye sweare by the wounds of Christ ye teare them wider as often as ye belch out blasphemy against God ye spit upon your Saviours face as often as ye distemper your selves with strong wines ye give him vinegar to drink as often as ye grieve the holy spirit ye pricke his very heart as often as yee unworthily receive the sacrament ye tread his bloud under your feet Me thinks I hear you sobbing and sighing out the words of the Jewes in my Text If these things are so if those sins are so hainous and grievous which we have made so light of Men and brethren what shall we doe I answer you in the words of Saint Peter following Repent and be baptized every one of you not in the font of sweet water in the Church but in the salt water of your teares let your a Cypr. de laps Alto vulneri diligens longa medicina ne desit poenitentia crimine minor non sit sorrow be answerable to your sinfull pleasures and bring forth fruits meet for repentance The wound is deep thrust the tent to the bottome of it your sins have been many and grievous let your teares bee abundant and your sighes many Yee have had a long time of sinning give not over presently your exercises of mortification hold on your strict abstinence your devout prayers your frequent watchings your humble confessions and sad meditations the whole time which the Church hath prescribed you by your sorrow here prevent eternall b Tertul. de poenit Fletu fletum temporali afflictione aeterna supplicia expungite in quantum non peperceritis vobis in tantum vobis parcet Deus lamentations and woe by your remorse of conscience here prevent weeping and gnashing of teeth hereafter by your temporall affliction in this world prevent eternall malediction and endlesse torments of body and soule in hell the lesse you spare your selves in this kind God will spare you so much the more and so much the sooner and easier be reconciled unto you To whom c. CHRISTIAN BROTHER-HOOD A Sermon preached on the second Sunday in Lent THE LXVIII SERMON ACTS 2.37 And they said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren MAny of the ancients write that S. Luke was an excellent limmer and drew the blessed Virgin to the life how true it is that he tooke the picture of the mother of God I know not for the first relaters were Apocryphall writers but sure I am in this text as a table hee setteth forth the children of God in their colours and describeth them by their proper marks which are three 1. In the eare 2. In the heart 3. In the hand 1. The eare-marke is carefull attention when they heard 2. The heart-marke is deepe compunction they were pricked in heart 3. The hand-marke is sollicitous action Men and brethren what shall we doe Wee have already viewed the eares of these converts and found them bored thorow for the perpetuall service of God and hung with the jewels of the Gospel next we searched into their hearts and found them pierced with sorrow for being some way accessarie at least by consent to the death of the Lord of life and now wee are to looke to their hands and see what they will doe or rather what they will not bee willing to doe to make their peace with God and wash away the guilt of spilling his Sonnes bloud Men and brethren what shall we doe Ye heare men and brethren in this close of the verse 1. A courteous compellation which savoureth of 1. Humanity Men. Now they hold
cognation or affinity 3. by nation or country 4. by love affection 1. common to all men the sons of Adam our father 2. speciall to all Christians the sons of the same mother the Church 1. Nature made Jacob and Esau brethren 2. Affinity our Lord and James brethren 3. Nation or country Peter and the Jewes brethren 4. Affection and obligation 1. Spirituall all Christians 2. Carnall and common all men brethren Thus the significations of brother in Scripture like the circles made by a stone cast into the water not only multiply but much enlarge themselves the first is a narrow circle about the stone the next fetcheth a bigger compasse the third a greater more capacious than it the fourth so large that it toucheth the bankes of the river in like manner the first signification of brethren is confined to one house nay to one bed and wombe the second extendeth it selfe to all of one family or linage the third to the whole nation or country the fourth and last to the utmost bounds of the earth No name so frequently occurreth in Scripture as this of brethren no love more often enforced than brotherly We need not goe farre for emblemes thereof b Plut. de amor fratr Plutarch hath found many in our body for wee have two eyes two eares two nostrills two hands two feet which are as hee termeth them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã brethren and twinne members formed out of like matter being of one shape one bignesse and serving to one and the selfe same use Nature her selfe kindleth the fire of brotherly love in our hearts and God by the blasts of his Spirit and the breath of his Ministers bloweth it continually yet in many it waxeth cold and in some it seemeth to bee quite extinguished Saint Paul prayed that the Philippians c Phil. 1.9 love might abound more and more Hee exhorteth the Hebrewes Let brotherly d Heb. 13.1 love continue but we need now-adaies to cast our exhortation into a new mold and say Let brotherly love begin in you For were it begun so many quarrells so many factions so many sects so many broiles so many law-suites would not be begun as we see every day set on foot Did we looke upon the badge of our livery which is mutuall e John 13.35 By this all men shall know that ye are my disciples if ye love one anther love we would cry shame of our selves for that which we see and heare every day such out-cries such railing such cursing such threatning such banding opprobrious speeches such challenges into the field and spilling the bloud of those for whom Christ shed his most precious bloud Is it not strange that they should fall foule one upon another who have bin both washed in the same laver of regeneration that they should thirst after one anothers bloud who drinke of the same cup of benediction that they should lift their hands up one against another for whom Christ spread his hands upon the crosse Let there be no f Gen. 13.8 falling out between mee and thee saith Abraham to Lot for wee are brethren Let mee presse you further touch you neerer to the quick Let there be no strife among you for you are members one of another nay which is more Yee are all members of Christ Jesus What members of Christ and spurne one at another members of Christ and buffet one another members of Christ and supplant one another members of Christ and devoure one another members of Christ and destroy one another It is true as Plutarch observeth that the neerer the tye is the fouler the breach As bodies that are but glewed together if they be severed or rent asunder they may be glewed as fast as ever they were but corpora continua as flesh and sinewes if any cut or rupture be made in them they cannot bee so joyned together againe but a scarre will remaine so those who are onely glewed together by some civill respects may fall out and fall in againe without any great impeachment to their reputation or former friendship but they who are tied together by nerves and sinewes of naturall or spirituall obligation and made one flesh or spirit together if there fall any breach between them it cannot be so fairely made up but that like the putting a new peece of cloth into an old garment the going about to piece or reconcile them maketh the rent worse When g Cic. famil ep l. 9. Noli pati litigâre fratres judiciis turpiâus conflictari Tully understood of a suit in law commenced between Quintus and M. Fabius hee earnestly wrote to Papirius to take up the matter g Cic. famil ep l. 9. Noli pati litigâre fratres judiciis turpiâus conflictari Suffer not saith hee brethren to implead one another For though suits about title of lands seem to be the fairest of any yet even these are foule among brethren wherefore my beloved brethren let us 1. Prevent all occasions of difference let there be no tindar of malice in our hearts ready to take fire upon the flying of the least sparke into it let us so root and ground our selves in love that no small offence may stirre us let us endeavour by all friendly offices so to endeare our selves to our brethren and so fasten all naturall and civill ties by religious obligations that we alwaies keep the h Ephes 4.3 unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace 2. If it cannot be but that offences will come and distract us if the Divell or his agents cast a fire-brand among us let us all runne presently to quench it let us imitate wise Mariners who as soone as they spie a leake spring in the ship stop it with all speed before it grow wider and endanger the drowning of the vessell 3. After the breach is made up and the wound closed and healed let us not rub upon the old sore according to the rule of i Coel. Rodig antiq lect l. 16. 19. Pythagoras Ignem gladio ne fodias let us not rake into the ashes or embers of the fire of contention lately put out As we pray that God may cast our sinnes so let us cast our brothers trespasses against us into the k Micah 7.19 bottome of the sea The Athenians as l Plut. lib. de fraterno amoâe Plutarch writeth tooke one day from the moneth of May and razed it out of all their Calenders because on that day Neptune and Minerva fell out one with another even so let us Christians much more bury those daies in perpetuall oblivion strike them out of our Almanacks in which any bloudy fray or bitter contention hath fallen among us For our Father is the God of peace our Saviour is the Prince of peace our Comforter is the Spirit of peace and love God who is m John 4.8 love and of his love hath begot us loveth nothing more
in the children of his love than the mutuall love of his children one to another n Mat. 23.8 Ye are all brethren love therefore as brethren be pitifull be courteous not rendering evill for evill nor railing for railing but contrariwise o 1 Pet 3.8 9. blessing knowing that yee are thereunto called that yee should inherit a blessing As beames of the same sunne let us meet in the center of light as rivelets of the same spring joyne in the source of grace as sprigs on the same root or twins on the same stalke sticke alwaies together Such was the love of the Saints of God in old time that their hearts were knit one to the other yea which is more All the beleevers had but p Acts 4.32 The multitude of them that beleeved were of one heart of one soule one heart But such love is not now to be found in our bookes much lesse in our conversations we hardly beleeve there can be such love in beleevers we seem not to be of their race wee seem rather to be descended many of us from Coelius who could not be quiet if he were not in quarrells who was angry if he were not provoked to anger whose motto was Dic aliquid ut duo simus Say or doe something that we may be two or from Sylla of whom Valerius Maximus writeth that it was a great question whether he or his malice first expired for he died railing and railed dying or of Eteocles and Polynices who as they warred all their life so after a sort they expressed their discord and dissention after their death for at their funerals the flame of the dead corpses parted asunder when they were burned When the Son of man commeth shall hee find q Luke 18.8 faith on the earth saith our Saviour I feare we may demand rather shall he find charity on the earth All the true family of love may seem to be extinct for the greater part of men as if they had been baptized in the waters of strife from the font to their tomb-stone are in continuall frettings vexings quarrells schisme and faction Turba gravis paci placidaeque inimica quieti But let these Salamanders which live perpetually in the fire of contention take heed lest without speedy repentance they be cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone forever If r Mat. 5.9 blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God cursed are all make-bates for they shall be called the children of the wicked one If the fruits of Å¿ Jam. 3.18 righteousnesse are sowne in peace of them that make peace certainly the fruits of iniquity are sowne in contention by them that stirre up strife and contention If they that sow t Pro. 6.16 19. These sixe things doth the Lord hate yea seven are abomination unto him a false witnesse that speaketh lies and he that soweth discord among brethren discord among brethren are an abomination to the Lord they that plant love and set concord are his chiefe delight What u Cic. tusc 1. Optimum non nasci proximum quà m citissimè mori Silenus spake of the life of man The best thing was not to be borne the next to dye as soone as might be may bee fitly applyed to all quarrells and contentions among Christian brethren it is the happiest thing of all that such dissentions never see light the next is if they arise and come into the Christian world that they dye suddenly after their birth at the most let them be but like those ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã small creatures Aristotle speaketh of whose life exceedeth not a summers day Let not the * Ephes 4.26 sun goe down upon our wrath How can we long be at odds and distance if we consider that we are all brethren by both sides For as we call one God our Father so we acknowledge one Church our Mother wee have all sucked the same breasts the Old and New Testaments we are all bred up in the same schoole the schoole of the crosse we are all fed at the same table the Lords board we are all incorporated into one society the communion of Saints and made joynt-heires with our elder brother Christ Jesus of one Kingdome in Heaven If these and the like considerations cannot knit our hearts together in love which is the bond of perfection the Heathen shall rise up in judgement and condemne us x Mart. epig. lib. 1. Si Lucane tibi vel si tibi Tulle darentur Qualia Ledaei fata Lacones habent c. Martial writeth of two brothers between whom there was never any contention but this who should die one for the other Nobilis haec esset pietatis rixa duobus Quod pro fratre mori vellet uterque prior The speech also of Pollux to Castor his brother is remarkable y Mart. epig. lib. 1. Vive tuo frater tempore vive meo I cannot let passe Antiochus who when he heard that his brother Seleuchus who had been up in armes against him died at Galata commanded all the Court to mourne for him but when afterwards hee was more certainly enformed that he was alive and levied a great army against him he commanded all his Commanders and chiefe Captaines to sacrifice to their gods crown themselves with garlands for joy that his brother was alive But above all z Plut. de fraterno amore Euclid shewed in himselfe the true symptomes of brotherly affection who when his brother in his rage made a rash vow Let me not live if I be not revenged of my brother Euclid turnes the speech the contrary way Nay let me not live if I be not reconciled to my brother let me not live if we be not made as good friends as ever before Shall nature be stronger than grace bonds of flesh tie surer than the bonds of the spirit one tie knit hearts together faster than many The a Cic. offic l. 1. Oratour saith Omnes omnium charitates patria complectitur but we may say more truly Omnes omnium charitates Christus complectitur all bonds of love friendship affinity and consanguinity all neernesse and dearnesse all that can make increase or continue love is in Christ Jesus into whose spirit we are all baptized into whose body we are incorporated who in his love sacrificed himselfe to his Fathers justice for us who giveth his body and bloud to us in this sacrament to nourish Christian love in us For therefore we all eate of one bread that we may be made one bread therefore wee are made partakers of his naturall body that wee may be all made one mysticall body and all quickned with one spirit that spirit which raised up our head Christ Jesus from the dead Cui cum Patre c. THE PERPLEXED SOULES QUAERE A Sermon preached on the third Sunday in Lent THE LXIX SERMON ACTS 2.37 What shall we doe THe words of the
for it But I never yet read or heard of any that sinned with a high hand but his owne heart smote him with feare For where sinne is of a deepe die not washed out with penitent teares there is guilt where guilt is there must needs be an expectation of condigne punishment and where this expectation is continuall feare The sinners conscience tells him that his fact is unjust and God is just and therefore in justice will give injustice his just reward either in this life or in that which is to come As Antipho through a disease in his eye thought that he had his owne Image alwayes before him so he that hath charged his conscience with any abominable or very foule and bloudy crime seeth alwayes before him the ougly image of his sinne and hideous shape of his deserved punishment Hae sunt impiis assiduae domesticaeque furiae m Cic pro Rose Amer. these are the ghosts that haunt wicked men these are the furies that follow them with torches and scorch them with flashes of hell fire these suffer them not non modo sine cura quiescere sed ne spirare quidem sine metu these make them flie when no man pursueth them cry when no man smiteth-them quake when no man threatneth them languish in a cold sweat when no fit is upon them n Juvenal sat 17. frigidamens est Criminibus tacitâ sudant praecordia culpâ When o Cic. ib. Sua quemque fraus suus terror maxime vexar suum quemque scâlus agitat suae malâ cogitationes consâientiaeque animi terrent they are alone and quiet out of all other noise they heare their sinne cry for vengeance At which huy and cry they are so startled that though many be sometimes free from the cause of their feare yet they are never free from feare of danger Every shadow they take for a man every man for a spie every spie for an accuser As in a fever the greater the fit is the more vehement the shaking so the more horrid the sinne is the more horrible the dread The sinne of the Jewes in giving consent to the saving of a murderer and the murther of the Saviour is beyond comparison and therefore their feare beyond measure As a child that hath committed some great fault and expecteth to bee fleaed for it cryeth to his master What shall I doe Or a passenger suddenly benighted when he perceiveth that he is riding downe a steepe rocke cryeth to all within hearing Oh what shall I doe Or a patient that is in a desperate case feeleth unsufferable paine and apprehendeth no meanes of ease cryeth to his physician What shall I doe Or a seafaring man in a storme in the night when he heareth the water roare and feareth every moment to be swallowed up in the sea cryeth to the Pilot What shall we doe In this perplexitie in this fright in this agonie are the Jewes in my text and from hence is this speech of distracted men What shall we doe This their feare ought to strike a terrour in us all who have our part in their guilt for we by our sinnes have and doe provoke the Father grieve the Spirit and even crucifie againe the Sonne how can wee then but feare when we heare Gods threats against sinne when we see daily his judgements upon sinne when wee remember our Saviours sufferings to satisfie Gods justice for sinne How dare we draw iniquity with cords and sinne with cart-ropes How dare we kicke against the pricks How dare we make a covenant with death and league with hell How dare wee hatch the cockatrice egge How dare wee lie at the mouth of the Lions den Let no man say in his heart when he plotteth wickednesse or committeth filthinesse in the darke no eye seeth mee and therefore what need I feare for hee that hath eyes like a flame of fire pierceth the thickest darknesse and discovereth every hidden roome in thy house and corner in thy heart hee seeth thee in secret and will reward thee openly if thou by smiting thine owne heart prevent not his blowes as the Jewes did in my text saying What shall we doe This interrogation riseth from three springs or heads 1 Feare of punishment 2 Sorrow for sinne 3 Hope of pardon A man in feare driven to an exigent being now at his wits end saith with himselfe What shall I doe likewise a man overwhelmed with cares and ready to be drowned in sorrow as hee is sinking cries Oh! what shall I doe or what will become of mee The fruit of sin is sweete in the mouth but bitter in the stomacke like poison given in a sugred cup it goeth downe sweetly but it kindleth a fire in the bowels it tickleth the heart in the beginning but it prickes it in the end it is pleasure in doing it is sorrow when it is done Saint Bernard speaketh feelingly Sinne after it is perpetrated leaves in the soule a sad farewell amara foeda vestigia where the divell hath set his foote there remaines after he is gone a foule print and a stinking sent Though the sinner use all meanes to dead the flesh of his heart though he make it as hard as flint or the nether milstone yet conscience writeth in it as with the point of a Diamond this sentence of the eternall Judge of quick and dead p Rom. 2.9 Tribulation and anguish upon every soule that sinneth They that stabbed Caesar afterwards turned the point of the same dagger upon themselves so it is certaine that no man by sin grieveth Gods Spirit but he woundeth himselfe with sorrow If the sprayning a veine or dis-locating a bone or putting a member out of joynt or distempering the bloud be a pain to the body how much more is the distorting the will the disordering the affections the quenching the light of reason by sinne a torment to the soule There is no man that hath not lost his senses but hath sense of great losses what losse comparable to the losse of Gods favour and love the comforts of the spirit and the treasures of his grace Though a sinner should gaine the whole world by his sinne yet would hee be a loser for at the present he hazzardeth and without mature repentance he loseth his owne soule To speake nothing of losse of time by idlenesse of wit by drunkennesse of strength by incontinencie of health by intemperancie of estate by prodigality of credit and reputation by lewdnesse and dishonestie besides the guilt of sinne and losse by it there is great folly in it which vexeth the mind and discontenteth the spirit of a man his thoughts perpetually accusing him in this manner This thou mightest have done and here thou befooledst thy selfe and thou hast brought trouble and shame upon thee thou mayst thanke thy selfe for all the mischiefes that have befalne thee Yea but ye may object Are sinne and sorrow such individuall companions is there no sorrow but for sinne
he but out of as great or greater pride so our adversaries the Papists may be justly taxed for exterminating one errour the errour of consubstantiation by bringing in another as bad the errour of transubstantiation which putteth accidents without subjects quantity without dimensions bodies without place and what not l Sueton in Calig Utinam populus Romanus haberet unicam cervicem Caligula wished that all his enemies had but one necke that hee might cut them all off at one blow the three heresies now mentioned have all but one necke I will therefore smite off all their heads at once with the sword of the Spirit Christ was like unto us in all things sinne onely excepted if so then was hee circumscribed with quantity and confined to one place at once then not in many places as the Papists teach and much lesse in all places as the Eutychians and Lutherans beare us in hand he is But to leave the confutation of these heresies and draw neere unto our present occasion Christ never came to any place but hee left behinde him some print of his Majestie or pledge of his love he touched no where but he wrought some miracle or shewed some mercy If the presence of the Arke which was but a type or shadow brought a blessing to Obed Edome how much more shall the presence of the body the truth himself make the place happie wheresoever he resideth Jesus never commeth without salvation with him and therefore when he entred into the house of Zaccheus he laid Hodie huic domui salus contigit this day salvation m Luk. 19.9 is come to this house The approach of the Sunne is the spring and joy of the yeare even so the approach of Christ is the bloââoming of the trees and opening the flowers of Paradise it crowneth âoth the Church and Common-wealth with spirituall and temporall blessings as it were garlands one upon the other Yea but how may his approach be obtained who can intreat him to come neare us what load-stone can draw his love to us I answer Our love our faith our hope our devotion n James 4.8 Draw neere unto God and hee will draw neere unto you Draw neere unto him by faith accedit qui credit faith layeth hold on him Draw neere unto him by hope hope relieth upon him Draw neere unto him by love love embraceth him and o Psal 73.28 adhereth to him Draw neere unto p Esa 29.3 him with your lippes by prayer with your q Eccles 5.1 eares by listening to his Word draw neare with your whole body by presenting your selves at his table and worthily participating the holy Sacrament Thus if ye draw neere to him he will draw neere to you and comming neere to you as he did to Jerusalem hee will fixe his eyes on you And so I passe to the second step 2. Vidit he beheld it There is comfort when the Physician commeth to visit his patient there is hope when an expert Chirurgeon vieweth a dangerous wound David thought it enough to say Looke r Psal 25.18 upon mine affliction and miserie and Å¿ Psal 84.9 Looke upon the face of thine annointed and Lord lift t Psal 4.8 thou up the light of thy countenance upon us God never casteth his eye upon any but he settleth his affection upon him and hee never settleth affection upon any without an intention of blessing them As Christ cured mens bodies with a word so their soules with a looke Hee looked upon Peter and presently he repented he looked upon Zaccheus and presently he was justified hee looked upon Saint Matthew and presently hee was called Why then was Jerusalem no better for this gracious aspect because she shut her eyes against the true light When Christ looked to her she turned away from him when he wept for her she laught at him when hee sought to save her shee plotted his death and destruction Yet were not the beams of Christs eye cast in vaine upon this City for the spirituall Jerusalem as Saint u Orig. in hunc locum Origen telleth us that is the faithfull in Jerusalem were the better for them for they observed our Saviours eye and kept his teares in a bottle and laid up his words in their heart and being fully perswaded of the truth of his prediction concerning the destruction of the City and Temple when forty years after Titus began to lay siege to it they left it and fled to Pella and thereby escaped all those miseries and troubles which our Saviour could not foretell with drie eyes The Philosophers and Physicians are not yet agreed utrum visio fiat extramittendo vel intromittendo whether in the act of seeing the eye casteth out beames upon the object or receiveth species from it The question is easily resolved here for Christ both cast out a beame of his affection out of his eye on the City and received also the species or image of it into his eye at once he looked upon her with a twofold eye 1 The eye of sense 2 The eye of Prophesie To the eye of sense Jerusalem appeared most beautifull glorious and happy environed with strong walls adorned with magnificent buildings stored with people abounding in wealth and furnished with all sort of munition but to the eye of prophesie shee appeared in another hiew with her walls sacked her houses burnt her turrets demolished her young men slaine her virgins defloured her priests sacrificed her streets piled with carkasses and her channels running with gore bloud u Vir. Aenead 2 Quis talia fando Temperet à lachrymis This most lamentable spectacle though a farre off drew teares from our Saviours eyes And so I passe to the third step which is the wettest of all 3. Flevit super eam He wept over it In the water of Christs teares we may see after a sort the face both of his humane and divine nature In that they were teares issuing from the troubled fountain of sorrow in his heart they prove him to be a true man but in that they represented the weeping and mourning that should ensue after his death in Jerusalem they demonstrate him to be true God for x Tertul. apol argumentum divinitatis veritas divinationis the certainty of divination is an argument of divinity Neither were these teares onely indices naturae evidences of his nature but pledges of his love and as y Orig. in Mat. Omnes beâtitudines quas in Evangelio locutus est suo firmavit exemplo Origen noteth instances of his doctrine touching the blessednesse of mourners Christ exemplified every point of his doctrine in himselfe he taught that the poore in spirit are blessed and none so humble in heart as hee hee taught that peace-makers were blessed who so great a peace-maker as he who is our peace and reconciled heaven and earth hee taught blessed are they that suffer for righteousnesse sake and none ever suffered so much
they who are frozen in their sins were somtimes singed and thawed with the consideration of this infernall and eternall fire If they did but minde it they could not but feare it and if they feared it they would in time seeke meanes to escape it and if they sought them in time they might find them in my text And so I passe from the salting of men with fire to the seasoning of sacrifices with salt Every sacrifice shall bee salted with salt There was nothing but t 2 King 2.14 death and barrennesse in the waters of Jericho till Elisha cast salt in the springs In these waters Saint u Isidor Pelus ep 16. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Isidore descryeth a type of our naturall estate wherein we were dead in sinnes and barren of good workes till the true Elisha Christ Jesus cast salt in the springs I meane our hearts whence are the issues of life Salt hath three most knowne properties 1 To powder 2 To season 3 To cleanse It powdereth flesh and keepeth it from putrefaction it seasoneth meats and drinkes and it cleanseth wounds fretting and eating out the corrupt matter in them And answerable hereunto there are three effects of the word mixed with faith 1 It powdereth the heart 2 It seasoneth the speech 3 It cleanseth the sores of wounded consciences Materiall salt is not more necessary in our houses than this spirituall salt in the house of God for without it no taste of goodnesse no relish of holinesse no sapour pleasing to God In some sacrifices of the old law flesh in some wine in some oyle in some meale but in all and with all salt was offered These sacrifices were not onely shadowes of the body which was Christs sacrifice on the crosse but also types of our spirituall sacrifices the meat offerings of our almes deeds whereby wee feed the hungry the drink offerings of our penitent teares the peace offerings of our praise and thanksgiving the heave offerings of our elevated desires and affections the whole burnt offering or holocaust of martyrdome for the testimony of the Gospel And as the legall sacrifices were seasoned with salt and consumed with fire so all our spirituall sacrifices must bee seasoned with the salt of discretion and consumed with the fire of zeale And because the zeale is in the man and the discretion is seene in his offering it is said Every man shall bee salted with fire and every sacrifice shall bee salted with salt To begin with the holocaust or whole burnt-offering When a servant of Christ overcommeth the violence of fire by his faith and remaines as unmoved in the torment thereof as the x Godwin in Archiep Cant. Cranmerus flammâ saeviente erectis in coelum oculis Domine suscipe spiritum meum exclamavit corpore tam immotus perstitit quam palus cui alligatus est stake at which hee is burnt in this sacrifice salt is most necessary I meane the salt of spirituall wisedome and religious discretion For a man must not offer himselfe to the mercilesse flames but being adjudged to them and by the secular arme brought to them patiently and cheerfully suffer them rather than deny the Lord that bought him No man must seale the truth of the Gospell with his blood unlesse hee bee called in as a witnesse and required to depose and then hee must not onely depose in a free profession of his faith but also deposite his life for the further confirmation of his Christian profession He that is called to suffer must in the first place consider for what he suffereth for all are not blessed that suffer but those that y Mat. 5.10 suffer for righteousnesse Blessed indeed most blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousnesse sake not those who are executed as malefactors for murder felony blasphemy schisme obstinacy or fancy None dyeth a Martyr but hee who dyeth for the faith by which the just liveth If a Jew bee scourged to death for the abrogated rites of the ceremoniall law or a Jesuited Papist hanged drawne and quartered according to the penall statutes of this kingdome for treason against the Prince in the Popes quarrell or if an Anabaptist bee burned to ashes for his fanaticall and fantasticall revelations hee dyeth the Popes or his owne Martyr not Christs His suffering as z Ep. 1. Si occisi extra ecclesiam fuerint corona fidei non est sed potius poena perfidiae Cyprian the blessed Martyr determineth the point against all heretickes is Poena perfidiae non corona fidei a punishment for his heresie or perfidiousnesse not a crowne of faith or a wreath of glory Another sacrifice of the whole man is when a devout Christian giveth up his members as servants unto righteousnesse and his whole body as a living a Rom. 12.1 sacrifice unto God in this likewise the salt of spirituall wisdome and discretion is most requisite For wee must so devote our selves to the service of God that we altogether forget not our duty to man we must so follow the things that are above that we neglect not our affaires below quit not our calling on earth much lesse in aspiring to angelicall perfection cast our selves down beneath Heathens and Infidels by casting away all care of provision for our b 1 Tim. 5.8 If any provide not for his owne and especially those of his house or kinred hee hath denied the faith and is worse than an Infidell family There was never any sect had a more plausible pretext for their heresie than the Euchites who nothing but praied continually yet because they distinguished not between time and season mis-understanding the precept of the Apostle c 1 Thes 5.17 pray continually which requireth that we pray upon every occasion and at all seasons that is fit houres for prayer not simply at all times which are allotted us by God for d Eccl. 3.1 every purpose under heaven but especially because they jusled out all other duties of piety and Christian charity for it they were themselves by the ancient Fathers driven out of the Church and deservedly excommunicated who e Epiph haeres Massal Euchiâ Aug. de haeres ad quod vult Deum communicated nothing to the publicke but were all for their private devotion Undoubtedly as when the fattest and best of the sacrifice was consumed the Priests might take the rest for their use so after wee have given God the flower and best of our time the rest wee may nay wee must employ in the workes of our speciall calling for our owne and others behoofe Next to the sacrifice of the whole man is the sacrifice of the hidden man of the heart I meane f Psal 51.17 a broken spirit and contrite heart In this sacrifice the salt of discretion is as necessary as in the former For even godly sorrow must not exceed the rivers of Paradise must bee kept within their bankes A man may pricke his heart for
his sinne nay wound it but hee must not kill it Hee may dive deepe into the waters of Mara but not stay so long under the water till hee bee drowned Hee that hath grievously wronged Gods justice by presumption let him take heede that hee doe not more wrong his mercy by desperation his sinnes can be but finite but Gods mercy and Christs merits are infinite There remaines yet two other sacrifices the sacrifice of the tongue and the sacrifice of the hand Prayer and Almes-deeds Prayers are tearmed g Hos 14.2 Render the calves of your lips Vituli labiorum the Calves of the lippes and Almes-deeds are graced with the title of h Heb. 13.16 To doe good and communicate forget not for with such scarifices God is well pleased sacrifices by the Apostle and Saint Austine yeeldeth a good reason for it because God accepteth these pro sacrificiis or prae sacrificiis for or before all sacrifices With both these salt must bee offered the salt of discretion with the one and of admonition with the other spirituall wisedome must guide both the lifting up of our hands to God and the stretching them out to our brethren First for prayer No unsavory prayers proceeding from a corrupt heart are pleasing to God no words sound well in his eares but such as are consonant to his word and minister grace to the hearers Let my i Psal 141.2 prayer saith the Psalmist be directed to thee as incense prayer must be directed not suddenly throwne up as it were at all adventures Wisdome and intention must direct it not to Saints and Angels but to God As it must be directed and that to God so in the third place it must be directed as incense from a burning censer that is a zealous heart or to use the phrase of my text it must be seasoned with salt the salt of discretion and salted with fire the fire of zeale Is this to pray praise God to draw neare to him with our lips when our hearts are farre from him to lift up our eyes and hands to heaven when our mindes are on earthly things is this to pray unto or praise God to vent out our unhallowed desires and indigested thoughts in broken words without any premeditation order or connexion No surely this is not to offer to God Vitulos labiorum the calves of our lippes but labia vitulorum the lippes of calves You heare how needfull salt is in the sacrifice of the tongue as necessary it is in the sacrifice of the hands k Psal 41.1 Blessed is hee saith the Kingly Prophet qui intelligit super egenum who considereth the poore and needy that is first taketh notice of their condition and quality and accordingly relieveth them lest otherwise hee contribute to idlenesse and not to necessity Some want worke to their will others will to worke some are impotent indeed others are counterfeit to the one a gift is an almes-deed to the other the best almes is to give them a sharp admonition or send them with their errand to the House of correction The Philosopher might say when he bestowed an almes upon a lewd rogue l Plutarch apoph Non homini dedised humanitati Not to the man but to manhood not to his person but to his nature not to his ill conditions but to his miserable condition but he that feareth God must take heed that he cast not seede upon accursed earth lest it bring forth the fruits of Gomorrha or it prove like the seed sowne by m Ovid. Met l. 3. Vipereos dentes populi incrementa futuri c. Crescitque seges clypeata virorum Cadmus whence grew up on the sudden armed men I meane an army of sturdy beggars armed against us in the high-wayes Hee must make a conscience both what he giveth and out of what and in what manner and to what end First what hee must not give the childrens bread to dogges secondly out of what hee must not give to God of that which hee hath stollen from man or got by any indirect courses for this were to make God accessary to his stollen goods thirdly in what manner manu serendum non corbe hee must cast seede out thriftily by the hand not carelesly throw it out of the basket he must so draw out that the spring of bounty be not exhausted fourthly to what end to glorifie God not to receive praise from men to relieve want not to maintaine vice Though his left hand must not know what his right hand doth yet his right eye must know and direct his right hand to poure the oyle into the wounds of the Samaritane and not to spill it upon the sound flesh As eye-salve laid to the foote profiteth not at all and a plaster or poultess made for the feete if it be applyed to the eye endangereth the sight so bounty misplaced doth more hurt than good benefacta malè locata malefacta arbitror The application I wish it were so in the ministring physicke for the soule as it is in the physicke for the body where the Physitian prescribeth and the Apothecary ministreth the Physitian maketh or appointeth the making of the salve and leaves it to the Apothecary to apply it For of all texts this needes most warily to bee applyed because there is in it both fire and salt and fire if it bee layd close will scorch and salt if it bee rubbed into a wound will make it smart Howbeit the best is that rule in corporall physicke holdeth also in this Nulla medicamenta tam faciunt dolorem quam quae sunt salutaria The more bitter the potion for the most part the more effectuall and the more smarting the plaster the more wholesome To apply therefore in a word In the setting forth of any banquet or service fire and salt must bee at hand fire to dresse the meat and salt to season it Likewise in the sacrifices of the old law neither fire nor salt could bee wanting salt to prepare the sacrifices for the altar and fire to consume them upon it Neither can there be any spirituall sacrifice or evangelicall service acceptable unto God without the fire of zeale and salt of discretion Zealous discretion and discreet zeale is a rare composition not of art but of grace which maketh both our persons and our offering agreeable unto God No cold service nor unsavory dish is for his taste without heate of zeale the sacrifice wee offer is the sacrifice of dead men and without salt of discretion the sacrifice wee offer is a sacrifice of fooles Prophanenesse and worldlinesse cold in the true worship of God offereth a dead sacrifice and idolatry and superstition hot in the false worship offereth a foolish sacrifice religion in the middle being zealous in the true service of a God offereth a holy living and reasonable sacrifice unto him by zealous discretion pleasing God and by discreet zeale men Some offer unto God fire but want salt