Father in the Son by the Holy Ghost The verdict is That we are the children of God The Spirit beareth c. First then 1 Part. a slacknesse a supinenesse in consideration of the divers significations of this word Spirit hath occasioned divers errours when the word hath been intended in one sense and taken in another All the significations will fall into these foure for these foure are very large It is spoken of God or of Angels or of men or of inferiour creatures And first of God it is spoken sometimes Essentially sometimes Personally God is a Spirit Iohn 4.24 Esay 31.3 and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth So also The Aegyptians are men and not God and their horses flesh and not spirit For if they were God they were Spirit So God altogether and considered in his Essence is a Spirit but when the word Spir it is spoken not essentially of all but personally of one then that word designeth Spiritum sonctum The holy Ghost Goe and baptize Mar. 28.19 In the name of the Father and Sonne Spiritus sancti and the holy Ghost And as of God so of Angels also it is spoken in two respects of good Angels Sent farth to minister for them Heb. 1.14 1 King 22.22 Hosea 4.12 Esay 19.3 that shall be heires of salvation And evill Angels The lying Spirit that would deceive the King by the Prophet The Spirit of Whoredome spirituall whoredome when the people ask counsell of their stocks And Spiritus vertiginis The spirit of giddinesse of perversities as we translate it which the Lord doth mingle amongst the people in his judgement Of man also is this word Spirit spoken two wayes The Spirit is sometimes the soule Psal 31.5 Into thy hands I commend my Spirit sometimes it signifies those animall spirits which conserve us in strength and vigour The poyson of Gods arrowes drinketh up my spirit And also Job 6.4 Luke 1.47 the superiour faculties of the soule in a regenerate man as there My soule doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour And then lastly of inferiour creatures it is taken two wayes too of living creatures The God of the spirits of all flesh Numb 16.22 Ezek. 1.21 and of creatures without life other then a metaphoricall life as of the winde often and of Ezckiels wheeles The Spirit of life was in the wheeles Now in this first Branch of this first Part of our Text it is not of Angels nor of men nor of other creatures but of God and not of God Essentially but Personally that is of the Holy Ghost Origen sayes Antecessores nostri The Ancients before him had made this note That where we finde the word Spirit without any addition it is alwayes intended of the Holy Ghost Before him and after him they stuck much to that note for S. Hierome makes it too and produces many examples thereof but yet it will not hold in all Didymus of Alexandria though borne blinde in this light saw light and writ so of the Holy Ghost as S. Hierome thought that work worthy of his Translation And hee gives this note That wheresoever the Apostles intend the Holy Ghost they adde to the word Spirit Sanctus Holy Spirit or at least the Article The The Spirit And this note hath good use too but yet it is not universally true If we supply these notes with this That whensoever any such thing is said of the Spirit as cannot consist with the Divine nature there it is not meant of the Holy Ghost but of his gifts or of his working as when it is said The Holy Ghost was not yet for his person was alwayes And where it is said Iohn 7.39 1 The fl 5.19 Quench not the Holy Ghost for the Holy Ghost himselfe cannot be quenched we have enough for our present purpose Here it is Spirit without any addition and therefore fittest to bee taken for the Holy Ghost And it is Spirit with that emphaticall article The The Spirit and in that respect also fittest to be so taken And though it be fittest to understand the Holy Ghost here not of his person but his operation yet it gives just occasion to looke piously and to consider modestly who and what this person is that doth thus worke upon us And to that purpose we shall touch upon foure things First His Universality He is All He is God Secondly His Singularity He is One One Person Thirdly His roote from whence he proceeded Father and Son And fourthly His growth his emanation his manner of proceeding for our order proposed at first leading us now to speak of this third person of the Trinity it will be almost necessary to stop a little upon each of these First then the Spirit mentioned here the Holy Ghost is God and if so Deus equall to Father and Son and all that is God He is God because the Essentiall name of God is attributed to him He is called Jehovah Iebovah sayes to Esay Goe and tell this people Esay 6.9 Acts 28.29 c. And S. Paul making use of these words in the Acts he sayes Well spake the Holy Ghost by the Prophet Esay The Essentiall name of God is attributed to him and the Essentiall Attributes of God He is Eternall so is none but God where we heare of the making of every thing else in the generall Creation we heare that the Spirit of God moved Gen. 1.2 but never that the Spirit was made He is every where so is none but God Psal 139.7 1 Cor. 2.10 whither shall Igoe from thy Spirit He knowes all things so doth none but God The Spirit searcheth all things yca the deep things of God He hath the name of God the Attributes of God and he does the works of God Is our Creator our Maker God Iob 33.4 The Spirit of God hath mademe Is he that can change the whole Creation and frame of nature in doing miracles God The Spirit lead the Israelites miraculously through the wildernesse Esay 63.14 Esay 48.16 Will the calling and the sending of the Prophets shew him to be God The Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me Is it argument enough for his God-head Esay 61.1 Luke 4.18 that he sent Christ himselfe Christ himselfe applies to himselfe that The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and hath anointed me to preach Acts 1.16 Iohn 16.13 He foretold future things The Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spoke before sayes S. Peter He establishes present things The Spirit of truth guides into all truth And he does this by wayes proper onely to God for our illumination is his He shall receive of me Ver. 14. 1 Cor. 6.11 Iohn 3.5 Iohn 16.8 sayes Christ and shew it you Our Justification is his Ye are justified in the name of the Lord Iesus by the Spirit of God Our regeneration is his There is a
addition of comelinesse His aspect was cheerfull and such as gave a silent testimony of a cleere knowing soule and of a conscience at peace with it selfe His melting eye shewed he had a soft heart full of noble pity of too brave a spirit to offer injuries and too much a Christian not to pardon them in others His fancie was un-imitable high equalled by his great wit both being made usefull by a commanding judgement His mind was liberall and unwearied in the search of knowledge with which his vigorous soule is now satisfied and employed in a continuall praise of that God that first breathed it into his active body which once was a Temple of the holy Ghost and is now become a small quantity of Christian dust But I shall see it re-inanimated Iz Wa IOHANNES DONNE SAC THEOL PROFESSOR POST VARIA STUDIA QVIBUS AB ANNIS TENERRIMIS FIDELITER NEC INFELICITER INCUBUIT INSTINCTU ET IMPULSU SPIR S ti MONITU ET HORTATU REGIS IACOBI ORDINES SACROS AMPLEXUS Aº SUI JESU 1614. ET SUAE AETATIS 42. DECANATU HUJUS ECCLESIAE INDUTUS XXVII NOVEMBRIS 1621. EXUTUS MORTE ULTIMO DIE MARTII 1631. Hic licet in Occiduo Cinere Aspicit Eum Cujus Nomen est ORIENS A Table directing to the severall Texts of SCRIPTURE handled by the Author in this BOOK SERM. I. COLOS. 1.19 20. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulnesse dwell And having made peace through the bloud of his Crosse by Him to reconcile all things to himselfe by Him whether they be things in earth or things in heaven page 1 SERM. II. ESAIAH 7.14 Therefore the Lord shall give you a signe Behold a Virgin shall conceive and beare a Son and shall call his name Immanuel pa. 11 SERM. III. GALAT. 4.4 5. But when the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth his Sonne made of a woman made under the Law to redeeme them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons pa. 20 SERM. IV. LUKE 2.29 30. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word For mine eyes have seene thy salvation pa. 29. SERM. V. EXOD. 4.13 O my Lord send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send pa. 39 SERM. VI. Lord who hath beleeved our report pa. 52 SERM. VII JOHN 10.10 I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly pa. 62 SERM. VIII MAT. 5.16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven pa. 77 SERM. IX ROM 13.7 Render therefore to all men their dues pa. 86 SERM. X. ROM 12.20 Therefore if thine enemie hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head pa. 96 SERM. XI MAT. 9.2 And Iesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsie My son be of good chear thy sins be forgiven thee pa. 102 SERM. XII MAT. 5.2 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God pa. 112 SERM. XIII JOB 16. ver 17 18 19. Not for any injustice in my hands Also my prayer is pure O earth cover thou not my bloud and let my cry have no place Also now behold my Witnesse is in heaven and my Record is on high pa. 127 SERM. XIV AMOS 5.18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord what have ye to doe with it the day of the Lord is darknesse and not light pa. 136 SERM. XV. 1 COR 15.26 The last Enemie that shall be destroyed is Death pa. 144 SERM. XVI JOHN 11.35 Iesus wept pa. 153 SERM. XVII MAT. 19.17 And he said unto him Why callest thou me Good There is none Good but One that is God pa. 163 SERM. XVIII ACTS 2.36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly That God hath made that same Iesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ pa. 175 SERM. XIX APOC. 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection pa. 183 SERM. XX. JOHN 5.28 29. Marvell not at this for the houre is comming in the which all that are in the graves shall heare his voice And shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life And they that have done evill unto the Resurrection of damnation pa. 192 SERM. XXI 1 COR. 15.29 Else what shall they do that are baptized for dead If the dead rise not at all why are they then baptized for dead pa. 120 SERM. XXII HEB. 11.35 Women received their dead raised to life againe And others were tortured not accepting a deliverance that they might obtaine a better Resurrection pa. 213 SERM. XXIII 1 COR. 13.12 For now we see through a glasse darkly But then face to face Now I know in part But then I shall know even as also I am knowne pa. 224 SERM. XXIV JOB 4.18 Behold he put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly pa. 233 SERM. XXV MAT. 28.6 He is not here for he is risen as he said Come See the place where the Lord lay pa. 242 SERM. XXVI 1 THES 4.17 Then we which are alive and remaine shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the ayre and so shall we be ever with the Lord. pa. 254 SERM. XXVII PSAL. 89.47 What man is he that liveth and shall not see death pa. 267 SERM. XXVIII XXIX JOHN 14.26 But the Comforter which is the holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you pa. 277. 286 SERM. XXX JOHN 14.20 At that day shall ye know That I am in my Father and you in me and I in you pa. 294 SERM. XXXI GEN. 1.2 And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters pa. 303 SERM. XXXII 1 COR. 12.3 Also no man can say that Iesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost p. 312 SERM. XXXIII ACTS 10.44 While Peter yet spake these words the holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the Word pa. 321 SERM. XXXIV ROM 8.16 The Spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God pa. 332 SERM. XXXV MAT. 12.31 Wherefore I say unto you All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men But the Blasphemy against the holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men pa. 341 SERM. XXXVI XXXVII JOHN 16.8 9 10 11. And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousnesse and of judgement Of sin because ye beleeve not on me Of righteousnesse because I goe to my Father and ye see me no more Of judgement because the Prince of this world is judged pa. 351. 361 SERM. XXXVIII 2 COR. 1.3 Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ
child is borne unto us a Son is given He was not given he was not borne in six hundred yeares after that but such is the clearenesse of a Prophets sight such is the infallibility of Gods declared purpose So then if the Prophet could have made the King beleeve with such an assurednesse as if he had seene it done that God would give a deliverance to all mankinde by a Messias that had beene signe enough evidence enough to have argued thereupon That God who had done so much a greater worke would also give him a deliverance from that enemy that pressed him then If I can fixe my selfe with the strength of faith upon that which God hath done for man I cannot doubt of his mercy in any distresse If I lacke a signe I seeke no other but this That God was made man for me which the Church and Church-writers have well expressed by the word Incarnation for that acknowledges and denotes that God was made my flesh It were not so strange that he who is spirit should be made my spirit my soule but he was made my flesh Therefore have the Fathers delighted themselves in the variation of that word so far as that Hilarie cals it Corporationem That God assumed my Body And Damascen cals it Inhumanationem That God became this man soule and body And Irenaeus cals it Adunationem and Nysen Contemperationem A mingling says one an uniting saies the other of two of God and man in one person Shall I aske what needs all this what needed God to have put himselfe to this I may say with S. Augustine Alio modo poterat Deus nos liberare sed si aliter faceret similiter vestrae stultitiae displiceret What other way soever God had taken for our salvation our curiosity would no more have beene satisfied in that way than in this But God having chosen the way of Redemption which was the way of Justice God could do no otherwise Si homo non vicisset inimicum hominis non justè victus esset inimicus saies Irenaeus As if a man should get a battaile by the power of the Devill without fighting this were not a just victory so if God in mans behalfe had conquered the devill without man without dying it had not beene a just conquest I must not aske why God tooke this way to Incarnate his Son And shall I aske how this was done I doe not aske how Rheubarb or how Aloes came by this or this vertue to purge this or this humour in my body In talibus rebus tota ratio facti est potentia facientis Even in naturall things all the reason of all that is done August is the power and the will of him who infused that vertue into that creature And therefore much more when we come to these supernaturall points such as this birth of Christ we embrace S. Basils modesty and abstinence Nativitas ista silentio honoretur This mysterie is not so well celebrated with our words and discourse as with a holy silence and meditation Immo potius ne cogitationibus permittatur Nay saies that Father there may be danger in giving our selves leave to thinke or study too much of it Ne dixer is quando saies he praeteri hanc interrogationem Aske not thy selfe overcuriously when this mystery was accomplished be not over-vehement over-peremptory so far as to the perplexing of thine owne reason and understanding or so far as to the despising of the reasons of other men in calculating the time the day or houre of this nativity Praeteri hanc interrogationem passe over this question in good time and with convenient satisfaction Quando when Christ was borne But noli inquirere Quomodo saies S. Basil still never come to that question how it was done cum ad hoc nihil sit quod responderi possit for God hath given us no faculties to comprehend it no way to answer it That 's enough which we have in S. Iohn Every spirit that confesses that Iesus is come in the flesh is of God 1 Ioh. 4.2 for since it was a comming of Iesus Iesus was before so he was God and since he came in the flesh hee is now made man And that God and Man are so met is a signe to mee that God and I shall never bee parted This is the signe in generall That God hath had such a care of all men Virgo is a signe to me That he hath a care of me But then there are signes of this signe Divers All these A Virgin shall conceive A Virgin shall bring forth Bring forth a Son And whatsoever have been prophesied before she shall call his name Immanuel First a Virgin shall be a mother which is a very particular signe and was seene but once That which Gellius and Plinie say that a Virgin had a child almost 200. yeares before Christ that which Genebrard saies that the like fell out in France in his time are not within our faith and they are without our reason our faith stoopes not downe to them and our Reason reaches not up to them of this Virgin in our text If that be true which Aquinas cites out of the Roman story that in the times of Constantine and Irene upon a dead body found in a sepulchre there was found this inscription in a plate of gold Christus nascetur ex Virgine ego credo in eum Christ shall be borne of a Virgin and I beleeve in that Christ with this addition in that inscription O Sol sub Irenae Constantini temporibus iterum me videbis Though I be now buried from the sight of the sun yet in Constantines time the sun shall see me againe If this be true yet our ground is not upon such testimonie If God had not said it I would never have beleeved it And therefore I must have leave to doubt of that which some of the Roman Casuists have delivered That a Virgin may continue a virgin upon earth and receive the particular dignity of a Virgin in Heaven and yet have a child by the insinuation and practise of the Devill so that there shall be a father and a mother and yet both they Virgins That this Mother in our text was a Virgin is a peculiar a singular signe given as such by God never done but then and it is a singular testimony how acceptable to God that state of virginity is Hee does not dishonour physick that magnifies health nor does hee dishonour marriage that praises Virginity let them embrace that state that can and certainly many more might doe it then do if they would try whether they could or no and if they would follow S. Cyprians way Virgo non tantum esse sed intelligi esse debet credi It is not enough for a virgin to bee a virgin in her owne knowledge but she must governe her selfe so as that others may see that she is one and see that shee hath a desire and a
therefore proposed it to the Senate that so that honour which Jesus should have might bee derived from him And when the Senate had an inclination of themselves to have done Christ that honour but yet forbore it because the intimation came not from themselves but from the Emperour who still wrought and gained upon their priviledges neither of these though they meant collaterally and obliquely to doe Christ an honour neither of them did say Iesum Dominum that is professe Jesus so as is intended here for they had their owne ends and their own honors principally in Contemplation There is first an open profession of the tongue required And therefore the Holy Ghost descended in fiery tongues Et lingua propria Spiritui Sancto sayes S. Gregory The tongue is the fittest Instrument for the Holy Ghost to worke upon and to worke by Qui magnam habet cognationem cum Verbo sayes he The Son of God is the Word and the Holy Ghost proceeds from him And because that faith that unites us to God is expressed in the tongue howsoever the heart be the center in which the Holy Ghost rests the tongue is the Spheare in which he moves And therefore sayes S. Cyril as God set the Cherubim with a fiery sword to keep us out of Paradise so he hath set the Holy Ghost in fiery tongues to let us in againe As long as Iohn Baptist was unborne Zachary was dumbe when hee was borne Zachary spoke Christ is not borne in us we are not regenerate in him if we delight not to speake of his wondrous mercyes and infinite goodnesse to the sons of men as soone as he is borne in us his Spirit speakes in us and by us in which our first profession is Iesum esse That Jesus is That there is a Jesus This is to professe with Esay Iesus Esay 4.2 That he is Germen Iehovae The Bud of the Lord The Blossome of God himselfe for this Profession is a two-edged sword for it wounds the Arians on one side That Jesus is Jehovah because that is the name that signifies the very Essence of God And then it wounds the Jews on the other side because if Jesus be Germen Iehovae The Bud the Blossome the Off-spring of God then there is a plurality of Persons Father and Son in the God-head So that it is a Compendiary and Summary Abridgement and Catechisme of all our Religion to professe that Jesus is for that is a profession of his everlasting Essence that is his God-head It hath been denyed that he was such as he was pretended to be that is borne of a Virgin for the first Heretiques of all Gerinthus and Ebion who occasioned S. Iohns Gospel affirmed him to be a meere man made by ordinary generation between Ioseph and Mary It hath been denyed that he was such a man as those Heretiques allowed him to bee for Apelles his Heresie was That he made himselfe a Body out of the Elements as hee came downe from Heaven through them It hath been denyed that he had any Body at all Cerdon and Marcion said That he lived and dyed but in Phantasmate in apparance and onely in a forme and shape of a Body assumed but in truth no Body that did live or dye but did onely appeare and vanish It hath beene denyed that that Body which hee had though a true and a naturall Body did suffer for Basilides said That when he was led to Execution and that on the way the Crosse was laid upon Simon of Cyren Christ cast a mist before their eyes by which they tooke Simon for him and crucified Simon Christ having withdrawne himselfe invisibly from them as at other times he had done It hath been denyed though he had a true Body and suffered truly therein that he hath any Body now in Heaven or shall returne with any for hee that said hee made his Body of the Elements as hee came downe from Heaven sayes also that hee resolved that Body into those Elements againe at his returne It hath beene denyed That hee was That he is That he shall be but this Profession that Jesus is includes all for He of whom that is alwayes true Est He is He is Eternall and He that is Eternall is God This is therefore a Profession of the God-head of Christ Jesus Now Dominus A Lord. in the next as we professe him to be Dominus A Lord we professe him to be God and man we behold him as he is a mixt person and so made fit to be the Messias the Anointed high Priest King of that Church which he hath purchased with his blood And the anointed King of that Kingdome which he hath conquered with his Crosse As he is Germen Iehovae The off-spring of Jehovah so he must necessarily be Jehovah that is the name which is evermore translated The Lord So also as he is Jehovah which is the fountaine of all Essence and of all Beeing so he is Lord by his interest and his concurrence in our Creation It is a devoute exercise of the soule to consider how absolute a Lord he is by this Title of Creation If the King give a man a Creation by a new Title the King found before in that man some vertuous and fit disposition some preparation some object some subject of his favour The King gives Creations to men whom the Universities or other Societies had prepared They Created persons whom other lower Schooles had prepared At lowest he that deales upon him first finds a man begotten and prepared by Parents upon whom he may worke But remember thy Creator that called thee when thou wast not as though thou hadst beene and brought thee out of nothing which is a condition if we may call it a condition to be nothing not to be farther removed from Heaven then hell it selfe Who is the Lord of life and breathed this life into thee and sweares by that eternall life which he is that he would have this life of thine immortall As I live saith the Lord I would not the death of a sinner This Contemplation of Jesus as a Lord by Creating us is a devout and an humble Contemplation but to contemplate him as Lord by Redeeming us and breeding us in a Church where that Redemption is applied to us this is a devout and a glorious Contemplation As he is Lord over that which his Father gave him his Father gave him all power in Heaven and in earth and Omne Iudicium His Father put all Judgement into his hands all judiciary and all military power was his He was Lord Judge and Lord of Hosts As he is Lord over his owne purchase Quod acquisivit sanguine Acts 20.28 That Church which he purchased with his owne blood So he is more then the Heretiques of our time have made him That he was but sent as a principall Prophet to explaine the Law and make that cleare to us in a Gospel Or as a Priest to sacrifice
necessity of being borne againe of Water and the Spirit The holy sense of our naturall wretchednesse is his For It is he that reproves the world of Sin of Righteousnesse of Iudgement The sense oftrue comfort is his Acts 9.31 The Churches were multiplied in the comforts of the Holy Ghost All from the Creation to the Resurrection and the Resurrection it selfe is his Rom. 8.11 The Spirit of him that raised Iesus from the dead shall quicken your mortall bodies by the same Spirit 2 Cor. 1.22 Eph. 1.13 Iohn 4.14 Mat. 3.11 Zach. 12.10 Heb. 1.9 Rom. 8.26 He is Arrha The earnest that God gives to them now to whom he will give all hereafter He is Sigillum that seale of our evidence You are sealed with that holy Spirit of promise He is the water which whosoever drinks shall never thirst when Christ hath given it And he is that fire with which Christ baptizes who baptizes with fire and with the Holy Ghost He is Spiritus precum The Spirit of grace and supplication And he is Oleum laetitiae The oyle of gladnesse that anoints us when we have prayed He is our Advocate He maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered And when our groanings under the calamities of this world are uttered without remedy he is that Paracletus Iohn 16.7 The Comforter who when Christ himselfe seemes to be gone from us comes to us who is as Tertullian expresses it elegantly enough but not largely enough Dei Villicus Vicaria vis Christi The Vice-gerent of Christ and the Steward of God but he is more much more infinitely more for he is God himselfe All that which S. Iohn intends in the seaven Spirits which are about the Throne is in this One in this onely Spirit August 1 Cor. 12.4 who is Vnicus septiformis solus multiplex One and yet seaven that is infinite for Though there be diversity of gifts yet there is but one Spirit He is God because the essentiall name of God is his Therefore let us call upon his name And because the Attributes of God are his Therefore let us attribute to him All Might Majesty Dominion Power and Glory And he is God because the Works of God are his 1 Cor. 6.17 Therefore let us co-operate and work with this Spirit and we shall be the same Spirit with him He is God Persona That was our first step and our second is that he is a distinct Person in the God-head He is not Virtus à Deo in homine exaltata Not the highest and powerfullest working of God in man Not Afflatus Divinus The breathing of God into the soule of man These are low expressions for they are all but Dona Charismata The gifts of the Holy Ghost not the Holy Ghost himselfe But he is a distinct person as the taking of the shape of a Dove and the shape of fiery tongues doe declare which are acts of a distinct person It is not the Power of the King that signes a pardon but his Person When the power of the Government was in two Persons in the two Consuls at Rome yet the severall acts were done by their severall Persons Wilt thou ask me What needs these three Persons Is there any thing in the three Persons that is not in the one God Yes The Father the Son the Holy Ghost fals not in the bare consideration of that one God Wilt thou say What if they doe not What lack we if we have one Almighty God Though that God had no Son nor they two no Holy Ghost We lacked our redemption we lacked all our direction wee lacked the revealed will of God the Scriptures we have not God if we have him not as he hath delivered himselfe and he hath done that in the Scriptures and we imbrace him as we finde him there and we finde him there to be one God in three Persons and the Holy Ghost to bee one of those three and in them we rest He is one Ex filio but one that proceeds from two from the Father and from the Son Some in the Greek Church in later times denied the proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Son but this was especially a jealousie in termes They thought that to make him proceed from two were to make duo principia two roots two beginnings from whence the Holy Ghost should proceed and that might not be admitted for the Father and the Son are but one cause of the Holy Ghost if we may use that word Cause in this my stery And therefore it is as suspiciously and as dangerously said by the Master of the Sentences and by the later Schoole That the Holy Ghost proceeds Minùs Principaliter Not so radically from the Son as from the Father for in this action The Father and the Son are but one roote and the Holy Ghost equally from both In the generation of the Son the Father is in order before the Son but in the procession of the holy Ghost he is not so He is from both for where he is first named he is called Spiritus Elohim The Spirit of Gods in the plurall In this Chapter in the ninth verse Gen. 1.2 he is the Spirit of the Son If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his And so in the Apostle God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts God sent him and Christ sent him Gal. 4.6 Iohn 16.17 Iohn 20.22 If I depart I will send the Comforter unto you He sent him after he went and he gave him when he was here He breathed upon his Apostles and said Receive ye the holy Ghost So he is of both But by what manner comes he from them By proceeding Processio That is a very generall word for Creation is proceeding and so is Generation too Creatures proceed from God and so doth God the Son proceed from God the Father what is this proceeding of the holy Ghost that is not Creation nor Generation Nazianz. Exponant cur quomodo Spiritus pulsat in arteriis tum in processionem Spiritus sancti inquirant When they are able clearly and with full satisfaction to tell themselves how and from whence that spirit proceeds which beats in their pulse let them inquire how this Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Sonne And let them think till they be mad and speak till they behoarce and reade till they be blind and write till they be lame they must end with S. Augustine Distinguere inter Processioncm Generationem nescio non valeo non sufficio I cannot distinguish I cannot assigne a difference between this Generation and this Proceeding We use to say they differ principio That the Son is from the Father alone the holy Ghost from both but when this is said that must be said too That both Father and Son are but one beginning We use to say They differ ordine
does not call man with an Ecce To behold him and then hide himselfe from him he does not bid him looke and then strike him blinde We are all borne blinde at first In Baptisme God gives us that Collyrium that eye-salve by which we may see and actually by the power of that medicine we do all see Mat. 7. â— more then the Gentiles do But yet Ecce trabs in oculis sayes Christ Behold there is a beame in our eye that is Naturall infirmities But for all this beame when Christ bids us behold we are able to see by Christs light our owne imperfections though we have that beame yet we are able to see that we have it And when this light which Christ gives us which is his first grace brings us to that then Christ proceeds so that which followes there Projice trabem Cast out the beame that is in thine eye and so we become able by that succeeding grace to overcome our former impediments If Christ bid us behold he gives us light if he bid us cast out the beame he gives us strength There is an Ecce neutus cast upon Zachary Behold thou shalt be dumbe Luke 1.20 God punished Zacharies incredulity with dumbnesse But there is never an Ecce caecus Behold thou shalt be blinde That God should call man to see and then blow out the candle or not shew him a candle if he were in utter darknesse for this is an Ecce directionis an Ecce lucernae God cals and he directs and lightens our paths never reproach God so impiously as to suspect that when he cals he does not meane that we should come Well then Vox with what doth he enlighten thee Why Ecce vox Behold a voyce saying Now for this voyce in the Text by whom it was heard as also by whom the Dove that descended was seen is sometimes disputed and with some perplexity amongst the Fathers Some thinke it was to Christ alone because two of the Euangelists Mark and Luke record the words in that phrase Tu es filius not as we reade it in our Text This is but Thou art my beloved Sonne But so there had been no use neither of the Dove nor of the voyce for Christ himselfe lacked no testimony that he was that Sonne Some thinke it was to Christ and Iohn Baptist and not to the company Because say they The mysterie of the Trinity was not to be presented to them till a farther and maturer preparation And therefore they observe that the next manifestation of Christ and so of the Trinity Mat. 17. by a like voyce was almost three years after this in his Transfiguration after he had manifested this doctrine by a long preaching amongst them And yet even then it was but to his Apostles and but to a few of them neither and those few forbidden to publish too and how long Till his resurrection when by that resurrection he had confirmed them then it was time to acquaint them with the Doctrine of the Trinity But for the Doctrine of the Trinity as mysterious as it is it is insinuated and conveyed unto us even in the first verse of the Bible in that extraordinary phrase Creavit Dii Gods Gods in the plurall created heaven and earth There is an unity in the action it is but Creavit in the singular and yet there is a plurality in the persons it is not Deus God but Dij Gods The Doctrine of the Trinity is the first foundation of our Religion and no time is too early for our faith The simplest may beleeve it and all time is too early for our reason The wisest cannot understand it And therefore as Chrysostome is well followed in his opinion so he is well worthy to be followed That both the Dove was seen and the voyce was heard by all the company for neither was necessary to Christ himselfe And the voyce was not necessary to Iohn Baptist because the signe which was to governe him was the Dove He that sent me said upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit come down and tarry still it is he that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost But to the company both voyce and Dove were necessary for if the voyce had come alone they might have thought that that testimony had been given of Iohn of whom they had as yet a far more reverend opinion then of Christ And therefore God first points out the person and by the Dove declares him to all which was He and then by that voyce declares farther to them all what He was This benefit they had by being in that company they saw and they heard things conducing to their salvation for though God worke more effectually upon those particular persons in the Congregation who by a good use of his former graces are better disposed then others yet to the most gracelesse man that is if he be in the Congregation God vouchsafes to speake and would be heard They that differ in the persons Via Creaturae who heard it agree in the Reason All they heard it in all their opinions to whom it was necessary to heare it And it is necessary to all us to have this meanes of understanding and beleeving to heare Therefore God gives to all that shall be saved vocem his voyce We consider two other wayes of imprinting the knowledge of God in man first in a darke and weake way the way of Nature and the book of Creatures and secondly in that powerfull way the way of Miracles But these and all between these are uneffectuall without the Word When David sayes of the Creatures Psal 19.3 Rom. 10.17 There is no speech nor language where their voyce is not heard the voyce of the Creature is heard over all S. Paul commenting upon those words says They have heard All the world hath heard but what The voyce of the Creature now that is true so much all the world had heard then and does heare still But the hearing that S. Paul intends there is such a hearing as begets faith and that the voyce of Creature reaches not to The voyce of the Creature alone is but a faint voyce a low voyce nor any voyce till the voyce of the Word inanimate it for then when the Word of God hath taught us any mystery of our Religion then the booke of Creatures illustrates and establishes and cherishes that which we have received by faith in hearing the Word As a stick bears up and succours a vine or any plant more precious then it selfe but yet gave it not life at first nor gives any nourishment to the root now so the assistance of reason and the voyce of the Creature in the preaching of Nature works upon our faith but the roote and the life is in the faith it selfe The light of nature gives a glimmering before and it gives a reflexion after faith but the meridianall noone is in faith Now if we consider the other way the way of
conformity to Angels But divers others of the Ancients have taken Soule and Spirit for different things even in the Intellectuall part of man somewhat obscurely I confesse and as some venture to say unnecessarily if not dangerously It troubled S. Hierome sometimes Ad Hedibiam l. 12. Epist 150 how to understand the word Spirit in man but he takes the easiest way he dispatches himselfe of it as fast as he could that is to speake of it onely as it was used in the Scriptures Famosa quaestio sayes he sed brevi sermone tractanda It is a question often disputed but may be shortly determined Idem spiritus hic ac in iis verbis Nolite extinguere spiritum When we heare of the Spirit in a Man in Scriptures we must understand it of the gifts of the Spirit for so fully to the same purpose sayes S. Chrysostome Spiritus est charisma spiritus The Spirit is the working of the Spirit The gifts of the Spirit and so when we heare The Spirit was vexed The Spirit was quenched still it is to be understood The gifts of the Spirit And so as they restraine the signification of Spirit to those gifts onely though the word do indeed in many places require a larger extension so do many restraine this word in our text The Soule onely Ad sensum to the sensitive faculties of the soule that is onely to the paine and anguish that his body suffered But so far at least David had gone in that which he said before My bones are vexed Now Ingravescit morbus The disease festers beyond the bone even into the marrow it selfe His Bones were those best actions that he had produced and he saw in that Contemplation that for all that he had done he was still at best but an unprofitable servant if not a rebellious enemy But then when he considers his whole soule and all that ever it can do he sees all the rest will be no better The poyson he sees is in the fountaine the Canker in the roote the rancor the venom in the soule it selfe Corpus instrumentum anima ars ipsa sayes S. Basil The body and the senses are but the tooles and instruments that the soule works with But the soule is the art the science that directs those Instruments The faculties of the soule are the boughs that produce the fruits and the operations and particular acts of those faculties are the fruits but the soule is the roote of all And David sees that this art this science this soule can direct him or establish him in no good way That not onely the fruits his particular acts nor onely the boughs and armes his severall faculties but the roote it selfe the soule it selfe was infected His bones are shaken he dares not stand upon the good he hath done his soule is so too he cannot hope for any good he shall do He hath no merit for the past he hath no free-will for the future that is his case This troubles his bones Turbata this troubles his soule this vexes them both for the word is all one in both places as our last Translators have observed and rendred it aright not vexed in one place and troubled in the other as our former Translators had it But in both places it is Bahal and Bahal imports a vehemence both in the intensnesse of it and in the suddennesse and inevitablenesse of it And therefore it signifies often Praecipitantiam A headlong downfall and irrecoverablenesse And often Evanescentiam an utter vanishing away and annihilation David whom we alwayes consider in the Psalmes not onely to speake literally of those miseries which were actually upon himselfe but prophetically too of such measures and exaltations of those miseries as would certainly fall upon them as did not seeke their sanation their recovery from the God of all health looking into all his actions they are the fruits and into all his faculties they are the boughs and into the root of all the soule it selfe considering what he had done what he could do he sees that as yet he had done no good he sees he should never be able to doe any His bones are troubled He hath no comfort in that which is growne up and past And his soule is sore troubled for to the trouble of the soule there is added in the Text that particle Valde It is a sore trouble that falls upon the soule A troubled spirit who can beare because he hath no hope in the future He was no surer for that which was to come then for that which was past But he that is all considered in that case which he proposes he comes as the word signifies ad praecipitantiam That all his strength can scarce keepe him from precipitation into despaire And he comes as the word signifies too ad Evanescentiam to an evaporating and a vanishing of his soule that is even to a renouncing and a detestation of his immortality and to a willingnesse to a desire that he might die the death of other Creatures which perish altogether and goe out as a Candle This is the trouble the sore trouble of his soule who is brought to an apprehension of Gods indignation for not performing Conditions required at his hands and of his inability to performe them and is not come to the contemplation of his mercy in supply thereof There is Turbatio Timoris Mat. 2.3 Psal 107.27 A trouble out of feare of danger in this world Herods trouble When the Magi brought word of another King Herod was troubled and all Ierusalem with him There is Turbatio confusionis The Mariners trouble in a tempest Their soule melteth for trouble Luk. 10.41 Luk. 1.29 sayes David There is Turbatio occupationis Martha's trouble Martha thou art troubled about many things sayes Christ There is Turbatio admirationis The blessed Virgins trouble When she saw the Angel she was troubled at his saying To contract this John 11.33 There is Turbatio compassionis Christs own trouble When he saw Mary weepe for her brother Lazarus he groaned in the spirit and was troubled in himselfe But in all these troubles Herods feare The Mariners irresolution Martha's multiplicity of businesse The blessed Virgins sudden amazement Our Saviours compassionate sorrow as they are in us worldly troubles so the world administers some means to extemiate and alleviate these troubles for feares are overcome and stormes are appeased and businesses are ended and wonders are understood and sorrows weare out But in this trouble of the bones and the soule in so deepe and sensible impressions of the anger of God looking at once upon the pravity the obliquity the malignity of all that I have done of all that I shall doe Man hath but one step between that state and despaire to stop upon to turne to the Author of all temporall and all spirituall health the Lord of life with Davids prayer Psal 51.10 Cor mundum crea Create a cleane heart within me