eare-pleasing Madrigals and Fancies but the strong and loud voice of Cryers to call all men into the Court and summon them to the barre of Christs judgement hee that promiseth his Apostles and their successors to give them a b Luk. 21.15 I will give you a mouth c. mouth hath given mee at this time both the mouth and the Motto the Motto of the embleme viz. the words of my text Zelus domus tuae devoravit me In the uttering whereof if ever now I need to pray that the Lord would c Esay 6.7 touch my tongue with a coale from his altar with a coale that I may speake warmely of zeale with a coale from the altar that I may discourse holily of his Temple Saint d Homil. 3. Utinam daretur mihi de superno altare non carbo unus sed globus igneus offeratur qui multam inveteratam rubiginem possit excoquere Bernard made the like prayer upon the like occasion O saith hee that there were given unto mee from the altar above not one coale but rather a fiery globe a heape of coales to scorch the abuses of the time and burne out the inveterate rust of vitious customes By the light of these coales you may behold in this Scripture 1 In David as the type Christ 2 In Christ as the mirrour of perfection zeale 3 In zeale as a fire 1 The flame 2 The fuel The flame vehement consuming or devouring devoravit The fuel sacred me mee No divine vertues or graces like to Christs affection No affection in him like to his zeale No zeale like to that which hee bare or rather wherewith hee was transported to his Fathers house which even eat him up and may deservedly take up this golden moment of our most pretious time May it please you therefore Right c. to suffer your religious eares to bee bored at this present with these sacred nayles or points which I humbly pray the holy Spirit to fasten in your hearts 1 The vertue or affection it selfe zeale 2 The object of this affection thy house 3 The effect of this object hath eaten up 4 The subject of this effect mee 1 In figure David 2 In truth Christ ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and who is sufficient for these things or able worthily to treat of 1 An affection most ardent zeale 2 A place most sacred thine house 3 An effect most powerfull hath eaten up 4 A person most divine mee Zeale is derived from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to burne or hizze as water cast on metall melted and it signifieth a hot or burning desire an ardent affection and sometimes it is taken 1 For ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or emulation which is a commendable desire of attaining unto anothers vertue or fame 2 For ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã envie which is a vitious affection repining at anothers fame or fortune 3 For ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã jealousie which is an irkesome passion arising from love wronged at least in opinion And no other fire wee finde on natures forge or the Philosophers hearth but on Gods altar there burneth another manner of fire fed with pure fuell which like a waxe light or taper yeeldeth both a cleare flame and a sweet fume and this is holy zeale All things that are cast into the fire make a smell but the burning of sweet odors onely makes a perfume so the hot and fervent 1 Desire of 2 Intention in 3 Affection to the best things onely is zeale Fire is the noblest of all the elements and seated next to the heavens so zeale sparkling in the soule is the chiefe and most heavenly of all spirituall affections Some define it to bee the fervour intention excellency or improvement of them all Heat 1 In e Rom. 12.11 Ferâent in spirit devotion if it exceed becommeth zeale 2 In f Col. 4.13 affection if it be improved groweth to be zeale 3 In g 1 Cor. 14.12 desire of spirituall gifts if it bee ardent is zeale 4 In h 1 Cor. 7.11 indignation or revenge of our selves if it bee vehement is called by the Apostle zeale Fervent devotion ardent love earnest desire vehement indignation all are zeale or rather are all zeale for there is a 1 Zeale of good things which maketh us zealous of Gods gifts 2 Zeale in good things which maketh us zealous in Gods service 3 Zeale for good things which maketh us zealous for Gods glory And answerable to the three operations of fire which are to heat to burne to consume 1 The first heateth us by kindling a desire of grace 2 The second burneth by enflaming our hearts with the love of God 3 The third consumeth by drying up the heart absuming the spirits with griefe and hazzarding our persons and estates in removing scandals and reforming abuses and profanations of God his name house or worship as also revenging wrongs done to his houshold and servants In summe zeale is a divine grace grounded upon the knowledge of Gods word which according to the direction of spirituall wisedome quickeneth and enflameth all the desires and affections of the soule in the right worship of the true God and vehemently and constantly stirreth them up to the preserving advancing and vindicating his honour by all lawfull meanes within the compasse of our calling Rectum sui est judex obliqui If you set a streight line or rule to a crooked figure or body it will discover all the obliquities in it Hang up an artificiall patterne by an unskilfull draught and it will shew all the disproportions and deformities in it Wherefore Aristotle giveth this for a certaine ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or character of a true definition to notifie and discover all the errors that are or may be devised about the nature of the thing defined which are in this present subject wee treat of sundry and manifold For as when there is publicke notice given of a ring found with a rich stone set in it every one almost that ever was owner of a ring like unto it especially if his owne bee lost challengeth it for his so all in whose temper affections or actions any naturall or spirituall divine or diabolicall heavenly earthly or hellish fire gloweth challengeth the pretious coale or carbuncle of zeale to bee theirs The Cholericke and furious the quarrelsome and contentious the malicious and envious the jealous and suspicious the Idolatrous and superstitious the indiscreet and preposterous the proud selfe-admirer the sacrilegious Church-robber the presumptuous and exorbitant zealot nay the seditious boutefieu and incendiary all pretend to zeale But all these claimers and many more besides are disproved and disclaimed by the true definition of zeale which is first a grace and that distinct from other not more graces or a compound of love and anger as some teach or of love and indignation as others for the graces of the spirit and vertues of the minde are incoincident As
downe like a cord or finew and within a few months reacheth the ground which it no sooner toucheth than it taketh root and maketh it selfe a tree and that likewise another and that likewise a third and so forward till they over-runne the whole grove To draw nearer to you my Lord to bee consecrated and so to an end This scripture is part of the Gospell appointed for the Sunday after Easter knowne to the Latine Church by the name of Dominica in albis Which Lords day though in the slower motion of time in our Calendar is not yet come yet according to exact computation this Sunday is Dominica in albis and if you either respect the reverend presence Candidantium or Candidandi or the sacred order of Investiture now to be performed let your eyes be judges whether it may not truely be termed Dominica in albis a Sunday in whites The text it selfe as before in the retexture thereof I shewed is the prototypon or original of all consecrations properly so called For howsoever these words may bee used and are also in the ordination of Priests because they also receive the holy Ghost that is spirituall power and authority yet they receive it not so amply and fully nor without some limitation sith ordination and excommunication have bin ever appropriated and reserved to Bishops And it is to be noted that the Apostles long before this were sent by Christ to preach and baptize and therefore they were not now ordained Priests but consecrated Bishops as Saint c Greg. in Evan. Horum nunc in ecclesiâ Episcopi locum tenent qui gradum regiminis sortiuntur grandis honor sed grave pondus est istius honoris Gregory saith expressely in his illustration of these words Receive the holy Ghost whose sinnes yee remit c. Now Bishops who fit at the sterne of the Church hold the place of those to whom Christ gave here the ghostly power of forgiving sinnes a great honour indeed but a great charge withall and a heavie burden so ponderous in Saint Barnards judgement that it needs the shoulders of an Angell to beare it The Apostles had made good proofe of their faithfulnesse in the ministry of the Word and Sacraments before Christ lifted them up to this higher staire as likewise the venerable Personage now to bee taken up into that ranke hath done For more than thirty yeeres hee hath shined as a starre in the firmament of our Church and now by the primus motor in our heaven is designed to bee an Angell or to speake in the phrase of the Peripatetickes an Intelligence to guide the motion of one of our Spheres Which though it be one of the least his Episcopall dignity is no whit diminished thereby In Saint d Hiero. ad Evag Omnis Episcopus sive Romae sive Eugubii aequalis est meriti Hieromes account every Bishop be his Diocesse great or small is equally a Bishop Episcopatus non suscipit magis minus one Bishop may be richer than another or learneder but hee cannot bee more a Bishop Therefore howsoever e Basil epist 31. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Nazianzen tooke it unkindly at Saint Basils hands after hee was advanced to the Metropolitical See of Cappadocia and had many good Bishopricks in his gift that he put him upon one of the meanest being ill situated and of small revenue telling him flatly that he gained nothing by his friendship but this lesson not to trust a friend yet it never troubled great Austine that obscure Aurelius worked himselfe into the great and famous Archbishopricke of Carthage whilest this eminent light of the Church stucke all his life at poore Hippo for hee well remembred the words of our Lord and Master f Matth. 25.21 Be thou faithfull in a little and I will set thee over much Suffer I beseech you a word of exhortation and but a word Be faithfull to your Master seeke not your owne but the things that are Jesus Christs It is not sufficient in Nazianzens judgement for a Bishop not to be soyled with the dust of covetousnesse or any other vice g Nazian orat 1 de fuga in pont Privati quidem hominis vitium esse existimet turpia supplicioque digna perpetrare praefecti autem vel antistitis non quam optimum esse he must shine in vertue and if hee bee not much better than other men h Idem orat 20. Antistes improbitatis notam effugere non potest nisi multum antecellat hee is no good Bishop Wherefore as it was said at the creation of the Romane Consul praesta nomen tuum thou art made Consul make good thy name consule reipublicae So give mee leave in this day of your consecration to use a like forme of words to you my Lord Elect Episcopus es praesta nomen tuum you are now to be made a Bishop an Overseer of the Lords flocke make good your name looke over your whole Diocesse observe not onely the sheepe but the Pastors not only those that are lyable to your authority jurisdiction but those also who execute it under you Have an eye to your eyes and hold a strict hand over your hands I meane your officials collectors and receivers and if your eye cause you to offend plucke it out and if your hand cut it off Let it never bee said by any of your Diocesse that they are the better in health for your not visiting them as the i Eras apoth Eò melius habeo quod te medico non utor Lacedemonian Pausanias answered an unskilfull Physician that asked him how hee did the better quoth he because I take none of your Physick Imprint these words alwayes in your heart which give you your indeleble character consider whose spirit you receive by imposition of hands and the Lord give you right understanding in all things it is the spirit of Jesus Christ he breathed and said receive the holy Spirit This spirit of Jesus Christ is 1 The spirit of zeale Joh. 2.17 Bee you not cold in Gods cause whip out buyers and sellers out of the Church 2 The spirit of discretion Joh. 10.14 I am the good shepheard and know my sheepe and am knowne of them Know them well whom you trust with the mysteries of salvation to whom you commit those soules which God hath purchased with his owne blood lay not hands rashly upon any for if the k Matth. 6.23 light be darkenesse how great will the darkenesse be If in giving holy orders and imposition of hands there be a confusion hand over head how great will the confusion be in the Church 3 The spirit of meeknesse Matth. 11.29 Learne of me that I am meek breake not a bruised reede nor quench the smoaking flaxe sis bonus O foelixque tuis be good especially to those of your own calling Take not l Histor Aug. in Aureliano Aurelian for your patterne whose souldiers more feared him than the enemy
suos pietas impietas est apud Deum What Seneca speakes of words may bee a good rule in these teares still are volo non currere let them drop like precious water out of a Lymbecke not run like common water out of a spout o Horat. carm l. 2 ed. 20. Absint inani funere naeniae Luctusque turpes querimoniae Compesce clamorem Demang in Hebrew signifying a teare hath great affinity with Demama signifying silence to teach us that our teares ought to bee silent not querulous or clamorous Let nature have her course but let religion set bounds to it p Horat. l. 2. carm ed. 9. Ne semper urge flebilibus modis Mysten ademptum Let us water our plants but not drown them as those that mourne without hope Joseph loved his Father Jacob better than the Egyptians yet his teares were but the tithes of theirs for hee mourned but q Gen. 50.3 seven dayes but they seventy Rachel though otherwise a good woman yet in this was too womanish and wayward that shee would not bee comforted neither is her reason good nor true if wee take it as the words sound because they are not for wee know they are and living too all live to God wee know where they are that dye in the Lord with Christ in Paradise wee know what manner of dwellings they have tabernacles not made with hands eternall in the heavens wee know of what congregation they are of the congregation of the first borne and the spirits of just men made perfect wee know what they doe they follow the lambe wheresoever hee goeth wee know what they say also they cease not to cry day and night Holy holy holy c. lastly wee know what they sing Halelujah Wherefore as Xenophon when newes was brought him as he was sacrificing of his sonnes death put off the crowne hee had on his head and gave vent to his sorrowes at his eyes but after hee understood that hee dyed valiantly and worthy such a Father put on his crowne againe and finished his sacrifice so when newes shall bee brought unto us of the death of our dearest friends let us first put off our crowne of joy and let nature and love melt us into teares but when wee heare againe that they dyed penitently and religiously with hope full of immortality let us put on our crowne againe and comfort ourselves and finish our Christian course with joy as those religious people did of whom Saint Austine speaketh putting himselfe among them * Aug. ser 35. de divers Contristamur in nostrorum mortibus necessitate amittendi sed cum spe recipiendi inde angimur hinc consolamur inde infirmitas afficit hinc fides reficit inde dolet humana conditio hinc sanat divina promissio the consideration of the losse of our friends cutteth us but the hope of receiving them againe healeth us And now at the length to release your long captivated attention I will speake but one word of admonition to you concerning your owne end and so an end Is death nothing but a sleep why then are you so much scared at the mention or thought of it When the Prophets of God or some other your deerest friends deale faithfully with you telling you there is no way but one and advising you to set your house in order for you must dye and cannot live why doe you fetch many a deep sigh turne to the wall and mourne like a dove or chatter like a crane why doe you not rather struggle with your owne infirmitie and with resolute Hilarion even chide out your soules hankering at the doore of your lips Egredere quid times egredere anima mea quid dubitas sexaginta prope annis servisti Christo mortem times Goe out my soule why art thou afraid goe out why makest thou any difficulty thou hast served Christ well nigh sixty yeeres and dost thou now feare death You will hardly finde any little childe much lesse man that is afraid to goe to bed nay travellers after a tedious journey in bitter weather are not content to pull off their cloathes they teare them for haste to get into their soft and warme beds When our day is spent and wee are come to our journeyes end why doe we not as it were pull off our cloaths by stripping ourselves of worldly cares and businesses and settle our selves to sleepe in Jesus and breathe out our soules betweene his armes Plato when hee died had the booke of Sophronius the Musitian under his pillow When we lye on our death bed let us have under our pillow to support us not the booke of Sophronius the Musitian but the bookes of the sweet singers of Israel David and Salomon and the rest of the inspired Writers so shall wee be sure that God will make our beds in our sickenesse and we shall sweetly fall into our last sleepe as did the most religious Matron Paula who when some about her as shee was now drawing on read to her the second of Canticles so soone as shee heard the Bridegroome calling Surge speciosa mea surge columba mea veni Arise my Love arise my Dove arise my Faire one and come away the winter is past the raine is over and gone she answered as it there followeth the flowers appeare in the earth the time of pruning or as it is in our translation the time of singing is at hand With which word shee made an end of her life and I will of my Sermon committing you as shee did her soule to God beseeching him who hath taught us the doctrine of the resurrection by his word to accomplish it in us by his Spirit that having part in the grace of the first resurrection here wee may hereafter participate in the glory of the second through JESUS CHRIST Cui c. THE TRUE ZEALOT A Sermon preached at the Archbishops visitation in Saint Dunstans THE FOURTEENTH SERMON JOHN 2.17 The zeale of thine house hath eaten mee up THe parcell of Scripture whence I have taken my text is a sacred sculpture or Hieroglyphicke consisting of 1 An embleme or imprese 2 A motto or word The embleme presenteth to us the Temple with a kinde of Faire in it and a man which is the sonne of man with a scourge of small cords driving out all the buyers and sellers and powring downe their money and overthrowing their tables and stalles The motto word or sentence is that which I have already spoken in your hearing viz. The zeale of thine house hath eaten mee up The exemplification of the embleme I commend to him to whom our Saviour hath left his whip to void cleanse this temple and to discipline all sorts of bad merchants in it The motto or word belongeth properly to them to publish proclaime it whose stile is vox clamantium the voice of a Mat. 3.3 cryers not the sweet voice of singers to lull men asleep in security with melodious streines of time-serving
Sacrament of our Lords body and bloud wee shall feele the effects of both in us viz. more light in our understanding more warmth in our affections more fervour in our devotions more comfort in our afflictions more strength in temptations more growth in grace more settled peace of conscience and unspeakable joy in the holy Ghost To whom with the Father and the Sonne bee ascribed c. THE SYMBOLE OF THE SPIRIT THE LXIV SERMON ACTS 2.2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting SAint Luke in the precedent verse giveth us the name in this the ground of the solemne feast we are now come to celebrate with such religious rites as our Church hath prescribed according to the presidents of the first and best ages The name is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the feast of the fiftieth day from Easter the ground thereof the miraculous apparition and if I may so speake the Epiphany of the holy Spirit in the sound of a mighty rushing wind the light of fiery cloven tongues shining on the heads of the Apostles who stayed at Jerusalem according to our Lords command in expectation of the promise of the holy Ghost which was fulfilled then in their eyes and now in our eares and I hope also in our hearts After God the Father had manifested himselfe by the worlds creation and the workes of nature and God the Sonne by his incarnation and the workes of grace it was most convenient that in the third place the third person should manifest himselfe as he did this day by visible descension and workes of wonder Before in the third of Matthew at the Epiphany of our Saviour the Spirit appeared in the likenesse of a dove but here as yee heare in the similitude of fiery cloven tongues to teach us that we ought to be like doves without gall in prosecution of injury done to our selves but like Seraphins all fire in vindicating Gods honour This morall interpretation Saint a Greg. tert pas Omnes quos implet columbae simplicitate mansuetos igne zeli ardentes exhibet Et ib. Intus arsit ignibus amoris foras accensus est zelo severitatis causam populi apud Deum lachrymis causam Dei apud populum gladiis allegabat c. Gregory makes of these mysticall apparitions All whom the spirit fills he maketh meeke by the simplicity of doves and yet burning with the fire of zeale Just of this temper was Moses who took somewhat of the dove from the spirit and somewhat of the fire For being warme within with the fire of love and kindling without with the zeale of severity he pleaded the cause of the people before God with teares but the cause of God before the people with swords Sed sufficit diei suum opus sufficient for the day will be the worke thereof sufficient for this audience will be the interpretation of the sound the mysticall exposition of the wind which filled the house where the Apostles sate will fill up this time And lest my meditations upon this wind should passe away like wind I will fasten upon two points of speciall observation 1. The object vehement the sound of a mighty rushing wind 2. The effect correspondent filled the whole house Each part is accompanied with circumstances 1. With the circumstance of 1. The manner suddenly 2. The sourse or terminus à quo from heaven 2. With the circumstance of 1. The place the house where 2. The persons they 3. Their posture were sitting 1. Hearken suddenly there came on the sudden 2. To what a sound 3. From whence from heaven 4. What manner of sound as of a mighty rushing wind 5. Where filling the roome where they were sitting That suddenly when they were all quiet there should come a sound or noise and that from heaven and that such a vehement sound as of a mighty rushing wind and that it should fill the whole roome where they were and no place else seemes to mee a kind of sequence of miracles Every word in this Text is like a cocke which being turned yeeldeth abundance of the water of life of which we shall taste hereafter I observe first in generall that the Spirit presented himselfe both to the eyes and to the eares of the Apostles to the eares in a noise like a trumpet to proclaime him to the eyes in the shape of tongues like lights to shew him Next I observe that as there were two sacred signes of Christs body 1. Bread 2. Wine so there are two symboles and if I may so speake sacraments of the Spirit 1. Wind 2. Fire Behold the correspondency between them the spirit is of a nobler and more celestiall nature than a body in like manner the elements of wind and fire come neerer the nature of heaven than bread and wine which are of a more materiall and earthly nature And as the elements sort with the mysteries they represent so also with our senses to which they are presented For the grosser and more materiall elements bread and wine are exhibited to our grosser and more carnall senses the taste and touch but the subtiler and lesse materiall wind and fire to our subtiler and more spirituall senses the eyes and eares Of the holy formes of bread and wine their significancie and efficacy I have heretofore discoursed at large at this present by the assistance of the holy Spirit I will spend my breath upon the sacred wind in my Text and hereafter when God shall touch my tongue with a fiery coale from his Altar explicate the mystery of the fiery cloven tongues After the nature and number of the symboles their order in the third place commeth to be considered first the Apostles heare a sound and then they see the fiery cloven tongues And answerable hereunto in the fourth verse we reade that they were filled with the holy Ghost and then they began to speake with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance For b Mat. 12.34 out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh With the c Rom. 10.10 heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and then with the tongue he confesseth unto salvation My d Psal 45.1 heart saith David is enditing a good matter and my tongue is the pen of a ready writer first the heart enditeth and then the tongue writeth They who stay not at Jerusalem till they are endued with power from above and receive the promise of the Father but presently will open their mouthes and try to loosen the strings of their fiery tongues I meane they who continue not in the schooles of the Prophets till they have learned the languages and arts and have used the ordinary meanes to obtaine the gifts and graces of the holy Spirit and yet will open their mouthes in the Pulpit and exercise the gift of their tongues doe but fill the eares of their auditors with a
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
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
fenceth the bankes of rivers and brookes placing them thicke about the flagges as it were so many pikes in an Army about the ensignes or streamers Plin. hist nat l. 16. c. 36. Calamis orientis populi bella conficiunt calamis spicula addunt irrevocabili hamo noxia his armis Solem ipsum obscurant The great Naturalist setteth forth this plant in the richest colours of Rhetoricke out of a kinde of gratitude as being indebted to it for his pen and pensill which were anciently made of canes as now of quils The people of the East use reeds in their wars of these they make deadly darts these they wing with feathers and they let them flye in such aboundance that they over-shadow the Sunne To these reeds the Prophet * Esay 19.6 Esay pointeth The reeds and flagges shall wither But our Saviour * Matth. 11.7 evidently alludeth to a Morall reed What went you out into the wildernesse to see a Reed shaken with the wind that is a timorous and inconstant man No John was no such reed hee was not light nor unstable nor must we be Apoc. 3.12 if wee expect one day to bee made pillars in the Temple of God Of these foure kindes of reeds which sorteth best with the meaning of this Scripture the Artificiall cannot bee here meant for that 's a perfect straight cane but this a bowed or bruised Maldon In hunc locum adeò quierè attentè ambulabit ut etiamsi super arundinem jam quassatam qua nihil fragilius esse potest pedem poneret eam non confringeret Maldonat glaunceth at the Naturall and thus as he imagineth hitteth the sense He will tread so warily and lightly that if a bruised reed were under his feet he would not breake it or crush it in pieces But St. * Hieron Per calamum quassatum contusum intelligit populum Judâicum qui anteà vocalis sonorus laudes Deo concinebat posteà impingens in angularem lapidem meritò appellatur calamus fractus pertundens manum ejus qui illi voluerit inniti Hierome sweetly playeth upon the Mysticall reed By the shaken and bruised reed saith hee the Evangelist understandeth the people of the Jewes which in former time were sound and entire and sweetly sounded out the praises of God but now falling upon the corner stone were cracked and therefore are fitly termed a bruised reed running into their hands who leane upon it And a Gorrh. in Matth. 12. Uâebantur exterius literali Legis observantia sed vacui erant interius spirituali intelligentia Gorrhan addeth that the Jewish people might in this also be compared to reeds that they stucke to the letter of the Law and were inwardly hollow that is empty of the spirituall sense and meaning Yet the same Saint b Hieron Qui peccatori non porrigit manum nec portatonus fratris sui iste calamum quassatum confringit Jerome in his Commentaries upon St. Matthew understandeth Reed in my Text morally taking it for a fraile and weake man whereof what fitter embleme can be devised than a reed 1. A reed hollow within and man by nature empty and void of all inward grace 2. A reed apt to make a pipe to sound or cane to write and man likewise fitted with a tongue to sound out and a hand to write his Makers praises 3. A reed dry or unfruitfull though planted and growing by the river side and man dry and unfruitfull in good workes though continually watered with the dew of Gods blessings 4. A reed ever wagging of it selfe or shaken and man so unstable that Plato defines him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a changeable creature 5. A reed so weake that it yeeldeth to the least puffe of winde and is blowne downe to the ground with a violent blast and man so feeble that hee is moved with the least blast of temptation and if it grow more violent is not only shaken but quite bowed and bruised by it as this in my Text. Bruised A reed as I have shewed is an embleme of fraile man but a bruised reed seemeth to mee a proper embleme of a Christian the Motto or word you have in John the 16. Ver. 33. In mundo pressuram habebitis In the world you shall have word for word bruising that is grievances and bruises or pressures some inward some outward some in the body some in the soule some from the yoke of Tyrants some from the burthen of your sinnes Aust Serm. de temp some from the weight of Gods judgements Whereunto S. Austin sweetly alluding saith The fairest and ripest grapes are pressed that they may yeeld their sweetest juice The hint of which conceit he may seeme to have taken from Saint Cyprian Cypr. ep ad Mart. Vos de vinea domini pingues racemi jam maturi fructibus botri pressure secularis infestatione calcatae torcular vestium carcere tot quente sentitis vini vice sanguinem funditis Yee are goodly branches of the true Vine hang'd with clusters of ripe grapes secular persecution is your treading upon and pressing your wine-presse is the prison and in stead of wine your bloud is drawne from you The hony-combes are pressed and bruised to squeeze out of them the thickest hony the ripe and full eares are smitten and bruised with the flaile to beat the corne out of them the rich Ore is beat and bruised in the stamping mils and afterwards tried by fire before there come of it precious and pure metall the corne is bruised and ground to make flowre Whereunto the blessed Martyr * Hier in catal Christi frumentum sum dentibus belluarum molar ut panis mundus inveniar Ignatius fitly resembling the death whereby he was then to glorifie God when hee heard the hungry Lyons roaring for their prey and gaping wide to devoure him said I am Christs corne and straight-waies shall be ground with the teeth of beasts that I may be served in as fine manchet at his table in heaven When the hottest spices are bruised and brayed in the mortar they yeeld a most fragrant smell and a boxe of oyntment after that it is broken sweetly perfumeth the whole roome Even so those prayers and meditations are most fervent and fragrant in the nostrils of Almighty God which rise from a bruised spirit and a broken and contrite heart through inward and outward affliction It is the proper evill and if I may so speake misery of earthly happinesse that it maketh the heart fat and dulleth and deadeth the spirits of zeale and devotion and contrariwise it is a kinde of happinesse which misery bringeth Hos 5.15 In their affliction they will seeke mee early that it quickens us and maketh us seeke diligently after God In their affliction they will seeke me * Or early Hos 5.15 diligently When by any grievous fit of sicknesse or great losse or sore wound in our reputation wee
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
vivificabo impossibile est enim quod Deus semel vivificavit ab eodem ipso vel ab alio occidi I will make alive and I will kill but I will kill and I will make alive for it is impossible that what God once quickneth hee meaneth by spirituall grace should ever be killed or destroyed either by himselfe or any other Saint Cyprian secondeth Origen who will have e Cyp. de simpl prelat Nemo aestimet bonos de Ecclesia posse discedere triticum non rapit ventus nec arborem solidâ radice fundatam procella subvertit no man entertaine any such thought as if good men and true beleevers ever revolted finally from the Church Let no man conceive saith hee that good men can depart from the Church the winde blowes not away the wheat neither doth the storme overthrow a tree sound at root they are like empty chaffe which are scattered away with a whirlewind and weake and rotten trees which are blown down in a tempest Saint Chrysostome joyneth upon the same issue commenting upon the words of Saint Paul by whom also wee have accesse by faith unto this grace wherein we stand thus He saith well the grace wherein wee stand the phrase is worth the noting for such indeed is the nature of Gods grace f Chrys homil in ep ad Rom. c. 5. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it is stable and constant it hath no end it knowes no period but proceeds alwaies from lesser to greater matters Those whom grace maketh to stand and grow continually cannot fall totally nor finally Saint Ambrose accordeth with Saint Chrysostome in his observation upon the second Epistle to the Corinthians chap. 3.3 The words of Saint Paul are Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with inke but with the Spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart St. a Amo Comment in 2. Cor. 3.3 Nunc legem veterem pulsat âuae pâimum data in lapideis tabulis abolita est fractis tabulis sub Mânte à Mose nunc autem lex in animo scribitur hoc est in corde non per calamum sed per spiritum quia fides aeterna res est à spiritu scribitu ut maneât Ambrose his note upon this place is Here hee toucheth upon or striketh at the old Law which first being given in tables of stone is abolished the tables being broken under the Mount by Moses but now the Law is written in the mind not with a quill or pen but by the spirit because faith is an eternall thing it is written by the spirit that it may abide or still continue Saint Austin and Saint Gregory cleerly conclude on our side by excluding all from the number of Christs Disciples and Sonnes of God and Saints whose revolt and apostacy proveth their hypocrisie Saint b Aug de correp grat â 9. Qui non habent perseveâ antiam cut non veâè Discipuli Christi ita nec verè Filii Dei fueâunt etiam quando esse videbantur ita vocabantur Austin speaketh definitively Those who have not the gift of perseverance as they are not truly Christs Disciples so neither were they ever truly the Sonnes of God no not when they seemed to be so And Saint c Greg. moral in Job l. 34. c 13. Aurum quod pravis diaboli persuasioâibus sterni sicut lutum potuerit aurum ante oculos Dei nunquam fuit qui seduci quandoque non reversuri possunt qua iâhabitam sanctitaté ante oculos hominum videantur amittere sed eam ante oculos Dei nunquam habucrunt Gregory is as peremptory It may saith he peradventure trouble a weake Christian that this Leviathan hath such power that hee can trample gold under his feet like dirt that is subject unto himselfe men shining in the brightnesse of holinesse by defiling them with vices but wee have an answer ready at hand that the gold which by wicked perswasions of the Divell can be laid under his feet like dirt was never gold in the sight of God and they who may be so seduced that they never returne againe may seeme to lose the habit of sanctity before the eyes of men but before the eyes of God they never were endued with any such habit You see with a little blowing what a cleere light the smoaking flaxe in my Text giveth to this Theologicall verity viz. that regenerating grace and justifying faith cannot be utterly lost or totally extinct Feele I beseech you now what warmth it yeeldeth to our cold affections and sometimes benummed consciences and first to our cold affections Is the oyntment of the Spirit so precious that the least drop of it saveth the life of the soule Is the least seed of the Word incorruptible Is the smallest sparke of true charity unquenchable Cannot justifying faith be ever lost nor the state of grace forfeited Why then doe we not strive for this state why doe we not with the rich Merchant in the Gospel sell all that wee have to gaine this pearle of faith When we have got it why doe we not more highly value it in our selves and others Other pearles and precious stones adorne but the body or cover some imperfection in it this beautifieth the soule and covereth all the skarres and deformities therein Other Jewels be they never so rich are but presents for earthly Princes but with this pearle the King of Heaven is taken and it is the price of that Kingdome Other pearles have their estimation from men but men have their estimation from this pearle Other Jewels when they are got may bee lost and that very easily but this Jewell of faith if it bee true and not counterfeit after it is once gotten can never be lost All the thoughts of worldly men are employed all their cares taken up all their time bestowed all their meanes spent in purchasing or some way procuring unto themselves a fortune as they terme it as a beneficiall office or an estate of land of inheritance or lease for terme of yeeres or lives all which are yet subject to a thousand casualties Why do they not rather looke after and labour for the state of grace which is past all hazzard being assured to us by the hand-writing of God and the seale of his Spirit An estate not for terme of yeers but for eternity an estate not of land upon earth but of an inheritance immortall undefiled reserved in heaven an estate which cannot be spoiled or wasted by hostile invasion nor wrung from us by power nor won by law nor morgaged for debt nor impaired by publike calamity nor endangered by change of Princes nor voided by death it selfe S. a Chrysost in c. 5. ad Rom. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chrysostome his eloquence exspatiateth in this field A man saith he hath received rule glory and power here but enjoyeth it not perpetually
the Temple of Christs body and setting it up was there any noise or sound heard John 2.21 This privacy of his first entry into the world pleaseth not the carnall Jew whose thoughts are all upon a temporall Monarch that should buy out Croesus his wealth and obscure Solomon in all his royalty and extend his dominion as farre as the Sunne casteth his beames No Messiah will please him but such a one as comes in with great state and pompe yet was Christ his quiet seizing upon his Kingdome most correspondent to the prediction of the Prophet Psal 72.6 He shall come downe like raine into a fleece of wooll or upon the mowne grasse that is not heard and most agreeable to his title and kingdome For what more consentaneous to reason than that the Prince of peace should enter upon his Kingdome of grace in a quiet and silent manner Had hee come into the world like the two Scipio's which were termed fulmina belli with thundering and lightening or like the Roman Emperours or the grand Signiours in the most pompous manner with greatest ostentation of wealth and pride of worldly honour more feared hee might have been but lesse loved there had been more state in his comming but lesse merit for us and consequently lesse true comfort in it The note that we are to take from it is That Christs Kingdome is not of this World And the use we are to make of it is Not to looke for great estates large revenues or high preferments here but to be content with a competency of meanes not without a liberall allowance sometimes of afflictions crosses and troubles For delicate members and such as must be continually wrapt in soft raiment that can endure no hardnesse sort not well with a head crowned with thornes By the Law The feathers of such fowles as had been sacrificed were cast in locum cinerum into the place of ashes What are all the pompes and vanities of this world but like beautifull feathers Projiciamus ergo in locum cinerum Let us therefore strip us of them and by true mortification cast them into the place of ashes especially in this time of sorrow and penance when sackcloth is or should be in fashion for apparrell and ashes for couches Upon which when God seeth us he will have compassion on us and give us beauty for ashes and the garment of gladnesse for the spirit of heavinesse 2 Cor. 5.7 Coloss 3.3 4. As we are Christians we walke by faith and not by sight our life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ which is our life shall appeare then shall we also appeare with him in glory Secondly we have here the picture of meeknesse in the pattern of all perfection Matth. 21.5 Christ Jesus drawne to the life for our imitation What the Prophet Zachary fore-told concerning the disposition and gracious temper of the Messias to come saying Tell the daughter of Sion behold the King commeth unto thee meeke Zach. 9.9 c. the same the Evangelist confirmeth through the whole Gospel by the speeches and silence actions and passions life and death of the Lord of life To begin with his speeches if ever that Eulogue of the Greeke Poet ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or the like of the Latine Vernas afflat ab ore rosas were verified if ever the tongue of any dropped honey and his breath were as sweet and savoury as Roses in the Spring it was certainly our Redeemers who is that hee spake and speaketh alwayes that he is the Word of God The Father is as the mouth the holy Spirit the breath and Christ the word Heare I beseech you verba Verbi the words of the Word of life Come unto mee all that are heavie laden and I will ease you Sonne be of good comfort thy faith hath made thee whole I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance The sonne of man came not to destroy but to save Goe in peace thy sinnes bee forgiven thee And Come yee blessed of my Father possesse the Kingdome prepared for you before the foundation of the world was laid c. Yea but these speeches hee uttered to penitent sinners or such as sued to him for favour and mercy how did hee demeane himselfe towards those uncivill and inhumane Samaritans who denied him lodging Against whom James and John the sonnes of thunder were so incensed that they would have called downe fire from heaven to destroy them by the example of Elias Doth he curse them doth he upbraid ingratitude and inhospitality unto them nay rather he rebuketh his Disciples whom zeale and love transported too farre and by telling them they knew not of what spirit they were Luke 9.55 he shewed apparently what spirit he was who when the Scribes and Pharisees laid Sorcery and Necromancy to his charge saying Say we not well thou art a Samaritane and hast a Divell he delivered them not to the Divell as they deserved for this their blasphemous slander nor sharply reproveth them John 8.49 but mildly answereth I have not a Divell but I honour my Father and yee have dishonoured mee Perhaps he pitied their ignorance or had respect to the dignity and place of the Scribes and Pharisees who bare the greatest sway among the people may some say But what was there in his owne Disciple Judas that he should grace that damned caitiffe that traiterous servant that sonne of perdition with the title of Friend when he came to play the most unfriendly and ungratefull part that ever was acted even to betray his Lord and Master Friend wherefore art thou come Matth. 26.50 doest thou betray the sonne of man with a kisse I have spoken of the speeches of our Saviour let me not passe in silence his meek silence when he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lambe before the shearers so opened hee not his mouth When hee was falsly slandered in the Judgement seat shamefully handled in the Hall most contumeliously reviled and cruelly tortured upon the crosse When the Judge of all flesh was condemned the beauty of Heaven spit upon the King of glory crowned with thornes the Maker of the world made a spectacle of misery to the whole world When his Disciples forsooke him his owne Nation accused him the Judge condemned him the servants buffeted him the souldiers deluded him the people exclaimed against him the Scribes and Pharisees scoffed at him the executioners tormented him in all parts of his body When the Starres were confounded with shame the Elements troubled Cypr. de bon pat Cùm confunderentur sidera elementa turbentur contremiscat terra nox diem claudat sol ne Judaeorum facinus aspicere cogatur radios subtrahat ille non loquitur nec movetur nec Majestatem suam sub ipsá saltem morte profitetur O qualis quanta est Christi patientia qui adoratur in coelis nondum vindicatur in
terris the Earth trembled the Stones clave with indignation the vaile of the Temple rent it selfe the Heaven mourned in sables the Sunne that he might not behold such outrage done upon so sacred a person drew in his beams He who suffereth all this quatcheth not stirreth not nor discovereth his divine Majesty no not when death approached When all insensible creatures seemed to be sensible of the injury offered their Maker he who feeleth all seemeth to be insensible For hee maketh no resistance at all and though he were omnipotent yet his patience overcame his omnipotency and even to this day restraineth his justice from taking full revenge of them who were the authours of his death and of those who since crucifie againe the Lord of life and trample under their feet the bloud of the Covenant as a prophane thing Whose thoughts are not swallowed up in admiration at this that he who is adored in heaven is not yet revenged upon the earth You see meeknesse in his passions behold now this vertue expressed to the life in his life and actions Actions I say whether naturall or miraculous so indeed they are usually distinguished albeit Christs miraculous actions were naturall in him proceeding from his divine nature and most of his naturall actions as they are called proceeding from his humane nature were in him wonderfull and miraculous For instance to weep is a most naturall action but to weep in the midst of his triumph and that for their ruine who were the cause of all his woe to shed teares for them who thirsted after his bloud was after a sort miraculous Who ever did the like Indeed we reade that Marcellus wept over Syracuse and Scipio over Carthage and Titus over Jerusalem as our Saviour did but the cause was far different They shed teares for them whose bloud they were to shed but our Saviour for them who were ready to shed his Luke 19.41 His bowels earned for them who thought it long till they had pierced his heart with a launce When the high Priest commanded Paul to be smote on the face hee rebuked him saying The Lord shall smite thee thou painted wall Acts 23 3. but when the Lord himselfe was smitten by the high Priests servant he falls not foule upon him but returnes this milde answer If I have done evill John 18.23 beare witnesse of the evill but if I have done well why strikest thou me The servant thinketh much to endure that from the Master which the Master endures from the servant The Apostles on whom the Spirit descended in the likenesse of fiery tongues were often hot and inflamed with wrath against the enemies of God and brought downe fearfull judgements upon them but our Saviour on whom the Spirit descended in the likenesse of a Dove never hurt any by word or deed 2 Kin. 5.27 Matth. 8.2 Luke 4.27 17.12 Acts 13.11 Acts 5.5.10 Eliah inflicted leprosie upon Gehazi by miracle Christ by miracle cleansed divers lepers Saint Paul tooke away sight from Elymas Christ by miracle restored sight to many Saint Peter miraculously with a word strucke Ananias and Sapphira down dead Christ by miracle raised many from death insomuch that his very enemies gave this testimony of him Mark 7 37. Hee hath done all well giving to the lame feet to the maimed strength to the dumbe speech to the deafe eares to the blind sight to the sicke health to the dead life to the living everlasting joy and comfort I have proposed unto you a notable example shall I need to put to spurres of art to pricke on your desires to follow it the example is our Saviour and the vertue exemplified in him meeknesse How excellent must the picture be which is set in so rich a frame such a vertue were to be imitated in any person such a person to be imitated in any vertue how much more such a vertue in such a person It is hard to say whether ought to bee the stronger motive unto us to follow meeknesse either because it is the prince of vertues or the vertue of our Prince whose stile is Princeps pacis Where the prince is the Prince of peace and the kingdome the Kingdome of grace and the law the Law of love they must certainly be of a milde and loving disposition that are capable of preferment in it If the Spirit be an oyntment as S. a 1. John 2.20 But you have an oyntment from the Holy One and you know all things John calleth it it must needs supple If grace bee a dew it cannot but moisten and soften the heart and make it like Gedeons fleece Judges 6.37 which was full of moisture when all the ground about it was dry What can be said more in the commendation of any vertue than meeknesse and of it than this that God commandeth it in his Word Christ patterneth it in his life and death the holy Spirit produceth it in our hearts our very nature enclineth us to it and our condition requireth it of us No vertue so generally commended as meeknesse Follow after righteousnesse 1 Tim. 6.11 godlinesse faith love patience meeknesse bee no brawler Tit. 3.2 but gentle shewing all meeknesse to all men Walke worthy of the vocation whereunto you are called with all lowlinesse and meeknesse with long-suffering forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the unitie of the Spirit in the bond of peace James 3.17 18. The wisedome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits and the fruit of righteousnesse is sowne in peace of them that make peace No fruit of the spirit so sweet and pleasant as this as on the contrary no fruit of the flesh so tart and bitter as jealousie and wrath which God curseth by the mouth of b Genes 40.7 Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their rage for it was cruell Jacob but blesseth meeknesse by the mouth of our Saviour Matth. 5.5 Blessed are the meeke for they shall inherit the earth The earth was cursed before it brought forth thornes and thistles and briars which are good for nothing but to bee burned Wherefore let us hearken to the counsell of St. c Cypr. de zelo bââore Evellamus spinas de cordibus ut dââminicum semen nos fertili fruge locupletet Cyprian Let us weed out of our soules envie wrath and jealousie and other stinging and pricking passions And of the Apostle Let no root of d Heb. 12.15 Looking diligently lest any root of bitternesse springing up trouble you bitternesse remaine in us that we may receive with meeknesse the engraffed Word which is able to save our soules James 1.21 Our carnall lusts are like so many serpents and of all wrath is the most fiery which will set all in a combustion if it bee not either quenched by the teares of repentance or slacked by the infusion of divine
also doth the like Ovid. Met. l. 1. Cuncta priùs tentanda sed immedicabile vulnus Ense recidendum est ne pars sincera trahatur Si frustra molliora cesserint Seneca l. 1. de irâ ferit venam For Physicians first minister weak and gentle potions and as the disease groweth apply stronger medicines And good Surgeons Homer l. 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã like Machaon in Homer first lay plasters and poultesses to wounds and swellings and never launce or burne the part till the sore fester and other parts be in danger whom good Magistrates ought to imitate and never to use violent and compulsive remedies but when they are compelled thereunto nor to take extreme courses Senec. l. 1. de ira Ultima supplicia motibus ultimis parat ut nemo pereat nisi quem perire etiam pereuntis intersit but when the malady is extreme Desperate remedies are never good but when no other can be had for they that are of a great spirit if they be well given will not if they be ill cannot be amended by such meanes They resemble Jeat which burneth in water but is quenched with oyle or the c Plin. nat hist l. 31. c. 7. Uno digito mobilis idem si toto corpore impellitur resistens ita ratio est libra menti Colossus at Tarentum which you may move with your finger but cannot wagge if you put your whole strength to it As for those that are of a weaker spirit and are easily daunted harsh courses will doe them more hurt than good for they resemble tender plants which dye if they are touched with a d Rustici frondibus teneris non putant adhibendam falcem quia reformidare ferrum videntur cicatricem nondum pati posse knife or iron instrument The sixth rule is to sweeten the sharpest censures with mild speeches This rule is delivered by Lactantius in these words Circumlinere poculum coelestis sapientiae melle when wee minister a wholsome but bitter potion to annoint the side of the cup with honey when we give the patient a loathsome pill to lap it in sugar The manner whereof the Spirit sheweth us in divers letters sent to the Churches of e Apoc. 2.3 Asia First we are to professe the good will wee beare to the party and make it knowne unto him that whatsoever we doe we doe it in love f Apoc. 3.19 I rebuke and chasten as many as I love Secondly to acknowledge their good parts if they have any g Apoc. 2.2 4. I know thy workes and thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not beare them that are evill neverthelesse I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love Thirdly to give them some good advice and counsell with our reproofe h Apoc. 3.18 I counsell thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou maist bee rich and white raiment that thou maist be clothed and that the shame of thy nakednesse may not appeare and to annoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou maist see Lastly to promise them favour upon any token of amendment i Apoc. 3.20 Be zealous therefore and repent behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man heare my voice and open the doore I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Some there are who like best a resolute Chirurgian who be the patient never so impatient will doe his duty and quickly put him out of his paine though in the meane time he putteth the party to most intolerable torture Give me a tender-hearted Chirurgian who being to set an arme or legge that is out of joynt handleth it so gently that the patient scant feeleth when the bone falleth in Thus Nathan the Prophet handled King David 2 Sam. 12.3 4 5 6 7. and by telling him first a parable of a poore man that had but one lambe c. and afterwards applying it unexpectedly to the King himself ere he was aware as it were set not his body but his soule in joynt The seventh rule is to keep the execution of justice within certaine bounds set by equity and mercy This rule is laid downe by the Prophet Micah Hee hath shewed thee O man what is good Micah 6.8 and what the Lord requireth of thee to doe justice and to love mercy and by Solomon Eccles 7.16 Be not just overmuch Cut not too deep nor launce too farre Ne excedat medicina modum It is better to leave some flesh a little tainted than cut away any that is sound It is more agreeable to Gods proceedings to save a whole City for ten righteous mens sake than after the manner of the Romans when there was a mutiny in the Campe to pay the tythe to justice by executing every tenth man through the whole Army For as Germanicus cryed out in Tacitus Tacit. annal l. 1. Non medicina ista est sed clades when hee saw a great number of souldiers put to the sword for raising up sedition in the Army Stay your hand this is not an execution but a slaughter not a remedy but a plague not severity of justice but extremity of cruelty For which Theodosius the Emperour was justly excommunicated by St. Ambrose and Aegyptus sharply censured by the Poet Ovid. l. 1. de Pont. Eleg 9. qui caede nocentum Se nimis ulciscens extitit ipse nocens And Scylla was proscribed by the Historians and Poets of his time to all ages because hee was not content with the punishment of sixty thousand in Rome who were executed with most exquisite torments but entring afterwards into Praeneste there left not a man alive and else where also his cruelty raging in the end as Lucan observeth hee let out the corrupt bloud but when there was in a manner no other bloud left in the whole body of the Common-wealth Lucan de bel ci l. 1. periere nocentes Sed cum jam soli poterant superesse nocentes What was this else Sabast conjur Caâil Vastaâe civitatem non sanaâe than as Salust speaketh to exhaust a city not to purge it I am not against the cutting off a rotten member to preserve the whole body I know the sword is the only cure of an incurable wound which yet hath no place when there is no sound part in the whole body a Bodin de rep l 3. c 7. Et si salutare est putre membrum ad universi corporis salutem urere aut secare non propterea si omnia membra extabuerint aât gangâena inficiantuâ sectionibus erit aut ustionibus utendum Bodine speaketh pertinently to this purpose It doth not follow that because it is good Surgery sometimes to burne out rotten flesh or cut off a member to save the whole that therefore if a gangrene overspread the whole we are to apply a Razor or Cupping-glasse b Sen.
part yet the Divell so hardened Ruthwen that he tooke out the other dagger and set the point thereof at his Majesties royall breast And now if ever any lay inter k Eras adag sacrum saxum betweene the axe and the blocke or l Theoâri in dioscââ ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã upon the edge of the razor or in ipsis fati m Cic. Catilin ââai 2. faucibus in the very chops of destinie or jawes of death it selfe at the point lay the hope then and now the joy and life of us all Alone in a remote place his servans and attendants barred from him by many doores locked and bolted himselfe destitute of all weapons betweene two Conspirators with a poynard bent to his heart O King live for ever is not thy God whom thou servest able to deliver thee from this perill of death Could hee not snatch thee out of the paw of the Lion Could hee not have strucke downe both the Conspirators dead to the floore with a thunderbolt from heaven or at the least taken away the use of Ruthwens limbes drying up that hand that presumed to touch the apple of his owne eye the sacred person of our Soveraigne With a word he could but it seemed best to his all-sweetly-disposing providence wonderfully to preserve his Majestie yet without a miracle For if he had rescued him by any such miraculous meanes as I named before there had beene no occasion offered nor place left for his Majesties faithfull servants to stake their lives for their Master neither had the world taken such notice of his Majesties rare gift of eloquence by the force whereof like another n Cic. de orat l. 3. Antonie intentos gladios jugulo retudit he stayed the Traitors hand and delayed the intended blow first clearing his owne innocencie from the aspersion of bloud in the execution of the Traitors father by course of justice in his Majesties minority then recounting to him the many princely favours he had conferred upon his brother himselfe and all their kindred but especially laying before his eyes the horrour of the guilt of embruing his hands in the bloud of the Lords annointed which said he if my children and subjects should not revenge the stones out of the wall and the beames of the timber conscious of such a villanie would execute vengeance upon thee for so unnaturall barbarous and bloudie an act In fine he promised in the word of a King pardon for all the violence he had hitherto offered him if he would yet relent and desist from his murtherous intent and attempt of spilling royall bloud At which words Ruthwens heart though of Adamant began to relent and give in in such sort that hee gave his Majestie a time to breathe and offer up prayers with strong cries to the God of his salvation who heard him in that hee feared as you shall heare anon In the interim Ruthwen consults with the Earle Gowrie his brother and according to the Latine o Eras adag Aspis a vipera sumit venenum proverbe the aspe suckes poyson from the viper wherewith he swelleth and brusling up himselfe flies at his Majestie the second time to sting him to death and wrapping about him begins to bind his royall hands who nothing appalled at the hideous shape of death within a fingers breadth of his heart answers like himselfe that he was borne free and would die free and unbound forthwith he unlooseth his hands and with one of them clasping the Traitors sword with the other he grapples with him and after much struggling his Majestie draweth the Traitor to the window by which it so pleased God to dispose for his Majesties safety that some of his Majesties servants passed at that very instant and both heard and saw in part in what distresse his Majestie was and made all possible speed to rescue him but before they could force a way through so many doores the King by power from above got the Traitor under him and drew him by maine force to the top of the staire-case where soone after the Kings servants forcibly breaking through all barres bolts and lockes met with him and throwing him downe staires sent him with many wounds to his owne place verifying the letter of this prophecie in the confusion of our Davids enemies qui quaerunt praecipitium animae meae they which seeke the downefall of my soule they shall goe or rather tumble downe with a witnesse And so I passe from the Traitors attempt to the event and happy catastrophe on the Kings part of this not fained Interlude They shall goe downe By this time as I intimated but now the Kings servants partly made and partly found their way into the study rushing in to save the life of their Soveraigne where they had no sooner dispatched one of the brothers Alexander Ruthwen but the other brother the Earle with seven of his servants well appointed encountreth them The skirmish growes hot betweene them these fighting for their lives they for their Soveraigne these animated by hope they whet on by desperation After many wounds given and received on both sides they of the Kings part according to the words of the tenth verse cast him down or as it is in the Hebrew make his bloud spin or run out like water on the ground his I say the arch-Traitor the Earle Gowrie who may be compared to Saul Davids chiefe enemie whose downefall the spirit in the pronoune in the singular number him pointeth at in many respects but especially in this that he tooke counsell of the Divell to murther the Lords Annointed For as Saul conferred with the Witch at Endor before he put himselfe into the field which he watered with his bloud so the Earle Gowrie before hee entred into this Acheldamah field of bloud pitched by himselfe hee made the Divell of his counsell and was found with many magicke characters about him when he fell by the edge of the sword If any man question how it could so fall out that Alexander Ruthwen being more nimble strong and expert in wrestling and having many wayes advantage on his Majestie should not throw him downe or get him under him I answer out of the words immediately going before my text dextra Jehovae sustentabat eum the right hand of the Lord supported him the King by whose speciall providence it was ordered that his Majesties servants should passe by the window at the very moment when his Majestie looked out as also that some of them should finde that blinde way by the turne-pecke into the studie which the Earle Gowrie caused to bee new made for this his divellish enterprise Therefore his Majestie as soone as the bloudie storme was blowne over kneeled downe in the middest of all his servants and offered up the calves of his lips to the God of his life promising a perpetuall memorie of this his deliverie and professing that hee assured himselfe that God had not preserved him
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
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
most comfortable for g Gal. 6.14 God forbid saith hee that I should rejoice in any thing save in the crosse of Christ whereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world These points I shall cleare to your understanding and presse upon your devout affections Gods grace assisting your patience encouraging and the time permitting me I determined to know nothing among you c. No people under the cope of heaven were more desirous of knowledge or capable of a greater measure thereof than the Corinthians that were Pupilla Graeciae the apple of Greece the eye of the world and none more furnished with divine and humane knowledge than my Apostle whose portion especially of acquired learning was like to Benjamins of whose tribe hee was h Gen. 43.34 five times greater than his brethren ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Eras Adag Yet this every way accomplisht Doctor of the Gentiles so inriched with all knowledge at Corinth the prime City of Greece the Royall Exchange if I may so speake of all arts and sciences whither men of ordinary ranke and quality might not easily have accesse among these who heard of Saint Paul that hee had beene i 2 Cor. 12.2 rapt up into the third heaven and expected that hee should utter unto them what hee saw and heard there hee will bee knowne to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified All that hee tooke up at Gamaliels feet hee layed downe at Christs hee buried his jewels of Egypt which cost him so deare under the wood of the crosse as Jacob did Labans idolls k Gen. 35.4 under the oake at Sichem Hee not onely under-valueth them in respect but maketh no reckoning of them I esteeme nothing of any nor will bee esteemed for any knowledge save of Jesus Christ and him crucified The coherence Which words are spoken by the Apostle here by way of apology to certaine of the Corinthians who prepossessed with the false Apostles making great shew of learning and eloquence could not away with the Apostles plainer and simpler kinde of teaching without ostentation of art or mixture of secular learning To these hee addresseth himselfe after this manner ver 1. And I brethren when I came unto you came not with excellency of words or wisedome declaring unto you the testimony of God For I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of mans wisedome but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith might not stand in the wisedome of man but in the power of God In effect he confesseth that his words were not so pickt The sense his phrase so choice his composition so smooth his sentences so fluent his cadences so sweet his language so polite his stile so flourishing or his lines so strong as were those of the false Apostles who with their puffed up eloquence and word wisedome sought to bring into contempt the simplicity of the Gospell I seeke not saith hee in effect to approve my doctrine unto you by Tropes of Rhetorike or Syllogismes of Logicke or Axiomes of Philosophy but by the evidence of the Spirit I professe no science among you but the science of the crosse and surely the plainest and simplest method and manner of teaching best fitteth it Were it decent and agreeable thinke you to treat of God his emptying himselfe in swelling words to speake of Christ his abasing himselfe in a lofty stile to discourse sweetly upon gall and vinegar to beset nailes and thornes with flowers of Rhetoricke and to bring our Saviour in pompe of words and vaine-glorious pageants of art to his crosse Let them make ostentation of their learning and eloquence who preach themselves I that am a Minister of Christ and called to preach him make conscience to adde any thing of mine owne that may detract from him or any way obscure the doctrine of the Gospell Doct. 1 The Ministers of the word may esteeme of secular learning in it's ranke but they must not as if they were making merchandise thereof expose it to sale in their sermons they must not seek to value themselves chiefly by it or make any shew or ostentation thereof to the obscuring or any way disparaging the doctrine of the Gospell There are many simples goe to the making of a soveraigne Electuary which yet cannot bee discerned in it when it is made wee see not the honey-suckles and other sweet flowers which Kine feede upon in the spring l Virg Geor. 4. Attamen occultum referunt in lacte saporem yet wee have the taste of them in the milke The Prince of the Romane Oratours illustrateth the like observation by a similitude drawne from those that walke in the sunne m Cic. de orat l. 1 who though they walke not to that end to bee sunne-burnt yet if they walke long they will bee so in like manner though a man study not the arts to this end to gaine an opinion of learning or skill in them nay though hee conceale art which is a high point of art with all possible art yet by that which hee performeth in his pleading of causes it will appeare how hee hath profited in them I determine to know nothing c. The Apostle seemeth to bee very flat upon the negative and by a kinde of Ostracisme to banish all eminency of secular learning out of the schoole of Christ yet as Saint n Chrysin hunc ââcum Chrysostome well notes hee doth not absolutely condemne humane learning and eloquence wherein himselfe excelled for that had beene to slurre his owne perfections but the edge of his Apostolicall reprehension falleth upon the abuse ostentation or over-prising it to the prejudice of the knowledge of Christ crucified I know the ground I now tread upon is slippery and therefore I must carefully looke to my feete lest they slide on either side To derogate from the all-sufficiency of Scripture is sacriledge and blasphemy and on the other side to detract from the worth and credite of arts and sciences is anabaptisticall frenzie the truth in the middle may bee laid downe in this Aphorisme Scripture is of it selfe abundantly sufficient for us but we are not sufficient for it without the help of the arts or as we terme them liberall sciences Wee cannot sufficiently either conceive our selves or declare to our hearers the works of God without naturall Philosophy nor the law of God without morall nor the attributes of God without the Metaphysickes nor the dimensions of the Arke and Temple without the Mathematickes nor the songs of Sion without Musicke and Poetry Wee cannot interpret the text of Scripture without Grammar analyze it without Logicke presse and apply it without Rhetoricke Wherefore let Brownists and Separatists scoffe at University learning as the Foxe in the Greeke Epigram disparageth the faire and ripe grapes on a high tree because they were out of
fine brasse will discerne their vaine-glorious pride and stampe them and their Idols to powder To close up this note though not so fit for this quire yet not to be skipt because prickt in the rules of my text let all the Dispencers of Gods holy mysteries by the Apostles example strive in their preaching to winne soules to Christ not applause to themselves to pricke the heart not tickle the eare to leave in their hearers minds a perswasion of their doctrine not opinion of their learning and eloquence that is in the Apostles phrase to esteeme to know nothing save Jesus Christ JESUS d Maât Epigâ l. 9. Nomen cum rosis violisque natum Quod hyblam sapit atticosque flores Quod nidos olet avis superbae Nomen nectare dulcius beato A name sweeter to the smell of the soule than roses or violets or all the Arabian spices in the Phoenix nest and sweeter also to the taste than the Athenians hony or Nectar it selfe Nothing relished St. Augustine without it Ignatius calleth Jesus his love and onely joy Jesus amor meus crucifixus Jesus my love is crucified This name Jesus was imposed by an Angel e Mat. 1.21 Mat. 1. and acknowledged by the Divel f Act. 19.15 Jesus âe know Act. 19. and highly advanced by God himself above all names g Phil. 29. A name aboât all names Phil. 2. Three in the old Testament bare this name and they were all types of Christ Jesus Nave or Josua was a type of Christ as a King Jesus in Zechary as a Priest and Jesus the son of Syrach as a Prophet to reveale the secrets of his Fathers wisdome As all Josephs brethrens sheaves rose up did homage to Josephs sheafe so all the attributes of God and other names of our Redeemer after a sort rise up and yeeld a kind of preheminence to this name which the Apostle stileth a g ver 10. a name above all names at which every knee must bow And the reason hereof is evident to all that have yeelding hearts and bending knees and are not like the pillars in the Philistims Temple which were so fast set in their sockets that they needed a Sampson to bow them For there is majesty in God there is independent being in Jehovah there is power in Lord there is unction in Christ there is affinity in Immanuel intercession in Mediator helpe in Advocate but there is h Act. 4.12 salvation in no name under heaven but the name of Jesus Doct. 2 Which may bee taken either as a proper name or as an appellative if it bee taken as a proper name it exhibiteth to the eye of our faith infinity defined immensity circumscribed omnipotency infirme eternity borne that is God incarnate It designeth a single person of a double nature create and increate soveraigne and subject eternall and mortall It is the name of the Sonne of God begotten of a Father without a Mother and borne of a Mother without a Father God of God and Man of woman God sent from God Man sent to man God to save man Man to satisfie God God and Man to reconcile God and man Doct. 3 If the word Jesus be taken appellatively it signifieth Saviour or him that saveth us from 1 The wrath of God 2 The power of Satan 3 The guilt and dominion of sinne 4 The sentence of the law 5 The torments of hell And to know Jesus in this acception is to know a soveraigne salve for every sore of the conscience a remedy against all the diseases of the minde a sanctuary for all offences a shelter from all stormes a supersedeas from all processe and an impregnable fortresse against all the assaults of our ghostly and bodily enemies and can you then blame the Apostle for making so much of the knowledge of Jesus which is also Christ Christ that is anointed a blessed and tender hearted Physitian professing his manner of curing in his name which is by unction not by ustion by salving and plaistering not burning and lancing Vulnera nostra non ustione urans sed unctionâ To know Christ is to know our King Priest and Prophet For ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifieth a thrice sacred person anointed with oyle above all his brethren and appointed by God Doct. 4 1 A Prophet to us 2 A Priest for us 3 A King over us 1 A Prophet to teach us by his Word 2 A Priest to purge us by his Blood 3 A King to governe us by his Spirit Of Christs propheticall function Moses prophecieth saying i Deut. 18.15 A Prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you like unto me unto him ye shall hearken his Priesthood God confirmeth to him by k Psal 110.4 oath his Kingdome the Angell proclaimeth l Luk. 1.32.33 The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his Father David and hee shall reigne over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdome there shall bee no end Priests were anointed as Aaron by Moses and Prophets as Elizeus by Elias and Kings as Saul by Samuel Christ was therefore thrice anointed as King Priest and Prophet yet is hee not three anointeds but one anointed And it is not unworthy our observation that Christs three functions are not onely mystically figured but also after a sort naturally represented in the oyle wherewith hee was anointed 1 Oyle maketh a cheerefull countenance so doth Christ as a Prophet by preaching the glad tidings of the Gospell unto us 2 Oyle suppleth and cureth wounds so doth Christ as a Priest the wounds of our conscience by anointing them with his blood 3 Oyle hath a predominancy amongst liquors if you powre wine water and oyle into the same vessel the oyle will bee uppermost so Christ as a King is above all creatures and is Soveraigne over men and Angels This his Kingly office typically shined in the Myter of Aaron as his Priesthood was engraven in the Jewels of his breast-plate as for the third office of our Lord his propheticall function it sounded in the golden bels hanging with the pomegranats at the high Priests skirts By this glympse you may see know what it is to know Jesus Christ This Jesus had not bin a Jesus to us if he had not bin Christ that is anointed by God and enabled by his threefold office to accomplish the perfect worke of our redemption neither could Christ have beene our Christ if hee had not beene crucified to satisfie for our sinnes and reconcile us to God his Father by his death upon the crosse therefore the Apostle addeth and him crucified Crucified And so I fall upon my last Note a Note to bee quavered upon with feare and trembling in the Antheme set for Good-friday yet it will not be amisse to tune our voice to it at this time For this is also a Friday and next unto it and in sight of it and wee all know that if there bee many Instruments on a
where divers candles or torches in a roome concurre to enlighten the place the light of them remaineth impermixt as the Optickes demonstrate by their severall shadowes so all the divine graces conjoyne their lustre and vertue to adorne and beautifie the inward man yet their nature remaines distinct as their speciall effects make it evident to a single and sharp-sighted eye God was in the bush that burned and consumed not yet God was not the bush The holy Ghost was in the fiery cloven tongues yet the holy Ghost was not the tongues The spirits runne along in the arteries with the purer and refined blood yet the spirits are not the blood The fire insinuateth it selfe into all the parts of melted metall and to the eye nothing appeareth but a torrent of fire yet the fire is not the metall in like manner zeale shineth and flameth in devotion love godly jealousie indignation and other sanctified desires and affections it enflameth them as fire doth metall it stirreth and quickeneth them as the spirits doe the blood yet zeale is not those passions neither are all or any of them zeale howsoever the schooles rather out of zeale of knowledge than knowledge of zeale have determined the contrary 2 Secondly zeale is defined to bee not a morall vertue but a divine gift or grace of the Spirit the Spirit of God is the efficient cause and the Spirit of man is the subject which the Apostle intimates in that phrase i Rom. 12.11 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã being fervent or zealous in Spirit This fire like that of the Vestals is kindled from heaven by the beames of the Sunne of righteousnesse not from any kitchen on earth much lesse from hell They therefore qui irae suae stimulum zelum putant they who imagine the flashes of naturall choler are flames of spirituall zeale toto coelo errant are as farre from the marke as heaven is distant from the earth No naturall or morall temper much lesse any unnaturall and vitious distemper can commend us or our best actions to God and men as zeale doth The fire of zeale like the fire that consumed Solomons sacrifice commeth downe from heaven and true zealots are not those Salamanders or Pyrausts that alwayes live in the fire of hatred and contention but Seraphims burning with the spirituall fire of divine love who as Saint Bernard well noteth kept their ranke and station in heaven when the other Angels of Lucifers band that have their names from light fell from theirs Lucifer cecidit Seraphim stant to teach us that zeale is a more excellent grace than knowledge even in Angels that excell in both Howbeit though zeale as farre surpasse knowledge as the sunne-beame doth a glow-worme yet zeale must not be without knowledge Wherefore God commandeth the Priest when hee k Exod. 30.8 lighteth the lamps to burne incense though the fire bee quicke and the incense sweet yet God accepteth not of the burning it to him in the darke The Jewes had a zeale as the l Rom. 10.2 Apostle acknowledgeth and the Apostle himselfe before his conversion yet because it wanted knowledge it did them and the Church of God great hurt No man can bee ignorant of the direfull effects of blind zeale when an unskilfull Phaeton takes upon him to drive the chariot of the sunne hee sets the whole world in a combustion What a mettled horse is without a bridle or a hot-spurred rider without an eye or a ship in a high winde and swelling saile without a rudder that is zeale without knowledge which is like the eye in the rider to choose the way or like the bridle in the hand to moderate the pace or like the rudder in the ship to steere safely the course thereof Saint m Inser 22. in Cant. Bernard hits full on this point Discretion without zeale is slow paced and zeale without discretion is heady let therefore zeale spurre on discretion and discretion reyne zeale fervor discretionem erigat discretio fervorem regat Discretion must guide zeale as it is guided by spirituall wisedome not worldly policy and therefore Thirdly I adde in the definition of zeale that it quickeneth and enflameth all our holy desires and affections according to the direction of spirituall wisdome For wisdome must prescribe zeale when and where and how far and in what order to proceede in reforming all abuses in Church and State and performing all duties of religious piety and eminent charity What Isocrates spake sometime of valour or strength is as true of zeale viz. n Isoc ad Dem. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. that zeale and resolution with wisedome doth much good but without it doth much mischiefe to our selves and others like granadoes and other fire-works which if they be not well looked to and ordered when they breake do more hurt to them that cast them than to the enemie Yet that we be not deceived in mistaking worldly policy for wisdome I adde spirituall to difference it from carnall morall or civill wisedome for they are too great coolers they will never let zeale exceed the middle temper of that * Vibius Statesman in Tiberius Court who was noted to bee a wise and grave Counseller of a faire carriage and untainted reputation but hee would o Juven sat 4. Ille igitur nunquam direxit brachia contra torrentem never strike a stroake against the streame hee would never owne any mans quarrell hee would bee sure to save one Such is the worldly wise man hee will move no stone though never so needfull to bee removed if hee apprehend the least feare that any part of the wall will fall upon himselfe The p Cic. de orat l. 1. Tempus omne post consulatum objecimus iis fluctibus qui per nos à communi peste depulsi in nosmetipsos redundarunt Romane Consul and incomparable Oratour shall bee no president for him who imployed all his force and strength to keepe off those waves from the great vessel of the State which rebounded backe againe and had neere drowned the cocke-boate of his private fortune Hee will never ingage himselfe so farre in any hot service no not though Gods honour and the safety of the Church lye at stake but that he will be sure to come off without hazzard of his life or estate Hee hath his conscience in that awe that it shall not clamour against him for not stickling in any businesse that may peradventure reflect upon his state honour or security In a word peradventure he may bee brought with much adoe to doe something for God but never to suffer any thing for him This luke-warme Laodicean disposition the lesse offensive it is to men the more odious it is to God who is a jealous God and affecteth none but those that are zealous for his glory he loveth none but those that will bee content to expose themselves to the hatred of all men for his names sake Hee q
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
worse than perdition to bee saved for ever in these flames to bee ever scorched and never consumed that is to bee ever dying and never dye Here as Saint g Aug. de civit Dei l 13. c. 11. Ibi non erunt homines ante mortem neque post mortem sed semper in morte atque per hoc nunquam viventes nunquam mortui sed sine fine morientes Austine acutely observeth wee can never bee sayd properly dying but either alive or dead for to the moment of giving up the ghost wee are alive and after that dead whereas on the contrary the damned in hell can never bee said to bee alive or dead but continually dying not dead because they have most quicke sense of paine not alive because they are in the pangs of the second death O miserable life where life is continually dying O more miserable death where death is eternally living Yea but shall all be salted with this fire the fire of hell God forbid Doth Christ say of this salt not of the earth but of hell that it is good ver 50. is this the meaning of his exhortation have salt in you that is procure the salt of hell fire to keep you alive in the torments of eternall death to preserve you to everlasting perdition By no meanes h In hunc locum Maldonat therefore and Barradius and all that are for this first interpretation are justly to bee blamed because they had an eye to the antecedents but not to the consequents of my text On the other side those who adhere to the second interpretation are not free from just exception because they had an eye to the consequents and not to the antecedents For wee ought to give such an interpretation of these words as may hold good correspondence both with the antecedents and consequents and either give light to both or receive it from them The elect to whom these latter restraine the word All have nothing to doe with the unquenchable fire of hell mentioned ver 48. neither have the reprobate to whom the former interpreters appropriate these words any thing to doe with the good salt ver 50. yet both have to doe with some kinde of salting and with some kinde of fire For every one shall bee salted one way or other either here with the fire of the spirit seasoning our nature and preserving it from corruption or hereafter with the fire of hell There is no meanes to escape the never dying worme of an evill conscience but by having salt in us nor to prevent the unquenchable fire of hell but by fire from heaven I meane heart-burning sorrow for our sinnes Dolor est medicina doloris That we may not bee hereafter salted with the fire of hell wee must be here salted with a threefold fire of 1 The word 2 The spirit 3 Affliction or persecution First with the fire of the word the word is a fire i Jer. 23.29 Is not my word like a fire saith the Lord It hath the three properties of fire 1 To give light 2 To burne 3 To search First it giveth light therefore Psal 119. it is called a lanthorn to our steps and a light to our paths Secondly it burneth 1 In the eare 2 In the mouth 3 In the heart First in the eare k 1 Sam. 3.11 Whosoever heareth my words saith God his eares shall tingle Secondly it burneth in the mouth l Jerem. 5.14 I will make my words fire in the mouth Thirdly it burneth in the heart m Luk. 24.32 Did not our heart burne within us when hee opened to us the scriptures Lastly it searcheth pierceth and tryeth like fire The n Heb. 4.12 word of God is mighty in operation and sharper than a two-edged sword c. Secondly with the fire of the spirit the spirit is a fire o Act. 1.5 You shall be baptized with the holy Ghost and with fire Water will wash out filthy spots and blots on the skinne onely but fire is more powerfull it will burne out rotten flesh and corrupt matter under the skinne This fire of the holy Ghost enlightneth the understanding with knowledge enflameth the will and affections with the love of God and zeale for his glory and purgeth out all our drossie corruptions Thirdly with the fire of persecution and affliction Persecution is called a p 1 Pet. 4.12 fiery tryall and all kinde of afflictions and temptations wherewith Gods Saints are tryed in Saint Austines judgement are the fire whereof Saint Paul speaketh q 1 Cor. 3.15 He shall be saved as it were through fire And of a truth whatsoever the meaning of that text bee certaine it is that the purest vessels of Gods sanctuary first in the Heathen next in the Arrian and last of all in the Antichristian persecution have beene purified and made glorious like gold tryed in the fire There is no torment can bee devised by man or divell whereof experiments have not beene made on the bodies of Christs martyrs yet the greater part of them especially in these later times have beene offered to God by fire as the Holocausts under the law Bloody persecutors of Gods Saints set on fire with hell of all torments most employed the fiery because they are most dreadfull to the eye of the beholders most painefull to the body of the sufferers and they leave nothing of the burned martyr save ashes which sometimes the adversaries maâice outlasting the flames of fire cast into the river And many of Gods servants in this land as well as in other parts in the memory of our fathers have been salted with this fire call you it whether you please either the fire of martyrdome or martyrdome of fire And howsoever this fire in the dayes of Queen Mary was quenched especially by the blood of the slaine for the testimony of Jesus Christ as the fire in the city of the r Liv. decad 3. l. 8 Bruson facet exempl l. 1. Astapani as Livie observeth when no water could lave it our was extinguished with the blood of the citizens yet wee know not but that it may bee kindled againe unlesse wee blow out the coales of wrath against us with the breath of our prayers or dead them with our teares Admit that that fire should never bee kindled againe yet God hath many other fires to salt us withall burning feavers fiery serpents thunder and lightning heart-burning griefes and sorrowes losse of dearest friends wracke of our estates infamy disgrace vexations oppressions indignation at the prosperity of the wicked terrors of conscience and spirituall derelictions And God grant that either by the fire of the Word or of the Spirit or seasonable afflictions our fleshly corruptions may bee so burned out in this life that wee bee not salted hereafter with the fire of hell which burneth but lighteth not scorcheth but yet consumeth not worketh without end both upon soule and body yet maketh an end of neither O that
they are zealous without discretion some have salt but want fire they are discreet but without zeale The Papists have fire fervent zeale but they want salt direction from Gods word and judgement to discerne betweene reasonable service and will-worship and for want of this salt their devotions are tainted with much superstition The conformable Protestant hath store of salt wholsome directions from Gods word to season his spirituall sacrifices but doth hee not want fire is hee as zealous for Christ as the other is for Anti-christ doth hee contribute as freely to the pure worship of God as the other doth to the garish service of the Masse are his eyes as often fixed on Christ in heaven as the others are on his crucifixe doth hee keepe the Lords day as strictly as the other doth our Ladies and other Saints Although the Papist hath no command for hallowing any day to Saints especially such as wee finde in the Romane Kalendar wee have both the command of God and the injunctions of the Church to devote this day n Homily of the time and place of prayer wholly to the service of God yet how many Clients on this day besiege your doores when you and wee all should bee Clients onely unto God Should God deale so with us in our portion of time on the weeke-dayes as wee deale with him in his should hee restraine the light of the sunne and take away so many houres from every day in the weeke as wee defaulk from his service on this day what darkenesse what out-cryes what horrour what confusion would bee in all the world When o Xen Cyr. paed l. 2. Cyrus was young Sacas was appointed by his Grandfather to bee his moderatour both in his diet recreations and all expence of time but when hee grew riper in yeeres hee became a Sacas to himselfe and tooke not so much liberty as Sacas would have given him Where the law seemeth too laxe there every man ought to bee a Sacas to himselfe and for the health of his soule forbeare something that is permitted to the recreation of his body Againe those who are of the stricter and preciser sort have fire in their invectives against Popery in their reproofe of sinne and their voluntary and extemporary devotions but they want many a graine of salt and therefore offer often times with Nadab and Abihu strange fire upon Gods altar they distinguish not betweene Episcopall Hierarchy and Papall tyranny superstitious rites and comely ceremonies decent ornaments and meretricious painting of Christs spouse They are alwayes Boanerges and seldome or never Barnabasses alwayes Sons of thunder and seldome or never Sons of consolation And when they are Sonnes of thunder and cast forth their lightning it is not like the lightning whereof p Plin. nat hist c. 51. l. 2. Martia gravida icta partu exanimato vixit Pliny writeth which killed Martia's childe in her wombe but hurt not her at all that is destroy sinne in the conscience but no way hurt the person in his reputation but contrariwise they blast the person but kill not the sin Their prayers are all fiery indeed burning with zeale and therein commendable but for want of salt of discretion they make all things fuell for this sacred fire like fire their devotion keeps within no bounds As the ringing so the praying now adayes in request is all upon the changes the round of a set forme is utterly despised and as ringers in the changes so these in their extemporary orisons goe up and downe backward and forward are often at a stand use vaine q Mat. 6.7 repetitions prohibited by our Saviour and by clashing phrases as the Apostle speaketh make r 1 Tim. 1.6 vaine janglings Suffer I beseech you yet one word of exhortation it shall bee but a Monosyllable sal we live in a most t Juven sat 1. Et quando uberior vitiorum copia quando major avaritiae patuit sinus c Nil erit ulterius quod nostris moribus addat Posteritas corrupt age and therefore never more need of salt than now Et vos est is sal you are the salt of the commonwealth as wee of the Church si sal infatuatus fuerit if the salt grow unsavoury through the corruption of heresie bribery simony or vitious living quo salietur wherewith shall it be seasoned I hope it is not so I pray God it bee never so but that wee may bee alwayes like pure and wholsome salt preserving our selves and others from corruption The good will of him who appeared in the fiery bush salt our persons with the fire of the Word Spirit and seasonable Afflictions and season our sacrifices with the salt of faith and discretion that God may have alwayes respect to us and our sacrifice for the merits of Christs infinite sacrifice offered on the Altar of the Crosse To whom c. THE SPIRITUALL BETHESDA A Sermon preached at a Christening in Lambeth Church the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Duke of Buckingham being God-Fathers October 29. Anno Dom. 1619. THE SIXTEENTH SERMON MARKE 1.9 And it came to passe in those dayes that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in Jordan BEing to treate of a subject agreeable to the occasion of our present meeting I have made choice of this Scripture representing unto us the baptisme and if I may so speake the christening of Christ himselfe 1 Because the baptisme of Christ here related by the Evangelist cleansed the holy Font and sanctified the river Jordan and other waters to the spirituall ablution of the soule and fetching out of stains and spots out of the conscience not by the infusion of any supernaturall quality into the water but by annexing a gratious promise to the religious use of the element according to his ordinance For to this end especially as Saint a Aug. Ser. de temp 30. Non ut sibi munditiem acquireret sed ut nobis fluenta purgaret Austine observeth our Saviour would bee baptized To sanctifie the Font in himselfe not to cleanse himselfe in the Font. In which respect wee may rightly tearme Christ his baptisme baptisma baptismatis the christening of baptisme it selfe in as much as our Lord by the descending into the water raised it above it's owne pitch and of a corporall Bath made it a spirituall Laver of an earthly Element an heavenly Sacrament and this I take to bee the riches which that holy Father saith Christ put into the river Jordan in like manner as the Geographers report that the Indians yeerely throw in a great masse of gold and silver into the river Ganges Christs body saith hee b Aug. ser 1. de Epiph. Attactu corpora tinguntur fluenta ditantur vitalemque gratiam non corpus ex flumine sed flumen mutuatur ex corpore was washed and the streame thereby was enriched the body received not vertue from the water but the water from
Word sanctifie them with thy Spirit adorne them with thy gifts and fill them with thy glory O thou who dwellest in the highest heavens come downe and visit thy lower houses our bodies and soules dedicated unto thee take a lodging with us for a while in our earthly Tabernacles and when we must leave them receive thou us into thine everlasting habitations So be it c. THE GENERALL HIS COMMISSION A Sermon preached at S. Jones's before the right honourable the Earles of Oxford Exeter and Southampton and divers other Captaines and Commanders ready to take their journies into the Low-Countries in the yeere 1621. THE EIGHTEENTH SERMON JOSUAH 1.9 Have not I commmanded thee bee strong and of a good courage bee not afraid neither bee thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. I Find this Aphorisme in the prime Writers of our common laws Gladius gladium juvat the one sword steeds the other whereby is meant that the Ecclesiasticall and Temporall powers mutually ayde and assist each other that Canons improve lawes and lawes corroborate canons that where the arme of the secular Magistrate is short in civill punishments the ecclesiasticall lengtheneth it by inflicting Church censures and againe where the ecclesiastical arme is weak the secular strengtheneth it by executing corporall punishments upon such delinquents as stand out in contempt of spirituall The like may be said of the a Ephes 6.17 spirituall and military sword Gladius gladium exacuit the one whets sharpens the other For the word of God which is the sword of the spirit by divine exhortations and promises sets such an edge upon the material that Gods men of war therewith easily cut in pieces the armour and put to flight or death the armies of the b Heb. 11.34 Out of weaknesse were made strong waxed valiant in fight put to flight the armies of the Aliens Aliens The Jewes never acquitted themselves so worthily nor fought so victoriously as when they received their armour out of the Temple from the Priests hands and after Constantine the great having seen a vision in the ayre and heard a voice from Heaven In hoc signo vinces set the crosse upon the Eagle in his Ensigne his Christian souldiers marched on so courageously and drave with such speed before them the bloudy enemies of their faith that they might seem to bee carried by the wings of an Eagle The ancient Laced aemonians also before they put themselves in the field had a certaine Poem of Tyrtaeus read unto them but no Verses or Sonnets of Tyrtaeus Pindarus or Homer are comparable in this respect to the Songs of Sion no Cornets Fifes or Drummes in the campe sound so shrill in a Christian souldiers eares as the silver Trumpets of the Sanctuary no speech or oration like to a Sermon to rowze up their spirits and put courage and valour into their hearts who fight the Lords battels None putteth on so resolutely as hee who hath Gods command for his warrant and his presence for his encouragement and his Angels for his guard and a certaine expectation of a crowne of life after c Revel 2.10 Be faithfull unto death and I will give thee a crown of life death for his reward Hee cannot but be such as Josuah is here willed to be that is strong and of a good courage affraid of no adverse power dismayed with no preparations on the contrary part appaled at no colours no not at the wan and ghastly colours of death it selfe For if d Rom. 8.31 God be for us who can be against us or if they be against us hurt us Have not I commanded thee be strong therefore c. As God at the first by breathing into man the e Gen. 2.7 And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soule spirit of life made him a man so here by breathing into Josuah the spirit of courage hee made him a man of warre Reason is the forme and specificall difference of a man and fortitude and valour of a souldier Be strong therefore and of a good courage This courage cannot be well grounded unlesse it have Gods command or at least warrant for the service Have not I commanded thee and his presence for our aide and assistance The Lord thy good is with thee If we have Gods command or allowance for the service we undertake if we fight under his Banner and follow his Colours we may well be strong and of a good courage The Heathen f Ovid. fast l. Tu pia tela feres sceleratas ille sagittas Stabit pro signis fasque piumque tuis Poet could say that those who have Religion and Justice on their side may promise themselves happy g ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Eras Adag successe A good cause maketh a good courage as wholesome meat breeds good bloud Have not I commanded thee be strong c. A good courage in a good quarrell cannot want Gods assistance The Lord thy God is with thee Behold here then noble Commanders and Souldiers in the Lords battels 1. Your commission Have not I commanded 2. Your duety Be strong 3. Your comfort and ground of confidence The Lord is with you Have Gods word for your warrant and his presence for your assistance and you cannot but bee valiant and courageous your commission will produce courage and your courage victory As you are to receive commission from God so bee strong in God and God will bee with you first have an eye to your commission Have not I commanded thee As Moses was a lively and living type of the Law so was Josuah of the Gospel Moses commendeth Gods people to Josuah the Law sendeth us to the Gospel Moses led the people through the Wildernesse and discovered the Land of promise from Mount Nebo and dyed but Josuah brought the people into it and put them in possession thereof The Law leadeth us in the way and giveth us a glimpse of the celestiall Canaan but the Gospel by our Josuah Christ Jesus bringeth us into it and possesseth us of it That which the Hebrew pronounce Josuah Saint Luke and the 70. Interpreters write h Acts 7.45 Hebr. 4.8 Jesus And i Elias l. vos Rabin Judaei nolunt dicere ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quia non confitentur ipsum esse salvatorem possumus etiam dicere id factum esse quia pronuntiatio literae ×¢ difficilis est Gentibus Baal Aruch in lexic. talmud Mos linguae syrae est elidere × ×¢ literas Drusius in his Commentary upon the Hebrew words of the New Testament out of Baal Aruch and Elias proveth that Josuah and Jesus are all one name Josuah is Jesus in the history and Jesus is Josuah in the mystery Josuah is typicall Jesus and Jesus is mysticall Josuah Here then adamas insculpitur adamante one diamond cuts and
his souldiers came unto him and demanded of him what they should doe hee would have returned them this short answer Quit your calling and throw away your armour and undertake another profession but on the contrary he allowing their calling directeth them how to demeane themselves in it saying Doe u Luke 3.14 violence to no man nor accuse any falsly and be content with your wages Christian Religion is purest of all religions from all staine of bloud A Christian Commander would more heartily wish than ever Antonius did Utinam possem multos ab inferis revocare I would it were in my power to restore those to life whom the sword hath devoured but when the onely meanes to save the life-bloud about the heart is to let out some of the corrupt bloud in other parts hee is a cruell Physician that will nââ pricke a veine When the right of a Crowne when the honour of the Stââe when the Common-wealth and every mans private fortunes when Rââiââion and our Faith lyeth on bleeding not to use the speediest meanes that âây bee to drive away Usurpers Invaders Rebells Traitors and other bloud-suckers is bloudy cruelty and which is worst of all cruelty to our selves and our own bowels To conclude if any upon what pretext soeveâ shall cast a blurre upon the noble honourable profession of a souldier he goeth about not onely to take off the Garland from the heads of all Davids Worthies but also the Crowne from David himselfe and Constantine the great and Theodosius and many other the most glorious Princes that ever swayed mortall Scepters All that Christianity requireth in waging warre is comprised in that golden sentence of Saint Austin Esto bellando pacificus Be thou a peace-maker even in warring warre with peace warre for peace Warre with peace being perswaded in thy conscience of the lawfulnesse of the quarrell and beare no private malice nor bloudy minde towards thine enemy conquer him as fairely as thou canst and let this be the end of taking up armes that armes may be safely laid downe on all hands And that warres especially thus managed are lawfull and warrantable even among Christians none but braine-sicke Anabaptists doubt But what kinde of warres are lawfull is a point not so soone determined Some are meerly for defensive warres * Ovid. l. 1. Fastorum Sola gerat miles quibus arma coerceat arma And that such warres are lawfull Nature her selfe teacheth x Cic. pro Milunc Est enim haec non scripta sed nata lex ad quam non docti sed facti non instituti sed imbuti sumus This is a law written in the heart of all men to repell force with force and beat backe armes with armes therefore defensive armes need no apology or defence Offensive armes are allowed by the Oratour in two cases onely pro fide salute when the safety or honour of the State requires either to right or to save our selves Christian Religion is not so strait-laced But maintaineth all warres to be just when they are necessary and to judge when they are necessary belongeth to the soveraigne power of the State in whomsoever it resideth either in the Prince as in all free Monarchies or in the Senate and prime men as in an Aristocratie or the major part of the people as in a Democratie It may bee said that no necessity can bee pretended to invade a forraine country and root out all the natives and inhabitants and settle our selves in their places which was Josuah and Israels case How then was this warre lawfull The answer hereunto is two-fold First that the Israelites title was good to the Land of Canaan by the donation of God himselfe for more than foure hundred yeeres before this time Secondly Josuah had a speciall command from God himselfe to root out the Canaanites and to plant Gods people in their room Therefore as he had good warrant to undertake this war so he had great reason to pursue manage it valiantly For where God giveth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he giveth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã where God giveth authority to doe a thing lawfully there hee giveth power to doe it effectually Be strong and of a good courage In these words the Lord of hosts inspireth Josuah the Generall of his Army with the spirit of fortitude and courage to performe this noble service to settle his people in their long promised inheritance hee exhorteth them to put on a resolution to adventure upon all dangers to breake through all difficulties and contemne all terrours in the accomplishment of this honourable worke Be strong and of a good courage there are the positive acts Be not affraid nor dismayed there are the privative acts of Christian fortitude strength taketh away feare courage dismayednesse be strong in body and of good courage in minde or be strong in thy selfe and couragious against thy enemies bee not surprized with any inward feare nor dismayed with any outward terrour For I am the Lord and can I am thy God and will be thy guard and convoy in all thy wayes whithersoever thou shalt goe Fortitude and magnanimity is one of the cardinall vertues consisting in a mediocrity or middle temper of the minde between audacious temerity and timorous cowardize It is usually divided into two kindes 1. Fortitudinem in ferendo Fortitude in bearing 2. Fortitudinem in feriendo Fortitude in attempting or assailing The former is the glory of the Martyrs the later the crowne of Christian souldiers both are requisite to make up the perfect entire vertue of Christian fortitude which must have as well a backe of patience to endure all hardnesse as an edge of valour or courage to set upon all difficulties and goe through all dangers not sticking at death it selfe ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the king of all feares This vertue is called in Greeke ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from a word signifying a man as manhood in our Language to intimate that it is the most proper vertue of a man and that hee is not a man who is not manly and couragious in Gods cause and his Countries Degeneres animos timor arguit Fearefulnesse is an argument of a base minde but valour is the proper ornament of a generous spirit which hath beene alwayes held in that esteeme in the world that all trophees triumphs obeliskes coats of armes and other ensignes of honour have beene appropriated to this vertue and that deservedly For all other x Cic. pro Murena Omnes artes latent sub tutelâ rei bellicae arts and professions whatsoever lye under the safe protection of it In which regard Fulvius removed the images of the nine Muses out of a Chappell in Ambracion and placed them in Hercules Temple at Rome to shew that as armes need the commendation of arts so all arts stand in neede of the defence of armes To this vertue wee owe our liberty our honour our wealth our
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
caveret si caveret evaderet Cyprian pricking the right veine telleth us it is a thing to be bewailed with teares of bloud that none almost mindeth everlasting torments For did they minde them and beleeve them they could not but feare them and if they feared them ââây would beware of them and if they would beware of them they might escape them O that men therefore were wise to thinke upon hell before they rushed on the brinke of it and enter into a serious consideration of Gods fearfull judgements upon obstinate and impenitent sinners before they were overtaken by them This is the scope and effect of these words and I pray God they may worke this effect in us that laying before our eyes the fearfull ends of the wicked and their damnation wee may learne from henceforth to be wise unto salvation The unum necessarium and chiefe point of all to be thought upon in this life is what shall become of us after wee goe from hence for here God knowes we have but a short time to stay We reade in King l Eccles 3.1.2 Solomons distribution of time according to the severall occasions of mans life to every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven a time to be borne and a time to dye but wee reade of no time to live as if our death bordered upon our birth and our cradle stood in our grave yet upon this moment rather than time of our life dependeth eternity Division The greatest perfection attainable by man in this life is wisedome and the most proper act of wisedome is consideration and the chiefest point of consideration is our later end First therefore the Spirit of God in this Text commendeth wisedome to their desires Secondly consideration to their wisedome Thirdly their later end to their consideration and the more to stirre up their affections and expresse his he delivereth this his advice in a wish and accompanieth it with a deep sigh saying O that they were wise they would understand this that it is not for their sakes that they might bragge but for their enemies sake that they might not bragge that I have thus long spared them For I had long ere this scattered them abroad and made their remembrance cease from amongst men but that I knew their adversaries would take advantage thereat and waxe proud upon it Verse 27. and say our high hand and not the Lord hath done it For they are a Nation void of councell neither is there any understanding in them Which words beare a light before the words of my Text Coherence and thus bring them in O that they were wise then they would understand this viz. that nothing standeth between them and my wrath my wrath and their destruction but the pride of their enemies they are indebted to the fury malice and insolency of the Heathen who seeke utterly to destroy them and by proudly treading upon their neckes to trample true religion under feet that hell raines not downe upon them from heaven and they not burnt like Sodome and consumed like Gomorrah Were they wise they would understand it and understanding consider how neere they are to their end and considering it meet the Lord upon their knees to prevent their utter overthrow Observ 1. O that they were so wise If those words wherewith Moses beginneth his Swan-like song immediately before his death Verse 2. My doctrine shall drop as the raine and my speech shall distill as the dew as the small raine upon the tender herbe and as the showers upon the grasse were verified of any of his words they are certainly of these in my Text which drop like raine or rather like hoây from his mouth whereby wee may taste how sweet the Lord is in his speeches how milde in his proceedings how passionate in his perswasions what force of art eloquence he useth to draw us unto him without force violence Are not sighes the very breath of love are not sobs the accents of grief are not groanes fetched deep the long periods of sorrowes ravishing eloquence which Almighty God breathes out of the boyling heat of his affection both here and elsewhere O m Hos 6.4 Ephraim what shall I do unto thee O Judah how shall I intreat thee for your righteousnesse is as a morning cloud your goodnes as an earthly dew vanisheth away O that n Psal 81.13 14 15 16. my people had hearkened unto mee and Israel had walked in my wayes I should soone have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured for ever Hee should have fed them with the finest of the wheat and with honey out of the rocke would I have satisfied thee And O o Mat. 23.37 Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest those that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather her chickens under her wings but yee would not How can the affection more outwardly enlarge or the heart open it selfe than by opening the bosome and stretching out the armes to imbrace Behold the p Esay 65.2 armes of Almighty God stretched all the day long to a rebellious people which walketh in a way that was not good after their owne thoughts What truer Embassadours of a bleeding heart than weeping eyes behold the teares of our Saviour over Jerusalem and reach your hand and thrust it into the hole of his side and you shall feele drops from his heart bleeding afresh for your ungratefull refusall of his love and despite of his grace If drops of raine pierce the stones and drops of warme Goats bloud crumble the Adamant into pieces shall not Christs teares sinke into our affections and the drops of his heart bloud breake our hearts with godly sorrow and make them so thorougly contrite by unfained repentance that they may be an acceptable sacrifice unto him according to the words of the Psalmist q Psal 51.17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou shalt not despise Were not that City very unwise that would refuse any tolerable conditions of peace offered by a potent enemy against whâm shee could not make her party good in warre Beloved are wee able to hold out warre with Almighty God to maintaine a fight against his plagues and judgements what are we but dead men if hee lay hold on his glittering sword why then doe wee not come in whilest hee holdeth out his golden Scepter of mercy why sue wee not to him for a treatie of peace It can be no disparagement to us to seeke to him first yet we need not he seeketh to us first he maketh an overture of his desire for peace he draweth conditions with his owne hand and offereth them to us as wee heard before out
divinae deducatur injustitia est sordet in districtione judicis quod in aestimatione fulget operantis Gregory drives to the head Our very righteousnesse if it bee scanned by the rule of divine justice will prove injustice and that will appeare foule and sordid in the strict scanning of the Judge which shineth and seemeth most beautifull in the eye of the worker Fiftly a meritorious worke must hold some good correspondency and equivalence with the reward ours doe not so for if wee might offer to put any worke in the ballance certainely our sufferings for Christs sake but these are too light yea so farre too light e Rom. 8.18 that they are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall bee revealed in us Upon this anvile Saint f In ep ad Col. Hom. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Idem in psal 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chrysostome formeth a steele weapon No man sheweth such a conversation of life that hee may bee worthy of the kingdome but this is wholly of the gift of God and although wee should doe innumerable goodâ deeds it is of Gods pity and mercy that wee are heard although we should come to the very top of vertue it is of mercy that wee are saved And g Ansel de mensurat crucis Si homo mille annis serviret Deo ferventissimè non mereretur ex condigno dimidium diei esse in coelo Anselme steepeth it in oyle If a man should serve God most devoutly a thousand yeeres hee should not deserve to be halfe a day in heaven What have our adversaries to say to these things what doth the learned Cardinall whose name breathes * Bella Arma Minae Warres Armes and Threats here hee turnes Penelope texit telam retexit hee does and undoes hee sewes and ravels after many large books written for merit in the end Quae dederat repetit funemque reducit hee dasheth all with his pen at once saying Tutissimum est it is the safest way to place all our confidence onely in Gods mercy that is to renounce all merit Now in a case so neerely concerning our eternall happinesse or misery hee that will not take the safest course needs not to bee confuted but either to bee pittied for his folly or cured of his frenzie To conclude this point of difference the conclusion of all things is neere at hand well may men argue with men here below the matter of merit but as St. h Ep 29. Cum rex justus sederet in throno suo quis gloriabitur se mundum habere cor quae igitur spes veniae nisi misericordia superexultet justitiam Austine feelingly speaketh of this point When the righteous judge from whose face heaven and earth fled away shall sit upon his throne who will then dare say my heart is cleane nay what hope for any man to be saved if mercy at that day get not the upper hand of justice I need plead no more for this Dabo in my text if it plead not for us at that day wee shall never eat of the Manna promised but it shall bee for ever hidden from us I will give To eat The sight of Manna which the Psalmist calleth Angels food especially of the hidden Manna which by Gods appointment was reserved in a golden pot had beene a singular favour but the taste thereof is a farre greater The contemplation of celestiall objects is delightfull but the fruition of them much more Even of earthly beauties the sight is not so great contentment as the enjoying neither is any man so affected with delight at the view of a rich cabinet of jewels as at the receiving any one of them for his own Now so it is in celestial treasures delights through Gods bounty abundant goodnesse unto us we own what we see we taste what we touch and we feel what we believed and we possesse what we have heard and our heart entreth into those joyes in heaven which never entred into the heart of man on earth In which respect the Psalmist breaketh out into that passionate invitation i Psal 34.8 O taste and see how gracious the Lord is and S. Paul into that fervent prayer k Phil. 1.9 And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all sense ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and Saint l Confes l. 6. c. 10. Te lucem vocem cibum amplexum interioris hominis mei c. ubi fulget animae quod non capit locus ubi sonat quod non rapit tempus ubi olet quod non spargit flatus ubi sapit quod non minuit edacitas ubi haeret quod non divellit satietas Austine in that heavenly meditation O let mee enjoy thee the light the sound the food the love and embracement of my inward man thou art light to the eye musicke to the eare sweet meats to the taste and most delightfull embracings to the touch of my soule in thee that shineth to my soule which no place comprehendeth and that soundeth which no time measureth or snatcheth away and that smelleth which no blast dissipateth and that relisheth which no feeding upon diminisheth and that adhereth which no satiety can plucke away When therefore the ancients define celestiall happinesse to be the beatificall vision of God grounding themselves especially upon these texts of scripture m Mat. 5.8 Psal 27.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and seeke his face evermore My heart said unto thee thy face Lord will I seeke and n Psal 17.15 I will behold thy face in righteousnesse I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse And o 1 Cor. 13.12 Now we see through a glasse darkely but then face to face wee are to understand these speeches by a figure called Synecdoche wherein a part is put for the whole for certainely there is a heaven in the will and in the affections as well as in the understanding God hath enriched the soule with many faculties and in all of them hath kindled manifold desires the heat whereof though it may bee allayed for a time with the delights and comforts which this life affordeth yet it can never bee quenched but by himselfe who made the hearth and kindled these fires in it As the contemplation of God is the understandings happinesse so the adhering to him is the wils the recounting of his blessings the memories the embracing him the affections and generally the fruition of him in all parts and faculties the felicity of the whole man To apply this observation to the words in my text When the dispensers of the mysteries of salvation open the scriptures they set before us heavenly treasure they point unto and shew us the golden pots of Manna but when by the hand of faith we receive Gods promises and are enriched by the graces of the spirit then we
bequeathed unto us then we hearken to it with thirsty eares and as curiously observe every line and sillable therein as Jewellers doe every carrat in a Diamond Such is the difference betweene the carnall and the spirituall mans apprehension and affection in the reading and hearing of the written word the letters and points are not hidden to any that can reade but the treasures of wisedome and knowledge laid up in it the power and efficacy of it the price and value of it is hidden to all those y Acts 16.14 whose heart God openeth not as he did the heart of Lidia And if the Manna of the word be thus hidden how much more the Manna of the Spirit I meane the inward comforts and joyes of the z 1 Pet. 3.4 bidden man of the heart a Plutarch de tranquil animae ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Diogenes the Philosopher bid every day holy in a good mans calendar turne Diogenes his good man into a regenerate Christian and his Philosophy will prove good Divinity For to a sanctified soule every day is holy on which he keepeth a great feast the b Pro. 15.15 feast of a good conscience at which the principal service is the hidden Manna in my text In the fields of c Solinus polyhist Campus Ennensis semper in floribus est omni vernus die Enna in Sicily there is a continuall spring and flowers all the yeere so are there in the mind of a faithfull Christian it is spring there all the yeere and though he hath not alwayes the sense and smelling because sometimes his spirituall nostrils are stuffed with earthly cares and worldly comforts yet he hath alwaies within him the sent of the flowers of Paradise I grant there is a time to rejoyce and a time also to weepe and I acknowledge that the devoutest man upon earth who is most ravished with divine contemplation yet doth not alwayes actually rejoyce that is apprehend or expresse his joy yet as St. d Pros de vit contemplat l. 1. Non potest defraudari delectationibus cui Christus est gaudium quia bono delectatur aeterno Prosper soundly argueth He can never be without joy and comfort whose joy is Christ because the fuell of this sacred flame is eternall Though the earth be sometimes as now it is beyond the seas full of darknesse and cruell habitations yet there is still e Psal 97.11 Light is sowne for the righteous gladness for the upright in heart light in Goshen in the conscience of a righteous man Light is as it were the joy of the skie and joy is the light of the minde now as lights so joyes are of two sorts 1 Purer and finer 2 Impurer and grosser The purer lights burne clearer last longer and leave a sweeter savour behinde them the grosser and impurer burne dimly spend fast running into gutters and goe out with an ill favour You may observe the like difference betweene carnall and spirituall joyes carnall delights that are fed with impure matter such as are the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the eye 1. Burne dimly they yeeld no cleere light of comfort to the minde they are mixed joyes and insincere Medio de fonte leporum surgit amarum aliquid 2. They spend fast and are quickly over Seneca rightly observeth f Voluptas cum accenditur extinguitur Ita quibus delectatur vulgus tennem habent ac perfusoriam voluptatem quodeunque invectitium gaudium est fundamento caret Sen. ep 23. In praecipiti est voluptas ad dolorem vergit nisi modum teneat That pleasure is quenched in the kindling of it much like dry thorns under a pot which make a blaze sodainly are turned into ashes In which regard the Romans set up the image of Angerona the goddesse of anguish and sorrow in the Temple of Volupia the Goddesse of pleasure to shew that pain treadeth upon the heele of pleasure and anguish of mirth 3. They goe out with a stinke they leave behinde them amara foeda vestigia as Saint Bernard speaketh a bitter fume and noysome stench in our consciences and a foule print upon our name But spirituall joyes on the contrary 1. Burne clearely send forth a bright flame for these joyes are sincere exceeding unspeakable and glorious 2. They last long for they are as Saint Austine calleth them * Sen. ep 23. Hoc ad quod te conor perducere solidum est quod plus pateat introrsus c. fortes delitiae solida gaudia during delights and solid joyes 3. They leave a sweet savour behind them a good report in the world and a sweet contentment in the soule For they are Solomons g Pro. 16.24 Dulcedo animae Davids h Psal 45.7 Oleum laetitiae Saint Pauls i 2 Cor. 2.16 Odor suavitatis and S. Johns Manna reconditum sweet to the soule and health to the bones the oyle of gladnesse the savour of life the hidden Manna O felix paucis nota voluptas The world is all set upon a merry pinne though God knowes there is little cause we are all for pleasure but it is a paine to a righteous soule to thinke what pleasure it is griefe to name what joy In Pontus there is a flower called Rodo-dendrum of which the honey that is made is rank poyson such is the sensuall delight that is taken in the use or rather the abuse of worldly pleasures it distempereth the taste and poysoneth the soule Not to forsake the Metaphor in my text all inordinate pleasures immoderate joyes and impure delights are like the Manna that was gathered on the Sabbath day which corrupted suddenly and became full of wormes but pure and spirituall joyes are like that Manna which Moses by Gods appointment laid up in a golden pot which corrupted not but preserved it selfe from putrefaction and the gold also from rust the lid or cover of which pot I will endevour to open a little wider that you may have yet a fuller sight and quicker taste of the hidden Manna There are three kindes of the hidden Manna 1 Of the Word 2 Of the Sacrament 3 Of the Spirit 1 The Manna of the Word is that delight which is taken by the hearers in the opening the mysteries of holy Scripture and applying the sweet comforts of the Gospell to the conscience and this k Ep. ad Hier. Damasus conceived to be the greatest happinesse in the world 2. The Manna of the Sacrament is that comfort which the worthy receivers feele in themselves after the sanctified use of the elements by growth in grace and increase of spirituall strength and of this Saint l Ep. l. 2. Cyprian was as it were in travell till hee was delivered of it in his Epistle to Cornelius 3. The Manna of the Spirit is that unspeakable joy wherewith the heart is filled and even leapeth and danceth within us when wee heare the Spirit testifying
unto our spirits that wee are the sonnes of God Pretious metals are digged out of the bowels of the earth and pearles are found in the bottome of the sea and truely seldome shall we fall upon this treasure of spirituall joy and pearle of the Gospell but in the depth of godly sorrow and bottome and lowest point of our humiliation before God 1. The first taste wee have of the hidden Manna of the Spirit is in the beginning of our conversion and nonage of our spirituall life when after unutterable remorse sorrow and feare arising from the apprehension of the corruption and guilt of our naturall estate and a dreadfull expectation of wrath laid up for us against the day of wrath and everlasting weeping howling and gnashing of teeth with the damned in hell wee on the suddaine see a glympse of Gods countenance shining on us and by faith though yet weake hope for a perfect reconciliation to him 2. A second taste wee have when wee sensibly perceive the Spirit of grace working upon our heart thawing it as it were and melting it into godly sorrow and after enflaming it with an everlasting love of him who by his infinite torments and unconceivable sorrowes hath purchased unto us eternall joyes 3. A third taste wee have of it when after a long fight with our naturall corruptions wee meet with the Divels Lievtenant the sinne that reigneth in us which the Scripture calleth the plague of the heart that vice to which either the temper of our body or our age or condition of life enclineth us unto our bosome abomination to which for a long time wee have enthralled our selves and having perfectly discovered it by employing the whole armour of God against it in the end wee get the victory of it 4. A fourth taste wee have after some heavie crosse or long sicknesse when God delivereth us above hope and sanctifieth our affliction unto us and by his Spirit calleth to our remembrance all his goodnesse to us from our childhood and anointeth our eyes with eye-salve that wee may see the manifold fruits of the crosse and finde in our selves with David that it was good for us thus to bee afflicted 5. A fift taste wee have at some extafie in our life or a trance at our death when wee are rapt up as it were into the third heaven with St. Paul and see those things that eye never saw and heare words that cannot be uttered Thus have I opened unto you five springs of the waters of comfort in which after you have stript your selves of wordly cares and earthly delights you may bathe your soules in the bottome whereof you may see the white stone which Christ promiseth to him that overcommeth saying To him that overcommeth I will give to eate of the hidden Manna To whom c. THE WHITE STONE THE XXVII SERMON APOC. 2.17 And I will give him a white stone Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. IT was the manner of the Thracians to reckon up all the happy dayes of their life and marke them in a booke or table with a white stone whereunto the Poet alluding saith a Pers satyr Hunc Macrine diem numera meliore lapillo May it please God by his Spirit to imprint those mysteries in your hearts which are engraven upon this stone I doubt not but this day in which I am to describe unto you the nature of it will prove so happy that it shall deserve to bee scored up with the like stone For this white stone is a certaine token and pledge of present remission of sinnes and future admission into Christs kingdome Whereof through divine assistance by your wonted patience I will speake at large after I have refreshed the characters in your memory of my former observations upon this Scripture which setteth before all that overcome in the threefold christian warre 1 Forraine against Sathan Recapitulat 2 Civill against the world 3 Servile against fleshly lusts three boones or speciall gifts 1 Hidden Manna a type of spirituall consolation 2 A white stone the embleme of justification 3 A new name the imprese of glorification There is 1 Sweetnesse in the hidden Manna 2 Comfort in the white stone 3 Glory in the new name The sweetnesse of the hidden Manna wee tasted 1 In the mysticall meaning of the Word 2 In the secret power of the Sacrament 3 In the unutterable comfort of the Spirit And now I am to deliver unto you in the next place the white stone In the handling whereof I will levell at those three scientificall questions mentioned by b Aristot analyt post l. 2. c. 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Notand quod sit referti ad an sit ubi de accidente quaeritur quia accidentis esse est messe Aristotle in his bookes of demonstration Divis ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã An sit aut quod sit ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Quid sit ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Propter quod sit First whether there be any such white stone Secondly what it is Thirdly to what end it is given and what use wee are to make of it for our instruction correction or comfort First of the An sit ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whether there be any such stone or no. There hath beene for many ages a great question De lapide Philosophico of the Philosophers stone to which they ascribe a rare vertue to turne baser metals into gold but there is no question at all among the sincere professours of the Gospell De lapide theologico of the divine stone in my text which yet is far more worth and of greater vertue than that For that if we have any faith in Alchymy after much labour and infinite cost will turne base metall into gold but this will undoubtedly turne penitent teares into pearle and drops of blood shed for the testimony of the Gospell into rubies and hematites to beset our crowne of glory With this stone as a speciall love-token Christ assureth his dearest spouse that c Rom. 8.28 all things shall turn to her good and worke together for her endlesse happinesse Hee that hath this white stone shall by the eye of faith see it suddenly turne all temporall losses into spirituall advantages all crosses into blessings all afflictions into comforts What though some heretickes or profane persons have no beliefe of this white stone no more than they have of that d Mat. 13.46 pearle of great price which the Merchant sold all that hee had to buy What though some have beene abused by counterfeit stones like to this shall wee not therefore regard this or seeke after it This were all one as if an expert Gold-smith should refuse to look after pure gold because some ignorant Merchant hath beene cheated with sophisticated alchymie stuffe for gold or if a skilfull Jeweller should offer nothing for an orient Diamond because an unskilfull Lapidary hath beene corisened with a Cornish or Bristow stone in stead of it The
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
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
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
hee cannot enter into the kingdome of God hee gave credit unto it as all must doe who look for the inheritance * 1 Pet. 1.4 incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for them a 1 Pet. 1.3 for all those are begotten again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ not with corruptible seed but with incorruptible and after they are begotten they are born again of water and the Spirit b 1 Pet. 2.2 as new born babes they desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow therby and as they grow c 2 Cor. 4.16 the old man decayeth in them and the inward man is renewed daily Inregard of which great alteration and change wrought in them by the Spirit of regeneration was it that the holy Father when hee was solicited by the Mistresse of his affections in former times claiming ancient familiarity with him put her off saying Ego nunc non sum ego I am not the man thou takest me for thou art indeed thou remaining still in thy unregenerate estate but I am not I. And unlesse wee all feele and observe in us d Rom. 12.2 a transformation by the renewing of our minde that wee may prove what is that good that acceptable and perfect will of God we cannot challenge to our selves this new name whereunto the Saints of God have yet a second right by the e Rom. 8.15 Spirit of adoption Adoption as f Sum 1. p. â 93. Art 4. Adopâo filiorum Dâi est per conformitaâem ad âmaginem filââ natur lis ânperfââtè pudeâ pââ gââtiam perfâcâe per glorââm Aquinas defineth it is by conformity to the image of the naturall sonne of God imperfectly by grace here and perfectly by glory hereafter But this great Schoole-man it seemeth was no great Lawyer nor dived deepe into the nature of Adoption which he here counfoundeth partly with sanctification which is our conformity in part to Christ by grace and partly with glorification which is our perfect conformity to him when our sanctification is consummate in heaven In precise truth adoption is not by our conformity to the image of Christ but our conformity to the image of Christ is by the spirit of adoption Adoption saith g Sen. controv Ad pââ est ââsiâtâ quae benefiââ naturae juris imitatur Seneca is a most sacred thing containing in it an imitation of nature civilly giving them sonnes whom nature hath left childlesse and it may be briefly defined a legall supply of a naturall defect whereby they who can beget no children yet make heires to propagate their names to posterity ut sic abolita seculis nomina per successores novos fulgeant According to which definition God cannot be properly said to adopt any children though he give them the titles of sons and make them coheirs with Christ for adoptio est fortunae remedium is provided as a remedy and comfort of those who are destitute of children and want heires God wanteth none neither doth hee adopt for his contentment but for our solace and comfort In civill adoption the son begotten is not adopted the adopted is not begotten Nulla viro soboles imitatur adoptio prolem But in the divine adoption it is otherwise For God adopteth no sonne by grace whom hee regenerateth not by his Spirit Moreover in civill adoption the ground is either consanguinity or affinity which moved Julius to adopt Octavius or if neither eminencie of vertue and similitude of disposition which induced Nerva to adopt Trajan But in the divine h Pliâ panâgyr Nulla adoptati cum adoptato cognatio nullâââcessitudo nisi quod uterque optimâs ârat dignâsâ alter âligi alter eligere adoption on the contrary God adopteth not us because of any kindred or alliance in us to him antecedently but he sent his sonne to take our nature upon him and become kinne to us that for his sake hee might have some occasion to adopt us Men adopt those in whom they see worth but God first loveth and giveth worth that he may more worthily adopt and they whom he so adopteth by the grace which he conferreth upon them procure to themselves a third right to this title of sonnes by imitation of their father This imitation consisteth in walking after the Spirit as he is a Spirit in following after holinesse as he is most holy in loving mercy as his mercy is over all his workes in purifying our hearts and hands as he is purity it selfe in doing good to those that deserve ill of us as he causeth his i Mat. 5.45 sunne to rise upon the good and the bad and his raine to fall upon the just and the unjust lastly to aspire to perfection as he is perfection it selfe In the holy language of Scripture rather expression of vertue than impression of feature maketh a sonne all that through faith prevaile with God are accounted of the seed of Israel and all beleevers the sonnes of Abraham and because the unbeleeving Jewes did not the workes of Abraham Christ denyeth them to be his children k John 8.39 If yee were the children of Abraham yee would doe the workes of Abraham Whereupon l Serm. 125. in Evang. Qui genitotis opeââân facit aââaâ genus Chrysologus inferreth He that doth not the workes of his Progenitors in effect disclaimeth his linage Constantine the great tooke not such joy in his sonne Constantius because he favoured him in his countenance as because he m Nazarius in panogyr Praestantissimum Principem hoc maximè juvit quod in primoribus annis ductae sunt lineae quibus virtutumsuarum effigies posset includi saw in his tender yeeres an assay and as it were the first draught of his owne vertues On the contrary the Roman Censors tooke such a distast at the sonne of Africanus for his debauched life that they tooke a ring off his finger in which the image of his father was ingraven because he so much degenerated from his fathers excellent vertues they would not suffer him to weare his fathers picture in a ring whose image he bare not in his minde neither will God suffer any to beare his name and be accounted his sonnes who beare not his image who resemble not his attributes in their vertues his simplicity in their sincerity his immutability in their constancy his purity in their chastity his goodnesse in their charity his holinesse in their piety his justice in their integrity Regeneration is wrought in the heart knowne to God onely adoption is an act sped in the court of heaven which none knoweth on earth but he that receiveth an exemplification of it by the Spirit but imitation of our heavenly Father by a heavenly conversation proclaimeth us to all the world to be his sonnes The title thus cleared the next point is the perpetuity thereof represented unto us by the engraving the new name in the white
of your superiours a crowne of thornes to his head every neglect of charity to his members new nailes to wound his hands and feet every blasphemous word a new spitting on his face every oath a speare to pierce his heart But what moved him to become our surety and sacrifice No reason can be given but his will Oblatus est quia voluit He was offered because hee would hee would because hee loved us and to the end hee might the better undergoe his office because it became us to have such an high Priest that had feeling of our wants and infirmities he became man The man The Hebrewes have foure severall words for a man Adam Enosh Ish Geber Adam signifying red earth Enosh a man of sorrow Ish a man of a noble spirit Geber a strong man wee have found a man here in all these senses Adam earth as wee Enosh a man of sorrowes Ish a man of a noble spirit to encounter all the powers of darkenesse Geber a strong man stronger than hee in the q Mat. 12.29 Gospell which first possessed the house Behold the man saith Pilat but a man of sorrow saith Esay nay a worme and no man saith David nay lesse resisting than a worme for a worme if it bee trod upon will turne againe but this man went like a lambe to the slaughter or if hee may rightly be termed a worme certainely a silke-worme spinning us a precious web of righteousnesse out of his owne bowels yet this worme and no man is Ish one of noble spirit and Geber a valiant man yea such an one as is Gods fellow My fellow For in him the Godhead dwelleth bodily and in him all the Saints are compleat he is the brightnesse of his Fathers glory and the engraven forme of his person ipse paterni Pectoris effigies lumenque a lumine vero Semper cum patre semper de patre semper in patre semper apud patrem semper quod pater saith Fulgentius ex ipso cum ipso hoc quod ipse saith Saint Austine who being in the forme of God thought it not r Phil. 2.6 robberie to bee equall with God and therefore God calleth him here his fellow Such a one iâ became him to be that was to encounter principalities to come upon the strong man whereby is meant the Divell and binde him and spoile his goods to grapple with the great King of feare Death to say to hell and the grave Effata to swallow up the swallower of all things to destroy destruction and to lead captivitie captive and to returne with glory from thence unde negant quenquam redire Againe my fellow yet a man creator matris creatus ex matre saith Saint Austine ipsum sanguinem quem pro matre obtulit ante de sanguine matris accepit saith Emissenus Hee that was the brightnesse of his Father and such a brightnesse as no man could behold and live hath now a traverse drawne over his glorie the word is made flesh sepositâ non depositâ majestate saith Emissenus naturam suscipiendo nostram non amittendo suam saith Saint Austine ad terrena descendit coelestia non deseruit hic affuit inde non defuit and so be became Emmanuel God with us perfect God and perfect man man to receive supplications from man God to deliver them to God man to suffer for man God to satisfie God Apparuit medius saith Saint Austine inter mortales peccatores immortalem justum mortalis justus mortalis cum hominibus justus cum Deo ne vel in utroque similis longè esset à Deo aut in utroque dissimilis longè esset ab hominibus To conclude this point Gods fellow to offer an infinite sacrifice for all mankinde and a man that he might be himselfe the sacrifice killed by the sword which is now awaked to smite him 1 Smite the Shepheard Hachharogneh hacke him hew him butcher him Now are the reines let loose to all the powers of darkenesse now is the sword flying about the Shepheards eares now have they power to hurrie him from Annas to Caiaphas from Caiaphas to Pilat from Pilat to Herod from Herod againe to Pilat and so to Calvarie and in every passage appears a sword that might cleave asunder a heart of Adamant yet the Lord of hostes saith still 2 Smite him Now hath Judas power to betray him the Priests to convent him the standers by to buffet him the officers to whip him the people to deride him Pilat to condemne him and in every act appeares a sword that might cleave in sunder a heart of rocke yet the Lord of hostes saith still 3 Smite him Now the thornes have power to goare him the whip to lash him the nailes to fasten him the speare to pierce him the Crosse to extend him the grave to swallow him and in every one appeares a sword that might cleave in sunder a heart of steele yet the Lord of hostes saith still 4 Smite him Let no part bee free from torment not his head from pricking nor his face from spitting nor his flesh from whipping nor his pallat from vinegar nor his hands and feet from piercing nor his heart from the speare yet still the Lord of hostes saith 5 Smite him The torment of his body was but the body of his torment the soule of his torment was his soules torment Now his soule is troubled saith John nay exceeding sorrowfull saith Marke nay heavie unto death saith Matthew all the streames of bloud that issued from him on the Crosse were nothing to his drops in the garden those were forced with outward violence these were drained out with inward sorrow Sure saith one he was neare some fornace that melted him Here was a blow that if he had not beene Gods fellow would have strucke him downe to hell yet the Lord of hostes saith 6 Smite him The sense of paine is not so grievous as the want of comfort Here all comfort is with-held the people deride him and preferre a murderer before him of his owne people and servants one betrayeth him another denies him all forsake him all this is nothing in comparison For friends are but earthly comforts but that his Father from heaven should forsake him here is the sword that cleaveth his heart and maketh up the full measure of the blow In the very heat of his passion hee tooke no notice of any other torment but this onely that his God had forsaken him It is wonderfull that never any Martyr brake forth into the like speech notwithstanding all their exquisite torments but the reason is assigned by St. Austine Martyres non eripuit nunquid deseruit By this time I know you expect the fulnesse of the blow vox faucibus haeret it is death the ignominious death of the Crosse Vexed he was before his death tortured in his death wounded after his death hic salus patitur fortitudo infirmatur vita moritur Now the Angels stand amazed at the
Evangelii and Clemens Alexandrinus his Stromata but also in the divinely inspired writings of St. Paul 4 Fourthly I observe that it is said borders of gold with studs or spangs of silver not borders of gold and silver much lesse borders of silver with studs of gold the borders of gold were not made to set out the studs of silver but contrariwise the studs of silver to beautifie and illustrate the borders of gold We must not apply divinity to art but art to divinity lest we deservedly incurre the censure of St. q Basil ep 62. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Basil upon some preachers in his dayes They preach art and wit and not Christ crucified We must not make our Scripture texts serve to vent our secular learning but contrariwise modestly and moderately use secular learning to explicate and r Sanctius in hunc locum Concionatores ars talis esse debet ut auri nitorem non obscuret sed accendat quod in monili praestant argentei vermiculi illustrate texts of Scripture sentences of Fathers and other Authors may be scattered in Sermons as spangs of silver about the Spouse her border the border must not be made of them A faire Å¿ Quintil. inst orat Ut affert lumen clavus purpurae loco insertus ita certè neminem deceat intexta pluribus notis vestis jewell in the hat or pendants at the eare or a chaine of gold or strings of pearle about the necke become the parts well but to bee all hung about with foure hundred distinct jewels as Lollia Paulina was and not onely to bore the eares with rings but also to dig holes in the cheekes chinne and lips and there sticke pretious stones after the manner of the t Bertius Geograph Peruvians were vaine folly if not madnesse I have done with our taske I come now to yours Although it properly appertaines to our skilfull Bezaleels and Aholiabs to make borders and chaines for the Spouse yet you are to contribute at least to the making of them it is your duty to bring into her wardrobe jewels of gold and jewels of silver and jewels of raiment It is not enough to love God with your strength you must honour him also with your substance It is not onely required that you communicate with your Pastors in the Word and Sacraments but also that you communicate to him that teacheth u Gal. 6.6 in all good things you have not well acquitted you of your devotion when you have given Christ your eares you must farther give eare-rings to his Spouse it will not excuse you to write Christ his words in the palmes of your hands if you make not bracelets for her armes you have not done all when you have bowed your necke to his yoake you must farther decke her necke with chaines there is something more required of you than to put on the Lord Jesus you must cloathe his Queene in a vesture of gold Where can you better bestow your wealth than upon the Church which receiveth of you glasse but returneth you pearle receiveth from you carnall things returneth to you spirituall receiveth from you common bread returneth to you sacramentall receiveth from you covers of shame returneth to you robes of glorie in a word receiveth from you earthly trash returneth to you heavenly treasure When God commanded the people to bring x Exod. 35.5 offerings to the Lord they brought them in so freely that there needed a Proclamation to restraine their bounty And Livie reporteth of the Romans that when the Tribunes complained that they wanted gold in the treasurie to offer to Apollo the Matrons of Rome plucked off their bracelets chaines and rings and gave them unto the Priests to supply that defect And who knoweth not that our Forefathers in the dayes of ignorance placed all Religion in a manner in building religious Houses and setting them forth most gorgeously O let not the Jewes exceed us Christians let not Heresie Idolatry and Superstition out-strip true Religion in sacred bounty If their devotion needed bridles let not ours need spurres If they built Temples upon the ruines of private families let not us build private houses upon the ruine of Temples If they turned the Instruments of luxury into ornaments of piety let not us turne ornaments of piety into instruments of luxury As nothing is better given than to God so nothing is worse taken than from his Church Will God thinke you enrich them who spoyle him will he build their houses who pull downe his will he increase their store who robbe his wardrobe will hee clothe them with his long white robe who strip his Spouse of her attire and comely ornaments Nay rather as Aeneas though before he had purposed with himselfe to spare the life of Turnus yet when hee espyed Pallas girdle about him Et y Virg. Aenid notis fulserunt cingula bullis he changed his minde and turned the point of his sword to his heart saying Tun ' hinc spoliis indute meorum eripiêre mihi so our blessed Redeemer when hee seeth his Priests garments upon sacrilegious persons and the chaines and borders of his dearest Spouse upon their minions neckes will say Tun ' hinc spoliis indute meorum eripiêre mihi shalt thou escape judgement who hast robb'd mee thy Judge shall I spare thee whom I finde with mine owne goods about thee shalt thou get out of my hands who quaffest like Belshazzar in the bowles of my Sanctuary and bravest it in my Spouse attire Now as the speciall operations of the soule reflect upon themselves and as definition defines and division divides and order digesteth so also repetition may and ought to repeat it selfe For the close of all then I will recapitulate my recapitulation and rehearse my selfe as I have done the foure Preachers Of this parcell of Scripture Faciemus c. I have made a threefold explication and likewise a threefold application the first explication was of the rich attire of Solomons Queene the second of the glorious types of the Jewish Church under the Law the third of the rich endowments large borders and flourishing estate of the Church under the Gospel My application was first to the Clergy secondly to the Laity thirdly to this present exercise The friends that here promise to adorne the Spouse with rich borders I compared to the foure Preachers their Sermons to the foure borders both in respect of the matter and the forme their matter was Scripture doctrine like pure gold their forme exquisite art beautifying their Scripture doctrine with variety of humane learning and sentences of the ancient Fathers like spangles or studs of silver In the borders of Solomons Queene there was the representation of a Dove whence they are called Torim which z Brightman in Cant. some translate Turtures aureas and their preaching was not in the inticing words of mans wisedome but in the evidence of the spirit which descended in the likenesse
faithfull and thy faith to be sound and thy patience to bee invincible and thy workes and the last to be more than the first The faire and magnificent Colledges lately founded and Churches sumptuously repaired and Libraries rarely furnished and Schooles richly endowed and Students in the Universities liberally maintained and the poore in Hospitals charitably relieved are standing testimonies and living evidences thereof Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee that thou sufferest the woman that sitteth upon seven hils the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth Jezabel of Rome which calleth her selfe a Prophetesse and Mistresse of all Prophets and Prophetesses by Priests and Jesuites to teach and deceive my servants to make them commit spirituall fornication and freely communicate with Idolaters and I gave her space to repent sixty yeers at least that she might not complain that I began with violent extreme courses and launced her wounds whilest they were greene but all this while she hath not repented of her Superstitions and abominable Idolatries therefore I will lay it heavie upon her I will send plague after plague and heape sorrow upon sorrow and adde affliction to affliction and if all will not serve I will poure out the dregges of my red wine on her and quench the fire of my wrath with her stained bloud I will kill her children with death and all the Churches shall know that I am hee that searcheth deep into the wounds of the heart and reines and discover filthinesse corruption in the inward parts and I will give unto every one according to his workes but unto you I say and to the rest in great Britaine as many as have not this doctrine of the Romish Jezabel and which have not knowne the depths of Sathan her mysteries of iniquity I will put upon you no other burden of Lawes or Canons but that which you have already Hold fast till I come to judgement In this Letter observe we 1. The superscription mysterious Ver. 18. 2. The contents various presenting to our religious thoughts 1. A sweet insinuation Ver. 19. 2. A sharpe reprehension Ver. 20 21. 3. A fearfull commination Ver. 22 23. 4. A comfortable conclusion Ver. 24. In the superscription wee have an admirable description of the glorified body of our Redeemer which shineth more brightly than a flame of fire or the finest metall glowing in the furnace Secondly an eminent title attributed to the Bishop or Super-intendent of the Church in Thyatira The Angel To the Angel in Thyatira saith the Sonne of God who hath eyes like a flame of fire to a Bullengerus in hunc locum Illuminat alios alios igne sempiterno concremat inlighten the godly and burne up the ungodly and feet like brasse to support his Church and bruise the enemies thereof I know thy workes proceeding from thy love and thy love testified by thy service and thy service approved by thy faith and thy faith tryed by thy patience and that the silver springs of thy bounty have more overflowed at the last than at the first Thus farre the sweet insinuation which afterwards falls into a sharpe reprehension like as the sweet river b Solinus c. 20. Hypanis Scythicorum amnium princeps haustu saluberrimus dum in Exampeum fontem inferatur qui amnem suo vitio vertit Hypanis into the bitter fountaine Exampeus Notwithstanding I have an action against thee that thou sufferest the filthy Strumpet Jezebel to corrupt the bodies and soules of my servants by permitting corporall fornication to them and committing spirituall with them whose judgement sleepeth not no not in her bed but even there shall surprise her For behold I will cast her into a bed where she hath cast her selfe in wantonnesse I will cast her in great weaknesse and will make her bed of pleasure a racke to torment her Ubi peccavit punietur where she swilled in her stolne waters that rellished so sweet in her mouth shee shall take downe her bitter potion Ubi oblectamentum ibi tormentum Of which plagues of Jezebel when God shall open the vials mouth at this time I purpose to gather some few observations from the two former branches of this Scripture but to insist wholly upon the third in the explication whereof when I have proved by invincible arguments that Jezebel is not to be tolerated in the application I will demonstrate that the Pseudo-catholike Romane Church otherwise called the Whore of Babylon is Jezebel or worse if worse may bee as God shall assist mee with his Spirit and endue mee with power from above for which I beseech you all to joyn with mee in prayer O most gracious God c. And to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira write c. The Naturalists observe that the thickest and best hony is that which is squeezed last out of the combe and usually the daintiest dish is served in at the last course and Musicians reserve the sweetest straine for their close and Rhetoricians take speciall care of their peroration The last speech of a dying friend leaves a deep impression in our hearts and art imitating nature holdeth out the last note of the dying sound in the organ or voice which consideration should stirre up our religious thoughts and affections to entertain with greatest alacrity and singular respect the admonitions and prophecies delivered in this booke as being the last words of our Lords last will and testament d Sen. ep 12. Gratissima sunt poma cùm fugiunt deditos vino potatio extrema delectu c. and the last breath as it were of the Spirit of God If that of the Poet be true that the beames of the c Esse Phoebi dulcius solet lumen jamjam cadentis Sunne shine most pleasantly at his setting how pleasant and deare ought the light of this Propheticall booke be unto us which is the last irradiation and glissoning of the Sunne of righteousnesse In it discerne we may 1. Counsels chapt 2.3 2. Predictions of the state of the Church 1. Militant from the 4th to the 21. 2. Triumphant from the 21. to the end The manner of delivery of both to Saint John was by speciall revelation which you will better conceive if you be pleased to take notice of the meanes whereby all knowledge divine and humane is conveighed into the soule As all water ariseth either from Springs below or falleth from the Clouds above so all knowledge is either gathered from the creatures by naturall reason grounded upon experience or immediately descendeth from the Father of lights and is attained unto by supernaturall illumination Supernaturall illumination is either 1. By ordinary inspiration common to all the Pen-men of the holy Ghost who wrote the dictates of the Spirit and were so assisted by him that they could not set downe any thing amisse 2. By extraordinary revelation which may be either 1. Of things past whereof there remaine no records monuments or memorialls to furnish
the writer of them such was the story of Genesis before the Floud whereof Moses could bee no otherwise infallibly enformed than by Gods revealing them unto him 2. Of things to come which is properly termed prophecy and this may be either 1. By instinct when men or women fore-tell things to come not knowing the certainty or being fully perswaded of the things themselves 2. Per raptum or ravishing of Spirit when they fore-tell such things whereof they are infallibly assured either 1. By voice as Moses was 2. By dreame as Daniel 3. By vision as Esay Ezekiel Zechary and other Prophets By instinct I am easily induced to beleeve that many especially before their death may fore-tell many things that come to passe shortly after and I deny not but some also may per raptum as I am perswaded John Hus did before his martyrdome in those words which are stampt in the coyne of those dayes yet to be seen Centum revolutis annis respondebitis Deo mihi after a hundred yeeres you shall bee called to an accompt for these things about which time they were openly challenged for them by Martin Luther and other zealous Reformers Yet are wee not to build our Christian faith upon any prophesies save those only which holy men have set downe in Scripture as they were guided by the holy Ghost Among which this is to bee ranked which Saint John received not from man or Angel but from e Cap. 1. V. 9 10. Jesus Christ not per instinctum but per raptum as himselfe testifieth I John which also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdome and patience of Jesus Christ was in the Isle of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ I was in the spirit on the Lords day and heard behind mee a great voice as of a Trumpet Note wee herein that Saint John received this revelation in his exile or banishment to teach us that Gods servants may be banished out of their native soyle and the Court of Princes but not out of the Catholicke Church or the presence of God Secondly Saint John received this prophesie as he was in the spirit to intimate unto us that this booke is of a spirituall interpretation Thirdly he received it on the Lords day to lesson us that God most blesseth our meditations on this day and that they must bee at peace with him and free from worldly cares and businesse who expect revelations from him For the title of the booke of Apocalypse or Revelation it is taken either from the manner whereby it came to Saint John before mentioned or from the matter herein contained which is mysticall hidden and for the most part of things future very obscure before the event and issue manifest them not from Saint Johns manner of expressing them for that for the most part is very intricate For as Plato sometimes spake of an obscure example Exemplum O hospes eget exemplo You had need to illustrate your example by another example so of all the bookes in Scripture the booke of Revelation most needs a revelation and cleare exposition in which as Saint Jerome hath observed Quot verba tot Sacramenta there are neere as many mysteries and figures and aenigmaticall expressions as words for this is the booke spoken of in this booke f Apoc. 5.1 sealed with seven seales answerable to the seven letters enclosed in it directed to the seven Churches of Asia to Ephesus Smyrna Sardis Pergamus Philadelphia Laodicea and Thyatira which names are as it were a small table and short draught of the lineaments of these Churches As Irenaeus his peaceable temper and Lactantius his milkie veine and Eusebius his piety and Chrysostomes golden mouth and contrariwise Jacobs subtilty and Edoms cruelty and Nabals folly and Seneca his end Se necans and Protesilaus his destiny were written in their names g Ovid. ep Protesilae tibi nomen sic fata dedêre victima quod Troiae prima futurus eras so the speciall and most noted vertues and vices in these Churches may bee read by the learned in the Greeke tongue in their names I dare not affirme that the holy Ghost either imposed or made choice of these names to intimate any such thing especially because these names were given to these Cities before they gave their names to Christ Neither doe we reade that these names at the first were put upon these Townes by men endued with a Propheticall spirit but by their Heathen Founders or Governours yet is the correspondency between these names and the condition of these Churches at the time when Saint John as Christ his amanuensis wrote these letters to them very remarkable and they may serve the learned as places in artificiall memory to fixe the character of these Churches in them 1. By the name Ephesus so termed quasi ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifying remission or slacking they may bee put in minde of slacking or back-sliding wherewith the Spirit upbraideth this Church h Cap. 2. Ver. 4. Thou hast left thy first love remember whence thou art fallen and repent 2. By the name Smyrna signifying lacrymam myrrhae the dropping or teares of myrrhe they may be put in mind of the i Ver. 10. cup of teares which this Angel was to drinke Yee shall have great tribulation for ten dayes 3. By the name Pergamus quasi ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifying beyond or out of the bounds of marriage they may be put in mind of the Nicolaitans abounding in this Church who were great abusers of k Ver. 15. marriage Thou hast them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate 4. By the name Sardis quasi ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifying fleshly they may be put in minde of many in this Church that were l Cap. 3. Ver. 4. fleshly given for as we reade This Angel had but a few names which had not defiled their garments 5. By the name Philadelphia signifying brotherly love they may bee put in minde of this vertue whose proper worke it is to cover multitude of sinnes which because it was eminent in many of this Church the Spirit covereth all her infirmities and rebuketh her openly for nothing but contrariwise commendeth her and promiseth because she m Ca. 3. Ver. 10. had kept the word of his patience to keep her from the houre of temptation 6. By the name Laodicea quasi ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifying the righteousnesse or customes of the people they may bee put in minde of the condition of the common sort in this Church and else-where who are well conceited of themselves though God knowes for little cause they imagine that they are very forward in the way that leades to eternall life that they are rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing when indeed in their spirituall estate they are
1.5 messengers of Christ 3. The dwelling of Angels is in Heaven and there is or ought to be the a Phil. 3.20 Our conversation is in heaven conversation of the Ministers of the Gospel 4. The life of Angels is a continuall b Matth. 18.10 beholding the face of God and what is the life of a good Minister but a continuall contemplation of the divine nature attributes and workes 5. The Angels gather c Mat. 24.31 the Elect from the foure windes and the Ministers of the Gospel gather the Church from all corners of the earth 6. The Angels d Apoc. 16.1 poure out the vialls of the wrath of God upon the earth and the Ministers are appointed to denounce Gods judgements and plagues to the wicked world 7. The Angels e 1 Cor. 15 52. sound Trumpets at the last resurrection and the Ministers of the Gospel at the first 8. When Christ was in an agony f Luke 22.43 there appeared an Angel strengthening him and when Gods children are in greatest extremity God sendeth the Ministers of the Gospel to g Job 33.23 If there bee a messenger with him an interpreter one among a thousand to shew to man his uprightnesse c. comfort them 9. The Angels carry the soules of them that dye in the Lord into Abrahams bosome Luke 16.22 and the Ministers of the Gospel give them their passe and furnish them with their last viaticum Now if it bee demanded why God so highly advanceth the dignity of the Ministry I answer to advance his glory He lifteth up the silver Trumpets of Sion on high that the sound of his praise may be heard the further As the visible Sunne casteth a more radiant and bright beame upon Pearle and Glasse which reflecteth them againe than upon grosse and obscure bodies that dead the rayes thereof even so the Sunne of righteousnesse casteth the fairest lustre upon that calling which most of all illustrateth his glory To other vocations God calleth us but this calleth us unto God all other lawfull callings are of God but of this God himselfe was and if it bee a great honour to the noblest orders of Knighthood on earth to have Kings and Princes installed into them how can wee thinke too worthily of that sacred order into which the Sonne of God was solemnly invested by his h Psal 110.4 Father I speake nothing to impeach the dignity of any lawfull profession make much of the Physicians of your body yet not more than of the Physicians of your soule yeeld honour and due respect to those that are skilfull in the civill and municipall Lawes yet under-value them not who expound unto you the Lawes of God At least take not pride in disgracing them who are Gods instruments to conveigh grace into your soules grieve not them with your accursed speeches who daily blesse you load them not with slaunders and calumnies who by their absolution and ghostly comfort ease you of the heavie burden of your sinnes goe not about to thrust them out of their temporall estate who labour by their Ministery to procure you an eternall It is not desire of popular applause or a sinister respect to our owne profit but the zeale of Gods glory which extorteth from us these and the like complaints against you For if Religion might bee advanced by our fall and the Gospel gaine by our losses and God get glory by our dis-esteeme we should desire nothing rather than to be accounted the off-scouring of all things on the earth that so wee might shine hereafter like precious stones in the foundation of the celestiall Jerusalem But if the Preachers and the Gospel the Word and Sacraments and the Ministers thereof Religion and Priests the Church and Church-men are so neere allies that the dis-reputation of the one is a great prejudice to the other and the disgrace of the one the despising of the other if the truth wee professe if our Religion if the Gospel if Christ if God suffer in the disgraces that are put upon our calling and the manifold wrongs that are done to it we must adjure you for your owne good and deeply charge you in Gods cause that as you looke to receive any good from him so you take nothing sacrilegiously from the Church as you hope to be saved by the Ministery preserve the dignity and estimation thereof be not cursed Chams in discovering the nakednesse of your ghostly fathers Alexander thought that he could not lay too much cost upon the deske in which Homers Poems lay and we daily see how those who take delight in musicke beautifie and adorn the instrument they play upon with varnish purfle gilt painting and rich lace in like maner if you were so affected as you should be at the hearing of the Word if you were ravished with the sweet straines of the songs of Sion ye would make better reckoning of the Instruments and Organs of the holy Spirit by which God maketh melodie in your hearts yee would not staine with impure breath the silver trumpets of Sion blowne not with winde but with the breath of God himselfe yee would not trample under foot those Canes that yeeld you such store of Sugar or rather of Manna Yee will be apt enough upon these and the like texts to teach us our dutie that we ought as Messengers of God to deliver his message faithfully and as neere as we can in his owne words as Angels to give our selves to divine contemplation and endevour to frame our lives to a heavenly conversation Let it not then be offensive to you to heare your dutie which is as plaine to be read as ours in the stile here attributed to the Pastour of Laodicea the Angell It is that you entertaine your diligent and faithfull Pastours as the i Gal. 4.14 Ye received me as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus Galathians did St. Paul and as Monica did St. Ambrose tanquam Angelos Dei as the Angels of God receive them as Abraham and Lot did the Angels sent from God unto them defend them according to your power from wrong and make them partakers of the best things wherewith God hath blessed you Angelo to the Angel in the singular number chiefe Pastour or Bishop of the Church All Ministers as I shewed you before may challenge the title of Angels but especially Bishops who watch over other Ministers as Angels over men who are to order the affaires of the Church and governe the Clergie as the Peripatetickes teach that Angels direct and governe the motions of the celestiall spheres therefore Epiphanius and St. Austine and most of the later Interpreters also paraphrase Angelo by Episcopo illic constituto and verily the manner of the superscription and the contents of the letter and the forme of governement settled in all Churches at this time make for this interpretation For supposing more Ministers in London of equall ranke and dignitie as there are who would indorse a
some of the reformed Churches with eyes sparkling like fire and stamping with his brazen feet to see these abominations of Jezebel winked at as they are in so many places I meddle not here with any deliberation of State fitter for the Councell Table than the Pulpit but discover to every private Christian what his duty is to refrain from the society of Idolaters I beseech them for the love of him who hath espoused their soules to himselfe and hath decked them with the richest jewels of his grace and made them a joynter of his Kingdome to beware that they be not enticed to spirituall fornication to forbeare the company of all those who solicite them in this kind nay farther to detect such persons to authority that they may learne not to blaspheme the truth of our Religion nor seduce his Majesties subjects from their allegiance to the Prince and conformity to his Lawes Pliny writeth of certaine m Plin. nat hist l. 8 c. 15. Indiginis innoxii peregrinos interimunt Efts in Tyrinth and Snakes in Syria that doe no hurt to the natives but sting strangers to death it may bee some have the like conceit of our English Seminary Priests and Jesuites who have done so great mischiefe beyond the Sea that they have no power or will to hurt any here at home and therefore dare more boldly converse with them because their outward carriage is faire But I beseech them to consider that the Panther hideth her ougly visage which shee knoweth will terrifie the beasts from comming neere her alluring them with the sweet smell of her body but as soone as they come within her reach shee maketh a prey of them Therefore as you tender the salvation of your body and soule your estate in this life and the life to come take heed how you play at the hole of the Cockatrice and familiarly converse with the great Whore or any of her Minions lest they draw you to naughtinesse and spirituall lewdnesse Have no part with them that have no part in God or have part with abominable Idols If the good Bishop Saint Ambrose being commanded by Valentinian the Emperour to deliver up a Church in his Diocesse to the Arrians gave this answer That hee would first yeeld up his life Prius est ut vitam mihi Imperator quà m fidem adimat shall wee give up our soules which are the Temples of the living God to Idolatrous worship If Saint John the Evangelist would not stay in the bath with Cerinthus the Hereticke shall we dare freely to partake with worser Heretickes in the pledges of salvation and wash our soules with them in the royall bath of Christs bloud o Ambros ep 37. Pollui se putabat si Aram vidisset ferendâmve est ut Gentilis sacrificet Christianus intersit Constantius the Emperour thought himselfe polluted if he had but seen an Heathenish Altar and Saint Ambrose proposeth it as a thing most absurd and intolerable that a Christian should be present at the sacrifices of the Heathen Our Saviour in this place and Saint p 1 Cor. 10. Paul in the first Epistle to the Corinthians would not have Christians to eate any of those things that were sacrificed unto Idols Nay the Prophet q Psal 16.4 David professeth that he will not so much as name an Idol Their offerings of bloud will I not offer nor make mention of their names in my lips I end and seale up my meditations upon these words spoken to an Angel with the words spoken by an r Apoc. 14.9 Angel If any worship the Beast and his Image and receive his marke in his forehead or in his hand the same shall drinke of the wine of the wrath of God and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone before the holy Angels the Lamb and the smoake of their torments shall ascend for ever ever And they shall have no rest neither day nor night which worship the Beast and his Image whosoever receiveth the print of his name Gracious Lord who gracest the Ministers of the Gospel with the title of Angels make them in their knowledge and life angelicall keep them not only from sinnes of omission and commission but also from sinnes of permission that all may see their works and their love and their service and their faith and their patience their love of thee and their service to thee and their faith in thee and their patience for thee and their growth in all these graces and that thou maist have nothing against them And sith thou hast displayed the Romish Jezebel unto us by her three markes of imposture impurity and idolatry breed in us all a greater loathing and detestation of her abominations preserve us by the sincere preaching of the Word and powerfull operation of thy Spirit that wee bee neither deceived by her imposture to beleeve her false prophesies neither defiled in our body by her impurity to commit fornication nor in soule by her idolatry to eate things sacrificed unto Idols SERMONS PREACHED AT OXFORD FOURE ROWES OF PRECIOUS STONES A Rehearsall Sermon preached in Saint Maries Church at Oxford Anno 1610. THE XXXV SERMON EXOD. 28.15 16 17 18 19 20 21. 15. And thou shalt make the breast-plate of judgement with cunning worke 16. Foure square shall it be being doubled 17. And thou shalt set in it settings of stones even foure rowes of stones the order shall be this a Rubie a Topaze and an Emrald in the first rowe 18. And in the second row thou shalt set a Carbuncle a Saphir and a Diamond 19. And in the third row a Turkeise and an Agate and an Amethist 20. And in the fourth row a Beril and an Onyx and a Jasper and they shall be set in gold in their inclosings or imbosments Hebrew fillings 21. And the stones shall bee with the names of the children of Israel twelve according to their names like the engravings of a signet every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve Tribes Right Worshipfull c. QUintilian a Institut orat lib. 1. cap. 1. instructing parents how to lay the ground-colours of vertues in the soft mindes of tender infants and acquaint them with the rudiments of learning adviseth Eburneas literarum formas iis in lusum offerre To give them the letters of the Alphabet fairely drawne painted or carved in ivory gold or the like solid and delectable matter to play withall that by their sports as it were unawares those simple formes might be imprinted in their memories whereby we expresse all the notions of our mind in writing even so it pleased our heavenly Father in the infancy and nonage of his Church to winne her love with many glorious shewes of rites and ceremonies as it were costly babies representing the body of her husband Christ Jesus and to the end she might with greater delight quasi per lusum get by heart the principles of saving knowledge
one field tares and wheat out of one mouth proceeds cursing and blessing Behold an ambitious simoniacall Priest of the Romane constitution and that but for a yeer vaunt over him that is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek Behold bloudy Caiphas consulting nay determining to put Christ to death not for any fault of his but because it was profitable to the Priests it is expedient for us yet doth hee colour his bloud-thirsty appetite with a varnish of common good If wee let him alone all men will beleeve in him and beleeving him to be a God will advance him to be a King the Romans will come take away this place and our Nation He is but one man what is the bloud of one man to the quiet of a publike state Melius est ut pereat unus quà m unitas let one man dye that the whole Nation perish not This is Caiphas his meaning vouchsafe we a look to it before we consider the meaning of a much better spirit Solomon his Lilly is most beautifull among thornes The Rose sayes Plutarch is never so fragrant as when it is planted by the Nettle the doctrine of the Holy Ghost seemeth never more excellent than when it is compared with the doctrine of Divels It is expedient he should dye he saith not it is just or lawfull Bonum commodis non honestate metitur Caiphas profit is become the rule of justice in whose hands now it is not only to judge according to the rule of law but to over-rule the law also In imitation of whom I verily thinke it was that Clemens the fifth being demanded how the Templer Knights might be cut off made this answer Si non licet per viam justitiae licet saltem per viam expedientiae But if it be profitable to whom cui bono to whom is it so to us now hee speakes like himselfe To S. Paul all things were lawfull yet many things did not seem expedient to Caiphas that is expedient which is not lawfull But shall a just innocent man a Prophet nay more than hee that was more than a Prophet lose his life for nothing but your commodity the answer is that though he be all these yet in a manner he is but unus one man and we are many better it were that he suffer a mischiefe than we an inconvenience therefore be his quality what it may be let him dye Ne saevi magne Sacerdos Let not the high Priest be angry will nothing but his death appease you You have a guard keep him sure manacle his hands fetter his feet only spare his life bring not his bloud upon your head Tush it is for our profit His bloud be upon us Thus crudelitas vertitur in voluptatem jam occidere hominem juvat it was meat drink to them to spill the bloud of Christ Jesus and being pleased to consider him but as a man they trampled on him as a worme and no man Ystel in Exod. Behold here in another sense Caiphas a bloudy Ruby yet as the Rubies about Egypt aureâ bracteâ sublinuntur so hath he gold foyle Scripture in his mouth the words of the Holy Ghost who not only out of the mouth of babes and sucklings will have his praise out of the mouth of asses and brute beasts will have his power to be knowne but also out of the mouth of reprobates and incarnate divels will have the same truth in the same words confirmed which holy Prophets and the holy Spirit by which they spake would have revealed For not onely holy men as the Preacher observed but sometimes also unholy men speake as they are moved by the Holy Ghost Agit Spiritus Dei per bonos per malos per scientes per nescientes quod agendum novit statuit but in a different manner The Holy Ghost so touched the hearts of holy Prophets that their hearts enditing this matter of Christs passion their tongues became the pen of ready writers but on the contrary as Caiphas did honour God with his lips while his heart was farre from him so saith Saint Chrysostome the Spirit of God touched his lips but came not neere his heart It is expedient In the exposition of Caiphas the meaning is it is good for us pretending common good to kill Jesus but the sense of the Holy Ghost is that the precious death of our Saviour would be expedient for us and his alone bloud once shed for his people an all-sufficient ransome for their soules Expedient it was and behoovefull in the first place that he who should satisfie for sinne the wages whereof is death should bee a man subject to death Secondly that he should dye Thirdly inasmuch as with respect to his people he became a man subject to death so that hee should in the end lay downe his life for the people Fourthly that he should be sufficient by his alone death to satisfie in their behalfe for whom he dyed Lastly we must enquire whether the profit of his passion be such as extendeth to our selves or not we shall find it doth for so are the words of the Text It is expedient for us Expedient it was that the Saviour of man should be a man Ecce homo behold he is so for comming to save man suscepit naturam quam judicavit salvandam he became in all things sinne only excepted like unto us It was fit it should be so for if the Deity had opposed it selfe non tam ratio quà m potestas Diabolum vicisset what mystery had there bin for God to vanquish the Divell how should the Scripture have bin fulfilled The seed of the woman shall breake the Serpents head yet there is an experiment beyond all this Experiar Deus hic discrimine aperto an sit mortalis saith the spirituall Lycaon if hee carry about with him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a body subject to dissolution doubtlesse hee is a man Thus therefore that hee might shew himselfe a man it was expedient that hee should die Is this thy reward O sweet Saviour for stouping thine infinite majesty so low as to become earth and thirty three yeeres to converse amongst us must thou dye It must bee so yet not for any necessity of justice in respect of himselfe for never Lambe more innocent nor of constraint for at the very time of his apprehension when hee had lesse than twelve Apostles hee had more than twelve Legions of Angels at his becke at the breath of his mouth the majesty of his countenance the force of those his words I am hee a whole troupe of his persecuters fell backwards but it must bee so because the determination of the Trinity and the conformity of his owne will thereunto will have it so Oblatus est quia voluit saith the Prophet I lay down my life saith himselfe Yea Caiphas said as much in effect It is meet not that one should be put to death but that he
ardebat cor vestrûm in vobis cùm exponeret vobis Scripturas The second jewel was a Saphir according to the Hebrew derivation from Sepher a booke wherein we may reade both the doctrine and graces of the second Speaker Hic lapis ut perhibent educit corpore vinctos saith Vincentius and was not his doctrine a Jayle-delivery of all deaths prisoners It is a constant tradition among the Rabbins that the tables of stone Bellar. l. 2. de Verb. Dei wherein the ten Commandements were written with the finger of God were of Saphir For although Pliny affirmeth Nat. hist l. 37. that the Saphir is a stone altogether unfit for sculpture yet this can be no just exception against this tradition sith the engraving of the ten Commandements was done by the finger of God above nature Moreover it is cleare out of this Text that the name of one of the Patriarchs was written in the Saphir Such a Saphir was the second Speaker having the Lawes of God imprinted in his heart The third jewell is a Diamond in Hebrew called Jahalom because it breaketh all other stones in Greek Adamas that is unconquerable because it can neither be broken by the hammer nor consumed in the fire nay the fire saith Zenocrates hath not so much power as to stain the colour much lesse impeach the substance of this stone Call to mind among the vertues of a Magistrate conspicuous in this divine Oratour his unconquerable courage unstained integrity and the comparison is already made Pliny reporteth Adamantem sideritem alio Adamante perforari thinke you not that if a man could have a heart as hard as the Adamant this Adamant pointed with sacred eloquence could breake it and make it contrite Lastly Pliny addeth that the Diamond is a soveraign remedy against poyson Et ideò regibus charissimus iisque paucis cognitus in high esteem with Princes if as our gracious Soveraigne hath so all Christian Princes had such Diamonds as this if such Preachers were their eare-rings they should be free from the danger of all poysoned and hereticall doctrine If as the stones placed in the second row agree with the gifts of the Speaker so they sort as well with the doctrines of his Text I am sure you wil all say that this second order of stones is not out of order A most remarkable story of the Carbuncle we have that cast in the fire among live coals it seemeth to have no grace in it but quench the other coals with water it shineth more gloriously in the ashes than ever before so our Saviour in the brunt of his passion while he was heat by the fire-brands of hell Scribes Pharisees Jewes Romans seemed to be dead and lose all his colour beauty nay was indeed dead according to his humane nature his soule being severed from his body but after the consummation of his passion and the extinction of the fiery rage of his persecuters with his bloud in his resurrection he shewed himself a most glorious Carbuncle shining in majesty burning in love After his resurrection in the day of his ascension hee taketh possession of his throne in heaven which Chap. 1. V. 26. in Ezekiel is said to bee like a Saphir stone now sitting at the right hand of God the Father having conquered sin death hell made all his enemies his footstoole he is become the only true orient Diamond in the world whether you take the name from the Greek á¼Î´Î±Î¼Î±Ï ab ά Î´Î±Î¼Î±Ï or the Hebrew ×××× from ××× being invincible himselfe and overcomming all adverse power breaking his obstinate enemies in pieces like a potters vessell with a rod of iron The embossment of gold in which these gems of divine doctrine were set was his Text taken out of A Sermon preached by Doctor John King then Dean of Christ-Church and Vicechancellor of the University of Oxford afterwards Lord Bishop of London upon Easter day in Saint Peters Church in Oxford ESAY 26.19 Thy dead men shall live together with my body shall they rise awake and sing yee that dwell in dust for the dew is as the dew of herbes and the earth shall cast up her dead IT would aske the labour of an houre to settle this one only member I finde such a Babel of tongues at odds about so few words Variae lectiones Whereas we reade terra projiciet or ejiciet the earth shall cast up or bring forth as it doth her herbs and winter prisoners Junius hath Dejecisti in terram Castalio terram demoliris the Seventy Terra cadet S. Jerome Dejicies in terram the Chaldee paraphrase Trades in infernum and for mortuos in Hebrew * ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Rephaim from a word signifying to cure per antiphrasin the Seventy reade ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the wicked or ungodly S. Jerome Gigantes stout and robustious against God But to set you in a right and inoffensive way I reduce almost an infinity of distractions to two heads For all of them either speak of the resurrection of the dead indefinitely which they doe that say Terra ejiciet to wit postquam in terram dejecisti For the earth cannot cast up that it hath not and Manium terram demoliris or of the destruction of the wicked one only species of the dead which the Seventy call impios others Giants mighty to transgresse both senses as the Northern and Southern rivers running from contrary points meet in the Ocean so these from sundry and discrepant conceits run into one common place of the generall resurrection save that the latter adde a straine to the former of Gods vengeance and wrath prepared for the wicked Sense twofold Thus having set the letters of my Text together accorded the words it remaineth that their scope and intent be freed from question There is not one of the learned Scribes old or new Jew or Christian whose spirit and pen hath not fallen upon one of these two senses viz. that the Prophet either speaketh of the resurrection of the dead at the last day or of the restitution and enlargement of the people from their present straights in which say they calamity is a kind of death captivity as the grave Gods people as the seed in the ground Gods grace and favour as the comfortable dew to revive and restore them to their wonted being Of these two companies some goe after the literall grammaticall sense lending not so much as the cast of their eye toward the allegory as Strigelius Clarius Brentius Others on the other side of the banke standing for the shadowed resurrection are not so peremptory but si quis aliter sentire mavult per me liber hoc faciat and Calvin himself in his commentary layes out as it were a lot as well for the true as the typicall resurrection Falluntur Christiani qui ad extremum judicium restringunt Prophetatotum Christi regnum ab initio ad finem
once more to the wicked we send libellum repudii Non est vobis pars neque sors yee may not consort with us in our blessed harmony the voices of Ashdod and Canaan cannot tune together to you belongeth plangent tribus terrae tribulabitur ibi fortis your singing shall be turned to sighing your Tabrets Shaumes into everlasting beatings and hammerings on the anviles of your breast your showting into howling and yelling your clapping of hands into gnashing of teeth your praising into blaspheming cursing all your rejoycing shall be as the mourning of Hadradrimmon in the valley of Megiddo yea much more than of Hadradrimmon because in the valley of Hinnon is the lake and fornace of endlesse disconsolation This Prophet shall conclude Behold my servants shall rejoyce and ye shall be ashamed my servants shall sing for joy of heart and ye shall cry for sorrow and howle for vexation of mind The third combination is Ros tuus terra projiciet which giveth a double proofe of the former doctrine the one as it were of course nature and common sense teacheth the other of force the creature must and shall accomplish it Terra projiciet that is saith Rabbie David Thou O God shalt command it The learned in their Commentaries distinguish these proofes by a discrepancy of words Elicere proper to the dew and projicere fatall to the earth the dew gently allureth and calleth forth the herbes so doth the Word Spirit of God sweetly and easily bring up may I say these embryo's of death But say that the earth withhold them opposing her lockes and barres and pleading perhaps the prescription of hundreds or thousands of yeeres there is then place for projiciet ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã angry and impatient though she be reddet non sua she must cast them up as the stomach a surfeit and a woman an abortive fruit See how God hath furnished us with all sorts of arguments if Liber foederis will not serve wee may reade in the booke of nature or rather Bibliotheca librorum described with a text hand in faire and capitall letters the resurrection of the dead Interroga jumenta saith Job Interroga olera saith my Prophet Considera Lilia agri saith our Saviour looke into the fields or sit still in your gardens every one under his owne vine and behold the growth of the plants and flowers how after the cold of Winter when the deadnesse of the yeere had blotted and blurred as it were the face of the earth and the print of nature seemeth to bee quite razed out yet as Esay speaketh of the Oake and Elme there is a substance in them and by the comfort of the vernall sun-shine and fatnesse of the clouds dropping on them they garnish and cover the earth againe as with the carpets of Egypt and clothe it as with a Josephs coate with all the variety of colours nature can invent Nature is full of such demonstrations I could bring you a band of creatures to strengthen this point The bird of Arabia that riseth out of her owne ashes the insecta animalia that spend the Winter season in a shadow of death the seed that lyeth and dyeth in the earth our sleepings and awakings nights and dayes winters and summers autumnes and springs but I leave them all and cleave to the resemblance in my Text Thy dew is as the dew of herbes but when this dew and soft distillation is too weake to worke this effect God hath a torrent and floud to doe it Terra ejiciet contermina terrae the sea that is married to the earth lyeth in her armes bosome He shall say to the sea Give and to the earth Restore and all creatures in them and in all the world besides that have devoured and swallowed the flesh of his chosen when that day commeth shall find that they have eaten morsels like aspes and dranke a draught of deadly poyson too strong and hard of digestion for their over weak stomachs I end with the words of this Prophet chapt 66. Quis audivit unquam tale quis vidit huic simile nunquid parturiet terra in die unâ tota gens parietur simul at this day it shall be so Saphirus aureis punctis collucet the best kind of Saphir The recapitulation with addition of appendant arguments saith the Naturalist hath something like points of gold in it Such were these we now handled give mee leave to use the Speakers phrase though not in his sense spare mee to recapitulate or rather from recapitulation for what have I done else all this while Mee thinkes the sixe parts of this Text are like the six cities of refuge Deut. 19. to which those that had slain shall I say nay rather those that are slain may flye to save shall I say nay but to recover and restore their lives and they are all like the wheeles in Ezekiels vision Rota in rotâ or as the celestiall Spheres one in the other all moving alike to the same purpose all striving for an Article of faith one of the twelve flowers in the garland of our Creed one of the twelve stones in the foundation of the holy City I remember in the inheritance of Judah among the rest there fell to their share sex civitates villae earum Is there any such a desart so barren so hopelesse so waste as death and the grave desertion of life and beeing when milke forsaketh the breasts marrow the bones bloud the veines spirit the arteries and the soule the body yet when you are brought to this desart of desarts you shall find sex civitates villas earum six maine and eminent proofes of the resurrection with as many lesse like suburbs granges and appertinent villages For first Mortui vivent is a maine argument grounded upon the Word and Promise like civitas but mortui tui is civitas villa a maine with an appendant argument drawne from the propriety that God hath in us Secondly Cadaver resurget is civitas but cadaver meum is civitas villa a maine argument with an appendant drawn from the society between the head the members he that raised Christ shall quicken us Thirdly Awake sing are civitates main arguments drawn from the command power of God who saith Returne ye sons of Adam and they return but that the nature of the phrase should import a sleep no death no privation of speech but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã pythagoricam for a while till God loosen the strings of the tongue and put breath into the organ againe these are civitates villae earum Yet further by Montanus his collection pulvis habitatores pulveris are villae appendant arguments the one from the matter of our creation when we are at the worst we are but dust from which our creation was and why may not from thence our recreation be the other from the terme of our abode habitatio which
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
the blessing of Abraham might come upon us let us enter into the Arke of our confidence and the Spirit of Christ like Noahs Dove shall bring unto us an Olive branch glad tidings of peace and true signes of rest to our tempest-tossed consciences let us draw neare to God and he will draw neare to us let us goe to Christ and he will draw God neare unto us let us goe unto him in feare and reverence and he will embrace us in faith and confiâence and he will receive us though we have beene prodigall and runnagate children he will receive us into his favour he will reconcile us to his Father he will salve our wounds hee will quiet our hearts hee will mitigate our feare of death and destruction and hee will imparadise us with himselfe in glorie everlasting The spirituall and morall interpretation of the Rehearsers text with a conclusion of the whole THus have I now at length presented to your spirituall view the brest-plate of Aaron decked richly with foure rowes of precious stones set in bosses of gold To the foure rowes I have compared the foure methodicall Sermons which yee have heard the Jewels in the rowes both to the parts of the Speakers and to their precious doctrine the embossement of gold to their texts a Orat. pro Cluent now because as Cepasius in Tullie postquam diu ex intimo artificio dixisset respicite respicite tandem respexit ipse so it hath beene the manner of the Rehearsers after they had fitly resembled the Preachers to make some resemblance of themselves and their office Sacra haec non aliter constant I intreat you right worshipfull men fathers and brethren not to think that I have so far forgotten modesty as to ranke my selfe with the meanest of the Jewels in these rowes nor the texture of my discourse to the embossements of gold wherein they were set yet not quite to change the allegory I finde among the Lapidaries a stone which seemes to me a fit embleme of a Rehearser it is no precious stone though it be reckoned with them by b Plin. l. 37. c. 9. Pliny and others because at some times it representeth the colours of the rainebow non ut in se habeat colores arcus coelestis sed ut repercussu parietum illidat the name of the stone is Iris whereunto I may make bold to compare my selfe because in some sort I have represented unto you the beautifull colours of these twelve precious stones as the Iris doth the colours of the Rainebow non per inhaerentiam sed per referentiam and therefore I reflect all the lustre splendour and glorie of them first upon Almighty God next upon the Jewels the Preachers themselves Pliny maketh mention of a strange c Nat. hist l. 2. c. 105. Pluvius in Hispania est qui omnes aurei coloris ostendit pisces nihil extra illam aquam caeteris differentes River in Spaine wherein all the fish while they swim in it have a golden colour but if you take them out of it nothing at all differ in colour from other in like manner I doubt not but that many things seemed excellent and truely golden in the torrent of the Preachers eloquence which taken out thence and exhibited to you in my rehearsall seeme but ordinary Howbeit the whole blame hereof lieth not upon me but a great part of it upon the very nature of this exercise to which it is d Mat. 3.3 essentiall to be defective The Preachers were voyces like St. John Baptist the Rehearser is but the Eccho Who ever expected of an Eccho to repeat the whole voyce or entire speech sufficient it is that it resound some of the last words and them imperfectly it implyeth a contradiction that a faire and goodly picture should be drawne at length in a short table e Quintil. instit orat l. 10. c. 2. Quicquid alteri simile est necesse est ut sit minus eo quod imitatur ut umbra corpore imago facie actus histrionum veris affectibus necesse est ut semper sit posterior qui sequitur The shadow alwayes comes short of the body the image of the face imitation of nature If I should have given due accents to each of their words and sentences I should long agoe have lost my spirits and I may truely say with St. Paul though in another sense f 2 Cor. 2.10 What I have spared herein for your sake have I spared as well as for mine owne to ease you of much trouble and now after a very short explication and application of mine owne text I will ease you of all g Joseph antiq Jud. l. 3. c. 8. Josephus worketh with his wit a glorious allegorie upon Aarons garments The Miter saith he represented the Heaven the two Onyxes the Sunne and Moone the foure colours in the embroidered Ephod the foure Elements the Girdle the Ocean the Bells and Pomegranates thundering and lightening in the aire the foure rowes of stones the foure parts of the yeare the twelve stones the twelve signes in the Zodiacke or the twelve moneths in the yeare St. h Ep. 128. Quatuor ordines quatuor puto esse virtutes Prudentiam Fortitudinem Justitiam Temperantiam c. Jerome taketh the foure rowes for the foure cardinall vertues which subdivided into their severall species make up the full number of twelve Although I dare not with Origen runne ryot in allegories yet I make no question but that we ought to conceive of the Ephod not as of a vestment onely covering the Priests breast but as of a holy type or figure vailing under it many celestiall mysteries and esteeme the stones set in these rowes upon the Ephod as precious or rather more in their signification than they are in their nature In which respect they may be termed after a sort so many glorious Sacraments sith they are visible signes of invisible mysteries which I am now to declare unto you St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrewes proveth manifestly Aaron to be a type of Christ his actions of Christs passion whereunto we may adde his ornaments of Christs offices Kingly Priestly and Propheticall For he is our Hermes Trismegistus Mercurius Termaximus Hermes because he is the Interpreter and Declarer of Gods will and Trismegistus that is thrice greatest because he is the greatest King the greatest Priest and the greatest Prophet that ever came into the world The Mitre Diadem-like compassed as Josephus writeth with three circles like a triple Crowne apparently seemeth to me to prefigure the Kingly office of our Saviour whereby he sitteth gloriously in the heart of all the Elect ruling them by the golden Scepter of his word As evidently the front-plate of pure gold engraven with holinesse to the Lord and breast-plate with Urim and Thummim representeth Christs Priestly function according to which he beareth the twelve Tribes representing all his Elect before God for a remembrance
may be running at this very moment and point of time the threed of his life may be cut off Now if wee cannot be said truely to have any part of our time how can we have any part in things temporall if the lease of our lives by which we hold all our earthly goods and possessions be of so uncertaine a date let our common Lawyers talke never so much of possessions and estates and firme conveighances and perpetuities and severall kindes of tenures they shall never perswade mee that there is any sure hold or good tenure of any thing save God and his promises it is impossible that wee should have any estate in things that are altogether e Cyp epist l. 2. Nec fiduciam praebent possidentibus stabilem quae possessionis non habent veritatem unstable Hereof it seemeth Abraham was well advised for though he were an exceeding rich man yet we reade of no purchase made by him save onely of a f Gen. 25.10 cave in Machpelah for him and his heires to hold or rather to hold him and his heires for ever If any man ever knew the just value of all earthly commodities it was King Solomon the mirrour of wisedome and yet he after he had weighed them all in the scales of the Sanctuary found them as light as vanity it selfe Omnia sub sole vanitas ergo supra solem veritas as rightly inferreth g Paulin. in opusc Paulinus If all things under the sunne are vanity therefore the verity of all things is above the sunne viz. In heaven Whom have I in heaven but thee that is thee I have and none but thee in heaven I deny not that which Saint h Tract 50. in Johan Habes Christum in praesenti per signum in praesenti per fidem in praesenti per baptismatis sacramentum Austine affirmeth in expresse termes that we have God many waies with us in this life for we see him in his workes we heare him in his word we taste him in the Sacrament we feele him by the motions of the Spirit within us we touch him by faith we embrace him by love we relye upon him by hope we have private conference with him by prayer yet all this is nothing to our modus habendi our manner of having him in heaven Then a man may be truely said to have a lordship mannour benefice or living when he entereth upon the fruits thereof and receiveth the crop The Lord is indeed our lot and portion even in this life but we cannot reap the thousanth part of the profits and delights he hath in himselfe and will afford us hereafter They to whom hee most imparteth himselfe and communicateth his goodnesse here have but a taste onely of the tree of life a weak sent of the flowers of Paradise a confused noise of heavenly musicke as it were afarre off no more than a glympse of the sunne of righteousnesse but a blast of the Spirit onely an earnest-penny of their wages yet such a taste as more satisfieth them than a royall banquet furnished with all the delicacies the sea or land can yeeld such a sent as they will not leave for all the sweet odours of Arabia such a noise as they would not misse the hearing thereof for all the consorts in the world such a glympse as is to be preferred before the full view of all the Kingdomes of the earth and the glory of them such a blast as more refresheth the soule than a constant gale of prosperous fortune such an earnest-penny as they would not lose for the treasures of Solomon This taste this sent this glympse this blast this earnest-penny the Kingly Prophet David so exceedingly desired that he compareth the ardency of his affection to the thirst of a Hart either long chased or after he is stung with the serpent Dipsas that sets all his throat on fire As the i Psal 42.1 2. Hart brayeth and panteth in this case for the rivers of waters to coole his heate and quench his thirst so panteth my soule after thee O God My soule thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appeare before God Of this thirst of the soule they onely can speake feelingly who have been long k Cant 2.5 Stay mee with slagons and comfort mee with apples for I am sicke with love sicke with the Spouse in the Canticles who feeling her heart faint and all her vitall faculties faile cryeth out Stay mee c. that is hold life in mee with cordiall waters and soveraigne smells for I languish I swoune my soule is running out of the doores of my lips after him whom she incomparably loveth above all things in heaven and in earth yet she seeth here nothing but his backe parts that is obscure shadowes and resemblances of him And if she be so enamoured with these how will she be ravished at the sight of his countenance if she take such contentment in the contemplation of his image in a mirrour how will shee be transported when she shall see him face to face and bee united to him spirit to spirit if she take such pleasure in pledging him in the bitter cup of his passion what will she take in l Psal 16.11 drinking of the rivers of pleasures that run at his right hand for evermore To borrow a straine of the Schooles for the closing up of this sweet note Hic Deum amamus amore desiderii at in coelo amore amicitiae Here we love God with a love of desire there with a love of friendship here we desire to have God there we have our full desire and so I fall into the maine doctrine of the Text That there is fulnesse of delight and content in God Quid eo avarius est cui Deus non sufficit in quo sunt omnia Can we desire larger possessions than immensity a surer estate than immutability a longer terme of yeeres than eternity Let Saint m De vitâ contemplat l. 2. c. 15. Quid potest eo esse foelicius cujus efficitur suus conditor census haereditas ejus dignatur esse ipsa divinitas si modo sanctis operibus eum colat omnes fructus ex illo percipiet Prosper speake Who so fortunate as he whose Maker is his fortune who so rich as hee who possesseth him that possesseth all things whose lord is his lot and his owner part of his goods Howbeit because we cannot perfectly survey much lesse take full possession of this our large or rather infinite inheritance in this life Mollerus conceiveth these words not to be uttered in an exultation of spirit ravished with the contemplation of God but rather as a prayer to this effect O that I had thee in heaven as when the Prophet demandeth Who will shew us any good wee take the meaning to be O that any would shew us some good in like maner in the second of Samuel Who n 2 Sam. 23.15
the bloud of your Redeemer from all spots of impurity will yee againe pollute and soile them It is folly eagerly to pursue that which will bring you no profit at all and greater to follow afresh those things whereof ye were not only ashamed in the enjoying them but also are now confounded at the very mention of them yet this is not the worst shame is but the beginning of your woe For the end is death yea death without end Will yee then forsake the waies of Gods Commandements leading to endlesse felicity and weary your selves in the by-pathes of wickednesse in the pursuit of worldly vanities without hope of gaine with certaine losse of your good name nay of your life will yee sell heaven for the mucke of the earth set yee so much by the transitory pleasures of sinne mixed with much anguish and bitternesse attended on with shame that for them yee will be content to be deprived of celestiall joyes the society of Archangels and Angels and the fruition of God himselfe for ever nay to be cast into the darke and hideous dungeon of hell to frie in eternall flames to be companions of ghastly fiends and damned ghosts howling and shreeking without ceasing complaining without hope lamenting without end living yet without life dying yet without death because living in the torments of everlasting death Divis explicat verb. Having taken a generall survey of the whole let us come to a more particular handling of the parts which are three forcible arguments to deterre all men from all vicious and sinfull courses 1. The first ab inutili What fruit had yee 2. The second ab infami Whereof yee are now ashamed 3. The third à pernicioso or mortifero The end of these things is death 1. Fruit. What fruit This word fruit is fruitfull in significations it is taken 1 Properly for the last issue of trees and so it is opposed to leaves or blossomes for nature adorneth trees with three sorts of hangings as it were the first leaves the second blossomes the third fruits in this sense the word is taken in the first of Genesis and in the parable of the figge-tree cursed by our Saviour because hee found no fruit thereon 2 Improperly either for inward habits which are the fruits either of the spirit whereof the Apostle speaketh The g Gal. 5.22 fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance or of the flesh reckoned up by the same h Ver. 19 20. Apostle or for outward workes which are the fruits of the former habits whereof we reade Being i Phil. 1.11 filled with the fruits of righteousnesse and in the Epistle of S. k Jam. 3.15 James Full of mercy and good fruits Or for the reward of these works either inward as peace joy and contentment whereof those words of S. l Ver. 18. James are to be meant The fruit of righteousnes is sowne in peace of them that make peace and those of S. Paul No m Heb. 12.11 affliction for the time is joyous but grievous but in the end it bringeth the quiet fruit of righteousnesse to those that are exercised thereby Or lastly for outward blessings wherewith God even in this life recompenseth those who are fruitfull in good workes as the Prophet Esay and David assure them Surely it shall be n Esay 3.10 Psal 58.11 well with the just for they shall eate the fruits of their workes Utique est fructus justo Verily there is fruit for the righteous verily there is a God that judgeth the earth 2. Had. Had. It is written of the Lynx that he never looketh backe but Homer contrarily describeth a wise man ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã looking both forward and backward forward to things to come and backward to things past for by remembring what is past and fore-casting things future he ordereth things present and in speciall what advantage a Christian maketh of the memory of his former sinnes and the sad farewell they have left in the conscience I shall speake more largely hereafter for the present in this cursory interpretation of the words it shall suffice to observe from the pretertense habuistis had ye not habetis have ye that sin like the trees of Sodome if it beare any fruit at all yet that it abideth not but assoone as it is touched falls to ashes Musonius the Philosopher out of his owne experience teacheth us and that truely that if we doe any good thing with paine the paine is soone over but the pleasure remaineth but on the contrarie if we doe any evill thing with pleasure the pleasure is soone over but the paine remaineth In those things whereof yee are now ashamed 3. Those things As after the wound is healed there remaines a scar in the flesh so after sinne is healed in the conscience there remaines as it were a scarre of infamie in our good name and of shame also in the inward man The act of sinne is transcunt yet shame the effect or rather proper passion of it is permanent sinne is more ancient than shame but shame out liveth sinne It is as impossible that fire should be without scorching heat or a blow without paine or a feaver without shaking as sinne especially heinous and grievous without a trembling in the minde and shame and confusion in the soule For as o In Saturnal Macrobius well observeth when the soule hath defiled her selfe with the turpitude of sinne pudore suffunditur sanguinem obtendit pro velamento she is ashamed of her selfe and sends forth bloud into the outward parts and spreadeth ât like a vaile before her just as the Sepia or Cuttle fish when she is afraid to be taken p Plin. nat hist l. 9. c. 29. Sepiae ubi sensere se apprehendi offuso atramento quod illis pro sanguine est absconduntur sends from her bloud like inke whereby she so obscureth the water that the angler cannot see her If it be objected that some men as they are past grace so past shame also and some foreheads of that metall that will receive no tincture of modestie such as Zeno was in q L. 16. Si clam scelera perpetrasser obscurum minus gloriosum putabat sin publicitùs apertè in conspectu omnium absque pudore flegitiosus esset id dâmùm Principe Imperatore dignum putabat Nicephorus his story who held it a disparagement to himselfe to commit wickednesse in secret and cover his filthinesse with the darke shadow of the night for that it became not soveraigne majestie to feare any thing he thought he could not shew himselfe a Prince unlesse without feare or shame he committed outrages in the face of the sunne Such were those Jewes whom the Prophet Jeremie brands in the forehead with the marke of a Strumpet that cannot blush r Jer 8.12 Were they ashamed when they committed abominations nay Å¿ Jer.
Court of justice in which the lesser flyes are strangled but the greater easily breake through them And bee the lawes of any Commonwealth or Kingdome never so exact yet Seneca his observation will bee true Angusta est justitia ad legem justum esse it is but narrow and scanty justice which extendeth no further than mans law A man may be ill enough and yet keepe out of the danger of the lawes of men which are many wayes imperfect and defective but the law of God is no way subject to this imputation it is perfect and as the Prophet David speaketh c Psal 119.96 exceeding broad it reacheth to all the actions words and imaginations of all the sonnes of Adam not a by syllable can passe not a thought stray not a desire swerve from the right way but it falleth within the danger and is lyable to the penalties annexed to it which are most certaine and most grievous 1 Externall in the world 2 Internall in the conscience 3 Eternall in hell The arguments that are hence drawne to deterre men from sinne and wickednesse are of a stronger metall and have another manner of edge than reason can set upon them d Heb. 4 12. For the word of God is quick and powerfull sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart The Hyperbolicall commendation which the e Cic. de orat l. 1. Fremant licet omnes dicam quod sentio bibliothecas omnes Philosophorum unus mihi videtur duodecim tabularum libellus si quis legum fontes capita viderit autoritatis pondere utilitatis ubertate superare Orator giveth of the Romane lawes published in twelve Tables of right belongeth to this member of the Apostles exhortation it hath more weight of reason and forcible arguments of perswasion to holinesse of life and detestation of vice in it than all the discourses of morall Philosophers extant in the world Hence we learn that their losses who trade with Satan are inestimable and irrecoverable that wicked and ungodly courses and means to gain thrive by not onely deprive us of the comfortable fruition of all earthly but also of the possession of all heavenly blessings that even small offences when they come to light are sufficient to cover the sinner with shame and confusion that all the filthinesse that lyeth in the skirts of the soule shall be discovered in the face of the sun before men Angels that not only outward acts but inward motions and intentions not only loud crying sins but also still and quiet that lye asleep as it were in the lap of our conscience not only hainous crimes and transgressions of an high nature but also those seeming good actions that have any secret filthinesse or staine in them if it bee not washed away with the teares of our repentance and blood of our Redeemer shall bee brought into judgement against us and wee for them condemned to death both of body and soule in hell No tragicall vociferation nor the howling and shricking of damned ghosts can sufficiently expresse the horrour and torments of that endlesse death which is the end of sinne What sinne hath proved for the time past yee have heard wee are at this present to consider what it is for the present it hath beene unfruitfull what fruit had yee it is shamefull whereof ye are now ashamed Shame is defined by f L. 2. Rhet. c. 6. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Aristotle Agriefe and trouble of minde arising from such evils as seeme to tend to our infamy and disgrace somewhat more fully it may bee described A checke of conscience condemning us for some intention speech or action whereby wee have defiled our conscience before God or stained our credits before men This affection is in all men even in those that are shamelesse and impudent who are not so called because they are without this irkesome passion but because they shew no signe thereof in their countenance nor effects in their lives As impossible it is that in the conscience of a sinner g Rom. 2.15 thoughts should not arise accusing him as that there should bee a fire kindled and no sparks flye up To pollute the conscience with foule sin and not to be ashamed is all one as to prick the tenderest part of the body and to feele no paine h Suet. in Tib. Tiberius who let loose the raines to all licentiousnesse yet when hee gave himselfe to his impure pleasures caused all the pictures to bee removed out of the roome and Alexander Phereus that cruell tyrant when hee beheld a bloody Tragedy in the Theater and therein the ugly and monstrous image of his barbarous cruelty drawne to the life was so confounded therewith that hee could no longer dissemble his terrour of minde nor expect the end of that dismall Scene Now how deepe an impression shame and infamy make in the soule wee may perceive by those who preferred death before it i Xen. l. 7. Cyr. Paed. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Panthea solemnly wished that shee might bee buried alive rather than constrained to staine her blood and good name by keeping company with any how great soever hee were contrary to her vow to her dearest Abradatus And k Ovid. Epist Phillis Demophoonti Phillis having lost her honour voweth to make amends for it by her voluntary death Stat necis electu tenerum pensare pudorem Which Lucretia also practised flying out of the world to shun the shame thereof and spilling her blood which the tyrant had a little before stayned and Europa thought one death too light a revenge for wronged chastity Levis una mors est Virginum culpae If shame and infamy were not the sharpest corrasives to a guilty conscience the Prophet David would not so oft use these and the like imprecations against the enemies of God Let them be confounded and perish that are l Psal 71.11 83.17 against my soule and let them bee counfounded and vexed evermore let them bee put to shame and perish let mine adversaries bee clothed with shame and let them cover themselves with their owne confusion as with a cloake Yea but if shame and confusion are the very gall and wormewood of Gods vengeance against the wicked most bitter to the taste of the soule what construction are wee to make of those words of the Prophet m Ezek. 36.32 O yee house of Israel bee ashamed and confounded for your owne wayes doth the Prophet here give them counsell to pull down Gods vengeance upon themselves Nothing lesse To cleare this point therefore wee must distinguish of shame which is taken 1 Sometimes for a vertuous habit and disposition of the minde consisting in a mediocrity betweene two extremes impudency in the defect reproved in the Jewes by the Prophet n Jer. 8.12
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
the unquenchable fire in such sort that it hath no power upon any of the members of his mysticall body and by his temporall death hath delivered all that are his from eternall Shall wee not then eternally sing his praises who hath saved us from everlasting weeping and mourning in the valley of Hinnom Shall any waters of affliction quench in us the love of him who for us quenched unquenchable fire Shall not the benefit of our delivery from everlasting death ever live in our memory Shall any thing sever us from him who for our sakes after a sort was severed from his Father when he cryed k Mat. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee Shall tribulation or anguish or persecution or famine or the sword No I am perswaded I may goe on with the Apostle and say l Rom. 8 38 39. Neither life nor death nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. To whom c. FERULA PATERNA THE XLVI SERMON REV. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Right Honourable c. HOw unwilling the author of life and Saviour of all men especially beleevers is to pronounce and execute the sentence of death and destruction against any if the teares which hee shed over Jerusalem and groanes and lamentations which hee powreth out when he powreth forth the vials of his vengeance testifie not abundantly yet his soft pace and orderly proceeding by degrees in the course hee taketh against obstinate and impenitent sinners is enough to silence all murmuring complaints wrongfully charging his justice and raise up all dejected spirits dolefully imploring his mercy For hee ever first sitteth upon his throne of grace and reacheth out his golden Scepter to all that cast themselves downe before him and if they have a hand of faith to lay hold on it hee raiseth them up before hee taketh hold of his iron rod and hee shaketh it too before hee striketh with it and hee striketh lightly before hee breaketh in pieces and shivers the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction So true is that which hee speaketh of himselfe by the Prophet Hosea a Hos 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe but in mee is thy helpe and the Prophet of him b Psal 25.10 All the pathes of the Lord are mercy and truth in which he walketh thus step by step First when wee begin to stray from him hee calleth us backe and reclaymeth us from our soule and dangerous wayes by friendly counsels and passionate perswasions by increase of temporall and promise of eternall blessings as we may read in the tenour of all the Prophets commissions 2 If these kinde offers be refused with contempt and greater benefits repayed with greater unthankfulnesse he changeth his note but not his affections he exprobrates to us our unthankfulnesse that it might not prove a barre of his bounty c Hos 11 3 4. I taught Ephraim to goe taking them by their armes and they knew not that I healed them I drew them with the cords of a man with bands of love and I was to them as they that take off the yoake from their jawes and d Isa 5.2 My Beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitfull hill and hee fenced it and hee gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest Vine and built a tower in the midst of it and also made a wine-presse therein and hee looked that it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wild grapes 3 If exprobrations and sharpe reproofes will not serve the turne he falls to threatning and menacing fearefull punishments but to this end onely that hee may not inflict what hee threateneth as wee see in Niniveh's case e Jonah 3.4 Yet forty dayes saith the Prophet and Niniveh shall bee overthrowne yet Niniveh was not overthrown f Vers 10. because the Ninivites repented of their workes and turned from their evill wayes God repented of the evill he had said that hee would doe unto them and he did it not 4 If neither promises of mercies nor threats of judgements neither kind entreaties nor sharpe rebukes can worke upon the hard heartednesse of obstinate sinners hee useth yet another meanes to bring them home hee taketh away their goods that they may come to him for them hee pincheth them with famine that hee may starve their wanton lusts he striketh their flesh with a smart rod that it may awake their soules out of a dead sleepe of security and this for the most part is the last knocke at their hearts at which if they open not and receive Christ by unfained repentance and a lively faith the gates of mercy are for ever locked up against them According to this method Christ here proceedeth with the Angel of Laodicea First g V. 15. hee friendly saluteth him next h V. 16. Ver. 17. Ver. 18. hee sharply reproveth him then hee fearfully threatneth him lastly he severely chastiseth him and all in love as you heare in this verse As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Which hath this coherence with the former wherein Christ taxed two vices in this Angel luke warmnesse and spirituall pride against these hee prescribeth two remedies zeale vers 19. and spirituall providence I counsell thee to buy of mee gold tryed in the fire that thou maist bee rich and white rayment that thou maist bee clothed and that the shame of thy nakednesse doe not appeare and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou maist see But here because the Angel of Laodicea might reply Alas to what end is all this what prescribe you unto memedicinal potions who am to be spewed out of Gods mouth what can your counsell doe me good my doome is already past and my heart within mee is like melted waxe Christ opportunely in the words of my text solveth this objection and giveth him a cordial to keep him from fainting Be not too much discouraged at my sharp rebukes nor faint under my fatherly chastisements for I use no other discipline towards thee than towards my dearest children whom I love most entirely yet rebuke most sharply to break them of their ill qualities I chasten those and those onely and all those whom I love and I chasten oftenest whom I love best wherefore faint not but be zealous neither despaire but amend and thou shalt finde my affection as much enlarged and the treasurie of my bounty as open unto thee as ever heretofore Behold then in the words of this Scripture 1 A rule of direction to those that are set in high places of authority 2 A staffe of comfort to those who are fallen into the depth of griefe and misery To the former the Spirit speaketh in the words of my text on this wise Ye Masters of servants Tutors of Scholars
Experience teacheth us that what wee see in water seemeth greater than it is It is most true if we speake of the waters of Marah they make any thing that befalleth us appeare greater than it is See if there be any q Lam. 1.12 sorrow like unto my sorrow saith captive Judah I am the r Lam. 3.1 man saith Jeremy that hath seen affliction as if none but hee had seen the like in like manner David and after him Å¿ Jonah 2.3 4. Jonas All thy waves and stormes have gone over mee What more direct Text of Scripture to checke and reprove this fansie than this As many as I love I rebuke and chasten All Gods dearest children first or last are visited as well as we and those perhaps more grievously by whom it is least seen our affliction is in body theirs may be in their mind our losses may bee of transitory goods and worldly wealth theirs may be of spirituall graces or the like so that howsoever wee amplifie our miseries yet all things considered we shall have small reason to exchange them with any other As I love To many other reasons before touched two may be added why afflictions may proceed from Gods love The first because they make the mind soft and tenderly affected and thereby apter to receive a deep impression from love Excellent to this purpose is that meditation of St. t Gregor in Cant. 2.5 Corda nostra malè sâna sunt cùm nullo Dei amore sautiantur cùm peregrinationis erumnam non sentiunt cùm nullo erga proximum affectu languescunt sed vulnerantur ut sanentur quia amoris spiculis mentes Deus insensibiles percutit moxque sensibiles per ardorem charitatis reddit Gregory upon those words of the Spouse in the Canticles as he rendereth them vulnerata charitate ego I am sicke of love Our hearts are indisposed when they are not wounded with the love of God when they feele not the trouble and misery of our pilgrimage when they pine not away through ardent desires and longing to be with God but they are wounded that they may be healed God striketh our minds and affections with the darts of love that they may have more sense and feeling of celestiall objects The second is because affliction estrangeth our affections from the world and entirely fixeth them upon God which before were divided between him and the world Now it is most proper to love to appropriate the object beloved to it selfe whom we entirely affect we desire to have entire to our selves and none other to have part with us To draw towards an end those many whom Christ here chasteneth distributivè or one by one are collectivè the militant Church whose members we are her rebukes are our shame her chastenings our discipline her affliction our condition either by passion of griefe or compassion of love Behold then what is her usage in her pilgrimage upon earth her greetings are rebukes her visits chastenings her love-tokens crosses her bracelets manicles her chaines fetters her crisping-pins thornes and nailes her drink teares her markes blacke and blew wounds her true embleme u Mat. 2.18 Rachel mourning for her children and refusing all comfort because they are not A wife of pleasures had been no fit match for him who is described by the Prophet to be a man of sorrowes with a head crowned with thornes eyes bigge with teares cheekes swolne with buffets his heart pricked with a speare his hands and feet pierced with nailes his joynts set on the racke of the Crosse his whole body bruised with stripes and torne with whips and scourges Ecce homo Behold the man and judge whether is likelier to bee his consort the Whore of Babylon or the mother of our faith the one sitteth upon many waters the other is ready to be overwhelmed with a floud cast out of the mouth of the Dragon at her the one is arrayed with purple and scarlet the other in mourning weeds stained with her owne bloud the one adorned with chaines of gold the other clogged with fetters of iron the one for many ages treading on the neckes of Kings and Princes the other trodden downe by them at the foot of Christs Crosse But be of good cheare thou afflicted and disconsolate Spouse let not the pompe and beauty of thy corrivall be an eye-sore unto thee according to the * Rev. 18.7 measure of her pleasures shall her torments be It cannot now be long forbeare a while and shee shall be stripped of all her gay attire but thou clothed in a vesture of gold wrought about with divers colours when she shall be carried with sorrow and heavinesse to the dungeon of everlasting darknesse thou shalt with joy and gladnesse be brought into the Kings chamber thy cheekes now blubbered with teares shall be decked with rubies and thy necke with chaines hee will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver Here I might make an end for what out of the words of the Spirit in my Text hath bin spoken to cheare up the Spouse of Christ bewailing her deplorate estate belongeth to every faithfull soule that hath her part in her mothers griefes Howbeit more distinctly to propose the instructions and comforts laid out in this Scripture to your most serious consideration and apply them to those in particular whom they most concerne may it please you to sort with mee all the members of the militant Church into 1. Those that are comforted but in feare of affliction 2. Those that are afflicted but in hope of comfort All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer affliction and therefore all necessarily fall under the members of this division for the former the Spirit in my Text pointeth to this exhortation Ye whom God hath enriched with store graced with preferments and honour prospered with all happinesse amidst your pleasures jollity and mirth remember the affliction of Joseph and despise not the condition of Lazarus but partake with them in their sorrowes by compassion and take part from them by your charitable reliefe their turne of sorrow is come and neere past yours is to come they are now rebuked and chastened yee may be nay yee shall be if yee are of those in my Text on whom God casteth a speciall eye of favour if yee are not of those then is your condition worse than that of the poorest Lazar. Beware of flattering tongues as of Serpents stings or rather more of those than these for those venome but the flesh and make it swell these corrupt the soule putrifie it with lust and make it swell with pride If honours riches and pleasures were certaine arguments of Gods love and favour the dearest of his children could not be so often without them as they are Value not your selves by these outward vanities but by inward vertues take heed how ye drinke deep of the sugered wine of pleasures set not your hearts upon the blessings of this life
call us by thy spirit and wee shall heare thee and hearing thee turne from our wicked wayes and turning live a new life of grace here and an eternall life of glory hereafter in heaven with thee O Father the infuser O Son the purchaser O holy Spirit the preserver of this life Amen Cui c. THE BEST RETURNE THE LV. SERMON EZEK 18.23 Not that hee should returne from his wayes and live Or if hee returne from his evill wayes shall hee not live Right Honourable c. SAint a Possid in vit Austine lying on his death-bed caused divers verses of the penitentiall Psalmes to bee written on the walls of his chamber on which he still cast his eyes and commented upon them with the fluent Rhetoricke of his tears But I could wish of all texts of Scripture that this of the Prophet Ezekiel were still before all their eyes who mourn for their sins in private For nothing can raise the dejected soule but the lifting up of Gods countenance upon her nothing can dry her tears but the beams of his favour breaking out of the darke clouds of his wrath and shining upon her nothing can bring peace to an affrighted and troubled conscience but a free pardon of all sinnes whereby shee hath incurred the sentence of death which the Prophet tendereth in the words of the text Which are as the very heart of this chapter and every word thereof may serve as a principall veine to conveigh life-blood to all the languishing or benummed and deaded members of Christ his mysticall body Returne and live These words are spirit and life able to raise a sinner from the grave and set him on his feet to tread firmly upon the ground of Gods mercy as also to put strength and vigour into his feeble and heavie limbes 1. to creep then to walke and last of all to runne in the pathes of Gods commandements The explication whereof to our understanding and application to our wils and affections were the limits of my last Lords-dayes journey By the light which was then given you yee might easily discerne our lusts which are sudden motions from Gods desires which are eternall purposes and distinguish betweene a sinner who is not purged from all dregges of corruption and a wicked person who Moab-like is settled upon his lees between a common infirmity and a dangerous sickenesse betweene sin in the act and wickednesse in the habit Questionlesse there is more reason to pitty him that falleth or slippeth than him that leapeth into the sink of sinne and daily walloweth in the mire of sensuall pleasures Yet such is the mercy and goodnesse of almighty God that hee desireth not that the wicked such as make a trade of sinne and have a stiffe necke a hard heart a seared conscience that the wretchedst miscreants that breathe should either dye in their sinnes here or for their sinnes hereafter The former of the two is the death of life the latter wee may significantly tearme the life of death which exerciseth the damned with most unsufferable pangs and torments for evermore Here when wee part life dyeth but in hell death liveth and the terrours and pangs thereof are renewed and encreased daily the former death is given to the vessells of wrath for their earnest the latter is paid them for their wages This death is properly the wages of sinne which God cannot in justice with-hold from the servants of sinne and vassals of Satan For God whose infinite wisdom comprehends not only the necessity of all effects in their determined but also the possibility in their supposed causes foreseeing from all eternity what an intelligent nature endued with free-will left to himselfe would doe how hee would fall and wound himselfe by his fall and knowing how hee could so dispose of his fall and cure his wound that his the Creators glory might bee no whit impaired but rather encreased by not powerfully hindering it decreed to create this creature for his glory which he appointed to shew upon him by three meanes 1. By way of generall bounty in placing the first parents of mankinde in Paradise and in them giving all sufficient meanes to bring them to eternall happinesse an end infinitely elevated above the pitch of their owne nature and after the abuse of their free-will and losse of that happy estate in which they were created and bringing themselves into thraldome to sinne and Satan 2. By way of speciall mercy graciously freeing freely justifying justly glorifying some a Rom. 9.23 in and by Christ viz. the vessels of mercy prepared unto glory 3. By way of justice in utterly leaving or uneffectually calling and upon abuse or refusall of some measure of grace offered to them deservedly hardening and upon their finall incredulity and impenitency necessarily condemning and in the end eternally punishing others to wit the vessels of wrath ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã made up or fitted to destruction This fabricke of celestiall doctrine strongly built upon evident texts of Scriptures may serve for a fortresse to defend this text and the principall doctrines contained in it against all the batteries of Heretickes and Atheists made against it viz. 1. That God approveth not the death of the wicked in his sinne but on the contrary liketh and commandeth and taketh pleasure in his conversion 2. That he decreeth not or desireth the death of any wicked for it selfe as it is the misery and destruction of his creature but as a manifestation of his justice For he b Lam. 3.33 punisheth not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with his heart or willingly hee made not death nor delighteth in the c Wisd 1.13 Fulgent ad Mon. Mortem morienti non fecit qui mortem mortuo justè retribuit destruction of the living Thy destruction is from thy selfe d Hos 13.9 O Israel but in mee is thy helpe The wicked after his hardnesse and impenitent heart treasureth up unto himselfe wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgement of God who rendreth to every man according to his workes Upon which texts the Fathers inferre that not onely the execution but the very decree of damnation of the reprobate passeth upon their sinne foreseene Saint e Ep. ad Sixt. Vasa irae homines sunt propter naturae bonu n creati propter vitia sâpplicio destinati si vasa sint perfecta in perditionem sibi hoc imputent Austine The vessels of wrath are wicked men created for the good of nature but destinated to punishment for their sinnes And againe If they are fitted to destruction let them thanke themselves Saint f Prosper ad object 3. Gal. Qui à sanctitate vitae per immunditiem labuntur non ex eo necessitatem pereundi habuerunt quia praedestinati non sunt sed quia tales futuri ex voluntariâ praevaricatione praesciti sunt Prosper They that fall away from holinesse through uncleanness lye not under a necessity of
hand and giveth them a stay in the next clause onely use not liberty for an occasion unto the flesh Lest any presumptuous sinner should lay hold on the hornes of the Altar and claspe about that gracious promise i Tit. 2.11 The grace of God that bringeth salvation unto all men hath appeared he beateth off their fingers in the next verse teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts wee should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world In like manner lest any should * 2 Pet. 3.16 wrest the former verse of this Prophet as they doe the other Scriptures to the building forts of presumption but to the apparent ruine of their owne soules the Prophet forcibly withstandeth them in the words of my text But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse c. The life of a Christian is not unfitly compared to a long and dangerous sea voyage the sea is this present world the barkes are our bodies the sailers our soules the pylot our faith the card Gods Word the rudder constancie the anker hope the maine mast the crosse of Christ the strong cables our violent affections the sailes our desires and the holy Spirit the good winde which filleth the sailes and driveth the barke and marriners to the faire k Act. 27.8 haven which is heaven Now in our way which lyeth through many temptations and tribulations there are two dangerous rockes the one on the right hand the other on the left the rock on the right hand to be avoided is presumption the rock on the left threatning shipwracke is despaire betweene which we are to steere our ship by feare on the one side and hope on the other To hold us in a solicitous feare that we touch not upon presumption let us have alwayes in the eye of our minde 1 The glorious and most omnipotent majesty of God 2 His all-seeing providence 3 His impartiall justice 4 His severe threatnings against sinne 5 The dreadfull punishments hee inflicteth upon sinners 6 The heinousnesse of the sin of presumption which turneth Gods grace into wantonnesse 7 The difficulty of recovery after relapses 8 The uncertainty of Gods offer of grace after the frequent refusall thereof To keepe us in hope that wee dash not upon the rocke of despaire on the contrary side let us set before our troubled and affrighted consciences these grounds of comfort 1 The infinitenesse of Gods mercy 2 The price and value of Christs blood 3 The efficacy of his intercession 4 The vertue of the Sacraments 5 The universality and certainty of Gods promises to the penitent 6 The joy of God and Angels for the conversion of a sinner 7 The communion of Saints who all pray for the comfort of afflicted consciences and the ease of all that are heavie laden with their sinnes 8 The examples of mercy shewed to most grievous sinners Upon these grounds the contrite penitent may build strong forts of comfort after this manner My sins though they be more in number than the heires of my head yet they are finite whereas Gods mercy is every way infinite if my debt bee as a thousand my Saviours merits are as infinite millions And not onely Gods mercy but his justice also pleads for my pardon for it is against justice that the same debt should be twice paid to require a full ransome from my Redeemer and expect it from my selfe I l â Joh. 1.9 confesse my sinnes and therefore I know he is faithfull and just to forgive mee my sinnes and cleanse mee from all my unrighteousnesse One drop of the blood of the Sonne of God was a sufficient price for the ransome of many worlds and shall not such store of it spinning from his temples dropping from his hands gushing out of his side and trickling from all parts of his body both in the garden and in the High Priests Hall satisfie for one poore soule that preferreth his love even before heaven it selfe All my sinnes are either originall or actuall the guilt of originall is taken away in baptisme and as often as I have received the blessed Sacrament a generall pardon was tendred unto mee for all my other sinnes and the seale delivered into my hands What though God will not heare the prayers of such a sinner as I am yet he will heare the prayers of Jesus Christ the righteous who is the propitiation for my sinnes I acknowledge to my hearts griefe and sorrow that neither faith nor hope nor any other divine vertue beareth any sensible fruit in mee for the present yet the seed of my regeneration remaineth in mee And as the blind man knew that his sight began to be restored to him even by the defect he found in it when he thought he m Mark 8.24 saw men walke like trees so even by this I know that I am not utterly destitute of grace because I feele and unfainedly bewaile the want of it If there were no heavenly treasure in mee Satan would not so often and so furiously assault mee for theeves besiege not much lesse breake open those houses where they are perswaded nothing is to be found The greater my sorrow is for my sinne and my spirituall desertion the greater is my hope for the spirit maketh intercession for the sonnes of God n Rom. 8.26 with groaning which cannot be expressed None were cured by the brazen Serpent which before had not beene stung by the fiery neither doth Christ promise ease unto any but to those that feele themselves heavie burdened But to confine my meditations to the letter of my text Before ye heard Repent you of your sinnes and you shall surely live God pawneth his life for it therefore despaire not how grievous soever your sinnes be But now I am to tell you plainly if you repent you of your repentance and turne from righteousnesse to sinne and end your dayes in that state you shall surely die eternally therefore presume not how compleate soever your former righteousnesse seeme to have beene In these two verses are implyed a double conversion 1 From evill to good 2 From good to evill To turne from evill is good from good is evill the former is repentance upon which I spent my last discourse the later is relapse or apostacie against which I am now to bend all my forces But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquity c. in the transgression which he hath transgressed and in the sinne which he hath sinned in them hee shall surely die The contents of this verse are like the Prophet Jeremies figges of which wee read that the bad were exceeding bad for in the antecedent or fore-part we have apostacie that totall and in the hinder part or consequent death and that finall The words divide themselves into first a supposition When or if the righteous forsake secondly an inference his former righteousnesse shall not be remembred c. The supposition is dangerous the
and this queere I leave it and insist rather upon those that follow the first whereof is the consideration of the time or rather duration of this infirmity in the people How long They that are sound in their limbes may by a small straine or blow upon their legs halt for a while but sure long to halt is a signe of some dangerous spraine or rupture now this people as it should seeme halted in this manner at least three yeeres The strongest and soundest Christian sometimes halteth in his minde betweene two opinions nay which is worse betweene religion and superstition faith and diffidence hope and despaire but hee halts not long Christ by his word and spirit cureth him As in our bodies so in our soules we have some distempers doubts suddenly arise in our minds as sparks out of the fire which yet are quenched in their very ascending and appeare not at all after the breath of Gods spirit hath kindled a flame of truth in our understanding Heresies and morall vices are like quagmires wee may slightly passe over them without any great danger but the longer we stand upon them the deeper wee sinke and if wee bee not drowned over head and eares in them yet we scape not without much mire and dirt Hereof e Confess lib. 3. c. 11. Novem ferme anni sunt quibus ego in illo limo profundi tenebris falsitatis cum saepius surgere conarer gravius alliderer volutatus sum S. Augustine had lamentable experience during the space of many yeeres in which he stucke fast in the heresie of the Manichees Had I but saith he slipt onely into the errour of the Manichees and soone got out of it my case had beene lesse fearefull and dangerous but God knowes that for almost nine yeares I wallowed in that mud the more I strived to get out the faster I stucke in Beloved if wee have not beene so happy as to keepe out of the walke of the ungodly yet let us bee sure not to stand in the way of sinners much lesse sit in the seat of the scornefull if wee are not so pure and cleane as we desire at least let us not with Moab settle upon the lees of our corruption if wee ever have halted as Jacob did yet let us not long halt with the Israelites whom here Elijah reproveth saying How long Halt yee It may be and is very likely that many of the Israelites ran to Baals groves and altars and yet they were liable to this reproofe of Elijah For though we run never so fast in a wrong way we doe no better than halt before God Better halt saith S. Austine in the way than run out of the way This people did neither they neither ran out of the way nor limped in the way but halted betweene two wayes and missed both Betweene two opinions Had they beene in the right way yet halting in it the night might have overtaken them before they came to the period of their journey but now being put out of their way and moving so slowly as they did though the Sun should haue stood still as it did in the valley of Ajalon they were sure never to arrive in any time to the place where they would be Yet had they beene in any way perhaps in a long time it would have brought them though not home yet to some baiting place but now being betweene two waies their case was most desperate yet this is the case of those whom the world admireth for men of a deep reach discreet carriage they are forsooth none of your Simon Zelotes Ahab shall never accuse them as hee doth here Elijah for troubling Israel with their religion they keepe it close enough whatsoever they beleeve in private if at least they beleeve any thing they in publike wil be sure to take the note from the Srate either fully consort with it or as least strike so soft a stroake that they will make no jarre in the musick Besides other demonstrations of the folly of these men their very inconstancy and unsettlednesse convinceth them of it for mutability and often changing even in civill affaires that are most subject to change is an argument of weaknesse but inconstancie in religion which is alwayes constant in the same is a note of extreme folly Whence it is that the spirit of God taxeth this vice under that name as Oh yee foolish Galatians who hath bewitchâd you Are yee so foolish f Chap. 3.1 3 4. having begun in the Spirit are yee now made perfect in the flesh Have yee suffered so many things in vaine And g Ephes 4.14 Be not like children tossed to and fro and carried about with everie wind of doctrine If religion be not only the foundation of Kingdomes and Common-wealths but also of everie mans private estate what greater folly or rather madnesse can there be than to build all the h Matth. 7.26 securitie of our present and hope of our future well-fare upon a sandie foundation He that heareth my words and doth them not is likened to a foolish man which buildeth his house upon the sand All the covenants betweene God and us of all that we hold from his bountie are with a condition of our service and fealtie which sith a man unsettled in religion neither doth nor ever can performe hee can have no assurance of any thing that hee possesseth no content in prosperitie no comfort in adversitie no right to the blessings of this life no hope of the blessednesse of the life to come what religion soever gaine heaven he is sure to lose it Whether the Lord be God or Baal be God neither of them will entertaine such halting servitours Were he not worthy to be begged for a foole that after much cautiousnesse and reservednesse would make his bargaine so that he were sure to sit downe with the losse such matches maketh the worldly-wise man howsoever the world goe whether the true or the false religion prevaile in the State while hee continueth resolved of neither hee is sure to lose the pearle which the rich merchant sold all that he had to buy What shall I speak of inward wars and conflicts in his conscience Now he hath strong inducements to embrace the Gospel shortly after meeting with a cunning Jesuit he is perswaded by him that he is an Enfant perdue out of all hope of salvation if he be not reconciled to the Roman Church the next day falling aboord with the brethren of the separation he beginneth to thinke the Brownists the onely pure and refined Christians for all other Christians if we beleeve them build upon the foundation hay and stubble but they gold silver and precious stones When he is out of these skirmishes and at leisure to commune with his owne heart his conscience chargeth him with Atheisme indifferencie in religion and hollow-hearted neutralitie Adde we hereunto the judgement of all understanding men who esteeme such as
zealous Austine say so only doth not the holy Spirit confirme it that they who embrace or maintaine more religions are indeed of none How read we The people of divers nations saith the text whom the King of Assur planted in Samaria feared the Lord but served other gods Now let us hear the censure of the holy Ghost which followes To this day they doe after the old manner they neither feare God nor doe after their ordinances nor after the Law nor after the commandement which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob Feare no other gods nor bow to them nor sacrifice to them Hence we may strongly infer that Ambodexters as they are called are Ambosinisters Omnifidians are Nullifidians and that there is no greater enemie to true religion than worldly policie which under pretence of deliberation hindreth sound resolution under pretence of discretion extinguisheth true zeale under colour of moderation slackeneth or stoppeth all earnest contention for our most holy faith yet without contention no victorie without victorie no crowne How should they ever hope to bee incorporated into Christ whom hee threateneth to spue out of his mouth But I hope better things of all here present though I thus speake and things that accompanie salvation through the sincere and powerfull preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ among you Cui c. OLD AND NEW IDOLATRY PARALLELED THE LVIII SERMON 1 KINGS 18.21 If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him Right Honourable c. THe summe and substance of the speech made by the Prophet Elijah before King Ahab the Nobles and Commons of Israel assembled on Mount Carmel is a quicke and sprightly reproofe of wavering unsettlednesse fearfull lukewarmnesse and temporizing hypocrisie in matter of Religion which we are stedfastly to resolve upon openly to professe and zealously to maintain even with striving unto bloud which is gloriously dyed by death for the truth with the tincture of Martyrdome How long halt yee between two opinions c. This reprehensory exhortation or exhortatory reprehension was occasioned by the mammering in which the people were at this time the causes whereof I lately enquired into to the end that as the fall of the Jewes became the rise of the Gentiles so the halting of the Israelites between the right way and the wrong might prove our speedy running in the race of godlinesse to the goale of perfection for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus The cause which I then declared unto you of their halting between two opinions was this Ahab instigated especially by his wife Jezebel partly by his example but much more by furiously brandishing before them the sword reking with the hot bloud of the slaughtered Prophets and servants of the true God drove them to Baals groves where they prostrated themselves before that abominable Idoll and offered the flames of their Holocausts to the bright beames of the Sunne This their bowing to Baal and burning incense to the host of Heaven so incensed the God of Heaven that he barred up the windowes of Heaven and punished their not thirsting after the water of life with such a drouth that not men only and beasts but the earth also every where chopped gasped for some moisture to refresh her dried bowels which for the space of wel-nigh three yeers had no other irrigation than the effusion of Saints bloud The people thus miserably perplexed as being persecuted on the one side by the Prince and plagued on the other side by God himselfe in the end faint and yeeld to the worship both of God Baal The crafty Serpent of Paradise resembleth the Serpent called Amphisbaena which hath two heads moveth contrary wayes at the same time For when hee could not make them hot in Idolatry by feare he cooleth them in the service of God and bringeth them to a luke-warme temper in the true Religion At this the Prophet Elijah is exceedingly moved and put out of all patience his fiery spirit carrieth him first to Ahab whom he thus charmeth It is not I but thou and thy fathers house that have troubled Israel because yee have followed Baalim after up to Mount Carmel where meeting with a Parliament of all Israel hee thus abruptly and boldly setteth upon them How long halt yee between two opinions Every word hath his spirit and accent How long and halt ye and between two opinions It is a foule imperfection to halt and yet more shamefull long to halt most of all between two waies and misse them both To be inconstant in civill affaires which are in their own nature inconstant is weaknesse but in Religion which is alwayes constant and one and the selfe same to be unsettled is as I proved to you heretofore the greatest folly in the world For he who is not assured of one Religion is sure to be saved by none Yet as massie bodies have some quaverings and trepidations before they fixe and settle themselves so the most resolved and established Christian hath a time before hee rest unmoveable in the foundations of the true Religion but he is not long in this motion of trepidation he is not altogether liable to this reproofe of Elijah How long halt yee between two opinions Halting between two opinions may be as I then exemplified unto you two maner of waies either by limping in a middle way betwixt both or by often crossing waies and going sometimes in one way sometimes in another Against these two strong holds of Sathan the Prophet Elijah setteth a dilemma as it were an iron ramme with two hornes with the one hee battereth down the one and with the other the other If the Lord be God then are ye not to stay or halt as ye do between two religions but speedily and resolutely to follow him and embrace his true worship but if yee can harbour such a thought as that Baal should be God then go after him Either Jehovah is God or Baal is he as ye all agree whether of the two be it is certaine neither of them liketh of halting followers If God be the Soveraigne of the whole world why bow ye the knee to Baal if Baal be hee why make yee supplications to God why enquire yee of his Prophets What Lord soever be God he is to be followed if the Lord be he follow him but if Baal then follow him I hold it needlesse to make any curious enquiry into the names or rites of this Idoll that which way suffice for the understanding of this and other Texts of Scripture I find that Baal was the abomination of the Sidonians a people of Phoenicia who as a Ex Rainold de Rom. Eccles Idolatr l. 2. Sanchoniacho an ancient writer of that country and Herodian a later Romane Historian affirme worshipped the Sunne invocating him Beel or Baal-Samen that is in their language Lord of Heaven Though this Idoll were but one yet in regard of the divers Images set up
the New the one proper and materiall the other figurative mysticall the one the seat of Nebuchadnezzar the Emperors of Assyria the other the seat of Antichrist the on situate by the great river by whose banks the Israelites sate downe and wept the other sitting upon many waters that is as the Angel expoundeth it many u Apoc. 17.15 peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues the one keeping the bodies of Gods people the other their soules in captivity and bondage This latter not only the ancient Fathers Irenaeus Tertullian Saint Jerome and Saint Austine but also the Jesuites themselves Ribera Vegas and Bellarmine put upon the racke and sorely tortured with the arguments of Protestants confesse to bee Rome For the Whore of * Apoc. 17.18 Babylon is said to be the great City which reigneth over the Kings of the earth and ver 17. Shee is said to sit upon a beast having seven heads which are seven hills ver 9. Now there was no City in the world which ruled over the Kings of the earth at that time when St. John wrote but Rome neither was there any place so famously and generally knowne by any marke as Rome by the seven hills upon which it is built which is therefore called septi-collis urbs and her inhabitants in Tertullians time septem collium plebs and the chiefest feast which they kept in December upon those seven hills septi-montium What of all this will some Papists say let the daughter of Babylon be the mother of fornications let the speech of Saint x Aug. l. 18. de civit Dei c. 20. Româ altera Babylon prioris filia Ibid. Vives in comment Hieronym epist ad Marcellam Non aliam existimat describi à Johanne in Apocalypsi Babylonem quà m urbem Romam Austine be as true as it is elegant Babylon quasi prima Roma Roma quasi secunda Babylon what will ensue hereupon nothing but this That the Pope is Antichrist This consequent cannot be avoided by their usuall distinction of ancient and new Rome Heathenish and Christian Imperiall and Papall for Saint John speaketh of Rome in her later time when Antichrist should sit in her when Babylon should fall and be broken into ten peeces or kingdomes which was not fulfilled in the reigne of the Heathen Emperours and therefore must be accomplished in the reigne of Popes who are the seventh head of the Beast that is the seventh forme of government of that City Five were fallen in Saint Johns time viz. Kings Consuls Tribunes Dictators Decemvirs the sixth was upon it viz. the head of Emperours the seventh was to rise up viz. the head of Popes But because ye may suspect that out of prejudicate opinion against the Pope we wrest these Sciptures against the See of Rome I will bring in all my evidence at this time against the Pope out of the writings of the ancient Fathers who cannot be thought to deprave Scriptures out of an ill affection to Rome For they then honoured and highly esteemed the Church of Rome as a principall member of Christs Spouse yet even then they conceived that she would in time become the Whore of Babylon For Irenaeus calculating the number of the Beast 666. maketh of it this word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The name of Latinus saith he containeth the number 666. and is very likely to be the name of the y Iren. l. 5. adv haer c. 30. Beast for they are the Latines that now reigne And Tertullian ghessing at the time of Antichrists rising saith z Tertul. de resurrect Romani Imperii abscessio in decem reges divisi Antichristum superinducit The decay of the Romane Empire being divided into ten kingdomes shall bring in Antichrist Saint * Ep. ad Algas Jerome strikes neerer the Popes triple crowne The purple Whore is Rome and her name of blasphemy is Roma aeterna Saint a Ep. ad Thes Vacantem Imperii principatum invadet Chrysostome expresly affirmeth that Antichrist his throne shall be the vacant seat of the Romane Empire Saint b Greg. ep l. 4. Sacerdotum ei paratur exercitus Gregory seemeth to have received some particular advertisement of the approach of the man of sinne in his dayes Antichrist saith he is setting forth and an army of Priests is levied for him Lay all these particulars together and the totall summe will be that the Pope is Antichrist The name of Antichrist is Latinus his seat is Rome his rising is upon the fall of the Empire his guard is an army of Priests Saint Gregory implies that Antichrist shall be a Bishop c P. Mouline contr Coeffet part 3. Accomprirement des prophecies Irenaeus that he shall be a Latine or of the Latine Church Saint Jerome that Rome shall be his See Tertullian and Chrysostome that hee shall waxe in the waine of the Romane Empire The Romane Empire is fallen long since being divided into ten kingdomes to wit of the Almanes England France Spaine Denmarke Scotland Poland Navarre Hungary Naples and Sicilie These ancients were farre from the times of Antichrist and yet you see how right they aime at him d Catalog test verit the lesser marvell that many in succeeding ages as Echardus Otho Frisingensis Robert Grosthead Dulcinus Navarenus Marsilius Patavinus Dante 's Michael Cesenus Johannes de Rupe-scissa Franciscus Petrarcha Henricus de Hassia Walter Brute John Huz Johannes de Vesalia divers others hit him full and fastened upon him the name of Antichrist For they as being neere him saw in him cleerly all those markes whereby Saint Paul and Saint John describe that man of sinne and son of perdition from which we thus argue He in whom all or the principall marks of Antichrist are found he is the Antichrist But in the Pope all or the principall marks of Antichrist are to be found Ergo the Pope is the Antichrist By Pope we understand not this or that Pope in individuo but rather in specie or to speak more properly the whole succession of Popes from Boniface the third or at least Gregory the seventh otherwise called Heldebrand As the word Divell in the New Testament for the most part signifieth not any particular spirit but indefinitely an evill spirit or the kingdome of Sathan and as the foure beasts in Daniel stand not for foure Monarchs but foure Monarchies so the Beast in the Apocalypse in whose ougly shape Antichrist appeares seemeth not to represent any singular Pope but the See of Rome after it degenerated into the Papacy Now in the Bishops of Rome after Boniface and Heldebrand we find the name the seat the apparrell the pride the cruelty the idolatry the covetousnesse the imposture the power and the fortune of Antichrist 1. The name of Antichrist containeth in it the number 666. which Irenaeus findeth in the word Latinus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 2. The seat of Antichrist is a City built upon seven hills that ruleth over the whole
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
lately celebrated with a fit antheme Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast led captivitie captive the later may supply this present thou hast received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God may dwell among them Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits even the God of our salvation for on this day Christ received gifts for his Church the gifts of faith hope and charitie the gift of prayer and supplication the gift of healing and miracles the gift of prophecie the gift of tongues and the interpretation thereof Verily so many and so great are the benefits which the anniversary returne of this day presenteth to us that as if all the tongues upon the earth had not beene sufficient to utter them a supply of new tongues was sent from heaven to declare them in all languages The new Testament was drawne before and signed with Christs bloud on good Friday but c Ephes 4.30 Grieve not the holy spirit of God whereby yee are sealed to the day of redemption sealed first on this day by the holy spirit of God Christ made his last Will upon the crosse and thereby bequeathed unto us many faire legacies but this Will was not d 1 Cor. 12.4 5 8. There are differences of administrations but the same Lord and diversitie of gifts but the same spirit For to one is given by the same spirit the word of wisdome unto another the word of knowledge by the same spirit administred till this day for the e And 2 Cor. 3.8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious ministration is of the spirit Yea but had not the Apostles the spirit before this day did not our Lord breathe on them John 20.22 the day he rose at evening being the first day of the weeke saying Receive yee the holy Ghost The learned answer that they had indeed the spirit before but not in such a measure the holy Ghost was given before according to some ghostly power and invisible grace but was never sent before in a visible manner before they received him in breath now in fire before hee was f Calv. in Act Anteà respersi erant nunc plenè imbuti sprinkled but now powred on them before they received ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but now ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã before authority to discharge their function but now power to worke wonders before they had the smell now the substance g Aug. hom de Pent. Nunc ipsa substantia sacri defluxit unguenti cujus fragrantia totius orbis latitudo impleretur iterum adfuit hoc die fidelibus non per gratiam visitationis operationis sed per praesentiam majestatis of the celestiall oyntment was shed on them they heard of him before but now they saw and felt him 1. In their minds by infallible direction 2. In their tongues by the multiplicity of languages 3. In their hands by miraculous cures S. Austine truly observeth that before the Apostles on this day were indued with power from above they never strove for the Christian faith unto bloud when Satan winnowed them at Christs passion they all flew away like chaffe And though S. Peters faith failed not because it was supported by our Lords prayer Luke 22.32 yet his courage failed him in such sort that he was foyled by a silly damsell but after the holy Ghost descended upon him and the rest of the Apostles in the sound of a mightie rushing wind and in the likenesse of fierie cloven tongues they were filled with grace and enflamed with zeale and they mightily opposed all the enemies of the truth and made an open and noble profession thereof before the greatest Potentates of the world and sealed it with their bloud all of them save S. John who had that priviledge that hee should stay till Christ came glorifying the Lord of life by their valiant suffering of death for his names sake In regard of which manifold and powerfull effâcts of sending the spirit on this day which were no lesse seene in the flames of the Martyrs than in the fiery tongues that lighted on the Apostles the Church of Christ even from the beginning celebrated this festivity in most solemne manner and not so onely but within 300. yeares after Christs death the Fathers in the Councels of h Concil Elib c. 43. Cuncti diem Pentecostes celebrent qui non fecerit quasi novam heresem induxerit pumatur Eliberis mounted a canon thundring out the paine of heresie to all such as religiously kept it not If the Jewes celebrated an high feast in memory of the Law on this day first proclaimed on mount Sinai ought not we much more to solemnize it in memory of the Gospel now promulgated on mount Sion by new tongues sent from heaven If we dediâââ peculiar festivals to God the Father the Creatour and God the Sonne the Redeemer why should not God the holy Ghost the Sanctifier have a peculiar interest in our devotion S. i Serm. in die Pent. Si celebramus sanctorum solennia quanto magis ejus à quo habuerunt ut sancti essent quotquot fuerunt sancti si veneramur sanctificatos quanto magis sanctificatorem Bernard addeth another twist to this cord If we deservedly honour Saints with festivals how much more ought wee to honour him who maketh them Saints especially having so good a ground for it as is laid downe in this chapter and verse And when the day of Pentecost was come As a prologue to an act or an eeve to an holy day or the Parascheve to the Passeover or the beautifull gate to the Temple so is this preface to the ensuing narration it presenteth to our religious thoughts a three-fold concurrence 1. Of time 2. Of place 3. Of affections Upon one and the selfe same day when all the Apostles were met in one place and were of one minde the spirit of unity and love descendeth upon them Complementum legis Christus Evangelii spiritus As the descending of the Sonne was the complement of the Law so the sending of the spirit is the complement of the Gospel and as God sent his Sonne in the fulnesse of time so he sent the spirit ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the fulnesse of the fiftieth day When the Apostles number was full and their desire and expectations full then the spirit came downe and filled their hearts with joy and their tongues with ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Magnifica Dei facta the wonderfull works of God vers 11. That your thoughts rove not at uncertainties may it please you to pitch them upon foure circumstances 1. The time when 2. The persons who They. 3. The affection or disposition were with one accord 4. The place in one place 1. The time was solemne the day of Pentecost 2. The persons eminent the Apostles 3. Their disposition agreeable ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 4. The place convenient in an
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
her husband on the sudden loseth him which I call God to witnesse saith x Orig. in Cant. Conspicit Sponsa Sponsum qui conspectus statim abscessit frequenter hoc in toto carmine facit quod nisi quis patiatur non potest intelligere saepe Deus est testis Sponsum mihi adventate conspexi mecum esse subitò recedentem invenire non potui Origen I my selfe have sensible experience in my meditations upon this book And who of us in his private devotions findeth not the like Sometimes in our divine conceptions contemplations and prayers we are as it were on float sometimes on the sudden at an ebbe sometimes wee are carried with full saile sometimes we sticke as it were in the haven The use we are to make hereof is when we heare the gales of the Spirit rise to hoise up our sailes to listen to the sound when we first heare it because it will be soon blown over to cherish the sparkes of grace because if they be not cherished they will soone dye There came a sound Death entred in at the windowes that is the eyes saith Origen but life at the eares z Gal. 1.8 For the just shall live by faith and faith commeth by hearing The sound is not without the wind for the Spirit ordinarily accompanieth the preaching of the Word neither is the wind without the sound Away then with Anabaptisticall Enthustiasts try the spirits whether they be of God or no by the Word of God To the y Esay 8.20 Law and to the testimony saith the Prophet Esay If they speake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them And if we saith the Apostle or an Angel from heaven preach unto you any other Gospel than what ye have received that is saith St. * Aug. contr lit Petil. l. 3. c. 6. Praeterquam quod in Scripturis legalibus Evangelicis accepistis Anathema sit Austine than what is contained in the Propheticall and Apostolicall writings let him be accursed From heaven This circumstance affordeth us a threefold doctrine 1. That the Spirit hath a dependance on the Son and proceedeth from him for the Spirit descended not till after the Son ascended who both commanded his Disciples to stay at Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father which yee have a Act. 1.4 heard saith he from mee and promised after his departure to send the b John 15.26 When the comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father Act. 1.5 Yee shall be baptized with the holy Ghost not many dayes hence spirit and accordingly sent him ten dayes after his ascension with the sound of a mighty wind in the likenesse of fiery cloven tongues 2. That the Gospel is of divine authority As the Law came from heaven so the Gospel and so long as we preach Gods word ye still heare sonum de coelo a sound from heaven Thus c Lactan. instit l. 3. c. 30. Ecce vox de coelo veritatem docens sole ipso clarius lumen ostendens Lactantius concludes in the end of his third booke of divine institutions How long shall we stay saith he till Socrates will know any thing or Anaxagoras find light in darknesse or Democritus draw up the truth from the bottome of a deep Well or Empedocles enlarge the narrow pathes of his senses or Arcesilas and Carneades according to their sceptick doctrine see feele or perceive any thing Behold a voice from heaven teaching us the truth and discovering unto us a light brighter than the sunne 3. That the doctrine of the Gospel is not earthly but of a heavenly nature that it teacheth us to frame our lives to a heavenly conversation that it mortifieth our fleshly lusts stifleth ambitious desires raiseth our mind from the earth and maketh us heavenly in our thoughts heavenly in our affections heavenly in our hopes and desires For albeit there are excellent morall and politicke precepts in it directing us to manage our earthly affaires yet the maine scope and principall end thereof is to bring the Kingdome of heaven unto us by grace and us into it by glory This a meer sound cannot doe therefore it is added As of a rushing mighty wind This blast or wind is a sacred symbole of the Spirit and there is such a manifold resemblance between them that the same word in Hebrew ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Greeke ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Latine spiritus signifieth both what so like as wind to the Spirit 1. As the wind bloweth where it d John 3.8 listeth so the Spirit inspireth whom he pleaseth 2. As wee feele the wind and heare it yet see it not so wee heare of the Spirit in the word and feele him in our hearts yet see him not 3. As breath commeth from the heat of our bowells so the third person as the Schooles determine proceedeth from the heat of love in the Father and the Son 4. As the wind purgeth the floore and cleanseth the aire so the Spirit purifieth the heart 5. As in a hot summers day nothing so refresheth a traveller as a coole blast of wind so in the heat of persecutions and heart burning sorrow of afflictions nothing so refresheth the soule as the comfort of the Spirit who is therefore stiled Paracletus the Comforter 6. As the wind in an instant blowes downe the strongest towers and highest trees so the Spirit overthrowes the strongest holds of Sathan and humbleth the haughtiest spirit 7. As the wind blowing upon a garden carrieth a sweet smell to all parts whither it goeth so the Spirit bloweth upon and openeth the flowers of Paradise and diffuseth the savour of life unto life through the whole Church 8. As the wind driveth the ship through the waves of the sea carrieth it to land so the gales of Gods Spirit carrie us through the troublesome waves of this world and bring us into the haven where wee would bee Cui cum Patre Filio sit laus c. THE MYSTERIE OF THE FIERY CLOVEN TONGUES THE LXV SERMON ACTS 2.3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sate upon each of them AMong the golden rules of a Cael. Rodig lib. antiq lect Nunquam de Deo sine lumine loquendum Pythagoras so much admired by antiquity this was one that we ought not to speake of God without light the meaning of which precept was not that we ought not to pray to God or speake of him in the night or the darke but that the nature of God is dark to us and that we may not presume to speak thereof without some divine light from heaven Nothing may be confidently or safely spoken of him which hath not been spoken by him In which regard b Salv. de gubern lib. 1. Tanta est Majestatis sacrae tam tremenda reverentia ut non solùm illa quae
Joh. 6.10 11 12 13. multiplyed the loaves and fishes hee gave this sensible and undeniable proofe of the truth of this miracle both by saturitie in the stomacks of the people and by substantiall remnants thereof in the baskets When they were filled saith the Evangelist hee said to his disciples Gather the fragments that remaine that nothing be lost Therefore they gathered them together and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which remained over and above to them that had eaten Cloven tongues The holy Ghost which now first appeared in the likenesse of tongues moved the tongues of all the Prophets that have spoken since the world began For the l 2 Pet. 1.21 prophecie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost Of all the parts of the body God especially requireth two the heart the tongue the heart whereby m Rom. 10.10 man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and the tongue whereby he maketh confession unto salvation the heart to love God the tongue to praise him Out of which consideration the Heathen as Plutarch observeth dedicated the Peach-tree to the Deitie because the fruit thereof resembleth the heart of man and the leafe his tongue And to teach us that the principall use of our tongue is to sound out the praises of our maker the Hebrew calleth the tongue Cobod that is glory as My heart was glad n Psal 16.9 30.13 57.9 Buxtorph Epit radic and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã my tongue also Hebrew my glory also rejoyceth They who glorifie not God with their tongue may be truly said to have no tongue in the Hebrew language and verily they deserve no tongues who make them not silver trumpets to sound out the glory of God And if such forfeit their tongues how much more doe they who whet them against God and his truth whose mouths are full of cursing and bitternesse direfull imprecations and blasphemous oathes These have fierie tongues but not kindled from heaven but rather as S. o Chap. 3.6 James speaketh set on fire of hell and their tongues also are cloven by schisme faction and contention not as these in my text for a mysticall signification Cloven Some by cloven understand linguas bifidas two-forked tongues and they will have them to be an embleme of discretion and serpentine wisdome others linguas dissectas slit tongues like the tongues of such birds as are taught to speake and these conceive them to have beene an embleme of eloquence For such kinde of tongues p Hieroglyph l. 33. Pierius affirmeth that the Heathen offered in sacrifice to Mercurie their god of eloquence and they made them after a sort fierie by casting them into the fire ad expurgandas perperam dictorum labes to purge out the drosse of vain discourses ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the originall it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã tongues parted at the top but joyned at the roote and they represented saith q In Act. Quia in proximo debebant dividi in omnes terras Gorrhan the dispersion of the Apostles which after ensued into all countries These tongues were not of fire but As it were of fire The matter of which these tongues consisted was not grosse and earthly but aeriall or rather heavenly like the fire which r Exod. 3.2 Moses saw in the bush for as that so this had the light but not the burning heat of fire It is not said of fires in the plurall but of fire in the singular number because as the silver trumpets were made all of one piece so these twelve tongues were made of one fierie matter to illustrate the diversitie of gifts proceeding from the same spirit And it sate Sitting in the proper sense is a bodily gesture and agreeth not to tongues or fire yet because it is a gesture of permanencie or continuance the word is generally used in the originall for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Å¿ Chrys in Act. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifying to abide or reside and so it may expresse unto us the continuance of these gifts of the Spirit in the Apostles and may put us in minde of our dutie which is to sit to our preaching and continue in the labours of the ministrie Give t 1 Tim. 4.13 14 15. attendance saith the Apostle to reading to exhortation to doctrine Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecie with the laying on of the hands of the presbyterie Meditate upon these things give thy selfe wholly to them that thy profiting may appeare to all Upon each of them Whether these tongues entred into the mouths of the Apostles as Amphilochius writeth of S. Basil or rested upon their heads as S. Cyril imagined whence some derive the custome of u Lorinus in Act. c. 2. imposition of hands upon the heads of those who are consecrated Bishops or ordained Priests it is not evident out of the text but this is certaine and evident that it sate upon each of them It sate not upon Peter onely but upon the rest as well as him S. Chrysostome saith upon the * Chrys in act c. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã hundred and twentie that were assembled in that upper roome those who say least affirme that it rested upon all the Apostles For howsoever the Papists take all occasions to advance S. Peter above the rest of the Apostles that the Roman See might be advanced through him as Hortensius the Oratour extolled eloquence to the skies that hee might bee lifted up thither with her yet the Scripture giveth him no preheminence here or elsewhere for Christ delivereth the keyes of heaven with the power of binding and loosing into all x Matt. 18.18 Whatsoever ye binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever yee loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven of their hands he breathes vpon them all John 20.21 22. and sendeth them with as full commission as his Father sent him All their names shine in the y Apoc. 21.14 foundation and gates of the heavenly Jerusalem and here in my text fierie cloven tongues sate upon each of them And there appeared unto them c. As in the Sacrament of Christs body so in these symbols of the spirit we are to consider two things 1. The signes or outward elements 2. The thing signified by them Of the signes yee have heard heretofore hold out I beseech you your religious attention to the remainder of the time and yee shall heare in briefe of the thing signified by them Miracles for the most part in holy Scripture are significant the cloudie pillar signified the obscure knowledge of Christ under the Law the pillar of fire the brighter knowledge of him in the Gospell the renting of the veile at the death of our Saviour the opening of the way to the Sanctum Sanctorum into which our high
in their mouths and they cannot freely powre out their soules into the bosome of their Redeemer but they looke not into the cause of it they have not got a stocke of heavenly knowledge and sanctified formes of words their hearts are not filled with the holy spirit for were they full they would easily vent themselves They cannot freely bring forth because they have laid up nothing in the treasurie of their hearts To Peter and the rest of the Apostles As those that were wounded with the darts of Achilles could no otherwise bee cured than by his salves and plaisters so the Jewes who were wounded by S. Peters sharp reprehension could be by no other meanes cured than by his owne salves and receipts which he prescribeth afterwards Here our o Lorin comment in Act. c. 2. Alià s notatum est quoties Petri cum aliis Apostolis mentio fit Petrum primo loco poni tanquam ducem ideoque nunc Judaei omnes ad illum se convertunt in c. 1. v. 13. Facit ad Petri primatum non mediocriter quod tum Lucas in isto capite sicut in Evangelio texens Apostolorum catalogum ut etiam Matthaeus Marcus primum ante omnes nominant adversaries who will not let the least tittle fall to the ground that may serve any way to advance the title and dignity of the Bishop of Rome will have us take speciall notice that here and elsewhere Peter is named before the rest of the Apostles and that yee may know that all is fish that comes to Peters net Bellarmine will tell you that the Popes monarchy is proclaimed in those words in the Acts Rise up Peter kill and eat Acts 11.7 I know not with what perspective the Cardinall readeth the Scriptures but sure I am hee seeth more in this vision than any of the ancient or later Commentators ever discerned yet Baronius seeth more than he Those were healed saith hee who came but within the shadow of Peter Acts 5.15 They brought forth the sicke into the streets and laid them on beds or couches that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might over-shadow them The same vertue is given to the shadow of Peter which is given to his body that we might know that such store of grace was given to Peter that God would have the same gifts derived to his successours who represent his person Thus as yee see the Papists as men in danger of drowning catch at every rotten stake to support their faith in the Popes supremacy Lorinus catcheth at the placing of a word Bellarmine at a mysticall apparition and p Baron ad an 34. p. 303. Eadem virtus umbrae corporis Petri tradita quae corpori ut cognoscamus tantam gratiaruÌ copiaÌ Petro collatam ut eadem dona in successoribus qui referunt personam Petri propagari Deus voluerit Baronius at a shadow What serveth this shadow to illustrate or confirme the Popes or Peters supremacie It pleased God for the manifestation of his power and the performance of Christs promise to his disciples that they in his name should worke greater miracles than some of those that he had done to heale the sick by Pauls handkerchiefes and Peters shadow Ergo Peter was chiefe of all the Apostles and the Pope the Monarch of the visible Church Neither is there any clearer evidence in that vision which S. Peter saw of a sheet let downe from heaven in which there were foure-footed beasts of the earth and wilde beasts and creeping things and fowles of the aire And hee heard a voyce saying unto him Arise Peter slay and eat At manducare est capitis saith the Cardinall but it is the head that eateth the Pope therefore is the head Hee should better have concluded the Popes are the teeth for S. Peter himselfe made no other interpretation of this vision than that the Gentiles whose hearts God had purified by faith were not to bee accounted uncleane and therefore he alledgeth this apparition in his apologie for going unto the uncircumcised and eating with them As little maketh the setting of Peters name before the rest for his authority over them For here was a speciall reason why the Jewes directed their speech to Peter in the first place because it was he who charged them so deepe he put them in this perplexity and therefore to him they addressed themselves for counsell and comfort Elsewhere where there is not the like occasion others are named before him as q Gal. 2.9 James Cephas and John who seemed pillars James and Å¿ Marke 16.7 Tell the disciples and Peter Andrew and the r John 4.2 the citie of Andrew and Peter Disciples Here I demand of Lorinus doth the naming of Andrew before Peter or of James or the Disciples prove that any of these were superiours to Peter If they were what becomes of Peters supremacie If they were not what maketh the naming him before them for it Without all question if the setting of Peter after the rest of the Apostles Disciples in the texts above alledged maketh not against the setting him here before them maketh not for his supremacy Men and brethren what shall we doe Seneca saith Levis dolor est qui consilium capit It is a light griefe which admitteth of consultation but wee may say more truly Sanus dolor est qui consilium capit It is an healthfull malady and an happie griefe which drives us to our spirituall Physitian and exciteth us to a carefull use of the meanes of salvation S. t 2 Cor. 7.9 11. Paul rejoyced at this symptome in his patients at Corinth Now I rejoyce not that yee were made sorrie but that yee sorrowed to repentance for behold this selfe same thing that yee sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulnesse it wrought in you c. What shall we doe to satisfie the Father for the death of his Sonne to ease our burthened consciences to wash away the guilt of the effusion of innocent bloud Behold here the effects of soule-ravishing eloquence attention compunction and a sollicitous enquiry after the meanes of everlasting salvation or if yee like better of an allegoricall partition see here 1. The weapon wherewith they were wounded the Word preached when they heard c. 2. The wound which was a pricke at the heart 3. The cure not words but deeds they said what shall we doe Here yee have a patterne both of a faithfull teacher and religious hearers a faithfull teacher tickleth not the eares but pricketh the heart his words are not like bodkins to curle the haire but like goads and nailes that pricke the heart though the goads goe not so deepe that pierce but the skin the nailes goe farther for they are driven to the very heart of the auditors up to the head The religious hearer when he is reproved for his sin spurneth not at the Minister of God but receiving the words with meeknesse communeth with his owne
heart whether the reproofe were just or no and finding it just confesseth his sinne and seeketh for pardon and forgivenesse The Jewes here when they were charged by S. Peter with the murder of the sonne of God say not Quid hic sed quid nos not what hath this man to meddle with us but who can give us good counsell not what shall we say but what shall wee doe for words are too light a recompence for deeds 1. A word of the duty of faithfull teachers that with the cocke by clapping my wings upon my breast I may awake my selfe as well as others The salvation of the hearers much dependeth upon the gifts of the Preacher and the gifts of the Preacher much depend upon his sincere intention not to gaine profit or u Salvianus de gubernat Dei lib. 1. Utilia magis quam plausibilia sectari nec lenocinia quaerere sed remedia applause to himselfe but soules to God not to tickle their eares but to pricke their hearts Such a Preacher * Bern. in Cant. Illius doctoris vocem libentiùs audio non qui sibi plausum sed qui mihi planctum movet S. Bernard ever wished to heare at whose Sermon the people hemmed not but sighed clapped not their hands as at a play but knocked their breasts as at a funerall According to which patterne x Hieron Nepot Te docente in ecclesiâ non clamor populi sed gemitus suscipiatur lachrymae auditorum tuae laudes sint S. Jerome endevoureth to frame Nepotian his scholar When thou teachest in the Church saith hee let there bee heard no shouts of admiration but sobs of contrition let the fluencie of thy eloquence be seene in the cheekes of thy hearers This is not done by ostentation of art but by evidence of the spirit A painted fire heateth not nor doe the gestures and motions of an artificiall man destitute of soule and life any whit move our affections ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they are the graces of sanctification shining in the countenance gesture life of the Preacher and not the beauty and ornaments of speech which insinuate into the heart and multiply themselves there without which though wee speake with the tongues of men and Angels wee are but like sounding brasse or tinckling cymbals except the Lord touch the heart and the tongue of the Preacher with a coale from his Altar all the lustre of rhetoricall arguments and blaze of words will yeeld no more warmth to the conscience than a glow-worme Yee have heard briefly of the duty of Pastours reserve I pray you one eare to listen to your owne duty as hearers 2. It was the manner of the Jewes to bore thorow the eares of those servants that meant not to leave them till death and if yee desire to be in the lists of Gods servants yee must have your eares bored and the pearles of the Gospel hanging at them All shepherds set a marke upon their sheepe and so doth the good Shepherd that gave his life for his sheepe and this marke is in the eare y Joh. 10.3 27. My sheepe heare my voyce There is no doctrine in the word wee heare of more often than of hearing the word and keeping it We heare that we ought to heare the Father z Esay 1.1 Heare O heaven and hearken O earth for the Lord hath spoken we heare that we ought to heare the Son * Mat. 13.43 Mat. 17.5 He that hath eares to heare let him heare and This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased heare yee him we heare that wee ought to heare the Spirit a Apoc. 2.7 Let him that hath an eare to heare heare what the Spirit saith to the Churches All the venturers in the great ship called Argonavis bound for Colchis to fetch the golden fleece when they were assaulted by the Syrens endevouring to enchant them with their songs found no such help in any thing against them as in Orpheus his pipe wee are all venturers for a golden crowne in heaven and as the Grecians so wee are way-laid by Syrens evill spirits and their incantations from which we cannot be safe but by listening to the Preachers of the Gospel who when they pipe unto us out of the word our hearts dance for joy In that golden chaine of the Apostle the first linke is hung at the eare Faith commeth by b Rom. 10.14 17. hearing and hearing by the word of God How shall they call on him on whom they have not beleeved and how shall they beleeve in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they heare without a Preacher Doe we think that God will heare us in our prayers if wee heare not him speaking to us in his Word The Prophet c Zach. 7.13 Zacharie assureth us hee will not When I cried they would not heare so they cried and I would not heare them saith the Lord of hosts If yee desire with S. Paul to heare in heaven ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the d 2 Cor. 12.4 words that cannot be uttered ye must on earth be attentive hearers to the words uttered by our Peters and Pauls None was cured with more difficulty as it seemeth than the man that had a deafe and dumb spirit such are our obstinate Recusants and Seperatists who have not an eare to heare what God speaketh to them by the Ministers of the Word Religion is not unfitly compared to the Weasell e Adrian Jun. emblem Mustella concipit aure parit ore which as Adrianus Junius writeth conceiveth at the eare and brings forth her young ones at her mouth for the seed of Gods word is cast in at the eare and there having conceived divine thoughts and meditations she bringeth forth the fruit of devotion at her mouth praises and thanksgivings godly admonitions exhortations reprehensions and consolations Marke your Jaylers they often suffer their prisoners to have their hands and feet free neither are they in any feare that they will make an escape so long as the prison doores and gates are sure lockt and fast barred so dealeth Satan with those whom hee holdeth in captivity hee letteth them sometimes have their hands at liberty to reach out an almes to the poore and sometimes their feet to goe to Church to heare prayers but he will be sure to keepe the eares which are the gates and doores of their soule fast which he locks up with these or the like suggestions Christ saith that his house is Domus orationis not orationum an house of prayer not of sermons Few there are but know enough the greatest defect is in the practice of religious duties What can they heare which they have not often heard before which no sooner entreth in at one eare but runneth out at the other Give mee leave a little to lift these Adders from the ground whereby they stop the right eare and plucke their taile from the head whereby they stop
wise saith a Eccles 12.11 Solomon the mirrour of wisedome are like to goades and to nailes fastned by the masters of the assemblies which are given from one shepheard Marke I beseech you what he saith and the Lord give you a right understanding in all things hee saith not verba sapientum sunt calamistri but stimuli not b Salvianus de prov l. 1. cap. 1. lenocinia sed remedia not sweet powders but medicines not crisping pins to curle the lockes or set the haires in equipage but like goades piercing through the thicke skinne and like nailes pricking the live flesh yea the very heart roote and drawing from thence teares sanguinem animae the c Aug. Serm. de temp Lachrymae sanguis animae blood of the wounded soule Such were the words of Saint Peter in this Sermon wherewith he tickleth not the eares of the Jewes with numerous elocution but pricked their hearts with godly compunction Which effects of his divine and soule-ravishing eloquence Saint Luke punctually noteth as Mr d In. Act. c. 2. Concionis fructum refert Lucas ut scramus non modo in linguârum varietate exârtam fuisse spiritus sancti virtutem sed in eorum etiam cordibus qui credebant Calvin judiciously hath observed that we might not thinke that the holy Ghost which came downe upon the Apostles in the likenesse of fierie tongues and enabled them to speake divers languages which they had never learned resided in the tongue but descended lower into the heart and wrought there a wonderfull alteration of stony making them fleshie of obdurate relenting of obstinate yeelding of frozen melting Tully doth but flatter his mistresse eloquence in proclaiming her flexanimam Queene regent of the affections of the mind That style is due to the power of the word and the grace of the spirit which boweth and bendeth frameth and moldeth the heart at pleasure It is the sword e Heb. 4.12 of the spirit which is mightie in operation carnem mortificat Deo in sacrificium offert killeth the flesh in us and sacrificeth it unto God It is the point of this sword which openeth the Aposteme of corrupt nature and letteth out all the impure matter of lust and luxurie by pricking the quickest veines in the heart Wherefore that wanton and crank dame who blushed not to professe that she was more moved at a play than at a Sermon either by that profane speech of hers bewrayed that she played at Sermons never fastened her eares to the Preacher that he might fasten his goads and nailes in her heart or f Mercenar phys dilucid obscus dict Aristot intus apparens prohibuit extraneum the evill spirit had before taken up her heart as he did a like gallants in Rome who as g Li. despectac Tertullian writeth when he was adjured by a Saint of God and demanded how hee durst seize upon any that professed the Christian faith answered In meo reperi I caught her in my owne ground I found her at the Theater she came within my walke and therefore I tooke her as a lawfull prize or lastly shee never came prepared to the hearing of the Word as she ought she never laid her heart asoake in teares to make it tender she never prayed to God to direct the penknife in the hand of the spirituall Chirurgian to pricke the right veine by a seasonable reprehension like to this of Saint Peters in my text which when the Jewes heard They were pricked in heart c. See saith Saint h Chrys in Act. Homil. 5. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ib. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Chrysostome what meeknesse is and how it pierceth the heart deeper than rigour and severitie of reproofe It is not the storme of haile and raine that ratleth upon the tiles and maketh such a noise but the still kinde shower that sinketh deepe into the earth the soft drops pierce the hard stones ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Surgeon who intends to pricke a veine deepe first stroakes the flesh and gently rubbeth it to make the veine swell He that maketh an incision in the body of a patient that hath tough and hard flesh putteth him to little or no paine at all but if hee mollifie the flesh first and then apply his sharpe instrument unto it the party shrinketh at it even so saith the skilfull Surgeon of the mind sores If we would doe good upon our patients wee must first make the heart tender and then pricke it now that which mollifieth the heart and maketh it tender is not rage nor heate of passion nor vehement accusation much lesse bitter taunts and reproaches but the i Gal. 6.1 spirit of meeknesse in which Saint Peter sought to restore his countrimen the Jews For though they had murdered his and our Lord and Master and much injured his fellow servants the Apostles yet he speaketh unto them as a father or a carefull master he telleth them indeed of their fault yet aggravateth it not that he might not drive them to desperate courses but excusing it by their ignorance he offereth them grace and pardon upon very easie termes that grieving for their sinnes of a deeper die they would looke upon him by faith whom they had pierced and with wicked hands nailed to a tree By which sweet insinuation though he brought them not so farre as to justifying faith and repentance unto life yet they came on a good way for they were pricked with remorse for that they had done and they expresse a desire to make amends if it might be and referre themselves to the Apostles farther direction and instruction saying Men and brethren What shall we doe I may say of this question as Tully of Brutus his k Cic. famil epist laconicall epistle quà m multa quà m paucis how much in how little but two words in the l ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã originall yet issuing from three affections feare sorrow and hope 1 Feare saith What shall we doe to flie from the wrath to come 2 Sorrow saith What shall we doe to undoe that we have done 3 Hope saith What shall we doe to purchase a pardon for our bloudy mindes if not hands and to obtaine the promise that you tell us is made to us and to our children First of these words as they are a question of feare The tree of forbidden sinne beareth three fruits and all bitter 1 Guilt 2 Losse 3 Turpitude And these fruits breed in the stomacke of the soule three maladies 1 Shame 2 Sorrow 3 Feare 1 The turpitude in it or deformity breedeth shame 2 The losse by it breedeth hearts-griefe and sorrow 3 The guilt of it breedeth terrours and feares Peradventure some man may be found so armed with proofe of impudencie that he cannot be wounded with shame and wee see many so intoxicated with the present delight of sinne and so insensible of the losse by it that they take no griefe or thought
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
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
the left that they may be charmed both by the word and by the voyce of reason it selfe Christ saith his house is an house of prayer but where spake hee this spake he it not in the Temple and were not these very words part of a sermon which hee preached to the buyers and sellers there Hee hath but little skill in the language of Canaan who knoweth not that prayer and invocation of Gods name is in Scripture by a Synecdoche taken for the whole f Acts 2.21 Rom. 10.13 Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved c. worship of God yet admit that our Saviour should in that place take prayers strictly for that part of Gods worship which consisteth in lifting up our hands to preferre our petitions and supplications unto him S. Paul furnisheth us with a direct answer to this objection even by those questions he propoundeth g Rom. 10.14 How then shall they call on him on whom they have not beleveed how shall they beleeve on him of whom they have not heard and how shall they heare without a preacher As there is no powerfull preaching without prayer to God for a blessing upon it so no good prayer without preaching to direct both in the matter and forme and to enflame our hearts with zeale There being three parts of prayer humble confession confident invocation and hearty thanksgiving how can they make a full confession of their sinnes who learne not what are sinnes from the mouth of the Preacher How can they bee humbled in such sort as they ought before whom the Preacher out of the word setteth not God his terrible name glorious Majestie all-seeing eye infinite purity strict justice fierce wrath against sin together with man his vilenesse wretchednesse sinfulnesse wants and infirmities How can they call upon God with confidence who are not perswaded out of the Word by the Preacher of God his love to man mercie and long-suffering gratious promises omnipotent goodnesse as also of Christ his perfect obedience plenary satisfaction and perpetuall intercession How can they recount Gods blessings both spirituall and temporall who never have beene told them by the Preacher Yea but they will say they know enough of these things nihil est dictum quod non sit dictum prius This very objection of theirs bewrayes their ignorance and want of knowledge in divine things For were they rightly instructed as they ought to be they could not but know that the Scripture is like a plentifull mine in which the deeper we digge the veine of heavenly truthes proves still the richer they would know that all the Saints of God in all ages have complained of and confessed their ignorance and continually praied with David Doce me viam statutorum tuorum O teach me the way of thy statutes and open mine eyes that I may see the wonderfull things of thy law Lastly that it is the duty of every good Christian to h Ambros de Offic. l. 1. Et quantumvis quisque profecerit nemo est qui doceri non queat donec vivit improve his talent of wisedome and spirituall understanding to i 1 Tim. 4.15 meditate on those things he readeth and heareth that his profiting may appeare unto all and to k 2 Pet. 3.18 grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Admit they should learne no new thing in divers Sermons yet will not this any way excuse their neglect of this duty of hearing neither ought it to be any cause at all to keepe them from Sermons because instruction of ignorance is not the onely end of preaching there are many others as to glorifie God to countenance the ministerie of his word by their presence to encourage others to the diligent and constant hearing of the word by their example who perhaps may more need instruction than themselves to testifie their obedience to Gods ordinance who commandeth all his servants as well to heare him when he speaketh to them in his Word as to speake unto him in their prayers to have religious affections stirred up in them sometimes hope sometimes feare sometimes godly sorrow sometimes spirituall joy alwayes zeale for Gods glorie fervour in their devotion and watchfulnesse over all their wayes to be put in minde of those things which indeed they knew before but either forgot or made as little use of them as if they had never knowne them to be awaked out of their spirituall lethargie to be admonished of divers dangers they are like to incurre to be convinced of divers errours which they count to be none till the powerfull ministry of the Word hath demonstrated them to be such to reprove them of the sins they daily commit as well of ignorance as against their conscience and to pricke their hearts deep with godly compunction that with weeping eyes and bleeding hearts they may seek to God in time for pardon Lastly to prepare them to performe all religious duties in a better maner that they may for the future receive more comfort in their private devotions and more benefit by the publike ministry of the Word and Sacraments The grand enemie of our soules partly by immediate suggestions and thoughts ingested into our mindes and partly by the mouthes or pennes of Atheists Infidels Heretickes and Schismatickes layeth new batteries against our most holy faith and is it not then most needfull to learne from the most able and experienced Souldiers of Christ how to beat them off and fortifie against them And if their memorie be so brittle and pertuse as they pretend that it will hold nothing there is a greater necessitie for them to heare oftener than others that the frequent inculcation of the same doctrine may imprint that in their mindes which others receive by the first hearing And to answer them in their owne metaphor albeit the bucket be so full of holes that all the water they take up in it runneth out yet certainely the often dipping it into the Well and filling it with water will make it moister than otherwise it would have beene And so I passe from the eare marke of Christs sheepe to the marke in their heart They were pricked in heart This pricke in the heart may be considered two manner of wayes 1 In a reference to the cause and so it is an effect 2 In a reference to the subject and so it is an affection If wee consider it as an effect it sheweth unto us the efficacie of Gods Word in the mind of the hearers which is far greater than any force of humane art or eloquence Art and humane eloquence may move affection but it is the powerfull preaching of the Word only that can remove corruption as we read Lex Jehovae convertens animas l Psal 19.7 The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soule The word of man my tickle the eare but it is the word of God onely which pricketh deepe the heart
Hence it is compared to a goad m Eccles 12.11 or naile fastened by the masters of the assemblies nay to a n Heb. 4.12 two-edged sword piercing to the dividing asunder of soule and spirit and joynts and marrow nay to thunder which breaketh the bones not hurting the yeelding flesh at the sound whereof o Luke 10.18 Satan fals like lightening from heaven This efficacie of the word of God proves the Divinitie thereof as it could not be divine but it must needs be effectuall so it could not be so effectuall as it is if it were not divine As the demolishing the wals of Jericho proved that there was something more in the sounding of the Rams hornes than the violent expulsion or percussion of the aire so the conquering all the eloquence and power and wealth and wisdome of the world and subduing it to the Gospel by the preaching of the Apostles poore simple and illiterate men of no more account in comparison of the Oratours and Philosophers of the heathen than the Rams hornes in comparison of silver trumpets demonstrateth that their words were not the words of men but the words of God p Zab. Phys Zabarel treating of nutrition in the stomacke and perfect concoction propoundeth this question How commeth it to passe that heat being but an accident and a simple qualitie can digest our meat sever the thicker parts from the thinner turne the chylus into chymus and chymus into bloud and disperse this bloud into all parts resolveth it thus that Heat may be considered two wayes either as it is a meere qualitie and accident and so it hath but one simple operation or as it is an instrument of the soule and so it produceth all the effects above mentioned In like manner if it be demanded how the word preached instructeth correcteth and comforteth and maketh the man of God q 2 Tim. 3.17 perfect and thorowly furnished to everie good worke how it frameth and mouldeth the heart how it printeth it like a stamp melteth it like fire bruizeth it like a hammer pricketh it like a naile and cutteth it asunder like a sword the ready answer is that it produceth these effects Non ut sonus sed ut instrumentum Dei not as it is a sound or a collision of the aire but as it is an instrument of God Or to use the phrase of the Apostle as it is the r Rom. 1.16 power of God unto salvation to everie one that beleeveth This power wee may easily beleeve to bee in the whole when wee see such efficacie in one text Å¿ Junius in vita Junius was reclaimed from Atheisme by casting his eye on the new Testament lying open in his study and reading the first words of S. Johns Gospel In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God These words which strucke such a reverence in the hearts of the heathenish Platonicks that they wrote them in golden letters in their Churches so amazed him with the strange majestie of the stile and profoundnesse of the mysteries therein contained that hee never after entertained the least thought of his former atheisticall conceit As Antony passing in his journey and comming to a Chappell heard the Priest read those words in the Gospel t Luke 18.22 If thou wilt be perfect goe sell all that thou hast and give to the poore and thou shalt have treasure in heaven hee tooke the words as spoken to himselfe in particular and fulfilling the precept of Christ accordingly of a covetous worldling became a most holy recluse What should I speake of S. Austine who was strangely converted by hearing a voyce saying Tolle lege fastening his eies upon the first passage of Scripture he lighted upon which was this u Rom. 13.13 14. Let us walke honestly as in the day not in gluttonie and drunkennesse not in chambering and wantonnesse not in strife and envying but put yee on the Lord Jesus and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof No sooner was the verse read than the worke of his conversion was finished and a pious resolution for amendment of life setled in him * Aug. conf l. 8. c. 12. Surgens ab Alypio ut flerem de vicinâ domo audivi vocem Tolle lege tum cogitabam puerine solebant tale aliquid cantare nec occurrebat audivisse me Uspiam represso impetu lachrymaruÌ surrexi interpretans me divinitùs doceri codicem aperire legere Itaque reversus ad locum ubi sedebat Alypius ibi enim posucram codicem aperui legi in caput quo conjecti sunt oculi mei Rom. 13. Non in comessationibus c. Rem Alypio indicavi petit videre quod legissem ostendit ultrà quà m ego legeram quod sequitur InfirmuÌ in fide assumite quod ille ad se retulit Alypius certified hereof desireth to peruse the place and falleth upon the verse immediately following Him that is weake in the faith receive you Rom. 14.1 which he applying to himselfe besought S. Austine to strengthen him in the truth according to the command of Christ to Peter Luke 22.32 Tu conversus confirma fratres When thou art converted confirme thy brethren which taske he so well performed that with a little travell in a short space two twins were brought forth to Christ at one birth To fasten the truth of this observation concerning the efficacie of Scripture texts seasonably applyed I will borrow a golden naile from S. Chrysostome It is not so in the Church where the Word is powerfully taught as it was in the Arke of Noah for there the beast that entred into the Arke received no change nor alteration at all by the imbarking there during the deluge if they were cleane at their comming in they were so at their going out if they came in uncleane they went out uncleane if they came in wilde they went out wilde but it is not so here we come in uncleane but we goe out cleane we come in wild we goe out tame wee come in wolves wee goe out lambs we come in lions we goe out deere we come in vultures wee goe out doves we come in beasts we goe out men or to speake more properly regenerate Christians And thus much concerning compunction in reference to the cause as it is an effect of the word preached now let us consider it in a reference to the subject as it is an affection in the sinner The locusts are described by x Apoc. 9.7 10. S. John with faces like men but stings in their tailes like scorpions not to disparage any mysticall interpretation a morall may be this Sinnes especially of pleasure like these locusts have beautifull faces and a delightfull appearance at the first but those that deale and dally with them shall finde that they have stings in their tailes and leave pricks and venomous wounds in the conscience in the end for