blessings In which regard we may rightly terme Kings Stewards of their crownes Lords of their lands Captaines of their armies Bishops of their diocesse Pastours of their parishes Housholders of their families and every private man of the closet of his conscience and treasury of his heart For all Kings are Gods subjects all Captaines are his souldiers all Teachers are his schollers all Masters are his servants and consequently all Lords his stewards In a word there is none of so high a calling in the world that is more nor any of so low a calling or small reckoning that is lesse than a Steward of the King of kings who shall one day call not onely all men of sort but even all sorts of men to a most strict and exact account Kings for their scepters Magistrates for their swords Officers for their staves Bishops for their crosiers Souldiers for their weapons Clerkes for their pens Landlords for their possessions Patrons for their advowsons Merchants for their trade Tradesmen for their crafts Husbandmen for their ploughes calling to every one in particular Give an account of thy Stewardship Touching the third some render the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 render a reason others give an account some actus tui of thy Factorship as Tertullian others villicationis tuae of thy Bailiwicke as Saint Jerome a third sort dispensationis tuae of thy Stewardship as the Kings Translators A great difference in sound of words but little or none at all in sense for though a Factor in forraine parts and a Steward at home and a Baily in the country are distinct offices and different imployments yet to the meaning of this Parable they are all one For they all deale with other mens mony rent or goods and are all liable to an account and upon it dischargeable And in this place whether wee translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reason or a reckoning all commeth to one reckoning for upon the matter to render a reason of monies disbursed by us is to give an account A carefull Steward or Accomptant in any kinde besides the casting of the summes setteth downe a reason of every parcell of mony laid out by him after this maner Item in provision so much Item in reparations Item for workmens hire Item for law sutes c. thus much Howbeit they that delight in tithing Mint and Cummin and nicely distinguishing between words of very like if not altogether the same signification observe that in precise propriety of speech wee are said to give an account how but render a reason why wee have disbursed such monies and that our account must bee of our Masters goods but our reason of our owne actions and wee are accountable onely for that we have laid out but we are answerable or to yeeld a reason to our Master as well for that wee have not laid out for his profit in due season as for that we have laid out for his necessities For hee expecteth gaine of every talent committed to us and will not onely accept his owne without advantage The things wee are to account for are contained under these three heads 1. Goods 2. Gifts 3. Graces By goods I understand the blessings of this life which the Philosopher calleth bona fortunae By gifts indowments of nature which they call bona naturae By graces divine vertues which the Schooles call habitus infusos In our booke of account Under the first head viz. goods of this world wee must write How bestowed Under the second viz gifts of nature we must write How imployed Under the third viz. graces of the spirit we must write How improved And if it appeare upon our accounts that we have well bestowed the first in holy pious and charitable uses and well imployed the second in carefully discharging the generall duties of a good Christian and diligently performing the particular workes of our speciall calling and have much increased the third by our spirituall trade with God by hearing meditating reading conferring praying and the constant practise of piety and exercise of every divine vertue and grace then our Master will say unto us Well d Mat. 25.21 done good and faithfull servant thou hast been faithfull in a little bee thou ruler over much enter into thy Masters joy But if we have kept unprofitably or wasted riotously the first the wealth of the world and retchlesly abused the second the dowry of nature or by idlenesse let it rust and rather diminished than increased the third the treasury of spirituall graces then we are to render a reason make answer for these defaults and if our answer be not the better to make satisfaction to our Lord to the uttermost farthing after we are put out of our Stewardship as the reason annexed to the command implyeth For thou maist be no longer Steward Give then an account of thy Stewardship that is of thy life whereof thou art not lord but steward to spend it in thy Masters service and lay it downe for his honour Cast up all the particulars of thy life summe up thy thoughts words and deeds redde rationem 1. Mali commissi 2. Boni omissi 3. Temporis amissi Make answer for 1. The evill thou hast committed 2. The good thou hast omitted 3. The time thou hast pretermitted or mis-pent either in 1. Doing nothing at all 2. Or nothing to the purpose 3. Or that which is worse than nothing tracing the endlesse mazes of worldly and sinfull vanities Now to proceed from the exposition of the words to the handling of the parts of this Scripture which are evidently two 1. A command Division wherein I observe 1. The person commanding God under the name of a rich man 2. The persons commanded all men under the name of Stewards 3. The thing commanded to give an account 4. The office for which this account is to bee given a Stewardship 5. The propriety of this office thine 2. A reason wherein I note 1. The Stewards discharge and quitting his office thou mayest c. 2. The time now Which particular points of observation direct us to these doctrinall conclusions 1. That God is Lord of all 2. That all men are Stewards 1. Not Lords 2. Not Treasurers 3. That all Stewards shall be called to an account 4. That the office for which they are to account is their own Stewardship not anothers 5. That upon this account they shall be discharged These conclusions resemble the rings spoken of by St. f Aug l 21. de civit Dei Austin whereof the first being touched by the Load-stone drew the second the second the third the third the fourth and the fourth the fifth For here the first point inferreth the second If God be Lord of all men can bee but Stewards The second inferreth the third If all men are Stewards all men are accountable The third the fourth If all men are accountable for a Stewardship this Stewardship must needs be their owne The fourth the fifth
are touched to the quicke then we begin to be sensible of our own infirmities and compassionate of other mens calamities then we offer up prayers with strong cryes then like bowed and bruised reeds we fall flat downe to the ground then our hearts swell with griefe and our eyes are bigge with teares and if Gods hand lye very heavie and long upon us wee bid defiance to all worldly pleasures and comforts which faile us in our greatest extremity we grow weary of this life and in our desires run to meet death the halfe way and sigh and mourn and pine away till we be quite dissolved that we may be with Christ In regard of these and such like wholsome fruits which meeknesse and patience gather from the crosse I dare undertake to make good that seeming Paradox of Demetrius concerning evils Nihil eo infoelicius cui nihil infoelix contigit None is so miserable as hee who in this life never tasted any misery For besides that continuall pleasures glut his senses and his very happinesse cloyeth him hee wanteth many improvements of his wisedome many trials of his faith Apoc. 3.19 Prov. 3.12 Heb. 12.5 many exercises of his patience many incentives of his zeale many preservatives against sin and which weigheth all downe many arguments of Gods love towards him and care over him If the Schoolmasters eye bee alwaies upon his Schollar to observe him if hee still checke and correct him for his faults it is a signe he beareth a singular affection to him and hath a speciall care over him but if he let him loyter and play the trewant and abuse his fellowes and never call him to an account for it it is evident thereby that he intendeth to leave or hath already left the tuition of him In like manner whiles the Physician prescribes to his patient unpleasing diet and bitter potions and is ever trying some medicine or other upon him the friends of the sicke are in good hope but when the Physician leaves prescribing physicke and forbids his patient nothing that he hath a mind unto though hee grow still worse and worse then all that are about him take on grievously and shed teares in secret as knowing well that their friend is given over by the Doctor for desperate Which Saint Bernard seriously considering delivereth this strange yet most true Aphorisme Illi verè irascitur Deus cui non irascitur God is angry indeed with him Quem enim in presenti non emendat in futuro condemnat to whom hee showes it not by rebuking and chastening him for his sinne For whom hee mends not by chastening in this world hee certainly purposeth to condemne in the other This is a ruled case in Divinity Dives is a president for it If things stand thus in this world let no Christian flatter himselfe with a vaine hope of uninterrupted prosperity and unmixed joyes in this life Invicem cedunt dolor voluptas pleasures and sorrowes have their turns as sorrowes end in joyes so joyes in sorrowes There is a cup of trembling which cannot passe but first or last we must taste of it sith we must let us looke for it and when it comes to us chearfully off with it the rather because our Lord and Saviour hath begun in it deep unto us O yee Favourites and if I may so speake Minions of Fortune who are driven with a prosperous gale and beare a lofty saile swelling with the pride of a high minde strike saile in time looke soone for a bitter a Hieron ad Helod Licet in modum stagni fusum aequor arrideat licet vix summa jacentis elementi spiritu terga crispentur magnos hic campus montes haber tranquillitas ista tempestas est storme Though the smooth sea smile upon thee and seeme to bee no other than a standing poole though the top of the water by the wind bee not so much as cast into bubbles like the curles of thy haire trust not the deep the plaine thou seest hath many mountaines in it the present calme will prove in the end a tempest or else assure thy self thou sailest not in Christs ship for that was tossed in the sea and even covered with waves Matth. 8.24 yet not drowned Jactatur nunquam mergitur ista ratis How should the ship be drowned or cast away upon the rockes wherein Christ is the Pilot the Scripture the Card his Crosse the maine Mast his promises Matth. 28.20 Matth. 16.18 I will be with you to the end of the world and Hell gates shall not prevaile against it the Anchors his holy Spirit the Wind This maketh the Church bold not onely to checke and represse the insolency of her enemies Micah 7.8 saying Rejoyce not against me O mine enemy though I fall I shall rise when I sit in darknesse the Lord shall be a light unto me but also glory in the Lord Psal 129.1 and insult over them saying Many a time have they afflicted mee from my youth up Rom. 8.37 but they have not prevailed against me Nay In all things we are more than Conquerours through him that loved us David often harpeth upon this sweet string Psal 118.18 The Lord hath chastened mee sore but hee hath not given me over unto death Psal 37.24 the righteous falleth yet shall not be utterly cast downe What an excellent harmony doth St. Paul make of seeming discords 2 Cor. 4 8 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wee are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed but not altogether without meanes persecuted but not forsaken cast downe but not destroyed that is to set the Prophets ditty to the Apostles tune Wee are continually bruised yet not broken Hee shall not breake I fore-see what you may object That many of Gods servants and Christs souldiers have had their flesh torn with whips their joynts hewen asunder their bones broken on the racke and sometimes ground to powder with the teeth of wilde beasts nay their whole body burnt to ashes and these ashes cast into the river Fox in Martyrol Crispine Hâ—â—tor Wald Aeneas Sâ—â—â— de gilt Concil Basil how say we then the bruised reed is never broken nor the smoaking flaxe quenched For this blow we have a foure-fold ward 1. We are to understand that Gods promises of delivering his Saints are principally and simply to be taken of their eternall deliverance but of temporall secondarily and conditionally as it standeth with his glory and their greater good 2. We are to note that many of the promises above mentioned concern the entire body of the Church not every particular member The bruised reed may be broken in some part yet not through the whole Tyrants may waste and destroy the Church partially but not totally for the reasons intimated by Tertullian and S. Leo Tertulan apolog Sanguis Martyrum semen Evangelii Leo serm Grana quae singula cadunt multiplicata nascuntut because the bloud
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirituall power or authority 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 Exceâ—t 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
Table and you strike one string of any one of them the strings in the other that carry the same note though untouched give some sound at the same instant in like manner all the Fridayes throughout the yeere especially those that fall in Lent ought to sound out some of the Notes of the dolefull song that was pricked on that day not with a penne but with a speare the burden whereof was Christ crucified Doct. 5 Crucified In this word the Apostle briefly casteth up the totall of Christs sufferings the particulars whereof were his 1 Feares and sorrowes 2 Indignities and disgraces 3 Tortures and torments His agony and bloody sweat his betraying and taking his arraigning and condemning his stripping and whipping his mocking and spitting on his pricking and nailing to the crosse The crosse had foure parts 1 An arrectorium which was the maine tree fastened in the earth and standing upright towards heaven 2 Scabellum a planke to which the feete were nayled 3 Lignum transversum a crosse piece of wood whereto the hands were nayled 4 Verticem the top or place above the head where the inscription was put To the dimensions of which parts the m Eph. 3.18 Apostle seemeth to allude in his sacred Mathematickes that saith hee you may bee able to comprehend with all Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and height The bredth seemeth to have reference to the lignum transversum the length to the arrectorium the depth to the scabellum and height to the vertex of the crosse Those who are conversant in Jewish antiquities observe that crucifying succeeded in place of strangling among them wherein the speciall providence of God is to bee marked that although the Romanes changed the forme of the death yet they changed not the Tree hee that was crucified as well as hee that was strangled hanged upon a tree and thereby became n Deut. 21.23 accursed by the law A circumstance whereof the Apostle maketh a most comfortable use saying o Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree The consequents of sinne are three 1 Shame 2 Paine 3 Curse All these Christ suffered on the crosse for us 1 Pain in his being nailed racked and pierced 2 Shame in being placed betweene two theeves and that naked on their solemne feast day on which there was a concourse of innumerable people at Hierusalem 3 The curse in hanging upon the tree being fastened thereto with nailes which is properly crucifixion or crucifying In summe to bee crucified is to bee put to a most painefull ignominious and accursed death first to bee stript starke naked stretched upon a gibbet or crosse there to have foure nayles driven into the most tender and sinewy parts of the body then to bee set up and exposed to open shame to bee a spectacle of misery to the world to Angels and to men and so to hang upon his owne wounds with continuall increase of torments till either extremity of famine hath exhausted the vitall spirits or extremity of paine hath rended and evaporated the substance of the heart into sighes and groanes All this the Sonne of God suffered for us and yet this is not all For wee must not thinke that Christs hands and feete were onely crucified which yet alone were fastened to the crosse his eyes were after a sort crucified when hee beheld the Disciple whom hee loved together with his deerest Mother weeping out her eyes under him his eares were crucified when he heard those blasphemous words others hee hath saved himselfe hee cannot save if hee be the Sonne of God let him come downe from the crosse his smell was crucified with the stench of Golgotha his taste with gall and vinegar and last of all and most of all his heart was crucified with foure considerations that entred deeper into his soule than the nayles and speare into his body These were 1 The obstinacy and impenitency of the Jewes 2 The utter destruction of Hierusalem and the Temple 3 The guilt of the sinnes of the whole world 4 The full wrath of his Father For Christ charged himselfe with the sinnes of all the Elect and therefore his Father layd a most heavie burden of punishment upon him so heavie that in bearing it he sweat blood so heavie that hee complaines in piteous manner p Mat. 26.38 my soule is heavy unto death yea and seemes to buckle under it crying out q Mat. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee All this Christ suffered for us and yet this is not all for r Cyprian de patientia qui adoratur in coelis nondum vindicatur in terra hee that is adored in heaven is not yet fully revenged upon earth Revenged said I nay hee is still wronged hee continually suffereth in his members and after a sort in himselfe by the contemners of the Gospell mis-believers and scandalous livers Because the crosse is the trophee of Christs victory over sinne death and hell Satan hath a deadly spite at it and as hee hath done heretofore so hee doth at this day employ all his agents to demolish and deface it namely by 1 Jewes 2 Gentiles 3 Papists 4 Separatists or Non-conformitants all foure enemies to the crosse of Christ 1 The Jewes make it a stumbling blocke 2 The Gentiles a laughing stocke 3 The Papists an Idoll 4 The Separatists a scarre-crow 1 To the Jewes it is an offence 2 To the Gentiles foolishnesse 3 To the Papists superstition 4 To the Separatists and Precifians an abomination As it was the manner of the Spartanes in the worship of Diana to whip naughty boyes before her altars so I hold it an act of piety and charity to scourge these foure sorts of men before the crosse of Christ in my text and first the Jew who maketh a stumbling blocke of the crosse Use 1. cont Jud. O unbelieving Jew why dost thou stumble at that which is the chiefe stay of an humble and faithfull soule is it because the crosse of Christ casteth an aspersion of innocent blood spilt by thy ancestors Repent for their sinne and thine owne and by faith dippe thine hand in this his blood it hath this wonderfull vertue that it cleanseth even those hands that were imbrued in it He is quickned saith Saint Cyprian by the blood of Christ even who a little before spilt Christs blood Is it because thy glorious fancy of the temporall throne of thy so long expected Messiah cannot stand with the ignominious crosse of Christ reprove this thy folly and convince this thine errour out of the mouth of thine owne Prophets which have beene since the world began Ought not Å¿ Dan 9.26 Messiah to bee slayne after sixty two weekes ought not Christ to suffer such things and so to enter into his glory what is written of him and how readest thou in
thirsteth for righteousnesse and therefore is satisfied The modest man hath no opinion of his owne wit or wisedome and therefore willingly bringeth every thought into captivity and every affection to the obedience of the Gospel The lowly in heart esteemeth more vilely of himselfe than the world can and therefore hee chearfully taketh up his crosse and followeth Christ Thus have I cleared the title of the poore in spirit to the Kingdome of Heaven which is so sure and unquestionable that our Saviour saith not Theirs shall be in the future but in the present tense Theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven And likewise Suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto mee for of such r Matth. 19.14 is the Kingdome of Heaven As we say of such an one that hath the advowson of a Benefice or reversion of an Office under seale or of an heire to a wealthy father such a Lordship or such a Mannour or such an Office or such a Benefice is his either because hee is as sure thereof as if he were possessed of it or because he hath actually jus ad rem though not in re a right to it though not in it so in regard of the poore in spirit their undoubted right to and their present interest in some of the priviledges and profits of their heavenly Fathers Kingdome that Kingdome is said here to be theirs already When Cyneas the Embassadour of Pyrrhus after his returne from Rome was asked by his Master what hee thought of the City and State he answered that it seemed to him Respublica Regum A State of none but great States-men and a Common-wealth of Kings Put the same question to Saint John concerning Jerusalem that descended from God he will answer you in like manner Videri rempublicam Regum that it is no other than a Parliament of Emperours or a Common-wealth of Kings For in the Kingdome of grace upon earth all Kings are subjects but in the Kingdome of glory in Heaven all subjects are Kings Every humble and faithfull soule is coheire with Christ and hath a robe of honour and a scepter of power and a throne of majesty and a crowne of glory If you peruse the records and evidences of Heaven exemplified in holy Scripture you shall finde no estates there but inheritances no inheritances but kingdomes no houses but palaces no meales but feasts no noyse but musicke no rods but scepters no garments but robes no seates but thrones no head ornaments but crownes these inheritances these palaces these feasts these songs these scepters these thrones these robes these crownes God bring us unto and possesse us with through poverty in spirit in the right and title purchased for us by our elder brother Christ Jesus To whom c. THE COGNISANCE OF A CHRISTIAN OR CHRIST HIS NEW COMMANDEMENT A Sermon preached in VVooll-Church THE TWENTIETH SERMON JOH 13.34 A new commandement give I unto you That ye love one another as I have loved you that yee also love one another Right Worshipfull c. ALL that by a Christian vocation are severed from the world and cut as it were out of the common rock of mankinde and by faith relye upon Christ are like so many hewen stones laid upon the chiefe a Eph. 2.20 corner stone rising to a spirituall building reaching from the earth to heaven The line by which they are built is the Word of God the cement wherwith they are held fast together is Christian charity the soder of mindes the couple of dispositions the glew of affections and the bond of all perfection which to fasten the more strongly among all that gave their name to Christ the Primitive Church in the daies of the Apostles added a double tye 1. Sacred 2. Civill The sacred was the frequent receiving of the Lords Supper the civill was the celebrating their Agapae's or keeping their love-feasts Which though they were in after ages taken away by reason of manifold abuses and disorders committed in them even in the place of holy assemblies yet it were to be wished that all our feasts were truly love-feasts I meane that the rich among us would imitate holy Job and not eat their morsels alone but invite those of the poorer sort to their Tables whom Christ bids to his board or at least that they would defaulke a great part of that charge which is spent in furnishing these luxurious feasts wherein this City exceedeth all in the Christian world and convert it to the refreshing of the bowels of poore prisoners or clothing the naked or redeeming captives or to some other pious and charitable use so should your City and Company feasts be true Agapae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 love-feasts and you testifie to all the world what account you make of Christ his new commandement in my Text Love one another Of all speeches we ought to give most heed to those of our Saviour of all speeches of our Saviour to his commands of all commands to this of Christian charity 1. Because it is a rare and choice one A new 2. Because it is a sweet and easie one To love 3. Because it is a just and reasonable one One another 4. Because wee have such a singular President for it As I have loved you c. Wee have all Athenian eares thirsting after newes behold a new Wee all professe obedience to Lawes behold a commandement Wee all acknowledge Christ to bee our supreme Lord who hath absolute power of life and death hearken then to his Proclamation I give unto you If hee had laid a heavie burthen and hard yoke upon us wee must have submitted our neckes and shoulders to it and wee have all reason so to doe For hee tooke b Esay 53.4 Surely be hath born our griefs and carried our sorrowes upon him our infirmities and bare our sorrowes how much more when hee layeth so sweet a yoke upon us as to love so light a burthen as to love one another Nothing more agreeable to our nature than to love nothing more needfull to our condition than to love one another Wee all stand in need one of another this need is supported by love this love is commanded by Christ this command of Christ is new As c M. Tul. Cicer. Orator Numerum verborum numero sententiarum complexus est Tully spake of Thucydides his stile that in his Orations every word was a sentence And as Saint Jerome observeth in the Apocalyps Quot verba tot sacramenta that there are so many mysteries in it as words so wee may say of this Text Quot verba tot argumenta so many words so many arguments so many notions so many motions or motives to this duty of mutuall love To which we ought to have a speciall eye and extraordinary regard First because it is a new commandement Secondly because it is Christs commandement I give unto you Thirdly because it is an amiable and easie one To love Fourthly because it is
thing so much as their tiring In summe they spend all their time in a manner in beautifying and adorning their body to please their lovers but in comparison none at all in beautifying and adorning their soules to please their Maker and Husband Christ Jesus Of these Saint m James 5.5 James long ago gave us the character They live in pleasure in the earth and waxe wanton and are fatted for the day of slaughter I spare to rehearse other lavishing out of time lest the rehearsing thereof might seeme worthy to bee numbred among the idle expences thereof And now it is time to set the foot to the account of my meditations on this Scripture The Conclusion and draw neere to that which we all every day draw neerer unto an end The * 1 Pet. 4.7 end of all things is at hand be sober therefore watch unto prayer The day of the Lord will come as a theefe in the night in the which the heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the workes thereof shall be burned up This great Doomes-day cannot bee farre off as wee see by the fearfull fore-runners thereof howsoever the day of our death which may be called little doomes-day will soon overtake us peradventure before the Sunne yet set or this glasse be runne Wherefore I beseech you all that heare mee this day in the feare of God by occasion of the summons in my Text to enter into a more strict examination of your life than ever heretofore bring out all your thoughts words deeds projects councels and designes and lay them to the rule of Gods Law and if they swerve never so little from it reforme and amend them recount how you have bestowed the blessings of this life how you have imployed the gifts of nature how you have increased your talents of grace wherein the Church or Common-wealth hath been the better by you consider how you have carried your selves abroad in the world how at home in your private families but how especially in the closet of your owne heart You know out of the Gospel that a mans n Mat. 12.44 house may be swept and garnished that is his outward conversation civill and faire and yet harbour seven uncleane spirits within If lust and covetousnesse and pride and envie and malice and rancour and deceit and hypocrisie like so many serpents lye under the ground gnawing at the root of the tree be the leaves of your profession never so broad and seem the fruits of your actions never so faire the vine is the vine of Sodome and the grape the grape of Gomorrah There is nothing so easie as to put a fresh colour upon a rotten post and to set a faire glosse upon the fowlest matters to pretend conscience for most unconscionable proceedings and make religion it selfe a maske to hide the deformity of most irreligious practices But when the secrets of all hearts shall be opened and the intents and purposes of all our actions manifested and the most hidden workes of darknesse brought to light As it is to bee hoped that many that are infinitely wronged in the rash censures of men shall be justified in the sight of God and his Angels so it is to be feared that very many whom the world justifieth and canonizeth also for Saints shall be condemned at Christs barre and have their portion with hypocrites in hell there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Wherefore sith we shall all one day come to such a publike such an impartiall such a particular tryall of all that we have done in the body either good or evill let us looke more narrowly to all our wayes and see that they be streight and even 1. Let us search our heart with all diligence let us look into all the corners thereof and see there lurke no wickednesse nor filthinesse nor hypocrisie there let us looke to our thoughts that they be pure to our desires that they be lawfull to our affections that they be regular to our passions that they be moderate to our ends that they be good to our purposes that they be honest to our intentions that they be sincere to our resolutions that they be well grounded and firme 2. Next let us take our tongue to examination and weigh all our words in the ballance of the Sanctuary and try whether they have not been light and idle but grave and profitable not crafty and deceitfull but simple and plaine not false and lying but true and faithfull not outragious but sober not filthy but modest not prophane but holy not censorious but charitable not scurrilous but ponderous not insolent but lowly and courteous not any way offensive and unsavoury but such as might o Ephes 4.29 minister grace to the hearers 3. Lastly let us lay our hands upon our handy workes and examine our outward acts and deeds 1. Whether they have been alwayes justifiable in generall by the Law of God that is either commanded by it or at least warranted in it 2. Whether they have been and are conformable to the orders of the Church and lawes of the Land For wee must obey lawfull authority for conscience sake in all things that are not repugnant to the divine Law as Bernard piously resolveth saying Thou must yeeld obedience to him as to God who is in the place of God in those things that are not against God 3. Whether they have been agreeable to our particular calling For some things are justifiable by the Law of God and man in men of one state and calling which are hainous sinnes in another as we see in the cases of Uzza and Uzziah 4. Whether they have been answerable to our inward purposes intentions and dispositions For though they are otherwise lawfull and agreeable yet if they goe against the haire if they are done with grudging and repining and not heartily they are neither acceptable to God nor man 5. Whether they have been all things considered most expedient For as many things are profitable and expedient that are not lawfull so some things are lawfull that are not p 1 Cor. 6.12 All things are lawfull unto me but all things are not expedient expedient and because they are not expedient if necessity beare them not out they become by consequent unlawfull For we are not onely bound to eschew all the evill we know but also at all times to doe the best good wee can else wee fulfill not the commandement of loving God with all our heart and all our soule and all our strength To summe up all I have discoursed unto you first of the Stewardship of the things of this life secondly of the account of this Stewardship thirdly of the time of this account The Stewardship most large the account most strict the time most uncertaine After the explication of these points in the application I arraigned foure Stewards before you first the sacred
some pastours and eminent professours to sow his field in future times and propagate Religion to posterity These may and ought to flie in time of persecution provided first that they flie not when their conscience perswadeth them that their flight will be a great scandall to Religion and a discouragement to the weaker and they feele in themselves a great and earnest desire to glorifie God by striving for his truth unto bloud For being thus called by God and enabled and encouraged they must preferre Gods glory before their life and a crowne of martyrdome before any earthly condition 2. That they leave not the Church destitute For Christ giveth it for one of the characters of an hireling to y John 10.13 flie when hee seeth the Wolfe comming and looke to his owne safety taking little care what becommeth of his flocke 3. They must not use any indirect meanes to flye they may not betray Gods truth or their brethren to save their owne life he that saveth his life upon such termes shall lose it and he that loseth his life in Gods cause shall finde it You will say peradventure how may this be I answer as that which is lost in Alpheus after a certaine time is undoubtedly found againe in Arethusa so that which is lost on earth shall be found in Heaven Hee that loseth his life for Christs sake in this vale of teares shall finde it at the last day in the z Psal 16.11 river of pleasures springing at the right hand of God for evermore When the Starres set here they rise in the other hemisphere so when Confessours and Martyrs set here they rise in heaven and shall never set againe Therefore as Christ spake of Virginity wee may say of Martyrdome what he spake of the garland of white roses we may of the garland of red Qui potest capere capiat Hee that is able to receive it let him receive it he that is not able let him trace the footsteps of the woman here that fled Into the wildernesse Not by change of place saith a In Apoc. c. 12. Fugit non mutatione loci sed amissione status ornatus Pareus but change of state and condition I see no reason of such a restraint the Church may and sometimes doth flye two manner of wayes 1. Openly when being persecuted in one country shee posteth into another 2. Secretly when shee abideth where shee was but keepeth her selfe close and shunneth the eye of the world and worshippeth God in secret mourning for the abominations and publike prophanations of true Religion Thus then wee may expound the words the woman fled into the wildernesse that is she withdrew her selfe from publike view kept her exercises of Religion in private held her meetings in cryptis hidden places as vaults under ground b Heb. 11 38. They wandred in deserts mountaines and dens and caves of the earth dens and caves in the earth or if persecution raged above measure and without end removed from country to country and from city to wildernesse for safety By wildernesse some learned Expositors understand remote countries inhabited by Paynims and Gentiles where yet the fire of persecution is not kindled For say they though such places be never so well peopled yet they may be termed deserts because never manured by Gods husbandry never sown with the seed of the Word never set with plants of Paradise never watered with the dew of heavenly grace And if the Church had not removed into such wildernesses she had never visited us in England severed after a sort from the whole world Toto divisos Orbe Britannos But such hath beene Gods goodnesse to these Ilands that the woman in my text was carried with her c Ver. 14. And to the woman was given two wings of a great Eagle Eagles wings into these parts before the Roman Eagles were brought in here our Countrey submitted it selfe to the Crosse of Christ before it stooped to the Roman scepter Howbeit I take not this to be the meaning of this Scripture For the propagation of the Church and the extending her bounds to the remotest regions of the world maketh her catholike and by it she becommeth glorious whereas the Spirit speaketh here of her as in some eclipse The wildernesse therefore here meant must needes be some obscure place or region to which she fled to hide her selfe If you demand particularly when this prophecy was fulfilled I answer partly in those Hebrewes of whom St. Paul writeth that they lay in wildernesses and dennes and caves of the earth partly in those Disciples that were in Jerusalem in the time of the siege and a little before who mindfull of our Saviours commandement fled into the mountaines and were miraculously preserved in Pella as Eusebius writeth partly in those Christians who in the dayes of Maximinus and Dioclesian fled so farre that they never returned backe againe into any City but were the fathers of them that live in woods and desarts as Hermites or inclosed within foure walls as Recluses and Anchorites partly in those Orthodoxe beleevers who in the reigne of the Arrian Emperours tooke desarts and caves under ground for sanctuary of whom St. Hilarie writeth saying d L. adver Auxent Ecclesia potius delituit in cavernis quam in primariis Urbibus eminebat The Church rather lurked in holes and vaults under ground in those dayes than shewed her selfe openly in the chiefe Cities partly in those professours of the Gospell who ever since the man of sinne was revealed have beene by him put to great streights and driven to lie hid for many yeeres in solitary and obscure places in all which persecutions of the Church God prepared for her not only a place to lodge in but a table also that they should Feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes Some referring this prophesie to the Jewes abode in Pella find the time to be precisely three yeeres and an halfe others by dayes understanding yeeres reckon from the declining age of Constantine till the great reformation in our age neere upon a thousand two hundred and threescore yeeres in all which time the true Church hath played least in sight and beene in a maner buried in oblivion But neither is this calculation exact neither as I conceive doth St. John speake of one flight onely nor of any particular place nor definite number of yeeres but after the manner of Prophets putteth a definite number for an indefinite and foresheweth that the true Church must for a long time lie hid and withdraw her selfe out of the worlds eye as it is afterwards exprest a time times and halfe a time a time under the heathen Emperours times under severall Heretikes and last of all halfe a time in that last and greatest tribulation immediately before the utter overthrow of Antichrist For that e Mat. 24.22 persecution shall be shortened as our Saviour intimateth for the Elects sake lest all flesh should
keep the other above As Fishermen so likewise the Fishers of men in the draw-net of the Gospel make use both of corke and lead the generall promises like corke beare us up in hope the conditions like lead keep us downe in feare These conditions cannot bee performed without grace therefore all must implore divine aide yet grace performeth them not without the concurrence of our will We must therefore exercise our naturall faculties we must seeke the Kingdome of God we must strive to enter in at the narrow gate wee must search for wisedome as for treasure we must labour for the meat that perisheth not we must stirre up the graces of God in us we must work out our salvation with feare and trembling t Cic. lib. 2. de orat Lepidus lying all along upon the grasse cryed out Utinam hoc esset laborare O that this were to labour and get the mastery so many stretching themselves upon their ivory beds and living at ease in Sion say within themselves Utinam hoc esset militare O that this were to goe in warfare and fight under the crosse but let them not deceive themselves heaven is not got with a wish nor paradise with a song nor pardon with a sigh nor victory with a breath it will cost us many a blow and wound too before we overcome Observ 3 There can be no conquest without a fight nor fight without an enemy who are then our enemies nay rather who are not evill angels men the creatures and our selves angels by suggestions men by seduction and persecution the creatures by presenting baits and provocations and our selves by carnall imaginations lusts and affections fight against the spirit of grace and kingdome of Christ in us Omnes necessarii omnes adversarii Against all these enemies of our peace with God wee hang up a flag of defiance in our crisme and lift up our ensigne when we are crossed in the forehead and proclaime a warre under Christs banner in our renouncing the Divell and all his workes which beginneth at the Font and endeth at our Grave Philip graced his warre against the Phocenses and our Ancestors their exploits against the Saracens for Palaestine with the title of Bellum sacrum the holy Warre but neither of their expeditions and martiall attempts so properly deserved that appellation as this I am now to describe unto you Those warres were for Religion in truth or pretence but this warre is Religion and true Christianity and the weapons of this warfare are no other than holy duties and divine vertues which by some are reduced to three 1. Prayer 2. Fasting 3. Almes-deeds For say they as our enemies are three the Divell the Flesh the World so they tempt us to three vices especially 1. Pride 2. Luxury 3. Avarice Now our strongest weapon 1 Against pride is humble prayer 2 Against luxurie frequent fasting 3 Against avarice charitable almes Howbeit though these are the most usuall and if I may so speake portable armes of a Christian yet there are in his armorie many more and some more forcible than these which St. u Ephes 6.13 14 15 16 17 18 Paul taketh out and gilds over with these sacred attributes the sword of the Spirit the helmet of salvation the shield of faith the breast-plate of righteousnesse the girdle of truth the shooes of preparation of the Gospel of peace As this warre is thus holy in respect of the weapons used in it so much more in respect of the Prince that decreeth it the Heraulds that proclaime it the field where it is fought and the cause for which it is undertaken The Prince who decreeth this warre is the Holy One of Israel the Heraulds that proclaime it are the Ministers of the Gospel the field where the battell is fought is the militant Church the end for which it is undertaken is the advancement of Christs kingdome of grace in us and us in the kingdome of glory The Roman Historians divide their warres into three kinds 1 Externa forreine 2 Civilia civill 3 Servilia servile Forreine against other States Civill against seditious Citizens Servile against mutinous slaves This our warre partaketh of all these three kinds and may be termed both a forrein a civill and a servile warre A forrein in respect of Sathan and his band A civill in respect of the world A servile in respect of the flesh and slavish lusts that warre against the Spirit In other warres some are exempted by their calling as Priests some by their sexe as women some by their yeares as old men and children some by their indisposition of body or minde as sicke and impotent persons not able to beare armes but in this warre it is otherwise none can challenge any priviledge Not Priests for they blow the trumpet and give the onset not children for as soone as they are borne they are enrolled in the Captaines booke and are crosse-signed for this service in baptisme and it may be said of many of them as x Pet. Dam. serm de sanct Vict. Prius vicit quam vincere noscet Damianus spake of St. Victor the confessour He conquered before he could know what it was to conquer and St. Cyprian of martyred infants for Christ in his dayes y Cyp. ep 4. Aetas necdum habilis ad pugnam idonea extitit ad coronam The age which was not yet fit for warre was found worthy to receive a crowne Not women for they fight daily the good fight of faith and many of them are crowned in heaven with white and red garlands white consisting of lillies in token of their chastity and innocent purity red consisting of roses in testimony of their z Cyp. de â—aâ— viâ—g â—ortior 〈◊〉 viâ—is toâ—quenâ— uâ— iâ—veâ—tutor blood shed for the name of Christ Not aged and infirme persons for like Saint * 2 Cor 12 10. Paul when they are weake then they are strong nay when they are weakest then they are strongest when they are weakest in body they are strongest in spirit when they lye on their death-bed and are not able to stirre hand nor foot they grapple with the a 1 Pet. 5.8 roaring Lion that runneth about seeking whom hee may devoure and conquer him by their faith In other warres though the fight last many houres yet in the end either the night or the weather or the victory or the flight on one side parteth the armies and oftentimes necessity enforceth on both sides a truce for a time but this warre admitteth no intermission abideth no peace or truce all yeelding is death and treaties of peace mortall In all other battels hee that killeth conquereth and hee that is slaine is conquered but in this the persecuters who slay are b Cyp. dâ— laps Seâ—â—ciunt toâ—â— toâ—quentibus foâ—â—torâ—s pulsantes laâ—â—ntâ—s unâ—â—las pulsâ—ta lâ—matâ— membra vicerunt conquered and the Martyrs who are slaine and breath out their soules with a triumphant Io Paean in
and godly in this present world Againe if any Spirit tell thee that thou art rich in spirituall graces and lackest nothing when thine owne Spirit testifieth within thee that thou art blinde and naked and miserable and poore beleeve not that Spirit For the Spirit of God is a contest with our spirit q Rom. 8.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee beareth witnesse with our spirit that wee are the sonnes of God and when they both sweetly accord we may without presumption conclude with Saint r Tract 22. in Joh Veritas pollicetur qui credit habet vitam aeternam ego audivi verba Domini credidit infidelis cum essem factus sum fidelis sicut ipse monuit transii de morte ad vitam in judicium non venio non praesumptione meâ sed promissione ipsius Austine The truth promiseth whosoever beleeveth in mee hath eternall life I have heard the words of the Lord I have beleeved whereas I was before an Infidell I am now made faithfull and according to his promise have passed from death to life and shall come into no condemnation It is no presumption to ground assured confidence upon Christs promise Hereunto let us adde the testimony of the effects of saving grace As the testimony of the Spirit confirmeth the testimony of the Word so the effects of saving grace confirme both unto us These Saint Bernard reckoneth to bee Hatred of sinne Contempt of the world Desire of heaven Hatred of our unregenerate estate past contempt of present vanities desire of future felicity And doubtlesse if our hatred of sinne bee universall our contempt of worldly vanities constant and our desire of heavenly joyes fervent wee may build upon them a strong perswasion that we are in the favour of God because we hate all evill that we are espoused to Christ because wee are divorced from the world and that heaven belongeth unto us because wee long for it Howbeit these seeme to bee rather characters of christian perfection than common workes of an effectuall vocation Though wee arrive not to so high a degree of Angelicall rather than humane perfection yet through Gods mercy wee may bee assured of our election by other more easie and common workes of the Spirit in us I meane true faith sincere love of goodnesse in our selves and others hungring and thirsting after righteousnesse striving against our fleshly corruptions godly sorrow filiall feare comfortable patience and continuall growth in grace and godlinesse Tully writeth of l Cic. Verr. 5. Syracuse That there is no day through the whole yeere so stormy and tempestuous in which they have not some glympse of the sunne neither undoubtedly after the travels of our new birth are past is there any day so overcast with the clouds of temptation in the soule of a Christian in which the Sunne of righteousnesse doth not shine upon him and some of these graces appeare in him For if hee decay in one grace hee may increase in another if hee finde not in himselfe sensible growing in any grace hee may feele in himselfe an unfained desire of such growth and godly sorrow for want of it and though hee conquer not all sinne yet hee alloweth not himselfe in any sinne and though he may have lost the sense yet not the essence of faith and though hee bee not assured in his owne apprehension of remission of sinnes yet hee may bee sure of his adhesion to God and relying upon him for the forgivenesse of them with a resolution like that of Job Though he kill me yet will I put my trust in him And this is the summe and effect of what our Christian casuists answere to the second question Quid sit what is the white stone whereby as a certaine pledge grace and glory are secured unto us The third question yet remains Propter quid sit to what end this white stone is given In the maine point of difference betweene the reformed and the Romane Church concerning assurance of salvation that wee bee not mis-led wee must distinguish of a double certainty The one of the subject or of The person The other of the object or of The thing it selfe The certainty of the one never varieth because it dependeth upon Gods election the certainty of the other often varieth because it dependeth upon the vivacity of our faith Even as the apple in the eye of many creatures waxeth and waineth with the Moone and as t Solin Poly-hist c. 56. Uniones quoties excipiunt matutini aeris semen fit clarius margaritum quoties vespertini fit obscurius Solinus writeth that the Margarite is clearer or duskier according to the temper of the aire and face of the skie in which the shell-fish openeth it selfe so this latter assurance waxeth and waineth with our faith and is more evident or more obscure as our conscience is more or lesse purged from dead workes If our faith be lively our assurance is strong if our faith faile our assurance flagges and in some fearfull temptation is so farre lost that wee are brought to the very brinke of despaire partly to chasten us for our former presumption partly to abate our spirituall pride and humble us before God and in our owne spirits but especially to improve the value of this jewell of assurance and stirre us up to more diligence in using all possible meanes to regaine it and keep it more carefully after we have recovered it By the causes of Gods taking away of this white stone from us or at the least hiding it out of our sight for a while wee may ghesse at the reasons why hee imparteth it unto us 1. First to endeare his love unto us and enflame ours to him For how can wee but infinitely and eternally love him who hath assured us of infinite joyes eternall salvation an indefeizable inheritance everlasting habitations and an incorruptible crowne 2. Secondly to incourage us to finish our christian race through many afflictions and persecutions for the Gospels sake which we could never do if this crowne of glory were not hung out from heaven and manifestly exhibited to the eye of our faith with assurance to winne it by our patience 3. Thirdly but especially to kindle in us a most ardent desire and continuall longing to arrive at our heavenly countrey where wee shall possesse that inheritance of a kingdome which is as surely conveighed unto us by the Word and Sacraments as if Almighty God should presently cause a speciall deed to bee made or patent to bee drawne for it and set his hand and seale to it in our sight To knit up all that hath beene delivered that it may take up lesse roome in your memory and bee more easily borne away let mee entreat you to set before your eyes the custome of the Romanes in the entertainment of any great personage whom after they had feasted with rare dainties served in covered dishes at the end of the banquet they gave unto him an Apophoreton or
there be no assurance of faith it selfe Saint u Ep. 112 c 3. Fides ipsa mente uâ—que videtur quamvis hoc fide credatur quod non videtur Austine is most expresse for this reflexive act of faith Faith it selfe saith hee is seene in the minde though wee believe those things by faith which wee cannot see and again * De trin l. 13. c. 2. Fides est in intimis nostris mentibus nec eam quisquam hominum videt in alio sed in semet-ipso Faith is in the inward parts of the soule neither can any man see it in another but in himselfe hee may Could there bee any doubt of this I would evict it out of the expresse words of our Saviour Joh. 14.20 In that day you shall know that I am in the Father and you in mee and I in you And of Saint Paul x 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether you be in the faith or no. Know yee not your selves that Christ is in you except you bee reprobates And y 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed And z 1 Cor. 2.12 Wee have not received the Spirit of the World but the Spirit of God that wee might know the things that are freely given us of God Hang up a taper or a carbuncle in a darke roome and you shall perceive that first it discovereth it selfe by its owne light and then all things in the roome This taper or carbuncle is faith in the soule which as it manifesteth all other graces so most clearly also it selfe The heat by the incident beame of the sunne is but weake the greatest is by the reflected so is it in the act of faith there is but small warmth of comfort from the direct act whereby wee beleeve the singular priviledges of all true beleevers the greatest comfort is by the reflexive viz. that wee are true beleevers and share in those comforts Without this reflexive knowledge there can bee a Rom. 14.5 no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full perswasion in our mindes much lesse b Eph. 3.12 In whom wee have boldnesse and accesse with confidence by the faith of him accesse with confidence Which yet the auncient Fathers not onely teach plainly out of the Apostle but also shew manifestly how it may be obtained S. c Moral q. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Basil putteth this case of conscience How may the soule assuredly bee perswaded that God hath forgiven unto her her sinnes And hee resolveth it thus When shee findeth in her selfe the like disposition and affection to his that said I hate iniquity and all false wayes I utterly abhorre Saint d Amb. Serm. 2. de serm Ambrose thus He that cleaveth to that leaven is made himselfe leaven and thereby sure of his owne salvation and secure of gaining others to the faith Saint e Leo Serm. 2. de pasch Leo thus If they finde any of the fruits of charity in their conscience let them not doubt but that God is in them But wee need not borrow torch light where the sunne shineth so bright in holy scriptures f 1 Joh. 5.10 Hee that beleeveth in the sonne of God hath the testimony in himselfe And the g Rom. 8.16 Spirit testifieth to our spirit that we are the sonnes of God the Spirit of God warranteth the major In whomsoever the markes of Gods children set downe in scripture are conspicuous they are the sonnes of God our Spirit testifieth the minor that these marks are in us Now because this assumption can be proved no otherwise than by experience and our owne inward sense my fourth observation hence directly ensueth That no man knoweth the new name save he that receiveth it which is the last point now to be touched and note to be quavered on in my close viz. the propriety of this knowledge None knoweth save he that receiveth it For no man knoweth the things of a man save the h 1 Cor. 2.11 spirit of man that is in him If this white stone were visible to the eye of the body and it were given to us in presence of others it could not be but that some should see and know it besides him that receiveth it But this white stone is conspicuous only to the eye of faith which is the i Heb. 11.1 evidence of things not seene and it is given by the Spirit which is invisible and received also by the inward faculties of our soule which are likewise invisible Were this knowledge onely conjecturall and gathered from outward signes and tokens others might have notice thereof as well as our selves but the Spirit saith here No man knoweth save he that receiveth it It must be therefore a speciall act of speciall faith whereby we are assured of our adoption by faith and of faith by the Spirit k In Apoc. Sint duo quorum uterque laudat mel sed alterus lingua loquitur quod fauces ignorant alterius quod delectatio gustus cum docuerit Ansbertus giveth good aime to the meaning of this text Suppose two saith he commending hony of whom the first discourseth out of his reading the tongue of the second hath tasted that he speaketh of such saith he is the knowledge of him who hath received the white stone Others may know it in specie but he in individuo others contemplatively but he experimentally l in Apoc. Tantae excellentiae est nomen istud ut nemo sciat quid valeat quantum boni comprehendat nisi qui adoptatus est Sardus commeth nearer the marke This name saith he is of such excellency that no man knoweth it that is the value and worth of it but he who is adopted by God m Rupert in Apoc. Cui nemo scit nisi qui accipit quia nominis ejus scientiam non alterius extrinsecus documentum sed proprium interius efficit experimentum ideo nemo scit nisi quem spiritus regenerando filium Dei effecerit ipsâ regeneratione scientem ejus rei doctumque suo tactu effecerit Rupertus hitteth it Why saith he doth no man know this name saving he that receiveth it Because this name cannot be knowne by any outward document but by an inward experiment not by externall evidence but by inward sense therefore no man knoweth it saving he whom the Spirit by regeneration maketh the sonne of God and by the same act maketh him know it There is a great difference betweene a contemplative and an experimentall knowledge of the priviledges of Gods children A blind man from his birth may heare the theory of the Sun read unto him but he can never conceive rightly of the beauty of that glorious lamp of heaven or take the hundreth part of that delight which we doe who see it The discourse of the Jewish Rabbins concerning the delicacy of this Manna in my text is sweet but nothing to the taste of it The meditations of Divines upon the joyes of
eternity yet I deny that this is any good description of time because every description ought to be per notius by something that is more known whereas eternity is farre more obscure than time it selfe all men have a common notion of the one few or none of the other Neither doe they give any better satisfaction who define time by duration For albeit there is a time of duration of every thing and a duration also of time it selfe yet duration is not time duration is the existence of any thing in time not the terme or time it selfe They define time most agreeable to the Scriptures who affirme it to be the continuall fluxe of moments minutes houres dayes weekes moneths yeeres ages from the creation of the world to the dissolution thereof after which the u Apoc. 10.6 Angel sware that time should be no more But I need to speake no more of time at this time because the word in my text is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 time but season or as it is here rendered The accepted time The season is that in time which light is in the aire lustre in metals the flower in plants creame in milke quintessence in hearbs the prime and best of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now there being a threefold season 1. Naturall which Husbandmen observe in sowing Gardeners in planting and graffing Mariners in putting to Sea Chirurgians in letting bloud Physicians in purging c. 2. Civill of which the Poet speaketh Mollissima fandi tempora which all humble suppliants observe in preferring petitions to Princes and great Personages 3. Spirituall which all that have a care of their salvation must observe in seeking the Lord while he may be found The Apostle in this place pointeth to this third and his meaning is Behold now presse hard to get into the kingdome of heaven for now the gate is open now labour hard in Gods vineyard for now is the eleventh houre now put up your petitions to the Prince of peace for now is the day of audience now provide your selves of spirituall merchandize for now is the mart now cast your selves into the Bethesda of Christs bloud for now the Angel troubleth the water now get a generall pardon for all your sinnes under the broad seale of the King of heaven for now is a day of sealing When the King commeth saith St. x Chrys in hunc locum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome there is no time for sessions or assises but for pardon and favour Behold now the King is come to visit his subjects upon earth and from his first comming to his last the day of grace continueth Behold now is this accepted time He calleth it an accepted time saith St. y Ib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome because now God accepteth them to favour who a thousand times incurred his displeasure It is called in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a time of good will and favour as Calvin rendereth the words who biddeth us marke the order first a time of grace is promised and after a day of salvation to intimate unto us that salvation floweth from the meere grace and mercy of God We are active in sinne to our owne damnation but meere passive to the first grace we draw on damnation with the cart-ropes of vanity but God draweth us to salvation with the cords of love The speciall point of doctrine to which this ecce or index in my text pointeth is that we ought to take speciall notice of the time of grace beginning at the birth of our Saviour and ending to us at the day of our death and to all men that shall be upon the earth at the consummation of the world As the celestiall spheres are wrapt one in another and the greatest which the Philosophers terme the Primum mobile invelopeth all the rest so the parts of time are enclosed the lesser in the greater houres in dayes dayes in yeeres yeers in ages and ages in the time of the duration of the world To explicate then to the full the time of our Lords birth it will be requisite to treat 1 Of the age of the world 2 Of the yeere of the age 3 Of the day of the yeere in which the true z John 1.9 light that lighteneth every man that commeth into the world first shined on the earth 1 Of the age of the world The Jewes according to an ancient tradition received from the house of Elias make three ages of the world as it were so many stages of time 1 From the creation to the law 2 From the law to the Messias 3 From the comming of the Messias to the end of the world To each of these they allow two thousand yeeres counting thus 1 a Carion in Chron. Duo millia vacuum 2 Duo millia lex 3 Duo millia Messias post mundi deflagratio Saint y Aug. de civit Dei l. 22 c 30. Post hanc tan quam in die septimo requi escet Deus cum eundem septimum diem quod nos erimus in seipso faciet requiescere Austine doubleth these files and maketh reckoning of sixe ages 1 From Adam to the Deluge 2 From the Deluge to Abraham 3 From Abraham to Solomon 4 From Solomon to the captivity 5 From the captivity to Christs birth 6 From Christs birth to the day of judgement after which in the seventh we shall all keepe an eternall Sabbath in heaven By both which computations it appeareth that the birth of our Saviour fell late towards the declining and end of time as b Maxin Taur hom 6 de nativ In fine temporum natus est ille cujus aeternitatem nulla saeculorum tempora comprehendunt Maximus Taurinensis observeth Here the wit of man which like the Sea will still be working though oftentimes foaming out his owne shame curiously enquireth why the desire and joy of all mankind was so long delayed why he was so late born whose birth was of more importance than of all the Potentates Princes Kings Emperours and Monarchs of the whole world Was not Christ the bright morning starre how came it then to passe that he appeared not till the afternoone if not evening of the world Was not he the bridegroome whose * Marriage song Epithalamium Solomon by the spirit of prophesie endited in the booke of Canticles how could hee then heare his dearest Spouse breathe out so many sighes and shed such abundance of teares in so many ages still longing for his comming and crying c Cant. 1.1 Let him come into the flesh and kisse mee with the kisses of his lips Was not hee the good Samaritan which healed the wounded man after Moses the Levite and Aaron the Priest passing by left him as they found him and did him no ease at all how then could this tender hearted Chirurgian suffer wounded mankinde to lie so many ages weltring in his owne bloud and
winde The heavenly doctrine of the Preachers powred downe in great abundance like great showers of raine from heaven they themselves were as golden spouts at whose mouth though I set my pitchers as close and steady as I could yet many silver drops went besides them notwithstanding you see they are full and runne over Take you yet another similitude that you may have similitudines according to the letter of my Text as the Seventy reade it The foure Sermons were like foure Garlands crowning the Spouse of Christ out of which I have culled some of the chiefest flowers and howsoever in the plucking of them and sorting them many leaves are shattered and some flowers lost yet there are more left than can bee contained within the handfull of the time allotted Wherefore now I will leave gathering and fall to making up my Posie winding up all the flowers orationis meae filo with the remainder of the thrid of my discourse upon the Text. We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver As out of the branches of trees there shoot first buds then blossomes and last of all fruit so out of Texts of Scripture which are branches of the tree of life issueth first the literall sense which because it groweth immediatly out of the barke and stocke of the letter resembleth the bud and then the spirituall which because it is most pleasant and beautifull to the eye of the soule may bee likened to the blossome and thirdly the morall sense which because it is most fruitfull and immediatly profitable for our instruction may be termed the fruit To illustrate this by the words of my Text or rather the words of my Text by it The literall sense is of Solomon his Queen richly decked the spirituall is of Christ his Church rarely furnished the morall is of sacred vowes religiously to be performed You see 1 The bud of the literall 2 The blossome of the spirituall 3 The fruit of the morall sense But herein you are to observe a remarkable difference between the tree of life and other trees for their buds are but a degree to the blossomes and the blossomes to their fruit neither bud nor blossome beare fruit but in the tree of life both the bud which I compared to the literall and the blossome which I called the spirituall and the fruit which I termed the morall beare severall and distinct fruits For instance the bud yeelds this fruit That it is lawfull for noble and honourable women especially Kings wives daughters to weare rich attire and costly ornaments The blossome yeelds this fruit That as Gods goodnesse hath abounded to the Church under the Gospel so all Christians ought to abound in love and thankfulnesse to him Lastly the morall sense which I termed the fruit yeeldeth over and above this fruit That what the friends of the Spouse here promise all godly pastors and people ought to performe that is these out of the riches of their learning they out of their worldly wealth ought to adorne and beautifie the Church and in different kindes make for the Spouse of Christ borders of gold with studs of silver To gather first the fruit of the bud or literall sense If costly apparrell and precious attire were an abomination to the Lord if cloth of gold and silver and borders of pearle and precious stones were as great a deformity to the minde as they are an ornament to the body the Scripture would not set out b Gen. 24.22 Rebecca in bracelets and abiliments of gold nor c Ezek. 6.11 12. Ezekiel in the person of God upbraid the Synagogue as he doth I decked thee with ornaments and I put bracelets upon thine hands and a chaine on thy necke and I put a jewell on thy fore-head and eare-rings in thine eares Ver 13. and a beautifull crowne upon thy head thus wast thou decked with gold and silver and thy raiment was of fine linnen and silke nor Solomon described his d Psal 45.9 Queene in a vesture of gold of Ophir neither the Prophet e Esay 61.10 Esay have compared the Spouse of Christ clothed with the garments of salvation and covered with the robes of righteousnesse to a Bride adorned with jewells And therefore howsoever Saint f 1 Tim. 2.9 Paul and Saint g 1 Pet. 3.3 Peter forbid women to aray themselves with gold or pearles or costly aray and Saint h De habitu Virg. Cyprian is yet severer against costly apparrell saying Nullarum ferè pretiosior cultus est quà m quarum pudor vilis est and Serico purpurâ indutae Christum induere non possunt auro margaritis monilibus ornatae ornamenta pectoris perdiderunt which I spare to English in favour of that sexe yet as I conceive the holy Apostles the devout Father in these the like wholsome and necessary admonitions condemne not simply Gods servants for the use but rather prophane persons for the abuse of these beautifull creatures of God they seek to abase the pride of the heart not abate the price of these merchandizes They taxe and that most justly three vices too common in these luxurious times 1 Vanity in the garish forme of apparrell 2 Excesse in the costly matter or stuffe 3 Indecency and immodesty in both or either Or they speake comparatively that women should not so much desire to i Antiph Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adorne their out-side with resplendent pearles as their inward parts with jewells of vertue and grace We have gathered the fruit of the bud come we now to the blossome that is the beautifull allegory or spirituall sense which containeth in it a gracious promise made to the Church either of larger bounds and limits likened to the borders of gold or of a greater measure of knowledge in holy Scriptures quae sensibus aureae sunt eloquii nitore argenteae Rupertus Isidorus and Gregorius or abundance of the gifts of the spirit which no otherwise adorne the Church with their variety than a golden chaine or border wrought about with studs or specks of silver Now if God hath made good these his promises to us shall we make frustrate our holy vowes to him the better he hath been to us the worse shall we prove to him hath hee made more of us than any Nation upon the earth and shall we make lesse of him No the more we have received at his hands the more let us lift up our hearts and hands unto him or else for our unthankfulnesse hee will take the chaines and borders of gold from our Church and put them on some other that will more thankfully accept them O let us resemble these resemblances in my Text the borders of gold with studs of silver which as they receive lustre from the Sunne-beames so they gild them and reflect them backe with clearer light and greater heat Sacriledge hath already picked out and plucked away many Oe's and Spangles of
wretched and miserable and blind and naked Wherefore the Spirit n Ver. 17. counselleth them to buy of him gold tryed in the fire that they may be rich and white raiment that they may be clothed and that the shame of their nakednesse doe not appeare And to annoint their eyes with o Ver. 18. eye-salve that they may see 7. Lastly by the name Thyatira so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to runne mad after and spend ones selfe they may bee put in minde of those in Thyatira who ranne awhoring after Jezebel and spent their estates upon her and committed filthinesse with her Cap. 2. Ver. 20. which because the Angel winked at the Spirit sharply reproveth him And to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira write I know thy workes c. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee c. These Verses resemble the branches of the p Apoc. 22.2 tree of life which bare twelve maner of fruits 1. The first I gather from them is the dignity of the Ministers of the Gospel to whom the Son of God writeth stiling them Angels To the Angel of Ephesus of Smyrna c. 2. The second the difference of degrees in the Ministry for the Son of God endorseth his letter not to the inferiour Ministers which were many in each of these Churches but to the Angel in the singular number the Bishop or Super-intendent of the place to whom the government of the Church and ordering Ecclesiasticall affaires chiefly if not onely appertained 3. The third is the glorious majesty and divinity of our Saviour who was before stiled the Sonne of man but is here called the Sonne of God and described with eyes like a flame of fire piercing through the thickest darknesse and with feet like fine brasse walking through the midst of all the Churches and yet no way defiled according to the words of the Prophet the q Hos 14.9 waies of the Lord are undefiled 4. The fourth is mildnesse in just reproofe the physician of our soules who hath cured all our wounds with the smart of his prescribeth the weak Angel of Thyatira but one pill and that a gentle one yet see how he rowles it in sugar I know thy workes and thy love c. Of many faults he mentioneth but a few and of those few insisteth but upon one 5. The fifth is the condition of good workes to which foure things are required faith love service and patience they must be done in faith proceed from the love of God with a desire to doe him service thereby and lastly the performers of them must be constant in them and resolve patiently to endure all crosses and oppositions from men or Satan who seek to stay them in their godly proceedings 6. The sixth is growth in grace or proficiency in godlinesse those who were ever good are best at the last I know thy workes that they are more as the last than at the first 7. The seventh is the state and condition of the Church Militant which at the best is like the Moone at the full in which wee may discerne some blacke spots The sweetest r Eras Adag Omnibus malis punicis putridum granum inest Pomegranet hath some rotten graine the fairest beauty hath a freckle or wrinckle the most orient Ruby a cloud and the most reformed Church in the Christian world hath some deformity in her In ſ James 3.1 many things we offend all and many in all they are but a few against whom the Sonne of God hath but a few things Notwithstanding I have a few things 8. The eighth is the duty of a Magistrate who like a good Gardener is to plucke up noysome weeds by the rootes It is not sufficient for him to doe no evill he must not suffer it the Angel is not here blamed for any sin of commission or omission in himselfe but for the bare permission of evill in others I have somewhat against thee because thou sufferest 9. The ninth is a caution to looke to the weaker sexe for often the Divell maketh of them strong instruments to dispread the poyson of heresie t Hieron ad Ctes Simon Magus heresin condidit Helenae meretricis adjutus auxilio Nicolaus Antiochenus omnium immunditiarum repertor choros duxit foemineos Marcion Romam praemisit mulierem quae decipiendos sibi animos praepararet Simon Magus had his Helena Marcion his femall fore-runner Apelles his Philumena Montanus his Maximilla Donatus his Lucillia Elpidius his Agape Priscillian his Galla Arius the Prince his sister Nicolaus Antiochenus his feminine troupes and quires and all Arch-heretickes some strumpets or other to serve them for midwives when they were in travell with monstrous and mishapen heresies Thou sufferest the woman Jezebel Yet to doe the sexe right I willingly acknowledge with Flacius Illyricus that as the Divell hath used bad women in all times as Brokers to utter his deceitfull and dangerous wares so God hath made choice of many good women to be conduits of saving grace and great instruments of his glory Not to goe out of this City of Thyatira for instance we can produce a Lydia for a Jezebel where the Divell now vented poyson by the impure mouth of Jezebel God poured out before the sweet oyntment of the Gospel by the mouth of Lydia whose u Acts 16.14 heart he opened that shee attended to those things which were spoken of Paul 10. The tenth is an observation concerning the nature of Heresie which fretteth like a canker and if it be not looked to corrupteth the sound members of Christ Thou sufferest the woman Jezebel to seduce my servants 11. The eleventh is a consideration of the odious filthinesse of Idolatry which the Scripture termeth the soules naughtinesse and spirituall fornication To commit fornication 12. The last is a wholsome doctrine concerning the contagion of Idolatry which not only infecteth our bodies and soules but our meates and drinkes also and turneth the food of the body into the poyson of the soule to such as familiarly converse and table with Idolaters and feed upon the reliques of Idols sacrifices And to eate things offered unto Idols And to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira Glorious things are spoken of you O yee Ministers of the Word and Sacraments Yee are stiled Embassadours of the King of Heaven Stewards of the houshold of faith Interpreters of the Oracles of God Dispensers of the mysteries of salvation Keepers of the Seales of grace Yee are the Salt of the earth the Light of the world the Starres of the skie nay the Angels of Heaven To the Angel The Ministers of the Gospel resemble Angels in many things 1. Angels are x Heb. 1.14 ministring spirits and the Preachers of the Gospel are spirituall Ministers 2. Angels according to the derivation of their name in Greeke are y Matth. 11.10 Malac. 3.1 messengers of God and the Ministers of the Gospel are z 1 John
for but what he loveth A man may beleeve the truth and be a false man he may hope for good things and yet be exceeding bad himselfe but he cannot love the best things but he must needs be good he cannot affect grace if hee have not received some measure thereof he cannot highly esteeme of God and not be high in Gods esteeme As the love of the world maketh a man worldly and the love of the flesh fleshly so the love of the Spirit makes the children of God spirituall and the love of God partaker of the divine g 2 Pet. 1.4 nature for God is love Now saith Saint Paul that is in this life abideth h 1 Cor. 13.13 faith hope and charity but after this life of these three charity onely remaineth For when we have received the end of our faith which is the salvation of our soules and taken possession of the inheritance which we have so long expected by hope faith shall be swallowed up in vision and hope in fruition but then love shall be in greatest perfection Our trust is that we shall not alwayes walk by faith and our hope is that we shall one day hope no more we beleeve the end of faith and hope for the end of hope but love no end of our love but contrariwise desire that it may bee like the soveraigne object thereof that is eternall and infinite To leap over this large field at once and comprise all in one sentence concerning this vertue of which never enough can be said Love brought God from heaven to earth love bringeth men from earth to heaven In which regard it may not be unfitly compared to the ladder at the foot whereof i Gen. 28.12 Jacob slept sweetly and in his dreame saw Angels climbing up by it to heaven For upon it the religious soule of a devout Christian resteth and reposeth her selfe and by it in her thoughts and desires she ascendeth up to heaven as it were by foure steps or rounds which are the foure degrees of divine love 1. To love God for our selves 2. To love God for himselfe 3. To love God above all things 4. To love nothing but God or in a reference to him First to love God for our selves or our owne respect whereunto wee are induced by the consideration of his benefits and blessings bestowed upon us and continued unto us The second is to love God for himselfe whereunto wee are moved by the contemplation of the divine essence and his most amiable nature The third is to love God above all things whereunto we are enclined by observation of the difference between God and all things else The fourth is to love nothing but God that is to settle our affections and repose our desires and place our felicity wholly and solely in him To which highest round or step of divine love and top of Christian perfection we aspire by fixing our thoughts upon the all-sufficiency of God who hath in him infinite delights and contentments to satisfie all the appetites of the soule whereof the Kingly Prophet David was fully perswaded when lifting up his heart to God and his eyes to heaven he calleth God himselfe to witnesse that he desired no other happinesse than what he enjoyed in him saying Whom have I in heaven but thee These words may admit â—f a double construction 1 Either that David maketh God his sole refuge and trust 2 Or that he maketh him his chiefe joy and whole hearts delight For the first sense viz. Whom have I in heaven but thee for my refuge and strength of my confidence we are to know that in heaven and in earth there are other besides God in heaven the elect Angels and the spirits of k Heb. 12.23 just men made perfect in earth there are men and the creatures yet a religious soule reposeth no confidence in any of these First not in the creature in generall for it is l Rom. 8.20 subject to vanity not in riches for m 1 Tim. 6.17 they are uncertaine Charge the rich in this world that they trust not in uncertaine riches not in n Jer. 9.23 wisedome or strength or power nor in the favour of o Psal 146.3 Princes nor any childe of man for there is no helpe in them I will yet ascend higher even to heaven and to the Angels and soules there For whatsoever power or strength or helpe may be in them we may not put our trust in them 1 Not in the soules of Saints departed for they p Esay 63.16 take no notice of our affaires here neither have we any order to addresse our selves to them Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not q 2 Kin. 22.20 Good Josiah seeth not the evill which befell his subjects after his death 2 Not in Angels for though they excell in strength and are ministring r Heb. 1.14 Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation yet we have no charge to worship them or relie upon them for our salvation Nay wee are charged to the contrary both from God and from themselves from God Å¿ Mat. 4.10 Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve and t Col. 2.18 Let no man beguile you in voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels and from themselves also u Apoc. 19.10 22.9 And I fell downe at the feet of the Angel that shewed me these things and he said unto me See thou doe it not I am thy fellow servant worship God For the second sense viz. Whom have I in heaven but thee for my chiefe joy and sole hearts delight we are to know that the faithfull soule is wedded to God and like a loyall Spouse casteth no part of her conjugall affection upon any but him Love she may whom he loveth and what he commandeth her to love for him and in him but not as him if she doth so shee becommeth Adultera Christo as St. Cyprian speaketh and may not be admitted to sing in Davids quire or at least not to bear a part in this Antheme Whom have I in heaven but thee O Lord No more than the life of the body can bee maintained without naturall heat and moisture can the life of grace be preserved in the soule without continuall supply of the moisture of penitent teares and a great measure of the heat of divine love wherewith we are to consume those spirituall sacrifices of prayer and praises which we are now and at all times to offer lifting up pure hands and hearts unto God To kindle this sacred fire I have brought you a live coale from the Altar of incense Davids heart sending up sweetest perfumes of most fragrant and savourie meditations This coale the best Interpreters ancient and later conspiring in their expositions blow after this manner St. u Hier. in hunc locum Neque in coelo neque in terrâ alium praeter
Thou shalt plant vineyards and dresse them but shalt neither drinke of the wine nor gather the grapes for the worme shall eate them Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts but thou shalt not annoint thy selfe with the oyle for thine olive shall cast his fruit Hereunto if we adde the infinite armies of plagues and judgements mustered in this chapter against Gods enemies we cannot but subscribe to the Prophets conclusion Non est pax impio there is no l Esay 48.22 57.21 peace to the wicked saith my God there is no fruit of sinne for it is the vine of m Deut. 32.32 33. Sodome and of the fields of Gomorrah the grapes thereof are the grapes of gall their clusters are bitter Their wine is the poyson of Dragons and the cruell venome of Aspes Would yee know all the miseries that sinne hath brought into the world reckon then all that are or ever were in the world For they are all concomitants effects or punishments of sinne Sinne cast the Angels from Heaven into Hell thrust man out of Paradise drowned the old world burnt Sodome and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone ruinated the greatest Monarchies destroyed the ancientest Cities and hath rooted up the most flourishing Churches and shall wee looke for better fruit of it But this interrogatory of the Apostle What fruit had yee seemeth to mee rather to aime at the particular endammagement and detriments of sinne which every soule that committeth it sustaineth within it selfe whereof many have been already recounted yet the greater part is behind among whom this is not the least that it blindeth the eyes of the mind and infatuateth the sinner Whereupon Saint Austines observation is If a theefe or fellon should presently upon his fact lose the sight of his eyes every body would say that it was the judgement of God upon him Oculum cordis amisit ei pepercisse putatur Deus behold God hath taken away the sight of his soules eyes and doest thou thinke that hee spareth him or letteth him goe n Cic. de Arusp respons Oculorum caecitas ad mentem translata est unpunished What greater losse to a noble mind than of libertie which is forfeited by sinne Sinne enthralleth our soule to our body and our body and soule to the Divell If captivitie of the body be so grievous a calamity what may wee judge of the captivitie of the soule If wee so disdaine to be slaves to men how much more should wee to bee vassals to beastly lusts To speake nothing of peace of conscience which crying sinnes disturbe and divine motions which worldly cares choake and heavenly comforts which earthly pleasures deprive us of and sanctifying graces which impure thoughts and sinfull desires diminish to leave the consideration of shame and death for matter of ensuing discourses by that which hath been already delivered all that are not besotted by sin and blind-folded by Sathan may see great reason for this question of the Apostle What fruit had yee A question which the proudest and most scornfull sinners who have them in derision that make conscience of unlawfull gaine shall propound unto themselves one day and checke their owne folly therewith as we reade in the booke of o Wisd 5.8 Wisedome What hath pride availed us or what profit hath the pompe of riches brought us Then shall they change their mindes when they cannot their estates and sigh for griefe of heart and say within themselves looking up to Heaven and seeing the felicity of the righteous crowned with eternall glory Ibid. Ver. 4 5 6 7. This is hee whom wee sometimes had in derision and in a parable of reproach Wee fooles thought his life madnesse and his end without honour But now how is hee accounted among the children of God and what a portion hath hee among the Saints Therefore wee have erred from the way of truth and the light of righteousnesse hath not shined upon us We have wearied our selves in the wayes of wickednesse and have gone through many dangerous pathes and the way of the Lord wee have not knowne Howbeit two sorts of men in the opinion of the world seeme to make great gaine of sinne the covetous and the ambitious the former is indebted to his extortion oppression and usury for his wealth the other to his glozing dissembling undermining perfidious and treacherous dealing for his honour and advancement in the Court of Princes The spirit of the former hath been conjured downe heretofore by proving that whosoever gathereth wealth or mony by unjust and indirect meanes putteth it into a broken bagge and that his mony shall perish with him unlesse hee breake off his sinne by repentance and make friends of unrighteous Mammon I come to the Politicians who correct or rather pervert that sentence of Saint Paul Godlinesse is great gaine thus a shew of godlinesse is great gaine of whom I would demand what shew of reason they have for this their politicke aphorisme If they beleeve there is a God that judgeth the earth they cannot but thinke that hee will take most grievous vengeance on such as goe about to roote out the feare of God out of mens hearts and make Religion a masque and God himselfe an Image the sacred Story a fable Hell a bug-beare and the joyes of Heaven pleasant phantasies If men hold them in greatest detestation who faulter and double with them shall not God much more hate the hypocrite who doubleth with his Maker maketh shew of honouring and serving him when hee indeed neither honoureth nor serveth him at all Simulata sanctitas est duplex iniquitas counterfeit sanctity is double iniquity and accordingly it shall receive double punishment When our Saviour threateneth the most hainous transgressours that they shall have their p Mat. 24.51 portion with hypocrites hee implyeth that the condition of none in Hell is lesse tolerable than of the hypocrite The q Psal 14.1 foole hath said in his heart there is no God and even in that hee shewed himselfe the more foole in that hee said it in his heart supposing that none should heare it there whereas God heareth the word in the heart before it bee uttered in the tongue and what though other know it not sith hee whom hee wrongeth who is best able to revenge it knoweth it But to wound the Politician with his owne sword If a shew and appearance of Religion is not onely profitable but necessary in politicke respects shall not Religion it selfe be much more Can there bee a like vertue or power in the shadow or image as in the body it selfe If the grapes painted by Zeuxis allured the Birds to pecke at them would not the Birds sooner have flowne at them had they been true grapes All the wit of these sublimated spirits wherewith they entangle the honest simplicity of others cannot wind them out of these dilemmaes If it bee a bad thing to bee good why doe they seem so If
3.18 eye-salve of the Spirit and yee discover the workes of darknesse and cleerly see the filthinesse of your former unregenerate estate ye are now ashamed For now ye have some sense of the wrath of God ye have some remorse of conscience ye perceive what ye have lost ye see the marke of infamy burnt into your name and credit by the hot iron that hath scared your consciences To proceed from farther explication to a seasonable use and application The Apothecaries draw an oyle out of the Scorpion which overcommeth the poyson of that Serpent and applyed to the part that is stung giveth present ease Let us imitate them and of that which issueth from sin make a soveraigne antidote against it Let us lay open and naked before the eies of our mind the loathsome filthinesse and ougly deformity thereof that being agashed and confounded thereat we may turn away from it with greatest detestation Let us apprehend thoroughly as heretofore the unfruitfulnesse so now the odiousnesse loathsomenesse turpitude and shame of sinne A lewd conceit is an unconceivable pollution a profane or impure speech an unspeakable wrong to God a sudden joy a lasting griefe a tickling of the sense for a moment a perpetuall torment with a scar in the conscience and staine in our good name never to be fetched out The advice which e Epist 11. Aliquis vir bonus nobis eligendus est semper ante oculos habendus ut sic tanquam illo spectante vivamus c. Seneca giveth to Lucilius very sage and good Wheresover thou art and whatsoever thou art about suppose that Cato or Socrates is with thee or some such other reverend or grave personage before whom thou wouldest be ashamed to doe any thing that were unseemly Beloved Christians wee need not feigne to our selves or make in our thoughts an imaginary presence of any mortall man were he never so venerable grave or austere for we are alwayes in the presence of our Judge f Hesiod op dies l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wheresoever we are whatsoever we goe about we have a thousand witnesses thereof within us and the blessed Angels without us and which wee are to take speciall notice of malignant spirits our ghostly enemies observers and noters thereof They who tender their credit and estimation saith the g Arist l. 2. Rhetor. Oracle of reason if they imbarke themselves into any dangerous or questionable action most of all shunne and avoid the company of Poets Stage-players Libellers Registers Notaries Promoters and the like because if any thing should bee done amisse these kind of men were like to blab it out act it upon the stage or make a by-word of it to their utter disgrace Such we have alwaies about us when we are about any wickednesse I meane the accusers of the brethren fiends of Hell who keep a register of all our secret and open sins wherewith they will often upbraid us in our life grievously burthen us with them at our death and which is worst of all rip them up all at the day of judgement and insult upon us for them No women among the Romanes might under a great penalty prostitute their bodies for gaine except they first made open profession thereof before the Aediles and the reason of this law was because they thought the very shame of making open profession of such lewdnesse would deterre and keep back all of that sexe from such infamous courses of life Likewise I reade in the ancient Greek stories of the Milesian women that upon some discontent divers of them laid violent hands upon themselves and could not bee restrained from this desperate practice till a law was made that all they that in such sort made away themselves should bee carried naked with a halter about their neckes before the rest of their sexe after which law none were sound to attempt the like villany Those with whom neither love of life nor feare of death could prevaile shame yet manicled and kept perforce from that unnaturall and execrable crime of felony de se or selfe-homicide Deare Christians were Adam and Eve so ashamed to see the nakednesse of their bodies and the Milesian women to behold the naked carkasses of their sexe how then shall we be confounded with shame when our soules and consciences shall be laid open naked to the eyes of the whole world that all may see all our deformities sores markes botches blanes gashes scarres spots and abominable pollutions and uncleannesses When a godly father amplifying upon that Text of the Apostle We must all appeare before the judgement seat of Christ pricked the veines of his auditory in this manner How many things are there which we know by our selves but would not for all the world that two or three should know as much besides how then shall we looke how shall wee be covered with shame and confusion when all these things shall be laid out before the eyes of all men At these words observing divers of his hearers to blush and hide their faces he thus growes upon them Nunquid nunc erubescitit What and doe yee now blush are ye now ashamed at the hearing of these things what will ye be when ye see them how will ye blush and hang downe your heads when the bookes of your consciences shall be opened and men and Angels shall see and reade what is written in them Men and brethren what shall we do to avoid the terrour and horrour the shame and confusion of that day Let us now be ashamed of our sins that we may not then be for as Dolor est medicina doloris So Pudor est medicina pudoris O let us not cast more blots upon the booke of our conscience but rather fetch out those which are there with the aqua fortis of our teares let us open our wounds and sores full of corruption to our heavenly Chirurgian by confession of our sinnes that he may heale them let us make uncessant prayers to our Saviour h Psal 32.1 to cover all our imperfections with the robes of his righteousnesse so shall we be truly blessed For blessed are they whose unrighteousnesse is forgiven and whose sinnes are covered from the sight of the world that they shame them not from the sight of their consciences that they confound them not from the eyes of God that they condemne them not God the Father make us all so blessed for the merits of his Sonne through the powerfull operation of the Spirit to whom three persons and one God be ascribed c. Amen THE WAGES OF SINNE THE XLIV SERMON ROM 6.21 For the end of those things is death Right Honourable c. TO every thing there is a season a Eccles 3.1 2 3 4. and a time to every purpose under heaven A time to be borne and a time to dye a time to plant and a time to plucke up that which is planted A time to kill and a time
did his best to incline his will that way yet he could not keep it to that bent but that it slacked and bowed another way as Christs words imply Ducent te quo nolis They shall d John 21.18 lead thee whither thou wouldest not He saith not they shall draw thee but they shall lead thee Peter therefore was in some sort willing to goe with them that led him to the crosse yet hee somewhat shrinked at it though the spirit was strong in him yet the flesh was weake Who ever did or suffered more for the Gospel than Saint Paul yet he professeth that in regard of the law of sinne in his members the e Rom. 7.19 good which he would doe he did not and the evill which he would not doe that he did And being thus crossed in all his godly desires and endeavours hee cryeth out O * Rom. 7.24 wretched man that I am who shall deliver mee from this body of death Yee see now the root of bitternesse set so deep in our hearts that it cannot be pluck't up till wee are transplanted there is no hope in this life to purge out this matter of continuall diseases it is so mingled with our radicall moisture the balsamum of our lives only wee may abate it by subtracting nourishment from it and allay the force of it by strengthening nature against it by prayers godly instructions and continuall exercises of religious duties A neerer cause of our so great distemper in afflictions wee owe to the delights of our prosperity which as the pleasures of Capua did Hannibals souldiers so weaken our mindes and make us so choice and tender that we cannot beare the weight of our owne armour much lesse the stroakes of an enraged enemy The f Hieron ad Heliod Corpus assuetum tunicis loricae onus non fert caput opertum linteo galeam recusat mollem otio manum durus exasperat capulus body used to soft raiment cannot beare the weight of an helmet the head wrapped in silke night-caps cannot endure an iron head-piece the hard hilt hurteth the soft hand It was wisely observed by the g Senec. sent Res adversae non frangunt quos prosperae non corruperunt Heathen Sage that none are broken with adversity but such as were weakened before and made crazie by ease and prosperity Sound trees are not blowne downe with the wind but the rootes rather fastened thereby but corrupt trees eaten with wormes engendered of superfluous moisture are therefore throwne downe by the least blast because they had no strength to resist Why do losses of goods so vexe us but because we trusted in uncertaine riches Why is disgrace a Courtiers hell but because he deemed the favour of the Prince places of honourable employment his heaven We are therefore astonished at our fall because sometimes with David in the height of our worldly felicity we said Wee shall never bee h Psal 30.6 moved If when we had the world at will we had used the things of this life as if wee used them not now in the change of our estate our not using them would be all one as if we used them The best meanes to asswage the paines of affliction when it shall befall us will be in the time of our wealth to abate the pleasures of prosperity if we sawce all our earthly joyes with godly sorrow all our worldly sorrow shall be mixed with much spirituall joy and comfort Let us not over-greedily seeke nor highly esteem nor immoderately take nor intemperately joy in the delights and comforts which wealth and prosperity afford and the rod of Gods afflicting hand shall fall but lightly upon us Let us not so fill our hearts with temporary pleasures but that wee leave some place for these and the like sad and sober thoughts What are riches honours pleasures and all the contentments of this life that because I enjoy them for the present I should take so much upon mee The Divell offereth them the wicked have them Gods dearest children often want them therefore they are not eagerly to be sought They are not good but in their use nor things but for a moment nor ours but upon trust therefore not greatly to be esteemed They without store of grace in our selves and good counsels from others strengthen the flesh weaken the spirit nourish carnall lusts choake all good motions cloy our bodily and wholly stupifie our ghostly senses cast us into a dead sleep of security but awake Gods judgements against us therefore they are sparingly to be tasted not greedily to be devoured These and the like meditations are not only good preservatives in prosperity but also lenitives in adversity as they helpe us to digest and i Pind. od 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concoct felicity so they strengthen us to beare misery All that wee now possesse and the world so much doteth upon what are they in their nature and condition but things indifferent therefore wee ought to bee indifferently affected to them and the contrary they are transitory what strange thing then is it if they passe from us they are farre inferiour to the immortall spirit that quickneth our bodies therefore cannot the want of them deprive it of happinesse they are not our inheritance for ever nor our donatives or legacies for life but talents for a while committed to us to employ them to our Masters best advantage therefore the restoring them back is no mulct but a surrender no losse but a discharge The more of this sort wee are trusted with the more liable we are to an account how then are wee hurt or endammaged by the diminution of that which lessens our accounts Finally they are often effects of Gods wrath and their effects usually are sensuality security and stupidity against which afflictions are a speciall remedy To extract then the quintessence of the herbes and flowers of Paradise and make of them a cordiall to comfort us in worldly losses Nothing is absolutely good but God all other things respectively only temporall blessings as they proceed from his love and may be imployed to his glory in this respect only to be desired and loved If then wee affect God in them and enjoy them in God and it be made apparent unto us that afflictions and losses are sometimes more certaine tokens of Gods love and that they minister unto us more matter and greater occasion of testifying our love to him and meanes of setting forth his glory we should be rather glad than sorrowfull when God seeth it best for us to exchange the former for the latter Yea but the forlorne Christian out of all heart because in his conceit out of Gods favour will reply Shew mee that the countenance of God is not changed towards mee nor his affections estranged from mee and it sufficeth surely kissings and embracings not blowes and stroakes are love complements how may I be perswaded that God layeth his heavie crosse upon mee in
and yet behold he now sitteth at the right hand of God and he who was abased beneath the lowest creatures is advanced above all and all bow unto him And therefore as the oake Ab ipso ducit opes animumque ferro taketh heart as it were and groweth by the stroake of the axe and as i Juel in Apol. Eccles Angl. Anteus the Gyant recovered his strength by his fall on the ground so should they take comfort from their afflictions and gather arguments of their future exaltation from their present fall and humiliation They are fallen and humbled therefore in case to be raised there is a why and a wherefore they should be exalted they are in a good way to honour wherein they may see our Saviours footsteps before them God woundeth and healeth he killeth and reviveth he letteth his children downe to the gates of hell to terrefie them for their sinnes and make them claspe about him and lay faster hold on his promises for he bringeth them backe againe The solemnitie used at the inauguration of the Emperour of the Tartars somewhat resembleth Gods dealing with his children the heires of the crowne of heaven k De rep l. 1. c. 8. Rex de sublimi solio demovetur vilissimae tabulae superpositus humi constituitur ad quem Pontifex orationem convertens Inspice coelum inquit Deum praepotentem universitatis regem intuere agnosce si justè imperaveris omnia ex animi tui sententiâ consequeris sin muneris officiique tui obliviscaris praeceps ex alto ac sublimi loco dejectus regali potestate bonis omnibus spoliabere ut ne tabula quidem haec cui insideas tibi relinquatur Bodin thus relateth it When the Nobles and Peeres are assembled the Prince to be crowned is taken out of a chaire of estate and set upon a low stoole or planke on the ground the Priest who is to sacre him useth these words Looke up to heaven and acknowledge the soveraigne Commander of the whole world and know that if thou rule justly hee will establish thy Throne under thee and settle the crowne upon thee but if thou cast away all feare of him and car◠of the peoples safetie and welfare he will pull thee downe from thy high Throne and lay thee on the ground take all from thee that he hath given thee and leave thee not so much as this sorry board thou sittest upon After which words hee is invested with Princely robes carried up in great state set in his Imperiall Throne crowned and proclaimed Emperour in like manner God before he advanceth his dearest children and putteth the Crowne of glory upon their heads setteth them as it were upon a low planke in some meane or deplorate condition upon earth that they may humble themselves under that mighty hand of his which l Psa 113.6 7. raiseth the poore out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dounghill that he may set them even with the Princes of his people Sith then God raiseth the poore from the dounghill to tread upon cloth of estate and sit in the Throne of Princes sith he advanceth men of smallest meanes to great estates and casting the bright beames of his favour upon the lowest and obscurest hovells and cottages maketh them illustrious and glorious why should any of Gods children by any extremity whatsoever be driven to resigne their estate in his promises to close their owne eyes before they are dead and yeeld up their last breath with sighes of griefe and groanes of despaire They lye but in the dust God raiseth from the dounghill as he did Job nay from the dungeon as he did Daniel and Jeremy nay yet lower from the grave as he did Lazarus nay yet lower from the neathermost hell as he did our Saviour Kings have long hands An nescis longas regibus esse manus and God hath out-stretched armes there is no place so high which they cannot reach and from thence plucke downe the proud no depth so low which they cannot sound and from thence draw up the humble The celestiall bodies distill their influence downe to the lowest vales which stayeth not all there but some part of it is conveighed yet lower by pores secret passages even to the bosome and bowels of the earth to the generation and perfection of the metalls and mineralls there and shall we not thinke that the beames of Gods favour can carry downe the sweetest influences of his graces into the deepest dungeon of misery and darkest chambers of death If art can make of ashes and trash pure and shining glasse if nature produceth gold of the basest of all the elements earth and precious stones of excrementitious moisture what marvell is it that God should make scepters of mattockes cedars of shrubs and of those that are accounted the off-scouring of all things starres of heaven No Christian doubteth of his power all the question that can be made is of his will and thereof we can make no question that heare his gracious promise that hee that m Luk. 14.11 humbleth himselfe shall be exalted Why then are not all that are humbled exalted A short answer may be because they humble not themselves as Christ here did neither are truly humbled All that are throwne downe presently doe not yeeld sicknesse may bring the body low and calamity the estate lower and yet the mind be high and haughty and that de facto they are not humble who complaine that they are not raised their repining at others preferment and their staying behind them maketh it manifest For nothing is so repugnant to humility as ambition ambition is of the Eagle and Falcons brood it soareth aloft but humility is è genere reptilium of the nature of wormes that creep on the ground He whom humility truly informeth how small his deserts how great his defects are how vaine the pompes of this world how secure a quiet and retired life cannot inordinately desire preferment which in his judgement is not preferment sith he preferreth a lower estate above it as more sutable to the lowlinesse of his mind With this two-forked ram therefore we may push downe all the forts which discontented spirits raise against the divine providence if they are truly humble they desire not to be exalted if they are not humble they deserve not Howbeit the cunning painter of vices in the tables of mens hearts setteth such a faire colour upon ambition that he sometimes deceiveth humble Christians and ere they are aware maketh them enamoured with it The colour is the advancement of Gods glory by their preferment for these or the like thoughts hee suggesteth God hath bestowed upon you some eminent gifts or graces this to deny were not humility but unthankfulnesse to bury these in oblivion and obscurity cannot but be prejudiciall to his glory therefore sith his commandement is n Mat. 5.16 Let your light so shine before men that
kindleth our zeale and quickeneth all our spirituall exercises of piety To nourish and maintaine this oyle that our lamp goe not out I will endeavour to open two springs in my Text the one a higher the other a lower the one ariseth from God and his joy the other from our selves and our salvation That the conversion of a sinner is a joy and delight to God I need not to produce arguments to prove or similes to illustrate he that spake as never man spake hath represented it unto us by many exquisite emblemes The k Luke 15.4 8 10 32. joy of a woman for her lost groat found of a shepheard for his wandering sheep recovered of a father for his prodigall child returned and reclaimed Saint * L. 8. confes c. 3. Quantò majus periculum fuit in proelio tantò majus gaudium in triumpho Austine yeeldeth a reason hereof The more danger there is in the conflict with temptation the greater joy in the triumph Such was the joy of the Church for l Cyp. de lapsis Fortiores ignibus facti qui anteà ignibus cesserunt unde superati inde superarunt Castus and Aemilius who though at the first upon the sight of fire prepared for them they gave backe and were at a kind of stand yet afterwards beyond all hope and expectation made a noble profession of their faith and gloriously endured the fiery tryall To whom did our Saviour ever more honour than to Zacheus the converted Publicane to whose house he came being not invited and brought with him the gladdest tidings that ever were heard there This m Luke 19.9 day salvation is come to this house and to Mary Magdalen out of whom he cast seven n Mat. 26.13 Divels to whom he first appeared after his resurrection whose spikenard he mingled with the ointment of the Gospel in such sort that whosoever smelleth the savour of life hath a sent also of the boxe of sweet perfume which she brake upon our Saviours head Scipio as Livie writeth never looked so fresh nor seemed so beautifull in the eyes of his souldiers as after his recovery from a dangerous sicknesse which he tooke in the camp neither doth the soule ever seem more beautifull than when she is restored to health after some dangerous malady The Palladium was in highest esteem both with the Trojans and Romanes not so much for the matter or workmanship as because it was catched out of the fire when Troy was burnt And certainly no soule is more precious in the eyes of God and his Angels than that which is snatched out of the fire of hell and jawes of death As the woman in the Gospel more rejoyced for her lost groat after she found it than for all the groats she had safe in her chest and as the shepheard tooke more delight in his lost sheepe after he found it than in the rest which never wandered so saith our blessed Saviour o Luke 15.7 There shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance I have opened the first spring and we have tasted the waters thereof I am now to open the second which is this That as our repentance is joy unto God and his Angels so it is grace and salvation to our selves As repentance is called p Heb. 6.1 repentance from dead workes so also q Acts 11.18 repentance unto life For God pawnes his life for the life of the penitent As I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of a sinner but rather that hee should returne and live r Plin. l. 2. c. 103 In Dodone Jovis fons cum sit gelidus si extinctae faces admoveantur extinguit Causs in Parab hist l. 10. In Epiro esse ferunt fontem in quo faces accenduntur extinctae Pliny writeth of a fountaine in Africa in which torches that are blowne out being dipped are kindled againe such is the fountaine of teares in the eyes of a penitent sinner if the light of his faith be extinguished to his sense and all outward appearance yet dipped in this fountaine it is kindled againe and burnes more brightly than ever before The Scripture furnisheth us not with many examples in this kind lest any should presume yet some we find that none might despaire A man could hardly runne a more wicked race than the theefe upon the Crosse who lived both in caede and ex caede maintaining his riot and wantonnesse by robbery and murder yet hee holdeth on his course even to the goale and there taketh a greater booty than ever before for hee stealeth a celestiall Crowne And behold this theefe nailed hand and foot to the Crosse yet comming to our Saviour by faith and embracing him by love and receiving from him together with a discharge from the prison of hell a faire grant of Paradise Å¿ Luke 23.43 This day shalt thou be with mee in Paradise It should seem they were ill imployed either all or the greatest part of that day who came in but at the last houre into the Lords Vineyard yet they who came in then received their full hire The Divell occupied a large roome in Martes heart and found there good entertainment else hee would have never taken sixe other inmates with him to dwell and lodge there yet Christ cast all t Marke 16.9 seven out of her and a whole legion out of u Marke 5.9 another and though this were a great miracle yet to cheare up the drooping lookes â—nd comfort the fainting spirits and strengthen the feeble knees of all â—hat bow to hâ—m for pardon and forgivenesse he wrought farre greater For he raised three dead men the first * Mat. 9.25 newly departed the second x Luke 7.12 brought out and lying upon the beere the third y John 11.44 buried and stinking in his grave A man may be ill a long time before he take his bed and lye long in his bed before hee feele the pangs of death and be long dead before hee be buried and a good while buried before he putrifie yet to shew that no time prescribeth against Gods mercy nor excludeth our repentance from dead workes Christ by miracle raised two that were dead and a third stinking in his grave To comfort those that are wounded in conscience the good z Luke 10.30 Samaritan cured him that was wounded between Jerusalem and Jericho and left halfe dead to comfort them that are sicke in soule hee recovered * Mat. 8.14 Peters wives mother lying sicke in her bed to comfort them that have newly as it were given up the ghost hee raised Jairus daughter to comfort them that have been sometimes dead in sinnes and transgressions he raised the widowes sonne to comfort them that have been so long dead in sinnes that they begin to putrifie hee raised up Lazarus stinking in his grave God forbid
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
Athenian Priest answered to those that would have had her curse Alcibiades Priests saith shee are appointed to blesse not to curse to pray for people not against them Notwithstanding if the Church meet with a Simon Magus set in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity or an Elymas that will not cease to pervert the right waies of God or an Alexander that mightily withstandeth the preaching of the Gospel shee may brandish the sword of the Spirit and cut such off from her visible assemblies for a time till they make their peace with God by repentance and with the Church by confession and humble submission to her sacred Canons 3. Men neither inspired by God nor authorized by the Church yet may and ought to pray against the kingdome of Sathan and members of Antichrist in generall and all whosoever stop the free passage of the Gospel or hinder the advancement of Christs Kingdome For we cannot love God but we must needs love them that love him and hate them that hate him even with a perfect hatred As wee must blesse them that blesse him so wee may and ought in generall to curse all that curse him In warre wee may aime at the Standard and shoot at the Flagge and Ensignes but it is against the law of armes to levell at any particular man in like manner we may shoot out of zeale fiery darts of execration at the Standard of Sathan and levell at the Flagge and Colours of Antichrist but wee may not curse or doome to the pit of hell such a nation city assembly or man in particular 1. Because God only knoweth who are his he that is now a great persecuter or a scoffer at the truth may be in time a zealous professor and it is a fearfull thing to curse the children of blessing 2. Because it is very difficult if not impossible for any in this kinde to curse but that malice and desire of revenge will mingle themselves with our zeale and thereby wee shall offer with Nadab and Abihu strange fire 3. Because we are commanded to pray for our enemies who the more they have wronged us the more they stand in need of our prayers For the greater injury they offer us the more they hurt themselves they wound us in body but themselves in soule they spoyle us of our goods but they deprive themselves of Gods grace they goe about to staine our good name but by detraction and false calumniation they worse staine their owne conscience they may worke us out of favour with Princes and great men but they put themselves out of favour with God thereby Yee heare how execrable a thing cursing and execration is and yet what so common I tremble to rehearse what wee heare upon every sleight occasion O remember from this Memento in my Text that unlesse yee were inspired as the people here were and knew that those whom yee curse were hated of God as these Edomites were by cursing others yee incurre a curse and by casting fire-brands of Hell at your brethren yee heape hot burning coales upon your heads And so I passe from the curse to the parties cursed The children of Edome The Edomites or Idumeans were of the race of Esau Jacobs elder brother who comming home hungry from hunting and finding his brother seething pottage grew so greedy of it that he bargained with him for a messe at the deare rate of his birth-right This red broth bought at such a price was ever after cast in Esau his dish and from it hee was called r Gen. 25.30 31 32 33. Edome and all his posterity Edomites or Idumeans as if yee would say red or bloudy ones Such was their name and such were they a bloudy generation of the right bloud of Esau For as he sought the life of his brother Jacob so they ever plotted the ruine and destruction of the Jewes their brethren and in the day of Jerusalems fearfull visitation when the Babylonians had taken the City and put all in it to the sword and robbed the Temple and ransacked all the houses and left nothing but the wall their unnaturall brethren the Idumeans in stead of quenching or at least allaying the fury of the Babylonians by their praiers and compassionate teares cast oyle into the flame and set them in a greater rage against them and instigated them to a further degree of cruelty even to pull down all the houses and sacke the walls saying Raze it raze it to the ground For which their inhumane and savage cruelty against the Church of God God remembred them in due time and rewarded them as they had served their brethren to fulfill the prophecies of Å¿ Jer. 49.7 8 9 10 11 12. Jeremy and Obadiah t Obad. ver 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. For thy cruelty against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee In the day that thou stoodest on the other side in the day that the stranger carried away captive his forces and forreiners entred into his gates cast lots upon Jerusalem even thou wast as one of them But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger neither shouldest thou have rejoyced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of their distresse Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crosse wayes to cut off those of his that did escape neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remaine in the day of distresse For the day of the Lord is neere upon all the heathen as thou hast done so it shall be done unto thee thy reward shall returne upon thine owne head Behold a notable example of divine justice in meting to the wicked their owne measure and punishing them with that where with they offended The Edomites proved false to the Jewes their brethren and their neerest friends prove false to them They received a wound ver 7. from the men of their confederacy even from them that ate their bread Non expectato vulnus ab hoste ferunt Remember O Lord the Edomites but destroy the Babylonians Though the Edomites dealt most cruelly with their brethren the Jewes yet the Jewes are not so farre transported with passion against them as not to put a difference between them and the Babylonians By the way wee may note the condition of Christs dearest Spouse in the world both Edomites and Babylonians forraine and domesticall enemies those that are neere and those that are farre off conspire against poore Jerusalem and bring her as you see upon her knees crying to heaven for revenge and by the spirit of prophesie promising Cyrus good successe in his enterprise against Babylon O daughter of Babylon that is City of Babylon by an elegant Hebraisme as tell the daughter of Sion that is tell Sion We reade of a twofold Babylon in sacred Scriptures of the one in the Old Testament the other in
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 effâ—cts 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 dediâ—â—â— 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The place convenient in an
be imagined either in fire or tongues the meaning therefore is no more than it abode or rested on them Thus have I peeled the barke let us now sucke the juice we have viewed the engraving on the outside of the cup let us now drinke the celestiall liquor and rellish the spirituall meaning couched under the letter The later Commentatours for the most part like Apothecaries boyes gather the broad leaves and white flowers that are found on the top of the water but the ancient like skilfull Indians dive deep to the bottome and from thence take up pearles 1. They observe that God useth signes to strike our senses thereby to stirre us up that we may give more heed to that which he then fore-warneth us of or at the present worketh in us Of signes in Scripture wee find three sorts 1. Irae of Gods anger as extraordinary earth-quakes fire and brimstone falling from heaven and other prodigious events 2. Potentiae of his power or rather omnipotency as miracles 3. Gratiae of grace and favour and these were 1. Significantia tantum such as signified or prefigured grace only as types 2. Obsignantia such as seale unto us and actually exhibit grace as sacraments The first sort are praeter naturam the second contra naturam the third supra naturam The signes here were transeunt only as the burning p Exod. 3.2 bush the q Mat. 3.16 dove in the likenesse whereof the spirit descended and therefore could not be sacraments in the proper acception of the word yet are they to be reduced to the third kind of signes signa gratiae Strange accidents for the most part fore-shew strange events and as many signes are miraculous so many miracles are significant In Sicilie the sea water began to sweeten a little before the deposing the cruell tyrant r Plin. nat hist l. 2. c. 97. Eo die quo pulsus est Dionysius regno mare dulcescebat in portu Dionysius in like manner Domitian dreamed that he saw a head of gold rise up upon the nape of his necke which fore-shewed that a better head of that Monarchy should succeed him Before the civill war between Caesar Pompey there were seen two ſ Plin. l. 2. nat hist c. 83. In agro Mutinensi duo montes inter se concurrebant crepitu maximo assultantes mountaines running one at the other in the field of Mutina and to shew that Caesar should have the better at the beginning of the warre there grew in the Capitoll on the sudden a laurell tree at the foot of his statue Before the destruction of Jerusalem there was seen a starre in the skie like t Joseph de bel Jud. l. 7. c. 12. Supra civitatem stetit sydus simile gladio per annum perseveravit a drawne sword perpendicularly hanging over the City And not to build upon the sandy foundation of humane Histories the sacred Story affordeth the like Before the true bread descended from heaven Manna rained from heaven upon the Israelites The water issuing out of the rocke that was strucke fore-shewed the fountaine for sinne and uncleannesse which was opened when the side of Christ the true rocke was struck and pierced by the speare of the souldier the drowning of Pharaoh and all his host in the red sea the destruction of the Divell and all our ghostly enemies in the bloud of our Redeemer the going backe of the Sunne in the diall of Ahaz the setting backe the finger in the diall of Hezekiahs life the appearing of a new starre to the Sages the rising of a new light in the world to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of the people Israel the eclipse of the Sunne at Christs death the obscuration of the divine majesty in the Sonne of God for a time the great draught of fish which Saint Peter tooke after Christs resurrection the happy successe of him and the rest of the Apostles who were fishers of men and caught many thousands at one draught in the net of the Gospel There fell scales from S. Pauls eyes before God drew from the eyes of his understanding the filme of ignorance and blind zeale and here before the Apostles were filled with the holy Ghost and spake with divers tongues the roome where they aboad was filled with a mighty rushing wind and there appeared in the aire fiery cloven tongues But what did the suddennesse of it betoken Suddenly The Fathers read three lectures upon this circumstance teaching that the motions and operations of the Spirit are 1. Speedy 2. Free 3. Come and gone in an instant The first is read us by St. Ambrose Spiritus nescit tarda molimina the Spirit is quicke in operation As the lightening passeth in an instant from East to West because it findeth no resistance so the worke of grace in the heart is suddenly done especially for the reason given by St. Austine Because no hard heart can repell or refuse it for the first worke of grace is to take away the stone out of the heart which being taken away it presently receiveth the Spirits impressions Who more averse from the Christian faith than St. Paul yet in an instant by a vision from heaven he is changed from persecuting Saul to preaching Paul At one Sermon of St. Peter many thousand soules were gained And in Dioclesians time after the edict set up in the market place for the utter extirpation of the Christian Religion the whole world on the sudden turned Christian When God knocketh by effectuall grace the iron gates of the hardest heart flie open on the sudden The second lesson is read by St. Gregorie That grace is free and not procured by any merit of ours Here was no matter of this winde nor naturall cause of this sound no more can there be assigned any meritorious cause in us of supernaturall grace Who can cause the sunne to rise or the wind to blow or the deaw to fall much lesse can any procure by his merits either the beames of the sunne of righteousnesse to shine or the gales of the spirit to blow or the deaw of grace to fall upon him Therefore the Synod at Diospolis condemnes them for Heretickes who affirmed Gratiam Dei secundum merita hominum dari that the grace of God is given according to mans merits And the Synod at Arausica pronounced an Anathema against such as teach that man beginneth and God perfects Whosoever say they teach that to him that asketh seeketh knocketh c. u Concil Arausic c. 6. Si quis sine gratiâ Dei credentibus volentibus pulsantibus c. grace is given and not that by the infusion and inspiration of the holy Spirit this is wrought in us that we beleeve aske or knocke gain-sayeth the Apostle demanding what hast thou that thou hast not received The third lesson is Origens That good motions are as suddenly gone as they come The Spouse in the Canticles on the sudden findeth
contra religionem nostram dicuntur horrete sed etiam quae pro religione ipsi dicimus cum grandi metu dicere debeamus Salvianus professeth that hee wrote in defence of the true religion in feare and trembling To the end therefore that the Apostles who were appointed to be Pastores pastorum Pastors of pastors and Doctors of Divinity through the whole world might not speake of him who dwelleth in a light which none can approach unto without light the holy Ghost on this day cast his beames upon them shining in the fiery cloven tongues The tongues appeared cloven saith Saint c Bernard serm de Pent. Sunt dispertitae linguae propter multiplices cogitationes sed earum multiplicitas uno lumine veritatis uno charitatis fervore fit tanquam ignis Bernard to represent the multiplicity of thoughts yet the multiplicity of them shined in one light of truth and one fervour of charity as it were one fire There appeared new lightnings saith d Câ—rysol serm de Pent. Nova lucis fulgura coruscâ—runt micantium splendor linguaruÌ„ igneae ut scirent quod loquerentur linguae ut loquerentur quod scirent Chrysologus in the aire and the lustre of shining tongues shining to give them light that they might know what they spake and tongues to give them eloquence whereby they might utter what they knew This apparition as it was very strange so to outward appearance also most dreadfull for it was an apparition of a spirit and that in fire and this fire cast it selfe into the shape of tongues and these tongues were cloven Of all sights apparitions of spirits most affright us of all apparitions of spirits those in fire most dazle our eyes and never fire before seene in these shapes sitting upon the heads of any Yet was it a most comfortable apparition because it was the manifestation of the Comforter himselfe The Spirit was no evill spirit but the holy Ghost the fire was no consuming but only an enlightening flame the tongues proclaimed not warre but spake peace to the Apostles neither did the cleaving of them in sunder betoken the spirit of contradiction or division amongst them but the diversitie of languages wherewith they were furnished neither did the fire sitting on them singe their haire but rather crowne their heads with gifts and graces befitting the teachers of the whole world Let the seeming and outward terrour then of the signes serve to stirre up your attention to listen to what the tongues speake unto you and yee shall finde the fire of the spirit at your hearts to enlighten your thoughts and enflame your affections and purge out the drosse of your naturall corruptions Lo here 1. An apparition of tongues 2. Tongues of fire 3. Fire sitting 1. Tongues cloven and floating in the aire a strange sight 2. Tongues as of fire a strange matter 3. Fire sitting a strange posture Of which before I can freely discourse I must loosen three knots which I finde tyed upon the words of my text 1. By Grammarians 2. By Philosophers 3. By Divines The first is how doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sedit in the singular number agree with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or linguae in the plurall The second whether was the miracle in the tongues of the Apostles or in the eares of the hearers For either way it might come to passe that men of severall languages might heare them speake in their severall tongues the wonderfull works of God The third how was the holy Ghost united to these tongues hypostatically or sacramentally The first knot is thus untyed either that there is an errour in our copies vitio scriptoris writing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for α or that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to bee construed with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignis not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it sate that is the fire upon each of them The second is thus dissolved the miracle was in the tongues of the Apostles for e Mark 16.17 Christ promised that they should speake with new tongues not that their hearers should heare with new eares Yee saith f Act. 1.5 Christ shall be baptized with the holy Ghost and with fire not many dayes hence and accordingly the Apostles saw fierie cloven togues not cloven eares and the fire g 1 Cor. 14.2 sate upon them it licked not the eares of their auditours Moreover it is evident out of the Epistle to the Corinthians that many who were endued with the gift of tongues might and did use it in the assembly of the faithfull when they that heard them understood them not which could not be if the miraculous gift had beene in their eares and not in their teachers tongues The third knot is thus loosened the holy Ghost was united to these tongues neither hypostatically nor sacramentally but symbolically only If hee had beene united to them hypostatically the Apostles might and ought to adore the Spirit in them and the fire might as truely have beene said the holy Ghost as the man Christ to be God Neither were the wind and fire Sacraments because no seales of the covenant no conduits of saving grace of no permanent or perpetuall use S. i Tract 99. in Johan Non magis ad unitatem personae spiritui sancto hic ignis fuit conjunctus ut ex illo Deo una persona constaret quam columba Matth. 3. ista enim facta sunt de creaturâ serviente non de ipsâ dominante naturà Austine thus resolveth This fire cut out as it were into severall portions like tongues was no otherwise united to the holy Ghost than the Dove Matth. 3. neither of which was so assumed as that of it and God one person consisted the Spirit in these apparitions useth the creature but united not himselfe unto it personally or substantially And there appeared In the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there were seene for it was no delusion of sense but a true and reall apparition the Apostles with their eyes beheld them and with their tongues testified the truth of this apparition of tongues False religions such as the Pagan and Popish make use of false apparitions and lying wonders whereby they bleare the eyes and seduce the soules of the simple but the true religion as it disalloweth all sophisticall arguments and false shewes of reason so also it disavoweth all false apparitions and deceivable signes The witch at Endor raised up a man or rather a spirit in the likenesse of Samuel who never was seene after that day he communed with Saul but those whom our Saviour raised lived many dayes if not yeeres after Conjurers and Inchanters set before their guests daintie dishes in shew and appearance but their greater hunger after them is an evident demonstration that the Divell all the while fed their fancies with Idaeas and resemblances and not their stomacks with solid meats but our Lord when hee k
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
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
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 sâ—pplicio 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